Chapter 942: Responding to Heaven (2)

Oshuto Duris’s memory, that of an 8-level Transcendent.

The fiery depths of the Cult’s main branch, where he met the former priestess to save his son.

At the end of a transaction that defied human morality, even the Pontiff, directly revealing his will as proof of the contract.

Lennok understood that all of this occurred within the sanctuary created by Ureka Naydree, in a moment that felt like an instant.

“You look like you have many questions…”

The Pontiff, whose will was revealed from beyond the veil, nodded towards Lennok, who remained silent.

“I understand. Many things must have happened, haven’t they…?”

He offered no explanation, and there was no way he could know the current world’s timeline.

Yet, he seemed to already comprehend the entire situation.

“…Pontiff.”

Lennok replied in a subdued voice.

“I–”

“There was one more person… promised…”

“…”

The Pontiff, saying that, raised his gaze, and Lennok also fell silent.

If it weren’t for him, whose essence and origin were contrary to the Pontiff’s, Lennok wouldn’t have been able to be here in the first place.

But the Pontiff tilted his head for a moment, then showed a strange smile.

“It seems… some time will be needed…”

“…What do you mean?”

“It means he paid a price once today for this very meeting…”

Having answered so, the Pontiff, borrowing Isel’s body, slowly began to walk.

“It seems we have a moment of respite, so perhaps we should hear what needs to be heard first…?”

“What needs to be heard?”

Lennok could guess why the Director was late.

The Authority of inevitability that helped Lennok shatter Anathema.

If that was the divine art that twisted the world to ‘aim’ bullets and targets, it wouldn’t be strange for there to be a corresponding price or backlash.

Was it merely a delusion to feel that it was even more monstrous that he could still appear here after paying such a heavy price for that power?

But Lennok’s thoughts were swept away by the Pontiff’s next words.

“If you heard about the events in Yorta, you must have something you wish to ask me…”

“…”

Military Spirit City, Yorta. The curse sanctuary within the Memorial Tower, Mugan.

The body of the Ascendant Dorye, stored at the heart of the sanctuary that observes and preserves all curses of the world.

Once a vessel for the Pontiff himself to manifest his will in reality, and later a prepared vessel for Kaiser Bajour.

The Pontiff nodded, as if intuiting Lennok’s feelings.

“Now that I’ve traded my protection and Anathema’s name, I believe I can tell you about the origin, bearing the cost…”

A story about ‘us.’

Surely, it wasn’t about the Pontiff’s goal, or the reason he hid Dorye’s body in Yorta.

Nor would it be the story of why the Pontiff met Kaiser Bajour and prepared a spare body for him.

Instead, the Pontiff was merely saying that, by borrowing Anathema’s name, he could speak about a more fundamental matter here.

This was likely because he knew what was most important and urgent for Lennok, more so than all the worldly affairs.

Realizing this, Lennok fell into momentary thought.

“…”

Considering the Director’s presence, this very moment was an unintended Q&A session.

Precisely because of that, it was a time when the Pontiff, relying on chance, could answer about his own essence.

Where should he begin? What question should he ask to get the most fundamental answer from him?

“You don’t need to worry too much… You don’t need to be so careful in choosing your questions…”

The Pontiff lightly chuckled, seeing Lennok’s serious face.

“If you answer from your heart, that is the path that connects to my origin.”

…From the heart, he said.

Upon hearing that, Lennok decided on his first question.

Though he had fought and killed the Cult’s instruments, cursing and defiling their human sacrifices.

Yet, if there was one memory that surfaced first in Lennok’s mind, it was the existence of a comrade who sacrificed herself for him in the final moments.

“The Cult’s priestesses are said to inherit the authority to access the faith system as high priests who preside over rituals, correct?”

Lennok asked in a quiet voice.

“Is that to act as a terminal, conveying your voice, as it is now?”

Through long journeys and investigations, Lennok already knew how the Pontiff existed in this world.

Having undergone two Ascensions and crossed into the third world, the Pontiff cannot exist in this world in a proper manner.

Therefore, he conceals and resides his essence within the memories and beliefs of others, indirectly influencing reality.

This proves his transcendent nature, allowing him to intervene at any time concerning memories related to himself.

Conversely, it also meant that memories not tied to the Pontiff could escape his influence.

