Not A Regressor-Chapter 264: Snowfield (4)

“Why are you...?” Cassia stared at Kwon Oh-Jin, who had now transformed into black clouds, as if she couldn’t comprehend what she was seeing. “N-No... That can’t be. You’re a fake... Yes, you can’t possibly be the real Heavenly Demon.”

Cassia staggered back with wide eyes and clutched her head. The black jewel embedded in her forehead flickered with an unstable light.

“I have to kill him,” she said.

Fiercely baring her teeth, she raised her staff and slammed it into the ground. Shadows spread out from the point of impact and stretched out like a black lake. Much larger snakes slithered out from it.

If the snakes that had risen from the shadows before were the size of rattlesnakes, these were closer to anacondas. These snakes, large enough to swallow a person whole, extended their long tongues and surrounded Kwon Oh-Jin.

“Shadow serpents.”

A clear bell rang out.

Jingle.

Cassia pointed her staff at Kwon Oh-Jin. “Swallow the liar whole.”

With an eerie hiss, the snakes shot forward like bullets.

He ducked low and thrusted his right arm, which had reappeared in the form of black clouds after using Open Heaven.

A snake, with its mouth wide open, lunged toward him. Its sharp fangs pierced his forearm.

“Agh?!” He expected physical attacks or those imbued with mana to pass through the black clouds.

However, the snake’s fangs didn’t pass through him.

The attack landed?

Even though the snake’s fangs sank into the cloud-turned part of his arm, he could feel a sharp pain shooting up through his forearm. He looked down at his arm and saw the black clouds dispersing into the air like ink dropped into water.

Cassia smiled brightly. “I knew it. You’re a fake.”

Now that she confirmed that her attacks worked, her eyes gleamed with conviction as she waved her staff.

Jingle, jingle.

At the sound of the bell, the shadow snakes attacked Kwon Oh-Jin again.

“Mr. Oh-Jin!”

“I’m fine.” Kwon Oh-Jin waved lightly at Isabella as she tried to rush toward him.

He calmly observed the movements of the incoming snakes.

The effects of Open Heaven aren't working.

Normally, when he used it, anyone he recognized as an enemy would lose all their senses one by one. Perhaps it didn’t work because these snakes weren’t living beings, but summoned creatures created from Cassia’s mana.

If that’s the case...

Kwon Oh-Jin’s gaze shifted to Cassia. The black clouds flowing from him shot toward her.

“Oh my, are you aiming for me?” Cassia smiled as if she had anticipated this and created more distance between them.

Crunch!

In the meantime, one of the snakes bit down on his arm again. This time, its fangs pierced a part of his arm that hadn't turned into the clouds. A searing pain shot up his arm, but he had no time to scream.

Black lightning scorched through the snake clamped onto his forearm.

Crackle!

Kwon Oh-Jin dodged the other snakes charging at him from every direction and lightly kicked off the ground. His body scattered like mist in the air, and he instantly reappeared right in front of Cassia. This was another ability of Open Heaven.

“Ugh!”

Perhaps Open Heaven began erasing her physical senses. Cassia winced and stumbled back.

Kwon Oh-Jin reached out and grabbed her by the throat.

Rumble!

Black clouds appeared from his palm and devoured her mana. A massive wave of mana flowed into him through the Black Heaven, but he wasn’t just absorbing mana.

Ring!

[Some of Cassia Colgrande’s memories will be inherited.]

Memories rushed through his mind like a panorama.

This is?

It had been a while since he received memories from someone other than Lee Shin-Hyuk. Kwon Oh-Jin paused briefly and focused on the flood of memories flowing into him.

A white snowfield unfolded before his eyes. A fragile girl curled up and shivered in the raging snowstorm. Before her appeared—

That bastard... is the Heavenly Demon.

He could see a figure surrounded by black clouds. Narrowing his eyes, Kwon Oh-Jin examined the silhouette faintly visible within the dark cloud. He could only confirm that the Heavenly Demon looked human.

The Heavenly Demon stroked Cassia’s head.

