Chapter 1333: Engineered Transcendence (11)

[The morning of the day Dadam, the Ascendant of the Eastern Outer Lei Clan, announced her visit to Vulcan, dawned.]

[Currently, many citizens are waiting in front of the Vulcan City Hall to witness Dadam’s visit…]

[The City Government is making extensive preparations for this, effectively the first visit by an Ascendant since the visit of Heavenly Sight…]

The mega-city of Vulcan. District 5, where the City Hall is located.

Even in the early hours nearing dawn, countless people had gathered in front of the City Hall.

The square was packed to capacity, with the crowd spilling over into the streets beyond, leaving no room to step.

However, the faces of the murmuring people were filled with a strange emotion, rather than discomfort or annoyance.

As if they held a faint expectation or excitement for what was about to unfold.

[Traffic throughout Vulcan’s central district has come to a standstill, prompting an unprecedented response from the Central Council.]

[Despite controlling vehicle access around District 5, traffic congestion in the central area remains unresolved…]

“Ugh, there are so many people…”

A massive airship slowly glided over the bustling heart of District 5.

Dylan, looking down at the ground from the VIP lounge on the airship’s top floor, spoke with a look of exhaustion.

“In some ways, it’s even worse than the victory parade. I guess an Ascendant visiting Vulcan is a completely different matter.”

“Van’s victory parade was more about cleaning up and organizing the aftermath of the subjugation campaign.”

Evelyn, sitting cross-legged on a luxurious sofa in the lounge, spoke calmly.

She munched on pre-packaged vegetable sticks, her gaze shifting.

“Unlike a victory parade, this event is an ongoing issue, so it’s natural for it to draw more attention. More than anything, it’s an Ascendant, isn’t it?”

Evelyn gazed out the window of the slowly moving airship.

“A Seeker who has reached the pinnacle of the world as an individual… Throughout history, Ascendants have always been objects of awe and worship. That meaning will never fade, no matter the era.”

“…”

An Ascendant is a being who has reached Level 9 and earned the right to officially challenge ascension.

They are Seekers who have already half-shed the shackles of mortality, reaching an untouched realm.

Transcendent beings whose names are etched eternally into the world’s history, with officially fewer than ten remaining in the current era.

Regardless of time or age, an Ascendant was always a symbol of the pinnacle, revered by all.

Even those uninterested in superhumans or spiritual cultivation would have heard of their prestige.

That’s why such a massive crowd had gathered for the Ascendant’s official visit to Vulcan.

“Look now. Even before she’s arrived in Vulcan… people are praying to her.”

Lennok understood what Evelyn was talking about.

Among the cloud-like crowds below the square, no small number were praying or bowing.

They clasped their hands, making wishes, or prostrated themselves, repeating their devotions as if desperately longing for something.

Such was the fervent attitude of the people, as if they believed a god, not a Seeker, was coming to this city.

Faced with this unconcealed awe and longing, even Dylan was speechless.

“Heavenly Sight’s official visit to Vulcan was also the first in nearly a hundred years. An Ascendant’s visit is bound to become a topic of discussion in any city.”

Evelyn’s green eyes deepened.

“Even without seeking anything, they are beings whose mere existence influences the entire continent. Once they begin to move, controlling the ripple effect will be impossible.”

“Either way, it’s clear this will be a massive event comparable to the victory parade… But are just the three of us enough for such an important occasion?”

Dylan scratched his cheek.

“I, Dylan Okay. I’m not that lacking in self-esteem, but to be included in an event like this, I feel just a tiny bit… like an inadequate partner.”

This was the moment a Level 9 Ascendant was visiting Vulcan for the first time in several years since Heavenly Sight’s death.

Yet, the members moving to greet Dadam were only Lennok, Evelyn, and Dylan.

It was a rather simple and unusual composition for meeting an Ascendant visiting Vulcan.

Knowing which Transcendent beings were affiliated with the Adamant Tower, Dylan couldn’t help but let out a slight cough at the team’s formation.

“Why, you eagerly jumped at the chance when Van asked for help.”

Evelyn chuckled, a vegetable stick in her mouth.

“Or have you suddenly chickened out now? That’s not very mercenary-like.”

“No, I’m not saying I don’t want to do it. Of course, if Van needs my help, I’ll do my best. But I didn’t know it would just be the three of us.”

Dylan shrugged, arms crossed.

“I’m, well… an experiment subject, you know. No matter how you look at it, it doesn’t really feel like a respectful gesture. Won’t I be in the way when meeting an Ascendant?”

