Chapter 1304: The Grand General’s Mausoleum (2)
Whoosh!!!
Lennok and Maiya stood in opposition, separated by the stark white, frozen corridor.
Short black bob. The Enforcer’s form, a black flower blooming on her face, gripping a broken short sword.
Only her vacant expression, lips tightly sealed, proved that she had been irrevocably consumed.
The air, sharply heated within the frigid cold. Corpses lay strewn across the Mausoleum floor, severed at their feet.
Exhaling white vapor, Lennok slowly twitched his fingers.
‘If the distance becomes too great, it’s hard to read causality. To use it, I need to finish this in close combat.’
The Corrupted Golden Rule was the ability to read causality in reverse, perceiving the Severed Plane of Causality.
As it was a completely new sensation he hadn’t known before, it was perceived by overlaying and manifesting itself over Lennok’s five senses.
Existing within Lennok’s inner self, it had the advantage of being usable without revealing his identity, much like the Black God Demonic Art.
However, now that he wasn’t accustomed to wielding the Quasi-Authority, it became difficult to accurately read the Severed Plane of Causality if the distance grew too far.
Just as he had shattered Maiya’s initial strike earlier, he wouldn’t be able to properly use the Quasi-Authority without close-range contact.
But as Lennok looked at Maiya’s face, he was also thinking of something else.
‘Outwardly, it’s undeniably the Enforcer herself. But…’
Maiya Lonsdale was one of the few superhumans Lennok had met under all three of his identities.
As Cheonbeon in the Hanghasa Labyrinth. As Victor in Pandemonium, and as Adamant Thunder in Machina and Anathema’s Temple.
Thus, Lennok clearly remembered her appearance, presence, and mana pattern.
Outstanding skill that completely overwhelmed other superhumans. Unclouded judgment even after losing reason. Mana patterns and life reactions, including the Miniature Universe of penetration.
All of it proclaimed that the corpse standing before him was the Enforcer herself. Yet—
‘Maiya Lonsdale… Did she really fail and become stuck here?’
He knew how strong Maiya’s obsession and vengeful spirit were, wanting to reverse the failure of the Ascension Gate even in death.
He knew how desperate her long-held wish was, as she had bowed her head to Pandemonium, setting aside her Enforcer’s honor, status, belief, and pride.
Remembering that Maiya’s desire was particularly fierce among the superhumans Lennok knew, he couldn’t accept that the outcome of that vengeful spirit was merely this.
A rare situation where Lennok’s intuition pointed to a different conclusion, separate from his intellect.
“—”
Maiya also turned her black-flowered face and stared intently at Lennok.
Since they had met as Cheonbeon in the Hanghasa Labyrinth, this face would surely remain in Maiya’s memory as well.
But Maiya showed no reaction even as she faced Lennok.
Instead, she merely cast aside the short sword, broken by Lennok’s single counterattack, and began to move.
“As an Enforcer, it would be difficult to fight without a weapon.”
Lennok tilted his head.
“Has her habit from life changed after being consumed by the Parasitic Flower? Or is it—”
Crunch!
Maiya’s arm pierced the belly of a corpse hanging upside down on the corridor wall.
Within her hand, retrieved by digging through viscous organs, lay a jet-black glowing blade.
As she gripped the sword with her left hand and drew it in one swift motion, Maiya’s presence began to sharpen dramatically.
Facing the Enforcer’s aura, which was transforming as if becoming one with her sword, Lennok gave a bitter smile.
“She wasn’t just skilled with one weapon, then. In a way, I suppose it’s obvious…”
Vwoooom…!!!
A solidified white will-thought vibrated and trembled along the sword.
The sight of mana and will-thought flowing and radiating along the blade was as vivid as if it were wreathed in Sword Aura.
Watching Maiya’s figure approach from beyond the frozen corridor, Lennok slowly cracked his neck.
‘I wonder how much harder she’ll be to face compared to last time.’
