Not A Regressor - Chapter 155

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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 155
Adam’s Apple (2)
“So this is… Adam’s Apple?”
A brilliant cascade of golden radiance poured forth.
Merely standing still, the sacred aura that filled the surroundings was potent enough to steal one’s breath away.
The golden apple emanated such a mystical and holy presence that even those who didn’t believe in God would naturally feel reverent.
Riak’s eyes widened as he gazed at the apple held in Kwon O-jin’s hand.
“Truly… what an extraordinary sacred relic with such an uncommon aura!”
The dense magical energy was so thick it made the skin tingle.
The immense power of a stigma—as if stars plucked directly from the night sky—radiated from the golden apple.
“How on earth did you obtain such a divine object?”
“Why ask when you already know?”
Kwon O-jin chuckled and tapped his own head lightly.
“Obviously, I obtained it because I ‘knew’ where it was and how to get my hands on it.”
“Hmm. Fortunately, it seems the method to obtain Adam’s Apple hasn’t changed.”
“Well, just because the future has begun to shift doesn’t mean everything changes all at once.”
He answered with a light shrug of his shoulders.
“…Kid.”
Riak’s gaze turned toward Kwon O-jin’s face.
Deep dark circles shadowed his eyes, and his cheeks had grown hollow.
To the seasoned warrior Riak, Kwon O-jin’s current condition was transparent at a glance.
‘A state where extreme exhaustion and anemia overlap.’
Fundamentally, the bodies of Awakeners boasted vitality and recovery far superior to ordinary humans.
Even for Kwon O-jin, an apostle of Lyra Constellation counted among the highest of hundreds of Constellations, losing sleep for several days would barely show.
Yet the face of this superhuman, bearing such an extraordinary physique, had grown so gaunt it was painful to witness.
‘No matter how much knowledge of the future one possesses, obtaining such a divine object could never have been easy.’
On the surface, he wore a confident expression as if it were nothing.
But the deep fatigue and anemia evident in Kwon O-jin’s face were proof that he had endured a fierce and bloody struggle to obtain Adam’s Apple.
“Thank you.”
Riak bowed his head with measured precision.
Unlike Holy Spirits who directly inherited a portion of a Constellation’s soul, the relationship between Awakeners and Constellations was not a one-sided master-servant bond.
If one were to compare the relationship between a Constellation and an Awakener, it would be that of business partners.
Awakeners receive stigmas from Constellations and gain superhuman power, while Constellations see their own ‘prestige’ rise as their stigma-bearing Awakeners achieve greater feats.
Of course, fundamentally the Constellation that grants the stigma holds the superior position, but bound by the constraints of Divine Law, a Constellation cannot issue forceful commands to their apostles.
In other words.
The fact that Kwon O-jin had obtained Adam’s Apple for Vega while becoming so worn and tattered was an act of pure will, entirely free from any coercion.
‘He said he had been close to Vega in his past life.’
When I first heard that claim, I dismissed it as nonsense.
But now, witnessing how desperately he had pursued Adam’s Apple for her sake, I began to see Kwon O-jin in a different light.
‘If this kid is capable of such devotion, then perhaps he truly can…’
Riak’s train of thought was interrupted as his body trembled slightly.
“Hmph! Still, I cannot accept this!”
“Accept what?”
“Nothing, you brat!”
Riak shook his head vigorously, his expression flustered.
His lustrous silver fur rippled like rice stalks swaying in the wind.
“So if we have this, we can break Vega’s shackles?”
“If this is truly Adam’s Apple as I remember it.”
“Then we have no time to waste! Let’s go free Vega from her bonds right now, you brat!”
“Ah, Riak—wait outside while I break the shackles.”
“What?”
Riak’s eyes narrowed.
“Is there a reason we can’t go in together?”
“Using Adam’s Apple requires a ritual of sorts.”
“I see.”
As I offered a vague excuse, Riak nodded with an unconvinced expression.
It was natural for him to make such a face when I suddenly claimed a ritual was necessary, but there was no way around it.
‘I can’t let him see me using the Heavenly River directly.’
After all, “Adam’s Apple” was nothing but a fictional holy relic I’d created.
Even if I added an arbitrary stipulation, Riak had no choice but to accept it.
“Understood. I’ll stand guard outside the door, so call if anything happens.”
“Got it.”
I nodded and stepped into the spacious chamber.
There, Vega was bound by chains of light numbering fifty strands.
….
The Silver-haired Goddess, her eyes gently closed as if lost in slumber.
Seeing Vega for the first time in nearly a month, she still possessed a beauty that seemed not of this world.
‘Just a little longer, Vega.’
I approached her, bound by the luminous chains.
Carefully, I reached out and caressed her cheek.
A warm tenderness transmitted through my fingertips.
To all appearances, she seemed to be in peaceful slumber.
‘A long sleep stretching across fifty years.’
I narrowed my eyes and touched the chains of light that confined her.
Crackle!
The chains blazed fiercely, as if warning me not to touch them, searing the skin.
Today, I would sever these Divine Law chains that sealed away the goddess.
“Haa.”
I drew a slow breath and focused my consciousness on the Heavenly River nestled within my left heart.
An abyss as vast and dark as a starless night sky.
A colossal mass of black clouds, too vast to even comprehend its size, crouched within my heart.
‘I can do this.’
