Chapter 1343: Designed Transcendence (21)
“Ahahahahaha! Sister, where are you running off to now?!”
“Kugh…!!!”
A sinister laugh echoed from behind.
The presence of corpses crawled along the corridor’s ceiling and walls, approaching in real-time.
Without time to create distance, they closed in, surrounding her in the blink of an eye.
Jenny, running through the Ark’s dark corridors, formed a mudra and began chanting a spell.
Flash—
A brilliant blue lightning bolt pierced through the Ark’s ceiling, striking down and sweeping away the corpses rushing from all directions.
It then brightly illuminated the woman with a peculiar expression, manipulating the corpses from the back of the corridor.
KWAH-AAAAANG!!!!
Debris poured down, momentarily obscuring her vision, and each time, the woman bounded closer as if playing seesaw.
In the sightless darkness, Jenny gritted her teeth, drawing up mana and clenching one hand.
The golden magic circle and Yoran’s blackened, grotesque hand collided, scattering dazzling light.
Paaah-ah-aht!!!
“Kyaaah?!”
Yoran’s hand, which had been lunging for Jenny’s neck, was thrown back, and her upper body sharply recoiled.
The hand that collided with the golden magic circle melted like ice, dripping a viscous fluid.
Yoran, startled, looked at it, then let out a chilling laugh and turned back to Jenny.
“Sister, the more I see you, the stranger you become, no?”
“……”
“You seem to have no combat experience or sense, yet the magic you use is terrifyingly powerful.”
Yoran slowly advanced, observing Jenny who was struggling to catch her breath.
“You’re not just burning the corpses I control, you’re outright shattering the necromancy so it can’t even function properly. What kind of spellcraft is this?”
“Haa, haa…!”
Lennok’s created Ouroboros magic system was a power that began incomplete and eternally progressed towards completion.
As it converged towards perfection and wholeness every moment, Ouroboros dismantled, analyzed, and absorbed all existing laws and authorities.
Jenny’s understanding of Ouroboros couldn’t compare to Lennok’s, yet that alone allowed Ouroboros’s power to crush the necromancy, rendering it utterly inoperable.
This was an issue Yoran could never ignore, as she wasn’t simply using corpses as materials, but shaping her own body through necromancy.
“Once you start chanting, intervention from this side becomes almost impossible. This is truly a first. A miracle that realizes both offense and defense simply by using magic…”
Yoran grinned and said.
“That must be Adamant Thunder’s true magic, the one I’ve only heard rumors about.”
“……”
“This world is really unfair, you know? Some of us spend half our lives rolling around with rotting corpses, carving off flesh, just to barely learn necromancy, while others, just by being a little friendly with a Grand Mage, effortlessly obtain a great magic.”
Yoran stood before Jenny, speaking with a strange, playful voice.
“Don’t you think that’s proof that someone as untalented as you shouldn’t possess such magic?”
“…Perhaps.”
Jenny was able to truly master the Ouroboros magic system precisely because she had lost all the talent that should have originally existed within her.
However, Jenny did not explain or justify this fact in detail to the necromancer before her.
Despite panting exhaustedly, she simply leaned against the swaying corridor of the Ark and smiled coldly.
“But even if it wasn’t me, the opportunity wouldn’t have fallen to a Forbidden Sorcerer who just fiddles with rotten corpses.”
“……”
“It’s pathetic that with such talent, all you learned was how to whine. If you want to lament your situation now, why don’t you find someone else?”
“Sister, you say things so beautifully, it makes me want to kill you. Did you go to some academy?”
Yoran moved forward with a smile.
“Well, fine. No matter how good the magic, it’s still pearls before swine in the end. Do you think I’d lose to a mage who’s never even had a proper battle?”
“……”
“After you die, I’ll package that corpse beautifully and add it to my collection. Oh, or maybe I’ll just switch bodies, to yours instead of this one?”
Yoran giggled, spreading her blackened hands as if to embrace Jenny.
“My necromancy can’t preserve hierarchy like that bitch’s Corpse Ghost Spellcraft, but if I preserve the body well, I can pull out some of its abilities. I’ll take Adamant Thunder’s magic that you use.”
