Chapter 530: Dual Identity (1)
Lennok and Antares were quietly walking through the bustling exhibition hall.
Dozens of aircraft and levitation devices slowly drifted past them.
“A tactical bomber used in the Kabahim Kingdom. It’s set to be discontinued within ten years.”
“……”
“A vertical takeoff and landing aircraft from the Paraguini Republic. There will probably be an explosion due to a critical engine defect discovered about five years from now.”
“……”
“A reverse-flow control shuttle handcrafted by the artisans of Abadria. By now, the wizards of the Order Alliance are probably filing a large-scale lawsuit over spell replication charges.”
Antares explained the planes on display, adding a comment about each one.
But the words flowing from his mouth weren’t about the aircraft’s history or performance, but only about the demise they would meet.
It was merely a tale of the future, something impossible to know at present, virtually akin to a Zen koan.
Lennok listened silently to Antares’s explanation, then tilted his head slightly.
“What are you getting at?”
“……”
“Are you planning to waste time explaining aircraft specifications to me?”
Only then did Antares slowly stop walking and turn his gaze towards Lennok.
“Well, what should I say? If I had to say…”
He slowly spoke, gazing at Lennok with a soft smile.
“It means that all the aircraft displayed in this exhibition hall are inferior to the anti-gravity technology born from your fingertips.”
“……”
“Initially, this expo wasn’t even supposed to conclude properly and bring new vitality to this city.”
Antares said.
“But the fact that your anti-gravity engine is superior to any flight mechanism displayed here, well, anyone could tell that without precognition.”
“So, things don’t necessarily unfold exactly as foretold,” Lennok replied.
“Weren’t you trying to reduce unpredicted variables in that process?”
“It depends on the situation. In Vulcan, I’m trying to minimize my stay to avoid variables…”
Antares chuckled wryly and lowered his gaze.
“For me, having a fixed future, variables in precognition are also a form of hope. In a way, you’re one of those variables.”
“……”
“A great wizard of the underworld, a university researcher in the light. It’s a dual life that’s hard to believe even when witnessing it directly.”
Antares asked.
“At least by human standards as I know them, these are achievements where even one would be difficult to fully accomplish. How long has this been going on?”
“I’d like to ask you the same,” Lennok replied.
“How long have you known?”
He was the first to notice Lennok’s dual identity, even without being told directly.
Yet, Lennok felt no inclination to unleash his mana or harbor ill will towards Antares.
He already knew that Antares discovering that Van and Evan were the same person wouldn’t be a significant blow.
Antares had already revealed his most fatal and deeply held secret to Lennok.
His precognitive ability, gained at the cost of observing his own demise.
The unbelievable truth that he was traveling across the continent to change the future through that ability.
He was a man whose circumstances were so complex that he struggled even to keep his own secrets, let alone reveal others’.
If they held each other’s weaknesses, their trust wouldn’t break as long as one didn’t collapse.
Lennok somewhat suspected that Antares might have anticipated this situation and revealed his secret beforehand.
Perhaps even that could be called a fragment of the future leading to the conclusion.
“Seeing the future isn’t about blindly picking out non-existent possibilities,” Antares said, staring fixedly at Lennok, then slowly began walking again with his hands clasped behind his back.
“It’s about taking one predetermined conclusion and looking at the process leading up to it in reverse.”
“……”
“In that sense, your first paper on mana conversion handled past and future perspectives with incredible delicacy.”
Antares slowly continued, as Lennok offered no reply.
“I don’t know many people genius enough to do something like that.”
Did he mean he had suspected it somewhat since the first paper was submitted, and now he was certain?
Lennok wasn’t particularly surprised by Antares’s explanation.
Antares’s action of visiting Jenny’s bar to explain the potential terror attack at the expo – that itself would have been virtually impossible without being certain of the connection between Van and Evan.
Lennok was merely curious about how Antares had suspected that fact and linked the two identities.
“You’re walking backward through the future, knowing your own end is set…” Lennok shook his head and asked, “Do you really believe there can be an answer beyond what you desire at the end of that?”
“I don’t know,” Antares admitted honestly.
“I don’t think I can keep this up forever.”
“……”
“That’s why I want to finish preparations before it’s too late. The wars and hunts that will unfold will be grand enough to overturn the very concepts that have existed until now.”
