Chapter 1429: The Power to Defy Fate (3)
A distant cosmic vista unfolded, and countless golden kaleidoscopes emerged, illuminating the surroundings.
A vibration like the grand blast of a trumpet echoed as the kaleidoscopes shone upon the world, all the way to the end of the future timeline.
The kaleidoscopes, holding immeasurably vast mental images, projected a two-dimensional scene like mirrors.
It repainted Paradise Lost, transforming it into a completely different mindscape.
Domain Deployment: Branching Point Observation
[Cheondun Armored Dragon Star]
CLANK, GRRRRRRUMBLE!!!!
A war fortress resembling the forms of a toad and a dragon rose, letting out a heavy engine roar.
[Palace of Raving Annihilation]
KRAKRAKRAKRAKA!!!!
Countless black stone pillars, stretching to the horizon, aligned themselves left and right.
A black meteor shower, sinking darkly into the sky above, rained down beautifully.
[Imperial Void’s Frozen Coffer]
WHOOOOOSH….!!!!
It dyed the heavens and earth in a field of white ice, constructing a spacetime of ultra-low temperatures where particle motion was suppressed.
The Cheondun Armored Dragon Star, which constructs a strategic-grade aerial fortress. The Palace of Raving Annihilation, which kills the immortal and undying. The Imperial Void’s Frozen Coffer, which manifests a frozen asteroid.
The future branching points that Lennok had obtained on different journeys overlapped in a single spacetime, overwriting reality.
Inside the real-time expansion of Paradise Lost, three separate Root Mindscapes unfolded simultaneously, overwriting it.
“A demigod is a being that has become a contradiction, deviating from laws and causality. For this moment alone, I can temporarily ignore even my own limits.”
Lennok, who had painted the world in black and white, spoke.
“Jinwa, I think I can show you the answer I’ve chosen now.”
“…”
The Kaleidoscope existing within Lennok was proof that he held not the past or present, but the possibilities of the future.
He could choose one among infinite branching points, but deploying multiple Domains simultaneously like this was impossible.
He had used two or more domains in the decisive battle against Hermes Orokhnier and the fight with the Grand General of Brilliance.
But those were miracles made possible only by borrowing transcendent relics or tools like the Provisional Ascension Gate or the core of the Singularity Reactor.
This was effectively the first time he had simultaneously deployed such powerful domains, capable of completely altering reality.
It was a miracle that had not been permitted despite Lennok’s constant attempts, now made manifest through the power of Demigod Transformation.
However—
“It… wasn’t lightning?”
The shock Jinwa felt facing the Kaleidoscope was so immense that she couldn’t spare a thought for such things.
“Do you mean to say you didn’t discard the Heavenly Abasement Spellcraft to accept lightning?”
The anger and disappointment she had felt when she faced Lennok in the Cradle before regressing.
She resented and envied ‘him’ for so casually discarding the power that other Transcendents so desperately craved.
She was angered and disappointed in ‘him’ for abandoning the Heavenly Abasement Spellcraft she had tried to obtain, and for acquiring a new power.
However, the reason for Jinwa’s fury was that the new transcendence the wizard had obtained was just that great.
It was because she had acknowledged that the wizard’s lightning held a transcendence and causality comparable to the Heavenly Abasement Spellcraft.
He must have discarded the Heavenly Abasement Spellcraft because he obtained such lightning.
He must have abandoned us because he sought such power.
He must have given up everything and returned because he wanted to obtain such causality.
Even as she was furious, she understood on some level; even as she was disappointed, she acknowledged it on another.
However—
“Even after obtaining such transcendence with lightning magic… you’re saying that wasn’t your answer?”
What if the new ‘answer’ this wizard had found was not limited to lightning magic?
What if he had returned, having abandoned everything, not for one answer, but to make the endlessly branching possibilities themselves the answer, and now, he finally stood before her again?
“Don’t lie…”
The purple lips that sprouted all over Jinwa’s body twisted wretchedly with an indescribable emotion.
