Chapter 810: Ascendant Dorye (5)
CRASH!!
Lennok and Dorye’s forms collided in that spot, then bounced back with even greater speed.
As Dorye saw Lennok’s form falling rapidly below the throne, he fiercely gripped a fragment of the falling chain.
Each time the Ascendant’s shoulder, perched atop the throne, slowly rotated, a chain fragment at his fingertips vanished.
Simultaneously, it was slammed down at immense speed onto the location where Lennok stood.
CRRRUMBLE!!!
The impact shook the vast cathedral scenery incessantly, but surprisingly, the Infinite Void’s space did not tear.
The sanctuary of curses, located at the boundary of the Material Realm and Spirit Realm.
Perhaps that’s why it couldn’t be easily damaged or destroyed by mere physical impact.
Lennok thought so, gripping his mana threads and circling the throne where Dorye stood at incredible speed.
He dodged every chain fragment Dorye unleashed, quickly scouring the area around the sanctuary.
“For someone who boasted so confidently, you don’t seem to have much in the way of tricks.”
THUD!!
Dorye laughed, watching Lennok swiftly evade the chain fragments slamming down as he circled the throne.
The Ascendant’s form, sweeping back his bleached white hair with one hand.
In contrast, the dark, ink-like muscles carved onto his forearms were clearly visible even from this distance.
“How long do you plan to just stand there and watch me?!”
SCREEECH!!
But Lennok ignored Dorye’s words, dangling from the mana threads and reaching his hand downwards.
Amidst the rain of chain fragments, he picked up a broken candlestick and observed it.
The Infinite Void’s sanctuary. Here, curses were observed in the form of candlelight.
However, even if a candle here extinguished, not all observed curses would immediately vanish.
Some curses disappeared as soon as their candle went out, while others became new candles, still observed within this sanctuary.
‘Is the essence to perceive existence through observation and project its flow into this sanctuary?’
Through the power of the Infinite Void, one could know who cast the curse and why it was cast.
But since extinguishing a curse’s candle here didn’t directly eliminate the curse in reality,
then why did Ghost Dragon Yao Xun ask Lennok to erase the curse symbolizing his existence in the Infinite Void?
Lennok believed it was because Ghost Dragon’s existence was based on a unique principle that required observation.
If there were a type of curse that didn’t disappear simply by being observed here, then it would certainly require intervention in the Infinite Void to eliminate its existence.
And Lennok instinctively realized that this aligned with the meaning of Incarnation Spellcraft.
THUMP-THUMP-THUMP!!
Hooking his mana threads onto the edge of the throne, he instantly closed the distance with Dorye.
As Dorye, as if waiting, grasped and swung a chain fragment, the wind split in two around the Ascendant’s head and rotated.
WHOOOOSH!!!
An immense wind pressure poured down, as if trying to press Lennok down to Dorye’s feet.
But Lennok immediately circumvented that onslaught with a Blink, approaching Dorye’s immediate vicinity.
Manipulation-type unique magic.
[Thread-Bound Constraint]
A hand extended from beneath the shadow robe, shaking wildly, bound by mana threads.
Following that vibration, he dodged all the will-thoughts Dorye projected, reaching him in an instant.
At the moment he manipulated hundreds of mana threads simultaneously and plunged them directly into Dorye’s solar plexus, who offered no resistance.
[Vines of Threaded Communication]
CLANGGGG!!
A milky-white glow flashed across Dorye’s skin, deflecting all of Lennok’s spellcraft.
Unlike his previous stance of evading attacks, Dorye’s expression subtly changed at Lennok’s sharp momentum, which instantly breached his defenses.
“Hoo, that movement just now…….”
“A barrier blocking physical interference. Or a very powerful type of blessing comparable to one.”
Lennok shook his head, simultaneously gathering and retrieving all the scattered mana threads that had bounced off.
He looked at the Ascendant’s jet-black pupils, which stared at him in surprise, and asked.
“It’s not power from this world to begin with. Is the blessing received as the Pontiff’s vessel still remaining in that body?”
A milky-white glow that thoroughly protected Dorye’s physical body, regardless of his will.
A type of blessing or protection, originally presumed to be for the Pontiff, felt mystical.
Dorye had not been fighting at full strength until now, precisely to control that power completely.
“The Pontiff’s blessing. If a blessing that isn’t your own power is belatedly activating now…….”
Lennok said, looking at Dorye’s bleached white hair.
“It must be due to my incarnation residing within that body.”
“…….”
The one moving the Ascendant’s body now was a being infinitely closer to Dorye himself.
But Lennok was certain that the key to this was his own incarnation.
