Chapter 1255: Post-War Processing (8)
Vulcan, District 19.
Deep within the most dangerous and secretive restricted zone in all of Vulcan.
What lay within was no secret weapon hidden by the City Council, nor some rare artifact.
It was countless corpses of Kaiser Bajour, preserved eternally within this restricted zone.
GROOAAN!!!
Beyond the transparent glass wall, innumerable corpses of Kaiser Bajour lay scattered.
Kaiser as a young man, as Lennok remembered him. Kaiser in old age, lying with a wrinkled face.
Kaisers from all periods of time—boyhood, youth, middle age, and old age—were enshrined throughout the laboratory.
“……”
Lennok watched the thousands of Kaiser Bajours lying all around him, silently.
Some corpses had their eyes peacefully closed, others were contorted in pain. Some were not even fully intact.
There were gruesome sights, torn apart as if caught in an experiment, and serene figures, neatly laid out in burial shrouds.
Every form of death Kaiser could have faced existed here.
“You seem more surprised than I expected.”
The Mayor, walking beside Lennok, smiled.
“Indeed, you didn’t anticipate that so many individuals you personally killed would remain, did you?”
“……No.”
Lennok closed his eyes.
“I killed Kaiser. His obliteration across all timelines was confirmed, so he will not return.”
“……”
“What’s here are clones created using his genes… or a type of vessel to contain his spiritual presence, I suppose.”
Lennok looked down at the boy with a chilling gaze and asked.
“Replacements Kaiser prepared in anticipation of his absence. Was District 19 a graveyard where these were all gathered and enshrined?”
Lennok had obtained Ultimate Lightning Magic and perfectly confirmed Kaiser’s obliteration across all timelines.
Kaiser knew this, too, which was why he saw his choice through to the very end, accepting his demise.
Therefore, what remained here was not Kaiser Bajour himself.
They were merely unintelligent corpses, draped in Kaiser’s shell, devoid of even a soul.
Yet, precisely because of this, Lennok could grasp the deeper meaning of the scene that remained here.
“If you’ve witnessed Kaiser’s Regression, you’d know.”
The Mayor nodded and said.
“Kaiser had been preparing various contingencies ever since his memories began to become muddled.”
“……”
“Among them were not only measures to protect his mind and spiritual presence but also clones that could replace him in an emergency.”
The boy remarked indifferently, gazing at the corpses enshrined all around.
“What exists here are replacements Kaiser created using his own genes. This entire place was a massive experimental ground, used to gauge the limits of the human named Kaiser Bajour.”
“……”
“Which timeline’s Kaiser Bajour possessed the most outstanding abilities. Which condition of Kaiser could retain the most memories. How much information could be injected into Kaiser’s mind before he went insane.”
The boy’s expression turned cold.
“Whether the meaning was lost if Kaiser’s memories were divided and stored in other replacements. To what extent could Kaiser Bajour be treated as such in the realm of spellcraft and unique abilities.”
“……”
“Kaiser didn’t hesitate to conduct human experiments during the project, but that applied equally to himself and others.”
The boy said with an expressionless face.
“The person he experimented on and offered sacrifices for the most was himself. Can you believe that what remains here is proof of that?”
“……”
“Can you understand why Jordan, despite having served as Kaiser’s personal physician, ultimately relinquished all his duties?”
Jordan, who had been walking ahead in silence, suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, as if frozen.
He stood there blankly, with a pale face, gazing at the Kaiser replacements in District 19.
“……Jordan.”
Lennok’s expression clouded slightly as he looked at Jordan’s back.
Why he had been able to take on the role of guide for District 19.
Why, despite that, he had never returned here until now.
Lennok understood, simply by facing the scene that remained here.
The corpses that once bore the face of the man Jordan served, but could never truly be him.
Only then did Lennok understand why Jordan was so skilled not only in medicine but also in performing autopsies.
Jordan, who had expertly autopsied the bounty hunter Lennok brought in when he first started working as a freelancer.
Where Jordan’s experience, said to be similar to a coroner, originated from.
The existence of experimental subjects that Jordan, working as Kaiser’s personal physician, had to personally dissect.
Could Lennok truly empathize with the hardships Jordan had endured since the project’s failure?
Could Lennok accuse Jordan for not telling Jenny any of this?
The truth about Kaiser and Ethan. The deal they made concerning Jenny.
