Chapter 1111: Level 9 (29)

The Domain of the Madness-Naked Void Palace, dragging the Ascendant’s body down under the laws of reality.

Now, bathed in Lennok’s poisoned blood, with Maleon’s spell output diminished.

From a distance almost within reach, a compressed bullet of the ‘Deconstruction’ ability pierced Maleon’s heart before he could even react.

CRACK!!

At that moment, a shattering sound echoed from deep within Seonjong.

Maleon Gnosis’s nine ranks, accumulated over a lifetime.

The inner self of the Transcendent, who had completed, transcended, earned his qualification, and become an Ascendant, was ground away by the black halo.

[Oooooh?!!!!]

As Seonjong unleashed an ineffable shriek, he drew up mana with all his might.

Simultaneously, his body was engulfed in vast starlight and exploded in place.

KABOOOOM!!!!!

“Ugh…!!”

Immediately after fully deploying Ouroboros to deconstruct Maleon’s rank.

Lennok’s body, unable to withstand the recoil of the explosion, was flung away at immense speed.

The shock of the explosion Seonjong unleashed like a seizure, the fiercely burning starlight of the Space-Thought Domain.

The Madness-Naked Void Palace’s Domain, having expended all its reserves, cracked and shattered.

CLANG!!!!

As the Domain’s landscape, overlaying reality, shattered, the burning Spacetime of the Ninth Tribulation reappeared.

CRASH, CRASH, BANG!!!!

Lennok’s body, flung and tumbling between the flaming bulkheads and corridors of the Ninth Tribulation.

“Uuugh…!!”

Lennok, having violently coughed up thick, black blood, collapsed and hung his head low.

This was because the recoil from his Domain being forcibly shattered swept over Lennok’s body belatedly.

‘It was only half a Domain, but the recoil was more than that… Is this the price for forcibly boosting the output?’

He had used the Madness-Naked Void Palace to counter the Galaxy Dragon Star Cluster, but the Domain’s inherent output was less than half its original power.

With Lennok having consumed the elixir and embraced ruin, the Kaleidoscope, which drew in future branching points, was unusable.

It was only because the Madness-Naked Void Palace was such an alien and twisted Domain that he could forcibly deploy it, ignoring such penalties.

By narrowing the effective range through the Domain’s release and compression, and forcibly increasing its output by mixing it with Ouroboros’s spellcraft.

Only by striking precisely at the heart from a close range, touching Seonjong, could he inflict damage upon an Ascendant.

However, that much was enough.

‘To break Maleon’s rank within the Space-Thought Domain, the Madness-Naked Void Palace’s Domain effect was necessary.’

Lennok knew that since Seonjong had obtained Maleon’s spellcraft, he would inevitably use the Space-Thought Domain.

The Space-Thought Domain was a privilege and an ability of Ascendants who had reached Level 9.

Its power to semi-permanently alter the world was a miracle that guaranteed absolute superiority even on the battlefield.

But the Madness-Naked Void Palace had the power to forcibly place the spacetime within its Domain under the laws of reality.

Therefore, with the Madness-Naked Void Palace, he could impose the laws of reality upon an Ascendant even within their Space-Thought Domain.

Of course, this assumption only held true if Lennok’s Root Mindscape wasn’t pushed back against an Ascendant’s Space-Thought Domain.

But Lennok had never doubted that part, not for a single moment.

That’s why Lennok had instinctively known which Domain to bring out as a countermeasure against the Space-Thought Domain.

He had known it the moment he drank the elixir.

What power was permitted to Lennok, and what power he had temporarily lost.

He knew all the spellcraft and abilities he could unleash to settle the score with the Ascendant before him.

He had unleashed his talents and capabilities one by one, luring the fallen Ascendant deep into the Domain.

And finally, like this—

[Oooooh!!!!]

Outside the Spacetime of the Ninth Tribulation, Seonjong, his entire body ablaze with starlight, roared fiercely.

Floating at the center of the magnificent Galaxy Dragon Star Cluster, he staggered and unleashed starlight like a seizure.

