Ch.12944. Memories with Hong-ok (1)

I remained silent at those words.

I had always felt Hong-ok’s will through my mana heart, but this was the first time she had directly spoken to me.

When I didn’t respond, she continued.

“Three of the seals I created have already been broken. If you push yourself any further in your current state, you won’t survive the moment the fourth seal breaks.”

Though her voice was warm and gentle, Hong-ok’s words were filled with concern and sorrow.

‘Why does she worry about me so much? I don’t understand…’

She’s different from Yuri and Soso, who were Eins’s companions, and Arin, whose life I saved.

Hong-ok is an Ancient Gear. If I die, she could simply find another master and leave. Yet she remains by my side, even substituting for my damaged mana heart.

‘Perhaps in that dream…’

The dream I had while unconscious. Hong-ok appeared in it too.

Not as the Phoenix’s egg or an Ancient Gear, but as a priestess of some mysterious religion that worshipped fire and the Phoenix.

Dressed in priestess robes, she danced and prayed for someone.

And in that dream, Hong-ok called my name without ceasing.

‘Ugh… my head…’

Recalling that dream brings another headache. And I can feel Hong-ok’s wistful gaze.

However, that gaze wasn’t just in the dream. It was also how Hong-ok was looking at me now. I could directly feel the will of Hong-ok, who was connected to me as one.

“I could never abandon you. Because I’ve loved you. For such a long time…”

In the midst of that terrible burning pain, Hong-ok revealed her true feelings to me.

I should have been flustered, but these were the emotions and will of Hong-ok, who had become my mana heart. So I could feel that she was sincere, could sense how deep her emotions ran.

I couldn’t say anything to her.

‘Why… would Hong-ok… for me…’

At that moment, the Count’s blood mist attacked me again. Tiny particles of blood tried to burrow into my body like leeches.

Sizzle-crackle—

I evaporated the blood mist with Parma’s holy fire. True to its nature as the counter to magical energy, it worked effectively. The Count shouted in frustration.

“Damn it. Those cursed Cross Society relics again…”

Of course, his voice spread through the mist, as the Count had turned his own body into fog.

Simultaneously, new mist rose to replace what the holy fire had evaporated.

As expected of a dark mage who had lived for over a century, the amount of magical energy he had accumulated was on a completely different level from ordinary villains.

“Haa… haa…”

While Parma’s holy fire didn’t consume as much mana as blue flame, I had enhanced its power by adding more mana. So even with holy fire, there was still some mana consumption.

‘I still… need to hold on longer.’

Yuri was suppressing the summoning of the great demon. With her eternal barrier, we could barely buy enough time until Arin awakened as a saint.

That meant I needed to keep this Count occupied until then.

‘But how?’

Countless questions raced through my mind.

I have the Fairy Queen’s Wings that I obtained through the system. If I could completely conceal my presence temporarily, I might be able to land a decisive blow on the Ghoul Count.

‘But if I attempt an attack carelessly and just waste mana, there won’t be a second chance.’

The blood mist is one with the Count. And just as the holy fire attack worked earlier, I can temporarily evaporate the mist.

But unless I eliminate all this thick mist surrounding us, the Count will never die.

‘What a terrible monster.’

But there is a way. In truth, he’s not a villain with particularly outstanding durability or defense.

If I can find a gap in that blood mist trick and land one good hit, I can definitely buy us time.

‘The problem is that gap is as narrow as a needle’s eye.’

Since Siwoo confronted this Ghoul Count in the original story, I already know his only weakness.

As an awakened one, somewhere in this blood mist must be the core of his magical energy, his mana heart or core.

And when he solidifies the blood mist to attack me, I can find clues to pinpoint its location, however subtle they might be.

‘I need to push my strongest spell through that gap.’

For that, I needed Hong-ok’s help.

While narrowly dodging the explosions of blood mist that kept coming at me, I entrusted my body to Wind Cutter.

And simultaneously, I tried to communicate with Hong-ok again.

Soon, my mind entered a state of deep meditation.

***

Suddenly, the scenery around me changed.

No, I could clearly feel my body still moving. My body, reflexively controlled by Wind Cutter, was evading the Ghoul Count’s attacks.

However, my mind was seeing a different landscape. It seemed like a space that Hong-ok’s will was creating in my head.

In that landscape, I sensed a presence.

‘Who are those people?’

There were two people inside a building.

In an oriental-style, antique wooden building that resembled a grand mansion from ancient China, a woman and a man were conversing.

“The days when I can talk with you like this are numbered, Seohwa.”

