Chapter 602
Swoosh-
Everything to the beginning for the third time. Having experienced regression after regression, Se-Hoon was unable to steady himself right away, staggering as the tip of Ludwig’s black blade wavered faintly.
Slash!
Again, the formless cut that left not even a trace of a passing trajectory was sent out. Like many times before, Se-Hoon’s neck and arm were about to be carved apart by that absurd strike—yet only shallow wounds across his cheek and shoulder appeared.
Oh? Has he already figured it out?
Ludwig raised an eyebrow, having never expected his attack to be countered so quickly.
“I knew spatial skills were broken... but this is honestly ridiculous,” muttered Se-Hoon with a weary face.
The invisible slash Ludwig wielded looked, at first glance, like a profound and unfathomable attack. However, it was merely a technique composed of only two spatial skills.
The first was the omission of the attack process itself. By combining the starting point before the sword was swung, the endpoint after it was swung, and even the coordinates the slash would cleave through, neither the motion of the sword nor the rushing slash could be seen.
Up to here, I can still respond by reading where the attack will land. That’s when the real problem arrives...
What made Ludwig’s strike truly inescapable was a hidden second slash, swung simultaneously from within Whitespace.
“You wield a Void Blade that cannot be defended against outwardly, while in the Whitespace, you wield a formless blade that cannot be evaded. Simple, but overwhelming.”
If you dodged one, the other cut you down. Escaping both at once was impossible unless one split their body in two. On top of that, both attacks were so powerful that his attack could practically be called an indomitable strike. Facing Ludwig, who could use such an attack with ease, Se-Hoon couldn’t help but click his tongue.
Good thing I noticed the traces thanks to the sword aura I scattered. If I hadn’t realized it this time, I would’ve just kept dying without being able to react until the cycle of regression eventually broke.
Within the storm of sword aura that swirled to life after denoting the rain of blades, Se-Hoon had caught a glimpse of the sword aura moving as though reacting to two separate blades. From there, he connected the dots to the existence of the Whitespace, and thus, the secret behind the slash.
“No matter how overwhelming it is, in the end it’s still just a technique that’s been broken through. Isn’t that right?”
“If barely avoiding a fatal wound counts as breaking through it, then I suppose you’re not wrong.”
Se-Hoon couldn’t help but be sarcastic since identifying Ludwig’s means of attack and defense didn’t actually mean much. Although he knew, what could he even do against the infinite space that blocked his attacks and the fatal, unavoidable slashes spanning both spaces that would streak down when he defended?
Just one of those attacks had already ended in his death. But could Ludwig only release one at a time? Of course not. If Ludwig truly wished, he could likely unleash hundreds of them in an instant.
“At this level, couldn’t you have wiped out the Demon Force ages ago?”
“If I had been able to wield this power freely, perhaps. But before, it was impossible.”
Ludwig looked up at the Ring that had drawn near enough to brush the planet with a bitter expression.
“The only reason Ascension and I can coexist in the same space is because you blocked the Ring’s interference through the Ascension Project. Without that, I could only have used one or the other.”
“So... once again, this is my fault.”
Se-Hoon bit his lip, grumbling. It had been the same with the Seeker. Why was that damn butterfly effect always pushing not only him but even his enemies beyond their limits?
“That simply means your existence is steering the world that greatly. Which is precisely why... I had hoped a conclusion like this would never come to pass,” Ludwig said with a wry smile.
“What a coincidence. I didn’t want to get stabbed in the back twice either.”
Neither of them had wanted this moment to come, yet neither lamented why it had happened. From the moment they came to understand one another, both had already known in the depths of their hearts that their current fight was the only way things could end.
“It seems the regression option is running out as well. Three times already, wasn’t it? Then perhaps you have two uses left.”
“You’re fading a little too, Chairman. Despite recovering your other power, the limits of being a projection still can’t be helped, huh?”
Both had noticed the cracks spreading across the gray ring surrounding the central plaza and that Ludwig’s projection body had become visibly fainter than before.
Regardless of who it was, one of them would meet their ultimate end. Both men knew that.
And so, before that moment came, Ludwig spoke. “There is one last thing I wish to ask.”
“Go ahead.”
“Are you truly fulfilling your wish right now?”
“...”
Not expecting that question, Se-Hoon didn’t know how to answer. But before he could figure it out, Ludwig had already continued.