Ouroboros’s ability, which had precisely pierced Maleon Gnosis’s heart.

He realized that it was deconstructing Maleon’s rank, beyond just his physical body.

Because he realized it was forcibly breaking the core that allowed him to exist as an Ascendant.

WHOOOOOSH!!!!

Simultaneously, the Galaxy Dragon Star Cluster’s Space-Thought Domain, which had been fixing the Spacetime of the Ninth Tribulation, shook unstably.

As Maleon’s rank developed problems, the resulting Space-Thought Domain was shaking from its very foundation.

“Hoo… cough, cough!!”

Lennok, watching the scene, then lowered his pale face and coughed up blood.

When he removed the hand covering his mouth, black blood stretched out, sticky like oil.

Lennok, staring blankly at it, weakly lowered his head.

“Haa, haa…”

It was no coincidence that the battle with Seonjong reached its conclusion faster than expected.

From the beginning, Lennok had intended to end this fight as a decisive, short battle.

Domain deployment. Ouroboros’s barrage. The mana consumption to break the Ascendant’s rank was not the only problem.

The extreme poison of the elixir gnawing at his body. The sense of decay, rotting him at a cellular level.

Lennok’s time was now running out.

“…I have to go.”

Lennok wiped the black blood trailing down his hand and struggled to his feet.

If the Space-Thought Domain collapsed, the Ninth Tribulation would also plummet back into the atmosphere under reality’s gravity.

Before that, he had to completely resolve this situation and escape the Ninth Tribulation.

If he failed, Lennok’s body would also burn up from atmospheric friction and simply evaporate.

As Lennok thought so and turned towards the entrance of the Tenth Coffer, where flames were surging, at that very moment.

“…Ah.”

WHOOOOSH!!!!

Before Lennok’s eyes, two streams of intense starlight spun and collided at immense speed.

Ancient Primitive Magic, which freely designates the spell’s spatial coordinates regardless of the caster’s position.

Destroying the true bloodline of angels by overlapping two different stars into a single spacetime coordinate—

Primitive Magic: Star-Linking Eight Extremes Style

Ninth Form - External Method

[Celestial Conjunction]

KABOOOOM!!!!

The transparent outer wall shattered, and the Adamant Dragon, trampling stars, descended at incredible speed.

Lennok immediately activated Ouroboros, but the colossal dragon’s malevolent roar crushed the ground, rotating and radiating.

With the explosion, a shockwave crushed Lennok’s body, sending him tumbling backward.

“Kuh…!!”

KABOOM!!!

The Ascendant did not miss even a momentary falter.

The colossal Adamant Dragon, transformed into a lightning-like flash, kicked Lennok at an invisible speed.

The black halo, which had served as Lennok’s shield, shattered into fragments this time.

A tens-of-meters shockwave burst like a ripple, flinging Lennok to the opposite side of the boiling corridor.

CRASH, CRASH, THUD!!!

“…!!!”

Lennok, unable to even scream, trembled his hands and fell helplessly.

If he hadn’t used Ouroboros as a shield, his body would have exploded like a balloon right there.

Even with severe injuries, his body crushed and blood vessels bursting, he no longer felt pain.

In the distance, the shimmering Silver Flame Dragon King began to appear faintly.

“Failed… have I?”

Lennok coughed and muttered weakly, watching Seonjong approach.

Even though he had aimed for Maleon’s heart and unleashed Ouroboros, the Ascendant did not ‘fall’.

Instead, the Galaxy Dragon Star Cluster’s Space-Thought Domain merely pulsed, beginning to shed starlight everywhere.

His body felt endlessly heavy under the burden of gravity.

Despite piercing his heart with Ouroboros, had he ultimately failed to break Maleon’s rank?

[No. It was nothing short of perfect.]

THUD!!

The Ascendant, wreathed in molten silver flames, denied him, looking down at Lennok with burning eyes.

[As a means to counter the Space-Thought Domain, it was indeed a Domain close to mortality. You were not wrong.]

“…”

[However, it was only because I, of all people, resided in this Dragon-kind’s body that you failed.]

