Chapter 1320: The Grand General’s Mausoleum (18)
A field of endless ash stretched to the horizon.
The wizard stood atop that hill, an eclipse blooming above his head.
Domain Expansion.
Root Mindscape Actualization.
[Black Sun’s Fall]
KWA-GWAA-GWAA-GWAA-GWAA-GWAA-GWAA-GWAA-GWAA!!!!!!!
The sky blackened in the wake of the eclipse.
Following the blackened sky, even the grey-white ash spread across the ground turned black.
Amidst a landscape where earth and sky turned to black ash, the Grand General raised his gaze.
“Domain Expansion. Is this the Root Mindscape of a Seeker who has reached the pinnacle of Flame-Heat Unique Magic?”
A faint admiration mixed in the Transcendent’s gaze as he scattered crimson-black light and looked up at the sky.
“He isn’t burning something… rather, he’s forcefully bringing about the already ‘burned’ result and imposing it on spacetime. Has he achieved the miracle of ignoring the preheating process through that?”
The Black Sun’s Fall Domain was the branching point of the Flame-Heat system, consuming flames to their limit to reduce everything to ash.
It brought forth a moment that Lennok might have reached someday, a moment when he attained the peak of Flame-Heat magic and grasped ninefold transcendence.
By deploying Black Sun’s Fall, the spell effect Lennok gained was the miracle of completely disregarding Flame-Heat magic’s preheating and instantly drawing out results.
The desired moment was already burning. The moment it was perceived, it scattered as ash.
A magnificent sight, so grand that even the madness that had gained sentience by feeding on the Outer Sea couldn’t help but marvel.
However, the Grand General’s madness, as he gazed at Lennok standing amidst the ashes, held a faint sneer.
“Do you seek to burn even time itself, to skip the process and seize the result? Yet, this power is far too potent for a mere mortal’s heart to contain.”
“……”
“If you’ve contained such a miracle within a Domain, merely sustaining and maintaining it will gnaw at your soul… How long do you truly think you can endure?”
The maddened nature of the Grand General was that of a slaughterer who had cut down countless Transcendent beings during the Unification War.
His discernment in perceiving a Transcendent’s inner world and abilities, and his intuition in gauging the output and versatility of such a miracle, had reached their apex.
He instinctively knew that the domain of Black Sun’s Fall had reached a level impermissible to humans, a level the spellcaster himself could not long endure.
He too must vaguely sense the uncontrollable power of Black Sun’s Fall, which grew stronger with each training and development of Flame-Heat Magic.
“Think what you will, Grand General.”
But Lennok, knowing this, took a step forward without hesitation.
“Because after that rotten head of yours fills with ash, there won’t even be room for such thoughts.”
“Ah, is that so?”
The maddened general gave a chilling laugh and nodded.
“That’s a decent enough answer to make me want to cleave your neck off.”
Crunch, he stepped on the overflowing black ash, scattering flames as he walked forward.
The Grand General of Brilliance, wielding the Black Shredder, cocked his head and faced Lennok.
His skin was tattered and torn from the prolonged draining of his True Blood. His abdomen ripped open, organs lost from his body.
Yet, the presence emanating from the battered corpse held an awe-inspiring, domineering power.
Lennok slowly exhaled as he looked at the Grand General’s True Body, facing him on the field of ashes.
‘Though his body is dead and maddened, he is a Transcendent who reached Level 9… a superhuman who attained the ninth stage in spirit, technique, and body.’
His opponent was one of the six Grand Generals who protected the Nayuta Shrine of the Ars Nova Empire.
In terms of his status in life, he was a superhuman comparable to Jinwa, known as the Whispering Grand General.
Though a quantitative comparison of their powers was impossible now that Jinwa was broken and the maddened general was dead.
Still, there was no need to explain how great a superhuman the maddened general had been in his lifetime.
Considering that Dorye, the Transcendent he faced in Yorta, had only reached Level 9 in body as a vessel for the Pontiff, his spirit never attaining ascension.
The Grand General’s strength must be incomparable to Dorye’s.
Snap!!
Having drunk an Elixir, he continuously burned mana beyond his limits without a single pause.
