Chapter 1406: Paradise Lost (17)

Huuuk!!

“Ugh, my head…”

Freya staggered out of the darkness, a dizzy expression on her face.

After collapsing to the ground with difficulty, she flinched as she looked around the quiet Paradise Lost.

“This place is…”

Whooosh…!!

A purple field. The hideous form of the Cradle spread out in the far distance. The faint glow of the Spell-Word Stones.

On a hill overlooking the Cradle stood Lennok and the boy, silent.

Staring blankly at the two, Freya furrowed her brow and asked.

“Tower Lord…? What happened? Where’s Jinwa?”

“…”

Lennok didn’t answer.

Instead, he just watched the black-haired boy, who was already fading bit by bit.

Seeing Lennok’s silence, Freya glanced around with a puzzled look.

“We… we were inside the Cradle just a moment ago. Don’t tell me we managed to shake the Ascendant and escape in that time…?”

“…”

Perhaps because Lennok had returned with her secured, Freya remembered what had happened before the time in Paradise Lost was reversed.

Even in a regression that no one without Lennok’s Targeted Resistance could withstand, Freya had kept her memories.

Though the entirety of Paradise Lost’s time had been rewound to bring them back here, only the three of them remembered what had transpired.

Perhaps this, too, was a form of insurance planned by the boy or Myeong.

But-

“Hey, Tower Lord…? Say something, please.”

Looking up at the silently standing Lennok, Freya wore an anxious expression.

“We didn’t actually all die and go to heaven, did we? A person like you wouldn’t go to heaven.”

“Seems you still have the energy to joke.”

“Seeing as we’re still in Paradise Lost, don’t tell me we’ve all become Jinwa’s slaves already?”

Instead of answering, Lennok glanced away.

The boy, who was gradually fading, smiled and nodded.

“Benefactor. As I said, there is still time for a brief explanation.”

“…”

“This woman also risked her life and did not yield to Jinwa. Wouldn’t it be alright for her to hear what has happened?”

“I wasn’t planning on not explaining the situation to Freya. It’s just…”

As he spoke, Lennok looked down at the black cracks spreading from his finger.

“How much I can explain while guaranteeing our safety. I was just contemplating that.”

Crack, craaack…!!!

Black cracks spread out, centered on the black ring on his finger.

The fine black lines extended across his skin and the back of his hand, shimmering as if they would shatter his body at any moment.

“…”

With every moment the cracks spread, a sharp pain shot through him, and he could feel the connection between his soul and body weakening.

A dizzying sensation, as if just looking at it shook his will-thought and caused the foundation of his body to crumble, hurtling toward ruin.

He could sense it instinctively.

The moment he rewound time in Paradise Lost and erased the causality of what had happened, the miracle contained within the ring had returned.

And yet, the backlash from ‘him’ using the spellcraft, however faint, remained, eating away at Lennok’s body.

This much backlash, even though he had manifested for a near-instant using a miracle that recreated a memory of the past.

Even though he had willingly given up manifesting and returned to slumber, Lennok could feel the body he had passed through creaking.

If even Lennok, who had witnessed everything, was in this state, how could he possibly explain what had occurred there?

After some thought, Lennok opened his mouth.

“…Several anomalies occurred while fighting the Incarnation Body we encountered in the Cradle.”

Lennok briefly explained what had happened after he secured Freya.

The Ascendant’s true body descending as Paradise Lost crumbled. Lennok’s counterattack using the Lightning Emperor and the ring.

Jinwa’s insane rampage as she devoured Yeongheo Palace, and finally, their regression back to this point.

He couldn’t speak of ‘him,’ as it was too dangerous, but he had no trouble explaining the rest of the situation.

Freya listened to all of Lennok’s explanations with her mouth agape, stunned.

“That… makes no sense.”

Freya, who had been standing in a daze for a long while, asked again.

“You forcibly activated an Ascendant’s Spell-Word… to turn back time in an Ideological Domain?”

“…”

“You’re saying we’ve already regressed once and returned here…? Is that even possible?”

“Even I, who experienced it directly, can hardly believe it…”

Lennok gave a bitter smile.

“Absurdly, it was only possible because we used none other than the Ascendant’s own Spell-Word.”

An Ascendant reigns like a god within their own Ideological Domain.

Moreover, Jinwa was a Transcendent who could freely alter the causality and laws within Paradise Lost using her Spell-Word.

That was why he knew that within this Paradise Lost, even an unrealistic miracle like regression wasn’t impossible.

It wasn’t possible to rewind the world without any cost like Kaiser Bajour, but rewinding time within Paradise Lost with certain restrictions was not impossible.

Lennok had understood that fact as soon as he returned with the boy, and he realized why the boy had to do what he did.

At the same time, he also understood why the boy had remained until now.

“The battle between the two that began in Paradise Lost was of a transcendent nature, enough to briefly change day to night on the Central Front.”

