Chapter 1120: Lingering Scent (8)

In the center of a vast, monochromatic room.

Lennok stood with his eyes closed, one hand extended.

The tingling lightning flowed around him. A glass-colored glow flickered at his fingertips.

From the ceiling, the clear voice of the Cybernetic Spirit resounded.

[Spell activation initiated]

Crack…!!!

Inside the thick glass partition, a brilliant blue lightning flash erupted.

A sharp, lightning-like radiance, blooming from empty air, fueled by mana.

[4 types superimposed]

One more. One more. And then another strand.

Four strands of electricity, rising from the void, touched each other and rotated with intricate precision.

[Property Transformation accelerated. Extremity conjunction.]

Crackle-crackle-crackle!!!!

The four bolts of lightning, compressed to their limit, connected to form a tetrahedron.

The glowing blue tetrahedron floated, scattering intense lightning flashes in all directions.

[Compressed through 8th-stage transmission]

Rumble-rumble-rumble…!!!!

As Lennok clenched his fist, it slowly began to shrink in size.

The tetrahedron compressed until it was small enough to fit in his hand.

[Entering control sequence. Directional control initiated.]

Lennok levitated the compressed mass in the air, then slowly reached out his hand towards it.

The moment his hand, clad in a weighty, glass-colored gauntlet, carefully gripped the compressed lightning.

[Release failed. Runaway—]

Snap!!

With an ominous burst, the lightning exploded in Lennok’s hand.

The streaks of light that escaped from both sides of his fist accelerated instantly before his eyes.

They pierced through the thick partitions of the laboratory and scattered with an enormous roar.

Kwooosh-aaaaaaang!!!

A thunderous sound that threatened to burst eardrums.

Before his eyes, blue lightning flickered and surged, and the ground beneath his feet shook madly.

All the surrounding equipment and objects were blown away and shattered, and the temperature and pressure rapidly rose.

[WARNING]

[WARNING]

[WARNING]

Red warning lights flickered overhead, and the roar and sirens mingled into a cacophony.

[334 types of defensive barriers completely destroyed. 1,551 types partially destroyed.]

[External variables undetectable. Internal variables uncontrollable.]

[1A+++ grade alert issued. Partitions locked down. Facility shutdown.]

Kwakwakwakwa!!!!

Solid alloy barriers descended from all sides, and sprinklers activated from the ceiling.

Streams of water poured down over the acrid smoke, lowering the temperature, and the ventilation system activated to adjust the pressure.

The shattered remains of countless measuring devices were so utterly destroyed that not a trace could be found.

In the pile of debris that had instantly turned into ruins, Lennok stood, drenched in water.

Whoosh-aaaa!!!

Davi approached Lennok, who stood fully exposed to the rain pouring from the sprinklers.

[72% of the Spell Performance Test Chamber’s functions are lost. It seems a second experiment will be difficult.]

“…Indeed. But this confirms it.”

Lennok ran a hand through his wet hair, his face expressionless, and looked down at his hand.

“The lightning magic is running wild.”

Vulcan, the mega-city. Lennok’s private laboratory.

Whoosh-aaaa!!

Lennok emerged from the shower, a towel draped over his shoulder.

Buttoning his shirt, Lennok picked up the coffee cup Davi had prepared and asked,

“The test chamber?”

[Restoration work is underway, but the chances of it returning to its original performance are low.]

The Cybernetic Spirit hopped onto his shoulder and said,

[Due to the unique characteristics of Master’s magic, the aftermath lingers for a long time, so it seems a performance degradation is unavoidable even after restoration is complete.]

“…”

[I recommend decommissioning the existing Spell Performance Test Chamber and building a completely new one next to it.]

The dream of establishing a laboratory, which began in a corner of an old apartment, had now reached the level of renovating an entire building.

He had purchased a deserted section of an undeveloped district, plastered it with barriers, and reduced the leakage of traces and after-effects.

The Spell Performance Test Chamber, located near the research wing, was one of the places Lennok had meticulously taken care of.

The entire building was wrapped in mana-blocking materials, and the properties of the steel reinforcement and concrete were modified to increase its strength.

It was a training ground designed with all sorts of spells and barriers layered on top, ensuring that even if it broke and shattered, it would never lose its center and collapse.

Although a Spell Performance Test Chamber rivaling a bomb shelter was half-destroyed by a single use of a spell, Lennok’s expression was not at ease.

“The test chamber in the undeveloped district was for insurance, so that’s fine… but that’s not the problem.”

Lennok sighed, leaned back in his chair, and shook his head.

“The power of the lightning magic is running wild. I expected it, but it’s more than I thought.”

The final battle in the Outer Tribulation City of Kundara, where he clashed with an Ascendant.

To win that battle, Lennok had consumed the Elixir of Ascension, embraced ruin, and acquired a corrupted Ouroboros.

