Chapter 460: Where Promises Intersect (1)

An utterly silent sea.

Only the occasional dark groans of Kebaek echoed through the void where not even the sound of wind could be heard.

Beyond the dark sea, faint starlight glimmered, and even further, the forms of countless galaxies radiated light.

Lennok, synchronized with Kebaek’s consciousness, could clearly perceive these miracles and dooms that human senses could not properly register.

In an unbidden moment, a fire erupted beyond the sea, vanishing like a flash, leaving sticky, viscous remnants of magic floating.

Massive tree trunks rooted between stars, absorbing nutrients and breathing ceaselessly.

The remains of a giant, crouched with countless meteorites circling it like rings, staring at the sea from beyond the void.

Giant, ray-like wings flapped, absorbing the stellar winds, and a satellite made of a colossal eye orbited, overseeing the flowing stars.

Black lightning and crimson flames surged like waves, and countless lives and consciousnesses merged, split, vanished, and then regenerated.

A normal human would have gone mad the moment they faced any of these phenomena.

“…….”

The sight of the Outer Sea, encountered for the first time.

Though none fully revealed their true nature, merely facing fragments of them allowed Lennok to vaguely understand what kind of beings they were.

Each one held a strangeness akin to an apocalypse from a human perspective, yet in this dark sea, every moment was merely a fleeting afterimage.

The monsters existing beyond the Outer Sea, transcending the cycle of cause and effect, were no longer bound by the laws of creation and destruction.

Even their endless cycles of self-birth, destruction, and rebirth were merely fleeting whims occurring within the recursion of unconsciousness.

Why the Guido Cult called them gods and worshipped them, and why such a fanatical religion became the foremost faith on the continent.

Lennok, observing the Outer Sea through Kebaek’s consciousness, finally understood.

Even why Apostles, born as avatars by receiving the power of such gods, eventually succumbed to madness and became monsters.

Human common sense, the world’s laws, and the logic of the strong preying on the weak or survival of the fittest held no meaning for them.

They simply wandered in immeasurable boredom and hunger, searching for something to satisfy their desires.

And it was plainly obvious that this world was one of the destinations of their wandering and torment.

Yet, despite witnessing a scene that strongly hinted at the end of all things, the first emotion that surfaced in Lennok’s mind was not fear, but closer to admiration.

‘Beautiful.’

By merely continuously gazing upon and observing the sea’s landscape, an immensely powerful spirituality and intuition, whose limits were unknown, seeped into Lennok’s inner self.

His horizons of thought were rapidly expanding simply by observing and perceiving those fleeting fragments, looking down from a position far higher than Lennok, as if mockingly passing by.

It felt as if he could forever gaze upon this sea, filling himself with bizarre and magnificent ideas and inspirations.

But Lennok forcibly ignored the powerful impulse surging from a corner of his mind and pulled his consciousness back.

It was dangerous to delve any deeper.

His current state was merely observing the Outer Sea while synchronized with Kebaek’s consciousness.

He needed to keep a firm grip on his mind to quickly disengage if necessary.

‘My vision…’

He wanted to turn his gaze to the well Kebaek had emerged from, and the form of that star, but Kebaek did not turn its consciousness back.

It was simply moving faithfully according to the final Geas, which had been driven into its body via the stake and activated.

Only then did Lennok realize that Kebaek had not changed at all since leaping out of the Outer Sea.

The memory of Aurel Silford he had just recalled was merely a byproduct of Lennok sharing Kebaek’s senses.

The true Aurel Silford’s essence had already vanished, leaving only fragments circulating within the body like residue.

‘…This is my only chance.’

No matter how he thought about it, there were too many strange things about this operation, and Kebaek’s existence was by far the most anomalous.

The crazy monster, which had been digging into the sea near the continent’s coastline because there was no way to control it, was suddenly pulled onto the sea and made to run straight to the well.

Even the series of measures that made Kebaek crawl into the well on its own just by driving in a pre-prepared stake.

The Clown had said that the final Geas would be activated, but Lennok needed to know exactly what that meant.

