Chapter 35
Chapter 35
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 35
Chapter Title: Trajectory: Celestia (1)
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Begerton Antares remembered a conversation he had long ago with the pilgrim Bartov.
—‘It will be an endless pilgrimage. Whether its end will come within my lifetime is something no one on this star can foresee.’
The chairman of the Arcane Research Society was a mage of exceptional rarity, as far as he knew.
The people of the continent compared such a Bartov to other powerhouses under the name ‘Seven Corners,’ but the Doctor never agreed with their assessment of him.
As far as the Doctor knew, there was no other mage bound to a mortal life who could rival the wandering pilgrim of the continent.
He was not someone to be compared to mere ax-crazed barbarians or mages who devoted their lives to ambulatory fortresses.
And now, with such a Bartov having embarked on his endless pilgrimage, turning his gaze away from all the continent’s affairs.
The Doctor was preparing to undertake a great feat that would shake the world, with the permission of a transcendent being that surpassed even Bartov.
“Hey, Doctor. Is this really an experiment we should be proceeding with?”
On a certain morning, one month after the completion of the secret laboratory.
The Doctor was peering through a telescope at a certain location near the northwestern border region of the Empire.
Standing beside him, Raintas watched the Doctor with eyes full of distrust.
It was a question laced with worry about the dangerous experiment the two were about to conduct.
“Raintas. The chairman set out on a pilgrimage to become a god, did he not?”
In response to Raintas’s question, the Doctor flashed a smile whose true intent was inscrutable.
A smile that chilled the onlooker to the bone.
Unable to comprehend the Doctor’s words, Raintas voiced his doubt.
“Why bring up the chairman all of a sudden?”
“If the chairman left on a pilgrimage to become a god, then I must challenge the creation of a god myself. Only then would it be research worthy of the Arcane Research Society’s name, wouldn’t it?”
Conversations with the Doctor were always like this.
He would ramble on about things only he could understand.
Tsk—.
Clicking his tongue once, Raintas’s gaze shifted toward the direction the Doctor’s telescope was aimed.
Though not as powerful as the telescope the Doctor had crafted, Raintas’s keen eyesight allowed him to make out the scene to some extent with the naked eye.
A plain far removed from the steep mountain ridge.
There, a grotesque mass of flesh was clinging to a human form.
Thud, thud, thud—.
The distant monster pulsed as it moved busily.
Raintas knew it was the device the Doctor used whenever testing a chimera’s performance, so he could guess its purpose to some degree.
However, conducting an experiment from this distance was a first for him.
“Why are we even doing this from so far away? Normally, you observe the results from much closer, don’t you?”
It felt different from the chimera experiments they had conducted until now—.
Judging as much, Raintas stared at the lump of flesh with an uneasy expression.
Creak, creak—.
Adjusting the magic on the telescope, the Doctor gazed contentedly at the lump of flesh and replied.
“Until now, even if the test subject went berserk up close, you protected me, Raintas. So there were no issues.”
“Anyone would think I’d left. Just how dangerous is this experiment?”
Raintas had always accompanied the Doctor’s experiments over the past few years.
It was because he served as the Doctor’s bodyguard.
And that remained true even now.
The only change between then and now was the nature of the experiments the Doctor was conducting.
“Well, the danger level is on a whole different plane from anything we’ve done before.”
Snicker—.
Having laid out his answer to Raintas, the Doctor twisted the corner of his mouth upward.
However, Raintas didn’t feel like the Doctor was mocking him with that smile.
“If this experiment fails, even you alone wouldn’t be able to contain the aftermath, Raintas.”
He merely mulled over the Doctor’s following words with a troubled look.
“……Doctor. What exactly are you trying to say?”
The aftermath of failure.
Raintas’s face clouded with complex emotions as he pondered the Doctor’s words.
Click—.
The Doctor’s finger adjusted the monocle over one eye.
“What I’m saying is, I value you far more than you think, Raintas.”
Countless figures began displaying on the Doctor’s monocle all at once.
Right after, the Doctor gripped the lever of the biometric device set up around him.
“Who would humor my reckless research if you died, Raintas?”
“That’s the most repulsive thing I’ve ever heard from you.”
Scowling, Raintas spat on the ground.
With that short complaint as his last, Raintas chose to shut his mouth.
From then on, only the Doctor’s experiment continued.
Grip—.
The Doctor poured strength into the hand clutching the lever.
The intricate magical device, formed from clustered flesh, reacted to his biometric signal.
The Doctor’s serious gaze quickly scanned the figures before his eyes.
“Heart rate, normal. Body temperature, normal. Mana circulation, no issues.”
This experiment used one of the strongest bodies the Doctor had cultivated.
Whether it was suitable for a being from the outer world remained unknown—.
Even so, it was clear that if this experiment failed, testing would be halted for a while.
The Doctor’s eyes peered beyond the telescope.
Everything was perfectly prepared.
Rrrumble—.
The Doctor’s hand pulled down the biometric lever.
The switch to activate the ‘Spirit Body Stabilization Device.’
