Chapter 551: Monster of the Past (3)

BOOM!!

“Gah…!!”

If Ilya hadn’t protected her body by overlapping her spears, it wouldn’t have been strange for her ribs to break from the giant’s crushing grip. At the feet of the fallen Ilya, the faded robes of an old monk were visible.

“I didn’t expect so many flies to have snuck into the power plant when I looked away for a moment.”

Parden McQueen, having recovered his condition, had returned to the power room to help Kaiser.

“Lord Kaiser, are you alright?”

“Yes, no problem.”

Kaiser, his face expressionless, walked out, closed the power room door, and locked it. A sturdy steel lock engaged, followed by a spell barrier layered over it.

“Where is Gileon?”

“He went upstairs to deal with that wizard. He said if the situation stabilizes, he intends to check the power plant surroundings for other variables.”

McQueen’s calm eyes, having regained composure, gazed at Ilya.

“Since we’ve confirmed there’s more than one, isn’t there every possibility that it won’t end with just these two?”

“……”

Ilya lay fallen across the melted power plant corridor, with McQueen looking down at her. Behind the renegade monk, a gigantic stone statue, with a menacing expression, glared at Ilya, making the spacious corridor seem cramped.

[Kiiiiiii…!!]

The summoned beast, Arjumarta, conjured through a combination of Liberation Protocol and Domain Boundary Pattern. It was a type of spell-support weapon that generally amplified all of Parden McQueen’s abilities, a power close to his ultimate technique. During his battle with Lennok, he hadn’t even had a chance to summon it, being battered from start to finish, but this time, McQueen brought it out from the very beginning.

Ilya looked at McQueen and his summoned beast, then sighed and slowly got to her feet.

“Huuuuuh…”

Behind her, Super-Vibration Spears floated up, naturally supporting Ilya’s body.

‘Rib fractures and some internal abdominal organ damage. Ligament tears and a knee fracture… This is quite dangerous.’

Ilya, who had instantly assessed the extent of her injuries, gave a bitter smile. After her internal time had been scrambled by Kaiser’s power, an error had occurred in her calculation of when enemy reinforcements would arrive.

Originally, the moment she secured Kaiser’s person, it would have been a narrow escape to flee outside the power plant. That precious sliver of time was wasted by the delay caused by fighting Kaiser.

Kaiser, too, had thoroughly dragged Ilya into a psychological battle, holding out while waiting for reinforcements. The fact that she had been delayed this long against Kaiser, who had exhausted all his mana and was not in good condition, was already tantamount to Ilya’s defeat.

“That weapon. I haven’t seen such technology on the front lines before.”

McQueen’s eyes glinted as he looked at the Super-Vibration Spears floating behind Ilya.

“Lord Kaiser, do you know anything about her identity?”

“……”

Kaiser remained silent instead of answering McQueen’s question. Silently watching Ilya, Kaiser eventually turned towards the corridor behind McQueen.

“I’ll leave her to you. I have something to do.”

“I was asked by Gileon to guard you. Stay close.”

“I intend to inform the others outside the power plant about this, too.”

“……”

“Of course, they might be returning now after seeing the commotion, but first, we need to get all our forces back.”

Kaiser’s cold gaze fixed on Ilya.

“After that, we can ask about their purpose and identity.”

“Hmm.”

“If Olivera is dealing with that wizard, there shouldn’t be any major problems for a while. In fact, I might need to warn her not to kill him.”

“Ahem, calling the Chairman by her first name so casually…”

Ignoring McQueen’s cough, Kaiser vanished down the corridor. His movements suggested a much more urgent matter than what he had just discussed. Ilya watched Kaiser’s disappearing figure until the end, but under the piercing gaze of McQueen and the stone statue, she had no choice but to give up on Kaiser.

Even though it was half-melted and collapsed, trying to break through McQueen and pursue Kaiser in the straight corridor was virtually impossible. The moment she failed to secure Kaiser on the spot and escape, it was a failure. From here on, she was stuck facing McQueen.

