Chapter 1465: Hall of Ascension (11)

Rumble! Crash!

The splendid gallery hallway shook as if it would collapse.

Chandeliers and decorations fell from the ceiling, shattering and scattering fragments across the floor.

At the far end of the seemingly endless gallery hallway stood a blue-skinned demon, her back turned.

Watching her, Lennok began to walk toward Sakia.

“From the moment you first appeared in the satellite city, I thought something was strange.”

“…”

“You said you wanted to use the fragment of the World Tree to activate Heaven’s Gate, but you hadn’t made any preparations for it.”

Lennok spoke, his face expressionless as he watched the demon’s slowly swaying wings.

“The power source needed to activate the gate, and the location where Heaven’s Gate appeared—I had to prepare and find all of it myself.”

“Oh? I thought I’d done my part. Wasn’t telling you the location of this Hall enough?”

Sakia glanced over her shoulder and smiled languidly.

“After all, you yourself weren’t even certain of Heaven’s Gate’s existence before you met me.”

“True… The moment you appeared before me, you had all the information I needed.”

Lennok’s eyes glinted sharply.

“As if you were waiting right there, at that exact moment, just to meet me.”

“…”

“Meeting the Left Prime Minister in this Hall, seeing ‘his’ memories, and reaching this point… Don’t you think all of this is too coincidental to be mere chance?”

“Hehe… This is why I quite like people like you.”

The smile on Sakia’s lips turned cold.

“Someone who doesn’t take their good fortune for granted. Someone who knows to doubt even the most basic things. It’s always easy to say, but surprisingly, people like that aren’t so common.”

“…”

“Ascendants are the same. Even Seekers who have reached a great state aren’t all wise. In fact, some are so biased they seem foolish.”

The demon whispered as she slowly turned to face Lennok.

“The more you doubt, the more you agonize. The more you agonize, the more you waver. And then, in the end… you even come to doubt the final answer that is ascension.”

“As I thought…”

Lennok’s expression hardened.

“You weren’t trying to enter this Hall because you wanted to ascend. Was your goal to corrupt an existing Ascendant?”

A demon was a fallen one, having abandoned ascension to hole up in its own personal hell.

For that reason, Lennok had never believed Sakia intended to visit this Hall for the sake of ascension.

She had offered a pleasant-sounding excuse, a justification, but he had long suspected her true intentions were different.

He had guessed she was trying to enter this Hall for someone else, but—

The demon’s answer was subtly different from what Lennok had anticipated.

“No? I told you. There’s something I want to show you.”

“…”

“I’ve never been fond of such drastic methods. Forcibly breaking or corrupting a Transcendent’s mind requires far too much causality.”

Taking a slow step, Sakia spoke as if singing.

“I just… show them. It doesn’t matter if I succeed or fail. Simply watching them waver in the process is enjoyable enough.”

“…Enjoyment, you say.”

Lennok asked, his expression frigid.

“Leaking Yega’s memory outside the Hall to cause chaos in District 49—was that also for your own petty amusement?”

Among the countless memories Lennok had viewed in the theater, there was a reason Yega’s, of all memories, had been leaked outside.

Lennok had intuited that it was no accident or coincidence, but chaos intentionally orchestrated by someone.

And if the Left Prime Minister hadn’t done it, the number of beings in this Hall capable of such a thing was limited.

“Ah, of course it was enjoyable… but it was more of a necessity. It was the most efficient way to divert Yuseong’s attention, if only for a moment.”

The smile on Sakia’s lips turned momentarily ghastly.

“That old man. He lost his administrator privileges long ago, yet he insists on interfering. Because of him, my plan almost fell apart.”

“…”

“I was only able to make it in time by intentionally leaking a memory stored in the Hall to cause a disturbance. It was a close call, in many ways, you could say.”

“And what is this plan?”

Lennok slowly moved forward.

“Is it related to this ‘something’ you want to show me?”

“You don’t need to worry. As I said, a brief moment is all I need.”

Sakia whispered to Lennok, her voice suddenly turning gentle.

“Just watch one memory with me. That was my only purpose from the very beginning.”

