Chapter 555: From the End of Failure (2)
“Kaiser’s serum…!!”
“We were lucky. It would have been difficult if Kaiser hadn’t tried to destroy all the remaining serum at the end.”
Indeed, at the moment he clashed with Felix, Kaiser used all his remaining serum and vanished from the spot.
Considering the time-reversing magic contained within the serum, perhaps he used the reversal ability repeatedly on himself to move across timelines.
“So, you managed to secure such a valuable item amidst that fierce battle.”
Felix nodded with a faint look of admiration.
“It’s not like I didn’t think about picking some up with my beak when I was covered in blood, but…”
“You almost turned into a Pelican, not a Felix.”
“……”
“……”
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Perhaps Sybrid Echo’s sense of humor had reached a truly serious level.
In the awkward silence, Ilya calmly asked again.
“Are you planning to use Kaiser’s serum to understand his intentions?”
“I don’t intend to use all of the serum right away. This is, after all, a last resort.”
Lennok said, putting the serum back into his pocket.
“If Kaiser intended to contact us, he would choose a more direct method than serum whose retrieval is uncertain. I have no choice but to trust that and think a bit more.”
Having seen Olivera use the serum to treat her injuries, Lennok had no intention of recklessly wasting such a precious item.
Of course, it was uncertain whether the serum would remain intact even after returning to reality, but at least within the Sealed Zone, it would serve as a useful consumable, wouldn’t it?
Given that it contained the magic of Defying Heaven, it was also an item of considerable research value.
Time was short, but it was worth taking the time to investigate.
“Ilya, think about it. Did Kaiser ever show any indication of leaving you a message or a hint?”
“Hmm…”
“Felix barely spoke with Kaiser, and Purity wasn’t present. You and I are the only ones who can infer something from Kaiser’s words and actions.”
“I’m not sure… I remember what happened back then, but…”
Ilya said that and then wrote down the entire conversation she had with Kaiser on the ground, showing it to Lennok.
“At least inside the power plant, Kaiser didn’t show any suspicious behavior.”
“Indeed, from this conversation alone, I can only tell that Kaiser had something to discuss with me.”
Kaiser had looked at Ilya, asked if she was the wizard’s companion, and said he had no business with her as she knew nothing.
That statement itself, conversely, meant that he still had business with Lennok.
“Surely, if he left a message, it would be for Van, wouldn’t it?”
“Yes. Ultimately, I’ll have to review my own memories…”
As Lennok fell into thought, Felix stood up and picked up his Hammer of Advent.
“While you two are thinking, I’ll go look around.”
“Are you sure?”
“Just avoiding the Wraith Legion isn’t enough. There might be other pursuers, you know.”
Felix said with a smile.
“I’ll keep watch, so I’ll leave the investigation of the truth to you two.”
Half a day passed, and it was early morning.
A misty street. The masses of the Wraith Legion and the dawn air mixed, making it difficult to distinguish what lay ahead.
“Felix.”
“Van, were you here?”
Lennok gestured towards Felix, who was returning to the hideout.
“The weather’s cold. Why don’t you rest inside?”
“It’s fine. As long as I stay alert, there’s no way I’ll be tracked.”
They had only made a hideout because they needed a place to rest; all three of them were skilled at concealing their presence and magic.
Unless they were directly discovered by the Ghost Ship floating in the air, there was no chance of being caught by the Wraith Legion.
Groooowl!!
Felix, gazing at the faint, gigantic outline of the vessel peering from beyond the downtown area, spoke with a choked voice.
“So, you’re saying you killed that monster…”
“Strictly speaking, it was a bit weaker than that one.”
Lennok replied calmly.
Madrich Onnion had gone decades without treating the injuries and chronic illness he sustained during the war, his peak abilities having diminished.
“The Ghost Ship I faced wasn’t so massive, nor could it fly. It only swam on a stormy sea.”
“That’s still unbelievable, though…”
Lennok laughed at Felix’s disgruntled reply.
“Perhaps that Domain isn’t specialized for combat either. Its appearance is overwhelming, but its practicality is low. I suspect it’s a form modified for scouting or transport.”
However, even factoring that in, the unrealistic gap in power between the two was evident.
It was practically impossible to achieve their goal through a direct confrontation.
No matter how powerful and transcendent Lennok’s talent was, facing both Madrich Onnion and Olivera at once would be tantamount to suicide.
That was precisely why he was trying to find a loophole in Kaiser’s unusual behavior.