“Controlling the Ring and preventing catastrophe. Saving Lea Claudel. Defeating me and protecting the inevitable victims. Is all of that truly for the sake of your own wish?”
“Do I have to fight only for my own wish?”
Hearing that sharp retort, Ludwig shook his head.
“Not at all. In some ways, fighting for the wishes of others is the greater thing.”
“...”
“However, while that mindset may allow you to help humanity achieve ascension, you will never be able to defeat me.”
Around Ludwig, the Whitespace and Void intertwined, warping space. With it rippling around him, the transcendent being who freely wielded the power of a Perfect One and a Harbinger of Destruction had utterly cold eyes.
“My ascension bears the noble cause of liberating humanity, yes—but at its root, it is still a wish meant to fulfill my own drive for self-improvement. But what about your wish—regression?”
“...”
“To turn back tragedy and correct what has gone wrong. You remain only in the past and the present. Within what you hope to achieve, there is no mention of the future.”
For a moment, Ludwig returned to being the Chairman of Babel. His eyes looking at Se-Hoon had that familiar tinge of warmth.
“Right now, we are fighting for the profound cause of humanity’s ascension in order to fulfill our wishes and seize the future. Yet, unless you become conscious of that, the fight itself cannot even stand.”
“I...”
“If you do not know, then think about it. If you do, then admit it. That is both the qualification needed to fight me and the only way you will have the resolve to survive.”
With that, the warmth from Ludwig’s gaze vanished, replaced by the utterly cold eyes from before. The conversation was over. It was time for both of them to once again gather their mana.
For Se-Hoon, though, his focus was off since Ludwig’s words continued to echo in his mind.
What is my wish?
To return to the past, change the doomed future, and save everyone. What more could there possibly be beyond that?
To have what he had always believed was his wish denied so directly left him completely shaken.
Slash!
Alas, that didn’t mean the formless slashes leaping across space wouldn’t pour down from all directions. While Se-Hoon contemplated, feeling blades biting into his entire body, he unraveled his flesh.
Boom!
His neck, which was about to be severed, dissolved into a dark-blue galaxy and let the slash pass through, whereas his body—cut into dozens of pieces—morphed into flames and darkness before gathering together again.
Through Dream Manifestation, Se-Hoon assimilated his body to elemental mana, then activated Soul Honing.
Woong-
With his body and mind becoming one, the power of his synesthetic mindscape was amplified, and every sense throughout his being was sharpened to the extreme. Once more, Se-Hoon rushed straight at Ludwig.
BOOM!
Since everything but his blood and heart had been replaced by mana, his speed broke the sound barrier, accelerating further and further until his view distorted. All that mattered to him were the endless white arrows and lines leading into the gaps between spaces that spread out without end.
Having entered the world of limitless possibilities revealed by the powers of Premotion and Perception, Se-Hoon looked forward.
Rumble-
A pure white blankness untouched by any possibility in this world.
It seemed utterly desolate at first glance, but put another way, it could also be seen as a future wholly under Ludwig’s control—a conclusion unchanged by possibility.
So that’s the difference between Ludwig and me.
When Ludwig had pointed out the matter of wishes, what shook Se-Hoon wasn’t actually his wish being denied. No, it was because he had found himself agreeing.
I... knew all along.
In the past, and even with humanity’s ascension, the wish Se-Hoon had pursued had always included other people. As Ludwig said, perhaps there was nothing wrong with that.
But then what, exactly, was his own wish?
What do I want?
Before the first regression, he fought for vengeance for those he had lost. Afterwards, he fought to protect everyone. Through that long struggle of two lives, what had he truly been pursuing? What did he truly desire?
No matter how many times he asked himself, an answer never returned. Torn, Se-Hoon’s eyes twisted as he continued his mad charge forward.
Rumble-
Pulling all the infinite possibilities blanketing the world into himself, Se-Hoon leapt into the Whitespace Ludwig had claimed. The infinite space born of Voidless Horizon was overcome by a speed that transcended law itself, allowing Se-Hoon to reach Ludwig before an instant even passed.
Without pause, he thrust his hand forward like a blade toward the visible gap before him—
Thud.
He failed to close the final gap of less than a millimeter to Ludwig’s chest, trapped by the infinity of Voidless Horizon.
Crack-
Every spatial coordinate composing Se-Hoon’s body was compressed into a single point and slashed by the Void Blade, shredding his entire body and consuming it.
Swoosh-
The body that had been ground to nothing returned to its original form. But once again, the power of Regression was consumed, cracking the gray ring even further.
