Chapter 226 - Episode 30. Lone World (1)
Chapter 226: Episode 30. Lone World (1)
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「To say that only one exists is the same as saying that none exist.」
Pierre, God of Madness
* * *
Rain poured down. Lightning flashed intermittently overhead, followed a few beats later by thunder. Every Vicegerent and Follower in the Abyss came out into the streets, soaking themselves in the rain.
They all said the same thing.
They had never seen a rainy season this long. Once it ended, the world would take on a completely different shape from anything it had known before.
Rupture’s Vicegerents marched through the rain. No being in the Abyss knew what awaited them at the end of that march.
They only cautiously believed that something must be waiting there.
Could there really be something?
Mirel, Rupture’s Fifth Division Commander, stared at the approaching Seventh Site, her expression hardening. Yu Seolha, once her friend, would be there.
Seolha, now is the time to decide.
* * *
Jaehwan’s footsteps sank into the desolate landscape.
The Eighth Site, 〈Caspion〉, looked bleak and inorganic when he returned after nearly four months. He had heard rumors that life had improved after Rupture became the Site’s new master, but he could not imagine where such rumors had come from.
After passing through a small portal, Jaehwan was greeted by the Eighth Site’s forbidden area, the Blue Grove Restricted Zone.
Swish, slash!
Kreeegh!
Lost Ones turned into monsters and horned beasts appeared from time to time, but neither could challenge Jaehwan anymore.
After walking for a while, he began to smell fish.
Without thinking, Jaehwan headed toward it. Before long, a familiar sight appeared.
「Fishing Spot」.
A place where lost souls were fished up.
Jaehwan paused. This Fishing Spot held special meaning for him as well. When he had first arrived in the 《Abyss》, knowing nothing, someone had taught him many things here.
She had been the god of this place and, once, a hero. She had lived in the 《Abyss》 for a long time. She had been the god of a little boy.
She had died for Jaehwan.
When Jaehwan mentioned her name, Nameless had said this.
「Andersen! Of course I remember her. I do! She was the only god I passed the Setting of 「Naked」 down to, back when I was pretending to be the ‘Mad God.’」
“You were the ‘Mad God’?”
「For a while! I did pretend to be one. It was already a hundred thousand years ago, though.」
“I see.”
「Of course! Strictly speaking, ‘Mad God’ is not a title that refers only to me. Mad! God refers to the entire Longevity Clan. Everything they! did gets blamed on the ‘Mad God.’」
Jaehwan slowly looked over the Fishing Spot.
Part of him wondered whether Andersen might still be alive somewhere, since she was a god. At the same time, he knew it was a futile hope. Jaehwan was not the only one capable of Godslaying. Maiad also had the power to kill gods.
Jaehwan took Andersen’s Moya Moya Crow from his pocket. As he slowly wound its spring and poured World Force into it, the crow doll feebly flapped its wings one last time before going limp. Like something that had reached the end of its life, the crow scattered into silver light in Jaehwan’s palm.
He released that silver light into the Fishing Spot.
For a long time, he thought about memories that never truly vanished.
There were no good gods. But
Andersen was certainly a good god.
The moment that thought crossed his mind, faint light rippled across the Fishing Spot’s pond. Startled, Jaehwan pulled his hand from the water. A single golden feather remained where the crow had been.
Andersen’s World Force lingered around it, incredibly faint. Perhaps this was the last fragment Andersen had left in this world.
Jaehwan stared at the feather for a long while before putting it away.
There might still be a way.
He rose and hurried onward.
The forbidden zone soon came to an end. A ridge leading to the great basin where the Hachenold Auction House had stood until four months ago appeared ahead.
Nothing remained in the basin. The gate supervisor who had denied Jaehwan entry because he was naked was gone, along with the auction house’s overseers.
They had all died in that day’s great catastrophe.
It had been Jaehwan’s choice. Many souls had died because of his choice and stubbornness. Countless worlds and possibilities they had believed in had vanished that day as well.
Jaehwan knew that too. But knowing such things did not mean he could stop walking this path. It was a path he could not stop precisely because he knew.
Perhaps Rupture Lord Maiad had been much the same.
Which of them was more right, Jaehwan or the Rupture Lord?
Jaehwan did not know.
All he knew was that his Destruction was still ongoing.
Lowering his gaze, Jaehwan quietly spoke.
“How long are you going to keep following me from hiding?”
At his low but forceful question, the small wildflowers blooming in the basin trembled. Heat haze rose among them, and a figure appeared.
An aura of silver wings spread from the person’s shoulder blades.
It was a man Jaehwan knew well.
The man’s golden hair, disheveled by the rain, swayed mournfully.
“Since when did you know?”
“From the beginning.”
Karlton wore an expression that said he had expected as much.
It had only been luck that allowed him to see Jaehwan vanish from the conference hall. Jaehwan had disappeared without a trace among all those people. If Karlton had not been watching him continuously, he would never have noticed it.
With no time to tell the others, Karlton followed Jaehwan’s trail. He ran for dozens of hours so he would not lose the shadow moving farther away at terrifying speed.
