Chapter 299: Joaquin Academy (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 299: Joaquin Academy (3)
“Won’t you regret it?”
When I made my choice between the two options without a moment's hesitation, that was what my other self asked me.
“Nope.”
I nodded. There was nothing to mull over; my answer had been set from the start.
“You already knew. You knew I’d choose that one.”
My ‘other self’ asked even though he knew full well. After all, no one knew me better than I did.
“I knew, but it’s not official until you actually say it out loud.”
My other self shrugged with a smile. I stared at him for a moment before asking.
“By the way, you’re an Outer God. Is it okay for you to interfere in worldly affairs like this? I heard from the Pope that Outer Gods are supposed to be mere observers.”
He let out a laugh.
“Usually, yes. But there are no absolute, immutable laws in this world. The world is flexible, full of variables. Just look at right now. Shall I be honest? I thought you’d pick Option 1.”
That was unexpected. I was slightly puzzled, but I listened to what he had to say first.
“Because I picked Option 1. Don’t ask why. Explaining every detail would take a story of its own. It’d be like asking you to explain everything that’s happened since you possessed a body in that world until now.”
“Ah.”
“Makes sense right away, doesn't it? Even if you compressed your one-year journey, it’d fill a full-length novel. Mine is far longer than that. In my worldline, the 2nd Human-Demon War broke out after I graduated from Joaquin Academy, just as official history dictated. Want to hear it? Just say the word. Time is the one thing I have in abundance.”
My other self spoke as if testing me. I immediately shook my head.
I know the value of time. Try traveling back hundreds of millions of years at faster-than-light speeds. Every single second feels as precious as gold.
He probably won't be hurt or care much either.
Because he's me. Besides, if he's me, he probably lacks the eloquence to explain it smoothly anyway.
Come to think of it, the God of Sword was me, too.
Then that strange method of communication makes a bit of sense. On top of having no one to talk to...
I belatedly regretted treating him a bit coldly back then. It's already in the past, so there's nothing I can do about it now, though.
“Well, it seems our conversation is winding down. Shall we wrap things up?”
My other self pushed off his knees and slowly stood up. I looked up at him with a slightly bewildered gaze.
He must be the exact same height as me, yet the difference in eye level feels so vast.
This other self—conversing with me so casually—stood at a height no one could ever hope to reach.
The ambition of 'those bastards' who wanted to claim every worldline felt like nothing more than childish recklessness in hindsight.
The reason he doesn't interfere in every single worldline is probably because, from his perspective, there's simply no need to.
I can guarantee it. No matter how hard those bastards try, they can never surpass this guy. Even if they jump, they're ultimately still dancing in the palm of his hand.
Strictly speaking, since an Outer God intervened due to this incident, those bastards technically achieved their goal. After all, the entire worldline had been shaken once.
“You don't need to worry about leaping across timelines like when you came here. I—meaning you—am already in that place. To put it in complicated terms, it's a 'substitution' of your existence and mine.”
The Outer God extended his hand toward me as I sat.
“Simply put, we're swapping places. Don't worry, I didn't do much. At most, I just sent Leon, who was blubbering on the moon, back to Earth.”
...Is that not a big deal? I could see right through his attempt to gloss over it.
“Take my hand. Then you'll be home.”
My other self smiled brightly. As I reached out to grab his extended hand, I hesitated for a moment.
“Congratulations on graduating. At least you're a high school graduate.”
It was my way of saying goodbye. Hearing this, the Outer God looked stunned for a second, then curled the corners of his mouth into a broad grin.
“Happy graduation to you in advance, too. Two years in your teens feels long, but it goes by in a flash.”
“I know. I was forty in my past life, after all.”
I took his hand. As I did, my body began to dissolve into fine grains, starting from my extremities.
“That's why I plan to record every remaining day at the Academy without missing a thing. Master always stressed it.”
“The habit of keeping a diary.”
The Outer God finished my sentence.
“Diaries are great. You never know—someone out there might be reading your story. Maybe even a being above me.”
“There's a being above an Outer God?”
“I told you. There are no absolute, immutable laws in this world. I'm just a cog maintaining the worldlines, not the whole thing. Anyway, time's up.”
What followed was the Outer God's final farewell.
“Be happy. You more than deserve it.”
Feeling my consciousness fade into the distance, I completely dissolved.
* * *
[Acquired the final Fragment, 'Joaquin Academy'.]
―Flash!
『The beginning and end of all things.』
[Acquired all Fragments. Fully unleashing latent divinity.]
[…….]
[…….]
[Well done.]
* * *
Kuarne was struck dumb with horror at the dark figure visible through the falling rain.
He trembled convulsively. His goat-like jaw quivered, and his rectangular pupils shrank to tiny pinpricks.
What kind of state is he in right now?
If Kang Geomma had ascended to a true god, Kuarne would have welcomed it with open arms. Even if Geomma stabbed him in a fit of rage, Kuarne would have greeted it with a smile.
Kuarne's wish was not directed toward himself. His mind was entirely consumed by Kang Geomma. There was no room left for himself.
Every night, he dreamed of it. A vision of that master becoming the ruler of this world, and himself obeying beneath him.
Just imagining it made him shiver with ecstasy. But right now, Kuarne felt a chill of a completely different nature. Having once been a minion of the gods, he could discern it at a single glance.
The being slowly drawing closer—Kang Geomma. He was not a god, but a human.
From that perspective, the aura surrounding Kang Geomma was bizarre beyond measure. Though human, the power latent within him surpassed that of a god. It was truly wondrous.
“H-How... How can this be?!”
