Chapter 1454: A New Phase (19)
Kiiiiing….!!!!
A blue-skinned demon, introducing herself as Sakia, with eight black wings unfurled.
The moment he saw the gruesome sight of countless human corpses hanging from beneath her wings, Lennok moved.
The instant he flicked his fingers and tossed his mana overhead, the sky of the satellite city turned dark in a flash.
Krrrrrrumble!!!!
Dark clouds gathered and thunder roared as brilliant blue lightning flashed ceaselessly across the sky.
The entire meteorological phenomenon of the sky shifted according to the wizard’s will, and lightning began to fall.
“Hmm… no questions asked, is that it?”
Crunch!!
Sakia, moving her eight wings and squeezing the dangling corpses, lifted her gaze and smiled faintly.
“Personally, I prefer a fight with a bit more narrative. But if you want to run wild, I suppose it can’t be helped?”
Extreme Art, Fifth Law: Descent
[White Fall]
Flash!!
In place of an answer, bolts of lightning exploded from between the dark clouds, raining down in rows from the sky above the satellite city.
Pillars of pure white lightning fell one after another, as if stitching heaven and earth together, indiscriminately bombarding the ground.
Enhanced with the property transformation of an Extreme Art, the spell was completed the moment the incantation began, striking down toward the spot where Sakia stood.
Kwa-gagagagagwang!!!!
Amidst the violently shaking ground, Lennok snatched a falling bolt of lightning and leaned his body forward.
[Flicker]
Phat-
Lennok’s form leaped through space, descending behind Sakia at a speed invisible to the eye.
He twisted the lightning counter-clockwise to form a spiral thunderbolt. In the instant he twisted his shoulder and threw it down like a hammer.
The demon clad in black wings received the falling electric magic head-on without even looking back.
[Rampage: Spiral Thunder Kill]
[Pain Catalyst]
Boooooooom!!!!!
Following the piercing bolt of lightning, one of Sakia’s wings was skewered and exploded as if bursting apart.
Simultaneously with the impact of the electric magic, even the corpses hanging from her wings were all burned away into nothingness.
In the moment Lennok hesitated at the unexpectedly one-sided result, Sakia burst into cackling laughter.
“Ahahahaha!!! This hurts like hell. It’s not the kind of pain one can endure with a sane mind, you know?”
“…”
Her gruesome form smiled brightly even as nearly half of one side of her back was torn away, dripping dark red blood.
At the same time, ironically, a tremendous amount of mana and will-thought began to rapidly fill Sakia’s inner self.
“I usually need a bit of a warm-up, but it’s been a while since my spellcraft has been filled up all at once like this.”
Crack!!
Sakia pulled a new wing out from behind the mangled stump and turned to Lennok, cracking her neck.
“It seems I’ve met a good opponent for a change. Shall we go a few more rounds?”
Swoosh!!
Before she had even finished speaking, Sakia’s form, which had been standing on the tip of a tree trunk, vanished.
A dull pressure crushed against his chest. Just after Lennok realized that Sakia had accelerated using only the power of her wings.
Lennok spun around, and Sakia’s form, descending at incredible speed, collided with him head-on.
Jjeooooong!!!!
A shockwave spread out like a concentric circle, a clash so intense that a part of the satellite city’s ground sank.
While the scattered debris was crushed to dust, not a single scratch appeared on either of their bodies.
“You didn’t use spellcraft to receive my magic.”
Lennok said in a cold voice, looking up at Sakia.
“Do you possess the ability to convert the pain inflicted upon you into power?”
Sakia had not parried or blocked the lightning Lennok had just dropped.
She had simply allowed her wing to be burned away by Lennok’s lightning, then converted that pain directly into usable mana.
It was a bizarre ability that went beyond carelessness for her physical safety, something a living creature should not possess in the first place.
That alone was enough to instantly accept the fact that his opponent was not human, but a demon from an outer dimension.
“For someone from off-stage to stand on the field, it requires a rather complicated procedure, you see~”
Sakia said in a gentle voice.
“Shall we call it a price one must pay to make an impossible situation possible?”
“…”
“Oh my, I didn’t think it was a particularly difficult metaphor to understand.”
Sakia’s eyes glinted gruesomely as she tilted her head.
“Was it a story that someone who has killed an Ascendant with a human body cannot sympathize with?”
