Chapter 534: Giant of Sunlight (1)

Krod Azlan. That was the name of the man who introduced himself as “Blameless.”

Lennok didn’t immediately recognize the name, but Jenny, listening through the phone, seemed to react differently.

“……!!”

Her gasp, barely suppressed even over the phone, betraying her agitation.

That alone was enough for Lennok to understand just how dangerous a monster the man standing before him was.

‘A face I don’t remember, but mana I’ve encountered before. He’s not from the underworld.’

If Lennok, who had operated in the underworld for a long time, had never seen this person before, then he must undoubtedly be a monster residing in the public eye.

However, Lennok recognized the man not just because of how Blameless introduced himself.

It was because he soon realized that the distinct combat aura and mana—that powerful, pure white brilliance—existed in his memories.

‘The white pillar I witnessed in Bailuts. Was this man its master?’

Unlike the battle Lennok and Evelyn Marcia had fought, there was another fierce battle in the satellite city of Bailuts.

The existence of a second external force, presumed to have clashed with Maiya Lonsdale.

This man was one of the monsters who had cooperated with Aegis’s operation alongside Evelyn Marcia, lending his power.

An 8-level Transcendent, a martial artist clearly specialized in vanguard combat at a glance.

His strength and combat ability were beyond estimation.

Lennok’s gaze was calm and settled.

Blameless smiled faintly, as if he had expected this.

“You’re calculating your odds. I knew you would.”

“……”

“If you’ve dealt with Onnion, you should be able to size me up too. So, what do you think, seeing me in person?”

Blameless’s pure white eyes gleamed as he spoke.

“If you were to fight me with the resolve to die, what percentage of victory would you be confident in?”

“……The fact that you want to hear that from me means you’re not entirely sane either.”

Lennok chuckled and averted his gaze.

“If that’s all your business, I have no intention of answering. I’m leaving.”

Though he didn’t know much about Blameless, there was something he could understand without prolonged conversation.

The man standing before Lennok was a madman, far removed from ordinary human sensibilities.

He wasn’t obsessed with something else; he was purely a monster consumed by the thrill of battle and the pleasure of victory.

His overwhelming combat aura, which was enough to make Lennok feel weary, and every word and action he uttered, unable to contain that intensity, were consistently those of a warrior.

Furthermore, what did it mean for such a person to reach 8th level and transcend Hierarchy?

Though he breathed and lived, he was a being already consumed by the ecstasy of struggle from head to bone marrow.

There was no benefit to be gained from associating with such an opponent. It would be fortunate if he wasn’t swept up in that fervor and harmed.

In fact, it was hard to understand how he had managed to abide by the Prohibition Edict and remain quietly confined to the public side until now.

Lennok hadn’t expected to encounter such a monster in the middle of the city, but he didn’t panic and slowly turned his back.

If a monster of this caliber was freely roaming the public side, there must surely be many eyes watching him.

Knowing that, there was no reason to indulge the opponent’s intentions.

As Lennok thought that and reached for his staff to return to Jenny’s bar, Krod nonchalantly added another remark.

“I understand you heard a hint about the Black Consumer Project from Onnion.”

“……”

A remark Lennok absolutely couldn’t ignore.

Blameless smiled as Lennok slowly turned his gaze.

“I have a favor to ask regarding that matter. Won’t you at least hear me out?”

Giant City Sector 16.

An outer lane of Sector 16, known among the inner sectors for its vast flat plains.

Highways, fields, and occasional gas stations lined the open space, while an impossibly long fence stretched to the horizon, obscuring it.

In the very center of the fence, which must have been hundreds of meters long, stood a magnificent gate.

Above the formidable gate, surrounded by sculptures of various demons and generals carved from old trees, hung a signboard.

[Turyeonmun (鬪鍊門)]

The gate swung open, revealing the vast expanse of a grand estate.

Creak…!!

Hundreds of superhumans ran laps around the vast estate’s perimeter, striking wooden dummies.

Some were engaged in sparring, facing each other, while others stood guard with weapons in the inner quarters of the estate.

All these martial artists, devoted solely to honing themselves, bowed respectfully the moment they saw Blameless.

“Lord Azlan, how was your outing after such a long time?”

