Chapter: 634 – The Oldest Wish (15)
—
In a space filled with what seemed like an everlasting song of pain,
The plains of the sinners.
“… I can’t believe everything you say.”
“Even with Miro next to me?”
“Miro is easily fooled by anyone.”
“Aah! That’s too mean!”
“Ha ha! True, we don’t have that kind of relationship where we trust each other without a doubt. So go check it out yourself.”
“Check it out myself?”
“Let’s go to the sanctuary together. Since you’ve been promoted to ‘the silent one,’ I trust you can judge for yourself.”
“…”
“What are you planning to do? I think—”
“I’ll ask directly.”
“Eh? No—”
“Saint, the opponent is smarter than we are. Don’t you think?”
“… That’s true.”
“Now’s a moment for sincerity, not deception.”
A newly created elevator.
“Ari! What are you thinking?”
“Thinking about the past.”
“The past?”
“The day I got the irregular dodecahedron.”
“What kind of memory is that?”
—
User: — (Wisdom)
Date: Day 234
Current Location: Searching…
Sage’s Advice: 0
—
In the heart of the sanctuary turned to desolate ruins.
It was just a brief glance at the remnants of Prince Emilio, now a soulless heap of flesh.
— Saaa!
Soon, the softly glowing treasure of the ages — the crown — revealed itself!
Finally, the end of my long wait was near.
I dedicated a thousand lives for this moment!
“Ah…!”
At that moment, I felt warm liquid streaming down my cheeks.
Feeling like a child, I simply couldn’t stop my flowing tears.
Who could I possibly explain the emotions I was feeling right now?
This wasn’t the first time I’ve seen a crown.
It wasn’t even the first time I touched one.
But previous encounters were always filled with despair.
‘You are not royalty.’
‘You don’t deserve the crown.’
That’s all I ever received.
But what about now?
As I stumbled closer to grasp the crown, I instinctively felt it.
The crown acknowledged me.
It accepted me, who became one with the prince’s soul, as its master!
In that moment of intoxicating victory and omnipotence that couldn’t be expressed in words,
I sensed a presence behind me.
I already knew someone was coming.
Since they were familiar, I didn’t bother to stop them.
“You’ve come?”
“Yeah, I’m here.”
It was Ari’s voice.
Turning around, I saw the beautiful girls, Ari and Miro, like a black-and-white pair of paintings.
Next to them was a panting Seungyub, followed by a smiling Saint.
“Aedia.”
“Congratulations on your great achievement, Saint!”
“… I can’t believe you’re still around.”
Seeing my comrades sticking close, they looked like summoned ones. However, the time allowed for those summons should have already run out.
“Oh, you don’t know yet? There should be answers in the prince’s memories.”
It is true that I merged with the prince’s soul.
However, his memories didn’t feel as natural to me as my own.
To put it metaphorically, it was like I had swallowed food but hadn’t completely digested it.
Thus, it took me a little time to understand the saint’s words.
“…”
“Do you understand now?”
The saint, who replaced her entire body with Cliffort Crystal, had gained immortality!
And that’s not all.
“… There was an absurdly large crystal inside the moon.”
A colossal mass of Cliffort Crystal, the size of a building!
This was essentially the saint’s ‘true body.’
The beautiful lady we normally see is just a small piece, a mere avatar separated from her true self.
And here’s the even stranger fact.
The usual saint, the avatar, doesn’t know where her true body is.
If she did realize, her ego’s identity would collapse, so it was deliberately kept from her.
In the saint’s mind, she only discovers the truth during a desperate crisis!
The summoned saint transferred her memories to her true body just before perishing.
“Aedia, you’re quite strange too. Just like the previous Wisdom…”
“Well, I’ve lived long enough to have seen all sorts of things.”
“…”
“Is the former Wisdom doing alright?”
“He’s exhausted from using all his power. He could use some rest.”
The hotel, or should I call it a school?
It must not have been anything like this when the saint first acquired Cliffort Crystal.
Most likely, it was just skin-deep, strengthening her body.
Time is terrifying like that.
The potential of inheritance is truly mysterious.
“I’ll stop my story here. It’s not the main point.”
Nodding and checking on my comrades again, I sensed an absence.
“Ari, where’s Eunsol?”
“She’s resting. She’s not doing nearly as well as I am.”
Well, that can’t be helped; she’s just an ordinary human after all.
“What about Jinchul?”
“That one is probably overexposed to the power of inheritance, I’d say? He’ll need to rest for quite a while.”
“And Elena?”
This time, Seungyub replied.
“Her soul is contained in a soul vessel!”
“What?”
It was a response that Seungyub delivered as if he didn’t know how to explain.
