Chapter 82
Chapter 82
Baek Jangmi’s Constellation handed Lude a champagne glass. Lude absentmindedly gave the glass a little spin.
Clink, the ice inside rattled.
“Regression…?”
“Yes. You don't have to cling to your pain and keep dragging it along. You can change your past. Any way you want. Lude.”
Regression. How badly had he wanted that. He had always thought about it. If he could, he wanted to turn time back ten years.
Then he would stop his mother from going out to clear that First Class gate no matter what it took. He would pretend to be sick, or run away from home, or do anything at all so that his mother could not go to that First Class gate.
Even if she did not go, the two Guild Masters of Sanctuary, that married couple, would have taken care of it somehow. Then his mother would have become a coward who looked away from danger, but she would not have become a traitor to the nation.
Then the family could have survived somehow. Even if people cursed them, it would have been much better for the four of them to stick together and endure those curses.
“If I go back to the past, I…”
Lude lifted the champagne glass and brought it to his lips. The Constellation who looked like Baek Jangmi smiled brightly.
And then,
♪♬♩~
Lude’s phone rang with impeccable timing. He snapped back to his senses and pulled his phone from inside his coat. It was a call from Jeong Suho.
“Ah, sorry. I have to take this.”
“…What?”
“Yeah. What is it? Go ahead.”
Baek Jangmi’s Constellation stared at the black haired man who had started a phone call as if nothing were strange, her expression one of disbelief. Even if he was her captive, a Constellation was still a Constellation. And this place was her domain.
No one should have been able to interfere with a private audience between her and this man. So clearly, someone had opened a crack in her domain to meddle.
The odds were high that the culprit was the Constellation this man had a contract with.
“Excuse me. Turning your attention away from me right now is…”
Click. As the Constellation tried to continue, Lude snapped his fingers. At the same time, she realized that no sound was coming from her mouth and touched her throat.
His expression said, don't talk, I am on the phone.
He pressed his index finger to his lips and turned his annoyed gaze back to the call.
“Hmm? Nah, someone interrupted for a second. Go on.”
[So, uh… Min Jaeyoon… no, Jaeyoon says he has something he wants to tell you.]
Jeong Suho’s flustered voice came through the phone. Not far from him, Min Jaeyoon was pestering him to hurry up and hand over the phone. Lude knew that if he did not take the call, Jeong Suho would be in a bind, so he let out a sigh.
“…Put him on.”
[Lude! Where are you right now? I… I have something to tell you, but I don't know where to start, so, um.]
“Take your time and explain it slowly.”
Hearing Min Jaeyoon babble in confusion, Lude answered with a sigh. He heard Jaeyoon take a deep breath on the other end. Soon, the other man spoke in a more composed voice.
[This is not a Gate. It is my Guild Master’s Constellation. White Night seals the Beast of the Apocalypse generation after generation and makes it their Constellation.]
“…What?”
Lude frowned and looked at the woman in front of him. Baek Jangmi’s Constellation was smiling.
The Beast. He had heard of it. The Antichrist from the Book of Revelation. The enemy of priests. A being of pure malice that would destroy the world if it fully manifested.
“Why is that thing here.”
[Tw… Twenty years ago, when a Gate opened, it manifested in Korea at the same time. So… so the First Guild Master staked his own life and sealed it in the form of an Incarnation Contract. And now the current Guild Master is staking her life to continue the seal. That is why the White Night Guild Master is…]
“Born a Hunter in every generation.”
[Yes. When the Master grows old and her magic weakens, the Beast tears out of her body. To the outside. That is when they have to fight it.]
Lude grimaced. Guild Master Baek Jiwon had died thirty minutes before the Gate appeared, and Baek Jangmi had inherited the Constellation.
It was clear that Baek Jangmi had inherited it in a hurry at the moment Baek Jiwon, who had lost to the Constellation, died.
[And the interval when the Beast goes on a rampage. It is every ten years. That is why White Night could not join the subjugation ten years ago. The First Guild Master passed away, and they had to tame the Constellation they had just inherited and form a contract with it.]
Hunter Baek Jiwon died ten years ago. And now the Beast was appearing here.
“So?”
[Huh?]
“So what are we supposed to do.”
[…Before something worse happens to our Guild Master, I was going to seal that Constellation myself. By forming a contract.]
So that was why he had talked about a double contract. And then this Beast in front had rushed over to find me.
As the pieces connected in his mind, Lude’s eyes narrowed.
Even if Baek Jangmi herself might not be that dangerous, a summoner who commanded a Seventy Second Rank demon and a mage who was ranked third in the country was not someone this thing could easily slip away from.
So before Baek Jangmi could hand over its leash to Min Jaeyoon, it had come to Lude, trying to win its freedom.
Perhaps realizing that Lude was starting to doubt it, the Beast’s gentle expression became blank.
“Does your Guild Master know you are thinking about doing this?”
[She is against it. I kept begging her to break off the contract with the Constellation, but she said no.]
“Are you confident? What if you die too.”
[I don't know. I just want to do it! My Guild Master is a good person, and I… I don't want her to die! So, Lude.]
After a brief silence on the other end, Min Jaeyoon spoke again in a cautious voice.
[…Please help me. Please.]
“...Hah.”
Please help me. The Constellation in front of him and Min Jaeyoon on the phone said the same words at the same time. There was no need to weigh which one to believe. Lude threw the champagne glass from his hand.
