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Chapter 196: Star, Baek Gyeo-Ul (6)

However, it was worth using all his mana. He had Cadmus anyway, so he could always replenish his depleted mana.

[The Celestial ‘Calamity Tiger’ regains his composure with difficulty and silently watches you. He is no longer smiling!]

[The Celestial \'Calamity Tiger’ wanted you before, but he now feels alert around you.]

‘He’s confused as hell.’ Chang-Sun chuckled quietly, looking at Heoju’s reaction.

Heoju had seen the typical tactic of ‘Divine Twilight’ before, so he was bound to be confused. To make things worse, he had witnessed it again right after Xue Yong, who was showing deep interest in Chang-Sun and was trying to snatch the [Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan], had suddenly gone missing. Nevertheless, all Heoju could do was doubt Chang-Sun. He couldn’t be certain that Chang-Sun was behind everything due to the differences between Chang-Sun and the ‘Divine Twilight,’ which made it impossible to conclude they were one and the same.

‘I use <Dusk Lightning>, <Darkness>... and Retribution Fire. None of those have anything to do with the ‘Divine Twilight’ since he didn’t really use any of them.’

Chang-Sun’s main power was [Blood Law], which originated from the Blood Manipulation Technique, so Heoju was likely baffled. Moreover, Chang-Sun now had the power of a Giant, so the other Celestials would probably take longer in finding a link between him and the ‘Divine Twilight.’ However, it was different for Heoju. Wanting to take after the ‘Divine Twilight,’ he had tracked down and copied all the traces Chang-Sun had left to become stronger. For that reason, Heoju could notice the link faster than other Celestials.

‘He thinks I acquired my powers from places like <Muspelheim>, where not even <Heaven> could track me down, because I’m the ‘Divine Twilight’... He must be having one hell of a headache.’?

However, Chang-Sun was certain that even if Heoju started doubting him, he wouldn’t be able to do anything to him right now since he coveted the person named Lee Chang-Sun too much to harm him due to mere suspicions. Chang-Sun already had two of the [Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan], and if he turned out not to be the ‘Divine Twilight,’ Heoju wouldn’t be able to find a better pawn than him.

‘Even if he finds out that I’m the ‘Divine Twilight,’ it still isn’t bad news for him. In his eyes, his prey is voluntarily walking into his mouth, so he’ll probably try to protect me when the <Purple Star Astrology> Celestials try to step in.’

Chang-Sun intentionally used his old tactic to send a shiver down Heoju’s spine and make him take some form of action.

‘He’ll lay himself open to attack once he’s surprised.’

From now on, Chang-Sun and Heoju would be engaged in a war of nerves. Heoju could certainly give up on devouring Chang-Sun and mobilize the White Tiger Clan to eliminate him.

‘But that’s not an option anymore.’

Heoju had to have witnessed Jin Prezia, Chang-Sun’s subordinate, showing enough strength to fight Czestochowa on equal grounds. Moreover, Chang-Sun alone could now defeat most ‘King-Class’ Players.

‘I can also easily counterattack if he tries to take me out.’

Chang-Sun could just get rid of Heoju with [Execution Sword], just like what he had done with Xue Yong.

The war of nerves subtly began between Chang-Sun and Heoju.

After the intense explosion, lightning sparks flew up and shred Bardiya. Chang-Sun saw some shadow pieces screaming as they ran away.

『Argh! Argggh!』

The explosion earlier didn’t seem enough to annihilate Bardiya since he was made up of psychological energy.

‘False deities have a strong will to live. That’s how Bardiya survived even after Xerxes’ death.’?

He was certain that Bardiya didn’t have any strength to retaliate anymore. The outcome could have been different if Xerxes was alive and well, but Bardiya had limited ways to escape and survive in a place so bright that he couldn’t even maintain his shadow.

Paah―!

Instead of throwing another <Dusk Lightning> bolt, Chang-Sun sprang toward his opponent. The Giant standing behind Chang-Sun, seemingly to protect him, transformed into a bird, then into a tiger to pursue Bardiya as well.

[The Skill ‘Tiger Fang’ has been activated!]

Made with purple lightning energy, the tiger opened its jaws wide and sunk its fangs in one of the shadow pieces.

Crunch!

