Chapter 669: Random Box (4)
The object Antares pulled out evoked a chilling reaction from those around him.
But Lennok felt as if he could perceive just how dangerous it was.
Antares stood before the colossal mechanical box, his face unreadable.
“Leader…”
“Did Van contact you?”
The mercenaries and freelancers gathered at the mansion looked at the mercenary leader with a hint of surprise.
Especially the mercenaries belonging to his office seemed even more astonished.
It was as if they hadn’t expected Antares to appear in person at such a gathering.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you in a place like this.”
“Leader, want a beer?”
“Today, I’m finally going to get a recommendation for a stock that’s sure to skyrocket…!!”
Antares ignored their gazes and slowly raised his eyes, looking around.
“A magnificent house. Is this to your taste?”
He seemed utterly unfazed by the shimmering cracks and brilliant light emanating from various parts of Lennok’s mansion.
Instead, he merely tilted his head slightly, as if reading the lingering afterglow of passing lightning.
CRACK!!
A fragment of lightning, naturally brushing his ear, struck the mechanical box, igniting its magical power.
Lennok watched the scene and smiled.
“You were closer than I thought. I initially assumed I wouldn’t be able to reach you.”
“I was lucky.”
Antares calmly agreed.
“I had something to take care of in the Eastern Continent.”
“Something to take care of?”
“Even after a long journey, some people haven’t set down the burdens they carry.”
“……”
Antares closed his eyes.
“I intend to reclaim the roles they once held. It’s late, but it was something that had to be done eventually.”
Lennok had heard that a long time ago, Antares had embarked on a long journey with those who shared his convictions.
Did his words about the journey and the burdens refer to lingering attachments that they hadn’t yet let go of?
As always, Antares’s words were highly metaphorical, so Lennok had no intention of demanding further explanation.
“So, you’re saying you’ve come all this way, albeit late, because all your tasks are finished.”
“No. It was unforeseen, so I had to hastily change my schedule.”
Antares replied.
“On joyous days, expectation precedes understanding. I just need to confirm one thing, then I’ll leave.”
“……”
Lennok’s eyes deepened, understanding Antares’s words to some extent. It was true he had come because of Lennok’s contact and the existence of the random box.
But was he saying the random box’s gift itself wasn’t his purpose?
Antares was a precognitive who had obtained limited omniscience as a price for having seen a conclusion in advance.
If he, of all people, had altered his plans and moved at this particular moment…
“Is it because this moment isn’t an area foreseen by your precognition?”
“Quite the opposite. I sought you out precisely because my precognition began.”
Antares smiled and shook his head.
“Areas that should have been invisible started to appear. I came here to confirm the full story.”
“……”
“Is that alright?”
Antares was a more powerful precognitive than anyone Lennok knew, a fragment of omniscience who had returned after sacrificing all his possibilities to witness a non-existent conclusion.
Yet, the reason he showed Lennok favor must be because Lennok’s existence was something his precognition could rarely grasp.
Nevertheless, if this party Lennok had thrown was now beginning to appear in Antares’s precognition,
Wouldn’t it be because of the colossal mechanical box trembling before Antares?
Antares had recognized that fact, come here, and was asking if it was alright for him to check the Ascension Gate.
“As I said, I don’t mind, but…”
A precognitive, one who foresees the future, operating the random box.
At the very least, he was undeniably the only person present who could freely manipulate the element of ‘luck’.
If one could foresee and adjust luck itself, it wouldn’t be entirely wrong to say Antares was the luckiest person.
It would be a lie to say Lennok wasn’t curious about what Antares would see and pull out from inside—
“But you’re not the only late arrival.”
“……”
With those words, a black-haired woman appeared silently behind Lennok.
Her hands were tucked deep into her thick jacket, and a hat slightly obscured her face.
Her attire suggested she had just stepped out for a casual stroll. Yet, her movements were so agile that no one present could match them.
Only the faint glint of green eyes beneath her hat indirectly revealed her identity.
Those who recognized her at a glance subtly began to become wary.
“Evelyn Marcia…”
“Why is the Divine Bow here?”
“So the rumor that she knew Van was true.”
Some had met Evelyn at Jenny’s bar, while others were seeing her for the first time.
The ace of the Agents, a naturally gifted archer.
At least in Vulcan’s underworld, there was no one who hadn’t heard her name and formidable reputation.
It was, in a way, natural for the mercenaries to be wary of her, especially since she had operated against all sorts of criminal organizations and mercenary groups.
Evelyn neatly ignored their gazes, walked past Lennok, and stood before the colossal mechanical box.