Why the final Geas binding Kebaek had been dormant and unactivated, why it had been left alone until now, and why it was activated just then.

What was the content of that Geas?

Gooooooh…!!

While he was lost in thought, Kebaek’s speed, surging towards the far side of the Outer Sea, began to accelerate even further.

At the same time, something whizzed past beyond the darkness where nothing was visible.

Even Lennok, who was observing the Outer Sea by borrowing some of Kebaek’s senses, could barely discern its form.

There was no time to hesitate.

Leveraging his experience from searching Amila Bainjer’s consciousness, he directly infiltrated the deepest part of Kebaek’s consciousness.

All of this was a consequence of Lennok having deconstructed and absorbed Kebaek’s Geas into his Ouroboros magic system.

Touching Kebaek’s Geas through Ouroboros was an utterly reckless idea, but Lennok had succeeded.

He had gone beyond merely understanding the law of Geas itself, becoming able to interfere with and manipulate it on a direct and indirect level.

In a way, it was a tremendous achievement, as he had realized how to handle a law fundamentally connected to his own penalty.

Beyond simply manipulating others’ Geas, he might even be able to create and transform new Geas.

However, instead of dwelling on these endless possibilities and new abilities, Lennok began to focus on the task at hand.

Charrrk!!

He grasped the end of the incredibly complex chains entangled within Kebaek’s body and headed beyond them.

Within the Ascendant’s body, which was swimming rapidly through the Outer Sea and advancing into the boundless void, he instead delved deep beneath the base of its consciousness.

Passing through the Geas spells he had once analyzed and categorized via the Ouroboros magic system, then through discarded ones that had lost their targets and efficacy, he finally reached the key hidden at the very bottom core.

It was the last command bestowed among the approximately 80,000 types of Geas that completed Kebaek Aurel Silford.

And the final Geas, which had settled in the deepest part of Kebaek’s existence as its essence was completely inverted.

[■■■■ ■■■ ■■■■.]

Lennok grasped the end of the Geas, shaped like the jet-black stake he had personally driven in, and slowly opened it.

Because the Geas had been activated by the power of the stake, which the Director himself had created, and its meaning clearly conveyed to Kebaek.

It was enough to simply retrace the flow of that power and read the inherent meaning of the Geas.

A strange sensation, like grasping the end of an infinitely tangled ball of yarn and unraveling it in a single pull.

At the same time, the unknown characters etched on its surface began to transform, one by one, into discernible forms.

Krrriik….

[Once more ■■■ ■■■■.]

‘Once more…?’

Krrriik…!!

[Once more, to ascension ■■■■.]

Krrriiiiiiiik…!!!!

[Challenge ascension once more.]

The final Geas that completed Kebaek’s existence.

And the last directive, dormant in the deepest reaches of its consciousness, now finally activated.

The inscription on the stake, which even The Clown didn’t know about and which the Director himself had made, was this:

‘Challenge ascension once more’—a solemn decree.

‘…….’

Lennok hesitated at the unexpected sentence.

Challenge ascension once more.

As soon as Kebaek recalled this phrase, it leaped out of the well as if forgetting every moment of its fight with Pyeonram.

All Lennok did was drive in the stake, then assist Kebaek’s movements as it was about to crawl into the well on its own.

Why should Kebaek, who had already failed ascension, challenge that grand goal once more?

And why did Kebaek, upon hearing the command to challenge ascension, throw itself into the Outer Sea without a moment’s hesitation?

The moment Lennok found a glimmer of light amidst all these questions and was about to piece together the entire puzzle.

Pwoooooooh….

A faint musical sound began to emanate from somewhere.

‘…What?’

The Outer Sea, existing beyond the world, was a void where nothing existed.

In that void, where all existence lost its meaning, all human senses malfunctioned and twisted.

In the void, which absorbed everything and did not react to any stimuli or signals emitted by living beings, humans forgot their very essence and went mad.

A vast, dark sea where cause and effect did not cycle, where origins were disregarded as causes and effects diverged without convergence.

What did it mean for a sound that shouldn’t be heard to be audible in that space?

Before Lennok could properly think about and comprehend it, Kebaek coiled its body into a sphere.