“… My sister’s body has been destroyed.”
Looks like Elena’s body was wrecked, and her soul was contained in Seungyub’s inheritance.
I was slightly surprised, but thinking it through, it wasn’t irreversible.
The Administration Bureau once created a new vessel for Sophia in a similar situation, so they could probably build one for Elena’s soul, whether it be a clone or something else.
If it’s biologically the same body, wouldn’t the blessing be usable again?
I was nodding along as I grasped the situation.
“….”
I realized that something was strange about my comrades, particularly Miro’s reaction.
Under normal circumstances, wouldn’t this be the perfect time for her to come rushing towards me with a voice like “Kain!”?
Why does she have that anxious expression beside Ari?
Seeing me act that way, Ari soon opened her mouth.
“Kain.”
“What’s up?”
Ari slightly spread her arms and opened her mouth, and perhaps due to our long time spent together, I sensed her intentions.
She was going to be honest with me.
“Aedia is doubting you.”
At Ari’s words, the saint merely gave a bitter smile, not denying it.
“You’re not ‘Han Kain’ anymore; you’re the ancient researcher, the prince’s mentor—”
“Aleph?”
“So that was the name. Yes, let’s go with Aleph.”
“…”
“They say you’re extremely evil, a threat to the world. Could you explain a bit?”
Who exactly am I now?
With a light sigh, I began to explain.
“Saint, don’t shake my comrades with useless words.”
“I’m—”
Just as Aedia was about to frown and say something…
— Clap!
As I clapped my hands lightly, the saint’s figure immediately vanished.
Miro and Seungyub gasped, while Ari remained calm.
To prevent any misunderstandings among my comrades, I quickly added.
“I didn’t kill her or anything. Just—”
“Cast her out of the sanctuary?”
Thinking back on it, the prince could execute various measures just as I did.
When he said, “I could’ve killed you twice or thrice by now,” it essentially meant that.
Why didn’t he do that?
Because he thought I didn’t stand a chance to win.
He probably intended to capture me in the sanctuary for brainwashing or coercion.
After all, that would make dealing with raiders and the Bureau outside easier.
This kind of delusion, this lapse in judgment, is one of the many reasons the prince lost.
“If someone weird is spouting outrageous stuff next to me, misunderstandings will grow.”
“That could happen.”
Thanks to Ari’s calm tone, Miro and Seungyub gradually relaxed, and my heart eased a bit too.
“Let me explain; I’m just regaining memories I forgot long ago.”
“Memories from Aleph’s time?”
“Exactly. But that doesn’t mean I’ve totally lost my more recent memories. They’re perfectly intact. For instance, Miro summons me at night—”
“Eeeek!”
“I said she summons me—”
“Eeeek, that’s a lie! I’ve never summoned you at night! Sometimes—”
“Sometimes isn’t at all, huh?”
“How did you know?!”
As I watched Miro’s face turn bright red, Ari let out a big sigh.
“Yeah, Miro, I know you’re summoning him often too, so just stay calm.”
“Wait, how did you—”
“It’s weirder if you don’t know by now.”
“Anyhow, is that enough of an answer?”
My answer is simple.
Right now, all I’ve done is recall memories of the past that I had forgotten for ages, can I still be considered so different?
For an ordinary person, forgetting and sometimes recalling memories is quite common.
Ari smiled brightly and responded.
“I see your point. The saint’s opinions are merely assumptions on her part.”
“Exactly.”
“How can the saint accurately assess your current state?”
“That’s true.”
As I nodded and started walking toward my comrades, Ari dropped a bizarre thought.
“I had another thought.”
“What is it?”
“Maybe you, not just the saint, might not quite understand your own state.”
“….”
“That’s a possibility, right? You’ve just recently gained an immense amount of information and power.”
It reminded me of how I couldn’t recall the prince’s memories immediately.
As Ari mentioned, I was indeed in a state of having acquired immense amounts of information and power, and I would require quite some time before fully digesting it all.
After all, the saying in the extraordinary realm goes, “Attainment and gradual practice.”
Even if you get a moment of enlightenment, gradual practice is necessary.
“I just have one question.”
“…”
“What are you going to do from now on?”
What should I do from now on?
This effectively meant asking what my ‘happy ending’ looked like.
It’s an easy question.
We had already organized our opinions regarding future plans with my comrades.
First, we need to obtain the crown.
Second, gain control of the moon with its power.
That’s already a success.
Thirdly, once the former Wisdom awakens, he will be informed that we have succeeded in conquering the moon.
And…
There are a few more processes to tackle, but the conclusion is simple.
“… With the power of the moon, devour all the raiders.”
