Chapter 872: The Eye That Sees Fate (8)

KWWWOOOOOSH!!!

Although they were in a sealed space without a single window, he could feel it. The spaceship hadn’t even bothered to properly open the hangar doors, instead bursting out as if to shatter them, and was now flying as if skimming the ground. It wasn’t soaring through the sky, but moving like a bullet tearing across the earth.

“Has all of Sector 19 become a gate connected to the Outer Sea? I believe a more precise explanation is in order.”

But despite the sudden, crushing pressure, Lennok immediately asked.

“If that were true, this entire administrative process would be nonsensical from the start. Were you planning a suicide mission?”

Sector 19 was one of Vulcan’s most dangerous and secretive restricted zones. A forbidden area within the city that maintained the strictest and most powerful security and secrecy. Even Sector 25, which Lennok had visited, seemed somewhat lacking in its isolation facilities and security in comparison. He had imagined that a restricted zone more dangerous than Sector 25, where Kaiser’s past lay dormant, must hide a secret beyond imagination.

But to think that a [Gate] to the Outer Sea, one of the few that existed on the continent, was located there. For Lennok, who had seen firsthand how uncontrollable a calamity a [Gate] to the Outer Sea was and how it was born—

[Oh dear. It seems I spoke too soon.]

But the Vice-Mayor merely smiled placidly at Lennok’s sharp pointed question.

[Don’t be so hasty. Can’t you tell by the fact that I’m here?]

“……”

Was she saying that with her, the Vice-Mayor, present, she wouldn’t choose a method that disregarded safety? Leaning back in her seat, the Vice-Mayor spoke.

[You seem to know a thing or two about the Gates of the Outer Sea, but this one is different. It would be troublesome if you press me to explain something I cannot.]

“What do you mean?”

[It’s true that a Gate to the Outer Sea exists in Sector 19, but that fact itself is not what’s important.]

“……”

[Well, you’ll see when we arrive. It won’t take long, so let’s talk after we’ve finished moving.]

The moment the Vice-Mayor, with a relaxed nod, glanced up at the ship’s hull. A bizarre sound began to echo from the ceiling, walls, and floor of the vessel.

Kkak, kkak, kkakakakak!!

Tak, tatak, tatatatak!!

A bizarre, grating sound, as if something were being scraped away, or burning, or perhaps mocking them. The unnerving feeling of dozens of unknown shapes clinging to the hull, gnawing at it from all sides.

“The voices……”

But Lapis didn’t seem to have the mental capacity to pay attention to such noise and impact. The moment the spaceship began to move, an overwhelming sensation crashed down on all sides of the hull, completely seizing her mind.

[Ah, it’s nothing to worry about.]

The Vice-Mayor explained, seeing Lapis’s wavering expression.

[Those are the defense soldiers who were once stationed to protect Sector 19.]

“……Are you saying the ones pounding on the hull right now are living people?”

The Vice-Mayor nodded leisurely.

[They used to be.]

“……”

He couldn’t even begin to imagine how deep and complex the hidden history behind that one passing remark was. If defense soldiers had once been stationed there to protect Sector 19. If they were still here, decades after Sector 19 was sealed. Could the soldiers abandoned there still be called ‘alive’?

Lennok watched the Vice-Mayor, who was shifting slightly in the opposite seat, and fell into thought.

‘This might be more dangerous than I thought. Should I prepare for the worst-case scenario?’

He had expected some dangerous variables on the way to Sector 19, but if the entire sector was connected to the Outer Sea, it was a disaster even Lennok would find difficult to handle. Lennok himself could escape alone, but he couldn’t guarantee he could get Lapis and Partisha out safely.

For now, the only thing he knew about Sector 19 was that themed research on ‘artificial humans’ had once been conducted there. What on earth had happened there for a passage to the Outer Sea to exist beyond it? In what way had the research on artificial humans failed for a [Gate] to be left in its place?

In the end, it was something he couldn’t know without going there himself. The Vice-Mayor spoke as if her presence guaranteed their safety, but to Lennok, it seemed more like……

[The distance from the hangar to the outskirts of Sector 19 is less than 2000 meters. Don’t you think that’s an absurdly short distance to travel using a spaceship like this?]

“……”

[But if there is a reason why we must enter Sector 19 through this exact procedure—]

The moment the Vice-Mayor, raising her gaze slightly, folded her finger.

