Chapter 1040: Milestone (27)
Booming!!!
Amidst the cloud-covered sky, the War-Mage Tower, engulfed in lightning, rapidly ascends.
Simultaneously summoning a beast and seizing the War-Mage Tower’s auto-flight algorithm, he immediately hacked its control authority.
The fortress of steel, having momentarily lost its directional control, violently shook and swayed.
“Even for an Arch-mage, this is…!!”
Ron, mounted on the Thunder Bird he had summoned, stared down with a dazed expression.
The young man’s eyes, wide with disbelief, gazed at the violently vibrating Magic Tower.
“It’s impossible to intervene in the Tower’s control system in such a short time. Just what is the ability of that summon…?!!”
“You’re not the only ones with the ability to build a fortress.”
The Thunder Toad Lennok summoned was originally an entity bound to the Provisional Fortress Spellcraft [We: Heaven’s Hidden Dragon Castle].
It is a power originating from a Domain obtained through a branching point of the Creation-type spellcraft.
It doesn’t merely summon the toad; through the summoning, it fortifies the surrounding space to Lennok’s advantage.
A wondrous feat that momentarily overwrites this colossal fortress of steel, existing as a War-Mage Tower and an aerial fortress, as Lennok’s own fortress.
Through it, Lennok connected Davi’s ability to the War-Mage Tower’s system, allowing him to briefly seize its control authority.
“Shall we change locations for now?”
Whoosh!!!
As Lennok swept his hand downwards on the swaying deck, a heavy engine roar intensified, and the War-Mage Tower began to tilt.
The propulsion devices installed in the Magic Tower’s keel activated at full power. The moment it accelerated in place, erupting with lightning flashes.
The War-Mage Tower, having departed from the Domain of the Funeral Ship to the Sea of Return, began to move, spinning rapidly like a top.
Whirring!!!
“Wooooahhh!!!”
Due to the centrifugal force of the War-Mage Tower, which rotated on its tilted axis, the War-Mages standing on the deck momentarily lost their balance.
The War-Mage Tower, having spun through the storm clouds at immense speed, instantly accelerated, departing from the airspace above District 49.
Engulfed in lightning striking from all directions, it traversed the Outer Zone and the Undeveloped Zone, spinning.
It crashed in the middle of the desert within the Undeveloped Zone, where sandstorms raged.
Craaaash!!!!
As the colossal aerial fortress crashed into the middle of the desert, a sand tsunami tens of meters high surged upwards.
The swirling sand relentlessly lashed out, covering and obscuring the sky, and the ground shook as if an earthquake had struck.
“Th-the Tower…!!!”
“No, it’s leaving the Jurisdiction!!”
“Aaaargh!!!”
Even the wizards who had somehow endured during flight couldn’t withstand the impact of the Tower plummeting into the desert.
Unable to overcome the extreme centrifugal and repulsive forces, the wizards were flung off the deck, crashing onto the desert sand.
Lennok, standing at the bow of the deck and looking down at the desert, let out a wry chuckle.
“I thought it looked familiar; it’s near a place I visited before.”
After raiding the Garrison Mobile Fortress and defeating Edmus Treppen.
This is the desert near where I encountered Croken Asylus.
The memory of desperately trying to survive against that monstrous alligator giant, even throwing away a mobile fortress, is still vivid.
Now, Lennok stood with a War-Mage Tower, far more colossal than anything from back then, beneath his feet, gazing down at the ground.
As Lennok looked at the wizards sprawled helplessly around the desert, he wondered if his feelings were similar to Croken’s back then.
Lennok, lost in thought for a moment, immediately shifted his gaze downwards.
“I had intended to half-destroy the Tower before starting. The damage isn’t as extensive as I thought.”
At the point where the Magic Tower and the desert collided, a massive lake, not sand, stretched out.
The scene was a vast and tranquil lake, almost unbelievable as an oasis in the middle of such a desert.
That lake absorbed the impact of the Magic Tower’s fall, preventing the Tower from being shattered.
Lennok was already aware that it was not a naturally formed geographical feature.
At the edge of the lake stood a calm-faced woman wearing glasses, her hands clasped together.
And the desaturated ripples spreading out from beneath her feet.
“Lyraiel’s Shattered Bloom Thunder-Net Domain has vanished. Did she activate her own Domain right before the collision to absorb the impact instead?”
“My name is Giselle, Arch-mage.”
The woman chuckled with difficulty, beads of cold sweat on her brow.