Realizing this, Ilya’s gaze slowly turned to McQueen, who, sensing her intent, smiled.

“Relieved. You’re not like that wizard.”

“……”

“If you were as strong as him, you wouldn’t be hesitating like this. You’re not as strong as the wizard… You’re not a monster like him…”

McQueen’s mumbling, as if he was repeating it to himself, momentarily left Ilya speechless. It seemed he had already engaged Adamant Thunder once and returned here; to what extent had he been suppressed to be muttering such words?

The renegade monk, his eyes bloodshot, unleashed his chilling killing intent without reserve.

“Those who interfere with the Chairman, I will kill them all…!!”

CRASHHHH!!!

Simultaneous with the stone statue’s fierce roar, McQueen’s Main Force erupted, dyeing the surrounding corridor bright yellow. The pride of a 7-level Completer. Yet, the humiliation of being crushed like an insect by a single wizard. McQueen’s internal landscape, a mix of disgrace and self-abasement, relentlessly drew out and unleashed Main Force beyond its limits. Ilya lowered her stance, receiving McQueen’s surge of power with her spears.

“Neither of us has much leeway, it seems.”

Kiiing…!!

Holding two spears in her hands, she pressed one underfoot. With the other two spears floating crossed behind her, Ilya raised her mana and quietly muttered.

“I will take responsibility for my own mistakes. Come.”

An unceasing symphony of intersecting light. A deafening roar erupted a beat later, echoing through the air, vibrating and dazzling the surroundings with a massive wave of radiance.

CRUMBLEEEEE!!!

Under the immense heat assaulting the surroundings, even the power plant building, thoroughly constructed with heat-resistant materials, melted away helplessly. Even the discharge pillar, boasting a diameter of tens of meters, lost its center and tilted.

Beyond Lennok’s vision, dozens of clones incessantly intersected: Incarnation of Radiant Splendor [요희신궁(曜熙身躬)]. As Olivera’s clones gracefully walked through the waves of light, bursts of light artillery, like pouring rain, pounded the ground with each step.

Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!!!

Hundreds of refracted light beams, channeled through the encroaching Domain, Probing Mirror Heaven Palace [탐태소천경(探兌昭穿鏡)]. They didn’t cease with a single bombardment, but reflected and distorted from various angles, seeking their target again, turning their heat sources.

Hundreds of lasers lined up in spirals from all directions, simultaneously pouring down on Lennok as if bowing their heads, a sight that was almost beautiful. Amidst the laser rain, a heat source that could vaporize a body with a single direct hit, Lennok still endured, buying time.

Chi-ii-ik!!!

He drew forth lightning to deflect the bombardments, and close-range attacks from the clones were blocked with a carapace shield and regular shields. Attacks that erupted at moments too precise to dodge were evaded with Instant Blinks.

Lennok moved as if gliding over the melted lava, appearing and disappearing amidst the rain of light. Olivera watched Lennok for a long time, then finally broke the silence and spoke.

[Having traveled the world, encountering countless monsters and geniuses…]

A wry smile played on her lips as she tilted her head to one side.

[You are truly the first wizard as unique as you.]

“……”

Lennok struggled to wave his hand, unable to give a proper reply. It went without saying how much a battle against a Grand Master Mage drained one’s nerves and pushed fatigue levels. His physical fatigue, separate from his mental energy, had reached its limit. If not for the help of medicine, he would have already collapsed in a faint, face down in the lava.

Olivera looked at Lennok and laughed aloud, amused.

[With that level of combat intelligence and casting speed, your raw power must undoubtedly rival mine. Yet, if you are still avoiding a Domain deployment…]

Olivera’s clones whispered.

[That must certainly be because of Kaiser’s presence.]

“……”

[Is your Domain too vast to control, or does it summon something so powerful it cannot distinguish friend from foe?]

“Well…”

[It seems you wish to take Kaiser, but that is an impossible wish. Do you know that one of your companions just failed to capture Kaiser alive?]