“I don’t really care, but may I point out one thing?”
Jenny casually swept her hair back and smiled coldly.
“Don’t call me Sister, elder. You’re much older than me, what kind of disgrace is this?”
“AHAHAHAHAHA!!!!”
KWAH-AAAAANG!!!
Yoran laughed wildly and charged at Jenny, and the golden magic circle and the corpses collided, exploding.
Jenny, pushed back by the shockwave’s recoil, turned without hesitation and began to sprint down the corridor again.
Tatata-tak!!
‘There’s not much I can do right now anyway. If I can just buy some time…!’
Although she had learned the Ouroboros magic system from Lennok, Jenny didn’t overestimate her combat power.
Her opponent was a necromancer ranked 10th on the Eastern Continent Superhuman Power Ranking. And a Forbidden Sorcerer with the fearsome epithet of ‘Soul Reaper’.
Thinking she could win head-on against such a villain who had killed countless people over a long time was almost arrogant.
Lennok had given her more than five escape artifacts or spellcrafts for moments like this, but Jenny decided not to use them.
If she could just use Ouroboros to escape and keep Yoran tied up here, Peshia and Mistral’s situation would become much easier.
‘I’ve almost memorized the Ark’s internal paths coming this far. I just need to keep running and shake her off—’
KWAH-AAAAAAANG!!!!
A colossal golden pillar, shaking the Ark, surged up from the middle of the sea.
“Kugh…!!!”
A golden pillar echoed explosively just as Lennok threw the deer giant’s form into the Kaleidoscope.
Simultaneously, the Monarch of the Azure Gate, unable to withstand the intense shockwave, instinctively lowered his stance.
For the first time, an unconcealable agitation appeared on the Monarch’s face, which had maintained composure throughout.
“What in the world are you trying to do…!!”
“You said this ruin was an altar, existing since ancient times, for receiving ascension qualifications.”
Amidst the raging storm, the Demonic Giant crossed its forearms, embracing Lennok.
It held its ground even in the shaking ruins, protecting Lennok from being pushed back.
Lennok looked up at the exploding brilliance of the Kaleidoscope and said.
“But ascension qualifications are not some kind of ticket that can be exchanged like that. From the outset, the scope of recognizing and the concept itself vary greatly from person to person, making it impossible to define by specific criteria.”
“Utterly arrogant. What do you, not even an Ascendant, know—”
“Therefore, if an altar capable of granting that qualification exists, it would not be a concept received from others or external beings.”
Lennok cut off the Monarch’s words and murmured.
“It would be closer to a concept received directly from ‘oneself’ and none other.”
“…What?”
The mirror at the center of the Ascension Relic was a passage and entrance to one’s past self.
In other words, it was more a symbol representing a concept directed not at this moment, but elsewhere.
If, with the help of the World’s Ten Laws, the mirror existing here could serve as a medium connecting to other timelines.
“Originally, this mirror must have been an altar used not by humans, but by True Bloodline or Ancient Species. A tool for a fallen Transcendent, who had lost their qualification, to inherit ascension qualifications from their perfect past self.”
“……”
“But this mirror, which should inherently only reflect one’s past self… I can use it in a different way. The Kaleidoscope has that power.”
Lennok’s expression turned cold as he looked down at the Kaleidoscope’s form shimmering in the heart of the dazzling pillar of light.
“Don’t you think it’s a good opportunity to experiment on someone other than myself?”
[KWAHHH-AAAAAAH!!! KWAHHH-AAAAAH-AH-AH-AAAK!!!!!]
The deer giant’s roar, thrown into the Kaleidoscope, soon transformed into an utterly agonizing, desperate scream.
Along with the horrific shriek, the presence of the deer giant thrown into the mirror grotesquely distorted.
As if the deer giant reflected in the mirror appeared in an entirely different timeline.
As if, through him, someone different from him in this timeline was being summoned.
But Lennok ignored the desperate scream and concentrated all his attention on what was happening within.
A vague possibility he had once considered after realizing the Kaleidoscope’s infinite potential.
