Chapter 263: Snowfield (3)

Another deafening roar echoed as Isabella and Cassia clashed once more.

Rumble!

Kwon Oh-Jin bit his lip nervously. “Damn it!”

He desperately wanted to run toward Isabella, but his body moved against his will and headed toward the shadow wall instead. His disobedient body turned its back on her and moved toward where she had been breaking through the shadow earlier.

It was around two hundred meters away. Thanks to the massive shadow dome, he was at least far enough to escape the immediate fallout of the fight.

“

Agh

.”

Trying to forcefully turn back caused his wounded right arm, which had just stopped bleeding from the potion, to reopen. As the pain distracted him, he reached the spot that Isabella had mentioned.

He could see the small gap carved into the shadow wall, barely large enough to fit his head through. With a little more force, he could probably widen it enough for a person to slip through.

Blue flames flared up from the knife in his hand.

Crackle!

Like sawing through tough wood, he jammed the blade into the gap and sawed back and forth to slowly widen the gap.

“

Kugh!

” He ground his teeth and tried to resist the command as he continued widening the gap like a puppet on strings.

Stop

.

Perhaps Cassia grew too busy fighting Isabella to notice what was happening here. The shadow wall, which had seemed impenetrable, opened faster than expected.

Kwon Oh-Jin glanced anxiously at his hand holding the knife. The blade, crackling with blue lightning, steadily cut him a way out.

Just then, he could hear Isabella’s scream. “

Kyaaaa!

”

His eyes, the only part of him that could move freely, darted toward her. He could see that she had collapsed after taking a heavy hit. A chunk the size of two fists had been gouged from her side. Her blood and parts of her intestines had spilled out.

“Isabella!” he shouted desperately, but it was no use.

His body, still bound by her command, pushed his upper half through the widened gap.

“Goddamn it!”

As he passed through the shadow dome, a gust of fresh night air brushed his cheek. Like a chick just hatched from an egg, his top half emerged from the shadow dome.

“Stop!” he shouted in panic, but his body continued to follow Isabella’s order to flee as far from the shadow dome as possible. “I said stop, motherfucker!”

He quickly moved away from the dome.

Kwon Oh-Jin bit his lip and focused on the left side of his chest.

The Black Heaven might be able to override even her command.

“

Ugh!

”

Black clouds slowly seeped from his chest.

Rumble!

He felt himself slowing down as the Black Heaven’s energy spread through him, but that was all.

I still can’t move properly.

He could resist the command, but couldn’t outright ignore it to move freely.

How do I draw more of the Black Heaven’s power...?

Kwon Oh-Jin’s expression hardened. Only one method remained.

“But...”

He swallowed the words he couldn’t bring himself to say. His eyes trembled as he looked down at his chest.

If I use it...

Then he would lose the happy, painful, joyful, miserable, and precious memories he had made... the footsteps of the life he had walked.

“I don’t want to.” He trembled as he curled up like a child, voicing his fears.

He felt unbearably terrified. The thought that perhaps Cassia wouldn’t kill her own little sister crept into his mind. She wouldn’t do such a thing. Even if the Heavenly Demon possessed her and she wasn’t in her right state of mind, she wouldn’t kill her family.

She stopped herself earlier too.

He recalled how Cassia had clutched her head and thrashed in agony. Even under the Heavenly Demon’s control, her consciousness hadn’t completely vanished. Like a star twinkling behind dark storm clouds, the real Cassia was still there.

It would be fine. There wouldn’t be a problem. Even if he ran away like this, nothing would happen.

Kwon Oh-Jin hollowly laughed, “

Ha

...”

He covered his face with his remaining hand.

“What a fucking joke.”

How pathetic and pitiful did he look right now? Running away because he felt too scared to lose his memories? How could he abandon Isabella in a death trap?

Kwon Oh-Jin didn’t want to lose either of them despite that being selfish. He had no right like a greedy child clinging to a fistful of candy, willing to let their teeth rot just to keep it all.

“Just knowing how you feel for now is enough for me.”

However, Isabella had smiled even at his childish and selfish behaviour. She had smiled so brightly as if genuinely happy.

“I have to go.

It was okay to lose his memories and forget. Just like Vega had said that day, closing one’s eyes didn’t make the world disappear.

Kwon Oh-Jin turned back toward the shadow dome. Placing a hand on his left chest, he softly began to recite an incantation.

***

A burning pain struck her.

“

Haa, haa!

” Isabella clutched at her side, trying to keep her intestines from spilling out as she gasped for breath.

