Free Web NovelChapter 94: Looking Back
There was no earth-shaking explosion, no collapse of heaven and earth.
Everything was silent, like the damp wind blowing in from a distant seaside, swaying the branches of trees; like dust rising and falling beneath sunlight; like wet patches slowly appearing on clothes in the rain.
Everything, as a matter of course, had undergone change. Or rather, there was no longer any possibility of change at all.
The earth, the sky, the ruins, the crimson sea of spirit matter, and even the bound sage’s remnants high in the heavens, all lost their color beneath that blazing radiance. Stripped of all color, only an empty, hollow white remained.
Under the sweep of the sword’s edge, burning wings were reduced to nothingness, countless outstretched hands were erased bit by bit, and falling tears and hollow eyes gradually blurred away.
The first to collapse was the terrifying shadow from the distant vortex.
When the countless threads of connection were severed in an instant, the projection of the vortex could no longer sustain itself, rendering it unable to interfere with what was happening. The flames of the Putrefied Furnace Core faded and dimmed until, at last, like a candle in the wind, they were extinguished and gone without a trace.
Then, the remnants of the sage disintegrated in silence, like a sandcastle washed away by the tide. Countless pale ashes rose, filled the sky, then slowly fell again like a downpour that ended all things.
Ji Jue witnessed it all, yet it felt unbearably distant, as though everything belonged to a realm beyond his understanding and imagination, despite it all being manifested through his own body and the transformations of Pacifier.
But what truly mattered was not him.
He had made the decision, and he had issued the call. He had lowered his gaze and was crowned with revolution, receiving that boundless power and executing the ending that belonged to the sage.
He had created all of this with his own hands. And yet, he was only a single strand within this infinite transformation, a fragment within the vast system that composed everything, a mere trace of the Edge of Revolution made manifest. He was a component, a piece, an endpoint of execution.
This torrent of blazing light that reached the heavens and earth was merely the outward expression of the deity. That rusted sword, which determined everything the moment its edge was revealed, was nothing more than a key.
Within the resonance of Deus Ex Machina, he could feel the vast pulse hidden behind it all. It was like a furnace manifested through the world as its medium. freeweɓnøvel.com
Operating within the void was a flame ignited by the fuel of countless souls and the fanaticism of endless renewal. Every act of creation by every craftsman was an offering to It; every flame within the furnaces of the Ember Chosen Ones was a tribute delivered to the deity in part.
This was the flame of Ember.
The moment he perceived this essence, his consciousness was swallowed by infinite radiance, like merging into an ocean formed by boundless transformations, or transcending reality itself.
When the four-hundred-year cycle collapsed and everything upon the earth was erased, what was finally ignited was the sage’s legacy of creation, the kindling known as the First Cause.
A soft song echoed through the hollow world, and an infinite recursion began. Or rather, a return to Ember...
In this brief moment of fading existence, Sage Mercury of the past returned all of herself to the present world.
The world before Ji Jue became a torrent of light. On the shattered heavens, countless stars leapt and blazed freely, tracing long arcs of radiance that intertwined and formed intricate, solemn patterns.
At the center of the night sky, a vast conflux of flame gathered, outlining a sunlike gate. The Eternal Gate overlooked the world between the stars, illuminating all things.
And so Ji Jue saw the endless transformations upon the earth, like the majestic rise and fall of mountains and rivers, and the wandering paths of storms and rain. Within those shattered stretches of time, he saw rainstorms pouring down over endless deserts, a hint of green blooming between yellow sands.
He saw a colossal being, large enough to blot out the heavens, wailing from the clouds as it shed a rain of crimson. It fell upon the earth, decayed and transformed, becoming mountain ranges. Nomadic tribes chased after water and pasture, then vanished without a trace. Above the ruins, yellow sands stretched endlessly.
He was watching all of this unfold before his eyes.
People migrated here, developing trade along a river, their small village gradually becoming a towering fortress. It endured war, peace, and turmoil, only to slowly decline again, weathered by wind and rain until nothing remained but broken walls covered in moss.
It was as if archaeologists trekked through the wilderness and digged downward in search of ancient relics, passing by Ji Jue in cheering excitement as he watched.
He watched until the earth shook and the city collapsed into ruins. In the tolling of bells, the Tower of Origin broke apart from the heavens above. The mortal world was thrown into chaos, everything reduced to ash, with nowhere left to return. The sage lost everything, her silent lament and song extinguished.
Ji Jue kept watching, witnessing the beginnings of all tragedy and suffering, involuntarily carried along by the torrent of time into a fragmented past.
Once again, he heard a familiar cry. In the thin rain, a startled girl awoke and looked around. Her mother was gone. She cried out, reaching toward the distant figure walking away down the street, but that figure did not turn back. It simply walked step by step into an unseen darkness.
From that moment on, it wandered between ruins and cycles, never to return until, from a distant fractured time, a desperate cry echoed.
Someone reached out in utter futility, trying to grab her clothes. But separated by four hundred years and bridged only by the Edge of Transformation, that attempt at contact could at best stir only the faintest breeze.
The departing figure merely waved a hand and vanished without a trace.
Crack.
