Chapter 1490: Hunting the First Apostle (24)

What is Level 9?

It is to gain the qualification to challenge ascension. It is to meet the conditions to cross over to the next world.

The reason they are distinguished and named merely for gaining the right to challenge, not for succeeding in ascension.

To that question he once couldn’t understand, the Lennok of now had a somewhat clear answer.

An Ascendant is a being who destroys themselves and recreates themselves in a form optimized for the answer they have reached.

It is literally a process of being bound and shackled by one’s own answer, of breaking down.

Because transcending the world one belongs to and crossing over to the next is not the natural order of things.

To defy and transcend it, one had to twist and break oneself just as much.

One must go mad. One must creak and groan. One had to break after molding oneself to the very end.

The conclusion Lennok reached after immeasurable contemplation was the extreme of a process.

Literally, to peek into a higher stage through a method or idea that others could not even imagine.

Super Fusion was Lennok’s first attempt, his first trial and error, in his plan to reach Level 9.

KUUUUUUOOOOOH!!!!

The light of the antimatter guidance spellcraft, Lunar Eclipse, faded, and the smoke slowly cleared.

A hellscape where the Crystal Canyon, unable to withstand the heat that transcended common sense, melted and flowed like lava.

But the Leader could not take his eyes off the storm of his own unique spellcraft.

“How…”

Shuuuuu…!!!

Two targets had been caught in the guidance spellcraft the Leader had fired.

But now, only one was rising from within the smoke.

A hand, turned as dark as jet-black, appeared first from within the searing hot smoke.

It was not a simple change in skin color, but a cold, somber achromatic color, as if it had lost all color entirely.

Hwaak!!

With every step, a pale light overflowed and scattered behind Lennok.

Simultaneously, a deep darkness oozed out stickily, swallowing all the exploding light.

In this world full of vibrant colors, Lennok alone gave off a sense of wrongness, like a faded black-and-white photograph.

“…Unbelievable.”

As if isolated from the flow of time, everything constituting Lennok felt endlessly slow and faded.

The pinnacle of slowness, as if he had fallen behind to the extreme, rather than getting ahead through transcendence.

But the moment the Leader saw that form, he knew instinctively that Lennok was standing in a literally unexplored realm.

Because, from Lennok, who seemed isolated from the world, he still—

Felt nothing.

“…”

No mana, no presence could be felt.

Despite undoubtedly existing before his eyes as a physical entity, he looked no different from an ordinary human.

That ‘ordinariness,’ which should have been impossible for the wizard, intensely stimulated the Leader’s sense of wrongness—

“Was that… the final reason you stood by the Alliance’s side and watched this war?”

Simultaneously, it naturally made him open his mouth.

“You saw my Duality and intended to apply its principles to your spellcraft to ‘attain’ your goal. I can’t believe it even as I say it.”

“…”

“To think you’d try to fuse with your Incarnation Body to temporarily glimpse a higher stage. How in the world… is that possible?”

Before he knew it, the Leader’s expression as he looked at Lennok had hardened into a frighteningly eerie mask.

“No matter how strong an Incarnation Body is, it is ultimately a possibility derived from the caster himself… Such a concept could not possibly be the target of a fusion spellcraft. Even unifying oneself with another is extremely difficult, but to fuse oneself with oneself…”

“…”

“Inside you, what form does the ego that allows you to exist even take?”

Dual System Complex Resonance Unique Spellcraft: Super Fusion.

This spellcraft, which uses Transmutation and Synchronization Spellcrafts to fuse two people, was a technique Lennok had learned long ago from the Eyes of Blue twin Watchers.

At the time, those twins, focusing on the fact that their genetic information was perfectly identical, had arrived at the idea of fusing their own bodies.

Using the Super Fusion spellcraft, they were able to temporarily surpass Level 7 and fight as top-tier Level 8 ability users.

In the process of two becoming one, they deviated from their origin and transformed into a completely different being.

However, this was only possible because they were identical twin Watchers. Lennok could not have used this spellcraft to fuse with another person.

In the first place, the absoluteness of Lennok’s talent brooked no comparison with anyone else.

However, it might be possible with an Incarnation Body, which projected a being identical to Lennok himself.

Therefore, ever since obtaining the Incarnation Body, Lennok had believed he might one day be able to use this spellcraft and had been steadily researching it.

He would use [Duality] to forcibly make the paradox of fusing not with another, but with himself, coexist.

The moment the Leader drew out his power to its absolute limit to kill the Second Apostle, Lennok too had correctly understood the essence of Duality.

Finally, using that method, he had become able to forcibly make himself and his Incarnation Body coexist in a single body and maintain harmony.

