Chapter 1000: Conjunction Spell Master (1)
“I had intended to finish the job before the patient awoke from anesthesia, but that superhuman’s power was stronger than I anticipated.”
Lennok was bound on the operating table, while the Conjunction Spell Master stood with his back turned, meticulously arranging surgical tools.
The Master, cleaning a pair of scissors and forceps, muttered with a thoughtful expression.
“Gravity-type abilities are tricky for this reason. They’re a complex mix of attraction and repulsion, spatial distortion and time compression, making them difficult to analyze.”
“……”
“It was obvious things would turn out this way the moment I failed to kill him with the first pattern, but I needlessly delayed and now my schedule is tangled… How bothersome.”
Instead of immediately taking action with Lennok tied down in the operating room, the Master was reviewing the just-concluded battle.
Outwardly, he appeared normal, but this man was also a madman with a severely warped mind.
However, instead of focusing on the Master, Lennok turned his gaze to survey the operating room.
The operating table in the pink-tinged room. Various tools arranged for the Conjunction Spell Master’s surgery.
Lennok didn’t miss the way the light crimson walls and ceiling writhed as if alive.
“A Life Domain… does that mean, literally, a living Domain?”
“Hmm?”
“This operating room. It was a living organism itself.”
Lennok, bound to the operating table, looked down at the Master and spoke.
“Though it exists as a Domain, because it’s a living creature, it was also treated as a summoned entity. That’s why such an absurd act as ‘summoning a Domain’ was possible.”
The last technique Ballak O’Edon used was a miraculous feat of manipulating the entire gravitational field to lift it.
It was an act of destruction closer to a strategic weapon, literally altering and smashing terrain.
It was a monstrous power that left even Lennok, who had witnessed it, speechless, enough to immediately understand why he claimed to have spent a long time refining his abilities.
But the Master did not confront Ballak O’Edon’s ability head-on.
He had summoned his specialized, installed Life Domain, the operating room, and absorbed its entire impact.
A Domain acquired upon reaching Level 8 is not a power that can be freely deployed and dismantled like a Domain of Self-Attributes.
The reason the Master could summon a Domain that is typically built in a specific area and used as a base or fortress, and use it as a shield, was because the operating room, being a living organism, was initially subject to summoning spells.
“Well, yes. If someone wants to die, I usually grant their wish, but I stopped mid-surgery and came out, you see.”
The Master, turning back, nodded and said.
“For me, who has sworn the oath of a healing sage, the patient’s well-being is an important matter. If I don’t complete the surgery as promised, troublesome restrictions follow.”
“So, you fled the scene without killing Ballak O’Edon?”
“There’s no reason to gamble on whether I could kill that gravity-type superhuman within the surgery time.”
The Master replied, wiping each of the surgical tools he had finished cleaning.
“Superhumans are the type that react most extremely to the Geas’s restraints. If he had cast a Geas on me, targeting me to boost his abilities, I also had no desire to fight him on a field advantageous to him…”
The Master’s words continued in the deafening silence of the operating room.
“A Geas using Target Designation, once activated, does not stop. The moment I forcibly broke his Target Designation by summoning my Domain, that superhuman must have begun suffering from the Geas’s backlash. Since even his final amplified attack was rendered futile, he’s probably a rag now.”
“……”
“He’s not worth killing, and if he’s incapacitated enough not to interfere for a while, that’s good enough. More than anything…”
The Master gently caressed the blade of a scalpel, then stepped aside and said.
“I didn’t want to waste unnecessary spellcraft once I had secured a valuable specimen.”
“……”
On another operating table opposite Lennok, the Blaiver Magic Tower Lord lay similarly bound.
He seemed to be struggling to open his eyes, silent as if the anesthesia the Master had administered earlier still held him.
Time seemed to have stopped for him in that spot; even his breathing was barely perceptible.
While Lennok gazed at the unconscious Tower Lord’s face, the Master, having gathered all his surgical tools, stood before Lennok.
His inorganic gaze seemed to pierce through Lennok’s face from behind the mask.
“Evan Martinez. I knew you were an unusual wizard, but seeing you directly makes you even more intriguing. A truly fascinating specimen.”
“……”
“You are clearly within the scope of my spellcraft, yet I cannot project your internal structure at all. Normally, the moment one enters my operating room, I should be able to see through them down to the cellular level.”
When in his Evan Martinez identity, Lennok intentionally lowers his Targeted Resistance.
Targeted Resistance itself can be seen as a talent almost synonymous with Adamant Thunder.
However, even with the resistance lowered, reading Lennok’s inner self or fundamental essence remained impossible.
The Master, with uncanny precision, had caught onto the subtle discrepancy and instinctively realized it stemmed from Lennok’s ‘specialness’.
