Chapter 1010: Conjunction Spell Master (11)
A sphere of flesh explosively swelling, engulfing the Conjunction Spell Master.
Flames surged between the tattered walls and ceiling of the Life Domain.
The corpses of Chimeras, burnt and melted, lay lifeless everywhere.
In the chaotic heart where everything was breaking and collapsing, the swollen sphere of flesh slowly rotated.
A grating groan…!!
As if coiling and tightening itself into a sphere, belatedly reining in the uncontrollably surging power.
In an instant, it compressed its form, reshaped itself anew, and stepped down barefoot.
Thud!!
“Haaah…”
With a low sigh, the Conjunction Spell Master, who had emerged from within the sphere of flesh, raised his gaze.
His head was caked in blood. Half his face was burnt and grotesquely disfigured.
But what felt most bizarre was the greyish-white brain itself, openly exposed without even a scalp.
The grey, glistening brain convulsed and trembled within the Spell Master’s head.
The central nervous system connected to the brain. Violent rejection reactions spread throughout his entire body along the nerves.
The Spell Master’s body twisted uncontrollably, visible even to Lennok’s naked eye.
A tremor… then, abruptly, it ceased!
At that moment, the convulsions spreading throughout the Spell Master’s body ceased as if they had never been.
A skull and scalp regenerated over the exposed brain, covering his head, and he raised one hand.
The moment the Conjunction Spell Master slowly clenched his fist and raised his head, meeting Lennok’s gaze.
BOOOOM!!!
The Spell Master’s fist slammed into Lennok’s solar plexus with incredible speed, sending him crashing dozens of meters back.
“…!!!”
Thud-thud-thud-thump!!!
The fleshy walls and membranes of the Life Domain tore like paper.
Lennok’s ricocheting body slammed against the walls and ceiling dozens of times, tumbling through the circulatory chambers interwoven with blood vessels.
“Cough…!!!”
It shattered the protective barrier repelling external shocks in a single blow, crushing bones and internal organs.
Despite blocking it by enveloping his entire body in the Crimson Star System, the sheer force pierced through the flames and struck his bare flesh.
The Spell Master’s arm burned away and his upper body was incinerated and scattered, yet it didn’t stop.
[ROOOOAR!!!]
Dozens of colossal, elephant-like Chimeras manifested from all sides of the Domain, pressing down on Lennok and exploding.
The Spell Master, regenerating his body by absorbing the exploding flesh and blood, dropped down onto the tumbling Lennok.
CRRRUNCH!!!
The incantation speed and output of the Conjunction Spellcraft had nearly doubled compared to just moments before.
A bombardment that tore apart the remaining divine barrier into shreds before he could even alter the barrier’s conditions or react.
As Lennok was relentlessly pushed back, the Spell Master spread his hand before Lennok’s eyes and drew forth twisted, black mana.
Conjunction Spellcraft activated.
[Spatial Conjunction [Gongjeop]]
CRA-AASH!!!!
Lennok’s body was sent hurtling backward at incredible speed, crashing into the Life Domain.
It utterly destroyed the organ storage room, shattered the freezer, passed through the medicine storage room, and pierced through five corridors.
Lennok, barely stopping before the storage room, coughed up a gush of blood and drew on his mana.
‘This isn’t just simple spatial conjunction. Could it be…!’
He ignited healing flames, slowly massaging the spaces between his injured ribs.
If he hadn’t administered painkillers beforehand, he wouldn’t have been able to control his body amidst the agony.
Lennok coughed up blood a few more times before difficultly opening his mouth.
“…Insane.”
When had Lennok ever spoken such words to another spellcaster?
But the moment he realized what the Conjunction Spell Master had done, Lennok could only utter those words.
A procedure he had never dared to attempt, even after opening his eyes in this world and living as a wizard.
Even Lennok, who had witnessed countless mysteries and miracles, found it hard to believe what the Spell Master had just done.
“His own left brain and… Zelih’s right brain…”
“Conjoined them.”
The Spell Master walked out in front of Lennok and deeply pressed a finger into his temple.
“I expected a severe rejection reaction, but this is beyond what I imagined. My head is… all tangled up.”
“…”
“First comes the backwash of emotions. Then memories, I suppose. Though the memories are too full of impurities to filter out easily.”
As he spoke, the Spell Master’s eyes spun around like those of a madman.
“It would be quicker to reject new information for now and sort it out after the battle. It would have been easier if I had a thought-stabilizer, but…”
The central nervous system, conjoined by connecting the brains, was raging, unable to accept the presence of the new right brain.