Muttering as if chewing and spitting out her words with every lip on her body, Jinwa staggered and slowly rose to her feet.
“Say it’s a lie… Tell me you’ve been mocking me all this time, just like you did before—!!!!!”
“…”
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!
On the frozen ground, millions of mouths sprouted and began to sing in unison.
Like a choir’s chorus, the endlessly whispering voices built harmonies that echoed ceaselessly.
It dyed the two-dimensional spacetime a pale purple, all the way to the horizon.
=There was a supreme covenant that bound all things as one
=The promise of corruption
=The promise of the fall
=The promise of ruin
=The promise of collapse
=The promise of despair
=The promise of transience
=The promise of deceit
Mocking, twisting, perjuring, whispering, as if singing—
“Sing in chorus.”
FWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!
The lips covering the temple of the Palace of Raving Annihilation sang, pouring out Spell-Words.
The possibility of ruin, which denied existence, annihilated mass, and destroyed matter, manifested in the form of language.
It crushed the spacetime where the three Domains were deployed and poured down relentlessly on Lennok’s head.
The colossal war fortress spun explosively in place, taking the Spell-Words like a shield.
BOOOOOM!!!
[Mana Resonance Shock Shells: 333 rounds. High-Speed Fusion Incendiary Shells: 120 rounds. Magnetic Repulsion Armor-Piercing Shells: 880 rounds loaded.]
CLANK, CLANK!!!
CHRRRRRRRRRRK!!!
The massive metal fortress assembled parts and transformed its shape, creating thousands of shells and main cannons.
The Cheondun Armored Dragon Star was the branching point where Lennok earned the title of Meister in the Machine City and reached the pinnacle of crafting.
Using the parts that made up the fortress as materials, it became a war machine that assembled and fabricated tactical weapons on the spot.
The gunports installed on the fortress’s exterior activated in unison, unleashing a barrage comparable to the Spell-Words pouring from Jinwa.
[Aiming reticles aligned. Target grouping formation complete. Main cannon assembly in progress.]
[Commencing bombardment in the order of shell fabrication completion.]
KRAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKA!!!!!
A rain of fire and metal fell like a bombardment from the skies of Paradise Lost, incinerating the frozen ground.
The thousands of Spell-Word Stones rising from all over Paradise Lost were shattered and crumbled under the Cheondun Armored Dragon Star’s bombardment.
“How dare you—!!!”
Just as the enraged Jinwa spread her lips across the sky and ground of Paradise Lost, intending to nullify the bombardment with Spell-Words.
The frozen asteroid beneath her feet scattered a frigid chill, forcibly freezing every mouth that had sprouted in all directions.
[Ice Crystal Reverse Chain]
[Eternal Moon]
CR-AAAAAACK….!!!!
The Imperial Void’s Frozen Coffer branching point was the one that had grown most dramatically by absorbing the power of a dead Outer God, a cold comet.
Because it had accepted the power of an Outer God, its chill could halt the motion of particles and even temporarily interfere with entropy.
In the instant the Ascendant’s chorus came to an abrupt halt, realizing the power of that abnormal Domain.
Lightning flashed, and Jinwa’s left shoulder was torn apart as if by an explosion, scattering flesh and muscle.
BOOOOOM!!!!
SPLATTER!!!
A piercing pain, as if her flesh was swelling up like a balloon and being crushed from the inside at the same time.
But more than the surging pain, Jinwa twisted her body, sensing the encroaching aura of death.
For her, who had consumed the branch of the Extinction Tree and deviated from causality, it was a sign of death that should no longer exist.
Because within this bizarre, darkness-stained temple, it felt clearer than ever before.
“How…!!”
“The Palace of Raving Annihilation is a branching point that cannot be used without a singularity comparable to the Apostle selection ritual.”
Lennok said.
“Normally, it’s a possibility I couldn’t recklessly draw out at this point. But…”
The Palace of Raving Annihilation was a power created for Lennok to become the Apostle of the Void and kill the immortal and undying.
