Chapter 1238: Adamant Thunder Annihilation Campaign (29)
Whoosh!!!!
The moment the Ascension Gate opened, Adamant Thunder ceased the ritual and resumed the slaughter, a response that Baragan and Esteban Aisen anticipated. At this very instant, as Victor deployed his Domain, everyone on the battlefield simultaneously thought the same thing.
‘Even if he deploys a Domain, he won’t be able to sustain it for long.’
‘Is it a Domain meant to draw Adamant Thunder’s attention…?!’
Even Baragan’s deployed Domain, the Woven Soul Secret Serpent Palace, could barely maintain a size of a few tens of meters within this labyrinth. No matter how skilled Victor was as a spellcaster, his mana capacity couldn’t possibly exceed Baragan’s main power, so he wouldn’t be able to maintain the Domain for long.
Therefore, deploying a Domain at this point clearly meant he intended to directly draw Adamant Thunder’s attention and help his allies.
Everyone was well aware of the immense potential of the Manipulation Spellcraft Victor had demonstrated during the annihilation campaign.
‘Victor will deploy his Domain to draw Adamant Thunder’s attention, then make his move.’
At that fleeting moment, as those who made the same judgment simultaneously drew upon their mana, and just as they were about to time their actions,
Domain Deployment
Manipulation Hierarchy Mental Image Actualization
[Unmarked Succession Knot]
Click.
“…Huh?”
As the dark ripples spread, the positions of everyone on the battlefield were completely swapped.
The scenery before their eyes abruptly changed, distorting their sense of distance, and familiar voices echoed closer from all directions.
Adamant Thunder, revolving and spewing lightning, was not far from them, and their allied Transcendent-level superhumans had been ‘relocated’.
“Wait, no way…!!!!”
A perfectly precise distance, just enough to avoid being swept away by the lightning all at once.
Yet, close enough for minimal cooperation, and easy to approach Adamant Thunder.
A strange sight, as if the positions of all objects within the labyrinth had been forcibly altered.
Only then did the superhumans, realizing the true nature of Victor’s Domain, gasp in shock.
“Unbelievable. Forced adjustment of spacetime coordinates…!!!”
“A power that changes the position of objects within its Domain!”
“No matter if he’s a Trait-type Spellcaster, how can he possess such an ability—!!!”
Adamant Thunder, having ceased the ritual, rampaged once more.
There was no need to explain the immense value of an ability that could adjust allied positions against lightning that was impossible to withstand head-on.
A formidable utility that might even completely overturn the plans and strategies discussed so far.
Evelyn Marcia, realizing the anomaly, moved.
“Do you think I’d just let that happen?”
Wham!!
She parried Sarin’s sword strike with her shoulder and sprinted across the battlefield strewn with corpses and mechanical parts.
Evelyn Marcia’s blurred figure began to cut across the battlefield at terrifying speed.
Squish–
As sticky dark mana was stomped underfoot, Evelyn Marcia spun sideways as if recoiling.
At the same time, she evaded the black magic fired at her neck, dropping to one knee diagonally.
Whoosh!!!
“Ah.”
Ermont, who had secretly extended his hand from behind, looked embarrassed.
“Damn it, that was supposed to be a killing blow. What am I supposed to do if you evade it so easily?”
“It wasn’t easy. I’m always wary of black magic.”
Evelyn Marcia retorted coldly.
“Magic that most freely wields negative intent among all magic systems… it doesn’t follow the laws of spellcraft, so it’s easy to get caught off guard. How could I miss that?”
Indeed, the black magic Ermont had just fired was so fast that even Evelyn Marcia found it hard to be complacent. It was unusual, considering that casting a spell of such speed usually required an incantation…
Regardless of Ermont’s estimated Level 7 rank, he was an opponent she absolutely couldn’t underestimate.
Evelyn Marcia glared at Ermont with a chilling expression.
“That cunning face… I saw it once in the Hanghasa Labyrinth. Things won’t go your way this time.”
“Ugh… There’s a misunderstanding. Things never went my way there either.”
