Chapter 1401: Paradise Lost (12)

KUUOOOOOH!!!!

The lavish drawing room shook violently, and the Ascendant, her eyes rolled back white, rose from her seat.

Without a moment to process the emotional turmoil, Lennok kicked his chair back and stood, drawing up his mana.

BANG!!

“Tower Lord…!”

Before the bewildered Freya could finish speaking, the Eight Trigrams Formation materialized behind Lennok and began to spin.

A golden halo erupted outward, accelerating Lennok’s consciousness to its absolute limit.

KIIIIING-!!!

‘Among the fallen Ascendants, she is a being of unparalleled danger and malice.’

Within his slowed consciousness, where time seemed to stand still, Lennok was lost in thought.

‘Fighting inside Paradise Lost, it will be virtually impossible to seize the initiative. If I don’t go all out from the start…!’

An Ideological Domain is a small world where the Ascendant’s standards alone become law and rule.

Moreover, his opponent was a Transcendent who could freely modify the rules and precepts of her Ideological Domain with Spell-Word.

Inside this Paradise Lost, Jinwa was like a living god, a law unto herself with its own consciousness.

If he showed even the slightest opening, he would be defeated before he could even make a proper move.

FWAAAAAAH-!!!

Expanding his consciousness to its limit, Lennok drew upon every single innate ability and authority within him.

Anathema’s Eight Trigrams Formation. The Automeus Automated Calculus. The Quasi-Authority: Corrupted Golden Rule. The Mystic Eye of Possibility and the Revelation Ability.

Transcendent authorities and abilities that amplified his spirituality, protected his mind, and interfered with causality unfolded simultaneously.

“My words aren’t finished, yet you make a foolish move.”

Jinwa twisted her lips into a sneer, looking at Lennok with her eyes rolled back white.

“[Sit]. Do you want to die?”

KWAAAAAANG!!!!!

In that instant, the entire surrounding spacetime pressed down on Lennok’s shoulders, forcibly crushing him to the ground.

Lennok gritted his teeth against the unimaginable pressure that crushed both his body and soul.

“…!!!”

The moment she commanded Lennok, all of Paradise Lost obeyed her will, a miracle that bent and crushed space itself.

Even though the Spell-Word didn’t affect Lennok directly due to his Targeted Resistance, the sheer output of power was immense.

A chilling pressure, as if her words had become a tangible weight that physically crushed and forcibly bent spacetime.

Is this the level of unrealistic authority a Level 9 Ascendant’s Spell-Word wields within their own world?

But the Ascendant seemed even more impressed by Lennok’s resistance.

“Resisting my Spell-Word without using any spellcraft… you didn’t have this ability before.”

Watching the convulsing Lennok, Jinwa took a step forward, her eyes still a blank white.

“Did you gain a special constitution or spirituality? No, that alone wouldn’t be enough to withstand my Spell-Word like this. What is it?”

“Kuhk…!!!”

“To think you’d finally show your face before me, yet your inner thoughts remain as hard to read as ever.”

Jinwa’s voice turned infinitely cold.

“Just what have you been doing all this time? Shall I split your head open right here and find out?”

“I knew it. Your offer to return my memories… was just part of a proposal based on your own interests from the start.”

Breaking out in a cold sweat, Lennok struggled to lift his gaze and smiled.

“If you can, then try it, Ascendant.”

“Insolent words-”

PAT!!

In that instant, Lennok’s form, which had been bowing its head before Jinwa, vanished from the spot.

Almost simultaneously, Jinwa’s expression twisted as she snapped her gaze to the opposite side of the drawing room.

It was the moment Lennok had reappeared behind Freya, who had been frozen in her chair as if bound to it.

“[Sto-]”

“From here on, this is a realm even I cannot control.”

Before Jinwa could finish her word, Lennok placed a hand on Freya’s shoulder, and a deep darkness swallowed her.

“You should stay inside for a bit.”

“Tower Lo-”

WHOOSH!!!

Engulfed in black darkness, Freya’s form vanished from within the Ideological Domain in the blink of an eye.

Only then did Jinwa realize Lennok had been forcing himself to endure the Spell-Word. She cracked her neck, her expression glacial.

“You… you never intended to face me with strength from the very beginning.”

“…”

“Did you pretend to take my Spell-Word just to retrieve that bug first? To deliberately pique my interest?”

Staring at Lennok with her pupilless white eyes, Jinwa’s expression contorted in displeasure.

“Such a trivial act… You dared to prioritize something so insignificant in my presence? I cannot comprehend it.”

