Chapter 134: Interlude- Dragon’s Heart
“S-So…”
Ha-eun’s widened eyes looked at Ohjin.
Her opened mouth stirred up a strange impulse.
‘Hmm.’
Ohjin hesitated for a moment and then wasn’t able to endure the temptation as he stuck his index finger into her mouth.
“Ah! Twe, twe!! What the hell are you doing?!”
“Uh, I was just trying to get you to snap out of it because it seemed like you were in shock.”
“Who wouldn’t get shocked after hearing what you said just now?!!” shouted Ha-eun as she roughly grabbed Ohjin’s collar.
“Fuu. So… you’re… a Regressor?”
“I’m pretending to be a Regressor, to be exact.”
“That’s what I fucking thought.”
Ha-eun rested her hand on her head like she had a headache.
“So… the guy named Lee Shinhyuk was originally a Regressor… and once you absorbed his stigma using the Black Heaven or whatever, Vega ended up mistaking you as a Regressor?”
“Precisely.”
“What kind of damn situation is this…?”
Ha-eun slurred the end of her sentence with a stunned expression.
‘Well, this kind of reaction is a given.’
“What’s that Black Heaven thing? Is it something like that Weezing smoke stuff you used back then?”
“Putting it that way makes it seem really damn insignificant.”
‘It has the extravagant setting of possessing the power to destroy the world…’
“I also don’t know exactly what the Black Heaven is.”
“You were using a power you didn’t even know?”
“Then are you using your stigma while being fully aware of its identity?”
“Uhh…”
Left speechless, Ha-eun scratched her maroon hair and then clicked her tongue.
“I guess I have nothing to say if you put it that way.”
Even though they were called Awakeners from being ‘Awakened by the Stars’, there wasn’t a single person who knew exactly what a stigma was.
“Anyways, so is the Black Heaven something like a stigma?”
“No, it’s completely different from stigmas.”
Ohjin explained the abilities contained within the Black Heaven.
“…What kind of overpowered shit is that?”
Ha-eun looked at Ohjin like she found it ridiculous.
Ohjin lightly shrugged his shoulders.
“I don’t know either.”
“Sigh.”
“Well, anyway. I need to pretend to be a Regressor in order to prevent Vega from discovering the fact that I’m in possession of the Black Heaven.”
“…And what happens if you get discovered?”
“I wonder.”
Ohjin smiled and shook his head.
“I probably won’t be met with a good ending since the celestials firmly believe that this power will destroy the world.”
“B-But Ohjin, there’s no way that you’ll destroy the world!”
“I’m not sure.”
He had no memories of it, but he had already ended the world once. Needless to say, he obviously had no plans to destroy the world right then.
“We can’t be certain. Who knows what I would’ve done if I wasn’t able to save you this time.”
“Ah.”
Ha-eun’s shoulders flinched.
She fumbled with her fingers as her cheeks slightly reddened.
“Y-You’re overreacting.”
“Well… to be honest, destroying the world might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it would’ve been hard for me to stay sane.”
“Hmm.”
Ha-eun sighed and shook her head.
“So you’re saying that you want me to help with your Regressor act, right?”
“There’s no need for you to help.”
Not being a hindrance was more than enough.
“What, are you saying that you don’t trust me?”
“It won’t work since everything you think is written all over your face.”
“N-No, it’s not!”
“Look, it’s happening right now.”
Ohjin smiled faintly while he looked down at Ha-eun starting to get angry.
“In any case, you don’t have to worry about it. I’ll take care of things on my own.”
“…”
Ha-eun pouted.
“Always saying that you’ll do things on your own…”
Although he felt reliable for those reasons, it was also upsetting.
Ohjin sneakily approached Ha-eun while she was murmuring. He lightly poked her protruding lips with the tip of his finger and cackled out.
“Alright, alright. I’ll make sure to inform you when I need help.”
“…You promise?”
“Yup.”
“Haa. Seriously…”
Ha-eun placed her hand on her forehead like it was throbbing and pulled on Ohjin’s cheek.
“Ow, ow, ow, ow.”
“You didn’t even tell me when all these things happened until now. Are you sorry or not?”
She kept pulling on his cheek and soon carefully kissed it.
“…I’ll help you out from now on, so don’t try to solve everything on your own.”
The way Ha-eun embarrassingly avoided his gaze looked lovely to Ohjin.
“Oh right, take this.”
Ohjin took out a fist-sized blue crystal from his pocket—it was the Dragon’s Heart that he obtained after defeating Cheon Doyoon.
‘He said that it exerts its maximum potential when it’s used by an Awakener of Draco.’
In that case, it was only right for her to be the one using it.
“Is-Isn’t this that thing…? The Dragon’s Heart?”
“That’s right.”
“…You’re giving this to me? For nothing in return?”
Ha-eun looked at Ohjin with widened eyes.
The potion she’d received before was valuable, but it would pale in comparison to the Dragon’s Heart.
—A star relic so valuable that its worth couldn’t be estimated with money.
But he was passing it over as nonchalantly as if he was giving chocolate he bought from the convenience store.
“Then should I ask for something in return?”
Ohjin smirked and got up close to her.
“U-Uhh?”
Ha-eun took steps back with a flustered expression.
But soon, it seemed like she came to an understanding of something, as she approached him while her cheeks reddened.
“…So what do you want?” Ha-eun asked seductively as she slightly exposed her cleavage.
His eyes subconsciously flooded to the single dot on her left chest. Rather, the one who was flustered was Ohjin, as he had never seen her use sexually attractive gestures.
“K-Khm! I-I’m just kidding.”
Ohjin barely calmed down his palpitating heart and took in a deep breath.
‘What’s this?’
Floundering and getting flustered with those kinds of jokes was usually Ha-eun’s role, but he had ended up receiving an unexpected blow.
