The Regressor Can Make Them All

Chapter 516

BOOOOOOM!

Seeing Ryuuma crashing into the wall at the far edge of the sealing facility, Se-Hoon pulled his fist back with a frown.

I didn’t get him?

He’d struck with full force, not caring if it killed, and even felt the sensation of Ryuuma’s skull cracking—yet he also sensed all the damage vanished at the last second.

For such a thing to occur, it was almost certain Ryuuma had transferred the fatal blow to a sacrificial substitute living being.

…There’s no point in thinking about collateral damage now.

Knowing well that hesitation only worsened the consequences when facing someone whose ethics were already beyond repair, Se-Hoon reinforced his guard. He was ready to cancel the spell if possible… but if not, he’d simply suppress Ryuuma at any cost.

Thud. Crack.

Ryuuma’s body, embedded in the wall, twitched.

“…I see.” A hollow voice.

Crackle- Crackle-

A moment later, Ryuuma pulled himself free with some effort. With one hand covering his partially torn paper face, he looked at Se-Hoon.

“The fragment I handed over last summer… so you used that.”

If the fake Erika had been created with the fragment he himself gave Se-Hoon for stopping the Heaven Well’s rampage, then it explained why nobody caught the anomaly. After all, Erika herself was also made by infusing Mizuki’s synesthetic mindscape into a portion of the Heaven’s Well using reincarnation arts.

“I let my guard down, thinking the synesthetic mindscape was intact…. If only I’d checked earlier… no. It’s meaningless now.”

The moment they couldn’t confirm whether Se-Hoon and Akasha were the same person, their failure had already been sealed. Quickly accepting the truth, Ryuuma glanced at Se-Hoon through the fingers covering his face.

“So? Why’d you go to all this trouble?”

If the goal was just to stop the ritual, there was no need to create a fake Erika. It would have been so much easier to just wait for an opening and eliminate them in one fell swoop. Yet he had gone to such a roundabout extent?

Meeting Ryuuma’s questioning gaze, Se-Hoon remained steady.

“Because it was necessary.”

Erika wanted to witness the end of the Ascension Project, and Se-Hoon respected that—but it didn’t mean he was going to let her simply walk straight into danger. While pondering alternatives, he’d eventually come up with an idea after observing the lively behavior of the Phantomind crafted from the Bound Celestial Garment’s material.

Does it really matter whether it’s through the original or a replica, as long as she sees the ending?

Going to Erika to convince her, Se-Hoon then finally unsealed the fragment of the Heaven’s Well that had been in the Nimbus Casket for nearly a year. Adding the memories from Ren and what he knew about Mizuki, Se-Hoon finished his analysis of the structure of the ascension ritual—and thus successfully created a near-perfect double.

“So, it was just done out of necessity…. How simple.”

Understanding he’d get no deeper explanation, Ryuuma shifted his gaze to the replica of Erika beside Se-Hoon.

Even if I figure out where the real one is… it’s pointless.

Whether hidden in shadows or in another building, he had no way of retrieving her with the monster currently standing in his way.

And that was why, after some pondering, Ryuuma sought another option.

“Let’s make a deal.”

“What nonsense—”

“Se-Hoon. You complete the ritual.”

Se-Hoon flinched; it was a completely unexpected offer.

“Whatever your reasons, you didn’t stop the ritual. That means you’re curious about the result too, aren’t you?” Ryuuma continued calmly, expecting Se-Hoon’s reaction.

“…”

“You know what lies beyond that door isn’t some petty power. Behind that door is the very origin of the Perfect Ones: something close to omnipotence. If you complete the ritual, you’ll be able to use it without cost.”

“…”

Se-Hoon narrowed his eyes.

The words that sounded like a lie to trick him into finishing the ritual technically weren’t wrong. The Seeker’s Final Revelation, Omniform Sacred Armament, allowed the user to wield the power of the Golden Ring directly without intermediaries. However, there was a catch: because it was a direct link, even a Perfect One’s body struggled to withstand it.

