Chapter 66
Chapter 66
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 66
Chapter Title: Heavy Rain (8)
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“Wh-what is this.”
Stumble, stumble.
Ashad Khan took a step back, his mouth agape.
It was as if a video was being rewound.
He stared with wide eyes at Oh-jin, who was regenerating in an instant.
“I-Impossible!!!”
It couldn’t be happening.
It shouldn’t be happening.
He thought it was over.
He was relieved that it was finally over.
Why.
How.
“How in the world can you stand up perfectly fine!!!”
He cried out as if wailing.
“Hehehe! It’d be a little disappointing if the mid-boss didn’t have a second phase, right?”
Oh-jin chuckled and took a step forward.
His wire shooter and spear had both been destroyed during the fight, but…
*Crackle—!*
The stigma of Lyra was still burning brightly on the left side of his chest.
“Grk…!”
Ashad Khan’s expression twisted viciously as he once again created a storm of black feathers around him.
“Gah! Ugh, agh, aaaaaargh!!”
Ashad Khan screamed in agony, his body contorting.
*Crack! Craaack!*
With the gruesome sound of crushing bones, hideous veins bulged all over his body.
His once-taut, bronze skin rapidly shriveled, and fine wrinkles bloomed across his face.
His back hunched over, and his limbs, once packed with solid muscle, withered away.
In an instant, he looked as if he had aged twenty, no, more than thirty years.
‘What is this?’
Oh-jin narrowed his eyes.
Simply overusing a stigma’s power didn’t cause such sudden aging.
‘This is like…’
It was as if he were drawing out power at the cost of his ‘lifespan’.
“Don’t tell me… that’s the price of the ‘blessing’?”
Oh-jin laughed, dumbfounded.
Typically, the price of a blessing was paid by the Celestial.
After all, it was the Celestials, not the Awoken, who were bound by the constraints of the Law.
For an Awoken who received a blessing to end up in such a horrific state…
‘Is it making its Apostle bear the price it should be shouldering?’
Of course, it probably couldn’t make the Apostle bear 100% of the price.
If it could, every member of the Black Star Organization would be running rampant with the Black Star’s blessing.
In any case.
To think it could only bestow its blessing by making its own Apostle shoulder the ‘price’.
“That Owl Star or whatever must be a real pushover, huh?”
He can’t even compare to my goddess.
“Shut up!!”
Ashad Khan roared and swung his scimitar wildly.
*Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!!*
Mixed with the downpour, the feathers of the Black Wings took aim at Oh-jin.
*Booooooom!!!*
A horrific explosion engulfed Oh-jin.
“Hahahaha!”
Oh-jin let out a wry laugh, taking the massive explosion with his body.
His body was torn to shreds by the blast, but…
“I told you.”
*Crack! Craaack!*
His broken bones found their way back into place.
His charred skin regenerated rapidly.
“From now on—it’s my time.”
*Boom!*
He stomped his foot down hard.
He threw himself into the storm of Black Wings and swung his clenched fist.
*Pang!*
The fist, wreathed in blue lightning, was blocked by the black feathers and bounced back.
“Ha, hahaha!!!!”
A crazed laugh erupted from Ashad Khan’s lips.
“No matter how fast your body regenerates, it’s useless if your attacks can’t get through!”
Indeed.
As he said, breaking through the storm of Black Wings was impossible for him now.
“Feel the great power of the Owl!!”
*Dududududu!!*
The storm of Black Wings violently pushed Oh-jin back.
He squeezed out what mana he had left and swung his fists at the storm.
But he still couldn’t break through and reach Ashad Khan.
“The old bastard is still a chatterbox.”
*Ptui.*
Oh-jin spat out the blood pooling in his mouth and grinned.
‘If I can’t break through that storm with one hit.’
The solution was simple, wasn't it?
‘I’ll just keep hitting it until it breaks.’
*Crackle—!!!*
He swung a fist wreathed in Lightning Flame.