Glancing over, Se-Hoon wiped every thought from his mind and unleashed all of his powers alongside the Celestial Infinity Blade.
WOONG!
Six powers compressed into the form of sword aura, exploding into a multicolor radiance that made the surroundings tremble on the verge of collapse. With both hands, Se-Hoon finished the creation of a sword that gathered everything he had into one, and grasped it.
Genesis Break: Celestial Infinity Blade, Primordial Heavenblade
Woong!
A single blade of sword aura shining in every color of the spectrum was formed. Containing all that Se-Hoon resonated with, even the power of Regression could not withstand such a force.
Raising it up, Se-Hoon swung his sword down with every ounce of strength at Ludwig.
And in response, Ludwig, too, slashed.
Bloom of Whitespace: Celestial Infinity Blade
The black-and-white sword where blankness and voidness overlapped split the world in half.
Clang! Swoosh-
The gray ring surrounding the central plaza shattered, and the final regression, together with Se-Hoon’s death, cleanly erased the aftermath of Ludwig’s Celestial Infinity Blade.
Drip-
And yet the wound carved into Se-Hoon’s chest remained, despite regressing successfully.
Looking down at it, Se-Hoon’s eyes widened.
The power of Regression...
The gray ring surrounding his heart—the very source of Se-Hoon’s existence—had been split in two by Ludwig’s final Celestial Infinity Blade, leaving behind a wound that not even regression could erase.
I see. If it’s a wish meant to destroy the Ring, then... it can destroy other worlds as well.
A strike meant to cut down the sky—the world itself—that stood in his way. Even with death approaching, Se-Hoon found himself awed by that transcendent power capable of severing even regression itself.
To think he overwhelmed everyone else’s wishes with nothing but his own.
One person’s wish against the wishes of the entirety of humanity. In terms of sheer numbers, the latter should have been overwhelmingly superior.
But the earnestness of a wish was never decided by numbers. How desperately one longed for that miracle, and how genuine that wish truly was—those alone were the measure by which wishes were weighed, and thus Se-Hoon’s strike had been broken through with almost absurd ease.
“It is time to bring this to an end.”
Ludwig’s gaze turned upward, and Se-Hoon too raised his head to look at the golden radiance filling the sky. It was the end of the universe he had once reached with Baek-Yeon.
Looking at the Golden Ring that was so vast it blotted out the heavens, Se-Hoon asked, “If you break that... will your wish be fulfilled, Chairman?”
“It will. This very moment is the end of the wish I have long desired.”
Ludwig stared at the golden sky barring his way, then lowered his gaze to Se-Hoon.
“And you?”
“...What do you mean?”
“Are you prepared to end it?”
The true end had arrived, one that even regression could not reverse. Faced with that truth once more, Se-Hoon looked at Ludwig, then beyond him, at the golden sky.
What should I have done?
Should he, like Ludwig, have accepted selfishness and recognized his own wish sooner? Should he have abandoned pointless hypocrisy and stubbornness and accepted Ludwig’s proposal, compromising instead?
Thinking over the choices he might have made and the futures that would have awaited at their ends, Se-Hoon suddenly stopped thinking.
No.
Why did he have to awaken to anything? Why did he have to choose at all?
Before Ludwig, the Golden Ring, and the trial that demanded choice and proof from him, Se-Hoon felt an emotion beyond anger and fear. He was sick of it all.
I...
He never wanted to lose those precious to him, nor did he want to live a life of vengeance for them. He had never once wished for the world’s destruction, and he loathed even more the fact that he had fought without proper sleep just to prevent it.
So why had he been forced to lose, avenge, fight, and stumble forward through endless choices?
“I...”
The negative thoughts and emotions he had never once allowed himself to face—that he had never wanted to face—began spilling endlessly from the deepest part of his heart.
He discarded his selfless cause of fighting for everyone entirely, his duty, allowing the desire he had pushed into the deepest recesses of his heart to slip back to the surface.
“I wanted it to end.”
“...”
“I didn’t care about trials or wishes. I just wanted to finish what I needed to do and then finally rest in peace.”
A cursed world that never allowed even a moment to enjoy peace, forever throwing people into trials and forcing choices upon them without end. Some might say that there was still freedom to choose... but what difference did that make when the very act of choosing was forced upon the person?
“You, who kept saying the future must be pursued even at the cost of sacrificing people, and this world that keeps throwing trial after trial at me—I’m sick of all of it!”
