Chapter 1101: Level 9 (19)
Bang!!
Golden pure radiance burst forth from the void, rotating and resonating like a fierce engine.
The ancient magic gun, Teremer’s Demise, in its sixth form: [Dragon’s Song].
This ability, which fires a portion of the user’s mental image as a bullet, literally mimics the power of a dragon’s breath.
The Dragon’s Authority, known as the most potent privilege of dragon-kind. A will-thought fired by ‘consuming’ a mental image.
The moment Lennok pulled the magic gun’s trigger and fired the bullet at Maleon’s deteriorating true form.
[Oooooooh!!!!]
The Gemstone Dragon unleashed a fearsome roar, raising its foreleg and striking Lennok’s bullet with immense speed.
Creeeeaaak-!!!!!
Even in the Spacetime of the Ninth Tribulation, where everything was suppressed and collapsing, Kaleidoscope did not lose its light.
Maleon’s right foreleg, shoulder, and back region were crushed and annihilated.
Simultaneously with an inexpressibly strange resonance, it pierced through the giant dragon’s entire right half.
Fwwoooosh!!!!
[……!!!]
Golden ripples rotated above the giant dragon’s shoulder, and the affected flesh vanished as if erased.
A direct hit. An attack that blew away nearly half of the Gemstone Dragon’s right upper body.
But the moment Lennok saw Maleon’s half-body obliterated, he threw himself sideways with all his might.
Splat-
At the same instant, Maleon’s tail, swung at invisible speed, lashed the spot where Lennok had just been standing.
CRACKKKK!!!!
A terrifying roar, as if space itself was tearing apart.
Lennok, pushed back by the shockwave, fell to his knees, coughing hard.
“Cough……!!!”
He should have used Magic Scribes or Flicker to aid his movement, but due to mana depletion, he couldn’t evade the shockwave.
That alone shattered all the shields he wore, and his shirt was drenched in blood.
“I didn’t think so, but it was a magic gun that fired Dragon’s Authority in bullet form, wasn’t it?”
Whoosh……!!
From Maleon’s massive body, which slowly lowered its foreleg, Seonjong shook his head and spoke.
“The ‘mental image’ contained in that bullet. I don’t know its true nature, but it’s no ordinary ability. Is it a power that inherently holds a superior position?”
“…….”
“To sustain this much damage even after using the body manipulation ability of a dragon-kind. If your mana hadn’t been depleted, something terrible might have happened.”
Maleon did not evade Lennok’s magic bullet, nor did he simply endure it with his bare body.
The moment he detected the magic bullet’s firing, he simultaneously rotated his body and moved internal organs like blood vessels, nerves, and other body parts to his left half.
He used his right half, now only flesh and muscle, as a shield to take the magic bullet, then discarded it as if severing it.
This feat, the ability to freely manipulate the location of all blood vessels and organs throughout the body, is an art allowed only to blessed dragon-kind.
Seonjong looked at Lennok, who was slumped on the ground bleeding, with an indifferent gaze.
“To be able to generate this much output while mana-depleted, you are certainly worthy of being called a Great Mage.”
“…….”
He was wrong.
Lennok had tried to end the battle in a single strike using Dragon’s Song precisely because he had no reserves left.
The Promotion Ritual conducted in the Eighth Tribulation. Jindun’s spell formation manipulation and entry into the Ninth Tribulation.
A situation where he had pushed through to the end of the Ninth Tribulation, scraping every last bit of mana and stamina.
Even after channeling all the mana drawn out by doping into the magic gun, he ultimately couldn’t achieve proper output.
As a result, even though he hit Maleon by using a part of his mental image as a bullet, he failed to incapacitate him.
“It’s a pity. I needed the help of a Great Spellcaster of your caliber to entrust the ‘Severing’ and ‘Conjoining’ of this head to you.”
Thud!!
Using Maleon’s body, which took a huge dragon-kind’s foreleg step, Seonjong spoke.
“Such delicate work as connecting the blood vessels of a human-kind and a dragon-kind cannot be entrusted to just any drifter.”
“…….”
Severing and Conjoining, huh.
Even then, Lennok was thinking of the two spellcasters who specialized in those two types of spellcraft.
Was it truly a coincidence that all spellcasters with such unique spellcraft operated under the Order Alliance?
Just as Lennok was lost in such meaningless thoughts, even as his consciousness momentarily blurred.
“I intended to resolve this amicably, but if you’re going to act this way, I have no choice.”
Snap, snap……!!!
