Chapter 42: The Essence of Traits (3)

A red-haired woman burst forth from the constellation.

It was a situation too hard to believe, yet it had clearly happened right in front of them—leaving Seo Ye-rin and Choa blinking like fools.

“Urgh, what the…!”

Groaning, the woman gathered herself and rose to her feet.

Her red hair cascaded down over her full chest and narrow waist.

Even in the simple act of standing up, there was an indescribable beauty and divinity about her.

The moment Seo Ye-rin and Choa—frozen stiff—felt that impression, the woman turned her head and her gaze flashed.

Golden eyes, slit vertically like those of a reptile, glimmered with an eerie light.

As if they had been exposed completely, the two instinctively raised their arms to cover themselves.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Startled, the woman’s head snapped around.

Her arm, moving almost on reflex, sparked with flames.

A crimson blaze flared around her arm, radiating intense heat.

At first glance, it looked like she was recklessly launching an attack in response to the voice.

However, the truth exchanged silently between her and Cheon Hwi told a different story.

Cheon Hwi had sent out a mental probe to test the constellation’s level.

And the woman had sensed the presence embedded in that thought and reacted.

“For just a shell, you’re not too bad.”

“…?!”

The force of the woman’s strike was unmistakably powerful.

Even Seo Ye-rin, who had long mastered fire through Avesta, gasped in shock at the intensity.

She instinctively knew this was a blow that surpassed even the level of an S-rank Hunter.

Realizing the danger, she tried to shout a warning to Cheon Hwi, who stood directly in its path.

But it was a meaningless effort.

Despite Seo Ye-rin’s quick thinking, Cheon Hwi effortlessly caught the woman’s wrist
and extinguished the raging flames.

“There’s no need to get so heated. I only want to talk for now.”

“…And you expect me to believe that?”

“If I wanted to kill you, I would’ve done it with that last strike.”

Cheon Hwi replied smoothly, and the tense woman threw the question back at him.

But Cheon Hwi answered without a second’s hesitation, his words arrogant enough to seem boastful.

And just like that, the woman’s mouth fell silent.

The reason the woman fell silent was because she had truly felt the threat of death in the mental sword strike Cheon Hwi had just referred to.

It had pierced through not only the powers and concepts within the stars that made up the constellation, but also her very core image—and reached her true form.

That was an undeniable fact, one that couldn’t be dismissed as coincidence or luck.

The woman, slowly accepting the reality, lowered her energy and stepped back.

“You want to know who I am, and why I was inside that girl’s body, right?”

“G-Girl?”

“You’re quite sharp.”

As the now-calm woman looked at Seo Ye-rin and said that, Cheon Hwi nodded in agreement.

Seo Ye-rin showed a hint of confusion at being referred to as a girl, but it wasn’t worth dwelling on.

After a brief silence, the woman sighed lightly and began to speak in a composed tone.

“Then, I’ll start by introducing myself.”

As she opened her hand, the constellation that had once been held in Cheon Hwi’s palm reappeared.

Eight crimson stars sparkled with a distinct presence, and the stronger they glowed,
the more Choa and Seo Ye-rin felt a sacred aura radiating from the woman.

“My name is Scarlet. I am Scarlet, the Constellation of Sacred Flame.”

The Constellation of Sacred Flame.

Introducing herself with that title, Scarlet answered all of Cheon Hwi’s questions sincerely.

What exactly constellations were.

What the Constellation of Sacred Flame meant.

Why she had resided within Seo Ye-rin’s body.

Why a god from another world had entered the bodies of humans on Earth.

Cheon Hwi asked countless questions, and Scarlet gave clear answers to every one of them.

Among those, two key pieces of information stood out.

Why constellations had taken residence in human bodies, and what their ultimate goal was.

“So that’s how it is.”

Cheon Hwi nodded, falling deep into thought.

It was only now that he could fully understand the situation.

“To win the war they once lost, they’ve been gathering strength here on Earth, haven’t they?”

According to Scarlet, there was originally a separate world where the constellations gathered.

A world that only those who had ascended and become constellations could inhabit,
where countless constellations—each of them having ascended from different worlds—came together.

Scarlet explained that one day, their world was invaded.

“The Dragon of Chaos…”

In her story, the Dragon of Chaos could not be defeated by any form of attack.

Even constellations caught in the dragon’s assault were absorbed into the chaos and vanished.

Countless constellations met a meaningless end, and eventually, the constellations gave up on fighting and chose to flee.

Realizing they couldn’t oppose the Dragon of Chaos with their current strength,
they decided they had to grow stronger—at any cost.

And the method they chose to achieve that was what became known as the Great Cataclysm.

By merging with humans on Earth, they nurtured their hosts’ growth, and through that process, they absorbed the achievements and magical energy created.

This increased the constellations’ own power.

At the time, Earth had a massive population, which made it easy for numerous constellations to find suitable vessels to inhabit.

“What a nuisance.”

Cheon Hwi let out a sigh as he looked down at Scarlet with a disappointed glare.

At his words, Scarlet averted her eyes, looking guilty.

And understandably so.

The true cause of the Great Cataclysm, which remained a mystery until now,
was the descent of constellations like Scarlet.

What’s more, the Cataclysm wasn’t a natural event—it was artificially triggered.

To make it easier for invaders from another world—the constellations—to blend into society and gain power, the Constellation of Pioneering caused the Cataclysm to color the Earth with their influence.

Gates, dungeons, awakenings, Traits—none of them were exceptions.

Dungeons were nothing more than hunting grounds, designed to help humans who housed constellations perform heroic feats.

