Chapter 499: Between Immortality and Mortality (7)

“Oh, a story about Victor and the Director…”

The young man, seemingly having completely forgotten the corpse he had incinerated, let his head drop to one side.

The Clown, who had paused as if deep in thought, grinned.

“Don’t lie.”

“What?”

“It’s not that you have something to tell me; rather, you want to hear something from me, don’t you?”

“……”

“Hehehe, since when did a spider who knows nothing of the world develop such a charming way of speaking…”

The Clown’s lips stretched into a long grin.

“I’ll have to ask Freya about this.”

The Agneta he knew wasn’t one to draw out an introduction when speaking.

A descendant of an ancient race, so uninterested in the mundane world that she not only delivered only necessary messages before disappearing, but sometimes even forgot to deliver them entirely.

That’s why the Clown intuitively knew that her acting this way meant she had specific information she wanted from him.

She must have been influenced by Freya, who was relatively close to Agneta.

Agneta, standing still with an expressionless face, spoke.

“I’m sorry to ask this after such a long time, but…”

“Alright, stop with the pointless pleasantries.”

The Clown chuckled, then unhesitantly spun around and strode out of the incinerator.

“You wouldn’t have a concept of ‘long time no see’ anyway. Let’s go inside and talk.”

Without hesitation, he walked through the complex back alleys and returned to the huge gambling hall where they had first met.

Thousands of people were gathered in the massive hall, a gambling den consumed by the fervor of money and entertainment.

On the electronic displays on the ceiling and walls, odds and money flows constantly shifted, various slot machines and tables spun, and blood-stained chips were flicked around everywhere.

The Clown realized his spot was gone and chuckled.

“This is why you shouldn’t mess around with the pot in such a petty way. I got too excited and just wasted time.”

“You’re the one who sat that priest at the gambling table in the first place. What are you talking about?”

“What, you were watching even that?”

The Clown chuckled at Agneta, whose voice was audible but whose form was not.

“Well, then I guess there’s no need to explain why I’m doing this here either.”

“It’s been over a month. Looks like you’re recovering.”

“More or less. I’m about ready to go out and about again.”

The Clown said so, rubbing his heavily powdered cheek.

At his gesture, his skin peeled away, revealing the reddish flesh underneath.

With blood dripping from his cheek, the Clown grinned.

“As you can see, my body’s still in this state.”

“…I generally know about the redistribution of misfortune. Are you still in the process of mitigating the side effects?”

“It means what happened in the jungle was quite a strenuous task.”

The Clown grumbled.

“Even if I fleece all these idiots and suckers here, it’s still far from enough.”

It wasn’t for no reason that The Clown followed Reya back to Torquepaz immediately after successfully concluding the clash between Ascendants in the jungle.

The metropolis of Torquepaz, a symbol of gambling, entertainment, pleasure, drinking, and dancing.

It was here that The Clown was continuing the work of mitigating the after-effects of the reality-manipulating illusions he had performed in the jungle.

“The Director should really know about this. If you happen to get in touch, please explain my hard work in great detail.”

“Honestly, I still don’t quite understand what regulating the total amount of luck means. Do you just gamble and lose and win appropriately?”

“How could it be? This is a very delicate process in its own way.”

The Clown, a transcendent illusionist, did not confine his Hierarchy to a single stage.

The Geas, manifested amidst the instability of his own Hierarchy not being fully fixed, protected the Clown’s sanity to some extent.

A truly groundbreaking idea and ability, considering that most excellent illusionists go mad at the boundary between reality and illusion.

However, precisely because of this, it was also true that the burden before and after using high-level power increased.

Although he had sacrificed several of Glen’s hearts with forbidden magic to handle the operation as an 8th-level illusionist.

The after-effects of manipulating his Hierarchy at will and the injuries accumulated from combat remained fully in The Clown’s body.

The Clown was meticulously regulating the total amount of luck he had drawn upon in this city of gambling and entertainment to mitigate those after-effects.

“It’s about adjusting the frequency of luck by performing near-random probabilities as continuously as possible.”

He adjusted the balance of good and bad luck he received by repeatedly testing his fortune through gambling.

This was completely opposite to what happened in the jungle, where he forcibly drew only good luck to adjust the Geas’s ability in the process of raising his Hierarchy to level 8.

He was balancing the forced ‘luck’ that had raised his Hierarchy by artificially manipulating the dice rolls, through ‘misfortune’ in conventional gambling.

He wiped his cheek again, and the dripping blood stopped, his skin returning to normal.

