Chapter 375: Jindun (4)

He stood at a crossroads.

An imbalance that felt on the verge of exploding at any moment. A ferocity like a bomb, dangerously close to detonation.

The power and enlightenment, condensed to their limits within him, felt as if they were transforming into something different from anything before.

Something entirely different from the seven Hierarchies Lennok had continuously built up since opening his eyes in this world.

A single step beyond the seven stages of Self-transformation, towards true self-completion.

Hadn’t he, hoping it lay at the end of this labyrinth, followed an intuition akin to certainty, leaving everything behind to reach The Cradle?

However, Lennok, having finished his dialogue with Jindun and opened his eyes, still recognized that he had not reached the ultimate state.

‘It’s because of the barrier magic transmission.’

As he received even a part of the Ascendant’s fundamental spell formula, the Hierarchy within Lennok fluctuated greatly, transforming into something else.

In that process, the transcendence of the state he would have originally achieved with the certainty gained from his conversation with Jindun was being delayed.

Many things had changed from his original plan, but it didn’t greatly matter.

Rather, he had an intuition that this fortuitous encounter granted to Lennok now would become a stepping stone to elevate him to an even more unfathomable state.

What landscape would Lennok see if he fully assimilated Jindun’s barrier magic and reached the ultimate state?

It might be something entirely different from the other Level 8 Archmages he had encountered until now.

Perhaps the golden ring, floating like a halo behind his back, was grasping fragments of a distant future.

But instead of pondering it for long, Lennok’s eyes flashed towards the figure of the Commander Wizard, who had settled at the bottom of the stairs.

Fzzzzzt…!!!!

‘There isn’t much time.’

Memories flowed into his mind from his dialogue with Jindun.

Through them, he had temporarily gained control over the Hanghasa Labyrinth and forced residual magic into his body, but this wouldn’t last long.

Even if the Ascendant’s Conceptual Realm was a miracle realized through immense and unyielding power, it was fundamentally a type of remnant, materialized by projecting the caster’s mindscape into reality.

As the original caster of the spell, Jindun, had died, it was impossible for its original form to be perfectly maintained.

The magic Lennok was currently using would also cease and vanish once the pipes scattered throughout The Cradle stopped functioning, cutting off its power supply.

But it didn’t matter.

He intended to seize everything he could from Pandemonium’s Commander Wizard before his temporarily soaring condition ran out.

Whirrr!!

Lennok’s eyes spun frantically, drawing out his violet Mystic Eye.

The cracks carved into his pupils grew deeper and deeper, making it impossible to see properly.

Despite the countless traces of cracks obscuring the vision in his left eye, Lennok continued to draw up magic without stopping.

Five consecutive spatial jumps, performed using the magic continuously overflowing throughout his body.

With five flashes, Lennok’s body, having instantly leaped dozens of meters, rushed towards the Commander Wizard without any acceleration or deceleration.

Fwip-fwip-fwip-fwip!!

“Hold it, Wizard!!”

Boom!!

Maiya’s body, which had been slammed back by Lennok’s blow, scattered pale flashes of light as she gave chase.

Her overflowing magic surged, blocking the path to the Commander Wizard.

Slish!!

She realized that the Commander Wizard’s immediate non-intervention in this battle was to preserve Jindun’s remains intact.

In Maiya’s hand, the angular blade, gripped in a reverse hold, rotated in three directions, encompassing a single space.

The three strands of magic, twisted in different directions, shaved themselves down through repulsion and resonance, forging a pale flash of light at their core.

Kiiiing…!

It was the essence of her Miniature Universe, which had made Maiya Lenslet the Machine City’s finest enforcer.

The ultimate concept of ‘Penetration,’ which completely shaved away and pierced through any resistance or barrier in its path.

With this deadly assassination technique, which not only interfered with the concept of space but momentarily reached beyond to a higher state, she had quelled and suppressed countless disturbances in the city.

Though her power had diminished compared to the past, having been stripped of her enforcer authority and sealed of her magic after the failure of the Ascension Gate, her Mind Imprint, forged over decades of executing countless lawbreakers, still aimed at Lennok with sharp precision.

Five spatial jumps, charging towards the Commander Wizard. She predicted the third appearance spot, after seeing the previous two jumps, with centimeter-level accuracy.

And pierced his heart even before Lennok appeared beyond space.

Thwack!!

“……!!!!!!”

Maiya’s eyes widened when she realized that the unwavering flash of penetration she had swung had, instead, embedded itself in her own thigh.

“He folded space instead of crossing…!!”

Did he fold and bend the space around Maiya, completely misaligning the angle of her swinging arm?

It wasn’t merely spatial interference from an artifact or a Level 8 wizard.