The paradox of using a future glimpsed through precognition to move towards an unforseen outcome.
What Antares was doing, though different in form and method, was no different from The Clown mocking and deceiving a Geas.
Why would he bear such risks, wander across the continent, and build his own arrangements?
What did the flame remaining within Antares until the very end truly signify?
“You’ve intentionally kept the Evan Vylun identity hidden until now. Completely different mana patterns and residences, alibis and personal details, even variations in scent and habits… Your dual identity was at a level where it was completely untraceable with physical evidence alone.”
“…”
“But now that you’ve revealed such achievements to the public, there will be a significant increase in those curious about your true identity.”
Antares continued, as Lennok remained silent.
“They’ll wonder where such talent sprang from, what education you received, what knowledge you learned, what you think, and what future you envision. And…”
Their steps simultaneously halted.
“What answer you seek.”
It was a fragment of the grand dream humanity once forged, yearning for what lay beyond the world.
The eternal trace that turned into foam before the irresistible truth and the immeasurably vast sea of darkness.
A space shuttle, boasting an overwhelmingly superior scale, size, and output compared to all other aircraft in the exhibition hall.
Antares gazed at it silently and murmured,
“They’ll want to grasp and understand that.”
“……”
“If you wish to keep it hidden until the end, you’ll have to be far more cautious than now. Even if you perfectly deceive everyone, in this world where mystery breathes, any lie can become truth.”
“……I know,” Lennok quietly replied.
“Participating in this expo, even knowing that, was also my decision.”
Lennok smiled as he looked at the shuttle Antares was observing.
“Without progress or regression. Sometimes I dream of these moments lasting forever… but I can’t always stay still.”
“……”
“It’s time to change, I suppose. The second paper is the first step towards that.”
The anti-gravity technology, realized by mimicking the updrafts of the Pilenom Autonomous Region.
It wasn’t merely the result of time spent in the Pilenom Autonomous Region.
The countless hours spent discussing mana theory with Aris at Rebatenon University.
The ideals of the supremely powerful, formidable, and great superhumans he had faced as Van.
The Director’s will to hunt Outer Gods, which he confirmed at the last moment in the Well of the Codex.
All those wills and memories, reaching out beyond the Outer Sea, became a single step towards the answer Lennok sought.
“Opening a path in the sky and pioneering new transportation is just the beginning.”
Beyond immeasurable time, past immeasurable space, the demise of the Outer Sea, swimming through the unfathomable universe.
Beyond the abandoned dream-products that once failed, the world draws a little closer to them with this.
“If opening the path was Evan’s part, then someone else will take over,” Lennok continued without hesitation.
“I don’t know how long the changes brought by anti-gravity technology will take… but won’t someone use it to seek another answer?”
Even if, by chance, Lennok isn’t the one who ultimately provides the answer, it’s fine.
If only a new path can be created with the new step Lennok has presented, before the world’s end fully arrives.
“Indeed,” Antares chuckled.
“But that change, it won’t take as long as you think.”
“……What?”
“If you keep observing what can be seen, sometimes you’ll also catch glimpses of what cannot.”
A precognition user doesn’t simply receive incoming inspirations passively to glimpse the future.
They must possess excellent intuition, judgment, intellect, and inspiration, to discern the truth of the inspirations that come to them.
Without the ability to discern whether it’s true precognition, one is bound to go mad amidst countless illusions.
Regardless of acquiring fragments of omniscient precognition, Antares himself is also a sage capable of envisioning a concrete future based on the past and present.
“The shock that will come with the commercialization of anti-gravity technology. You won’t be able to avoid its aftermath and the recovery process.”
Seeing Lennok’s slightly stiff face, Antares turned around.
“I’m certain now. Your identity must no longer be exposed at this point, and your abilities and intellect will undoubtedly become necessary possibilities for the coming conclusion.”
“……”
“I’ll help you a little to achieve what you desire. That will be the only way to leave behind the few remaining variables amidst the changes to come.”
“Help, you say,” Lennok scoffed.
“Now, what kind of help could you possibly give me to hide my identity?”
“Even within a constantly shifting and transforming future, there are a few constants that remain fixed.”
“……”
Antares’s gaze was no longer directed at the aircraft within the exhibition hall.
As if he no longer felt any value in them.
