Chapter 658: The Right to Ascension (8)
CRACKLE, CRACKLE, CRACKLE!!!
The Platinum Star of Soaring Harvest and the civilization established by Orokhnier melted away.
The heterogeneous space, formed by the intermingling of the Ideological Domain and the Domain, reached its extreme, melting and adhering to its limits, then shattering into pieces.
BOOM!!!
Intense firepower, an ultimate magic, drawn from within the Domain, was strong enough to shatter the Domain itself and burst outwards.
A wave of black flames, rising from the rooftop of the Workshop Tower, incinerated the entire sky above the Machine City, evaporating all rain and clouds.
WHOOOOSH!!!
The flames of the mind, endlessly surging upwards into the sky above the Workshop Tower’s topmost floor where Orokhnier and Lennok stood, manifested without extending any influence whatsoever onto the ground below.
Lennok’s figure, staggering and then collapsing atop the crumbling platinum mass-manipulation magic, intersected the view.
The black flames erupting above his head consumed all oxygen and other gases, transforming the space into an uninhabitable zone.
Perhaps even this single Mindscape deployment could temporarily alter the environment of the entire Machina region.
CRUUUUMBLE!!
Lennok, collapsed on the collapsing summit of the Workshop Tower, gazed at the blackened sky with a pallid face.
“Haa, haa……!!”
The cost of Mindscape deployments three times in a row—once against the Mechanized Troops and twice against Orokhnier—was severe, even for Lennok himself, who had steeled himself for extreme strain.
Even when forcibly elevating his body and adjusting his condition with the help of medicine, he found it difficult to breathe properly.
His blood vessels felt tangled and twisted, and his magic, always under his control, ran wild beyond his grasp.
His ears rang with a piercing tinnitus. He couldn’t even think of pressing his heavy, ringing head and simply hung it low.
“Ha….”
It felt as if his very senses had died, completely stopped.
Unlike his usual bouts of nausea and stomach upset from overexertion, he felt so deeply suppressed that he couldn’t even vomit.
A recoil so powerful, so lethally crushing to his mind and body, it threatened to kill Lennok himself.
Lennok knew that paying such a price wasn’t simply due to deploying his Domain twice.
The Black Solution Starfall, a Domain used and formed as a projectile for Teremer’s Demise.
The Domain of Conflagration, forcibly drawing upon and actualizing the potential of reaching the pinnacle of fire-elemental unique magic through combustion.
However, even though Lennok knew the Black Solution Starfall’s power was immense, he had never unleashed it again after burning the Avatar body of Apostle Walter Martinez.
‘The Kaleidoscope’s Domain is, after all, a miracle that pulls possibilities that could exist into reality. But…’
As he accumulated Hierarchy and broadened his horizons of perception, the output and recoil of the Domain, which drew upon those possibilities, grew disproportionately large.
Furthermore, Lennok’s favored fire-elemental unique magic primarily consisted of wide-area saturation spells.
The Black Solution Starfall, a Domain that reached the apex of that Mindscape, also grew in power and recoil within Lennok’s inner self.
The potential that resided within the five-pronged Rosary of the Magic Tower when he killed Apostle Walter Martinez now depicted an incarnation of jade flames, a Tower Lord incinerating the battlefield.
As Lennok grew and gained new insights, the Domain of Possibilities also continued to change and grow.
The problem was that Lennok himself could not directly control this change and growth.
The Kaleidoscope, using the Mindscape of Pursuit that endlessly draws answers as its key, only continued to advance without looking back, like a never-ending pursuit of answers.
It was now impossible to change the scenery of the Mindscape or reduce its output to adjust its power.
All Lennok could do was choose the Mindscape that grew beyond his control.
It was the same reason he had never unleashed the lightning-elemental Domain he had first awakened until now.
Indeed, the lightning-elemental Domain was practically Lennok’s own identity.
The power of the Thunder Mindscape, which had transcended Hierarchy and reached its apex, would surely be twice as severe as that of the Black Solution Starfall in terms of both might and recoil.
That was why he had striven to obtain the Old World magic gun, Teremer’s Demise, to acquire a method for controlling the output and recoil immediately after deploying the Domain.
To forcibly control the Domain’s output itself by relying on the power of equipment.
Because that was the only way to manage the recoil of the excessively growing Kaleidoscope at present.
Lennok had continuously researched how to adjust this recoil and perfectly wield his own power.
However, each time the wizard’s talent gained new inspiration and enlightenment and grew, the power of the Domain stretched out immeasurably beyond control.