A Fist Master from the Old World. And if it was the power of an incarnation body that might have originated from the Pontiff,
it would have been the perfect catalyst to provoke Dorye, who had witnessed the Pontiff’s illusion his entire life.
Lennok realized this immediately after seeing Dorye’s memories, and understood why Dorye sought to kill him.
If Dorye perceived the existence of the incarnation, he would also infer the connection between Lennok and the Pontiff.
For Dorye, who wished to erase all traces of the Pontiff, Lennok was nothing short of an enemy to be eliminated first.
“Yes. It is still dormant within my body. This blessing now is power awakened because of it.”
Dorye nodded.
“I intended to kill you after completely absorbing your incarnation…… thought it’s not working as well as I thought. That must be because your incarnation’s power originated from the Pontiff.”
The reason Dorye couldn’t absorb Lennok’s incarnation was, strictly speaking, because it originated from Lennok himself.
However, the Ascendant before him believed that because the incarnation was related to the Pontiff, he couldn’t easily erase its existence from his own body.
“You asked who I was. Conversely, who are you?”
Dorye asked, staring at Lennok with an eerie gaze.
“Are you the one who represents the Pontiff in this world? Or are you another vessel arranged for the Pontiff, like me?”
[…….]
Even the Priestess, who had been desperately focused on praying behind them, could be felt casting her gaze this way.
She too, upon seeing Lennok and the power of the incarnation, must have clearly recognized his relationship with the Pontiff.
But Lennok, knowing this, calmly shook his head at Dorye.
“That doesn’t seem like a question I should answer. I’ve never thought of it that way.”
WHOOSH!!
Lennok seized the scattered chain fragments with his mana threads, rotating them in a wide circle.
He then changed the direction of the fragments, accelerated by centrifugal force, and slammed them down on Dorye’s head.
CRASH!!
Lennok spoke, watching the Ascendant’s body take the chain fragments without even attempting to dodge.
Lennok’s voice briefly wavered.
“The power and faith he left behind. His means and methods. The reason he crossed worlds…… I understand none of it properly.”
“…….”
“Rather, aren’t you much closer to him than I am?”
THUD!!
The misty chain fragments shattered and splintered above his head.
Even the sharp, honed fragments tearing at the surroundings vanished, blocked by the milky-white blessing enveloping Dorye’s body.
Dorye silently watched this, then murmured.
“The Pontiff descended into this world through my body, and forcibly raised my hierarchy on the spot, making me an Ascendant.”
A shocking confession, almost unbelievable to hear.
Could he, merely by manifesting through another human body, elevate someone’s hierarchy and bring them to a level comparable to an Ascendant?
How vastly different must the knowledge and power accumulated be, to have crossed worlds and made such an impossible feat possible?
Just as Lennok paused, contemplating the effort required for such a transcendent accomplishment, Dorye spoke.
“But after the Pontiff left, my body couldn’t endure the repercussions. My mind, pushed beyond its limits, collapsed entirely…….”
Dorye stopped speaking, then murmured in a calm voice.
“Mad, I roamed the continent, killing everything I saw.”
“…….”
“I tried to see the next stage, even sacrificing myself…… but the Pontiff never intended to grant my wishes from the start.”
Dorye himself accepted the deal with the Pontiff and gained the qualification to challenge ascension.
Yet, that fervent wish, for which he had thrown himself away seeking answers, had only become a memory distorted by regret.
Only upon hearing this did Lennok understand why Ascendant Dorye felt different from other Ascendants.
Ascendant Dorye was not a Transcendent who reached the 9th-level hierarchy by challenging ascension through his own will.
He was an Ascendant artificially created, more perfectly than anything else, through the will of the Pontiff, by receiving his embodiment.
That’s why his mind wasn’t that of a complete Ascendant, and his emotions were distant from those who had genuinely earned their qualifications.
“For hundreds of years, I lived in madness, oscillating between life and death, thinking.”
His pitch-black body, stained as if with ink, shimmered as he began to walk towards Lennok.
“That this was the answer the Pontiff ultimately presented to me.”
“…….”
“If his wish was to stain everything in this world with madness, to combine destruction akin to massacre with self-mutilation, leading to ruin…….”
The Ascendant stopped directly in front of Lennok, his piercing eyes flickering as he whispered.
“Then I must be the one to sever all those causal ties myself.”
Dorye, who had lived as the Pontiff’s vessel, would surely know the origin of Lennok’s incarnation.
It was also clear as day that if he wished to erase all traces of the Pontiff, he wouldn’t spare Lennok.