But even after the elixir’s effects wore off and he safely survived, Black Lightning still mingled within Lennok’s lightning.

A faint sense of incongruity, imperceptible to the eye and barely felt by the senses.

But through Lennok’s transcendent sensitivity, he could clearly feel the ‘discomfort.’

Through this, Lennok realized that there was a problem with his lightning magic, and immediately after returning to Vulcan, he had undergone a self-diagnosis and finally confirmed it.

“It’s not a rebound from the elixir’s toxicity. There’s been a more fundamental change.”

Lennok rested his chin on his hands, lost in thought.

“Within me… something has changed, has it?”

[I’ve been recording all conversations between Master and me since returning to the lab.]

Davi climbed onto Lennok’s lap, wagging her tail.

[Let’s start by organizing exactly what symptoms and sensations you’re experiencing.]

“…”

Lennok closed his eyes silently, deep in thought.

He infinitely dissected everything he felt immediately after casting the spell, peering into it.

Using the wizard’s rationality, transcendent intuition, and sensitivity, he reversed the flow of time, held it, and observed.

Whoo-woo-woong…!!!

Before he knew it, Lennok’s two eyes had transformed into Mystic Eyes, gleaming.

Recalling his memories, even utilizing his Innate Ability, Lennok slowly opened his mouth.

“…The last moment.”

[The last moment?]

“There’s no problem up until the moment I cast and create the spell.”

Lennok opened his eyes and said,

“The very last moment of completing the incantation and manipulating it… precisely at that moment, it tries to escape my will.”

[…]

“For a very brief instant, there’s a moment when the spell doesn’t retract according to my will. That’s the closest I can describe the sensation.”

Magic is a miracle that exists under the caster’s will from beginning to end.

With Lennok’s talent, it was even possible to retract and cancel a spell immediately after casting it.

Based on his Will-thought and Mental Image, the spell created with mana as fuel should always be under Lennok’s control.

However, the moment he cast a lightning spell, Lennok realized that the lightning was faintly escaping his control.

“Has the upper limit of the spell output become incredibly high, while fine-tuned control has become impossible?”

[What about other elemental magic?]

“Fire/Heat-elemental and Manipulation-elemental magic are fine. Only the lightning-elemental magic is running wild.”

He knew it instinctively, even without experimenting.

The runaway phenomenon, which didn’t occur in other elemental systems, was exclusively happening in the lightning-elemental system.

[I successfully recovered the data from the Spell Performance Test Chamber.]

Davi said, displaying a hologram window before Lennok’s eyes.

[I recorded the moment Master cast the spell from 36 different angles. Shall I play it?]

“At 0.001x speed, please.”

Lennok immediately moved the hologram window in front of him and began to watch the slow-motion video of himself.

In the center of the test chamber, Lennok raised one hand and slowly clenched his fist.

The speed of his fingers moving felt slower than a crawling turtle.

But Lennok watched his own movements in the video without blinking.

The moment the Lennok in the video gripped the compressed lightning and clenched his fist.

Flash.

The lightning pierced through the test chamber and exploded at an invisible speed.

“…”

Lennok’s lightning magic was as swift as Radiant Magic.

Even at 0.001x speed, the video couldn’t keep up with the lightning’s speed.

Davi also awkwardly rubbed her paws and wagged her tail.

[I’ll slow down the speed even further.]

“Let’s narrow down the playback starting point as well. Dissect the moment the compressed mass explodes even further, and focus on slowing down just that specific point.”

Screech…

The scene of the lightning exploding in Lennok’s clenched fist in the video replayed hundreds of times.

Each time he failed to confirm an anomaly, he continued to lower the speed and restart the video.

Beyond just slowing down, it was at such a low speed that his hand didn’t even appear to move after nearly a minute of watching.

A slightly deflated Davi said,

[Master. This is the limit of the current video recording device at this speed…]

“It’s alright.”

Lennok said, rotating his Eight Trigrams Formation.

“From now on, I’ll check it myself.”

Weeeeeeing!!!

Using Anathema’s Innate Ability, he stretched his perceived time to its extreme slowness.

He further divided the time, already slowed to the limit of the video device, within reality itself.

And the moment he clumsily began to imitate the Ascendant’s realm of infinitely dissecting and thinking with his consciousness.

Lennok could finally see it in the video.

The Lennok in the video. The light of the lightning exploding in his hand.

It possessed an endlessly ominous black-azure hue.

‘…Ah.’

It was neither Lennok’s own lightning, nor the Black Lightning of the Branching Point of Corruption.

It was a new, black-azure lightning, born from the fusion of those two powers.

He saw that an unknown lightning, not even understood by himself, appeared and disappeared in an instant, less than a moment.

“…”

Whoosh!!

Lennok, who had instantly turned off the Eight Trigrams Formation and returned to reality, bowed his head.

“Indeed…”

The Branching Point of Corruption, obtained by consuming the Elixir of Ascension.

