Chapter 1248: Aftermath (1)
Kwa-gua-gua-gua-gua-gua!!!!!
A dark blue pillar of lightning rotated at the center of District 49, piercing through the dark sky.
The lightning, flashing through the overcast clouds, ignited the world, unleashing a thunderous roar.
It tore open the pale blue sky, revealing the dawning morning over District 49.
Fwoosh!!!
“Ah…!!!!”
At the devastated heart of District 49, where the Adamant Thunder Annihilation Campaign had ended. Beyond the throne, piled high with golden debris.
Sunlight poured down as the sky opened before Baragan, who lay sprawled in front of the broken throne.
Clouds split, light streaming down to the edge of the earth, where the shattered components of a clockwork mechanism rained down.
Amidst the storm of clock fragments, burning and scattering in the lightning, the black-haired wizard stood with closed eyes.
His heavy coat fluttered, his empty, bare hands hanging calmly at his sides.
A calm and serene presence, utterly devoid of any trace of impact or struggle.
“No way…!!!”
But Baragan clenched his teeth, realizing that Kaiser was gone, beyond the scene of the shattered clockwork.
The final confrontation of the Annihilation Campaign, where the Ideational Domain and his Domain had clashed almost simultaneously.
Baragan was not so naive as to misunderstand the meaning of only one person returning after a battle that felt like an instant.
“Kaiser…!!!”
The ruler who had reigned at the apex of Vulcan’s underworld. The architect of the Black Consumer Project. A Regressor with the Talent for Reversing Heaven.
An old friend who had led him out of the mission of a tribe trapped in the worship of esoteric arts.
For decades, he had sought answers, even committing an unacceptable taboo.
Kaiser Bajour had been defeated.
As Baragan realized this, scratching at the ground with trembling hands, Lennok, alone, slowly raised his head from the center of the ruins.
“…….”
He gazed blankly at the ruins where the Annihilation Campaign had ended, his face devoid of expression.
But his presence was faintly disturbed, for the first time since Baragan had met the wizard.
As if finishing a long-awaited task and, finally, letting go of its lingering emotions.
Crackle—
The fragments of the shattered clockwork burned in the dark blue lightning, disappearing one by one.
Even after its will had vanished, only its regret remained, seeking to move on.
Lennok watched until the very end, without a word.
As if recalling someone who had been with him just moments before.
As if honoring and remembering the Regressor who would never return again.
Snap…!!
The last functioning clock components finally vanished completely, leaving no trace.
Lennok, who had watched silently, now slowly turned away.
“The battle is over. I’ve kept you waiting.”
“……You.”
“It’s best to make it clear here and now.”
Lennok spoke with an impassive face.
“I killed Kaiser Bajour.”
“…….”
The outcome of the final battle, which everyone had guessed the moment Lennok returned alone.
But hearing it directly from his own lips carried a completely different weight.
A heavy silence fell, and the dying superhumans let out low groans, unable to offer even a single reply.
“How….”
Baragan, pale and bleeding, spoke with difficulty.
“Kaiser… he’s a Regressor… and he reached Level 9….”
“…….”
“Once he started to regress… how could you….”
“Because Kaiser Bajour was an existence that moved towards the past.”
Lennok answered calmly.
“Precisely because of that, I thought he would be able to return even after everything ended.”
Kaiser Bajour’s Regression was a power that defied the world’s time using the Ideational Domain of the Eternal Tribulation Severing Leaf.
The clockwork, infinitely rewinding the past, was an ability fundamentally antithetical to the Kaleidoscope, which reflected the future.
Therefore, Lennok, by deploying the same Eternal Tribulation Severing Leaf as Kaiser, captured the timeline where Kaiser’s Regression began,
and by unfolding the Kaleidoscope within Kaiser’s Ideational Domain, he forcibly clashed the possibilities of past and future within the worldline.
The moment the Eternal Tribulation Severing Leaf, heading to the past, and the Kaleidoscope, heading to the future, pulled in opposite directions, their timelines converged infinitely towards the present at their center.
All that was needed was for Lennok, using the Ultimate Lightning Magic he had acquired, to ‘observe’ the present timeline and adjust the moment of return.
A method only possible because Lennok, having gained Ultimate Lightning Magic, already possessed the same Domain as Kaiser.
A miracle that could not have been attempted if it weren’t for the answer Kaiser of the past had left for Lennok.
