Chapter 1450: A New Phase (15)

After finishing the meeting about advancing to the Central Front, Lennok immediately left District 49 and returned home.

The scene he saw in the unconscious mind of the Guardian Spirit Beast, which had fallen asleep during the meeting, contained information that shocking.

The Snake Guarding the Well. Pyeonram Padme Kiesa. A 9-level sorcerer and a being who became an Ascendant in the body of a beast.

The guardian deity of the Southern Continent’s Great Forest, and a Transcendent tasked with the mission of guarding [The Gate].

What it meant that she was dead, a sword stuck in her, within her own world of consciousness.

Click!!

“Davi. Collect data on the trends in the cities near the Great Forest. And please investigate the stock prices and capital flow of the megatechs headquartered on the Southern Continent.”

Entering the living room, Lennok activated all the security and barriers within his home and immediately gave the order.

“I’m going to focus on grasping the political situation and atmosphere of the Southern Continent where the Great Forest is located. It would be good if you could gather the flow of information in that direction as much as possible.”

[I’ll get on it right away.]

Davi, also sensing the gravity of the situation, began working immediately.

Fwoosh!!

Hundreds of holograms and screens unfolded in the spacious living room, and data collection began simultaneously on all of them.

It even pulled in the processing power of the ChatterFox being used by Vulcan’s citizens, extracting data from across the continent and forcing hacks.

From an immeasurable volume of data, it filtered out dummy data and quickly summarized the core information.

While Davi instantly organized the summary, Lennok, having quickly washed his face, sat down.

[Master, it’s more or less organized.]

“Speak.”

Lennok placed the towel he was holding on the sofa and looked at the screens floating all around him.

Davi naturally hopped onto Lennok’s lap and spoke, wagging her bushy tail.

[Currently, there are almost no significant anomalies or information about Ascendants near the Great Forest. The stock prices on the Southern Continent haven’t changed much either. However….]

“However?”

[There are an unusually persistent number of stories about the spellcraft output of sorcerers active on the Southern Continent becoming drastically unstable.]

“…”

[There’s no clear evidence yet, and it’s closer to a vague rumor, but it seems certain that similar phenomena are occurring all over the Southern Continent.]

In place of the silent Lennok, Davi moved her tail to quickly manipulate the screens and continued.

[It seems these words are circulating irregularly in southern communities and the underworld. At this rate, the rumor will likely spread within about two weeks.]

“So it’s clear that something has happened to Pyeonram….”

Wringing his wet hair, Lennok sank into thought with a serious expression.

“In the past, the Guardian Spirit Beast was entangled in the Demolding Curse, and its consciousness was connected to Pyeonram’s. That’s probably why I was able to see her this time.”

The Demolding Curse. A term referring to the concept where a lower species, in the process of shedding its skin and evolving, is forcibly absorbed by a higher species.

Because the Guardian Spirit Beast’s essence had similarities to Pyeonram’s, it had been in danger of being absorbed and annihilated by her.

To solve that problem, Lennok had gone all the way to Yorta in the past, entered Mugan, and had to eliminate the curse himself.

But even though a long time had passed since finishing the work in Yorta, Lennok had been able to glimpse Pyeonram through the Guardian Spirit Beast.

It was proof that the blow Pyeonram suffered within her own world of consciousness was that severe.

[That reptilian Transcendent… was she killed by another organism?]

“I don’t know. The Pyeonram I saw was, after all, something that happened inside her world of consciousness.”

The image of Pyeonram dead on an altar with a sword in her was a scene from within her world of consciousness, not the actual Great Forest.

Considering that, he couldn’t be certain whether Pyeonram had actually died within the Southern Continent’s Great Forest.

However, considering that such an event occurred inside the consciousness of an Ascendant—

“At the very least, it seems clear that Pyeonram’s consciousness received a blow severe enough to bring it to the point of death.”

Lennok said, looking closely at the data summary Davi had prepared.

“The Ascendant losing consciousness might be causing her magical power to run rampant, destabilizing the spellcraft output of sorcerers on the Southern Continent.”

[To be able to affect the entire Southern Continent with just her magical power… the very fact that such a thing is possible seems strange.]

“It’s absurd, but that was Pyeonram’s specialty.”

During Pandemonium’s Well operation, Pyeonram had simultaneously awakened, scanned the entire planet, and noticed the deaths of Heavenly Sight and Jindun.

A transcendent flood of consciousness that even the current Lennok, who was infinitely close to being an Ascendant, couldn’t fathom how it was possible.

