Chapter 155: Adam's Apple (2)
"So is this… the so-called Adam's Apple?"
Golden light flooded out of the item.
A suffocating miraculous energy filled the surroundings just from it sitting still.
The golden apple looked so mystical and divine that it seemed like even people who didn't believe in God would revere it.
Riak’s eyes widened as he looked at the golden apple in Ohjin’s hand.
"I-Indeed… I can feel a remarkable energy from that star relic!"
The thick energy of mana pricked his skin.
A massive amount of mana could be felt from the golden apple as if it was made by directly plucking out a star of the night sky.
"J-Just where did you acquire such a divine item?"
"Why bother asking when you already know?"
Ohjin smirked and tapped on his head.
"I was able to acquire it because I naturally 'knew' where it was and how to get it."
"Grr. Fortunately, it seems that the method of obtaining Adam's Apple hadn't changed."
"Well, it's not like the future starting to alter means every single thing will change," Ohjin answered as he lightly shrugged.
"...Rookie."
Riak's gaze headed to Ohjin’s face.
The deeply settled dark circles around his eyes and his pallid cheeks stood out.
As a veteran warrior, Riak could tell what kind of state Ohjin was in with just a glance.
'Extreme anemia and fatigue.'
Fundamentally, the body of an Awakener was on a different playing field compared to ordinary people—it displayed extraordinary vitality and recovery speed.
Especially so if it was Ohjin, an apostle of the Weaver Girl who was deemed to be one of the strongest amongst several hundred celestials. You wouldn't be able to tell if he hadn't slept for days.
But even with that kind of superhuman body, Ohjin’s face was so haggard that it made Riak feel sorry.
'There's no way it'd be easy to obtain this kind of divine item, even with knowledge of the future.'
Ohjin looked nonchalant on the surface, but the thick fatigue and anemia on his face was proof that he had fought with his life on the line to get 'Adam's Apple' in his hands.
"Thank you."
Riak bowed down his head in a modest way.
Different from star spirits that directly received a portion of the celestial's soul, it wasn't a master-slave relationship in the case of celestial and Awakener.
Using an analogy, Awakeners and celestials were business partners.
Awakeners received stigmas from celestials to obtain superman powers, and in return, the 'league' of the celestial that gave the stigma would increase the more their Awakener performed well.
Though celestials fundamentally took the role as the employer, they couldn't forcefully give orders to their apostles, as they were bound by the Commandment’s Restriction.
In other words, Ohjin going through all that trouble to obtain 'Adam's Apple' for Vega was purely his desire.
'Didn’t he say that he was in a deep relationship with Lady Vega in his past life?'
He’d deemed it nonsense and ignored it when he’d first heard those words, but Riak started to see Ohjin a little differently after seeing how he desperately brought ‘Adam's Apple’.
'If it's this kid, maybe he's worthy of—'
Riak suddenly flinched as he was lost in thought.
"Hmpf! Still, I cannot acknowledge you!"
"What?"
"It's nothing, rookie!"
Riak shook his head with a flustered expression.
His lustrous silver fur wavered in the wind and shook like wheat.
"Anyway, so are you saying that we can get the bindings off Lady Vega using this?"
"If it's the same ‘Adam's Apple’ that I remember."
"Then there's no time to waste! Let's go get those chains off of Lady Vega immediately!"
"Ah, you should wait outside while I remove the chains."
"What?"
Riak furrowed his brow.
"Is there a reason why we can't go in together?"
"In order to use ‘Adam's Apple’… you need to perform something like a ritual."
"Hmm. I see."
As he used an adequate excuse, Riak nodded his head with an unconvinced expression.
Riak making that kind of expression was only natural because he said that a ritual was required out of the blue, but it couldn't be helped.
'I can't show myself using Heaven Unfolding to Riak.'
The star relic 'Adam's Apple' was something Ohjin made up, anyways. Even if a new condition was suddenly added, Riak had no choice but to accept it.
"Alright. Then I'll be guarding the door, so call me if something goes wrong."
"Okay."
Ohjin nodded his head and headed into the spacious room.
There he saw Vega restrained by fifty chains.
"......"
The silver-haired goddess had her eyes closed gently as if she was alseep.
Though it had been nearly a month since he had last seen Vega, her beauty still seemed like it didn't belong to the world.
'Wait a little longer, Vega.'
Ohjin approached Vega, who was tied up by chains made of light, and carefully reached out his hand to touch her cheek.
Warmth transmitted through the tip of his fingers.
Looking at her up close, it seemed most certain that she was asleep.
'A long sleep that continues for the entirety of fifty years.'
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Translator - Maccas
Proofreader - ilafy
* * *
Ohjin narrowed his eyes and touched the chains of light that were shackling her.
Crackle!—
The chain burned his skin and shone ferociously like it was warning him to not touch it.
That day, he was going to break the Commandment's chains that were restraining a god.
"Fuu."
He slowly breathed in and focused his mind onto the Black Heaven settled inside of his heart.
—The thick darkness akin to a starless night.
Huge black clouds with unfathomable size were curled up inside.
