Regressor Of The Fallen Family [EN]: Chapter 317

When Il-Soon died, Victoria could not see anymore. Everything went black. She felt like she was thrown into a completely dark and empty place, all alone.

“What?” Victoria thought. She was surprised again by the voice in her head. She quickly tried to calm down and understand what was happening.

It was a space where she could only think, seeing nothing, feeling nothing.

She panicked and tried to look around, but her head would not move.

She felt completely helpless. She could not move her hands or feet. She could not even control her own body. She was stuck in thick darkness.

This feeling was terrible. It felt like the darkness would eat her soul.

“Am I… am I dead?”

“No, no! I can’t be!”

“Aargh!”

She wanted to scream because she was so scared, but no sound came out.

Time felt like forever in the dark space. She thought if she stayed here, she would stop thinking soon. The empty darkness would swallow her soul.

Victoria knew this without thinking. She focused on one thing: why was she in this place? She remembered the demon that suddenly appeared. And the darkness that started when it moved its hand.

She had never seen anything like it before. But the grey light she saw was magic, for sure. So, the darkness that filled the space must also be magic.

There were two ideas: maybe she died from the magic and went to hell, or maybe the magic made this dark space. She did not even think about the first idea for long.

It was not just because she was sure she was not bad enough to go to hell. It was also because if she was really dead, there was no point in fighting.

“I will live!”

Victoria thought strongly. She focused all her mind to get out of this place.

As she did, a memory from the distant past, from her childhood, flashed through her mind.

“Brother, do we really have to live like this? Can’t we go with Mom and Dad?”

*Let’s just die.* She remembered saying this when she was a child. She had just gotten better from a bad flu that lasted all winter.

She had just opened her eyes and saw her brother. He was trying to feed her the thin soup that was for her. Young Victoria could not help but say those words. She thought then that if she died and went to heaven, she could see her mom and dad again and be happy.

Her brother’s face looked very sad when he heard her. But he did not get angry or yell at her. He just spoke in a quiet voice.

“Yes. We have to live.”

“……Why?”

“There’s no heaven to go to when you die.”

“No! The priest said there is a heaven!”

“Mom said so.”

“Mom.” It was a name she loved. She used to think her mom was the smartest person in the world. Even now, as an adult, she knew her mom was special.

“No matter how hard life is, even if you want to die, people want to live when they are about to die. Maybe it’s because…”

Maybe people just know. They know that after life, it is not a peaceful rest, but something worse than this hard life.

“Th, that…” Her brother was telling her what their mom said. His words were so strong that even young Victoria understood.

“So, Mom told me to live, no matter how sad or hard life is.” But even though she understood this, one thing still shocked young Victoria.

“…Then we can’t see Mom and Dad anymore?”

“…Yeah.” She must have looked like she would cry. No, she did cry. Because her only hope of seeing Mom and Dad was gone. Because life was hard. Because it hurt. Because she was so tired.

“Why!? Why!”

But then she saw her brother’s slender arm.

“Mom and Dad told us to live. So let’s try to live, Ria.” Even then, her brother’s arm was shaking because he was hungry, but he still tried to feed her the thin soup.

“I’ll… I’ll protect you, no matter what.” Their family lived a hard life with many sacrifices and love. In that hard life, she met someone who helped her. This person gave her hope. Only then could she start to live a normal life with hope.

“How could I have lived this life?”

“How could I have taken this chance?”

“I can’t die!” All the hard feelings and hope from her life rushed through her. This protected her soul from the darkness that wanted to eat it. In the darkness that tried to stain her soul, she started to shine her own light even brighter.

Her soul was now even stronger. It started to understand the demon’s hand movement that put her in this place. It understood the flow of magic and the patterns that were now inside her soul.

As she understood more, she started to feel again. Her body slowly started to move. But Victoria did not even notice this. She was too busy dealing with the strong brown ‘Mana force’ that had just appeared in her soul.

*This is bad,* Louisa thought. She frowned. She saw that the Dark Sky Barrier had completely trapped the person who came in.

Because of this, her face, which was changed into a demon by the Demon Manifestation magic, looked very ugly. But she did not care because no one could see her.

But the problem was this: she had prepared three magic spells to quickly capture the mage. But they were used on the wrong person.

This was her secret magic, a stronger version of Macro magic, a secret of the Tower. This magic was supposed to do many things at once with one simple command. But now, it was causing her trouble.

The magics were: Dark Sky Barrier, Demon Manifestation, and ‘Soul Contamination’ added to the Dark Sky Barrier. With these powerful magics, she could capture and control the mage very quickly. These three were very strong, 6th Circle magic from the Tower. They were secret magics that only Tower mages could use. These mages knew about ‘soul’ and ‘dimension’ magic, which were stronger types of magic that other mages in this time did not know.

*That’s why this is a problem. Damn it.* This magic was hard to use, even for her, a mage. She needed to prepare a lot before using it.

She made a mistake by setting ‘battle’ as the trigger for the magic. She was sure no one would find her until she found the Macline mage. But this person who came in was too skilled. She could not just run away from her.

“What is this?” The scary demon looked at the person trapped in the black mist.

She looked very young. But she used magic at a high level, 5th Circle. And she also saw through the Tower’s secret magic that was supposed to hide her.

