Chapter 1386: Variation (25)
KUWAHHH!!!
The colossal Flame Flower, floating above Gateway City, flared and burned without cease.
Its eight crimson petals blazed with a violet hue from their roots, shimmering like ominous shadows.
This was the Shadow Flames, existing on the [Other Side] of the Hundred-Thousand-Mile Heavenly Flower, manifested through Hylaea’s observation with her Talent for Duality.
KWAHHH!!!
The fiercely burning Flame Flower and the shadow cast on its Other Side shimmered simultaneously, engulfing Gateway City.
A breathtaking scene unfolded as the shadow, composed of violet flames, rippled like wings, devouring the entire vicinity.
At the intense wave of flames erupting from Martina, the others bowed their heads as if on cue.
“Tsk…!”
“Damn it, I had a feeling!”
“It wasn’t just the ravings of a madwoman, after all.”
Soryu, clutching her precious sword, narrowed her eyes amidst the scorching heat.
“Cheonbeon’s Domain. She can really use it…!”
Domain Deployment: Hundred-Thousand-Mile Heavenly Flower.
Using the Mana Core as a spark, its firepower is maximized to an extreme, and the processed core, crafted through heat magic, becomes petals, causing the Flame Flower to reach Full Bloom.
At the cost of requiring time to reach Full Bloom, once bloomed, the Flame Flower burns semi-permanently without wilting, enduring indefinitely.
It has been burning the veil ever since Cheonbeon killed the Conjunction Spell Master, replacing the former role of the Gate.
A spell system regarded as having reached the pinnacle of heat-based Domains within modern spellcraft.
“No, she isn’t directly deploying and using Martinez’s Domain.”
“Maiya?”
“She’s synchronizing with the Flame Flower left in Gateway City, reproducing the power of the Domain that was deployed here in a form close to its original. Strictly speaking, it can’t compare to how Cheonbeon himself wields it…”
Maiya’s eyes, bracing herself by stabbing her short sword into the ground, narrowed.
“But it’s clear she possesses an ability just as dangerous.”
KUWAHHH!!!
The Flame Flower floating in the sky violently flickered, raising the temperature and scorching the atmosphere.
The heat, beyond all limits, altered the very climate of the area, forcing anomalous phenomena. It was then that the members, realizing what Martina was doing, parted their lips slightly.
“Unbelievable. How can this be…?”
“That woman, is she burning the mana around here right now?”
It wasn’t merely raising the heat and increasing the flame’s output.
Simultaneously with awakening the Hundred-Thousand-Mile Heavenly Flower, she used the surrounding mana as fuel, burning it away.
Through this, Martina’s power continuously rose, a miracle that forcibly suppressed and seized the mana her enemies could use.
The members, finally grasping the true meaning of Martina’s strength as Lennok had mentioned, broke out in a cold sweat.
It wasn’t merely a matter of naturally strong innate power or inflated output.
This knightess, quite literally, could fight Gateway City alone.
“That woman is the one who laid hands on Gateway City’s Flame Flower.”
Martina’s gaze, looking down at the instantly pale Hylaea, turned cold.
“It seems you tried to steal the flower, but it’s a foolish endeavor. Even if its appearance changes, the will contained within these flames will not fade.”
“I wasn’t trying any trickery, but–”
“From now on, I shall judge you and prove that fact.”
KWAHHH!!!
“AAARGH!!!”
Overflowing flames rained down like a waterfall overhead.
Simultaneously with Ermont’s scream, the other members, as if on cue, widened their distance and began to run.
Sarin, seizing the collar of the staggering Hylaea, passed her to Agneta, who swiftly fled outside the temple.
Freya, looking up at Martina, who was entirely engulfed in flames, cried out with a look of terror.
“Hey, is it really okay to fight that right now?! She’s insanely strong in this city!”
“Given the situation, we obviously have to run away…!”
Hylaea, carried on Sarin’s back, spoke without delay.
“I’ve arranged an escape route through Agneta. We can’t waste power in this city alrea–”
“She wasn’t someone we could reason with in the first place. She’s already made up her mind.”
KUGUGU!!!
Martina’s form stood with her back to the Flame Flower in the sky, continuously unleashing endless flames.
Her two eyes, looking down at the group, overflowed with burning red spiritual light, her focus barely visible.
The flames, burning as if to consume everything below her feet, were proof that she had completely abandoned any room for dialogue.
“No choice, then.”
CLANK!
Maiya, adjusting the joint of the prosthetic arm on her left, swiftly turned around.
Soryu drew her precious sword, and Sarin, holding her short saber, slid to a halt.
