Chapter 458: Pyeonram (4)

An unusually gentle impression for this kind of jungle.

A face that wouldn’t feel out of place helping people at a relief site rather than a battlefield.

The woman gracefully swept back her hair, then leisurely looked around before extending a hand to Lennok.

“Are you in charge of this operation? It’s a pleasure to meet you. It’s my first time working with ruffians like yourselves, so please excuse my many shortcomings. But I look forward to working with you.”

“……”

Lennok remained silent instead of responding to the woman, who had already begun with her ‘shortcomings’.

The woman gave a strange smile at Lennok’s lack of a handshake and nodded.

“Hehehe… It seems such greetings aren’t in vogue in the mortal world these days. Otherwise, how could you so blatantly-”

“Did you come at the Pontiff’s command?”

Lennok cut her off immediately and asked.

The person The Clown had said would help them. The sudden appearance of the cult.

Even the various pieces of advice the Pontiff had given when Lennok encountered him in Vulcan.

The Guido Cult Pontiff was undoubtedly aware of this situation and knew that a conclusion would soon be reached.

What he had said then, about a final alliance, was precisely the cooperation between Pandemonium and the Guido Cult.

An alliance between two organizations that moved with such self-will, pursuing grand goals that others could barely dream of.

It was hard to believe, considering their completely different objectives, but the procession of priests appearing before him left no other possibility.

“If there’s work to be done, let’s start quickly.”

Lennok said, glancing down at the plaza.

“Neither side will be able to hold out much longer.”

It was The Clown, not Lennok, who was being tossed and turned between the clashes of the two Ascendants, yet the very act of The Clown sending a telepathic message to Lennok in that situation was absurd.

With power gained from sacrificing dozens of Glen’s hearts, The Clown was enduring by deceiving all incoming attacks and damage with illusions.

“Is that so.”

The woman slowly nodded, gazing at Lennok’s eyes, which glowed darkly behind his mask.

“It seems the mortal world has become much more practical than when I was in it. Just the brief, simple main point, then.”

[Kiiyaaahhhh!!]

The priest turned her head abruptly, leaving The Clown’s scream-like telepathic message behind.

“It’s a pity. If the place I lived was like this, I wouldn’t have given up so easily either.”

“What?”

“The Heretic’s words are correct. Time is short, so let’s begin quickly.”

As she spoke, the priests who had been gathered behind her, hands clasped, parted like a wave.

From the center of the priests, someone who had been silent until now revealed themselves.

“……Ugh.”

A wheelchair made of thin bones.

A frail young man faintly twitching on wheels so flimsy they seemed ready to collapse at any moment.

His emaciated body, clad in a patient’s gown, was densely covered with unknown ancient characters.

His two eyes were gruesomely stitched shut as if gouged out, sunken in and sewn haphazardly.

His mouth, nose, ears, and every orifice on his body were plugged with wet cotton, only occasionally emitting incomprehensible groans.

A patient’s appearance utterly miserable, in stark contrast to the priests’ pristine attire.

But Lennok hardened his expression, sensing the aura emanating from within the man rather than his appearance.

Walter Martinez, the missionary who had succeeded in summoning an Apostle in Palgung Fortress.

Lennok felt a faint sense of kinship between Walter, who had transformed into a giant crustacean jellyfish, and the patient before him.

Naturally, the term referring to the cult’s specialized combat power flowed from Lennok’s lips.

“Apostle……”

“Oh, you’ve met one of our cult’s esteemed ones.”

The woman smiled gently and reached out a hand to the convulsing man’s crown.

“You may not know, but many of our esteemed ones who receive the will of God cannot control their madness.”

Ziiingg!!

At that moment, the countless ancient characters densely inscribed on the man’s skin were sucked into the woman’s hand, which was extended over his crown.

Each time the characters moved, the man’s skin tore, revealing raw, red flesh, but the woman did not stop despite the man’s struggles.

“Among them, the 6th Apostle, whom we have brought here, is a case where his ego was completely destroyed due to his exceptionally strong power, and the cult headquarters can barely control his movements.”

“……”

Only then did Lennok realize what the woman was saying and fell silent.

The battle of two monsters rampaging in the center of a ruined ancient civilization was already beyond human control.

That was why the cult had come, intending to use the Apostle, whom they likewise could not control, as a weapon and throw him into the heart of the battlefield.