“You… shared Ouroboros’s deconstruction spellcraft with Maleon.”

Lennok asked, looking up at Seonjong with blurred eyes.

“Did you halve the spell effect applied to Maleon, forcibly maintaining his rank?”

Currently, residing within Maleon’s body were the consciousnesses of two individuals: Maleon and Seonjong.

The moment Lennok fired the halo into Maleon’s heart, Seonjong realized this attack was unavoidable.

Therefore, instead of letting Maleon bear Ouroboros alone, he spread his own consciousness and shared the damage.

[It would have been impossible if I hadn’t stabilized the rank with my abilities of Recursion and Serenity.]

Seonjong affirmed.

[Yet, even though I bore the recoil and repaired the damage as much as possible, the rank almost shattered. Truly a sickeningly heinous power.]

“…”

[You may be proud, Adamant Thunder. If I hadn’t placed a Geas on this body at the last moment, your desired outcome would surely have come to pass.]

“…A Geas, then.”

The Galaxy Dragon Star Cluster, shaking wildly as Maleon descended upon the Ninth Tribulation.

Countless meteor showers falling from the sky, and the Spacetime of the Ninth Tribulation slowly beginning to plummet.

What did it mean that the Ninth Tribulation was falling again, even though the Space-Thought Domain was still manifest?

At that moment, he realized that Seonjong had sacrificed the power of the Space-Thought Domain to withstand Lennok’s spellcraft.

[Since all the starlight forming the Galaxy Dragon Star Cluster is one with myself, I forcibly halved your spell effect by offloading it onto thousands of stars.]

Seonjong said, raising his gaze.

[To make that possible, I placed a Geas on this body, swearing ‘never again’ to use the Space-Thought Domain.]

“…”

Only then did Lennok understand why Seonjong had withstood Ouroboros.

Maleon’s and Seonjong’s consciousnesses each bore the spell effect, and the damage to the body was repaired by Seonjong’s abilities of Recursion and Serenity.

But even so, the recoil inflicted on Maleon’s mind and body would surely have been more than enough to shatter his rank.

That is why Seonjong ultimately offloaded the damage onto the stars that constituted the Galaxy Dragon Star Cluster.

Through the restriction of placing an extremely powerful and heavy Geas upon himself, swearing never to use the Space-Thought Domain again.

Surely, without such a Geas, enduring Ouroboros would have been impossible.

The price Seonjong paid to maintain Maleon’s rank must have been truly immense.

However, Lennok, knowing this, stared at Seonjong with cold, sunken eyes.

“The Galaxy Dragon Star Cluster… was Maleon’s answer.”

The Space-Thought Domain, Galaxy Dragon Star Cluster, was the power that Maleon used to reshape the world with his answer.

Even if it wavered and became incomplete in response to Lennok’s answer, unable to even protect its own ego in the end.

Even if it was clumsy and futile, it was undoubtedly the answer Maleon had cherished throughout his life.

Lennok slowly got back to his feet and glared at Seonjong with chilling eyes.

“It’s not a power you can toy with as you please.”

[Perhaps. But what does that matter to me?]

Seonjong said so, and caressed his arm with one hand.

HISS…!!

Each time the Adamant Dragon’s hand touched his forearm, the poisonous fluid covering it was purified and vanished.

The abilities of Recursion and Serenity, which Faud Older himself had possessed since birth.

Through them, he was restoring and correctly rewriting the corrupted body.

[Maleon Gnosis will never awaken again, and I too will soon move to another body.]

“…”

KABOOM!!!!

Piercing the ceiling of the Ninth Tribulation, the shattering starlight of the Space-Thought Domain fell continuously.

Each time, pillars of light surged, incinerating spacetime and turning everything to ashes.

The Ascendant, wreathed in an ominous malevolent star, facing Lennok amidst the waves of exploding starlight.

[This is the first and last light of birth and death that the Galaxy Dragon Star Cluster will emit.]

KIIING…!!!

Seonjong, who had snatched the burning starlight with one hand, spoke.

[Now that such a powerful Geas has been placed, this is the full power, drawing out Maleon Gnosis’s potential to its utmost future.]

