CHAPTER 155 – INCOMPLETE REGRESSION MAGIC
HIRAYA MISTELTEIN
I was taken aback as I saw Johnny’s chest getting pierced by Deo’s sword. Blood gushed from the gaping wound, staining his shirt a deep crimson and pooling at his feet. His face contorted in pain, eyes wide with shock.
“H-How…” Johnny muttered, blood dribbling from his lips with each labored breath.
Deo responded silently, tearing off his chest armor to reveal a distinctive V-Mark on his chest. It was the Mark of Vesryn, but it lacked any Dragon Lord Commandment.
“Deo was created to counter the Dragon Lords’ immortality,” Arthur explained, a sinister smile playing on his lips. “I specifically modified his body to hunt and kill Dragon Lords like you, Centurion.”
Johnny laughed, a deep, resonant sound that seemed incongruous with the severity of his wound. “Hahaha!”
“What’s so funny, you dying dog?” Arthur sneered, his eyes narrowing.
“You fell into my trap,” Johnny said, his limbs shifting back to a more humanoid form. He raised his left hand, displaying a glove with an intricate magical circle engraved on its palm.
“Is that…!” Arthur gasped, his eyes widening in disbelief.
“Since you claim to be the creator of the Regression Magic, you know fully well what this means, right?” Johnny chuckled, his laughter growing stronger despite his dire condition.
“Johnny, are you…” I muttered, my voice trembling.
“How could you!?” Arthur roared, his face flushed with rage. “You are not an Erudite! You cannot possibly activate it without a full understanding of the Regression Magic!”
“Lysander taught me,” Johnny said, his voice steady and confident. “I guess I’m something of an Erudite myself.”
All of a sudden, the magical circle on Johnny’s glove expanded, enveloping both him and Deo in a shimmering, intricate sphere. The rings of the circle began to rotate, resembling a Dyson sphere, isolating them from the outside world. Deo punched at the sphere’s boundaries, but his efforts were futile. They were no longer in the same space-time continuum; there would be no escape for either of them.
Johnny glanced at us, then at Lysander, who lay unconscious, his heart refusing to beat due to Deo’s Vesryn Pulse. Finally, Johnny turned to me, his eyes filled with a mix of satisfaction and resignation.
“Hiraya… Please protect Lysander. Be his guiding light and his reason for living. That is the only thing I ask of you,” Johnny's voice was strained, his breaths ragged as he fought against the encroaching darkness.
"Johnny…" Tears welled in my eyes, a torrent of emotion threatening to overwhelm me. But with a determined resolve, I brushed them away, my commitment unwavering. "I will."
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A fleeting smile crossed Johnny's lips, a bittersweet acknowledgement of the bond that bound us together. With a final glance at Lysander, his form still and unmoving, Johnny turned his gaze back to Deo, his defiance unyielding even in the face of certain death.
With a loud roar, he chanted his forbidden spell. “Activate Incomplete Regression Magic! Set Time Travel to one million years into the past!”
“What the hell!?” Arthur cried out, drawing his pistol and firing at Johnny. The bullets passed through Johnny as if he were a ghost, unable to affect him in this timeline.
Just before the Incomplete Regression Magic took effect, Meike arrived on the scene, orange lightning crackling around her body. She knelt to the ground, her eyes wide with shock and despair at the sight of Johnny’s life slipping away.
“J-Johnny…” Meike gasped, her voice trembling.
“I’m… sorry… Meike,” Johnny muttered, his eyes locking onto his lover's. “I… will… find… you… again…”
A blinding flash of light erupted as the Incomplete Regression Magic activated. The deafening ring filled our ears, and a wave of numbness washed over our bodies.
When I opened my eyes, I found myself back in the throne room. Meike immediately grabbed my hand, and I hugged the unconscious Lysander tightly.
“Tachyon Accel!” Meike cried, chanting her spell. Orange lightning surged through our bodies, and with a powerful kick off the ground, we traveled faster than light, arriving at a grassy plain several kilometers away from the collapsing castle.
We had finally escaped the kill zone orchestrated by Arthur, but Lysander was still in grave danger.
“Hang in there, Lysander!” I cried, desperately using healing magic on his heart that had ceased beating.
“Hiraya, pump his chest so we can jumpstart his heart,” Meike advised, her eyes reddened and wet with tears. “Initiate a standard CPR procedure while using your healing magic.”
I nodded, following Meike’s instructions. Using my Healing Touch magic, I pumped Lysander’s chest as hard as I could. I even blew air into his mouth to ensure his breath. Five pumps. Ten pumps. Fifteen pumps. Twenty pumps.
After a few more pumps, Lysander responded with a massive gasp, his eyes snapping open in shock as he was brought back to life once again.
“L-Lysander!” I cried, a smile breaking through my tears. “Thank goodness! I thought I would lose you too…”
“Hiraya…” Lysander weakly muttered.
We embraced each other tightly, and I wept openly. Nearby, I could hear Meike’s sobs, and I knew she was crying as well. Lysander noticed too, his eyes softening as he saw Meike’s tear-streaked face.
“Hiraya…” Lysander muttered weakly. “W-Where is Johnny?”
I just shook my head and continued to cry, letting myself bathe in the comforting embrace of my love.
“Meike?” Lysander asked, still clueless.
Meike also shook her head, weeping as she clenched her fists in the grass. Slowly, Lysander realized the gravity of the situation and the events that had just transpired. His body trembled as he absorbed the weight of losing his friends once more. Tears began to stream down his face.
A powerful gust of wind blew across the grasslands, providing a moment of solace and peace for us to mourn those who had lost their lives.
“Damn it!” Lysander roared, slamming his fist into the ground. “What did I use the Regression Magic for? Why did I change the timeline just for it to turn out like this?”
“Lysander, it’s not your fault,” I said, trying to comfort him. “It is my sin. As the leader, I should have seen these things. I should have paid more attention to what Eva and Gazelle told me about.”
“No. It was entirely my fault,” Lysander trembled. “I was too naive to see the real enemy. It wasn’t you, nor the Republic of Dragons, nor Gazelle, nor Humanity. It was Arthur—the one I treated as a best friend.”
I felt the rage corrupting Lysander’s heart. I could understand his pain; he had been betrayed by his best friend from high school, betrayed by humanity, and betrayed by the ideals he had fought for so long.
“Lysander, we will get through this,” I whispered, holding him tighter. “We will honor Johnny’s sacrifice and find a way to make things right.”
The wind continued to blow, carrying our sorrows with it, as we huddled together in our grief and resolve.