Clang! At the sharp sound, everyone at the award ceremony turned their heads to look at him.
“Are you still where we were just now?”
[Huh? Ah. Yes.]
“I think you are the better person to have this. So take it.”
Vmmm.
Lude immediately opened a crack in space, took the Essence of the White Rose from his inventory, and tossed it into the dimensional rift.
[Whoa!! What is this? Gasp…!]
Min Jaeyoon sucked in a breath, as if he had just checked the item description. Lude narrowed his eyes and stared at the Beast. It was spewing white demonic energy in a frenzy.
“Thirty minutes.”
[What?]
“I will buy you thirty minutes at most. I cannot hold out much longer than that. During that time, try it. Double contract, or whatever you have planned.”
[Got it!]
“I am throwing away the chance of a lifetime for this. So you better make sure she lives.”
[I will save her. I promise!]
“Good. And tell them they are not to come upstairs. No matter what.”
Lude ended the call and, without giving the Constellation so much as a glance, raised the black half scissors. Black spirit energy swirled. The people at the award ceremony leaped to their feet.
Crunch!
Lude drove the tip of the scissors into the floor. The black spirit energy that had been writhing burst out and filled the hall all at once. The Beast looked at Lude, who was staring back at it with a grim gaze, and spoke.
“Is Baek Jangmi really so precious to you that you would throw away a chance to go back to the past?”
“I never believed that from the beginning. A mere Constellation that rewinds time? Try saying something that makes sense.”
Lude’s expression twisted into a scowl, and Baek Jangmi’s smile warped.
The mood between them turned vicious in an instant, and two horns sprouted from her white hair.
“I am the one who cuts that contract. That item is mine!”
“I cannot let that happen. You are not taking a single step out of here.”
Her pure white aura shifted and became pure white demonic energy. Black spirit energy spilled out and covered the space between them. At the same time, the Hunters at the ceremony drew their weapons and advanced on Lude.
“Looks to me like you are the kind of Constellation that seduces people and tricks them, right?”
[The Lord of Chaos smiles broadly as if to say that sounds exactly right.]
Lude took his hand off the black scissors he had driven into the floor and laughed as he pulled a golden half scissors from his inventory. The Beast knew that the smile on this man’s face was not just a bluff.
He could feel the Constellation behind Lude bubbling over with delighted laughter. It did not know which Constellation it was, but it was an evil that could stand on equal ground with itself.
Lude’s relaxed attitude was not bravado. Even so, the difference in rank between them did not simply vanish.
“Give it up. No matter how fine a vessel for a god you are, an Incarnation can never beat a Constellation.”
“I know. That is why I am not the one who is going to fight you.”
Lude’s eyes gleamed as he smiled. He held the golden half scissors he had taken from his inventory.
“This thing suits me too well. That is why I have avoided using it. But this time, its trait evolved. So I thought I would give it a try.”
[Incarnation Exclusive Trait :: Fragment of the First Dream.]
[You use the authority of the Constellation named Blind ◼◼ of ◼◼.]
[You borrow the Shepherd’s skill.]
[Shepherd Ka◼kosa’s ◼◼ Exclusive Skill :: Script that Never Ends.]
As his understanding rose, the censorship seemed to peel back little by little. Lude blinked at the unfamiliar words.
Swish.
A yellow cloak wrapped around him.
[State who you want to act as.]
“The herald. The Lord of Chaos.”
[You act as Herald Crawling ◼◼. You can temporarily use the power of the Constellation.]
Spirit energy kneaded his face, stretched it, then squeezed it back in, changing its shape.
Sparkle.
Something shone from above. The Beast looked up. In the mirror field it had created, countless starlights shone. Among them, one particularly vivid yellow star shone down on Lude.
[The avatar body of Herald Crawling ◼◼ has the same appearance.]
[The effect of the skill is maximized.]
[Herald Crawling ◼◼ possesses you!]
Crack. Creak.
Lude’s neck twisted in bizarre angles like an acrobat. It was like watching a demon that had entered a human body for the first time and had no idea how to operate it.
“Ugh… Seriously. I never get used to human bodies. How do you live your whole lives with just two arms and two legs?”
Lude flailed his limbs in strange directions, then shook his hands out and grinned at the Beast.
“Hi. This is the first time we have seen each other, right?”
Clatter! He let the scissors fall from his hand and wiggled his fingers as if conducting an orchestra. The black spirit energy followed his motions and changed shape. He smiled brightly and looked at the Beast.
“Haha, hahaha!”
Only then did the Beast understand Lude’s earlier words. He was the same man, yet the rank was completely different. This was not the Incarnation he had been facing until now. Nor was it a full descent of a Constellation.
Possession. It was clear that the Constellation’s consciousness had come into the world by riding its Incarnation’s body.
“Sorry, but our youngest asked me to help. And when my little sibling asks for something, I am a complete pushover.”
“Interesting. Do you really think you can beat me?”
Crash! He swung spirit energy shaped like the legs of a cephalopod. Not to be outdone, the Beast scattered white demonic energy like mist.
Baek Jangmi’s silhouette slowly changed into that of a Beast with ten beastly heads. The Lord of Chaos cackled at the sight.
“Terror is our specialty. You have held onto it long enough. Time to hand it over to your successor.”
“For all that you do is copy us, you sure talk a lot. What do you plan to accomplish with that level of originality?”
White demonic energy and black spirit energy crashed together. The purest white evil and the purest black evil began to mix.