Signpost (5)
“Oh? This is a problem.”
Slaaash!!
With a single gesture, the Seventh Apostle, Lariata, tore off a Federation mage’s head and tilted her head.
The dark tide that had swept across and crushed the earth came to a halt, and a brief lull of silence settled over the battlefield.
But regardless of the King of the Dead’s presence, those gathered on the battlefield continued slaughtering one another.
The atmosphere in the Central Front had already grown grim due to the long war between the Federation and the Cult.
“Grrrk...!”
Crunch!!
She chewed and swallowed the human head she held in her bare hand.
Far from protecting the Cult priests, the Seventh Apostle freely rampaged across the battlefield, hunting and killing humans at will.
Yet Lariata’s gaze, which had been roaming wildly through the chaos, was now fixed on the dark pavilion floating high in the sky.
“……”
“Lady Lariata...!!”
The priests reciting prayers called out to her urgently, but no reply came.
Lariata, her makeup stained with blood, simply stared up at the sky with every trace of amusement gone from her face.
She gazed unblinkingly at the silent dark pavilion before muttering in a low voice.
“I think the King of the Dead... has regained his senses.”
“...Pardon?”
The monstrous being who had spent the entire Supplementary Pilgrimage in madness, committing endless slaughter and destruction, had regained his sanity at this moment?
Was it related to Treadburn changing direction after colliding with the pavilion just before?
As countless thoughts raced through the priest’s mind while listening to Lariata—
Slice!
Lariata severed the priest’s neck with one hand and began chewing on it.
After filling her stomach by devouring even a priest of her own Cult, she wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth and leaned her head back.
“Good. I’ve roughly met my quota, so shall we begin?”
Lariata turned toward the priests chanting prayers with pale faces and grinned.
“Prepare Amrita’s little balancing spell. You know the feeling without me explaining it, right?”
“……”
“Wait, was that not the name? What was the gentleman who became the Tenth Apostle called again?”
The moment Lariata tilted her head in thought—
Wooooooong...!!!
Beyond the dark pavilion that had turned toward the earth, an incomprehensibly eerie will began pulsing.
***
Fame declared that he would personally clean up the chaos in the Gate City in Lennok’s place.
There was not even time to ask for an explanation.
The moment Fame stretched out his hand toward the earth, the overflowing darkness began to pulse from the horizon.
“Rise.”
Along with his clear declaration as he stood atop the dark tide, the scenery of the earth overturned completely.
The moment his will surged, light appeared in the eyes of the dark giants trampling the land.
Boom!!
The dark giants stopped walking and turned back toward the ground they had ravaged.
The surviving Federation and Cult superhumans staggered backward at the sight of the giants’ return.
At that moment, the giants crossed their arms and clasped each other’s hands, forming seals.
Whooooo...!!!
“Ugh, aaah...!!!”
“This is insane...!! They’re casting spells~!!”
As the superhumans realized the dark giants were personally chanting black magic—
Beams of darkness descended from the sky, becoming black pillars that struck the earth.
[Direct Black]
Formless thoughts constructed black magic on their own and activated it according to Fame’s will.
Distorted black lines carved through space and detonated thousands of black ripples in succession.
Boomboomboomboomboom!!!!
“Aaaaargh!!”
“Help me... please save me...!!!”
“Aaaah!! Aaaaah!!”
Dark waves swept through the tide covering space, crushing the survivors to death.
Black trees sprouted from the earth and grew rapidly, impaling humans between their sharp branches.
Every time the dark giants moved across the ground, dozens of black magic spells manifested in the sky and rained down.
Clinkclinkclink!!!
“Grrrgh...!!!”
The sounds of chains, screams, explosions, and despair.
Darkness and blood mingled together and melted across the withered grasslands.
The spells frantically chanted by mages, the prayers recited by priests, even the force fields of ability users—all became meaningless.
Compared to this overwhelming massacre that began in a single instant, all the deaths that had come before seemed like nothing.
Black plum blossoms bloomed upon the cold corpses, spreading the fragrance of dim death.
“Puhaha, hahahaha...!!!”
“Hihihihit!!!”
One of the mages, unable to face the approaching darkness, burst into laughter and stabbed his own head with a dagger.
A death so overwhelming and vivid that even the battle-hardened mages of the Spell Federation could not endure it for long.
“This is...”
“Whether it is another’s death or your own, it makes no difference.”
Fame withdrew his hand beside Lennok and spoke.
“The more deeply a being understands death, the more impossible it becomes to escape my law. Even for a superhuman.”
“......”
