Chapter 1292: Unnatural Demonic Realm (15)

Kwa-gua-gua-gua-gua-gua!!!!

A colossal battleship, engulfed in towering flames, tore through the sky above the jungle at immense speed.

The air grew denser as they delved deeper into the Demonic Realm. Oxygen thinned. The mana density weakened, and all particle movement in the area slowed.

Lennok had felt this sensation before, as if space itself was drawing endlessly close to emptiness, everything becoming distant.

It was a stark feeling, like being exposed nakedly in a spacetime without any medium, akin to Kundara’s Ninth Tribulation or the environment of the Outer Sea.

And the facility located at the very heart of this Demonic Realm, where that déjà vu converged, was—

Whoosh!!

The incessant roars and explosions grew fainter.

An extreme environment where even sound could barely be heard, as the medium grew thin.

The first thing that caught his eye was a gigantic black flower covering the entire horizon.

“……That is.”

Whaaaaaaah—

A black flower of enormous size, hundreds of meters tall, comparable to the Sun Ship itself.

A grotesque sight, its bud open, writhing as it looked up at the sky, resembling human lips.

As if recognizing Lennok’s presence and speaking to him, the black petals twitched slowly.

The flower’s form, imbued with a hollow blackness, seemed to drain consciousness and mental strength with just a glance.

Though it was his first time seeing it directly, Lennok understood immediately.

That unusually colossal flower in the Demonic Realm was undoubtedly—

“It’s a Dead Flower.”

“……”

“A flower that only blooms in the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors, growing by feeding on death. And it’s the raw material for the flames that burn death.”

Before he knew it, Aileen, holding a blood-soaked gunblade, stood beside Lennok.

She looked quite fatigued, as if the spellcasters and priests who pursued the Sun Ship had been tenacious.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine… I’m used to this kind of thing. I was just organizing the matters for the report.”

Aileen swept a hand over her pale face and glanced back at Lennok.

“Anyway, shouldn’t you be asking that question of yourself, not me? Who’s worrying about whom?”

“……”

“I watched from beginning to end, and I still can’t believe it. How can a human fight the Seventh Apostle and a Grand Spell Master simultaneously…”

Evan Martinez’s actions during the military parade had led to much discussion, as the outcome was effectively a retreat.

There were many analyses: whether Cheonbeon’s magic had weakened, what new abilities he had gained, or why he had attended the parade.

However, the conclusion reached after the subjugation operation was that Cheonbeon’s power was far inferior to Adamant Thunder’s.

It was also expected that Cheonbeon’s evaluation would drop upon hearing the news from the Central Council.

Aileen knew this fact, yet she had worked to recruit Cheonbeon, believing him necessary.

But the results she witnessed in the Demonic Realm far exceeded what the Agents had anticipated.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to say. You were the one who gave me a Passlink to scout me, weren’t you?”

“We proceeded with the scout based on your achievement of killing the Tenth Apostle and the Conjunction Spell Master. What we expected from that process was closer to an interdiction force capable of confronting the powerhouses of the Order Alliance and the Guido Cult.”

Aileen awkwardly rubbed her cheek and averted her gaze.

“So, we went ahead with the recruitment regardless of public perception, but we never imagined you’d be capable of facing a Grand Spell Master and a top-tier Apostle, not one-on-one, but simultaneously—”

“The situation itself had many advantages for me, so there’s no need to be so impressed.”

Lennok replied, walking past Aileen.

“If I had intended to kill both the Grand Spell Master and the Seventh Apostle, it would have taken more time. It was an obvious outcome, as merely dropping them from the Megiddo was akin to a victory for us.”

“You’re not saying it was impossible.”

“If you review the battle, you’ll understand easily enough.”

Ignoring Aileen, who shrugged, Lennok continued.

“The Yeonri Spell Master and Lariata Armush. Even when their Root Mindscapes ran wild and their hierarchy shattered, they didn’t give up. Instead, they constantly pressured me, trying to gauge my reactions and intentions.”

“……”

“They had extra lives, yet they didn’t choose suicide, nor did they flee or surrender, but resisted… Doesn’t it seem like they were ‘waiting’ for me to kill them directly?”

