Oslo’s wings shone brightly. She had already made the choice to rebel against the promise with the creators of the world. That was why she had no hesitation in using her power to save a mortal.
Perhaps it was why Oslo was much more proactive in her support of Lee Sungmin, now that she had fully accepted her fate would be miserable if the Apocalypse of Eria was to manifest.
“………umm.”
Osla’s eyes narrowed. The power of Oslo permeated into Baek Sogo’s body and started to expand through Baek Sogo’s internal circuits.
Lee Sungmin looked at the scene anxiously. After a while, Oslo shook her head.
“I checked, but there’s none of the Vampires; contagions mixed in. It’s just Juwon’s poison.”
Lee Sungmin was relieved to hear it. Baek Sogo was held hostage in the Queen’s mansion for over half a year. There was a high risk of her catching a contagion if she was in a weakened state.
But that was just one thing checked off the list, Lee Sungmin was worried that there might be other things infecting Baek Sogo’s body besides just the poison, but it turned out to not be the case.
“Her internal energy is very damaged. I don’t think she was tortured, but…… the poison is incredibly strong.”
“Can’t you do anything about it?”
“That’s not how my powers work.”
Oslo shook her head.
“It may be possible to forcefully seal whatever it may be if it were a form of spell or curse, but this poison isn’t within my area of expertise. Slowing the progress…… I’m sure that’s at least possible with my powers, but it seems they already have done everything in their power to prevent it from spreading. At least, for the past year, those vampires really did everything they could to keep this woman from dying.”
‘Why did they do that?’
Lee Sungmin couldn’t understand the vampire’s motives. Why did the vampires keep Baek Sogo alive and return her to him?
It would make sense if they kept her alive but didn’t give her back to Lee Sungmin… but they did. Why? Just to get Geniella out of seclusion?
Why did Gemini just let Baek Sogo go? Not only that, but why did Geniella show killing intent as if she was going to actually kill him then and there…. But ended up letting them go?
Geniella’s eyes could no longer see the future she wanted. But did that mean the Apocalypse was not fated to happen now? What did it mean if the Predator of Massacre was no longer in the picture?
Lee Sungmin asked Osla about it. It was because he thought that Oslo would know better than him if it was about obscure topics like fate or the future.
“She can’t see the future…….”
Oslo’s face turned sullen as she thought about the rather poor looking future.
“The Vampire Queen’s eyes don’t show a definitive future. What her eyes did do was show possible futures and she could make choices if she wanted to choose a certain future that she wanted.”
With a sigh, Oslo laid Baek Sogo’s body slowly on the grass. Lee Sungmin nodded his head slightly in acknowledgement of Oslo’s words.
Geniella had said it before. The possibilities of several different futures would be trimmed down to a single timeline that Geniella wanted to develop. To make that possibility a reality, Geniella had spent hundreds of years moving in the dark to prepare.
“The fact that her eyes can no longer see the future…… means there is no possibility of a future for Eria.”
“……The end of the world.”
Lee Sungmin murmured in a low tone of voice. For ten years, fortunately, the world had not perished while he was sealed.
But the world of Eria was still fated to end with the Apocalypse. At Abel’s sacrifice, Kim Jonghyun, only the first Catastrophe, had disappeared.
Wijihoyeon had been wandering the dungeons of Eria, closing them before they could even manifest to prevent the overflow from happening later on. The Predator of Massacre had also been extinguished inside of Lee Sungmin’s mental world.
But even if all those obstacles were removed, Eria would still suffer the fate of the Apocalypse if things kept progressing as they were. Above all, if Geniella wanted the end of this world to be set in stone, she alone could be a potential Catastrophe if she so chose to be.
There was also one more imminent threat that the Predator of Massacre had scoffed at. The Queen of Spirits would soon wake up.
‘I can still change it though.’
Lee Sungmin believed it and had no doubt in his mind that he could still potentially prevent the world from meeting its end. The Predator of Massacre which could have become the Final Catastrophe, was stopped and extinguished.
Although Lee Sungmin was also advised not to trust the Devil of Maryeong Pavilion, it was certain that the Devil of Maryeong Pavilion had created several variables in this timeline and changed a lot of things in regards to the fate of Eria.
“Well…….”
As her body was lying down, Baek Sogo’s lips opened slightly.
Lee Sungmin was surprised and approached Baek Sogo as Scarlett also hurriedly ran up in surprise to her waking up.