Also, even though Louisa had used a barrier to stop noise, the walls were broken. This young woman had broken them with her magic. It looked like she used the Magic Tower walls themselves as part of her magic. This was also a problem.

Louisa could have used illusion magic to fix the walls. But she was already using three 6th Circle magics and keeping up the noise barrier. She could not use another magic spell right now. It was too much.

So, in the end… Beeeep! “There’s a problem in the Tower!”

Louisa frowned. Strange noises were coming from the ground below the tower. She listened carefully.

‘I must go back for now,’ Louisa thought. ‘It won’t be a problem.’ She thought about the wizard who found her. ‘He will forget everything. No one is hurt, so it will just look like an accident.’

Louisa looked at the black mist. It was getting smaller and smaller. The magic was ending.

‘He is a talented wizard,’ Louisa thought. ‘He must be important. Maybe he is learning from a powerful mage. That worries me.’ She thought about the tower’s magic. ‘No wizard in this time can understand it. Maybe only the Imperial Family could. It’s impossible in this small kingdom.’

‘Even strong magic cannot completely control someone’s mind right away,’ Louisa thought. ‘If I controlled him completely, he would act too strangely. People would notice.’ She decided, ‘It’s better to just make him cause small problems. Accidents here and there are enough.’

‘It’s not as good as I wanted,’ Louisa thought. ‘But if this important student causes trouble, it could make the king and the mage fight. That will be enough.’

“Upstairs!” voices shouted from below.

The voices got closer. Louisa was disappointed, but she had to leave. She turned to go.

Suddenly, a huge brown fist hit Louisa!

*CRASH!*

“Ah!” Louisa cried out.

Victoria stepped out of the black mist. She frowned, looking at Louisa. Louisa was screaming in a strange, loud voice. “Is that a demon?” Victoria wondered.

Victoria shouted, “Catch her! Kill her if you must!”

A golem, as tall as three men, rushed forward like an arrow. It moved because of Victoria’s strong will.

This golem was different from normal golems. Normal golems are strong but slow. This one moved quickly and easily. It was as fast as Wicken Kalia, a very famous hero in the kingdom.

The golem swung its huge fist very fast.

*CRASH!*

The hit was so strong, it made a big hole in the ground. The hole was very wide.

Louisa was not in the hole, but Victoria was happy. Louisa was still alive. ‘She is strong,’ Victoria thought.

Victoria felt power inside her. She had just learned new magic. ‘This enemy is worth using my new power on,’ she thought.

Victoria realized something. ‘I don’t need wind magic to control this golem!’ she thought.

She was standing on the tower stairs. She could feel the earth through the tower.

‘As long as the golem is close enough, I can control it from far away, even without wind magic, just like my teacher!’

‘But my range is not as big as my teacher’s,’ she thought.

Victoria had become stronger recently. This new power made her golem magic even better. Using just one type of magic made the golem very powerful.

*BOOM!*

The ground shook.

Victoria felt very proud watching the strong golem chase Louisa. It was fast like Wicken Kalia and strong like Luther Kyle, two famous heroes. The golem was destroying everything in its path.

But Victoria could do more.

Since she started learning golem magic, she was always best at controlling many golems at once. No one else in her class could control as many golems as she could.

“You can’t get away!” Victoria shouted.

She used her magic. The ground in front of Louisa moved. Another golem came out of the earth!

*CRASH!*

“Ugh!” Louisa cried.

Louisa was trapped. She was hit from the front and the back. She coughed up blood and flew backwards.

Victoria was sweating. Maybe she used too much magic too quickly after getting her new powers. But she felt strong.

“I got her!” Victoria shouted happily.

Just then, Louisa, who was on the ground, yelled, “How dare you!”

Gray mist exploded from Louisa’s body. It spread everywhere very fast.

*BOOM!* *CRACK!* *WHOOSH!*

Explosions came from inside the thick mist.

“What’s happening?!” Victoria gasped.

Magic was coming from the mist!

Victoria could feel her golems. They were lost in the mist. They were being attacked, but they couldn’t fight back.

But Victoria thought, ‘I won’t let her escape!’

She closed her eyes and focused. She found Louisa’s location on the ground.

She told her golems to attack there again. But then, she felt something climbing up the tower walls towards her.

It was moving silently. Victoria could feel it because she could sense everything connected to the earth around her.

*THUMP.*

“Tch!” Victoria clicked her tongue, annoyed.

She used her magic in a new way.

Suddenly, the walls of the tower turned into giant stone spears! They stabbed the thing climbing up.

*SMASH!*

*CRACK!* *CRACK!*

“Aaaaaah!”

The gray mist vanished with a scream.

*Hiss.*

*THUMP.* The ground shook again.

‘Did it work?’ Victoria wondered.

She quickly looked down. She saw a huge gray snake at the bottom of the tower. Black blood was coming out of it. The snake was fading away with the blood.

Behind the snake, she saw her broken golems. Knights were running in, looking confused.

But Louisa was gone.

“Tch,” Victoria clicked her tongue again.

She had missed her.

Victoria was angry, but not sorry. She knew Louisa was stronger than her, even though Victoria was now a mage.

More importantly, Victoria thought, ‘I felt it through the earth. It wasn’t a demon. The shape inside was like….’ She had an idea who the enemy really was.