“That’s…”

“Although I couldn’t see their specific abilities as our Domains canceled each other out, I could vaguely sense that they were inducing it…”

Lennok’s gaze deepened.

“So I just didn’t want to do what they wanted.”

“……Why does the conclusion suddenly jump to that after a good start?”

“Ultimately, once I succeeded in summoning the Megiddo, there was no way for me to lose, so I could choose either path. I was a bit lucky.”

If only one of the Grand Spell Master or the Seventh Apostle had arrived at the entrance of the Demonic Realm, things wouldn’t have resolved so easily.

They would almost certainly have read the precursor to the Megiddo’s summoning, noticed him, or exerted full force to suppress him.

Because the two super-powerful figures of the Order Alliance and the Guido Cult were fighting to the death, Lennok was able to summon the Megiddo relatively safely.

“The Sun Ship is a summon that inherently grants solar-related field effects just by its existence. During its summoning time, it gains powerful enhancements and corrects all processes related to flame-heat magic. So, like this, right now…”

Shuuuuu—

Lennok gazed down at the gigantic Dead Flowers with their buds wide open beneath the Sun Ship and said.

“Even with these death-feeding flowers before us, we can enter the deepest part of the Demonic Realm immediately without separate preparation.”

“……”

With the Megiddo’s light shining down into the Demonic Realm, no flora or fauna, including the Dead Flowers, reacted to them.

The pioneer ship’s radiance, substituting for the sun, temporarily turned the Demonic Realm’s interior into day, advancing unhindered.

Now, they bypassed all sorts of treacherous areas that would originally require time-consuming exploration, like those undertaken by the Order Alliance and the Guido Cult, heading straight for the core.

It would be impossible to access the deepest part of the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors so easily if not for this moment.

When an opportunity arose, they had to seize it and achieve results at once.

“Let’s go.”

Woo-woo-woo-woong!!!!

As mana surged, the Sun Ship accelerated, instantly leaping over the colossal Dead Flowers spread out below.

The pioneer ship, floating through the acrid, thick flower mist, pierced the murky, hollow atmosphere and sped straight through the Demonic Realm.

Immediately after, a boundless field of Dead Flowers, thousands of meters in diameter, unfolded beneath the Sun Ship.

Paaaaaah!!!!!

“……”

A bizarre sight: enormous Dead Flowers, hundreds of meters in size, densely covering the vast horizon.

Thousands of black flowers grew tangled within the Demonic Realm, overlapping each other and writhing hideously.

It was a Garden of Death so repulsive it momentarily suffocated even Lennok, who had mentally prepared himself.

“The Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors is a hell created based on the Imperial Palace’s mausoleum. This was once a national cemetery where soldiers and heroes who sacrificed their lives for Ars Nova were interred long ago.”

Aileen murmured, looking down at the colossal, slowly writhing Dead Flower petals, like a whale.

“Tombstones inscribed with the names of great generals stood on all four sides, and the area always glowed white with the white roses that bloomed here. But now…”

“……”

Aileen’s expression, as she gazed down at her corrupted homeland, was clouded with faint regret and hatred.

“After all this time, returning here, I finally understood what I needed to live for.”

Aileen murmured.

“The Emperor who left the Empire and the three missing Grand Dukes… why did they destroy Ars Nova? I want to reverse everything before the end comes.”

“……Is that so.”

“Martinez. If you want to confirm what legacy remains in Ars Nova… I…”

Thwack!!

At that moment, Lennok reached out and firmly gripped Aileen’s shoulder.

Before Aileen could react, Lennok surged with mana, pinning her body to the floor.

A jet-black beam, moving beyond the speed of perception, pierced the spot where Aileen had stood and shot upwards.

KWA-AAAAANG!!!!!

“……!!!!!”

“Below us.”

A powerful distortion, twisting and warping the surrounding space.

A chilling aura of death that even changed Aileen’s complexion, despite her long experience exploring the Demonic Realm.

One of the gigantic black flowers that bloomed beneath the Sun Ship had opened its bud wide, aiming at them.

“The Dead Flower recognized our presence and attacked.”

Lennok, confirming the black death energy surging from the center of the flower, said.

