Chapter 841: Handover (9)

Even now, when I close my eyes, I remember it vividly.

The breathless sprint with Dylan across the grounds of Charlotte’s cosmetics factory,

The appearance of the alligator giant I’d never seen before, its unreal monstrous strength and savage roar.

And even the cold gaze of the Agent who saved Lennok’s life.

A long time had passed, and many things had happened enough to overwrite those memories, yet some things didn’t easily fade.

Memories that, regardless of their value or importance, fleetingly passed by yet lingered in his mind.

The dawn past midnight. Green eyes shining clearly beneath the tranquil moonlight.

Even that gaze, looking at Lennok across the wide-open field, was like that.

“Is a place like this really alright to start?”

Lennok, surveying his surroundings with a cigarette in his mouth, asked.

A deserted field at the edge of District 33, presumably once a zoo.

A desolate landscape with heavily rusted cages and iron bars scattered sporadically across it.

But Lennok knew that even this stage was far from enough for the two of them.

“If you’re truly planning to go all out, this won’t be nearly enough.”

A confrontation between Level 8 transcendent ability users, each surpassing their hierarchy in different ways.

Moreover, it was a battle between seekers who had striven not to abandon their humanity even as they ascended to their current realms.

If either Lennok or Evelyn went all out, it wouldn’t be strange for this entire area to be swept away.

But Evelyn seemed to pay little mind to such facts.

“Doesn’t matter.”

Clack!!

Evelyn, adjusting the string of the short bow mounted on her wrist and pressing down her visor, replied.

“Because I trust you’ll adjust accordingly.”

“…….In this situation?”

“Why, can’t you?”

“………..”

At that voice, which sounded genuinely curious, Lennok couldn’t answer and gave a bitter laugh.

He didn’t actually fail to grasp what Evelyn wanted from him right now.

She didn’t want to engage in a life-or-death struggle with Lennok.

Nor did she wish to beat him to a pulp until her frustration was gone and her mind was at peace.

Even possessing peerless and profound martial prowess, she didn’t inherently prefer violence as a means.

What drove Evelyn Marcia was not the logic of power, but duty and pride for the absolute majority of people.

That a peerless archer like her was bound to a special agency like the Agents was by her own will, and no one else’s.

It was the result of her judgment that her talent and prowess should be placed under the rule of order.

Lennok neither agreed with nor empathized with Evelyn’s methods,

Yet he acknowledged that her foundation was undeniably arduous and noble.

The path not taken often shines brilliantly, and the path one will not take is often admired.

That’s why Evelyn, too, might have continually found her gaze drawn to the wizard walking a different path from her own.

“………..”

In the middle of the parched grassland, she looked at Lennok with a gaze as precarious as if she might vanish at any moment.

Evelyn’s lips, which had hesitated as if she had something to say, quietly parted.

“I’m sorry for showing up at your house uninvited. I’m sure you wanted to keep it hidden.”

“It’s fine.”

Lennok chuckled, exhaling smoke.

“If Vulcan’s top Agent had to borrow an Ascendant’s ability and search tirelessly just to find it, then it’s proof that it’s perfectly safe, wouldn’t you say?”

“………..”

Evelyn’s ability to find Lennok’s residence was only possible because she used the Ascendant ability known as Lighthouse.

Moreover, if even after borrowing the Lighthouse’s ability, a patrol agent of Evelyn’s caliber had to spend a long time using her unique observational skills to find it,

That was nothing less than proof that Lennok’s efforts to conceal his laboratory and residence were perfect.

“Rather, I should be the one apologizing.”

“Why?”

“Because I knew you were agonizing, yet pretended not to know.”

Lennok quietly gazed up at the night sky.

“Perhaps I thought it would be fine if I was discovered. That leaving room for variables in a rapidly changing situation was unavoidable. Perhaps I rashly hoped you would understand anyway.”

“……….”

“Understanding on my own, then hoping and being disappointed, I was unwittingly imagining things.”

Following the falling starlight, he turned his gaze back to meet hers.

