71.
To eliminate even the slightest attachment to survival, most of his original memories were erased under an appropriate amount of electrical stimulation. The sparkle of fountains he might have once watched with friends was surely beautiful. The warmth of a lover who might have existed was certainly comforting.
But in the face of global destruction, such personal sentiments were all luxuries.
It didn’t take long for humanity, having shifted the foundation of all industry and life from fossil fuels to nuclear fission energy, to struggle with woefully inadequate energy supplies. They lasted a generation at most. Disposing of the waste left after nuclear fission was a problem that couldn’t be solved even with countless iterations of breakthrough technological advances, and the fission process itself was unstable.
At a point when the existence and meaning of nations no longer held much value, humanity finally gathered all its remaining intellectual power. They embarked on the transition to nuclear fusion power, which had previously remained merely at the conceptual stage.
Nuclear fusion power seemed to be an incomparably good and excellent method of energy generation, with much higher stability than nuclear fission even if external shocks occurred during the energy generation process, and with waste output so small it made comparison meaningless.
For a while, this was true. Humanity squandered the nearly infinite energy and let another two generations pass.
Problems emerged around the time when the human population grew beyond what the Earth could sustain.
No matter how minimal, waste from energy production definitely occurred, and the various newly created chemicals and viruses endlessly threatened humanity.
Around that time, a brilliant scientist suddenly appeared like a savior. Creating an artificial black hole with a massive particle accelerator, he disposed of all problematic waste, components, and materials into the black hole, as if deleting unnecessary files from a PC.
The subspace, which seemed to open a different dimensional axis on the same spatial coordinates, wasn’t exactly a black hole, but that didn’t matter much. People called these artificial spaces black holes because they endlessly devoured masses of junk.
Disposing of the black holes was even simpler. They just had to be loaded onto already-developed time machines and sent to some point in the past.
Though they had never managed to send living things safely to the past or future, the bizarre energy masses that naturally formed inside the black holes could hardly be considered alive to begin with, so what did it matter if they died? No one treated these energy masses—which crudely mimicked traces of organisms left in distorted space and possessed less intelligence than wild animals—as proper living beings.
There seemed to be no shadow looming over the brilliant present. It was an era where artificial suns that could last easily for ten or twenty years could be created with cutting-edge technology. Even if a small shadow began to form, it could be eliminated by strongly irradiating it with the light of the created suns.
No one worried about environmental crises. No one lamented the depletion of resources. For depleting resources, they just developed substitutes, and for the industrial byproducts that accumulated in layers, they just diligently loaded them into black holes and dumped them in the past.
The existence of innumerable parallel universes, as abundant as soap bubbles, had already been proven by experiments centuries ago. It didn’t matter to those enjoying the prosperity of the future if dozens or hundreds of pasts were completely shattered and destroyed. Even if those countless soap bubbles were all swept away by water, as long as just one—just one universe remained, new universes would form from there and grow vigorously, eventually connecting to the future where they existed.
As long as the artificial black holes that their disrespectful descendants recklessly opened and abandoned in the cracks of time didn’t end up burning all universes without leaving even a single past, the perpetuity of humanity’s paradise, having regained purity, was already a determined fact.
By this point, everyone would have noticed that determined facts exist precisely to be defied.
Humanity’s paradise, which had conquered energy shortages, environmental pollution, and the resulting climate anomalies, began to shake from its roots before lasting even a century.
They would go to sleep and wake up to find this part of the Eurasian continent gone, then sleep and wake again to find that part of the African continent hollowed out like worm-eaten fruit.
After reckless speculation, the parallel universes, once as numerous as soap bubbles, began to be cleanly washed away.
Around the time when the number of remaining pasts decreased from countless bubble drops to grape clusters, and from grape clusters to the count of human fingers, he was selected as a legacy to be sent to the past. An Esper with the prophetic ability, hailed as a prophet, specifically pointed to him.
His memories only remain from after he was selected as a legacy and entered the institution. The prophet told him to find the strongest Esper of whatever era he landed in, saying that was as far as his foresight allowed.
