Chapter 651: The Right to Ascension (1)
“I heard you refused the Director’s offer.”
In a dark room, devoid of light.
A man with deep shadows obscuring his face spoke to someone with their head bowed.
His height and build were ambiguous, making his age impossible to guess. He wore a worn white gown and stood with his arms crossed, a bored expression on his face.
The elderly woman, at the end of his gaze, simply kept her head bowed without answering.
“…”
Though the woman was clearly alive, there was almost no discernible life sign, including her breath.
Her presence was so faint that even the man, who had greedily researched all sorts of technologies and civilizations, couldn’t comprehend it.
Perhaps it was because she was a being worn down to nothing by a long, arduous life.
A great Transcendent who had observed the Outer Sea for hundreds of years, delaying the direct approach of destruction.
An Ascendant worn away by bearing a mission no ordinary human could ever fathom, finally reaching the end of her strength.
The previous Lighthouse Keeper, Madria Falcia, was such a being.
“You’ve grown too weak. Now, someone like you could easily kill a cripple like me.”
“…”
“The Director doesn’t show it, but he wants to respect the will of an old Ascendant like you. That’s probably why he withdrew so readily, but…”
The man shrugged, leaving the previous Lighthouse Keeper unanswered.
“But it’s a shame for your power and qualifications to simply vanish like this. Don’t you think?”
At his words, the previous Lighthouse Keeper slowly raised her head.
Her hazy, gray eyes. An opaque gaze, making it impossible to tell if she was truly looking at the man.
Two eyes that utterly failed to match the reputation of the previous Lighthouse Keeper, who was said to foresee everything furthest away.
“When one tries to fill what cannot be filled, they become obsessed with understanding and proof.”
But those words, casually spoken by the previous Lighthouse Keeper, pierced the man’s essence with perfect accuracy.
The man flinched as if he hadn’t expected those words at all, then let out a bitter laugh, seemingly surprised by his own reaction.
“…Indeed. Are you pointing out the last vestiges of my delusion? I hadn’t wanted to learn it this way.”
“…”
“Thank you for the advice. But I want an answer to my question.”
Did the man’s unyielding demand change her mind?
The previous Lighthouse Keeper, who had been weakly bowing her head, very slowly raised the hand resting on the armrest.
“…!!”
With that small gesture alone, the man trembled violently and retreated nearly dozens of meters.
Although she was dying, her power exhausted, the abilities of a qualified Ascendant were nothing short of transcendental.
Moreover, an Ascendant who had borne such a mission for a long time, like the previous Lighthouse Keeper, was bound to be extremely dangerous, even if her essence was far removed from combat.
She was a being who could overturn the very concept of ‘seeing’ from where she sat.
But the previous Lighthouse Keeper paid no mind to the rapidly retreating man, simply flicking the raised finger lightly.
At that moment, the scenery reflected in the man’s eyes shifted as if it had been instantly overturned.
Whoosh!!
An immeasurable, vast night sky.
Dozens of lighthouses, illuminating the sea of darkness, gathered to become an eye that dispelled the gloom.
This was the Mind Imprint of a Transcendent who had inherited the Lighthouse Keeper’s mission.
The heart of an Ascendant, devoted to the terrestrial world as a beacon illuminating the Outer Sea.
“…Beautiful.”
Even the man, who had no particular appreciation for aesthetics, inadvertently let out a cry of admiration at the landscape of that mind.
The moment the previous Lighthouse Keeper, who had illuminated her own light, flipped her hand.
A small model of a lighthouse rose from the air, then changed its form, transforming into a dazzling gemmed mirror.
Whoosh!!
The moment the previous Lighthouse Keeper slowly lowered her hand onto the chair’s armrest, the gemmed mirror was already in the man’s hand.
“This is…”
Even on the man’s face, who recognized its true nature, unconcealable wonder bloomed.
“It is the Lighthouse Keeper’s calling to hand over a beacon to those who seek hope.”
The previous Lighthouse Keeper murmured softly.
“Even if one has chosen the wrong path… everyone is entitled to the right to illuminate a path.”
“…”
Even knowing the man was involved in human sacrifice, the previous Lighthouse Keeper did not assert that his methods were wrong.