Cha-rururk….

The tens of thousands of chains forming its body gathered, compressing into a long, spiraling pillar, narrowing as they converged at both ends.

Beyond Kebaek’s body, now transformed like a colossal bullet, the ceaselessly swaying and dancing darkness gradually began to subside.

No, it wasn’t subsiding.

Something so massive that it obscured the ceaselessly dancing dark sea was approaching Kebaek.

It was merely that Kebaek’s senses couldn’t fully perceive or observe it, so the scenery beyond it was reflected instead.

The moment Lennok vaguely began to realize what that being was, it already existed.

Pwoooooooh…!!

Amidst the faintly echoing trumpet sound, something seemed to split open at the edge of the subsiding darkness.

A grand fissure, vast enough to envelop Kebaek’s hundreds-of-meters-long body, opened at both ends, and within it, a colossal circle appeared and slowly rotated.

It moved, contracting and expanding, little by little, yet unmistakably.

Even though the circle’s radius encompassed hundreds of meters, Lennok knew.

‘…It can’t be.’

He saw it through Kebaek’s senses, was certain, yet couldn’t believe it.

That the movement of the circle before his eyes resembled the expansion and contraction of a pupil.

The circle that had split open before Kebaek was the eye of some being far larger than the fallen Ascendant.

The moment he recognized it, the music began to resonate more powerfully than ever for Lennok.

Bwaaaaaaaaang!!

Despite Kebaek having no ears, and Lennok merely having his consciousness floating, the music felt like it would tear his eardrums.

As if it had only just been recognized, it ceaselessly amplified its majestic volume, praising and flaunting itself.

At that sound, his senses fluctuated wildly, and his consciousness drifted away, as if his vision was violently shaking.

Kebaek let out a near-scream, pushing its bullet-like coiled body forward.

Conversely, immediately after, Lennok’s consciousness was flung backward as if repelled by that movement.

The moments he had spent swimming towards the Outer Sea seemed like a lie; he returned along the path he had left at double the speed.

It was as if his entire mind, consciousness, and soul were shouting in unison, ‘This is not the way!’

Kwaaaaaaaah!!

The sound of surging waves rushed to his ears, as if trying to erase the music.

In a shock that felt like he could lose consciousness at any moment, Lennok somehow forced his eyes open and stared at the rapidly receding scenery.

Even moving away from that spot so rapidly, he couldn’t see the entire body of the creature, which was far larger than Kebaek.

A long, scaled body, laying its head, shaped like a sturdy ship, heavily between the seas, stretching out in a languid pose to display its scaled form.

If there were a dragon that took a thousand-meter-long battleship as its head, would it look like that?

Could one dare to call that a life form like Lennok?

The one who floated between stars, swam among galaxies, devoured wandering meteorites around suns, and drank the tears of the sun.

The being prophesied to descend upon the earth as the heavens open with the world’s end.

Lennok had, for the first time, witnessed the true form of one of those great evils with his own eyes.

Krrriik….

Kebaek’s body slowly rotated like a bullet, gradually charging towards the center of the colossal eye.

As if it knew that it had to use its body as a weapon to kill that being.

Then, the words ‘Challenge ascension once more’ meant—

Pwoosh!!

As Kebaek’s body pierced the center of the eye, a part of the colossal pupil began to turn jet black.

Jet-black, ink-like viscous fluid relentlessly burrowed between the parts of the eye.

The eye gazed languidly at Kebaek, which had attacked it, then slightly shifted its gaze to another place.

In that fleeting moment, as its gaze precisely settled on the steadily receding Lennok.

Bzzzzzt!!

With the sudden sound of electricity, Lennok’s consciousness abruptly went out.

“Haa, haa…!!”

Pilenom Autonomous Region, Floating Island Cluster.

The Moon Garden, hidden by transcendent barrier magic.

The headquarters of Eyes of Blue, where the now collapsed colossal tower, the Lighthouse, was located.

Watcher Perun was running through the corridor, panting madly.

“I-I have to report… If I don’t tell them now!!”

