Chapter 97

I Am Not a Reincarnator Chapter 97

The Ancient Constellation (8)

"Y-You damn...!"

Park Geon-woo took a step back, his face turning pale.

*Bang!*

Before he could summon his mana,

Oh Jin, like a bolt of lightning, lunged forward and swung his spear.

"Ugh!"

Park Geon-woo hastily raised his spear to block the attack.

'There's no way he can block it.'

No matter the three-star difference, an Awakened who hasn't even used his Sacred Mark couldn't possibly block an attack with Excid.

*Swish!*

"Ugh! Cough!"

The spear blade, enveloped in brain fire, easily deflected Park Geon-woo's spear and slashed a long gash across his chest.

He had intended to pierce the heart directly,

but at the last moment, Park Geon-woo narrowly twisted his body, causing the attempt to fail.

"Tsk."

Oh Jin clicked his tongue in disappointment.

'So, he has the skill to talk big.'

Even without using mana, showing such a quick reaction proved that Park Geon-woo's abilities were genuine.

'But that's all.'

*Chuckle.*

Looking at Park Geon-woo, who was bleeding from his chest, he sneered.

Although he failed to pierce the heart in one go, he succeeded in inflicting a severe, almost fatal wound.

"Haa, haa!"

Park Geon-woo clutched his chest wound, breathing heavily.

"You damn cheat!"

He continued with a voice filled with hatred.

"Even though the Agent of the King said not to touch the Messenger of the Weaver Star...!"

*Roar!*

Park Geon-woo's Sacred Mark flared up fiercely.

"I can't forgive you!"

"Sure, sure, do as you please."

"Yeeek!!"

As Park Geon-woo, with a demonic expression, kicked off the ground,

"Ugh!"

The wound on his chest split open, and blood gushed out even more violently.

"What are you doing? You said you couldn't forgive me?"

"Ugh."

Park Geon-woo, clutching his large, gaping wound, bit his lip.

If this continued, even a few more exchanges would result in him collapsing from excessive blood loss.

There were two options left:

Run, or if not—

"...Don't think it's over yet."

*Boom!*

He slammed his spear blade roughly on the ground.

"Owl Star, Noctua! Grant the grace of the Black Star to this humble messenger!"

He spread his arms wide and shouted as if in a wail.

*Crack! Crack!*

With a bone-chilling sound, his skin began to rapidly shrivel.

"Ugh! Cough! Cough!"

His teeth turned yellow, and his skin became wrinkled like tree bark.

In the blink of an eye, Park Geon-woo's body, looking decades older, erupted with black mana.

'The Constellation of the Owl, Noctua.'

The Transcender known as the Black Star.

She revived the dying body of Park Geon-woo.

"Ah, thank you. Thank you, Noctua."

Park Geon-woo raised his head high and gazed at the ceiling of the building, muttering softly.

"Following the will of the Black Star."

*Crack! Crack!*

Black feathers burst through his skin, covering his entire body.

It looked as if he was wearing a suit of armor made of black feathers.

The only part visible, his black eyes, were fixed on Oh Jin.

"I will bring down the star of the Weaver Star here today."

*Boom!*

Park Geon-woo kicked off the ground and charged forward.

"Ugh!"

At a speed incomparable to before,

Oh Jin barely deflected the spear tip aimed at his neck.

He quickly retreated, putting distance between them, and glared at Park Geon-woo, now covered in black feathers.

'He must have received a blessing at the cost of his lifespan.'

Or rather,

'Calling it a blessing might be a stretch. It's more like a curse.'

Regardless,

The battle with Park Geon-woo, which he thought was over, was about to continue.

"Right. If it had ended there, it would have been too boring, wouldn't it?"

Oh Jin smirked and twirled his spear.

Although the situation had worsened compared to the beginning,

he felt a sense of relief.

'After all, I haven't had a good fight in a while, and I can't miss this opportunity.'

Reflecting on his growth,

he had achieved explosive growth during moments of crisis far more often than through steady training.

"...You seem to be enjoying this."

"Ha ha! Really?"

He burst into a cackle.

"What's so enjoyable about it?"

"You can't feel this way through training."

The sensation of dancing on the edge of a sharp blade.

Thump, thump.

The sound of his heart beating like thunder, and the thrilling sensation of every cell coming alive.

Yes,

This feeling can never be experienced through mere training.

Only in real combat, where one's life is on the line,

can such exhilarating joy and pleasure be felt.

"You're not in your right mind."

"Are you one to talk?"

A guy who spouted nonsense about the principles of the universe and the Taiji.

"But that's all over now."

*Click.*

Park Geon-woo aimed his spear.

Although he had become a shriveled old man due to the constellation's blessing,

his stance, gripping the spear, was flawlessly perfect.

"Die."

"I don't want to."

*Boom!*

With a loud noise, the spears clashed.

Using Excid, Oh Jin matched the power and speed of the blessed Park Geon-woo, exchanging blows fiercely.

*Clang! Clang! Clang!*

The metallic sounds echoed loudly.

Each time the spear blades collided, shockwaves shook the entire high-rise building.

"Haa, haa!"

