Chapter 1427: The Power to Defy Fate (1)

As the shockwave erupted, the herald’s massive body was slammed and crushed beneath Lennok’s feet.

The three heads, pierced by a brilliant blue lightning bolt, were crushed as if exploding, scattering blood and brains.

KWWAAAAANG!!!

A gruesome shower of gore rained down…!!!

Unable to even scream, the Grafter’s massive body fell to its knees as if kowtowing to Lennok.

In place of the three crushed heads, its shoulders and six arms spasmed violently.

The clash began and ended in the blink of an eye. A one-sided battle, settled in an instant.

“In… sane….”

Ermont, watching from directly behind, found his jaw hanging open.

While batting away the Spell-Words falling from above, he had completely dismantled the Grafter’s offensive before plunging a lightning bolt into the crown of its head.

A killing technique that pierced and severed the brainstem and medulla in a single blow, utterly annihilating the body’s functions.

He had executed the entire process on all three of the Grafter’s heads simultaneously, leaving no possibility of recovery.

As she realized this, Maiya’s expression was tinged with faint admiration.

“Astounding….”

Despite watching from start to finish, she hadn’t been able to follow his speed at all.

So this was pure spellcraft-based lightning magic, said to be the strongest in terms of instantaneous output. Was this the peak achieved by a wizard who had won a Subjugation Operation and attained transcendence?

“G-ggrk….”

A rattling groan escaped the Grafter’s burnt and crushed throat.

Its body was dead, yet it convulsed as if refusing to accept its fate.

But Lennok paid the Grafter’s corpse no further mind, turning his gaze away.

“Maiya. Collect the Nether King and the Conjunction Spell Master and escape. I’ll take it from here.”

“…Are you sure you’ll be alright alone?”

“After reading this monster’s Dead Thoughts, I have a rough idea of the situation.”

Lennok said calmly.

“Either way, the situation is too urgent to worry about other battlefields. This might actually be a good thing for you.”

Slowly massaging his wrist, Lennok looked up at the sky.

“From now on, Jinwa probably won’t have the leisure to worry about anything else either.”

“……”

Whooosh…!!!

The Ascendant’s form, lips sprouting all over its body spread like wings, cast down a violet gaze.

It paid no mind to the Grafter’s corpse, nor to Maiya and Ermont standing behind Lennok.

An eerie sight, its sprouted lips fixed solely on Lennok, offering a faint, cold sneer.

Watching the Ascendant descend from the sky, Lennok raised his mana.

“I’ve obtained everything I needed to know here. There’s no need to hesitate any longer.”

“……”

“Run. From this point on, it will be difficult for me to watch my surroundings.”

“Obtained everything you needed to know, you say….”

Ermont, rising with a pale complexion, muttered.

“So, in the end, my friend Myeong has already departed. Did he heartlessly go off to a comfortable place all by himself?”

Lennok did not answer.

Reading the meaning in his silence, Ermont slowly nodded.

“If you met that poor friend, you must have spoken of me as well.”

“It wasn’t a pleasant story.”

“Well, don’t worry about it. It’s not something you need to concern yourself with now.”

“……”

Ermont shrugged.

“It’s been over hundreds of years. I’ve forgotten much of the regret and resentment. I’m much better now, so don’t worry too much.”

“There’s a limit to delusion. Who said I was worried about your feelings?”

“Eek? I wasn’t? I was so sure you’d offer at least a light consolation!”

“They say it all started when you created the Will-thought Transfer Spellcraft to resurrect your wife and son.”

“Th-that… It’s not my fault the Emperor chose my spellcraft as the method to inflict eternal punishment on the family, is it?”

Ermont shook his head with a bitter smile.

“Still, I meekly accepted my exile and was cast out of the family. Wasn’t it the family that kept the spellcraft instead of discarding it?”

“……”

“They sealed it under the pretext of it being a forbidden art, but they probably kept it with the intention of using it if needed. My point is, what the Emperor did isn’t my responsibility.”

Yes, he wasn’t wrong.

Just as his past self was never a good or righteous being,

the House of Black Edict was likely not an innocent victim or a righteous seeker in all of this.

As Myeong had said, in this universe, standards of good and evil are meaningless; only one’s own answer gives direction.

Therefore, even settling the score with an Ascendant who had fallen to become an Outer God had to be finished in the proper way.

Whack!!

“Gwaaack…!!”

“Understood. In this situation, I’ll follow your judgment.”

Maiya said as she picked up Ermont, who had collapsed, foaming at the mouth, after being struck on the back of the neck.

