Chapter 1229: Adamant Thunder Annihilation Campaign (20)
“As I’ve already told you before coming to the tower…”
A moment, two days before the annihilation campaign began.
Lennok stood before his comrades, gathered in the heart of his new Magic Tower.
“I will be the only one directly participating in the annihilation campaign.”
“…”
Jenny and Aris. Dylan and Mila, Felix and Weian, and many other superhumans affiliated with the Magic Tower and the mercenary group.
The presence of trusted comrades, whom he had known since his days as a freelancer in Vulcan.
In the breathtaking silence, Lennok quietly moved.
“But that’s not because I don’t need your help, or because you’d get in the way. It’s because there’s another problem.”
“Another problem?”
“Once the annihilation campaign begins, there’s a high probability I won’t be able to distinguish friend from foe.”
Lennok said.
“As some of you may have guessed, my lightning magic is out of control and running wild. I’ve tried hard to suppress it, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to regulate its output.”
“…”
“In this annihilation campaign, I intend to unleash my rampaging lightning magic entirely upon the Legion. It will likely be a one-sided slaughter against them, and…”
Lennok spoke, walking through the silent hall.
“In that process, there’s a high probability even I will be swept away. I can’t be certain, but in the worst case, I might go completely mad and attack you.”
“Van. That means…”
“That’s not an easy thing to just brush off.”
At Lennok’s calm words, the other comrades’ expressions stiffened.
“Your lightning magic is in such a dangerous state?”
“This is no ordinary problem. For Van’s magic, of all mages, to be rampaging…”
“It’s not just about spellcraft, it’s directly related to his tier. Is it really okay to participate in a war in this state?”
“Since the Legion is the one conducting the annihilation campaign, in a way, I have no choice.”
Lennok replied nonchalantly.
“My life won’t be in danger if my lightning magic goes out of control. I’ll just have difficulty regulating its output; it’s not like I’ve lost the ability to wield magic.”
“…”
“The problem isn’t me, but our allies who will be fighting alongside me. There’s no guarantee that just because I’m safe, you all will be too.”
“If you say so, Van, then it’s virtually certain that we’ll be swept away by your lightning.”
Felix, hearing Dylan’s observation, pondered and then asked.
“Is there… no way to solve it?”
“There is a way. I’ll explain it now.”
Lennok lifted his gaze.
“I said I’d be going into the annihilation campaign alone, but that doesn’t mean I can start and finish this war by myself. The Legion also has excellent commanders and powerful Transcendent, and they’re advancing in alliance with various forces, including the Ability Awakening Warband.”
“…”
“Once the annihilation campaign begins and some time passes, they will also recognize the problem I have and try to exploit that weakness. And with a very high probability, their method will be…”
Lennok pointed to his Magic Tower, looking at his silent comrades.
“They will target my Domain itself, which is established in District 49.”
“The enemies participating in the annihilation campaign… will target District 49 instead of you?”
The mercenaries, not understanding Lennok’s words, exchanged blank stares.
“That… doesn’t make much sense. Is it even possible to ignore you on that battlefield and try to enter District 49?”
“If they attempt something like that, the Legion will have to accept immense casualties and power depletion. Van, even if you’re in an unstable state, that shouldn’t be a high-probability outcome.”
Most of the comrades gathered here had personally witnessed the duel between Lennok and the Thorben Magic Tower Lord.
Everyone understood how powerful and Transcendent Lennok’s rampaging lightning was.
Even the Thorben Magic Tower Lord couldn’t stop the rampaging lightning during his duel with Lennok, and didn’t Evelyn have to intervene and mediate in the end?
Even if Lennok were in an unstable state, it would be impossible to ignore him and directly enter District 49.
At the very least, it would be an undertaking impossible to attempt without preparing for losses on the scale of literally grinding down the Legion’s entire force.
But Lennok simply smiled as he listened to his comrades’ opinions from all sides.
“No, it will happen. Because I will make it happen myself.”
“…”
“As long as I move personally, the Legion’s annihilation is inevitable. At a certain point, they will inevitably be forced to make a decision.”
