Chapter 1161 – #276_Prologue (9)
#1155
One.
I went forward for the truth, even cutting off half of myself.
Like all other witches, she sacrificed many things and threw them away like stubble in order to follow in her great mother’s footsteps.
It was not an easy task, but like monks, I walked the thorny path.
However, what Keter discovered after reaching a high position was not the next staircase.
It was a cliff far away.
“The laws of this world are similar to a game. Energy or particles have a minimum unit that cannot be further divided, the maximum speed is the speed of light, and there is a clear limit as a constant value, right? “God’s play with settings is the law of the world.”
The witch modifies and changes it.
It is possible to create particles smaller than the smallest unit particle, and it is also possible to create light that is faster than light.
Modifying the settings of the world is why witches are classified as transcendent.
However, Kether was discovered.
An absolute law at the foundation of the world that cannot be touched by any means, that cuts off the magic staircase.
“I named it ‘System.'”
We only observed its existence and gave it a name, but there was no way to determine its exact identity.
I can only vaguely assume that it is the most fundamental law that governs the entire universe, and that it is a gigantic manager that moves fluidly.
Maybe he is a being that humans call ‘God’.
This world that the Witch of Creation escaped to was originally a world line without witches.
The world tolerated the existence of the newly born witch and watched her mother reach the 32nd rank.
I assume it was an act of observation rather than generosity or mercy.
Because the system is just as its name suggests, it is impossible to tell whether it is good or evil, or whether it is conscious or not.
But is this because we have seen enough of the Witch of Creation?
After observing the emergence of forces that should not have been allowed in the world, the ‘system’ began to move.
The moment she jumped over the wall and reached the 31st plane, Kether felt her spirit and body being torn apart.
It’s not a magical effect.
Much less is it not something physical.
It was a metaphysical power that was indescribable even to witches who were pioneers in the occult.
A primal and overwhelming power grabbed Kether as it tried to fly and threw it away.
The ‘system’ imposed sanctions.
It was a problem that was initially considered insignificant.
Although I was somewhat shocked, I thought it was a problem that could be overcome.
Witches are foolish squires who try to keep up with the feats of God.
Their king was the most foolish person who was neither intimidated nor discouraged.
Burned, burned, burned.
I pounced and pounced and pounced.
I firmly believed that if I continued to explore, there would be a staircase leading to transcendence at the end of the brilliant golden tower.
But as time passed, what I learned was only the absolute nature of the system.
This was not the kind of thing that even a witch could intervene in.
If the world setting is a stack of layers, this system is the world itself, supporting all other layers at the lowest level.
By the time I realized that, the sanctions the system had imposed on Keter were also having an effect.
Just as a patient exposed to high-level radiation appears to be fine for the first few days, the sanctions that were not a big problem at the time have already eroded Keter’s mind and body.
“It was an inevitable wear and tear that even high wisdom and the magic of the transcendent could only delay.”
“…”
Erelim thought that the words coming from Keter’s mouth were truly absurd.
Perhaps she wanted to believe that she was just an illusion of Keter causing delirium.
But Erelim felt it too.
After she ascended to the 25th rank, the distant feeling that unfolded before her eyes was a little different from usual.
As Keter said, there is no way forward at all, and although it is a metaphor that somehow feels like a goal, it is a feeling of helplessness that feels like a ‘limitation in the system.’
In the end, this was it.
Her life of losing her beloved, struggling to not be consumed by her boredom, and dedicating everything to magic…
The sad ending was determined by a behind-the-scenes story that Erelim was not even aware of.
“Then what about Shin Si-woo? “Are you saying Shin Si-woo is different?”
Erelim asks in a hollow voice.
A question that only a superior mind found a clue in a series of conversations and continued inertically.
It was a question as pointless as the complaint of a dead man.
Keter shook her head.
“No, he also originated from me, so he cannot escape the system.”
In her despair, Keter searched endlessly for a detour.
She looked for ways to fool the system.
“But his child is different.”
All witches are beings born from the threads of witchcraft and destiny sown by their mothers.
