Chapter 1423: Lord of Hell (6)
A black sea covered in a distant darkness, stretching to the very edge of the horizon.
A silence where tightly sealed black coffins slumbered everywhere the eye could see.
The final destination, at last reached at the end of the Gabihaeng. The landscape of a hell created somewhere in another dimension, different from this world.
As if time had stopped, everything remained stagnant, unflowing, for all eternity….
Was this the place where the end of the Black Edict clan had unfolded?
And was this one of the future lines of ruin that his past self had met?
“…I see.”
He had thought about it once before.
The Demise of Fate and the Fate of Demise.
If the origin and essence, inverted like a play on words, were like mirrors reflecting each other.
Wouldn’t the Root Mindscape that ‘he’ possessed have been similar to Lennok’s in some sense?
Just as Lennok had made the infinite possibilities of the future his answer, what if he had made the ruined future his origin?
Perhaps, the [Gate] he used was not merely a concept that led to a single conclusion.
Whatever the process, if it was a world that had met a failed end, it might exist within ‘him’.
“The power to handle parallel universes….”
Lennok’s approach prioritized the process over the result.
‘His’ ability symbolized a predetermined result.
Though their destinations might have been different, their means might have been the same.
If the [Gate] he wielded held the same meaning as Lennok’s Kaleidoscope.
Then it would have been possible for him to detach one of the countless futures of ruin he faced and materialize it in the form of another dimension.
It wouldn’t have been impossible. In reality, he was an Ascendant who had reached Level 9 and could manifest an Ideological Domain.
However, the weight of the truth one actually faces is on a different level from a vaguely held suspicion-
Even after facing the truth of the Gabihaeng, Lennok could not easily accept its meaning.
That hell was a spacetime constructed in the form of another dimension, a landscape of the ruined future that Ban-gung had faced.
That this black sea, where a black hole had settled in place of the sun, might be the end this world would one day reach.
When that time comes, will all the humans of this world enter those black coffins and be devoured by the Outer Gods until the very end?
The moment Lennok thought this and silently gazed at the black coffins lining the shore.
“It is the result created through the Will-thought Transfer Spellcraft.”
“…”
Yet, the presence of the man standing next to Lennok made him realize that all of it was real.
The loser who was defeated at the end of the battle in Paradise Lost, who had all rights to his soul and body stolen.
The last patriarch of the Black Edict, bound by the laws of the Gabihaeng and cast into hell to suffer for eternity.
Myeong, who was looking at the black sea, spoke.
“That spellcraft our ancestors created was incredibly effective at forcibly extracting human souls. Have you heard of it?”
“…”
“It wouldn’t be strange if you didn’t. The Will-thought Transfer Spellcraft he created was designated a forbidden art and buried in the family’s history.”
Myeong spoke calmly.
“Until the Emperor restored that spellcraft from forgotten history and made it a punishment to be handed down to the Black Edict clan.”
“…Myeong.”
Lennok, turning with a stiff expression, finally looked at Myeong’s face.
His whole body was stained with darkness, his complexion pale and bloodless as he stood there.
But Myeong’s appearance seemed more stable than at any other time Lennok had seen him.
“It’s… a relief that you’re alive.”
After hesitating, Lennok forced himself to bring up a different topic.
“Until I came here, I thought Gateway City would be the last of it.”
“I’m sure you did. I’m sorry I couldn’t explain properly back then, Van.”
Myeong smiled.
“Back then, I… was not in my right mind in many ways. Even with you in front of me, it took quite some time just to recall the words.”
“…”
“And, to correct one error, I am not alive. After my defeat by Jinwa, only my soul was cast into this hell.”
How long had it been since they had a relaxed conversation like this?
It felt as if they had returned to a very distant time, standing together in a faraway memory.
Myeong’s appearance, standing in the middle of the hell of Gabihaeng, seemed surprisingly serene.
As if he had finally found peace only now, after dying at Jinwa’s hand and having only his soul cast into this hell.
“It must not have been easy getting here either.”
