Chapter 1432: The Power to Defy Fate (6)
In a void universe filled with darkness, the Outer Gods descend.
They float eternally through the Sea of Darkness, incarnations of the end that transcend even causality and fate.
They are entropy that has gained sentience, spreading pure chaos throughout this universe and ever compounding it.
Aaaaaaaah!!!!!
They sweep across galaxies, scouring the surfaces of stars, creating thermal winds, and devouring supernovae.
Floating between nebulae, they dream an endless dream, annihilating stars and worlds to create a disordered universe.
In this universe that expands toward its end from the moment of its birth, only those chaotic, malevolent gods are truly free.
The Outer Gods, who should only exist at the moment of the end, swim eternally through the Outer Sea, unbound by any fate or conclusion.
As if by promise, they descended to Lennok’s side, swimming gently around him.
Ooooh……!!
Leaving their true bodies floating beyond the galaxy, they ceaselessly send their gazes toward this place.
Their gazes and wills took form in this universe, manifesting and circling gently around Lennok.
The sound of wind, like a low whisper, reached his ears. A shimmering movement, as if trying to caress him.
They approached, revealing their incomprehensible origins that far transcended humanity, holding nothing back before Lennok.
It was as if they had long awaited this moment when Lennok would reach out his hand toward them.
As if the great gods of the Sea were casting their gazes here at this very moment, solely for that purpose.
Ecstasy. Rage. Sorrow. Excitement. Admiration. Despair. Awe.
The moment Lennok raised his head amidst the vast emotions pouring endlessly from beyond the galaxy.
“……How.”
Jinwa, left alone in the darkness, muttered blankly.
“What in the world… is happening.”
“……”
As if the moment just before, when he had spoken to the Outer Gods and called their gazes here, had been a lie.
Jinwa, standing on the other side of the endless Outer Sea, turned her creaking gaze to look at Lennok.
The great evils of chaos, surrounded by countless gazes, orbited around Lennok.
Her own figure, left alone in the cold, empty universe, ignored by them.
“Why… Why…”
She looked down at herself with a trembling hand, then looked back at Lennok once more.
“Why… are the gods of the Sea with you… You, already…”
Jinwa spoke in a broken tone, unable to finish her sentences.
“The chance you gained… should have already vanished—”
“It’s not some blessed fate or bloodline.”
Lennok, surrounded by the gazes of the Outer Gods, answered quietly.
“That it is closer to a completely different concept or role… my past self knew that better than anyone.”
“……”
“I had vaguely felt it for some time, and as time passed, I naturally intuited it without needing to be told.”
Lennok, slowly raising his gaze, muttered.
“Showing you this… is also for me to face the speculation I’ve put off for so long.”
“Wizard……!!!!”
Ignoring the indignant Jinwa, Lennok silently met the gazes of the Outer Gods.
Not the gazes and wills that had descended here, but their true bodies existing beyond the galaxies and nebulae.
He vaguely glimpsed the true origins and forms of the Outer Gods who had descended upon the Boundary Line of the World.
The incomprehensible ends that he had never been able to see or feel until now.
This moment, when after a long journey, he could finally stand before them like this.
‘I see the Outer Gods worshipped by the Cult as well… Have they also been watching this world all along?’
Each time he looked past the galaxies at the true bodies of the Outer Gods, the images of Outer Gods from his own memories and knowledge were also reflected.
A grotesque god whose body was a collapsed star system. A blood-calamity Outer God who turned galaxies into seas of blood and piled up stars of corpses.
A priest with a pale light floating in place of a head prayed, and withered wings that had swallowed a sun flapped feebly.
Outer Gods who swam and dreamed in the Sea, embracing ends with vastly different origins, forms, and provenances.
The gods, having crossed the boundary between past and reality, descended from a distant outer dimension and settled by Lennok’s side.
Present in that place, yet not. But their gazes, without a doubt, existed—
[En464d44h@d ijk[[7:s]
At that moment, a horrifying shriek echoed along with intense noise.
“…….!!”
A gruesome ringing that seemed to pierce his eardrums and penetrate his brain.
Lennok, feeling a splitting pain in his head, momentarily staggered.
[Thb,9bere wa5u8ws a-9n6 role qv]9-t assigne4yvd to y534jou]
[Rej■ecting the ■■■■■■, you reach■ed ■■■■, no longer■■■■■■■■■■■can’t]
Beeeeeeep—!!!!
“Ugh…!!!”
A chaotic message that would drive an ordinary superhuman insane or cause their brain to collapse just by hearing it.
The transcendent will-thought grew increasingly intense and distorted, soon becoming completely unintelligible.
Though it certainly contained meaning, he couldn’t properly understand its contents.
But Lennok instinctively realized why he could hear their will.
The gods of the Sea weren’t conversing or communicating through an actual language.
He was merely interpreting the chaos they exuded like breath as they floated in the Sea of Darkness, using his own ‘standard’ as a filter.
