Chapter 492: The One Beloved by the Gods (5)

“Bishop Boder!!”

“What is the meaning of this!”

Other agents protested fiercely, but Boder paid them no mind.

“Tritan, I clearly saw it. The spirituality from the Pantheon poured into this man was no lie.”

“That’s—!!”

“Even if he wasn’t of the cult before, it is enough if he converts now—!!”

Ignoring the others, who were muttering in dismay, Boder continued his words unhesitatingly.

“Even if he were a being born as an incarnation unrelated to His will, it would not matter if he becomes a believer of the same doctrine. Is that not so?”

Boder’s face, gleaming with bright eyes, held a confident smile.

“In the holy war to come, your existence can be a strength greater than anything. If you understand that meaning, you might accept my offer…!!”

There wasn’t a hint of doubt in his expression regarding his judgment and decision.

Before answering Boder’s words, Lennok quietly looked around.

The battle of monsters clashing and destroying each other on the altar. The Archbishop, fallen and unconscious.

Below the altar, Correction Knights and priests argued, then clashed, and mana of unknown origin raged wildly.

Finally, Lennok gazed at Boder’s outstretched hand, then let out a light laugh.

“If you accept one condition, I’ll consider it positively.”

“What is it? Anything within my authority, any request…”

“I will take the Pontiff’s seat.”

Boder’s lips, which had been enthusiastically blabbering, snapped shut.

Lennok continued calmly, watching his face.

“Since you prattled on about spirituality and incarnation bodies, it shouldn’t be an unusual request, should it?”

“…”

“Believing in the existence of a god and serving one are distinctly different. I wonder if you are prepared to entrust the direction of that answer to me.”

It was an impossible request.

Lennok knew what the Pontiff meant to them, having directly confronted the Pontiff’s memories.

How could those who were among the cult’s core forces and held agent positions not know this?

It was plain as day that Lennok’s demand wasn’t truly to become the Pontiff, but rather an act akin to ridiculing the unavoidable absence of the Pontiff.

Even if he needed the cult’s power, he didn’t need to be bound by them in this way.

His choice of their power should, by all means, be the result of Lennok’s own will and selection.

“…Heh heh.”

After a long silence, Boder let out a bitter laugh.

“I spoke needlessly. There’s nothing more ridiculous than putting on an obvious play for someone who already knows the ending.”

“…”

“You must know what it means to the cult for me to bring up His name at this point.”

The warm expression that had been on Boder’s face vanished, replaced by a devilish, distorted visage as he spat out.

“You damned heretic, I’ll rip your limbs to shreds and offer them to Him!!!”

At that moment, the four agents surrounding Lennok, and Geobin, took their stances and transformed into five streaks of light.

Their murderous intent, turned into clear malice, shot forth before it could even fully form, reaching the wizard’s flesh beyond the limits of the five senses.

Kagagagagak!!!

Dozens of tragic strikes almost simultaneously grazed Lennok, who stood still.

Immediately after, countless sparks erupted in the air, swirling around Lennok and coloring everything in pure white light.

It was an utterly light exchange of offense and defense, as if no effective blows had landed between them.

But the faces of the agents who had passed through that fleeting moment were tinged with undeniable astonishment.

‘Overwhelming combat skill…!!’

A wizard, unskilled in direct combat, had parried every offense and defense from five high-ranking superhumans in place, without a single scratch.

Considering that all the agents present were warriors who had undergone arduous practical training to become Apostles, it was truly an unbelievable result.

It wasn’t just a matter of having solid defenses to face multiple opponents.

It was proof that he had instantly discerned the twisting and bending trajectories of slashes and spells in real-time, then counter-dismantled them and nullified them with identical attacks.

It meant that the wizard with the cold expression was a superhuman more technically accomplished than anyone else present.

“Even if you say you’ll be a force in your so-called holy war, it’s nothing more than finding a substitute for the Pontiff.”

Lennok stepped forward and smiled.

“I don’t particularly want to give much meaning to such an invitation.”

Paahhhhhh!!!!

At that moment, the magic circle drawn around the altar changed its form and began to glow with a crimson light.

It was as if hundreds of faces simultaneously flushed red from the flames rising from beneath their chins.

Priests, startled, paused their spells for a moment, and the agents too, their gazes momentarily captivated by the strange sight.

Only Geobin realized what Lennok was about to do, his face turning pale and rigid.

