Chapter 288: Apostle’s Advent (5)

Ice chunks the size of cars scattered through the sky, soaring upwards before relentlessly plummeting to the ground.

Amidst a storm of frigid air, heavy ice fragments rained down like hail, as two superhumans unleashed their full magical power.

“Haaaaaaaaah!!!!”

Thick tree trunks erupted from beneath the collapsed mansion, violently striking Lennok.

This wasn’t merely a spell utilizing plants; these were hardened tree trunks meticulously cultivated and formed using mana. Their strength far surpassed ordinary steel, and the sharpness of their leaves was deadlier than any blade.

The massive tree’s arm, extending five branch-like appendages like a giant’s grasp, savagely thrashed at Lennok and whipped down into the space like a colossal whip.

Thududududung!!

Lennok didn’t just passively block with his shield. From all directions, he summoned violet chains and swung them.

[Gravity Bind]

[8-Stack Emission]

[Multi-Combination]

Cha-rrrrr-rattle!!!

Eight gravity chains burst forth from all sides, seizing the wooden arm from multiple angles, and using its very weight to drag it down to the ground.

Such powerful leverage, commensurate with its immense mass. And a speed that was unbelievably swift for using tree trunks.

The immense shockwaves that erupted every time Ibon swung her arm weren’t for nothing, it seemed.

Kwa-ga-ga-ga!!

Shockwaves and noise endlessly overlapped, reverberating grandly like the sound of a waterfall.

“To brazenly challenge the main family, single-handedly…!”

Manipulating the giant tree arm with one hand, she swiftly formed hand signs with the other.

Lennok noticed this and immediately launched a lightning bolt, striking her, but Ibon swiftly completed her incantation and sneered.

“I’ll make you realize how arrogant that judgment was, right here.”

Cr-cr-cr-crack!!

At that moment, at the very bottom of the eight-story mansion, near where a basement floor would have been, cracks rapidly spread. From beneath, something massive began to surge upwards.

A colossal tree giant, several times the size of an ordinary human.

Its upper body was human-shaped, but its lower half was made of thick roots, bound to the ground, glaring at Lennok.

[Uooooooohhhhhh!!]

It pounded its house-sized fists together, and the sheer impact alone unleashed a powerful shockwave, repelling the hail-like ice chunks.

Lennok, who had been deflecting the impact erupting before him and counter-attacking, let out a sharp laugh.

“So that’s why the mansion didn’t collapse even after the entire sewer system was blown up. Was it supporting this whole massive mansion?”

“Go and see for yourself!”

Thududududuk!!!

As the tree giant raised both hands above its head, thick tendons erupted from its roots, beginning to absorb all the vital energy from the ground.

In stark contrast to the rapidly drying and cracking earth, a wave of energy rapidly converged within the tree giant’s hands.

Wheeeeeeng!!!

Was this a concentrated bombardment using the entire geoelectric power of the area? If allowed to hit head-on, Lennok would have to expend a considerable amount of mana.

In other circumstances, he might have twisted his power to deflect it, but there was no reason to do so in this situation.

Objects that could aid Lennok’s movement were scattered everywhere around him.

Ka-ga-ga-gak!!

As he flicked his finger, a long sheet of ice tumbling in mid-air rushed towards Lennok. Lennok, who had stepped onto the ice sheet sliding across the frozen ground, connected his body to it with mana threads and began to sprint across the earth.

“Turn to dust!”

With Ibon’s resounding declaration, the light source gathered above the tree giant’s head split into hundreds of projectiles and poured down onto the ground.

Dudududududu!!!

Scattering large ice fragments intertwined with concentrated rain of immense heat, painting a scene of hell on the ground.

Manually, it was hard to stand still for an instant; the ground shook chaotically and boiled, but Lennok alone rode the ice sheet, speeding through the waves of heat.

Kwaaaaaaaah!!

Amidst the flames of telluric power heating the ground, only a small ice sheet, condensed with mana, swayed back and forth, rapidly accelerating.