From the moment he entered the Infinite Void with the Priestess’s spirit body and used the Revelation Ability to look into his memories, he had crossed a point of no return.
But Lennok, knowing this, silently pulled out a new ampoule from his pocket and injected it into his forearm.
HISS!!
“I don’t believe the cult’s methods are right. And I understand why you wish for this.”
Lennok asked, gazing at the vibrant colors of the elixir being directly injected into his veins.
“But how is what you wish for any different from the Pontiff’s?”
“…….”
“If you sever all related causal ties in a direction different from the Pontiff’s, won’t you, too, ultimately desire only ruin?”
Lennok smiled coldly at the silent Dorye.
“Ultimately, we can only answer based on what we’ve seen and heard. No matter how noble the value we seek, we cannot create meaning we don’t understand.”
That’s why Lennok sought out the world’s secrets, examining the failures left behind.
To know a little more before giving a definite answer. To see and hear a little more, so as not to repeat the past.
“Regardless of whether the cult’s answer is wrong, it is not the role of the deceased to decide it.”
Lennok slowly lowered his stance, drawing up his magic, and tilted his head.
“And certainly not a Berserker enslaved by the Pontiff, who has forgotten who he even is.”
“……Indeed.”
RUMBLEEEEEE!!!!
No further answer came.
The moment Lennok spoke those words, only the complete erasure of all emotion from Dorye’s face was apparent.
Lennok watched this, slowly beginning to awaken all his senses.
WHINE……!!
A 9th-level Ascendant. One who was born with the complete memories of that body.
The potential of a perfected Ascendant’s body was immeasurable, yet Lennok still predicted a chance of victory in this place.
Dorye, who had reached the rank of Ascendant as a Berserker, was not actually mad now.
His current state, where he could converse normally with Lennok, could not be called madness.
If the Ascendant’s hierarchy was only fully demonstrated when he was truly mad as a Berserker, then Lennok had a chance.
As all the scattered misty chains settled, and silence returned to the Infinite Void’s sanctuary for a fleeting moment.
CRASH!!
Lennok and Dorye almost simultaneously vanished from that spot and collided.
Unlike the hollow skirmishes that had merely grazed each other until now, this was an attack designed to take lives from the very beginning.
GRINDING!!!!
A manipulation wizard wielding mana threads and a pugilist clenching his fists exchanged hundreds of blows in a fleeting instant.
Hazy mana threads crossed up and down, blocking two arms, then crumpling and scattering in rows.
CRUNCH!!
Fist-light, swirling along the trajectory of will-thought, pierced through all the fiercely scattering mana fragments.
A one-sided situation where mana threads couldn’t withstand the fist-blows and were utterly crushed and torn apart.
But Lennok didn’t cling to the severed mana threads, instead rapidly drawing new ones to withstand the fist-blows.
He could endure longer by injecting mana and increasing tension, but that would drastically reduce efficiency.
It was most important to not begrudge the consumed mana and simply weather the immediate exchange.
RATTLE!!
He gathered the breaking mana thread bundles, reconnected them, and redirected the impact from Dorye’s extended strikes.
He attached the severed mana thread segments all over his body, inducing the dispersion of force.
A wondrous technique, burning mana continuously from the front, while reattaching spell fragments from behind to check Dorye’s movements.
He continued the battle, simultaneously performing both the frontal exchange and the rearward harassment.
FLICKER!!
Dozens of mana thread bundles extended from Lennok’s fingertips, splitting into hundreds of strands in the blink of an eye, an illusion as if they enveloped everything.
In empty space, mana threads tied together, supporting each other and raising their tension.
Dorye’s fist-blows, radiating brilliantly in all directions.
Lennok extended his fingertips as if guiding Dorye’s unconstrained will, catching it in mid-air.
The moment Lennok’s aimlessly circling fingertips coincidentally touched the tip of Dorye’s fist.
GRIND!!
The mana thread fragments fluttering around them wound together uniformly, violently striking Dorye’s body from all sides.
Proof that he had perfectly executed an exchange against a physical combatant using specialized manipulation spellcraft, known for its complexity.
Though only for a fleeting moment, Lennok had undoubtedly gained the upper hand in the exchange with Dorye—
CRASH!!!
An ink-black wave exploded, crushing Lennok’s form like an insect on the spot.
Even after reacting in an instant, deploying a shield, and Blinking backward, the slash followed.
“Cough……!!”
Despite the pain being completely erased, he felt his chest being crushed, forcing him to gasp for breath.
“Spatial wizard. You’ve been trying clumsy tricks since earlier.”
GRAB!!
