Chapter 1417: Paradise Lost (28)
WHOOOOSH!!!
The waterway spread around the mausoleum surged violently, churning like waves.
The candles lit on all sides were swept away by the pouring water, losing their light and extinguishing one after another.
CRACKLE, CRACKLE…!!!
Jinwa’s body, pierced by the brilliant blue lightning, could not maintain its form and collapsed.
The Ascendant’s flesh became a mass of purple-stained slime, scattering and decomposing.
Just as Lennok was about to unleash another bolt of lightning to incinerate her body.
[Perception Domain Collapse]
[Line of Observation Deviation]
[Conceptual Domain Substitution]
KIIIIING-!!!
Oxygen and mana in the vicinity of the mausoleum were abruptly cut off, and time began to flow slowly.
[True Word Opening]
[Timeline Transformation: Deceleration]
HWOOOOSH!!
“…!!”
On the other side of his accelerating consciousness, he felt his breath catch for a moment.
A preemptive strike that came without a single omen. A reality alteration wielded without even uttering a Spell-Word.
The snail-like mass of slime repeated a cycle of decomposition and assembly, instantly reconstructing its body.
CRUNCH!!!
Jinwa, having shattered spacetime and reclaimed her body, mercilessly thrust her pale hand into Lennok’s side.
CRACK, CRACK…!!
The protective barrier layered over his skin buckled and cracked, and numbing lightning shot out like shrapnel.
But Jinwa’s hand, wreathed in purple light, ignored the erupting lightning and pierced through Lennok’s side.
In the blink of an eye, she tore through the shield and slammed Lennok into the opposite wall of the mausoleum.
KWAAAAANG!!!!
Lennok’s body bounced off the wall and tumbled several times beneath the shallow waterway.
Unable to even scream, Lennok coughed up a mixture of water and blood as if retching.
“Kuhk…!!”
“Your reaction is slow. Did you think I couldn’t use a powerful True Word?”
Jinwa, looking down at Lennok with a cold face, casually flicked her hand.
Grotesque characters assembled along her fingertips, instantly wrapping around her forearm and staining it a deep purple.
KRRRRK!!!
“What doesn’t apply within Yeongheo Palace are the rules of Paradise Lost, not Spellcraft. By the Emperor’s command, I cannot permanently maintain a Spell-Word, but temporarily altering spacetime is more than possible.”
“…”
“I thought you would have prepared for at least this much, having faced me before turning back the time of Paradise Lost, but you fall far short of my expectations. Or perhaps…”
Jinwa’s eyes narrowed as she looked at the black crack spreading from Lennok’s hand.
“After going through the trouble of regressing once, have you only become weaker than you were then?”
CRACKLE, CRACKLE…!!
A black crack spread from the black ring on Lennok’s finger up to his forearm.
Each time the crack widened, his presence wavered as if staggering, and the size of his will-thought fluctuated drastically.
It was proof that he was experiencing a pain so immense that he lost his composure every moment the wound was stimulated.
For the will-thought of a Grand Mage who had attained transcendence to be shaken so, the pain he felt must be intense enough to literally tear his soul apart.
Finding this interesting, Jinwa focused her gaze to get a closer look at the crack, but Lennok casually covered his hand and rose to his feet.
“…The legacy.”
“What?”
“The secret hidden within the Corpse Emperor’s mausoleum… The key to open the [Gate].”
With a blue light flowing from his eyes, Lennok slowly raised his gaze.
“Myeong’s legacy was the cause itself, meant from the beginning to open the gate left in this Yeongheo Palace.”
“…”
“So… that’s why you swallowed Yeongheo Palace whole. Because the key and the lock were both inside. You thought if you swallowed and absorbed them both at once, it would somehow work out.”
“…You bastard.”
Don’t tell me, even in that brief moment of clashing with her, he was focused on investigating the [Gate]?
In the instant Jinwa, who had been standing near the jeweled coffin, stepped out to confront him, Lennok had seized the opportunity to ‘see’ the conditions required to open the [Gate].
“Indeed… you didn’t regress for nothing.”
Jinwa did not deny it, smiling coldly.
“But with that injured body, can you truly reach me?”
“Even so… I won’t disappoint you, so don’t worry.”
SPLASH!!
Lennok, rising from the waterway, spoke with a pale expression.
“Making excuses in a situation like this would be ridiculous. It’s not like either of us can afford to go easy.”
“…”
This was the second time he had faced Jinwa in her human form.
However, this opponent was not her Incarnation Body, but an Incarnation created by detaching a part of the Ascendant’s own true body.
A being manifested with the readiness to have part of its true body destroyed. The power of her Spell-Words and her combat prowess would be on a different level from before.
“You should be careful not to have a seizure like last time.”
FZZZT…!!!
But Lennok said nothing about the crack, instead summoning lightning and stepping forward.