The black-haired man was lying with his head on the thigh of the kneeling woman, looking up at her face.

I’d never seen this man before. Yet somehow, his face felt familiar.

‘I don’t know who he is. But why does he feel so familiar?’

It was a completely different feeling from seeing someone I knew or recognized.

I didn’t know who this person was. And yet, I felt as if I knew him very well.

Like looking at myself in a mirror. Entranced, I looked at the face of the woman named Seohwa, whom the man was gazing up at.

‘Ju… Seohwa?’

Surprisingly, the full name naturally came to my mind. Ju Seohwa. Though I’d never heard this name before.

I felt that name was both familiar and dear to me.

At the same time, when I saw the woman’s face, I couldn’t help but be surprised.

‘That woman is… Hong-ok?’

The woman who had the man’s head on her lap—she looked remarkably similar to Hong-ok in her manifested form.

Fiery red hair and red eyes. And tears from her eyes were falling onto the man’s cheeks.

“Don’t cry, Seohwa.”

As the woman who looked exactly like Hong-ok continued to cry, the man raised his hand. Then he wiped her tears with it.

“Meetings always entail partings. But partings also lead to new meetings. So you and I are not just separating. We will surely meet again someday.”

But before her tears could dry, Ju Seohwa clutched the man’s clothes tightly, sobbing.

“But if you die… if you die, I won’t be able to see you again! Even if you’ve defeated the evil dragon… if you die like this… I… I… cannot go on living!”

“Don’t worry. The Phoenix you serve… has always burned itself and been reborn. I… and someday you too… will meet me again… ugh…”

At that moment, the man couldn’t finish his words and coughed painfully. Looking at him again, his face was extremely pale and full of illness.

He seemed to be dying.

‘Like me… perhaps…’

Startled by this sight, Hong-ok—no, Seohwa—embraced the man’s body.

The man comforted her and continued speaking.

“The evil dragon has disappeared from this world for now… but my ill-fated connection with that creature is not over. Someday it will return… and throw the world into chaos… that cycle of ill fate cannot be broken…”

His voice grew fainter, as if even speaking was painful. But the man smiled at Seohwa and struggled to continue.

“But if at that time… I am reborn as well. I think I would make the same choice as now.”

“That doesn’t matter… I don’t care about the distant future! A future where I can no longer see you…”

“Don’t say such things. It is the fate of my clan… my destiny. The fire… the Phoenix… has lent me the power to burn the evil dragon…”

The man reached out with a trembling hand and held Seohwa’s face. Then their lips met.

When their lips parted again, the man spoke.

“So you too… the Seohwa of that time, help me once more.”

“Why… why do you alone bear such a heavy fate?!”

“Don’t be sad. It’s… something only I can do… Fire cannot exist without burning something… So I will burn the evil dragon again instead of this world.”

Though the man seemed to have lost all strength in his body and could barely speak, even in his dying moment, those words seemed filled with his strong resolve.

But now, as the moment of death truly approached, the man could no longer open his mouth. Then, with great effort, he raised his hand, stroked Seohwa’s hair, and said:

“…And… Seohwa. I loved you.”

With those final words, the man closed his eyes with a smile on his face. At that moment, Seohwa’s scream filled the mansion.

‘What is this? What scene am I…’

And suddenly, as if waking from a dream, I regained my senses.

At the same time, the sensation from earlier—as if I had become that dying man—the feeling of caressing Seohwa’s cheek and hair remained vividly with me.

A thought unconsciously crossed my mind.

‘A past life?’

The sensation was so vivid, so strangely familiar, that I thought perhaps that man was actually me.

Of course, my current self looks nothing like him.

Nevertheless, all the emotions he felt, and the feelings and anger toward the being called the evil dragon that flowed from his lips, were resonating within me.

‘Like that… hatred for the Red Lake.’

At that moment, as if waking from a daydream, I became aware of my surroundings again.

The battle was still ongoing. Wind Cutter was moving my body. But it was precarious. The magical energy of the blood mist showed no signs of diminishing and was constricting me like a snake.

Reflexively, I accelerated my mana heart. The one substituting for my mana heart now was Hong-ok. She responded.

She said to me:

“Even now… you’re about to say the same words as back then.”

Though I couldn’t fully understand her meaning, as Hong-ok said, I had something I absolutely needed to say to her.

“Lend me your fire. The fire of the Phoenix.”

Hong-ok no longer tried to stop me.

No, she must have known that nothing could break my resolve now. She finally released the power of the Gear.

Around my body, the Phoenix’s fire began to rise.