Chapter 488. Toward the End
A few days later, Chi-Woo returned to Seven Stars. He came back quietly in broad daylight as if nothing had happened.
“Welcome back, boss.” As soon as Eval Sevaru heard about Chi-Woo’s return, he quickly ran outside and greeted him. “I heard that you defeated the Abyss King. Congratulations on your victory, boss.” Eval Sevaru bowed politely; nothing else was said. He also knew that Chi-Woo had run out crying a few days ago. It would be a lie if he said he wasn’t curious about what had happened. However, Eval Sevaru didn’t ask about it carelessly. There must be a reason Chi-Woo acted so unlike his usual self. Eval Sevaru knew that it was better not to mention it unless Chi-Woo brought the topic up himself.
“…Yeah. Thanks,” Chi-Woo replied with a slightly subdued voice and smiled faintly. “How are things going? It’s been a while since I’ve gotten updates. Let’s go to the office.” Then he promptly walked past Eval Sevaru.
It seemed as if Chi-Woo wanted to get to work as soon as he came back. Would he be mistaken to think that it seemed like a desperate struggle to concentrate on something else in order to forget what was really troubling him?
“Ah, yes! I’ve already organized them.” Eval Sevaru immediately raised his head. Before following Chi-Woo, he subtly glanced around, and he saw the Seven Stars members sticking out their heads like moles everywhere. They were all staring at Eval Sevaru. Although he knew what their gazes meant, Eval Sevaru shook his head. Then he quickly followed Chi-Woo up the stairs.
Ru Hiana watched Chi-Woo move further up the stairs from the back and sighed. “He looks alright, but..” Then she turned around and smacked her lips. “I wonder what happened to him? Anyone want to do the honors to ask him?”
Of course, no one was willing to raise their hands.
* * *
Chi-Woo didn’t do anything out of the ordinary after that day. He spent his days going through the same routine like always. He was calm like a serene piece of classical music, which was extremely strange to the Seven Stars members. Although Chi-Woo had returned to his original self, they had come back after winning a war against the Abyss. They didn’t see the fight in person, but Aida heard from Wallie that it had been a very fierce battle, and that the Abyss King had been unbelievably persistent.
Since he won such a difficult battle, he should enjoy the victory as the winner, but Chi-Woo didn’t seem happy in the least and showed no signs of enjoying the fruits of victory. It was obvious from a glance that he wasn’t happy. When Yunael asked Chi-Woo to hold a banquet to commemorate their victory, he had replied, “Yeah, you go ahead. Me? I don’t really feel like it. I’m fine, so don’t worry about me and enjoy it.” In the end, the banquet plan was scrapped.
The quiet atmosphere that made the Seven Stars members cautious to approach Chi-Woo continued. Of course, not everyone treated Chi-Woo the same way. There was still one brave soul who could approach Chi-Woo as he pleased. And he was someone who could and had every right to do so.
“What do you want?” Chi-Woo stared at Chi-Hyun with surprise as he came into his office.
“Food.” Chi-Hyun simply revealed the reason for his visit. “I came to eat. Give me food.”
“What the heck are you suddenly talking about?” Chi-Woo was dumbfounded, but he still served his brother a meal. Although his request was out of the blue, Chi-Woo wasn’t so stupid that he couldn’t guess why his brother, who was busy with the post-war process, had come to visit him. Chi-Hyun quietly ate, and Chi-Woo did the same. Neither of them bothered to bring up the subject heavy in their minds. Instead, they brought up something else.
“Come to think of it, what happened after? What about the Sernitas?”
“You sure took your sweet time to ask.” With his cheeks bulging, Chi-Hyun explained what had happened while Chi-Woo was unconscious. They had won in the end, but there were still unresolved concerns. In the war against the Abyss, the expeditionary force had achieved only half of its original purpose. They had won, but they hadn’t won by a landslide, and there were significant casualties. Chi-Woo had also fainted and collapsed. In that state, it was impossible for them to help the League wage a war against the Sernitas. They needed time to rest and reorganize. As such, their following plan was heavily dependent on the Sernitas’ next course of action.