Because he was facing a Regressor who had endlessly rewound time, he knew the battle would end in an instant.
And so—
“Kaiser Bajour died upholding his answer to the very end.”
Thud!
Lennok stood before the fallen Baragan, his face impassive.
“No matter how horrific his failures were, his will was undoubtedly genuine.”
“…….”
“I intend not to forget him until the moment of the end. For I do not wish to meet the same fate as a failed Seeker, whom I once thought was like me.”
Lennok looked down at Baragan, who was trembling violently.
“Therefore, I will spare you.”
“……What?”
“Gather the survivors and leave the city. And relay this to all who watched this war.”
Lennok’s eyes, gazing down at the pale Baragan, flashed with dark blue light.
“That if they wish to fight me, they should not choose this city as their stage. And that this is the end awaiting my adversaries.”
“…….”
Baragan, rendered speechless, finally muttered with difficulty.
“You’re… insane….”
To mercilessly slaughter tens of thousands of superhumans who participated in the Annihilation Campaign, yet spare them at the very end.
The reason for this wasn’t trivial emotions like mercy, but merely to use their existence as messengers for this war.
He never shied away from endless wars and struggles, at any moment.
Trampling everything with a blood-soaked heart, intent on making it a means for his own seeking.
Baragan felt a distortion beyond reason in Lennok’s answer, and found himself unknowingly overwhelmed.
“Anyway, in this war… there won’t be… many survivors….”
Baragan muttered, trembling uncontrollably.
“Even without that, already….”
“I know. There won’t be any lingering threats anyway.”
Lennok replied with an indifferent gaze.
“I crushed your main meridian, so you will never regain your full power. The others likely aren’t much different.”
“…….”
“But I’m not deciding your lives or deaths based on such thoughts.”
Lennok said, looking down at his own hands.
“It’s just that, at this moment… I feel such things don’t matter.”
“…….”
“Your existence, this city’s past, the project’s lingering regrets… only after finally bringing an end to all of it did these thoughts occur to me.”
Lennok slowly took a step and spoke.
“That this war is already over.”
The Adamant Thunder Annihilation Campaign.
A large-scale military operation by the Legion, planned long ago with the recapture of Vulcan as its paramount objective.
A war waged against a single wizard, with superhuman forces from across the continent gathered.
And the overwhelming outcome that rendered all those efforts, processes, and sacrifices meaningless.
The core of the ruins, where tens of thousands of superhumans who participated in the war were slaughtered and annihilated without a trace.
Legion Commanders of Deadrise, Flame Pillars and Ten Seats of Magic Towers, Cult Cardinals, and high-ranking executives from countless factions.
The elite special forces of the Central Front, who had overcome numerous life-and-death situations to carry out their missions, couldn’t even leave proper remains.
At this moment, with Kaiser Bajour defeated by Lennok in their one-on-one battle,
Lennok was declaring that the Legion had been utterly defeated in the Annihilation Campaign.
“Gah…!!!”
Baragan clenched his teeth, trying desperately to stand, but it was already too late.
“C-curse it… Aaargh…!!!!”
With his main meridian severed and his body shattered, even minimal resistance was impossible.
The worst possible ending, where he wasn’t even allowed to die without Lennok’s permission.
“Damn it…!! Damn it!!!!!!”
Baragan screamed desperately, spitting blood.
“This kind of… end, is not what I… wanted…!!!!”
He had no more interest in a sorcerer whose main meridian was broken.
Lennok walked away without hesitation, leaving the screaming Baragan behind.
Passing through the corpse-strewn ruins, Lennok stopped before a man leaning against a pillar of debris.
The man, breathing with difficulty, painstakingly opened his eyes.
“…Adamant Thunder.”
Lieutenant General Robert Loveride, leader of Deadrise’s 3rd Legion.
One of the few superhumans from the Legion who had participated in both the parade and the Annihilation Campaign.
A Legion Commander slowly dying from injuries sustained in the Annihilation Campaign.
Robert Loveride looked up at Lennok’s impassive face and managed a weak smile.
“I see… So, the Marshal… was finally defeated.”
“…….”
“It wasn’t… surprising, really….”
Robert Loveride gasped for breath.
“The divine power you showed today… was not inferior… even compared to… other Ascendants….”
“…….”