“It’s concentrating its death energy and firing it as a beam cannon. It’s fast. Getting hit properly even once would be dangerous.”

“That’s impossible…!!”

Aileen exclaimed with a look of shock.

“Dead Flowers feed on death, but they don’t directly attack living beings. They’ve never reacted like this before…!!!”

“You said there was a major upheaval in the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors, and the internal environment changed drastically.”

Lennok replied, getting to his feet.

“It wouldn’t be strange if, during that process, the Dead Flowers blooming in the deepest part of the Demonic Realm transformed into plant weapons that intercept intruders, would it?”

“……!!!”

Ever since he received the information that Kaiser had revived in the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors by taking Ethan Bajour’s body.

Ever since he heard that a colossal change had occurred in the Demonic Realm because of it, he had vaguely suspected.

If something had awakened in the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors due to Kaiser’s resurrection, and if all the Demonic Realm’s environment had changed to reject intruders because of it.

“Among the Dead Flowers blooming in the field, there are a few that, by their very existence, manifest ‘spacetime distortion.’ That’s why the Dead Flowers not touched by the Sun Ship’s light awakened and reacted to us.”

Lennok quickly surveyed the flower field, grasping the situation, and said.

“It seems that the fully bloomed flowers among the Dead Flowers are acting as a kind of distortion point, which means the Distortion Field covering this Demonic Realm isn’t just in one place, but—”

Kiiiiiiiiiiiing…!!!!!

At that moment, other Dead Flowers blooming beneath the Sun Ship simultaneously opened their buds wide.

As if to converge and spew out the death energy they had absorbed and condensed through their roots, they all turned their heads like sunflowers gazing at the sun.

Hundreds of thick beams of death energy shot up into the sky, heading for the Sun Ship.

Kwa-gua-gua-gua-gua-gua-gua!!!!!

The beams of death energy, striking the underside of the battleship, consumed the Sun Ship’s flames and exploded.

The colossal body of the Megiddo, which had been steadfast even against the clash of the Grand Spell Master and the Seventh Apostle, swayed slightly, but Lennok only pulled more mana.

“If it rejects intrusion so fiercely, it must be hiding something equally important…”

Click!!

The sound of a trigger being pulled echoed from inside the Sun Ship, and Lennok raised his gaze.

“Since we’ve come this far, I’ll have to check it myself.”

“Ugh…!!!”

KWA-AAAAANG!!!!

At that moment, the Sun Ship, carrying Lennok and Aileen, emitted powerful flames and accelerated explosively.

The heavy pressure was enough to take Aileen’s breath away, as she lay prone on the ship’s floor, following Lennok’s hand.

Instantly shedding the beams fired from the ground, the colossal Sun Ship plunged deep into the Demonic Realm’s interior, thick with pollen.

Immediately, the light of death energy, its trajectory momentarily altered, began to curve and chase the Sun Ship from the distant sky.

A storm of death energy, coiling around the red Sun Ship’s light like orbiting it from behind, pursued relentlessly.

Kwa-gua-gua-gua-gua-gua-gua!!!!!

“It’s detecting our life force and chasing us…!!!”

Aileen, still prone on the floor, gasped for breath and gritted her teeth.

“It’s sensing and latching onto two opposing properties like magnets, so there’s no way to shake it off…!!!”

“No.”

Kiiii-eek!!!

As Lennok raised his hand, the colossal body of the Sun Ship spun sharply in place and halted.

Unable to overcome the inertia, the Sun Ship slid diagonally, and the pursuing beams missed, striking the ground.

Per-beo-beo-beong!!!!

An acrid explosion erupted as death energy struck the flower field full of Dead Flowers.

Other Dead Flowers, which had not yet attacked, greedily began to devour the surging death energy.

Just as the Sun Ship was about to surge further, past the Dead Flower field, to exploit that opening.

Piercing through the thick flower mist, a house-sized colossal spear struck squarely onto the Sun Ship.

“……!!!”

KWA-AAAAANG!!!!

Two colossal statues, hundreds of meters in length, stood guarding the vast flower field, their luminous eyes fixed on the Sun Ship.

Their appearance was as majestic as ancient generals, and even the massive crescent blades in their hands were covered in grotesque vines and petals.

