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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Sixty-Fourth Regression
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'How many times was it.'
A hazy memory surfaced.
Havel Banpellyon.
The man mulled over his own name and lifted his head.
Once, he had been called the Sword Saint.
The head of one of the Three Great Families that guarded the imperial palace.
But here, he was nothing.
The capital and imperial palace of the Unified Empire Arhan had been erased from the map in a single moment.
'The world's worst calamity.'
The Demonic Palace.
At least in this place.
'I never should have come in here.'
Havel rolled his eyes.
Beneath his feet lay countless corpses.
All of them had been living people just moments ago.
He remembered now.
'The sixty-fourth.'
That was how many times he had regressed this time.
In order to reclaim the empire's capital, Havel, as the head of one of the Three Great Families, had entered the Demonic Palace.
And in the end, he was trapped in the Demonic Palace, from which he could never escape.
Even with the power of regression in his grasp—a regression that not even death could evade.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The Demonic Palace was a vicious calamity from which no one could escape once they entered.
This wasn't a metaphor or a matter of difficulty.
Anyone who entered the Demonic Palace was automatically bound by a constraint that prevented them from leaving.
There were only two ways out of the Demonic Palace.
Clearing it.
Or death.
"Hoo."
A long breath escaped Havel's lips.
The day when everyone else died, and he alone survived.
Havel had slain the master of the 4th floor section and obtained the reward.
'No, a curse.'
The curse called regression.
So for him, there was only one choice.
To clear the Demonic Palace.
But that was impossible.
The heads of the Three Great Families!
The proud knight orders of the imperial palace!
The mighty experts gathered from all corners!
The furthest they had advanced together was right here.
And they had all perished in the 4th floor section.
All except one.
Havel Banpellyon, the Sword Saint.
To clear the Demonic Palace alone?
'Ridiculous.'
It was absurd even to say it.
"I should have died instead."
Havel muttered to himself.
He recalled the eyes of the other family head who had saved him and died.
They were shackles.
Fetters that screamed, 'You at least must live.'
Even His Imperial Majesty the Emperor, who had come to rescue him, had passed away.
What was the point of him surviving?
Rumble!
At that moment, a resounding echo spread through the air.
Gripping his sword, he raised his head.
Regression was a curse.
From the moment he welcomed this latest regression.
Havel's mind was already at its breaking point.
Yet still, he descended into the Demonic Palace.
It was the only thing he could do.
'7th floor section.'
Havel looked at the floor he had reached.
More than half of his regressions had ended here.
Deaths numbering far beyond the previous ones.
These deaths had pushed him to his mental limits, but at their core.
It was because the 7th floor section's difficulty was utterly insane.
A scorching heat pressed in.
The soles of his shoes sizzled and melted.
His breath came in ragged gasps.
His lungs burned from the heat.
Even the sweat pouring from his glands evaporated instantly.
7th floor section, the lava zone.
And among them, the place filled with the most intense heat.
"Damn it..."
The place guarded by the master of the 7th floor section, the Phoenix.
Thanks to the heat, Havel fully realized he had returned here once more.
That he was drawing closer to the Phoenix, which had claimed more than half his deaths.
The nearer he got to that culprit, the more his body shrank back involuntarily.
This body might be experiencing it for the first time, but his mind remembered the horrific death of being incinerated alive.
The moment he faced the Phoenix again, Havel actually wanted to give up.
But even that was impossible for him.
Even if he gave up and died, he would just regress anyway.
The Phoenix bared its crimson beak toward Havel.
"Pew."
Flames poured from its beak at the same time.
Its enormous wings, vast enough to blot out the sky, unfurled.
Thud!
The next instant, the Phoenix's form vanished.
Its talons came hurtling at astonishing speed, clashing against Havel's sword.
Boom!
The impact shook the surroundings, sending lava surging upward.
But Havel's eyes remained calm.
He too had regressed sixty-four times.
"You annoying bastard."
And in that process, he had grown stronger.
Strong enough that even the title of Sword Saint could no longer contain him.
