Chapter 1209: The Price (10)
“Let’s part ways here.”
At a nameless mountain range’s fork, where the path split.
Grisha, who had stopped before the signless road, turned around.
Brushing off her old robe and tidying its hem, she looked at Lennok.
“I have an appointment with Paragon after the military parade. We’ll have to withdraw here.”
“Is that so.”
Lennok, who had been exchanging updates with the twins, Pio and Geo, stopped walking.
Pio, who had chattered incessantly throughout their climb, was momentarily speechless.
“Hey, Evan…”
Pio hesitated before slowly turning towards Lennok.
Lennok waited for him to speak.
He fumbled, as if he had something to say, then let out a small sigh and opened his mouth.
“Still… we used to risk our lives fighting the Cult together, didn’t we?”
“…”
“I don’t know what you think, but we got along pretty well, didn’t we? So, that…”
He carefully put a hand on Lennok’s shoulder, watching his expressionless face.
Seeing that Lennok didn’t swat his hand away, Pio seemed slightly relieved.
“…Come back anytime you want. If you’re on Lapis’s bad side, I’ll earnestly beg her to forgive you.”
“Alright.”
Lennok, who had been quietly listening to Pio, chuckled softly.
“I’ll consider it positively.”
“…You know, that’s not actually used in a positive sense at all.”
Geo, standing next to Pio, who had a look of dismay, shrugged.
“Idiot. Does Evan look like someone who’d do something wrong to Lapis? Leaving the Eyes of Blue probably wasn’t for that reason.”
“Damn it, then what was it?”
“It’s much more complicated than that… there must be circumstances that can’t be explained. Things we dare not interfere with.”
Geo trailed off with a complex expression, then spun around.
“So if you want Evan to come back, shut your mouth. Lapis hasn’t said anything, so why are you spouting nonsense?”
“You bastard, are you looking down on me? My patience is less than the cigarette ash Grisha flicks.”
“That’s something to be proud of, you moron!”
A stream of profanity-laced bickering between the twins, which Lennok had seen more than five times on the way here.
Lennok ignored it as a matter of course and turned to walk towards Grisha, who stood at the fork.
She was waiting for Lennok, puffing on her pipe, and turned her gaze.
“I received help in this matter.”
Lennok said calmly.
“Thanks to that, I was able to achieve my objective at the military parade and withdraw.”
The truth he could only grasp after letting go of his lingering attachment to the project.
But Lennok had been able to escape the military parade without directly paying the price for drinking Ethan’s blood.
It was thanks to Euphoria and Grisha’s help that he didn’t overexert himself and didn’t give anything to the Legion in the process.
What Grisha had asked Ophelia to do had, in a sense, affected the entirety of Lennok’s future endeavors.
Lennok didn’t want to pretend he didn’t know that fact.
“If you calculate the price that way, only the debt I owe you from the Eyes of Blue will remain.”
Grisha tapped her pipe and smiled.
“I just borrowed an old connection I won’t ever meet again. Don’t worry about it.”
“The Zero Seat’s intervention at that point was, of course, because of you…”
Lennok pondered for a moment before asking.
“It seemed more like a transaction than a friend’s request. What did you give her to receive her help?”
“You don’t need to worry about it. I gave her the Spiritual Presence I no longer use.”
“…Spiritual Presence?”
“She’s like a scale. If she receives something, she must always give something in return.”
Grisha puffed on her pipe and exhaled.
“Likewise, to borrow her ability, you must give her an ‘aptitude’ in return.”
“…”
“I merely accepted an offer I had refused a long time ago. Don’t worry about it.”
Grisha smiled and tapped her pipe.
“If it helped you today, then refusing Ophelia’s offer all those years ago had meaning, after all.”
In the end, Grisha had settled her ties with Ophelia in her own way, right then and there.
Even if it wasn’t the way she wanted, it was clear that she had used that opportunity for Lennok.
But Grisha seemed to have no lingering regrets about it anymore.
“Ophelia seems to be interested in you. Probably because of what you accomplished in the Central Council.”
“…”
“I don’t know what happened with the Ability Awakening Warband at The Gate, but be careful when you meet her.”
Grisha said with a thoughtful expression.
“Ophelia was the purest person I’d ever met. That’s why… she changed the most among the people I remember.”
“Changed?”
“When she first created the Warband, she wasn’t like this. So I don’t know how much the current her is the same person as the Ophelia I knew.”
Grisha lifted her gaze with a complex expression and murmured.
“Who knows. Perhaps the Ophelia I knew no longer exists, and ‘something’ merely imitates her…”
“…”
“Either way, it will just be a memory that can never be returned to.”