Lennok did not reply. He had already sensed the presence of Ilya hidden inside the power plant, and the clash of McQueen’s mana. She must have failed to secure Kaiser. He had no intention of blaming Ilya for that.

Kaiser’s power was that anomalous, and his intelligence and judgment in wielding it rivaled Lennok’s. After all, even Lennok himself, facing Kaiser, hadn’t been able to decide how to deal with him, had he?

Ultimately, the plan to help him finish his spacetime research faster than expected had failed. Instead, it had only resulted in Kaiser realizing Lennok’s true identity more quickly.

If so, there was no choice but to seize control of the still-operating Spacetime Anchoring Device and shut it down. He had been buying Davi time to hack the independent network for that purpose, but… Lennok himself was not entirely sure. Could the radiation incident caused by the spacetime research, the side effect of the Black Consumer Project’s testbed, be solved by that alone?

For past beings to have been summoned into reality due to research side effects, their power and judgment were too close to that of real individuals. What if the intensified radiation phenomenon, and the encounter with past beings through spacetime research, were products of an even greater secret?

Lennok had been continuously contemplating this even while exchanging blows with Olivera.

“……”

[Kaiser seems to want to subdue you alive and get an explanation for this whole affair.]

Scores of Olivera’s clones split into hundreds more, floating densely, covering both ground and air.

[If you cannot use your Domain, then so be it. There’s no reason to deal further with someone who doesn’t know where to use his power.]

Incarnation of Radiant Splendor clones surrounded Lennok, closing the distance. Olivera hadn’t stopped her offense and defense to converse idly. She had merely been preparing the groundwork to give Lennok no escape route. From the beginning, she intended not to kill Lennok, but to capture him alive and make him reveal his secrets.

[I shall imprison your spirit in the Upper Heavens of the mortal world.]

The moment hundreds of clones simultaneously formed hand signs and gestured towards Lennok as if pronouncing a sentence.

Kiiiiiiing…!!

The giant prism barrier surrounding Lennok tilted, receiving light from the sky and beginning to construct a light barrier. The barrier formed a giant, glowing, rotating hemisphere.

Radiance-attribute system unique magic.

Great Light-Emitting Grand Sealing.

Revolving Saintly Construction [전륜축성(展侖築聖)].

FLASHHHH!!!

Through the hundreds of clones created by Olivera, massive lines of light connected, and each clone became a focal point for constructing the barrier. It was an incredibly powerful sealing technique that overlapped hundreds of focal points—which should normally be only one in a spherical barrier—to simultaneously trap different Domains. Knowing Lennok was an extremely powerful wizard, Olivera was using the spell with all her might to seal him.

“……!!”

Crackle-crackle-crack!

Hundreds of light beams from the sphere surrounded Lennok’s body, gradually narrowing the distance and tightening their grip. The manifestation of a sealing technique that constricted space itself, suppressing movement, breathing, movement patterns, and even mana manipulation.

A single decisive move that rendered all the time Lennok had gained by enduring meaningless. Olivera, too, had been constantly preparing other countermeasures even as the battle progressed. At this rate, it wouldn’t be strange if Lennok himself were captured, ending the operation, making all their previous efforts meaningless.

However, instead of frantically wasting mana, Lennok calmly settled his mana and slowly took a breath.

“I admit it. You are still cautious, and dangerous, even here.”

He grasped the jet-black light that continuously streamed from his right eye with one hand. The moment he turned his right Mystic Eye, constantly oozing jet-black light, towards the barrier.

CRACKLE!

The barrier, Revolving Saintly Construction [전륜축성(展侖築聖)], which had been rushing to seal Lennok, began to collapse.

“That’s why it took so long to drag you here.”

[……!!]

Hundreds of Olivera clones turned to the barrier with surprised expressions, hearing a thunderous sound from an utterly unexpected place.

CRACKLE-CRACKLE-CRACKLE!!!