“Let’s see how long it takes this time to reveal the bathtub containing your true body.”
“You’re trying to provoke me.”
But Jinwa remained unshaken by Lennok’s sharp words.
Instead, she merely stared intently at the lightning in Lennok’s hand with a cold, sunken gaze.
“I see… so that is the new transcendence you’ve obtained. It wouldn’t be strange that I was struck by that lightning once.”
“…”
“I can guess what happened. I sought you out in my Incarnation Body, and after a battle, I was defeated and revealed my true body, correct?”
Jinwa asked calmly.
“If the ‘me’ from the previous timeline faced that situation without knowing anything, it’s only natural that I would have been enraged. I would have thought you were trying to humiliate me until the very end.”
Something was different.
A bizarre composure, completely different from the Incarnation Body he had fought before the regression, or the rampaging true body.
The moment she saw his lightning magic, she was deducing what had happened before the regression with a clarity as if she held it in her hand.
Could she maintain such a contrasting attitude just by knowing beforehand that Paradise Lost’s time had been turned back once?
Just as Lennok, faced with Jinwa’s surprisingly calm demeanor, drew forth his lightning with a hardened expression.
“If I hadn’t met you here, I might have reached the same conclusion.”
Jinwa brought up a strange and completely unexpected remark.
“But now that I know you don’t remember the secret hidden here, I see the essence of it.”
“…What?”
“Yes… you didn’t come here to humiliate or mock me.”
Jinwa muttered slowly, waving her hand through the air.
“You’re just wandering through oblivion to learn the facts you can’t remember. You were human, just like us.”
“…”
“It took too long to realize that fact. Before, I couldn’t see it because of that transcendent authority and power…”
Lennok’s reflection appeared like a mirror in the Ascendant’s glittering pupils.
“But that is why I want that potential, which even the gods feared. I’ve made my decision right here, right now.”
“…”
“As I thought, it has to be you.”
Jinwa muttered the same words.
The words that the rampaging Jinwa, who was devouring Yeongheo Palace, had muttered as if in a fit before the time of Paradise Lost was turned back.
“As I thought, I cannot hand this mausoleum over to you-”
RUUUMBLE…!!!!!
The mausoleum where the two stood facing each other began to tremble violently as if in an earthquake.
A chilling sensation, as if something incredibly massive was rapidly rising from deep underground.
Like incomprehensible resentment and curses screaming simultaneously, crazedly gnawing at the earth-
KWAAAAANG!!!!!
[AAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!]
Hundreds of chains burst through the mausoleum’s floor and walls, screaming and wailing madly.
It was a form created by clumping together the upper torsos of humans, dyed in purple, into a sphere of human flesh.
The replicas of Aurel Silford, sleeping in the basement of Yeongheo Palace and controlled by Jinwa’s Spell-Words.
The moment the monsters, created by imitating the methods of the Fallen One, World-Soul, shed tears of blood and turned to face Lennok all at once.
“There will be no second miracle, wizard.”
Jinwa, standing at the center of those monsters, stared at Lennok with a chillingly expressionless face.
“Here and now, I will [not turn anything back]. In the first place, such a thing would not be permitted within this Yeongheo Palace.”
“…”
Has she already figured out how Lennok regressed and returned?
It wasn’t that Jinwa now recognized the existence of the boy, or that she had witnessed the previous timeline herself.
But she had realized that for a regression even she couldn’t remember to have occurred, it would be impossible without her own Spell-Word.
How such a thing was possible, why she turned back the time of Paradise Lost with her own Spell-Word—Jinwa no longer wondered, nor did she care.
She would simply and thoroughly seal off any remaining possibility of it happening again, and beat the wizard standing before her down to his very soul.
RUUUUUMBLE!!!!!
A mass of chains, woven from screaming humans bound by Spell-Words and Geas.
The Fallen Ones, writhing from all directions like worms surging and twisting their bodies, turned to Lennok simultaneously.
With a chilling roar, they rushed towards him at incredible speed.
[HAAAAAAAK!!!]
KWAAAANG!!!
The humans, flailing their purple-stained arms, crazily ground away the walls and floor of the mausoleum.
The sphere of human flesh, bound by surging chains, rotated violently, scattering a deafening roar.
“Hoo…!!”
FZZT!!
Lennok, shrouded in blue lightning amidst the rampaging Fallen Ones, twisted his shoulders and accelerated.
He became a single streak of flashing lightning, piercing through the Fallen Ones at incredible speed and soaring upwards as if bouncing off them.
[Chroma Absorption Flying Lightning]
[Leaping Flash]
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!!!
Blue lightning struck where the beam of light passed, incinerating the bodies of the Fallen Ones.
The monsters, feeling indescribable pain, screamed madly, their bodies trembling and convulsing.
