Chapter 1018: Milestone (5)
“Oh, this is bad news?”
Splat!
With a single gesture, the 7th Apostle, Lariata, who had just ripped off an Order Alliance spellcaster’s head, tilted her head in thought.
The tidal wave of darkness that had swept and crushed the land ceased, entering a temporary, eerie calm.
But regardless of the Nether King’s presence, those gathered on the battlefield continued their endless slaughter.
The prolonged war between the Order Alliance and the Guido Cult had already created a grim atmosphere in the Central region.
“Gurgle…!”
Crunch!
She crunched down on the human head she held in her bare hand, chewing it.
Far from protecting the Cult’s priests, the 7th Apostle freely rampaged through the battlefield, slaughtering humans.
Yet, Lariata’s gaze, which had been wildly flitting about the chaotic battle, was now fixed on the Dark Spire floating in the sky.
“…”
“Lady Lariata…!!”
The priests, reciting their prayers, urgently called out to her, but she did not reply.
Lariata, her face painted with blood, merely looked up at the sky, her smile completely gone.
Staring intently at the still, silent Dark Spire, she muttered in a low, somber voice.
“The Nether King… it seems he’s regained his senses.”
“…Huh?”
The unprecedented monster, who had been raving and committing massacres and destruction throughout the Gabihaeng, had regained his senses at this very moment?
Was this related to the incident where Cheonbeon had collided with the spire just before, causing it to change direction?
As all sorts of thoughts raced through the priest’s mind, listening to Lariata’s explanation, at that very moment.
Snick!
Lariata, who had just sliced off the priest’s neck with one hand, began to chew on it.
Having sated herself by devouring even a priest of her own Cult, Lariata wiped her blood-smeared mouth and leaned her head back.
“Alright, I’ve roughly met my quota. Shall we begin?”
Lariata glanced back at the pale-faced priests who were reciting prayers, then smirked and turned her gaze.
“Prepare my little sister Amrita’s Scale spellcraft. You know the feeling, don’t you?”
“…”
“No, wasn’t that the wrong name? What was the name of the new gentleman who became the 10th Apostle this time?”
Just as Lariata tilted her head, a thoughtful expression on her face.
Vwoooom…!!!
From beyond the Dark Spire, which had turned towards the ground, a chillingly eerie will-thought began to pulsate.
Myeong’s declaration: he would personally resolve the chaotic battle in Gateway City, in Lennok’s stead.
There was no time to ask for explanations or hear answers.
For the moment Myeong extended his hand towards the ground, overflowing darkness began to pulsate from the edge of the horizon.
“Arise.”
With Myeong’s declaration, standing atop the crushing tidal wave of darkness, the landscape of the ground completely inverted.
As his will-thought surged, the Dark Giants that had been trampling the ground now had luminous eyes.
Thud!!
The Dark Giants, who had been advancing, halted and turned towards the ground they had just swept over.
The surviving superhumans of the Order Alliance and Guido Cult stumbled and fell backward as the Dark Giants turned.
The giants crossed their arms to their sides, then began to clasp each other’s hands, forming hand seals.
Groooowl…!!!
“Ugh, ahh…!!!”
“He’s mad…!! The incantation—!!”
As the superhumans realized the Dark Giants were directly chanting black magic, they convulsed.
Rays of darkness, falling from the sky, plunged into the ground as black pillars.
[Direct Blackness [직흑]]
Formless dead thoughts constructed black magic and activated according to Myeong’s will.
Distorted black lines tore through space within the darkness, unleashing thousands of black ripples in rapid succession.
Boomboom-boom-boom-BOOM!!!!
“Gahhhk!!”
“Help, save me…!!!”
“Haaah!! Haaaahh!!”
Within the tidal wave that engulfed space, waves of darkness surged, crushing the survivors to death.
Black trees grew from the ground, impaling humans with their sharp branches.
Each time the Dark Giants trampled the ground and moved, dozens of different black magic spells manifested from the sky and were unleashed.
Clatter-clatter-clack!!!
“Grrrugh…!!!”
The sound of chains, screams, explosions, and shrieks.