Even amidst the chaotic storm of heat and cold, making it difficult to see an inch ahead, Lennok’s movements never ceased.

In Lennok’s vision, red and blue areas of light spun wildly, forming clear violet magic eyes.

The reason Lennok hadn’t utilized mobility until now was solely due to the difficulty in managing the aftereffects of mana poisoning. If he could temporarily resolve that issue, finding the optimal path anywhere would not be difficult.

Chwaaaak!!

Lennok quickly burrowed beneath the tree giant’s roots, released the mana threads he held, and formed hand signs with both hands.

Creation-type Unique Magic

[Ice Shaping]

[Casting Alchemy]

A high-difficulty magic that required both hand signs and incantation to form.

But in this situation, it was a magic worth expending that cost.

As the hand signs and incantation built up simultaneously, the large ice chunks that had been scattered around instantly began to shoot towards the tree giant.

At the same time, the ice chunks molded and reshaped themselves on the spot like molten iron, binding the tree giant’s limbs and forming a massive prison.

[Frigid Binding Domain]

Cr-cr-cr-crack!!

Thick ice bars twisted, ensnaring the tree giant and spreading cold into its very core, solidifying it. The giant, realizing that its movement was restricted and the absorption function of its roots was slowing, let out a desperate scream.

[Uwooooooooohhhhh!!]

Kwoooooong!!

“Th-this fiend…!”

A flustered Ibon desperately began tearing at the ice bars to free the tree giant from its bind, but Lennok’s incantation wasn’t finished there.

Pa-ji-ji-ji-jik…!

Amidst the curtain of shadows covering the mansion’s sky, a pure white lightning bolt flashed.

Lightning-type Unique Magic Property Transformation.

[White Fall]

A pure white flash twisted and spun, plummeting directly onto the crown of the tree giant’s head.

Kwaaaaaaaaaah!!!

A dazzling pillar of light instantly pierced through the tree giant’s crown, burning it down to its roots.

“Kyaaaaaaah!!”

The family head Ibon, caught in that spectacular white bombardment, let out a shriek of astonishment.

The remaining destructive power, which had vertically penetrated the giant’s entire body, even reached Lennok, who had been observing everything from beneath its roots.

Lennok seized the lingering trace of the lightning bolt that had struck down right before his eyes and scattered it in all directions.

Cold air.

The white current, spread in all directions along the remnants of ice fragments, instantly scoured the entire mansion.

As if searching for something.

‘Where is it?’

It was clear that Family Head Ibon’s condition wasn’t good. She must have been injured by Lennok’s interference while escaping using the cult’s translocation spell, Amrita’s Scales.

Despite that, what did it mean for her to try to stall for time this much without borrowing Walter’s power? He already knew the answer.

Ibon’s hidden relic site, the sanctuary. And Walter’s presence, which had not yet appeared.

Before the Apostle could cause a greater catastrophe through the Old World relic site, everything had to be dealt with.

“Vaaaaaaan!!”

Family Head Ibon’s desperate cry towards Lennok.

Just as he was about to ignore her struggle and focus on his search, Lennok felt a strong sense of incongruity in her demeanor and nodded.

“I see.”

Given Family Head Ibon’s personality, it wouldn’t be strange for her to have already burrowed into these roots and attacked Lennok. What did it mean that she was only screaming desperately instead of charging?

Directly beneath where the tree giant stood.

The deepest underground level of Family Head Ibon’s mansion. Even deeper than that.

[Sinkhole]

Tutututung!!

Beneath the corpse of the split tree giant, he burrowed directly into the ground, relentlessly digging through the damp earth.

The moment a part of a golden barrier appeared amidst the rapidly churning soil and root-corpses, Lennok smiled.

“Found it.”

Only then did Family Head Ibon frantically rush towards Lennok, but it was already too late.

Pa-ji-jik…!!

A strike precisely aimed at all sides of the golden barrier, curving as it shot.

