Chapter 637: How to Kill a God (3)

“Steal the Gate… Are you out of your mind?”

Hermes’s eyes widened as he asked.

His face, still innocent despite being severed and covered in blood, looked truly bizarre.

But Lennok knew that if not for this moment, he might never get another chance to seize the Gate’s power.

“It’s hard to deeply examine the core of the Gate without opening it this widely.”

Lennok’s calm gaze through the iron mask met Hermes’s transparent eyes.

“By imbuing the spirit of the Old World into the flesh of this world, you have proven the Gate’s value. There is room for application in many more ways.”

The Heart-Star Vault beneath the Underwater Barrier. The legacy of the Ascension Gate located in the center of the deepest lake.

Even knowing it was connected to fragments of the Old World, Lennok carefully reconsidered the situation.

At this very moment, with Hermes having used his own will to summon a spirit of the Old World into the present world, leading to catastrophe with the other Meisters.

Crucially, with the Gate’s output pushed to its limits, revealing its true essence.

With this level of output, information, and design structure, Lennok could somehow acquire and take it.

As soon as he was sure of this, Lennok changed his plans and appeared directly before Hermes.

“Hmm…”

Hermes let out a troubled groan. His inverted head sighed softly.

“This is awkward. I thought I could simply coax you into helping… It seems you are a gentleman who already knows too many secrets.”

“Are you referring to the secret that this is a legacy born from the failure of the Ascension Gate?”

Lennok asked calmly, tapping the Gate’s handle.

“Or that you are still clinging to the plan of moving to the next world, chewing over that lingering regret?”

“…Heh heh.”

At that moment, Hermes’s head rolled once sideways on the floor and righted itself.

A gruesome sight, soaked in blood flowing from the severed neck.

But Hermes, with his severed neck still on the floor, looked straight at Lennok and smiled.

“Of course, it wasn’t like this at first. Everyone considered this a disgrace, and tried to erase all traces and evidence.”

“…”

“Artemeyer, who designed the Ascension Gate, Furnace General, who built its foundation, and the prophets of the Enforcer agency, including Maiya Lonsdale. They all met a fate of being forgotten in the city’s history. But it wasn’t long before we realized.”

Hermes clicked his tongue with a hint of sorrow, sneering.

“This city is already repeating a failed history, and there is no way forward other than picking up its scraps. The moment we tried to create the Ascension Gate and glimpse the next, our future was decided.”

“…”

“There is no ‘next’ for us. There is no future in this world.”

Hermes whispered strongly, as if affirming it to the silent Lennok.

“From the moment the Gate opened and led not to the fourth, but to the second world… we were trapped in an inescapable paradox.”

The Machine City’s answer, the Ascension Gate, to cross this world with a predetermined ending and reach the next.

It was a project that compressed the concept of a “gate” to its extreme and cybernetized it, building a pathway for human consciousness to move to the next world, thus skipping the world itself.

The essence of their magic engineering. Their technology and ideas, which had elevated human desire and hope to the level of being quantifiable and data-formulated, seemed transcendent to Lennok.

But the single fact that the fourth world did not exist completely shattered all plans.

The desperate truth that there was no “next” beyond this world’s approaching end.

They sought hope with their superior technology, yet by that very method, they also came to know the identity of the despair approaching them.

After saying that, Hermes chuckled self-deprecatingly, as if his situation was amusing.

“Well, I don’t know how much an outsider like yourself can understand the meaning of these words –”

“You thought you were worthy, so you couldn’t endure the loss.”

“…”

Did he feel as if the core of his anguish had been pierced by those words?

Lennok said, looking at Hermes’s silent head.

“It’s natural to deny and cling to a paradox rather than accept it.”

Lennok could understand what they must have felt when they realized that the place they reached, gathering all the city’s hopes, was not the future they yearned for, but a failed past.

He also understood why those who couldn’t endure it went mad and tried to erase all traces and involved parties.

And why, even now, they desperately clung to the failure they had discovered.

“I am no different.”

Lennok knelt and murmured, meeting Hermes’s gaze.

“If I hadn’t known the truth, I might have walked the same path as those who failed and went mad. I don’t want to deny that.”

Precisely for that reason, Lennok continued to crave to know how those who sought the “next” had failed.

If he didn’t confirm how they failed at the end, how they tumbled down instead of moving forward, how their yearning blossomed and then withered.

Lennok would surely walk the same path as them.

Even Kaiser, who thoroughly explored all failures of this world and joined hands with Alkaid to find a way, ultimately failed.

They say fools learn from their own failures, and the wise learn from others’ failures, but Lennok did not agree.

The opportunity to learn something from one’s own failure is not given in this world.

