Chapter 808
Ascendant Coming(3)
It starts with a very trivial coincidence.
“The Guido Church?”
“They say it’s a place to enshrine good gods. Why don’t we worship at least once?”
A harsh world where you can’t live without relying on something.
He knew he had acquaintances who were religious, but he was skeptical about serving anything in the first place.
If you have a goal you want, you should achieve it yourself, and you shouldn’t wish for luck again.
I prayed once when I was dragged by the hands of my acquaintances, but what I hoped for did not come true at all.
Instead, mysterious visions began to appear.
“Damn it, I wasn’t going.”
Even if I rub my eyes and regret it, the fantasy does not disappear.
A back view of a man making a fist in front of a huge cliff.
Every time he punched out, the huge, endless cliff swayed and swayed little by little.
At first, I thought I was possessed by a ghost or took the wrong medicine, but I was certain.
There must have been a very strange hallucination planted in him by the Guido Church.
Even if you visit a shaman and give money to a shaman to do the work, it does not disappear.
Although annoyed, he soon began to take an interest in the fantasy man.
“…Something feels strange.”
Because every time I saw the man punching the cliff, I felt a part of his chest tickle.
The hand that had been staring blankly at the man’s figure moved involuntarily.
“Are you doing… like this?”
The man’s fists were slow and heavy enough that even a stranger to martial arts could follow them without difficulty.
Every time he stretches out his fists in a mesmerizing motion, I feel something wriggling deep in my stomach.
Like a machine that keeps running even after running out of fuel.
Like a beast that draws out its limits by scraping away its bare energy.
That’s how he first realized the existence of his magic power and became a superman.
“This duel is a victory for ■■■■!”
From the moment he was born, a life whose status and fraction were determined.
The only way to rise to the top is to show off your talents that are different from others.
And the fists shown by fantasy become a new means for him.
“…”
From that moment on, he no longer complained about the visions before his eyes.
As if reflecting on his laziness so far, he was only absorbed in polishing his own strength.
I don’t know why he only discovered it now, he had a talent for changing his life with his two fists.
“Winner, ■■■■!!!”
“Victory!!”
“■■■■’s complete victory!”
It is not that I served someone as a teacher and asked for learning.
Only the man in the fantasy that is occasionally reflected was the textbook.
But no matter how much time passes and he grows up, the fantasy doesn’t change.
At the bottom of the endless cliff, the figure of a man throwing out his fist as if praying and praying.
He watched to see if he could have a conversation, but nothing changed.
Around the time I felt that I had nothing to learn from men anymore.
The fantasies that had haunted him for so long disappeared like lies.
“…”
After all, what was that fantasy?
It was also true that I was tormented by the illusions that covered my eyes all the time, but on the other hand, I was impressed by the man’s endless training.
Ironically, it was only when he felt that the fantasy was not painful that he let the hallucination go away from him.
Although he seemed to feel something in the contradiction, he forgot the illusion with a sad heart.
Time passes quickly.
From clumsy punching, to becoming a skilled martial artist, to becoming a martial artist recognized by many people.
It was an unexpected moment when the forgotten fantasy came back.
The moment when he survived against the Colossus Corps in the Western Great Battle and completed the seventh stage of self-change.
He realized a second vision was unfolding before his eyes.
coo!!
Extremely thick physique. Rough scars covered the skin.
A vicious force that made the whole body feel numb.
The man in the fantasy was no longer practicing under a cliff.
He was just walking with his blood all over his body in the fierce flames of the battlefield.
Under his feet, countless human and monster corpses are mixed to form an indescribable mountain of death.
The man was walking toward the end of his battlefield, savagely trampling everything he had killed and destroyed.
oh oh oh…!!
Behind the back of such a man, the look of people who look at him in awe.
There are those who cannot hide their adoration and admiration, prostrate themselves in front of him, bow down, pray and plead.
The dramatic appearance of these people as if they were facing a real God.
However, the back of the man who was worshiped like that looked very empty somewhere.
“…Who are you?”
He asked, knowing that he would not get an answer.
Intuitively, he sensed that the man was a much better guru than he was.
