Chapter 1005: Conjunction Spell Master (6)
Click!!
Opening the case, he took out a small syringe.
With practiced hands, he filled it with the drug, then tilted his head back and plunged it into his shoulder.
Ignoring the piercing pain in his collarbone, this time he pulled out a pill bottle and chewed and swallowed a handful of pills.
Crunch!!
He plunged a needle into the vein inside his elbow. Connecting a tube, he inverted a drug ampoule and inserted it.
Lennok’s appearance, as he swiftly adorned his entire body with ampoules, pill bottles, and tubes.
“Is he insane?”
Zelih’s brain, observing from nearby, recoiled slightly from Lennok.
But Lennok, unperturbed by Zelih’s horrified reaction, spoke.
“These are items acquired from the Conjunction Spell Master’s pharmaceutical storage. He is an excellent doctor, so there’s no need to suspect defects or side effects, right?”
“Even so, what kind of drugs are you taking like that, one after another… Overdosing on cardiotonics and stimulants will cause all the blood vessels in your body to burst and kill you.”
Zelih, unable to hide his astonishment, sent a flurry of mental waves.
Was it perhaps because, as a member of the Ability Awakening Warband, he had a deep understanding of drug use for controlling superpowers? He seemed fully aware of how absurd Lennok’s doping was.
“Repeated intake of incompatible elixirs will erode your life force. If you want to commit suicide, there are plenty of better ways.”
“It’s fine,” Lennok said with a small laugh.
The reason for using Adamant Thunder’s combat style under the identity of Evan Martinez was already prepared.
“I’ve seen a Grand Archmage of Vulcan inspire himself this way. I understand the trick of how it’s done.”
“…”
“What needs to be controlled isn’t the dosage, but the combination ratio. If you combine them while accounting for overlapping and neutralizing effects, then administering them this way actually maximizes their efficacy.”
Ampoule needles plunged repeatedly through his shirt, a tube wrapped around his forearm, and an intubation tube inserted into his neck.
He deliberately wounded his body, pouring foreign substances and impurities into himself without restraint.
Immediately after starting the drug infusion, his heart pounded wildly, his head grew hot, and he felt a tingling sensation as if all the blood in his body was flowing backward.
The heat on his skin and even the air turned numb, and his sense of touch itself dulled.
But contrary to that, a life force that had not originally existed in Lennok’s body began to surge, and heat violently boiled within his stomach.
“Haa…” Exhaling a hot sigh, he knelt on one knee and reached into his coat.
Flutter!!
The Papyrus Argenteus, acquired from Jindun’s cradle. Lennok, kneeling with the enormous papyrus spread out, began to form hand seals with both hands.
Each time Lennok formed a hand seal, complex barrier spell formations rose and glowed above the papyrus.
Fwoosh…!!!
“Heaven’s Resolve (毅天). Adamant (金剛). Immovable (不動).” Three types of Stopping Wheel Barriers, specialized in defense and harmony, were constructed and wrapped around his entire body using spell-armaments.
“Deep Storage (浚貯). Advanced Words (晉言). Observational Speech (察話).” Three types of Flowing Line Barriers, specialized in search and vigilance, were deployed omnidirectionally and compressed.
“Exclusion (排喝). Divine Bear (神熊). Repudiation (斥朝).” Three types of Expulsion Barriers, specialized in exclusion and rejection, were manifested again and overlaid.
Over the nine types of barriers—Stopping Wheel, Flowing Line, and Expulsion—a tenth augmenting barrier was overlaid, completing his Self-Aura.
“Divine Barrier Manifestation.”
Krrri-ri-rik…!!!
Nine grand barriers and one divine barrier enveloped his entire body. Beneath them, dozens of minor barriers, previously incanted, swirled and rotated around Lennok, perfectly isolating and protecting his form.
A grand spell formation, converging and circulating every ounce of energy within his body without waste, striving for self-completion.
