Chapter 1016: Milestone (3)
A tsunami of darkness, engulfing the horizon, approached.
The moment the colossal Dark Spire appeared, darkness, without warning, dyed the world black.
Rumble…!!!!
Riding the flowing darkness, trampled bushes and vegetation instantly lost their life and withered away.
Merely by casting a glance from within the darkness, life was harvested, replaced by death.
Neither the grasslands spread around Gateway City nor the humans swept into the darkness without even a struggle were exceptions.
Magic Tower mages, mercenary units, the Annihilation Squad of the Ability Awakening Warband, cult priests, and Headro Warlords’ monsters.
The moment all these individuals, as if by prior arrangement, hunched their bodies to escape the approaching darkness.
A formless storm of darkness completely engulfed the horizon, sweeping through the space-time of the entire Gateway City.
Screech…!!!!
Countless waves of darkness gnawed at will-thought and unhesitatingly seized human lifelines.
There should have been no sound, yet ears went deaf, and blood trickled from eardrums.
“Ugh…!!”
One by one, the spellcasters of the Order Alliance, enduring the raging darkness, vomited blood and fell to their knees.
Even abandoning the spell formations they were preparing, they clutched their throats with both hands and buried their heads.
“Regular units, cease bombardment spellcraft and convert your spellcraft!!”
“All Ritual Garment Spellcasters, advance. Extend your will-thought to protect your minds!!”
Recognizing the anomaly, the Order Alliance immediately began manipulating mana to transform the shape of their spell formations.
The spell formations, previously arrayed for bombarding Gateway City, curved into a circle, becoming barriers to protect the spellcasters.
A brilliant technique that modified the composition of already completed spell formations, switching from bombardment to defense.
“Haa, haaaa…!!”
The moment a superhuman, unable to endure, staggered and fell, their body instantly turned into a skeleton and collapsed.
A grotesque sight, as if robbed of skin and flesh, leaving only bare bones.
Was it an illusion that the remains of those who died prostrate seemed to overlap with the corpses of Long-lived Beings that had been at this Gateway?
Other factions, witnessing the horrific tragedy, immediately responded.
“Outer Prayer Chant, Verse 33. Provisional Sanctuary declaration in 13 seconds!”
“All surviving Annihilation Squad members, deploy your force fields. Connect to the Collective Psychic Network. I will activate the Consciousness Weapon!!”
The cult, deploying a pale sanctuary, and the Ability Awakening Warband, surrounding themselves with force fields and connecting their psychic network.
Mercenary units, the Headro Warlords, and Magic Tower mages also brought out various items and defensive measures, but it was insufficient.
“Help, help me…!!”
“Damn it, they said this was a magic treasure that could stop black magic!!”
“Argh, aaaaaah!!!!”
Regardless of whether they were from the Order Alliance, the Cult, the Ability Awakening Warband, Magic Tower, or mercenary units, those swept into the darkness died everywhere.
A portion of the forces that had surrounded Gateway City and threatened Lennok collapsed, helplessly being swept away.
A massacre without a shred of warning. Overwhelming madness that changed the tide of the Central Front upon its appearance.
Lennok, gritting his teeth and enduring, struggled to lift his gaze.
“Gabihaeng…!”
A journey that adds preparation, thus Gabihaeng (加備行).
The Doctor had called the destruction Myeong wrought while wandering the continent the most grotesque and sublime ritual on this continent.
Why had the Gabihaeng, which was said to have stopped for a while, restarted at this point in time?
And why had it specifically targeted the first Gateway where Lennok was located?
Before he could answer any of those questions, the darkness, without warning, twisted space.
Screech…!!!
It felt as though something incredibly vast was casting its gaze upon them.
Merely by directing its will towards the ground, the surging darkness gained mass and crushed space.
Rumble…!!
Beyond the darkness-stained horizon, colossal Dark Giants shimmered, revealing themselves.
Giants forged entirely from darkness advanced, riding the endlessly spreading tsunami of shadows.
Thud!! Thud!! Thud!!
A march of Dark Giants sweeping across the entire plain, from the edge of the horizon.
With each stomp of their feet, waves of darkness exploded, casually sweeping away hundreds of humans.
“Ah… Aaaah!!”
“Grrr…!!”
“It’s hell, hell has…!!”
The giants, easily tens of meters tall, possessed no form, no will, no emotion.
They simply, slowly yet surely, trampled the ground as if on a pilgrimage, following the darkness that had arrived on this plain.
Wherever the giants moved, withered grass and bleached bones piled up, forming a grotesque tableau.
With the thick stench of death, everything was pushed into hell and swallowed.
Roar!!!
“Uwaah…!!”
Angel, his face pale, trembled all over and bowed his head deeply.
Bernard and Yanikus also merely focused on enduring the pouring darkness from the moment they perceived the situation.
