Chapter 387: Byeol’s True Form

The soul, the spiritual body, the cells, and every other part of the body all contained the will of the main body. It was simply very difficult for this will to manifest itself. At most, when something went wrong in a certain part of the body, the main body might develop a vague feeling, much like a sixth sense.

This sixth sense was born from those faint and difficult-to-detect traces of consciousness.

However, in a space like this, even if the monster's main body sensed something unusual, it would only assume that it was imagining things.

This was a battlefield belonging to fate.

Therefore, the monster's main body could not provide any help at this moment.

The catgirl watched coldly. It seemed that she had finally confirmed that her opponent would not break free of its restraints again as it had before. Only then did she relax.

She tilted her head slightly, and her gaze quickly settled on Joo Joowon.

This finally allowed Joo Joowon to confirm that the other party really could see him.

He could not help feeling a little confused.

If this state were so easy to detect, Astral Fate Readers would not choose to descend in this form beside enemies with whom they were destined to fight to the death.

Perhaps there was some other reason for this?

The catgirl walked toward Joo Joowon.

Only when she got closer did Joo Joowon notice that her face did not have just a pair of eyes. She actually had other facial features as well. However, her skin was so dark that it absorbed light, making it impossible to see anything clearly from a distance. The only thing he could make out was that unusual pair of eyes.

She twitched her ears. Her crystal-clear eyes gazed at him, and she slowly blinked once.

"Meow~"

"...Byeol?"

Although he had already formed a guess in his heart, Joo Joowon still felt as though five bolts of lightning had struck him all at once.

The soul state, spiritual body, and everything else belonging to any living creature would be a reflection of its physical body. It was difficult for them to appear completely different. Yet the figure standing before him was unmistakably humanoid.

Even if Byeol wanted to transform into a human, there was no way he could become someone who fit human beauty standards so perfectly. He would more likely turn into a humanoid covered in fur from head to toe, like a primitive human, or become a furry creature like Seong Seungmin.

"Meow!"

Byeol could not hear Joo Joowon's voice. He merely tilted his head to the side and instinctively rubbed it against the empty air.

"Hurry up and turn back! Aaaaaah!"

Joo Joowon was going crazy. He did not want to hear some terrifying story about how Byeol's soul had actually belonged to a human all along. If that were true, he would absolutely lose his mind.

However, after Byeol rubbed against the empty air for a while, Joo Joowon finally calmed down and noticed something strange.

Setting aside the hair, if he simply made Byeol's skin tone a little lighter, no one would find it suspicious if someone claimed that the two of them were twins.

Only then did Joo Joowon recall the description on Byeol's status panel.

Astral Fate has changed from Lone to Auxiliary. Without fate or destiny, death and the dissipation of the soul will follow once he leaves his Main Star.

He had always assumed that this description simply meant Byeol could not be too far away from him and that their lives were connected.

However, when he recalled his earlier visit to the place where Byeol's soul was supposed to be, he had not seen Byeol's figure at all. The only one he had seen was Dal.

Compared to the 'catgirl' standing before him, Dal actually looked more like a cat. His appearance was almost identical to Byeol's real-life form.

So, when the description said that Byeol's Astral Fate had changed from Lone to Auxiliary, did it actually mean that Byeol had lost his original form and instead become more like Joo Joowon's 'other half'?

Or perhaps a clone?

For a moment, Joo Joowon did not even know how to react. Was there still any chance of changing back?

He looked at Byeol with complicated feelings. It was clear that, aside from this body, nothing else about Byeol had changed. Byeol had not picked up any of Joo Joowon's habits or developed any strange behaviors because of it.

However, the impact on Joo Joowon was simply too great.

He felt that even kissing Byeol now would give him a strange psychological barrier.

It was not exactly rejection. It was just a complicated feeling that he did not know how to describe.

Would Byeol really like having this form?

If he had noticed the problem earlier, would Byeol have been spared all of this?

Watching Byeol's body grow increasingly illusory, Joo Joowon took a deep breath and withdrew from this strange state.

Byeol remained where he was, flicking his tail in confusion.

He was gone.

Byeol could not help lowering his ears. This was precisely why he had never used his Celestial Fiend power. His bare body was not appealing at all.

However, he had no idea how to change back.

Would his human servant abandon him?

Back in the real world, Joo Joowon could not help pressing his fingers against his temples.

He would not be able to use this state again anytime soon. After all, although Astral Diviner were closely connected to their own Fate Stars, those stars did not belong to any single person.

If he used this state too many times, other Transcendents connected to the same Fate Star might notice him and follow the clues back to his location.

Generally speaking, there would only be one Astral Diviner in a world. There would be no duplicates. A situation like the one between him and Byeol was essentially like a comet colliding with Gaia.