Chapter 1402: Paradise Lost (13)
Crackle, crackle…!!!!
Inside the vast, violet pyramid structure, half-destroyed and crumbling.
The ceiling and walls of the layered Cradle burned and collapsed, and beyond them, blue lightning flashed.
A searing blue lightning, remaining like a scar in this spacetime even after leaving Lennok’s hand, incinerating Jinwa’s Incarnation Body.
Kwoooooooo!!!!
Strange, violet-glowing characters scattered violently, altering reality.
It eliminated oxygen and mana, halted the circulation of heat, and negated the existence of mass.
But even within the Spell-Word that was turning Paradise Lost into a hellscape, the lightning did not vanish—
“…Ha, ugh.”
Crack!!
Staggering to its feet, the Incarnation Body’s face turned cold as it saw the lightning bolt embedded in its shoulder.
Slowly raising a hand, she unhesitatingly gripped the light of the Flash Thunder piercing her shoulder.
Paying no mind to her hand burning and melting away, she pulled it straight out of her shoulder.
Sizzle, szzzzz…!!
Pungent violet smoke billowed up as the decay, starting from her fingertips, traveled up her arm to her shoulder.
The Incarnation Body representing the will of an Ascendant. A lightning of ruin that instantly necrotized a body comparable to a demigod’s within Paradise Lost.
It destroyed the very functions of the flesh, including skin, muscle, nerves, and senses, and even seemed to interfere with the soul’s resonance.
Boiling pain. Beyond the backlash that clouded judgment, it left an irreversible wound on consciousness itself.
A lightning that had reached one of the most dangerous extremes among all the unique abilities and spellcraft she had ever faced.
“Kuk, ah, hahat…”
However, the Ascendant didn’t even scream as she pulled the lightning from her shoulder.
She stared down the lightning that would have trampled and burned the consciousness or spirit of any other Transcendent, her eyes bloodshot, and sneered self-deprecatingly.
Biting her lip until blood trickled down, she simply turned slowly toward Lennok with a ghastly expression.
Fwaaaaaa!!!
Fragments of lightning scattered from Jinwa’s fingertips, fluttering like blue wings.
The shards of lightning dancing between her fingers tore into and ravaged its body until the very end.
Looking down at her left arm, which had instantly turned a deathly black, Jinwa spoke with a frigid expression.
“Yes, I thought you were enduring it all too quietly… You were up to some useless tricks.”
“…”
“The moment your consciousness connected to my Spell-Word. You thought you could target me and kill my true body in one go? Did you really think such a pathetic idea would work?”
Kwoong!!
The Ascendant flicked a finger, toppling a piece of debris, and walked forward.
“Even if you target my true body directly, I can just sever the connection to the Incarnation Body. There’s nowhere left for you to run now.”
“…”
Jinwa’s expression as she looked at Lennok was unnervingly cold.
“From the moment you entered my garden, you became beings subservient to my Spell-Word. You might be able to remain free, but the insects that crawled in with you won’t be so lucky. How long do you think you can last?”
“You’re misunderstanding something.”
Crackle!!
As he casually turned his wrist, a searing blue current flowed between Lennok’s fingers.
With each moment he slowly tapped the air as if playing a piano, ripples of lightning erupted.
The moment Jinwa’s complexion changed slightly at the overflowing blue light, Lennok snatched the lightning flowing through the air and spoke.
“I’m not saying I’ll kill your true body right here. It’s enough to immobilize it for a while, or even just find its location.”
“…”
“Based on the evidence left in this Cradle, it’s clear you’re trying to melt your own body and be ‘reborn’ as a god.”
Lennok took a step, matching Jinwa’s pace, and said.
“In that case, your true body must not be in a state where it can move physically. That’s likely even more true now, having paid a heavy price in the fight against Myeong.”
“…”
“Therefore, I think that if I can just find the location where your true body is contained-”
Fzzt-zzzzzt!!!!
Lennok’s eyes, buried within the blazing lightning, flashed coldly.
“There shouldn’t be any difficulty in achieving my objective.”
“We’ll see. Why don’t you give it a try?”
Crack!!
Crushing her necrotized left arm and blowing away the scattering lightning fragments, Jinwa laughed coldly.
“You, who remembers nothing, certainly have a lot to say. Do you really think you can defeat me in this garden?”
“…”
“Even the Three Grand Dukes must bow their heads quietly within my Paradise Lost… How dare an incomplete destroyer like you think you can surpass me?”
Ch-rrrrrrrk!!!!
Strange, violet-flashing characters swirled around Jinwa like a storm.
