Chapter 899: The Eye That Sees Fate (35)
Heavenly Sight’s offer to take on the Lighthouse Keeper’s mission in her stead.
It was not as simple as Heavenly Sight taking back the mission from Lapis.
What remained on the borderline was not the real Heavenly Sight, but a consciousness construct left behind by her when she was alive.
A memory of Heavenly Sight in her youth, Madria Falcia.
That was why Lapis, too, understood perfectly what Heavenly Sight was trying to say.
“This is the borderline that separates the world from the Sea. A space where cause and effect blur, mix, and are redefined.”
Heavenly Sight said, walking slowly past Lapis.
“What happens here ignores the laws of the material and spiritual worlds, yet at the same time, it does not follow the exceptions of the Sea.”
“……”
“A gray area where all concepts and common sense that existed in human affairs are inverted and revised.”
Fwoosh!!
A pillar of pure white light soared up at a casual wave of Heavenly Sight’s hand, quickly transforming into an ornate chair.
Seated on a grand throne adorned in platinum, Heavenly Sight leaned back, crossed her legs, and looked at Lapis.
“So, in a place like this, there would be no problem if the two of us were to swap roles and remain.”
“……”
Lapis Palcia, performing a ritual before the gate to the Outer Sea in the sanctum of the Hexagonal Fortress.
And the consciousness construct of Madria Falcia, who had been serving as the Lighthouse on the world’s borderline.
Heavenly Sight was saying that here, in this place, their roles could be interchanged.
It was a taboo almost unforgivable across all spellcraft and systems on the continent. The contradiction and perfidy of swapping the places of the living and the dead.
But even after hearing Heavenly Sight’s proposal, Lapis remained silent, her expression sorrowful.
As if she had known about this method Heavenly Sight was explaining for a long time.
“One is forsaken, one is released. One remains on the borderline, while the other returns to reality.”
Heavenly Sight tapped her fingers on the armrest.
“It doesn’t matter who returns. In the end, we were all beings who bore the mission of the Lighthouse Keeper.”
In this gray area where causality was blurred, the distinction between Lapis and Heavenly Sight was largely meaningless.
Therefore, who would return to reality after this ritual was not set in stone either.
“So I’ll ask you here.”
Heavenly Sight said with an expressionless face.
“Do you wish for me to take your place and continue the mission of the Lighthouse Keeper?”
“……”
“It’s not impossible. I’ve done it once before. I might even do a better job than last time.”
“……”
“I might even be able to move on to the next stage before you, with all the training you’ve accumulated. I have fulfilled that role for far longer than you have lived.”
That was true. Lapis did not deny it.
Heavenly Sight in her youth. Even if it wasn’t her true self, but merely a fragment of her consciousness, she was unmistakably a memory of Madria Falcia, a perfected Ascendant.
The time she had lived, the station she had achieved, her experience, her wisdom, her connections.
In every single aspect, Lapis fell short of Heavenly Sight.
Most importantly, Lapis—
“You were wishing for someone who could protect the mission better than yourself, weren’t you?”
“……”
“Wasn’t that why you performed this ritual to come and see me?”
The reason Lapis had become aware of Heavenly Sight’s consciousness construct left on the world’s borderline and had sought to meet her.
The reason she intended to perform the ritual beyond the Gate, under the pretext of retrieving the Lighthouse Keeper’s abilities.
Heavenly Sight already knew that all of it was not to protect the mission, but to lay it down.
That Lapis had begun to question the Lighthouse Keeper’s mission, tormented by skepticism until she finally began to mock herself.
That deep down, she had wished for someone who could fulfill the mission better than herself.
Heavenly Sight already knew it all.
“It’s difficult to maintain a physical form here for long. If one is to act as the Lighthouse, there’s no reason to retain a human shape.”
Heavenly Sight said, waving a hand while leaning on her throne.
“But I waited for you because I thought I knew what your wish was. Only when I ask this question can you finally make a decision.”
“……”
“You are the one who decides. The right to choose always belongs to the living.”
Heavenly Sight smiled and leaned back comfortably in her chair.
She held out her hand to the space opposite her, and another ornate, platinum throne rose to face her own.
“Tell me whenever you’re ready. I can wait as long as you remain here.”
“……”
Instead of answering, Lapis stared at the empty throne, her lips pressed tightly together.
The ornate platinum throne placed opposite Heavenly Sight.
The moment she sat in that chair, there would be no turning back.
That was the meaning of the explanation she had just given.
I know.
What Heavenly Sight just said was simply an explanation of a fact Lapis had been wondering about.
An answer to what would happen to the world after she made her decision.
Even if Lapis accepted the offer, nothing would happen to the world.
Only that Lapis would remain here, and in the world, a different Lighthouse Keeper would take her place.
It wasn’t that she had thought of it solely because she wanted to be at ease.
It was just that she thought someone else might be the answer, rather than her, who suffered without any certainty—
“……You’re right.”
Lapis murmured softly.
“I always… wanted to give up. It was always hard, and I resented it.”
“……”
“Every day, I lied to the people who followed me. I spoke of a hope I didn’t believe in myself and made plans, saying everything would work out.”
“……”
“Every time, someone else dies, and they all say the same thing. That I, who protect the mission, must live. That the Lighthouse Keeper who will observe the apocalypse must remain.”
“……”
“But… now I can’t remember all the people who died for me. Before, I remembered every face, every voice, without fail.”
Lapis’s voice grew faint, as if it could be extinguished at any moment.
