Chapter 900: The Eye that Sees Fate (36)
The storm clouds part, and the sky slowly opens.
Between the rain of smoke and flames, amid the afterimages of lightning, the blue expanse reveals itself for a moment.
As the warped clouds, still pregnant with thunder, are pushed back beyond the celestial opening, for just an instant.
A distant sea of lightning appeared as if to flood the world.
Krrrrrrumble…!!
The perceivable time was less than a fleeting moment, an instant.
Even Lapis, watching from the world’s boundary, only caught a glimpse of a fragment, yet she had clearly seen it.
Beyond the cataclysm that split into eight bolts of thunder before rejoining.
A sea of pearly white lightning descending from the far heavens, coiling around Pyeonram’s thought-form.
Kugwagwagwagwagwa!!!!
A dazzling whale swims through the clouds without ever fully revealing its true form.
Such a distant transcendence that Lapis herself couldn’t be sure if what she’d witnessed with her own two eyes wasn’t an illusion.
Surely, no one watching from the ground could properly comprehend it.
Crack-crack-crack!!!
It wasn’t a complete Root Mindscape. Nor was it the secret art of fully deploying a perfected Domain at full power.
It was a sublime technique of overflow, using an immensely powerful lightning as a medium to unleash one’s origin upon this very spot.
That alone was enough for the sea of lightning, drawn forth by the wizard’s origin, to descend upon the mortal world for a time shorter than an instant.
Merely being ensnared within the sundered cataclysm for a moment caused the thought-form’s shape to lose its structure and begin to collapse.
[Gaaaaaaak…!!]
Unable to even protect its own body, it twisted and shrieked as if in a seizure, then plummeted.
Soaked in agony, it thrashed and convulsed across the ruins, but even that was an act that only hastened its own demise.
[Grrrrrr… g-guk…]
Soon, it couldn’t even manage a proper scream, merely trembling as it laid its massive body upon the ground.
The moment the colossal snake’s thought-form rolled its eyes back, tongue lolling out as its head slammed into the earth.
Kuuuuuuung!!!
Its massive body, caked in black mud, began to crumble into ash and dissipate.
The thought-form of Pyeonram, which had degenerated into a [Gate] to the Outer Sea.
A Root Mindscape that could annihilate the thought-form of an Ascendant—something that was once Pyeonram himself—merely by bringing it forth for a moment.
Even without assuming the proper form of a Domain, simply drawing out that mindscape for an instant brought the not-so-brief battle to a close.
A miracle that descended upon reality for a time so short it was imperceptible to a mortal’s sense of time, before vanishing.
But Lapis, having witnessed the entire moment with her own two eyes, couldn’t look away for a long time.
“That is…”
A distant sea of lightning, touching both heaven and earth.
A utopia that manifested beyond the world for a fleeting moment, then drifted away like a transient dream.
Was that the destiny that the great wizard had obtained?
Proof that destiny is causality, created and built up by oneself.
The words Heavenly Sight had told her were lodged in her mind, refusing to leave.
While Lapis, momentarily forgetting even her immediate choice, was overwhelmed by the spectacle of the surging sea.
“It is a painful and difficult task, but we have a privilege that only we can enjoy. Don’t you agree?”
Heavenly Sight said, looking at Lapis with a faint smile.
“Ascension, a challenge that great seekers devote their lives to. We get to watch that impossible journey to transcend the world, as the price for shouldering our mission.”
“…Grandmother.”
“The end of this universe has not yet arrived, and we are still waiting for the moment when causality ceases.”
Heavenly Sight gestured with her eyes.
“But if all has not ended, then you can choose what kind of dream you will have.”
Leaving the miracle that vanished even faster than it appeared behind, Heavenly Sight nodded.
“In a destiny born only to vanish, if there is but a single scene that can capture your heart…”
Looking at her own hand, which was slowly becoming transparent, Heavenly Sight said.
“…At the very least, we can create the time for it.”
Fwaat!!
In that instant, the golden throne the two had been facing each other upon vanished.
The materialization of matter had been maintained by Heavenly Sight’s power.
Now, the balance between the two had tilted so far to one side that even maintaining that power had become impossible.
The two Lighthouse Keepers, now standing as the throne disappeared, faced each other.
Heavenly Sight gave an awkward smile, slowly placed her hands on Lapis’s shoulders, and embraced her.
“Goodbye, Lapis.”
“…”
“It was a short time, but it was joyful. I’m sure a joy like this must have existed for me at least once in my life.”
“G-Grandmother…”
Blankly clinging to her arm, Lapis’s fingertips trembled as transparent tears welled up in her eyes.
