Not A Regressor - Chapter 217

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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 217
The Serpent’s Head (10)
Thump, thump.
Cheon Sang-gil’s heart, torn out with brutal magic, pulsed like a freshly caught fish gasping for air.
“I have preserved it so that you may enjoy a fresh specimen, keeping its vitality and stellar power intact!”
Cassia beamed with a radiant smile, wagging her hips like a puppy seeking praise.
“….”
Kwon O-jin clenched his jaw as he stared at the throbbing, pulsating heart.
The sight alone was nauseating enough to make his stomach turn.
But he could not refuse this gift.
‘I have to consume it.’
To keep the Snake Zodiac Queen believing he was the Heavenly Demon, he had to prove it by using Heukcheon directly before her eyes.
“Excellent.”
“Hehehehe. I am delighted it pleases you.”
Cassia writhed her body, her long tongue extending down to her chest undulating like a tail.
Kwon O-jin grasped the heart she offered.
The warmth of the grotesque, pulsating heart transmitted through his palm.
‘Elder.’
He had not formed a deep bond with Cheon Sang-gil.
Yet holding the heart of a benefactor who had helped him in countless ways stirred complex emotions within his mind.
Kwon O-jin swept away the swirling thoughts and summoned Heukcheon.
Kurrrgh.
Black clouds flowed forth, enveloping the pulsating heart.
“Aah.”
Cassia exhaled a soft gasp, watching the black clouds embrace the heart.
With an expression of reverence, she knelt and clasped her hands together in prayer, like a devout worshipper before a deity.
“Darkness of Heukcheon… deliver us from the arrogance of starlight.”
Kurrrrrgh!
Vast power flowed through the clouds.
The stigma power that Cheon Sang-gil had possessed in life was drawn into Heukcheon.
-Ding!
[You have successfully absorbed the Capricorn Stigma.]
[Stigma power exceeding your current level has been detected.]
[The stigma power is sealed within Heukcheon.]
Like with Demian, Cheon Sang-gil’s power did not fully integrate into his body, instead concealing itself within the black clouds.
It was frustrating to absorb power he could not yet use.
‘There’s no helping it.’
What could he do if his current level was insufficient?
For now, he should be satisfied with acquiring another Zodiac Twelve Palaces-tier stigma.
‘The Capricorn Stigma… it was a stigma that freely manipulates sound.’
I had wanted to test out the new trait called ‘Etherealization’ that I’d acquired from absorbing the mother beast, along with the Capricorn constellation mark, but.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have the luxury of leisurely testing out these newly acquired abilities right now.
“Did the meal suit your palate, my lord?”
Cassia looked up at Kwon O-jin while using the kind of exaggerated formal speech you’d hear in a historical drama.
Kwon O-jin gave a light nod.
“Oh! I, I am most grateful!”
She was the one who had received something, so why was she the one thanking me?
“Hehe. From now on… I shall extract many more hearts and offer them to the Heavenly Demon, my lord.”
Cassia smiled with an unsettling expression and licked her lips.
Kwon O-jin’s brow furrowed.
‘This woman is truly hopeless.’
There was no point in trying to manipulate or use her.
She was already damaged beyond repair.
‘I can’t do what I did with Isabella.’
Kwon O-jin’s eyes gleamed coldly.
She was directing a fanatical faith toward me.
Literally, to the point where it wouldn’t be strange if she tore out her own heart and offered it.
“Rather than these trivial hearts… I hunger for your heart.”
I spoke while looking down at Cassia, who was kneeling.
If she truly harbored such fanatical faith in me.
If she was so mad as to tear out her own heart and offer it.
‘I could kill her right here.’
Without needing to precariously maintain this act as the Heavenly Demon, I could simply command ‘death’ upon her right now.
“…Pardon?”
“I said I hunger for your heart.”
I approached Cassia, whose eyes had widened in surprise at the unexpected demand.
“….”
Cassia clamped her mouth shut firmly.
A tense silence descended.
Cassia slowly rose from her position and approached Kwon O-jin.
She seemed to reach her hand toward her left chest slowly, when—
Ssssshhhhh!
A green serpent erupted from the elongated shadow and instantly coiled around Kwon O-jin’s body.
“…!”
Unable to even mount a proper resistance, Kwon O-jin’s eyes flew wide open as the serpent bound him.
‘What, what is this?’
My heart nearly leaped out of my chest at this completely unexpected turn of events, but I managed to maintain an outward appearance of composure.
“Hmm. How strange….”
Cassia narrowed her eyes and gazed at Kwon O-jin, bound by the green serpent.
She slid across the floor and reached out her hand to feel Kwon O-jin’s chest.
“Surely the Heavenly Demon once said something like that to you?”
Her forked tongue licked across my chest.
“If I were to command you to sacrifice your life, then it wouldn’t be me—it would be someone else.”
At her continued words, I drew in a sharp breath.
‘Damn it.’
I’d stepped directly onto the landmine.
‘So that bastard Heavenly Demon anticipated even this situation?’
That Cassia would mistake me for the Heavenly Demon.
That I would exploit her loyalty in reverse and command her to die.
From the very beginning, from the distant past.
Had he foreseen it all?
