Ch.315104. No Way to Reach It (2)

“Just wake her up. I’ll take care of the rest.”

On the day we decided to depart, we discussed this matter.

“You have other things you need to do, don’t you?”

“……”

“Who else but you could stop that person? By now, they’ve become a Demon Lord, practically a god-like existence in that world.”

“……”

“Besides, what will you give up to free her? Surely not everything you have like before? And then what? You’re not suggesting we all just die together, are you?”

So we decided to leave the matter of the Demon World Tree to Lutesia.

“She’s my sister. I have to handle this somehow. If I were ignorant and powerless, that would be different… but that’s not the case.”

That’s why I wanted to take on the War God and the Emperor of Light.

And someone else who might be there… I was determined to handle them.

“This is truly an unavoidable situation.”

The ragged man readily admitted.

“Yes. As you’ve probably realized by now, time and space have lost their meaning for us.”

The past may remain unchanged.

But from now on, we only have the present.

…And that present even includes the concept of the future.

“Look at this surface stretching horizontally.”

A sight where droplets fall, creating circular ripples that spread endlessly, extending outward.

A blue starry sky.

A brilliant galaxy.

Between the massive stars, there’s no sun to be seen.

Not even a moon.

Just a blue galaxy painting another sea of stars across the azure sky.

There was something deeply moving about this endless expanse of countless stars, stirring even the driest of emotions.

Butterflies formed of starlight fly, and small birds soaked in starlight flutter down to the ground, creating countless new ripples.

“From here to here.”

He pointed to one spot, then another.

“For lesser beings, this would be present and future.”

The ragged man explained, pointing again with his bony finger.

“But such concepts no longer apply to us.”

There’s only forward and backward.

Advancing or retreating.

But we cannot return.

We can only move forward.

“You’ve already seen the future, so you must know. But while you could only watch before, now you can intervene.”

“……”

I had been preparing for this situation for a long time.

So I had no reason to be flustered.

No reason to be tempted by his words.

“It will take a long time to convince those two. Me? I’m fine. I’ve been unwillingly cast out from my duties, so I suppose that too is fate.”

“……”

“I admit, quite cleanly, that I was much more clumsy than you—who overcame fate and eventually became able to rewrite and revise destiny itself.”

“……”

“So, what will you do now? Do you truly have no attachment to life? If you wish… you could make your world the only unique world. Just as those two desired.”

“That’s not my role.”

I never had the right to do such things in the first place.

“All I can do is show the path.”

And then help develop the strength to walk that path.

“The first step. And the final step. Beginning and end. Creation and genesis. Even with countless interventions, there can be no anomalies in that structure and process.”

“……”

Footsteps.

Gait.

Grandeus’s swordsmanship, and the gait established by another me from another world who tried to save Lutesia, that ill-fated me.

But in a sense, it was incomplete.

Korin’s Septentrion was originally a training sword.

Grandeus delved into it with utmost dedication, incorporating modern combat logic and even adding the technique of reversing mana flow, completing what we know as his sword technique, the Sword of the Fool.

Strictly speaking, this wasn’t completed by Grandeus.

It was the legacy and another achievement of the second-generation Great Demon Lord, whom the golden woman praised endlessly.

However.

Even so.

It didn’t suppress or dull the essence of Septentrion.

After all, through this, I was able to put down my sword.

Yet I was still more proficient with the sword than anyone.

Regardless of talent or aptitude.

But it’s still in an incomplete state.

“Yes. Everything begins with the first step.”

Birth and death alike.

It all comes down to whether one can walk or not.

Practically, conceptually, abstractly.

Advancing and retreating.

Even that moment of making up one’s mind, hardening it, and resolving.

We must not stop moving forward.

Water does not stagnate.

Just as fire cannot be suppressed.

Seeds germinate.

Even earth and rock were once dust and a single point.

From hot and cold, harmony and fusion, division and synthesis…

“Order. Fusion. Harmony. Division. Chaos.”

The ragged man muttered quietly as if talking to himself.

“At first there was Order and Chaos, but between them was a child. Understanding it like interpreting mythology makes it a bit easier.”

Fire and water, concepts of hot and cold, all are both included and excluded in it.

“But even that was initially just a point. But because the point moved forward, it became a line, and because of the line, circles and angles materialized.”

Colors must be the same.

At first, there was only darkness.

But to dispel that darkness.

