Magic Academy's Bastard Instructor - Chapter 300: In Hell We Live, Lament [5]
Face-to-face with this being, Zen could only describe it as otherworldly—No, even that word felt insufficient.
This was not merely a creature beyond humanity, nor some transcendent lifeform existing on a higher plane.
The existence before him felt fundamentally incompatible with reality itself, as though humanity had accidentally stumbled upon something it was never meant to perceive in the first place.
“…Araxys.”
——We meet again.
Zen swallowed deeply before answering, confusion gradually crossing his expression.
“…Again?”
——Time is relative.
The darkness surrounding them rippled, as though reality itself had reacted to those words.
——The fact that we are meeting now means we have already met a second ago. An hour ago. A day ago. A year ago. Centuries ago. Millennia ago.
“….”
——Or perhaps, we have yet to meet at all.
“…What?”
The stars surrounding them began shifting in unnatural patterns, some moving backward, some moving forward. While fragments of unfamiliar scenes flickered throughout the void like broken reflections.
Ruined civilizations.
Black skies.
Massive structures floating amidst the stars.
And endlessly, those same purple eyes staring back from beyond existence itself.
——To beings like your species, time appears linear. A beginning. A middle. An end.
The darkness rippled once more.
——But higher existence does not perceive reality so narrowly.
At that moment, Zen suddenly felt an unbearable pressure assaulting his mind. As though his brain was attempting to comprehend something fundamentally beyond human understanding.
“Ukh…!”
He instinctively grabbed his head.
Immediately, the pressure lessened.
——Interesting.
The purple eyes remained fixed upon him.
——Most humans collapse long before this point.
Zen slowly steadied his breathing.
“What exactly are you trying to say?”
Silence briefly followed.
——Your species perceives time as travelers walking across a road.
The stars surrounding them slowly aligned into countless glowing paths stretching endlessly throughout the void.
——But from my perspective, the road itself is visible all at once.
Zen frowned deeply. “…That makes no sense.”
——Of course it does not.
“….”
——Humanity was never meant to perceive reality beyond three-dimensional causality.
Those words alone caused goosebumps to spread across Zen’s skin.
“…Three-dimensional…?”
——Your world has become exposed because the barrier restricting your perception has weakened.
The purple eyes slowly brightened.
——Mana is not power.
That statement immediately caused Zen’s thoughts to halt.
“What?”
——Mana is perception.
The surrounding void distorted.
——The moment your species began perceiving the greater cosmos, your reality became visible to everything existing beyond it.
At that moment, Zen finally understood why Araxys had used the word exposed.
Humanity had not simply discovered mana.
Humanity had unknowingly announced its existence to the universe.
“Then the demons…”
——The manifestations of my will. A restraint.
“…..”
——A necessary restraint to prevent humanity from ascending further than it should.
Zen immediately frowned.
“You’re killing people.”
——I am limiting growth.
Those words alone caused an instinctive anger to rise within Zen.
“You call turning humans into monsters ’limiting growth’?”
——You perceive cruelty because your species values individuals over continuity.
The stars surrounding them slowly dimmed one by one.
——But extinction is infinitely crueler.
“….”
Despite how monstrous Araxys sounded, part of him understood the logic behind its words.
Humanity had already obtained mana accidentally through the White Nights. If they continued evolving beyond control, eventually they would draw the attention of things far worse than Araxys.
And according to Araxys, the moment humanity crossed a certain threshold, the barriers protecting their reality would no longer hold.
“The spirits…” Zen muttered. “The things watching us…”
——Scouts.
A chill immediately crawled down Zen’s spine.
——Your world still remains difficult for higher entities to fully breach because humanity has yet to ascend completely into higher perception.
The darkness around them distorted again.
——But if your species continues evolving unchecked, the barriers separating realities will eventually weaken.
At that moment, Zen finally understood.
Araxys had not descended to destroy humanity.
It had descended to keep humanity contained.
To prevent humanity from growing powerful enough to invite something far worse into their world.
——And as the last surviving civilization of the lower realms, I, Araxys, must prevent your destruction at all costs.
For a long moment, Zen remained silent.
The weight behind those words was so immense that even someone like him struggled to process them properly.
Humanity had only just begun adapting to mana, only just started rebuilding civilization after the White Nights, which had caused the Great Reset, and yet, according to this being, there had already been countless civilizations before them.
Civilizations that had failed.
Civilizations that no longer existed.
“…What exactly are you?”
No matter how he looked at it, the being before him resembled a deity far beyond human comprehension.
And yet, despite existing on such an incomprehensible scale, it had still descended into their realm and chosen to interfere with humanity directly.
For the first time since their conversation began, the massive purple eyes remained completely still.
