Chapter 1322: The Grand General’s Mausoleum (20)
Black and white mingled in the skies and on the ground of the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors, distorting everything.
The sight of the corrupted, mutated jungle consuming humans, and the boundless, distant canyon stretching to the horizon.
A phantom-like vision of the Demonic Realm’s creatures, sustained by death, being washed away beneath the aura of black and white impermanence, seemingly pushed out of the world.
In the center of it all, Lennok lay fallen, his pale face gazing at the collapsing Demonic Realm.
“Haa, haa…!”
Kwa-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga!!!!!
Black flames burning in the sky intersected with the pure white, frozen landscape on the ground.
The dance of black and white, covering the vast expanse of the Demonic Realm, annihilated everything, returning it to nothingness.
The Will-thought Alteration: Unbounded, created by simultaneously deploying and clashing Heavenly Flower Myriad Fragrance and Black Sun’s Fall.
The backlash from unleashing this ultimate technique, which annihilated the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors, was now pouring onto Lennok’s body, after the battle had ended.
“Cough!!! Ugh…!”
Clutching his wildly pounding heart, he braced himself with trembling hands and turned his body.
Lying prone, he dry-heaved repeatedly, spitting up dead blood, while sweat streamed down his hair.
This was the final decisive battle, pouring out every last ounce of remaining power saved during the assault on the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors.
The backlash from squeezing out every bit of mana in his body using Black God Demonic Art and Crimson Star System, and unleashing his Domain to scrape the bottom of his inner world.
Lying on the ground, gasping for breath, Lennok fell into a daze.
‘It’s not… as perfect as the Subjugation Operation.’
No matter how much he prepared and how cautious he was, every time he fought with all his might, Lennok’s body suffered an unbearable backlash.
The pain crushing his entire body at this moment, and the horrific sensation of his mind and soul burning, were all anticipated costs.
The reason he could ignore such backlash during the Subjugation Operation must have been because that war took place within his own Domain.
The curse that came with his innate talent.
Even ignoring the scales of that curse was only possible within the world Lennok had constructed.
If Lennok’s answer, as he moved towards the Fourth World, was still not wrong, would he someday be able to completely transcend even such backlash and costs?
Kugugugugu!!!!
“Ugh…!”
He struggled to regain his senses in the annihilating center, where everything was dyed black and white.
In this moment, as the Unbounded light severed the causality of the Demonic Realm. A distant scene where everything slowly crumbled as if time had stopped.
He instinctively knew the battle was over, but something still remained to be confirmed.
He pulled out an analgesic ampoule, plunged it into his neck, and raised his trembling hand to stand up.
The fragments of the frozen ground slowly broke apart, disappearing into a distant blizzard.
Paaaat…!!!
Everything within the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors slowly scattered and purified together within the pure white blizzard.
In the center where everything returned to nothingness, the fallen body of the Grand General was also disappearing.
Lennok stood stiffly, staring blankly down at the sight of the body slowly turning to dust from its fingertips.
“…”
The Grand General of Brilliance of the Imperial Palace of Ars Nova.
An Ascendant who reached Level 9, a conqueror bound to the Demonic Realm even in death, never leaving the world.
This Transcendent, who wielded near-immortal power even with a decaying body, was now vanishing.
With faltering steps, he crossed the shattered, scattering ice and stood before the Grand General.
Beyond the world dyed in black and white, the Grand General’s frozen lips moved faintly.
“…Ex-excellent.”
“…”
“Even after you abandoned everything and returned…”
By now, the Grand General’s voice had become calm and subdued, just as it was when he first awakened.
His vacant, unfocused gaze slowly shifted, searching for Lennok’s unseen presence.
A faint smile seemed to bloom on his fading, hollow face.
“My, this lowly general’s inadequate skill… could not even contend with you.”
“That’s thanks to you.”
Lennok coughed lightly, slowly knelt, and bowed his head before the fallen Grand General.
Pressing one hand to his chest and spitting out the blood pooling in his throat, Lennok replied in a low voice.
“If you hadn’t helped me, I wouldn’t have been able to use this spellcraft immediately.”
