Chapter 459: Pyeonram (5)

Interpreting the Geas that constitutes Kebaek’s very being, Lennok disassembles it on the spot and converts it into power.

It’s a gamble to completely substitute the power of a failed Ascendant, a monster whose very existence is twisted by Geas, an incomprehensible being.

This isn’t about interpreting all 80,000-plus types of Geas before starting; it’s an extreme process of converting them into power within Ouroboros simultaneously with the calculation.

It is, to put it plainly, an incredibly arrogant idea to openly seize an Ascendant’s power and use it as one’s own fuel.

However, Lennok was certain that this method was the most efficient way to ensure the plan’s success.

Kebaek does not possess specific intellect or goals; it is a being that moves solely according to the laws of the Geas that constitute its essence.

It doesn’t react to external interference in any way. It merely wriggles its chains to capture approaching life and make it a subject of its Geas.

Therefore, Lennok could deploy his magic system to freely interpret Kebaek’s Geas without worrying about Kebaek’s backlash or resistance.

Creeeeaaak…!!

He rapidly interpreted the countless Geas embedded in Kebaek’s body, confirming their contents.

Innumerable restrictions were woven into it, meticulously processing the direction of its power, at the cost of eroding the vessel and essence of Aurel Silford, who was once a talented human.

[In exchange for losing sight, magic circuits are removed.]

[In exchange for losing smell, the vessel of the soul is shattered.]

[In exchange for abandoning human form, the spirituality of others is absorbed.]

[In exchange for devouring kin, the nature of magic is reversed.]

Each was a Geas designed to thoroughly process and refine the being known as Kebaek from the ground up, at the cost of powerful and horrific conditions.

The very fact that such Geas could be created and imposed indirectly shows the level of technological advancement achieved by the central city.

A process of refining it into a weapon of war, meticulously designed to challenge ascension, by systematically removing the elements that constitute its existence as a human.

Perhaps, if he were to absorb these Geas without any restrictions, Lennok too would be unable to avoid being bound by this cycle.

Therefore, Lennok operated his Ouroboros magic system to its absolute limit, analyzing and dismantling the Geas, then releasing them without holding onto them.

After dismantling the Geas that formed Kebaek’s body, he released them without absorbing them.

The jet-black chains that constituted the grand sphere of flesh unfurled and began to writhe wildly like living earthworms.

Chaaarrrrk!!!!

[Haaah, haaah!!]

The black-bodied monstrosities, previously bound within, naturally broke free from Kebaek’s body and let out short, dying screams.

Innumerable chains wriggled and thrashed as if alive, even after detaching and falling from Kebaek’s body.

Lennok cast hundreds of strands of magical threads in every direction, then almost simultaneously gripped the ends of the chains and began to lift them.

Screeeeeech!!

With god-like control, he swung the chains lifted by the magical threads, wrapping them around Kebaek’s detached torso, and then forcefully lifted its immense weight.

KWA-AAAAAH!!!!

The mere impact of Kebaek’s body briefly levitating shattered The Clown’s fully deployed illusion Domain, offering a glimpse of the ruined plaza beyond.

From afar, the grand body of the great Ascendant, Pyeonram, unleashed intense magical will, staring at Lennok.

On the altar, it appeared as a distant, hazy illusion, as if forever out of reach.

Perhaps at a moment like this, it’s better that it doesn’t feel real in this way.

Lennok felt such utterly useless thoughts flicker through his mind, then poured all his remaining magic into the magical threads wrapped around his hands.

Tzzzzzzzzz!!!!

Magical threads, used as a medium for manipulation spells.

While they had only been used to grasp and move objects, or to manipulate the threads’ physical properties, Lennok understood that manipulation-type spells held even vaster possibilities.

Hadn’t Agneta, the Pandemonium messenger he met at the edge of Blaiver Tower, used her own manipulation spells to completely destroy human minds, or to traverse various imaginary dimensions to deliver messages?

It was the same. Correctly understanding the concept of manipulation, making magical threads the medium, and internalizing the versatility of manipulation to its extreme.

He couldn’t become like Agneta, who was born different from ordinary humans and built her thought process in an alien way, but merely imitating her was possible.

And finding a better method than hers from there was by no means impossible for Lennok.

