Chapter 1284: Outer Sea Demonic Realm (7)

After a brief engagement, Lennok dealt with the Apostle who had seized control of the Submarine Terminal.

He then explored the interior of the collapsed terminal building with Aileen, the woman who introduced herself.

Everyone inside and outside the terminal had been swept away by forbidden magic during the Apostle’s offering ritual.

Even the mutated flesh, transformed by the ritual, had almost no trace left.

Whoosh!

Sprinklers activated from the ceiling of the building, washing away the dried blood from the floor and walls.

Aileen, thoroughly drenched by the pouring water, cleaned herself and took a step forward.

“Here. Catch.”

Aileen, who had rummaged through the resort rooms inside the terminal to find towels, tossed one to Lennok.

After throwing a towel to Lennok, the woman, her head covered, soon planted her gunblade in place and knelt on one knee.

Aileen, covered in blood, lightly made the sign of the cross with one hand, her blade serving as a tombstone.

“May all find peace in the afterlife.”

“……”

A moment of silent prayer, mourning the victims offered to the Cult.

After a brief period of mourning, Aileen opened her eyes and sprang to her feet.

Grabbing a fresh towel, she abruptly headed deeper into the room, turning to glance at Lennok.

“I can’t stand feeling dirty, so wait a moment.”

“……”

Was exploring the terminal’s facilities actually just to find a place to wash up?

To have completed mourning the victims in between, it was hard to tell if she still possessed humanity or if her sensibilities were twisted.

While Aileen went into the room, Lennok sat on a bench at the end of the terminal corridor, quietly catching his breath.

The best response for humans sacrificed to forbidden magic was to grant them peace through death.

Therefore, Lennok had never felt guilt for sending the victims off with his own hands.

However, the death of the old gentleman who had first spoken to Lennok on the train did come to mind.

“……”

The old gentleman, who had dreamed of following the Seeker’s path late in life and gratefully accepted Lennok’s advice, ultimately met an end like foam on water.

He had long known that effort in this world rarely yielded fair returns.

He had keenly felt since his freelance days that even small favors often went unrewarded and awry, yet reiterating that fact always stung.

Would anything have changed if Lennok had given the old gentleman no answer or advice at all?

He didn’t know. Such regrets, too, he had repeated too many times, to the point of guarding against them becoming lingering attachments or Heart-Demons.

But what Lennok had hoped for when he offered advice to the old gentleman was simply…

Swish!

While Lennok was bowing his head, Aileen, with a towel draped around her neck, emerged from the other end of the room corridor.

Her blood-soaked hair was washed, and her disheveled clothes were roughly tidied.

Sitting on the opposite bench, she leaned back, resting her arm on the chair, and spoke.

“The water pipes and ventilation are still working normally. It seems that monstrous bastard didn’t touch anything other than the power room.”

“Most Cult Apostles aren’t particularly interested in modern civilization or technology,” Lennok said, toying with an unlit cigar.

The cigars Lennok smoked only when active as Cheonbeon were custom-made to accumulate fire energy in his body and shorten preheating time.

They were also his most stable doping agent, customized to regulate body temperature and enhance physical durability.

“Since all the humans in the terminal were drawn into the ritual, it might have felt unnecessary to destroy the infrastructure before fighting us. Either way, it’s meaningless now.”

“That’s true, but… we should at least inform other terminals or trains about the situation here, shouldn’t we?”

Aileen gave a wry smile and gestured with one hand to the scenery outside the window.

“If we leave this as is, the Eastern Front will be in chaos. Are you really going to keep pretending you don’t know?”

“……”

Spread out beyond the window was a vast landscape, a part of the Sea of Understanding covered in pure white ice.

The entire terminal was encased in ice, transformed into a bizarre, colossal ice island floating on the Sea of Understanding.

It was no wonder Aileen was horrified; they had frozen the entire Submarine Terminal and raised it above the sea just to kill one Apostle.

“There are a few well-known ice-elemental ability users in the Central Council, but most of them are affiliated or tied down somewhere due to the usefulness of their abilities,” she said, gazing admiringly at the massive glacier fragments outside the window.

“Currently, there isn’t a single spellcaster on the Eastern Front capable of ice manipulation on this scale. If you leave without a word, the Central Council will be on high alert, wary of a new Transcendent of ice-elemental magic appearing.”