At last, Jaehwan had turned around to face him.
“Why did you not stop me from following you?”
“Because I did not need to then.”
“Does that mean you will stop me now?”
“Yes.”
“May I ask why?”
“Because it is dangerous ahead.”
Karlton instinctively looked at the mist beyond Hachenold. He knew very well what fortress stood at the end of it.
Rupture’s main fortress, 〈Highseeker〉.
The strongest being in existence, who had defeated the Eight Divine Thrones and stood on the verge of unifying the Abyss, was there. Even from afar, its overwhelming presence could be felt.
Karlton knew it too. The moment he approached the fortress with his current World Force, he would be crushed flat.
“You will not be any help. You cannot even manifest your Unique World.”
“You knew?”
“It would be strange if I did not.”
As Jaehwan said, Karlton lacked an Unique World.
After relentless effort, he had reached the realm of the Fourth Awakening and gained the ability to achieve Creation. Yet Karlton still did not know what his Unique World was.
Since he had passed the Third Awakening, a powerful world was surely sleeping within him. If he kept striving as he had until now and did not neglect reflection, perhaps one day he would succeed in Sanctuary Manifestation and become a powerful Fourth Awakened One.
But that would be someday, not now.
“I know. I will not be any help.”
“Do you? It does not seem like you do.”
“I understand perfectly.”
Karlton’s voice did not bend in the slightest, and Jaehwan frowned.
“You will only get in the way.”
“I know that too. Even so, what will you do if I still wish to follow you, Fortress Lord?”
The firm resolve in Karlton’s eyes made Jaehwan’s gaze waver faintly. To hide that agitation, he slowly closed his eyes.
Darkness fell, blocking his view of everything around him. In return, the scope of his thoughts widened.
Jaehwan thought.
This was probably why he had come alone.
It had been the same in the Tower of Nightmares.
In Chaos.
And in the Abyss.
His history had been a history of Destruction. Because he knew that well, Jaehwan had never tried to maintain close ties with anyone. It was enough for him alone to climb to the end of the world over terrible sins.
There had been times when he wanted someone to walk that path with him for a while. There had been moments when loneliness and exhaustion had weakened his heart.
But after realizing Ouroboros and obtaining 「Gestalt’s Eye」, Jaehwan understood.
He had to walk this path alone. No one could walk it with him.
No one could follow him.
Anyone who walked this path would surely...
“Die.”
Jaehwan opened his eyes and spoke in the coldest voice he could manage. He said it even though he knew it would wound Karlton.
Karlton readily admitted it.
“That is likely true. I probably will not even be able to protect myself.”
“You do not need to be loyal to me anymore. This is not Chaos.”
“I know, Fortress Lord.”
“Why do you still call me Fortress Lord?”
“Because you are still my Fortress Lord.”
Karlton smiled.
“Do you remember the day we first met, Fortress Lord?”
Of course Jaehwan remembered. How could he forget the day he first entered Gorgon Fortress?
Stubborn Karlton. Even now, Jaehwan vividly remembered Karlton reciting Gorgon’s laws and catching every illegal entrant.
“I said then that perhaps the day would come when our justice collided again.”
Jaehwan remembered those scenes.
The day Karlton had shown flexibility for the first time and let Jaehwan in.
The day neither of them was hurt, without either of them destroying the other’s justice.
When Jaehwan, unable to understand Karlton, had asked what he was plotting, Karlton had clearly said those words.
“That moment is now.”
Only today was Karlton continuing the conversation from that day.
“You wish to go alone, Fortress Lord, but I cannot send you alone. This is the moment when our justice clashes.”
Jaehwan fell silent for a moment.
“Can you really call something so insignificant your justice?”
“This insignificant thing is my justice.”
Justice was equal. There was no greater justice and no lesser justice. That was what justice was. Something that could never be yielded. A Sublimity that ceased to be justice the moment it was compromised.
Jaehwan understood. Just as Karlton had yielded one step for him long ago, now it was Jaehwan’s turn to yield one step for Karlton.
There were things in this world that simply could not be helped.
Jaehwan sighed quietly to himself.
“If you die, I will not take responsibility.”
“Thank you.”
Jaehwan immediately turned and began walking toward 〈Highseeker〉. Karlton approached with an excited expression and walked beside him. The simple fact that they were walking the same road seemed to make Karlton deeply happy.
“I may not have an Unique World, but I can share my World Force with you, Fortress Lord. I have helped my Allies that way before.”
“Share your World Force?”
“Yes. I do not know whether it is part of a Setting, but I can give more World Force to others than most people can, and my loss rate is lower as well.”
Jaehwan looked at Karlton anew.
A Setting that supplied World Force to others.
He had never heard of such a Setting in the Abyss. Sharing World Force was something one could do without turning it into a specific Setting.
As 〈Highseeker〉’s fortress drew closer in the distance, Karlton continued.
“I suspected you would do something like this from the moment you vanished from the conference hall. You were always like that in Chaos. The soldiers’ morale is plummeting, and the situation is at a standstill. There was only one choice you could make from the start.”
Jaehwan did not answer. There was no need to.
Karlton had already come knowing everything.
