Player Who Became A Constellation [EN]: Chapter 70

Player as a Constellation – Episode 70 (70/250)

Episode 70

An enemy… you say?

‘Yoon Si-rin… it can’t be?’

Loki stared blankly at Helga.

Black and white currents swirled around her dress, covering it with heavy armor.

A horned circlet helmet obscured her eyes, gauntlets and plate boots encased her limbs.

Even a crimson greatsword.

No, it wasn’t just the armor. That was definitely the ‘Helga’ avatar. It was Yoon Si-rin.

The skills and item summons she used were the same.

But… why?

“Helga…! Orders…!”

Loki gritted his teeth at the words uttered by the Black and White Order believer.

Helga… even that name…! Then, could it be that her soul isn’t Yoon Si-rin?

‘But she reacted to my name.’

Then why doesn’t she recognize me?

‘Has… too much time passed?’

Yoon Si-rin wandered for over 300 years.

From a human perspective, 300 years is an incredibly long time. Could she have forgotten me?

“My command is to retreat. You cannot defeat him with your strength.”

Helga ordered the believers to retreat, pointing her greatsword at Loki.

“It’s not too late. Step back. Or I will kill you.”

Step… back?

Are you kidding me?

If I retreat here, what have I been suffering for all this time? Why did I build up my power, risk war with other nations, and cause all this trouble?

All for the sake of one woman before my eyes, I’ve been running all this time…!

If I lose even my purpose, what am I supposed to do?

“……”

The cold eyes visible through the circlet glared fiercely at Loki.

It didn’t seem like a joke.

“Step back? Are you really saying that? I’ve worked for years for this moment. I can’t do that now.”

As Loki took a step forward, Helga’s eyes narrowed.

“Then, I will bury you with the dead you killed.”

At her words, Loki felt a chilling sensation from behind.

Turning around, he saw monsters in human form.

Their skin melted, and they howled in agony. They began to grab Loki’s arms and legs, constricting his body like snakes in layers.

Dozens of undead bit at Loki’s body, revealing hateful glares.

Loki glared at the undead.

‘These bastards…!’

They were the assassins he had burned alive not long ago.

‘It’s not even a normal undead.’

It must be one of Helga’s skills.

The pressure was immense. If it were an ordinary person, their entire body would have been crushed into a bloody mess.

Seeing Loki, whose entire body except for his face was bound by the undead, Helga approached him and pointed her greatsword at his forehead.

“Who are you? Who sent you? The Holy Order?”

Helga’s cold glare was filled with great distrust.

“What are you talking about?”

“…Are you deceiving me again?”

“Deceive?”

“…Yes.”

“Kim Hoon. If you don’t know that name-.”

“I don’t know.”

“……”

As if reacting to Helga’s cold voice, the undead pressed down on Loki even more.

‘She doesn’t know?’

But if she really didn’t know, she wouldn’t be reacting like this.

Then another question arises.

If she knows, why is she so hostile and at the same time….

“Why… are you looking at me with those eyes, Si-rin?”

Why is she looking at him with empty eyes?

Helga’s body flinched.

‘Si…rin? How does he know that name…?’

Helga looked back and forth between the greatsword she had drawn, the armor she was wearing, and the unidentified man caught by the dead, feeling confused.

‘Kim Hoon? Who… was that…?’

I don’t know. But she felt an unknown emotion from the man’s words.

That emotion was excitement and anticipation. Agitation, worry, and anxiety… everything mixed together and turned into fear.

It was an unpleasant feeling.

So unpleasant that she wanted to run away from the man in front of her.

But why was she feeling so unpleasant?

She asked herself over and over again.

But no answer came.

It couldn’t be helped.

She didn’t know a man named ‘Kim Hoon.’

She shouldn’t have known!

She tore at her hair.

Her head throbbed.

Old memories faintly surfaced in her aching head.

The ‘hell’ that happened on the continent…!

“I feel bad.”

“……”

“So… please….”

Helga raised her face and looked at Loki.

Tears streamed down her empty golden eyes.

“…Disappear from my sight.”

As if Helga’s words were a signal, the undead completely covered Loki’s body.

Those undead would restrain that man for about a week.

So, she just had to leave him there and leave.

Helga barely supported her staggering body with her greatsword. The believers approached, worried about her.

“Helga!”

“What did that guy do…!”

“No. It’s nothing.”

Helga raised her head, sweating coldly.

The mass of flesh made of corpses was constantly being compressed.

“Let’s… get out of here quickly.”

With an unknown emotion, she raised her greatsword.

As Helga took a step, something grabbed her hand.

“……!”

“Helga!”

Helga turned her head and looked at the one who grabbed her hand.

A hand that had emerged through the mass of flesh that had become a cocoon.

It was Loki’s hand.

“I… won’t… let… go.”

A faint voice.

The mass of flesh swelled as if it would burst.

Helga struggled to shake off his hand and distanced herself.

“I won’t… let go.”

The mass of corpses tore apart, and something walked out from within.

“I don’t know what you’ve been through or how you’ve lived.”

A ram’s skull and jet-black armor, a golden spear in his right hand, Gungnir [a mythical spear of Odin in Norse mythology].

“If you truly want to leave, I will let you go. But….”

Red light emanated from the ram’s helmet.

“If you are in pain… I will find out what it is and I will do everything in my power to… liberate you!”

Loki glared at Helga.

***

Helga was unconsciously rejecting him.

She was afraid. She was scared.

For the past 300 years, she had been ‘alone.’

