Chapter 457: Pyeonram (3)

With Kebaek’s appearance, the sky turned black. Amidst it, a massive void cracked open as if shattering, revealing itself.

Beneath the pitch-black sky, with the form of the dragon-coiling Well hovering above, two transcendent beings, hundreds of meters tall, simultaneously recognized each other’s presence and stood face to face.

Tick, tick……!!

Once, they were beings who had obtained qualifications more noble and formidable than anyone else in this world.

But now, even that fleeting glory has faded, leaving them as mere monsters writhing in the depths of elapsed time.

Yet, even with just that, immense power remained within them, enough to overturn heaven and earth.

Kuaoooo……!!

The mere aftermath flowing from the bodies of the two Ascendants inverted and spun the gravity of the surrounding area.

The shattered remains of the altar and plaza were torn from the ground, soaring out of the massive Well’s opening in the sky.

At the center of this demon-like realm, the very laws of physics were being entirely inverted.

Amidst a silence so profound it felt frozen, Pyeonram slowly tilted her head.

“……Is it one who seeks to invade the Well……?”

[Haaahhh…….]

Surprisingly, Kebaek no longer screamed in response to Pyeonram’s question.

The spheres of human flesh that formed Kebaek’s body. The tens of thousands of people, previously suspended within them, uttering pitiful screams, ceased their grotesque cries and raised their heads.

Tens of thousands of heads, emerging from between the giant spheres, all stared at the colossal serpent in a horrifying spectacle.

From the mouths of the people bound by sticky, black slime and chains, a single voice simultaneously seeped out, echoing throughout the plaza.

[Padme……kie……sa…….]

All sorts of voices, high and low, male and female, young and old, screamed and cried out, yet surprisingly, the sounds were composed of intelligible language.

A bizarre, resonant roar erupted from the monster’s mouth, a creature that had appeared to possess no intellect whatsoever.

Astonishingly, that roar precisely targeted the colossal serpent standing before them.

[Long…… promise…… great…… proof…… disgusting…… message…….]

…….

It wasn’t Kebaek speaking with his own will.

It was merely one of the tens of thousands of Geas bound to his body activating, delivering a message pre-destined for this moment.

Realizing this, Pyeonram’s sharp pupils twitched violently for a moment.

[Haaahhh!!!!]

The fallen Ascendant, having lost even a shred of meaning, simply began to roll his entire body forward.

Kwa kwa kwa kwa kwa!!!!

Tens of thousands of arms stretched forward, tearing through and gnawing at the plaza’s stone floor.

It wasn’t rolling forward, but rather an incredibly crude movement, as if merely dragging its massive body along.

Yet, with each movement, hundreds of meters of the ground’s bedrock shattered and sank as if broken, forming a massive canal.

It simply lunged forward, as if to bite and devour the colossal serpent before it.

Click, click.

A sound like a second hand ticking could be heard.

But this time, it wasn’t The Clown’s illusion at work.

Immediately after, Lennok, realizing the meaning of the clicking sound, muttered.

“Gears……”

“Yes. Now I remember……”

The sound of gears reverberating within the colossal serpent’s mind. As their speed gradually increased and the intervals shortened, Pyeonram’s eyes widened.

“My beloved kin, my cherished children……. What I was doing……. Who the master of this jungle was……!!!”

The pupils of the serpent’s eyes, which had been distant as if gazing somewhere far off, rapidly expanded, then instantly contracted, focusing on the opponent before her.

As if she could finally see her opponent clearly.

Pyeonram, having re-processed her lost memories as if rewinding a broken sun, flicked her tongue and savagely stretched her mouth wide.

“Aurel Silford……. Are you still acting as Ars Nova’s ghost!!!”

Whoooosh!!!

At that moment, a wave spread out from Pyeonram’s elongated body, instantly converging above her head and transforming into a colossal pillar of light.

It rotated diagonally like a spiral drill, instantly shot up into the sky, then descended, striking Kebaek’s head.

Kwaaaaaah!!!

The strike, lightly manifested by the Ascendant’s mere will, was as intense as the bombardment unleashed by the wizards of the Magic Tower, including Tatiana.

Kebaek, too, howled as if in a frenzy from the heat descending upon his head, charging towards Pyeonram.

[Haaahhh!!]

As he had crawled into this jungle until now, he desperately dug into the ground, rolling his body forward.

Tens of thousands of black-stained grotesques, bound by chains, screamed and incessantly stretched their hands towards the serpent’s scales.

Pyeonram, with roars borrowed from a serpent’s resonant cry, unleashed successive grand shockwaves, echoing her presence outwards.

