Chapter 547: Kaiser (4)
The power to flow against time.
Not merely a consequence of reaching the 8th-level Peak of Extremes, indirectly intervening in spacetime through a spell.
But literally manipulating the very concept of time itself, turning it back.
Even if its direction is limited to reversal, there’s no need to explain how absurdly powerful this talent is.
Why Kaiser himself was the project’s originator and core member.
Why his talent and power remained largely unknown even after his death—Lennok understood it all from just that one demonstration.
‘I thought a talent for manipulating time might exist somewhere…’
Somewhere in a world teeming with billions of lives, rare constitutions and talents are bound to emerge.
Lennok himself had considered that a talent to manipulate spacetime—a feat difficult even for those beyond the Hierarchy—might exist from birth.
But he never imagined that Kaiser, the so-called ruler of the underworld, would possess such a talent.
‘So that’s why his understanding of time was abnormally high—it was due to his own talent.’
Kaiser possessed overwhelming knowledge of spacetime and research capabilities that other high-level collaborators couldn’t hope to match.
Beyond simply having worked on the project for a long time, it must have been because he possessed the talent to study and research the concept of time himself, whenever he wished.
Even Lennok, who had encountered countless superhumans, monsters, Apostles, and Transcendents, found Kaiser’s power to be a talent of an entirely new kind.
Just observing the flow of his mana was a miracle, bringing such novel and impressive inspiration that one could vaguely grasp the concept of ‘reversal’.
The sealed zone, rewinding time to decades past. Kaiser’s talent, encountered at the Particle Power Plant.
Within the dissociated time, he felt the relativity of time, reversing once again, more intensely than anything.
‘Yes. The concept of time ultimately…’
Is it in simultaneously establishing and maintaining a reference point both internally and externally?
As thoughts branched out from Lennok’s mind, endlessly intertwining and gradually assembling themselves,
Kaiser stood before the device, gripping a tablet, and swiftly began manipulating the program embedded within it.
As the schematics of the colossal machinery appeared on the tablet screen, and Kaiser manipulated its various components, the devices began to move in conjunction with the tablet’s signals.
Hiss!
Beep-beep-beep!
The colossal, egg-shaped machinery roared with loud warning sounds, spewing steam and releasing pressure, vibrating intensely.
The equipment, which had remained motionless even after the two of them dismantled, smashed, and reassembled it just moments ago, now responded only in conjunction with the tablet’s operations.
Lennok, who had been lost in thought, quickly snapped out of it, his eyes glinting as he observed the sight.
‘Davi.’
[It’s not impossible, but hacking into an independent network terminal like that will take a very long time.]
Davi, immediately sensing Lennok’s intent, replied.
[I’ll have to interpret everything from the signal generation patterns to packet settings, routing addresses, and encryption methods entirely from scratch to extract the data.]
“…”
Instead of replying, Lennok nodded slightly.
Davi took a small breath, peeking out from Lennok’s arms.
[Please help keep the signal between the egg-shaped device and the tablet active for as long as possible. I’ll copy the signal midway and begin sample comparison.]
Did that mean he needed to buy time?
Hearing Davi’s words, Lennok immediately approached Kaiser slightly and opened his mouth.
“Earlier, I asked what you wanted in return for helping with this research.”
“Ah, yes. Have you finally thought of what you want?”
Kaiser replied without even turning around.
“In my experience, guys like you, whose intentions are completely inscrutable, often don’t truly know what they want.”
“…”
That wasn’t Kaiser speaking idly; it was likely because he had accumulated experience interacting with countless geniuses.
“I was planning to wait until the work was finished, but this works out. Speak.”
His dark eyes, glancing back, glowed quietly like obsidian.
“Is there something you want from me?”
Ultimately, helping him with his research wasn’t a bad choice.
This was the only way Lennok could hear these words directly from Kaiser at this point in time.
There was so much he wanted to ask.
There was still so much he didn’t know.
