Chapter 1338: Designed Transcendence (16)

Flash!

Black ripples, heavy and ominous, spread out from the monster, staining the coastline.

At the same moment, the monster, lunging towards Lennok, froze stiff.

The blood-soaked monster, holding a greatsword, roaring as it blocked the Ark, was now motionless, solidified in place.

Simultaneously, the Mutants rushing towards the group from all directions along the shore lost their power and tumbled down.

Thud!

Swoosh!

They slid face-first into the sand, then were tossed around like dolls, unable to withstand the momentum of their charge.

Arms and legs that had just been wildly swinging weapons now flailed grotesquely.

The entire shattered coastline fell into an icy silence, and in that moment, only the monster, halted before Lennok, remained.

“…Gaaah…”

As if time itself had stopped, only a faint, incomplete gasp of air escaped its throat.

Then, the monster’s head, which had been glaring at Lennok with bloodshot eyes, tilted forward and plunged into the sand.

Thuuud-!!

Its colossal body, weighing tens of tons, crashed to the ground, emitting a tremendous roar that shook the coastline.

It lay there, rigid, its head buried in the sand, still in the posture of raising its chipped greatsword.

Even Peshia and Mistral’s faces, who had watched the entire scene from beginning to end, were deathly pale.

“You, crazy…”

“…Unbelievable. Is he even human?”

The monster guarding Gagameon’s Ark, half-destroyed on the coastline, was no ordinary Mutant.

Its body had mutated after consuming the blood of an Ancient Species, making it a monster that was essentially dead, yet moved endlessly.

It was impossible to neutralize it by merely tearing its flesh or shattering its bones.

Forcibly bestowing ‘death’ upon a monster that was already dead and thus could not die.

Black Magic that achieved the Property Transformation of Death.

They realized that Lennok had acquired the Instant Death Spellcraft, which was impossible to obtain through normal spellcraft systems, by unconventional Black Magic.

“This, this monster…”

This wasn’t Peshia’s first experience of this kind.

She knew all too well that this wizard treated the magic he wielded like a toy, experimenting with it and often producing absurd results.

She was painfully aware that through such research, he had single-handedly brought down the entire Deadrise Legion.

Perhaps the Talent for Adamant was on a level unprecedented in history, she knew.

Nevertheless, this chilling dread, which seeped into the very core of her soul, never became familiar, no matter how many times she witnessed it—

“Even with that level of Lightning Spellcraft, he’s still not satisfied and experimenting with other methods…”

Mistral couldn’t hide her hardened expression and averted her gaze.

“There’s a limit to greed… If you handle spellcraft like that, your body will explode and you’ll die.”

“Black Magic is a negative spellcraft that deals with the most alien concepts among all magic systems.”

Lennok slowly withdrew his hand and spoke.

“If you don’t have the aptitude, you can’t wield it, but it also specializes in dealing with concepts or realms that other magic systems cannot interfere with.”

“…”

“I became interested in the Property Transformation of Death after killing a few Legion Commanders during the Subjugation Operation. So I was looking for a way to implement Instant Death Spellcraft, even if it was unconventional…”

Woo-woo-woo…!!

As Lennok slowly extended his hand, the Demonic Giant’s arm that emerged from behind him also rotated.

A grotesque sight, as if the black-stained, demonic hand synchronized with Lennok’s movements, acting as an extension of his will.

Lennok glanced back at it and muttered.

“It seems the result was produced a bit too excessively than expected.”

“…”

Splash…!!!

Along the wave-swept coastline, dead fish washed ashore in rows.

Withered, limp seaweed, shellfish with tongues lolling out, discolored and blackened octopuses, and various other marine creatures.

With each new wave, not only small fish but also large creatures and carcasses were swept ashore.

The backlash from the Instant Death Spellcraft Lennok had just unleashed had affected the entire nearby sea, causing a massive die-off of marine life.

Behind Jenny, who stared at the coastline, seemingly speechless, Lennok slowly clenched and unclenched his hand, muttering.

“According to my calculations, this spellcraft shouldn’t have such far-reaching consequences… It seems something went wrong with the calculations. I suppose it should be considered a failure.”

“…Is this truly the power that comes from a failed attempt?”