Even in the utter silence, she squeezed out the words with difficulty, as if short of breath.
“Unseen and unremembered, they are forgotten beyond oblivion, with no one to recognize them. It’s so painful to dwell on that fact alone….”
Clutching her chest, Lapis whispered.
“……At some point, I started thinking about letting go like this.”
Having said that, Lapis staggered forward.
She stood before Heavenly Sight, who had listened without a word, and quietly settled onto the throne.
Atop the platinum thrones, facing each other, Heavenly Sight and Lapis met gazes.
“Have you decided on your answer?”
“Yes.”
Lapis gave a sorrowful smile.
“So… I will carry this suffering to the very end.”
“……”
“I will not pass this responsibility on to another. The sorrow, the suffering—it is all mine. I must be the last one to protect this mission in this world.”
Entrusting the mission to Heavenly Sight’s consciousness construct was not a convenient tale of giving new life to the dead.
It would be nothing more than forcing upon Heavenly Sight the same painful journey she had to endure while she lived.
Furthermore, no one could be certain how long Heavenly Sight, a mere fragment of consciousness and not the true Ascendant, could endure.
Heavenly Sight knew this, yet she had been prepared to accept it if Lapis wished it.
But because she knew how hard and painful it was, she could not pass this responsibility on to another.
She would protect this duty, inherited from the Heavenly Sight of the past, until the moment the world met its end.
Only after long deliberation and promises, after facing a nostalgic memory on the other side of the world’s borderline.
Only then could Lapis finally make her decision.
“Because there are people who want me to return. People who say they need me, not some other Lighthouse Keeper.”
“I see.”
Heavenly Sight smiled amidst the scattering platinum radiance.
“I’m so glad that those words can be the answer you’ve chosen.”
Paaaaaaaaat!!!
In that instant, the bodies of Heavenly Sight and Lapis began to shine brilliantly.
The thrones glowed brightly, their light gently enveloping the two women.
Beyond the haze of white light, Lapis’s eyes shone with clarity.
“You said the right to choose belongs to the living. I believe those words.”
“……”
“I will remain the Lighthouse Keeper until the very end and watch over this world’s fate. Even if… our end is nothing more than a bubble in the Sea….”
Paaaah!!
Heavenly Sight’s body began to fade where she sat, slowly starting to seep into Lapis.
The consciousness construct left on the world’s borderline by the Ascendant in place of the Lighthouse.
The remaining abilities of the Lighthouse Keeper had begun to be directly absorbed into Lapis.
“To find the end is the task of the living. To search for a fate not yet decided.”
Without even thinking of holding onto her own slowly dissipating form, Heavenly Sight smiled.
“Is that a conclusion you reached after seeing the wizard fighting in your stead down there?”
“……!!”
As Lapis looked at Heavenly Sight with a startled expression, Heavenly Sight gestured lightly.
The space below the thrones opened up, beginning to show the cityscape where the battle was raging.
Kwaaaaaaa!!!
A flame flower entwined around the giant body of a black serpent, and lightning and fire flashed from all directions.
Which of the wizards on the battlefield was Heavenly Sight referring to?
Perhaps, she already knew that the question itself was meaningless.
Looking down at the ground with a gentle gaze, Heavenly Sight spoke.
“He is a strange one. He was born with the most perfect fate, yet he himself is rejecting it.”
“What……?”
“The third to reach the end is the symbol of perfection. Do you know what this means?”
A perfect fate.
As Lapis hesitated, failing to understand the words for a moment, Heavenly Sight looked at her and spoke slowly.
“He knows. He must have realized long ago what kind of fate he was born with.”
“……”
“And yet, he holds onto himself, searching for a meaning beyond it.”
Heavenly Sight whispered with undisguised admiration.
As if lowering her voice so someone might not hear. As if someone from beyond the Sea might be eavesdropping on these words.
“Standing in the same place, they are not the same; standing in different places, they are not different.”
“……”
“I believe that the very diversity that man strives so hard to protect will be his answer.”
Had Heavenly Sight just guessed what Evan dreamed of as he painted the world’s end?
The secret about Evan that Lapis had been contemplating just before the ritual.
Just as she was about to hastily open her mouth, thinking she might have heard the one answer that pierced through that truth.
“Behold, Lapis.”
Heavenly Sight narrowed her eyes as if blinded by a bright light and murmured.
“The most powerful fate that man has obtained.”
“Fate……”
“There lies the proof that fate is not something to be submitted to and followed, but a causality one creates for oneself.”
At that moment, from the center of the crimson, glowing flame flower, a single bolt of lightning bloomed.
Crackle, crackle……!!!!!
A single bolt of lightning shot up into the empty sky, rotated above the sundered heavens, and stitched the world back together.
It became a vast and transcendent mindscape that filled the entire sky, shaking Lapis to her core, body and soul.
Kwaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!
A thunderclap that shook heaven and earth.
A distant sea of lightning, painted upon the scenery of the mind.
Because the time it took for that to descend upon reality was but an instant, less than a single moment,
Even Lapis, looking down upon the world with the cognitive abilities of an Ascendant, could not see it properly.
What echoed in her ears was a thunderclap, flashing from beyond an unknown genesis.
The edge of the sky where eight peals of thunder met and unfolded.
The moment the tail of a pure white whale shimmered like a distant afterimage beyond the clouds and vanished.
[Kahaaaaaak….!!!!]
The black serpent’s thought form began to burn, melt away, and vanish.