Chapter 97
Chapter 97
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 97
Chapter Title: Ancient Constellations (8)
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“You… you son of a…”
Park Geon-woo stumbled back, his face pale.
*Kwang!*
Before he could summon his mana.
Oh-jin, who had shot forward like a bolt of lightning, thrust his spear.
“Keuk!”
Park Geon-woo desperately tried to block the attack with his own spear.
*As if you could block it.*
Even with a three-star difference, there was no way an Awakened who hadn't even used his Stigma could block an attack enhanced with Exceed.
*Schwaack!!*
“Kugh! Gack!”
The spearhead, wreathed in lightning flames, easily deflected Park Geon-woo’s spear and sliced a long gash across his chest.
The plan had been to pierce his heart directly.
But at the last second, Park Geon-woo had managed to twist his body, causing the attack to fail.
“Tsk.”
Oh-jin clicked his tongue in disappointment.
*So he has the skills to back up his blustering, I guess.*
The fact that Park Geon-woo could react so nimbly without even using his mana proved his skills were genuine.
*Not that it matters.*
A smirk.
He smiled wryly as he looked at Park Geon-woo, who was bleeding profusely from his chest.
He’d failed to pierce the heart in one go, but he had succeeded in inflicting a severe, near-fatal wound.
“Hah, hah!”
Park Geon-woo clutched the wound on his chest, panting heavily.
“You damn fraud!!”
He continued, his voice burning with hatred.
“The King’s Proxy ordered us not to touch the Apostle of Vega, but…”
*Wooooong!!!*
Park Geon-woo’s Stigma flared violently.
“You alone, I cannot forgive!”
“Yeah, yeah. Do whatever you want.”
“Grr!!”
As Park Geon-woo’s expression twisted into a demonic mask and he kicked off the ground.
“Ugh!”
The wound on his chest tore open, and blood gushed out even more fiercely.
“What are you doing? Weren’t you the one who couldn’t forgive me?”
“Kughhh.”
Park Geon-woo clutched the gaping wound and bit his lip.
At this rate, even if they exchanged a few more blows, the blood loss was so severe that he would collapse before long.
He had two options left.
Run, or—
“…Don’t think it’s over yet.”
*Kooong!!*
He slammed the tip of his spear violently onto the floor.
“O Star of the Owl, Noctua!!! Grant this humble apostle the grace of the Black Star!!”
He spread his arms wide and cried out as if in anguish.
*Crack! Crackle!*
With the sickening sound of crunching bones, the skin all over his body began to shrivel rapidly.
“Kahk! Kahaak!! Gack!!”
His teeth yellowed, his skin wrinkled like tree bark.
In the blink of an eye, Park Geon-woo, who looked as if he had aged decades, erupted with an explosion of black mana.
*The Constellation of Noctua, the Owl.*
The transcendent being known as a Black Star.
It had raised the dying Park Geon-woo to his feet.
“Ah, thank you. Thank you, Noctua.”
Park Geon-woo lifted his head high, staring at the building's ceiling as he muttered softly.
“Following the will of the Black Star.”
*K-k-k-k-k-k!!*
Black feathers burst through his skin, covering his entire body.
He looked as if he were wearing armor made of black feathers.
Amidst the dense plumage covering his body, only his black eyes were visible, and they were fixed on Oh-jin.
“The Star of Vega—I shall cause it to fall this day.”
*Kwaaaaaang!!!!*
Park Geon-woo charged forward, kicking off the ground violently.
“Keut!”
His speed was incomparable to before.
Oh-jin barely managed to parry the spear tip aimed at his throat.
He hastily retreated to create distance, glaring at the black-feathered Park Geon-woo.
*Did he receive a blessing in exchange for his lifespan?*
No.
Could that even be called a blessing?
*‘Curse’ seems more fitting.*
In any case.
The fight with Park Geon-woo, which he thought was over, was set to continue a little longer.
“Right. It would’ve been too boring if it ended just like that, wouldn’t it?”
Oh-jin grinned and twirled the spear in his grasp.
The situation had worsened, but…
He felt a sense of relief.
*It’s been a while since I met someone worth fighting. I can’t let this great opportunity slip away.*
Looking back at his own growth until now.
He had experienced explosive growth in moments of crisis far more often than he had through steady training.
“…You seem to be enjoying this.”
“Phuhu! Do I?”
He burst out laughing.
“What is so amusing?”
“You can never feel like this during training, no matter how hard you try.”
The feeling of dancing on a razor's edge.
*Thump-thump.*
The electrifying sensation of his heart pounding like thunder in his ears, every cell in his body feeling alive.
Yes.
Training could never replicate this feeling.
Only in a real battle, with his life on the line.
Could he savor such breathtaking euphoria and pleasure.
“You’re insane.”
“Look who’s talking.”
As if the guy who was spouting bullshit about the laws of the universe and the principles of yin and yang had any room to talk.
“But this is as far as you go.”
*Chk.*
Park Geon-woo aimed his spear.
Though he had become a shriveled old man after receiving the constellation’s blessing.
His posture, as he gripped the spear, was flawless.
“Die.”
“Don’t want to.”
*Kwaaaaaang!!!*
With a deafening roar, their spears clashed.
Using Exceed, Oh-jin’s power and speed were on par with Park Geon-woo’s, who had received the constellation’s blessing, and they exchanged blows in a fierce stalemate.
*Kakang! Kang! Kakagagang!*
The clang of metal rang out loudly.
With each collision of their spearheads, shockwaves spread, shaking the entire skyscraper.
“Hah, hah!”
As the battle dragged on, Oh-jin’s breathing grew increasingly ragged.
He frowned and created some distance.
