Chapter 2 — The Reincarnator Regresses
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“GAAAAAAAHHH!”
“M-My arm…!”
“Save me! Please save meeeee!!”
The screams of people echoed from every direction.
The smell of blood mixed with the smoke of burning flesh, stabbing into my nose.
Hell.
The place where I now stood was a living hell manifested upon the mortal world.
Sssssssizzle!
As I watched my body burn away within the infernal flames,
I realized that my cruelly persistent second life was finally coming to an end.
Twenty days ago,
The Orthodox Alliance, carrying the banner of “Destroy the Demons,” launched an assault on the main stronghold of the Heavenly Demon Cult.
After dozens of days of fierce battle that erased all sense of night and day, the Orthodox Alliance finally broke through to the heart of the sacred temple where the Cult Leader secluded himself.
The Orthodox Alliance was certain of victory.
The Cult Leader’s head would soon fall, and the Demonic Cult would meet its absolute end.
But it was a reckless miscalculation.
Driven into a corner, the Heavenly Demon Cult chose… mutual destruction.
The Myriad Calamity Flame—
The Demonic Cult’s secret art and eternal taboo—had been unleashed.
Within the flames of the Myriad Calamity Fire, all things in the world were swallowed by annihilation.
Every living thing was evaporating within the flames of hell without leaving behind even a trace of its form.
No… to be precise, it was the ones abandoned by the Orthodox Alliance who were being erased.
“The Orthodox Alliance… those cowardly bastards.”
The leaders of the Orthodox Alliance had anticipated from the very beginning that the Demonic Cult might resort to using the Myriad Calamity Flame.
The moment the Alliance entered the Cult’s headquarters, the first thing they did was pull back their true disciples and instead push people like me—experimental subjects—and assassins secretly brainwashed by the Shadow Corps to the front lines.
Within the glorious history of the Orthodox Alliance, the Shadow Corps was a stain that must never be recorded.
And the fate of such filth was obvious.
To be incinerated like garbage within the flames of the Myriad Calamity Fire.
All we could do was obey the Alliance’s order to walk willingly toward our deaths.
From the beginning, there had never been any such thing as choice.
Ever since we were forcibly made to consume the Soul-Scattering Pill—a drug that controlled the human mind and soul—we could only follow orders and walk into the flames like insects.
Was it because of the unbearable agony of flesh burning alive?
Or perhaps because the Myriad Calamity Flame was said to burn even the soul itself?
As the infernal fire devoured people, fragments of consciousness that had long vanished began to awaken once more.
The shackles binding our minds through the Soul-Scattering Pill were severed.
Only at the moment of final destruction did the insects regain their souls.
And what those insects received after reclaiming their souls… was an even more horrifying pain.
“GAAAAAAAHHH!!”
“H-Hot… my eyes… MY EYES!”
“Save me… please save meeeee!”
Everything alive around me was dying.
The people who had endured together with me inside those underground prisons of darkness.
The ones who survived each agonizing day merely by exchanging glances with one another.
As I stared blankly at that horrifying scene—
“…M… mister…”
A familiar voice echoed from within the flames.
Turning my head, I saw the small figure of a child engulfed in fire.
Half of the child’s face had already melted away, twisted into such a horrific state that it was impossible to distinguish eyes, nose, or mouth.
And yet I recognized the child instantly.
“…Mujin… mister… it hurts… I’m… scared…”
That voice.
It was Jihoo—the child who always followed me around, calling me “mister.”
That fragile life, kidnapped by the Shadow Corps at a young age and used as an experimental subject, was now being twisted apart and consumed by the flames.
At that moment, an old memory surfaced in my mind.
A corner of the underground prison where not even light could reach.
A night when Jihoo, burning with fever from poison experiments, trembled as he tightly held my hand with those tiny little arms.
Ø “Mister… someday… we’ll be able to go back outside again… right?”
That child, who had never lost hope even in hell,
Was now calling out to me while swallowing screams within the flames.
Even as melted flesh peeled away from his body, the child’s eyes remained fixed on me.
Within the fire that scorched my entire body, I forced myself to stand.
The flames dug into my flesh, and even my breath burned away, but—
I could not stop myself from taking even a single step toward that child.
“…Jihoo… mister’s here—”
But I was already too late.
Before my hand could reach him, a massive wave of flame swallowed the child whole.