Myeong said, as if he had read Lennok’s thoughts.
“The power of Paradise Lost is among the most complex and tricky of all the Ascendants’ Ideological Domains. It’s the result of Jinwa’s obsession and compulsion melting completely into her garden.”
“…”
“She is mad, but she was by no means a dull or foolish being. If anything, she was closer to being exceptionally cunning… You must have paid a great price to come this far.”
“In many ways… it wasn’t something to be taken lightly.”
Lennok, who had unconsciously stroked his ring, turned back toward Myeong.
“I was helped a few times by the arrangements you left here. The legacy was one of them.”
“Legacy? Ah, are you talking about the Penteract?”
Myeong tilted his head and smiled.
“It’s an object adjusted to allow matter existing in the 5th dimension to be observed in this world. It’s not a treasure that can be described simply as a relic of the Old World.”
“…”
“Our world exists in the 3rd dimension, but beyond that, there are realms that surpass the 4th and 5th dimensions. The outside of this universe is formed by such multi-universes infinitely overlapping and endlessly expanding.”
Not minding the speechless Lennok, Myeong spoke nonchalantly.
“Its form isn’t fixed in the 3rd dimension, but when two Penteracts observe each other’s wavelengths, they can be transformed into a desired shape. I wasn’t thinking this far when I first gifted you one, but…”
“…”
“In a way, it’s an object that can directly interfere with the concept of ‘coincidence’. I sometimes thought that if I had to use it, it would be in a situation like this.”
“That…”
Lennok hesitated, then replied with a bitter smile.
“From the very beginning… you thought things might turn out this way.”
“I did not predict and prepare for every single moment. I dislike such predetermined fates, you see.”
Myeong replied.
“However, I just thought you had the right to know all of this. Even more so if you realized who you used to be.”
“…”
“I tried to tell you as much as I could and leave as many opportunities as possible. The Ascendants of the era after the Empire’s fall have become, literally, monsters that transcend common sense. But…”
Myeong’s gaze, looking down at Lennok’s cracked arm, sank deep.
“It seems that wasn’t enough in the end.”
“…No. It was enough. More than enough, in fact.”
Why had ‘he’, after awakening in Lennok’s body, willingly retreated to wait for the next opportunity?
Lennok had thought that it wasn’t simply because of the regression, but that it might also be related to Myeong’s existence.
If it was true that the Black Edict clan had been a key collaborator in the research and completion of the Heavenly Abasement Spellcraft.
Wouldn’t he, too, have had his own thoughts about the Black Edict bloodline?
Myeong, who was looking at Lennok’s arm with a bitter expression, turned away.
“From the moment I began the Gabihaeng, my end was set. That’s why everything I did was to change the process, not the result.”
“…”
“I never cared about what kind of end I would meet. Because… I knew there were things I could do in the process of heading toward that end.”
“…Myeong.”
“That a process more important than the result exists in this world, and that its meaning depends on how I myself accept it.”
Myeong, with his arms crossed, smiled and looked at Lennok.
“Just as the wondrous Kaleidoscope you chose has told you, Van.”
“I…”
Myeong knew what answer Lennok held, what landscape his heart contained.
He understood in what way he traveled this world, ceaselessly accumulating answers for the next step.
Even before Lennok presented his own answer to the Pontiff and the Director, he was one of Lennok’s greatest sympathizers.
Therefore-
“I saw the record that the Black Edict clan cooperated in the research of the Heavenly Abasement Spellcraft.”
Lennok had to ask Myeong about the truth he had confirmed inside the mausoleum.
“I learned that as a price, the entire clan was executed for treason. And that the Emperor had a hand in the process…”
“…”
“Did the Emperor… personally execute the Black Edict clan and bind their souls to hell?”
“…Yes.”
After a brief silence, Myeong slowly nodded.
“It is as you saw. This entire end we have met was decided by the master of the Empire himself.”
“…”
“The Emperor was arrogant and cruel, but in a way, he was just as brilliant and fair. That is why the punishments he delivered were also unspeakably harsh.”