“The Elder is waiting for you.”

“It seems there’s been direct contact from the Central Council.”

The martial artists naturally followed Blameless and Lennok, accompanying them and speaking various words.

Blameless simply nodded and immediately brought up his purpose.

“Guide our guest to a suitable place.”

“Understood!”

They escorted the two towards the main building, which was built like a palace.

They didn’t ask at all about the purpose or reason for the visit.

[……Van, be careful.]

Jenny’s faint voice reached Lennok’s ear.

[Blameless of Turyeonmun. He’s one of the most dangerous individuals among the monsters bound by the Prohibition Edict, known for his unpredictable actions.]

“……”

She was transmitting her voice directly using mana bone conduction, so Blameless wouldn’t hear it.

Jenny understood this and was rapidly relaying information about Blameless in a way only Lennok could receive.

Information that couldn’t be obtained through Davi’s data hacking or Lennok’s mana perception alone.

Secret rumors and information passed only by word of mouth among those who knew each other in the underworld.

[He’s a monster who’s existed since this city was being reorganized, an old veteran who even held a council seat… but there are rumors he stepped down from his council position due to a very unsavory incident.]

Jenny spoke with a tense voice.

[Some say that due to a mental illness, he’s already reached an irreversible state–]

“Please bear with me.”

“……”

Blameless turned to Lennok and smiled.

“I was away from the main hall for a while on business, so the welcoming is quite bustling.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

Lennok said with an expressionless face.

He had a rough idea what “business” Blameless was referring to, so he had no intention of prying.

Jenny, who had been holding her breath at Blameless’s strangely overlapping words, now whispered quietly.

[……I’ll temporarily link my deep web account to your phone, Van. If you need any information, you can look it up right away.]

Information, huh.

Lennok understood Jenny’s concern, but he had no immediate intention of using the account.

There was no need to beat around the bush once he had followed Blameless. If he needed something, he could simply extract it directly through conversation.

It wasn’t that difficult to find notable aspects in his words and actions.

“More importantly, how long do you intend to maintain that ridiculous way of speaking?”

“……My way of speaking, you mean?”

Lennok smiled, seeing Blameless falter.

“It’s an almost forced respect. Your competitive spirit, which you can’t hide, keeps breaking through.”

“……”

“In truth, you don’t really mean it; you’re just forcibly suppressing it. In fact, it’s rather annoying.”

The attitude with which he kept speaking to Lennok was, on the contrary, overly awkward and unclear, making it easy to discern.

Perhaps Blameless wasn’t the type to consistently use honorifics or show careful respect to subordinates.

Since he was trying to maintain respectful speech towards Lennok, who was clearly younger and of lower status than himself, his true mannerisms kept slipping out.

“……I can’t very well do that.”

Blameless laughed.

“I, myself, do not care about age, honor, or status. However, I am greatly interested in an opponent’s skill, achievements, and evaluation.”

“……”

“The prestige you’ve built under the name Adamant Thunder, the military feat of defeating Onnion single-handedly. All of it indicates the heights you’ve reached, so how could I dare speak down to you?”

Blameless said, then chuckled heartily, miming pulling his own mouth into a stretched smile.

“Please excuse my bad habit. You look so much younger than I expected, it’s almost as if my granddaughter, whom I left in a foreign land, is superimposed on you, leading to a slip of the tongue! Hahahahaha!!!”

A boisterous reaction, as if trying to generously cover up his mistake.

But Lennok simply offered a cold smile in response to Blameless.

“You probably wouldn’t be able to think rationally without forcing yourself to suppress your impulses by refining your speech like that, would you?”

“……”

Blameless’s laughter abruptly stopped.

“Transcending Hierarchy is quite a troublesome thing, isn’t it?”

He continued without waiting for an answer.

“The unexplored territory reached by straying from the set path isn’t always beneficial to oneself.”

What did it mean to go beyond the seven stages of self-transformation and completely transcend the existing Hierarchy?

To begin treading an unchosen path was akin to abandoning stability and taking a gamble.

Lennok understood very well that reaching Level 8 was not necessarily always beneficial.

He wasn’t insisting on his inconsistent manner of speech for some flimsy reason like being reminded of his granddaughter.

