Not A Regressor - Chapter 136

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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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I Am Not a Regressor Chapter 136
Extinguished Starlight (2)
A path woven from the Milky Way, as though the stars shining in the night sky had been threaded together.
I ascended along the galactic path, which branched into hundreds of tributaries like stems extending from a colossal tree.
My destination was the far end of that endless Milky Way.
One of the three Divine Temples situated at the highest point of the Star Palace.
“O-jin, that….”
“….”
Ha-eun and Kwon O-jin’s expressions hardened as they arrived at Vega’s Temple.
No light emanated from the temple, which should have been glowing with a soft silver radiance.
A temple dark as an extinguished star.
Kwon O-jin’s pace quickened.
—Crash!
“Vega!”
He burst through the doors and rushed inside.
The first thing that caught my eye was an enormous wolf, its gaze blazing with ferocity.
Riak, who had been standing motionless within the temple as though waiting for Kwon O-jin’s arrival, bared his snow-white fangs and opened his mouth.
“Whelp… What in the heavens happened here?”
Riak’s eyes burned with a savage, murderous intent as he glared at Kwon O-jin.
Crackle, crackle!
Blue lightning raged fiercely between his silver mane.
“…Riak.”
“What! Happened! Tell me!”
Crack!
Riak’s form shifted into his human shape as he stomped the ground with brutal force.
A deafening roar shook the entire temple.
Riak vanished in an instant, seizing Kwon O-jin by the collar with a violent grip.
Blazing blue eyes bore down upon him.
“Vega saved me.”
“What?”
Kwon O-jin calmly recounted everything that had transpired with Cheon Do-yoon.
How he had found himself in peril while battling the Owl King, how the Constellation Noctua of the Owl Constellation had invoked a blessing, and how Vega had used the Sacred Domain to defeat Noctua.
“So Vega….”
Riak’s words trailed off, his expression growing somber.
“What is Vega’s condition right now?”
“….”
Riak turned away, his expression rigid and unyielding.
“Follow me. You’ll understand faster by seeing for yourself.”
I followed Riak deeper into the temple.
As we walked down the long corridor toward the temple’s inner sanctum, a door emanating soft silver light came into view.
The light that should have covered the entire Divine Temple flickered precariously, as though it might extinguish at any moment.
“…This place.”
“It is where Vega ordinarily resides. Enter.”
As the colossal gate, towering over twenty meters, swung open, a Cavern Chamber brimming with silver luminescence revealed itself.
A space enveloped entirely in silver radiance.
I could see Vega bound by dozens of chains of light.
The goddess lay curled like a chrysalis, shackled by those luminous chains.
“Vega!”
Kwon O-jin reached toward the chains of light binding Vega, but Riak, who had followed behind, stopped him.
“If you touch it carelessly, even you—a human free from the constraints of Divine Law—will not escape unscathed.”
“…What happened?”
“Her consciousness has been sealed due to the constraints.”
Sealed.
Kwon O-jin stared at Vega, bound by the chains of light, and bit his lip.
Vega, shackled by those chains, lay with her eyes closed as though lost in profound slumber, showing no response whatsoever.
That corpse-like appearance sent a chill racing down my spine.
‘Did she exhaust herself to this extent?’
Only now could I truly comprehend the magnitude of sacrifice Vega had made to protect me.
Until now, even under constraints, she could at least remain unharmed within the Star Palace, unable only to manifest on Earth—so I had vaguely assumed this time would be no different.
It was far too naive an assumption.
“S-surely she won’t remain sealed like this forever?!”
Ha-eun, equally unprepared for such a sight, asked urgently.
Riak shook his head slowly.
“It will naturally dissolve with time.”
“Thank goodness. That’s a relief.”
Ha-eun exhaled in relief, her hand pressed to her chest.
“So how long until the seal breaks?”
“Fifty years.”
“…What?”
Both Kwon O-jin and Ha-eun’s eyes widened in shock.
Riak gestured toward the dozens of chains of light binding Vega and continued.
“Each chain takes exactly one Earth year to disappear. Since there are currently fifty chains binding Vega, it will take fifty years before she regains consciousness.”
“….”
Fifty years.
