Chapter 351: Episode 100: At the End of the 1,000-year-long Voyage (5)
The bird on the pole gazed down.
The red eye kept a close eye on the [Origin Fragment].
Even though Myu’s real body was unconscious, the mirror image of [Rationality] thought to itself.
There was a foreign existence.
Although it was normal for foreign mana to come and go, the opponent had an evidently strange course of action. Wasn’t it going around the village as if it was looking for something?
Every mirror image moved based on its ‘instinct’ and that was why instinct was the only disposition that did not exist as a mirror image. The one that always had to control all the selfish mirror images was [Rationality] and Rationality knew it had to hurry in an odd situation like this.
The issue, however, was that [Rationality] could not sense [Unconsciousness].
“Could not find it anywhere.”
The mirror images that had left to find the traces of the disappeared existence returned empty-handed.
“Cannot see it anywhere.”
“It seems to have disappeared.”
Among them was an expert at tracking an organic change as well as an expert at tracking mana but none of them managed to find it.
[Rationality] found this to be an increasingly more dangerous sign.
“Maybe it left?”
It was because not a single existence had left yet.
Even though it was the first time that existence had come here, it knew how to make use of Unconsciousness. It must have gone into other worlds several times so after a deep thought, [Rationality] let out a warning sign.
Beeeeeep— A loud alarm echoed all across the village.
“An infiltrator is here!”
“An infiltrator! Is it that strange guy from before?!”
Some shouted.
Immediately after ringing the bell, Rationality called for the strongest soldiers that existed inside its memory.
“Have you called, Esteemed Overseer.”
The dimensions cracked open in the sky as black ‘bomber aircrafts’ and ‘drivers’ appeared from within. There were 7 of them. The 7 drivers bowed at the bird on the top of the tall pole.
Their name was [Memory Manipulator].
Out of all the dragons, the black race was the only ones that could manipulate memories and convey their wills. As such, they were the strongest and the most horrendous subjugation force that only existed within the mana of black dragons.
No matter how disgusting the infiltrating mana and no matter how disgusting a memory, the [Memory Manipulators] could return all of that to nothing.
Their power had no limit. They could even rampage through other worlds let alone their own.
Rationality commanded them.
Bombard it as soon as you find a trace. It does not matter who dies in the process.
The [Memory Manipulators] revealed their doubts in response because there had never been such an extreme command yet.
“What if the guy comes to this place.”
It does not matter. You guys can bombard me and kill me in the process. That was what Rationality said in response and the Memory Manipulators that always heeded to its call returned a bow.
Not one of them revealed any more doubts, because everyone in this Origin Fragment knew except for one person.
The fall of this world was destined to be from self-destruction.
From a very long time ago.
***
Memory was written into a book in an order and displayed on the bookshelves.
‘In an order’ – that was the important part.
Immediately after birth, dragons receive authorities such as [Will of the Ancient One] through the [Will of the Ancient One] of their parents. Therefore, the memory of receiving that authority should be located at the end of this enormous library.
Yu Jitae walked.
His feet were fast and it was not much different from running.
Even though he had been running for four days and nights straight, he was walking like this now because Myu’s personality was tired.
“Hukk, hulk…”
While staggering, Myu followed him from behind. Despite the lack of enthusiasm on its face, it diligently walked forward.
The large library was empty and cold. Since it wasn’t physically cold, this meant that the entirety of Myu’s life throughout her memories was cold.
The temperature was fairly low and even Yu Jitae was feeling cold from it.
Naturally, Yu Jitae was not concerned about the temperature of Myu’s memories. For him, Myu was just a ‘mutant experiment material’ – nothing more and nothing less.
During the process of going back through the memories, he reached out to the books that were especially more frozen and used [Conceptualisation] on them. His authority analysed the phenomenon into specifics.
<Target: Wandering Memory #8281>
All those memories were that of a roaming life. He thought it was to be expected from a black dragon that wandered through the dimensions their whole life, looking for a place to settle.
He didn’t bother checking those memories. He had no time to waste doing such useless things.
.
.
.
<Target: Wandering Memory #7449>
After 5 days, the concept of time became vague.
<Target: Wandering Memory #6051>
Even after a week, the two continued walking without saying much to each other.
<Target: Wandering Memory #5230>
10 days passed with only the sound of their breaths resonating across.
<Target: Wandering Memory #4771>
<Target: Wandering Memory #4106>
<Target: Wandering Memory #3699>
.
.
.
<Target: Wandering Memory #3316>
After walking for almost 2 weeks, Myu’s personality at last crumbled onto the ground from fatigue.
“C, can we take a quick rest before moving on?”
He stopped his feet as he too exhaustedly inhaled for a deep breath. He realised that his body had been drenched with sweat and stopping once made all the fatigue come flooding in.
The mirror image of the personality repeatedly tried to tuck the drenched hair behind its ear to stop them from covering its face. Seemingly frustrated, it moved with rushing fingers and its breath was even more rushed.
“We are only half-way there.”
