Free Web NovelChapter 434: Lies (7)
He knew he couldn’t defeat the Heavenly Demon head-on.
Even if his Black Heaven ranked higher than the Heavenly Demon’s, his skills couldn’t surpass someone who had spent centuries, or perhaps even longer, bonded with that same power.
No matter how gifted I am. No matter how desperately I’ve trained. No matter how furiously I’ve struggled, you have also walked the same path.
This made it impossible for Kwon Oh-Jin to win head-on.
To defeat him, I must take a path he never did.
A road that the Kwon Oh-Jin of the past timeline would never take. Only by choosing a path of his own could he defeat the Heavenly Demon.
I have to keep this damned play going just a little longer.
***
Song Ha-Eun stepped in front of the Heavenly Demon as he moved toward Cassia, Isabella, and Riarc. “Stop.”
She bit her lip and looked at the figure of black clouds with sorrowful eyes.
Trembling, she pleaded, “Please... stop. I’m begging you.”
The Heavenly Demon looked at her quietly and shook his head. “Move aside, Ha-Eun.”
“Please, stop it! Haven’t you done enough?”
“Enough?” He faintly scoffed. “What exactly do you mean by enough?”
“You fought Oh-Jin and won! You crushed him to the point where he’s barely breathing!”
Kwon Oh-Jin lay on the ground, gasping for breath. Half-devoured by the Heavenly Demon’s Black Heaven, he looked like he could die at any moment. He couldn’t even think of continuing the fight.
The outcome was already clear. What more was there to prove?
“You don’t have to kill the others in those clouds for it to end!”
“No.” The Heavenly Demon firmly shook his head. “As long as he still has something precious left, he’ll never be able to protect you.”
Soon, the Heavenly Demon’s Black Heaven would completely consume him. When that happened, the only way to keep Song Ha-Eun safe was to take away everything that Kwon Oh-Jin held dear.
“That’s the only way to protect you.”
“He doesn’t need to lose anything to protect me! He’s protected me countless times until now! He fought while protecting Bella, Riarc, Cassia... and all the other Awakeners.”
Kwon Oh-Jin always called himself a scammer who only knew how to use others for his own gain, but she knew better. She knew that he didn’t lie just to manipulate people.
“Do you even know what happened with Mr. Baek Mu-Kang? Do you know what Oh-Jin did back then?”
“I don’t.”
“Ha, even though it was your subordinate’s doing?”
“My subordinate?” The Heavenly Demon frowned, genuinely puzzled. “I had a subordinate?”
Song Ha-Eun’s expression froze.
It wasn’t that he refused to acknowledge Deimos, the demonkin executive who stole Baek Mu-Kang’s treasure, as his subordinate. The Heavenly Demon truly didn’t remember that such a person existed.
“I see. You’ve... forgotten everything.”
Not just Deimos, but he had completely forgotten the demonkin who once worshiped and followed him, including the Black Star Celestials.
“I guess they weren’t that important.”
The Heavenly Demon shrugged casually and tapped his heart, pulsing within his chest of black clouds. “Don’t worry. I still remember you, Ha-Eun.”
He had forgotten everything except her.
All the warmth and gentleness once hidden behind the mask of lies had disappeared. Now, he was like a doll stuffed with cotton instead of flesh.
“Is... that what you want him to become?”
“That’s right.” The Heavenly Demon nodded and walked past Song Ha-Eun. “If this is the only way I can save you, I’ll give up whatever I have to.”
“Stop.”
“I know it’s hard for you to accept. Unlike me, you’re too kind to deceive anyone.”
“I said stop.”
“There’s no need to be sad. Even the me over there probably feels the same way.”
“I told you to stop, Kwon Oh-Jin!”
The Heavenly Demon abruptly came to a halt. The ghostly blue flames burning in his eyes flickered.
He had thrown away that name the day Song Ha-Eun died and had decided to become the Heavenly Demon. He never thought he would hear that name from her lips again. At her call, his body began to burn up.
His heart pounded violently as if trying to drive away the black clouds.
Thump, thump.
“You’re... you’re Oh-Jin too.”
Though their fates had diverged, he was also Kwon Oh-Jin. That truth remained unchanged.
“Why do you have to take something precious from yourself? Why do you, me, and even Oh-Jin have to do something that will only make everyone unhappy?!”
