Chapter 431: Lies (4)
The Heavenly Demon dryly chuckled. “Ha.” He glared at Kwon Oh-Jin with contempt. “What on earth did you do to make Ha-Eun say something like this?”
Kwon Oh-Jin couldn’t answer. He kept his mouth tightly shut and tried to dodge the piercing gaze.
Song Ha-Eun asked, “Why? Do you think Oh-Jin hypnotized me or something?”
She smirked and walked over to Kwon Oh-Jin, playfully patting his butt.
“There’s only one thing Oh-Jin did.” Her eyes turned to the Heavenly Demon. “He tried not to live like you.”
The Heavenly Demon’s eyes instantly went dark. “I—”
“Are you trying to say you did it to protect me?” Song Ha-Eun’s gaze sank deep into him. “I don’t know what I was like in my past life, but... do you really think everything you did is what I wanted?”
To destroy the world, to cause countless deaths, and then turn back time—
“Do you really think I wanted that?”
“That’s...”
“That wasn’t what I wanted.”
To turn back time and overturn fate.
“That’s what you wanted.”
The Heavenly Demon claimed that he went back in time to change fate for Song Ha-Eun.
“In truth, it was because you couldn’t accept reality.”
The Heavenly Demon couldn’t accept the loneliness and despair he would have to endure because of her death.
“So... what is it that you want to say?” the Heavenly Demon asked.
She looked at him with bitter eyes. “Let’s stop here. You’ve suffered and endured enough. You don’t have to go through this pain anymore.”
Even if the Heavenly Demon killed the people precious to Kwon Oh-Jin and made him into someone similar, that still wouldn’t make them the same.
Having been consumed by the Black Heaven with more than half his memories gone, the Heavenly Demon could never return to his old life again. He would merely be devoured by the Black Heaven, writhing in pain and despair without anything left by his side.
“If Oh-Jin helps, you might be able to control your Black Heaven.”
If the instrument to control the Black Heaven was the Stigma of Lyra, then there could be a way to save him with Kwon Oh-Jin’s help. Maybe they could turn the Heavenly Demon back into Kwon Oh-Jin.
The Heavenly Demon stared at Song Ha-Eun and blinked in disbelief at the unexpected offer. “Him... Save me?”
“Yeah. I don’t know exactly what the chances are, but... if you don’t do anything, your fate won’t change.”
To have all his consciousness devoured by the Black Heaven and die a lonely death without even knowing himself anymore was too sad an ending.
“Are you content with that kind of ending?” she asked.
“Content, huh?” the Heavenly Demon murmured and bitterly laughed. “Then, what kind of ending would suit me?”
“Uh...”
“A happy ending where everyone is content? Or an open ending that hints at a hopeful future?”
Maybe, with Kwon Oh-Jin’s help, a way to control the incomplete Black Heaven really did exist. Perhaps he could even recover his lost memories. Just maybe, he would feel happiness again, an emotion he could no longer even recall.
“That kind of thing doesn’t suit me.”
He had already destroyed the world, swallowed Celestials, and consumed Awakeners. His hands had been stained with uncountable deaths and blood. For the sake of changing one person’s fate, he had trampled on countless other destinies and crushed them to pieces.
What kind of ending would suit someone like him the most?
“The ending that best suits this damned play...”
Black flames erupted.
Fwoosh!
“... is a tragic ending without even a handful of hope.”
The ground around them trembled violently with a roar.
Boom!
“Ha-Eun!”
Kwon Oh-Jin shot forward like lightning and stood in front of Song Ha-Eun.
The raging black flames twisted into a dragon and lunged toward them. A wave of blue lightning gathered at the tip of Kwon Oh-Jin’s spear and split the black fire dragon cleanly in half.
Crackle!
“Stay back,” Kwon Oh-Jin said.
“B-But—”
“You promised me before we came, remember?”
Biting her lip hard, Song Ha-Eun nodded and stepped back with a worried look.
Kwon Oh-Jin spun his spear once, narrowing his eyes slightly as he recalled the shape of that dragon.
That technique just now...
It felt oddly familiar.
“I see... Your main Stigma is the Stigma of Draco.”
When the Black Heaven underwent its first enlightenment, the very first Stigma it absorbed became its main Stigma, influencing the powers that manifested thereafter.
Like how Kwon Oh-Jin could generate Black Lightning, influenced by the Stigma of Lyra, the Heavenly Demon could create black flames influenced by his main Stigma.
If that was the case, then the owner of the first Stigma he ever absorbed was—
“Wait, isn’t that Ha-Eun’s Stigma?”
There weren’t many Awakeners with the Stigma of Draco. Fewer than ten existed in the world, and most of them weren’t active like most Awakeners. If the Heavenly Demon’s main Stigma was that of Draco, then it most likely once belonged to Song Ha-Eun.