He amplified the endlessly flowing mana within his body through the Crimson Star System, covering the entire Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors.
He expanded and transformed his own Will-thought and consciousness to the far reaches of the ash field, stretching to the horizon.
The ancient warrior, revered as a great conqueror who spearheaded the Unification War.
The strength of the Grand General of Brilliance, whom he finally faced as an enemy after everything ended—
Stomp.
Beyond their echoing, intersecting gazes, the warrior in broken armor took a step forward.
His disheveled black hair streamed, utterly unfazed by his body burning from the heat.
The maddened general, his entire pupils blackened in a terrifying grin, raised his hand.
The next moment, without any preamble, he was before Lennok.
“……!!!!”
Crunch—
The chilling sensation of his hand, raising goosebumps. The Transcendent’s body was irreversibly broken, his bones permeated with murderous intent.
But the grip of that hand surpassed any laws or numbers of the Material Realm—
In a single move, it shattered Lennok’s gaps and crushed his muscles and bones.
BOOOOOMMM!!!!!
The Grand General grabbed Lennok’s neck with a single gesture, then slammed his limp body down as if discarding him.
Dozens of concentric ripples spread out from the Grand General, sending Lennok’s body flying hundreds of meters away.
Fire pillars erupted one after another as if bombs had fallen, and Lennok, scattered by flames, slid across the ash.
“……!!!!”
Even though he understood it with his mind and read it with his Magical Perception, the preemptive strike landed, transcending Lennok’s own perception.
Despite activating a spell to avoid a direct hit, he felt an overwhelming exhaustion, his energy draining from his entire body.
If he hadn’t used Property Transformation to turn his body into flame to nullify the damage, his head would have burst instantly.
KWA-AAAAAH!!!!
Amidst the scattering ash, the Grand General’s figure rose into the blackened sky.
The Demonic Realm’s debris, submerged beneath the ash, surged up after the Grand General, coiling heavily around the black Shredder and beginning to rotate.
CRUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE!!!!
Fractured and collapsed crust and bedrock beneath the Demonic Realm. Clumps of scorched vegetation and forest, not yet burned away.
The maddened general, having entwined huge debris several tens of meters in size around his Shredder, fixed his gaze on Lennok.
“If you are the Seeker so long awaited in the Imperial Palace, then an attack of this magnitude should be nothing.”
As the conqueror, scattering crimson-black light, lifted his gaze, his arm vanished.
“Come, take this…!!”
KWA-AAAAAAANG!!!!!
A strike, thousands of tons in weight, wrapped in multiple layers of massive debris, fell to the ground like a crescent moon, unleashing a grand explosion.
Giant pillars surged and collapsed one after another on the blackened ash, and spacetime continuously trembled.
Lennok’s figure was pushed back at tremendous speed, scattering hot flames amidst the black ash.
Even as his thoughts were cut off by the excessive impact, Lennok instinctively grasped the Grand General’s ability.
‘Gravity, is it…?!’
The unpredictable strike that instantly crushed the Priestess’s resistance upon his awakening. The unknown ability that brought down the cult’s battleship and hunted down the fleeing priests and knights.
The speed with which he closed the distance, too fast for Lennok to react, and the tyranny of ‘pulling’ the sunken Demonic Realm debris from beneath the ground, wrapping it around his Shredder, and swinging it.
The gravitational pull between objects. Was that the true nature of the Grand General’s Miniature Universe?
SHWA-AAAK!!!
‘He couldn’t directly apply his Miniature Universe to me because of Targeted Resistance. So he pulled himself towards my coordinates.’
Lennok, rising amidst scattered flames, wiped his mouth and fell into thought.
‘If the Miniature Universe isn’t limited to the user, it becomes far more difficult to counter. Just pulling terrain during a fight doubles the area of calculation…’
He had expected a powerful ability befitting an Imperial Grand General, but never thought it would be a Miniature Universe that interfered with gravity itself.
Indeed, with such an ability, he could have been active in the Unification War even while maddened by his 광성.
‘A Transcendent of that caliber might not only forcibly apply gravity to objects but also adjust the strength of existing gravity.’