Thrumming…!!
Antares and Evelyn gazed at each other silently, with the temporary Ascension Gate between them.
Everyone fell silent as these two monsters, who had transcended the seven hierarchies of self-transformation and reached untrodden realms in human bodies, confronted each other.
“…Is this really okay?”
“I wonder if we’ll make it back intact today…”
“Van’s here, so maybe he’ll save a few of us?”
[Such opportunistic talk is irritating to hear. Do you perhaps have spare bodies too?]
Ignoring the frivolous conversations echoing around, Evelyn looked at Antares and spoke.
“Long time no see, Antares.”
“Marcia.”
Antares smiled.
“Your sharp alacrity, always a step ahead of reason, remains unchanged. Whether intentional or not, the scene I perceive from you is always the same.”
“I was just going to observe, but seeing your interest makes me want to check it out too.”
Her casual attire and concealed presence—was it because she had initially only intended to observe?
Evelyn’s green eyes swept over the mercenaries from Antares’s office.
“Your office’s activities have decreased, and strange types are stirring in the shadows. You haven’t forgotten your deal with the Central Council, have you?”
“I’ve left the office operations entirely to Stella. I can connect you if needed.”
“Stella?”
Evelyn muttered the deputy leader’s name, frowning slightly and tilting her head.
“Are you talking about the Stella I know? She joined your office?”
“The wind doesn’t remember those it has once passed by.”
Antares lightly shook his head.
“You are always the same, no matter the time or place.”
“…I don’t know why you keep comparing me to strange metaphors, but.”
The moment Evelyn, arms crossed, lightly flicked her finger, there was a fleeting sensation as if sharp energy twisted through space.
A momentary manifestation of will.
With just that, the atmosphere around them sharply reacted, responding to the archer’s will.
“I don’t have a bad memory, and I’m not someone who cuts ties cleanly. Does making such definitive statements make your mind a little more at ease?”
“……”
Antares did not answer, but his silence served as his reply.
Perhaps he thought it was pointless to explain or try to convince her of that fact.
A torrent of will-thought, sharp enough to cause a clash at any moment.
But it was Evelyn who first withdrew her magical power.
Pulling her hat lower, Evelyn concealed her green eyes beneath the brim.
“Haa… let’s stop. I don’t want to fight even in a place like this.”
“…Perhaps there is something in the unseen realms that will change you.”
Antares seemed to nod slightly.
“I won’t make excuses. What I’ve seen and heard isn’t everything. I, too, am merely a blind man trapped by prejudice.”
“……”
“Was the wind’s true resting place beyond that?”
His gaze momentarily seemed to flick towards Lennok, but Evelyn was no longer swayed by Antares’s words.
She merely tucked her hands back into her jacket as if annoyed, and casually tilted her head.
“Enough. Just decide the order. Will you go first?”
“If you wish.”
“I don’t care either way.”
Strictly speaking, Evelyn had arrived a little before Antares, but perhaps she meant the order of pulling the lever didn’t matter.
Although Lennok had called her, she didn’t seem particularly interested in the random box’s abilities, even after confirming them.
Antares gazed at Evelyn for a moment, then slowly nodded and stepped forward.
“Then I won’t decline.”
Antares quietly stared at the lever made of Penteract, then took hold of it with one hand.
The mercenary leader pulled the lever naturally, without much force.
Tick, tick, tick….
Unlike others, there were no flashy sound effects, nor the whispers of spirits jumping above his head.
Only a mechanical sound, like a timer ticking.
Along with a regular vibration, only the sensation of something catching echoed.
“……”
Click!
A somehow ominous ticking sound. For a moment, they were enveloped in the sensation of listening to a clock’s second hand alone in a dark room.
Whoosh!!
The random box’s door swung wide open, but nothing popped out from inside.
Instead, only a frigid, freezing breath began to flow out of the box.
HWOOOSH…!!
“……!!”
At that moment, Felix and Evelyn’s expressions changed drastically.
“What? Nothing’s coming out?”
[Something… is strange.]
Most, like Jenny or Jordan, were simply bewildered by the situation.
Only those with good instincts, like Mila and Weian, started sweating, their faces turning pale.
“Damn, this is…”
“It… it feels like it’s looking at us…?”
“……”
Lennok, too, immediately understood why Felix and Evelyn reacted that way.
Zzzzt, zzzzzzt…!!
What remained stopped on the other side of the Ascension Gate’s void was not merely an artifact or memory from the Old World.
It was the emanation of a consciousness so grotesquely twisted it was hard to believe it belonged to a sentient being.