Symbols that had yet to take meaningful form were assembled in real time, becoming tangible Spell-Words.
With a gesture from Jinwa, they transformed into all sorts of spellcraft and unique abilities, raining down on Lennok’s head like a bombardment.
[Memory Absorption]
[Incantation Reproduction]
[Will-thought Regeneration]
[Simultaneous Deployment of Multi-Attribute Resonance Conversion Parallel Incantations]
Kiiiiiiing-!!!!!
Knowledge and memories swallowed by Paradise Lost. Spellcraft and incantations devoured by the Ideological Domain were born as if reproduced from across time.
Molten rock fell like a meteor shower, and waves of fire surged. Blades rained from the sky, and polearms collided and exploded.
[Jade Star: Sea Suppression][Rain of a Thousand Chained Swords][Flame Star: Illusory Ring][Forked Flying Spear][Eye of Nature][Six-Colored Star Cluster]
Kwagwagwagwagwagwa!!!!!
A bombardment that poured down spellcraft and unique abilities transcending attributes and systems, simply by using Spell-Word to replace the incantations.
But Lennok didn’t stop, stepping through the bombardment falling from all sides as he gathered his mana.
The moment he placed his palm against the air and pushed lightly, a sharp pulse of lightning spread out and flashed.
Lennok’s body accelerated like a flash of lightning, piercing through the bombardment at incredible speed and running through Jinwa.
[Dominating Thunder]
“…!!!”
Fwaaaaaang!!!
The sound of the air tearing apart only erupted after Lennok had brushed past Jinwa, his hand on her shoulder.
Following the explosive acceleration that transcended sound, a searing blue trail of lightning followed like a lit fuse and pierced the Incarnation Body’s flesh.
Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!
A majestic scene as a pillar of searing blue lightning erupted diagonally, sweeping through the spot where the Incarnation Body had stood and soaring high into the sky.
Jinwa, who had managed to protect herself by wrapping herself in a Spell-Word at the last moment, staggered, clutching her neck with her unharmed right hand.
“Ugh…!!! You!!!”
Despite casting consecutive Spell-Words of protection, isolation, barriers, and preservation, it had only bought her time.
Each was a great Spell-Word capable of changing the environment of Paradise Lost, yet if she had been a moment late, her head might have exploded.
Proof that in terms of instantaneous firepower, the lightning wielded by the wizard before her surpassed even her own Spell-Words activated within Paradise Lost.
“A murderer’s tricks-!!!”
[Shatter]
[Split]
[Rend]
With a single light gesture, the strange characters combined to form a Spell-Word that altered the world.
Jinwa, cloaked in a Spell-Word that split and tore space thousands of times, and Lennok, who had seized lightning, turned toward each other.
Amidst a distant halo of light that seemed to tilt all of Paradise Lost, they unleashed spellcraft at each other with tremendous speed.
[Invert]
[Explode]
[Thunder-Piercing Stab]
[Circuital Resonance]
Kiiiiiiiiiing-
Consciousness accelerated madly, and time stretched out, slowing to an infinite crawl.
The authority of Transcendent beings, splitting an instant into an instant again, dividing it thousands of times.
Intuition reaching near-light speed intersected on the collapsing battlefield, piercing each other’s will-thought and flesh.
Lightning and Spell-Words, split into thousands of strands, exploded behind Lennok and Jinwa as they moved their hands almost simultaneously.
With a thunderous roar, it began to run rampant, crushing and annihilating the melting Cradle.
“Kuk…!!”
“Wizard!!!!”
D-d-d-d-d-d-d-dong!!!!!
On the other side of his rampaging consciousness, he madly exchanged spellcraft with the Ascendant before him.
He unleashed lightning to push back her will-thought, burned space, and clashed hundreds of times in an instant.
Ignoring the Spell-Words that choked his throat and tied his tongue, he omitted hand signs and slammed incantations into her side.
Crushed lightning and Spell-Words scattered before his eyes, obstructing cognition and forcibly halting his thoughts.
In an instant, Jinwa was pierced through as more than six bolts of lightning slammed into her body.
Fwububububung!!!!
“Haaak…!!!”
But even after being pierced through by the barrage of lightning, the Incarnation Body did not lose its ability to fight.
Eternal Thunder and Flash Rupture. Six Gates and Flying Spear. White Fall and Heavenly Convergence. It was struck simultaneously by six different spells yet merely turned back to Lennok with a ghastly expression.
Could she really withstand Lennok’s lightning head-on like this, lightning that had gained transcendence after the Subjugation Operation?
What was more astonishing wasn’t the Incarnation Body’s flesh, which was continuously breaking down, but the Ascendant’s consciousness that was enduring the hits.
