Chapter 452
Chapter 452
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 452
>Chapter Title: Gotta Go Even If I Can't Eat It
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“What the hell...”
Sun’s pupils trembled faintly.
It was incomprehensible.
A fantasy?
But the doubt didn’t last long.
Sun immediately patted his chest. Then, just like Moon had done moments ago, he placed his hand over his heart and closed his eyes.
It didn’t take long for his mouth to open again.
“What in the world... since when?”
“Do you get it now?”
“How... how could something like this...”
What Sun had examined was a Fragment of Reverse Heaven.
Over long ages.
The damned heavenly punishment passed down through bloodlines or teachings.
The moment he touched this heavenly punishment, he knew.
Everything was fake.
Moon’s voice came right then.
“We have to kill him.”
“...”
“It’s that bastard. That one...”
“...Enough.”
Sun cut off Moon and closed his eyes again.
He sank into thought for a moment.
‘Fake...’
Everything was fake.
Himself, and the friend before his eyes.
Everything he saw and heard was mere fiction, and the emotions blooming from all those stimuli were nothing more than mirages without substance.
How horrifying was this.
A hollow emptiness twisted his guts.
But.
Instead of spewing rage, Sun calmly sank into thought.
The reason he could maintain his composure was simple.
‘...Not everything was a lie.’
The ‘now’ him was fake, but the ‘yesterday’ him had not been fake.
Even if he, reduced to ‘fake,’ had his entire life stolen and met a pathetic end...
The original him surely wouldn’t have ended like this.
Sun held onto that belief to keep his reason intact. And he thought.
Just what was that masked magician?
‘...The master of Reverse Heaven?’
Or another Indurence?
He didn’t know.
In truth, who it was didn’t matter.
Only... the intent.
Reverse Heaven.
What reason did that heavenly punishment have for creating this stage?
When his thoughts reached that point, Sun’s pupils sank deeply.
He had realized it.
Why Reverse Heaven had created this stage.
And what it wanted to tell the masked magician presumed to be its master.
...In that case, there was no reason not to tell him.
“Could you ask that question from earlier again?”
“...?”
Aster tilted his head. Then he spoke.
“What’s your real intent?”
“Yeah, that one.”
“...”
What was this about?
It wasn’t an incomprehensible situation.
Of course it would be shocking.
To learn that his very existence right now was fake.
A cruel reality that no sane person could endure.
In a way, Moon’s reaction was the normal one.
But what?
‘Ask the question again?’
And even...
“I’ll tell you. The true purpose of this sanctuary.”
He was going to tell him.
So kindly, too.
The intent hidden in the sanctuary.
“What are you doing right now...!”
“Stay quiet.”
Moon lunged forward in a fit, but Sun silenced him. Aster furrowed his brow slightly at that inexplicable attitude.
That was when it happened.
Crackle, crrrack...
With faint bursting sounds, powder scattered around them.
The world crumbled like fragile thin ice.
The stars floating in the sky, the blowing wind, even the faint scent of earth—all shattered into pieces and fluttered away.
At that sight, Sun realized his intuition had been correct.
...Reverse Heaven, this cursed artifact, had noticed.
What reason they had for building this sanctuary.
This stage was meant to inform the masked magician of that.
“This sanctuary...”
Sun scanned the crumbling landscape with his eyes. Beyond the crumbling scenery lay only darkness, but in Sun’s pupils, it was as if the ‘sanctuary’ itself was visible.
Not the fake one he had built... but the ‘real’ one.
And that sanctuary was, in fact.
“...Not to honor a great magician.”
Indurence.
What meaning would the progress of magicians hold for those bearing heavenly punishment?
Then why?
To fulfill a mission?
No.
Sun looked at the masked magician before him and curled up the corner of his mouth. It was a generous smile, but the words spilling from between his lips were far from gentle.
“You.”
“...”
“To sever the lifeline of Reverse Heaven’s master.”
Yes, that was the reason.
...The Indurence who built Rapiter had summoned Reverse Heaven’s master to fulfill their mission.
But the two magicians who built the sanctuary had slightly different thoughts.
- Why must we...
Suffer like this.
So, they thought.
How to erase this cursed artifact from the world.
They wandered the continent their whole lives, studying ancient magic, unearthing mysteries across the land, and finally found the answer.
Everything was prepared.
But.
They couldn’t know when, where, or how Reverse Heaven’s master would appear.
That was precisely why they built the sanctuary.
In other words, the sanctuary was a trap.
...A malevolent construct containing the souls of two Indurences, prepared to capture the being known as Reverse Heaven’s master.
Sun finished there and looked at Aster.
Then he curled up the corner of his mouth.
“Seeing that cursed artifact react like this, it seems the sanctuary is complete. In that case, why don’t you go take it.”
As he said that, Sun revealed the fragment kept over his chest.
He didn’t think the masked magician, now aware it was a trap, would flee.
Why?
...Because he had to find the fragment.
“You’ll see it soon enough.”
With those words, Sun crumbled away with the world.
* * *
...And so, the world crumbled, and darkness returned.
Aster blinked blankly in place.