But Erika will be used as a proxy, and all the side effects will be dumped onto her instead… tsk.

Erika would definitely be hurt in the process, but Ryuuma clearly didn’t care—he could just “repair” her like sharpening a chipped blade. That was why he even dared to say, “You won’t have to pay any price.”

How unrelenting…

In a situation where he would likely die, Ryuuma didn’t even bother begging for his life, instead asking him to complete the ritual…. Just what kind of obsession could possibly be driving him to such lengths?

Having yet to figure it out even now, Se-Hoon stared at Ryuuma’s half-covered face as the man tried to persuade him.

“Don’t listen to him…cough-” Still collapsed on the ground, Ren coughed up blood as he forced out his voice. “There’s no such thing… as power without cost in a spell…. It’s always being dumped somewhere else… somewhere invisible…”

“So what?”

“If you sacrifice something to use that power… it’ll eventually come back to you… just like it did to me…”

Using himself—who was dying as a result of the forbidden technique—Ren made his desperate counterargument to convince Se-Hoon.

“…”

Stuck between the clashing views of father and son, Se-Hoon calmly opened his mouth.

“I’ll continue the ritual.”

“…What?”

On one side, Ren’s face contorted in shock. On the other side, Ryuuma briefly froze in disbelief before he gave Se-Hoon a firm nod.

“You made the right choice. You—”

“Oh. But I’m not agreeing because of your offer,” Se-Hoon cut in flatly. “I’m doing it because Erika wants to.”

“…What did you say?”

“Erika…?”

Unlike before, both Ren and Ryuuma shared the same stunned expression at the answer they never expected.

Ignoring them, Se-Hoon approached Erika’s double and placed a hand on her right shoulder. Similar to what he had done with Terra earlier, Erika put her true body into a semi-dormant state so that the realism of the replica would be enhanced.

With only one running, the double could act as the real Erika within the barrier and even conduct the ritual without a soul knowing.

I just need to adjust the balance a little…

Crackle-

Manipulating the interference spell, Se-Hoon reduced the double’s stake… and soon enough, a faint light flickered in Erika’s once-empty eyes—the double and actual body were now fully linked.

“Erika,” Se-Hoon called out quietly, having confirmed the connection.

“…”

She slowly raised her head and met his gaze.

“What do you want to do?”

The ritual wasn’t complete yet, but they’d seen what its end could bring; and they also now understood the intentions of both Ryuuma and Ren. All that remained was Erika’s choice.

“…”

Erika silently turned to look at Ryuuma, then Ren.

“I… used to believe completing this ritual was the reason I existed.”

“…”

“That I was created for that, and existed just for that.”

Neither good nor evil—just a being made out of necessity. The cruel words, however, didn’t really mean much to Erika. In the world that was the Inoues, the umbrella she’d grown under, such things were normal.

“If my death meant completing the ritual, I thought of it as only natural. Because… that’s just how it was.”

Like how humanity never questioned why they breathed or walked, Erika simply accepted her life.

If the ritual could be completed, why hesitate over something as trivial as her own life? At some point, though, that indomitable belief faltered.

Erika turned to face Se-Hoon.

“After I met you… I kept finding myself hoping for a ‘next.’”

The first time, it was whether they’d meet again. The second time, it was what they’d see next. Time and time again, her expectations stretched further and further toward a future she’d never once imagined before: a future after the ritual.

“And now… the thought that there might be no more ‘next’… makes me hate everything.”

Erika, designed to cut away all unnecessary emotions, shouldn’t have felt anything. However, that was only until she met Se-Hoon. From then on, she changed bit by bit, slowly, until she eventually came to the point of desiring a future.

“How…?”

Hearing Erika’s thoughts for the first time, Ryuuma was in disbelief. He never thought that he’d hear such words. In fact, he was sure he’d made her incapable of such emotions in the first place.

When had she even started changing?

“No… It can’t be…”

While Ryuuma continually told himself it was impossible, Se-Hoon had come to his own realization about what had caused Erika’s transformation.