“Because if Freya got caught up in my decision and died, it would leave a bad taste in my mouth.”

He had rejected Jinwa’s proposal because it was unacceptable, but if he fought her as things stood, Freya would inevitably be caught in the crossfire.

No matter how skilled a Musical Scale Spellcraft user Freya was, it would be impossible for her to protect herself in a fight like this.

That was why Lennok had endured Jinwa’s Spell-Word to draw the Ascendant’s attention, using the opening to secure Freya first.

Simply not having to worry about Freya during the battle significantly reduced the number of variables he had to consider.

Although that fact alone couldn’t guarantee victory in the immediate battle against Jinwa—

“Ascendant, I have heard your proposal. If I had my way, I’d settle this right here and now, but…”

Lennok replied as he turned away, having stored Freya within the darkness of the Demonic Giant.

“It would be foolish to waste my strength against an Incarnation Body that isn’t even your true self.”

The Jinwa before Lennok’s eyes was not the Ascendant’s true body, but an incarnation representing her will.

She was no different from a being created by processing a living human into an Incarnation Body, making them her apostle.

Even if I risk my life to kill it here, it won’t dramatically change the current situation.

What Lennok wanted was to retrieve Myeong’s Legacy, not to waste his energy trying to kill an Incarnation Body.

Jinwa’s appearance had complicated matters, but in the end, what had to be done was—

“What nonsense. Do you really think you can escape after crawling into my garden on your own two feet?”

Jinwa slowly wriggled her fingers.

“Honestly, whether you’re a bug or not, you all think the same way. Acting first without thinking of the consequences, then pathetically consoling yourselves that it’ll somehow work out.”

“…”

“Fine. Go ahead, run as much as you want.”

The Ascendant raised her mana and brought a hand to her lips.

“I’ll teach you in a way you’ll never forget that you’re dreaming a futile dream.”

KIIIIING-

In the center of the lavish drawing room, Lennok’s and the Ascendant’s mana simultaneously accelerated and flared.

In the instant their consciousnesses, accelerated to the limit, clashed and distorted as if about to explode.

The two Transcendents shattered the table and collided in the center of the drawing room at tremendous speed.

KWAAAAAAAANG!!!!

Lennok’s hands, cloaked in deep darkness, and Jinwa’s pale, bloodless hands crossed swiftly in mid-air.

They slid past each other’s wrists and forearms, repeatedly clashing at incredible speed in a fraction of a second.

Fragments of black magic and violet Spell-Word scattered, as Spell-Words were assembled in real-time from all directions.

[Impact Trajectory Diversion]

[Positional Coordinate Conversion]

[High-Speed Combat Continuation]

PABABABABANG!!!!

‘Her skill…!’

Lennok, gripping his black magic, rapidly closed the distance, while Jinwa’s form parried his assault with an expressionless face.

Jinwa’s form flickered in mid-air as if dancing, deflecting every burst of black magic and every fist strike Lennok threw.

A chilling display of skill, using Spell-Word to ceaselessly alter the Incarnation Body’s posture and movements to continue the engagement.

CRUNCH!!

“Surprised? I know a little something, having once held the rank of Grand General.”

As if reading his thoughts, Jinwa grabbed Lennok’s wrist and asked.

“I use Spell-Word to [ensure the exchange somehow continues], and I bear the burden of the process. If the result is already decided, creating the process isn’t difficult, is it?”

“…!!”

“I didn’t expect you to start with hand-to-hand combat. Did you really throw a gamble, hoping to catch me off guard? If you attacked with such a shallow thought, I’m disappointed.”

Jinwa’s expression turned cold as she looked down at Lennok’s face.

“Then, shall we get serious now?”

[Breathing within this space is forbidden.]

WHOOK-!

In that moment, Lennok felt his throat tighten and his expression faintly hardened.

She hadn’t used Spell-Word to forcibly stop his cardiopulmonary functions. She knew that Spell-Words did not directly affect Lennok.

She had cast her Spell-Word over all of Paradise Lost, completely eradicating all oxygen within the Cradle—

TAK!!

TATATATATANG!!!

Before he could even finish the thought, Jinwa’s hands moved fluidly in the air, assembling a Spell-Word.

With each moment she combined letters to form a Spell-Word, her hands passed through space to pierce Lennok’s defenses.

A fierce barrage that left no room to breathe. A chaotic flurry of attacks that even a superior superhuman couldn’t endure for long.

No matter how powerful a warrior, one cannot fight for long without breathing.

