Chapter 1430: The Power to Defy Fate (4)
Rumble…!!
The pile of rubble tumbled down, and a blood-soaked vampire peeked her head out.
“Are you still alive?”
“……For now.”
Soryu, buried in the rubble, answered weakly.
Seeing Soryu, whose entire lower body had turned to ice and shattered, Sarin laughed.
“We’re both in a sorry state. It’s a miracle you’re alive at all.”
“I attempted to take the leader of the Titan Legion down with me, but I barely escaped with my life. If it weren’t for the royal sword, my entire body would have melted long ago.”
As Soryu spoke, the blade of a frozen sword was embedded in his side.
He had stabbed himself with the intensely cold sword, forcibly freezing his body to prevent it from collapsing.
Soryu gave a bitter smile, fiddling with the Ice Seal as he muttered.
“The Ice Seal. I knew the side effects were severe, but to this extent when used properly… How did you survive?”
“I borrowed some of the Blood King’s factor. I had already given up on getting out of here unscathed.”
“The Blood King?”
“He’s the vampire among the True Bloods who devoured the most of the older generation… I’ll explain the details later. Let’s move for now.”
The blood-soaked Sarin said, gazing up at the sky.
“It seems the final battle in Paradise Lost has been decided.”
“……”
KUUUUOOOOOH!!!!!
The form of a giant black hole, sucking in the entire violet sky.
A dark accretion disk rotating counter-clockwise, pierced vertically by a flash of dark blue lightning.
A magnificent scene, as if the heavens were collapsing, with all the atmosphere and clouds converging on the Ideological Domain that had manifested in the sky.
“Did he achieve victory against an Ascendant with a human body…”
The moment they saw the dark blue lightning that took precedence over all else, the two of them also sensed the outcome of the battle.
Soryu, staring blankly at the sight, muttered quietly.
“A wondrous event… How many wizards in human history have accomplished such a feat?”
“Let’s ask that question once we make it back alive. Do you see that?”
Crack, craaack…!!!
Beyond the accretion disk, which was crumbling with a pure white light, the sky began to split apart.
Sarin broke out in a cold sweat as she looked up at the Sea of Darkness, which was faintly revealing itself.
“The sky is collapsing… I don’t know about him, but we’re not out of the woods yet.”
The dark blue lightning, falling from beyond the Kaleidoscope’s universe, pierced the dark accretion disk.
The Ultimate Lightning, having vertically pierced the black hole that stopped even light and time, shattered the artificial Ideological Domain and exploded.
It burst the accretion disk that held Jinwa’s spirituality and existence, dyeing the entire world pure white.
Mind-Will Alteration
Ideological Extinction
White Law
The pure white law (White Law) descended upon the world, covering the dark universe in dazzling light.
The light of the Ultimate Lightning plunged vertically into Jinwa’s spirituality, fixed beyond the horizon of thought.
With a roar like the world shattering, it pierced through the Kaleidoscope’s universe and rose high into the sky.
“Ah, ahh…!!!”
KWAAAAAAAH!!!!!
Beyond her distantly distorting consciousness, Jinwa’s spirituality, pierced by the radiance of the Ultimate Lightning, was swept away and annihilated.
The dark blue lightning, engraved on her soul like an indelible brand, flashed and devoured her existence.
It pierced through the magnificent golden universe, shattering it to pieces, and rose sharply beyond the spacetime of Paradise Lost.
In the instant her spirituality was swept away and annihilated by the light of the Ultimate Lightning, their wills intersected and mingled for a moment.
But Jinwa, facing the Ultimate Lightning embedded in her body, also realized.
“……How”
A dark blue lightning that had descended not from the past or present, but by observing and unfolding a mental image of the future.
Only after facing the radiance of the Ultimate Lightning, grasped in his hand from across the sea of stars, did she intuit it.
This was an enlightenment that reversed the process of understanding.
It was Prescience itself, ignoring all causality and compatibility.
It took precedence over every moment that allowed Jinwa to exist as an Ascendant, over gaining her qualifications and reaching Level 9.
It ignored all the causality and order she had striven for and craved throughout her entire life since being born into this world.
It took precedence over her very existence, capable of erasing every moment she had lived—
“How… can such a concept even exist?”
Jinwa muttered blankly as she was annihilated by the light of the Ultimate Lightning.
“I wished so dearly to reach the same place as you… but you, you were—”
“Yes…”
Lennok replied.
