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Chapter 264: Snowy Fields (4)

Crack—

She bared her teeth as she raised her staff. Shadows spread as she slammed her staff into the ground and created something reminiscent of a black lake. Larger snakes crept out of it. If the snakes that had risen from the shadows so far were the size of rattlesnakes, the new ones were the size of anacondas.

It would not be strange if such snakes were able to swallow a person whole. The snakes flicked their tongues and surrounded Ohjin.

“Shadow snakes…” The bells on Kasia’s staff rang, and she pointed the weapon at Ohjin. “Swallow that liar.”

Shhhk, shhhk—!

The shadowy snakes shot forward like bullets. Ohjin bowed low, stuck out his right arm—which had regenerated during Heaven Unfolding—and turned it into a dark cloud. The serpents’ wide-open mouths latched onto his forearm, and their fangs dug deep into him.

“Keuk?!” He had thought that, since neither physical nor magical attacks worked on the clouds of the Black Heaven, the snakes’ fangs wouldn’t harm him, but he was wrong.

‘Their attacks work?’ Even though the fangs dug into the parts of his arm that were clouds, he still felt a dizzying pain spreading. Turning to look down at the fangs piercing his arm, he saw that the clouds of the Black Heaven had dispersed like ink.

“As expected, you are a fake.” Kasia smiled brightly. Seeing that her attack had worked, she seemed more certain as she swung her staff.

Ring, ring—

Following the clear sound of bells, snakes leaped at Ohjin.

“Ohjin!” Isabella cried out.

“It’s fine.” Ohjin lightly waved at Isabella as she tried to approach and observed the snakes’ movements. ‘Heavenly Unfolding doesn’t work.’ Usually, when he used Heaven Unfolding, all the senses of his ‘enemy’ disappeared, one by one. Maybe it was because the snakes were mere summons, but it didn’t work on them in the same way.

‘Then…’ He turned to Kasia and shot a dark cloud toward her.

“Oh, are you aiming at me?” Kasia smiled as if she had been expecting it.

Crack—!

A shadowy snake bit Ohjin’s arm again, and its fangs penetrated an area of his form that hadn’t transformed yet. A dizzying shot up his arm, but he could not afford to scream.

Kzzzzt—!

Black lightning burned the attacking snake’s body, and Ohjin leaped away from the rest of the snakes before they could surround him. Thankfully, one of the other features of Heaven Unfolding still worked, and he disappeared like a mist before quickly reappearing in front of Kasia.

"Ugh!" Had her senses started to disappear? Kasia frowned and faltered.

Ohjin reached out and gripped her neck.

Krruuuk—!

A dark cloud stretched out from his palm and began to devour her magic; the enormous mana absorbed through the Black Heaven spread throughout his body. No, it wasn\'t exactly mana.

Ti-ring—!

[Some of ‘Kasia Colagrande’s’ memories have been inherited.]

Memories passed through his head like a panorama. ‘This…?’ It had been a while since he obtained memories from someone other than Shinhyuk. He briefly stopped moving and focused on the memory flowing through his head.

In the memory, he saw a snowy garden and the image of a slender girl, crouched in a blizzard, shivering pitifully. A figure enshrouded in black clouds appeared in front of the girl.

\'He\'s… the Heavenly Demon.\' Ohjin examined the faint silhouette amidst the black clouds—all that he could confirm was that it was the silhouette of a person. The clouds were simply too thick for him to identify the person within.

“What a poor child.” The Heavenly Demon continued, stroking Kasia\'s bowed head. “To your family, the world, and your own fate…” Stars twinkled in the dark clouds. “I\'ll give you the Serpent.” Finally, the starlight from the dark clouds flowed into Kasia\'s body.

"Let… go…!" Kasia, who was being held by the throat, fiercely glared at Ohjin, hitting him with her staff and causing snakes to rise and wrap around him.

The snakes constricted, crushing him in their hold. "Keuk! Kuheuk!" He hurriedly turned himself into a dark cloud and escaped the snakes’ grasp.

Shaaaaa—!

A giant snake’s tail swung around like a whip and struck him the moment he reappeared, sending him flying back into the Atlantis rollercoaster’s rail.

"Keuk!" The rail crumpled like a sheet of paper, and the broken steel bars collapsed on top of him. A moment later, Ohjin dug his way out of the rubble, panting in exertion. Ignoring the physical pain, he was distressed by how his consciousness was starting to fade.

\'How much longer can I hold on?\' He didn’t know exactly, but he knew he couldn’t keep it up much longer. If he kept maintaining Heaven Unfolding, he instinctively knew that he would plunge into an ‘irreversible’ path.

He looked at Kasia, who was slowly straightening herself with a nervous look on her face. He thought he had absorbed quite a lot of her mana, but he felt that the mana flowing from her was still extremely thick.

‘She still has that much after I used Heaven Unfolding?’ He didn\'t think Heaven Unfolding was a cheat key that could easily trump every enemy, but he’d never fought so hard after using it. He’d thought it would at least guarantee a hard-fought win.

‘Ah… It’ll be hard to beat her.’ Even if he were optimistic, the chances were 50-50, and that was only if he maintained Heaven Unfolding.

Kurrrrrukkk—

He couldn’t continue to compete with Kasia when his consciousness was in danger of being swallowed up by the Black Heaven. "Kasia…" he said. If he had no way to fight and win, then he had to use another method. It was the best method he could think of…

Kuuurrrrrruuukk—!

Black clouds from Ohjin surrounded the area like Kasia’s shadow dome. It wasn’t wide in scope, but at least Isabella wouldn’t be able to see inside.

"Haa, haa. What is this?" Kasia asked, looking quite exhausted.