“No. If you’re worried about that, it doesn’t matter.”

Evelyn said casually, munching on her vegetable stick.

“The Ascendant we’re going to meet is a being who has lived excessively long, whose mind is close to a plant. She’s definitely not a normal Seeker in any way.”

“…”

“Dadam’s mana fundamentally possesses a very unique quality, and in the past, she was known for her disposition of not favoring humans. That’s why it was necessary to staff her escorts with as many non-humans as possible.”

Ascendant Dadam.

One of the fewer than ten Ascendants remaining in this era, and a recluse who had not appeared since the central city’s destruction.

But that didn’t mean Dadam was an Ascendant benevolent to humans like Heavenly Sight or Jindun.

Having lived for so long as an Ascendant of the Outer Lei Clan, her mind had already half-entered the realm of plants.

Only then did Dylan realize why he had been called here today, and he grumbled.

“Damn it. So that’s why you made me an escort? It was for the exact opposite reason I was worrying about!”

“Van, how about you?”

Evelyn sharply cut off Dylan’s grumbling and turned her gaze.

“You seemed to be continuously thinking about the Ascension Relic. If you haven’t sorted it out yet, should we postpone the schedule?”

“…No.”

Lennok, sitting in a corner of the lounge with his staff, replied.

“I understand that an ancient ruin appeared somewhere in Vulcan simultaneously with the collapse of the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors. And that the Imperial Palace had placed a Prohibition on the Ascension Relic, concealing it.”

Mayor Ormeon’s suggestion that Lennok become a new Ascendant using the hidden Ascension Relic in Vulcan.

It was a casual remark, but it was clear that the aforementioned ruin held such miracles and mysteries.

However, Lennok knew that the Ascension Relic possessed a different kind of power than Jindun’s Promotion Magic Circle he had encountered in Kundara.

If Maleon’s Promotion Magic Circle was a power to ‘recreate’ oneself, the Ascension Relic was a ritual altar for receiving the ‘qualification’ of ascension.

“I have no intention of accepting Ormeon’s proposal, but if the ruin is related to the qualification for ascension, it’s worth investigating.”

While he didn’t intend to become an Ascendant immediately, Lennok was interested in what the qualification for ascension precisely entailed.

Investigating the Ascension Relic might give him a clearer understanding of it.

Moving to meet Dadam, who had arrived near Vulcan, was for the same reason.

His contemplation wasn’t due to the Mayor’s proposal, but because he was realizing where he stood now.

It was because this moment, where he was not vaguely groping for the concept of ascension but contemplating its means and methods, felt utterly unfamiliar.

Lennok, looking out the airship window, stood up, leaning on his staff.

“If you’re ready, let’s move. They seem to be arriving soon.”

“Arriving soon?”

Dylan, pressing his face close to the window, tilted his head.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t feel anything with my Magical Perception. All I see is a strange crescent moon that’s been in the sky for days.”

“Dadam is not coming to Vulcan using physical means or transportation.”

Lennok turned his gaze.

“Her will-thought is akin to her very existence. That is merely a medium for sending her will-thought down into the Material Realm.”

“I heard it was a kind of ‘target’… but you’re saying we can tell if an Ascendant is here just by looking at that?”

“It’s hard to explain, but it’s getting closer…”

His bloated spirituality, which had been constantly swelling since mastering Ultimate Lightning Magic and attaining transcendence.

Lennok, using the Quasi-Authority, Corrupted Golden Rule, obtained from the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors to perceive it, spoke.

“If we leave now, the timing should be about right.”

Clank!!

As they opened the door and stepped out, dozens of people waiting in the airship corridor bowed in unison.

Superhumans from the City Government’s direct special agency, high-ranking officials, and dispatched escorts silently waited for Lennok.

In the suffocatingly tense atmosphere, Lennok walked through the crowded corridor.

Whoosh…!!!

The airship landed with a soft engine sound, and its door opened, allowing them to step onto the ground.

What greeted their eyes was an unnamed ghost town in an undeveloped district on the outermost fringes of the mega-city.

A scene of a silver crescent moon floating in the dawn sky, enveloped by glowing turquoise auroras.

At that moment, standing before a street where every other trace or living being had been cleared away in advance.

Dozens of cameras floating above illuminated Lennok, and people who saw the screen covered in static erupted into cheers.

“WOAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

“Oh… this feels really awkward.”

Dylan, walking behind Lennok, heard the distant cheers and exaggeratedly fussed.

“The treatment has definitely changed since the subjugation campaign. Or do attitudes just have to change in the face of an Ascendant’s visit?”