The fist, unable to penetrate the storm of Black Wings, shattered, and bone tore through skin.
It didn’t matter.
In the torrential downpour that made it hard to even open his eyes, a shattered bone was hardly a serious injury.
‘Again.’
He swung his fist.
‘Again.’
Without stopping.
‘Again.’
Over and over.
*Boom!! Boom!! Boooom!!!*
The storm of black feathers surrounding Ashad Khan began to waver.
“Ah, ahh.”
Ashad Khan trembled, his mouth hanging open.
“D-don’t, come.”
*Boom! Boom! Boom!!*
Like a battering ram striking a tightly shut castle gate.
Fists engulfed in blue flames hammered against the storm of Black Wings.
Every time the storm shook.
A creeping fear consumed Ashad Khan.
“D-don’t come, I said.”
Why.
How in the world.
By what means.
Could he swing his fists without stopping?
“You, you bastarrrrd!!”
He could understand the rapid regeneration of wounds.
But even so.
It wasn’t as if the ‘pain’ disappeared too, was it?
“A-are you incapable of feeling pain?!”
“No. It hurts like hell right now. What nonsense are you spouting?”
Oh-jin frowned and swung his fist.
Every time it touched the storm of Black Wings.
His nails broke, his fingers bent, and his wrist twisted.
Blood vessels, muscles, and bones tangled together and dripped down.
It hurt.
So much that it was hard to stay sane.
So much that he wondered if he would go mad.
It was painful.
But.
*Booooom!!*
He didn’t stop swinging his fist.
As soon as his broken arm regenerated, he poured mana into it and struck again.
“Th-then how.”
Ashad Khan stared at Oh-jin with a pale face.
If he wasn’t incapable of feeling pain.
Then how in the world could he keep swinging his fist?
—Imagine this.
Smashing your fist with all your might against a shield covered in sharp thorns.
Willingly thrusting your hand into a blender full of sharp blades.
No matter how well your wounds regenerated.
Who could repeat such a mad act?
“It’s not impossible.”
He said, a smirk curling his lips.
He swung his fist at the storm of black feathers.
*T-ring!*
[You have maintained your mana without losing consciousness in an extreme state!]
[The skill 《Lightning (雷電) Lv7》 has risen to 《Lightning (雷電) Lv8》.]
[The skill 《Lightning Flame (雷炎) Lv2》 has risen to 《Lightning Flame (雷炎) Lv3》.]
[Warning! Severe physical damage has accumulated!]
[If damage persists, the ‘Pain Amplification’ penalty will be applied!]
Following the blue message windows, a red one appeared.
Good.
It would have been troublesome if the penalty was immobilization.
He chuckled and clenched his newly regenerated fist.
*Booooom!!!*
Once more.
He swung his fist at the storm of black feathers.
He could see the storm waver violently.
“Krrghh!!”
So this was the Pain Amplification penalty the system warned about.
A wave of agony, even more intense than before, shot up his arm.
If before it felt like his arm was being struck by a hammer, now it felt like it was being crushed under its weight after the blow.
“Hah, hehe!! Fuck. This one hurts a lot more.”
It didn’t matter.
“Hup!!”
*Booooom!!*
He swung his fist.
He swung his fist.
He swung his fist.
[You have maintained your mana without losing consciousness in an extreme state!]
[The skill 《Lightning (雷電) Lv8》 has risen to 《Lightning (雷電) Lv9》.]
[The skill 《Lightning Flame (雷炎) Lv3》 has risen to 《Lightning Flame (雷炎) Lv4》.]
Ignore the pain.
Just ignoring it…
Wasn’t that difficult.
“Y-you, crazy, son of a, bitch.”
Ashad Khan said in a pale, terrified voice.
Those were words he couldn’t comprehend.
“What’s so crazy about it?”
*Booooom!*
The black feathers scattered and fell like rain.
The end was near.
