Chapter 403: Growth and Proof (4)

Swiiiiish!!!

Rain poured relentlessly, drenching the hallway through shattered windows.

Red blood and pungent oil mixed with the rainwater accumulating on the plush carpeted hallway, releasing a foul odor.

Lennok disregarded his coat getting wet and stepped out into the hallway.

‘They knew I was waiting here, yet they pushed through with the operation. There must be more to their plan.’

Today’s encounter was, after all, a means of collecting evidence to prove that the organization behind the attack on Dyke Corp. was Achilles Security.

It wasn’t enough to simply defeat the enemy; clear proof that Achilles Inc. had actually taken action was needed.

The moment Lennok rotated his mana, searching for the hidden superhumans and spiders, thinking this thought—

Kakakakak!!!

Suddenly, a sharp, gnawing sound, like insects devouring something, echoed from the hallway walls.

No, it wasn’t just noise. The thick concrete plastered onto the walls instantly peeled away, revealing the bare skeleton underneath.

Through the rebar, the rainy night cityscape was visible, and beyond it, mechanical spiders moved in perfect unison.

Only then did Lennok’s expression subtly change as he realized their true objective.

“Surely they aren’t gnawing through the building to collapse it—!!”

“Stop him!”

“Use the spiders as shields!”

Kiririirik!!

At the same time, other spiders and superhumans, not caught in the aftermath of the self-gathering effect, rushed at Lennok.

Firearms protruding from various joints alternately spat hot flames and bullets,削ping away barriers, while strange sonic waves erupted, disrupting his focus.

Fierce lasers poured down from above, and sharp blades pounded and tore through shields.

All their movements were so incredibly agile that it was hard to believe they were mere machines.

Kakakakak!!!

A terrifying sight: they clung tightly to the shield, wriggling, grinding drills against its underside.

Lennok stared intently at the fiercely rotating drills before him and raised his hand.

[Lightning Bound]

[12-layer Overload Torrent]

[Barrier Array Alchemy: Hierarchy Conversion]

C-crackle!!!

The air crumpled like paper under the crushing heat, shattering into pieces.

Common magic, which he had only used for simple power augmentation since gaining access to unique magic.

However, once filtered through the barrier arts, its power could be demonstrated in a direction entirely different from unique magic.

Unlike unique magic, which has predetermined directions and outcomes, the application of barrier arts was possible due to the relatively free customization of common magic.

Lightning extending from Lennok twisted like living snakes, forming a massive barrier array.

Standing at the center of the array, Lennok swiftly formed hand seals one after another.

[Thunder Pillar: Flying Azure]

[108 Divine Thunder Rain]

Not just simple mana, but a complex incantation layering on top of already formed common magic.

Though the process might seem cumbersome for use during combat, its scale was entirely different from anything Lennok had wielded before.

Resonance echoed between the lightning pillars striking down from the void. Flashes of light, permeating the mana storm, intercepted the superhumans darting through the air, one by one.

“Khaaak!!”

“F-fuck…!!”

“There’s nowhere left to run!!”

Evading the falling forms of superhumans and spiders, he manipulated his shield and carapace shield to deflect the blades that came at him from point-blank range.

A chill wave of murderous intent grazed his limbs precariously. A sinister cursed mana brushed past the tip of his nose.

Unlike before, he didn’t stop, parrying the incoming spells and killing intent, which were now sharper and more aggressive, by a hair’s breadth.

Kwoooosh!!!

Lightning, bursting between the columns of electricity that coiled around him, split and struck like stakes.

Spiraling mana, twisting and coiling according to his will, pierced through the crumbling debris and shattered the superhumans’ desperate resistance.

C-crunch!!

The horrific sound of bones and flesh being crushed.

The screams, bursting from their throats, were drowned out by the surrounding noise despite their desperation.

The instant dozens of lightning bolts, rotating once around Lennok, fluttered and shimmered like wings—

Kiiiiiik…!!

An entire floor of the building where the engagement was taking place exploded, violently snapping the building’s midsection.

The upper half of the greatly tilted building swayed, then toppled, impaling itself onto an adjacent spire, stopping in an L-shape.

Kuuuuwoooong!!!

The impact scattered a thick mist of cement and dust, and the hot air radiating from the debris painted an untimely heat haze across the night sky.

Lennok, who had climbed the bent building’s 7th-floor corridor using mana threads, coughed incessantly.

“Cough, cough!!”

While covering his mouth with one hand and spitting out the dust in his throat, he continuously manipulated the mana threads connected to him, pulling them.

Bound by a dozen mana threads were the superhumans.

