◈ Episode 556: Signal beyond the horizon (3)
Swimming in the deep sea with no end in sight.
How much I was struggling in pitch black darkness where I couldn’t tell the depth.
I was climbing up to find the surface, but I wasn’t even sure if I was going in the right direction.
However, it kept moving without stopping.
Although it was definitely little by little, I was making progress.
If you don’t stop, you will definitely reach where you want.
No matter how much time has passed.
I just have to remember where I want to go.
───.
I saw a small ray of light shining through the darkness of the deep sea.
It was so faint that it threatened to be torn apart by the surrounding darkness.
Every time that happened, the light held firm and whispered.
You can do it. That we can reach this far.
That place is the only way out of this deep sea and above the surface of the water.
When I realized that, my body that was trying to sink gained strength.
I am not wrong.
Because it didn’t stop.
Because I didn’t give up.
I was finally able to reach it.
Just like that, the moment when my outstretched hand finally touched the beam of light.
The darkness was washed away, and everything turned white.
Shoot!
I can hear the sound of waves.
Ludger stood on the white sand beach and gazed at the endless sea.
When I looked down at my feet, I saw a sand castle that was still intact despite being hit by waves.
It was no longer even called a sand castle. Because it was truly a small fortress made of steel.
-great job.
A familiar voice came from behind.
It was the voice that encouraged me not to give up when I almost lost my sense of self.
Ludger took his eyes off the sand castle and looked back.
Who on earth was it?
Who continued to support me?
When Ludger finally identified the person in question, his eyes widened slightly.
And then he nodded.
“okay. “It was you.”
Even in the countless waves of memories pushing away the ego, it was something that was never forgotten.
Before he was Ludger Chelsea.
Before it was Gerrard.
Before it was Machiavelli.
Before he was born Heathcliff Van Bretus, behind countless aliases and masks.
I was confident there.
The person who lived on Earth from the beginning.
“Thank you. Thanks to you, I received a lot of help.”
-You won’t forget it from now on, right?
“never.”
Ludger stared straight ahead again.
Soon the waves stopped.
Where the sand castle was, there was a door made of pure white wood.
Ludger opened the door and stepped through it.
* * *
A lot of things happened in an instant.
Nirva appears, the students scatter in confusion, and Flora is attacked.
And Ludger, who woke up, blocked Nirva’s attack to protect Flora.
It all happened as if in one breath, and the silence that followed immediately was eerily calm.
Flora looked at Ludger’s back and opened her mouth.
“teacher?”
For the first time, a smile of relief appeared on Flora’s face, which had been stiff from anxiety and pressure.
“You, how?”
Nirva’s expression was blank, as if he had seen something he could not possibly see.
Even more so than the fact that the students he attacked were the ones who were with Ludger.
I was doubtful about the existence of Ludger, whose eyes were still open in front of me.
Although he is an apostle of dreams, the situation in front of him is so unrealistic that he wonders if he is dreaming.
“Thanks to you, I slept well. “I was so f*cking well rested.”
Geek.
As Ludgar tightened his hand, Nirva’s sandy prosthetic arm slowly pushed back.
Nirva tried to hold on by exerting strength to avoid being pushed away, but her will was only a feeble resistance in front of Ludger’s power.
Nirva, now wounded and weak, could never defeat Ludger.
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Nirva realized this and shouted.
“There is no way something like that is possible! What do you think of dreams? It’s a memory and an experience! “I’m making you dream of something like that forever!”
“Not forever. Because right now I’m standing here with my eyes wide open.”
Nirva was speechless.
Even so, it was still strange.
I would have dreamed of it not forever, but almost forever.
How long do you think that period will last?
“dead.”
“what?”
“In a dream, the moment you realize that you are me, you realize that it is a dream. So I chose death.”
This is because when you die, you wake up from a dream.
An unbelievable truth came out of Ludger’s mouth.
“Number 5,396. “It’s the number of dreams I crossed to get to this point.”
Ludger had a total of 5,396 dreams.
5,396 memories.
