Not A Regressor - Chapter 160

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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 160
The Constellation of Cygnus (1)
“Hssss.”
Low and deep.
I drew in a breath.
Channeling mana throughout my entire body, I activated the stigma of Canis Major Constellation and surveyed my surroundings.
━A vast Divine Temple shimmering with soft luminescence.
A silver werewolf standing in the center of the temple.
“Grrrrr!”
A low growl emanated from Riak.
Between his silver mane, blue lightning crackled with savage intensity.
“Come on, brat.”
With that final warning.
-KWAAAANG!!
The temple trembled as Riak’s body shot upward with tremendous force.
A speed that shattered the sound barrier.
An intense sonic boom erupted, sweeping across the surroundings.
“Hup!”
I exhaled sharply and thrust my spear forward.
CLANG!
With a violent metallic ring, my body slid backward.
A tingling shock reverberated through my palms.
“Now it begins!!”
Riak’s assault intensified.
His muscles swelled as if about to burst, and blue flames gathered at his razor-sharp claws.
-WHOOOOSH!
At the same moment.
Blue flames began to ignite along the spear I gripped.
A collision of lightning against lightning.
If Riak’s flames were ferocious enough to devour everything, mine were sharp and piercing.
“Is that all you’ve got!!!”
Riak flicked the flame-wreathed spearhead aside lightly and crouched low.
Spinning his body in a full rotation, he unleashed a spinning back kick like a horse rearing on its hind legs.
-KWANG!!
“Ugh!”
With a sound like an explosion, my body was launched toward the temple ceiling.
TANG! TANG!
Unfurling my wire mid-air to twist my body, I planted my feet against the ceiling and stood inverted.
“Still moving like a little mouse, I see!”
Riak lifted his head and stretched his hind legs.
Lowering my body like a sprinter, I kicked off the ground roughly and launched myself into the air.
-Thwack!
Before Riak could arrive.
I fired a wire toward the Divine Temple ceiling to anchor it, then extended it long and sprinted across the temple wall.
“You know it’s pointless!”
Riak, who had launched himself into the air, twisted his body sharply toward me as I raced across the wall.
Crackle!
He stepped on the blue lightning that materialized in the void and changed direction mid-air with a powerful leap.
“I’m telling you, it’s completely broken.”
I watched Riak move freely through the air, stepping on lightning, and clicked my tongue in frustration.
The moment one masters stepping on lightning, combat shifts from two-dimensional planar fighting to three-dimensional warfare.
Literally, it’s an absurdly overpowered technique that enables movements on an entirely different ‘dimension’.
‘In the past, I would have been helpless against it.’
My eyes flashed with sharp intensity.
I pushed off the wall and descended to the ground, then slid smoothly across the floor.
Riak, sprinting through the void while stepping on lightning, fell toward me from above, slashing with his claws.
‘Now!’
The hourglass stigma blazed with light.
The world froze.
Within time flowing slowly like a slow-motion film.
‘Think.’
I accelerated my thoughts.
I thoroughly analyzed and grasped Riak’s movements that my eyes couldn’t even follow.
‘Charge.’
Crackle!
Lightning gathered in my right hand.
Once, twice, three times.
Condensed electricity blazed fiercely.
“Hgh!”
I evaded Riak’s piercing attack with minimal movement, spun my body, and swung my right fist—crackling with condensed lightning—toward him.
-Boom!!
“Grrrrgh!!”
A perfect counter.
Riak’s body was violently knocked backward by the punch.
-Thwack!
The wire wrapped around Riak’s rebounding body.
“Haaaaaaaa!!!”
I roared and swung my arm in a wide arc.
Boom!
Crack!
Boom!
Crash!
Thud!
Bang!!
Riak’s body, bound by wire, slammed repeatedly against the Divine Temple’s walls and floor.
‘Time to finish this.’
My eyes gleamed with lethal intent.
Whiiiing!!
The wire contracted violently, pulling Riak’s body rapidly toward me.
-Whoooosh!!!
Brilliant azure flames blazed forth.
A spear tip, shimmering silver, pierced through Riak’s body.
-Clang!
“Gaaaahhh!!”
Though the spear drove straight through his abdomen, the sound that echoed wasn’t of flesh tearing—it was the metallic ring of a thick steel plate being struck.