As the battle dragged on, Oh Jin's breathing grew increasingly heavy.

He frowned and put some distance between them.

'My mana is running low.'

He had been confident that his total mana wouldn't be inferior to a high-level Awakened,

but the excessive mana consumption from Excid and brain fire had drained his Sacred Mark's mana, which seemed endless at first.

'This isn't like pouring water into a bottomless pot.'

Both Excid and brain fire were techniques he shouldn't have been able to use at his current 5-star level.

The side effects of using techniques beyond his level

resulted in a massive, real-time drain of mana.

"Huff."

"Already tired?"

Compared to Oh Jin, whose breathing was becoming heavy, Park Geon-woo was still in good shape.

"Kid, you're acting all tough with your blessing, but what's with the attitude?"

*Spit.*

Oh Jin spat out the saliva in his mouth.

No matter how high-level Park Geon-woo was, after such intense exchanges, his breathing should have been affected.

The fact that he wasn't tired was due to the blessing of 'Noctua.'

It wasn't his true strength.

"Ha ha! Then why don't you receive the blessing of the Weaver Star?"

"I still have some leeway before I need to rely on my goddess."

"...You have leeway?"

Park Geon-woo looked at Oh Jin as if he was speaking nonsense.

His heavy, labored breathing contradicted his claim of having leeway.

"You're just putting on a show."

"Maybe. Whether it's a show or not..."

*Turn.* Oh Jin turned his body.

"See for yourself."

He ran full speed towards the broken window.

"What, what!"

"Follow me if you can."

He flipped Park Geon-woo the bird and jumped off the 50-story building without hesitation.

*Whoosh!*

The cold wind brushed against his cheeks.

The thrilling sensation spread down his spine, and the scene of Guro-dong, where thousands of demons were engaged in fierce battles, came into view.

"Whoa!"

*Clang! Clang!!*

He shot a wire shooter at the building wall.

Like Tarzan swinging through the jungle,

he flew between buildings, using the wire to reduce his speed.

'Going up is impossible without Reak's help, but...'

Going down is easy with the wire shooter.

*Whoosh! Whoosh!!*

He quickly moved between buildings, searching for his target.

'There.'

Finding the hill formed by the bodies of demons, Oh Jin disassembled his wire shooter and landed with a spin.

"Alright, then."

He looked up at the distant high-rise building.

He didn't expect Park Geon-woo to give up on chasing him.

'He'll chase me no matter what, now that he's used the blessing.'

After sacrificing decades of his life, he wouldn't give up easily.

'Maybe I should prepare a bit.'

After confirming that no one was around,

Oh Jin climbed the hill of demon corpses.

It was time to use the 'ace in the hole' he had only thought about.

'Is it really possible?'

Theoretically, it is.

The logic and plausibility align.

But,

'Can I... really do it?'

Is it right to rashly touch the power that has already destroyed the world once?

"Huff."

He chuckled.

"When did I start living by such standards?"

He smiled, spreading his palm.

*Crack!*

At that moment, black feathers fluttered, and Park Geon-woo appeared in front of him.

"You were just putting on a show, but in the end, all you can do is run?"

His low voice carried a hint of disappointment.

"If I wanted to run, I would have gone to where Lee Woo-hyuk is, you idiot."

Oh Jin burst into a cackle, rubbing his open palm against the sharp spear blade.

The flesh split, and blood dripped down.

An Awakened's blood contains the mana of the Sacred Mark.

In his case,

'Black Heaven.'

Besides the Sacred Mark, another power resides within him.

*Gurgle, gurgle.*

A black cloud spread from where the blood fell.

It covered the hundreds, thousands of demon corpses scattered around.

Wide and far.

"By the way, I almost forgot to say this."

"What...?"

"Thanks. For setting up an endless buffet for me to enjoy."

He chuckled, his shoulders shaking.

Although he had never used Black Heaven on such a large scale before,

'I knew it would work.'

It wasn't necessary for the skin to touch directly to absorb.

If the black cloud of Black Heaven could spread widely,

he believed it could absorb the Starstones hidden in the demon corpses all at once.

—This was the ace in the hole he had prepared.

"Do you know how to fill a bottomless pot with water?"

"...What are you trying to do?"

*Gurgle, gurgle!!*

The black cloud spread into the demon corpses.

Like a thick cloud blocking the stars,

greedily and voraciously,

hundreds, thousands of Starstones were swallowed by the darkness of Black Heaven.

"Submerge the entire vat in a puddle of water."

The mana, which had been depleted,

began to surge with explosive force.

*Ping!*

['Black Star' Starstone absorbed.]

[Quality adjustment applied to the Starstone.]

[Quest 'The Sky Demon Who Swallows Stars ①' in progress.]

[Progress: 76.7%]

[Progress: 87.2%]

[Progress: 94.8%]

[Progress: 100%]

*Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle!!!!*

Black clouds exploded from the split in his palm, spreading like a fog.

[Quest 'The Sky Demon Who Swallows Stars ①' completed.]

[Randomly obtained one of the 'Ancient Constellations' stored in Black Heaven.]

[Obtained constellation:—]

A blue light, like a star, shimmered in the darkness.