Chapter 1262: Post-War Processing (15)
A special authority, held only by the highest imperial family members of the Ars Nova Imperial Palace.
The power that formed the foundation of the Imperial Palace, and the ability that once made them administrators of the world.
The purest True Blood ability among the nobles created through thorough genetic manipulation and selection.
The Imperial Privilege whose existence they became aware of during the investigation into the Prohibition of the Black Consumer Project.
Could it be that this ability, which he only understood after killing Kaiser, already existed within Lennok?
“……”
Blue blood dripped from Ezekiel’s wrist.
If he were to drink the True Blood flowing within the imperial family, he might understand what Ezekiel meant by those words.
But Lennok, even seeing Ezekiel’s blood dripping before his eyes, was thinking of something else.
Immutable Body. Blue Blood.
Various traits Lennok had passed by before opening his eyes in this world, before choosing his magical talent.
If, at that time, he had chosen a trait like Blue Blood through the Karma System, would something have been different?
Instead of waking up in an abandoned factory with a body worse than a corpse, would a different future have awaited Lennok?
It was ironic.
Because even after gaining much and losing much, Lennok was still recalling that very first moment.
He didn’t believe that the choice that led Lennok to this world back then was the result of mere coincidence or fate.
However, the moment he realized Lennok’s origin, which he had thought was due to the Project, was ultimately different.
Now that he no longer knew how Lennok had opened his eyes in this world.
Lennok had to ask himself once again.
If, even after taking Ban-gung’s existence as a cause, Lennok still didn’t know why he existed.
If he had to draw even an Ascendant’s fate as a cause to make Lennok’s choice a reality.
If choice alone was everything that made Lennok exist as himself.
“……I refuse.”
Lennok, who had been gazing at the beautifully shining blue blood drop, averted his eyes.
Lennok turned his gaze, as if piercing through the cloth covering Ezekiel’s face, and said.
“I know what True Blood is worth. Because I already possess it.”
“……”
“While there might be another meaning to the True Blood of a living imperial family member that I don’t know…… I don’t trust you enough to drink it.”
The act of ingesting something was the most direct way to introduce external power into one’s body.
Lennok was not foolish enough to be mesmerized by the imperial family’s power and readily drink something given by another.
Especially if it was a liquid treated as a powerful medium and symbol like blood.
The imperial family member of Ars Nova, whom he could only first confront as Adamant Thunder after the Subjugation Operation ended.
How much could he trust Olivera’s blood relative, whose existence he hadn’t even known until recently?
Naturally, Lennok had no intention of being flexible in this matter.
“Since I first heard about the Imperial Privilege, I’ve faintly considered it.”
Lennok turned, looking at Ezekiel with a cold expression.
“Because I know what I was…… I thought perhaps it might already exist within me.”
“……”
Fate of Demise. Demise of Fate.
Lennok was a being born into this world by taking Ban-gung’s fate as a cause, and as a result, he was the third fate that existed.
If Lennok existed by using the fate of Ban-gung, presumed to be an Ascendant from Ars Nova, as a vessel.
It wouldn’t be strange if the talents and traits of imperial family members or nobles lay dormant within Lennok.
Because he had been thinking about it ever since he heard about the Imperial Privilege from Vulcan Mayor Arjis Ormeon, Lennok could remain unshaken by Ezekiel’s proposal, but—
For Ezekiel to be aware of that fact and make the proposal first was a matter of a different dimension.
“Answer me, Imperial family member.”
Crack!!
As Lennok lightly grasped the air, azure lightning took hold in his hand.
The lightning, having completely escaped its rampage and regained its characteristic clear light, flashed, dyeing the office in an azure hue.
Lennok, gripping the overflowing current as if pulling it down, tilted his head slightly and looked back at Ezekiel.
“Why did you conclude that the Imperial Privilege already existed within me?”
“……”
At this moment, the two Transcendent beings, ranked 1st and 2nd on the Eastern Continent Superhuman Power Ranking, faced each other at the very top of Vulcan’s Outer Zone.
