Chapter 371: Celestial Of The Black Stars (7)

With a burst of light, overwhelming blue lightning swept across the entire swamp. The seahorses crawling out of the mud rolled their eyes back, frothing at the mouth, and the violently swaying swamp floor suddenly stilled.

The mud began bubbling like a boiling spring.

Rumble.

It swelled into a dome as a massive figure emerged. The figure resembled the seahorses that had just collapsed, but its aura was on another level entirely. Its mere presence took one’s breath away just from looking at it.

Those sunken, deep blue eyes fixed onto Kwon Oh-Jin.

“So, it is just as he said,” the seahorse muttered faintly and shook its head.

Biting her lip hard, Vega gazed at the being rising from the mud. “Enceladus...”

Enceladus slowly turned his head toward her. “It’s my first time seeing you outside the temple.”

“What’s your motive for coming to Earth?” Vega asked.

“Motive,

huh

.” Enceladus mockingly grinned as his shoulders quivered with laughter. “We came here for only one reason. We will erase every trace of your filthy Stigmas from this world.”

“Erase them? What do you mean...?”

“Among Celestials, there was once a saying that if Stigmas were the seeds, then humans were the soil in which those seeds sprouted. In that case, if all the soil withers and dies... then no seed will ever sprout, will it?”

In other words, they intended to wipe out humanity to erase any chance of Awakeners being born.

“How dare you!” Vega roared, her face twisting with fury. “Even if you’ve defiled yourself with the power of the Black Heaven, have you forgotten what you are at your very core?”

Even if they had been expelled from the Sanctum, they were still Celestials at heart.

“Surely you know that it is our duty as Celestials to protect the fate of this world and to guide the children who live upon this star onto the righteous path!”

“A Celestial’s duty,

huh

.” Enceladus laughed derisively as if he had just heard something ridiculous. “And yet, it was you all who cast us out.”

“That’s...” Vega faltered.

Before they had accepted the Black Heaven’s power and became Black Stars, the current Celestials themselves had branded them as False Stars and cast them out of the Sanctum.

Vega, always cloistered within her temple, did not know why Enceladus had been expelled. One fact remained clear. The current Celestials had indeed driven him out.

Regulus, who had been silently listening, suddenly shouted, “Nonsense! Have you forgotten why we banished you from the Sanctum in the first place?”

“I only did that because it was necessary.”

“

Ha!

Necessary? How dare you say that when you dissolved your very children bearing your Stigma into liquid to fuel your mana!”

The lion’s wrath thundered across the swamp.

Turning humans into liquid fuel...

Kwon Oh-Jin furrowed his brow and recalled Sosuke, the former executor of the Seahorse faction. Sosuke had also melted other Awakeners into a solution to replenish his strength. Kwon Oh-Jin had never imagined that the origin of that atrocity was a Celestial.

“When cultivating crops, isn’t it natural to enrich the soil with fertilizer?”

“Crops, you say...! What do you think these children are?!” Blue sparks furiously flared around Vega. “You dare!”

Even before Vega’s rage, Enceladus remained utterly calm.

“Stop.” Kwon Oh-Jin held her back as she prepared to lunge at him.

“M-My child.”

“Talking to that bastard won’t change anything.”

Now that he knew their purpose, only one thing remained.

Kwon Oh-Jin tightly gripped his spear and aimed it at Enceladus. “Hey, horse-headed motherfucker.”

“How rude of you, in front of a Celestial.”

“You? A Celestial? Don’t make me laugh. You’re just some scum who got booted for running his mouth.” Kwon Oh-Jin scoffed and drew on the power of his Stigma.

Blue lightning violently sparked around him.

“Let’s not waste our energy on useless conversations.”

The lightning gathered and concentrated at the tip of his spear.

He drew his arm back. “Let’s just get this over with.”

And hurled it.

Swoosh!

His spear tore through the mud.

“

Hmph

. Arrogant brat, just what I’d expect from the North Star’s child.” Enceladus sneered and stretched out a hand toward the incoming spear.

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Ruuumble!

The mud surged up like a wall and blocked its path. The spear slammed into it, spraying mud in every direction.

“Still shackled by those wretched restrictions of the Law, you pitiful scraps of dying stars!”

Rumble!

The mud churned violently and rushed back to Enceladus as if drawn to him. He glared at the three Celestials floating above. “Bound by your restrictions, watch helplessly as your children die one by one!”

Enceladus burst forward and cleaved through the mud like a charging beast.

