Chapter 1013: Conjunction Spell Master (14)
Whoosh…!!
An immense quantity of fiery petals fluttered, engulfing the corpse of the Long-lived Being.
After sending off the Conjunction Spell Master, Lennok walked through the still-active Domain.
Even after the Conjunction Spell Master’s demise, the Life Domain he had constructed still blazed within the area.
The Operating Theater, a trait-type installed Life Domain that the Conjunction Spell Master had prepared and manifested over several months.
The Life Domain maintained its form within the Celestial Flower’s Myriad-League Fragrance not because its strength surpassed that of the Conjunction Spell Master.
It was merely Lennok’s intention to collect the remaining supplies and items from the Operating Theater after conclusively ending this battle.
[Ooooh…]
The Long-lived Being chimera, now one with the Life Domain, let out a slow groan from within the pillar of fire.
Even if left untouched, it would soon turn to a handful of ash.
Rip!!
As he drew his finger down, the fleshy wall split open, revealing the corridor inside the Operating Theater.
Lennok leaned against the wall, gazing silently down the corridor before muttering.
“I battered down the entire Domain, yet there are still untouched areas remaining…”
The engagement between Lennok and the Conjunction Spell Master was a continuous bombardment, incinerating and crushing the entire Domain.
He had torn apart the entire Life Domain amidst flame magic, Spatial Conjunction, and the chimera’s rampage.
Lennok realized what it meant for untouched spaces to still remain, despite all that.
Rip!!
Lennok pushed his hand between the fleshy walls and pulled out a blood-soaked arm.
Lennok realized whose arm it was and gave a bitter laugh.
“He dissected Mikal Zelih’s body parts and embedded them throughout the Domain, I see.”
Mikal Zelih, the Immortal, an innate ability user with hyper-regeneration.
If he dissected his body and ‘conjoined’ it into the Domain, it would be no surprise for damaged internal spaces of the Domain to regenerate.
He could understand why the Conjunction Spell Master had done such a thing.
Before being conjoined with the Long-lived Being’s remains, this Operating Theater was a Domain purely made of flesh.
There must have been spaces that collapsed or were crushed under their own weight.
The Conjunction Spell Master had embedded Zelih’s body parts to prevent the Domain from self-destructing under its own mass.
“The items that must be immediately recovered from the Operating Theater are…”
The reason Lennok left the Conjunction Spell Master’s Operating Theater within the Celestial Flower’s Myriad-League Fragrance, even after his death.
It was because Lennok was certain that there were still items he needed to collect from the Operating Theater.
The series of engagements that began when the Conjunction Spell Master realized Lennok’s objective much faster than expected.
The equipment and consumables inside the Operating Theater, which had been temporarily excluded then, could now be recovered.
Rattle!!
He rummaged through the reserve medicine storage and catalyst processing rooms located on the outskirts of the Domain, collecting all remaining goods.
Salt mushrooms and ghost spirit herbs that only grow in the central regions. Ice urine roots harvested from northern snowfield cultivation sites. Wizard-exclusive emergency medicine processed by the Order Alliance.
“Indeed, it would have been a pity to just pass them by.”
The Conjunction Spell Master was as skilled a doctor in healing as he was in destroying humans.
Many of the medicines he stored in the Operating Theater were exceptional, even by Lennok’s standards.
Lennok leaned back against a shelf in the storage room, tore open the packaging, and chewed and swallowed a small pellet.
As a pungent aroma spread from the tip of his tongue throughout his body, sweat quickly beaded on his skin.
Hiss!!
A therapeutic item that forcefully expelled accumulated impurities and waste products from the body by liquefying them.
Just by sweating, his body felt lighter, and his energy seemed to surge.
“Huu…”
Lennok let out a satisfied sigh and leaned his head back.
It was fortunate he could attempt some recovery right where the battle ended.
He couldn’t fully recover from his injuries immediately, but it was clear that the sooner he took action, the higher his recovery efficiency would be.