THUUUUUUD!!

With a horrifying noise of the hull buckling, the spaceship screeched to a halt. Despite all the safety devices installed in the seats, an inertia threatened to fling their bodies forward.

Kkak, kkakakak…

Only then did the grating sounds that seemed to be gnawing at the hull fade away, one by one. After the noise had finally subsided and the spaceship fell silent, the Vice-Mayor unbuckled her safety restraints and stood up.

[It’s because all of Sector 19 has already become a space twisted and distorted from the flow of time.]

CLANK!!

With her words, the boarding hatch, located far from the seats, opened automatically. The lower part, where the propulsion system was attached, broke away as if detached, snapping the ship in half.

KUUUNG!!

As the cross-section of the split hull fell, the scenery outside began to come into view. Lapis, who had been grimacing at the sudden influx of light, saw the distant landscape and her mouth fell slightly agape.

A massive skyscraper, easily dozens of meters tall, was standing upside down in the sky.

“……”

Click.

He unfastened the automatically released safety device and rose from his seat. A soft breeze brushed against his cheek. The air, surprisingly, felt warm.

A strange sky, half blue and half dark night. Above it, several buildings hung upside down, as if about to fall to the ground.

KUUUOOOH……!!

A faint vibration and the sound of tearing space brushed past his ears. They weren’t just defying gravity and floating upside down. Some buildings stood at right angles in the empty air, while others emerged, rotating gently, from beyond the clouds.

A bizarre space where all kinds of structures stood haphazardly, with no distinction between ground and sky. Every shape, soaring and descending without direction or center, seemed to exist solely to confuse the human senses.

Just as even Partisha, who had followed Lennok down, hesitated at the sight that defied all common sense.

[Follow me. The gate is over there.]

The Vice-Mayor, the last to disembark from the spaceship, stretched and began to walk ahead.

[Since I’ve taken on the role of guide, I’ll explain what happened here as we go.]

They walked through the heart of a city devoid of any human presence. Every time he turned his head, none of the buildings that came into view were standing properly. They walked under a massive vertical overpass and crossed a building lying horizontally, using it as a bridge. The desolate view of an office reflected in the building’s glass windows underfoot. A chilling sensation, as if something was peeking at them from between the transparent panes. But the Vice-Mayor walked on as if she were very accustomed to this place.

[It hasn’t been long since Sector 19 was assigned a number. Before that, this place was nothing more than a nameless, giant laboratory.]

“A laboratory?”

[It’s known to the public that this place was designated a restricted zone due to the failure of the Black Consumer Project, but that’s incorrect.]

Lifting her gaze, the Vice-Mayor pointed to a building in the distance and said.

[This is a forbidden zone that was abandoned only after they tasted a much greater failure while trying to clean up the project’s initial failure.]

“……”

How on earth did one have to try to clean up a project’s failure to open a crack to the Outer Sea within the sector?

WHOOOSH!!

A skyscraper of overwhelming height stood in the middle of the empty plaza. Within this sector, where all sorts of buildings flew about without support, it was the only structure with its feet planted on the ground. And it was the building located directly beneath the center of the sky, where day and night mixed and split apart.

Kkiiik.

Opening the door and stepping inside, the Vice-Mayor got on the elevator at the end of the lobby corridor. The view of the outskirts was visible through the glass window. Lennok, looking out the window, opened his mouth.

“Your hand.”

His gaze had shifted to the tip of the Vice-Mayor’s finger.

“It’s injured. You’re bleeding.”

[…….]

“I think it was crushed between the seats when we were in the exploration craft.”

The nail on the Vice-Mayor’s index finger was mangled, and drops of blood were forming and falling. Lennok stared intently at the finger and spoke.

“You seem quite insensitive to pain. To be able to endure it even when the nerve-concentrated tip of your finger is crushed.”

[I simply don’t wish for a minor injury to interfere with important matters.]

As the Vice-Mayor wiped away the blood trickling down her sleeve, Lennok smiled.

“Was that the same reason you kept fidgeting in the craft?”

[…….]

RUMBLE!!

On opposite sides of the spacious elevator, Lennok and the Vice-Mayor met each other’s gaze. The Vice-Mayor’s eyes, visible above her masked lower face, curved as if in amusement, while Lennok stared at her silently.

“Evan-nim.”

