Chapter 682: The Oldest Bloodline (4)
Armand’s eyes, intently watching the man with a smirk, suddenly widened.
“Jawoon Audis…!”
Armand, who had cried out a name quite familiar to Lennok, hastily drew his sword.
“I’ve seen that face in an Agent’s operation report. I heard you abandoned your terrorist organization and fled, so why are you here?”
“…”
The man narrowed his eyes and watched Armand for a moment, then clapped his hands as if he’d just remembered something.
“Ah!! Was that the name?!”
“…What?”
“My apologies, I truly can’t remember what this body’s original owner was called.”
“…”
“Well, it’s not like we were close enough to remember each other’s names, you see.”
The man chuckled without a care in the world.
“Still, seeing people occasionally recognize and seek out this body’s owner, it seems he wasn’t entirely heartless.”
“What on earth are you talking about…?”
As Armand muttered with a bewildered expression, Lennok turned around, leaning on his staff.
“I know that face.”
“Oh?”
As soon as he saw Lennok’s face, Jawoon Audis’s expression subtly began to squirm.
A strange sight, as if Jawoon’s skin surface was rippling and erupting in mottled patches, reacting to Van’s face.
The man silently stared at his squirming facial skin, then powerfully slapped his own cheek.
Smack!!
“You’re acquainted with this body’s owner, aren’t you?”
The man asked, as if intrigued.
“It’s been a long time since I killed off the ego, so it doesn’t react to ordinary stimuli… Were you perhaps brothers or lovers?”
“The opposite.”
Lennok smiled.
“I could have killed him, but I let him go a few times.”
“…Haha.”
“You might not know it, but that body seems to remember me.”
Stepping forward, Lennok whispered.
“And I also know that you’re not the real Jawoon Audis.”
The ancient black wizard who occupied Jawoon Audis’s body using a consciousness transfer spell at the end of the Hanghasa Labyrinth.
Afterward, he joined Pandemonium and became an eccentric active in the Western Continent alongside Soryu.
Ermont, the black wizard who wielded both Jawoon Audis’s gemmancy and black magic simultaneously, had been hiding here.
“Pandemonium. What are you doing in a place like this?”
Ermont and Glen.
What on earth were these two, who had no connection other than being members of Pandemonium, doing hidden beneath the undeveloped district?
And where were the remnants of the black wizards who had allied with Raycen Azamaha, and why were they directing the operation instead?
Whoosh!!
“…!!”
As Lennok channeled his mana, Ermont’s expression completely changed, realizing his true power.
Ermont cautiously glanced at Lennok, then recoiled on the spot.
“Hmm, if you know about me, you must know that a battle shouldn’t be fought in a place like this…”
“Gemmancy. You still have it, don’t you?”
Lennok cut off Ermont’s words and strode forward, asking.
“Seeing as you’ve turned this entire vicinity into gems, you must have artificially constructed an environment to utilize the spell to its extreme.”
“…”
“I’d really like to hear what you plan to do by gathering dozens of people like this.”
“Haha…”
Ermont let out an awkward laugh, then slumped his shoulders.
An atmosphere so tense it felt like it could explode at any moment.
Glen lay blinking, and behind him, Armand’s sharp intake of breath could be heard.
Ermont, who had been silent, sighed and said, “This is why young wizards… Every time I encounter one, it’s bad luck.”
“…”
“But you’re far more dangerous than I thought. If we fight here, I’ll surely die, won’t I?”
Ermont muttered in resignation, then suddenly lifted his head.
“Ah, but I can’t stand it. I’ll just try it!”
Shriiiiiing!!!
The diamond that had fallen at Ermont’s feet transformed into a pillar of light, obliterating the entire underground cavern.
The gem magic didn’t stop with a single blast, but rotated continuously, shattering countless pillars and incinerating Glen’s body.
Ermont clutched one of Glen’s bodies and burst into mad laughter.
