The Heroine Stole My Regression

50 – The Eve (3)

“White Fang, you say? Haha! Student Hae-in, you certainly have an eye for these things, haven’t you?”

The Chairman greeted me as if he had been waiting,

laughing heartily and loudly.

“This weapon! From a bloody battle with the Monstrous Dragon Aldebaran, no less! Acquired directly by our esteemed founder!”

His shoulders puffed up. Raising his voice as if praising my choice, a boastful demeanor.

His excitement stemmed from one simple fact: Despite countless attempts, this weapon had never shown any particular reaction.

There was a reason it had been left to languish in a corner of the storage.

A deeply satisfied expression.

I offered a smile, replying briefly,

“Is that so?”

I casually rotated the spear in my hand, as if nothing were amiss.

And then, without delay—

I closed my eyes and summoned all my mana.

The mana flowing through my veins concentrated into one point, a sensation of heat spreading through my body.

Immediately, I began to channel the mana into the spear.

Even gathering the remnants of my mana, I poured it in with all my strength. The verdant energy of anti-magic slowly seeped within.

My hands trembled, a throbbing ache starting in my head.

“Student Hae-in, what…?”

The Chairman’s voice reached me, but I had no time to care.

Before anyone could react, the change began.

The silver slowly began to burn crimson. Soon, even that crimson was stained black, its color transforming.

No longer a simple iron weapon.

The once-silver spear had transformed into a form that gleamed as black as obsidian.

Ah, my head.

Squeezing out such a large quantity of mana brought on a wave of pain.

The chairman’s jaw dropped at the obviously extraordinary transformation of the weapon.

Unable to speak, he could only move his lips weakly.

I lifted White Fang, no, ‘Catastrophe,’ in one hand and said curtly,

“I’ll put it to good use.”

And then, I turned and walked away.

That instant.

『Power of Demon Subjugation?』

My mind reeled.

No, ‘reeled’ wasn’t strong enough.

A voice slammed into my head.

The moment the words registered, a resonating echo spread through my mind.

An impact that threatened to unravel my very being.

『…A fledgling, rousing me from my slumber.』

My head felt like it was splitting open.

My body faltered.

『Yet, how peculiar. The depth of ages I sense within it, why, even I cannot fathom it.』

『Neither Tyrannical Path, nor Righteous Path… a complete and utter mess….』

My tilted vision swayed slowly, and then the floor suddenly rushed towards me.

『… Defying Heaven.』

My eyes began to slowly close.

『Anchoring the axis, rebelling against providence? Haha! This is quite intriguing.』

『Very well. Since you dared awaken me, as recompense, I shall dissect your essence through and through.』

-Thump!

My body hit the ground completely.

『What was the most agonizing moment of despair in your existence?』

-…Haein!

Someone shouted from far away.

The blurry figures of Yuhana and Cheon Yeoul frantically running towards me.

『Savor it. And, remember it.』

But even that soon faded, and my vision went black.

Consciousness, severed clean.

『Who in the hell were you.』

*

“Hello there?”

I’d been hiding in the cargo hold, and finally, I burst out.

The sudden appearance sent ripples of shock through the Vanquisher members, their eyes fixed on me.

“Jung Haein!”

Seong Ara was the first to shout.

I scanned the surroundings.

This was the base point near the assault site.

The operation was set to begin soon, not far from here.

“How did you get here?”

Obviously, I’d sneaked along.

They definitely wouldn’t have let me join if I’d asked.

I knew this operation was a path to utter annihilation. And, I was certain I could stop it.

But their reaction was icy.

“…Go back.”

The voice was resolute.

It was Lee Dohyun. Twin swords strapped to his back, he spoke quietly.

“This isn’t a place for you.”

His gaze was unyielding.

The other members, facing me, also wore troubled expressions.

“Then I’ll just help with communications with the Association from here. That much is okay, right? I can’t go back anyway.”

I already knew they wouldn’t agree.

So, I offered a compromise they might actually accept.

Once the battle started, I could just run and join them.

I was overflowing with confidence, practically bursting with conviction.

I’d successfully handed the Fragment over to Seong Siwoo, and the characters’ growth was proceeding smoothly.

Even Medusa, though there were some sacrifices, we managed to capture in the end.

‘At this rate, am I not even going to have to use a death regression once?’

Up to now, I hadn’t died even once. In the end, the ten-year plan I’d laid out had been flawless.

This time would be the same.

However.

“Hello?”

*Crunch!*

My first death was, devastatingly, anticlimactic.

“Hhuk!!”

I woke up in the back of a truck.

Not even a proper fight. Just two moves, that was all.

First attack, the defense crumbled.

Second attack, my head was crushed.

“Hey! Hae-in, what are you doing here?”

It was Park Kwang-cheol.

Sounded like he’d come to rummage through the truck bed.

I gripped my head and staggered to my feet.

I couldn’t clear my head.

Stepping outside, I saw the Vanguisher’s people staring at me.

I met their eyes.

A chill ran down my spine.

I could feel it from that recent death.

Something… had begun.

Second death.

My body was cleaved in two.

Third death.

I barely managed to avoid having my head smashed, but a spear, flung from behind, pierced my neck.

And then the eleventh death.

“Uwaaak!”

I dropped to my knees, vomiting. Since the first death, the accumulating mental anguish of dying… it was nothing you could ever endure.

Around that time, I began to doubt the plan I’d set in motion.

‘The Vanguisher… they were annihilated.’

The death of Vanquisher, depicted in a mere line to elevate the atmosphere of the piece.

Yet, that death, it was beyond imagining.

