Chapter 1459: Hall of Ascension (5)

I realized it after reaching Level 9 and earning the right to challenge ascension.

There is no next chance in this world. The fourth never existed from the beginning.

I came to terms with it watching the prescient ones who, chasing a nonexistent ascension, burned themselves out and faded away like moths to a flame.

[This is as far as I go.]

I was merely fortunate enough to be born with several outstanding talents, allowing me to reach a higher place earlier than others.

From the start, I was never great enough to challenge ascension and succeed.

It was not a difficult thing to accept. Among the Ascendants of the Old World, there must have been others like me.

Unable to challenge ascension despite reaching Level 9, they must have watched with a sense of defeat as others moved on to the next world.

Compared to them, I was actually better off. I could at least console myself by saying I couldn’t challenge ascension because it wasn’t permitted in this world.

I intended to be true to myself in the time I had left.

Fortunately, I was neither wicked nor weak among the Seekers of this world, so many mortals followed me.

I tried to accept the end while watching life and time gather and scatter like grains of sand, but it was not to be.

It was because not all the other challengers had so meekly given up on ascension as I had.

There were those who, if there was no next, would find another way, who would become gods even if it meant trampling the world.

It was an era where even Ascendants could not avoid being swept away by fate.

Splash!!

The sound of a crashing wave. A shoreline where tides mixed with bloody foam rolled in.

My body covered in wounds, I stood upon a sea of blood.

The final days of the Unification War, when the Emperor trampled the continent. An age of carnage when the name of that butcher spread to the very ends of the world.

Because I was an Ascendant who had lived long and learned many skills, I was able to endure even in that war.

I defeated the great conquerors who came under the Emperor’s command and defended the waters of the Sea of Understanding to the very end.

But the last person to arrive, I could not send back.

[…Is this the end?]

The man called the greatest Manipulation Spellcaster in the continent’s history.

The most enigmatic Ascendant even in the central city, a gathering place for all manner of monsters.

I had heard he was the one Transcendent that the Emperor, who commanded all as if they were tools, was reluctant to even ask a favor of.

The moment we crossed hands, I knew all those rumors were true.

[Ascendant Yega.]

‘He,’ whose face was obscured by noise, opened his mouth.

[I heard you are an all-around master who has learned a thousand talents and wields ten thousand techniques. You have skills worthy of your fame.]

[….]

[The Emperor has sent a message to express his respect for the great deeds you have accomplished. So I will ask you once.]

Stretching out the Black Line woven between his fingers, ‘he’ spoke.

[Relinquish all rights to the Sea of Understanding and surrender. Bow your head to the Imperial Palace and accept the seat of a Grand General.]

[….]

[If you accept these two conditions, I promise there will be no interference in the waters you rule from now on.]

[…Why?]

Knowing the end was near, I still had to ask.

[Why does the Emperor conquer but not possess? Is it… enough for him to simply spill blood through this war?]

[….]

[Even as the Unification War ends, the Empire’s territory has barely expanded. You all act as if obtaining all nominal rights to this world is sufficient.]

[….]

[Are the Transcendent beings who pledge loyalty to the Emperor truly satisfied with that…? Do the subjects of the Empire truly understand and follow the Emperor’s will correctly?]

[To read the margins of fate, one must eventually flip through the entire book.]

‘He’ said calmly.

As if paying his final respects to the Ascendant before him.

[The Emperor believes he can only know the ‘exception’ by possessing this entire world, leaving nothing out. The Targeted Resistance he pursues is the very essence of that.]

[What… did you say?]

[I do not believe there is another way, but I intend to watch over his great wish until the moment the Emperor desires.]

Slowly raising his hand, ‘he’ said.

[The time I have left is not that long, anyway.]

There were no further answers.

There was a brief clash, and the outcome of the fight was decided from the start.

Tens of thousands of Black Lines spread across the Sea of Understanding, filling the entire sky.

I had reached the worst possible end I had braced for when I entered the war.

But—

[…I curse you.]

Even though I had given up on ascension and settled for reality, even though I knew this was my limit.

In my final moment, I could not stop the resentment I had desperately ignored and suppressed from tearing through my heart.

It wasn’t that I didn’t challenge it because I didn’t want to.

I did not live for so long just to be so meaninglessly crushed.

Even if I am to be robbed of my desire to cherish my remaining time, to be swayed by another’s will and fade away.

I will not forget.

If, by some chance, I get the opportunity for revenge, even from the depths of hell—

==

Fwoosh!!

“…!!!”

The screen flickered, and Lennok, pulled from the long memory, gasped for breath.

At some point, his entire body had become drenched in an inexplicable cold sweat.

The memories of Ascendant Yega.

