Chapter 500: Mid-Term Settlement (1)

As the burst of light obscured his vision, Lennok realized that the sensation in his left arm was gradually fading.

Simultaneously with a strange sense of dissonance as his five senses vanished, his magical sensitivity twisted and transformed into something else.

Shhhhiiik…!!

Below Lennok’s elbow, down to his fingertips, hundreds of unknown characters began to be intricately etched onto his glowing red skin.

Other Watchers also stared blankly at the transformation of Lennok’s arm.

“This is…?”

“What is this? What just happened?”

“Its form changed…? No, for that, its physique and length haven’t changed. Then…”

“Is it a concept of attribute merging? Given the fiery appearance, it’s a somewhat rational outcome, I suppose.”

“…”

Lennok ignored the Watchers’ words and quietly raised his other hand to feel his left arm.

The unknown characters etched onto his skin. Outwardly, no special power or anomaly was detectable.

Only a faint irritation, as if a foreign substance was caught in the sensations of his arm, was present.

Lennok stared silently at his arm for a long time, then noticed countless unknown scars etched onto his skin.

Scars that shouldn’t exist on Lennok’s body, appearing as if from an impossible battle.

Even though it was undeniably his own arm, what did it mean for a transformed arm with etched scars to appear?

Crackling, crackling…!!

Simultaneously, faint noise began to intertwine within his arm.

Any further would be dangerous. An intense, undeniable sense of déjà vu, as if declaring just that.

“…I see.”

Lennok realized the implication of that fact and immediately released the ethereal body mimicking an Avatar.

Whooshhh!!

With a strange whirring sound, the spell dissipated, and the ethereal body, detached from Lennok, vanished into a handful of dust.

“Was that… a new power gained through the Super-Fusion spell?”

Jio asked.

His usually calm expression was slightly widened, evidently surprised by what had just happened.

“No, more than that, you succeeded in fusing with an Avatar just by hearing its principles and mana flow…?”

“To be precise, it wasn’t a success.”

Lennok replied.

“If anything, it was a half-failure… The result would likely be completely different even if I attempted the same thing next time.”

“…What exactly does that mean?”

“…”

Lennok did not answer further.

To explain that fact clearly, he would first have to elaborate on the meaning of his own Domain.

Rather, he needed to focus on the fact that the very idea Lennok had just attempted held a greater sense of dissonance than expected.

Overlapping of existence through the principle of fusion. What outcome could Lennok grasp in that process?

Having confirmed the possibility, all that remained was to specify the conditions.

Lennok looked up at the ethereal body vanishing into the air and said.

“It seems I’ll have to properly learn how to create an Avatar.”

Screeeech…!!

“Vital signs lost. No mana response.”

“It is estimated that more than six hours have passed since rigor mortis set in. It’s too late to hope for a miracle.”

“The very composition of the tissue cells has completely collapsed. It appears she was exposed to firepower powerful enough to sever genetic bonds.”

A cold infirmary bathed in pale light.

The 2nd Apostle quietly listened to the medical staff’s reports, one by one, with his eyes closed.

A pure white sheet covered Amrita’s corpse on the bed.

A sample of the exposed corpse was extracted for investigation.

After the medical staff’s opinions were concluded, it was the turn of the high-ranking priests within the Cult.

“The mana circuit has exploded. Traces indicate it was submerged in an output that even an Apostle’s body couldn’t withstand.”

“Judging by the speed of cellular regeneration in her body, it’s certain she once transformed into her true form and fully wielded that power.”

“It’s rejecting and blocking the mana injected for investigation itself.”

“The opponent likely put in considerable time for follow-up measures. Such precision wouldn’t be possible otherwise.”

“Considerable time…”

The 2nd Apostle murmured, slowly opening his eyes.

He had thought he arrived ‘just in time’ after the battle ended, at the moment Isel and Amrita had just died.

But in reality, much more time had already passed?

“…No, that can’t be.”

The 2nd Apostle, reviewing his internal sense of time, slowly shook his head.

“It’s probably more accurate to think that the wizard on the other side was simply that exceptional.”

“Then, for us, there’s no other way…”

“Keep going. I want to hear more.”

The priests, observing the 2nd Apostle, began to meticulously examine Amrita’s corpse and state their findings, one by one.

“…It’s astounding. Even though she’s been dead for some time, the internal tissue cells are gradually regenerating.”

“It must be a miraculous result due to the will of the Great God. However, the regeneration speed itself…”

“Yes, each regenerating area is collapsing due to successive incineration and destruction.”

“It’s an incredibly powerful and vicious spell. Within the Cult, this level of effect couldn’t be achieved without the repercussions of a forbidden weapon…”

The 2nd Apostle, listening quietly, gave a faint smile.

“Magic comparable to a forbidden weapon… So that was the extent of it, eh?”

“…Your Apostolthood?”

The Apostle, naturally ignoring the other priests’ words, asked.

“No, it’s nothing. How is the state of Amrita’s Scale?”

“Umm…”

“Well, that is…”

The priests suddenly clamped their mouths shut, starting to watch the man’s expression.