If he thought the sight here was too cruel to reveal to Jenny, who was unaware of it all.
Perhaps that was why Jordan only now returned here, after everything had finally ended.
“……”
Ultimately, this was all just speculation.
From the moment Jordan stood here, driven by emotions he himself couldn’t clearly define, words were unnecessary.
From the moment he guided Lennok here, Jordan was already—
“……Van.”
Jordan spoke quietly, his voice hoarse.
“Come this way.”
“Jordan.”
“I… haven’t shown you everything yet.”
Jordan gasped, speaking with difficulty.
Jordan’s face, as he looked at the corpses beyond the glass wall, had aged significantly in just a moment.
“There’s more inside, even further in. His…”
“……”
Lennok walked silently behind Jordan, without a word.
Past the laboratory where Kaiser’s corpses were stored, further down the corridor.
Beyond the research labs with enshrined bodies, a massive warehouse existed.
A grotesque sight of hundreds of brains, soaked in bodily fluid, neatly arranged in tanks.
Only after standing before it did Lennok understand what Jordan was trying to say.
“All of these… were once Kaiser Bajour.”
“……”
“You discarded the cloned human bodies of Kaiser and extracted only the brains, intending to use them as storage devices for memories?”
“I… had to show you…”
Jordan spoke, his voice almost dying out.
“You, who brought an end to his story… you have the right to confirm and take all that he left behind…”
“……”
The grey-white brains floated in small tanks filled with fluid.
Below each tank, a small connector-like interface was prepared.
The moment Lennok drew mana and pressed a connector, an intense image unfolded before his eyes.
WHOOSH—!!!
A vast, endless jungle. Humid, sticky air carrying a musty scent.
Lennok, landing on a grotesque altar entangled with vines, heard an unfamiliar voice emerge from his lips.
[Found you, Baragan. So, you were here.]
[…Huh?]
The man, tied to the altar and bleeding profusely, glared up, annoyed.
[Who are you to call my name so casually? What tribe are you from?]
[The chieftain who officially inherited Esoteric Sorcery. By lineage, a great-granddisciple of Pyeonram, was it?]
Lennok chuckled.
[You possessed powerful sorcerous talent but lost in tribal infighting, meeting your end as a human sacrifice. Perhaps because it was an isolated region, the butterfly effect rarely occurred each cycle.]
[…You. I don’t know what you’re talking about, but you strangely know a lot about my tribe’s affairs.]
Baragan looked up at Lennok and sneered.
[Well, you seem to know enough, so don’t get involved and just get lost. Can’t you see what a mess my heart is?]
[…]
As he said, Baragan’s chest, tied to the altar, was cut open, revealing his still-beating heart.
The grotesque runic script etched onto his heart pulsed as if alive, emitting a red glow.
The optimal form for a sacrifice to the god they believed in, according to the ancient traditions of the primitive tribe.
[Don’t look at me with that disgusting expression, you bastard. This was decided long ago.]
Baragan bled profusely but grinned widely.
[Since a Geas was etched on me from birth, what can I do? My ascension to chieftain was ultimately for this, wasn’t it?]
For a sorcerer, a Geas was a law powerfully intertwined with the foundation of their spellcraft.
Baragan’s tribe had a custom of etching a Geas for sacrifice onto the baby with the most outstanding talent that year, from birth.
An ancient tradition, continuously refined and adjusted through offerings and rituals, passed down and preserved through generations of Esoteric Sorcery.
That the adult Baragan would be sacrificed was something decided decades ago.
[For a person, there is a fate determined from birth that cannot be changed.]
Baragan smiled, his eyes growing dim.
[If you struggle in vain to change it, it’s not me but others who get hurt. So, there are no regrets…]
[No.]
SWISH!!
At that moment, the vines binding Baragan to the altar were instantly severed and fell away.
[Huh?]
[Fate does not exist. There is nothing in this world that is predetermined.]
Lennok reached out his hand, looking at Baragan’s bewildered face.
[If such a thing truly exists, I would gladly change even that fate.]
[……]
[Baragan. Will you not join me in saving the world?]
In his fading memory, Kaiser smirked.
[I’ll show you a world far vaster than this jungle.]
“……I see.”
WHOOSH…!!!
Returning to reality, Lennok raised his gaze, his expression solemn.
“All that remains here are… remnants of Kaiser’s memories.”
The memory of Kaiser and Baragan meeting for the first time and becoming friends.
