Chapter 803: Incarnation Spellcraft (5)
CRASH!!!
Fragments of steel rained down from above. A shower of glass poured over the crypt’s underground cavity.
The shattered fragments of stained glass, and the cracks etched into Lennok’s Incarnation, were clearly visible.
Will-thought Invocation of Heaven, from the Ninefold Dorye martial arts.
A new technique from the Eight Forms of Martial Arts, obtained almost simultaneously by mimicking the guardian spirit that protected the crypt.
But the Incarnation’s arm, which had unleashed the Will-thought Invocation of Heaven, had shattered on the spot.
The technique’s power was more than enough to pulverize the guardian spirit and the crypt’s door, but the Incarnation could not avoid the recoil.
CRACK…!!
The pure white gauntlet, replacing the Incarnation’s arm, was split, looking as if it would shatter at any moment.
Attempts were made to repair the cracks by connecting them with mana threads, but it only barely maintained its original form.
Indeed, its durability was too weak to last long if it used techniques other than the Eight Forms.
If the Incarnation was to perform actions beyond defense in direct combat, some other measure would be necessary.
Lennok, tucking the Incarnation back into his shadow robe, surveyed the scene of the crypt spread before him.
ROOOAAR!!
A chilling cold swept through the dry underground of the crypt. At the end of the cavity, a colossal black gate warped, holding endless darkness.
The moment he instinctively realized this was the Reverse Gate of the Infinite Void Lennok had been searching for.
“To reach the Infinite Void through the Reverse Gate, one must cross the Spirit Realm located between them.”
From beyond the mist, a quiet voice echoed.
“But how can a living body cross the Spirit Realm, where only souls pass?”
WHOOSH!
The mist swirling around the cavity began to coalesce into a tangible form.
The shape of a gigantic beast, coiled and lying as if encompassing the entire crypt.
A head resembling a lizard, a long, elongated neck, and two wings slowly swaying, trailing mist.
Was this the manifestation of Kundara’s ancient species, the Ghost Dragon, who had died and become a Military Spirit?
The Ghost Dragon, instantly appearing before Lennok, flashed its reptilian eyes and spoke.
“It is precisely to prepare that means that Incarnation Spellcraft is needed.”
“…”
“For a living being to cross the Spirit Realm, a spirit body is needed to act as a support instead of a physical body.”
The fleeting moment when the boundaries of the Material Realm and the Spirit Realm inverted.
An explanation that for one to exist as oneself on both boundaries, the physical body of a living being and the spirit body of an Incarnation are required.
“It’s ironic, isn’t it? Even at the Reverse Gate, which only living beings can enter, you cannot reach the Infinite Void without a spirit body.”
Yao Xun, raising his gaze as if recalling memories, said.
“But that is the essence of the Myriad Ghosts’ Night Parade that Yorta pursued. That is why the spirits of the Court of Soul Pacification began creating Guides to lead the Night Parade, crossing the Spirit Realm…”
“Yao Xun. This is different from what was promised.”
At that moment, a calm female voice echoed beside Yao Xun.
A cold-faced woman stood beside the Reverse Gate, arms crossed, looking at Yao Xun.
The woman, completely disregarding Lennok, protested to the Ghost Dragon in a chilling voice.
“Why is he here? Was I not designated as the successor for this ritual?”
“Hmm.”
As Yao Xun nodded indifferently, the woman spoke again.
“There’s an agreement with the Outer Tribulation City. Keep the pact. Transmit the spellcraft to me as promised.”
“No, I cannot do that. I have already completed the transmission of the Incarnation Spellcraft to that spellcaster.”
“…What?”
“His aptitude is incomparably superior to yours. If we consider only the necessary aptitudes, even I would find it difficult to compare.”
As the woman’s expression twisted, Yao Xun spoke calmly.
“If properly refined, he is material that can be sculpted to perfection, beyond anything else. I do not wish to spoil things due to an old promise.”
“You…!!”