Lee Sungmin supported Baek Sogo’s head and took an Elixir out of his spatial pocket.
An Elixir was an all-around potion. It not only restores wounds but also restores energy to some extent.
Lee Sungmin carefully spilled the Elixir into Baek Sogo’s mouth.
[In this case, isn’t it the standard way to feed it with your mouth?]
“What the hell are you talking about?”
[It feels like it would be the best way… huhuhu!]
Heoju chuckled. Meanwhile, Baek Sogo’s eyes, which were closed, trembled slightly open as the elixir trickled down her throat.
Lee Sungmin gulped down some of the elixir and fed it to her with his mouth as he placed his lips atop of hers. Slowly, the eyelids of Baek Sogo rose up enough to see her surroundings. Her gray eyes were faded and much more different than before.
“……Ah.”
Baek Sogo’s lips opened slightly. She looked at Lee Sungmin with a dazed expression.
Lee Sungmin couldn’t figure out what to say first. Baek Sogo’s head moved in silence.
She saw Scarlett looking at her with a sorrowful look. Looking at Scarlett’s worried face, Baek Sogo slowly tilted her head.
“Is this a……dream?”
Baek Sogo was sure of it. She was seeing things that were impossible to see at this point… right?
For the past year or so, Baek Sogo was held in the underground prison of Geniella’s mansion. Although she was not subjected to torture, Baek Sogo was completely neglected.
Even escape was impossible. The poison weakened her body and she was immobile because it completely froze up her dantian and meridians.
No matter how powerful Baek Sogo may have been as a Martial Artist in the realm of Transcendence, it was impossible for her to escape the mansion full of vampires on her own with a body that couldn’t circulate any internal energy whatsoever.
At some point, she couldn’t even maintain her mind properly. She had been falling asleep a lot. In fact, it’s more like falling unconscious at random points instead of sleeping.
How long had it been? The last thing she saw before she fainted this time was the dark underground prison; the thick iron bars, and cold stone floors that had surrounded her for the entire past year.
“……No.”
Lee Seongmin spoke in a trembling voice. He moved his hands around Baek Sogo’s wrists and looked at them. Her wrists were incredibly skinny and her skin was rough from malnourishment.
Lee Sungmin lowered his head in shame. A turbulence of grief and sadness washed over him as he looked at Baek Sogo.
As Baek Sogo had told him… she said she would go forth on a journey to extinguish the ‘evil’ from this world. She had done that, but at what cost?
She had smiled at him before leaving that day, a smile so blissful. She went on to challenge the horde of monsters within Predator all by herself.
“………Baek Sogo.”
‘Would I have done that?’
Lee Sungmin didn’t know if he would have. For Lee Sungmin, he didn’t have some noble heart or cause to make him go out and extinguish the evil from this world. Even if it was a narrow-minded belief, it was paramount to her existence. It was that important to Baek Sogo.
Even if there was a risk of her life, it had to be done in her eyes. But for Lee Sungmin, in his right mind, he would never challenge Juwon, the Black Star of the Lycanthrope Tribe, alone. Not just Juwon, but any of the remaining Black Stars in Predator, was suicide to go up against alone.
But Baek Sogo challenged him. Even if she failed, she still tried to kill Juwon.
If she had succeeded in killing Juwon, she would have immediately gone farther up North and consequently challenged Geniella.
That was the kind of person Baek Sogo was at this point in time.
Lee Sungmin did not think he would act anything like her if he were in her shoes.
“……It’s been a long time……”
Lee Sungmin couldn’t bear to look Baek Sogo in the eyes. He could feel enough shame as it was just holding her trembling hand.
Ten years ago, Baek Sogo did not kill Lee Sungmin. Based on her standards, Lee Sungmin would have surely turned into a monster that was classified as ‘evil’ by her standards.
“Lee Sungmin…?”
It wasn’t a dream.
Baek Sogo slowly realized the truth. Lee Sungmin’s hands were warm, and she could feel his temperature through their shared touch.
It had a human warmth that was completely different from the cold and damp temperature of the underground prison she had been locked up in for the past year. The light slowly came into Baek Sogo’s eyes, where her irises had been faded and empty.
She saw Lee Sungmin and Scarlett. She then saw Yana standing in the distance, as well as Oslo and the several fairies floating around her.
Baek Sogo couldn’t say anything.