She’s talking about our Relationship, huh…

A relationship wasn’t just one-sided affection but something exchanged. Just as Se-Hoon could feel their formed tie through their shared longing, Erika had also felt it—which had then solidified the changes Se-Hoon brought her.

“So… I…”

Would she fulfill her role at the cost of everything? Or would she chase the fleeting emotions now in her heart? Erika had always chosen the former until now.

Unlike those times, though, she would make the choice of her own free will.

“I… want to see the future you’ll create.”

Her declaration was awkward and clumsy. Yet Se-Hoon smiled at Erika, who had taken her first difficult step, because it was genuine.

“Sure. You can see it as much as you want.”

He gently wrapped an arm around her waist in an embrace, and Spirit Weaver naturally linked their bodies.

RUMBLE!

With Se-Hoon—a foreign element—entering the ritual, a shudder ran through the building. Then, a second later, both the silver cage sealing Heaven’s Well and the grand barrier itself trembled violently.

“NO!!!”

Realizing they weren’t just stopping the ritual but going as far as destroying the Heaven’s Well so it could never be used again, Ryuuma desperately reached out with the Demon’s Edge shikigami’s sword.

Clang-

Unfortunately for him, however, Se-Hoon had already escaped with Erika in his arms before the blade even got close.

BOOM!

The silver cage exploded, its shrapnel tearing apart the Demon’s Edge shikigami. And now that it was unleashed, the Heaven’s Well immediately unfurled in all directions, shaking the sealing facility itself as though in anger.

Craaack-

Cracks spread not just along the floor, ceiling, and walls, but even through the air—the reversed world of the grand barrier, along with the sky and ground it formed, was collapsing along with the ritual.

“Terra. What’s the progress on the evacuation?”

“It’s all done!”

While Ryuuma had been distracted, Se-Hoon had let everyone left in the lab escape. Feeling that the end was near, Se-Hoon looked down at the unconscious Ren.

This guy’s practically a corpse.

The injuries he had sustained weren’t ordinary, being a curse-like backlash from a forbidden technique. So, because healing such a thing now would be difficult, Se-Hoon nudged Ren lightly with his toe to wrap him in the power of Boundaries.

That takes care of him…

Next, he looked at Erika, still in his arms.

She’s still unconscious…

Despite helping her as much as possible, forcibly canceling a ritual centered around her had clearly left damage. Still, since the replica in his arms remained stable, her actual body should also be fine.

All that’s left is…

Se-Hoon’s gaze shifted to Ryuuma in the distance, who was staring blankly at the collapsed Heaven’s Well even as everything fell apart around him.

“I see… I’ve made the same mistake again…”

Hearing Ryuuma’s murmur, as if in a trance, Se-Hoon tensed.

Going by his words… it hadn’t ended yet?

He had thought that with the barrier shattering, the ritual would end too. But perhaps its true source had been something else all along. However, rather than forcibly dismantle whatever that was as well, Se-Hoon gathered his mana to just suppress Ryuuma directly.

“I guess… I’m just another defect after all.”

Finally, Ryuuma dropped the hand covering his face to reveal the long-hidden features beneath the torn paper mask: a man similar to Ren, but with a more decadent aura. Aside from his pale complexion, his face was unblemished…?

Se-Hoon frowned in confusion.

If he didn’t have any scars or mutations… why did he even hide it?

Was there a ritualistic meaning of some sort? A personal reason? Just as Se-Hoon grew wary of the suspicious behavior, his eyes locked onto Ryuuma’s uncovered left eye.

“…”

It wasn’t a Cursed Eye; it didn’t carry any visible enchantment—and yet an overwhelming sense of dread washed over Se-Hoon.

Before he knew it, Se-Hoon realized his fist was flying toward Ryuuma’s head—

“If so… then I’ll just change the method.”

WOOOOOONG!

His eye—the Seeker’s demonic-energy-tainted left eye—resonated with the Seeker’s right eye that was still embedded in Heaven’s Well.