Free Web NovelChapter 424: Interlude - Escape (1)
“Why... did Eve die?” Mobius clutched the necklace to his chest and glared at Kwon Oh-Jin as he wept. “You’ve come this far and still don’t know why that child had to die?”
Mobius looked at the other Celestials.
“That child died because of your filthy, selfish beliefs!”
“No.”
“What do you mean no? If the Celestials had helped back then like they are now...”
“That’s not what I’m talking about.”
“Huh?”
In Lee Shin-Hyuk’s memory, Mobius had told the Heavenly Demon that they shared the same purpose. The purpose he spoke of was not revenge against the Celestials. It couldn’t be because the Heavenly Demon’s purpose wasn’t revenge.
The Heavenly Demon’s goal from the start was to turn back time and send Lee Shin-Hyuk into the past to change fate. Specifically, to alter Song Ha-Eun’s fate so she wouldn’t die. That was the Heavenly Demon’s main objective.
Could Mobius in the past not have known that?
No, he had to have known.
“That child is important to your plan, isn’t he?
When Mobius tried to calm the Heavenly Demon, he had said that Lee Shin-Hyuk was important for the plan. That meant he knew the Heavenly Demon’s plan.
In that case... ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
Kwon Oh-Jin’s expression hardened.
Mobius frowned as if he couldn’t follow what Kwon Oh-Jin was getting at. “What do you mean? What are you trying to say... Ugh!”
A jolt of pain ran through his Stigma, and Mobius felt the Black Heaven’s energy draining away. The energy leaving now was the very first portion he had received from the Heavenly Demon. If the Black Heaven was like a tree rooted in one’s Stigma, the part leaving him right now was the seed.
If this part of the Black Heaven leaves me...
It meant the complete annihilation of his existence was nearing.
Mobius said with a self-mocking smile, “It’s finally over.”
In the end, he had accomplished nothing and faced a hollow end.
“Ha... Haha.”
Mobius took a deep breath and held the crude plastic apple necklace in his hand. The bright, star-like smile of the girl flickered in his mind.
“Will I... be able to meet her soon...?” He began to close his eyes as he recalled those memories.
Kwon Oh-Jin said, “Don’t you dare end it whenever you please.”
He placed his hand on Mobius’s Stigma and began to transfer his own Black Heaven into it. He was replacing the Heavenly Demon's Black Heaven that had drained away.
“What... are you doing?” Mobius asked.
Why was the enemy trying to save him?
“If you’re trying... to be sympathetic... I don’t need—”
“That’s not it.” With an anxious expression, Kwon Oh-Jin continued pouring his Black Heaven into Mobius’s Stigma.
Parts of Mobius’s body that had turned into powder and scattered returned to their original form.
“I need to ask you something.”
“Ask... what...? You mean... why Eve died?” ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
What was the point of asking that now?
Mobius managed through the agonizing pain. “That child died because of our greed.”
If someone had stopped her from heading toward the battlefield that day, if he had never bestowed her a Stigma in the first place, she wouldn’t have died.
“I... I killed that child.”
Yes, he had caused Eve’s death.
“If I’d known it would end like this...”
If he had been a Regressor just like the Heavenly Demon, he would’ve never given her a Stigma.
“Huh?”
At that moment, a strange sense of unease crawled up Mobius’s spine. As Kwon Oh-Jin’s Black Heaven flowed into him, a foreign memory suddenly surfaced in his mind. It was a conversation between him and the Heavenly Demon.
“Don’t forget. You and I share only one purpose.”
“I know.”
The Heavenly Demon turned away from the beaten human and began to walk alongside him.
What is this?
Mobius didn’t recognize this memory. It didn’t exist. The version of himself in this memory—
That’s not me.
He had never spoken nor walked with the Heavenly Demon like that. The only time they had ever met him in person was when he first received the Heavenly Demon’s power.
After receiving the Black Heaven’s power and becoming a Black Star, they had only occasionally exchanged messages, but never once met face-to-face or traveled together.
Then, who was the Mobius in this memory? It wasn’t someone who merely looked alike. They looked identical, yet it couldn’t have been him because that memory simply didn’t exist. That left only one possibility.
“No... T-That can’t be right.”
It didn’t make sense. The cause and effect didn’t line up.
When the Heavenly Demon first met him, he had clearly said that he didn’t know Eve would die. Mobius believed him without hesitation since being a Regressor didn’t mean he knew everything. He had never once thought that a prior connection could exist between them in a past life.