She merely hinted that she herself did not prefer such methods.
This was likely because the previous Lighthouse Keeper’s approach and standards for dealing with humans had long since transcended ordinary human values.
Despite admiring her overwhelming standards, the man picked up the gemmed mirror and subtly tucked it into his pocket.
“I express my gratitude for the great Ascendant’s mercy. But why not for the Director?”
“He has already decided how he will walk.”
For a moment, an illusion of focus seemed to enter the previous Lighthouse Keeper’s gaze.
“For one who has chosen to walk backward, looking back at the path they’ve trod, a beacon to light the way is unnecessary.”
“…”
The man remained silent. The previous Lighthouse Keeper, as if not expecting an answer, quietly raised her gaze.
“If one cannot realize it themselves, they cannot persist. I hope Lapis understands someday.”
“I see. So that’s what you meant by your way of loving humanity?”
The man murmured, then subtly retreated and bowed his head.
It was the utmost deference he could show to the great Ascendant.
The man’s eyes, as he raised his gaze, seemed to change, becoming profoundly serious for a brief moment.
“The ending you chose. The fate you selected. Even the beacon you wish to leave behind.”
“I shall not forget any of it. So that someday, someone might understand.”
Crack!
At that moment, as the scene in the dark room shattered like an illusion, someone’s ragged breathing was heard.
CRASH!!
“Haa, haa…!!”
It took Lennok a long moment to realize that sound was his own ragged breath.
An empty city street. He was slumped, leaning as if clinging to the edge of a bookstore shelf where paper fluttered in the wind.
Lennok, slumped in a daze, recalled the memories, then grimaced and laughed bitterly.
“This is…”
He knew whose memories he had just witnessed.
Because he instinctively knew who the man talking with the previous Lighthouse Keeper had been, without needing to be told.
It was the previous Lighthouse Keeper’s Ideological Domain, the ‘Myriad Reflected Single Pupil,’ temporarily deployed by Maiya with the Doctor’s auxiliary computation.
The Mind Imprint of a Transcendent qualified to challenge ascension, bearing the Lighthouse Keeper’s mission.
Through it, the transcendental abilities to completely alter reality itself.
The power of the Ideological Domain, fitting its reputation as the ‘Eye that Reflects All,’ was an authority capable of overturning and shattering reality itself, even if only for a moment.
Maiya succeeded in incapacitating the Enforcers in one fell swoop through a simplified deployment of the Ideological Domain, simultaneously allowing Lennok to escape pursuit.
However, neither Maiya nor Lennok could escape its after-effects.
Thus, immediately after successfully escaping, Lennok was swept up in the aftermath of the simplified Ideological Domain deployment and witnessed someone’s memories.
Memories of someone who was once the architect of the Ascension Gate, once a seeker of civilization, and now lived as an engineer for Pandemonium.
“…”
He hadn’t thought such memories would remain in the depths of that eccentric man’s consciousness, who spouted off as if mocking and understanding everything.
Perhaps it was because his last encounter with the previous Lighthouse Keeper had left such a profound impression on his memory.
If so, he could also understand why the Doctor had used the previous Lighthouse Keeper’s will-thought to help him at this moment.
“…It wouldn’t be a coincidence.”
Within the Ideological Domain, not everyone would have seen the same memories as Lennok.
Perhaps it was because Lennok had met both individuals who appeared in the memory that their impressions flowed into his consciousness.
Since arriving in the Machine City, he had been looking into other people’s memories for an unusually long time.
Though looking into memories wouldn’t shake Lennok’s own mind, it was undeniable that the recoil was severe.
Lennok stopped thinking there and struggled to his feet.
To temporarily deploy someone else’s Mind Imprint, and moreover, to forcibly mimic the power of an Ascendant, Maiya’s burden must have been immense.
But even so, she was overexerting herself, concentrating all the power of the Machine City on herself to buy Lennok time.
Lennok had a brief respite. There was no time to waste this opportunity.
Lennok looked at the darkening sky, touching a falling raindrop with his finger.
“It’s raining…”
As he gazed at the pouring raindrops, Lennok’s figure vanished completely from the street.
