Chapter 407: Custom Order (3)

[I thought you were audacious, but this is even beyond my imagination.]

Clack!

Olivera muttered, picking up a white stone and placing it on the board.

[I never thought anyone would dare challenge me to a game of Obeakro.]

“Do you know the name of this game?”

[You don’t even know the name Obeakro, yet you proposed playing with me? How absurd.]

A faint laugh echoed through the veil.

[It’s a type of board game created by a certain sage hundreds of years ago and spread among the common folk. The rules are simple, but the deeper you delve, the more complex and subtle principles are revealed, making it an enjoyable pastime for many… But I don’t particularly like this Obeakro.]

“Why not?”

[Because it must have been an Ascendant who created this game.]

Lennok’s hand, which had been moving without hesitation, paused for a moment.

Olivera paid no mind to Lennok’s reaction and continued.

[A sorcerer who has reached a certain state can discern the meaning of the subtle principles embedded in Obeakro. It’s an arrogant and self-righteous conviction that even makes the one exploring it weary… It thoroughly forces and indoctrinates this upon anyone who delves into the game.]

“…….”

[It seems intended for nurturing future generations, but it’s so unfriendly and violent that it feels excessive. It’s dangerous for anyone less than a super-human with firmly established convictions to become deeply engrossed in this game.]

Clack!

She snorted, placing her stone next to Lennok’s, completely overturning the board to white.

[That’s why when it briefly became popular among the lower ranks, I personally intervened and banned it. That was decades ago.]

Does she mean that for super-humans who haven’t fully perfected themselves, delving ambiguously into Obeakro increases the chance of being forcibly influenced by the principles within it?

Lennok, knowing that Jindun was the game’s creator, could only manage a wry smile.

“Indeed, a sorcerer of your caliber wouldn’t appreciate being played by an Ascendant’s antics.”

Lennok said, picking up a black stone.

“Then, for the first time in a while, I might be able to inform the Chairman of the Cartel of a defeat.”

[Hmph, I haven’t played many stones, but I’m certainly not so bad as to lose to a novice like you.]

Olivera muttered confidently and lifted a stone.

[Let’s continue.]

The two then continued to exchange moves, playing the game back and forth.

Olivera’s confidence was not entirely unfounded; her skill, even in Lennok’s eyes, was considerable.

Her adept control of offense and defense, and her foresight in reading moves, were hard to believe given her claim of disliking Obeakro.

The very fact that she perceived this game as a type of artifact created by an Ascendant implied that she had deeply delved into it before.

Considering such things, Olivera’s confidence wasn’t incomprehensible.

However, it was no match for Lennok, who had received direct tutelage from the game’s creator.

Clack!!

Gradually, yet surely, as the black stones covered more of the board, the veil covering Olivera’s face fluttered faster.

With her discernment and ability to read moves, she would certainly grasp the extent of Lennok’s skill.

Olivera spoke in an exasperated tone, watching her white stones being flipped one after another.

[You… you claimed to be a beginner and challenged me with such skill? There’s a limit to deception.]

“It’s no lie that I haven’t been playing this game for long.”

Lennok said, raising his gaze to meet the gleaming eyes behind the veil.

“There’s no need to change my words and deceive you, especially in a situation like this.”

[…It’s not a lie. Then what?]

Because Olivera herself had researched the profound principles of this game, she could understand what it meant to have accumulated this level of skill in such a short time.

A board game where the higher a sorcerer’s state and Hierarchy, the more diverse aspects of its principles they can comprehend.

Could he be handling the board at a level equal to or even higher than hers, without being swayed by the strong inherent direction of the game?

That would inherently be more deeply connected to a person’s nature rather than innate magical talent or accumulated experience.

Lennok nodded inwardly, observing Olivera, who seemed lost in thought.

‘Is it because she already knows about this game? It worked better than I expected.’

Obeakro itself was a method to correctly remember and convey the profound principles and direction of barrier magic.

It was nothing short of the most sophisticated and metaphorical learning device an Ascendant could create.

But conversely, if one fully understood the game’s purpose and used it in reverse, it was like being able to read the mind-imprint of the opponent to some extent.

Lennok had been trying to read Olivera’s mind-imprint in reverse by feigning an affinity for this ability and playing this game with her.

It would certainly be disastrous to directly glimpse the mind-imprint of an Archmage, but by inversely calculating her intentions revealed through the game, he could form an image without giving anything away.

Jindun, too, must have decided to pass on his barrier magic to Lennok after reading his mind-imprint through a similar process.

And Lennok, having received that barrier magic, was now reading others’ mind-imprints in a similar way.

‘The very fact that she didn’t reject my proposal means she has something she desires. At the very least, I should be able to hear her terms.’

Of course, it might be difficult to uncover all of Olivera’s secrets or the capabilities of her spellcasting through this alone.

