Chapter 1149: Showdown (20)
“Aronbaiger Kabahim hid a secret in this prison?”
“Yes, you cursed masked… cough! You were right, after all.”
Jillian, slumped in a corner of the old castle’s underground prison, coughed up blood.
Spitting out bloody phlegm, he spoke with a voice clearer than before.
“You dared to rampage through my fortress like a wild beast, stealing artifacts, and now you’re reaching for the Royal Capital?”
“……I, too, never expected the Grand Duke of Kabahim to be imprisoned in a place like this.”
Lennok replied.
“Why is a direct royal descendant imprisoned and dying in a place like this? Did you commit treason?”
“Treason, my ass… Pah! Why would I bother with something so annoying?”
Jillian spat and sneered.
“If I wanted to seize my esteemed brother’s throne, I wouldn’t have been holed up in some frontier fortress, wasting my time like that.”
“……”
Lennok knew what he was talking about.
When Lennok infiltrated Grand Duke Gillian’s fortress with The Clown, Gillian had been holed up in the fortress archives, sleeping soundly for a long time.
Not knowing Gillian’s whereabouts until just before stealing the Guide’s Ring, Lennok was discovered by him, causing a ruckus and forcing an escape.
If not for The Clown’s Pirate Roulette escape show, they would have spent considerable time escaping Grand Duke Gillian’s fortress.
Although he held the title of Grand Duke of Kabahim, in Lennok’s eyes, Gillian was closer to someone with no interest in power or honor.
Given that his acceptance of the Watcher position was also a result of his indolence, it was highly unlikely he would have plotted treason.
“Enough of that nonsense. Just get these damn chains off me.”
Jillian extended his right arm towards Lennok.
“My left side has been itching fiercely for a while now, it’s driving me crazy. With my arms tied, I can’t scratch it.”
“I have something I want to ask first.”
Lennok, openly ignoring Gillian, asked.
“Is the secret Aron has hidden related to his Talent for Duality?”
“……What?”
Jillian stared up at Lennok, momentarily speechless.
“You thief. How do you know about the Talent for Duality……”
“There’s no time, so I’ll explain simply. I’m interested in Aron’s attempt to open The Gate.”
Lennok’s red eyes glowed menacingly from behind his mask.
“However, the process of opening The Gate and glimpsing the sanctuary is suspicious, so I was looking for its basis. Do you know something?”
“You, this time you didn’t come to the Royal Capital to steal- cough!!”
Jillian, who had been glaring at Lennok with a fierce gaze, soon coughed up blood.
Gillian looked at the dripping blood with a skeptical expression, then spat.
“Ha… yes. I won’t last much longer like this.”
“……”
“You thief. Open the prison door. Release these chains binding my body.”
Jillian said that, gesturing towards his hand.
“Then I’ll show you what Aron is hiding, just as you wish.”
“Quite proactive. You’re Aronbaiger’s brother, yet you intend to oppose him?”
“It’s over with Aron. Can’t you tell from the state I’m in?”
In the darkness, Gillian’s two eyes seemed to burn fiercely.
“If he had executed me for failing to protect Grand Duke Gillian’s fortress, I would have accepted it. If he had told me to go to the battlefield and be a meat shield, I would have obeyed.”
“……”
“But I cannot partake in the mad scheme Aron is attempting in this old castle’s basement. That is all.”
It struck Lennok as odd that Gillian, a direct blood relative of the king, was imprisoned in such a place. Was he confined here for refusing to participate in Aron’s plans?
Lost in thought, Lennok uncrossed his arms and drew forth his mana.
“I don’t care if you rampage and die as you please, but don’t get in my way.”
He was only making a deal because he found Gillian useful; Lennok had no interest whether Gillian lived or died.
Even if Gillian was a Watcher, such affiliations held no meaning to Lennok since he had already left the Eyes of Blue.
From the start, Lennok felt no bond or closeness with any of the Watchers, save for a few exceptions.
Whether Gillian antagonized Aron and died or not, Lennok didn’t particularly care.
On the contrary, if he could use Gillian’s animosity towards Aron to uncover his secrets, it would be a profitable venture.
“I’ll release you. Step away from the door.”
“Wait, there’s a spellcraft to detect intruders installed in the prison, so let me explain-”
Click!
The prison door’s lock disengaged with an almost absurd ease, and Lennok stepped inside.
Seeing the black robe sway in the shadows, Gillian wore an awkward expression.
“……I’m sure someone tried to escape a few days ago, got dragged off, and butchered.”
“It’s impossible for ordinary detection spellcraft to sense my presence.”
Lennok extended his hand, drawing out a Mana Thread, and spoke.
“Give me your hand. I’ll cut the chains.”
“Just like a thief, you’re quite adept at sneaking around undetected.”
“Do you want your arm cut off along with it?”
“Ah, that would be problematic.”
At Lennok’s chilling retort, Gillian chuckled and rotated his shoulder.
“I’m already one-armed, anyway.”
“……”
Seeing Gillian’s blood-soaked left sleeve fluttering, Lennok fell silent.
Not only had he been tortured and imprisoned, but he had also lost his left arm in the process?