“Indeed, it seems I won’t be able to understand unless I lay my hands on your body myself.”
“If you’re interested in my body, I have a proposition for you.”
“A proposition?”
“You were said to be an outstanding doctor even in the Central Council.”
Lennok, bound to the operating table, tilted his head, his gaze meeting the Master’s indifferent eyes.
“I suffer from a very old chronic illness. Would you diagnose me, in exchange for examining my body and taking your data?”
“……Evan Martinez. You seem to be mistaken.”
The Master adjusted his mask, shaking his head with an incredulous expression.
“Setting up an operating room at the Gateway and taking patients isn’t volunteer work. In the first place, I’m very particular about the patients I take on.”
“……”
“In that sense, you don’t strike me as a patient in need of my help. More importantly, as I already said—”
The Master’s eyes, devoid of emotion, gleamed as he looked at Lennok.
“You are not my patient; you are a specimen. And a specimen that might become a very exceptional case in my spellcraft research.”
“……”
“So, until the surgery is over, wait quietly and keep your mouth shut.”
The Master slowly approached Lennok and said with an expressionless face.
“There’s one more guest I need to attend to in Vulcan, besides you.”
“You expect me to believe that, when I don’t know what you’ll do after the surgery?”
Lennok asked with a smile.
“It would be better to settle this right now.”
Whoosh!
At the same time, black-green flames erupted from Lennok’s fingertips.
The Master’s expression shifted slightly as he recognized the Hellfire.
“Flames from a negative dimension, then. To use spellcraft while ignoring restraints, its integrity is certainly intriguing.”
As soon as he saw the Hellfire Illusion Palace, the Master stroked his chin, seeming to understand the spellcraft’s nature and principles.
“The idea of circumventing specific concepts through unorthodox means. Most of it is power akin to forbidden arts. Now that I think about it, there was an Ascendant who collected such forbidden arts…”
The Master, muttering with a thoughtful expression, soon let out a small laugh as if he’d understood.
“Ah, I see. You’ve met an Ascendant from the Old World, haven’t you?”
“……What?”
At the Conjunction Spell Master’s words, uttered without any hesitation, Lennok was, surprisingly, momentarily speechless.
Was the Master unconstrained by the word that others were cautious even to speak aloud?
As if Lennok’s reaction wasn’t surprising at all, the Master crossed his arms and tilted his head to the side.
“It’s not so surprising from the Order Alliance’s perspective. Though there are only a few remaining now, and hardly any that can communicate. You were lucky.”
“……”
“But this talent isn’t my interest. What I want to see is a bit more… a special kind of talent.”
Thump!
The Master naturally pressed down on Lennok’s shoulder, tightening his restraints further, and said.
“So, what slumbers within that body, I will take my time to ascertain.”
With that, the Master picked up his surgical tools and turned his back on Lennok without a hint of reluctance.
“Where are you going?”
“I told you, the surgery for the patient I’m handling isn’t finished yet.”
The Master said indifferently.
“The critical steps are all done, I just need to finish suturing the incision. I’ll have some time after that, so wait.”
“……”
The Conjunction Spell Master said that and then, holding the cleaned surgical tools, exited the operating room.
He opened a section of the wall as if it were being incised, and then his presence vanished into the undulating corridor.
He had captured and bound Lennok and the Tower Lord, and without taking any further action, he was going to finish his surgery.
Even after seeing Lennok use Hellfire, he showed no wariness.
That must be because he considered victory or defeat meaningless the moment Lennok entered this operating room.
But Lennok, tied to the operating table, was thinking about the meaning of the Master’s words.
An Ascendant from the Old World.
Excluding the Director and the Pontiff, the Conjunction Spell Master already knew about an existence Lennok had only recently become aware of.
Was it due to the Order Alliance’s goal of intertwining all spells in this world, or was it an intuition stemming from the Master’s own uniqueness?
“C-c-kh….”
At that moment, the Tower Lord, bound on the opposite operating table, struggled to move his shoulders.
The Magic Tower Lord, now conscious, raised his head toward Lennok and offered a cold smile.
“So you brought Hellfire out of Nox Biblio. You’ve acquired a relic beyond your station.”
“……”
“Seeing as he permitted you that Spark, it seems the owner of the Archive was rather fond of you?”
“I have no reason to tell you how I acquired the Spark.”
Lennok replied with an expressionless face.
“I only know that this Spark holds such value.”
“Puhahaha! Of course it does.”
The Tower Lord, unable to suppress his laughter, said.
“Let’s make a deal, Evan Martinez. If you share that Hellfire with me, I’ll help you leave this operating room alive.”
“……”
“It wouldn’t be a bad deal for you either. Surely you don’t believe you can escape this Domain with your own power alone?”