“Of course, this alone can’t remove all the after-effects… but I’m not just going to meekly die from the side effects, am I?”

Suddenly, the Clown turned his head to a corner of the gambling hall and grinned.

A strange attitude, as if he knew where the invisible spider was.

But Agneta didn’t react to the Clown’s sudden action and changed the subject.

“Still don’t get it. Anyway, you’re pulling off some ugly con that’s far beyond human sensibilities, right?”

“Damn it, how can you not understand this when you handle such delicate manipulation-type magic?”

The Clown cackled.

“It’s truly a pity that one who walks a tightrope in imaginary dimensions has no common sense in the mundane world. That’s probably why the Director lets you do as you please.”

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s nothing. So, what’s your business?”

The Clown pulled a deck of playing cards from his pocket, sat down at an open gambling table, and asked.

He was speaking into empty space, but surprisingly, none of the players at the same table seemed to notice.

Instead of paying attention to The Clown, they were all muttering to themselves, praying, doing drugs, or self-harming.

Their bloodshot eyes constantly darted between the table and the odds on the electronic display.

In the midst of such chaos and madness, even if The Clown chattered with Agneta, no one sane could listen and remember it.

He received the cards from the dealer, then, as naturally as breathing, swapped them with cards he had prepared beforehand.

Agneta’s answer reached The Clown’s ear as he swiftly laid down a full house.

“I found traces of the Director.”

The Clown’s hand, pushing chips forward, paused for a moment.

“…Traces, you say?”

“I found footsteps in the imaginary dimension. He probably set the coordinates, expecting me to find them.”

“Hmm…”

Feigning contemplation, he unhesitantly snatched chips from a shabby man next to him who was biting his fingers.

The man’s fingers, having instantly lost half his chips, were already covered in blood.

“He couldn’t be contacted, but contact was necessary?”

“The Doctor seems to think so.”

“It’s worth considering. It’s rare for so many plans to be underway simultaneously across the continent like this, and at this particular time… What did Myeong say?”

At that moment, a chip on the table bounced up into the air.

Following the chip’s movement, The Clown looked at the electronic display across the room and gave a hollow laugh.

A breaking news alert appeared in a corner of the screen: the sight of a colossal pillar of darkness erupting in the middle of an unknown city was being broadcast live.

Seeing that, The Clown discarded his hand and muttered.

“Well, this situation doesn’t even allow for contact or anything like that. Alright. I’ll gather some related information from my end for now.”

“Then I’ll go. Say hello to Reya for me.”

“Wait, weren’t you curious about the sorcerer named Victor?”

The Clown, stopping Agneta who was about to vanish, leisurely rattled the chips in his hand.

“If you play just one hand of poker with me, I can tell you what happened back then in a very interesting way.”

“…Are you going to take my luck too?”

“I keep telling you it’s not like that!”

The Clown grumbled, then chuckled lightly.

“Well, it’s true that gambling with a unique being like you speeds up the adjustment process.”

“……”

“Come to think of it, that friend was also a manipulation-type sorcerer, like you.”

The Clown’s lips stretched upwards as he sensed her brief twitch.

He didn’t know the specifics, but it was clear that Victor’s existence intrigued her as much as the traces left by the Director.

If he played his cards right, a rather interesting story might just emerge.

The Clown swiftly gathered the cards in his hand and leisurely fanned them.

“If you join me for about three hands, I can tell you all about that friend in great detail.”

Grisha was walking inside the vast Far Eastern Branch temple.

Befitting its accumulated power and prestige, the Crystal Palace at the center of the island was truly magnificent.

Even with many areas burned and collapsed from the fierce battle, the sheer scale of it exuded an immense aura of majesty.

Walking through corridors bustling with other Watchers who had arrived late from the Pilenom Autonomous Region, she spotted someone and changed her course.

“Dreyfus.”

Leaning against a wide corridor window, a sorcerer wearing a talisman mask silently gazed down at the palace below.

Although his face was covered, he couldn’t hide a hint of weariness, but his imposing presence didn’t diminish in the slightest.

“You woke up faster than I thought. It looks like you should get more rest.”

Gapseon briefly turned his gaze towards Grisha, and she naturally stood beside him.

“Realistically, without your help in this matter, we would have suffered heavy losses.”

[If it weren’t for Evan, it would have been impossible to even start.]

Gapseon shook his head, his voice sounding somewhat tired.

[He risked danger to infiltrate the temple, break through the barrier, and find a way to establish contact. All I did was inform you of the full story of this incident.]