‘Thanks to the power of Celestial Flower’s Myriad-League Fragrance, much of my mana has recovered. This alone grants me a little leeway, but…’
The true value of Celestial Flower’s Myriad-League Fragrance isn’t just its scale and duration.
Within the Domain that bloomed over time, spellcraft effects and mana density surged explosively.
Lennok’s mana, which had been depleted right after the battle, had now recovered nearly halfway.
The headache that had throbbed in his head subsided, and as his energy returned, he felt a little hungry.
Clunk, clunk!
Deer antler, said to be made by melting the horn of a Phantom Beast species. Concentrated extract squeezed from Larabelli’s fruits.
Lennok, having gathered medicinal ingredients helpful for recovering energy, paused his hand when he discovered jerky made from ground and dried magical beast intestines.
“…”
Why was something that seemed fit only to be tossed to a chimera as a snack found in a medicine storage room?
Perhaps the Conjunction Spell Master occasionally enjoyed such bizarre food as a hobby.
While Lennok pondered, Davi, smelling the dried jerky from within his clothes, stuck out her tongue.
[Ewww.]
“What are you doing… by yourself?”
[It seems the organisms here don’t have taste buds?]
Judging by Davi’s reaction, it was definitely something ordinary humans shouldn’t eat.
Stroking Davi’s grumbling head, Lennok left the medicine storage room and immediately began searching the remaining rooms nearby.
“This is… a storeroom?”
He cut open the flesh-covered wall and swung open the storeroom door, revealing a flood of equipment and items.
Thud!! Crash!!!
“…”
Axes and staves. Grimoires and spearheads. Mana arrows pouring from quivers.
Lennok, gazing at the dozens of types of equipment that had spilled out, picked up a staff that had rolled to his feet.
“There are signs of someone having used it. The talisman wrapped around the handle is worn out.”
Lennok’s eyes deepened as he stroked the staff with one hand.
“A staff that aids Property Transformation… it’s not low-grade equipment. But it’s certainly not something the Conjunction Spell Master would use himself.”
The Conjunction Spell Master used no equipment during his battle with Lennok, aside from simple surgical tools.
Rather than looking down on Lennok, it was likely because such items would only hinder him in wielding trait-type spellcraft.
It would be more accurate to say they were spoils of war he acquired, rather than items he used himself.
“Should I take them for now?”
He opened his sub-dimension and swept the spilled equipment into it.
The sub-dimension quickly filled up due to its small size, but with a shrinking spell, he managed to cram everything in.
[There’s hardly any equipment that would be helpful to Master, you know?]
“They’ll be useful somewhere if I recover them. If not, I can just sell them in a nearby city.”
He would have passed by ordinary weapons, but most were mana-infused items or artifacts.
Moreover, if they were items the Conjunction Spell Master had kept as spoils, they would be useful somewhere, if only for that reason.
Thinking so, Lennok moved towards the upper levels of the Domain.
Although he was deliberately suppressing his power to preserve its original form, now that the Conjunction Spell Master was gone, the Domain itself wouldn’t last much longer.
There was something he needed to check before the Operating Theater was completely consumed by Time-Blossom Burn’s flames.
Bang!!
Passing through a familiar corridor, he blasted open the door to Main Operating Room No. 2 with an Explosive Flame Orb.
Lennok, entering the operating room with a burst of hot flames, stiffened at the sight of the empty operating table.
“…He’s not here.”
Only a blood-soaked surgical gown lay forlornly on the operating table.
The Blaiver Magic Tower Lord, who had been undergoing surgery with the Conjunction Spell Master, was nowhere to be seen.
“…”
He hadn’t been certain the Tower Lord would be dead here.
The Tower Lord Lennok knew was someone extremely obsessive and cautious about his own safety.
Such a Tower Lord would never have entrusted his body to the Conjunction Spell Master without any defenses.
“Even with constant mana detection, I can’t sense him… He might have already left Gateway City.”
Lennok, touching the operating table with one hand, fell into thought.