At that moment, hundreds of magical threads, spreading like tree branches from his fingertips, turned jet-black and began to harden and contract.

CRACKLE…!!!

As the magical threads wrapped around and lifting the chains contracted and shortened, Kebaek’s massive body, lifted within them, also slowly soared skyward.

It slowly moved towards the sub-dimension of the Well, created within the giant ring above the altar.

By dismantling Kebaek’s Geas and using it as power for the Well, he widened the Well’s radius, and simultaneously reduced Kebaek’s power to allow it to enter the ring.

“Wizard…!!”

Pyeonram’s colossal body let out a magnificent roar and simultaneously opened its maw.

At the same time, thousands of fragments of spell runes rapidly assembled around her head, forming a massive oval ring.

[Esoteric Doctrine, Lineage of Sarak Taeha]

[Reincarnation Cannon: 균해총 (Disintegration Shot)]

KWA-AAAAAH!!!!

Fragments of the transcendent spell that had made her a complete Ascendant stiffened and rose along her scales, transforming into a pillar of light.

It was an essence bombardment that completely disintegrated targets down to the cellular level, using them as a catalyst for the spell—in a way, the fundamental and ultimate essence of sorcery.

In another sense, it was an attack that could be fatal to Kebaek, who was closest to the root of existence.

If Lennok’s body were to be even slightly caught in that flash, it would be disintegrated to a degree he couldn’t even fathom a second time.

But Lennok, instantly understanding the power of Pyeonram’s Reincarnation Cannon: Disintegration Shot upon seeing it, nevertheless redoubled his efforts in manipulating the magical threads.

Creeeeaaak…!!

He intricately crisscrossed magical threads around the horrifying, squirming sphere of flesh within the giant Well, then expertly threaded the entangled chains through them to lift Kebaek’s body.

The horrifying sounds of space tearing, crushing, and pulverizing echoed incessantly, but he couldn’t stop.

In the brief moment he neglected his auditory protection, Lennok’s eardrums burst, and blood began to leak from his ears.

For a fleeting moment, Lennok’s interior was exposed to Kebaek’s aura, and dark red bodily fluids began to flow from his nose and mouth.

Even as the inside of his mask became instantly drenched in blood, Lennok didn’t stop.

If he stopped manipulating the magical threads here, both Kebaek and Lennok would be caught in Pyeonram’s spell bombardment.

It was correct to forcibly maintain Kebaek’s levitated state to absorb Pyeonram’s spell, and then immediately plunge the massive body into the Well.

The problem was how long Lennok’s body could withstand this hellscape where Pyeonram’s spells and Kebaek’s strange Geas ran wild.

Although his body’s condition had been reset to its original state by consuming the Archangel’s Tear, it didn’t mean that the fundamental issues with Lennok’s physique were completely resolved.

[Master!!]

Davi, agitated in his arms, nervously pulled out various ampoules and elixirs from inside his robe and pushed them onto Lennok’s body.

[Symptoms of internal tissue and cell collapse. I’ll administer antibiotics as a stopgap. It’s only a temporary measure, so you need to get out quickly and flush your magic circuits…!!]

“…!!!”

Unable to properly reply, he spat blood from beneath his mask.

Even as he clearly recognized Kebaek’s Geas aura gnawing at his nerves throughout his body, his fingers, manipulating the magical threads, moved without hesitation, just as he had planned.

KWA-AAAAAH!!!

He lifted Kebaek’s horrifying sphere of flesh even higher, a sphere that had effortlessly withstood Pyeonram’s Reincarnation Cannon: Disintegration Shot.

As a result, The Clown’s illusion Domain completely shattered, fully revealing the ruined plaza beyond.

Thousands of magical threads densely covering the jungle in every direction rolled the massive, black sphere of flesh around, testing the threads’ elasticity and contraction to their limits.

Krrriiiiik!!

Stretching and contracting to their limits, they played with physical forces as if testing their tension.

He didn’t merely lift the colossal body; he interfered with the mass and gravity of the surrounding space, reducing all possible burden and paving the way towards the Well.

At the moment the colossal snake and mountain goat, divested of human voices, tangled together and unleashed desperate magical will in a single chorus.