Maiya, realizing belatedly that Lennok was wielding a spell that manipulated space itself, twisted her head, but she was a step too late.

Before she could even blink, a breath almost like an instant.

Lennok, having landed silently before the Commander Wizard’s eyes, unhesitatingly raised his left arm.

Lightning, curving and stretching distortedly between his grasp, burst forth without restraint, warping the view.

[Lightning Seal]

Fzzzzzzzt!!!

A massive flash of lightning burst forth from behind his bent forearm. He concentrated its entire destructive power and swung it instantly.

The essence of the lightning bolt, descended upon the ground, aimed not for the Commander Wizard’s heart, but higher.

Towards the face still obscured by noise, making it unrecognizable.

In the fleeting moment their presences confirmed each other.

Lennok whispered, using a sonic wave faster than thought.

“That face. You’ll have to show it here before you leave.”

KABOOOOM!!!

The palace walls of The Cradle burst apart, and Lennok appeared, as if flung, beyond them.

Lennok’s body, flung rapidly into the air, stopped abruptly mid-flight.

Forced flight, using only pure magic.

Even while using a flight spell that was highly inefficient in terms of magic consumption, there wasn’t a hint of fluctuation in Lennok’s magic.

Lennok, floating dozens of meters in the sky, silently looked down at The Cradle, situated on the pure white lake.

The opponent didn’t appear to have come out of The Cradle yet, but Lennok instinctively knew that his Lightning Seal had not worked.

‘I didn’t think it would work out well from the start, but…’

Naturally, even with Lennok having gained the labyrinth’s magic, he couldn’t guarantee victory against Pandemonium’s Commander Wizard.

The opponent was a monster of a different caliber, who discussed outcomes on par with Ascendants and even claimed their deaths.

While he couldn’t precisely know the extent of their state and military might, wasn’t it obvious that Lennok would find it difficult to guarantee a win?

However, with various conditions and circumstances added now, he had thought he could at least confirm that face shrouded in noise…

He was mistaken.

“I know what you were thinking. But it’s meaningless.”

The Commander Wizard, holding Jindun’s remains, walked out of The Cradle and said.

“This appearance isn’t something I desire. It’s merely a side effect of the causality I carry not being accepted in this timeline.”

“So it seems.”

Lennok replied.

“As if you aren’t a resident of this world.”

“……”

The Commander Wizard was silent for a moment before answering.

“As I said, I have no intention of killing you. As the one who shared Jaigys Ethernor’s answer. I should respect the will left behind by the great Ascendant as much as possible.”

“……”

“But aside from that, your talent is undoubtedly astonishing… Jindun didn’t make a futile choice.”

The Commander Wizard looked up at Lennok’s face and asked.

“It seems you’ve realized a way to transcend Hierarchy, haven’t you? It wouldn’t be strange if a new ultimate state were to be born soon.”

A question closer to certainty than confirmation. It held no more meaning than reiterating what was already known.

Lennok, realizing this, also remained silent instead of responding to the Commander Wizard’s words.

Because he realized that the Commander Wizard’s words, though not entirely accurate, pinpointed Lennok’s power even more precisely.

The Commander Wizard looked up at Lennok for a moment, then slowly bowed his head.

“I’m not pleased that new power is joining the Eyes of Blue… but I will accept it. If it is the will that the previous Lighthouse Keeper completed with their death, then I am willing to respect it.”

“…A will completed through death?”

Lennok opened his mouth to question that remark, which he couldn’t simply let pass, but the Commander Wizard ignored him.

His body, taking a step onto the lake, slowly faded away as if blurring.

As if the reason for his existence in this place had run out.

Lennok immediately tried to draw up magic to hold the Commander Wizard’s body, but he froze solid at a single word the Commander Wizard muttered.

“I don’t know which is your true name, but you’d do well to reconsider my offer, Van.”

“……!!”

“Because you already have the qualifications to stand where we stand. Until then, I shall bury your secret within The Cradle.”

The Commander Wizard’s back, holding Jindun’s remains, vanished beyond the mist.

Lennok stood frozen, silently gazing at his retreating figure.

Pandemonium’s Commander Wizard already knew that Evan and Van were the same person.

Rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble!!!

The slowly shaking Cradle began to crumble, and the entire pure white space started to tremble.

As Jindun met his demise, and even his remains departed this space, the labyrinth began to collapse and crumble from its deepest parts.

This pure white space beyond the final gate was the ultimate Conceptual Realm, embodying Jindun’s most fundamental Mind Imprint.

It was not strange for the labyrinth to collapse from its center as the Mind Imprint itself vanished.

Lennok watched The Cradle crumble from atop a Changyoseok pillar.

“…….”