Whether he could bestow the Kaleidoscope’s power upon others, not just himself, to draw out infinite possibilities.
He thought it was an unparalleled opportunity to resolve a long-held question, against an enemy who had intruded to seize the ruins.
[AAAAAAAH!!! AAAAAAH…!!!!!]
Paaah-ah-ah-ah-aht!!!!!!
The pillar of light, piercing through the middle of the sea, distorted, bathed in a brilliant golden hue.
And at that moment, all the superhumans fiercely battling around the ruins instinctively turned their gaze.
The intense pillar of light receded, and the shockwave dissipated, revealing the scene within to everyone’s eyes.
WHOOSH!!
Before the luminous mirror floating across the vast sea, someone covered in noise stood.
A deer giant, its entire body covered in pure white fur, stood with its head bowed blankly, not even breathing.
But the being that walked out of the Kaleidoscope was not a corpse with half its head crushed.
“…That is.”
Chii-jik, Chii-jik…!!!
Half of its skull was crushed, leaving no eyes, nose, or even horns.
But pure white horns, grown from the intact side of its head, spread out in thousands of branches, covering the deer giant’s body.
A deer’s antlers grow and branch as it ages: two branches at 3 years old, three at 5.
So, how much time had passed for its horns to cover its entire body and grow into thousands of branches?
Before they could fully grasp that, the surviving superhumans noticed an even stranger characteristic from the deer giant.
“That’s impossible—”
“What in the world is that…”
Unlike before entering the Kaleidoscope, the deer giant wore a pure white robe covering its entire body.
In its bare hands, it held a skull staff woven from human bones.
The grotesqueness of an 8-level warrior, the deer giant, seemingly transformed into a spellcaster of an entirely different lineage.
How much more time would have to pass in the timeline of the deer giant thrown into the Kaleidoscope for it to become like that?
How long would it take to reach the timeline where the deer giant transformed in such a way?
As the other superhumans, overwhelmed by its bizarre and colossal presence, momentarily stopped in their tracks, forgetting even their current situation.
[Hmm?]
The deer, raising its face covered in white fur, looked down at the ruins with its single remaining eye.
Through the monocle, an incomprehensible blend of clarity and madness resided within its gaze, a fact the Monarch grasped in an instant.
The deer giant, looking down at the ruins submerged by the tsunami, slowly clapped its hands with a leisurely voice.
[Ah… it was here. It was here. I remember it.]
“……”
[Indeed… even returning here someday, was it foretold?]
A voice calmer and deeper than ever before.
Like a sage who had aged for a very long time, or an old man reminiscing about ancient memories.
At the unfathomably profound and empty aura of the deer giant—
“…Adamant Thunder. What have you done?”
One of the surviving Elder Council superhumans looked back at Lennok with murderous eyes.
“Kargara was a barbarian who sought refuge with the Elder Council. His innate temperament was so violent, he wasn’t even close to that personality, having no peers.”
“……”
“How could you twist that man to such an extent—!”
“I didn’t twist him.”
Lennok replied calmly.
“I merely called him.”
“What…?”
“Reflecting the mirror that leads to another timeline, projecting his self that acquired the qualification here…”
Lennok murmured with an expressionless face, looking at the deer giant standing before the mirror.
“That being is Kargara himself, who acquired ascension qualifications in some timeline.”
“Nonsense. That’s impossible—”
“Kargara…!!”
At that moment, Lutchman, who appeared from one side of the ruins, staggered and stood up abruptly.
True to being an Elder Council member, he must have used some means to hide even amidst the fierce battle where Transcendent beings were dying.
Yet, unable to avoid the repercussions, Lutchman, clutching his blood-soaked stomach, spoke to the deer giant.
[—Ah. Lutchman.]
The wizened deer with the monocle smiled gently, looking at Lutchman.
As if meeting an old friend, or seeing a neighbor from yesterday, with familiarity and naturalness.
[Long time no see. Have you been well?]
“Kargara… there’s no time. We must escape from here.”
Was the deer giant’s original manner of speech like this?
