Chapter 503: Mid-Term Settlement (4)
Both individuals were not to be underestimated in terms of power and intellect, but their reactions upon confirming Lennok’s presence were starkly different.
Soryu, recognizing the obsidian mask, turned her gaze this way, while Maiya ignored him as if she had no interest.
Lennok was currently disguised as Victor.
Maiya Rensley had encountered Lennok in the labyrinth under the name Evan, so she knew nothing of Victor.
Even if she had heard rumors, it would only have been information about a certain spellcaster participating in the Jungle operation.
Soryu, despite acknowledging Lennok’s presence, soon turned her gaze away as if she had no interest.
Instead, it was the other two of the four who turned to look.
“Thought the old murderer was back, but it was you?”
The first to speak was a sharp-featured woman perched on the statue’s knee, looking down this way.
Her hair was tied back tightly, and she wore highly active clothing, but Lennok realized from this that she was not a physical ability user.
The very fact that she was dressed like that meant she was very conscious of her movements.
A spellcaster-type. Given her proximity to the statue, she must be a related party to some extent.
She chuckled, looking at Vernon and Lennok standing behind him.
“And you brought some strange guest. Is that masked guy one of ours too?”
“Sabrina, do you think I’d just bring someone I’ve never even met?”
Vernon flung the liquor bottle he was holding back, pointing it at Lennok. Sharp gazes naturally converged on him.
“You roughly heard what happened in the jungle, right? He’s the friend who joined as the last member from the well.”
Vernon, having cleanly emptied the remaining liquor in the bottle, tossed it away as he spoke.
The atmosphere instantly turned chilly at his words.
“I see, so you’re that…”
“I heard he’s a very powerful peculiar-type spellcaster.”
A muscular man sitting with his legs wide apart behind Sabrina yawned and shifted his gaze.
“Interesting. He’ll make a good opponent.”
Not only was his upper body completely bare, but his entire body was impressively covered in dense tattoos.
His long black hair was disheveled, and he wasn’t even properly wearing shoes. A wild appearance, as if he had never enjoyed the benefits of civilization.
Vernon snorted in response to his words.
“He worked with The Clown and came out alive, so I think he’s perfectly qualified. If you have a complaint, ask him.”
“How can I ask that mad bastard? He’s holed up in Torquepaz and won’t come out. He’s probably messing around, ‘managing side effects’ or something.”
“Sabrina. The way he manages Hierarchy is a type of extremely delicate and precise causal adjustment work.”
Along with those words, what emerged from the shadows was a mannequin-like doll, well over 2 meters tall.
Components split across its unpleasantly human-shaped face, its jaw rattling. The doll’s jaw creaked as it muttered.
“It’s not something to dismiss with a word or two… After all, he did succeed in the jungle operation, didn’t he…?”
“Chebien. You’ve never worked with that guy, so what are you blabbering about?”
The woman called Sabrina scowled and retorted.
“A few years ago, I went on the same operation, and he ran wild on his own, breaking six of my Word-Command Pillars.”
“…”
“If you’re ever going to work with him, you’d better play it safe. He’s an absolutely unreasonable guy when it comes to acting without thinking.”
Sabrina spoke menacingly, but few present heeded her advice.
Soryu, Maiya, the muscular man, and even Vernon were cleaning their ears.
Only the doll slowly nodded, seemingly reluctant.
“In some ways, he’s even more dangerous than that old man over there.”
Saying that, she gestured without looking back at the theater.
Splop…!!
Along with that, an unpleasant sound, like congealed blood dripping, echoed from the end of the hallway.
As the shabbily dressed old man, Hyeolno, finally appeared, the theater fell silent.
Only then did Maiya, perched dozens of meters above the theater among the lights, look down at those present and speak.
“It’s time. I’ll call The Doctor.”
As Maiya said that, a drop of blood, no one knew when it had been drawn, fell from her wrist.
The single drop of blood, falling directly in front of the statue, spread across the theater floor, transforming into a small blood magic circle.
Fwoosh!!
“…”
An art so refined, capable of drawing an intricate blood magic circle with a single drop, incomparable to the continuous dripping from Hyeolno.
How skilled must one be to drop a single drop of blood from the far-off ceiling and complete a magic circle?
Even Lennok, who had a deep understanding of spellcasting, was astonished by the sheer elegance of the blood magic.
At the end of the Hanghasa Labyrinth, in Jindun’s Cradle, hadn’t Maiya opened the gate through blood magic and summoned the Director?
