Not A Regressor - Chapter 255

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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 255
Cheon Joo-ryong (7)
“Kwon O-jin… I’m, I’m so scared.”
Isabella, trapped in Barbatos’s grip, called out to Kwon O-jin with a trembling voice.
Yet despite the terror in her tone, the corners of her mouth were lifted high, as though barely restraining an eruption of laughter.
[Kehehehe. Did you hear that, human?]
Since Barbatos couldn’t see her expression from where he held her, he wore a smug look of triumph.
Humans are social creatures.
He understood well how profoundly relationships with others held value in their society.
Some humans even performed the irrational act of sacrificing their own lives for another.
‘Foolish creatures.’
Dragons do not form societies.
They are complete as individuals, perfect as singular beings.
Thus, from Barbatos’s perspective, humans who would surrender their very lives for others seemed utterly foolish and ignorant.
A species that could only exist through the presence of others.
Humanity was fundamentally flawed in its very design—a race born of weakness.
“P-please save me, Kwon O-jin!”
The woman in his grasp let out a pitiful scream.
A pleasant scream to hear.
Barbatos twisted his lips upward and turned his leisurely gaze toward the human who dared wound his divine form.
By now, surely he would be trembling with a pale, terror-stricken expression….
[…Hm?]
Barbatos’s brow furrowed.
The corners of his mouth, twisted upward in anticipation, fell once more.
The expression of the human who had burned one of his wings was not, as he expected, twisted with fear.
“Uh… yeah. Save her, you say?”
A somewhat perplexed expression.
Barbatos’s face grew confused as Kwon O-jin laughed awkwardly and scratched his head.
“I don’t think I can let Barbatos live, no matter what.”
[What?]
Barbatos’s expression twisted.
He was the one holding the hostage, after all.
So why was his own name suddenly being mentioned?
“Oh, is that so?”
And why was the woman held hostage nodding along as though it were nothing?
Nothing made sense.
Barbatos narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth.
[What nonsense are you spouting….]
“Understood. Then I’ll kill you.”
Isabella burst into delighted laughter and gently placed her hand atop Barbatos’s grip that held her.
The soft touch of a delicate hand felt beyond the scales.
Just as I had thought, it was an impossibly fragile hand.
“I wonder what dragon blood tastes like?”
But.
It took less than ten seconds for that feather-soft sensation to transform into excruciating agony.
[Krraaaaaahhh!!]
Crack, splinter!
The violet scales crumpled inward.
Skin tore open, and crimson blood erupted like a fountain.
[What, what is this?!]
Barbatos frantically looked down at his arm.
The scales were fractured like a glass mirror struck by a hammer.
Along with excruciating pain, his hand—which had been gripping Isabella—was severed clean off like a cube.
“Hmm. I had such high hopes since it’s dragon blood, but it just tastes bitter.”
Isabella descended gracefully to the ground, dipped her fingertip into the blood cascading in all directions, brought it to her tongue, and frowned with displeasure.
Blood poured like a waterfall from Barbatos’s severed arm, yet not a single drop stained her clothes.
The rain of blood parted around her body as if avoiding a living creature.
“If I’d known he was this weak, I could have come alone, truly.”
Isabella waved her arm lightly, as if swatting away a fly, her expression bored and languid.
Shhhhwiiing!
The blood pouring from his wound became razor-sharp blades, shredding through Barbatos’s body.
[Krraaaaaahhh!!]
Barbatos shrieked and staggered backward.
Boom!
The fifty-meter colossus crashed to the ground.
A battle concluded in less than five minutes.
Kwon O-jin approached the fallen Barbatos and nodded.
“I told you. We have more than enough power.”
It was undeniable that Cheon Joo-ryong Barbatos was a monster powerful enough to have annihilated an entire nation.
But that was a story from six years ago.
Compared to then, the level of awakeners had grown beyond recognition.
And Kwon O-jin was among those elevated awakeners—a skilled fighter selected for the Seven Stars.
‘I’m not even the strongest among them.’
Setting aside Riak and Vega, who couldn’t use their full power due to the constraints of Divine Law.
Isabella alone was a force Kwon O-jin wouldn’t dare face without using Gae-cheon.
No matter how renowned, Barbatos was merely a nine-star-class monster—far beneath the level of power they possessed.
‘I came with everyone just to be safe, but… was it even necessary?’
Kwon O-jin gazed at the battered Barbatos, his eyes narrowing slightly.
It seemed he didn’t even have the strength left to use curses, so I just needed to finish him off.
“I’ll handle the finishing blow.”
“Wait.”
I grabbed Isabella’s shoulder as she moved toward Barbatos.
Intuition, not logic. Instinct, not reason. Both screamed at me.
‘This can’t be the end.’
[My child.]
As I was thinking that.
Vega approached Kwon O-jin’s side.
[From those horns… I sense an utterly repugnant aura.]
Vega narrowed her eyes and pointed to the two black horns protruding from Barbatos’s forehead.
Horns that had grown in grotesquely curved lines.
As Barbatos transformed into a dragon’s form and the horns expanded to several meters in length, an ominous energy flowed from them that sent chills down the spine.
[Ah, ugh. Ahhh.]
Barbatos, lying on the ground, let out groans of agony.
[Kraaaaahhhhh!]
Barbatos thrashed in pain, frantically scraping his head against the ground.
The black horns on his forehead began to emit light and vibrate intensely.