Yet, despite losing an arm, Gillian didn’t seem to be grieving or angry about it.
Thud!
Lennok thrust a Mana Thread between the chains and manipulated it to release the lock.
Gillian, rising from the heavy chains that fell with a crash, swung his right arm around.
“Well, this should be fine.”
Rotating his shoulder, he slowly checked his range of motion, then nodded and turned.
“A few fingers don’t move well, but there’s no problem swinging a fist. Let’s go.”
“Where are we going?”
“Is that even a question? Obviously, to the lowest floor of this damn dungeon.”
Vwoom…!!!
As Gillian spoke, he unleashed his mana.
Mana so vast and powerful it was hard to believe it belonged to a one-armed, battered body.
The moment Lennok instinctively raised his own mana, Gillian’s fist shot out with invisible speed.
Whoosh-
The arm, which swept past Lennok’s side without a sound, grasped the back wall of the underground prison and ripped it away.
Thump…!!
Gillian, brushing off the stone dust from his hand, pointed to the hole he had made in the wall.
“There. This should be enough to avoid detection from outside.”
“……”
“If I, a member of the royal family, were to walk through the corridors, I would undoubtedly be discovered. From here, we’ll have to make our own path.”
“For a dead weight, you seem to know how not to be a hindrance.”
“You thieving bastard, are you quite finished?”
Gillian grumbled but still led the way towards the hole in the wall.
But Lennok was contemplating the ‘technique’ Gillian had just used to rip apart the wall.
‘It seems he didn’t lose his Miniature Universe just because he lost his left arm. In fact, his ability itself seems to have grown stronger……’
Gillian’s Miniature Universe, [Titan Armament], was a mental image ability that weaponized parts of his body by transforming them into gigantic forms.
Having faced Gillian with The Clown, Lennok knew well how powerful his Miniature Universe was.
The ability to increase body size and mass was powerful enough on its own, but what was astonishing was the speed at which the Miniature Universe was activated.
The speed at which he instantaneously enlarged parts of his body and shot them out like cannonballs was barely reactable even for Lennok when facing him head-on.
It was far more difficult to contend with him when he repeatedly alternated between colossal and shrunken forms, adjusting his weight, rather than simply rampaging as a giant.
Just now, Gillian had enlarged his hand, ripped off the prison wall, then immediately returned it to normal size, compressing the fragments he held.
The sequence of enlarging and shrinking his hand was so rapid that not even the sound of the wall breaking was heard.
It felt even faster than when Lennok had faced Gillian at Grand Duke Gillian’s fortress.
‘His speed is much faster than before. Is this related to the accident where he lost his arm?’
“This way.”
Crunch!
Gillian, his left sleeve fluttering, swung his right arm and burrowed into the wall with incredible speed.
There was almost no vibration or sound during the process, eliminating the need for sound-proofing magic or presence-concealing spellcraft.
“If you’ve met my brother, you probably already know what kind of person Aron is.”
Amidst the faint sounds of crushed stone debris falling, Gillian spoke.
“Then there isn’t much to explain. You’ll understand everything once you see what’s happening down here.”
“So, the old castle being chosen as the site for the plan wasn’t because of the prison’s existence?”
“This prison is merely the dregs of the secret Aron is hiding.”
Thump-thump…!!
Gillian, violently ripping apart a reinforced alloy wall, slowly stepped inside and spoke.
“Most of the prisoners confined here are simply storage for Aron’s ‘parts,’ just like this.”
“……Ah.”
Inside the cramped, blood-splattered prison, someone sitting cross-legged slowly lifted their gaze.
Their two eyes were gouged out, a gruesome mess, and their emaciated body was skeletal.
The man, groping the floor and sensing vibrations to find his direction, slowly turned his face.
He could barely speak, his lips merely parting, and with hands from which his fingernails had been torn, he swept the floor.
“Ah, ahh……”
“It’s not just his two eyeballs and tongue that have been removed.”
Lennok, scanning the man’s entire body from behind his mask, stated.
“One liver and a kidney. His right wrist and leg. Even tendons and cartilage. Were they all forcibly extracted?”
“In this country, prisoners with insufficient talent to catch Aron’s eye usually end up like this.”
Gillian said in a somber voice.
“They can’t be properly utilized, so they have their usable organs extracted and merely wait for the day they die in prison.”
“Ah……”
Even at Gillian’s quiet words, the man couldn’t reply.
Instead, with a painful groan that sounded like a boiling throat, he slowly stepped aside.
“This wall here is a shortcut to the deepest part of the underground prison.”
Gillian silently watched the man, then slowly approached the stone wall and spoke.
“And it’s also the only way to escape this old castle without being detected.”
“Why is the path to the deepest part also an escape route?”
“If my brother is here, then the knights will have this entire area surrounded, leaving no gaps.”
Gillian said with a serious expression.
“There’s a space transfer magic circle on the lowest floor of the prison. We’ll knock out the ones guarding it and escape.”
“If you hit them with your fist, it wouldn’t be strange if their heads exploded. It’ll be quite a sight.”
“I don’t care.”
Crunch…!!
