WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 316: The regressor fights (35)

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The corner of the party hall. Guntar sat there tied to a chair, head hanging low.

There were no more spasming movements like before. The Heavenly Demon had already taken control of the body.

'...Hm.'

The Heavenly Demon himself mulled over the situation. What should he have done differently?

The moment the fake Guntar started convulsing, the Heavenly Demon had not been able to seize control. Because of that, Guntar had grabbed Kim Jun-ho by the collar and shaken him hard, and that was the first reason things had gotten tangled.

'By the time I took control, it was already too late.'

Startled, Kim Jun-ho had immediately released mana, and Guntar's body froze solid. By the time the Heavenly Demon took control, movement was already impossible. If this had been a dispute with another beastman, he could have fled, or at least triggered a regression. But that power looked like something even the Heavenly Demon could not counter unless he unleashed his own mana. With his body locked stiff, the Heavenly Demon had to accept the restraints without resistance.

Another stroke of bad luck was the fact that Kim Jun-ho's mana did not count as a "wound." If he had been injured while being subdued, it would have been different, but that mana had only frozen his muscles, so regression never triggered.

The condition for Regression was to be wounded by "someone else." Now the Heavenly Demon could not regress at will either.

'Is there any point in continuing further?'

The Heavenly Demon thought it over carefully. The situation had already tangled itself into a mess. The fake Guntar had put on an ugly display of convulsions, and because of that, he was now bound like this. If the Heavenly Demon put on some acting from here, there was a chance he could still get released cleanly. But would that much effort actually be efficient?

'...If I start over from the beginning.'

Wouldn't it be more efficient to build a more perfectly arranged setup, craft the situation even better, and try again?

But that, too... did not sit well with him. It felt like admitting defeat right now. Every direction displeased the Heavenly Demon, so he agonized over it, again and again.

"Whew."

Meanwhile, Kim Jun-ho let out a tense breath. It had been such a long road to get here. He had poured everything into keeping Choi Ji-won's identity hidden, and even as the cycles repeated, he worked relentlessly to repeat the exact same actions, the exact same words, the exact same expressions, all out of fear that the Heavenly Demon might sense something off.

Writing down his own lines on paper and memorizing them was the bare minimum. He even rehearsed with Choi Ji-won. Even so, the difficulty had been close to impossible, though it seemed the boosted Intelligence stat from the status window had helped somewhat.

Now was the moment. This was the first chance to kill the Heavenly Demon, the last chance, the only chance. Every bit of effort until now had existed to build toward this single moment, right now.

Because of his effort, the Heavenly Demon had come to firmly believe that he could regress. He believed that if he was wounded, he would return to the past, that a second chance would always be waiting.

Which meant, if Kim Jun-ho killed the Heavenly Demon now and he did not regress... the Heavenly Demon would truly die. This was the only chance to kill an overwhelming, transcendent power that nothing seemed able to kill.

Victory. Victory was right in front of him. All he had to do was shut his eyes and thrust the sword, and the monster called the Heavenly Demon would die.

But he could not savor the victory yet. Because it was not over yet.

As far as Kim Jun-ho could tell, the owner of that body right now was not the fake Guntar, but the Heavenly Demon himself. He seemed to be acting as harmless as possible, but the faint edge underneath had shifted. The fact that the Heavenly Demon could surface even outside of combat meant he had seized complete control of the body.

Meaning, the Heavenly Demon could release his mana without much effort at all. He seemed to be holding back out of awareness of the archangels, but the moment he decided otherwise, he could unleash his power at any time.

And if the Heavenly Demon released his power? That would be the end. It would not matter whether he was bound, missing limbs, or blind. No one could beat a Heavenly Demon who was using mana. That thing was a monster that had surpassed mortals and stood just short of becoming a Transcendent, and its mere approach from a distance was enough to make you feel death itself. A Heavenly Demon with his power unleashed felt less like a single enemy and more like a phenomenon.

So what Kim Jun-ho had to do was simple. Make sure the Heavenly Demon never released his power, while still killing him. An extremely difficult task, but not entirely impossible.