Lennok’s eyes gleamed with a sharp blue light.
“Whether to admit defeat in this war and retreat, or to roll the dice on a low probability… But I don’t intend to leave even that to chance.”
“…”
“There will certainly be excellent ‘commanders’ or ‘designers’ participating in the annihilation campaign who can think like me… Therefore, I intend to guide even their decisions, to some extent, according to my will.”
“That means…”
Only then did his comrades, understanding the meaning of Lennok’s words, fall into thought.
“Even drawing the Legion’s forces into District 49… that’s what you intend, Van?”
“It means that at some point in the annihilation campaign, the Legion will inevitably make that choice.”
“In that case, what we need to do is…”
“By now, you must understand what I’m asking you to do.”
Lennok smiled, looking at his comrades.
“I’m not trying to exclude you from the annihilation campaign or push you aside. What I want is something far more important—”
SLAASHHHH!!!!
Hot blood splattered, the memory flashback ended, and Weian’s cold face was revealed.
Before him, an officer holding a sword collapsed with an expression of disbelief.
“You whipper… snapper…”
Gurgle, gurgle…!
Clutching his bleeding throat with one hand, the officer’s eyes, gasping for breath, quickly lost their light.
Weian, who had been looking down at the sight with a pale complexion, soon drew upon his mana and turned.
“To protect District 49 and buy Van time to return.”
Weian, gripping his twin blades, murmured quietly.
“Have I… finally found my purpose?”
“This way!! He disappeared this way!!”
“Don’t lose your sense of direction. Keep wielding your mana!!”
“You must keep circulating mana within your body. Focus, or you’ll fall!!”
Thud-thud-thud!!!
Weian ducked his head, hearing the sound of military boots from down the corridor.
‘Two flashbangs left…’
“Damn it, his presence vanished again!!”
“That arrogant bastard… Where did he run off to this time?!”
“Focus. Seven officers have already fallen to him.”
A cold-faced staff officer calmed a soldier who was panting excitedly.
“He’s alone, but his Empathic Ability is astonishingly sharp. In terms of sensing presences and reading mana, he’s far superior to us.”
“Like Adamant Thunder’s subordinate, they all have irritating talents… We must kill him here.”
“We’ll corner him and kill him, then find a way to contact our allies. For now, prioritize Lord Deimus—”
Whoosh!!!
Before he could finish speaking, Weian threw a flashbang from the opposite end of the corridor and burst out as if rebounding.
The Legion officers, as if waiting, immediately turned and drew their pistols.
Flash!!
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!!!
In the instant the flashbang exploded, engulfing everything in light, modified magnum pistols for superhumans simultaneously spat fire.
Mana-infused bullets fragmented into invisible, minuscule pieces immediately after firing, scattering into a spray.
Becoming a jet-black dust that covered Weian’s entire body, they exploded all at once.
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!!!
An explosion so intense it could instantly tear a superhuman, highly skilled in physical enhancement, to shreds.
But Weian, even seeing the counterattack pouring down directly in front of him, neither retreated nor flinched.
Lowering his stance and drawing upon mana, the moment he gripped the twin blades at his waist with both hands.
Clang-clang-clang-clang!!!
Weian’s arms spun at incredible speed, slicing through all the incoming explosions and bullet fragments.
Bullet fragments, heavily infused with mana, rained down at his feet, and the soldiers holding guns looked on in shock.
“I-Insane…!!”
“What reaction speed!!”
“Monster bastard…!!”
Thwip!!
Regripping his twin blades, he simultaneously sprinted vertically up the wall, instantly closing the distance.
He batted away all the supersonic explosive bullets that had come right in front of him with the backs of his blades, altering their trajectories.
They exploded noisily behind Weian, raising crimson plumes of flame.
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!!!
“Damn it, create distance!!”
“No, fight!! We have to kill him here!!”
Screeech!!
He ducked and slid between soldiers who threw aside their pistols and drew daggers.
Leaning his upper body back, he rotated his shoulders and swung his twin blades as if stirring the air.
The soldiers’ shins and knees spurted blood, their tendons and muscles severed, making them collapse.