“……”

“You, as a former Watcher, won’t face scrutiny even if the full story comes out later, but my case is different. I should at least give the terminal staff a heads-up that it was the Cult’s doing before leaving.”

“You have a long-winded way of saying we need to clean up the aftermath.” Lennok leaned back in his chair and put the cigar in his mouth.

“I won’t interfere, do as you wish. How much time do you need?”

“About 30 minutes? It won’t take long. Most of the truly necessary work is already done.”

Aileen said, pulling out a cell phone from under her towel and showing it to Lennok.

“I found a working cell phone in one of the rooms and sent a satellite message. I was originally going to dismantle the train’s line to make a signal device, so this was fortunate.”

“…Both searching the site and dealing with this kind of disaster seem quite familiar to you.” Lennok turned his head with an unexpressive face.

“Is that typically what ‘The Agency’ does on the Central Front?”

“What, I thought you had no interest at all. But you remembered the name?”

Aileen sat on the opposite chair and chuckled.

“Our objectives are different, but we often encounter similar situations. Isn’t that what reconnaissance organizations do?”

“Reconnaissance organizations?”

“What, you were scouted by us and you don’t even know The Agency’s official name? You’re really insensitive.”

Aileen shook her head with a dumbfounded expression.

“The Humanity Perpetual Protection Reconnaissance and Search Agency under the Standard Protocol. We’re commonly called The Agency. There are other abbreviations, but… that’s not important, is it?”

Aileen stared intently at Lennok’s profile.

“Otherwise, you wouldn’t have headed to the Demonic Realm without any contact, even after being scouted by Lakia.”

“……”

Did she also know about the time he encountered Lakia Artemeyer, an Enforcer from The Agency, on his way to the military parade as Cheonbeon, and she offered him a scouting invitation?

If Lakia hadn’t given Lennok entry authority to the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors then, Lennok wouldn’t have bothered to remember The Agency’s name.

“Anyway, since we met by chance like this, we have to do what needs to be done.”

Aileen crossed her legs, looking at the silent Lennok.

“Tell me. What exactly have you been doing all this time?”

“I was gathering information about the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors,” Lennok replied.

“I needed to know what existed there to understand why the Central Council was so hell-bent on conquering the Demonic Realm. That process took some time.”

“So, was there any progress?”

“Not exactly… it wasn’t a satisfactory result.”

Click!

Lennok put the cigar in his mouth and lit it, glancing away. He exhaled smoke through the shattered window, then gathered his thoughts and spoke.

“Only that the true nature of the Demonic Realm is a hell created from the core institutions of the Imperial Palace of Ars Nova… and in the process, I obtained evidence that many Transcendent were ground down.”

“……”

“And that was only partial evidence that there was a dead Grand General in the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors. Almost nothing is known about other hells, such as the Sixfold Demonic Mirror of Return or the Salmun Illyeong Demonic Mirror.”

Lennok looked at Aileen.

“Ultimately, information on those aspects must be held by conquest-oriented organizations like yours, who operate directly within the Central Front.”

The Order Alliance, the Guido Cult, the Ability Awakening Warband.

It was clear that these colossal forces, currently vying for control on the Central Front, possessed a great deal of information about the Central Council.

However, the leaders of each faction were monsters whose true power was unfathomable, and their subordinate executives were by no means easy opponents.

To extract the necessary information from them, Lennok would also have to pay a considerable price.

Wasn’t the Order Alliance’s offer to Adamant Thunder to hunt the Second Apostle an example of that?

That was why Lennok had considered The Agency as a relatively easy way to obtain information about the Central Front and the Demonic Realm.

The elite conquest-oriented organizations, comprised of only a handful of Transcendent, venturing into the Central Front which no one else dared to touch, risking their lives to explore the Demonic Realm.

Lennok had heard the names of these organizations, said to consist of only a very few Transcendent, several times.

The Agency, Paragon, Pioneer, The Designers, Mercenary… among them, a name that was never omitted when discussing conquest factions.

“I want to trade information about the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors with The Agency. If you tell me the price you want, we can negotiate… why are you looking at me like that?”

“……No.”

Aileen stared at Lennok with a dumbfounded expression.

“If you know that much, there’s almost no information we can explain to you.”

“What?”

“I thought you stumbled near the Demonic Realm knowing nothing, but you already know almost all the relevant information. What exactly do you want to ask?”