“I didn’t expect you to use the Tower’s control authority in this manner, even after seizing it. You weren’t interested in the War-Mage Tower from the beginning, were you?”
“There wouldn’t be much point in seizing a Magic Tower bound to the Tower Lord’s Jurisdiction anyway.”
Lennok, standing on the broken deck, replied languidly.
“From the start, what I wanted was the Thorben Magic Tower’s auto-flight system. I was going to build my own aerial fortress with my Magic Tower anyway.”
“…”
Although he had briefly seized control of the War-Mage Tower, Lennok had no intention of owning this colossal steel fortress.
As the Magic Tower itself was a construct formed based on Thorben’s Tower Lord’s Jurisdiction, seizing it would involve various cumbersome processes.
Naturally, Lyraiel or the Magic Tower’s high-ranking wizards would not stand idly by.
His initial goal was already achieved the moment he copied the Tower’s aerial levitation system through Davi’s hacking.
“A Domain with the scenery of a lake, huh? Indeed, just because one masters lightning magic doesn’t mean their Root Mindscape has to become lightning.”
Lennok stroked his chin with an intrigued expression.
“But to withstand the Tower’s weight even without being a special form like the Funeral Ship to the Sea of Return… is the Domain effect itself extremely specialized for impact resistance?”
“I apologize, but I have no intention of boasting about my Domain’s abilities against a Transcendent like you.”
Giselle, her face pale, adjusted her glasses and said.
“Rather, we will do what we can.”
“What you can do?”
Flash!!!
At that moment, Lennok felt a sense of déjà vu as his will-thought rapidly amplified in both directions of his sensory sphere.
An intense sense of incongruity, as if someone was forcibly overlaying their Mental Image onto the surrounding space-time.
The moment Lennok felt it and sharply lifted his gaze.
Different voices echoed from both sides of the deck.
“Domain Deployment.”
Craaaash!!!!
As if protecting the fallen War-Mage Tower on the desert lake, a colossal arch, glowing with blue light, surged upwards.
Above Lennok’s head, a dazzling blue Lightning Moon [雷月] appeared, beginning to emit a tingling electric shock.
A stern-faced middle-aged man, hands clasped behind his back, stood atop the arch.
From the rear of the deck, a beast-like young man with a scar on his grinning face.
And Giselle, maintaining her Domain at the edge of the lake.
All three were Level 7 Saint Wizards, capable of deploying and maintaining a Domain on their own.
After being overwhelmed in the skirmish led by the War-Mages, were these the wizards capable of Domain combat stepping forward?
However, Lennok’s eyes gleamed as he observed the Domains simultaneously deployed by the three wizards.
“……I see. Was this itself the ability of the War Jurisdiction?”
Domain deployment is the power to temporarily alter reality itself by projecting one’s Root Mindscape onto it.
Therefore, when different Domains are deployed in a single space, the reality alterations of the two Domains inevitably overlap and affect each other.
Either the Domain’s scenery would be overwritten by the stronger one, or a clash of powers would result in adverse effects.
However, the Domains deployed by Thorben’s wizards coexisted in the same space without repelling or overwriting each other.
A peculiar phenomenon where they projected their abilities in different ways without interfering with each other’s existence.
Lennok realized that this phenomenon was similar to the Tower Lord’s Domain, which did not alter reality, and murmured.
“It was a miracle possible because the War Jurisdiction itself belonged to Akendrias El Thorben.”
Akendrias El Thorben’s Domain, the Thunder God’s Flowering Court, was a Root Mindscape deployed without altering reality.
Since reality alteration itself was the Domain’s ability, it did not alter reality immediately after deployment.
However, it was unlikely that all of Thorben’s other Saint Wizards possessed this unique ability, which even Lennok had never seen before.
If so, then the effect gained by deploying a Domain within this War Jurisdiction must be precisely that.
To assist in deploying Domains with different Mental Images without altering reality.
Only then did Lennok realize why Thorben’s wizards had been able to calculate a chance of victory against him, and he gave a wry smile.
“Indeed, if you can overlap Domains without altering reality, your combat ability would skyrocket.”
“Perhaps Lyraiel’s judgment was mistaken from the beginning.”
The middle-aged man standing atop the lightning arch opened his mouth, looking at Lennok.
“You are too exceptional a person. Your achievements and enlightenment, independent of others, are so unparalleled that I don’t believe you and we can learn from each other.”
“…”
“To have reached the same heights as the Tower Lord, yet to stand on an essentially different path.”