That overwhelmingly vast consciousness was surely the very identity of Pyeonram, who was born a beast and rose to the hierarchy of an Ascendant.

“I knew the Ascendants started to move after the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors collapsed, but this is unexpected… What should I do?”

He was well aware that the Demonic Realm had collapsed, causality had been released, and the 9-level Ascendants had begun to act.

The Ascendant of the Outer Lei Clan who visited Vulcan, a Grand General of the Ars Nova Imperial Palace. The First Seat of the Ability Awakening Warband.

Hadn’t he met countless powerful beings who had crossed the line long ago or were already standing before it?

He had naturally thought that Ascendants might clash or that someone might be defeated, but he had never imagined Pyeonram would be the one.

Among the existing Ascendants, she was one of the few whose power was intact, aside from the damage to her memories.

Wasn’t she the great sorcerer entrusted with the mission of guarding the Well, the protector of the Great Forest?

“…I should take what measures I can.”

Even if it wasn’t for this incident, he was already contemplating contacting other Ascendants to reach Level 9.

Now that he knew Pyeonram’s safety was in question, he had no intention of standing idly by.

Having made his decision, Lennok grabbed his coat and immediately rose from his seat.

He left his home, holding Davi who had leaped into his arms.

[Master, where are you going?]

“If it were an ordinary matter, I’d take my time and watch, but the survival of an Ascendant is not something to be taken lightly.”

Opening the garage, Lennok summoned his bike, immediately mounted it, and started the engine.

“By the time an anomaly occurs, it might already be too late. A minimal grasp of the situation is necessary.”

Now that the Ascendants had begun to move, anything could happen, but a problem with Padme Kiesa’s whereabouts was on a different level.

Pyeonram was an Ascendant revered throughout the Southern Continent. Her existence as the guardian of the Great Forest was like a religion to those who lived there.

If it became known that the snake’s safety and well-being were compromised, the Southern Continent would be thrown into immense chaos.

He had to at least find a way or means to confirm Pyeonram’s life or death.

“If I can’t get any meaningful information from near the Southern Continent right now, I have no choice but to look elsewhere.”

[Elsewhere…?]

Vroooom!!!

Mounted on the bike, Lennok sped down the road toward Vulcan’s Outer Zone.

Before long, the form of a blue forest unfolded, faintly visible even from the road.

The scenery of a vast forest spread within the massive city, and the silvery full moon floating loftily above it.

Seeing the unusual sight, which was clearly visible even from other districts, Davi realized their destination.

[Aha, so that living plant is still staying in Vulcan?]

“As a fellow Ascendant, she’ll at least know more than we do.”

The Ideological Domain of Dadam, the Ascendant of the Outer Lei Clan.

A small world where the laws had been altered, an abandoned Outer Zone overwritten by the power of an Ascendant.

This was his first visit since coming here to learn the secrets of an Ideological Domain from her.

Parking his bike in front of the dense forest that covered an entire Outer Zone, Lennok looked around.

“There are more people than before….”

A long procession stretched from outside the district toward the dense forest that occupied one side of the megacity’s outskirts.

Mixed among them were not citizens of Vulcan, but several demi-humans with pointed ears who appeared to have come from outside the city.

Demi-humans walking on the grass, kneeling respectfully, and praying with their hands on the trees.

Had the Outer Lei Clan, scattered across the continent, heard news of Dadam and come to Vulcan on a pilgrimage?

He walked inward, silently passing the members of the Outer Lei Clan praying throughout the vast forest.

“…”

As he went deeper into the forest, he could feel the praying Outer Lei Clan members quietly watching him.

It wasn’t hostile, but their attitude seemed wary of Lennok’s mere presence here.

Only after raising his magic and examining the Ideological Domain did Lennok realize why.

“I can’t feel Dadam’s presence… Has she left her Ideological Domain?”

He had come quite deep into the forest, but he couldn’t feel any human presence anywhere.

The scenery of the forest was almost identical to his previous visit, yet the atmosphere felt strangely different.

He headed to the place where he had previously learned the secrets of an Ideological Domain from her, but there were almost no traces of a person there either.

Only a simple table, left neglected and covered in a thick layer of leaves, and an old teacup placed upon it, greeted Lennok.

Silently observing the scene, Lennok slowly walked toward it.

He picked up the teacup on the table, his gloved hand touching the handle.

“There’s no trace of it being drunk from. Is it just a souvenir?”

[Hmm… according to carbon dating, it’s over 500 years old. I’ll have to do more component analysis, but it doesn’t seem to be an object from this continent in the first place.]

