Chapter 567: The One Who Closes the World (5)
KWOOONGGGG!!!!!
An overwhelming roar that swallowed reality, shaking the heavens and earth.
The solemn, primordial sound, as if a new world was being torn open.
The moment he opened his eyes, Kaiser found himself floating in a colossal, dark void.
“……!!”
The profound depths of the void were so immense, he flinched, wondering if he had been cast beyond the Outer Sea.
Around Kaiser, vibrations erupted as if playing an instrument, then simultaneously exploded, casting up a golden hue.
Paaaat!!!
A kaleidoscope domain, shining through the dark cosmos, illuminating the divergent points of infinite possibilities.
In the endless void, where neither sky nor earth existed, Kaiser blankly gazed upon that mental landscape.
“This, this is……”
The magnificent golden kaleidoscope continued to illuminate the far reaches of the endless universe.
Golden luminescence, bleeding into the unknown void, rotated perfectly at its center, opening hundreds of pathways.
Infinite divergent points of possibility, too vast to believe they belonged to a single wizard.
Only then did Kaiser understand why Lennok hadn’t wavered for a single moment under his time perception manipulation.
This was not a human mind.
Not a landscape that a living being’s mind imprint could construct.
The manifestation of a concept that transcended the limits and shackles of existence.
The mind of a transcendent being who had grasped not the past or present, but the possibilities of the future.
The key of a respondent who had reached the end of the heavens and knocked beyond it.
Even seeing its true meaning and value with his own eyes, he could barely imagine such a thing existing.
“How…… could a human possess such……”
Would this be the appearance if one infinitely depicted the mind of a seeker searching for an unattainable answer?
How immense a talent and yearning would be required to forge something non-existent into one’s own mind imprint?
As Kaiser, overwhelmed by its unfathomable meaning, fell silent,
Lennok’s voice quietly echoed from behind him.
“It’s not that the mind exists because it found the answer.”
Lennok stood there, looking at him, battered and bruised.
Despite being covered in blood, the wizard’s eyes shone clearly.
“The very process of seeking the answer is also a part of my mind.”
“…….”
“The very fact that you can enter my Mind Imprint Domain is proof that you are not the real Kaiser himself. But what does that matter?”
Lennok said.
“If you are a being that yearns for an answer, then in my world, you are a definitive truth.”
“……Arrogant words, indeed.”
Kaiser chuckled inadvertently.
“Do you intend to judge this world by the standards set by your mind imprint?”
Instead of answering, Lennok quietly raised his hand.
The brilliant and beautiful golden kaleidoscope floated behind him.
He pointed to a golden ring within it, one that reflected nothing and was completely empty.
As if it had been prepared for Kaiser at this very moment.
“Choose.”
Lennok said, looking into Kaiser’s eyes.
“Here, you can genuinely draw out the potential of a mind imprint that originally didn’t exist within you, leaving a meaning within me.”
“…….”
“In exchange, you will vanish and be annihilated in the dissociated spacetime region, as originally planned.”
“What if I don’t?”
“Then I will have to.”
Lennok answered without hesitation.
“You’ll die.”
“What is there to contemplate, having come this far?”
“Indeed……”
Upon hearing those words, Kaiser nodded, as if finally understanding.
“After all, a wizard with such a mind imprint would never have hesitated from the start.”
“…….”
“You gathered infinite future divergence points and made the yearning to find an answer your mind. What a pity. If someone like you had been with me, I……”
Kaiser said, then let out a self-deprecating laugh.
Expressing such regrets now was ultimately meaningless, leaving no trace anywhere.
No, the lingering regrets Kaiser left behind would surely remain in that wizard’s mind.
But Kaiser did not want to leave such useless sentimentality within this wizard’s mind imprint, which was overflowing with possibilities.
The mind imprint that resided within this man was, by its very existence, nothing short of a miracle.
Adding his lingering regrets to this transcendent fruit of the mind, which surpassed perfection, would only mar it.
From the very first moment he faced Lennok’s mind imprint, Kaiser had already made his decision.
Kaiser, without hesitation, approached the nearest golden kaleidoscope and raised his hand.
The moment his hand touched the dazzling golden rings, the landscape inside the kaleidoscope began to change little by little.
