Regression: Reclaiming the End-Chapter 46: An Explanation

I stood, cracked my shoulders, and walked to the window.

I tapped back a short reply.

To: [NoelB22]

Subject:

Re: Day Off

I’m fine.

Floor 7’s done.

Thanks for worrying.

...But breaks don’t matter when the Rift stops playing fair.

I paused.

Then added one more line.

"Rest while you still can, Noel. The rules are about to change."

[Sent.]

-

[Knock. Knock. Knock.]

I opened the door.

Noel stood there, slightly out of breath, eyes scanning me like he expected to see burn marks or some kind of cosmic curse carved into my skin.

He wore a lightweight hoodie, hair slightly damp from the coastal air, and a tablet half-tucked under one arm. His expression wasn’t angry—just... shaken.

"You actually did it," he said flatly.

I stepped aside wordlessly. He walked in, glancing around like he expected the place to feel different—haunted, maybe.

"The Rift records confirmed it. You were logged for a solo clear. Forty-five minutes. The hell kind of run was that?"

I said nothing.

I poured myself another cup of cold tea and sat back down.

Noel stayed standing.

"You went in knowing we were supposed to wait."

"Blank—Nile—what’s going on?"

I looked up at him. "Something’s wrong in this timeline, Noel. Everything I knew starts to change little by little.

Noel’s brow furrowed. "Wh-I don’t know that."

I nodded once. "That’s right, you do not know anything for now, but it really is changing. There’s no time for me to wait."

"What do you mean? I thought we were going in together? Remember the plan, yeah?" Noel asked perplexed.

"Floor 7 wasn’t supposed to escalate like that," I said quietly. "The Troll I faced was an ascended one."

"What does it mean? Is it that strong? or what?"

"...It is x5 stronger that usual."

"How did it happen?" he asked. "What was the shit behind it?"

I let the silence sit for a few seconds—long enough to feel the weight of it, but not long enough to make him panic.

Then I answered.

"It wasn’t a normal evolution."

"What I fought wasn’t just a troll—it was a troll that ascended."

He raised a brow. "Ascended?"

"Yeah. That’s the term. Ascended Troll."

I sipped my tea again, the bitterness grounding me as I spoke.

"An Ascended Troll is what happens when a troll consumes too much mana... too much Rift corruption. Or worse—when it gets forcibly evolved by an Astral Patron, a dungeon anomaly, or some freak Rift event."

"Their body stays mostly troll—same regeneration, same strength—but now they’re wired with arcane circuitry, rune-burned muscles, sometimes even corrupted magic cores fused into their organs."

"It’s like putting a reactor inside a berserker."

Noel listened quietly, eyes narrowing. "And the one on Floor 7?"

"It was an Anomalous Troll. A rare sub-type. Known as a Hex-Eater."

"It doesn’t eat flesh. It eats magic."

Noel sat back, visibly unsettled.

"Spells don’t work on it. Enchantments just make it stronger. The more magic it consumes, the more violent and unstable it becomes. Like it’s trying to purge what it absorbs by breaking everything around it."

"And because of the forced ascension... it had mana-threaded reflexes, feedback mimicry, and partial resistance to Erasure-type skills."

"It wasn’t just strong. It was... evolving mid-fight."

Noel exhaled sharply, muttering, "Holy shit..."

I nodded slowly.

"And just when I pushed it back—just when I built up the burn stacks to break its regen—it mimicked me."

"Same stance. Same rhythm. Waiting for my move."

He looked stunned. "It copied your fighting style?"

"Exactly. Like it understood me. Like it was designed to be my countermeasure."

Noel went silent again.

Then he asked, more quietly:

"And you beat it."

"Yeah."

I leaned back, cracking my neck with a quiet pop.

"But not alone. My Patron intervened. Forced a partial fusion. My ultimate activated on its own—Astral Overdrive."

Noel was quiet for a moment. His fingers twitched—half wanting to type notes on his tablet, half paralyzed by what he just heard.

Then he leaned forward again. "Wait... back up."

His voice was low, cautious, like he already sensed the answer might change things.

"You said your ultimate activated. On its own. You called it... Astral Overdrive?"

I nodded.

"It’s not something I can trigger manually—not yet. It’s a fusion. A temporary resonance between me and Caelum Nihil."

Noel blinked. "You’re saying your Patron fused with you?"

"More like... he poured himself through me. Just enough to break the rules."

I tapped my chest lightly.

"During Astral Overdrive, I don’t just get stronger. I become something else. A vessel. Every base stat—Strength, Mana, even Resistance—gets amplified fivefold. Mental processing, reaction speed, mana flow, muscle contraction... it all spikes."

"For three minutes, I stop being human. I become an echo of what he is."

Noel stared at me, stunned.

"So you mean you were losing so you had to use it?"

I shook my head.

"No. I didn’t choose to use it. He did. Caelum forced the fusion. Because even with everything I had—Blank Protocol, Emberfang Style, Erasure Pulse—But yes, I was losing."

I looked up at him, voice quieter now. "That thing was made to kill me. Or maybe test me."

"Either way, Caelum decided I wasn’t allowed to die yet."

Noel stared down at the surface of the table, brows furrowed in thought. His voice came slower this time, the weight of everything finally catching up to him.

"Blank... Nile..."

He looked up.

"I don’t think anyone else has ever mentioned Astral Overdrive. Not even the top Vassals."

He paused.

"I think... you might be the only one who has it."

I exhaled through my nose, leaning back slightly, letting my head rest against the wall.

"For now."

My voice was flat, not hopeful—not arrogant. Just... factual.

Noel caught the tone immediately. "You think someone else will get it?"

"Maybe." I shrugged. "If they form a Vassal pact with a Patron strong enough, one with enough influence to force a fusion—then yeah, it’s possible."

"But most Patrons won’t do that. They don’t risk overextending. They don’t sacrifice essence just to keep a Vassal alive."

Noel frowned. "So why did Caelum?"

I looked at him, the shadows of the room reflecting faintly in my eyes.

"Because I’m his Blank Vassal. The first. And maybe because he’s not playing the same game as the others."

"He doesn’t want me to win the Rift. He wants me to erase it."