[The fire that broke out in the Upper Workshop District is not being easily contained.]
[Police forces and various other agencies are currently dispatching personnel, and…]
[The public is pointing out that the commotion is not subsiding, but rather spreading to various districts, raising the possibility of a terror attack…]
The medical district, equipped with the best medical facilities in the Machine City, primarily serving top-tier VIPs.
In a private room on the top floor, Ibert was watching TV with a serious expression.
“I hope nothing serious happens…”
Though the media wasn’t directly mentioning possibilities other than the fire, Ibert knew through various sources what was truly happening in the city.
A serious problem had occurred inside the underwater barrier.
The survival of all the Meisters who had been cooperating with Ex Machina committee member Hermes, the person in charge this quarter, was uncertain.
Meanwhile, news that someone had infiltrated and then escaped the underwater barrier spread throughout the entire Navy, and an emergency summons was issued for the entire sea area.
Crucially, the culprit was identified as Lyman, who had recently been working in the Upper Workshop District, and now the Enforcers were investigating.
To Ibert’s common sense, everything was happening so fast that he couldn’t easily make sense of any situation.
Ibert’s expression clouded as he looked at Narcissa’s face, lying as if dead, with a respirator attached.
“Sister…”
“So you were here.”
“…!!!”
Ibert jumped to his feet, turning his head sharply.
A young man, soaked to the bone as if he had walked straight through the pouring rain, stood at the door of the hospital room.
He wore an Iron Mask that covered half his face, and his overall appearance was as neat as ever.
But that expressionless, hardened face looked like a completely different person from the Lyman Ibert knew.
Lennok ignored Ibert’s reaction and slowly walked into the room, stopping in front of Narcissa.
The moment Lennok, gazing at Narcissa’s unconscious face, reached into his pocket.
“W-wait!! What are you trying to do?!”
Ibert rushed forward, blocking Narcissa.
“…”
“Y-you… aren’t you being pursued by the Enforcers?”
Ibert fixed his expression firmly and glared at Lennok as he spoke.
“The commander of the Mechanized Troops himself issued a wanted order, so how in the world did you…?”
“I used a little bait.”
Ibert’s shoulders twitched at Lennok’s completely changed tone.
Lennok looked at Ibert, then pulled out a sky-blue vial from his pocket.
“This is the antidote I obtained from the very person who tried to assassinate Narcissa Solmer.”
“…!!”
“Oason collaborated with Hermes to try and kill Narcissa, and he had this antidote himself.”
Lennok said, shaking the vial held in his water-soaked hand.
“I’ve confirmed the medicine itself is real. I have something to ask Narcissa, so move aside.”
“No! How can I trust you?!”
Whoosh!!
Ibert shouted, channeling his magic power, but the next moment his limbs were tightly bound by thin magical threads.
Ibert’s mouth dropped open as he realized both his wrists were tied to the corner of the hospital bed in the blink of an eye, and Lennok murmured.
“I’m not asking.”
“Ugh…!! I’ll call for help!”
“Do as you wish.”
Lennok ignored Ibert and immediately poured the medicine into Narcissa’s mouth.
He poured about half of the medicine into Narcissa’s mouth, then closed the cap and placed the vial on the bedside table.
“There’s another soldier who was hit by a bullet and fell into critical condition with Narcissa. Share it with him.”
“What is that medicine?! How dare you give it to Sister—!!”
“Hmm…”
Ibert’s words were cut off abruptly as Narcissa’s eyelids began to twitch.
The old woman’s brow seemed to furrow, and her calm breathing became deep and irregular.
Narcissa slowly awoke, her breathing ragged as if rousing from a long sleep.
Ibert tried to leap up but tumbled over, still bound by the magical threads.
“S-sister!!”
“…Ibert?”
Narcissa frowned, her hazy gaze falling upon Ibert.
“What are you doing there?”
“T-this man came into your room and—!!”
At Ibert’s struggling words from the floor, Narcissa finally turned her gaze, discovered Lennok, and her expression shifted slightly.
“You’re that brash youth from before…”
“Narcissa Solmer. I have something to ask you.”