Looking up at the Guardian, engulfed in flames, the three exchanged quick words.
“My ice ability might be able to offset some of the flames, but she’s boosted by the Flame Flower. If this drags on, we’ll definitely lose.”
“It’s my first time fighting a heat-elemental ability user of this caliber, so I’m not sure if I can do well.”
“She’s using Martinez’s flames. Forget about engaging her head-on.”
Maiya said coldly, drawing her short sword.
“I’ll create the opening.”
“To brazenly infiltrate the city and steal fragments of the veil is utterly shameless.”
Martina, her red spiritual light flashing as she surveyed the ground, slowly raised her hand.
“Today, you shall pay a fitting price for the atrocities you have committed.”
“Excuse me, but we entered this city through proper procedures, you know?” Sarin grumbled, but there was no reply.
As Martina gathered her mana, the erupting flames instantly converged. They took the form of a house-sized fireball and plummeted vertically.
KWAHHH!!!
The fireball exploded, unleashing flames that scorched the ground and turned everything visible into a sea of fire.
In the sea of burning flames, Soryu’s ice pillars shot up, momentarily offsetting the heat.
Maiya, shattering the ice shards and accelerating, dashed towards Martina with incredible speed.
CRUNCH!!
She trod on the melting ice shards all around her as if they were footholds, leaning sideways as if to float.
Accelerating with the surging heatwave, Maiya dodged a pillar of flame, twisted her shoulder, and aimed her short sword at Martina’s vitals.
The knightess spun around, and her greatsword clashed with Maiya’s in mid-air at immense speed, scattering shattered sword light.
KAGAGAGAGANG!!!!
In an instant, Maiya twisted her trajectory, readjusting her short sword dozens of times.
Martina parried every strike at close range, tilting the greatsword’s hilt like a lever.
The others gasped at the supersonic swordplay exchanged at breathing distance.
The Enforcer and the knightess, blades locked, met each other’s eyes simultaneously.
KAANG!!!
“You possess excellent swordsmanship.”
Martina, riding a wave of flames, pressed down on Maiya with the blade of her greatsword.
“This isn’t a skill a rogue who disrupts the city’s order should possess.”
“That’s what I should be saying, Guardian Spirit Beast.”
Maiya, parrying Martina’s sword attacks in mid-air without even a foothold, replied with an expressionless face.
“Your swordsmanship is not an ability a being born as a Guardian Spirit Beast could possess. It’s closer to an ancient style, far removed from the mainstream of this era.”
“…”
Was it because she was an Enforcer who had mastered many techniques and martial arts that she recognized Martina’s swordsmanship as an ancient form of combat?
Lennok, observing the shadow cast on the Flame Flower’s Other Side, focused on their conversation for a moment.
“I’m more interested in your sublime swordsmanship than the flames you emit. You’re no mere Guardian Spirit Beast. What is your true identity?”
“What importance could my past possibly hold?”
Martina replied firmly.
“I am now the protector of Gateway City. That is all that matters…!!”
KUWAHHH!!!
Lava, dripping from the greatsword’s blade, instantly engulfed Maiya’s short sword.
The chilling heat, enough to melt the weapon itself, instantly shattered the seemingly even balance.
But Maiya did not retreat, even as she saw Martina concentrating her firepower on her.
She merely glanced behind Martina, through the sword light burning like hot flames.
As if, at that very moment, someone was approaching from behind Martina–
SWISH!!
Martina, instantly reading the direction of the gaze, twisted her body with astonishing reaction speed.
Her beast-like reflexes allowed her to react even while all her nerves were focused on Maiya.
“Haha, why are your reaction speeds so fast? That was close.”
CRACK!!
Sarin, who had plunged her short saber into Martina’s side, spun rapidly in place.
In an instant, her sword erupted, as if tearing through and grinding Martina’s internal organs.
A vicious killing technique that reverses blood flow acceleration, causing the blood flowing through the opponent’s body to surge backward.
KWAHHH!!!
Martina, having allowed the attack, exploded like a burning flame, scattering in place.
The members who had fallen behind, as if on cue, began to flee, dragging Hylaea along.
“Run!!”
“If we’re too late, we’ll burn to death!”
The group, leaving the temple corridor engulfed in flames behind, sprinted out of the battlefield.
Agneta spun webs of Mana Thread in the air, blocking the path with debris, pulling the members to safety.
KUGUGUGU!!!!
Amidst the fierce, simultaneous skirmish unfolding all around.
Lennok, who had been constantly analyzing the blooming Shadow Flames, subtly shifted his gaze.