Regardless of her immense physical abilities, the fact that Maiya Rensley also possessed considerable expertise in blood magic made her a dangerous being.
It was chilling to think that such an opponent remained in Pandemonium, lending her strength.
Lennok’s feeling was probably shared by the other members.
In the meantime, the fully bloomed blood magic circle rapidly contracted, then rose as if drawn by a 3D printer, shaping something.
Screeching…!!
With a strange sound, it formed flesh and blood on the spot, transforming into a single living creature.
A fluffy white furball, about the size of a human head, squirming to life.
It wriggled, adjusting its skeleton and muscles, then quickly looked around before letting out a deep voice utterly unsuited to its appearance.
“Good evening. Or is it daytime near Vulcan?”
“It’s night, Doctor.”
At Sabrina’s words, the furball hopped up and crawled onto the statue.
“I see. I haven’t been outside for a month, so my biorhythm is completely off… But I still remember the orbital period, so I honestly didn’t think I’d get confused.”
The Doctor chuckled lowly and asked.
“A few faces have changed since last time. Everyone seems busy.”
“Kangara and Fransel are dead, and Aguilon is missing. Probably dead.”
Soryu said in a cold voice.
The Doctor murmured, seemingly a little surprised by her words.
“Fransel, sure, but Kangara and Aguilon…”
“They didn’t return from operations with the spell alliance and the warlords. Considering the discipline of those two organizations, they’re probably being dissected as test subjects by now.”
The Doctor slowly nodded at Soryu’s cold reply.
“That’s regrettable. Considering their rare abilities, it would have been better to at least recover their bodies.”
“…”
Is his concern focused on their abilities rather than the well-being of his acquaintances?
Indeed, such an indifferent attitude might be the most normal and unremarkable reaction within this organization.
A criminal organization with no organization, teamwork, or harmony.
Furthermore, considering the work they do, it’s only natural that some wouldn’t return alive.
The operation in the jungle was also a fierce battle where it wouldn’t have been strange if everyone present had died.
“Well, there’s a different, most unexpected opponent here tonight, though.”
The furball’s gaze fell precisely on Lennok, who was lost in thought.
Its transparent eyes were aimed directly at Lennok’s mask.
“I’ve heard a lot about you, Victor. Agneta, The Clown, and Freya all spoke of you.”
“…”
“You joined on the recommendation of Myeong, didn’t you? I personally found that very unexpected.”
“What is?”
“To be honest, I… thought Myeong wouldn’t find a single person who met his standards.”
At The Doctor’s significant voice, the gazes of others naturally began to converge on Lennok.
Perhaps because Myeong’s name was mentioned, even Maiya, who had shown no reaction since summoning The Doctor, was now watching them.
The Doctor, unfazed by the strange atmosphere he had created, continued speaking to Lennok.
“He’s a man who views himself and others by the same standards. With ordinary talent or capabilities, it’s difficult to even stand before the line he’s drawn. Yet, he recommended and secured your entry without even getting the Director’s permission. Do you understand what this means?”
“…”
As Lennok remained silent, the furball twitched and let out a low chuckle.
“I thought it would only be a diversion, but you never know how things will turn out… To bring a space manipulation spellcaster, whom we’ve searched for endlessly, and couldn’t find.”
The Doctor continued to squirm restlessly as he spoke, crawling all the way to the top of the statue’s head.
“Perhaps there’s a limit to what can be achieved with only probability and statistics, calculation and research. Although I understand that logic, I’ve never empathized with it, but a great wizard born from a magnificent lineage might well think that way.”
The Doctor chuckled and continued.
“And it’s true that he possesses the qualification and ability to personally achieve such thoughts.”
“Are you done with your utterly useless observations?”
Lennok crossed his arms, looked up at The Doctor, and chuckled.
“I don’t really care what you think of Myeong or me.”
“…”
“If there’s any necessary preliminary work, I’d appreciate it if you’d finish it quickly. I don’t want to talk to some worthless sacrifice for long.”
Lennok’s remarks felt almost brutal.
It was a response befitting Victor’s famously arrogant personality, but no one present showed any discomfort or annoyance.
The muscular man watched Lennok with an almost amused expression, and the doll Chebien tilted its head.
The Doctor, who received the words, merely burst into a joyful laugh.
“You’re not wrong. Shall we start quickly before I get more nagging?”
Whoosh…!!