Excruciating pain beyond limits must be assaulting both her mind and soul in real time, yet she ignored it and continued to fight—the crazed mental fortitude of a Spell-Word user.
Jinwa, riddled with lightning and being swallowed by blue light, still reached out, drew a character in the air, and activated a Spell-Word.
[Cognitive Domain Collapse]
[Deviation from Line of Observation]
[Conceptual Domain Substitution]
[Commence Ideological Reversal]
Hwaak!!!!
In that moment, the image of Jinwa before Lennok’s eyes flipped upside down, and left and right were reversed.
The lightning that pierced the air struck not in front of Lennok, but behind him, soaring not toward the sky, but from the ground.
The entire landscape of Paradise Lost before him turned upside down, spinning dizzily in a bizarre display.
[Substitute Up(上) for Down(下)]
[Substitute Left(左) for Right(右)]
[Substitute Front(前) and Back(後)]
“…!!”
If he fired a spell forward, it would reverse and come back at him.
If he swung to the right, it would twist to the left; if he looked up, he would be looking down.
A tremendous authority that, in an instant, twisted and contorted the five senses, intuition, and consciousness used to cast spells.
It hadn’t directly interfered with Lennok’s five senses or consciousness, which possessed Targeted Resistance.
In that instant, to make Lennok’s spellcraft miss, Jinwa had flipped her entire world.
Sensing this, Lennok also bit his lip with a cold expression and moved his hands.
Kwaaaaaang!!!!
He scattered lightning as if flicking it away, twisted his body, and turned his shoulder to dodge the Spell-Word exploding before him.
His vision blurred, sound faded, and both oxygen and mana hit rock bottom, crying out in extreme pain and absence.
A transcendent Spell-Word that didn’t directly touch Lennok’s senses and consciousness, but rather modified and altered her own world.
His opponent was a great Ascendant, outstanding in both martial and literary arts, enough to have earned the title of Whispering Grand General.
The transcendent Spell-Words she wielded with an Incarnation Body, and the terrifying combat prowess she displayed, were both chilling to the bone.
A close-quarters battle where every moment felt like walking on a knife’s edge, something he had only felt in the final moments of his decisive battle against the Grand General in the Demonic Realm.
However—
“If you’re using Spell-Words to alter the world and reverse all existing concepts—”
Lennok muttered coldly as he drew up his mana.
“Then all I have to do is rebuild my spellcraft from scratch to match it.”
Kwajik!!!
[Focused Lightning Convergence]
He focused the lightning to slam through and crush the barrier of the Spell-Word.
[Sky-Shattering Thunder Brand]
The thunderous roar that burst forth tore through the atmosphere and invaded the gap in the Incarnation Body’s defense.
Even amidst the inverted and twisted concepts and senses, he walked backward without a single mistake or error, looked down, and reversed the order and direction of his incantations.
[Chanting Thunder]
[Thunder Void Pupil]
The balance of power that had been briefly stalemated collapsed, and the lightning swallowed the Spell-Word.
The moment he began to faintly read the Ascendant’s movements and strategies beyond his accelerating consciousness.
In the blink of an eye, Lennok exploited an opening in Jinwa’s defense, pierced the Incarnation Body’s side, and instantly unleashed his spellcraft.
[Thunder Seal]
Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!
A silver-white flash of lightning shot up from the ground to the sky, drawing a beautiful cluster of stars.
The radiance of the far-reaching lightning shimmered with a heat that seemed to contain countless stars.
Swept away by the radiance of the Thunder Seal, Jinwa’s form broke through dozens of barriers and was thrown out of the Cradle.
Kwaaaaaang!!!!
“Kuk, ah…!!!”
A wretched figure, impaled by bolts of lightning, every nerve in her body necrotized and blackened.
But even then, Jinwa’s eyes shone fiercely as she glared at Lennok.
“Not yet…”
The Incarnation Body rose with a ghastly expression and muttered.
“This… this is far from enough. Far!!!!”
“…”
“True Word Release. Ideology, Annihilation(滅)—”
At that moment, Jinwa, who had just been getting up, faltered and collapsed back down.
Thud!
“Ah…?”
A strange sense of unease, as if she couldn’t control her own body.
For the first time, an unconcealable agitation spread faintly across her face.
Something was different.
Different from the spellcraft wielded by the great sorcerers she remembered from the Empire’s golden age.
Different from the simple destruction magic used by the base, worldly wizards she so despised.
It instantly necrotized the Incarnation Body, transmitting the shock to her true body with terrifying intensity.
