Chapter 1487: Hunt for the First Apostle (21)
Once upon a time.
Before the world’s end repeated more than three times.
There was a man who awoke first and sought to save the world.
………
There was no one who could tell the man the truth of the world.
He had to overcome hardships with his two fists, figuring everything out on his own.
Gods descending from the Sea of Darkness. A recurring demise. A world with a predetermined ending.
By the time he realized everything, it was already too late.
………
The promised time approached, and the Outer Gods descended from the sky.
With his followers, the man resisted the end for a long time.
Fleeing from the great gods descending from the Sea of Darkness, and sometimes fighting back.
Sometimes, scavenging and consuming the husks and corpses they left behind.
………
After many sacrifices, the man gained the right and power to stand against the demise.
After many sacrifices, the man had already become a being similar to the demise itself.
He replaced his lost arm, replaced his lost organs, replaced his lost heart, and replaced his lost talent.
But he could not replace his lost friends and world.
Losing, losing, losing, and losing again.
Until finally, he even lost the meaning of the word “loss.”
The man made a choice.
………
Someday, on the day this world repeats its cycle of destruction and reaches completion.
He made a choice to make even his own wrong choices into something that never happened.
………
……My.
Crackle, crackle—
Noise flared, and a faint whisper intruded.
At the same time, Lennok realized where he was and instantly regained his senses.
An intense and eerie sense of kinship, so powerful that even Lennok couldn’t grasp the situation for a moment.
A foreign feeling, as if he were looking into his own memories—chilling, yet somehow comfortable.
It wasn’t a delusion. This was, without a doubt—
“It seems… a great deal of worldly time has passed…”
SHRRRRIP!!!
The recollection of memories vanished as if a page were torn, and the Pontiff’s voice echoed.
At some point, the Pontiff, his face obscured by static, stood with his hands behind his back, watching Lennok.
Gazing at Lennok with a somewhat troubled expression, the Pontiff smiled gently.
“Has the synchronization of memories already begun…? It would have been impossible if your achievements had not reached their zenith…”
“…Primordial Chaos.”
However, Lennok couldn’t pay attention to the Pontiff’s words and replied.
The moment the Pontiff let him hear his answer, his memories unfolded before Lennok’s eyes.
Because in that instant of seeing them, he had finally understood what the Pontiff wanted.
“To summon all the Outer Gods from the sea and merge them with this world… so that was the meaning.”
“…”
“Do you intend to fuse the Outer Gods with this world and plunge everything into chaos? So that even the distinction between past, present, and future ceases to exist?”
Once in Machina. Once in Yorta.
This wasn’t the first time he had looked into the memories of another version of himself.
But unlike the Director, Lennok still didn’t know much about what the Pontiff of the first world was like.
The memories of the Pontiff he saw in Yorta were closer to the memories of the Ascendant Dorye, whom the Pontiff had used as a vessel.
He knew that just as the Pontiff had hidden much within coincidence, the secrets he concealed were likely just as dangerous.
And that having undergone two ascensions to exist in the third, he was an extraordinary being of a different caliber than other failures.
But, even so, the method the Pontiff had chosen was—
“To unite all of creation into a primordial chaos and reshape all of destiny anew…”
The Pontiff replied with a gentle smile.
“I call this the Grand Ritual of Cosmic Condensation.”
“…”
Condensation (縮刷). To reduce the original form of a book or painting and reprint it anew.
Was the Pontiff planning to perform that act on this world and the universe itself?
The true meaning of the Grand Ritual of Cosmic Condensation he had mentioned on the day Lennok killed Amrita and met him for the first time.
Even back then, the Pontiff had no intention of deliberately hiding his goal from Lennok.
“Once everything merges, without even a distinction between past, present, and future, all that will remain is an endlessly continuing, infinite chaos…”
Walking slowly toward Lennok, the Pontiff spoke.
“In that brilliant darkness, I intend to erase the distinction between beginning and end, sever the repeating cycle, and render our ‘choices’ undone.”
“To return everything to its primordial form, to shatter the board that has a predetermined ending…”
Lennok said with a hardened expression.
“So the ‘Paradise’ the Cult speaks of refers to the chaos you will ultimately reach.”
“Have you ever, perhaps, considered…”
Smiling faintly at the silent Lennok, the Pontiff slowly passed by his side.
“Why the Cult is so adept at handling the power of the Outer Gods… why they can handle the forbidden art of human sacrifice so well…”
“Pontiff…”
“Have you never considered… that it is because we have endured the apocalypse for so long that we know them so well…?”
The Pontiff asked in a faint voice, as if it would break, but Lennok couldn’t answer.
The Pontiff, not waiting for a reply, spoke slowly, as if whispering.
“I know what the world after the end looks like… because with my followers, I tried to remain in that world until the very last.”
“…”
“An evil god crawling from a nebula lays its eggs in the planet’s outer core… The entire continent is covered in corrupted membranes and melts away… The boundaries between sea and land collapse, and the water and air obey the Outer Gods and are transfigured…”
The Pontiff smiled.