‘Yes, I’m… alone.’

When she was summoned to the continent alone, the first thing she started doing was finding one man.

The only being she could rely on. A being she could trust and depend on, someone she could lean on even in an unfamiliar place.

The man she trusted and followed.

To find such a being… she wandered the continent for decades.

As someone who was originally ‘human,’ this world was a very scary place.

Unfamiliar people and their own traditions, religions, ways of thinking, and values.

They discriminated against her because her race was different, and they hunted her down as a heretic because her religion was different.

The nobles treated people like tools, and slaves were treated worse than livestock.

Monsters, hideous and violent, drove her to aggressive acts.

She felt disgusted by the unfamiliar world. She could tolerate that much.

Thanks to the abilities of her game avatar, she could fend off anything that could be a threat.

But the hardest thing was the gradually disappearing ‘personality.’

The feeling of losing herself.

The feeling of gradually being eroded by the game character.

The life of Helga, the avatar, not Yoon Si-rin.

She endured, endured, and endured.

To do so, she had to rely on someone, and the first target was humans.

She relied on them.

Their values were different, but she understood them and trusted and followed them. She tried to adapt to this world and maintain her personality in any way she could. But they betrayed her.

They used her for their own selfish desires and abandoned her.

The more that happened, the more her personality was weathered into darkness.

The next thing she relied on was other races.

They were more trustworthy than humans. They were purer, more honest, and more passionate than humans.

But… they were destroyed by humans.

They became slaves, were hunted down, and were reduced to tools to satisfy human desires.

Seeing her close friends being murdered before her eyes, she lost her place to rely on.

There was no place to lean on. There was no place to rely on. The more that happened, the more her heart turned black.

So, she abandoned part of herself and chose another part.

She firmly believed only in herself.

She forgot the purpose of finding the man she had relied on and trusted.

His voice, his face, his personality, his memories with him.

She even forgot his ‘name.’

It was too harsh an environment, too hellish a situation.

And 300 years,

It was too long a time to remember him.

***

“Liberate…?”

Helga repeated Loki’s words.

“Nonsense.”

Liberate me?

Liberate me from what? From humans?

Or from this endless wandering?

It was absolutely impossible.

“To do that, I want to talk to you.”

At Loki’s words, Helga gripped her greatsword.

“If you say anything more presumptuous, I will really kill you.”

“……”

“I don’t know what you want.”

“……”

“But if you want to do something, you’ll have to subdue me.”

Helga pulled out her greatsword and took a stance.

It was a disciplined movement as if she had learned martial arts. All life around her withered and disappeared.

The grass she was standing on dried up and crumbled, and the trees rotted and died.

Black aura flowed out around her.

-Kieeeek!

It took the shape of a human.

Evil Spirit Summon.

It was one of Helga’s skills that inflicted a curse effect for a certain period of time if she damaged the opponent.

Loki looked at the evil spirit and gripped the golden spear, Gungnir.

‘What was the skill effect of the evil spirit? On the opponent….’

Health drain effect, damage reduction for the opponent, and a 2% slow effect.

That was also a ‘stacking’ effect.

It would be quite dangerous if he allowed her to attack more than once.

It seems that her words about killing him were not empty words.

‘Trouble. It seems she has completely forgotten.’

Loki gripped Gungnir and took a defensive stance.

Helga gritted her teeth at his unyielding attitude.

“You’ll regret it.”

As soon as she finished speaking, her figure disappeared.

By the time Loki recognized her appearance, she was right in front of Loki, twisting her waist in an upward strike stance with her greatsword.

“…Fast.”

Loki hurriedly swung Gungnir, and the rising greatsword collided with the golden spear.

The ground around them caved in. The ground shattered, and dust swirled around like a fog.

Loki swung the spear shaft, pushing Helga away and creating distance, but Helga, as if not wanting to miss him, quickly clung to him.

Every time she swung her greatsword and the spear blocked it, the earth vibrated with explosions.

‘…Dangerous.’

Loki, who had only been defending, pondered.

It was a fiercer attack than he thought.

He could block or avoid it, but it was also a close call.

If he accidentally allowed an attack, he would continue to allow attacks.

‘If I get caught-.’

Just as he was thinking that, Helga swung her greatsword.

Loki swung Gungnir to deflect it, but Helga released the handle of the greatsword.

‘She dropped her weapon?’

The greatsword rotated in the air, avoiding Loki’s spear blade.

Her body spun around and kicked Loki in the solar plexus [the area between the stomach and the chest].

Thud-!

The Demon God set armor on his chest shattered, and the evil spirit seeped through the gap.

“Damn it…!”

Loki was knocked back by Helga’s blow.

The evil spirit wrapped around Loki’s entire body, following the part where the evil spirit had seeped in.

It grabbed his arms and legs, restricting his movements. Whenever that happened, a crimson light briefly shone on Helga’s body.

‘…Health drain effect and slow.’

Although subtle, the evil spirit was suppressing his body’s movements.

‘What the hell? Martial arts…?’

Loki stared blankly at Helga.

Swordsmanship, and now martial arts?

It wasn’t a movement that was visible according to the skill, but a movement that she had internalized as her own.

‘Amazing.’

Helga had been wandering for 300 years, chased by the Holy Order, the ruler of the continent.

In the process, she must have learned various techniques, whether it was swordsmanship or martial arts.

‘Did she learn it herself?’

Loki shook off the dust on his body.

‘I shouldn’t take her lightly.’

Loki looked at Helga and slowly approached her.