Chapter 344
Chapter 344
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 344
Chapter Title: Black Sky (8)
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“Come on, relax. This is the last chance we'll get to talk like this.”
The Sky Devil approached the stiff Oh-jin and lightly snapped his fingers.
Snap.
A chair materialized out of thin air.
Oh-jin muttered, looking down at the chair created from nothing.
“…A subconscious space.”
“That's right. But this time, I've invited you into my subconscious, not yours.”
The Sky Devil sat in the chair and leisurely crossed his legs.
Oh-jin glared sharply at the seated Sky Devil.
“What do you mean, this is our last chance to talk?”
“It means exactly what it sounds like.”
The Sky Devil snapped his fingers again, creating a cup of coffee, and took a leisurely sip.
“It's all over now.”
The Sky Devil sighed, a look of relief on his face.
His eyes, filled with exhaustion, turned to Oh-jin.
“It was long… so very long.”
He recalled the past.
Memories of a world Oh-jin couldn't remember, one that had already been destroyed.
The Sky Devil covered his face with his palm and let out a low laugh.
It was a hollow, empty sound.
“You….”
Oh-jin’s expression twisted violently.
“Was your goal to annihilate Vega?”
Saying it was all over now must have meant he had achieved his goal.
In this situation, the only thing that could be considered his goal was Vega's annihilation.
“To be precise, my goal was to summon Vega to this very spot.”
“And you pretended to be sealed for decades just for that?”
“There's no easier way to deceive someone than by waiting.”
He already knew that.
Even the most gifted con artist couldn't help but leave holes in a lie spun on the spot.
A perfect lie inevitably requires a long wait.
But still.
“…You crazy bastard!”
Enduring all that time, just for this single moment—it wasn't something a sane person would do.
Oh-jin grabbed the collar of the Sky Devil, who was sitting leisurely in his chair.
“What did Vega ever do to you to deserve this?!”
“We made a promise.”
A promise?
“She promised to send me back to the past, and in return, I was to devour the star of Jingnyeoseong.”
“…What kind of bullshit is that?”
She asked him to devour the star of Jingnyeoseong in exchange for sending him back to the past?
Saying "devour" was no different from saying "kill."
His head grew hot at the sheer absurdity of the statement, which was far beyond common sense.
“A promise to kill her in exchange for sending you back?”
“Yes.”
“Don't fuck with me, you son of a bitch!”
He lifted the hand gripping the collar.
So easily.
The Sky Devil was pulled up like a puppet with its strings cut.
With his collar still grabbed, the Sky Devil looked down at Oh-jin with eyes full of fatigue.
“When you touched my Black Sky, you must have felt it was different from yours, right?”
“…That was.”
He had felt it.
An energy that was somehow unstable and precarious.
“It would. The Black Sky I possess is currently 'overflowing'.”
“…What do you mean, overflowing?”
“Hmm. To put it simply, it might be easier to understand if I say it's on the verge of going berserk.”
The Sky Devil smiled bitterly and snapped his fingers.
A small water cup and a water bottle appeared.
He picked up the bottle and poured it into the cup.
The water overflowed from the small cup, soaking the floor.
“This is the state it's in.”
“…You can't withstand the power of the Black Sky?”
“Unlike you, my 'vessel' was small from the start.”
The Sky Devil gave a self-deprecating smile.
Oh-jin frowned and placed a hand on his left chest.
There couldn't be a fundamental difference between his Black Sky and the Sky Devil's.
After all, they were both the same "Oh-jin."
So, for a difference to have been created between them…
“…The Star of Reverse Heaven?”
“So you knew.”
He remembered hearing it from Cassia.
That the Star of Reverse Heaven was needed to complete the Black Sky.
“Isn't it fascinating? That a moron like him was imbued with the power to change fate.”
The Sky Devil chuckled and shrugged.
“…Why.”
Oh-jin looked at the Sky Devil, unable to understand.
“Why didn't you absorb the Star of Reverse Heaven? You went back even further than Lee Shin-hyeok, didn't you?”
“My vessel was already complete, so absorbing the Star of Reverse Heaven would have been useless for me.”
Ah.
So that was why.
“You… made me absorb the Star of Reverse Heaven.”
In his place, as it was already too late for him.
To complete the Black Sky.
“Thanks to that, your Black Sky, unlike mine, could remain stable without overflowing.”
“…What happens if the Black Sky goes berserk?”
“It will destroy the world, left with only the desire to devour stars. Just like before.”
…Before?
“Haven't you heard from Vega? That the Constellations were already destroyed once by the Black Sky.”
“Ah.”
He had definitely heard that.
That in the past, the Constellations were destroyed once by the Black Sky.
And that Vega and the current Constellations were beings born after that event.
“……”
Oh-jin stared at the Sky Devil, his lips sealed shut.
Right.
He understood that if the Sky Devil's Black Sky went berserk, they would all be destroyed.
“So, what does that have to do with killing Vega… Ah.”
In that moment.
A jolt like lightning shot down Oh-jin's spine.
The Sky Devil's Black Sky was overflowing from its vessel.
What would happen if you poured the waterfall that is 'Jingnyeoseong' into it?
Could it be…
That the 'vessel' itself would shatter?
“So you mean….”
Why hadn't he noticed something so simple?
Why hadn't he realized something so straightforward?
Oh-jin let out a hollow laugh and ran a hand over his face.
If the Black Sky goes berserk, the world will be destroyed.
