The Ash Forest (2)

“Why are you alive?”
A cold voice came out naturally.
It was a tone that sent a chill through the air, as if it could freeze it.
I didn’t want to speak in such a tone, but my emotions were so heightened that I couldn’t help it.
It would have been different before, but there was no way my words would come out kindly to the one who had tried to take my place as if he had been waiting for me to die.
And even more so to the one who was presumed to have framed me.
My heart sank heavily with a thud.
With the Nebula’s memory, everything fell into place like a puzzle, and I had no mercy to treat him kindly anymore.
I’m not that magnanimous.
The guy smiled.
It was more of a grotesque expression forced onto his face than a smile.
It was very grotesque.
“Alive? I’m dead. For sure.”
“Then.”
The voice was short and sharp.
“But the Constellation who contracted with me said I had something to do!”
It was a fact I knew.
Because there was nothing I couldn’t see with the Nebula’s memory and my Sun’s Eye.
But the fact that it was a channel that didn’t go through the official system… was very surprising.
“So you crawled out like a bug thanks to The Crow’s Ruins.”
Lilac tilted his head and narrowed his eyes.
“Don’t I look fine for a bug? I’m breathing like this, and I’m talking well.”
His words were mixed with a provocative malice.
“…”
I said nothing.
My emotions were turbulent, but I gritted my teeth and suppressed them.
“Ah, I even think. I’ve become a being who has transcended even death! This is all thanks to the great The Crow’s Ruins.”
I stepped back and said to the two.
“That’s a soul. It’s not a proper person with a body like my friend.”
“Then how should we deal with it?”
“It must have a purpose that it must achieve, and it won’t die until it achieves it.”
A cold energy cut through the air.
Lilac’s gaze turned murderous.
“That’s right. I have something I must achieve.”
His tone was, in a word, like that of a posthumous fanatic.
Lilac smiled leisurely again.
A black shadow flickered in his pupils.
The rapidly changing expressions and emotions made him feel like a monster.
It was clear that he was not in his right mind.
Lilac was not this kind of child.
A bitter taste rose in my throat.
I suppressed my emotions and ordered the two.
“Sion, you protect my friend as a top priority.”
“I understand.”
“Yeon Taeseon, you can be my sword.”
“As always.”
Lilac’s mouth opened.
“Actually, I was just going to die, burning with a desire for revenge.”
His mouth opened to a size that a human couldn’t, and from below it, the sound of a scream, like a bug crawling, was heard.
Absurdly, abnormally.
“Yes! So I died. My heart stopped, my body was torn apart, and no one remembered my name! Now that the Tower Head is here, I’ve regained my name!”
He raised his hand.
A faint purple light formed at his fingertips.
“I was just going to be satisfied with that and sleep. But the Constellation said.”
His smirking face was creepy.
“‘There’s still work to be done.'”
Yeon Taeseon sighed.
“I’m a Regressor, but I feel like my knowledge is useless. I didn’t even know such a card was hidden.”
“Yeah. Try a little harder. Regressor.”
The flame flickering at Lilac’s fingertips was something I had seen before.
The black magic and unique ability that had brought the monsters that had torn apart the base camp of the Yellow Magic Tower.
“Please listen to my request before I shoot this.”
Yeon Taeseon drew his sword.
I hid behind him and looked at Lilac.
“What is it?”
“Please return Han Siyoon.”
That was a threat.
At the same time, it felt like a last chance.
Yeon Taeseon drew his sword, and I hid behind him.
My heart pounded anxiously.
I was at a loss for words at the unimaginable request.
No, I thought he would definitely demand my neck.
“…Han Siyoon?”
“Yes!”
“Not my neck?”
“The Constellation says. ‘Aren’t you a bit too self-conscious?'”
“…”
No, that’s because I extorted a huge amount of coins from your Constellation.
Even though you swore at me, calling me a couple of swindlers.
‘Anyway, Han Siyoon.’
Well, I could understand why The Crow’s Ruins was doing this.
Han Siyoon must be very precious to him.
Because he’s an S-rank.
‘But do you think I’m crazy enough to give up the settlement money?’
The Calamity says the more coins, the better.
If I just stay still, The Crow’s Ruins will bring me coins at some point, so why should I.
Lilac opened his mouth.
Although it was no longer a speaking form.
“Please return Han Siyoon. This gate is closed. It won’t open unless I die.”
“Then I’ll kill you.”
Yeon Taeseon, who couldn’t stand it anymore, rushed out with an axe.
I urgently grabbed Yeon Taeseon’s clothes, but it slipped through my fingers in an instant.
“No!”
A soul contracted with a Constellation should not be touched carelessly.
Because the individual’s power engraved on the soul becomes ridiculously strong.
That was the same reason why I hadn’t attacked or made a Word of Power.
It becomes a being that moves by a completely different law.
‘I should have explained properly!’
Lilac, with his mouth open grotesquely, just rolled his black eyes and looked at Yeon Taeseon, then shot the flame that was gathered on his finger.
Yeon Taeseon deflected the slow flame.
And a scream was heard.
“Kyaaaaaaaaaak! Aaaak! Haha! Aaaaargh! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaak! Kyaak! Haha! Aaaaargh!”
The cavity shook.
The space itself vibrated as if it were being twisted.
A scream like a chalkboard scratching was heard, delivering a direct blow to the soul.
Sion and Daisy, who were far away, were fine, but Yeon Taeseon, who had been directly hit, was bleeding from his eyes and nose.
Yeon Taeseon, with blood pouring from his face, barely stood on his feet.
Bloody saliva trickled down the side of his mouth.
His eyes were a mixture of anger and defeat.
“You bastard…”
“You’re Yeon Taeseon! The Constellation told me to tell you that he wanted you too.”
At that moment, the scream slid past.
A sound that tore through the skin, grazed the brain, and tickled the heart.
Lilac instantly appeared before my eyes.
“Stop…”
“Wow. You’re going to return Han Siyoon?”
Thwack, my mouth was covered.
Lilac’s hand grabbed my chin and stopped my words.
“Thank you so much.”
Just then, the system flashed urgently, but.
I was already in contact with Lilac.

