Chapter 945: Trampling Heaven (5)
The end of a world where even the transcendents’ methodologies and the forerunners’ answers lost their meaning.
Looking back at all the failures and disgraces, he was still searching for an answer within himself.
He had hesitated to confront the answer he had vaguely realized the moment he recognized the ending.
Even so, the reason he was still delving into the answers left by other transcendents was because he believed that every moment was a journey towards that answer.
If there was no ‘fourth’ in this world, if Lennok himself could become that answer.
If there could be a process that took precedence over the result.
“……”
[Indeed, is that so…]
The Director fell silent, and the Pontiff lamented.
[The creation of possibilities. The reordering of branching points… That, too, must surely be a choice only you can make.]
Unlike the Director, who seemed to understand Lennok’s answer, the Pontiff could not easily take his eyes off Lennok.
Beyond the distorted noise, the Pontiff’s gaze briefly blurred.
[Among all the causality in this world, I must concede that only you have not followed us…]
“……”
At the Pontiff’s calmly resounding words, Lennok, too, closed his eyes, unable to respond.
Was this the right moment? Was it too early to state his answer?
Even as he thought and pondered, he ultimately acted as his heart dictated.
Because he didn’t know when such a moment would come again. Because he couldn’t know where or how Lennok’s own time would end.
A coincidence like this, a necessity that compelled him to throw out an answer, might never happen again.
What one desires never comes to hand, and sometimes, even hoping for it is not permitted.
To harbor wishes and aspirations is an act not tolerated amidst ignorance and vexation.
Yet, an answer that had to be conveyed, even like this, existed for the three of them.
[You don’t need to worry so much. There’s no reason to suffer either…]
Watching the silent Lennok, the Pontiff smiled faintly.
[Our answers diverging in different directions was a predetermined outcome, though not fixed.]
“……”
[It is inevitable to depart from one’s predetermined role the moment one transcends destiny. The division of our paths is the logic of coincidence.]
The Pontiff slowly turned back towards Lennok and whispered.
[Ultimately, somehow, our origins are designed to cycle, reverse, and return to their original state as if regressing. Even for you, escaping this causal loop will be far from easy…]
“That’s true.”
Lennok agreed.
“But even so, I seek to break free. Not because I necessarily believe it’s the right thing to do.”
Whoosh…!!
The time that had stopped began to ripple as if moving again, and the light in the sky intensely flickered.
At the peak of the miracle created by the Transcendent Naoise Penn, in the fleeting moment the world was pulled down.
Under the gloomy yet beautiful sky covered in black-green, Lennok looked back at the two.
“If I don’t change, I won’t be able to surpass anything. No matter how much I struggle, it would merely be the process of following a path already traveled.”
“……”
“Whether it’s destiny or not, it doesn’t matter. From the beginning, that was not the role I desired.”
Lennok tilted his head back and spoke quietly.
“For now, I intend to start by not being bound.”
[An excellent answer.]
The Pontiff, who slowly approached Lennok, murmured.
[To reach that point, how much did I have to pay in the past…]
“……”
[Can starting differently truly make such a difference? Or is there a greater gap than that…]
The Pontiff’s words, whispered with his hands behind his back, abruptly ceased.
A sense of strangeness, as if he was pondering something then and there, trying to piece together thoughts.
The gap between his will-thought and actions awkwardly broke, a peculiar reaction, as if experiencing a delay.
In the ominous silence, the air grew sharply taut.
The Pontiff, who had been silently looking up at the sky, spoke quietly.
[It is sadly regrettable that this discourse cannot be continued to its end.]
Crack!!
At that moment, a vertical, pure white eye opened behind the Pontiff’s back.
A pristine white eye, split open as if forcibly tearing memories apart.
An ominous, pale incandescence, as if freely wielding the power of an Outer God, pierced through Lennok.
Bang!!
A pale flash of light penetrated Lennok’s body, cutting vertically across the floating Dark Shadow Temple.
However, Lennok was not surprised by the Pontiff’s sudden action and glanced back.
“……”
The Transcendent Naoise Penn, who had been engrossed in performing the miracle of Trampling Heaven in Lennok’s memory.
He was now standing directly behind Lennok, glaring intensely at him.
Black-green eye-light shimmered within the hollow sockets of his skull.
It flickered with an intense, eerie glow, as if staring at the unseen, yet sensing Lennok’s presence there.
[Didn’t they say there was none who could match your talent for resonating with concepts not of this world?]
The Pontiff smiled with his hands behind his back.
[Even if it’s merely a being from memory, if he and I remember it, then it’s truth. It wouldn’t be strange for him to perceive our presence like this…]
“……”
The memory of ascension shared by the Director and the Pontiff.
