Chapter 1103: Level 9 (21)
Bang!!
Passing through the blood gate, Lennok descended into a vast palace cloaked in a crimson shadow.
This was his third visit to the Blood-Veil Palace, which existed on the boundary between reality and the imaginary dimension.
But the scene that met Lennok’s eyes was neither the audience chamber nor the reception room he had visited the second time.
A desolate sickbed dimly lit by a red lamp.
A cold scene reminiscent of an operating table, cluttered with various tools and IV drips.
“…Where is this?”
“The blood management room.”
The girl, who was tidying up the IV drips and various syringes next to the bed, spoke casually.
“Lie down properly so I can treat you. First, I’m going to normalize your blood pressure.”
“Treatment?”
“Maleon, having become an Ascendant, might be able to endure in the Ninth Tribulation indefinitely, but we cannot.”
The Fearsome Blood King, glancing with her red eyes, said.
“You’ve essentially been out in the Outer Sea for dozens of hours, bare. It’s only natural to suffer from symptoms akin to decompression sickness, isn’t it?”
“…”
“First, I’ll remove the impurities dissolved in your blood vessels, and then I’ll inject your blood, with its mana saturation increased, back into you.”
Click!!
The Fearsome Blood King said, connecting a blood bag hanging above the bed to an IV drip.
“It’s a doping method commonly used by drug addicts and superhumans. Are you going to do it or not?”
“…I know the procedure. I’ll do it myself.”
Since Lennok was also familiar with blood doping, it was better to do it himself than to leave it to someone else.
As soon as he inserted the needle, given by the Fearsome Blood King, into his wrist, blood began to circulate through the IV drip.
His head spun, and he felt a powerful dizziness.
“Huu…”
It was difficult to stay conscious while having blood drawn in his utterly exhausted condition.
“There should be some time while I receive the transfusion.”
The Fearsome Blood King, sitting next to Lennok, clasped her hands and said.
“An explanation of the situation. Can you tell me directly?”
“…It’s hard to summarize briefly.”
Even as Lennok answered, he briefly explained what had happened in the Ninth Tribulation.
The mana depletion immediately after completing the Promotion Ritual. The process of crossing the Outer Sea into the Ninth Tribulation.
Maleon, who had suffered injuries and pushed through the Ninth Tribulation alone, and Seonjong’s thought-form that appeared in the Tenth Coffer.
Even Olivera Ron Maize’s decisive action to remain alone in the Ninth Tribulation at the last moment.
“…”
Before he knew it, Lennok found himself not only explaining what happened in the Ninth Tribulation but also reviewing it.
As if finishing a very long game of Obaekro and only belatedly counting the moves.
He replayed the final defeat over dozens of times, deep in thought.
‘…Olivera.’
After completing the Promotion Ritual and breaking through the Ninth Tribulation, his mana and mental power were completely drained.
Having even used an Elixir, the cards Lennok could play were limited.
Lifesaving measures that could only save Lennok’s own life, like the Extra Life Vessel or revival spells.
A gamble like the remains of an Adamant Dragon received from Maleon, dangerous but with unknown results.
Running away alone was not entirely impossible even in that situation.
But if he did, Olivera would be left alone in his place.
That’s why Lennok had intended to cooperate with Olivera as much as possible once she intervened.
He had not expected her to be acting with the intention of making him escape alone.
‘Should I have stopped her before she used the Mystic Eye on Kaiser’s corpse?’
Once the Blood Contract activated, banishing those without True Blood from the Ninth Tribulation, it was irreversible.
Olivera could only make Lennok escape because she, too, possessed True Blood.
True Blood bearers could fight within the Ninth Tribulation, where the Blood Contract was complete, without being suppressed by Eternal Pressure.
That’s why Olivera, even in such a state, could fight Maleon on equal terms for a while, but—
“…I see.”
At that moment, Lennok realized that he had regarded his relationship with her as more equal than he thought.
Enough to respect Olivera’s judgment as much as possible before making a decision in an urgent situation.
Even to the extent of cooperating with Olivera’s plan, whose inner workings he didn’t know, on a battlefield where lives were at stake.
The great wizard who had followed Lennok to Kundara alone, never losing her cynicism and pessimism.
Lennok trusted her that much.
“I need to save Olivera.”
Lennok, opening his eyes quietly, said.
“Regnus said that time flows differently inside the Ninth Tribulation than in reality. If I hurry, it might not be too late.”
This was not the time to lament over defeat. There was still something Lennok could do.
Above all, Lennok had not forgotten the message Olivera left at the last moment.
