Chapter 402
Chapter 402
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 402
Chapter Title: The Final Decision (2)
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Middle East. The Kingdom of Paras.
On the western map of Paras, the cradle of ancient civilization, the world's largest desert, the Akkad Desert, was colored ochre.
A sea of sand stretching to the horizon.
It is extremely difficult for any living creature to survive in this place, scorched for eons.
But on the sand, spread out as smoothly as cream, human footprints were imprinted.
Where the footprints led, a massive pyramid, known as an ancient ruin, soared like a mirage.
The heart of the Akkad Desert, where all oases had dried up, was a place even travelers avoided. However, a select few knew this was the dungeon where the world's most famous mage resided.
A dungeon with an infiltration difficulty of A2.
Walking leisurely inside was Kangnan, the former chief of staff of the Tormia Magic Association.
In her wake, monsters of Tier 5 and above were embedded in the walls, twitching.
The *clack, clack* of her high heels on the stone floor echoed, imperiously drowning out their groans.
After a long battle, Kangnan's clothes were a mess.
A button had come undone, leaving the front of her blouse agape, and her stockings were riddled with runs that had stretched into droplet shapes.
In her right hand, she held a long horn, one of dozens that adorned the tail of some monster.
The tail was connected to a green torso that looked to be well over two tons. At the end of the body, the King of the Desert, a basilisk with a hideously caved-in snout, was being dragged along, its tongue lolling out.
*Scrape, scrape, scrape.*
The sight of Kangnan dragging a monster more than twenty times her size was certainly incongruous, but even that was a minor detail compared to her light steps, which seemed to feel no weight at all.
Reaching the end of the labyrinth, Kangnan pushed open a stone door and entered.
It was a vast cavern, and countless desert creatures were taxidermied, their skin dried out like tree bark.
Eighty meters away, someone in a turban was visible, their back to her, engrossed in their work at a table.
Instead of knocking, Kangnan grabbed the basilisk's tail and threw it.
*BOOOOOM!*
A magnificent echo reverberated through the great cavern.
“If you knew I was here, couldn't you have just let me in?”
The figure in the turban finally turned around. It was a slender woman wearing a desert-colored cloak.
Her monolid eyes were large and long, and her jaw was so slender it looked fragile. She was sucking on a baby's pacifier, which, in contrast to her deep, dark eyes, created an overall mysterious aura.
“It has been a while, Kangnan.”
The woman's name was Zulu.
She was a certified Grade 1 Archmage of the Kingdom of Paras and the strongest summoning mage on earth, the only one capable of summoning a lich, even among Tier 1 monsters.
“Yes. You seem to be doing well.”
Kangnan spoke in the Middle Eastern language, but Zulu insisted on using the continental tongue.
“As for me. I have scarcely gone out since then.”
Her habit of adding honorifics to certain sentence endings was still the same.
It didn't fit the grammar of the continental language, but if it had been her habit from the beginning, there was nothing to be done about it.
“Sit. I shall bring you something to drink.”
Kangnan walked over with an uneasy expression.
With Zulu's skill, she could create water right where she sat, but the problem was that she didn't. It seemed that once one reached the level of a Grade 1 Archmage, they developed their own unique rationality, different from common sense.
As expected, Zulu poured an unidentifiable liquid into a laboratory beaker and placed it on the table.
Kangnan's expression was dubious as she looked at it.
In the desert, water was more precious than jewels, unless it was created by magic. Even if it wasn't for drinking, a vast amount of water would be needed to run the experimental equipment in the cavern.
The taxidermied monsters all around, wrung dry of every last drop of moisture, were not the result of some eccentric hobby.
Zulu removed her pacifier and savored the liquid in the beaker. Since it was precious water, Kangnan had no choice but to at least pretend to drink it.
“I'll drink up. Surely it's not desert maggot urine, like ten years ago?”
“I could not give such a thing to a guest who has come after so long. This water is exceedingly precious.”
