Chapter 1247: Kaiser Bajour
Among the comrades Kaiser lost before starting the project was a lover who had passed away.
Unlike Kaiser, who regressed in age to become younger, she was born with poor health.
It was only after her passing that Kaiser learned she had left a son.
“My name is Ethan.”
The frightened boy carefully watched Kaiser’s expression before speaking.
“M-My mother said… that I should… find you, Kaiser-nim….”
“……”
Ethan Bajour.
Kaiser’s only son, and the heir who inherited the Bajour bloodline.
Since he was born a few years before the project began, Ethan’s birth was barely affected by the regression.
No matter how many times Kaiser rewound time and repeated his failures, Ethan always stood there with an anxious expression, yearning for a family.
“……You resemble your mother a lot.”
Even to Kaiser, who was slowly losing his memories at the time, Ethan’s mother remained a significant presence.
A life teacher who taught the clumsy Kaiser how to love another person and exchange emotions.
Even Kaiser, who had repeated hundreds of timelines back then, overlaid her face onto Ethan’s and fell into a brief moment of sentimentality.
“It’s good to meet you, Ethan.”
Kaiser knelt to meet his son’s gaze and stroked his head.
“From now on, I will look after you. Tell me anything you wish for.”
“I don’t wish for anything. But…”
The boy hesitated and then asked,
“Can I… call you Father?”
Kaiser decided to raise the son his lover left behind, alongside his friends.
It wasn’t solely due to grand emotions like fatherly love or a sense of duty.
He was curious if a possibility of ‘next’ could stem from himself, who only ever rewound everything.
So, when he learned that Ethan had ambiguously inherited the Talent for Reversing Heaven, he actually felt relieved.
If Ethan had only ambiguously inherited this cursed talent, he wouldn’t have to suffer like Kaiser.
“Father, I’m going to join the Sword Sect of Demise with Song-ha.”
“They say it teaches the oldest sword principles on the continent, even though its prestige has fallen.”
“I want to help with your plan, Father. I know there’s not much I can do, but…”
Ethan, who did not possess the Mana of Reversing Heaven, had martial talent on a completely different level than Kaiser.
Enough to swiftly conquer the Sword Sect of Demise with Song-ha and absorb all its sword principles to grow.
In most timelines, Ethan quickly reached an outstanding level and became a powerful figure, making a name for himself.
Ethan, who joined the Imperial Guard led by Gileon, soon distinguished himself and returned to Kaiser’s side.
Sometimes, Kaiser himself was helped by Ethan’s combat prowess to overcome difficulties.
Ethan, too, considered helping Kaiser the purpose of his life and did his best.
That’s why–
When Kaiser, who had repeated tens of thousands of regressions, desired Ethan, no one could have predicted the reason.
“I refuse.”
Ethan adamantly rejected it.
“You want me to… take over your body and continue the regression in your stead…!!”
“Ethan. As one who inherited the Bajour bloodline, you are one of the few who can endure the repeating regressions.”
Kaiser tried to persuade Ethan.
“No matter what era I returned to, you were always by my side. You are the comrade who watched my plan closest.”
“……”
“You’re the only one who can continue the project. Please.”
“……I am not the kind of person who can continue such a great challenge.”
Ethan’s expression clouded.
“I simply… want to be able to help you with my comrades. If I can just do my best until the world’s demise…”
Ethan, who had ambiguously inherited the Talent for Reversing Heaven, had been born with a weak body, just like his mother.
He possessed astonishing martial talent, unlike Kaiser, but it felt almost meaningless because of his constitution.
Perhaps because of this, his son, born late in life, had an introverted and modest personality in every timeline.
He found meaning not in the outcome of saving the world, but in giving his all to the journey of pursuing it.
“I see.”
Kaiser gave up on having Ethan succeed him.
He was already too exhausted to persuade someone for long.
The humanity he had so strenuously feigned crumbled with a hollow ease.
“Then, I will take your body after you die. That should be fine, right?”
“Father…!!!!”
Ethan shot up from his seat.
Kaiser looked at him, speaking with a judging gaze.
“If I take your body, I should be able to last a while longer. I have to gamble on the talent you possess.”
“Father, how could you…!!!”
His expression, as he looked at Kaiser, was filled with shock.
The always stoic father, exhausted by long regressions.
He didn’t have many memories of being loved, but he had always respected this great seeker.
Only now did his son realize how broken Kaiser had become through endless regressions.
And, as always, by the time he realized, everything was already too late.