Aileen said, dumbfounded, at the speechless Lennok.

“The information you have is the kind that conquest factions, including The Agency, risked their lives to find out, or obtained by paying an enormous price.”

“……”

“I don’t know where you conducted your investigation to know all those facts, but I can’t explain it in more detail than that here. In the first place, there aren’t many more important secrets beyond that.”

“Is information about the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors so limited?”

“Do you know that the Ability Awakening Warband attempted to conquer the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors a few quarters ago?” Aileen suddenly asked a different question.

“Eredis Zabelin, who is on a different level even among the Ten Seats, personally led his unit, but ultimately failed the conquest and returned. In the process, they suffered critical damage, losing a part of the 2nd Unit.”

“……”

“Leaving aside what a monstrous ability user Eredis Zabelin is, having crashed head-on into the Demonic Realm and returned unscathed, it means that preliminary investigations into the Demonic Realm’s interior are meaningless.”

Aileen shrugged and said.

“The internal environment of the Demonic Realm changes in real-time like a living creature depending on the intruder, and even the atmospheric composition and terrain constantly shift. Since the Great Upheaval began, the situation has become even more severe, and even the creatures living there are mutating.”

“……Ultimately, it means that only after entering the Demonic Realm can one find a path, navigate, or set a destination.”

“That’s right. Conquest-oriented organizations usually have a Pathfinder to prepare for such situations, but that’s not the main issue…”

Aileen, who had finally dried her hair with the towel, clapped her hands and stood up.

“I don’t have much to tell you about the Demonic Realm’s interior right now, but as I said earlier, I can guide you to a shortcut to the Demonic Realm. What do you say?”

“……”

“The Agency has an ongoing operation, and if you wish, I can handle the guidance. Currently, your whereabouts are one of the Central Council’s top priorities.”

Click!

Pulling the gunblade she had stuck into the corridor floor, Aileen inspected the trigger mechanism and other joints as she explained.

“If you want to enter the Demonic Realm, I’ll talk to The Agency and clear a path. Some members are already inside the Demonic Realm, so cooperation from both inside and outside will be possible.”

“Are you abandoning your existing operational direction to cooperate with me?” Lennok shook his head.

“I don’t understand… why are you so insistent on recruiting me?”

“Excuse me, are you really asking because you don’t know?” Aileen said, dumbfounded.

“Fewer than five Transcendent in history have killed both a top-ranking Cult Apostle and an Order Alliance Grand Spell Master. Your abilities have already been verified by the Central Council, and you have the Lighthouse Keeper’s favor, a testament to your good nature.”

“……”

“The Demonic Realm before us is a hell where ordinary abilities or spellcraft are useless. We need a spear that can kill the unkillable, and pierce the unpierceable.”

Aileen looked down at Lennok with resolute eyes and said.

“You possess the ability to be the most powerful spear across the entire Central Front. Do you think a verbose reason is necessary to need such a person?”

“……No. I suppose not.”

Lennok could obtain no questions, no answers, about things he had not personally experienced.

The hesitation) and wavering were only to give himself conviction during that time.

He had deliberated for a long time, but ultimately, there was always only one answer.

“You’re right, Ranger. No matter where I am, what needs to be done won’t be different.”

Lennok stood up, donning his Array Device.

He slowly closed and opened his eyes, gazing at the morning sun rising far beyond the ice island, and said.

“Once I’m ready, I’ll move to the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors. Aileen, I’ll ask you to guide me.”

“You have a few options.” Aileen immediately raised three fingers.

“First. A method that involves circumventing the Central Front’s border zone and utilizing the concentrated magnetic field at the northern continent’s edge. It’s a trick to enter the Demonic Realm by piercing The Veil, but it’s relatively time-consuming even among the shortcuts.”

“How long will it take?”

“Hmm. We’d have to find the point where the star’s magnetic field and The Veil meet and the boundary blurs… so we’d be stuck sweeping the border zone for about half a month?”

“……”

Half a month. It wasn’t an excessively long time, but it certainly wasn’t short to spend on the journey to the Demonic Realm.

If he could only enter the Demonic Realm after sweeping the border zone with Aileen for about 15 days, how much longer would he have to spend inside the Demonic Realm?

There was no need to deliberate.

“What’s the second method?”

