Chapter 1428: The Power to Defy Fate (2)
Fwhoosh…!!!!
The Grimoire of Fate’s Libra, floating in the air, rapidly flipped open, emitting a brilliant radiance.
As the pages turned, mystical letters shone, wrapping around Lennok as if embracing him.
Crackle, crackle-!!!
Clank!!!
As noise crackled and spun around Lennok, gaunt, iron-plated wings unfurled behind his back.
Immediately after, as if a [Gate] was opening with Lennok at its center, a blackened halo flashed into existence.
A powerful spiritual pressure crushed spacetime, erupting as if in an explosion.
Krakoooooom!!!!!
Countless [Gates] overlapped, and black rectangles unfurled one after another in the air.
Scattering black lines covered the iron-plated wings on Lennok’s back, transforming them into a single black wing.
Simultaneously, a bizarrely warped black halo spun behind his head, shedding black tears.
Fshhhhhh…!!!
Beneath Lennok’s feet, a darkness as deep as漆 black flowed down like tears, staining the surroundings black.
With every slow breath he took, [Gates] all around him opened and closed.
[Grimoire of Fate’s Libra: Outer Heaven First Law]
[First Law. Demigod Transformation]
A technique Lennok had ‘pulled down’ into a comprehensible form using the grimoire of the Extreme Art, Fifth Law, allowing him to understand the World’s Ten Laws.
Though he had obtained this ability right before departing for Paradise Lost, he hadn’t been able to use it because he had not met the conditions.
But now, having inherited the throne of Hell from Myeong, it was a miracle he could forcibly manifest through the sleight of hand of reversing cause and effect.
“…Impossible.”
From the heart of the raging storm, the Ascendant lowered her gaze and muttered.
“This isn’t a matter of pioneering a fate not taken.”
“How can you possibly enter that singularity of your own will?!!!”
“It’s not because the cause lies with me…”
Lennok slowly opened his eyes, exhaling black smoke as he pushed himself up.
“It’s because the result was already within me.”
Hell was originally the exclusive domain of demons and demigods who had fallen instead of ascending to the Upper Heavens, creating their own worlds.
However, by inheriting the Gabihaeng from Myeong, Lennok had become a being who possessed Hell without being a demigod.
This made it possible for him to use a loophole to fully enjoy the authority and blessings of a demigod without becoming one.
He did not gain Hell because he ascended to demigod status; rather, he ascended to demigod status because he had gained Hell.
Forcibly manifesting a singularity obtained by reversing cause and effect, pieced together with Transcendent Magic.
“Ha…!!!”
Jinwa scoffed and waved her hand in the air. A purple thread coiled around it.
“Did you think I would just let you ‘attain’ it?!!!”
=Pseudo-Heavenly Abasement Spellcraft
=Purple Fang of Annihilation
=Heaven-Repelling
Krrrrrrk-!!!
The purple line, coiling counter-clockwise, tangled and overlapped, rapidly converging.
Immediately after, it erupted from Jinwa’s fingertips with tremendous heat, exploding straight toward Lennok.
Krakooooooooom!!!!!
It was an annihilation technique of transcendence, wielded by Jinwa, who had obtained the possibility of ruin, by mimicking Ban-gung’s spellcraft.
Simply brandishing it held enough power to cleave the world’s sky and reveal the Sea of Darkness.
Normally, even Lennok would have had to fully commit to casting a defensive spell to block it head-on.
But Lennok didn’t chant any spell, even as he watched the light of annihilation explode before his eyes.
Instead, he simply reached out, opened a [Gate], and ‘transferred’ the annihilation technique Jinwa had unleashed to another space.
Fwoosh!!!
There was no explosion, no roar, no pillar of fire, no scream.
With a sound like something flying far away, the [Gate] opened and closed in an instant.
Lennok, having sent Jinwa’s spellcraft flying away in the blink of an eye, simply stood up from his spot.
Seeing this, Jinwa’s lips parted in a daze.
“—How?”
Crack…!!
The moment he took a light breath, space split apart, and countless [Gates] opened in the air.