“Cough! Cough!”
Riak staggered backward, spitting up blood-tinged phlegm.
While not fatal, I had succeeded in inflicting genuine damage—a wound worthy of the name.
Against a powerhouse who, merely half a year ago, I could barely withstand for five seconds.
“Keh! Kahahaha!!! Excellent! Brat! Now you’re finally worth fighting!”
Riak burst into hearty laughter, his feet scraping against the ground with raw energy.
Crackle crackle crackle!!!
Deep blue lightning, incomparably more intense than before, enveloped his body.
“Ugh!”
The dizzying aura radiating from Riak twisted my expression.
“Haa, haa!”
A crushing pressure bore down upon my entire frame.
My consciousness flickered white as an unfathomable sensation washed over me—one I’d never experienced before.
‘Insane.’
I stared at Riak in disbelief.
His true strength, concealed until now.
A suffocating pressure seized me.
The weight was so immense I could barely maintain my footing.
‘But I can endure it.’
I took a step forward and raised my spear.
“Grrr! That’s right! If I crumbled at merely this, I wouldn’t deserve to be called a Star of Regression!”
Riak’s lips curled into a grin as he gazed at me.
‘Truly—growing at a terrifyingly rapid pace.’
When I first met him.
He was pathetically sprawled on the ground within five seconds.
But what about now?
‘I can’t even face him in a state where I’m suppressing my true power.’
A hollow laugh escaped Riak’s lips.
A monster.
Was there a more fitting title to describe him?
‘This is utterly shameful for a Divine Spirit.’
A being who inherited a fragment of a Constellation’s soul.
Though not to the extent of a Constellation, Divine Spirits were also bound by the constraints of Divine Law.
In other words.
Divine Spirits, like Constellations, were ‘transcendents.’
And now Kwon O-jin had forced that transcendent to draw out his true power.
‘He might catch up to me sooner than I thought.’
Kwon O-jin was growing at an astonishing pace.
“Grrrrr!”
Riak let out a ferocious growl and lowered his body.
‘━But.’
Crackle, crackle, crackle!!
A torrent of azure lightning swept across the surroundings.
“I won’t be caught so meekly!!”
Boom!!
Lightning erupting in a violent explosion.
A silver line wreathed in blue flames tore through the Divine Temple.
“Kuh?!”
Riak appeared before him in the blink of an eye.
A massive fist swung down toward his head.
Kwon O-jin angled his spear to deflect the blow.
But.
-Boom!!!!
“Cough, hack!!”
Kwon O-jin’s body was sent flying like a bullet by the tremendous force, slamming into the ceiling.
-Crash! Thud! Bang!
His body bounced off the ceiling, plummeted to the floor, and rebounded upward again.
“Damn, hell, this…!”
Deflect the punch? Fat chance.
Despite bracing with all his strength, the residual impact alone sent his body ricocheting up and down the Divine Temple like a rubber ball.
Without Vega’s protective barrier, his body would have been pulped long ago.
“Ugh!”
Desperately, he regained his composure amid the chaos.
‘Focus.’
He activated the Hourglass stigma once more.
Within the slowed time, I rapidly reorganized my magical power.
—Uuuuuuung!
As the dragon vein’s mana flowed forth, a deep azure lightning coiled around my body like a serpent.
Crackle crackle crackle!
The lightning condensed.
‘Three times won’t do.’
Even five times fell woefully short.
‘But anything beyond that…’
Would place too much strain on my body.
After a moment’s hesitation, I broke into a grin.
“Since when did I start worrying about such things?”
After all, the Divine Temple was protected by Vega’s power.
A little overexertion didn’t matter.
Crackle crackle crackle!!
Terrifying lightning condensed in both my hands.
“Krraaaaaagh!!”
Crack! Crunch crunch!
A sinister fracturing sound echoed from my mana-compressed hands, and a dizzying pain shot through me.
“Kahahaha!! Excellent! A true warrior never spares their body in combat!”
Riak gazed at me with eyes alight with exhilaration.
Every time he saw me pushing beyond my limits, something stirred within his chest.
It swelled.
The emotion called ‘fighting spirit’—something that hadn’t moved in hundreds of years.
