Chapter 554: From the End of Failure (1)

Kaiser’s resolute words brooked no further reply.

A faint scoff echoed, and the ghost ship slowly passed across the power plant’s sky, vanishing from sight.

Simultaneously, the hazy mist cleared from the sky, and bright sunlight began to stream down once more.

Just as Kaiser had said, they would surely be spreading their power across the Ramahal District to search for them.

Gileon, who had approached without a sound, gently supported Kaiser’s shoulder as he gazed silently at the sky.

“How much serum did you extract?”

Gileon asked with a calm expression.

“You pushed yourself too hard immediately after the work. It would be best to rest until your condition returns.”

Kaiser looked slightly surprised by Gileon’s words, then smiled and pointed to Gileon’s back.

One of his wings, completely melted away from blocking Lennok’s Ultimate Conflagration.

“You’re the one who doesn’t look so good. Can you still fly?”

“It will be difficult.”

Gileon calmly conceded.

“But even with only one side remaining, there’s no problem assisting with ability manifestation. I can participate in the operation without issue.”

“Tear off the damaged wing and give it to me. I’ll try to fix it while the research progresses.”

“First, someone else will have to take over the surveillance around the power plant…”

“I will take it.”

McQueen, who had been watching the two with a displeased expression, spoke.

Although he was utterly battered from his battle with Ilya, he could still somehow move his body.

“McQueen. Is there a way?”

“Utilizing my summoned beast’s ability, extending sensory range over the entire area isn’t difficult.”

In response to Gileon’s question, McQueen turned to look at the massive stone golem he had summoned.

“However, doing so will divert most of the Liberation Protocol’s capacity to detection. It will provide almost no assistance in combat, so act accordingly.”

With that, the stone golem standing behind McQueen slowly began to climb the transmission tower.

Perched atop the transmission tower, the golem sat cross-legged, spreading its multiple, multi-angled arms wide, and closed its eyes.

Wooooong…!!

Simultaneously, a yellow radiance spread out from the golem’s center, rippling outwards beyond the power plant.

McQueen sat beneath the transmission tower where the golem was perched, beginning to concentrate.

While fully dedicated to monitoring the power plant facility, he appeared completely defenseless against external attack.

From behind Gileon, a voice tinged with laughter drifted from Olivera as he watched McQueen.

[Parden is not, by nature, one to step forward in such situations.]

“…”

[He seems to feel indebted to you.]

“He wasn’t the only one who received help. As a result, one of your wings was destroyed trying to protect you.”

[Ah, that was useless. It would have been better to focus on inflicting a fatal blow on that wizard instead of protecting me.]

Olivera shook her head at Gileon’s calm words.

[Though I only briefly faced him directly, unlike his explosive mana, the core of his body was unstable, flickering. Perhaps it would have been better to force him into close combat from the start and disrupt his balance…]

Olivera murmured, deep in thought, stroking her chin beneath her veil.

There was no sentiment or reflection whatsoever about the fact that she had nearly died.

Did she possess some unknown method of salvation or secret strategy, or was it the attitude of a madwoman who welcomed her own death? Gileon ultimately could not comprehend it.

Kaiser let out a small laugh, observing their sharp exchange.

“Don’t think useless thoughts, Olivera. You’re injured too, aren’t you?”

[Hmm. Were you watching?]

“If you took that much damage even after bringing out your Domain, it means the battle was that close.”

Kaiser shook his head.

“Since you used the serum on vital organs like your heart, there will be severe backlash for a while. There might even be lingering after-effects if it goes wrong.”

The Domain and spellwork accumulated by a powerful wizard like her boasted transcendent power, but conversely, the backlash when they were broken and collapsed was just as profound.

Kaiser didn’t know how Olivera’s Domain had run wild, but she knew the backlash was by no means a trivial issue for Olivera.

Furthermore, having poured serum, created from someone else’s blood, into organs like her heart, Olivera’s condition couldn’t possibly be completely fine. It wouldn’t be strange for blood rejection to occur, more so than just a decrease in regenerative power or fatigue.

Kaiser signaled to Gileon with a cold gaze.

“There must still be intact living quarters inside the power plant. Gileon, guide her to a place where she can rest.”

[No guidance needed. I intend to choose the time and place myself.]

Olivera shrugged off Gileon and unhesitatingly walked past Kaiser.

A faint telepathic message, just loud enough for Kaiser to hear, echoed from beneath the veil.

[You already have an idea where that wizard came from, don’t you?]

“…”

[The constant attrition doesn’t apply only to us.]

Her Mystic Eye faintly gleamed from within the veil as she turned her head toward Kaiser.

