Chapter 437: Lies (10) |
Two years had passed since the end of the second War of the Stars, a conflict that had shaken the entire world.
The sudden disappearance of twenty thousand Awakeners right after the war had thrown the world into chaos. Strangely enough, all those Awakeners who had vanished into the black clouds returned unharmed a month later.
After their return, they gathered under the Seven Stars and launched a massive campaign to hunt down the remaining demonic beasts roaming across the globe.
At the same time, new Awakeners began to appear. The Celestials, who had long been bound in the Sanctum due to the Law’s restrictions, also recovered.
Those who had been captured by the Heavenly Demon, the newly formed Awakeners, and the freed Celestials all joined forces to wage the third War of the Stars.
Unlike the second war, which had ended in a bitter defeat for humanity, the third that soon followed resulted in an overwhelming victory that wiped away the humiliation of their past loss.
Within less than half a year of the war’s declaration, most of the demonic beast hordes occupying the world had been annihilated. The few that survived fled back into the rifts.
The world had never been more peaceful since the very first rift opened.
As the chaos subsided, people’s attention began to turn elsewhere. Naturally, the first questions that came to mind was who had killed the Heavenly Demon and who had rescued the captured Awakeners?
It was none other than Kwon Oh-Jin, Alkaid, who had defeated the Heavenly Demon and saved the Awakeners. This Seven Star member had claimed to be a Regressor.
Little was known about the battle between the Heavenly Demon and Alkaid, but those who had been captured and later returned testified that Kwon Oh-Jin had fought the Heavenly Demon alone. After a fierce struggle, both perished together.
He was a hero who had returned from the future, defied destiny, and saved the world.
The story was almost too dramatic to be true, and the public couldn’t resist it. Soon, a global wave of mourning swept over Korea, the very land where Kwon Oh-Jin had been born and raised.
Sensing an opportunity, the Korean government erected a thirty-meter-tall statue of Kwon Oh-Jin at the one-star rift where the final battle between him and the Heavenly Demon had taken place to commemorate his noble sacrifice.
However, less than a day after they unveiled it, a sudden fireball obliterated the massive statue.
The culprit was identified as Song Ha-Eun, an Awakener of Draco and Kwon Oh-Jin's lover.
Reporters demanded to know why she had destroyed the statue.
She allegedly raised her middle finger and replied, “My Oh-Jin is still alive, you bastards.”
***
The rift where the final battle between the Heavenly Demon and Kwon Oh-Jin had taken place still pulsed with an eerie, dark aura. Like the aftermath of a volcanic eruption, a towering column of black clouds spiraled up toward the sky.
The clash between Kwon Oh-Jin and the Heavenly Demon’s Black Heavens had consumed not only the space within the rift but also spread beyond it. Black clouds covered several kilometers. Even at midday, when the sun was high, the land below remained dark like a moonless night.
Beneath a flickering streetlamp that burned like a lonely candle, a woman gazed blankly at the towering black clouds.
“Haaa…”
Her reddish-brown hair was tied back tightly. An eyepatch covered the entire left side of her face, yet she remained breathtakingly beautiful with half her features hidden.
“It’s already been two years, you brat. When are you coming back?”
Song Ha-Eun deeply sighed and tapped her toe against the ground.
Tears welled up in the corner of her uncovered right eye.
“Geez… Even the military doesn’t take two years these days. If you keep making me wait like this, I swear I’ll just move on. You hear me?”
She clenched her fist threateningly at the black clouds above.
As always, no response came back. A lonely silence settled over her like a curtain.
Song Ha-Eun sighed again and turned to leave.
A woman with hair like molten gold approached her. “There you are, unnie.”
“Huh? Aren’t you supposed to be in Italy? Working on that Rome restoration project or something?”
“I took a short break to visit. It doesn’t take long when you travel through the Sanctum.”
With a soft smile, Isabella sat down beside her. Like Song Ha-Eun, she gazed wistfully at the black pillar of clouds piercing the sky.
“It’s already been two years, hasn’t it?” Isabella asked.
“Yeah, it has.” Song Ha-Eun bitterly smiled. She nudged a pebble at her feet with a soft kick and muttered under her breath, “Honestly, that brat really loves to keep people waiting. What’s he gonna do if I actually start flirting with another guy out of spite?”
“Oh my, would that make me his number one then?”
Song Ha-Eun narrowed her eyes and pinched Isabella’s side. “In your dreams, young lady.”
Isabella covered her mouth and elegantly laughed.
“Still, I’m glad to see that you’re doing better,” Song Ha-Eun said.
“Me?”
“Who else would I mean?”
“I don’t think I was ever doing that bad…”
“Yeah, right. Who did I have to force-feed water to for over a month after hearing about Oh-Jin?”
Isabella coughed awkwardly and looked away. “Ah, y-you said you wouldn’t bring that up again.”
“And don’t even get me started on your sister. She completely lost it too.”