The Heavenly Demon remained silent.
She desperately cried out, “Answer me!”
The Heavenly Demon slowly closed his eyes and deeply sighed. “Haaa. You wouldn’t understand. Neither would the me over there.”
How painful it is to lose something precious. How terrifying it is to be left completely alone.
They couldn’t possibly know.
“Soon, the Black Heaven will devour my consciousness.”
Song Ha-Eun could only listen to him.
“And I’ll become a monster driven only by the desire to consume the stars.”
This was already bound to happen. No one could stop it or escape.
“Before that happens...”
“Suicide won’t change anything. Even if I die, the Black Heaven inside me won’t disappear.”
“N-No, that’s not what I mean.”
“Then what? You want me to team up with the other me and find a way to fight against the Black Heaven like you said earlier?”
“Yes...”
“It won’t work.”
It was far too late to turn back. He had already crossed an irreversible line ever since he used Open Heaven. No, even long before that.
“When that time comes, the me over there will have to choose to give up or not give up. But the more you have... the harder it becomes to let go.”
And if Kwon Oh-Jin refused to give up, he would not be able to stop the monster that the Heavenly Demon would become.
“So, you’ll take everything from him first? To make it easier for him to give up?”
“You can hate me and curse me however you’d like.” The Heavenly Demon turned away from Song Ha-Eun and walked toward the Awakeners trapped within the black clouds. “As long as I can protect you... nothing else matters.”
He slowly raised his hand, ready to clench it into a fist.
Song Ha-Eun ran after him and wrapped her arms around him. “Oh-Jin, you’ve been suffering... all alone, haven’t you?”
She didn’t know what his previous life had been like, nor how far back into the past he had returned. One thing was certain.
“You must have been... so lonely and in so much pain.”
How much suffering had he endured to become the Heavenly Demon after abandoning the name Kwon Oh-Jin? What kind of agony had he swallowed, pain so suffocating that it made one nauseous just imagining it?
“Let’s stop, now.” She tried once more to convince him. “You don’t have to kill them. As Oh-Jin, you’ll be able to overcome this.”
Even if the Black Heaven devoured all of the Heavenly Demon’s consciousness and turned him into a monster, Kwon Oh-Jin could still fight it.
“Ha-Eun.”
“You don’t have to carry this burden alone.”
Would he really want to see another version of himself suffer? Would he want to become the object of his own hatred and resentment?
“There has to be another way.”
One that wouldn’t make anyone sad.
The Heavenly Demon closed his eyes and gently stroked Song Ha-Eun’s back, who was holding him tight.
Then, he suddenly scoffed. “Pfft.”
What started as a faint chuckle erupted into wild, echoing laughter. “Hahaha! Hahahahahahaha!”
Startled, Song Ha-Eun stepped back from the Heavenly Demon. “O-Oh-Jin?” frёewebnoѵēl.com
He roughly grabbed her by the throat before she could get far away.
Song Ha-Eun groaned in pain. “Kugh!”
The Heavenly Demon’s lips twisted into a chilling grin as he glared at her struggling. “This is what you came up with?”
“Kuh... kuh!”
“You really thought you could deceive me with something this pathetic?”
He stomped hard and tightened his grip on her neck even more.
Thud!
“O-Oh-Jin, why—”
“That’s not my name!” His roar shook the air. “You don’t call me that.”
He recalled their first time meeting and the memories they shared. Even as a pitiful being with nothing but a beating heart left, how could he ever forget?
“That’s not how you used to call me.”
She had known about his insecurity. The name he had inherited from parents he had never even seen. So, she had deliberately softened it, blurring the edge of the name when she called him.
Others would laugh, saying it was a trivial difference, but he knew how much that trivial thing had saved him. To that lonely nine-year-old boy who used to fuss over a meaningless name, her small kindness had been an enormous light of hope. Even if no one else understood, even if no one else ever would, he remembered.
“What, did you think pretending to be her would fool me? That if you acted a little kind, I’d just nod along and listen to you?” The Heavenly Demon ground his teeth and glared at Song Ha-Eun, or rather, Kwon Oh-Jin before him. “Don’t kid yourself. You and I, we’re both the same Oh-Jin.”
You really thought you could deceive me?