“I doubt there’s any grand meaning to it. People are just excited by the moment itself.”

Evelyn, walking beside him, shook her head.

“The mere fact that Van is moving in anticipation of Dadam’s visit is proof that Vulcan has a force capable of standing on par with an Ascendant.”

“No, Marcia. Stop contradicting me. Let’s just enjoy the mood now that things have come to this.”

Dylan grumbled.

“I don’t need those inconvenient facts! I’m already about to pee my pants just thinking about meeting an Ascendant directly!”

“That kind of unpleasant fact is the last thing I want to hear, even a speck of it.”

Evelyn replied coldly, walking through the ruined streets of the undeveloped district.

“The citizens also remember why Heavenly Sight visited Vulcan last time. And they haven’t forgotten that the City Government quietly complied with Heavenly Sight’s demands then.”

“…”

“It’s only natural for people living in this mega-city to expect a different outcome this time, isn’t it?”

Madria Falcia had visited Vulcan to mediate the conflict between Vulcan and the Pilenom Autonomous Region.

At the time, the City Government respected Heavenly Sight’s wishes to mediate the situation and accepted a treaty favorable to the autonomous region.

It was a long time ago, when Lennok had just started working as a freelancer, a past that now felt so distant.

Many things had happened since then, from meeting Heavenly Sight and hearing about the closed world to reaching the present, but Lennok had never forgotten that moment.

Evelyn glanced back at Lennok, who was deep in thought, and belatedly tried to soften her words.

“Well, of course, that doesn’t mean Van needs to represent Vulcan or be hostile to the Ascendant of the Outer Lei Clan, but–”

“Today’s situation is more than enough to be a very interesting spectacle for the people.”

At the edge of a vast ruin located in the undeveloped district’s outskirts.

A young boy stood before the dusty, abandoned area, watching the three.

“The continent’s greatest wizard and a living Ascendant are meeting. Wouldn’t that be enough to generate buzz, no matter how you look at it?”

“Ormeon.”

Lennok called the Vulcan Mayor’s name, looking down at the boy.

“I thought someone else would come. So you were here.”

“Yes. Originally, I wanted to pass it on to a Senator because I was too busy… but it was too big an event for that, after all.”

Ormeon, standing among hundreds of escorts, smiled wryly, looking up at Lennok.

Even with cheers echoing from afar, the boy’s voice was strangely clear and audible.

“It would be strange for the Mayor to be absent when an Ascendant is visiting the city, wouldn’t it? It’s not like I was trapped somewhere and couldn’t work.”

“…”

“It seems they’re ready to start as soon as their side is prepared, and looking at the people you’ve brought… you’ve chosen quite an interesting combination.”

The boy smiled, looking alternately at Evelyn and Dylan, who stood behind Lennok.

“You seem to have made your own preparations to meet her, but have you thought enough about my proposal?”

“I am interested in the Ascension Relic, but not in the method of using it.”

Lennok said with an expressionless face.

“First, I will meet the Ascendant, hear her purpose directly, and then decide.”

“You’re cautious. Well, I knew you wouldn’t just accept it.”

The boy shrugged.

“Alright. Your mind might change after meeting Dadam. I’ll wait here.”

“…”

Ormeon’s words and actions, speaking as if he knew Dadam unusually well.

Not only her arrival but also her purpose, which he had told Lennok in advance.

But Lennok asked no further questions of Ormeon, walking past him.

Passing the dozens of escorts who had followed them out of the airship, the three walked through the ruined street.

As they entered the aurora’s domain overflowing in the sky, sounds faded, and a sense of displacement, as if their senses were separating, set in.

“Walking like this suddenly reminds me of old times.”

Dylan muttered, as if forcing himself to shake off the uncanny feeling.

“Van, do you remember? Back when we almost died meeting the Alligator Elder, it was the three of us like this.”

“…That’s right.”

“Damn it, I really thought I was going to die then. It’s a good thing I managed to muster up the courage to defeat that monster…”

“Okay, are you out of your mind from fear? You’re completely distorting memories.”

The true contributor who had driven Croken back at the time turned with a bewildered expression.

“I told you to stop contradicting me, Marcia. Let’s just go with the flow. I just want to enjoy the mood for a bit, okay?”

“Who brought it up first? Besides, you just want to take credit for me helping Van.”

“No, if anything, because I weakened the Elder’s power, you, who arrived late, were able to act so proudly, weren’t you?”

“That’s beyond shameless; it’s an excuse that makes me want to sew your mouth shut with an arrow.”