“……Cough.”
Viscous blood dripped from his mouth, yet he couldn’t even cough properly.
He just stared blankly at the ground, too weak to even vomit, simply enduring the passage of time.
The Ascendant of the Old World. Though it was an attenuated Ideological Domain without a true master, the price for directly shattering it was equally harsh.
[Master……!!]
Davi, who had been hiding breathlessly, could no longer hold back and urgently called out to Lennok.
The moment Lennok laboriously twitched his eyelids to respond to the spirit’s call.
CLICK!!
He felt the cold touch of metal against the back of his head.
“Haa, haa……!!!”
Someone was panting madly, as if greatly agitated. The shadow cast over his head had long hair.
“I…… won. Lyman.”
“…….”
The human, Hermes, who had been lying bloodied and collapsed on the throne.
He, who Lennok had thought was dead, his ego taken over by the Ascendant’s memories, was now standing, holding Lennok’s revolver.
His white hair was messily cut and disheveled.
His body was broken and damaged, caught in the aftermath of the battle. His tattered skin revealed bone and flesh, a truly gruesome sight.
Yet, he had survived and, at this moment of Lennok’s collapse, sought to claim the final victory.
“I wasn’t wrong. I found my true self beyond the gate, and finally made it manifest in this world.”
With trembling hands, he cocked the revolver’s hammer.
Click!
With the smooth rotation of the cylinder, a bullet was loaded, and the weight of the barrel pressed against the head it was aimed at.
He trembled uncontrollably with excitement, muttering with an ecstatic expression.
“I am an Ascendant…… a great Transcendent who has gained the qualification…… all who obstruct me must die!!!”
[You insolent organic being, how dare you……!!]
Davi cried out with unprecedented fury, gathering magic.
Just as the murderous intent, boiling from the spirit who sensed its master’s threat, was about to coalesce into a tangible Cybernetic Ability.
Lennok silently stroked Davi’s ear lightly.
[……?!!]
At that gesture, Davi momentarily paused her magic and stirred.
“Die!”
Hermes, gripping the revolver with both hands, pulled the trigger.
BANG!!
The gunshot echoed from the collapsing summit of the Workshop Tower.
A personal firearm Lennok had customized to enhance its power and allow for the storage of magic bullets.
One of his relatively favored pieces of equipment, crafted from a highly magic-conductive metal to maximize its adaptation to shooting-assist magic.
At such close range, a shot aimed at the target would surely be fatal.
“Wh-What?!!!”
But hot blood did not flow from Lennok’s head.
A bullet hole was embedded in the floor next to Lennok’s head, which was bowed low in collapse.
The moment Hermes pulled the trigger, the gun’s barrel twisted, narrowly missing Lennok’s head.
“Because you use such a cheap gun……!!”
Hermes, visibly flustered, caressed the revolver’s cylinder, suppressing his anger.
Breathing heavily, he cocked the hammer again, loaded a bullet, and was about to aim at Lennok’s head once more and pull the trigger.
Kiiiiing……!!
“……Huh?”
He let out a blank moan, realizing his fingers wouldn’t move as he wished.
His mind desperately wanted to blow the wizard’s head apart right then, but his own finger, gripping the gun, wouldn’t budge.
“Agh!!”
The moment he tried to force the trigger with his other hand, that finger too stiffened in place.
“Damn it, what in the world is this!!!”
Hermes flung his arm to throw the revolver away, but the gun wouldn’t leave his hand.
Instead, his arm, losing control from his fingertips, moved contrary to his will.
“Huh? Huh?”
And the moment his arm moved on its own, aiming the loaded revolver at his own temple.
Hermes’s expression went blank as he realized this was no accident.
It wasn’t that his body’s functions were broken or dulled.
Someone was directly manipulating Hermes’s body, pressing the gun barrel to his own head.
And at this point, there was only one being who could issue such a command to Hermes.
“Ah, ah…… Why……!! WHY!!!!”
Hermes screamed, his face completely broken.
“I summoned you into this world, so why me!!!!”
There was no reply.
Instead, the young man who stood beside Hermes with his hands behind his back stepped forward and looked at him.
A face identical to Hermes’s.
But unlike Hermes, whose face was distorted by pain, the young man’s face was utterly serene.
[To attempt to usurp my identity, when you can’t even perceive me at such close range……]
The young man, looking at the screaming Hermes with a pitying gaze, slowly turned his eyes.