[I know it’s not strange to hide and conceal things now. It doesn’t matter if you know who that wizard is. But remember, the project must be completed.]

Olivera said.

[It’s a contract. A vicious contract that has placed our fate on the scales.]

“I know.”

[Oh, do you?]

From beneath the veil, she seemed to let out a hollow scoff.

[Truthfully, I still don’t quite understand.]

With a solitary telepathic message, Olivera’s form vanished abruptly.

Despite clearly having taken a major blow from the recent battle with the wizard, even Gileon found it difficult to track her movements.

McQueen, too, surely believed implicitly in his master’s abilities, choosing to focus on maintaining vigilance here rather than attending to her.

Kaiser calmly observed the ruined landscape of the power plant’s open ground before speaking.

“We’ll re-examine and restore the research data from scratch. It’s enough if you just prevent intruders from entering the power plant during that time.”

“Understood. By now, the last member who participated in the operation should be returning too.”

Gileon raised his dark eyes and replied.

“Once that man returns, we won’t have to worry about external attacks.”

“No, I have a separate task to entrust to him.”

“…A separate task?”

Kaiser nodded, his expression unreadable.

“Yes… I think I now know how to conclude this research.”

Inside the half-collapsed apartment building.

Felix found a relatively intact unit and twisted the doorknob, the sturdy metal handle bending like taffy.

Click!

“This one seems fine.”

Felix gasped for breath and slowly bent down.

He gently set Lennok, whom he had carried over his shoulder, down next to a broken sofa.

As soon as Lennok was set down from Felix’s shoulder, he quickly pulled out some medicine from his pocket and chewed it.

“Cough, cough…!!”

A process to quickly mitigate the side effects of combat by combining stimulants and painkillers.

The mana and vitality expended fighting Olivera inflicted an unfiltered blow on Lennok’s delicate body.

While he was trying to mend the forcibly suppressed damage and alleviate the pain, blood streamed from his nose.

Lennok quickly focused on emergency treatment, not even bothering to wipe the front of his clothes, which were stained crimson.

Felix and Ilya watched Lennok with pained expressions.

“I’m sorry, Van. I was foolish.”

The bird-headed giant, who carefully supported Lennok’s coughing back, said.

“The moment I was separated from you, I should have run straight to the power plant, disregarding other possibilities. To entrust the most crucial task to your injured self and only mess around…”

“No, Magath-nim. This is my fault.”

Ilya bit her lip hard.

“I failed to achieve any meaningful gain against Kaiser during the time Van-nim bought us. I should have secured his person… It’s a grave mistake.”

“Cough…!! Are we holding confession now…?”

Lennok chuckled, wiped his nosebleed, and stood up.

Felix firmly supported Lennok’s staggering body.

“You need to rest. Your mana is extremely unstable right now.”

“There’s not much time.”

Lennok murmured.

“We need to recover our stance and move before their forces regroup.”

If they didn’t, they wouldn’t just fail to solve the radiation phenomenon; they might even be hunted down by their enemies. Having realized that Kaiser held the key to the current bizarre phenomenon, shouldn’t they somehow force their way through the gap?

Above all, Lennok had no intention of letting the opportunity to directly confront Kaiser slip away after just one failure.

“So, you’re saying you’re going back to the power plant in this state?”

“No, how could I?”

“…”

Lennok, instead, looked up at a speechless Felix as if he were the strange one.

“If that were the case, I wouldn’t have bothered to escape from there. What I’m talking about is something entirely different.”

“…Now that you mention it, you did say you were going to look for Krod Azlan.”

“It’s not just to find Purity and inform him of the situation. There’s something that needs to be checked just as quickly.”

“What do you mean?”

Instead of answering, Lennok subtly looked around.

“This apartment is too unsuitable as a hiding place. We’d be discovered quickly if we rested here too long.”

Lennok pushed open the entrance door, which Felix had half-crushed with his strength, and nodded.

“Let’s move. If that ghost ship really belongs to Madrich Onnion, I have a suitable place in mind.”

The group immediately gathered their belongings and left the apartment.

A damp chill filled the streets. Eerie wails echoed faintly in their ears, raising goosebumps on their skin.

Evidence that Madrich Onnion’s Military Spirit Sorcery had begun scanning the entire area.

But Lennok paid no heed to the presence of the spectral soldiers, felt everywhere, and headed straight for the downtown area.

A small aquarium located on the outskirts of the downtown district.

The empty aquarium only contained various unknown aquatic species swimming inside the tanks.

Felix, too, made a strange expression, as if this was the first time he had chosen such a place as a hideout.

“Are you sure about this place?”

“Madrich Onnion’s Military Spirit Sorcery seems to have difficulty perceiving its influence inside waterways.”

