BXBX NOVEL Chapter 169: Interlude - Goddess’s Atonement (1)
Although he was in such a miserable state that the words “half dead” were not enough to express it, the azure flames in his eyes were still blazing fiercely.
“Just… what have you turned into your apostle, Vega?”
He felt goosebumps like bugs crawling over his skin.
The bet no longer came to mind at that point.
It wasn’t only Deneb.
The celestials filling the stands were also overwhelmed and unable to open their mouths properly due to the spirit emitting from Ohjin.
“What… are you waiting for?”
Ohjin smirked and twisted as he walked to Deneb.
Deneb unconsciously started to step back.
“Ah…”
He flinched as he realized what he had just done.
A celestial of a North Star… an existence that ranked in the top three of the transcendents born from the stars… had just been overwhelmed and forced to take a step back by a human’s spirit.
In normal circumstances, it wouldn’t be strange if he was mocked by the other celestials, however…
[…]
“…”
Not a single one of the celestials watching from the stands or even Spica, who had a playful nature, looked at Deneb with mockery.
The only thing in their sights was Ohjin, who was creepily walking to Deneb as if he was bewitched.
“Hurry… send out your next—”
Ohjin collapsed on the spot.
The moment his face was going to crash into the ground—
[My child.]
—Vega appeared in an instant and caught Ohjin.
She chewed her lips like just watching was painful and stroked his bloody face.
[Is Albali present?] Vega asked as she looked to the stands.
—The celestial of Aquarius, Albali.
No matter how severe the injury, he would be able to heal them without much difficulty as long as they were still alive.
“Ah, yes. I’m here.”
A young man wearing a monocle who gave off a gentle impression stood up in the stands.
He went down to the fighting arena and exclaimed Ohjin’s body.
“…These are horrible injuries.”
Even if he wouldn’t die in the Sacred Ground, it was hard to believe that he’d continued to fight with those injuries.
[Will you be able to heal him?]
“Of course.”
The injuries were so severe that just looking was enough to cause pain, but he was the celestial of Aquarius.
It wasn’t hard for him to save someone who was still alive.
Owooooong!—
Albali gently closed his eyes and focused.
The droplets of water floating nearby permeated into Ohjin’s and started healing him in an instant.
The half-dead Ohjin healed as if a video was being played in reverse.
“Uah! Cough! Cough!”
Ohjin woke up and sat upright while exhaling deep breaths.
He clenched his chest in pain while he coughed.
“He will need some time to stabilize because his internal injuries have yet to be healed completely.”
[I understand.]
Once he finished his treatment, Albali raised his monocle and left the scene.
“Vega…?”
After Ohjin regained consciousness, he blinked his eyes and looked around.
[You… idiot!!]
Bam!—
Vega struck Ohjin’s head in anger.
An exclamation left his mouth.
[Just… why do you keep tormenting this lady with worry?!]
Her eyes glistened as she scolded him.
“…Vega.”
[Wasn’t the match already over?! Wasn’t there no reason to fight while getting this injured?!!]
She pulled Ohjin into her arms and shouted in a sorrowful voice.
Ohjin barely escaped from the voluptuous sensation that squeezed his cheeks and smiled awkwardly.
‘Well, there are a couple of reasons.’
First of all, he was too excited. In a state that was as if he was high on drugs, he’d instinctively craved a battle with a strong opponent.
Naturally, it didn’t mean that he’d trusted everything to his body and continued the match simply on sudden impulse.
‘I was on the verge of achieving it.’
A part of why he hadn’t stopped was because his intuition had told him that there was a possibility of leveling up the Lightning&Thunder skill that had stagnated at level 9 for a long time.
In actuality, he probably wouldn’t have gotten it to level 10 if he had stopped after the fight with Shaolin.
“Hmm.”
Ohjin took a good look at the celestials filling the stands.
They were whispering amongst themselves and looking at him as if they were seeing a ghost.
That was another one of the reasons he’d decided to continue the fight with Deneb’s apostles.
‘It seems that I’ve successfully engraved my existence into the celestials’ heads.’
Although he’d unintentionally given off the impression of being an insane maniac due to things getting too heated, he believed that he’d displayed more than enough skills to hold the title ‘Apostle of Vega’ with pride.
And finally…
“There’s something I need other than divinity.”
[Something you need?]
“Wait a moment.”
Ohjin twisted back up to his feet.
He approached Deneb, who was dumbfoundedly looking in his direction.
“Well then, shouldn’t you give the divinity as promised?”
“Ah, I already know.”
Deneb lent out something similar to a crystal that shone with white light.
He couldn’t feel anything in it that was worthy of being called ‘divinity’, but he trusted that he wouldn’t give something fake when there were that many celestials watching.
“Thank you.”
If he had it his way, Ohjin would’ve used the Black Heaven to try to devour Deneb’s divinity, but he couldn’t as long as he remained aware that Vega’s rank was in danger of demoting to the ranks of the 12 Zodiacs.
“And one more thing…”
“One more thing?”
“I didn’t defeat three, but four apostles. Shouldn’t there obviously be a separate reward that comes with that achievement?”
“What?”
Deneb frowned.
“Nothing like that was mentioned before!”
