I'm not a Regressor

Bam!—

"Kuughk!"

Cheon Woosung's body was sent flying back after getting hit across the face.

Blood dampened the floor as his bleeding injuries widened even more.

"Absurd… beliefs?"

Cheon Woosung clutched his cheek and staggered back up.

Ohjin clicked his tongue as he watched him.

‘Damn, his body is sturdy.'

Despite having received all those injuries, his face still felt extremely hard to his hand.

"You… what do you know to spout out those words?!!"

Cheon Woosung shouted as if throwing a fit.

"Nothing… you know absolutely nothing…!"

—The whining of a young child.

The boy who wore the mask of a man threw up his eruptive currents of emotion at Ohjin.

"…"

Ohjin silently stared into Cheon Woosung’s eyes.

—Untainted, innocent eyes.

—Excessively pure and clear emotions.

‘Did it stop?'

Nine years ago…

After his mother was murdered by an Awakener… Cheon Woosung’s time had stopped.

With his time still halted, only his body grew.

‘If…'

If Ohjin had lost Ha-eun…

If the thing most precious to him was taken away by the hands of another…

Would he have become like Cheon Woosung?

‘I don't know.'

There was no need to hypothesize something that hadn't even happened.

‘There’s something else I need to do right now.'

Ohjin raised the spear that was dug into the ground.

"I don't know. I don't want to know, either."

He aimed his spear.

"But isn't that the same for you?"

Just like how he didn't know about Cheon Woosung, Woosung didn't know about Ohjin.

"Since we don't know each other—"

Baang!!—

He wildly kicked off.

"—let's show each other who's right."

"Kugh!!"

—The tip of the sharp spear aimed at Cheon Woosung's neck.

Cheon Woosung quickly backed off and made a sword out of black feathers.

Clang!—

The spear and sword clashed, causing the tunnel to shake from the immense impact.

"Haa, haa!"

Even while gasping for air, Cheon Woosung managed to fend off the surge of spear strikes, but he was still gradually getting pushed back by the spear strikes that aimed precisely at his blind spots.

‘It makes no sense…!'

Ohjin’s strength couldn't be seen as a 5-Star. Even if Cheon Woosung was in a near fatally wounded state, getting beaten up one-sidedly by a mere 5-Star Awakener was nonsensical.

‘The difference between us isn’t one, isn’t two, but three ranks!'

Additionally, he wasn't a beginner 8-Star Awakener, but a skilled individual who was one step away from becoming a 9-Star.

Normally, he would be able to destroy a 5-Star Awakener with just the slight movement of his hand.

Clang! Kang! Cla-kang!—

"Kugh! Kuk!"

—The spear strikes that rushed in, giving him no room to breathe.

—The entangling wires, punches, and kicks that were mixed in between his attacks.

Cheon Woosung started to wonder if he would be capable of blocking all those attacks in his uninjured state.

‘Just why…?'

—How?

"A meager… lucky bastard…!"

—Someone who didn’t have to go through any hardship.

—Someone who didn’t have to give anything in return.

—Someone who was just lucky enough to be chosen by a celestial.

Bam!—

"Kuugh!"

‘Just how can he be that strong?’

Boom! Bang!—

Cheon Woosung’s body violently rolled across the ground.

"Haa! Haa!"

His blood wouldn't even flow out properly anymore as he had lost too much of it.

"Ah, no…"

He pathetically crawled on the ground.

"Things can't… end like this."

Staggering, he got back up.

Deep darkness settled in the tunnel.

“…Mom.”

Like reaching his hand out to the night sky, Cheon Woosung reached his hand out to the tunnel ceiling with sorrow.

“Give me strength… Mom.”

Thump, thump—

The stigma engraved on his left chest started to shine radiantly.

Owooong!—

The radiant rays of light covered Cheon Woosung’s body.

Flutter!—

The huge wings that spread out on his back covered his body with the goal of protecting him.

“…What?”

Ohjin created distance from Cheon Woosung and narrowed his eyes.

‘Is it another blessing of a celestial?’

He examined Cheon Woosung while tightening his grip on the spear.

‘…No.’

It was different from the case of Park Gunwoo and Arshad Khan.

His skin didn’t wrinkle, nor did his back curve.

Nothing happened besides his body becoming wrapped in bright rays of light.

‘No way…’

Ohjin looked at Cheon Woosung with astonishment.

There was only one thing that explained why the stigma’s light wrapped around his entire body like that…

‘Is that bastard becoming a 9-Star?’

Like the cliche of an action comic, he was trying to step into a new realm in a moment of crisis while reminiscing about his mother.

“For fuck’s sake.”

Ohjin frowned as he raised his spear.

‘I need to finish him off.’

Cheon Woosung was an 8-Star Awakener.

If he reached a realm one step higher from there, he would become one of the high-rank Awakeners who were known to be in a non-human realm.

‘And once that happens, everything’s over.’

Even if it was Ohjin, he couldn’t face a high-rank Awakener.

‘I have to kill him before he finishes his awakening!’

Ohjin wasn’t stupid—he wouldn’t keep still and wait for the enemy to finish awakening like a villain in an action comic.

If Cheon Woosung was gathering all of his strength while reminiscing about his mother in a moment of crisis, he needed to stab him and send him to his mother’s side.

* * *

* * *

“Ch-hat!”

Bang!—

He kicked off and sprinted at Cheon Woosung, who was covered in black wings.

Concentrating mana at the tip of his spear, he thrusted forward.

Ka-ka-kang!!!—

Sparks appeared on the spear’s blade that was blocked by the wings.

“Ugh!”

Ohjin added strength in an attempt to cut the wings, but the spear bounced back without even being able to dig into one-third of it.

