Chapter 267: Interlude - Ninth Memory (1)

Cassia’s long, snake-like tongue flickered. She narrowed her eyes and sniffed Kwon Oh-Jin. The thick scent of an unfamiliar woman clung to him.

“It’s not Bella’s scent...” Her emerald eyes gleamed with a chilling, murderous glint as they turned toward him.

Kwon Oh-Jin froze like a frog in front of a snake.

Cassia slightly opened her eyes and licked the nape of his neck with her long tongue. “Whose scent is this?”

“That’s...”

Cold sweat trickled down his forehead, and a chill crawled down his spine.

What is it with these sisters, seriously?

Isabella also occasionally gave him a terrifying look that made his stomach drop, but Cassia’s felt even more threatening.

“

Hmph

. Well, whatever. Just based on what you said to me, I think I’ve got a good grasp on what kind of man you are, Mr. Oh-Jin.”

Cassia glared at him, crossed her arms, and sharply turned her head away. She seemed seriously upset.

He sighed with a troubled look and quickly changed the subject. “So, what’s this thing you wanted to give me?”

Cassia shot him a sharp look, clearly unimpressed at how he blatantly changed the subject. She lightly clicked her tongue and reached into her shadow, taking out a cracked black jewel.

“This is...”

“It’s the Astral Relic the Heavenly Demon used on me when he controlled my consciousness.”

“Why are you giving this to me?”

“Because it contains the power of the Black Heaven. The same power you carry.”

Two Black Heavens existed. He still didn’t know how such an anomalous power could be duplicated, but the Heavenly Demon undoubtedly possessed the same Black Heaven as his own.

“If anyone could figure out why there are two Black Heavens, it would be you, Mr. Oh-Jin.”

“That’s why you’re giving this to me?”

“Yes.”

He wasn’t sure if this cracked jewel alone would be enough to uncover the reason, but he had no reason not to take it.

“Thanks,” he said.

“Oh, and one more thing...” Cassia tightly bit her lip as she handed him the jewel. “Soon, the Demonic District kings will begin to move.”

“Kings?”

Cassia nodded. “Yes. You’ve noticed how the Named monsters have been more active lately, right?”

He did, and he knew the Heavenly Demon was behind it.

“Most of the so-called Named monsters were once underlings of the Demonic District kings. They’re intelligent, cunning, and organized.”

“So they’re no different from humans?”

“Exactly. Civilization exists in the Demonic District too.”

Now that she mentioned it, he remembered seeing massive castles and cities when he rode Boppy out of the Demonic District.

“If the Demonic District kings start moving... we might see another disaster like the one ten years ago,” she explained.

Ten years ago, the first gate to the Demonic District had opened. Dozens of nations collapsed, and hundreds of millions were massacred in what became the worst catastrophe in human history. Did the Heavenly Demon intend to recreate that same hell on Earth again?

First, the Black Star Society, and now the Demonic District kings...

Kwon Oh-Jin deeply sighed.

“Well then, I’ll get going.” Cassia slightly lifted the hem of her dress and elegantly bowed. “Take care until I return, Mr. Oh-Jin, or should I say... my lord Heavenly Demon.”

Cassia approached him with a beautiful smile. She rose on her tiptoes and gently kissed his cheek. The soft sensation lingered on his skin. As he looked at the smiling Cassia, he suddenly understood why the Bufo King had risked everything and even impersonated the Heavenly Demon just to have her.

With the sound of a snake slithering across the ground, Cassia disappeared into the shadows.

Shhhh.

The hospital rooftop returned to a bitter, lonely silence as if nothing had happened.

“

Phew

.” He leaned on the railing and looked over the city lights below.

The dazzling glow twinkled like stars scattered across the night sky. The radiant brilliance momentarily took his breath away and stirred up complex emotions.

“Damn it.”

Who or what was the Heavenly Demon really? What was its true goal? The more he searched for answers, the deeper the mystery became.

Kwon Oh-Jin took a deep breath and stopped leaning. As the chilly night wind brushed past his head, the turmoil in his mind seemed to settle ever so slightly.

“Will I be able to get any clues from investigating this?”

He lifted the black jewel Cassia had given him. Although it had cracked on the surface, the power within hadn’t completely vanished.

A second Black Heaven, huh.

He narrowed his eyes at the jewel shimmering with a faint black glow. What exactly was the difference between his Black Heaven and the Heavenly Demon’s?

If what Cassia said is true, one has to kill and absorb the Heaven-Defying Star to complete the Black Heaven.

Then, had his Black Heaven already surpassed the Heavenly Demon’s?

“Well, guess I’ll know once I absorb it.”

Even if he handed the jewel with the Black Heaven’s power to the association or the Seven Stars, it didn’t seem like they would uncover anything decisive. Not even Cassia, who had close ties to the Heavenly Demon, knew its true identity.

Better to absorb it than risk a half-baked investigation.

With the black jewel in hand, Kwon Oh-Jin summoned the Black Heaven’s power.

Rumble.

Black smoke appeared from his hand and wrapped around the jewel.

Ring!