“…”

“It won’t be anything harmful to you. If anything, I’m trying to help you. I’m simply curious about your reaction when all of this is over.”

“Trying to help me…”

Lennok scoffed.

“I refuse. I’ve already heard similar words several times now. At this point, those who want to kill me seem more honest.”

“That’s a shame. But I’ve set the stage this far; I can’t very well back down now, can I?”

Tilting her head at Lennok, Sakia’s smile turned sinister.

“Then I have no choice but to prove my sincerity in another way.”

Swoosh!!!

Before she finished speaking, a black form accelerated at the edge of his vision.

Reacting simultaneously by stimulating his nervous system with mana, he threw his head back, dodging the accelerating wing.

Before he could even rotate his body, eight black wings unfurled in all directions above his head.

Sakia, standing at the center, whispered something faint and smiled chillingly before—

With incredible speed, she grabbed Lennok by the solar plexus and slammed him into the floor.

Kra-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwang!!!!!

The bodies of the two smashed through the gallery floor and plummeted, skipping several levels as they fell.

Even as they crashed through shattered floors, falling ever downward, the scenery of the hallway remained unchanged, stretching on endlessly.

Grabbing Lennok’s shoulders, Sakia brought her face close enough for him to feel her breath and said.

“Your resistance is weaker than before. Did you already run out of mana fighting Yuseong?”

“The opposite.”

Crack!!

Lennok grabbed and crushed Sakia’s wrist with one hand as he retorted.

“I’ve recovered enough mana to fight at this distance.”

Before Sakia could react to his words, her body was thrown to the side.

He had exquisitely controlled their centers of gravity, staggering them to create distance.

As if waiting for that exact moment, lightning shot from his side and pierced through Sakia’s flank.

[Seventh Thunder Culmination]

Kwwaaaaaaang!!!

Sensing the anomaly, Sakia immediately wrapped her wings around herself for protection, but the blue lightning penetrated them with absurd ease.

Willing to sacrifice her wings, Sakia twisted her body, narrowly shifting the trajectory of the lightning that had pierced her flesh and blood.

As it grazed the edge of her side, the flesh below Sakia’s lungs exploded outward.

Simultaneously, a gruesome spray of pale blue blood and pieces of internal organs splattered across the floor.

“…Ah.”

Splaash!!!

Tumbling to the ground in a shower of blue blood, Sakia weakly propped herself up with one hand.

“This really… hurts beyond words. Isn’t that a bit too much?”

“Enough with the nonsense. Get up.”

Lennok landed, his face cold, and flexed his wrist.

“On the contrary, your ability to feign such weakness after a wound like that is impressive. Are all demons as strong as you?”

As Lennok’s lightning magic struck her, Sakia used no defensive spellcraft or authority.

She simply endured the agony of the lightning magic—which deadened nerves and killed cells—with her physical body alone.

But that very display convinced Lennok that Sakia was a monstrously powerful Transcendent.

A demon was a fallen being who had abandoned ascension and fallen into hell.

That meant Sakia, too, had once reached a sublime state, enough to challenge ascension.

At the point she gave up ascension and fell, what kind of being had the demon, who gained a twisted freedom, now become?

At the very least, underestimating Sakia here was not an option for Lennok.

“Ah, no fun. You’re definitely too smart to tease.”

Just as he expected, Sakia, who had been trembling and spewing blood, stopped moving as if by magic.

Without discarding or healing her blood-soaked wings, she rose to her feet in her ruined state.

“That’s right. I didn’t actually attack you to fight… I needed to replenish my power to show you the memory.”

As she stood, Sakia swept her hair back with a blood-drenched hand.

Revealing her face, which was tinged blue as if poisoned, all the way to her forehead, she smiled.

“I needed to gather the causality to intervene in this world, but it hurts, it hurts so much. I really thought I was going to pass out, you know?”

“Pain Catalyst… You said you convert the pain you receive into power.”

Lennok walked sideways, keeping his eyes on Sakia.

“Are you gathering pain to use as the power source for your existence in this world?”

“Because cause and effect are one.”

Sakia said, walking along with Lennok.

