Chapter 794: Betrayal and Fanaticism (1)
The fact that the remains of the Ascendant, hidden beyond the Infinite Void, were a new body prepared for the Pontiff.
The moment he heard those words, Lennok instinctively felt a chill sink into a corner of his chest.
It was because that single word, uttered by the Myriad Ghost guarding the Infinite Void while looking at the Priestess, connected a series of situations Lennok had experienced on this journey.
Why was the cult’s Priestess dead at this point, becoming a spirit and heading to Yorta?
When he had used the Revelation Ability to glimpse into the Infinite Void, why had the Myriad Ghost mentioned a failed savior?
Why had the Pontiff, in the past vision he encountered again, mentioned he would confront his ‘failure’?
These were fundamental questions about the cult that he had put aside since entering Yorta, busy solving immediate problems.
Lennok finally realized now what Priestess Seina Naydree had been searching for beyond the Infinite Void.
“I thought you would simply retreat once you understood that we are watching you, but the cult’s lackeys are truly persistent.”
The white-haired young man, dressed in a pure white robe, stepped forward with those words.
The translucent young man’s gaze, which had been fixed on the Priestess, slowly turned towards Lennok.
“Or perhaps, you thoroughly concealed that fact even from this spellcaster to whom you entrusted your soul?”
Whoosh!!
Lennok’s consciousness was pushed back, following that step, pulling out from beyond the void of the Infinite Void.
Before he knew it, the Myriad Ghost had pulled its body out from beyond the Infinite Void and stood defiantly before Lennok.
With the wide, darkened corridor of the Memorial Tower between them, one human and one spirit faced each other.
Behind the young man’s back, an incredibly dense spiritual energy clustered and rotated violently.
Kwwa-gwa-gwa…!!
“It’s not hard to understand. The Guido Cult never easily reveals its ugly true nature to anyone.”
With his hands clasped behind his back, the young man sneered.
“A long time ago, we didn’t fully understand that fact. Not knowing that we shouldn’t trust the cult, intoxicated by the immediate prosperity, we believed we could embrace heresy…”
“…”
“Even after all attempts at ascension turned to naught, that one mistake remains, tormenting the spirits of this city relentlessly.”
Though seemingly empty at first listen, every word and action was deeply steeped in intense hatred and murderous intent towards the cult.
The Myriad Ghost, guarding Yorta’s Memorial Tower, still maintained its intellect, not yet fallen.
A monster that once participated in the Myriad Ghosts’ Night Parade and dedicated itself to Yorta’s ascension, now burned with dull animosity, pouring its whole heart into it.
But Lennok secretly felt certain that the Myriad Ghost’s words were not false.
Come to think of it, the Priestess had only said she had something to do in Yorta; she had never said she was looking for a curse.
Unlike Lennok, who was searching for the Demolding Curse and Kaiser’s traces in the Infinite Void, she must have been looking for something other than a curse within the Infinite Void.
Not something like the flow of curses observable within the Infinite Void, but a secret that existed in a more certain form and as matter than anything else.
Something that those unaware of the specific circumstances could never guess its identity or existence.
A new body prepared for the incarnation of the Guido Pontiff.
Furthermore, that the vessel was an arrangement prepared using the remains of an Ascendant—how could one possibly have predicted it?
That the Pontiff, who existed only in the memories and records of others, had prepared a body for his own incarnation.
The fact that this new body for incarnation was prepared using nothing less than an Ascendant’s corpse.
Even that a transaction conducted with Yorta a long time ago was still hidden in the most important secret chamber of the Memorial Tower.
“So I ask, spellcaster of Pandemonium.”
Cloaked in pure white spiritual energy, the Myriad Ghost strode forward and asked.
“Are you not also making the arrogant mistake of believing you know everything about the cult?”
“…Well, I…”
Lennok inadvertently opened his mouth to say something, but then he let out a small laugh and lifted his head.
Because he knew that the Myriad Ghost’s endlessly sharp and agitated words were not wrong in any respect.
“I don’t even know what I don’t know.”
[….]
“Perhaps I was mistaken from the beginning, thinking I knew.”
Yes, he had been mistaken from the start.
As much as he surmised about the Pontiff’s identity, he had thought he understood him.
What time he spent in the Old World, and through what causality he reached the world’s end.