Once more, the Phoenix's talons and Havel's sword met.
Was it thanks to the accumulated experience of dying in the 7th floor section?
Now, even the Phoenix's movements felt familiar.
Yet he still hadn't defeated it.
At that moment, the Phoenix flapped its wings from above.
Lava pillars erupted from the ground, following the airflow.
"Ugh!"
The lava's heat pierced his tempered flesh.
By now, he was probably covered in burns.
No matter how much he trained, the human body had its limits.
Then the Phoenix burst through the lava, diving in.
The Phoenix, which burned its own body, seemed ready to incinerate Havel at any moment.
Crunch!
For this very moment, Havel had honed a new technique.
Pure white frost qi flowed from within his body.
"To fight you, I tore open the doors of my memories."
The pouring lava froze solid in an instant.
The frost qi emanating from Havel was enough to freeze even lava.
But the same went for Havel himself.
'My whole body feels like it's freezing over.'
Of course it did.
He was using someone else's secret art, not his own.
The tyrant of the north.
The man who, like him, bore a title with a star: the Ice Saint.
'Jerak.'
The secret art he had perfected rolling in eternal snow: Isia Style Swordsmanship.
Havel had mastered it through memory alone.
Dying countless times through trial and error.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Now, carrying the secret art of his dead comrade.
Havel clashed desperately with the Phoenix.
Ice swords flew, and the Phoenix's flames and talons struck back.
Death brushed past him in every instant.
Thanks to the frost qi, there was no time limit anymore.
Yet the Phoenix remained a monster.
It could kill him with a single wingbeat.
But Havel had to slash it dozens of times to inflict a wound.
Moreover, the name 'Phoenix' was a problem in itself.
Havel had never once killed the Phoenix.
Even if he wore it down to death, it might resurrect.
Havel fought with only one goal: to escape the Demonic Palace.
And at least this time, things were different.
'I can see it.'
His eyes, which usually melted first from the heat, remained intact.
That was enough.
Carrying the dying wish of Jerak, who had fallen first.
Havel swung his sword with full power.
But at that instant, an unexpected stream of lava shot from the side.
Whoosh!
Both of Havel's arms melted upon contact with the lava.
He wasn't fully accustomed to the technique yet.
Maintaining the frost qi during the battle with the Phoenix had been a mistake.
In that split second, the Phoenix's yellow eyes flashed.
The eyes of one sensing victory.
Its talons flew straight toward Havel.
'Another regression?'
Even Havel, now detached in the face of death.
For him, the impending regression was far more terrifying than death itself.
'Then.'
Grit!
In that moment, the blue light in Havel's eyes gleamed with its final spark.
Frost qi poured from between his melted arms.
Crack!
Bloody ice arms burst forth amid the frost.
They were too crude to call arms.
But they still gripped the sword.
'Struggling until death—that's my role.'
That was enough.
Clang!
Once again, the Phoenix's talons clashed with Havel's sword.
The ice sword Havel had formed shattered before the Phoenix's savage power.
But he desperately poured out more frost qi to maintain it.
Havel heard his heart slowing.
Now, the frost qi was freezing his body solid more than the heat.
He had forcibly pushed an unfamiliar technique this far.
But.
He could still fight.
Then he would fight.
That was the only path for someone trapped in the curse of regression.
So he fought.
Fought, and fought again.
Until one day he could leave this Demonic Palace.
Thud!
Amid the shattering ice shards, Havel's and the Phoenix's eyes met.
Ice now blanketed the Phoenix's body.
Havel's frost qi had proven stronger than its flames.
Drip!
The moment the Phoenix spread its wings to fight to the end.
As Havel looked up at it.
Rumble!
A crack formed, and one of the Phoenix's wings collapsed.
Its body crumbled at the same time.
That was the Phoenix's death.
The lava lost all its heat and cooled completely.
At the center of the Phoenix's corpse lay an egg.
It seemed upon death, it regressed into an egg—an immortal being indeed.
Lucky in every way.
Thud.
Havel knelt before the Phoenix's egg.
The frost qi had frozen him in place.