“Perhaps you thought it would turn out this way from the beginning. Maybe that’s why you could accept everything that happened here so stoically.”

“……”

“You’ve always proven yourself at the crossroads of life and death. As an Enforcer, I have no intention of questioning your methods now. However….”

Grabbing Ermont by the scruff of his neck, Maiya turned and looked at Lennok with a heavy gaze.

“Don’t die. If you die, not only this plan, but everything the Nether King has done until now will be for nothing.”

“Don’t worry.”

Lennok turned around.

“That’s why I’m about to settle things with that Ascendant.”

“……”

Maiya did not hesitate.

She simply vanished and began to speed through the ruins of the collapsed Yeongheo Palace.

She must be planning to grab the Nether King and the Spell Master, who were abandoned somewhere in the detached palace, and escape.

Having thought that far, Lennok cleared his mind of all stray thoughts about others.

Because the Ascendant, having completed its perfect union, began to tread on the air and descend to the ground.

Crack, crackle…!!!

Wherever she stepped, violet cracks spread out, supporting her body.

Jinwa’s body, covered in grotesque lips, squirmed and undulated.

Vile whispers that could not be heard with a sane mind echoed continuously, as if in resonance.

「That black wizard offered his fate to the Extinction Tree and vanished in vain.」

Wuuuung…!!!

The lips on Jinwa’s body simultaneously wove words, whispering a Spell-Word.

A powerful transmission that made one’s head ring just by hearing it, as if casting a suggestion.

「Instead, I have inherited the branch of the Extinction Tree he left behind. It was I, not you, who carried on his will.」

“Let’s stop with the meaningless provocations.”

Pzzzzzt…!!!

Looking up at Jinwa with an expressionless face, Lennok cupped his hands, drew out lightning, and spoke.

“I know what sins Myeong committed and what he tried to leave behind. You’ve become quite talkative for a Spell-Word user.”

「To criticize my eloquence in my presence, how audacious. Would you like to learn Spell-Word arts under me, even at this late hour?」

Jinwa, too, smiled calmly at Lennok.

「Who knows. If you swear to become my disciple and grovel at my feet, I might return the fate I took from the Black Edict brat.」

“No, that’s alright. Even without that… I planned to take it all from the beginning.”

Lennok said, catching the scattering lightning.

“I will take it back. The branch of the Extinction Tree, and Myeong’s fate.”

「Hahahahahahaha!!!!!!」

The laughing Jinwa stretched out a hand covered in lips, and at almost the same time, Lennok began his incantation.

「Perception Domain Collapse」

「Observation Line of Sight Deviation」

「Conceptual Domain Substitution」

「Ideological Transformation Commence」

「True Word Release: World Alteration」

The absolute Spell-Word that alters the world was engraved upon Paradise Lost as if by prior arrangement, adding to its power.

The triumphant hymn of transcendence that overturns and reverses cause and effect to create victory rang out loudly.

=Here stands the caster who consumed the branch of ruin and deviated from fate.

=With the body of an insect, I dream of the moment I ascend to the god-seat and float upon the sea.

=With this declaration, I proclaim to the world, and with this True Word, I shall alter the world.

Fwaaaaaah!!!!!!

The transcendent authority to wield sentences, not just words, as Spell-Words, casting an alteration upon the world and oneself.

Jinwa’s Spell-Word fell upon reality, and an immense amount of violet light converged in her hand.

Following the fingertips of Jinwa, who laughed madly with all the lips on her body, it fell—

=Having opened the path to the false Upper Heavens myself and reached the dawn of a new era,

=The power to fold the heavens, cleave the earth, and crush the adversary blocking the path,

=I proclaim to this world with the covenant of ruin—!!!

Kuguagwagwagwa!!!!!!!

The violet-dyed sky tilted in its entirety as a tidal wave of Spell-Words began to sweep across and incinerate the ground.

An annihilation technique that wielded the heat created by Spell-Words on a transcendent scale, converging it on specific coordinates.

But Lennok, even seeing the tidal wave of Spell-Words approaching before him, did not hurry.

Kiiiiing…!!!

As he grasped the blue lightning shining at his fingertips, it transformed into a beautiful, silvery-white, like the Milky Way.

One of the spells Lennok trusted most, a secret art he never drew upon lightly.

A single bolt of lightning that proved the time Adamant Thunder had lived.

The will-thought, assembled beneath his inner mindscape and descending, became a seal of lightning engraved in the skies of Paradise Lost—

Soaring diagonally into the distance just like when it had crushed the Grafter in a single blow, it incinerated the wave of Spell-Words.

