Chapter 453: The Well’s Boundary (3)
Despite his unhinged demeanor, he surprisingly had deep knowledge of Jindun’s barrier magic.
A labyrinth that trapped sorcerers using magical threads. And it wasn’t a barrier formation overtly deployed, but merely the principles woven into it.
Yet The Clown, simply by observing the labyrinth’s structure and principles, had discerned it was Jindun’s barrier magic and was pressing Lennok.
“It seems special-type wizards these days casually use such high-level barrier spells. The world has truly changed a lot.”
“……”
“I’m not exactly a transparent person myself, but there’s a limit to everything, isn’t there?”
The Clown spun the blade in his hand with a whoosh, a wide grin plastered on his face.
“Reiya interfered earlier, so I couldn’t help it, but shouldn’t we confirm what needs confirming now?”
His face was filled with such delight, as if he couldn’t bear the enjoyment of the current situation, but Lennok didn’t attach much meaning to it.
Even as he swayed back and forth before Lennok’s eyes, The Clown’s gaze never left Lennok’s mask.
He wasn’t trying to interrogate Lennok or settle things through a direct fight.
He was merely trying to unsettle Lennok, cross boundaries, and continuously observe his reactions.
Whether Lennok got angry here, calmly explained, or came up with a plausible excuse, The Clown would only find it more amusing.
So instead of denying or avoiding The Clown’s words, Lennok simply chuckled.
“You clearly don’t know what kind of person Jindun is.”
“……What did you say?”
“You must have poked around after seeing traces of barrier magic, but even if you think you’ve got something, there’s nothing to tell.”
The Clown only vaguely knew what Jindun’s barrier magic felt like; he knew nothing at all about its true value or how it was acquired.
If Lennok had truly inherited Jindun’s barrier magic and was confident in its worth, there would be no reason for such an ambiguous attitude.
Lennok had seen through that and had, in turn, successfully probed The Clown to see how much he knew about Jindun.
He seemed to have thought that if he unsettled Lennok with an unexpected keyword, he would reveal information to guess the identity behind the mask.
But Lennok was terribly accustomed to such attempts to probe people.
“……Mmmph.”
The Clown tilted his head sharply, as if this wasn’t it, and crumpled his face in displeasure.
“This isn’t the reaction I expected… For now, could we perhaps take off that mask and talk?”
At that moment, The Clown’s communicator rang noisily at his waist.
Freya’s booming, high-pitched voice echoed through the static.
“F*ck, it finally connected…!! If you don’t get out here quickly…!! What the hell were you doing… for half a day…!!”
“……”
Even with words breaking off intermittently, the meaning and emotion behind them were understandable.
The Clown sighed deeply, his shoulders slumping, and nodded.
“……Shall we go?”
“Let’s.”
The murderous atmosphere that had just been pressing Lennok was completely gone, replaced by The Clown’s vulnerable back as he led the way.
It was utterly bizarre, but Lennok had no intention of wasting effort trying to understand him.
“Anyway, I almost died in the middle of the jungle from acting recklessly. It was truly a close call!”
Instead, The Clown, as if itching to talk after being quiet, began spinning five blades with a flourish and talking non-stop to Lennok.
“I’m usually quite lucky, so this kind of thing rarely happens, but I suppose I should consider it a minor setback for a major event. What else can I do?”
“……”
“Indeed, this is the problem with my spellcasting. But then again, I can’t give up the thrill of entrusting my fate to luck… Heh heh.”
“You’re definitely not in your right mind.”
Lennok listened quietly to The Clown’s nonsense and snorted.
The Clown’s power was almost certainly related to the numbers he rolled on his dice.
The idea of entrusting a life-or-death battle to one’s luck seemed insane, but precisely because of that, it was difficult to predict how strong The Clown’s ability truly was.
The very act of letting his abilities depend on luck was a powerful Geas and a binding.