Pshhh-pshhh-pshhk!!
“Kugh…!!!”
“Don’t let him get away!!”
“Focus!”
Even as their limbs were mercilessly severed and blood gushed, the soldiers did not lose their composure.
The soldiers who had entered this Labyrinth were all superhumans capable of Property Transformation. They were veterans who had risked their lives and crossed countless battlefields.
They instinctively knew that to survive, they had to kill this twin-bladed swordsman, who displayed unusual movements.
“Kill him!!!”
Sla-sla-sla-shh!!!
Severed muscles and nerves. Military weapons swung with full force, ignoring the pain piercing their minds.
Blades descended at tremendous speed from all directions onto Weian, who was sliding between the soldiers.
The swordplay of the officers, who had pushed their mana to the limit, poured down ferociously, as if to tear apart his intestines and muscles.
But Weian, even seeing the blades falling before him, instead closed his eyes and held his breath.
“…Hmph.”
Van had said that Weian’s Empathic Ability was too strong, and he wouldn’t be able to control it with his current skill.
That Weian’s greatest talent was, conversely, also the shackles holding back his growth.
However, even as Van said that, he also taught Weian a method to control his Empathic Ability.
If it was difficult to regulate his Empathic Ability, and impossible to balance judgment and intuition no matter what—then he simply had to do the opposite.
To relinquish all thought and judgment, and completely entrust even his life to his own Empathic Ability.
Without any extraneous thoughts, simply deflecting everything that entered his sensory field purely by reflex—
Thump!!!!
Simultaneously with a light inward breath, the world Weian perceived underwent a drastic change.
His five senses inverted and distorted with a jolt, pushing Weian’s Empathic Ability to its absolute limit.
The moment a golden halo rose behind him, rotating sharply and entering the realm of the unconscious.
The twin blades in his hands moved as if alive, beyond Weian’s will.
Clang-clang-clang-clang!!!!
Faint silver sword-light embroidered the air, striking down all the blades scattering before him.
An unconscious strike, where even he himself didn’t perceive how he moved his swords, or where he gripped the blades to swing.
The sword-light, pushed to its limit, deflected everything that entered his sensory field, then reversed their movements, plunging into the soldiers’ vital points.
Clang-clang-clang!!!
The twin blades, twisted faintly like ghosts, plunged into the soldiers’ necks and hearts, emitting an eerie cutting sound as they severed carotid arteries and spinal bones.
The moment they smoothly withdrew after piercing the forehead of the staff officer who had resisted until the very end.
The soldiers collapsed from all directions, spewing blood, with expressions of disbelief.
“Kugh…!!!”
“Eugh…”
“You, brat…”
“Who are you calling a brat?”
Weian snorted, looking at the soldiers falling while frothing blood.
“I’ve been an adult for years already.”
Swish!!
Weian, having pulled his sword from the last officer he killed, finally leaned against the wall with a pale expression.
“Hah… Kugh, is it over…?”
Following Van’s request, the tower’s comrades had been tasked with guarding various passages within the Labyrinth located in District 49.
Among them, the sector assigned to Weian consisted of corridors directly connected to the Labyrinth’s gate.
Although he wasn’t tasked with guarding the gate itself, the corridors were organically interconnected, making the structure complex and the flow of enemies excessively high.
It was an area where anyone without a superhuman’s exceptional Empathic Ability and sensory perception like Weian’s would quickly get lost, surrounded, or hunted down.
The soldiers he had just faced were all considerable veterans, so Weian also had to put in no small effort to contend with them.
“…Let’s move.”
Weian, who had been hunched over, clutching his stomach, painfully rose with a fatigued expression.
His other comrades must also be fighting in their assigned positions to protect the Magic Tower.
They had to hold out like this and buy time until Van returned to District 49.
Weian’s sector was cleared for now, but it was impossible to know when another enemy might approach—
CRASHHHHHH!!!!
Before Weian’s eyes, the Labyrinth corridor wall exploded into smithereens, and someone appeared.