Darkness and blood mingled, melting stickily onto the withered plains.
Neither the spellcraft frantically chanted by the spellcasters, the prayers recited by the priests, nor even the force fields of the ability users held any meaning.
It was an overwhelming massacre that began in a single instant, as if the deaths just moments before had been nothing.
Black plum blossoms bloomed over the cold, rigid corpses, casting a somber scent of death.
“Pfft, hahahahat…!!!”
“Heeheeheehee!!!”
One of the spellcasters, unable to face the approaching darkness, had gone mad; he burst into laughter and stabbed himself in the head with a dagger.
It was such an overwhelming and vivid manifestation of death that even the Order Alliance’s battle-hardened spellcasters couldn’t endure it for long.
“This is…”
“It makes no difference, whether it’s the death of others or one’s own.”
Myeong said, withdrawing his hand from beside Lennok.
“The deeper one’s perception of death, the more impossible it is to escape my law. The same goes for any superhuman.”
“…”
“I mix the priority of the will to reject death and the instinct for survival. When the will to live becomes an attractive force, and the fear of death a repulsive force, pushing and pulling each other…”
Myeong said, looking down at the carnage unfolding on the ground.
“They can no longer tell if they want to live or die.”
“Hahahahaha!!!”
“It’s here!! It’s here!!”
“Khuhuhuht…!! Khehehehet!!!”
Snap!!
Crrrack!!!!
Order Alliance spellcasters leaped voluntarily towards the Dark Giants, committing suicide.
Ability users of the Ability Awakening Warband lay down in the waves of darkness and blew up their own bodies with their powers.
Priests of the Cult pierced their own hearts with dead branches, bowing as if in prayer.
It was a horrifying spectacle: those who had been fleeing death just moments before now willingly embraced it.
Kwoooooh!!!
A sentence of death slammed down from above. Waves of dead thoughts swept the ground.
Black trees and Dark Giants tore apart, trampled, and burst human bodies, rapidly diminishing the number of people.
“This is what it means to reach Transcendence. Not the uncertain and vague manipulation of concepts, but the ability to interfere with cause and effect, twisting them inside out.”
“…”
“It means holding the scales of life and death, and toying with them as I please.”
“Is that… the essence of the Gabihaeng?”
Groooowl…!!
Lennok, listening to the explanation from the spire floating in the sky, asked, and Myeong fell silent.
“The Gabihaeng was originally a journey to comfort souls and soothe spirits before Transcendence.”
Myeong, silently gazing down at the ground, spoke quietly.
“But my family’s method is to seize the fate of the dead and grant them a rest worse than death…”
Myeong’s gaze, fixed on the humans dying on the ground, flickered indistinctly for a moment.
“I am a sinner. So, in the end, I won’t be able to escape punishment.”
“…Myeong.”
“Ah, I know. You don’t want to kill everyone, do you?”
Suddenly, Myeong’s expression twisted into an incomparably cruel smile.
“I’ll spare a few. But I can’t overlook the insects that extended the most harmful killing intent towards you.”
“Gah, ahhhk!!!”
The superhuman, Rebid Awler, his entire body stained with darkness, floated up from where he stood.
The 13th Seat of the Ability Awakening Warband. A metal manipulation ability user and the leader of the Annihilation Squad who attacked Lennok.
He convulsed, spewing acrid darkness from every orifice of his body.
The metal strewn around him trembled as if trying to activate his ability, but each time, he kept spewing chunks of darkness from his gut instead of blood.
“Ughhhaaah…!!”
“It’s a type of sacrificial magic that converts all internal organs into black magic.”
Myeong kindly explained.
“It’s an awakening skill used by a black wizard facing death, who converts all their bodily functions into black magic.”
“…”
“Magic that would normally benefit the caster can be used as a killing tool if the principles are reversed. The opposite is entirely possible too.”
“Kuh-guguguk, guhhh…”
Rebid Awler died, his eyeballs black, spewing black foam.
Until now, Rebid Awler had endured through his own achievements, but the moment Myeong concentrated his spellcraft on him, he couldn’t resist.
Unable to even properly see the entity killing him, he convulsed like an insect, suffering until death.