Awakening was essentially a form of spiritual possession, embedding a constellation into a human.

The reason for all this was simple.

The constellations needed a way to gain more power.

Just like how they had once achieved ascension by accomplishing great feats,
they now sought to do so again—on Earth.

Normally, it would have been impossible.

But the constellations found a workaround: using the humans they had merged with as avatars.

It was a shortcut, but one that let the constellations steadily grow stronger.

By feeding off the growth of the humans they chose as avatars, they absorbed the achievements and magical energy created, and fattened their own stars in the process.

“So, where is this Constellation of Pioneering that supposedly led the Great Cataclysm?”

Choa and Seo Ye-rin were frozen by the overwhelming truth, but Cheon Hwi showed not even a hint of emotion.

Regardless of who caused the Cataclysm, he had decided he needed to learn more about this so-called Dragon of Chaos.

Scarlet let out a deep sigh.

She opened her mouth several times, hesitating, and finally spoke after much deliberation.

“I don’t know.”

“…What did you say?”

“From the beginning, until we gather enough power, we constellations can’t directly exert any influence.”

The Dragon of Chaos chases starlight.

It crosses worlds in pursuit of radiant, powerful beings, and devours everything in those worlds, absorbing all into its chaos.

Adding that explanation, Scarlet withdrew the constellation floating above her hand
and looked Cheon Hwi straight in the eyes.

“That’s why, except for the Constellation of Pioneering, all of us buried our constellations inside human mental images and went dormant. So that the Dragon of Chaos wouldn’t find us—so we could hide, and slowly build our strength.”

Earth had no constellations.

In fact, before the constellations descended, the concept of magic itself wasn’t even properly established.

It was the perfect place to hide from the Dragon of Chaos, and at the same time, an ideal world for the constellations to gather power.

“It’s actually a relief. Since you only pulled out my shell, the Dragon of Chaos still won’t be able to find this world.”

Letting out a sigh of relief, Scarlet turned her gaze toward Seo Ye-rin.

Seo Ye-rin unconsciously trembled under the overwhelming pressure of a constellation’s gaze—a pressure that instinctively crushed those of lower standing.

But she, too, was an A-rank Hunter of the Association, someone who had been through many life-threatening battles.

Gathering her courage, Seo Ye-rin opened her mouth and asked in a tense voice.

“What do you mean by ‘just the shell’?”

Cheon Hwi had said something similar earlier.

That the constellation he had pulled out was nothing more than a shell.

When Seo Ye-rin asked what that meant, Scarlet—who had been holding eye contact with her—snapped her fingers.

Snap!

“W-What?!”

Suddenly, Seo Ye-rin’s hair burst into flames.

It was clear to anyone watching—her Trait, Avesta, had activated.

Startled, Seo Ye-rin hurriedly deactivated Avesta in her confusion.

And in that moment, she naturally understood what Cheon Hwi and Scarlet meant by “shell.”

“The power of the constellation… Avesta is still inside me.”

“That’s right. All I pulled out was my true form and the constellation itself, but the power I wield as the Constellation of Sacred Flame still remains inside you.”

The reason Avesta had activated on its own just now was simple.

Since Avesta was originally Scarlet’s power, and the gap in understanding between Scarlet and Seo Ye-rin was so vast, Scarlet was able to temporarily override control of it.

However, Scarlet’s influence stopped there—with the manipulation of Avesta.

All of the power Scarlet possessed as the Constellation of Sacred Flame still remained dormant within Seo Ye-rin.

What if it hadn’t just been “Scarlet” pulled out, but the entire being that was the Constellation of Sacred Flame?

Then the immense power radiating from the constellation would’ve likely torn the area apart.

“That’s why right now, I’m basically just an ordinary village girl. The human ‘Scarlet’ and the Constellation of Sacred Flame have been separated, with only the bare minimum link remaining. Even the power I used earlier—I only borrowed your Avesta for a moment, using the constellation as a catalyst.”

Her physical abilities were now normal.

She didn’t contain any magical energy.

Her experience and technique remained intact, so she could still interfere with Seo Ye-rin’s power in subtle ways, but aside from that, she was simply a beautiful woman.

Hearing this, Cheon Hwi’s eyes gleamed.

Now that he had heard the full story, he realized that Scarlet matched the exact qualities he’d been looking for.

A normal person with no physical enhancements or magical energy, yet someone who had ascended to the level of a constellation through sheer talent?

She was the perfect candidate to teach martial arts in his next broadcast challenge.

He didn’t deny that it was a cowardly method, but in the end, it was still true that an ordinary person was now wielding magical power—so it wasn’t a lie.

After all, Scarlet now was no longer a grand constellation, but just a regular human.

“This is a perfect opportunity.”

In the end, constellations inhabited human bodies to gain strength.

And if strength was what they sought, then as long as their interests aligned, Cheon Hwi had no problem offering power in return.

With a gleaming smile, Cheon Hwi casually extended his hand toward Scarlet, who looked completely confused, not understanding what was going on.

Scarlet glanced once at the hand stretched toward her, then looked up at Cheon Hwi’s face with a puzzled frown.

Her expression wasn’t one of disgust, but rather a mix of confusion and mild disbelief.

As she tilted her head, just about to ask what he was trying to do.

“Power.”

“…?”

Cheon Hwi suddenly moved his lips, speaking in a voice that carried a strangely devilish aura.

“Do you desire power?”

She had never made a deal with a demon before, but Scarlet thought, If I ever did… it would probably feel like this.

Lost for words, Scarlet could only stare at him.