Even if he wasn’t wise, even if he wasn’t worthy, even if it meant digging up a history stained with madness and disgrace.

Lennok had to somehow find the answer and reflect on those times filled with repeated failures.

A single answer to this world’s ending.

No one could be sure if he could find the meaning of moving to the next, or a value comparable to it.

Lennok turned his gaze from Hermes and slowly approached the Gate.

He slowly grasped the Gate’s handles with both hands, summoned mana, and forcefully rotated them.

Charrrrrr!!

Dozens of circular rings, floating in layers, rotated rapidly in different directions, bursting forth with an immense radiance.

“Great Observer, Challenging Transcendent, Defier of Law… You are still someone seeking a way.”

Hermes watched Lennok silently from behind and smiled.

“Your mindset, craving an answer that doesn’t exist, is respectable, but the Gate’s power is not something you can obtain with just such determination…”

Click!!

Lennok ignored Hermes’s words and began manipulating the output devices connected to various parts of the massive circular rings.

At this point, Hermes could do nothing anyway.

What Lennok had to do was overload the Gate’s output beyond its limits, then use Davi’s power to copy and extract the Gate’s design structure and internal magic circuits.

He had already observed how the Meisters operated the equipment to adjust the Gate and stabilize its output.

Then, all he had to do was operate the equipment in reverse, reduce the output stability, and forcibly overload it.

Whoooooosh!!!

As if Lennok’s thoughts were correct, dozens of layered circular rings began to spin rapidly, intensifying their radiance.

Lennok forcefully amplified the Gate’s power itself, breaking down its internal structure, and forcibly observing and memorizing its interior.

Realizing that Lennok wasn’t just spouting empty words, but was dissecting the Gate’s structure in an instant, Hermes sighed softly.

“Very well. I underestimated you, sir.”

With those words, he felt something rising from beneath the lake’s surface at incredible speed.

Grrrrooooo…!!

Something that had ascended at a speed surpassing sound, like a cruise missile, shot out and struck Lennok without hesitation.

Wooooong…!!

An eerie vibration that violently shook his eardrums. A huge wave surged across the lake’s surface.

As a massive shockwave erupted, Lennok’s body was pushed back.

KABOOOOM!!!

“I had planned to keep it hidden until the commotion inside the Heart-Star Vault was completely suppressed, but…”

Hermes said, rolling his head to the side of the Gate.

“It wouldn’t be bad to test how far it works against a strong individual like yourself.”

The wraith of the Old World, the Blood Knight, whom Lennok had kicked and submerged into the lake.

The monster, covered in Harvest’s flesh-armor stained with blood, stumbled and blocked Lennok’s path.

But Lennok quietly shook his head, looking at the Blood Knight.

“No. The trial and error itself is already over; what’s needed is just validation in real combat.”

“Hm?”

“The process itself goes against common sense. Even calculating for the efficiency of the offering, the cost is insufficient.”

Lennok didn’t find much interest or possibility in human sacrifice itself, but he had a deep understanding of it after various incidents.

Hermes claimed the Gate’s efficiency was poor, yet he had only sacrificed Harvest’s life to summon a spirit of the Old World.

Regardless of the fact that a Meister’s existence itself was a huge asset in this city, it was a woefully inadequate price to summon a God-Slayer.

It would be impossible unless an additional price had been paid in advance, and the soul itself had been prepared.

“You acted as if you were mad and irrational, but in fact, the transaction was already completed long ago, and you were summoned, weren’t you?”

Lennok’s eyes gleamed coldly as he looked down at Hermes’s smiling head.

“You deliberately made him act like he was running wild to make the situation convenient. The face being covered by armor must be because there was an even greater change beyond that.”

Hermes’s severed head and the Meisters who fled in confusion.

If the entire situation until now had progressed according to Hermes’s own intentions and formed a complete plan, what then was his true objective?

“Feigning the Gate’s rampage and his own death, and throwing the inside of the Underwater Barrier into chaos. Yet, not preventing that chaos from spreading means…”

Lennok sneered chillingly at Hermes’s head rolling on the floor.

“It’s hard to accept unless he intended to offer the entire Underwater Barrier as the price for the Gate.”

Human emotions, heightened to the extreme between the terror of death and the desire for survival.

The existence of the Underwater Barrier, considered the most secret and valuable sanctuary within the Machine City, which had existed for a long time.

If all of that were offered as a price for the Gate’s transaction, what level of spirit could be summoned?

Hermes didn’t just sacrifice one Meister to summon a God-Slayer.

His own life. The existence of a dozen or so Meisters. The value of all matter, space, and time of other soldiers and the Underwater Barrier.