[You are, in many ways, fortunate. My will only began to reach this one after all my power had vanished.]
The Ascendant, Orokhnier, tilted his head, gazing at Lennok.
[It seems my will finally reached this one after the remnants of the Ideological Domain were transferred to you. Thanks to that, I bought a little time.]
Did this mean that only after Lennok had completely shattered Orokhnier’s will-thought and mindscape, his will could reach his avatar body, Hermes, and stop him?
A miracle of expressing his will through the avatar’s existence, even after his power and body had completely vanished.
Lennok inwardly smiled bitterly, realizing the absurd mental fortitude and caliber of such a being.
Lennok, who had no strength left to open his mouth, asked in his mind.
[Satisfied? Yes, I am satisfied. No matter how many times one crosses the line between life and death, a gamble with one’s life is a pleasure one cannot forgo.]
Orokhnier, reading Lennok’s thoughts, smiled.
[The me of my former life would certainly have been satisfied. I have, for once, lived a moment of utter fulfillment.]
…….
[Originally, I intended to get rid of this wretched avatar that usurped my name and depart…… but there’s one last thing I want to ask.]
He crouched down, meeting Lennok’s gaze as he lay fallen, and asked.
[Beyond the Kaleidoscope’s Mindscape you deployed, I saw something more than just possibility. If you had shown me that from the beginning, I would have understood immediately.]
…….
[Even though you must have known, the reason you chose to fight me and directly shatter the imperfect Ideological Domain.]
Orokhnier’s eyes shone calmly.
[That must be related to the answer you will choose in the end, won’t it?]
At that moment, Lennok did not answer Orokhnier’s question.
But Orokhnier heard Lennok’s answer nonetheless.
The fleeting moment where the paradox of non-answer became an answer.
[HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Good, very good……!!!]
In a fleeting instant, perceptible only in the far reaches of countless fractured consciousnesses, Orokhnier burst into laughter, having grasped its meaning.
[What a madman. Not even confident if that truly is the answer……!!]
Orokhnier abruptly stopped laughing.
For a moment, his gaze at Lennok seemed to hold a hint of warmth.
[But my journey with him was also like that.]
…….
[Excellent, challenger. I accepted long ago that I would not be at the end of that path…….]
Murmuring this, Orokhnier raised a hand, broke the necklace from his neck, and placed it beside Lennok.
[Still, still, meaning can be left behind, can’t it?]
Slowly standing up, Orokhnier smiled faintly.
[I feel as though I’ve finally finished something I couldn’t long ago.]
…….
[In my former life, I ultimately couldn’t catch up to him. Even if it’s just self-serving solace.]
Turning his back without regret, his will-thought gradually faded.
Only Orokhnier’s voice, burning all his remaining energy and disappearing as if dissolving, echoed like a quiet reverberation.
[Now, it seems it will be alright.]
WHOOSH!!!
A dazzling platinum radiance blossomed from the empty summit of the Workshop Tower, illuminating the black-flame-shrouded sky.
The jade flames, which Lennok had failed to control and which had been burning the sky, were consumed by that radiance, overlaying reality and beginning to return to normal.
A beautiful spectacle, like pure white rain descending from all directions.
SCREECH……!!
Along with the illusion of time, which had stopped, beginning to move again.
Instead, Hermes’s finger, resting on the revolver’s trigger, slowly began to move and exert pressure.
Hermes, with the gun aimed at his own temple, screamed wildly.
“You are me!! I am me……!! This can’t be happening!!!!”
CREAK, CREAK, CREAK……!
The hammer turned right beside him, and the sound of the spring compressing drove him to frenzy.
“Please, please!!! Don’t do this!! Don’t……!!!”
“Councilman Hermes!!!”
The clash between the wizard and the Ascendant.
As soon as the aftermath subsided even slightly, Sidesquad agents and Mechanized Troops soldiers rushed through the crumbling Workshop Tower.
RAT-A-TAT-TAT!!
Superhumans swiftly surrounded them, scaling broken stairs and walls, and the lingering presence of powerful gazes descended from an immeasurably distant height.
And at that critical moment, when the gaze of the entire Machine City was directed towards the summit of the Workshop Tower.
Hermes pulled the trigger.
BANG!!
Blood burst from his violently twisted head, staining his white hair crimson.
Hermes’s body, trembling as he stood, twisted grotesquely and slowly fell backward.
Everyone stared, mouths agape, as Hermes, still gripping the revolver with one hand, fell, splattering blood.