But Lennok knew that this wasn’t the entirety of the Spell Master’s ‘mad act.’
A trump card the Conjunction Spell Master had used at the very end of his battle with Lennok.
The Conjunction Spell Master hadn’t simply prepared a spare brain and attached it to his head.
He had, from the very beginning, been fighting and conversing with Lennok while half his brain was already severed.
“…So that’s why you weren’t deploying your Domain. Had you already extracted your right brain the moment you faced me?”
Lennok, catching his breath with difficulty, slowly spoke.
“How… how can you think and move perfectly fine with a body like that?”
The Conjunction Spell Master’s Life Domain, as he said, was not an ability directly helpful in combat.
It merely functioned as a factory, producing Chimeras, assisting surgeries, and storing extracted organs and experimental subjects.
Its very purpose wasn’t it a tool created to revive the Long-lived Being stationed at the Gateway?
That’s why Lennok had been surprised by the Spell Master’s skill in continuing to fight without relying on his Domain, but even that, in reality, had been done with half his brain extracted.
“No matter how powerful a spellcaster, it would be difficult to control one’s body with half a brain missing.”
Lennok turned to face the Spell Master and asked.
“Not to mention physical functions, even cognitive abilities and reaction speed would drop. The imprinting efficiency of the Root Mindscape would also be significantly lowered.”
“The body of a Transcendent being is intimately assimilated with their mind and psyche. It doesn’t simply cease to function because a part is missing.”
The Spell Master replied, piercing his temple and touching his own brain within.
“My extraction of the right brain was entirely my own will. Because it was a matter I judged, thought about, and decided myself, my psyche and soul can perceive the physical deficit and maintain balance.”
“…”
“Of course, this is only because my body and soul are hovering at the absolute minimum threshold to maintain ego. I’ve already dissected myself a few times to test how much damage my soul can withstand.”
The Conjunction Spell Master’s declaration that even he himself was no exception to the rules of research and experimentation.
True to his words, had the Spell Master truly dissected even his own body and soul to test his own ‘strength’?
Lennok too had repeatedly experimented on his own body, going through trials and errors, but the research the Spell Master spoke of implied an even greater degree of damage.
“The experimental results showed that the moment the body’s damage ratio drops below 49%, balance can no longer be maintained. If I fail to control the proportion, from that point on, I cease to be Avesta Chapman.”
CRACK!!
The Spell Master said, forcibly twisting Zelih’s rejecting right brain and attaching it to his brainstem.
“What is human ego? Where does the concept of free will originate? Are we truly choosing what we want?”
RIPPING…!!
Even as he spoke, parts of the Spell Master’s body swelled up like balloons and exploded.
Even while profusely bleeding and oozing, he regenerated his body in the blink of an eye, restoring it to its original state.
The Spell Master’s form, dying from the rejection of an conjoined foreign brain, yet simultaneously regenerating from its intended function.
CRACK!!
The moment the Spell Master raised his hand, space twisted and warped before Lennok’s eyes.
The instant Lennok widened the distance, avoiding the ‘conjunction’ of space exploding before him, the Spell Master was already behind him.
Before Lennok could even meet the indifferent gaze of the Spell Master, who had raised his hand from behind, he compressed and focused all of his Stopping Wheel Barrier.
BOOOM!!
Lennok’s body, this time, pierced clean through the floor levels of the Life Domain and slammed into the ground.
“…!!!”
“Perhaps all those questions hold no meaning at all. But I need to know.”
The Spell Master said, looking down at Lennok, who was kneeling in the center of the blast crater.
“If I must understand and dismantle everything in this world, then re-conjoin it with my spellcraft… then I will do so.”
“Was acquiring Mikal Zelih’s innate ability itself preparation for that…?”
Conjunction Spellcraft is the power to conjoin and control objects that one has understood and elucidated.
Therefore, the Spell Master sought to understand and dismantle everything in this world, making them subjects of his spellcraft.
This was one of the answers Avesta Chapman offered, as the axis of the Great Connection envisioned by the Order Alliance.
That for this, he could even cut out his own brain and replace it with a new one.
The Spell Master was proving this directly to Lennok, right here and now.
“Evan Martinez. Spellcasters like us don’t move for just one reason.”
The Conjunction Spell Master replied, spreading his palm towards Lennok.
A strange gesture, as if powerfully pulling something invisible.
“Even this moment you face me is interwoven with a tangle of causality that cannot be explained by a single cause.”
Huuuum…!!