Lennok said, pulling out the Druid’s Amulet from his pocket.

“If so, wouldn’t the opposite be true as well?”

He remembered that the former Chief Justice’s hideout was hidden deep beneath the sea in a secluded place.

That was proof that the Military Spirit Sorcerer’s own power could be somewhat blocked and concealed underwater.

So, when Madrich Onnion searched for others, wouldn’t it be natural that he would have difficulty finding those located on the opposite side of the waterway?

Lennok drew a simple barrier circle around the two artifacts—the amulet that concealed one’s presence when stationary, and the Nyx Badge that replaced one’s presence with that of another life form—and constructed a magical array encircling the aquarium.

Whoosh…!!

As warm air blew in, the dark aquarium faintly brightened.

Felix and Ilya finally leaned against the tank walls and caught their breath.

“Hmph…”

They had been forcibly maintaining concentration out of concern for Lennok, but they, too, had expended a considerable amount of stamina and mana in the fierce battle.

It was nothing short of a miracle that all three had escaped with their lives from a battle between high-ranking superhumans.

“If we make it back alive… I will definitely pay for the artifacts you just used.”

Lennok chuckled at Ilya’s resolute words.

“You have a knack for ominous remarks.”

“Isn’t that something you shouldn’t say at a time like this?”

Felix chided Ilya, then subtly cleared his throat, looking at Lennok.

“Ahem, of course, I’m not saying I won’t pay for them either. What I’m trying to say is…”

“I’ll explain exactly what happened at the power plant.”

Cutting off Felix’s unnecessary words, Lennok explained how he had encountered Kaiser.

The conversation he had with Kaiser, the purpose pointed to by the spacetime research, and Olivera’s appearance.

The expressions of the two, who had been listening intently to Lennok’s words, turned astonished.

“You mean he’s fixing spacetime itself to create a testbed for experiments… That’s an idea that truly transcends human reason.”

“If it weren’t for this operation, I would have dismissed it as the ravings of a madman.”

Felix murmured with a pained expression.

“But that man not only kept his word, he preserved the damage caused by it intact in this area. Truly a wicked act.”

“A wicked act…”

While Lennok pondered those words, Ilya spoke again.

“The power Kaiser Bajour used was more unique and bizarre than any ability I’ve encountered. He… could manipulate perceived human time.”

“…”

“I lost the chance to secure Kaiser’s person due to that ability. Though I did inflict some damage in the process…”

Listening to Ilya’s continuing words, Felix clutched his head.

“Injuries reversed time and healed on the spot? He’s no longer even human.”

“His intrinsic Hierarchy seemed close to an Ascendant level, but his mana and physical body transcend the scope of Hierarchy. Perhaps he already obtained superhuman power through the project…”

“The most important fact is that Kaiser himself understood that this space is distorted spacetime.”

Lennok said, rubbing his shoulder with an expressionless face.

“Based on the fact that nothing happened when the research succeeded, he hypothesized that my existence was a variable in that process and drew a conclusion.”

“You mean his comrades might already be aware of that fact?”

“That would truly be the worst-case scenario… We might have to escape the area right now and contact the authorities.”

If the superhumans of the past, existing in the Sealed Zone, suddenly realized they were beings of the past, anything could happen. This entire incident might have spiraled out of their control.

However, Lennok thought for a long time about Ilya’s words, then slowly shook his head.

“No, I’ve kept thinking about it, but Kaiser… seems to have no intention of telling his comrades.”

“Why?”

“Looking back, Kaiser had plenty of opportunities to tell his comrades that fact. But none of those we faced noticed the spacetime distortion.”

“…”

“And look at the spectral soldiers now searching for us. If Madrich Onnion knew the truth, would he be wasting time looking for us?”

Lennok shook his head, watching their expressions slowly change.

“Of course not. He would naturally lead the ghost ship to the edge of the Sealed Zone and verify the distorted boundary himself. The very fact that he hasn’t…”

“Means Kaiser has no intention of revealing the truth.”

Lennok’s eyes quietly gleamed.

“If he’s holding back information even from his closest allies, he must be thinking of something else. And that’s almost certainly because of our existence.”

“You mean that man wants to contact us separately?”

“Well… I can’t say for sure.”

In response to Felix’s words, Lennok quietly pulled something out of his pocket.

“But if that’s the case, he would have left a message in a way that we could recognize it.”

“Van, wait… Is that…?”

Lennok grinned, shaking something in his hand, and the other two’s mouths fell open.

Bright red blood sloshing inside a glass vial.

Lennok had succeeded in secretly taking one of Kaiser’s serums from the cart.