5,396 experiences.
5,396 lives.
─And death.
“Humans, is that possible? If you die that many times, it’s not surprising if your mind breaks down again and again… … !”
“okay. It almost happened. In fact, we almost got to the brink.”
Passsss.
Magical energy like blue fog began to flow around Ludger’s body.
“Thanks to you, I had a very amazing experience. So, let me return the favor.”
“this… … !”
Nirva’s eyes widened.
This power flowing from Ludger.
This was something much more powerful than what Ludger had before falling into the dream.
“divine power? no. It’s not like that. How can humans have this kind of power? … ?”
“It’s thanks to you.”
Nirva’s sand prosthetic hand that touched Ludger’s hand was swallowed up by blue magic and began to collapse.
It’s like a sand castle hit by waves.
“Thanks to me?”
“It’s a dream. Even if I wake up, that fragmentary memory remains. “What kind of life I lived, where and what I did, and how many experiences I had.”
Nirva realized what Ludgar was trying to say.
The dream that Nirva made Ludger dream was not a simple curse.
Nirva knew well that such a thing would not work on Ludger, who was immune to the mental world in the first place.
Therefore, what was presented was a dream.
In other words, it is the opposite of a curse, a so-called blessing.
The dream given by Nirva embodies the memories of a person who actually existed.
The real thing was shown through the fake.
That means.
The various events, experiences, and knowledge gained by countless people in dreams in their lives.
It was said that everything was real.
Even if most of those memories have volatilized.
If you remember any of the 5,396 dreams.
“Thanks to you, I learned a lot.”
All the dreams you have experienced so far are replaced with experience and knowledge, helping you to reach a higher level.
“That means I… … .”
Does this mean that he led the originally strong man Ludger Chelisi to a higher level?
It was difficult for Nirva to accept this reality.
“This, this is something strange! This can’t be happening! “There is no way you humans could do something like this!”
“That damn human being. “It’s okay to look at it funny, though.”
Ludger narrowed his eyes and shot back, but Nirva muttered to herself as if she had gone crazy.
“You were designed to never develop in the first place!”
“design?”
Ludger instinctively felt that there was something different about that unusual reaction.
But Nirva did not have time to answer Ludger’s words.
“Could it be a Lumensis trap? Yes, I did. That sneaky guy could do that. “I wondered if the bloodlines of those who served him were here, and that was it!”
“I don’t know what bullshit you are talking about.”
“Shut up! Now that things are like this, I will definitely get you out of here!”
Ludger realized that Nirva was making a big mistake.
Even if it wasn’t an illusion, nothing would change.
Ludger planned to kill Nirva here.
Nirva, who shook off Ludger, regenerated a sand prosthetic hand on her right arm.
Because it was made in a hurry, it was cruder than before, but it still had enough power.
When Nirva stretched out her hand, the tips of her fingers split and a blade of sand struck Ludger.
Ludger saw this and pulled out a sword stick from the shadows.
‘If you use big magic, the students will get caught up.’
There were restrictions as there were people to protect.
But I didn’t feel like I was at a disadvantage.
On the contrary, I felt an inexplicable sense of confidence.
The source of that confidence must be the countless newly realized experiences.
Ludger, holding the sword stick, surrounded the sword with magic.
Magical power mixed with dreaminess dyed the pure white day black.
Ludger, holding a black sword stick, held it vertically and held it against his chest.
The moment when Nirva was about to react to the neat and calm posture that was different from usual.
Ludger took a step forward.
“What?”
Every time a black line was drawn in the air, the sand blades fired by Nirva exploded.
The power of the sword stick was not only high.
Its speed and accuracy were surprisingly sharp.
In the split second that the strange sight caught his eye, Ludger had approached Nirva.
Nirva saw the tip of the knife stabbing between her eyes and tilted her head to the side to avoid it.
Fit!
The area below the earlobe was cut and golden blood flowed.
Nirva was astonished by the movements Ludger showed.
‘It has become faster and more agile.’