The man’s gaze deepened.
“That is why I find you even more… dangerous.”
“Old man Albert. What are you rambling about?”
[Sixfold Barrier]
Craaash!!!
Before he could finish speaking, a young man wreathed in lightning descended before Lennok.
A scar etched on his cheek made his impression fierce, and a menacing aura flowed from his muscular body.
“There’s an incomparably strong wizard right in front of us, one who transcends the Tower’s lineage.”
“……Razaart.”
Crack!!!
The moment Razaart, the young man who charged like a beast, clenched his fist, the air around his arm rapidly began to electrify.
“Then I’ll have to fight him, even if it kills me!!”
An immediate assault, closing the distance without even recovering his balance right after deploying his Domain.
His opponent, too, was a wizard who had reached a high level.
Lennok, grasping compressed lightning in a reversed hand, swung it without hesitation towards Razaart.
[Partial Lightning]
The moment the rotating Partial Lightning and the Sixfold Barrier directly collided in the air, Razaart’s lightning shattered and exploded.
Boom!!
“Ugh…!!!”
Simultaneously with the deafening roar, Razaart’s shoulder violently shook.
The lingering after-effect of Partial Lightning, stirring his body so much that he lost not only his basic sense of mana control but also his physical balance for a moment.
The moment Lennok, without delay, closed the distance towards Razaart, a dazzling blue spell cascaded down at tremendous speed.
[Overpowering Thunder: Dagger Pierce [凌雷 : 匕穿]]
Craaash!!!
He twisted the lightning strike to halve its power, and using the residual force, slid his body back.
He twisted his body to avoid the barrage that struck him at near-subsonic speed.
The man called Albert consecutively chanted lightning magic towards Lennok, and Giselle overlaid another spell barrage on top of it.
[Lightning Well]
[Hundred Eight Shooting Thunder Rain [百八射雷雨]]
Rumble!!!
The lightning magic of the three high-ranking wizards, growing in size and power without cease.
He crossed his arms and pushed back the incantations that, wreathed in thunder and lightning, accelerated from both sides.
[Piercing Collapsing Lightning Brand [穿崩雷烙]]
[Armored Shoulder Electric Slaughter [加胛電戮]]
Craaash!!!
He rapidly passed through the main underground facilities located beneath the War-Mage Tower’s deck.
Hangars storing artifacts and weapons. Storage rooms. Food warehouses. Research labs and libraries prepared for the Tower’s wizards.
Various kinds of lightning, preserved after undergoing Property Transformation.
He pierced through the lower levels of the War-Mage Tower, which was a living area and virtually a city in itself, at tremendous speed.
[Serpent Thunder Bow [蛇霹弓]]
Whoosh!!
He traversed hundreds of meters around the colossal War-Mage Tower in a fleeting moment.
Military-grade magic, completed in an instant, poured down like a barrage, and the wizards traversed through it at near-subsonic speed.
If even a moment’s opening was shown, a high-level, fatal-level spell like the one just now would fly forth.
A terrifying power that allowed no evasion or even reduction, let alone direct blocking.
“This is truly unbelievable…!!”
Giselle, having transformed her body into lightning, followed Lennok as he slid back, muttering with an exasperated expression.
“You’ve come this far and you’re still holding out without even using your Domain?!”
A total of three high-ranking wizards simultaneously deploying their Domains, both above and below the War-Mage Tower.
Even as they pressed him with a miracle only possible within the War Jurisdiction, Lennok was still responding using only lightning magic.
Huuuum!!!
The halo of the Eight Trigrams Formation floating behind Lennok rotated at full power, and with each rotation, a vast lightning strike, surpassing the chanting speed and output of the three, poured down.
Proof that they hadn’t even truly understood Lennok’s sense and skill in handling magic, as he fought against the entire Magic Tower.
Conversely, Lennok had already grasped the abilities of the three deployed Domains after just a brief exchange.
Razaart’s Lightning Moon [雷月], which electrified space to bring lightning magic’s incantation and casting to near-instantaneous speed.
Giselle’s lake, specialized in mitigating and absorbing impacts occurring within the Domain.
Albert’s Domain, which erected a colossal arch and applied localized Property Transformation to matter passing through it.
Befitting Saint Wizards of the War-Mage Tower, all three individuals’ Domains were considerably helpful in combat.
‘The Domain’s abilities themselves are considerable, but they’re continuing combat without difficulty even while their Domains are deployed.’