“W-we tried to check that first, but access isn’t easy.”

“We’re continuously trying, but we just can’t get a read on it…”

The 2nd Apostle, understanding the meaning, stepped purposefully before Amrita’s corpse.

The moment he grasped Amrita’s burnt wrist and poured his will into it,

K-r-r-r-ing!!!

A veil rejecting his will burst forth with unknown, alien sparks.

Fragments of the veil formed countless circular arrays in the air, ceaselessly intertwining.

It transformed into a complex firewall at a glance, then a radiance permeated back into Amrita’s corpse.

The priests, confirming the presence of the array, recoiled with blank expressions, and the 2nd Apostle’s eyes gleamed sharply.

“Wh-what on earth is this…?”

“It’s a spell we’ve never seen before. How could this kind of security magic exist…?”

But the 2nd Apostle continued to gaze intently at the disappearing flow of the array until the very end, then uttered a single word.

“It’s Jindun’s barrier magic.”

“Pardon?”

“The individual components forming the barrier are completely different, but the overall mana array and rotation speed pattern are similar to that of the Hanghasa Labyrinth.”

“Y-you discerned that with your naked eye?”

Ignoring the priests’ shocked reactions, the Apostle stroked his chin.

“It’s an encrypted barrier created by borrowing only the structure of the barrier magic, but completely overhauling the contents to give it an entirely different feel…”

Within the Apostle’s transcendent memory, he rapidly compared proximate information and patterns, calculating how to unravel it.

“It’s a method of encrypting the spell itself to prohibit output. It’s similar to how information is handled in the Cyber-Domain of the Machine City, but the pattern is quite different.”

The Apostle, who had been muttering for a while, shook his head as if resigned.

“Unless we create a comparative sample using a new Apostle, finding the decryption code will be difficult.”

“Th-that…”

“Are you saying Amrita’s Scale spell is sealed…!!”

Among the high-ranking priests gathered here, there was no one who didn’t fully understand the meaning.

That one of the Apostle spells, which held strategically significant value within the Cult, would be sealed.

How grave a problem it was that one of the Cult’s weapons, which boasted overwhelming versatility alongside [Camlodal’s Doll], would be bound.

But the 2nd Apostle, clearly understanding this, merely stroked his chin and smiled.

“Well, it won’t matter for now, will it? I’m fortunate that we’ve concluded a ceasefire agreement with the Order Alliance.”

“There will be significant losses in the process of transporting forces tied to the front lines…!”

“Missionaries across the continent are urging the main branch for a swift solution. If this issue isn’t resolved…!!”

Despite the priests’ urgent words, the 2nd Apostle simply turned his back quietly.

“You’ll handle that yourselves, then.”

“Your Apostolthood…!!”

Leaving behind the desperate voices calling to him, the man walked among the Pantheon’s grand sanctuaries.

He flowed through the [Great Holy Repository Barrier Formation], surrounded by thousands upon tens of thousands of layers, heading to the deepest heart of the Pantheon.

A mystic realm within the magnificent and majestic main branch, accessible to only five individuals.

This sanctuary, built by pouring all the Cult’s power and capital, was neither flamboyant nor grand.

On a small patch of grass, as if time had stopped.

Across the grass, a vast, thin veil swayed, quietly fluttering as if to conceal something.

A white-haired woman knelt before the veil, etched with the golden emblem of the Cult, clasping her hands as if in prayer.

The Apostle stopped behind the woman and quietly said.

“Isel has departed, Seina. Amrita’s Scale is sealed.”

“…Is that so?”

“Everything turned out just as you said. Are you satisfied now?”

An Apostle who couldn’t endure the divergence between body and mind eventually went mad, but even a High Priestess couldn’t endure it for long.

Throughout generations, High Priestesses almost always lived short lives, and only two High Priestesses remained by the Pontiff’s side until the end.

And just now, one of those two had departed from their side.

The Apostle, quietly gazing beyond the veil, slowly knelt like her, bowing his head as he spoke.

“I’ll soon make a place for the 3rd Apostle. He desires an understandable end.”

“…Hughs, that child, you mean?”

“Please don’t make the same choice as Isel. You understand, don’t you?”

“…”

Seina did not answer. She merely lifted her head slightly and looked beyond the veil.

As if swaying in a wind that wasn’t blowing, the edge of the veil fluttered, subtly revealing the scene beyond the obscured grass.

Something that looked like a small chair, or a shabby coffin.

The two merely gazed silently at it.

Their god, who had left without even a promise, with no telling when they would return.

Guido Cult Far Eastern Branch. The land that sails upon the sea.

The twilight, where the setting sun dipped below the ocean.

Lennok sat atop the gigantic crystal palace’s spire, quietly backlit by the sunset.

His sunken gaze, as if deep in thought, was fixed only on an object placed in the corner of the spire.

“So you were here.”

A bronze-skinned sorcerer with a long pipe in his mouth walked up the stairs.

“Why are you moping around in a place like this?”