He could only surmise that the Grand General’s Miniature Universe dealt with gravity; the specific operational principle was still unknown.
Uncertain of the Miniature Universe’s output or the extent of its influence.
“I suppose I’ll have to find out directly by fighting.”
Lennok clasped his hands together, concentrating as he watched the Grand General approach, scattering crimson-black light.
“Summon Sun Ship.”
SHWOOOOOSH!!!!!
A massive, fiery battleship emerged in the sky of the Demonic Realm where the eclipse was occurring.
A colossal battleship, hundreds of meters long, rivaling the Heavenly Flower Myriad Fragrance in sheer scale.
The moment the Sun Ship, summoned for the third time in the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors, began to control the heat flow across the entire area.
In the center of the battlefield, where dazzling bombardments fell, Lennok and the Grand General moved simultaneously and clashed.
[Crimson Eruption]
[Mountain of Corpses, Sea of Flames]
KWA-AAAAAAANG!!!!!
The Grand General slammed the black blade of his Shredder diagonally, raising Demonic Realm debris.
Lennok, coiling waves of overflowing flames around his hands, wielded them like weapons, sweeping across the battlefield.
Corrupted Dead Thoughts and crimson flames distorted, exploding outward on both sides of the two.
Hundreds of meters of crustal fragments, pulled up by the Grand General, surged into a gigantic cliff above the ash.
The ground melted and flowed like lava, and the black sky distorted with the heat, a swirling inferno.
Lennok and the Grand General, their entire bodies alight with flames, furiously exchanged blows at immense speed, driving powerful strikes into each other’s bodies.
KWA-AAAANG!!
DU-DU-DU-DU-DU-DU!!!!!
[Mass Incineration]
[Flame Void]
A house-sized sun, rising behind Lennok, rotated dazzlingly, then plunged into the Grand General’s body as if sucked in.
[Crimson Principle of Color]
[Blazing Scarlet]
Flames piercing the Grand General’s body exploded in a chain, melting his flesh and burning his blood vessels and nerves.
Crimson Star System: Solar Apex
Sixth Star: Devouring Color
[Solar Zenith Principle]
[White Night]
KWA-AAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!
Waves of pure white flames covered the sky of the Demonic Realm, painting the world in a white night.
In the heart of that chaos, Lennok’s bombardment, unleashing flames without any preheating, pushed the Grand General back.
He rotated nine Mana Cores at full power, applying dozens of Property Transformations and forcing thousands of countermeasures.
Using the Corrupted Golden Rule, he saw through the Severed Plane of Causality, bypassing and penetrating the Transcendent’s attempts at offense and defense.
He twisted his body to avoid the Shredder, which coiled and crushed everything, then drove flames into the corpse’s shoulder.
He pressed the Grand General’s body down forcefully onto the ground.
[Karmic Flame]
CRRRRRAAAACK!!!!!!
The sound of the golden armor the Grand General wore shattering.
Lennok, his face pale, gasped for breath, then instinctively gathered mana.
The Grand General’s knee, slamming into his temple as if pulled in, violently threw Lennok’s body sideways.
KWA-AAAANG!!
THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!!!
“……!!!”
“K-HAHAHAHAHAAH!!!! Good!! I would have been disappointed if you weren’t this strong!!!”
Did he use his Miniature Universe to sweep his leg, twisting his body’s central axis to kick him as if pulling?
The Grand General’s face, smeared with black blood, was terrifyingly distorted like a ghost.
Catching Lennok, who bounced back like a toy, in mid-air, the Grand General rolled his eyes and swung the Shredder.
“It’s been a long time since I faced such an opponent after the Unification War. I’ve finally met a match befitting this rotting body!!!”
The black axe blade fell onto Lennok’s abdomen, tearing through shields and defenses like paper.
He stomped one foot, twisting Lennok’s leg backward, then kicked him in the stomach with his knee, sending him flying.
BOOOOOMMM!!!!!
Lennok was kicked at supersonic speed from his spot, bouncing off towards the cliff.
He instantly caught up to Lennok’s figure, grabbed him by the neck, and slammed him into the ground.
