Not A Regressor - Chapter 389
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
I Am Not a Regressor Chapter 389
Fate-Reversing Star (2)
“Then let’s head to the Training Facility right away.”
Delighted that Kwon O-jin had asked for her help, Isabella’s expression brightened as she tugged at his arm.
“Right now?”
“Yes, the sooner you train with that Sacred Domain, the better, right?”
“Well, that’s true, but… are you sure you’re okay?”
Isabella had only just been released after being kidnapped by Mobius.
Even if she bore no physical wounds, the psychological trauma would be considerable.
No matter how urgent it was to learn how to wield the Sacred Domain, dragging Isabella—who had only just been freed from captivity—to the Training Facility seemed rather insensitive.
“I’m fine. I’m not injured anywhere.”
“I don’t mind either.”
Cassia embraced the opposite arm that Isabella was pulling, her enchanting smile never wavering.
“No, Isabella is one thing, but you absolutely cannot, Cassia.”
Just moments ago, Cassia had been suffering from injuries bordering on fatal internal wounds.
Even though Kwon O-jin had treated her with the Aquarius Stigma, that was merely a temporary measure—her internal injuries had not fully healed.
“Oh my, I’m fine. Thanks to your treatment, my internal injuries have recovered to a considerable degree?”
“Considerable, but not completely.”
“Hehe. Still, I’m in much better condition than when I fought you earlier?”
Cassia shrugged her shoulders with an easy smile, as if to say there was nothing to worry about.
“Hmm…”
After a moment of deliberation, Kwon O-jin gave a small nod.
“Then let’s do something other than sparring today.”
The purpose of this training was to become familiar with how to wield the Sacred Domain.
Even without sparring, there were still many ways to train with the Sacred Domain—a realm that remained largely unknown to me.
“Something else?”
“Come to the Living Room first.”
I already had a training method in mind.
“Aren’t we going to the Training Facility?”
“No. This method doesn’t require us to go all the way there.”
“…?”
Isabella and Cassia exchanged puzzled glances before following me to the Living Room.
Standing in the center of the spacious Living Room, I took each of their hands with my own.
Through both hands, I could feel the distinct sensations of their touch.
“This is…?”
“What exactly are you trying to do?”
The stance hardly seemed like training—it looked more like we were about to play some sort of circle game.
Facing the bewildered sisters, I spoke with a serious expression.
“When I deploy the Sacred Domain, I want you both to pour your mana into it and forcibly break through it.”
The Sacred Domain was a unique barrier that formed when the power of a Stigma was maximized and unleashed.
A barrier, fundamentally, blocks external forces from penetrating inward.
Yet, as I witnessed during my confrontation with Anselladus, this barrier called the Sacred Domain was far from impeccable.
‘If you strike it with sufficient magical power, it will shatter.’
Sakaki and I lacked the magical reserves to breach the Sacred Domain, but Ha-eun demonstrated a remarkable feat—piercing Anselladus’s Sacred Domain with pure magical power alone, without even requiring a Constellation’s blessing.
What Ha-eun could accomplish, Isabella and Cassia surely could as well.
Especially now, with our hands clasped together rather than locked in desperate combat, dismantling the Sacred Domain would be far simpler.
‘First, I need to understand the limits of my magical endurance.’
My approach to training the Sacred Domain was deceptively straightforward.
Like tempering steel through repeated striking, I would construct my Sacred Domain, then shatter and reconstruct it through the intervention of powerful magical force—a cyclical refinement.
It resembled muscle development through resistance training: tearing muscle fibers and allowing them to regenerate, building strength through repetition.
‘Honestly, I’m uncertain whether such a crude method will prove effective.’
I couldn’t guarantee that repeatedly destroying and reconstructing the Sacred Domain would actually strengthen it.
Yet, this wasn’t mere conjecture born from nothing.
‘If the Sacred Domain is a unique barrier that maximizes the power of a stigma…’
Then as it became ‘eroded’ by the power of other constellations—by the magical force of different stigmas—it would undoubtedly react violently to maintain its true nature.
To use an analogy: it was like pouring water into blazing hot oil.
Even without the Sacred Domain, it was commonplace to witness violent reactions when the forces of different stigmas repelled one another.
‘Of course, there are abilities like water affinity, where the powers of different stigmas harmonize.’
But that occurred only because Heukcheon itself possessed the ability to fuse the magical forces of different stigmas.
Just as a single awakened being typically couldn’t possess two stigmas, the magical forces of different stigmas generated fierce rejection responses toward one another.
‘The Sacred Domain would provoke an even more violent rejection.’
Since the Sacred Domain was a unique barrier that maximized the power of its stigma, it naturally followed that the repulsion would be far more intense than ordinary stigmatic magical collision.
And.
Such fierce repulsion would only render the Sacred Domain more resilient.
‘Like the difference between a beast raised on zoo rations and one hardened through fierce competition in the wild.’
In any case.
Whether my mental reasoning was the correct approach would only be determined through direct experimentation.
I nodded slowly, observing the two women who seemed ready, and began drawing upon Heukcheon’s power.
‘Sacred Domain deployment.’
What surfaced in my mind was the Lyra Constellation’s stigma—the most familiar force, the one that had made me who I am.
A soft silver radiance enveloped my entire body as the Lyra Constellation’s Sacred Domain unfurled.
“Exhale.”
Despite its deployment, the domain extended merely five centimeters from my skin—an extraordinarily limited expanse.
This was the maximum I could currently manifest.
‘This won’t suffice.’
The faint Sacred Domain I now projected served only to amplify my stigmatic power and shield my body—nothing more.
With my eyes closed, I envisioned the Dragon Palace that Anselladus had conjured.
A tidal wave suddenly erupting from empty air.
