The Insane Regressor: Throne of Pride

Ravian didn’t head straight for the box the moment he entered the room.

He shut the door, then moved slowly through the room and examined every part of it.

He checked the two windows and the distance between them and the manor’s outer wall, the door leading to the bath, the spaces beneath the bed and behind the curtains, and even the points through which a soul thread or small surveillance tool might be slipped.

He found nothing suspicious.

It was unlikely that the Earl would try to watch him inside a room in his own manor after the agreement between them, but a low probability wasn’t reason enough to ignore the possibility, especially when what he was about to do was tied to his soul, his rank, and the truth he had hidden from everyone.

He returned to the middle of the room.

The silver Seal Box sat on the table exactly as he’d asked Shmichael to leave it. Intricate, interlocking lines covered its surface, each one connecting to the next until the entire box looked like a single seal with no beginning and no end.

Ravian sat down on the chair facing it, then laid his palm on its cold metal lid.

He couldn’t feel the heart through it.

Not a single pulse leaked from it, nor a trace of soul pressure, nor even that vague sensation powerful objects left behind in the empty air around them.

The Seal Box was doing its job exactly as it should.

But knowing that the heart was inside it was enough.

The very thing he had been searching for ever since the requirements of the Walker Gate appeared before him was now less than an arm’s length away.

Even so, he didn’t open the box right away.

Before beginning a process that might reshape his body, his soul, and his entire path, he needed to know his current condition precisely rather than rely on what he remembered of it.

”Display status.”

In the next instant, the familiar white window opened in front of him.

Red veins stretched along its edges, while dark shadows moved behind it like living things sealed behind a thin layer of light.

[Displaying host status.]

[Book: Sovereign Pride]

[Host Name: Ravian Veyr]

[Titles: Fate’s Manipulator]

[Age: 18 years]

[Race: Human]

[Rank: Tenth Rank — Awakened]

[Current Gate: Gate of Awakening]

[Next Gate: Walker]

[Extra Lives: 10]

[Physique: Void-Grade Sovereign Pride Physique — 0%]

[Soul: Dual Soul — Unknown Rank]

[Element: Void]

[Comprehension of the Law of Void: 0.001%]

[Innate Ability: Absolute Focus — Unknown Rank]

[Abilities: Sovereign Pulse — Void Shadow — Exalted Identity (ability acquired from a Relic)]

Ravian read through the information slowly, comparing every line against what he could feel inside his own body.

No new anomaly had appeared in his soul or physique, and the eight missing days hadn’t added a single unknown line to his status. As for the ten lives, they remained exactly as they had appeared after his return—a confirmed fact rather than a temporary glitch in the window, though their source remained unexplained.

But before he could close the window, the red veins surrounding it suddenly trembled.

The dark shadows stopped moving.

Then they began gathering behind the line listing his titles.

[A deferred achievement record has been found.]

[Reason for deferral: the host’s Records suffered partial destruction, and the outer layer of his soul was unstable.]

Ravian’s eyes narrowed.

A red line ran across the window from one edge to the other, and then the new messages appeared one after another.

[Evaluation of the achievement associated with the Ambassador of Truth has been completed.]

[The host deceived the Ambassador of Truth while his words were subject to the authority of Truth.]

[The host killed the Ambassador of Truth and tore away his Records.]

[The host resisted the Descent of a minuscule manifested fragment of Truth.]

[The host prevented one of the Fourteen Taboos from reaching the Records of Sovereign Pride.]

[The conditions for a hidden title have been fulfilled.]

The dark shadows behind the window thickened, then surged toward its center as though they were devouring the white light.

[The host has obtained a new title.]

[The Truth Sect’s Demon]

Ravian raised an eyebrow as he read the name.

”The Truth Sect’s Demon?”

The name wasn’t modest by any measure.

But he liked it.

He had deceived their Ambassador under the very gaze of Truth’s authority, killed him, torn away a portion of his Records, and then resisted Truth’s Descent as it tore his body and soul apart.

This was perhaps the most well-earned title Ravian had received so far.

The window shuddered again.

[The title The Truth Sect’s Demon grants a unique title ability.]

[Title Ability: A Lie Acknowledged by Truth]

[Classification: Active Law-based ability — several stages above the host’s current rank.]

[Charges currently available: 1/1]

[Method of activation: Upon activation, the host speaks a single false statement or declaration and wraps it in a trace of the Law of Void as it is uttered.]

[Effect: Higher entities, lie-detection abilities, laws, relics, tools, and methods of inspecting Records cannot reveal the protected statement to be false.]

[The ability does not turn the lie into reality; it merely conceals its falsehood from every means of detection.]

[Charge recovery period: six months.]

[Reason for the recovery period: The ability draws upon the Law of Void and stands several stages above the host’s current capacity to bear and recharge it.]

[Regression exception: If the charge is used on a day that is later erased by death and regression, it will be restored automatically once the regression is complete.]

Ravian read the description once.

Then he read it again from the beginning.

The ability didn’t make him a better liar, nor did it rewrite his Records or turn his false identity into the truth.

It was simpler than that... and more dangerous.

He would speak a single lie, wrap it in the Law of Void, and Truth itself would be unable to find the falsehood within it.

If an entity wielding the authority of Truth asked him about his identity and he said that he was Rayan Veyr, Rayan Veyr wouldn’t become his true identity, but the entity would be incapable of proving the statement false, no matter how deeply it dug into his soul or his Records.

And if he combined it with Exalted Identity, the examiner would find no discrepancy in his body or soul and wouldn’t even be able to expose the lie protecting the new identity.

The recovery period, however, made one thing perfectly clear.

Six months for a single statement.

It wasn’t an ability he could test out of curiosity; it was a card that shouldn’t be played until every other card had failed.

The corner of his mouth lifted slightly.

’This is absurdly useful, and it’s decent compensation for what I suffered earlier at the hands of that insane Taboo,’ Ravian thought.

Useful.

It was a word far beneath what the ability deserved, but that was how Ravian saw it.

Two lines changed inside the status screen in front of him.

[Titles: Fate’s Manipulator — The Truth Sect’s Demon]

[Abilities: Sovereign Pulse — Void Shadow — Exalted Identity — A Lie Acknowledged by Truth]

The instant the change was complete, fine white threads shot out of the window and headed toward the Seal Box beneath Ravian’s hand.

Toward the heart—and the final requirement for his ascension.