“Isn’t it just common sense? Since, originally, winning ‘three times’ was our victory, there should be an appropriate reward for beating a fourth apostle.”
“Hmpf! You should have said that at the beginning!”
“Hmm. Then are you saying that you won’t give an additional reward?”
“That’s right! I ain’t giving shit to you!”
The edges of Ohjin’s lips crept up as he shrugged his shoulders.
“Will that truly be okay with you?”
“For what reason wouldn’t it be okay?”
“There are many onlookers.”
Ohjin looked around at the crowd and continued.
“In the first place, weren’t the rankings of the apostles you sent out different from what was discussed previously?”
“Th-That’s…”
“You sent out high-ranking apostles in fear that you were going to lose, and then sent out an even higher-ranked apostle with ill intent after losing.”
“But you’re the one who wanted to—”
“So… you’re telling me that you’re going to shut your mouth and run away with your tail between your legs now that you lost with your apostles that are ranked 4th and 5th?”
“…”
Deneb’s expression distorted.
Ohjin put on a leisurely smile and shrugged.
“I wonder what the other celestials will think of this.”
“…Are you threatening me?”
“Threatening? Aren’t you the one who invited all these celestials to come and watch so you could humiliate us in the first place?”
“Argh.”
Deneb had no words.
As Ohjin said, there were too many eyes nearby to shut his mouth and pretend as if nothing happened.
‘Damn it!’
He had been caught in his own trap.
Deneb stomped his feet out of anger.
“Ahh! Goddammit! That bastard really pisses me off!!”
Allen came down from the stands and calmed Deneb as he pulled on his hair and made a ruckus.
After Deneb exhaled a deep breath, he stared at Ohjin.
“…So what do you want?”
As someone who owned three of the Seven Stars, the treasures he possessed were unfathomable.
There was a single thing Ohjin wanted out of his countless treasures…
“An elixir.”
“…Elixir?”
“Yes. I would like it if you gave me an elixir.”
Ohjin nodded his head with an indifferent look.
“An elixir out of all things? There are so many other things to choose from.”
Deneb tilted his head, as he couldn’t understand the thought process behind the choice.
Elixirs were known to have incredible healing effects that people even said could revive a dead person.
It could even regenerate a ‘body part that was cut off for extended periods of time’ that even high-ranking Awakeners of Aquarius would have difficulty healing, however…
‘I don’t see any injuries like that on his body.’
He had shown an insane performance of tearing off his left arm, but that injury was already completely healed thanks to Albali’s powers.
There was nothing that he could think of that would require his need for an elixir, but…
“Well, alright. I just need to give you an elixir, right?”
It was welcoming news for Deneb, who was worried about getting asked for an unreasonable request.
Though elixirs were also precious items that you couldn’t put a price tag on, they were still ranked a bit low compared to the other treasures in his possession.
Owooong!—
A ripple opened in the air as the ring on Deneb’s hand gave off light.
Deneb put his hand inside and then took out a glass bottle that shone with clear, blue light.
“Here.”
“Thank you.”
Ohjin smiled faintly while receiving the elixir.
* * *
Translator - Maccas
Proofreader - ilafy
* * *
‘I was originally thinking of making one myself, but…’
You needed to be at least a high-ranking Awakener of Aquarius in order to make an elixir.
That wasn’t the end of it.
Elixirs were known to require several years of preparation and material gathering to make just one.
‘There’s no reason to wait that long.’
Ohjin carefully put the bottle into his pocket.
[Are you planning to give it to Ha-eun?]
“Yeah.”
He nodded his head without a second of hesitation.
[…]
Vega’s eyes trembled as she looked at herself.
[Truly… how pathetic.]
“Huh? Me?”
[No. I’m not talking about you.]
She shook her head with a smile mixed with self-deprecation.
[What I said just now was targeted toward me.]
“Why all of a sudden?”
[…]
Vega looked at Ohjin and recalled how he’d wretchedly stood back up even when his body was in complete tatters.
‘The reason why he fought so desperately… was for ‘others’.’
At first, he’d fought to obtain divinity for Vega. After that, he’d fought to get an elixir for Ha-eun.
No matter how painful it was… no matter how arduous it was… he had never yielded and stood back up.
‘Was I… suspecting this kind of child?’
—The energy of the Black Heaven she discovered after Ohjin freed her from the Commandment’s Restriction.
Even while thinking that it was implausible, she couldn’t erase the seed of suspicion that’d settled deep within her heart.
[I am embarrassed.]
She felt so foolish about her inability to trust Ohjin.
“What are you embarrassed about?”
[My role should be to trust you and take care of you more than anyone else… but it seems that I have foolishly forgotten my duty.]
“What do you…?”
Ohjin stopped in the middle of his sentence as his expression stiffened.
Vega’s recent actions of suspicion ominously came to mind.
‘Fuck, did I make a mistake?’
He urgently searched through his memories, but he couldn’t recall anything that would cause Vega to suspect him.
‘What happened?’
When he was thinking hard to find out what’d caused Vega to start to suspect him…
[It seems like an atonement is in need.]
“Atonement?”
Vega opened and closed her mouth with hesitation but soon nodded her head with determined eyes.
[Hand down your punishment to this sinful celestial!]
“What…?”