“Angel, snap out of it!! This isn’t spellcraft directly attacking us!!”
Bernard, gritting his teeth, shouted.
“It’s merely radiating killing intent mixed with black magic without limit…!! If your psychic network is corrupted, it’s over!!”
The darkness currently filling this plain wasn’t a will specifically targeting anyone for attack.
It was merely the overwhelming residual trace of transcendence, scattering formless killing intent mixed with mana.
But precisely because of that, superhumans with sensitive psychic networks were even more susceptible to its influence.
“Haa, hahahat…!!”
Angel, panting, let out a hollow laugh with a pale expression.
“Insane…!! This is Pandemonium’s…!!!”
Crraaaash!!
At that moment, something exceeding the size of Gateway City surged from within the darkness.
A magnificent Dark Spire rose from behind the Dark Giants who had begun their massacre, trampling the ground.
Crafted from pitch-black darkness, it appeared like a black coffin, or perhaps a ship floating through the shadows.
Slanted, it glided through the sky above Gateway City, riding on the flowing, falling Dark Spire.
Whoosh…!!
At the apex of the colossal spire floating in the darkness, something assumed a hazy human form.
Half-dissolved in the cascading black magic, it shimmered indistinctly, not even revealing a face.
Indifferent to the death blossoming on the ground. As if the darkness painting the horizon was merely a prelude.
Yet, the boiling black magic, as if drawn from the depths of the abyss, declared its identity to everyone present.
The Archmage at the apex of black magic.
A monster who, by his mere existence, had reached the gate of transcendence.
A destroyer broken at the end of a journey spanning the entire continent.
Pandemonium’s Nether King.
“Has the Gabihaeng started again….”
Bernard, streaming with cold sweat, said with difficulty.
“Unbelievable. To target the Central Front from the start, surely…!!”
Crackling!!!
The tsunami of darkness pressed down on the land, and mountains, rivers, and all vegetation withered, their lives stripped away.
Above the withered, dead plains, black-stained branches began to sprout.
A forest of dead trees was created, showing only skeletal black branches, devoid of a single leaf.
Merely by Myeong’s arrival, the balance of life and death on the Central Front was inverted, establishing a new environment.
“Guh, guh…!!”
“Gasp…!! My breath…!!”
One by one, the spellcasters of the Order Alliance fell, unable to endure, their lives stolen by the darkness.
The ability users of the Ability Awakening Warband also could not last long in the surging darkness, falling to their knees one by one.
Even without using any special spellcraft or mana, merely by scattering that darkness around.
Mana users who had undergone countless trainings fell and died with an almost absurd ease.
The moment Lennok, watching the superhumans dying all around him, took a step.
“You madman….”
Thud!!
Yanikus, panting behind Lennok, suddenly gripped his arm.
“If you don’t want to die, don’t move….”
“Barbaria.”
“Can’t you see? That… is not a state capable of conversation.”
Yanikus, his face pale, gasped for breath.
His condition had significantly worsened due to the Conjunction Spell Master’s surgery.
It was clear, without needing to ask, how difficult it was for Yanikus, who was already close to death, to endure.
But with bloodshot eyes, he pointed at the corpses strewn all around.
“If we just endure like this, the Nether King will pass… the Order Alliance and Ability Awakening Warband fools will die in our stead….”
“…….”
“If we wait, an opportunity will come… Are you thinking of committing suicide?”
Lennok knew what Yanikus wanted to say.
Most of the forces currently besieging Gateway City were potential enemies to Lennok.
It was certain that these factions had moved to secure significant gains from the first Gateway, now that the Conjunction Spell Master was dead.
However, the struggle surrounding Gateway City had completely lost its meaning and descended into chaos with Myeong’s appearance.
If the darkness led by Myeong were to trample the Gateway like this, the damage to other factions would also exponentially increase.
In fact, the situation after the Gabihaeng passed was likely to be advantageous for Lennok.
But—
“If not now, there might not be another chance.”
“……What did you say?”
Lennok, looking down at Yanikus’s frowning face, rose to his feet.
Lennok, crushing the darkness flowing between his fingers like sand, spoke.
“This darkness. It’s not simply a substance composed of black magic. It’s closer to a mixture of mana and Dead Thoughts (死念).”
“…….”
“Materialization of will-thought… Don’t you understand what it means for the Nether King to have reached this level?”
This was surely one of Myeong’s most dangerous secrets.
An immense amount of Dead Thoughts that Myeong alone could never have accumulated.
A transcendent growth rate beyond comprehension, and black magic so overgrown it was uncontrollable even by himself.
He stood halted before the gate of transcendence, waiting.
The fact that Myeong, who had restarted the Gabihaeng, now appeared before Lennok, was no coincidence.
