After Regressing, I Gained the Power of the Demonic Dragon - Chapter 38

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 38
Whoosh!
Inside the opened chamber lay a single thin Crystal Plate.
Light flowing from the Crystal Plate filled the First Storage Chamber.
The Black Necklace adorning the Guardian Beast cradled in Sang Hyuk’s arms shone with the same radiance.
A slender thread of light stretched between the necklace and the chamber.
Beyond the thread of light, the gateway chamber from the day Waego fell under assault came into view.
A young Guardian Beast stood in the center of the gateway chamber.
Its form bore the same violet fur, elongated ears, and twin tails as now.
Yet unlike the gaunt creature before them, with ribs showing through, this version radiated vitality.
The fur gleamed with lustre, and all four limbs brimmed with strength.
Around its neck hung only the Black Necklace—no chain was visible.
The younger Guardian Beast inspected the First Storage Chamber’s door first.
Its front paw pressed against the Scale Pattern Mark beneath the door, then it circled the gateway chamber and scrutinized the stone sentinel guarding the entrance.
Only after confirming nothing was amiss did it crouch before the door.
Soon it opened its jaws wide in a yawn.
To look at it alone, it was unmistakably a young beast.
Yet the creature never once let its gaze stray from the gateway.
Then the Guardian Beast’s front paw, gripping Sang Hyuk’s collar, tensed with force.
[It’s the final recording my necklace left behind.]
The unnamed chamber held the final scenes the Guardian Beast’s necklace had captured.
“Should we stop?”
The Guardian Beast did not answer at once.
Only after gazing at its younger self for a long moment did it send a brief thought.
[I want to see it through.]
Sang Hyuk and the Guardian Beast watched the recording again.
Then a deafening boom erupted from beyond the gateway in the recording.
Boom!
The entire gateway chamber shook.
One of the stone sentinels guarding the entrance burst through the door and tumbled across the floor.
Behind the shattered sentinel, figures with concealed faces surged in.
The young Guardian Beast immediately blocked the entrance.
“Roooar!”
Magical Power exploded from its small body with the cry.
Its violet fur bristled sharply, and the tiny frame swelled in an instant.
The Guardian Beast that once fit in a palm transformed into a colossal beast massive enough to seal the gateway.
A single forepaw was larger than a human torso.
As its twin tails swept across the stone floor, it split the ground in a long gash.
The intruders scattered in three directions.
One raised a shield before it, while the two flanking figures deployed a spear and incantations in unison.
The Guardian Beast made no attempt to evade the assault.
It covered the gateway with its enormous body and bore down on the shield-bearer in the center.
Then another intruder rushed from the right.
The Guardian Beast swept its forepaw and struck him away.
Crack!
The intruder smashed into the wall.
The Guardian Beast seized the shield before it and shattered it to pieces.
The intruder bearing the shield could not withstand the impact and rolled across the floor.
A spearpoint from the side raked a long wound across the Guardian Beast’s shoulder.
Blood seeped through the violet fur, yet the Guardian Beast did not even turn its head.
Its twin tails curved sharply and lashed out at the spear-wielder’s waist.
Crunch!
The intruder crashed into the rubble of a broken column.
The pillar snapped clean in half, and debris cascaded across one side of the gateway chamber.
The power was almost unbelievable from such a young creature.
Yet the intruders did not retreat.
Indeed, the one at their head seemed entirely composed, as though he had anticipated even this transformation.
“Deploy the chains. Subdue that thing thoroughly.”
The intruders scattered throughout the gateway chamber uncoiled the chains they had carried on their backs and hurled them forth.
On the backs of the intruders’ hands, identical Scale Pattern Marks blazed into being.
Clink-clink-clink!
Chains flew in from all directions, coiling around the Guardian Beast’s four legs and torso.
The intruders each gripped their end of the chain firmly.
“Grrrrrr!”
The Guardian Beast snapped one of the chains wrapped around its foreleg with brute force.
But as it broke free, the pattern on the chains binding its torso and other legs flared with light, drawing Magical Power from the Guardian Beast’s body.
The stolen Magical Power flowed immediately to both ends of the severed chain.
Clang!
The chain that had been cut apart linked itself back together.
“Graaaah!”
With each thrash of the Guardian Beast’s body, the intruders holding the chains were dragged forward several steps.