At that moment, with the sound of tearing muscles and bones, the giant dragon’s form began to shrink.
The Gemstone Dragon’s body compressed on the spot, giving it a bizarre, shriveling appearance.
Within it, Seonjong’s head slowly vanished as he leisurely whispered.
“From now on, I suppose I’ll leave it to Maleon Gnosis himself.”
Rumble……!!!
The disguise ended, and the giant with the dragon’s head descended once more.
Maleon’s original form, not much different from when they first met.
The clumsy disguise he had tried to maintain until the moment he was reborn as an Ascendant.
But the eyes that gazed at Lennok no longer held gentle goodwill.
Roughly flashing the inner light that covered his pupils, he merely stared at Lennok with unfocused eyes.
Rumble Rumble Rumble!!!!
The moment he saw that, Lennok instinctively knew.
The one standing before Lennok was Maleon, yet not Maleon.
The lord of starlight who had lost his mind, abandoning his body to the melody from beyond the Outer Sea, raging out of control and freely wielding 9-level spellcraft.
The most powerful and dangerous Transcendent in all of Kundara.
Vwoooom!!!
With Maleon’s gesture, intense starlight rose in the void and violently rotated.
The ‘starlight’ that appeared above their heads intensified its heat and glowed with an eerie rotating hum.
Lennok, staring at the unusual mana, frowned.
“The output is……”
Maleon’s spellcraft output, which had been steadily dropping while crossing the Ninth Tribulation, had now completely recovered.
Even the mana emanating from his entire body was being ceaselessly pumped.
“To get here, you activated the ‘Blood Contract’ that sealed the Tenth Coffer, didn’t you?”
As if answering Lennok’s question, Seonjong said.
“The Blood Contract, made by combining ten types of True Blood, halves the suppression that True Bloodlines receive in the Ninth Tribulation.”
“…….”
So that was why Maleon’s condition had rapidly improved since entering the Tenth Coffer.
“Since Maleon Gnosis and I are simultaneously halving the Eternal Pressure of the Ninth Tribulation inflicted upon this body,”
Seonjong whispered.
“At this moment, only I and Silver Star are free from the pressure of the Outer Sea.”
Kiiiiiiiiiiing……!!!!
Maleon Gnosis’s unique, supreme Primitive Magic spellcraft, Star-Linking Eight Extremes Style, which had never been directed at Lennok since they met.
The starlight, which had torn through countless mummies and bulkheads, now flashed with ill intent towards Lennok for the first time.
CRACKKKKKK!!!
The starlight, plunging down with tremendous speed, precisely pierced the spot where Lennok had stood and exploded.
An explosion that blurred his vision and deafened his ears.
His body was momentarily thrown upwards and pushed back, then battered with immense impact.
Kwoooosh!!!!
Despite throwing his body back and adjusting his direction with Magic Scribes just before, the aftermath was unavoidable.
A dry cough escaped his throat, then the successive impacts on his abdomen abruptly ceased.
Unable to even breathe properly, he was miserably thrown around between the inner walls of the Tenth Coffer.
“Ugh……!!!”
“No matter how mighty a dragon-kind’s body is, it cannot compare to the unique spellcraft directly wielded by an Ascendant.”
Maleon’s form looked down at Lennok, collapsed far away, with the devastation he himself had wrought before his eyes.
From within Maleon, whose pale inner light flashed, Seonjong’s voice resounded.
“It’s a shame I still can’t directly control this body, but then again, only Maleon himself can use Primitive Magic.”
“…….”
Had he relinquished control to the rampaging Maleon to ensure Lennok’s death with Star-Linking Eight Extremes Style?
Maleon was already rampaging, all his senses subsumed by the melody of the Outer Sea.
At this point, he couldn’t just watch, hoping Maleon would recognize him.
However, hearing Seonjong’s words, Lennok felt a faint possibility.
‘He doesn’t know about the Extra Life Vessel I possess.’
The Extra Life Vessel he acquired with Maleon’s help in the Hall of the Eighth Tribulation.
Seonjong’s will-thought was unaware of the existence of the sacred artifact that granted Lennok an extra life.
If he knew, he wouldn’t try to take Lennok’s life in such a manner, at least.
That was also why Lennok couldn’t be certain of Maleon’s betrayal during the journey through the Ninth Tribulation.
Because he couldn’t comprehend a scenario where Maleon would betray Lennok, despite clearly knowing about the Extra Life Vessel.