Lennok had instinctively known it ever since he faced that darkness.
“This might be the last time. So I have to go.”
“Cheonbeon. I don’t know what you’re thinking, but not here.”
Bernard tried to dissuade him with a firm expression.
“There has never been a single successful instance of communicating with the Nether King during a Gabihaeng. Perhaps he’s already out of his mind.”
“…….”
“In the worst case, you could die as soon as you approach him. With your current condition, can you resist the Nether King’s power?”
“……I have a method in mind. I can at least approach the Nether King.”
Lennok said that, yet slowly turned his body around.
“That much is enough.”
“You’re insane. What in the world are you trying to—”
“Evan…!!”
Ignoring the shouts of Yanikus and Angel, Lennok unhesitatingly channeled his mana.
Whoosh…!!
The moment wings of flame extended from his back, strongly undulating as they spread.
Lennok’s form shot vertically upwards from his spot, piercing through the darkness.
Flash!!
He broke through the pouring tsunami of darkness, relying on his flame wings.
Flying through the darkness that crushed the horizon, Lennok exhaled with difficulty.
‘The density of Dead Thoughts is absurdly high…!!’
The darkness that dyed the world upon Myeong’s appearance was not simply a phenomenon caused by black magic.
The will-thought of the dead. Dead Thoughts and black magic, mixed and swelling, were endlessly running wild.
Grinding…!!
Lennok’s constructed flame wings rapidly eroded in the darkness, losing their light.
Instantly losing propulsion and lift, they were torn away in the raging darkness, taking the brunt for Lennok.
The tsunami of darkness led by Myeong was not a formless phenomenon, but a tangible power, the materialization of will-thought.
It could not force death upon Lennok, but it continuously imposed and unleashed comparable physical force.
Raaargh!!!
“……!!!”
Merely gaining altitude brought intense pain, as if his entire body were being shredded.
Was this the pain the Conjunction Spell Master felt, being infinitely incinerated within the domain of Celestial Flower’s Myriad-League Fragrance?
Nearly half of his recovered mana was being shredded at an incredible rate, and his body’s sensations vanished in real-time.
If he forced himself to endure, his carefully recovered body would only worsen, and his injuries would deepen.
But Lennok, knowing this, rotated his mana with full power and twisted his body in mid-air.
Crrack!!
The reason he had deliberately approached this far, even guessing Myeong’s condition.
The reason he had pierced through this magnificent darkness and soared into the sky, closer to heaven.
It was because he intended to once again wield the power of Celestial Flower’s Myriad-League Fragrance, burning the veil in the sky, with his own will.
Rumble…!!!
Beyond the black sky that erased everything, only the flames Lennok ignited shone brightly.
The rotating ring of flames, burning the veil, glowed on the other side of the darkness, like the trace of a solar eclipse.
Lennok, extending his hand towards it, muttered softly.
“……Come.”
Remainder (餘) : Myriad-League Fragrance
Gate Opening (開門)
Screeching…!!!
The Domain, Celestial Flower’s Myriad-League Fragrance, which had incinerated Conjunction Spell Master Avesta Chapman and his Life Domain.
The fully bloomed flames, using time as a constraint, still burned the veil in the sky.
Flames that had reached the apex of the pyro-elemental system, burning the veil above Gateway City and semi-permanently altering the environment.
Manipulating the flames that had become a new [Gateway] in place of the Long-lived Being’s corpse, he created a new gate piercing through the darkness.
Crackling!!!
Above the black-stained sky, the ring of flames, still radiant, spun fiercely.
The newly inherited [Gateway] forcibly activated and moved according to Lennok’s will.
The flames split left and right in the sky, unfolding into the shape of a colossal [Gate].
Whoooosh!!!
The flaming Gateway, burning the sky, unfolded to both sides, pushing aside the blazing darkness.
A clever trick: activating the Gateway’s function to open a path, and with its aftermath, forcibly pushing back the darkness led by Myeong.
The superhumans of the Order Alliance, Cult, and Ability Awakening Warband, watching the spectacle from the ground, widened their eyes in disbelief.
“Cheonbeon has clashed with the Gabihaeng and changed its direction…!!”
“He’s going to have a spellcraft duel with the Nether King?”
“He’s utterly insane, wanting to die. How long has it been since he fought the Conjunction Spell Master…!!”
Accelerating as if pushing his body through the flames of the wide-open Gateway.
The tail of flames, cutting through the darkness, curved long and plunged down like a meteor shower.
Accelerating between the hordes of Dark Giants, he dropped directly onto the floating Dark Spire.
Crrash!!
With that impact, the darkness forming the Dark Spire surged and scattered, revealing a path before Lennok’s feet.
“Haa, haa…!!!”
Lennok, exhaling a breath mixed with flames, then gazed at the Dark Spire unfolding before his eyes.