“Adamant Thunder of Vulcan!! Let’s see how formidable those rumors truly are!!”
“I… I just want to go home…”
Ermont, without hesitation, exploded the head of Glen’s stammering body, ignoring his plea, and charged at Lennok.
He threw a gem into the air, using its shockwave as a booster to instantly accelerate and dive in.
He darted diagonally through the half-collapsed glass cavern, rapidly approaching.
He neatly placed eight gems between his fingers and chanted a gemmancy spell.
[Ten Faces Jade: Catalyst Transformation]
[Singing Spirit Stone: Spell Resonance Multi-Deployment]
Behind Ermont, wings of gems unfolded, rotating, each imbued with eight different colors.
Beneath his feet, a golden, grotesque bird’s form was drawn.
Black magic was simultaneously activated, extracting gem magic from between the grotesque bird’s beak and dual-casting it.
It cleanly swallowed Lennok’s form on the spot and exploded.
Kwagwagwagwaga!!!
[Amazonite: Spatial Linkage Exfoliation Bloom]
Screeeeech…!!!
A supreme gemmancy technique that throws a gem into the center of an explosion and then twists and cuts the space itself.
[Proclamation: Sudden Quake]
Eight rays of light spun helically on the spot, condensing into a massive pillar of gems—a miracle.
A kaleidoscopic pillar of gems, like a colossal tombstone, slammed down upon Lennok’s head, completely sealing his existence into hell.
Kuaaaaaang!!
The shock shattered the entire glass cavern, and the colossal gem tombstone fell through the black staircase.
“Phew!”
Ermont, who had dodged Glen’s body falling from above, picked up one of them and said, “My dear friend, now you’re going to track that superhuman from before. I’ll finish my preparations in the meantime.”
“Preparations?”
Thud!!
The gem tombstone split vertically, and Lennok walked out, piercing through the exploding magical radiance.
Crackle, crackle…!!
Lennok, who was reaching out as if to seize Ermont’s throat, paused for a moment, observing the scenery of the staircase unfolding beneath his feet.
The instant Ermont tilted his head slightly, seeing this.
A colossal lightning hand slammed down and struck the black wizard’s head.
Kuaaaaaang!!
“Gah!!”
Ermont’s form was helplessly sent tumbling and bouncing down hundreds of stairs.
Ermont, instantly covered in blood, trembled as he got to his feet.
“Pfft, cowardly time-delayed attack…!”
“That’s rich coming from you.”
[Constant Thunder]
Shriiiiiing!!!
A flash of electricity erupted from Lennok’s fingertips, forming a massive sphere of lightning and exploding.
It drove Ermont’s form deep into the ground once more.
Doo-doo-doo-dook!!
“Ukh-ke-ke-kek!!”
With a strange scream that was a mix of agony and laughter, he chanted black magic without hesitation even while being beaten.
He somehow blocked the pouring lightning by wielding black mist and chains.
Kwagwagwaga!!!
Black and blue will-thought essences intersected as they fell into the hardened oil cavern.
In a fleeting moment, dozens of unique spells exploded in all directions, completely incinerating the oil-stained underground cavern.
[Stinging Domain Annihilation Lightning]
[Rending Thunder]
Tch-jeo-jeo-jeok!!
Hundreds of fragmented violet lightning bolts poured down like blade shards.
[Malachite: Spell Diffuse Reflection]
The gems scattered by Ermont transformed into colossal mirrors, reflecting and deflecting the destructive power in all directions as he struggled.
[Green Jade: Familiar Manipulation]
[Diamond: Mana Hardening]
Wielding black magic and gemmancy haphazardly, he embedded gem wedges everywhere, turning them into traps that exploded with time delays.
Ermont’s combat involved rapidly chanting spells even while engaging Lennok head-on.
He wielded two disparate spell systems—gemmancy and black magic—simultaneously during combat, yet there wasn’t a single error in his execution.