The last time he had fought Maiya Lonsdale was when he recovered the gauntlet as Adamant Thunder in Anathema’s Temple.
Even then, Maiya’s skill had reached an astonishing level, but it wasn’t to the extent that Lennok couldn’t contend with her at all.
However, unlike that time, his opponent now retained all her techniques from life, but without the limitations of stamina and vitality.
She was a living weapon, regenerating most injuries, unleashing Mindscape Techniques, and constantly operating at full power.
Crack, crackle!!!
He simultaneously layered the Jeongryun Barrier and Eruption Barrier over his skin, protecting his bones and muscles and wrapping his joints.
The Black God Demonic Art’s vengeful spirit flowed through his veins, explosively replenishing his vitality and combining with his mana.
Each time he cast successive physical enhancements with mana, the sound of bones breaking within Lennok’s body was heard, only to recover instantly.
Lennok slowly lowered his stance, his gaze fixed unblinkingly on Maiya, who held her sword at the ready.
“……”
“—”
Instead of joining the skirmish, he erased Aileen’s presence, moving first in another direction at the crossroads, from his magical perception.
The presence of Guido Cult and Order Alliance superhumans exploded in real-time all around the Mausoleum. He even ignored the lingering spiritual energy of the corpses.
He measured the timing, observing the moment Maiya’s will-thought-laden sword slowly fell, splitting his consciousness dozens of times per second.
Dozens of meters away, each time Maiya’s movements divided and ceased, her body accelerated beyond space.
Three streaks of light converged before Lennok’s heart, piercing his solar plexus with transcendent penetrative power.
[Eight Vacuums]
[Single Principle Pierce]
Fwooom!!!
Lennok’s body was instantly pierced diagonally through the chest from below, with no time to react.
Unable to withstand the force, Lennok was pushed back, crashing into the wall and emitting a powerful shockwave.
The moment he was impaled by the will-thought-shrouded blade, all the surrounding ice shattered, revealing the space beyond the wall.
Boom!!!
Lennok, head bowed, was struck by falling ice fragments, while Maiya’s black flower writhed, twisting her blade.
But Lennok, his heart impaled by the blade, raised his hand and abruptly grabbed Maiya’s wrist.
“Blocking a Miniature Universe with such powerful penetration head-on is exhausting in many ways.”
“—”
“But no matter how fast the attack… if I don’t miss its starting point, I can seize the timing.”
Crackle…!!
Lennok slowly raised his gaze, his face frozen solid, beginning to crack slightly.
“Taking it directly, I understand clearly now.”
Lennok, exhaling cold breath, smiled.
“That way, you won’t be my match.”
Shatter!!
Lennok’s ice-transformed body shattered into fragments, covering Maiya along with pieces of the frozen wall.
The ice fragments pieced together, instantly forming a prison trapping the Enforcer, and Lennok, gripping the golden melody, unleashed a torrent of blazing flames.
[Combustion Armament]
Fire-heat magic that compressed flames and detonated them at point-blank range, along with the ice prison.
But Maiya, who was holding her sword inside the prison, could not defend against that attack.
Even though she displayed the skill to twist her blade sideways, absorb the Combustion Armament’s flames, and completely nullify their power by deflecting them.
Lennok’s flames forcefully pierced through all of Maiya’s attempted defenses and techniques, embedding themselves deep within her body.
Bwoooooooom!!!!!
“—!!!!”
An unrealistic, indefensible strike that rendered all control of power, technique, and the timing and gaps of offense and defense meaningless.
The blade held by the Enforcer shattered, and her upper body exploded brutally in the Combustion Armament’s flames.
Boom!! Bangbangbang!!!!
The impact of the Combustion Armament successively shattered and burst open the frozen Mausoleum walls and floor.
As the underground corridor walls were successively penetrated and pushed back, an open cavernous landscape unfolded.
Thousands of burial chambers spread out around a colossal gate engraved with somber carvings, casting shadows.
Thousands of cramped, single-person rooms were tightly packed into the wide cavern.
