Chapter 1352: Designed Transcendence (30)
At the end of the Ascension Ritual.
The moment Lennok crossed the line, he understood that he hadn’t truly arrived.
Instead, he realized that a being who had gone ahead of him stood far away.
Because the outcome of the ritual Lennok was attempting was already a predetermined result, close to a necessity.
Because long before Lennok, there had been an Answerer who had attempted this method and achieved a result.
That’s how he knew he would be able to meet the Director at the end of all this.
That fact evoked a truly strange emotion in Lennok.
“……”
The existence of another self, whom he had vaguely chased for a long time.
A trace of someone who, though their beginning was different, had undeniably been him at some point.
At this moment, as he perceived and approached their enigmatic existence so closely.
Only after obtaining Extreme Lightning through the Subjugation War and stopping, did he finally feel he understood the scenery they saw.
He felt he vaguely knew where they stood, and in what timeline they were waiting.
A strange emotion, difficult to express in words, a contradictory self-mockery that felt like a sense of accomplishment.
This moment, as he confirmed he had reached them even slightly, felt like a small stirring to Lennok.
And words flowed out naturally, even without thinking.
“When I saw the Mirror in the ruins, I somehow thought it might turn out this way.”
“……”
“A mirror that reflects one’s past self. A passage to a different timeline. If it’s a miracle that can make that possible, it could even summon a past self from a previous world.”
Lennok walked towards the Director, who was sitting on a massive wall.
“The Pontiff isn’t in a state to descend, but you were still residing in this world. If there was a suitable medium, it wouldn’t have been impossible. In other words…”
Lennok slowly stopped and muttered.
“Dadam didn’t come to me to destroy the Mirror. The Ascendant came to Vulcan to meet you.”
“……”
“As a Conquering Archer who reached transcendence, perhaps she felt something towards you, the Magic Marksman…”
Lennok looked down at the Director, whose form was covered in noise, and asked.
“Did she want to ask you for something related to the infallible authority?”
The Director did not answer.
As always, their noise-shrouded gaze simply looked at the vast, distant wall.
A disinterested reaction, seemingly unconcerned with Lennok’s words. But Lennok wasn’t disappointed by the Director’s non-answer.
Because he vaguely perceived that the current Director was too faint to maintain interest in worldly affairs.
The Answerer who killed a god, ascended, and crossed worlds, yet still retained their humanity.
Even that unreadable reaction vaguely felt similar to Lennok himself, someday.
“From the beginning, The Astrologer wasn’t reading my fate. What she read through her divination wasn’t me, but…”
Though The Astrologer could read Lennok’s past, she couldn’t read his future.
Therefore, the divination she read wasn’t for Lennok, but rather the fate that the Director had once received.
If you succeed, you will lose yourself. If you fail, you will abandon yourself. To achieve your desired outcome, you must kill a god.
Lennok understood all these inexplicable divinations at the moment he reached the end of the Ascension Ritual—that they actually referred to the Director’s conclusion, not his own.
Even that what he had to do wasn’t to fail the ritual, but to succeed.
“……”
The Director neither affirmed nor denied Lennok’s words.
They didn’t even confirm whether Lennok’s speculation was true.
With their gaze flickering with noise still fixed on the wall, they merely muttered softly.
“That should be enough.”
“What?”
“There’s no need to foresee everything to the very end. Nor is it necessary to always see the future first and then realize it.”
“……”
“It’s enough to realize what’s happening to you, as you are now. There’s no reason for two of us to be bound by the curse of necessity.”
The Director said.
“With that much, you’ll be able to go all the way to the end too.”
“……”
For a moment, Lennok felt that the Director’s answer held a subtle, strange nuance.
It wasn’t an incomprehensible koan like their previous conversations.
Rather, it was a subtle answer that felt much more intuitive.
The Director’s tone, as if trying to explain something to Lennok.
Sensing this, Lennok muttered.
“…Meeting you here wasn’t a coincidence after all.”
“……”
“Is there something that can only be conveyed here, beyond the Ascension Ritual… in the higher heavens?”
Lennok looked at the Director with a hardened expression.
“What do you want to tell me?”
“About how to use power.”
The Director turned their gaze.
“You’ve gained many useful abilities, but you’re wasting them. Shall we talk for a bit?”
“What?”
“Mass Formula. Why do you rarely use it, even after acquiring it with such difficulty?”
At the Director’s unexpected words, Lennok’s expression subtly changed.
A question he hadn’t even imagined hearing from the Director at this point.
But the Director completely ignored Lennok’s reaction and spoke in a calm tone.
“Hermes was a Transcendent who stayed with me for a long time in the second world.”
“……”
“Therefore, his formulas had many points compatible with my abilities. For example…”
“…For example?”
“Like creating ‘bullets’ that I, at that time, could no longer produce.”
Bullets created using the Mass Formula.
While Lennok pondered those words with a hardened expression, the Director spoke.
“Whether to converge into one at the extreme, or to infinitely diverge, is a matter of choice. You chose neither, and conversely, you also chose both.”
