Chapter 337
Chapter 337
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 337
Chapter Title: Black Sky (1)
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“Haaah.”
After escaping Cassia's sudden assault(?).
Oh-jin let out a deep sigh and sat down on the pile of treasures, now just empty shells devoid of their once-imbued magic.
“So, what was all that about?”
He looked at Cassia, who was twirling a strand of her hair with her index finger, as if embarrassed about having pounced on him.
“It's just as I said. I sensed the Heavenly Demon's presence here and got confused.”
The Heavenly Demon and he both possessed the Black Heaven.
Yet, the way she specifically identified it as 'the Heavenly Demon's presence' suggested she hadn't reacted to the Black Heaven Oh-jin possessed.
In other words.
It was more likely that the Heavenly Demon had deliberately leaked his presence to lure her here.
“Have you been chasing the Heavenly Demon all this time?”
He knew she was in the Demon Realm.
But he didn't know what she had been doing there.
“...To be precise, the Heavenly Demon's vessel.”
“Vessel?”
“Yes. The Heavenly Demon's true body is currently sealed in Niflheim due to the constraints of the Law.”
“Sealed?”
So that's why he approached me by intervening in my subconscious instead of meeting me directly.
“Yes. Well, it hasn't been long since I learned of this myself.”
Cassia shook her head with a short sigh.
It seemed a lot had happened to her while Oh-jin was traveling through the kingdoms.
“So why are you trying to hunt down and kill this vessel?”
“Because it's the only way to delay the breaking of the Heavenly Demon's seal, even if just by a little.”
Delay the breaking of the seal, huh.
The Heavenly Demon's words, 'We'll see each other again soon,' flashed through his mind.
“I've already hunted it down and killed it three times... but this time, I completely missed the mark.”
Cassia sighed, shaking her head.
‘So that's why she said she expected him to be hidden more carefully this time.’
Instead of hiding from Cassia, the Heavenly Demon had lured her to target Oh-jin.
All to break the seal that confined him.
“How much time is left until the seal breaks?”
“I don't know for sure. But judging by the recent movements of the demons in Niflheim...”
“There isn't much time left.”
He did say we'd see each other again soon, after all.
The day the Heavenly Demon's seal would break was likely not far off.
“...Yes.”
Cassia nodded with a bitter expression.
Oh-jin looked at her, head bowed and a bitter smile on her lips, and asked quietly.
“Why... have you been trying to stop the Heavenly Demon's seal from breaking?”
In a field of pure white snow.
The one who saved her as she lay dying was the Heavenly Demon.
Of course, the reason he saved her was likely because he needed a puppet to eliminate obstacles in his stead, unable to move himself due to the Law's constraints.
Regardless, from her perspective, the Heavenly Demon was the benefactor who had saved her life.
“My, are you the one asking me that, Oh-jin?”
Cassia smiled mischievously and moved closer to him.
“You told me, didn't you? That you would become my new Heavenly Demon.”
“……”
He had certainly said that.
But he couldn't tell how much she truly believed it.
Cassia covered her mouth slightly with her hand and let out a soft chuckle.
“Of course, that's not the only reason. This is my own way of... atoning, you could say.”
Atoning.
He had heard plenty about what she had done while her mind was controlled by the Heavenly Demon.
“I've killed too many.”
She had lived with countless lives on her hands.
Even if it wasn't entirely of her own will, she couldn't say she was blameless.
“...Cassia.”
“Hehe. I know. I know what I'm doing is detestable.”
Atoning wouldn't change the fact that she had taken countless lives.
It was an act of self-comfort, nothing more.
With the Heavenly Demon's control gone, she was merely filling the empty void with the convenient method of atonement.
Oh-jin spoke quietly to Cassia, whose smile seemed so fragile it might shatter at the slightest touch.
“You don't have to live thinking so complicatedly.”
He hadn't stained his hands with blood.
But he, too, had lived by deceiving others and sucking them dry.
He didn't think his actions were righteous.
And he had no intention of making excuses by saying it couldn't be helped.
However.
“Living only to atone is too painful.”
So what if it's detestable?
Too many people live selfishly to be punished for that reason alone.
“It's okay to live a little more shamelessly. I mean, if you die and end up in hell, you can think about it then.”
“……”
Cassia's eyes widened as if she never expected such a response.
She gently bit her lip and placed a hand on her fluttering heart.
It was the first time.
Someone had told her it was okay to live more shamelessly.
“You truly are... an outrageous person, Oh-jin.”
“What on earth did I do?”
“So outrageous I want to tie you up somewhere no one knows and punish you.”
“I take back what I said about living shamelessly.”
Yeah, if you've sinned, you should live while receiving your punishment.
“Hehe. I'm just kidding.”
Cassia smiled mischievously and took a step back.
‘She really is Isabella's sister, huh.’
Her smile and mischievous tone were a carbon copy of Isabella's.
“So, what now? Are you going to keep chasing the Heavenly Demon's vessel?”
“No, even if I kill the vessel, the Heavenly Demon's seal will eventually break.”
Then what was she supposed to do?
“In a month, there will be a grand ritual in Niflheim.”
“A ritual?”