Understanding that it is the memory of someone who has lived a much longer time.
He realizes that he is a warrior who has slain immeasurable lives and has come through the battlefield.
Even so, what does he want and desire in his fantasy?
It was only at this moment when he fully accomplished his self-transformation and ascended the castle that he became curious about it for the first time.
“…”
The answer is still not coming back.
In the vision, I don’t even know if the man is listening to him.
In the midst of such a continuing life, he began to observe his second illusion that had come anew.
“…body.”
Figure of a man walking through an endless burning battlefield in fantasy.
He realizes that what looks like a scar on his body is actually a trace of stitching on his body.
Originally, something that was not his own body was processed into the form of a body and reattached.
Something not even human. Or something that may not even belong to this world in the first place.
I wondered why a man had to remodel his body so much, but what he really needed to learn from a man was elsewhere.
In the indifferent way of walking, he awakened the inspiration of his forgotten martial arts and imitated his intuition.
He sees new possibilities in the corpses of men and monsters he has killed and crushed under his feet.
He no longer questioned the visions projected before his eyes.
Just so that once again this illusion disappears before your eyes forever.
I just worked hard and devoted myself endlessly so that I could rise to a level comparable to him.
Time goes by faster.
From a martial artist who was famous in one region, to a powerhouse who pioneered his own path and made a name for himself throughout the continent.
Even his hometown, which he thought he would never be able to escape from, is now part of his territory.
By the time I think I have completely escaped the fantasy I encountered for the second time and become numb to all stimuli.
That’s how he faced the world’s secrets.
“Unbelievable….”
The strongest Ascendant in history awakened in the central city of Arsnova, the half bow.
A transcendental being with power so strong that he can rip the North Continent and change the climate.
Innumerable superhumans and monsters stepped forward to calm the situation, but they were not even a match.
Chew!
He sat down, spraying hot fresh blood on the cold snow field.
A contradictory scene of the sky collapsing with cracks overhead.
The sky that shatters and shatters like glass is a symbol of the fact that Bangoo has materialized in this place.
I can’t properly understand how this is possible or what powers he wields.
It was only for a moment that he appeared, but he was already called the most powerful ascendant in history and was respected.
“ah….”
What emerges beneath the eyelids that cannot be seen properly is the memory of the first time I clenched my fists and devoted myself to training.
Awakening magical power, becoming a superman, going through countless battles and transcending the hierarchy.
Looking back, his life has always been a struggle and fight. And it was a series of growth and longing.
That fact was the only value left to him now.
“Haha.”
He thought he had become numb to all stimuli, but he was mistaken.
This is your limit. He just stopped, knowing that it was the end of his talent.
In a corner of his heart, he still wanted to see a higher level.
“Next… what’s next?”
Dig!!
At that moment, a long-forgotten vision unfolded before his eyes.
The first fantasy of silently punching in front of a cliff.
The second illusion of endlessly walking down a bloody battlefield.
However, the third vision he encountered was completely different from what he had vaguely imagined.
A skinny man in a white priest’s uniform.
His thick physique and scars are nowhere to be found, and he has a tidy figure standing with his arms behind his back and his back turned.
No precipitous cliffs, no blazing battlefields, no people who worshiped him.
A back view of a man standing alone and aloof, looking up at the dark sky, leaving everything behind.
From the other side of the dark sky, countless men were caressed by menacing gazes whose existence could not be guessed.
A blurry shape that no longer seemed to be bound by the world, but connected to something outside the sky.
“…”
What happened?
Beyond the flashing fantasy at a speed faster than his lifetime, what has the man become?
Before he could properly think of the question, he realized the moment he faced the man.
The third illusion encountered. The fact that this fantasy will no longer change.
“A fourth… isn’t there?”
[…]
OK, this is the last one.
This is the end of your life given to you.
The end of the heavenly mandate.
Every time life’s turning point came, this fantasy that changed the scenery and became a new stimulus and challenge.
This world, completed through two causes and effects, and now running towards complete destruction, is also.
In this world, the challenge of ascension is not allowed, and the hope of the next does not exist either.
The moment he met the man for the third time, he understood the world’s most important secret.