At the moment when two distinct wills, clearly originating from beyond space-time, clashed, time seemed to greatly distort and endlessly stretch.

Kiiiik……!!

An irritating noise, like rusty hinges constantly wearing away.

Power and presence, concentrated to their limit, were superimposed to the extreme within a certain space, stretching all time within that space.

“Damn…… it…… all……”

“Hell…… escape……”

Those who realized what was happening belatedly tried to retreat and flee, only to be swept away by Kebaek’s power, raining down from the sky like a torrent, and lose consciousness.

Kebaek’s presence, unlike magic, was of a different nature. Who could have possibly anticipated or countered that his true form was a living Geas?

People were constantly appearing everywhere, unable to properly react, their bodies and minds helplessly taken over.

[Kyaaaaaah!!!!]

Charrrrrruk!!

Superhumans, their entire bodies dyed black, were incessantly bound by the vacant Geas chains, becoming part of Kebaek’s motive force.

Various parts of the colossal serpent’s scales twitched, and her entire body glowed dazzlingly, with thousands of lasers erupting from within, covering the sky.

Kwa kwa kwa kwa kwa kwa kwa!!!

It simply advanced endlessly forward, taking the full brunt of the light rain, which seemed to incinerate the tens of thousands of subordinates comprising its very being.

The plaza was transforming into a hellish landscape simply by the two Ascendants fully recognizing each other and beginning to move.

Lennok, watching the scene, sighed and shook his head.

“She’s already lost her mind……. She went mad a long time ago and fell into a slumber.”

Due to hibernating for too long to protect her mission, almost all her memories had been lost.

The only moment she would regain her memories was the moment she performed her duty of protecting the Well.

Pyeonram, unable to find a being to inherit her mission, had essentially become a component of the world for the purpose of carrying out that mission.

The sound of gears resonating in her mind must be a kind of trigger, representing her current state.

At Lennok’s feet, The Clown slowly gathered himself and let out a grotesque laugh.

[Kihahah, this is why we should have finished things before encountering Kebaek…… We failed because of those useless worms.]

…….

The Clown probably knew when Pyeonram would regain her memories.

That’s why he intended to open the Well and awaken the serpent to cast an illusion before Kebaek arrived, but Pyeonram’s refusal of the illusion messed everything up.

He staggered to his feet, his back strangely hunched, and his limbs thin and elongated, flailing.

[It would be great if we could finish things in one try, but nothing ever goes as planned, does it?]

“We don’t have much time.”

Lennok spoke, looking back at the plaza, which was not only completely shattered but had begun to melt and evaporate.

The clash of two rampaging monsters within the thousands-of-meters-wide ancient ruin plaza.

The plaza’s ground, unable to fully contain the aftermath, melted entirely and collapsed, while shockwaves and heat rays, flung in all directions, ripped through the jungle, making it tilt.

The landscape of the massive jungle surrounding the plaza gradually sank and even tilted.

The horizon collapsed, and the sky inverted. It was clear to anyone that it couldn’t last much longer.

“Even if we choose one and focus our efforts, success isn’t guaranteed. Will you proceed?”

They had to decide whether to stop the rampaging Pyeonram or focus on thrusting Kebaek into the Well, and then act.

The Clown chuckled, looking at Lennok.

[Kihahah…… Of course. Now that things have come this far, a conclusion is inevitable.]

…….

The moment Lennok frowned behind his mask, The Clown slowly rose to his feet.

[Didn’t I say this was something with a predetermined beginning and end? All we’re doing is greasing the wheels of the process.]

With a mere wave of his hand, he brushed away the grotesque sight of his upper body severed by Pyeonram’s tail.

The Clown, whose entire body instantly regenerated, began to walk, rattling dice between his elongated fingers.

[Since they know the first plan failed, reinforcements will come. Until then, we’ll hold out and wait for the airship to arrive.]

“Reinforcements, huh…… Alright.”

Blaiver Tower, Headro Warlords, Redding Revolutionary Army, Esoteric Awakening Front.

Despite all four organizations having high-level superhumans in their ranks, capable of breaking through this treacherous jungle amidst all sorts of checks and rivalries to reach the plaza.

Amidst the clash of Ascendants, they would simply be swept away by waves of power, breaking and collapsing like mere insignificants.

Unless utterly insane, who would enter the jungle to send reinforcements?

It was a contradictory statement, but Lennok wasn’t without his suspicions, so he averted his gaze and raised his magic.

“I’ll tie Pyeonram’s hands. You keep Kebaek in check.”

