Chapter 419: Truth and Requiem (4)

Rainwater, flung back by the shockwave, seeped coldly between the two giants’ bodies.

The vibrations, starting from the Adam’s apple, slowly spread through the collarbones, shoulders, and arm muscles, awakening the upper body.

Simultaneously, the glass bottles attached to various parts of the giant’s body began to shake one by one and then plunged into its flesh.

Fwoosh!

Madrich’s form gradually regained vitality as the elongated glass tubes attached to his entire body were injected one after another.

“Groooaaaar!!!”

The water-colored giant reacted to the sight with a mighty roar and slammed its fist into Madrich’s jaw at an invisible speed.

Kwaaang!!

The arm, made of navy-blue waves, transformed into a massive water cannon. A circular shockwave erupted high above the vast deck, creating a colossal whirlpool.

Madrich’s massive body reeled violently from the incredibly powerful deterrent, which was hard to believe was merely compressed water being shot out.

The fierce waves that burst forth swept over Madrich’s upper body.

Swaaak!!

The glass bottles placed all over the giant’s body shattered in succession, dripping green liquid onto the deck.

Crash!!

“Ugh!!”

“Damn, what is this!!”

“It’s cold……!!”

“……”

The Military Spirits who had collapsed on the deck began to rise one by one as soon as they drank the liquid.

A completely different scene from moments ago, when they were groaning in pain, unable to utter a single word.

The glass tubes attached to Madrich’s body, and the liquid within them, had partially restored not only the dying giant’s body but also the minds of the Military Spirits.

[It’s essence, condensed and refined from spirits.]

As if knowing Lennok’s question, Madrich spat out blood-tinged saliva and spoke.

[Military Spirit is about imbuing a spirit I control into a body to manipulate it. Therefore, replacing a spirit in an already existing body is not difficult.]

“You mean you intentionally released control of the Military Spirits and replaced their minds?”

Lennok chuckled.

“You’re already a being that can barely be called human.”

[You wouldn’t be so different. Even I, who manipulate Military Spirits, can see your true nature.]

“……”

[You are sharp and precarious like glass. You are no different from a dangerous bomb that might shatter at any moment, scattering its fragments everywhere.]

Madrich scoffed, unleashing a burst of power.

[There’s no way you’d be standing perfectly fine in front of me without realizing that. Haven’t you long accepted your own contradictions and discrepancies as part of yourself?]

He should have scoffed, calling it nonsense. Yet, Lennok found himself unable to readily answer the absurd assertion, acknowledging his own silence.

Lennok knew that what Madrich had muttered, in a sense, precisely pierced through his own essence.

If a being with talent and capacity like Lennok were to lose its purpose and break, what would be the repercussions?

To what landscape could a life possessing talent and potential reaching the heavens arrive if its origin were offered as a geas?

He had merely forced himself to deny and not think about it.

It was an undeniable truth that this talent Lennok had created with his own hands, as magnificent as it was, was equally dangerous and precarious.

[It was our duty to guide monsters like you, who have awakened to the duality within themselves, correctly.]

Before he knew it, Madrich had even released the hand seal he was forming with his other hand.

Had he instantly judged that focusing on commanding the Military Spirits wouldn’t significantly help against Lennok?

[From now on, I will make you realize that.]

“Wh-what… What are you talking about!!”

“As soon as I got out of that mental prison, I’m faced with two giants…”

“So, which one is the warden who locked us up?”

Many, even after being confined in a prison where even their senses were restricted just moments ago, were still racking their brains to comprehend the situation.

Already, some of the recently awakened Military Spirits were stealthily fleeing to the corners of the deck, unbidden.

Madrich glanced down at the Military Spirits and slowly raised his right arm.

With that light gesture, the chains piled like mountains across the deck simultaneously moved, flinging the Military Spirits between the two giants.

Thud!!

“Aaagh!!”

“D-damn… No way…!!”

The prisoners’ faces turned pale, finally realizing that the giant sitting in the center of the deck intended to use them to confront the water-colored giant before them.

