BXBX NOVEL Chapter 136: Extinguished Starlight (2)
They climbed up the road made of the Milky Way that looked like it was made from intertwining the stars in the night sky that spread out to countless crossroads like the roots of a gigantic tree.
Their final destination was at the end of the long Milky Way, one of the three sanctuaries located in the highest area of the sanctum.
“Ohjin, over there…”
“…”
Ha-eun and Ohjin’s expressions stiffened as they arrived at the Star of the Weaver Girl’s sanctuary.
No light was coming out of the sanctuary that had originally emitted a gentle silver light.
The sanctuary was dark, like an extinguished star.
Ohjin’s steps quickened.
Bang!—
“Vega!”
He roughly opened the door and stepped inside.
The first thing that stood out to his eyes was a massive wolf with its eyes shining with a fierce light.
Riak, who was standing alone in the middle of the sanctuary as if he was waiting for Ohjin to arrive, bared his pure white teeth and opened his mouth.
“Rookie… just… just what happened?”
Riak stared at Ohjin with his eyes that were releasing ferocious killing intent.
Crack, crackle!—
Blue lightning blazed up around his silver mane.
“…Riak.”
“I won’t repeat myself! What… happened!”
Crunch!—
Riak’s body turned into the shape of a human as he roughly leaped towards Ohjin.
A loud noise echoed throughout the entire sanctum.
Riak disappeared in the blink of an eye and violently grasped Ohjin’s neck. He looked at him with eyes that shone fiercely with blue light.
“Vega saved me.”
“What?”
Ohjin calmly explained the incident revolving around Cheon Doyoon.
The crisis they’d faced while fighting the King of Owls, the celestial of Noctua using its blessing, and Vega using Sacred Ground to defeat Noctua.
“So that’s why Lady Vega…”
Riak slurred the end of his sentence with a gloomy expression.
“How is Vega’s condition?”
“…”
Riak turned his body around with a stiff face.
“Follow me. It’ll be faster to see with your own eyes.”
Following Riak, they went deeper into the sanctuary.
After walking through the long hall and heading to the edge of the sanctuary, they saw a door that gave off a gentle silver light.
The light that was supposed to cover the entire sanctuary was blinking as if it would go out at any moment.
“…This is.”
“It’s where Lady Vega usually resides. Come in.”
Once the massive door that seemed to be over 20 meters tall opened, an empty space full of silver light came into sight.
—A space encompassed with silver light.
They could see Vega tied up by dozens of silver chains. With her body curled up like a pupa, the goddess was bound by chains of light.
“Vega!”
Ohjin tried to reach his hand out at the chains of light but was stopped by Riak, who was behind him.
“Even if you are a human that is free from the Commandment’s Restriction, you won’t stay unharmed if you touch it recklessly.”
“…What happened?”
“Lady Vega has had her consciousness sealed due to the restriction.”
Ohjin chewed his lips while looking at Vega locked in chains. With her eyes closed as if she’d fallen into a deep slumber, Vega didn’t display any sort of reaction.
A chilly sensation ran down his spine from how she looked like a corpse.
‘Does that mean she used her power until she reached this state…?’
He then realized how large of a sacrifice she’d made back then in order to protect him. Since every time she got restricted until then was being unable to materialize herself on Earth, he vaguely thought that she would at least be able to stay unscathed in the sanctuary.
It was too big of a careless misunderstanding.
“W-Wait, there’s no way that she’s going to keep being in this sealed state, right?!”
It seemed that Ha-eun also didn’t expect Vega to be in that state, as she spoke with an urgent expression.
Riak slowly shook his head.
“It will be unsealed on its own once time passes.”
“Phew. That’s a relief.”
Ha-eun smoothed down her chest as she exhaled a breath of relief.
“So how long will it take for the seal to be released?”
“Fifty years.”
“…What?”
Ha-eun and Ohjin’s eyes widened.
Riak indicated the dozens of chains restraining Vega and continued.
“It takes exactly one year in Earth time for one of those chains to disappear. As fifty is the total number of chains restraining Lady Vega, it will take fifty years for her to regain consciousness.”
“…”
—Fifty Years.