“…”
Because the Grand General of Brilliance canceled the Sacrificial Ritual and shattered the Mausoleum the moment he awakened.
Because he damaged and broke down the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors and handed over the Mausoleum’s grave goods to Lennok.
Because he secured the necessary time for Lennok to exert his full power until the very end.
“I used Seamless to avoid being pushed back in an Ascendant-level battle, but it was also to protect myself from the output of the Unbounded,” Lennok said softly.
“Normally, I am almost never directly affected by the spellcraft I use myself… but this is a power that transcends such specifications.”
The Will-thought Alteration: Unbounded, which unleashed the clash of Black Sun’s Fall and Heavenly Flower Myriad Fragrance, was an annihilation spell that even Lennok himself couldn’t guarantee surviving.
It was a power that forcibly fused two possibilities within the Kaleidoscope, quite literally blowing away the entire spacetime at once.
Even in this moment, as everything slowly vanished, it was proof that the Unbounded light was completely destroying the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors.
Once the causality of this hellscape, directly connected to the Outer Sea, was severed, everything here would also disappear like a fleeting illusion.
Because an ultimate technique perfectly annihilating all causality was used, it granted the two of them a brief moment in return.
Hitting the Grand General with an ultimate technique of this magnitude would have been impossible for Lennok during a desperate battle without directly restraining the Grand General himself.
Therefore, Lennok had been devising a way to survive the battle even as he was exposed to the Unbounded spellcraft alongside the Grand General.
“The spell effect of Seamless is the power to make impossible processes possible. It’s an ability that allows you to force your way through engagements that transcend limits.”
Lennok looked down at his hands.
Even at this moment, amid the collapsing Demonic Realm swept away by the power of the Unbounded, there was a dying ember preserving Lennok’s body.
Feeling the faint power of Seamless lingering in his body even after all the fighting had ended, Lennok closed his eyes.
“Even with the Singularity Reactor’s core, I would have normally paid an enormous price to use this ability.”
“…”
“Grand General. If it weren’t for you, I couldn’t have faced this moment, in this way.”
“…I understood what you meant by the words you spoke to this lowly general.”
The vanishing Transcendent spoke in a calm, utterly peaceful voice.
His half-open, hazy eyes quietly followed Lennok, as if trembling.
A faint smile seemed to appear on his slowly disappearing, hollow face.
“You truly abandoned everything and returned. To the extent that you grieved even at the moment you decided my fate…”
“…”
“Your inner flame is precarious, like a candle. Is that the price you chose… to change fate?”
“There’s really not much time left.”
Lennok, clutching one arm, raised his gaze.
“This world, and my own ending… I’ll surely find the answer on the other side.”
“…”
“I won’t be without regrets… but I intend to do my best until the very end.”
The Grand General did not answer these words.
Instead, he merely stirred his fading body with his dying breath.
“…Would you, please, come closer?”
Lennok knelt before the Grand General and simultaneously extended his hand.
The moment the Grand General’s rough hand, turning to dust, touched Lennok’s hand.
A golden melody flowing from the corpse slowly began to be drawn into Lennok’s hand.
Paaaat…!!!
The Quasi-Authority: Corrupted Golden Rule, stored within the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors.
The last fragment of the concept of Heaven, Earth, and Man, perfected by the Three Cosmic Poles. At this moment, inheriting the power of ‘Man’ that the Grand General possessed.
Connecting destinies through death, carving an indelible wound until the very end of fate.
The Grand General of Brilliance’s desired ending, which he had wished for from Lennok. The will Lennok inherited as its price.
The Grand General closed his eyes.
“It was long… now, finally, it’s the end.”
At the same time, the Grand General’s corpse began to turn to dust and vanish rapidly.
His physical body, barely held together by the connection of the Quasi-Authority, could no longer endure and lost its form.
In the final moments when the Unbounded ultimate technique was unleashed, the Grand General’s causality had already completely vanished from this world.
“The other Grand Generals… they likely won’t be like me…”
His vanishing voice quickly grew faint.
