Chapter 653: The Right to Ascension (3)
Boom—!!
The blinding flash of thunder overturned, tearing space apart.
Lightning consumed the heavens and earth, burning steel as fuel, erupting as if about to explode through the floors.
Just one wizard. Just one human.
Unable to withstand the tyranny of amplified, resonating, and repulsive magic power unleashed by that single person, the entire floor of the Workshop Tower melted away.
But even more incomprehensible was the fact that the power suits and tank units, crushed by the wizard’s hand, were rising again.
Unknown cybernetic waves emanated ceaselessly from Lennok, at the center.
As if using that signal as a command, the machines shattered on the battlefield rose around Lennok, forming a new army.
“Control of 87 exoskeleton suits has been hijacked!!”
“22 anti-aircraft guns’ interception programs downloaded!!”
“Find the system engineer. There’s an accomplice helping the wizard!!”
“We’re losing control of the legions……!!”
Crackle—!!
Davi’s power needed to be preserved to some extent for intervention in the Ascension Gate.
However, it wasn’t difficult for Lennok to maintain and repair the legion’s equipment in real-time, turning them into a war of attrition, after he had once destroyed and shattered their command system.
Thus, Lennok, like a necromancer commanding machines, gathered the shattered mechanical army and pitted them directly against the Mechanized Troops.
Crraashhh!!!
Themselves gathering their broken remnants, they completed repairs in real-time, and from behind Lennok, they transformed into a new force, clashing with the legion.
Not only did they have to face the wizard unleashing lightning, but also the daunting task of fighting their own legion’s weapons, which had been allies just moments ago.
“The formation is breaking!!”
“No, if the Iron-Plated Infantry can’t hold……!!”
“Aaaargh!!”
Crrunchhh!!!
Just a momentary diversion of attention from the onslaught directed at Lennok allowed fragments of lightning to vertically cleave the steel army and crush the legion’s formation.
If one were to calculate profit and loss rationally, they should have stopped when half of their formation was utterly crushed.
But the 3rd Commander, knowing this, did not retreat. Instead, he calmly began to channel his magic power.
“No retreat.”
“Commander!!”
“Just hold on a little longer; the Sidesquad and support from other legions will arrive.”
Whooshhh……!!
Moving his body, fused with a massive tank, he aimed dozens of cannons mounted on it simultaneously at Lennok.
“If we can’t stop Adamant Thunder here, it won’t be long until he reaches the top of the Workshop Tower. We have no choice but to maintain formation until Committee Member Hermes opens the gate……!!”
Crraashhh!!!
Stakes extending from the rear of the tank, fused with the Commander’s body, dug into the ground, firmly anchoring the vehicle.
This was the 3rd Commander of the Mechanized Troops’ full-body modification, completely sealing his mobility to greatly amplify his firepower.
By sacrificing his own life for fixed bombardment, he raised his firepower to a level far exceeding even a 7th-level mage.
Thrummm!!
The moment a shell loaded inside the muzzle and magic power rotated, an illusion of space distorting and shattering surged forth.
“……!!”
Lennok, who had been overwhelmingly suppressing the attacking forces with his relentless lightning magic, sharply turned his head.
In a fleeting moment, he projected magic power at a low intensity and unleashed a Flicker. As he spatially leaped, Iron-Plated Wings unfurled wide from Lennok’s back.
The Restricted Area. Kaiser Bajour of the past. The Iron-Plated Wings of Gileon, obtained after their encounter.
The instant he wrapped himself in the wings, which possessed the ability to interfere through spatial delamination.
A spiraling vortex of fire blasted off the Iron-Plated Wings at an angle, completely ripping apart the wall of the Workshop Tower.
Screeechhh!!
The concentrated bombardment seemed to incinerate space itself, pulverizing everything around.
However, it wasn’t the wizard’s body that was sent reeling, spitting sticky blood. It was the heavily armored soldier, crushed inside the wings, whose corpse Lennok dragged out.
Lennok, who had dropped the power suit that hung like a shield on the Iron-Plated Wings and extinguished its life, met the Commander’s gaze with a cold sneer.
“Grrrk……!!”
