The Regressor Can Make Them All

Chapter 506

There were two reasons the Seeker chose a quick apology instead of an excuse. The first was simply that her opponent wasn’t someone who’d accept a half-baked excuse; as for the second, it was that she knew there was no easy way to punish someone trapped inside a planet.

I’m bored out of my mind. Can’t I at least complain a little…?!

Wasn’t a little grumbling fair since he’d said he’d get her out yet left her stuck there for months? For that reason, the Seeker just pretended to apologize while internally grumbling to herself.

All she had to do was say she would bow her head and drop to her knees as much as she needed to—which was true if she hadn’t made one crucial mistake.

“Pull.”

“Okay.”

She had not known her opponent was a man who would get the debt he was owed, even if it meant inventing a method to do so.

“Aargh!!!”

Held by the limbs in Erika’s hands, the faintly human-shaped translucent shikigami was stretched left and right like taffy. Each time it was stretched, the palm-sized shikigami let out shrill screams as it contracted like a rubber band.

Unfortunately for it, though, Se-Hoon’s eyes only widened in curiosity.

“This is unexpected.”

Thinking that since the Bound Celestial Garment was partially made from the Heaven’s Well, Se-Hoon casually figured that taking a part of it for a shikigami would make it also compatible with the Seeker. In truth, his casual guess had already far surpassed expectations.

“Try going a little harder, Erika.”

“Okay.”

Erika started kneading the shikigami like dough, making the Seeker, whose mind was linked to it, scream.

“You freaking lunati—!”

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Spun around and around like crazy, the Seeker couldn’t tell which way was up soon enough.

She’s reacting to almost every stimulus… If I had to guess, I’d say the synchronization rate is at least ninety percent, Se-Hoon thought as he watched, stroking his chin.

The Region who had been briefly handed over to the Seeker during the suppression of Dawn was at that level too, so the shikigami was practically the same as having an actual body.

I guess the Phantomind wasn’t made for nothing, huh?

Thinking he had gathered enough useful information, Se-Hoon looked up to pardon the Seeker… but he stopped when he saw Erika diligently pounding away at the shikigami.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

“Gahh! Hey! Stop, blegh—!”

“…”

For some reason, Erika’s eyes were sparkling as she tormented the Seeker. She almost looked like she was enjoying herself.

Come to think of it, she does deserve punishment for more than just the backtalk.

Considering everything involving the Inoue family likely traced all the way back to the Seeker, it was only reasonable to let the victim—Erika—vent. With that, Se-Hoon waited about twenty minutes until Erika was satisfied.

“I… I said I’d kneel already…. Even if I was a little in the wrong, this is just a purely barbaric and irrational torture method—”

“Shall we go for another thirty minutes?”

“I deserve it all! I’m the root of all evil! Hahaha!”

Midway through her grumbling as she crouched to catch her breath, the Seeker switched her stance in an instant.

She had flipped so quickly that Se-Hoon gave her a sideways glare before raising his hand.

“That’s enough chit-chat. Let’s get to the main point.”

Touching his index finger to the Seeker’s head, Se-Hoon transferred all the information he had just gathered during the lab inspection.

“Huh? This is…” As the Seeker went over the information, she quietly let out occasional mutters. “So that’s what they were trying to make…. Tsk, audacious little bastards.”

Noticing the Seeker’s expression, which clearly suggested she had figured out something, Se-Hoon wasted no time.

“What exactly are these people trying to do?”

The Heaven’s Well, Erika, and the Seeker herself—what was the precise method they were using to synchronize with a Tower of Heroes and draw out the power of a Perfect One?

“They’re trying to recreate my Final Revelation.”

Se-Hoon frowned. He was still stuck at interpretation despite having the full equation and answer, which prompted the Seeker to continue.

“The Final Revelation I used, Omniform Sacred Armament, was a technique that synchronized the body with the Golden Ring to expand authority and amplify output.”

Hearing that, Se-Hoon narrowed his eyes.

If it’s that, then it all lines up.

He had been wondering why the Phantomind had never been used properly despite the feat of creating them. As it turned out, the Inoues never cared about the Seeker herself in the first place—they were only after her power.

“What’s the exact mechanism behind that technique?”

