Chapter 319: Metamorphosis (1)
“I know that Lieutenant General Treffen conspired with Gearsight to plot a coup.”
Lennok, shaking off the smoke rising from the revolver’s muzzle, pressed it against Barclay’s forehead.
Sizzle!!
The heated muzzle pressed down on the major general’s forehead, searing his skin.
“Ugh……!!”
“And that he might try to re-enact the failure of the Ascension Gate.”
“…….”
“If the Lieutenant General is truly attempting to transcend humanity at this point, it’s only natural that he wouldn’t appear here now.”
Lennok also knew. That the answers to all these questions he was asking were already apparent.
Barclay stared up at Lennok’s face for a moment, then shook his head with a dejected expression.
“It’s too late. The Commander already accepted Gearsight’s proposal a long time ago.”
“……When are you talking about?”
Instead of answering Lennok’s question, he turned his head.
“Isn’t it foolish?”
Barclay gazed down at the scenery below the deck and asked.
“Even after completing the seven stages of Self-transformation and becoming a formidable individual whom everyone looks up to… we are still merely human.”
“…….”
“The Commander distrusted that fact. And he believed that if he himself transcended humanity and reached level 8, the Defense Force would be treated as an extremely rare, immensely powerful force even within the city.”
Lennok and Barclay’s hollow gazes met.
“They acted as if they could provide everything the Commander desired. The Lieutenant General couldn’t resist that temptation. That’s all there is to it.”
“The Lieutenant General joined the ‘Ascension’ dreamt of by machines?”
Lennok asked.
“Did Treffen truly believe that was possible?”
“…….”
Barclay said nothing more.
He simply closed his eyes, as if sensing his own end.
Lennok also understood Barclay’s answer from his posture and nodded.
Click!
He rotated the cylinder and pulled back the hammer.
Barclay opened his eyes, fully accepting the sensation of the hot muzzle pressed against his forehead.
Lennok didn’t avoid his gaze until the very end and simply pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The gunshot echoed, and purple chains scattered and vanished in the air.
A dull thud sounded as something fell back onto the deck.
Lennok took in that moment, committing it to memory, then slowly turned his back.
Davi, who had been silently watching, asked.
[Are you planning to enter the fortress immediately?]
Although Davi had easily killed Barclay by hacking the central control system and temporarily disrupting the fortress’s balance,
he had consequently lost an opportunity to intervene with the system, causing the firewall to update.
In this state, regaining control of the fortress would require directly entering the control room and commencing internal authorization hacking.
But Lennok, aware of this, shook his head.
“There’s still work to be done.”
Thump!!
He used shock magic to clear away the scattered tank and supply box debris nearby, moving further onto the deck.
Passing through Gate 8, which had once been blocked, he advanced towards a massive cylindrical pillar located further inside.
Dozens of massive plugs, as thick as an adult man, were embedded around the pillar, their thick lines uniformly burrowing down beneath the deck.
Davi, immediately recognizing the object, said.
[It’s the Mobile Fortress’s external deck power converter. Why is this…?]
“While they were barraging us with tank shells on deck, I paid attention to the movements of the other commanding officers. They specifically tried to protect this object, ensuring no debris reached its vicinity.”
Lennok, inhaling deeply from his cigarette, replied.
[That means…]
“It’s proof that this particular power converter is functioning normally, even on the deck. It’s a core component, responsible for part of the Mobile Fortress’s reactor-based power source charging.”
This was likely why Major General Barclay and some of the commanding officers were guarding this spot.
And with such a concentrated energy source, a wizard like Lennok had countless ways to utilize it.
Shhhhrrrrring!!
He concentrated for a moment, drawing up his magic to its fullest, and pulled out hundreds of strands of mana threads all at once.
He wrapped the mana threads around the plug connections all at once, then pulled.
CRACK!!
As dozens of massive plugs embedded in the converter were simultaneously ripped out, an immense current began to burst forth from between the huge cylindrical pillars.