“Everyone, fall back!!! This isn’t a spell used by the High Priestess…!!”

Heat-based Unique Magic: Applied Alchemy

Triple Forging (三重鍊成).

[Convergent Flame (聯火)]

[Inherent Ember (生得炎)]

[Piercing Crimson (穿赤通)]

[Corpse Mountain Blazing Sea (屍山炎海)]

A mountain of corpses and a sea flowing with flames.

This spell, one of the top few area-of-effect spells in the heat-based magic system, boasted such an immense capacity that even Lennok found it difficult to cast.

It not only required vast amounts of mana but also demanded a meticulously prepared environment over a long period, and most importantly, a continuous supply of materials to burn.

Originally, it was a type of collective ritual magic used by several heat-based wizards together in large-scale battlefields where all these conditions were met.

However, Lennok modified the magic circle that Isel had drawn around the altar and single-handedly manifested this area-of-effect magic.

The reason Lennok had remained there, even listening to the agents and taking the first strike.

Lennok intended to manipulate Isel’s coronet as a control code to transform the magic circle itself, using it as a foundation for a new spell.

A perfect understanding of magic circles, accumulated through studying Jindun’s barrier magic.

Powerful dynamic energy, overflowing as the will of an outer god visited.

And the presence of cult members, filling the surroundings and radiating killing intent towards Lennok.

A technique that forcibly gathered the necessary conditions for the Corpse Mountain Blazing Sea, and forcefully summoned its power to this place.

It wasn’t simply using magic according to a fixed sequence, but rather dedicating all his effort to applying what he had understood and realized from beginning to end.

A supreme technique that could not even be attempted without transcendent talent to touch and transmute the principles and logic of magic with one’s own hands.

Behind Lennok, who expressionlessly gazed down at the ground below the altar, a flash erupted that would engulf all the flames in this place.

Fwoosh!!

Flames rising from his feet instantly swept past his ankles and shins.

The moment he perceived it, his skin and muscles were already melting in the hellish heat.

Surging flames rose from all directions, swelling in size, and swayed like waves, sweeping in all directions.

A giant wave of rippling flames swept across the altar, burning and melting everything it touched.

“No, no…!!”

“Everyone, take off your clothes and fall back!!”

“Keep your distance from each other!! If you stick together, you’ll get stuck…!!”

“Kyaaaaaak!!”

The massive altar and the temple’s chapel, engulfed in flames, burned entirely, indiscriminately scattering heat.

“How dare you…!!”

“Hold your positions!!”

Boder shouted, preventing the other agents, filled with rage, from making rash moves.

“We must stop that man from reaching the 10th Apostle. We must not forget the most important thing…!!”

“…”

The four agents glaring at Lennok, instead of rushing in recklessly, began to draw upon their strength little by little.

Instead of engaging in a direct exchange of offense and defense, they intended to suppress him with sheer power and block his path to Amrita.

Sensing the rapid clash of mana surging from all directions, Lennok frowned.

‘The situation isn’t conducive for responding with a Domain…’

The most powerful countermeasure he could take would be to deploy his Domain to suppress the agents, but at that point, the situation could potentially worsen.

The Kaleidoscope’s Domains that Lennok had used so far were mostly powers employed in life-or-death decisions during decisive battles against powerful foes.

The Kaleidoscope’s Domains and the unique magic permitted only within those spaces were among the most potent weapons in Lennok’s grasp.

The problem was that if the opponents increased to three or more and he failed to resolve the fight after deploying a Domain, it wouldn’t be strange for the tables to turn on him.

If he couldn’t suppress the agents gathered here and kill Amrita beyond, Lennok’s neck might instead be hung in the middle of the cult’s temple.

While [Void Command Star], which dismantled specific spatial designs in imaginary dimensions, or [Black Sea Divine Melody], which had reached the extreme of heat-based magic, would temporarily shift the situation in his favor without difficulty.

However, even Lennok couldn’t guarantee whether he could safely conclude the situation after expending all the mana he had carefully conserved.

And at this point, to bring out a new Domain would inevitably expose the panorama of the Kaleidoscope fully to all the agents.

He had to think carefully.

Could Lennok retain the capacity to survive after defeating the enemies before him? Could he guarantee his safe return after achieving his objective?

“…”

Chilling silence.

The agents gradually closed the distance, their momentum threatening to erupt at any moment.

Lennok, realizing he couldn’t just stand by, slowly began to gather mana.

