Not A Regressor - Chapter 263

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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 263
Snowy Field (3)
A deafening boom echoed through the air.
Isabella and Cassia collided once more, the impact reverberating across the battlefield.
“Damn it!”
Kwon O-jin bit his lip, his expression taut with anxiety.
Every fiber of my being screamed to rush toward Isabella, yet my body moved against my will, advancing toward the shadow wall instead.
My traitorous body turned away from her, moving toward the spot where she had been breaking through the shadow wall moments before.
The distance was roughly two hundred meters.
Thanks to the Shadow Dome’s vast expanse, I could remain far enough from the catastrophic aftermath of their battle.
“Ugh… ah!”
As I desperately tried to force my body to turn around, fresh blood burst from my right arm where the potion had stemmed the bleeding.
In that moment of distraction from the pain, my body arrived at the location Isabella had mentioned.
A small fissure carved into the shadow wall caught my eye.
Though barely large enough for a head to fit through, with sufficient force, it could be widened enough for a person to escape.
A crackling sound erupted.
Blue flames ignited across the knife in my grip.
I thrust the blade into the narrow gap as if sawing through hardened wood, pulling back and forth, and the fissure gradually began to widen.
“Ugh!!”
My teeth clenched.
I tried to resist the command, but my body moved like a puppet, methodically expanding the gap against my will.
‘Stop.’
Was she too preoccupied with her battle against Isabella to focus on controlling me?
The shadow wall, which seemed impenetrable, was opening far faster than expected.
I stared down at my hand gripping the knife, my eyes burning with urgency.
Even now, the blade wreathed in blue lightning methodically carved away at the gap, widening my path to escape.
“Kyaaaah!”
Then.
Isabella’s scream pierced the air.
My eyes—the only part of me still under my control—darted toward her, and I saw her collapsed form.
From what appeared to be a devastating blow, a chunk of flesh the size of two fists had been torn from her side.
Mixed with crimson blood, fragments of her organs spilled outward.
“Isabella!”
I called out desperately, but it was futile.
My body, enslaved by the ‘command,’ thrust my upper torso through the widened gap.
“Damn it!”
As I broke free from the shadow dome, cool night air brushed against my cheek.
Like a chick emerging from its shell, my body escaped the Shadow Dome and into the open.
“Stop!”
I cried out in desperation, but my body dutifully obeyed Isabella’s command, fleeing as far from the Shadow Dome as possible.
“Stop, damn it!”
The surroundings blurred past in a rush.
I bit my lip and focused my consciousness on my left chest.
‘If it’s Heukcheon…’
The thought flashed through my mind—could I perhaps defy even her commands?
“Ugh!”
A low rumble echoed from within.
Black clouds began seeping from my left chest, spreading outward.
As Heukcheon’s energy permeated my entire body, I felt my rapid pace gradually slowing.
But that was all.
‘My body won’t move properly.’
I could resist her commands, but I couldn’t move my body while completely ignoring them.
‘There’s no way to draw out more of Heukcheon’s power from here…’
My expression hardened rigidly.
There was one.
One method remained.
“…But.”
But.
But.
But.
I swallowed the words I couldn’t bring myself to speak.
With trembling eyes, I looked down at my left chest.
‘If I open the door…’
It would be erased again.
I would forget again.
All those memories—joyful, happy, sorrowful, agonizing, precious.
The footprints of the life I’ve walked.
“…I don’t want that.”
My body trembled uncontrollably.
Curled up like a child, I let out a frightened whimper.
I’m terrified.
Unbearably, impossibly terrified.
The thought crossed my mind—surely Cassia wouldn’t kill her own blood brother, no matter what.
Yes.
That must be it.
Even dominated by the Heavenly Demon’s consciousness, she wouldn’t kill her only blood relative.
‘She stopped her attack before too.’
The image of Cassia thrashing about, clutching her head, surfaced in my mind.
Even under the Heavenly Demon’s control, her consciousness hadn’t completely vanished.
It glimmered like a star hidden beyond those dark clouds.
So it would be fine.
So there would be no problem.
Even if I fled like this.
There would be nothing—
“…Ha.”
A hollow laugh escaped from my lips.
Covering my face with my remaining hand, I burst into bitter laughter.
“What a pathetic fool I am.”
How absurd this figure was.
How shameful this appearance was.
Afraid of losing my memories, I would abandon Isabella in danger and flee?
-I don’t want to let go of either.
I know it’s selfish.
I know it’s shameless.
It’s the greed of a child clutching candy in both hands, willing to eat it even if my teeth rot and crumble away.
But.
-For now, just knowing your feelings is enough for me.
There was a woman who smiled and said it was fine, even to such childish complaints.
There was a woman who gave me a radiant smile full of happiness.
Then.
“I have to go.”
I can forget.
It doesn’t matter if I’m erased.
Just as Vega had said that day.
Closing my eyes didn’t make the world disappear.
I turned my body toward the Shadow Dome.
With my hand placed over my left chest, I whispered an incantation softly.