With a trembling hand, Lapis carefully hugged Heavenly Sight’s arm back, her voice choked with tears.
“I, I…”
“Just as I did, I hope there is a next time for you.”
Heavenly Sight whispered softly.
“Our time makes a full circle, an instant, and one day, you too will tell this to your granddaughter.”
“…”
“That the world did not end, and everyone lived happily ever after…”
It was surely a wish that even Heavenly Sight herself could not see through to the very end.
A hope she couldn’t be certain of even in the moment she challenged ascension and failed.
The heart’s longing for a non-existent future is passed on to another across time.
And knowing it is a wish that cannot be fulfilled makes one wish for it all the more strongly.
Only after realizing that was Lapis finally able to say the words she couldn’t before.
“Goodbye, Grandmother.”
Even while shedding tears, she tried her best to smile.
Still embracing Heavenly Sight, Lapis offered her farewell.
“Goodbye…”
“…”
Heavenly Sight didn’t answer.
With a bashful smile, she simply disintegrated into particles of white light on the spot.
Paaaaah!!
A brilliant platinum radiance spread before Lapis’s eyes like a curtain.
Lapis’s hands, which had been holding Heavenly Sight, caressed empty air, and a transparent light shimmered between her fingers.
A lone Lighthouse Keeper, left behind beyond the world’s boundary, wiped away her tears and lifted her head.
In that moment, all the powers of the Lighthouse Keeper that remained in her body settled into her at once.
A dazzling pillar of light soared up, dyeing the space beyond the boundary in a bright glow.
It writhed, filling the entire urban area of the vast city.
The burnt and stuck-on scales of blackened steel all flipped over, peeled off, and vanished.
All the flesh and muscle in its body lost their function, crumbling away like old dust.
The snake, tens of meters in size, which had been glowing as if to soar beyond the sky, twisted its body wretchedly and fell.
Kuuuuuuuuuuung!!!!
A powerful shockwave erupted, shaking the ground and surging like a tidal wave.
Buildings that couldn’t withstand the battle’s aftermath were thrown up from all sides before shattering.
Drrrrrrrrrk!!!
The ruins spread out, utterly destroying everything in the vicinity, centered on the point of impact.
Who could believe that all this carnage was caused by a single thunderbolt that had scorched the battlefield’s sky?
Everyone watching this scene failed to even perceive the manifestation of power shown beyond the screen.
All that was seen was the final image of the convulsing snake finally perishing through the overturned screen.
Chiiiiik…!
Boom! Pabababang!!
Every camera and surveillance system monitoring the battlefield spewed static, then exploded, leaking smoke.
City Government Central Council. Disaster Management Agency, Emergency Response Committee meeting hall.
A cold silence flowed over the acrid smell of smoke and the exploding video recording devices.
Among the wizards and council members frozen with their mouths agape, Meyer shot up and began walking towards the door.
“C-Councilman Meyer!!”
“Where are you going?!”
“To the site.”
Council members, belatedly coming to their senses, called out to him, but Meyer retorted without looking back.
“That one thunderbolt just now destroyed all the cameras and surveillance systems in the area. The situation won’t be any different elsewhere.”
“Th-That is…”
Even without confirming it, Meyer was certain.
Certain that the broken surveillance systems would never function properly again.
It wasn’t a conclusion drawn from solid evidence, similar experiences, or long years of experience.
It was simply because it was all too clear who the master of the power that annihilated the black snake’s thought-form in a single blow was.
He was just confident that the wizard he knew wouldn’t handle such a matter carelessly.
“Now that things have come to this, there’s no reason to sit here. I’m going to the site.”
Meyer replied firmly, pulling out his phone to summon his aide as he nodded.
“What happens next can only be seen with my own two eyes.”
“…!!”
Hearing his words, a few city council members and wizards from the Towers flinched and stood up as well.
They, too, had belatedly realized why Meyer was rushing to the scene.
“I, I’ll go too!!”
“Summon a private airship. It can land on the roof of the meeting hall within two minutes!!”
“Deploy the defense force to the area near the fortress and establish a blockade. Prevent anyone else from intervening!”
Those who intended to follow Meyer to the site, and those who volunteered to remain in the meeting hall to handle administrative tasks.
Either way, in this situation, their respective authorities were needed.
Within the meeting hall, the city council members instantly split into two groups and began to move.
Their aides also quickly reported and processed the information flooding in from all over.
“Councilman. Vice Mayor Weinstein, who has been in a coma for several days, has just regained consciousness.”
