The Regressor Can Make Them All-Chapter 368

Overturning a high-ranking hero’s decision was rarely ever easy, especially when it involved their synesthetic mindscape or what the world often called “enlightenment.” In such cases, their points of view were upheld particularly stubbornly, even to the point of death.

To change the decision of a hero like that, the only way was for them to come to a better one.

But that’s easier said than done.

It required both the power to convince the person involved and the knowledge to offer an alternative solution—requirements Se-Hoon struggled with once, during his inexperienced days.

Back then, his master, Meirin, had offered a simple solution upon hearing about his problems.

Boom!

“Just keep on stomping them down and they’ll change their minds eventually, won’t they?”

“Round two!” Together with Se-Hoon’s enthusiastic shout, dozens of dark spears rained down from the sky.

Witnessing the barrage, Wurgen’s expression twisted as he gathered the surrounding darkness to himself.

Rumble!

While the incoming barrage lacked precision, the sheer amount of mana it was composed of was overwhelming. Facing such a thing, Wurgen recklessly drew even more of the surrounding darkness to him before hurling it forward like a wave crashing onto the shore.

Boom!

It was more of a brute-force attack than a skill, akin to throwing handfuls of sand in a desperate bid to take down his foe. The only difference was that its raw power ensured that it could block the assault.

Yet even so, Wurgen’s expression didn’t relax in the slightest.

So he’s resorting to violence because words don’t work...? What was the future me thinking, taking in this lunatic as a disciple?

Wurgen had believed that, regardless of whether someone aligned with his ideals or chose a different path, they would at least show a minimum degree of respect. But that belief was broken upon seeing Se-Hoon engage in such senseless barbarism. Wurgen even found himself resenting his future self for teaching such a reckless individual his powers.

However, now was not the time for such lamentation.

Rumble-

The darkness below trembled violently as a massive pillar shot up from the ground, towering like a skyscraper,

“What the...?!”

Wurgen couldn’t believe his eyes. Even if the surrounding darkness was infinite, wielding such an amount shouldn’t have been possible. The sheer scale of the attack had completely exceeded what Wurgen’s common sense could comprehend.

That was why, instead of foolishly confronting it head-on, he leapt to avoid it.

Screech!

Unfortunately, Se-Hoon seemingly anticipated his reaction as hundreds of magic arrays lit up along the pillar’s surface. Once again, black projectiles rained down like a fleet’s bombardment.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Each shot, despite being suppressive fire, carried the power to inflict severe injuries if struck directly. In other words, the bombardment was akin to being attacked by dozens of S-rank heroes simultaneously.

Wurgen’s expression grew increasingly grim.

Maybe I need to use... No, I need to reexamine everything.

The immense advantage of near-limitless darkness was that his mana was now useless if he fought like he always did. How could he face such a madman without recalibrating his approach first? With a sharp glint in his eyes, Wurgen stretched out both arms, densely inscribed with runic scripts.

Necromancy: Six Gates of the Netherworld

Rumble!

The darkness beneath him rippled violently, a prelude to the rise of six massive gates that formed a hexagonal pattern.

Screeeeech-

With a creak, the six gates simultaneously opened, unleashing an overwhelming torrent of wraiths from the black voids within. Countless undead surged forward, biting, corroding, and consuming everything in their path.

It was utter pandemonium, making Se-Hoon’s eyes widened in shock.

Is this... a self-destruct technique?

The spell absorbed darkness like a vortex, unable to distinguish between friend and foe—it was far from a normal technique. Though for Wurgen, who had reached the stage right before the Perfect Ones, it was the perfect choice.

The skill not only obliterated Se-Hoon’s pillar of darkness, but it also swept away the Netherworld’s roots that had been caught in the fray.

“So this must be the correct way to fight!”

Finding the destruction exhilarating, Wurgen grinned and began weaving hand seals. Slowly, the spell formulas etched on his arms seeped into the ground, branding themselves on the darkness below.