Lutchman, who flinched at the voice, spoke, clutching his stomach with difficulty.
“If you remain here… Adamant Thunder will kill us all… Now, it’s dangerous…”
[Dangerous? Why is it dangerous?]
The deer giant tilted its head, gently caressing the skull staff with a benevolent smile.
Each time, the skulls dangling from the staff trembled, uttering bizarre verses.
Seeing Lutchman flinch, the one-horned deer stroked its chin and said.
[I wish to hear a little more. Would you explain in detail?]
“I misjudged… the Elder Council, we misjudged….”
Lutchman gasped for breath.
“We had no idea… what kind of person Adamant Thunder was… what kind of possibilities he desired… So….”
[….]
“We must escape… must escape… Only you… only you can….”
Did Lutchman also feel how much stronger that deer giant had become?
Lutchman’s judgment, to abandon even his allies and somehow try to survive the moment the situation changed.
But despite his attitude, none of the superhumans watching the situation dared to move carelessly.
The colossal one-horned deer with half its skull crushed.
The presence of that old deer leaning on the skull staff was so bizarrely twisted.
Even without doing anything, if they moved even slightly from this spot, it felt as though something irreversible would happen.
[….]
But despite the bloodied old man’s urging, the deer giant didn’t move.
Instead, it simply raised its single remaining eye and gazed intently at Lutchman.
Lutchman said with an urgent tone.
“Kargara, there’s no time… If you grant my request now, I will surely reward you in the name of the Elder Council—”
[Lutchman. You are steeped in pain.]
The deer giant spoke in a gentle voice.
[You are steeped in inescapable pain, and your judgment is clouded.]
“…What?”
[But it is the duty of the one served by myriad devils to guide the irredeemable sinners.]
Slowly raising its staff, the deer giant lightly tapped Lutchman’s shoulder.
[I shall relieve you of the sins you bear on your shoulders.]
There was no reply from Lutchman.
For the moment the deer giant’s skull staff touched him, black butterflies began to bloom from Lutchman’s body.
Flap, flap-flap—
Lutchman’s flesh decayed and fell away, turning into black butterflies that rose one by one.
What was once Lutchman’s shoulders, upper body, neck, and head blossomed into thousands of butterflies.
“……”
The old man’s body, having lost its upper half, thrashed there before collapsing like rotten wood.
Only then did sticky blood gush from the severed waist down, staining the ruins red.
A suffocating silence filled the space.
“…You’re out of your mind, Adamant Thunder.”
The Monarch of the Azure Gate didn’t even perceive the moment Lutchman’s head disappeared.
Forbidden Spellcraft that he, a member of the oldest bloodline and an 8-level Grand Sorcerer, couldn’t comprehend.
The epitome of corrupted and defiled Black Magic that turns living humans into butterflies.
He had dismissed all of Lennok’s words as nonsense, but having come this far, he couldn’t deny it.
“Did you create a monster using the Ascension Relic… and one that acquired ascension qualifications…!!!”
How such a thing was possible, he still couldn’t understand.
He could only barely accept the fact that such an incomprehensible event was openly existing in reality.
What power did the mirror hold to cause such an absurd thing? What in the world was the Kaleidoscope?
At the moment the Monarch, thinking this, looked back at Lennok with a stiff expression.
Lennok calmly shook his head.
“No. It was a complete failure.”
“…What?”
“I had a hunch, but it turns out it doesn’t work this way after all. That being came from a branching point entirely beyond my control.”
Ignoring the frozen Monarch, Lennok crossed his arms.
“It’s a corrupted and broken being from a timeline I would never have chosen… Is this what happens when I lose control of the Kaleidoscope?”
Incomprehensible monologue.
Yet, his explanation instinctively conveyed an extremely dangerous secret.
But the Monarch could no longer question the meaning of Lennok’s murmured words.
Before he could open his mouth to speak, the one-horned deer with the skull staff stood before Lennok.
Chii-jik, Chii-jik…!!
[….]
The one-horned deer looked down at Lennok through its monocle, its eyes unreadable.
Lennok looked up at the deer giant, who stood with an expressionless face, leaning on the skull staff.
