Chapter 66: Heavy Rain (8)

W-What the hell?”

Ashad Khan stumbled backward, his jaw slack. His eyes widened as he watched Kwon Oh-Jin's wounds recover and regenerate in an instant—like a video playing in reverse.

“Th-This is impossible!” Ashad Khan yelled in disbelief.

This can't be real. It shouldn’t be! It was supposed to be over...

“How can you just get back up like that?!” he cried out, his voice filled with despair.

Kwon Oh-Jin walked toward Ashad Khan, chuckling.

“Pfftt!

If the mid-level boss can have a second phase, so can I, don’t you think?”

His spear and wire shooter had been destroyed in the battle, but the Stigma of Lyra on his chest burned fiercely.

Crackle!

Ashad Khan scowled. “Damn it...!”

𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

He summoned another storm of black feathers around him, which caused him to convulse violently and scream in agony.

“Aaah! Arrghhh!”

Crack! Crunch!

Sickening sounds of distorting bones rang through the air.

Ashad Khan's firm, bronze skin shriveled as grotesque veins bulged beneath. His face was etched with deep wrinkles.

His back hunched and the muscles on his limbs withered away, leaving him skeletal. He looked like he had aged twenty—no, thirty years in the blink of an eye.

Kwon Oh-Jin squinted.

What’s going on?

The power of one’s Stigma alone couldn’t cause such rapid degeneration—unless he was consuming his own lifespan to gain more power.

“Don’t tell me... that’s the cost of your blessing?”

Kwon Oh-Jin let out a laugh in disbelief.

Normally, the Celestial bore the cost of a blessing in the form of restrictions. But for an Awakener to end up in such a grotesque state meant...

The Celestial of Owl Nebula made the apostle pay the price instead?

It couldn’t have been completely transferred to the Awakener, since if that were the case, then every member of the Black Star Society would have run amok.

Still, it was unbelievable. If the only way to bestow a blessing was to force the cost onto the apostle....

“That Celestial of yours doesn’t seem that great,” Kwon Oh-Jin remarked.

They don't even come close to my goddess.

“Shut up!” Ashad Khan shouted, swinging his curved blade wildly amid the pounding rain. His murky wings shot out black feathers at Kwon Oh-Jin.

Tudududu!

A terrifying explosion engulfed Kwon Oh-Jin.

Boom! Crackle!

“Pfft!”

Kwon Oh-Jin chuckled as he braced for impact.

The blast tore him apart in mere moments, but then his voice rang out. “I told you—”

Crack! Pop!

His shattered bones realigned themselves, and his charred skin regenerated at shocking speed.

“From now on, it’s my time to shine.”

Thud!

He stomped on the ground, launching himself into the storm of feathers.

He swung his fist, covered in blue lightning, at the black feathers, only to be blocked and repelled.

Boom!

Ashad Khan burst into a manic laugh. “

H-Hahaha!

Your speedy regeneration is useless if you can't even leave a scratch!Feel the incredible might of the owl!”

The storm intensified, pushing Kwon Oh-Jin back.

Thudududu!

Breaking through the wall of feathers seemed impossible at the moment. Though he kept pouring mana into his punches, none of his attacks could reach Ashad Khan.

“Damn, old man, I thought wisdom came with age—not more whining.”

Kwon Oh-Jin spat out the blood pooling in his mouth and slyly grinned.

If I can’t break through the storm in one go... then I’ll just keep hammering until I do.

Crackle! Sizzle!

Lightning surged through his fists as he struck again and again. The razor-sharp feathers held firm, tearing into his knuckles, splitting flesh and exposing raw bone—but something that trivial wasn’t enough to stop him.

One more time.

He swung his fist.

One more.

Without hesitation.

Again.

Without end.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The black storm around Ashad Khan began to waver.

“A-Ah...”

Ashad Khan trembled, mouth agape. “S-Stay back.”

Kwon Oh-Jin’s fists, clad in blazing blue lightning, hammered the storm like a battering ram against a castle gate.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Fear crept deeper into Ashad Khan every time the storm fluttered. “I-I said stay back. How dare you...!”

How can he still keep at it?

Ashad Khan could comprehend the rapid healing, but that didn’t mean Kwon Oh-Jin couldn’t feel pain.

“D-Do you not feel any pain at all?!” he asked.

Kwon Oh-Jin frowned as he threw another punch. “No, I can. It hurts so much that I feel like dying.”