A colossal palace rising from the ocean depths, accompanied by thousands of forces.
A true Sacred Domain transforms everything—terrain, geography, environment—remaking it entirely through the power of a constellation.
A power truly befitting the name “Constellation”.
To wield such a force that mocked the laws of physics, I needed to expand the Sacred Domain across a wider area.
“Alright then, shall we begin?”
“Yes.”
“I just need to pour my mana in, correct?”
Through our clasped hands, Cassia and Isabella’s mana flowed into me.
Uuuuuung!
The Sacred Domain enveloping my body violently repelled their mana, pushing it back.
“…Remarkable.”
Cassia let out a soft exclamation as she watched her mana bounce back as if striking against a colossal barrier.
A human body capable of manifesting a Sacred Domain.
I’d witnessed it once before during my clash with Mobius, but seeing it up close like this filled me with fresh wonder.
“However, a Sacred Domain is not invincible, you understand?”
Cassia’s eyes gleamed ominously as she drew upon her mana more intensely.
Isabella, refusing to yield, poured even greater amounts of stigma mana through our joined hands.
“Ugh!”
Powerful stigma mana surged through both my hands.
Images flashed through my mind—on one side, a colossal serpent; on the other, hundreds, thousands of leeches swarming toward me.
“Huff, huff!”
I concentrated all my focus on maintaining the Sacred Domain to withstand the torrent of mana pouring down like a tidal wave.
Crack, crackle-crackle-crack!
The soft silver light that had enveloped my entire body surged violently as their mana pierced through the Sacred Domain and flooded in.
Like enemy forces pouring through a collapsed wall, their savage mana tore through my entire body.
“Argh!”
A dizzying pain spread across my entire frame.
Blood gushed from my nose as my mana circuits twisted and contorted throughout my body.
“Kwon O-jin!”
“Are you… are you alright?”
Both women hastily withdrew their mana.
“Gasp, gasp!”
I collapsed to the floor, breathing heavily.
The backlash from having the Sacred Domain forcibly breached was far more violent than I’d anticipated.
‘I suppose.’
To use an analogy, I was currently inside a house I’d built myself, while Isabella and Cassia were swinging a massive hammer at the structure I’d created.
When the house crumbled, it was only natural that I, trapped inside, would suffer the impact.
“Wait, just a moment! I’ll fetch water right away!”
Isabella, knowing I possessed the recovery skill Hydro Affinity, rushed toward the bathroom.
“No, it’s fine.”
“Fine?! You’re still bleeding…!”
“Hydro Affinity can’t heal internal injuries anyway.”
Pouring massive amounts of water would have some effect on internal injuries, but obtaining that much water in an ordinary household—not a Training Facility—was impractical.
“Phew.”
Kwon O-jin steadied his roiling mana and deployed the Sacred Domain once more.
Uuuuuuung!
A silvery aura enveloped his body, radiating with ethereal brilliance.
‘It’s working.’
The Sacred Domain felt noticeably more solid than when I first manifested it.
‘The range too… has expanded, if only slightly.’
Kwon O-jin’s lips curved upward in a smirk.
Now that I knew it was effective, my next course of action was clear.
“One more time, please.”
“…Are you in your right mind?”
Cassia narrowed her eyes, glaring at Kwon O-jin.
She’d just watched him collapse with a nosebleed, and now he wanted to do it again?
“That’s an order, Cassia.”
“….”
At the word “order,” Cassia’s shoulders flinched.
With an anxious expression, she bit her lip tightly, then turned to Isabella as if seeking help.
Isabella shook her head slowly, as if to say he was hopeless.
“Once Kwon O-jin sets his mind to something, there’s no reasoning with him.”
“…What kind of person is that?”
“You’ll get used to it, Elder Sister.”
Sighing, Isabella approached Kwon O-jin and took his hand again.
Cassia reluctantly grasped his other hand.
“…Couldn’t you at least reduce the amount of mana?”
“Then the training won’t be effective.”
I had to channel enough mana to pierce through the Sacred Domain.
“I’m counting on you.”
“…Sigh.”
“So it’s true—you really are stubborn.”
Both women exhaled deeply, their brows furrowed as if their heads ached.
“Ah, could you press closer to me a bit more?”
“Like this?”
“Just a little more.”
“Y-your chest is touching mine…?”
“It’s easier to transfer mana this way.”
Since the mana of the stigma was fundamentally stored in the stigma inscribed above the left chest, channeling mana while pressed together like this allowed for greater effect with far less mana.
Cassia and Isabella wrapped their arms around Kwon O-jin’s shoulders, pressing their bodies firmly against his.
“Then… I’ll begin.”
“Please tell us if it becomes too much to bear, Kwon O-jin.”
And so, training to deploy the Sacred Domain began anew.
* * *
“Ugh. I drank way too much because of that damn mutt.”
Ha-eun wrinkled her nose at the stench of alcohol clinging to her body and scratched her head.
While Kwon O-jin was away, she’d gone to lighten her boredom with a casual beer with Vega, but when Riak joined midway, the gathering had spiraled out of control.
‘But why was Cassia at our house in the first place?’
Ha-eun stood before the foyer, pushing aside the inexplicable sense of dread rising within her.
Click.
As she opened the entrance door, a thick scent of blood assaulted her nostrils.
“Oh, oh no!”
The moment Ha-eun caught the scent of blood, her face drained of all color.
Had Cassia done something terrible?
She hurried toward the living room with urgent steps.
“Gasp, gasp!”
Kwon O-jin was wedged between two sisters who clung to either side of him like patties in a hamburger.
Trapped between the sisters, Kwon O-jin gasped heavily, blood streaming continuously from his nose.
“…What in the world?”
Ha-eun’s expression twisted into something sinister.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————