Kuarne screeched frantically, squeezing out his voice with all his might.
“How...! How can a mere human body harbor a god! This is absurd beyond all absurdity!”
It was a desperate outburst. The long-cherished wish he had harbored for hundreds of thousands of years had crumbled to dust. A raging torrent of madness completely drowned his sanity. His already hideous face distorted even more viciously.
Kang Geomma did not reply. He quietly looked down over Joaquin Academy.
It was practically a ruin. There was not a single spot on the once-glistening buildings that wasn't smeared with blood, and the Academy's pride, the main building, lay snapped in half. It was hard to find a single place intact.
There,
covered in dust, the heroes looked up at Kang Geomma. Supporting one another, they were overcome with joy.
Ah, I see.
The Academy is the stronghold and cradle of heroes. Buildings are just buildings. They can simply be rebuilt.
The heroes are still here. That is enough. The Academy stands firm. Their knowledge and wisdom will endure into the future.
“Answer me, Kang Geomma!”
Kuarne pressed frantically. The demon had lost everything. Only his life—the very thing he held in the lowest contempt—remained.
Kang Geomma raised a single sashimi knife. Threads of light wove around the blade. It was a cold, radiant light, as if the sun itself had lodged within it.
Soughing gently...
A soft breeze blew. Low-lying grass swayed. It cooled the heroes' sweat. Even the demons felt a strange mercy within the wind—an air current that discriminated between neither friend nor foe.
“I...! I cannot accept your existence! You could have been magnificent! So why! Why did you choose the path of a filthy human?! Why! How could you abandon the entire world?!”
Kuarne let out a monstrous shriek and charged. He violently shook off Leon and Metatron, who tried to stop him. Severed black arms surged viciously toward a single point.
“I didn't abandon anything.”
Kang Geomma spoke calmly. To Kuarne, who had closed his ears, those words wouldn't even register. Not that Geomma said it expecting an answer anyway. He had no interest in chatting intimately with a man about to die.
“Unlike you.”
Thus he delivered a curt response.
Kuarne closed into effective range. Behind his back, black arms rose in the shape of a mantra and snapped their fingers all at once.
Five thousand pairs of black arms. Thus, ten thousand spells were cast simultaneously. Spells that were devastating enough even individually erupted toward Kang Geomma.
Spells spectacularly painting the high sky.
Watching space warp and tear apart, Kang Geomma swung his sashimi knife downward.
A single strike descended—a vertical slash in which all sword principles melted together. Immediately after, the entire field of vision was dyed pure, milky white.
The spells and black arms froze right before Kang Geomma's nose. The distance to impact was a mere inch.
In the bleached-white world, they flickered with a cross-shaped flash, then turned into red spheres that exploded in succession like miniature suns bursting apart.
KABOOM!
The once-gentle breeze rushed back as a fierce, hot gale, settling warm air low over the ground.
Heroes and demons alike threw themselves flat, gripping the dirt tightly to keep from being swept away by the tempest.
Amid the deafening roar, someone slowly tilted their head back. His eyes widened in shock.
“……!”
His eyes swelled as large as lanterns. As he looked up with a stunned expression, the heroes nearby turned their gazes in the same direction.
And they showed the exact same reaction. The ultimate admiration is silence.
Divide the sky and land, and you get the horizon; divide the sea, and you get the ocean's rim. Such is the law of all creation: separating heaven and earth horizontally.
Yet here stood an ecstatic vision that defied both law and common sense.
The opened sky bridged the vast cosmos filled with celestial bodies and galaxies.
It wasn't just clouds being split apart. It was literally the heavens cleaved in two.
That majestic, beautiful sight overwhelmed everyone. Starlight gathered on the glass-clear retinas of the heroes. At its center stood Kang Geomma, treading upon the clouds.
Boundless. Supreme. The vast stars were mere specks of dust. Even galaxies and celestial bodies were nothing more than ornaments to adorn him.
Ah, O Heavens. If that man is not a god, who could dare call themselves one?
Tears streamed down the heroes' faces. Pressing their foreheads into the ground, they offered worship to the heavens above.
The divine blessings that had sustained them were now manifested right before their eyes in that very scene.
Despair and grief were thoroughly washed away. A wave of veneration swept across the entire area in an instant.
The demons were no exception. They, too, paid homage in their own respective ways.
Amid the deep silence that settled, only Kuarne uttered a groan.
“...Ah.”
Kuarne dropped his gaze abruptly. He fumbled, scratching at his chest with gaunt fingernails.
A bloody line bisected his solar plexus. Starting from that minute gap, cracks spread like chains, soon drawing a red spiderweb across his entire body.
The spaces between the cracks grew denser and denser. Right when no bare skin remained—
Kuarne barely managed to raise his head. Tears trickled down his skin, densely mapped with bloody lines.
“You truly... take everything away from me...”
Those were his final words. With a soft pop, Kuarne's figure went out. He evaporated without leaving a trace behind.
Step.
A foot touched the ground. His hair ebbed and flowed as if walking underwater.
His gaze lingered on his toes for a long moment. How long had it been since he last stepped on the earth? It felt like a foreign sensation.
He took a deep breath. The texture of the air seeped into his nostrils. Lifting his eyes from the ground, he looked out across the surrounding area.
Fields piled high with corpses, mottled pools of blood where survivors tangled with the dead bowed their heads to him. A breathless silence hung everywhere.
A bitter smile crept onto my face. Still, they were eagerly waiting for me to speak.
“Raise your heads.”
I opened my mouth.
“Victory is ours.”
The declaration echoed through the silent world.