Chapter 501: Mid-Term Settlement (2)
Lennok took a day of rest after that, then immediately finished his preparations to leave.
After exchanging a few words with the Watchers who decided to remain on the island, he stood on the boat heading out.
Grisha chuckled at the sight of Lennok, who was clutching a pile of items in both hands—talismans given by Gapseon, Rapperd’s cross, and similar things.
Grisha pulled something from her pocket and tossed it to Lennok.
Thump!!
Lennok, who naturally missed it, sighed and picked it up.
“Would it kill you to hand it to me nicely?”
“Oh? I think this happened once before.”
Grisha tilted her head, then grinned, pointing at the item in Lennok’s hand.
“Well, it doesn’t really matter anyway. It’s not like any other Watcher was more active than you here.”
“……So what is this?”
“It’s a key that grants free access to all facilities on the island.”
Grisha said.
“It opens everything: the third Lighthouse that will be newly constructed, the vaults holding relics and elixirs, the material warehouses, and even the hangars where the equipment is stored.”
She grinned, gazing at the item in Lennok’s hand, a key glowing with a faint blue light.
“Anything that key opens, you’re free to take and use.”
……
Did she mean that all the assets accumulated under the name of the Guido Cult’s Far Eastern Branch were virtually being transferred to Lennok’s ownership?
While the Eyes of Blue would manage and use them collectively for now, the act of taking and using supplies would essentially be unquestioned at any time.
It was practically a declaration to put all assets on this island under Lennok’s name.
Only then did Lennok understand why Grisha was giving him such a key, and he let out a chuckle.
“Since the merits can’t be distributed immediately, you’re just giving me everything outright?”
Grisha, who had worked with Lennok since the early days of the Eyes of Blue, knew what kind of person the wizard Evan was, unlike others.
She must have handed him the key because she believed he wasn’t greedy, even if he took what he needed without hesitation.
The act of granting Lennok access to the entire assets of the Far Eastern Branch was, in itself, a testament to her trust in him.
“If you infuse the key with mana, the island’s location will appear in real-time. If there’s anything you need, just take it.”
“The island’s location in real-time? Was there an artifact like that in the vault?”
“I made it yesterday.”
……
For someone who replied with a yawn, it was an astonishingly intricate artifact.
The mere ability to observe and quantify the position of a floating island in the sea using absolute coordinates was impossible without the caster’s exceptional intuition and skill.
How remarkable was it, then, that she had created such an artifact in just one night and handed it to Lennok?
While it wasn’t surprising that Grisha, having lived for so long, had extensive experience in crafting magical tools and possessed exceptional skill,
the fact that she would display such skill in this manner was a bit unexpected for Lennok.
“Well… alright. There were quite a few useful pieces of equipment among the Guido Cult’s armaments. I’ll drop by sometimes if I need them.”
As one of the Guido Cult’s rear supply bases, the Far Eastern Branch had a considerable amount of stored materials and armaments.
Among them were forbidden weapons that could not be used without permission as a cultist.
Wasn’t the greatsword with pulsating veins, used by Irina Fesfield of the Arashak Expedition, one such weapon?
Lennok himself didn’t use bladed or polearm weapons, but he knew mercenaries who were skilled in using such armaments.
“I should get going.”
“Alright. This time there were quite a few mishaps, but let’s meet again for something better next time.”
“That’s an interesting thing to say.”
Lennok chuckled.
“When have we ever met up for something pleasant and happy?”
Grisha just gave a bitter smile without a word.
Leaving the sorcerer puffing on a long cigarette behind him, Lennok immediately stepped into the small boat.
Piyo, who was waiting on the boat, expertly pulled the motor cord, and Lennok’s body lurched backward.
Thump!!
Inside the boat, which was rapidly cutting through the water and moving away from the island, Lennok muttered irritably.
“……Can’t you go a bit slower?”
“Keheheh, I’ll take you at maximum speed!!”
Piyo and Jio giggled with mischievous expressions.
Even though they were wrapped in bandages from head to toe due to the intense battle, their energy was unusually high.
Lennok watched the twins bickering over who would steer the boat, then asked.
“Are your bodies alright?”
While other Watchers also went through considerable hardship, these twins pushed themselves the most after Lennok in this battle.
Not only did they face multiple bishops who had released their binding spells, but they also fought a group battle against hundreds of priests in Lennok’s stead.
Even if they reached level 8 through mind-body fusion, the battle they endured deep within the temple must have been an extraordinarily fierce war of attrition.
Piyo and Jio turned to Lennok with slightly surprised expressions.
