Chapter 320: Metamorphosis (2)
Rumble–!!
[Major General Jellich is starting to make his move.]
Unlike the reactor whose communication was cut off, contact with Felix, who was still confronting the enemy at the fortress’s rear gate, remained intact.
[He’s looking for the one who created this lightning strike zone. He’ll probably try to shake us off and head deeper into the fortress. I’ll tie him down here as much as I can.]
Felix continued without waiting for Lennok’s reply.
[If a formidable opponent like that tries to escape with all their might, it won’t be easy to stop them. Contact might be difficult from now on.]
“……”
[I’ll leave the rest to you.]
Click–!!
As soon as he finished speaking and the communication ceased, the magical clashes from below the deck grew far more intense.
Felix, a core executive of the Antares Mercenary Group and a wizard who had completed his Hierarchy with a powerful physique, had begun clashing with Major General Jellich with full force.
Lennok felt the surge of magic intensely throughout his body and silently lifted his gaze.
Despite the chaos, Gate 8 remained tightly shut. But there were no longer Barclay or his commandos left to obstruct Lennok.
All that remained was for Lennok to enter the fortress himself, witness the truth of everything with his own eyes, and successfully conquer the fortress.
There was no time to hesitate.
“Shall we go.”
Clack!
As he rotated his wrist, the rechargeable shotgun in Lennok’s hand appeared.
The barrel of the shotgun, heavily imbued with potent magic, glowed fiercely, and as he pulled the trigger, the gate’s thick iron door crumpled like paper.
Kwoooosh!!
One more shot.
Kwoooosh!!
Two charged magic scatter shots, amplified by an 8-layer firing support spell, exploded.
It was impossible for the empty gate to withstand that power, which could turn even a physical ability user’s body into a mass of flesh.
The tightly closed iron doors on both sides buckled, creating a gap wide enough for a single person to pass through the center.
As Lennok squeezed his body through the narrow gap, the guards waiting inside the gate corridor began pulling their triggers simultaneously.
Tatattatatattatang!!!
“Shoot!!!”
“Kill the wizard!!”
“We must stop him here, stay sharp and hold the line…!!”
Kwooong!!
The desperate cries of the guards did not continue.
An unidentified mass of carapace, suddenly slammed down, completely blocked the entire gate corridor and deflected all bullets.
“Wh-what is this…?”
The moment the rifle-wielding guard stammered, an immense flame poured out from between the carapace mass, filling the entire corridor.
Using the explosion of fire erupting from behind as a foothold, the carapace blocking the corridor advanced forward like a bulldozer.
It was the outer shell that constituted the body of the Apostle Walter. Its durability was so overwhelming that even the flames of Lennok’s Domain could barely melt it.
The absurdly durable and heavy mass of carapace pushed forward, crushing the guards and turning them into mangled flesh.
Eugh-ji-ji-ji-jik!!!
Along with the grotesque sound of flesh and muscle tearing, desperate screams erupted.
“Kuaaaaagh!!”
“Fall back!! We can’t stop it!!”
“Save meeee!!!”
Their movements dulled by the continuously flowing inferno, and pursued by the heavy, pushing mass of carapace from behind.
The guards tried desperately to find a way out and flee backward, but it was futile.
Lennok, who had instantly wiped out the internal guards waiting near the gate, advanced without hesitation.
With Major General Barclay, who commanded the fortress’s interior, dead, and other generals and colonels struggling, there was no one left capable of stopping Lennok.
Guards modified by Gearsight surrounded Lennok, desperately trying to stop him from heading towards the control room, but.
They were merely pierced, burned, and exploded by the spears of lightning and burning flame that appeared from behind Lennok.
Kwagwagwagwagwa!!
A massive wave of flame, spreading like ripples, swelled its body along the increasingly wide corridor.
Amidst it, flashing lightning became sharp daggers, piercing the vital points of the writhing guards within the flames and tearing apart their superhuman bodies.
Even among them, a few individuals overflowing with will and talent managed to break through the fierce barrage of firepower and charged towards Lennok, but the alternating muzzles of his shotgun and revolver perfectly extinguished their final resistance.
