Chapter 344: Black Sky (8)

The Heavenly Demon walked up to Kwon Oh-Jin and casually snapped his fingers. “Come on, relax. This will be our last chance to talk, after all.”

A chair appeared out of nowhere.

Kwon Oh-Jin stared at the chair and murmured, “Subconscious...”

“That’s right. Although this time, we’re not in your subconscious. I’ve invited you into mine.” The Heavenly Demon sat down and crossed his legs.

Kwon Oh-Jin glared sharply at him. “What do you mean this is our last chance to talk?”

“Exactly what it sounds like.” The Heavenly Demon snapped his fingers again and materialized a cup of coffee, sipping it leisurely. “It’s all over now.”

𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

He sighed with an oddly relieved expression.

His eyes, filled with fatigue, looked straight at Kwon Oh-Jin. “It’s taken far too long.”

He reminisced about a past Kwon Oh-Jin couldn’t remember—a world that had already been destroyed once. Covering his face with his hand, the Heavenly Demon let out a hollow chuckle.

Kwon Oh-Jin’s face twisted with anger. “Was making Vega vanish your goal all along?”

If everything was over, then the Heavenly Demon had finally accomplished his goal. In this situation, that could only mean one thing—Vega’s disappearance.

“To be precise, my goal was to bring Vega here to this place.”

“And you spent decades pretending to be sealed away just for that?”

“There’s no easier way to fool people than simply waiting.”

Kwon Oh-Jin knew that already. Even a naturally gifted liar couldn’t make up flawless lies on the spot. Perfect lies demand long deliberation.

“You bastard!”

To endure all that time just for this moment? No sane person could do that.

Kwon Oh-Jin grabbed the Heavenly Demon by the collar. “What the hell did Vega ever do to you?!”

“We made a promise.”

A promise?

“She wanted me to devour her in return for sending me back into the past.”

“What kind of bullshit is that...?”

She had asked to be devoured? That was just another way of asking him to kill her.

Kwon Oh-Jin’s head burned at the absurd and incomprehensible answer. “You’re saying the promise was for you to kill her once she sent you back?”

“That’s right.”

“Cut the crap!” Kwon Oh-Jin raised his hand that gripped the Heavenly Demon’s collar.

The Heavenly Demon was so light that he rose like a puppet with its strings cut.

Still held by the collar, he looked down at Kwon Oh-Jin with exhausted eyes. “You noticed something was different when your Black Heaven came into contact with mine, didn’t you?”

“That’s...” He had felt it.

The Heavenly Demon’s Black Heaven was unstable and fragile.

“That’s because my Black Heaven is overflowing.”

“Overflowing...? What do you mean?”

“

Hmm

. To put it simply, it’s about to go berserk.” With a bitter smile, the Heavenly Demon snapped his fingers.

A small cup and a pitcher of water appeared. He picked up the pitcher and poured water into the cup. The water overflowing from the tiny cup soaked the ground.

“This is what I mean.”

“You can’t contain the Black Heaven’s power?” Kwon Oh-Jin asked.

“Unlike you, I had a smaller plate to begin with.” A self-mocking smile crossed his face.

Kwon Oh-Jin frowned and placed his hand over the left side of his chest. There shouldn’t be any fundamental difference between his Black Heaven and the Heavenly Demon’s. After all, they were both Kwon Oh-Jin. The fact that they weren’t the same meant—

“The Heaven-Defying Star...?”

“You’re right.”

He recalled what Cassia had told him. Completing the Black Heaven required the Heaven-Defying Star.

The Heavenly Demon let out a cackling laugh and shrugged. “Isn’t it strange? That idiot ended up with the power to overturn fate.”

“Why didn’t you absorb the Heaven-Defying Star? You went back further in time than Lee Shin-Hyuk, didn’t you?” Kwon Oh-Jin stared at him, unable to understand.

“My plate was already full, so absorbing the Heaven-Defying Star was useless for me.”

“Is that why... you made me absorb the Heaven-Defying Star?”

So that I could complete the Black Heaven since it was already too late for him?

“Thanks to that, your Black Heaven was able to remain stable instead of overflowing like mine.”

“What happens if the Black Heaven goes out of control?”

“With only the desire to consume the stars left, it would destroy the world. Just like before.”

Before?

“Haven’t you heard from Vega? The Celestials were already destroyed once by the Black Heaven.”

Right. He had heard before that the Celestials had once been wiped out by the Black Heaven. The current Celestials, including Vega, were born after that.

With his lips tightly shut, Kwon Oh-Jin glared at the Heavenly Demon. The world would be doomed if the Heavenly Demon’s Black Heaven went berserk.

“But what does that have to do with killing Vega—

ah?

”

An intense chill suddenly ran down Kwon Oh-Jin’s spine.

The Heavenly Demon’s Black Heaven was already overflowing. Then, what would happen if Vega were poured onto an already full plate like a waterfall?

The plate itself would shatter.

“So, that’s what this is about...”

Why hadn’t he seen it sooner? Why didn’t he realize something so simple?

Kwon Oh-Jin dryly laughed and ran his hand down his face. If the Black Heaven went berserk, the world would end—which meant only one thing.

“You started all this just to die...?”