Simultaneously with the bizarre resonant hum echoing in Lennok’s ears, the Spell Master whispered.
“That is why a special talent like yours is all the more necessary.”
“…!!”
WHISP!!
There was no time to react.
As if cutting out the very scenery before his eyes, the next moment the Spell Master had gripped Lennok’s neck.
“Kuk…!!”
“If you’re an Apostle-Slayer, then you know, don’t you?”
The Spell Master, gripping Lennok’s throat and pressing him down as if to subdue him, met his gaze.
“That to kill an Incarnation Body of the apocalypse, a special ‘power’ is needed. A miracle capable of suppressing the blessings of an Outer God and delivering death to the Incarnation Body.”
“…”
“Show me, Evan Martinez.”
CRUNCH…!!
With one hand, he shattered the barrier around Lennok’s neck and powerfully tightened his fingers.
Enveloped in black, twisted mana as if about to use spellcraft at any moment, the Spell Master whispered.
“You still have something you haven’t shown me, don’t you?”
Conjunction Spellcraft activated.
[Forced Extraction [Chukchwe]]
BOOOOOOM!!!
The sticky mana that erupted from his hand exploded, tearing off the neck it had gripped.
A killing technique that conjoins and extracts all body parts of a living creature except its head.
But what had been gripped and decapitated by that hand was not Lennok, but the corpse of a lifeless Chimera.
Lennok, having used Flicker to fall behind the Spell Master, gasped for breath.
“Cough…!!”
“Unbelievable.”
THWACK!!
The Spell Master’s right arm exploded on the spot, but his expression was filled not with pain, but with surprise.
Because he realized that Lennok had, quite literally, perceived and reacted to his attack.
“You predicted and reacted to spatial conjunction?”
“Indeed, there was no speed at all. From the beginning, that was…”
Lennok, panting, replied with difficulty.
“…A divine technique that conjoins space without physical contact.”
A divine technique that forcibly applies the concept of spatial compression, previously used by Apostles by borrowing their authority, to the surrounding space.
Lennok, looking at the Spell Master’s right hand that had exploded and burst, said.
“So you forcibly expanded and extended the range of your spellcraft, which previously only applied through direct physical contact?”
“…”
Conjunction Spellcraft could only conjoin targets that the Spell Master himself had directly touched and understood.
But the Spell Master forcibly conjoined a large area of space, closing the distance with Lennok.
An unrealistic expansion of the spellcraft concept, possible only because it was a trait-type spellcraft. Yet, even so, he could not avoid its price.
At the point of conjoining and compressing space, the Spell Master’s hand should normally have been damaged beyond repair, unusable ever again.
The Spell Master was enduring that penalty by using Mikal Zelih’s immortality ability.
“You forcibly conjoined targets beyond your spellcraft’s limits, and were recovering from the penalty with an immortality ability.”
“Regenerating the body using Chimeras is ultimately done through Conjunction Spellcraft, so it can’t nullify the spellcraft’s inherent penalties.”
The Spell Master affirmed.
“To endure the price of forcibly extending my spellcraft’s limits, I needed an ability that, conversely, was not encompassed by the spellcraft’s domain.”
Forcibly conjoining targets not understood or touched, and offsetting the price with an immortality ability.
The rampage of Conjunction Spellcraft, unconstrained by distance or target. A power wielded by even adjusting the ‘concept’ of the spellcraft.
Because it was a trait-type spellcraft, it had even more strict and fatal limitations and prices, which he surpassed and transcended after a life-or-death gamble.
Once he fully adapted to Zelih’s brain, even Lennok found it difficult to estimate how much stronger the Spell Master would become.
A new horizon, reached by transcending even his own Transcendent rank.
After his left and right brains fully assimilated, the new origin and psyche the Conjunction Spell Master would acquire—
CRUMBLE…!!!
The colossal body of the Long-lived Being, twisting and thrashing within the barrier of Celestial Flower’s Myriad-League Fragrance.
The Life Domain ceaselessly shaking, and massive lumps of flesh burning and contorting everywhere.
“This is the end, Evan Martinez.”
WHISP!!
The Conjunction Spell Master, who had descended before Lennok’s eyes, said.
The uncontrolled physical regeneration, a side effect of conjoining Zelih’s brain, was no longer present.
He appeared before Lennok in surgical scrubs, having perfectly restored his original form.
“After this battle, I will make the first Gateway my Domain and move the Central Front.”
“…”
“The Order Alliance’s Great Connection will now extend its power beyond the center, across the entire continent. Vulcan too will not escape its influence.”