“Their role distribution is clean. Do they know what they need to do without even speaking?”
Soryu used her ice ability to offset the flames. Maiya, having approached closely, created an opening, and Sarin delivered the decisive blow.
While Martina took advantage of the incineration (염화) to minimize damage, the other members retreated with Agneta’s help.
AAAHHH…!!
Freya’s song disrupted Martina’s materialization, and Ermont unleashed black smoke to obscure vision and deceive the senses.
Hylaea, activating her Talent for Duality, saw multiple paths simultaneously and set the escape route, finding their direction.
This wasn’t teamwork born of organization. It was a division of roles possible purely because of each individual’s outstanding abilities.
“This is no time to be idly admiring!”
“No, if Adamant Thunder clashes with Cheonbeon’s Guardian Spirit Beast right now, things will definitely escalate!!!”
“Hylaea, I apologize, but I don’t have the luxury of worrying about such matters…!!!”
SHIIIICK!!!
Ermont’s black smoke, bursting like chaff, clashed with the flames spilling into the corridor.
Black and red inferno and smoke warped, surging upwards in a circle, and in that moment, a sharp flash of light sparkled.
“Move.”
“ARUP?!”
The Conjunction Spell Master, stepping down on Ermont’s head, rotated his body using Ermont’s back as a foothold.
Martina, bursting from the inferno, and the Conjunction Spell Master clashed at supersonic speed, unleashing a shockwave.
PAAAANG!!!!
“Tsk…!!!”
“WHOA!!!”
The majestic figure of the knightess, enveloped in burning flames, extended her melting greatsword.
The Conjunction Spell Master precisely grasped and stopped the blade, from which lava flowed, with both hands.
Freya, having seen the two almost simultaneously, gaped blankly.
“Crazy…!! That’s just acrobatics!!”
Did he conjoin the surrounding space with the greatsword’s blade, swung at supersonic speed, to reduce its momentum just before impact?
It was impossible to guess how precise the mana manipulation had to be in that fleeting moment for such a feat.
Martina, too, seemed to realize the Spell Master was no ordinary combatant, her eyes widening for a moment.
“You wield a very unique spellcraft. Are you a spellcaster who has achieved the harmony of adhesion and unity?”
“Though the method differs, it’s a description that touches upon the essence of my spellcraft to some extent.”
The Spell Master’s emotionless gaze sharply pierced Martina.
“But you, claiming to have awakened in Gateway City, don’t know my spellcraft?”
“Then, I shall get to know it through exchanging blades with you from now on.”
Martina, accelerating with the flames, twisted her greatsword, and the Spell Master, stepping on Ermont’s body, extended both hands.
In the fleeting moment they sprinted towards the end of the corridor, clinging to Agneta’s Mana Thread, the two monsters turned towards each other and engaged in a fierce exchange of blows.
DUDUDUDUDUDU!!!!!
The inferno exploded repeatedly, unleashing shockwaves, and simultaneously, it was seized by the Spell Master’s hands and extinguished.
Martina’s onslaught with her greatsword, falling like bombs, and the Spell Master’s divine skill of conjoining flames to extinguish them, exchanged repeatedly.
Flames and magical light split behind them, exploding one after another, creating a deafening roar.
“My neck, it’ll break!! If you step there, my neck will break!!!”
A chilling exchange of blows, where even a moment of inattention would mean losing one’s head.
The Spell Master moved, stepping on Ermont’s scream, who was serving as a human foothold.
Conjoining space, he instantly closed the distance, narrowly evading the surging inferno and sword strikes.
The Spell Master, having shaken off the burning blade by conjoining it with space, placed his bare hands between Martina’s armor.
[EXPEL/DECOMPOSE]
BWAAAANG!!!
A part of Martina’s ribs exploded as if bursting, scattering flames.
The knightess’s sword trajectory, having momentarily lost a part of her upper body, faltered.
“She’s incinerating her internal organs to dodge before I can conjoin them.”
The Spell Master reached out and grabbed Martina by the throat.
“Then I’ll conjoin your limbs before you can react.”
“Not yet!!”
Martina inhaled deeply and blasted flames straight at the Spell Master.
The fire, erupting like a breath attack, exploded, pushing back the superhumans who tried to intervene from all sides.
KWAHHH!!!
The firepower was so intense that the Spell Master, who took the flames head-on, could barely protect himself, and Soryu, who was waiting for an opening nearby, could only shield her body.
Sarin, bracing herself by stabbing her short saber into the scorching wall, had to cover her face with one arm.
“Unrealistic firepower. The repercussions of her actions…!!”