Ohjin and Ha-eun couldn’t even display any reaction to the time that felt so distant and rooted to the spot.
“…Fifty years?”
It felt like the back of his head was slammed by a hammer.
Although the constraint of lifespan disappeared once they became Awakeners, fifty years felt like an unimaginably long period of time as they lived their whole life as humans.
“W-Wait! Is… Is it supposed to be this long? W-Weren’t celestials of the North Stars supposed to be affected less by the restraints?!” Ha-eun asked in an argumentative manner.
Riak nodded his head with his sharp eyes.
“This certainly isn’t normal.”
“Right? It’s taking this long because there was some sort of error or mistake that occurred right?”
“No, it’s the opposite, lizard girl.”
“…What? What do you mean?”
“The restriction Lady Vega received this time is called ‘Century Chains’. It’s a punishment that is only given to celestials that have used so much of their power that it wouldn’t be strange if they perished.”
—Century Chains.
“…Huh?”
Ohjin furrowed his brow.
He turned his head around and counted the number of chains tying Vega. As Riak said, the number of chains was exactly fifty.
“However, right now…”
“That’s right. This is what I meant when I said that it isn’t normal.”
Riak sighed deeply and approached Vega.
“What should have originally been a hundred chains has been reduced to fifty.”
“The reason being?”
“I don’t know. There were only fifty chains remaining when I first discovered Lady Vega bound up.”
“…”
“Isn’t it because she’s a celestial of a North Star? Celestials are supposed to be able to endure the Commandment’s Restrictions better the higher their league.”
“This is unrelated to that. If Lady Vega wasn’t a celestial of a North Star, she wouldn’t have received the ‘Century Chains’ restriction but instead have her soul extinguished in the first place.”
According to Riak, it meant that no matter how high a celestial’s league was, the restriction itself would be applied the same to all celestials. In that case, it certainly wasn’t ‘normal’ for there to be only fifty chains remaining when there were supposed to be a hundred.
“…”
Ohjin’s eyes sank down.
Inside the silence that set down, Ha-eun frowned and shouted out.
“Whether there are a hundred chains or fifty chains isn’t what’s important right now! Regardless of the reason, how could it be fifty years…!”
It felt too harsh, even if it was the price for violating the restrictions.
“Damn it… if only I didn’t get kidnapped like a fucking idiot back then!”
Feeling guilty for the incident, Ha-eun bit her lips as her eyes glistened like she was going to cry at any moment.
Naturally, Ohjin felt the same way as she did, however…
‘Why are there fifty instead of one hundred chains?’
It wasn’t too late to cry, regret, and spend time repenting at a later date. Finding a way to get the chains of light restraining Vega off of her came first.
‘There’s no way they were cut in half for no reason.’
It was a renowned restriction that was known well enough amongst celestials for them to go out of their way and name it ‘Century Chains’. It wouldn’t make sense for such a phenomenon to happen without any cause and effect.
‘There should be a reason the Commandment’s Restriction was reduced.’
With his eyes opened sharply, Ohjin examined the fifty chains that were tied around Vega’s body.
‘Riak said that there were only fifty chains when he first discovered her.’
In that case, it meant that something happened during the time between Vega’s forced return to the sanctuary and Riak’s arrival.
—Something that weakened the Commandment’s Restriction.
“…No way.”
Ohjin’s eyes opened wide.
“Is there something you figured out, kid?” Riak asked as his eyes shone.
His expression was bloated with the expectation that a Regressor would possibly know the answer to the unknown phenomena.
Ohjin looked back at Riak and answered.
“Riak. Take Ha-eun out and stay there for a while. There’s something I have to confirm.”
“I got it.”
Riak turned around without any remarks.
“What is it? Why are we going outside all of a sud—”
“Don’t comment and follow me out, lizard girl.”
“Uht.”
Ha-eun groaned briefly and slowly nodded her head.
“Call me if you need help.”
Ddrrrrr—
Riak, who had gone outside, closed the door.
Only Ohjin and Vega remained in the area filled with silver light.
“…”
Ohjin approached Vega and slowly reached his hand out at the chains that were restraining her.