Cassia stood before her and coldly stared with lifeless eyes. Her pupils looked hollow as if all emotion had been cut away. The black jewel embedded in her forehead had taken root like a seed in soil, slowly devouring her consciousness.

Isabella bit her lip and looked up at Cassia. “Unnie...”

Those icy eyes locked onto hers.

“What’s wrong?” Cassia sounded as if she had just woken from a deep sleep.

Tears welled up in Isabella’s eyes. Her sister chillingly sounded like someone else entirely.

“Snap out of it... unnie.”

“Snap out of it?” Cassia faintly smiled and violently stomped on Isabella’s wounded side.

An agonizing scream echoed out. “

Aaaagh!

”

“I’m perfectly sane right now, you know?” Cassia flicked out her long tongue like a snake and spread her arms wide.

Her black dress fluttered as she spun around.

“

Ah

, my dear Bella. My precious little sister,” she said in a song-like manner. “Do you know just how much I’ve hated you?”

“What are you talking about, unnie?”

Cassia giggled and crouched down to touch Isabella’s cheek. “

Hehe

. Of course you didn’t, Bella. Every time I saw you smiling so brightly, I’d think about it.”

Back when Cassia simply waited for death to take her in a wheelchair, Isabella would be laughing innocently and playing nearby without a care in the world.

“I’d ask myself, ‘Why not me?’”

It felt as if every blessing had been handed to Isabella instead. From a young age, Isabella showed exceptional talent and effortlessly excelled in a rigorous gifted program. Everyone praised her as a once-in-a-century prodigy in music and art. Even in sports, she once won an international fencing tournament after only picking it up for basic fitness.

The word genius seemed like it existed solely for Isabella.

“I thought about it dozens and hundreds of times.”

If Isabella was the radiant sun, then she was the shadow cast by that light. The brighter Isabella shone, the darker Cassia’s shadow became. Every time Isabella smiled, every time that innocent kindness was directed at her, Cassia felt like the ugly emotions festering inside her being dragged into the sunlight, laid bare and exposed.

“Someone like you...”

Someone like me...

“Should never have been born.” Cassia trembled as if she would break at any moment.

Isabella stared at her with sorrowful eyes. She hadn’t known, or rather, it would be more accurate to say she hadn’t even cared.

She thought it was fine even though she laughed and chattered away while running around in front of Cassia, who couldn’t even stand on her own two feet due to an incurable illness. She thought there was no problem because her sister was kind and believed that it wouldn't hurt her.

“I’m sorry, unnie.”

Her chest ached like it had been slashed with a sharp knife. How much had her insensitivity and childish happiness hurt Cassia? Being young was no excuse. She wasn’t so young or foolish that she couldn’t understand another person’s feelings.

“There’s no need to apologize.” Cassia slowly raised her staff with a deep smile. “My wish has already come true.”

Back when she was dying from the cold in the blizzard, someone had plucked a star from the night sky and gifted it to her. When she had nothing after being discarded like a losing lottery ticket, someone had reached out to her first.

She wouldn’t be in pain or alone anymore as long as she followed his words and his will.

“I won’t... be abandoned anymore.” Cassia’s hollow emerald eyes turned to Isabella as she brought down her staff.

This would be the end. Now, she could finally escape being the shadow cast by the sun. If only Isabella disappeared...

Once again, Cassia’s arm stopped. It wasn’t even for a full second, but that single instant of hesitation changed her fate.

A massive explosion roared through the air.

Boom!

The shadow dome violently tore apart, and black clouds rushed in.

Cassia stumbled back with a shocked expression. “What the?!”

A tsunami of black clouds rushed forward. From it, Kwon Oh-Jin walked out.

Isabella’s eyes widened when she saw that half of his body had turned into black clouds. “Mr. Oh-Jin?”

The cloud, swirling like fog, wrapped around Isabella.

“

Ugh!

W-What is this?”

“Stay still.”

The black clouds carried her over to Kwon Oh-Jin. He frowned as he looked down at the wound on her side.

“Do you have any potions left?” he asked.

“Y-Yes. Just one.”

“Give it to me.” Kwon Oh-Jin pulled it out of her handbag and poured it over her injury.

As the pain subsided, she looked at him in disbelief. “W-What are you doing here, Mr. Oh-Jin? And what happened to your body?”

She had definitely commanded him to run away.

“I’ll explain later.” After revealing his power, he would need to explain later anyway. “But first, I need to finish this up.”

Kwon Oh-Jin slowly got up. His eyes, burning with a ghostly blue flame, turned to Cassia.