“An Ascendant like you might have been able to do it.”
Jinwa, having consumed the branch of the Extinction Tree, had used its power to twist her own origin and detach herself from the laws of causality.
Within this false Paradise Lost that she ruled, Jinwa could neither be annihilated nor die.
If necessary, she would have interfered with cause and effect, changed inorganic matter to organic matter if needed. She would have recreated her body and restored her soul countless times, trying to reach the Outer Sea.
“Because I knew it wouldn’t be strange for you to succeed at any moment… I had no choice but to show you the Ultimate Lightning first.”
What could sever that contradiction was the lightning of Prescience, perfected during the Subjugation Operation.
But that was why Lennok had deliberately exposed the existence of the Ultimate Lightning during the decisive battle with Jinwa, imprinting it upon the Ascendant.
Having fought Jinwa countless times in this Paradise Lost, he knew what a cunning and outstanding Transcendent she was.
Jinwa would have intuited the transcendence contained within the Ultimate Lightning the moment she saw it, and she would have realized what a dangerous power it was.
She would have known that it couldn’t be stopped once it was complete, and that she had to interfere somehow while the incantation was in progress.
That was why, as soon as he deployed the Kaleidoscope, Lennok had summoned the Ultimate Lightning to induce Jinwa into using every means at her disposal.
He then forcibly removed the Ultimate Lightning from the battlefield to completely erase its existence from Jinwa’s mind.
Only at the very last moment did he pull the Ultimate Lightning back to settle the fight.
“From the start, I had already considered all the ways to deal with you. What was necessary was deciding how to show you those methods first.”
Lennok said amidst the scattering lightning.
“There is a process more important than the result… Every moment of this final confrontation with you was my answer itself.”
The artificial Ideological Domain, forcibly realized by fusing three Domains—an understanding gained through the Conjunction Spell Master.
By manifesting a gravitational singularity that pulled in and halted all causality and concepts, recreating the final destination of the Gabihaeng that Myeong had passed on.
He would forcibly bind everything about Jinwa, who existed freely beyond the laws of causality in this Paradise Lost, and bring things to a close.
The Ultimate Lightning was merely the result, the final punctuation mark on all the processes Lennok had built up.
From the very beginning, Lennok had intuited that in this final battle, the process was more important than the result.
“Ha—”
Had Lennok’s quiet answer somehow provoked her soul?
A ghastly spark flew from Jinwa’s spirituality as it was consumed and annihilated by the light of the Ultimate Lightning.
“What could you, who has forgotten everything, possibly know about the end?”
“……”
Lennok did not answer.
At the center of the crumbling universe of the Kaleidoscope, he simply tightened his grip on the Ultimate Lightning in silence.
Jinwa’s form, clutching Lennok as if in an embrace, burned away completely and began to rapidly disperse.
“A blessed existence like you could never understand—I was always…!!”
KWAAAAAAAH!!!!
Amidst the roar of everything accelerating and collapsing.
But the wills of the two of them alone could be heard with indescribable clarity.
“The Ultimate Lightning is an enlightenment that reverses the process of understanding. A Prescience that stands at the very forefront of a lifetime…”
Lennok raised his gaze.
“It is the key to felling the Ascendants who exist before causality, and the gods of that sea.”
CRACK!!!
As he twisted his grip on the Ultimate Lightning piercing Jinwa’s heart, the dark blue light intensified and swallowed the surroundings.
Even Jinwa’s face, glaring at Lennok, was buried in that color, losing its form.
Within the pillar of dark blue light, Lennok looked at Jinwa and said.
“I’ll be taking them back. The branch of the Extinction Tree, and Myeong’s fate.”
Ultimate Lightning Magic was one of the forms of transcendence Lennok had obtained, a power that took precedence over all causality and compatibility.
However, to use the Ultimate Lightning properly, one had to first perceive the causality that must be superseded. That was why, even after regressing, Lennok had continuously confronted everything about Jinwa.
Jinwa’s fervent wish to become a god. The Absolute Script she created using Spell-Word. Her plan to be reborn in that sea. The power to change fate, which she desired so much she consumed the branch of the Extinction Tree.
To not let Myeong’s efforts—protecting and preserving the secret of the Heavenly Abasement Spellcraft at the cost of his life—be in vain.
He was here to give meaning to all the time that boy had returned by sacrificing his own soul.
That Myeong’s entire journey, that one regression, was not in vain.