Since the Abyss King had gone through the process of Sernitasization, there was no doubt that the Sernitas would have a rough understanding of the situation. It wouldn’t have been strange if they raised an army right away. In fact, they had almost been on the verge of doing that, but Chi-Hyun heard some unexpected news from the last dragon.
[The Sernitas is staying quiet?]
According to the Last Dragon, the Sernitas was still quiet as mice and showing no signs of movement. Chi-Hyun couldn’t help but tilt his head. The Demon Empire had fallen, and the Abyss had now fallen as well. At present, there was no chance that a joint coalition would form like before. Since the Sernitas were left alone, they needed to attack the main force of the Cassiubia League to increase their chances of victory. But instead, they were giving the Shalyh’s expeditionary force the time to recover? It was a decision that he couldn’t understand at all.
What were the Sernitas thinking? Although Chi-Hyun felt anxious, he was not the type of person to rely on uncertain intuition. Moreover, considering Chi-Woo’s condition, he chose to return to Shalyh for now.
“Then what is the League doing now?” After hearing Chi-Hyun’s explanation, Chi-Woo asked while eating soup.
“They’re monitoring the Sernitas.”
“Still?” Chi-Woo asked with a surprised expression. “The Sernitas is an enemy we have to defeat anyway, and it’s a lot of work to raise such a large army.” They had gone out of their way to sharpen their swords and bring out their full force; if they went back and forth, their powers might dull instead.
“Above all, it’s strange that the Sernitas are staying still.” As Chi-Hyun said, the recent war against the Abyss was a golden opportunity for the Sernitas to strike. There must be a crucial reason they willingly let this opportunity go. Therefore, the surveillance had to continue, and…
“If we have to fight anyway, there’s no reason for us to drag things on.”
Chi-Woo nodded at Chi-Hyun’s words.
“We have one step left.” Chi-Hyun put down his spoon after finishing his meal. “We just have to take one more step.” He got up from his seat.
Chi-Woo realized what Chi-Hyun wanted to say; he was telling him to stop with the pity party and get ready for another war. Although Chi-Woo felt pressured by the back-to-back war, he cheered himself up by thinking that this would be the last one. Chi-Woo saw Chi-Hyun off and stood still for a while because the implications of his brother’s words were significant. Why were the Sernitas staying still? Upon reflection, he did have some conjectures in mind.
At that moment, he felt a presence. When he turned around, he saw a woman wearing a robe walking slowly toward him; she was the perfect picture of what people thought a martial arts master would look like.
“Master.” Chi-Woo recognized Byeok and greeted her.
“Yeah.” Byeok slightly tilted her chin. “Are you feeling better now?”
“Yes, I apologize for showing such a sorry side.”
“It’s fine. Considering the time you two spent together, it’s understandable.” Byeok put the pipe in her mouth and smiled dryly. “But I was still a little surprised. I thought Chi-Hyun died or something.”
Chi-Woo smiled bitterly. He didn’t even want to imagine it, but if his brother had died…he wouldn’t have cried. Probably.
“Seeing you so absent-minded, it seems like you still need more time to organize your thoughts.”
“No, Master. Rather…I was thinking.”
“What is it?”
Chi-Woo paused. After debating whether to say it or not, he decided to tell Byeok since she was one of the very few people who knew what had happened.
“Actually…” Why were the Sernitas staying still? Although he wasn’t certain, there was a high possibility that it was related to the recent war against the Abyss. The Abyss King had become a Sernitas, or in other words, while the Abyss King gained the power of the Sernitas, the Sernitas also received all of the Abyss King’s information in exchange. And the Abyss King had absorbed Flora during the war, which meant that the Sernitas had also obtained information on the Heaven’s Vessel. It was the driving force that allowed the Abyss King’s energy to use countless consciousnesses as his hands and feet, and it was impossible to even estimate how much the Sernitas’ power, which far surpassed the Abyss King’s, would rise if they utilized the Heaven’s Vessel.
Perhaps the road for them to become a perfect ‘one’ instead of an unstable ‘one’ might open up. In the first place, the amount of information they held was far greater than the Abyss King, so it was basically a forgone conclusion that they would be able to utilize Heaven’s Vessel better. That in itself wouldn’t be that great a problem. The Heaven’s Vessel was definitely an amazing power, but it was a ‘vessel’ in the end. The biggest problem lay in something else entirely.
