A faint sigh broke the silence that had settled over the conference room.

“Ha.” The woman with a steel-strong presence, Alina Vladimir, laughed in disbelief.

How could she not? Right in front of her, a madman claimed to be a Regressor.

“Did you injure your head on your trip to the Demonic District?” Perhaps it seemed rude to a fellow Seven Star, but Alina sincerely looked at Kwon Oh-Jin as if genuinely worried about him.

She, a fellow Seven Star, couldn’t simply overlook it if the one who bore the title of Alkaid had gone crazy.

“No, I’m perfectly fine,” Kwon Oh-Jin replied.

“It’s hard to believe what you just said...”

“I know it’s a difficult story to believe.”

Who would readily accept someone suddenly rattling off future events and claiming to be a Regressor from the future? Not only Alina, but the other Seven Stars also looked doubtful.

Only Baek Mu-Kang seemed genuinely impressed and exclaimed with pure awe, “Wow! That’s amazing!”

It’s an expected reaction.

If he were in their shoes, Kwon Oh-Jin would’ve reacted the same.

Even so, he chose to reveal that he was a Regressor for one reason. The other beings in this very room actually believed this madness. They weren’t just anyone, but the very transcendents known as Celestials.

“The Celestials here know that I am telling the truth.”

“The Celestials?”

Kwon Oh-Jin turned toward the small cluster of Celestials seated away from the round table.

“Isn’t that right?” he asked.

Vega flinched and nodded frantically like a broken machine. “Y-Yes! T-That’s right! M-My child is a... a Regressor...”

“Why are you so flustered? We already knew Alkaid was the Heaven-Defying Star, didn’t we?” Deneb asked Vega, who could barely form her words.

“R-Right! Of course, I knew that too! So, uh... My child is....”

“Haaa.”

Whether or not it was because her child’s status as a Regressor had suddenly been publicly revealed, Vega began floundering.

Deneb stepped forward in her place. “Everything Alkaid just said is true.”

“Are you saying Mr. Oh-Jin really is a Regressor?”

“That’s right.” Deneb calmly nodded and turned toward Kwon Oh-Jin. “That boy is the Heaven-Defying Star.”

“The Heaven-Defying Star...?” Alina trailed off and frowned as if hearing the term for the first time.

However, Allen seemed to know of it and looked at Deneb in shock. “W-Wait. Are you saying Mr. Oh-Jin is the Heaven-Defying Star? The one mentioned in Lord Polaris’s prophecy?”

When Deneb quietly nodded, Allen’s jaw dropped open.

Allen Oskar, known for his stoic and cold attitude, displayed a range of expressions. This sent ripples of unease even among the other Seven Stars.

Rebecca, still with her arms crossed, furrowed her brow slightly and glanced toward Allen. “What the hell is the Heaven-Defying Star?”

Allen swallowed hard and began to explain. “According to Lord Polaris’s prophecy... this world has already been destroyed once.”

The explanation of the Heaven-Defying Star continued. The world had already perished once before, and only by turning back time could the Heaven-Defying Star alter its doomed fate.

It sounded like something out of a cult scripture, and the Seven Stars’ expressions soured with growing disbelief.

Rebecca laughed derisively and shook her head as if to dismiss the nonsense. “You expect us to believe that?”

“It’s understandable that you’re all doubtful, but what Allen just said is nothing but the truth.” With Deneb’s affirmation, the Seven Stars couldn’t argue back.

After all, who could dare call it nonsense when a Celestial himself confirmed it?

Alina deeply sighed and pressed her forehead as if struck by a headache. “Haaa. You’re saying that you’re a Regressor who has returned from a ruined future?”

“That’s right.” Kwon Oh-Jin nodded calmly.

Alina’s sharp gaze swept him up and down as though trying to pierce through his very soul.

As Supreme Commander of the China-Russia Alliance, she had met and led countless people. Therefore, she prided herself on her ability to judge a person’s character.

I can’t read him.

It felt like staring into a night sky shrouded in black clouds. Even her long-honed insight could not discern if he was telling the truth. However, that didn’t mean she could simply accept the absurd claim that he was a Regressor from the future.

“Then, why have you kept this truth hidden until now?” Alina narrowed her eyes. “If you really are a Regressor, that means you already knew that this would happen in Italy, right?”

Then, why hadn’t he stopped the disaster beforehand?

Kwon Oh-Jin remained silent at the piercing question.

Closing his eyes briefly, he finally answered, “Yes. I knew.”

“Then, why didn’t you warn us beforehand?”

“If I had warned you, would you have believed me?”

Would anyone seriously believe that a city of millions would be destroyed overnight by a Black Star Celestial and his demonic beast army?

“Haaa, so you just watched it all happen and did nothing?”

“Did nothing, you say.” Kwon Oh-Jin sneered. “Wasn’t it all of you who didn’t do anything?”

Alina’s face contorted with fury. “What did you just say?”

Kwon Oh-Jin continued calmly. “When the Black Star Society first appeared, do you know who killed their executors?"