I found the dragon vein’s mana hidden between the black clouds.
I reached out toward the mass of mana coiled with such noble dignity.
The dragon vein’s mana, incomparably denser than when I had awakened the Five Stars, moved according to my will.
After enveloping my heart with the dragon vein’s mana to protect it.
“Those who pass through me, to the Garden of Sighs.”
I recited the incantation in a hushed voice.
The Black Heaven that had crouched within my heart erupted violently through the slightly opened door.
“Ugh!”
It felt like opening the gate to a cage holding a pack of starving wolves.
With the Black Heaven’s mana pouring out like a collapsed dam, it was difficult to maintain consciousness.
“Ah, ugh.”
Black clouds wrapping around my body.
Like butter placed on a scorching hot pan, my consciousness melted into the black clouds.
Part of my head disappeared.
My right shoulder, my left hip, my thighs and calves.
They melted away sluggishly, transforming into black clouds.
‘I… can’t.’
I desperately grasped at the fading thread of consciousness.
My instinctive intuition was warning me.
If my entire body transformed into clouds like this.
I would never return.
‘Focus.’
A black sky shrouded by thick clouds.
I concentrated my mind on the constellation shining brilliantly within it.
A blue constellation glowing purely in the black darkness.
As I focused all my consciousness on the light of Lyra Constellation, black lightning wrapped around my body and pushed back the clouds slightly.
“Haah! Haah!”
Ragged breathing.
If only it had been painful instead.
If it had been maddening and agonizing, I could have endured it by gritting my teeth.
The sensation of my consciousness melting into the Black Heaven was not something I could endure simply by persisting.
“Phew.”
I took a deep breath and slowly raised my hand.
Before my entire body dissolved into the Black Heaven, I had to sever the chains of Divine Law binding Vega.
-Crackle crackle crackle crackle!!!
As I brought my hand wrapped in black clouds against it, the chains of light resisted harshly.
I grasped the chains with both hands and twisted them with all my strength.
-Crack crack crack!!!
The Divine Law’s chains, forged to seal the transcendent existence known as a Constellation, shattered pathetically in Kwon O-jin’s grasp.
“One down.”
Kwon O-jin smiled coldly, gazing at the luminous chains torn asunder.
‘I mustn’t forget to use the shadow either.’
Beyond simply freeing Vega from her bonds.
It was equally crucial to conceal the existence of the shadow so that Riak waiting outside the door or the sleeping Vega wouldn’t sense it.
“Exhale.”
I reached toward the remaining forty-nine chains.
Crack! Crack crack!
One by one.
I seized each chain and snapped it.
The Divine Law’s constraints binding Vega began to dissolve.
“Ah… ugh.”
With each chain I severed, my consciousness flickered and dimmed.
Like flipping off a power switch.
The sensations of my body vanished one by one.
Pain, despair, joy, rage, pleasure—all faded to nothing.
Memories of the Orphanage from childhood. Memories of the Orphanage Director flailing wildly, swinging his fists.
Reddish-brown hair flickering like flames.
The dazzlingly beautiful face of that girl erased from memory—
“Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!!”
I spat out rough curses and clutched at my hair.
‘What? It’s gotten worse than when I used it before.’
Back then, only twenty to thirty percent of my body had transformed into shadow.
Now nearly half of my body had become shadow.
‘The Abyss… has grown stronger?’
Was it because I’d undergone my sixth Awakening, or was there another reason?
The shadow enveloping my body felt noticeably denser than when I’d used the Abyss before.
Of course, if this were a life-or-death battle situation, I might have welcomed the Abyss’s increased power.
‘Focus on the starlight. If I focus, I
won’t be able to
make it disappear.’
Right now, my consciousness was simply flickering at a faster rate than before.
‘…Focus. Do it.’
Suddenly.
The image of Vega standing before me during my battle with Cheon Do-yoon surfaced in my mind.
Had she known then that she would be trapped in this endless seal?
‘She must have known.’
No.
Perhaps she had resolved herself to something even greater.
My soul would be torn asunder by the constraints of Divine Law, and even my divinity as Polaris would vanish.
I would be prepared to crumble away like grains of sand.
‘Then.’
Shouldn’t I be prepared to make that same sacrifice?
Even if I cannot give more than what I’ve received, at least I should give as much as I’ve been given.
“Vega….”
I desperately clung to my fading consciousness as I severed the chains of light.
Ten chains, twenty chains, thirty chains, forty chains.
When only the final chain remained.
-Crack.
A sound of something breaking.
A sound of something crumbling.
A sound of something shattering.
Echoed through my ears.
“What… is this?”
I squinted and looked around.
But no matter how carefully I examined my surroundings, there were no visible changes.
“Grraaahhh!”
Perhaps because I had lost focus for a moment.
The speed at which my consciousness was burning away accelerated even further.
‘There’s no time.’
If I lost focus any longer, my entire body would transform completely into darkness.
“The last… one!”
Crack!
I severed the final chain I gripped.
Fifty chains, shattered into fragments.
Kwon O-jin exhaled roughly as I closed the gate of darkness.
“Haa! Haa! Haa!”
My dimly flickering consciousness gradually became clear.
My legs gave out and I collapsed directly onto Vega’s body.
As I lay draped over her like a blanket.
[My… child?]
The voice of the goddess I had longed for echoed in my ears.

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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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