The patient gown on the operating table was arranged as if the patient was still lying there.
A peculiar trace, as if only the Tower Lord’s body had been cleanly extracted from the gown.
‘A precursor to ultra-long-range spatial leap, teleportation, or an equivalent transfer ability…’
Considering the oath of a physician sworn by the Conjunction Spell Master, it’s possible he evacuated the Tower Lord just before the battle.
If he has indeed left Gateway City, tracking the Tower Lord in Lennok’s current condition would be impossible.
It was a pity he couldn’t take more of the Spark and artifacts the Tower Lord possessed, but Lennok had a reason for returning here, knowing that.
“It’s not as if there’s no gain.”
Slam!!
A shelf for storing patient belongings, located behind the operating room.
Three articles of clothing, glowing with an ethereal light, lay on the shelf.
A phoenix robe, woven with elegant red embroidery.
A belt adorned with numerous flamboyant gem sockets.
A single, pure white glove with a red magic circle etched onto its back.
The Tower Lord had escaped, but he hadn’t managed to take his belongings, which he had changed out of for surgery.
Lennok lifted the red-embroidered robe and chuckled.
“Just like a Magic Tower Lord. All three articles of clothing are top-tier artifacts…”
These were items the Magic Tower Lord, who was extremely careful about his own body, constantly wore.
Each one was undoubtedly a top-tier artifact, or a relic or item of comparable quality.
[Oh?]
Davi, gazing at the artifacts from inside his clothes, tilted her head.
[Does this organism not wear pants?]
“…I’m not particularly curious. Don’t ask.”
Perhaps they were incinerated and disappeared during the Conjunction Spell Master’s battle.
Deciding to believe that, Lennok quickly changed his thoughts and gripped the robe and belt in both hands.
“Hmm…”
He could roughly guess what abilities the phoenix robe possessed.
It likely contained abilities that generally aided in the incantation or mastery of flame magic.
Considering the flame resistance the Tower Lord showed in his battle with Lennok, a related blessing might also exist.
The problem lay with the gem-socketed belt and the glove with the magic circle etched on its back.
While he’d seen Maiya Lonsdale use a similar gem-socketed item, the aura emanating from the glove was unusual.
It was almost as if it was the finest item among all the artifacts Lennok had seen in the Operating Theater.
“The magic circle etched on the glove. By my knowledge, I can’t interpret what kind of magic it is.”
Lennok frowned suspiciously and muttered.
“Could it be… a relic from the Old World?”
Previously, in Vulcan, the Tower Lord had attempted to kill Lennok using Old World combustion magic.
Could the magic the Tower Lord used then be related to this artifact?
He pondered for a moment, but testing all of the artifact’s abilities here was out of the question.
He picked up the robe and belt, and put the glove directly on his hand.
“…”
The snug fit itself was quite satisfying.
Lennok, testing the glove’s durability by tugging on the back of his hand, began to carefully examine the operating table again.
Neatly arranged on the sterilization device beside the operating table were scalpels, scissors, and forceps.
Lennok gazed at them, then wrapped the set of surgical tools in a towel and collected them.
“Jordan would like these if I bring them to him.”
As these were the Conjunction Spell Master’s personal surgical tools, they were surely not ordinary.
“Alright, then-”
The last item to find, recover, and interrogate in this operating room.
The levels of the Life Domain, burning and melting into disarray.
Amidst the remnants of internal organs engulfed in flames, a half-destroyed tank was buried.
Half a gray-white brain, submerged in the tank, was trembling and convulsing.
Lennok slowly approached the tank and looked down at the brain with cold eyes.
“Mikal Zelih. There were still some things we hadn’t talked about, weren’t there?”
[…I can’t believe it.]
From within the dried-up tank, that was the first mental wave Zelih sent.
[That Avesta Chapman… was defeated by you?]
“It must have been quite a difficult fight for him.”
Lennok replied, massaging his neck with one hand.
“His Domain itself isn’t an ability useful in combat, and he had split his own head in half to conjoin your brain.”