"...Again?"
The reaper of death visited him.
He had barely defeated the Phoenix.
But this was mutual destruction.
Sensing yet another regression, Havel smiled weakly.
Even after conquering the 7th floor section, no relief came.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ You have defeated the master of the Demonic Palace's 7th floor section, 'Phoenix'.
A lovely voice echoed through the Demonic Palace.
The voice that rang out every time he cleared a floor section.
Havel paid it no mind.
He had no interest in rewards anyway.
'The rewards for the Demonic Palace's floor sections were always random.'
For someone who would regress, they were meaningless.
He simply awaited the regression to come.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ Distributing reward for conquering the Demonic Palace's 7th floor section.
But regardless, the Demonic Palace distributed the reward.
A single red fruit dropped with a thud before Havel.
As he stared at it blankly, the voice spoke again.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ Immortality Fruit has been granted.
'Immortality Fruit?'
A question flickered in his mind, which had been cooling to ice.
Havel's eyes widened.
"Immortality Fruit?!"
He realized what it meant.
"Kuh!"
At that moment, he felt his nearly stopped heart clench tight.
A familiar death.
But this was one death he absolutely could not accept now.
Collapsing to the ground, Havel craned his neck in place of his unmoving body.
He had to eat the fruit before him.
That was his only thought.
Crunch!
He tore into the Immortality Fruit with his teeth however he could.
Even if it was like a worm wriggling.
Havel desperately chewed and swallowed the entire Immortality Fruit.
And the moment the familiar sensation of death arrived.
Crack, crunch!
A sound echoed from his arms.
Thump, thump, thump!
His heart began pounding violently at the same time.
Blood circulated.
His vision cleared.
Bones protruded, muscles wrapped around them, skin formed.
After a long while.
Havel's eyes snapped open as cold sweat poured from his entire body.
"Hah, ha!"
The breath he exhaled like vomit proved he was alive.
His eyes scanned the surroundings.
The cooled 7th floor section lava zone reflected clearly in them.
"I... revived."
He hadn't died. No, he had regenerated the moment death came, reborn anew.
What did that mean?
"No regression..."
Hot tears poured from Havel's eyes.
His chest felt like it would burst.
"I won't regress anymore..."
He wouldn't return to that hellish 4th floor section.
For he was now an immortal who revived even after death.
Havel clenched his fists tight.
He raised his head to the sky.
His legs supported him as he stood.
He gripped his sword.
The reason was simple.
He had to descend further and conquer the Demonic Palace.
No more regressions.
This was his final chance.
This was his last run.
"Let's go."
Muttering to himself, Havel's legs moved forward.
Toward the next floor section.
And the one after that.
As an immortal who no longer regressed, he pressed on.
Nothing could stop a man without death.
Thud!
And at its end, Havel opened the door to the 10th floor section.
The moment he stepped inside, he faced a pitch-black plaza.
For some reason, there was nothing there.
But that only heightened his tension.
A chill seeped into his body, and as he quietly raised his sword.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ You have broken through the Demonic Palace's 10th floor section.
The voice echoed once more.
Havel looked puzzled.
Broken through without doing anything?
'No way.'
Was the 10th floor section empty from the start?
A fleeting sense of emptiness passed through him.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ Distributing reward for the Demonic Palace's 10th floor section.
Reward or whatever—he just wanted to be sent out of the Demonic Palace.
Havel waited.
The thought that enduring this would finally let him leave dominated his body.
I'm getting out.
Back to his longed-for home.
Finally, he could leave.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ Congratulations! You have become the master of the Demonic Palace's 10th floor section.
But what returned was a reward entirely different from what he expected.
"What?"
The moment he uttered that short question.
The entire Demonic Palace began to twist and warp.
As Havel hastily drew his sword upon seeing it, he felt his mind reeling far away.
A shock even his mind, tempered by regression and immortality, couldn't withstand.
"Ah, guh!"
With that as his last, his consciousness snapped.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ The master of the Demonic Palace's 10th floor section descends upon the present world.
Only that final voice echoed softly.