—This is not a simple sacrifice or whim.—
Those words left by Olivera were, quite literally, an assertion that she was not sacrificing her life.
Her instruction to find a way and return meant that she would hold Maleon off until then.
“Yes. I had a similar thought.”
The Fearsome Blood King, lost in thought, said.
“The reasoning is different, but the possibility that Olivera Ron Maize is still alive seems quite high.”
“What do you mean?”
“Among spells and innate abilities, there are some that become even stronger after the user dies.”
The Fearsome Blood King said.
“It’s especially true for abilities that vaguely rely on innate talent. They cling to reality like a curse, even after the caster dies.”
“…”
“If Olivera were to die, the power of her Mystic Eye might grow even stronger and entangle Kaiser’s corpse. Then Seonjong’s plan would be severely disrupted.”
“…You mean Seonjong won’t kill Olivera because he’s worried the Mystic Eye’s power will strengthen after her death?”
“According to your account, Seonjong had deep insight, enough to deduce the Mystic Eye’s abilities as soon as he saw Olivera.”
The Fearsome Blood King replied.
“In that case, he wouldn’t just sit back and let Olivera die, potentially leaving the Mystic Eye’s power more strongly imprinted on reality.”
“That’s…”
“At least it’s clear that Olivera stayed behind in the Ninth Tribulation with that intention.”
Having said that, the Fearsome Blood King raised her gaze with a subtly admiring expression.
“She made that decision at that moment to save both your life and her own, while also thwarting Seonjong’s plan.”
“…”
“Still sharp, isn’t she? She was the same during the project, too.”
Even though the Fearsome Blood King and Olivera knew each other through the project, they didn’t openly show that fact.
Perhaps their relationship wasn’t that close while the project was ongoing.
“…Unlike Seonjong, you already knew that Maleon had become an Ascendant.”
Lennok, lost in thought, immediately continued with his questions.
There were still a few more pieces of information he needed to confirm through the Fearsome Blood King.
“You weren’t observing the scene directly, so did you receive the results of the Promotion Ritual beforehand?”
“What are you talking about, the person who conducted the Promotion Ritual?”
The Fearsome Blood King retorted indifferently.
“A meteor shower was seen across Kundara. No one would have thought Maleon failed after seeing that.”
“Really?”
“Conversely, everyone in Kundara would have seen you falling from the Ninth Tribulation to the ground.”
“…”
“By now, all Long-lived Beings in Outer Tribulation City would know that something unusual happened in the Ninth Tribulation.”
The girl’s red eyes gleamed.
“And that you are very deeply involved in it.”
“You know more about the current situation than I expected.”
Lennok forced a wry smile.
“I thought the complete cessation of contact after the Nives incident was proof that you had completely withdrawn from this matter.”
“…”
After recovering Nives Orosia’s True Blood in the Poison Jurisdiction, the Fearsome Blood King had completely ceased contact via the Blood-Thought Scribe.
Therefore, he hadn’t expected her help at this point, but surprisingly, the Fearsome Blood King had remained in Kundara.
And there was only one reason why the Fearsome Blood King would move to help Lennok again.
“You thought Maleon wouldn’t get the answers he wanted, even after reaching Level 9.”
“…”
“You knew that moving Kundara outside The Veil was a desperate wish that couldn’t be achieved normally.”
Lennok’s voice echoed softly under the dim lamp.
“Did you know that Kaiser Bajour had become like that?”
“Adamant Thunder.”
“Did you know someone had defiled his end in that manner?”
Blood flowing from his wrist circulated through the IV drip, passing through the blood pack and into Lennok.
Each time, his vision blurred and cleared repeatedly, and his mind slowly sharpened.
Improving his overall condition by increasing blood purity was more urgent than treating his utterly ravaged body.
The emergency treatment the Fearsome Blood King had recommended was perfectly correct.
Even her concerns about Maleon’s plan might have been right in the end.
That’s why Lennok was asking if the Fearsome Blood King knew about Kaiser’s condition.
“I knew about Kaiser’s end.”
The black-haired girl, her red eyes gleaming, quietly looked at Lennok.
“But I don’t know why he became like that.”
“Are you playing-”
“You saw the throne Kaiser was sitting on, didn’t you?”
“…”
The Fearsome Blood King, interrupting Lennok, said quietly.
“It was made by Hwadeokjingun of Machina. It was designed by borrowing the principles of the Ascension Gate to preserve his death even after the destruction.”
Hwadeokjingun, huh.
Lennok still remembered that name, which he hadn’t heard in a long time.
The artisan he met in the Machine City, Mouser Blofeld’s master, and Machina’s best blacksmith.