Kim Jun-ho intended to treat the Heavenly Demon with respect from here on. He would make sure nothing provoked him into unleashing his power, while making sure he would not resist when Choi Ji-won's sword came down. If this failed, a monster who had figured out regression would be born. At that point, nothing could undo the damage, no matter what Kim Jun-ho did.

Curtain up. He prayed, desperately, that it would succeed.

"Guntar."

Kim Jun-ho stepped forward. His faintly trembling voice was not an act. It came from somewhere real.

"No, wait. Are you really Guntar?"

"...I don't know what you're talking about."

Guntar answered rather plainly. No. The Heavenly Demon.

"You know I've been sick before, right? Back when you all... misunderstood me. When I went into seclusion, it was because I'd fallen ill in the mind."

"An illness of the mind?"

"Yeah. Sometimes there are dark impulses I can't control."

The Heavenly Demon had never in his life pretended to be someone else. Wherever he went, he was the Heavenly Demon. Wherever he went, he was the ruler.

But never having done something before did not mean he was bad at it. Geniuses with sharp instincts tended to pick things up quickly even on their first try. Acting was no exception.

"..."

And acting meant he had no intention yet of doing anything rash. Not yet.

"Guntar."

"..."

"I've come here suspecting that you might be... the Heavenly Demon."

Kim Jun-ho said it carefully.

"There's word that the martial art you used to practice resembles the one used by the Heavenly Demon, the one who destroyed an entire planet in the past."

An awkward silence followed.

"Guntar, you must be connected to the Heavenly Demon in some way. Aren't you?"

"..."

The Heavenly Demon said nothing. Instead, he sank into thought.

Kim Jun-ho was likely a climber. His talent seemed lacking, but he was oddly familiar with combat, and the power he possessed was frightening. That was the reasoning. (The Heavenly Demon, conversely, was guessing that JW was not a climber, because her talent was too outstanding.)

If that was the case, was this information something Kim Jun-ho had picked up while progressing through the Tower? Was the goal of this very floor the Heavenly Demon himself? No, that could not be right. Kim Jun-ho's level was far too low for that. If the Heavenly Demon had been set up as an enemy here, he would have been made far stronger.

Then it followed that this climber ending up here was not simple coincidence either.

"Guntar. JW harbors hatred toward the Heavenly Demon. I'm not fond of him either."

"..."

"Please, answer honestly."

The Heavenly Demon was, no doubt, conscious of a Transcendent watching him. If it really was the Heavenly Demon, he would have tested things like self-harm, and he would have learned that releasing his own mana did not trigger regression. (Kim Jun-ho had engineered that discovery, too.)

Meaning, there had to be some other reason the Heavenly Demon was suppressing his temper and avoiding slaughter. Since the Heavenly Demon did not know that Kim Jun-ho was the one holding the regression, he must have assumed some godlike being had granted him the regression, and concluded that he was restraining himself out of awareness of that being.

So, according to what Kim Jun-ho had predicted.

"Who... are you?"

If the Heavenly Demon was not provoked too far, he would not resort to violence. Out of awareness of some god who might be watching from somewhere.

That was exactly why Kim Jun-ho kept using such careful honorifics now, and why he only spoke from a distance. This was different from before, when provocation had been buried under stronger provocation. No matter what happened, the Heavenly Demon absolutely could not use violence.

"Why only words?"

That was the question in the Heavenly Demon's mind. Unlike the Kim Jun-ho he had known until now, this one was coming at him far too meekly. To the Heavenly Demon, this felt like a strange situation, and suspicion always bloomed from strangeness.

"I'm hoping you're not the Heavenly Demon."

"...Why."

"Because if you really are the Heavenly Demon, my friend JW will try to kill you."

"If I really am the Heavenly Demon, it'll be you two who end up dead."

"That kind of thing doesn't matter to someone consumed by vengeance. Humans are the sort who charge even at an absolute being they cannot defeat."

"...Hm."

An absolute being that cannot be defeated. Not a bad phrase, honestly.

"So, all you need to do is say it. Just say... you're not the Heavenly Demon."

Now, it seemed like Kim Jun-ho actually wanted to let the Heavenly Demon go. It felt like he already knew he would lose if they fought. He seemed to know his place, apparently.

"Move!"

"Hey, hey! Hold her back!"