If that was the case…
There was only one answer.
“You mean… you did all this… just to die?”
The Sky Devil smiled brightly.
He opened his mouth, his voice as dry as a desert.
“If I'm the only one who dies, Nunna can be happy.”
As if it were nothing.
As if it meant nothing.
With a relieved smile on his lips.
He spoke of his own death.
“……”
A suffocating sensation.
His legs buckled for a moment in the overwhelming torrent of emotion.
His stomach churned, and he felt a wave of nausea.
They had the same face, yet for some reason, the Sky Devil's face looked terribly unfamiliar.
“Just what… are you?”
How broken and worn down must a piece of a person be to say something like that?
“If our situations were reversed, you would have made the same choice.”
The Sky Devil chuckled and patted Oh-jin's rigid shoulder.
“Because you… are me.”
We've lived different lives.
But in the end.
We're both the man named Kwon Oh-jin.
“…So, you're telling me to just stand by and let Vega die?”
Oh-jin roughly slapped away the hand on his shoulder and glared at the Sky Devil.
He clenched his fists tightly and continued.
“If you want to die so badly, I'll kill you myself. Leave Vega out of it.”
“That's not an option.”
The Sky Devil slowly shook his head.
“Even if you kill me, the Black Sky will still go berserk.”
“…Then.”
“To completely annihilate the Black Sky, there's no other way but to absorb Jingnyeoseong.”
“Why… Why does it have to be Vega?”
If it was to annihilate the Black Sky, weren't there other North Stars?
“Jingnyeoseong has the ability to control the power of the Black Sky. Haven't you experienced it yourself? You must have seen Jingnyeoseong when you used Gaecheon.”
“……”
He definitely remembered seeing it.
The image of Jingnyeoseong, shining alone in a sky covered by black storm clouds.
He had been able to regain his senses, which had blurred from using Gaecheon, by following that starlight.
‘So, the reason I was fine after using Gaecheon was also thanks to Vega?’
It wasn't without side effects.
But unlike the Sky Devil, his Black Sky had never gone berserk.
“Only with Jingnyeoseong can the Black Sky be annihilated without going berserk.”
In that case…
Did that mean Vega had to be sacrificed to save the world?
“It's fine.”
“…What is.”
What was fine?
“If I'm the only one who dies, you won't have to worry about the Constellations of the Black Star or the demons.”
“What does that….”
“I've arranged it so that when my Black Sky is annihilated, they all die with it.”
He'd arranged for them all to die together?
“You might not remember, but in the past life, those 'Satellite' bastards tormented Nunna a lot. Ah, but since you inherited Lee Shin-hyeok's memories, you probably know?”
“Wait a minute. Then the reason you turned the Satellites into the Black Star was…”
The Sky Devil let out a smirk and nodded.
“I took measures beforehand so that when I die, those bastards would die with me.”
“……”
Only then did Oh-jin understand the meaning of the Sky Devil's first words: 'It's all over now.'
When the Sky Devil dies, every being that inherited his power will die with him.
No more threats, no more hardships.
Literally, the end.
The story's ending.
And so, Ha-eun and Oh-jin lived happily ever after, clap clap clap.
“Don't… give me… that shit.”
Oh-jin's eyes trembled.
Gritting his teeth.
He clenched his teeth and slammed his fist into the Sky Devil's cheek.
Smack!
The Sky Devil was thrown back, collapsing to the floor.
Oh-jin got on top of him and swung his fist down like a hammer.
“I said don't give me that shit, you bastard!”
He wanted him to just stand by and watch Vega get devoured by the Black Sky?
That Vega's sacrifice alone could save the world?
That Ha-eun…
Could be happy?
“If Vega dies, Riak dies with her! Do you get it?!”
A spirit is one who inherits part of a Constellation's soul, so it was only natural that Riak would die the moment the Constellation died.
“And what? All beings who received the power of the Black Sky will die together?”
The image of Isabella and Cassia, clutching their ears and crying out in pain, came to mind.
“Then what about Isabella! And Cassia?! It means they'll die with you when you kick the bucket, you crazy son of a bitch!”
If every being influenced by the Black Sky were to die.
Then Isabella and Cassia, who had received Stigmas from the Constellations of the Black Star, could not escape death either.
“……”
The Sky Devil, who had been lying still and taking the punches to his cheek, frowned.
His dry gaze turned to Oh-jin.
“I know Cassia, but… Riak? Isabella?”
He muttered the names Oh-jin had just shouted, one by one.
He tilted his head as if he couldn't understand.
“Who are they?”
“……”
Oh-jin's fist froze mid-air.
An icy chill ran down his spine.
A cold sweat beaded on his forehead and trickled down his cheek.
“Who… you ask?”
“I've heard of Riak, but I have no idea who Isabella is.”
Of course he wouldn't know.
In the past life, she was more famous for her title, the 'Blood Witch,' than the name Isabella.
“Well, anyway.”
The Sky Devil shrugged and continued nonchalantly.
“What does it matter?”
“What do you mean, what does it matter….”
“Whether they die or not has nothing to do with you.”
“What kind of bullshit is that.”
The Sky Devil pushed himself up, smiled brightly, and placed a hand on Oh-jin's shoulder.
“As long as it's not Nunna, it doesn't matter if everyone else dies, right?”
As if it were nothing.
As if it meant nothing.
Just as when he spoke of his own death.
He talked about death so casually.