Chapter 133: Endless Night (9)
He felt woozy.
His vision darkened and the senses around his body felt cloudy.
But despite that, the black clouds that covered the sky couldn’t look any clearer to his eyes.
‘Is this… Heaven Unfolding?’
Ohjin grasped his hazy consciousness and slowly raised his head.
The sky was shining with blue light without a single cloud as far as the eye could see, but for some reason, it felt dark, as if thick black clouds were covering it.
‘Haa.’
He exhaled an exhilarating breath.
Ohjin could feel his mana that ran dry from fighting with Cheon Doyoon slowly filling up on its own as if it were heavy rain falling from the cloudy sky.
‘This happened several times before.’
—Boundless mana that knew no end.
However, it wasn’t like the familiar stigma’s mana he used so far. Ominous mana that felt sticky and slightly different from his stigma’s mana rained endlessly from the black clouds.
Crack, crackle!—
Ohjin raised his hand and created lightning.
The lightning blazed up gently and didn’t shine in blue, instead giving off a deep black color.
Despite having used Heaven Unfolding for the first time, he felt a strange feeling… like he had returned to his hometown.
“Wh-What have you done, you bastard!!’
He could see Cheon Doyoon clutching his eyes and falling into a panic in the distance. Terrified, he was shaking because of the unfamiliar darkness.
The way Ha-eun shook while crying on top of the hospital bed suddenly crossed his mind.
‘How is it to be on the receiving end?’
Ohjin tried to speak to Cheon Doyoon, but his voice wouldn’t emerge from his throat for an unknown reason.
‘…Huh?’
Ohjin furrowed his brow and looked down at his body.
Parts of his body had seemingly melted into darkness and turned into black clouds.
‘Is this… also the influence of Heaven Unfolding?’
A part of his consciousness felt cloudy.
Ohjin slowly turned his body around to Cheon Doyoon, who was struggling like he was in the middle of a seizure. There was something he had to do before his consciousness faded even more than it already had.
“It… It’s my loss!! I’ll give up on the Dragon Eye and even the Dragon’s Heart!!”
The fight with Cheon Doyoon ended easily and felt shallow.
Ohjin wondered if that would be what it felt like to fight a three-year-old child with his eyes blindfolded.
He cackled out as he looked at how Cheon Doyoon was flailing around while engulfed by the thick, black clouds.
—The ecstatic feeling of omnipotence.
The sensation of crushing a high-rank Awakener known to exceed the human boundaries without even moving a finger made him feel like he was high on drugs.
‘In my current state…’
He believed that he would even be able to devour all the celestials that shone in the night sky.
‘Ah.’
Ohjin’s consciousness faded the drunker he got on the Black Heaven’s power.
If it wasn’t parts of his body that turned into black clouds, but his entire body…
If his entire soul was melted into the Black Heaven…
—How much more of that ecstatic feeling of omnipotence would he be able to feel?
‘Ah, ugh.’
The temptation was overwhelmingly enticing.
The black clouds covering the sky felt cozy, just like the feeling of going into blankets after finishing a shower.
Like blotting ink, he could see parts of his body turning into clouds.
‘This… is dangerous.’
Ohjin zealously held on to his consciousness that grew further away and bit his lips. A sense of crisis warned him that, if this continued, he wouldn’t be able to return to how he normally was.
‘Snap out of it.’
—Deeply settled darkness.
He wandered around inside of the pitch black darkness in search of light. In his fading consciousness, one strand of blue light stood out in his eyes.
‘The stigma of Lyra.’
The North Star was emitting radiant starlight, even within a night sky covered by thick black clouds.
“Fuu, ha!”
Ohjin’s fading consciousness became clear as if he had resurfaced from deep waters, and he fumbled around his neck once he heard the sound of breath leaving his mouth.
‘It’s there.’
Unlike from when it had transformed into clouds, his real neck was there.
‘That was dangerous.’
An ominous feeling ran down his spine.
If he hadn’t found the stigma of Lyra in that eternal darkness, he might’ve melted into the Black Heaven forever.
* * *
* * *
‘Anyways…’
He had no time to reflect.
Ohjin turned his head around and looked down at Cheon Doyoon, who was shivering pathetically on the ground.
‘Is it about time I end this?’
Before then, he was planning to extract everything he could.
“If you listen to my one request, I’ll let you out of this place.”
“A-Are you being serious? Will you really let me out of this place?”
Ohjin smiled while looking at the hope in Cheon Doyoon’s eyes. He approached Cheon Doyoon, who was on the ground without arms and legs like a fallen roly-poly toy.
“Tell me the things you know in as much detail as possible.”
“Th-The things I know…? Wh-What are you referring to?”
“Anything is fine. About the Dragon’s Heart or the Dragon Eye… About the Black Star Organization… About the celestials of the Black Stars… If you tell me everything you know—”
The blue fen fires in his eyes wavered ominously.
“—I’ll spare you.”
“…”
Cheon Doyoon gulped out of nervousness and opened his mouth.
“Th-The Dragon’s Heart exerts its maximum potential when an Awakener of Draco uses it!”
“Next.”
“The celestials of the Black Stars are the ones who were scorned and named ‘Pseudo Stars’ by celestials in the past.”
“Next.”
Next. Next. Next.
His low voice rang out fearsomely.