Their bodies rigid, muttering incomprehensible groans, and rolling their eyes—it was a familiar sight, as if he had seen it before.

“Cough…!! While manipulating the shield, I made a mistake with the breathing filter…!”

[A mistake, that’s unlike you, Master.]

“Phew… Mana keeps erratic when layering barrier spells. It seems to cause errors in some of the magic I’m constantly using.”

Lennok wiped away cold sweat and let out a small sigh.

“I thought it would be fine after using it a few times in real combat, but I need to be more careful.”

While he had inherited Jindun’s barrier arts through memory, he only understood their operating principles and was using them directly.

Occasionally, sensory anomalies occurred during the process of combining spells deeply imbued with an Ascendant’s Mind Imprint with Lennok’s own magic.

Though he suppressed the side effects with transcendent mana manipulation, if he wasn’t careful, the filters on his shield would misalign.

From Lennok’s perspective, who used common magic layered over his full-body shield to control environmental factors like temperature and humidity, it was an issue that required very careful handling.

[We also confirmed through the accelerator that the larger the scale of mana you handle, the stronger the side effects become. If even a single control error occurs in a combat situation like this, a problem is bound to erupt eventually…]

This problem arose because Lennok had embraced various spells with an extraordinarily vast and enormous vessel.

While there might be no issues when handling spells individually, conflicts arising from combining spells built upon different Mind Imprints were, in a way, natural.

“Still, I managed to secure a few of them alive.”

Lennok, standing on the wall of the building, which was bent at a right angle, caught his breath as he looked at the superhumans bound by mana threads.

Exactly eight individuals survived this engagement without dying by Lennok’s hand.

These were the ones who had survived until the end, desperately trying to stay alive against Lennok.

It was highly probable that they knew as much as their skill and perceptiveness suggested.

“If I hand them over to Panua, she’ll come up with suitable physical evidence. If I also hand over the mechanical spiders I captured earlier, securing proof that it was Achilles’s doing should be…”

Fwoooooosh!!!

At that moment, a brilliant blue light soared through the rainy night sky, pouring down over Lennok’s head.

Instantly brightening the entire street, it formed a hemispherical dome centered around the Dyke Corp. branch.

Simultaneously, an immense pressure, as if heavily weighing down Lennok’s shoulders, began to control the surroundings.

A massive, blue, glowing hemisphere. All its light converged on Lennok alone, illuminating his body.

The feeling was more of binding and suppressing mana itself rather than physical movement, and at that instant, Lennok’s expression hardened.

“Mana pattern 50% analyzed. It’s not as good as expected, but I’ll have to be satisfied with this much for now.”

Someone appeared from the opposite side of the L-shaped building and spoke to Lennok.

His face was awkwardly young for a man wearing a soaked white gown in the rain.

Though his actual age was unknown, he appeared similar in age to Lennok as he adjusted his glasses while looking at him.

“It’s a sufficient achievement if we’ve confirmed that the new spell defense system works even against a wizard of your caliber. It was worth focusing on the objective without worrying about what’s behind us.”

Kugugugu…!!!

The mana emanating from the man’s body was at a level even Lennok couldn’t dismiss.

Regardless of the current situation surrounding Lennok, the opponent before him was also an Archmage-level superhuman who had completed his Hierarchy.

If the hemisphere surrounding Lennok began to properly function and bind his mana, Lennok’s current combat ability wouldn’t guarantee victory.

Only then did Lennok realize why the man had appeared now, and he nodded.

“A spell defense system, you say. Is that part of a new project your side is preparing?”

“More precisely, it’s a new leash to control powerful superhumans like yourself.”

The man, agreeing, spoke through his glasses, which were too wet to see through properly.

“Nice to meet you, Van. I am Graham Campbell, technical strategy team leader for Achilles. It’s truly an honor to showcase this project against a wizard like you.”

As he spoke, the vast blue hemisphere, fully expanded over the area, slowly approached Lennok, narrowing its domain.

As the hemisphere closed in, the pressure intensified.

The moment Lennok unleashed his mana, a flash shot from one side of the hemisphere, striking and scattering the mana he had conjured into the air.

Chijijijijik…!!!

“Magic is forbidden.”

Graham, who began walking on the broken glass windows of the vertically bent building’s wall as if it were the floor, spoke.

“More precisely, rather than interfering with the movement of mana within the body, it’s a type of system that recognizes external mana patterns and intercepts them on the spot.”

“A system, you say…”

“It took a long time to record your mana pattern into the system’s memory because it’s so complex, but the security weapons you fought earlier were originally terminals created for that very purpose.”