BOOM!

A colossal giant of darkness rose from where the imprints were, its size and aura both staggering. Just like the previous necromancy spell, it appeared to be another self-destruct technique.

This lunatic...

Wurgen was using unrestrained, reckless techniques simply because he couldn’t increase the power of his spells. And thanks to his near-limitless mana, Wurgen could make such choices. However, Se-Hoon believed Wurgen had used those spells because of the shift in his mindset.

He’s resolved to die if necessary now.

Life was the most precious thing nearly everyone possessed, with death being their ultimate fear. But for Wurgen, neither held any meaning anymore. Whether he lived or died, it was a choice he could make freely because he understood the nature of his powers.

“But that won’t be enough.”

Se-Hoon was well aware such resolve wasn’t enough to be said to have an absolute mastery of the power of Boundaries.

Whoosh!

Seeing the giant’s fist swing down like a massive flail, Se-Hoon didn’t retaliate. Instead, he just lightly waved his hand.

Swish-

Lines carved themselves into the giant’s body in the blink of an eye—boundaries that separated parts of it from the world.

CRASH!

The giant crumbled and scattered in all directions.

“Huh...?”

Wurgen, who had been preparing his next move, froze. His giant imbued with the power of hundreds of S-rank heroes had disintegrated in seconds without any resistance?

Did he interfere with the spell formulas? No, this is something else.

It wasn’t a crude disruption of his spell; somehow, Se-Hoon had interfered with the laws governing the world itself. Realizing what Se-Hoon had done, Wurgen asked with a complicated expression, “Was that... also the power I gain in the future?”

“Yes. In fact, you could call this the actual version of it.”

The infinite mana in the Netherworld that Se-Hoon could access was just a bonus. Its true strength was what Se-Hoon had just demonstrated.

“...How do you use it?” Wurgen asked after a moment of silence.

He doubted he’d get an answer, but given his current situation, asking was the only option. No matter how much power he could draw, such an overwhelming strength would leave him helpless.

I need to buy time somehow.

Trying to piece together the nature of the power Se-Hoon used, Wurgen recalled what he had seen moments ago.

“You need to first clearly perceive your target.”

But at the unexpected response, Wurgen looked up instead to see Se-Hoon drawing a boundary in the air while calmly explaining. “You must recognize exactly where one thing ends and another begins. By dividing and distinguishing the target, you can define these boundaries.”

“...”

“For example, with the giant earlier, I isolated the internal spell formulas beyond the boundary and destroyed them in one fell swoop. It’s easier than it seems. Simpler structures are more vulnerable...”

In a daze, Wurgen listened as Se-Hoon continued on to explain everything he knew about the power of Boundaries.

“What... are you really up to?” Wurgen stared at him as if he couldn’t comprehend what was happening.

He had assumed Se-Hoon was trying to subdue him once more to impose something. But he was now willingly sharing his secrets? Unable to make sense of it, Wurgen gave him a puzzled look.

“Huh? Didn’t I tell you earlier? I said we should figure it out together.”

“...And what does that have to do with this?”

“It’s exactly as it looks.” Seeing that Wurgen still didn’t understand, Se-Hoon continued, his tone matter-of-fact. “If your enlightenment had been truly perfect, you would’ve ended your life immediately right then and there. There’s no need to waste time once you’ve reached a definitive answer.”

“...”

“But you didn’t. Instead, you’re here, talking to me. That suggests there’s still some unresolved doubt or lingering regret in you.”

From what Se-Hoon had gathered, Wurgen was still pondering the fate of his eldest son, Robert, and the existence of an afterlife. Instead of confronting those questions, though, Wurgen attempted to end things with death.

“I’ve heard that Perfect Ones are less like humans and more like laws of nature. If you ascend in your current state...”

“...That regret will repeat forever.”

