Not A Regressor-Chapter 268: Interlude - Ninth Memory (2)

Kwon Oh-Jin’s head felt hot like it was on fire, and his heart pounded like it would explode. His breathing grew ragged and got caught in his throat. Certain thoughts erupted like a volcano, crashing and colliding with one another in a tangled storm.

“Haa, haa.” Letting out heavy breaths, Kwon Oh-Jin clutched his head.

He retraced everything from the very first memory he inherited from Lee Shin-Hyuk and tried to recall it all, one piece at a time.

“It’s not there.”

No matter how much he searched, nowhere in Lee Shin-Hyuk’s memories did the name Black Star Society appear.

“What the hell?”

Where and when had it gone wrong?

“False Star Cult.”

That term kept coming up in Lee Shin-Hyuk’s memories. Going by those memories, the Black Star Society and the False Star Cult were functionally the same, just under different names. Both groups had the King of Owls Cheon Do-Yoon and Isabella.

Naturally, Kwon Oh-Jin had assumed that the organization changed its name from Black Star Society to False Star Cult at some point. That seemed like the only logical conclusion.

“But if that’s true... then it doesn’t make sense.”

The latest memory took place only three weeks after Kwon Oh-Jin and Lee Shin-Hyuk first met when a gate opened in Mokdong. Yoo-Jin had entered it to seize the Astral Relic of the black star. Back then, Yoo-Jin had confidently declared himself as a member of the Black Star Society. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Why had Yoo-Jin referred to himself as an apostle of the False Star Cult in Lee Shin-Hyuk’s memory?

It doesn’t add up.

Kwon Oh-Jin and Yoo-Jin first met on November 15th. Lee Woo-Hyuk encountered Yoo-Jin while tracking the Astral Relic’s traces between the 21st and 30th at the latest. A gap of maybe one to two weeks existed. The organization’s name couldn’t have changed in such a short period.

Only one possibility remained.

“So that means...”

In the first timeline that Lee Shin-Hyuk lived through, not once was the False Star Cult called the Black Star Society.

“What the hell is happening?” Kwon Oh-Jin muttered and bit down on his lip.

His mind was running wild. Were Lee Shin-Hyuk’s memories flawed? Could all the memories passed on through the Black Heaven be illusions or fabricated lies?

“No.”

That couldn’t be. Lee Shin-Hyuk’s memories matched up with future events in far too many instances like the gate opening in Mokdong, the slumbering monster beneath Seoul Station, and Barbatos’s nest being under Pyongyang. All of them had aligned perfectly with Lee Shin-Hyuk’s memories.

Then, what the hell is the False Star Cult?

Why did Lee Shin-Hyuk refer to the Black Star Society as the False Star Cult? Kwon Oh-Jin narrowed his eyes and continued thinking.

Did the future change after Lee Shin-Hyuk died?

No, that didn’t make sense either. The organization changing its name due to Lee Shin-Hyuk’s death alone was too much of a stretch. Sure, something like the butterfly effect, where even the smallest detail could cause massive shifts.

Still, the death of one man wouldn’t lead an entire organization to change its name in just one or two weeks.

The Black Star Society wasn’t some local thug crew, but an organization personally created by the Heavenly Demon. Such a group wouldn’t just randomly change names overnight.

“False Star Cult... False Star,” Kwon Oh-Jin muttered the name under his breath with a frown before suddenly widening his eyes.

A conversation he once had with Isabella flashed through his mind.

“What do you know about the Heavenly Demon?”

“Well, I did hear once that he’s the one who created the Black Stars.”

“What?”

“Wait. By Black Stars, we’re referring to Celestials, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. Apparently, the Heavenly Demon gave power to the so-called false star Celestials and transformed them into the Black Stars.”

In other words, the beings now known as the Black Star Celestials were originally called false stars before meeting the Heavenly Demon.

“Is that why it’s called the False Star Cult?”

What if the Heavenly Demon hadn’t created the False Star Cult mentioned in Lee Shin-Hyuk’s memories, but the Celestials known as false stars created it themselves? Then what about the Black Star Society?

Kwon Oh-Jin’s eyes widened.

“Ah...”

A cold chill ran down his spine and spread all over him. He had been thinking about it all wrong from the start. The very first puzzle piece had been misplaced.

“It wasn’t the Black Star Society that became the False Star Cult.”

The False Star Cult had changed its name to the Black Star Society.

How could that be possible? The Black Star Society didn’t exist at all in Lee Shin-Hyuk’s memories, so how did it replace the False Star Cult in the current timeline?

