Ch.13144. Memories with Hong-ok (3)

My head was pounding with a severe headache.

The headache had grown worse than before. And proportional to the pain, memories from my dreams began to surface more vividly.

Memories with women.

Yuri and Soso. And Arini and Hong-ok. Memories of forming connections with them and sharing emotions. Those memories were events that didn’t exist in my current reality.

‘All four relationships began at Ains Academy.’

But in my dream memories, I shared far more experiences and emotions with those four. And contradictorily, all those memories felt like they were truly mine.

‘Even though it makes no sense…’

I know the content of the original “Aka Hunter.” So if the novel’s content has become mixed with my memories, I might be mistaking scenes from the novel as my own memories.

But the original Aka Hunter is the story of Kwon Si-woo and Chae Min-a.

I’m just a minor character who wasn’t even properly named in the original. And the four women I have connections with didn’t have any romance in the original story.

‘Then where are all these recurring dream-like memories coming from?’

My head isn’t working properly because of the headache. But in this hazy state, neither fully conscious nor unconscious, I kept thinking about those memories.

‘Hong-ok… no, she called herself Ju Seo-hwa.’

The memory of Hong-ok might be a clue. She’s an Ancient Gear. So unlike the others, my memories with Hong-ok were distinctly different.

A distant past. Memories from somewhere other than Earth. A man dying beside a woman named Ju Seo-hwa.

The moment I saw that man, the concept of past life naturally came to mind.

‘My past life?’

I may be possessing someone else’s body, but my soul is still my own. The original personality of Lee Min-su, the minor character, has never surfaced since my possession.

So with my own personality and soul intact, I thought of that man as my past life.

If that’s the case, perhaps I, who possessed this body from the outside world, might not be completely unrelated to this “Aka Hunter” novel.

‘It’s complicated… what reality am I from exactly…’

That’s not all. The memories with the other three women. If these memories with them that I haven’t experienced in my current reality are so vivid…

Though it’s an absurd thought, I considered a possibility that could explain everything.

‘If those memories aren’t delusions but experiences I actually had, could it be that I’m in the novel…’

The word “regression” came to mind involuntarily. There was no other way to explain the past and future I experienced with those women.

‘Am I regressing within this Aka Hunter world?’

That explanation seemed plausible. Like a discontinued original novel. As if the novel was being rebooted or remade, if the same world setting was repeating…

A world that returns to the beginning after destruction. If such remakes were happening countless times.

It could explain why the original protagonist died. And why I, who was just a minor character, am now playing a role greater than the protagonist.

‘What nonsense…’

Of course, it’s impossible to accept rationally. But I’m a possessor inside a novel. And this world within the novel is on the brink of the evil god’s revival.

Rather, that foretold destruction is far more unrealistic. Memories mixing with my hazy consciousness.

Unable to reach a conclusion, I was returning to reality.

‘Sounds…’

I heard people’s voices. Familiar voices. I opened my eyes as if waking from a dream.

I found myself on the passenger ship heading to Orsilin Island, where the holy ground was located.

***

I surveyed the inside of the passenger ship.

Familiar faces came into view. Three holy knights. And I saw Priest Marco and Yuri.

‘Where’s Arini?’

The purpose of coming to the island was for Arini’s manifestation as a saint. But I didn’t feel anxious.

The holy fire was responding. If the Cross Society’s sacred object was responding directly to such divine power, it must be the divine power of a saint. It seems Arini had succeeded.

‘I lost my memory before reaching the altar. So did Arini stop the archdemon?’

I couldn’t be certain about Arini’s potential as a saint. But since everyone was safe, I could think positively.

‘To think Arini was actually the saint…’

With the real Chae Min-a having fallen as a demon contractor, someone had to take over the role of the original saint.

I thought Arini was the most likely candidate, and now it had become reality. And the manifestation of a saint on earth was the most definitive evidence of the end times.

The Evil God. The being called the Red Dragon in the Cross Society’s apocalypse.

If that Red Dragon revives, it would be equivalent to the appearance of the most terrible monster, incomparable even to the current Red Lake and the 12 Apostles.

Literally, an evil god.

Even in the original story, they couldn’t prevent the Evil God’s revival. In the legends passed down in Ailetan, once signs of revival appeared, preventing the Evil God’s resurrection was always impossible.

What’s important is the warrior who will face the Evil God, and the existence of the dragon-slaying spear, Epitheus.

‘Since Si-woo, who should have become the warrior, is dead, a replacement is absolutely necessary.’

Just as Arini replaced the saint, someone in the current reality must become the warrior. If that warrior doesn’t appear, Earth will perish.

But even if the warrior appears, there’s no certainty that destruction can be prevented.

Just before I opened my eyes, in my hazy consciousness, if I was regressing from the end of destruction as I thought…

If this world, where the warrior candidate has already died, is closer to destruction than any other world.

‘No, I won’t let that happen.’

Regression is just a speculation, perhaps even a delusion.

Even if it’s a world inside a novel, it’s the only world for me. What I need to do is erase the Red Lake from this world before my life ends.

‘Not much time left. I need to move faster.’