Without leaving behind even the slightest trace of a form,
Jihoo turned to gray ash and scattered into the empty air.
“Ah… ah……”
I collapsed to my knees.
The despair was too overwhelming for me to even summon the will to stand again.
And even at this very moment, the Myriad Calamity Flame continued devouring more victims.
“…S-save… me…”
“…Mom… I want… to see…”
“…I don’t… want to die… I still…”
The screams and cries of the dying pierced my ears like thousands of blades.
Before me.
Beside me.
Behind me.
And I alone remained alive in the very center of that hell.
I wanted to escape this unbearable pain that felt as though it would never end.
I wanted death to come as quickly as possible.
But—
“…This damned regenerative power refuses to let me go until the very end.”
Regeneration.
That cursed ability struggled stubbornly even against the Myriad Calamity Flame, the fire said to destroy all things.
It hurt.
My flesh melted.
My muscles dripped away.
One internal organ after another burned to ashes.
Within that unbearable despair, the only thing I could do was scream instinctively.
“GAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!”
I only wished for this pain to end quickly.
I wished for every part of me to finally be erased within the flames.
But even now, my heart still beat, and my cells continued restoring themselves.
“I want to die… but I can’t…”
As though some malicious god of fate were mocking me,
My body writhed desperately to survive even before this ultimate infernal fire.
But even the writhing of an insect was approaching its end.
Within the eternal flames of the Myriad Calamity Fire, even my regenerative power was gradually fading away.
That’s right.
I was slowly dying.
Together with the horrific agony of every single cell in my body being torn apart and burned away.
“So this cursed life is finally ending.”
I let go of everything.
At the moment the flames consumed me, only a single wish remained.
“Please… let this pain end quickly.”
And then—
Ø “Do not think your deaths meaningless. Consider it an honor that you became kindling for the light of righteousness.”
A calm voice echoed from between the flames.
Even amid the agony of burning alive, I instinctively raised my gaze.
Reflected within my melting eyes was the figure of a single man.
Even within the inferno of hell, there existed one being alone who still radiated the vitality of life.
Moyong Cheonhwi.
Leader of the Orthodox Alliance and the greatest martial artist under heaven.
But to me, that name symbolized not admiration—
But hatred.
The one who founded the Shadow Corps and cast countless experimental subjects into hell.
The root cause that dragged me into this nightmare.
Even within the Myriad Calamity Flame that burned all things, Moyong Cheonhwi’s figure did not collapse.
The way the flames failed to scorch his flesh and instead distorted the surrounding space itself showed just how monstrous his internal energy truly was.
Wearing a lofty expression, Moyong Cheonhwi gazed upon the victims screaming as they died.
There was not the slightest trace of guilt in his eyes.
“An honor? Being burned alive like this?”
Was it truly righteousness to bury innocent people alive for the sake of their own glory?
That hypocritical bastard still wore his mask of lies even before the dying victims.
“S-save… me… please…”
A hand crawled out from within the flames.
It could barely even be called a hand anymore—a lump of flesh melted together with blood.
From elbow to wrist, it had been crushed and mangled,
Yet the hand dragged itself forward across the ground, bones and flesh fused together.
“M… Moyong… Cheonhwi… please……”
A victim whose lower body had completely melted away in the flames was crawling toward Moyong Cheonhwi.
Begging for the only salvation left within that hell.
Moyong Cheonhwi quietly looked down at the victim who had crawled all the way to him.
Then, with a benevolent smile on his lips, he spoke.
Ø “Pain is only temporary. Do not scream so disgracefully. Instead, be grateful that you were used in the path of destroying evil.”
The victim’s face twisted in despair.
“S-save……”
A sound that could have been either a scream or a dying breath escaped the victim’s mouth.
And then—
Ø “Pathetic.”
Moyong Cheonhwi muttered softly as he lifted his foot.
The hem of his jade-colored robe fluttered within the flames.
Crunch.
Like stepping on rotten fruit, the victim’s head burst apart.
Blood and charred pieces of flesh scattered into the flames and instantly turned to ash.
Lightly shaking the dark-red residue from the tip of his shoe, Moyong Cheonhwi said:
Ø “Righteousness does not tolerate ugliness.”
At that moment, something exploded deep within my chest.
A heat even hotter and deeper than the flames of the Myriad Calamity Fire itself.
It wasn’t mere anger.
It was a flame of pure hatred—something only humans could possess.