Because it was a landscape both transcendents remembered together, this moment was as close to reality as could be.
That was why Naoise Penn, even while performing the ascension ritual, had perceived the presence of the three of them with his unique resonance ability and turned to look their way.
Deepest part of the Hanghasa Labyrinth. A divine feat of forcibly encroaching upon and intervening in another’s timeline, similar to what the Director had shown in Jindun’s cradle.
[Showing you my ascension, in this sense, is dangerous…]
The Pontiff said.
[At that moment, ‘I’ am a being from an independent timeline, no longer obedient to my own control. If I had chosen my memory as the stage, he would immediately sense the anomaly and attempt to intervene like this.]
“Pontiff. There’s not much time left.”
The Director spoke in a dispassionate voice.
“The collapse of the sanctuary is inevitable the moment the Spirit Summoner perceives and intervenes in an external timeline. It’s a matter of how long it can hold in memory.”
His eyes, beyond the noise, watched the Pontiff’s movements.
“Withdraw your power. End it here.”
The Director’s words were brief, but Lennok instinctively understood their meaning.
The Pontiff had raised the Outer God’s eye in his memory to prevent Naoise Penn from perceiving the external timeline, thereby preserving this moment.
However, it was also clear that the Pontiff’s response was more extensive than necessary.
It was clear there was another motive when he specifically drew upon external power, even though he could have simply stopped a single lich.
The Director had noticed this fact at the same time as the Pontiff’s reaction and was now stopping him.
[I know. Lingering in a place like this only makes one pathetic…]
But even as the Pontiff said this, he smiled faintly.
[However, if our destiny refused to be the ending, shouldn’t we first retrieve what needs to be taken away?]
Flash!!
The moment the Outer God’s eye, rising behind the Pontiff, flashed intensely.
Lennok felt something forcibly being pulled out of his body.
It wasn’t a concept like talent, vessel, or aptitude. In the first place, the Pontiff wouldn’t have been able to interfere with those in Lennok.
It was not originally Lennok’s own, but rather a part of the authority granted to him later.
A power closer to the Pontiff’s origin and essence than Lennok’s own, trembled from his wrist and began to pull free.
Kieeeing…!!!
The authority of the Priestess that Seina Naydree had left to Lennok.
The ability to enact the rituals that allow the cult’s priestess to exist as a priestess was trying to leave Lennok’s body.
[The power passed down through the Naydree name is, by rights, meant to be used for my children…]
The Pontiff smiled gently and nodded.
[This power would only hinder your path, so I will reclaim it here.]
“No.”
But Lennok, looking at the Pontiff, shook his head resolutely.
“This isn’t an ending that can be decided by the presence or absence of authority. This is merely one method.”
[…]
“The moment I set my answer, all possibilities must reside within me as causality.”
Lennok smiled, looking at the silent Pontiff.
“Therefore, I will not be robbed of anything more. Not even if you are my opponent.”
Crunch!!
At that moment, a pale wing tore through space behind Lennok and unfurled, unleashing a tingling electric current.
[Pontiff-!!!!!]
The palace of memory and twisted rifts mixed, distorted, and instantly collapsed.
The world’s rift widened uncontrollably. The Pontiff’s sanctuary crumbled in real time.
Kwagagagaga!!!!
The sea split and shattered, and the sky melted indistinctly like water.
Even as the sanctuary of memory vanished and crumbled, only the Outer God’s eye floating in the sky remained so clear.
Amidst it, someone’s intense electric current resonated.
[My, my-]
Contaminated wings fully spread through the cracks of the sanctuary, surging forth to enter this wretched place.
[Hateful God-!!!!!]
Kieeeiing!!!
The incandescent radiance of the fallen archangel wildly radiated, blocking the sanctuary’s collapse.
That immense will-thought, determined to be present even if it meant burning away all its remaining time, burst forth, standing between Lennok and the Pontiff.
[My pitiful angel. My longed-for Apostle, is that you…]
The Pontiff, who had been quietly listening to that voice, only then smiled slowly, as if a thought had occurred to him.
[It seems you, too, went through your own preparations to meet me.]
“……”
Lennok had not forgotten the presence of the angel, Kashuin, the archangel of the 2nd World, who had awakened beyond the Ascension Gate and was later taken in by Lennok.
Immediately after defeating Anathema, Lennok had brought out Kashuin and discussed the upcoming three-way confrontation.
He had prepared for Kashuin to perceive the Pontiff’s presence and intervene.