What he craved, and why he still maintained his existence in this third world, reached after successfully ascending.
Not knowing any of it properly, he had inadvertently concluded that he would be like himself.
That attitude, which seemed strangely favorable to Lennok himself.
That exquisite encounter, as if he had read his journey and made arrangements.
Because he believed that no matter what path he took, no matter what world he explored, he himself would not change.
He had thought the Pontiff would be the same.
The first was coincidence. The second, inevitability.
Passing through two ascensions, the ghost of salvation that reached a third fate, even knowing that it could not possibly be in a normal state.
“In the first place, is what I know about him even true? I can’t be sure of anything. But…”
Therefore, at this moment, Lennok once again accepted the fact that he knew nothing about the Pontiff.
That he did not intend to exist forever as merely a figment of memory in the third world.
That for a future intersection point, he had prepared the body of an Ascendant as a vessel in this ancient Military Spirit City.
The fact that what the Pontiff desired and wished for might already be completely different from Lennok himself.
But even so, Lennok did not immediately interrogate the Priestess, nor did he rage at her and take off the ring.
Instead, he slowly raised his mana, merely watching the approaching Myriad Ghost.
“You know that’s not what you should be worrying about right now.”
“Wise. You make the most correct judgment even amidst overwhelming ignorance.”
The Myriad Ghost also laughed loudly, as if it had expected this.
“You are right, spellcaster of Pandemonium. No matter what you know or don’t know, you must die here.”
The reason the Myriad Ghost, which had recognized Lennok’s presence beyond the Infinite Void, readily explained the secret.
It wasn’t simply because the Myriad Ghost couldn’t control its hatred for the cult and blabbed.
From the beginning, he had no intention of letting Lennok live once things had reached this point.
Kiiiiiiing…!!
At the fingertips of the young man in the pure white robe, intense spiritual energy converged and rotated.
Unhesitatingly grasping it, the Myriad Ghost approached Lennok and asked.
“Even though the Court of Soul Pacification mercifully offered terms, if you ignored them and peered into the Infinite Void, you’re prepared to take responsibility, aren’t you?”
“What a useless question. Ghost-head.”
Lennok laughed.
“If such a shameful secret was hidden in the Infinite Void, then the method proposed by the Court of Soul Pacification couldn’t have been a proper one either.”
“Hmm.”
“If you’re going to kill me to silence me just for peeking at an Ascendant’s corpse, wouldn’t opening the Infinite Void according to the Court of Soul Pacification’s proposal end in a similar fate?”
Seeing the Myriad Ghost’s mouth twitch, Lennok quietly asked.
“Or perhaps, there are already many corpses abandoned in there after receiving a similar deal to mine…?”
“Hahahah!!”
At that moment, the Myriad Ghost couldn’t hold back and burst into loud laughter.
With its lips stretched back to its ears, the Myriad Ghost, madly laughing, muttered coldly.
“As expected, you’re too quick-witted to be let live, heir of Onnion!!”
The moment the Myriad Ghost swung its arm, a shockwave of pure white spiritual energy expanded with incredible speed and lashed through the Memorial Tower’s corridor.
Kwa-aaang!!
From that impact, the dark corridor instantly lit up brightly, vividly revealing the surfaces of the ceiling, walls, and floor.
[Kiiyaaaak!!]
The Military Spirits composing the Memorial Tower, formed by the faces of screaming souls, shrieked horribly at the spiritual energy that burst forth from all sides of the tower.
[Keuaaahhh!!]
[Aaaahhh!!]
As if loudly warning the intruder, the Military Spirits, transformed into parts of the tower, all shrieked simultaneously and let out loud monstrous cries.
As if the entire sleeping Memorial Tower had awakened, waves of Military Spirits flowed from all directions, surging and violently shaking the tower.
A magnificent roar of Military Spirits, announcing Lennok’s intrusion throughout the tower, and seeming to engrave his presence.
The Myriad Ghost, standing at the center of the spirits, laughed with a grim expression and said.
“So sleep peacefully here, along with the cult’s Priestess, spellcaster of Pandemonium.”
As it slowly raised both hands, the Military Spirits trapped in the Memorial Tower began to be pulled out and seized within its grasp.
A strange and overwhelming presence, as if it had caught a wave of living ghosts with its bare hands.