So that one day, after all this was over, he could tell him.
KWAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!
Following Lennok’s will, the manifested dark blue starlight became the lightning of Prescience and struck down from beyond.
The lightning, having circled the golden universe and crossed the sea of stars, bloomed like a flower from within Jinwa.
“AAAAAH…!!!!!”
The counter-clockwise rotating dark blue lightning, this time, burned away the Ascendant’s existence without a trace.
The lips sprouting all over Jinwa’s body screamed in unison. Her body scattered completely, turning into a distant light.
At the edge of the crumbling sky, the moment Jinwa’s scattered spirituality began to flash like shards of a mirror in all directions.
Amidst the shattering fragments, the branch of the Extinction Tree that Jinwa had consumed revealed itself.
Crack—
KWAAAAAH!!!!!
“Kuhk…!!!”
The fragments of Jinwa’s spirituality, shattering in all directions, flashed like mirrors and displayed her memories.
The moment he pushed through the exploding fragments of Jinwa and grasped the branch of the Extinction Tree scattering in the distance.
Lennok began to confront the life Jinwa had lived, peering into the endless fragments of her memories.
FWOOOOSH!!!!
[An orphan from a tribe wiped out by a plague?]
[How filthy. Get lost before I beat you to death.]
Not many opportunities were given to an orphan from a vanquished minority tribe.
The tribe’s language, developed on an isolated island, was not understood on the continent, and no one would listen.
It was a foregone conclusion that she would be discriminated against.
[I can’t even tell what you’re babbling about. Did your tongue get cut out?]
[I can’t understand a damn thing this brat is saying. Ah, you probably can’t even count, so you don’t need to be paid, right?]
With no one to teach her the language, she learned to read from books thrown in the trash.
The unrecognizable characters drawn in the books were her only connection to the world.
It was a foregone conclusion that she would become a Spell-Word user.
[I hear you’re the most skilled spellcaster in this city?]
[I heard you colluded with the merchant association to oust a few city councilors.]
[You seem to possess a talent unbecoming of your age. Won’t you come to the Magic Tower?]
Once she gained the power to protect herself, opportunities to seek knowledge naturally increased.
She did not refuse any of those offers and greedily consumed knowledge.
Her starting point in life was different, and among them all, she was the most desperate.
It was a foregone conclusion that she would distinguish herself.
[So you are the most outstanding Spell-Word user in this country.]
[I heard the news that you surpassed your master and will take the position of Tower Lord. Why not cast aside such a hollow title and come to the Imperial Palace?]
[You must be aware that you are a genius, yes? In the Empire, you will be able to meet geniuses comparable to yourself.]
Yuseong, the Left Prime Minister. The smiling young man’s polite offer piqued her interest.
Only after arriving at the Imperial Palace after much deliberation did she realize his words were true.
That the wealth and honor she had gained until now were nothing, that there was a glory that could only be obtained here.
It was a foregone conclusion that she would begin to work at the Imperial Palace.
[You plan to establish and unify the continent’s language system into one. A brilliant idea.]
[Gathering the overlapping meanings and rules between different languages to allow for natural adaptation… I understand.]
[With the help of the Imperial Palace, you will be able to spread the common language you’ve established throughout the continent.]
[His Majesty will commend you for your efforts.]
She stood out even among the geniuses gathered at the Imperial Palace.
Before long, she showed outstanding results in both civil and military affairs and rose to a high position.
She created the common language, gained her qualifications, became an Ascendant, and was bestowed the name of Whispering Grand General.
There were more hardships and trials than could be simply explained, and she accomplished great feats.
Throughout her life, she proved herself, achieved results, and reached a position acknowledged by all.
Her birth was humble, but her end would be great.
It was a foregone conclusion that she would dream of what came next.
Until she learned that ‘what’s next’ was only permitted to those born with True Blood.
[The Empire was created to defy a set fate and advance to the next stage.]
[However, ordinary humans carry a fate that cannot defy this world’s end.]
[Thus, the genes of the Empire’s subjects were manipulated so they would be born with True Blood.]
[The ‘privilege’ to defy fate can only be held by those who possess True Blood.]
[It is regrettable, but you will not be able to stand beside His Majesty at the very end.]
….
….
…Why?
Not a single moment hadn’t been overwhelming and difficult, and yet she had accomplished everything.
The discrimination she thought she had overcome throughout her life stood before her even at the very end.
