Chapter 1344: Designed Transcendence (22)
Thwack—
A blood-red flash struck the chest of an apostate monk rushing from one side of the ruins.
A sharply glinting spearhead instantly pierced his heart, tearing through flesh and bone.
Splat!!!
Peshia pulled her spear from the fallen apostate monk’s corpse, turning her head with a ghostly expression.
“Elf, get it together! Don’t let them come all the way to me!”
“It’s not like I can control them…!!!”
Whoosh!!!
With a reply that flashed past like lightning, the head of a soldier falling behind Peshia exploded.
Kicking the heads of corpses being manipulated from all sides, he knocked down apostate monks whose eyes were burning red with fury.
The elf’s form moved at incredible speed among the superhumans besieging the ruins from all directions.
On the swaying deck, the ash-haired swordsman facing Peshia raised his sword.
“You seem busy. It must be frantic dealing with so many people with just the two of you.”
“Screw off, you idiot. You’re one to talk!”
Peshia adjusted her grip on the spear, glaring at the swordsman and snarling.
“As I’m fighting, your face is starting to come back to me. Was it Ashut? One of those dogs guarding the First Command.”
“…….”
“You survived even after the Silver Dragon Invasion and clung to the Elder Council, huh? You pathetic bastard….”
“I didn’t cling to the Elder Council. Lutchman no longer officially aligns with the Elder Council.”
Ashut shook his head.
“After coming down from the heavens, he lost even the authority he once held, pushed aside, and has been stuck in minor positions managing the Forbidden Zone. Today’s events are his last gamble to reclaim his former status.”
“Pointless wordplay… Are you trying to say you found a new life by taking the hand of a senile old man? It’s disgustingly pathetic.”
Clack!
Peshia, readjusting her spear, sneered.
“You idiotic bastard, determined to throw your life away. After all that effort to survive, you should’ve fled and never set foot in this city.”
“…….”
“You chose the wrong side from the start. Do you really think you’ve survived this long thanks to your own abilities?”
“Yes, I know. Perhaps there was no need to go this far once the Marshal died and the Legion disintegrated.”
Ashut’s eyes glinted as he looked at Peshia.
“But I cannot forgive the wizard who shattered the Legion. With all the honor and glory I enjoyed as a Legion Commander turned to dust, there’s nowhere left for me to return.”
“…….”
“I must get my revenge on that man, no matter what. Unlike you, who served the Marshal yet shamelessly clung to Adamant Thunder’s side to preserve your life…!!!”
“Hmph….”
Thwack!!!
Peshia’s expression, skewering the head of a rushing superhuman with her spear, was unusually clouded.
A complicated look, uncharacteristic of her, who rarely harbored emotions beyond anger.
“Yes, you’re right. Perhaps I was wrong, and you are right.”
The old her would have screamed, demanding why she was here, what had happened.
But Peshia had decided not to make any excuses for her decisions anymore.
She had decided to put down all her choices and regrets from that day once the subjugation campaign was over.
“I understand your desire to become a ghost of the Legion, but….”
Clink…!!
Peshia, lowering her crimson spear horizontally as if letting it slide, said softly.
“If you try to harm Jenicia in any way, I won’t tolerate it.”
“Of course. You weren’t a soldier, but her watchdog.”
Ashut, raising his sword, gave a grim laugh.
“In the end, you were just a dog chasing her scent… unable to follow your master to the end, yet unable to bite her.”
“……Indeed.”
Peshia, gripping her spear, closed her eyes.
“Talk all you want until your head falls off.”
Whoosh…!!
There was no reply.
On the deck, where a chilling sea breeze blew, they stood facing each other, treading upon bloody corpses.
Ashut, burning his full mana and raising his sword, and Peshia, lowering her spear without even drawing forth Ancestral Spirits.
Crackling, sharp flashes of light glinted as the two Transcendent beings were about to clash with full force in the chaotic battlefield.
Just as a distorted noise flickered before Peshia’s eyes, Ashut’s form was hurled with incredible speed to the opposite side of the deck.
CRASH!!!!
“Ugh…?!!”
An incredible speed that sent him sprawling without a chance to react.
‘Something’ that emerged from beneath the black sea grabbed Ashut’s body and dragged him down.
Throughout the ark, the bodies of superhumans engaged in combat split and tore apart, transforming into black butterflies and flying upwards.
Flap, flutter-flutter-
“Aaaargh!!”
“No, no…!!”
Squish-splatter-splatter!!!
Grotesque tearing sounds of flesh colliding, exploding, mixing, and overlapping.
Black butterflies flapping in the sky, and a horizon distorted as if shedding black tears.