Ermont said, drawing upon dark mana and grasping it in both hands.
“Besides, if they had, I wouldn’t be suffering so unfairly here, would I?!!!”
CRACK!!!
The billowing black smoke instantly engulfed the surroundings. The damp, dark smoke was enough to make even Evelyn Marcia, who always maintained sharp senses, flinch.
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!!!
Something moved swiftly beyond the black mist, circling Evelyn Marcia.
But Evelyn Marcia ignored the movement in the mist and swiftly raised her left hand.
Thwack!!
“…Oh?”
Ermont, whose wrist was seized along with the twisted dagger he held, wore a blank expression.
“I know you’re using cheap tricks to buy time, but black wizards are troublesome enough as it is.”
Evelyn Marcia said with a frosty look.
“I need to deal with you decisively here.”
Swish!!
Before she finished speaking, Evelyn Marcia’s hand lightly touched and swept past Ermont’s forehead.
At the same time, a black arrow pierced Ermont’s brow, instantly breaking through the back of his head and emerging.
Splat!!
“Ugh.”
With a grotesque scream, the black wizard slumped forward, his tongue lolling out.
Deimus, who had been running, gasping for breath, saw this and his face hardened.
“Ermont!!!”
An ancient black wizard who prolonged his life by taking over others’ bodies. He was an evil man, cunning by nature, and didn’t even bother to hide it. Yet, he was an old monster with incredible self-preservation abilities.
He had survived this long, despite constantly complaining, showing a surprising degree of shrewdness.
And Evelyn Marcia’s swiftness was chillingly sharp, enough that Ermont couldn’t even resist—
And she didn’t stop at just one strike.
Wham!!
Before he could react, Deimus was grabbed by the collar and slammed into the ground.
“Cough…!!!”
“You’re the commander, aren’t you? You’ve been reading the flow of this battlefield alone for a while now.”
Evelyn Marcia, her foot on Deimus’s throat as he choked for air, glared at him with a cold gaze.
“With Artemeyer gone, you’re likely the head of the Legion. I should kill you here.”
‘Her judgment, what the…!!’
Was she truly fighting hundreds of high-level superhumans while simultaneously discerning each of their roles and specialties?
Her moves targeted not the strongest opponents, like Captains or Ten Seats, but rather those with annoying abilities, precisely those who irritated her.
She was more of a hunter than a warrior, and precisely for that reason, an even more dangerous opponent in such a chaotic battle.
And so—
“Deimus!!!”
“Baragan, sir…”
Coughing up blood, Deimus strained to turn his gaze.
“I’ll buy… time…”
As top-grade gemstones tumbled out of Deimus’s embrace, they simultaneously glowed.
[Chanting Bell Stone: Spell Resonance Multi-Deployment]
[Ten-Faced Jade: Catalyst Transformation]
[Amazonite: Spatial Linkage Exfoliation Bloom]
Flash!!!
Hundreds of gemstones, each with a different color, resonated with each other, instantly engulfing Deimus and Evelyn Marcia.
A Level 8 binding spell, normally beyond Deimus’s rank, cast by sacrificing his lifespan.
[Judgment: Great Isolation]
“A trick…!!”
The moment Evelyn Marcia reached out with a chilling expression, the completed gem prison seized her and the space around her.
CRRRRACK!!!!
In the fleeting moment Deimus risked his life to restrain Evelyn Marcia, Baragan moved, leading Quetzalcoatl.
“Psychic. Start immediately!!”
“I’m not fond of using the Zero Seat’s gift in this manner… but there’s no time.”
Even with Deimus’s lifespan as a sacrifice, the probability of holding Evelyn Marcia for long was low.
Therefore, Deimus’s aim wasn’t to pin Evelyn Marcia down, but to block her ears.
“Come.”
Esteban whispered with his eyes closed.
“Ability Bloom…!!”
Something that heard Esteban’s ‘whisper’ surged from reality, traversing the Collective Mind Net.
From reality, crossing the mental network, back into reality. A miracle transcending the boundaries of the Material Realm and the Consciousness Realm, scattering sharp, silver light.