At that moment, Lapis, standing behind Lennok, spoke. The reaction of the Lighthouse Keeper, who had been focusing solely on the existence of this space, forgetting all minor details since entering the restricted zone. Lifting her head with her eyes closed, Lapis murmured quietly.

“I think we’ve arrived.”

DING!!

At that moment, the elevator doors opened, revealing a wide corridor with a red carpet. A glass door was at the end of the corridor. A vast terrace, set up for simple opening and closing. At the edge of the rooftop, which might have originally been used as a helipad, a massive, pitch-black rift floated.

Crackle, crackle……!!

Like scorched black lightning, a black current sparked in the empty air. The sky of Sector 19’s outskirts, where day and night mixed and distorted. At the center of this abnormal weather, a giant spatial rift was situated, flickering darkly.

[This is the [Gate] to the Outer Sea that exists in Sector 19.]

The Vice-Mayor said, softly twisting and rubbing her finger.

[And it’s also the final proof that the project was damaged beyond recovery.]

“……”

Walking past Lapis, who was staring at the Gate to the Outer Sea with a complicated expression, the Vice-Mayor slowly began to walk towards the rift.

[Wizard. Earlier, you asked me if the entirety of Sector 19 had transformed into a gate to the Outer Sea. That is not true.]

“……”

[The true secret of Sector 19 is not that a gate to the Outer Sea is hidden here, but……]

Slowly reaching her hand towards the rift, the Vice-Mayor’s arm began to slowly pass through to the other side.

“……!!”

The passage to the Outer Sea. A miracle that an ordinary human could push a part of their body beyond the rift and maintain their form. While Lennok was processing this, his brows furrowed, the Vice-Mayor, who had pushed one of her arms beyond the rift, calmly turned her gaze.

[…that the space connected through the gate is not another Outer Sea, but the deepest part of Sector 19.]

“The deepest part?”

The moment Lennok muttered, understanding the meaning of her words.

[It seems you understand well enough.]

The Vice-Mayor nodded.

[A part of Sector 19’s spacetime exists beyond the Outer Sea. This gate is both an exit to the Outer Sea and an entrance to the most dangerous, hidden place in Sector 19.]

The deepest part of Sector 19 exists outside the Outer Sea. The fact that a part of spacetime, which should exist as part of this world, exists beyond the gate of the Outer Sea. But even after hearing such a preposterous explanation, Lennok instinctively knew that the Vice-Mayor’s words were not wrong. If that rift were the same as the [Gates] of the Outer Sea that Lennok knew, her entire body should have been torn to shreds or corrupted into madness the moment she touched it. The very existence of the Vice-Mayor, continuing the conversation with one arm pushed beyond the rift, proved that the rift before them was a different phenomenon from a [Gate].

Perhaps she thought she had to show him directly to make him believe her words.

“Are you trying to say that a part of this world was ceded to the Outer Sea due to the project’s failure?”

[I don’t have much to say on that matter. Due to the prohibition placed on the project, there are more than a few people whose mouths are tied.]

The Vice-Mayor smiled and slowly pulled her hand out from beyond the rift. Slowly tapping the iron mask covering her lower face, she laughed.

[Would you believe me if I said this appearance is the result of being punished for trying to circumvent that prohibition once?]

“……”

He had thought it strange that she covered her lower face of all places, but was it the result of her mouth being ruined for trying to speak of the project’s prohibition? For Lennok, who was aware of the severity of such prohibitions through other project personnel, it was a plausible story.

[What do the long-winded stories of failures matter? The important thing is that the Lighthouse Keeper has found this place.]

Watching Lapis hesitate before the gate, the Vice-Mayor’s eyes curved into long crescents.

[If one who bears the mission of observing the Outer Sea seeks a gate, their purpose is all but set, is it not?]

“……”

[To make contact with the dark sea, disconnected from reality, or to maintain a similar state. If it weren’t for something of that magnitude, you would not have accepted the City Council’s conditions and visited Vulcan alone.]

The Vice-Mayor’s voice was filled with clear conviction as she spoke.

[I may not know what it is, but I know that what you want is beyond this gate.]

“……There is one mistake in your words, Vice-Mayor Weinstein.”

Only then did Lapis turn to look at the Vice-Mayor. Her sky-blue eyes had sunk so deep that no emotion could be read from them anymore.

“I am not here to take something.”

[…….]

“I am here to see if I can make it to the end. To face my own fate.”