Upon seeing the two, the Monarch regained his senses.
A mad monster that carves and slices human flesh into butterflies. His opponent was a Grand Mage who had massacred tens of thousands in war.
If that mad mage and monster clashed here, it would create an opening for him to escape this battlefield.
As the Monarch thought this, and instinctively considered a way to escape the ruins, in a flash.
CRACK!!!
The beast bowed its head to Lennok, colliding the horn that had burst through its head against the ground.
[This humble servant once again greets the Master of Myriad Devils.]
“……”
At this point, no one could understand what was happening.
“You know me.”
Lennok, looking down at the beast with an expressionless face, asked.
“You know about another me… not the current me, do you?”
[….]
“I’ll allow you to answer. What kind of being was I, in that place?”
The one-horned deer did not answer.
Its face, buried in white fur, seemed to be smiling grotesquely.
Slowly, it tapped the skull staff on the ground and brought its hands together as if in prayer.
[In the beginning, there was only suffering, which was the sin of those who held fate.]
“……”
[But the Merciful One, taking pity, bore that sin and created a paradise for the sinners.]
“……”
[This is the great blessing of myriad devils, and a cursed blessing that shall endure forever beyond the end. How can one not serve?]
Slowly, the one-horned deer bowed its head at Lennok’s feet and murmured.
[Thus, at the end of the great journey, the King of Hell was born.]
“…Hell, you say.”
The colossal body of the one-horned deer, speaking bizarre words from beginning to end since emerging from the Kaleidoscope.
That being, which had transformed into an entirely different entity and bowed its head to Lennok, was no longer alive.
A corrupted being, originally not of this world, but from some part of Hell, who had pledged its fate and causality and was bound.
A madman who had acquired grotesqueness and perversion, enough to be called a demon.
Lennok knew the cause of all this.
“The branching point where you, whose head was crushed by my hand and thrown into the Kaleidoscope… could become a Transcendent worthy of qualification.”
Lennok murmured.
“That would only be possible if I directly took you in and used you as a servant. Using you as a tool until the very end, turning you into a monster worthy of qualification…”
[….]
“And the very act of making such a choice would be proof that the me of that timeline was completely mad or broken.”
Lennok said.
“Then, indeed, all the branching points indicated by the Kaleidoscope beyond my control are…”
[Master of Myriad Devils. Many are listening to the great truth.]
The one-horned deer smiled.
[To speak of the mercy shown by the Master is a blessing, and to realize this great meaning is suffering.]
“……”
[To hold this blessing and suffering in one place is the duty of this humble servant.]
CRUNCH!!
There was no reply.
The moment the beast tapped its staff, the superhumans who had been fighting far off in the ruins scattered like butterflies.
As it turned its body, facing away from Lennok, a black pupil rose above the Ark’s wreckage floating on the sea.
The sea, having turned red, then became black, and in the distance, the sun sank, submerging the horizon.
Beyond the horizon, the world began to weep black tears.
“Th-this—”
The death overflowing from all sides belonged to everyone except Lennok.
It was the flesh and corpses of the superhumans who had intruded into the ruins, attempting to overturn the situation.
Only then did the Monarch realize that the beast intended to silence everyone alive in this place.
[This moment is part of the great cycle, and a mercy not yet permitted to sinners.]
SPLAT!!
The moment he realized, the Monarch’s heart was grasped in the white fur-covered hand of the beast.
“…Ah.”
The sensation of all the blood in his body chilling. But he knew it wasn’t a delusion.
Despite having no external wounds on his upper body, he understood that this was his heart.
THUD— His dulled body crashed to the ground, but it wasn’t surprising.
Perhaps, he had thought this might happen from the moment he couldn’t defeat Adamant Thunder without even drawing out lightning.
Perhaps he had vaguely felt that accepting Lutchman’s proposal was a mistake from that very point.
After a brief moment of contemplation, regret, and sorrow, the Monarch’s life rapidly dispersed, and in the blurring vision beyond—
[This humble servant shall carry all that happened here to the very ends of hell.]
The fallen one from the future began to open the gates of hell.