[Kuaaaaaaaahk!!!]
THUD!!
Jinwa, who had landed on the writhing sphere of chains, brought a hand to her mouth.
She bit her thumb, drawing blood, and as she smeared it on her lips, she opened her mouth.
With a single phrase, she stopped the world.
[Do not move.]
CRRAAAAAACK!!!!
A basic Spell-Word that any Spell-Word user knows.
But the Spell-Word uttered by the Ascendant who created the continent’s common language was on a different level.
Oxygen vanished, the flow of atmospheric particles ceased. Mana stopped, and will-thought vanished.
Even the world’s time momentarily stopped, as if everything had frozen in place.
In that moment, Lennok felt a catching sensation in the air as his speed drastically dropped, and he turned his gaze with a hardened expression.
“…!!!”
She didn’t directly stop Lennok, who had Targeted Resistance.
Instead, she momentarily stopped the entire spacetime around him.
Jinwa, not even caring if her Spell-Word worked on Lennok, hammered the entire world with it-
KWAAAAANG!!!!
In an instant, with a powerful impact, Lennok’s body fell vertically and slammed into the mausoleum floor.
A spray of water stained red with blood shot up, and from within, a soaked Lennok stumbled to his feet.
HWOOK!!
Jinwa descended next to Lennok with a single gesture, slamming down dozens of overlapping purple Spell-Words.
[Tear][Crush][Warp][Mangle][Collapse][Accelerate][Scatter][Shatter]
CRACKLE…!!!
With every extension of her hand, particles collapsed, matter dissolved, and bonds were broken.
Jinwa’s hand, entwined with Spell-Words of destruction and annihilation, advanced like antimatter, erasing mass.
Lennok, spitting blood, turned his body and unleashed a bolt of blue lightning to counter Jinwa’s Spell-Words.
FZZT-!!
[True Word Opening: Annihilation Engraving]
[Piercing Collapse Thunder Brand]
[Lightning Reversal]
CRRAAAAAAACK!!!
Lightning exploded and Spell-Words echoed, clashing at supersonic speeds.
Lennok’s and Jinwa’s hands, grasping mana, crossed at invisible speeds, colliding repeatedly.
Each time, the mausoleum’s spacetime collapsed and realigned multiple times, warping as if being crushed.
KIIIIII!!!
The space groaned as it was crushed and warped, making a sound like scratching glass.
Their spellcrafts clashed hundreds of times per second, scattering shockwaves in all directions.
With each moment of the endless exchange, an unconcealable crack spread up Lennok’s arm.
Crack, crack-
As the black crack grew like a fissure on pottery, Lennok’s expression twisted faintly.
Not missing the opening, Jinwa tore through Lennok’s barrier with one hand and let out a chilling, ferocious cry.
[HOW LONG DO YOU THINK YOU CAN LAST!!!!]
KWADJIK!!
Her hand slipped past Lennok’s momentarily faltering arm and pierced his abdomen.
Grabbing his innards, she swung him as if to rip them out and slammed him onto the mausoleum floor.
KWAAAAANG!!!!!
“…!!”
Lennok, scattering blood, tumbled and barely stopped in front of the jeweled coffin.
A severe injury, with a chunk of flesh torn from his side, leaving him soaked in blood.
Even without being directly affected by the Spell-Words due to Targeted Resistance, this was the result of just the aftermath.
Coldly looking down at Lennok, collapsed and trembling in front of the jeweled coffin, Jinwa spoke.
“For someone who can’t even control his body from the pain, your skill is marvelous. Yes, my Incarnation Body would have stood no chance.”
“…Cough.”
“It seems you possess a combat ability that interferes with causality, beyond simply being good at strategy. A marvelous martial prowess to have built up with the lifespan of an insect.”
The Ascendant muttered, asking and answering herself, not waiting for Lennok’s reply.
Was it just an illusion that the Ascendant seemed to be walking alone through an old memory?
“Yes… looking back, it was always like that.”
Jinwa muttered and took a step.
“While appearing to desire nothing, you already possessed everything. You had what everyone else yearned for, yet you were never satisfied.”
“…”
“I never thought I would see that detestable yet pitiful sight again in this place.”
Walking slowly towards Lennok, Jinwa spoke.
“As I thought, nothing changes, no matter how much time passes.”
This was effectively the first time this timeline’s Jinwa had clashed directly with Lennok.
But in that brief moment, had she not only grasped his skill but also read a part of the Corrupted Golden Rule’s ability?
Yet Lennok, knowing this, could not rise from his spot and could only breathe with difficulty.
It wasn’t because of the innards crushed by Jinwa’s counterattack. He could use narcotic painkillers to temporarily forget even the pain of severed limbs.
Greater than the pain of a pierced stomach and crushed organs, what gnawed at Lennok’s soul and consciousness was the black crack starting from the black ring.