Despite the brutal, crushing strength that pulverized the Labyrinth wall, the figure was lean and tall.
The opponent, casually walking with something limp in hand, turned their gaze toward Weian.
“Oh? Someone else was here.”
“…!!!!”
A snow-white coat drenched in blood. Crimson blood dripped stickily from his disheveled white hair.
Between the tattered remnants of his ruined clothes, flesh and muscle were exposed, ripped apart.
A wretched sight, continuously bleeding profusely, making it seem doubtful he could even stand properly.
But Weian, facing the eerie sword-qi emanating from the opponent, stiffened his entire body.
A superhuman powerful enough to smash through Van’s Labyrinth and break through. And if he was a swordsman from the Legion, wielding a broadsword—
“S-Song-ha…”
“You look quite young, but you know my name.”
Song-ha, dripping blood from his entire body, tilted his head with a smiling face.
“You couldn’t be from the civil war era. Has the briefing about us already been completed?”
“…”
“In that case, perhaps our entry here was indeed Adamant Thunder’s intention. Well, at this point, with so many of our forces dead, it doesn’t really matter.”
Even as he spoke, blood dripped steadily from Song-ha’s feet.
Not the blood of an enemy Song-ha had killed, but the blood Song-ha himself was shedding at this very moment.
“I look like a mess, right? Your boss did this.”
Song-ha, feeling Weian’s gaze, smiled weakly even as blood streamed from him.
“The wounds I got from trying to buy time against Adamant Thunder aren’t healing. He’s a truly terrifying wizard.”
“…”
“Did he forcefully change my Property Transformation to completely ruin my body’s recovery and regeneration? Thanks to that, my condition is utterly shattered. At this rate, I might actually bleed to death.”
“You crazy bastard…”
Even while being torn to shreds by Van’s lightning, utterly mangled, was he still calculating how much more he could fight?
Whether it was a swordsman’s madness or a commander’s sense of duty to the Legion. Either way, he was a superhuman of an unapproachable caliber.
Even knowing that his opponent had suffered a fatal injury, Weian’s abilities made it difficult to gauge his chances of victory.
Song-ha, his face covered in blood, tilted his head as he watched Weian raise his twin blades with a pale complexion.
“But what’s scarier than anything… is that it’s this difficult just fighting against Adamant Thunder’s Domain, not even Adamant Thunder himself.”
“…”
“A labyrinth without direction. An extreme environment close to the Ninth Tribulation. Statues resembling Long-lived Beings, and superhumans guarding the gates… Among all the Domains I’ve seen, this is by far the most bizarre hell.”
His face, streaming with blood, had, by now, turned terrifyingly expressionless.
Proof that even Song-ha had witnessed unbelievable things while navigating District 49.
“Even that unsettling feeling resembles the Demonic Realm of the Central Front… If I feel this way, the others must have already given up. They might already be scattered as corpses somewhere.”
“…Then why are you here?”
“To do the same thing to you.”
Song-ha abruptly threw what he was holding.
A blood-soaked glaive clattered before Weian.
“Her name was Soo-ryun, I think? She had some decent spear arts. And the buffs she used were incredibly tricky.”
“…”
As Weian stared at the sight with a frozen expression, Song-ha spoke.
“Seeing her name, she seemed to be from the Eight Directions Citadel, so I didn’t kill her. I grew up there too, you know. We’re from the same hometown, so to speak, aren’t we?”
“…”
“I used to feel nothing about my origins or hometown, but these days, it’s different. I guess I’m getting old too.”
Song-ha tilted his head, looking at the silent Weian.
“I somehow understand now why Ethan tried so hard to return to this city.”
“…You.”
Weian, breathing roughly, lifted his gaze with bloodshot eyes.
“I’ll kill you.”
Clang!!
Song-ha narrowed his eyes, watching Weian stagger forward, gripping his twin blades.
“You’ll kill me, huh.”
Song-ha, placing his blood-dripping hand on his broadsword, murmured.
“When was the last time I said that to someone else?”
Shhhhing…!
The moment the silver-white broadsword was drawn, Weian’s and Song-ha’s sword-lights simultaneously flashed.