The Tower Lord pointed to the operating table that bound his body and said.
“All matter in this operating room is connected to the Domain. The bed you lie on, the belt binding your body. The air you breathe, the moisture… all of it is life itself, consecrated to this operating room.”
The Tower Lord’s face momentarily darkened as he spoke.
“You are under the surveillance of this Domain everywhere. Even the air that infiltrates your respiratory system is already this Domain’s. This grotesque operating room is a colossal museum built for precisely that ‘purpose’.”
“A museum, you say.”
“Hellfire. I’ve only confirmed it through Old World texts, but I heard it’s a power that opposes will-thought through negative attributes.”
The Tower Lord’s expression turned avaricious as he looked at Lennok’s hands.
“It’s a Spark with many uses. If you hand it over, I will cooperate in keeping you alive.”
“Just keeping me alive, only to leave me in a state worse than death?”
“……”
“As when we first met, you insist on playing trivial word games.”
Lennok slowly rose from his spot and said.
Clang, clang!
He rose, ignoring the belts and restraints binding his body as if they were nothing.
“That’s because you are confident you won’t die in this operating room.”
“……Wait.”
The Tower Lord stared in disbelief at Lennok, who had ignored the operating table’s restraints and stood up.
“How, you….”
“Was this the anesthetic the Master used on you earlier?”
Lennok opened a cabinet, took out a vial, then pulled a small ampoule from his pocket.
He injected the liquid from the vial into the ampoule and then plunged it into the Tower Lord’s neck.
“Gah!”
“Just sleep quietly. It would be troublesome if you were to babble uselessly.”
“Impossible…”
The Tower Lord gritted his teeth and mumbled, even as his eyes fluttered from the effects of the anesthetic.
“The operating room’s restraints… the conjunction of will-thought and mana… it should be a force impossible for a spellcaster to escape alone…”
The way the Master had bound Lennok was a restraint using Conjunction Spellcraft.
Therefore, Lennok could escape the restraint simply by briefly activating his Targeted Resistance.
This was the fundamental reason Lennok had allowed himself to be captured in the operating room.
It was possible because he was confident, through the Master’s words and actions, that the Conjunction Spell Master would not immediately kill him.
“Indeed, you seem to know an unusually great deal about the Conjunction Spell Master’s abilities.”
Lennok gazed at the Tower Lord with a chilling stare.
“I’m curious why you possess such knowledge, but… now isn’t the time to ask.”
As Lennok touched the operating room wall, as the Conjunction Spell Master had, a section of the wall opened as if incised.
Confirming that no one was in the winding, internal-organ-like corridor, Lennok immediately stepped forward.
According to Bernard’s explanation, the operating room was a Domain installed to encompass the Gateway entrance.
And fragments of the Veil could only be obtained near the Gateway entrance.
The plan had changed significantly, but at least he had managed to enter the operating room without arousing the Conjunction Spell Master’s suspicion.
“Ah.”
At that moment, Lennok, who had started to exit the operating room, turned back towards the Tower Lord.
The Tower Lord, swaying as he struggled against the anesthetic’s effects, gritted his teeth and raised his gaze.
“W-what…”
“Thinking about it, there’s one thing I absolutely have to do.”
Lennok said this and placed his hand over the Tower Lord’s sternum.
“Time is short, but I have to do what needs to be done.”
Woong!
As Lennok tapped the Tower Lord’s sternum and made a hand seal with one hand, heat began to gather above his palm.
It was a bizarre phenomenon, as if a specific energy was being forcibly drawn out of the Magic Tower Lord’s body.
Whoosh…!
The flames flowing from the Tower Lord’s body soon transformed into a warm, pale green flame.
The Tower Lord, who had been staring blankly at the scene, shrieked madly in terror.
“W-what are you doing?!”
“The healing flames you were using earlier.”
Lennok, placing his hand on the chest of the panicking Tower Lord, whispered softly.
“They seemed very useful.”
“How dare you…!”
With his innate Attribute Control overwhelmed, the Tower Lord felt a chilling sensation as if the [Spark] residing in his body was being forcibly expelled.
Only then did the Tower Lord realize Lennok’s intention, and his face twisted horribly with a mix of rage and drowsiness.
“No, no…! I’ll kill you. Stop it!”
“I’ll make good use of that Spark.”
“Ugh… Aaaargh!”
Property Transformation: Seizing Manifestation [Attribute Control] [Fire Absorption]
After the pale green light flashed intensely and the Tower Lord’s screams faded.
Lennok walked out through the half-open operating room door.
“Now then…”
Lennok, gazing satisfactorily at the pale green flame gently burning in his hand, stepped into the corridor.
“Shall we begin immediately?”