[Lightning Seal]

Flash—

The silvery-white lightning that unfolded from Lennok’s fingertips pierced through the violet tidal wave in an instant, stretching to the ends of the sky.

The second Lightning Seal, parting the dark clouds and soaring high, carved an indelible brand upon the skies of Paradise Lost.

It blew out Jinwa’s side, which was covered in grotesque lips, as if in an explosion, scattering her flesh.

PPEO-EO-EO-EONG!!!!!

「……!!!!」

For the first time, the expression of Jinwa, who had been looking down on Lennok, twisted grotesquely.

Instinctively clutching her blown-out side, she fumbled at the lips screaming in pain.

A fatal wound sustained the moment the battle began, by her who had grown infinitely close to an Outer God using the power of the Extinction Tree.

Before Jinwa, unable to comprehend the ‘cause’, could glare at Lennok with her twisted face, the wizard moved.

[Flash Link: Flying Wings]

Zz-zz-zz-ZING!!!

Flashing lightning connected in the air like a dotted line, ascending the sky at tremendous speed.

Leaping off the Spell-Word Stones that shot up all around, Lennok’s Flickering form instantly broke the sound barrier.

Becoming a bolt of lightning himself, he pierced through the wings spread behind Jinwa’s back.

KWAAAAANG!!!!!

「How—!!!」

The wings covered in lips burned and crumpled, torn from her back.

The enraged Jinwa twisted her remaining wing to turn her body, activating a Spell-Word at the same time.

She began to clash with Lennok, piercing through the thousands of newly risen Spell-Word Stones in Paradise Lost.

=You shall never retreat before the adversary’s wicked lightning,

=Nor be deceived by the chilling illusions and afterimages that shake the senses,

=So the precepts engraved in Paradise shall aid the caster and crush the adversary.

[Swift Net of Heaven and Earth]

[Thunderclap of Strange Collapse]

[Thunder-Piercing Stab]

CL-CL-CL-CLANG!!!!!

The broken Ascendant and the wizard exchanged blows at tremendous speed amidst the violet Spell-Word Stones.

Parrying Spell-Words, swinging his arms, and with every moment he accelerated with Flicker, he simultaneously chanted dozens of lightning spells.

He shattered the precepts trying to bind him, blew up the Spell-Word Stones, and accelerated madly, leaping off the debris of stone pillars.

Each time, hundreds of layers of shockwaves gathered and exploded, drawing vast ripples in the empty air.

「Hahahahahaha—!!!」

=You shall abandon the body burned by lightning and gain a new one,

=So the soil and fruit of Paradise shall become your blood and flesh, and you shall continue your triumphant song.

Jinwa, relentlessly firing Spell-Words in pursuit, instantly regenerated her body and wings and closed in.

It wasn’t that she healed her wounds. In the brief exchange, Jinwa had seen through the fact that the parts struck by Lennok’s lightning would not regenerate.

She had simply gouged out the entire afflicted area and used a Spell-Word to attach new lips, reconstructing them as her own body.

「Absurd. Only now am I getting a faint glimpse of the extent of your power—」

=With a small body, you shall gain the strength to fight and defeat giants.

KWAAAAANG!!!

Piercing through dozens of Spell-Word Stones in an instant, Jinwa slammed Lennok’s body into the ground and roared.

「A monster who can face a god with the body of a human!!!!! Why, why was such a fate granted only to you—」

“Let me correct one thing.”

Crunch!!

Grasping Jinwa’s wrist with a hand wreathed in lightning and searing off the sprouted lips, Lennok raised his gaze.

“You’re not a god yet, are you?”

[Lightning Radiance Advent]

[Helmet Clap]

[Encompassing Lightning Net]

Pzzzzzzzzzzzzzt!!!!!

A muscular giant made entirely of lightning appeared behind Lennok, gripping a tilted Spell-Word Stone.

The giant’s hands, condensing blazing lightning, clapped violently as if swatting the Ascendant’s form out of the air—

Creation-type Unique Magic: Alchemy Application

Quadruple Transmutation Complex Resonance

[Super Fusion: One Instant]

With an illusion of the giant’s hands vanishing in mid-air, they transformed into a tremendous ripple of light and exploded.

[Thunder Roar]

KWAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!!!!!!

「Haaaaaaaaa…!!!」

Engulfed in the core of the lightning that surpassed all limits, the Ascendant let out a cold sigh and rapidly chanted a Spell-Word.

=You shall not yield to external pressure or divine power,

=The blessing of the covenant shall protect you, and it shall guard you,

=Even wounds and pain shall become the path that guides you to the Upper Heavens.

The lips moved rapidly, pouring out words to block the heat, nullify the electric shock, and prevent damage to her nervous system.

