Chapter 795: Betrayal and Fanaticism (2)
“……So it is.”
A whispered confession from a soul.
Only after hearing the words the Shrine Maiden had struggled to utter, could Lennok finally respond.
“Dorye was, the Pontiff’s…”
He even momentarily forgot the sight of the Memorial Tower crumbling all around him and cast his gaze downwards.
The meaning that the Ascendant Dorye was the Pontiff himself, and the vessel itself.
Because he felt like he understood what it meant to him, and why he could accept that fact so naturally.
The failed creation the Pontiff himself mentioned. The martial art Ninefold Dorye he learned from Lansia.
The existence of Shrine Maiden Seina Naydree and the Infinite Void that observes curses.
Even the connection between Lennok and the Pontiff, which he could never be entirely certain of.
Countless questions he couldn’t immediately answer or understand were now transforming, one by one, into clear certainties.
The myriad of confusions and doubts he vaguely imagined but could never grasp their true nature.
Beyond that, Lennok realized he had faced a new facet of the Pontiff.
For a moment, Lennok even forgot his conversation with the Shrine Maiden, halting abruptly.
Creeeak!!
“Intruder…”
“A sinner who defied the Court of Soul Pacification.”
“He must be hung from the tower’s outer wall…!!”
With eerie voices, Military Spirits with physical forms surged from all directions, beginning to surround Lennok.
Beings similar to the tower’s guide who had led Lennok to the Court of Soul Pacification—they had physical forms but were not alive.
They were ghosts that functioned as soldiers guarding the Myriad Ghosts’ Night Parade, physically manifested, yet also parts and components of the Memorial Tower.
As the Military Spirits, each holding weapons wreathed in hazy spiritual energy, rushed forward, Lennok turned his gaze toward the Shrine Maiden’s spiritual form.
“…I understand now what Dorye, preserved within the Infinite Void, was intended for.”
[…….]
“However, why you are now seeking the Pontiff’s old vessel…”
Lennok’s gaze, emanating from behind his mask, suddenly shone intensely.
“I’ll hear that explanation once we’re out of here.”
At that moment, a massive Military Spirit from the ceiling opened its maw wide and tried to swallow Lennok whole.
[Kuaaaagh!!]
Screeeech!!
Simultaneously pulling strongly on his Mana Threads and twisting his body, he projected his Will-thought.
Lennok’s body, explosively accelerated, plunged directly into the Military Spirit’s maw.
Bwaaang!!
The Military Spirit’s head exploded, unable to withstand the impact, and Lennok’s body shot upwards through the Memorial Tower’s levels.
Lennok, having instantly burst through the corridor ceiling to a new level, discharged Mana Threads again. The moment he was about to spring towards a nearby window—
“Oh, that won’t do.”
A Myriad Ghost, appearing from beyond the window, kicked Lennok hard as if he had been waiting.
Craaaash!!
The impact slammed the shadow-robe-clad Lennok into the corridor wall, pushing him back nearly a dozen meters.
“……!!”
A shock so intense it stole his breath, even with shields protecting his body and painkillers already consumed.
As Lennok gasped for breath, the Myriad Ghost, who had descended from outside the window, smiled.
“A Specialized System spellcaster from Pandemonium. They say you’re a monster who handles both manipulation and spatial spellcraft simultaneously, don’t they?”
“…….”
“I sent Hundred Ghosts to the tower’s outer wall, expecting you to escape with spatial leaps, but you didn’t fall for it. Did you anticipate that?”
“…After meeting the Court of Soul Pacification, you seem surprisingly well-informed about the outside world for a ghost.”
Lennok scoffed, slowly rising to his feet.
“If you knew about me, I figured you might also have considered my abilities.”
“Heh heh, you’re more cautious than you look. Or perhaps you’re particularly timid when fighting?”
Lennok brushed off the provocation and quickly assessed the damage from the blow he had just taken.
‘The impact force is hard to believe, coming from a Military Spirit’s physical power… One more hit and I’ll be in trouble.’
