Chapter 630: The Architect (3)

“But… how exactly do you intend to look into my mind…?”

Elava asked, her voice trembling, as she stared at the wires connecting the tickets.

“Master Artisan Lyman is certainly talented, but I understand he’s not close to being a high-ranking superhuman…”

“You only need to focus on this for a moment. That will be enough.”

Lennok gently coaxed and reassured her.

“What I can show you will only last for a very brief instant.”

“Just… an instant?”

Lennok brought his hand close to Elava’s trembling eyes, slowly opening his palm as he murmured.

“I’ll handle the rest myself.”

At that moment, the mana surging from the deepest part of Lennok’s body instantly enveloped the realm of consciousness and erupted.

KWA-AAAAH!!!

0.11 seconds passed from the moment the immense mana, strong enough to incinerate the entire Upper Workshop District, rotated within Lennok’s body and dissipated.

Just before the mana, unleashed by a high-ranking wizard who had transcended Hierarchy and truly intended to, flooded the entire workshop—

A golden double helix bloomed from Lennok’s fingertips, cleanly devouring the erupted mana and manifesting itself.

FWIIISH!!

The materialization of the caster’s ultimate desire, the Ouroboros magic system.

Lennok consumed the minimum mana required to activate Ouroboros, summoning it in a flash and scattering the golden helix before Elava’s eyes.

The double helix, rotating and blooming from his fingertips, twisted in place, forming small concentric circles.

“…!!!”

Elava’s pupils, facing it directly, seemed to rapidly dilate, and she began to pant, cold sweat streaming down her face.

“Hah… haah…!!”

The Ouroboros magic system was an artificial perpetual engine created by Lennok, gathering all the experience and talent he had accumulated.

It was an infinite serpent that analyzed, dismantled, and transformed every power existing in this world, never truly complete, but eternally striving for perfection.

KIIING…!!

The Ouroboros form that bloomed before Elava’s eyes rotated on its own, drawing circles as it simultaneously dissipated.

Through perfect mana manipulation and precise quantitative calculation, the mana consumed by Ouroboros and its traces did not leak out of the workshop, instead canceling each other out and fading away.

But the overwhelming amount of information had already directly struck Elava’s brain, inducing an overload that a normal human could not endure.

“Ah, ahh…!!”

Seeing Elava’s hands shaking uncontrollably, unable to properly speak.

Lennok immediately withdrew his mana and concentrated on the wires connecting their tickets.

Connecting their consciousnesses via their tickets as a medium, reading and interpreting the information randomly spilling out of Elava’s mind.

It was precisely for this purpose that he had strained himself to forcibly activate Ouroboros and summoned it before Elava’s eyes.

To overwhelm Elava’s consciousness and forcibly read the hidden information beyond it, an immense amount of information was required.

And among Lennok’s current abilities, only the Mystic Eye opened in his right eye and Ouroboros were capable of such a feat.

‘Using the Mystic Eye could completely destroy Elava’s mind. I must avoid that at all costs.’

Lennok did not believe it was a mere coincidence that the descendant of the Ascension Gate’s designer sought him out at this precise moment.

Someone, having noticed the various exceptional qualities he displayed under the identity of Lyman, had surely sent Elava to him.

They were undoubtedly trying to ascertain how far Lennok could help Elava through this.

Therefore, forcibly reading memories and damaging Elava’s mind at this juncture would only result in extreme losses for both Lennok and Elava.

Though he had pushed himself to rapidly raise Ouroboros in a short time, it was also true that there was no method more efficient than this.

‘This is the same power that disassembled Kebaek’s Geas. If the binding on Elava’s mind is a powerful Geas, it might be possible to melt it away right here…’

Thinking so, Lennok halted his movements at the chaotic flood of memories and information pouring from Elava’s consciousness.

[…Oh?]

Instead, Davi, who had been soundly asleep, showing no interest in Lennok’s work, raised her head.

The Cybernetic Spirit, speaking on behalf of her silent master, hopped onto unconscious Elava’s forehead and murmured.

[I’m sensing very regular electrical signals inside this organic entity’s head?]

“….”

She wasn’t wrong.

BEEP, BEEP-BEEP, BEEP-BEEP-BEEP…!!

Random fragments of memory and information overflowing from her consciousness.

Normally, they should be irregular, disordered, and take the form of sensory experiences, converting analog visuals or sounds.

However, the information currently flowing through Elava’s subconscious was not like that; it took the form of electronic sounds with distinct patterns and rhythms.

“…I see. It wasn’t memories or images hidden away.”

Only then did Lennok realize the true nature of the Geas within Elava’s mind, and he smiled bitterly.

“Literally, a machine program itself is stored intact within Elava’s head.”

[An organic entity’s cerebral cortex wouldn’t be suitable for remembering and storing complex cybernetic execution processes, would it?]

Lennok nodded at Davi’s words as the cybernetic spirit licked her paws and mumbled.

“Exactly. It’s impossible for anyone below a high-ranking superhuman, let alone a mental-type sorcerer. The very possibility of this indicates that the power of a Geas was invoked.”

Lennok’s eyes gleamed coldly.

“I think I understand now why Elava couldn’t properly control her bodily sensations.”

The person who stored the program in Elava’s head literally turned her into a living memory device.

They borrowed the power of a Geas to store a program that a human mind couldn’t fully remember.