“Th-The one who ordered me to obtain the Dragon’s Heart is…”
“Is…?”
Tak—
Cheon Doyoon’s words suddenly cut off.
He sweated buckets and avoided his gaze. He wanted to talk about the ‘Snakes’, but his mouth wouldn’t open, no matter how hard he tried, because of the taboo she’d put on him.
“Why? You can’t say it?”
“W-Wait! Please wait a minute!!”
“It’s fine. I get it.”
Cackle—
The sound of his disturbing laughter rang out in his ears.
“I-I’ve told you everything I could! N-Now get me out of this place!”
“Alright.”
Ohjin hummed a melody and encompassed Doyoon’s wrinkly cheek with his hand.
“Close your eyes slowly and count to a thousand,” Ohjin whispered like he was singing.
“You must count slowly… very slowly. Okay? I’ll make you start over if you increase the pace.”
“I… I understand.”
Cheon Doyoon shook his head like crazy.
“One, two, three…”
Following Ohjin’s orders, he started to count numbers.
Slowly, very slowly…
“One hundred and fifty, one hundred and fifty one, one hundred and fifty two…”
It had been only 15 minutes, but that time couldn’t have felt any longer to Cheon Doyoon.
Nausea soared up from the impatience and anxiety that drove him insane. But ironically, hope started to grow along with it.
“Five hundred and forty two, five hundred and forty three, five hundred and forty four…”
As the numbers increased…
The more he started to hope…
The more he started to crave…
Desperately, only for that darkness to come to an end.
“Nine hundred and ninety eight, nine hundred and ninety nine… one thousand.”
The end of the tunnel that seemed to last an eternity could finally be seen, and the scenery beyond the tunnel…
Was the pitch-black sky that took away his sight.
“A-Ahh.”
Cheon Doyoon twisted his body like a maniac.
“AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”
Tears flowed down his wrinkly face.
“Why, why, just why…! Y-You said you’d let me out if I counted to a thousand…!”
“Ah, that?”
Cackle—
Ohjin’s laughter rang in his ears.
And then—
“I lied.”
Bzzt!—
—black lightning penetrated Cheon Doyoon’s head.
“…”
Ohjin slowly stretched his hand out to Cheon Doyoon’s body that’d lost all its strength.
Rumble—
Black clouds covered the corpse.
“Haa.”
The mana of Noctua that was on a completely different realm compared to the Owls he absorbed until then rode through the clouds and entered his body.
-Ring!
[You have successfully absorbed the stigma of Awakener ‘Cheon Doyoon’.]
[The Noctua constellation has been completed.]
[You are now able to receive the blessing of celestial ‘Noctua’.]
[You are now able to set the stigma of Noctua as your main stigma. Will you swap it with your designated stigma?]
“Are you crazy?”
The offer wasn’t even worth considering. He got rid of the blue message that popped up in front of his eyes like it was an annoying fly.
“Argh!”
Sizzle!—
Simultaneously, as Ohjin got rid of the message, a burning pain started to radiate from his left chest. He could see that the number of flicks next to the stigma of Lyra had increased to seven once he lifted up his blood-soaked clothes.
‘Have I become a 7-Star Awakener?’
Well, he had devoured a 9-Star Awakener whole. It would be disappointing if there was no change.
‘What about Transmission…’
Nothing happened, even when he waited for it to happen.
‘Is it because I used Heaven Unfolding?’
There was no way to find out for certain, but he had already extracted the needed information from Cheon Doyoon. There was no need to read through his records using Transmission.
‘Then…’
Ohjin looked around at the black clouds that were spread out wide and took in a deep breath.
Putting his hand on top of his left chest, he closed the open sky.
Rumbleeeeee!!—
The black clouds were quickly sucked into Ohjin’s body.
“Oh-Ohjin!!!”
Ha-eun quickly ran to him once all of the clouds had disappeared.
“Wh-What was that just now? B-Black clouds were coming out of your body, and—!”
“Ha-eun.”
“You were puffing like a goddamn Weezing—!!”
“Be quiet for a second.”
“Wh-Where did Cheon Doyoon go? And how did you recover from all your injuries?”
“I’ll explain when we get home.”
Not only had he been seen using the Black Heaven, but he’d also been exposed using Heaven Unfolding. Even if he was a scammer, he couldn’t fool her with lies in that position.
“Moreover…”
He took one step in her direction.
“Ohjin…?”
Ha-eun flinched and looked up at him.
Her appearance was cute, like a scared puppy.
Ohjin gently reached his hand out and placed it over reddened cheeks.
Warmth ran through the tip of his fingers.
Like stroking a precious treasure, he caressed her cheek.
“There’s no need for me to take responsibility since you didn’t go blind, right?”
“Huh?”
Ha-eun’s eyes opened wide into circles.
“W-Well, a-about that! Wh-What I said before was… um…”
It appeared that she’d recalled her proposal to Ohjin, as she started to stutter and got flustered.
“Khm! I-I guess since my eyes are fine, there’s no need for you t-to take… responsibility.”
She avoided his gaze with a sullen expression.
Ohjin looked at Ha-eun facing away and smiled.
“I lied.”
“H-Hm? A-About what…?”
“About me not taking responsibility.”
“Wh-What do you—hmb!”
He roughly pulled in her hips…
And their lips met.