Kwang!!!
Before she finished speaking, Lennok unleashed a shockwave, blasting Sakia backward.
A rain of lightning bolts falling successively from the sky pursued Sakia’s recoiling form.
Kwa-gagagaga!!!!
He pursued Sakia, who was sent flying by the falling lightning, with Flicker and drove another bolt into her.
As if waiting for that moment, Sakia snatched Lennok’s wrist, which was wreathed in electricity.
Her eight wings dug into the ground, bracing her body, and for a fleeting moment, their hands met in mid-air at an incredible speed.
Sakia parried every one of the dozens of accelerated blue lightning bolts that split from Lennok’s hand, altering their trajectories.
Jjeo-jeo-jeo-jeo-jeong!!!
Wherever their fingertips grazed, brilliant blue lightning exploded and distorted, scattering shockwaves.
The sharp gleam of thunderbolts flashed past Lennok and Sakia’s necks and cheeks before disappearing.
A battle that crushed space itself as their exchange transcended coordinates. He had expected it, but his opponent was indeed a master of transcendent martial prowess.
Realizing this, Lennok drew upon his Quasi-Authority and activated the Eight Trigrams Formation. His perception of time slowed to its absolute limit as a golden melody flowed out.
Udeuk!!
He read the points where causality overflowed and broke, forcibly piercing through Sakia’s openings in the slowed time.
With blue electricity wrapped around his fingertips, Lennok applied Touin to his right arm and moved to pierce her heart in a single blow.
“Ah, I should stop before I break a sweat.”
Stopping in her tracks, Sakia smiled and raised both hands above her head.
“I surrender. How about we call it a draw?”
Swoooosh!!
Immediately after, Lennok twisted his shoulder and activated Flicker, warping the trajectory of the lightning that was about to pierce her heart.
Before the thunderbolt that grazed past her ear had vanished, he seized her neck with his gloved hand.
Sakia’s body hung limp, not even resisting, her neck caught in Lennok’s grasp.
Kwaduk!!
“Oh my.”
Her neck bent at a bizarre angle, Sakia looked at Lennok and chuckled, “Hoo hoo.”
“You’re much more rational than I heard. I thought you’d kill me in a fit of rage, but you’re surprisingly calm, aren’t you?”
“…”
“You started a fight without a word, so I thought you were the type who couldn’t be reasoned with. But this kind of multi-faceted personality isn’t bad either.”
“If you had appeared before me in a more sensible manner, there would have been no need for this.”
Lennok said, lifting Sakia by the neck with a frigid expression.
“Did you think I would be generous to a monster that crawled up from beneath the satellite city, draped in human corpses?”
“Aha, so that’s the problem?”
Hook!!
In that moment, Sakia, whose neck was in Lennok’s grasp, vanished.
Disappearing like a phantom in the blink of an eye, she reappeared in front of Lennok and casually shook her wings.
Playfully shaking the corpses hanging from her wings to squeeze out blood, Sakia placed a hand on her hip and laughed.
“Unfortunately, these corpses are not as innocent as you might think. To be precise, they were grave robbers who sensed the anomaly in this city and came looking.”
“…”
“I’d like to ignore such insects too, but when they crawl all the way to where I am and point a gun at me, I can’t help but give them a pat out of sheer annoyance, can I?”
Sakia’s response was polite, yet somehow strangely off-kilter.
Watching her, a mixture of elegance and grotesqueness, Lennok narrowed his eyes.
‘It’s certain she isn’t human. There’s no prelude or delay in her movements…’
Now that he had obtained the Corrupted Golden Rule, Lennok could vaguely perceive what kind of being Sakia was.
An unpleasant sense of otherness, existing as a result without possessing a cause to exist in this world.
A demon.
Was this the otherworldly corrupted being the Director had once mentioned?
[Somewhere in the outer universe, there are beings who chose corruption themselves instead of ascending to the heavens.]
[The Unlettered who gave up on becoming gods and holed up in their own hells. We call such beings or phenomena demons.]
The Unlettered, who chose corruption again after giving up their qualification to challenge ascension.
Beings who created their own hells in a different dimension, not in reality, and confined themselves there.
Had one of those demons sensed the existence of the hell Lennok had obtained and come to find him?
“Sakia… I’ve heard that name before.”
Lennok said, slowly turning towards Sakia.