“Correct. The fact that there’s no capacity limit is the moon’s greatest feature. Once we obtain the moon, we can merge all the arks together. What comes next?”
“…”
The next step is the answer to all problems, the core of the happy ending I envisioned long ago.
Ari answered for me.
“Remember what I said before? In the end, we must dismantle the moon and the arks again. Devouring the raiders is merely a step toward controlling them.”
“…”
“There’s a mirror for that too. Sure, splitting the moon will take a long while, but… we have plenty of time now. Sounds accurate, right?”
What Ari was saying was nothing new.
It was all something I had directly told my comrades back in the day.
The process may be lengthy, but the conclusion is simple.
Ending the nonsensical fight over the chair that seemed it would never end.
It’s about helping humanity, who lost everything and wandered through an everlasting void, settle down and prosper once again.
This means that all the arks, including the moon, must eventually be dismantled.
At this point, I understood the real intention behind Ari’s question.
1. You’re confused about whether you are Aleph or Kain.
2. The ‘happy ending’ Aleph and Kain desire cannot be the same.
3. What’s the conclusion you want?
If I added one more, it’d be this.
4. Once you’ve concluded, don’t waste time—act immediately.
Once we begin communicating with the Bureau and raiders out there, it’ll become much harder for you to control the situation.
Once these thoughts struck me, I realized exactly what I needed to do.
— Taptap!
“Eh?”
I lightly tapped my foot on the ground.
Miro, who had been tilting her head in confusion till now, collapsed immediately.
Seungyub tried to react, sensing something…
— Tap!
“Ghh!”
Meaningless resistance.
Since the moment I became one with the prince, this entire realm is my land, my dominion.
The only one unharmed was Ari, who had, in the meantime, shielding her surroundings with the irregular dodecahedron.
“Your skill in handling the inheritance has improved significantly!”
Ari replied in a voice tinged with sadness.
“Aleph, so this is your choice.”
She no longer referred to me as ‘Kain.’
“Ari, think about it. Why do we need to split?”
“…”
“Humans are inherently weak creatures. They gathered together and reached great realms, so this is everyone’s ascension. Isn’t that already a success?”
“…”
“Is gang ‘splitting the moon and the arks back into billions of humans’ a happy ending? That’s the suicide of greatness and the opposite of ascension—descent.”
“You are…”
“Think without bias. What do we all need?”
“You’re not the real Kain.”
In the next moment, the irregular dodecahedron that appeared in Ari’s hands emitted a mysterious light, twisting the space around us.
An assault flew toward me as it cut through the air!
Something an ordinary human couldn’t see or feel.
Yet to me now, I could sense it clearly, the trajectory it traveled.
In fact, I considered it a slow, weak attack!
“Ha ha!”
A hollow laugh escaped as I chuckled at my own feeling of omnipotence, and the assault from the irregular dodecahedron vanished without a trace.
I thought I might have to put Ari down for a short nap.
— Kwaack!
“Eh?”
A huge hole appeared in Ari’s body.
For the first time, I felt just a little shocked.
I thought I could dodge or block something like this while preparing my next attack.
It felt like tossing a jab only to have my opponent get knocked out on the spot.
What’s going on? Did Ari’s condition turn out to be worse than I thought?
As I pondered this, the time around me felt like it was slowing down to a crawl.
I was witnessing the beautiful girl before me dying slowly.
The one I once considered an invaluable ally, Ari.
“…”
In that moment, I felt an overwhelming emotion that could only be described as ‘sadness.’
This too was a weak heart I needed to overcome.
Just another carnal desire I should sever on my path to ascendancy.
At that instant, Ari slowly moved her lips in the void.
“Kain.”
That was all.
A meaningless, worthless voice painting a vanished illusion.
Only then did I understand what this ridiculous girl was thinking.
She never had any intention of defeating me.
Because she knew she could never win.
She simply wanted to show me something shocking, hoping to create a rift in my heart, even for a moment.
Perhaps this would be the very moment something might spark.
I found it absurd.
So she climbed the ranks within the Administration Bureau, and her final move turned out to be this?
It was ludicrously shallow, and I was about to let out a sigh.
Then, I felt one change wash over me.
—
User: Aleph (Wisdom)
The Status Window, which had previously displayed my name as ‘—’ was now clearly stating ‘Aleph.’
It had been bothering me subtly, and now it made sense!
The name ‘—’ wasn’t predetermined to turn into anything.
It was merely a matter of choice, and ‘I’ simply chose Aleph.
—
I moved beyond uniqueness, so there must be others who chose differently.
— Fwaaaaa…!
I felt someone’s gaze upon me.
That very gaze was the final trial bestowed upon me by the Buddha!
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