*I’m running out of mana.*
He had been confident that his total mana pool was comparable to that of a high-level Awakened.
But Exceed and Lightning Flame were such mana drains that the seemingly endless mana of his Stigma was beginning to run dry.
*This is worse than trying to fill a bottomless jar.*
Both Exceed and Lightning Flame.
At his current 5-Star level, they were techniques he shouldn’t have been able to handle.
Since he was using skills beyond his level.
The side effect was an immense amount of mana being drained in real-time.
“Hoo.”
“Are you tired already?”
In contrast to Oh-jin, whose breathing was becoming labored, Park Geon-woo was still perfectly fine.
“You little shit, you’re only holding on because of that blessing. What’s with the high-and-mighty act?”
*Ptui.*
Oh-jin spat out the saliva that had collected in his mouth.
Even if Park Geon-woo was an 8-Star Awakened, there was no way he could fight this intensely without even his breathing becoming disturbed.
The only reason he wasn’t tired was because he had received Noctua’s blessing.
It wasn't his own power.
“Khahaha! Then you should simply receive Vega’s blessing, shouldn’t you?”
“I still have some breathing room before I need to ask my goddess for help.”
“…Breathing room?”
Park Geon-woo looked at Oh-jin as if he couldn’t understand what he was saying.
Oh-jin’s panting, his breath catching in his throat, seemed far from someone who had ‘breathing room.’
“You’re bluffing.”
“We’ll see. Whether it’s a bluff or not.”
*Spin.* Oh-jin turned his body.
“—See for yourself.”
He ran at full speed toward the shattered window.
“Wh-What!”
“Follow me if you can.”
He flipped off Park Geon-woo, who was reaching out desperately, and leaped from the 50th floor of the building without hesitation.
*Whoooosh!!*
A fierce wind brushed against his cheeks.
A dizzying sensation spread down his spine, and the sight of Guro-dong, where a battle with thousands of fiends was unfolding, came into full view.
“Heup!”
*Thwang! Thwang!!*
He fired his wire shooters at the building wall.
Like Tarzan swinging through the jungle on vines.
He flew between buildings using the wires, slowing his descent.
*Climbing up is impossible without Riak’s help.*
But going down was easy with the wire shooters.
*Shwoong! Shwoong!!*
He zipped between the buildings at high speed, searching for his target.
*There.*
Finding a spot where the corpses of fiends were piled up like a hill, Oh-jin detached the wire shooters and landed with an acrobatic spin.
“Alright, then.”
He looked up at the skyscraper, now dizzyingly far away.
He didn't expect Park Geon-woo not to follow him.
*Since he’s gone as far as to use a blessing, he’ll follow me no matter what.*
He wouldn't just give up after sacrificing decades of his life.
*Guess I’ll get things ready.*
Oh-jin looked around, confirmed no one was there, and…
Climbed onto the hill of piled-up fiend corpses.
It was time to use the ‘trump card’ he had only considered in his mind.
*Is this really possible?*
Theoretically, it was.
The logic and reasoning held up.
But.
*Can I… do it?*
Was it right to carelessly tap into that unfathomable power?
A power that had already destroyed the world once.
“Ha.”
He let out a short laugh.
“Since when did I care about things like that?”
He raised the corners of his mouth into a grin and held out his palm.
*Flutter!*
Just then, black feathers scattered as Park Geon-woo appeared before him.
“You bluffed about having breathing room, but in the end, all you could do was run?”
His low voice was tinged with disappointment.
“If I was going to run, I would’ve gone to where Lee Woo-hyeok is, you dumbass.”
Oh-jin chuckled and rubbed his open palm against the sharp edge of his spear.
The flesh tore, and blood dripped down.
The blood of an Awakened was imbued with the mana of their Stigma.
In his case,
*Black Heaven.*
There was another power besides the Stigma imbued within it.
*Gurgle, gurgle.*
A black cloud spread out from where his blood had fallen.
It spread wide enough to cover the hundreds, thousands of fiend corpses scattered around.
Widely.
“By the way, I forgot to say this.”
“What…?”
“Thanks. For setting up an all-you-can-eat buffet for me.”
*Heh heh.*
Oh-jin’s shoulders shook with laughter.
He had never used Black Heaven over such a wide area before, but…
*I knew it would work.*
It was never a requirement to have direct skin-to-skin contact to absorb things.
As long as he could spread the cloud of Black Heaven wide enough.
He believed he could absorb all the Stigmata Stones hidden within the fiend corpses scattered around him at once.
—This was his trump card.
“Do you know how to fill a bottomless jar with water?”
“…What are you trying to do?”
*Grrrrrrr!!*
The widespread black cloud seeped into the fiend corpses.
Like a dense fog obscuring the starlight.
Greedily, gluttonously.
Hundreds, thousands of Stigmata Stones were swallowed by the darkness of Black Heaven.
“You just shove the whole damn thing into a pond.”
His mana, which had hit rock bottom.
Began to surge with explosive force.
*T-ring!*
[You have absorbed a Stigmata Stone imbued with the power of the ‘Black Star’.]
[A correction is applied to the quality of the Stigmata Stone.]
[Quest ‘The Sky Fiend Who Swallows Stars ①’ is in progress.]
[Progress: 76.7%]
[Progress: 87.2%]
[Progress: 94.8%]
[Progress: 100%]
*Ruuuumble!!!!*
From the gash on his palm, the black cloud erupted and spread out like a fog.
[You have completed the quest ‘The Sky Fiend Who Swallows Stars ①’.]
[You will randomly acquire one of the ‘Ancient Constellations’ stored within Black Heaven.]
[The acquired constellation is—]
A blue spear, floating in the darkness, twinkled like a star.