“Your body and the Priestess’s soul too, will become valuable assets of this city and join us.”
“Disgusting talk. I have no desire to be taxidermied in a ghost’s refrigerator.”
Lennok scoffed at the words, gripping mana threads with his gloved hand.
“Besides, I can’t trust everything you blabbered, so I’ll have to see it with my own eyes in the end.”
“Who gave you permission…!!”
The Myriad Ghost violently slammed the wave of ghosts onto the corridor, but Lennok’s form was much faster, leaping through space and vanishing.
Chwa-aaak!!
Narrowly avoiding the Military Spirits screaming and pulling from the floor, he hooked mana threads onto the walls and ceiling all around and pulled.
Lennok’s form flew, skimming low across all sides of the corridor, rapidly accelerating and leaping towards the window leading outside the tower.
“Stop him!!”
[Kweee-eek…!!]
But the moment Lennok tried to escape through the window, the Military Spirits forming the tower’s outer wall all moved in unison, blocking the window and twisting the wall to hinder his escape.
“How irritating…!!”
Lennok twisted his mana threads in mid-air, changing direction.
Without once setting foot on the ground, he twisted his body at a right angle, instantly bouncing himself to the opposite side of the corridor.
[Kik-ge-ge-gek!!]
The Military Spirits’ grasping hands, trying somehow to seize Lennok’s robe as he swept past the middle of the Memorial Tower’s upper floor corridor.
While Lennok rapidly evaded their gestures and the waves of Military Spirits, the Priestess’s spirit, trailing beside him, urgently said.
[Your Excellency. I will explain this matter later. For now, prioritize escaping the tower first—!!]
“No. I’ll hear it right here, right now.”
[…Yes?]
Eud-deu-deuk!!
Flying as if rebounding in mid-air and pulling the mana threads, the collapsing walls of Military Spirits from all sides were forcibly moved, completely concealing Lennok.
The Myriad Ghost tore through the tower’s remnants with both hands and surged forward, but Lennok’s presence had already vanished without a trace from that spot.
“Where are you!!!”
While the enraged Military Spirit roared with spiritual energy, Lennok, having nonchalantly walked out into a lower-floor corridor of the tower, took off the ring.
Glaring at the Priestess’s spirit residing within it, Lennok asked.
“The Ascendant’s remains stored within the Infinite Void. Is it true that it’s a new vessel prepared by the Pontiff?”
[….]
Separate from the realization gained from his conversation with the Myriad Ghost, there were still parts of this matter he couldn’t accept.
Why would the Pontiff try to use an Ascendant’s corpse as his new body?
And knowing that fact, why would he store those remains in the Memorial Tower’s Infinite Void?
Lennok instinctively knew that the discrepancy arising from that slight incongruity was related to the core of this situation.
“Answer me. What does your Pontiff want?”
The Priestess calmly closed her eyes at Lennok’s interrogation.
Was she pondering how much she could tell Lennok, or if it was an action consistent with the cult’s principles?
Perhaps because the Priestess also knew time was short, her deliberation didn’t take long.
[The Ascendant’s remains hidden in the Infinite Void, it is true that it is the result of his arrangement.]
“…”
The moment Lennok’s gaze turned cold, the Priestess calmly spoke again.
[However, that is not a new body for him. The spirits of Yorta seem unaware of that fact.]
“…It’s not a body prepared to be the Pontiff’s new vessel? What does that mean?”
The Pontiff himself stored the Ascendant’s corpse in the Infinite Void, yet it’s not a body prepared for the Pontiff?
At the subtle, contradictory causality that didn’t make sense, Lennok’s expression hardened.
The Priestess slowly nodded, then hesitated again.
[Yes. That is….]
No matter how much she resolved herself, was it still difficult to speak easily here and now?
It must be because she had to explain the essential reason why she, the Priestess, came to Yorta leading a dead soul.
Despite deciding to answer, the Priestess continued to conflict, as if clashing with something internal, repeatedly struggling.
Finally, she quietly opened her mouth.
[It is not a new body; it is an old vessel that he has already used once.]
“…”
[Its name is Ascendant Dorye. A being once known as a berserker who seized qualification, and also…]
Facing Lennok from beyond her mask, the Priestess said.
[It is an old, past body that he used in this world long ago.]