Barbatos’s eyes snapped open and he lifted his head.
[Ah, ahhh. Y-yes, yes. I… I hear it.]
What was he hearing?
Barbatos, his face drained of color, was nodding toward empty air.
I looked in the direction his gaze was fixed, but there was only empty space.
Nothing else was visible.
Barbatos unsteadily rose to his feet and bowed respectfully toward the empty void.
[My master… grant your humble servant grace… bestow upon me the great darkness.]
He looked like an Awakened praying to a Constellation for power.
Had this ‘master’ entity answered his desperate plea?
Uuuuuuuung!
Barbatos’s scales, which had been shining with brilliant violet light, began to turn a dull black.
Terrifyingly dense mana spread like fog around his body.
[Grrrrrrrrr!]
Barbatos trembled as if seized by ecstasy, his body quivering as he lifted his bowed head.
His eyes, which had glowed amber, now blazed with an ominous blue flame.
[Krahaha! Thank you! Thank you! My master!]
Barbatos cried out his gratitude toward the unseen presence.
His entire body now drenched in black light, he glared at Kwon O-jin’s group and bared his fangs savagely.
[Indeed, I acknowledge it, human. You have grown incomparably stronger than six years ago.]
The wings that had been pierced by Kwon O-jin’s spear and burned away regenerated perfectly.
Barbatos spread his black wings wide and rose to his feet with composure.
[However.]
Kuuuuuurrrung!
The ground trembles as if an earthquake has struck.
An overwhelmingly intense aura erupted from Barbatos’s entire body, stealing the breath from those around him.
[Do not think that this Barbatos is the same as six years ago!]
A swirl of light transformed into jet black, crashing outward in all directions.
“So he did have something hidden up his sleeve.”
Kwon O-jin clicked his tongue and gazed at the black horns sprouting above Barbatos’s forehead.
Horns that had never existed in Lee Shin-hyuk’s memories.
The ominous horns that had felt unsettling from the moment I first saw Barbatos’s photograph finally revealed their true power.
I couldn’t determine who had bestowed this ‘blessing’ upon Barbatos, at least not yet.
‘I’ll just beat it out of him.’
Kwon O-jin gripped Tantalian and drew forth the stigma’s mana.
Azure lightning ignited along the spear’s pitch-black blade.
“Hmm. Is that the trump card Cheon Joo-ryong had been saving?”
Isabella’s eyes gleamed with intrigue as she surveyed Barbatos from head to toe.
Scales transformed into black.
The dense mana radiating from the fifty-meter-tall colossal form was incomparably more powerful than before.
“Only this much? How disappointing.”
Isabella maintained an easy smile as she lightly dragged her fingernail across her palm.
Crimson blood trickled down her hand.
The droplets of blood transformed into the shape of a massive scythe.
She twirled the blood-forged scythe and licked her lips like a hunter stalking prey.
“Grrr! I don’t know who your master is, but a creature that borrows another’s strength and struts about is ultimately just the same level.”
Riak snorted and nodded in agreement with Isabella’s assessment.
Kwon O-jin let out a soft chuckle at the sight of the two casually preparing for the second phase.
‘Well, he probably thinks he’s grown quite strong.’
No matter how much blessing a divine being bestows, a cat cannot become a tiger overnight.
‘In the end, the fundamental difference in power cannot be overcome.’
This was something I understood better than anyone, having received Vega’s ‘blessings’ all this time.
The gap that was once heaven and earth had merely become sky and Mountain.
I had assembled this party specifically accounting for the possibility that Barbatos might have hidden cards.
[How dare these wretches…!]
Perhaps because their reaction was so different from what he’d anticipated.
Barbatos contorted his expression viciously, glaring at Kwon O-jin’s group standing at ease.
[Let’s see if you can still spout such words while writhing in agony and dying!]
Barbatos unleashed a savage roar and bellowed.
“So, shall we begin phase two?”
Kwon O-jin chuckled and leveled his spear’s point toward Barbatos.
“O-jin, wait a moment.”
“Hm?”
Ha-eun, who had been standing quietly until now, stepped forward.
She pulled Kwon O-jin back by his shoulder and stepped forward.
“Why are you doing this, sister?”
“….”
Ha-eun glared at Barbatos with eyes sunken deep with resolve.
Turning back to Kwon O-jin, she opened her mouth quietly.
“Can I face him alone?”
“What?”
Kwon O-jin furrowed his brow as if she were spouting nonsense.
“You’re saying you’ll face that monster by yourself?”
“Yes. Please, O-jin.”
Ha-eun nodded her head.
Kwon O-jin shook his head firmly.
“If you’re going to talk about revenge or whatever, forget it.”
He couldn’t leave Ha-eun in danger for such a trivial reason.
“It’s not about revenge.”
“Then what?”
“….”
Ha-eun turned her gaze toward Barbatos.
A dragon emanating an ominous, pitch-black light.
Why was it?
Even though I had just witnessed him collapsed in a pathetic, battered state.
That obsidian dragon felt more terrifying to me than any other being.
“If not now.”
Ha-eun walked toward Cheon Joo-ryong, recalling that day’s memory.
The memory of screaming, trapped in absolute darkness without a single glimmer of light.
Even now, six years later, that horrific nightmare remained etched in my mind, impossible to erase.
“I feel like… I’ll never be able to escape it again.”
As Ha-eun spoke those words, her legs trembled pitifully.
Just like that day, six years ago.

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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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