Passages to another dimension, which one would be lucky to encounter even once in a lifetime in this world.
Whenever Lennok’s gaze shifted, whenever he caressed the air, [Gates] materialized, sinking into darkness all around.
“How could you, of all people, be given that chance again?”
The fallen Ascendant, her entire body covered in lips, muttered.
“The station of a demigod is not a power permitted to mortals. You, already—”
“…Yes.”
Lennok slowly opened his eyes and, shedding black tears, looked up at Jinwa.
“Now that I’ve come this far, I understand. ‘Demigod’ wasn’t a term for a transcendent being on par with an Ascendant.”
“…”
“It was a term for a being who earned the right to ascend… yet chose to abandon it and fall.”
Crack, crackle…!!!
With every step Lennok took, black fissures spread through the air, splitting heaven and earth.
Every crack where space tore and split open became a [Gate] for a fleeting moment, opening to another dimension before vanishing.
It was a bizarre yet elegant spectacle, like black eyes blinking incessantly around Lennok before disappearing.
“Because they embraced the contradiction of falling despite earning the qualification, all those called demigods are beings who have deviated from the world’s causality. That is why…”
Lennok muttered.
“Their very existence was nothing short of a paradox.”
Walking forward while moving backward.
Looking right while simultaneously seeing left.
Striving to ascend to the Upper Heavens while falling toward Hell.
Desiring to become infinitely noble, while also wishing to become foul.
A demigod was a being who embraced a twisted contradiction in exchange for giving up on reaching ascension.
Only now did he realize that their very name embodied the paradox of pursuing godhood while rejecting it.
“You have attained an understanding you should not have.”
Kwaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!
The lips all over Jinwa’s body moved, ceaselessly weaving and whispering Spell-Words.
Around her, purple lips spread out in all directions, covering the world with her mouths.
=You shall rewrite the world’s memory with a great covenant
=Twisting even the flow of eternal history to deceive its direction
=Forgetting what you remember, and remembering only your whisper
Krrrrrrreeeeeeek…..!!!!!
Her voice, urging oblivion, became a fixed result in spacetime and descended upon reality.
Mental interference, physical impact, and spiritual damage were inflicted simultaneously, closing in on Lennok.
A Spell-Word from an Ascendant, meant to suppress Lennok, who had just succeeded in his ‘fall’ through Demigod Transformation.
Boomboomboomboom!!!!
Pillars of purple light fell diagonally like a barrage, burning the horizon into the distance.
From beyond the shimmering horizon, she relentlessly drove her Spell-Words into Lennok, whispering to his soul.
=Your gesture shall burn the air given to life
=Your whisper shall drain the mana flowing through the world
=Your True Word alone shall divide the boundary between the material and immaterial
With every moment a True Word was engraved upon Paradise Lost, oxygen and mana vanished, and the laws of physics were distorted.
Matter and mass lost meaning and disappeared or were annihilated, indiscriminately erasing space itself.
In an instant, even the ground beneath his feet vanished, and Lennok’s form fell into the empty void beyond.
But even as he plummeted into the void with no foothold, Lennok slowly reached out his hand.
Click.
With just the act of extending his hand, without any sign, a [Gate] opened as if a key had turned in a lock.
He immediately pushed his body through the [Gate] and descended before Jinwa once more.
Whoosh-!
“…!”
The countless lips covering Jinwa’s face twisted grotesquely, weaving a Spell-Word.
The radiance of the Spell-Word, fired like a cannon at point-blank range, pierced through hundreds of Spell-Word Stones and struck Lennok directly.
Upon the spacetime of reality, it violently carved and burned Lennok’s existence as if mincing it.
Kwagwagwagwagwagwagwa!!!!!!
“Fail.”
Mana twisted, lost order, and was consumed by chaos.
“Forget.”
He forgot Jinwa’s face, and even the words she whispered blurred into incomprehensibility.
“Self-destruct.”
The basic components constituting his body were annihilated, and his cells died and disintegrated.