The white-haired young man currently blocking Lennok was a Myriad Ghost, an undegenerated spirit guarding the Memorial Tower’s Infinite Void.
He was a powerful Military Spirit, holding an extraordinary rank within Yorta itself.
Lennok knew that Military Spirits who reached a certain rank could intervene in the mortal realm even in their spiritual state.
However, the impact Lennok just felt contained power so immense that such vague descriptions couldn’t explain it.
“Within this Memorial Tower, the Military Spirits who participated in the Great Night Parade transcend spatial constraints.”
As the Myriad Ghost spoke, he swung one hand, and the levels of the Memorial Tower surrounding Lennok and himself began to twist and warp vertically.
[Kiiiiieeeek.]
[Kuaaaagh.]
With the screams of Military Spirits being crushed, mangled, and shattered within, the entire levels of the Memorial Tower shifted their space.
Boom!!
A cramped, empty cubical space. An enclosed room that trapped Lennok and the Myriad Ghost, leaving no escape.
“No matter where you try to flee, or what method you use to escape, there’s no way to evade my eyes and ears.”
Lennok’s expression stiffened for a moment at the existence of this new space, created by manipulating thousands of Military Spirits at once.
‘This is an incredible level of Military Spirit Manipulation…!’
The feat the Myriad Ghost just performed—manipulating the Military Spirits subservient to the Memorial Tower to alter its entire space—was a miracle Lennok had almost never witnessed.
The true value of the Myriad Ghost guarding the Infinite Void lay not in his formidable physical abilities, but in his Military Spirit spellcraft, comparable to Onnion’s.
“Judging by how you measured your distance while fleeing, you kept trying to peek outside from about 20 meters or so.”
“…….”
“Presumably, that’s roughly the casting range of your spatial leap?”
The Myriad Ghost said this, making a choking gesture towards Lennok.
“But at that distance, even if you escape the Memorial Tower, I can immediately catch you and imprison you again. So give up and surrender yourself to us.”
The Myriad Ghost smiled brightly at Lennok, who stood isolated, with nowhere to run.
“Because I want to obtain both the soul of the cult’s Shrine Maiden and the body of the Specialized System spatial spellcaster without damaging either.”
The young man seemed excited, as if anticipating the reward he was about to acquire.
“Despite possessing power unbound by physical limitations, you still value the bodies of other living beings.”
Lennok stared intently at the Myriad Ghost’s face before speaking.
“Is that not for yourself, but for other degenerated ghosts who need a physical body?”
“…….”
“Seeing your appearance, I think I understand why the Ascendant’s remains were still preserved within the Infinite Void.”
Lennok chuckled, seeing the Myriad Ghost’s face momentarily turn blank.
“It wasn’t just the Pontiff who needed the Ascendant’s body, but also—”
“Ascendant…?”
At that moment, the Myriad Ghost, with a blank expression, repeated Lennok’s words.
“That… was an Ascendant’s body?”
“…….”
Lennok fell silent for a moment at the Myriad Ghost’s question, asking about a fact he had just explained himself.
Meanwhile, the Myriad Ghost began shaking his head, one hand pressed to his forehead as if he had a headache.
“Ah, no… this, this isn’t right… I, clearly… while guarding the Infinite Void…”
“…….”
“O-baek-ro from Vulcan… no, the Grand Canal Project… no, Jinwa’s request…”
“It seems your memories are jumbled.”
Lennok tilted his head slightly, observing the Myriad Ghost.
His strange, incoherent speech and rigid expression.
Because Lennok knew, from his time with ‘Innocence’ Krod Azlan, that this was a manifestation of severe amnesia, close to forgetfulness.
And Lennok could instantly discern the precursor to these symptoms manifesting in the Myriad Ghost.
“Are you so broken that you can’t endure for long when outside the Infinite Void?”
“Quiet, quiet…!!”
“You can’t remember what exists inside the Infinite Void when you’re outside of it…”
Lennok murmured with an intrigued voice.
