Chapter 267
Chapter 267
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 267
Chapter Title: Interlude – The Ninth Memory (1)
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A long tongue, like a snake's, flickered out.
Cassia narrowed her eyes and sniffed the air.
The strong scent of an unfamiliar woman clung to Oh-jin's body.
“It's not Bella's scent either...”
Her emerald eyes, shimmering with a chilling killing intent, turned to Oh-jin.
Like a frog before a snake, Oh-jin's body froze stiff.
Cassia licked the nape of his neck with her long tongue, her eyes narrowing.
“Whose scent is this?”
“That's…”
Cold sweat trickled down his forehead.
A cold shiver ran down his spine.
‘Why are these sisters both like this?’
Isabella sometimes gave him a look chilling enough to freeze his blood, but Cassia's gaze was far more menacing.
“Hmph. Well, whatever. Just from what you said to me before, I think I have a good idea of what kind of man you are, Mr. Oh-jin.”
Glaring fiercely at Oh-jin, Cassia crossed her arms and whipped her head away.
She looked thoroughly sulky.
Oh-jin sighed with a troubled expression.
“So, what's that thing you said you'd give me earlier?”
He hurriedly changed the subject.
Cassia shot him a sharp look, clearly displeased with the blatant topic change, but soon clicked her tongue lightly and reached a hand toward her shadow.
From within her shadow, a cracked black gem rose up.
“This is…”
“It's the sacred relic the Heavenly Demon used when he controlled my consciousness.”
“Why are you giving this to me?”
“The power of the Black Heaven is imbued in it. The same one you possess, Mr. Oh-jin.”
“……”
Two Black Heavens.
He still didn't know how two instances of an extraordinary power like the Black Heaven could exist.
But the one the Heavenly Demon possessed was undoubtedly the same Black Heaven as his own.
“I thought that maybe you, Mr. Oh-jin, could figure out why two Black Heavens exist.”
“So you're giving this to me?”
“Yes.”
He wasn't sure if he could find the answer with just this shattered gem.
“Thanks.”
But there was no reason to refuse it.
“Ah, and one more thing…”
Cassia lightly bit her lip as she handed the black gem to Oh-jin.
“Soon, the ‘Kings’ of the Demon Realm will make their move.”
“Kings?”
“Yes.”
Cassia nodded.
“You're aware that the movements of the Named have become more active recently, right?”
He was.
And that the Heavenly Demon was behind it all.
“Many of the fiends now commonly called 'Named' were once subordinates under the Kings in the Demon Realm. They're intelligent, cunning, and organized.”
“You're saying they're no different from humans?”
“Yes. Because a 'civilization' exists in the Demon Realm, too.”
Come to think of it, he had seen enormous castles and cities while riding out of the Demon Realm.
“If the Kings of the Demon Realm start to move… a disaster like the one ten years ago might happen again.”
“……”
Ten years ago, the day the first gate to the Demon Realm opened.
Dozens of nations fell, and hundreds of millions were slaughtered in the worst catastrophe in human history.
Did the Heavenly Demon intend to create that horrifying hell on Earth once more?
‘After the Black Star Organization, it's the Kings of the Demon Realm?’
A deep sigh escaped Oh-jin's lips.
“Well then, I'll be on my way.”
Cassia lifted the hem of her dress slightly and bowed elegantly.
“Please take care of yourself until I return, Mr. Oh-jin. No… Lord Heavenly Demon.”
With a lovely, bright smile, Cassia approached Oh-jin.
*Chu.* Standing on her tiptoes, she lightly kissed his cheek.
“……”
The soft sensation lingered on his cheek.
Looking at Cassia's bashful smile, he could understand why the King of Toad had risked his life, pretending to be the Heavenly Demon, just to have her.
*Sssshhh.*
With a sound like a snake slithering across the ground, Cassia's body vanished into the shadows.
As if nothing had happened, a bitter silence descended upon the hospital rooftop.
“Hoo.”
Oh-jin leaned against the railing, gazing down at the night view below.
The twinkling lights were like stars embroidering the night sky.
Staring blankly at the brilliant cluster of lights, a tangle of complex emotions welled up within him for no reason.
“Dammit.”
What was the Heavenly Demon's identity?
What was his true purpose?
The further he went, the deeper into a labyrinth he seemed to fall.
Oh-jin took a deep breath and pushed himself up from the railing.
As the cool night breeze brushed past his head, he felt his cluttered mind clear up a little.
“…I wonder if I can get any clues by investigating this.”
Oh-jin held up the black gem he'd received from Cassia.
Though its surface was cracked like a spiderweb, the power contained within hadn't completely vanished.
‘Another Black Heaven… different from the one I have.’
Oh-jin narrowed his eyes, holding the gem that shimmered with a faint black light.
What, exactly, was the difference between the Heavenly Demon's Black Heaven and his own?
‘According to Cassia, the Black Heaven is only completed by killing and absorbing the Star of Revolution.’
If that's the case.
Does that mean the Black Heaven I possess is already a higher power than the one the Heavenly Demon has?
“Well, I'll find out if I absorb it.”
Even if he took the gem imbued with the Black Heaven's power to the Association or the Seven Stars for investigation, it was unlikely they'd find any decisive clues.
After all, even Cassia, who had the closest relationship with the Heavenly Demon, didn't know his true identity.
‘Rather than handing it over for a half-assed investigation, it's better to absorb it.’
Holding the black gem, Oh-jin activated the power of the Black Heaven.