Black Magic is the most alien negative magic among all magic systems.

Therefore, even the concept of ‘death,’ which is difficult to handle with existing magic systems, can be interfered with to some extent through Black Magic.

Of course, it was difficult for Lennok to perfectly implement such a powerful Property Transformation with his current level of Black Magic mastery alone.

But with the aid of the Demonic Giant inherited from Myeong, he could temporarily mimic such a miracle.

Against the immortal monster they encountered in front of Gagameon’s Ark, Lennok had used spellcraft to forcibly bestow death upon it, ending the fight.

Lennok slowly gathered the black mana, lost in thought.

‘It’s much harder to control than expected. Apart from my aptitude, perhaps it requires adjustments to suit my senses.’

The reason he used Black Magic under the identity of Adamant Thunder was because the Demonic Giant was inherited under that identity.

With Lennok’s current Black Magic mastery, it was difficult to unleash high-level Black Magic without the Demonic Giant’s assistance.

The Branching Point of Black Magic received from Myeong at the First Gate. The spellcraft assistance of the Demonic Giant harvested in Vulcan. Lennok’s own magical talent.

By combining various opportunities and possibilities, he had forcibly raised his Black Magic mastery to a usable level. However, this was still infinitely weak compared to the Gabihaeng Myeong had demonstrated.

It was almost as if he was forcibly wielding a power unsuited to his body, using his talent, but Lennok was not disappointed.

Not all the abilities and spellcraft Lennok had acquired so far had been a good fit for him from the beginning.

With steady research and training, he might one day reach where Myeong had gazed.

After all, Myeong had trusted precisely that aspect of Lennok, passing on his potential.

“Having defeated that, there seem to be no more obstacles.”

Lennok, having unsummoned the Demonic Giant’s arm with a wave of his hand, turned his gaze.

“Let’s go inside. We should find something by investigating the traces within the Ark.”

“No, you f-… If you have spellcraft like that, why do you even need to investigate?”

“Unfortunately, this spellcraft is not an ability that can be used repeatedly in a short amount of time.”

Lennok calmly replied to Peshia’s bewildered words.

“It’s a power adjusted into a specific form by combining various Authorities and unique abilities, so it puts a strain on many aspects after one use.”

“…”

“To use it with the same power as now, I’d need at least half a day’s respite.”

Instant Death Spellcraft, which manipulates the Property Transformation of Death based on Quasi-Authority and Black Magic, was a deadly technique.

To handle a concept that was originally uncontrollable, several restrictions were placed on the Instant Death Spellcraft.

For instance, it couldn’t be used for a long time after one use, or it could only target one individual at a time.

To even make the spellcraft exist, Lennok had applied various Geas and restrictions that he rarely used normally.

“No, in the first place, the very fact that you can implement that level of Black Magic is absurd—”

Mistral, with a dumbfounded expression, started to say something, then gave up and let out a small sigh.

“…Fine. What’s there to be surprised about now? I already knew it when the summit ended that way.”

“…”

“From what I can tell, the other two seem to be very… accustomed to this kind of thing.”

Mistral shrugged, looking back and forth between Peshia, whose face was twisted as if she had bitten a bug, and Jenny, who offered a wry smile.

“I was the uninvited guest in this matter, wasn’t I? I’ll just politely guide you inside the Ark.”

“I noticed it even at the summit, but you have a habit of adding unnecessary remarks.”

Lennok, leaning on his staff, took a step and glanced back at Mistral.

“Are you still not learning, even after meddling and inviting trouble?”

“…Thank you for the painful advice.”

Mistral, unable to retort, gave a bitter smile and turned around.

“Let’s go up. There should be a passage into the ship’s interior on the deck side.”

They moved towards the port side deck of the enormous ship, which was tilted along the coastline.

Jenny, walking behind, escorted by Peshia, secretly whispered.

“Demoness. Is Van always that sharp when he works with you guys?”

“What?”

Peshia, startled by Jenny’s words, scratched her head.

“Just… seems normal. He looks a little more annoyed than usual, though.”

“…Normal?”

“If he were truly bothered, Mistral would already be a bloody mess. In fact, something similar happened at the summit, didn’t it?”

