Chapter 384: Echoes of Shadow (3)

Myeong’s figure vanished like a shadow.

But instead of trying to track his traces, Lennok simply gazed down at the mask he’d left behind.

“…”

He was still a difficult person to read.

Unlike Croken, who didn’t even seem to be of the same life form, Myeong didn’t easily reveal his transcendental power.

He simply offered proposals to Lennok, casually, like a close yet blunt friend he’d known for years. Again and again.

Myeong had said this was his final offer, but did he truly believe that? Lennok didn’t easily trust his words.

The obsession that monstrous black wizard showed towards Lennok was, even to Lennok, utterly alien.

It could mean that Myeong highly valued Lennok’s talent, but conversely, it could also be proof that there were problems too great to solve without such qualities.

So, what were these problems that even someone with Myeong’s power and wisdom couldn’t easily solve?

And where did the trajectory of desire, drawn by monsters like Pandemonium’s leader and Myeong at the end of the world, truly lead?

Ultimately, to resolve all these questions, he needed to know what Pandemonium desired and envisioned.

*Click!

“Van.”

Evelyn, who had opened the train compartment door and walked in, spoke.

Her face, looking down at Lennok, was slightly stiff.

“Someone just left, didn’t they?”

Had she vaguely sensed the brief strangeness left by Myeong’s visit?

An archer’s intuition was indeed not something to be underestimated.

Lennok was about to reply but instead lightly tapped the table across from him.

“…Let’s sit down and talk first.”

“Is something wrong…? No, right?”

Evelyn picked up a newspaper, looking at Lennok with a hint of unease.

The mask that had been lying next to the newspaper was now nowhere to be seen.

Amidst the ruins of the collapsed Hanghasa Labyrinth.

A cavity, sunk deep within the underground bedrock, so deep that not a single ray of light could penetrate.

A faint tremor echoed from within the collapsed pipes where the gate to The Cradle had been located.

Thump, thump.

The sound, initially perceived as mere noise, gradually grew louder, expanding its vibrations.

CRASH!!

Soon, it shattered an entire fallen stone pillar, transforming into a roar.

“Hoo…”

Dust swirled incessantly within the dark cavity.

Amidst it, a somewhat relieved voice resonated.

“Somehow, I succeeded.”

Emerging through the dust was a naked young man.

The black-haired man gazed down at his exposed body, then let out a hollow laugh.

“I thought the condition wouldn’t be great, considering it’s a backup body…”

Flesh that should have covered his ribs was torn away, exposing muscles and organs, and his two calves were reduced to mere bone.

When he touched his face, he felt hard teeth instead of soft cheekbones.

Severe injuries that would have caused a normal human to bleed out and die from shock.

Yet, the man could move perfectly fine because this was an emergency body, created precisely for such contingencies.

The master of black magic and the founder of the Consciousness Transfer Spell.

This was the backup body that Ermont, the black wizard who once dreamed of immortality by transcending his own flesh and moving between bodies using only his consciousness, had hidden among the Evil God Statues.

Having successfully escaped Maiya’s surveillance, left Jawoon’s body, and transferred into the backup body, Ermont stretched with a refreshed expression.

“Well, as long as I’m alive, that’s what matters. Now, shall I go retrieve my poor friend?”

Although he had spoken to Lennok as if Jawoon’s existence wasn’t particularly important, Ermont had been eyeing the gem sorcerer from the beginning.

Various types of gems. Gem sorcery, depending on their mystery and rarity, could unleash power far exceeding the wielder’s own abilities, making its value limitless depending on the user.

Jawoon himself, being short on money and lacking wealth, couldn’t properly utilize his own sorcery, but Ermont was different.

Just giving Jawoon the gems piled in the secret vault of a destroyed kingdom or the research lab of a deceased Archmage, remaining in Ermont’s memory, would be of considerable help in achieving Ermont’s goals.

He might be a bit different from before, having carelessly expended some important emotions, but it didn’t really matter.

Ways to ‘use’ worn-out humans had always been abundant, then and now.

“The problem is how to get out of this cavity…”

Ermont, arms crossed, looked up at the tightly sealed cavity ruins with a hopeless expression.

The grandly collapsed labyrinth ruins had already fallen uncontrollably, buried deep underground to the point where no sunlight could penetrate.