After a short time, it was a certainty that Lennok’s limbs would fail, and he would suffocate to death.

However—

KWAAANG!!!

Lennok’s body shattered the drawing room wall and was sent flying into a bathtub far away in an instant.

“Cough…!!”

Lennok had escaped the drawing room Jinwa had created and returned to the Cradle where the boy had guided him earlier.

But Jinwa’s expression was coldly settled as she watched Lennok, soaked in the tub’s mucus.

“A magician to the end… you have some pathetic tricks. Don’t tell me you’re synthesizing your own oxygen to survive?”

“Hah, hah…!!!”

The Cradle where Jinwa and Lennok now clashed was essentially an apnea zone, its oxygen depleted by her Spell-Word.

But even in that state, Lennok continued to fight Jinwa on equal terms, trying to create distance.

Something impossible unless he was completely unaffected by Jinwa’s Spell-Word that had erased the oxygen in this space.

“…I’ve fought a few times underwater where I couldn’t breathe.”

Lennok replied, using water-breathing magic to synthesize oxygen as he pulled his mucus-drenched body to its feet.

“I’m used to fighting with various restrictions.”

“Is that so?”

Jinwa walked out from behind the shattered wall of the Cradle and murmured coldly.

“Then, can you endure [even without mana]?”

JJEEOOONG!!!

In that instant, this time, all the mana flowing around Lennok vanished.

A void, as if the fundamental particles that exist throughout the world, beyond specific spacetime, had disappeared.

Before he could even notice, a pale radiance shot from Jinwa struck Lennok squarely in the head.

[Evaporate]

TTEOEOOONG!!!

Struck directly by the beam carrying immense heat, Lennok’s form staggered violently.

As he took a step, Jinwa landed before him, extended a hand, and spoke.

[Break]

[Be crushed]

[Be severed]

TATATATATANG!!!!

A simple Spell-Word that specified neither a subject nor an object.

But even that simple declaration became a destruction spellcraft of transcendent power in this Paradise Lost, slamming into Lennok’s body.

Even while unable to cast a Spell-Word directly on Lennok, she used the pure output of her Spell-Word as a weapon, a merciless hand shattering his defenses.

KWANG!!

Beyond the walls of the Cradle, where corpses were piled like mountains, the forms of Lennok and Jinwa continued to slide.

Lennok leaped over the debris to create distance, but Jinwa closed the gap in an instant with light steps.

The Ascendant’s bombardment, approaching like a ghost amidst the meteorite-like falling debris, relentlessly unleashing Spell-Words.

His shields were utterly crushed. Looking down at his bloodied arms, Lennok’s gaze turned cold.

‘The scope of her Spell-Word is too vast. It’s impossible to counter with just one method or means…!’

She wasn’t even using a proper authority, just tossing out simple Spell-Words, yet it was suffocating.

With each Spell-Word added during the battle, another means of resistance was cut off, a chilling sensation like being slowly strangled.

Even by simultaneously operating the Eight Trigrams Formation, his Quasi-Authority, his Mystic Eye, and all his other innate abilities, he could barely hold on.

No, perhaps the fact that he was confronting an Ascendant like this within her Ideological Domain was a miracle in itself.

Even when he slowed time with the Eight Trigrams Formation, Jinwa’s movements accelerated beyond his perceived time.

He peered into the cross-section of causality with the Corrupted Golden Rule, but all of her causality was already severed.

Even when calculating the battle with the Automeus Automated Calculus and predicting with the Mystic Eye of Possibility, the quantifiable survival probability converged to 0%.

A monster against whom individual authorities and abilities were ineffective; only by combining several at once could he barely read her movements.

[In this space-]

But Jinwa’s Spell-Word did not stop there.

[Light is forbidden from entering.]

WHOOSH!!

The light illuminating the world vanished, and his vision darkened.

[The effect of gravity is forbidden.]

His feet, which had been running ceaselessly, lifted off the ground, and he lost his balance.

THUD, THUD!!!

Giant Spell-Word Stones fell throughout the Cradle, a bizarre phenomenon that overturned and enforced physical laws.

Light, oxygen, mana, gravity, heat, mass—everything was being altered, transformed, and distorted.

[Conversion and quantification of positional coordinates are forbidden.]

[The generation and circulation of heat are forbidden.]

[The fixing of the coefficient of friction is forbidden.]

Spell-Words that fiercely yet steadily escalated in intensity, as if to test just how far Lennok could endure.

In that moment, Lennok intuited that she intended to capture him here.