But Lennok pierced through the lingering light of the Thunder Roar and grabbed the lips sprouting all over Jinwa’s body with his bare hands.

CRUNCH!!

The violet Spell-Word stained Lennok’s gloves, instantly corroding them, but he paid it no mind.

With his lightning-wreathed hand, he ripped off the lips on the Ascendant’s body as if tearing them out, and chanted a spell.

[One Awakening: Piercing Thunder Collapse]

Fired like a cannonball at point-blank range, the thunder exploded inside Jinwa’s body, this time truly making it burst like a balloon.

PPEO-EO-EO-EO-EO-EONG!!!!!

「Kahak…!!!」

=You shall not yield to external ■■ and ■■■■ power…

=Even wounds ■ pain ■■■■ become the path that guides you to ■■■■ Heavens.

In the lightning that surpassed all limits, the triumphant hymn of the Spell-Word that had resounded like a declaration was crushed and distorted.

This time, she truly vomited a gush of blood, her head slumping forward as if leaning against Lennok’s body.

However, even then, the lips covering her face curved as if smiling at Lennok with their eyes.

「Splendid. That skill that drove the continent into hell… even after coming the long way around, it hasn’t changed.」

“……”

「But, in facing you, who killed the god that fell on the Northern Continent—did you think my preparations would be careless?」

“Jinwa, look closely.”

Lennok said quietly.

“Do I still… look like the person you remember?”

「I have gained the chance to defy fate….」

The lips all over Jinwa’s body gasped and muttered.

「Unbound by this worthless flesh… I am truly… free…!!!!!!」

PPEO-EO-EO-EONG!!!!!

With those words, the body of Jinwa that Lennok had torn apart burst like a balloon.

Chunks of flesh covered in lips rained down, splattering onto the Spell-Word Stones.

「Ha」「Ha」「Ha」「Ha」「Ha」「Ha」

=Though your body reaches death, you do not die,

=Though your will is bent and broken, it does not collapse,

=Existing everywhere, and existing nowhere,

=Truly free between presence and absence.

Simultaneously, a sharp, broken laughter could be heard from beyond the violet horizon.

SPLAT-SPLAT-SPLAT-SPLAT!!!!!

The crushed flesh in the air combined and fused, creating a new body for Jinwa on the spot.

The triumphant hymn of the Spell-Word continuously engraved in the skies of Paradise Lost became Jinwa’s blood and flesh, reconstructing her body.

She abandoned the body burned and crushed by lightning and recreated the life that was her anew.

“Is it because she has already half-deviated from causality that she isn’t bound by the limitations of a physical body….”

Lennok muttered, looking up at Jinwa with a cold gaze.

“Within Paradise Lost, she has practically transcended the boundary between life and death.”

「Behold.」

KIIIIIIIING—!!!!

Following the fingertips of the newly appeared Jinwa, a violet line began to converge in the air.

A violet line, similar to the black line that was the very symbol of Heavenly Abasement Spellcraft, began to rotate.

「This is—」

「The authority of the end, which has reached the lowest place beneath the heavens!!!!!!!」

The moment Jinwa grasped it with her lip-covered hand and swung it with a mad laugh.

He retreated hundreds of meters, avoiding the rotating radius of Jinwa’s violet line at incredible speed.

=Pseudo Heavenly Abasement Spellcraft

=Corruption: Slaughtering Pierce

=Violet Dusk

-Flash!!

The vast ruins of Yeongheo Palace and the sky were simultaneously split and cleaved diagonally.

The jeweled crown of the mausoleum. The transparent lake. The violet-dyed sky and clouds.

All of spacetime split and was severed, revealing the Sea of Darkness beyond.

KWAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!

The endlessly stretching Sea of Darkness. Beyond it, the scene of a distant Milky Way emitting a mystical light.

But Lennok knew that every single star in that universe was an apocalypse approaching to kill them.

The incarnations of disaster that would descend from the sea when the heavens opened at the moment of the end, to push this world into its finality.

And even the fact that they were constantly looking down upon this world at this very moment.

「Ahahahahahahaha!!!!!! Yes, this was the feeling!!!」

The gazes felt faintly from beyond the endless, distant galaxy.

Sensing them, Jinwa moved the lips all over her body and burst into mad laughter.

「In the end, it may not reach the original you used. But even so, the gods of the sea are finally looking at me.」

“……”

「But that is enough. I have surpassed the state you reached in the past and obtained the means to truly become a god of that sea.」

What Jinwa obtained from hell was the branch of the Extinction Tree that had devoured Myeong’s fate. Strictly speaking, it was not Heavenly Abasement Spellcraft itself.