A crater several hundred meters in radius formed in the center of the Demonic Realm, shaking as if an earthquake had struck.
Lennok, instantly pinned to the ground in the exact opposite posture, gritted his teeth.
“Kuk…!!”
Operating the Crimson Star System and the Sun Ship simultaneously to maximize mana amplification, and pushing the Black God Demonic Art and Divine Barrier to their limits at this moment.
Even while deploying Black Sun’s Fall and unleashing spells instantly without preheating, the balance was too easily broken with just a slight opening.
He bitterly realized, with this pain alone, what a monster the Transcendent, who had flourished in the central city’s golden age, must have been in his lifetime.
CRASH!!!!
He rotated the Crimson Star System, grinding the cliff below instead of the Grand General.
The burning star vaporized the debris, creating an empty space, and Lennok and the Grand General’s figures fell together.
KWA-GWA-GWA-GWA-GWA-GWA-GWA-GWA!!!!!
He seized the bombardments from the Sun Ship, falling from the black sky, and consecutively slammed them into the Grand General’s body.
He parried the Shredder’s strike, which tore through space, penetrating through the debris continuously erupting and exploding from all directions.
A furious exchange that transcended the balance of offense and defense and strategic calculation, continuously shattering each other’s defenses with spells and strikes.
“OHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!”
The Grand General, his blackened eyes rolled back, roared like a beast, then kicked off the collapsing ground and charged into Lennok.
He chased Lennok’s figure, which was thrown back and forth amidst the bedrock, madly traversing the fiery heart of the Demonic Realm.
BANG!!! THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!!!!
He relentlessly battered Lennok’s body, which was enveloped in thousands of layers of defenses and barriers, pushing forward.
He kicked Lennok with one foot, slamming his body into the canyon’s cliff, causing vast cracks.
For the first time, the Grand General clutched the Shredder with both hands.
Grand Universe: Myriad Crushing Pulls
Mindscape Technique Activation
KWA-WOOOOOSH!!!!!
Space distorted around the axe blade of the Satellite Shredder, and a hollow light coiled around it.
Spacetime cracked and fractured, and fragments of space that broke off violently rotated around the Shredder.
He surrounded it with extreme gravity, coiling the darkness of the Outer Sea, which existed beyond the planet’s atmosphere, adding it to the Shredder’s blade.
Mad Gasp of Will-Thought
Asura’s Martial Echo
The ultimate technique of the Miniature Universe, dragging in the darkness of the cosmos to artificially construct a gravitational field, crushing targets along with spacetime itself.
A technique that had made the Empire’s enemies scream and known its name during the Unification War, now manifested after decades.
The Sun Ship, plummeting from above Lennok’s head, fell at tremendous speed, taking the Grand General’s strike head-on.
CRRRRACKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!
The Sun Ship, a colossal vessel hundreds of meters long, became a shield, receiving the Grand General’s will-thought.
The immense force, unable to withstand it, burst out, shattering the Sun Ship and then exploding the cliff beyond.
KWA-GWA-GWA-GWA-GWA-GWA!!!!
With a massive explosion, the colossal Sun Ship collapsed and crashed from its position.
Behind Lennok, thousands of meters of surging cliff collapsed one after another, releasing a deafening roar.
But the maddened Grand General, even as he was swept away by the shockwave, instinctively sensed something amiss.
‘He deliberately sacrificed the Sun Ship to block my will-thought. Could it be…!!!’
He could have deflected it, but he chose to forcefully endure it head-on, using the Sun Ship as a shield.
Not simply because he couldn’t withstand the Grand General’s powerful Mindscape Technique—
“Compression, initiate.”
Crimson Star System: Solar Apex
First Star: Crimson Shadow
Second Star: Star Palace
Third Star: Convergence
Fourth Star: Six Paths
Fifth Star: Monstrous Flame
Sixth Star: Devouring Color
Seventh Star: Jade Ring
Eighth Star: Tribulation’s Sky
First Star: Crimson Shadow to Eighth Star: Tribulation’s Sky, full power operation.
FLAME-FLAME-FLAME-FLAME-FLAME-FLAME-FLAME-FLAME-FLAME-FLAME!!!