A torrent of electricity, aimed solely at Walter, swept through the underground, impossible to evade if one was tampering nearby.

“Nooooooo!!!”

Family Head Ibon screamed desperately, frantically running towards where the relic site was hidden.

But what emerged through the heavy dust was not the bishop’s shattered corpse.

Kwaaaaaaaaaah!!

Dazzling light descended from an immeasurably high sky, plummeting directly towards the relic site, deflecting Lennok’s magic entirely.

“…!”

“Walter!!”

And before the dazzling pillar of light, Walter stood, smiling benignly.

“D-did you succeed…!”

Ibon stammered, asking.

“Finally, the Fortress Head’s authority…!”

“Yes. I broke through.”

Walter smiled gently, his back to the wildly erupting light.

“Indeed, the bond of blood cannot be ignored. For a body that was already as good as dead, to briefly come back to life simply by injecting a son’s blood… In this world where miracles breathe, nothing is impossible.”

As he spoke, he slowly extended his hand towards the pillar of light and continued.

“Behold! This beautiful trace of the Old World…! The crack in the world hidden within this stifling reality! This, truly, is proof of our existence as beings closest to God!”

“…I see.”

Lennok nodded.

“The trace of the Old World. Finding a crack in a closed world and sending signals outside the world… Is that what you call ‘missionary work’?”

The relic site, where spacetime was distorted. The sanctuary managed by the fortress was, by its very existence, a crack in a closed world.

Walter’s ‘missionary work’ likely meant propagating the cult’s will to the outer seas through such sanctuaries, and communicating with the external entities they worshipped.

This was why they had tried so hard to deactivate the security barrier surrounding the sanctuary.

A series of information collected in Lennok’s mind quickly organized itself, filling in unnatural gaps and naturally leading to one conclusion.

“One such sanctuary for each of the three families in Palgung Fortress… The possibility of natural occurrence is low, then.”

Considering that the City Council was deeply involved in the continued existence of Palgung Fortress, it wasn’t impossible.

The circumstances of Vulcan’s underworld coming into being. The reason The Triad had maintained their hierarchy until now.

Bit by bit, the truth of how this world had reached such a state began to reveal itself before Lennok’s eyes.

“You don’t seem surprised. That’s understandable.”

Walter smiled.

“A wizard who has completed their Hierarchy would roughly grasp what I’m talking about.”

“…”

“Aren’t you curious about the outcome of human greed pushed to its limits, and the perverse refusal of fate?”

Walter said, opening his arms towards Lennok.

“Join the cult. We can be together.”

“Walter!!! What are you talking about!!”

Family Head Ibon, utterly ravaged, screamed at the top of her lungs.

“You must kill that man right now!”

But no one paid attention to her desperate cries.

The sky, darkened by a curtain of shadows. The pale pillar of light striking down through it.

Walter looked down at Lennok amidst the shattered ruins of the mansion.

He spoke, a unnaturally bright smile plastered across his face.

“You are the most outstanding wizard I’ve seen in recent times. So much so that it seems almost a sin for your great power to be used for something as withered as this fortress!”

“If you thought that, then you’ve misjudged me.”

Lennok smiled.

“I don’t act for Palgung Fortress. I’m merely searching for the right answer for myself, between the conclusion and the continuation of this world.”

“Then all the more you must come with me!”

Walter’s face lit up, and he shouted.

“If you follow me to the cult’s headquarters, I will tell you everything. The truth of this world, the obstinacy of the Ascendants, and what the right path to the future is!”

“No. I don’t need it.”

Lennok shook his head calmly and replied.

“Because I myself cannot empathize with the answer the cult offers. To worship monsters from the outer seas as gods, and to entrust one’s fate to their pathetic mercy, cannot be called an answer.”

“…”

“That’s just a postponement. Not a future to come, but a postponement of one’s own choice.”

Looking up at the silent Walter, Lennok slowly gathered his mana.

“I don’t think that’s a good dream to have in this world.”