Kangnan tilted the beaker slightly and took a taste.
The moment the liquid touched her tongue, a wave of pleasure washed up from her throat.
“It's good. So what is it?”
“It is my urine.”
Kangnan raised the beaker to her mouth and spat out the water she had been holding.
The fact that she didn't spill it on the floor could be considered a fervent response to the Grade 1 Archmage's hospitality.
Zulu said with a smile.
“Do not worry. It is distilled.”
“Of course it is. But I think I have plenty of this in my own body.”
“Huhu. You haven't changed, Kangnan.”
Zulu recalled the first time she met Kangnan, ten years ago.
She had been far more rustic and youthful in appearance, but the sharp-tongued abrasiveness that had tamed the world's madman, Gaold, was no less than it was now.
*‘She's grown so much.’*
Back then, Kangnan had been a bleeding wolf. A beast full of hostility, baring its fangs at anyone who crossed her path.
But now, that belligerence had been greatly tempered.
If she had come down to the 19th basement floor of the pyramid without Gaold, it meant she must have overcome her inner demons.
“The elements of the natural world circulate. Within that circulation, there is yet more circulation. When we drink water, we are not taking possession of it; rather, we are inserting ourselves into the great cycle of life and death to create another cycle of our own. It is when one surrenders to this perfect circulation, where there is nothing to discard and nothing to retain, that a human can become one with nature.”
Kangnan took Zulu's words to heart.
She wasn't a mage, but all truths meet at the summit.
There was nothing to be discarded in the teachings of a Grade 1 Archmage.
“Is that the secret to commanding the king of the dead?”
A lich is a thought-form created from the coalesced will of an archmage. Therefore, as an entity that is already dead, it is said to be unable to clear the final stage of ascension: annihilation.
In academic circles, rumors circulated that Zulu herself had become a lich and her summon was merely a doppelgänger, but Kangnan, who had actually seen her summon a lich, knew that was a lie.
When she saw it ten years ago, she had only felt overwhelmed, but after working as the chief of staff for the Magic Association, she had become genuinely curious about the secret.
“How on earth is that possible?”
Zulu turned her head, her eyes filled with sorrow.
“This place... is the land of death.”
That was all the explanation she gave, but Kangnan felt she understood.
A mage who understood the principle of circulation—that one must empty to be filled—would have no reason to hide the secret of ascension. It was just that it was her entire life, too vast to be contained in mere words.
“I see.”
The great cavern of the pyramid was Zulu's cradle.
Abandoned here as a newborn, she had survived alone, without anyone's help.
Had the monsters of the dungeon been her parents?
Zulu couldn't be sure.
By the time she was old enough to be self-aware, she was still alone, and the only thing left was a small pacifier her parents must have left behind.
From then on, Zulu lived with the massive dungeon as her home.
Death was always perched on her shoulder. When she slept, when she had to eat something, even when she breathed.
It was a different kind of survival from what people in slums like Radum experienced.
To Zulu, survival was not a yearning for life, but simply another form of death.
Kangnan could also be said to have lived a harsh life, but she couldn't even begin to imagine what Zulu's life had been like.
A girl who spent her childhood with hundreds of species of monsters in a dungeon where neither food nor even water could be found.
It was perhaps inevitable that Zulu became the world's strongest summoning mage.
“I've come to ask you for a favor.”
Getting to the point, Kangnan bowed her head until her forehead touched the table, pleading.
“Please help Gaold.”
Zulu's gaze was fixed on some distant point, lost in thought. Then, she slowly opened her mouth and replied in the Middle Eastern language.
“I will.”
Kangnan's head shot up at the quicker-than-expected agreement.
In reality, getting Zulu out of the pyramid was an extremely difficult task. Countless archmages, and even the royal family of Paras, had pleaded with her to become their confidante, but all had been refused.