Upon hearing Lennok’s voice, Narcissa’s eyes began to focus.
“…I knew your talent was extraordinary, but you’re no ordinary craftsman. What are you, exactly?”
Her mental fortitude was admirable; she remembered Lennok and began to interrogate him in turn, immediately after regaining consciousness after several weeks.
But Lennok had no time to answer Narcissa’s questions one by one.
“Are the remnants of the Ascension Gate hidden in the Furnace General’s workshop?”
“…!!!”
Narcissa’s face stiffened.
It was a question so shocking that even she, a long-lived Meister and seasoned politician, couldn’t hide her agitation.
Ibert, who had been watching Lennok’s words and Narcissa’s reaction from the side, gaped.
“W-what in the world are you talking about?!”
“Hermes colluded with Meister Oason to plot your assassination.”
Lennok pulled out a tobacco stick from his pocket, put it in his mouth, and flicked his fingers.
Hiss!
“That was likely to neutralize your actions and stop any checks on himself, but… my thoughts are a little different.”
Lennok said quietly, exhaling smoke.
“He is trying to manifest beings from the Old World onto this land using the Ascension Gate. In the process, he lent his power to assassinate you.”
“…”
“It’s because he wanted to tamper with the space you managed. If you, who inherited the Furnace General’s workshop entirely, would know what Hermes is after.”
It wouldn’t be strange if the Furnace General, who had created the foundation of the Ascension Gate, had separately stored remnants or core components of the gate.
From the moment Lennok heard that Hermes had lent a hand to Oason,
he was certain that Hermes was targeting the workshop or a specific place, or even a secret, managed by Narcissa.
Narcissa, who had been silent, finally raised her head and gazed at Lennok with an intense stare.
“The Heart-Star Vault has a problem, hasn’t it?”
“…”
“There would be no reason to specifically search for a new location unless the gate within the Heart-Star Vault was broken.”
As Narcissa said that and looked at Ibert, Ibert nodded with a somber expression.
Narcissa, understanding the implication, exhaled a trembling breath and closed her eyes.
“I see. So Hermes finally….”
“Where is it?”
Lennok asked again.
“I need to pinpoint where Hermes will ultimately carry out his plan. There’s not much time left.”
“…”
Narcissa Solmer was the complete successor, having inherited everything, including the workshop’s operation, directly from the Furnace General himself.
Therefore, she likely knew all the secrets he had left behind.
That’s why Lennok intended to wake Narcissa and go straight to the core, rather than rashly heading to the Furnace General’s workshop.
Narcissa, who had been pondering with her eyes closed for a while, slowly opened her mouth.
“My master… considered creating the foundation of the Ascension Gate to be the greatest achievement of his life.”
Narcissa let out a bitter laugh, tinged with a hint of regret.
“That’s why he always wished to be with it, even after his death.”
“Are you saying the remnants of the Ascension Gate are in the Furnace General’s tomb?”
“S-sister…”
Ibert interrupted Lennok’s words with a trembling voice.
“But master…”
“My master’s remains were not scattered in a tomb, but over his magnum opus. It was his wish to become a part of the city, even after death.”
“…”
Only then did Lennok’s expression subtly change as he realized what Narcissa was saying.
“The Furnace General’s last creation, and his very own workshop tower.”
Narcissa said calmly.
“The tallest building in this Machine City is the foundation of the failed Ascension Gate itself.”
Splash!!
A quiet street, rain pouring down.
Only Lennok, walking without an umbrella, passed through the dark street and vanished.
“…”
The towering form of an impossibly high, massive tower.
The appearance of the immense workshop tower, the Furnace General’s final magnum opus, which he had used as his own workshop.
Each level of the tower was a workshop designed for Meister-class artisans, and a residential area in itself.
Even in the Machine City, Machina, where height restrictions were in place due to inter-district movement, it was one of the very few structures with its height limit lifted.
The moment Lennok reached to open the door and step inside.
Flash!!
The dark street was suddenly bathed in bright light, and dazzling illumination began to shine on Lennok.
An intense amount of light, strong enough to blind his eyes.
