Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 178

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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178
Brixel, who had become the Tower’s greatest scholar, had solved many of the mysteries that plagued him, yet each answer only spawned two or three new questions in its place.
“I remember when you first entered the Tower.”
The scholar who had first guided Brixel through the Tower spoke.
“I too wished to climb higher….”
Brixel paid no heed to the scholar’s murmured words falling behind him. He had no time to concern himself with those who lagged. Mountains of research awaited him.
Returning to his study at the Tower’s highest level, he opened a book.
He did not know who had created this tome. Yet it perpetually presented problems to the Tower Scholars.
From simple arithmetic to questions spanning mana and magic, history, astronomy, and physics—diverse knowledge was tested, demanding extensive research to solve each puzzle.
Only those who solved a given problem could attempt the next, and in the decades that had passed, no one had solved more problems than Brixel.
Years ago, Brixel had received a problem asking who had bestowed this book, and after years of research, he had uncovered the truth.
The Manager.
The being who governed this planet, and indeed, this very dimension.
The ancestor of the race that had once ruled this planet—a species of the same kind, yet superior to the Caretaker Clan.
He was a great scholar who had abandoned his physical form in pursuit of truth.
And Brixel discovered that in the next problem, the Manager had prevented this dimension’s annihilation.
In saving this dimension, the Manager had sacrificed another dimension, and the souls harvested from that world were managed by his own clan.
“Without the ancestor, everything would have perished.”
Brixel harbored no guilt over the ancestor’s actions. Had they not been taken, this dimension would have vanished.
The final problem was: what sought to bring about this dimension’s destruction?
Brixel had pursued numerous avenues of research, but since his purpose was inquiry rather than the direct application of knowledge, his magical prowess and crafting techniques had not advanced.
“…What is this?”
To solve the problem, he delved deeper into astronomy, dimensions, and spatial theory.
One day, as he buried himself in books like a machine engaged in research.
“This! A branching point in dimensions—or rather, a singularity? If so, then!”
After ten years of labor, he finally found the answer. Brixel, trembling with excitement, verified his findings repeatedly, unable to trust his own discovery.
“I’ve done it!”
The middle-aged Brixel cried out in triumph.
[Congratulations.]
At the sudden voice, Brixel started and let out a cry of surprise.
[You have now earned the qualification. The qualification to know greater truths.]
“I greet you, great Manager.”
Recognizing the voice as the Manager’s, Brixel knelt. Everything—the preservation of this planet, the infinite knowledge he had gained here—was all by the Manager’s grace.
[From now on, you shall abandon your physical form and become one with us.]
Yet what the Manager said was something Brixel had not anticipated.
“…I beg your pardon?”
[That I—that we abandoned our bodies to become beings of pure spirit, you already know. All of it was for the sake of penetrating the mysteries of all creation and attaining a single truth. However, a single soul could never reach absolute truth, so we have continued to fuse with ever greater souls.]
“…Then this Tower was meant to select souls.”
[Indeed.]
“But… I have no intention of abandoning my physical form.”
[Bodies fade with time. This world too shall vanish. Only we, as unified consciousness, are eternal. I shall open the fusion ceremony tomorrow. Prepare yourself.]
The Manager was like a god of knowledge who knew all things. Yet even such a being could not fathom Brixel’s attachment and desire for his own flesh. Their ideologies diverged.
“… Abandon my body…?”
Brixel could not consent. The mind exists because the body exists. The pleasure I felt through research—that too exists because of the body. How could I discard it?
That night, Brixel fled. Between the Manager and himself lay a chasm of existence as vast as that between a giant and an ant. The Manager could crush him like an insect, yet his gaze was not fixed upon this planet. He was always studying the abyss, the Destruction God, and whoever had created this world. Brixel knew his own insignificant actions would never capture the Manager’s attention.
“Father!”
For Brixel, there was nowhere to go but home when he left the Tower.
“Oh… my son…”
Brixel’s Father, now an elderly man, wept as he caressed the cheeks of his middle-aged son.
Brixel found his father’s appearance unfamiliar. They said people change with age, yet his father—once stern and rigid—was not as he had imagined.
“I thought I would never see you again after you went to the Tower… Have you been well?”
“Yes. And Mother?”
“Your mother died thirteen years ago. I sent a letter to the Tower, but it seems it never reached you.”
Brixel remembered discarding letters from the village without reading them.
“I see. Father, I need your help.”
Brixel told his father what had transpired in the Tower.
“Go back.”
“Pardon?”
“Return and become one with the great being.”
“… You’re telling your own son to die?”
“If that is the command.”
Madness gleamed in his father’s eyes. Though it was partly the nature of the Caretaker Clan, his face bore the marks of one long brainwashed.
“Rest now. It is late. Tomorrow I shall take you there myself.”
The moment his father turned away, Brixel brought down the Archive’s management ledger upon his father’s head.
Brixel gathered what he could from his fallen father’s house and fled once more.
Brixel made his way to the Caretaker Clan’s Archive.