“I never knew you were the type to worry about us like that. Touching, really.”
“Exactly. When you first talked to me, you said I was a bloodthirsty killing machine…”
“You crazy bastard, shut up!!”
Piyo, horrified, clamped a hand over Jio’s mouth.
Instead of responding to the tired rumors he’d heard countless times, Lennok asked something else.
“Injuries aside, I’m talking about what happens after the fusion ends.”
“Fusion?”
“There’s no way there’s no cost to achieving unity in both mind and body. There must be considerable side effects.”
……
Lennok, having vaguely learned the principles of the fusion technique from them, could guess as much.
Twins born on the same day, at the same time.
Each mastering mutation and synchronization-type spells, creating a perfect condition to complement each other’s differences.
But even so, for two individuals born as separate beings to fuse into a single entity could not be easy.
If through unity they could temporarily transform into a being of higher Hierarchy than what they originally possessed, then they would clearly have to pay a corresponding price.
Only then did the twins understand what Lennok was saying, and they awkwardly averted their gazes.
“Well… it’s not like there are no problems at all.”
“Sometimes our memories get mixed up, or our Hierarchy temporarily drops during the process of defusion.”
“Right, that’s why this bastard once with his girlfriend…”
“You damn bastard, don’t blab about that!!”
As if the previous seriousness never happened, the twins started punching each other in the jaw this time.
Inside the wildly rocking boat, only Lennok’s complexion turned purplish, his stomach churning.
[Haa… such pathetic organic beings.]
Davi, who had been watching from within his robe, sighed and hacked the motor, causing the boat to regain its balance and cut through the water once more.
By the time they reached the shore, the twins stopped punching and got off the boat to sort their belongings.
“Well, anyway, we’re indebted to you for this.”
Piyo extended a hand to Lennok, his face bruised and swollen.
The fact that his disfigured face wasn’t from the battle with the Guido Cult, but rather from moments ago, was absurd, yet Piyo’s expression seemed serious.
“Honestly, I don’t have much interest in missions like the end of the world or whatever.”
……
“If you enjoy today, it’s fine even if tomorrow is a bit tough. Won’t tomorrow’s sun rise tomorrow?”
Piyo said.
“It’s the same. If you live your present to the fullest, isn’t it okay to accept that an end will eventually come…? That’s what I think.”
Was he the type who had no strong feelings or antipathy towards the world’s end? It was an unusual way of thinking for a high-Hierarchy superhuman.
Perhaps it was because of his values, which didn’t concern themselves much with his own circumstances, that he could master mutation magic, unconstrained by appearances, to such a high degree.
Lennok listened to his words quietly, then asked.
“Then why did you join the Eyes of Blue?”
“Jio has a family.”
Piyo subtly averted his gaze.
“It doesn’t matter to me, but my brother is different. Both of his kids aren’t even ten years old yet.”
……
“I don’t know exactly when the world will end, but if we need a little more time, isn’t this the only place?”
Piyo said so with a grin, but Jio, who had finished tidying the boat and strode over, promptly smacked him on the head.
Whack!!
“Ugh!!”
“Stop spouting nonsense. Who’s your brother?”
Jio grumbled, looked back at Lennok, then kicked Piyo’s butt, driving him towards the boat, and said,
“Just ignore whatever that guy says. He’s completely unreliable.”
“I understand.”
“He’s insincere unlike me, has a vagabond’s nature, and can’t even save money properly, the pathetic fool, but…”
Jio snorted.
“That’s no reason to accept the end. I’m going to survive. My brother and my family, too.”
……
“In that sense, it’s a comfort that the Eyes of Blue has a wizard like you… At least it means my judgment of people isn’t entirely wrong.”
Jio gazed into Lennok’s eyes and nodded.
“We owe you one this time. Next time, we’ll definitely repay you. My brother and I.”
A moment of silence.
But before the lingering silence faded, Piyo, who had been clutching his head, lunged at Jio.
“You bastard, seriously… Don’t you know I came out a few minutes before you, you punk!!”
“You don’t understand, in the sect where we grew up, the one who came out later was born first…!!”
……
The sight of the two twins wrestling on the sandy beach didn’t quite match their serious resolve from moments before.
Still, Lennok understood what they were trying to say.
Even powerful individuals who had drifted without belonging anywhere were now facing a time when they had to choose a single direction.
If he kept that fact in mind, it was enough.
“Lapis said there’s going to be another East-West unified summons for Hierarchy-level Watchers. See you then!!”
“Hey, that’s not confirmed yet, I told you repeatedly not to mention it ahead of time…!!”