“Superhuman. Monster. Wizard. Mercenary. Priest. It doesn’t matter what they are.”
Myeong slowly clenched and unclenched his hand towards the ground as he spoke.
“What’s important is, as I said, changing the priority. It sounds grand, but if you grasp the sensation, you’ll be able to use it quickly.”
“…That’s.”
“Remember this conversation well, Van.”
Myeong, placing a hand on Lennok’s shoulder, said leisurely.
“Meeting you with my mind still whole like this, it might truly be the last time.”
“…”
“Whether it’s the sensation of wielding magic, or the feeling of reaching Transcendence… as much as I’d like to pass it all on to you here and now, there’s no time.”
Myeong’s bowed face was hidden by his black hair.
Lennok remembered having a similar conversation with Myeong once.
Myeong, advising Lennok, who had not yet reached Level 8, on how to manipulate spacetime as a result.
Even now, with his mind restored, was Myeong trying to tell Lennok what he needed to learn and refine?
Looking back, from their first meeting until now, Myeong had always maintained a consistent attitude towards Lennok.
He walked one step ahead of Lennok, trying to explain the sensations and tricks he had experienced and mastered.
Even at this moment, as he massacred and killed humans on the ground without a second thought, he did not hesitate to offer Lennok advice and counsel.
While pondering his contradictory attitude and reactions, Lennok had hesitated to judge Myeong until now, but—
“What do you want from me?”
“…”
“The role you wish to entrust me with before the end… what does that mean?”
Lennok slowly turned to Myeong and asked.
“I cannot choose only one path. So, I cannot move only as you wish.”
“…”
“Because I envision the possibilities of the future, not the past or present… I intend to make everything I have learned my answer.”
Leaving Myeong in silence, Lennok closed his eyes.
“Because I believe there is a process more important than the outcome. If the present moment cannot precede the conclusion, then I—”
I must create a world where that is possible.
If neither assimilation, destruction, salvation, nor god-slaying is Lennok’s answer.
He seeks to envision a world that encompasses all things beneath the myriad phenomena.
He conveyed the answer he had shared with the Director and the Pontiff on that day, closer to Myeong than anything else.
That must have been because Lennok felt he owed this great black wizard so much.
That Myeong, who had watched over Lennok and tried to help him for so long, deserved to hear his answer.
Lennok knew there were words that had to be said, no matter how distorted they might become.
“Indeed. I thought it would come to this someday.”
Did Myeong also know what kind of answer Lennok was envisioning?
He chuckled, then turned his gaze.
“Because you are both like and unlike the Director. I thought that the closer you got to Pandemonium, the further you might also drift away.”
“Then why…”
Did Myeong deliberately draw Lennok directly into Pandemonium?
Why did he lead him to face the Director, see his answer, and make his own judgment?
But Myeong, though he understood Lennok’s words, did not answer him regarding that.
“You know, Van.”
He merely turned his gaze, a faint smile on his face, as if about to disappear.
“That one moment of realization is more necessary to us than hundreds of explanations conveyed in words alone.”
“…”
“You know that all the truths you have personally awakened to had their own value and reason, don’t you?”
Having said that, Myeong slowly turned away.
“You are right. Because there is a process more important than the outcome, that moment should not be defiled. That was all I asked of you.”
“Should not defile the moment…?”
“Yes, for example—”
In Myeong’s eyes, looking down at the ground, was an unconcealable sneer.
“Like the presence of the Transcendent who watches us from over there, even now.”
“…What?”
Lennok, following his words and unconsciously looking down at the ground, frowned.
Mercenary units, Order Alliance spellcasters, and Ability Awakening Warband ability users were dying mercilessly, swept away by the darkness Myeong conjured.
Corpses piled upon corpses, and twisted bodies contorted into grotesque forms…
They became characters.
[BLACK WIZARD CLAN BLOODLINE ANCIENT BLOOD]
…!!!!!
The corpses strewn across the ground formed eerie characters.
A horrifying déjà vu: dead bodies, stiffened all over, functioning as a message itself.
Lennok already knew whose Spell-Word delivery method this was.
“Jinwa…!!!”