But this branching point was a future Lennok would not choose while sane, and as a price, he would suffer from a mental backlash.
However, even the backlash of the Palace of Raving Annihilation was completely ignored, for this moment of maintaining Demigod Transformation—
“Let’s end this, Ascendant.”
Reaching a hand toward the endlessly unfolding kaleidoscopes, Lennok declared.
“This… is the end of Paradise Lost.”
CRACKLE…!!
Within the universe of kaleidoscopes, a dark blue lightning sparked to life and was grasped in Lennok’s hand.
The single point of arrival whose full power even Lennok could only draw out after unfolding the Kaleidoscope.
At the same time, a dread incomparable to anything before descended upon Jinwa’s inner self as she faced that lightning.
“—No.”
Even without any incantation or hand seals, she knew the moment she saw it.
That was a lightning that held a concept that should not exist in this universe.
It was an ‘answer’ that Jinwa had never once seen, not even in the Imperial Palace of Ars Nova.
“No, that—!!!!”
Once the incantation was complete, it would be impossible to stop.
No matter what, she had to interfere before that lightning could descend.
Instinctively realizing this with her transcendent intuition and spirituality, Jinwa activated her Spell-Word.
Appearing before Lennok at incredible speed, she thrust out her lip-covered hand with all her might.
=Pseudo-Heavenly Abasement Spellcraft
=Domain-Annihilating True Word
Ultimate Lightning Magic
Transcendent Manifestation—
CR-AAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!!!!
The still-incomplete Ultimate Lightning in Lennok’s hand clashed with the purple thread coiled around Jinwa’s fingertips.
The lightning that had gained transcendence collided head-on with the false Heavenly Abasement Spellcraft and began to run wildly amok.
Simultaneously, Jinwa’s lips turned pale as she realized the true value of that unrealistic power.
It’s being pushed back.
That still-incomplete lightning was pushing back, erasing, and crushing the law she had obtained.
The power she had finally obtained after so long to defy fate was disappearing.
As soon as she realized this, an unspeakable emotion exploded within Jinwa.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!”
CR-ACK!!!!
The lips covering Jinwa’s hand screamed in unison, spewing out black tree branches as if retching.
The branches of the Extinction Tree that emerged from the opening lips were grasped in Jinwa’s hand and clashed with the Ultimate Lightning.
Immediately after, Lennok’s and Jinwa’s senses themselves evaporated entirely as everything turned white.
WHOOOOSH!!!
“Kuhk…!!!”
“Ah, ahh—”
Nothing could be seen, and no sound could be heard.
Every concept existing in the world, including touch, will-thought, and the lingering traces of mana and spellcraft, momentarily lost all meaning.
The incomplete lightning of Prescience and the fragment of ruin forced their own laws upon each other, pouring in their transcendence.
With a bizarre, indescribably strange rupture like a desperate scream, it twisted the trajectory of the Ultimate Lightning, sending it flying far away.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!
A half-burnt branch of the Extinction Tree. A dark blue lightning bolt that grazed Jinwa’s cheek by a hair’s breadth and flew past.
The light of the Ultimate Lightning that soared high into the sky beyond the horizon of Paradise Lost escaped Lennok’s control and vanished into the distance.
“Cough, cough…!!”
Letting out a small cough, Lennok watched the vanishing light of the Ultimate Lightning before turning back to Jinwa with difficulty.
“Did you use a fragment of an Outer God as a weapon to counter the Ultimate Lightning…? An incredible reaction for something thought up in an instant.”
“Hah, hah…!!!!”
A half-burnt branch was held in the hand of the panting, gasping Jinwa.
Just deflecting the Ultimate Lightning’s trajectory, not even erasing it, had caused considerable damage.
But Lennok understood just how perfect Jinwa’s response to the Ultimate Lightning had been.
Despite intuiting the power of the Ultimate Lightning, she had made the judgment to close the distance instead of rashly fleeing, narrowing the firing angle.
When even the false Heavenly Abasement Spellcraft lacked power, she had even pulled out the fragment of the Extinction Tree she had consumed and wielded it like a weapon.
