Book 2: Chapter 553
Baltak briefly stopped talking.
It seemed like he was giving Lukas a moment to accept the situation, or perhaps just observing his reaction.
“Of course, this is a.s.suming you continue to climb the tower.”
Only then did Lukas understand why Baltak was doubting him.
It was a legitimate suspicion. From the perspective of a third party, Lukas and the darkness were sufficiently connected to be certain of it.
“I have roughly explained the position of the Magic Tower. Do you understand the situation?”
“…”
“Do you have something to say?”
Baltak persistently pursued, as if chasing an answer, looking at the silent Lukas.
“What is your relationship with the darkness? Did you deceive the lord and infiltrate the Magic Tower? Are you an apostle of Apocalypse? Is it your purpose and role to turn this territory into a wasteland? What other secrets are you hiding?”
The moment his voice sharpened, the air around turned chilly. Clink, clink. Lamps, reagent bottles, and beakers placed on the dusty table trembled.
Lukas calmly increased his mana to restrain Min Ha-rin and answered one by one.
“I did not deceive The Beginning Wizard. I am not an apostle of Apocalypse, nor do I intend to ruin this territory. I have many secrets, but none are related to this case. And……”
Lukas paused to think before responding, but eventually shook his head.
“…I don’t know what my relationship with the darkness is.”
“You don’t know? Is that something the person involved should say?”
“Yes. I don’t know what the darkness is. I haven’t figured it out yet. However, if all the things you just mentioned were true…”
He paused again, then corrected himself.
“No. They must be true. Therefore, I cannot claim that I have no relationship with the darkness.”
Baltak was not slow on the uptake.
“…So, you mean to say, unknowingly, some kind of relationship might have formed between you and the darkness?”
“Yes.”
“You are giving a convenient answer.”
“I’m just being honest about my situation.”
“That can hardly be called an answer.”
“Then what kind of answer do you expect from me?”
“Do you want me to agree? Regardless of what I say, you dismiss it and peg me as a risk, is that your role?”
“…That’s…”
“I suppose you wouldn’t simply accept it if I denied it, would you? ‘That can hardly be called an answer,’ you said. How about being honest for a change? You just don’t like me.”
“…That’s not it.”
Baltak sighed as he made an excuse.
“I swear, I have no personal feelings against you.”
Was this the truth?
Lukas changed the topic after a brief silence.
“…If the darkness and I truly move at the same pace without any discrepancies, then there must be a connection. What it is, that’s what I need to think about now.”
“……”
Baltak could only look at Lukas with a puzzled gaze.
Even in a position of being questioned, there was no urgency in his voice. Even his reb.u.t.tals sounded like he was defending a third party.
Such an att.i.tude caused two conflicting emotions in Baltak’s heart simultaneously.
Doubt and trust.
“……”
Words that could not coexist merged together, and that became intriguing.
Baltak looked at Lukas. He had the authority to decide this man"s fate. Currently, the Magic Tower, and further, the full powers of the Magic Planet were delegated to the 55th floor"s Seven Magician, ‘Hyke".
“…Very well. For now, I will choose to believe your words. However, please stop climbing the tower any further. And follow some directions from us as well. There are things we"d like to test.”
“As long as it doesn’t harm this child and me, I’ll comply.”
“Then please wait a moment.”
Baltak said that and left his seat. He went into the room next door, seemingly to communicate with someone else.
[He has a surprisingly sly side.]
Residue chuckled.
[It does seem quite convenient. Lying, that is.]
‘What are you talking about?"
[Are you planning to feign ignorance? I must have told you several times. There’s nothing you can hide from me.]
Residue burst out laughing.
Lukas bowed his head heavily.
The darkness,
it first appeared on the 77th floor and gradually moved downward, expanding its territory.
Meaning, its course was downwards from the beginning. Naturally, the likelihood that it appeared from the 76th floor becomes nil.
Then, did the darkness suddenly appear on the 77th floor as if it had dropped from the sky? Is the universe belonging to the 77th floor the first target of the impending Apocalypse?
That, I do not know.
Lukas detached his consciousness from that, focusing on something else.
The 77th floor was not the top.
There was a s.p.a.ce prepared one floor above it.
The Beginning Wizard"s room.
[Coincidentally, I was told that communication with the Beginning Wizard had already been cut off. However, that boy Baltak insisted that he is still alive.]
‘……"
[It’s different from blind faith. Perhaps they have a means to ascertain the life and death of the Beginning Wizard. That’s why he acts so confidently.]
The problem comes next.
[But that guy is strange. If he had even a bit of reasoning and judgment, he would have dismissed the most obvious possibility from the start. It"s unlikely that the ‘Seven Magicians", said to be superior among the wizards of the Magic Tower, wouldn’t think of this.]
Residue"s voice lowered.
[The ‘deepest darkness’ might be the Beginning Wizard himself. Aren’t you thinking that? If so, that would explain most of the absurd situations that have occurred.]
‘……"
[Now, even though all signs point to a single conclusion, Baltak seems to be suffering from cognitive dissonance, keeping silent about this…]
There was a hint of sneer in his voice.
It seems his ego as an absolute being hasn’t completely disappeared yet. He still has the capacity to scoff at the foolishness of mortals.
[How you judge this is entirely up to you, Lukas.]
* * *
The ‘thing he wanted to test" that Baltak mentioned was of course related to the darkness. More precisely, he seemed curious to what extent the darkness would mimic Lukas"s movements.
First, Lukas went down a floor. From the 27th floor to the 26th.
The purpose of the experiment was to see if, when Lukas went down a floor, the darkness would instead go up a floor.
“The darkness does not move. No. Rather than that…”
Baltak said with a troubled face.