In truth, Cassia had been in far worse shape than Isabella. Song Ha-Eun had barely managed to stop her from throwing herself into the black clouds.
“Haa.... If it hadn’t been for Vega back then, I don’t even know what would’ve happened.”
“S-Stop it already, please.”
It wasn’t Song Ha-Eun’s care or the passage of time that had saved the two broken sisters. Isabella and Cassia only regained their sanity because of Vega, who had been freed from the Law’s restrictions.
She only said a single thing. “He is alive.”
Upon descending to Earth from the Sanctum and seeing the pillar of black clouds, Vega said with unwavering conviction, “Although it’s faint, I can definitely still feel the Stigma of Lyra.”
Those words became an immense salvation for the two women, or rather, three women. The news that Kwon Oh-Jin was still alive gave hope to Isabella and Cassia, giving them the strength to stand again.
“Speaking of which, where’s Cassia? Didn’t she say she went to the Demonic District?”
Cassia had vowed to scour every corner of Earth and the Demonic District for any clues to bring Kwon Oh-Jin back from the black clouds.
“She contacted me recently and said she’s back on Earth.”
“Did she find anything?”
Someone behind them said, “No. It's another dead end.”
Accompanied by the faint sound of a crawling serpent, Cassia approached Song Ha-Eun and Isabella.
Cassia sighed deeply and bit her nails with a restless expression. “I found a few texts in Niflheim that mentioned the Black Heaven, but nothing that could help us retrieve Lord Oh-Jin from those clouds.”
Song Ha-Eun nodded as if she had expected that. “There wouldn’t be any records about two Black Heavens clashing anyway.”
“Then, maybe I should just go in myself—”
“And what if you get trapped in there too?”
Cassia’s expression darkened.
Song Ha-Eun bit her lip as she looked at the swirling pillar of black clouds.
“For now, all we can do is trust Oh-Jin and wait.”
“But still—”
Just then, a brilliant silver light gathered in the air, and the silver-haired goddess appeared.
Woong.
“Do not worry.”
Vega wasn’t in her miniature form, but her true form. She slowly descended toward Song Ha-Eun.
“I trust my child. He will return when the time is right. There is no need for us to be restless.”
“Yeah… Of course.”
“If it’s Mr. Oh-Jin, he’ll show up one day like nothing ever happened.”
“I’ll keep searching for more clues too.”
Even as they tried to reassure themselves, the shadows of sorrow didn’t lift from the three women’s faces.
Kwon Oh-Jin’s absence left an unhealed wound in their hearts.
“Vega, can you check once more and see if you can still sense the Stigma of Lyra?” Song Ha-Eun asked.
“Very well…”
They had asked the same thing hundreds of times. The Stigma of Lyra’s faint trace within those black clouds was the only hope they had left.
Vega slowly floated up and drifted closer to the towering clouds. Then, her eyes widened.
She began trembling as her face turned deathly pale. “H-How… how could this be…?”
The faint starlight that had always glimmered within the black clouds had disappeared.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
Vega shook her head violently, her pale complexion almost turned blue. “N-No… This can’t be!”
Isabella and Cassia’s faces drained of color.
“D-Don’t tell me…”
“Y-You don’t mean that Lord Oh-Jin’s presence has… vanished, do you?”
Before Song Ha-Eun could stop her, Cassia bolted toward the black clouds.
“N-No! That can’t be true!”
Just as her hand was about to touch the swirling storm, the pillar of black clouds began to collapse. It was sucked back into the rift with a deafening roar.
Booooom!
“Ugh!”
“C-Cassia!”
“Damn it! What the hell is going on!?” Song Ha-Eun asked.
Before anyone could even grasp what was happening, the black rift closed in on itself and took the shape of a human figure.
Rumble.
“Ah…”
“T-That’s…”
“O-Oh-Jin!”
Song Ha-Eun rushed forward first. She sprinted madly toward Kwon Oh-Jin, who appeared where the rift had sealed shut.
“O-Oh-Jin! Oh-Jin! It’s you, right? It’s really you?!”
How long had it been since she last saw his face?
Song Ha-Eun clung to him, sobbing uncontrollably. “Ah. F-Finally!”
“He’s back! Lord Oh-Jin is finally back!”
“I-Is he breathing?” Vega asked.
Cassia, Isabella, and Vega all hurried toward Kwon Oh-Jin, who collapsed on the ground.
At Vega’s question, Song Ha-Eun pressed her ear to his lips. “Y-Yeah! He’s breathing! He’s really breathing!”
“Cassia! Quick, bring an Awakener of Aquarius through your shadow right now!”
“Got it!”
“No! I shall return to the Sanctum myself and summon the Celestials!” Vega said.
Amid the frantic commotion, Kwon Oh-Jin’s lips twitched slightly as he slowly opened his eyes. “Ugh…”
His gaze wandered over the four women surrounding him, one by one.
Then, he cocked his head slightly and asked, “Who… are you?”