“We can’t get in. Of all times!”
Martina’s strength lay in the explosive output based on the Flame Flower and her formidable swordsmanship, unbelievable for a Guardian Spirit Beast.
Her greatsword skill covered an immense range, enough to engulf the entire battlefield in her flames, overpowering any opponent who approached.
Because she continuously erupted flames with every breath, burning the surrounding mana, it was difficult for anyone other than those facing her head-on to even use mana.
This was why, despite several peak-level ability users present, they couldn’t rashly attempt a combined attack against Martina.
Her innate ability itself had reached the apex of area-of-effect, making her not an opponent to be overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
If their coordination was even slightly off, they would be swept away and consumed by her unleashed flames.
“No, we’re almost there…!!”
There was no need to waste energy by fighting Martina, who received transcendent buffs within Gateway City, head-on.
Once they obtained the veil fragments, there would be plenty of opportunities to create chances even without using the Flame Flower’s power.
Far down the endlessly stretching corridor, as Gateway City’s boundary line began to appear, Agneta accelerated her Mana Thread manipulation.
The group, pulled by the Ancient Species’ Mana Thread, used their remaining mana to increase their speed, with Martina in hot pursuit.
CRUNCH!!
KUGWA-GWA-GWA-GANG!!!!
Maiya, plunging her short sword into Martina’s back through the surging flames, crashed to the floor.
The Spell Master, rotating his body with a slide, conjoined Martina’s flesh to the ground, binding her feet.
Soryu gathered moisture to build walls of ice, blocking the path. Sarin shot sword light, gnawing at Martina’s nerves.
At the end of the relentless relay attacks, they finally broke through the temple corridor and burst out of Gateway City.
HWARUK!!!!
Hylaea suddenly realized she was standing beneath violet-tinted Shadow Wings and snapped her gaze upward.
“Wait, no way…!”
All visible scenery was obstructed by colossal, shimmering wings, rippling ominously.
It was like being trapped within a giant, violet shadow-tsunami, looking up at the outside.
The burning violet flames spread like wings, engulfing the members whole like a prison.
KUGUGUGUGU!!!!!
“The Flame Flower left by Martinez burns the [veil] to create an opening and replaces the role of the Gate.”
The members’ faces hardened as they grasped the situation, and Martina slowly stood up.
“But the Flame Flower you so boldly tried to steal has bloomed into another possibility here.”
“…”
“Another form existing on the Other Side of the Flame Flower… even the shadow of the Hundred-Thousand-Mile Heavenly Flower is a part of its flames.”
Martina stated calmly.
“The entire shadow of the Flame Flower cast over this Gateway City is like a Domain that contains his flames.”
Another form of the Flame Flower, manifested by Hylaea’s observation through her Talent for Duality.
A colossal violet flame wing made of shadow, existing on the [Other Side] of the Hundred-Thousand-Mile Heavenly Flower.
The Shadow Flames, blooming after a brief warm-up, spread throughout Gateway City, engulfing the space.
True to the overwhelming scale of the Hundred-Thousand-Mile Heavenly Flower, the space that the shadow created by the Flame Flower could cover was tens of times larger.
An overwhelming power that forcibly infused the engulfed space with the property of fire, forcibly burning all existing mana and will-thought.
KUOOOOO!!!!
Martina’s form, engulfed in the shimmering Shadow Flames like wings, confronted all the superhumans present simultaneously.
Her expression, as she aimed her burning greatsword at Hylaea, was filled with resolute determination.
“You must return everything you touched to its original state. You said it was the Talent for Duality?”
CLANK!!
The knightess, aiming her burning greatsword at Hylaea’s neck, said,
“I will personally verify that ability and then take you into custody. Stay still.”
“This is the end.”
The Spell Master, landing on the ground with an expressionless face, cracked his fingers.
CRACK.
“I’ll use my Domain. From now on, I’m going all out, so just try to survive on your own.”
It wasn’t that the Spell Master or Maiya lacked power, or that they fled this far because of it; they had simply been conserving their greater techniques, judging that there was no need to waste power in Gateway City.
However, if the opponent blocked their path by blooming another form of the Flame Flower, a direct confrontation here was unavoidable.
Just as the Spell Master, having made that judgment, unhesitatingly cracked his fingers to deploy his Domain, Martina’s red burning spiritual light stared directly into Hylaea’s eyes, who had pulled down her eyepatch.
KIIIIING-!
Using her Talent for Duality, she simultaneously perceived Martina’s existence from both inside and out.
At this moment, she observed the Transcendent’s spirituality, who was most strongly synchronized with the Flame Flower, from both aspects simultaneously.