Just then, a commotion rose from behind. Several of the watching beastmen stumbled and fell, and JW, biting her lip hard, burst through.

"Hey, I told you to stop her!"

"That girl's too strong!"

"We couldn't help it!"

Breathing hard, JW spoke in a low voice.

"...Are you the Heavenly Demon?"

"Wait, hold on!"

"Answer me."

The woman called JW walked forward, sword in hand, step by step. Her posture clearly intended to kill, but the Heavenly Demon could sense hesitation at the tip of that blade.

"Just say it! Say you're not the Heavenly Demon!"

The Heavenly Demon deliberated. Should he admit it? All it took was one word, denying that he was the Heavenly Demon, and this could all be smoothed over.

But there was a huge difference between having the fake Guntar say it, and having the Heavenly Demon himself say it. A truly enormous difference.

He had lived his entire life as the Heavenly Demon. He'd once had some humble name, but he had discarded it long ago. His title had first been madman, then war demon, and finally, the Heavenly Demon.

Heavenly Demon. A demon descended from the heavens. He had always liked that title. It seemed to confirm he was different from weak humans, and it always seemed to emphasize his essence as one who forever won.

The Heavenly Demon had always carried himself with pride. He always thought highly of himself. Wherever he went, he was the Heavenly Demon.

He could manage to claim he wasn't the Heavenly Demon. But to deny his own identity with his own mouth—

"Asking who I am."

For a ruler who had once commanded an entire universe, that was impossible.

"I am the Heavenly Demon."

The instant the words left his mouth, JW lunged. Her black ponytail whipped through the air as the blade shot toward the Heavenly Demon's throat.

The Heavenly Demon did not move. The blade drew closer.

Still, the Heavenly Demon did not move. The thick fur wrapped around his throat was severed.

The Heavenly Demon... remained silent still. At last, the sword met the Heavenly Demon's bare skin.

Even now, with the blade sinking into his flesh, if he released his mana, the Heavenly Demon could still win. He was the Heavenly Demon, the one who ruled, the one who always won. A demon of the heavens. No one stood above his head, and the world lay beneath his feet.

Even now. Even at 0.1 seconds before the Heavenly Demon's death, if he made up his mind to fight, he could wipe out everyone in this room in a single stroke.

But the Heavenly Demon did not do that. He did not resist. He calmly accepted death. Partly because he had been drawn into the trap Kim Jun-ho had built, the "honorable regression," but more so because he had settled his own thoughts.

'Once I regress... I should stay away from Kim Jun-ho. And kill him the first chance I get.'

There were many reasons. First, to show the Transcendent watching him that he had changed. Killing everyone here right now would be little more than a tantrum, and that was another reason. A drone had already recorded the entire scene, and his identity as the Heavenly Demon had already been revealed.

But these were all secondary reasons.

Next. He believed there would be another chance even after death. He believed time would turn back, and that all he had to do was avoid repeating this small mistake next time. Rather than deny the Heavenly Demon's own identity, he chose to restart the entire process from the beginning.

Regression... had changed the Heavenly Demon.

If it had been the Heavenly Demon who once lived a life of endless struggle, he would never have made a mistake like this. In the days when he walked the edge of a blade, he could not forgive even the smallest flaw. He was the Heavenly Demon, and everyone had been coming for his throat.

That Heavenly Demon, the one who once looked down on every living thing, had somehow come to believe that "death" was not "the end."

That was the mistake. That was the cause of the Heavenly Demon's defeat.

The sharp blade split flesh, catching briefly on the Heavenly Demon's spine. But the mana-wrapped sword did not stop for that, moving briskly to fully separate the head from the body.

'?'

When the blade sank more than halfway through his throat, the Heavenly Demon detected something off. Normally, at this point, he should have felt that peculiar sensation of consciousness switching off that always came with regression. But only pain kept flooding in, no sign of regression's approach.

'No way.'

It really made no sense, but what if regression did not trigger right now? Then... in truth, whoever had been behind every regression the Heavenly Demon had experienced until now was—

—Shk.

Too late.

—Thud.

The head dropped to the floor. The wolf's face was locked in a deep frown, as if lost in thought over something.

And so the Heavenly Demon died.

So meaninglessly.

Footnotes:

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