As a Perfect One, even their regret would become part of an eternal cycle, immortalized as a part of their nature. However, since the Wurgen before Se-Hoon hadn’t yet ascended the Tower of Heroes, there was still time for him to avoid that fate.

“I get what you’re saying, but... can this really be solved like this?”

“It might, or it might not.”

Se-Hoon’s answer was honest, without sugarcoating the situation.

“Either way, you’ll still end up letting go of your lingering doubts. At the very least, you’ll know that this was the best you could do.”

“...I see.”

Sometimes, even the most trivial of things could lead to profound change.

“But... are you okay with this?”

“Hm? What do you mean?”

Having mulled over things, Wurgen swung his hand lightly in the air instead of answering.

Whoosh!

Thin lines cut through space, forming oval-shaped black portals. Through each, Se-Hoon could feel faint gazes as though Wurgen had split into dozens of duplicates to peer at him.

It was shocking.

He can cast Eye of the Nether just from that explanation?

Although his usage still fell a bit short compared to Se-Hoon, the mere fact Wurgen had achieved so much in such a short time was staggering.

Noticing Se-Hoon’s shock, Wurgen smirked. “I’m not used to controlling my power yet, so I might slip up and put too much emotion into this. You’d better be prepared.”

It was a challenge—Se-Hoon grinned back.

“That’s fine. Most beginners are like that.”

With those words, the tension thickened between them as the darkness boiled, creating a black mist that filled the space. Just then, when “Death” barely regained its form and let out a defiant scream—

“Die!!”

“Die!!”

BOOOOM!

Both sides unleashed their powers once more, restarting the battle with renewed ferocity. The clash of explosions and dark spears that tore through the dark mist giant was an epic clash of unimaginable magnitude.

It resembled the all-out war between humanity and the Demon Force, its aftershocks shaking the very fabric of the world. Had their fight occurred outside the Tower, the map would have been reshaped with entire continents altered.

By all appearances, it was a raw contest of pure firepower. However, there was far more going on within.

Swish, swish!

Lines carved themselves into the air, creating boundaries that collided, shattered, or merged—a game of territorial conquest. Defenses were fortified with boundaries to prevent interference, while attacks aimed to break the opponent’s boundaries.[1]

It was a battle of wit and calculation, one which Wurgen naturally held the upper hand.

Those damned eyes...!

Unlike Se-Hoon, who wielded his power alone, Wurgen had created multiple duplicates of himself. At first, his unfamiliarity with the power of Boundaries left gaps that allowed Se-Hoon to maintain the balance. But as time passed and Wurgen grew accustomed, the tide turned.

I have to deal with those somehow.

If things continued, their match would end as it had outside the Tower: Se-Hoon would gradually be worn down and overwhelmed.

His mind racing, Se-Hoon chanted a new incantation.

“Necromancer’s Descent.”

The incantation seeped into the darkness below and black mist rose, forming undead figures like the ones Wurgen had summoned earlier. Then, hurrying before Wurgen could interfere, Se-Hoon swiftly cast a soul-binding spell to link the undead to his own spirit.

Woong-

Immediately, the mist-like undead gained clarity and their forms solidified. Faint glimmers of light emerged in their empty eye-sockets, and Se-Hoon’s consciousness expanded as if he had been split into six.

“Urgh...!”

It felt as if he was being torn into six separate pieces. The overlapping senses and perspectives threw him into a whirlwind of chaos and dizziness.

Drip.

The strain was so intense that blood trickled from his nose, but he still didn’t release the soul-binding spell. Instead, he tightened the connection even further.

If I could do it to my body, there’s no reason I can’t handle it with my soul!

Soul Honing was originally designed to divide a living body to enable simultaneous wielding of multiple types of mana. Se-Hoon was just applying it to his soul, splitting it apart to increase the tools at his disposal for controlling the power of Boundaries.

And he succeeded.

