Chapter 532: Dual Identity (3)
Acquire Evan Vylun’s talent.
Before he could fully grasp the meaning of those words, the coffin lid sprang open, revealing what was inside.
A corpse wrapped entirely in thick bandages.
It held a massive mirror in each hand, its body stiffly facing him.
The mirror held by the bandaged corpse. Lennok stood precisely in the direction the mirror faced.
As Lennok’s reflection appeared perfectly in the mirror, his very form distorted as if being sucked into the mummy.
[You said he wouldn’t be able to move, and you were right.]
A burly figure in a gas mask cautiously approached Lennok’s side, observing his condition.
[So, it’s over the moment his reflection forms in the mirror?]
He intently watched Lennok’s face, which stared blankly at the mirror, while fiddling with the gas mask’s filter.
[Though it was a bit more rushed than expected, this should be enough to achieve the objective—]
“Black magic. And a very powerful soul transference ritual.”
[…!!!!]
“Though they forcibly linked the mirror’s power with the Black Coffin’s to combine them, I recognize this magical system.”
Lennok, who had appeared frozen, opened his mouth. The burly man’s shoulders twitched, and he took a step back.
Lennok slowly turned his head, his expressionless face staring up at him.
The ancient black wizard who had taken Jaun Audis’s body in the Hanghasa Labyrinth.
The master of soul transference rituals, who could freely transfer his consciousness across multiple bodies.
Lennok had just detected the lingering essence of that very ritual from beyond the mirror.
“You. Do you know the name Ermont?”
[What…?]
Crackling…!!
As Lennok’s body, trapped in the mirror image, moved, unknown mana erupted from all directions, struggling to suppress his form.
However, the surging tendrils of mana didn’t touch Lennok’s body or presence.
They vanished futilely, as if they had never been able to grasp him for a single moment.
Only then did the mirror’s power, realizing it had been reflecting an untouchable illusion from the start, recoil and surge back upon itself.
Small cracks formed within the mirror, rapidly growing until it shattered and fell.
Smash!!
[This is impossible…!!]
The gas-masked figure, his composure gone, stared at the shattered mirror fragments with a look of panic.
“You probably had no intention of escaping far. Maybe there was no escape route at all.”
An aerial refueling station, which had managed flight in the outer district by partially applying anti-gravity technology.
However, it hadn’t yet been fully commercialized, so at this altitude, it was losing balance and shaking considerably.
Proof that they had, in fact, never intended to escape far using this aircraft from the beginning.
“Wasn’t the purpose different from the start?”
Hiss…!!
The station, which had been gradually increasing its vibration, finally lost balance and began to violently shake.
At the edge of the station, slowly losing altitude as it lost its artificially generated updraft, Lennok muttered with a thoughtful expression.
“If it were just a trap, there’d be no reason to inform me directly about this situation. A reason to intervene in something that could simply be avoided by not getting involved…”
Lennok’s gaze turned to the wide-open Black Coffin.
“As expected, there’s no understanding this without securing that.”
At that moment, a massive fist slammed down where Lennok stood, and the station’s sturdy steel plate exploded.
BOOM!!
The burly man’s preemptive strike, unleashed without any warning or sign.
But Lennok easily evaded it with a blink, re-mounted his bike, and simply nodded.
“Let’s talk once we’re back on the ground.”
The aerial refueling station rapidly lost balance and tilted.
The moment the massive aircraft, capable of carrying dozens of people at once, came under the influence of the magnetic storm.
All power sources vital for flight were paralyzed, and it plummeted towards the ground.
The station, spewing smoke wildly against the night sky, drew a gentle parabola as it slid towards the ground.
CRASH!!
A blinding white pillar of fire erupted, illuminating the night street.
Amidst the fragments of the station, which had instantly turned into a heap of scrap metal, the burly man struggled to get up.
He idly touched his gas mask, staring intently at the wizard who stood perfectly fine before him.
[Hoo…!!]
“That gas mask.”
Lennok, tapping the wide-open, overturned Black Coffin beneath his feet with his staff, spoke.
“It’s not just for blocking outside air.”
Lennok carefully observed the man’s gas mask, then pulled out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it.
“No mana is mixed with the air expelled from the filter. Rather, it can only be seen as a device to prevent substances flowing inside the gas mask from leaking out.”