“There were those who did not wish for your ‘role,’ and those who mocked the Empire’s end…”
“…Grand General.”
“But, I… as you told this lowly general… believe there will be a ‘next’ even in this cruel world…”
“…”
“So please, preserve your body until the very end.”
A gentle smile spread across the Grand General’s lips as he scattered into a handful of dust.
“This unworthy subordinate will withdraw first.”
Paaaat!!!!
No sooner had he finished speaking than the Grand General’s existence shattered and vanished.
As if laying down the madness he had carried his whole life and finally reaching peace.
As if he had waited a long time for the ending Lennok had set for him.
“…”
What was Lennok thinking, witnessing the end of a dead Ascendant?
For a long time, Lennok gazed up at the lingering traces of the Grand General scattering and disappearing above him.
The meaning of the words the Grand General of Brilliance left in his final moments. Why he had been so kind to Lennok.
Leaving behind all those meanings, determined long ago in the distant past, he moved on.
With the Grand General’s disappearance, the entire Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors was collapsing. Something still remained to be confirmed.
“Haa, haa…”
Kugugugu!!!!
The deepest part of the underground temple, vanishing in the aftermath of Lennok and the Grand General’s final decisive battle.
The end of the Demonic Realm, where everything, exposed to the light of the Unbounded, was dyed black and white and disappeared.
He staggered through the corridors where everything before his eyes turned to a handful of dust.
A colossal ramp leading from the lowest floor of the Mausoleum.
Lennok stopped before the path leading to the Imperial Palace of Ars Nova, which the Grand General of Brilliance had opened.
“…”
He couldn’t go beyond this immediately after finishing the assault on the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors.
Blocking this path was not the Imperial Palace of Ars Nova, his desired destination, but another Demonic Realm.
There, broken monsters and calamities comparable to, or even greater than, the Grand General of Brilliance would be lurking.
At the very least, he would need some time to organize what he had obtained from this Demonic Realm.
Yet, despite everything, the reason Lennok had come back down here, now that everything was over, was—
“…Davi.”
Standing in the center of the spacetime turning black and white, Lennok reached into his pocket and spoke.
Clank.
He took out a test tube containing a golden catalyst and opened its mouth.
Lennok poured the reagent into one hand, clutched it, and took a step.
“I’m thinking of… marking this spacetime coordinate. Can you help me?”
[Of course, Master.]
Once the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors completely collapsed, the topography here might change, making it impossible to find the way again.
Lennok intended to leave a final backup here in preparation for that.
Davi, who immediately understood Lennok’s words, poked her head out from his pocket.
[I’ll find a location that will never change, by superimposing planetary and orbital coordinates. Just a little calculation and it’ll be done… huh?]
Davi, who had brought up a hologram before her eyes, suddenly tilted her head.
[Master. There’s already a marker right below here?]
“…”
Lennok bowed his head heavily, coughing, and knelt.
Lennok tried to dig into the ground with one hand, but a bitter smile crossed his face as he felt his arm had no strength.
Scraping together his depleted mana, he chanted Common Magic. He used an earth-digging spell to clear away a pile of soil.
Pakak!
Realizing he had hit something solid, Lennok stopped the magic and leaned closer.
A smooth, black surface, slightly revealed, buried beneath the pile of soil.
After stroking the surface with his bare hand and tapping it a few times, Lennok realized what it was.
“…A coffin.”
Kugugugung!!
Lennok staggered from the vibration from the ground and mumbled.
“Even deeper than the Grand General’s Mausoleum… someone else was buried.”
Kiiing…!
After clearing away the remaining soil, he carefully opened the tightly closed door of the Black Coffin.
What appeared within was the corpse of a young man, eyes closed, hands clasped together.
A handsome appearance with blue hair. A vibrant look, full of life as if he were still alive.
A refined and noble aura emanated from him, hard to believe he was buried in the corrupted lowest floor of the Mausoleum.
Lennok gasped, his brow furrowed, feeling a subtly familiar presence, as if he had encountered it before somewhere.
“Is it… the corpse of an Imperial Family member?”
