Chapter 352
Chapter 352
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 352
Chapter Title: Starlight (4)
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“Vega.”
His low, sunken voice echoed through the empty temple.
The silver-haired goddess stood with her back to him, silent, as if she hadn't heard his call.
Thud.
One step.
He took a step toward her.
[Stop.]
Whoooosh!
A brilliant silver light flared.
Oh-jin, who had been approaching Vega, stopped dead in his tracks as if blocked by an invisible wall.
‘The Sanctuary.’
Oh-jin cautiously touched the transparent wall blocking his path.
Crackle, crackle!
Even with just a light touch, he felt a powerful repulsive force that seemed ready to tear his palm apart.
Without so much as a glance at Oh-jin, Vega continued in a cold, subdued voice.
[If you take even one more step, you will be gravely injured….]
“Hup.”
Without a hint of hesitation.
Without a moment's pause.
He took a large step into the Sanctuary Vega had created.
Zzzzzzap!
“Keuk! Kack!”
Blue lightning struck his entire body.
A tremendous torrent of lightning tore through Oh-jin's body, as if he'd thrown himself onto a high-voltage fence.
Oh-jin's body, already tattered from his battle with Riak, was violently thrown backward.
Along with the horrific pain, his still-unhealed wounds burst open, soaking his clothes with blood.
[M-My child!]
A horrified Vega turned to run to Oh-jin, but she bit her lip and turned back around.
[D-Did I not tell you you would be hurt if you came closer!]
She cried out, her tone chiding.
Thrown back, Oh-jin staggered to his feet.
And then, another step.
He walked toward Vega's Sanctuary.
Zzzzt!
As he touched the transparent barrier, he was once again thrown back by the powerful repulsive force.
[D-Do not come!]
“…Vega.”
Oh-jin pressed a hand against his trembling legs and forced himself up.
If he used the power of the Black Heaven, he could resist Vega's Sanctuary to some extent, but he chose not to.
Suppressing the pain, he took another step toward her.
Zzzzzzt!
Blue lightning flared, and Oh-jin's body rolled across the floor.
[…How.]
Vega looked back at Oh-jin, who was rolling on the floor in a tattered state, and bit her lip.
The image of the wounded Oh-jin was seared into her mind, refusing to fade.
[How… How can you be so disobedient!]
She stared at him with sad eyes, clenching her fists.
[Did I not tell you not to come!]
It hurts.
With every word she uttered, her chest throbbed as if being pierced by an awl.
[What… What is there to say now!]
She cried out, as if wailing.
[You deceived me! From the very beginning!]
From the moment she first met him at the gate that day.
Oh-jin had been deceiving her all along.
He had hidden the fact that he was the Master of the Black Heaven, facing her with a mask on.
Yes.
The image of him she had cherished in her heart.
The image of him that had made her heart flutter so painfully.
It was all nothing more than a mask.
[I have nothing more to say to you!]
A heart-wrenching sense of betrayal.
The memories she had shared with Oh-jin flashed through her mind like a panorama.
The memory of their first meeting.
The image of him caressing her cheek with a trembling hand, saying he had missed her.
The way he regretted the future he couldn't protect, vowing to save the world this time.
With each turning page of memory, the thought that it was all a lie drove her to the brink of madness.
[I… you….]
Unable to finish her sentence, Vega chewed on her lip.
“……”
Oh-jin slowly approached her.
Silently, without offering any excuse.
[Hmph!]
Vega's expression twisted fiercely as she stretched a hand toward Oh-jin.
Ruuuumble!
A torrent of blue lightning shot toward Oh-jin.
A torrent of lightning imbued with power on a completely different level from what she had used in the Demon Realm.
The lightning of Vega, which could only be manifested in the Sanctuary, free from the constraints of the Laws, surged forward as if to swallow Oh-jin whole.
KABOOM!
Oh-jin made no attempt to defend himself, taking the torrent of lightning with his body.
His body was thrown violently, slamming into the temple wall.
The acrid smoke of burning flesh.
The skin all over his body was hideously distorted, and the lightning that had penetrated him cooked his internal organs.
[Ah….]
Vega, her face pale, approached Oh-jin, who was slumped against the temple wall.
[Why… Why did you not block it!]
That attack was dangerous enough that he could have lost his life.
There was no way Oh-jin wouldn't have known.
Why, then.
“……”
Oh-jin said nothing, using his spear like a cane to push himself up.
“Cough!”
A stream of dark, dead blood poured from his throat.
Fragments of his charred organs mixed with the blood, spilling onto the floor.
‘Ah.’
I might actually die from this.