Confronted with that vast expanse of time, both Kwon O-jin and Ha-eun froze, rendered speechless.
“…Fifty years?”
The sensation of being struck hard on the back of the head by a hammer.
Though becoming an Awakened One had freed me from the constraints of mortality, fifty years felt incomprehensibly distant for someone who had lived an entire lifetime as a human.
“W-wait! Does it really take this long? Isn’t the Polaris Constellation supposed to be less constrained?!”
Ha-eun demanded, her voice sharp with accusation.
Riak nodded with sharp, piercing eyes.
“Certainly not a typical situation.”
“Right? Something must have gone wrong or there’s been some error for it to take this long?”
“No, it’s the opposite, lizard woman.”
“…What?”
The opposite?
What in the world did that mean?
“The constraint Vega received this time is called the ‘Hundred-Year Chain’—a punishment given only to Constellations who wielded power so immense that their annihilation would be unremarkable.”
The Hundred-Year Chain.
“…Huh?”
Kwon O-jin’s brow furrowed.
He turned his head and counted the chains binding Vega’s body.
As Riak said, the number of chains was precisely fifty.
“But right now….”
“Yes. That’s exactly why I said it wasn’t a typical case.”
Riak exhaled deeply and approached Vega.
“The chains should number one hundred, but they’ve been reduced to fifty.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. From the moment I first discovered Vega was sealed, only fifty chains remained.”
….
The chains of light that should have numbered one hundred had been halved.
“Could it be because she’s a Constellation of Polaris? The higher the rank of a Constellation, the greater their capacity to endure the Divine Law’s constraints.”
“That’s irrelevant. If Vega hadn’t been a Constellation of Polaris, she wouldn’t have received the ‘Hundred-Year Chain’ constraint at all—her soul would have been annihilated from the start.”
So the constraint itself applies equally to all Constellations, regardless of their rank.
If that were true, then Riak’s claim that the chains of light should be one hundred but had been reduced to fifty was indeed decidedly abnormal.
….
My eyes sank deep with gravity.
In the heavy silence, Ha-eun cried out with furrowed brows.
“Whether it’s one hundred chains or fifty doesn’t matter right now! But still, fifty years…!”
Even as the price for breaking the constraint and using power, it was far too cruel.
“Damn it… if only I hadn’t been so stupid and gotten kidnapped back then!”
Was she feeling guilty about this entire incident?
Ha-eun, her lips trembling, had tears glistening in her eyes as though she might burst into sobs at any moment.
Of course, I shared her sentiments.
‘Why fifty chains instead of one hundred?’
There would be time later for tears and regret and self-recrimination.
Right now, finding a way to sever the chains of light binding Vega was the priority.
‘There’s no way they were reduced by half without reason.’
The ‘Hundred-Year Chain’ was a constraint well-known among Constellations, bearing a name that spoke to its severity.
Such a phenomenon couldn’t occur without cause and effect.
‘There must be a reason why the Divine Law’s constraints have weakened.’
Kwon O-jin examined the fifty chains binding Vega’s body with sharp, focused eyes.
‘Riak said there were only fifty chains from the moment he first arrived here.’
If that was the case.
Something must have occurred between Vega’s reverse summoning to the Star Palace and Riak’s arrival.
Something that had weakened the Divine Law’s constraints.
“…Could it be.”
Kwon O-jin’s eyes widened considerably.
“Do you have some idea what this is, kid?”
Riak asked with gleaming eyes.
His expression brimmed with anticipation—perhaps a Regressor would know the answer to this inexplicable phenomenon.
Kwon O-jin turned to face Riak and opened his mouth.
“Riak. Take my sister outside and stay there. I need to verify something.”
“Understood.”
Riak turned without complaint.
“What? Why are we suddenly going outside….”
“No more questions. Come on, lizard woman.”
“Ugh.”
Ha-eun swallowed a short protest and slowly nodded her head.
“Call if you need help.”
The door creaked shut.
Riak closed the door behind him as he left.
Only Kwon O-jin and Vega remained in the space filled with silver light.
“….”
Kwon O-jin approached Vega and slowly extended his hand toward the chains of light binding her.
A low rumble echoed.
Black storm clouds poured from his palm and touched the chains of light.