The vast, empty, dark cosmos transformed along with the changing scenery inside the kaleidoscope.
Paaaaaaat!!!!
“Thank you.”
Kaiser smiled within the changing domain’s landscape.
Even if he, standing here now, was merely a memory left in the past, and his future self had already died and vanished.
Someone would surely set out to find the answer again.
The yearning, even if unspoken, would continue.
Even if Kaiser himself could not provide the answer, someone else would continue moving towards the conclusion.
As long as one seeks the answer, they will not stop.
Mind Imprint Domain Deployment
Cosmic Transformation: Mental Manifestation
[Taeyeokswageopyeop]
Drrrrdrrrrrr!!!!
A colossal, unfathomable disk completely filled the dazzling expanse of spacetime.
The form of unknown scales glimpsed beneath the ground.
Only then did Lennok realize he was standing on a gigantic clock of immeasurable size.
Tick, tock……!!
The vast clock-like earth, ceaselessly turning.
But its second and minute hands were not rotating clockwise, but backwards, against the flow.
As if the very concept of time was flowing in reverse.
Lennok stood on the giant hour hand, facing Kaiser on the minute hand.
Using the elongated hour and minute hands as a ferry, they journeyed upstream against the colossal river of time.
Mind Imprint Domain: Taeyeokswageopyeop.
Kaiser’s fundamental mind imprint, powered by ‘Defying Heaven’ magic, grasping the concept of time itself.
The mind of a pioneer who, even if he infinitely rewound time and repeated failures, would ultimately find the answer.
Standing on the hour hand, Lennok gazed at Kaiser’s domain and asked.
“Spacetime Anchoring Device. Is it alright if it’s not visible within the domain?”
“It’s fine.”
Kaiser, standing on the minute hand, turned to Lennok and said.
“I intend to reverse my own time, not the anchoring device, and erase the very fact that I existed in this spacetime.”
“…….”
“Even if the timeline is fixed, the fixed range of time is set. If my existence completely vanishes beyond that limit, this space and the beings tied to it will naturally disappear.”
The Alkaid who collaborated on the Black Consumer Project and the Alkaid who left a shadow in this space now were different beings.
Kaiser, aware of this fact, had decided to completely eliminate this fixed spacetime and the existence of the shadow within it.
“Normally, rewinding time this far is not permitted for me…… but in exchange for leaving meaning in your domain, I can walk to the very end of possibilities. That’s enough.”
He began to walk towards the end of the colossal minute hand, whose end was not visible.
“If this space itself is a lingering regret left by my future self…… then I refuse to dwell on that failure.”
Tick, tock.
As the clock flowed backward, the surrounding scenery flipped and accelerated, its speed increasing further.
The spacetime domain spun madly, everything around Lennok and Kaiser reversing, leaving only them standing on the clock.
“Beware of my future self.”
Kaiser said, glancing at Lennok.
“During the project, I never once considered finding a substitute.”
“…….”
“Yet, for my future self to leave this moment as a sample of a substitute…… there must be a reason for it.”
That was probably related to the fundamental reason why the Black Consumer Project failed.
He wasn’t warning Lennok to be wary of the already deceased future Kaiser Bajour.
He was warning him that if he couldn’t discover the reason for the future Kaiser’s change, finding the truth might be difficult.
Whoosh!
With a faint whooshing sound, Kaiser’s figure on the hour hand began to accelerate.
Amidst the ceaselessly echoing gears, Lennok spoke as he watched Kaiser disappear into the distance.
“Your granddaughter’s face. Are you sure you don’t want to see it before you go?”
“…….”
Kaiser’s steps abruptly halted.
Lennok opened his mouth again, looking at his back.
“At the time, I didn’t fully understand your intentions, so I stopped you with a plausible excuse…… but if you wish, I can show you.”
Within Kaiser’s Mind Imprint Domain, which used ‘Defying Heaven’ magic on a temporal scale, a fleeting moment of respite remained.
How Jenny had lived in his absence, what she had done in the back alleys of Vulcan.
What kind of past she endured, and what kind of future she envisioned.
He could show Kaiser as much as he wished.
He could let him know how his only blood relative remaining in this world was remembered.