“…”
“As a price… everyone who inherited the blood of the Black Edict has come to bear this karma, losing their bodies and having only their souls remain to suffer for eternity.”
“Through the… Will-thought Transfer Spellcraft that Ermont created?”
“He created the Will-thought Transfer Spellcraft to revive his wife and child. He was exiled for eternity after experimenting with the spellcraft on the clan’s kin.”
Myeong’s expression turned cold.
“Because he created it for others and not himself, that spellcraft was, from the beginning, a forbidden art extremely proficient at forcibly manipulating the souls of others.”
“…”
“The Emperor, with his unique intuition, saw through that fact with chilling accuracy and inflicted the humiliation of binding the souls of the kin with a spellcraft created by the clan’s own exile.”
Regardless of Lennok’s stiff expression, Myeong did not stop talking.
As if he could finally explain all of this now.
As if he was finally free from the curse and bondage that had shackled him his entire life.
“A soul that has lost its body and is bound to an object constantly weakens, softens, and becomes fragile, and as time flows, it changes to become something close to a catalyst.”
“…”
“The fate, disposition, memories, and talents that make up that soul… everything is shattered into pieces, ground so finely that not even its original form remains.”
Myeong looked at the black coffins stored in various places with a hazy gaze.
“After executing the Black Edict’s kin, the Emperor spared only one of the clan’s youngest children. He had that child manage the souls bound to the black coffins with the Will-thought Transfer Spellcraft.”
“…That is.”
“The child could not handle the spellcraft that had long been designated as the clan’s forbidden art. Every time the spellcraft was used, the souls of the kin lost their original form and were annihilated, changing to become close to catalysts… and were absorbed by the child as they were.”
Slowly, Myeong looked down at his own hands and said.
“I destroyed the souls of my kin who had fallen into hell with my own hands, drank them in, and inherited the memories and talents they left behind, constantly growing stronger.”
“…”
“Destroying the souls of my kin with my own hands, gaining unwanted talents and power each time… at some point, I realized.”
Myeong quietly turned to Lennok and said.
“That in the end, I myself would meet the same end as my kin, and that even that was an ending the Emperor had already decided.”
“…”
“And at the same time, even the fact that the Emperor had sacrificed the entire Black Edict clan as an offering to see the end of the Gabihaeng.”
“So… that’s why it was the Gabihaeng.”
Once, Pandemonium’s Doctor had mentioned Myeong in passing.
[Through the Gabihaeng, he obtained a fate greater than what was given to him, and he reached the door of transcendence with unrealistic speed.]
[The problem is that Myeong’s capabilities were so outstanding that he was ready before the Gabihaeng was even finished.]
[It is the most vile, yet greatest, ritual among those not directly linked to ascension.]
That was why, only now, Lennok could understand Myeong.
Why Myeong was able to surpass Level 8 and stand before the door of transcendence in such a short time.
Why he never once suffered defeat while sweeping up all the deaths on the continent through the Gabihaeng.
The reason he was called the strongest black wizard in the continent’s history. Even the reason he had followed the Director’s will and joined Pandemonium.
Therefore-
“…Why?”
Lennok asked.
“Why did you protect the research records of the Heavenly Abasement Spellcraft and die for them?”
“…”
“I can guess why… the ‘him’ of the past… sought to borrow the power of the Black Edict.”
Lennok said, his gaze falling weakly.
“Clearly, he needed the power of the Extinct Eye that the Black Edict clan served. Black magic, after all, followed the most alien laws among all spellcraft systems.”
“…”
“But the Black Edict clan, which was annihilated by the Emperor as a price for that, would not have felt the same. For an immeasurable amount of time, they must have paid the price for helping him while suffering.”
Lennok looked at Myeong.
“You… surely, you must have known better than anyone. You must have mulled it over for a very long time.”
“…”
“And yet… why did you go to such lengths to continue and protect the Gabihaeng?”
In the silence, Lennok asked.
“Do you not… resent me?”