“I, I’m sorry. I always spend my time lying down so I do not have enough energy.”
“Let’s get back up.”
“I cannot.”
“You can walk a bit more.”
“How would I walk anymore than this? It’s already so tiring…”
“I’m telling you you can.”
“I can’t. Please let me rest a little. After a quick rest, I will try my best to stand back up.”
“…”
“What about you? Are you not exhausted?”
Without saying anything in response, he turned his body.
Ever since a few days ago, he had been hearing some extraordinary sounds from above the ceiling.
The warning bell was well within his expectation but that wasn’t the case for the engine and the propeller noises. It was even more of a problem that there were quite a few of them.
Black dragons had the [Authority] to eliminate, manipulate or substitute memories.
It was probably them that was on the move – the situation was a lot more pressing than he expected.
“In any case, it seems that the entrance of the dumping ground we have blocked with Unconsciousness is still undiscovered,” exclaimed Myu.
“Yes.”
“That is truly a relief…”
Was it a relief?
He had a different approach.
This was a rather strange response.
If something were to happen, ‘personality’ was one of the first existences that had to be found. They should have found personality after three or four days at the latest.
However, they did not look for personality.
How neglected was personality in this world that the search for it was this delayed? Despite experiencing various worlds through Conceptualisation, it was the first time this had happened.
Neglecting the personality to the extreme and killing it; plus the rationality that had an unusually large authority that seemingly had the ability to inspect the entire world.
This meant that Rationality would affect every course of action and words instead of Personality.
It was a familiar phenomenon.
…Was this not a copy of Yu Jitae’s own circumstances?
He ended his line of thought. In any case, if it was exhausted from just this, it was unknown how many more times they would have to stop on the way.
“What, are you doing right now?”
There was no other way around it.
“We don’t have time.”
“You, you…”
“Stay still. It will only get harder if you move.”
Saying that, he raised Myu up straight into the air and began running once again. Even though they were very close, there was nothing to really worry about. Both Yu Jitae and Myu’s mirror image didn’t feel anything special about each other. It would in fact be rather strange to feel that way and Yu Jitae was only slightly displeased by it.
It was just that ‘Myu’s personality’ had a weird look on its face as it looked at Yu Jitae.
While he was still running down the library,
Myu said to Yu Jitae.
“We, have been running for a long time, haven’t we.”
“Yes.”
“You are feeling cold and exhausted.”
“I’m fine.”
“For that to be the case, there is too much sweat on your arms. You are also panting right now.”
He remained silent as Myu threw him a question after slight hesitation.
“For what purpose, are you running through this place?”
It was quite late for that question.
It’s not like he was hiding it, and he hadn’t mentioned it yet, only because the topic had never been brought up until then.
“Because I have a goal,” he replied.
“A goal? What is it?”
“My dream.”
“Dream… So, are you saying your dream is at the end of this library?”
“Pretty much.”
Myu entered a deep thought.
“How interesting. I…”
It was when Myu was about to say something that Yu Jitae suddenly stopped on the spot. “Ah!” Myu gasped in surprise as Yu Jitae quickly hid themselves behind a table.
“What, what’s wrong?” Myu asked in confusion and Yu Jitae returned a quick reply before stopping even his breath.
“Shh.”
Myu similarly stopped its breath and gazed around. From the distance, red gazes started to appear. It seemed that they discovered that Myu had disappeared from the dumping ground.
One by one, the red eyes drew near, revealing the grey fur and heavy feet. Five large wolves as big as a monster appeared from the darkness.
Yu Jitae observed the wolves.
Each entity had two heads attached with the secondary head being near the tail. It was the mirror image of a ‘disposition’ that evaluated oneself by looking at the surroundings and not at oneself.
He had an idea of what they were. They were probably [Self-censorship] – one of the special forces led by [Rationality].
Monsters that travelled across everywhere including the memories, judging whether they were logical or not and mercilessly chewing off anything irrational…
Yu Jitae glanced back and observed Myu. Because of the violent oppression of [Rationality], Myu’s personality had been crushed.
A broken personality was weak, meaning that it would no longer have the power to endure the vicious oppression of Rationality. Proving that was Myu’s mirror image shivering while looking at the wolves through the legs of the desk.
<The Authority, [Keeper of the Clock (SSS+)] asks if you are feeling okay.>
Myu turned to him and gave a nod gesturing that she was okay, but the shivering chin deducted the persuasiveness of the nod.
However, that nonetheless meant that it was still somewhat bearable.
Yu Jitae raised the sword from his waist. He had to deal with the [Self-censorships] before they were to make a bigger fuss.
It wouldn’t be an easy task. There were five entities and ten heads in total. If one was to start barking, the other heads would follow suit and their voices would reach the ears of the [Rationality] sitting high above.
But that was when Myu whispered.
‘I know how to deal with them.’
What?
‘Those scary things, really love my shards.’
What in the world are shards.
Suddenly, Myu raised its nails and ripped off the remaining half of the amputated arm as the wound started to shatter like glass. Myu threw the detached arm in front of them as Yu Jitae watched with a frown.
