Chapter 302: Aris’s Aid (1)

‘This much is enough.’

He had charged forward with vigor, but he was aware that perhaps it might be impossible to defeat that wizard in a head-on confrontation.

Would the Cartel’s renegade monk or the Fortress Head of Palgung Fortress have lost their lives to that man due to lack of skill or experience?

He was a monster with an exceptionally brilliant record against other monsters who had reached the same or even higher levels.

It was difficult for a young man who had just completed his Hierarchy to guarantee victory against him.

Though he had charged boldly, he hadn’t dismissed the possibility of a humiliating defeat.

That’s why, from the beginning, the young man had been observing Lennok’s reactions to find the hidden location of Councilman Meyer.

Deliberately using large-scale techniques, provoking him, and attempting to create an unpredictable situation were all part of that plan.

In the end, even Lennok couldn’t help but react at the last moment when the barrage of fire poured down.

Amidst the scorching winds that seemed to sweep away the entire dock, he inadvertently cast his gaze towards a container in a remote corner.

No matter how powerful a wizard, it’s difficult to conceal one’s gaze in such a critical situation.

The direction his gaze landed. The very end of the dock. That must be where the aging councilman’s body was hidden.

The young man ripped open the container wall like paper and unleashed his full mana towards what lay beyond.

“Die, old man!!”

CRASH!!

A heavy shockwave that an ordinary human couldn’t withstand for a single moment. It wouldn’t be strange if the body of an elderly person were crushed and burst from it.

A cruel judgment that it didn’t matter how much damage was inflicted below the neck, even if it exploded.

However, what the young man grasped was not a lump of soft flesh.

Rather, it was the absurdly hard and elongated feel of metal.

Unbelievably long and incredibly strong for a human bone, it was the shaft of the spear belonging to the man who had burned to death just before the battle.

“What…?”

A faint glow emanating from the spearhead illuminated the young man’s stunned face.

At that moment, violet chains shot out from between the shadows of the spear shaft and swiftly lunged at the young man.

Immediately after, residual currents from the lightning strike that pierced his left shoulder restricted the young man’s evasion.

Clank-clank!!

The pile of chains, spread out like wings, wrapped around the young man’s body, binding him to the spear shaft.

“Ughh!!”

It was a timing so perfect it seemed pre-calculated. Only then did the young man sense the ominous situation and scream frantically, but it was already too late.

“Run, you idiots!!!”

From afar, Lennok, who had been observing the entire scene, instantly raised his mana.

Fwoooosh!

A colorless wave spread from beneath his feet, instantly occupying the surrounding area.

The moment it was perceived, it had already enveloped all the electrical forces in the vicinity.

There was no need to directly deploy a Domain.

What was needed was Property Transformation, which spread his will infinitely wide, scattering it throughout the area and occupying space.

The technique Lennok had acquired when he reached Level 6 had twisted beyond time and talent, transforming into a declaration of a different dimension.

Simultaneously, as he drew the Compassion of the Archangel from inside his shadow coat, he borrowed Davi’s computational and analytical abilities to scatter it throughout the surrounding space.

A faint green wave became a streak of light, illuminating the surrounding area.

Immediately after, all the equipment held by the brotherhood members began to rapidly heat up.

CRACKLE…!!!!

“H-hot…!!”

“What in the world is this!!”

Those who were flustered quickly dropped their firearms and all sorts of gunpowder weapons and backed away, but the quick-witted ones realized a more crucial fact one step ahead.

If equipment mixed with faint mana could do this much, then perhaps other equipment—

“No!! Don’t fall back!!”

“If you go towards the tanks and vehicles, you’ll d—!!!”

Lightning-Type Common Magic: Triple Synthesis

Chain Lightning Property Transformation

12-Layer Resonance Domain

[Grand Union of Azure Whispers]

RUMBLE-CRASH-BOOM!!!!

Faint currents spreading through the overload instantly resonated from all directions, quickly connecting and spinning to form a vast web of lightning in the sky.

The chain explosions that erupted swept through the dock, cleanly blowing away even the lingering mist.

The rapidly ensuing chain of overloads swelled in scale in the blink of an eye, simultaneously rushing towards the single remaining direction.

The spear shaft, emitting a pale glow, which had been used to bind the young man as a support.

The mana-infused artifact couldn’t withstand the overload’s interference, heated up intensely, and exploded.

Feeling the spear shaft superheating madly behind him, the young man screamed out like a wail.

“Aghhhhhhhhh!!!”

BOOM!!

A massive pillar of fire erupted from one corner of the dock.

A hot blast capable of completely dispersing the humid mist that covered the area, and then some.