Hadn’t he acquired the blueprints for the Provisional Ascension Gate he left behind when he visited the Machine City searching for traces of Kaiser?
He had come all the way here, visiting Yorta and Kundara through clues gained from Machina, to see Kaiser’s end.
But-
“Kaiser tried to use even his own death until the very end.”
The Fearsome Blood King explained softly.
“Hwadeokjingun sympathized with that wish and borrowed the Ascension Gate to preserve his death beyond the world.”
“…”
“Yet someone broke through that restraint, defiling Kaiser’s corpse and ruining his end.”
The girl’s expression instantly turned cold.
“I could only keep silent. Almost all of the project’s stakeholders were dead, and as a failure myself, I had no right to intervene.”
“…Fearsome Blood King.”
“I thought someone might have left an arrangement. But I couldn’t confirm the culprit who decapitated Kaiser. That’s why I couldn’t say anything.”
Click.
The girl, who had finished the transfusion, stood up and looked down at Lennok with her red eyes.
“Shaking you and Maleon with such uncertain assumptions would have only lowered the success rate of the ritual.”
“…”
“Actually, after Maleon became an Ascendant, I thought my worries were unfounded. But…”
Even while suspecting Maleon’s intentions, she wished for Maleon’s plan to succeed.
Even while disliking the changes Maleon would bring, she wanted him to find the answer.
Because Maleon’s plan could lead to an explanation of Kaiser’s demise, enshrined in the Tenth Coffer.
She hoped that Maleon, born an Ascendant, and Lennok would find the truth in the Tenth Coffer.
But at the same time, she vaguely thought things might turn out this way.
That’s why she could find him and help him the moment Lennok fell from the Ninth Tribulation.
Click.
Lennok looked at the Fearsome Blood King’s profile, then detached the completed IV drip from his wrist.
He removed the patch from his forearm, and then sequentially pulled out the needles from his shoulder and collarbone.
“Your treatment isn’t over yet.”
The Fearsome Blood King finally calmed her expression and turned around.
“Your body is a mess. As it is, you’ll need over 35 blood stabilization measures for recovery.”
“…”
“I’ll apply blood flow acceleration and increase your cell activity. Forcibly injecting nutrients to activate your metabolism will boost recovery efficiency without rebound.”
“There’s not much time. I’ll move as soon as my mana recovery is complete.”
Lennok replied, getting up.
“I heard the Long-lived Beings talking outside. I also saw the sky’s mist moving at an incredible speed.”
“…”
“Is Kundara falling out of the Central Front?”
Maleon had entered the Ninth Tribulation to become an Ascendant because Kundara could only be moved if life resided in all nine tribulations.
And Kundara was a city ‘designed’ to function by moving outside the world to escape destruction.
If Kundara was now moving outside The Veil, it must be due to Maleon’s presence in the Ninth Tribulation.
What was incomprehensible was that Kundara was reacting more intensely than expected to that fact.
Was Kundara falling outside the Central Front an unplanned event?
“To be precise, it’s not falling outside the Central Front.”
The Fearsome Blood King, lowering her gaze slightly, said.
“It’s a much more serious problem than that.”
“You mean there’s a problem more serious than Outer Tribulation City crashing into the middle of the Central Front?”
“…It’ll be faster to show you directly.”
The girl raised her hand, and the ceiling transparently transformed like a screen, reflecting something.
Crumble, crumble, rumble!!!
A pure white satellite moving at incredible speed, tearing through a misty spacetime.
Kundara, which had been behind The Veil, was endlessly ascending into the sky.
“The city… is rising?”
“The entire city is being pulled by the ‘gravitational pull’ emanating from the Ninth Tribulation.”
The Fearsome Blood King said.
“The Ninth Tribulation was originally created for that purpose.”
“…”
“According to the plan, Kundara’s movement should have been momentary. Even a brief ‘gravitational pull’ would have given Kundara enough inertia to be pulled out beyond The Veil.”
“And now?”
“Upwards. It’s continuously being pulled upwards.”
The red-eyed vampire pointed to the sky.
“Now, it won’t stop until Kundara is pulled out into the Outer Sea.”
“…That means.”
Does that mean Maleon’s rampage caused it to stop functioning, and Kundara is also continuously being pulled by the Ninth Tribulation?
“The Eight Great Dragon Kings are attaching their Domains to slow its speed, but even that won’t last forever.”
The Fearsome Blood King stared intently at Lennok.
“Regardless of whether it can endure in the Outer Sea, Kundara and the Ninth Tribulation will eventually collide at a single point.”
“…”
“The gravitational pull will intensify to kilometers per second just before impact, and this city will shatter like broken glass.”