“The City Government has agreed to treat this matter with a secrecy level equivalent to a closed-off zone. It requires the Council’s review-”
“Unidentified superhuman unit detected on the outskirts of the undeveloped district. They are presumed to be advancing while neutralizing the magnetic storm-”
As if the earlier silence had been a lie, the meeting hall instantly transformed into a chaotic scene, bustling to the point of pandemonium.
In the meantime, the wizards who had yet to recover from the shock they witnessed through the screen began to regain their senses one by one.
Facing each other, the mages who slowly returned to reality spoke with difficulty.
“I see. We have just returned from witnessing a great wizard’s answer, haven’t we?”
“…Perhaps it’s a blessing the cameras cut out.”
One of the other mages muttered blankly, as if still in disbelief.
“If we had watched that to the end, someone here might not have come back.”
“It wasn’t even a completed ability. In the first place, if it were a normal domain, it wouldn’t have had that form…”
One of the Magic Tower wizards who was about to object clamped his mouth shut.
They too now knew how meaningless such refutations and explanations were in this place.
“The powerful figures of the Central Council are far more rational than I thought.”
Someone among the wizards muttered, watching the council members who had started moving quickly.
“They think cleanup comes before remembering and dwelling on what just happened?”
“Lamu, we are not the only ones watching this place.”
At that moment, the silent Claris spoke in a calm tone.
Most of the wizards gathered here were elite mages who held considerable positions in their respective Magic Towers.
It was only natural for those with more experience to be acquainted with each other.
“From our perspective, it’s overwhelming just to contemplate the meaning of what just happened, but the situation is different for the city’s administrators.”
“Claris, but…”
“As you saw, they are top-tier casters whose very existence is comparable to a strategic weapon.”
Claris smiled at the silent wizard.
“In terms of human assets, they would easily surpass most Magic Towers, and considering their individual martial prowess, they possess a value comparable to a decent city-state.”
“…”
“In the worst-case scenario, it wouldn’t be strange if someone tried to secure the two of them as soon as the fight is over. Isn’t it only natural for the City Council to want to avoid such a situation?”
Among the other silent wizards, a middle-aged man in a suit chimed in.
“Conversely, the City Council itself could move to secure them, of course.”
“Who are you?”
When Claris heard this, she turned her head, and the man bowed politely.
“I greet the Verdant of Sinclair. I am Melton of Thorben.”
“Aha, Thorben?”
Claris smiled strangely.
“The war merchants really do think differently. That’s not something you should say in a place where you’ve been invited by the City Council.”
“These days, most of our business is conducted on the Western Continent, you see. I’m not very perceptive around these parts.”
Melton gave an awkward laugh.
“And a megacity like Vulcan is unlikely to become our client. Of course, it shouldn’t, either.”
“More importantly, your side should have something else to worry about.”
Claris gestured with her head towards the council members who were busy preparing to leave.
“Adamant Thunder. You know, don’t you?”
“…”
“You might get to see him. Are you sure it’s alright not to follow?”
The lightning and spell incantations used by Adamant Thunder. There was no way the Thorben Magic Tower wouldn’t be interested.
If Thorben had accepted the invitation because of Adamant Thunder’s existence, shouldn’t they be rushing to the scene with the council members now?
To Claris’s vaguely phrased question, Melton replied with a bitter smile.
“I would like to, but… there’s something I must do first.”
“Something you must do?”
“Hmm, I’m telling you this in advance because of the elixir from before…”
Melton said, taking a small pendant from his coat.
Kiiing!!
He opened the pendant’s lid and manipulated the complex spell formula inscribed inside.
Simultaneously, a faint current sparked over the pendant, beginning to block out all surrounding sounds.
“The sublime mindscape technique Adamant Thunder brought out to kill the thought-form.”
Melton said after confirming the surrounding sounds were blocked.
“I didn’t see the spectacle myself, but that was probably not a simple spell.”
“If it wasn’t a spell…?”
“A fragment of an immensely powerful and transcendent will-thought.”
Melton, looking at the pendant, nodded.
“It was the aftershock of a miracle, drawn out by rearranging spacetime itself.”
“…Are you saying that thunderbolt was merely a byproduct of a miracle?”
It was a thunderbolt that not only ended the fierce battle in an instant but also annihilated the suddenly intervening thought-form.
Was that thunderbolt the result of some other ‘phenomenon’ rather than an incantation or a spell?
Even Claris, who was listening to the story, paused for a moment at those words.
“I don’t know what kind of origin Adamant Thunder holds, but I do know when such a miracle appears.”
Click.
Closing the pendant and putting it back in his pocket, Melton muttered.
“It seems we have found the master of the Apex Thunder that our Tower Lord has been searching for so desperately. I must prepare to make contact.”