Woo woo woong…!!

Just as Boder, Tritan, Geobin, and the other agents were about to shoot forward and clash again.

Suddenly, something massive and elongated fell from the sky, embedding itself directly into the center of the temple.

Kwaaaang!!

What landed with a roar was the shape of a gigantic old tree, utterly out of place here.

Surprisingly, its leaves were fresh and its roots damp, as if it had just been uprooted from somewhere.

The moment Lennok and all the agents, surprised by the appearance of this alien tree, looked up at the sky.

Dududududu!!!

As if on cue, countless giant trees fell from the sky, plunging into various parts of the temple and unleashing shockwaves.

Old trees fell from all directions, taking root and firmly embedding themselves throughout the crystal palace.

Simultaneously, around the rooted trees, earth and grass rapidly filled the previously empty ground, creating a completely different landscape in the open space.

The cool, salty scent of the sea breeze was no longer felt. In its place was the somewhat humid and damp heat of the south.

Lush vegetation covered all sides, wet soil enveloped everything, and heat haze swirled between the towering trees, completely transforming the entire area.

The overwhelming speed and scope of the Domain’s construction were astonishing, but even more surprising was the direction in which the Domain was formed itself.

Drrrrdk…!!

It wasn’t overlaying the space by using the ground as a support.

Instead, it was a colossal Domain that seemed to deploy from the sky and drop entirely towards the ground, upside down.

Shuuuu…!!

The sky darkened, and the magnificent jungle landscape that appeared above their heads replaced the vast emptiness of the heavens.

The unknown spellcaster who had just decided to intrude had absurdly deployed the Domain while falling backward from above the island.

And in doing so, he was dropping the entire jungle Domain he had manifested directly into the middle of the Far Eastern Branch temple.

“Impossible, this is…!!”

Land running on the sea. A Domain deployment of absurd scale, covering the entire ground of the cult’s Far Eastern Branch island from above.

Its diameter and width alone spanned thousands of meters, encompassing an area of hundreds of thousands, all transformed into his Mind Imprint.

A miracle that overlaid the landscape with a gigantic jungle, whose end could not be seen, on a map-altering scale.

How much vast dynamic energy must one possess within their body, how much expansive Mind Imprint must one engrave within their inner being, to make such a thing possible?

And Lennok knew one spellcaster who could do such a thing.

“Evan, are you watching?”

Grisha, hanging from the inverted jungle’s central celestial sphere, laughed, dripping with sweat.

“I’m here.”

As if taking Lennok’s blazing sea of Corpse Mountain Blazing Sea as a signal, reinforcements from Eyes of Blue had finally arrived.

Domain Deployment.

Esoteric Hierarchy Mind Imprint.

[Southern Barbarian Seascape (南蔓圖偕景)]

Koogwagogwago!!

A massive jungle hemisphere created by connecting the island’s ground and the inverted landmass in the sky.

The enormous jungle Domain, deployed to cover the entire landmass of the Far Eastern Branch, was a barrier preventing everyone present from escaping.

And simultaneously, it was a fatal restraint that fundamentally sealed the island’s movement itself.

The moment the jungle landscape, which ought not to exist, was drawn upon the sea, firmly binding the two landmasses, waves surged violently from all directions, forming waterspouts.

Paahhhhh!!

As large splashes of water shot up into the sky, new figures fell from various parts of the jungle to all sides of the island.

Rapperd, gripping a thick stone pillar, plunged fearlessly towards the island’s perimeter, while two identical twins gasped, their faces turning pale.

“Pant, pant…!! Wait a minute, this is a bit different from what I expected…!!”

“Ah, damn. My stomach’s turning…”

“How can you whine when you’re a Watcher!!”

Liza, wearing silver gauntlets, shouted vigorously and grabbed the necks of Piyo and Jio, who were falling next to her.

“Oh, Liza!! Are you going to take it for us!!”

“Alright, let’s go!”

“What nonsense are you talking about?”

Liza lightly snorted, then lowered her stance and stopped in place, simultaneously twisting her shoulder in one direction.

Udu-duk…!!

A strange sound of muscles throughout her body instantly loosening and contracting, emitting power.

Piyo and Jio’s faces instantly turned pale as they saw Liza’s taut shoulder muscles.

“…No way, right?”

“If you’re going to keep whining, go ahead and help out first!!”

She then spun her hands like a top, throwing the twins she was holding by their scruffs, one after another.