One day, when the relationship with Ethan reached an irreversible catastrophe.
One day, when Kaiser repeated the same question to Ethan in every timeline and repeated the regression.
Something crucially changed.
“……Father.”
The botanical garden located in District 31.
The figure of a young girl, holding Kaiser’s hand.
Kaiser turned his gaze towards Ethan, who stood frozen, watching the two.
“Ethan. You’re late.”
“……How.”
He handed her an ice cream and returned the child to her guardian’s hand.
The two of them watched the child, who bowed brightly and turned away.
Though it was a short time, it felt like the family was together again after a long while.
“Baragan tipped me off that your absences had become irregular.”
“……”
“Song-ha tried to hide it, but that child never disobeyed my orders once.”
Kaiser turned to the frozen Ethan and said,
“She knew my face. She came up to me, thinking I was the Mayor of Vulcan.”
“……”
“That was my plan to retake Vulcan, which I attempted in a ‘previous timeline.’”
“……Father.”
“I never thought I’d see a granddaughter at this age.”
Kaiser said with an expressionless face.
“And a granddaughter born with a talent that ignores my regression, no less.”
Kaiser Bajour, who regresses through the world’s time.
Ethan Bajour, who revives by regressing his own body.
And, born with a talent that ignores all regressions–
“Jenicia… You’ve given her a beautiful name. It suits her well.”
“……”
“I need that child.”
“FATHER!!!!”
For the first time, Ethan glared at Kaiser with murderous intent.
A thick murderous aura spread like mist, and the people who had come to the botanical garden collapsed without even a scream.
An 8-level swordsman who, at a young age, had already surpassed Habaek of the Sword Sect of Demise, a genius comparable to Song-ha.
Kaiser’s timid son, who couldn’t bring himself to hate him even when Kaiser said he would take his body, was rebelling against him for the first time.
But Kaiser didn’t even bat an eye at Ethan’s murderous intent.
“This is the eighth time I’ve died by your hand. Was it ripped out of my chest last time?”
“……!!”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ve been murdered hundreds of times by other comrades.”
Kaiser said with an expressionless face, watching Ethan tremble.
“If someone can just succeed in the end, what does any of that matter?”
“……Father.”
Kaiser, exhausted by endless regressions, didn’t tell Ethan many things.
Ethan always had to infer what Kaiser didn’t say, and then hope.
What if Father changes his mind now? What if all of this was a lie for my sake?
Repeating futile hopes and disappointments, he yearned and wished for a family affection that was never given throughout his life.
Perhaps that’s why he hid the existence of his young daughter from Kaiser.
But even that he couldn’t protect for long, and had to hand her over to his father again.
Standing before Kaiser at this moment, after even the happiness he had barely found was snatched away.
Ethan no longer knew if his feelings for Kaiser were love or hatred.
Until the very end, their relationship twisted and diverged, irrevocably distorted.
“I… will do it.”
Ethan laid down the sword at his waist and slowly knelt.
Ethan knew that he could never defy Kaiser’s will.
His transcendent combat power, the Talent for Reversing Heaven inherited from Kaiser, even the Imperial Guard he commanded.
All were merely outcomes that would vanish like foam with a single regression, rendered meaningless.
From the moment Kaiser recognized his daughter’s existence, everything became irreversible.
“Whatever you say, Father… I will do it.”
In the botanical garden, where thousands of people lay unconscious and a bizarre silence had fallen.
Ethan knelt before Kaiser, bowing his head.
“If you need my body, I will give it to you on the day you wish…”
“……”
“But, just one thing… please promise me.”
That day, a deal was made between father and son in that botanical garden.
A promise leading to an irreversible catastrophe, even through infinite regressions.
A deal that would completely end their infinitely shallow father-son relationship.
After that, Ethan became Kaiser’s strongest sword, helping to end the long civil war and unite Vulcan.
The Imperial Guard he led, under Kaiser’s command, grew endlessly in strength, becoming Vulcan’s mightiest army.
Throughout that long period, the two never exchanged a single word.
And so, time passed.
Until the project failed, and everything met its catastrophe.
“I see.”
The figures of father and son stood facing each other in the center of the burning laboratory.
Ethan, clutching a blood-stained sword, and Kaiser, turning with an expressionless face.
Lennok, holding dark blue lightning, watched the moment everything ended until the very last.
The beginning and failure of the Black Consumer Project.
The deal between Kaiser and Ethan at its very end.
Without asking, Lennok knew what Kaiser desired when he took his son’s body.