“From the beginning…”

Lennok, slowly opening his eyes and raising his gaze, spoke.

“I knew this war would not end smoothly.”

“…”

“The reason I remained, knowing that… was because there was something I needed to gain.”

Lennok’s expression, now revealed from the smoke, looked strangely blurry.

As if he were faintly intoxicated by the immense amount of information pouring into him.

“For a long time, I’ve tried not to cling to a single method…”

Lennok, looking at the Leader with a hazy gaze, slowly took a step forward.

“Yes, right now, I can definitely… faintly…”

“…”

Through the Cult, the Pontiff’s true intentions.

Through the Alliance, the Leader’s Duality.

From the start, the truth and abilities Lennok needed to gain from this war had been decided.

What was necessary was to encounter and acquire them at the right time, and to confirm it at the proper moment.

“…I admit it is a phenomenal concept.”

The silent Leader slowly tilted his head.

“But the spellcraft is not yet perfectly complete. In exchange for gaining explosive power through fusion, your spirituality is already becoming unstable from forcibly combining what cannot be harmonized.”

“…”

“It seems there’s a time limit from the moment the spellcraft was activated. Do you think you can end this fight in a decisive, short battle?”

The Leader said, drawing out his mana with all his might.

“As long as the principle of the Great Connection exists in this world, that will not happen.”

OOOOOH!!!!!!

The infinite light of the Great Connection floating in the sky coiled and combined according to his will.

In the blink of an eye, the Leader reached Lennok and fired a storm of spells at incredible speed.

[Spell Aggregate: Bind]

KUGWAGWAGWAGWAGWA!!!!!

The Leader’s spells, enhanced with Apostle Spellcraft, completely ignored Lennok’s spells and barriers and slammed into his vitals.

He took the Apostle of Freedom as his new vessel, imitated the authority of freedom engraved on that body, mixed it into his spells, and projected them.

Simultaneously, the Leader’s almost limitless mana, supported by the Great Connection, endlessly added to the output.

It was an all-out move to neutralize Lennok in a single blow and undo the ongoing Super Fusion.

But Lennok parried the massive barrage of spells the Leader wielded simply by raising one hand.

Tap.

There was no earth-shattering roar, no ground-shaking shockwave.

Lennok’s response was to receive the Leader’s hand lightly, as if there had been no power there from the start.

With just that, the light of the spells the Leader had wielded vanished as if they had never existed.

Hwaak!!!

“That is…!!”

What had received the Leader’s spells was not a specialized defensive spellcraft or an authority.

It was a ‘martial art’ that controlled and redirected the vector of force to a near-infinite degree, ultimately scattering it as if it never existed.

He had reached the pinnacle of a mind as clear as a mirror and still as water, where a stone thrown upon a lake wouldn’t even cause a ripple—

Lennok looked down at the trembling Leader with an expressionless face and said in a monotone voice.

“Ninefold Dorye.”

“—!!”

The moment he heard that name, the Leader released all his previous attacks and focused entirely on defense.

He activated the principle of the Great Connection and the authority of freedom simultaneously. The instant he activated the Yeonri Spellcraft and his protective spellcrafts came online.

Lennok’s hand, ignoring the Leader’s spellcraft barriers as if they didn’t exist, lightly touched his chest.

Unorthodox Eighth Mirror

Will of Heaven

Pajik!!

The laws of physics twisted, forcibly distorted, and shattered.

A force transcending imagination exploded, piercing through the altered laws of the Ideological Domain, ‘Great Connection: Soaring Heavens of a Hundred Million Scriptures’.

It amplified the power the Leader had unleashed upon Lennok by thousands of times and detonated it, without letting a single drop go to waste.

The martial artist’s counterattack, which completely ignored the equivalent exchange of mana and the reaction of force, defied the engraved principles.

Simultaneously, the Leader’s body was flung back at incredible speed and slammed into the canyon wall.

KWAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!!!!!!

“Th-This can’t be…”

At that overwhelmingly powerful sight that was unbelievable even when seen with their own eyes, everyone froze, unable to utter a single word.

But instead of pursuing the Leader, Lennok was staring blankly into the empty air with a somewhat dazed expression.

As if, even after seeing what he had done, he couldn’t keep up with the speed of that moment.

“…”

Everything slows down.

Everything fades and loses its color.

A strange sensation of being left behind the timeline, having deviated from causality all alone.

From the moment he fused with the Incarnation Body, he could feel everything flowing in.

The flow of all things moved along its grain, ceaselessly pouring into Lennok.

Surely, this was the scenery the Pontiff once saw.

To step back from everything, to remain in the past and observe all events occurring in the present.

This was the state the martial artist of the 1st World had once reached.

The point of attainment he reached in the past to save the world.