Was she constantly pushing him to find his limits, planning to capture him alive the moment he could no longer endure?

But even as he was rapidly being pushed to his limit, Lennok was calculating his timing.

‘Not yet…!’

He synthesized oxygen to breathe and used mana detection to replace his five senses instead of his naked eyes.

He leaped and flickered through the debris of the Cradle, which was becoming like a zero-gravity zone, parrying the destructive Spell-Words that rained down in real-time.

While performing all these actions and trying to escape, his internal mana was only being consumed one-sidedly, with no chance to recover.

TEOTEOK!!

The balance of his body, maintained by the power of drugs, began to collapse, and his steps started to falter.

The quality of the forcibly synthesized oxygen dropped, leaving him short of breath and his head burning up.

His mana was depleting at a rapid rate. Above him, the bombardment intensified, threatening to crush him.

In the midst of it all, the Spell-Words meant to gauge Lennok’s limits were becoming denser and more restrictive, when…

Finally, the Ascendant uttered the Spell-Word Lennok had been waiting for.

[Target Designation. By the old covenant, I command.]

KUGUGUGU!!!!

A Spell-Word with a transcendent output, incomparable to the light ones she had used so far.

Literally a direct command to Paradise Lost, one that drew upon the Ascendant’s own consciousness—

[Ideological Collapse. Revers-]

KIIIIK!!!

In that instant, Lennok, who had been keeping his back to Jinwa and creating distance, abruptly bent his knees and lowered his stance.

He used Mana Threads to support his convulsing limbs, and in the instant he rotated his waist to turn around,

Jinwa’s eyes widened for a moment as she faced the blue lightning flashing in Lennok’s hand.

“That is-”

CRACKLE, SPARKLE…!!!

A chilling flash of lightning that rendered all the Spell-Words and restraints she had placed on this space meaningless.

In the accelerated perception of time, there was no room to utter a proper word.

In the instant Lennok twisted his shoulder from his spot and rotated one arm low, as if brushing the ground,

the bolt of lightning shot from Lennok’s fingertips, pierced Jinwa’s shoulder at incredible speed, and exploded.

[Flash Thunder]

BOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

A flash of lightning distorted like a sharp spear of thunder, piercing through Jinwa’s vitals like a flash of light.

“…!!!”

With a pale expression, Jinwa gripped the bolt of Flash Thunder lodged in her shoulder, stumbling back.

It wasn’t a simple lightning bolt made of mana. It was a single strike that nullified every Spell-Word Jinwa had used in this space.

No, it was a chilling power, enough to damage her very consciousness that was moving through the Incarnation Body—

“You…!!”

Only then did the woman’s face, realizing Lennok’s aim, twist into a chilling expression for the first time.

Jinwa glared sharply at Lennok, her expression completely different from a moment ago.

“From the start, you were aiming for ‘me’. Such a pathetic trick—!!!!”

“If you made a living human into an Incarnation Body, the connection to your true body must be made through consciousness.”

KUGUGUGU!!!

Lennok said, turning to face Jinwa amidst the collapsing debris.

“The more powerful the Spell-Words you use to capture me… the stronger the connection between you and your true body will become.”

From the moment he rejected Jinwa’s proposal, Lennok had no intention of running away from the Incarnation Body.

In the first place, escaping from Paradise Lost after his location was discovered by her was meaningless.

He would let the Incarnation Body continue using Spell-Words to strengthen its connection to the true body, and in that state, kill the Incarnation Body to damage her true body as well.

“If I can inflict direct damage on your true body now, you won’t be able to rampage so recklessly. And if by some chance, a trace of it were to be revealed somewhere in Paradise Lost-”

Lennok’s eyes glinted coldly.

“I might even be able to detect the location of your hidden true body right here and now.”

“You…!!”

A remarkable sense, able to manipulate an Incarnation Body as if it were her own and conduct battle, despite having abandoned her human body long ago.

An overwhelming spirituality, capable of casually unleashing Spell-Words heavy enough to crush Lennok, who possessed Targeted Resistance.

A frenzied mental fortitude, enough to withstand Lennok’s lightning strike in an Incarnation Body and maintain consciousness for a moment.

He knew she was an opponent on a different level. But, precisely because of that—

he could not simply run away from this place.

“Judging by your reaction, it seems my guess wasn’t wrong.”

CRACKLE…!!!

Watching the staggering Jinwa with a chilling expression, Lennok gripped the pale blue lightning.

“Then, now it’s my turn.”