“Kraaagh!!”
“D-die…!”
“He still had this much power left…!!”
“How after facing the Major General!!”
Desperate death cries echoed from all directions. They too had probably been waiting inside the fortress, watching the battle between Lennok and Barclay.
At the end of the corridor was a spacious open area. Near the central hall leading to various parts of the fortress.
Originally, it was a space designed for periodically gathering and checking the Defense Force personnel working in the fortress and issuing operational orders.
But now, the waves of fire Lennok had ignited surged endlessly, indiscriminately melting and stirring everything around them.
A fiercely rotating vortex of flame. Lennok stood at its center, raising his head to survey the paths leading in all directions.
Davi, understanding Lennok’s intent, immediately chimed in.
[The central staircase on the 3rd floor of the fortress hall. It’s the shortest route to the control room.]
“Right. Confirmed. Only the passage leading there is protected from magic interference.”
Lennok’s eyes, looking up, gleamed coldly.
He directly strode up the central staircase of the 3rd floor hall and knocked on the tightly shut door of the control room.
A jet-black hand, extended from beneath Lennok’s shadow, gripped the gap in the door and forcibly twisted it open.
Screeeech…!!
The control room door was far sturdier than Gate 8, which he had just passed, but unlike before, Lennok didn’t smash it with his shotgun.
If he damaged the equipment in the fortress’s control room by applying too much force, it would be putting the cart before the horse.
That’s why he was using shadow magic to force open the gap in the door, materializing it to pry the opening wider.
“Ugh, ughhhh…”
“Please, please…”
“Commander…!!”
Terrified voices could be heard from beyond the slowly opening control room door.
Were these the clerks who had been monitoring and controlling the entire situation from the fortress control room until now?
Lennok heard their voices and drew up more magic, but the tightly shut control room door was secured with multiple layers of locks, making it difficult to force open.
Screeeeeeech!!!
In front of the control room, where a distorted screeching sound continuously echoed, Lennok fell into thought.
“It’s easy to smash it open with force, but trying to open it without causing damage is difficult.”
[The control room door uses equipment completely independent of the fortress system. There isn’t much room for me to intervene.]
“I can’t waste much time.”
Lennok slightly furrowed his brows.
“Now that they’ve noticed my presence, the other Major Generals will try to break free from our forces and rush over here.”
And following him, Ilya and Felix would also try to infiltrate the fortress from their respective sides.
If the chaos intensifies, there’s a risk of losing Lieutenant General Treffen and Gearsight.
[What are you going to do?]
Lennok didn’t ponder for long.
“I learned a useful technique from Aris.”
He applied the knack he’d learned by observing Aris when they’d unlocked the archive together.
The shadow hand flowed as if melting, digging into the lock mechanism inside the door.
Shhhhk!!
The flowing movement of the shadow, the sensed fluctuations in mana arrangement, were reconstructed into a 3D blueprint in his mind.
He instantly analyzed and understood the principles of the 8-layered control room lock. From the bottom up, he began manipulating its intricate operating mechanism in reverse.
Davi clicked her tongue at Lennok’s sight, as he moved the shadow to unlock the mechanism in reverse, without a single mistake or hesitation.
[Is this really possible just from observing?]
“If you can remember and visualize the structure in your mind, it’s not impossible.”
Lennok replied nonchalantly.
“The important thing is to visualize the remembered structure in the completely opposite direction.”
Charrrrrruk!!
Contrary to before, the sound of intricate gears disengaging came from inside the door.
The clerks, realizing what that sound meant, screamed.
“No, no!!”
“Central system interference was completely cut off!!”
“Aaaahhh!!!”
Koogugu!!
All 8 layers of locks were released, and the control room door slowly opened. The clerks stood, trembling with pale, terrified faces.
Some were slumped on the floor, weeping and having soiled themselves, while others merely mumbled something with blank expressions.
They might be skilled at commanding the fortress, but they had little aptitude for combat abilities or experience.