“I heard this morning that Rupture’s forces moved toward the Seventh Site. They should have arrived by now.”
“Probably.”
Rupture had mobilized its troops scattered across every Site and was marching on Nameless’s Seventh Site. It planned to crush the final sprout of resistance left in the Abyss. Most of the surviving Great Lords and high-level Awakened Ones had likely been sent on that final march.
From another perspective, that meant the enemy’s home base was empty.
Everything came down to time.
Who could endure longer.
Or who could seize the flag first.
The flag Jaehwan needed to take was at the top of 〈Highseeker〉, the fortress in the Eighth Site. Terrifying World Force could still be felt from it, so Rupture Lord Maiad was likely there. If he was unlucky, a few of Maiad’s closest aides might be there too. He would have to accept that risk.
Karlton asked, “Are you planning to meet Maiad directly?”
“Yes.”
Rupture was an organization maintained by a single absolute being. If the person who had conceived Rupture’s Unique World fell, Rupture would naturally collapse. Such a natural collapse was the only hope Jaehwan could expect now.
Karlton asked again, “Maiad defeated 《Big Brother》. Are you confident you can win?”
For the first time, Jaehwan smiled faintly.
“《Big Brother》...”
It had been brief, but Karlton sensed a possibility in that faint smile.
Yu Seolha had said that 《Big Brother》 had vanished in Nameless’s Unique World.
Yet Jaehwan was also someone who could see 《Big Brother》. No one had dared ask him about 《Big Brother》. Perhaps they had been afraid.
People had only waited for Jaehwan to say something first. Karlton was the same.
Then Jaehwan continued.
“This is troublesome.”
“What?”
Jaehwan was looking up at the sky. Only then did Karlton look up as well.
Since when had it been there?
The shadow of a massive airship had been following them.
“You damned brat! How could you leave me behind?”
A familiar old man’s voice boomed through the air.
* * *
“I sent Mirel and three Great Lords. Two hundred Third Awakened Ones went with them as well. They will never be able to stop them.”
“Nameless’s power is not to be underestimated.”
“I know. But no matter how strong Nameless is, I do not believe they are stronger than you.”
Rupture’s home base, 〈Highseeker〉’s Outer Fortress.
After finishing a brief report on their forces, Kasim and Buddha, Rupture’s First Division Commander, stood on a terrace looking into the distance.
“That may be true in a direct confrontation. But Nameless received the same training as I did. Tell them not to let their guard down until the end.”
“Understood.”
Kasim nodded, surprised by Buddha’s humility.
Buddha had defeated two of the Eight Divine Thrones. This was more than enough reason to be proud, yet Buddha did not overestimate their strength in the slightest.
“How is Maiad?”
“Maiad has looked exhausted ever since Revolution Day.”
“That makes sense. It was such an event.”
Buddha let out a low chuckle.
Buddha remembered the sight Maiad had shown that day. No matter how much time passed, Buddha would never see anything like it again.
The greatest show in the universe.
The fall of a star.
Buddha clearly remembered the thrill of witnessing it.
But Buddha’s thrill was fundamentally different from what the other souls had felt. A considerable part of that show belonged to Buddha, Rupture’s First Division Commander.
No matter what anyone said, Buddha had made the greatest contribution to 〈Revolution Day〉.
If not for those bastards with God Complexes.
Buddha ground their teeth as they recalled Ignis, the God of Flames, and Droyan, the Dragon God, whom they had fought at the Second Site.
Fighting two Eight Divine Thrones, Buddha had died 1,412 times and reincarnated 1,412 times. Over hundreds of thousands of years, Buddha had undergone 1,617 reincarnations. Yet in less than one full day, Buddha had experienced a comparable number of deaths.
Ignis’s Vicegerent had been particularly persistent. Buddha had nearly run out of mental energy first.
Soon, a new world will open.
But those hardships were over now. The World Force of the Divine Thrones had been recovered safely, and Rupture’s Grand Plan, 「Lone World」, was approaching its final stage.
That was when Kasim spoke.
“First Division Commander.”
“What?”
“Do you think the same way the Commander does?”
Buddha’s expression hardened at once. Buddha wondered if the Commander had told Kasim something about the Grand Plan.
Before Buddha could voice the question, Kasim continued.
“I mean that person coming here.”
“Oh, that.”
Buddha nodded with a bitter smile.
“He will come.”
Maiad had told Buddha about that person only recently.
It had been astonishing. Who would have thought someone besides Rupture’s founding members could see 《Big Brother》?
“Maiad said he would come, so he will. That is why we deliberately kept this one alive too.”
Buddha glanced at Karavan, sprawled across the terrace floor.
After losing Ignis in the last battle and becoming a Lost One, Karavan had become a wreck, most of his soul broken. His soul had great potential, so they wanted to bring him into Rupture, but his refusal had been absolute.
That was when a report came from the fortress’s watchtower.
Busy movement spotted everywhere.
Faint smoke rising in the distance.
Rupture’s Vicegerents swept away by World Force.
Buddha bared their teeth in a smile.
“He is here.”
Footnotes:
Chapter discussion