“Presuming to know what you wanted, and concluding it as I pleased.”

“………Van.”

Casually, Lennok picked the words Evelyn disliked the most, piercing her core.

To push her forward, as she herself had made the choice yet remained uncertain. To ensure Evelyn could give her all in this moment.

Earning someone’s hatred is all too easy.

Unlike earning someone’s affection, which is all too difficult.

Even mastering thousands of spells, I’m here because I couldn’t properly answer one person’s anguish.

This must surely be the only thing Lennok could say now.

“You said you’d hear an answer that words couldn’t convey. You were right.”

Lennok said, tightening his grip on the cigarette.

Kiiiing….!!

At the same time, a tingling magic surged from Lennok’s fingertips, slowly covering his skin.

“No matter how much you try, sometimes a single gesture speaks more than a thousand words.”

“………..”

“Come, Evelyn Marcia.”

Lennok swept his coat aside, placed one hand behind him, and slowly lowered his stance as he spoke.

“See for yourself if what you’ve been curious about is the answer.”

No reply came.

Instead, Evelyn’s eyes, visible through her visor, simply turned chillingly cold.

The moment Lennok realized it was the gaze of a hunter, transcending public and private concerns.

Whoosh!!

A single streak of light, darker than darkness itself, surged wildly.

It twisted and danced in the air, spinning, then plunged down towards Lennok’s form.

If he saw it with his eyes and reacted, it would be too late; if he heard it with his ears and moved, he would fall behind.

The archer’s single shot, surpassing Lennok’s base five senses from the very start and moving ahead.

As always, the arrow soared forth, cleanly casting aside even her lingering attachments and worries.

[Flash]

Flash!!

In the fleeting moment Lennok tilted his head and spatial-leaped, a black flash pierced the spot where he had just stood.

A chilling, intense acceleration as the entire arrow shaft buried itself into the ground and vanished.

If he tried to block it ambiguously, or evade it haphazardly, he would simply be impaled on the spot.

Against a master of her caliber, holding back means was absurd.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Lennok used Flash to evade the first strike, then rubbed his shoulder and shifted his gaze.

‘Evelyn Marcia uses three methods for long-range archery.’

Throwing arrows with bare hands, rapid-fire using the short bow attached to her wrist, and sniping with a great bow larger than her body.

But even that recent first strike, thrown without being nocked to a string, far surpassed the capabilities of an ordinary archer.

‘There’s no delay between aiming and firing at all. The moment I fail to read the trajectory, I might have to brace for impact.’

The instant she drew an arrow was the minimum preparatory action Lennok could perceive.

If he tried to read more than that, he’d instead lose his timing and concede the initiative in offense and defense.

Then as now, Evelyn’s combat methods and style hadn’t changed significantly.

She had already perfectly understood her talent and aptitude even before transcending her hierarchy.

She had merely honed that talent beyond perfection, transforming it into a power unconstrained by means or methods.

“…………”

Evelyn silently watched Lennok as he stabilized himself and turned, then slowly closed her eyes.

The moment the faint green glow in the darkness vanished, her presence was erased from the spot.

Shhhhk….!!

A presence so faint that Lennok’s magical sense could barely perceive a trace of it.

Being able to erase her presence so perfectly even after reaching Level 8 was proof that she held her power and hierarchy under complete control.

In the darkness, Evelyn’s form could be felt accelerating at invisible speeds, instantly shifting positions.

Knowing she couldn’t entirely evade Lennok’s magical sense, she was confusing his perceptions by changing coordinates and directions.

Tap-tap!!

Faint footsteps brushing the grass. Light steps, uncertain if they even landed there.

Evelyn’s fingertips twisted faintly as they brushed between the rusted bars, and in the fleeting moment she seemed to vanish completely,

Black arrows rotated and fired simultaneously from three different directions.

Whoooosh!!

A piercing whooshing sound. Speed and trajectory that transcended air resistance.

Even without being nocked to a string, their speed outpaced spells cast with will-thought or even sword slashes.