Yet they did not release their grip.
The harder the Guardian Beast struggled, the more Magical Power drained from its body.
“Grrr…ugh!”
The Guardian Beast’s legs gave way as its strength faded.
“As expected, it won’t last long.”
As it lost Magical Power, its massive frame shrank with startling speed.
At last, the Guardian Beast returned to its original, diminished form.
Its four legs trembled weakly, yet the creature dragged itself to block the entrance to the First Storage Chamber.
“Grrrrk!”
As one of the intruders drew near, the Guardian Beast bared its fangs once more.
But the threat was short-lived.
Thud.
Finally, the Guardian Beast collapsed to the ground, breathing in ragged gasps.
An intruder stepped casually past the fallen creature and laid a hand upon the door.
Huuuuum.
The pattern carved into the door flared briefly, then extinguished.
“It won’t open.”
“Break it by force.”
The intruders brought their weapons down upon the door and unleashed a barrage of attack spells.
Boom!
The deafening crash shook the chamber, yet the door did not budge an inch.
“Tsk. It seems the door can only be opened with that beast’s consent.”
The one leading them clicked his tongue in frustration.
Another intruder then pressed the tip of a blade to the Guardian Beast’s neck.
“If we kill the Guardian Beast, the door might open.”
“No.”
The leader raised a hand to stop him.
“Killing it won’t open the door. Once that beast is dead, there will be no one left to open it.”
He gazed at the tightly sealed entrance.
“The heart is certainly beyond this door.”
The leader continued, his voice cold.
“Seal the door completely. If we cannot claim it, let no one else possess it.”
“Maintaining such a seal will require enormous Magical Power.”
The leader’s gaze shifted to the Black Necklace around the Guardian Beast’s neck.
“We have the power source right here.”
The necklace continued to supply Magical Power to the fallen Guardian Beast without pause.
“Channel the Magical Power flowing from the necklace through the chains. This beast will seal the door until its final breath.”
Two intruders pressed down upon the Guardian Beast’s body.
The leader attached an additional connector to the back of the necklace.
He then looped a thick chain through the connector and drove it deep into the chamber wall.
Clang!
The Magical Power that had been flowing from the necklace to the Guardian Beast was immediately drawn into the chain instead.
As the stolen power flowed into the wall, Sealing marks began to inscribe themselves one by one across the surface of the First Storage Chamber’s door.
A small body trembled in Sang Hyuk’s arms.
Sang Hyuk tightened his left arm, holding the Guardian Beast closer.
The intruders in the record had found and located the Recording Stone remaining in the chamber.
The moment they touched it, the inscribed text began to erase itself one character at a time.
“Leave no trace of the Apocalypse Dragon.”
The leader turned to regard the sealed door.
“It is the power left behind by a monster that destroyed countless worlds. It must be sealed away in there forever.”
Bang!
The moment those words reached her, the Apocalypse Dragon’s heart began to race.
The gateway chamber where the intruders stood grew hazy.
In its place, shattered city walls and people fleeing beyond the perimeter came into view.
Above it all, the sky tore open from end to end.
Beyond the gaping Dimensional Rift stretched an abyss so dark that no light could penetrate it.
And from within that darkness, countless beings poured forth.
Sang Hyuk recognized them immediately.
‘The Abyss Demon Clan.’
Before the Regression, they had invaded Earth just as the Giant Orcs had—an interdimensional race intent on conquest.
Sang Hyuk knew all too well the terrible power they wielded.
As memories of the devastation they wrought upon Earth flooded back, his expression hardened.
And yet the vast army filling the sky now dwarfed anything he’d witnessed during that invasion.
The demons he’d seen on Earth appeared to be nothing more than foot soldiers compared to the forces here.
Scattered throughout the horde were far more powerful individuals—entities of an entirely different caliber.
Among them were creatures whose bodies towered as high as mountains.
They hadn’t even launched their attack yet, and the raw Magical Power radiating from them alone caused the city’s protective barrier to shudder violently.
Millions of demons had already poured through the Dimensional Rift.
Counting those still crowding within the rift itself, the total was incomprehensible—tens of millions, perhaps hundreds of millions, perhaps more.
Sang Hyuk knew this was a memory from the past, and yet his breath came in shallow gasps.