“In a world where everything changed to become harmful to humans, we scavenged the tears and shed skins of the evil gods… We couldn’t have survived otherwise.”
“…”
“And, at the moment the last remaining fragment of the world was devoured by the Outer Gods…”
“…You made your choice.”
Lennok, understanding what the Pontiff was about to say, replied.
“That… was the end of the first world.”
…No, in truth, he didn’t understand.
The memories the Pontiff had allowed were far too brief for Lennok to comprehend what he had experienced in the first world.
But even so, the fragments of that memory were so intense and devastating that they wouldn’t easily fade from his mind.
Lennok, preparing while awaiting the end of the third world.
The Director, who witnessed the end of the second world and ascended by killing an Outer God.
The Pontiff, who remained until the very end, even after the first world’s demise had come.
What kind of emotions could the one of coincidence, who had tried to watch over the world after the end, have possibly felt?
From the moment the fist master first opened his eyes in this world, to his giving up, his despair, and his final letting go of everything.
In that process, what had he lost, and how much pain and despair must he have inhaled?
Lennok could never say that he truly understood and empathized with it.
Therefore—
“So that was the meaning behind why we shouldn’t meet until the very end.”
All Lennok could do was reflect on the Pontiff’s answer and erase his own bewilderment.
“Because our fates must also merge at the moment of the apocalypse, you thought we shouldn’t ‘mix’ until then?”
“…”
“Do you… truly believe that’s possible?”
Lennok asked, looking at the silently smiling Pontiff.
“Even if you can summon all the gods of the outer universe and merge them with this world, no one can predict the result. The probability of reaching the reset you desire within that primordial chaos, in truth, relies heavily on extreme ‘coincidence’—”
At that moment, Lennok stopped speaking, without realizing it.
Coincidence. The instant that word left his lips, he could intuit the Pontiff’s thoughts.
“I believed you would understand immediately…”
The Pontiff, as if realizing Lennok had understood, naturally took his words and continued with a smile.
“Chaos is but an infinite series of coincidences… The moment everything becomes unpredictable is the very instant the entire universe draws closer to my essence.”
“…Don’t tell me.”
“Within that primordial chaos, I intend to use my authority to return everything to how it was at the beginning. Even if I cannot control the chaos, it is more than possible to guide its direction…”
The Pontiff approached Lennok slowly and said.
“For that purpose, I have hidden myself within coincidence until now, placing myself in a state as close to chaos as possible…”
“…”
Primordial chaos is coincidence taken to its extreme.
Is that why the Pontiff, through his origin of governing coincidence, intends to induce an ending that resets everything within that chaos?
The reason he hadn’t revealed himself to the world and had kept himself hidden until now must have been to place himself as close to coincidence as possible.
The moment he heard those words, Lennok realized that the Pontiff was by no means dreaming of a nonsensical or far-fetched goal.
But—
“However, no one in this world, aside from you, would be able to endure that process.”
“…”
“Everyone will die. Even the Ascendants won’t be able to withstand it. Even if your objective is achieved, there will be no one left to witness it… What meaning is there in such an end?”
“Fufu… It seems you haven’t understood that far yet.”
A faint sneer mixed into the Pontiff’s voice as he slowly shook his head.
“I am not acting to leave behind something like ‘meaning.’ On the contrary, I am acting to erase even that meaning.”
“…”
“Likewise, I didn’t answer your question to persuade you. Unlike you, I gave up on such things long ago…”
The moment he heard that, Lennok realized he had been unconsciously trying to persuade the Pontiff.
If it had been anyone else, he would have declared them wrong, denied them, broken them, and moved on.
But he had tried to persuade the Pontiff, who had traversed more worlds than Lennok, who knew more than he did.
Even knowing it was a meaningless act, the reason Lennok had unconsciously let such words slip was, surely—
Because he thought that he, himself, would not have chosen such a method.
“What do you want from me?”
“…”
“If you, who once fought the Outer Gods, were willing to serve them to postpone the end, then there must be something you want from the Director and me.”
Lennok raised his gaze.
“Did you want to obtain a possibility different from coincidence? Because you already made a ‘choice’ in the first?”
“Nothing…”
The Pontiff replied with a faint smile.
“I want nothing… Your mere existence in that place is sufficient…”
“…”
“Because your existence itself is proof of this world’s completion… I have waited for you for a long time… But that, too, is now at an end.”
The Pontiff spoke.
“You need only watch what I am about to do… It doesn’t matter if you seek your own answer or devise a way to survive…”
“…Because that too is my choice?”
“Yes… It finally feels real, that we have come so far.”
The Pontiff, standing with his hands behind his back, looked at Lennok and whispered softly.
“At first, you were no different from a child who knew nothing… Now, you seek an answer even amidst the chaotic intersection of worldly fates…”
He knew.
Even at this very moment, in reality, the Alliance Leader and the Second Apostle were likely engaged in a bloody battle where every second counted.
Since the flow of time in reality and with the Pontiff was completely different, it was possible that the outcome outside had already been decided.
But Lennok, knowing this, wasn’t acting hastily. Instead, he was waiting to hear the Pontiff’s answer.