“…”

[So, even his final soul pacification must be accompanied by your death, to not be lonely.]

No further questions or answers followed.

The moment Seonjong, holding molten starlight, gestured as if cracking a whip, and Lennok raised his black halo.

Primitive Magic: Star-Linking Eight Extremes Style

Eighth Form - External Method

[Fusion Star Cannon]

BOOOOOOM!!!!

Dividing starlight and black lightning exploded everywhere, erupting outside the Ninth Tribulation.

Seonjong, who had drawn power by ‘consuming’ the Space-Thought Domain, and Lennok, coughing black blood, clashed between the bulkheads.

The brilliantly shining starlight and the faintly flickering halo collided, unleashing intense shockwaves.

KABOOM!!!!

The bodies of the two Transcendants accelerated, traversing the half-destroyed, collapsing corridor in parallel.

Black and silver light surged across the vast corridor, refracting dozens of times between the ceiling and inner walls.

Seonjong’s robust body accelerated at supersonic speed, raining dozens of meteor showers from outside the outer wall.

He simultaneously forced close-quarters combat and repeatedly cast Primitive Magic to project firepower.

RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

But Lennok, clutching his halo, which seemed about to vanish, was enduring Seonjong’s assault.

With his body staggering from the poison, coughing up black blood.

Precariously, as if about to collapse at any moment, he deconstructed and deflected every attack and spellcraft Seonjong unleashed.

“Cough…!!”

[With only the embers remaining within you, can you really contend with me to this extent!!!]

KABOOM!!!

Seonjong, holding starlight empowered by the Geas on the Space-Thought Domain, fiercely shattered the flickering halo.

The dragon-man’s thick fist pulverized the halo’s fragments, and the moment black ripples burst forth.

A meteor shower fell from the sky, exploding towards Lennok, and its recoil further accelerated the descent.

RUMBLE!!!!

The battlefield of the Ninth Tribulation, breaking through the atmosphere, accelerating, and blazing fiercely once more.

Towards Lennok, who lay amidst the burning debris, Seonjong, wreathed in shattering starlight, advanced.

The enhanced Star-Linking Eight Extremes Style, obtained by placing a Geas never to use the Space-Thought Domain again.

That starlight had, by now, lost its initial clarity, taking on an ominous, contaminated glow, like radiation.

[You managed to preserve the body’s form somehow through recoil control. Your combat intuition remains astonishing.]

Seonjong’s empty gaze turned towards the black halo flickering behind Lennok’s back.

[But you are already worn out, on the verge of meeting your end.]

TICK, TICK!!

The black halo rotating behind his back flickered like a lighter running out of fuel.

The time-limit imposed by the extreme poison that had been eating away at Lennok’s body since he drank the Elixir of Ascension.

As its end approached, the miracle granted to Lennok was also slowly fading.

Both the ‘status effect’ that burdened Lennok’s body from consuming the poison, and the senses he gained through it.

As Lennok’s body slowly died, they too, slowly but surely, reached their limit.

[This is the end of it all.]

CRASH!!!

He kicked Lennok’s leaning body with one foot.

Lennok’s body was slammed into the molten inner wall with a shockwave at an invisible speed.

KABOOOOM!!!!

Seonjong laughed, having utterly destroyed the inner wall and flung Lennok to the outermost corridor of the Ninth Tribulation.

[I will cut your throat, kill the Mystic Eye sorcerer you saved, and reclaim Kaiser Bajour’s body.]

“…”

[Furthermore, I will kill every Long-lived Being in Kundara, who are destined to fall to the Central Front, erasing their meaning without exception.]

Lennok did not answer.

He merely lay fallen, wiggling his fingers as if pulling something.

Each time, black-stained mana flickered like sparks from Lennok’s hand before vanishing.

[Even the power supporting your magic is depleted, so using spellcraft will be impossible.]

Seonjong said, looking down at him.

[You tried to break Maleon’s rank and separate me when you still had time. If you have a cause of defeat, that is it.]

“…”

[You lose because you held back clumsily when you could have finished it. You become weak because you can’t abandon things.]