CRACK!!

Finally, Kebaek took a step towards the far side of the giant Well.

“AAAAAAAH!!!”

Trampling and bursting the limp corpse of the 6th Apostle, which had lost all its vitality, Pyeonram wailed.

Her song covered the entire sky and soared, launching a massive sphere of divine power into the jet-black heavens.

The mighty divine power, responding to her call, rotated like a miniature star and began to descend to the ground.

KWA-AAAAAH!!!!

“Cough…!!”

Lennok, lifting his mask slightly and spitting out blood, looked at the brilliantly shining white sky with hollow eyes and smiled.

“A 9-level Ascendant…”

Is this her capability, even after living as a cog in a mission for so long, having lost her memories?

Why are Ascendants, without exception, battered and bruised, never fully preserving their power? It had always been a question, but now he understood.

For transcendents who have grasped the right to challenge ascension, the total amount and scale of power hold little meaning.

What was needed for their desired wish was not stronger, grander power, but a single answer to transcend everything and reach the truth.

That’s why they could cut off memories, ego, lifespan, and connections without hesitation, and race towards a single goal.

The previous Lighthouse Keeper, Jindun. And Pyeonram, whom Lennok now faced, were all the same.

To stand shoulder to shoulder with such beings, to gaze further than such monsters, how far must he walk?

Until he reaches the end, can Lennok endure, maintaining his current resolve and will?

To find that out, he’d have to go all the way, first.

“Ugh…!!”

Thinking that, Lennok pulled out a broken pencil stub with trembling hands.

Enakphil’s five fingers.

It was an item he had barely used since he became able to record flicker spells onto the Papyrus Argenteus.

Originally, it was created for the purpose of saving one’s life in a desperate, unavoidable moment like this.

The massive sphere of divine power falling from above, the Well beginning to close as if on cue the moment Kebaek entered it.

In a hallucination where everything seemed to converge into a single point, he frantically plunged the pencil into his forearm and drew up magic.

Fwa-aaaaah!!!

At that moment, Lennok’s vision flashed brilliantly white, then instantly darkened, beginning to reveal the jet-black cosmos.

‘…’

Endless rotation of causality.

If there is a cause, there is an outcome, and from that outcome, new causes emerge, and the world circulates.

In this world, where things are born, breathe, constantly consume, and fall into disarray, there is an absolute, unchanging law.

The moment circulation ceases, the world stands at a branching point, accepting a predetermined end.

To escape a future that has once been observed and thus predetermined, a far harsher price must be paid…

Kebaek Aurel Silford understood that and accepted his fate.

No, he thought he had accepted it.

Until he realized that he wasn’t challenging ascension, but rather, was made to fail it.

‘…’

Sacrifices that defied heavenly principles.

Filial impiety, killing kin.

Asceticism, abandoning human dignity—he could endure it all.

If the world’s salvation Aurel Silford sought was like a flower on a blood-stained cliff.

Even if the only answer for a world with a predetermined end was forged from countless breaths of death.

If it could create the meaning of a ‘next’ that didn’t exist, he could accept it.

What it truly meant to challenge ascension in this world. Aurel Silford had realized it too late.

‘…’

He felt as if he had awoken from a long sleep.

He had been lying on a painful bed of thorns, trembling for a very long time.

The cold sensation of the chains that had bound his entire body, even to the point of ultimately seizing his very essence, was vividly present.

‘I am…’

I am not Aurel Silford.

I am not the Ascendant Kebaek.

The ego, which he thought had been buried and swept away in the memories of a truly desperate and dark time, was reviving.

The consciousness of the mighty wizard, which no one had been able to break, rapidly emerged from the shadows.

‘This is…?’

Lennok’s consciousness, which should have severed the moment Kebaek stepped out of the Well, still remained, observing Kebaek’s final moments.

No, to be precise, it had become a part of his Geas, experiencing all those moments with him.

Kebaek’s massive body, soaring out through the Well, swam in a colossal sea of darkness.

Lennok, having become a part of Kebaek and witnessing that scenery with his own eyes, quietly drew a breath.

Outer Sea.

The incomprehensible demonic realm, which he had only ever heard of and never seen directly, was now fully spread out before Lennok’s eyes.