Was she saying that to Lennok, or was it a vow to shake off her own lingering regrets?
As Lennok casually gauged her emotions, Grisha turned around.
“That’s all I wanted to say. Do you have any final words to convey?”
“Words to convey?”
“Lapis will surely find out what happened at the military parade once she wakes up.”
Grisha, pipe in mouth, looked at Lennok.
“It’s been a long time since that child lost interest in the Eastern Continent, but she’ll listen to anything you say.”
“…”
Words for Lapis.
Would they hold much meaning now?
That moment, sitting by a campfire in the desert, facing each other. He had already said everything he wanted to say.
Nevertheless, if he were to give her one piece of advice now…
“The Cult and the Order Alliance are each preparing some kind of ritual.”
“Ritual?”
“Either way, it will be a major branching point that risks the fate of each faction.”
Lennok met Grisha’s gaze.
“Tell her it’s okay to observe, but not to directly interfere.”
“…I see.”
Grisha let out a short laugh.
“I’ll tell her you said to take care of herself. That’s what I’ll convey.”
“What have you been listening to this whole time?”
Despite his words, Grisha wouldn’t convey Lennok’s message in a strange way.
Lennok knew that too, so instead of questioning further, he turned without hesitation.
Grisha naturally led the other Watchers down the opposite path.
Pio, Geo, and Liza, the Watchers, watched Lennok with complex gazes, but ultimately turned away without saying anything more.
Lennok also looked at the Watchers and slowly continued his walk.
Just like this moment, where they once stood in the same place but can no longer walk the same path.
Lennok, too, does not regret leaving Lapis, having decided on his answer and continuing his journey.
If they keep walking without giving up, perhaps someday they will coincidentally meet again like this and reminisce about those memories.
That was enough.
He could be satisfied with that.
It was time to return to Vulcan.
It didn’t take long to return to Vulcan, tracing back the path he had come under the alias Cheonbeon.
After riding his bike for a full night, he arrived at a nearby train station, took a train to the satellite city of La Haven, then transferred to an airship directly to the newly established airport in District 49.
Now, with the redevelopment of the Magic Tower, the entire street area around District 49 was undergoing a massive transformation.
As soon as Lennok returned to the high-rise building he was using as a temporary office, he was met with Jenny’s suspicious gaze.
“…”
“…Why are you looking at me like that?”
“No.”
Jenny narrowed her eyes, stared at Lennok, then tilted her head.
“It’s just that you seem to have come out of the lab quite quickly this time, considering how long you usually stay holed up.”
“…Is that so?”
“Yes. Usually, once you leave, you’d easily be gone for two weeks to a month… Hmm.”
Jenny organized the documents in her hand and placed them before Lennok, whispering in a voice barely audible.
“Wasn’t it after all?”
“What do you mean?”
“No. Nothing at all.”
Jenny, feigning ignorance, asked casually.
“Speaking of which, the first phase of the Magic Tower’s construction is almost complete. Want to go see it together?”
“The Magic Tower?”
“Yes. The basic tone has been set according to the initial design you chose. It’s just now at the stage of removing scaffolding and forming the framework.”
“…”
The reconstruction of the Magic Tower, which began before Lennok left for the military parade, was entering its initial completion phase. The timing was faster than he expected. Seeing Jenny mention it first, it was likely the result of her efforts in many areas.
“The Magic Tower you envisioned. The design and structure aren’t bad, actually.”
Jenny cleared her throat and subtly glanced at Lennok.
“When I first saw it, I wondered what kind of Magic Tower it was, but now that the framework is taking shape, it looks quite impressive…”
“I apologize. I have something urgent to attend to right now.”
Lennok replied, standing up.
“I’ll follow you right after you’ve toured the Magic Tower. I’ll be preparing.”
“Something to attend to?”
“It concerns my magic.”
Lennok’s expression was utterly calm.
“Perhaps it might even concern myself.”
Clank!!
As soon as he left the office, he unhesitatingly headed to Lennok’s private research lab.
The lab and spellcraft performance testing ground, located at the outermost edge of the mega-city, right next to the restricted District 59.
Walking through the half-destroyed research building, neglected after a previous experiment and study, he arrived before the enormous testing ground.
Lennok calmly exhaled amidst the broken and scattered research equipment, murmuring.
“Incarnation Spellcraft, deploy.”
Flash!!
A pure white halo unfurled above Lennok’s head, rotating, then rapidly expanding in size.
A pale white light, entirely different from the golden radiance of Ouroboros or Kaleidoscope, almost chillingly so.
The moment the pale halo rose, expanded to Lennok’s height, and rotated.