As Gillian clenched his fist, veins pulsed on the back of his hand.
“Everyone down there is in league with my brother. Who cares if they live or die?”
“People who genuinely don’t care usually aren’t so long-tongued.”
“You’ve really been… are you trying to pick a fight with me?”
Lennok ignored Gillian’s glare from beside him and fell into thought.
He had stumbled upon a secret far grander than anticipated while trying to secretly unearth what Aronbaiger was hiding.
However, discovering that Aron’s ‘purpose’ was hidden beneath the old castle’s underground prison was a more significant gain than expected.
Although he had no immediate plans to escape the old castle, helping Gillian incite chaos and searching the deepest part of the prison wouldn’t be a bad idea.
‘Now that I’ve confirmed the Mandala’s existence, I need to find a way to retrieve it. I can’t just let it go.’
The potential Lennok sensed in the Mandala was that it was a Prestige Domain, not a Horizon of Thought.
A Prestige Domain is generally closer to the concept of actualizing a spellcaster’s ideal realm into reality.
If the Mandala truly took the form of a Prestige Domain, merely acquiring it would lead to immense progress in Lennok’s Manipulation Spellcraft.
And a singularity of that magnitude could advance the branching point of Manipulation Spellcraft within his Kaleidoscope to an entirely different level.
While he was interested in the Mandala’s abilities and essence, he also couldn’t overlook the tangible improvement it could bring to his Manipulation Spellcraft.
To that end, he first needed to ascertain what Aron was hiding at this point.
“As expected, confirming it at the scene directly seems to be the fastest way.”
Having reached a conclusion, Lennok lifted his gaze.
“Let’s go to the deepest part of the prison, where the space transfer magic circle is. Lead the way.”
“This bastard, who does he think I am, a guard dog, since earlier……”
Gillian grumbled but began tearing apart the prison walls, carving a path.
Thump-thump!
The deeper they went into the prison, the more prisoners they saw, even more disfigured than Abel.
Their senses were so ruined that they couldn’t even detect Lennok or Gillian, despite the walls being smashed and a path being carved.
They had lost all human functions and abilities, reduced to mere lumps of flesh with only their breath remaining.
“We’re here. It’s inside there.”
Gillian, his expression hardening at the chilling cold emanating from within, spoke.
Gillian, smashing not the wall but the prison ceiling, leaped backward and gestured.
“Once you see it… you won’t be able to back out either. You’d best prepare yourself.”
“Unnecessary worries.”
Through the hole Gillian made, Lennok slowly moved through the gap in the ceiling.
The moment Lennok silently followed Gillian, moving his body.
Crunch!
Gillian tore open a hole leading beneath the ceiling and immediately descended.
Following him down, Lennok could finally properly see the scenery of the deepest part of the prison.
“……Here?”
Whoosh!
His vision, accustomed to the darkness, was suddenly bleached bright.
Unlike the gloomy, dark prison, the lighting here felt bright, warm, and vivid.
Before he knew it, Lennok was standing in the middle of a spotless, brightly lit corridor.
A corridor utterly devoid of trash. Comfortable, well-ventilated air.
Even a strange stillness, as if he had suddenly entered a massive laboratory or research wing.
Everything was so sudden and unexpected that Lennok himself paused for a moment.
“This way.”
But Gillian, unfazed by the sudden change in environment, stumbled forward.
His disheveled appearance, covered in blood and missing an arm, exuded a terrible incongruity with the space.
Yet, Gillian seemed to already know where he needed to go.
“You said you wanted to see the secret my brother hid here, didn’t you?”
Gillian turned to Lennok, a fierce smile on his face.
“Once you see what Aron has created down there, there’ll be no need for explanations.”
“……”
He slowly followed Gillian amidst the suffocating silence.
They walked slowly through the deserted corridor, rounded a corner, and headed towards a window.
The moment Lennok stepped forward, following Gillian’s gesture at the window.
Lennok stopped, witnessing the scene before his eyes.
“……”
Groooowl!!!
On the transparent, pristine white walls of the research facility, thousands of blocks of ice hung.
Inside the frozen ice, people lay with serene expressions, their eyes closed.
Countless ice coffins, holding people solidly frozen, appearing as if time had stopped for them.
It was a chilling and utterly macabre sight, as if the cold blocks of ice served as individual coffins.
The ice coffins, suspended on rails, moved through the research facility at a steady pace.
Researchers moved about, measuring and recording the values of the ice coffins.
“Everything that exists in this country is royal property.”
Gillian, standing beside Lennok, said.
“But to Aron, that applies not just to artifacts or armaments, but to ‘humans’ as well.”
“……”
“What exists here are talents and Somatic Bodies, directly ‘preserved’ by Aron’s hand and incorporated into the royal assets.”
Gillian slowly moved to the side of the corridor, then tilted his head.
“All those attempts were merely the product of ugly trial and error, directed towards that single goal over there.”
The moment Lennok followed his gaze, he discovered a mural carved at the end of the cavity and froze.
The image of a massive gauntlet, clenched into a fist, surrounded by three circles.
The image carved into the mural was precisely identical to the Forbidden Armament Lennok possessed.