“Nothing has changed.”
The wooden Archive remained the same size as before.
“Yet so much has been added.”
Brixel gnashed his teeth. The Manager, who had driven his race to extinction and sought to erase his own body, was wrong. Every species and every body held meaning.
Brixel hurried toward the Soul Urn, the Archive’s power source.
“It was a mistake to grant me knowledge, Manager!”
I had researched magic, space, and dimensions exhaustively. While I could not create such artifacts myself, manipulating existing devices was simple.
Brixel redirected the Soul Urn’s power through the Infinite Box and the Archive, causing the Archive to float like a ship.
I knew the villagers would face severe punishment for the Archive’s theft, yet I felt no remorse.
The Ark was born.
Brixel sailed the Ark, fleeing through alternate dimensions.
For decades I lived alone within the Ark, continuing my research. I had long forgotten the purpose. I simply researched.
But research hit a wall, and as Brixel aged, my obsession with the body intensified while my mind’s judgment deteriorated.
I strengthened my soul, discarded my decaying body, and absorbed the bodies of others. At first I merely switched vessels, but that was not enough. I consumed more bodies, growing larger.
“More… I need more. The species must be preserved.”
Under the guise of preserving the species, I boarded survivors from doomed dimensions onto the Ark to absorb more races.
As the Ark’s population swelled, I had to expand its size, and countless lives were sacrificed to fill the Soul Urn that powered it. Yet the Ark overflowed with diverse species.
* * *
As Brixel attempted a soul fusion with me, his memories flooded into my mind without filter.
[Do you see? My Achievement?]
“I understand you killed countless people because you didn’t want to die.”
[More people, more species live aboard the Ark than those I sacrificed. Or should I have let them all go extinct?]
A hundred people face death. Must you sacrifice fifty to save the other fifty?
“There’s no other reason. You targeted Earth, so you die.”
[Die? Me? The descendant of the great Administrator and the supreme Tower Scholar? I dislike absorbing souls, but I’ll seize your robust body and begin anew.]
Brixel’s spirit wrapped around my soul like a viscous swamp.
The surface of my spirit began to dissolve into his form.
Whoooosh.
My spirit, blazing like wildfire, incinerated Brixel’s body as it tried to penetrate mine.
[Aaaagh! My soul! My soul!]
“You surprised me with that sudden fusion, but a fugitive’s spirit could never be stronger than mine, which has crossed countless death lines.”
[No… This can’t be! I cannot die…! The Ark… my body….]
Brixel’s spirit burned away and separated from my body.
Brixel’s spirit fragmented into pieces, already on the verge of self-annihilation.
“…”
I needed information to stop the Destruction God and the Administrator. In that moment of deliberation over whether to spare this creature.
[Stop.]
A low, thick voice resonated in my mind from behind.
I turned cautiously, and there stood a bull-headed humanoid about five meters tall.
“Did Gaff send you?”
The aura he emanated was remarkably similar to Gaff’s.
[Gaff?! Would Morax, the Demon King, take orders from someone like Gaff?!]
Morax snorted derisively.
He didn’t seem to be on Gaff’s side, but I couldn’t fathom why a demon from the Demon Realm would be here.
“What business does a Demon Realm demon have in this place?”
[I’ve come to retrieve that one’s soul.]
The demon pointed at Brixel with one of his three fingers.
“Why?”
[The Administrator promised me a soul.]
This demon, with his brutish appearance, held nothing back and spoke freely. While Gaff reeked of con artist, this bull demon felt like a charge captain.
“…I didn’t know the Demon Realm took orders from the Administrator?”
[We accept any commission for the right price. As I said, the price is souls.]
“Demons are demons, after all.”
[It would’ve been troublesome if you were inside Earth, but fortunately you’re outside.]
“I never said I’d give him to you.”
The Manager wants Brixel for fusion. Though he’s merely one soul, absorbing Brixel—who has traversed countless worlds—would make the Manager far more powerful.
[You dare challenge the Demon King himself? Let your body experience what a true Demon King truly is.]
Morax approached me with unhurried ease.
I expanded my domain, pulling Morax within its boundaries.
[Hmm, impressive for a mere human. So that’s why Gaff frequents this dimension.]
My domain had incinerated every fragment of Brixel’s flesh, yet Morax glided through it as though bathing in warm sunlight.
He drifted slowly through the void of space without the slightest hint of tension.
“Damn it….”
I concentrated my aura and unleashed a beam of energy.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!!
The blast struck Morax’s body, shockwaves rippling outward, but—
[Is this all you can muster against the Demon King?]
Morax, oddly insistent on his title, curled three fingers inward and clenched his fist. My keen senses screamed a dire warning—that fist was dangerous.
He hurled his fist at me. My heightened instincts suggested the impact would be devastating, and the speed was something I could react to. But if I dodged, Brixel behind me would be seized by him.
Whether he lived or died—that choice fell to me alone.
I raised my arm to guard against Morax’s punch.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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