Grisha chuckled softly and replied.

“But it was also your power that aided Lapis’s ability to get us to this island.”

Gapseon succeeded in opening a hole in the grand barrier using the control code he received from Lennok and making contact with Lapis.

Lapis immediately decided to send powerful Watcher reinforcements upon receiving Gapseon’s contact.

Dreyfus combined Lapis’s abilities with his own talisman magic to successfully spatially transfer several Watchers, including Grisha and Raija, in a group.

A large-scale spatial transfer that even the Guido Cult could barely use through Apostle spells involving human sacrifice.

Even if he attempted it based on the previous Lighthouse Keeper’s ability, it was obvious how much power Gapseon had expended to achieve such a feat.

Even for a transcendent who had reached level 8, manipulating space so openly was a suicidal act that would gnaw at the very roots of their vital energy.

Having done such a thing and then immediately participated in combat against various Agents, it was obvious how severe the repercussions would be.

On the surface, he still seemed relaxed, but it wouldn’t be strange to say his internal body was literally burning out.

“Lapis and you both pushed yourselves too hard, I know. For now, you won’t be assigned any official operations.”

[…….]

“If you wish, you don’t have to stay on this island to help with the cleanup. Do you have a separate destination in mind?”

[…I do.]

Gapseon replied.

[But for today, I wish to spend my time like this for a while.]

“……”

[Sometimes, days like this are necessary.]

Grisha followed Gapseon’s gaze to the window and chuckled softly.

“Those guys don’t seem to get tired.”

By the lakeside in the palace courtyard, below the garden, five Watchers familiar to her were squabbling amongst themselves.

The two twins, Rapperd, Raija, and even Evan.

The five of them were so absorbed, exchanging mana tirelessly and engaging in a heated discussion.

“So, without a Synchronization spell, it’s impossible to maintain a stable state. Learning this wouldn’t be much help.”

“If you two are alright with it, I’d at least like to check the mana flow.”

Lennok replied, touching his bandaged shoulder.

“I’m interested in the Super-Fusion spell. I want to know exactly what it feels like.”

Dual-Resonance Composite System Unique Spell [Super-Fusion (超融合)].

A unique spell that transformed two individuals, who were at the Saint-grade, into complete transcendent beings.

During the few days the Watchers who participated in the battle gathered to rest, Lennok had been consulting the twins about whether he could learn the Fusion spell.

Even for Lennok, who had encountered all sorts of mysteries across the continent, he had witnessed spells that interfered with Hierarchy itself fewer than five times.

The Clown’s illusion magic, which tricked Hierarchy itself, was too risky and unstable for Lennok to attempt.

While the Super-Fusion used by the twins had excessive conditions and risks, it was still worth learning.

If he found the right conditions and partners, it could become a technique that significantly boosted Lennok’s own Hierarchy or power.

Lennok was thinking of that and asking Piyo and Jio if they could teach him the principles of the Super-Fusion spell.

“The Super-Fusion spell itself seems less like a secret technique of you two, and more like a foundation forged from the combination of two systems.”

Lennok asked.

“Simultaneously manifesting higher-Hierarchy mutations and synchronization spells through fusion. That must be your two’s most powerful weapon, right?”

If the Super-Fusion spell itself were a secret or ultimate art of the mutation and synchronization systems respectively, Lennok would not have rashly asked about it.

However, Lennok was asking for the principle itself by which they achieved a magically impossible fusion result through mutation and synchronization.

No matter how peculiar or anomalous a spell, there were always aspects of its principle or theory that were compatible with other systems.

In that sense, the Super-Fusion spell, created by extracting the essence of both the mutation and synchronization systems, would by itself require a deep understanding of those systems.

Lennok intended to gain some understanding of the twins’ spells through his understanding of the Super-Fusion spell.

“Well, if you put it that way, there’s nothing we can’t tell you, but…”

Piyo nodded with a reluctant expression.

“We can’t actually demonstrate it. You know that, right? It’s a gamble for us too, every time we use it.”

“Hmph, using a spell that half-relies on chance is why you can’t climb higher.”

Raija snorted and said.

“Evan, why don’t you learn my Crystallization ability instead?! For a weak wizard like you, just learning an ability like this would be a great help!!”

“Raija, are you out of your mind?”

Rapperd, who had been sitting quietly by the lakeside reading prayers, turned his head.

“Your ability isn’t something that can be explained in technical terms to begin with. Surely you don’t still not know that?”

“Should I?”

“……”

“Why are you trying to learn Super-Fusion magic in the first place?”

