Chapter 106. Slingshot
Levi was not a good person.
Of that, he had no illusion. Even before his final task as Death’s servant, he’d already been the cause of innumerable deaths. Some were his fault. Some were not. Either way, every time he completed a mission, he inevitably left behind a trail of bodies scattered in his wake. The enemies Death sent him after were not the types to care about collateral damage, and though Levi tried his best, oftentimes his best was not good enough.
As such, he realized it might be slightly hypocritical of him to assume the moral high ground. In a purely mathematical sense, he was no better than someone like Phantasm. Many times worse, arguably.
But numbers never made up the full story. And the truth was, even after all he’d seen and wrought, the sight of the massacred village in front of him still made his heart squeeze with sorrow.
It might be odd. For him, a burning village full of dead bodies should be a tale as old as time. He should be used to it already. A little rationalization there, a little desensitization there, and it’d be so very easy to simply harden his heart, coat it in an impenetrable tomb of ice, and render himself utterly immune to the sight of death.
But he didn’t want to be.
He didn’t want to be someone who’d be able to witness a tragedy and just brush it off like it was nothing. He didn’t want to be someone who would feel nothing about atrocities committed in front of him.
Not caring would be so easy.
Which was precisely why he must care.
Because even if he might not be a good person, even if it was ontologically impossible for him to be considered a ‘good person’ after all he’d done, he still had to try.
He owed it to those lost souls. He couldn’t bring them back, but he could at least care that they were gone.
That, he felt, mattered.
And so, whenever he saw someone who didn’t care? Who didn’t hold the value of life in sanctity?
It tended to be a little vexing.
“So you see nothing wrong with any of this?” Levi asked Selene, gesturing at the still-burning buildings and piles of half-melted bones behind him. “This doesn’t bother you in the slightest?”
Selene tilted her head. “With regards to the former, I do not know enough about morality to give you an answer about right or wrong; such mortal constructs mean little to me. I can say that I’m not bothered, though. People die – it’s the one thing they can be counted on doing.”
Levi gazed at her, and Selene looked back evenly, not a trace of emotion to be seen on her face. But that was only to be expected, wasn’t it? She was an archdemon. It was no less silly to expect emotions from her than to expect them from a rock.
But even so, he still did.
“I see,” Levi said quietly. “I thought you were better than this.”
Selene tilted her head. “But why? That makes no sense to me. You know who I am, you know what I am. I don't think it's strange at all for me to react this way. In fact, I think it’s strange for you to not expect this.”
Well.
To a degree, she was right.
In the end, Selene was an archdemon. A natural enemy of humanity, one who preyed on people without a shred of remorse. Their very appearance, so inhumanly beautiful and alluring, were designed to deceive unsuspecting victims. Of all the creatures classified as ‘dark’, demons were oft regarded as the most reprehensible of the lot, not due to the brutality of their kills but rather the callous methods used to attain them.
One of a demon’s favorite tactics was to pretend to be a poor lost child, get adopted by a human village, wait until everyone’s guards were lowered, then ruthlessly slaughter as many people as they could. They held no hesitation in taking advantage of human kindness and empathy. The only thing they truly cared about was magic. That, and their survival to ensure the continuation of the former.
So really, Levi should have no reason to think she’d be any different.
And yet…
“I mean,” Selene continued, “did you really think I’d act any differently–?”
“Yes,” Levi said without any hesitation.
Selene paused, looking taken aback. “Why?”
Levi’s gaze pierced into her. “For the same reason you never healed your scar.”
Selene blinked. “What do you mean? There was no reason.”
Levi didn’t respond, even as Anastasia and Phantasm looked at him in confusion. The dress formed from shadows that Selene wore left her midriff exposed, revealing the long scar that ran across her stomach. Surely, they’d noticed it before – with how much dark magic and corrupted rot it was leaking, it was impossible not to – but they must’ve assumed it was from some old injury, cursed to be unhealable.
But it was healable. Selene could remove it at every moment. But she chose not to. And the reason for that…
Phantasm spoke up. “As amusing as this all is, we should get going if we want to remain on schedule.”
