Chapter 858: Handover (26)
Heavenly Sight Madria Falcia.
A Level 9 Ascendant. The great observer who inherited the mission of a Lighthouse Keeper.
Among those who had earned the right, she was the Transcendent most friendly to humanity, a being who had spent her entire life observing the outer seas, striving to delay the world’s ruin.
Her power and influence transcended conventional units of measurement, to the point that even the Vulcan City Council had signed a non-aggression treaty with the Autonomous Region on account of a single visit from her.
A giant of her era, whose very existence was a testament to greatness, and whose many deeds were milestones for the sake of the world.
Sublime even in her final moments, when she used her own death to halt a war, Lennok too had remembered her for a long time.
However, he had only spoken with her directly for a fleeting moment, so he never imagined they would meet again in this way.
In the consciousness space of the Guardian Spirit Beast. At the altar that Pyeonram had been guarding, he had not expected the Heavenly Sight of her youth to be waiting for him.
“Hmm, I don’t know who you are, but…”
Whoosh!!
In the instant the Heavenly Sight took a single step from the edge of the altar.
She crossed the several-hundred-meter distance in a single bound and landed before Lennok.
She was tall, with a strong, sturdy frame. Standing with her back perfectly straight, her eye level was slightly higher than Lennok’s.
A dignified and imposing figure that was impossible to imagine from the Heavenly Sight Lennok remembered in her later years.
A straight and direct appearance that perfectly suited the august name of Lighthouse Keeper.
Staring at Lennok from right in front of him, she grinned and casually draped an arm over his shoulder.
“For a wizard, you’re not bad-looking. I like that.”
“…”
“I don’t know what brought you all the way here, but if you have time, shall we talk for a bit?”
An outlandish remark, one he could never have associated with the Heavenly Sight he remembered from her final years.
It was so different that for a moment, he wondered if she was a different person with the same name, even though he knew it was impossible.
A vibrant, cheerful way of speaking that matched her youthful appearance. Was this what the Heavenly Sight was like before she became an Ascendant?
‘Considering Pyeonram’s case, this can’t be her true self. It must be a memory or a splinter…’
Just as the Pyeonram he had met here before was a part of his consciousness, the chance that this consciousness construct standing before him was the real Heavenly Sight was low.
It was likely one of the arrangements she had left behind in the consciousness space during her life.
But even considering that, the presence of the construct, which chattered on with an arm slung casually over his shoulder, was truly surreal.
“It’s an old habit. Being cooped up in the Lighthouse, supposedly observing the outside world, I rarely get to meet people. So I end up grabbing whoever I can to talk to whenever I get the chance.”
“…”
“It’s even more so now. There’s hardly anyone I can have a proper conversation with, so I can’t even complain to anyone. It makes me think this is why everyone starts a family.”
With just a simple gesture of her hand in the air as she laughed and talked, the entire space seemed to be colored by her presence.
Kiiing…!!
Every object in his peripheral vision seemed to distort, as if leaning in to listen to the Heavenly Sight.
A splinter left by an Ascendant. Could a mere fragment of memory, a consciousness construct, possess such a presence?
But despite the suffocating pressure from the Heavenly Sight, Lennok was thinking of something else first.
‘Pyeonram being absent is one thing, but why a consciousness construct of the Heavenly Sight, of all people?’
Why was it Madria Falcia’s memory waiting for him at this altar, which should have belonged to Pyeonram?
Why did the consciousness construct of an Ascendant who died long ago still remain here?
Though it was a completely unexpected situation, Lennok intuitively knew this was no coincidence.
‘Lapis said she would come to Vulcan to retrieve all of the Heavenly Sight’s abilities.’
Why Vulcan, of all places? Why was she trying to enter a restricted area, even to the point of breaking the non-aggression treaty with the Autonomous Region?
Could it be a delusion to feel that the reason itself was strongly tied to the existence of the Heavenly Sight standing here now?
Lennok understood. Lapis’s sudden journey, the string of information he had heard from Evelyn—it had all been a prelude to this very situation.
“Hmm…”
But as soon as the Heavenly Sight saw the composure return to Lennok’s face, she abruptly stopped her idle chatter.
She murmured, looking at Lennok with interest.
“A peculiar reaction. You were clearly shaken when you saw me, but you reined in all your emotions right after.”
“…”
“Maintaining your consciousness so stably here is one thing, but did you find a reason to make sense of this situation in that short time? No, more than that—”
With her arm still on his shoulder, the Heavenly Sight tilted her head to meet Lennok’s gaze.