『Arghhhh! Let me go! Let me goooo!』 Bardiya screamed as sparks flew up from where the tiger had sunk its fangs.

Pzz,?pzzzz.

A sound echoed, resembling that of a bag of popcorn popping in a microwave, as Bardiya writhed as if he was having a seizure. A couple of moments later, Chang-Sun reached Bardiya, who was suffering while the tiger had him pinned down.

『D-don’t kill…! Chang-Sun… You and I are frie—!』

Bardiya reached out his hand toward Chang-Sun, appealing to their old friendship, but Chang-Sun remained expressionless as if he was wearing a mask. Going down on one knee, Chang-Sun met Bardiya’s eyes and asked, “Do you want to live?”

『Y-yes…! So please…!』

“Then surrender. I will let it slide just this once.” Chang-Sun instructed.

『O-okay, I’ll do anything you want, so please get this—!』Bardiya desperately pleaded, but Chang-Sun grabbed his face, thinking he didn’t have to listen to him anymore. He tightened his grip on Bardiya’s jaw and infused it with mana, causing Bardiya to fly up high.

Crumpleee.

With a contorting sound, Bardiya twisted, whirled, and was sucked into Chang-Sun’s palm. Not long after, his other shadow pieces released <Dusk Lightning> that swept everything around them, including the ruins all over the place and the snowfield itself. Chang-Sun’s hand then sucked all of it in as if he was ripping off a good drawing from a sketchbook.

With Gyeo-Ul’s mind palace now pitch black, all that was left was the wriggling black mask on Chang-Sun’s hand. Having stopped being Gyeo-Ul’s other personality, Bardiya had returned to his original form.

In analytical psychology, a shadow was referred to as the personality created with one’s every bad aspect. That was who Bardiya was.

Oong, ooong―!

Bardiya shook hard, telling Chang-Sun not to hurt him anymore now that he had followed Chang-Sun’s demands. On the other hand, Chang-Sun couldn’t help but chuckle as he looked at Bardiya. This shadow acted the same way when he was still one of Xerxes’ personalities. Bardiya was certainly sly. Whenever one laid themself open to attack, Bardiya would always try to backstab them, and if they proved too strong, he would surrender without hesitation.

Holding Bardiya’s mask, Chang-Sun approached Gyeo-Ul, who was still sitting on the ground with lifeless eyes. He was like a marionette whose strings had been cut off.

“Phew!” Chang-Sun lightly sighed, thinking this father and son duo had a way of bringing him trouble. He couldn’t hate them, however. Perhaps that was their charm. “Gyeo-Ul, wake up.”

Gyeo-Ul didn’t return to his senses, perhaps because his first time losing control of his power had been too much. Chang-Sun crouched down to level his eyes with Gyeo-Ul’s, put Bardiya’s mask on his hand, and patted his shoulder. Bardiya’s mask faintly trembled.

“You know him, don’t you? Put it on and beat him yourself. That’s the only way we can escape from this place,” Chang-Sun continued.

However, Gyeo-Ul remained motionless. Bardiya’s mask shook again, seemingly signaling Chang-Sun to let him take over as Gyeo-Ul’s main personality instead. However, Chang-Sun’s slight frown when he expressed his desire even at this moment made him stop. Meanwhile, Gyeo-Ul finally grabbed Bardiya’s mask tightly and put it on his face.

Click.

A mechanical sound echoed. Fitting Gyeo-Ul perfectly, Bardiya’s mask slowly seeped into Gyeo-Ul’s skin.

Woosh.

The world around Chang-Sun and Gyeo-Ul changed once more. However, despite no longer being in the windy snowfield, the place still seemed oddly similar. They found themselves on a hill covered in blooming wildflowers that were swaying along with the warm winds. Birds chirped around them, and squirrels energetically ran on the tree branches. Spring had come to this world, and everything that had been hibernating was starting to wake up.

―■■! Be careful! It’s dangerous if you run like that.

Hearing a feminine voice from the foot of the hill they were standing on, Chang-Sun swiftly turned his head toward it. Gyeo-Ul did as well, albeit a little later.

―Hehehe.

A boy seemingly around four or five years old was running toward Chang-Sun and Gyeo-Ul. He was covered in burned marks, making him look hideous. Nevertheless, his pure and bright smile was so cute that looking at him would make anyone smile. Chang-Sun instinctively realized the boy was Gyeo-Ul when he was younger, and the woman following him was…

“…Mom,” Gyeo-Ul murmured.