“…I did resent you.”
Myeong closed his eyes.
“My fate, knowing I was being toyed with by the Emperor’s will, yet having to manage this hell to protect the souls of my kin… and the days I spent annihilating the souls of my kin with my own hands because I couldn’t even do that properly.”
“…”
“My powerlessness, having to remain here and wait for the predetermined end even after the Emperor who decided all this had left the world….”
“Myeong…”
“That is why I wanted someone who could end all of this. I longed for a being who could transcend the laws set by the world’s administrator.”
Slowly opening his eyes, Myeong looked at Lennok.
“And so, I met the Director and joined him… and I came to know of your existence.”
“…”
What he would say next, Lennok knew without hearing.
From meeting Lennok in the Ciger Bang Gang’s vault, confirming his talent, and helping him in various ways.
Drawing Lennok into Pandemonium, telling him the truth of the Ascendants, leading him to the Well of the Codex and making him witness the Outer Gods.
Teaching him the conditions needed to reach Level 8, expounding on the branching point of black magic, and guiding him in Disengagement—all those moments.
Lennok remembered them clearly as well.
“You knew, and yet you said nothing.”
“Because the you of that time did not yet know what kind of being you had been.”
Myeong raised his gaze, arms crossed.
“So I could not tell you. In the end, it would have been meaningless unless you realized it for yourself.”
“…That is.”
“I hoped that you would not be devoured by your past memories, or by the you of long ago.”
In a tone that was endlessly calm, Myeong said.
“The one I chose was none other than you.”
“I don’t know….”
Lennok’s expression blurred.
“To what extent I should separate my past self from my present self. Or if such a standard even exists in the first place.”
“…”
“I still believe the answer I decided on is right… but if my past self was wrong, then why are we standing here now?”
“Because those two are different, and yet not different.”
Myeong looked at Lennok.
“He was obsessed with a predetermined end, and you prioritize the process over the result. These two are not concepts that cannot coexist, yet at the same time, they are constructs that are by no means on the same path.”
“…”
“Because your choice is a power that encompasses all other answers… I was able to abandon everything and accept my own fate.”
Slowly turning his body, Myeong extended his hand and said.
“I was waiting for you to tell you that.”
“…What?”
Rumble-rumble-rumble…!!!
The black sea churned, and waves of black water rose, defying gravity.
The horizon, where the accretion disk rotated, inverted and reversed, and the world split apart.
Lennok momentarily lost his balance and staggered from the shock of the entire hell of Gabihaeng being overturned.
“Myeong?”
“Van. The memory of you is sealed by the law of causality set by the Emperor, so it cannot be viewed carelessly.”
Myeong said calmly.
“The things your past self did threatened the star’s existence in many ways… so the Imperial Palace tried to hide your existence within the Horizon of Thought.”
“Threatened the star, what does that…”
“But a power that not even that great Emperor could bind or restrict… still remains with me.”
Woooooooooo-!!!!
The black hole, which had been rotating slowly as if time had stopped, rapidly expanded from beyond the horizon.
As if trying to cover this entire vast black sea with its own void, an unknowable gravitational force exploded, crushing the dimension.
And from beyond it, a colossal and overwhelming premonition of the end, so vast Lennok could not even fathom it, slowly began to reveal itself.
Kwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!
From the far side of a distant galaxy, an irresistible incarnation of destruction looked down upon this place.
A tree of calamity that grew by piercing dimensions and drinking civilizations pierced the universe and approached.
The black hole that had settled at the edge of the horizon spun madly, a dizzying sensation as if it were connecting the coordinates of an outer dimension to the far side of the galaxy.
“Myeong, don’t tell me…!!”
The black hole expanded and flooded the horizon, and the black sea churned and billowed.
The moment Lennok finally realized what Myeong was about to do and his face hardened.
“There is a way to show you the memory of when our clan first met him… the reason we were executed by the Emperor.”
Myeong said.
“I will summon the Extinct Eye Outer God to this place, and deliver the answer you most want to know.”