Rather, his self-control was so depleted that he couldn’t endure his desire for battle without making an effort to maintain a respectful tone towards others.

“I’m curious how you managed to meekly accept and endure the Prohibition Edict with that mindset.”

Lennok said nonchalantly, looking down at Blameless’s silent back.

“Wouldn’t it be better to just tie your limbs and shut yourself in a closet, never coming out?”

“……Heh heh.”

A low chuckle. An eerie killing intent seeped out from beneath his swaying white robe.

Under the pervasive pressure of the killing intent, the ties binding his neatly arranged white hair snapped, leaving it disheveled.

Click!

Blameless, who had turned to glance at Lennok through his loosened hair, replied in a subdued voice.

“There were times when I had to suppress my impulses to that extent.”

“……”

“In the past, I secretly welcomed the restraint of the Prohibition Edict. I saw it as an opportunity to forget about complex affairs and delve deep into myself.”

Blameless brushed his hair back and chuckled sharply, self-deprecatingly.

“But I realized too late that the towering structure I had built up, beyond my control, had become prone to collapse.”

Blameless’s shadow, as he walked with his hands clasped behind his back, began to fade to a pure white, emitting a soft glow.

Along with the illusion that the ground beneath his feet was brightly illuminated, the faces of the martial artists guiding Blameless turned pale.

“Ah, Lord Azlan……!!”

“Please calm down, sir! Mana discharge above Saint-level is forbidden within the main hall……!!”

Whoosh!!!

Blameless’s mana swelled uncontrollably.

Disregarding the others’ pleas, the soaring white shadow began to take on a distinct form.

The gigantic shape of a white demon, large enough to envelop Blameless’s body and more.

Covered in pure white hair, with a ghoulish, twisted face almost skeletal, its two eyes gleamed as it glared this way.

In its emaciated hand, it held a white flash extended like a long spear, appearing almost as an avatar embodying the inner landscape of the Transcendent, Blameless.

“……”

An unsettling chill, quite different from the somewhat jovial demeanor he had feigned moments ago.

The true face of a monster born from a twisted inner world, dwelling in shadows.

This was probably closer to the true essence of the monster known as Blameless.

A superhuman who pursued the essence of a martial artist more powerfully and distinctly than anyone else, to the point where he could imagine nothing but that image.

It was not unlike the faint sense of incongruity he had felt when dealing with Evelyn Marcia.

8-level Transcendent are already, to some extent, beyond human norms and temperament, and they strive to regulate and control this in their own ways.

Hiss…!!

The gaze of the demon, its eyes gleaming as if it would devour Lennok at any moment.

It was clear what Krod Azlan thought of Lennok.

Perhaps when he fought Maiya Lonsdale, he had used similar power to madly inflate his mana output and scale.

But Lennok merely calmly stroked his staff, even as the white demon’s form surged as if to pounce.

“You wield a monster born from a twisted inner world like an avatar. It’s intriguing, but……”

Whoosh!!!

A colorless wave burst from beneath Lennok’s feet, immediately pressing down on the white demon’s form.

“This isn’t something to bring out in a place like this.”

The intention to freely manipulate the precursor phenomenon that appears just before a Domain deployment.

The weight carried by Lennok’s Mind Imprint within the wave pressed down and nullified the white demon’s form itself.

Golden spirituality burst forth, unreservedly piercing the white demon’s eyes.

Swoosh…!!

Blameless did not resist the power of Lennok’s unleashed wave for long.

The white demon’s form faded away as if it had expected this, with such emptiness.

The other martial artists, watching from the side, stumbled backward, unable to utter a proper word.

“How can a mere mage suppress Lord Azlan’s ferocity!!”

“Is that not a talent too dangerous to be allowed into the main hall……!!”

But Blameless ignored the other martial artists’ reactions and simply smiled faintly, as if he had known it all along.

“Indeed, you could do it.”

“……”

“It has to be you. I’ve already made my decision.”

Some kind of inexplicable soliloquy.

But Lennok, who somewhat understood the meaning, did not bother to respond.

Blameless had deliberately reacted to Lennok’s provocation just now to confirm whether he had reached a level where he could directly neutralize his power.

The silence lasted only a moment.

“Well, I’ve been putting a lot of effort into mental cultivation these days, as it is.”