The end of a great Ascendant who, in the final days of the Unification War, had protected the waters he ruled until the very end.

The memories of a Seeker who had learned tens of thousands of skills and resisted the Empire, only to be killed by his past self in the end.

Lennok’s consciousness momentarily wavered as he felt the hatred and resentment harbored by the man with an eerie depth.

However, the conversation he overheard in that memory held a far more significant meaning than Lennok had anticipated.

“Targeted Resistance…”

Lennok’s most dangerous and enigmatic talent, an absolute privilege.

The reason the Emperor had waged the Unification War, slaughtering and conquering the entire continent, was to obtain Targeted Resistance.

But then, why did Lennok possess that talent instead of the Emperor?

Despite his past self’s skepticism of the Emperor’s plan, why did that talent exist within Lennok?

“……”

As if possessed, Lennok rose from his seat and began to frantically search through the film reels next to the projector.

He went past the memories of Ascendants he knew and inserted films marked with unrecognizable characters into the projector.

The memories of ancient Ascendants who had existed immeasurably long ago, erased from history and records, unfolded.

Whirrrr!!!

There was a being who had reached Level 9 by using countless humans as sacrificial offerings and absorbing their power.

There was an Ascendant who had reconstructed their entire body with relics and artifacts, becoming a tool unto themself.

An Ascendant who had gathered hundreds of thousands of souls, becoming an extreme collective to the point their ego was diluted.

An Ascendant who dissolved themself into the vast flow of time and vanished the moment they reached Level 9.

A Transcendent who melted their own flesh with blazing fire and ascended by becoming the sun itself.

An Ascendant who refined their spirit and body with metal, abandoning their ego to become a perfect sphere.

“Ugh…!”

With each film change, the moments of countless ascensions tore through Lennok’s mind, running rampant.

The boundless inspiration of transcendence ceaselessly stimulated his mind, making his head throb as if it would explode.

In that state, as he relentlessly, unceasingly delved into the memories left by the Ascendants, he came to a realization.

There were countless beings who had met ends worse than death in the process of reaching Level 9.

That the failure Maleon had faced in Kundara was by no means rare throughout a long history.

He learned from the moments of success and failure, viewing memories so frantically that his consciousness grew distant.

The wrong methods they had chosen. The ends they met as a result. The intense emotions left at that end.

Because of that, Lennok too could instinctively realize it.

“…This isn’t the place.”

He had been searching for the deaths of past Ascendants, not their births, to confirm Pyeonram’s fate.

This was also because Lapis had once advised him that he might be able to confirm Pyeonram’s status here.

The disappearance of the woman guarding the well in the southern Great Forest was a problem that could not be overlooked at this point.

But so far, Lennok had not been able to find any trace of Pyeonram while looking through the Ascendants’ memories in this cinema.

If Pyeonram’s memory existed somewhere in this hall, it should at least be written in a script Lennok could recognize.

Realizing this, Lennok forced his heavy feet to move and left the cinema.

Fwoosh!!

The moment he left the cinema, brilliant lights unfolded before his eyes.

The presence of a desolate art museum, utterly silent and still without a single person in sight.

But Lennok’s senses, now accustomed to this space, felt something different from before.

“The others… they were all here too.”

Lennok’s spiritual senses, stimulated by viewing the Ascendants’ memories, faintly sent him a signal.

Somewhere in this hall, where time and distance were immeasurable, his other companions were exploring this place.

He could feel them trying to find each other using the Apostle Transformation ability he had taught them before.

Proof that the landscape of this vast museum was not tailored to Lennok’s consciousness, but was deliberately sculpted by someone.

Realizing this, Lennok immediately walked down the wide corridor, looking around at the floors above and below, and discovered a subtle difference.

‘The paintings on each floor are slightly different.’

The floor Lennok was on and the floors above and below connected by escalators were almost identical.

The only difference was the paintings hung between each floor. If that difference represented the memories stored on each floor—

Whirr—

The moment he realized this, Lennok stepped onto an escalator and moved down the endlessly extending floors of the museum.

Staring intently at the paintings and tapestries hanging on the walls and ceiling, Lennok recalled the scenery he remembered.

“…Found it.”

Among the endless floors, the moment he saw the painting of a giant snake coiled around a well.

Without hesitation, Lennok stopped, walked across the museum floor, and entered the cinema located on that level.

Inside the empty cinema, just like before, the moment he checked the films next to the projector.

Lennok was finally certain he had reached his destination.

[Pyeonram: A Metamorphosis Beyond Shackles]

The snake guarding the well, Padme Kiesa.

A great Level 9 sorcerer, born a beast who became an Ascendant.

The birth of the Ascendant who had long been tasked with the mission of guarding the [Gate] was also preserved somewhere in the hall.