Just its presence descending upon this place made the space feel dull and sinking.
A desperate sensation, as if the entire body instinctively accepted death and sank.
And before the Ascension Gate, from which this consciousness flowed, Antares silently gazed into the box.
“Antares.”
Lennok called him, his face expressionless.
Without any magic, simply calling his name.
But Antares, with just that, tore his gaze from beyond the door and looked up at Lennok.
“…Indeed.”
He gave a wry smile and slowly removed his hand from the lever, and the box door immediately slammed shut with a deafening roar.
BOOM!!
Simultaneously, the wave of consciousness vanished from the spot as if it had never been there.
“Haa, haa…!!”
“I-If we were just a moment slower…”
As Mila and Weian gasped and slumped, Antares raised his head.
“I had a feeling, but it exceeded my expectations. I never thought I’d confirm it here.”
“What was about to come out?”
“The final moments of a sinner who violated taboo.”
Antares smiled.
“I thought it would be there too. That’s why my precognition suddenly connected at this point.”
“……”
“You’ve created truly amazing object, Van.”
Antares slowly released the lever and stepped back, approaching Lennok.
“But it’s just as dangerous. You know that, don’t you?”
“……”
“Those like us often see something other than what we desire beyond the door.”
Antares pulled out a small piece of paper from his pocket and tapped his finger, writing on it.
Magical prowess, etching letters onto paper with just a gesture, without a pen.
Antares handed the piece of paper, covered in complex serial numbers and figures, to Lennok.
“I apologize for spoiling the pleasant atmosphere. But this might be necessary.”
“…Location coordinates?”
“The divine retribution given to those who violate taboo.”
Antares gave a wry smile and nodded.
“The story of their demise is there. You might want to visit it sometime.”
“……”
Did it mean it was worth the risk of something popping out of the temporary Ascension Gate just to tell Lennok this?
Antares didn’t wait for an answer and immediately turned his back.
“Leader…”
“Even if you’re leaving, at least one beer…”
Antares smiled at the mercenaries who were still trying to get him to drink, patted one on the shoulder, and turned away.
As he took a few steps toward the main entrance, the mercenary leader vanished without a trace.
Evelyn, her expression furrowed with displeasure, shrugged.
“This is why precognitives are annoying. They always act like this, even when they know what they’re doing.”
“So you knew what kind of person Antares was.”
“Well, something like that.”
Evelyn nodded slightly at Lennok’s words.
“At some point, even if I couldn’t understand, I began to grasp the meaning.”
“……”
“Even knowing his word choices and tenses are a mess, he doesn’t bother to fix them. For a superhuman of his level, there must be a reason for it.”
Perhaps because Evelyn had reached a similar realm as Antares, she grasped the essence on the same level, even if she didn’t fully comprehend his words.
She seemed to interpret Antares’s meaning in a way somewhat different from how Lennok understood it.
“Well, then it’s my turn. Seeing what he did, I’m curious myself, you know?”
As Evelyn rolled up her jacket sleeves and licked her lips, gazing at the lever, Lennok patted her shoulder and turned to Dylan.
“Forgive me, but could you wait a moment before pulling the lever?”
“What?”
“There’s no time. Something might have come up that needs immediate attention.”
“Oh, oh…”
“I’ll be right back.”
Perhaps due to the presence from the box Antares had just opened, Dylan’s aura suddenly began to feel strange.
He hadn’t said a word, leaning against the tent as if exhausted.
Though he kept his hand hidden behind him, Lennok’s Mystic Eye could see the Blue Heart slowly melting into Dylan’s hand.
A faint, pulsing heartbeat.
Thump, thump…!!
The bizarre illusion of the Blue Heart he held overlapping with Dylan’s presence.
If they waited any longer, it might become irreversible.
“…Van?”
“Dylan, this way.”
Lennok led Dylan directly to the mansion’s underground laboratory.
Click!
Whirrrr!!
As lights illuminated the room and elaborate research equipment came into view, Dylan laboriously lifted his gaze.
Staring blankly around, Dylan feigned an impressed tone.
“Pretty swanky… You called me here just to show me this?”
“Of course not. I have another matter.”
Lennok replied, pointing at the Blue Heart clinging to Dylan’s hand.
“It would be best not to use that. You know that, right?”
“……”
“Though its specific origin is somewhat different, it’s an item of the Guido Cult.”
Lennok’s eyes gleamed coldly as he looked at the heart.
“To be precise, it’s a sacrificial offering imbued with the power of their… failed god.”