“Yes. It's probably a ritual related to breaking the Heavenly Demon's seal.”
One month.
Oh-jin chewed his lip, his expression anxious.
‘There's not enough time.’
He thought he'd need at least a few more months to fully prepare his forces.
To think there was only a month left.
“I plan to go to Niflheim and stop that ritual.”
“Alone?”
“My, are you going to come with me, Oh-jin?”
Oh-jin nodded at Cassia's playful question.
“Of course, I'm going with you.”
“...Huh?”
It was Cassia who was taken aback by his unhesitating reply.
“You do know what kind of place Niflheim is, don't you?”
“Well, I've never been there myself, but I've heard what it's like.”
The kingdom of the demon race.
A place where followers of the Heavenly Demon gathered, several times more dangerous than the three great forbidden zones of the Demon Realm combined.
“No, you don't know, Oh-jin. How dangerous that place is...”
“So, because it's dangerous, I should just sit back and watch the Heavenly Demon's seal break?”
“……”
Cassia bit her lip anxiously.
“Of course, I don't plan on going in recklessly by myself.”
Isn't this what he'd been preparing for all this time?
Of course, his forces weren't fully assembled yet.
But he had secured the powerful forces of the Beastmen, the Dragonoids, and Baek Mu-gang.
It wasn't enough, but it wasn't so little that he should give up without a fight.
“Haaah, you really are a stubborn one, my new Heavenly Demon.”
Cassia let out a short sigh and shook her head.
“I'm sorry, but I don't think we can go together.”
“Why?”
“You might be fine with it, Oh-jin, but the others will be reluctant to accompany a 'snake'.”
Cassia said in a bitter voice.
“……”
Oh-jin clamped his mouth shut, unable to offer any counterargument.
Just as she said, many people would express discomfort if they were to accompany Cassia to Niflheim.
‘My sister, for one.’
Even though Cassia was under the Heavenly Demon's control at the time, she had a history of personally killing the Star of Tamrangseong.
From Ha-eun's perspective, who had lived with and learned from Tamrangseong for a time, it would be difficult to look at Cassia without any feelings.
“I'll make my own moves to stop the ritual.”
Cassia smiled brightly and continued.
“Oh, right. I have a favor to ask. Could you do it for me?”
“Go ahead.”
“Could you possibly go without Bella this time?”
Go without Isabella?
“That might be difficult.”
Excluding Oh-jin when he used Gaecheon, Isabella was the strongest fighter in their group.
The plan to raid the kingdom of Niflheim and stop the sealing ritual couldn't even be established without her.
“But why leave her behind?”
“……”
Cassia twirled her hair with her finger, slyly avoiding Oh-jin's gaze.
“If we fail to stop the ritual and the seal is broken, the entire area will be filled with the energy of the Black Heaven.”
“What's the problem with that... Ah.”
A short gasp escaped Oh-jin's lips.
Isabella was an Awakened who had received power from the Leech Constellation, one of the 'Black Stars'.
‘And it was the Heavenly Demon who turned the constellations, originally called Satellites, into Black Stars.’
Using a family tree analogy, the Black Heaven would be the grandparents, and the Black Stars the parents.
In other words.
Like genes passed from parent to child, a certain amount of the Heavenly Demon's power already resided within her.
‘If the Heavenly Demon is released from his seal in that state.’
Oh-jin recalled 'Domination,' one of the characteristics of the Black Heaven.
In the worst-case scenario, there was a risk that Isabella, like Cassia before her, could become the Heavenly Demon's puppet.
“Then you too...”
Of course, Cassia, being an Awakened of a Black Star herself, was also at risk of becoming a puppet.
“Hehe. I'm used to living as someone's puppet.”
“……”
She's willing to risk having her mind controlled by the Heavenly Demon again just to stop the ritual?
“Haaah.”
If he could, he would want to stop the ritual without borrowing the power of either Isabella or Cassia.
‘It's impossible.’
They were both too powerful to give up.
It would be better to abandon the plan to stop the ritual altogether than to give up on both of them.
“Let's just try to stop the ritual, one way or another.”
If we fail and the Heavenly Demon's seal is broken.
“Then, Cassia, I need you to take Isabella and run far away.”
“...I understand.”
Cassia nodded with a heavy expression.
“Well then, I'll be going now. You'll be in trouble if we're seen together.”
Lifting the hem of her black dress elegantly, Cassia turned around.
Oh-jin watched her turn and let out a small chuckle.
“You're full of surprises, by the way.”
“Surprises?”
“I thought you and Bella didn't get along. I never expected you to worry about her like this.”
“Gh...!”
Cassia flinched, her shoulders trembling with a flustered expression.
“I-I just told you to leave her behind because I was worried she'd ruin the plan. She's just a stubborn, greedy kid who'll throw a tantrum even when she should back down.”
Cassia snorted with a "Hmph," and whipped her head away.
For someone who said that, the earlobes peeking out from her platinum blonde hair were bright red.
Oh-jin watched Cassia's retreating back with a faint smile.
‘I hope the day comes when those two can get along again.’
Imagining Cassia and Isabella laughing together, Oh-jin started walking outside.