The fallen Ascendant located on the outer perimeter of the Central Front’s veil.
The greatest Spell-Word user who created the continent’s common language, and now a Transcendent seeking to become a god.
That monster, who commanded humans as characters, had noticed the anomaly in Gateway City from Paradise Lost.
Kiiiieeeeng!!!
At that moment, an intense psychic wave slammed down above Lennok and Myeong’s heads and exploded.
“Kkh…!!!”
Before Lennok’s eyes, a real Spell-Word seemed to unfurl, crackling with sparks.
A will-thought that instantly pierced his mind, seemingly trying to twist and sever his will-thought and psychic waves into a chaotic mess.
Incantations, using corpses as brushes, unfurled one after another on the ground.
[HALTED FELL PERPETUATED]
The characters formed from corpses, for a moment, tilted indistinctly, as if sneering.
[YOU BETRAYED HIM]
Crack, crackle-crack…!!!
The pitch-black darkness shattered and broke apart in mosaic units.
Incantations unfurled openly, piercing through the tidal wave of darkness Myeong had deployed here.
A persistent and mad will, as if trying to read the memories of Gateway City and forcibly drag them out.
[DO YOU SEEK THE ANSWER THROUGH UGLY AND SUBLIME SACRIFICES?]
“I already have the answer, Jinwa.”
Myeong said, clasping his hands together and forming a hand seal.
“You and I have similarities in that we have both strayed from the fundamental answer.”
Myeong, who had used Dark Giants even for simple incantations, now unleashed his second black magic against the Ascendant.
“Isn’t that why you perceived my advent and tried to peek into this place beforehand?”
[YOU BASTARD]
Had Jinwa sensed something from Myeong’s answer?
The moment Jinwa’s Spell-Word, crushing and tilting corpses, rose with chilling sharpness.
Black Rule-type Unique Magic
Property Transformation, Mysterious Principle Manifestation
All-Consuming Thought
[Great Pull [태인]]
Within Myeong’s hand, dense darkness twisted into a circular rotation.
As the darkness rotated, drawing the shape of a Tai Chi symbol, it then deeply submerged and compressed into a single point.
The tidal wave of darkness that had swept the ground defied gravity and uniformly began to surge towards the sky.
[HOW DARE YOU DEFILE MY DOMAIN WITH YOUR FILTHY FEET—]
Thrum-thrum-thrum!!!
Pillars of darkness supported the sky and ground, covering the spacetime fissures created by Jinwa.
The darkness that had dyed the entire horizon pitch-black was dragged away, curving along the path drawn by the colossal pillars, at that moment.
The very direction of the Gabihaeng itself twisted, beginning to deviate from its trajectory.
Kwooooong!!!!
The grand darkness, which had dyed the horizon to its very end, changed direction and moved as if pushed aside, next to Gateway City.
Only then did Lennok, understanding the current situation, open his eyes wide.
“Could it be, from the very beginning, the Gabihaeng was—!!”
The black magic Myeong had just used was, true to the spell’s name, the manifestation of an attractive force that guides fate itself.
And Myeong had used Jinwa’s presence as a rudder, altering the very direction of the Gabihaeng he was guiding.
Had Myeong intervened before it could completely sweep through Gateway City and engulf the civilians who had evacuated behind the veil?
However, if Jinwa’s Paradise Lost was the target, then the ultimate destination of this Gabihaeng would inevitably be—
“Van, from now on, when you operate in the Central region, it would be wise to be cautious about such matters.”
As Lennok lost for words in inexpressible shock, Myeong said in a calm voice.
“The Central region, where Ars Nova is located, is a boundary close to the Outer Sea on this star. Because the world’s boundaries are faint, all sorts of Transcendents observe the Central from both within and without.”
“…”
“They come not for you, but for the deaths and causality you create. I can help this time, but…”
The moment Myeong smiled and twisted his hand, this time, the fissure Jinwa had shattered was completely covered by darkness.
“Next time, you’ll need a means or backing to protect you.”
All the darkness on the ground surged into the sky, filling all the fissures this time.
Kwaaaaaah!!!