=Your will shall not remain where you desire
=Your spellcraft shall not reach its intended target
=All your actions shall lose meaning and fade
She folded and warped dimension and space, forcibly changing the trajectory of the lightning Lennok fired.
The moment the lightning’s path twisted bizarrely, failing to reach Jinwa and going astray.
“No.”
Click!
Lennok threw open dozens of [Gates] simultaneously, sending all the twisted lightning through them.
The lightning, its trajectory warped and destination lost, rained down like a barrage, returning toward Jinwa’s body located beyond the [Gate].
And amidst the exploding lightning, Lennok’s hand, having crossed through a [Gate], instantly grabbed Jinwa by the throat.
Boomboomboomboomboomboom!!!!!
“Kuk… Agh…?!!”
The tens of thousands of lips Jinwa had summoned all around to protect herself. The hundreds of thousands of Spell-Words they spewed.
He surpassed the supreme Spell-Words and secret arts that alter the world with a single gesture, making contact with the Ascendant’s true body.
Before she could even react, he pierced through her chest and slammed her into the ground.
[Flitting Thunder]
Krakooooooooom!!!
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrind!!!!
Multiple [Gates] overlapped in the air, black rectangles superimposing on different trajectories.
Jinwa’s body, plummeting from their center, was indiscriminately ground against the earth’s axis and crushed.
“Ka, huk…?!!”
A hideous roar erupted, but Lennok did not stop.
Krrk—
He opens a [Gate].
Lennok appeared beside Jinwa and slammed a compressed, shimmering blue lightning bolt into her.
He opens a [Gate].
He sent the barrage of Spell-Words Jinwa unleashed in a seizure through the [Gate], annihilating it.
He opens a [Gate].
He nonchalantly ignored the bizarrely twitching lips on all sides.
And once more, into the inner self of the Ascendant who was spewing Spell-Words to negate him—
[Thunder Seal]
Boooooooom!!!!
“Aaaaaaaaargh!!!!!!”
The Ascendant’s true body, covered in lips, exploded from the inside out, scattering flesh.
The torn lips gushed a venom-like, dark blue blood and let out a bloodcurdling scream.
A scream of madness that would have driven an ordinary human insane on the spot, or made their head explode.
But the fury the Ascendant felt was incomparably deeper and more sinister than that.
“Im, possible….”
Jinwa’s lips quivered as she spoke.
“Even he couldn’t open the [Gate] so freely… How could an insect like you—!!!!”
For Ban-gung, the [Gate] was a means to deploy his Domain.
It was part of the concept he needed to forcibly open the Root Mindscape that held a ruined future timeline.
That was why even an Ascendant of Ban-gung’s caliber had to exert enough power to deploy a Domain just to use the [Gate].
But Lennok was opening the [Gate] over and over, as if no such restriction existed.
As if opening the [Gate] incurred no cost or recoil.
As if it were an ability Lennok himself had obtained through Demigod Transformation.
As Jinwa roared at the incomprehensible sight and created distance, Lennok opened a [Gate], pinned her body down, and looked down at her.
Krakooooom!!!
“As expected, you remember the ability he used quite well.”
“Ugh, kgh…!!”
He wedges the Ascendant’s body into the crack of a [Gate] that had opened like a black fissure, fixing it in place so it couldn’t close.
The lips sprouting from the Ascendant’s body writhed grotesquely and gnawed at the [Gate], but it was meaningless.
“You’re right. The power ‘he’ possessed in the past was the Root Mindscape itself, not the ability to open a [Gate].”
Lennok said.
“The reason I can use this… is because I, myself, have obtained a paradox through Demigod Transformation.”
“You…”
“Walking forward while heading backward. Seeing the right while looking left. Pursuing ascension while simultaneously falling…”
Lennok slowly raised his gaze and said.
“I can also ignore all recoil or costs that normally occur when using spellcraft or authority.”
Because he himself had reached a state of paradox, Lennok ignores the costs of his spellcraft as long as he maintains Demigod Transformation.
He pays no price for using spellcraft, nor is he swept away by the recoil of using authority.
It was a miracle with a different vector from the [Seamless Robe of Heaven], which maintained Lennok’s existence in a perfect state.