“If the Legion’s will were to fall… broken by a Seeker like you… then, it would be… understandable….”
“Robert Loveride.”
Lennok cut him off, speaking indifferently.
“You’re going to die soon. You know that, don’t you?”
“…….”
Instead of answering, Robert Loveride bowed his head slightly.
Fragments of his internal organs spilled out through the broken pieces of his armor.
The horrific outcome of risking his life on the front lines, taking the full force of the Incarnation Body’s fist attacks in their final battle.
But as a result, Robert Loveride’s body was irrevocably damaged.
Lennok watched him, then spoke with an impassive face.
“Speak your last words while you still have consciousness.”
“……That, is.”
“If you have anything to say, I will listen.”
The Incarnation Body that descended upon the battlefield after the Ascension Ritual failed was a monster manifested in the image of a martial artist from the First World.
Because Robert Loveride had endured the Incarnation Body’s attacks on the front lines, other superhumans were able to unleash powerful techniques, whittling down the Incarnation Body.
Without his life-risking sacrifice, it would have taken more time to deplete the Incarnation Body.
“Last words, huh… cough!! What excuse… does a failed soldier need.”
Robert Loveride coughed up blood, a weak smile on his face.
“I came here… intending to die… Defeat is regrettable… but not unacceptable….”
“…….”
“Still… if there is something… I wish to leave….”
Robert Loveride, his hands trembling, fumbled with a piece of armor, then pulled out a small pouch from within his coat.
The Legion Commander, unable to hand it to Lennok, dropped it weakly to the ground and mumbled.
“Croken… Asylus… that….”
“Croken Asylus?”
Croken Asylus.
Lennok questioned him upon hearing the name, but Robert Loveride’s answer did not continue.
With a look as if he had finally shed all lingering regrets, he slowly closed his eyes.
“Familiar… faces… I see….”
“…….”
“Everyone, has been waiting—”
Robert Loveride’s voice faded away.
Lennok gazed at his corpse with an impassive face, then slowly picked up the pouch.
The 3rd Legion Commander whom Lennok had encountered as Cheonbeon in the Outer Zone of the Central Front, fought, and defeated.
From surviving near-death and returning, to leading his recovered body into the Annihilation Campaign and falling in battle.
Until his last breath, he was a soldier loyal to the Legion.
“Robert… Loveride…”
Atiya, dying beside Robert Loveride, gasped and chuckled.
Her left upper body torn apart and mangled, a ghost-like figure covered in blood.
“So, he’s gone… I thought he’d last… longer…”
“…….”
“Heh heh heh, well… this… this is unavoidable.”
Atiya slowly tilted her head back, closing her blurry eyes as she mumbled.
“Ah… this is why, I didn’t want to….”
She was a superhuman who had fought on the front lines alongside Robert Loveride.
Her internal organs weren’t completely crushed, but half of her upper body was mangled and torn away.
She had tried her best to retreat and survive, but in either case, she couldn’t hold out much longer.
Perhaps this outcome had been predetermined from the start.
“Wizard… won’t you listen to my last words…?”
“No need, really.”
The answer to Atiya’s whispered words came from elsewhere.
Flash!!
As a crimson glow poured over the dying Atiya, the ceaseless flow of blood subsided, and it began to clot.
It wasn’t enough to heal wounds or regenerate her body, but it was emergency first aid, sufficient to temporarily staunch the bleeding.
“Huh…?”
“The 3rd Legion Commander’s injuries were irreversible, but your case is different.”
At the end of Atiya’s bewildered gaze stood a black-haired girl with red eyes.
“If you receive emergency treatment now, you might survive, even if partially crippled.”
Fwoosh-sh-sh-sh!!!
No sooner had she finished speaking than dozens of magical presences began approaching from beyond the ruins.
They rapidly traversed the Outer Zone, closing the distance, and one by one, their presences appeared.
Thump!!
Dylan and Mila, Felix and Tatiana. Mercenaries including Drei and Krod Azlan.
Comrades who had fought against the Legion that invaded Lennok’s labyrinth and survived to the end.
The belatedly arriving comrades moved towards those still clinging to life throughout the ruins….
“Your wounds are deep. You’ll have to stay alert if you want to live.”
“Stay still. If you resist even a little, I’ll have no choice but to kill you.”
“Don’t say anything. You see this shotgun pointed at your head, right?”