They were so close that her ultramarine hair draped over his shoulder.
Staring intently at Lennok with her transparent, sky-blue eyes, the Heavenly Sight spoke.
“You don’t just know of me. You’ve met me in person.”
“…”
“If I had met a wizard like you, there’s no way I would have forgotten. Are you someone who was born after I embedded my consciousness here?”
Grab!!
Her arm still on his shoulder, the Heavenly Sight spun around and asked.
“Tell me. How much time has passed in reality since I died?”
“…Impressive.”
Lennok hesitated at the direct question before answering.
“To be nothing more than a fragment of an Ascendant’s memory, yet be aware that your true self has died?”
No matter how exceptional a Transcendent was, their memories and consciousness were ultimately subordinate concepts to their true self.
Even if the Heavenly Sight had left her memory here, it could never become the real Heavenly Sight.
Unless one possessed a talent that defied the natural order like Kaiser Bajour, it should be impossible to read a future that was not one’s own from within the flow of time.
Was it because this was the memory of the all-seeing Heavenly Sight that it could even see through the death of its true self?
Just as Lennok, marveling at the Ascendant’s great intuition, was about to nod, the Heavenly Sight tilted her head.
“No, how could that be? How would I know something like that?”
“…”
“From the looks of it, you seem to have no idea how I exist in this place.”
Seeing the silent Lennok, the Heavenly Sight let out a smirk.
“You split your consciousness infinitely and fill the gaps with the flow of time. A moment approaches eternity, and eternity becomes like a moment. The being that is me now is one of those countless fractured pieces of consciousness, chosen and partitioned off.”
“That’s…”
“It’s something Ascendants do often. I know.”
The Heavenly Sight smiled and raised a finger.
As if slicing invisible time into thin pieces, she waved her finger lightly and spoke.
“Like cutting and pasting a single frame of a film, I am a consciousness construct made by taking the Heavenly Sight who lived in that exact moment and transplanting her whole. The loss of the main body’s time is unavoidable, but it allows one to leave a past self that certainly existed within a consciousness space.”
“…”
“Your lack of reaction makes it hard to tell if you understood me. In short—”
Thump!!
The Heavenly Sight placed her palm on Lennok’s chest and lowered her head.
Her ultramarine hair flowed over her shoulders, stirring a cool breeze.
The Heavenly Sight whispered softly.
“A guy like you… shouldn’t have been here in the first place.”
“…!!”
Kaaang!!!
The moment a sharp, clear sound pierced his eardrums, the entire consciousness space surrounding Lennok distorted, unleashing a flood of illusions.
The objects before him all seemed to turn their eyes toward him, looking at him while simultaneously trying to rob him of his sight.
Realizing this was the Lighthouse Keeper’s ability to seize and wield the vision of all creation, far surpassing the level Lapis used, Lennok raised his will-thought with all his might.
Kwaaaang!!
The spot where Lennok and the Heavenly Sight had stood erupted in an explosion.
Half of the altar that rose behind them split apart, scattering fragments in all directions.
“I tried to banish you in one go, but you withstood it?”
Lennok’s form, thrown back by the intense shockwave, regained its balance as the Heavenly Sight, now floating in mid-air, burst into laughter.
“I was planning to steal your mind’s eye and send you back to reality, but it seems my interference isn’t working at all. Your consciousness is even more stable than mine.”
“What is the meaning of this?”
“I thought it was no fun the moment we could talk, but you’re far more dangerous than I expected.”
Crossing her arms, the Heavenly Sight tilted her head as her form slowly descended to the ground.
“The minds of Level 8 wizards are all unstable, and most are more fragile in a consciousness space than in reality…”
Ignoring Lennok’s question, the Heavenly Sight’s sky-blue eyes flashed.
“Then just how dangerous of a being are you in reality?”
Kwaaaang!!!
From one end of the altar where Pyeonram had slept to the other, a beam of will-thought hundreds of meters wide erupted, sweeping across the horizon.
In a consciousness space where physical laws do not exist, the power of will is the law.
And if this was a consciousness construct created by an Ascendant by carving out a piece of her actual past, her standing here was no different from that of an Ascendant.
Sensing this, Lennok gathered his will-thought with all his might, intending to wield it in place of mana to counter her, but in that instant—
The Heavenly Sight’s tall figure had already closed the distance to stand right before him.
Whoosh-!