She didn’t stop, even though tears and snot streamed down her face and she was drenched in sweat.

Throughout the corridor, Watchers lay sprawled as if dead.

Some had clumsily picked up weapons, but they lay in an ungraceful posture, as if they had collapsed without even being able to swing them.

Faint breaths remained, but their consciousness was completely gone, only their bodies clinging to vital signs.

Had the defenses been insufficient? Perun dared not even guess.

For the opponent who had invaded the Lighthouse was a monster beyond her comprehension.

A strange individual who had effortlessly bypassed the Moon’s Barrier, personally constructed by the previous Lighthouse Keeper, which could even temporarily bind an Ascendant, and instantly brought down the Lighthouse’s network.

Not only the numerous Watchers remaining in the Lighthouse, but even the Peak of Extremes-level ability user who had been defending the autonomous region in Lapis’s stead, couldn’t endure long before him.

Perhaps for humans, there existed a fate worse than death.

And even as Perun instinctively knew that moment would soon be upon her, she did not stop.

The top of the tower where the Lighthouse was located.

She burst into the control tower, now repaired, pushing aside the fallen Watchers, and began to operate the device.

The situation was irreversible, but someone had to notify the outside.

If she couldn’t convey this truth to the absent Lighthouse Keeper, that would be a fate worse than death for Perun.

Beep, beep-beep…!!

“No, just a little, just a little more…!!”

Her hands lost strength on the control tower equipment, and her eyes slowly closed.

She bit her lower lip until blood streamed out, trying to stay conscious, yet she did not stop.

If she fell asleep like this, would she join the other Watchers?

She might fall into an eternal slumber, worse than death, never to awaken.

Perhaps that would be better than the terrible and prolonged sacrifice she had braced herself for upon becoming a Watcher.

Click…!!

Perun, having barely completed the message while continuously dripping blood onto the control panel, pressed the transmit button with trembling hands.

The moment her finger landed on the control panel, intending to report everything that had happened at the Lighthouse to headquarters.

Grab!!

A hand appeared from somewhere and firmly seized her wrist.

“Ah…”

Despair clouded Perun’s fading face.

She laboriously lifted her trembling gaze, trying to at least identify the face of the person who had grabbed her hand.

But the flickering static above his neck rendered Perun’s last resistance futile.

Unable to endure any longer, she slumped forward, hitting her head on the control panel, and lost consciousness.

Thud!!

The figure, looking down at Perun who had collapsed powerlessly, quietly released her wrist and turned away.

With steps neither slow nor fast, it passed through the now silent corridor, heading towards the top of the tower.

A colossal circular chamber.

At the center of this chamber, a massive celestial sphere floated slowly.

Whoooosh…!

Faint lights rotated around the celestial sphere like stars, illuminating the dark interior of the chamber with a mysterious glow.

The figure walked past the armchair placed in front of the celestial sphere, and carefully extended a hand towards it.

The moment its smooth fingers were about to gently caress the sphere’s surface.

“I’ve imagined this moment for a very long time.”

A quiet female voice echoed from behind the figure.

“But I never expected us to meet like this.”

“…….”

The figure, its vision distorted by static, turned its gaze, and its eyes fell upon the armchair it had just passed.

In the armchair, which had been empty just moments before, a woman who still looked like a girl sat primly, staring at him.

Her vivid blue hair. Her brilliantly shining eyes, and her firmly set lips.

The resolute and clear determination etched on her face.

The figure gazed silently at her before murmuring.

“I didn’t intend to meet in person… It seems the timeline is going to get tangled again.”

“…….”

“I thought all means of contact were severed, so where did the variable come from?”

A strange resonance, as if the tones of a man and woman, an old person and a child, were blended.

The figure, pondering with a hand on its chin, remembered Perun’s blood on the control panel and nodded.

“Was the control panel touch-sensitive…? I didn’t expect that. It’s considered quite old-fashioned in this world, yet they managed to install it in the Lighthouse control tower.”

“I, too, never anticipated such an event.”

Lapis replied coolly.

“I never imagined Pandemonium’s Director would infiltrate the Lighthouse alone.”