His hands trembled all the way to his fingertips.
‘With numbers like that…….’
Even the Red Dragon of Africa—a creature that the invading races of the pre-Regression era had learned to avoid—seemed as though it would be unable to stand against them.
Then the demons at the vanguard raised their arms and weapons toward the ground in unison.
Those filling the Dimensional Rift followed suit in the same synchronized motion.
Abyssal Magical Power erupted from their bodies and weapons all at once.
The combined assault of tens of millions of creatures blotted out the sky as it plummeted toward the earth.
Before the attack even struck, the sheer pressure of its descent cracked the city’s barrier and collapsed the ground in countless places.
When that assault landed, everything within the horizon would vanish—not just the city, but all of it.
It was then.
A black dragon standing alone before the city raised its head.
The Apocalypse Dragon.
All Sang Hyuk could see was its massive form turned away from the city, silhouetted against the approaching storm.
From its head to the tip of its tail, it stretched for what must have been several hundred meters.
Beside it, even the fortifications surrounding the city and the soaring spires seemed infinitesimally small.
Between each black scale, darkness pooled like liquid night, ready to swallow even light itself.
Whenever that darkness rippled across its back and wings, Sang Hyuk’s own skin crawled with the force of witnessing it.
Goosebumps rose on the back of his neck.
In Sang Hyuk’s arms, the Guardian Beast’s eyes widened in shock.
[Master…….]
Yet the power unleashed by tens of millions of demons falling at once looked like the very heavens were collapsing.
Even the Apocalypse Dragon, massive beyond measure, appeared as insignificant as a firefly standing before the sun in that moment.
And yet the Apocalypse Dragon did not retreat.
Its back and flanks swelled slowly.
The dragon opened its maw toward the sky.
And then, just once, it released a Breath.
Roaaaaaaaaaarrrrr!
In an instant, the world turned pitch black.
The attack unleashed by the Abyss Demon Clan was consumed by that breath.
There was no explosion, no collision.
Everything that touched that black breath vanished without a trace.
The demons behind them were erased in turn.
The breath carved through the endless army and tore deep into the Dimensional Rift itself.
After a moment, the darkness lifted.
Not a single Abyss Demon remained in the sky.
There were no corpses, no shattered weapons, not even a handful of ash.
Even the Dimensional Rift through which they had come had vanished.
The Apocalypse Dragon slowly closed its jaws.
Despite obliterating such an immense force, its breathing remained perfectly steady.
He showed no sign of exerting himself to his limit.
Sang Hyuk hadn’t blinked for some time.
The Red Dragon of Africa wasn’t even in the same category.
This creature was closer to a god than a dragon.
Thump!
The heart of the Apocalypse Dragon inside Sang Hyuk’s chest beat powerfully once more.
Without realizing it, Sang Hyuk placed his hand on his chest.
The heart seemed to tell him that the power before his eyes was a realm he must one day attain.
All the Authority he had gained so far was merely the first step toward that power.
Hand still on his chest, Sang Hyuk gazed at the Apocalypse Dragon in the memory until the very end.
In that moment, the scene in the memory faded, and the gateway chamber where the intruders stood came into view again.
The intruders’ words and what the heart showed him were completely contradictory.
At least in the memory he had just witnessed, the Apocalypse Dragon was not a monster that destroyed the world.
Rather, it had protected the world before its destruction.
Then who, and why, had spread the story across the world that the Apocalypse Dragon was a monster that destroyed countless planets?
Why had such a godlike being disappeared, leaving only its heart behind?
And why had that heart chosen Sang Hyuk?
Sang Hyuk lowered his hand from his chest and looked at the intruders in the record again.
The Crystal Plate had captured not only the intruders’ appearance but also the Magical Power flowing through the patterns on their hands.
Sang Hyuk opened his Dragon’s Eye and examined the pattern of the one who led them.
The central arrangement of the hand pattern matched exactly what he had confirmed on the Guardian Beast’s Chain.
Sang Hyuk retrieved the Dragon Eye Recording Stone and inscribed both the intruders’ pattern and their Magical Power arrangement.
As he gazed at the pattern left on the Recording Stone, Amane Ren came to mind.
The power the intruders used shared the same root as the Authority of the True Dragon that Amane had inherited.
There was a possibility she knew the origins of that power.