While digging in from the outside might be possible, projecting force outwards from the inside could collapse the delicately formed balance, shattering the entire cavity.

With the remaining magic in the backup body, just keeping his metabolism running smoothly was a struggle.

Only then, belatedly realizing his predicament, did Ermont’s complexion turn slightly pale.

“Wait, oh…? Surely I won’t suffocate from lack of oxygen, unable to get out of here…?”

“That won’t happen.”

RUMBLEEEEE!!!

At that moment, with a voice from behind Ermont, the ceiling of the cavity began to crack open down the middle.

Black claws, resembling sharp thorns, grasped the ruins of the cavity from both sides, tearing them apart to create a space to dig through.

Through the gushing cool air, the face of a black demon giant peeked through.

Ermont silently gazed up at the giant’s form, then turned his eyes behind him.

“I already thought you might pull a trick like this sometime.”

Myeong, the black-haired young man, arms crossed, smiled faintly as he looked at Ermont.

“You were from Pandemonium… I couldn’t be more unlucky.”

Ermont slumped his shoulders with a frustrated expression.

Myeong stared intently at him.

The two black-haired young men turned their gazes towards each other.

The atmosphere between the two was eerily similar.

“Hmm?”

Ermont, as if feeling it too, raised one eyebrow high.

“You, by any chance, aren’t my descendant, are you?”

“You’re too slow to notice.”

Myeong, with a wry smile, gestured.

“Then, let’s head up, ancestor.”

Clank!!

The black giant, following his will, seized Ermont’s body.

Chains hanging from the giant’s forearm naturally bound Ermont, holding him completely immobile.

Only then did Ermont fuss, opening his mouth quickly.

“Wait, wait, wait!! No, as my descendant, shouldn’t you naturally prioritize me?! Why Pandemonium?!”

“Because I have no intention of serving a decrepit old monster who’s hundreds of years old like a master.”

Myeong replied indifferently, climbing onto the giant’s forearm with him.

“Besides, you’re not even the progenitor of our family.”

“Th-that’s true, but.”

Although he hadn’t specifically told Lennok in the train, the lineage Myeong possessed was one of the uniquely special qualities in this world.

The five branches of pure bloodlines officially recognized as the oldest wizard families.

Myeong and Ermont were indeed ancestor and descendant, sharing one of those family trees.

Ermont, who was about to readily agree, suddenly snapped back to his senses and shouted.

“P-please, still help me!!”

“…”

“As my descendant, you must know who I am, right? If you help me escape from that monster’s grasp, I’ll reward you handsomely.”

“With that Consciousness Transfer Spell you boast about?”

“Uh, hmm…”

“Sorry, but I don’t need it. I already know it.”

Myeong smiled, looking at the speechless Ermont.

“Seems your head isn’t working too well after changing bodies, but you knew the Drug Lord used that spell, didn’t you? I’m the one who taught him.”

“Th-that… A secret like the key to immortality, to an outsider…”

“A secret? It seems our ancestor truly thought of that spell that way.”

Myeong looked down at Ermont, who was about to foam at the mouth and struggle, and gave a wry smile.

“What your family became because of that Consciousness Transfer Spell you created… Haha, truly, human greed is hard to understand.”

“…What did you say?”

“Never mind. At this point, it’s just a waste of my breath.”

As the black giant pulled itself upwards, the two quickly emerged onto the snowfield outside the labyrinth.

There were still people lingering among the labyrinth’s ruins, searching for any unforeseen opportunities, but they didn’t notice the presence of the two men at all.

Myeong, having unsummoned the giant, lightly flicked his fingers.

THUD!!

Something black and thick fell directly in front of Ermont.

“…What is this?”

“Can’t you tell by looking?”

Myeong smiled.

“I’d like you to quietly go in and sleep.”

“No, anyone can see this looks like something you’d sleep in forever…”

A large, black coffin.

The coffin door, engraved with a silver cross, stood wide open before Ermont.

It waited patiently with its door open, as if expecting a new master.

“Don’t worry too much.”

Myeong, approaching Ermont, patted his shoulder.

“There are many people who really want to see you. Go in ahead and receive their greetings.”

Hearing those words, Ermont finally turned to Myeong with a look of realization.