The distorted mana mixed within burned with a terrible acrid smell, as if carrying the lingering resentment of a broken artifact.

The abandoned port instantly became ruins.

“Ugh, ahhh…”

Among the debris, a member of the Bardiche Brotherhood, sprawled out, drew his last breath with a faint death rattle.

There was no need to explain the scale and scope of firepower poured onto the dock for this operation.

It was not simply to deal with Adamant Thunder, but also part of a plan to kill Councilman Meyer and unleash massive chaos upon the city.

They had believed they had built such certain power and driven him thoroughly into a corner. Yet, everything crumbled with just one counterattack from that wizard.

In terms of the firepower and scale of the explosion, they surely had the upper hand.

However, Lennok had succeeded in instantly hacking, overloading, and detonating artifacts and military equipment, precisely unleashing localized explosions onto the opponent’s core forces.

This would have been impossible if he hadn’t pre-heated his spell and perfectly read the surrounding situation even while exchanging life-and-death blows with the young man.

From the beginning, Lennok had no intention of leaving anyone alive except for the young man.

“For an idea conceived on the fly, it wasn’t bad.”

CRUNCH!!

“God, damn it….”

The young man, sprawled in a corner of the barren dock, struggled weakly.

He placed the young man’s battered hands one over the other and plunged a twisted dagger into them.

Already battered from the after-effects of the lightning strike, the young man’s body was quickly permeated by a curse spell, stealing away what little remaining strength he had.

Lennok grabbed the young man’s head, which was swaying weakly, lifted it, and met his gaze, speaking intently.

Behind Lennok, Meyer, with a hardened expression, looked down at the young man.

“Gaze control. It’s largely a psychological factor, a technique even seasoned warriors find difficult. The moment you judged it would be hard to win quickly, you projected firepower and then, inversely, tried to gauge my reaction….”

Lennok smiled and tossed aside the young man’s head that he had been holding.

THUD!!

“Ugh!”

“That’s a judgment that couldn’t be made without a significant level of combat experience. Contrary to appearances, you seem to be quite seasoned yourself.”

“Damn it… You mean, at that very moment, you grasped my intention and deliberately…”

Only then did the young man realize his intentions had been read from the moment he projected his firepower, and he let out a groan.

Lennok deliberately chose a corner of the dock completely unrelated to Meyer’s hiding spot to deceive the young man, then immediately Translocated the spear shaft he was holding using the Compassion of the Archangel.

Immediately after, he overloaded the surrounding artifacts with the Union of Azure Whispers, disposing of all the Bardiche Brotherhood members.

As a result, he succeeded in gathering and dealing with the Bardiche Brotherhood members in one place, and capturing the deputy leader, who was effectively responsible for this incident.

From Lennok’s perspective, it was truly a perfectly executed task.

The fact that he had finished all of this before even 10 minutes had passed for other reinforcements to arrive indirectly proved how far the wizard’s foresight extended.

Meyer, who belatedly grasped the sequence of the battle, also clicked his tongue in amazement.

“He truly doesn’t seem like the same human… Have you been handling affairs this way all along?”

“I do prefer similar methods, but today I paid a little more attention than usual.”

WHRRRR!!

Lennok replied, beginning to infuse mana into the prayer beads on his wrist.

“The clumsy disguise using military equipment like helicopters and old tanks from their side would also be impossible unless their intention was to pin this councilman assassination plot on someone else.”

Disguise with military equipment. At a time like this, what would be the intention behind choosing such a disguise?

“That means…”

“If they failed in Sector 17, they planned to pin it on underworld figures, and if they failed at this dock, they planned to pin it on the rebelling Defense Force.”

“……”

“Ah, no…!! Deputy Leader!!”

CLICK!!

Only then did the young man realize the purpose of the prayer beads in Lennok’s hand and struggled to raise his weakened body, but it was useless.

As the widely spread prayer beads were clasped around the young man’s neck, his body stiffened and instantly froze as if turned to ice.

“There will be many issues to resolve, both internally and externally, from now on.”

Who would be so well-informed about the current political situation as to lay hands on the councilman’s security personnel and shift the blame to the underworld or the Defense Force?

If they were so precisely aware of the current internal agenda of the city council, it would be difficult to find the culprit other than another councilman.

There aren’t only councilmen who seek to avoid responsibility and merely reap the rewards.

Someone actually wished for this entire operation to fail and for the megacity to descend into uncontrollable chaos.

Lennok rose from his spot, leaving Meyer, who had a complex expression, behind him.

Belatedly, in the distance, police cars with flashing red lights were lining up and entering the dock.

The day after the assassination attempt on the councilman, spearheaded by the Bardiche Brotherhood, failed.