Could this be called cooperation?

From the cult’s perspective, it was no different from finding a trash can to dispose of a power they couldn’t properly utilize.

While Lennok was lost in thought, the woman, having collected the ancient characters from the man’s entire body, slowly stepped back.

“You’d best stay far away. All the sealing devices that suppress his metabolism have been released, so he’ll awaken before long.”

“……”

But even as she spoke, the woman did not retreat from in front of the man.

Lennok also ignored her words and silently observed the Apostle’s reaction, sitting in the wheelchair.

Though his skin was torn and his entire body was covered in blood, just as she said, perhaps because the seals were broken, various parts of his body began to regenerate rapidly.

Zzzzzzzzt…!!

His emaciated muscles swelled, and his torn skin instantly repaired itself.

His sunken eyelids puffed up, and his stitched eyes opened on their own, regenerating the lenses within.

“Ah…”

The man let out a low groan, spat out the cotton in his mouth, and looked up at the woman with newly regenerated, blurry pupils.

“Seina…?”

“Yes, it’s me.”

The woman called Seina immediately replied.

The man quietly gazed at her face, then looked down at his rapidly repairing body once more before asking.

“Is it… time?”

“In just a little while, you won’t be able to regain your sanity ever again.”

Seina said, still smiling.

In contrast to her serene expression, her hands, clasped behind her back, trembled faintly as if hiding emotion.

“If you have any last words, I will listen.”

“I see…”

The man pondered for a moment, then chuckled faintly.

“A very long time ago… the Pontiff and I once traveled together, the three of us.”

With flesh now on his face, he was quite handsome, even to Lennok.

The man naturally rose from the wheelchair and murmured.

“It was very pleasant to recall that memory after a long time. Please convey that to him as well.”

“……”

Seina quietly bowed her head instead of replying. Her expression, hidden by her hair, was no longer visible.

The man surveyed the utterly wrecked jungle and nodded.

“I understand what needs to be done.”

The man naturally turned to Lennok, grinning, and said.

“I’m ready. Shall we go now?”

The man asked nothing about who Lennok was, why he was here, or what he intended to do.

He simply spoke to Lennok like a friend, as if he already understood everything.

Even in their brief conversation, a cheerful atmosphere emanated from him. Lennok felt he knew what kind of person he was without needing to ask.

Before becoming an Apostle, he must have been a person loved by many.

“……When you start, we’ll get ready right away.”

The man also nodded at Lennok’s reply.

“It won’t take long. Once they realize I’ve regained consciousness, the oracle will descend again soon.”

The man muttered blankly without waiting for a reply.

“It’s been long… I don’t regret our choice, but it’s been too long… In a way, I feel relieved.”

Koo-goo-goo-goo-goo…!!

At that moment, an overwhelmingly powerful force abruptly surged from within the man.

A mighty output, as if being instantly transmitted and unleashed from a far-off distance.

As the man’s body in the patient’s gown was ripped to shreds, the monstrous bulk of a creature made of fur and muscle burst forth.

“Hwoooooo…!!!”

The form of a beast with three goat-like horned heads on a single body. Its two eyes were stained pitch black, overflowing as if completely consumed by madness.

Each time its spiky hooves struck the ground, the earth undulated like waves, shaking the jungle’s surface.

Too-doo-doo-doo!!!

The woman and the other priests retreated, and at the moment the Apostle, exhaling roughly, bowed its head deeply.

The 6th Apostle, a black-eyed beast resembling a goat, directly slammed its body into the enormous serpent’s body, unleashing a shockwave.

Kwaaaang!!!

Simultaneously, the ground across hundreds of meters tilted sharply, dramatically flipping over the vast plaza where Pyeonram and Kebaek clashed.

Pyeonram’s massive body, focused on confronting Kebaek while burning the mana threads that bound scales and the Well of the Codex, could not withstand the impact and bent severely, then twisted.

As the serpent’s lengthy, hundreds-of-meters-long body rolled and convulsed on the outskirts of the plaza, the jungle shook as if in an earthquake from the impact.

Koo-goo-goo-goo-goo-goo!!!

Pyeonram, too, instantly discerned the identity of the suddenly appearing goat and snarled in a furious tone.

“An abomination chosen by the apocalypse dares to run wild before me…!!”

“Hwoooo!!”