Paahhhhng!!!

“Kyaaaaaak!!”

“Shit, help meeeeee!!”

Piyo and Jio, thrown like cannonballs with bizarre screams, suddenly slowed down in mid-air, then plummeted vertically.

Kooong!!

“Gah!!”

“Ugh!!”

Piyo and Jio, who crashed onto the majestic statue near the altar, stumbled and raised their heads.

Before the twins, whose eyes were spinning, stood the magnificent form of the altar.

Between it, hundreds of Correction Knights blocking their way, agents obstructing Lennok, and beyond them, Apostles devouring each other madly.

Piyo scratched his head.

“Uh… it seems we’re in a worse state than Evan.”

“Hey, big trouble.”

Jio glanced back at the jungle sky from where they had fallen and muttered sullenly.

“Can’t see the others.”

Kwaaang!!

At that moment, a blinding sword light flashed above the statue where the twins had been chattering, and the statue exploded.

Geobin, who had landed, easily jumped to avoid the attack and gritted his teeth, looking at the two Watchers.

“Watchers of the Eyes of Blue…!! How did such a strong reinforcement arrive so quickly…!!!”

Boder, concentrating, tried to resist Grisha’s Southern Barbarian Seascape however he could.

Beside him, Tritan, with a gloomy expression, raised his scythe and muttered.

“It’s alright, Boder. This is better for us.”

“…”

“If it’s decided who the cult’s enemy is, that’s enough. From now on, just as it’s always been…”

Tritan glanced up at the sky and began to draw upon his mana.

“Let’s both give it our all.”

Kiiiiiing!!

At that moment, a chilling coldness erupted from the scythe Tritan held, beginning to freeze everything around.

Geobin’s double-bladed sword, which had been distorted, twisted its blade in place and transformed into a spiral drill-like shape.

Two agents, transcending the Saint-grade, had begun to simultaneously utilize Property Transformation and Miniature Universe.

Click!!

Tritan, standing before the twins, scattered coldness and smiled.

“Geobin, I will deal with these two. Please handle the others crawling up from behind.”

“…Are you sure?”

Tritan, instead of answering, suddenly plunged his finger into his carotid artery.

Poof!!

As he thrust his bloodied hand into his neck and stirred, the complex tattoos engraved on his skin writhed and slowly began to fade.

[Proxy Output Assist]

[Binding Spell Level 2 Release]

Koogugu!!!

The mana flowing from Tritan’s body explosively increased at that moment, and it didn’t stop there, but began to spread brazenly throughout his body.

Though not enough to raise his Hierarchy itself, it was an immense mana that amplified the power of his already perfected Hierarchy by several times.

He wasn’t simply hiding power within his body.

As a proxy representing the cult’s northwestern branch, it was the power of an ability that aligned doctrine and faith with this place.

Through a spell called Binding Spell, created for top-tier combatants within the cult, Tritan intended to unleash his full power to kill the Watchers before him.

Geobin saw Tritan’s appearance, nodded, and then turned his body towards the Watchers continuously descending from the distant sky.

However, even seeing Tritan’s rapidly growing mana, the two twins did not panic.

“We didn’t expect to start, but I guess it doesn’t matter, right?”

“Well, what we had to do was set from the beginning anyway.”

Piyo and Jio simultaneously formed hand seals as they watched Tritan slowly walk forward.

Mutation-based Unique Spell.

Synchronization-based Unique Spell.

[Body Reaction Assimilation Mutation]

[Blood Flow Reaction Unification Synchronization]

Jio’s mana turned pure white, and Piyo’s mana inverted to jet black, then swirled as if mixing.

The shadows of the two, which had been separated in different directions, at some point precisely overlapped and completely unified.

Dual System Composite Resonance Unique Spell.

[Super Fusion]

Chiiiiiik!!!!

An immense smoke erupted between the two twins, covering Piyo and Jio’s bodies and enveloping the surroundings.

Stepping out from the smoke was no longer two people.

A single youth, half his body painted pure white, the other half jet black, surveyed his surroundings with an expressionless face.

His body, billowing white steam, was a perfected muscular physique, unlike the twins’ untrained bodies.

“Evan, we’ll handle the cult’s forces here, so just focus on killing Apostle Amrita.”

The youth slowly stood up and wiped the corner of his mouth.

“From now on, we’ll open the way.”

Genius Wizard Who Eats Pills Chapter 493