Levi let out a long breath and nodded. “Very well. Just… give me ten minutes. You can return to the ship first. I’ll be right there.”
“What are you doing?” Phantasm asked.
Levi turned around, his magic coming to life.
“The least I owe.”
Ten minutes later, they sailed away from the island. Behind them, smoke curled upward from recently extinguished flames, casting wispy shadows over the freshly-turned earth of three-hundred-and-twenty-eight graves.
It took them another day to finally reach the Source.
Levi would like to say it was a smooth journey, but really, it was anything but. The closer they got, the higher the ambient mana in the air rose, until it was so dense that it was almost tangible. Consequently, this meant the rate of monster attacks increased.
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Significantly.
At the very least, they didn’t have to deal with any more interruptions from other people. Due to its exceedingly high rate of monster activity, this region of the ocean was mostly avoided by anyone who possessed even a shred of sanity and/or self-preservation. The monsters were so strong that a few of them gave even Levi some trouble.
One giant jellyfish, for example, was able to manipulate the density of water. It nearly dragged their ship to the bottom of the ocean through water pressure alone before Levi was able to track it down and eliminate it. Even then, its regeneration abilities – and evasive maneuvers – were so top-notch that it survived several hundred Sever and Cleaves. After that, Levi got so frustrated that he decided to just discharge a few million volts of lightning into the surrounding water. He might’ve messed up the local microecosystem, but the lightning took care of the jellyfish, and that was what mattered.
It got so bad that Anastasia and Selene ended up having to help, just so Levi wouldn’t have to risk magical overburn. Which was irritating. Levi was starting to get irrationally mad every time he felt the familiar prickle creep up on him.
Around noon, Levi breathed in the fresh air, enjoying the brief respite from monster attacks. The air was so inundated with mana that inhaling it felt like inhaling opium. Levi caught Selene with a look of utter bliss on her face. For her, this place must be heaven.
“Man, that is strong,” Phantasm said. “I always forget just how magically charged this place is.” He chuckled. “A permanent localized status effect of +100 INT and +100 MAG… it’s almost ludicrous.”
Levi blinked. Huh. That was a lot, wasn’t it? Admittedly, he didn’t have the best frame of reference for stat attribute levels. Or overall levels, for that matter.
“Speaking of, we’re almost there,” Phantasm said. “Time to get ready.”
Levi frowned, glancing around. They were on a patch of open ocean with nothing to be seen on all sides. “Are you sure?” he asked. “I don’t see anything around us–”
His breath caught in his throat.
Before him, reality fractured into layers. But his True Sight wasn’t active. Rather, it was reality itself that had become disassembled, losing cohesiveness in this area. There was an open ocean in front of him, but there were also two mountains ahead of him, so tall they reached up to the sky and caressed the clouds. Between them lay a narrow channel of water around a hundred feet wide.
“The Original Strait,” Phantasm said. “Quite the sight to behold, eh?”
Levi nodded slowly. He’d never seen anything like this before. He was used to using True Sight to peer into the deeper layers of reality, but for said layers to be so plainly visible in front of him… It was bizarre.
“This is the place where the physical blends with the metaphysical,” Phantasm said. “A place where the ambient magic is so thick and potent that miracles become common and the impossible becomes visible. The Original Strait is the pathway from our current reality into the Source subdimension. Once you enter, you cannot turn around. It is physically impossible to. You can only travel forward.”
“Incredible,” Levi murmured as they approached the massive mountains. They technically weren’t real, but here with so much mana in the surroundings, they felt more real than even actual mountains Levi had ascended before. Lightning flashed in reverse all around them, bursting from the sea and lancing into the sky above. It began raining, except the rain came from the mist that hung in the air and it fell in all directions.
“Indeed,” Phantasm said. “Just wait til you see what’s at the end. It’s a whirlpool that extends through every layer of reality, whirling you deeper and deeper until you reach the Source–”
He froze, his entire body going very still.