Seonjong laughed.

[For beings like us, choice has precisely that meaning.]

“…No.”

Lennok replied, his face buried.

“If I were to abandon one and choose another… I wouldn’t have started in the first place.”

[What?]

“I take everything. That was the purpose of my fall. So—”

Lennok, raising a trembling hand, whispered.

“This time, I’ll have to fall all the way to the very end.”

The moment Seonjong realized that hand was pointed not at him, but at the flames outside the falling Ninth Tribulation.

Lennok, avoiding the tumultuous starlight, grasped the flames burning outside the Ninth Tribulation.

WHOOSH!!!!

Forcibly manipulating the flames that burned the Ninth Tribulation’s outer wall due to atmospheric friction.

He pulled the flames through the shattered outer wall and held them in his hand.

“Come.”

FWHOOSH!!

The moment the long flame in his hand surged like a colossal flagstaff.

Before he knew it, a flag made of red flames was in Lennok’s hand.

Ritual Weapon Hyeonghokseong.

A weapon of the Ability Awakening Warband, obtained on the Central Front in his identity as Cheonbeon.

It draws out dormant innate abilities from the unconscious into reality, using surrounding flames as a medium.

With that alone, Lennok’s consciousness began to expand at an immense speed, surpassing his physical body.

WOOOOSH!!!

Each time the flag of flames unfurled, Lennok’s expanded consciousness, accompanied by a magnificent resonating sound, enveloped the battlefield.

The wizard’s consciousness, having gained an Ascendant’s senses, began to paint spacetime in its own colors without restraint.

The starlight-surging battlefield of the Ninth Tribulation was dyed in pitch-black darkness, undulating like a massive ripple.

The moment Seonjong realized that this was not spellcraft or magic, but merely preparatory work for a greater consciousness.

Lennok’s hand clenched fiercely in the air, shattering space.

“Summon.”

CRASH!!

Spacetime shattered like glass, and a gleaming lightning key was grasped.

The Piercing Thunder Key, scattering brilliant lightning, contrary to Lennok’s corrupted and transformed mana.

[Is that the Foreknowledge key you used to awaken Maleon…!!!]

Seonjong, recalling the form of that lightning-imbued key, laughed madly.

[Do you still believe you can stop me with such a method!!!]

“It’s not to stop Maleon’s rampage.”

KABOOOOM!!!!

Bearing a tens-of-meters-long flag of flames, he raised the lightning key with his other hand.

Each time he moved his arms, wreathed in flames and lightning, black halos burst forth ceaselessly and rotated.

WHOOOOSH!!!!

His movements stretched out endlessly, as if time had slowed, like swimming underwater.

Expansion of consciousness beyond limits. Due to the manifestation of the Ritual Weapon, all of Lennok’s innate abilities were forcibly activated.

The Mystic Eye and Eight Trigrams Formation operated simultaneously, manipulating Lennok’s vision and perception of time.

“I merely needed preparations… to drag my spellcraft down to its absolute lowest point.”

[Preparations—]

Suddenly, Maleon’s words stopped short.

An expansion of consciousness that Lennok himself could not bear.

It was neither a Domain manifesting the Root Mindscape, nor a Jurisdiction actualizing the caster’s ideals.

The reason Lennok brought out the Piercing Thunder Key at this moment, despite being unable to fully use his Kaleidoscope.

“Even if the causality of lightning cannot be used, a spacetime possessing more abundant power than any secret realm in the world.”

[-No way.]

“If only from beyond the dreams that transcend the world, can I fall to the very end of corruption—”

WHOOOOSH!!!!!

The moment he plunged the lightning key into the Spacetime of the Ninth Tribulation, a sharp lightning radiance exploded.

The Lightning Spear, amplified thousands of times in size, pierced through the Spacetime of the Ninth Tribulation from top to bottom.

A colossal lightning eye emerged behind Lennok, gazing at Maleon.

Lennok, embracing the shattering, flickering darkness, raised his gaze.

“Sanctuary Declaration.”

Lennok declared.

“Hall of the Thunder God, open.”