Chapter 328: Innate Strength (1)

He knew.

He knew Aris didn’t participate in the fortress assault operation solely out of concern for the safety of the citizens.

He knew where the faint suspicion within her was directed.

And he also knew that to prevent that suspicion from turning into conviction, he should have acted far more meticulously than he did.

He should have hidden his spells, changed his manner of speaking, and tried to keep his distance from her.

But the reason Lennok didn’t, even though he knew, was partly due to the pressure of having to succeed in the assault immediately, but also—.

Perhaps it was because he harbored a complacent belief that Aris, even if she discovered everything, would forgive him.

The belief that even if she looked at Lennok with a cold face, once she heard the full story, she would sigh and say there was nothing he could do.

Harboring such complacent thoughts, Lennok could now confirm his own feelings.

His selfish desire for her to remain unaware of all these secrets.

“……”

Every time he faced a moment like this, where he had to confront someone’s feelings, a forgotten truth resurfaced.

The shadow that veiled Lennok’s transcendent talent, the lifespan he himself couldn’t even guess.

The characteristic of Talent’s Bane, which was fatal and utterly perilous.

How much time was left?

Was it truly right to drag someone into this journey, which was like running off a cliff with no end in sight?

Aris would share his pain. She would share his sorrow.

Because he knew that well, he didn’t want to see such a reaction even more.

They say pain halves when shared.

Lennok didn’t believe such a cliché.

If he had to make her cling to a baseless hope, then he’d rather….

“Haaah……”

Amidst the awkward silence.

Aris, who had been staring up at Davi, frozen with his front paws raised, let out a deep sigh.

She closed her eyes for a moment, pondered, then glanced at Hina, who was fidgeting right beside her.

Then, she neatly shook her head.

“It seems I was mistaken.”

“Is that… so?”

At Lennok’s words, Aris nodded coolly.

“Yes. The spirit I know isn’t that big, and it doesn’t wear a strange mask.”

“……”

“And it doesn’t have a personality cute enough to make such adorable cries.”

[…….]

Only then did Davi realize what he had done and slowly lowered his front paws.

Was it Lennok’s imagination that the tips of his three swaying tails had turned slightly red?

Aris, who had instantly defused the situation with just three sentences, closed her eyes again and leaned against the rock crevice.

“I’ve caused you unnecessary worry with my idle talk. I’ll focus on recovering my mana, so please wait a moment.”

“Then I’ll go look around. The Deputy Director should be somewhere nearby too.”

“……I’ll also search around the fortress. There might be some useful things left.”

In any case, the surrounding desert area had no elevation changes, so the scenery was clearly visible.

All the enemies in the area had been dealt with, so no one would be in danger, and even if something happened, he would know immediately.

Lennok replied as such and quickly took Davi with him towards the vicinity of the fortress he had destroyed.

He had made a convenient excuse to get out of the situation, but it wasn’t entirely a lie.

He had left without properly collecting spoils after encountering Aris and Hina right after defeating Lieutenant General Treffen.

[It feels like I was completely played by the professor.]

The electro-spirit, perched on his master’s back, grumbled with a pouty voice.

[I won’t forget this humiliation easily….]

“So you do intend to forget it.”

Davi, walking among the debris of the collapsed Mobile Fortress, asked Lennok.

[Does she know, or does she want to know? Her attitude is so ambiguous, even I don’t know.]

“Aris isn’t an idiot. On the contrary, she’s much more discerning than others.”

It was, in a way, natural that Aris hadn’t pressed Davi’s identity further right then and there.

Regardless of her true intentions, Hina, an Agent, was also present.

She must have judged that revealing the relationship between Van and Lennok was extremely dangerous, regardless of whether Hina O’Neil could be trusted.

“Perhaps she thinks she’s already gained the conviction she was aiming for from this incident….”

[You admit you were more careless than usual.]

“Whose side are you on, anyway?”

[Hmph, I don’t know. I’ll never do that again.]

Lennok smiled wryly and stroked Davi’s head, who was feigning annoyance with his head turned away.

Davi also pretended not to notice and silently accepted Lennok’s touch.

As they searched through the fortress debris for useful items, the mana that had filled the spirit’s body gradually disappeared, and his body began to shrink.

Even after returning to his fox cub form, his three tails remained.

Lennok naturally put Davi into his coat pocket and, while rummaging through the debris, discovered something and extended a mana thread.

Crash!!

“Found it. I thought it’d still be here.”

[Is this… a fragment of the fortress’s central processing unit?]

“It’s what Gearsight personally modified to make Lieutenant General Treffen an 8th-level. There might be more to dig into.”