[Kwon Oh-Jin has absorbed a fragment of the Black Heaven.]

[All the conditions for the Black Heaven’s ninth enlightenment have been met!]

[The Black Heaven is undergoing its ninth enlightenment!]

“What?”

His eyes widened as he stared at the blue message window before him. He had only hoped to uncover a trace of the Heavenly Demon, but was now suddenly undergoing the ninth enlightenment? The unexpected development caught him off guard.

“

Kugh!

”

Black clouds burst from him and swirled around like a vortex.

Rumble!

Just as Awakeners underwent a dramatic change upon reaching nine stars, perhaps something similar occurred when the Black Heaven reached its ninth enlightenment. The density of black clouds now far exceeded what he had experienced in the previous eight enlightenments.

The vortex of black clouds swirled back into Kwon Oh-Jin.

Rumble! Whoosh!

[The Black Heaven has completed its ninth enlightenment.]

[Some of Awakener Lee Shin-Hyuk's records have been inherited.]

His vision distorted as Lee Shin-Hyuk’s memories flowed into his mind.

Tzzzz.

First, he heard the voice of Lee Woo-Hyuk, Lee Shin-Hyuk’s younger brother.

“Are you feeling better now, Shin-Hyuk?”

“Yeah, I’m okay now.”

Lying in a hospital bed, Lee Shin-Hyuk awkwardly sat up with a faint smile.

Lee Woo-Hyuk deep sighed.

“You better not go into a gate alone again. Got it?”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it.”

“Just because Anthorns are considered weak monsters doesn’t mean you can underestimate them. You know that strange gate phenomena have been increasing recently, right?”

“Yeah...”

Lee Shin-Hyuk nodded as he swallowed back a groan at Lee Woo-Hyuk’s nagging.

Kwon Oh-Jin furrowed his brow in confusion.

Anthorns?

According to the last memories he had inherited, Lee Shin-Hyuk had already reached nine stars and was a high-ranking Awakener. Even if Anthorns weren’t to be taken lightly, they weren’t the kind of monster to warn a nine-star about.

The timeline... shifted back?

Kwon Oh-Jin glanced at the digital clock on the hospital wall that stated November 30, 2020. This was roughly three weeks after Kwon Oh-Jin and Lee Shin-Hyuk had entered a one-star gate together.

So the memories aren’t being inherited in chronological order?

Up until now, the inherited memories had shown future events in sequential order. Now he had jumped back to an earlier point. November 2020 was over a year and a half in the past, even from Kwon Oh-Jin’s current perspective.

Why is this memory coming up now?

Kwon Oh-Jin frowned and refocused on the stream of memories.

“Oh, and what happened with that thing from before? You said a gate appeared in Mokdong, right?”

Lee Shin-Hyuk asked.

“About that... Something strange happened.”

“Strange?”

“Yeah.”

Lee Woo-Hyuk nodded and continued.

“It seems like the Astral Relic we found there was switched with another.”

“Switched?”

“Yeah, so I traced the original Astral Relic’s remnants and found some weird guy hanging around the gate.”

“Who was it?”

“His name was Yoo-Jin.”

Kwon Oh-Jin hadn’t heard the name Yoo-Jin in a very long time.

“He said he was a believer of the False Star Cult.”

“What is that?”

“I dunno, but just calling it a cult doesn’t feel quite right. There’s something really off about it.”

Lee Woo-Hyuk narrowed his eyes.

“I think I need to dig a bit deeper into this.”

“Let me help—”

“You just focus on getting discharged first, Shin-Hyuk.”

With a light scolding, Lee Woo-Hyuk stood up.

Unlike his nickname, the Black Lion, his expression softened noticeably in front of his brother. As Lee Woo-Hyuk walked out and gently closed the hospital room door behind him, Kwon Oh-Jin’s vision returned to normal.

“What? That’s it?” Kwon Oh-Jin frowned in disappointment.

Sure, no rule stated that inherited memories had to be useful. However, this was the first time he received an utterly pointless one.

“Goddamn it.”

No matter how many times he replayed the memory, he couldn’t find a single worthwhile detail from it.

Was I expecting too much?

Kwon Oh-Jin clicked his tongue and turned away. Even if he hadn’t gained anything meaningful from the memory, the fact that the Black Heaven reached a new level was decent enough. He tried to convince himself with that.

“

Huh?

”

An unexplainable instinct, a wordless primal sense, stopped him in his tracks.

“Wait a second...”

As if realizing the puzzle he had finished was all wrong, the first piece he had laid down didn’t even belong to the same puzzle.

Something felt wrong, twisted, warped, and misaligned.

“This doesn’t make sense...”

It didn’t make sense. It defied common sense, broke logic, and didn’t connect.

“Why...?”

This was the ninth memory being inherited. If he included the fragments that came through Deja Vu, he had experienced over ten visions in total. Then why? Why, in all that time... Not once. Not a single time. Not a single word. Not even a single letter—

“Was the Black Star Society ever mentioned?”

At what point was Yoo-Jin an apostle of the False Star Cult and not the Black Star Society?