Even the fact that the man who had appeared in front of her so far might be a being who had gone through causality in the world.
Realizing that, his mouth opened involuntarily.
“If the next doesn’t exist, why are you here?”
[…]
“What answer did you choose to still remain in this world?”
It’s ironic.
I’ve been working hard all my life to directly achieve what I want, and not to wish for luck again.
It was only at the last moment that he realized that he had hoped for this man.
If you can’t come up with an answer yourself, at least you want to know.
If you can’t face the ending alone, at least I want to understand.
A question that popped up after pure curiosity and longing, even ignoring one’s own death.
For the first time, the answer came back to that monologue that I didn’t throw in expecting an answer.
[Do you want to challenge the ascension…?]
“…!!!”
It was a cool and still voice that surprised even him who mumbled without thinking.
The man was still standing with his hands behind his back.
A man’s voice resounded quietly through the blurry shaking priest’s clothes.
[Your connection with me is very thin and faint, and even our meeting is meaningless…]
It is hard to believe that it has been silent for over several decades.
It is as if the mind is slowly being sucked into that whispering voice.
In his eyes that had turned blank, he could see the man slowly turning around.
[It is only a minor coincidence that the vessel is similar to mine, that you were inspired by watching my dark days.]
“…”
[That’s why I didn’t care, I tried to forgive it as a temporary deviation…]
the man laughed
[You are expecting more from me than that.]
A man whose face was covered by a white halo slowly stood in front of him.
A snowfield covered with cold snow.
Before he knew it, he was facing the man at the end of the white snowstorm.
A man on his knees looking up at a man and a man standing with his hands behind his back looking down at him.
He looked at the man blankly and asked.
“…if you challenge the ascension.”
[…]
“If you do that, will you know what’s next?”
[No, it is worthless.]
But the man laughed at his question and shook his head.
[You are not ready, and this world will no longer respond to your longing. Even the noblest challenge loses its meaning and fades away […]
“…”
[That’s why I’m trying to find a new meaning by gathering the faith of those who are lost.]
Pahah…!!
The halo behind the man’s face seemed to intensify in an instant.
[If salvation doesn’t exist in this world, if even ascension is just a moment’s delay…]
The man who had been silent for a long time slowly looked away and said.
As if looking directly at someone spying on this memory somewhere.
Even knowing that, it’s as if I’m here to give you an answer like this.
The teacher laughed.
[Because I will have to be their salvation.]
* * *
…
…
…
…
…Ah, yes.
I heard an answer similar to this somewhere.
Even though they obviously started from the same place, the ending has now diverged in a completely different direction.
A god slayer who declared that he would shoot and kill God.
The Ma Musketeer who ripped off his supernormal abilities from the root and remodeled them.
An answer of his own, from someone who once clearly dreamed of something like Lennok.
And the question that is the source of that longing, he had heard somewhere.
“…ah.”
The fact that the teacher himself is clearly aware of this moment.
That’s why the moment they realized that the piece was delivered in a form that both of them knew.
Lennok realized that he stood outside the memory of the arrival.
“…”
In the end, the religious leader himself did not directly show his true nature to Lennok.
Instead, he only vaguely reflected the path he had walked by borrowing a memory within a memory, a memory of the arrival.
Ascendant coming. For what reason did a monster that made a name for itself as a berserk warrior hundreds of years ago become the cult leader’s vessel?
And why did the religious leader himself come to enjoy such cause and effect?
There is only that subtle sense of distance that never seems to narrow.
Both sides of the contradiction are exquisitely hidden and concealed as if he would never allow it, while showing off his private parts without hesitation.
Recognizing that fact, Lennok suddenly raised his head.
“Ah, you’re awake now. You were worried about when you would wake up.”
A sanctuary of silence and infinity.
A black throne located in the middle of a huge cathedral.
The body of the Ascendant perched at the end of it was calmly looking down at Lennok with its eyes open.
Skin dyed dark like ink. Bleached white hair.
And two eyes that burn dazzlingly between the dark eyelids.
He tilted his head with his chin resting on his chin, and grinned as he looked at the speechless Lennok.
“I was waiting.”