He naturally understood what Ethan hoped for when he offered his own flesh.
Looking back, it had been like that throughout all the days he chased the truth of the project.
Even when bewildered and perplexed by how little he understood no matter how much he dug, at some point, he would naturally revisit his past doubts and find the answer.
Even if it couldn’t be understood from a single facet, everything would somehow fit together like a puzzle.
There was a vast, irresistible order there, like the eternal flow of time.
“Was this… the end of the project?”
The curtain call of the Black Consumer Project.
The outcome of its desperate and spectacular failure.
Kaiser’s death was not an assassination by someone aiming for the project’s failure.
The end of a revivor who yearned for his father, respected him, and ultimately gave his own body.
At this moment, the two who bore the Bajour name met different ends and were forever separated.
Kaiser Bajour’s last regression.
“Are you satisfied with this?”
Lennok, standing at the back of the burning laboratory, watching the scene, asked.
“Is this… the end of Kaiser Bajour that you wanted?”
“……Why.”
Ethan, standing with his head bowed, clutching the blood-stained sword, spoke.
His tear-streaked face had, by now, turned as expressionless as if all emotion had vanished.
Kaiser, who had taken Ethan’s body and repeated all these timelines, slowly turned his creaking gaze.
“Why, you–”
“To give you an answer.”
Crack, crack…!!!
Lennok, holding the endlessly shimmering dark blue lightning, spoke quietly.
“That some things remain unchanged, no matter how much you regress. That some desires take precedence over any failure.”
“……”
“So I merely wished to witness the end of this story with my own eyes.”
Ultimately, Lennok could not fully examine all the details of the Black Consumer Project’s failure or its full story.
Kaiser’s regressions were too vast in scale and scope to be measured by hundreds of years.
Beyond the severed timelines, there might still be puzzle pieces of secrets that Lennok had yet to confirm.
However, even if he hadn’t seen all the memories, this was enough.
For this moment, when Kaiser, who constantly moved on to the next timeline, turned to look at Lennok.
Lennok had been waiting for this moment, the true conclusion to Kaiser Bajour’s story.
“No matter how many times the past is repeated, the future cannot always be changed.”
Lennok moved, holding the overflowing lightning.
“Rewinding failure doesn’t always lead to a better outcome.”
“……”
“It’s meaningful because it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. That’s why even failure should be cherished, and one should move forward.”
Lennok stopped before Kaiser and looked down at him with a calm expression.
“Regression cannot be the answer, because instead of improving through failure, one becomes bound and shackled by the failed past.”
“……No matter how much I struggled, it was ultimately impossible.”
Kaiser, who had been silent, raised his gaze.
Standing with empty eyes, he muttered softly, looking at Lennok.
“No matter how much I turn back, no matter how many times I regress… everything changes, breaks, and twists.”
“……”
“Adamant Thunder. You, too, will come to know. That even a seeker with genius like yours. Even great failures and transcendents… cannot endure forever.”
“Yes… perhaps that is true.”
The failures Kaiser committed were irredeemably devastating, but Lennok did not blame him.
He had already witnessed far greater failures numerous times while unearthing the truth of this world.
Great and hideous failures who had killed millions, destroyed nations, and trampled worlds.
Compared to them, what Kaiser desired was closer to an infinitely pure and utterly faint wish.
Therefore, Lennok did not find it strange that Kaiser felt a lack of capability during his regressions.
Lennok had always been the same. Even holding genius talent, he always yearned for more.
Because he was weak. Because he was lacking. Because he was insufficient. That’s why he regretted, made mistakes, and wanted to turn back.
The talent of a regressor was a miracle born from the most intense deficiency.
He had struggled, desperately trying to hold onto time that slipped through his fingers like sand.
Because he wished to change everything, that wish itself eventually distorted and broke.
Yet, he tried his best to maintain his initial resolve until the day he became a broken machine part.
That desperate heart resembled Lennok’s own at some point. That earnestness overlapped with Lennok’s past self.
Thinking that the end Kaiser met might have been the end Lennok himself would have met one day.
Wasn’t it to confirm that exact ending, one that must never be the same, that he had chased after him until now?
“You’re right, Kaiser.”
Lennok raised his gaze.
“Nothing is eternal, and everything continues to change. All the challengers I’ve seen were like that.”
“……”
“‘I am different,’ ‘I alone will be different.’ Believing that without any basis is arrogance. But–”
He knew Kaiser’s words were not wrong.
All the transcendents Lennok had faced, their fates had shown him as much.