Lennok was being briefed by Councilman Meyer on the situation that had unfolded.

[Van, as you said, he’s the deputy leader of the Brotherhood. And he’s a former violent criminal who was imprisoned for quite a long time.]

“Is that so?”

[Apparently, just before he was incarcerated, he was involved in underground loan sharking, and in the process, he seems to have sold all sorts of people alive to collect money. He was quite a well-known regular in the human flesh and organ trade.]

“……”

[Contrary to his appearance, he’s well over forty, and he seems to have honed his skills by taking other criminals in prison as his teachers. After successfully breaking out through a plea bargain, he appeared there to carry out the promised task.]

“The promise of assassinating a councilman, you mean.”

[To escape from Hall Grave, where top-tier criminals are confined within the megacity, an ordinary deal wouldn’t have been enough. Unless the other party was a councilman like me.]

Meyer’s words drove a wedge of suspicion.

The atmosphere turned chilling in an instant.

[I am currently staying at my residence, as recommended by the Speaker of the City Council. Do you understand what this means?]

“You’re saying it’s difficult for you to act directly?”

Lennok glanced around, muttering.

A wide corridor where not a single person lingered.

The gorgeously decorated bookshelves and display cases exuded an aura of intellect.

[Since such an incident occurred with just one external contact, it won’t be easy for me to step forward directly in the future. So, I’ve found individuals who will act in my stead.]

Did he mean he found candidates to act on his behalf on the front lines, merely a day after the incident broke?

The speed at which Meyer accepted the situation and formulated alternatives was, even to Lennok, remarkably outstanding.

“I hope those friends won’t draw a knife behind your back.”

[You don’t need to worry. They’ve been rolling up their sleeves for this matter for a long time.]

“……”

[Rather, they’ve been busy recruiting specialized forces not affiliated with the Prohibition Edict to act in my place. From now on, it will be resolved simply by switching roles-]

“How long are you going to cling to that phone?”

Meyer’s aged voice, heard from beyond the communication network, abruptly cut off at someone’s clear tone.

Aris, appearing behind Lennok, was looking at him with an incredulous expression.

“Disappearing midway to take calls is one thing, but you don’t dislike researching with me, do you?”

“Of course not.”

Lennok quickly turned off his phone and turned around with an awkward smile.

“It seems my vacation was too long, so I have a lot of piled-up work. I apologize for taking up your valuable time.”

Aris, who had been pouting at Lennok’s sheepish words, let out a chuckle.

“Well, it’s fine. We’re both equally busy, after all. To be honest, I’ve been struggling a bit lately with various recruitment offers myself.”

There was no way she didn’t know that Lennok was engrossed in other matters even after securing an assistant professorship at Rebatenon University.

Would it be a misunderstanding if Aris’s thoughtfulness, pretending not to know something she clearly did, was what bothered him more?

Knowing that she cherished this time with him, Lennok also felt apologetic towards her.

Lennok turned sharply and walked into the research lab with Aris.

“There must be many places calling for Aris, wouldn’t you say? Especially recently, I’d imagine even more.”

Affiliated with Sinclair Magic Tower. There are countless places seeking Aris, who reached the Archmage level at the age of mid-to-late twenties.

Beyond just the image of a genius, her unique path of focusing on fostering junior scholars as an endowed professor at a magic university directly under the city government, along with her efforts in achieving excellent research papers and personal accomplishments, plus her attractive appearance.

Each of these elements was more than enough to attract people’s attention.

Regardless of Aris’s own lack of interest in such attention, given her position, she would have appeared at various official events whether she liked it or not.

Just as Lennok frequently skipped his assistant professor duties for personal matters, Aris also often went on business trips.

However, Aris subtly shook her head at Lennok’s words.

Her blue eyes, turned slightly, met Lennok’s profile.

“No, this case is a bit different… There’s something I personally want to confirm.”

“Huh?”

“It’s nothing. For now, let’s focus on the research we need to do today.”

Saying that, she raised a slender finger and pointed to the far side of the research lab.

“Davi has been waiting like that too.”

[That’s right, Master.]

A glass tube filled with a blue liquid.

Inside, a fox pup, with its spirit form floating, grumbled.

[It’s too stuffy in here; I don’t want to stay in for long.]

The reason Davi, who rarely leaves Lennok’s embrace, was confined to the lab was simple.

After Lennok returned from his two-week vacation, Aris immediately began research to improve spirit spell formulas.

The sole purpose of researching the existence of spirits and the operating principles of their spell formulas, which have relatively few samples, was one thing.

To reach Mind Imprint using spirits, and to raise Lennok’s level to 7.

Aris’s bold promise to Lennok immediately upon her return to teaching was no idle boast.