Chapter 190 Chapter 190: This Is—The Inscription of 'Salvation'!
Chapter 190: This Is—The Inscription of 'Salvation'!
Why do birds fly?
For a moment, even Phantylia couldn't quite follow Kevin's train of thought—he said questions about power were irrelevant to combat, yet suddenly posed this even more tangential question to her.
But for this man she so greatly favored, Phantylia didn't mind spending a little more time on him.
"Because the world is simply like this, cruel and real... just as birds are born to fly, just as... some people are born with the ability to break the wings they use for flight."
Phantylia gazed at her own palm with an appreciative expression, then slowly clenched it together: "This world is not anyone's fantasy, nor do so-called miracles exist. Just as when my hand closes around this planet... it has already reached the time it should perish, so they died."
This is a very standard realism, yet also the most reasonable kind.
Just as when a wolf pack wants to hunt a lone sheep, no matter how much the sheep itself refuses this reality, it has no possibility of escaping the cruel reality by its own strength alone. True reality never carries any hint of fantasy.
This was Phantylia's answer. In her view, power is the factor that can determine everything. Of course, the power here isn't necessarily just superficial brute force.
Such an answer can indeed be considered correct, yet it wasn't entirely the answer Kevin wanted.
"You are right. Once, someone also told me that birds fly into the sky because they 'want' to. But that's impossible; it's just the wishful thinking of romantics." Kevin shook his head softly, narrating the facts: "I cannot achieve something just because I want to."
Everyone has things they want to obtain; everything existing in this world has its own desires—but this world never operates according to individual will.
"Later, I thought birds can fly into the sky because they 'must' fly into the sky."
"When the meteor of Finality descended in the Cretaceous period, only free birds could leap beyond the predetermined extinction."
Just like the law of survival of the fittest in the jungle, the outcome becomes the touchstone for everything; victory is justice—perhaps there were once birds that couldn't fly, but they all fell on the path of evolution. So, birds can fly.
"Until thousands of years ago, a dying philosopher told me a truth—some people fly precisely to fall."
Facing Phantylia, this nearly irreconcilable enemy, Kevin didn't mind telling her an old story: "On a certain immature civilization that couldn't even cross the sky of its own planet, there was a person named Icarus."
"He and his craftsman father used feathers to make wings, attempting to escape the island that imprisoned them... but he refused to heed his father's warnings and flew to a height he shouldn't have reached—a peak that the entire civilization had never attained. In the end, the sun melted the wax that fixed the feathers, causing him to drown in the sea."
"Perhaps for you, who can even easily grasp stars, his sacrifice seems utterly worthless; even he himself holds no value to you. But in fact, he had long decided his own death and fall, just to prove one thing."
"—'I flew before the sun, to a place no one has ever reached.'"
"—'So perhaps someone can surpass me.'"
"So, why do birds fly?"
Along with Kevin's words, the blade in his hand began to grow increasingly scorching—flames burning like a star even altered its original form, allowing this dead object that should have been fixed in shape at creation to coalesce into a new mode of existence.
Just as Kevin had told that Remembrancer earlier, life can be called life precisely because their future is never fixed; they have endless possibilities and can write their own unique futures.
All things in the world are like this.
Finally, Kevin gave his own answer to Phantylia, whose gaze was gradually shifting: "Because they once saw the first bird, with a heart as noble as the moon, attempt to touch the zenith, yet fall and die upon the ground."
"Because they once saw later birds make similar attempts and fly higher and higher—so now, birds still soar in the sky."
Just like Kevin of the past—he chose to become a bird like Icarus, flying to the pinnacle of his era, stealing all the brilliance of the sun.
But this doesn't mean he is everything. The reason for this is so that one day new birds can surpass him and again steal all his brilliance. Even if he melts because of it and falls into the sea.
Only slightly different from the story is that this bird named Icarus has not yet died but has begun his flight anew in another place, under another sky.
This time, Kevin didn't know how high he could fly or where he would fall—but this wasn't a reason for him to stop his journey.
He owed much to Phantylia and that Remembrancer; otherwise, even Kevin wasn't sure when he would set foot on the path of flight again... Even though everything he once bore has ended, that isn't a reason for him to stop.
Just like birds that never stop flying even when aged—since he can still reach higher and farther paths, what reason is there to stop now?
Not just for himself; even if only for everyone who was once by his side, he should continue onward.
Tap—tap—
Kevin stepped on non-existent stairs in mid-air one foot after another, soon reaching a height almost level with Phantylia's line of sight. He faced this strongest enemy he had ever encountered with a rather calm demeanor.
Even though everything experienced in the past has ended, they existed after all; they happened after all... He shouldn't discard all this, nor does he have reason to lay down his name.
Thus, facing this enormous enemy, Kevin gently raised the blade in his hand—
"All beasts of Brahma, gather upon this body! 'Karma Demon' descends into the abyss! 'Salvation' draws its sword! Step forth! This is—the Inscription of 'Salvation'!"
No comments yet
Be the first to share your thoughts!