“The wound you carved into my body is the result… so I take that wound as the result and make it the cause for my existence in this world.”

“Turning a result into a cause is impossible. You speak of a cycle of causality that does not exist in this world.”

Lennok asked.

“A cycle of causality that doesn’t exist in this closed world. Is that the privilege you gained as a demon?”

The cycle of cause and effect was a law not permitted within this closed world.

A result could follow from a cause, but creating a cause from a result was impossible.

Because nothing followed once a result was made, this world was destined for an end, along with the increase of entropy.

But Sakia was casually applying that forbidden cycle, which Heavenly Sight had spoken of long ago, to her own body.

“It’s not as convenient a power as you think. From the moment we gave up ascension and fell, we became beings incapable of creating our own causes.”

Sakia hummed as if singing.

“We exist independently, detached from the world’s fate, but in return, we cannot directly create causality. That is why we take the causality created by others and use it as our power to exist.”

“…That is.”

“So, I told you.”

Sakia smiled at Lennok, who had stopped in his tracks as if frozen.

“There isn’t some complex reason why the Outer Gods of the night sky swim through the sea of stars for all eternity.”

“…”

Appearing before Lennok’s nose in an instant, Sakia tilted her head.

“Shall we continue?”

Cra-cra-cra-cra-ckle!!!!

Sakia’s and Lennok’s hands met and separated in the air in a flash.

Each time, brilliant blue lightning flared from their fingertips, exploding and scattering.

The light of the lightning, scattered into hundreds of streaks, burned and shattered the gallery’s ceiling and walls, erupting with a deafening roar.

“Ahahahahah!!!”

Kra-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwang!!!!

Sakia’s sharpened nails tore through Lennok’s shield and barrier, ripping space itself apart.

Ignoring the lacerations carved into him in the blink of an eye, he pushed forward, kicking her shoulder to break her balance and detonating lightning beneath her feet.

Using the force of the exploding floor as propulsion, he accelerated, flying low and grazing the surface of the wide corridor.

Their gazes locked, their mana clashed at supersonic speeds for an instant, exploding and pushing them back.

Swoooooosh!!!

Sakia’s presumed true goal was to show Lennok ‘a certain memory’ in this Hall.

But even as she engaged Lennok in a high-speed brawl, she didn’t spare a single glance at the Hall itself.

She simply continued the battle as if she had been waiting for it, pressing ever onward down the endless corridor.

“If you don’t intend to use any major techniques, you won’t last long.”

Kwaaang!!

He pinned Sakia’s shoulder to the wall with a spear of lightning and summoned a sphere of blazing thunder into his hand.

The thunder sphere, rotating counter-clockwise, swelled at an incredible rate, manifesting like a colossal star.

In the blink of an eye, it fell from above Sakia’s head, crushing her body with transcendent heat.

Extreme Art, Fifth Law: Rampage

[Eternal Thunder]

KRA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA!!!!!!

“Ahat, hahahahaha…!!!”

“I don’t know what you’re scheming, but if you have no intention of fighting properly, then let’s stop.”

Lennok looked down with a frigid expression at Sakia, who was laughing maniacally, her entire body ablaze and covered in blood.

“I will burn your body and soul until you can no longer activate that bizarre spellcraft.”

Sakia was a fallen one who had abandoned ascension. She was undoubtedly a transcendent powerhouse, strong enough to stand against Lennok.

Yet, even while being unilaterally pushed back, she hadn’t revealed her true specialty.

Though the reason was unknown, it was clear she had no intention of fighting a life-or-death battle with Lennok here.

Therefore, instead of trying to fathom Sakia’s intentions, Lennok had decided to end things quickly.

Sakia’s spellcraft, Pain Catalyst, was an ability that converted the wounds and pain inflicted upon her into power.

It was the power that allowed her, a demon, to create the causality needed to intervene in this world.

But no matter how powerful the spellcraft, it could only function if the user themselves remained conscious.

That was why Lennok intended to completely incinerate her before she could pull any tricks, but—

“Ah… it really hurts…”

Sakia, slumped on the floor and dripping blood, muttered with a smile.

