Not A Regressor - Chapter 351

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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 351
Starlight (3)
Rumble!
Thunder roared as Riak’s divine form descended upon Kwon O-jin like a bolt of lightning.
The speed was incomparable to the Riak I had witnessed countless times in the Demon Realm.
I instinctively crossed my arms in an X to shield my face, but Riak’s fist collided directly with my crossed forearms.
“Ugh!”
With an impact that felt like my bones would shatter, my body was hurled into the air.
I barely managed to execute a falling technique, minimizing the shock as I landed on the ground.
Crack!
Even with the falling technique reducing the impact, the ground beneath my feet fractured—a testament to the tremendous force contained in Riak’s fist.
‘This is completely different from when I was in the Demon Realm.’
Back then, the constraints of Divine Law prevented me from fully manifesting my power as a ‘Holy Spirit,’ but this place was the Star Palace.
A place where I could draw upon my true power without restriction.
“Grrrraaagh!”
With a ferocious roar, Riak’s divine form scattered and vanished into thin air.
Crackle!
Blue lightning flashed, and Riak’s massive form materialized directly before me in an instant.
A fist swung toward me.
I drew Dantalian from my waist and transformed it into a spear, angling my body to block the strike.
Boom!
A violent impact transmitted through the spear shaft.
My palms split open as crimson blood streamed down the shaft.
“Hnn!”
The stigma of Compass activated, and the spear tip moved with fluid grace.
The spear, wreathed in blue lightning, pierced into Riak’s thigh.
“Slow, whelp.”
Riak lightly jumped, landing on the spear shaft as it thrust forward at supersonic speed.
His acrobatic movement drew a hollow laugh from between my lips.
But only for a moment.
Riak launched himself once more from the spear shaft, executing a back somersault as he drove his heel upward toward my chin.
Crack!
With a dull sound, my head snapped back violently.
The chin is one of the most critical vital points, transmitting impact directly to the brain.
My consciousness flickered white as a sensation like lightning struck through my mind.
‘The stigma of Aquarius.’
The stigma specialized in healing protected my flickering consciousness.
“Hah.”
I exhaled sharply and fixed Riak with a piercing gaze.
Riak’s eyes narrowed as he observed me, my wounds instantly healed.
“So that’s the power of the stigmas you’ve been devouring with Heukcheon’s strength all this time?”
“Yes.”
If Riak had been unable to use his true power due to the constraints of Divine Law until now.
Then Kwon O-jin had refrained from properly utilizing the stigmas he’d been absorbing in combat to avoid revealing his identity to Vega.
‘But.’
That was no longer the case.
Crackle, crackle, crackle!
Feathers composed of lightning materialized around Kwon O-jin’s body.
Hundreds, thousands of feathers erupted toward Riak like bullets from a machine gun.
“Parlor tricks…!”
Riak moved in a Z-pattern with blinding speed, effortlessly evading the incoming feathers.
Crackle!
A leap using the Lightning Stigma’s foothold technique.
Moving with a grace that seemed to mock inertia itself, Riak’s claws descended toward Kwon O-jin’s crown.
“Grrrrgh!”
Just as Riak’s claws were about to strike the crown, he subtly shifted his aim toward Kwon O-jin’s shoulder blade.
The claws that dug into his shoulder tore clean through Kwon O-jin’s arm as they passed.
“It’s over, boy.”
Riak held the bleeding shoulder and looked down coldly at the collapsing Kwon O-jin, letting out a scoff.
Just as Riak turned to leave, as if there was nothing more to see.
“Hm?”
Riak frowned, staring at his claws—not a single drop of blood on them.
He’d distinctly felt the sensation of tearing through flesh, yet not a drop of blood had stained his claws?
Whoooosh!
“Kugh?!”
With an instinctive twist of his body, he evaded.
A spear blade grazed past his chest.
The spear, crackling with lightning, struck the ground and erupted in a violent explosion.
The body of Kwon O-jin, who had been lying there with a severed arm, was swept up in the blast and vanished like a mirage.
“…So you could even manipulate illusions.”
Riak clutched his bleeding chest and fixed his gaze on the direction from which the spear had come.
“I’ve absorbed quite a number of stigmas over time, after all.”
Of course.
Compared to the Heavenly Demon, it was nothing but a drop in the ocean.
“Hmph, you’ve been quite the glutton, hiding it from Vega’s eyes.”
“….”
Kwon O-jin gazed at Riak and let out a deep sigh.
“…Let’s stop this, Riak.”
“Stop?”
“I only came here because I wanted to talk with Vega.”
“If you wanted to meet Vega, I would have told you to break me first, wouldn’t I?”
Riak radiated a savage killing intent, showing no sign of backing down.
“…Riak.”
Kwon O-jin regarded Riak with a bitter gaze.
Suddenly, a conversation he’d had with Riak in front of Horus’s Tomb after the events in Kan Kingdom flashed through his mind.
-Thank… thank you….
The silver wolf’s voice had been awkwardly stiff, like wearing ill-fitting clothes as he expressed his gratitude.
“Draw your weapon, boy.”
That demeanor had vanished without a trace, replaced by the blazing fury that now burned in the wolf’s eyes as they fixed upon Kwon O-jin.
“….”
The lies I had repeated had destroyed not only my relationship with Vega, but had shattered my bond with Riak as well.
“I’m sorry.”
“Apologies aren’t necessary.”