Each time his fist struck the storm, his nails fell out, his fingers snapped back, and his wrists twisted. Blood, muscle, and bone all ground together inside him.

He felt like he was going to lose his mind, barely able to stay conscious—yet he didn’t stop. As soon as his mangled arm regenerated again, he funneled his mana into it and threw another punch.

Boom!

“H-How...?”

Ashad Khan’s face turned pale as he stared at Kwon Oh-Jin.

If he can still feel pain, how is he able to keep going...?

Kwon Oh-Jin was practically slamming his fist against a shield covered with sharp thorns, over and over again. The agony should have been no different from shoving a hand into a running blender and keeping it there. Even if his wounds could heal, who in their right mind would willingly endure that kind of pain?

Kwon Oh-Jin smirked, lifting his fist again as he faced the storm of feathers. “It’s not impossible.”

Ring!

Blue system messages flickered into view.

[Kwon Oh-Jin has maintained mana without losing consciousness under extreme conditions!]

[Thunderbolt has reached Lv8.]

[Lightning Flames has reached Lv3.]

Then came the red.

[

Warning!

Severe physical damage has accumulated!]

[If the damage persists, a penalty of increased pain sensitivity will be applied!]

That's a relief,

Kwon Oh-Jin thought. If it had been a penalty that paralyzed him, he would have been in trouble.

Laughing like a maniac, he clenched his freshly healed fist and struck the storm once more.

Boom!

This time, it buckled more than before. But a split second later, extreme agony tore through his arm.

“Agghhh!”

So this was the increased pain sensitivity the system had warned about. If the pain before was like his arm being crushed under a hammer, now it felt like it was being wrenched apart by sheer force.

“

Aghhh!

Fuck! This hurts like shit now," he screamed. "

Hrgh!”

Even still, he continued, landing punch after punch.

Boom! Boom!

[Kwon Oh-Jin has maintained mana without losing consciousness under extreme conditions!]

[Thunderbolt has reached Lv9.]

[Lightning Flames has reached Lv4.]

He ignored the pain. This much wasn't too difficult for him.

Ashad Khan's voice trembled with fear. “Y-You crazy son of bitch.”

Kwon Oh-Jin couldn't comprehend his words. “What’s so crazy about this?”

Boom!

The black feathers started to scatter and disappear. The fight was nearing its end.

“It’s not like it’s hard,” Kwon Oh-Jin remarked. Enduring the pain wasn't all that complicated.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Most of the feathers had dispersed by now, and he could see Ashad Khan hiding within the storm.

“W-What?! What do you mean it’s not hard?!” he shouted frantically.

“It’s not hard.”

Kwon Oh-Jin swung his fist once more.

Boom!

Kwon Oh-Jin said, “All you have to do is endure, right?”

He turned to look at Jang Seok-Ho lying on the ground and writhing like an insect. Would

enduring

solve his problems one day? Would

holding on

bring back his dead son?

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Kwon Oh-Jin didn’t halt his attacks. There was no reason to stop.

A memory from six years ago suddenly came back to him. Song Ha-Eun was lying in a hospital bed after losing her eyesight, trembling in the unfamiliar darkness that remained.

He remembered the overwhelming helplessness he had felt back then. No matter how much he endured, no matter how long he held on, no matter how hard he persevered... what was lost would not return on its own.

Compared to that, this is nothing.

Pain

could

be ignored. Agony

could

be endured.

“If it’s a problem that can be solved by enduring, then you just have to deal with it.”

The world was full of things that couldn't be resolved with endurance.

Boooommm!

The storm of feathers burst apart, and Ashad Khan crumpled to the ground. He lifted his head, eyes wide with terror.

“Ah...”

Beneath an ashen sky, void of starlight, a pair of blue eyes glowed like embers in the dark.

“D-Demon...” Ashad Khan stammered. The lone figure standing against the dark sky looked anything but human.

“A-Ah...”

He scrambled backward, crawling along the ground.

“Aaaaah!”

His pitiful scream rang out, his earlier arrogance nowhere to be found. Behind him, soft, steady footsteps echoed—the monster was closing in.

“I’m a normal human," Kwon Oh-Jin said. "How dare you call me a demon?”

He stepped on Ashad Khan’s head.

“If I were a demon, I would’ve died from the pain a while back.”

Would a demonic being incapable of feeling pain and grief have clung to life even as it was being destroyed?

“It’s because I’m human that I keep going, even if it feels fucking unbearable.”

With that, he crushed Ashad Khan’s head under his foot.

