Chapter 804: Incarnation Spellcraft (6)
Lennok had guessed that Ghost Dragon Yao Xun wanted something from him.
But he had never imagined it would be to become Lennok’s incarnation himself.
First of all, was it even possible to swap out an incarnation body built by a spellcaster with another entity? Especially if it was an entity that had already been born as an incarnation from another spellcaster’s hands and endured for a long time?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Change my incarnation to reach Mugan?”
Lennok shook his head decisively, his refusal sharp as a blade.
“I refuse. Whether it’s even possible aside, it’s an offer that requires no consideration.”
“Even if I tell you that you cannot go to Mugan through your incarnation?”
“Yao Xun.”
Lennok gave a cold chuckle.
“You said your goal was to erase yourself in Mugan and find peace.”
“…So?”
“If I were to make you my incarnation, wouldn’t your existence still vanish once everything is over?”
Leaving the silent Ghost Dragon, Lennok continued.
“I didn’t create an incarnation for such short-sighted gains. If I intended to use it once and discard it, I wouldn’t have accepted your offer in the first place. And…”
Lennok openly scrutinized Yao Xun from head to toe, letting out a scoff.
“I’m also not sure if your existence is valuable enough to warrant replacing my incarnation.”
“…”
The Boxer’s Incarnation, wavering precariously, and the Ghost Dragon’s spirit body, filling the entire ossuary. It was obvious which of the two incarnation bodies appeared to be the more powerful and formidable spirit.
But Lennok knew well that the value of his incarnation was not limited to immediate combat prowess or its current weaknesses.
This was the remnant of someone Lennok couldn’t obtain right now, perhaps someone with potential comparable to Lennok himself. If he refined this well, it might someday hold more meaning than he could ever imagine.
Knowing this, Lennok had no intention of abandoning or replacing his incarnation from the start.
“Is that so… what a pity.”
Realizing there was not a shred of wavering in Lennok’s reply, the Ghost Dragon’s voice sank low.
Kugugung!!
As the Ghost Dragon’s spirit body tilted its head, the entire ossuary vibrated.
The True Blood Dragon Tribe of Kundara. Its spirit body twisting alone caused the entire underground cavern to tremble.
Slowly turning its head, the Ghost Dragon approached Lennok until it was right before him, exhaling a chilly breath.
“But I did not waste such a pathetic plea just to hear that answer.”
“…”
“It’s not a matter of accepting or not accepting the offer. What is to be done now… is an inescapable outcome for you.”
Krr-rung!!
With a low roar that seemed to echo from the abyss, the Ghost Dragon’s magic power surged rapidly on the spot.
“Understand that little time remains, talented spellcaster.”
“We didn’t gather here to exchange pleasantries, did we?”
Lennok calmly agreed, bringing his hands together in a prayer-like gesture at that moment.
The Ghost Dragon opened its maw wide towards Lennok and exhaled a breath of cold mist.
Kwaaaaaah!!!
Formless resentment congealed into substance, becoming a sharp vortex that lashed out at the ossuary’s open space. An immense wind pressure, enough to tear apart a living human body in an instant.
But a pure white ripple burst forth from the center of that wind, blocking Lennok’s path and deflecting all attacks.
Jjeonng!!
The incarnation body stood, its pure white gauntlet now riddled with cracks, extended forward.
“I have indeed observed the martial arts and the extraordinary prowess your incarnation possesses.”
Yao Xun watched it, a dark smile on his face.
“But in such a tattered state, how long can it truly protect you?”
As the Ghost Dragon spoke, it unleashed another breath of resentment towards Lennok, intending to sweep him and his incarnation away.
The incarnation’s body vanished from the spot.
Paat!!
The incarnation’s form reappeared as if teleporting, materializing instantly before the Ghost Dragon’s nose. Immediately, it pressed down on the beast’s wide-open snout, forcing its mouth shut.
Kung!!
Tudududuk!!
The breath of resentment that seemed poised to erupt was forcibly reverted back into Yao Xun’s throat. The Ghost Dragon’s neck swelled grotesquely, its expression contorted in pain.
“…You!!”
It tried to shake off the incarnation by thrashing its colossal body, but Lennok’s incarnation had already put distance between them.
“You’re right. My incarnation can only move if it assumes it will break. But…”
Lennok watched the scene and spoke.
“For a brief moment, I can solve such problems with my spellcraft.”
Jjeojeojeok!!
An old grotesque man with a hawk nose and eight arms, tearing through the void and emerging from the Imaginary Dimension.
[Kheehehehet.]
As Yao Xun flinched at the Tailor’s bizarre laughter and flailing arms, thousands of magic scribes fell from the Tailor’s fingertips, pouring down onto the incarnation body.
