Chapter 720: Burglary (13)
With the words ‘replaying the Seventh Sun’s Oracle,’ a stairway of flames unfurled before their eyes.
But even after waiting, no voice could be heard.
The colossal firebird merely supported the small landmass it was rising from, slowly flapping its wings.
Tatiana, gazing at the stairway spread before her, muttered.
“……What’s going on here?”
“I suspect this is an automatically preceding procedure once the Phoenix Hall activates.”
Lennok said, staring fixedly at the flame-engulfed stairway with an uncomfortable expression.
“Considering the words ‘replaying the oracle,’ doesn’t it mean something should descend the stairs?”
“Then we should wait a bit.”
Whoosh!
As the altitude gradually increased, the blowing wind became painfully intense.
“……”
“……”
After waiting for about five minutes, the two realized their conjecture was wrong.
Lennok muttered.
“Don’t tell me……”
“It’s like it’s telling us to climb the stairs ourselves.”
Tatiana scratched her cheek.
“Perhaps they left the oracle using stepping on the stairs as a trigger.”
“If you want to hear the oracle, climb the stairs?”
Lennok frowned intensely.
“Now that I see it, the 7th Tower Lord was a very strange person. It seems I misjudged them.”
“Is it something to be so disgusted by……?”
Tatiana, as if dumbfounded, shrugged her shoulders at Lennok.
“What do you want to do? If you don’t want to, I’ll do it instead.”
“……No. I’ll go first.”
Since the authority of the Phoenix Hall has been transferred to Lennok, there’s a possibility it wouldn’t work even if Tatiana went first.
There was no need to idly stand by and watch the spell procedure potentially get entangled.
Thrum!
As per his conjecture, the moment he stepped onto the stairway, he felt the air faintly tremble.
It was a vibration as if someone were choosing their tone to deliver a message.
As he stepped on each stair and ascended into the air, it became clearer.
Lennok muttered without even ascending three steps.
“I don’t know why such an irrational method of communication was adopted. This is a waste of time.”
“No, is it really that hard to move your body? Should we go slowly then?”
Tatiana, who was following behind, wiped away sweat and laughed, but Lennok shook his head.
“……If it’s to replay the oracle, there’s no reason to set up such a cumbersome trigger. I can only think of it as the eccentricity of the former Tower Lord—”
As Lennok said that and stepped up a few more stairs, at that very moment.
[Since I first entered the tower.]
A faint female voice resounded in his ears.
[I had no interest in being responsible for anything.]
“……”
The voice vanished after leaving only that one sentence.
Tatiana also seemed to have heard the voice, looking up at Lennok with a surprised expression.
As he slowly stepped onto the stairs again, as if that was the playback switch, the voice was heard again.
[It was the same after I was pushed into becoming the Tower Lord. I have no talent for recording and leaving things behind. Nor am I used to it.]
The voice was heard every time he walked up a stair.
This blunt yet low female voice must be the voice of the 7th Tower Lord of Blaiver Magic Tower.
If he walked all the way up the stairway unfurled before his eyes, would he be able to hear all the oracles left by the Tower Lord?
“It’s utterly dreadful……”
The moment Lennok, forgetting the voice he was hearing, muttered that.
The Tower Lord immediately whispered as if piercing to the core.
[But despite that, I am leaving this message because I judged that there was a possibility my magic could be misused even after I die.]
“……”
The possibility of misuse.
It was an oracle left envisioning an ominous future, but ironically, the Tower Lord accurately foresaw that future.
Indeed, the will-thought material she left behind after her death, being used as an engine component, was certainly not of her own volition.
Even as Tatiana’s expression stiffened, the voice continued.
[Someone must have foreseen the possibility of pioneering the sea from my abilities.]
“……”
[Someone must have found a clue in my past to withstand spiritual pressure.]
Before he knew it, Lennok was silently climbing the stairs without a word.
Even as he sweated and gasped for breath, he slowly focused on the resounding voice.
[They also coveted the memories I had because I was born outside the continent.]
So the 7th Tower Lord was not from the continent, but from the unexplored outside?
He knew that there was another landmass outside the continent, but this was the first time he had indirectly encountered someone from there.
Even as he was lost in thought, the oracle continued.
[I also considered it, but I buried the thought, believing it wasn’t possible in my generation.]
She said.
[But after I die, it will be different. There won’t be much time left then.]
“……”
So, there was a special feat possible with the Tower Lord’s abilities, and she tried to prepare for it, believing it would surely be misused later?
It was a vague explanation, yet clear, and not directly mentioning the topic, but Lennok immediately understood its meaning.
Pioneering the sea. The meaning of enduring spiritual pressure. The circumstances of the Phoenix Hall being used as a satellite engine.
The Tower Lord’s words were hinting at the possibility that her magic could even withstand the Outer Sea.
[You must be wondering why I chose such a cumbersome method. I understand. I also hated moving my body terribly.]
A voice mixed with a faint hint of laughter.
Before Lennok could laugh at the sudden internal familiarity he felt, she spoke again.
