Chapter 352: Hanghasa Labyrinth (2)

“Two years ago, I owed the Agents a debt.”

Jawoon said. His gaze was fixed not on Lennok, but on Evelyn standing beside him. From the beginning, Jawoon had been aware of Evelyn’s presence and had revealed himself to them first.

Jawoon, with a faint smile on his face, raised both hands. His pale hands were heavily stained with the fresh blood of the person he had just killed.

“I didn’t know even someone as incorruptible as you would covet an Ascendant’s relic. Is the City Government really that desperate for money these days?”

There was no answer. Evelyn, staring at Jawoon’s face with an annoyed expression, simply vanished from where she stood.

Shhick!!

The sound of an extremely compressed leap. Her form dashed forward even before that brief sound. She covered a distance of several dozen meters in a single breath, twisting her magic. A knife-hand, gleaming, plunged into the empty robe’s inner chest.

Immediately after, with a unique sound like breaking glass, a kaleidoscope of colors flashed within the dark cavern.

Crash!!

It was a gem, thrown by Jawoon at some point, that precisely intercepted Evelyn’s preemptive strike, shattering into pieces from the impact.

Chara-ra-ra-rak!!

Fragments of the gem scattered in the air, sparkling everywhere, drawing a fine rain of light.

The moment Evelyn’s swift reaction was confirmed, Lennok moved immediately.

‘Jawoon doesn’t know my identity. I’ll have to hold back on lightning magic for now.’

Whoosh…!!

What he conjured in his palm was not a sharp vortex of electricity, but a mass of fire, burning hot enough to melt flesh. He gripped the flow of fire trickling through his five fingers and instantly completed his incantation.

[Exploding Flame Sphere]

[9-Stage Deployment, Complex Fusion]

Nine swirling spheres of flame, rising from the air around Jawoon’s robe, rotated and melted like snow. They enveloped Jawoon, forming the shape of a massive full moon.

[Crimson Moon]

Kwooaaaaaah!!!

A magical technique that forcibly drew out destructive power by fusing the magical structure simultaneously with the deployment of the flame spheres. The fiery moon, occupying all eight directions including above his head and rotating, brightly illuminated the labyrinth’s cavern, writhing as if to incinerate all living things.

“Ugh…!!”

The moment even Evelyn slightly recoiled from the intense heat.

Crackle-crackle-crack!!

With a strange phenomenon like space tearing apart as if dissociating, the [Crimson Moon] shattered, and Jawoon sprang forward, as if bouncing.

His speed was incredibly swift. His target was not Evelyn, but Lennok.

Lennok, not at all surprised, readjusted his stance. In his memory, Jawoon Audis was as excellent a martial artist as he was a gem sorcerer. He had known from the start that it was unlikely for someone who had reached an excellent level in both magical techniques and martial arts back then to abandon close-quarters combat now.

“It’s better this way.”

Adding Property Transformation of fusion, which he had recently become adept at using, to his heat-elemental magic. This was an advanced technique requiring precise understanding of his magic’s structure and the judgment to dismantle a construct built in an instant.

He had understood how to use it for a long time but hadn’t had an opportunity to. It didn’t seem bad to try it against Jawoon here.

In the dark crossroads of the labyrinth, the two instantly closed the distance and faced each other.

Chae-chae-chae-chae-chaeng!!

As Lennok flexed and extended his fingers, swinging his arm, scattering flames bloomed into different forms of flowers, and Jawoon’s thrown gems exploded in all directions, blocking the countless deployments of these flame flowers.

Fragments of gems scattered incessantly. It was enough to worry if they would cause problems if inhaled.

The moment Lennok, rather than being impressed by the back-and-forth exchange that was momentarily equal to his own, instead gasped in admiration at the sheer quantity of gems Jawoon possessed.

Ka-ga-ga-gak…!!

Cracks in the landscape, splitting and shattering as if dissociating, began to engulf Lennok from all directions.

“…!!”

Lennok’s expression furrowed as he realized that this inexplicable phenomenon was not merely accidental, but clearly space delamination caused by Jawoon.