He once again realized that this new power, newly engraved into his Kaleidoscope, was a dangerous possibility even for himself.

[Master?]

“The lightning magic wasn’t just running wild.”

Lennok gave a bitter smile and looked up.

“An unknown concept, one I still don’t understand, has mingled with my lightning.”

The Branching Point of Corruption, where he had consumed the elixir and embraced ruin.

To use the ‘disintegration’ ability of the corrupted Ouroboros, Lennok had used his lightning as a medium.

Lennok’s lightning, having passed through Ouroboros, had been dyed black, becoming Black Lightning that disintegrated all matter and laws.

He didn’t understand why he had to do it.

It was simply the result of a sensation that felt utterly familiar, as if he had to do it.

But the price for accepting that familiarity deep into his soul still remained within Lennok.

And it was in a form that had completely transformed into a new power, fused with Lennok’s own lightning magic.

“The elemental system of the lightning magic itself hasn’t changed. But it’s undeniable that some unknown concept has mingled with it.”

Clank!!

He snatched the glass-colored gauntlet from the display stand and put it on his hand.

Drawing up mana, he manifested the lightning, mingled with Black Lightning, above the gauntlet.

Whoooooosh!!!!

The tingling lightning coiled around the glass-colored gauntlet and rotated, but the gauntlet did not react.

It only greedily absorbed and devoured the mana Lennok unleashed.

“When I use lightning magic, the gauntlet doesn’t react. But— ”

Weeeeeeing…!!

The moment he compressed the generated lightning into the form of a Mana Thread, the gauntlet surged and began to tremble violently.

The Forbidden Armament vibrated fiercely, as if it were about to activate at any moment.

“Like this, if I form it into the shape of a Mana Thread, it always reacts.”

[Master, this is…]

Lennok murmured, gazing at the glass-colored gauntlet.

“Does this Forbidden Armament have to borrow the form of Manipulation-elemental magic to be wielded in any way? If so, then perhaps…”

He had clearly felt it faintly.

The twisted, corrupted Ouroboros. The black-stained Black Lightning.

The destructive power to disintegrate the world and open The Gate.

That Lennok might have once reached such a realm.

That the familiarity Lennok felt might not have been a delusion or illusion.

He had merely been re-examining the facts he had consciously ignored after the events in Kundara, and now in their worst form.

He held himself together amidst the growing confusion.

Still, his desire to remain himself until the very end of the world had not changed.

Lennok was convinced that the conclusion he had reached was the only answer for the ending.

However, what if ‘someone’ had always stood one step behind Lennok?

Waiting only for the moment Lennok fell, the moment he looked back?

‘…I.’

Even without fully reaching Level 9, he already wielded the power to disintegrate all creation.

If he truly became an Ascendant and gained the qualifications, the Transcendence he would acquire would be beyond anyone’s reach.

And the fact that such a being might have existed long ago—

[Master!]

“…”

Before he knew it, Davi was on Lennok’s lap, her tail stiffly upright.

The light of the glass-colored gauntlet at Lennok’s fingertips faintly split and ominously mingled.

Above the spirit’s back, the eighth tail, which should have been Black Lightning, flickered wildly.

Crackle-crackle-crackle…!!!

[Master…]

“…Yes.”

Lennok picked up the startled and stiff Davi, stroking her head.

But, was that really the right thing to do?

If it was a power that felt infinitely familiar to Lennok, yet he didn’t possess, if it was a branching point he hadn’t reached until now, wasn’t there a reason for it?

He hesitated, knowing it was within arm’s reach.

He feared it even more because it was so inexplicably familiar and intimate.

Ultimately, that was because Lennok already knew that outcome.

Because he had seen the outcome he faced at the end of the Branching Point of Corruption, the outcome he would face in the future.

“I need to investigate the power to open The Gate.”

Lennok murmured, stroking Davi with his eyes closed.

“Without a deeper understanding of the power I might have once possessed… it would be impossible to wield it.”

[I’ll search through all the databases across the continent to find information.]

“No. The clue is much closer than that.”

Lennok said, pulling out his phone from his pocket.

“I received a hint long ago. A message should have arrived by now.”

The moment he turned on his phone, which had been off for several weeks, messages and missed calls poured in.

Even at this moment, messages were being sent repeatedly, and calls were constantly coming in.

But Lennok could see a message that had been updated via a secret line among them.

[Victor.]

A message sent a week ago by Hylaea, the broker with the Talent for Duality.

[The start date for The Gate operation in Kabahim Royal Capital has been decided. The Clown will be gathering members.]

“…”

[The gathering point is Torquepaz. Please reply within two weeks.]

The only way for Lennok to deeply understand the power to open The Gate.

A means to delve deep into and unravel The Gate itself.

Pandemonium’s operation to capture The Gate was about to be executed.

… (Continued)