“Agggghhhh!!”
Though he ceaselessly made strange noises, gem light glittered amidst the black flowers blooming in the darkness.
Gem creatures surged forth and exploded from within the rotating flower buds that swirled around his pupils.
Kuaaaaaang!!!
The art of slamming and exploding familiars created with gemmancy.
As the mana condensed within rare gems was immense, the scope and attributes of their explosions diversified into different systems, targeting Lennok.
“Sniff, sniff, my mooooney!!”
Even as he shed tears of blood, his hands forming seals didn’t stop.
While continuously slamming and exploding gems, he simultaneously condensed gem mana within his body to amplify his physical abilities to their limit.
He secretly prepared, aiming for that single moment when Lennok’s shield would be breached amidst the explosions.
The moment dozens of shields wavered and peeled away under the impact of different systems and attributes unleashed by the gem explosions.
Ermont’s body, which had been crushed and stuck, seemed to vanish as he leaped.
Fwoosh!!
But with a single breath from Lennok, all those explosions froze on the spot.
Ice crystals, harder than gems, pressed down on the black wizard from all directions.
[Bay River Snow White]
[Group White]
Tsch-eooooong!!!
“Gah!!”
The jet-black oil cavern instantly froze into a pure white breath of cold, pressing Ermont’s body down onto the spot.
The black wizard lay sprawled at Lennok’s feet, his entire body solidified in pristine white frost.
“Ugh…”
“…”
But Lennok ignored Ermont and immediately moved past him.
Beyond the colossal oil barrier that Ermont had, consciously or unconsciously, protected throughout their intense battle.
Slam!!
As Lennok mercilessly shattered the barrier, Ermont’s frozen body dissolved and scattered into gem crystals.
Simultaneously, beyond the shattered and collapsed barrier, the real Ermont, who had been standing with his back to them, turned his head with a troubled expression.
“Oh, already?”
“…”
Instead of answering, Lennok silently looked up at the massive room where Ermont stood.
Before an enormous black tree of unknown height, Ermont and an unidentified young man stood.
Its thick roots ceaselessly sucked up the abundant oil at their feet, and hundreds of withered branches hung down above their heads.
From each of those long, dangling branches, Glen’s bodies hung, completely lifeless.
Like fruits ripening on a tree, Glen’s corpses hung from every branch.
The swaying form of the tree, laden with hundreds of corpses, felt bizarrely eerie.
“I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but I didn’t expect to be found so quickly.”
Ermont shrugged.
“I even took the trouble of sending a clone down to find you first, but how did you figure it out?”
From the moment Lennok came down to the oil field and found Glen, Ermont had already noticed the intruder.
However, to prevent his current work and location from being exposed, he had intentionally created a clone and sent it down to engage Lennok in battle first.
Clones created with gemmancy are difficult to discern as fakes due to their unique magical signature.
Furthermore, if given a large quantity of gems to use, they can even exhibit combat abilities comparable to the gemmancer themselves.
But Lennok, as if he knew from the beginning that Ermont’s clone was fake, simply killed it and found this place.
To Ermont’s genuinely curious question, Lennok replied, “I just knew when I killed it.”
“…”
Ermont, speechless, silently exchanged glances with the young man standing next to him.
Lennok smiled, amused, as he watched Ermont.
“It’s hard to believe that someone who doesn’t even think about deploying a Domain until they’re on the verge of death, when they should be doing so, is the original.”
“Haha…”
Having seen Armand Martins’s clone ability, Lennok had quickly noticed the distinction.
Ignoring Ermont’s hollow laugh, Lennok asked, “This tree must be the true purpose you’ve been secretly hiding and plotting underground, right?”
“…”
“It seems to absorb oil through its roots and bear fruit on its branches… but in reality, it’s simultaneously sucking up both vital energy and life force from both the roots and branches.”
Lennok’s gaze simultaneously turned to the center of the tree trunk where Ermont stood.