Grisha chuckled, leaning against a pillar of the spire a little distance from Lennok.

“I had something to think about.”

“Were you looking at that?”

Grisha pointed to the object Lennok had been looking at just moments before.

The mirror that had been in Amrita’s secret hiding room. He had said it was an object that reflected one’s identical existence through existence projection rate, hadn’t he?

Grisha looked at the mirror with interest and asked Lennok.

“What do you see?”

“Nothing.”

Lennok answered with an expressionless face.

“I don’t see anything anymore.”

“…”

After all the events concluded, Lennok sought out the mirror that had been in the basement. But the mirror no longer reflected anything other than Lennok himself.

Perhaps it meant that it had only reflected a fragment of the scene Lennok desired through one accidental instance, and nothing more would be permitted.

“What do you see?”

“A princess.”

Grisha chuckled.

“I see a princess who reigned like a god in the remote jungles.”

“…”

“I’ve never forgotten, but seeing it again, it’s still truly pathetic.”

She murmured, blankly gazing at the scene beyond the mirror.

“If only I had realized sooner, I wouldn’t have wasted so much time…”

A mirror that reflects people with the same existence projection rate.

Unlike Lennok, do others see themselves from different timelines?

It was impossible to know which period of her past Grisha was confronting, but one could guess that the memory was not a pleasant one for her.

“Where’s Lapis?”

“She’s probably passed out by now.”

Grisha said calmly.

“She used a considerable amount of power, forcefully drawing on the Lighthouse Keeper’s abilities. She’ll have difficulty appearing in public for a while.”

Rapperd and Piyo, using the control code Lennok provided, opened the island’s grand barrier, contacted Lapis, and requested support.

As soon as Lapis heard the request, she sent Grisha, Jio, and Lyza.

This was made possible by the expanded Lighthouse Keeper’s abilities from the construction of the second Lighthouse, and a large-scale Translocation utilizing Gapseon’s talisman sorcery to its utmost.

The Lighthouse Keeper’s ability to leap through space by transforming the phase of seeing and existing, and the Level 8 talisman sorcery that intervenes with space-time.

To successfully perform a spatial Translocation in such an urgent moment, pinpointing the airspace above the Far Eastern Branch island, only to regions Lapis herself remembered, was proof of how intelligent Lapis was, and how much she overexerted herself.

“Once we’ve dealt with the captured Cult members, we plan to make this place the location of the third Lighthouse.”

“As expected?”

The very discovery of this island by Lyza and the other Western Continent Watchers was because the moving island of the Far Eastern Branch was itself a powerful mystic realm.

As long as the condition of being a mystic realm was met, transforming this place from a Cult temple into a Lighthouse was also possible.

“The ability to move across the entire sea rather than being confined to a fixed landmass offers a tremendous geographical advantage. And, of course, from the perspective of configuring the Lighthouse’s celestial spell.”

Grisha counted on her fingers.

“After establishing the first Lighthouse in the Autonomous Region, the second in the valley, and the third on this island, adjusting the positions between each Lighthouse will make Lapis’s power much stronger.”

“I see…”

“We’ve come a long way, haven’t we?”

She turned to Lennok and smiled.

“It feels like just yesterday when we first met and fought in the Autonomous Region.”

“Do sorcerers who’ve lived as long as you feel such emotions?”

“Long-lived species all do. They remember every encounter and farewell accumulated throughout their lives.”

Her expression, clouded with smoke, turned bitter.

“We can live long precisely because we rarely forget. In a way, this is a curse bestowed upon tribes like ours.”

“…”

An interesting perspective.

Was she implying that forgetting itself was a blessing bestowed upon life, and thus Grisha’s tribe, lacking it, had lived longer?

The notion that they gained the power to live long precisely because they weren’t blessed with oblivion, in some ways, resonated with the law of Geas.

Grisha, whose expression had briefly turned melancholic, took a deep drag from her pipe, then smiled faintly.

“Well, that’s just a saying, and I don’t remember everything, though.”

Having lived for a long time, perhaps she had also grown accustomed to quickly shaking things off.

Lennok thought so, silently gazing at the darkening sea.

He still remembered the image of himself he had seen through the mirror then.

What did the old gun casually strewn at his feet and the incomprehensible inscription mean?

Without confirming that, it would be difficult to delve further into the mysteries of Lennok himself.

To remain unwavering even when confronted with certain truths, Lennok needed to prepare in advance from now on.

“We’ll now officially begin the work of constructing the third Lighthouse.”

Grisha shifted her gaze, her pipe still in her mouth.

“Evan, what will you do?”

“…I intend to help, but I cannot stay long.”

Lennok said, quietly stroking the inside of his coat.

Feeling the solid obsidian mask against his fingertips, Lennok quietly lowered his gaze.

“I still have things to do.”

The mid-term settlement of Pandemonium, as mentioned by The Clown.

He had said there would be a gathering where members who had collected artifacts from the old world would tally their operational achievements.

Less than three days remained until the time Hylaea and Freya had mentioned.

It was time to step into the hotbed of intrigue once again.