CRACKLE!!!
A vast storm of current, aimlessly bursting forth, having lost its path, surged up from the converter directly into the sky.
The cloudy sky was instantly dyed with electric light, glowing palely.
Rumbleee!!
Lennok murmured, looking up at the sky, which was flashing bright blue.
“Davi, you wouldn’t know, but the first time I saw a unique magic’s phenomenon, it was similar to this.”
The power plant battle with the Cigar Bang Gang.
Didn’t Eden, the gang boss from Torburn Magic Tower, use the power plant’s electricity as his own energy source to unleash magic beyond his capabilities?
It had been over three years, but in Lennok’s memory, it was as vivid as yesterday.
The shock of witnessing true magic other than his own for the first time on that day.
Countless spears of lightning pouring down like rain from the sky. The incredibly hot destructive power of electric thunder that covered and swept away everything within a radius of several hundred meters.
Lennok, stepping precariously onto the edge of the deck, began to form hand seals without hesitation.
His coat flapped wildly and he swayed in the buffeting storm of current, but the bright blue magical glow emanating from Lennok’s eyes flickered madly, as if such an environment had no effect on him.
Whoosh!!!
An unnatural wailing sound echoed from within the dark clouds.
A strange and eerie noise, as if the sky was tearing open. Lennok’s mana, flowing along his hand seals, surged up into the fortress’s sky and grasped the aimlessly floating electric currents.
The mana he threw up was utterly minuscule compared to the lightning flashing in the sky,
but the mana, condensed with an Archmage’s intent, was enough to completely overturn and wield the will-less natural environment.
He inverted his hand, which was forming hand seals, and pointed.
The direction of his will was towards the heart of the battlefield, still raging without end.
Lennok whispered.
“Go.”
Lightning-Type Unique Magic
Property Transformation Converter Application
Electrofield Resonance Confirmation Bias
White Fall Hundredfold Convergence
Foundation Thunder Pillar
As Lennok’s wrist rotated, exactly identical mana waves spun and spread through the dark clouds, brightly illuminating the fortress sky.
The hazy sky cracked open like a gaping maw, and through it, hundreds of lightning pillars raced madly towards the ground.
Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom!!!!
Hundreds of lightning strikes rained down behind the Defense Force, who were furiously engaging in battle near the fortress.
In an instant, the urban areas of the Delta satellite city erupted, and desperate screams began to echo from everywhere.
“Aaaaargh!!”
“Ba-back artillery fire!!”
“Is that friendly fire again?!”
“No, no!!”
Every Defense Force soldier who looked up at the sky was overcome with the terror of facing the unknown.
The force that turned human bodies to ash with a single breath was not the fortress’s cannons, but the concentrated electrical light pouring from the sky.
Someone, realizing that the enormous current surging from the center of the fortress’s deck was shooting straight into the sky and then raining down towards the ground, mumbled blankly.
“Headquarters… how could they do this to us….”
KABOOOOM!!
Even that low cry was engulfed and vanished by the heat of the lightning striking down from the sky.
[Infiltration of the fortress deck successful.]
[Major General Barclay has been dealt with. I will now provide frontal fire support.]
Lennok’s calm voice echoed through the allied communication network.
Only then did the freelancers and Agents, realizing that none of this was a mere coincidence, swallow hard.
“……It was Van.”
“Impossible, unless it was Adamant Thunder.”
“Not only did he break through the fortress alone, but he also recaptured the upper deck and was providing fire support to us?”
“He’s insane. How could a wizard possibly achieve something like this…”
“Perhaps it’s possible precisely because he’s a wizard?”
The freelancers turned their heads at the cold voice coming from behind them.
Aris, who had a heavy mass of water floating above her hand, smiled faintly as she looked at them.
“I appreciate your contributions on the front lines, but if you’re distracted like this in battle…”
CRUNCH!!