The moment hundreds of magic scribes wrapped around Lennok’s incarnation body and drew out its magic power,
Kiririririk…!!
The incarnation’s spirit body, shining with a pale white glow, began to rapidly repair itself on the spot.
“…!!”
The unrealistic idea of reinforcing the spirit body with magic scribes, repairing damage in real-time.
As Yao Xun’s neck twitched at this impossible phenomenon,
Chwaak!!
The Tailor stretched out both hands, beginning to manipulate the incarnation body directly, like a doll.
The incarnation, hanging from the hands of the specialized artificial summon, began to advance towards the Ghost Dragon.
Lennok nodded, drawing magic power into the incarnation’s form.
“Let’s go.”
Kwaang!!!
Deep beneath the fortress courtyard cemetery, the vast ossuary filling the enormous cavern shook incessantly.
Each time a fierce roar echoed, dazzling magical lights flashed, painting the world pure white.
The surrounding gravity momentarily vanished, creating an illusion of floating.
Dudududu!!
[Khehehehet!!]
The Tailor, radiating magic scribes with grotesque laughter, and the mist dragon, roaring aloud.
That alone caused the will-thought unleashed by the incarnation body and Yao Xun to wildly amplify, sending forth dazzling brilliance.
Udeudeuk…!!
The mist dragon let out an eerie growl, spitting out spheres of resentment at a speed that could barely be seen. Powerful remnants of will-thought, as if will itself was being hurled and slammed.
Lennok, seeing this, immediately manipulated his summon to perform vicarious incantation. As the Tailor chanted the manipulation spellcraft, thousands of magic scribes intertwined into a hexagonal shield, surging forth to intercept the attack head-on.
Jjeojeojeok!!
The shield cracked, unable to withstand the impact, but the Tailor relentlessly pulled out magic scribes, repairing the fracturing shield. The Tailor wildly extracted magic scribes as if drawing from a piled-up spool, without even minimal preparation.
Yao Xun turned his gaze to the artificial summon floating above Lennok’s head.
“I wondered why you possessed such outstanding talent in incarnation manipulation, but you already had something even greater…!!!”
He chuckled, watching the Tailor cackling and caressing magic scribes in the air.
“A summon that crosses the Imaginary Dimension and wields specialized spellcraft… Are you saying you’re treating such a monster as a mere summon?!”
“This is hardly the time for such concerns.”
Lennok replied, using a flicker spell to evade Yao Xun’s incoming offensive.
“My incarnation’s ability. You haven’t truly seen it yet, have you?”
At that moment, the incarnation body appeared right before Yao Xun’s nose, dropping behind the Ghost Dragon and striking its back.
Kagagak!!!
Each time the pure white gauntlet collided with Yao Xun’s spirit body, it shattered, scattering fragments. But in reverse, each time, the Ghost Dragon’s scales were torn off within the gauntlet’s grip.
“Graaah!!”
As the Ghost Dragon screamed in a pain like its soul was being ripped away, the incarnation body clutched the scales it had extracted.
Paat!!
The incarnation then suddenly thrust the scales it had torn from Yao Xun’s back into its own chest. Lennok himself momentarily twisted his expression at this bizarre act of the incarnation, which nodded with satisfaction.
“…What are you doing?”
“How dare you!!!”
Yao Xun, enraged at having a part of its spirit body stolen, began to wildly writhe and move. The incarnation body and Yao Xun’s forms clashed repeatedly throughout the ossuary, moving faster than sound, scattering intense shockwaves that overturned and ravaged the battlefield.
A tiny incarnation body and the colossal beast’s spirit body intertwined and collided.
But the one gaining the upper hand was not Yao Xun, but Lennok’s incarnation, moving even as its entire body was shattered and twisted.
Teong!!
The Ghost Dragon’s spirit body moved at tremendous speed, but the incarnation parried every impact with Palgyeong. Unfazed by the shattering impacts to its own body, the incarnation unleashed Uiraguchon to accumulate effective hits.
The incarnation moved mechanically, as if incredibly skilled at hunting such monsters.
“Damn it, a mere imperfect incarnation…!!”
Contrary to Yao Xun’s desperate cry, the incarnation body swiftly began to pulverize the ancient spirit.
Eujijijik!!
Tududuk!!
Jjeojeojeok!!
It stomped and shattered claws, ripped off scales, and struck jaws to pull out fangs from the impact. It hunted the monster alive, plundering its byproducts and ramming them directly into its own incarnation body for replenishment.
It cemented fang fragments onto its shattered gauntlets, added pulverized scale dust onto its legs, and draped hide over its shoulders. A peculiar fighting style where the constantly breaking incarnation form was instead replenished by plundering from its enemy.
“…”
Lennok, forgetting to flee from Yao Xun, watched the astonishing process of ‘dismantlement’ displayed by his incarnation.