Even Ban-gung, who was once Lennok himself, could not avoid such a downfall.
Nothing is eternal, and everything continually changes.
The end of this universe will also surely come without fail, sooner or later.
Ultimately, everything will fade into sea foam and be forgotten without any meaning.
But, for that very reason–
Fwooooosh!!!!!
Behind Lennok, a golden radiance exploded, engulfing spacetime.
A gigantic ring of light rotated with a majestic resonance, forming a dazzling Kaleidoscope.
The magnificent aura of the Kaleidoscope, illuminating beyond the universe, rotated distantly, looking down upon Kaiser.
Domain Expansion: Branching Point Observation
Kaiser’s past self, left behind in the restricted zone, had once witnessed and been captivated by the splendor of this miracle.
The seeker’s answer, which took the possibility of a non-existent future, rather than past and present, as its origin.
“……This is.”
At this moment, where Kaiser’s mental image, containing the past, and Lennok’s mental image, embracing the future, intersected.
Kaiser’s body stiffened as if frozen, understanding the meaning of the scene unfolding before his eyes.
Even Kaiser, who had infinitely repeated regressions and edited all sorts of talents and fates, was facing this for the first time.
The power of a future that even the Outer Gods of that sea could never dream of.
Kaiser did not know that his past self had seen the same scene and felt the same sentiment.
The Kaiser of now, worn down by repeated regressions. The renegade who had changed everything, even himself.
For a fleeting moment, as he felt the exact same sentiment as his past self, who had dreamed of salvation, and was captivated by the light of the Kaleidoscope.
Lennok, standing with the majestic golden Kaleidoscope at his back, spoke quietly.
“But the choice, at least, is ours.”
“……”
“Even if everything changes, we can choose how it changes. That’s why… we mustn’t undo the choices we’ve made.”
“……That is.”
Lennok slowly moved, following the rotating Kaleidoscope.
“Kaiser. Unlike you, I will not undo the failures that existed in this world. You cannot rewind and forget all of that under the pretext of regression.”
“……”
“The hopes and wishes of all those who challenged and failed before us… I will personally bear all those desperate hearts.”
Once again, the same dialogue repeats in the past timeline, left in distant memory.
The meaning of the answer Lennok conveyed to the Kaiser of the past.
Lennok’s answer, which had not properly formed back then, is now conveyed again to the current Kaiser.
“I will create a non-existent ‘Fourth’ and save the world.”
“……”
“If there is no ‘next’ for this world, if this world’s ending is set, then I will become that ‘next’.”
Lennok spoke to the silent Kaiser.
“Hoping that this entire journey becomes a process solely for that.”
Rumble, rumble, rumble!!!!!
The golden Kaleidoscope tilted, illuminating Kaiser from all directions.
Innumerable branching points leading to a non-existent future. A mirror reflecting beyond them rotated and shimmered with ever-changing splendor.
A miracle that uses the very opportunity to choose as its power. The qualification to directly choose the future lies within Lennok’s heart.
“……I see.”
Kaiser, watching the scene, slowly closed his eyes.
“A non-existent future… Did you dream of enlightenment by making your own choices your origin?”
“……”
“You were… the future itself that I never once discovered in my infinite regressions.”
Kaiser, who only ever rewound the past, was an existence on the opposite side of Lennok, who took the future as his answer.
Even though they dreamed the same things and wished for the same things, they stood in completely different places, looking at the same scene.
If he had realized that a little earlier, would something have changed?
If he had met Lennok a little earlier, would something have changed?
But Kaiser decided not to answer that question anymore.
Because he understood how meaningless it was to predict a seeker who took a non-existent future as their answer.
Because he realized that the answer Lennok had obtained touched upon the ‘next’ that Kaiser had so desperately wanted and wished for.
Just as the Kaiser of the past did, the Kaiser of the present understood and accepted the moment he faced the Kaleidoscope.
The process, more important than the outcome, truly existed in this world.
Only this wizard’s heart would reach the ends of the universe.
But, even so–
“Even so…”
Kaiser slowly opened his eyes and staggered to his feet.
“I will continue to move towards the next timeline.”
“……”
“Even if everything went wrong, I will repeat trial and error until the very end.”
In Kaiser’s empty gaze, a sharp focus momentarily returned.
“Because only that can give meaning to everything I’ve lost. Only that will bear witness to all the time I’ve sacrificed.”
It was too late for him to be moved and accept another’s answer.
He had lost too much to acknowledge and embrace another’s path to enlightenment.