The moment she realized she had to deal with the Ultimate Lightning before it was complete, she mobilized every means at her disposal to do so.
The Whispering Grand General of Ars Nova. The peerless Spell-Word user from the Imperial Palace, said to have reached a master’s state in both literary and martial arts.
However—
“It’s good that you focused on my lightning, but aren’t you forgetting something?”
RUMBLERUMBLERUMBLE!!!!!!
From beyond the sky where the bombardment fell, the massive body of the fallen Cheondun Armored Dragon Star descended toward Jinwa with a roar that tore through the air.
A transcendent weight of hundreds of thousands of tons crushed the Ascendant’s body, slamming her away at incredible speed.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!
“Kahak…!!!!!”
“Sing in chorus.”
“Sing in harmony.”
“Resonate.”
The lips sprouting from the frozen ground continued to sing, even as they were caught in the cold wave and frozen solid.
They imbued their lyrics with Spell-Words, conveying her will to the world and constructing an inescapable precept and bondage.
She moved beyond the world’s time, clashing with Lennok hundreds of times and scattering shockwaves.
KRABOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!!!!!
Beyond dozens of [Gates], flashes of lightning crossed paths, and Spell-Words fell like a bombardment as thunderous roars echoed.
The surface of the frozen asteroid cracked, and the pillars of the temple where the black meteor shower fell shook ceaselessly.
The three Domains overwriting Paradise Lost clashed relentlessly, constricting spacetime and damaging her immortality.
At the center of it all, the two Transcendents’ forms accelerated, pitting mana and spellcraft against each other until one of their wills broke.
“Adamant Thunder!!!!!”
Dozens of black [Gates] opened and closed as Lennok and Jinwa’s forms traversed spacetime.
Breaking the sound barrier, the trajectories of their accelerating, colliding spellcraft twisted and fell to the ground like a bombardment.
SCRAPE!!
When Jinwa scraped at the air with her lip-sprouted hand, hundreds of Spell-Words activated simultaneously in concert with the motion.
She distorted the coordinate axes as if tearing the dimension itself with those lips, annihilating and crushing space.
Pushed back by the impact, she landed in front of Lennok, only to clash head-on with him as he opened a [Gate].
FIZZLE—
The radiance of the Spell-Word that vanished through the [Gate] shot like a laser to the other side of the dimension, twisting and dissipating.
Even so, Jinwa’s arms and legs, which had lost their immortality, froze and stopped each time they collided with Lennok.
CRACK…!!
“Why—”
The ultra-low temperature chill erupting from the asteroid constructed by the Imperial Void’s Frozen Coffer spun freely in the wizard’s hand.
It severed the motion of particles, halted the flow of mana, and for a moment, froze and stopped even the movement of heat and the rules of time.
Each time Lennok passed through a [Gate] he opened without any backlash and brushed against Jinwa’s body, her lips were torn to shreds and shattered.
Her damaged flesh, unable to recover within the Palace of Raving Annihilation, was permanently lost, endlessly forcing the feeling of loss upon the Ascendant.
“Why…!!”
BOOOOOOOM!!!
Blowing away Jinwa’s left arm, which was caked in white frost, Lennok seized her form and slammed her down.
The purple lips clinging to his arm bit into Lennok’s skin, relentlessly whispering curses and praying for a gruesome death.
But all those curses and resentments failed to reach Lennok, vanishing with absurd ease beyond the [Gate] he opened—
“Why, why… WHY!!!!!”
SHATTERCRASH!!!
In a distant corner of spacetime, the battle that had continued for what felt like thousands of times in a split second came to a conclusion.
Within the infinitely accelerating flow of consciousness, the balance tilted sharply, and the Ascendant’s body began to freeze.
“Why… wasn’t I given such an opportunity…!!”
Jinwa shrieked even as her entire body froze and shattered.
“Why was I nothing more than a lowly insect in this world!!!”
“…”
“I just wanted to change my fate!!! I just needed the power to defy fate!!!! Why, why—am I… !!!!!”