“…I can’t let it end like this. Absolutely not like this……”
I forced my body to move by squeezing out every last bit of strength remaining within me.
My limbs had melted away until bone was exposed, and every breath scorched my lungs.
But I could not stop.
“You fucking bastards…”
Hypocrites who trampled over my life in the name of justice.
Those dog-like bastards who spoke of righteousness while hiding knives behind their backs.
I could not simply close my eyes in vain while leaving that great evil that ruined my life untouched.
“At least him… I must……”
Staggering through the flames, I continued walking forward.
Across the ground soaked in blood and fire,
One step,
Then another.
“M… Moyong… Cheonhwi……”
Perhaps he heard my voice, because Moyong Cheonhwi’s eyes slowly turned toward me.
After seeing my condition, he spoke with an indifferent expression.
Ø “So, you were still alive. As expected of a special specimen.”
His voice was unbelievably calm.
And that calmness only caused my hatred to burn even fiercer.
Ø “But this is where even you should disappear. There is nothing more troublesome than waste whose usefulness has expired.”
Once again, I realized it.
The hundreds of lives dying here meant less than nothing to someone like him.
“Right. To bastards like you, people like us are nothing more than disposable trash.”
Dragging my burned feet across the ground, I continued approaching Moyong Cheonhwi.
One step.
Two steps.
Each time I stepped through the flames, the smell of burning flesh rose from the soles of my feet.
The agony of the inferno felt like it would burn my brain apart.
And yet,
I continued moving forward.
“…We’re… not trash… We’re living people……”
I stretched out my right arm toward Moyong Cheonhwi.
The tips of my fingers had already burned away so completely that their shape no longer remained,
But even so, I wanted to seize his throat with that hand.
But the distance between us was far too great.
The flames blocked my path,
And my legs, melted away by the inferno, buckled helplessly beneath me.
At that moment, Moyong Cheonhwi’s shadow fell over me.
Slowly lowering his head, he curled the corner of his lips upward.
Ø “People, you say… You truly possess a stubborn obsession.”
A blue radiance flashed from Moyong Cheonhwi’s fingertips.
With the sound of air splitting apart, a sharp gust brushed across my neck.
Slice.
A cold sensation spread beneath my throat.
And then,
The world tilted.
Within my reddening vision, I realized—
My head had been severed.
Ø “This one is not kind enough to listen to the whining of insignificant refuse.”
As my consciousness faded away, the last thing I heard was Moyong Cheonhwi’s mocking voice.
“…Moyong Cheonhwi… Orthodox Alliance……”
Even as my breathing ceased, those names slipped from my lips.
Ø “…If another life is granted to me… I will find you without fail… I will chew apart your hearts and bones…!”
My vocal cords had already melted away, leaving me unable to make a sound,
Yet that final vow carved itself deep into my soul like a vengeful spirit.
Even so, my consciousness continued fading.
The crimson-stained world gradually darkened.
And just as my mind—sustained solely by blazing hatred—was about to collapse—
—One reborn within the flames of the Myriad Calamity Fire shall defy fate itself.
A strange yet mystical voice seeped into my melting ears.
And then—
Time stopped.
No… time began reversing.
The flames surged backward.
My incinerated flesh restored itself.
My shattered consciousness rewove itself into one whole.
At the moment my fading existence began reconstructing itself, another unfamiliar voice echoed inside my head.
[Warning! An unbearable ‘Infinite Energy’ is affecting the Awakener’s body and mind.]
[Warning! The Awakener’s body and mind are reacting to the ‘Infinite Energy.’]
.
.
[‘Infinite Energy’ is intervening in the Awakener’s fate.]
.
.
.
[The Awakener’s regenerative ability is mutating into a survival capability optimized for the new environment.]
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.
.
A light spread like a flash at the edge of my consciousness.
And at the same moment,
I opened my eyes once more.
“…This place… no way?!”
What entered my trembling vision was the faint dawn light slipping through the cracks of an old roof.
And then, a familiar yet distant voice reached my ears.
Ø “Mujin, wake up already! Do you realize how much trouble you’ll be in at this rate?!”
It was a voice I could never possibly forget.
No—
How could I ever forget it?
It was the very first voice I heard after reincarnating into Murim.
And in that instant, I realized it.
I had returned to the Kunlun Sect, the starting point of my previous life in Murim.
More precisely—
I had become a regressor, living my second run through life in the martial world.