The memory of Kaiser saving Baragan, who was meant to be sacrificed.
The memories remaining in the other tanks would also contain similar moments.
The cherished memories Kaiser held before everything wore away and became numb.
If he tried to use extreme methods because he didn’t want to lose that meaning. If even those extreme attempts were already crumbling.
If even that became meaningless, and this massive experimental ground was left to rot.
Either way, it was a bitter and painful ending.
“Having passed through the restricted zone, you would be familiar with the Mana Particle Collapse Phenomenon.”
The Mayor, standing behind Lennok, spoke quietly.
“Kaiser used various districts of Vulcan as testbeds for experiments, leaving behind that phenomenon as proof of their failure.”
“……”
“The results remained in District 19 as well, serving to sustain Kaiser’s replacements so they could function as replacements.”
“……Mana of Reversing Heaven.”
Bloodline Ability was a cursed innate talent, flowing through one’s lineage and inherited.
However, cloned humans created through genetic manipulation could not have properly inherited Kaiser’s talent.
Far from controlling the talent, they would have died under the curse of mana flowing in reverse through their blood from birth.
Therefore, to prevent his replacements from being swept away by the Curse of Reversing Heaven, Kaiser had “collapsed” all the mana particles in the restricted zone.
If there was no mana flowing in reverse within the replacements’ bodies to begin with, they wouldn’t be swept away by the power of Reversing Heaven and die.
A lingering doubt that remained even after bringing the project to an end. At this moment, as Lennok identified each trace Kaiser left behind.
Just as Lennok was silently recalling the origins of the restricted zone and the curse laid upon it.
CLICK!!!
At the sound of heavy metal, the ground shook violently.
At the very end of the room, where large tanks of brains were arranged, stood a control panel.
Jordan stood before a lever entangled with complex locking mechanisms.
RUMBLE, RUMBLE, RUMBLE…!!!
The entire restricted zone convulsed violently as the lever was pulled.
Jordan, slowly turning around as Lennok watched, spoke.
“Van. Now that Lord Kaiser has departed, all authority here has passed to me, his personal physician.”
“……”
“With Ormeon witnessing, I can finally put an end to all the lingering attachments he left behind.”
Jordan gave a weak smile towards the silent Lennok.
“My waiting for you before facing my end was because I had to tell you all of this. You have the right to know.”
“……Jordan.”
“You bring it to an end, Van.”
Jordan gazed at Lennok.
“Just as you did for Lord Kaiser… bury everything that remains here, including myself.”
“……”
“That would be the only role this old man, who couldn’t tell you anything, could play.”
Only then did Lennok understand why Jordan had been waiting for him here.
Jordan had not guided Lennok to explain the arrangements Kaiser left behind.
Nor was he trying to betray Lennok by making excuses or using hidden secrets.
He sought atonement.
“A long time ago… I couldn’t refuse his request and ended up assisting in creating this place.”
Jordan, raising his dim gaze, said.
“I’ve always regretted that fact. But even if I went back to that time… I still wouldn’t have been able to refuse his request.”
“……”
“It’s just that I’m finally able to take responsibility for a mistake made long ago. Isn’t that enough?”
“……You want me to bring an end to it.”
Lennok, who had been silent, began to walk towards Jordan.
“Understood. It’s not a difficult task.”
He had already decided the end for others many times.
Hadn’t he saved and killed countless people while uncovering the project’s secrets?
Towards Jordan, who closed his eyes and slowly spread his arms, Lennok slowly raised his hand.
As Lennok placed a hand on Jordan’s shoulder, who seemed to have forgotten to breathe, and drew his mana.
CRACKLE!!
Brilliant blue lightning flashed, instantly enveloping Jordan’s body.
A sensation of transparent, blue light embracing Jordan, as if breathing vigor into him.
Instead of sharp killing intent and ferocity, there was a faint warmth that felt surprisingly gentle.
Feeling that, Jordan slowly opened his eyes amidst the overflowing light.
“……Van.”
“Go back to Jenny and tell her everything that happened.”
Lennok looked down at Jordan and said.
“You haven’t shown your face for days since the Subjugation Operation ended, she’ll be worried about you.”
“……That is.”
“Jordan. I’m afraid determining your end is not my job.”
Lennok smiled at Jordan, who was speechless.
“Because it is Jenny’s place to be angry about what you did, to be sad, or to forgive you.”