[Excellent!!]

As The Clown’s body inverted and vanished from the spot, Lennok, too, extended his magical threads and flew back towards the collapsing, colossal plaza.

He pulled out another motion sickness pill from inside his robe, pushed it into his mask, and contracting his magical threads, plunged himself directly into the storm of shockwaves.

[Haaahhh!!]

Kebaek’s physique alone, now fully stepping from outside the jungle into the plaza, filled the entire space.

The vast plaza, wide enough to resemble an airplane runway, was covered by the colossal serpent and Kebaek’s spheres of human flesh, clashing from all directions.

The pyramid-like altar was now nowhere to be seen; only the Well hovering above remained, as the two monsters engaged in a direct, close-quarters battle.

The mere aftermath unleashed shockwaves and storms comparable to military-grade magic, raging from all sides, tossing humans around like toys and shattering them.

Kwaaaaaang!!

“Uwaaaahh!!”

“Haaahhh!! Oh, no……!! Haaahh……!!”

Superhumans either merged with Kebaek, emitting strange moans, or were crushed and trampled by the power projected by the two monsters.

No one in this space seemed to be retaining their sanity anymore.

‘Remaining Blink spells: 13.’

Lennok quickly counted the number of Blinks recorded on the Papyrus Argenteus and nodded.

‘Enough.’

A far too insufficient number to protect himself amidst the clash of Ascendants.

But for Lennok, who had been disconnected from mobility for too long, this alone was more than enough.

Using two Blink spells, he instantly approached Pyeonram’s colossal body, attached magical threads, and swiftly climbed onto her writhing mass of scales.

Thump!!

Thousands of scales covering the colossal serpent’s body heaved as if breathing, incessantly spewing powerful flashes of light and magical power from beneath them.

A state where will is manifested not through incantations, but where the mere movement of the body naturally generates the intent, which then actualizes the spell.

Pyeonram, realizing Lennok had climbed onto her back, let out a grotesque shriek and rotated her scales, while simultaneously, flashes of light erupted from all directions, piercing Lennok’s body dozens of times.

Dudududu!!!

Sliding between the scales, he let all the flashes graze past his eyelids.

He adjusted his creaking, poorly moving body’s trajectory with magical threads, and used Blink to evade unavoidable attacks, swiftly moving against the serpent’s colossal body.

All that remained where the magical light, manifested by primordial magic, had passed was a tattered piece of his robe.

Amidst that, hundreds of fluttering magical threads violently spun, grabbing various parts of Pyeonram’s scales and beginning to bind her massive body to different parts of the ground.

Charrrrrrrak!!

“……Let go!!”

With a slight twist of her colossal body, the serpent tore away the magical thread mass, which Lennok had exerted his full power to construct, but he didn’t stop.

The magical threads he first extended were dummies meant to distract the Ascendant. The real ones were, in fact, elsewhere.

Manipulation-type Unique Magic Magic Projection Concentrated Resonance [Mind’s Emancipation (意念解隷)] [Thread-Bound Compulsion (絲牽鑄迫)]

As Lennok chanted his Manipulation-type Unique Magic, the severed ends of the magical threads, still clinging to her scales, began to glow a vibrant blue and pulsate with light.

Thousands of magical threads, which had been aimlessly fluttering, suddenly raised their ‘heads’ and shot up into the sky.

The moment Pyeonram, not willing to let that trick go, was about to twist her body once more.

……!!!

The colossal serpent ceased her movements, abruptly raised her head, and gazed at the shattered sky.

The bundles of magical threads, firmly tied to her scales, had connected their other ends to various parts of the colossal Well’s rings, which were open in the sky.

A Manipulation-type Unique Magic that directly connected and held magical threads to the rings of the Well, which floated above the altar and had transformed into a massive ring shape.

Mind’s Emancipation, which unravels magical threads into a conceptual form, and Thread-Bound Compulsion, which grasps that which does not exist, were both high-level spells consuming immense magic, but their results were decisive.

In accordance with the Ascendant’s mission to protect the Well, Pyeonram’s movements abruptly ceased at the thought that her thrashing might damage the Well.

“How dare you……!!!”

The serpent’s eyes, staring at Lennok, were stained with clear fury.

A bizarre and chilling situation, being directly in the Ascendant’s full attention.

However, Lennok, sliding across Pyeonram’s scales and evading her primordial magic, was calmly assessing the situation.

‘Can’t hold on for long.’

He had only bought a little time by hitting her unexpected weak point.

It would have been impossible to even attempt if Pyeonram hadn’t been fully focused on Kebaek to begin with.