Peshia’s face turned pale as she witnessed hell opening far across the sea.
“……What is this, seriously? It’s been happening for a while.”
The gate opened, and hell arrived.
Incomprehensible slaughter, incomprehensible death.
All causality that existed here today was swallowed beyond the weeping sea.
Shhhhh….
Through the deserted coastline, a thick blood-mist now flowed.
Fresh blood streamed down the tilted ark, and a chilling silence enveloped the air.
Squish, squish…!!
The massive form of the old one-horned deer-giant moved, treading on the corpse fragments piled between the decks.
Behind him, the form of a hell gate was closing, beyond the endlessly weeping black sea.
Groooooan-
Though the gate had opened only for a moment, every living thing visible was already dead.
Though the gate had closed only for a moment, Lennok already surmised its true nature.
Hell, existing entirely outside this world. The entrance, exit, and pathway to that place.
It didn’t take long for everything to reach its end.
[It’s time for it to end.]
“…….”
Was that closing vision, that momentary manifestation, a fragment of the answer reached by another Lennok from a different Branching Point?
The figure of the one-horned deer-giant, leaning on a staff woven from skulls, transforming humans into butterflies with a single gesture.
Its grotesque form gently guiding the flayed human flesh and souls, pushing them beyond hell.
Thus, the one who stood at the end of the Feast of the Dead, where all that had fallen to the depths of hell would ultimately arrive.
He understood it instinctively.
That was not the future of Lennok, who chose the black magic branching point Myeong had given him.
Nor was it the future of a branching point immersed in necromancy dealing with corpses, or human sacrifice.
The reason it was called the Lord of Hell, revered by myriad demons, using deer-giants as its servants from the other side.
That was the future Lennok would reach if he chose Gabihaeng.
“…….”
What was Gabihaeng?
Why did a branching point exist where Lennok chose something he didn’t even have a clear concept of?
Why, at the end of the path chosen by that decision, did another Lennok become the Lord of Hell?
He didn’t know. He only reaffirmed that Myeong held secrets beyond imagination.
Squish…!
Crossing the sea of corpses, the one-horned deer-giant with the skull staff stopped before Lennok.
[This is a curious feeling.]
He said softly, looking down at Lennok with his one remaining, profound eye.
[The young master of this era seems very different from the one who sits on the other side.]
“…….”
[I believed you had not changed at all since that day, that you had always been thus… but it was merely the foolishness of a humble servant.]
The corrupted one, pushing up his monocle, offered a gentle smile.
[The Master truly was the one who held the key.]
“…….”
Though the beast’s words were abstruse, Lennok vaguely understood them.
The Lennok from the branching point who chose Gabihaeng was a future self completely driven mad, broken, and transformed.
Within Lennok’s Root Mindscape, it was the very branching point of corrupted possibility, one that typically didn’t exist.
The one-horned deer-giant, knowing that his existence was a false one, originating from a Kaleidoscope that had spiraled out of control, vaguely recognized within infinite causality that Lennok was the true master of all those Kaleidoscopes.
[The miracle granted by the Master is ending, and twilight will soon arrive.]
Crackle, crackle…!!!
Seeing the noise covering its body, the one-horned deer-giant slowly tapped its staff.
[This humble servant will also pay the price for answering the call.]
“…….”
The noise manifested, covering beings and matter that were not originally concepts of this world. The corrupted one’s existence, too, was consumed, breaking down and disappearing.
Clearly, this was the fate of someone other than Lennok using the Kaleidoscope.
He knew this would eventually happen.
Because the deer-giant, said to have relied on Lutchman, the Elder Council administrator, wasn’t that powerful.
Lennok had merely forced a possibility, one he could never have grasped himself, into his hands by using his Kaleidoscope.
Because it was a branching point not originally granted to the deer-giant, its outcome was bizarrely twisted beyond comprehension.
Lennok’s Kaleidoscope could illuminate infinite futures only because his own possibilities were open to near infinity.
Even if the Kaleidoscope were used on others, their very existence would be annihilated as a price for being forced into possibilities that weren’t their own.
The Kaleidoscope never smiled upon anyone except Lennok.
From the start, Lennok’s Kaleidoscope was not a benevolent or merciful power.
To the unqualified, it was a power more ruthless and cruel than anything else.
“…….”
Surely, even if he were to share the Kaleidoscope with his companions instead of this beast, the outcome wouldn’t be different.
Even if he tried to force it to keep those he treasured, he would only face distorted results like this.
Opening non-existent possibilities for his companions using the Kaleidoscope would only lead to him witnessing such sights.