However, the Pontiff was conveying his will here by borrowing the existence of a priestess from memory, even though it wasn’t a memory directly related to him.

Lennok wondered if it was because the priestess was, from the beginning, a being arranged for such a ‘purpose,’ and thus posed his question to the Pontiff.

“The children of Naydree are kept by my side because I pitied their fate…”

The Pontiff looked at Lennok, then slowly replied.

“Aside from emotional motives, I do not prioritize reasons and utility. That concept itself is now meaningless to me…”

“So you mean you just take them in, then consider their usefulness?”

Lennok chuckled.

“That’s not very convincing coming from the master of a hundred thousand cults. Were all the things you accomplished such spontaneous decisions?”

“There are things that do not disappear even after the world perishes and causality is severed…”

The Pontiff closed his eyes.

“Unforeseen pasts. Uncontrolled futures. Unperceivable possibilities… They collide in aimless disorder, weaving new causality…”

“…”

“The moment when cause and effect exist independently, without relying on each other, gaining an independence untouched by fate…”

The Pontiff, speaking through Isel’s mouth, smiled faintly.

“I call this chance.”

“…”

Transcending immeasurable time and space, gathering all fleeting possibilities.

It is enough if they bloom into meaning someday; if they wither and die, that is also fine.

Without fully controlling everything, he lets things flow to a certain extent and observes.

Precisely because of this, his essence remains and exists even beyond the world’s end, possessing eternal and immortal life.

Even after everything has met its end, everything will happen by chance and end by chance, and gain meaning by chance.

The Pontiff was telling Lennok that he had succeeded in Ascension this way, crossed worlds, and would continue to exist this way.

Isel Naydree’s existence was also just one of the countless arrangements that bloomed at the Pontiff’s hands.

Therefore, Lennok couldn’t help but ask about another Naydree.

“Seina Naydree… tried to believe in the world’s salvation until the very end.”

Lennok murmured, unconsciously touching his wrist.

“Even when cursed by Jinwa’s Spell-Word, and with her body dead and soul about to perish, she tried to leave open possibilities beyond the Cult.”

“…”

“Was it enough if all those things were merely part of a flowing chance? Did her demise have no meaning beyond that?”

Did the Pontiff truly not notice the priestly authority Seina had passed to Lennok?

That couldn’t be. He merely pretended not to know, watching without intervention, without lifting a hand.

All the things Lennok did: using the priestly authority to seize Anathema’s innate abilities, and seeing through his essence.

Even the moment Seina Naydree abandoned doctrine and chose Lennok at her final breath.

For the Pontiff, were they just arrangements that withered and died without blooming?

But the Pontiff, in response to Lennok’s words, instead burst into an unexpected laugh.

“How could that be…? You, of all people, should know well.”

A reaction as if Lennok’s question was impossibly amusing.

“Many things you have seen and felt, are moments I too have passed through someday…”

“…”

“Though we lived in different worlds and loved different people, the fact remains that we saw and felt the same things…”

The Pontiff whispered.

“It’s just that I’ve become worn down. Too exhausted to express my sentiments about every single thing… I even suspect I’ve forgotten the most important part…”

“The most important part…?”

“You must have thought you would never forget that initial resolve, didn’t you?”

A question from the Pontiff that choked Lennok’s words.

A single phrase that seemed to instantly see through how Lennok had survived in this world.

He knows. Because he was himself, once. And Lennok will be him, someday.

There’s no need to exert effort to perceive, to intuit, to understand.

Now, from ancient memories, retrieve the few remaining recollections and place them before Lennok. That is all.

Just that left Lennok feeling as if he were looking into a mirror, and a sense of immeasurable despondency.

“You will not forget… But, you will not remember if it was truly correct…”

As if intuiting Lennok’s feelings, the Pontiff said softly.

As if speaking of someone’s past who had already walked that path, drawing a parallel to Lennok’s situation.

“You will commit countless failures to confirm if your answer was correct, and with each one, it will become even more unknowable…”

“…”

“Ultimately, you will even stop trying to confirm it yourself. And then…”

Closing his eyes, the Pontiff whispered.

“You will wait.”

What kind of life did the Pontiff live?

From being the first to awaken with the talent of a warrior, to enduring two Ascensions and being left alone in the third world.

What in that journey caused him to break down and collapse?

He knows.