Jawoon, with a confident expression of victory, extended his pale left hand toward Lennok’s neck. The moment a sharp gem, wedged between his index and middle fingers, glowed and radiated light, Lennok also reached into his pocket and activated the Compassion of the Archangel.

He immediately transferred the sparkling gem fragments from all directions behind Jawoon.

Whoosh!!

The moment Jawoon twitched as the space delamination began to vanish like smoke, a dark flash flew from the side, piercing his left shoulder.

“Ugh…!!”

The first groan escaped him. Unable to withstand the force, Jawoon’s form flew backward and slammed into the wall.

Kwooaaang!!

“That’s ridiculous. You didn’t think I’d just stand there and watch, did you?”

Evelyn’s cold assertion as she walked out beside Lennok, rolling her shoulder. Jawoon carefully massaged his left shoulder with a trembling hand.

Kaga-gak…!!

The shaft of the arrow Evelyn had shot was still spinning, embedded in Jawoon’s shoulder. Its power was unbelievable for archery shot bare-handed without any special equipment.

“Instead of running, you aimed for us… Did you really think things would go so easily?”

She had no intention of just watching after landing a successful preemptive strike. If he were to deploy a Domain, he would become a troublesome opponent. The moment Evelyn was about to move to cut off Jawoon’s breath, Lennok grabbed her shoulder, stopping her.

“Wait.”

“Evan?”

Lennok, staring at the fallen Jawoon with sharp eyes, extended his hand into the air. Fragments of gems slowly fell from all directions in a peculiar way. Lennok, holding a sparkling fragment between his gloved fingers, observed it with interest and spoke.

“Gem minerals are quite hard, aren’t they?”

“…”

“Minerals often have regular structures and patterns, but isn’t it strange for any type of gem to shatter so thinly?”

“You mean…”

“He probably prepared for this kind of combat in advance.”

Lennok said this, brushing off the gem dust with his gloved hand. The unnatural space delamination that occurred during the battle. He had already somewhat guessed the principle behind it while exchanging blows with Jawoon.

“The diffuse reflection of processed magic power using gem fragments… He’s forcibly peeling away and collapsing the surrounding space by exploiting its side effects.”

As Jawoon slowly raised his head, Lennok shook his head.

“It’s a very high-level and complex method. The specific principle itself is difficult for even me to easily understand. It would be virtually impossible unless he arbitrarily adjusted the nearly random diffuse reflection patterns of magical light to this environment.”

After scattering the shattered gem fragments throughout the cavern during combat, he emits magical light through them, forcibly peeling away and delaminating the nearby space. The phenomenon where the magic power, diffusely reflected hundreds of times in a split second through the fragments scattered throughout the cavern, exceeds its limit and distorts, eroding space itself. While the phenomenon itself is not directly related to spatial manipulation, it is clear that Jawoon is aware of how to handle space as a result of his magical techniques. The rumor that Jawoon Audis was the sorcerer closest to Level 8 in the Western Continent was not false.

“But it’s clear that he intentionally manifested it… and the fact that he went through countless trials and errors doesn’t change. No matter how I think about it, it’s quite far removed from recent academic trends.”

“…”

“The rumors I heard about him… it seems they weren’t all nonsense after all.”

Only then did Jawoon, turning to Lennok and rising to his feet, let out a chuckle.

“Evan, was it? The flame wizard who defeated the Drug Lord… Your skill seems sufficient to move with Evelyn.”

Jawoon pulled out the arrow shaft, which had pierced his shoulder and stopped spinning, then stood up. He casually swung his left arm as if he hadn’t been injured, then smiled and took a step forward.

“I think we’ve sufficiently assessed each other’s skills. May I now state my business?”

“…”

“To be honest, I bear no ill will towards the Agents. As a result, because the Divine Bow didn’t appear on the scene, I was able to escape safely using that black wizard as a decoy. If not for that, I wouldn’t exist today.”

The reason Evelyn couldn’t intervene in the black wizard’s subjugation was to apprehend and detain Senator Reysen, who was behind the incident, but there was no need to tell Jawoon that now. Evelyn also noticed the shift in atmosphere from Jawoon’s words and stepped forward. She realized that the reason Jawoon had cast off his robe and revealed his identity was, in fact, because of her.