“Was there any yield from your patrol?”
“…No. But I left marks everywhere that only Krod Azlan would recognize. We can only hope he recognizes them and comes later…”
“The reason I’m trying to find Krod Azlan isn’t just because I expect his assistance.”
Lennok shook his head.
“Don’t trust him. Masters of the Peak of Extremes at level 8 are excessively unstable, chaotic beings. Given how things have turned out, it’s unlikely he’ll be of any help to us.”
“Isn’t it precisely because of that, that he might appear now, late as it may be?”
“……”
“Having traveled with countless strong individuals, I know this well. Their whims don’t always work in a negative direction. I trust Krod Azlan.”
Travel, he said.
Now that he thought about it, Olivera had once told Felix that he was on a pilgrimage.
Perhaps the ‘travel’ Felix mentioned wasn’t just simple travel after all.
But instead of asking more about that journey, Lennok changed the subject.
“What was the situation like at the outer boundary of the Sealed Zone?”
“Not as good as I thought. The water barrier we passed through has already completely sunk into this timeline. Even the rotten foodstuffs had all turned new.”
Felix let out a small sigh.
“I tried to go as far as possible, but at least within the areas my eyes could reach, there were no remaining regions that hadn’t dissociated.”
“……”
“I suspect the Dissociated Space of the Sealed Zone itself is continuously expanding.”
Did that mean even the space where reality and the past timeline vaguely overlapped had now all transformed into the past timeline?
Lennok pondered that fact for a moment, then negated the conjecture.
“No, that wouldn’t be the case. If this dissociation phenomenon had spread outside the Sealed Zone, the City Government would have had no choice but to intervene further.”
“Then?”
“It might be that our very existence is adapting to the past timeline.”
If that were the case, it would explain why the superhumans of the past, patrolling the Sealed Zone, couldn’t perceive the displaced boundary.
What if, as their very existence adjusted to the past timeline, they became unable to distinguish between the present and the past?
Felix’s complexion tightened slightly as he understood that fact.
“So, our retreat has effectively been cut off. We can’t escape without resolving Kaiser’s problem, then.”
“Perhaps. But…”
What did it mean that even Lennok, who possessed Targeted Resistance Ability, was affected by this phenomenon?
Was it that Lennok couldn’t respond to changes in the timeline itself, or was it that unlike others who were already eroded by the past, Lennok alone remained unaffected?
He wanted to directly patrol the outer perimeter of the Sealed Zone, but…
As the two fell silent, Ilya’s voice called out from behind them.
“Van. I’ve managed to restore the communication line.”
“A line?”
“I was also looking for a way to contact the outside. Ilya said she’d tinker with the communicator a bit more.”
Lennok turned around and replied.
“I roughly wrote down the surrounding mana distortion patterns and flows for her, saying it was needed for adjustment, and it seems to have worked.”
“…Was that data something one could roughly write down?”
Lennok, along with Felix who muttered in bewilderment, immediately headed inside the hideout.
Crackle, crackle…!!
Lennok and Ilya’s communicators were completely disassembled, then reassembled into an unknown form on the spot.
Damaged parts from entering the Dissociated Space were removed, and a new communicator was built from the intact parts of both their devices.
[Crackle…Lip…Manager…there…]
It was very choppy, but it was unmistakably the voice of Keegan Grimes, the administrator.
Even after a long time since the communication had been cut off, he had continuously tried to communicate in this manner.
“Errors occur because we can’t accurately perceive the gaps in the dissociated timeline.”
Lennok knelt beside Ilya, taking over the communicator’s line from her to adjust the frequency.
“I have no choice but to adjust the line by instinctively matching the divergence from the external time I remember. I’ll do it.”
This was only possible because they weren’t truly back in the past, but existing within a dissociated area.
But the frequency, which Ilya struggled to catch, immediately changed the moment it was in Lennok’s hand.
[Kurbas Dam. This is Administrator Keegan Grimes. 864th communication attempt. Please respond if you can.]
“……”
Felix and Ilya slightly parted their lips and looked back at Lennok at Keegan’s clear voice.
Lennok ignored them and immediately picked up the communicator microphone.
“Administrator Grimes. Respond if you hear me.”
[…!!]
A gasp, as if in disbelief.
[V-Van…Is that you, Van?]
“Yes.”
Lennok didn’t wait for a reply and immediately gave a brief explanation of what had happened so far.
Even at that moment, the communicator’s parts were wearing down in real-time as they tried to match the frequency.