Having said that, Lapis began to walk silently towards the gate.

GWOOOHH!!

Before the rift, crackling with black lightning, stood the lone figure of Lapis, with the others behind her. Lennok watched her back and fell into thought.

‘Madria Falcia…….’

Lapis Falcia wasn’t here to find meaning outside the Outer Sea. All she desired was to meet the consciousness of Heavenly Sight, which still lingered on the boundary of this world. Her plan was to contact the memories of Heavenly Sight through a ritual near the Outer Sea and retrieve all the remaining abilities of the Lighthouse Keeper. To see if Lapis, having reclaimed all the Lighthouse Keeper’s abilities, could truly approach Ascension. To find out what the criteria for the qualification for Ascension truly were. Wasn’t that the very reason Lennok had accepted the job of guarding her?

But something was strange. It was clear that this place, reached under the Vice-Mayor’s guidance, was Sector 19, and it was also certain that the secrets of the restricted zone she explained were not lies. It was certain he was witnessing secrets and hidden places that could not be known unless a power of that level personally guided them. And yet, an unknown sense of unease that had been unidentifiable since Amy Weinstein first appeared.

Lapis slowly raised her hand and brought it towards the gate. A careful gesture, as if prying open the crack in the end of the sky with her bare hands. The moment a faint glee flickered in the eyes of the Vice-Mayor watching from behind, Lennok finished all his calculations and drew up his magic.

“Lapis, get back!!”

“……What?”

The moment Lapis turned around in surprise.

KRA-KOOM!!

The great dark gate twisted violently, and with a powerful shockwave, it began to pull Lapis in. A movement as if the pitch-black rift was stretching wide to swallow Lapis’s body in one gulp.

“……!!!”

“Lapis-nim!”

Partisha cried out in alarm, and Lapis also reacted immediately. Her eyes flashing, Lapis drew upon her ability, forcibly twisting the surrounding view to increase the distance to the closing rift.

KRRREEEEEAAAK…!!

An exquisite technique that bought time by increasing the space being swallowed, instead of directly interfering with the rift. Just as the [Gate] of the Outer Sea, with a bizarre sound, was about to swallow Lapis, it was slowed by the momentarily increased distance.

Lennok appeared in front of Lapis, drove a wedge of magic between the rift, and forcibly stopped it from closing.

“……Evan-nim?”

KRRREEEK!!

Lennok, who had immediately pulled Lapis’s form from the spot, asked.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes. Thanks to your warning, I made it just in time.”

Lapis calmly stepped back and slowly got to her feet. Thanks to her immediately unleashing the Lighthouse Keeper’s ability to buy time, Lennok was able to draw out enough magic to intervene and stop the rift. As Partisha carefully helped Lapis up, a cold voice echoed from behind the three of them.

[I knew it. You weren’t the one with the access rights.]

BANG!!

A powerful gunshot rang out from behind Lapis. Partisha spread her wings to embrace Lapis, but no pain was felt. The shadow of the Vice-Mayor, who had pulled a pistol from her coat and pulled the trigger, intersected with Lennok’s, who had blocked the muzzle right in front of her.

“I thought this might happen, but you’re moving much faster than I expected.”

Thud, thud!!

Lennok let the bullet, which had burned and melted in his hand, drop and laughed.

“Revealing your true colors just because things went slightly awry. Aren’t you a bit too impatient?”

[I’m the one who wants to ask, wizard.]

Even after the muzzle of her pistol was blocked by Lennok’s hand, the Vice-Mayor’s voice was calm. Her eyes, glaring at the wizard before her, blazed with an intense fire.

[Why do you have the access rights to Sector 19 instead of Lapis Falcia?]

“Evan-nim. As I thought, this is……!!”

“She explained the secrets of the restricted zone herself, mixing a lie at the very end of the truth.”

As Lapis looked up at the sky with a hardened face, Lennok spoke.

“The gate you just touched was the trap. This woman never intended to show you the inside of Sector 19 from the start.”

[Hahaha!! There’s a flaw in that statement. I have never once lied to you.]

The Vice-Mayor burst out laughing, her arms spread wide.

[It’s just that ever since the deepest part of Sector 19 was isolated beyond the Outer Sea, no one has ever reached it.]

KRAK!!

At that moment, the entire massive cityscape where Lennok and the Vice-Mayor stood began to shatter like glass.