“Haein-ah!”

And on the cusp of the twelfth death.

Park Gwang-cheol hurled himself at me. His abdomen was pierced. And at that very instant. I too, perished.

Perhaps around the 57th death.

It was around then that I could, maybe for a few exchanges, endure the fiend’s attacks, even just a little.

-Clang! Clink!!

“You alright?”

‘Apostle of the Evil God.’

The man, who appeared outwardly ordinary, had killed me in two exchanges every single time in the past 57 encounters, the moment the battle commenced.

The members of Vanquisher turned their heads and rushed toward us, but. They were always too late.

However—

This time it’s different. I’ve already endured three, four, an even greater number of exchanges.

An immeasurable duel with a mighty foe. It was forcibly accelerating my growth.

“Jeong Haein!!”

Seong Ara and Park Gwang-cheol reached me. A turn of events unseen before. As they rushed over, the man before me clicked his tongue and turned away.

Park Gwang-cheol spoke to me calmly.

“Now that you’re here, live. Haein-ah. You need to get your head in the game.”

He offered no reproach for breaking my promise.

I clenched my teeth. I had to succeed in a counterattack, no matter what.

‘If it’s only one Apostle…’

But the number of figures before me, it was more than enough to plunge me into despair.

In truth, the possibility of an Apostle being present was low, and at most I expected to see one.

As if mocking my prediction, the Apostles standing here.

There were three in total.

I sensed it.

This fight.

It would be longer than anticipated.

152 deaths.

239 deaths.

399? No, probably 400 deaths.

I died, incessantly.

And then, the 401st life.

I couldn’t even rise from the trunk.

My whole body was leaden. Even inhaling was an ordeal.

‘Just give up.’

That was the conclusion I’d reached.

Even if everyone dies, if Sung Si-woo is there, he can overcome it.

Because that’s the flow of the original story. I am, from the start, merely a variable outside that flow.

Around that point, I was deranged, and so incredibly weak.

Intoxicated with success, and from some point on, under the pretext of raising Sung Si-woo, I neglected to improve my own combat prowess.

My weak stamina had become an Achilles’ heel.

And I hadn’t prepared a way to fight the Ma (魔), relying instead on fragments of Sung Si-woo’s power.

-BOOM!!

A deafening roar from the distance heralded the start of the battle.

I covered my ears.

‘I’m sorry… I’m sorry…’

It wasn’t an area where I could do anything.

There were three Apostles, and I was weak.

I had assumed, at most, there’d be one. A single Apostle of the Evil God was all the Vanquishers could handle, even when they all attacked together. Before the Evil God’s resurrection, I hadn’t anticipated so many Apostles appearing.

I had intended to quickly spread any weaknesses I discovered about each Apostle, to bolster the others’ strategy and make the raids easier.

One Apostle or so, I could somehow manage. That was the plan I’d devised.

But now, I realize.

All of that was the delusion of someone who had never experienced death on the battlefield.

Until now, I had the power of Death Regression (死亡廻歸), and yet I had never truly died.

The first defeat I encountered was so futile, and the first death I faced was devastatingly brief.

I couldn’t do anything.

Not just dying, but collapsing in the face of a wall I could never surpass, no matter how much I struggled.

And that wall, it was created with a single line of text that I had written without a second thought.

Self-loathing crashes over me. Even if I die and regress four hundred times, nothing will change.

I still die after a few exchanges, I still can’t do a thing in front of them,

I still die, without changing anything.

This battle is not my domain.

It was not a fight I could dare to meddle in.

And so, I surrendered.

The distant explosions, too, began to subside.

The trembling in my hands covering my ears faded, and I felt the battle’s end approaching.

But then.

A thought, flashed through my mind.

If I flee from here, will I be able to live with myself, with any dignity?

No matter how much I try to avoid it, no matter how much I rationalize, I have no confidence that I could abandon this battlefield, abandon them, and return to a normal life.

This was the consequence of the world I created.

I had to take responsibility, had to change it.

If I run away like this, I won’t even have the confidence to look Sion in the face again.

I closed my eyes.

I inhaled.

My heart still races.

Even after four hundred deaths, the fear hasn’t diminished even a grain.

But even so, I must.

It is my fault.

“…….”

I removed my hands from my ears and opened my eyes.

A clear energy circulated in my once-murky mind.

I have, at long last.

Decided to accept death.

–

[Authority: Death Regression (死亡回歸)]

① Regression

ㅡ Upon death, you will unconditionally regress. Memories are retained.

② ??? (Unliberated)

③ ??? (Unliberated)

–

The system blazed before my eyes.

The second slot, marked Unliberated, shone with blinding light. Then.

–

② Unyielding Spirit (不屈之魂)

ㅡAn unbending will, that knows no surrender.

–

I inhaled sharply.

My entire body still trembled.

But, I could no longer look away.

I exploit death. Time – it’s all I have more of than them.

I rose from where I sat and headed toward the battlefield.

The Vanquisher’s squad, they were all down. Save for one.

Old Man.

He stood with a severed arm, fighting to the very end.

But finally, he fell.

I didn’t miss a single moment of Old Man’s collapse, absorbing it all into my eyes.

Then, a silhouette vanished in the distance.

And simultaneously, a massive greatsword hurtled toward me.

I tasted death.

-Clang!

A straight-thrusting spear clashed against the greatsword.

The spear, it was being slowly cleaved through by the blade.

But, even if it’s just one more time—

To imprint their movements into my eyes.

I widened my eyes, straining to see.

If they are strong, I will learn it, without fail.

No matter how long it takes.

From now, the real beginning.