“Though they say you haven’t degenerated, it seems you’re not entirely sound either.”
“Shut up!!”
The Myriad Ghost, clutching his head with one hand, clenched the air, and the enclosed room’s area began to shrink rapidly.
Crraack!!
The Military Spirits forming the ceiling, walls, and floor were instantly compressed and annihilated, crushing the entire space.
The Myriad Ghost, being a part of the Memorial Tower, was unaffected. Was his intention to compress the space itself to crush Lennok to death?
At this rate, even if Lennok endured, he would suffocate as the space for him to breathe disappeared.
Despite his words, his reaction was chilling, unhesitatingly trying to crush and explode Lennok’s body.
Perhaps it was because Lennok’s words had sharply pierced Yorta’s hidden vulnerability.
At this rate, with nowhere to run, it was all the same whether he was crushed to death or suffocated here.
[Your Grace. I will use the Revelation Ability right here and now.]
The Shrine Maiden, assessing the situation, spoke quickly.
[If I forcibly guide the flow of Military Spirits by borrowing the power of the Ability, a path will open. Please prepare right away—]
“Didn’t I say I’d hear the explanation once we’re out?”
[But here, no matter how—]
But Lennok ignored the Shrine Maiden’s words and slowly clasped his hands together.
As Lennok’s hands slipped and twisted amidst the fluttering sleeves of his robe.
“Summoning spell.”
Kiiiing!!
Space tore open behind Lennok, and a gigantic, raggedly stitched hand burst forth.
The elongated hand’s form shimmered, as if it would rip through space and leap out at any moment.
But that form stopped there without revealing its true body, and began to forcefully widen the fissure with its bare hands.
[Grrrooaarr!]
[Aaaargh!]
The Military Spirits screamed in pain, torn to shreds by its grasp, clearing the way.
Crraack!!
With just that, the room’s space, which had been compressing around Lennok, swayed, and the walls crumbled down.
“……!!”
The moment the Myriad Ghost’s expression turned cold, Lennok unhesitatingly used Blink to burst through the crack in the wall.
Whoooosh!!
As Lennok’s body, accelerating at incredible speed, fell down the crumbling Memorial Tower’s corridor, the gigantic hand’s form vanished instantly.
“Ah, ah… right!! To punish the sinner who spied on the Infinite Void…!!”
The Myriad Ghost, realizing what trick Lennok had pulled, belatedly collected himself and chased after him.
“Did he forcibly create a fissure in the tower’s space with just a simplified invocation of a summoning spell…? A spatial spellcaster’s solution, indeed…!!”
A Specialized System artificial summon, a simplified invocation of the Seamster of the Imaginary Dimension summoning spell.
However, to properly summon its true body, even Lennok had to bear an enormous mana consumption.
Thus, instead of fully summoning the Seamster, Lennok rapidly repeated only a part of the invocation, shaking the tower’s space,
And created a fissure in the room’s structure, which had been compressing without the slightest gap, allowing him to escape.
Because the Myriad Ghost’s Military Spirit manipulation was so perfect and the enclosed room’s compression so tight, the variable acted as a fatal distortion.
“You cannot escape…!!”
Craaaash!!
Lennok’s body plunged downwards, digging through the crumbling walls and floors of the tower.
Because he realized that descending simply to the ground below the tower was the answer, rather than trying to escape through the Memorial Tower’s windows.
The Myriad Ghost also instinctively sensed this and leaped across the tower’s space, instantly seizing Lennok’s robe.
Sliiiiip!!
The chilling cold of the Military Spirit wrapped around his neck. The moment he registered the hand clutching his robe’s hem, Lennok also twisted his body.
Chhhhrrrrk!!
Dozens of Mana Threads wrapped around his fingers, repeatedly contracting and expanding in different directions.
The Myriad Ghost also fully wreathed his arms in Military Spirits and, from his spot, lunged with full force towards Lennok’s heart.
Dozens of exchanges at a distance so close they could see each other’s pupils.
But their first full-force clash ended absurdly quickly.
Bang!!