As if the fierce exchange had been for naught, Dorye instantly pinned Lennok down and seized his robe.
The milky-white blessing shimmering across his entire body had largely deflected and withstood Lennok’s attacks on the spot.
Dorye twisted his lips, holding Lennok’s form in one hand and lifting him.
“You’re not even a martial artist, yet you dare to compare the depth of martial arts with me?”
“……!!”
Dorye glared at Lennok’s swaying form with a sunken gaze.
“Your intuition in successfully outwitting me is surprising, but trying to wield martial arts with such a pathetic body is pointless.”
THUMP!!
As Dorye gripped the robe and drew up mana, ink-black mana violently swirled in his grasp.
“When vessels of different sizes collide, one will simply roll and shatter more severely.”
It enveloped Lennok’s form as if ink were drawing lines in the air, then began to squeeze him on the spot.
CRACK! GRIND!!
A swift move, as if to completely eliminate any remaining presence of Lennok, leaving no room for escape.
The martial arts of the Berserker Dorye, known as Ninefold Dorye.
Eight martial techniques and one pugilistic art.
But its foundation lay in a single close-quarters combat style, wielded with two fists.
The Ascendant’s body extended a hand into the air, and simply by gently grasping it, the surrounding space warped and responded.
Even Lennok’s very existence twisted according to that gesture and the flow of will-thought, emitting a series of indescribably horrific sounds.
CRACK!!
The moment Dorye, with a cold gaze, lifted his foot to crush Lennok’s fallen head.
Lennok struggled to move his lips.
“Calling yourself a vessel…… is that because you haven’t completely erased the Pontiff’s traces?”
“…….”
“It’s ironic. You haven’t fully escaped, yet you seek to erase his traces from this world.”
Lennok’s eyes, visible through the cracked obsidian mask, curved into a slight smile.
“That’s not regret, but an obsession akin to madness.”
CRASH!!
The moment Dorye lightly stamped his foot, a massive ink-black pillar erupted and exploded above the Infinite Void’s cathedral.
Mana and will-thought overflowed to the point where a mere light tap could cause an explosion.
Even for a body that had just awakened, its output and the corresponding will were of an incomparably higher dimension.
CRRRUMBLE!!!
The cathedral’s candles were consumed and burned by an even fiercer will-thought, and a faded storm raged and swirled.
But from beyond the Berserker’s mana, which sought to obliterate everything,
“I wasn’t trying to fight you with martial arts unbefitting my level.”
Lennok’s voice echoed again.
“It was merely to confirm if I could outwit an Ascendant.”
“……!!”
“The reason I didn’t use spellcraft, and instead deliberately engaged in hand-to-hand combat to exhaust myself like this—”
Dorye immediately withdrew his mana and searched for Lennok, but Lennok’s form was already far away from that spot.
He sat collapsed on the floor, barely covering himself with a robe soaked in dripping blood.
Through the obsidian mask, precariously clinging as if it might fall at any moment, Lennok spoke quietly.
“I believed that ordinary spellcraft would be difficult against a being enveloped in the Pontiff’s blessing.”
“…….”
With a body consumed by pain, he struggled to lift his head.
The Priestess, who had not interfered until now, concentrating purely on gathering her abilities, was now visible as an intense fiery manifestation of revelation, strong enough to be seen with the naked eye.
Lennok nodded to the Priestess, who had completed the Revelation Ability and was ready.
“Seina Naydree. Use the Revelation Ability towards the Outer Sea.”
[……Your Excellency.]
Only then did the Priestess’s eyelids tremble with difficulty, realizing Lennok’s intention.
Lennok, instead of answering the Priestess, turned his gaze towards Dorye, who was slowly walking towards him from afar.
His entire body was stained black, as if soaked in ink.
Yet, upon that skin, which allowed no trace of light to sink in, his solid physique and distinct muscular body were clearly visible.
An Ascendant’s body, which had passed hundreds of years and long met death, yet had not faded even slightly.
A Transcendent, enveloped in a blessing that was originally the Pontiff’s, refusing any physical interference.
But the reason Lennok didn’t reveal more of the primal magic he used in his guise as Van was not because of anything else.
“A memory trapped in a dead body. An Ascendant awakened beyond the boundary of life and death. To kill that which cannot be killed…….”
Lennok whispered, looking at him.
“You need a power far more twisted and lowly.”
[…….]
“Open the Consecration Ritual and summon the end that watches this place from beyond the Outer Sea.”
Lennok slowly rose from his seat, looking at the Priestess, who had frozen, unable to respond.
“I will kill that deceased one, as an Apostle of the cult.”