[But this is one of the forms of a path to truth that hints at the conclusion. I didn’t know it before, but sometimes there are things that can only be conveyed this way.]
“A path to truth, you say……?”
[Human life, and our lives too, are the same.]
She muttered.
[You can’t just live doing only what you want. I realized that too late…….]
“……”
[I hope you don’t end up like that.]
The Tower Lord’s voice gradually faded.
[Because I ended up regretting it.]
With those words, the oracle ended……
Before he knew it, Lennok had reached the end of the stairway.
Tatiana quietly called out to Lennok, who stood at the end of the stairway of flames, looking up at the sky, from behind.
“……Van.”
Sweat still streamed, his breath was ragged, and his legs trembled.
A disagreeable sensation, no matter how many times he replayed it.
But sometimes, thoughts swirling in one’s mind can take precedence over physical pain.
The oracle left by the 7th Tower Lord was vague, circumlocutory, and slightly deviated from the essence, but.
The fact that she wanted to give a warning was unequivocally clear.
And even that she harbored regrets until her death about what she couldn’t accomplish.
Exactly what that meaning was would remain within the Phoenix Hall, created from her will-thought.
“……Let’s go down.”
Only then did Lennok organize his thoughts and turn his head.
“It seems we’ve heard everything there is to hear.”
The fact that descending is as hard as ascending is difficult to know without experiencing it.
Sometimes, descent is even more dangerous and requires more caution than ascent.
At the end of the stairs, which vanished as the Tower Lord’s oracle concluded, the two barely managed to step back onto the ground.
“Why, why am I so out of breath…….”
“……”
Lennok, too, didn’t reply, and simply leaned silently against a nearby rock.
Tatiana, lying flat on the ground, swung her hand out towards Lennok, who had taken out his rolled tobacco.
“Just one stick of that.”
“……It seems you liked the one you smoked last time.”
Lennok chuckled, took a stick of rolled tobacco from his pocket and tossed it to her.
Rumble!
Tatiana, leaning against the engine that rumbled with a heavy roar, put the rolled tobacco in her mouth and lit it.
“Hmph…… I’ve been curious about this for a while, what is this really made of?”
Tatiana, exhaling smoke with a satisfied expression, asked.
“I’ve handled these kinds of drugs a few times on the Central Front, and most of them were worse than narcotics, just trash.”
“Indeed.”
In the first place, products generally distributed as this kind of rolled tobacco were mostly made to cheaply inhale narcotic plants or catalysts.
Lennok himself, when he first arrived in Vulcan, didn’t he barely survive by smoking cheap narcotics?
“It’s not a narcotic, but it’s not a medicine either. If you classify it, it’s closer to a stimulant, but it doesn’t have strong side effects……”
“Because it’s not something made for money in the first place.”
Lennok also sat in front of Tatiana, smoking his rolled tobacco, and replied.
“I purchase catalysts or ingredients that appear in auctions as they come, and combine them myself. I produce them in large quantities when I make them, but I experiment by changing ingredients or effects each time.”
“So this is what you’ve arrived at through trial and error so far?”
Lennok nodded, watching Tatiana smile contentedly and puff out smoke.
Thanks to meeting someone who recognized the value of his rolled tobacco and showed interest for the first time in a while, Lennok also became more talkative.
“There’s still room for improvement, but the destination and direction itself are somewhat fixed. After adjusting the efficacy and side effects to an appropriate level, I’m continuously experimenting with fuel efficiency and overall efficiency.”
“That’s an interesting thing to say.”
Tatiana laughed.
“If you think about it, that seems a bit similar to your magic.”
“……”
Lennok suddenly fell silent.
A slightly surprised Tatiana subtly glanced at him.
“I didn’t say anything I shouldn’t have, did I?”
“……No. Of course not.”
Lennok smiled, took a puff of his rolled tobacco, and leaned his head back.
“It’s just that I’ve occasionally thought about it before, so I was a little surprised.”
Finding the necessary conditions and ingredients, repeatedly conducting various experiments and attempts, and reducing errors and mistakes.
Continuously reviewing the previously conceived direction, and repeating the process until the desired level is reached.
As Tatiana said, that process had similarities to the way Lennok had researched and developed his magic system.
While manufacturing the rolled tobacco and other medications for his own use, had such an attitude unknowingly permeated Lennok himself?
What Lennok had also realized at some point but never had the chance to bring up, Tatiana immediately pointed out.
“What, was that a compliment?”
Tatiana, chuckling, patted Lennok’s shoulder.
Lennok watched her, finished the rest of his rolled tobacco, and stood up.
“That’s enough, look around. The view is certainly worth seeing now.”
Whoosh……!!
The small island wreathed in flames had risen high enough to reveal the entire restricted area.
The sun rising beyond the horizon warped as it mixed with the cold dawn air.
Even the landscape of gruesome ruins and a junkyard spread across the ground, looked merely distant when viewed from above like this.
Tatiana looked around with a surprised expression.