“The wicked power of the Outer Sea cannot bypass the Well of the Codex. That is my duty, who bears the qualification of ancestral succession!!”

Paaah-aaat!!!

Innumerable runic characters glowed and emerged between Pyeonram’s scales, and thick plant stems grew from various places on the ground, beginning to entwine Kebaek and the Apostle’s body.

The plant stems began to rapidly absorb Kebaek and the Apostle’s energy, like roots drawing water.

At the same time, the colossal goat-like 6th Apostle and Kebaek, who was a sphere of human flesh, simultaneously let out desperate screams.

[Kiiiiieeeek!!!!]

“Keke kekek…!!!”

Powerful spell capabilities capable of inflicting damage even on Apostles and Ascendants.

Clear evidence that Pyeonram had remembered and begun to use proper spells.

As the battle dragged on, Pyeonram’s memories would return faster under the pressure of upholding her mission, and she, too, would awaken as a complete Ascendant.

However, neither the 6th Apostle nor Kebaek passively succumbed to Pyeonram’s spells.

Black 괴인, part of the sphere of human flesh, gnawed through the plant stems and instantly escaped, with Kebaek in turn biting Pyeonram’s tail and scales.

Not missing the opportunity, the 6th Apostle, mounting the serpent’s body, galloped across Pyeonram’s form, and burning, hoof-shaped brand marks began to be etched onto her scales.

Kwaaaahhhhhh!!!!

In the heart of the thousands-of-meters-wide plaza, three monsters tangled and burst apart at speeds faster than sound.

Each time they struck, pushed, and bit each other, the erupting shockwaves were immediately swallowed by the raging storm and obliterated by even more massive force and mass.

The Clown, perched atop Kebaek’s head, ceaselessly hammered illusions, adjusting the direction of attacks.

The 6th Apostle, despite its utterly mad appearance, relentlessly targeted only Pyeonram.

Pyeonram’s power, which single-handedly received and endured all those offensives and defenses, dominating the battlefield purely with close-quarters combat.

However, the tide of battle began to turn rapidly before Pyeonram could fully recall all of her own spells.

“Hwoooooo!!!”

With the 6th Apostle’s roar, like a horn, the hoof-shaped brand marks etched onto Pyeonram’s scales simultaneously glowed intensely.

At the same time, around the 6th Apostle, who was ceaselessly striking Pyeonram’s body, the earth on the ground collectively rose, beginning to construct a sphere hundreds of meters in radius.

Koo-goo-goo-goo-goo!!!

The ground and mounds of earth in the plaza area rose as if living creatures, enveloping Pyeonram and the 6th Apostle.

The 6th Apostle’s divine power, transforming the entire terrain and environment into a battlefield solely for the two of them.

Not merely trapping them with terrain features, but an Apostle’s Spell that arbitrarily detaches and binds space itself.

“So you were an abomination serving the Subterranean Colossus…!! I am sick of the madness of those who worship and revere that which isn’t even life as a god!!!”

In Pyeonram’s struggle to escape the Apostle’s Spell, the 6th Apostle’s entire body was crushed, shattered, and broken.

The Apostle, serving the apocalypse of the Outer Sea and granted power as its avatar.

But as a monster whose sanity was consumed by madness, it could never stand against an Ascendant.

The 6th Apostle was essentially sacrificing its own body, using its death as collateral to bind Pyeonram’s feet.

It was absurd for an Apostle, who should be completely mad and barely able to distinguish friend from foe, to exhibit such precise actions.

Lennok immediately sensed the Pontiff’s will in the Apostle’s movements, but he had no time to worry about it now.

This fleeting moment, where the 6th Apostle successfully restrained Pyeonram.

This brief reprieve, less than a minute by time, was precisely the moment The Clown had so desperately longed for.

As if waiting for this very moment, with the Well of the Codex open to the Outer Sea and only Kebaek, having lost its opponent, left alone in the devastated plaza.

Something rapidly flew up from beyond the jungle.

Bwoooosh!!

A pitch-black airship. The same one Lennok and the Pandemonium members had ridden into the heart of the jungle.

Its hangar-like cargo hold wide open, it spewed black smoke, wobbling as if it might fall at any moment.

Even an artifact-grade airship made with Old World technology, flying through this hellish airspace where all sorts of forces and mana clashed, was virtually suicidal.

Glen, gripping the airship’s controls, gritted his teeth and turned the direction, while Reiya, hanging from the cargo bay, screamed with a hoarse voice.

