Chapter 346
Chapter 346
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 346
Chapter Title: Interlude - I Am Not a Regressor (1)
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[What… what do you mean by that?]
It felt as though time had frozen.
Vega turned to Oh-jin, her expression stiff as stone.
Not a regressor?
What in the world did that mean?
[Did you not hear me ask what you meant!]
Vega cried out, her face etched with anxiety.
She recalled the day she first met Oh-jin.
The young man who had confidently declared himself a regressor.
The human who remembered a past life she could not.
In the long expanse of her millennia-spanning life, her time with Oh-jin was but a fleeting moment.
-I missed you, Vega.
She remembered.
The fond gaze in his eyes as he looked at her.
The lips that called her name in a trembling voice.
How, how could she ever forget?
And yet.
It was all a lie?
[D-don't lie to me.]
Vega forced an awkward smile and shook her head.
She could guess why Oh-jin was suddenly spouting such nonsense.
[Did you think I would withdraw my Sanctuary if you said such things?]
She shook her head as if to dismiss the absurd idea.
[Did I not tell you? No matter what happens, I will protect you….]
“Vega.”
Cutting her off, Oh-jin stared at her with deep, sunken eyes.
“It’s not a lie.”
[Don’t spout such nonsense…!]
“You can tell just by looking at me.”
Oh-jin’s form, wrapped in the Black Heaven.
No, to be precise, it was Oh-jin with parts of his body transformed into the Black Heaven itself.
[Th-the Heavenly Demon did this to you….]
“No.”
There was no way she couldn't distinguish between the Heavenly Demon's Black Heaven and his own.
“Vega.”
With a bitter smile, he gently placed a hand on her cheek.
“I am not a regressor.”
He spoke the hidden fact, the truth he had desperately ignored, once more.
“Knowing the future, having a special relationship with you in a past life—it was all a lie to deceive you.”
[S-stop. Stop talking!]
Every word that left Oh-jin’s lips tore through her chest like a sharp blade.
Vega cried out, her eyes welling up as if she were already shedding tears.
[B-but you knew what would actually happen in the future, did you not?]
“……”
The future he saw through Lee Shin-hyeok's memories.
Oh-jin had indeed used those memories to deceive Vega perfectly.
After all, predicting the future was something only a ‘regressor’ could do.
“I’m sorry, Vega.”
He didn’t bother explaining that he had used Lee Shin-hyeok’s memories.
Seeing his current state, mixed with the Black Heaven, she would realize he was a ‘Master of the Black Heaven’ just like the Heavenly Demon.
[…….]
Vega bit her lip, her trembling eyes glaring at Oh-jin.
*Smack!*
She violently slapped his hand away from her cheek.
[You….]
Her words trailed off.
A sharp sense of betrayal gouged out her heart.
[Were you truly… not a regressor?]
All this time.
[Have you… been deceiving me?]
A transparent tear streamed down her cheek.
The man she had trusted more than anyone.
The one human she had given her heart to in her millennia-long life.
The shattered trust became sharp fragments that tore her apart.
*Ruuuuuumble!*
The massive tidal wave of black clouds was nearly upon them.
Oh-jin walked past Vega and spoke in a low voice.
“Yes. I was deceiving you to use your power.”
Therefore.
“You have no reason to sacrifice yourself for me.”
He spoke in a cold tone and extended a hand toward Vega.
*Crackle, crackle!*
Black lightning poured toward Vega.
[Ugh!]
Vega staggered back, dodging the black lightning.
The Black Heaven, strengthened by its tenth bloom, could easily push back Vega even with her Sanctuary active.
[M-my child…!]
Vega’s steps, rushing toward Oh-jin, came to an abrupt halt.
Her fingertips trembled slightly.
The sharp sting of betrayal became shackles, binding her feet.
“……”
Oh-jin turned back to Vega with a faint smile.
*Yes, that’s enough.*
Burying the words that surfaced in his mind, he turned his body toward the black storm clouds.
*Ruuuuuuuuuumble!*
He stretched both arms toward the tidal wave of black clouds.
He stared at the black clouds with deep, sunken eyes.
“Hup!”
A cloud of Black Heaven erupted from him.
Compared to what the Heavenly Demon possessed, the amount was paltry, but.
‘In terms of quality, my Black Heaven is superior.’
*Ruuuuuumble!*
Black Heaven clashed with Black Heaven.
The earth twisted and was violently torn asunder.
“Kugh!”
A powerful shockwave rocked his entire body.
Was this what it felt like to face a natural disaster like a typhoon or a tsunami head-on?
An incredulous laugh escaped his lips at the overwhelming difference in power.
“…In…sane.”
The overwhelming difference in quantity made a mockery of any qualitative advantage.
“Just… how much did you devour?”
He thought he had devoured quite a lot with his Black Heaven until now, but seeing the Heavenly Demon’s made his own feel laughably small.