“Anyways, you can have this.”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
Ha-eun smiled sheepishly and took the Dragon’s Heart.
“But how are you supposed to use this? There’s no way that you’re supposed to shove this into your chest like that senile old man, right?”
“I wonder… I think there should be a method other than that.”
It was inconceivable to think that such a barbaric way of shoving the jewel into the middle of your chest was the method to control the mana inside of the Dragon’s Heart.
“Right? No matter how valuable this thing is, I don’t want lightning nipples.”
‘What the hell are lightning nipples…?’
“For now, why don’t you try putting it near your stigma?”
“Ohh, that’s a good idea.”
Since an Awakener with the stigma of Draco was said to be the best for controlling the Dragon’s Heart, it was possible for some kind of change to happen if the Dragon’s Heart came close to her stigma.
* * *
* * *
“Hmm.”
Ha-eun’s eyes sparkled as if she thought of a good idea while staring into the Dragon’s Heart in her hand.
She handed over the Dragon’s Heart to Ohjin and put on a mischievous smile.
“Then, Ohjin, you should hold it close to my stigma.”
“…What?”
“If I do it myself, there’s the possibility for something like mana resonance to suddenly arise, causing me to drop it, right? It could be dangerous if procedures like this get canceled midway.”
“…”
There was actually a risk of side effects such as the ‘unstable’ state if the process of obtaining a potion or star relic’s power was unintentionally cut off midway, however…
‘Why does it look like she isn’t worried about that at all?’
Ha-eun’s eyes were sparkling with expectation while she handed over the Dragon’s Heart.
“Sigh. Fine.”
“Yay~!”
He exhaled a deep breath and took the Dragon’s Heart.
After her proposal, Ha-eun had started to make bold moves that made even Ohjin flustered.
“Well then…”
Gulp—
Ha-eun swallowed her saliva and slightly lowered her clothes to reveal part of her left breast.
Her pure white and smooth skin was reminiscent of piled-up snow, and on top of it was the engraved stigma of Draco.
‘Fuck.’
Heat flooded to Ohjin’s face.
Ohjin held up the Dragon’s Heart with shivering hands and carefully brought it close to her stigma.
Owooooong!!!—
“Uuht!”
Suddenly, an immense amount of mana poured out of the Dragon’s Heart as it started to blaze up with blue light.
The mana resonance she’d just mentioned as a joke had actually occurred.
“Ha-eun?”
“Ahh! I-I’m okay!”
Ha-eun bit her lips tight while enduring the power rushing into her body.
The Dragon’s Heart that was emitting fierce blue light started to melt like ice cream as it was absorbed by her stigma.
The phenomenon was distinctively different from when Cheon Doyoon had used it.
Click—
Ha-eun took off the eyepatch that was covering her left eye like it was uncomfortable clothing.
“Huff, huff, huff!”
The Dragon Eye poured out ferocious light, and the veins that were like tree roots around her left eye ran down her cheek and even extended out to her neck.
“Uuh! Ahh! Ugh!”
“…”
He wanted to give words of encouragement to Ha-eun while she was groaning from pain, but…
‘I need to trust her and wait.’
The moment she lost focus, she could fall into an unstable state after being unable to endure the rushing power—like Lee Shinhyuk had.
‘And if that happens…’
Ohjin’s eyes shone sharply.
He summoned the Black Heaven to his other hand and prepared for the worst-case scenario.
The moment it seemed that she wouldn’t be able to endure the mana contained within the Dragon’s Heart, he would immediately use the Black Heaven to absorb its mana.
“Huff, huff. Fuuuu.”
However, Ha-eun’s breathing gradually calmed down, extinguishing Ohjin’s worries.
The thick veins that covered her neck extended farther and eventually reached her stigma.
And then—
Fwooooosh!!!—
—the stigma gave off fierce light as crimson flames spread out like waves.
Even though they were flames, the fire wasn’t feral with the intent of wanting to burn everything nearby, but instead so warm that it felt cozy.
“This is…”
Ohjin looked around with surprise.
Despite the flames covering him and all the furniture inside the house, nothing was burning. He exclaimed unconsciously from the unrealistic sight that was like a scene from a fairytale.
Owooooong!—
When the Dragon’s Heart in his hand had been fully melted and sucked into her stigma—
“Hmh!”
—the warm flames covering the surroundings got sucked back into her body, and the ugly veins that had sprouted out to her left chest gradually receded.
“Ohjin…”
“Are you alright?”
“Uh, yeah. I’m fine.”
Ha-eun staggered with a dazed expression. He grabbed her shoulder and gently embraced her so that she wouldn’t fall down.
Ohjin could hear deep breathing from Ha-eun in his arms.
“Did you absorb all of the mana inside the Dragon’s Heart?”
“Yeah. I did absorb it… but I don’t think I can use all of it yet.”
She slowly touched her chest and continued.
“Here, it feels like there’s a lump of it left under my stigma.”
“Like a breast implant?”
“Man, what kind of comparison is that?”
Ha-eun chuckled.
“Though my breasts aren’t ones that need implants.”
‘…’
“So does it hurt anywhere? Or maybe feel uncomfortable?”
“There’s nothing like th—ah!”
While she was examining her body, Ha-eun suddenly frowned.
Owooooong!!—
Her faded stigma suddenly started to blaze up with radiant blue light.
“Ha-eun?!”
Ohjin was going to quickly reach his hand out to her but stopped after discovering something.
“…Wow.”
It was because he discovered an additional flick starting to engrave itself next to the eight flicks on the stigma of Draco.
“Oh-Ohjin.”
With her mouth opened wide in disbelief, Ha-eun looked down at her chest.
“I… I think I became a 9-Star.”
It was the moment Ha-eun became a high-rank Awakener.
Comments