The birth and death of an Ascendant, recorded by the World Tree that grew from the Navel of the Star and presided over all life on the planet.

After a moment’s hesitation, Lennok carefully reached out and placed the film inscribed with Pyeonram’s name into the projector.

With a strange resonating sound, a hazy vision began to unfold before Lennok’s eyes.

Krrrrrrrick!!!!

Billions of sorcerous characters intertwined to form scales of ink-black, reconstructing genes and cellular components at the particle level.

A miracle that reached the realm of gods, deconstructing oneself with sorcery and then creating a body based on one’s own answer.

This was the memory of the moment Pyeonram, Padme Kiesa, destroyed herself with sorcerous characters and was reborn as an Ascendant.

“……”

Watching this memory, it struck him anew just how unreal a being an Ascendant was.

They didn’t destroy themselves simply to reach a new realm or become stronger.

It was because only through the process of tearing down and rebuilding themselves with their own hands could they prioritize the answer they had found.

They had been willing to cast everything aside to challenge ascension, even if it meant becoming weaker or falling from grace.

Although he had seen a similar scene once before in Pyeonram’s mindscape, his deeper understanding of Ascendants now gave him a different impression.

Becoming an Ascendant did not mean attaining a higher state while remaining the person known as Lennok.

It would be a massive upheaval that might change the very existence of Lennok himself.

But—

He suppressed his complex feelings and slowly emerged from his thoughts.

Witnessing the moment Pyeonram was born as an Ascendant was marvelous, but this was not the time to be observing that.

The second reason Lennok had forced Heaven’s Gate to activate and come to this sanctuary where the World Tree’s memories were stored.

None other than the memory containing Pyeonram’s ‘end’—

[Pyeonram: The Predestined Demise of the Totem]

“……”

There was a film that recorded not Pyeonram’s birth, but her death.

Realizing this, Lennok stared silently at the film, his face drained of color.

[Master….]

“…It’s alright.”

He had wondered if this might be the case from the moment he realized Pyeonram was missing from the Great Forest, but was there truly no hope after all?

It wasn’t strange. It might have been decided the moment a Transcendent of her caliber was defeated.

After staring at it silently for a long time, Lennok picked up the film and inserted it into the projector.

Whirrrrrr…!!

He sat down in a seat and stared at the screen with cold eyes.

Separate from confirming Pyeonram’s death, he had to know what memory she had left behind in her final moments.

At the very least, he had to find out which Ascendant had defeated and killed her in the Great Forest—

Zzzzzzt….

“…Wait.”

Even with the projector running, no memory appeared on the screen.

Realizing this suddenly, Lennok stood up from his seat without thinking.

Chzzzzzzzz…!!!

Even as he continued to play the film recording Pyeonram’s death, nothing more came out.

No matter how many times he ran the projector, the empty screen only showed static, the memory cut off.

Realizing there was no memory within it, Lennok unconsciously stopped his hand.

This place was a sanctuary that recorded the moments of past Ascendants’ births and deaths based on the World Tree’s memory.

In such a place, Pyeonram’s birth was recorded, but her death was not. What did that mean?

Padme Kiesa is still alive.

The moment Lennok realized this and took his hand off the film.

“If you came to find out Pyeonram’s whereabouts, you’ve come to the wrong place.”

A voice came from behind him.

“This is a place that remembers the births and deaths of Ascendants. Information about a being who has not yet met their end is not recorded here.”

“……”

“It might serve as a way to simply confirm her survival, but that alone would not be enough to justify coming here, would it?”

A gentle voice that came from behind Lennok without any presence whatsoever.

But the moment Lennok heard that voice, he felt it was strangely familiar.

A sense of déjà vu, as if he had encountered it several times in memories, despite never having heard it in person.

As Lennok stood frozen in place, the voice slowly walked over.

“So, without taking the complicated route, I will tell you myself.”

A young man with long hair was now standing next to Lennok, smiling brightly.

“Pyeonram is at the Second Gate. Ferocity had urgent use for her body, I’m told.”

“……”

“Would that be a sufficient answer in place of a greeting?”

A transcendent appearance, his head tilted slightly with his hands clasped leisurely behind his back.

An enigmatic presence from which no trace of feeling or emotion could be read, despite his gentle smile.

It was the first time he had seen the face, but absurdly, Lennok knew who the young man was.

At the end of the subjugation campaign, he was the Imperial Palace official from Kaiser Bajour’s memories who had intervened in the project.

The very person who had decisively recruited Jinwa, who had once made her name as a Spell-Word user, into the Empire.

The one who had wandered the continent since a time beyond memory, drawing in countless geniuses—

“Left Prime Minister Yuseong. Why are you here?”