The woman glared at Yao Xun with furious indignation, channeling her mana.
“How can you claim to uphold order while openly breaking your promise with Kundara?!!”
“Ballia. You know what I am.”
Yao Xun replied calmly.
“I am not a member of Kundara. I am merely representing the will of the deceased Yao Xun, as his Incarnation.”
“…”
“Strictly speaking, the promise he made with Outer Tribulation City has little to do with me.”
The Yao Xun standing before him was not the ancient dragon himself, but merely the Incarnation he left behind.
Only then did Lennok understand why the Grand Arbitrator Oris had described the Ghost Dragon as a being bound by an unusual spellcraft.
Even his recognition of Lennok’s talent and immediate assistance in Incarnation construction was an act attempted because he felt a potential as a fellow Incarnation.
The silent woman quickly regained her composure.
She swept her hair back and spoke to Yao Xun.
“Alright. Then if I kill that spellcaster, I’ll become the successor of the spellcraft again, won’t I?”
“Hmm.”
As Yao Xun did not deny it, the woman, Ballia’s eyes turned chilling.
“You sly old man. You must have wanted me to confront that spellcaster from the start, didn’t you?”
SWISH!!
Saying that, Ballia sharply turned her head and strode to stand before Lennok.
Ballia, raising the channeled mana into her hand, looked at Lennok and asked.
“We’ve met before during the inspection, haven’t we, spellcaster of Pandemonium?”
“…”
Lennok knew what she was referring to, but chose not to reply.
A fleeting encounter at the pier with a monk.
He remembered her passing directly into the Thousand Ghosts Ennoblement, but there was no particular reason to react.
Ballia, as if not expecting a reply, continued immediately.
“You’ve heard the stories, haven’t you? Prepare yourself. As a scion of Kundara, I wouldn’t want to kill an unprepared human.”
“I haven’t agreed to a single word of your conversation.”
Lennok replied indifferently.
“Who decided to blather on about qualifications and nonsense?”
“What are you talking about? You came all this way to learn Incarnation Spellcraft yourself, didn’t you?”
Ballia, in turn, scoffed at Lennok’s words.
“If you passed the test, you should know. That old man just needs a living being to enter the Reverse Gate of the Infinite Void in his stead. Do you think I’d just fall for such schemes?”
“Then our goals are completely opposite, it seems.”
Lennok looked at her and smiled back.
“Because I came here to enter the Reverse Gate of the Infinite Void.”
“…”
“And I think I understand why Yao Xun chose me.”
“…Whatever.”
Ballia, momentarily speechless, immediately raised her hand towards Lennok.
“If I become the sole successful candidate for the Spirit Transformation Ritual, Yao Xun will stop his pointless deliberations as well…!!”
SHIIING!!
Crimson blood surged from Ballia’s hand, instantly transforming into a long blood whip.
A rough motion, instantly gripping Lennok’s neck, intending to tear it off.
She must have taken paralyzing medicine multiple times, yet her movements were unbelievably agile.
A vampire wielding Blood Magic. Perhaps because she manipulates her own blood, she can be freer from the test’s constraints?
‘Spellcraft that manipulates a medium. Unusual power and twisted nature.’
Words that Monk Kraya Nirjuma had spoken when explaining the suitable aptitudes for learning Incarnation Spellcraft. A description that perfectly fit the vampire before him.
But Lennok set aside such thoughts and boldly seized the whip coiled around his neck.
CRUNCH!!
The moment his gloved hand gripped the whip, sharp thorns erupted and pierced Lennok’s hand.
“How foolish. Have you never seen a vampire in your life?”
Ballia scoffed at Lennok.
“To touch my blood without dodging, while injuring yourself… unless you’re out of your mind, you can’t be th—”
At that moment, Ballia’s expression, as she looked at Lennok, drastically changed.
Far from tearing Lennok’s palm, the whip was instead being suppressed by a pale flash of light.
CRACK!!
Above Lennok’s hand, the pure white gauntlet appeared, gripping Ballia’s whip instead.