A barely perceptible ripple shattered. The imprint of Pacifier flickered, and an intangible and tangible hand seemed to make contact for an instant, as if this were a farewell and a call spanning four hundred years.
“Turn back and look!”
At last, she saw a boy like a fading afterimage beyond the ripple, a soul on the verge of being ignited, and in his hand, a matrix identical to her own.
From within the torrent, Ji Jue clung tightly to Transformation. He raised his head, hurled what was in his hand, and shouted into that receding stretch of time, “Just look back at her once more! Even if it’s just once...”
He vanished without a trace. Only the sound of something falling echoed as an object landed on the ground before her.
That familiar pendant, now weathered by time and bearing the weight of years, lay there. When she opened it, the faded photograph slowly lost its contours within the blurred haze of rain, becoming increasingly indistinct.
Quickly, it dissolved into nothingness and was gone forever.
She stood frozen in place. From confusion and dazed bewilderment, she slowly turned around to look behind her at the scattered curtain of rain, the night sky shrouded in dark clouds, the quiet town, and the shadow of the bell tower. On the steps of the empty square, she saw the phantom that did not belong to this place.
She looked at the girl waiting within shattered time and at her smile.
The lost past and the broken future briefly overlapped. Bound by the ancient pendant, four hundred years of time seemed to finally stretch into a single line. Amid endless longing and cycles of repetition, they met once more, even though an abyss still lay between them, and they still could not reach each other.
Mercury finally stopped walking and subconsciously tried to reach out her hand. But within that fleeting confusion, she seemed to understand everything.
Looking into the girl’s eyes and her smile, she also smiled. Her smile was bright, gentle, and full of warmth. Fine mist and rain slid down her cheeks along with her tears.
Just like that, she gazed at the girl within time, unable to stop looking. She wanted to reach out and touch her face despite the immeasurable distance until the faint light of the future finally faded.
The world dimmed once more. She stood motionlessly and stiffly for a long time, taking in everything before her, greedily trying to etch it into memory. In the end, she turned and walked away, disappearing into the curtain of rain.
In the distance, within the darkness of the night, the towering spire still stood tall against the sky. Only a faint torchlight drifted farther and farther away, like a solitary boat adrift on fate itself.
As history had always dictated, nothing had truly changed. Within four hundred years of time, there was only one more glance in return.
Yet Ji Jue saw that, at the end of his line of sight, within the chaotic, pitch-black abyss, a dazzling radiance suddenly burst forth. Like a star, it rose against the torrent in defiance, erupting with endless heat and light to completely illuminate all darkness.
***
When the rising force of transformation was exhausted, descent began. By the time Ji Jue came back to himself, he was already falling from the heavens, plunging toward a pale and hollow earth.
Within the rift realm, only desolation remained. Yet high in the sky, before the phenomenon of the Furnace of Stars dissipated, a strand of flowing light still descended and fell into his soul.
Radiant transformation manifested within that stream of light, encircling Deus Ex Machina.
Bearing the authority of delegated revolution, it cut through the stale cycles, severed the sage’s sin of corruption, and erased all consequences born from it. The emblem of Ember emerged, bestowing its first blessing upon the Chosen One it favored.
But Ji Jue had no time to examine it now. When he landed upon the shattered core of the workshop, he saw a broken figure lying at the edge of a fissure. It was a creation already on the brink of collapse, burned nearly lifeless by the flames of revolution.
It was the Seer. Even now, she stubbornly lifted her head and looked at him. Despite already sensing the collapse of the rift realm and the ruin of the workshop, she still longed to hear a definitive answer from Ji Jue’s lips.
“It’s over, isn’t it?”
Ji Jue knelt down and told her, “The dream and the cycle... they’re over, Seer. You’re free now.”
“...Yes. Free...” Leaning against the broken wall, the Seer turned her gaze toward the cracks spreading across the earth. She let out a faint sigh and murmured, “But freedom is frightening... I hated this world so much, and yet at the very end, I found myself thinking it was almost... lovely.”
“Do you regret it?” Ji Jue asked.
“Maybe. But I’ve already accumulated too many regrets. At this point, it doesn’t really matter anymore.” She grinned faintly; it was a final, self-mocking smile. “Thank you, Mr. Ji. My duty as a tool has finally been fulfilled.”
“And as the Seer?” Ji Jue asked. “Is there anything else you wish for? If I can help, I’ll try.”
“Ha... there’s quite a lot, actually...” Her lips moved as if to speak, but no words came out. Instead, she smiled and offered her final farewell. “Thank you for your mercy and compassion. As a creation, I have nothing to repay you with. As the Seer, I can only offer this meaningless gratitude. If blessings truly hold any meaning at all, then I sincerely hope that when your journey reaches its end, you too will obtain what you desire.”
Ji Jue couldn’t help but laugh softly. “Journey? I feel like I haven’t even started moving yet. I’m still standing in place.”
“There will be one. Someday... there will be.” She smiled, utterly certain.
The lingering light in her eyes gradually faded. Her final traces of spirit matter dispersed into nothingness, and from within that broken, hollow body, there was no longer any response.
A burdened tool, at last, fell into its long sleep.
