I’m not a Regressor - Chapter 241: Baptism of Stars (3)

The Celestial of the Little Dipper, Polaris, the first and loftiest celestial, the brightest star…

“The place where Polaris… was born?” Ohjin gave Vega a surprised look.

Vega continued with a small nod. “This is Polaris’s sacred ground.”

“Wait, didn’t you say Polaris was in seclusion?”

“Yes, but the remnants of his power still linger.”

Did that mean the constellation was maintaining the sacred ground where the three dragon veins intersected with just the remnants of his power?

“Fufu. Are you nervous?” Vega asked.

“Well, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t.” Ohjin took a step toward the fissure. ‘I have to see it for myself.’ He had to see with his own eyes what kind of place it was so that he could get the answers to some of his questions.

Step by step, he entered the brilliant, starry fissure.

“Keuk!” A piercing headache immediately assaulted him, and his heart pounded in his chest as if he’d just full-on sprinted for hundreds of meters. ‘What. The. Hell…?’ He frowned and put a hand against his chest—it felt like his heart was a rampaging beast in a cage.

He lifted his head while doing all he could to suppress the pain. “Oh…” The Milky Way flowed into a river of stars that intersected and illuminated the dark abyss of the universe.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” Vega asked.

Ohjin nodded without meaning to. The sight before him was so magnificent that the pain in his chest was momentarily forgotten. ‘It looks… to be around 100 meters in size.’ It was slightly too large to be called a spring, but it was too small to be a lake. The size of it wasn’t what mattered, though…

“Fuck…” The condensed mana he felt emanating from the spring was enough to send chills down his spine. He’d been completely mistaken in his assumption that, since three dragon veins intersected there, the spring would contain three times the power of the veins he’d encountered before.

Simply put… his assumption had been wrong. For starters, the dragon veins flowing through there were completely different from the one’s he’d encountered before. If the others could be compared to streams flowing through a rural village, then the spring where the three veins intersected was more like a river winding through a technologically-advanced continent.

He chewed his lips and gave the spring a nervous look. ‘I can’t absorb this.’ Even considering it was ridiculous. The moment he used the Black Heaven, his body would swell and explode like a balloon that’d been inflated beyond its limit.

Vega tilted her head when she noticed Ohjin standing in a daze. “Hmm? Is there a problem?”

He snapped back to his senses and did his best to remain calm. “No, it’s just so beautiful that I forgot where I was for a moment.”

“Fufu. It’s definitely a beautiful place.” Vega smiled at the spring.

“We can appreciate its beauty later,” Deneb said. “Quickly prepare for the ceremony.”

“There’s no need to be in a hurry, right?” Vega asked.

“Hmph! Unlike a certain someone, I have things to do.” Deneb walked up to Ohjin. “Well, take off your clothes first.”

“What?” Ohjin asked. Why was the constellation telling him to take off his clothes all of a sudden?

“You’re going to soak yourself in the spring, aren’t you? Clothes would interfere with your mana absorption.”

“…” Ohjin looked around in embarrassment, unable to believe he’d have to remove his clothes in front of so many celestials.

“Don’t worry, my child.” Vega approached him and spread her arms, causing a silver curtain to surround the two of them. “Now, no one can see your jewels!” she confidently said.

He gave her a look of disbelief. ‘Vega, you’re watching.’ Whether she knew his thoughts or not, she still approached with a twinkle in her eyes. “This lady will help you take off your clothes.”

“No, I’m not a child,” he said.

“Ahem! Stay still!” she ordered before beginning to sternly remove his clothes. Though she looked solemn, her hands shook with barely-contained excitement. His shirt and pants came off in an instant, and when she hesitantly reached for his underwear…

“W-wait!” he shouted.

She gave him a heated look and said, “You can’t have even a thread on you during your immersion in the spring.” Then, her hand continued to move toward that last piece of clothing on his body.

“Huh?” he heard Spica ask from outside their private space. “Underwear should be fi— Kyaaa!”

Kzzt—!

Thunder echoed along with the constellation’s sudden scream. “Vega just…”

“Spica must have been mistaken for a second.” Vega innocently pretended not to hear and took off Ohjin’s last bastion of modesty. “Now, enter this lady’s arms! I’ll carry you safely into the Milky Way Spring!”

“Aaack!”

She wrapped her arms around him and lifted him. Without so much as a thread of clothing, Ohjin didn’t dare resist and readily fell into her arms. Though she was overwhelmingly strong, it felt incredibly soft.

“Q-quite worthy of a general,” She murmured, her face visibly reddening.