* * *
“Haah, haah!”
A searing, burning pain.
Isabella pressed down on her intestines threatening to spill from her side with trembling hands, exhaling ragged breaths.
Before her stood Cassia, gazing down at her with eyes cold as ice.
Hollow pupils, as if all emotion had been excised from them.
The black jewel embedded in her forehead was consuming her consciousness like a seed taking root in soil.
“…Elder Sister.”
Isabella bit her lip, looking up at Cassia.
Those frigid eyes turned toward her.
“What’s wrong?”
A drowsy voice, as if she’d just awakened from sleep.
Tears welled up at the corners of Isabella’s eyes.
Her Elder Sister’s voice, so piercingly cold it made her shiver, felt like it belonged to a stranger.
“Come to your senses… Elder Sister.”
“Come to my senses?”
Cassia, wearing a faint smile, stomped brutally on Isabella’s exposed side where flesh had been torn away.
Ahhhhh!
A agonized scream pierced the air.
“I’m perfectly fine right now, you see?”
She flicked her tongue like a serpent’s, spreading her arms wide.
Her black dress fluttered as she spun in a dance-like motion.
“Ah, my beloved Bella. My adorable little sister.”
Her voice rang out like a song.
“Do you know how much I despised you?”
“What… are you saying, Elder Sister?”
“Hehehehe. So our Bella didn’t know?”
Cassia burst into laughter, crouching down and reaching her hand toward the fallen Isabella’s cheek.
“Every time I saw you smiling so brightly, I thought it.”
Sitting in a wheelchair.
The image of Isabella playing innocently with a pure smile before her, facing an approaching death.
“Why not me, I would think.”
As if all the blessings meant for her had been bestowed upon Isabella instead.
Isabella had displayed extraordinary talent since childhood.
She effortlessly mastered rigorous gifted education curricula and received lavish praise as a once-in-a-century genius in music and art.
And what of athletics?
She’d even won international fencing championships, a sport she’d taken up merely for fitness.
Genius.
That word felt as though it existed solely for Isabella.
“Again and again, dozens of times, hundreds of times I thought it.”
If Isabella were a brilliantly shining sun.
Then she was the shadow cast by that light.
The brighter Isabella shone, the deeper her darkness grew.
Each time her radiant smile, that innocent kindness, turned toward her, she felt a despair as if the shadowed ugliness festering in her heart was being dragged into the sunlight, laid bare for all to see.
“Someone like you….”
Someone like me.
“I wish you had never been born.”
Cassia spoke in a voice so fragile it seemed ready to shatter at any moment.
“….”
Isabella gazed at Cassia with sorrowful eyes.
She hadn’t known.
Or rather, it would be more accurate to say she simply hadn’t cared.
Even as she laughed and chattered merrily in front of Cassia, who was afflicted with an incurable disease and couldn’t even stand on her own two feet.
She had thought it was fine.
She had thought there was no problem.
She had thought that since her Elder Sister was kind, she wouldn’t mind.
“I’m sorry, Elder Sister.”
Her chest ached as if pierced by a sharp blade.
Her thoughtlessness, her childish happiness.
How much despair must it have brought to Cassia.
Being young was no excuse.
She was neither so young nor so foolish as to fail to understand human emotion.
“There’s no need to apologize.”
Cassia smiled darkly and slowly lifted her staff.
“My wish has already been granted.”
A pristine Snowy Field swept by howling winds.
There was one who had plucked a star from the Night Sky and gifted it to her as she froze and withered away.
There was one who had approached her first—her who had nothing, her who had been discarded like a losing lottery ticket.
I am no longer tormented.
I am no longer lonely.
As long as I follow his words, as long as I follow his will.
“I will never be abandoned again.”
Her hollow emerald eyes turned toward Isabella.
Cassia brought the staff she held high crashing down.
This is the end.
Now I can escape from the shadow cast beneath the sun.
Yes.
If only Isabella would disappear….
“….”
Once more.
Cassia’s arm froze.
Less than a second in terms of time.
But that brief hesitation had reversed her fate.
-BOOM!
A violent explosion thundered through the air.
The Shadow Dome, woven from darkness, was violently torn asunder as black clouds surged inward.
“What…?!”
Cassia stumbled backward, her expression one of shock.
Black clouds rushed in like a tidal wave.
And from within them, Kwon O-jin emerged.
“Kwon O-jin…?”
Isabella’s eyes widened as she gazed at Kwon O-jin, nearly half his body transformed into black clouds.
The black clouds that lay like mist around the area wrapped themselves around Isabella’s body.
“Ah! Th-this is…!”
“Stay still.”
The black clouds enveloping Isabella’s body carried her toward Kwon O-jin.
Kwon O-jin frowned as he looked down at the wound on Isabella’s side.
“Do you have any potions left?”
“Y-yes, I have one.”
“Give it to me.”
Kwon O-jin retrieved a potion from her handbag and applied it to the wound.
As the pain subsided and her mind cleared, Isabella stared at Kwon O-jin with an expression of incomprehension.
“H-how did you get here? And what is that form…?”
She had certainly given him an ‘order’ to make him flee.
“I’ll explain later.”
Since I’d revealed the use of Heukcheon, an explanation would be necessary anyway.
“First, let me finish what needs to be done.”
Rising slowly to my feet, I turned my eyes—burning with azure flames—toward Cassia.

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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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