“Still… I’ve somehow managed to meet the conditions.”

“Conditions?”

“I told you… I don’t prefer drastic methods…”

Slowly reaching out a hand, Sakia whispered quietly.

“From the very beginning, what I wanted to show you… wasn’t the memory of some other Ascendant…”

Hwoooo…!

At that moment, Lennok realized that the gallery’s tiered corridor had been blasted open in a straight line, centered on him and Sakia.

Piercing straight through the incomprehensibly complex and vast Hall was the screen of the movie theater, spread out far in the distance.

It was the only spot within the collapsing Hall from which the theater screen was perfectly visible, even from outside the theater itself.

Only then did Lennok understand why Sakia had been fighting him all this time.

It wasn’t an elaborate trap or a lure. If it had been a scheme born of malice, he would have noticed it in some way beforehand.

Sakia hadn’t been fighting to harm or kill Lennok from the start.

What she wanted to show Lennok in this Hall was none other than—

“Your own ending.”

[Ban-gung: The Demise Greeted Beyond Yesterday]

Click!!!

The projector in the distance began to turn, illuminating an old film that had been placed there in advance.

On the screen, too far away for Lennok to interfere, the memory contained in the film was projected.

Without a moment’s pause, the memory playing on the screen began to unfold before Lennok’s eyes.

Chrrrrrrk-

The moment he saw the afterimage of the old memory begin to play on the screen from the old projector, Lennok understood.

He understood the entirety of the plan Sakia had been attempting in the Hall of Ascension, alone, after diverting the Left Prime Minister’s attention.

It was to secretly steal the memory containing Ban-gung’s ‘ending’ and play it here for no one else to see.

It wasn’t an incomprehensible act.

He already knew that ‘he’ had met his end as an Ascendant and died.

If Ban-gung’s birth was in the Hall, then naturally, his ending would be stored here as well.

This was the memory of the moment his past self had abandoned everything and met his end.

The memory of the moment he had cast aside all the power, authority, and memories he possessed to start anew.

A memory that might contain the full story of the moment Lennok had awoken in that old, abandoned factory.

Knowing that the Lennok of now was the evidence of that ending, he couldn’t look away, despite knowing the danger.

Why had he abandoned everything and accepted his end?

Why did ‘he,’ who had already met his end once, still exist here as Lennok?

The beginning and end of everything, something Lennok had never been able to confront throughout his long journey.

And so, as Lennok faced his own ending displayed on the screen for the first time—

His gaze was not stolen by the memory.

“…This is.”

There was only a truth that surpassed all of Lennok’s speculations and assumptions.

Ascendant Ban-gung. The memory of the moment he met his end as an Ascendant and died.

Within that memory played by Sakia, there was nothing.

“…”

Ch-zzzzzz-

With a burst of ominous static, the projector’s playback ended in an instant, and the screen went dark.

But as he returned to reality, Lennok understood the meaning and froze in place.

Even though the memory of Ban-gung’s end had played, there was nothing on the screen.

Just like that time, when he had played the memory of Pyeonram’s ending to confirm her death.

In other words—

“The reason the Left Prime Minister readily showed you Ban-gung’s memory was for no other reason.”

Sakia, collapsed and covered in blood, whispered.

“He showed you the memory of Ban-gung’s birth as an Ascendant first, to hide the most important fact.”

“…”

“The fact that this Hall contains not only Ban-gung’s beginning but also his ending… and that his ending is still empty.”

“…You.”

“Even though you abandoned everything to arrive at this present… your past self has not yet met his end.”

Taking a slow breath, Sakia smiled with great effort.

Sakia’s voice momentarily overlapped with itself, holding two opposing meanings. “What would you do,” it asked, “if everything that happened in this Hall was meant to hide this fact from you… or to reveal it to you?”

As if she couldn’t be more delighted to be able to tell Lennok this.

As if she had been yearning for this very moment to say these words.

In the center of the collapsing Hall, at the final moment when everything here was coming to an end.

Looking up at Lennok’s frozen, cold face, Sakia declared.

“Ban-gung is not dead. He is still alive somewhere.”