Between the vines covering the colossal statues, eyeballs, grown like fruits, glared at Lennok with bloodshot pupils.

Click, click…!!

The first trace of civilization to appear within the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors, which had been filled only with natural features.

Realizing this, Lennok instinctively pushed his intuition to its limit, glaring at the back of the colossal statues.

At the moment he peered through the spacetime within the Demonic Realm, beyond its limits, using transcendent spiritual presence and consciousness.

Lennok finally saw the true form of the ‘mausoleum’ located at the deepest part of the Demonic Realm.

“That’s…”

Whaaa-aak!!!

At the edge of the flower field, densely covered with Dead Flowers, stood a structure resembling a temple carved from colossal rock.

A vast national cemetery, once carved from pristine white marble, with a dignified and elegant appearance befitting the name ‘mausoleum.’

But now, it was discolored black, covered in black flowers and vines, adorned with dangling dead human corpses and grotesque eyeballs.

One of the central institutions of the Ars Nova Imperial Palace, the corrupted mausoleum that formed the foundation of the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors.

The secret place where the corpse of the dead Imperial Grand General, who dominated the Demonic Realm, was enshrined.

“Let’s go.”

Kwoooo!!!

Per-beo-beo-beong!!!!

Taking the volley of death energy pouring from behind, he ignited the speed of the Sun Ship, which swayed as if about to fall.

He flipped and spun the Sun Ship, avoiding the crescent blade slashes that came almost simultaneously from both sides.

Accelerating the hull like an aerial acrobat, avoiding the beams of death energy, he pressed onward.

It must be beyond this point.

The secret place hidden in the deepest part of the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors. The corrupted central institution of the Imperial Palace, the origin of the Demonic Realm.

Twisting its trajectory as if sliding the ship over the haft of a crescent blade, just as it finally entered the airspace above the mausoleum—

Jjeo-eooooong!!!!

“…….!!!”

An invisible, intangible veil spread out, blocking the colossal Sun Ship in its tracks.

Something that stopped the Sun Ship, which had shattered through all the Demonic Realm’s checkpoints and gates like toys.

The moment Lennok suddenly raised his gaze, realizing that it resembled the [Shadow of the Star] that shrouded the entire Central Front.

[Planetary Orbit Departure Confirmed]

[Demonic Realm Exploration Vessel Course Reached]

[Exploration Concluded]

KWA-AAAAANG!!!!

The Sun Ship carrying Lennok and Aileen began to be unsummoned, engulfed in hot flames.

Upon hitting the veil, it fell, crashing to the ground and setting the surrounding jungle ablaze.

The impact flung Aileen from the ship, sending her violently tumbling through the Demonic Realm’s jungle.

“Gah…!!!”

Crash! Crash!!

She repeatedly slammed into bushes and trees with body-shattering impacts.

After digging the gunblade in her hand into the ground and sliding dozens of meters to finally slow down.

Aileen then realized they had crashed in the middle of a boundless field of Dead Flowers.

“Ah…”

KWA-AAAAANG!!!!!

The overwhelming spectacle of flames from the Megiddo’s colossal ship falling from the sky like meteors.

The surrounding Dead Flowers, perceiving the sunlight falling from all directions, were closing their buds.

Lennok’s voice came from behind Aileen, who watched with a frown.

“The ship was unsummoned because the course guidance function was disengaged.”

“……Martinez.”

Lennok, who walked out from between the half-burnt, broken tree trunks, said.

The flower field, blurred by falling flames, was brightly lit. Lennok’s eyes narrowed as he looked up at the flickering veil amidst the light.

“A [Shadow of the Star] similar to the one enveloping the Central Front exists around the mausoleum. Is that why we couldn’t directly enter the mausoleum’s airspace…”

The Sun Ship was a summoned entity created by processing the core of the Level 9 bio-battleship Megiddo, also known as the Outer Beast Giant Ship and Immortal Body.

Merely drawing out some of its performance allowed them to reach the deepest part of the Demonic Realm at once, but the course ended at the mausoleum, and the guidance function terminated.

Even after becoming a stage for the clash of a Grand Spell Master and an Apostle, it had endured the harsh environment of the Demonic Realm and the interception of the Dead Flowers with its hull intact.