What would throwing something like that do?
However, something remarkable happened. The closest [Self-censorship] mindlessly ran in and started gnawing on Myu’s broken arm.
Realising this was an opportunity, Yu Jitae dashed forth like a lightning bolt and ended the wolf’s life with his sword. In response, the mouth at the tail opened wide to let out a scream but he knew it would do that and kicked it before it could scream. With his foot, he crushed on the neck of the head at the tail to ensure it couldn’t make any noise and decapitated it.
The growling beast gasped for breath but it soon came to a stop. Like Myu’s wound, the dead [Self-censorship] disappeared into shards of glass.
Not bad.
He looked at Myu with that in his gaze as Myu returned a nod.
Using the same method, he killed three of the remaining wolves. Mysteriously enough, they reacted vehemently to Myu’s arm like drug addicts suffering from withdrawal symptoms.
The detached arm was still recyclable. It seemed that Personality had meant it when it said, ‘I want to live,’ despite being discarded at the dumping ground.
As they were about to hunt the last wolf, a sudden thought popped up in his mind as he decided to change his method.
This time, he threw the bait towards the back head of Self-censorship and the thoughtless head at the back mindlessly moved the body towards it. When it was right in front of them, Yu Jitae pierced the throat with his sword and crushed it. Glass fragments shattered as the back head immediately died. The front head was frightened from the sudden emptiness on its butt but that was when he immediately jumped up and choked it by the neck with his arm.
Yu Jitae’s thick arm choked the wolf by the neck as hard as possible. Pressing hard on the glottis, he made it unable to create a sound without actually killing it. The wolf jumped up and down trying to bounce him off of its body but he stubbornly stayed on it like a bullfighter.
“Come here!” He shouted at Myu.
When Myu walked towards him despite shivering from fear, he forced the large wolf to stay down with his force. Strength-wise, [Self-censorship] was no match for Yu Jitae.
Grrrr…
It could only continue to growl as he made Myu ride on the back of the wolf before jumping on it as well. He then stabbed Myu’s fallen arm with his sword and hung it in front of the wolf.
In that instant, despite the situation, [Self-censorship] lost its mind. It began sprinting towards the delicious bait located in front of it..
“Huh? Uhh?”
Myu flinched and almost fell so he quickly supported Myu and made it sit tightly in front of him.
‘Self-censorship’ was a four-legged beast because it was a very rushed ‘disposition’. Thanks to that, the time it took to travel up the memories was also a lot faster. Self-censorship was astonishingly fast.
Meanwhile, Myu’s personality appeared to be finding this situation quite strange.
“Did you know something like this would work?”
“No. I was half in doubt as well.”
“Ahh…”
When gone to the extreme levels, Self-censorship could bite at the personality to leave a mark. It would match itself to the outside standards and blame the personality.
However, the primary purpose of Self-censorship was to confirm the lacking aspects of oneself and depending on how it is approached, it can even be used in a way like this. His speculation that it might work came to fruition in this conceptual world.
Following the piece of arm hanging on the sword, the wolf dashed forward like a lunatic. Soon, the cold air of the library turned into a gush of wind slapping at their cheeks.
“Is your arm alright?”
“Yeah. It was too short below the shoulder anyway, so it’s fine.”
“I see. Thanks. We should get there soon so hold on a bit more.”
Taking off his coat, Yu Jitae covered the front of Myu because the cold wind was hitting them directly from the front. With a slightly vacant gaze, Myu looked at Yu Jitae, the wolf and the place they were headed to, before murmuring something he couldn’t understand.
“…So it’s possible to get this close to a dream huh.”
.
.
.
<Target: Wandering Memory #1274>
<Target: Wandering Memory #316>
<Target: Wandering Memory #54>
They gradually approached the memories of the time before Myu started wandering around. The air gradually turned heavier and turned even colder.
Myu was shivering to a visible degree and there was a white mist accompanying every exhale. Yu Jitae too was feeling an intense chill. This would probably be how it would feel for a normal person to dive into icy water naked.
Even though Self-censorship looked fine due to the fur around its body, that wasn’t the case for the two of them.
“Hang on a bit more.”
“…It is, …too cold.”
Myu was trembling heavily and seemed like it might faint anytime. There was no frostbite because it wasn’t physical coldness but that was the only difference.
He had to browse the first memory as quickly as possible. Opening the ceiling and going out before that would only increase the chance of being caught by several-fold.
Myu had to endure it here.
“Hang on.”
“…I cannot hang on.”
“You must. And you can pull it off.”
“…I can?”
“Yes. So hang on just a little.”
While desperately trying to console Myu, he checked the wandering memories by the side.
#10, #5, #3, #2…
At last, he found #1.
The final destination should be right before them.
He thought he would be soon reaching the ‘first memory’ of when Myu was in an egg but that was when the two suddenly came to a stop. It was because the mindlessly sprinting wolf suddenly stopped in surprise.
An enormous black wall.
That wall was covering the entire library with not a single gap to be seen.