Something shimmering entirely in blue slammed down before Lennok at tremendous speed.
Kwooaaaaang!!!
“…”
The something, continuously flickering with blue lightning, slowly rose from its position.
Only the pure white gauntlet remaining where its right arm once was emitted a faint light.
The Incarnation Body, now completely stripped of its human form, slowly raised its head before Lennok.
[…]
An Incarnation Body, irrevocably corrupted by drinking Ethan’s blood and receiving the Curse of Reversing Heaven.
Though it held no ego or will, it moved and reacted on its own, beyond Lennok’s control.
It moved in response to external stimuli and variables, yet its actions lacked rules or consistency.
It was descending as a lightning Incarnation, destroying, shattering, and annihilating everything except Lennok.
Thinking that far, Lennok gave a bitter smile.
“Not an Incarnation (化身), but a Lightning Body (雷身)… Either way, it’s a problem.”
Using the Incarnation Body to uncover Ethan’s identity and gain insights was a significant achievement.
However, that didn’t mean the Incarnation Body’s rampage, after drinking Ethan’s blood, wasn’t a major problem for Lennok.
Lennok’s Incarnation Body was now a being that purely projected rampaging Lightning Magic, having lost its human form.
It was closer to an Incarnation of Lightning Magic itself, rather than Lennok.
The longer the Incarnation Body was maintained, the more it would break free of control and try to smash everything except Lennok.
Because Lennok’s purpose and reason for wielding lightning had been thus, and the very raison d’être of Lightning Magic was thoroughly focused on destruction and annihilation.
If the Incarnation Body were left loose as it was, it wouldn’t be strange for it to truly reign as a Lightning Body, trampling, shattering, and erasing the city.
But Lennok, though he surmised this fact, was neither surprised nor agitated.
He merely raised a hand with a calm expression, extending it towards the Incarnation Body.
“I thought something like this might happen someday. Because I was using a being that wasn’t myself to stand in for me.”
[…]
Incarnation Spellcraft obtained from the Military Spirit City, Yorta.
However, Lennok’s Incarnation Body was not Lennok himself, but a being modeled after a Martial Artist from the First World.
Because Lennok’s existence and talent were an absolute standard that could not be replicated or differentiated in specific ways.
Lennok had forged the Incarnation not in his own image, but by modeling it after an Old World Martial Artist who was endlessly similar to him.
Precisely for that reason, Lennok had thought he might one day face his Incarnation in this way.
“I thought that someday, I might have to pay the price like this.”
[…]
A being created with a past master as its origin, not Lennok.
Therefore, it might be natural for the Incarnation Body to ‘change’ someday.
That Lennok couldn’t control that change as he wished, or regulate its outcome, might have been inevitable.
Nevertheless, Lennok had used the Incarnation Body to maintain his own identity and potential in its largest and most infinite form.
If he had to pay the price now, he could accept it.
“But I won’t annihilate or destroy you after coming all this way.”
Fzzz-zz-zz-zzzz!!!!
Seeing the Incarnation erupt in fierce lightning without even a response, Lennok smiled.
“You are, perhaps, the closest being to the most immature and pure ‘me.’ You might symbolize the me who fell into the First World without knowing anything.”
[…]
Did Lennok’s words register amidst the surging lightning?
The lightning, which had been rampaging and growing in size, momentarily dimmed, and Lennok, taking a step forward, said.
“If you truly represent the past of the Pontiff, then your very presence here is both a coincidence and not a coincidence. Therefore—”
Lennok put a hand on the Incarnation Body’s shoulder and whispered.
“For now, quietly go inside and wait.”
[…!]
In the fleeting moment a black ring gleamed between Lennok’s index finger, the Incarnation Body sharply turned its head at an incredible speed.
At the same time, blue lightning exploded from the Incarnation Body’s entire form, surging as if to burst the entire lab, at that very instant.
The darkness that bloomed in Lennok’s hand swiftly enveloped the Incarnation Body’s lightning and ‘preserved’ it entirely in place.
“Mandala, open.”
Whoooosh!!!!
Ban-gung’s Prestige Domain, Mandala.
The eternal vessel, preserving any concept existing in the world in its original form, embraced the Incarnation Body.
The lightning that had been soaring and exploding above the lab’s sky vanished as if wiped clean, disappearing without a trace.
Woo-woo-woo!!!
Lennok stepped back, watching the lightning flicker within the sphere of darkness, dusted off his hands, and nodded.
“Done. Emergency measures are complete, for now.”
[…Were you talking to the Incarnation Body just now to make it drop its guard?]