“And the place where all that energy gathers is… inside the tree trunk?”
It absorbed vital energy through its roots and simultaneously absorbed Glen’s life force through its branches.
It gathered the energy converging from both roots and branches, completing something inside the tree trunk.
The form of the ancient tree, dominating the entire massive room and looming overhead, clearly indicated its meaning.
Annihilation’s Tree.
Ermont was now attempting to utilize the power of the Outer God, which consumes civilizations and extends its roots across the universe.
Raycen Azamaha could have informed them of this fact because Ermont’s utilization of Myeongmok’s power allowed him to momentarily escape the Outer God’s dream.
“Quite some time has passed since then… I never thought you’d try to recover the traces left behind here now.”
Lennok muttered.
Lennok’s eyes, watching Ermont, were calmly settled.
“Was that also an order from your leader?”
“…”
Instead of answering, Ermont remained silent for a moment, appearing to be deep in thought.
After a long silence, he nodded as if he had made a clear decision.
Ermont strode forward, his face showing resolve.
The moment Lennok slightly tilted and leaned on his staff, watching him.
Ermont prostrated himself before Lennok.
Thud!!
“…Could you please just let me off this once?”
“…”
“I’ll give up everything here and retreat, if you just pretend not to see us for ten minutes.”
“Hey.”
At Ermont’s words, the young man, who had been observing the situation, interjected with a displeased expression.
“What do you think you’re doing? You’re going to retreat after coming all this way, just because of one injured wizard?”
“Then why don’t you fight him and die in my place?”
Ermont, still prostrate, averted his gaze, his eyes devoid of enthusiasm.
“Haven’t you heard the news from the Machine City? Injured or not, that guy is just insane.”
“…”
“He’s so obsessed with fighting that he can cause such a ruckus and still go back to work in Vulcan. I don’t want to squabble here and die needlessly. It hurts.”
Lennok’s face subtly twitched at Ermont’s strangely on-point remarks.
The young man watched Ermont and Lennok, then let out a cold sneer.
“Don’t make me laugh, old man. You’ve been stuck in a mine for hundreds of years, just sleeping… Do you even know who I am?”
The young man stepped past Ermont, pulled up his mana, and muttered.
Black mana swirled from beneath his feet, coiling around his body and rotating like a dark shadow.
A wizard who commanded high-level black magic.
The young man looked down at Lennok with a cold expression and said, “I won’t run away in fear of some rootless wizard who just rolls around on the streets. Shut up and finish the job.”
“That’s good confidence.”
Lennok smiled.
Because his reputation had unnecessarily grown, almost no one recognized Van and challenged him anymore.
It had been a very long time since someone so audacious had picked a fight.
“That damned Adamant Thunder, Adamant Thunder… There are so many people who value a dying wizard so highly.”
The young man sneered, taking large strides forward.
“You cling to life support, barely clinging on, yet you’re desperate to bask in that prestige. Aren’t you?”
“…”
Doo-doo-doo-deuk!!
With every step, surging black magic rapidly assembled on the spot, transforming into dozens of unique spells.
The art of not immediately firing a spell upon chanting it, but intentionally stopping and maintaining it just before completion.
In terms of difficulty, it was a miracle on par with pulling the trigger but keeping the bullet bound to the barrel.
Proof that he had perfectly mastered the spells he wielded and completely controlled the flow of that magic.
Kaa-ra-rak!!
The young man stood before Lennok, grasping dozens of types of black magic swirling behind him with his will.
“I’m different from my master.”
The young man sneered.
“You’re just a fake with half-baked talent. I’ll prove that right here.”
“Master?”
Lennok tilted his head.
“Who is your master? Do I know him?”
“Ah…”
Ermont let out a slight sigh and shook his head.
“My name is Baegon Dayor.”
The young man replied with a cold smile.
“I am the rightful disciple of the Nether King, the great successor of black magic, and the master of all death.”