‘What the hell is that bastard?’
Is he actually a god?
I swallowed dryly and opened my mouth with the calmest voice I could muster.
“You remembered.”
“Hehe. Of course. I have never forgotten a single word spoken by the Heavenly Demon.”
“I see.”
I nodded with a composed expression, betraying no agitation.
If I panicked and made a fuss here, it would be like a thief giving himself away.
“…Is that all you wished to say?”
Cassia’s eyes narrowed slightly.
She carefully moved the hand resting on my chest, tracing my stigma.
The Lyra Constellation stigma was carved upon my chest.
Yet she could sense it.
That sleeping within this thin veil of flesh was an infinitely sprawling black sky.
“If you are not truly the Heavenly Demon… then who are you? Why do you possess Heukcheon?”
She asked, shifting away from the archaic honorifics she’d been using.
“I am the Heavenly Demon.”
“…But.”
“For now, a portion of my memories are sealed.”
“Hmm?”
Cassia’s eyes widened in surprise.
“There was no other way to prevent Heukcheon’s rampage.”
“…You expect me to believe that?”
“If that were the case.”
I fixed her with a gaze from eyes sunken deep.
“Are you saying there are two Heukcheons?”
Cassia’s expression hardened rigidly.
While the claim that my memories were sealed to prevent Heukcheon’s rampage was certainly difficult to believe, the notion that Heukcheon was not one but two was even more absurd.
“Then is the Heavenly Demon’s weakened state also because of the seal?”
I nodded in acknowledgment.
Cassia’s long tongue flickered as she murmured softly.
“Now that I think about it, the Heavenly Demon once mentioned that the Heukcheon you possess is still in an incomplete state.”
…Incomplete?
I had no recollection of ever saying such a thing, yet I found myself nodding along.
“I humbly beg your pardon for my doubt, my god.”
The green serpent that had been binding me slithered back into her shadow.
Cassia bowed her head at my feet.
I helped her to her feet and spoke in an even tone.
“No, I’m grateful for your suspicion instead. It means you haven’t forgotten me and still remember me.”
“Heavenly Demon….”
Cassia gazed at me with trembling eyes.
“In any case, there’s no need for you to bring me another heart.”
“But to unseal the Heavenly Demon, we would need far more hearts….”
“I said it’s not necessary.”
I spoke with a slightly irritated expression, my eyes narrowing.
“I-I’m terribly sorry!”
I caught Cassia as she hurriedly tried to prostrate herself.
“Right now, I’m disguised as an Apostle of Polaris to conceal my identity. If the arrogant Constellations discover that I possess Heukcheon, they won’t sit idle.”
“Ah… I see now.”
She nodded in understanding, as if finally grasping why there was no need to bring hearts.
“Hehe. Truly befitting the Heavenly Demon.”
Cassia gazed at me with reverent eyes and nodded.
“No matter how powerful the Constellations are, they would never dream that an Apostle of Polaris possesses Heukcheon.”
Precisely.
After all, the reason I had sought the title of ‘Hero’ in the first place was for this very purpose.
“Then the most important thing now would be to complete the incomplete Heukcheon and restore the Heavenly Demon’s memories.”
Cassia spoke with sparkling eyes.
‘The method to complete the incomplete Heukcheon.’
If the Heukcheon that the ‘Heavenly Demon’ possessed was indeed incomplete as Cassia suggested, then the Heavenly Demon’s objective would be to complete that imperfect Heukcheon.
‘Then.’
Conversely speaking.
If I could only prevent the method to complete Heukcheon, the Heavenly Demon would remain indefinitely with an incomplete Heukcheon.
‘That’s it!’
I clenched my fist tightly.
This was precisely the information I needed most right now.
If I could somehow prevent the Heavenly Demon from completing Heukcheon, there would be hope to escape the ‘apocalypse’ that Polaris had prophesied.
‘I thought it was hopeless at first, but it’s unfolding like this.’
A blessing in disguise, as they say.
If I could turn this crisis into an opportunity and outwit the Heavenly Demon, it would be an unexpected windfall.
Kwon O-jin’s eyes gleamed as he asked.
“What’s the method to complete Heukcheon?”
“Hmm? …Ah, you mentioned your memories were sealed, didn’t you?”
Cassia tilted her head in confusion before letting out a short exclamation.
“Speak.”
“Yes, Heavenly Demon.”
Cassia bowed respectfully and continued.
“There is only one method to complete the imperfect Heukcheon.”
Her emerald eyes glimmered with a chilling murderous intent.
“By killing the Fate-Reversing Star and absorbing its power.”
What?
“…The Fate-Reversing Star?”
“Indeed.”
Cassia gazed up at the night sky with an expression brimming with bloodlust.
“An awakened one created by the arrogant constellations, possessing the power to reverse destiny itself. The only unique existence capable of rivaling the Heukcheon that you possess!”
With her arms spread wide, Cassia cried out in a voice filled with madness.
“Only by devouring that abominable star will your desires be fulfilled, Heavenly Demon… no, all of our desires!”
“….”
So I need to kill the Fate-Reversing Star to complete Heukcheon?
‘But that guy’s already dead, isn’t he?’

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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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