Thud!!
Lennok grasped the collar of one of the weeping clerks with a mana thread, lifted him, and asked.
“Lieutenant General Treffen. Where is he now?”
“Th-the…”
“Answer me.”
“In the c-control room’s inner office… since y-yesterday… he said not to let anyone in… sob!!”
The clerk’s face, trembling and streaming with tears. But the expression wasn’t one of fear of death.
It was despair over the coup, which had staked the entire Defense Force’s well-being, prestige, and history, ending so meaninglessly.
Those who had attended to Treffen’s last orders most closely must have already guessed their own outcome.
“……”
He released the mana thread and lowered the clerk’s body.
Lennok ignored them and headed straight into the control room.
Dozens of monitors glowed all around. Thousands of tangled wires branched out inside them. Through one window, the cavernous lowest level of the fortress was visible.
And at the innermost part of the control room, the Commander’s office.
Kwang!!
Lennok, who had unhesitatingly smashed through the door with impact magic and rushed inside, frowned.
An awkwardly placed cot stood in the middle of the empty office.
An old man lay on the tilted cot, eyes rolled back, frothing at the mouth.
Beneath his sparse hair, the capillaries on his forehead had all burst, and dark blood that had flowed from his eyes and nose had congealed, covering his face.
A star on the epaulet of his military uniform. Dozens of thick plug wires inserted into the back of his neck.
Considering the identity and circumstances of who could be here, there was only one possibility.
The fortress commander, whom their allied forces had been searching for with all their might: Lieutenant General Treffen was completely dead.
Phat!
Even at the unexpected sight, Lennok didn’t hesitate.
He immediately pulled out all the wires connected to the back of the General’s head and motioned to Davi towards the inside of the connection point.
Despite being aware of the risks of physically pulling out the wires, he believed he had to prevent things from proceeding according to the General’s intentions.
Davi, leaping from his arms, latched onto the severed wires at the General’s neck, disrupting the signal, and immediately shook her head.
[Signal lost. No electrical stimulation is felt. Neither the body’s vital signs nor anything from the connected wires.]
Lennok, grasping the situation instantly, frowned.
“He’s dead. And it’s been quite some time.”
[Rigor mortis has fully set in and is slowly dissipating. Estimating the time of death, it’s at least a day ago. At the very least, 20 hours have passed.]
Lennok quickly calculated the time and frowned.
“This was even before we had finalized our infiltration route. Strictly speaking, right after we arrived in the city… It’s far too early a point to make such a desperate move.”
[Perhaps he failed at physical modification, unlike the others?]
Davi said.
[Lieutenant General Treffen’s own combat prowess is very high, but he is quite an elderly man. It’s possible that his considerable age became an issue.]
It wasn’t an entirely implausible speculation.
Indeed, the very fact that Lieutenant General Treffen’s corpse remained here seemed to prove his demise, didn’t it?
But Lennok stared at Treffen’s corpse for a moment, then shook his head.
“…No, if that were the case, Barclay wouldn’t have said what he did before he died. The General died more than 20 hours ago. It makes no sense for the other Major Generals not to know this fact.”
[Then….]
“And the tilt of this cot, this might be…”
Lennok strode towards the cot and threw open Treffen’s chest.
Despite his old age, his upper body was solidly muscled. But precisely because of that, the hole drilled directly in the center of his chest stood out even more bizarrely.
Even Davi murmured in a startled tone.
[His heart is missing.]
“This was the meaning of Barclay’s words.”
Lennok muttered.
“Lieutenant General Treffen didn’t choose physical modification like the other Major Generals. He committed this act with the intention of abandoning his body entirely and transferring to a completely new one.”
[Is that… possible for a living being?]
“Given that only his heart was removed, it’s unmistakable. He must have intended to reconstruct a body by recovering only the most vital organ. Perhaps…”
Lennok slowly raised his head and spoke.
“He might already be revived, watching us.”
[That was the only chance given to me.]
Paaaaaat!!
At that very moment, the dozens of monitors that had been glowing around them simultaneously lit up.