The future changing wasn’t enough to explain this because the Black Star Society already existed before Lee Shin-Hyuk died and before Kwon Oh-Jin awakened the Black Heaven.

“Then...”

There could only be one explanation if the future had already changed before Lee Shin-Hyuk’s regression and if the past itself had already been altered.

“He wasn’t the only Regressor.”

Someone else had returned even further back than Lee Shin-Hyuk, and that person had changed the future.

“The Heavenly Demon...”

The one who had transformed the Celestials once called the false stars into the Black Stars. The Heavenly Demon had changed the future where the False Star Cult existed into one where the Black Star Society reigned.

Kwon Oh-Jin dryly laughed. “Ha.”

His legs almost gave out as he staggered and barely kept his balance. If the Heavenly Demon was another Regressor, then who really was this being? Who could possibly return to a point even further back than Lee Shin-Hyuk and rewrite the future?

It didn’t take long for Kwon Oh-Jin to find the answer.

“Only one person could possibly be capable of that.”

Why hadn’t he noticed sooner? Why hadn’t he realized it? The clues had been there from the very beginning. The answer had practically been written out on the test paper.

Even the name False Star Cult, which never needed to be changed, had been deliberately renamed to Black Star Society like a massive neon sign pointing him toward the truth. The memory of when the black rift had gone berserk and swallowed him into the Demonic District resurfaced.

Someone had joyfully whispered to him.

“You’re here. I’ve been waiting for you.”

The Heavenly Demon had been waiting for Kwon Oh-Jin to understand and realize this. The Heavenly Demon had been waiting for him to arrive.

“I see, so that’s what happened.”

The scattered puzzle pieces clicked into place. Why did the Black Star Society never once appear in Lee Shin-Hyuk’s memories? How did two versions of the Black Heaven exist simultaneously? How did the Heavenly Demon corrupt the false star Celestials into the Black Stars?

In the end, the answer was simple. Only one possibility could explain everything that happened so far.

“You... were me,” Kwon Oh-Jin murmured and looked up at the black sky filled with dark clouds.

***

The sun had died out, and the sky had turned dark. Even the moon’s light had faded away. Corpses covered the hills that stretched endlessly into the distance. On top of that mountain of bodies stood a goddess with radiant silver hair and a young man.

“Alright. Send me back to the past.”

A brilliant light enveloped the young man with unwavering resolve. Stardust, like a flowing river in the Milky Way, surrounded him as he slowly turned into dust and scattered.

The goddess gently reached out to touch the silver light drifting in the air.

The once-blazing glow began to dim. Where the starlight faded, as if nothing had ever existed in the first place, only a lonely space remained.

The goddess, silently staring into the void, slowly turned her head and looked at the surrounding hills covered in corpses. Countless humans, heroes, and Celestials had all lost their lives here at the hands of a single being.

As she looked down at the sea of corpses, not a single breath of life remained. “I... kept my promise.”

To whom did she direct these words? No other living being remained on these hills of blood and flesh.

The goddess bit her trembling lips and tightly clenched her fist. Her golden eyes turned toward the peak of the hills. There lay the corpse of a young man with a spear lodged in his heart.

Her voice echoed hollowly through the death-filled hills as she stood alone. Just then, the corpse of the young man moved.

Crunch.

He grabbed the spear embedded in his chest and slowly pulled it out. The spear tumbled down the hill and struck the rubble of a collapsed building.

Clang.

The young man’s eyes slowly opened. Two ghostly blue flames burned deep within his eyes. Staggering to his feet, he moved his neck side to side as if shaking off the stiffness.

“That hurt more than I thought,” the young man said.

He glanced down at the hole in his chest, roughly the size of a fist, and flicked it lightly with his fingers.

Rumble.

Black clouds surged into the gaping hole and slowly filled it.

“Haaa.” With a low sigh, the young man leisurely looked around the corpse-covered hills.

Then, the corners of his mouth curved into a dry smile.

“At last... the curtain falls.”

A chilling laugh echoed through the air.

The goddess’s golden eyes trembled as she watched him. She looked at him with sorrow, her lips pressed tightly shut.

As the young man slowly took in the scene, his eyes met hers. He walked across the blood-soaked ground and gently placed a hand on the goddess’s trembling cheek. Gently, he caressed her cheek with kindness and warmth as if comforting a frightened child.

“You did well, Vega.” The Heavenly Demon smiled brightly.

- End of Part 1 -