Peshia scoffed, leaving Jenny speechless.

“That pointy-eared elf probably got dragged around by the Elder Council for a while largely because of that.”

“…”

“Well, it’s not something you particularly need to know. Besides, that guy has an odd tendency to be overly lenient with fools who can’t even reach his toes—”

“Peshia.”

As soon as Lennok’s voice rang out, Peshia flinched, her shoulders trembling.

Lennok, his face expressionless, turned to Peshia and nodded.

“The passage on the deck has collapsed, so we’ll have to go through in single file. You take the rear.”

“I, I’ll do it without you telling me! Do you think I need orders for something like that?!”

Luckily, he hadn’t heard their conversation.

Peshia, unknowingly relieved, retorted, but Lennok ignored her and turned his head.

“There might still be surviving Mutants following us. Deal with them.”

“I said I would. Damn it, to startle a person just to say something like—”

“And stop badmouthing me to Jenny.”

“…”

Peshia, struck dumb, quietly followed the group.

They descended the tilted deck towards the heavily damaged and collapsed passage of the Ark.

Standing before the dark passage, Lennok glanced at Jenny.

“Jenny.”

“Yes. This seems to be the right place.”

Woo-woo-woo…!!

The blue magic circle spread in Jenny’s hand circulated a little faster.

An Ouroboros magic circle circulated around Jenny, nullifying the intensifying mana particle collapse phenomenon.

Jenny, gazing at the intricate, labyrinthine passages stretching in all directions, pointed in one direction.

“The intensity of the collapse line is getting stronger towards that way.”

“Yes. I can see it too.”

Crackle, crackle-crackle-crackle-

Each time Lennok peered into the passage using the Corrupted Golden Rule, Noise flickered before his eyes.

The sight of his vision distorting with Noise, making it impossible to see, the moment he used Quasi-Authority.

As if the entire colossal Ark was crumbling, covered in overwhelmingly powerful Noise.

“…Be careful of your surroundings.”

Mistral, who was leading the way into the dark passage, whispered.

“The Ark is probably full of Mutants that drank Gagameon’s blood. If they’ve noticed us, they won’t fail to react—”

“Kwaaahhh!”

Thud!

Before Mistral could finish her sentence, a swarm of Mutants burst out from a passage.

They were grotesque, foaming at the mouth, eyes rolled back, covered in blade-like scales all over their bodies.

“Here they come!”

With scales sharpened like swords down to their fingertips and fangs, they charged from all sides of the passage.

Peshia and Mistral amplified their mana, positioning themselves front and back as if to protect Jenny, who used Ouroboros, and Lennok, who was activating Quasi-Authority.

Just as they were about to collide with the Mutants charging from the depths of the dark passage.

[Die.]

Crash!

As the whisper echoed, dozens of Mutants crashed headfirst to the ground, collapsing in place.

They tumbled noisily through the passage, bounced off walls, and died completely on the spot.

Hooo-

Each time the Demonic Giant’s hand gently flickered in the darkness, death settled within the Ark.

Monsters clinging to the ceiling, about to fall onto the group, lost their strength and hung limply.

Thump, thump-thump-thump…!!

Mutants huddled between the passage bulkheads stiffened and died.

Crack, crack…!!

The blade-scaled monsters that had surged forward like a tide fell one after another, spreading vibrations.

Bang!

Thump-thump-thump!!!

Hundreds of Mutants lurking within the Ark collapsed like puppets, utterly helpless.

Only after the Demonic Giant’s arm, which had been slowly gesturing in the darkness, finally vanished, did an icy silence descend upon the tilted passage of the Ark.

“…”

A strange stillness, as if the recent attack had been a lie.

Mistral, frozen in her stance as if to engage the Mutants, finally turned her head with a bewildered expression.

The wizard, who had stopped everything moving within the Ark, calmly adjusted his collar.

“If I wasn’t hearing things just now,”

Mistral asked.

“Didn’t you say you couldn’t use it again for a while after one use…?”

“It seems there’s something wrong with the spacetime around this Ark itself.”

Lennok gazed into the dark passage, lost in thought.

“Normally, I wouldn’t be able to use Black Magic this way, but for some reason, I barely feel the restrictions I placed on it. At this rate, I might be able to keep using the spellcraft.”