“A few of Vulcan’s old Transcendent beings remembered your name. I heard you rarely show your face at human ceremonies or events.”
“Even the most wondrous things become tiresome if you look at them for too long.”
Sakia turned her steps.
“Imagine you’re taking a long journey through space to a very distant place.”
“…What?”
Lennok frowned at the sudden metaphor, but she paid him no mind and continued as if singing.
“After traveling for a long time through empty interstellar space, you find a star where life you’ve never seen before exists. It would be wondrous, wouldn’t it?”
“…”
“So wondrous that you watch it all day, observe its ecology, and after watching and living with it for a long time…”
Sakia slowly snapped her fingers and smiled with her eyes.
“Eventually, it becomes boring. That’s all there is to it.”
“…You.”
“Many things that happen in the outer universe are similar to that. You might wonder how those bizarre Outer Gods can swim through the sea of stars for all eternity… but really, there’s no such complicated reason.”
Sakia said slowly.
“Our meeting today is the same. You are a young seeker climbing upwards, and I am a failure who fell into hell long ago… It’s not so strange for our paths to cross at least once, is it?”
“…”
“But I promise you, this meeting today will be a great stroke of luck for you. I know far more than you think… and I am a person who can willingly give you what you want.”
Sakia gestured to herself with an elegant hand and stroked her chin gently.
“Among demons, I am an exceptionally beautiful, good, and merciful being. You can tell without me having to explain, right?”
[Ugh…]
Davi whispered softly from within his clothes, as if horrified.
[This is a transcendent species full of self-love.]
“Young spirit, isn’t that obvious?”
Sakia replied immediately.
“Demons are beings made of arrogance and self-righteousness. From the moment they chose corruption instead of challenging ascension, they can rely on nothing but the judgments they themselves have made.”
[…]
A natural reply, as if she had overheard the thought transmission Davi had whispered to Lennok.
The Cybernetic Spirit held its breath faintly and hid itself as Lennok furrowed his brow.
Sakia paid no mind to their reactions and spoke gently.
“I may not be able to become like the great Answerers who succeeded in ascension, but I have obtained a freedom that cannot be exchanged for anything… and so it will be until the moment this universe ends.”
Sakia stared intently at Lennok’s chest and asked nonchalantly.
“In a way, aren’t you a being similar to us?”
“Enough with the incomprehensible talk. Let’s get back to the point.”
Lennok cut Sakia off sharply on Davi’s behalf and said.
“It seems you have no intention of fighting me. What do you want?”
“That’s right. You seem much more interesting than I’d heard. I’ve developed a personal interest.”
Sakia admitted to Lennok’s words without a second thought.
“I was disappointed to hear you hadn’t reached Level 9 even after killing Kaiser Bajour, but it wasn’t that, you were holding yourself back?”
“…”
“If it wasn’t a lack of enlightenment, but a refusal to become an Ascendant, then that’s a different story~ I think we could have a very good relationship.”
Sakia smiled with her eyes.
“If it’s alright with you, would you like to make a contract with me?”
“A contract?”
A contract with a demon. No matter how he thought about it, it was hard to see it in a positive light.
Just as Lennok frowned at the unexpected proposal, Sakia said calmly.
“Since I’m the one making the offer, I’ll be honest. Soon, [Heaven’s Gate] will open beneath this satellite city.”
“Heaven’s Gate…?”
For a moment, Lennok froze at the unexpected words.
Seeing Lennok’s reaction, Sakia tilted her head.
“Oh, you already know? Well, I suppose if you came all the way here after sensing the World Tree’s energy, you must have a rough idea of the situation.”
“…”
Heaven’s Gate.
As far as Lennok knew, that name was part of an unreleased setting that had existed in both WORLD 1.0 and 2.0.
A Moonstone, bearing the name ‘Map of Heaven’s Gate,’ existed, but its actual form had never been revealed in the lore.
He had explained to Jenny during Vulcan’s ascension ritual that the item she had procured as a catalyst for the Map of Heaven’s Gate was a Moonstone.
But even Lennok himself had barely thought of it until Myeong, having awakened in the cathedral, had passed the keyword to him.
Could it be that what Lapis had said about the moon descending near Vulcan was an allusion to the existence of Heaven’s Gate?
“The moon descends… and the fragment of the World Tree is used as a key to open the gate.”