A kick shot out with imperceptible speed.
The moment he dodged by leaping through consciousness in a flicker, a blue light whipped out from her leg, racing forward and destroying dozens of ancient city buildings.
Kugwagwagwa!!!
The earth shook and the atmosphere twisted with a deafening roar.
A thrust of her fist unleashed a gale dozens of meters wide, and a twist of her shoulders shattered the altar with a shockwave.
The manipulation of consciousness. Was this the level of power she could unleash with pure speed, without using any spellcraft?
Lennok, who had never expected the Heavenly Sight of her lifetime, especially the one who had been a Lighthouse Keeper, to be capable of such violent combat, tumbled across the ruined altar.
“Spatial leap? You use a troublesome technique.”
Catching up to Lennok’s flicker with lightning speed, the Heavenly Sight’s form slammed a fist down upon the leaping consciousness space.
“If you can use it this freely even within this consciousness space, you must be an inheritor of spatial magic. Don’t dodge!”
“Wait, a mo…!!”
Kwaaaang!!!
Every time she moved with her long limbs in wide, sweeping motions, the sky and the earth seemed to tilt along with her gestures.
Leaping onto a fragment of the shattered altar, Lennok shouted with difficulty.
“If this whole place collapses, Pyeonram’s consciousness will inevitably be damaged…!!”
Pow!!
Without a word of reply, the Heavenly Sight’s kick plunged into Lennok’s abdomen as if sucked in.
His body was slammed into the ground below the altar and sent skidding back dozens of meters.
As a grand cloud of dust rose like a curtain in the heated moment, the Heavenly Sight descended, her ultramarine hair flying, and her fist struck Lennok’s solar plexus.
Paaang!!
But in that brief interval, Lennok’s hand intervened, blocking her fist and stopping it in its tracks.
The Heavenly Sight’s movement, intended to send Lennok flying, wavered and slowed.
Above the dusty altar, the Heavenly Sight’s smirking face could be seen.
“Oh-ho. So you know how to throw a punch, do you?”
“Calm down and listen. I believe I said I was willing to answer you.”
A miracle that would be impossible to even attempt in reality without borrowing from an immense source of power.
But in this consciousness space, the strength of one’s will was the strength of one’s body.
Without yielding an inch to the Ascendant’s power head-on, Lennok, who had used the power of Touin to receive the blow, met the Heavenly Sight’s gaze.
“Or does the talk of a mortal simply not reach the ears of an Ascendant?”
“A mortal? How are you a mortal?”
The Heavenly Sight laughed as if the idea was absurd.
“You are a being with more diverse powers than any wizard I have ever seen. I’m curious as to how you managed to gather so many powers of different systems and origins.”
“…”
“I don’t know what happened in the present world to create someone like you, but why should I trust a word you say?”
Kigigik…!!
As the Heavenly Sight put more force into her fist, the fist that Lennok blocked with both arms began to slowly advance.
Thrusting her fist right at the center of Lennok’s chest, the Heavenly Sight spoke in a low, sunken voice.
“Crucially, I can’t see your Root Mindscape at all.”
“…”
“I can’t call someone whose heart I cannot see even with my authority a mere mortal.”
The Heavenly Sight stared intently at Lennok and muttered.
“I don’t know if you’re an incarnation body borrowing the power of an outer god, or if this is your true self, but I’ll find out once I beat you down. I’ll hear your answers after that.”
For all the talk of her being an Ascendant friendly to humans, it seemed the Heavenly Sight in her lifetime had a much more fiery personality than he’d thought.
The power emanating from the consciousness construct of the clench-fisted Heavenly Sight amplified madly, growing vast enough to fill the entire sprawling city.
Sensing that this would lead to a power struggle until one of their consciousnesses was shattered, Lennok gritted his teeth, racked his brain, and answered.
“The last time I saw you, you were an old woman on the verge of death…!!”
“So what?”
The Heavenly Sight said, leaning her fist in further.
The moment she realized her Lighthouse Keeper abilities didn’t work, she had switched to pure physical combat. Her skill was astonishingly proficient.
A martial contest with a degree of realization that was hard to believe for a battle taking place in a space where only consciousness constructs existed.
But even in the midst of it, Lennok slowly pushed back against her consciousness and retorted.
“Even if creating a consciousness construct consumes the main body’s time, doing it just once or twice wouldn’t cause you to grow old—”
“…”
“The mission of the Lighthouse Keeper, which you had to protect even at the cost of creating hundreds, thousands of consciousness constructs.”
