CHAPTER 225: THE SEVEN STARS ASSEMBLY (1)

A drowsy yawn came from beside Kwon Oh-Jin.

“Huaaam. Oh-Jin...” A relaxed Song Ha-Eun held Kwon Oh-Jin tighter.

Neither of them had clothes on, so he could vividly feel her soft skin.

“Ehehe. I really like you, Oh-Jin.” Still drifting in a sweet dream, Song Ha-Eun rubbed her cheek against him like a cat.

Kwon Oh-Jin lay still, gazing up at the ceiling without waking her up.

The day after he embarrassingly wept on the hospital rooftop, the doctor gave him the go-ahead to be discharged. Isabella remained in Italy with some business to attend to while they returned home.

With just the two of them alone again for the first time in a while, Song Ha-Eun had pounced on him like a starving beast once they arrived home.

I never imagined I’d lose my virginity a second time.

Kwon Oh-Jin deeply sighed.

At first, he felt utterly shocked when Song Ha-Eun casually stripped off her clothes like the most natural thing in the world. With his memories of their romantic relationship gone, the past few days had been a string of overwhelming new experiences.

“Mmm.”

“Are you awake?” he asked.

Song Ha-Eun nodded groggily as she rubbed her eyes.

“Ughh. I feel like death.” She winced and rubbed her back.

Then, she poked his cheek and gave him a tired glare.

“Seriously, you don’t know how to hold back.” She pouted adorably. “How could you go so wild like it was your first time doing it or something?”

He swallowed the words, “Because it was,” before they could escape.

“Hehe. Still, it felt really good.” She giggled and kissed his cheek.

“Wanna eat breakfast?” he asked.

“Nah, you go ahead. I’m too tired thanks to someone. I’m gonna sleep a bit more.” She pulled the blanket over herself and lazily waved like shooing away a fly.

Chuckling softly, he got out of bed and dressed.

Guess I’ll keep breakfast simple.

He made a quick smoothie and threw together a meal with chicken breast and mixed vegetables. After devouring everything, he headed straight to the training facility. He had rested well for a few days now. It was time to think about what to do next.

Kwon Oh-Jin sat in meditation on the floor of the spacious training room and closed his eyes as he circulated mana throughout his body. Even though he had absorbed the mother demonic beast and the Avaricious Wolf’s mana, his usable mana hadn’t noticeably increased yet.

Neither of those powers is fully mine yet.

Even the mana he had absorbed from Damian remained stubbornly curled up like a storm cloud inside the Black Heaven without moving.

“Getting that under control is my top priority.” He frowned in frustration.

Maybe I need to advance the Black Heaven to control it properly?

However, no clear method existed to raise the Black Heaven’s level. He had no idea where to even start.

“If I think back to when the Black Heaven advanced before...”

While no fixed method existed, one pattern stood out from his past experiences. Maybe he had to devour something.

The problem is, what do I devour?

With its belly already full, the Black Heaven no longer reacted to ordinary prey.

“The last time it responded was... when I absorbed the Dragon Vein and the mother demonic beast.”

Both of those were extremely rare prey. Dragon Veins were among the rarest phenomena in the world, often kept secret or well-guarded. As for the mother demonic beast, she was an even rarer case.

She was a Star Spirit.

Where would he ever find another demonic beast carrying a fragment of a Celestial’s soul?

“This is driving me nuts.”

He couldn’t just find more prey even if he wanted to, which made things all the more frustrating.

I’ll have to set that aside for now.

Instead, he focused on what he could currently do.

Right. I gained a new trait after absorbing the mother demonic beast.

He opened his status window for the first time in a while and checked the updated list of Black Heaven traits. The new trait was called Vaporization.

He chuckled as he read the description. “Wow. It really lives up to its name.”

Vaporization allowed him to temporarily transform parts of his body into the Black Heaven’s clouds. It was a very straightforward and basic skill.

This is one hell of a skill though.

The Black Heaven clouds were completely immune to physical attacks. Sure, he had only used Open Heaven three times before. Who knew? Maybe something out there could work on the clouds. For the most part, attacks imbued with mana just passed through harmlessly.

In other words, having the ability to transform part of his body into the Black Heaven’s clouds meant...

I basically have a skill that makes me invincible temporarily.

Enemy attacks would pass right through him, but his own attacks would still function like normal. Seriously, he had gained an incredible skill. Kwon Oh-Jin smiled in satisfaction after reading the trait’s description.

“The only issues are the activation time, which parts of my body can change, and how many times I can use it.”

He still needed to test many aspects of it to fully verify its performance. With sparkling eyes like a child receiving a new toy, he activated Vaporization.

Rumble.

When he activated it, part of his body transformed into black clouds.

I can change around thirty centimeters of myself.

He couldn’t even fully transform one arm, but he could still make use of this in real combat since most attacks focused on a single point.