The gauntlet, cracked and dangerously trembling. But the moment it touched the whip, the whip’s color was reversed, turning pure white.
CRACKLE…!!
Instantly covering the blood whip with its own color, as if contaminating it on the spot.
Feeling a chill, Ballia immediately tried to abandon the whip and create distance, but it was already too late.
The whip, now turned pale white, was now firmly gripping her hand in reverse.
“Blood Magic, which manipulates blood as a medium, is highly efficient, but it is vulnerable to interference when facing spellcraft that uses the same medium.”
Lennok, looking at the Incarnation gripping the whip, said.
“And my Incarnation tends to have a talent for ‘conveying’ its power or will-thought.”
“!!”
WHOOSH!!
The moment the pure white whip instead bound Ballia’s arm tightly.
The Incarnation’s arm swung the whip powerfully, slamming Ballia’s body into the crypt wall.
CRASH!!!
“Kuh-ak!! You, you…!!”
Ballia, screaming as if her breath was cut off, stammered while hanging from the whip.
A being who knew an unusually detailed amount about Blood Magic, and possessed the ability to immediately exploit its fundamental weaknesses.
Furthermore, one so skilled as to manifest such abilities through his Incarnation.
“Are you… a vampire hunter?”
“A vampire hunter?”
Lennok chuckled.
“Do you need the profession of a hunter just to kill mosquitoes?”
“!!”
At the scathing retort, Ballia’s expression twisted, and at that moment, her mana violently surged.
The pure white glowing whip swung Ballia’s body once more, slamming her straight down at Lennok’s feet.
THUD!!!
Lennok slowly walked towards the trembling vampire, who had collapsed.
A battle that ended unilaterally, unable to even sustain a brief exchange.
An unbelievably one-sided result, even considering that he thoroughly exploited her fundamental weaknesses.
Ballia, covered in blood, muttered as if unable to comprehend.
“Ho… how…?”
“It’s not that I’m uninterested in Kundara’s vampires, but I have more pressing matters.”
Leaving the faintly gasping vampire, Lennok turned his steps towards Yao Xun.
“Powerful and unique, yet endlessly precarious and unstable, this Incarnation.”
The Ghost Dragon, watching the scene with an expressionless face, said.
“Even after passing all the Spirit Transformation Rituals, has the Incarnation’s construction not been properly completed?”
“So you allowed that vampire and me to fight because you wanted to see that, didn’t you?”
Lennok scoffed.
“And your boasting, comparing me to that woman, was purely to confirm the state of my Incarnation, wasn’t it?”
“…”
There’s no particular reason to have only one successor for Incarnation Spellcraft.
Nevertheless, Yao Xun deliberately ignored Ballia’s demands and incited the conflict between the two.
He must have wanted to ascertain the state and abilities of Lennok’s Incarnation during that process.
“Let’s stop with the pointless comparisons and tell me how to enter the Reverse Gate. Weren’t you waiting for me all this time because you wanted something?”
He didn’t know Yao Xun’s purpose, but he was certain the Ghost Dragon desired something beyond the Infinite Void.
Was that why he was teaching Incarnation Spellcraft in this old, forgotten fortress?
“No, it is impossible as you are.”
But Yao Xun shook his head at Lennok’s words.
“At least with the Incarnation you possess, you will never succeed.”
“What?”
“You are correct, spellcaster of Pandemonium. My transmission of Incarnation Spellcraft is not for anyone else, but for myself.”
“…”
“Kundara’s ancient species possess no souls, and after death, they merely pay the price alongside Outer Tribulation City…”
For a moment, Yao Xun’s eyes blurred as if tracing back distant memories.
“But Yao Xun, fearing that, sought to possess a soul. He wanted the chance to choose a different answer than Kundara.”
“So you learned Incarnation Spellcraft?”
“Yes. He entrusted his body to Yorta to study souls… and found a way to leave his will even after death.”
The Ghost Dragon’s Incarnation emitted an eerie will-thought.