“That’s... ”

“It was me.”

Kwon Oh-Jin had killed Cheon Do-Yoon, the King of Owls.

“And who killed the King of Seahorses that appeared afterward?” he asked.

“Wasn’t it that Japanese Awakener who did it?” Bianca Bennett, who had been quietly listening, cocked her head.

“No...” Alina said.

The public believed that Sakaki Ryo, the head of the Kuroushi, had killed the King of Seahorses. However, the Alliance’s intelligence team knew that it had been someone else.

“Mr. Oh-Jin killed him...”

“Yes. I killed him.” Kwon Oh-Jin nodded quietly. “Next, who killed the Bufo King?”

“The Guardian Stars...” Alina said the name of the now disbanded organization.

The Avaricious Wolf had created this organization, but they had immediately dissolved after their first operation due to casualties and the Avaricious Wolf’s death in the Demonic District. However, they had killed the Bufo King.

And the key figure within the Guardian Stars was—

“It was me.”

Alina’s expression hardened.

“Recently, even the Black Star Celestials have begun to appear.”

“If you’re talking about Enceladus, I’m aware of it,” Alina said.

“Then you must also know who killed him.”

Alina could only remain silent.

Kwon Oh-Jin rose from his seat and scanned the Seven Stars around the table. “I killed three executors of the Black Star Society, went to the Demonic District to prevent the Heavenly Demon from being unsealed, and even killed a Black Star Celestial.”

None of those seated here could even dare to reach the tip of Kwon Oh-Jin’s accomplishments.

“Then, it’s my turn to ask.” His blazing gaze turned toward Alina. “What exactly have you been doing all this time?”

Alina’s lips pressed tightly together. It wasn’t that she had nothing to say.

Of course, the other Seven Stars hadn’t been idle. They had hunted the Named monsters around the world and punished criminals using the power of their Stigmas. However, even accounting for that, their achievements were insignificant compared to Kwon Oh-Jin’s.

“We lacked information...”

It wasn’t that they couldn’t act because they weren’t strong enough. In terms of pure strength, the Awakeners gathered here weren’t far off from Kwon Oh-Jin. The only reason they hadn’t eliminated the Black Star Society’s executors was simply because they didn’t know where the Black Star Society was hiding.

The same went for the Heavenly Demon. They had heard rumors of his existence, but no one could have known that he was preparing to break free in the Demonic District. Unless someone really knew the future...

Alina exclaimed quietly, “Ah...”

The corners of Kwon Oh-Jin’s lips rose as he watched her. “Do you really think all of this is a coincidence?”

The pattern of Kwon Oh-Jin’s accomplishments made no sense. It couldn’t simply be called a coincidence.

“But... in the end, you still couldn’t prevent the attack on Italy beforehand, could you?”

If his achievements came from knowing what would happen in the future, then why didn’t he stop the disaster in Italy?

Kwon Oh-Jin recalled the question that the Celestial of Ursa Minor once posed to him.

“What do you think of fate, Miss Alina?”

“Fate...?”

“Yes, fate.”

“Isn’t that just... a predetermined future or something?”

“I wasn’t asking for the definition of fate. What I want to know is, what do you believe to be the nature of fate?” He slowly raised his arm and moved his hand from left to right. “Fate is not a straight line that extends smoothly.” This time, he drew his hand down from top to bottom. “Fate is like a torrent, endlessly pouring down.”

“What exactly are you trying to say...?” she asked.

“Do you truly believe tossing a pebble into that torrent will change its course?”

“Are you trying to say that fate isn’t something that changes so easily?”

“Exactly.” Kwon Oh-Jin nodded bitterly. “I tried to stop it. No, I thought I had already stopped it.”

He had arrogantly believed that he had changed fate.

“The attack occurred differently this time.”

“So, in the original future...”

“Mobius never appeared. It was the work of an Awakener known as the Blood Witch.”

“And what happened to the Blood Witch?”

“I dealt with her myself before she became the Blood Witch.”

Everyone could only remain silent.

However, Italy still fell.

“Even though the cause has changed... the outcome hasn’t?” Alina asked.

“It’s not that it can’t be changed at all. If that were the case, I wouldn’t have struggled all this time trying to change the future.”

Throwing a stone into a rushing torrent wouldn’t stop it, but stacking rocks to block the flow could redirect it.

Alina closed her eyes and sighed, shaking her head as she processed his words. “To be honest... It’s hard to believe.”

No matter how great his achievements were, the idea that he came back through time as a Regressor was hard to accept. After all, simply accomplishing great feats didn’t prove that he came from the future.

“Hmm. Miss Alina, you should trust me.”

“What do you mean?”

“You have a son, don’t you?”

Alina’s expression twisted sharply. “Why are you suddenly bringing up Alphonse?”

“In thirty-six days... No, this will happen after the operation fails, so it will be thirty-eight days from now.” Kwon Oh-Jin shrugged lightly and sat back down. “On that day, Alphonse Vladimir will die.”

Bang!

With a deafening crash, the table shattered.