“Poor child. To you, who was abandoned by your family, by the world, and even by yourself, I shall give you the star of Serpens.”

A star shimmered amid the black clouds. Starlight flowed from the clouds and into Cassia.

“Let go of me!” Cassia’s eyes flew open despite being gripped around her throat.

She struck Kwon Oh-Jin with the end of her staff. From the place of impact, shadow snakes appeared again and coiled tightly around him. An intense, crushing pressure wrapped around him.

“Ggh! Khah!” Kwon Oh-Jin quickly transformed into black clouds to escape the snakes, but a giant snake’s tail whipped through the air and struck him.

Whoosh!

He flew back like a missile and slammed into the rails of Atlantis[1].

“Agh!”

The rails crumpled like paper, and the tangled steel beams crashed down over him. Kwon Oh-Jin clawed his way out from the collapsing debris.

“Haa, haa!” His breathing grew ragged.

His fading consciousness since activating Open Heaven tormented him more than the physical pain.

How much longer can I last?

He wasn’t exactly sure, but knew that he couldn’t maintain Open Heaven for much longer. A primal warning rang in his mind that if he kept this up, he would cross a line he could never return from.

Kwon Oh-Jin looked at Cassia, slowly getting back to her feet, with a tense expression. He thought he had absorbed a significant amount of her mana, but an incredible amount still poured out from her.

This is all I can do even with Open Heaven?

He had never thought of Open Heaven as a cheat code that guaranteed victory, but no fight had ever been this evenly matched while using it until now. He had been overconfident that he could win easily.

I can’t win in a direct fight.

Even giving himself the benefit of the doubt, the odds were only fifty percent in his favor. That was if he could maintain Open Heaven. Even right now, his consciousness was on the verge of being devoured by the Black Heaven. He couldn’t keep clashing head-on against Cassia in this state.

“Cassia.”

If he couldn’t win by fighting, then he had to use another method he was much better at. The black clouds flowing from Kwon Oh-Jin surrounded them like the shadow dome Cassia had created earlier.

Rumble!

The radius wasn’t large, but it was enough to keep Isabella from seeing inside.

“Haa, haa. What is this?” Cassia said in exhaustion as she glared at him.

“You must’ve been through so much, all alone,” Kwon Oh-Jin calmly and quietly said.

He recalled Cassia’s memories that had flowed into him. The memories of a girl afflicted with an incurable disease, abandoned by her family, forsaken by the world, and left alone in the cold snowfield.

“What are you saying—”

“I’m sorry that I didn’t recognize it sooner.”

Cassia flinched and began trembling. She glared at Kwon Oh-Jin. “W-What would you know?!”

“I do know.” He faintly smiled. “Because I was the one who gave you that star that day.”

For a moment, light flickered in Cassia’s eyes.

“Ah.”

Not long afterward, the black jewel embedded in her forehead gleamed, and the light vanished from her gaze.

“S-Stop lying!”

“It’s okay if you think I’m lying. That’s probably the only thing you can believe right now because you’re being deceived.”

He slowly walked toward her.

“Deceived?”

“Yes.”

Cassia’s eyes trembled. “You’re the one deceiving me! You... you’re not the Heavenly Demon!”

“Then who is the Heavenly Demon?”

“The Heavenly Demon is...” Cassia trailed off and stepped back. She clutched her head and trembled violently. “The Heavenly Demon... the Heavenly Demon is...”

Kwon Oh-Jin grabbed Cassia’s shaking shoulders.

Right now, the Heavenly Demon was dominating her consciousness. However, even under his control, her true self hadn’t been completely lost yet. When she tried to attack Isabella but stopped, she had instinctively shown signs of resisting the Heavenly Demon’s control.

She’s still there.

Cassia’s consciousness was simply submerged deep within. Kwon Oh-Jin needed to draw her buried consciousness back to the surface. To do that, he had to exist in her mind as the real Heavenly Demon.

There’s still a chance.

The jewel embedded in her forehead was controlling her mind. In other words, the Heavenly Demon needed to forcibly dominate her will with that jewel to be accepted as the true Heavenly Demon.

She trusted me more.