However, by observing her mind-imprint reacting in real-time as the game progressed, it would be possible to find the most suitable answers.

What did she, the head of the Cartel and an ancient Archmage, desire, and why did she seclude herself in her research lab?

That was precisely what Lennok wanted to know.

“You know I’ve been investigating the secrets of the Black Consumer Project, don’t you?”

Lennok, who had been silently watching her lost in thought, casually brought up another topic.

“Yorta’s Night of a Thousand Ghosts, Machina’s Ascension Gate… I now understand that after Ars Nova fell, various growing cities sought ascension in their own ways.”

[…….]

“At this point, with the end approaching, I need to know what others have done to achieve ascension.”

[Why?]

Lennok raised his gaze and stared into Olivera’s unseen eyes beyond the veil.

“Because I’ve realized that amidst those seemingly meaningless failures, there are secrets I still don’t know.”

The entity known as Alkaid, who intervened in the Black Consumer Project.

Why did this entity, whether an individual or an organization, intervene in such a massive city project?

And why did the Ascendants view this entity with such caution and concern? Ultimately, Lennok hadn’t received an answer from Jindun.

There must have been a reason why Jindun himself couldn’t directly convey that secret.

In that case, Lennok had to act himself.

Until now, he had merely moved with the flow of events, seizing maximum advantage, but now it was different.

Even if it meant directly opposing the power and time accumulated by this mega-city, Lennok had to hear that secret directly.

He knew he now possessed enough power and qualification that he could no longer avoid it.

Olivera stared at Lennok’s face for a moment, then slowly lowered her head.

[You weren’t the only one curious about the secrets hidden in the project’s shadows.]

“…….”

[But if no one has ever received a clear answer about that secret, don’t you think there’s a good reason for it?]

“Perhaps.”

Lennok smiled faintly.

“But if the end is near, what does that matter?”

There was no time.

Neither for this world nor for Lennok himself.

Must they endure in fear, knowing only the desperate truth that the end is drawing near, but with no one knowing exactly when that moment will be?

Lennok didn’t want that.

He had worked hard to break free from his shackles, and he didn’t want the ending to be an empty echo.

Wasn’t that why he was wandering this city and various parts of the world, searching for answers?

What he desired had not changed. The most fundamental wish to live was still alive and breathing deep within Lennok’s heart.

[Continue.]

Olivera said. Lennok did not reply.

In silence, with a single game board between them, their hands began to move.

Clack, clack!!

Without using any mana whatsoever, he poured his mental energy into defeating the opponent before him.

Regardless of the mana overflowing from his body calmly settling down, his mind spun rapidly, internalizing all bodily sensations in a complete cycle.

Kiiing!

An empty void, as if he had returned to the moment he first opened his eyes in this world.

But Lennok clearly recognized that his body’s composition had changed since then.

His extraordinarily excellent memory was precisely comparing and contrasting his bodily reactions then and now, pinpointing the differences.

Zzzzzzt…!!

The relatively lighter after-effects of mana poisoning. The insomnia suppressed by medication, and lungs much more accustomed to smoke than before.

His endlessly expanding mana capacity and the circuits densely covering his entire body.

And even the flow of power rotating deep within Lennok’s left eye.

Only then did Lennok realize why Olivera had requested this formality, and he nodded.

‘This is a realm that can only be reached by elevating one’s spirit without raising mana.’

A level of mental concentration difficult to achieve unless one was focused enough to contend with a sorcerer of Olivera’s caliber.

Was it not a realm of mental cultivation, rather unrelated to magical talent?

As Lennok inadvertently began to touch his nape, Olivera immediately sensed his gesture and nodded.

[Seeing you touch somewhere other than your eyes, you must have felt it. Did you remember the sensation?]

“…Roughly. Was this the meaning of innate special abilities?”

His violet Mystic Eye was a mirror that visualized Lennok’s mind-imprint, and though it operated on mana as its power source, its origin was fundamentally separate from magic.

A power that unfiltered reveals the user’s wishes or mind, without any spells or systematic learning.

It was an innate ability, the Mystic Eye, that manifested by drawing upon the will existing at a fundamental level of life, as much as mana itself.

[How absurd. To think you would actually enter an elevated state while playing Obeakro with me… Usually, when one concentrates on a game, their mind is captivated by the match itself rather than their Mystic Eye.]

“As long as it leads to the result, that’s all that matters.”

Even as he raised his hand, not a single trace of mana moved.

Was this the process of internalizing a different realm of power, if only for a moment, distinct from the mana that had always been singular?

But Olivera, as if something had been decided by Lennok’s answer, released the stone she was holding and brought her hand to her veil.

[That’s right. In the end, when dealing with causality, only the final observed outcome matters.]

“…What?”

She brought her hand to the veil covering her face and slowly lifted it.

For the first time, her two eyes were fully revealed from within.