Even from the visible achievements, he seemed to be a superhuman of level 7 or higher. What kind of power would such an ability user wield when bestowed with the greatest luck?
Perhaps this man was responsible for leading this operation, not Myeong or the Director, because—
“Well, it’s about time, so let’s go to the Well. Since I kicked the ladder this hard, there probably won’t be any useless interference for a while… Hmm?”
The Clown, who had kicked Kayern’s headless body to the ground, now mumbled as if just realizing something.
“These guys, they were sorcerers from the Binding of Verdant Green.”
“They were the most persistent among those who passed through here.”
Lennok replied, retracting the magical threads that had spread everywhere and restoring his mana.
“They dealt with it more meticulously than expected, so it took some time to kill them all.”
Indeed, many others besides the Binding of Verdant Green had tried to pass through the forest Lennok occupied.
Mercenaries or expedition teams who had trekked through the jungle all night to reach the Well, or military and private groups who had secretly followed paths opened by sorcerers.
All of them had their limbs severed by Lennok’s nearly invisible magical threads and became food for flora and fauna, or simply fled.
Among them, only the sorcerers had survived the most persistently and meticulously enough to see Lennok’s face.
“Ah… That’s regrettable.”
The Clown sighed upon hearing Lennok’s words.
“The leader of the Binding of Verdant Green and I had already discussed things and they had backed out a long time ago.”
“What?”
“To think I killed those who were crying out, unaware that their leader had abandoned them…”
The Clown’s face, as he spoke, was smiling brightly, as if he were crying.
“This is why I can’t easily quit this job.”
“……”
“Heh heh, well then, shall we get going now?”
With a strange smile, The Clown walked past the silent Lennok and began to lead the way.
“From now on, there’s no need to maintain the defensive line. We only interfered because we were worried clueless fools might lay hands on the Well before the time was right.”
He skillfully spun several thin blades in one hand, while rattling dice in the other.
“On the contrary, I hope they gather diligently around the altar from now on. You’ll see something amusing.”
“It’s been quite some time since dawn broke.”
Lennok ignored The Clown’s words and looked away.
“If Kebaek has arrived, there should be signs soon. Is it not time yet?”
“No. The promised time will be exact. That’s the plan.”
The Clown said so, sweeping his hand towards the sky outside the jungle.
“It’s already starting to show, isn’t it?”
Rumble…!!
The sky far off in the jungle slowly turning black.
This was entirely different from the sun setting and the day darkening into night.
A conceptual monster that, merely by its existence, spread the aura of death everywhere, binding living beings to its Geas.
Kebaek, the corrupted one who had failed to ascend and gone mad, had finally arrived in the jungle, having followed the southern coast of the continent.
The Clown looked at the darkening sky with an enraptured expression and nodded.
“Reiya and Glen must have already confirmed it. Let’s move too.”
Lennok and The Clown soon returned to the city’s outskirts and reunited with Reiya.
Glen, too, seemed to have just come from a fierce battle at the defensive line, as all dozens of his unit members were ragged.
“F*ck, I haven’t finished my drama yet… Can’t I just take this with me?”
“Anyway, when the time comes, such simple electronic devices will become useless.”
“Hey, what do you know? It’s a laptop that directly picks up satellite signals and transmits them!”
“…Were you wasting satellite power on something like that?”
The Clown mumbled in disbelief, while Freya bickered with him.
Reiya, who had somehow changed back into her extravagant attire, held a microphone attached to a stand in one hand.
Lennok quietly watched them from behind, his gaze steady.
Their composure was unbelievable, given the impending clash of Ascendants.
For Lennok, who was detecting countless superhuman presences desperately rushing from all corners of the jungle at that very moment, it felt alien.
Though he hadn’t seen Glen, Reiya, and The Clown’s abilities with his own eyes, no matter how powerful or unique their abilities were, could they truly be this composed?
They either had something they believed in, or they were so out of their minds that they wouldn’t lose their composure even in such a situation.