“You gain firepower that transcends Hierarchy when certain environmental conditions are met. Is that how all Mechanized Troops Commanders operate?”
Triton Neseus Okeanos, the 4th Deep-Sea Legion Commander, whom he faced during his escape from the underwater barrier, also wielded power comparable to an 8th-level mage deep beneath the sea, didn’t he?
Similarly, the bombardment Thermore Shin, the 3rd Ground Legion Commander, fired at Lennok transcended mere increases in speed or power, approaching the level of spatial pulverization.
“Meeting the environmental conditions is, surprisingly, one of the easier requirements for amplification. That such conditions can be applied at Level 7 or higher……”
Lennok’s eyes narrowed as he stared at the tank fused with the Commander’s body.
“It’s correct to assume it’s due to Old World knowledge.”
“It’s power gained by destroying all my organs and implanting machinery.”
Thermore replied with a stoic face, raising his magic power.
The Commander himself, the head of the legion, had fixed his body in the middle of the floor, engaging in a desperate, final stand.
That single action alone caused the 3rd Legion, which had been on the verge of collapsing, to regain its composure and realign its formation.
The 3rd Ground Legion transformed into a living formation and a shield, gathering around Thermore himself.
Amidst the ceaselessly writhing tide of steel, he subtly nodded.
“Abandoning humanity while being human. If that’s only possible through Old World technology, it’s worth enduring.”
“I don’t think ‘abandoning humanity’ necessarily meant that……”
Lennok brushed his hair back and chuckled.
“Don’t you think you’re taking a difficult detour?”
“An easy path doesn’t exist for anyone. Especially not on this land. You know that, don’t you?”
“……”
As Lennok inadvertently fell silent at his words, Thermore slowly rotated his magic power.
“Committee Member Hermes informed us how a Level 7 Ascendant should break through their limits.”
Vessel-like structures grotesquely pulsed on the tank fused with his body, and surging magic power rotated inversely along the tank’s barrel, twisting beyond its limits.
Grrrind—!!
Blood and molten steel flowed like a river, and oil floating atop it burned, turning the tower floor into an inferno.
Amidst the melted tanks, anti-aircraft guns, and corpses, other superhumans emerged, encircling Lennok.
But unlike the orderly and systematic legion forces, they possessed various exoskeleton suits and Hierarchies.
“Lieutenant Colonel Ryan Mason, Iron-Plated Infantry Commander, arrived.”
“Two Swords of the Stealth Operations Battalion have joined.”
“18 heavy cavalry units engine-fusion complete. Ready for descent.”
Thump-thump-thump!!!!
Some had irregularly modified parts of their bodies, or entirely removed and replaced them with new components, presenting bizarre appearances.
Some creaked, adorned with all sorts of parts, calmly completed their communication reports, and advanced to the front lines in their own ways.
These were the commanders of the Mechanized Troops’ 3rd Ground Legion, top brass, who had directly come forward to confront Lennok.
“Our only concern should be to grasp the fruits of our labor. The price of what we’ve done can be considered later.”
The Commander, putting forward the heads of each legion’s corps, said to Lennok with a stoic expression.
“A wizard blessed by the heavens like you would never understand.”
“Blessed, you say……”
Lennok mumbled, echoing the words, and scoffed.
“Above our heads isn’t the sky, but a dark sea. Do you believe blessings from such things exist?”
“……I wouldn’t know.”
Thermore replied, channeling his magic power.
“Even that wasn’t my choice!!”
Crackle-crackle-crackle!!!
Pillars of light struck down from all directions, and Miniature Universes rotated, interfering with the laws of physics.
Magic power, heat, and the direction of mental landscapes were twisted and overturned in ways Lennok didn’t perceive, attempting to shift the one-sided battlefield.
Amidst this, the Commander’s mental landscape endlessly radiated light, converging at a single point.
This was firepower enough to obliterate not just Lennok, but an entire floor of the Workshop Tower.
It was not a power an ordinary human could obtain simply by modifying their entire body with machinery.
It was the result obtained by a superhuman who had already completed their Hierarchy and peered beyond it, abandoning remaining possibilities to undergo modification.
Whoooshhh!!!