But Lennok knew how powerful a superhuman his opponent was, even without such flattering epithets.
An imperial family member born in the heart of the world, who had lived as a ruler, treated as such until Ars Nova’s destruction.
A mysterious ability user whose full strength couldn’t be fully grasped, even though he was present until the very end of the Subjugation Operation.
There was no clearly known power, from the spellcraft and unique abilities he used, to his martial prowess, Will-thought, and Root Mindscape.
Yet, what did it mean that this person had taken the position second only to Adamant Thunder as soon as he appeared on the Eastern Continent?
If necessary, he would have to verify it himself, even if it meant using his power right here.
But Ezekiel, even facing Lennok’s wildly rampant magic above the office, showed no particular reaction.
He merely gazed at the swirling lightning, then spoke in an indifferent tone, as if something had just occurred to him.
“Do you seek to verify and define everything yourself through your own choices?”
Ezekiel spoke in a calm tone and turned his gaze.
“You never wanted an answer from the start. You would merely deem it sufficient if it could serve as a standard.”
“……”
Rumble!!!
Thunder erupted, and the office’s floor shook wildly.
Books fell from all sides of the library, and items on the desk rolled across the floor.
The center where lightning, etched like an azure crack, slowly flickered and spread.
Towards the wizard raising his hand on the other side, Ezekiel slowly turned.
“Very well. If we must prove that we are beings like you……”
Splash.
Ezekiel, gripping the True Blood flowing from his fingertips, murmured as he drew up his magic.
“There’s nothing we can’t show you.”
Kiiiieeeeeeng!!!!!
With a sharp resonance, Will-thoughts intersected, and both their consciousnesses accelerated explosively.
A clash nearly instantaneous. A moment that could barely be called a fight. But for the two of them, that much time was enough.
Lightning and True Blood overlapped in a single spacetime, flashing, and time slowed to its extreme, engulfing everything.
In the perceived time, slowed so much that the blue blood drop falling from Ezekiel’s fingertip seemed to halt in mid-air.
The Will-thoughts of Lennok and Ezekiel fiercely rampaged and intertwined, and in an instant, they read the Mental Images held by each other.
Within their intersecting consciousnesses, Lennok felt intense images flash before his eyes.
Pabababababat!!!!
Faint memories, like a broken film, played briefly like a video, then vanished.
The collapsing golden Empire.
A giant, veins intertwined across its entire body, screaming and rising from all directions.
The moon, bleeding and falling at the horizon’s edge. Behind it, a colossal eye emerging.
A fortress entangled in vines, abandoned within a boiling jungle.
The remains of a Grand General, head bowed, breath ceased.
“……!!!”
The moment Lennok, having instantly read the memories Ezekiel recalled, flinched and twisted his hand.
Azure lightning burst through the wide-open office window, horizontally piercing the sky.
Paaaat!!!!!!
Kwaaaang!!!!!
The azure lightning that pierced the sky and vanished in an instant.
But with just that brief aftershock, the high-rise buildings in the district where the Cartel headquarters was located swayed like dominoes.
Buildings tottered like toys, shaking as if they would collapse at any moment, emitting faint roars.
But Lennok didn’t even care about the Will-thought resonance he had unleashed, gazing at Ezekiel.
“……You.”
“Indeed, I feel the Prohibition has become much looser than before.”
Ezekiel ignored Lennok’s gaze and looked down at his bleeding hand.
“Normally, even a memory like this couldn’t be brought up to the superficial consciousness…… This is quite new.”
“Even these results must surely be a sign that you brought an end to the Regressor in the Subjugation Operation.”
Ezekiel’s message, openly implying Kaiser Bajour’s demise and addressing him.
But Lennok understood the meaning of the memories Ezekiel had just shared through his consciousness and remained silent.
What he had directly seen was only for an instant, but it was unmistakable.