Amidst them, priests of the Guido Cult fought, treading on the madly surging and rampaging corpses.
“Evan Martinez!!!”
“You’re alive, Apostle-Slayer…!!!”
Clang!!
Ignoring the priests who registered them with a deafening crash, Lennok and Maiya slid onto the gate.
The Enforcer, having lost her weapon in a single clash, regenerated her body, turned, and reached out towards the Rectification Knights fighting below.
Whoosh!!
“Gah!!”
“Damn it—!!”
With a mere gesture, she slit the throats of the knights fighting the swarming corpses and seized their weapons.
Maiya’s body, snatching the sword from a lifeless Rectification Knight, once again clashed with Lennok at incredible speed.
Boom!!! Rattlerattle!!!
Each time Lennok’s spellcraft exploded, Maiya’s weapon shattered, and her body was crushed.
Each time, she killed another priest or knight, snatched their weapon, and continued her offense and defense in real-time with an expert’s skill.
Shockwaves exploded over the gate. In their center, Lennok and Maiya bounced off each other at tremendous speed, clashing.
[Hundred Character Fire]
[Ice Lotus Conjunction]
Whoosh!!
Cracklecrack!!!
As the blazing capital letters of flame fell upon Maiya’s body, they simultaneously froze pure white.
The cold air that spread along the walls shattered, scattering fragments everywhere, then immediately transformed back into flames.
Descending pillars of flame froze solid, reflecting Lennok’s and Maiya’s faces like mirrors.
The horns of ice surging from below were simultaneously cut down by sword strikes and transformed into exploding flames.
Ice and fire danced wildly, trampling and fiercely pressing down on the Enforcer’s body.
Craaash!!!!
Crackle, crackle…!!!!
A blazing fireball transformed into cold ice, crushing Maiya’s shoulder along with her sword blade.
Before the freezing cold could penetrate her shoulder, it became searing heat within her body, incinerating her flesh.
Before the Parasitic Flower could regenerate her damaged flesh, the heat transformed back into cold, chilling her to the bone, then once more into flames, burning her internal organs.
In a fleeting moment, he switched between ice and fire dozens of times, relentlessly assailing the Enforcer without giving her time to react to a single attribute.
Whoooosh!!!
Red and blue radiance erupted above the gate, spreading out like wings around Lennok and rotating.
A sight so beautiful that even the priests fighting the pouring corpses were momentarily captivated.
“What, a mere magic spell—”
“How can an infidel wield such spellcraft…!!”
“—”
[Eight Vacuums]
[Single Principle Pierce]
Unable to endure, Maiya once again wrapped her will-thought around herself and activated her Miniature Universe.
She pierced through the barrage of internal burning and freezing with one strike, and then penetrated Lennok beyond it.
Crackling!!!!
But the Lennok pierced by the Miniature Universe, just like before, shattered into a block of ice.
From behind the scattering ice fragments, Lennok emerged, gripping a brilliant blue, shimmering Fire-Flame Greatbow.
“Hellfire Illusion Palace: Activation.”
“—!!!”
A brief lull that followed the indiscriminate use of powerful techniques.
At that moment, the Nether-Dimensional Flame, which had been waiting, ignored the Enforcer’s defense and pierced her heart.
Immediately afterward, the Hellfire erupted, forcibly causing Maiya’s internal Miniature Universe to run wild.
Boom!!! Bangbangbang!!!
Maiya’s right arm exploded as if detonating, and the fibrous tissue that had replaced her muscles scattered.
Mana and will-thought leaked between her shoulder and knee, tearing the petals that had replaced her skin and exposing the roots of the Parasitic Flower.
Maiya’s Miniature Universe [Eight Vacuums] was a power that maximized penetration, piercing and shattering space itself.
The Miniature Universe, only achievable through extremely precise techniques, ran wild, devouring Maiya’s body.
Boom! Boom!!
The Enforcer’s wretched form, collapsing with holes as if her entire body had been cut and stabbed.