Slash!

“Oh-Jin!” Song Ha-Eun leveled her cigarette at Enceladus like a weapon.

The waist-deep mud clung to her, trying to hold her down, but that didn’t stop her.

“Burn.”

After all, her greatest power wasn’t close combat. She could unleash her overwhelming firepower from a distance.

Fwoosh!

A massive Fire Dragon, tens of meters long, formed in the air.

Her uncovered Draconic Eye glared back at the Fire Dragon. The flames, infused with the Dragon God’s soul, writhed violently and strained against her control. When she first awakened this power, the dragon had nearly consumed her.

“

Tsk

. Sit still, you little shit.” She clenched her fist, and the Fire Dragon flinched.

Song Ha-Eun grinned in satisfaction and aimed her cigarette toward Enceladus, still barreling forward.

“See that horse-headed bastard?”

Fwoosh!

“Burn him to ashes.”

At her command, the Fire Dragon roared and charged toward him. Heat seared the swamp, instantly drying the mud into stone.

“

Kkh

.”

Even a Celestial beyond mortals halted and raised his guard against the intense flames.

“

Neigh!

” With a shriek, a black aura burst from Enceladus and cloaked him.

Seawater surged up and swirled violently around him.

Sssshhhhhh!

As the fire met water, a curtain of steam exploded across the battlefield, blanketing hundreds of meters in fog.

“Go, child of the lion!”

“

Yes!

”

The fog swirled violently and gathered at the edge of a single sword as sharp as a lion’s claw. The wind slashed toward Enceladus.

“

Agh!

” The blast sent Enceladus staggering on unsteady footing.

“Koshiro! Cover us!”

“On it,

Oyabun

!”

Sakaki’s skin flushed red as his muscles swelled grotesquely.

“

Haaah, haah, haaah!

” Snarling like an enraged bull, he plowed through the waist-high mud and shook the ground with every step.

Rumble!

The earth itself quaked beneath his charge.

“Break!” Sakaki’s massive fist crashed down on Enceladus.

Boom!

The blow drove the Celestial back as he skidded across the ground.

“You bastards...!” Enceladus swung his arm furiously, only to have it intercepted by a translucent shield that shimmered in place.

Just then, Kwon Oh-Jin sprinted forward with his arm outstretched. “Lightning Charge.”

Dantalian, buried in the mud, flew into his grasp.

“Lightning Charge, Lightning Charge, Lightning Charge!”

Crackle!

Sparks flared as blue lightning condensed again and again. In the past, even five charges would have threatened to burn his mana circuits to ashes.

Ten. Eleven. Twelve.

With the Stigma of Lyra at ten stars, he could endure condensing it twelve times with no problems. At this rate, he felt like he could reach even twenty times, but the spear in his hand trembled as if in pain and groaned beneath the strain.

Dantalian won’t be able to handle much more.

It felt like it was begging him to stop.

“

Tsk

.” Kwon Oh-Jin clicked his tongue and launched forward.

Using Lightning Steps, he streaked through the air with his spear aimed at Enceladus’s chest.

Enceladus crossed his arms instinctively. Seawater spewed up, knitting into a shield around his torso.

Stigma of Hourglass.

Time slowed like a slow-motion video.

Perhaps he had created the barrier too hastily. Enceladus’s water shield was uneven, thick in some places and thin in others.

Kwon Oh-Jin narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath. Along with the Stigma of Hourglass, he also activated the Stigma of Pyxis. The tip of his spear shifted as if magnetized, and he aimed for the thinnest spot.

“I found the gap.”

Crackle!

The spear pierced straight into Enceladus’s chest. The condensed lightning exploded all at once, detonating a massive blast. Enceladus flew back dozens of meters and skidded across the swamp.

“Nice one, Oh-Jin!” Song Ha-Eun threw him a thumbs-up.

Unlike her, Kwon Oh-Jin’s face remained grim.

I couldn’t feel it piercing his heart.

The blow landed, and an explosion had occurred. However, the sensation felt dull like thrusting a spear into stone instead of flesh.

“Impressive... I have to admit, you have the skills to back up your arrogance.” Enceladus slowly got back up.

Twelve full charges of condensed lighting had only cracked a few scales on his chest.

“But you’re still a lowly insect in the end.” He smiled wickedly and raised his arm. “Now, let me show you...”

Rumble!

The sea roared as a massive trident erupted from it.

“—why a Celestial is called a transcendent being.”