Of course, he never thought so because the Heavenly Demon had nothing to do with Eve’s death.
Right after becoming a Black Star, he had briefly suspected that the horde of demonic beasts had suddenly attacked because of the Heavenly Demon. After a thorough investigation, that incident had simply been an outcome of ecological changes within the Demonic District. It hadn’t been orchestrated.
Mobius could say that with certainty because he had done extensive research in case the Heavenly Demon was behind it. He concluded that Eve had died because the Celestials turned their backs on her.
Mobius grabbed Kwon Oh-Jin by the collar. “What the hell is this memory!? What did you do to me?! Huh?!”
Even Kwon Oh-Jin hadn’t expected this. “The memories I inherited... were shared?”
“Inherited? Shared? What are you talking about?”
“Hmm.”
Well, this actually made things simpler since the memories he had received through Lee Shin-Hyuk had flowed into Mobius too.
“What you just saw is a memory from your past life.”
“My... past life?”
“Yeah.”
A world before the Heavenly Demon and Lee Shin-Hyuk regressed, and before fate had been changed.
“Ah, ugh.” Mobius clutched his snow-white hair and bent down in pain. “Then... the Heavenly Demon and I knew each other even in our past lives?”
“Knew each other?” Kwon Oh-Jin murmured, “You guys were more than that.”
They hadn’t seemed close enough to be called friends. Calling them collaborators would be more accurate.
Mobius screamed in despair, “Then... why? Why, why, why! Why didn’t he protect Eve?! He said our purpose was the same! If that’s true, then why didn’t her fate change?”
Kwon Oh-Jin looked at him with bitter eyes. “That’s what I kept you alive to find out.”
Mobius shook violently as if having a seizure. “Ah... Aaah...”
His raging emotions ate away at him.
He clutched his head and screamed like a madman, “Why, why, why, why, just.. why?!”
Just then, the air split and a black rift opened.
Crack!
From there, a man stepped out with leisurely steps.
“You...”
He had the same face as Kwon Oh-Jin, but had walked a different road of fate. It was the Heavenly Demon.
“Yooooooou!”
The Heavenly Demon cocked his head and glanced at Mobius. “Hm? Oh? You’re still alive? I thought you’d be dead by now.”
The Heavenly Demon shrugged leisurely.
Mobius asked, “You... knew Eve would die, didn’t you?”
The Heavenly Demon glanced at Kwon Oh-Jin with a sly smile. “Hm. Looks like someone already told you everything, huh?”
That alone was enough of an answer.
Mobius clenched the necklace in his fist so tightly that it looked ready to shatter. “Why, why didn’t you save her?! You said we shared the same purpose! You promised me that if I helped you, you’d save my child! Why was her fate the only one that didn’t change?!”
“Wait—!”
Before Kwon Oh-Jin could stop him, Mobius kicked off the ground and shot forward. Having barely survived thanks to Kwon Oh-Jin’s Black Heaven, his Stigma of Ophiuchus blazed brilliantly.
“Answer me, you bastard!”
Mobius mustered the last of his strength and deployed his Sacred Ground. Shadows spread across the ground toward the Heavenly Demon.
The Heavenly Demon looked at Mobius and casually snapped his fingers.
A black spark flared where his fingers met. The tiny ember fell to the ground and instantly erupted when it touched Mobius’s shadow like gasoline being lit.
Fwoosh!
In the blink of an eye, the black fire completely consumed Mobius’s Sacred Ground.
He rolled across the ground and screamed in agony, “Aaaaagh! Answer me. Why... did you...”
Even as his skin burned, Mobius crawled toward the Heavenly Demon.
“Oh, that?” The Heavenly Demon twisted his mouth into a grin and placed his foot on top of Mobius’s head. “It was a lie.”
Crunch!
Mobius’s head burst under the Heavenly Demon’s heel. The necklace he had been clutching slipped from his hand and rolled across the ground.
The Heavenly Demon calmly looked up at the Celestials watching from above.
“Well, with that, all the variables around Sacred Grounds have been cleared.”
The Law’s restrictions had weakened more than expected. Most of the Celestials hadn’t vanished from the world, but they would likely be imprisoned within their Sanctums for years if not decades.
That was more than enough time to bring an end to all of this.
The Heavenly Demon turned to Kwon Oh-Jin with a wide smile. “Hey, I told you, didn’t I? That we’d meet again.”