RUMBLERUMBLERUMBLERUMBLE!!!!!
The purple Paradise Lost flooded out as if exploding, devouring the sky and the earth.
Branches of the Extinction Tree grew all over Paradise Lost, transforming her Ideological Domain into something close to the Outer Sea.
The giant tree of ruin, which drinks civilizations to grow, fed on the Ascendant’s Ideological Domain and scattered its power without restraint.
“Wizard. If I cannot deal with your domain, I will erase your Root Mindscape entirely with the power of the Extinction Tree—”
Jinwa reached out toward Lennok with a chilling roar.
“Here and now, I will make all that you are nourishment for the Extinction Tree and reach the sea—!!!!!”
=There was a final covenant that divided one into all
=Divide space
=Divide the axis of the earth
=Divide the dimensions
=Divide time
=Divide patience
=And after that long time, finally—
“Reach ruin.”
KRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
The Spell-Word of the end that Jinwa unleashed like a seizure tore spacetime apart and awakened the power of the Extinction Tree.
Above the purple Paradise Lost, black branches grew endlessly, stretching beyond the horizon.
She offered up the entire spacetime where her Ideological Domain and Lennok’s Domain were entangled to the Extinction Tree.
The branches of the Extinction Tree, using Paradise Lost as nourishment, would grow without end, and eventually, they would transcend Paradise Lost to devour and destroy this world.
“…No.”
However, despite knowing this, Lennok didn’t move as he watched the branches of the Extinction Tree growing from all sides.
Instead, he simply reached his hands toward the three Domains colliding with the power of the Extinction Tree in real-time and closed his eyes.
KWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!
At the end of the universe where countless kaleidoscopes unfolded, three kaleidoscopes rotated simultaneously and emitted light.
Using the transcendent durability of the Cheondun Armored Dragon Star as the core.
Layering and coiling the darkness of the Palace of Raving Annihilation on top of it.
And reversing entropy with the chill of the Imperial Void’s Frozen Coffer.
The three kaleidoscopes unfolded in the infinite universe, displaying different Domains simultaneously and clashing without restraint.
The miracle he had displayed against the Grand General of Brilliance at the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors, by making different Domains collide simultaneously.
However, unlike when he faced the Grand General, this time he didn’t make two Domains repel each other and explode.
“Everything I needed was prepared from the very beginning.”
The Conjunction Spell Master Avesta Chapman had forcibly conjoined his Domain and his Authority to create an Ideological Domain.
At the First Gate, Lennok had stolen and acquired Conjunction Spellcraft through his Ouroboros magic system.
Just like that time when the Spell Master had staked his life to show a miracle.
From the start, all the necessary preparations were already in Lennok’s hands.
Not repulsion, but fusion. Not division, but conjunction.
Instead of conjoining a Domain and an Authority, he would fuse three Domains and unfold them simultaneously—
The pinnacle of gravity.
Domain Deployment: Branching Point Observation
Super Fusion: One Instant
“Artificial Ideological Domain Manifestation.”
KWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!
A black accretion disk of seemingly endless size descended upon Paradise Lost.
The black sea and the black sunset he had received from Myeong in the hell of the Gabihaeng.
The black hole that had been situated beyond that horizon manifested at the center of Paradise Lost, pulling in everything.
RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE!!!!!
The purple-dyed ground of Paradise Lost was torn away, and the Spell-Word Stones embedded in the earth broke and were dragged in.
The branches of the Extinction Tree that had been devouring Paradise Lost to grow were drawn by the gravity toward the center of the Artificial Ideological Domain.
And beyond that, it even pulled in the spirituality and existence of Jinwa, who had been scattering the branches of the Extinction Tree, and ‘fixed’ her to the singularity.
“Aaaargh?!!”
The Artificial Ideological Domain forcibly created by fusing three Domains.
It was a transcendent aggregate of gravity from which not only the Ascendant but even the fragment of the Extinction Tree could not escape.