“…It seems it will be difficult to find its owner’s whereabouts by investigating the surrounding objects.”

Although the Ascendant of the Outer Lei Clan had been staying in Vulcan for several months, he knew almost nothing about her daily life.

Because she was an Ascendant whose mind had reached the realm of plants, she rarely ever left her Ideological Domain.

He had heard from Evelyn that she sometimes left Vulcan for a while, but it seemed the timing was terrible.

If he had known this would happen, should he have contacted Evelyn before leaving to at least try and find Dadam’s whereabouts?

Whoooosh…!!!

He walked past the chairs arranged around an old, large tree and a swinging swing set.

The scent of grass brushing his cheek and the feel of the undergrowth tickling his ankles. The full moon shining loftily in the dark night sky.

A quiet silence, as if time had stopped, unlike the other districts that were restlessly and busily moving.

Standing in the middle of the silent forest, Lennok quietly closed his eyes.

“…”

There was another reason he intended to become an Ascendant after finishing things in Paradise Lost.

Great seekers who had reached the ninth hierarchy, or transcendent powerhouses who had stopped before it.

Through his long journey of fighting them, and sometimes cooperating with them, his own understanding of them had been steadily accumulating within him.

An enlightenment about Ascendants and Ideological Domains that he couldn’t even grasp before. He understood the way they existed in this world and strove toward their path.

As he brought down Paradise Lost with his own hands, Lennok learned what kind of concept an Ideological Domain was and on what standards it was based.

Drawing on that experience, he intuited and gained insight into the vast forest before him, pinpointing the parts he had not seen properly before.

The answer was surprisingly close.

“…I see.”

Lennok, lost in thought, slowly raised his gaze.

[Master?]

“The moon floating in the Ideological Domain… it was definitely a crescent moon before.”

The silver moon that had appeared and remained fixed in the sky above the Outer Zone as soon as Dadam visited Vulcan.

But back then, it was not a full moon like now, but had the shape of a thin crescent moon, like a great bow.

It wasn’t a real moon, but a part of the Ideological Domain constructed by Dadam’s power, so its shape shouldn’t have changed until now.

Did Dadam change the moon’s appearance or adjust the scenery of the Ideological Domain herself? No, that was unlikely.

She was an Ascendant who had lived for a long time, her mind close to the realm of plants. Even such a change would be unfamiliar to her.

It was proof that some entirely different external force or concept had intervened in the Ideological Domain and forcibly changed the phase of the moon.

An anomaly within an Ascendant’s ruling Ideological Domain that one might not notice at first glance, but was in fact impossible to overlook.

“The place I should have been looking for from the start wasn’t this forest.”

Realizing this, Lennok raised his magic and reached his hand toward the moon.

The silvery full moon that illuminated the Ideological Domain. The hidden space on its other side.

The moment he perceived the other side of the moon, Lennok used Flicker to enter the hidden space.

And as a beautiful garden of pure white blossoms unfolded before his eyes, he stopped in his tracks.

Paaaaaaat!!!!

A beautiful flower garden covered in white flowers as far as the eye could see.

A simple table set under the blue moonlight that brightened the pitch-black night sky.

Four people were sitting around that table, facing each other.

“…”

Ironically, except for one person, they were all faces Lennok remembered.

Dadam, the Ascendant of the Outer Lei Clan, sitting with an expressionless face before an antique teacup.

Sitting across from her was the figure of a lich with an eerie light in its eyes, turning the pages of an old book.

“It is a difficult thing to believe.”

The Answerer, Naoise Penn, said slowly.

“But I cannot deny the fact that you, in a human body, have obtained a status comparable to the Ascendants of history.”

“…”

“A being who has not attained transcendence should not even be able to observe this moment in the first place.”

The unprecedented sight of an Ascendant from the Old World and an Ascendant from the current world facing each other in the same space-time.

The skull’s gloomy eyes slowly turned, flickering as if looking at Lennok with interest.

“May I ask what on earth you saw in Paradise Lost before you returned?”

“It’s not that difficult to return to a place you’ve visited before.”

Lennok replied calmly, looking at the people sitting at the table.

“There is something I wish to ask about Pyeonram’s situation. However, before that….”

To be precise, he looked at the girl with blue hair sitting between Dadam and Naoise Penn.

A youthful face, as if she had just become an adult. A calm impression with her abundant hair tied back neatly.

Sitting at the table with her eyes closed, utterly still, silently gazing up at the night sky.

Ironically, Lennok knew her well.

“Lapis Falcia.”

Lennok said.

“Why are you here?”