——I am merely a phenomenon.
“….’
——A lower deity. An Aleph. Or perhaps, by the standards of human understanding… something your species would classify as an Outer God.
At that moment, the pressure surrounding Zen intensified instantly from comprehension alone.
The moment Zen attempted to truly process the existence standing before him, his instincts immediately screamed in warning, as though the human mind itself rejected the information.
“…An Outer God…”
The term itself felt absurdly distant, like something ripped straight out of mythology or fiction. Yet standing before those eyes, there was no use in denying the facts.
No human could possibly possess a presence like this.
No human could exist on such a scale.
——Names are ultimately meaningless.
The stars surrounding them slowly moved throughout the void.
——Your species creates categories and myths because primitive minds require narratives to process fear. Gods. Demons. Spirits. Monsters. Such distinctions exist merely to comfort yourselves beneath an incomprehensible universe.
Zen instinctively clenched his fists tighter. “You’re telling me beings like you actually exist throughout the cosmos?”
For a brief moment, silence settled across the void.
——Existence is far more crowded than humanity realizes.
The answer immediately caused a chill to spread across Zen’s spine.
The stars around them continued moving endlessly, and for the first time, Zen no longer viewed them as beautiful.
They felt terrifying.
Because now he understood that behind those distant lights, there might be countless entities similar to Araxys observing reality itself.
“But you called yourself a lower deity,” Zen pointed out slowly. “If you’re considered lower… then what exactly exists above you?”
The moment those words left his mouth, the darkness distorted.
For the briefest instant, Zen saw something.
Something so impossibly vast that his mind failed to properly comprehend its shape.
Entire galaxies drifted around it like grains of dust orbiting an incomprehensible existence. Space itself appeared warped merely by its presence, while reality bent unnaturally around something that should never have been capable of existing.
Immediately, pain exploded throughout Zen’s head.
“Ghk…!”
Blood streamed from his nose as he staggered backward, clutching his head while his vision blurred.
The image disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared. Yet even then, the lingering terror remained embedded deep within his mind.
——Do not attempt to perceive higher layers of existence prematurely.
Zen’s breathing became uneven.
His instincts screamed at him to stop asking questions. To leave. To forget everything he had seen here.
But despite that, he still forced himself to speak.
“…What the hell was that…?”
——The reason civilizations disappear.
The answer alone caused Zen’s entire body to tense on instinct.
“What does that even mean?”
——There are layers to existence.
The purple eyes remained fixed upon him.
——And civilizations capable of reaching higher reality inevitably begin climbing toward those layers.
Fragments of ruined worlds flickered throughout the void once more.
Broken stars.
Dead planets.
Entire civilizations reduced to nothing more than drifting remnants scattered across space.
——Most never survive the ascent.
Zen slowly clenched his fists.
“…And the things above you are responsible for that?”
——Higher existences do not destroy civilizations out of malice.
“….”
——To beings beyond a certain threshold, lower realities simply cease to matter.
Those words caused an uncomfortable chill to crawl down Zen’s spine.
“You keep talking about higher existences and layers,” he muttered. “What exactly are you people supposed to be?”
The void around them slowly shifted again.
Numbers appeared.
Symbols revealed themselves.
Sequences stretched infinitely beyond comprehension.
——Your species understands existence through dimensions and mathematics.
The stars aligned themselves into impossible geometric structures that moved beyond normal perception.
——Alephs are classifications humanity would one day inevitably face while attempting to measure the immeasurable.
Zen frowned deeply.
“…Alephs?”
——Hierarchy through transcendence.
The darkness surrounding them rippled once more.
——An Aleph is an existence that has surpassed finite limitation.
Zen narrowed his eyes. “That explains absolutely nothing.”
——Naturally.
The stars shifted again.
——A two-dimensional being cannot fully comprehend three-dimensional existence. Likewise, humanity cannot fully comprehend beings existing beyond causality itself.
The surrounding void distorted violently for a brief moment.
——I am what your species would classify as a lower Aleph. A being capable of perceiving and interacting with realities beyond linear time, yet still bound by continuity and identity.
“…Lower?”
The purple eyes remained motionless.
——There are higher Alephs.
At that moment, the pressure surrounding Zen intensified again.
——Existences so vast that individuality itself becomes meaningless.
The stars throughout the void began collapsing inward unnaturally.
——Some no longer possess form.
——Some no longer possess thought.
——Some merely exist as principles governing reality itself.
Zen felt cold sweat slowly run down his back.
Because the more Araxys explained, the more he realized something horrifying.
Araxys… this incomprehensible monster standing before him…
“….”
…It was merely considered one of the smaller things lurking within existence.
The realization alone made Zen feel nauseous.
