Chapter 255: Intervention (1)

“…You were aiming for this from the start.”

Evelyn glared at Turan with a chilling expression.

“You pretended to sacrifice yourself, waiting for Gionis to unfold his Domain, then planned to stab him in the back.”

“Well, yeah.”

Turan replied indifferently.

Hot flames leaked from between his teeth as he picked at them.

“You called him Van, didn’t you? If you’d met that old man, you’d know. We don’t need weak wizards who can’t even take care of themselves.”

“…”

“We need outlaws who’d stop at nothing to achieve their goals. This guy I just ate was a complete failure in that regard.”

He chuckled.

“Though, if I’d seen a chance when fighting you guys, I might have reconsidered… but things turned out this way, didn’t they? What can I do?”

Woosh!!

As Turan raised his double-bladed axe, the fire that had spread along the handle instantly flared up along the blades.

“I have to get out of here alive, even if it’s just me.”

A magnificent sight, as if he were holding a massive pair of flaming wings in one hand.

This was an environment where the White Lion’s ability, which allowed him to use the mana he consumed through cannibalism, could be unleashed to its limit.

What did it mean that the Domain Gionis had deployed still lingered, refusing to disappear?

Creak!!

Evelyn, stiff-faced, positioned herself in front of Lennok, blocking his way.

“Van, what you said earlier, is that really possible?”

“…”

“If that murderer truly took ownership of Gionis’s Domain, we might have to completely reconsider our previous plan.”

Evelyn had already heard that Lennok would have difficulty using his Domain immediately.

Not only could they not counter a Domain with a Domain, but her own mana was also at rock bottom. There was nothing more to see.

Turan saw Evelyn’s tense face and let out a guttural laugh.

“That’s it!! That’s the scared, cowering face I wanted to see!!!”

As Turan’s thick hand moved, dozens of swirling pillars of fire converged from all directions, shrinking the space.

The infernal prison, linking sky and earth in a hemisphere, moved as if alive, relentlessly narrowing the battlefield.

This ability faithfully served its function of reconstructing the battlefield as desired by leveraging the Domain to its utmost.

While useless to the deceased Gionis, it was an incredibly fitting power for Turan, who had recovered all his conditions at this moment.

“Once I eat you two here and steal your mana, stealing the embers of the Forge won’t be difficult. Heheheh, a wizard and an archer… I wonder what you’ll taste like.”

Thud!!

As Turan swung his axe, the wings of flame clinging to the blade spread out, drawing a massive crimson arc.

The space between Lennok and Evelyn was perfectly split as a massive slash swept through everything.

Kwooaaang!!

“The talent Myeong saw was only this much, right, Hahahahah!”

Just by breathing and gathering strength, he drew in and dispersed the heat from the massive pillars of fire surrounding him.

Normally, fire-elemental magic would gradually increase in scale and heat, but once the Domain was deployed, he could use it lavishly from the very beginning.

As Turan raised his double-bladed axe and leaped into the center of the Domain, the colossal cage of heat responded, rotating around the axe blade.

Whoooosh!!

Dozens of fire pillars bent elongatedly, converging at a single point, then compressed to the extreme by the will of the lion-giant, transforming into the fires of hell.

[Jade Flame]

A jade-colored flame, undoubtedly the highest grade among flames, formed like a droplet at the axe blade’s tip and dripped down.

Just the appearance of the Jade Flame within the Domain dried up all moisture in the space, making it instantly difficult to even breathe.

Before flames that greedily consumed even the moisture within the body, human flesh would skip the process of burning and simply evaporate into a wisp of gas.

Evelyn immediately grabbed Lennok’s shoulder and began drawing power to shatter the Domain, but Lennok, instead, stepped forward and reached his hand towards the sky.

“Van…!!!”

Ignoring her look of shock, Lennok stepped out and rotated his mana.

The White Lion Turan might have thought he had completely devoured Gionis and stolen his abilities, but he was wrong.

Even if the mana and Domain Gionis left behind were still alive, Turan couldn’t devour his knowledge.

The operating principle of Gionis Verbane’s unique fire-elemental magic, which he had pondered and trained for his entire life.

Without understanding the creator’s philosophy of creating a massive wave from a small spark, even the Domain was nothing more than an illusion.

Normally, it wouldn’t be strange for it to have collapsed the moment Gionis died.

So, who was it that took over control of this Domain and maintained it now?

The answer was clear.

The jade-colored flame that fell from the sky gently settled into Lennok’s hand.

“No…?”

Turan’s face hardened for a moment, utterly bewildered by Lennok’s completely unexpected reaction.

Immediately, the dozens of fire pillars that had converged on Turan wrapped around the lion-giant’s massive body and slammed him into the ground.

Kwooong!!

“Ughh!!!”

Only then did Turan realize that the rotating scenery of the Domain around him was not of his own will, and he began to howl like a madman.

“Damn, damn it, this is impossible!! I devoured Gionis Verbane!! Why is that power, which should be mine!!!”

“Did that fact mean much to you?”

Lennok slowly walked towards the fallen Turan and spoke indifferently.

“If it’s a power that will be vainly dissipated and vanish by merely killing one person, then it’s better that someone who can inherit its meaning remembers it.”

The Domain was maintained by the power of Gionis’s mana.

Turan, who had devoured Gionis and gained power, held that mana within his body, but it was Lennok who controlled that fire-elemental mana.

Lennok, who perhaps understood fire-elemental magic more deeply than Gionis himself, had been continuously attempting to interfere with the Domain from the moment Gionis died.

Using the fire mana remaining in Turan’s body as a key, he had succeeded in inversely seizing ownership of the Domain.

The White Lion Turan might have thought that by eating Gionis, he could control the Domain Gionis had spread, but he was wrong.