“It’s pretty much what you think. I turn myself into a conduit, like the Tower of Heroes, and draw power out through the Golden Ring. Of course, this power was granted only to me. That’s why those guys broke it down into components and tried to reconstruct it through various procedures.”

At long last, Se-Hoon felt as though the puzzle pieces were clicking into place.

“Using the Heaven’s Well to substitute the body… the power stored in the Cursed Eyes to replicate the power…”

“And that dull girl as the wedge to finish it.”

Se-Hoon glanced at Erika, who had been listening without much reaction.

So, what Ryuuma and Ren were talking about was right…. It wasn’t a physical death.

Once the ego of the incomplete spell known as Inoue Erika was fully erased, the Inoue family would be able to recreate the Seeker’s Final Revelation and complete their long-cherished Ascension Project.

“…”

Se-Hoon made a troubled expression.

This is… dangerous.

If Erika’s role had been limited to controlling the Heaven’s Well, he might have allowed the project to continue up to the brink of completion. But if her ego was being directly affected, interrupting it halfway could cause unpredictable consequences.

If he truly cared about Erika’s safety, it would be best to obliterate the Inoues in their entirety promptly.

“…Erika.”

“Yes?”

“Do you still want to go through with this?”

Turning to face Se-Hoon at that question, Erika held his gaze silently for a moment before opening her mouth.

“To me, giving my life for the family’s aspiration is only natural. It was what I was made for from the very beginning.”

Because her creation, her life as she knew it—everything—had been for the completion of the family’s plan, Erika had never once considered going against it. Even after hearing the full truth, even despite having known all along, Erika genuinely believed that harboring such deviant thoughts meant she was a defect, a failed creation.

“So… I want to fulfill the role I was given. Even if it leads to my demise.”

Only then, she thought, could she define the unfamiliar feeling stirring in her heart as a proper emotion instead of something alien.

“…”

Se-Hoon met her gaze, making a complicated expression. Twisted though she may be, she was resolute. Her choice, one that was truly solely made by Erika’s own will without influence, made him let out a sigh.

“…Alright. Let’s do it your way then.”

“Thanks.”

For some reason, Erika looked oddly pleased. And upon seeing her like that, Se-Hoon gave a wry smile as he turned back to the Seeker.

“By the way… why are you only telling us this now?”

“Huh?”

“I feel like anyone with some knowledge of the Final Revelation could’ve figured it out earlier…”

“Well…”

The sight of the Seeker hesitating, her shikigami eyes shifting nervously, made Se-Hoon’s gaze instantly narrow. If she dared say, “Well, you never asked,” again, he was prepared to administer her next punishment personally.

He’s going into psycho mode again.

Figuring out what Se-Hoon was thinking, the Seeker urgently shouted to clear her name.

“I forgot!”

“You… forgot?”

“Y-yeah. At the time, the Akashic Records didn’t have any data on this Final Revelation, so I couldn’t respond…”

Se-Hoon made a strange face. It sounded like a hasty excuse, but due to the characteristics of the Seeker’s power of Omniscience, lying was impossible.

I guess she really didn’t have any information about the Final Revelation back then…

However, that meant the data was now available for some reason. Why? Seeing Se-Hoon looking at her with suspicion, the Seeker quickly realized what he was curious about.

“I can’t say for sure, but… it seems like the records were stored inside this thing,” she explained, tapping her current form that was made from the Bound Celestial Garment.

Hmm… it’s not impossible. Se-Hoon stroked his chin in thought.

Considering the properties of a Mythical-tier artifact, the Heaven’s Well could be seen as a part of the law that the Seeker had become. In other words, it wouldn’t be strange for it to contain information about her Final Revelation… but even so, several questions remained.

Why wasn’t there even one record in the Akashic Records to begin with?

The Akashic Records, a collection of infinite knowledge, updated themselves perpetually based on the power of Omniscience and certain conditions. How could there be no information about something so closely tied to the Seeker herself?

Come to think of it, she also said she didn’t have any memories of the moments right before her death.

The Seeker’s final memory recorded in the Akashic was of preparing to infiltrate the Abyss of Demons. Later on, it had been revealed that she had actually been murdered, her body dismantled by Tuner and passed into the hands of Dawn—which meant there was a gap.

Something is being hidden here.

The Seeker’s death and the concealment of the Final Revelation almost felt too intentional.