“It’s not even that hard.”
Right.
Enduring pain wasn’t that big of a deal.
*Boom!! Boooom! Bang!!*
Most of the black feathers had fallen away.
He could see Ashad Khan, who had been hiding within the feathers.
“Wh-what!! What isn’t hard?!!!”
He screamed as if having a seizure.
“It’s not hard.”
*Boom!!*
One more time.
He swung his fist.
“You just have to endure it, right?”
Yes.
No matter how painful.
No matter how agonizing.
Enduring it solves the problem.
As long as you hold on, you can overcome it.
“You just have to bear it, right?”
He turned his head.
He saw Jang Seok-ho, collapsed on the ground.
Squirming like an insect.
Would there ever come a day when enduring would solve his problems?
Could holding on bring his dead son back to life?
*Boom! Boom!! Boooom!!!*
He swung his fist.
He didn’t stop.
There was no reason to stop.
Suddenly, a memory surfaced.
A memory from six years ago.
Ha-eun, lying in a hospital bed.
Having lost both her eyes, her body trembling in the unfamiliar darkness.
He remembered the profound helplessness he felt back then.
No matter how much he endured, no matter how much he held on, no matter how much he bore it…
What was lost did not magically return.
‘Compared to that, this is easy.’
The pain could be ignored.
The suffering could be endured.
“If a problem can be solved by enduring it—then it’s nothing at all.”
Because this world…
was full of things that couldn’t be solved no matter how much you endured.
*Boooooooooom!!!*
The storm of Black Wings exploded.
“…Ah.”
Ashad Khan, collapsed on the ground, looked up at Oh-jin with a face full of terror.
The black sky.
In the deep darkness where not even a star could be seen,
only a pair of blue eyes gleamed.
“A-a demon.”
Why was that?
His figure, silhouetted against the black sky,
felt like something other than human.
“Ah, ugh.”
He scrambled away on all fours.
“Ugh, ugh-aaaaaaaaah!!”
He screamed, pathetically.
The arrogant and haughty demeanor Ashad Khan had first shown was nowhere to be found.
*Thud, thud.*
The low sound of footsteps approached.
The footsteps of a monster.
“Why are you calling a perfectly normal person a demon, you bastard?”
Oh-jin stepped on the head of Ashad Khan, who was crawling away on the ground.
“If I were a demon, I would’ve died long ago from not being able to endure.”
If he were a demon.
An otherworldly being that felt no anguish, no sorrow.
Would he have had any reason to cling to life, even as his body was breaking apart?
“It’s because I’m human that I hold on, even when it’s so damn hard I feel like dying.”
*Cruuunch!*
He crushed the man’s head under his foot.
Considering what the bastard had done, he wanted to give him a more gruesome death, but…
“…Damn it.”
Honestly, his body was in no condition to continue.
He felt like he would collapse the moment he let his guard down.
Still.
‘There’s… still something left to do.’
*Shwaaaaaa!*
The pouring rain ran down his cheeks and pooled at the tip of his chin.
One drop, two drops.
The droplets fell, becoming muddy water that flowed away.
A man lay collapsed in a puddle of that muddy water.
“Ah, ugh.”
With his crushed legs.
With his mangled eyes.
Clinging to a thin thread of hope.
He was struggling.
“D-did you… d-defeat Ashad Khan?”
He asked in a trembling voice, as if he couldn’t believe it.
“Yeah. I won.”
“Ha, haha! To think… the Thunder Wolf… was this strong… I never… i-imagined.”
Jang Seok-ho’s lips curled into a grin.
“…And.”
Oh-jin lifted his head.
*Shwaaaaaa.*
He walked through the pouring rain and approached Jang Seok-ho.
“I have something to tell you.”
“Tell me…?”
Jang Seok-ho’s voice trembled with anxiety.
As if the sliver of hope he was barely holding onto, desperately grasping,
was about to snap.