The light was so bright that no shadow formed anywhere around Lennok’s body, standing before the entrance to the tower.
Lennok let out a small laugh as he saw dozens of laser pointers overlapping on the back of his hand, clutching the doorknob, staining his skin red.
If his hand was like this, then by now, hundreds of muzzles would be simultaneously aimed at his back.
From behind Lennok, a bored voice was heard.
“Slowly raise both hands and turn around.”
“…”
“I am Thermore Shin, commander of the 3rd Mechanized Troops. I swear I will grind you into pieces on the spot if you disobey my orders.”
Lennok slowly raised his hands and turned around as instructed.
Rows of armored infantry and tank units filled the interior and exterior of the massive workshop tower.
Dozens of transport aircraft were already flying in the sky, and he could distinctly feel the presence of snipers aiming from afar.
And in the center of the formation, a man sat perched on a giant tank, stroking his chin with an intrigued expression.
“I never expected my own legion to capture you, bypassing the Enforcers. I thought I wouldn’t get a chance to achieve a military feat, but this is quite lucky.”
The man who introduced himself as the commander of the Mechanized Troops, Thermore, grinned and gestured.
“I’ve heard many rumors about you, Lyman. Word has it the new craftsman in the Upper Workshop District is more capable than most fortune-tellers.”
“…”
“It’s truly a pity that such extraordinary abilities weren’t used for our Machine City. But what can be done?”
As Thermore spoke, armored infantry units advanced from all directions, surrounding Lennok.
“Please remain docile until we secure you. I know your combat capabilities aren’t exceptional, but we still have to do things properly.”
Did he even know that Lennok had used Night Raven as bait to draw them away, then infiltrated this place?
But instead of responding, Lennok turned his gaze toward the impossibly tall workshop tower of the Furnace General.
The reason he had deliberately walked directly to the tower’s main entrance, even knowing there were ambushes and traps.
It was simply to confirm the sight that could only be seen from this very spot.
He poured magic into the doorknob he had just gripped, expanding his senses infinitely to quickly cover the entire workshop tower.
Whirrr…!!
Between the dark night and the brilliant lights, he couldn’t see properly, but his sixth sense, amplified by magic detection, perceived something beyond the five senses.
A grand, magnificent, palace-like throne, located on the top floor of the workshop tower.
Behind that throne, adorning the wall, was a perfectly circular, colossal ring.
The very foundation of the Ascension Gate, which had been used in the Ascension Gate project.
That relic, which should have been completely discarded after the project failed, was hidden in the Furnace General’s workshop.
[Hoo….]
And atop the pristine white throne, situated in the center of that enormous ring of light.
A young man sat quietly, eyes closed, chin resting in his hand, head bowed.
Thousands of wires connected to the back of the white-haired young man, writhing as if trying to inject something superhuman.
Lennok confirmed Hermes’ deeply slumbering form at the very top of the workshop tower, then looked back at the tanks of the 3rd Legion surrounding him and nodded.
“Good.”
Click!!
With a single gesture, Lennok removed the Iron Mask covering his face, slowly leaned his neck back, and began to draw up his magic.
Maiya had an inkling of who Lennok truly was, and thus did not prevent Lennok from going to meet Hermes alone.
Rather, she had intended to clear the way to Hermes, even if it meant paying a heavy price herself.
And it was an undeniable fact that this plan was based on Lennok’s own abilities and actions.
Having confirmed Hermes’ location and state, there was no longer any reason to hesitate.
“No more reason to hide now.”
Crackle, crackle…!!
As intense lightning flared from his fingertips, the expressions of the Mechanized Troops also slowly changed.
The moment someone gasped in dismay, realizing that the Iron Mask on Lennok’s face wasn’t a trace of body modification, and the magic surging forth was completely different from that of a craftsman.
“Wait, you’re not Lyman—!!”
From the dark night sky of the Machine City, a brilliant blue lightning bolt struck down.
BOOM!!
Lennok stepped forward amidst the brilliant, dazzling radiance of thunder that painted everything around him.
Crackle, crackle…!!
The wizard, wreathed in surging lightning, layered all around him, looked up at the top of the tower and nodded.
“Let’s finish this quickly.”