Perhaps, long ago, someone had prepared for such colossal monsters. If they had hunted the creatures dwelling beyond the Outer Sea, turning their byproducts into a means to defy their fate… even they might not have chosen such a wrong answer by taking the Outer Gods’ hands in the first place.
“Stop, stop!!!”
Yao Xun, who had been desperately trying to escape the incarnation’s grasp, screamed, forgetting even to resist.
“Stop…! No more. If the record of Mugan’s curse and my spirit body changes, my very annihilation won’t happen properly!!”
Kooong!!
Yao Xun’s colossal body, tattered all over, lost strength and collapsed on the spot.
Lennok silently watched, then shook his head and walked towards Yao Xun.
“A laughable surrender. Do you think I’d grant your wish now?”
“Cough…!!”
Yao Xun did not answer. It merely gazed gloomily at the empty spaces where its fangs, some hide, and hundreds of scales had been taken.
The reason it had bowed its head so easily, despite having plenty of strength left to fight, was likely to prevent Lennok’s incarnation from plundering its spirit body any further. If Yao Xun’s form, as recorded in Mugan, were to change from its current state, it might not be able to achieve annihilation even by eliminating the curse in Mugan. That fear had prevented Yao Xun from resisting with its remaining power.
“It doesn’t matter if I don’t cross the Reverse Gate using Incarnation Spellcraft.”
Lennok turned from Yao Xun’s fallen spirit body and pulled out the travelogue from his robe.
“I was already looking for a way.”
Ethan Bajour’s travelogue, which had traversed and recorded this Military Spirit City long ago. On the papyrus, Ethan’s notes about the Reverse Gate had already appeared.
-
= The Ghost Dragon Yao Xun is a spirit bound to Yorta. He regrets this fact and wishes to reverse it.
-
= If you grant his request, you can pass through the fortress, but he will not show you the Reverse Gate until you master Incarnation Spellcraft.
-
= I had no interest in obtaining an incarnation, so I skipped Yao Xun’s trial and headed for the Reverse Gate.
One thing was clear from the travelogue entries that appeared the moment he entered the vicinity of the fortress sanctuary: Ethan Bajour had crossed the Reverse Gate and visited Mugan without mastering Incarnation Spellcraft.
This implied that, contrary to Yao Xun’s words, there was a way to enter Mugan by crossing the Spirit Realm even without an incarnation. Lennok instinctively realized that this method lay in Ethan Bajour’s heaven-defying talent, inherited from Kaiser.
If Ethan was able to reach Mugan without getting lost at the Reverse Gate because of his heaven-defying talent, then Lennok, who possessed Kaiser’s Root Mindscape, Tae-yeok-swae-geop-yeop, should also be able to reach Mugan without getting lost.
Thinking so, Lennok began to draw out his magic power to its fullest before the Reverse Gate.
Woowoong!!
Lennok’s magic power, lightly swirling, increased its speed and expanded its area with each circulation through his body. Surging waves of magic power overflowed from Lennok’s body, drenching everything around him and pressing down heavily.
“…Impossible!!”
A formless pressure, capable of eroding and suppressing the surroundings simply by operating magic power at full strength, without any incantation or hand seals. Yao Xun’s expression, shouting at Lennok from where he lay fallen, changed drastically.
A colossal and overwhelming wave of will-thought, making the previous battle using the incarnation body seem insignificant.
Kwagwagwagwa!!!
Centered around his fluttering shadow robe, all surrounding scenery and sounds seemed to be engulfed. Ballia’s fallen body trembled from the magical vibrations, and the entire vast sanctuary space shook violently.
A peculiar illusion where all perceived and felt senses seemed to tilt towards Lennok, slowly converging. The moment Yao Xun realized how high a hierarchy must be accumulated for such a feat and abruptly raised his head.
Lennok slowly reached out his hand towards the dark Reverse Gate.
Kiiiing!!
The darkness-shrouded Reverse Gate rippled, and the moment the pale incarnation’s hand grasped the gate, dense darkness enveloped Lennok’s form, pulling him inward.
Hwaak!!
Yao Xun, fallen, stared blankly at Lennok’s vanished form.
A deafening silence. Utter darkness where not an inch ahead could be seen. A delusion that even the sensations on his skin had become numb. All five senses lost their meaning, seemingly wandering lost.
Only his sixth sense, made purely of magic power and will-thought, told Lennok where he was now.
Immediately after entering the Reverse Gate, Lennok understood that he was helplessly swept away amidst an uncountably vast wave of spirits.
Kwaaaaaah!!!
Even without sound, he felt the intense current distinctly. An uncountably vast current of spirits, whose numbers couldn’t be discerned even with magic sense. Some died and became souls, others lost their bodies and fell into ruin, while some were born as humble spirits from the very beginning. In this space, where only souls could pass, they became part of the colossal flow.