Chang-Sun looked at Gyeo-Ul, whose eyes were fixed on the woman running after the young Gyeo-Ul. The white hanbok the woman was wearing made it seem as if moving around was an inconvenience for her. She was beautiful, though, and had many distinct facial features that resembled the current Gyeo-Ul.

‘He said he doesn’t have any memory of his parents,’?Chang-Sun recalled.

Gyeo-Ul’s lip trembled. He had said that he didn’t remember what had happened before he woke up in the snowfield. Although Chang-Sun wasn’t sure what kind of traumatic experience Gyeo-Ul had gone through, he was probably regaining his sealed memories little by little now that Bardiya had been subdued.

The young Gyeo-Ul hopped around as he looked at his mother, telling her to catch him, until his legs tangled up, causing him to fall down.

―No! ■■!

The mother screamed. Thinking the boy would roll down the hillside, Chang-Sun unwittingly flinched. The surprised Gyeo-Ul almost ran toward the boy as well, but the mother frantically reached the boy first and embraced him before he could get seriously hurt.

―Waahh!!!

―My troublemaker, that was scary, wasn’t it? It’s okay. It’s okay now. Mom is here.

The young Gyeo-Ul cried for quite some time out of sheer fear, but his mother just chuckled and soothed him until he calmed down, telling him that everything was fine. It was clear how much she loved Gyeo-Ul. No matter how hideous he looked, he was just a little boy in his mother’s eyes.

―Gosh! You get hurt after playing around. You’re just like your father….

The woman gently wiped the young Gyeo-Ul’s face with her sleeve, and she ended up bursting into laughter. Her son’s face was smeared with tears and snot, making him look funny even in his mother’s eyes.

“… Mother was a shaman in a very small rural village that had less than five hundred villagers,” Gyeo-Ul said calmly. He seemed to have regained his composure, but he was still smiling bitterly.

“A shaman?” Chang-Sun repeated.

“Yes, a psychic who serves deities. The god she served at the time… was Father.”

Chang-Sun nodded, having a rough idea of what happened. Just like Kali, the <Horoscope> and <Purple Star Astrology> Celestials harmed Xerxes, and he ended up on Earth.

“I don’t know how they became a couple and conceived me, but… I think they loved each other dearly. Mother would smile whenever she talked about Father. Unfortunately, the villagers took a dim view of their relationship,” Gyeo-Ul continued.

Spectrophilia referred to sexual intercourse between a shaman and the god they served, and the child that was conceived through it was called a ghost child. Ghost children often held great power like Bihyeong of the Silla Dynasty and Merlin, the legendary British wizard. However, it was still an abnormal phenomenon, so people were bound to feel uneasy about it. That likely affected Gyeo-Ul’s past.

“Mother tried to protect me from the villagers when they harassed us, but she was born fragile, so she could only withstand it for a little while…” Gyeo-Ul trailed off, frowning.

The memory popping up in his head was making him suffer. It didn’t matter how old and mature a person became. Their trauma would haunt them for the rest of their lives. Moreover, Gyeo-Ul’s trauma was so horrible that he had subconsciously sealed the memory. Recalling it alone was heart-wrenchingly painful.

Enduring the pain, Gyeo-Ul tried to continue to tell his story. Chang-Sun couldn’t help but commend Gyeo-Ul’s great resolve.

“… That was when I lost my memory. Before that, I always wondered where in the world Father was. Mother missed him a lot.” Gyeo-Ul smiled bitterly. “I resented Father so much because he wasn’t around… but I guess he was closer than I thought.”

Gyeo-Ul seemed to have realized that his other personality was also a trace of his father. Although it was a little twisted, his father was still protecting him.

“Hy… ung…” Gyeo-Ul wondered if he should call Chang-Sun ‘hyung’ or ‘samchon’ for a moment, but he decided to stick with hyung since he was more familiar with it. “You know… about my father, don’t you? Can you tell me about him?”

With a heavy heart, Chang-Sun nodded. It seemed they had a lot to talk about.

1. The phrase is actually a general term for all the intercourses between a human and a ghost.

2. Merlin had an incubus devil father and a human mother

3. It means uncle in Korean.