As The Doctor tapped the crown of the statue’s head, the massive statue began to glow, enveloped in intense magical light.
The statue, with two heads and eight arms, slowly moved, changing its stiff posture.
Rumble…!!
Its two faces looked down at the ground with slightly parted lips, and its eight arms were neatly placed on the floor, lined up in a row.
It seemed to be presenting open palms, as if prepared for those gathered here.
Lennok glanced around, looking at the glowing palms intricately engraved with ancient script.
Lennok, Soryu, Maiya, and Vernon. Chebien and Sabrina. Even Hyeolno, who had entered the theater, and the muscular man.
That alone makes eight. Including The Doctor, nine.
Vernon, perhaps sensing it too, gulped down his drink and shouted.
“Doctor, is this right? The head count seems off!!”
“Don’t worry, drunkard. I’m going to take the trouble to explain it again, even for those who are new to the settlement.”
Saying that, The Doctor began to tumble on the statue’s head.
“Collecting artifacts from the Old World has been going on for a long time, but the settlement itself is not a simple task.”
“What do you mean?”
“Artifacts flowing in from beyond the conclusion of World 1 and World 2 operate in a different way than the fundamental laws of this world.”
The statue’s light began to grow increasingly intense.
“It doesn’t mean that fundamental aspects like the principles of spells, the balance of causality, or the duality of miracles have changed. Such essences are directly linked to the Outer Sea.”
“Then?”
“For example, the spells called ‘witchcraft’ in this world, did they exist under the same name and system in World 1 and World 2?”
His tone was indirect and subtle, yet seemed to touch upon a glimmer of truth.
“If you understand that correctly, you’ll know what I’m talking about.”
The Doctor suddenly turned his gaze sharply towards Lennok, who was looking up.
“Victor, what do you think? I’d like to hear your opinion.”
“…”
“They say peculiar-type spellcasters are either born with innate talent or develop into suitable vessels by growing up in special environments.”
The Doctor asked, looking at the silent Lennok.
“Spellcasters like you must have completely different filters for receiving information from the world. Otherwise, performing space manipulation while sane would be impossible.”
“You speak as if you’ve tried it yourself.”
“There’s no need to mention how many researchers who dabbled in magic engineering coveted that feat.”
Unfazed by Lennok’s sneer, The Doctor chuckled lowly.
“The existing methods and systems would require handling an absurd amount of mana consumption. If you’re directly dealing with space manipulation, which has the worst fuel efficiency, there are only two answers.”
Either he possesses the ability to directly endure the massive mana consumption, or he has acquired an entirely different approach to the existing concept of space manipulation.
The Doctor was subtly asking if Lennok’s peculiar-type spell was the latter.
The mere act of naturally shifting the topic while explaining the mid-term settlement was proof of how much The Doctor was interested in Lennok’s spell.
But Lennok had no intention of debating that topic with The Doctor there.
So, he had no choice but to immediately give the correct answer to The Doctor’s question.
“It must be due to rule compatibility.”
Lennok quietly opened his mouth, subtly adjusting his mask.
“The laws of the Old World are incompatible with those of this world and operate independently. Isn’t that why you’re collecting Old World artifacts to verify and compare their compatibility?”
“…Hmm.”
“Thinking that way, it’s not hard to guess what the role of this statue is.”
Lennok glanced up at the statue and said.
“If it’s about analyzing Old World artifacts or information to extract and preserve data, then bringing such an object all the way to Bailuts would be a sufficient reason.”
And he could roughly guess why Pandemonium continued such troublesome work, and why an existence like The Doctor was managing it.
If, in this way, one could discover patterns and consistency in the laws or systems of Old World artifacts and theorize them.
It would be possible not only to find Old World artifacts but also to create them directly.
That didn’t just mean producing Old World artifacts and getting them into one’s hands.
“Reproducing the laws of the Old World, which have already passed through one conclusion, directly in this world.”
Lennok looked up at The Doctor and chuckled.
“Are you planning to create a miniature garden of the Old World within this world?”
“…”
The Doctor did not answer.
He simply stared down at Lennok, as if looking at prey he could never let escape.
Collecting the laws of World 1 and World 2, and implementing a miniature garden created with those laws.
If their purpose was to directly reproduce a part of the Old World somewhere in this world.
Then it wasn’t incomprehensible why this mid-term settlement was being carried out in such a systematic and dense manner.
But what flowed from The Doctor’s mouth, after a long time of looking at Lennok with interest, was not an affirmative answer.