Ludger showed all kinds of different fighting methods, but they were all unconventional.
Swinging a sword stick was also a movement specialized for killing and hunting something, rather than a swordsmanship that thoroughly penetrated the opponent’s weak points.
But what was shown now was the opposite.
It has been formalized and standardized.
Therefore, it was refined to the limit and showed static yet heavy power.
Ludger was now using ‘sword techniques’.
Not hunting, but fighting.
It also meant that Ludger recognized the other person as a superior enemy.
It also meant that now we will push ourselves to a pure weight class without any tricks.
“Don’t look at me funny!”
Ludger swung his sword again and collided with Nirva’s sand prosthetic hand.
A shock wave swirled around the area along with a huge explosion.
The students who were watching took a few steps back without realizing it.
The only ones still standing there were Flora, Aidan, Leo, Tacie, and Iona.
Ludger, regardless of the fact that his attack was blocked by Nirva, shifted the axis of his body’s weight, channeled his power diagonally, and rotated his body with the recoil.
Nirva’s body tilted and turned to the side. Ludger spun around and stepped on Nirva’s bent thigh with his shoe.
The balance was completely lost.
Ludger swung a sword stick filled with rotational power.
Nirva barely managed to keep his stance and block the attack, but his entire body was covered in fluff.
Ludger did not stop attacking.
Every time the dream-covered sword moved, black lines were drawn in the air.
Nirva was busy avoiding or blocking attacks.
“That’s Mr. Ludger’s fight… … .”
“Are you a wizard? “He’s almost a knight.”
“Wow, it’s amazing.”
When I saw that, I felt a sense of elation that made my blood boil.
“teacher! cheer up!”
“Please defeat that demon!”
Nirva’s face distorted after hearing the cheering.
“Shut up! How dare a human being!”
I tried to vent my anger somewhere far away, but Ludger wasn’t the type of person to just leave it alone.
Ludger relentlessly attacked Nirva.
Nirva gritted his teeth and held on, opening the ceiling.
Soldiers made of dead bodies and dream sand fell from Ludger’s head.
Wow.
Sleep, stretching out its hands like a zombie, entangled Ludger’s body and surrounded him from all sides.
But suddenly there was a flash of light, and all the soldiers were thrown away with a huge impact.
Nirva felt impatient.
‘It can’t go on like this. The humans who were chasing me have already joined in nearby.’
Although they said he was ignored, it was clear that the noise caused by the fight with Ludger had reached their ears.
Nirva tried to run away again.
“Do you think I’ll leave it at that?”
Ludger had already seen clearly that Nirva was trying to run away.
The tip of Ludger’s sword stick grazed Nirva’s chest.
Nirva, who thought she had barely escaped, felt her body start to stiffen.
When I turned my head to see what was going on, I saw that the tip of Ludger’s sword stick had pinned the hem of his clothes to the ground.
Ludger, who intentionally released the dream to restrict Nirva’s movements, raised his other hand and clenched it into a fist.
“Did I tell you? “I will return the favor.”
In that fist, a black air current was spinning like a whirlpool.
A familiar dreamy flow. That was a dream used by Lucid, a lucid dreamer who was one of Nirva’s five servants.
Quang!
Ludger’s fist entered Nirva’s cheek cleanly.
His body fell to the ground, leaving a deep crater in the ground.
With a huge vibration, fragments of the broken floor surfaced.
Ludger punched Nirva again, who fell to the ground.
Quang! bang! bang!
Every time he shouted, Nirva’s body sank to the ground.
My nose sank and my teeth broke.
Nirva is an enemy, but she is so devastated that we feel sympathy for her.
Ludger held the sword stick and took a stance to swing it towards Nirva, who had been completely subdued.
“Hehe. Cough!”
Nirva, who was wheezing and exhaling, grinned at Ludger.
Ludger tried to swing his sword but paused for a moment.
I had a bad intuition. I feel as if all of this was induced by Nirva.
Ludger slowly lowered the sword stick he was swinging and stepped back.
“I won’t kill you. “For now.”