As I finished organizing my thoughts, Yuri noticed I was awake.

“Min-su? Are you awake?”

Yuri was sitting in a seat close to me. She approached me.

I had been lying across several seats. Seeing her, I sat up.

“Don’t push yourself!”

“I’m fine. Where is the ship headed now?”

Yuri sat beside me and hurriedly supported my body. She seemed more concerned with checking my condition than answering.

Ignoring the gazes of people around us, Yuri felt my body. She seemed to be checking if my mana roads were turbulent.

Yuri’s blue eyes were filled with anxiety. But she couldn’t find anything unusual with my body.

“You… you seem fine.”

As she said, I was experiencing fewer after-effects than usual after excessive mana use.

‘Not a good sign… though.’

The Phoenix Fire. At the moment I awakened Hong-ok’s true power, I felt the mana heart she was holding reach its limit.

Now, every time I use powerful magic, my source mana will rapidly leak out.

And I might die before all that mana leaks out.

Just as a person can die from severe pain or shock due to excessive bleeding, the rapid side effects of source mana leaking out could hasten my death.

‘Is the medicine working now?’

But I regained consciousness quickly after losing it. Checking the time, about 5 hours had passed since I last attacked the Count of Ghoul.

Usually when I lost consciousness, I’d be down for more than a day. The fact that I woke up so quickly now, and that I’m feeling less pain from the source mana leaking out…

It was all due to the item’s effect.

========================

「Checking active special effects.」

* Archangel’s Tear(S)

: You have used the holy tear containing the archangel’s blessing. All pain and debuffs you feel disappear. Health and mana recover to normal, and you gain enhancement buffs.

## Caution

* Dependency: Archangel’s Tear is also known as the Archangel’s Curse to Ailetans. It causes severe dependency and withdrawal symptoms. The only way to overcome the dependency is through the blessing of death.

========================

I took out an item from my inventory as a reward for defeating the Count of Ghoul.

Archangel’s Tear.

It’s the most effective recovery item among all recovery potions.

‘Without an item of this caliber… there’s no way to endure the pain of source mana leaking out.’

My condition can no longer be treated with ordinary healing spells or medicines. Just using attack spells causes burning pain throughout my body.

Burning pain, the strongest pain a human can feel. That burning pain directly disturbs the mana roads in my body.

But Archangel’s Tear eliminates even those symptoms completely. That’s why I was in such a peaceful state now.

‘But it’s an equally dangerous remedy. The Archangel’s Tear.’

I had suffered quite dangerous injuries even when attending Ains Academy.

I had already acquired Archangel’s Tear then, but I kept it in storage without using it once.

Archangel’s Tear. It’s like a terminal patient using narcotic painkillers to block excruciating pain.

Now I’ll suffer severe withdrawal symptoms if I don’t take this tear regularly. That dependency and withdrawal are the most perfect poison to break an awakened one.

‘But it doesn’t matter.’

I’ll probably die before Archangel’s Tear breaks me. Fortunately, I have enough tears to last until just before my death.

If I didn’t have this tear, I wouldn’t have been able to engage in battle after opening the Phoenix Fire. It truly was an archangel’s blessing for me.

Meanwhile, Yuri continued feeling my body to check my condition. Her expression improved once she confirmed I was safe.

I asked Yuri, being respectful since others were watching.

“What happened with Arini… and the archdemon?”

“Arini safely awakened as a saint. And fortunately, the archdemon Murmur was sent back to purgatory.”

Yuri briefly explained what happened after I fainted.

For an archdemon to fully exert its power on earth, it needs a contractor’s mediation. But the Count of Ghoul, the archdemon’s contractor, was critically wounded by me.

“The Count of Ghoul was a villain ranked higher than Lee Seon-woo. Not as famous as the Four Demons, but still an SS-rank villain. To inflict a critical wound on such a villain with a fire spell…”

Yuri looked at me with surprised eyes as she said this.

“Thanks to Min-su neutralizing the Count of Ghoul, Murmur, who had manifested on earth, couldn’t exert his full power. And Arini sent such a weakened Murmur back to purgatory in one go.”

She added that the divine spell Arini used was something Yuri had never seen before.

“Even high priests of the Vatican couldn’t have manifested such divine power.”

Even if the archdemon couldn’t properly borrow its contractor’s power, sending back an already summoned archdemon in one breath was beyond common sense.

‘The saint, along with the warrior, is humanity’s most powerful weapon against the Evil God.’

Having manifested such a miracle, Arini’s awakening as a saint would undoubtedly change the tide of the upcoming battle.

After mentioning this fact, Yuri continued speaking to me.

“However, since Arini just awakened as a saint, she’s resting alone in another cabin for stability.”

I nodded at her words. Yuri seemed to want to say more to me, continuing to make eye contact, but…

Soon, Priest Marco and the holy knights approached me, preventing her from talking to me further.

And so, the Flame group returned to Seoul.

Several days passed after the events at the holy ground were reported.

Jeon Tae-hyun, the head of the Korean Hunter Association and a member of the Five Great Celestial Beings, personally summoned me to the association.