Their sword-qi closed the distance, crossed, and clashed in a fleeting moment.
Immediately afterward, the bursting sword-light shook the corridor, crushing space more than dozens of times per second.
Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang!!!
The sword-light, exploding around the two swordsmen, distorted and instantly flashed countless times behind each other.
Hundreds of silver-white slashes fragmented and erupted behind the corridor, forming countless vortices.
A storm of sword-play rotated and scattered beyond the endless golden corridor.
At its center, Weian’s body swayed, instantly covered in blood.
Kaaaaaang!!!!
“Huh? He blocked it?”
Song-ha, shaking off the silver-white sword-qi as if scattering it, looked at Weian with a slightly surprised expression.
Each sword strike Song-ha had just unleashed, gripping his broadsword, was a supreme technique that had reached supersonic speeds.
But the young man before him, holding two twin blades, parried every single one of Song-ha’s sword-qi strikes.
An unbelievable miracle, considering the skill gap between the two.
Song-ha immediately realized that the counterattack Weian had just displayed was his talent itself.
“Ah, I see. I thought his presence felt strange, but his Empathic Ability is incredible. This is a level I’ve almost never seen before.”
“…!!”
“Is he pushing his Empathic Ability to the limit, reflexively striking down every attack that enters his sensory field?”
Song-ha scratched his cheek, looking at the staggering Weian who couldn’t even reply.
“There is also strength that is achieved by not thinking. This is quite novel in its own way…”
The reason Song-ha, with a swordsman’s unique senses, hadn’t immediately perceived Weian’s presence.
The reason Weian was able to survive, parrying all of Song-ha’s sword strikes head-on.
It was because he realized it was due to Weian’s incredible Empathic Ability-based reflexes.
Within the range perceivable by his sensory field, he pushes his Empathic Ability to the limit, then abandons thought.
At that point, it becomes the ultimate counter, reflexively striking and deflecting every movement that approaches within his sensory field.
Because the entire process was carried out purely by instinct, Song-ha, too, hadn’t immediately grasped the principle at first.
“Indeed, with such a talent, it’s possible to achieve skill beyond one’s vessel. Adamant Thunder’s Magic Tower certainly has many interesting individuals.”
Cough…!!!
“But being able to make such movements doesn’t mean your body can endure it. Aren’t you already at your limit?”
Swish!!
Sticky blood dripped steadily from Weian’s entire body as he stood, swaying.
Just once. In the single moment he endured Song-ha’s sword strikes, his entire body’s muscles were ruptured, skin torn, and damaged.
Weian’s Empathic Ability had reacted to Song-ha’s sword, but Weian’s physical body couldn’t keep up with his own Empathic Ability.
The common fate awaiting superhumans with talents unsuited to their tier.
“…Limit?”
But Weian, with difficulty, raised his blood-streaked face and retorted.
“Considering what Van is doing… this is nothing…”
“…”
“Come on, Deadrise.”
Weian spat out a mouthful of blood, gripped his blood-soaked twin blades in a reverse grip, and grinned.
“I can still… go on for a long time…”
“You… I like you. I’d like to take you to the Legion.”
Song-ha gave a wry smile and gripped his broadsword.
“Should I keep him alive for now and show him to Ethan?”
Swish!!
The moment Song-ha gripped his broadsword’s hilt tightly, a silver-white radiance shot out perpendicularly from its sheath.
Through the intricacies of spatial distortion, sword-qi, superimposed in two directions in the air, accelerated on a trajectory to cleave Weian’s neck.
The very moment it was about to sever Weian and his twin blades, then strike his neck to knock him unconscious—
The swaying Weian then sank to the spot, losing consciousness and collapsing.
Thud—
“Oh?”
He thought he had quite a bit of grit, but was he already at his limit?
He had thought it strange how long he lasted, but perhaps it was due to the halo that had appeared behind Weian.
It was an unusual ability, though Song-ha had overlooked it due to being fatally wounded by Adamant Thunder.
Perhaps it would indeed be good to take him to the Legion and show him to Ethan.