“You simply scramble the priorities of survival instinct and the will to reject death. The desire to live becomes attraction, and the fear of death becomes repulsion. Once they begin pulling and pushing against each other...”
Fame looked down at the devastation below.
“They can no longer tell whether they want to live or die.”
“Hahahahaha!!!”
“Here it is!! It’s here!!”
“……”
“Khihihih...!! Khehehehet!!!”
Crunch!!
Craaaack!!!!
Federation mages threw themselves at the dark giants and committed suicide.
Ability users from the Brigade lay themselves within the dark waves and detonated their own bodies.
Cult priests thrust their hearts onto dead branches and bowed as though in prayer.
A horrifying spectacle where those who had been fleeing death moments ago willingly embraced it themselves.
Kwoooooooo!!!
Death sentences rained down from above.
Waves of thought swept across the earth.
Black trees and dark giants tore apart and crushed human bodies, reducing their numbers at terrifying speed.
“This is what it means to reach transcendence. Not vague manipulation of uncertain concepts, but interference with cause and effect itself, twisting the order of before and after.”
“You become capable of playing with the scales of life and death however you wish....Is that the essence of Supplementary Pilgrimage?”
Whooooo...!!
Lennok asked from atop the pavilion floating in the sky.
Fame fell silent.
“Originally, Supplementary Pilgrimage referred to a journey undertaken to console the souls and spirits before transcendence.”
After gazing silently at the earth, Fame spoke quietly.
“But the method used by my family steals the fate of the dead and grants them a peace worse than death...”
As he looked upon the humans dying below, his gaze wavered faintly.
“I am a sinner. So in the end, I will not escape punishment.”
“...Fame.”
“Ah, I know. I don’t actually want to kill everyone.”
A cruel smile spread across Fame’s face.
“I’ll leave a few alive. But I can’t overlook the vermin who directed the most malicious killing intent toward you.”
“Gaaah, aaaaagh!!!”
The body of the ability user Roevid, covered entirely in darkness, rose into the air.
The Thirteenth Seat of the Ability Awakening Brigade.
A metal manipulator and the leader of the assassination squad that had attacked Lennok.
Darkness poured from every opening in his body as he convulsed violently.
“……”
The scattered metal around him trembled as though responding to his power, but each time he tried to use it, black masses erupted from his stomach instead of blood.
“Kuuuaaah...!!”
“It’s a type of sacrificial magic that replaces all internal organs with black mana.”
Fame explained kindly.
“A final awakening technique used by black mages on the brink of death, converting all bodily functions into black mana.”
“……”
“Even magic meant to help the caster can become a killing technique if you invert its laws. And the reverse is equally possible.”
“Krrgh... gghhh...!!”
Even the whites of Roevid’s eyes had turned black as he died vomiting dark foam.
Until now, he had endured through his own accomplishments, but the moment Fame focused the spell on him, he could no longer withstand it.
Unable even to properly see the one killing him, he suffered and died like an insect.
“Ability user. Monster. Mage. Mercenary. Priest. It doesn’t matter.”
Fame slowly clenched and opened his hand toward the earth.
“What matters is changing priorities, just as I said before. It sounds grand, but once you grasp the sensation, you’ll be able to use it quickly as well.”
“……That...”
“Remember this conversation well, Van.”
Placing a hand on Lennok’s shoulder, Fame spoke leisurely.
“This may truly be the last time I meet you while my mind is still intact.”
“……”
“Whether it’s the sense for handling magic or the feeling of reaching transcendence... if I could, I’d like to pass everything on here and now. But there isn’t enough time.”
His lowered face disappeared beneath his black hair.
Lennok remembered having a similar conversation with Fame before.
Back when he had not yet reached Level 8, Fame had advised him on manipulating space-time as a result rather than a process.
Even now that he had regained his sanity, was Fame still trying to teach him what he needed to learn and refine?
Thinking back, from the moment they first met until now, Fame had always maintained the same attitude toward Lennok.
Always walking one step ahead, trying to explain the sensations and techniques he himself had experienced.
Even while casually slaughtering people below, he still offered Lennok advice and guidance.
Lennok had long hesitated to judge Fame because of that contradiction.
“What exactly do you want from me?”
“……”
“What does the role you wish to entrust to me at the end actually mean?”
Turning slowly toward Fame, Lennok asked.
“I cannot choose only one thing. So I won’t be able to move solely according to your wishes.”
“……”
“I draw possibilities of the future, not the past or present. That is why... I intend to make everything I have learned into my answer.”
Leaving the silent Fame behind, Lennok closed his eyes.