But almost simultaneously, the two giants raised their arms and twisted their waists.

Kwoooosh!!!

The water-colored forearm and the tattered, fleshy fist collided and exploded.

A punch delivered with full force, generated by weight and mass far surpassing human limits, rotating at full power.

Despite being a simple manifestation of physical force, the result was so profound that no magic could easily approach it.

The massive wave of impact, erupting from the two giants, crashed directly onto the deck, shaking the ship violently.

Whoooosh!!

The ship, unable to absorb the full shock, swayed violently, enveloped by the waves crashing over it.

The ghost ship maintained a precarious balance, seemingly on the verge of capsizing. The Military Spirits screamed madly from all sides of the deck.

“Aaaahhh!!!”

“You crazy bastards!!! We’re at sea, pleaseee!!”

Ignoring all the commotion and chaos, the two giants focused solely on their opponent.

With every rotation of their shoulders, the arms made of waves crumbled, unable to withstand the force, and tattered flesh scattered into the air.

Kwa-gwa-gwa-gwa!!!

The two giants engaged in a desperate, brutal brawl, collapsing under their own immense power.

They continuously launched attacks at each other’s upper bodies, and only the erupting shockwaves deafened the eardrums.

Without dodging, a fist that had come right up to its face was met head-on with its forehead.

Boom!!

The water-colored giant’s head exploded, turning into a handful of waves, and reassembled itself as it lowered its head.

The water-colored giant’s counterattack, with its fist raised downwards.

Crack!!

It landed precisely on the tattered jaw, twisting the entire jawbone, and teeth burst out from between its vanished lips.

The giant’s teeth, scattered right in front of them, fell onto the deck, shattering the heads of the Military Spirits.

“Kuaaaagh!!”

“No, I just got back into the world, I can’t end like this…!”

“I don’t want to go back, please!!”

Madrich closed the distance, heedless of his shoulder being torn away by the water-colored giant’s attack.

Instantly seizing the water-colored giant’s neck and crushing it with one hand, the giant’s head lost its form and turned into water.

Madrich didn’t miss that moment, pressing down on the giant’s shoulder with his other hand, then abruptly swung his arm outwards.

His aim wasn’t to kill the water-colored giant immediately, but to fling the wizard clinging to its shoulder overboard.

Bang!!

The gripping strength in his hand alone was enough.

The water-colored giant’s shoulder exploded, scattering cold seawater everywhere.

Naturally, Lennok’s body, which had been clinging and holding on, also fell downwards.

Rustle!!

Though he managed to maintain balance by extending mana threads and clinging to a nearby mast, it was true he was now further from the two giants’ battle.

As soon as Madrich confirmed Lennok’s position, he snapped his fingers.

[Kill the wizard.]

[Offer your spirits and bodies to me.]

[Those who have awakened to the duality of freedom and restraint, open your Mind Imprint.]

Three powerful incantations instantly pierced the minds of the Military Spirits. Unable to resist the commands that shook their spirits, the Military Spirits obeyed.

Those who had been screaming moments ago fell silent simultaneously and began to draw immense mana from their bodies.

“It’s his command.”

“We found the wizard. Let’s make him a comrade.”

“He’s a powerful man. He has the makings of a captain.”

“Alahorn needs a captain.”

“Offer your heart.”

Clang!!

Using the chains around their necks as weapons, grabbing bladed implements carelessly discarded on the ship’s deck, and summoning mana into their bare hands.

Madrich’s Military Spirits, whose minds had fully returned, charged towards the wizard who had fallen onto the deck.

Dududududududu!!!

Above their heads, the two giants ceaselessly pounded each other’s shoulders and necks,

And the shockwaves and roars erupting from everywhere made it difficult even to think or make proper judgments.

Due to Madrich’s fierce offensive, sparing no part of his body, the water-colored giant, now distanced from its master, began to crumble, unable to cope easily.

Crack!