Lennok met the Heavenly Sight’s gaze directly and said.
“Your granddaughter has inherited that mission and is trying to delay the world’s ruin.”
“…What?”
“You must know.”
The moment the Heavenly Sight’s blank expression flickered, Lennok spat out with conviction.
“The observation authority of the fifth lighthouse, given to me by your granddaughter. Were you pretending not to know, even though you saw it in me from the start?”
“…”
Whoosh!!
In that instant, the immense pressure that had been trying to crush Lennok vanished as if it were a lie.
His breathing finally freed, Lennok coughed lightly and stood up.
“Cough…!!”
The Heavenly Sight had used her unique ability to observe all sorts of authorities and magic within Lennok the moment she saw him.
Though it seemed she couldn’t see through to his Kaleidoscope mindscape, if she had seen the authority left by the priestess, there was no way she hadn’t seen the other things.
The observation authority of the fifth lighthouse that Lapis had gifted to Lennok.
She had clearly been aware of its existence but had pretended not to know in order to interrogate and eliminate him.
Though she appeared cheerful and humane on the surface, she was an endlessly cold and decisive person when it came to what needed to be done.
Recalling what the Heavenly Sight’s personality had been like in her life, Lennok slowly continued.
“I was thinking about it since before. If you already looked like this when you reached Level 9, why did you have the appearance of an old woman when you died?”
“…”
“Wasn’t it because your main body aged rapidly, as you split and infused your time into the consciousness space countless times?”
A being with such a strong ego and power, despite being just a fragment of the Heavenly Sight’s memory, not her true self.
It was because the Heavenly Sight had infinitely split her time, pasting a consciousness of her once-existing self into the consciousness space.
But if one cut a frame from a film and pasted it elsewhere, the original film would inevitably, little by little, be lost.
If that was repeated an innumerable number of times, even an Ascendant who lived for a long time would inevitably experience a loss of time.
That must be why the Heavenly Sight before Lennok’s eyes was young, while the one on the verge of death had been an old woman.
“After the Lighthouses that observe the world were broken, you used your own consciousness constructs as substitutes to carry out your mission.”
Lennok, having quickly regained his composure, said.
“The observation of the outer seas was cut off after you died because most of the consciousness constructs you created then were annihilated along with the death of your main body, I presume.”
“…”
“Lapis is continuing your work, moving to delay the world’s ruin. But if that is the only way to observe the outer seas, then…”
Didn’t that mean the Lighthouses Lapis was rebuilding across the continent might be meaningless for delaying the apocalypse?
Lennok had understood this the moment he heard the Heavenly Sight’s explanation, but he hadn’t figured out how to convince the Ascendant before him of it.
That was why he had simply voiced the thoughts that had been troubling him, succeeding only in halting her resolve for the moment.
But the Heavenly Sight listened to Lennok’s words with an unreadable expression before murmuring.
“Lapis. Lapis Falcia… So that’s the name she was given.”
“…”
“My granddaughter…”
Closing her eyes, the Heavenly Sight savored the name as if chewing it over, then spoke.
“You say that child has taken my place and inherited the mission of the Lighthouse Keeper?”
“To be precise, she is trying to build new Lighthouses to observe the outer seas,” Lennok replied.
“Thinking that one is not enough, she is carrying out a plan to claim various remote areas of the continent and rebuild the Lighthouses.”
“…”
The silent Heavenly Sight suddenly asked.
“Then are you a follower of my granddaughter?”
“That is…”
When Lennok didn’t answer, the Heavenly Sight smirked as if she had expected it.
“Of course not. If a wizard like you claimed to be serving under someone, I wouldn’t have believed it.”
“…”
“Well, alright. I understand what you’re saying. Follow me.”
Withdrawing her hand nonchalantly, the Heavenly Sight turned around, her voluminous hair swaying.
As she strode off without waiting for a reply, Lennok asked with a dumbfounded expression.
“Where are we going? Is there even anywhere to go in this consciousness space?”
“Weren’t you here to meet Padme?” the Heavenly Sight retorted.
“Padme’s consciousness construct disappeared before you arrived. Because a new gate threatening this space has opened.”
“Right. At first, I thought you opened the passage, but now it seems that wasn’t the case.”
“…”
“Let’s talk on the way. I think I know why you came here.”
The Heavenly Sight said this, then nodded at Lennok.
“I’ll show you what happens to an Ascendant who fails their challenge after they die.”