Behind the crashing, shattering Sun Ship, Lennok compressed eight stars into one.
Flames that burned all around rotated along the core of the Crimson Star System, converging towards a single focal point.
He focused the eight stars into a single spacetime, then forcibly compressed them using the Singularity Reactor’s gravity as a core, applying the Property Transformation of nuclear fusion.
The ninth point of attainment, gained by unifying Lennok’s Flame-Heat enlightenment around the most basic secret of compression.
Ninth Star: Demon Subjugation
KWA-HWA-AAAAAAK!!!!!
A black sun, clutched in Lennok’s hand, rotated, spewing out an infinitely dark light.
A bizarre form that didn’t emit light, but rather sucked in and devoured all heat and light from its surroundings.
Lennok, grasping the black sun, burst through the Sun Ship’s debris, closing the distance to the Grand General.
“KHAHAHAHAHAAH!!!! Yes, is this where you make your stand!!!”
The Grand General, raising his Shredder, panted with a furious snort, then countered with the blade of his Shredder.
“COME!!!!! I, this maddened general, will devour your answer!!!!!”
The Transcendent, having lost his reason and gone mad, dragged his dead body, pouring out his madness-steeped inner world to its limit.
The ground around Lennok and the maddened general twisted and crushed in a circle, and vast ripples spread out, pressing down on spacetime.
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!!!!
Within the crushed space, their timelines momentarily warped, and vision distorted.
The eclipse, which had bloomed and enveloped the entire Demonic Realm, shimmered grandly, swaying with the ripples.
As the Shredder’s blade shattered and scattered, the Grand General struck the black sun, sending it soaring high into the sky.
CRACK!!
KWA-AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
Scattering black shockwaves that pressed down on the entire area, the black sun soared above Lennok and the Grand General.
The moment Lennok glanced up at the black star, which failed to reach the Grand General and soared high into the sky.
This time, the broken tip of the Shredder’s blade pierced Lennok’s abdomen, slamming his body into the cliff.
CRUNCH!!!!
“……!!!”
He coiled gravity around the tip of the Shredder’s blade to amplify the power of the strike, and the power to distort and warp space.
Through that, he effortlessly pierced through Lennok’s remaining barriers and defenses, carving into his flesh.
Immediately after using the ninth point of attainment of the Crimson Star System to its limit.
At this moment, Lennok, unable to even use Flame Transformation, convulsed, impaled by the Shredder.
WHOOSH!!!!
A hot wind blew, signaling the end of the short battle.
Lennok, impaled on the cliff edge, his head bowed, placed his hand heavily on the axe blade.
The Grand General’s corpse stared at the blood dripping onto his feet, his distorted face silent.
“A splendid fight, wizard.”
The monster, who had been the Grand General, said, scattering crimson-black light.
“Even during the Unification War, carried out under the Imperial Palace’s command, there were almost no Transcendent beings like you.”
“……Cough.”
“It’s absurd to say, but… you were already a completed warrior.”
CRACK!!
The Grand General, looking down at Lennok, twisted the axe handle of the Shredder and walked forward.
Following his movement, Lennok’s body also stumbled backward, spilling copious amounts of blood.
“But as I said, the power of your Domain is ultimately too strong for you to control. The only ability you used, having deployed such a Domain, was the spell effect that ignored preheating?”
“……”
“You couldn’t even bring out the spell amplification gained through Domain expansion, or even the unique magic that can only be used within the Domain, and it’s already over.”
Kaleidoscope was the power that brought Lennok’s possibilities to bloom as future branching points.
Therefore, the stronger Lennok’s possibilities, the stronger the Domain that became the branching point.
Now, with the ninth star temporarily gained by using the Singularity Reactor’s core as material, Lennok’s Flame-Heat magic was stronger than ever.
Therefore, the output of Black Sun’s Fall, which Lennok deployed, had already far surpassed the limits he could control.
Heavenly Conjunction Fall, Non-Divine Descent.
Now that victory and defeat were decided, without even being able to use Lennok’s most powerful means, allowed only within the Domain.
“Did you dare to contend with me with flames you couldn’t even control yourself? How foolish.”