A faint fear surfaced on Ermont’s face.

“Wait, you mean… the family…!!”

BANG!!

Myeong didn’t listen further, simply kicked Ermont’s backside, shoving him into the coffin.

In an instant, the door closed, and the coffin sank into the ground and disappeared.

Myeong silently watched it, then let out a deep sigh.

“This is starting to get tiring… I wish the work of recovering the family’s traces was over.”

How many events had transpired for the current Myeong to be created, for him to gain such power.

And how much time had passed didn’t need to be said.

But the days buried in anger, frustration, melancholy, and ruin were bound to be forgotten from memory someday.

Even though Myeong clearly knew that his distant ancestor, the black wizard Ermont, whom he had just encountered, was the root cause of all these events.

Myeong ultimately said nothing, simply seized him and shoved him into the coffin.

“…”

All karma and grievances were the same.

As long as one was alive, and the river of time flowed normally, they were merely things that could all be washed away.

But all of that was merely a hypothetical, only possible atop a world that continued to exist.

The black wizard’s eyes, looking at the snow-covered plain, sank deep.

The moment he took another step forward, there was no trace left amidst the labyrinth’s ruins.

Lennok and Evelyn stayed on the train for about two days after that, arriving near Vulcan.

WHOOOOSH!!

The train ceaselessly racing ahead.

The train, speeding through the vast, arid plateaus, was passing between the railway station and the old castle that Lennok had seen when he visited the autonomous region previously.

Lennok leaned against the railing outside the train, silently admiring the rapidly passing scenery.

“Want one?”

“Thanks… Hmm.”

Lennok accepted the food Evelyn readily offered, but paused slightly when he realized it was eggplant tempura.

He knew they occasionally sold food on the train, but how she managed to pick only the most polarizing dishes was a mystery.

“…I’ll eat it gratefully.”

Evelyn, watching Lennok nibble on the eggplant tempura with a contented expression, asked.

“What do you plan to do once you’re back in Vulcan?”

“First, check the company’s situation, and if there’s nothing major… I’ll need some rest.”

Lennok replied, swallowing the tempura with a wry smile.

“I need to organize the insights I gained in the labyrinth and refine my magic system. It will probably take a considerable amount of time.”

“…Because that’s the answer you got from meeting Jindun?”

Evelyn’s cautious question.

Lennok nodded.

“Reaching the Peak of Extremes ultimately means either narrowing possibilities or expanding them infinitely. The advice to ‘discard something’ vaguely hits at the core of it.”

Why had Lennok been slow to reach the Peak of Extremes despite his rapid growth?

The answer wasn’t far off.

Because even when he reached the Archmage state, he was wandering for precisely similar reasons.

At that time, Lennok had been undecided about setting his Mind Imprint, postponing the decision, and feared that his answer might be wrong, or that he might not be able to change it.

That’s why he ultimately chose to materialize the possibilities of the future, not the past or present, into his Mind Imprint, wasn’t it?

It was the same now. Knowing that once he set a direction to deviate from the path, it would be difficult to easily change it,

Lennok had been postponing transcending the Hierarchy until he met an Ascendant directly and received an answer.

If reaching the Peak of Extremes was the very phenomenon of water overflowing from a vessel,

then for Lennok, who possessed a vaster vessel than anyone else, his water overflowing would be an incredibly difficult task.

Therefore, to deviate from the path, Lennok needed to choose a completely different method and idea from other practitioners.

“I’ve firmly decided on a direction. All that’s left is to confirm my judgment.”

“…So, what exactly is this direction?”

“Well…”

Lennok turned to her, about to give a vague answer, but then changed his mind.

Evelyn, who had helped Lennok to the very end in this labyrinth, deserved to hear what he and Jindun had discussed and decided.

“No, I should tell you.”

“Wha, what?”

Lennok slowly spoke, looking at Evelyn, who recoiled slightly with a surprised expression.

“I’m thinking of creating a new magic system.”

“…A magic system?”

“Until now, I’ve simply combined and used necessary magic, but it’s time to reorganize the rules and move to the next stage.”

Lennok looked calmly into Evelyn’s eyes and spoke.

“All the necessary preparations are complete. I’m going to start the work of rebuilding all my accumulated achievements and experiences within a single system.”