Lennok put the fragmented central processing unit, now shattered and reduced to the size of a fist, into his pocket and immediately turned back.

“This operation yielded more than I expected. I’ll be even busier from now on.”

Although unintentional, Lennok had learned various things by directly witnessing Lieutenant General Treffen’s unstable 8th-level ultimate manifestation.

Besides the methods or clues for transcending Hierarchy, what came across most directly was the spatial leap he used within his Miniature Universe.

Lennok, detecting the method of interfering with space as a result multiple times during combat, found room to apply it to his own spatial magic.

[We’ve secured the data, but the problem is how well it will apply in practice.]

“Just reducing the mana efficiency a bit more would be enough. Right now, the mana consumption is so severe it’s almost unusable…”

Lennok thought this as he returned to the vicinity of the rock where Aris was resting.

Hina had already circled the area, apparently, and was sitting next to Aris, quietly catching her breath.

Lennok didn’t bother them, sitting a bit further away and pulling out a roll of tobacco.

Sizzzz!

The moment he was about to light it and inhale a deep puff of smoke, Hina appeared beside him and snatched the tobacco away.

Thud!

Lennok looked up at Hina with a bewildered expression.

“What are you doing?”

“What am I doing, you ask?”

Hina said with a smiling face.

“Shouldn’t that be the question asked by the person who ejected hundreds of meters into the sky from a fighter jet first?”

“……”

“I think you have something to say to me.”

Lennok, belatedly noticing the vein throbbing on her forehead, obediently shut his mouth.

It seemed she had something on her mind but had been unable to say it due to the circumstances.

Lennok averted his gaze slightly and replied.

“There would have been a parachute in the ejected seat. You wouldn’t have died.”

“Are you calling that a real answer?”

“……I admit it was a bit rough.”

Hina glared at Lennok, then sighed deeply and shook her head.

“It’s fine. Anyway, thanks to both wizards’ efforts, I’ll just consider it a good experience.”

“A good experience?”

“Yes. What Lady Aris deployed at the end of the battle—.”

Thump!

Aris, who had been listening to their conversation with a tired expression, swiftly raised her hand and covered Hina’s mouth.

Aris whispered to Hina with a bright smile.

“Didn’t we agree to keep that a secret?”

“Oh… I’m sorry. I just….”

Hina closed her mouth with a slightly flustered expression.

“I don’t want to reveal it to others just yet.”

Aris casually shifted her gaze and replied.

“There’s someone I need to show it to first, so it’s actually a bit much even now.”

“……I’ll take it to my grave.”

Lennok, reading the subtle gap in their conversation, faintly furrowed his brows.

It seemed both of them had overexerted themselves somewhat in the process of bringing down the fortress.

Indeed, otherwise, Aris wouldn’t have come out looking so exhausted, leaning on Hina for support.

Perhaps because they shared a secret, seeing the two of them much closer than when the operation began, Lennok slowly stood up.

“I should contact the main force.”

Lennok had a rough idea of what magic Aris had used.

And he knew it was a courtesy between wizards not to ask about it right then and there.

Understanding this, Lennok subtly changed the subject.

“The magnetic storm is getting stronger. We need to grasp the situation before the communication network to the satellite city completely cuts off.”

The desert area, filled only with sand and no obstacles.

However, due to the magnetic storm raging near the undeveloped zone, communication between cities was completely cut off, and even Delta satellite city, several kilometers away, was barely visible.

Having left the main force, including Ilya and Felix, near the city, he needed to check their situation and provide support if necessary.

Just as Lennok was looking up at the raging magnetic storm, lost in thought.

“Mr. Van.”

Hina suddenly called out to Lennok.

Her face had, at some point, hardened.

“A message arrived from Councilman Meyer.”

“……A message?”

At a moment when even communication was difficult due to the intensifying magnetic storm.

The desert area was completely cut off from communication with the mega-city.

How could Councilman Meyer send a message at such a time?

“It’s an emergency communication network allowed only to the highest-ranking Agent officials. A spatial transfer using a top-grade artifact hidden in the headquarters’ underground vault. It’s an emergency directive that can transfer an object about the size of a finger, usable only once every two years.”

“So, there’s something they need to tell us, even if it means using that kind of communication network.”

Aris continued with a hardened face.

“I received authorization from the Deputy Director right before the operation started and was holding onto the communication network….”

Hina said that, pulling out a thin chip from her pocket.

Lennok silently took the data chip and immediately inserted it into his phone.

A recorded voice message began to play through the speaker.

[Van, Pallard. Are you listening? Anyone will do. Please relay this message to all our allies right now.]