Rumble-rumble-rumble!!!

Even if Jindun had died, not everything in the labyrinth would disappear.

The Ascendant’s Conceptual Realm was too mighty and vivid a power to completely vanish just by losing its owner.

This labyrinth already was something that had completely encroached upon the real world and existed as a part of it.

Even if the source of power disappeared, the evidence of the labyrinth’s existence would remain as a part of reality, not vanishing.

Below Lennok’s feet, as he watched The Cradle crumble with a complicated expression, a presence resounded.

“How tiresome.”

Maiya, looking utterly exhausted. On her back, she carried the unconscious body of Ermont.

With a clear stab wound on her right thigh, roughly bandaged with torn clothes to stop the bleeding, she looked up at Lennok and asked.

“What did the Commander Wizard say in the end?”

“He told me to screw off.”

“Haha!”

Maiya, who had burst into an empty laugh, straightened her face and said.

“Hey, Evan. I’ve lived almost 60 years longer than you. If you speak to me like that one more time…”

“Now, of all times?”

Lennok mumbled, straightening himself.

At the same time, immense magic flowed out of his body like waves.

“Don’t you think we’ve both shown too many ugly sides to act like an elder now?”

“…….”

Only then did Maiya’s words abruptly cut off, realizing that Lennok’s magic had not yet vanished.

At this point, with the labyrinth beginning to collapse, it wouldn’t have been strange for the residual magic gathered in The Cradle to have long since expired.

Yet, what did it mean that the magic flowing from Lennok’s body still maintained its potency?

Lennok had succeeded not just in temporarily wielding the labyrinth’s magic, but in greatly increasing the size of his maximum magic capacity.

Realizing this, Maiya couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh.

“Ha, it seems the biggest gain wasn’t the Commander Wizard after all, but you. Not only clues to reaching Level 8, but you even made a part of Jindun’s magic your own?”

“…….”

The transmission of barrier magic knowledge through the game with Jindun.

It would have been impossible without the magic resonance using that knowledge, but Lennok didn’t bother explaining that fact to her.

“It seems everyone who entered this labyrinth, except you, wasted their time. If the Hanghasa Labyrinth collapses, finding Jindun’s relics among the wreckage will be a distant hope…”

Maiya let out a light sigh and turned her back.

“So, I guess we’ve just done a favor for the grave-robbing bastards who’ll snoop around here decades from now. Doesn’t really matter.”

“Where are you going?”

“You asking because you don’t know? I’m going outside.”

Maiya replied indifferently.

“The Doctor died ages ago, and the Commander Wizard told me to take both of you out, but I have no intention of fighting you now. I’ll just have to take this damned gem sorcerer out.”

Maiya, carrying Jawoon’s body on her shoulder, couldn’t hide a wry smile, finding her own situation quite amusing.

“To think I’m carrying out two guys who fought tooth and nail to get through the gate… I’ve truly lived a long life.”

“…….”

“See you alive. If there’s a next time, that is.”

Her greeting, dismissing their previous death-match as if it were nothing.

It was proof of how many times Maiya Lenslet had experienced and overcome similar situations to reach this point.

Lennok stared at Maiya’s disappearing back in the distance for a moment, then turned his head.

At this moment, with his remaining power, perhaps it would be the right judgment to kill Maiya here and eliminate any future trouble.

Maiya, who had entered the labyrinth alone and was merely exhausted from fighting an equally skilled opponent, was clearly a formidable powerhouse in Lennok’s estimation.

But Lennok, knowing this full well, stayed his hand, and Maiya, as if it were natural, departed.

Both knew that the presence of the Commander Wizard, who had just left, still bound them.

As long as the Commander Wizard had declared he would spare Lennok here, Maiya could not kill Lennok, and Lennok could not lay a hand on Maiya.

Because if that being, who spoke of causality so casually and transcended time and space, were to reappear here to settle the situation, it could happen at any moment.

And Lennok had no intention of gambling again on such an unknown possibility.

In fact, considering what he had to do next, waiting for Maiya to disappear first was the natural course of action.

Shhhk…!!

Lennok, realizing that Maiya’s presence had completely vanished from The Cradle, slowly rose from the Changyoseok he had been sitting on.

The knowledge Jindun had passed on through the game didn’t just contain information about barrier magic.

Knowledge about the labyrinth. He had also taught him where the relics he had accumulated over hundreds of years existed.

Lennok casually twisted and forced magic into the Changyoseok he had been sitting on, then rotated it.

As he manipulated the magic according to the directions in his memory, something like a small altar rose from directly behind where The Cradle had collapsed.

Rumble-rumble-rumble!!!

Lennok didn’t even glance at other Changyoseok, heading straight for that altar.