In the worst-case scenario, if the Pontiff attempted to harm Lennok, Kashuin’s intervention would create a brief opening.
[The second failure was, for me, truly agonizing and painful…]
As soon as the Pontiff perceived Kashuin’s presence, he seemed to realize it was Lennok’s arrangement, and his voice momentarily blurred.
Nevertheless, he strode past the light that Kashuin burst forth in a frenzy, instantly appearing by Lennok’s side.
Whoosh!!
[If your attempt was to provoke my guilt, I would say it was excellent…]
“……”
Saying that, the Pontiff’s hand, extended towards Lennok, stopped abruptly in mid-air.
The Director, who had remained utterly unresponsive to the sanctuary’s collapse and Kashuin’s intervention, was now staring intently at them.
No emotion was felt, but the Director seemed intent on intervening the moment the Pontiff made contact with Lennok.
If Lennok had instinctively sensed it, the Pontiff too must have been certain.
[As much as I’d like to embrace all my mistakes here and now… Very well.]
The Pontiff, too, seemed to notice this, and slowly bent his wrist, retracting his hand.
[If you wish to make even the Naydree name a possibility, I shall permit it.]
The Pontiff smiled faintly.
[After all, wouldn’t even that be proof that I was not mistaken in the face of destiny…]
“……”
[It is regrettable, but I shall be content knowing there is a next time. Whether what awaits you is an ending, or a next step.]
His blurred voice suddenly became perfectly clear.
His words, which had been trailing off powerlessly, now stood firm as if by a lie.
[Either way, even the waiting will be a joy to me.]
The Pontiff turned his back to Lennok and smiled.
[I shall see you again, on that day, whenever it may come.]
“Indeed.”
In that fleeting moment, the Pontiff’s caprice and the Director’s intervention unfolded.
Yet, Lennok did not lose his composure and nodded.
With Kashuin’s intervention, a way to escape through the sanctuary’s rift had been secured.
Though the Pontiff was a powerful and mysterious transcendent, he seemed to have no intention of awakening the being slumbering in memory yet.
Lennok hadn’t been able to ask them anything about the project, but Anathema’s corpse was in Lennok’s hands.
The only being in this world Lennok had first encountered who was not bound by The Prohibition.
The causality of chance and fortune that Olivera had desired so much, even wagering the secrets of the Outer Tribulation City.
If he utilized that corpse, he might be able to delve deeper into the project’s secrets, for which it had been difficult to even obtain clues.
Then, for today, this was enough.
Kugugugu!!!
The sound of the sanctuary, originally not part of this world’s space-time, vanishing, sharply pierced into his eardrums.
Beyond the splitting rift, the Director turned away, and the Pontiff smiled faintly with his hands behind his back.
As the three turned in different directions simultaneously, the landscape of the sanctuary tore into a thousand fragments.
Ka-a-ang!!!
The landscape of the satellite city, existing in reality, unfolded before Lennok’s eyes.
“Cough…!!”
Lennok, who had walked out of the crumbling sanctuary, coughed and bent over.
Dark red nosebleeds dripped onto his hands as he knelt.
The immense spiritual pressure he had faced from the moment he directly confronted the Director and the Pontiff.
Only after the soul-crushing pressure vanished did his body, unable to adapt, fully bear the recoil in reality.
Thud!
It felt as if the blood vessels in his brain were snapping, stopping even the speed of his thoughts.
Lennok, desperately clinging to his fading consciousness, laboriously raised his gaze and looked around.
The Priestess Ureka Naydree, who had been with Lennok, was gone, as was the staff he had used as the axis for declaring the sanctuary.
Only the corpse of Oshuto Duris, his brow pierced, lay limply amidst the dust-laden ruins.
“……”
The intersection of chance and destiny. The answer of origin exchanged between them.
What did he gain, and what did he give up?
It was clear that they perceived each other’s existence, and would not stop moving towards the ending.
And that the Director and the Pontiff would hear Lennok’s answer and treat him as a variable.
But even so, Lennok had also learned new facts.
That there was something so important that the Pontiff and the Director had to meet directly to coordinate its timing.
And that they were extremely sensitive to Lennok’s presence regarding that matter.
The miracle of three people’s times overlapping, which could not exist in a single world, had ended.
In a conversation close to an instant, Lennok had set his answer and intended to become the possibility himself.
Then, he must now move forward.
Lennok limped to his feet, laboriously dragging his body, and began to walk towards the direction from which a pale light erupted.
Anathema’s corpse, the Compassion of the Archangel impaled upon it, and the soul of the archangel who had intervened in the sanctuary to help Lennok at the last moment.
Concluding and managing this meeting had to begin from there.