It was Meyer’s extremely urgent voice.

[The Central City Council has declared a provisional martial law. The military, temporarily exempt from the Prohibition Edict, has deployed. The directive is to completely eradicate the Defense Force that instigated the coup, as well as their hostile forces.]

The gazes of the three, who had looked up, crossed simultaneously.

[Communication is cut off due to the magnetic storm, so I can’t reach the generals over there. This is the only way I can contact you. Escape from there right now!!]

Silence followed the end of the voice message.

A tense atmosphere hung between the three.

“The military, what on earth does that mean?”

Aris spoke, pressing her temples.

“Does it mean there’s a military force completely different from the Defense Force?”

“……At this point, we can only conclude that. Councilman Meyer seemed very urgent.”

Lennok replied, turning his gaze towards Hina.

“Is there anything in what the Councilman said that you can infer?”

Hina O’Neil was one of the agents who held a special position within the Agents and moved between various departments.

It was possible she was privy to classified information allowed only to high-ranking officials.

But Hina shook her head with a confused expression.

“The talk of a project to replace the Defense Force is widely circulating, but I’ve never personally witnessed its reality. However, according to the Director….”

“According to?”

“It left the Agents’ hands when it was moved to District 13….”

“……”

District 13, so it wasn’t just a feint to divert attention there.

It seemed there were hidden details Lieutenant General Treffen and Gearsight hadn’t mentioned.

However, with Lieutenant General Treffen having been annihilated, there was no way to ask him now.

Lennok looked up and quickly made a decision.

“Let’s move. We need to get near the satellite city and inform others of this.”

“Mr. Van is right. We need to move before the City Council’s new military appears… Lady Aris?”

Instead of answering Hina, Aris looked up at the sky, blurred by the magnetic storm.

Almost simultaneously, Lennok, expanding his sensory range and realizing the same thing as her, frowned silently.

Immediately after, something pierced through the hazy magnetic storm and emerged from between the clouds.

Rumble, rumble, rumble!!!

A colossal flying object, its true size impossible to gauge from the ground.

A five-sided steel vessel pushed back the magnetic storm and advanced serenely.

Black orbs rotated ceaselessly within the circular holes pierced throughout its body, keeping the massive flying object afloat in the sky.

A warship, no, perhaps it should be called an aerial fortress.

There was no longer any need to ask what project had been ongoing, having left the Agents’ hands in District 13.

A military force of such magnitude would naturally be handled by another department, not the Agents.

The Central City Council had thoroughly eliminated the Defense Force’s ground forces, then constructed an even more formidable air force.

As Hina looked back and forth between the two with a bewildered expression, Aris spoke.

“I’m truly disgusted by the City Council’s attitude.”

“I don’t think you’re wrong.”

Lennok mumbled, looking up at the sky.

“No one would have thought they were manufacturing something like that while letting the Defense Force wither away.”

Whoooosh…!!

A strange vibrating sound spread throughout the sky, and the vessel slowly sped above their heads.

[Treffen… that friend ended up departing like this.]

Beneath the vessel, soaring gracefully through the sky, an unfamiliar voice resonated.

[But in a way, I expected it. A man who can’t read the trends of the times can only be entrusted with the role of captain of a sinking ship.]

“……”

[At least he fulfilled that role splendidly. As the first opponent for our Vulcan Air Fleet’s maiden voyage, that is.]

“Did they succeed in building an airship that can withstand the magnetic storm….”

It wasn’t that the City Council lacked technology and thus hadn’t focused on bolstering their aerial forces.

The undeveloped zone and the vicinity of the outer front, where magnetic storms raged intermittently, were difficult environments for operating a vessel of such size.

Small flying objects like fighter jets could seal their seams to prevent the intrusion of iron sand, but vessels could not.

Because of this, only ground forces, including Mobile Fortresses, were deployed on the outer front, yet the City Council had been continuously preparing to gain aerial power?

Ongoing experiments to build a fleet in a restricted zone.

Each time the project yielded results, they must have diverted the budget allocated to the Defense Force to the air force, and called in key personnel who caught wind of it to oversee the air force reorganization.

And the result of all that, making its combat debut, was that colossal five-sided vessel.

Whoooooong!!

The fierce roar of engines echoed from the distant sky.

Dozens of fighter jets took off from various points on the vessel.

Simultaneously, the gunports mounted throughout the vessel opened, and they unanimously turned their muzzles, aiming at the heart of the desert.

At the broken machine spheres and Fortress Unit 3.

And at the location where the three of them stood.

[In that sense, you must keep your mouths shut here. For our achievements to be recorded in the Central City Council’s meeting minutes, a grand justification—that the Agents failed—is needed.]