For the first time in his life, the world itself felt unbearably small to him. Humanity’s wars, its politics, its struggles for power and survival, all of it suddenly seemed insignificant beneath the scale of what Araxys was describing.
And somehow, that terrified him more than death itself.
——This is where matters become simpler.
“….”
——As the first human capable of perceiving me, you must assist me.
“How could I possibly help something like you?”
——Because you interfered with my descent.
Those words immediately caused Zen’s thoughts to halt.
“….”
The stars surrounding them dimmed further.
——I was never meant to descend incompletely.
At that moment, realization slowly settled. nto Zen’s mind. On that day, when the flames had threatened to engulf Melissa, it was Araxys trying to anchor itself.
——Because my assimilation into this realm was interrupted, I cannot fully establish myself as the veil shielding your world.
According to Araxys, Earth existed within what it referred to as the “lower realms,” realities still too underdeveloped to withstand the attention of higher Alephs.
Under normal circumstances, worlds like Earth remained hidden beneath layers of existence, isolated and insignificant enough to avoid notice.
But the White Nights changed that.
Humanity’s accidental perception of mana had effectively torn open the barrier separating their reality from the greater cosmos.
Earth had become visible.
And visible things, eventually, were noticed.
——My descent was meant to resolve this.
The purple eyes glowed throughout the void.
——Had I fully assimilated with this realm, my existence would have functioned as a blanket enveloping your world.
“….”
——As long as I existed completely within this reality, higher Alephs would neither perceive Earth clearly nor descend upon it directly.
At that explanation, Zen slowly felt his chest tighten.
Araxys had come to hide them.
And he had stopped that process himself.
——You interrupted the stabilization process.
Silence filled the void afterward.
Zen genuinely did not know what to feel.
Because what else was he supposed to do?
Araxys had attempted to use Melissa, his little sister, as its vessel. How could he possibly have allowed something like this to completely consume her?
No saner brother would.
“…You were using my sister… What exactly did you expect me to do?”
——That is not my problem.
“….”
Zen clenched his fists.
Because unfortunately, it was his fault.
He was the one who brought the artifact back home and had unknowingly allowed Melissa to come into contact with it, failing to recognize the danger before it was too late.
And now, because of that mistake, his little sister had become the vessel of something humanity itself was never meant to perceive.
Zen slowly lowered his gaze.
For all the power the world attributed to him, for all the fear and reverence attached to the title of Archmage… there were still things he could not protect.
“…Why?” Zen finally asked. “Why are you even doing this for humanity? What exactly do you gain from any of this?”
——As I stated before, this realm is the last surviving lower realm.
“….”
——Once it ceases to exist…
“….”
——So will I.
“…You’re saying your existence depends on humanity?”
——Not humanity specifically.
“….”
——Lower reality itself.
“….”
——Higher Alephs continuously ascend beyond continuity. Beyond individuality. Beyond form itself.
“….”
——Eventually, existence itself becomes incompatible with finite perception.
For several moments, Araxys remained silent, as though contemplating how to explain something fundamentally incomprehensible to a human mind.
——Lower realms produce limitation.
The darkness distorted.
——Limitation creates individuality. Identity. Emotion. Desire. Fear. Love. Conflict.
The stars flickered endlessly around them.
——Without lower existence, higher existence eventually loses definition.
Without worlds like Earth, even beings like Araxys would eventually disappear into something beyond identity.
“…So you’re afraid too?”
The purple eyes remained completely motionless.
——Fear is a function of individuality.
“….”
——And individuality is what higher existence inevitably loses.
Those words caused goosebumps to spread across Zen’s skin.
Somehow, the being standing before him, the same existence responsible for turning humans into monsters, was also the very thing trying to keep humanity alive.
“…How am I supposed to help you?”
———!
At that exact moment, the entire distortion shook.
The stars shattered apart like broken glass while the endless darkness collapsed inward.
The overwhelming pressure crushing Zen’s consciousness disappeared instantly as reality itself began unraveling around him.
Then, Vanitas was abruptly thrown out of the distortion.
———!
His vision immediately refocused as he found himself back where he had originally been before entering the memory itself.
The oppressive darkness was gone.
The incomprehensible stars had vanished.
Vanitas calmed his breathing before rubbing his forehead. Even after leaving the distortion, a lingering headache still remained.
“…What the fuck is even going on?”
Looking around, he quickly realized he had returned to the sealed chamber once more.
And there, Margaret was crouched nearby while Kafka awkwardly sat across from her.
The two appeared to be in the middle of some strange interaction as Margaret was holding out a small pastry toward the boy, who just stared at her suspiciously with that creepy expression on his face.
With a slight frown, Vanitas stared at the two of them before finally speaking.
“What exactly are you two doing?”