Even as she spoke, Aris’s mana ceaselessly moved, grasping the projectiles raining down from all directions, and pouring out to freeze the enemies before her.
“Apologies.”
“We’ll advance and hold the line.”
“Please provide fire support. Let’s go!”
There were no freelancers present bold enough to refuse the cooperation request of a level 7 Archmage.
Aris, watching the freelancers hastily rush towards the fortress, subtly cast her gaze towards the sky.
The countless rain of lightning that surged from the fortress deck and poured down.
A spectacle of miracles, beautiful even at a glance.
Her blue eyes carefully observed the flow of lightning flashing in the sky.
Others would simply perceive that Lennok was using magic and accept the situation.
But Aris, who had completed her Mind Imprint and established her Domain, knew just how absurdly the rain of lightning Lennok had created was operating.
‘It’s not a one-time barrage that just pours down and ends. He designed a mana flow map across the entire sky and applied rotation and dispersion to their extreme limits to increase its duration.’
Aris’s gaze deepened.
‘It’s not a mana quantity that can be handled just by completing a Hierarchy. The reason he can extend a lightning-based area-of-effect spell, which usually has short duration, this far is…’
The converter charged on the fortress deck. It must be possible because he’s drawing all the power stored within it and using it as an energy source.
At least 10 minutes.
During that time, no Defense Force soldier would be able to avoid the pillars of electric thunder falling between the fortresses.
And the same applied to the two major generals currently holding the line near the fortress.
“Damn it, nothing ever goes right.”
Amidst the crumbling reactor core storage units, shattered by the lightning pillars falling from all directions.
Alban, spitting out phlegm stuck in his throat, cursed profusely.
“I shouldn’t have trusted those nerd bastards completely. Becoming a test subject for those ivory tower academics who only delve into theories is just unbearable.”
“For all that, you seem to have made very good use of Gearsight’s technology.”
Whirr!!
Ilya, holding two super-vibration spears floating behind her back, calmly retorted.
“I can’t believe even general-level superhumans would accept such reckless physical modifications… Aren’t you afraid of losing your humanity?”
“Oh? Looks like you know something about those guys. No one’s ever asked that before.”
“…….”
Major General Alban grinned, looking at the silent Ilya.
His appearance, with strange magical light subtly seeping through his cracked skin, had already deviated slightly from human form.
“Humanity, huh… Sounds nice, but from my perspective, having lived as a soldier for nearly 20 years, I don’t feel any particular emotion about it.”
“Humanity doesn’t simply refer to temperament or character.”
Ilya, infusing her spears with mana, stepped out to the side and replied.
“The minimum standard to define oneself as a living being undoubtedly exists somewhere, and losing it is akin to eroding one’s own mind.”
“…….”
“Are you prepared to accept the erosion of your own Mind Imprint?”
“Roughly?”
Alban said indifferently and began to walk alongside her.
“They said the missing parts can be filled in with other components.”
“…….”
“Machines have their own minds. Since the Commander decided to follow that path, shouldn’t we accompany him?”
“You… are no longer even soldiers.”
“We haven’t been for a long time. Everyone knew it, but they tried to deny it.”
Click!!
A gauntlet that emitted a heavy clunking sound, like being loaded, as he raised his elbow.
Alban, raising his heavy armored fist, turned towards Ilya and muttered.
“So, let’s settle this. I want to see what choice our Commander will make in the end.”
A level 7 physical ability user who had completed Hierarchy. Decades of combat experience honed through service. And even physical modifications integrated with Gearsight’s technology.
But more than anything, what made Alban formidable was his sheer mental fortitude, capable of scoffing at this bleak reality where the future was unseen.
Though his words sounded carefree, his loyalty to the Commander would rather break than bend.
He was clearly a difficult opponent.
Ilya silently cast her gaze towards the shattered reactor ceiling.
Regrettably, her limit was merely to hold Alban here.
The rest had to be left to the master of the lightning that now covered the entire sky.