Was he talking about the mechanical spiders that had just rushed at Lennok?

They were now close enough to see each other’s faces, and he continued.

“The moment they are damaged, they record the entire spell poured upon them and transmit the data. The accumulated data is then diagrammed and fitted into the massive framework of mana patterns, to be implemented as part of the system.”

Every time Lennok raised and extended his mana outwards, the brilliant blue light shot from outside the sphere, directly intercepting Lennok’s mana.

It couldn’t extinguish it, but it was a type of field that prevented mana from condensing and manifesting as a clear spell.

“It’s not a finished product yet, but if it’s used for adjustment against a single person, it’s possible. How does it feel?”

Graham asked.

“This will probably be the last time you can stand with a sound mind. After we capture you, we plan to soak your brain in truth serum and make you spill everything you know. Before that, I’d like to hear your honest thoughts.”

“I see.”

Lennok nodded.

“I don’t know how grand your scheme is, but your confidence is quite impressive.”

“…”

“I understand that even within the City Government, opinions are divided on this new project. Even if you borrow the strength of unauthorized forces you can mobilize, if you continue with such radical actions, you’ll eventually reach a limit.”

Lennok looked at Graham, who was fiddling with a terminal, and asked.

“Do you truly believe this control system will have the same significance as the Prohibition Edict?”

“Hmm, come to think of it, this is the first time I’m speaking with someone directly involved in the Defense Force’s rebellion.”

Graham, who had been acting as if he would immediately seize Lennok and force him to his knees, now tilted his glasses as if intrigued.

“Are you satisfied with how this city looks now that the Edict has been lifted?”

“…”

“Quite a few people are displeased with the current situation. Even more so because they know the City Council’s decision wasn’t made after careful deliberation.”

“What do you mean?”

“Ultimately, the City Council lifted the Prohibition Edict because they wanted to prevent situations like the Defense Force’s rebellion, where they couldn’t control their own military forces.”

Graham looked down at Lennok with cold eyes and said,

“They merely want to prevent situations like the current one, which exploit loopholes in the Edict. They are not denying the necessity of control itself.”

“I have no interest in whether the superhumans of this city need freedom and responsibility.”

Lennok replied indifferently.

“What I want to ask is, do you seriously believe that a hastily developed project like this will exert the same effect as the Edict?”

“…”

The order of a rapidly changing megalopolis is established not by clear rules, but by implicit agreements and a balance of power.

What the City Government’s high-ranking officials were attempting now, leveraging Achilles’s technology, was a radical move that completely disregarded these vested interests.

Even if it weren’t Lennok, this endeavor would have inevitably been obstructed by those who resented it, sooner or later.

Lennok wondered if Graham, a key figure in Achilles, was aware of this fact yet still proceeded with such actions.

“That’s precisely what we’re testing this system on outlaws like you for.”

Graham wiped away the rain and grinned, replying,

“So, I hope you struggle with all your might. If we can prove that this system works on a wizard of your caliber, getting proper investment from the old cronies in the City Council will be a piece of cake.”

It wasn’t merely to collapse Dyke Corp. and seize its production facilities.

It was a demonstration to prove whether the new project, created by combining Achilles’s technology and the high-ranking officials’ plans, could truly possess control similar to the Edict.

But Lennok, hearing this fact presented before him, merely smiled faintly instead of flinching.

“Madrich Onnion must have persuaded you all by saying that.”

“…!!!”

“But it seems he didn’t properly tell you what magic truly means to a wizard.”

Perhaps he hadn’t expected that name to come out of Lennok’s mouth here.

The moment Lennok snapped his fingers, looking down at Graham, whose eyes were wide with shock—

Kwoooosh!!

Something sprang from beneath Lennok’s feet, instantly placing him upon its back and began looking down at Graham.

Eight legs. A massive, black body. And eyes glowing a familiar, brilliant red.

The moment Graham’s mouth twisted as he realized it was a mechanical spider, a security weapon, 71-Araneia, which he had been controlling just moments ago—

Dadadadadak!!!

Dozens of spiders burst from various parts of the hallway, swarming through the broken windows and surrounding the two of them.

Had the control over all the mechanical spiders, which he thought were destroyed, been completely wrested away at once?

“How…!!”

“I understand what kind of system Achilles is envisioning.”

Chwaaararararak!!!

Innumerable paper bundles flew out from the cracks of the shattered building, scattering.

A small fox spirit frolicked amidst hundreds, thousands of documents fluttering down like snow through the rainy night sky.

Lennok looked down at Graham’s frozen face and grinned.

“Now, it’s my turn to use it.”