After that, Lennok exchanged perfunctory goodbyes with the two swollen-faced idiots and turned to leave.
The day or so spent interacting and conversing with the Watchers hadn’t been bad.
Perhaps cooperating with them on the construction of the third Lighthouse would also have been a good experience.
But if he had to choose one thing, it was natural for him to prioritize matters that were time-sensitive and could not be resolved later.
The interim settlement of the Pandemonium, which he had learned about from The Clown and Freya.
‘I hadn’t originally intended to participate at this time…’
Through this incident, he had inadvertently acquired several valuable pieces of information from within the Guido Cult.
Some of these were secrets likely to lose their value soon.
As the Guido Cult’s situation had changed, it was necessary to check the movements of other organizations in advance.
Lennok had been thinking that he should participate in the interim settlement at this point, if only to prevent that information from going to waste.
He picked up his phone and slowly pressed the call button.
“Hylaea. It’s me.”
His naturally modulated voice emerged.
[Victor…?]
The nun’s tense voice came through the phone.
“The Pandemonium interim settlement I mentioned before. I understand there isn’t much time left.”
……
Ignoring the silence, Lennok spoke in a cold tone.
“I intend to participate, so tell me the exact time and place. I’m heading there now.”
[……Vulcan satellite city, Bailuts. The exact time is midnight, a day from now.]
After a brief pause, Hylaea’s voice became much calmer.
That calm tone, as if a different person was speaking, was practically proof that the caller on the other end had switched personalities.
[However, if you truly intend to participate, you should expect some friction.]
“What do you mean?”
[A significant number of operations to retrieve Old World relics have recently gone terribly wrong.]
……
[With the truce between the Guido Cult and the Order Alliance drastically changing the central front, some operations were directly impacted by the fallout.]
The very reason for gathering in a satellite city was for the members who had acquired Old World relics to conduct an interim settlement.
It was only natural for those who had failed or suffered losses in previous operations to be in a foul mood.
[The atmosphere will probably be quite hostile. If they know about what you did recently in the jungle, there’s a high probability they’ll…]
“Want to verify?”
Lennok chuckled.
[……They’ll want to know if you brought anything out of the Well of the Codex.]
“Alright. That’s enough to hear.”
As he showed signs of hanging up, Hylaea added a remark.
[The higher-ups do not interfere with conflicts between members at all. If you wish to survive, you must prepare thoroughly…]
Click
Lennok simply hung up and shoved the phone into his robe.
It was hardly new information at this point to be told what kind of organization Pandemonium was.
He had already accounted for that level of risk the moment he accepted the mask.
Lennok took out the obsidian mask and brought it to his face; simultaneously, the shadow beneath his feet rose and transformed into a robe.
“Bailuts, huh…”
Lennok, after checking the electronic map Davi had given him, continued on his way.
“I should arrive in about a day.”
The roar of a bike engine was heard, and at the same moment the shadow rose largely from the spot,
Lennok’s figure had already vanished from the coastline.
Vulcan’s satellite city, Bailuts.
A product of the urban expansion development plan created to accommodate the explosively growing population, assets, scale, and resources of the mega-city.
At the time, the City Government had planned to form several satellite cities around Vulcan, creating a giant urban confederation, but this dissolved with the failure of the Black Consumer Project.
The satellite cities, with investments cut off, were abandoned without any attention, becoming nothing more than ghost towns that no one sought out now.
Only wandering gangs, scavengers, robbers, and terrorists occasionally used the satellite cities as their hideouts,
but even they didn’t stay long in abandoned cities like Bailuts.
A city abandoned equally by everyone meant a place open equally to everyone.
Even outlaws who preyed on citizens could become mere prey in such lawless zones.
“Ugh…!!”
A dark night sky. A ghost town, swept by a chilly wind.
Groans occasionally echoed between the rusted tracks of the floating train, which was originally supposed to run throughout the city.
The sight of a dying man, his clothes emblazoned with a gang symbol soaked in blood. His lower body had completely disappeared, and blood gushed from his waist.
The gang member gaped at Lennok, who glanced his way.
Despair clouded the man’s eyes as Lennok passed by without hesitation, and soon they lost focus.
“You made a wise choice, friend.”
A scrawny man suddenly appeared beside Lennok, cackling.
“These days, there aren’t many fools wandering around so fearlessly, and it’s a problem, you see. Do you know how sweet it is to cut guys like that in half and suck out their bone marrow?”
The man grinned, unhesitatingly approaching Lennok and walking alongside him.