The entire space converged as if rotating into a single point, creating an illusion of being sucked into the Commander’s tank muzzle.
Lennok watched the sight, then silently reached for his sleeve.
Click!!
What emerged instead of the rechargeable shotgun was a dusty, old musket, Teremer’s Demise.
The Old World magic gun began to change its form the moment magic power was infused into it.
Lennok gripped the magic gun, which had transformed into a long rifle with a dragon’s head, and immediately channeled magic power to counter the Commander’s mental landscape.
“Adamant Thunder is using an Old World artifact!!”
“Grenadier Commander to the vanguard! Stop the magic power condensation!!”
At this unexpected counter, the 3rd Legion’s corps commanders began to overlap their movements and charge at Lennok.
The violent roar of engines resounded as barrages of fire poured forth, and blades, dissolved into the wind, slid through.
The Grenadier Commander, wrapped in explosives, ignited the flames, splitting the battlefield in two, and beyond him, the unit commanders, wielding the power of their legions, clashed.
Kaa-boom!!!
Lennok, from his spot, also channeled magic power, unleashing a storm of lightning and fire, directly countering the corps commanders’ onslaught.
[Blue Cruel Chain]
[Yin War]
The crushed and fractured lightning clusters stretched like shadows, twisting and rotating in all directions.
[Linked Fire]
[Innate Flame]
He forcibly resonated the ceaselessly rising heat, forging it into flames that gnawed at life.
[Low-Mid Spiral: Purple Link Arrival]
He gathered fragments of crushed gravitational force, reflecting them irregularly, and within that irregularity, collected spiraling currents, unleashing them randomly.
Kwaaanggg!!!!
High-level magic endlessly erupted from between the Iron-Plated Wings on the wizard’s back, materializing into reality as soon as it was cast, then vanishing.
The corps commanders, realizing how Lennok was countering the superhumans’ attacks, roared through their communication network.
“That damned monster bastard……!!”
“How can something like that be a wizard!!”
It was an eccentric feat, casually using and discarding large-scale high-level magic that could evaporate an entire military unit, all for a single exchange.
Wielding the palpable firepower of magic to overwhelm a fleeting moment, then unleashing it to dominate the battlefield.
A miracle where every incantation and manifestation occurred simultaneously with the exchange of blows, crossing the line of death, and the entire process converged into a one-sided outcome.
An eccentric feat that could not even be attempted without gaining an advantage in every variable and psychological warfare on a battlefield that changed by the second.
But precisely because of this, they were thoroughly overwhelmed in every exchange against the wizard.
Why this wizard, who fought bare-handed, was still alive and breathing, why no one had won in this tightrope walk on a blade’s edge.
[Thunder White Pillar: Corner Glimmer]
Crrack—!!
He tore off the Grenadier Commander’s armor with a fist clenched like chains, and melted the heavy armor fusion by slamming a pillar of thunder onto it.
“Aaaaarrgh!!!”
He used a hammer of gravity to crush the stealth operations agent, who had dissolved into the air, severing their spine, and repeatedly slammed lightning magic into the Iron-Plated Infantry Commander’s abdomen, making their suit explode.
Boommm!!!
The magic power flashing within the Iron-Plated Wings distorted, intersecting dozens of times in a fleeting moment.
And amidst that clash and repulsion of power, they were helplessly shredded by the wizard’s divine might, which perfectly controlled and suppressed the battlefield.
“Commander……!!! Aaaargh!!”
“We can’t hold out much longer. Time is……!!”
“Adamant Thunder……!!!”
While the corps commanders bought time, the Commander’s bombardment, which had finished its mental landscape construction, surged forth, erasing all magic power on the entire floor.
Kaa-boom!!!
Lennok, who kicked away the crushed and shredded corpses of the corps commanders and leaped out, immediately raised his magic gun.
“Here I come.”
A golden spiral bloomed from Lennok’s fingertips, coiling around the magic gun and beginning to rise.
Kieeeeeng!!!!
A deafening ringing sound tore through his ears, and the magic gun heated up insanely, slowly melting, unable to withstand the power.
Yet, the dragon’s head, which hadn’t completely lost its form, gaped open, its two eyes stained golden, and let out a fierce roar.