The moment he landed on a lower level of the Memorial Tower, Lennok seized the Myriad Ghost’s spiritual body and slammed it into the floor.
Kagagagagak!!!
“……!!”
He stomped on the Myriad Ghost’s head, which couldn’t even scream, grinding it against the debris of the tower’s corridor.
The Myriad Ghost, twisting his body and scattering hazy spiritual energy like blood, vanished like smoke and reappeared behind Lennok.
“You bastard!!”
The Myriad Ghost’s face was utterly rigid, completely devoid of the composure he had moments ago.
Lennok turned to him and chuckled.
“Even a Military Spirit can’t easily ignore the clash of mana and will-thought, it seems.”
“A mere spellcaster…!!”
“Despite possessing such physical power, you didn’t even try to fight me head-on; you tried to crush me to death using Military Spirit manipulation.”
Lennok spoke, releasing all the remaining Mana Threads he held in his hand.
A powerful Military Spirit spellcraft that not only allowed him to guard the Infinite Void alone but also freely manipulate the Memorial Tower’s Military Spirits as if they were his own limbs.
Lennok had seen many Military Spirit spellcasters, but it had been a long time since he encountered one who could so skillfully manipulate Military Spirits to assert their will.
Perhaps in life, he was a Military Spirit spellcaster comparable to Madrich Onnion.
But the reason the Myriad Ghost before him, possessing such Military Spirit spellcraft, had strictly fought Lennok with simple Military Spirit manipulation.
“Apart from your excellent physical abilities, you’re not accustomed to combat. In life, you must have been a spellcaster specialized purely in support.”
“…….”
“I have no intention of surrendering my body to some low-level ghost, so let’s stop here. You probably don’t have any more ways to stop me, do you?”
Leaving the silent Myriad Ghost, Lennok immediately turned and walked away.
“The ancient spirits of the Court of Soul Pacification are so degenerated they can’t even emerge, and the Myriad Ghost guarding the Infinite Void suffers from severe amnesia… What a strange fate.”
“…No. I wasn’t rushing like this because I couldn’t kill a mere living being.”
The Myriad Ghost replied, his expression rigidly blank.
“I merely wished to avoid the unpleasant situation of having to punish an intruder by damaging this great fruit of our efforts.”
At that moment, the Military Spirits forming the Memorial Tower began to forcibly detach and fall from the ceiling and walls.
[Kuaaaagh!!]
[Oooohk!!!]
A series of movements that forcibly separated and gathered Military Spirits who, despite being manipulated by the Myriad Ghost’s will, had never fallen from the tower.
The detached Military Spirits coalesced in the Myriad Ghost’s hand, forming a sphere of pure white light that spun violently.
Military Spirit Unique Spellcraft Spirit Ensemble Forced Repulsion [Resentful Void Demonic Descent]
Goooooo!!
A mournful wail erupted from the sphere concentrated in the Myriad Ghost’s hand, and a chilling wind continuously swept through.
A miracle that forcibly detached Military Spirits subservient to the Memorial Tower and made them part of his Military Spirit spellcraft.
The sheer aftermath shook the lower levels of the tower violently, unleashing resentful killing intent towards Lennok.
Crraack!!
The entire space was so compressed that the shield he was chanting within his robe was almost crushed.
Only then did Lennok understand why the Myriad Ghost was so confident of victory.
The fact that he could detach the Military Spirits needed to cast Military Spirit spellcraft from the Memorial Tower and use them freely.
Didn’t that mean the Memorial Tower itself was like an endless, infinite power source for the Myriad Ghost?
He must intend to kill Lennok right here, even if it meant pouring out power until Lennok’s mana was completely depleted.
With the Myriad Ghost’s gentle lowering of his hand, the sphere of resentment, which had soared skyward, plummeted towards Lennok.
Kugwagagaga!!
Military Spirit Unique Spellcraft, Resentful Void Demonic Descent.
As the high-powered coalesced mass, created by detaching and grinding up the Memorial Tower’s Military Spirits, spun and crashed down—
The aftermath twisted the space around the tower, threatening to tear Lennok’s very existence apart.