“Ah, my god. This happened while I was looking away for a moment.”
At the same time, my vision went out.

“You understand, Calamity.”
A young voice was heard.
When I opened my eyes, I saw a pitch-black sky without a single star.
I was lying on a sea of blood, and a golden-haired boy was looking at me.
It was The Crow’s Ruins.
This was his nebula.
“I couldn’t bring you here any other way. A Constellation acting in the mortal world without any restrictions, isn’t that too much?”
“What do you want to say.”
Fortunately, I could speak, so I wasn’t afraid at all, even though this was his nebula.
“Return Han Siyoon.”
“No.”
“Otherwise, you can’t leave this place.”
The Crow’s Ruins made an emotionless expression and stomped his foot.
A ripple spread through the sea of blood, and the situation in the lower world began to be clearly visible.
The first thing I heard was an urgent cry.

Lee Seonbaek!

Constellation-nim!

I told you to give him back.
Yeon Taeseon, who had rushed forward and been bounced back, Han Sion, who couldn’t bring himself to approach, and Lilac, who had instantly become bored.
The place where I had been was covered in pitch-black darkness.
Lilac, who had yawned widely, muttered.

Siyoon-nim must have been really wronged.
When I opened my Sun’s Eye wide, the situation became clearer.
I realized that this whole situation was because of the core I was holding in my arms, just in case.
The thing that was written as a core and read as Han Siyoon.
A system window was clearly visible where I had been.

[Name: Han Siyoon Lv.98]
[Contracted Constellation: The Crow’s Ruins]
[Unique Skill: The Most Terrible Darkness]
It had reacted to Lilac and gone berserk, and it had thrown me, who was in that space, to the closest ‘place where I should be’.
I am a Constellation, and Han Siyoon is a contractor of The Crow’s Ruins.
So it threw me into this blood-smelling nebula.
“What are you going to do?”
The Crow’s Ruins continued.
“Your contractors can’t get rid of that. Even a low-rank Constellation could undo it, but…”
“…”
“You, the Constellation, are trapped here.”
Heejuk.
A sneer spread across his emotionless face.
“Let’s live together.”