“……”

[Three superhumans had already resolved the situation before we even arrived… Don’t you think that story lacks flavor?]

“It wasn’t that they couldn’t receive Meyer’s call.”

Lennok, his eyes narrowed as he scanned every corner of the vessel, mumbled.

“They never intended to receive his call from the beginning.”

[Please understand with an open heart. It’s not uncommon for ignorant folk wandering the city’s back alleys to die for unknown reasons.]

The somewhat leisurely voice chillingly dropped.

[Though, in truth, you don’t need to understand.]

Kiiiiiiing…!!

Hundreds of gunports popped out from all over the vessel, illuminating with magical light.

While it might not be a problem if it covered a vast area like a satellite city, if this bombardment concentrated on their current location, the destructive power would be immense.

The three quickly gathered their mana, each brainstorming rapidly.

“I’ll take the first bombardment.”

Lennok said, glancing at Aris as he formed a summoning seal.

“In the meantime, let’s find a way to bring that vessel down from the sky.”

“We must not let it get close to the satellite city.”

Hina quickly replied.

“Unlike Mobile Fortresses that moved on the ground, an airborne vessel could unilaterally bomb us to death.”

“For now, let’s move towards the fortress we destroyed. There, we can set up barricades and devise a means to reach the vessel—.”

“Wait a minute.”

Aris cut them off and pointed to a corner of the sky.

“What… is that?”

Whoosh!!!

Above the vessel in the sky. A pure white light was stirring in the empty space that no one had paid attention to.

Plummeting towards the ground, it drew a heavy line of light like a meteor, falling downwards.

Something that had fallen vertically from an unimaginable altitude directly struck the upper part of the vessel.

Circular shockwaves erupted in layers over the hull of the massive vessel, creating enormous ripples.

Whoooooom!!

The colossal five-sided vessel, which had been heating its gunports, tilted sharply to one side, and its lights flickered wildly.

[……!!!]

The cacophony of chaotic sounds mixing from inside the vessel suggested how flustered they were by the current situation.

But that confusion was momentary. The crashing shockwave exploded once more, as if crushing everything, and.

The meteor that had fallen vertically from the sky completely crushed the vessel, plunging the enormous flying object into the ground.

[Aaaaaaaaaah!!!]

With a desperate scream, the five-sided vessel slammed into the desert sand.

Rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble!!!!

The ground shook with tremors, and a colossal sandstorm swept in all directions, turning the earth upside down.

Lennok and Aris simultaneously deployed shields in all directions, leaving only the minimal space, and absorbed the full impact.

Around the circular shields, the surrounding sand was pushed back like waves, forming a massive crater.

The vessel, which had boasted a majestic appearance just moments ago, was now embedded in the ground, turned into a pile of junk in the blink of an eye.

Hina, standing behind the two, mumbled with a dumbfounded expression.

“What on earth is going on…?”

“Things are taking an unusual turn.”

Aris said, looking at the impact site where the vessel had fallen.

Amidst the chaotic scene where the receding sandstorm still obscured vision, it was difficult to grasp what was happening.

“That mana just now wasn’t from any of our allied forces. It seems there was an external intervention targeting the air force vessel… Van?”

Aris took a pencil Lennok offered her, looking perplexed.

Lennok also threw Enakphil’s five fingers from his pocket to Hina and said.

“We need to escape right now.”

Unlike before, his face was rigidly hardened.

“The vessel isn’t the problem. That mana just now…!!”

Whoooosh!!

A massive shockwave erupted once more from the impact site where the vessel had fallen, sweeping away all the surrounding sand and dust.

The first thing to come into view was the grotesquely ruined five-sided colossal vessel.

It was as if its majestic presence in the sky just moments ago was a lie, now half-destroyed and revealing its interior.

Crew members lay groaning and bleeding within the shattered structures of the vessel.

And at the very center of all that destruction.

An alligator-shaped giant was crouching.

Even hunched, its bulk was as grand as a mountain, truly magnificent.

Scales so hard they gleamed black, and a tail standing as rigid as a steel beam.

The long snout, and the piercing yellow eyes peeking from behind it, exuded an overwhelming killing intent that could freeze one’s entire body.

The alligator giant slowly raised its head, and Lennok’s eyes met its simultaneously.

And only one of them twisted the corner of his lips.

“Long time no see, kid.”

Even now, if he closed his eyes, that image was vividly clear.

The factory raid, his second freelancer commission. The form of a monster surpassing human limits he encountered at its end.

Like the memory of that day, when he first felt his life in danger.

Croken Asylus stood before Lennok’s eyes.