And so—

“…There he is.”

Lennok was not looking at the Leader, but at something happening in a place outside this timeline.

The figure of the spectacled Second Apostle, watching somewhere with his hands in his pockets.

In the direction of his gaze, the silhouette of the Pontiff, standing with his back turned and hands clasped behind him.

The moment the Second Apostle, who had served the Pontiff his entire life, offered his final farewell.

The moment of parting the two shared—

Pajik!!

In his fading consciousness, what broke Lennok’s train of thought was the sight of the sky turning upside down.

The galaxy of the Great Connection spread across the night sky was literally, physically, descending toward the ground.

In the world where the Ideological Domain ‘Great Connection: Soaring Heavens of a Hundred Million Scriptures’ was deployed, it was a magnificent sight, as if the very concept of the Great Connection had gained substance and was descending to the ground.

KUUUUUUOOOOOOOH!!!!!

“Now, I understand.”

The Leader, covered in blood, stood upon the galaxy spread across the heavens.

His face, now that of the Second Apostle, had hardened into an endlessly cold mask as he manipulated the Great Connection itself to descend from the sky.

Manipulating an immeasurably vast amount of mana, the Leader, who had blanketed the entire Crystal Canyon, spoke.

“You were a wizard with a talent that should not exist. Otherwise, there’s no way you could use those martial arts.”

“…”

“But from the moment you fused with your Incarnation Body, you can add no further principles or intricacies. So I will not hesitate.”

The power of the Great Connection, with tens of millions of activated spells lighting up the sky.

This was no longer a matter of distinguishing between a short, decisive battle and a long one, or of devising tactics and strategies.

Through a single exchange, the Leader had instinctively realized that if he too did not give his all, he would only be defeated.

“Let’s settle this. Which of the principles we wield is closer to the answer…!!!!”

KWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!

At the center of the molten Crystal Canyon, the vast galaxy tilted and poured down.

Each and every speck of starlight contained within it held immense heat and principles, grinding the world away as it cascaded down.

It was an ultimate technique where the Order Alliance Leader took the great answer he had built up by transcending the world and slammed it down in its entirety to reshape reality.

But Lennok, even as he faced the power of the Great Connection pouring down before him, quietly closed his eyes.

“Ouroboros Magic System, activate.”

The power gained through Super Fusion was not a new ability or authority that hadn’t existed before.

Just as he was able to use the martial arts because he had fused with the Incarnation Body that projected the 1st World’s martial artist.

The magical output Lennok could use now that his body could support it also increased transcendently.

But that alone was enough.

Not a completely new ability that hadn’t existed in the previous Lennok, but the maximization of an ability he already possessed.

The power to push the most complex and profound intricacies among his abilities to their absolute limit as he wished.

The power of possibility—

“Release.”

Paat!!

In that instant, a golden magic circle with a radius of several thousand meters spread out, centered on Lennok.

The manifestation of a large-scale magic circle that had reached a scale on a different dimension from the Ouroboros he had used until now.

“…Is that, gold?”

“Impossible. How can a human create a magic circle of that scale…!!!”

“The principle of infinity—”

Ignoring the spellcasters and collaborators who cried out in astonishment, the golden magic circle slowly rotated.

The golden magic circle, rotating counter-clockwise, collided head-on with the principles of the Great Connection that the Leader had poured out.

It began to deconstruct and disassemble all of the tens of millions of spells contained within the principles of the Great Connection.

KUGWAGWAGWAGWAGWAGWA!!!!!!

The moment the overflowing galaxy poured down onto the ground, the golden magic circle rotated and ground the Great Connection to dust.

It dismantled the spells the Order Alliance had bound to the Great Connection until now without analysis or understanding, severing their connections.

“…That is not magic.”

The Leader, watching the scene with a stiffened face, drew out his mana with all his might.

“There is no magic that severs principles. Something like that is not magic to begin with!!!!”

KWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!

Simultaneously, the discharge of the Great Connection falling from the sky grew even fiercer, swallowing the ground whole.

But, even within the power of the Great Connection that covered the entire world, the golden magic circle did not lose its power.

It used the power of the Great Connection it had dismantled as its own fuel, constructing its own body even within those principles.

Soon, it became a giant golden snake that covered the entire sky and soared toward reality.

KWAGWAGWAGWAGWA!!!!!

The magic circle that had been rotating around Lennok came alive and constructed a form.

It went beyond withstanding the power of the Great Connection, instead piercing through its flow and swimming against it in reverse.

Like an imoogi ascending through a thousand tribulations, the golden snake pierced through the beautiful galaxy and soared.

“No…!!!”

Ouroboros began to swallow the Great Connection whole.