Chapter 256: Intervention (2)
Should I risk damaging Turan’s corpse to check if Gionis’s remains are still inside?
Evelyn wasn’t worrying for no reason. It would be easiest to just show the Blaiver Tower wizards his corpse inside Turan’s belly to explain the situation at once.
Lennok looked down at the giant White Lion’s corpse, sprawled out with limbs wide, and spoke.
“The power the White Lion used was to borrow the mana of those it devoured instantly, under the condition of cannibalism. While powerful and immediate, the drawback was that the mana gained wasn’t permanent and would dissipate over time.”
“Just hearing about it makes my stomach churn. How twisted does one’s mind have to be to do something like that….”
Turan spouted nonsense about being a predator, but considering that Croken and Felix shared similar thought processes with other humans, this guy must just be insane.
“That’s why he hid, putting the Elder Council members into a coma and devouring them one by one. So he could be ready for battle anytime, following Gionis’s signal.”
Lennok paused for a moment, then continued.
“And in my opinion… it’s highly likely that Turan’s cannibalism doesn’t follow a typical digestive process. The fact that he could use Gionis’s mana immediately after devouring him is evidence that breakdown and digestion occurred almost simultaneously within his body.”
“…Alright.”
Evelyn, hearing that, spoke with a much more relieved expression.
“Then let’s just transport him to the Blaiver Tower like this. We need to contact the Blaiver Tower Central Continent Headquarters first and get their response.”
Saying that, she hoisted the giant’s corpse, twice her height, with ease.
Buried in its thick fur, its form was barely visible.
“Even after death, he’s a pain in the ass… Ugh, the smell….”
Lennok also burst into laughter at the grumbling voice heard from amidst the limp giant’s corpse.
The two immediately descended from the completely melted rock formation and headed towards the slab’s impact site, where other agents were waiting.
Even if those among the Elder Council who were already dead couldn’t be helped, those still breathing had to be saved.
“It seems unlikely they’ll regain consciousness immediately.”
“Still?”
“While you two were engaged in combat, we checked their condition ourselves… As of now, they’re practically living corpses. They won’t even be able to walk on their own.”
The most intact survivor was an elderly man, the oldest among the Elder Council members. And even he only had one arm devoured, which gives an idea of the extent of the damage.
Corporeal Soul Magic so powerful it could keep them unconscious even after parts of their limbs were bitten off alive.
Regardless of Gionis Verbane’s motives for committing such acts, the repercussions of the incident he left behind were undeniably severe.
Including Lennok and Evelyn, there were six people present.
Of the fifteen Elder Council members at the West Continent branch, five survived.
Additionally, hundreds of books and grimoires stored in the collapsed sanctuary. And considering the hidden artifacts, it was impossible to move everyone at once from this location.
“Did you contact the Blaiver Tower?”
“Yes. We received a reply that they’d immediately send reinforcements to assess the situation, but there’s been no word since.”
“….”
Lennok and Evelyn exchanged glances simultaneously and stood up.
The distance from the volcanic crater where the Blaiver Tower is located to this rock formation isn’t that far.
If they had sent people to assess the situation, they should have been detected by the two’s mana sensing by now.
But the fact that there’s been no sign yet means….
“There’s a problem.”
“Which side do you think it is? The Blaiver Tower? Or Pandemonium?”
“Not the Blaiver Tower. If all the tower wizards had sided with Gionis, things wouldn’t have turned out this way.”
“Then….”
“Do you remember what Gionis said?”
Click-clack!!
Lennok, pulling out his shotgun and loading it, murmured.
“He said two members of Pandemonium infiltrated the Forge and caused a ruckus. I overlooked it then, but….”
What if those two weren’t Turan and Gionis, but Turan and another member?
No further answer was needed.
Evelyn also grabbed her quiver and immediately began walking out of the rock formation.
“There’s only one area that leads directly from the Blaiver Tower to the rock formation: the Withered Forest.”
A dead forest overgrown with ancient trees withered by the heat.
A desolate area, where only the strange remnants of trees remain, rigid and hardened from absorbing iron instead of water from the rock formation.
“If someone is hiding, waiting for their moment, then surely….”
Evelyn said that, and then hesitated as she stepped into the forest.
There was no need to search.
It was because dozens of living presences could be vividly felt, as if the very domain within this space had changed.
“….”
Between the branches of the trees, long dead and petrified.
Dozens of wizards were bound by threads of unknown material, hanging upside down.
They seemed to have lost consciousness; although some occasionally twitched, almost none resisted.
A bizarre and utterly strange sight, as if prey had been caught and stored.
And in the middle of that forest.
A giant spider hung upside down, staring intently at the two.
No, perhaps it should be called a monster resembling a spider.
Ten legs and a thick torso. And an upper body in the form of a young woman.
With her eyes covered by a thick blindfold, and long hair trailing to the ground, the monster’s mouth twitched as she stared at the two.
Evelyn immediately recognized who it was and her face hardened.
“Agneta… Was it you who infiltrated the Blaiver Tower with Turan…?”
“Someone you know?”
Evelyn turned her head and whispered softly.
“…She’s one of Pandemonium’s official messengers. Among them, she’s one of the more moderate ones.”
Indeed, there seemed to be a reason why Evelyn hadn’t immediately entered combat stance.
A figure considered moderate even within Pandemonium… Lennok also looked at her with a curious expression.
Agneta continued speaking with an indifferent expression, despite the gazes on her.
“I was waiting. I figured you, Divine Bow, would figure it out quickly.”
“Have you come to avenge Turan?”