[ìžìœ¨ìž의qngqg23]]:m운명을■■하고3gno3o552=::)나]
[다중우주dml rbclrdptj dnlqoehlsms goddnlsms djaalfgl rmawlgkrh dlTek]
[약ì†ì˜ ë•Œ qnfmadmf qkerl dnlgo ê¸°ë‹¤ë¦¬ê³ ìžˆì–´]
[ì´ê±´ ì´ê²ƒëŒ€ë¡œ ê´œì°®ì„ ê²ƒ 같군요]
Chzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzh-
The noise rang out harshly, as if it would pierce his eardrums and contaminate his brain.
Each time, his consciousness wavered, and a splitting pain that felt like his brain was being scraped echoed through him.
“Hah, hah…!!!”
A tremendous backflow of information, so immense that if he let his guard down for even a moment, he felt he would lose consciousness.
But Lennok, while enduring the endless torrent of various will-thoughts pouring down on him, slowly walked forward.
Because he knew that the gazes of the gods who had descended from beyond the Sea were focused solely on him.
It was a transcendent amount of information, so much that even Lennok, with his Targeted Resistance, found it difficult to endure for even a moment.
It was clear that at this moment, he stood closer than ever to the gods of the Sea.
Therefore, there was something he had to try at this moment, no matter what.
“I know… you can hear me…”
Lennok, gasping for breath, raised his gaze and slowly opened his mouth.
“……So I ask.”
……
At that moment, the noise that had been exploding from all directions abruptly stopped, and it became quiet.
As if, though they hadn’t understood his words, they had read his will and responded.
The Outer Gods roaming between stars and galaxies turned their gazes across distances of light-years.
The moment the gods who had responded to his call and descended fell silent all at once to hear Lennok’s words.
The Ascendant’s expression slowly changed as she finally realized what this situation meant—
We are listening……
The Outer Gods whispered one by one.
Speak……
Anything……
We shall grant it……
“…What, did you say……”
The lyrics echoed low, becoming an understandable meaning.
Jinwa’s expression wavered and crumbled as she faced the boundless favor mixed into that melody.
The words she had pursued her entire life yet had never once heard, being given to another at this moment.
While the Ascendant, plunged into immeasurable despair, floundered, Lennok desperately tried to keep himself focused.
‘I must remain calm.’
Through his experience in the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors, Lennok knew he could communicate with the Outer Gods.
And even the fact that not a few of the Outer Gods held an excessive interest in him.
However, that didn’t mean all the gods of the Sea would obey him or follow his words.
In the first place, the emotions of the Outer Gods sending their gazes here were far from such a feeling.
They ceaselessly sent their gazes toward Lennok, sometimes indiscriminately pouring out emotions close to affection and obsession.
But that ultimately didn’t feel like they were obeying him or awaiting his command.
Because among the gazes directed at Lennok at this moment, there existed not only favor and affection but also emotions like anger and hatred.
It wasn’t incomprehensible. It would be stranger if all the gods of the Sea held a unified emotion or will.
That was why Lennok didn’t make a futile wish for them to postpone the destruction or save the world.
He knew how precious this chance he had obtained was; it was too valuable to waste on a slim probability.
This moment, when he had pushed his spirituality to its limit through the power of Demigod Transformation and the Kaleidoscope, allowing him to face them directly, even if for just a brief time.
He simply asked what he needed to ask them first.
“The day the heavens open…”
Lennok, desperately trying to maintain his consciousness, slowly asked.
The question he had pondered and thought about for so long, the one he believed he had to ask first.
“The end when the Sea descends… when exactly is it?”
……
“When does that moment begin… and when does it end?”
When is the appointed end of the Third World.
When is the day the lifespan of this last remaining star in the universe ends.
How much time does Lennok have left.
……
The gods of the Sea did not answer.
They no longer burst forth with indistinct wills, crushing Lennok with noise.
They simply swam gently by Lennok’s side, as if swimming through a dream in the immaculate universe.
The day the long journey ends……
We wait… on the other side……
Again, a whisper was heard.
Just like the Outer God he had encountered in the Demonic Realm.
Without any special power or language, Lennok could understand their will.
Without needing the form of will-thought or ideation, Lennok could speak to them.
The gods of the Sea, too, understood this the moment Lennok opened his mouth and knew there was no need to deliberately ‘speak’.
The angel, cloaked in a white dwarf as if it were wings, shooting thermal winds at a star, whispered.
We have waited… for a long time……
“……For me.”
They had waited for Lennok for a long time.
The words he had heard from the Outer God who descended into the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors.
The words that on the day the long journey ends, Lennok would be waiting on the other side.
The moment Lennok remembered that and raised his gaze with a hardened expression.
An unknown whisper mingled in, giving Lennok an unexpected answer.
The one who sets the time… is you……
You… have postponed the decision……
“What…?”
The ones who set the time of the end are not the gods of the Sea.
Setting the time is the role left to the one who postponed the end.
And that, it turned out, was not the role of the end dwelling in the Outer Universe, but—
The fate of The Third……
The one who calls the demise is…….