Lennok, seeing the Myriad Ghost’s spell falling from above, instinctively reached inside his robe.
‘…The elixir.’
The diluted elixir, obtained as a gift from Aris Richellen.
Though its effect was limited to Lennok, it was an absurdly powerful consumable that removed mana consumption limits for about 4 seconds.
However, since its power negated mana consumption based on current mana levels, it should be used now, while he still had enough mana.
If he was going to use it, he had to use it decisively.
He would have to push back hard enough to never be overwhelmed in the war of attrition the Myriad Ghost was aiming for.
But Lennok hesitated for a moment, then weakly released the hand that had gripped the diluted elixir.
Even if he used the elixir Aris gifted him here, he wasn’t confident he could withstand a war of attrition against the Myriad Ghost.
Furthermore, it was uncertain how much elixir he would need to use to kill him, especially with the Memorial Tower’s assistance.
Even if he won that way, he still wouldn’t have found a way to enter the Infinite Void, making the fight ultimately pointless.
At this point, where his entire plan was disrupted and he was now being hunted by the Court of Soul Pacification for seeing Dorye’s body.
Ultimately, for now, he had no choice but to focus on escaping this situation.
The moment Lennok firmed his resolve, clasped his hands together, and once again began to draw up mana—
“There is a ruffian breaking the tower’s accord and disturbing the surface and underground!”
A young boy’s voice boomed in his ears.
“……!!”
Immediately after Lennok and the Myriad Ghost flinched at the utterly unexpected sound, shifting their senses—
The tower’s ground beneath their feet exploded, splitting open on both sides, and an immense torrent of water surged upwards.
Meanwhile, the sphere of resentment, still falling towards the ground, collided head-on with the surging river water.
Bwaaang!!
With a deafening roar that made his ears ring, it sprayed water streams in all directions of the tower, evaporating them.
An enormous volume of water, enough to create the illusion of a tidal wave, rushed through the corridors and stairwells in all directions.
Kuaaaah!!
Lennok immediately used a mix of Blink and Mana Threads to widen the distance, avoiding the surging tidal wave,
And the Myriad Ghost also laid Military Spirits beneath his feet to fly, glaring at the surging river water.
“Hahahaha!!”
From beneath the water, a gigantic ghost shark leaped out with a loud laugh.
Its peculiar appearance consisted of a hazy form, sleek fins, and dull, unfocused pupils.
On the shark’s massive body, covered in rough scars and wounds, a young boy with a youthful face rode, laughing.
“Are you stirring up trouble when this elder has his eyes wide open, perfectly fine?!”
“…You.”
Lennok, suspended amidst the crumbling Memorial Tower levels, frowned as he recognized the boy’s face.
A powerful Military Spirit Lennok had encountered during inspection when he first entered Yorta.
The Grand Arbitrator, in charge of the Memorial Tower’s first underground level, had broken through the tower’s floor and appeared.
“The disturbances occurring on both the surface and underground of the tower are matters for the Grand Arbitrator himself to handle.”
The Arbitrator marched ostentatiously through the chaotic interior of the tower, his hands behind his back, and raised his head.
“I’ll take that disrespectful fellow and punish him, so calmly hand him over.”
The boy, who had brazenly spoken loudly, then subtly turned his gaze towards Lennok and gave a strange smile.
[It seems you have seen the remains within the Infinite Void, descendant of Onnion.]
At the same time, the boy’s transmitted voice reached Lennok’s ears.
[That is the vulnerability the Court of Soul Pacification desperately tries to hide, and the archetype itself intertwined with all spiritual records of the Memorial Tower.]
“…….”
[I will be especially generous and rescue you from here. In return, I have one task I wish to entrust to you.]
Leaving Lennok in silence, the Arbitrator’s whispers continued rapidly.
[It concerns a transaction between the Papal See and the Court of Soul Pacification regarding the Ascendant’s body, long ago. Will you accept?]