Seizing the moment, he unhesitatingly thrust his hand-blade through the water-colored giant’s chest, grabbing hold.

The water-colored giant, limp and lifeless, gradually began to lose its form and crumble.

At that moment, when his only summoned ally was helplessly collapsing, and the battle situation became extremely unfavorable.

Lennok, his face drenched with rain, looked up at the night sky and nodded.

“This should be enough.”

Swaaaaa!!!

At that moment, a wave leaped from the edge of the deck, soared over Lennok, and slammed into the other Military Spirits, pushing them back.

Ignoring the Military Spirits who charged forward unhesitatingly, even cleaving the wave with the blades in their hands, Lennok warped space.

Paaat!!

The body of the wizard, who had perfectly deceived the senses of dozens of Military Spirits gathered here, both in spirit and body.

Was slowly floating between the moonlit night sky.

The Military Spirits momentarily stared up blankly, and just as Madrich glared into that gap, about to exert force to utterly annihilate the giant.

As Lennok formed a hand seal, the water-colored giant, which had been limp with its chest pierced, simultaneously began to form a hand seal.

“……!!!”

Dual casting with a summoned creature.

This was spell resonance, a technique only usable when both the caster and the skill in controlling the summoned creature had reached a peak state.

Madrich’s face hardened. He gathered the essence of spirits in one hand and tore apart the water-colored giant’s shoulder.

Nevertheless, the giant’s two arms did not collapse, following Lennok’s hands to form hand seals and activate the spell.

Water Element Unique Magic

Property Transformation Multi-Resonance

Convection Stress Overload: Tidal Convergence

“Come.”

Whoooosh!!

He gathered his senses towards the endless dark horizon flowing behind the ship, then pulled it in with full force.

Powerful intent, reaching its limit, and a firmly established Mind Imprint reacted and resonated simultaneously.

With the resonance of a spell cast simultaneously with his summoned creature, its scale and scope rapidly inflated, spreading across the entire sea.

Combined with the mana swirling within Lennok’s body, it transformed into a miracle that pierced reality.

With that single gesture, cracks spread everywhere as if space itself was distorting, and the straight horizon far away bent strangely.

Kwoooooong!!!

It wasn’t merely the horizon bending due to distorted vision.

A massive flow of water, rushing relentlessly from afar, was accelerating its power as it surged across the gap between the water’s surface and the land.

A natural disaster amplified and unleashed by extreme intent, mediated by the concept of lunar gravity.

Kugugugu!!!!

A colossal tsunami, large enough to completely engulf the island where the ghost ship was lodged, was surging from the far end of the sea.

At that moment, when even the other Military Spirits were stiff with shock at the sight of the disaster—the entire horizon rising and approaching, a scene hard to believe even with their own eyes.

Only Lennok and the giant, facing each other, remained focused on forming hand seals without stopping.

[Boundless Blue Waves]

Kwoooooosh!!!!

Swept away, vanished.

Everything that had existed before was overwhelmed and erased, to the point where one couldn’t even remember what it was.

Cold seawater and the sound of fierce torrential waves. The pain that assaulted their bodies would come much later.

The first sensation was the shock of everything turning stark white, followed by a complete disappearance of sensation, as if washed clean.

Only after passing through a period of pure white void and burying their faces in the fluid mixture of water and soil did the unfamiliar pain register.

Kwaaaahh!!

[Ughhhh!!]

This wasn’t merely a tsunami using seawater.

It was a conditional area-of-effect water manipulation spell, activated by using the truly negligible gravitational pull of the moon as its core power source.

It was strongly influenced by the environment and timing, only taking the form of a tsunami. It was, after all, magic itself, born from the caster’s formidable will.

The moment one couldn’t escape the tsunami, even the most powerful superhuman would be forced to tumble and vomit in the currents, no different from any ordinary human.

Immediately after.

Kwooooooong!!!

With a shock as if heaven and earth were overturning, a thunderous roar deafening everyone’s ears echoed.

Even the prisoners charging towards Lennok lost their balance and floated in the air from the impact.