How different could Lennok, who had first drifted into this city like trash, struggling to even open his eyes the next day, truly claim to be now?
He knew the end was approaching, but Lennok was still searching for answers, yearning for even a slightly better possibility.
He watched and listened to many things, trying not to let them slip away or pass him by, all to avoid losing his way.
But could he be sure that wasn’t precisely because he was lost?
Ultimately, nothing could be guaranteed.
If it were up to him, he’d confess everything right now and seek advice on the outcome—
But Lennok suppressed it.
“I haven’t properly heard the purpose of this research yet.”
He looked up at the colossal, trembling egg before Kaiser.
“While I’ve cooperated out of interest in spacetime research, I want to hear the true purpose of this research directly from your own lips.”
“…Hmm? Is that all you want?”
Kaiser tilted his head, but Lennok didn’t reply.
When dealing with great Transcendents like Ascendants, there’s no reason to hide one’s true intentions or test them like this.
Those who transcend humanity to challenge the right to advance further already know far more and have given up far more than Lennok.
But Kaiser, standing before Lennok now, was different.
He wasn’t a monster who had completed the entire project, grasped all the world’s secrets, or perfectly seized control of the city’s underworld.
Rather than an ineffable, overwhelming prophet, he was merely a challenger, pursuing his desires while burdened by delusion.
In this era, the war surrounding Vulcan had not yet ended, and the project was faltering but still pushing forward.
If Lennok were to leverage secrets and demand the truth at this point, the chances of getting the answer he wanted were low.
Here, as Davi suggested, it was right to extend this moment through conversation, slowly tracing fragments of the truth.
“…I understand that you’re intervening in spacetime itself to materialize a specific region. I’m just curious about the ultimate purpose you hope to achieve by doing so.”
“…”
“It’s clear that this work itself isn’t the Black Consumer Project, but rather a subsidiary study conducted for the project’s success.”
Leaving Kaiser unanswered, Lennok continued.
“The utterly unique location of the Particle Power Plant, this moment you’ve forcibly chosen despite the ongoing civil war within the city. Your own utterly unique mana, and…”
Lennok’s gaze slowly descended, landing on Kaiser’s back.
“Even the shape of this colossal, egg-like equipment.”
Doesn’t it look like a vessel prepared from the beginning for something to hatch from?
If this massive research equipment Lennok has helped Kaiser create thus far is serving as a shell, like an egg.
If it’s acting as a giant altar to fully unleash the research’s results right here.
What true meaning does Kaiser intend to grasp through this experiment?
Even vaguely guessing the truth, Lennok intended to hear the answer directly from Kaiser’s lips.
An unfathomable silence hung in the air, then Kaiser slowly opened his mouth.
“You won’t be far off from the direction you’re thinking.”
“…”
“It was too obvious to hide the purpose from a sorcerer capable of assisting with spacetime research. But it’s also true that succeeding in this research was equally urgent.”
Kaiser replied, his hands not pausing their manipulation of the tablet.
“If you were sent by Alkaid, you’d know that the testbed used for the project was completely destroyed recently.”
“A testbed…”
“I always thought it wouldn’t be strange for a limit to be reached at any time, but it happened at the worst possible moment. That’s why we urgently needed to set up a new foundation.”
Woo-woo-woo-woo-woo!!
The colossal, egg-shaped machinery located in the very center of the power room slowly began to glow and heat up.
The steel plates encircling it like an eggshell, and the wires connecting them, funneled all the power generated by the plant directly into the device.
It was the one and only space capable of directly receiving all the power generated by the plant’s facilities at the closest proximity.
The power and energy that should have originally flowed through all facilities in District 25 were entirely redirected and connected to the machinery, serving as a platform to activate the device.
Fizzle…!!
The colossal equipment’s form gradually heated up, as if glowing from the tip of an egg, turning into a brilliant white radiance.