'I can do it.'
Ohjin found the dragon vein’s mana that was hiding between the black clouds.
He reached his hand out to the clump of mana that was firmly coiled up.
The dragon vein’s mana that was incomparably thicker than when the Black Heaven was at the fifth awakening moved according to Ohjin's will.
After covering his heart with mana in a protective manner…
"Through me, you pass into the garden of lament."
He quietly recited the chant.
The Black Heaven curled up in his heart explosively soared out of the slight opening.
"Argh!"
It was as if starving wolves locked up in a pen were set free.
It became difficult to hold onto his consciousness because of the Black Heaven's mana that flooded out like the waters of a broken dam.
"Ah, ugh."
Black clouds coiled around his body.
Like putting butter on a heated pan, his consciousness started to melt into the black clouds.
A part of his head disappeared.
His right shoulder, left waist, thighs, and calves melted and transformed into black clouds.
'...No.'
He desperately hung onto the thread of his fading consciousness.
His natural instinct was warning him…
Warning him that he wouldn’t be able to return if his entire body turned into clouds.
'Focus.'
He focused his mind onto the constellation that was shining brightly inside the black sky covered by thick, black clouds.
—The blue constellation that was the only thing that shone in the darkness.
As he focused his all on Lyra's light, black lightning wrapped around his body while the black clouds slightly receded.
"Huff! Huff!"
His breathing turned ragged.
If it was painful instead… if it was just insanely agonizing and gruesome, he could just grit his teeth and endure it.
But the sensation of his consciousness melting into the Black Heaven wasn't something you could simply endure.
"Fuu."
He exhaled a deep breath and slowly raised his hand.
Before his entire body was melted by the Black Heaven, he needed to break the Commandment's chains that were shackling Vega.
Crackleeeee!!!—
The chains of light violently resisted once he put his cloud-wrapped hands near them.
Ohjin grasped a chain using both of his hands and twisted it.
Crack!!!—
A Commandment’s chain that was made to seal transcendent beings known as celestials was helplessly destroyed by Ohjin’s hands.
"That's one."
Ohjin smirked and looked down at the chain that feebly broke.
'I shouldn't forget about using Black Curtain.'
It was important to keep the existence of the Black Heaven a secret from Riak and Vega; even more important than releasing her from those chains.
"Fuu."
He stretched his hand out at the remaining forty-nine chains.
Crack! Crunch!—
One by one, he grasped the chains and broke them.
The Commandment’s Restriction that restrained Vega gradually disappeared.
"Ugh…"
His consciousness faded away more every time he destroyed another chain.
Like flicking off a light switch, one at a time, the sensations in his body disappeared.
Agony, despair, happiness, anger, delight… even they all started to cloud.
The memories of the orphanage…
The memories of the director swinging his fist…
The memories of the maroon hair that wavered like flames…
The memories of the blindingly beautiful girl…
They all started to disa—
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!!"
He spat out swears and grasped his hair.
'What? It's gotten even worse compared to when I used it before.'
If 20~30% of his body had turned into black clouds back then, it was nearly 50% of his body now.
'Heaven Unfolding… became stronger?'
It could be because of the sixth awakening or an entirely different reason.
The clouds surrounding his body felt more thick than when he’d used Heaven Unfolding before.
Naturally, he might have welcomed the enhanced power of Heaven Unfolding in a battle with his life on the line—
'Focus on the starlight. It might disappear if I don't concentrate.'
—but all it did right then was increase the speed at which his consciousness faded.
'....Focus.'
Suddenly, he recalled the way Vega looked when she stood in front of him at the battle with Cheon Doyoon.
Would Vega have known that she would be sealed for this long back then?
'She probably did.'
No, she might've even prepared for worse.
Vega would've probably resolved to get her soul torn apart, lose her divinity of a North Star, and perish like a grain of sand.
'If that's the case…'
Shouldn't he resolve the same?
Even if he couldn’t do more than he received, shouldn't he at least do as much as he was given?
"Vega…"
He desperately held onto his fading consciousness and broke the chains of light.
Ten chains, twenty chains, thirty chains, forty chains… before he knew it, there was only one final chain remaining.
And at that moment…
Crack—
The sound of something breaking…
The sound of something tearing…
The sound of something fragmenting…
…rang out in his ears.
"...Huh?"
He frowned as he looked around.
However, no matter how hard he looked, he couldn’t discover a change in the scenery.
"Kuuugh!"
Was it because he’d gotten distracted?
The speed of his consciousness fading sped up.
'I don't have time.'
It felt like his entire body would turn into clouds if he lost focus again.
"The last… one!"
Crack!—
He broke the final chain in his grasp.
With that, all fifty chains were completely destroyed.
Ohjin exhaled rough breaths and closed the door of the Black Heaven.
"Huff! Huff! Huff!"
His hazy consciousness gradually turned clear.
With no strength remaining in his legs, he fell right onto Vega.
When he was piled on top of Vega like a blanket—
[My… child?]
—the voice of the goddess that he longed-for rang out in his ears.
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