Swiftly synchronizing and aligning his fractured sensations with the help of his soul fragments, Se-Hoon regained his composure and moved his new bodies as if they were his own limbs.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Under his command, the six undead wielded the power of Boundaries and unleashed the mana of the Netherworld, forcing Wurgen into a direct confrontation.

The tide shifting in Wurgen’s favor had now suddenly reset, leaving Wurgen flabbergasted.

What kind of insane stunt is this...?

He simply couldn’t believe it. Se-Hoon had severed parts of his soul and used them to create extensions of himself? It was a method so dangerous that even the smallest mistake could leave him mentally broken.

It wasn’t something meant for combat—in fact, it had been banned during the early days of the war against the Demon Force because of the massive casualties it caused. And yet, Se-Hoon had succeeded and was now using it against him.

The sheer audacity of it all—using a method that even the greatest heroes hesitated to attempt—shook Wurgen to his core. But what was even more baffling was the question that lingered in his mind.

Why is he going this far?

What kind of person had he become as a Perfect One for Se-Hoon to feel the need to go to such lengths? Unable to figure it out, Wurgen’s gaze fell upon the boundary lines that Se-Hoon traced with his fingertips.

What are those lines meant to define?

If they were to divide life from death, what significance did that hold? As he wrestled with the question, trying to uncover the enlightenment he was meant to experience, a memory from his past unexpectedly resurfaced.

“Well, I suppose becoming an undead would be better than stepping in and ending up as an unclaimed corpse,” Robert had once said with a faint smile, as if he found the idea amusing.

Though even as he joked, his steps toward the Tower never faltered.

“But wouldn’t that mean giving up halfway? Since we’ve confirmed that souls exist, shouldn’t we take the next step and see what’s beyond?”

Like an adventurer setting out into the unknown, Robert had stood before the Tower’s entrance, his body weakened from illness.

Watching him, Wurgen remembered the words he had gruffly said before even realizing it.

“What if there’s actually nothing after that?”

Just because souls existed didn’t guarantee there was anything waiting for them after death. It was something he shouldn’t have said to his son, who had already accepted his mortality, but he just couldn’t hold the words back.

After all, there were still so many ways to survive—why choose such a reckless path?

“Well... that’s not entirely wrong.”

Unfazed by the harshness of the question, Robert turned to face Wurgen, locking eyes with him.

“But if that is the case, then why don’t you just create for us?”

“...What?”

“You said you’d ascend the Tower of Heroes, didn’t you? Then shouldn’t you have a grand goal, like creating an afterlife?”

He had casually tossed out that outrageous idea as if it were a joke before walking forward.

“See you on the other side, Father.”

The conversation—the final words of his eldest son, which he had forgotten for so many years—came rushing back to him.

Crack-

A fracture appeared in the world on the 444th floor.

Boom!

The dark sky and endless horizon of shadows vanished without a trace, replaced by a blank, white expanse. Now, the only thing visible was a towering black pillar stretching upward.

“Where... is this?”

Feeling as if he had just woken up from a dream, Se-Hoon blinked in confusion at the utterly transformed surroundings.

“This is the summit of the tower,” Wurgen said calmly.

His appearance had reverted to that of the skeletal form he had taken as a Perfect One.

“More precisely, it is the summit that I reached.”

Se-Hoon began scanning his surroundings at that revelation, his expression becoming more complex.

The Perfect Ones he had encountered had never explained what the Tower’s summit looked like—and now he understood why.

There was simply nothing to say about it.

Any attempt to describe it would only create confusion. It wasn’t something that could be easily conveyed in words, so they had simply chosen to remain silent.

“What exactly happened?”

“What you saw earlier was a remnant of myself left within the Tower of Heroes. To put it another way... it was my humanity.”

“Your... humanity?”

The remnants of Wurgen Kruger as a human, a fragment that had been shed when he ascended as a Perfect One. It had responded to Se-Hoon, showing him the events of the past.

But why would it react to me?