[…]
“And starting the fight by making himself half-dead to match the spellcraft’s backlash, or being able to impose a handicap due to the circumstances—”
[No. None of those can be an excuse.]
Zelih, cutting Lennok off decisively, said.
[The Conjunction Spell Master was not one to be swayed by such environments and conditions and fail to achieve results.]
“…”
[He fought you within his own Domain and lost. That is all.]
A desperate mental wave faintly echoed from within the tank.
[Evan Martinez. You… were stronger than the Order Alliance’s Grand Spell Master. How could—]
“It would have been good if you’d known that before the fight began, wouldn’t it?”
Crack!!
Lennok kicked and shattered the tank, then gripped Zelih’s left brain with mana.
As he held half the brain suspended in the air and applied pressure, a painful mental wave flowed out.
Lennok looked at Zelih and said.
“As the one who provided the Conjunction Spell Master with his immortality ability, don’t you think you bear some responsibility for this outcome?”
[…]
“Was the leader of the Ability Awakening Warband named Ophelia? I’m very curious how she’ll react when she learns you betrayed the Warband and sided with the Alliance.”
[Ophelia…]
Zelih emitted a bitter mental wave.
[Ophelia, the Zero Seat, won’t care. She can no longer distinguish individual ability users within the Warband.]
“What?”
[To unify the Warband and stabilize surging talents, she merged with the Collective Psychic Network…]
“…”
[Now she is more of a collective than an individual. Her consciousness has become closer to a program than a human. Some even call it a ‘disease’, but—]
Zelih, who had been speaking, changed his tone and sighed.
[Enough. What more can I say about the Warband now?]
“…You.”
[I will answer anything I know. So after you’ve heard everything, please, in the end, throw me into that hellfire.]
Zelih’s mental network seemed to direct itself towards the colossal pillar of fire engulfing the Domain.
[If it’s your flames, the ones that killed the Conjunction Spell Master, they could surely burn even my consciousness to nothing. I beg you.]
“…”
It wasn’t impossible.
Celestial Flower’s Myriad-League Fragrance possessed the power to kill the unkillable, though in a different way than the Madness-Naked Void Palace.
Zelih’s brain, too, would not endure within Time-Blossom Burn’s flames, but would be incinerated down to its particles.
But Lennok had no intention of granting Zelih such a peaceful end.
“I’m afraid that will be difficult.”
Lennok said.
“The incineration of the Life Domain is complete. My Domain will now transform into an entirely different form.”
Whooosh!!!!
At that moment, the colossal pillar of fire that had been engulfing the Long-lived Being’s corpse began to rotate and surge upwards into the sky.
After incinerating and grinding away everything left to burn on the ground, the flames now reached far into the sky.
The [Veil] spread across the skies above Gateway City.
The flames of Celestial Flower’s Myriad-League Fragrance, having spread onto the Shadow of the Star, radiated light as they climbed and expanded across the Veil.
Thousands of fiery petals began to flutter down like snow.
Whoosh!!!!
Hot snow ceaselessly fluttered down over Gateway City, spreading across the grasslands.
Not merely leaving flames at the Gateway, but a power that transformed the environment of the first Gateway itself.
Only then did Zelih realize what kind of Domain Lennok had deployed at the first Gateway, and he let out a gasp.
[He’s insane… A Mind Imprint that changed the Gateway’s environment itself?]
“Now that the Long-lived Being’s corpse is gone, a medium is needed to serve as the [Gateway] for the Veil, wouldn’t you say?”
Lennok said, gazing indifferently at the burning Veil.
“The flames of Celestial Flower’s Myriad-League Fragrance have already left my hands. These flames, transcending the constraints of time, will burn the Veil and become a new Gateway themselves.”
[…]
“Everyone will remember that I shattered and reshaped the Central Front’s first Gateway.”
Lennok smiled.
“That’s enough.”
Whooosh…!!!
The flames that had spread across the Veil converged into a single point, rotating in a circle.