The Heavenly Demon faintly smiled and nodded calmly. “Yeah. The first time the Black Heaven underwent its enlightenment was when Ha-Eun died.”
Kwon Oh-Jin could only remain silent.
That calm smile carried a bottomless despair that made his chest ache. Before fate was changed, just what kind of life had he endured?
“You...”
The Heavenly Demon cut him off and took a step forward. “Don’t pity me.”
A curtain of black flame spread wide behind the Heavenly Demon.
Fwoosh.
“Because you’ll find out for yourself soon enough.”
A wave of black fire headed toward Kwon Oh-Jin. The flames made of the Black Heaven’s clouds looked like a ravenous inferno hungering for starlight. It opened its jaws to swallow him whole.
Kwon Oh-jin exhaled softly as the fire approached. “Haaa.”
The vivid blue lightning crackling around him slowly began to darken into black.
Lightning and flame collided.
Krrrrr!
The two Black Heavens clashed, and the shockwaves tore rifts through space itself.
“Hmm. You’ve definitely gotten stronger since the last time I saw you in the Demonic District.” The Heavenly Demon’s eyes gleamed with amusement as he looked Kwon Oh-Jin up and down. Then, he smirked. “You devoured Polaris, didn’t you?”
Of course, he couldn’t fool the Heavenly Demon’s eyes.
Kwon Oh-Jin clicked his tongue and twirled his spear.
“Still, the result will be the same even if you’ve absorbed the Polaris’s Stigma.” The Heavenly Demon grinned savagely as the flames around him surged higher. “Because Polaris’s Stigma lets you see the future, not change it.”
Fwoosh.
The Heavenly Demon’s figure distorted in the shimmer of a heat haze. In an instant, he appeared right in front of Kwon Oh-Jin.
Kwon Oh-Jin hastily unleashed Black Lightning to block him. “Agh!”
“You call that handling the Black Heaven?”
As soon as the black flames touched the lightning, the bolts flickered back to blue as the Black Heaven’s power was forcibly scattered. The black flames tore through Kwon Oh-Jin’s blue lightning barrier like paper and slammed into his chest.
“Kugh!”
A searing heat burst through his core. It didn’t feel like just his flesh burning, but his very soul.
“Don’t whine.” The Heavenly Demon kicked Kwon Oh-Jin and sent him flying.
The impact rattled Kwon Oh-Jin’s entire body as he flew helplessly through the air.
The Heavenly Demon stomped lightly. His figure blurred like a mirage, reappearing in midair before Kwon Oh-Jin once again. There, struck down by the Heavenly Demon’s hammer-like punch, Kwon Oh-Jin plummeted down dozens of meters like a falling star.
Thwack!
He crashed deep into the ground, blood spraying from his mouth.
Thud!
“Guuuhh...!”
No word could describe the vast strength gap between them.
Though Kwon Oh-Jin’s Black Heaven had technically reached a higher rank, he couldn’t dare compare his level of control to the Heavenly Demon.
But...
He had something that the Heavenly Demon didn’t.
Woong!
A radiant silver pillar burst up from the ground where Kwon Oh-Jin had fallen. Only a Celestial could wield this power. His Sacred Ground spread out and trapped the Heavenly Demon inside the silver light.
“Strike!”
Blue lightning flared between the silver light, and his spear of judgment pierced through the Heavenly Demon.
“Guuuhhk!”
This lightning had even annihilated Mobius, who could use Open Heaven. It burned the Heavenly Demon.
“This... stings a little!” The Heavenly Demon winced slightly and couldn’t simply shrug it off. “That’s called the Milky Way, right?”
He had experienced it in the past before he regressed. Indeed, a Celestial’s Sacred Ground was a terrifying weapon, especially when it belonged to the Stigma of Lyra.
“You know it too, don’t you? Something like this means nothing between us.”
Rumble!
Black clouds gushed out from the Heavenly Demon, devouring the radiant silver light that surrounded him. Like a swarm of ants in honey, the black clouds clung to the Sacred Ground and instantly consumed it.
Watching the Sacred Ground vanish so quickly, Kwon Oh-Jin clicked his tongue.
“Tsk...”
The Heavenly Demon was right. Between those who possessed the Black Heaven, Sacred Grounds held little power.
The Heavenly Demon grinned and placed a hand over his chest. “Well then... I guess we’re done warming up. How about we really begin?”
Kwon Oh-Jin knew exactly what that meant. Slowly, he pushed himself up and mirrored the Heavenly Demon’s motion, placing his hand over his own heart.
“Yeah. This kind of fight has no meaning anyway.”
If two wielders of the Black Heaven faced each other and only one of them could survive, then the victor could only be decided in one way.
They glared at each other and their lips twisted into savage grins.
“Those who pass by me...”
Two heavens opened.
