Chapter 1466: Hall of Ascension (12)
After his brief conversation with the demon, Lennok turned his back on her as she vanished into a handful of blood.
“Van!!”
As he walked alone through the crumbling hall, he heard a voice calling his name from a distance.
Dylan, covered in dust, ran urgently toward Lennok, waving his hands.
“See, I told you he was still here!”
“You’re safe! Let’s go, quickly!”
“What happened to the Manipulation Spellcaster? If he’s still here—”
His companions quickly checked on Lennok while gripping their weapons and scanning their surroundings.
They sharpened their magical perception, as if searching for Victor, who had been confronting Lennok inside the hall just moments before.
“It’s fine. Everything that happened here is over.”
Lennok looked at his companions and slowly shook his head.
“Let’s go back. There won’t be any more problems.”
“But—”
“Dylan. We should get outside first and talk then.”
Soo-ryun pointed to a faint dimensional rift in the distance and said urgently.
“The gate won’t hold for much longer. We have to get out right now.”
“Tch…!”
CRUUUMBLE!
They ran toward the distant dimensional rift, dodging falling rocks and stones.
Soo-ryun cleared a path by slicing through a pile of rocks with her crescent blade, and Felix smashed the remaining debris away.
In the blink of an eye, they passed through the cleared path, crossed the dimensional rift, and returned to reality.
WHOOSH!
A vast underground hangar, piled high with all sorts of debris and container fragments.
The companions, who had burst out of the rift, tumbled down a hill of debris.
“Whoa!”
“Don’t push, you idiot!”
With a loud clatter, they rolled down in a tangled mess, finally coming to a stop at the bottom.
Dylan sprang to his feet, looked around, and let out a sigh of relief as he felt the quietness of the air.
“W-We made it… I thought we were going to be buried alive in that hall.”
“We wouldn’t have been buried alive. The hall isn’t a physically real space, is it?”
“They said it was like some other dimension, right? Then we would’ve been trapped in a spatial crevice or crushed to death.”
“I’d hate that even more.”
Chattering nonsensically, the companions got up and naturally began to survey their surroundings.
“The radiation levels have dropped to normal. I can’t sense any more ghouls or mutants either.”
“Of course not. That monster used up all the ghouls in the satellite city.”
“District 49 must be in chaos… It’d be best to return to the tower immediately and help with the cleanup.”
“The rest of you can return to the tower right away.”
Lennok, who had been lost in thought, replied to Soo-ryun.
“You’ve all worked hard. I’ll make sure you’re properly compensated for this.”
“No, it’s fine. We didn’t do much… Aren’t you coming back with us?”
“I have something to take care of here first.”
Lennok said, raising his gaze.
“Go on ahead. I’ll return to the tower soon.”
“…Van. You look like you have a lot on your mind.”
Mila asked with a frown.
“That bastard didn’t say anything strange to you, did he?”
“Well… I’m not sure.”
Coming from the perceptive Mila, her words strangely hit the mark.
Lennok gave a wry smile and nodded slightly.
“I did hear some strange things, in many ways.”
“…”
The truth he had heard from Sakia in the Hall of Ascension, a truth he had never considered.
Ban-gung is alive.
The fact that his past self, who had abandoned everything and met his end, was not yet dead.
But this didn’t mean Ban-gung’s death hadn’t been observed just because Lennok was here.
It literally meant that despite Lennok’s existence, ‘he’ from the past had not yet met his death.
It was a fragment of truth that even Lennok himself couldn’t comprehend how it was possible.
What did it mean for his ‘present’ self and his ‘past’ self to exist simultaneously on a single timeline?
Did it mean that Lennok wasn’t actually ‘him’, but a fake who had imitated the past Ascendant?
“…”
No, no matter how much he pondered it, that couldn’t be the meaning.
If Lennok’s existence were merely a fake or an imitation, Yuseong would have had no reason to hide that fact from him.
If Lennok really wasn’t ‘him’, Sakia wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to tell him.
But if that was true, then how could the current Lennok and the ‘him’ from the past exist at the same time?
“…I see.”
Ironically, the moment he thought that far, Lennok understood Sakia’s objective.
Sakia’s words that success or failure didn’t matter, that the meaning lay in watching the turmoil that came with the process.
He realized Sakia had orchestrated this for that very purpose, but ironically, Lennok didn’t resent her.
Even if the demon had revealed this fact purely to shake him, it was ultimately a truth of immense importance to Lennok.
If his past self, who he thought had abandoned everything and met his end, was still alive.