Unknown smoke wafted around the man’s fleshy eyelids, visible through the gas mask’s goggles.
Lennok lit his cigarette and nodded, as if understanding.
“If it were merely for mana enhancement or doping, there’d be no reason to go that far… Is it a nerve stimulant?”
[…. ]
“It’s not impossible if you’re forcibly stimulating your central nervous system to expand your mana sensitivity. Increased sensitivity would mean your mana reserves are uncontrollable.”
Lennok nodded, looking at the silent burly man.
“It makes sense if you’ve undergone mana enhancement surgery akin to body modification, or consumed elixirs with similar side effects.”
[Hahahaha!!]
The burly man burst into hearty laughter, then stepped forward and tugged at his shirt collar.
With a casual gesture, the man ripped off both sleeves of his shirt, then stroked his forearm as he replied.
[I heard you were so frail you could barely move without life support… but your insight is indeed as rumored.]
“……”
[You’re right. I forcibly expanded my mana circuits through body modification surgery at the Juris Workshop. Without nerve stimulants, it’s hard to maintain sanity due to the expanded senses.]
Hiss!!
As the man laughed and slowly drew forth his mana, scorching mana began to pour from between the torn sleeves on his forearms.
Super-heated energy, created by forcibly applying Property Transformation to mana.
The asphalt beneath the man’s feet couldn’t withstand the heat and rapidly began to melt.
[In this operation, the main force had three objectives.]
The man opened the filter of his gas mask, expelled the trapped nerve stimulant, inhaled the outside air, and spoke.
[To safely secure Evan Vylun. To secure the tracker if interfered with using a prepared artifact. And finally….]
Shhhhwak!!
Simultaneously, dozens of superhumans instantly appeared throughout the street, along with a net of brilliant blue magical light covering the night sky.
[To eliminate all witnesses by killing them.]
The man’s face, reflected in the goggles of the gas mask, wore a chilling smile in his eyes.
[I’m certain after your last move, Adamant Thunder. You can’t use high-level magic.]
“……”
[All you can use are firearms and minor auxiliary magic, it seems.]
Of course, no matter how injured or frail he might be, complacency was forbidden against a wizard beyond the Saint rank.
That’s why the burly man had watched the landing zone closely from the moment the station began to fall, and ordered a cordon to be set up around the entire street.
On top of that, a special ritual interception system, custom-made and sold directly by Achilles, was installed.
It was an incredibly powerful debuff that drained mana just by standing within it.
An injured wizard’s body wouldn’t be able to withstand it for long.
[Even if you’re the greatest wizard in the underworld, it seems the battle with Madrich Onnion was hard to endure. It’s not strange.]
Lennok said nothing to the man’s relaxed reply.
He merely tapped his fingers, deep in thought.
Crackling!!
As he flicked his other hand, not holding his staff, a short burst of electricity erupted from Lennok’s fingertips.
The static electricity that sprang into the air seemed to shoot straight up into the sky from his fingertips, then vanished without a trace.
A light movement that left no sign or trace, hardly indicative of doing anything significant.
The gas mask-wearing figure, who had been quietly watching, shook his head as if in pity.
[You seem to be completely crippled. Is emitting a mere wisp of static electricity the best you can do?]
“……”
Snap!!
The man lightly cracked his fingers, stepped forward, and extended his arm, beginning to gather a powerful concentration of mana around it.
[I have no interest in a broken wizard. After cleanly killing you, I’ll just take your body and quickly—]
Rumble!!
At that moment, a faint thunderclap echoed from beyond the night sky, cutting off the gas-masked man’s words.
[……?]
A remarkably clear rumble, hard to believe it was coming from a cloudless sky in the dark of night.
Yet, the night sky was still devoid of dark clouds; only faint starlight, obscured by smoke, was visible.
The very moment the man tilted his head and was about to draw forth his mana again.
A massive blue light flashed from beyond the intersection, several blocks away.
Flash!!
A deafening roar echoed moments after the light fell.
It didn’t stop there; from the distant end of the intersection, the road began to be covered in a dazzling blue glow.
Rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble!!!!
A colossal pillar of lightning struck the asphalt from beyond the intersection.
More than dozens of lightning bolts rained down, forming a barrier of thunder and light around the entire street, swiftly rushing towards them.