“Haah, haah!”
A crushing pressure weighed down on his entire body.
Was this how Atlas felt, holding up the sky?
His legs trembled from the pain, as if his bones and flesh were being crushed.
‘To be in this state even after using Gaecheon…!’
Gaecheon was a cheat-like power that essentially nullified all physical impact.
But against the same Black Heaven, its incredible ability wasn't working properly.
‘The sensory deprivation is useless, too.’
Gaecheon's other power, the ability to blind and deafen a target, had no effect on the black clouds.
“Kugh! Just a little… longer…!”
He had to buy enough time for Ha-eun and Riak to escape.
Oh-jin desperately held back the tidal wave of black clouds, biting his lip.
He wanted to turn his head to check how far Ha-eun and Riak had gotten, or if Vega had returned to the Sanctuary, but.
“Keoheok! Kuuugh! Dammit, dammit, dammit!”
Just holding back the black wave took all his concentration; he had no leeway to look elsewhere.
*Grind, grind, grind!*
A massive impact shook the earth.
The ground for several kilometers around was overturned and split apart.
The towering black clouds swallowed the sky.
A sky stained with darkness.
Beneath a pitch-black sky where not even starlight could shine, Oh-jin stood tall, blocking the tidal wave of black clouds with his entire body.
“Ah, ugh.”
Pain.
The agony of crushed bones and mangled muscles savaged his entire body.
Pain, pain, pain.
It was so excruciating he felt like he would go insane.
But.
“Haah, haah!”
He had to endure. He had to hold on.
‘If I get devoured.’
The others would be next.
“Kuuugh!”
How much time had passed?
It felt like hours, no, days had flown by.
But that was just his perception.
He knew instinctively that not much time had actually passed.
‘How much longer.’
How much longer did he have to struggle in this agony?
*Gurgle.*
He could feel the tidal wave of black clouds gradually swallowing his body.
If he were completely devoured by the Heavenly Demon's Black Heaven like this, what would happen next?
Before he could follow that sudden question, another wave of agony struck him.
“Keoheok, keok, ah, ugh.”
The pain was beyond its limit; he couldn't even scream properly.
Within his blackening consciousness.
*Ruuuuuumble.*
He heard the sound of rumbling clouds.
‘…The Heavenly Demon?’
No.
The source of the sound was his left chest.
It was coming not from the Heavenly Demon, but from his own Black Heaven.
*Rumble, grumble!*
The Black Heaven nestled in his heart growled like a caged beast.
It thrashed violently as if demanding to be released from its cage.
‘What more do you want me to release?’
Wasn't he already in a state where he had liberated the Black Heaven using Gaecheon?
Oh-jin frowned and glared at his left chest.
*Ruuuuuumble.*
The Black Heaven trapped in his heart fiercely spewed out dark clouds.
As if it wasn't enough.
As if there was still more to open.
‘I can… open more?’
Don't tell me Gaecheon isn't the end?
Is there something beyond it?
Oh-jin bit his lip and placed a hand over his left chest.
‘Even if I can release more of the Black Heaven here.’
What would be the price?
How many memories would disappear?
“……”
His bitten lip trembled.
If he released more of the Black Heaven now, even more of his memories would be devoured by it.
Perhaps.
All his memories of Ha-eun….
[Oh, star of Vega, risen high.]
As he was entertaining ominous thoughts.
Vega’s voice came from behind him.
“…Ve, ga?”
She hadn't returned to the Sanctuary?
[Grant your blessing upon my child.]
A brilliant silver light settled upon Oh-jin’s body.
*Ruuuuuumble!*
He felt the Black Heaven writhe as if having a seizure.
‘I can see it.’
Within his flickering consciousness, he saw a single ray of starlight shining faintly.
“Kuuuuaaaah!”
Oh-jin reached out toward the starlight shining in the black sky.
And then.
*RUUUUUUUUUUUUUMBLE!*
With a colossal roar, everything around him was engulfed by the black clouds.
“What… just happened….”
Oh-jin frowned and looked around.
A black space where not a single point of light shone.
It was a place he had been to once before.
‘The space of my subconscious.’
Oh-jin lightly snapped his fingers.
A chair and table materialized out of thin air.
‘This is my subconscious.’
Unlike the Heavenly Demon, who could interfere with his subconscious, Oh-jin couldn't interfere with the Heavenly Demon's.
The fact that he could create something at will meant this was his own subconscious, not the Heavenly Demon's.
“Haah.”
He let out a deep sigh, wondering how he ended up in such a place again.
*Gurgle, ruuuumble.*
In the empty space, black clouds began to churn.
The clouds expanded and contracted chaotically.
Soon, the clouds gathered in one place and formed a figure.
“You….”
The figure of a young man, withered and worn, who looked exactly like him.
“You, you son of a bitch!!!”
The Heavenly Demon’s face twisted into a demonic mask as he charged at Oh-jin.