And from Lennok’s experience working with them so far, it seemed closer to the latter.
“Alright. There’s no point talking to a bastard like you any longer; it’ll only sour my mood.”
Reiya, who had been arguing fiercely about the laptop’s fate, waved her hand in exasperation.
“You know I can’t stray far from the airship, right? You guys handle pulling the Well from the altar yourselves. I’ll just do my part when the time comes.”
“Isn’t that why we gathered? You just take good care of yourself. When it starts, a lot of attention will be on you, Reiya.”
“Ha, who’s worrying about whom… Go on.”
Reiya’s confidence was strangely overflowing.
She was certainly a superhuman who used magic, but judging by her aura and physical condition, she was definitely not a physical combatant.
What kind of ability did she possess to be so confident? And why did The Clown and Glen treat her so cautiously?
Now he would finally find out.
Leaving Reiya, who had begun busily moving near the airship, behind, the three immediately headed into the shattered ancient city.
The ruins of a city built from piled, old stones.
Countless moss and wild grasses grew between the fragments of streets, crumbled by long ages and various impacts, turning them greenish-brown.
Fallen, unidentifiable statues and strange ancient characters were scattered everywhere.
And even now, the constant roar from the city’s outskirts, and the sky darkening despite the morning sun.
Separate from the chaos outside, in the quiet heart of the city square, The Clown spoke.
“Originally, it’s not the time for Pyeonram’s Well to appear. Did you know that?”
“No.”
The Clown grinned at Lennok’s indifferent reply and continued.
“Well, I don’t know if Myeong explained it, so I’ll do it again. The Ascendant Pyeonram is one of the Transcendent beings who have inherited a mission for generations, similar to the previous Lighthouse Keeper who guarded the Lighthouse and observed the Outer Sea to delay destruction.”
“……”
“The Well she guards is one of the largest spatio-temporal rifts in this closed world… In other words, it’s a direct gateway to the Outer Sea.”
“So?”
“Because of that, it’s sealed by an equally powerful enchantment, and summoning it requires an immense price.”
The Clown took his gaze off Lennok and pointed to the edge of the square.
Even in the ruined city square, a massive altar stood, its presence remarkably undiminished.
Atop the altar, which formed a colossal tetrahedron like a pyramid, was a huge circular ring ornament.
And thousands of steps built to climb up to that ring.
Unaware of Lennok’s momentary shiver of inexplicable dread, The Clown spoke.
“It is said that the ancients who built civilization in this jungle long ago offered the hearts of ten thousand living humans to open the Well and summon an Ascendant for a ritual.”
“……What?”
“What I’m about to do isn’t so different, technically.”
As The Clown said that and beckoned to Glen, dozens of Glens, who had been following without a word until then, simultaneously pulled out daggers from their robes.
Thud!
At the same instant, without a moment’s hesitation, the Glens slit their own chests with their knives, tore out their hearts, placed them at their feet, and collapsed.
“Heh heh, truly the work of a professional.”
A satisfied smile formed on The Clown’s lips as he picked up a heart, slowly twitching and spurting blood.
“Every time I work with Glen, I feel the same thing: it’s rare to find a partner for whom the forbidden art of human sacrifice works so well. A life that abandons everything and submits is, in fact, the most morally corrupt.”
Only then did Lennok realize what The Clown intended to use Glen for, and his expression twisted behind his mask.
“…So they were intended as personnel for the forbidden art of human sacrifice from the start. And this isn’t even the first time.”
“Oh dear, was it too cruel a sight for a space-type wizard who grew up in luxury?”
Splat!
The Clown, who had thrown the heart he held onto the ground, grinned and pulled out his dice.
“But it can’t be helped. Unlike Myeong or the Director, I much prefer this method. Because it’s convenient, isn’t it?”
The dice fell from The Clown’s hand and slowly rolled across the ground.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
The Clown grinned as he rolled eight dice simultaneously onto the ground.
“How profitable is it to touch luck with a mere human life?”