If it is denied by the system because it is from another world, a new life based on the system can be created from the beginning.
Not a witch who was born by inheriting the witch factor sown by the Witch of Creation, but a primordial witch who belonged to this world from the beginning.
For that purpose, the stigma was broken into small pieces and distributed.
By changing his consciousness, he was made to become Shin Si-woo in a more appropriate state.
Even before he was born, he was directly involved in the Prophetic Agency, searching for the perfect match to become his mother.
Although all of his actions damaged Keter’s worsening physical condition, he did not hesitate.
That was all that was left of Keter.
The virtual efforts eventually bore fruit.
It was surprising that Shin Si-woo did not lose consciousness, but he overcame all hardships and adversities and laid the foundation for true transcendence.
There was no human emotion involved at all.
“I have accomplished my mission.”
In the face of Kether’s unwavering assertion, Erelim felt that everything that made her up was fluttering away like an old, crumbling shell.
She wanted to pioneer the path of magic.
However, the end was really just an abyss whose end was determined for irrational reasons.
She wanted to create a world for witches.
However, the order of Kether, which she held on to with love and hate, was the self-satisfaction of mechanical devices obsessed with corruption, and the malevolence of humans was as Erelim had expected.
When she reached the end and the end, she decided to visit Kether and ask her what path she should take next.
However, even Keter, who she believed would show her the path, was just a lost child in the same situation.
It’s just that he got lost a little earlier than Erelim.
Perhaps because she knew this ending, she went around talking comfortably about things like ‘the coexistence of humans and witches.’
So what is left in these empty hands?
Erelim looked at Kether.
She saw Keter broken.
She was smiling at what was so satisfying.
It’s not a empty, empty laugh like it was a moment ago.
This is the expression of someone who alone has discovered light in the endless darkness.
She walks away.
The dull golden eyes that remind us of past glories do not contain Erelim.
Seekers who have found their own way in the darkness, no one is left behind in Kether.
As Keter bluntly put it, all witches are failures.
Erelim is also just one of countless failures.
Looking back, it was just such a shallow relationship.
“…”
I felt like a fool.
Days spent alone pondering countless hardships and following rules that I had no idea why I had to follow.
Days when I barely understood that Kether’s legacy and interest were directed to a man who suddenly appeared without any proper explanation.
The days when her affection, which was increasingly stained with resentment and hatred, were wiped away by memories of her past, mistaken for something precious.
It’s boiling over.
Another feeling that even the long passage of time cannot fade and does not transform into boredom.
It would have been fortunate if it had ended in ignorance.
It would have been more merciful if Erelim’s prayer of lament had ended in silence.
I hated her.
But I didn’t hate it.
There was a deeper admiration, respect, and love than that.
To Erelim, Kether was like her mother, her older sister, and her teacher.
Until this moment.
The newly emerged hatred is as deep and heavy as the previous love.
Erelim’s lips softened.
“Be in awe.”
The image of a witch that defines magic.
Yeongchang expresses it in one word.
Everything that Kether showed was magic itself to Erelim, and therefore life.
Therefore, the chants of Erelim were the same as those of Kether.
The pure white magic reflection around Erelim’s eyes flowed like her tears.
Dense magic particles filled the spacious workshop, as if filming water droplets dispersing in slow motion.
The group dance of magical particles dispersing harmoniously as if embodying a microcosm under the antique moonlight is breath-taking and dreamlike.
And apart from its beauty, it has enough power to kill a witch.
Keter did not raise her magic power.
For a woman in her prime, she looks much like she has deteriorated, but she still sits there without lifting a finger in front of her magic.
It’s not about ignoring it.
I’m not laughing or frustrated.
“Blanche.”
Instead, he smiled quietly.
I still don’t know the meaning, but it’s a smile like a friend who threw off a heavy burden and passed away.
Keter said.
“They say we can’t find the right answer.”
Erelim answered.
“I am… “I found it.”
-Fillet
With a sound like breaking dry firewood, the magic that was flowing through her was captured by Erelim.
Like an old tree, the body that fell along with the chair rolled around on the cold marble.