“Damn it, I don’t care anymore. You bastards!!”

At the same time, countless cargo piled high inside the wide-open hangar began to fall to the ground all at once.

[Victor!!]

Lennok moved before The Clown’s telepathic message could even register.

He scattered hundreds of mana threads into the sky, receiving all the falling cargo.

He cut open the thickly wrapped sacks and pulled out their contents, neatly arranging them in mid-air.

Chwa-reureureureuk!!

What appeared at Lennok’s mana thread manipulation were dozens of pitch-black stakes, as long and colossal as a human’s height.

Magic circles, densely inscribed with an unknown golden raw material on the black pillars, flashed ceaselessly, radiating light in all directions.

[Oooooh!!]

Unlike The Clown’s exclamation, Lennok, gritting his teeth and elegantly moving his fingers, shouted.

“I can’t hold them for long…!!”

The weight itself was considerable, making it difficult to hold them for long, and the mana threads kept disappearing as the stakes seemed to reject mana’s approach.

At this rate, they would simply fall to the ground and shatter before he could even properly balance them and begin work.

But at that critical moment, The Clown, showing some hesitation, gritted his teeth.

[Damn it, it’s still touch-and-go if that person doesn’t come…!!!]

“What…?”

Who that person was. What the last reinforcements The Clown was waiting for were.

Before Lennok could ask, The Clown’s body was pierced and slammed down by something that flashed like lightning.

Kwa-ji-jik!!

“How utterly foolish…!!”

One side of the massive sphere of earth that had risen to envelop Pyeonram and the Apostle collapsed, and a serpent’s tail that shot out from within pierced The Clown.

“The challenge for the world’s order and continuance is a privilege granted only to Ascendants!!”

Pyeonram’s solemn declaration echoed resoundingly from inside the sphere. Her furious voice, unlike before, carried clear intent.

The 6th Apostle’s Apostle’s Spell. The power of the apocalypse that isolated space itself using earth power could not properly bind the great Ascendant for even a minute.

Euh-deu-deuk!!!

With a few more flicks of its tail, The Clown’s body was flung away.

The strange sight of The Clown, a rag-like figure with a gaping hole in his chest, rolling on the dirt ground.

But even as The Clown was thrown, his fingertips moved ceaselessly, forming intricate hand seals.

Domain: Full Deployment

Illusory Hierarchy: Domain Breach

The 8-level Peak of Extremes Illusionist’s Domain, unleashed even while ignoring fatal injuries.

High-level illusions could go beyond merely deceiving senses or phenomena, reaching a state where they could partially reshape and manipulate reality.

This was because the illusion system, belonging to the specialized attribute systems, was one of the very few systems that could purely intervene with causality.

That was why powerful illusionists often suffered from endless madness.

Because one could never deceive reality without first deceiving oneself.

Kiiieeek…!!

Disturbing noises continuously echoed, as if reality’s physical space was endlessly twisting and collapsing.

At the same time, the colorless wave that bloomed from The Clown’s fingertips began to completely overturn and rewrite every landscape in the surrounding area.

The chaotic landscape of the altar was instantly overwritten with The Clown’s Mind Imprint.

The pyramid-like altar, which had completely crumbled and lost its shape, was now restored.

Black stakes were piled along the Well of the Codex’s opening created on the altar, forming a grand single path like a runway.

And placed in the middle of that path was Kebaek Aurel Silford, who until moments ago had been desperately thrashing and glowing from Pyeonram’s attack.

A single path leading to the Well of the Codex, seemingly made only for Kebaek.

The Clown clutched his pierced chest, gasping madly, and muttered.

[I-I’ve set the stage… just the finish… please… Kee-hee-hee-hee…]

“Hoo…”

Lennok lightly sighed, adjusted his mask, and immediately drew forth his mana to its fullest.

Thousands of mana threads erupted from behind Lennok, covering and swirling within the domain The Clown had created.

Chwa-ra-ra-ra-ra-rak!!

Kebaek’s body writhed amidst the mana threads pouring down like a fluid rain.

Lennok didn’t miss the opportunity, unhesitatingly wrapping the stakes piled on the altar with mana threads.

Kwa-ji-jik!!

He drove dozens of stakes into Kebaek’s body almost simultaneously.

[Haaaaaah!!]