“We have been mistaken about one thing. The darkness has not moved a single step from the beginning.”
“What do you mean?”
“The darkness has just been increasing its ma.s.s all along.”
“…So from the 77th floor to the 55th floor, darkness has occupied all those universes without exception?”
“Yes.”
If so, the darkness already possesses a volume and ma.s.s that are inexplicable from a physical standpoint.
Lukas spoke gravely.
“So, 23 universes have already been destroyed.”
Baltak did not respond, but Lukas felt the truth in the words he had spoken. The darkness wouldn’t have kindly selected only a part of the universe, namely ‘the administrative s.p.a.ce of the Magic Tower", to consume.
…How much time did it take to climb 23 floors?
Even including the "23rd floor" where time was inevitably delayed, it would not have taken more than a day.
A day, 24 hours, 3,600 minutes.
During that time, 23 universes were destroyed.
Roughly calculating, it meant that one universe disappeared every hour. And Lukas, being the Absolute being, knew how many lives existed in one universe.
All of it had vanished. Or had been devoured.
Although it wasn’t the momentary event Diablo had described, given the potential they held, the term ‘in an instant’ could be allowed.
─Lukas continued to follow a few of Baltak’s instructions afterward. Naturally, the results were not as expected.
Regardless of how Lukas moved, the darkness stayed on the 55th floor and did not expand its territory. This was true even when Lukas went outside the tower.
The information obtained in the process only indicated that the damage to the lower floors was more severe than expected. More than half of the magicians had died.
“There are two possibilities.”
Baltak opened his mouth with a heavy voice.
“Either the darkness no longer follows you, or…”
Lukas picked up his trailing voice.
“It only reacts when I go up.”
“…….”
Lukas and Baltak had to admit that the latter possibility was much more likely.
“So what do we do now?”
Lukas asked.
“If you guys prefer, I won’t climb the Magic Tower any further.”
Maintaining the status quo was not a bad ending in the current situation.
Baltak knew this too and nodded heavily.
“…For now, can you please stay below the 27th floor and wait?”
“That’s not difficult, but what about moving around below that floor?”
“That is…”
Baltak hesitated for a moment then nodded.
“Let’s do that. However, if the darkness begins to move again─”
“I’ll stop my activities immediately.”
“Yes.”
After a moment of silence, Baltak spoke.
“By the way, you are acquainted with Altata.”
Altata was one of the Seven Magicians of the 44th floor, a woman with green hair. She had played the role of a mediator when Lukas had a confrontation with Redrun outside the tower.
“Yes”
“Then it would be best to bring Altata with me.”
“…Is there a reason I need to meet her?”
“We have exchanged many thoughts about the darkness in a short time. If I tell you the summarized opinions, something might click for you.”
“You could tell me yourself. Through that communication thing.”
“This communication is quite limited. The usage time is very short too.”
Indeed, Residue had said that setting up inter-universal communication was quite a complicated matter.
“Then until you return, please try to stay out of trouble as much as possible.”
Baltak left after saying that.
From the first meeting, he had been a man of very business-like att.i.tude.
Lukas looked up at the sky.
His current location was the 26th floor, the level with a giant maze. It was also a place where the somewhat broken sky was clearly visible.
“Master.”
Min Ha-rin spoke in her uniquely dry voice.
Come to think of it, from a certain point, she seemed to have been contemplating something, and looking at her expression now, it seemed she had reached some sort of conclusion.
“I have understood how dangerous Apocalypse is.”
“…….”
It was an abrupt statement.
Lukas didn’t quite understand what she wanted to say and simply stared at her blankly.
“So I’ve come up with a good idea.”
“…A good idea?”
“Yes. I will try facing that darkness myself.”
“What?”
Lukas looked as if he had just heard the most absurd logic in the world.
In contrast, Min Ha-rin continued speaking with a serious expression.
“I am currently devoid of emotions. I do not feel fear even when looking at the Apocalypse, so approaching it is not difficult for me.”
“…So? What are you going to do by getting close?”
“I will make contact.”
“……”
“Perhaps my body will disintegrate, but it won"t happen instantaneously. Therefore, I will relay to you everything I feel and encounter right up to the moment my body completely falls apart.”
“……”
“Fortunately, I now have a tolerance to pain. This means I can explain everything I experience logically. Based on that, you could develop a strategy to combat the darkness─”
“Are you serious?”
Lukas asked in a low voice, then bit his lip.
What a foolish question.
The current Min Ha-rin could only sincerely engage with everything.
“Why are you angry? If the Apocalypse comes as it is, all beings will die anyway. So, combining my strengths and yours, Master, let"s create a turnaround in the situation.”
“…Never again.”
Lukas opened his mouth.
“Never say that again.”
“……”
Min Ha-rin half-opened her mouth then closed it again, but her expression did not seem convinced… Perhaps what she said was the best course of action.
But that would involve Min Ha-rin"s sacrifice─
‘No."
Lukas shook his head.
Sacrifice is a personal right. Even as a master, he had no right to dictate that.
The reason Lukas was angry was that Min Ha-rin’s willingness to sacrifice herself lacked any resolve.
There is nothing more hollow and sad than a sacrifice without resolve, especially when the individual is one"s disciple. Lukas"s heart became impossibly heavy.
The sight of her calculating despite staring into a darkness that everyone feared was pitiful─
Lukas"s thoughts abruptly stopped.
A sudden feeling of discord arose.
…Is this the level of oppression that Apocalypse possesses?
Since she lacks emotions, does the fear capable of overwhelming even a Ruler not affect her?
No. It’s different.
Something is missing.
And then.
“…Ah.”
He suddenly realized one crucial fact.
*****