The moment his gloved hand yanked it downward, the magic prepared by the library’s archmage began to activate soon after.
“…….”
Whooooom—.
A massive mana resonance echoed from afar.
A tiny fragment carved from a soul by a being beyond the world.
The first experiment to receive it had begun.
Thump—. Thump—. Thump—. Thump—.
The writhing ‘Spirit Body Stabilization Device’ moved, drawing in vast mana to activate the prepared ritual.
The pulse of life vibrated the air rhythmically.
Magic to bind a soul to an alien body.
The descent magic, influenced by Allandorf Petrierus’s forbidden rites, activated in sequence.
“Good. All procedures are proceeding smoothly so far.”
Crackle, crackle—.
Black mana burst outward from the busily operating ‘Spirit Body Stabilization Device.’
It was far too ferocious and potent to be called human mana.
Scattering flashes.
Rending space.
Darkness from the cosmos beyond, shaped like pitch black, expanded around the body placed beneath it.
Ruuuumble—.
Feeling the trembling vibrations in the air, the Doctor pulled the biometric lever down another notch.
“Prepare yourself, Raintas.”
“…….”
“It’s coming.”
Rrrumble—.
The smile vanished from the Doctor’s face as he lowered the lever.
Inside the shadowed ‘Spirit Body Stabilization Device.’
The essence of the life magic, activated to draw the transcendent being, pulsed toward his body as its target.
Screech—.
An unpleasant grinding sound rang out.
Screeeeech—.
An inexplicable tearing noise spread.
Lines upon lines followed.
A pitch-black pillar connecting heaven and earth plunged into the test subject’s body.
—Dark light.
The two men’s gazes beheld the contradictory scene.
The silhouette of a human body, wrapped in light, emerged from the device.
“…….”
The site of the descent ritual.
The Doctor’s eyes cautiously looked down at the scene.
And soon, the Doctor’s face twisted subtly as he observed it.
Begerton Antares was a genius.
However, that didn’t mean he knew everything.
Especially not about his failed experiments.
“……Hey, Doctor.”
“…….”
The Doctor’s displeased gaze fixed on the ‘something’ before him.
What he had wanted to bring to this world was, after all, a great mage possessed of refined knowledge.
A king of knowledge to enlighten ignorant humans.
That was the Doctor’s goal.
And now.
The ‘something’ existing before the Doctor’s eyes was an entity impossible to describe even politely as such.
“What the hell were you trying to summon—.”
Raintas’s voice, thick with tension, rang out.
Gulp—.
Sweat beaded on Raintas’s forehead as he swallowed.
It was only natural.
An incomprehensible something had descended upon the site of the descent ritual.
The Doctor’s monocle focused on whatever lay beyond.
There, a human silhouette shrouded in darkness stood.
“For now, that’s not it.”
Crackle, crackle—.
Overflowing mana tore and vibrated the ‘Spirit Body Stabilization Device.’
The body prepared to contain the outer world’s being couldn’t hold it all, leaving only fragments behind.
Crack—.
As space shattered and the body collapsed, red eyes overlaid it.
Crack, craaaack—.
Countless spaces warped, and eyes from beyond peered out.
Beneath the chimeric monster riddled with noise.
Crimson-black lines spread outward, crumbling the device.
“It couldn’t withstand the tier, and the body has begun to collapse. This experiment is a failure.”
“…….”
“We’ll have to move to Plan B.”
KABOOOOOM—!
As destructive light swept the ground.
The Doctor’s eyes watched the ‘failed product’ rampaging out of control.
—The experiment had failed.
The moment a certain ‘dangerous magic’ descended upon the earth.
* * * * * *
A dream.
I don’t dream.
It was the one unchanging truth since I arrived in Celestia.
A rule spanning centuries.
I couldn’t fall asleep, nor could I ever dream.
The only scenery I faced was always the monotonous library.
A grand library of antique splendor.
An eternal prison I couldn’t escape even in dreams—that was the entirety of the world I could behold.
“…….”
And now, centuries after arriving in Celestia.
I was undoubtedly dreaming.
—A lucid dream.
No other words could describe the space that existed.
Static, static—.
An alien landscape impossible under the rules I knew unfolded before my eyes.
“Is a great mage conjuring great magic?”
A pure white forest stretching to the horizon’s end.
In a space filled entirely with white, I gazed upon the unfamiliar sight.
A single tree. A single blade of grass.
The clouds in the sky, and the birds flying beneath them.
Everything was drenched in pure white.
In this scene, I merely heard a voice resounding in my ear.
“Or is great magic leading a great mage?”
A slender voice rang clearly in my ear.
It felt less like language expressing thought and more like a conduit transmitting emotion itself.
I quietly turned my gaze toward whatever was speaking to me.
A white wooden chair in the forest’s midst.
There sat an unknown someone with long hair cascading down.
Rustle, rustle—.
The black-haired girl quietly read the book in her hands.
“I’m getting eager to see what comes next in the great magic you’ll create—.”
Static—.
The noise before my eyes obscured the girl’s.