An utterly overwhelming and bizarre lightning bombardment, difficult to comprehend even while witnessing it with one’s own eyes.
[W-what is this…!!!]
“Ritual Interception System heavily damaged!! Estimated cause: exposure to external firepower exceeding mana tolerance!!”
“Estimated firepower level Saint rank or higher…!! If we don’t evade now, we’ll die—!!”
KRA-BOOMMM!!!!
There were no more screams.
The panicked gas-masked man and the superhumans in suits were swept away and disappeared by the successive onslaught of lightning.
Heat, light, and a barrage of thunderous roars overwhelmed all senses, making it difficult to maintain sanity.
What did it mean that such an absurd bombardment was unleashed by a single wizard, without any significant incantation?
“H-how could he cast such a spell with an injured body…!!”
“No, he was buying time from the start!!”
“We were tricked… Everyone, run…!!”
Only then did the superhumans realize that Lennok had intended to incinerate them all from the beginning, and began to scream and flee.
KRA-BOOMMM!!!!
But they merely turned into handfuls of ash, vanishing in the waves of lightning that swelled and fell successively from the other end of the street.
Hissing!!
The asphalt-covered ground couldn’t withstand the heat and melted, overflowing like lava.
The searing winds raging from all sides melted even the glass windows of building facades, fusing steel rebar and concrete to expose their inner structures.
A monstrous sight, as if the front facades of a dozen buildings on both sides of the street had been completely erased, revealing their internal structures.
But Lennok merely stroked his chin, as if harboring no particular sentiment about what he had done.
“It’s not very efficient for the incantation time. Did I use it wrong?”
Above Lennok’s shoulder, as he muttered, an old booklet lay wide open, scattering unknown mana.
The grimoire obtained as an information reward during Pandemonium’s interim settlement: Libra of Fate, Five Ultimate Arts.
Lennok had interwoven the grimoire’s contents, known to contain the ultimate secrets of five themes including time, space, and harmony, with his lightning magic.
Among them, the theme Lennok used for this lightning storm was ‘Rampage’.
A new technique that combined the common magic [Thunder Calling] and the unique magic [Whitefall (白落)], then inflated its scale wildly by incorporating the theme of the Five Ultimate Arts.
However, even after simultaneously striking dozens of lightning bolts across the intersection, Lennok’s expression remained highly unsatisfied.
“I did think the chances of easily reaching it were low, but…”
The Five Ultimate Arts was a grimoire that followed the laws of a lost world.
Thus, Lennok had hoped for a groundbreaking improvement in magical power and efficiency by incorporating its principles.
But upon actual use, the casting time was longer than expected for its power.
In real combat, where power must be exerted, the likelihood of using such a technique is not high.
“Cough, haaa…!!”
A terrible scream echoed from where the lightning storm had swept through.
The melted gas mask fell from the man’s face as he struggled to pull his mangled body upright.
The man’s face, now free of the gas mask, was disfigured by countless surgical scars and wounds, making it hard to discern his original features.
“Uggghhhhh…. “
The lingering effects of the lightning penetrated even the finest tissues of his flesh, severing all vital connections in real-time.
With an indiscernible groan, his body melted away on the spot, a little slower than the gas mask.
-Van, Van!! What magic did you use? The entire power grid here is paralyzed…!!
“Something happened.”
He replied to Jenny via comms, which connected only after the aftermath of the lightning subsided.
“I need someone to help with cleanup. Is that alright?”
-…I’m sending an ambulance right away, so don’t move and stay exactly where you are!!
Click!!
“Hmm…”
It felt as if Jenny’s attitude towards him had subtly changed ever since rumors of his injury spread.
Rather than a reliable colleague, it was as if…
-…she sees me as fragile glasswork.
“…Be quiet.”
With his back to the corpse evaporating into a handful of blood, Lennok turned his gaze to the Black Coffin he was standing on.
Rip!!
He pulled the bandaged corpse from the coffin with mana strings and unhesitatingly unraveled the bandages.
Inside, the body of a young man was revealed.
It was still undecomposed, maintaining an intact body, but Lennok frowned deeply at the sight.
“……”
It was a face he didn’t remember.
If it had resembled Evan’s face, or if its physique had been similar, he might have suspected a double or a disguise.