The collapsing Empire. The bleeding moon and the colossal eye. The dead Grand General’s corpse.
Memories of the moment Ars Nova was destroyed. The traces of the Empire left in the Central Front thereafter.
What exactly existed in that abandoned place after the central city fell?
What was Ezekiel’s reason for sharing that fact with him at this moment?
Whoosh!!
A warm breeze blew in through the open window.
Midday noon with a clear azure sky. Dazzling sunlight streamed through the window frame.
With his back to the sunlight obliquely streaming into the office, Ezekiel slowly turned.
“For someone who brought an end to that person, your expression isn’t very good.”
Ezekiel asked nonchalantly, as if completely unconcerned about the recent clash.
“Wasn’t it what you desired, to resolve your lingering regrets?”
“……From the start, it wasn’t what I wanted.”
Lennok slowly calmed his magic and replied with an impassive face.
“I merely responded because it was the end Kaiser desired. I’ve never felt any satisfaction from that fact.”
“I see.”
Ezekiel turned to leave.
“However, it would be wise to be mindful in front of your subordinates. If the leader’s face is still filled with worry after ending a great war, the anxieties of those who follow you will deepen as well.”
“……”
“Isn’t that the responsibility that one who stands above should rightly bear?”
“An imperial family member of a fallen Empire speaks quite eloquently.”
Lennok slowly raised his gaze, his eyes shining eerily.
“I have no intention of becoming a god just because I dream of transcendence. That kind of worship or adoration is not what I desire.”
“Perhaps. But that may not be a matter you can decide on your own.”
Ezekiel replied, looking down at the city spread out below the office window.
“Because trusting and following someone isn’t achieved solely through coercion or force. Sometimes, a single miracle resonates more deeply than a hundred praises.”
“……”
“The divine authority you have displayed in this city today was enough to grant you new divinity.”
Ezekiel whispered from beyond the cloth.
“The Empire, once upon a time, was also like that. Talents and fates, shining like stars, gathered around a great focal point, creating miracles, and ultimately dreaming of salvation beyond that……”
“……”
“Pure, they were defiled; great, they fell. For such was the end of all who formed dynasties and empires throughout history, seeking to conquer the stars.”
The imperial family member, who slowly turned back to Lennok, spoke.
“Perhaps it was natural for the Imperial Palace to try to foresee its end through Kaiser Bajour’s precedent.”
Ezekiel Ron Maize.
Lennok knew that Ezekiel had observed him throughout the Subjugation Operation, and had been waiting to meet him.
What he wanted by meeting Lennok, what he intended to ask and answer by even showing parts of his memories.
What the true nature of the Imperial Palace was, which had tried to use even Kaiser and the Black Consumer Project as mere connections.
What was the ‘legacy’ hidden beyond the ruined Ars Nova?
Ultimately, it was up to Lennok to choose even what to ask.
“Within Kaiser’s Regression……”
Lennok, retracing the memories Ezekiel had given him, slowly opened his mouth.
“The Imperial Palace official who contacted the Project in Kaiser’s Regression was the Left Prime Minister, Yuseong. He made a proposal and offered a deal concerning the Corpse Emperor.”
“……”
“Why did the central city willingly bring about its own destruction by using the Project’s failure?”
Lennok asked.
“What form has the Empire taken now, submerged beyond The Veil (of Ars Nova)?”
Ars Nova’s destruction was a catastrophe caused by the failure of the Black Consumer Project.
But Lennok now knew that it was something the central city had desired to happen itself.
Vulcan Mayor Arjis Ormeon had said that Ars Nova exchanged its fate with Vulcan, and Jordan had called it a proper end.
If the central city had wanted to obtain some kind of result derived from the Project’s failure as a cause.
If, for that purpose, they had intervened in Kaiser’s Regression, rewinding countless failures to obtain the desired outcome.
What could be the reason Ars Nova willingly brought about its own destruction?