It wasn’t strange. It wasn’t surprising, nor was it disappointing.
He had only tried it just in case, as Lennok himself considered it hopeless.
In the end, only Lennok himself could harbor the mental images of the future.
And that he couldn’t grant or force it upon anyone else.
Not a single being who existed across the three worlds. Not even Ban-gung could do that.
He had merely realized that, in the final moment, he would stand alone before the conclusion.
[Results dictate the process. No process is more important than the result.]
“…….”
[The Master, having gained the authority to determine outcomes, summoned this servant.]
The one-horned deer-giant asked, smiling.
[Young Master, will you determine this servant’s outcome?]
“……Indeed.”
Lennok muttered, extending his arm simultaneously.
“This is enough. Rest now.”
Clack…!!
A demon’s hand, bound by black chains, shot out from the darkness, gripping the beast’s head.
The corrupted one, who had crawled from hell, accepted its end with a smile, offering no resistance.
Thud. As the demon set down the lifeless corpse, the noise-covered beast was erased from the world.
Its aged, horn-covered body scattered and vanished as if it had never existed.
Immediately after, a mirror that had fallen from the center of the ruins rolled out to Lennok’s feet.
Clang!!
“…….”
It had floated in the center of the Ascension Relic, refusing any interference except Lennok’s mana.
A divine object, created with the power of the World’s Ten Laws, serving as a medium to reflect other timelines.
As Lennok gazed thoughtfully at the mirror on the ground, a sound came from behind him.
“……Adamant Thunder.”
Peshia, her neatly arranged hair disheveled and covered in blood.
Stepping onto the deck, she flinched, surprised, seeing the beast vanishing at Lennok’s feet.
“You, what in the-”
“Van…!!”
Clack!!
Jenny, throwing open the deck’s passage door and rushing out, panted as she looked at Lennok.
“Just now, that…!!!”
“The situation is completely over.”
Lennok slowly bent down, picking up the mirror shard at his feet, and said.
“The superhumans who came to the ruins have been dealt with. There shouldn’t be any more problems. Are you hurt anywhere?”
“……Van. Yoran escaped.”
Jenny replied with a wry expression.
“A light exploded in the middle of the sea, and he abandoned his body right then. It seems it wasn’t his main body.”
“…….”
“He seemed to have sensed something very dangerous and ran away… That was your doing, wasn’t it?”
“……Indeed.”
Only a few, including Lutchman and the Monarch of the Azure Gate, had been able to directly witness the Kaleidoscope’s abilities up close.
Since everyone present died simultaneously with the deer-giant’s future alteration, there would be no lingering repercussions.
Lennok, turning with the mirror in hand, frowned at Jenny’s battered appearance.
“You’re covered in oil. You must have been rolling all over the ark. I gave you over five artifacts to use in situations like this, why didn’t you use any?”
With Jenny, who had mastered the Ouroboros magic system, it was unlikely she’d be injured or killed by ordinary spellcraft.
But that didn’t mean Jenny could defeat or overpower high-level spellcasters.
That’s why Lennok had procured escape artifacts and Reverse Summoning Spellcraft for Jenny, but she remained on the battlefield without using any of them.
“I thought if I kept the necromancer tied up here, it might make the situation on your side a little easier….”
“I wasn’t holding these people back because the situation here was dangerous. The difference in numbers wasn’t the problem.”
Lennok cast a glance at Peshia.
“And it’s not like I care if this killer dies a lonely death somewhere.”
“……I don’t know why this crazy wizard bastard complains even when he helps. Did he take the wrong medicine?”
Peshia spat, glaring at Lennok.
“No, you’re the one who created a strange monster and interfered with my fight! I had a grudge to settle…!”
“My apologies. In any case, with this, I’ve obtained this mirror, the core of the Ascension Relic.”
Lennok said, looking at the mirror in his hand.
“I knew I could only use its abilities after experimenting with them, but it took longer than I expected.”
“I did think things wouldn’t go exactly to plan… but I never imagined it would escalate like this.”
Jenny, looking down at the blood-mist-shrouded seascape, swept her hair back with a soft sigh.
The presence of competitors they encountered while searching Gagameon’s Ark for the Ascension Relic with Lennok.
The struggle over the relic ended and the outcome was decided in less than three hours.
And that outcome resulted in the deaths of over four Level 8 superhumans and hundreds of high-ranking superhumans.
Jenny felt a throbbing headache just thinking about reporting this incident to the city government and cleaning up the aftermath, and she asked.
“Van, so what will you do? We have the mirror now, should we go back to the Tower?”
“…….”