“The backlash of causality.”
Byeok blinked.
“Thanks to Mr. Philip’s sacrifice, we earned a reprieve, and with the disappearance of the Abyss King, we were able to save my teammates, but…the backlash for breaking the law of causality hasn’t disappeared.” A reprieve was merely a postponement. Strictly speaking, Philip’s sacrifice only led to the disappearance of the Abyss King, which prevented the will of the universe from further exercising the backlash of causality through him as a medium. Of course, that alone was a huge achievement, but as stated before, the backlash of breaking the law of causality was still a concern.
After the war against the Abyss ended, Chi-Woo had been knocked out for quite a while; he had slept for a long time as if someone had forced him to. Of course, it was the side effect of using a power that he wasn’t allowed to use yet, but he thought it was also because of the backlash of causality. Could he say that he had paid the full price after losing consciousness for a few weeks?
Chi-Woo was too skeptical to say ‘yes’ to that. There was no way this would be the end of his punishment when the will of the universe didn’t look favorably upon him. Yes, Chi-Woo thought the backlash of causality hadn’t even started properly yet. Just as it had punished Chi-Woo through the Abyss King, there was a high chance that the will of the universe would choose the Sernitas as the next enforcer to make Chi-Woo pay up. In that case, the Sernitas would appear in front of him with a power that they should’ve never been able to exercise normally. Thinking about it in this way, his brother’s concerns also fit. What if the Sernitas, with the backlash of causality on their back, needed a preparation period? And what if they had forced Chi-Woo to sleep through the backlash of causality to prevent humanity from targeting them before they were ready?
“That’s an interesting idea,” Byeok said after listening quietly. “The scale is extremely large, but…I also find the Sernitas’ actions strange.” Chi-Woo’s talks about causality or whatnot would be beyond ordinary people and even heroes. However, it was revealed in the war against the Abyss that this affected them both directly and indirectly and would continue to do so.
“But it’s not like there’s no way to solve it,” Byeok said with her pipe in her mouth. “You can still reach out a hand of reconciliation.”
Chi-Woo frowned.
“Then at least you won’t have to worry about the backlash of causality.” In other words, Byeok was telling him to get rid of Heaven’s Vessel now, or in other words, kill Flora. She really meant it. Byeok normally cherished Flora deeply and took great care of her, but this was a completely different matter. She was also a hero of the Celestial Realm. Heroes became frighteningly cruel when it was necessary to draw a line between the greater good and personal matters. And if she needed to choose between Chi-Woo and Flora, Byeok would choose Chi-Woo unconditionally.
“No.” However, Chi-Woo answered as if this suggestion was not even worth thinking about. “I have no intention in the least to do so.” He spoke plainly.
A glint flashed across Byeok’s eyes. “Why is that?”
“There’s no point doing that now.” Technically, the will of the universe had given him a chance and shown a willingness to negotiate just before it exerted its influence through the Abyss King—to kill Flora and get rid of Heaven’s Vessel. Then it’d step back from Liber unless he crossed the line again. It was Chi-Woo who had decided to kick their proposal, and from that point on, the will of the universe completely turned against him. It marked Chi-Woo as an enemy that would destroy the order of the universe. As such, even if he reached out for reconciliation now, there was no guarantee that it’d accept it.
Furthermore, even if the will of the universe accepted Chi-Woo’s offer, the problem remained. With Flora killed, Chi-Woo would lose Heaven’s Vessel, but that was not the case for the Sernitas. Since they were not affected by the Sharing ability, they could fight him with the relevant information. Thus, it was much better for Chi-Woo to hold Heaven’s Vessel in his grasp if he would be at a disadvantage either way.
“Hmm…” Byeok puffed out smoke and lowered her pipe. She carefully observed Chi-Woo as if judging him and asked, “Is that the only reason?”
“No.” There was one more reason; the most important one.
“Is it revenge for that hero—Philip?”
“I won’t completely deny it, but that’s not the main reason.”
“Then?”
Chi-Woo tightly clenched his fist. Then he growled in a low voice with his teeth revealed like a beast, “…It’s frustrating.”
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