Whooshhh!!
The moment he pulled the trigger of the magic gun, a golden light surged from the tip of the dragon’s head.
The golden light, rotating in a double spiral, coiled in the air and bit its own tail.
At that instant, the Commander’s bombardment, fired with the momentum to evaporate the entire floor, disintegrated and vanished.
“Ga-gh, ugh……!!!”
The Commander’s body trembled, his eyes wide open.
Other staff members, watching from the side, quickly called out to him with panicked expressions.
“Co-Commander!!”
“This can’t be……!!”
[Group Thunder]
Kaa-boom!!!
A spear of lightning struck down from the sky, precisely piercing the Commander’s heart at an angle.
It completely penetrated the tank fused with his body and exploded.
“Aaaaarrgh!!!”
Simultaneously with the screams of the staff members caught in the explosion, the Commander’s body was shattered on the spot.
Crack!
“Ugh-geeg……!!”
Lennok, who had descended behind the Commander’s corpse, turned to look at the staff members who had collapsed and were convulsing.
In one hand, he held the scorched magic gun, in the other, a grimy revolver.
But his appearance was that of a monster who had single-handedly broken and shattered an entire legion.
“How, just how……!!”
The high-level superhumans who had just surrounded Lennok. And even the Commander who had been bombarding him.
All of them were instantly neutralized and collapsed by a single magic bullet Lennok had just fired.
It was beyond monstrous; an absurdly overwhelming outcome.
As the staff members writhed in despair, unable to comprehend the cause, Lennok, who had put away his magic gun, turned to them.
“Hic…….”
The great wizard who had single-handedly annihilated the entire 3rd Ground Legion of the Mechanized Troops.
It would be no surprise if the non-combatant staff members turned to dust with just a glance from him.
Lennok raised his hand towards the staff members, who were holding their breath and squeezing their eyes shut.
“Do-don’t……!!”
Beep-beep……!!
Lennok hacked their tickets, seized control, and locked the passages and doors leading outside the Workshop Tower.
Lennok quietly spoke to the blinking staff members.
“Narcissa will send people once everything is over.”
“What, what…….”
“Explain the situation to her. I’ll spare your lives on that condition.”
“……”
Lennok didn’t wait for their reply and immediately leaped over the river of flowing blood.
Whoooshhh……!!
He walked through the burning ruins and melted floor, past the charred remnants of the stairs, heading for the top floor of the tower.
Nearly half of the Workshop Tower had melted during the series of battles, with the path to the top floor half-broken and destroyed.
Lennok stared blankly at the floor, then shifted his gaze to a nearby elevator and moved towards it.
The system was broken from the aftermath of the battle, but Lennok unhesitatingly broke open the doors and stepped into the sunken elevator.
[Reverse Gravity]
Whooshhh!!
He cast a Reverse Gravity spell and pulled the elevator upwards.
It was much easier to control by casting it on the elevator itself rather than on his own clothes.
And, he needed to rest and stabilize himself for a moment, even like this.
Inside the slowly ascending elevator, Lennok slightly bent his head and vomited.
“Ugh……!!”
The method Lennok used to instantly neutralize the Commander and the high-level superhumans was simple.
Magic system Ouroboros. A perpetual motion machine that forcibly dismantles all existing powers and formulas to use as its own motive force.
Lennok had infused the Ouroboros magic system into his magic gun and fired it.
The Old World magic gun, Teremer’s Demise. Its last, sixth form, Type Transformation [Dragon’s Song].
Its ability was to project the user’s very mental landscape through the magic gun, a power mimicking a dragon’s breath.
This was why Lennok had strived so hard to obtain this gun, and it was the very identity of the magic gun itself.
‘In WORLD 2.0, it was an ability that randomly fired the player’s traits or abilities, but……’
It was, literally, the magic gun itself, extracting the user’s mental landscape as a bullet and firing it.
Lennok had known about this ability since he first saw Teremer’s Demise, but he had refrained from using it even after acquiring the magic gun.
Not only had he never used it in actual combat, but he also didn’t know the extent of its recoil and cost.