But even if program code was forcibly stored in her head, it was natural for some of her brain’s abilities to become imbalanced and cause abnormalities.

There was no other reason why Elava couldn’t grasp how to control her own body.

“Part of her cognitive function has been cybernetized, so her human senses simply can’t keep up with that process.”

The machine program code stored in her head was constantly causing interference by being out of sync with her actual human senses.

“I also understand why no one could solve Elava’s problem. Simply being deeply knowledgeable in engineering wouldn’t have been enough to even perceive the issue.”

She breathed, thought, and felt emotions just like Lennok, yet her essence was already profoundly distant from that of a human.

It was a task impossible to even attempt without a deep understanding of both human spirituality and the cybernetic field.

Would this be the result if a mad genius had successfully experimented with cybernetizing a human mind to such an extent?

Lennok felt he could vaguely infer what kind of being the engineer Artemeyer, who designed the Ascension Gate, truly was.

[Master, what are you going to do?]

“…I can’t completely extract the program code stored in Elava’s head.”

Even if he continued to overload Elava’s consciousness and forcibly extract the code, her mind would only collapse.

Copying the program code itself and obtaining it was a secondary option. Even that wouldn’t truly solve Elava’s problem.

However, now that he knew a cybernetic program occupied Elava’s mind, there were many ways to intervene.

When it came to the cybernetic domain, there was always an instinctively gifted expert in this field by his side.

“Davi. Can you manipulate the program stored inside Elava’s mind?”

At Lennok’s words, Davi patted Elava’s forehead as if tapping a watermelon, then turned her head as if something occurred to her.

[I think I can optimize the program in this organic entity’s head to reduce its size?]

“Optimization, you say…”

[Perhaps because they tried to directly embed the program into the organic entity’s cerebral cortex, it’s using a surprisingly simple, outdated operating system. I think I can optimize its performance with an update…]

“Expected side effects?”

[Unless you also adjust the capacity of the Geas used to store the program in its original form, her consciousness will ultimately be severely damaged.]

Understanding Davi’s words, Lennok immediately nodded.

“You mean I need to adjust the scope of the Geas. Alright. I’ll handle that.”

The program code hidden inside Elava’s head.

And the Geas enabled that code to exist in its stored form.

Naturally, the Geas was only applied precisely enough to preserve the original program code.

If Davi were to optimize and transform Elava’s program through her cybernetic abilities, the Geas, attuned to the original, would distort and cause a backlash.

Davi was saying that Elava would find it difficult to withstand the burden if those processes weren’t adjusted simultaneously.

While Completers who had reached high-level self-modification rarely suffered complete mental collapse due to their firmly established spiritual ego, Elava did not fall into that category.

Lennok had to watch Davi optimize the program while simultaneously adjusting Elava’s Geas.

Touching both the human mental domain and the cybernetic domain at the same time, all while having to finish everything before Ibert returned.

Knowing how precarious it all was, Lennok didn’t hesitate.

“We don’t have much time. Let’s begin.”

[Starting internal operating system processor optimization.]

WOOSH…!!

With that, Davi carefully released and poured mana into Elava’s pupils.

Electrical signals, entering Elava’s head through her optic nerves, delivered compatible commands to the program in her mind without harming her biological mechanisms.

CRACKLE, CRACKLE…!!

[I’ll compress the operating system processor itself to delete unnecessary dummy data and reduce storage capacity. When I send the signal, you can adjust the Geas simultaneously.]

“….”

Lennok didn’t even reply, staring intently at Elava’s reaction.

Solving Elava’s problem, without collapsing her mind, while simultaneously obtaining a complete copy of the program code within her.

Knowing how delicate and vulnerable the human mind and body are, a single moment’s timing could determine success or failure.

[Master!!]

Lennok moved even before Davi sent the message.

Golden magical light pierced into Elava’s glabella, then rotated halfway like a key, unlocking the Geas.

It was a highly sophisticated operation, adjusting the scope and backlash of the Geas in real-time, based on the deep understanding he gained from directly disassembling Kebaek’s Geas.

Lennok, engrossed in the work without even blinking, confirmed the gradually shrinking size of the Geas from beyond his seven senses and smiled faintly.

“…Done.”

[Perfect, Master. I’ll proceed with the program code compression now!!]

“It would be good to twist your wrist a bit more to the left and apply force.”

“Like this?”

“Yes. Exactly.”

Elava occupied Lennok’s workbench, relentlessly hammering away.

Seated right beside Elava, Mouser continuously adjusted and instructed her metalworking in real-time.

CLANG, CLANG, CLANG!!

The sound of hammering was rhythmic even to Lennok, a novice in metalworking, and the grain and direction of the iron being tempered along the workbench were flawless.

“Being merely rhythmic isn’t always good. For optimal performance, there are times when you need to deaden the force and collect your breath for the next strike.”

Following his words, the hammering immediately changed, becoming somewhat irregular but rhythmic.

Mouser nodded with satisfaction.

“Good. You’re doing well. You pick things up very quickly.”

“…!!”

Perhaps receiving direct praise from a master artisan like Mouser was a source of immense joy for Elava.

Her face, unlike when she first arrived at the workshop, was flushed and uplifted, bearing the focused intensity of a true artisan.

“This is truly a strange turn of events.”

Ibert, facing Lennok, murmured without taking his eyes off Elava.

“What on earth did you do to completely transform her in such a short time?”