Its flagship performance wasn’t damaged, but since it was unsummoned, it would take time to summon it again.

“If the [Shadow of the Star] spread across the entire Central Front merely existed around the mausoleum, we wouldn’t have been able to even approach it like this.”

Aileen, who had struggled to her feet, grasping her blade, asked.

“Isn’t there some other factor that interfered with the ship’s entry?”

“Before the Sun Ship was unsummoned, a message indicated it had departed from its planetary orbit.”

Lennok replied, gazing at the mausoleum’s distant scenery, faintly visible beyond the shimmering veil.

“That, in turn, must mean that the spacetime where that mausoleum exists is ‘outside’ the planet’s orbit.”

“……That’s.”

“My conjecture is that the place where the mausoleum exists is not reality, but an alternate realm… It must already belong to a different dimension, not the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors.”

Lennok stroked his chin, seeing Aileen speechless.

“Because it exists in a spacetime different from the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors, we couldn’t approach the mausoleum with just our current Demonic Realm exploration course and ship.”

“The influence of the great upheaval, then.”

Aileen said with a stiff expression.

“If the mausoleum’s spacetime itself has been subsumed into an alternate dimension, it’s understandable that our exploration methods wouldn’t work. But…”

If the entire Grand General’s mausoleum had become an alternate realm, outside of reality, how grotesquely corrupted must its interior be?

It was a result so difficult to accept that even Aileen, who had long explored the Central Front, found it hard to imagine its implications.

After deep thought, Aileen spoke decisively.

“……Let’s move. Since entering the mausoleum via the Sun Ship failed, we need to find a way to endure inside the Demonic Realm. From here, I’ll guide you again.”

They had entered the deepest part of the Demonic Realm at super-high speed, but were ultimately stopped, unable to enter the Grand General’s mausoleum.

If the mausoleum’s spacetime itself existed in a separate alternate dimension from the Demonic Realm, they had to change their plan from here.

At the very least, Aileen could buy them enough time to endure in the deepest part of the Demonic Realm and find a way.

But Lennok was still lost in thought, even after hearing Aileen’s proposal.

“No, failure… I’m not sure if this result should be called a failure.”

“Huh?”

“The Sun Ship didn’t fail to enter the mausoleum and get unsummoned. It merely completed its function and temporarily stopped, arriving at the embedded exploration course simultaneously with departing planetary orbit.”

Lennok said this, gazing around thoughtfully.

“The Sun Ship’s exploration course was based on the information in the Demonic Realm Travelogue. If the course ended here, it could mean that this vicinity was the last place the author of the travelogue visited.”

“No way…”

The last place Ethan Bajour, the author of the Demonic Realm Travelogue and the Marshal of Deadrise, visited in the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors.

As Aileen paused, realizing the meaning of his words, Lennok turned.

If the Sun Ship didn’t stop simply because it failed to enter the mausoleum, but because there was a more crucial causality here that caused the course to end.

“For now, as you said, we should start by looking around.”

Lennok said, gazing at the Garden of Death densely grown everywhere.

“The secret place where Ethan Bajour revived in the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors… might be somewhere nearby.”

“I have a good way to handle that part.”

“……!!!”

Click!!

As soon as Aileen heard the unfamiliar voice, she grabbed the gunblade’s magazine and spun around.

She rested the blade on one arm and aimed the barrel in the direction of the voice with lightning speed.

In the thoroughly corrupted flower field stood a middle-aged man with a bushy beard.

He held a complexly modified shotgun in both hands, looking at them with a relaxed posture.

“The way to enter the mausoleum isn’t what you think it is. More precisely, that alone won’t work.”

“Wait, you are—”

“But it’s also true that among those who entered the Demonic Realm, you two arrived here the fastest.”

As Aileen paused, recognizing his face, the man grinned.

“I’m Arthur Mason, a mercenary. I’ll tell you how to get into the mausoleum. In return, we need to make a deal.”

“A deal?”

“I’m looking for a missing person, commissioned by someone. It’s important whether you know her or not.”

Click!!

Arthur, having reloaded his shotgun, stared intently at Lennok and asked.

“Maiya Lonsdale. Have you ever heard that name?”