Leaving the surprisingly well-matched bickering of the two behind, Lennok fell into thought.

Had the three of them moved together again like this since meeting Croken at the Charlotte factory?

Unlike back then, when they worked as freelancers and scraped by, now they were going to meet an Ascendant visiting Vulcan.

At this moment, with the entire continent in turmoil alongside the subjugation of the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors, and monsters beyond limits moving.

If Lennok maintained his center until the end, could he continue to move forward like this?

Just as he had resolved before the Grand General, it was something he wouldn’t know until he reached the very end.

For that reason, he had to put aside his thoughts and focus on the task at hand.

“…It’s coming.”

A colossal silver crescent moon floated in the sky above the undeveloped district.

As Lennok’s gaze, looking up at the sharp, silver, great-bow-like crescent, deepened.

The majestic auroras, swirling around the massive crescent moon, began to converge into one spot.

KIIIIIIIIING-!!!!

“Wh-what is it?!!”

Dylan, flustered, shot his gaze upwards, and Evelyn stared at the sky with a complex expression.

The aurora’s radiance, covering the entire sky, gathered around the silver crescent moon and rotated violently.

Turquoise light flashed, surging from the crescent’s center, and at that moment, it transformed into a light arrow nocked on a bowstring.

The arrow of aurora, shot from the crescent moon, struck the heart of the undeveloped district’s ruins, erupting in an immense radiance.

PAAAAAAAH!!!!

“Gah!”

“…!!!!”

Dylan and Evelyn ducked their heads against the powerful shockwave that swept away their consciousness.

The dazzling light of the aurora fell upon the ruins, transforming spacetime.

Vegetation and leaves sprouted between concrete and asphalt, and ancient trees, thousands of years old, shot up.

An overwhelming sight, transforming the undeveloped district, which had been nearly a desolate ruin, into a vast great forest in the blink of an eye.

KUWAGWA-GWA-GWA-GWA-GWA-GWA!!!!

“Insane, what the–!!!”

“She’s forcefully overwriting the laws by coloring a specific spacetime with her [Ideology].”

While Dylan stared in astonishment at the unbelievable reality manipulation he witnessed, Lennok spoke calmly.

“It’s a power that has reached a far superior version of an Invasion Domain… transforming the laws of the material world into her own world.”

“…In-Invasion Domain?”

An ancient method used by ancient sorcerers to deploy a Domain.

An ancient technique, now lost, that literally invaded spacetime to deploy one’s Root Mindscape.

“She’s imbuing her will-thought into the aurora in the sky, shooting it as an arrow, and forcefully converting the directly struck spacetime into an Ideological Domain, isn’t she?”

Lennok murmured.

“To be able to perform such a miracle without even physically moving… the title ‘Transcendent Archer’ was no empty boast.”

“…”

KUUWOOOONG!!!

The street, lined with dusty, old ruined buildings, transformed into a vast forest with thick, towering trees.

Rigid bulkheads were now covered in leaves, becoming cradles bathed in sunlight, and a refreshing breeze blew through.

The presence of a Transcendent who had gained the qualification to transform the empty undeveloped district’s outer zone into her own world, a cradle.

The three walked through the rapidly changing world of lush greenery.

“Th-this is… an Ascendant’s Ideological Domain…”

Dylan, walking behind Lennok, was drenched in cold sweat.

Even Dylan, who had completed his own hierarchy, could understand how absurd this spacetime was.

“Unbelievable. Just by sending her will-thought… to be able to create such a world… What in the…”

“…Let’s go.”

Lennok moved forward.

“They seem to have been waiting for us too.”

With each step, he thought of that day long ago when he first met an Ascendant in Vulcan.

The moment he met Heavenly Sight’s gaze thousands of meters away, and she spoke to him without a moment’s refusal.

He had been through countless experiences, and after a long time, he was here to meet another Ascendant.

But unlike then, Lennok knew where the Ascendant who had come to this city was.

An endless, distant garden of trees. A massive cradle formed by intertwined tree roots.

At the center of the Ideological Domain, where the aurora’s light descended. There, where sunlight lingered as if time had stopped.

A mysterious woman with pale green hair reaching her feet sat leaning back as if asleep.

Long ears protruded from between her hair, giving her a gaunt, withered appearance, different from a human.

From the Outer Lei Clan, said to originate from the outer continent. A demi-human race commonly called elves.

Among them, a Level 9 Ascendant who had reached the pinnacle of her species.

Dadam opened her unfocused eyes, looking at Lennok.

“…We stand between the Third and the Fourth’s boundary line.”