An overwhelming light that brightly illuminated the vast interior of the power room, which had previously been stained with dark and reddish shadows.
“What needs to be achieved through this research is nothing else.”
Kaiser spoke with an expressionless face.
“It’s to designate and fix a specific temporal and spatial axis, creating a new testbed that can be utilized for the plan.”
“…”
Fixing desired temporal axes and spatial domains to turn them into tools for the plan.
The spacetime research Kaiser spoke of wasn’t merely an academic achievement to deepen understanding of time and space.
They had truly succeeded in gaining the ability to arbitrarily seize and manipulate time in this very place.
“If it succeeds, this spacetime itself will become a convenient tool that can be used for the project at any time, and if not…”
Fwoooosh!!!
A blinding light, filling both Lennok’s and Kaiser’s eyes, poured out through the cracks of the egg.
Crack-crack-crack…!!
Thousands of cracks spread across the egg’s shell, unable to withstand the surging power from within, until it was engulfed by the recoil and its inner workings were exposed.
“Then we’ll just try again, as many times as it takes.”
Simultaneously with Kaiser’s cold voice, the egg’s shell peeled away as if shattering, and its contents surged upwards into the sky.
Like a flower bud, the machinery’s eggshell elegantly split in a spiral form, sketching the shape of beautiful petals,
and within it, thousands of mana circuits and devices, all silently functioning, floated up to the center of the petals, radiating a dazzling brilliance.
The magnificent steel flower blooming in the heart of the power room.
From its center, an achromatic wave erupted, slowly but clearly, trembling as it rotated like a heartbeat.
Bwooom!!!
It spread through the power room and out into the plant, sweeping across the entire surrounding district.
“…”
He felt a strange sensation, as if the beginning and end of his senses and mana were reversed and dancing.
The ground he stood on rippled and swayed, his vision warped, twisted, and turned into lines.
A hallucination where the very sense of time vanished, then shattered like glass fragments, slowly reassembling one by one.
Lennok observed all the phenomena and miracles occurring around him with perfectly stable composure, then slowly opened his eyes.
From the moment he first met Kaiser and arrived in the power room, it still felt as if nothing had changed.
Except that the egg’s shell had split and transformed into the shape of a colossal flower, and the equipment assembled within it was ceaselessly operating, scattering a subtle pulsation.
Had the research succeeded, or failed?
Even Lennok couldn’t be sure of the outcome from just this moment’s appearance.
Except for Kaiser, who was looking at Lennok and closing his eyes as if resigned.
“…What happened?”
“Neither success nor failure.”
Kaiser replied.
“The third possibility, which I had secretly been denying, merely emerged as the most certain data.”
The air rapidly grew tense.
An unknown tension, absent between the two just moments ago, now permeated the space.
Before Lennok could grasp the meaning of that feeling, Kaiser’s mouth opened again.
“The truth is, my research ended a long time ago, and you are witnessing its results right now.”
“…”
Both Lennok and Kaiser knew what those words implied.
The result: even after completing the spacetime research and activating it properly, no visible changes occurred in this space.
Kaiser had surmised that truth from the very moment he began the research work with Lennok.
Unwavering, obsidian-like eyes.
Beneath his face, wearily swept back, there was not a trace of delusion in his expression.
He already trusted the conclusion he had reached more certainly than anything else.
“The research I was conducting here was to fix a specific spacetime in the Ramahal District, leave it as a single sample, and use it as a testbed for the project.”
“…”
“But even after the ‘Spawning’ process, which triggers the spacetime dissociation phenomenon, finished, nothing changed. There’s only one conclusion to draw from this.”
Kaiser bowed his head slightly, his expression obscured.
“That this very space we’re standing in has been dissociated for a long time already, and you are a result born from that fact.”
“…”
“So, what are your thoughts on actually returning to the past, decades ago?”
Kaiser’s face, as he lifted his gaze again, bore a truly chilling smile.
“Did my future self succeed in finding the answer and completing the project?”