The gazes of the Outer Gods, wrapped gently around Lennok, whispered with utmost benevolence.
It is your role……
“……”
The Fate of Demise. The demise of fate.
What kind of end, exactly, did the fate that ‘he’ bore before changing his origin signify?
What kind of fate was it that made him take a failed future as his Root Mindscape and wield a destruction no one could approach?
Absurdly, only now, after abandoning everything and returning, could Lennok understand the choice he made back then.
The Fate of Demise was not a simple suggestion or metaphor as implied by the divination.
It was, quite literally, the role of bringing demise to the world, of calling the gods of the Sea—
“I can’t believe it…”
Beside him, Jinwa, who had been blankly listening to the Outer Gods’ whispers, muttered.
“Because you exist… the gods of the Sea are descending into this world.”
“……”
“Your very existence… was like a lighthouse guiding them… to this world—”
Lennok did not answer.
But Jinwa, as if having gained certainty, raised her crumbling gaze and spoke.
“Yes, so that’s it… That’s what it was…!!
“That’s why the Emperor brought you to the Imperial Palace…! That’s why, that’s why…!!”
Choose
The great evils swimming through the universe whispered softly.
Choose
Choose
You decide
The Outer Gods floating in the Sea roared with malice.
The gate has opened and the end of time has come
You close the gate
CRUNCH!!!
As one of the Outer Gods shimmered and extended its will, Jinwa’s soul was caught as if being sucked in.
Jinwa’s spirituality, already shattered to pieces, was sucked into the Outer God’s grasp, having lost even the strength to resist.
Having met you through a soul that drank the power of the Extinction Tree
Let us end the long promise here
“Hahat, hahahahat……!!!!”
Even as her soul was caught in the Outer God’s hand and began to shatter, Jinwa laughed like a madwoman.
“Yes, this too is an ending… So you were our demise!!!”
“……”
“O gods of the Sea! I ate the branch of the Extinction Tree and called you!!! My words… you must know without even hearing them…!!!”
We have waited a long time……
The day the journey ends……
The day we meet again……
Jinwa’s resentful shouts mingled with the gently whispering melodies of the Outer Gods.
But the Outer Gods ignored even the Spell-Word Jinwa screamed while coughing up blood, and whispered.
Let us end the long journey here……
If you say it is the end, then all is ended……
“Being reborn as an Outer God with the end of this world as my accompaniment wouldn’t be so bad… I’m truly curious what kind of face that bastard Emperor will make…!!”
Jinwa turned her gaze toward Lennok with a gruesome expression.
“Say it, wizard!!! That you will end the journey in this place!!! That you will bring about the end with your own hands!!!!”
“……”
“SAY IT!!!! NOW!!!!!!”
“Yes… I vaguely knew.”
Lennok said quietly.
“What the Fate of Demise meant. What my original role was….”
The first is coincidence. The second is inevitability. The third is fate.
Back then, on the day he met the Pontiff and the Director at the trilateral meeting. He had actually guessed what the Fate of Demise meant.
Whose role it was to bring demise to this final world, where a fourth did not exist.
What answer from Lennok that coincidence and inevitability wanted to confirm by meeting him.
“I also guessed… whose role it originally was to call the gods of the Sea.”
Lennok said lowly, looking at the gazes of the Outer Gods that tried to caress him.
“And even the fact that once they told me, they would want to face the end immediately.”
“SAY IT—!!!!!”
“But I will not accept my fate in that way.”
Lennok answered.
“If everything he did in the past was to change fate, and if I am here after all that effort and failure….”
Lennok said.
“I must show them that I have obtained the power to defy fate.”
CRACKLE—!!!!
At that moment, a brilliant blue bolt of lightning no one could have predicted fell within the empty universe.
A thunderbolt that penetrated and traversed the empty darkness flashed, manifesting with its own will.
It descended as an indelible miracle, carving its own meaning of existence into the void.
Bzzzt, bzzzzzzzt—!!!!!!
KWAAAAAAA!!!!!!!
He drew upon the last of his Demigod Transformation’s power, which ignored the costs and recoil of any spellcraft.
On this boundary line where the Outer Sea and the world met, no matter what mind or answer he unfurled, his surroundings would not be harmed.
This moment, when he could pour out everything without worrying about the recoil. Without worrying about his surroundings, even abandoning manipulation and control.
He could only bring it out for a single moment. Even that would be just a tiny fraction of its entirety.
But still, he unfolded it without hesitation in this infinite universe.
The most powerful yet dangerous possibility Lennok possessed. The branching point he couldn’t even control, which he had kept locked away for so long.
The miracle that grew stronger from beyond the future timeline each time he understood the power of lightning, a miracle he thought he might never be able to bring out again.
Though it was incomplete, staggering, creaking, and running rampant.
The sea of lightning that always spread in the deepest part of Lennok’s inner self.
D
O
M
A
I
N
Pzzzzzzzzzt……!!!!!
No incantation was needed.
U
N
F
O
L
D
“……No way.”
Eigh■ Thund■■ Vaul■ (八■雷■穹)