The 괴인 bound to Kebaek’s body desperately tried to block the stakes, but Lennok’s mana thread manipulation, with both Mystic Eyes activated simultaneously, was determining the outcome from an entirely different realm.

Kwajik, Kwajik, Kwajik, Kwajik!!

Each time a stake was driven in, the black luminous ore that comprised it disintegrated, and the golden magic circle melted, flowing into Kebaek’s body.

The transcendently powerful will contained within it transformed into a part of Kebaek through the Geas.

The final Geas that had completed Kebaek as an Ascendant.

With the essence of his existence inverted, the Geas, now deeply rooted within him, was activated at this very moment.

[■■■■ ■■■ ■■■■.]

The Geas, containing commands that could not be described in language, spread unhindered throughout the corrupted Ascendant’s body.

That alone was enough.

[Haaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!]

The black luminous 괴인, maddened and rampaging, flailed their arms and began to roll their bodies directly towards the altar.

Kebaek’s massive body dug into the ground, unhindered, crawling onto the altar The Clown had created.

Toward the Well of the Codex open above, it desperately rushed as if it had been waiting for this moment all along.

As the sphere of tens of thousands of human flesh fearlessly rushed towards the outside of the Well of the Codex, and was about to cross the boundary connecting the world and the Outer Sea.

The radius of the enormous Well of the Codex floating in the sky instantly narrowed, halting Kebaek’s body on the spot.

Kwaaaang!!!

“……!!!”

The enormous sphere of earth floating above the plaza collapsed.

At the same time, Pyeonram, holding the tattered body of the 6th Apostle by its tail, floated into the air and looked down at Lennok.

A hundreds-of-meters-long serpent floating in mid-air solely by its will, without using any power.

Its elegant form, suspended in the air, resembled a dragon that had not yet ascended.

It wasn’t merely holding Kebaek by force.

The crack in the world, which should have been fixed to the world’s outer wall and unchangeable. Pyeonram adjusted its size itself, preventing Kebaek from bursting out.

[I forbid those without qualification from trespassing the Well of the Codex.]

Pyeonram’s voice was no longer filled with anger.

An unfathomable aura of profoundness resided in the sharp pupils of the serpent, quietly observing Lennok.

[Though I too loved the will of life progressing towards the unknown, its end was filled only with immeasurable failure and despair.]

“……”

[The promise and agreement for the world’s continuance. The crystallization of survival instinct, excluding resistance. We are upholding our mission to live in this world…]

Pyeonram’s attitude, as if trying to persuade Lennok.

Perhaps this calm and quiet disposition was Pyeonram’s true nature, once praised as a complete Ascendant.

Had she regained enough memories to suppress her serpent body and predator’s instincts, and reclaim her Ascendant mind?

If Pyeonram had already regained her complete Ascendant spell abilities, the success or failure of this operation and Lennok’s fate would be as good as decided.

“……”

Perhaps getting involved in this from the start was a mistake?

But despite the negative thoughts swirling in his head, Lennok gritted his teeth and began to draw up his mana.

“……I never thought it would go according to plan from the beginning.”

Nothing was too late yet.

On the contrary, thinking rationally, moving before Pyeonram’s memories returned any more would increase his chances of survival.

Since the moment he joined Pandemonium, even before arriving in this jungle at Myeong’s suggestion.

Had he ever gained something without taking risks?

“Since I’m in charge of the finish, I’ll have to see it with my own eyes.”

Amidst the acrid stench that made his lungs feel like they were rotting just by breathing it in, Lennok steadily formed hand seals.

“What awaits us beyond the Outer Sea.”

As the golden magic circle spun, the mana flowing from Lennok’s body completely vanished.

Instead, an immense attractive force burst forth, as if trying to absorb all surrounding power.

Kiiiiingg!!!

[Magic System Ouroboros activated.]

[Ascendant Kebaek’s possessed Geas: 84,341 types deconstructed and computed.]

[Incomplete Mana Conversion Power Transformation ready.]

[Perpetual Motion Engine deployed: Power flow connection established.]

Paaah-aaat!!!

Lennok looked up at the sight of the Well of the Codex amidst the surging golden magic light, slowly raising both hands.

At this moment, with all plans on the verge of failure. Lennok’s final solution.

“From now on, I will deconstruct Ascendant Kebaek’s Geas.”

Pharmacist Genius Wizard 459