“Because I believe there are processes more important than results. If a moment cannot precede an ending, then I—”
Had no choice but to create a world where it could.
If assimilation, destruction, salvation, and godslaying were not Lennok’s answer—
Then he would create a world capable of containing all things beneath existence itself.
He gave Fame the same answer he had once given Leader and High Priest.
Perhaps because Lennok felt deeply indebted to this great black mage.
Fame, who had watched over him and tried to help him for so long, deserved to hear it.
No matter what form things took, there were words that had to be said.
“I thought so. That’s why I figured it would end up like this someday.”
Did Fame already know what answer Lennok would draw?
He smiled faintly and turned his gaze away.
“You are similar to Leader, yet different. The closer you came to Pandemonium, the further away you might ultimately become.”
“Then why...”
Why had Fame personally drawn Lennok into Pandemonium?
Why had he guided him to meet Leader and judge his answer for himself?
But although Fame understood Lennok’s question, he did not answer it.
“You already know, Van.”
With a faint smile that looked as though it might disappear at any moment, he looked away.
“More than hundreds of explanations expressed through words, what we need is a single moment of realization. You already know that all the truths you discovered yourself possessed that much value and meaning.”
With those words, Fame slowly turned around.
“You are right. Because there are processes more important than results, that moment must not be defiled. That is all I ever wanted from you.”
“Must not be defiled...?”
“Yes. For example—”
A trace of unconcealable mockery entered Fame’s eyes as he looked at the earth.
“Such as the transcendent being still watching us from over there even now.”
“What?”
Following his gaze, Lennok looked down and frowned.
Mercenaries, Federation mages, Brigade ability users dying helplessly beneath the darkness Fame had unleashed.
Corpses piling atop corpses.
Twisted bodies warping into grotesque shapes...
And becoming letters.
[Black Mage Family Bloodline Ancient Blood]
“...!!!!!”
The corpses strewn across the ground formed a horrifying message.
The dead bodies, stiffened by death, functioning as words themselves.
Lennok already knew whose method of communication this was.
“Jinwa...!!!”
The fallen Ascendant residing beyond the Central Front barrier.
The greatest master of Words who had created the continent’s common language.
The transcendent who now sought godhood.
That monster who manipulated humans as letters had noticed the anomaly in the Gate City from within Jinwa Lost Paradise.
Kiiiiing!!!
At that moment, a powerful mental wave exploded above Lennok and Fame.
“Kh...!!”
“Kh...!”
Before Lennok’s eyes, actual Words seemed to unfold while scattering sparks.
A will that stabbed directly into the mind, attempting to tangle and sever thoughts and psychic waves.
Curses using corpses as brushes spread across the earth.
[Stopped Fell Eternalized]
The corpse-shaped letters tilted mockingly.
[You Betrayed]
Crack, craaack...!!!
Pitch-black darkness shattered into fragments like mosaic tiles.
The cursed words pierced through the dark tide Fame had spread.
An obsessive, mad will attempting to read the memories of this Gate City and drag them into the open.
[Seeking Answers Through Ugly Yet Noble Sacrifice]
“I already obtained my answer, Jinwa.”
Fame formed a seal with clasped hands and spoke.
“In that we both drifted away from the essential answer, you and I are alike.”
The second black magic he unleashed against an Ascendant.
Black Law Lineage Unique Magic
Property Transformation Manifestation of Fate
Total Combustion of Thought
[Attraction]
The darkness gathered within Fame’s hand twisted as it rotated.
As the darkness spun like a taiji symbol and compressed into a single point—
The dark tide sweeping across the earth suddenly rose into the sky, defying gravity.
[How Dare You Defile My Garden With Mud-Stained Feet]
Rumble!!!
Pillars of darkness connected heaven and earth, covering the spatial fractures broken open by Jinwa.
The darkness that had blackened the horizon bent and flowed along the path traced by the gigantic pillar.
The direction of Supplementary Pilgrimage itself twisted and veered from its course.
Kuuuuuuung!!!!
The vast darkness that had covered the horizon changed direction and moved away beside the Gate City.
Only then did Lennok realize what was happening.
“Don’t tell me... from the beginning, Supplementary Pilgrimage was...!!”
The black magic Fame had just used was the manifestation of attraction that guided fate itself.
And he had used Jinwa’s presence as a compass to redirect the path of Supplementary Pilgrimage.
Had he done it to prevent the entire Gate City—and the civilians evacuated beyond the barrier—from being swept away?