The Spell Master, looking down at Lennok with indifferent eyes, declared in a low voice.
“Before you become a part of the Great Connection and witness all those great deeds… do you have any last words?”
Avesta Chapman, the Conjunction Spell Master, a Grand Spell Master of the Order Alliance.
But it was not merely innate talent that made him a great spellcaster.
A curiosity that abandoned humanity to understand and explore his spellcraft.
A cruel resolve to sweep across the entire continent for the Great Connection.
A ruthlessness that exempted even himself from such implications.
The madness of throwing a life-or-death gamble that Lennok couldn’t even imagine: switching out his own brain during a decisive battle.
All those factors and impulses, desires and wills, converged to make him who he was.
That is why, even after replacing half his brain, the Conjunction Spell Master was still himself.
But—
“Trait-type spellcraft is truly difficult.”
“…What?”
“Perhaps because the spellcraft itself is tied to the spellcaster’s origin, even after mastering the sensation, I can’t find balance.”
Lennok said that, and then stood up.
Lennok looked at the blood dripping from his wrist, then clutched it with one hand.
“If this is all it takes even after enduring so much… then I have no choice but to forcibly dismantle and analyze it.”
WHOOSH!!!!
Amidst the fresh blood flowing down his arm, a golden radiance mingled.
Golden and crimson blood intertwined, a rotating spiral glowing around Lennok’s wrist.
“That’s…!!!”
It was a faint light, as if it would vanish at any moment, yet the Spell Master instinctively knew.
That was it.
The secret that wizard had hidden from the Spell Master until now.
Perhaps an origin that even the Conjunction Spell Master’s clones had failed to glimpse.
A miracle whose source even the Spell Master himself, witnessing it firsthand, could not decipher.
The golden light flowing through the blood filled the Spell Master’s mind, crushing all his will-thought as if pushing it away, in that instant.
[Magic System Ouroboros Activated]
[Trait-type Conjunction Spellcraft Deconstruction Calculation]
[Incomplete Mana Conversion, Power Transformation Preparation Complete]
[Perpetual Motion Engine Deployed: Power Flow Connection Point Conjoined]
GRINDING…!!!
The unpleasant sound of gears grinding echoed.
The Perpetual Motion Engine, forcibly rebalancing the distorted equilibrium of mind and soul, will-thought and psyche, while dismantling and absorbing spellcraft.
“I admit it, Conjunction Spell Master.”
Lennok, weakly extending his hand, raised the Ouroboros magic circle rotating around his wrist.
“It’s truly been a long time since I used this on another spellcaster.”
CRACKLING!!!
His vision turned crimson, and he felt as if more than half of his body’s vitality had instantly drained away.
Mana burning away and depleting at an immense rate, even at this very moment, due to the deployment of the Domain.
An imbalance that made it impossible to maintain equilibrium, even with Ouroboros activated and the mana support of the Crimson Star System.
His body, tattered after the fierce battle with the Spell Master. Even his will-thought, wearing down, unable to endure the continuous use of spellcraft.
Yet, despite all this, Lennok realized how he had to face the Conjunction Spell Master here.
WHOOSH!!
Behind Lennok, six celestial bodies lit up one by one, tracing brilliant trajectories and rotating.
The re-activation of Crimson Star System [Jeoksaekseonggye], the amplification-type secret art that had blown off half the Spell Master’s head immediately after its release.
He once again activated the secret art that had reached Solar Zenith, drawing forth flames.
ROOOOARING…!!!
Amidst the onslaught of breathtaking inferno, even the immortal Spell Master momentarily winced faintly.
“Conjoining Conjunction Spellcraft with an immortality ability. A monster that unleashes unlimited output through that.”
But Lennok paid no heed, raising his finger with the six celestial bodies floating around him like a halo.
“But after enduring this much, grasping the sensation itself isn’t difficult.”
“…What?”
“Magic System activation.”
Huuuum…!!!
Above the golden magic circle, twisted black trait-type mana rotated.
“Hellfire Illusion Palace. Celestialization [Hangseonghwa] deployment.”
Black-green flames appeared on Lennok’s finger, which was pointing at the Spell Master.
The moment Lennok, having ignited the Hellfire, the flames of a negative dimension, brought it beneath the orbit of the Crimson Star System.
“Conjunction Spellcraft activated. Celestial Body Orbit Conjunction.”
“…!!!!!”
GRINDING…!!!
The orbital path of the star system completed by the six celestial bodies twisted, and a seventh celestial body of Hellfire began to be newly born.