“A very interesting idea, but it’s not the correct answer.”
The Doctor replied with a somewhat amused expression.
“Your words, in some sense, hit the core, but they are overly inefficient and reckless.”
“Dangerous?”
“But that doesn’t mean it’s entirely wrong. That too, in a way, is one of the goals of this long-term plan.”
The light in Lennok’s eyes, shining through his mask, met The Doctor’s gaze.
“What if sometimes, preventing the opponent’s victory is the only opportunity we have?”
“…”
“The Director has known that fact for a very long time and has been preparing for it. Sometimes, I’m driven mad wondering how far ahead that man sees.”
The Doctor quietly chuckled, speaking in place of the silent Lennok.
“Perhaps I’ve been lending my hand all this time because I want to know that fact.”
“Doctor, what kind of Zen koans have you been blabbering about?”
Sabrina, who had been listening to Lennok and The Doctor’s conversation, scowled.
Others who had been watching the conversation also chimed in one by one.
“If you’re not going to explain the settlement to Victor, let’s just start quickly, why are you suddenly giving a quiz?”
“I agree. Didn’t you say that the ultimate goal of the settlement couldn’t be explained or justified in the first place…?”
The Doctor nodded at the other members’ complaints.
“Well, alright. I didn’t expect such a profound question. There’s no need for a lengthy explanation. Let’s get to the main point.”
Whoosh!!
The light of the ancient script engraved between the eight palms, lying face up towards the sky, slowly faded, settling quietly.
“As Victor said, today’s gathering is for settling the past achievements and to verify the compatibility of the Old World’s laws.”
The Doctor said.
“This statue was made for the purpose of extracting the Old World’s laws from artifacts and organizing their causality.”
“…”
“To be precise, it’s a process to observe the phenomenon of causality adjustment in the Old World itself, narrow down the margin of error, and increase the manifestation rate… but if you don’t know about this field, explaining it won’t make you understand.”
“Let’s keep it simple. You mean we just put Old World artifacts on the statue like last time, right?”
“Strictly speaking, not just artifacts. Any information related to the Old World’s laws will do.”
The Doctor nodded at Vernon’s words.
“If you input the relevant data into the statue, it will independently determine the variability of causality and decide which world’s laws it is related to.”
So, it doesn’t matter if it’s not an artifact, but information or a clue?
“What’s this talk about causal variability?”
“It’s to check how much the results you brought deviate from the compatibility of laws gathered through previous settlements. How special and powerful the causality was in the Old World.”
The Doctor said that, squirmed his furball body, and then spat out mana into the air.
A long, thin line of mana floated in the dark theater’s upper air. The horizontal line undulated wildly like a heartbeat graph.
“Simply put, it’s ‘how much information changed the world’s outcome’. This is compared to the average of the collected data to measure the absolute value of variability.”
“…That’s not simple at all. Are we even speaking the same language?”
The man covered in tattoos muttered this, indicating how incomprehensible The Doctor’s explanation was.
Lennok, not perfectly understanding the concept of causality himself, could only infer The Doctor’s intentions.
The Doctor, accustomed to such reactions, did not bother to explain further.
“No matter how much I talk, it’s not as good as showing you once. Watch closely.”
The Doctor tapped the crown of the statue’s head and suddenly uttered a single, mana-infused sentence.
[There were originally three other ways a life could meet its end, besides death.]
“…!!!”
The moment Lennok paused and looked up at the completely unexpected words.
The statue’s eyes, having received those words, slowly began to open.
Kiiing…!!
The tightly closed eyelids opened, revealing deep blue eyes within.
A total of four eyes half-opened, illuminating the vast audience seating of the theater.
The Doctor, unfazed by the statue’s appearance, continued speaking.
“Thus, the statue’s eyes will open in succession, depending on how large the measured causal variability is.”
“…”
“The current example’s variability itself wasn’t large compared to its importance, but that’s because it’s already lost its meaning… Generally, the greater the variability, the more important the information tends to be.”
The two faces on the statue. Considering there were five eyes on each face, that made a total of ten eyes.
Does that mean they’ll confirm how important an artifact or information they brought by how many layers of eyes open?
“Naturally, keep in mind that the greater the variability of the achievement you bring, the greater the reward you’ll receive.”
As The Doctor spoke, the statue’s eyes slowly began to close again.
The statue’s eight palms, neatly aligned on the floor, subtly twitched.
“Now, let the settlement begin.”