Ultimately, Maleon hadn’t betrayed him, but at the cost of rampaging, degenerating, and now opposing Lennok—
The very fact meant something far from simple.
‘He hasn’t read all of Maleon’s memories. There must be missing parts.’
Lennok, catching his breath with difficulty, stood up, his eyes shining.
‘Then there’s something I can try.’
Flash!!
He threw an Elixir to recover mana into his mouth, chewed and swallowed it, then threw his body sideways.
[Flicker]
The starlight rotating behind Maleon erupted where Lennok had fallen, then slid past him.
Kwoooosh!!
A colossal silver pillar swept horizontally through the interior of the Tenth Coffer and exploded.
Localized explosions, dozens of them, continued along the path of the starlight beam, drawing a magnificent star cloud.
Swoosh!!
He slipped through the scorching nebula, so hot it felt like he would evaporate if he touched it.
He gathered what little mana remained, bound it to his entire body with Magic Scribes, and rotated while adjusting his direction.
Lennok’s form, flying low to the ground, instantly headed towards the blood-gate leading out of the Tenth Coffer.
“Oh, trying to escape?”
With Seonjong’s voice, Maleon sharply turned his gaze.
As he swung his arm, flashing his unfocused inner light, five ‘stars’ rose and bent, following his gesture.
They poured down like a bombardment towards where the blood-gate stood.
Boom Boom Boom!!!
The glass exterior walls shook violently from all directions. Star clouds lay thick all around.
Maleon’s mana mixed chaotically, creating a cloudy battlefield where not an inch ahead could be discerned.
But the Ascendant did not miss anything, not for a single moment, even within the star clouds he had unleashed.
Even raging and having lost his reason, an Ascendant’s senses and intuition exist beyond such a realm.
No matter how faint the presence or mana, if it was caught by his senses, he could instantly pinpoint and erase it.
“I knew you’d do that.”
Flash!!
As if completely denying that judgment, Lennok’s form appeared behind Maleon.
“……!!!”
“I thought you wouldn’t react to my mana or presence.”
In one of Lennok’s hands, as he struggled to smile, was a silver-glowing Ruyi Orb.
The Ruyi Orb Maleon had given Lennok as a gift outside the Ninth Tribulation.
Because it was imbued with Maleon’s own life force, he hadn’t noticed Lennok concealing his presence with the Ruyi Orb.
Realizing this, Maleon roared roughly, filling his mouth with starlight, and sharply turned his body.
Dragon’s Authority: Eldritch Breath
Just before the starlight rotating in Maleon’s throat unleashed its torrent toward Lennok.
[Reverse: White Fall]
A pure white lightning bolt, surging from Lennok’s fingertips, struck Maleon’s chin and canceled the breath attack.
KABOOOM!!!
“……!!!!”
An intense spellcraft application never before seen from Lennok.
The moment Maleon roared fiercely at the utterly terrifying lightning ripple.
Lennok dropped the neatly emptied Elixir diluted solution bottle from his other hand.
Click!!
“Here I go.”
The roughly 4 seconds of current mana volume fixation granted immediately after consuming the Elixir.
This was the first time Lennok deployed spellcraft without restraint in the Ninth Tribulation, where immense mana consumption was enforced.
Kiiiiiiing……!!!
As the Eight Trigrams Formation rotated behind his head, time simultaneously slowed.
Azure lightning rotating along his forearm tinged everything with a tingling sensation.
In the maximally slowed time, Lennok and Maleon simultaneously stepped into each other’s gap.
The Ascendant’s starlight and the wizard’s lightning were wielded almost simultaneously.
[Dancing Tremor]
[Piercing Collapsing Lightning Brand]
Seven Forms - External Method
[Star-Scattered Cloud Array]
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!!!
Seven streaks of starlight rotating in Maleon’s hand and the lightning wielded by Lennok clashed, dancing.
A colossal storm of light erupted from their center, spreading in all directions.
Kwoooosh-Kwoooosh-Kwoooosh!!!!!
Bursting and impact sounds could not be distinguished, merging and overlapping in successive explosions.
With a single gesture, dozens of incantations were simultaneously discharged, brushing past their breaths and lines of sight.
Behind Lennok and Maleon, the light of stars and lightning intersected, rotating in a circle around the Tenth Coffer, incinerating everything.
‘But……!!!’
Lennok had only seen Maleon’s Primitive Magic after he had become an Ascendant.
Conversely, Maleon had never directly witnessed Lennok’s lightning magic.
This minor lack of experience, he would melt it to the extreme within these 4 seconds, shattering the balance.