Watching her sway precariously as if dancing, Lennok caressed the golden melody.
“The Quasi-Authority’s efficiency is excessively good, unexpectedly. Does merely disrupting the balance of offense and defense yield this much power?”
Most of what seemed like a fierce engagement was merely Lennok unilaterally shattering Maiya’s defenses and landing critical blows.
Maiya, too, had continuously swapped weapons and tried to resist, but once she could no longer directly engage in offense and defense, her options inevitably diminished.
The mere ability to ignore and shatter an opponent’s defense head-on meant the fight itself couldn’t be established, and he couldn’t lose the strategic battle.
If Maiya’s judgment or reason were still alive, she might have tried to respond differently—
“Once her brain was consumed by the Parasitic Flower, such varied judgment would be impossible.”
Lennok, gripping the golden melody, extended his hand.
“It’s almost over.”
“—Ah!!”
Uttering an incomprehensible sound, Maiya raised her gaze, and as the petals of the Parasitic Flower trembled, her crushed pupils were revealed.
With eyes that couldn’t even properly focus, she looked at Lennok, gathering her remaining mana, and charged forward.
At the peak of her extreme acceleration, she lunged with her blade, aiming for Lennok’s neck this time.
[Eight Vacuums—]
Thwack!!
Lennok, gripping the golden melody, shattered Maiya’s Miniature Universe head-on and lunged forward.
Craaaack!!!!
The moment he pinpointed the Severed Plane of Causality, the ‘worst possible outcome’ for the Enforcer manifested there.
Lennok’s hand, ignoring and shattering Maiya’s offense and defense as if they didn’t exist, easily found her side.
The moment the crumbling Parasitic Flower thrashed its roots wildly towards Lennok as if in a seizure, Lennok finished his incantation.
Ice-Elemental Unique Magic
Property Transformation: Rampant Manifestation
Ice-Stillness Ability
Outer Method
[White Sea]
Craaaaaaaaaash!!!!!
An immense tsunami of ice, freezing the entire gate, crashed into the Mausoleum, sweeping away and erasing everything.
A scale that completely covered and froze the entire high-rise building-sized gate located deep within the Mausoleum’s underground.
The ice, covering the blackened corridors, ceiling, and walls, swiftly painted the vast battlefield pure white.
CRAAAAAASH!!!!!
“Evacuate—!!!”
“Don’t get caught in the Apostle-Slayer’s spellcraft!!”
The Guido Cult priests, who had been watching Lennok’s movements, hurriedly sought higher ground or floated into the air using prayer spellcraft.
An overwhelming scene unfolded, shattering a corner of the Mausoleum into a mass of white ice, and replacing collapsed supports with ice valleys.
In the center of the ice valley, the Enforcer, her entire body frozen pure white, was writhing, completely crushed.
“—Ah.”
Her body, like a broken machine, still tried to stand even after all its organs and muscles had frozen and shattered.
Lennok descended before Maiya, staring at the fallen Enforcer with an expressionless face.
“…Martinez.”
The high-ranking priests, who confirmed the battle’s outcome a step too late, looked at Lennok with stiff expressions.
Each individual priest was a bishop-level strongman, receiving faith as a high-ranking cleric anywhere on the continent.
But even the fanatical priests, watching the current battle, found themselves unable to easily reveal their hostility.
The bishop leading the priests who had entered the Mausoleum stammered, asking.
“Did you, finally… kill Machina’s Enforcer?”
“No.”
Lennok said with an expressionless face.
Lennok, massaging his wrist with one hand and clenching and unclenching his fingers, said.
“She was already dead when I arrived at the Mausoleum. I merely disposed of the corpse now.”
“……”
“Maiya Lonsdale. I thought she died exploring the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors, leaving only her corpse…”
Lennok took a slow step and muttered.
“In the end, this was Maiya herself, yet not herself.”
“What?”
The bishop flinched.
“I don’t understand what you’re saying. Are you claiming this Enforcer is a fake? Everyone witnessed the massacre by this murderer.”