“If you know that much, then there’s no need for me to explain in more detail.”
Sakia smiled.
“Heaven’s Gate is an Old World relic that controls a multi-dimensional spacetime spectrum using the moon as a medium. It’s a piece of technology that has reached the pinnacle of portal technology, capable of connecting to any place under specific conditions.”
“…”
“It’s not a concept that exists in reality, so it can’t even be observed, let alone touched, under normal circumstances. It’s an object that can only be used temporarily during the moment of a total solar eclipse.”
In the instant that various thoughts flashed through Lennok’s mind, Sakia spoke.
“By now, I believe you can guess what kind of proposal I want to make.”
Looking at the silent Lennok, Sakia smiled.
“A total solar eclipse is scheduled to be observed in this satellite city soon, and ironically, this city is the space physically closest to the Outer Sea in the vicinity of Vulcan. The stage is perfectly set to see the moon descend below the sun.”
“…”
“We plan to open Heaven’s Gate using a fragment of the World Tree as a key, but it’s not so easy for me, a being not of this world, to properly carry out that complicated process.”
The demon slowly walked towards Lennok and whispered softly.
“If you could just help a little with that process… I could hand over the World Tree sample you want. Doesn’t that sound like a reasonable trade?”
“You have a useless talent for making even a decent proposal sound incredibly suspicious… Stick to either informal or formal speech, not both.”
Shaking his head, Lennok stepped back to avoid Sakia and asked.
“I understand that you can activate Heaven’s Gate using a sample of the World Tree as a key. However, what is the destination you are trying to reach by going to such lengths?”
“…”
“I know what a being like a demon has given up and what price it has gained. I don’t understand what a being that resides in an outer dimension, practically detached from the end of this world, covets Heaven’s Gate for.”
Sakia’s explanation was suspicious in many ways, but Lennok didn’t doubt its veracity because of what Lapis had told him before.
The Lighthouse Keeper’s message that the moon would descend near Vulcan and the World Tree would be the key was, in a sense, in the same vein as the demon’s explanation.
He hadn’t thought it would be connected through the keywords of a total solar eclipse and Heaven’s Gate, but he could naturally understand it the moment he heard it.
The problem was what Sakia wanted to achieve by activating Heaven’s Gate.
If she intended to misuse the concept of Heaven’s Gate in any way, the harm would be unspeakably severe.
At the very least, he needed to grasp the purpose she was outwardly professing to prepare for the worst-case scenario.
Accepting the ‘contract’ Sakia was offering wouldn’t be a problem, but he needed confirmation on that point.
However, Sakia’s answer far surpassed the scope of what Lennok had been thinking.
“The World Tree grows from the Navel of the Star, and it’s akin to a vast database that observes and reads the flow of all life existing on this planet.”
Sakia turned her steps.
“Hundreds of billions of lives have passed through this land, so it doesn’t remember every single moment, but some memories are too intense and dangerous to be erased.”
“What are you suddenly talking about?”
“You already know how Ascendants who have reached Level 9 complete themselves in the final moment, don’t you?”
Lennok tilted his head at the out-of-place explanation, but Sakia continued without pause.
“The moment they become Ascendants, they destroy and create themselves to a near-infinite degree… and reconstruct their ego into a form optimized for the answer they have chosen.”
“…”
“They abandon everything to challenge ascension, making themselves beings subservient to the answer. Can you imagine the immense amount of information generated in that process?”
Yes, he knew.
It was for that very reason that Lennok himself had hesitated to become an Ascendant for so long.
Because he had chosen infinite choices as his answer, he was wary of being bound by a single specific branching point or possibility.
A lingering doubt that still hadn’t disappeared, even now that he had concluded his long journey and made a decision.
As his thoughts reached that point, Lennok understood why Sakia had brought this up.
A memory so intense that it would remain within the World Tree, which reads all life on the planet.
The immense amount of information that Ascendants emit as they repeat creation and destruction.
If these two things were not entirely different meanings or concepts.
“Don’t tell me, the destination you’re trying to reach using the World Tree as a key is the Ascendants’…”
“The Sanctuary of Memories where the birth and death of every Level 9 Ascendant in history are recorded.”
Sakia looked at Lennok and smiled.
“The Hall of Ascendants, containing the most important secret of ascension, is there.”