Lennok’s gaze deepened as he observed the three high-ranking wizards slowly raising their will-thought.
‘This must be proof that they have significant experience with this kind of Domain combat.’
Level 7, which completes the Hierarchy of Self-Alteration, is the rank with the greatest variation in power among all levels.
This is partly because the Domain ingrained with the Root Mindscape and the Miniature Universe determine if it’s specialized for combat.
But also because it’s incredibly difficult to become proficient in using a Domain for combat, even after acquiring one.
While it’s true that a spellcaster’s magical capacity and spellcraft aptitude greatly increase the moment a Domain is deployed, it’s also true that maintaining a Domain requires immense consumption.
Moreover, the abilities or effects gained by deploying a Domain are virtually like adding an extra limb for a wizard.
If used well, it can unleash potential on a different dimension from before, but there’s also the element of needing to be born with the ‘sense’ to control that potential.
Just as not everyone can skillfully wield an extra limb, the existence of a Domain is no different.
Hadn’t Lennok himself won several times by exploiting the weaknesses of opponents who were clumsy with their Domains?
However, Thorben’s Saint Wizards, rampaging before him, seemed far removed from such clumsiness.
Surely, it was because they had consistently practiced to maintain their Domains in any situation.
Preparing for the worst-case scenarios in combat, and accumulating senses and experience through training that could be applied in real battles.
Pushing one’s potential, acquired by completing a hierarchy, to its limits and unleashing it in actual combat.
This single engagement seemed enough to understand why the Thorben Magic Tower was so respected on the continent.
Clatter!!!
He twisted his body, avoiding dozens of falling lightning spears.
A wave of lightning, surging from beneath his feet with thunder, enveloped Lennok’s body as if embracing him.
A giant’s fist made of thunder and lightning surged from beneath Lennok’s feet, and the moment it clapped its hands together.
[Thunderous Radiance Manifestation]
Craaash!!!
An immense amount of electrical energy spread out from the epicenter, pushing back everything that rushed towards Lennok.
“Ugh, how can it exert physical force…!!!”
The almost formless thunder and lightning seemed to possess physical force, crushing the magic of others.
Despite being pressed with full force while their Domains were deployed, the eerie sense of dread forced them to retreat momentarily.
The moment Giselle, somehow holding her ground, lifted her gaze to ascertain Lennok’s position.
“Unilaterally unleashing an offensive can sometimes be harder than exchanging blows.”
Lennok’s figure had already reached Razaart’s eyes.
“When you speed up to maintain the flow, an opening where you lose control is bound to appear.”
[First Glimpse: Sky-Piercing Thunderbreak]
Craaash!!
Simultaneously with the terrifying explosion of Lightning Radiance, Razaart’s body was sent flying at tremendous speed, crashing into the Tower’s stairwell.
“Guh…!!”
The young man’s figure, bowing his head without even being able to scream.
“Razaart!!”
“Indeed, they are wizards skilled in Domain combat, so they endure well in spellcraft combat.”
Lennok said, bringing his hands together.
“It’s not that I can’t crush them, but there’s no reason to take the long way around when there’s an easier method.”
“Surely not…!!!”
Flash!!!
At that moment, desaturated ripples erupted from beneath Lennok’s feet as if exploding.
The overwhelming weight of his Mental Image, incomparable even to the Tower’s Saint Wizards.
The surrounding space-time was entirely devoured, seemingly dragged into Lennok’s Domain.
The Saint Wizards guessed his intention and their faces hardened. In that fleeting moment, Lennok, reversing and overlapping his left and right hands, said.
“This time, I’ll show you how I mess with Domains.”
Domain Reversal Deployment
Paradoxical Hierarchy Mental Image Actualization
[False Morning Star [虛僞啓明星]]
Craaackle!!!!
Not drawing a Mental Image of a Kaleidoscope, but a Domain Reversal that inverse-calculates another’s Domain from the imaginary dimension.
It interprets the opponent’s Domain from the other side of the imaginary dimension, dismantles the Mind Imprint, and collapses the Domain from its roots.
Rumble!!!
“Th-this can’t be…!!”
Albert, who was trying to move his Domain to control the surrounding Property Transformation, broke into a cold sweat.
“How can he achieve this level of reality alteration with a Domain that isn’t ingrained with a Root Mindscape…!!”
“No, it doesn’t matter!!”
But Giselle, knowing this, pulled out an artifact from her pocket and poured mana into it.