CRACK!!
In the maximally slowed time, it was Lennok who first seized the advantage.
Piercing through Maleon’s chaotically swirling starlight, a sharp lightning bolt landed on the dragon-man’s shoulder.
Maleon’s left clavicle area burst as if exploding, scattering scales everywhere.
[Strange Thunderclap]
KABOOOM!!!
“……!!!”
What instinctively flashed across the rampaging Maleon’s face was not pain, but surprise.
How many battles had he fought in the Ninth Tribulation since being reborn as an Ascendant?
All that combat experience made Maleon’s body move flawlessly and perfectly.
Maleon’s martial prowess was already perfected in a realm separate from his own mind.
Yet, Maleon had momentarily been pushed back by the human before him in a mere 4 seconds of engagement.
The innate instincts of a dragon-kind and the intuition he had gained as an Ascendant halted before that incomprehensible result.
CRACK!!
Lennok, grasping sharp lightning, plunged into Maleon’s embrace.
Now that he had incapacitated Maleon’s right shoulder with a magic bullet and his left shoulder with a lightning bolt.
This was the moment to attempt close quarters, having momentarily rendered Maleon’s arms useless.
The instant he stepped within arm’s reach of the Ascendant, who had lost his balance as his shoulder shattered,
Flash!!
As the 4 seconds gained from consuming the Elixir ended, everything regained its normal speed.
The time slowed by the rotating Eight Trigrams Formation, and the lightning raging everywhere.
Lennok’s provisional barriers and shields, which had protected his body, vanished as if they were never there.
But the single streak of lightning in Lennok’s hand remained until the very end.
CRACK!!
He forcibly twisted his staggering body to push forward, thrusting the gripped lightning into Maleon’s solar plexus.
The lightning Lennok had gripped in reverse transformed into a dazzling Piercing Thunder Key the moment it touched Maleon.
[Piercing Thunder Key]
As the lightning key struck down onto his scales, a lightning shockwave simultaneously burst from Maleon’s back.
CRACKKKK!!!!
“…….”
Maleon’s colossal body, having ceased all reactions and stopped the moment the key was inserted.
But Lennok, unfazed, calmly opened his mouth.
“Maleon. If you’re conscious, answer me.”
The Piercing Thunder Key Lennok had last brought out was an artifact from the Hall of the Thunder God, acquired from the Thorben Magic Tower.
It was an artifact containing the Lightning Unraveling Spellcraft of the Lightning Emperor, a Transcendent from the 1st World.
A transcendent-grade relic capable of unraveling all things with lightning, and conversely, locking them down.
That was why Lennok intended to use the Piercing Thunder Key to forcibly quell Maleon’s rampage.
“I will seal some of your senses and forcibly awaken your consciousness. Do you hear me?”
“…….”
“If you don’t come to your senses now, there’ll be no turning back. Your body will—”
“Marvelous.”
“……!!!!”
CRUNCH!!
At that moment, Maleon’s disguise partially unraveled, revealing Seonjong’s head.
His mouth gaped open, a miserable sight, having been pierced all the way to the throat by the lightning key instead.
“The operation of the relic and spellcraft. The ability to initiate combat and the judgment to finish it. There is nothing that isn’t astonishing.”
Yet, even then, Seonjong couldn’t hide his admiration and spoke to Lennok.
“Can a mana-depleted wizard truly accomplish this much against an Ascendant who has recovered his full power?”
“…….”
“Most Great Mages from my era weren’t like this. Is it simply that you are special?”
“The key—”
BOOOM!!
Before he could finish, Maleon, raising his hand, struck Lennok’s side.
Lennok’s body, accompanied by a circular ripple, was smashed and rolled around between the inner walls like a toy.
“……Haaah……!!”
Unable to even properly groan, Lennok slumped his head.
If it weren’t for the Divine Barrier that replaced his internal organ functions with mana, he might have died from that single counterattack just now.
Even the barrier that had aided him in his fight against the Conjunction Spell Master was now impossible to maintain due to mana depletion.
One more attack allowed, and he would truly reach death.
But Seonjong seemed to have little interest in Lennok’s condition.
“4 seconds? No, a little shorter than that. You stopped mana operation precisely at 3.9831 seconds, didn’t you?”
“…….”
“Within that time, you completed 88 incantations and castings, turned the tide of battle, and even prepared a means to seal Maleon Gnosis’s rampage?”
Seonjong burst out laughing and said.
