Chapter 347: Interlude - Not a Regressor (2)

The Heavenly Demon’s fist slammed into Kwon Oh-Jin’s cheek.

Smack!

The inside of his mouth split open. Even though they were in his subconscious, he could taste bitter blood.

Kwon Oh-Jin looked up at the Heavenly Demon on top of him, punching him like a madman.

Well, this is the opposite of earlier.

Kwon Oh-Jin’s mouth throbbed with pain, but he couldn’t stop smiling for some reason. Just seeing how rattled the normally calm and indifferent Heavenly Demon was meant that his plan had completely fallen apart.

“Do you even know what you've done?!” The Heavenly Demon rained down punches in a fit of rage. “I-It could’ve all ended!”

If he had absorbed the Weaver, he could’ve seized control of the Black Heaven and wiped them all out. He could have ended the long, seemingly endless play of waiting and suffering.

“You ruined everything, you bastard!”

Instead of throwing herself into the Black Heaven, Vega had chosen to bestow a blessing upon Kwon Oh-Jin. Her blessing wasn’t enough to destroy the Black Heaven.

Who knew when or if another opportunity like this would ever come again? Even now, the Black Heaven raged inside the Heavenly Demon, devouring him from the soul and outward.

“This was it! This was my last chance!”

To protect Song Ha-Eun... The final chance to save her from the end of the world had slipped away in vain.

In despair, he almost screamed, “Why?! Why did you tell her that you weren’t a Regressor?”

Gripping Kwon Oh-Jin’s collar, he poured out all the rage he had bottled up.

“You weren’t... supposed to do that.” Tears trickled down the Heavenly Demon’s cheek.

Despair hovered in his once-empty eyes.

“You of all people shouldn’t have done that.”

Even if they had lived different lives and walked different paths, as long as they were both Kwon Oh-Jin...

“You... were supposed to be me.” The Heavenly Demon’s hand, clutching onto Kwon Oh-Jin’s collar, fell limply. His shoulders trembled faintly.

Kwon Oh-Jin wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand and looked up at him with calm, sunken eyes. “I’m supposed to be you?”

Wasn’t that a strange thing to say? Kwon Oh-Jin could understand him being angry that his long-considered plan had been ruined. Although it had all been messed up, he could still understand the Heavenly Demon trying to sacrifice Vega to protect Song Ha-Eun. If he were in the Heavenly Demon’s shoes, he would’ve thought the same.

I was supposed to be you, huh?

Kwon Oh-Jin narrowed his eyes. That strange, unpleasant feeling he had experienced when meeting the Heavenly Demon for the first time returned. The eerie sense of staring at a mannequin made to resemble a human.

“You’re...”

Something about him felt wrong, twisted, warped, and misaligned, like seeing someone trying to walk on their hands instead of their feet.

Looking into the Heavenly Demon’s trembling eyes, Kwon Oh-Jin finally understood where the unpleasantness came from.

“

Ha.

” Kwon Oh-Jin laughed dryly as he shoved off the Heavenly Demon and stood. Coldly, he looked down at the Heavenly Demon, who had hung his head low like a puppet with its strings cut.

“You... were trying to be me.”

Just like a parent forcing their unfulfilled dreams onto their child, the Heavenly Demon had projected his unreachable ideals and impossible dreams onto Kwon Oh-Jin. Even if he himself vanished along with the Black Heaven, he would disappear with the thought that he could live on as Kwon Oh-Jin.

“Is that why you were so obsessed with the idea that you and I are the same?”

The Heavenly Demon could only remain silent.

“Because I had to be you?”

Only then could the Heavenly Demon find comfort in his pitiful death. Even if he died, Kwon Oh-Jin would live on as him.

“Shut up...” With a twisted expression, the Heavenly Demon glared at Kwon Oh-Jin. “What the hell do you know? How dare you say that?”

He had defied the flow of time and returned to the past just to save Song Ha-Eun. Raging madness from the Black Heaven was slowly consuming his mind. One by one, his precious memories slipped away. Even as his memories wore thin, he clung to the tiny fragment of hope that he could someday be with Song Ha-Eun and kept going.

“I...”

However, it didn’t take him long to realize that the only way to protect her was for him to die. The existence known as the Heavenly Demon was nothing more than a hindrance to her happiness.

He collapsed to his knees and broke down.

“If I didn’t do that...” He hung his head again and clenched his fists to the point of breaking. “I wouldn’t have been able to bear it.”

How could he endure the crushing despair without projecting himself onto Kwon Oh-Jin, without convincing himself that Kwon Oh-Jin was him?

Kwon Oh-Jin looked down at the Heavenly Demon and pressed his lips tightly together, a bitter taste filling his mouth. He couldn’t condone the Heavenly Demon’s life, but he could somewhat empathize because he would’ve done the same if their positions were reversed.