He thought it was far better to find out now than to discover it someday without any warning.
Did she really not care for any personal gain, readily handing over such dangerous information just to see Lennok waver?
It was incomprehensible, but ironically, that made him realize she was a true demon.
A fallen one who had given up on ascension and fallen into her own personal hell. Perhaps she could act that way because she existed outside the laws of this world.
It was possible that other demons he might encounter in the future would have a similar way of thinking or acting.
Cutting off his thoughts at that point, Lennok turned his gaze to his other companions.
“Before we head back, we need to wrap things up here. Is everyone alright?”
“There’s a slight feeling of foreignness, but we’re mostly uninjured. I’m more worried about you, Van.”
“Van, by the way, I experienced something strange inside that art gallery earlier.”
Mila said with a puzzled expression.
“I used Apostle Transformation inside to find the others. But the longer I stayed in there, the stranger I felt.”
“Oh, right. I was talking to Mila about this earlier. I think I got a better feel for the Apostle Transformation ability.”
Dylan spoke up as if he had just remembered.
“It might just be a vague impression, but Mila said she felt something similar. I wanted to get your confirmation later—”
“Yeah! It’s like, I suddenly got a firm grasp on the Apostle Transformation ability.”
Mila paid him no mind and clenched her fist.
“I don’t want to lose this feeling. I have to test it out as soon as I get back to the tower! I’ll know for sure if I spar with Weian!”
“Shouldn’t you go easy on tormenting Weian…? It seems he’s already getting beaten up all day in the hologram training room these days.”
“…”
While Soo-ryun, with a reluctant expression, tried to calm the excited Mila, Lennok fell silent in thought.
The Hall of Ascension was a sanctuary of memories, storing the births and deaths of past Ascendants based on the World Tree’s memories.
The enlightenment and inspiration existing within that other dimension must have been on a level far beyond that of ordinary superhumans.
Had his companions, who had borrowed a portion of Lennok’s intuition and talent through Apostle Transformation, gained meaningful inspiration there?
“Van, it would be best to save the rest of the discussion for when we return to the tower.”
Felix, who had been waiting quietly, gestured with his eyes toward someone approaching from behind Lennok.
“She’s back. It looks like she’s not in very good shape.”
“Cough, cough…”
With a pale face, the Corpse Ghost Spell Master trudged out from between the debris, coughing.
Every time she coughed, covering her mouth with one hand, blood trickled from her nose and mouth.
“To-Tower Lord…”
“Spell Master.”
Lennok immediately turned and caught the staggering Corpse Ghost Spell Master, and Felix helped her sit down carefully.
Slumped in place, she stammered, her shoulders trembling faintly as she tried to stop her nosebleed with one hand.
“Th-the monster… I should have stopped it… S-sorry…”
“The blood is going down your windpipe. It’s best not to talk.”
The expressions of the other companions, who had been chattering loudly, instantly turned serious.
“Glutton! Are you okay?”
“She’s lost a lot of blood. Let’s stop the bleeding first.”
The mercenaries quickly pulled out bandages and hemostatic agents from their pockets and began to administer first aid to the Spell Master.
“Her internal mana is almost completely depleted. It seems she overexerted herself trying to maintain the dimensional rift on her own.”
“We were able to escape quickly because she stayed behind in reality and held onto the passage connected to the hall.”
Felix said with a grim expression.
“Did she push herself to stay here even after the monster woke up…”
“Cough, cough…”
The Corpse Ghost Spell Master, remaining in reality, had single-handedly maintained the passage connecting the Hall, created by activating Heaven’s Gate, to reality.
Even after Yega’s memories escaped into reality and stole the Gate’s power, the Spell Master had remained here, continuously maintaining the passage.
It seemed she had managed to maintain the passage by manipulating the Singularity Reactor left in the hangar, but in the process, had she consumed a great deal of mana?
“I-I still tried my, my best…”
The Spell Master, who had been coughing up blood, managed a weak smile as she stammered.
“I-I won’t be, ki-kicked out of the tower, will I…?”
“Don’t worry. Just get some rest.”
Lennok said, pulling an ampoule from his pocket.
He took the Spell Master’s hand and injected the ampoule, which contained a painkiller, into her wrist.
“I will take responsibility for your well-being in the tower until you recover from the aftermath of this incident.”
“Heh, heh… Th-that’s a relief…”
Her expression instantly relaxed, and the Spell Master mumbled sleepily.
“Ba-back at the tower… want to, ea-eat…”
“…”
Mila, looking down at the peacefully sleeping Spell Master, scratched her cheek awkwardly.