-Crackle, crackle, crackle!!!
As the Primordial Sky’s clouds made contact with the chains of light, sparks erupted in a violent reaction.
But it was only momentary.
The clouds of the Primordial Sky scattered and bounced back as the radiance pouring from the chains of light repelled them.
“As I thought.”
If something had weakened the Divine Law’s constraints during the brief time between Vega’s reverse summoning to the Star Palace and Riak’s arrival.
There was only one possibility.
‘The Primordial Sky.’
The liberation of the Primordial Sky had affected the Divine Law’s constraints.
‘Now that I think about it, Vega mentioned once that the Divine Law’s constraints suddenly weakened.’
It was probably right after eliminating Ashad Khan.
At that time, there were too few clues to reach a definitive conclusion about the cause.
‘Once could be coincidence, but twice cannot be.’
The Primordial Sky possesses a power capable of weakening the constraints of Divine Law.
The violent reaction that occurred when the chains of light touched the Primordial Sky’s clouds just moments ago was sufficient proof of my hypothesis.
“The problem is… simply wielding the Primordial Sky alone won’t sever these chains.”
Kwon O-jin summoned the Primordial Sky several more times, pressing it against the chains of light, but each time the dark clouds scattered amid brilliant flashes of radiance.
Even drawing upon the Primordial Sky with all my strength yielded the same result.
The Primordial Sky in its ordinary state could not break these chains of light.
‘I need to use the Heavenly Sky to sever them.’
But I cannot summon the Heavenly Sky through my own power at this moment.
Of course, if I were to absorb Ha-eun’s dragon’s eye into the Primordial Sky once more, it would become possible.
‘But there’s no telling what side effects might occur if I do that.’
In the worst case scenario.
The dragon’s eye could vanish entirely from Ha-eun.
‘If the dragon’s eye disappears, I won’t be able to control the dragon’s heart I absorbed this time.’
There would be a risk of falling into demonic possession and losing my life.
“…For now, I have no choice but to leave things as they are until I can use the Heavenly Sky through my own power.”
Kwon O-jin gazed at Vega, who slept peacefully, and released a heavy sigh.
The image of her gently stroking my hair with a tender smile drifted vaguely through my mind.
Crack.
Thick tendons bulged across my clenched fist.
I wanted nothing more than to use the Heavenly Sky right now to sever the chains of light binding her.
‘Hold on.’
For now, let me be satisfied with having found a way to break the seal.
Only after I can wield the Heavenly Sky through my own power.
Should I sever the chains that bind her.
“I need to elevate the Primordial Sky’s stage quickly.”
The core of the Heavenly Sky lies in the dragon vein’s mana I absorbed from the Dungeon last time.
As the Primordial Sky’s awakening stage increases, so too does the amount of dragon vein mana I can control, so there was an urgent need to raise its stage as swiftly as possible.
‘I already have a method in mind to raise the stage.’
Kwon O-jin turned his body toward the door, leaving Vega behind.
‘First, I need to think of a way to deceive Riak.’
It was obvious, of course.
To sever the chains without revealing that I possessed the Primordial Sky, I first needed to deceive Riak.
If I simply remained silent and then suddenly appeared to effortlessly break the chains, suspicion would inevitably arise.
-Creak.
I opened the massive door and stepped outside.
“Have you discovered something, boy?”
Riak, who had been waiting outside, approached with an anxious expression.
“It’s not certain yet, but perhaps… I might be able to break the constraints of Divine Law.”
“Is that truly so!”
Boom!
Riak approached with heavy, thundering footsteps.
Kwon O-jin turned to face him, his expression etched with alarm, and spoke in a meaningful tone.
“Riak. Have you ever heard of a sacred relic called the ‘Apple of Adam’?”
“No, no! This is the first I’ve heard of it! What is it?!”
I had no idea either.
I’d just made it up on the spot.
“It’s a sacred relic that can reduce the constraints of Divine Law.”
“I’ve never even heard of such a relic existing! Where on earth did you get that information…?”
Riak stared at Kwon O-jin with an expression of utter bewilderment.
Kwon O-jin’s lips curved into a sly smile as he continued.
“Did you forget who I am, Riak?”
I’m a Regressor, man.

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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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