Even Transcendent beings who succeeded in Ascension might have already passed through the very things Lennok thought and felt.

That they might have reasoned like Lennok, thought like Lennok, resolved like Lennok, and finally attained a status comparable to the world itself.

And because of that, they too might have never forgotten their initial resolve until the very end.

But they only remembered their own answer; they ultimately failed to protect other things.

They no longer remember if the answer they decided upon before the world’s end was correct, or if the journey to find that answer had faded.

Now, they merely wait.

For the time to confirm if their answer was correct.

For their past and future self, who has not yet broken.

In that case, then the inscription he wrote in the mirror-

Crack!!!

At that moment, the pure white sanctuary, formed from Duris’s memory, cracked and split as if shattering.

A strange sense of disjunction, as if the entire world of memory was distorting and twisting.

Then, the other Correction Knights, who had been frozen still, uniformly glared at the fissure.

Even Oshuto Duris, who had been bowing his head in the memory, expressed hostility, watching the fissure with bloodshot eyes.

A sense of uncanny discomfort, as if they could not tolerate the impurity that had intruded upon this moment.

“He seems to have arrived…”

The Pontiff whispered slowly, raising his hand.

“Then, may we end this brief amusement here…?”

“…Before you ask my permission, it was your whim that started this in the first place.”

Lennok gave a bitter smile and shook his head.

Forcibly shaking off the heavy feeling in his chest, Lennok regained his composure and said belatedly.

“I, in the first place, don’t trust your answer that much. The things the Cult has done in this world don’t make sense if I were to believe your words.”

The Pontiff’s answer contained so many meanings that even Lennok couldn’t fathom their depths, but Lennok didn’t believe all of it was true.

For his mistakes and failures to be purely for the sake of finding righteousness, the wars and sacrifices committed by the Cult were far too cruel.

Whatever the reason, the Cult he led was an extremist religious group that treated humans as mere consumables.

It was also clear that all these deeds were ultimately a process to worship the Outer Sea’s cataclysms as gods.

“The project’s failure. Ars Nova’s destruction. The Emperor’s legacy. Only the fact that all of it is intertwined is clear. Beyond that, it’s just your perspective on observing the world.”

Lennok raised his gaze.

“I know. That you also tried. Even that you succeeded twice. And there must be a reason why it came to that.”

“…”

“But I, ultimately–”

Lennok knew that the Pontiff was a challenger who had achieved great feats, feats Lennok himself could barely imagine now.

A monster who not only gained the qualification to challenge Ascension but actually succeeded in transcending worlds twice.

And that his method of existing through others’ worship and fanaticism was practically on a divine level.

But, despite all that, if there was one thing Lennok thought and was certain about the Pontiff-

Crunch!!

At that moment, the fissure etched within the pure white sanctuary widened even further, twisting and tearing apart the space itself.

Oshuto, the Correction Knights, and even Isel Naydree, who had been glaring at the fissure in the memory, shattered and scattered amidst the shock.

Only the pale, glowing light of the sanctuary hovered above the fissure like an angelic halo.

It was as if the spatial fissure had a will of its own, forcibly tearing open the sanctuary.

“He doesn’t seem to like this memory… How troublesome.”

From beyond the angelic halo, the Pontiff’s amused voice resonated faintly.

“Very well. If he doesn’t like the stage… I shall accommodate him…”

At that moment, the scenery of the Myriad Gods Pantheon where Lennok stood flipped and changed.

‘Whoaaaa!!’

Thousands of paladins in pure white armor galloped across a blood-soaked wasteland.

From the sky, priests with angelic wings shot out pure white magic.

On the opposite side of the battlefield, an army of machines cloaked in black energy rose and clashed with the paladins.

Blood and oil splattered onto the dust of the wasteland, emitting a pungent scent.

Some battlefield. A memory that does not exist in this world now.

Before Lennok could ask anything about it, the Pontiff moved first.

“Let us go… He will be waiting.”

“…This memory?”

“If those who are not of this world are to meet, it’s already decided, isn’t it…?”

The Pontiff replied slowly.

“A miracle of transcendence where worlds overlap. When the status of humans and the world become equal, eclipsing each other…”

“…”

The moment Lennok realized the meaning of those words and held his breath, the Pontiff smiled strangely.

“It is the memory of the moment an Ascendant succeeds in Ascension.”