This communication would likely be their last chance to connect.
[Y-you mean memories from a timeline where Kaiser Bajour is alive…]
Lennok urged the administrator, who stammered with a look of dismay.
“The Elder Council or the Central Council needs to be informed of this and demanded to find a solution. The situation itself has become too dangerous for us to handle from this side.”
[….]
An ominous silence followed without a reply.
Frankly, Lennok didn’t expect the Central Council or the Elder Council to have a secret plan to resolve this situation.
Given their methods so far, they were the type who would simply make the entire District 25 vanish to tie things up.
But Lennok had entered this area, knowing that, because he believed it was an opportunity to uncover the secrets of the Black Consumer Project directly.
Hadn’t Purity and Lucinder of the Elder Council drawn Lennok into this operation precisely for that reason?
However, since communication was established, it was necessary to relay the results they had obtained to request information from the other side.
But the voice from the communicator wasn’t that of the administrator Lennok had been expecting.
[It was not for nothing that those events were buried in the sands of time….]
A powerful Six Harmonies Transmission, impossible to conceal even through the fuzzy communication.
Along with that voice, the rate at which the communicator’s parts wore down increased wildly.
The powerful Six Harmonies Transmission manifested, consuming the surrounding space just by resonating.
Lennok realized who the voice belonged to and instinctively parted his lips slightly.
“…Olivera?”
The Chairman of the Cartel, and a level 8 Mystic Eye user.
The monster who had completed The Seven Debts Jewels Mystic Eye and returned to level 8 was receiving the call in place of the administrator.
[I commend your desire to grasp taboos and secrets, but if you don’t wish to die, it would be wise to get out of there soon.]
Olivera said with an amused tone.
[If it’s still a timeline where Kaiser is ‘alive,’ then among the dissociated possibilities you might face in the Sealed Zone, that’s the worst.]
“What do you mean?”
[You don’t know how Kaiser lived, or how he died. And you never will. That’s how we… dealt with the failures we gained through the Project.]
Olivera said that, then laughed softly as if slightly surprised.
[To be able to speak this much already, has the Geas begun to loosen?]
“……”
[It’s time. It’s not that I have no desire to personally confirm how pathetic my past self was…]
Olivera’s mocking laughter, which began as cynical, seemed to grow slightly louder.
[But it seems there’s an early arrival. No need to repeat the same old charade.]
“Early arrival? What do you mean by that?”
Ilya asked urgently, sensing something in those words, but Olivera did not reply.
[Still, if you have any sense, you’d better look for Kaiser’s message carefully. That fellow always solved problems that way.]
Crack!!
At that moment, all the communicator’s parts crisscrossed and broke apart in every direction, completely shattering.
“Ah…”
Ilya looked somewhat crestfallen.
Lennok turned away from her and silently inspected the broken communicator parts.
“No good. The mana transmission and sensory circuits are completely shattered. At this point, it would be faster for me to create magic directly.”
“What does it mean, ‘a timeline where Kaiser is alive’?”
Felix asked with a blank expression.
“Does that mean others who enter this zone see Kaiser, who is already dead?”
“……”
Lennok didn’t hastily answer Felix’s conjecture. Instead, he simply thought about Olivera’s last words.
“Kaiser’s message… a message…”
Considering Olivera’s words, it was highly probable that Kaiser had left Lennok a message in some way.
But if it was delivered at a moment Lennok didn’t even perceive, then where could it be?
He quietly closed his eyes and replayed everything that happened after meeting Kaiser from the beginning.
After recalling his memories like a video up until the moment the Spacetime Anchoring Device activated, Lennok finally realized what he had missed.
“…I see.”
A fleeting, almost immaterial realm where only Kaiser and Lennok could perceive each other.
In a way that others could never notice, but where Lennok was sure to find it, Kaiser had already left a message.
Lennok picked up his phone and quickly sent a Will-thought to Davi.
‘Power plant internal firewall. Access it again and show me.’
[Yes?]
‘Firewall code pattern, can you visualize it?’
The Cybernetic Spirit didn’t ask twice. Instead, it merely displayed the independent network firewall code, which it had just finished hacking, on the phone screen.
Lennok’s gaze, quickly scanning the hacked code, stopped abruptly at the last line of the code.
At the end of the code array, composed of unknown letters and numbers, a message Lennok could understand was prominently displayed.
[Ramahal District South Cathedral. Noon.]
“……”
[If you want to end this timeline, come.]