[I had preserved that realization perfectly within these two eyes.]

Lennok stared blankly, not having expected her to reveal her hand first at this point.

Her appearance was that of time standing still, awkward to call her an ancient hag who had lived for countless ages.

Within her eyes, which would have originally glowed sapphire, seven hues of light slowly rotated, drawing a beautiful rainbow.

The Seven Debts Jewels Mystic Eye, shining so brightly that merely looking at it felt like being drawn in.

Only after directly facing those eyes did Lennok understand why she always covered her face with a veil.

It wasn’t just because one’s mind or mana would be swayed by merely looking.

The moment her two eyes began to gaze outwards, the scenery inside the research lab twisted, repeating changes and reversions.

“This is…”

The second hand of the clock on the workshop wall moved forward, then immediately spun backward.

The clock hands constantly rewound to the moment she began to reveal and observe with her eyes.

Only then did Lennok, realizing the precise power of the Seven Debts Jewels Mystic Eye, frowned.

“Is reality being fixed according to the act of observation…?”

[It’s the power to observe only the outcome from the perspective of causality and alter reality accordingly. Do you understand what this means?]

Olivera said, looking into Lennok’s eyes with amusement.

Lennok nodded. If he combined the various things she had explained about the Mystic Eye so far, the answer wasn’t difficult.

“…You mean that because it’s closer to an innate special ability, you can relatively easily access fragments of causality.”

To reach the principle of causality through spellcasting would entail immense risks, even for an Ascendant. But with innate abilities, it was different.

Being highly dependent on innate talent and mental power, under specific conditions, it was a more intuitive power than any magic or spell.

Olivera had been researching methods to actively combine precisely such innate abilities with her spellcasting and mind-imprint.

[Even if infinitesimally weak, it is undeniably a type of reality alteration. To fully make this power my own, I even had to accept a temporary drop in my state.]

Lennok could now understand why Olivera had secluded herself and not intervened in Cartel affairs until now, and why she had devoted herself to research despite such risks.

What her eyes contained was undeniably a law-altering ability that interfered with causality.

A super-human who had accumulated a high Hierarchy would understand how powerful and fatal such a force was.

Results didn’t even need to be changed by observing them.

Even if one could only fix the outcome of reality by observing it, the ways to apply that were limitless.

That was the meaning of the power Olivera Ron Maize gained in her later years with her Mystic Eye.

And from that, Lennok, sensing something, asked.

“Wait, could it be that your Mystic Eye, regarding the failures of the project…”

[It’s not entirely satisfactory, but it meets the minimum criteria. In that case, you too could become a bridgehead.]

Olivera’s face smiled gleefully.

What part of Lennok’s words and actions had touched her criteria and changed her mind?

Incredibly, Olivera was now trying to delve into Lennok’s Mystic Eye development in return, without revealing the detailed inside story.

[Alright, audacious one. Let’s find out what kind of power the Mystic Eye awakening in your right eye holds.]

Late Saturday afternoon.

The bedroom, covered by blackout curtains, was filled only with quiet breathing.

Beep beep. Beep beep.

A ringing phone echoed from within the thick blanket.

“Phew…”

Reaching out from under the blanket, Lennok grabbed his phone and let out a deep sigh.

Davi, who had been curled up by the toad-stool, licking his tail, raised his head.

[Master?]

“Time to get up.”

Whoosh!!

With a blank expression, he washed his face at the sink and faced the mirror.

A young man, toothbrush in mouth, with messy hair, stared back at him.

“…….”

Come to think of it, it had been a long time since he just stared blankly into a mirror like this.

So long that he recalled the day he first escaped the factory, desperately facing his own reflection for the first time while retching.

It had been a week since he started frequenting Rebatenon University, Carlyle Research Institute, and Olivera’s lab.

At this time, with the Prohibition Edict lifted and Dyke Corp. faltering, when the city knew no peace due to clashes between the light and shadow worlds.

Ironically, Lennok was more engrossed in studying and researching his own growth than ever before.

“Hmm…”

His physique was still slender, though he had gained a little weight.

Thinking that this was the result of deliberately managing his diet and forcibly supplying nutrients, he could only laugh.

The haggard look and dark circles under his eyes were certainly less pronounced than before, but they hadn’t completely disappeared.

Lennok silently rubbed his eyes, then closed and opened them, and his left eye began to rotate and pulsate with a violet glow.

Wooong…!!

“…….”

The mirror, unable to withstand the power of the Mystic Eye, vibrated as if it would shatter at any moment, but Lennok ignored it and focused on staring into the mirror.

More precisely, not at his already awakened left eye, but at his right eye, which glowed jet black.

At first glance, his right eye seemed unchanged.

But looking at his right eye with his left eye, which visualizes the realm of possibilities, he could tell.

Deep within his seemingly unchanged right eye, a faint golden wheel had begun to emerge.