As expected of the one called the North Star, Vega's power, free from its constraints, was nothing short of marvelous.
‘Still.’
Another step.
He moved toward her.
He was repelled by the Sanctuary blocking his path and rolled across the floor again.
“Ah, ugh.”
He no longer had the strength to stand.
Thwip!
He raised a trembling arm and fired his wire shooter at the ceiling.
Like a puppet on a string, he hung from the wire and pulled himself up.
[S-Stop.]
Vega faltered, taking a step back.
Oh-jin clung to his fading consciousness and took another step toward her.
His body, suspended by the wire, drew closer to the Sanctuary, step by step.
Just as he was about to be repelled by the Sanctuary once more.
[Stop! Stop it now!]
Her screaming voice rang throughout the temple.
[Fine, you said you had something to tell me? Then say it!]
What could he possibly want to say, even while turning into such a wreck?
Vega glared at Oh-jin with fierce eyes.
“……”
Oh-jin slowly raised his head.
He struggled to move his blood-soaked lips, forcing out the words.
“I'm sorry.”
With a faint smile, he took another step toward her.
“For deceiving you all this time… I'm sorry.”
He knew an apology wouldn't solve anything.
He didn't think he could be forgiven for deceiving her.
But.
He still wanted to say it.
He felt he had to.
[Y-You became like that just to say you're sorry?]
Vega stared at Oh-jin, dumbfounded.
A body torn and battered, scorched by lightning, reduced to rags.
To suffer injuries so severe he could drop dead at any moment, all just to say a single word of apology.
“Yeah.”
Oh-jin nodded, looking somewhat relieved.
As if he had nothing more to say.
[You….]
Vega's fine eyebrows furrowed as she raised her arm.
[Y-Y-You fool!]
Smack!
She slapped Oh-jin across the cheek and roughly grabbed him by the collar.
[There must be a reason you deceived me!]
“……”
[Make some excuse! Say you didn't want to, that you had no choice!]
Her voice trembled.
A single, clear tear streamed down Vega's cheek.
[Why… Why won't you say anything.]
The strength in the hand gripping Oh-jin's collar slowly faded.
Vega collapsed to the floor, weeping.
[Sob… sob.]
When she first realized he had deceived her.
When she learned that everything she had seen of him was a lie.
Overwhelmed by a sense of betrayal, she had vowed never to see him again.
[That's why… That's why I even closed the temple doors….]
Like her life before she met him.
She spent her time in the empty temple.
Meeting no one.
Speaking to no one.
As she always had.
Alone.
[I thought… that would be fine.]
Wasn't it just a return to the life she had lived a few years ago?
She could just consider her encounter with Oh-jin a lie.
That it was all an illusion, a fake.
A life of solitude should have been far more familiar to her.
[But your image… it kept coming to mind.]
The image of Oh-jin, branded onto her mind, wouldn't disappear no matter what she did.
Instead, it only grew clearer with time.
[So when you came… I opened the door without realizing it.]
Vega's shoulders trembled as she gave a self-deprecating smile.
When she realized Oh-jin had arrived at the temple to see her.
When he knocked gently on the temple door.
Despite Riak's plea to never open the door, she had opened it immediately.
[Haa. Truly… what a foolish woman I am. To be deceived so, and yet… unable to give you up.]
Vega smiled bleakly and took the hand of the silent Oh-jin.
She had vowed never to see him again, to not even exchange words.
But she had known from the beginning that it was impossible.
For Oh-jin had already become like a thorn in her life, one that could not be removed.
[Please… say something.]
She held Oh-jin's hand in both of hers, her tone pleading.
Why he had lied to her all this time.
The reason didn't matter.
[Just one word, that you had no choice….]
“No.”
Oh-jin, who had been silent, slowly shook his head.
No choice?
At first, when he knew nothing about Vega, perhaps. But later, it was different.
“It wasn't that I had no choice.”
There had been plenty of opportunities to tell her.
Because Vega would have believed him, whether he possessed the Black Heaven or not.
The only reason he hadn't told her until now was because he was a coward.
[…….]
Vega's expression hardened.
She turned her head away, her gaze bitter.
[You truly are foolish.]
Had she not just told him that she had opened the temple doors?
[Even if it were a lie, if you had just said so, I would have believed you….]
“No.”
Oh-jin placed a hand on Vega's shoulder and continued.
“No more lies.”
He hadn't come here to make pathetic excuses.
“You said you couldn't give up on me, right?”
He gently took the chin of Vega, who had turned away, avoiding his gaze.
“It's the same for me.”
He pulled her chin toward him and pressed his lips against hers.