Because he suspected that the reason the man who had hidden his true intentions for so long was now revealing everything so candidly was also related to the duel between the Alliance Leader and the Second Apostle happening in reality.
“My past self was the same. Surely, there had to be an answer somewhere… If I just endured, I would find it someday… There had to be a way to not let what I lost be in vain…”
“…”
“That someday I would forget, that someday I would wear down, that someday everything would become numb… But.”
The Pontiff turned his back, his expression hidden, and for the first time, his tone—
Felt cold, as if frozen solid.
“I… seem to have now forgotten even why I had such thoughts.”
“…Pontiff.”
No matter how much he changed, no matter how different he became, the beginning for the three of them was surely the same.
Even after experiencing so much and becoming so different, Lennok could faintly feel a fragment of that beginning from the Pontiff.
Just like Lennok, he hadn’t forgotten, couldn’t forget, was unable to forget.
He had loved the world he lived in, and he had sacrificed everything for it.
But now, all of it—
“Soon, the shackle that has bound me for so long will be broken, and the gears that had stopped will begin to move…”
Slowly turning his gaze, the Pontiff regained his composure in an instant and spoke.
“He has been prepared for this conclusion for my sake for a long time. It is only right that I, too, live up to his expectations…”
“Prepared for the conclusion… you mean.”
A strange tone, as if referring to a third party not present, rather than Lennok or the Pontiff.
But Lennok simultaneously intuited who the Pontiff was referring to.
The Priestess’s strangely cryptic explanation of the First Apostle right before he met the Pontiff.
The reason the Pontiff had shown a faint emotion upon mentioning the Second Apostle as soon as he met Lennok.
“Don’t tell me, the Second Apostle, from the very beginning…”
“Therefore, if you have anything to say, I will hear it next time.”
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE…!!!!
The palace of memories surrounding the Pontiff rapidly crumbled, and the farewell approached.
Gazing at Lennok within the wildly shaking realm of consciousness, the Pontiff grinned.
“I am now going to say a final farewell to an old friend before he departs.”
KRA-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!
The space made of memories collapsed before Lennok’s eyes, and the Pontiff’s figure was swallowed along with it, disappearing.
Simultaneously, the scene of the blood-stained, collapsed canyon revealed itself, and two figures came into view.
The landscape that unfolded before his eyes the moment he returned to reality after his short conversation with the Pontiff.
Atop a mountain of corpses, two Transcendent beings stood still, close enough for their breaths to touch.
Had the battle between the Order Alliance Leader and the First Apostle finally reached its conclusion while Lennok was meeting the Pontiff?
“…No way.”
But Lennok, while instinctively sensing the truth, couldn’t breathe as he stared at the two.
In this moment, it was certain that the two monsters who had descended upon reality had split the heavens and earth and settled their long battle.
Because among the two standing on the mountain of corpses, a presence could only be felt from one of them.
The Order Alliance Leader and the First Apostle.
In this fight where the heads of the Alliance and the Cult had clashed, the one still breathing was not the Alliance Leader, but—
The Second Apostle.
“…Phew.”
Clink.
At the same time as he let out a light breath, a pair of blood-soaked glasses tumbled to the ground.
The cracked lenses shattered and broke, and the Second Apostle, his bare face revealed, swept back his hair.
“That took… quite a long time.”
THUD…!!
With one hand, he gave the Alliance Leader’s shoulder a light push. The Alliance Leader, who had been leaning limply against the Second Apostle, fell to the ground.
A gruesome sight indeed, with one of his two heads torn off and three of his four arms ripped out and crushed.
His body, covered in blood with his entrails spilling out, was already a perfectly lifeless corpse.
The Second Apostle turned his body toward Lennok, who stood on the altar, watching him in silence.
“I was waiting. You went to meet the Pontiff through the Priestess’s power, so I knew if you returned, you would emerge from that altar again.”
“…”
“The Priestess disappeared in the process… the Pontiff’s power, I assume? He’s the only one who could deceive my perception and summon the Priestess to the Pantheon.”
The Second Apostle walked toward Lennok with a bitter smile.
“Well, thanks to that, I was able to complete the adjustments perfectly without interruption. I knew he’d be a tricky opponent, but it was worth it.”
“…I see.”
Lennok, who had been looking down at the Second Apostle in silence, opened his mouth.
“So your goal from the start was ‘that’.”
“Impressive. You’ve figured it out already?”
Putting together what he heard from both the Priestess and the Pontiff, the Second Apostle already knew he would be defeated in this war.
No, to be precise, for some reason, he had resolved to die here for the Pontiff’s sake.
What it meant, then, that in this battle the Alliance Leader had died and the Second Apostle had survived.
Lennok had realized it the moment he saw the First Apostle throw off his glasses.
“Apostle of Freedom… a being who has obtained a causality that cannot be suppressed by any shackle or restraint.”
The ‘Order Alliance Leader,’ who had seized the Second Apostle’s body, smiled at Lennok.
“What I sought to obtain through this war from the very beginning was this very body from the ‘1st World’.”