“……”
He looked down at Jang Seok-ho, who was trembling uncontrollably.
As he always had.
He let a dry lie pass his lips.
“I found him.”
“…What?”
Jang Seok-ho’s voice shook.
“Your son. I found him. Those bastards had him.”
“I-is that! Is that true!”
He cried out in a voice full of elation.
“I-is Hyun-woo… there?”
Jang Seok-ho crawled across the ground toward him.
Even if his son were truly there, he wouldn't be able to see anything with eyes crushed by stone fragments.
And yet.
He crawled all the way to Oh-jin’s feet.
“Yeah. He’s unconscious right now… Ah, wait a second.”
Oh-jin brought a hand to his larynx.
The video Jang Seok-ho had shown him.
He recalled the bright voice that had echoed within it.
‘I barely heard his voice besides his laughter, but.’
It was fine.
With just the sound of his laughter, he could infer and imitate the voice well enough.
Imitating someone’s voice had been a specialty of his for a long time.
‘And I have this, too.’
*Gurgle.*
His larynx twitched minutely as his Adam’s apple receded.
Transformation.
Using the trait he had acquired from killing a magical beast, he could replicate the voice even more perfectly.
“D…addy?”
Amidst the pouring rain.
The voice of a young boy, as if just waking from sleep, echoed.
“H-Hyun-woo?”
Jang Seok-ho asked in a quavering voice.
“Daddy? Is-is it really you, Daddy?”
“H-Hyun-woo!! Hyun-woo!!”
“D-Daddy… m-my body!”
“…Ah.”
The bright smile on Jang Seok-ho’s lips fell drastically.
“…I’m sorry, Hyun-woo.”
“D-Daddy? What do you mean? Sorry for what?”
“……”
He bit down.
He bit his lip.
“Daddy… is in a lot of pain, so I have to go to sleep soon.”
“…Sleep?”
“Yeah. My Hyun-woo… you get better quickly when you sleep when you’re sick, right?”
“Th-then you’ll get better soon too, Daddy?”
A sorrowful smile graced his lips.
“No… Daddy is very… sick. So I have to sleep for a very long time.”
“…How long?”
“I wonder. When my Hyun-woo is all grown up… Then… then I can wake up.”
“Will you wake up when I graduate from elementary school?”
“Ha, haha! No… a little longer….”
“U-until middle school?”
“……”
As if suppressing something.
Jang Seok-ho’s face contorted.
“It will take… even longer… than that.”
He said, as if squeezing the words out.
“But… I’ll definitely… come back. To see my Hyun-woo… I prom, ise.”
“Okay!! I’ll wait until then! I’ll study hard, too!”
A clear cry seeped through the rain.
“Hyun-woo… the big brother… is next to you, right?”
“Y-yeah!”
“Follow him… and be… a good boy….”
His voice.
It was fading away.
“Stay… health, y… okay?”
Water streamed down Jang Seok-ho’s cheeks.
Was it blood, rain, or tears flowing down his cheeks?
Who knows.
He didn’t know.
And he never would.
“My Hyun-woo…”
*Tremble, tremble.*
He reached out his hand.
“Before Daddy goes to sleep… my, Hyun-woo… I want to hold… your hand, just once.”
It wasn’t a difficult request.
*Crack, crunch.*
He used Transformation to shrink the size of his hand.
He gently grasped the man’s trembling hand.
His palm was cold.
So cold it was chilling.
“Ha, haha.”
A dry laugh bloomed on Jang Seok-ho’s lips.
“I’m so glad….”
The falling rain soaked the dry laugh.
“That my Hyun-woo… is safe….”
The rainwater that soaked his laugh trickled down his chin and seeped into the earth.
Would flowers of laughter now bloom from that ground?
“So… gl… ad.”
*Thud.*
Jang Seok-ho’s hand fell.
His voice continued no more.
“……”
*Shwaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!*
From the black sky, still.
Heavy raindrops were pouring down.