While it was possible to exploit the unconventional nature of the Manipulation-type specialized spell to its extreme, striking a gap in perception that even an Ascendant didn’t notice, he couldn’t bind that serpent indefinitely.

Even now, the magical threads connecting the Well to Pyeonram’s scales were evaporating and snapping due to the immense magical power flowing from the Ascendant’s body.

“Clown, no time.”

[Over here, over here!!]

Only the bizarre Clown, his entire body ablaze, bent and distorted, was holding onto Kebaek’s rampaging chains and waving his hand towards them.

No, was he merely being dragged around by chains that could turn humans into living Geas just by being caught?

In any case, amidst this chaos, only The Clown seemed to maintain his initial demeanor.

[We’ll start preparations to thrust Kebaek into the Well now!!]

“My eardrums will burst. I can hear you fine, so chatter quietly.”

[We have to finish this before Pyeonram regains her memories. She’s only fighting brutishly in close combat because her memories haven’t fully returned, but if she starts using spells, we won’t be able to stop her then!!]

“……Close combat?”

Lennok stared blankly, lifting his gaze at those words.

“She’s not using any power, just fighting with her body?”

With the pitch-black Well’s opening, seemingly reflecting a galaxy, above her head, Pyeonram flicked her tail.

At that moment, the colossal serpent’s scales bristled outwards in all directions, and simultaneously, the serpent’s lower body vanished from sight.

Pwaang!!

The tail, swung at supersonic speed, split the center of the collapsing plaza in two and struck Kebaek’s body with precision.

With that single movement, thousands of black-stained humans forming Kebaek’s exterior were crushed and burst apart, uttering desperate screams.

[Haaahhh!!]

The ownerless chains swung idly, then rushed to grab the serpent’s tail, but the bristling scales rotated, grinding the flesh within to shreds.

Kagagagagak!!!

Not a living animal, but a physical mass and impact force that would not be strange to call a weapon of war.

The speed of the strike unleashed by that massive body had long surpassed the speed of sound, exceeding human perception.

That magnificent strike, which felt as if she was almost perfectly controlling the colossal serpent’s body, was unleashed even though she hadn’t yet recalled her true self’s magic?

The Clown summarized Lennok’s question with a single word.

[Isn’t she a 9th-level Ascendant?]

…….

[Pyeonram is on a different level from Kebaek. Unlike Kebaek, who failed his ascension and went mad, she is a transcendent being who inherited a completed mission and was granted power.]

Shwiiiiik!!

The colossal serpent’s body writhed, then wondrously rotated, instantly entangling and crushing Kebaek’s body.

A natural movement, like an anaconda constricting its prey to suffocate it.

However, the pressure emanating from her massive body was close to crushing and exploding space itself, not just objects.

[Kyaaaaaah!!]

Being dragged around by the spheres of human flesh, which were bursting and crushing like black fluid, The Clown urgently shouted.

[If she regains her full memories as an Ascendant, we will also be dead according to her mission. I’ll start right away, so prepare……!!]

Kwaaaang!!

Swept away by a shock whose origin was unknown, The Clown’s body was sent flying dozens of meters.

Lennok looked down at him and retorted coldly.

“Stop with the nonsense and just start whatever preparation that is. If things go wrong, I’m pulling out immediately, plan or no plan.”

[Ugh…… D-don’t worry……]

The Clown, painfully raising his hunched, twisted body, grinned and spoke.

At the same time, his body, which had been broken, crushed, and damaged in various places, instantly began to regenerate.

Was he deceiving even his own injuries with an illusion reaching the Peak of Extremes at 8th level?

While Lennok faintly frowned at the unusual spell construction.

The Clown grinned, pointing behind Lennok.

[Because our friends who are going to help us just arrived.]

Charrrrrung……!

With a quiet bell sound, a dozen or so people dressed in pure white slowly advanced.

Even in the midst of this chaos, they humbly clasped their hands, bowed their heads, and simply marched forward.

Somewhat familiar priestly robes and the unforgettable emblem of a cult.

The young woman leading them at the front sharply raised her head, looked around, and smiled gracefully.

“Oh, you’ve already arrived.”

A perfectly calm and leisurely voice, utterly out of place amidst this chaos.

But Lennok sighed, confirming the priestly robes she wore and the glowing Guido Cult emblem within them.

“My ominous predictions are never wrong……”

The new reinforcements The Clown spoke of, fanatical cultists crazy enough to intentionally crawl into this jungle to help them.

The Guido Cult had dispatched their full force to support them.