His gaze was fixed intently on Lennok’s eyes.
“The giants of the light will begin to move.”
Vrooom!!!
A rough engine roar echoed over the dark asphalt.
A jet-black flash, barely visible, scattered wild flames across the road and vanished.
Screeech!!
Each twist of the throttle pressed the surrounding air heavily against his shoulders, but the bike, moving according to its auto-drive algorithm, shrugged off the pressure and protected its rider.
Lennok pulled his fluttering coat collar tighter and brought a hand to the earphone in his ear.
“Jenny, what’s the situation on your end?”
“Negotiations failed. The deal’s off. We’re switching to acquiring the goods by force.”
“Understood.”
“Can you do it?”
“I’ll need about ten minutes.”
“Wait, is that sound you moving on a bike right now? Va-a-a-a-n…!! Even with your discomfort, if you ride something like that…!!”
Click!
Lennok ignored Jenny’s words and immediately increased the bike’s speed.
Vrooom!!
But just as if on cue, dozens of armored cars swarmed around Lennok, following him on both sides.
Steel plates assembled as tough as armor, able to withstand any impact or explosion. Nothing could be seen through the completely black-tinted windows.
Instead, the mechanical autocannons protruding from both sides of the armored cars simultaneously spat fire.
Dudududu!!!
Hundreds of bullet marks appeared along the path of Lennok’s speeding bike, bursting with hot air.
At the same time, vehicles aggressively surged forward at close range, as if to ram the bike at any moment.
They didn’t care even as they fired their autocannons at each other, with bullets ricocheting everywhere.
A desperate frenzy, as if determined to wreck the bike and reduce its mobility on the spot, no matter what.
Lennok faintly furrowed his brow at their overtly desperate movements.
“Have I been off work too long?”
After taking Jenny’s nominated commission for the first time in a long while, he was dealing with an outrageous number of troublemakers.
The very act of trying to pressure Lennok with vehicles in this city’s underworld was tantamount to suicide.
Unaware of that fact, the opponents pushed their armored cars forward without hesitation, as if to crush Lennok.
Click!!!
As the bike’s body swung sharply to one side, a long gun barrel sprang out from Lennok’s coat sleeve.
A three-barreled rotating charged shotgun, for the first time in a while, absorbed Lennok’s mana, fully charging in an instant.
Kiiiing…!!
[Mana Rapid Fire: Quadruple Stacking]
[Trajectory Correction]
[Recoil Nullification]
[Concentrated Fire]
[Rotating Spread Shot]
Immediately, beyond the subsonically rotating barrel, three diverging streams of mana erupted, blending the mysteries of rotation and repulsion.
Bwooom!!!
At that moment, the side of the armored car that had rushed at Lennok first vanished on the spot, as if a hole had been punched through it.
The bike’s body lifted diagonally from the shotgun’s recoil, lightly leaping over the armored cars’ assault.
Fragments of resonant incendiary bombs constantly fell from beneath the bike’s wheels, spinning against the night sky.
Clack, clack, clack!!
As soon as they hit the road, they clung to the underbellies of the armored cars like magnets, ceaselessly flashing.
A blue mana glow, rising as if rotating, burst forth repeatedly on the road, erecting more than a dozen dazzling pillars of light.
Kwoooosh!!!
As if using the explosions’ recoil as support, the monster bike soared even higher, as if climbing stairs.
Amidst the strong winds, the bike’s thick wheels descended onto the road, scattering countless sparks.
Amidst the dazzling friction heat and sparks erupting from all directions, Lennok, frowning, asked,
“I’ve mostly shaken off the pursuit. Where are the goods?”
“They passed the Block 45 intersection. Looks like they’ve slowed down!!” Jenny shouted, her voice slightly breathless.
“I’ll notify the client of the operational instructions. [Operation: Rescue Evan Vylun] The commission begins now…!!”
“……”
A commission name that made him chuckle hollowly no matter how many times he heard it.
But the reason Lennok participated in this commission, after having put nominated commissions aside for a long time, lay elsewhere.
A nominated commission directly requested by a Diamond-grade client.
“Alright,” Lennok chuckled, twisting the throttle.
“Let’s go take a look at this ‘Evan’ guy’s face.”
Thus began an operation where it was unclear who was rescuing whom.