“We got the Ascension Relic, but we have to meet Dadam to decide its disposition, right? After finishing the investigation, let’s go to District 49 and contact him-”
“No, there’s no need for that.”
At that moment, a sharp, silvery gleam flashed above Lennok’s head.
The light that appeared from the empty air was sudden yet free, as if creating something out of nothing.
The moment Jenny and Peshia both flinched and looked up at the sharp, unannounced gleam.
Mistral, appearing from thin air, lightly descended before Lennok.
Thump!
As she landed on the blood-soaked deck, she naturally swept her hair back.
But the face looking at Lennok seemed eerily hollow and empty at first glance.
“……Mistral?”
“No. The contents are entirely different.”
As Jenny paused, taken aback by an unfamiliar aura completely different from the elf she had been accompanying, Lennok said with an impassive face.
“An Ascendant. It’s Dadam herself.”
“……!!!”
The Ascendant’s will, residing in Mistral’s body, had directly descended here.
Jenny gasped in shock upon realizing this fact, and Peshia frowned, stepping forward a pace.
Lennok, blocking both their movements with one hand, stared intently at Mistral’s face.
“I knew you had a great interest in relics, so it’s not surprising you’re intervening now.”
Lennok said.
“But I didn’t think you’d be so rude as to possess a fellow elf’s body to send your will.”
“You have good insight, but there’s a big misunderstanding.”
Dadam, moving Mistral’s body and slowly crossing her arms, said.
“Will can only reside where there is consent. Possessing a living body is not permitted unless it’s forbidden sorcery.”
“…….”
“Only after perceiving what happened here did I realize that an Ascension Relic was slumbering in this sea. Yes, it was ultimately still here….”
Dadam’s eyes, holding an empty light, turned to the mirror in Lennok’s hand.
The moment Lennok frowned and Jenny’s face hardened at that indifferent gaze, which betrayed no emotion.
“This will be an extension of what we discussed last time.”
Despite the subtly sharpened air, Dadam said casually.
“As you may have understood, that mirror is not originally an object of this world. It is a product of Transcendent Magic that transcends cycles… a miracle reflecting past timelines.”
“…….”
“While it was bound by the Imperial Palace’s Prohibition Edict, it would have been fine. But now that the edict is lifted, it will continuously begin to randomly reflect timelines other than the present.”
Dadam said in a nonchalant tone.
“Each time, this world’s timeline will crumble, the time axis will distort, and entropy will accelerate… bringing the time of demise even closer.”
“……So, you’re saying we have to get rid of this by any means necessary?”
“Though I laid down my duties long ago, I am still one who has earned the right to challenge.”
Dadam, arms crossed, said.
“While I cannot love humanity as Heavenly Sight does, my desire for the world not to perish is the same as Jindun’s.”
“…….”
“The mirror in your hand right now is the most certain and fastest catalyst for accelerating the world’s demise.”
Dadam said casually.
“I cannot simply stand by, knowing a trigger lies beside me.”
“…….”
Silence fell.
Because Lennok, too, understood through the series of events that Dadam’s words were not a lie.
This mirror was a remnant of the World’s Ten Laws, a Transcendent catalyst that could transform into a Kaleidoscope simply by absorbing Lennok’s mana.
A remnant of a miracle that should not exist in this world, powerful enough to reflect his past self simply by Lennok standing before it.
At that moment, as Peshia and Jenny also vaguely understood Dadam’s words but remained wary.
“So, why don’t you use the mirror yourself to make that catalyst vanish from this world?”
“……What?”
“A relic created using the World’s Ten Laws is more like a mirror reflecting other timelines, an altar for receiving qualifications, and a consumable catalyst.”
Dadam said softly.
“Therefore, if you attempt a proper Ascension Ritual using the mirror, the mirror can be consumed, regardless of the ritual’s success or failure.”
“…….”
Regardless of the ritual’s success or failure. Why did Dadam bring up such words with this proposal?
Was it because she knew from the start that Lennok had no intention of becoming an Ascendant in this manner?
“Ascendant. Do you know what conversation I had with the Mayor?”
“It seems you haven’t quite grasped it, so let me rephrase my proposal.”
Dadam, raising her transparent eyes, said.
“If you do not wish to become an Ascendant, initiate the Ascension Ritual and fail the ritual. Once the mirror vanishes, I will teach you how to handle the Enlightenment of the Upper Heavens.”
“……The Enlightenment of the Upper Heavens?”
“For there is a horizon of events that a Seeker is destined to reach once they obtain transcendence.”
Dadam’s gaze pierced Lennok.
“I will teach you how to manifest an Ideological Domain.”