The waves of darkness, tilted towards the sky, curved diagonally and poured down like a waterfall.
Within the darkness that instantly dyed everything, Myeong turned his back to Lennok.
“She was one of the most sensitive Ascendants even before she went mad. So, this should be enough for now.”
“…Myeong.”
“On the way out, I’ll borrow your Gateway. It’s hard to control the Gabihaeng after twisting its direction, so it would be best not to approach the Central region for a while.”
Even after massacring enemies threatening Lennok from all sides in Gateway City to the brink of annihilation, Myeong maintained control until the very end.
He even used Jinwa’s intervention as an opportunity to twist the Gabihaeng’s direction, avoiding the massacre of civilians evacuated behind Gateway City.
Until the very end, he sought to advise Lennok on what to be cautious and wary of in the Central region.
Thus, the ending Myeong desired at the end of the Gabihaeng was—
Lennok hesitated, unable to easily put words together.
“I…”
Is this the last time?
Is this moment truly the last time he would meet Myeong, and receive his will-thought with a clear mind?
He still remembered the many assistances he had received from him, from their first meeting until now.
As Lennok suppressed his complicated feelings and remained silent, Myeong looked at him and smiled.
“You asked earlier what your role was, didn’t you?”
Myeong said softly.
“You are a milestone, Van.”
“A milestone?”
“The absolute uniqueness stemming from your talent, which will never exist again… seeing that, I, too, can correct my direction like this.”
“…”
“A possibility that cannot be imitated even in illusion, amidst the deaths I have pacified and devoured.”
Myeong smiled.
“Your existence is the clearest proof that this very moment is reality. Thus, by your mere existence, you become the process by which I reach my conclusion.”
“…”
“So, there’s no need to worry. You are already fulfilling your role.”
Only then did Lennok understand how Myeong had so quickly regained his senses upon seeing him.
Myeong, having gained power through the Gabihaeng, was descending into madness, devouring the deaths of those he killed as a price.
But even as the line between reality and hell blurred, an existence like Lennok’s could only exist in reality.
Was that why Myeong, even while his mind was unstable and he was descending into madness, could use Lennok’s talent as a guide to return to reality?
“Meeting you, and in many ways this time, I was fortunate.”
Myeong, slowly raising his gaze towards the sky, muttered.
“Because of that, our end might not be next. But I hope it won’t be so.”
“…”
“For my end not to arrive at its destined moment would ultimately signify the Director’s failure.”
“Even while agreeing with the Director’s answer… you’re entrusting the outcome to me?”
“The Director won’t change. He’s been that way from the start. Not that it’s wrong, but…”
Myeong turned to Lennok and smiled.
“You will change. Perhaps you are that change itself.”
“…That’s.”
“That is why I intend to stake my end on you.”
Kwoooooh…!!
The surrounding darkness surged as if rotating, then was drawn into a single point.
Myeong’s form, turned towards Lennok, also slowly blurred into the darkness.
Myeong’s eyes, now one with the darkness, quickly lost focus and sank deep.
“Farewell, Van. May at the next milestone…”
Even the time he had regained by meeting Lennok lost its meaning, once again becoming one with endless death.
But Myeong, with difficulty, raised his gaze and once again wove out the words he had almost forgotten in his final moments.
“…May our end exist.”
Whiiirrr…!!!
The Dark Spire ascended rapidly, leaving Lennok behind.
It rotated as if being sucked into the Gateway of Celestial Flower’s Myriad-League Fragrance, casting a thick darkness beyond the veil.
Paaang!!
As the darkness veiling the sky receded, the pre-dawn sky revealed itself.
The flames of Celestial Flower’s Myriad-League Fragrance, having caught onto the flickering veil, and the faint starlight shimmered between them and the pre-dawn sky.
Lennok’s form, plummeting after piercing through the Dark Spire, fell through the clouds, igniting a trail of flames.
In the wake of the Gabihaeng, countless forms of death were left behind.
Was it Myeong’s consideration until the very last moment, or had Lennok already known without being told?
…
Lennok’s expression, as he gazed down at the ruins of Gateway City after everything was over, was tinged with an inexpressible sense of complexity.