She realized that this glorious Empire was a Miniature Garden created by the Emperor.
…Yes.
She did not grieve or despair. She was simply cynical.
She had become too great an existence to be pessimistic about her own situation.
One of the six great generals loyal to the Ars Nova Imperial Palace. An existence who had risen to Level 9 and gained her qualifications.
Right. If there was no place for her in the Emperor’s Miniature Garden, then she would just have to make a garden herself.
She already possessed the ability, the qualification, and the right to do so.
It was a foregone conclusion that she would abandon even her duties as a grand general and devote herself to research.
….
Time passed.
The golden Empire, which had seemed eternal, collapsed, and the Imperial Palace sank.
The splendid and beautiful places of the Empire became corrupted, transforming into hells worthy of the name Demonic Realm.
Watching this, she also thought.
Honor, glory, law and morality, even humanity and justice were all just fleeting.
In the end, without achieving results, it was all just hypocrisy that would disappear like seafoam.
Only then could she understand the Emperor. At the same time, she also let go of her resentment towards him.
From the moment she no longer hesitated to use humans as materials, she had at some point come to be called a fallen Ascendant.
[In the end, has it all come to this?]
[…Jindun.]
Jaegis Eternor.
An Ascendant who was an outsider not loyal to the Imperial family, who reached Level 9 through Barrier Spellcraft.
Yet, a genius whose abilities were so outstanding that he had even handled a portion of the Imperial Palace’s design.
[Have you come to laugh at me?]
[No… Who among us would dare have that right?]
A massive research lab built in Paradise Lost. The gaunt old man standing before the door closed his eyes.
[In the end, only the Emperor had the answer for the ‘next’ that did not exist. We couldn’t find a better alternative.]
[….]
[I am merely here to watch the end you will reach. This fleeting moment that connects the distant future and past….]
Slowly, Jindun raised his gaze and looked at Lennok.
[If only for the sake of someone who must be watching this very moment.]
[Yes….]
The Jinwa of the past, answering as if spitting out the words, turned her gaze toward Lennok.
[Then watch from there until the very end.”
Crack, craaack…!!!
The voice from the distant past, which had sounded so far away, overlapped and was heard like a voice from reality.
Amidst the memory fragments that shattered like glass, the sky opened and the sea descended.
The memory of the day she, the developer of the Absolute Script, first faced the gods of the sea.
And, the reality’s spacetime, pierced by the light of the Ultimate Lightning, crumbling and revealing—
KWAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!
The moment he realized it, Lennok found himself floating alone in the empty Sea of Darkness.
Was this an illusion left in past memories, or the final destination reached after settling things in reality?
Thinking that far, Lennok realized where he was standing and quickly raised his gaze.
“Don’t tell me I’ve reached the boundary line…?”
The Boundary Line of the World, where Lennok had arrived after soaring to the edge of the sky while looking into Jinwa’s memories.
A space where this world and the domain of the Outer Sea touched, where all standards and concepts mixed ambiguously.
An illusion of Jinwa, her entire body flickering indistinctly, slowly walked out from behind Lennok.
“By the covenant, the time to pay the price has come….”
Was this the Jinwa existing in past memories? Or was it her own, of which only annihilated fragments remained?
The timelines of reality and the past mixed, and even the standard became ambiguously altered, making it impossible to tell which it was.
“……No, that’s not it.”
It wasn’t that Jinwa had ignored the power of the Ultimate Lightning, nor had she been revived in this place despite having already been annihilated.
The moment she was pierced by the Ultimate Lightning and her soul was annihilated, Jinwa’s fate had already been concluded to an irreversible degree.
Nevertheless, as if time did not flow in this universe, the past and present Jinwa remained here, mixed together.
He could understand the reason.
Because the sky had opened and the Sea of Darkness had descended, and the ends floating in the universe were casting their gazes here.
Simply by them observing this place, all causality was trying to stop flowing and come to a halt.
Using the Ultimate Lightning Lennok had used to kill Jinwa as a trigger, they sent their gazes the moment the sky opened—
and were trying to connect the Outer Sea and the world, and descend directly into this place.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!!!!!!
The moment he realized that, the magnificent sound of a trumpet, loud enough to burst his eardrums, echoed out.
A distant resonance that seemed to make the soul tremble and collapse just by hearing it.
The heralds of the end, eternally swimming through the universe and dreaming.
The Outer Gods of that sea were descending toward this place.