But Waego had been attacked long before Amane ascended to the Sixteenth Seat.
What relationship Amane bore to the intruders remained unknown.
To uncover the truth, he would inevitably have to confront her one day.
As Sang Hyuk put away the Recording Stone, one of the intruders in the record destroyed the last Recording Plate remaining in the gateway chamber.
The intruders confirmed that the Seal was functioning properly before departing the gateway chamber.
The Guardian Beast, left alone, watched the closed door until the very end, then slowly closed its eyes.
In that moment, the record ended.
Whoooooosh.
As the light receded, Sang Hyuk found himself standing in the First Storage Chamber once more.
The Guardian Beast, its front paws on the Black Necklace, glared toward the gateway chamber.
A low growl escaped between its tiny fangs.
[I was careless and let them get the better of me.]
[I failed in my duty as a Guardian Beast. I’m sorry to you, Master.]
Force tensed in its front paws pressing down on the necklace.
[Next time those bastards show up, I won’t let them off easy.]
“You didn’t fail to protect it. They never did manage to open that door.”
Sang Hyuk met the Guardian Beast’s gaze.
“And next time, you won’t have to fight alone. I’ll be there with you.”
The Guardian Beast regarded Sang Hyuk for a long moment.
[But you’re weak.]
Sang Hyuk let out a soft laugh.
“I am now. But that just means I know what I have to do.”
[What?]
“They came all this way to bury the power in here forever.”
Sang Hyuk looked at each of the Seven Legacies in turn.
“If they feared that power so much, then I have to inherit all of it.”
Sang Hyuk’s eyes turned cold.
“I’ll grow stronger with that power, and make sure those bastards pay the price no matter who they are.”
Thump!
As those words left his lips, the heart of the Apocalypse Dragon beat loudly.
Among the seven storage chests, the one inscribed with “Old Bone” began to glow.
The lock that had been firmly sealed opened on its own.
Click.
Faint light seeped through the crack in the lid.
The Guardian Beast’s eyes opened wide.
The seal on the Old Bone has been released.
“What kind of legacy is it?”
It contains fragments of the Black Art that my master once wielded.
Sang Hyuk’s eyebrows rose slightly.
“Black Art? What is that?”
It was a technique my master used to weaken the enemy’s strength or shift the battlefield to her advantage.
Sang Hyuk’s eyes gleamed.
“Are there Black Arts I can use right now?”
If there are, the Old Bone will find them for you.
The chest lid opened slowly.
Inside lay a single bone fragment, about the length of a forearm.
The surface of the fragment was covered densely with indecipherable characters.
The Guardian Beast nudged the Old Bone gently toward Sang Hyuk with its front paw.
Take it.
Sang Hyuk grasped the Old Bone with his left hand.
Thump!
The Apocalypse Dragon’s heart beat violently.
The characters carved into the bone flared with light all at once, seeping into Sang Hyuk’s palm.
In that instant, Waego vanished before his eyes.
Sang Hyuk stood alone in an endless darkness.
Before him, a massive scroll unrolled slowly.
The Black Art Scroll.
Countless clusters of black light drifted above the blank expanse of parchment.
The light clusters moved ceaselessly through the darkness as if alive.
Near Sang Hyuk floated small, dim lights.
By contrast, the higher they rose, the larger and brighter the clusters became.
The moment his gaze lifted to the light at the summit, his breath caught and his vision swam.
Each cluster of light contained one Black Art left behind by the Apocalypse Dragon.
The larger and brighter the light, the more formidable the power it held.
Yet the clusters at the heights seemed beyond reach no matter how far he stretched his arm.
The power was far too great for Sang Hyuk in his current state to bear.
Then the smallest cluster floating nearest to him began to move.
Hum—
As the Old Bone in Sang Hyuk’s grip blazed with light, the small cluster brightened in response.
Sang Hyuk knew instinctively that he could seize this one small cluster now.
He reached out at once and clenched his fist around it.
Burst!
The light cluster scattered in his hand, flowing down his arm and seeping into his chest.
Thump!
The Apocalypse Dragon’s heart consumed the light cluster.
At the same time, characters inscribed themselves on the first line of the previously blank Black Art Scroll.
Decay.
「The Black Art Scroll opens within your mind.」
「The succession of the first Black Art, Decay, has begun.」

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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