If archery, which creates a hit by aiming from a distance, were compressed into a single process and wielded, would it be like this?

Whizz!!

Two flashes whizzing past his knees.

Three arrow shafts grazing his spine.

Five shafts aimed at his side and ribs, imbued with will-thought.

The number and trajectories of the arrows, falling and multiplying like black tears, ceaselessly shifted, disorienting his senses and predictions.

Evelyn Marcia’s Miniature Universe, Inertial Deviation, manipulating inertia to alter arrow trajectories and control their speed.

Evelyn had been giving her all since the moment this fight began.

But Lennok, realizing this, slowly raised his magic with his eyes still closed.

Wooooong!!

A slow pulsation, almost imperceptibly moving compared to the speed of the arrows surging just before him.

However, what was crucial in manipulating magic wasn’t the concept of relative speed or reaction.

The moment it’s perceived, it’s already there. The moment it’s understood, it’s already activated.

The magic and will-thought revolving within him had already transcended the concept of speed, reaching the realm of preemption—

Paba-bat!!

Two Flashes. Three steps backward. And fifteen perfect evasions and six collisions.

Arrows surging as if to pierce his entire body coiled around the wizard’s form, twisted, then bounced off as they crossed paths.

Kagagagak!!!

Amidst the sound of shattering glass, Lennok’s body shimmered through the trajectories of countless arrows, slipping out.

A divine feat: without a single counterattack, he parried every offensive launched by the Level 8 archer with three Flashes and five shield incantations.

The moment shattered shield fragments and arrow shadows intertwined, raining down on Lennok’s head like precipitation.

Click….!!!

From the darkness beyond, Evelyn raised her hand towards Lennok.

Not even properly aiming at Lennok, but rather presenting the back of her hand with her arm lowered.

The string of the short bow attached to her wrist was pulled taut—he knew it without even hearing the sound.

A simplified armament that sacrificed all other advantages and features save for the sole function of firing arrows.

A tool that allowed her, a born archer, to perform the bare minimum actions definable as ‘archery’.

But the moment she pointed it at Lennok, he intuitively realized that he might not be able to evade this attack.

The wizard’s intuition, perfected through innate reason and countless battles, honing talent and experience without reserve.

Thwump!!

He chanted a summoning spell at invisible speed, calling forth a colossal Apostle’s Carapace Shield before him.

The instant Evelyn’s arrow struck the carapace fragment of Apostle Martinez.

“……..!!!”

Lennok felt his intuition, transcending his five senses, react and pulled up his magic with all his might.

Immediately after, a dark flash glinted from inside the shield, grazing his neck, shattering the shield, and missing.

Kagagagak!!

The Apostle’s Carapace Shield. An impenetrable barrier that no one but Croken Asylus had ever managed to damage, was pierced.

But Lennok, through his magical sense, instantly perceived how Evelyn had done it.

“Multi-trigger. So it gains propulsion again inside the shield?”

Evelyn’s Miniature Universe, Inertial Deviation, was the ability to twist and concentrate the force of inertia applied to an object using the power of will-thought.

That Mind Imprint didn’t merely end with manipulating her physical body; it applied identically to arrows that left her fingertips.

‘She increased its penetration power with over five layers of inertial superposition inside the shield. She used fragments that had lost their arrow form as weapons.’

There was no trace of an arrow where the carapace shield had been pierced.

Evelyn had initially predicted the arrow itself would be blocked by the shield, and immediately after impact, she pulverized it.

She gathered all the scattering inertia of those fragments into a single point, maximizing its penetrating power.

As a result of stacking that process over five times in a fleeting moment, only a single fragment, thinner than a strand of hair, pierced the carapace shield.

But that alone was enough to send a chill down Lennok’s spine.

‘She knows.’

Evelyn knew how Lennok dealt with fast first strikes he couldn’t perceive.

She also knew the magic and equipment Lennok used, and how he manipulated and wielded them.

Van and Evan. The only comrade and powerful superhuman who had fought alongside him while he operated under those two identities.

She truly understood what kind of wizard Lennok was, commensurate with the times they had saved each other’s lives.