He had, in fact, given Lennok the opportunity to directly experiment with the possibility of interfering with another sorcerer’s Domain.

However, instead of explaining these facts in detail to Turan, Lennok quietly mumbled to himself.

“Perhaps the next flame I create won’t have this imagery. This cage is overly inefficient, crude, and desolate.”

Standing over Turan’s head, Lennok slowly tilted the hand holding the Jade Flame.

Turan thrashed and struggled madly, terrified, but it was already too late.

What Lennok was using as power was not his own mana, but the residual mana Gionis had left in Turan’s body.

No matter how powerful a monster, it would be impossible to resist the mana raging within its own body.

The White Lion Turan had been caught by the Geas and abilities he himself had created.

Turan howled at the heat of the Jade Flame, which slowly tilted and revealed itself above his head.

“Do, don’t…!! You crazy bastard, what are you muttering about…!!!”

“But I will remember that the trajectory of your life found meaning in a single form.”

As he tilted his palm, the flames of the Jade Flame flowed down onto Turan’s head.

“That’s the only lament I, as a fellow wizard, can offer.”

“Aaaaaaah!!!!”

Only then did Turan realize that Lennok was speaking to Gionis and screamed at the top of his lungs,

But his death shriek, foreseeing his end, was buried by the Jade Flame falling from above and vanished.

Screeech…!!!!!

As the jade-colored flame fell onto the White Lion’s head, the beast’s head vanished as if evaporated.

The heat was so intense that not a single drop of blood came from the severed neck; the cut surface was instantly seared shut.

The massive body of the lion-giant, now headless, trembled violently, then suddenly went limp.

And the Gionis’s mana that had filled its body scattered completely and disappeared.

Kugugugu!!!

The Domain that had surrounded and constricted the area collapsed.

Dozens of fire pillars lost their center and spread in all directions, spewing flames and brightly illuminating the night sky.

The cage, born from the heart of the betrayed wizard, crumbled, scattering even his lingering regrets meaninglessly.

Amidst the crumbling Domain of Gionis, Lennok sank weakly to the ground and looked back at Evelyn.

Her face was blank as she stared at Lennok, looking as if she had much to say.

But then she sighed as if there was nothing she could do, and shook her head.

She must have many questions.

Why Lennok could manipulate another person’s Domain, what his last words to Turan meant.

And why he could control fire-elemental magic.

“…I want a cucumber.”

But instead of asking such things, she simply sat beside Lennok and focused on catching her breath.

He felt grateful for her consideration.

“What if it had been Croken?”

“Is that even a question?”

Evelyn, who had come to sit back-to-back with the slumped Lennok, laughed loudly.

“That old man doesn’t have the patience to hide for so long. If he wanted to fight, he would’ve met us the moment we arrived at the magic tower.”

“Hmm. It’s hard to flat-out deny that.”

Lennok said the same and let out a weak chuckle.

“…Still, if there’s a next time, we’ll have to be thoroughly prepared.”

Thump.

Lennok, sliding onto the ground, reached out his hand.

The red booklet Gionis had held. Considering it was used when he unfolded his Domain, it was undoubtedly a valuable artifact.

Lennok stared at it for a moment, then naturally slipped it into his pocket, muttering.

“Because I won’t find the answers I want by standing still.”

“…”

Despite his words, the gains Lennok made from this journey were by no means small.

A strong branching point connected to Blaiver Tower, proficiency in ice-elemental magic, and a new change in the Mystic Eye he had awakened earlier.

In particular, successfully interfering with another sorcerer’s deployed Domain held immense significance for Lennok.

Of course, being able to momentarily manipulate Gionis’s Domain was due to Turan’s inability to properly control the mana immediately after Gionis’s death, but what did seeing that possibility mean nonetheless?

Perhaps Lennok didn’t have to try so hard to hide his own Domain anymore.

Certainly, he received considerable help from Evelyn in reaching that conclusion, but the achievements Lennok made in the process were of a kind that could by no means be ignored.

‘I’ll have a lot to research when I return to Vulcan…’

Lennok thought this and subtly glanced at Evelyn.

Now that he thought about it, wasn’t it true that this person sitting next to him had to move for him to properly conduct his research?

As he pondered whether to subtly bring up the topic on their journey back to the megacity, Evelyn took a deep breath and stood up.

“Haa… Let’s get up. There’s too much to deal with.”

“Is that so?”

“Just thinking about how to broach the topic when we get back to the magic tower… my head hurts.”

Lennok completely understood what Evelyn was talking about.

Even now, the wizards of the magic tower probably held considerable goodwill towards Gionis Verbane. What would they say if he told them that Gionis had conspired with Pandemonium to steal the essence of the Forge and offered the Elder Council as food to Pandemonium’s lion-giant?

It was fortunate that there were traces of the battle, surviving members of the Elder Council, and Turan’s corpse; otherwise, it might have been better to give up on convincing them.

The rocky area where Gionis’s Domain, Crimson Woven Birdcage, had disappeared was already scarred with the heat of battle and massive firepower.

The uneven ground had all melted and flowed, forming wavy patterns, and rocks that had stood meters high were now gone without a trace.

In the wasteland, where not even a single blade of grass remained, only small bone fragments, presumed to be the remains of a lava beast, were left.

Lennok and Evelyn stood pondering before the headless corpse of Turan.

Even without a head, it wouldn’t be difficult to prove that this giant, with its immense size and shaggy mane, was a member of Pandemonium and the man-eating Turan, but there was another equally important problem.

“…Should we cut him open?”

Both their gazes simultaneously fell on the White Lion’s corpse.

A hideous sight: headless, its neck severed and melted, its limbs splayed.

Lennok muttered with a grimace.

“It won’t be a pretty sight.”