“A clash of Domain powers is meaningless within the Tower Lord’s Jurisdiction. It’s their blunder!!”
The Domains deployed by the Saint Wizards were forms that projected only abilities without altering reality.
A miracle only permitted within Akendrias El Thorben’s War Jurisdiction.
But because of that, they should be able to exercise their abilities without being affected by that monstrous wizard’s Domain.
Razaart, too, seemingly realizing this, immediately electrified the surrounding space, raising his will-thought.
Electrifying the entire space, using it as a target for his extended will-thought, and unleashing lightning incantations at near-certain hit speed regardless of distance.
Crackle!!!
However, Lennok did not stop his incantation, even while observing the multiple incantations of the Saint Wizards rushing from both sides.
“You’re mistaken. What I’m targeting isn’t your Domains.”
From the tip of Lennok’s closed fingers, the eye of Feigenbaum’s Eye, peering into the imaginary dimension, flashed.
The moment he layered his will-thought, forming a hand seal he normally didn’t use, by reversing and touching his palms.
“The inverse-calculation target is precisely… Thorben’s War Jurisdiction itself.”
“…!!!”
Craaackle!!!!
The entire space-time of the Jurisdiction, spread around the Magic Tower, began to tear apart as if shattering.
Thorben’s Tower Lord’s War Jurisdiction, personally constructed and made functional, was neutralized through the inverse-calculation of the False Morning Star.
The Saint Wizards, realizing this too late, instantly turned pale.
“Impossible!!!”
“Even if he’s an Arch-mage, how can a human… Jurisdiction…!!!!”
The ability of the False Morning Star is to inverse-calculate the opponent’s designed Domain from the other side of the imaginary dimension.
It is a power that dismantles existing Domains by clashing a mirror-image Domain from the other side of the imaginary dimension.
However, because it is a power thoroughly created as a counter to Domains, Lennok too cannot perfectly dismantle a Jurisdiction as its target.
Moreover, if Akendrias El Thorben’s War Jurisdiction is the target, momentarily neutralizing it is all that can be done.
But that very incomplete result was precisely what Lennok was aiming for at this moment.
Fwooosh!!
In that fleeting moment, as the Tower Lord’s War Jurisdiction was momentarily neutralized, the miracles and laws that existed within the Jurisdiction lost their power.
The source that allowed the Saint Wizards to draw upon their abilities without being affected by each other’s Domains vanished.
The Domains deployed by the three wizards began to alter reality the moment they departed from the War Jurisdiction.
Craaash!!!!
The Tower’s floor was indiscriminately electrified and exploded, and the lake’s waves surged, coiling around the Tower.
The moment the colossal arch indiscriminately absorbed and repelled the surrounding currents and will-thought.
“Damn it…!!!”
“Razaart, you must retract your Domain-!”
The three Domains collided with each other, collapsing explosively from the backlash.
Boooooom!!!
“Cough…!!”
The completed Root Mindscapes clashed and repelled each other, overwriting and altering each other’s Domains, thus destroying them.
The Domains that collided at close range collapsed helplessly, transmitting their full backlash to their casters.
The wizards, unprepared for that impact, vomited blood and collapsed.
“Given their proficiency in Domain combat, they must have prepared for scenarios where Domains are countered.”
Lennok opened his mouth, looking at the wizards who had collapsed in three different directions, unable to overcome the backlash.
“Then all I had to do was neutralize the War Jurisdiction, the foundation that allowed your Domains to coexist.”
“Ugh…!!!”
“Th-the backlash…!!”
“Well, it seems the process of overloading the War Jurisdiction has also been sufficiently achieved with this much….”
Lennok said, then turned his gaze towards the sky above the half-destroyed lightning spire.
He didn’t deploy the False Morning Star to end the battle merely by clashing Domains and unleashing a backlash.
The Reversal Domain of the imaginary dimension itself wasn’t a true Domain, offering the advantage of not revealing Lennok’s Root Mindscape or origin.
And in the process of temporarily inverse-calculating and neutralizing the War Jurisdiction, the Jurisdiction itself inevitably underwent an overload.
And if Lyraiel’s words were true, the process of forcibly opening the Hall of the Thunder God was precisely to overload the Jurisdiction, and then-
Flash!!!
From beyond the cloud-covered sky, a colossal eye made of majestic lightning opened.
Lennok drew upon his mana, gazing at the eye that looked down upon the sky and turned its gaze towards him.
“The Hall of the Thunder God’s Sanctuary. Shall we see what it looks like?”