Chapter 497: Sky of the Nine Heavens (2)
Chapter 497: Sky of the Nine Heavens (2)
“It’s been a while?”I stared straight into his gleaming reptilian pupils, holding his gaze as the one corner of his mouth lifted into a faint smirk. Something felt wrong, and a quiet sense of discord stirred inside me.
This was our first time meeting in person, but he was looking at me with such familiarity that it felt strangely intimate, as if he were greeting someone he already knew. There was no way watching me climb the tower would create such a look.
Does Kalain, as a challenger, also carry memories from before Ha Hee-Jeong’s regression?
Even if that were true, it still wouldn’t make sense for him to act like this was a reunion.
“The phantoms,” Kalain murmured softly. “When one fades, all of its experiences return to their original.”
Ah.
The two floors involving Kalain had come back to haunt me. With his explanation in mind, his greeting sounded a lot more reasonable. Although this was our first time meeting face-to-face, this wasn’t his first time interacting with me—the past trials formed a kind of indirect connection. This turn of events caught me completely off guard. I had assumed the phantoms were nothing more than temporary constructs.
“So then, why did you ask to meet me?”
“Well, you already know we don’t need to pointlessly converse,” he replied as he knit his brows ever so slightly.
Despite that, he didn’t sound the slightest bit irritated—he simply believed that pleasantries would waste both of our time. I had more or less predicted how he would answer, but I had still wanted to hear it from him. I wanted to know how he saw this moment.
Given the circumstances, it was safe to assume he understood the hidden history behind the existence of challengers. Any faint idea that this meeting would end peacefully disappeared completely. At this point, the result of our encounter was already decided. Either I would win, or Kalain would.