“…”

“I’m not sure if it’s a miracle only possible within this Ark, or if the circumstances just happened to align…”

The Instant Death Spellcraft, created by combining the Corrupted Golden Rule and Black Magic, was a deadly technique that even Lennok had to use with extreme caution.

It was supposed to be unusable for more than half a day after one use, and it should only be able to target one individual at a time.

However, as he had felt when he first used it on the coastline, the power of Lennok’s Black Magic was currently unnaturally amplified.

It was nothing short of a miracle’s indiscriminate use, something absolutely impossible with Lennok’s current Black Magic mastery, only achievable by a black wizard of Myeong’s caliber.

He needed to know if this was merely a coincidence happening only within this Ark, or if there was another variable at play.

“To find that out, we need to understand the condition of the Ark’s interior, which we’ve just entered.”

Lennok said, stepping into a puddle of blood accumulated at the bottom of the tilted passage.

“Mistral. Can you explain how the Ark was left after the civil war ended?”

“To explain that, you need to know how this Ark crashed here.”

Mistral said, walking across the puddle of blood.

“Gagameon’s Ark was of an unparalleled scale even during the civil war, so no strategic weapon could contend with it. That’s why Kaiser’s side was extremely concerned about the Ark’s movements throughout the war.”

“…”

“Facing the Ark directly, commanded by Gagameon, was one problem, but winning would also be a problem. Imagine a war machine of this weight losing function and crashing in the middle of a city. Would any civilization built on the ground survive?”

“So?”

“They avoided a head-on confrontation with the Ark until the very end of the civil war, dragged it out of the city, and then deployed Kaiser’s most powerful sword into the Ark.”

Mistral shrugged.

“Ethan Bajour himself, in his prime.”

“…”

“He single-handedly massacred the forces of the Blood Alliance within the Ark and, after a one-on-one battle with Gagameon, crashed the Ark onto this coastline. The result is…”

Mistral said, looking into the Ark’s interior beyond the passage.

“…This very scene.”

Whoosh!

The wind blew along the coastline, and the sea breeze streamed through the collapsed gaps of the Ark.

Following the wind, debris and fragments ‘floating’ between the passage’s ceiling and walls swayed like dominoes.

The Ark, of an unreal scale, thousands of meters long. The crushed and collapsed corridors and stairwells within its passages.

Amidst them, shattered debris floated in mid-air, frozen as if time had stopped.

“This is…”

“It’s the result of Ethan Bajour scattering the Sword of Demise throughout the hull while fighting Gagameon one-on-one on the battleship.”

Mistral said, touching a floating pipe fragment.

“The Revenant clashed with Gagameon on the battleship, and the lingering echoes are still present, making it seem as if time has stopped.”

“…”

“I’m not sure if the Ascension Relic Dadam mentioned is truly hidden somewhere in this Ark, but this phenomenon itself is clearly—”

“No.”

“What?”

“It’s certain that an ancient Ascension Relic exists near this Ark.”

Lennok muttered.

“And now I think I understand what kind of miracle this relic, based on its creation, is.”

The scene of the passage crumbling and distorting due to particle collapse phenomenon.

[Noise], invisible to the naked eye, covering the entire Ark, perceivable only through Quasi-Authority.

But Lennok knew that the flickering Noise beyond the passage was not a phenomenon caused by particle collapse or Ethan’s abilities.

If the phenomenon that drastically boosted his Black Magic output was a result based on Noise.

If the Imperial Palace had known about the existence of this Noise covering the entire Ark and had placed a Prohibition on it.

If the Ascension Relic, prepared for the Pseudo-Eclipse, was a miracle that ‘transcended’ the world, inexplicable by any laws Lennok knew.

Crackle, crackle-crackle…!!

As he realized this, the black ring on his finger pulsed darkly.

Ban-gung’s Mandala, acquired in Kundara. The resonance of a transcendent miracle contained within it.

“Now I understand why Dadam, who is already at Level 9, is searching for this relic.”

Lennok murmured, touching the Noise rippling in the air.

“The Ascension Relic hidden by the Imperial Palace… It was an item related to the World’s Ten Laws.”