Jio asked, with a slightly indifferent expression.

“Unlike what you might think, it’s not simply a useful or powerful spell. It’s just a way we, as two people, found to overcome a limitation that couldn’t be resolved alone.”

“Hmm.”

“It requires thorough preparation, and even then, you have to stake your life every time you try it. A wizard of your caliber shouldn’t be unaware of this fact.”

A boundary that could only be barely reached by pushing the dual contradictions of physical mutation and mental synchronization, change and stability, to their absolute limit.

The innate condition of being twins, the miracle of two people mastering different types of spells up to level 7.

On top of that, a strong resolve to transcend Hierarchy even at the cost of their lives.

It was something that required risking one’s life, even with unshakeable faith encompassing environment, talent, and everything else.

But despite all this, Lennok wasn’t asking to hear the principles of the Fusion spell from them for no reason.

“It’s the same for me.”

“What do you mean?”

Lennok, gazing blankly at the lake, said.

“I also have a limit that I must overcome, even if it means risking my life.”

“……”

At Lennok’s calm words, the Watchers fell silent for a moment.

Rapperd muttered with an incredulous expression.

“Even a wizard with your talent has such concerns.”

“Yeah. This is a bit unexpected.”

Raija laughed and patted Lennok’s shoulder.

“Honestly, participating in this operation, I thought, ‘So this is what Ascendants must have been like when they were human!’”

“……”

“Huh, no one’s going to refute that…?”

Seeing Raija’s reluctant face, Lennok silently massaged his numb shoulder.

“The value of the spell itself and the risks of its transmission are considerable, I can’t deny that. If both of you don’t agree, I won’t force it-”

“No. It doesn’t matter.”

Jio calmly shook his head.

“My sister owes you her life. Even if you can’t actually use it, I’ll teach you the basic principles and mana flow.”

“This bastard’s trying to act like the older brother again…”

Piyo grumbled but still explained the principles of the Super-Fusion spell with Jio without a word of complaint.

“The important thing is to set the mana flow to a multiple of 2 cubed, that is, 8 directions, and to have the mana of the two people required for fusion observed from three different aspects each…”

“You must consider stability and regression simultaneously with achieving unity. For that, it’s essential to remember the original forms of the different mana flows.”

“…Even listening, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

The explanation was so incredibly complex that Rapperd, who had been listening with some interest, could only shake his head.

“If you haven’t mastered this type of spell, you won’t even understand the words.”

“You and Raija wouldn’t remember it anyway, so it’s fine.”

“…That’s not a compliment, is it?”

While the Watchers bickered, Lennok nodded.

“I get the gist.”

“Huh, already?”

“Then shall we try it right away?”

At Lennok’s shocking declaration, the twins’ expressions turned dumbfounded.

“With whom? You’re not thinking of trying it with the other Watchers here, are you?”

“Calm down, unless it’s an opponent who has mastered a similar or compatible type of spell to your own-”

“Don’t worry. I’m not crazy enough to try something like that with a complete stranger.”

Whoosh!!!

As Lennok drew upon his mana, a faint, whitish form rose up behind him and began to take shape.

Rapperd, who had been watching, shot up from his seat.

The dog-headed giant’s eyes were wide open, a rare sight.

“An, an Avatar…!!! Since when?!”

“I showed it once during this operation, and also in the Hanghasa Labyrinth.”

Lennok wiped the sweat from his brow and smiled.

“Twice is enough to imitate it.”

Of course, what Lennok had created was not a proper Avatar like the one Rapperd used.

Rather than a true Avatar referring to another self, it was a type of spiritual body materialized by vaporizing mana and holding it with intent.

He wouldn’t have even been able to attempt it if he hadn’t grasped the senses of necromancy and command magic through his decisive battle with Madrich Onnion.

But even this alone was enough for Lennok to conduct the experiment he wanted.

“…He’s crazy.”

Rapperd muttered in a flustered voice.

“He’s attempting fusion not with another person, but with an Avatar. If he does that, his mind or spirit won’t last long…!!”

“But it’s worth a try.”

Lennok said so, then unhesitatingly rolled up his left sleeve and extended his arm.

Because it wasn’t a perfectly formed Avatar, he could actually dispel it at any time.

It would be perfectly suitable for safely experimenting whether the concept of fusion itself was effective for Lennok.

At the same time, Lennok’s body combined, overlapping with the left arm of the Avatar that had appeared behind him.

Fwoosh!!

At that moment, a dazzling light burst forth from the lakeside.