If she hadn’t trusted him more, the Heavenly Demon wouldn’t have needed to implant that jewel in her forehead to gain her recognition.

Cassia shook her head, her face pale as a sheet of paper. “N-No. I-I have to follow his order... o-or else.”

She curled into herself and hugged her shoulders.

Kwon Oh-Jin looked down at her as she trembled in fear. “You’ll be abandoned?”

She looked so fragile that she could be mistaken for a young girl. So delicate as if she could shatter like a glass bead with the slightest touch. This was the real Cassia Colgrande hidden behind the terrifying title of the Serpens Queen.

Trauma rooted in the past.

The Heavenly Demon had exploited her trauma to turn her into his puppet. An extreme self-loathing had built up ever since she developed an incurable illness. The hopeless girl could only sit in a wheelchair, waiting helplessly for death to come. To her, the fear of being abandoned felt more terrifying than death itself.

Kwon Oh-Jin could only do one thing. “I won’t abandon you.”

“What?”

“I said, I won’t abandon you.”

Gently, as if handling something more precious than anything in the world, he caressed her cheek.

“Because you’re more precious than anything in the world.”

“I-I am?”

“Yes.”

Cassia’s eyes wavered. To someone who had always been treated as disposable, being called precious felt painfully unfamiliar.

“No, that’s not true,” she said.

She couldn’t be precious. If she had been, she wouldn’t have been abandoned alone in that snow-covered wilderness.

“I... don’t deserve to be called precious.”

“That’s not for you to decide.”

“B-But I...”

The nightmare-like memories resurfaced of her mother’s voice, slipping out through the slightly opened door late at night.

“Still, I’m relieved.”

That single word of relief, tinged with faint comfort, had caged her life for all those years and slashed through her mind like a knife.

“N-No one has ever needed me,” Cassia said.

“I need you.”

“They all left me. Every single one of them.”

“I won’t leave you.”

“I... have nothing.”

“You have me.” Kwon Oh-Jin looked deep into her eyes.

At that moment, the black jewel in her forehead cracked.

Crack!

Her vacant, lifeless eyes began to shine once again with a beautiful emerald hue.

Cassia faintly gasped and smiled at Kwon Oh-Jin. “Ah... You’re not the Heavenly Demon, are you?” She slowly shook her head with sorrowful eyes. “The Heavenly Demon was never this kind.”

Maybe he had been too gentle, causing it to backfire. Kwon Oh-Jin couldn’t help it since he wasn’t truly the Heavenly Demon, but only a scammer pretending to be him. He could never fully become the real thing.

If I’m going to be a true scammer...

It wasn’t about deceiving someone, but making them believe on their own. That was what a real scammer did.

Kwon Oh-Jin nodded. “You're right. I’m not the Heavenly Demon.”

“I knew it,” Cassia murmured.

Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes as she sadly smiled.

“At least, not yet,” he said.

“What do you mean by that?”

“To you, what kind of being is the Heavenly Demon?”

In the endless snowfield, only he approached her and plucked a star from the night sky for her.

“He is my everything.”

“Even though he tried to control you with some pathetic jewel?” Kwon Oh-Jin pointed at the cracked gem embedded in her forehead. “Even though he threatened to abandon you if you didn’t obey?”

The Heavenly Demon had made one critical mistake. The girl abandoned in the pure white snowfield had never wished for stars. She had longed for the warmth of a human touch that could melt the freezing snow around her.

“Cassia.” He gently brushed away the tears from the corner of her eye. “I swear to you, here and now, I will never abandon you no matter what happens.”

His whisper felt softer than any warmth she had ever known.

“I’ll never let you suffer through those cold, painful, lonely memories again.” He whispered sweeter than any dream. “Because you are more precious than anything else in this world.”

He whispered what the girl, abandoned in the snowfield, had most longed to hear. The words she had spent a lifetime desperately wishing someone would say. Even if those whispers were nothing more than the sweet lies of a scammer, she couldn’t resist believing them.

“I’ll become your Heavenly Demon.”

1. A roller coaster in Lotte World. ☜