A vibrant yet ephemeral impression, strangely similar to Ezekiel Ron Maize, a member of the Imperial Family he met during the Subjugation Operation.
Even Lennok’s senses only vaguely felt a sense of déjà vu, yet he instinctively knew.
A direct bloodline of the Imperial Palace of Ars Nova.
That the body of an Imperial Family member, said to possess blue blood, was buried in the deepest part of the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors.
“…”
To open the way for Lennok, the Grand General of Brilliance had plunged a ‘Shredder’ here and activated ‘something’ to clear the path.
What if the Grand General of Brilliance had not touched a special device with the Shredder, but this Imperial Family member’s corpse?
Had the Imperial Palace of Ars Nova used the Imperial Family member’s corpse itself as a marker to record the coordinates of the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors?
Many thoughts came and went, but his deliberation was not long.
[Master.]
Davi, who had been quietly looking down at the corpse with Lennok, asked.
[Don’t the hands of that True Bloodline individual seem to be holding something?]
“…Holding something?”
The corpse’s hands, clasped over his chest, were not symmetrical.
Realizing that the posture was as if carefully holding and preserving something, Lennok extended his hand.
Click.
What was held within the corpse’s hand was a small emblem, about the size of a finger.
Next to the emblem, etched with an unknown pattern, was an inscription in an archaic script.
So that it may be recognized even on the other side of the Fourth World Made for a friend who will someday return
“…”
A message whose meaning could not be grasped.
An indifferent message whose sender could not be identified.
But Lennok knew to whom this message was addressed, and who had left it.
Someone who could bury an Imperial Family member’s corpse as a mere marker in the Demonic Realm, making it a messenger for their own words.
The words that seemed to confidently state his return, mentioning “the other side of the Fourth World.”
As if knowing that Lennok would someday visit these Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors, a message delivered from up close—
“The Emperor…”
The pinnacle of the Imperial Palace of Ars Nova. A Transcendent who had become an Outer God and left this world.
This was the message and declaration the Emperor had left directly for Lennok.
“…”
As if he could remember Lennok no matter how much time passed, as if he would try to remember Lennok no matter how far apart they were.
Contrary to the chilling acts attributed to the Emperor that Lennok had heard, what emanated from this emblem was a faint sense of longing.
How much did the Emperor know about Lennok?
What kind of existence was his former self to the Imperial Palace?
He only knew that his current self was the result of all past events.
Now, would delving into those memories and reaching the Imperial Palace truly be the answer for Lennok?
“…Let’s go back.”
Calming his wavering heart, he staggered and rose from his spot.
Ultimately, all these answers would only gain meaning if Lennok continued forward.
Because he had decided that the process was more important than the result. Because he still believed this journey held meaning.
Clutching the emblem in one hand, he scattered the catalyst held in the other, marking the spot.
Leaving a distinct mark that only Lennok would recognize, separate from the Imperial Family member’s corpse, so he could return here someday.
Kugugugugu!!!!!
The distorted, black and white landscape of the Demonic Realm was entirely swept away, swallowed by the light.
The assault on the Grand General’s Mausoleum, which began by burning through various obstacles outside the Central Front.
Through the cooperation and betrayal of the Alliance and the Cult, meeting an Outer God, awakening the Grand General, and finally reaching this conclusion.
At this moment, having taken a new step towards the Imperial Palace of Ars Nova, the heart of the world.
Kwa-ga-ga-ga-ga!!!!
Lennok, who had been silently looking down at the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors vanishing, engulfed in the aftermath of the Unbounded, turned his steps without hesitation.
The wave of light, sweeping away the collapsing ground like a tsunami, this time covered every last remaining trace.
As Lennok’s figure vanished, everything left behind was buried without a trace.
The deepest part of the Valley of Lament, where the Guido Cult’s main temple was located.
Frozen silence filled the Pantheon hall, where sea gods were worshipped.
“…”
Beyond the opaque screen floating on the majestic temple wall.
Above it, the black and white impermanent glow that covered the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors.
The Cardinals, who led the cult’s major and minor affairs, watched blankly, their faces pale.