Yet, the corpse that had been lying in the Black Coffin bore no resemblance whatsoever to the physique or appearance Lennok had set for Evan Vylun.
What exactly did Antares and the unknown organization see that made them so certain this person was Evan Vylun, prompting their pursuit and escape?
There was only one way to find out.
“Davi.”
[Bio-data scan complete. Cross-referencing with the City Government network.]
Beep…!!
Information cross-referenced via Lennok’s phone was displayed in real-time.
Surprisingly, there was one matching result.
[Security data level lowest. Found one deleted code in the missing persons bio-data archive. Missing Person ID 34aenj16. Displaying code deletion date.]
Lennok, confirming the ID deletion date from the database, quickly recalled memories from that time and froze.
The time when Lennok had just arrived in this city, busily working to create a new identity.
He had once sought help from an expert to create an identity for use in the open, not as Van.
“…So that’s it.”
The method of forging identities in this city wasn’t about creating entirely new ones.
It involved modifying the personal details, including names, of missing persons or unofficially deceased individuals, and colluding with local officials to update the data.
The corpse lying in the Black Coffin right now was, in fact, the very missing person whose data Lennok had used as the base when he created Evan Vylun’s identity.
A soul transference ritual that activated by selecting a sacrifice with even a slight conceptual resemblance to Evan himself.
Among the rituals Lennok knew, only shamanism and black magic systems paid attention to such ‘disguises’.
And among those, the ritual system and mana flow remained in his memory.
What did it mean that the soul transference ritual used by the black wizard Ermont was attempted on Van, not Evan?
Someone suspected the relationship between Evan and Van.
Antares had realized that fact and was moving to track the mastermind from a completely different location.
A vast cavern, illuminated by only dozens of candles casting a pale glow.
A man sat at the center of a massive magic circle drawn with viscous black liquid, anxiously biting his lip.
“Damn it, why isn’t it working…!!”
The street, half-ruined by the continuous lightning strikes.
At the epicenter of that explosion, the jet-black Black Coffin lay untouched.
Someone was seen opening the coffin and pulling out the corpse, but their face couldn’t be clearly discerned.
Nevertheless, the man muttered ceaselessly to himself, as if he knew who the other party was.
“My assumption is solid. Considering the time and circumstances, there’s no other possibility…!!”
The man, who had been rapidly forming hand seals and chanting non-stop, flinched at the sound of his phone ringing from behind him.
He didn’t even dare to look at the ringing phone screen, forcing himself to stare at the magic circle with hunched shoulders.
“No, no… If I can’t verify this fact to the City Councilmen, I’m a dead man…!!”
“Indeed.”
A calm voice echoed from behind the man.
A chill ran down his spine, and he heard his heart plummet.
“Secure a corpse conceptually treated as identical to Evan Vylun, then transfer the consciousness itself through a ritual. For something hastily made, it was a very interesting idea.”
“…H-how did you get here!!”
“Considering who created that ritual, it wouldn’t have been perfect in the end.”
The man fell from his chair, eyes wide, and looked behind him.
A long-haired young man was looking down at him with a smiling face.
Overwhelming mana flowed from his body. An oppressive aura, so palpable that even a man with no talent in martial arts could feel it.
Seeing the man’s face instantly turn pale, Antares spoke.
“A combination of shamanistic concepts and black magic… It would have been an impossible attempt without the Black Coffin’s power, but it was possible because you got your hands on the magic of a very old family, wasn’t it?”
At Antares’s words, which pierced straight to the core, the man’s face instantly darkened to a greenish-black.
“S-save me… Please…”
“But when you peer into the darkest abyss of black magic, you must also consider the opposite. That’s why black magic…”
Antares, looking at the man who was merely begging for his life without affirmation or denial, smiled.
“It absolutely requires a master or a disciple who can act as a mirror.”
“W-what on earth is that…!! Ugh…!!”
At that moment, the man’s eyes rolled back several times in their sockets, and then his pupils themselves instantly began to turn jet black.
Immediately after, the man rose to his feet, black mana trailing from his entire body.
His expression had become cold and fixed, as if frozen.
“I didn’t expect a failed prophet to call me.”
“……”
“It’s pointless. You know that, don’t you?”
“Indeed.”
Antares smiled.
“But it was something that needed to happen at least once. Don’t you think so, Pluto?”