“Thus… he was able to leave an Incarnation even after death, but that was ultimately not the true Yao Xun.”
“…”
“An Incarnation represents oneself, yet can never truly replace. I am Yao Xun’s Incarnation, but I can never become Yao Xun himself.”
Yao Xun, his expression turning hollow, muttered vacantly.
“Never reaching the true Yao Xun’s desired purpose, I have become a curse and a vengeful spirit, left here.”
Only then did Lennok understand what kind of being the Incarnation of Yao Xun standing before him truly was.
Just as the cult’s Apostles, existing as Incarnations of Outer Gods, could never truly become the Outer Gods themselves.
An Incarnation is merely a being that represents its master; it can never become the master himself.
Kundara’s ancient species, Yao Xun, had already died and vanished, and only the Incarnation he left behind remained here instead.
Yao Xun realized that fact too late, and only his Incarnation remained, bound to this Military Spirit City.
“To learn Incarnation Spellcraft, Yao Xun participated in the Night Parade, and as a price, my existence became bound to the other side of the Infinite Void.”
The Ghost Dragon’s eyes, now gloomy, slowly turned their gaze towards the Reverse Gate.
“Until the moment this world sinks beneath the sea of darkness, I will suffer eternally with Yorta…”
A remorse filled with despair, which Lennok had never sensed from him before.
Lennok, who had been silent, asked.
“What do you want?”
“Rest.”
The Ghost Dragon replied, eyes closed.
“If an unavoidable end exists, and I cannot escape it… I wish to be at peace, even for a little while, before then.”
“At peace…”
Lennok murmured.
Yao Xun’s Incarnation, an Incarnation and a living curse, bound to the Infinite Void.
But if someone could enter the Infinite Void, they could free his existence, bound as a curse.
The Ghost Dragon had waited for a long time for someone to take his place, wishing only for that.
“There were a few living beings who learned Incarnation Spellcraft and headed for the Infinite Void, but none succeeded.”
Yao Xun said in a low, somber voice.
“They either couldn’t even enter the Infinite Void, or they died unable to endure it… becoming Military Spirits and subjugated to the Memorial Tower was common.”
“…”
“There were some who occasionally returned from beyond the Spirit Realm with Old World techniques, but they did not achieve the purpose I desired.”
THUMP!!
At the same time, Yao Xun’s Incarnation took a step forward towards Lennok.
“Spellcaster of Pandemonium. You are a vessel of greater aptitude than anyone who has sought this fortress before.”
He said, gazing at Lennok’s obsidian mask with a blazing stare.
“The moment I saw you, I was certain. There will be no next. No one who comes here will be superior to you…!!”
“…”
“You must succeed. You must succeed!! You must enter the Infinite Void, and in that cursed sanctuary, extinguish my existence!!”
“That was a long introduction. I think I’ve heard enough of your circumstances.”
Lennok, tilting his head indifferently, asked.
“So, what is it you want to say?”
Ultimately, all this explanation must be because he desires something from Lennok.
The Ghost Dragon’s glinting eyes turned towards the pale Incarnation standing behind Lennok.
“Abandon that unstable and weak Incarnation, and obtain a new one.”
“…”
“Such a frail Incarnation won’t do… With such an unstable being, you can never reach the Infinite Void!!”
Yao Xun’s Incarnation stared intently at Lennok and said.
“Obtain an Incarnation powerful enough to endure the Spirit Realm, then cross the Reverse Gate and reach the Infinite Void.”
“Obtain a new Incarnation?”
Now, where am I supposed to obtain a new Incarnation?
No, can a spellcaster’s Incarnation even be replaced that easily in the first place?
As Lennok adjusted his mask and shook his head, the gigantic dragon’s ghost exhaled a puff of air and pointed at himself.
“I will become your Incarnation.”
“…What?”
(…)
At that moment, Lennok’s Incarnation, listening to their conversation from behind his robe, twitched greatly, as if displeased.