Riak let out a scoff and clenched his fists.
“A warrior speaks with his fists, not his mouth.”
Boom!
The clash resumed once more.
Deafening thunder erupted, and shockwaves rippled outward in all directions.
As the fierce exchange continued, wounds accumulated across my body.
I smiled faintly as I weathered Riak’s relentless assault.
‘When I first fought Riak, it was a three-second defeat.’
The fact that I could now engage in such an intense battle with Riak drawing upon his full power felt genuinely astonishing.
“Haah, hah, grrr!”
Rough breaths escaped from Riak’s mouth.
My condition was no better than his.
Both of us, drenched in blood, stood at a distance and glared at each other.
“…Let me ask you one thing, boy.”
Riak wiped the blood trickling from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand and spoke.
“Go ahead.”
“When we fought inside Vega’s Sacred Domain, was the ability to keep getting back up also the power of Heukcheon?”
“That’s… not it.”
After deliberating for a moment, I shook my head quietly.
The ability to rise despite the terror of ‘death’ wasn’t because I possessed Heukcheon.
Heukcheon had no function like some stimulant that erased fear.
“…I see.”
After a brief silence, Riak clenched his fists once more.
“If you’ve rested enough, let’s begin again.”
“Wait, that was resting?”
I stared at Riak with an expression of disbelief.
Rather than answer, Riak pushed off the ground and charged at me ferociously.
Once again, a fierce exchange of blows erupted, and a deafening roar reverberated through the space.
“Haah, haah!”
I continued my exchange with Riak while calmly observing his movements.
In the past, I could never match the awe-inspiring techniques and mana manipulation that Riak displayed, but now the situation had reversed.
‘In terms of pure technique, I have the advantage.’
I could clearly visualize in my mind how Riak’s beast-like movements and the mana of his stigma flowed, and what results they would produce.
But.
‘Even knowing this, it’s difficult to evade.’
While I held the advantage in technique, Riak far surpassed me in raw strength and speed.
‘Just a little more.’
If I drew upon the power of Heukcheon, I could face Riak without difficulty.
“Huh.”
A thirst that burned my throat.
Throb, throb!
The Black Sky nestled within my heart began to thrash violently, as if demanding to be released.
‘Again?’
Ever since I used Gaecheon in my battle against the Heavenly Demon last time, Heukcheon had been acting up like this occasionally.
As if begging to be set free.
As if pleading to be released from this suffocating cage.
The Black Sky thrashed about violently.
“….”
I placed my hand over my left chest.
There was no need to use Gaecheon.
I was certain that by drawing upon just a fraction of Heukcheon’s power after completing its tenth bloom, I could defeat Riak without difficulty.
But.
“…you arrogant bastard.”
“What?”
“Ah, not you.”
I smirked and activated the stigma of the Lyra Constellation.
The star of Vega Star rising through the dark storm clouds.
The ferociously raging aura of Heukcheon grew docile, like a beast struck by a tranquilizer.
Crackle, crackle, crackle!
Blue sparks erupted from my body, spreading thickly through the surroundings like mist.
“….”
Riak stared at the lightning enveloping my body with deeply sunken eyes.
Without needing words to explain, he could feel it.
The power of the Lyra Constellation now flowing from my body was unrelated to the fact that I possessed Heukcheon.
It was a realm achieved through my own strength as Kwon O-jin.
‘You are….’
In truth, I had already known before asking.
The battle in the Sacred Domain—the first time he had imprinted the name Kwon O-jin upon his consciousness.
Through dozens of deaths, what had made him stagger back to his feet was not the power of Heukcheon, but something far greater.
-There is nothing that can be solved by merely enduring.
Yes, that’s right.
I knew it.
I understood it.
I simply turned away from the truth, blinded by the sting of betrayal.
“…Kid.”
Before being the Fate-Reversing Star.
Before being the master of Heukcheon.
He was ‘Kwon O-jin’.
And the conviction he had watched over all this time was no lie.
“I’ll end it with the next strike.”
A torrent of azure lightning swept through the air.
Kwon O-jin and Riak became a single bolt of thunder, intertwined in collision.
Rumble!
With a deafening roar, a terrible force swept across the surroundings.
The starlit earth twisted and warped as if a black hole had appeared.
“Cough! Ugh….”
Walking out from the thick smoke was Kwon O-jin.
Tattered and worn, he looked down at Riak, who lay unconscious.
‘I won.’
He had defeated a Divine Spirit who wielded the power of their true form—and not just any Divine Spirit, but one from the Polaris Constellation.
“Ugh, damn it. This hurts like hell.”
Of course, Kwon O-jin was hardly in pristine condition either.
But he couldn’t collapse here and stop.
“Vega….”
Kwon O-jin stumbled past the fallen Riak toward Vega’s Temple.
Then.
“Kid.”
“…!”
Kwon O-jin spun around urgently toward where Riak lay.
He could see Riak’s back as he lay on the ground, facing away.
Without turning his head, Riak spoke softly.
“Please look after Vega.”
Kwon O-jin’s eyes widened.
“You….”
About to say something, Kwon O-jin instead let out a small laugh and nodded gently.
He turned and forcefully pushed open the slightly ajar temple door.
“Vega.”
Inside the Divine Temple, emptied to the point where even the void itself seemed to echo with absence.
I beheld the Silver-haired Goddess, turned away, her hands clasped together in prayer.

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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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