Screams that would burst eardrums. The impact of the ship being shattered and scattering fragments.

In the dizzying chaos, making it difficult to fully regain their senses, someone who had buried their head in the bitter ground belatedly realized the situation.

“L-land…!! We’ve crashed into land…!!”

“No, this is… not just land, but!!”

[No way, you…!!]

Madrich, who had been focused on dealing with the water-colored giant Lennok summoned, also finally realized what Lennok had done and began to glare at him.

“Madrich. The extent to which your Domain affects the battlefield was a crucial factor in determining the battleground.”

Lennok looked up at Madrich, panting as he stood on a mast tilted at an angle.

Even for Lennok, conjuring a tsunami of that magnitude was not easy.

It was a miracle he barely managed to grasp only after pushing the environmental conditions of the sea, the spell resonance using the water giant, and the amplification rate of his water-element unique magic to their absolute limits.

But the cost was truly significant, far beyond even Madrich’s own expectations.

“Of course, you have control over this ship, but as long as it’s a ship floating on the sea, there were things I could do as well.”

The enormous ship, which had been ceaselessly cutting through the stormy sea, suddenly could not move forward any longer.

Its posture was that of a ship tilted heavily to one side, unable even to stand properly, let alone maintain balance, and having capsized.

The bow of the fallen ghost ship was half-overturned, impaled into some structure.

Around that structure lay a vast expanse of sandy beach and broken ships discarded haphazardly everywhere.

Madrich’s ghost ship, which had been majestically navigating the sea moments ago, had now abruptly crashed its massive body into the middle of a sandy beach and collapsed.

Lennok calmly met the giant’s gaze looking down at him and directed his own gaze towards the underside of the ship.

“If it’s possible to interfere with the direction or flow of ocean currents, then regardless of this ship’s abilities, it should be possible to guide the Domain in the direction I desire.”

[……I see. No way, that’s why you specifically summoned such a creature…!!]

Only then did Madrich realize why Lennok had used seawater to create a giant and launch a preemptive attack.

It wasn’t merely to create an ally to confront Madrich on the desolate deck.

For Lennok, the existence of a summoned creature made of seawater was proof that Madrich’s Domain did not extend to the sea itself.

At the same time, the reckless close-quarters combat using the summoned creature made it difficult to notice that the ship’s direction was being steered towards a specific landmass.

He had been strangely focused on holding on, without using any magic or spells, and it turned out he had been manipulating the flow of the sea itself.

But that alone wasn’t what had truly flustered Madrich.

“The location of the Naval Cemetery that Strument told me was slightly different from the coordinates I found. But it makes sense if the ossuary where you reside is located separately from the storage where used Military Spirits gather.”

On the wall, heavily rusted as if it hadn’t been maintained for a long time, covered in moss and seaweed, the faint symbol of an anchor rope, indicating the navy, was visible.

“A naval base used by the City Government’s direct naval forces. So it was hidden in a place like this?”

[You’re saying you not only caused a tsunami but also controlled the direction of my Domain… That’s impossible… How could a human perform such delicate control…!!]

What truly astonished Madrich was not that Lennok caused a tsunami, but the fact that he precisely guided the ship’s direction to the naval base’s coordinates using that tsunami.

It was impossible unless one could go beyond merely resonating with natural phenomena to summon disaster and calculate the direction of all the forces involved down to the particle level.

Even for an Archmage beyond human comprehension, could he have had the spare capacity to perform such calculations during an urgent battle?

Lennok smiled, looking at the giant’s rigid expression.

“So you were using this abandoned naval base as a storage place for your Military Spirits. Once I eliminate your power, I can interrogate you freely without worrying about the Prohibition Edict’s penalty.”

Click!!

He pulled out a thick ampoule from his pocket and injected it into his shoulder without hesitation.

Feeling the rapidly draining contents seep into his body, Lennok nodded.

“The reason the central city was destroyed. The secret of Alkaid. Let’s talk about what comes next.”