A colossal ring of fire, suspended in the sky, brightly illuminated the ruined ground.
Lennok, gazing at the ring of fire floating above the ruined Gateway City, moved forward.
The desolate street where fiery snow fell. A stillness, as if time had stopped amidst the fluttering flames.
“This is the last, Mikal Zelih.”
As the flames of Celestial Flower’s Myriad-League Fragrance ascended and everything settled quietly in the city, Lennok, walking alone, said.
“When you first met me and tried to persuade me, you mentioned an artifact for pyrokinesis.”
[…]
“The Ritual Weapon: Fluorescent Star, which Ophelia, the Zero Seat, supposedly bestowed upon you. I couldn’t find a trace of it even after searching the Conjunction Spell Master’s Life Domain.”
The ritual weapon he had mentioned when he first met Zelih’s left brain, in an attempt to persuade Lennok.
Lennok hadn’t forgotten its existence from the moment he met Zelih again.
The last weapon and artifact to collect from this Gateway City.
He had recovered and kept Mikal Zelih’s left brain alive precisely to retrieve the Ritual Weapon: Fluorescent Star.
“Where is it?”
[…That is.]
Zelih’s voice trailed off.
After a long hesitation, he asked in a broken voice.
[If I tell you… will you kill me with your flames?]
“It might be possible, depending on your answer.”
At Lennok’s indifferent reply, Zelih, still hesitating, muttered.
[I’ve lived too long… Most of my life has been spent suffering at the hands of those who coveted my abilities.]
“…”
[I wasn’t strong enough to endure a life I didn’t want. From the beginning, this talent… didn’t suit me.]
A life of lifelong suffering and agony, born with an uncontrollable talent.
Mikal Zelih’s life was no different from experiencing the pain endured by other innate ability users, amplified tenfold.
It was not strange that he, unable to find a suitable answer himself, wished for peace before the end.
Perhaps Lennok’s lack of a reply had, paradoxically, given Zelih conviction.
[The Ritual Weapon: Fluorescent Star is not a weapon that possesses a fixed form.]
Only after a long moment did his left brain emit a slow mental wave.
[To inherit it, the life of a Warband member connected to Ophelia, the Zero Seat’s, psychic network is required.]
“A Warband member’s life is required?”
The existence of a ritual weapon that could only be inherited at the cost of a life.
At that unexpected fact, the moment Lennok suddenly stopped in his tracks.
“Aha.”
A low male voice echoed from behind Lennok.
“He finally withdrew that monstrous Domain.”
Whiiirrrrr!!!
A colossal drill burst through the building ruins, rotating violently.
In the blink of an eye, it swept away the spot where Lennok had stood, leaving a massive scar on the ground.
Boom!!
A heavy roar erupted from amidst the quiet ruins of Gateway City.
Someone scratched their head, watching Lennok, who had evaded the drill using Flicker.
“Oh, your reaction is faster than I thought. Did you really just finish fighting the Conjunction Spell Master?”
“…It’s not spellcraft.”
Lennok, turning his gaze with a rigid expression, looked back at the opponent standing atop the collapsed bell tower.
A silver-haired man in light travel clothes. A sharp impression, appearing to be around thirty.
It was a face he hadn’t seen before, but what Lennok noticed wasn’t his appearance.
It was because he realized that the colossal metal drill the man had shot at Lennok was not spellcraft.
A superpower that manipulates metal based on mental power.
And at this point, there was only one organization of superhumans capable of intruding into Gateway City.
Could it really be a coincidence that things turned out this way after hearing Zelih’s explanation?
Lennok, quickly reviewing the situation in his mind, drew up his mana and asked.
“Ability Awakening Warband. Don’t you think it’s too early to backstab me at this point?”
“That question is meaningless from the moment you stimulated the Collective Psychic Network.”
The man slowly lowered his hand and looked down at Lennok with a sharp gaze, saying.
“Ophelia, the Zero Seat, has recognized your existence. She’s looking for you.”