“No.”
She replied.
“If that were the case, you know I would have lent a hand when that brute was rampaging. I was actually eagerly awaiting that fool’s demise.”
“….”
“I just came to discuss our terms of trade.”
Silence fell.
Evelyn, after a moment’s consideration, shook her head.
“If you’re asking for the Forge’s flame, I can’t grant it. That’s not something I can decide.”
“Oh, we don’t need that anymore.”
Agneta replied calmly.
Her hair, hanging from the spider silk, swayed back and forth with every shake of her head.
“We found something similar in the deep sea of the Northern Hemisphere. Oh, was I not supposed to say that?”
“…What?”
Separately from Evelyn’s bewildered question, Lennok subtly lowered his head, hiding his gaze.
Because with that one statement, he could be somewhat certain of what Pandemonium was doing in various parts of the world.
They truly were searching for and collecting relics from the old world left in this world.
Agneta naturally changed the subject.
“Anyway, that’s not what’s important. What I want is this: Turan’s corpse. You still have it, right?”
“….”
“Just return that, and I’ll withdraw peacefully.”
“Why do you want his corpse?”
“Isn’t it a waste for such a body to just disappear into dust?”
As Agneta raised her hand, a strand of spider silk snapped, and one of the cocoons hanging from the tree dropped beside her.
“Though his head only contained the vile craving for human flesh, his body has many uses, you see.”
“Do you think we’d make a deal that would benefit you?”
“Yes. You would. But you’ll change your mind when you see this, won’t you?”
A long spider leg moved, neatly cutting open the cocoon and revealing its contents.
A stocky, bearded man, unconscious with his eyes rolled back. A familiar middle-aged man’s face.
Mauser’s face was there.
“…!!”
Only then did Evelyn realize Agneta had thoroughly prepared for this meeting, and she frowned faintly.
She hadn’t merely been waiting for the fight to end in the vicinity.
With the intention of recovering Turan’s headless body, she had deliberately infiltrated the Blaiver Tower and captured Mauser, who had been staying in the Forge control room.
“I heard stories. He’s a renowned workshop master, even in the Machine City, isn’t he?”
Shk-!
As she lightly grazed Mauser’s forehead with the tip of her leg, his skin instantly split slightly, and bright red blood covered his face.
“You know I’m not asking for much. Let’s just finish things here for today.”
“….”
Evelyn’s expression became complicated, but she didn’t hesitate long.
Even if Agneta had a moderate personality, she was still a member of Pandemonium.
She wouldn’t hesitate or falter when it came to killing or saving someone, nor would she utter such words lightly.
No matter what value Turan’s corpse held, it wasn’t more important than saving a living person.
“Alright.”
Evelyn nodded and immediately turned her back.
“I’ll go get Turan’s corpse. If you lay a hand on Master Mauser until then, I won’t let it slide.”
Whoosh!!
She vanished into the forest in an instant.
Lennok naturally crossed his arms, standing opposite her.
The fact that Evelyn could leave others behind so unhesitatingly and depart was also because she trusted Lennok to hold the fort.
Without a word, Lennok pulled out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and looked around with an indifferent expression.
Agreeing to Agneta’s terms wasn’t to his liking, but it was also true that there was no other option in the current situation.
It wasn’t as if they could kill an intact Mauser just to keep the corpse of a White Lion that was already dead.
They couldn’t ignore the hostage and engage in combat without properly assessing the opponent’s full strength.
Moreover, both Lennok and Evelyn had already expended a significant amount of mana, so consecutive battles were out of the question.
Ultimately, this entire situation was Gionis’s karma for betraying the Blaiver Tower and reaching out to Pandemonium.
‘A manipulative sorcerer….’
Lennok’s eyes, looking deeply at the spider webs spread all around him, subtly turned his head.
While Lennok also had a knack for using mana threads, dealing with high-level manipulative magic was an entirely different matter.
Because the manipulation category encompasses very broad and ambiguous concepts among all categories of magic that use mana, its level and specialized fields vary greatly depending on what and how one manipulates.
In Lennok’s case, he uses mana threads to interfere simultaneously in both physical and magical domains, but it wouldn’t be strange at all for there to be manipulative sorcerers who manipulate completely different ‘concepts’ rather than actual magic.
For instance… a sorcerer who manipulates ‘minds’ rather than magic.
Lennok, lost in thought, blurted out.
“The Corpse Soul Magic cast on the Elder Council. That was your doing, then.”
“That’s right.”
“It wasn’t even Corpse Soul Magic originally, was it?”
“Indeed.”
Nodding obediently, she stared blankly at Lennok from behind her blindfold.
“….”
Shasha-shat!!
Not only that, she moved her spider-like torso forward and began to observe him intently, right in front of Lennok’s nose.
Unable to bear it, Lennok let out a cough.
“Why are you staring so intently?”
“I’m curious why Myeong is interested in you.”
“…What?”
“That old man has absolutely no taste, yet he strangely takes a liking to you. I want to be friends with him too.”
“….”
“If you tell me the message the leader left for you, you tell me the reason too.”
“Haa….”
Lennok sighed silently.
It was surprising enough that Pandemonium’s head had left a message for Lennok, but was she only now thinking of telling him?
It was a well-known rumor that sorcerers specializing in manipulation-type magic were generally eccentric, but her personality was beyond peculiar—it was bizarre.
“Alright. Tell me the message.”
“Tell you?”
“….”
As Lennok fell silent, Agneta raised a hand and pushed up her blindfold.
Eyes scarred as if butchered, her expression completely changed the moment she opened them.