“Indeed, facing an Ascendant directly within their Ideological Domain would be madness.”
Lennok said coldly, looking at the staggering Incarnation Body.
“But did you really think a mere Incarnation Body, not the Ascendant herself, could be my opponent?”
“…”
“I don’t know how arrogant you are, but you can’t defeat me with the Spellcraft wielded by an Incarnation Body.”
Crackle…!!!
Grasping the searing blue, flickering lightning, Lennok walked toward Jinwa.
“From now on, I will engrave that fact clearly onto your true body as well.”
After accessing the Imperial Palace Archive in Kabahim and recognizing his past self, Lennok’s lightning had already crossed a ‘line’.
In the Subjugation Operation, Lennok had finally gained transcendence, awakened to Ultimate Lightning, and obtained a way to control the lightning that had reached the other side.
From the moment he obtained the Corrupted Golden Rule from the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors and saw causality, his combat ability had reached a level that could no longer be contained by the shackles of mortality.
Even if his opponent was an Ascendant, as long as she wasn’t present in person, he could seize victory even in the heart of her Ideological Domain.
However, Jinwa didn’t react properly even after hearing that utterly chilling warning.
“Kuk, huhu…”
With a face contorted in pain, she stared blankly at Lennok, then chuckled and lowered her head.
With her body collapsing from necrosis, she convulsed and rose to her feet, muttering.
“Yes, is this the new power you’ve obtained?”
“…”
The Incarnation Body’s way of speaking was completely different from before.
But the tone the Ascendant muttered in next was different again.
“To think that you, who abandoned everything and returned, have once again obtained such an undeserved authority. It has been a long time since I felt a pain that reaches the very depths of my mind after abandoning my flesh.”
“…”
“Yes… looking back, you never cherished the things you had.”
Staggering toward Lennok, Jinwa’s voice sank to an endlessly chilling depth.
“You never understood what a blessed being you were, and you would give up things we could only obtain through struggle with an almost absurd ease.”
“…”
“Even after obtaining the Heavenly Abasement Spellcraft, you only poured time into incomprehensible, utterly meaningless things. I was so disillusioned by your actions…”
“Blabber all you want.”
Lennok took a step.
“Next, I’ll hear it directly from your true body.”
“No, there’s no need for that.”
The Incarnation Body lifted its ruined face and smiled blankly.
“I’ve lost. I tried to endure it… but seeing you, who knows nothing and has forgotten everything, I can’t take it anymore.”
“…What?”
“Rather than let someone else reveal it, I’ll go and greet you myself.”
Kugugugugugu!!!!!
At that moment, the axis of the world shook, and a deafening roar erupted as the Cradle collapsed.
No, Lennok realized at the same time that it wasn’t that.
It was her Ideological Domain, which Jinwa had moved to the vicinity of the Yeongheo Palace.
The entirety of Paradise Lost, constructed from language and knowledge, was cracking apart and rising.
“In my lost paradise, no birds fly, and no flowers bloom.”
The Incarnation Body muttered as if singing, still collapsed on the ground.
Kwajik!! Udududuk!!
With every word she uttered, the Incarnation Body’s form was crushed.
“I will become a whisper that crosses the violet barrier and vanishes like a bubble.”
Kwadeudeuk!!
Its body, pierced and burned by lightning, was being crushed, its limbs mangled until it was nearly a lump of meat, but.
“I will wear away until the lyrics lose their meaning and become a curse.”
Ujijijik!!!
Nevertheless, the whisper of the blood-soaked, fallen Incarnation Body continued without stopping.
“I will whisper, sing, record, remember, ruminate, and finally, bloom again—”
Kiiiiiiiii-
A chilling tearing sound, as if time were stretching.
The Incarnation Body, looking up at Lennok with bloodshot eyes, muttered as if spitting out the words.
“And ascend to a divine throne that transcends this lowly world.”
KWANG!!!!
With those words, a massive Spell-Word Stone fell from the air, crushing the Incarnation Body into a handful of meat.
At the same time, the shock of the Spell-Word Stone’s impact spread throughout Paradise Lost, setting off a massive earthquake in all directions.
Kugugugugugu…!!!!!
The Spell-Word Stone resonates. The orchard shakes.
The Spell-Word Stone resonates. The orchard collapses.
The Spell-Word Stone resonates. The orchard opens.
Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!
Bizarrely distorted, alien structures of unrecognizable shape shot up from all directions, stretching to the horizon.
A heretical sanctuary of unrealistic size, far beyond human scale and measurement, prepared solely for worship.
The true body of the Ascendant Jinwa was ‘contained’ there.