“……”
“In that case, wouldn’t it be right for Jenny, not me, to choose that ending?”
WOOOOOSH!!!
Leaving Jordan, who looked up at him with a bewildered expression, Lennok rotated his will-thought.
There was no need to hear a reply. Lennok had already made his choice.
Just as he had determined Maleon’s end in Kundara. A person’s end doesn’t always have to be death or annihilation.
He wanted to create something beyond destruction, breaking, and erasure.
If, as Jordan said, Kaiser’s story truly ended here. If even the project’s lingering attachments could now be swept away by the tides of time.
If Jordan, having twisted Kaiser’s end, guided Lennok here to meet his own end in this way.
Then perhaps it was acceptable for Lennok to twist Jordan’s fate as he wished.
CRACKLE……!!
As the brilliant blue mana surged and flashed, Jordan’s body was engulfed in intense lightning and vanished from the restricted zone.
As Lennok reverse-summoned Jordan with his Domain and turned around, the boy watching from behind clapped softly.
“Remarkable spellcraft. You transferred Jordan over hundreds of kilometers to District 49?”
The boy tilted his head with a smile.
“If all project officials were like you, our end wouldn’t have been like this.”
“……”
“Well, it’s all in the past now. I didn’t want Jordan to die here either.”
The Mayor, leaving Lennok unanswered, slowly began to walk.
“Jordan was an external disciple who inherited the medical arts of Left Prime Minister Yuseong. Throughout the project, he always had to serve as a link between Kaiser and the Imperial Palace.”
“……”
“Can you imagine how many masters’ corpses he had to dissect to create The Prohibition, which used Kaiser’s memories as a trigger?”
“The reason Jordan handled corpses here… was to create The Prohibition for the project.”
Lennok turned his gaze, his expression dark.
“That itself was an affair involving the Imperial Palace’s intervention.”
“Have you never found it strange?”
The boy asked with a smile.
“Why was The Prohibition placed on the project so powerful? Why did even Ascendants have to obey and keep its secrets?”
“……”
“It’s simple. The basis used to create The Prohibition was the ‘Imperial Privilege’ of the royal family.”
The Mayor said, walking among the collapsing debris all around.
“The way they once managed and commanded this world. That authority was mixed into The Prohibition, which is why no one could defy it.”
“Imperial Privilege…?”
The boy did not answer Lennok’s question.
He merely stared at Lennok’s face with a smiling expression, then turned and walked away.
“I waited today to tell you this story.”
“……”
“Why the Imperial Palace of The Empire intervened in the project, even lending the royal family’s authority. Why they courted destruction by exchanging the fates of Vulcan and the Imperial Palace.”
The boy spoke faintly, his voice unreadable.
“Now that the project is over, we must start the story from here to discuss what comes next.”
“……”
Did he accompany Lennok and watch the end of District 19 just to leave these words?
The Prohibition, based on the ‘Imperial Privilege’ of the royal family, experimented on and adjusted through Kaiser’s corpses in District 19.
Did he wait for Lennok to explain how it was created and to reveal the Imperial Palace’s intervention?
But—
“But even if I tell you this, you won’t simply believe my story, will you?”
The boy smiled.
“After all, in your eyes, I’m just one of the project officials who used Kaiser.”
“……”
“So, I’ll wait. There was a member of the royal family who came to this city to observe this war, wasn’t there?”
RUMBLE, RUMBLE, RUMBLE…!!!
The landscape of the District 19 laboratory shook.
The boy, looking at Lennok from the end of the collapsing corridor, slowly turned.
“It will be fine to talk again after you’ve sufficiently understood the Imperial Palace.”
WHOOSH!!
Before the boy’s voice had even faded, his figure vanished from Lennok’s sight.
A void, leaving no trace, as if he had never existed in the same time as Lennok.
“……”
Leaving the vanished boy behind, Lennok looked down at the scene stretching to the end of the collapsing corridor.
Kaiser’s corpses lay dead throughout the laboratory, eyes closed as if in slumber. The dazzlingly bright memories of Kaiser remained in the tanks.
However, Lennok no longer harbored any emotions or regrets looking at this scene.
He had already brought a complete end to Kaiser’s story. He had let go of even the lingering attachments by Jenny’s side.
As the Mayor said, he had no intention of dwelling long on mourning or sentimentality for Kaiser.