“Come on! Whelp!!!”
“Alright, let’s go, you bastard!!”
Boom!!!
With a thunderous roar, Riak and I launched forward simultaneously.
Just before the torrents of azure lightning collided.
[━Stop.]
Snap.
Vega flicked her finger lightly.
With that simple gesture alone.
The raging torrent of lightning vanished like a mirage.
“G-Goddess?”
“Huh?”
As the power suddenly dissipated, both Riak and I turned to Vega with bewildered expressions.
[You two got far too heated for a mere sparring match.]
Vega sighed and stepped between us.
She fixed me with a stern glare, hands on her hips.
[How long has it been since your body recovered, and you’re already pushing yourself again?]
“Ugh. Sorry, I got a bit too excited there.”
Kwon O-jin scratched his head with an awkward laugh.
Just as she said, I had gotten carried away toward the end.
[Sigh. There’s no helping you.]
Vega exhaled softly and gently caressed Kwon O-jin’s cheek.
[It’s nice that we’ve been together at the Star Palace lately, but you seem to be pushing yourself too hard.]
“You’re training hard too, so I can’t just sit around doing nothing.”
A week had passed since returning from Paradise.
Kwon O-jin hated being alone in a house without Ha-eun, so he had moved his residence entirely to the Star Palace where Vega was.
‘Besides, I was planning to focus on training anyway for the time being.’
Having eliminated the 6th and 7th Executors of the Black Star Society in just a month was drawing far too much attention.
Of course, killing Sosuke had been officially announced as Sakaki’s doing, but I couldn’t afford to be careless.
‘Staying at the Star Palace is the best way to avoid catching the Serpens Queen’s eye.’
The plan was to hide away at the Star Palace and focus on training until the Black Star Society’s movements became clear.
There was no safer place than the Star Palace where Vega could fully unleash her power.
Besides, I needed to grow accustomed to the strength I’d gained from Heukcheon’s successful Sixth Awakening—killing two birds with one stone.
‘And I have Riak as a good sparring partner too.’
Kwon O-jin looked around to wipe the sweat dripping down his forehead.
[Stay still.]
Vega flew over gently and placed her hand on Kwon O-jin’s cheek.
Crack, crackle!
Small sparks erupted and momentarily enveloped Kwon O-jin’s body.
In the blink of an eye, the sweat droplets that had been drenching his skin evaporated.
‘Wait, you can do this with lightning affinity?’
Kwon O-jin’s eyes widened in astonishment.
I couldn’t even imagine how much precise control would be needed to evaporate only the sweat droplets on the skin.
“Thanks.”
[Come now, lie down and rest.]
Vega, sitting on the ground, gently patted her thigh.
Every time I finished training until exhaustion, she would tell me to rest my head on her lap like this, but I couldn’t help but hesitate each time.
[Ahem. Come on, quickly.]
As Kwon O-jin wavered, Vega spoke with a deliberately stern expression.
Kwon O-jin sighed in resignation and rested his head on her thigh.
[Hehe.]
Vega gently stroked the head resting on her lap, a faint smile playing on her lips.
[….]
Then, suddenly.
As if remembering something, Vega’s expression stiffened abruptly.
Her hand, which had been gently stroking his hair with a tender expression that Kwon O-jin—resting his head on her soft thigh—couldn’t see, came to a stop.
“Vega?”
Kwon O-jin tilted his head in confusion, attempting to lift it.
“Hahaha!! Well, you two seem to get along quite well? I suppose that’s why you dote on your only Apostle so much?”
A cheerful voice echoed through the vast Divine Temple.
In the direction from which the youthful, delicate voice came stood a boy with teal-blue hair.
A boy dressed in garish attire that bordered on the grotesque.
Six strands of necklaces composed of gemstones of every variety.
On each of the boy’s fingers were two massive jeweled rings—twenty in total adorning his hands.
As the saying goes, excess is never good; no matter how precious the gems, wearing them so carelessly and excessively would appear tasteless.
Yet the boy’s appearance, as if sculpted by divinity itself, erased even that gaucheness.
[…Deneb?]
The name that escaped from Vega’s lips as she gazed at the boy with startled eyes.
It was the name of the Constellation of Cygnus, and one of the three Constellations known as Polaris.

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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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