“This is……”
“So there was a reason Deadrise was so obsessed with it.”
Lennok laughed.
“Its performance is enough to enter the Tower’s Solar System and temporarily establish a Domain. At this level, it would have been perfectly suitable to be considered a branch of a Magic Tower.”
The overwhelming advantage of establishing a Magic Tower and declaring a Domain, thereby gaining control of a portion of the sky.
The fact that such a miracle could be mimicked merely by powering it with the Tower Lord’s will-thought material.
He had expected such a result once he understood Deadrise’s plan, but it was also true that seeing it in person felt even more astonishing.
But the Phoenix Hall, as if displeased with Lennok’s words, landed on the engine and flapped its wings.
[If a higher-grade compatible site exists, better performance can be achieved.]
“That’s right.”
[Please retract any statements that may cause suspicion regarding the performance of this system.]
“……”
Comments that seemed oddly obsessive about the system’s output and performance.
While Lennok pondered whether he should turn off the system now, Tatiana laughed with a troubled expression.
“I think it might be somewhat a reflection of the former Tower Lord’s personality.”
Tatiana, rubbing her brow with a tired expression, stepped back and said.
“I haven’t met her in person, but I heard she was quite diligent.”
“……From the oracle I just heard, I don’t really sympathize with that.”
At Lennok’s words, Tatiana gave a bitter laugh.
“Well…… As far as I know, perhaps—”
[She was an excellent wizard.]
A low voice suddenly resounded.
It was not the engine where the Phoenix Hall had landed, but a reply seemingly resonating from beyond the sky.
“……!!!”
Tatiana, her face hardening, sprang to her feet and channeled her magic.
But the voice, heedless of Tatiana’s reaction, spoke slowly.
[She was an outstanding disciple, a kind colleague, and a benevolent junior sister. She was also an unfortunate Tower Lord swept away by the currents of the era.]
“H-How……!!”
Her face paled in an instant. With trembling hands, she desperately began to form hand seals.
Lennok saw Tatiana like that, grabbed her shoulder, and turned her around.
“Tatiana, calm down.”
“Van, we have to run right now!! This voice right now is……!!!”
[But as a master, she was incompetent.]
At that moment, the voice resounding from beyond the Domain chilled chillingly.
[She was a pitiful person… but I could not tolerate that fact.]
FWOOSH!!!
From far away, a sound as if something was burning could be heard.
The moment he realized that it was a transmitted voice resonating through the shining sun on the other side.
From the edge of the horizon, something crimson surged, and rose in the form of a red pillar.
The scarlet flame that surged with the sun at its back instantly swelled in size and swept in like a colossal sea of flames.
THUDTHUDTHUDTHUD!!!!
A sea of fire approaching, practically engulfing the entire scrap metal plain beyond.
It instantly swallowed the ruined theme park and set the whole world ablaze.
KWOOOOSH!!!
The flames that flooded the ground dyed even the sky crimson, and instantly incinerated everything around.
Hundreds of thousands of ash particles billowed up and scattered across the crimson-dyed sky,
the facilities and ruins of the utterly destroyed theme park were utterly consumed by the fiery ideation.
RUMBLE RUMBLE!!
On the sea of scarlet flames that instantly flooded and swallowed the ground, a single person stood, hands clasped behind their back.
Their entire body was tattered, broken, and torn apart, a grotesque appearance.
To call him a master riding the sea of fire, his appearance was excessively weak and flimsy.
“……”
Only after Lennok confirmed his appearance through Mana Sensitivity, could he realize the identity of the human riding the sea of fire.
His chest was stained crimson as if he had vomited a handful of black blood, his limbs flailed like a puppet, a grotesque sight.
That face, with hair plastered messily onto it, was familiar.
One of the five Flame Pillars of the Magic Tower. Duren.
The Saint Wizard who had just fought Lennok, failed to deploy his Domain, and died from a stopped heart.
That corpse, which should have already died and lost its power, had risen again and was incinerating the entire theme park.
Creak!
Duren’s swaying head, following the surging sea of fire, as if forcibly fixed, turned towards Tatiana standing below the launch pad.
The moment Tatiana flinched in surprise and trembled, the same low, soft voice as before flowed out from Duren.
[Tatiana.]
Someone’s transmitted voice, completely different from Duren’s voice Lennok remembered.
Someone completely different from the Flame Pillar he had killed was conveying his intentions instead.
A faint hint of laughter was mixed in the tone of the voice.
[It’s been a long time since I’ve seen your face. Have you been well?]
“……Master.”
Tatiana clenched her teeth and replied.
“The one who should be on the front lines, what brings you to this city?”
A Transcendent powerful enough to transmit their will beyond the Phoenix Hall’s provisional Domain.
The possessor of a twisted sensibility powerful enough to forcibly manipulate and raise the corpse of a dead Flame Pillar.
A transcendent pyromantic magic user capable of turning the restricted area into a sea of fire even without directly arriving at this location.
The Blaiver Magic Tower Lord had manifested here, acting as an agent of their own will.