“Man, why does she seem so pitiful… I feel like we did something awful to her.”
“To be thinking about food even now… I’ll have to buy her something delicious in District 49 when we get back.”
“Van, we’ll head back to District 49 first, then.”
Felix, who had slung the Corpse Ghost Spell Master over his shoulder, turned to Lennok.
“I’ll take the Spell Master to the infirmary and start cleaning up District 49. Can you contact us when you’re finished?”
“I will. It won’t take long on my end either.”
Lennok said, getting to his feet after Felix.
“I’m just going to share the information I learned here today.”
Vulcan, District 21.
An old cathedral used as a Pandemonium branch.
BANG!
As the door burst open, a figure wearing an obsidian mask strode into the chapel.
Ermont, who had been sprawled on a chair cackling at a tablet, widened his eyes.
“Vi-Victor? What are you doing here?”
[And why are you lazing about here?]
The red glow behind the mask flashed at Ermont before curving into a mocking arc.
[Lying around like trash suits you. Stay crumpled up somewhere out of sight from now on.]
“Th-thank you… Wait, on second thought, that’s not a compliment, is it?”
“Victor?”
Hylaea, emerging a step late from the back of the chapel, stopped in surprise at the sight of Victor.
She approached, setting down the garden shears stained with grass, as if she had just been tending the garden.
“Don’t tell me you only just got our message? A few months ago, because of the matter with Paradise Lost—”
[I’ve already heard about the Nether King.]
Victor said, cutting Hylaea off.
[Where is he now?]
“…At the back gate.”
His black robe fluttering, Victor swept past Hylaea and headed for the garden behind the cathedral.
Just like last time, a young black dragon was coiled on the garden balcony, yawning leisurely.
The black dragon, as if sensing Victor’s presence, glanced over and let out a low cry.
[…]
“The time he regains consciousness is extremely short. Most of the time, he stays in a form close to a spirit body.”
Hylaea said from behind Victor, who was silently watching the black dragon.
“If you want—”
[That’s enough.]
“What?”
[I’ve seen him. That’s sufficient. Let’s move on.]
Without waiting for a reply, Victor immediately crossed the garden and returned to the chapel.
Ermont, yawning widely as he sat on a chair, and a blood-soaked vampire who entered through the cathedral’s side door.
The chapel door burst open and Freya entered, panting, with Soryu following a step behind.
And there was Maiya Lonsdale, who had somehow perched on a ceiling light fixture, silently looking down at them.
“Hey, Victor! Where the hell have you been all this time?!!”
“Oh my, you’re really alive? I thought you would have died somewhere on the road by now.”
“Were you with the Clown? He was unreachable around the same time.”
Had Pandemonium’s members gathered in District 21 in that short time after hearing of Victor’s return?
[Let’s skip the pointless pleasantries.]
Facing the gazes from all directions, Victor pulled over a chapel chair and sat down.
[I met Adamant Thunder on the way to Vulcan. I’ve just come from fighting him.]
“…What?”
The expressions of the members gathered in the chapel froze.
“Wait, Victor. You might not know yet, but we have an agreement with the Magic Tower—”
[I know about the agreement with the Magic Tower.]
Victor said nonchalantly.
[I’ll say this once, as I have something else to discuss. I learned a few things in the process.]
“Hey, what are you talking about, showing up so suddenly—”
[The Ascendant Pyeonram was defeated in the Great Forest. It seems he is currently being held at the Second Gate.]
“Aaaah! N-no! Get away from me!”
The Corpse Ghost Spell Master, lying in a hospital bed, trembled with a pale face.
She screamed at the sight of Murphy approaching with a sharp syringe.
“I-I hate shots! I-I won’t take it!”
“I haven’t even inserted the needle yet. I don’t understand what you’re so afraid of.”
Murphy said with a deadpan expression.
“Unfortunately, this medication is only effective when administered directly into a vein, so there’s no other way.”
“Y-you’re lying! Y-you’re trying to k-kill me! Th-there’s poison in there!”
The Spell Master shrieked in panic, trembling uncontrollably.
“C-call the Tower Lord! I-I’m a hostage! I-I can’t die here…!”
“Delusions of that magnitude are a sickness. If Adamant Thunder wanted to kill you, would he bring you to a hospital room to inject you with poison?”
“…”
“I believe I’ve explained several times already that I’m treating you at Adamant Thunder’s request.”
As the Spell Master fell silent, unable to retort, Murphy scoffed and approached the bed.
