The Insane Regressor: Throne of Pride

Chapter 81: Kill yourself!

Crack...

A faint cracking sound came from inside Robert’s body, then reverberated through the tavern dozens of times, as though the walls kept returning it over and over, refusing to let it fade—something Ravian found deeply strange.

’It has arrived.’ The realization struck Ravian, and his face went pale.

Crack... Crack... Crack...

Robert’s head, slumped at an unnatural angle, slowly rose back to its natural position.

The dagger remained buried in his heart, blood covering his shirt and brown coat—but the bleeding had stopped completely.

The wound had not healed, and the dagger remained lodged within it.

Nor had Robert’s heart begun beating again.

His body was moving only because something else had come to inhabit it.

A silvery-white light ignited inside Robert’s open eyes. His hazel eyes vanished entirely, replaced by stark whiteness within which circle after circle continued to widen—like endless ripples spreading across the surface of still water.

[Warning!]

[The identity of the Descent has been confirmed.]

[Taboo: Truth.]

[System Advice:

Kill yourself!]

’If I could, you wouldn’t need to keep repeating it!’ Ravian’s expression was one of pure despair.

What could he possibly do while completely paralyzed like this?

Ravian tried to fight the restraint again, but his body remained fixed.

Everything around him had been destroyed. The floor, the walls, the furniture, the bodies.

Even the lower-ranked Awakened among the city guards and mage doctors had been killed the instant that presence descended.

And yet Ravian’s body had suffered no harm at all.

Even the narrow patch of ground around his feet remained intact, in terrifying contrast to the shattered floor surrounding it.

’And this can’t be the System’s doing,’ Ravian realized.

If the System were the one protecting him from the pressure, it made no sense for it to keep demanding that he kill himself.

It seemed that the Descent of the Taboo of Truth was the one that had exempted him from the pressure.

’It wants me alive.’ That was the only conclusion Ravian could reach.

As for why it wanted him alive? Ravian was certain he wasn’t going to like the answer.

The circles inside the corpse’s eyes stilled for a moment, and its gaze settled upon Ravian’s crimson eyes without a single trace of emotion.

Robert’s mouth opened.

His chest didn’t rise to draw breath, nor did his throat move in preparation to speak. His mouth simply parted, as though the body were nothing more than a door through which something else had chosen to speak.

"Calm down."

The voice reached Ravian’s ears—and with it came a hideous pain that tore through his entire soul.

’Aghh...’ Ravian writhed inwardly, unable even to make a sound, as he felt more blood streaming from his ears.

The voice had not come from Robert’s throat.

The word emerged through his mouth, then repeated from the walls, ceiling, and floor in dozens of overlapping tones and voices—some deep, others faint—as though an unseen multitude had spoken the same word at the exact same instant.

"Calm down... calm down... calm down..."

’I am calm,’ Ravian thought, unable to say it aloud. His frozen face remained unchanged, though the blood streaming from his ears and his pallid skin gave him away almost completely.

"Do not try to resist the restraint," the thing inside Robert’s corpse continued calmly. "If I wanted you dead, there would be nothing left of you capable of making the attempt."

The words reverberated through the tavern, and with their final echo, Ravian felt something loosen within his face.

He could move his jaw.

Then control of his throat returned to him.

That was all the Descent had freed.

His jaw, tongue, and throat—along with a limited degree of movement in his eyes and facial muscles.

The rest of his body remained completely bound.

Ravian drew a deep breath, trying to suppress the tremor that threatened to creep into his voice.

"An interesting way to request a conversation," he said at last, raising one corner of his mouth with difficulty.

Ravian didn’t particularly care if he died—the most likely outcome of his current situation anyway. He could simply return and try again, so he didn’t choose his words with any particular care.

Robert’s corpse tilted its head slightly.

"I did not ask."

The sentence reverberated around him before the voice continued:

"I decided."

Ravian moved his eyes as far as the restraint allowed, looking at Raphael’s corpse and the rest of the shattered bodies scattered throughout the tavern.

"And was killing everyone necessary for you to make that decision? Aren’t you supposed to be one of the Seven Saviors, as I recall?" Ravian asked.

No change appeared on Robert’s dead face.

"I did not kill them in order to speak with you," the Descent answered, its voice devoid of remorse, interest, or any trace of pity. "They died because they happened to be nearby when my Descent reached this world."

The echo shuddered through the tavern, and Ravian’s soul shuddered with it. He felt as though it were being pulled apart piece by piece with every word.

The System window returned before Ravian’s eyes.

[System Advice:

Kill yourself.]

’Why is it so insistent this time?’

There was clearly something Ravian didn’t know.

The presence fixed its gaze upon him.

Then its silver eyes slowly lowered toward the black dagger buried in Robert’s chest, the body serving as its current vessel.

"You have taken something that belongs to me," the Descent said.

Ravian didn’t answer. He simply stared back at it.

"The Records of my Ambassador," said the Taboo of Truth as the circles inside Robert’s eyes widened once more. "Something residing within you has devoured them."

Ravian’s eyes widened absurdly upon hearing the word "Records."

For the first time, Ravian felt that the presence was looking neither at his body nor at his soul energy.

It was looking somewhere far deeper.

At the thing that had lain hidden within him ever since he crossed the black hole and arrived in this world.

’What?’

Ravian’s heartbeat quickened, and he lost his usual composure.

’The Records? It knows I’ve been absorbing Records?’

’System! You never told me about this!’

A terrible premonition began taking shape in Ravian’s mind as he felt the Descent’s focus settle upon his body.

[Kill yourself.]

[Kill yourself.]

[Kill yourself.]

For the first time, the System’s white windows didn’t wait for the previous ones to disappear. They piled on top of one another, the red veins running through them trembling violently until they nearly blocked Robert’s corpse from view.

The System windows and warnings continued multiplying. With each warning, terror sank deeper into Ravian’s eyes.

"And now..." the Taboo’s Descent continued.

Ravian’s eyes shifted toward it.

The voice reverberated from every corner of the tavern until it seemed as though the world itself were asking the question:

"What is the thing inside you that can devour the Records of an Ambassador of mine?" the Taboo’s Descent asked, the question carrying the weight of a demand rather than a simple inquiry.