The scenery of the black sea that Lennok, who had received the Gabihaeng branching point from Myeong, was now vaguely recreating in this very moment.
“You’re insane, wizard!!!! Do you intend to destroy this world with your own hands!!!!”
Struggling madly from beyond the event horizon, Jinwa soon burst into chilling laughter.
“To manifest an Ideological Domain that holds the concept of a black hole in this world—the star will be broken not by the Extinction Tree, but by gravity!!!!”
“…”
She wasn’t wrong. An Ideological Domain was an Ascendant’s power that semi-permanently altered the world.
Now that Lennok had manifested an Artificial Ideological Domain with the principles of a black hole, the planet’s magnetic field must be twisting and its crust beginning to collapse.
While the entire star might not be swept away, if this continued, the world would more surely approach ruin by Lennok’s own hands.
He had used the singularity of gravity to trap the Extinction Tree and Jinwa, who were spreading beyond Paradise Lost, but that same gravity would cause the world to collapse.
“Yes, this isn’t so bad either!!!!”
Instinctively realizing this, Jinwa laughed maniacally and reached out toward Lennok as if struggling.
“If I am to meet ruin by your hands, then that is an ending I can accept!!!! Let us fall to the ends of hell together!!!!”
“No, an instant is all I need.”
Lennok said so and stretched out his hand.
“The conclusion will be drawn here, where all things are pulled in. I was thinking of that from the start—”
Looking up at the dark blue lightning faintly flashing beyond the universe of kaleidoscopes, Lennok spoke.
“Because the first time, I didn’t hit you directly with the Ultimate Lightning.”
“…What, did you say?”
RUMMMBLE—!!!!
At that moment, a dark blue flash of lightning faintly glittered beyond the collapsing sky of Paradise Lost.
The incomplete Ultimate Lightning that Jinwa had forcibly deflected and sent flying, even by pulling out a branch of the Extinction Tree.
That lightning, which had flown beyond the horizon and disappeared, was now descending toward this place, as if drawn by an irresistible gravity.
“No—could it be…!!!!”
He had fixed the existence of Jinwa, who had obtained the privilege to defy fate and become truly free from causality, to the Artificial Ideological Domain.
After capturing her spirituality, which could not be killed in any way within this Paradise Lost, inside the singularity of gravity.
He would use that transcendent gravity to once again summon the Ultimate Lightning that had stretched to the other side of the universe back to this place.
The kaleidoscopes that observe branching points rotated, unleashing transcendent gravity to the ends of the universe.
Simultaneously, it forcibly summoned and pulled in the dark blue lightning from the far reaches of the distant night sky.
“Defying fate doesn’t require some grand power or qualification.”
With the Ultimate Lightning falling from the ends of the universe at his back, Lennok looked at Jinwa and spoke.
“It’s just that none of us were given that chance from the beginning… The me of the past probably knew that.”
“I don’t want to, not alone…!!!!!!”
“If there is a chance that can only be obtained after abandoning everything, if I am standing here to knock on the door once more.”
One of the transcendences Lennok obtained at the end of the Subjugation Operation.
The lightning of Prescience that could only be drawn out after aligning all of Lennok’s kaleidoscopes in spacetime.
The Ultimate Lightning (極雷), which takes precedence over all causality and affinities, answered the call.
“I intend to share that chance equally with everyone else.”
Ultimate Lightning Magic
Transcendent Manifestation
God-Piercing Art of the Upper Heavens
Mind-Will Alteration
The lightning of Prescience that had stretched to the ends of the universe was caught in Lennok’s hand in an instant, having passed through a [Gate].
The dark blue lightning raged violently, coiling around Lennok’s fingertips and transforming into a blackish-blue line.
The moment the Ultimate Lightning in Lennok’s hand fell vertically, simultaneously piercing through the Artificial Ideological Domain and Jinwa.
The black hole that had appeared beyond the horizon was pierced by the Ultimate Lightning and collapsed, and with its explosion, it completely annihilated Jinwa’s spirituality.
Ideological Annihilation
White Style