Thump!! As he took a step forward, the writhing corridor of the Operating Theater heavily rippled.
Faced with Lennok’s ominous aura, layered with dozens of types of doping agents and barriers, Zelih, who had been silent, finally asked.
“…Are you going to war or something?”
“Once I’ve achieved my objective in the Operating Theater, I might have to escape immediately.” Lennok, donning the Nyx Badge inside his coat and perfectly concealing even the slightest trace of his presence, said.
“There might not be any more time to prepare beyond this while heading to the Gateway entrance.”
Lennok, placing a hand on the writhing wall of the Operating Theater, nodded.
“Follow me. We’re moving now.”
“Moving? But there’s no open path here in the first place…”
Crud-d-d-duk…!! Zelih’s retort was abruptly cut short the moment he saw Lennok place his hand on the Operating Theater’s wall.
The moment Lennok’s arm touched the wall, the fleshy wall began to writhe and swallow him.
It was as if an extremely thick mass of muscle was absorbing and engulfing Lennok like a swamp.
Activating his Targeted Resistance ability, he assimilated his presence with the aura of this Life Domain.
With just that, the living Life Domain perceived Lennok as an identical entity and sought to assimilate with him.
“There’s no reason to walk a complicated path now.”
Lennok said so, gripping the tank containing Zelih’s left brain.
“We’ll move through this wall directly to the Gateway entrance.”
“No, even if you say that, if the tank breaks, I’ll-!!”
Lennok’s body, gripping the tank, instantly vanished into the crimson wall.
Crud-d-d-d-duk!!! The living flesh and muscle shifted, compressing and crushing Lennok.
If not for the barriers he had already deployed, he would have been crushed into a puddle of blood the moment he was buried within the flesh.
Yet, even amidst this, Lennok reached out and began to orient himself.
The Conjunction Spell Master’s Life Domain enveloped the Gateway entrance. And the Gateway entrance was adjacent to the surface.
Therefore, it wouldn’t be difficult to gauge the direction of gravity and find the part connected to the surface.
Kwa-deu-deu-deuk!!! The flesh squeezed Lennok, crushing him and oozing bodily fluids. The moment Lennok, gripping the tank, stepped through the crushed fissure.
The wall of the Operating Theater split open, and this time, it directly spat Lennok out onto the surface.
Ch-cheop!!
“Found it.”
Not a floor made of squirming flesh and muscle, but solid ground he could stand firmly on. Standing before the vast first-floor lobby, completely enveloped in living flesh, Lennok surveyed his surroundings.
“Ah… Aah…”
“Hoo, hoo…”
Chimeras moved through the lobby, emitting strange groans and sighs.
They seemed to be carrying materials needed for the Operating Theater, with heavy rebar slung over their shoulders and backs.
As if no commands other than transportation had been given, they paid no attention to Lennok even upon seeing him.
Passing the chimeras moving about, he looked up at the structure located at the far end of the lobby.
The gaping skull of a colossal demonic beast. A beast skull, tens of meters in size, sat at the end of the lobby.
The corpse of the gigantic demonic beast he had seen just before entering Gateway City. Beneath the gaping maw of its skeletal remains, a transparent shimmer wavered.
Woo-woong…!! The shimmer, wavering like a curtain inside the maw, emitted a blinding light.
The first Gateway to the central city of Ars Nova, and the entrance to the Veil. The first Gateway of the Central Front was, in fact, the corpse of this colossal demonic beast itself.
He walked into the gaping skull, standing before the radiant space where the shimmer dispersed and shattered.
“Haa…” Facing the shimmering before him, he slowly formed hand seals with both hands.
Each time Lennok’s hand seals traced through the air, complex spell formations were etched onto the Veil, rotating.
Krrri-rik…!! With a sound like forced grinding clockwork, the Veil before him began to creak and twist.
A violent reaction, completely different from when he tried to extract a Veil Fragment outside Gateway City. The Gateway entrance existed within the corpse of the colossal demonic beast. It was a fissure point where the Veil was most unstable and fractured.