“There’s a method that uses the path the Order Alliance has already carved into the Demonic Realm. This is the method I mentioned earlier that gets you to the Demonic Realm within a day.”

“……That’s the first I’ve heard of it. There was a path opened by the Order Alliance?”

“This isn’t widely known yet, but after the Warband failed to conquer the Demonic Realm, the Order Alliance has also been secretly attempting a conquest,” Aileen said, folding her second finger.

“They secretly made a hole in The Veil, then sent personnel and supplies into the Demonic Realm to establish a conquest unit and proceed with their exploration, and they’ve achieved results, so its scale has grown. The Agency also secretly uses that route from time to time.”

“……”

“The Order Alliance has invested a lot in securing that route, so you can arrive at the Demonic Realm relatively comfortably. It carries a significant risk, but it’s a route I personally recommend.”

“What’s the risk?”

“The place is crawling with high-ranking spellcasters from the Order Alliance, so if you’re unlucky enough to get caught or if the timing overlaps, you might encounter a Grand Spell Master or a Yaksha directly.”

“……”

“But so far, The Agency hasn’t been caught, so it’s probably fine.”

“The Agency, you say.”

“Yes. The Agency.”

“……”

Lennok, rubbing his brow, asked.

“Is there another method? What’s the last one?”

“There is a better method… but it requires much trickier conditions. It’s only possible if we can acquire an item that we don’t currently possess.”

Aileen subtly lowered her hand.

“However, if we can obtain the item, you only need to approach the vicinity of the Demonic Realm without any further preparation. This is, if you want to call it that, like a cheat code that makes conquering the Demonic Realm easier, and it also helps outside the Demonic Realm, but…”

“Stop beating around the bush and tell me.”

“You need a guidebook made by a Pathfinder.”

“A guidebook…?”

“A Pathfinder who can orient you in the deepest parts of the Demonic Realm usually requires very special talent,” Aileen explained.

“It’s the talent to continuously update directions and coordinates and not get lost even in the Demonic Realm’s ever-changing environment, and it’s one of the rarest talents even among the monsters gathered in the Central Council.”

“……”

“Its value is so unique that there are even conquest-oriented organizations composed entirely of Pathfinders. They’re called Pioneer…”

Pioneer. He had heard of them.

Wasn’t it Bernard, the superhuman who had helped Lennok and Angel when he infiltrated Gateway City as Cheonbeon, who said he belonged to Pioneer?

An explorer organization made up of five superhumans, one that had made a name for itself even during the Holy War—

“You mean the organization led by Odin Mayers.”

“……You know Odin?”

At that moment, Lennok saw Aileen make the most surprised expression he had seen since meeting her.

“I’ve only heard the name. So, where do I get this guidebook?”

“You need to obtain an exploration journal personally authored by a Pathfinder. That’s usually where the problem starts.”

Aileen said, looking troubled.

“Few Pathfinders who explored the Demonic Realm have survived, and most of them are affiliated with Pioneer, making them difficult to meet.”

“……”

“Moreover, you’re not hiring the person themselves, but trying to obtain a journal written by a Pathfinder. Such items are already astronomically priced or in the hands of Ascendant-level monsters.”

He didn’t know much, but did that mean acquiring the guidebook was extraordinarily difficult?

Indeed, when Lennok was active in Gateway City, the talent of a Pathfinder seemed to receive exceptionally special treatment.

That was probably because the ability to find one’s way in the Central Council was both the most important and the rarest.

However, even as Lennok listened to the story, he was quietly thinking about something.

Pathfinder. The talent to freshly remind oneself of directions and coordinates. An exploration journal written after personally traversing the Demonic Realm.

Surely, Lennok knew someone with a similar ability, and a record left by them—

“Well, it’s not a highly probable method anyway, so don’t get your hopes up too much,” Aileen said with a chuckle, looking at the silent Lennok.

“Just know that if you’re a Grand Mage of your caliber, you might, just might, be able to….”

“About that exploration journal.”

Lennok pulled out a small notebook from his pocket.

A small diary with the name [Demonic Realm Travelogue] written on it.

One of the few records Ethan Bajour had personally authored after traveling the continent.

“Would something like this work?”

“……”

But Lennok received no answer from Aileen.

He had to watch Aileen’s jaw drop as soon as she saw the travelogue in his hand.