But Kaiser hesitated for a long time, then answered in a faint voice.
“Perhaps because he inherited my nature ambiguously, my son didn’t live long.”
“…….”
“So I never thought he would have a daughter.”
Kaiser quietly raised his gaze and looked at the spacetime beyond the domain.
“It’s alright. If she’s living well, perhaps it’s better to leave without knowing anything more……. I only wish for her happiness. Even that would be a lingering regret for me.”
Was he saying that even lingering regrets should remain as shackles on his own resolve?
Lennok probably couldn’t have done that.
Not without shedding all his remaining confusion and regrets, and being certain that it was the only way to move towards the conclusion.
Lennok couldn’t fully comprehend all of Kaiser’s resolve, but he respected his decision.
After all, it would be impossible for anyone other than Kaiser himself, who was in this situation, to fully understand his feelings.
As the distance between Kaiser and Lennok widened, the massive hour hand approached from the other side of the backward-turning clock.
The moment the hour hand intersected the end of the minute hand, Kaiser, without hesitation, immediately stepped onto the hour hand.
Click, click!!
Between the rapidly receding hour hand, Kaiser bent his waist and slowly began to release the safety restraints.
As he released the internal Geas that he had placed to construct the clock’s mind imprint, the speed of the turning clock gradually accelerated.
Whoooooosh!!
Kaiser’s Mind Imprint Domain: Taeyeokswageopyeop.
The safety restraints and restrictions he had set to construct the colossal clock’s mind imprint, powered by ‘Defying Heaven’ magic.
Releasing the Geas that constructed the mind imprint domain meant pushing ‘Defying Heaven’ magic to its limit without restriction, causing it to run wild.
That, in turn, signified the pinnacle of time reversal, and the terminus of Kaiser’s own journey through time.
“You know, Van……”
Kaiser’s hands trembled faintly as he released the restraints.
“Have you ever thought about what exists beyond eternal time?”
“…….”
Click, click……!!”
The entire Mind Imprint Domain swayed violently, and all the clock’s parts and hands spun wildly, like they were jumping.
The only things remaining relatively stable were the hour hand, which moved slower, and Lennok, who stood upon it.
Only then did Lennok realize why Kaiser had deployed the domain with him on the hour hand.
“I thought about it for a long time…… but I still couldn’t find the answer.”
Without waiting for Lennok’s reply, Kaiser mumbled, releasing all the final restraints.
Whoooooosh!!!
The second hand began to spin backward at a frantic speed, and Kaiser’s figure gradually blurred.
He turned to Lennok and forced a smile.
“But the same must have been true for my deceased future self.”
“……Kaiser.”
“This is as far as I can go. But you might be different.”
His back slowly dissipated and vanished amidst the infinitely receding second hand.
“If you don’t lose that initial resolve, you won’t regret it at the end of the conclusion. If so……”
Then, he could always become an echo for what comes next.
The moment Lennok understood the unspoken meaning of Kaiser’s words, the vast clock-like earth they stood on began to crumble.
Simultaneously, Kaiser’s will, erupting beyond the domain, forcibly flipped, rewound, and reassembled all existing spacetime.
Cha-charrrrrrr!!!
All the spacetime scenery that had crumbled and vanished returned, centered around the hour hand where Lennok stood.
The scattered power plant buildings, the bustling streets of the Sealed Zone visible in all directions, the rooftop of the power outlet tower where Lennok and Kaiser had met.
The boundary line of the colossal water wall that marked off the Sealed Zone, glimpsed at the end of the horizon.
All those landscapes and views were assembled in reverse, like a puzzle being put back together by rewinding a clock, filling in the blanks of spacetime.
As if all the world’s colors were snatched away once, then granted back one by one.
Beyond the crumbling Mind Imprint Domain, the colors of the world regained their light and time rewound.
Paaaat!!
With the smooth whirring of clockwork ceaselessly rewinding, all of the world’s physical laws reversed, regenerating the broken world.
And it recreated the scenery of the Sealed Zone from decades ago, as Lennok remembered it.
Ku-gung……!!
However, unlike when he first entered the Sealed Zone, the past spacetime, returned by time reversal, was cracked and shaking as if it would explode at any moment.