CRACKLE…!!!
Every time he used mana, the crack spread from his fingertips, splitting and grinding his body.
Each time the crack spread, his body and soul separated, and a grinding agony as if his whole body were being pulverized assailed him.
A backlash and consequence left by none other than his past self, not some external interference or wound.
And yet, until now, he had somehow managed to maintain a balance with the Ascendant, but-
“I was curious how you humiliated the ‘me’ from the previous timeline, but with a body like that, even deploying your domain would be impossible.”
Jinwa looked down at him with a cold gaze and crossed her arms. At the same time, Spell-Words began to rise behind her.
“If a single regression was the extent of the petty tricks you could show, then there’s nothing more to see.”
「Do」「main」「De」「ploy」「ment」
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
There was no need for hand seals, no need for chanting.
The moment she hammered her will into the air as a Spell-Word, spacetime exploded, projecting her mindscape.
Just as colorless ripples explosively burst out from Jinwa, threatening to cover the mausoleum’s spacetime.
“I will kill you, catch the fleeing insects, and open the mausoleum with the legacy he left behind.”
“…No.”
Lennok, coughing up blood, replied with a faint voice.
“There will be… no need for that.”
“What?”
“Even without that… the legacy will return here.”
Lennok painfully raised his gaze to look up at Jinwa.
“I intended for that to happen from the very beginning.”
“Wait, don’t tell me…!!”
SPLASH…!!!
At that moment, Jinwa realized that Lennok’s blood, spread across the transparent waterway, was forming a specific shape.
The waterway flowing around the mausoleum. The moment Lennok’s blood, spread on the water’s surface, materialized into the form of a complex magic circle.
[Blood Magic: 8-Layered Formation]
[One’s Advent, Another’s Projection]
[Provisional Ascension Gate Manifestation]
[River-Reversing Step]
CHWAAAAAK!!!
The blood, unmixed even in the water, rose to form the shape of a massive gate.
The essence of Blood Magic he had witnessed once before, long ago in the cradle of the Hanghasa Labyrinth.
He recreated in this place the Blood Magic that Maiya Lonsdale had used to summon the Director.
The reason Lennok had held on against Jinwa until the very end, shedding more blood than necessary.
The reason he had Maiya retrieve Myeong’s legacy and escape with it.
It wasn’t to smuggle the legacy out of Paradise Lost from the start-
“Adamant Thunder.”
HWAAK!!!
Maiya appeared from beyond the blood gate, spinning as she landed.
“That was brilliant. Perfect enough to be unbelievable for an ‘insurance policy’ I taught you just a few hours ago.”
“That insect-!!!”
The Enforcer’s form landed on the ornate jeweled coffin in the center of the mausoleum.
In her prosthetic left hand, she held the Penteract, wreathed in the dense black magic’s presence.
The frozen Jinwa immediately tried to activate a Spell-Word, but it was already too late.
The brief delay from raising her power to deploy her Domain slowed her movements-
“The secret the Emperor hid in Yeongheo Palace…!!”
CLICK!!
Maiya threw the Penteract just before the blood gate disappeared, and Lennok caught it with a mana thread.
There was no need to discuss what Myeong’s legacy was.
The moment he saw the Penteract, Lennok understood its purpose and was completely convinced.
CHRRRRRRRK!!!!
The violently spinning Penteract resonated with the other Penteract hidden in Lennok’s possession, a gift from Myeong.
The two relics resonated with each other, matching their wavelengths, and transformed into a black key imbued with black magic, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
As if it existed from the beginning to open the [Gate] hidden within the jeweled coffin, the multi-dimensional cube changed its form, becoming the ‘cause’.
Lennok, holding the black key, thrust it toward the [Gate] without hesitation.
K r r r k
The key and lock met in one place, and the [Gate] hidden inside the jeweled coffin opened.
An endless darkness exploded, piercing vertically through Yeongheo Palace, and simultaneously, the inside of the jeweled coffin was revealed.
Inside the jeweled coffin, several edicts personally proclaimed by the Ars Nova Empire’s Imperial Palace were written in elegant cursive.
The grave secret that was stored in the Corpse Emperor’s mausoleum in place of his corpse.
What the Three Grand Dukes and the Ascendant sought to obtain, what Jinwa tried to swallow in her rampage.
The true identity of the Gabihaeng, which Myeong had hidden for so long-
CHWAAK!!
Lennok, standing before the [Gate] inside the coffin without hesitation, immediately looked at its contents.
Upon reading the first sentence written on the edict, he froze in place as if turned to stone.
「It is confirmed that the house of Black Edict lent the power of Exterminating Wood for the research and completion of Heavenly Abasement Spellcraft.」
「Therefore, all blood relatives of the Black Edict shall be executed for treason, and the research records shall be contained within the [Gate].」