Above all, Zulu was unaware of the current political situation. With the plan she'd been told of ten years ago now completely derailed, she would be taking on a risk with almost no chance of survival.
“I'm sorry. There's something I didn't tell you. The situation has changed suddenly...”
“Gaold is like a child.”
Zulu recalled the first time she met Gaold.
“He tries not to empty anything. Even when he's stuffed so full he's about to explode, even when he's in so much pain he could die, he holds on to the very end and refuses to let go.”
Kangnan closed her mouth and listened attentively.
“The reason he was able to endure despite all that was because he was waiting for the time to pour everything out. I believe that time is now. If this, too, is part of the great cycle, then I think it is time for Gaold to finally be at peace.”
“Ms. Zulu.”
Kangnan fought back tears.
Why was she crying at words that showed understanding for that wretched scum of a man?
Was it pity for the madman who had been cast aside after twenty years of suffering? Or if not that….
“And.”
Zulu said with a beautiful, childlike eye-smile.
“Because interesting things always happen when I'm with Gaold.”
With teary eyes, Kangnan raised the corners of her mouth.
That was it. A pure obsession that ordinary people could never understand.
Perhaps she, too, had been bewitched by the madness of one who had bet everything on a single cause.
Zulu stood up and prepared to leave.
Sucking on her pacifier, she packed two water bottles into a small bag. That was it. For the departure of a Grade 1 Archmage, her luggage was remarkably simple.
“Let's go. It won't take long to reach the continent if we ride a Kaidra.”
The Kaidra, a Tier 3 summoned monster, was a giant bird that could fly seven thousand kilometers in a single day.
As Zulu left the great cavern, Kangnan watched her back for a moment before bowing her head in the distinctive Rammuai posture.
She was someone she respected, in a different way than she respected Gaold.
*‘Thank you.’*
Kangnan glanced back at the beaker on the table.
Circulation. One must empty to be filled. If one cannot be filled, one cannot be emptied.
Taking a deep breath, she picked up the beaker and downed the remaining water, which was more than half full, in one go.
“Ugh.”
As expected, this was something she could not get used to.
It definitely tasted like water, but it seemed the principle of 'everything is created by the mind' wasn't something just anyone could master.
Wiping the unpleasant taste from her mouth with her tongue, Kangnan followed Zulu out of the great cavern.
***
Shirone went to the headmaster's office as soon as the sun rose.
Gaold's first request had been to deliver a note to Alpheas.
Alpheas looked surprised to see Shirone's sudden visit, but after reading the note, he nodded silently.
Shirone also left the headmaster's office without a word.
Kingdom intelligence agents would already be positioned around the academy.
As long as there was no confirmation that Gaold was coming, security wouldn't be as tight as in the capital, but it was still too risky for Gaold to act alone.
*‘The headmaster will know what to do.’*
He could trust Alpheas, who had been through thick and thin.
Besides, with Olivia, a certified Grade 2 Archmage, by his side, they were sure to come up with some kind of plan.
This was no time to worry about Gaold. Shirone was a suspect connected to Gaold in one way or another, and a single misstep could lead to him being trapped and meeting his end without having done anything.
In the face of a world-shaking event like Heaven, no one would care about Shirone's safety.
It was a situation where he had to make his own judgments and find a way out.
*‘Ikael…’*
He had a reason to meet him, even if it meant abandoning everything, but the situation was different from a year ago.
Even if he made it back alive, he would be branded a traitor for life and would never escape being hunted.
The fortunate thing was that, for now, Shirone still held the initiative.
Having discovered the possibility of destroying Heaven, Gaold would classify Shirone as a key figure in the project. That meant, at the very least, a foundation for his survival was secured.
*‘First, I need to gather information. I have to be as careful as possible and unravel this one step at a time.’*
When a situation has spiraled so far out of control, a myopic approach can sometimes be more effective.
The best course of action was to feel his way through the immediate problems like a blind man, solving them one by one.