On the rooftop of the Particle Power Plant’s thermal exhaust tower. Kaiser, facing the shadow-like figure compressed from the Milky Way, stood at its edge.
Crackle!!
As cracks appeared and shattered within the fixed past spacetime,
The shadow’s figure also cracked and faded, slowly scattering and disappearing.
Unable to properly contain the power of starlight, it collapsed as if self-destructing, and the body, made in imitation of a human, crumbled.
[…….]
The shadow quietly watched its own body collapse, without any emotion or reaction.
Kaiser, now appearing as a young boy, stared fixedly at the shadow.
A small pocket watch, clutched in the boy’s hand, spun wildly in reverse, accelerating its speed.
Following the pocket watch’s reversal, the boy’s body also continuously grew younger, erasing Kaiser’s very existence from this spacetime.
The moment Lennok realized that Kaiser was materializing the power of his Mind Imprint Domain through the pocket watch and using it outside the domain.
Kakakak!!
He rewound his own time to the very limit, reversing his physical age and the very presence of his existence behind the timeline.
Perceiving Kaiser’s existence, who could never possibly exist as a boy at this point in time, the past spacetime itself shook and shattered completely.
Thump, thump!
The shadow’s form collapsed along with the crumbling past spacetime.
Amidst the crumbling and collapsing past, Kaiser, now in the form of a boy, turned to Lennok.
“…….”
He opened his mouth as if to speak to Lennok, then simply smiled and shook his head.
As he turned away, Kaiser’s back slowly faded.
The moment Lennok instinctively reached out to him, the spacetime where Kaiser and the shadow stood lightened to grayscale.
And the light bursting between the two of them transformed into a storm of dozens of colors, pushing Lennok out.
KWAANG!!
The impact of that storm finally shattered the fixed past spacetime in the Sealed Zone, and the reality beyond revealed itself.
Clang!!
Even the scent of the air that brushed his nose changed entirely.
The power plant and Ramahal District, once clean as if newly built, had become dust-covered ruins, as if decades had passed.
The rooftop of the exhaust tower swayed, appearing as if it could collapse at any moment.
Cement had worn away, and Lennok’s face was buried directly in the debris, where the internal rebar structure was clearly visible.
THUD!!
“……!!!”
Lennok, who rolled to the edge of the rooftop without even a scream, barely managed to cling to a single strand of mana thread, stopping just before falling.
His eyes, as he hung from the dilapidated exhaust tower wall, saw fragments of the past transform into massive clusters of light and surge into the sky.
Paaaat!!
The colossal light clusters, forming dazzling rings of light, reversed and rewound through time, disappearing beyond the sky.
A form that seemed to consume all the gaps between the present and past that had ever existed, and then self-annihilate.
Lennok, who had watched the vanishing light clusters without a word, gripped the mana thread and struggled to climb back onto the rooftop.
“Haa, haa…….!!”
Clutching his chest, he breathed heavily, desperately trying to regain consciousness and compose himself.
Lennok’s expression was dark, his face pale as he leaned against the dust-covered concrete debris.
He didn’t believe this method was wrong.
He still believed that the path he was on was the right one.
However, witnessing the conclusion of a being who had walked towards an answer alongside him was agonizing.
Even knowing that Kaiser’s journey ultimately failed to reach his cherished desire and crumbled, merely facing it weighed heavily on his heart.
Kaiser, perhaps, had walked another future that Lennok could have reached, ahead of him.
“Hmph……!!”
Lennok gritted his teeth, rose to his feet, and struggled to lift his gaze, sweating profusely.
The true appearance of District 25, freed from the past timeline, abandoned and isolated for decades.
He looked down from the top of the power plant tower at the dust-covered, broken, ruined cityscape of the bustling district.
The spot where Kaiser had last looked back at Lennok and vanished.
The moment Lennok stumbled and arrived at that very spot.
Click.
He stopped, discovering a pocket watch lying on the dusty concrete floor.
The spot where Kaiser had vanished, turning into a boy.
But the pocket watch he held had passed through past time and remained here, even after returning to reality.
“…….”
Whoosh!
Dust-laden wind blew across the cold ground of the Sealed Zone.
Lennok stood silently for a long time, staring at the old pocket watch.