Blameless said, picking up the snapped hair tie and nonchalantly tying his white hair back into place.

Smiling faintly, he cleared his throat again, then grinned and looked away.

The other martial artists hastily composed themselves and began guiding them again.

But unlike before, when they seemed to mostly ignore Lennok, their gazes still couldn’t leave the staff-wielding mage.

“Rather than thinking about becoming stronger, I sometimes try to live as if I’ve forgotten about it. Haste makes waste, they say. Even now, I’m personally experiencing how true those old sayings are.”

Perhaps aiming not to become stronger could, paradoxically, make one stronger.

Lennok didn’t fully understand the values of such warriors or the precariousness of their inner worlds.

But he did, to some extent, empathize with the idea that such contradictions were part of the fundamental human psyche.

“Since this won’t be a very pleasant conversation, shall we stop here?”

Blameless said, walking unhesitatingly towards a corner of the main hall’s estate.

“Let’s put aside my useless ramblings and it seems it’s time to explain the reason I summoned you.”

They entered an antique-styled hall, carpeted with luxurious rugs, and sat down before a lavishly prepared table laden with drinks.

Could such a magnificent drinking table have been prepared for a guest in the short time they had walked and conversed between the estate grounds?

Blameless picked up a steaming cup of alcohol and pushed it forward to Lennok.

“How about we start with a drink?”

“Over 50 years have passed since Turyeonmun was established in this city.”

After gulping down a drink, he simply twitched a finger, and a bottle of liquor spun in place and rose up.

With a glance, as if an invisible hand were pouring, the liquid flowed into his cup.

“The project failed, the council was reshuffled, civil war erupted and the underworld was turned upside down, Kaiser’s granddaughter became a broker… we were here through it all.”

“……”

Did he hear it, or did he not?

“Do you understand what that means?”

Blameless’s face was strangely inscrutable. He didn’t seem to hide the fact that he wanted to gauge Lennok’s reaction.

But Lennok didn’t even twitch an eyebrow at Blameless’s question.

“Do you want to boast that you’re stagnant, rotting water?”

“Hahahahaha!!”

Blameless burst into laughter at Lennok’s words, then raised his glass and drained it.

“It means that we’ve had a hand in the hidden affairs of this city in various ways.”

“……”

“I haven’t been idle since being bound by the Prohibition Edict. On the contrary, I’ve tried to watch everything with interest.”

Perhaps because of his very white attire and skin, his face seemed to quickly redden even with a little alcohol.

After gulping down several drinks in quick succession, Blameless’s face was slightly flushed as he held up the bottle.

“For instance, incidents like the military’s rebellion that you directly participated in.”

“……”

“Major General Edmerus Treffen. You remember the betrayal of the mobile fortress commander, don’t you?”

Only then did Lennok realize that Blameless was getting to the point, and he silently set down the cup he was holding.

Blameless stared intently at Lennok’s gesture and spoke.

“At that time, Major General Treffen tried to negotiate with the council using abandoned military facilities in the underdeveloped zone, and it was actually effective.”

“So?”

“If Pallard O’Con, the Deputy Director of the Agents, hadn’t recruited talents like you to stop the mobile fortress, the council would have had to make many concessions.”

Blameless tilted his glass and continued.

“Since a loophole in the Prohibition Edict was clearly discovered, we too were able to have our hands untied while maintaining our existing privileges. There’s hardly an organization or faction that didn’t watch that process with interest.”

“……”

“The problem is that during that process, Deputy Director Pallard, along with some freelancers, stirred up parts of the sealed zone. You might remember.”

“……Sealed zone?”

Lennok immediately remembered what incident Blameless was referring to.

Before heading to the underdeveloped zone to deal with the mobile fortress, hadn’t he infiltrated Sector 6, designated as a sealed zone, to search for classified documents?

The operation where he used the data obtained during that process to ascertain the mobile fortress’s advance route and engage in an all-out battle.

Krod was now bringing up the events from that infiltration of Sector 6.

“That’s right. Frankly, without confirming this, our conversation wouldn’t progress.”

Blameless set down his cup and smiled.

“Because from now on, we need to enter another sealed zone to deal with the aftermath of the Black Consumer Project.”