“…How did Vega end up like that?” Deneb asked in disbelief as he watched the scene with a smile on his face.

The other celestials shook their heads in stunned silence.

Deneb put a hand to his forehead as if he had a headache and moved to the edge of the spring. “Then let’s get started.”

The six celestials interspaced themselves around the Milky Way Spring.

“It’s time to start the baptism,” Vega said. She looked much more solemn than she had a moment ago when she’d been holding Ohjin. A cluster of silver light flowed out of her body and seeped into the spring.

A moment later, lights flowed from the other celestials as well.

* * *

* * *

With their eyes gently closed, they sent even more of their mana into the spring.

A low prayer came out of Vega’s mouth. “Since there are six stars in front of the spring… Come, oh, Seventh star.

Ohjin slowly closed his eyes and submerged himself in the waters of the spring. The stars’ neal-limitless mana surged over his skin, and he bit his lips when he felt the unimaginable power.

‘I never intended to absorb all of the spring’s power to begin with, but I think even absorbing a bit of it is going to be harder than I thought.’ He’d figured the celestials would notice if he absorbed all of the power, but there was just too much. Even a slight miscalculation with the Black Heaven would be like a dam collapsing.

‘It’s beyond my control.’ A deep sigh left his mouth. Of course, he coveted the mana filling the spring, but he risked losing everything if he became too greedy there. ‘Let’s give up. I can still absorb some of it without the Black Heaven anyway.”

He carefully cracked his eyes open to see the pale-blue shine of the water. ‘It’s about as bright as a torch’s light…’ He felt a tinge of disappointment, but Allen, who was also a North Star’s apostle, had experienced the same reaction.

Just when he was comforting himself, a familiar sound reverberated through his head—the sound of the Black Heaven’s dark clouds moving.

Krrrrrrrkk—

“…!” Ohjin’s eyes shot fully open in shock. Outside of his control, the Black Heaven in his heart had melted into the spring’s water and started to absorb the mana.

“Keuk!” The tidal wave of mana surging into his body was nearly unbearable. ‘What the hell is happening?!’ The Black Heaven was devouring the spring’s mana like a hungry beast.

-Ti-ring!

[You have absorbed an unimaginably huge amount of mana!]

[The Black Heaven’s conditions for the eighth awakening have all been accomplished!]

[The Black Heaven’s eighth awakening is starting!]

Blue messages appeared before his eyes, and he desperately tried to hold onto consciousness and not be swept away by the surging mana. A clear bell rang in his ears as messages appeared one after another.

[The Black Heaven has reached the eighth awakening!]

[‘Transmission’ has been pushed to a later time to avoid mana overflow.]

“Heuk, heuk!” He coughed from the shock of the flooding mana suddenly halting. All of his muscles tensed as he raised his head to look at the celestials.

“Wh-what on earth?” Vega asked.

“R-ridiculous…”

They looked back at him with consternation.

‘Fuck.’ Had he been caught using the Black Heaven? When he checked the mana in the Milky Way Spring, he found that it’d hardly diminished. It had so much mana to begin with that what he’d absorbed was hardly noticeable. ‘Black Curtain should’ve masked it anyway.’

Why did the celestials look so shocked?

“Th-the light…”

“I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

‘The light?’ Ohjin looked back down at the spring. “Oh…” The water was shining as brightly as the sun. ‘They said the intensity of the light varied depending on the amount of mana absorbed, right?’ Unlike others, who indirectly absorbed the mana, he’d done it directly with the Black Heaven, which was why the light was so absurdly bright.

“Whoa…”

Fortunately, they didn’t notice his use of the Black Heaven.

Whoooooooong—!

The entire spring began to fluctuate with ripples of water.

“This is…” Vega murmured. “N-no way…”

The celestials watched as the spring’s surface rose into the air.

‘What is that?’ Ohjin looked at the egg-like sphere floating above the spring. What the heck was happening? The sphere split in half, and a being covered in the brilliant starlight of the Milky Way appeared. Starlight scattered over the surroundings in such a brilliant cascade that he couldn’t tell whether the body was masculine or feminine.

“Polaris…?” Vega asked in bewilderment.

‘Polaris? That’s Polaris?’ Ohjin’s eyes widened.

The star-like being floated over toward him [It was you.] Its genderless voice reverberated through his head in the same way Vega’s sometimes did.

[I’ve been waiting for you… for a long time.]

‘You were waiting for me?’

[You are an existence that will change fate, a star that defies cause and effect.]

The feeling was oddly familiar…

[You are the Heaven-defying Star.]

“What…?”

‘No, I’m not…’