In the direction Esteban pointed, a colossal airship-like form descended into the heart of the Domain.
CRRRRACK!!!!
“Charge!!!”
“Woooooah!!!”
“This is the last chance!!!”
Quetzalcoatl, now tattered, and the silver airship advanced, taking the descending lightning as a shield.
Each rotation of the dark distortion point hovering overhead activated the Unmarked Succession Knot’s ability.
It changed the spacetime coordinates of their allies in real-time, narrowly evading the rampaging lightning.
Even so, each time the dark-blue lightning grazed them, the serpent and the airship exploded, shattering beyond recovery.
CRASH!!
Grind, grind, grind!!!
[KIIIIIIOOOOO…!!!]
[…]
Quetzalcoatl wailed desperately, and the Collective Mind Net of Ability Bloom convulsed violently.
But Baragan and Esteban, knowing this, did not stop.
All their desperate avoidance of direct confrontation and preservation of strength had been for this moment.
Now, with Victor maintaining his Domain and wielding that fraudulent position-shifting ability, they had to make their move.
“Psychic. One isn’t enough…!!!!”
Baragan gritted his teeth and clutched a Dark Scale from within his clothes.
“Do it simultaneously!!”
“I know…!!”
Using the serpent and the airship as shields, aided by the Unmarked Succession Knot, they endured and evaded the lightning.
Amidst the frantically shifting vision, the Transcendent-level superhumans approached Adamant Thunder, drawing forth their abilities.
CRASH!!!
The gem prison shattered, and Evelyn Marcia burst out, kicking aside the slumped Deimus.
Her dark hair streamed, and her eyes flashed with a vivid green light.
“Where do you think you’re going? It’s not too late…!!”
Click!
Evelyn Marcia snatched up the greatbow that had fallen with a crumbling archway, and threaded a strand of her hair onto the bowstring.
Dark-green mana swirled, transforming into an arrow, and aimed at the superhumans running behind the serpent and the airship.
At that moment, a silver-white flash of sword energy surged before Evelyn Marcia’s eyes, deflecting the arrow and bouncing backward.
CLANGGG!!!
“That won’t do, sniper.”
“…!!!”
The blood-soaked, white-haired swordsman stood across the labyrinth.
Evelyn Marcia recognized the opponent immediately and her expression hardened.
“Song-ha…!!”
“Ah… you made it all the way here in time…”
Song-ha, shouldering his pure white katana, staggered forward.
Sticky blood dripped from his feet, staining the ground.
“It’s been a long time since I pushed myself this hard… It might have been impossible without the Doctor’s help.”
“…”
“I’m a little late for the appointed time, but this is my role, right?”
Song-ha slowly raised his katana, his eyes glinting coldly.
“That Manipulation Spellcaster. He uses a very peculiar ability. I figured if I just held you here, it would somehow work out.”
“Indeed, I can’t win against you in close combat…”
But Evelyn Marcia, knowing this, forced a strained smile.
“However, I’m not the only one left in this labyrinth, am I?”
“…What?”
WHOOSH!!!
As soon as she spoke, scorching flames poured out through the corridors on all sides.
The fire surged like a wave, cascading and swirling, rising into a fiery tsunami.
Behind that tsunami stood Tatiana Chiglet, equipped with a Spell-armament resembling an exhaust port.
WHOOSH!!!
A curtain of crimson blood surged, and a black-haired girl appeared.
The curtain-like shroud rotated fiercely, scattering a rain of blood in all directions.
“Argh!! Hot, it’s hot…!!!”
“Aaaah!! Blood, blood…!!!”
“My head, my head hurts!! Ugh—!”
BOOM!!!
The blood of the superhumans who inhaled the blood rain reversed flow and exploded. The scorching wave of fire enveloped them, incinerating their bodies and souls.
Within Adamant Thunder’s Magic Tower, the two spellcasters specializing in area-of-effect combat remained until the end, reshaping the battlefield, and superhumans began to die in the fiery waves and blood rain.