The barrier, which had moments ago traced a magnificent hemisphere of light, pulsed wildly and collapsed in various places. As the barrier crumbled, the clones acting as focal points vanished one by one, and the barrier itself cracked and broke apart.

Only then did Olivera realize how Lennok had affected the barrier, and she unleashed a sharp thought-transmission.

[He wasn’t suppressing the Revolving Saintly Construction. He forced the barrier’s composition itself to go out of control. Since when…!!]

“I thought of it the moment I saw your clone magic.”

Lennok smiled.

“If clones are created by bending the properties of Radiance-attribute system magic to the extreme, then the existence of the clones themselves could become a medium for even more powerful spells.”

The Olivera of this era was a figure from decades past, yet she was a genius and a monster who wielded Radiance-attribute magic to its absolute limit. Lennok, deeply realizing her intellect and talent, was convinced that there wasn’t just one reason for her to summon clones.

Simply to hide her main body’s location or increase her numbers? The Olivera Ron Maize he knew was not the type to endure such inconvenience for such trivial gains. The very existence of the clones was a stepping stone to achieve a greater purpose. Lennok had realized this and had been waiting for the moment Olivera would expand her clones to their limit to use the spell.

“She created dozens of clones and showed almost no openings. For the Mystic Eye to start working only after she herself was layered hundreds of times simultaneously, she’s nothing short of a monster.”

From the moment he encountered her clone magic, he had intended to use his Mystic Eye to forcibly cause Olivera’s spell to run wild. However, Olivera only started showing openings in her spell after she had increased herself to nearly hundreds of figures.

It was truly the result of overwhelming capacity and a formidable self-consciousness. If she hadn’t pushed her capacity to the limit by using Revolving Saintly Construction at the last moment, Lennok’s Mystic Eye would not have worked.

But Lennok knew that Olivera would undoubtedly use her ultimate magic—one that only she could be confident in—to settle the fight. Wasn’t it precisely to induce such thoughts and judgments that he had forcibly endured until now, buying time for Davi?

CRACKLE-CRACKLE-CRACKLE…!!

The hundreds of Olivera clones shattered like cracking glass. Mirages created using light refraction split, broke, and disappeared, and beyond them, the giant mirror barrier of the Domain also shattered.

CRASH!

The true Olivera appeared amidst the rain of countless shattering prism fragments. It was unthinkable that an 8-level Grand Master Mage’s Domain, especially an encroaching one integrated into reality, could be so easily broken. But Lennok knew that if his Mystic Eye worked, its power would undoubtedly reach even her Domain.

Because the power of the right Mystic Eye that Lennok was currently using, which overloads causality, stemmed from the Mystic Eye personally created by the future Olivera.

Lennok lowered his body, gliding over the breaking glass fragments.

Whoosh!

He layered his Instant Blink spell multiple times, appearing before her with lightning-fast speed, too quick for her to perceive. In Lennok’s hand, a black sphere, glowing with a somber light, was already condensed and rotating.

Woo-woo-woo-woo!!!

A 7-level lightning-attribute spell created by adding unique magic Property Transformation to common magic. The lightning, distorted and warped beyond its limits, lost its characteristic color and deepened to jet black.

This was a fleeting moment, exploiting the temporary nullification of the Domain. No matter how powerful Olivera Ron Maize was, it was impossible for her to shake off the backlash from such a large-scale spell being broken.

Olivera looked down at Lennok, her expression cold, unable to move. Lennok whispered.

“This time, I win.”

Ultimate Conflagration [極燔].

A jet-black flash erupted from Lennok’s fingertips,膨胀着光芒，在原地竖起一道漆黑的光柱. The infernal lightning soared, enveloping Olivera’s body, and just as it was about to race from the ground towards the sky in reverse.

[Indeed. If you threw such a high-stakes gamble and hit, it’s only right for the tables to turn.]

Olivera smiled.

[But that doesn’t mean I will allow you to determine my end.]

Just as the flames of Ultimate Conflagration were about to completely consume her body.

Thud!

Olivera thrust her own hand directly into her heart.