It was time to move forward, not to look back and stand still.
So, from now on—
CRACKLE!!
As he drew forth brilliant blue lightning, the spacetime of the restricted zone trembled.
At the moment the lightning’s causality spun fiercely, imbued with transcendent will, and flashed.
Lightning, as blue and transparent as the sky, was caught in Lennok’s hand, enveloping the laboratory.
“Van! You’re back!!”
“……Mila.”
On his way back to District 49 after finishing matters in District 19.
Lennok encountered Mila at the construction site where restoration work was underway, and he stopped.
Mila rushed over, intending to hug Lennok tightly, but belatedly caught herself and stopped.
Her eyes spun as she thought about her next action, then she flattened herself on the ground.
“Van…!! Thank you so much for saving my sister! I’ll never forget this kindness!!”
“……It’s fine, get up. Anyone would think I tried to kill Priscilla but then saved her.”
Lennok shook his head with a wry smile.
“I never intended to let the Tower officials die from the start. I told you that last time, didn’t I?”
“No, but… the plan and the actual situation are completely different, aren’t they?”
Mila stood up with an awkward expression, scratching her head.
“Surviving after encountering a Grand Sorcerer like Baragan is entirely thanks to you. I’m always grateful.”
“Your sister. She’s clever and resourceful, Jenny is very fond of her.”
Lennok patted Mila’s shoulder and looked away.
“You’ll be able to secure a good position in the Tower without having to flatter me. Don’t worry.”
“Hehehe, I like Jenny too, but getting on the Tower Lord’s good side is a whole different level.”
Mila rubbed her hands together like a fly beside Lennok, wearing a sly expression.
“You must be very tired, should I get you some good elixir or tonic? I can even steal the tuna sashimi Felix secretly hoarded!”
“Why did the topic suddenly shift there?”
Lennok continued to walk down the empty street, having an unexpected pleasant chat with Mila.
Entering the temporary office building where his colleagues were staying, guided by Mila, Lennok asked.
“Where’s Jenny?”
“She’s talking to Jordan.”
Mila shrugged her shoulders, casting a glance.
“From the atmosphere, it seems it’ll take a while, so it might be best to leave them alone for now.”
“Is that so…”
Mila, being quick-witted, seemed to roughly guess that the conversation between the two was heavy.
Since Lennok, who had witnessed everything in District 19, personally decided it, Jordan wouldn’t take it lightly either.
However, it was inevitable that the tasks that needed to be handled with Jenny would be delayed for a while.
Perhaps checking on his colleagues’ condition first and seeing if anyone was injured should be his priority now.
The moment Lennok thought that and stepped into the office building, a machine gun-like noise erupted right next to the corridor.
RAT-A-TAT-TAT!!!
At the sound of something being furiously pounded, as if expressing emotion, Lennok glanced over.
“……Dylan?”
Dylan’s figure, visible through the crack in the corridor door.
He sat cross-legged, pounding on a laptop placed on his knees as if to break it.
His eyes, hidden behind his mask, were bloodshot, and he snorted angrily, as if enraged.
An unusual appearance, beyond just being distraught, looking somewhat like an addict.
Lennok, who was already worried about the aftermath of the Subjugation Operation, stopped.
“Is he alright?”
“……Oh, that?”
Mila scornfully drew a finger across her neck.
“He’s been acting like that since a while ago, just ignore him. He’s just a common idiot.”
“What’s he doing to be like that?”
“He’s not really doing anything specific, just… Ah, I guess you wouldn’t know yet?”
Mila scratched her head and said.
“With the City Government’s central network stabilizing, Deepweb access has become smooth. Because of that, traffic is surging towards the Deepweb from all over Vulcan.”
“……Deepweb, you say?”
“The, the Deepweb is originally a space created behind the central network, isn’t it? Until now, with the communication network paralyzed, Deepweb access has been—”
Before Mila could finish, Davi’s tail thrashed wildly inside Lennok’s arms.
At the same time, Davi copied and displayed the website address Dylan was looking at before Lennok’s eyes.
“……I see.”
Lennok checked the title of the Deepweb post Dylan was currently embroiled in a flame war over, and gave a wry smile.
Should he say it was as expected, or even more absurd than expected.
The post’s title was blatantly provocative, clearly intended to grab attention.
[Title: Adamant Thunder Behavior Pattern Analysis and Conquerability (Discussion Welcome)] + 437634