The maddened general twisted the Shredder’s blade, tearing Lennok’s abdomen, and sneered.
“Yet, I acknowledge that you were one of the strongest opponents I have ever faced.”
“……”
“Before you die, take that one fact as a lifelong boast.”
As he twisted the blade plunged into Lennok’s abdomen, tearing his intestines, he reached out towards Lennok’s forehead.
“Not that you’ll remember it after I rip out and devour your brain anyway.”
“……No.”
At that moment, Lennok painfully raised his gaze.
“I didn’t fail to control or adjust Black Sun’s Fall…”
He spoke without pause, even as blood and sweat poured from him.
The intense pain that ravaged his insides. Knowing it was an irreversible injury, he stared at the Shredder piercing through his stomach.
“I learned recently that forcibly reducing or killing power… isn’t the way.”
“……You.”
“The way to control strong flames is to add equally strong flames, to fight fire with fire…”
Lennok slowly exhaled and spoke.
His voice, even with his abdomen pierced, had, surprisingly, become serene.
“All I needed from the beginning was time to put it into action.”
WHOOSH—!!!!
The Grand General, upon hearing Lennok’s words, asked no further questions.
He merely twisted the Shredder’s blade vertically, ripping open Lennok’s belly, and reached out his hand.
KIIIIING—
A sphere of gravity, formed at the Grand General’s fingertip, touched Lennok’s forehead, grinding away his skin.
A killing technique that warped the gravity around Lennok’s head, crushing and exploding his skull.
As he felt the terrifying gravity piercing into his mind—
“……Domain Expansion.”
Lennok, his head deeply bowed, deployed a second Domain.
“Heavenly Flower Myriad Fragrance.”
PUH-WHA-AAAAAAAK!!!!!!
At that moment, without any warning, nine crimson flames surged from the ash field, rotating violently.
The flames, burning to the horizon of the Demonic Realm, divided into nine rotating parts, transforming into colossal fiery petals.
Domain Expansion.
Root Mindscape Actualization.
[Heavenly Flower Myriad Fragrance: Nine Lotus Lantern Fire]
KWA-GWA-GWA-GWA-GWA-GWA-GWA-GWA!!!!!!
“A second Domain…!!!!!”
It wasn’t just Lennok’s Flame-Heat magic that could eliminate preheating through the spell effect of Black Sun’s Fall.
The Heavenly Flower Myriad Fragrance Domain, which usually required a very long preheating time each time it was deployed.
Even Lennok’s other Flame-Heat Domain could have its preheating drastically shortened within Black Sun’s Fall.
All he needed was the time to drastically reduce Heavenly Flower Myriad Fragrance’s preheating time through Black Sun’s Fall, allowing it to bloom and explode all at once.
KU-WOOOOOSH!!!!!
“The petals of Heavenly Flower Myriad Fragrance are the Mana Cores themselves, composed of each star of the Crimson Star System…”
Lennok raised his gaze.
“Now that the ninth star has been constructed using the Singularity Reactor’s core as material, there is a completed form of Heavenly Flower Myriad Fragrance, allowed for a brief moment.”
He used the spell effect of Black Sun’s Fall to drastically shorten the preheating time of Heavenly Flower Myriad Fragrance, making it bloom.
Then, through the permanence of the fully bloomed Heavenly Flower Myriad Fragrance, he balanced and controlled Black Sun’s Fall’s output.
A miracle allowed only in this moment, where two different Domains reached their peak through mutual complementarity, fully residing in Lennok’s will.
A majestic sight of nine petals, hundreds of meters in size, rotating counter-clockwise and coiling.
The afterimage of a flame flower, like a lantern made of nine lotus petals, rising from the deepest part of the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors.
In its center, Lennok, adjusting the outcome by observing the other side of the world through the Corrupted Golden Rule.
The ninth point of attainment of the completed Heavenly Flower Myriad Fragrance. The transcendence that had reached absolute perfection—
“Heavenly Flower Myriad Fragrance: Nine Lotus Lantern Fire.”
Lennok, his Wheel-Eyed golden eyes overflowing, spread his hands.
“Activating spell effect: Seamless Perfection.”