“What are they doing here?” he hissed. There was an odd note in his voice that Levi couldn’t quite place. Worry, perhaps?
No.
Fear.
It was the first time Levi had ever heard Phantasm afraid. Even back in the wyvern cave when Levi’d cut off his arm, Phantasm had sounded annoyed at most. But now, he had a genuine air of fear hanging around him.
What could make him…
Oh.
The Three Pillars of Yukihasa flew at them from straight ahead. Even from this distance, Levi instantly recognized them. He cursed; did the Chorus somehow find out he was still alive? Or was it just being extra paranoid? Either scenario was equally viable.
Whatever the case, this now complicated matters by a lot. Levi didn’t know if he could defeat the Three Pillars again, especially now that he’d lost the element of surprise that he had before. In the previous fight, they’d underestimated him. But now…
“The Three Pillars,” Phantasm breathed. “But… why?! They’re supposed to be on the other side of the country right now. What are they doing at the Original Strait?” He whirled to Levi. “What in heaven’s name did you do to infuriate them this badly?”
Levi coughed. “Why do you assume I’m the one responsible for this–?”
Off in the distance, Minato’s voice echoed through the ocean. “LEVI IRONWOOODDDDDDD!”
Levi stared at Phantasm.
Phantasm stared at Levi.
“My name is Veli Maplewood–”
“Oh, fuck off,” Phantasm said. The pitch of his voice increased as he turned to look back at the Three Pillars. They flew through the air at a leisurely pace. And why not? They were in total control. “Shit. I can… No, that wouldn’t work.” He paused. “Yeah, we may be totally fucked.”
“No we’re not,” Levi said. “Get ready to fight.”
Phantasm laughed. It sounded a tinge hysterical. “What? Are you serious? I appreciate the faith and all, but I don’t think this is a fight that we can win.”
“Phantasm is right,” Anastasia said weakly. “I can hold my own against Mythmakers, but Ascendants… they’re in another class. Especially in this location; Archmage Ayako alone would be a veritable force of nature.”
“We can try our best,” Selene said. “We may even succeed.”
Levi stared at the three of them as ahead of them, the Three Pillars got closer and closer.
Damn. There went his plan of overcoming adversity with teamwork.
He didn’t even know if he himself could defeat them. Not with the threat of magical overburn hanging over his head.
But then what could they do? They had nowhere to run. The Ascendants were no doubt fast enough to hunt them down. Levi had only gotten away last time due to faking his death.
Unless…
Wait a moment.
How did his counterpart reach the Source?
Sure, the former Levi Ironwood was a former regressor and had all sorts of tricks and skill hacks. But even still, he’d only been thirteen years old physically when he reached the Source and locked his System. It seemed rather unlikely that he’d managed to infiltrate and sailed through an entire country undergoing active war to reach this area.
Which meant there had to be another way to the Source. Another faster, easier, albeit more arcane method.
But how?
Levi activated his True Sight and examined the Original Strait. Deducing the impossibilities, analyzing the variables, recreating the form, imitating the delivery, pinpointing the isolation…
Okay, this wasn’t working.
But then how–
An idea occurred to him.
A very bad idea.
“[Status],” he intoned.
As always, the blue semi-transparent status screen appeared in front of him. With his True Sight, Levi saw the multitude of threads linking the screen to the world itself.
Last time, he’d attempted to sever the death lines of the threads, thus invoking a System [Deletion Protocol] on his ass. That had been done with the purpose of getting the System’s attention, however.
Now, though, Levi wanted to reach the System.
And… Well.
Didn’t the threads lead him straight here?
“What are you doing using [Status] now of all times?” Phantasm asked. “Do you think–?” He paled. “Oh no. What are you planning to–”
Levi reached out, grabbed the metaphysical threads with his magic, and yanked. Instantly, the threads stretched up to the sky, his magic pulling it as far as it could go. His status screen shot upward, disappearing into the sky above.
Then, he stopped exerting force.
The threads snapped back like a slingshot.
At the same time, Levi teleported them. He had no destination in mind. He just let the threads guide them.
And the world around them disappeared.