“The activation time is almost instantaneous.”

It would activate without any preparations as long as he willed it. The skill perfectly suited sudden feints or dodges.

“The only downside is that it eats up way too much mana.”

After a single use, he felt a huge chunk of his mana disappear. Given that Kwon Oh-Jin possessed an overwhelming amount of pure mana, other Awakeners wouldn't even be able to use this ability at all.

Judging by how much mana I have, I can maybe use it three or four times in an actual fight.

If he focused purely on evading, he could push it to six or seven times. However, one couldn’t win a battle by just evading. Realistically, he also needed to counterattack after dodging. Using it three or four times in a real battle seemed about right.

That number should go up once I can absorb all of Cheon Sang-Gil and Damian’s mana.

Having acquired an almost invincible evasion ability was a huge gain in itself.

It’s not just for dodging. It can be used for attacking too.

However, a part of his body would transform into a very noticeable black cloud.

“But I can just disguise it with Illusion.”

When he cast Illusion over the area affected by Vaporization, his appearance remained normal as seamlessly as CGI over a green screen.

From the perspective of an enemy facing Kwon Oh-Jin, it would look as if their attack simply passed right through him like a ghost.

“I really like this skill.” He grinned in satisfaction.

All right then.

Kwon Oh-Jin slowly closed his eyes and focused. He already understood how ridiculously overpowering Vaporization was, so now he needed to test it for real.

“Who should be my opponent today?” He briefly pondered and soon smirked as he activated the Stigma of Libra.

From the light flowing out of his Stigma, a handsome young man with sharp eyes materialized. With cold, gleaming eyes, he raised a sword covered in pure white frost at Kwon Oh-Jin.

“Nemesis of Deneb! In the name of the Starlight Warrior, I won’t forgive you!”

“Hmm.”

That wasn’t really his personality.

“Don’t go near Deneb again.”

“Yeah, that’s more like it.”

Looking at the illusion of Allen Oskal, Kwon Oh-Jin nodded in satisfaction. He hadn’t seen much of Allen actually fighting, so it was hard to fully recreate the illusion.

“Still, I’m sick of always sparring against Cheon Do-Yoon.”

He needed a little change of pace.

“All right then.”

The folding knife he pulled out from his waist transformed into a spear.

Clack!

“Let’s get started.”

Boom!

A deafening roar rang out across the large training room as Kwon Oh-Jin and the illusion of Allen Oskal clashed.

***

“Ugh, damn. It’s hard to move after resting for so long.”

Kwon Oh-Jin rubbed his aching muscles as he stepped out of the training room. He had gotten so caught up in the fight the illusion that he had completely lost track of time. The sun had already set outside.

Come to think of it, I didn’t even eat lunch.

Clutching his growling stomach, Kwon Oh-Jin headed home.

When he opened the door, Song Ha-Eun was sitting on the sofa in dolphin shorts and a loose boxy tee.

“Are you done training?” Song Ha-Eun, nibbling on some snacks, ran up to him and held one out.

He took the snack she offered and popped it in his mouth. “Did you rest well?”

She chuckled and nodded. “Yup, I’m very well rested.”

“Well then...”

Looking at her long bare legs, he gently pulled her into an embrace. He had already showered back at the training room and had no reason to hold back.

With a mischievous grin, Song Ha-Eun smacked his butt. “Trying to go at it again the moment you’re back?”

“Ahem.”

“Hehe. You really like me that much, huh?”

“Well...” Kwon Oh-Jin trailed off.

How could he tell her that he wanted to make more memories, enough to make up for the ones he had lost?

“Finish your sentence, you brat.”

“Shut up.”

“Aw, look who’s all shy. You’re too cute when you’re like this, I swear.” Song Ha-Eun stretched out his cheek and smiled brightly.

He pulled her hands from his cheek and kissed her deeply. The mood between them began to heat up.

“Ah, wait. Before this, there’s something I need to tell you,” she said.

“What is it?”

“The association contacted me earlier.”

The association? Come to think of it, I haven’t been in touch with them for a while.

He had either been following Isabella around Italy or holed up in Vega’s temple lately, so he never had much contact with the association.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“I’m not too sure. They just said they’d like you to drop by tomorrow.”

“Hmm.”

Well, that sounded like a pretty simple request.

“You’re coming too, right?” he asked.

“I don’t really have anything else to do. Yeah, I’ll tag along.”

“Guess I’ll have to wake up early tomorrow, then.”

Kwon Oh-Jin gently loosened his arms around Song Ha-Eun and pulled away. If they had plans tomorrow, he best not tire himself out tonight.

“Where do you think you’re going?” she said.

“What if I can’t get up tomorrow?”

“Then, let’s not overdo it and just go ten rounds.”

“Three.”

“Let’s meet in the middle. Nine.”

Did this woman not know how to do basic math?