“Just give up resisting and hold out your arm. I have plenty of other patients to see besides a spellcaster suffering from mana depletion.”
“I-it hurts! It hurts…!”
“Don’t feel pain just by imagining it. Are you a child, not a Spell Master of the Alliance?”
“B-but it does hurt…! E-even adults are scared of sh-shots…! Ouch ouch ouch ouch ouch!!”
At the loud fuss that echoed all the way into the hallway, Lennok, leaning against the wall, gave a wry smile.
After the commotion, Murphy’s face was unusually full of irritation as he left the room.
SLAM!
“This is the first time in nearly twenty years I’ve had a patient who’s such a baby. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt the urge to hit a patient.”
“The Corpse Ghost Spell Master is an unusual person in many ways.”
Murphy, who ran a hospital on the outskirts of Vulcan, mostly treated patients from the underworld.
It was understandable that he would react that way, as he’d likely never had anyone make such a fuss over a simple injection.
However, the reason Lennok had come all the way to the ward where the Corpse Ghost Spell Master was hospitalized, even after everything was over, and listened to her fussing was for a different reason.
“The test results should be out soon. How is the Spell Master’s condition?”
“Apart from her childish mentality, her physical body is more than worthy of being called a high-ranking Spell Master of the Alliance.”
The irritated expression on Murphy’s face, who was sitting in a wheelchair, instantly sharpened.
Murphy manipulated the tablet on his lap, pulled up a medical chart, and handed it to Lennok.
“See for yourself. Most of her bodily functions and metabolism have mutated in a way that’s completely different from modern humans.”
“…”
“If I’d seen this chart without any context, I would have thought she was a demi-human or an alien species I’d never seen before. I don’t think she could even be defined as a carbon-based lifeform.”
The Heaven’s Gate that opened beneath the satellite city was the corpse of a dead Outer God.
However, Lennok hadn’t expected the Corpse Ghost Spell Master to be able to perceive and handle that corpse.
To be able to meddle with the corpse of a dead Outer God, no matter how unique her spellcraft was.
From that moment, Lennok had sensed that the potential of Corpse Ghost Spellcraft was extremely unusual.
“According to modern medical theory, she’s a creature for whom the distinction between life and death is impossible. But you said she eats and sleeps well, just like a normal human, right?”
Murphy’s expression as he looked up at Lennok was subtly stiff.
“That woman is no longer human. It would be more accurate to say she’s closer to a new species or an alternative humanity that has never existed before.”
“…”
“Adamant Thunder. As you said, the spellcraft that woman possesses might be—”
“To-Tower Lord…”
At that moment, a voice calling for Lennok from inside the room cut Murphy’s words short.
Lennok exchanged a glance with Murphy and naturally headed into the room where the Corpse Ghost Spell Master was lying.
“Spell Master. Are you feeling any better?”
“Th-that vampire tried to, to kill me…”
The Corpse Ghost Spell Master, sitting in her room and rubbing her arm, looked on the verge of tears.
“I-instead of treating me, he tried to c-cut off my arm…”
“If there’s a doctor who can cut off a person’s arm with a syringe, I’d like to meet them someday.”
Lennok answered with a chuckle.
“I’ll send you back to the tower as soon as your condition improves, so get plenty of rest. It seems Mila is preparing a special meal for you.”
“Sp-special meal… hehe…”
Seeing the Spell Master let out a sly laugh, her mood instantly improving, Lennok turned to leave.
He had confirmed that her condition wasn’t too bad, so this should be enough.
Besides, he still had things to do to sort out the information and gains from this incident.
“Ah, Tower Lord?”
Just as Lennok was about to leave the room after a brief farewell, the Corpse Ghost Spell Master spoke up as if she had just remembered something.
“Oh, by the way… Wh-while I was away from the t-tower, I got a, a message.”
“A message?”
There weren’t many people from the tower who would contact the Spell Master personally.
Could Evelyn or Jenny have contacted her to manage her well-being?
No, the moment that thought crossed his mind, Lennok realized that wasn’t it.
In the first place, the Spell Master wasn’t a Transcendent affiliated with the Magic Tower, but—
“Fr-from the Alliance… I-it’s a message from them…”
The Spell Master said, glancing at Lennok’s reaction.
“Th-they said it was a… message I had to d-deliver directly to you, Tower Lord.”
The next words the Corpse Ghost Spell Master stammered out pointed to a long-arranged promise.
“Th-the Great Connection’s… reconstruction… is imminent…”
“…”
“They said… th-the hunt for the First Apostle… is about to… b-begin…”