It was simply childish whining, a desire to not do anything, and yet, that was enough to loosen the knot deep within him, little by little.
“So I... I just want the freedom to refuse.”
Mourn the past and imagine a better future? No, just for now, Se-Hoon wanted to postpone every choice and rest instead. That was the wish Se-Hoon desired, one meant solely for himself.
“...”
Ludwig looked at the Se-Hoon once more. Not as the hero who saved humanity. In Ludwig’s eyes, the man before him was merely a boy worn down by endless battle. He, too, was oblivious to just how crushing a burden he had been laying on the man’s shoulders until now.
It made him genuinely remorseful.
“...I’m sorry.”
Unfortunately, their wishes had diverged. The result could no longer change. Moving his fading body, Ludwig stepped toward Se-Hoon and raised the black-and-white sword high into the sky.
Looking up, Se-Hoon slowly closed his eyes in acceptance—
“Got that loud and clear!”
A familiar voice rang across the entire plaza.
“...?”
Se-Hoon’s eyes snapped open. Seeing that Ludwig was looking towards the side, he followed the gaze to see the girl standing atop the railing on a hospital rooftop, her long hair and a white coat fluttering in the wind.
But... how? That girl looked far too lively for someone who had supposedly only just awakened after months.
“...Lea?”
Staring at her in a daze, her name slipping from his lips, Se-Hoon watched as Lea boldly addressed the two of them.
“To challenge ascension for the liberation of humanity. To throw it all away and quit because you’re exhausted. If we’re talking about wishes alone, sure, the former sounds more noble.”
She looked straight at Ludwig.
“But Chairman. There’s one thing you overlooked.”
Ludwig gazed at Lea, who spoke as though lecturing him, and quietly asked, “And what is that?”
“If life is like a tower climb toward the summit, then an era is like a road that stretches endlessly onward, one that’s walked on together with other people. In other words, they’re different directions.”
The top of the tower of life that Ludwig had reached was undoubtedly higher than any tower that existed in this world, and from there he could surely see farther than anyone else.
“You might be able to see farther than we ever can, but you wouldn’t know what kind of road we’ll choose to walk. Whether we press on through hardship and keep going, take the long way around for safety, or stop for a while and rest—that’s something the people walking the road decide.”
“...”
“So, in other words... in other words...”
Lea, who had been speaking with an oddly mystical air, suddenly trailed off. Then she scratched her head and frowned, dispelling all of that.
“Ugh. Even making stuff up that sounds convincing is exhausting. How did he always do this kind of thing?”
“...”
“Ahem! Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, it’s meaningless for someone looking down from above to lecture the people suffering below when they don’t understand what they’re actually going through. Got it?”
It was an unbelievably sloppy conclusion, yet Ludwig took it gravely instead of laughing her off.
“Even if there is a cliff waiting at the end of the path you walk?”
“Maybe if we keep walking, we’ll eventually be able to build a bridge across it. Of course, we’d need a skilled craftsman for that.”
It was blatantly obvious the metaphor clearly implying Se-Hoon as that craftsman, making Ludwig let out a small laugh without meaning to.
“That’s a fine metaphor. I had no idea you possessed such literary talent.”
“Ahem. It’s just because I never had a reason to show it. If I really put my mind to it—”
“But this is neither a writing class nor a debate hall.”
Ludwig pressed his blade to Se-Hoon’s throat.
“If you wish to stop me, then show me a wish—and a power—equal to mine. Otherwise, it all ends here.”
Hearing Ludwig’s demand, Lea showed neither anger nor impatience. She simply smiled, just as she had when she first appeared, and stared at him proudly.
“As if I didn’t know that from the start!”
Woong!
A massive gray halo appeared above Lea’s head, linking to the magic array of the Ascension Project and bursting with brilliant light.
Phase Manifestation: Bond Imitation
Woooooooooong!
The imitation of a certain person’s soul she had once achieved at the end of Puppeteer’s finale had advanced one step further. Unlike before, when it was just a mere imitation of the soul, she had successfully mimicked the very bonds of causality attached to it as well.
Thanks to that, the magic array of the Ascension Project recognized Lea as Se-Hoon, handing over all control to her without a fuss. In the blink of an eye, Lea had inscribed a new enchantment onto the array, which merged with it naturally.
“It’s time for a revote!”
Woong-
The world, which had been endlessly soaring toward the Golden Ring, came to a halt.