“Hey, this Ascension Project… wouldn’t it be useful for you too?” The Seeker said, speaking up once she saw Se-Hoon lost in thought and that the mood had softened.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“That thing you were preparing with Terra. It looks kind of similar to that, no?”

Se-Hoon’s eyes widened. Although the Seeker had spoken around it as she glanced at Erika, Se-Hoon knew.

The Planetary Reinforcement Project?

If his plan to protect the planet from being destroyed by giving Terra access to multiple powers of the Perfect Ones and thus giving her the strength to rival them was similar to the Ascension Project, then Se-Hoon had to consider it seriously.

Replace the Tower of Heroes with a specific object, use the power of Perception to connect to the Golden Ring, control the boosted power to create the desired outcome…

Either a completely new Perfect One would be born, or he would complete the Planetary Reinforcement Project—the details were different, but the core structures overlapped so perfectly that Se-Hoon’s was blown away.

To think the part that had been troubling him for so long had been so neatly resolved just by borrowing from the Ascension Project.

I can’t believe it…

How could such a coincidence even exist? Awed by the unexpected development, Se-Hoon began feeling a deepening reverence for the oracle that had led him here: the Visionary.

Unlike that stingy bastard who’s only generous to the Demon Force…

Just moments ago, he’d felt unmotivated because the project would put Erika in danger—but things were different now. With plans forming rapidly in his mind, Se-Hoon looked at Erika again.

“Erika.”

“Yes?”

“Mind if I loot your house a bit?”

“…”

The Seeker looked up from the table, wondering what kind of insane nonsense Se-Hoon was on about. Se-Hoon, though, just ignored her and kept his eyes on Erika.

“Will it interfere with the project?” Erika calmly asked after some brief thought.

“No. If anything, it’ll help. There shouldn’t be any downside.”

“Then I’ll help.”

“Smart choice.”

A man about to raid the family of the one he wanted to save for the one he wanted to save and a woman who was about to sell out her family for her family.

Seeing the two so fired up, the Seeker made an expression of disbelief.

“This family is a complete mess.”

She sighed, shaking her head.

***

The sealing chamber of the Heaven’s Well was at the lowest underground level.

In the past, it had suppressed the Heaven’s Well by drilling into the ley line and channeling its power. With the new approaches that had been introduced over the past year, however, it was completely revised. Silver cords now stretched from the walls, ceiling, and floor to form a massive cage in the center of the room that encased the Heaven’s Well.

Woong-

Glowing orange, the gemstone housing the Seeker’s right eye drank in the ley line’s power. Far more stable than before, the Heaven’s Well sat dormant under Ren’s quietly observing eyes.

Cling!

With a gentle flick of his fan, a mysterious chime rang out and a small section of the Heaven’s Well creaked open.

A stream of orange power flowed out, revving up to surge toward Ren—

Snap!

The stream of energy vanished the moment Ren closed his black fan.

“…That should do it.”

The dissonance caused by the Phantomind’s death had been resolved, and the tuning had returned to normal. With that confirmed, Ren turned around.

Time to report this to Director Akasha…

But then what? Busy tuning the Heaven’s Well, Ren had momentarily forgotten a lingering issue that now returned to his mind.

What was Father thinking, putting someone like that in charge…? Ren’s brow furrowed.

He understood that the man was capable. Yet even so, he couldn’t see why the position of research director had to be handed over. Sure, there were no better alternatives—only a guaranteed defeat—but Ren still believed that would’ve been the better choice.

Maybe everything went wrong the moment I lost.

Where would his family’s future go from here? Without a single idea, Ren stood in silence, just thinking, before eventually letting out a soft sigh.

At least things should be stable for a while.

During the site inspection, the man hadn’t reacted all that much. Maybe he wouldn’t interfere too much in the lab either, then? Regardless, before that man made any suspicious moves, Ren resolved to make a certain decision of his own.

Clench-

He gripped the black fan—his mother’s legacy—tightly in his hand.

Ding!

Hearing the notice of the elevator reaching the upper level, Ren looked up as the doors slid open to both sides.

“Wreck that side too.”

“Yes, sir.”

Rumble- BOOM!

And what greeted him was the brutal destruction of the research facility, courtesy of Se-Hoon and Erika.