Taking the form of Maiya Lonsdale, wielding the Enforcer’s techniques, and even using her unique Miniature Universe.
How could such a being, possessing unrealistic strength, not be Maiya herself?
Even if the Mausoleum was a hell governed by the laws of another dimension, ‘cloning’ and using a Transcendent like Maiya was absurd.
If Maiya Lonsdale’s abilities could be copied and used with just a single Parasitic Flower, they should have been annihilated before even setting foot in this Mausoleum.
That’s why the Transcendent beings of the Order Alliance and the Guido Cult had put so much effort into facing and neutralizing the Enforcer—
“She lost her reason, but the techniques and experience etched into her body remained. That’s why I didn’t suspect it at first.”
Lennok said, approaching Maiya.
“But after watching her fight a few times, her ability to respond to specific situations was clearly better than that of the Enforcer I knew.”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying. Not worse, but better…?”
Crack!!
Instead of answering, Lennok stepped on Maiya’s limp left arm and pressed down hard.
Lennok’s gaze sank as he confirmed there were no cuts or cracks on the frozen left arm.
‘There is no injury on her left arm, which should have remained from using Ban-gung’s gauntlet.’
Maiya had forcefully used the gauntlet to recover the Forbidden Armament in Anathema’s Temple, suffering severe injuries to her left arm from the recoil.
However, the Maiya he met again in the Demonic Realm fought and moved as if completely unconcerned by her left arm’s injury.
Since it was a side effect of using a Forbidden Armament crafted from Ban-gung’s bloodline, it wouldn’t have been an injury that would easily heal.
He had doubted it when he first saw her in the Mausoleum, realized it when he faced her a second time, and confirmed it by fighting her directly.
At the very least, the Maiya Lennok knew would never have bothered to hold a sword with an injured left arm.
“You are right, Bishop. If she weren’t the Enforcer herself, possessing such outstanding skill and using a Miniature Universe would be impossible.”
“……”
“But what if this monster isn’t the Enforcer, but was created by implanting a Parasitic Flower into a being infinitely similar to her?”
“Infinitely similar? Who are you referring to?”
“A corpse with similar enough genes to reproduce the Enforcer’s physical information.”
Lennok knelt on one knee, placing his hand on Maiya’s collar, and muttered.
“That would naturally be Maiya Lonsdale’s own blood relative… her kin.”
Click.
A name tag, hidden between the collar, appeared, revealing a blackened name.
Lennok’s eyes, having confirmed the name on the tag, calmly settled.
[Clark A. Lonsdale]
“……”
The name of a high-ranking craftsman from Machina, a city of machines, which he had heard long ago, in the crafting lineage.
Maiya Lonsdale’s blood relative, who was already deceased at that time, was abandoned as a corpse in the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors.
Crumble…!!
At that moment, the Parasitic Flower rooted in Clark’s corpse withered, and his body began to crumble.
The body that formed Maiya’s appearance scattered into dust, revealing faded white bones.
Beside the desolate remains, now only bones, was a left arm, the only part that retained its shape.
Surely, this intact left arm was the only part of Maiya Lonsdale’s true physical information left behind in the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors.
If the genetic information from Maiya’s left arm was overlaid onto Clark Lonsdale’s corpse to create this monster guarding the Mausoleum…
Wouldn’t that be proof that this Demonic Realm wasn’t created by accident, but rather by someone’s malicious intent?
And if Maiya Lonsdale’s reason for heading to the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors was also connected to Clark Lonsdale’s corpse—
“In the end, I won’t know without going directly into the Mausoleum.”
Lennok stood up.
“I need to go meet the Grand General. Where are the others?”
“…Hoo.”
The bishop, who had been panting as he watched Lennok lost in thought, slowly straightened his collar.
“After several investigations, we’ve confirmed that this space is the lowest floor of the Mausoleum. The Grand General’s remains must be interred somewhere beyond that gate.”