The opportunities Kaiser abandoned. The failures Kaiser discarded. The timelines Kaiser cast aside.
All those things, lost and meaningless, were all that remained to him now.
Even knowing he was wrong, even knowing it was mistaken, there was only one thing Kaiser could do.
To persist in the answer and choice he had made until his final moment.
Proving Kaiser wrong was not Kaiser’s job, but the wizard who stood before him.
“Adamant Thunder. If your answer reaches the future beyond past and present, if choice is all we have–”
Whoosh…!!
Kaiser turned towards Lennok, gathering his mana.
“I, too, will advance towards the past I chose until the very end…!!”
CRASH!!!!
Clatter, clatter, clatter!!!!!
Beyond the infinitely accelerating consciousness, Kaiser drew forth mana, and the Ideational Domain of the Eternal Tribulation Severing Leaf raged.
Upon the runaway, regressing clock hands, the tens of thousands of timelines Kaiser had rewound surged and violently spun.
A winding clock that rewound the past, opposing the Kaleidoscope that illuminated the future.
The method Kaiser chose at the last moment to defeat Lennok: colliding past and future to neutralize each other and reflect their respective answers.
RUMBLE, RUMBLE, RUMBLE!!!!!
Hundreds of thousands of failed Kaisers simultaneously turned to Lennok and walked forward.
Hundreds of thousands of shattered and crushed timelines collided with the Kaleidoscope, flickering.
The tumultuous convergence of the past’s winding clock and the future’s Kaleidoscope, converging on the present.
“Yes.”
Lennok, standing at the center of the shaking timeline, said quietly.
“The Kaiser Bajour I know would do that.”
Kaiser Bajour.
A seeker who failed to save the world, or a broken component who even failed at failing?
A winding clock, now devoid of even the memory of why he wanted it, moved only by lingering regret and remorse.
Nevertheless, at the very last moment, Kaiser decided to persist in his own choice with his own will.
Even if he was broken, worn down, and changed, that too was a path Kaiser chose to follow.
Could Lennok respect and accept even that twisted choice as Kaiser Bajour’s answer?
If he could momentarily stop the broken machine part and make it look back, could that be considered meaningful?
Ultimately, the answer remains unknown until the very end.
The correct answer is always far away, in the distantly faded past–
“Van…!!”
“Kaiser.”
They called each other’s names, just like when they discussed magic theory together in the restricted zone.
At this moment, facing each other head-on, unlike in the past when they sought answers together.
Transcending decades of time, putting an end to the failure of the Black Consumer Project.
To the broken regressor who, even after the project failed, kept regressing, searching for an answer.
To the pioneer whom Lennok had for the first time deemed capable of discussing the ‘next’ from the same perspective.
Bidding farewell to all the days he had chased after Kaiser Bajour.
WHOOOOOOOSH!!!!!
Through the golden Kaleidoscope, dark blue lightning raged fiercely, illuminating the dark universe.
The Lightning of Transcendence, still present in this spacetime even after the Kaleidoscope was unfolded, did not vanish.
As Lennok raised his hand, the Ultimate Lightning Magic responded to his call.
The lightning of Prescience, stretching to the ends of the universe, crossed the stars in an instant and was grasped in Lennok’s hand.
Ultimate Lightning Magic.
Transcendent Manifestation.
Upper Piercing Divine Skill.
Dark blue lightning raged, compressing in Lennok’s hand, and soon transformed into a single bolt of black-blue lightning.
The moment Lennok’s will pierced through all the timelines Kaiser Bajour had regressed and descended.
The Lightning of Transcendence, an indelible mark on the world, descended.
FWOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!
Beyond the overflowing lightning, everything that constituted Kaiser Bajour vanished.
Even the lingering regret he hadn’t given up after infinite regressions. Even the answer Kaiser had tried to uphold until the very end.
All the memories and time accumulated within Kaiser through tens of thousands of regressions burned away and disappeared in the lightning.
At this moment, the lightning of Prescience, which took precedence over all causality, confirmed Kaiser’s annihilation across all timelines and branching points.
“……Ah.”
Kaiser Bajour’s last memory, reflected at the end of the vanishing timeline without a trace.
Kaiser closed his eyes, seeing himself cheerfully laughing with his comrades while explaining the project.
Heart-Thought Reversion.
Lightning Annihilation.
The Ideational Domain of the Eternal Tribulation Severing Leaf was pierced by dark blue lightning and collapsed, soaring into the parched sky of District 49.
CRASHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!