The boy took a step forward.

“As the endless night continued, the two clashed with their spellcraft and mindscapes relentlessly, and in doing so, they came to deeply understand each other’s origins and abilities.”

“…”

“In the time of the material world, this was but an instant, but the clashes that occurred in that great battle were akin to an eternity.”

In the quiet silence, the boy spoke calmly.

“Just as she came to understand the Black Edict and noticed the secret of Yeongheo Palace, we too came to deeply understand her Spell-Word.”

“…That is.”

Through the decisive battle in Paradise Lost, Myeong and Jinwa had gazed deeply into each other’s abyss.

Jinwa had looked into Myeong and realized that the secret hidden in Yeongheo Palace was related to the power of the Black Edict, leading her to try and break her deal with the Three Grand Dukes.

Conversely, Myeong realized what kind of authority Jinwa’s Spell-Word was and had engraved a Spell-Word within her that even the Ascendant herself was unaware of.

A one-time regression that would completely rewind time in Paradise Lost, wiping away all causality that had existed until then.

A miracle that could turn back the time of an Ideological Domain, possible only through the paradox that not even the Ascendant herself would remember what happened before the regression.

Lennok knew that it was because they had turned back time under such bindings and restrictions that the three of them had returned here safely.

“Because I knew the fight would end in defeat, I was able to conserve my strength until the very end. The trigger for the Spell-Word, which I realized just before the conclusion. I knew that using it would allow me to forcibly activate her Spell-Word at least once.”

The boy slowly turned toward Lennok.

“Myeong didn’t tell me how I should use this. He never wanted the future to be decided in such a way in the first place.”

“…”

“He simply believed that the moment would come to use it in its rightful place… and the moment I met you, benefactor, I naturally knew.”

The boy smiled awkwardly.

“For an improvisation, it wasn’t half bad, was it?”

“You…”

The boy had known from the very beginning that showing Lennok the Cradle would ‘absolutely’ lead to being discovered by the Ascendant.

He had intuited that catastrophe would follow once he revealed what she was trying to achieve in this Paradise Lost.

The reason the boy had nevertheless led Lennok and shown him the depths of Paradise Lost, explaining everything.

“From the very beginning… you planned to return everything to this point.”

If the boy had used black magic or some other authority to rewind time in Paradise Lost, the Ascendant would have noticed immediately.

After all, there was virtually no authority or spellcraft within this Paradise Lost that could escape Jinwa’s notice.

But because time was rewound by none other than the Ascendant’s own Spell-Word, neither Jinwa herself nor anyone else noticed the anomaly.

Instead, only the three who had uncovered the secrets of Paradise Lost and returned safely remained here.

“Was that why ‘he,’ awakened through the ring… returned without settling things?”

What Lennok had summoned using the ring was the memory of the guide leading the world to its ordained destruction.

Therefore, for every moment ‘he’ existed, the heavens shattered, the seas roared, and the gods drew near.

The presence of outside eyes, watching Paradise Lost in real-time from beyond the crumbling sky.

Had a little more time passed, it wouldn’t have been strange if an unscheduled ending had literally descended upon Paradise Lost.

That was why he had given up on manifesting instead of attempting to reach a complete conclusion right then and there.

Because he understood that all causality that occurred there would soon become meaningless.

Because he believed this was not the place where the one-time miracle should be used.

And, the reason that was possible was—

“Hey, you… your body…!”

Faaaaa…!!!

The body of the boy who had explained everything to Lennok had already turned halfway into black mist.

As if his purpose was fulfilled the moment he finished speaking, the boy’s form was slowly disappearing, starting from his lower body.

Because of his youth and small frame, the speed of his dissipation was faster than expected.

“It’s alright, loud-voiced lady.”

The moment a stunned Freya tried to hastily activate her Musical Scale Spellcraft, the boy raised his hand.

Even as he looked down at his own rapidly dissipating body, the boy’s expression was perfectly calm.

“If you make a loud noise here, you will endanger everyone. You don’t intend to make the time we spent together meaningless, do you?”

“…But.”

“A body that died long ago and became a soul. I am simply returning to where I belong.”

The boy smiled.

“Rather… I feel at ease. For a long time, I made innocent people bear a heavy burden. The time has come for me to rightfully pay for that karma.”

“You… didn’t have amnesia from the start.”

Lennok said with a hardened expression.

“From the moment you awoke in the Black Coffin… you knew things would turn out this way.”

The boy knew from the beginning what he was and for what purpose he had awakened.

The reason he knew so much about Jinwa and could explain her objective in such detail.

The reason he could guide Lennok to the Cradle and show him its interior as if it were a place he had frequented for a long time.

All the questions that had made the boy seem suspicious were, in fact, possible because he was a being formed from Jinwa’s Spell-Word.

“Even your appearance, which strangely resembles a young Myeong… was that also due to the Spell-Word you held?”