*Ruuuumble.*
A black miasma flowed from his hand and coiled around the gem.
And then.
-Tring!
[You have absorbed a ‘Fragment of the Black Heaven’.]
[You have met all conditions for the ninth blossoming of the Black Heaven!]
[The ninth blossoming of the Black Heaven will now begin!]
“What?”
Oh-jin's eyes widened at the blue message window that appeared before him.
He thought he'd be content just finding a trace of the Heavenly Demon, but now a ninth blossoming, out of nowhere?
A wave of bewilderment washed over him at the unexpected development.
“Kugh!”
*Ruuuumble!*
The black miasma erupting from his entire body swirled around him like a vortex.
Just as an Awakened one undergoes a massive change upon reaching the 9-Star rank, could it be that something special happened with the Black Heaven's ninth blossoming too?
The amount of black miasma spewing in all directions was far denser and more voluminous than during the previous eight blossomings.
*Ruuuumble! Kurk!*
The swirling black miasma was sucked into Oh-jin's body.
[The Black Heaven has reached the Ninth-Star Blossom (九星改化)!]
[A portion of the Awakened Lee Shin-hyeok's memories will be transmitted!]
The transmission of memories, just like every other time.
*Fzzt.*
His vision distorted as Lee Shin-hyeok's memories flowed into his mind.
-Are you feeling better now, hyung?
The first thing he heard was the voice of Lee Shin-hyeok's younger brother, Lee Woo-hyeok.
-Ah, yeah. I'm doing a bit better now.
Lying in a hospital bed, Lee Shin-hyeok sat up with an awkward smile.
Lee Woo-hyeok let out a deep sigh and spoke.
-Don't ever go into a gate alone again. Got it?
-I got it.
-Just because Ant-horns are considered easy fiends doesn't mean you can underestimate them. You know there's been a spike in strange phenomena in gates recently, right, hyung?
-…Yeah.
Lee Shin-hyeok swallowed a groan at Lee Woo-hyeok's continued nagging and nodded.
‘Ant-horn?’
Oh-jin furrowed his brow, unable to understand.
According to the last memory that flowed in, Lee Shin-hyeok had already become a high-ranking Awakened who had reached the 9-Star rank.
No matter how much you shouldn't underestimate Ant-horns, they weren't the kind of fiend you'd seriously warn a high-ranking Awakened about.
‘The timeline… went backward?’
Oh-jin looked at the digital clock on the hospital room wall.
November 30, 2020.
It was about three weeks after Oh-jin and Lee Shin-hyeok had entered the 1-Star gate together.
‘So the memories don't flow in chronological order?’
Until now, it had shown him future events in sequence from the present's perspective, but now it had suddenly jumped back to a time similar to the very beginning.
November 2020 was a year and a half in the past, even from Oh-jin's current standpoint.
‘Why a memory from this time…’
Oh-jin frowned and refocused on the memory flowing into him.
-By the way, what happened with that thing from before? You said a gate appeared in Mok-dong.
-About that… something strange came up.
-Strange?
-Yeah.
Lee Woo-hyeok nodded and continued.
-It seems the sacred relic we found there was swapped out by someone else.
-Swapped out?
-Yeah. So I did some investigating, following the traces of the original relic… and some weird guy was loitering around the gate.
-Who was it?
-A guy named Yujin.
Yujin.
It was a name that Oh-jin himself hadn't heard in a very long time.
-That guy… what did he say? Ah, the ‘Satellite Sect’. He called himself a believer of the Satellite Sect.
-Some kind of cult?
-I don't know. It feels… too unsettling to be just a cult.
Lee Woo-hyeok narrowed his eyes.
-I think I need to investigate it a bit more.
-I'll help…
-Hyung, you just focus on getting discharged.
Lee Woo-hyeok stood up, chiding him lightly.
Contrary to his nickname, the Black Lion, his expression was quite relaxed in front of his older brother.
With a final glimpse of Lee Woo-hyeok turning and closing the hospital room door behind him.
*Fzzzzzzzt.*
His distorted vision returned to normal.
“…What, that's it?”
Oh-jin frowned, a look of emptiness on his face.
Well, there was no rule that only helpful memories had to be transmitted, but this was the first time he'd received one so utterly useless.
“For fuck's sake.”
It was a situation that naturally called for a curse.
No matter how many times he replayed the memory, he couldn't think of any use for such trivial information.
‘Did I expect too much?’
Oh-jin clicked his tongue and turned away.
Even if the transmitted memory was useless, at least the blossoming stage of his Black Heaven had risen. As he was consoling himself with that thought.
“…Huh?”
Something.
An intuition that couldn't be put into words.
An instinct that couldn't be described with language.
Stopped him in his tracks.
“Wait, a minute…”
Like discovering that a puzzle you thought was complete was actually mismatched.
Like realizing the very first piece you placed belonged to a different puzzle entirely.
Something.
Something.
Something.
Something.
Was strange.
Was warped.
Was twisted, and contorted.
“This makes no sense…”
Right.
It makes no sense.
It can't be explained by common sense.
It can't be understood logically.
It doesn't fit.
It doesn't connect.
“Why…?”
Nine memories.
If you included the ones he got through déjà vu, then over ten memory transmissions.
Why.
Why, why, why, why, why.
Just, why.
Not even once.
Not a single word.
Not a single letter.
“How could the name ‘Black Star Organization’… never have come up?”
Since when.
Had Yujin become an Apostle of the Satellite Sect instead of the Black Star Organization?