Rumble—
Black clouds came out of his palm and made contact with the chains of light.
Bzzzzzzzzt!!!—
As the clouds of the Black Heaven touched the chain, it caused scintillation and displayed a fierce reaction.
However, the light pouring out of the chains of light bounced off the Black Heaven’s cloud and dispersed soon after.
“As expected.”
If something happened in the short time of Vega returning to the sanctuary and Riak’s arrival that weakened the Commandment’s Restriction, there was only one possible answer:
‘Heaven Unfolding.’
The Black Heaven unsealing had influenced the Commandment’s Restriction.
‘Come to think of it, Vega also said that the Commandment’s Restriction had suddenly weakened some time ago.’
It was most likely right after eliminating Arshad Khan.
Ohjin couldn’t come to a conclusion on the spot back then because there weren’t even clues to properly nail down the cause, but…
‘Once, you could call it a coincidence, but twice? That’s nearly impossible.’
The Black Heaven had the power to weaken the Commandment’s Restriction.
The violent reaction caused when the Black Heaven’s clouds made contact with the chains of light was enough to verify his hypothesis.
“The problem is… whether or not I’m able to use the Black Heaven to break these chains.”
Ohjin summoned the Black Heaven a couple more times and brought it near the chains, but every time the clouds dispersed along with the strong rays of light.
The same result occurred when he used as much of the Black Heaven as he could.
He couldn’t break the chains of light by using the Black Heaven in his normal state.
‘I need to use Heaven Unfolding.’
However, he couldn’t use Heaven Unfolding right then with his own strength. Naturally, it would be possible if he used the Black Heaven to absorb Ha-eun’s Dragon Eye one more time…
‘But I don’t know what kind of side effects could occur.’
If worse came to worst, Ha-eun’s Dragon Eye could completely disappear.
‘And if the Dragon Eye disappears, she won’t be able to control the Dragon’s Heart she absorbed recently.’
If she fell into an unstable state, she could possibly end up losing her life.
“…For now, I guess I can only leave her in this state until I can use Heaven Unfolding using my own power.”
Ohjin looked at Vega, who was in a deep slumber, and sighed deeply.
He faintly remembered how she’d stroked his head with a caring smile.
Throb—
Thick veins popped out on top of his clenched fist.
Ohjin wanted to use Heaven Unfolding immediately to break the chains of light restraining her, but…
‘Be patient.’
He had to be satisfied with the fact that he found a method to break the restriction.
It was the right move to break the chains after being able to use Heaven Unfolding at its lowest requirement with his own power.
“I need to raise the Black Heaven’s stage quickly.”
The core of Heaven Unfolding was the mana of the dragon vein he’d absorbed in the dungeon.
As it said that the dragon vein’s mana he was able to control would increase along with the Black Heaven’s awakening stage, there was a need to advance the Black Heaven as fast as possible.
‘And there’s something I have in mind.’
Ohjin put Vega behind him and turned around to face the door.
‘I should start by thinking of how to fool Riak.’
Needless to say, in order to break the chains without exposing the fact that he had the Black Heaven, the first thing he needed to do was deceive Riak.
Coming over to break the chains without any prior information would obviously draw suspicion.
Ddrrrr—
He opened the massive door and went outside.
“Is there something you found out, kid?”
Riak, who was waiting outside, approached him with a nervous expression.
“I’m not certain yet… but I think there might be a way to remove the Commandment’s Restriction.”
“I-Is that really true?!”
Bang!—
Riak roughly kicked his feet and stepped closer to him.
Ohjin looked back at Riak who was astonished and asked in a profound manner.
“Riak, by any chance— the star relic called ‘Adam’s Apple’… have you heard of it before?”
“N-No. It’s my first time hearing of it! What is it?!”
‘I don’t know, either. I made it up on the spot.’
“It’s a star relic that can reduce the Commandment’s Restriction.”
“I-I never heard of the existence of a star relic with those kinds of powers! Just where did you get this information…?”
Riak looked at Ohjin like he couldn’t understand.
Ohjin smirked and continued.
“Riak, have you forgotten who I am?”
‘I’m a goddamn Regressor.’