Nothing was visible, but the scene from moments ago lingered in his mind.
So, what was that?
‘The sanctuary is a trap?’
There were two reasons Reverse Heaven had let him meet them.
To inform him that a fragment was in the sanctuary. And... to inform him that the sanctuary was a trap.
But there was something incomprehensible.
- You’ll see it soon enough.
‘Soon enough... see it?’
The sanctuary was an ancient structure from time immemorial, its very origins barely preserved.
Yet, ‘soon enough’?
Wasn’t that like saying it was waiting!
No, putting that aside.
What mattered now was this.
‘If the sanctuary is a trap, just what have they prepared?’
The black-white-azure-green defense magic formations divided into five stages?
Powerful, sure.
But could that stop a ‘grimoire’... stop ‘Reverse Heaven’?
Even if the black magic formation activated, who knew.
‘Feels like they prepared something more...’
Honestly, it felt off.
After all, it was a trap prepared in advance.
So, what to do?
...The Indurence Aster called ‘Sun’ had thought this: ‘Reverse Heaven’s master’ wouldn’t abandon two fragments and flee.
Even if he learned it was a trap.
But.
‘Just bail?’
Aster was serious.
He didn’t know what was prepared in the sanctuary, but it was a trap made with intent by two Indurences.
‘Definitely... something gruesome.’
He might be able to smack down the two magicians with his own power, but stepping into a trap brimming with their overflowing grudge was a different story.
Pride?
‘Does that feed me?’
Even a lion doesn’t let its guard down against a rabbit, and Aster was the same.
He never let his guard down even against back-alley street rats.
So, bailing made sense...
‘But, you know.’
...Aster let out a faint sigh and closed his eyes.
A scene floated in his mind.
The owner of that scene was none other than Pahren von Decullan, patriarch of the Decullan Family who had ascended to the rank of Archmage.
He had refused the venomous fruit that bastard offered.
‘I’m not an idiot.’
Magic was meaningless if he couldn’t surpass that guy, anyway.
Unlike other magicians, for Aster, magic was a means, not an end.
Instead, he accepted everything shown by him and the previous Archmage.
It wasn’t settled yet, but with time to calmly mull it over, he’d gain great insight.
‘Even up to the sixth circle would be a breeze.’
But going further.
The seventh?
The eighth?
No, the number of circles didn’t matter.
More importantly, the end of the battle.
- It was simply that you were lacking.
That blue flame that had devoured the previous Archmage.
That magic, touching the pinnacle of laws, just like the grimoire’s.
Could he surpass that magic?
After a moment’s thought, Aster scowled.
“Damn it.”
He had no choice but to admit it.
Pahren’s insight stemmed from his own magic, but the bastard had elevated it to the ultimate.
And if that guy wielded a grimoire on top of that?
‘This... won’t do.’
No chance of winning, no matter what.
...That was why.
“Gotta go even if I can’t eat it.”
Two fragments of Reverse Heaven.
If he obtained them, could he handle Pahren?
He couldn’t guarantee it.
A ‘grimoire’ wouldn’t solve everything. Even a complete Reverse Heaven probably wouldn’t.
But it had always been that way.
‘Nothing’s certain.’
Did he ever slack off just because he could survive somehow?
No.
Even in situations where death was certain, he thrashed like a dog. Without giving up, doing his absolute best.
So this time, too...
“...Gotta give it my all. Right?”
Aster said that as he stared into a corner of the darkness.
Soon the darkness rippled, revealing a black silhouette.
Pitch black all over, hard to make out, but its distinct presence announced its existence there.
The 9th Elder.
“Your all, you say...”
The 9th Elder, who had come in person to grasp the situation, paused to collect his thoughts at Aster’s question.
Out of nowhere, ‘your all’?
He couldn’t grasp the context.
But.
What mattered now wasn’t this kind of cryptic exchange.
So, what did?
This.
“Do you possess Reverse Heaven?”
The 9th Elder said that and looked at Aster. Though the space was pure darkness, the 9th Elder’s eyes pierced it to gaze at Aster.
It didn’t take long for Aster’s mouth to open.
“You saw it, so why ask?”
“...I see.”
The 9th Elder said that much and slowly closed his eyes.
And when those eyes opened again.
Ruuuumble—!
The wailing darkness.
The 9th Elder, commanding the darkness, curled up the corner of his mouth.
“The return is nigh.”
“What’re you babbling about.”
Aster snorted at the fanatic’s mad voice, like a cultist’s.
Meanwhile, he sorted his thoughts. The details weren’t clear, but by now, he had a rough estimate.
Salvatium... was after Reverse Heaven too.
And was it coincidence?
- What of Reverse Heaven?
‘...Pahren mentioned Reverse Heaven as well.’
In the worst case, it meant a three-way battle over Reverse Heaven’s fragments.
“Become the stepping stone of the non-circle, ignorant one.”
“...”
Aster closed his eyes briefly as the darkness closed in. Then he took a couple of deep breaths.
‘Let’s see...’
Adversity and hardship.
He had to overcome them to seize Reverse Heaven’s fragment.
Adversity was Salvatium, hardship was Pahren.
...No easy path at all.