As Song-ha’s gaze was momentarily stolen by the rapidly increasing casualties from all directions, Evelyn Marcia accelerated.
Her figure sped across the fiery waves at tremendous speed.
CRASHHH!!!
The rain of blood falling from the sky. The sea of fire surging on the ground.
As Evelyn Marcia raced across this hell on earth, aiming her greatbow at Baragan—
A muscular woman, wearing gauntlets on both hands, cut in beside Evelyn Marcia with incredible speed.
“…!!!”
CRASHHHH!!!!
A terrifyingly fast strike, accelerated by mana discharge.
Evelyn Marcia instantly folded her greatbow and raised it like a shield, deflecting the attack and sliding across the flames.
Atiya Elixson, the 6th Legion Commander, smiled at Evelyn Marcia.
“Oh? You blocked it?”
“…You.”
“Look at that reaction speed. You’re from the Enforcers, aren’t you?”
Atiya Elixson picked her nose, pointing at Evelyn Marcia.
“The guys who completed that curriculum all have a similar vibe. That distinctive mechanical feeling, for example.”
“Atiya Elixson, the Fist Saint. As the intelligence said, you’re a deeply disciplined martial artist.”
Evelyn Marcia turned to Atiya Elixson with a cold gaze.
“Dylan just retreated. Have you already reached the center of the labyrinth?”
“What, you knew that guy ran away after fighting me?”
Atiya Elixson chuckled.
“Then you orchestrated that situation from the start. But it doesn’t matter.”
“…”
“Because by now, the others should have arrived too.”
THUD!!!
The labyrinth wall collapsed, and Robert Loveride, clad in heavy armor, appeared leading the 3rd Legion.
The Mechanized Legion’s 4th Armament, like a centipede with its entire body modified, writhed grotesquely along the wall.
Esteban Aisen’s direct subordinate, a unit of high-level psychics, their inorganic eyes gleaming as they amplified their psychic abilities.
The Ten Seats of the Ability Awakening Warband. 9th Seat Escardo Silvan, and the 1st Command’s Ghost Squadron under Gileon Milrose, wearing Iron-Plated Wings.
The Iron Chain Dragon King, impassively looking down at the battlefield, and Ezekiel Ron Maize, walking from down the corridor.
Even the cardinal and military chaplains, who had been praying non-stop while watching Adamant Thunder, began to move.
At this moment, all forces participating in the annihilation campaign, previously scattered, converged on a single battlefield.
“OOOOOOOOH!!!!”
“In the name of the Great Zero Seat…!!!”
“We shall annihilate Adamant Thunder here and now!!!”
The core of the labyrinth, collapsing as Adamant Thunder’s lightning rampaged.
Tatiana Chiglet and the Fearsome Blood King added fire and blood, creating a hellscape that consumed and melted life.
Both sides of the annihilation campaign, gathered at the center, moved simultaneously as if burning their last strength.
The remaining distance: 200 meters.
CRASHHHHHHH!!!!
Baragan’s Quetzalcoatl and the Ability Awakening Warband’s airship were completely annihilated, engulfed by the pouring lightning.
With each rotation of the Unmarked Succession Knot’s distortion point, surviving superhumans swapped positions, only to die off.
In the battlefield where life and death intertwined, they screamed themselves hoarse, drawing upon mana, and charged forward.
In this moment, where everyone sensed the end, even pain and fear could be momentarily forgotten.
They wanted to live. They wanted to find peace.
These two contradictory, yet ultimately identical, desires moved their creaking bodies, only to be consumed and vanish amidst the lightning, fire, and blood.
Remaining distance: 100 meters.
“Adamant Thunder!!!”
BANG!!!!
Baragan’s body, having lost Quetzalcoatl, was exposed to the dark-blue lightning, and his limbs exploded and tore apart.
His left arm was crushed and gone, and below his right knee was burned away.
His hair was ablaze, his face cooked by burns, and his right eye melted and oozed.
A gruesome sight, his intestines melting and spilling out like refuse through his torn abdomen.