“Guys who’ve lived their whole lives believing they’re superior are especially tasty. Perhaps because they’ve never had to bend their backs, their cartilage is incredibly fresh…”
……
“Being good at pretending not to know, knowing your place. That’s a great virtue. Try to keep it well as you live on.”
Along with his words, figures appeared from various parts of the empty street.
The man grinned and said,
“That is, if you can stay alive after your lower half is severed.”
All of them were mana users, and their eerie, hollow, almost inhuman atmosphere was striking.
Lennok, realizing that their gaze was closer to hunger than simple bloodlust or anger, nodded.
“Ghouls, then.”
He had heard rumors about them from Jenny.
If a superhuman who had learned or mastered necromancy, spiritualism, or legion-type spells fell into a state of suspended animation and couldn’t return to normal,
they would become a monster, neither dead nor alive, constantly preying on the souls and flesh of the living.
He remembered it as a rather strikingly horrible monster story, but this was his first time seeing one in person.
Lennok, his demeanor turned cold behind his mask, silently surveyed his surroundings.
“Seems like you were a decent superhuman in life, given how needlessly talkative you are.”
“Khuhu, my young friend, you shouldn’t speak so harshly.”
From behind the man, a pale spirit rose, simultaneously beginning to take the form of a skeleton knight.
The others surrounding Lennok also conjured different spirits, closing in on the empty street.
“We’re not idiots, either. We know you’re a considerable sorcerer.”
The man’s jaw dropped as if dislocated, and from within, a long, inhuman tongue slithered out.
“But you know, prey caught after such effort always tastes like a special delicacy. Do you know why that is?”
His appearance was utterly grotesque, as if he were salivating at the sight of Lennok.
But Lennok, instead, chuckled at the man.
“For a monster worse than a corpse, you seem to not have forgotten the meaning of effort. With a little more effort, you might even be able to mimic a human.”
Saying so, Lennok gripped the Compassion of the Archangel from inside his robe.
“Just die.”
The spatial Translocation spell embedded within the Compassion of the Archangel, an Old World relic and a top-tier artifact, activated.
Simultaneously, shards of broken glass lying at Lennok’s feet neatly impaled themselves onto the man’s long, extended tongue.
Splatter!!
A spatial Translocation so precise and complete it was hard to believe it relied on the power of an artifact.
Lennok’s senses, with his understanding of space manipulation vastly enhanced by the battle with Amrita, had reached a state where he could freely manipulate even the artifact’s abilities as if they were his own.
“Keeheheheh!!”
The man laughed maniacally, rotten blood oozing from his face.
“This alone is useless. Not even close!! Go on, struggle hard…!!”
“Self-Augmentation spell activated.”
Kiiiiing…!!
At that moment, a dazzling light erupted from the Compassion of the Archangel clutched within his robe.
Most of it was contained within the shadow robe, but a portion precisely squeezed through the sleeve’s gap and engulfed the man’s face.
“Unique ability activated. Code Elise.”
Sizzle!!!
“Aaaaaargh!!”
When Lennok unleashed the unique ability activated by the Archangel’s Tear onto the man, the ghoul’s head melted away entirely on the spot.
“What, what the fuck!!”
“What did you do?!”
The other ghouls recoiled in terror at the completely unexpected phenomenon of annihilation.
The moment Lennok ignored them and was about to raise the Compassion of the Archangel once more,
a raspy voice echoed from above.
“Is that the Old World relic you brought?”
A middle-aged man sat perched on a nearby shop’s rooftop, hiccuping with a liquor bottle in his hand.
His face flushed red from heavy drinking, he grinned down at them.
“Divine Spirit-type Self-Augmentation spell. It’s well-known as an extremely rare and peculiar type among relics.”
His bloated posture, with a protruding belly, seemed utterly defenseless, yet Lennok could not find the slightest opening in his stance.
A powerful physical superhuman. Undoubtedly, that of a veteran who had survived countless real battles.
The drunkard’s eyes, staring down at Lennok, gleamed with a strange light.
“It’s certainly a valuable item, but you’re using it wrong. You never even had an interest in that particular lineage, did you?”
……
“To be using it just to beat up ghouls, you must have only recently acquired it.”
The man babbled on, ignoring the ghouls hesitating and looking around nervously.
Lennok silently released the Compassion of the Archangel he was holding in his robe and asked,
“What do you want to say?”
“What I’m saying is, I can teach you how to properly use an artifact like that.”
Thud!!
The man, who had lightly jumped down from a height of over ten meters, grinned at Lennok.
“Instead, if you have any other good items, let’s exchange them before the settlement. How about it?”