Was it because the Tower had been altered? Was it something unique to himself? Se-Hoon couldn’t even begin to guess.

“...I had forgotten.”

Wurgen’s gaze was fixed on the black pillar, his murmurs tinged with regret.

“Accepting death and creating an afterlife to follow... that was my true wish all along.”

Robert’s final words had lingered in his mind, and the thoughts of emptiness beyond death had terrified him. Those emotions had given rise to Death, the giant which had manifested on the 444th floor.

“But because I failed to harness Death and recklessly fused my soul with it... everything went wrong.”

Wurgen’s soul had merged completely with Death, becoming the afterlife itself. However, the resulting Netherworld was a bottomless abyss, one that endlessly consumed the souls of the dead.

Now he understood he had truly lost everything, even his sense of self. While he had indeed ascended the Tower of Heroes, which he had so desperately wanted, all he found was none of his wishes fulfilled.

“How pathetic.”

If he had died back then, perhaps someone else would have created a more perfect afterlife.

“I was left with so many regrets...” Wurgen’s voice was hollow.

What if he hadn’t fused his soul? What if he hadn’t listened to his son’s final words? What if he hadn’t entered the tower at all?

As decades of regret overwhelmed him, Wurgen’s form began to dissipate. ƒrēenovelkiss.com

“Because of Tuner... I’ve lost everything. The fragment of myself that you just saw is likely all that remains.”

With the self known as “Wurgen Kruger” gone, the power he had left behind would run rampant.

“And you are the only one who can stop it.”

Even another Perfect One wouldn’t be able to resolve the situation completely. So, with one final hope, Wurgen turned to Se-Hoon.

“End my life—”

Clutch!

But before Wurgen could finish his sentence, Se-Hoon had grabbed his skull with one hand.

“What are you—?!”

“I know how you can be so dramatic at times, but aren’t you just running away after creating a mess?”

“What?!”

Though Wurgen’s skull contorted in disbelief, Se-Hoon ignored him.

“And you’re telling me you’ve completely fallen for Tuner’s tricks? Wait... you didn’t do something stupid while I wasn’t looking, did you?” Se-Hoon narrowed his eyes at Wurgen.

“...”

“Of course.”

Realizing what had likely happened, Se-Hoon sighed and gave Wurgen a look of exasperation.

“Thankfully, I’ve already taken precautions. Things should be in motion by now.”

“Precautions?”

Wurgen stared at him in bewilderment. From his words, Se-Hoon was implying he had predicted something like the current situation.

“I’ve got quite a few reliable friends, unlike someone here. I gave them some instructions in advance, just in case.”

“You brat...”

“Anyway, I understand what the overall situation is now. I even managed to find out what your regret is.”

Wurgen’s life and dreams had been ruined by a single mistake—Se-Hoon could understand why the man was filled with remorse.

“So, let’s fix it.”

“Fix it?”

“Why not? You’re a Perfect One, aren’t you?”

Though the odds were slim, Se-Hoon figured that trying was better than dying full of regrets.

But Wurgen was not convinced.

“In my current state...” he muttered darkly.

The remnants of his humanity were disappearing, and his full self had already been lost. What could he possibly do?

To that, Se-Hoon made a sly smile.

“You don’t need to worry about that.”

“...”

“The system didn’t notify me, but... I have a feeling it’ll work.”

The skill he was about to use wasn’t an ordinary one. Rather, it was one deeply intertwined with his very being. That was why Se-Hoon could confidently tighten his grip on Wurgen’s dissolving skull.

“Bond Extract.”

[Extracting bond from subject ‘Wurgen Kruger’]

[The bond with the host is Lv. —]

As if erasing the white space entirely, a stream of black light engulfed everything.

1. “Attacks” and “Defense” were switched in the raws, but we couldn’t understand how defenses aimed to break boundaries, so we switched them ☜

This content is taken from fr𝒆ewebnove(l).com