Ohjin spoke in a calm, subdued voice. "You must have suffered alone." He recalled the memories he’d seen of a terminally-ill girl, abandoned by family and the world. That memory of her being left alone in a cold, snowy field…

"What are you saying…?" Kasia mumbled.

"I\'m sorry, I didn\'t recognize you before," Ohjin said.

“…”

Shaken, Kasia trembled, and she glared at Ohjin. "…Wh-what do you know?!"

"I know…" Ohjin continued with a pale smile. "Because I was the one who gifted you with the stars that day."

For a moment, light shone in Kasia\'s eyes. “Ah, eugh.” It was only a moment, though. After the black jewel embedded in her forehead shone, the light in her eyes disappeared. "Y-you\'re lying!"

Ohjin slowly walked toward her. "You may think so. No, you have no choice but to think so at the moment…"

* * *

* * *

"Now, you\'re being deceived by him."

"…I’m being deceived?" she asked.

"Yes."

Kasia\'s eyes trembled. “You’re the one deceiving me. You’re… not the Heavenly Demon.”

"Then who is the Heavenly Demon?"

"The Heavenly Demon…" Kasia backpedaled, not finishing her sentence. She shuddered, clutching her head. "The Heavenly Demon… The Heavenly Demon, the Heavenly Demon…"

Ohjin grabbed Kasia\'s trembling shoulder. Her consciousness was being dominated by the Heavenly Demon’s power, but she hadn’t completely lost her awareness yet.

\'Back when she stopped trying to attack Isabella…\' She was instinctively showing resistance to the Heavenly Demon’s control. \'She’s still here.\' Kasia\'s consciousness was being buried, but it wasn’t gone. All he had to do was bring it back to the surface; to do so, he needed to be the ‘Heavenly Demon’.

\'There\'s a good chance she’s being controlled by the jewel in her forehead.\' That meant the Heavenly Demon could only force her to recognize him through the jewel. In other words… ‘She wants to believe I’m the true Heavenly Demon.’ If that weren’t the case, then the mind-controlling jewel wouldn’t have been necessary.

“N-no.” Kasia shook her head, her face pale. "I… I must obey him… otherwise." She curled up.

"You think you’ll be thrown away?" Ohjin asked as he looked down and watched her shaking in horror.

“…” She was so thin she could be mistaken for a girl. In the end, she was a vulnerable woman who was likely to be shattered like a glass bead if handled incorrectly. That was the true Kasia Colagrande, hidden beneath the terrifying mask of the Snake Queen.

‘It’s due to her past trauma.’ Extreme self-loathing had built up due to her terminal illness, and she still recalled the distant despair from her time in the wheelchair, helplessly waiting for her approaching death.

The Heavenly Demon had stimulated that trauma and turned her into a puppet. For her, being ‘thrown away’ was a horror far worse than death. That being the case, there was only one thing he had to do…

"I will not abandon you," he said.

“What?" Kasia asked.

"I won’t abandon you." He slowly stroked her cheek as if touching a priceless treasure. "You are more precious than anyone else."

"I… am?"

"Yes."

Kasia\'s eyes shook. For her, who has been treated as ‘expendable’ for as long as she could remember, the word ‘precious’ felt too strange. "No… no." There was no way she could be precious. If that were the case, then she wouldn’t have been left alone in that snowy field. “I… don\'t deserve to be told that I\'m precious."

"It\'s not you who decides."

"B-but I…" Memories flooded her mind, terrible nightmares.

-But it\'s still a relief.

She recalled that late night when her mother’s voice crept past an open door. Those words mixed with relief had turned her struggles to live into nothing. “N-no one… needed me.”

"I need you," Ohjin argued.

"Everyone… everyone left me alone!"

"I didn’t leave."

"For me… there\'s nothing."

"I am here." Ohjin gave her an unshakeable stare.

A moment passed…

Craa-aack—!

The black gem in her forehead cracked, and her empty eyes began to sparkle again with a beautiful emerald color. "Ah…" She let out a short exclamation and gave Ohjin a pale smile. "You\'re not… the Heavenly Demon." Kasia shook her head and looked sad. "The Heavenly Demon is not this kind."

“…” Had excessive kindness become poison instead? It was inevitable for Ohjin—he wasn\'t the real Heavenly Demon, he was just a con artist who acted like him. He couldn\'t be completely like the Heavenly Demon.

The true art behind being a con artist was making someone want to be tricked rather than directly tricking them. "Yes, as you say, I am not the Heavenly Demon." Ohjin nodded.

Kasia murmured, "As expected." Tears filled her eyes.

"Not yet, at least," Ohjin admitted.

"What does that mean?"

"What is the Heavenly Demon to you?"

In that endless stretch of snow, the only one who approached her had been the being who plucked the stars from the night sky for her. "He\'s my everything."

"Who\'s trying to manipulate you?" Ohjin pointed to the cracked gem lodged in her forehead. "The one who threatens to abandon you if you don\'t obey orders is your everything?"

“…”

The Heavenly Demon had made one mistake—what Kasia needed was not a constellation from the night sky. What the girl who was abandoned in the snowy field wanted was the warmth of a person who could melt the cold snow.

"Kasia." He wiped away the tears from her eyes. "I swear to you, no matter what, that I will not abandon you." He whispered, "I will never let you go through those cold, painful, lonely memories again. You are more important than anything else in the world."

He knew what the girl abandoned in the snowy field wanted to hear the most and whispered the words she’d been longing to hear for her entire life. Even if the whisper was just a sweet lie from a con man…

"I\'ll be your Heavenly Demon."

She couldn’t help but fall for it.