But Baragan didn’t hesitate and drew upon his main power.
Remaining distance: 50 meters.
“Look at me!!!!!”
The sorcerer, having inherited Pyeonram’s Esoteric Sorcery, burned a Dark Scale and unleashed a full-powered spell.
As Adamant Thunder sensed the familiar fragment of an Ascendant and focused his attention on Baragan, Baragan’s figure vanished.
As the Unmarked Succession Knot’s distortion point activated and reconfigured his position, Adamant Thunder flinched, and Esteban Aisen moved.
He too was a gruesome sight, his shoulder torn open, his back skin ripped, exposing his spine.
Esteban, his arm flesh completely gone, raised a bone-exposed hand and spoke.
Remaining distance: 20 meters.
“Manipulation Spellcaster.”
Whoosh!!!
There was no answer.
As the dark distortion point rotated, and the Unmarked Succession Knot’s [Reconstruction] adjusted his position, Adamant Thunder, wreathed in dark-blue lightning, fired a full-powered spell at the dark distortion point hovering over his head.
The rampaging lightning and the spatial distortion point collided, scattering an enormous shockwave.
CRRRRASHHHHHH!!!!
“Gasp…!!!!”
The intense light was so powerful that even the superhumans who had somehow endured were momentarily blinded.
Within that light, Victor’s figure blurred, then began to vanish completely.
“Victor!!!!”
In the fleeting moment he deployed his Domain to draw Adamant Thunder’s attention and buy his allies time.
Esteban Aisen, the last to be granted the Unmarked Succession Knot’s power, evaded the falling lightning and was sucked into the heart of the labyrinth.
When he regained consciousness, Esteban stood before nine magnificent, golden-glowing wings.
Baragan, utterly devastated. Song-ha, covered in blood. The cardinal, with an arm torn off.
The surviving Transcendent-level superhumans stood beside Esteban, staring blankly at the majestic form.
“…”
“We’ve… arrived…”
A beautiful, almost perfect sculpture, so captivating in its beauty that merely looking at it could enchant.
The curved forms and carved feathers. The very shape of the wings resembled those of an angel, dignified and noble.
Esteban, momentarily forgetting the situation and gazing at it, suddenly snapped back to attention.
Remaining distance: 1 meter.
The task was clear.
“Adamant Thunder… as a seeker, I pay my respects to your challenge.”
Rip!!
The shattered fragments of Ability Bloom melted and transformed into mercury.
Esteban reached out, grasping the vast quantity of mercury, and said,
“But your challenge is not a result the Ability Awakening Warband can condone… nor is it what the Zero Seat desires.”
The reason he, the 5th Seat of the Ability Awakening Warband, with the ability to manipulate mercury, participated in the annihilation campaign.
The one reason he survived until the end and stood before Adamant Thunder.
“In the name of the Almighty Zero Seat… I must ask you to fall.”
Mercury is a metal that is liquid at room temperature. It is also the most reactive catalyst in a spiritual sense. The mercury Esteban Aisen wielded had been worshipped as a means of immortality since ancient times and considered a vessel for spiritual presence.
That is why his mercury could temporarily hold the spiritual presence of ‘another’—not Esteban himself.
CRUNCH!!!!
He plunged the mercury in his hand into the wings without a moment’s hesitation.
Ophelia’s spiritual presence, already contained within, burrowed into Adamant Thunder’s inner being through the mercury.
Baragan, burning Pyeonram’s Dark Scale, and Song-ha, gripping his katana, simultaneously pushed their Will-thought from the opposite direction.
CRACK…!!!!
The final stage of the Ascension Ritual, forcefully interrupted and colliding with the Ascension Gate opened by the Doctor.
Amidst the outpouring, rampaging lightning, the Will-thought of the Zero Seat and Pyeonram simultaneously intervened in the ritual, twisting its process.
CRACK, CRACK, CRACK…!!!!
Sacrificing tens of thousands of superhuman lives, throwing war machines as shields.
Entwining Victor’s Domain, using the power and Will-thought of high-level beings comparable to Ascendants as impurities.