The Fearsome Blood King said calmly.
“All Long-lived Beings residing in Kundara will die, and its fragments will fall into the Central Front.”
“…So, falling into the Central Front itself implied such an outcome.”
At this rate, not only the Long-lived Beings of Kundara but even Lennok himself would be caught in the destruction and die.
He had to stop Maleon’s rampage before Kundara collided with the Ninth Tribulation.
Lennok, closing his eyes in thought, said softly.
“I plan to go back up to the Ninth Tribulation before Kundara deviates into the Outer Sea.”
“…”
“I have a method in mind. A method that can only be attempted now.”
The silent vampire and Lennok met each other’s gaze.
“I just need to reach the entrance to the Ninth Tribulation. I’ll handle the rest.”
“It won’t be easy. All of the Eight Great Dragon Kings who guarded Kundara’s outskirts have descended into the city.”
The Fearsome Blood King immediately replied.
“All of them watched you survive the Ninth Tribulation alone and fall into the city.”
“…”
“They believe you are the culprit who caused Maleon’s rampage. They are eager to find and kill you.”
Water God Dragon King Alohan, who guarded the Deep Sea Domain, and seven other Dragon Kings comparable to him.
Are Level 8 Transcendent-rank superhumans moving across Outer Tribulation City to hunt Lennok down?
It wouldn’t be easy to reach the Eighth Tribulation avoiding their eyes, nor to fight through them directly.
Even if he explained the situation and asked for their understanding, how much would they believe Lennok’s words?
The Fearsome Blood King gazed silently at Lennok, who was deep in thought with a hardened expression, then asked.
“Just one thing. I have a way to safely reach the entrance of the Ninth Tribulation. Want to try it?”
“What method are you talking about?”
“The summoning contract. Do you have it?”
The Fearsome Blood King said, extending her hand.
“Give it to me. I’ll tell you the method as payment.”
“…You want the Long-lived Being Summoning Contract as payment?”
“The materials needed to make the contract are extremely rare to find in Kundara.”
The Fearsome Blood King said.
“It seems a Long-lived Being named Olber had some in reserve, so I’d like to retrieve it while I have the chance.”
“…”
It was an item he had saved to make a powerful Long-lived Being his summon, but he never expected the Fearsome Blood King to know about the contract.
Since he had used the contract to make Nives Olivera’s summon, it was only natural that the Fearsome Blood King knew.
It was a shame, but he had no leisure to hold back anything in this situation.
Lennok took out the summoning contract from his pocket and opened his mouth.
“Handing over the contract is fine, but… there’s a minor issue.”
He had once joked with Davi about forcibly putting his stamp on it to make a powerful Long-lived Being his summon.
He had laughed it off then, but just in case, he had pre-engraved his mana into the summoner’s signature field.
“I’ve already embedded my mana in the summoner’s signature field.”
Lennok said, scratching his cheek.
“If you want to use it for another purpose, you’ll first have to scrape out my mana.”
“…Hmm, really?”
“So, what is this method you speak of?”
Lennok asked, watching the girl who, with a strange answer, unfolded the contract with both hands.
“Is it a means to move to the Hall of the Eighth Tribulation, avoiding the surveillance of the Eight Great Dragon Kings?”
“Perhaps?”
“Perhaps? Such an uncertain answer-”
“Hmph.”
At that moment, the Fearsome Blood King pressed her finger firmly onto the contract’s signature field.
Blood oozing from her finger instantly soaked into the summoned beast’s signature field.
“…Wait.”
Next to it, Lennok’s mana, which he had previously embedded in the summoner’s signature field, connected.
The moment Lennok belatedly realized what the Fearsome Blood King had done.
Kiiieeeing…!!!!
Lennok felt a clear, red path connecting from within him to the Fearsome Blood King.
Invisible, non-existent, yet undeniably a ‘contract’ connected in a corner of his consciousness.
Lennok’s mouth slightly opened, understanding that this was proof the Fearsome Blood King had accepted the summoning contract.
“What have you… done?”
“A way to enter the Eighth Tribulation, avoiding the surveillance of the Eight Great Dragon Kings.”
The Fearsome Blood King clapped her hands, then handed the contract, now imbued with her mana, back to Lennok.
“The contract ended up being on my side, as the summoned, but the important thing was to establish a connection somehow.”
“No way…”
“My status in Kundara isn’t that low, you know. It’s a city where crushing others with authority works.”
The Fearsome Blood King grinned.
“You’ll just pretend to be my summon all the way to the Hall of the Eighth Tribulation. Simple, right?”