“……”
“If you intend to make an irreconcilable choice itself your answer, do as you please. However… you’ll need to think a little more lightly.”
“Thinking lightly, what do you mean—”
“You are different from us.”
The Director cut Lennok off with a single phrase.
“You already know yourself too well. That’s why you weigh your choices excessively.”
“……”
“Results don’t exist only because a choice was made. Sometimes, a choice must be made because a result exists. Keep this difference in mind.”
Beyond the noise, the Director’s gaze seemed to meet Lennok’s.
“It will help you organize the enlightenment you gained from meeting the Outer God in the Demonic Realm.”
“……You.”
Did they already know what Lennok had experienced in the Four-Heavenly-Flower Demonic Realm?
It wasn’t surprising. It was none other than him who had delivered the Solar Ark’s core to Lennok.
If there hadn’t been a ship replacing the sun, Lennok might not have had the reserve power to face the Grand General until the very end.
So, did the Director know where Ethan Vajour was, and what he was trying to do? Was he simply observing all outcomes of this world as a necessity, endlessly walking backward?
But, the reason the Director was answering Lennok like this now was—
“There are words that can only be conveyed at this moment, after crossing the line.”
Lennok quietly said.
“That’s why you were waiting. That’s why… you wanted to meet me this way.”
At this moment, as he performed the Ascension Ritual using the Mirror reflecting his past self as a catalyst.
Even knowing the Ascendant’s purpose, the Director responded to that call and waited for Lennok here.
Because there existed a conversation that could only be shared in this manner.
Because there weren’t many opportunities for him, standing outside the world, to convey words to someone in this way.
As if understanding Lennok’s state of mind, the Director calmly stated.
“Next time you attempt the Ascension Ritual, this won’t happen.”
“……”
“If you use the same method, you can easily reach beyond the line… but that’s not the choice you desire, is it?”
“…Yes. Probably not.”
He knew. That the Ascension Ritual wasn’t the only way to reach Level 9.
In fact, Lennok himself had never used a ritual in the process of raising his Hierarchy.
Only the Director chose the ritual method; the Pontiff must have used different methods each time.
Even the Ascendant chosen by the Pontiff as a vessel, Dorai, didn’t borrow the power of a ritual when reaching Level 9.
But even as Lennok agreed with the Director’s words, he was thinking of something else.
It wasn’t just because Lennok and the Director were on the same timeline through the form of the Ascension Ritual.
Even considering that, there was this strange sense of déjà vu, as if someone was trying to convey something to Lennok.
At the same moment he realized the true nature of that déjà vu, words came out.
“How much longer can you last?”
“……”
The Director did not answer.
Instead, they faintly shifted their gaze and glanced at Lennok.
With just that reaction, Lennok understood that he had hit the mark.
“After gaining transcendence, I vaguely see it. If you’re trying to finish things early because you’re becoming closer to a coincidence—”
“You worry too much.”
“……”
“That’s not what you should be worrying about.”
Suddenly, Lennok forgot the immediate situation and felt oddly annoyed.
A speaking style somewhat similar to Lennok’s. No, it was natural for them to resemble each other, like a mirror.
Only after understanding the Director did he realize that parts of him were still similar to Lennok.
“Ha… unfortunately, you’re not the only one running out of time.”
Lennok sighed softly and shook his head.
“It’s impossible to last long beyond the line without accomplishing something. You know that.”
“……”
Lennok stood here now because he had crossed the line through the Ascension Ritual.
But he couldn’t exist beyond this line for long without reaching Level 9.
This realm was permitted only to past Ascendants or Answerers who had transcended the world.
He maintained the ritual by choosing not to choose, but such an arbitrary state could only last for a moment.
It wouldn’t be strange if Lennok’s spirituality itself “fell” back to reality soon enough.
The Director seemed to understand Lennok’s words, falling into thought for a moment.
As if carefully selecting the words they were about to speak.
“In the second world, I tried to bring about results as quickly as possible.”
Silence fell, and the words the Director then uttered were more like a strange reminiscence than an explanation.
“Because I already knew how coincidence had been broken in the first world.”
“You knew how it was broken?”
“It wasn’t incomprehensible. The first world had existed for a very long time.”
The Director’s and Lennok’s gazes met.
“…Much, much longer than you imagine.”
“……”
“At the time, I knew that fact and tried to avoid the worst-case scenario.”
The Director murmured in a faint voice.
“And in that process, I made many sacrifices.”
“…That was.”
“I believed it was something I could bear, but the price was always paid by others, not me.”
“……”
“For a long time, my heart was worn down, and I thought I had become numb… but in truth, I was never able to do so, not for a moment.”
The Director slowly turned their head and murmured.
“I reached a conclusion after many failures, but your method doesn’t have to be the same as mine.”
“……”
“Even if the beginning was the same… at some point, you started looking at a different place. Then, it’s natural for the destination to be different too.”
Does birth or environment define a person?
But Lennok understood that this question was meaningless for him and the Director.