The boy’s very existence was the trigger to forcibly activate Jinwa’s Spell-Word just once.

Even his appearance as a young Myeong was a hint at the Spell-Word of time regression.

Which means—

“The proposal the Ascendant made to you, benefactor, had many lies mixed in, but it contained the truth in the important parts.”

The boy raised his gaze.

“The mausoleum of Yeongheo Palace holds a different secret, not the Corpse Emperor’s body. That is why she and the Grand Duke intend to make a deal there.”

“A different secret…?”

“The cause that led us to our current end…”

The boy said, closing his eyes weakly.

“In a way, it is like our own karma.”

“…”

The cause that led the boy and the rest of the Black Edict clan to their current fate.

Did the secret of the karma that brought them to ruin exist in Yeongheo Palace?

If so, that would mean Jinwa and the Grand Duke converging on Yeongheo Palace as if by appointment was also related to it.

“You, you…”

“It’s alright.”

Smiling at Freya, who was stammering, unable to speak, the boy muttered as he watched his body disappear.

“We wanted to overcome our destiny. We desired more than the talents heaven allowed, and driven mad by an unattainable wish, we sacrificed our own clan’s bloodline as offerings.”

“…”

“What happened to us is our own fault, so it is nothing to be sad or lament over. However…”

The boy said.

“I hope that child, Myeong, can find salvation, even if it’s late.”

The boy already knew what end Myeong had met, and even what their relationship was.

The fact that he casually spoke down to Myeong and called him a child was proof that the boy was a being from a much older era than Myeong.

As if in prayer before a speechless Lennok, the boy devoutly clasped his hands together.

“So please, O ■■ ■. As the former head of the Black Edict, I pray.”

“…”

“Let not everything we have done become a handful of foam…”

Faaaaaat…!!!

The praying boy’s body was engulfed in a faint darkness and completely vanished.

Even his whispering voice was swept away by the scattering wind and quickly disappeared.

Where the boy had been, only a small, tear-shaped obsidian fragment remained.

“…”

The material looked remarkably similar to the obsidian mask Myeong had once gifted Lennok.

Was leaving this here also a gift and a final wish from the boy to Lennok?

Silent, Lennok slowly bent down and picked up the obsidian fragment the boy had left.

In the windswept paradise, nothing remained, as if no trace had ever been there from the start.

The ominously shaped Cradle, rising tall beyond the horizon, and the Spell-Word shining down from beyond it.

After watching the scene for a long while, Lennok spoke quietly.

“Let’s go back.”

“…Tower Lord.”

“He sacrificed his own existence to make what happened here undone. We shouldn’t repeat the same attempt.”

The traces of the Nether King and Jinwa encountered before even reaching the end of Paradise Lost.

The boy in the form of a young Myeong, the intervention of the Incarnation Body representing Jinwa’s will, and the strangely abrupt descent of her true body.

It had all been a series of unexpected anomalies, but perhaps because of that, it was fated from the beginning that they would return here.

In this moment, where everything that had happened in the Cradle was erased by none other than Jinwa’s own Spell-Word.

Lennok understood the immense value of the information and memories the boy had left him.

Fatally dangerous information that would have cost him his life many times over if he had tried to uncover it by exploring Paradise Lost through conventional means.

The fact that Jinwa was creating a language to communicate with the Outer Gods, and that she intended to trade Myeong’s legacy with the Three Grand Dukes at Yeongheo Palace.

And that if anything went slightly wrong, the Ascendant would swallow Yeongheo Palace whole and overturn everything.

He could not let the last will that Myeong had risked his life to leave behind, even in defeat, go to waste.

“…Tower Lord. I’m starting to get in touch with the other members.”

Freya, who had been closing her eyes and gathering her mana, said in a subdued voice.

Looking at the spot where the boy had disappeared with a bitter expression, she asked.

“I can establish communication with my spellcraft. What’s the plan?”

“We’ll regroup. Tell Hylaea.”

Putting the obsidian fragment the boy left into his pocket, Lennok said calmly.

“I’ve obtained all the necessary information. From now on, we’ll have to drastically move up the plan.”

“…That is.”

“I understand the reason for the Cradle’s existence and Jinwa’s objective. At the very least, we can’t settle things here.”

Raising his gaze with a hardened expression, Lennok spoke.

“If we clash with Jinwa at this point, she will rampage without a thought for the consequences and devour Yeongheo Palace and the legacy. That would conflict with our own plans.”

“…”

“We have to move without provoking Jinwa until we’ve recovered the legacy. To do that, in the end…”

The time when Myeong’s legacy and the karma of the Black Edict, all causality and secrets, converge into one.

With Freya quietly activating her Musical Scale Spellcraft behind him, Lennok started walking.

“There’s no choice but to directly intervene in the deal between the Ascendant and the Three Grand Dukes and seize the legacy.”