Davi, who had been watching the situation with a tense expression, asked in astonishment.
[To backstab the Incarnation, of all beings, this is just…]
“Backstab? Why don’t you use nicer words?”
Lennok said, pulling Davi’s cheek.
“The Incarnation Body doesn’t possess an independent ego. It merely expresses the existential purpose of rampaging Lightning Magic as it is. Betrayal doesn’t apply.”
[Then why did you suddenly make such a heartfelt confession to the Incarnation Body…]
“Because it doesn’t have an ego of its own, but is influenced by my own heart and will.”
Lennok shifted his gaze.
“I used self-suggestion through words to temporarily suppress its rampage. I needed to get close to preserve the Incarnation Body in the Mandala.”
Until now, he had quarantined the Incarnation Body in the lab and searched for a way to resolve its rampage, but after drinking Ethan’s blood, even that had become impossible.
The moment the Incarnation Body lost its human form, it clearly became akin to living lightning.
However, precisely because the Incarnation Body was closer to a pure archetype of power, it could be easily preserved in the Mandala.
“I already have a method in mind for how to use the Incarnation Body.”
Lennok said, looking around the lab.
“Let’s stabilize it first and then find a way.”
[First, let’s clean up this messy lab and then think about it.]
Clatter, clatter.
Lennok, with Davi’s help, quickly tidied up the lab.
He drank potions and elixirs found during cleaning, recovering his depleted mana and condition, and loosened up.
After tidying the surroundings appropriately, Lennok left the lab and immediately pulled out his phone.
“I should contact Jenny right away. She might already be at the Magic Tower.”
Although he had stopped by the office first in case anything happened, he couldn’t accompany Jenny because of the Incarnation Body.
But now, even if he toured the Magic Tower construction site, the possibility of problems arising was low.
As soon as he found Jenny’s number in his contacts and called, she answered.
-Van.
“Jenny. My work here is finished. I’ll be returning to District 49 right away so…”
-Can you check the news or the Deepweb right now?
At Jenny’s unusual words, Lennok stopped walking.
Davi immediately displayed various news channels and community sites as holograms before Lennok’s eyes.
Flash-flash-flash!!!
The scene unfurling across the screens and monitors was familiar to Lennok, yet conversely, it felt alien for that very reason.
Tanks and armored vehicles covering the horizon in black. The Legion’s flags, unfurling and incessantly advancing.
Ominous insignia and crests posted on community sites. News headlines and the most recommended posts.
All news and reports surrounding Vulcan pointed to a single piece of information.
-As soon as the military parade ended, the Legion began to move.
“…”
It hadn’t even been three days since the Command Headquarters was burned, and they were already taking full action?
He knew the Legion had been preparing for the next phase since Zero Seat Ophelia intervened to mediate the situation, but—
Jenny’s explanation continued.
-Through this military parade, the Legion Command officially signed a cooperation agreement with Zero Seat Ophelia. It was resolved to ‘conscript’ and convene individuals from across the continent to fill the vacant Legion Commander positions.
“…”
-This is to reinforce the Legion’s strength and conscript generals based on merit, while ultimately for the large-scale operation planned in the Eastern Continent…
Jenny’s voice, which had been stiff, suddenly wavered.
-…Deadrise’s 1st Command, which oversees the Central Front, has officially declared the Adamant Thunder Annihilation Campaign.
“…”
Only then did Lennok understand why the Legion could move so quickly.
Not the 2nd Command, which had led the military parade, but the 1st Command, which currently oversees and commands the Central Front.
Did the events of the military parade become the reason for transferring command authority for the subjugation operation to the 1st Command?
No, perhaps the subjugation operation had been under the jurisdiction of the 1st Command from the very beginning, not the 2nd Command.
-We’re starting a meeting right now. I’m sorry, but can you return immediately?
“…Yes. I’ll be right there.”
Lennok said, lowering his phone.
“But there’s no need to rush so much.”
-What?
The reason he had tried to preserve his strength until the very end at the military parade.
The reason he had agonized, even right before learning the truth of the project and meeting Ethan to pay the price.
It was because Lennok had been preparing for what came after, from the very beginning, knowing the military parade was not the end.
The great war surrounding Vulcan, which might change the landscape and balance of the entire Eastern Continent.
Everything Lennok had sacrificed for it was only for this very moment.
“The preparations are almost complete.”
He shifted his gaze past the ominously flickering Legion emblem on the display board.
Snap-crackle-pop…!!!
An intensely gleaming ‘golden’ lightning from beyond District 49.
Lennok murmured, looking towards the area where the new Magic Tower would stand.
“Now, it’s my turn.”