Heavenly Abasement Spellcraft was a power created by carving away the origin of ‘him’ who reached the ruined future timeline, so Jinwa, too, could not use it in its complete form.

But just by consuming the branch of the Extinction Tree and mimicking Heavenly Abasement Spellcraft, she had become a being half-deviated from causality.

And at the same time, the gods of the Outer Sea had begun to slowly perceive Jinwa’s existence.

「It has taken such a long time… Yes, I am here!!!!」

Overcome with ecstasy, Jinwa raised her mana, wove the violet line from the air, grasped it, and declared.

「Gods of all the universe, listen closely—」

「Who the Venerable One is who has earned the right to defy fate here!!!」

Exhaling softly, Lennok rose and looked up at her, muttering quietly.

“So that was Jinwa’s true objective….”

[Master….]

“Jinwa never gave up on her plan to become a god. In the process, she created the Absolute Script to communicate with the Outer Gods.”

Lennok’s eyes grew cold.

“It’s just that, to speak to the Outer Gods, she herself had to become a being worthy of their gaze….”

[…….]

The destruction of Heavenly Abasement Spellcraft was a power made possible only by carving away Ban-gung’s own origin.

Even if she carves her own origin to mimic Heavenly Abasement Spellcraft, it will ultimately fall short of the original’s power.

But what Jinwa wanted was to be reborn as an Outer God, and Heavenly Abasement Spellcraft was merely a means to that end.

“Use the Absolute Script to lure the Outer Gods, and be reborn as a god in the Sea of Darkness. If that is the destination she truly desires….”

Click!!

Taking an ampoule from his coat and injecting it into his forearm, Lennok muttered.

“I can’t let her use Myeong’s fate for that purpose.”

「A futile wish.」

At that moment, a lip that sprouted at Lennok’s feet spoke in a mocking tone.

「Your ‘words’ have all already reached the domain I control, so it is meaningless no matter what you plot.」

“……”

「This is no longer your power. It is no longer your spellcraft, nor your potential.」

The violet lips moved ceaselessly, spewing eerie Spell-Words.

「It is a new potential I have obtained using the research records of Heavenly Abasement Spellcraft. Insect, do not interfere with my ascension.」

“How ironic, Jinwa.”

Lennok asked calmly.

“Even after coming this far, you still wish to call the moment you reach the gods… ‘ascension’?”

「So, what can you do?」

Jinwa said, her tone laced with an eerie amusement.

「Now I see. Your ruined fate is something you brought upon yourself. Do you intend to face this final battle in such a fallen state?」

“……”

「There’s a limit to futile tricks. Just sit there quietly and watch this great moment until the very end.」

Kugugugugugugu!!!!!!

The lips sprouting all over Jinwa’s body writhed, pouring out a vast, countless number of Spell-Words.

Hundreds of thousands of violet lips whispered ceaselessly into the air, weaving a near-infinite number of Spell-Words.

Spell-Words filled with a malevolent will incomprehensible to humans covered Paradise Lost to the horizon and surged forth.

“Gaining the chance to defy fate, you’ve become completely free from the composition and form of the body….”

Jinwa, having twisted her origin using the power of the Extinction Tree, had, in a true sense, partially transcended the causality of this world.

Now, the being called Jinwa existed without relying on a specific timeline or coordinates, free to even destroy and reconstruct her own body.

Although Lennok could gain the upper hand in a short battle like this, if time dragged on, he would eventually lose to Jinwa.

Landing on the fractured ground, Lennok slowly settled into his stance and closed his eyes.

“In that case, I have no choice but to reach a ‘status’ worthy of facing you.”

So, I wish for it.

A way to possess equal power here and now against the fallen Jinwa who consumed the branch of ruin.

He understood that even that method had been arranged for him by the departed Myeong.

“Come.”

Fwaaaah!!!

Raising his hand, a grimoire was summoned before Lennok’s eyes, scattering a tremendous light.

The old pages flipped wildly, bursting incomprehensible noise in all directions.

The sole achievement Lennok had gained from researching the World’s Ten Laws right before departing for Paradise Lost.

A fragment of transcendence whose meaning and abilities even Lennok had not properly understood.

But here lay a miracle and a blessing, permitted for use only for this moment.

The authority of the Upper Heavens, permitted to Lennok in this moment he inherited the hell of the Gabihaeng.

“Jura’s Libra: Outer Heaven First Law.”

Slowly opening his eyes, Lennok chanted the Transcendent Magic.

“First Law. Demigod Transformation, deploy.”