The moment Song-ha, thinking this, sheathed his broadsword and moved toward Weian.
CRASH!!
The Labyrinth floor beneath Weian and Song-ha collapsed, and the entire corridor began to fall apart and plummet.
Weian’s form vanished instantly beyond the dark blue nebula overflowing from the corridor’s cracks.
“Think I’ll miss him?”
He hadn’t originally intended to let him live, but his talent was unique enough to catch Song-ha’s eye.
A swordsman with such Empathic Ability was someone Song-ha had never seen before, so taking him to the Legion wouldn’t be a bad idea.
The moment Song-ha leaped into the dark blue nebula without hesitation, with a thump!, the Labyrinth began to rotate.
“…!!!”
Within the dark blue nebula that spread around Song-ha, the Labyrinth’s facilities rotated wildly, echoing.
From all directions, the golden-hued corridors and facilities of the Labyrinth surged, changing shape and shifting positions.
CRUMBLE-CRUMBLE-CRUMBLE-CRASH!!!!
“Damn it, could it be…!!”
These Labyrinth facilities weren’t fixed, but an environment that could be reshaped according to a specific will?
Neither the unconscious Weian nor Soo-ryun could have manipulated the Labyrinth, so it must be external intervention.
The moment Song-ha, realizing this a step too late, stiffened his expression, gripped his broadsword, and heightened his mental image.
A vast golden chasm opened wide beneath Song-ha’s feet, revealing a colossal gate.
Flash!!!!
Rumble-rumble-rumble!!!
“Is that… a Gate?”
A wide chasm spread beneath his feet. In its center, the form of a Gate, shaped like a golden arch, rose.
In the Labyrinth, whose structure was unfathomable, Song-ha paused at the appearance of such an unusual structure.
Intense, vividly blue lightning flickered into existence beside Song-ha and struck him with tremendous speed.
CRACKKKKKKKK!!!!
“…!!!!”
A power so immense that even Song-ha, who reflexively drew his broadsword, instantly paled.
Song-ha’s body, losing balance in mid-air, soon crashed into the bottom of the Gate, unleashing a powerful shockwave.
CRASHHHHHH!!!!
“…Damn it.”
An eerie and intense lightning strike, powerful enough to momentarily stop his breath, yet clearly different from Adamant Thunder’s.
Song-ha, landing on the ground while still dripping blood, gave a wry smile as he saw the opponent standing on the golden Gate.
“Of all people, it had to be you?”
“You rascal.”
Crackle-crackle-crackle…!!!
An old man, wreathed in vivid blue lightning, was looking down at Song-ha and laughing fiercely.
“How dare a non-lightning wizard like you harass my disciple’s subordinates.”
“For a lunatic like you to be merely a mid-boss. District 49 truly is a Demonic Realm of the unnatural.”
Song-ha gave a wry smile, wiped his blood-soaked broadsword with one hand, and stood up.
“I’d like to switch opponents now if I could… but I suppose that’s not possible, is it?”
“HAHAHA! You’re the one who started this war, yet you’re asking for so much!!!”
Thorben, erupting in wild laughter, roared as he drew upon his mana.
ROOOOAAARRR!!!!!
The old man’s body was enveloped in explosive lightning, transforming his entire form into a flickering, vivid blue electrical current.
Thorben, wreathed in glowing lightning, looked down at Song-ha and declared in a booming voice.
[Today, right here, on behalf of my disciple, I shall bring down heavenly retribution upon you!!!!]
“Heavenly retribution? I already received that decades ago. I’ll decline a second helping…!!!”
Thorben’s form, wreathed in lightning, became a streak of lightning, swirling around the Gate.
The silver-white broadsword, steeped in blood, gleamed ominously, drawing a crimson crescent in the air.
Adamant Thunder’s Magic Tower and PMC Deadrise.
The moment the top-tier, extreme combat forces, commanders from their respective factions, clashed with full power in a corner of District 49, beginning their engagement.
The colossal Lightning God brought down its lightning-infused right arm on Song-ha, and the entire chasm exploded violently.
CRASHHHHHH!!!!