“What brings you here?”

Evelyn, her expression turning somewhat cold, asked. As an Agent, she knew the entire inside story: how Jawoon had commanded the terrorist organization Falshion to collude with the black wizard Craig Tillian, attempting to cause chaos in the mega-city. Naturally, she also knew that Jawoon had crossed to the Western Continent, founded the criminal organization Elderbine, and was operating as a Level 7 Archmage-level gem sorcerer.

“I thought you had no intention of returning to Vulcan after failing the Descent of the Annihilating Eye.”

“That’s right. This isn’t Vulcan, is it? I have no intention of returning to that needlessly large city.”

Jawoon answered indifferently, shrugging lightly.

“Well, do I really need to explain my circumstances in detail now? I’m probably not the only one who thought of plundering the Ascendant’s legacy and making a handsome fortune.”

“…”

“And in the process, I was simply disciplining these idiots who didn’t know their place and got greedy.”

Jawoon said, kicking the severed head of a corpse lying at his feet. Thud! The head, struck by his foot, tumbled and rolled until it hit the cavern wall.

Evelyn’s expression instantly soured, and she frowned in annoyance.

“I don’t care who you kill. What I want to know is… why did you crawl out in front of us instead of keeping quiet and running away?”

With those words, a dark arrow sprang into Evelyn’s hand. Gripping the sharp arrowhead in a reverse grip, Evelyn took a step forward in front of Lennok and spoke.

“Revealing your face here means you want to settle this before entering the labyrinth, doesn’t it?”

A sharp aura emanating from her entire body instantly filled the cavern of the labyrinth. A strange sensation, as if all the magic power in space instantly rearranged its direction, targeting Jawoon.

“It’s better this way. I don’t know what trick you used, but I’ll kill you here before things get any stranger.”

Even as Evelyn muttered chilling words with an emotionless face, Jawoon calmly shook his head.

“I’m sorry, but it’s quite the opposite. My plans went awry before I even entered the labyrinth, thanks to the avalanche you caused.”

“What?”

His demeanor was completely different from before, when he used to avoid confronting high-ranking powerful figures, including Evelyn. Jawoon smiled faintly, crossing his arms, and replied.

“My subordinates scattered before entering the labyrinth, and I don’t even know their locations. So, I’m saying… why don’t we join hands?”

“…”

“There’s no need to mention the Divine Bow’s skill, and I possess some information about the labyrinth that others don’t. If we cooperate, conquering the labyrinth itself won’t be difficult.”

With those words, Jawoon pulled out a finger-sized gem from his pocket.

“As a gem sorcerer, I can wield various magical techniques regardless of hierarchy or attribute. I believe I’d be at least as helpful as that wizard beside you. What do you say?”

Silence fell. Neither Lennok nor Evelyn had expected Jawoon to propose a long-term alliance at this point. And to enter negotiations with Evelyn while excluding Lennok, who was right beside her—wasn’t that impossible without confidence in his own magical superiority?

“Quite the confidence you have.”

Evelyn also seemed to catch the nuance and chuckled. “Makes one wonder if you’re the same guy who tucked his tail and ran from Adamant Thunder.”

The moment she directly mentioned Van’s name, Jawoon’s mouth twitched faintly.

“…I heard about him too. After that, he killed the Cartel executives and reached Archmage-level shortly after.”

“Oh, you know him well?”

Jawoon forced a smile at Evelyn’s teasing words.

“I lost to someone I was meant to lose to, and I simply accepted the result. And… now I’m stronger. You know that, don’t you?”

“Hmm. I don’t know about that.”

Evelyn retorted, then turned her head toward Lennok.

“Evan, what do you think?”

“…”

Lennok, realizing her intention, subtly furrowed his brow. From her perspective, knowing that Van and Evan were the same person, the current situation must have felt peculiar. However, Jawoon sensed something different from Lennok’s reaction and his expression subtly hardened. Evelyn’s act of deferring the answer to Lennok. He realized that the wizard named Evan held the de facto decision-making power.