Bringing the war, which began on the outskirts of Vulcan, to the deepest part of District 49, and after countless sacrifices, finally here.
At that moment, they completely sabotaged and sent the Incarnation Body’s Ascension Ritual into a rampage.
The nine wings exploded, and dark-blue lightning engulfed and struck down into the center of the labyrinth.
CRASHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
“Gasp…!!!”
“Aaaah…!!!!”
Golden parts and debris, imbued with Mass Spellcraft, scattered like a storm in all directions.
Tatiana Chiglet’s incanted wave of fire, and the Fearsome Blood King’s brandished blood shroud, were nowhere to be seen.
Even Evelyn Marcia, who had firmly guarded the center of the labyrinth, vanished, swallowed by the lightning.
“…”
WHOOOOOOSH!!!!!
Someone, their entire body covered in dark-blue lightning, sat alone within the shattered golden wings.
Golden wings broken and fallen, complex parts strewn and melting everywhere in the ruins.
At the center, leaning quietly with bowed head, was a figure shimmering with dark-blue lightning.
The first ‘human’ form witnessed since the annihilation campaign began.
Yet, everyone on this battlefield instinctively knew who this being was.
“We… succeeded…”
A single utterance from someone utterly devastated.
Someone else mumbled, replacing a fallen comrade who had just drawn their last breath.
“We… stopped the Ascension Ritual…”
“We… drew out Adamant Thunder…”
“That being, is…”
Crackle, crackle!!!
The dark-blue lightning that had massacred tens of thousands and stolen countless superhuman lives surged.
If a human vessel were completely filled with lightning, burning away all other matter, would it look like this?
A Lightning Body that maintained only its form, its entire interior seemingly filled with lightning.
Baragan gasped, looking at the figure leaning as if asleep beneath the shattered throne.
“Adamant Thunder… that bastard…”
“His entire body is made of lightning…”
Esteban Aisen strained to look up.
Adamant Thunder was undergoing a process of decomposing and reconstructing his body through the Ascension Ritual.
The fact that Adamant Thunder was in such a state now that the ritual had completely failed meant—
“Even having failed the body’s reconstruction… he’s still alive…?”
“Hah, he’s not even human anymore…”
The surviving superhumans, realizing that despite Victor sacrificing himself to confront Adamant Thunder and deploying his Domain, they had only managed to fail the ritual, gagged and drew upon their mana.
“Nevertheless… that he’s in such a state itself is his limit, isn’t it?”
“This is the end… this is the last…”
“This is the end of the war… Everyone, move.”
The opponent had failed the ritual and couldn’t even properly reconstruct his own body.
He was merely gathering his power, barely maintaining a physical form.
This was the inevitable final showdown of the annihilation campaign, now that the Ascension Ritual had been thwarted.
They would confront Adamant Thunder directly and, this time, completely annihilate him.
Click!
Song-ha moved, raising his katana, and Baragan drew upon his main power.
The surviving Legion Commanders led their respective units, taking positions.
The cardinal offered prayers, and Esteban Aisen manipulated the Collective Mind Net to amplify his powers.
A heavy tension. The air, sharpened to an extreme.
Just as the Transcendent-level superhumans were about to scrape the bottom of their remaining strength for the final battle—
The Lightning Body, seated on the throne, opened its eyes.
KIIIIIIING!
A faint breeze brushed their cheeks, and everything around them slowed.
A miracle where perceived time accelerated within an extremely expanded consciousness.
But Adamant Thunder, seated on the throne, did not properly look back at them.
Instead, in the fleeting moment he opened and closed his eyes, he rose from the throne and merely looked up.
‘—!!!!’
Within the extremely slowed consciousness, there was no time for even verbal shouts, let alone telepathic messages.
The Lightning Body, having turned its head to survey the ground, vanished from its spot the moment it averted its gaze.
The next instant, it manifested in reality, piercing Song-ha’s heart with one arm.
CRUNCH!!!
“…Ah.”
Everyone present realized something had gone terribly wrong.