Crack!

Considering all the atrocities he had committed, Kwon Oh-Jin had wished to kill him in a more gruesome way, but he wasn’t in a state to do so.

“Damn it.”

He felt that he would pass out the second he let his guard down.

But I still have something left to do.

Pitter-patter.

Raindrops streamed along his cheeks, pooling at the edge of his chin before they fell to the muddy ground below—wherein lay a collapsed man.

“Agh... urgh.”

Jang Seok-Ho's legs and eyes were crushed, yet he had clung to the faint thread of hope.

“D-Did you... defeat Ashad Khan?” he asked in disbelief.

“Yeah. I won.”

“

H-Haha!

I-I didn’t... expect the Thunder Wolf... to be this strong.”

Jang Seok-Ho smiled weakly.

Kwon Oh-Jin lifted his head. “And...”

Pitter-patter.

He walked through the rain toward Jang Seok-Ho. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

“Something... to tell me?” Jang Seok-Ho’s voice trembled with unease, as if the fragile thread of hope he clung to might snap at any moment.

Kwon Oh-Jin looked down at the half-dead man. As always, he let out a dry lie. “I found him.”

“... What?” Jang Seok-Ho’s voice wavered.

“Your son. I found him. They had him.”

“R-Really? You found him?!” Jang Seok-Ho was elated. “H-Hyun-Woo... is here?”

Even if his son were truly here, he wouldn’t have been able to see him with his shattered eyes. And yet, he crawled through the mud until he was right before Kwon Oh-Jin.

“Yeah. He’s passed out right now... but, wait just a sec.” Kwon Oh-Jin placed his hand on his throat. He recalled the video Jang Seok-Ho had shown him, and he recalled the voice that had echoed so clearly in it.

I couldn’t hear much more than his laughter... but that's fine.

Even just the laughter was enough to infer and mimic the kid's voice. This had always been a skill of his.

And I’ve got this now, too...

His throat flexed subtly, and his uvula dipped inward.

Grrrk.

With the Transformation skill he had acquired from the demonic-beast mission, he could now replicate a voice perfectly.

Amidst the pouring rain, the voice of a groggy boy rang out. “Dad...?”

“Hyun-Woo?” Jang Seok-Ho called out, his voice shaky.

“Dad? Is it really you, Dad?”

“H-Hyun-Woo! Hyun-Woo...!”

“D-Dad... y-you're hurt!”

“Ah...” Jang Seok-Ho’s smile turned upside down. “I’m sorry, Hyun-Woo.”

“Dad...? What do you mean?”

Jang Seok-Ho bit his lap hard. “I’m... really sick, so I need to sleep soon.”

“... Sleep?”

“Yeah. Hyun-Woo, whenever you're sick... you always feel much better after some good sleep, right?”

“Th-Then, will you get better soon, Dad?”

A sad smile formed on Jang Seok-Ho's face. “No... I’m really... sick. So, I’ll need to sleep for a very long time.”

“... How long?”

“Well, when you grow up... when you’re all grown. I think... then... I can wake up then.”

“So you'll wake up after I finish elementary school?”

“

H-Haha!

No... a little longer...”

“M-Middle school, then...?”

Jang Seok-Ho frowned deeply as if holding something back.

“It will... take even longer than that,” he said, squeezing the words out. “But... I’ll definitely come back. To meet my Hyun-Woo... for sure.”

“Okay! Then I’ll wait until you come back! I’ll study hard too!”

“Hyun-Woo... there’s someone next to you, right?”

“Y-Yeah!”

“Follow him... and listen to him well...” Jang Seok-Ho’s voice began to fade. “Stay... healthy... okay?”

Water traced a path down Jang Seok-Ho’s cheek—tears, rain, or blood, no one would ever know.

“My Hyun-Woo...” He reached out. “Before I sleep... I... I would like to hold your hand, just once.”

It wasn’t a difficult request. Kwon Oh-Jin used Transformation to shrink his hand down. Then, he lightly grasped Jang Seok-Ho’s cold, trembling hand.

“

H-Hahaha.

” A dry smile spread across Jang Seok-Ho’s face. “I’m glad...”

The rain soaked his curved lips.

“My Hyun-Woo... is safe...”

The water dripped down his chin and mixed into the ground. Would laughter bloom from that soil now?

“I’m gla...”

Jang Seok-Ho’s hand fell.

Thud.

No more words followed.

Pitter-patter!

Heavy rain continued to descend the black sky.