The Ouroboros magic system was a power that forcibly dismantled all existing forces.
Its power grew stronger the higher the level of the superhuman, and the greater their understanding of their own mental landscape.
It was certainly an ultimate technique that could instantly neutralize the Commander and the high-level superhumans within the Mechanized Troops, but Lennok himself could not escape its repercussions.
“Once it leaves the muzzle, it doesn’t pick its owner. Just like a gunslinger’s equipment…… Cough!!”
By infusing his mental landscape into the magic gun, he could efficiently miniaturize the output itself and hit targets at long range.
Considering that Domains or territories originally manifested around the caster themselves, consuming immense magic power and mental energy, this ability was incredibly powerful.
However, the mental landscape, extracted as a bullet, was destined to rebound on the user as well.
It was only because Lennok was the master of Ouroboros that it ended like this; if he had fully experienced the recoil, he wouldn’t have been able to stand properly.
Thud!!
The elevator shook violently, and Lennok’s body also jolted from the impact.
Lennok was thrown against the wall. He raised his hazy eyes, sensing chilling presences from all directions.
“Wizard’s coordinates secured.”
“You won’t leave this city alive.”
“Sidesquad opens the way.”
Sidesquad shadow agents.
The elite intelligence unit guarding Ex Machina had tracked Lennok, arriving a moment too late.
They climbed the Workshop Tower upside down, quickly matching the elevator’s speed, clinging to the narrow passage and beginning their pursuit of Lennok.
Lennok quickly calculated the remaining distance to the top, scoffed, and channeled his magic power.
“……Right. It wouldn’t be smooth sailing……!!”
KAA-BOOM!!!!
As the elevator exploded completely, Lennok’s body, clad in Gileon’s Iron-Plated Wings, shot high into the sky.
Propelled by magic power and propellants attached everywhere, he ricocheted through the elevator shaft, ascending.
Crrack—!!
In the aftermath, he crushed and slammed the Sidesquad agents everywhere, smearing blood on the walls as he flew upward.
Whoosshh!!!
“Vanish from here, Adamant Thunder……!”
“Die, die, die……!!”
The agents, too, had no remaining composure, simply screaming their desperate desires at the top of their lungs.
Blades and bullets intersected, magic power and will-thoughts exploded, filling the elevator shaft and scattering blood.
He ascended while engaging in extremely close-quarters combat within the narrow passage, where even consciousness was difficult to maintain.
Thump-thump-thump-thump!!!
Beyond the distant battle where any sense of distance had long vanished, he dug wing fragments into the wall and clawed his way up, bouncing to gain altitude.
Screechhh……!!
A ringing in his ears and the roar of flesh being crushed mixed, staining his consciousness crimson.
The wizard’s body, enveloped in Iron-Plated Wings, burst through the elevator shaft and surged onto the top floor of the Workshop Tower.
KAA-BOOM!!!
Beyond the smell of hot iron and blood, the cool wind of the mechanical city filled his lungs.
Beyond the collapsing Workshop Tower, shattered by the fierce battle, the landscape of the burning mechanical city came into view.
Maiya Lonsdale, still fighting the enforcers alone below.
The legions of Mechanized Troops, tightly encircling the base of the tower.
And at the top of the tower, Hermes, his eyes closed, connected to thousands of wires.
“……Found you.”
Thud, thud, thud!!!
The pristine white corridor on the top floor of the Workshop Tower.
Lennok, wrapped in Iron-Plated Wings, fell, bounced, rolled, and slid, coming to a sudden halt, almost crashing in front of a massive white throne.
Crash!!
He slammed his wings directly in front of Hermes, who was connected to thousands of wires, to halt his momentum.
“Davi……!!”
“Independent network connection complete. I’m now taking over the unique open authority for the Ascension Gate!!”
He embedded the tips of his wings into the huge ring of light that opened behind the throne, and Davi began to interfere with her Cybernetic Ability.
Click!!
At the same moment, Lennok, covered in blood, pointed his revolver at Hermes’s forehead.
“Didn’t I tell you, Lyman.”
As a pristine white halo appeared above his head, Hermes’s sleeping eyes opened.
“We would meet again soon.”