“……”
“We sense the Grand General is nearby, but we haven’t pinpointed a definite direction yet. Apostle-Slayer. If you intend to uphold the agreement—”
Rumble…!!!!
At that moment, the entire Mausoleum shook violently, and the air began to grow infinitely heavy.
An intense pressure, as if an enormous presence had descended upon the vicinity, crushing its surroundings.
At that chilling sensation, making it difficult even to breathe, the Guido Cult priests’ faces instantly turned pale.
“Wait, this is…!!!”
“It’s not Lariata Armush or the Order Alliance’s presence. Who is it?!!”
“The worst-case scenario, which we should have considered the moment this monster wasn’t Maiya Lonsdale, has erupted.”
Lennok, having set down Clark’s corpse, turned and said.
“If controlling with an implanted Parasitic Flower doesn’t necessarily require the person’s own corpse, then that case wouldn’t be limited to the Enforcer.”
“What?”
“It means that powerful Transcendent beings who failed to conquer this Demonic Realm in the past… even survivors, could be used if the conditions were right.”
Thumpthumpthumpthump!!!!
Feeling chilling presences approaching at immense speed from both sides, Lennok raised his gaze.
“They’re coming.”
Craaaash!!!!
The murky Mausoleum walls exploded on both sides, shattering as thousands of corpses rained down.
A wave of flesh, faces adorned with Parasitic Flowers, gnashing teeth, tumbling down in a tangled mass.
[Aaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!]
The entire cavern vibrated with the pale shrieks of the corpses interred within the Mausoleum, all of them letting out a collective cry.
Within the sea of corpses that began to fill the cavern, writhing madly, three figures landed upon the frozen gate.
Thud!!
An old man with a hunched back, dressed in the uniform of a Deadrise General.
A colossal Long-lived Being with a horned dragon’s head.
A woman with dull golden hair neatly tied back.
All three had black Parasitic Flowers blooming on their faces, their eyes unseen.
“……”
A former General of the Legion. Dragon-kind from Kundara. Their origins could be guessed at a glance.
Beings who had either failed in conquering the Demonic Realm and died, or, like Maiya Lonsdale, had parts of their bodies stolen and their abilities exploited.
But Lennok’s gaze was fixed not on the first two Transcendent beings, but on the woman who appeared last.
“…No way.”
“It’s her…!!!”
“That’s impossible. I heard she was definitely alive…!!”
Even the Guido Cult priests’ faces turned pale and their hands trembled the moment they saw the last woman.
“Everyone, retreat as far as possible from the gate!!”
“Even slight contact will result in annihilation. Finish your prayers and apply your blessings!!”
They seemed to fear the woman standing on the gate more than they guarded against or hated Lennok.
This implied that the woman’s appearance and abilities were incomparably well-known on the Central Front.
And Lennok, too, easily remembered her identity the moment he saw her.
One of the Ten Seats of the Ability Awakening Warband he had met after the Conjunction Spell Master’s task at the First Gate.
A transcendent psychic who was said to have returned alive after losing her unit and failing to conquer the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors.
Ability Awakening Warband, Second Seat. Eredis Zabelin.
The Transcendent, known as the Warband’s strongest spear, stood within the Mausoleum, consumed by a Parasitic Flower in the same manner as Maiya.
“I didn’t expect things to go smoothly inside the Mausoleum.”
But unlike the Guido Cult priests who recoiled in horror, Lennok massaged his shoulder and turned his head.
He knew that the moment he stood before the Grand General’s Mausoleum, monsters even more formidable than any he had faced so far might appear.
To avoid expending too much power in the process, he had allied with the Order Alliance and the Guido Cult, but with the destination before him, battle was inevitable.
The time for relying on complex strategies or cunning plans to overcome obstacles was over.
At this moment, having acquired the Corrupted Golden Rule and adjusted his sense of wielding the Quasi-Authority while facing Maiya.
If it had to be done, now was the most suitable time.
“From now on, I’ll have to break through with sheer force.”