Because the imperial family member before him was showing his memories and attempting to answer something, Lennok also changed his question.
But—
“Because for us, not even failure was permitted.”
Ezekiel slowly raised his gaze.
“Being born in the Imperial Palace always meant that.”
“……Not permitted?”
The moment Lennok flinched at that answer, Ezekiel turned and walked towards Lennok.
Crossing the wide office bathed in sunlight, he slowly approached Lennok and spoke.
“Neither death, nor annihilation, nor even the three other endings life could embrace.”
“……”
“Erasing, forgetting, discarding them one by one like that…… it was during our search for peace that we realized.”
Ezekiel stopped before Lennok, silently gazing at him, and spoke.
“That because the world’s end was predetermined, there also had to be a cause that necessarily existed. That our existence was just like that.”
“……That.”
“From that moment, The Empire fractured and fell. Even the institutions that formed The Empire’s core are now merely buried and decaying under the name of Demonic Realm.”
He, who had been silently staring at Lennok from beyond the cloth, then slowly turned to leave.
“That is why I do not know what form the Imperial Palace, submerged beyond The Veil (of Ars Nova), has taken. Even if that place has become a hell worse than a Demonic Realm, I have no right to know.”
“……”
“Because the Left Prime Minister’s end was also the same, I had no choice but to come to this city to meet my sister.”
Only then could Lennok vaguely understand what Ezekiel was trying to say.
Ars Nova had exchanged its fate with Vulcan because they were not permitted a proper death or end.
Therefore, not even Ezekiel could guess what form the central city, which had exchanged its fate with Vulcan and brought about its own destruction, had taken.
And, the core institutions of The Empire, which had thus forcibly accepted destruction, were now—
“The Demonic Realm existing in the Central Front was originally a part of the institutions forming the core of the Imperial Palace……”
Lennok raised his gaze.
“So, no one can look into the Imperial Palace without conquering the Demonic Realm beyond the Central Front?”
“I finally gained certainty while observing the last war.”
Ezekiel said as he walked past Lennok.
“Surely you are the one who obtained the freest fate in this world. One who possessed what we so desperately desired from the very beginning……”
“……”
“But if you already hold the answer, then precisely because of that, you must be careful not to reach the same end as His Majesty.”
Ezekiel spoke softly as he moved towards the door outside the office.
“Seeking enlightenment and corruption are always separated by a single sheet of paper. Even those who walked the line on that boundary have an inescapable end.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“Can a result exist without a cause?”
For a moment, Lennok was speechless.
The question an Ascendant first met in this world had posed to Lennok, back when he knew nothing.
The moment Ezekiel, leaping across long stretches of time, re-asked the very words Heavenly Sight had once asked Lennok.
The moment Lennok lost his words due to the intense déjà vu, the imperial family member softly whispered.
As if explaining the true meaning of the question Heavenly Sight had posed back then.
“You already possess what we sought to obtain through the Imperial Privilege. You already hold the unique ability that the Emperor tried to acquire even as he left us.”
“……”
“I understood while watching the war you led, and I confirmed it by fighting you directly. That is why I had no choice but to ask.”
Did he mean that the Imperial Privilege itself wasn’t the result, but a means to obtain something?
Ezekiel’s answer: that he was certain of the existence of the Imperial Privilege as the cause, because he had confirmed the ‘something’ existing within Lennok.
Even though he knew Ezekiel was finally answering the question he had first posed, Lennok couldn’t accurately gauge its meaning.
Among the unique abilities Ezekiel could confirm in Lennok, which one possessed enough causality to make him certain of the Imperial Privilege’s existence?
Before Lennok could even understand and accept all of it, Ezekiel answered.
“Proof that your causality is free from the entanglements of all things. A sign that your fate will not be ‘designated’ by anyone.”
“……That’s.”
“Targeted Resistance.”
Ezekiel quietly whispered.
“You possessed the potential that the Emperor sought to obtain, even to the point of becoming an Outer God, from the very beginning.”