At the same time, that power reached Lennok, who had been contemplating the Other Side of the Flame Flower and acquiring its strength.
CRACK-!
The [Other Side] of the Hundred-Thousand-Mile Heavenly Flower, fully bloomed here, triggered by the Talent for Duality.
Martina’s will-thought, synchronized with the Flame Flower, connected with Lennok, who had been contemplating the Flame Flower’s Other Side, like two sides of a coin.
Lennok paused, looking into an unknown memory within Martina.
“…This is.”
OOOOO!!!!
A colossal black halo, floating and rotating above the shattered, glass-like sky.
A scene where black tears streamed down, dyeing everything in pitch darkness.
Before it, the knightess knelt, her sword plunged into the ground, her back facing him.
“…!!!”
A memory that felt intimately familiar despite being seen for the first time. A scene Lennok himself certainly recognized.
Lennok’s expression subtly hardened, and Martina, startled, explosively unleashed flames in place.
KWAHHH!!!!
“Tsk…!!”
“Hylaea!”
Sarin caught Hylaea, who was pushed back, unable to withstand the shock, and just as the Spell Master stepped forward.
The storm of Flame Flowers, which had been surging before the Conjunction Spell Master’s eyes, vanished and dwindled as if it were a lie.
WHOOSH!!
“…Hmm?”
The Spell Master, caught off guard by the unexpected reaction, instinctively stopped his incantation, and the other members wore puzzled expressions.
But Martina’s reaction, having erupted the inferno and pushed back her surroundings, was far more peculiar.
“…”
For a moment, a blank expression, as if she had realized an utterly unexpected truth.
She stopped completely, forgetting even to wield the endlessly surging flames.
Her gaze was fixed, piercingly, on Lennok, who stood behind the members.
“What, what is this?”
In the sudden, strange silence, Ermont made a grotesque expression.
“Is this some kind of show? What the hell is going on?”
“…I wonder.”
In the fleeting moment the [Other Side] of the Hundred-Thousand-Mile Heavenly Flower bloomed, and Lennok and Martina’s paths connected.
In that moment, Lennok understood why Martina could become the Guardian Spirit Beast of the Flame Flower.
He also realized why she could perceive and use various abilities, including the Hundred-Thousand-Mile Heavenly Flower.
A glass-like shattered sky. A grotesquely distorted black halo.
The symbol of the Ascendant Ban-gung, which he had confirmed multiple times in Kabahim.
The familiar [memory] he hadn’t expected to find within her.
She wasn’t using the Flame Flower’s power against her will, nor was she born as a Guardian Spirit Beast.
Martina was, in fact, a being from the past, directly connected to Ban-gung.
“…”
The ancient swordsmanship Maiya had pointed out. Her inability to recognize Conjunction Spellcraft despite guarding Gateway City.
Perhaps these were all evidence that she was an old soul, existing decades ago, not in the current era.
Come to think of it, perhaps even that clue had already been given.
Ever since finishing the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors affair, Lennok had continuously encountered traces left by his past self.
He had even wondered if Jain’s visit to this city and his words were somehow related to that.
Complex thoughts flashed rapidly in an instant. Simultaneously, another truth dawned.
Lennok had seen Martina’s inner self and understood that she knew the Lennok of the past.
What about the opposite, then?
“…”
Martina did not answer.
She merely stared silently at Lennok with a strange expression, then weakly lowered her head.
The intense battle, as if a lie, was replaced by a profound aura, so calm it felt serene.
As the other members, tensing up at her incomprehensible reaction, stepped back, at that moment–
THUD!!
Martina let the greatsword she was holding fall to the floor.
“…”
“…”
A tense atmosphere, everyone’s attention fixed on Martina.
In the endless silence, she quietly spoke.
“It seems I’ve completely misjudged the situation.”
“What?”
“Did you say you intend to go to Paradise Lost?”
WHOSH-WHOSH-WHOSH!!!!!
The scattered violet flames faded, revealing the blue sky.
The surrounding temperature rapidly dropped, and Gateway City returned to its original serene landscape.
The Guardian, having withdrawn her power and calmed her will-thought, slowly raised her gaze.
“I will help. Shall I cooperate in adjusting the veil to locate it?”
“…That is.”
The burnt-out plains, a mess. The bewildered members, unable to follow the situation.
Ermont mumbled, dumbfounded.
“What… what in the world is happening right now?”
“My mind has changed.”
Martina’s calm voice resonated quietly.
Even amidst it, her red eyes never left Lennok for a single moment.
“I will fully cooperate with you on this matter.”