But if Jinwa’s Lost Paradise had become the target, then the final destination of this Supplementary Pilgrimage would be—
“Van, when you work in the Central Front from now on, you’d do well to be careful of things like this.”
While Lennok remained speechless from shock, Fame spoke calmly.
“The Central Front where Ars Nova resides is a boundary world where the borders between this star and the Outer Sea are thin. Countless transcendent beings observe it from both inside and outside.”
“……”
“They do not come for you. They come because they read the deaths and causality you create. I can help you this time, but...”
Smiling, Fame twisted his hand.
At last, the fracture Jinwa had opened was completely covered in darkness.
“Next time, you’ll need a means or a patron capable of protecting you.”
All the darkness on the earth surged into the sky and completely sealed the fracture.
Kwaaaaaaaah!!!
The dark waves tilted skyward and poured down like a waterfall.
Within the darkness that instantly covered everything, Fame turned his back to Lennok.
“Jinwa was one of the most sensitive Ascendants even before going mad. For now, this should be enough.”
“...Fame.”
“I’ll borrow your gate when I leave. Since I changed the course of Supplementary Pilgrimage, controlling it will be difficult. It would be best not to approach the Central Front for a while.”
Even after slaughtering nearly every enemy threatening Lennok throughout the Gate City, Fame never lost control until the very end.
He used even Jinwa’s interference as an opportunity to redirect Supplementary Pilgrimage.
Avoided massacring the civilians evacuated behind the city.
And still took the time to teach Lennok what dangers he should beware of in the Central Front.
Then the ending Fame desired at the conclusion of Supplementary Pilgrimage—
Lennok hesitated, unable to speak.
“I...”
Was this the end?
Was this truly the last moment he would meet Fame and receive his will while he still retained his sanity?
Lennok still remembered all the help Fame had given him since their first meeting.
As he remained silent, suppressing his complicated emotions, Fame smiled.
“You asked earlier what your role was.”
Fame spoke softly.
“You are a milestone, Van.”
“A milestone?”
“The absolute uniqueness born from your talent—something that will never exist again. When I see it, even I can correct my direction.”
“……”
“A possibility that cannot be imitated even as an illusion within the deaths I have purified and devoured.”
Fame smiled.
“Your existence is the clearest proof that this moment is reality. Simply by existing, you become the process that leads me toward my ending.”
“......”
“So there’s no need to worry. You’re already fulfilling your role.”
Only then did Lennok understand why Fame had regained his senses the moment he saw him.
Supplementary Pilgrimage had granted Fame power, but in exchange he had been consuming the deaths of those he killed and gradually losing his mind.
Yet even as the boundary between reality and hell blurred—
A being like Lennok could only exist in reality.
That was why, even while descending into madness, Fame could use Lennok’s talent as a guide back to reality.
“Meeting you and everything else... this time I was fortunate in many ways.”
Slowly raising his gaze toward the sky, Fame murmured.
“That’s why our ending may not necessarily be the next one. But I hope it is not otherwise.”
“……”
“If my ending does not arrive at the appointed moment, then that would mean Leader has failed.”
“So you agree with Leader’s answer... yet still intend to leave the ending to me?”
“Leader never change. He was always that kind of person. That isn’t wrong, but...”
Fame turned toward Lennok and smiled.
“You will change. Perhaps you are change itself.”
“……”
“That is why I wish to wager my ending on you.”
Kwooooo...!!
Darkness swirled from all directions and was drawn into a single point.
Fame’s figure gradually blurred within that darkness.
His eyes, now one with the darkness itself, rapidly lost focus and sank away.
“Farewell, Van. At the next milestone...”
Even the time he had regained after meeting Lennok lost its meaning as he became one with infinite death once more.
Yet Fame struggled to lift his gaze and recalled the words he had nearly forgotten.
“At the next milestone, I hope our ending will finally exist.”
Wiiiiing...!!!
Leaving Lennok behind, the dark pavilion accelerated upward.
It spun as though being drawn into the gate of Thousand-Mile Heavenly Fragrance and cast darkness beyond the barrier.
Baaaaang!!
As the darkness covering the sky dispersed, the heavens revealed the approach of dawn.
The flames of Thousand-Mile Heavenly Fragrance spreading across the barrier.
The faint starlight shining between them and the dawn sky.
Lennok’s body fell through the clouds after crashing through the dark pavilion, trailing fire.
Countless forms of death remained where Supplementary Pilgrimage had swept through and departed.
Whether it was Fame’s final act of consideration, or whether he had already known without being told—
“......”
Looking down at the ruined Gate City where everything had ended, Lennok’s face was filled with indescribable complexity.