Flutter!—

Ttu! Ttu! Tu!—

The wings that weren’t cut shot black feathers and hit Ohjin’s body.

“Argh!!”

They lodged into his shoulders, thighs, and side.

Ohjin gritted his teeth and once again thrusted his spear to the same location.

Clang!—

The spear’s blade bounced back with a powerful repulsive force.

Even worse, the wings that were injured by the continuous spear strikes turned back into their original shape in the blink of an eye.

“Damn it!”

It was disgustingly hard and even regenerated on its own.

‘I can’t pierce it with my current strength.’

If he couldn’t break through while using both Lightning Flames and Exceed, there was no way other skills such as Lightning Charge would work.

‘My only option is to attack while avoiding those wings.’

But even that wasn’t easy, as the black wings were covering Cheon Woosung’s body completely without a gap in sight.

Ttutututututu!!—

“Kugh!”

They didn’t only defend, either.

The black wings kept shooting feathers at him, making it difficult for him to attack.

‘Goddammit.’

The rays of light gradually became brighter.

There was no time.

Ohjin gritted his teeth and showered attacks at the black wings that wrapped around Cheon Woosung.

Clang! Kang! Cla-kang!!—

However, the black wings would intercept and fend off the spear no matter how many times he struck.

“Ugh!!”

The feathers shot from the wings dug into Ohjin’s body.

‘Fuck.’

Ohjin chewed on his lips with a nervous expression.

He had resolved himself to attacking the wings without rest while enduring its attacks, but he still wasn’t able to pierce through in the end.

It felt like he was facing Sigiriya, the rock fortress.

‘Attacking like this is meaningless.’

Due to the fast regeneration speed of the wings, constantly showering attacks had little to no effect.

‘I need to pierce it in one go.’

‘But how?’

“…”

Ohjin was able to fight on even grounds with even a 8-Star Awakener because of the power of the Black Heaven and stigma of Lyra, but it didn’t change the fact that he was still a 5-Star Awakener.

He had an abundant amount of mana remaining thanks to what he had absorbed using the Black Heaven, however…

‘Ultimately… I’m limited by my narrow mana circuits.’

—The narrow mana circuits that were unavoidable as a 5-Star Awakener.

—That was what held him back.

‘I’m already using Exceed.’

What Exceed did in the first place was squeeze his mana circuits to increase the speed and pressure of his mana circulation—it didn’t allow him to use more mana at once.

‘In that case.’

Ohjin’s eyes shone keenly.

He stopped his attacks and lowered his spear.

‘If there’s a limit to how much mana I can release at once…’

Without releasing his mana, he built it up.

He compressed and condensed it.

Creak! Crunch! Crack!—

The spear curled up like a pig’s tail as it couldn’t handle the excessive amounts of mana getting pushed into it.

‘This won’t work.’

The spear wouldn’t last much longer.

‘If the spear won’t work—’

Ohjin glanced down at the spear grasped in his hand.

He started compressing mana into not his spear… but his hand.

“Kugh!”

Tremble—

Ohjin’s spear-holding hand shook violently.

-Ring!

[Warning! Mana has been compressed beyond your limit!]

[You will enter the ‘unstable’ state if you do not release your mana!]

A red warning message tried to prevent his actions.

‘Unstable state… isn’t that what Lee Shinhyuk died to?’

Smirk—

The edge of his mouth rose as he instead compressed even more mana into his mana circuits.

“Kugh! Kua, ugh.”

The blood vessels in his eyes exploded, causing blood to run down his eyes.

—Even from his nose, mouth, and ears.

—Red liquid flowed down and drenched his body.

-Ring!

[Warning! Mana has been compressed beyond your limit!]

“Shut up.”

He got rid of the warning message that popped up in front of his eyes and added strength into his hand that held the spear.

Crack! Crunch!—

Was it because it couldn’t endure the mana’s compression? His hand twisted with the sound of crunching bones.

As his fingers twisted as they pleased, his wrist turned at an angle that shouldn’t be possible.

Bang!—

He used the wire to tightly tie up his distorted hand with the spear.

‘One more time.’

He pushed in mana.

Cruuuunch!!—

Bone fragments dug out of his flesh and burst out.

However…

Despite that…

“—Haa.”

One more time.

He compressed mana.

One more time.

He compressed mana.

One more time. One more time. One more time.

-Ring! Ring! Ring!

Red warning messages filled his sight of view.

The horrifying pain of sharp hooks tearing up his flesh ruthlessly tormented his entire body.

“Fu, haha!”

Ohjin smiled brightly inside the rushing banquet of pain.

-Ring!

[You have successfully maintained your control of lightning in an extreme state!]

[You have learnt 《Charge Lv1》 and 《Discharge Lv1》!]

[《Charge Lv1》 and 《Discharge Lv1》 have both increased to level 6 due to the influence of 《Lightning&Thunder Lv9》]

Charge and Discharge…

The method of using the newly obtained skills flowed into his head.

‘I’ve already charged as much as I can.’

And so…

“Fuu.”

He looked at Cheon Woosung who was hiding inside the black wings and right in front of the alley that led to the 9-Star rank.

“Ahh, Mom… Thank you.”

Was it because he could see his mother welcoming him? Ohjin could hear Cheon Woosung weep inside the wings.

“Don’t worry,” Ohjin smirked.

Bzzzzzzzzzt!!!!—

The blue lightning compressed to its limit, no, compressed exceeding its limit, blazed fiercely.

“I’ll send you to your mom that you want to see so much!!”

Discharge…

The currents of blue lightning surged to Cheon Woosung, who was hidden within the wings.