Therefore, it was here that Lennok could directly extract Veil Fragments using his barrier spellcraft.
Barrier Formation Art: Isolation Imbuement
Barrier Formation Combination: Catalyst Extraction
Jjeo-jeo-jeo-jeok…!! The spell formation, rotating in Lennok’s hands, slowly tore away at the Veil as if carving it out.
The Veil Fragment contained within the spell formation, the moment it detached from the Veil, fragmented and scattered into dust.
Oh-oh-oh…!! The form of stardust, falling with blinding light before his eyes. The stardust contained within the spell formation accumulated gently in Lennok’s hands.
“Haa…” Lennok, who had been concentrating with sweat beading on his brow, finally tilted his head back and let out a low sigh.
An extremely precise manipulation of barrier spellcraft, difficult even for Lennok to control, to extract the Veil while perfectly preserving its nature and original form.
It was more difficult than expected, resulting in significant mana consumption, but it was a task that absolutely had to be completed here.
The Veil Fragment, created using the Shadow of the Star as a medium. Lennok had finally obtained the reason for his visit to the Central Front.
“You…” Zelih’s left brain, observing him from within its floating tank, asked.
“You weren’t looking for the Gateway to head into the Central Front, were you?”
“…”
“Reaching the Gateway entrance was your objective then. Your entry into the Operating Theater itself was to acquire the Veil Fragment, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.” He took out a transparent, glass-colored case from his coat and carefully transferred the stardust into it.
The Veil Fragment was a top-tier catalyst to be used in rituals. Preserving its state by sealing it in a container was crucial.
Lennok, having filled the case halfway with the stardust accumulated in his hands, tucked it into his coat and turned.
“My business here is done. Now, I just need to get out.”
“…”
“Bernard and Angel will be waiting outside. I’ll make contact with the Warband, hand you over, and then immediately escape Gateway City.”
Once he began to actively use his magic, the Conjunction Spell Master would surely notice. But while operating on the Magic Tower Lord, the Conjunction Spell Master couldn’t leave his post.
The important thing was to boost his firepower, blast through the outer wall of the Operating Theater in one go, and escape outside Gateway City.
If Jebyok moved in sync with the signal and added to the confusion, it might even be possible to distract the Conjunction Spell Master.
“It’s a shame I can’t retrieve the ritual weapon you mentioned, Hwangokseong, but I don’t have time to worry about that-”
“…”
“Mikal Zelih.” Lennok turned to the silent brain and asked with an expressionless face.
“Why haven’t you answered since a moment ago?”
“I… I apologize,” Zelih replied, hesitating.
“The truth is, I lied to you. I lied when I said I didn’t want to die, even in this state.”
“…”
“Even after the failure of the Immortal Body Experiment, I was continuously searching for a place to die…”
Zelih’s mental waves, which he had muttered mournfully, began to grow hazy as if corrupted.
As a sputtering static interrupted, the timbre of his voice slowly changed.
“Perhaps it didn’t really matter who could grant that wish.”
Zelih’s left brain spun around as it spoke.
Behind the silent Lennok, a young man in a surgical gown had appeared.
“The thoughts of a high-ranking Grand Archmage are truly difficult to read, aren’t they?”
“…”
“Repeating pressure and complicity, endlessly tightening and loosening your nerves, wondering when an opening would appear… and finally, at the very end, we meet.”
The Conjunction Spell Master, Avesta Chapman, who should have been operating on the Blaiver Magic Tower Lord. Not a clone made of chimeras, but his true body stood facing Lennok.
“About the absurd fact that Adamant Thunder and Cheonbeon of Vulcan joined hands.”
“…Conjunction Spell Master.”
“Before everything ends, let’s talk one last time.” The Conjunction Spell Master smiled and tilted his head.
“About the reason for this Gateway’s existence, and about our ultimate fate.“電視