He intended to push the most valuable components of the Machine City, Machina, wholesale through the Gate and obtain what he so desperately desired.

The moment Lennok pointed out that fact, a dry voice leaked from between the Blood Knight’s tightly shut helmet.

“…Interesting. Do even the talents of this world dream of moving to the next?”

He muttered that, slowly removed his helmet, and brushed back his hair.

Covering his face with one hand, he slowly lifted his gaze and looked at Lennok.

“A life of having one’s soul mortgaged at the end of destruction, suffering and cursing, neither dead nor alive… I’ve always thought, truly…”

As the man sighed, he removed the hand covering his face.

“It’s a tiresome affair.”

The face revealed was completely different from the one Harvest’s corpse had possessed.

Smooth skin and ash-gray hair. A pale complexion and a tall, handsome young man.

An undeniable nobility and grace emanated from his movements.

“Your face…”

Lennok realized the meaning of the sudden change in appearance and his face hardened.

This wasn’t just magic or a spell to change appearance.

The memory of the Old World existing beyond the Gate. The soul that possessed Harvest’s corpse was, by its mere existence, transforming the body from its very foundation.

A miracle where the soul’s essence and presence were so unbelievably powerful that the balance between body and soul shattered, and the body was reconstructed according to the soul’s memories.

Simply completing the Seven Hierarchies of Self-Transformation is not enough.

It’s impossible unless one has twisted their own Hierarchy and forged their own path.

Lennok’s gaze deepened, instantly realizing that the opponent was a monster beyond the ordinary.

“You’re not the kind of being who would be forcibly summoned by someone’s will. Why did you crawl out?”

The ash-gray haired young man standing before him was certainly not a spirit that could move against its own will.

A soul of such caliber must have willingly possessed Harvest’s body, decided to escape through the Gate, and directly acted upon it.

For some unknown reason, this being had listened to Lennok’s and Hermes’s conversation and had crawled out, possessing Harvest’s body.

“Crawled out, you say? What a rude remark.”

The young man chuckled and reached a hand to the Ascension Gate behind him.

He casually tore off one of the circular rings forming the Ascension Gate, gripped it with both hands, and twisted it forcefully.

Crack!!

He twisted a ring several tens of centimeters thick on the spot with bare hands, changing its direction arbitrarily.

The young man instantly twisted it into a spiral form, creating a glaive, and lightly grasped it.

Whoosh!!

The air around the young man sharply intensified, and a heavy shockwave erupted on the water’s surface.

The young man, with the heavy spear shaft resting on his shoulder, replied indifferently.

“He spoke to me, and I simply responded.”

“…”

“It’s not pleasant to reminisce about our ending this way, but there’s no harm in fellow failures licking each other’s wounds, don’t you think?”

Fellow failure. A being from the Old World. Lennok vaguely understood what the opponent was saying.

Perhaps this being was not a God-Slayer itself, but a being that failed its ascension and perished in the second world.

Becoming a part of a destroyed world, having reached the end of causality, yet answering Hermes’s call and borrowing a body to manifest here.

This was the true nature of Hermes’s plan, which he attempted in this Machine City using the failure of the Ascension Gate.

To imbue the souls of the Old World into the human bodies of this world and use them as new vanguards for the city.

“I have no lingering regrets, but testing the qualifications of a seeker like you is always a pleasant experience.”

The young man, with the spear shaft resting on his shoulder, slightly lowered his head and began to emit an eerie glow from his eyes.

An ominous crimson-black mana flowed down the slanted spear shaft and shoulder.

The crimson-black mana light surged up the spear shaft, overlaying the glaive blade, forming a blade that seemed to be burning.

“My name is Kashuin. A sinner who abandoned a failed god and fell from the Archangel’s Seat.”

“…Archangel?”

The moment Lennok heard that name, his face hardened, and simultaneously, huge, blood-soaked wings unfurled behind the Blood Knight.

At the same time, an immense crimson flame, like a gigantic sun, surged up the spear shaft, filling his vision.

Fwoooosh…!!

Kashuin’s spear strike, lightly unleashed from dozens of meters away.

The mana of the spear blade, rising like a wildfire, surged high as if to cleave Lennok’s head, burning intensely.

KABOOOOM!!!

A faint chill flashed through the scattering flames, and Kashuin relentlessly pursued and blocked it.

The man, who had instantly shattered the shield and thrust his face right before Lennok’s, smiled, bringing his burning gaze close.

Kagagak!!

“I smell a truly nostalgic soul from you… What is your name?”

At that moment, the staff resting in Lennok’s arms, Compassion of the Archangel, began to resonate intensely.