Or to cover it, to overwhelm it, light eventually covered everything.

Therefore, the two cannot coexist.

But even between those two, wasn’t there a result?

“Yes. You’ve now reached the final answer.”

“……”

I shook my head slightly.

“If one could ascend so easily with such things, would the world be so absurd?”

“No. You could do it, couldn’t you? Right now, even.”

“……”

But.

That’s not the right direction.

Not the right process.

Not the right… choice either.

“Believing it would be so is the greatest trap.”

Nothing in the world is ever easy.

And the higher you climb, the thicker the barriers of intensity, depth, and pain.

The door will be even thicker.

The keyhole might not even be visible.

“The world is not that simple.”

“…How remarkable.”

He seemed impressed in a different way.

Still, his words weren’t completely wrong.

“Nevertheless, I gained something from what you just said. I express my gratitude for that.”

“Hmph, I’ve done something unnecessary. I thought you’d just disappear on your own, thinking you’d accomplished something.”

He looked quite disappointed.

This was probably his first and last desperate attempt.

If the outcome had been favorable, it might have been a brilliant move.

A butterfly made of starlight flies away.

Or is it a moth?

…Perhaps it’s both.

The sea of stars twinkles.

A white sea naturally paints over the blue sky, as if eating away at it, yet displaying an even greater radiance.

Amidst all this scenery, not a trace of unnaturalness can be seen.

Truly, the landscape of an ideal paradise.

Like the boundary between the netherworld and the living world, where tranquility and fantasy blend.

This place was truly a dreamlike space.

Did such a thing exist within me?

For a moment, I reflect on this.

====

The number must have surpassed millions long ago.

And then I slaughtered, massacred, and crushed tens of times more,

Delivering deserved death and true destruction to all objects showing hostility.

So when the War God saw a single sword and an unreliable kid appear in the pale white world, he wondered what this was about.

‘Is this the end?’

No matter how many armies and opponents swarmed, how could they compare to him?

He is the God of War, the ruler of battle.

Therefore, even in endless war, he would always build victory and glory.

As armies dwindled and all manner of disasters struck, the War God gladly endured.

He was already accustomed to such things.

All adversity and trials become meaningless, useless before the War God.

In this empty space where all hostility and antagonism had disappeared,

In this bleached, pale world with just a lone sword, he couldn’t understand the situation at all.

“How pathetic.”

Suddenly, he feels a sense of dissonance.

The War God had somehow become a young boy.

More precisely, that kid he had seen earlier.

Right now, he had become that kid.

No, not a kid.

…Perhaps he had judged him that way because he looked so immature and naive on the outside.

At this age… I was already leading armies.

Or was it not armies? Was it battalions? Or was I alone? With just a few?

My memory is hazy.

How long have I been repeating this journey?

“……”

Anyway.

I have nothing left.

What matters is.

That she, the one I knew, existed.

They say she’s already dead and gone, but still, the world where she briefly stayed, and I who remember it… are still intact.

Just being able to feel that is enough.

“……”

Would I allow that to become a lie?

Even if it was just a moment.

We haven’t been living in a false world.

I will prove that.

By erasing every world.

“……”

Why am I indulging in such thoughts?

Wasn’t it ages ago that I made such resolutions and determinations?

There’s no need for that now.

“What a meaningless act.”

No matter what methods are used, he won’t become mentally dull or broken.

So this was the plan after that period of quiet?

The War God, sword in hand, resolutely tried to shatter this shabby world.

However, nothing changed.

“…How annoying.”

He had suspected something when he became that unreliable kid, but is this that kind of interference?

He had experienced this sort of thing many times before.

The World Tree’s minion had casually shown him various supposedly ideal scenes.

But none of them could shake his heart, which had nothing left but ashes.

“……”

However.

Something was different.

It was a little while later that he noticed what was different.

“This crazy bastard.”

Suicide? Why?

“Ha! You’re trying that trick?”

Does he think I’ll be disgusted, frustrated, and break down if he keeps killing himself?

“…Fine. Let’s see this through to the end.”

The sword in his hand feels heavy.

The War God stares at it for a moment.

Then, without hesitation, he thrusts the reversed sword into the center of his own throat.

“Khruk!”

Blood and foam escape with the air.

Does he truly understand?

That even this is just the beginning.

What it means to enter this realm.

No one yet understood this except the ragged man.