Swoosh!
As the dice rolled, they soaked up the blood pooled on the ground.
Their green faces turned crimson, and even the pips bled into the blood, beginning to glow pure white. The dice’s rotation grew even more bizarre.
Click, click!
The dice, which seemed about to stop at any moment, rolled a few more times, changing the numbers that would appear.
As if the outcome was decided from the very beginning.
[6] [6] [6] [6] [6] [6] [6] [6]
The moment all eight dice showed the highest possible number, the blood-soaked dice shattered into dust.
Simultaneously, a sound like something breaking was heard from inside The Clown’s body.
And an explosive surge of mana erupted from his body, spreading a massive shockwave throughout the square.
Kwoooooooooong!!!
“This…!!”
A heavy, dull presence that made even Lennok flinch for a moment. A terrifying and bizarre display of mana, hard to believe it belonged to the same person.
The Clown’s body gradually began to transform, scattering an aura that was both transcendent and overwhelmingly majestic.
Crrrk, Thump-thump!
His bone structure and muscle tissue reassembled on the spot, completely metamorphosing his very existence into something different.
He was changing into something inhuman while retaining a human form.
The Clown’s eyes lost focus and spun wildly, alternately showing whites and pupils, then his irises turned completely black.
Conversely, the skin all over his body turned stark white, like his powdered face, and his mouth stretched into a long, bizarre grin, fixed in place.
His entire physique, including his limbs, became elongated and stooped, resembling a demon that had climbed out of hell, wearing a clown’s mask.
Thud!
As he took a step forward with his long, upward-curving foot, the square ground along his path blackened and charred.
The Clown quietly looked down at his body, patted his shoulder, and mumbled.
His voice had already changed from his mouth to a chilling shriek echoing throughout his entire body.
[I suppose I’ve broken through to the Peak of Extremes, but I’m not sure if this is enough. It’s been quite a while since I rolled so many Dice of Fate… Hmm.]
“……He’s not in his right mind.”
Lennok observed him closely from the side and shook his head.
“If you mess with Hierarchy like that, your Mind Imprint will burn out completely. What you’re doing isn’t touching causality.”
[Oh-ho.]
The Clown tilted his head to a bizarre degree and grinned.
[Speaking of causality, it seems you’ve vaguely understood what kind of being I am.]
What The Clown had just done was not merely amplifying power by rolling high numbers on dice.
It was forcibly creating non-existent luck through human sacrifice and imbuing his body with a Hierarchy beyond its limits.
A trick created by operating The Clown’s own Mind Imprint, intricately twisted Geas, and his unique ability to deceive reality to their utmost.
It was manipulating the fundamental law itself: that every result must have a cause.
The fact that The Clown’s ability could intervene in causality itself was intriguing, but the side effects of deceiving Hierarchy in this manner needed no explanation.
After the duration of the ability he called the Dice of Fate ended, the after-effects would be so severe that death would be preferable.
A mind swept over by power created not by innate talent or ability but by the forbidden art of human sacrifice would truly become like a torn rag.
But The Clown, even after hearing Lennok’s grim pronouncement, nodded.
[It can’t be helped. To interfere with the timeline using my illusion, I need to inflate my own power level.]
“Timeline?”
[Heh heh, interfering with spacetime as a result is a privilege of level 8, but only a tiny fraction of Peak of Extremes ability users are monsters enough to truly touch time itself, aren’t they?]
The Clown said so, stooped his body, and plunged his head forward.
At that moment, his elongated body warped as if heat haze were spreading, and appeared at the top of the altar, hundreds of meters above.
[Pyeonram is not so foolish as to show herself just because a few humans are sacrificed. So… From now on, I will slightly deceive the altar’s timeline.]
Thunk!
The Clown, grasping the grand circular ring, which must have been hundreds of meters in radius, with both hands, whispered.
[To the moment when this city, which she loved, had not yet lost its vitality and was still breathing.]