They were beings who had “chosen” from the moment they opened their eyes in this world.
Perhaps the beginning truly was the same.
After choices they could no longer even remember, they diverged and separated, standing where they were now.
There was no change in their resolve to cherish even those choices and move forward.
However—
“There’s not much more I can say… When you return, get help from the Ascendant to organize the ritual.”
The Director began to walk.
“I’ll handle the Ascendant’s purpose myself. From now on, she’ll cooperate willingly with you.”
“Do you already know what Dadam wanted to meet you for?”
“She vaguely knew she could meet me through you, but she didn’t understand how that was possible.”
The Director calmly stated.
“That’s probably because, long ago, she abandoned her heart to achieve her purpose. As a result, she gained what she wanted, but strayed from her true essence.”
“……”
“Though past regrets cannot be undone, she wishes to atone for her mistakes. That’s why she intends to become a bullet herself.”
“…A bullet, surely not.”
The Magic Marksman of the Second World. The Godslayer of the Old World. The One Who Walks Backward.
The Master of Necessity and the Answerer possessing Post-Heaven Authority.
The reason Dadam sought to meet the Director using Lennok as a medium. The true purpose of the Ascendant seeking to meet the Godslayer.
Lennok furrowed his brow, instantly understanding the Director’s words and their purpose.
“Evelyn’s speculation wasn’t wrong in a sense. She tried to make herself into an arrow, didn’t she?”
“……”
“She wanted to be processed into a bullet in your hands, to end herself as a tool to kill a god. Yes…”
Lennok closed his eyes.
“Even the phrase ‘different from the previous Lighthouse Keeper, yet the same as Jindun’ had that meaning.”
When Lennok obtained the Mirror in the ruins, Dadam used other Ascendants as examples for why the Mirror needed to be destroyed.
She said she didn’t love humans like the previous Lighthouse Keeper, but shared Jindun’s desire to save the world.
Looking back, even that message was closer to hinting at what Dadam ultimately wanted.
Just as Jindun entrusted his body to the Director to become a bullet that killed a god.
If Dadam, who abandoned her heart and became an arrow, sought the Director to fulfill her meaning to the very end.
Then, Dadam wasn’t a corrupted or broken being after all.
Even her purpose might have been understandable if it was to leave a legacy.
“Her lingering regret is unfortunate, but it’s not a wish I can grant.”
The Director’s noisy gaze turned to Lennok.
“By now, you should have realized and understood. However…”
“However?”
“Be cautious when learning the Thought World from her.”
“……”
This time, Lennok couldn’t utter a word and fell silent.
Because the Director’s answer, as if reading all the events that had transpired below, truly felt as if they were a god.
No, having ascended themselves and even killed a god, it might not be an exaggeration to call them a god already.
Perhaps it was because they were a god who refused to be a god that the Director received the reverence of countless transcendents and was called the One Who Walks Backward.
But apart from that sentiment, there was something he had to ask.
“Be cautious when learning the Thought World. Does that mean I shouldn’t learn it?”
“It’s a matter of timing rather than semantic similarity. You understand, don’t you?”
“I don’t know. Answer me in a way I can understand.”
“……”
Perhaps not expecting such a response, the Director stared intently at Lennok.
Lennok frowned and tilted his head, looking back at the Director.
“I’ve gained Extreme Lightning and am at the beginning of transcendence, but I’m not complete. Don’t you know what happened in the Demonic Realm?”
“There’s also knowledge that shouldn’t be known.”
The Director replied calmly.
“Unless one is a god, one cannot read all the causality of the world.”
“What are you saying now—”
“But there were a few beings in this world who were infinitely close to gods.”
“……”
In silence, the Director looked into Lennok.
As if facing someone other than Lennok within his inner self.
“There is a Transcendent who acquired the fate of destruction and reached the end… one who killed a god but failed to ascend.”
“…That was.”
A Transcendent who killed a god yet failed to ascend.
Lennok’s expression hardened instantly as he understood the meaning of those words.
Because he immediately understood who the Director was referring to, listening to who had killed the Outer God, the Cold Comet, in Kabahim.
“It seems coincidence went to meet him directly at the last moment, but I didn’t think it was necessary.”
The Director said.
“Because I knew that he rejected his own fate at the very last moment.”
“……”
“The fate he rejected and let go of at his final moment. His destiny as the shepherd guiding the end.”
Only then did Lennok understand the meaning of the warning the Director was giving him.
A warning given at this point, when he might learn the Thought World from an Ascendant.
If there was something the Director had to convey to Lennok, saving their remaining time, it must be—
“If you pursue learning without proper preparation, you will acquire the Thought World of Rebellion.”
“……”
“You will bring forth the future timeline of destruction that he harbored into this world earlier. To explain it more simply.”
Beyond the noise, the Director’s indifferent gaze seemed to sweep past Lennok.
“The moment you learn the Thought World, you will gain the switch that accelerates the world’s destruction. Ponder the meaning of this carefully.”
“……”
“Perhaps our ending is not about waiting, but about seeking it out.”