Living beings with physical bodies, having entered this space, were nothing more than impurities unable to follow the current.
Dududududu!!!!
Unseen, unheard clusters of spirits relentlessly pounded Lennok’s entire body.
“…!!”
Though he still felt no sensation, Lennok instinctively knew he was in a dangerous situation. At this rate, his shields and will-thought defenses would erode, leaving him exposed in an instant.
If his perceptive abilities hadn’t reached the level of observing even the unconscious, he would have been eroded without even knowing what was hitting him.
Kagak!!
The shields were eroding and shattering faster than expected. If he didn’t supply magic power to replenish them and enhance their repulsion, they would soon wear away completely.
But instead of investing magic power into the shields, Lennok focused his mind and began to manipulate the incarnation body.
Paaat!!
A pale flash of light, and at the same time, the incarnation body rose over Lennok’s form, protecting him.
Simply by projecting its existence beyond the Spirit Realm, the clashing currents of souls from all directions seemed to lessen.
The method the Ghost Dragon Yao Xun spoke of, crossing the Spirit Realm by mastering Incarnation Spellcraft, was likely because to reach Mugan against this overwhelming current of souls in the Spirit Realm, one needed to be able to control an incarnation made of spirit body, not a living body.
But Lennok’s incarnation body itself was already cracking and crumbling just by standing there and enduring.
Jjeojeojeok…!!
(…)
From the start, the incarnation body, being unstable and low in durability, found it difficult to protect Lennok for long in this place.
‘What should I do…’
Lennok fell into thought, watching the incarnation’s rapidly eroding and shattering form.
Escaping itself wouldn’t be difficult using Feigenbaum’s Eye or the power of Kaleidoscope. False Star of Revelation or Dream-Mirror Transference are specialized in intervening in such environments, so he could withdraw at any time.
However, that would mean deviating from his original goal of infiltrating Mugan.
‘Kaiser’s Root Mindscape won’t be of much use in this environment either.’
The meaning Kaiser left within Lennok’s inner self was still alive and breathing beyond the Kaleidoscope.
However, Tae-yeok-swae-geop-yeop, as Kaiser’s Root Mindscape, was not Lennok’s own core mindscape, and thus a power with an excessively unstable structure. If he were to unleash it in such a violent current of souls, it might suffer significant damage during deployment and be forcibly canceled.
He wasn’t confident enough in this method to risk such a danger. He had to decide whether to be content with having observed the Spirit Realm’s environment and find another method, or to gamble as he had planned.
Paat!
At that moment, the incarnation body, which had been taking the brunt of the soul waves, tapped Lennok’s left hand. The incarnation stroked the Guide’s Ring on his finger without a word.
(…)
The pale, shattering hand seemed to subtly convey its will, but Lennok hesitated for a moment even after understanding it. He couldn’t guess how Priestess Seina Naydree would react if he were to summon her spirit body in front of his incarnation now.
Priestess Seina Naydree was one of the devotees who had long served and assisted the Pontiff. Even if their appearances and forms differed, she would surely know what kind of being Lennok’s incarnation was. Knowing this, the incarnation was still telling him to use the ring and summon the Priestess’s spirit body.
“…”
Though it originated from Lennok, he still didn’t fully understand what this incarnation was. What the incarnation knew, and whether it could be trusted. Could this itself be a trap, or a setup for someone other than Lennok?
Thoughts and worries piled up like mountains, and no satisfying answer ever came. But Lennok, knowing all this, chuckled and began to caress the Guide’s Ring.
“…Right.”
There are no perfect secrets, nor perfect successes.
Lennok’s multiple identities and the secret of his talent, the penalty binding his body. All of it was merely a stepping stone, a means to the next stage. He must not confuse his priorities.
It exists not for complacency or comfort, but to allow him to walk even further.
Having made that decision, Lennok immediately summoned the Priestess’s spirit body from within the Guide’s Ring.
Paaaah!!
[…Your Excellency?]
Even beyond the Spirit Realm, where all senses were cut off, the Priestess’s spiritual presence was unmistakably vivid.
Priestess Seina Naydree, looking around with a flustered expression, opened her mouth towards Lennok.
[What in the-]
“No need to explain.”
Lennok cut off the Priestess and turned his gaze.
“See for yourself and judge.”
The waves of souls surging from all directions. Seina’s gaze, which had been fixed on the Spirit Realm overflowing with pitch-black darkness, now turned towards Lennok’s incarnation body.
[…]
A pale white halo. A peculiar appearance with no proper form, only a pure white gauntlet taking shape.
Lennok’s incarnation, resembling someone, and the Cult’s Priestess now faced each other as two distinct spirit bodies.