“You and I started from the same place.”

He didn’t know whether human nature was innate or developed along the way. He didn’t have the education and never devoted himself to his studies enough to answer such philosophical questions.

However, he knew one thing for certain.

“I’m not going to live like you anymore.”

Kwon Oh-Jin wouldn’t walk the same path that the Heavenly Demon had taken. Their journeys had grown far too different.

“I won’t become you.”

Kwon Oh-Jin’s words cut like a blade.

The Heavenly Demon flinched as his shoulders trembled. From the left side of his chest, black clouds poured out and engulfed him completely.

Rumble.

“Is that so?” The Heavenly Demon slowly raised his head. The once vacant look in his eyes blazed with a savage blue fire. “In that case, I’ll just have to change the plan.”

His lips curved into a twisted smile as he slowly raised his arm and unleashed jet-black flames from it.

Fwoosh!

The dark fire charged toward Kwon Oh-Jin. He quickly rolled to the side, barely dodging it.

“

Kugh!

”

Although they were just in a realm in his subconscious, not the real world, he could instinctively feel it.

I’m dead if that thing touches me.

He would either be trapped here forever, or this entire space would burn away with him. Either way, he wouldn’t make it out alive.

“

Hup!

”

Blue lightning crackled and clashed against the black flames.

Crackle!

“That’s not going to work,” the Heavenly Demon mocked as the blue lightning scattered into thin air.

“Shit...!”

Even after colliding with the lightning, the black flames didn’t falter in the slightest. It was as though Kwon Oh-Jin had just thrown a cotton ball at a speeding truck.

“Burn,” the Heavenly Demon whispered.

Fwoosh!

The black fire swirled all over the place, setting the space ablaze. It moved like a living creature, floating freely through the air and lunging at Kwon Oh-Jin from every direction.

“

Urgh!

” Kwon Oh-Jin gritted his teeth and dodged with everything he had.

This is...

He bit his lip as he watched the flames weave freely through the air. The sight felt all too familiar to him.

“Why the hell... do you have the Stigma of Draco?!” Kwon Oh-Jin shouted while rolling to the side.

Black flames swept past the spot where he’d just been standing.

Fwoosh!

The Heavenly Demon smiled bitterly. “Who knows?”

He snapped his fingers, and the furious flames vanished without warning.

Fwoosh!

A massive wall of fire surged up around Kwon Oh-Jin.

“Damn it!”

No matter where he looked, he had nowhere to run.

If Vega’s power won’t work—!

A string of black lightning erupted from Kwon Oh-Jin’s hand with terrifying force. Although the bolt crashed into the wall of fire and vanished pathetically fast, it still managed to carve out a narrow gap, barely wide enough for a person to squeeze through.

Kwon Oh-Jin threw himself through the opening.

“

Agh!

”

The flames scorched him all over as he passed through the wall, drowning him in excruciating pain.

“

Haa, haa!

”

Panting heavily, Kwon Oh-Jin glared at the Heavenly Demon. He expected the Heavenly Demon to be strong, but he didn't expect the difference in their power to be laughably vast.

“

Hmmm

.” Despite showing overwhelming dominance, the Heavenly Demon frowned as he stared at the black flames flickering in his palm, seemingly displeased. “It really is difficult for me to use my powers properly inside someone else’s subconscious.”

Chills went down Kwon Oh-Jin’s spine.

That’s him not using his powers properly? Goddamn it.

Just thinking about how much stronger he would be using his full strength made the back of Kwon Oh-Jin’s neck crawl.

The Heavenly Demon slowly walked toward Kwon Oh-Jin. “You said earlier that I was trying to become you, right?”

There was no need for that anymore. They were different.

You aren’t me.

“You’ve got too much to lose now.”

Even though Kwon Oh-Jin could have ended everything, he had chosen to tell Vega the truth because she was precious to him. It wasn’t just Vega either.

“Riarc, Cassia... and Isabella, was it?” The Heavenly Demon let out a cold, scornful laugh. His burning eyes bore into Kwon Oh-Jin. “You couldn’t even protect one person, yet you dare act so greedily? The only reason you can even stand next to Ha-Eun right now is that I helped you.”

If he hadn’t sent Lee Shin-Hyuk into the past and given him the Heaven-Defying Star, Kwon Oh-Jin wouldn’t even be here.

“Everything you’re enjoying now! Everything you have—!”

Kwon Oh-Jin’s subconscious quaked like an earthquake.

Rumble!

“Every! Single! Thing! It's all thanks to me!” The blue flames in the Heavenly Demon’s eye stared at Kwon Oh-Jin. “That’s it. I don’t need you anymore.”

Rumble.

Black clouds completely swallowed the Heavenly Demon. “You don’t deserve to be by Ha-Eun’s side.”