Even while treating the Legion survivors, they simultaneously restricted their freedom of movement and coerced them.
It was as if these actions had been agreed upon from the beginning, happening naturally.
Atiya, who had been watching blankly, turned her gaze.
“…You seem to be Adamant Thunder’s comrade. Why are you saving me…?”
Atiya scratched her head, looking embarrassed.
“It’s awkward for me to say, but… I participated in the war to kill Adamant Thunder.”
“Of course, we aren’t saving you because we particularly like you.”
The Fearsome Blood King laughed, looking at the bewildered Atiya.
“But my contractor wants to keep you alive for now. What can I do?”
“…….”
“I don’t particularly like it, but it does seem more useful to keep a few alive. I’ll help.”
The Fearsome Blood King said, glancing away.
“Though I’d hoped that True Ancestor Vampire over there would be beaten to death.”
“…Hehe, I apologize.”
Sarin Tribiyer, who had been observing the situation with a hardened expression, finally let out a faint laugh.
The final battle of the Annihilation Campaign, where Adamant Thunder had claimed victory against Kaiser Bajour.
Only after the Magic Tower’s personnel began to clean up the battlefield could she truly realize that everything was finally over.
The Annihilation Campaign had ended in a complete defeat for the Legion.
All that remained here were those gathered to clean up the defeat and collect the fruits of this war.
Boom!!
With a heavy thud, the Iron Chain Dragon King moved past the ruins.
Ezekiel Ron Maize had already vanished somewhere, having watched the situation.
As the long-yet-short war ended, Pandemonium too moved for its own purposes.
At the center of all these intertwining wills and movements, Lennok stood alone.
“…….”
“……Van.”
Dylan, supporting the unconscious Ghost Squadron Gespenst unit leader, stopped and looked at Lennok.
Mila, carrying Atiya on her back at the Fearsome Blood King’s request, shot a quick glance at Lennok.
Tatiana Chiglet, who was cleaning up the remnants of the Flame Majesty Temple, and Felix, who had gathered Robert Loveride’s body, waited silently.
A peculiar silence, as all the Magic Tower comrades gathered to clear the battlefield quietly looked at Lennok.
“……It’s fortunate that it went as expected.”
Lennok glanced back at Dylan’s words and offered a faint smile.
He crushed the tobacco he had been smoking, burning it completely in one hand, then turned around.
“Everyone has gone through a lot of trouble. I will certainly repay you for this.”
“No. It’s not really us who went through trouble.”
Dylan hesitated before speaking.
“Van. I, rather, think you….”
From completing all preparations and planning the entire strategy before the Annihilation Campaign to this very moment.
Everything Lennok had explained and requested before the war had come true like a prophecy.
But knowing the full story of all these events, he found himself unable to easily say anything to Lennok.
How absurd all those plans had been, as they had followed Lennok’s words with half-doubt.
The fact that he had ultimately achieved the desired outcome amidst a chaotic battle fraught with unpredictable variables.
Even those who had known Lennok for a long time now gazed at him silently, swayed by this moment beyond their understanding.
As if, in this moment when everything had ended, they wished for him to finally bring it to a close.
Seeing his comrades silently awaiting his answer from all directions, Lennok raised his gaze.
Because Lennok too knew what had to be done next.
“Thank you, everyone, for honoring my request as promised.”
Lennok said, slowly taking a step.
“The war is over, and the enemy’s leader has been captured. For a while, there won’t be any large-scale conflicts in this city.”
“…….”
“But after today, things will probably get much busier than they are now. Of course, rebuilding the Magic Tower and establishing the Domain are important, but—”
Lennok looked back at his comrades and smiled.
“Even at this very moment, there must be others out there who were watching this war.”
“……That is.”
“We’ll have to see how they react to today’s events, starting now.”
The outcome of the great battle that swept through Vulcan’s Outer Zone.
In this moment, after tens of thousands had been slaughtered and everything concluded.
How those who had witnessed even a glimpse of the scene would react to this war.
That process could potentially be even more intense and fierce than the war itself.
“But before we deal with all of that… there was something else we had to do.”
Leaving his comrades with complicated expressions, Lennok raised his gaze.
The morning sky at dawn. Gazing at the quiet ruins bathed in sunlight, Lennok spoke.
“Let’s go back. I need to tell everyone that this war is over.”