Where was this place? Why was she here?Rather than trying to find the answer to these questions, the presence of Lee Sungmin in front of her surprised so much that she started to tremble once more. She opened her mouth to say something, but couldn’t come up with anything to say and closed her mouth.
“……Yes.”
The silence was short and so was Lee Sungmin’s reply. But for the two of them, the silence was a very long time. After a bit of time to recollect her thoughts, Baek Sogo opened her mouth to speak finally.
“It’s been a while… Wow.”
It was bittersweet.
* * *
“What do you think?”
Gemini asked in a voice filled with curiosity. It was shortly after Lee Sungmin and his party had escaped from the North on the Pegasus.
The red curtain of blood in front of Geniella collapsed. Geniella clenched and unclenched her outstretched hand as she spoke, recalling the pressure from the last attack Lee Sungmin had shot off at them.
“It was great.”
Geniella replied with genuine admiration in her eyes.
“He surprises me every time I see him. There’s no one in the world who has developed as fast and as rapidly as him.”(T/N : She clearly hasn’t met the broken talent meter known as Wijihoyeon.)
“So? If it’s the Ghost Spear as he is now, do you think his fangs will reach the Queen?”
Gemini asked with her eyes shining in wonder. At Gemini’s blatant provocation, Geniella grinned and put her hand on Gemini’s head.
“It will always be possible to reach me. The question is whether it will be enough to kill me.”
“But the Queen wants to die, right?”
“Yes, everybody will die in the end.”
Geniella answered Gemini’s question in a nonchalant voice. Gemini smiled unperturbed at the Queen’s answer.
Geniella’s dream future had been known to all of her descendants for the past hundred years. She wanted to culminate a Predator of Massacre into existence that would slaughter the entire population of Eria and grow stronger without limit.
Geniella had one more wish though that Gemini was referring to.
After the Predator of Massacre devoured everything in the world, Geniella’s other wish… was to be devoured by the Predator of Massacre, herself and die with happiness.
“So, Queen, it’s been a year. Have you come to a conclusion yet? The Ghost Spear clearly had the vessel that we were looking for.”
“I’ve been planning this for hundreds of years now.”
Geniella slowly rose up into the air. Gemini walked out of the underground prison with her; Chen and Kunn followed in silence.
“It doesn’t change now. After all… …the Predator of Massacre is a symbol for us. Kill everything in sight and devour. That’s all it needs to do.”
Originally, Geniella expected that Aine, the chimera created by Frescan, would be the vessel to contain the Predator of Massacre.
For the past 10 years, Geniella had been preparing to awaken the Predator of Massacre within Aine.
The thing that Lee Sungmin had mistaken was a simple but dangerous fact. Geniella did not plan to let a Predator of Massacre awaken ‘naturally’. She had been planning all these years to create the Predator of Massacre with her very own hands.
“Aren’t you nervous because you can’t see the future anymore?”
“I was just flustered and confused when I could not see any further. But after spending the past year thinking about it…. Doesn’t that mean my future has come true? If I can’t see the future anymore, that means there won’t be longer till this world ends.”
Geniella rose back up to the ground level and crossed through the garden in the center of the mansion filled with red roses. Gemini silently followed behind.
“Nothing changes.”
Geniella declared.
“So, Gemini…. I won’t punish you for your mischief.”
“……Aya~ Queen, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I’m talking about giving him back the Silent Flare.”
“Queen, didn’t you want me to do that? Then I guess you should have told me in advance before disappearing into seclusion. It’s all this Queen’s fault, after all. You’ve been completely silent and unresponsive to all of us poor children.”
Other than that, Gemini dared not make any other excuse.
Seeing this, Geniella no longer questioned Gemini. It was just the relationship between the two of them as pure-blooded vampires. It had been like this ever since Gemini was first turned into the first descendant.
“And not only that… wasn’t it the Queen who let him go just now?”
“That was because it wasn’t ripe yet.”
The corners of Geniella’s mouth went up.
“I mean, Gemini. You know it too. How I really want to eat and devour my prey…… I starve myself and let the hunger grow more and more until it’s perfect. I also need to get the prey at just the right time.”
“You mean it wasn’t time yet?”
‘The Queen seriously let him go for that reason?’ Gemini smiled and hid her innermost thoughts.
‘That’s why I hate you.’
Gemini didn’t bother to voice her thoughts aloud.