Through this, Lennok was able to bring forth and use the ability to open a [Gate] from among the powers his past self used—the one not directly related to the ruined future timeline.
“That’s not possible—”
“Not, possible—”
Kwaaduduk…!!!!
The lips on Jinwa, who had grabbed the [Gate], twisted venomously, whispering a vicious curse as they spewed Spell-Words.
But Lennok opened another [Gate] and sent the exploding Spell-Words to completely different coordinates.
An authority of transcendence that had, in a sense, reached absolute defense, by opening a [Gate] to send any attack elsewhere.
Realizing this, Jinwa spasmed and her entire body exploded.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaah—!!!!!”
Shwaaaaaak!!!!
The hundreds of thousands of lips sprouting from the Ascendant’s body were torn to shreds and fell away.
The scattered lips writhed grotesquely, twitching on the ground all around like crushed snails.
“How ironic.”
Lennok said, watching the scene.
“You’ve always looked down on others, calling them insects… but who here is the most insect-like?”
“Say what you will.”
The pieces of lips falling all around writhed like insects, whispering venomously.
“I, will not fail.”
“I, will achieve it.”
“I, cannot stop.”
“I, tried until the very end—!!!!”
=You pursued the path and realized the world’s truth
=As payment, you were cast from paradise and have received a harsh punishment
This time, the True Word that Jinwa spat with malice completely covered and sealed off spacetime.
A bizarre scene where all of Jinwa’s scattered flesh completely covered and altered the vast Paradise Lost.
=The soul that heads to the sea in search of the answer is truly noble
=This is, indeed, MY
=ANSWER
“Ideological Domain Manifestation”
“Origin Hierarchy: Causality Alteration”
“Paradise Lost”
Kwagwagwagwagwagwagwagwagwa!!!!
Within the battlefield already inside the domain of Paradise Lost, she manifested her Ideological Domain once more.
A contradiction that boosts power on the condition of deploying an Ideological Domain within a completed one.
In the purple radiance, the [Gate] was devoured, covered by the Spell-Word, and rapidly lost its power.
Was she trying to forcefully strengthen the power of her Ideological Domain to prevent Lennok from opening the [Gate]?
But even watching this, Lennok slowly raised his hand.
“Opening a [Gate] without a cost doesn’t simply mean folding and unfolding spacetime or dimensions.”
Lennok muttered before her.
“It is closer to a miracle that temporarily ignores the various limits that were never before permitted to me….”
“Aaaaaargh!!!”
“I’ll show you.”
A universe stained with darkness unfolded beyond the [Gate] opened by Lennok’s hands.
At the center of that distantly stretching universe, the moment Lennok brought his hands together.
“Domain Expansion: Observation of the Branching Point.”
Simultaneously with Lennok’s chant, a dazzling golden kaleidoscope exploded, covering the scene of Paradise Lost in reverse.
Fwaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!
From within the purple veil of the Spell-Word, hundreds of kaleidoscopes rose to the edge of the horizon, scattering a golden vista.
Beyond the kaleidoscopes that eternally reflected and rotated across the distant universe, they illuminated a possibility Lennok might have one day reached.
“…Ah.”
At that moment, as Jinwa stood frozen as if her soul had turned to ice before the beautiful scenery of an unbelievable future, an answer.
For the first time, a new chant that transcended all that had come before flowed from the lips of Lennok, who had broken his limits through Demigod Transformation.
“Multiple Expansions. Triple Release.”
Kaleidoscopes that could not originally exist in the same spacetime simultaneously appeared in the air, ‘three’ of them.
Domain Expansion: Observation of the Branching Point
Source Hierarchy: Mindscape Manifestation
Armored Dragon Star of Translocation
Usurpation Hierarchy: Mindscape Manifestation
Palace of the Mad, Sea-less Void
Source Hierarchy: Mindscape Manifestation
Emperor’s Void Cache of Hoarfrost
The three kaleidoscopes unfurled simultaneously within the domain, beginning to deploy different Root Mindscapes.