“Amazing. This is truly…… amazing. How can a mere human-kind possess such judgment and execution ability simultaneously?”
Boom!!
Maleon, his luminous inner light flashing, grabbed Lennok by the collar and lifted him.
“Is this what transcendent talent feels like when given enough time? I think I understand why Maleon was swayed by you.”
From Maleon’s chest, Seonjong slowly expelled the Piercing Thunder Key as he spoke.
“However, your fatal mistake was failing to kill Maleon at the last moment. You know that, don’t you?”
“…….”
Lennok knew it too.
That even using the Piercing Thunder Key’s ability might not stop Maleon’s rampage.
But at this point, it was simply the most probable method he could attempt with his remaining mana.
The only way to resolve the situation now that the Elixir’s effects had worn off.
However, Seonjong, while unaware of Lennok’s exact method, had read his intention and reacted at the last moment.
The damage from the Piercing Thunder Key would be considerable, but he wouldn’t have allowed Maleon to regain his consciousness either.
“I thought I had found a perfect collaborator, but as expected, not everything goes as planned.”
Thud!!
As Seonjong clicked his tongue, Maleon, gripping Lennok’s collar, began to move.
He stood with his back to the darkness of the Outer Sea, visible beyond the throne.
“There’s no reason to keep a wizard like you alive for long and give you more opportunities, is there?”
Kiiiiing!!!
The form of starlight began to intensely condense within Maleon’s hand.
Seonjong, clinging to Maleon’s chest, said.
“There will be no pain. I’ll make your head explode instantly.”
“…….”
‘Should I use it?’
He could still choose.
Whether to rely on the Extra Life Vessel he had never used, or to use another artifact to escape this moment.
But even if he stubbornly endured here, could he gain the upper hand against the current Maleon?
Even if there was no chance, even if he had to stake his life on a low probability, he wouldn’t hesitate if it was necessary.
Lennok hadn’t come this far to stop Maleon’s rampage.
“…….”
In Lennok’s eyes, which had been staring at Kaiser Bajour’s corpse on the throne, light suddenly returned.
As if recognizing and reacting to the existence of an entirely unexpected variable.
“……The true Seonjong, he became an Ascendant by experiencing death, didn’t he?”
Lennok said with difficulty.
“I, too, might be able to achieve a similar result through this death.”
“…….”
Could it be that he hadn’t expected Lennok to say such a thing?
“……Unfortunately, that won’t happen.”
Seonjong, who had been silent, replied a beat late.
“Faud Older…… the ascension that ‘I,’ who died, experienced, was not something achieved through the laws of this world in the first place.”
“The…… laws of this world?”
“Imagine filling both sides of a coin differently, one new and one old.”
In a voice devoid of emotion, Seonjong quietly said.
“It’s an impossible feat, but if it were possible, every time you flipped the coin, it would exist in both the past and the present simultaneously.”
“…….”
“You, a being of this world, may not understand, but ‘I’ truly sought out a being with the same ardent wish in a vanished past…….”
Seonjong’s voice turned eerie.
“And as a result, I remain here.”
“……I see.”
Whoooosh!!!
With those words, the starlight in Maleon’s hand flashed fiercely with heat.
The moment he gripped Lennok’s head like this, Lennok’s very existence would evaporate as if erased.
But Lennok, knowing this, turned his gaze with difficulty.
“Was buying a little time enough?”
“……What did you say?”
Behind Maleon, a beautiful radiance of light flashed.
Radiant-type Unique Magic
One-Shot Cannon
Kiiiiing……!!!
A surge of photons, as if gathering and firing the surrounding light.
The moment Lennok distinctly felt he had seen that spellcraft, which manipulated the properties of light, somewhere before.
A beam of light, flying at imperceptible, supersonic speed, accurately pierced Maleon’s wrist.
[Radiant Pierce]
Fwwoooosh!!!!!
“……!!!!”
Though it came from a blind spot, its speed was enough to snipe an Ascendant who was actively using spellcraft.
Lennok already knew about this spellcraft.
Pure spellcraft elemental magic. Among them, the Radiant-type, boasting the fastest speed.
This magic, which manipulated light, was once the symbol of an 8-level Great Mage—
[You’re a high-maintenance associate, even to the end.]
Beyond the gate made of blood, a chilling Telepathic Transmission resounded.
[I’ve told you many times, when I’m with you, nothing ever goes according to plan.]
The 8-level Mystic Eye user who had temporarily diverged during the journey through the Ninth Tribulation.
Olivera Ron Maize had arrived on the battlefield.