By then, there was only one parallel universe left that hadn’t been destroyed.
The mission—finding the strongest Esper of the era without being told exactly who it was, and somehow preventing the past from being destroyed by fully utilizing that Esper’s abilities to connect it to the present—sounded absurdly unreasonable, but it was no time to be picky.
Before fully implementing the Messiah project, on which the fate of all humanity rested, the future leadership sent many people into black holes and pushed them into the past. It was a trial and error to ensure that the precious legacy would survive and safely arrive at the intended destination. To minimize timeline confusion and suppress the resistance of test subjects, those abandoned to the past, as he had experienced, were laid on cold operating tables and had all the precious parts of their remembered lives extracted.
Everyone praised it as a noble sacrifice, wearing polite masks. Regardless, thanks to their sacrifices, he was able to safely reach the past with his life intact.
Life in the 21st century, which he had only seen in ancient history books, was primitive, but still civilized enough to enjoy minimal conveniences. Following the prophet’s instructions, he searched for the strongest Esper of the era. A few items brought from the future for convenience proved quite useful.
The first person he chose as a Messiah candidate was the S-class Esper David Howard, who had the ability to control gravity.
Having lost all memories and rights as a private individual and existing only as a device and tool for the salvation of the world, he no longer had anything like a name. He wasn’t sure about before, but certainly after his memories were erased.
So, during his first introduction to Howard, he stated his position as “Legacy.” Howard arbitrarily shortened the pronunciation and understood it as a name, immediately beginning to call him “Lexy.”
Thus, he became Lexy and took his first successful step into the 21st century.
It was about ten years before the destruction of this world that he knew of.
However, not everything went smoothly according to plan.
The prophet had said earlier that when he met the Messiah, he would naturally know how to pave the way. It was true that he couldn’t find an Esper stronger or more special than Howard, but he couldn’t grasp how to prevent the world’s destruction with the ability to control gravity. The fact that his matching rate with Howard was only about 85 percent was also suspicious.
For what the prophet had prophesied as destiny and salvation… David Howard was definitely lacking in many ways.
That was when it happened.
Just as he was racking his brains, thinking he needed to gather information and look for other suitable alternatives.
– Hello. I am Ryu Ho-yeon, assuming the position of Acting Team Leader of the Esper General Team at the South Korean Ability Management Office, Seoul Central Branch, as of today.
The S-class Esper Ryu Ho-yeon, with the ability of materialization, revealed his existence that had been tightly concealed from the world. Almost as if… it was destined timing.
* * *
“Can you imagine how my heart trembled when I discovered you? Even through that crude monitor screen, how brightly you shone.”
Lexy’s lengthy story was as implausible as could be. He wanted to sarcastically remark that even an alien who had dropped out of a UFO would have been more convincing, but for some reason, the words wouldn’t come.
Perhaps it was because the matching rate measured between him and Lexy was too unbelievably high—yes, as he said, “like destiny”—to simply dismiss it as a lie or the ravings of a megalomaniac.
“Even if everything you’re saying is true, I still can’t accept it.”
Instead of arguing that he shouldn’t try to bewitch him with nonsense, Ryu Ho-yeon calmly asked:
“You said you first really learned of my existence when you watched my inauguration broadcast.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Then why didn’t you appear right away? Several years have passed, and if it’s such an important issue—if you and I are supposed to save the world together—isn’t it an urgent matter?”
“The you at that time didn’t seem to have any reason to save the world. I thought you’d just casually take a nap, thinking ‘if it perishes, it perishes.’ Since the world wasn’t going to end right away, I thought I’d watch for a few years. In the meantime, I needed to learn more about you as a person.”
“What?”
His destiny, who said he had come from the distant future to meet him, opened his mouth with a low laugh, seemingly more than satisfied.
“My judgment was right. I’m glad I waited. Ho-yeon, what do you think? Is this world worth loving now?”
“…!”
“Do you now have any willingness to save this world where the person you love so dearly must continue to live?”
The man, whose emotional centers as well as memories had long been erased under an appropriate amount of electrical stimulation, still wore a kind smile all over his face.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