“…….”
It felt as if he was sinking into an immeasurable sea of darkness.
Was it an illusion if, within the darkness crushing his five senses, he was recalling the chilling memories of the Outer Sea (外海)?
Within the darkness that stiffened his entire body with cold, Lennok looked at a man.
The back of the black wizard who had become one with the colossal darkness.
Whooooosh!!!
With a strange resonating hum, Lennok’s gaze, having confirmed Myeong’s form standing in the trembling darkness, sank deeply.
‘His condition is far worse than I thought. Is he beyond hope…?’
He had guessed that Myeong’s mind would be in an extremely unstable state, given that the Gabihaeng had restarted, but this was beyond his expectations.
Beyond not recognizing Lennok, he seemed not even to have noticed his approach at all.
With the darkness crushing the horizon beneath his feet, he no longer looked down at the ground.
His gaze was simply directed forward, continually searching for a reason to move.
Was he truly aware of the tragedy unfolding beneath Gateway City?
Perhaps he was still wandering in an unending dream called death.
That’s why Lennok knew what he should say to him first again.
“You once said that before the world’s end, we needed as many talents as possible.”
Lennok, looking down at Myeong’s back, spoke softly.
“Much time has passed since then. Hasn’t it?”
“…….”
He still remembered his early days working as a freelancer in Vulcan.
Days spent fighting criminals entrenched in the shadows, wielding poorly recreated Common Magic.
The image of the black wizard he faced inside the vault after killing the lightning mage of the Cigar Bang Gang.
From that day until now, so many things had happened that even counting them felt impossibly distant.
But Lennok had never, for a single moment, forgotten the depth of that darkness.
Whoosh!!
Lennok, igniting flames in his hand, slowly took a step.
The darkness, perceiving the intruder, instantly began to engulf everything around them.
Ignoring Myeong, who did not turn, the surrounding darkness crushed Lennok’s body, space and all.
He burst flames to drive away the darkness. Dodging the rotating spheres of darkness, he channeled mana.
He directly pierced through the tsunami of darkness, which possessed both will and form, taking the full brunt of the recoil.
Crrack…!!
“Cough…!!”
Even clad in mana and will-thought, he lacked the reserves, his breath catching in his throat.
The final boundary where his body wouldn’t suffer fatal strain. From here, Lennok might have to risk his life.
If Myeong couldn’t recognize Lennok to the very end, if he was truly broken beyond hope.
Then all of these moments now might be a meaningless wasted effort.
But Lennok, knowing that, took one more step forward.
Crackling…!!
The encroaching darkness engulfed and corrupted his will-thought and mindscape.
Sensing Lennok’s firm reason and mental barrier, it more violently pressed down and beat against his physical body.
Shields, minor barriers, and walls of flame crumbled helplessly, wrapping around his body.
Lennok, standing behind Myeong in the crushing darkness, spoke.
“I met the Director.”
“…….”
“And I’ve decided on my answer.”
Without waiting for Myeong’s reply, Lennok tilted his head back.
“I thought I should tell you. Because, in the end, I don’t think I can give you the definitive answer you hoped for.”
From the moment he first met Myeong, to joining Pandemonium with his help.
He had received his help multiple times, and Lennok didn’t want to deny that kindness.
Regardless of Myeong’s reputation in the world, to Lennok, he had been an excellent helper and patron.
But precisely because of that, Lennok also knew there was something he had to convey the moment he decided on his answer.
“As you first said, my role is to….”
Lennok, gasping for breath in the surging darkness, trailed off.
If the future Myeong envisioned was not contained within Lennok’s answer.
If the Gabihaeng he had started was an answer that did not align with Lennok’s will.
He had to tell Myeong that someday, he might have to part ways with Pandemonium.
How much time was left for him, who had restarted the Gabihaeng?
How much longer until the end found both Lennok and Myeong?
Since he didn’t know when the last chance would be, Lennok didn’t want to waste the opportunity given to him.
Therefore—
“Heh heh….”
At that moment, a low laugh echoed from within the darkness.
A deep voice, slowly drawn out, yet unexpectedly tinged with amusement.
“……Myeong?”
“You are right, Van.”
Myeong’s reply, which flowed forth, was unbelievably clear to Lennok.
Myeong slowly lifted his gaze and replied without turning to look at Lennok.
“Many things have changed since we first met.”
“…….”
“But your role has not changed one bit from what I first envisioned.”
Myeong slowly turned to face Lennok and spoke.
Darkness encroached upon his face and surged. His form seemed to flow, with even parts of his body becoming one with the shadows.
“I apologize for the late reply.”
But his eyes, gazing at Lennok, held the same clear, brilliant light as they did at their first meeting.
“It’s been quite a while since we’ve seen each other face to face, hasn’t it?”