The Heavenly Demon smiled brightly. With a voice as dry as the desert, he said, “If I die, Ha-Eun can be happy.”

As if it were nothing, as if it didn’t matter, he spoke of his own death with a peaceful smile.

Kwon Oh-Jin felt like the air had been sucked out of his lungs. His legs buckled slightly under the weight of crashing emotions. His stomach twisted, and he felt nauseous.

From the outside, they looked exactly the same. For some reason, the Heavenly Demon’s face felt unbearably unfamiliar.

“Just what are you thinking...”

Just how broken and worn down did a human have to be to say something like that?

“If our roles were reversed, you would’ve made the same choice.” The Heavenly Demon laughed and lightly patted his shoulder. “Because you’re me.”

They had lived different lives, but they were both Kwon Oh-Jin in the end.

Kwon Oh-Jin shoved the Heavenly Demon’s hand off his shoulder and glared at him. “So, you’re telling me to just let Vega die?” He clenched his fists tightly. “I’ll kill you myself if you want to die, but leave Vega out of it.”

The Heavenly Demon shook his head slowly. “That won’t do. Even if you kill me, the Black Heaven will still go berserk.”

“Then, what?”

“The only way to completely destroy the Black Heaven is to absorb it into the Weaver.”

“Why... Just why does it have to be Vega?”

Other North Stars existed, so why did it have to be Vega?

“The Weaver can control the Black Heaven’s power. Haven’t you seen Vega before when you used Open Heaven in the past?”

Indeed, Kwon Oh-Jin had. He recalled the image of Vega shining alone in the sky, covered in black clouds. When his consciousness was slipping from using Open Heaven, Vega was the starlight that brought him back.

So, the reason I’ve been able to survive after using Open Heaven was because of Vega.

He had suffered aftereffects from using it, but it never spiraled out of control like it did for the Heavenly Demon.

“Only with the Weaver can the Black Heaven be destroyed without losing control.”

Did that mean Vega had to be sacrificed to save the world?

“It’s okay,” the Heavenly Demon said.

“What is?”

What could possibly be okay about this?

“As long as I die, there’s no need to worry about the Black Star Celestials or the demonkin.”

“What are you talking about...?”

“I’ve already made arrangements so that they’ll all die with me when my Black Heaven disappears.”

They’ll all die together?

“You probably don’t remember, but in our past lives, those False Star bastards gave Ha-Eun a hard time too. Ah, since you inherited Lee Shin-Hyuk’s memories, maybe you do know?”

“Wait a minute. The reason you turned the False Stars into Black Stars was...?”

The Heavenly Demon faintly chuckled and nodded. “I laid the groundwork so those bastards would die with me when I go.”

Only then did Kwon Oh-Jin finally understand what the Heavenly Demon meant when he first said, “It’s all over now.”

If the Heavenly Demon died, all beings who inherited his power would die with him.

No more threats or hardships would exist. It would literally all end. The final page of the story had come. And so, Song Ha-Eun and Kwon Oh-Jin lived happily ever after.

Kwon Oh-Jin’s eyes trembled. “Don’t give me that bullshit.”

He gritted his teeth and punched the Heavenly Demon’s face.

Smack!

The Heavenly Demon flew back and crashed to the ground. Kwon Oh-Jin climbed on top of him and began punching like hammering a nail.

“I said stop the goddamn bullshit, you bastard!”

You want me to just sit back and watch while Vega gets consumed by the Black Heaven? It’s okay to sacrifice Vega to save the world? That Ha-Eun will be happy?

“If Vega dies, then Riarc dies too!”

Riarc was a Star Spirit who had inherited part of Vega’s soul. If she died, he would naturally die too.

“And what? Everyone who received the Black Heaven’s power will die with you?”

Isabella and Cassia, clutching their heads in agony, flashed through Kwon Oh-Jin’s mind.

“Then, what about Isabella?! What about Cassia?! If you die, they die too, you son of a bitch!”

If everyone affected by the Black Heaven died, then Isabella and Cassia, who had received Stigmas from Black Star Celestials, couldn’t avoid death either.

Still lying on the ground with a swollen face, the Heavenly Demon squinted up at Kwon Oh-Jin with a dry gaze.

“I know Cassia, but Riarc? Isabella?” he murmured the names Kwon Oh-Jin had just shouted and cocked his head, genuinely puzzled. “Who are they?”

Kwon Oh-Jin’s fist stopped in mid-air. A cold chill slithered down his spine. The cold sweat on his forehead trailed down his cheek.

“You... don’t know?”

“I think I’ve heard of Riarc, but Isabella? Never heard of her.”

Of course, he hadn’t. In the previous timeline, she was more widely known as the Blood Witch than Isabella.

The Heavenly Demon shrugged nonchalantly and continued as if nothing mattered. “Well, whatever. What’s it got to do with anything?”

“What...?”

“It has nothing to do with you whether they die or not.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

The Heavenly Demon stood up with a smile and placed a hand on Kwon Oh-Jin’s shoulder. “It doesn't matter if everyone dies as long as Ha-Eun lives, right?”

Like it was nothing, he spoke of others’ deaths with chilling indifference just as when he’d spoken of his own death.