If so, what she was preparing next, after buying time with the shield-piercing performance, was—

‘Ultra-long-range sniping using her great bow.’

Flash!!

Realizing this, Lennok used Flash to retreat, then brought his hands together, beginning to form hand seals.

The most powerful weapon of Evelyn, a natural archer, an inevitable magical bow akin to a signature technique.

Unlike the shot fired from her short bow just now, he shouldn’t even consider blocking it head-on.

Kiiiing!!

He spread his magical sense wide and shallow, perceiving all movements around him.

To evade a sniper shot that began without any preamble, he would have to read its direction and trajectory immediately after it was fired, to gain an advantage in the battle of wits.

The moment Lennok thought that and immediately began chanting to deploy Jindun’s Barrier around himself—

“Are you just going to keep hiding like that?”

Evelyn’s quiet voice echoed from behind him.

With a black arrow clutched in a reverse grip, she made a light gesture, twisting her shoulder to fire it upwards.

Just as Evelyn’s hand was about to sweep down and stir Lennok’s shadow, as if unraveling it,

Lennok’s form vanished and reappeared on the spot, shifting his stance and direction to evade.

“………!!”

Paba-bat!!

The two figures’ shadows flickered in the air, crossing paths and vanishing.

By repeatedly using Flash in place, he narrowly evaded Evelyn’s close-range assault, which was invisible to the eye.

A graceful close-range reaction and evasion Evelyn had never seen from the Lennok she knew.

At that alone, Evelyn’s magic, twisting her lips into a grimace, violently rotated for an instant, and an arrow leaving her hand, surpassing the speed of sound, plunged beneath Lennok’s jaw.

A projected shot, striking the spot where he would reappear after using Flash.

Paaang!!!

At that moment, Lennok’s form scattered and vanished from that spot, only to reappear immediately before Evelyn.

Evelyn’s attack perfectly grazed empty air and missed, and her green eye-light elegantly wavered.

“Whew….!!”

Feigenbaum’s Eye, acquired from Jindun’s Cradle.

An artifact that forcibly moves the user to an Imaginary Dimension for less than a second, allowing them to evade all attacks.

Just now, Lennok had used an item with a cooldown of almost a month to evade Evelyn’s attack.

But that wasn’t because Lennok failed to read Evelyn’s attack or judgment.

Rather, it was because Evelyn’s movements were illogical, not following the combat logic they both knew.

“…….You.”

Immediately after piercing Lennok’s shield and diverting his attention, Evelyn’s only logical move should have been an ultra-long-range shot using her great bow.

It was the most powerful attack she could prepare, and the only means to maintain the distance created immediately after the battle began.

However, instead of initiating a sniper attack with her great bow, she chose to close the distance and engage in close combat, directly wielding the arrow shafts.

Though it seemed like a surprise attack at first glance, it wasn’t very effective against a combat wizard like Lennok.

A combat wizard who had reached Lennok’s level wouldn’t be rattled by a shortened distance.

On the contrary, he could even unleash immediate, zero-range, high-firepower spells at close quarters, potentially turning the situation around.

Evelyn couldn’t possibly be unaware that he possessed plenty of evasion methods and means of survival for such a situation.

Indeed, immediately after using Feigenbaum’s Eye to evade Evelyn’s attack, Lennok could have easily launched a fatal counterattack.

But the reason he didn’t move first, even knowing the opening she exposed, was because he understood why Evelyn had acted this way.

“……….”

Evelyn wasn’t standing here because she wanted to kill Lennok or inflict a fatal injury on him.

If that were the case, only great bow sniper shots would have flown from thousands of meters away, without any conversation like this.

What she wanted was something else.

Even though she suggested they truly fight as Level 8 superhumans, she chose this area as their stage, an area where they had to consider the surrounding collateral damage.

And her closing the distance to a disadvantageous level for an archer, and not recklessly unleashing large-scale techniques,

It must be because what Evelyn wanted to show, and what she wanted to see, wasn’t that.

She believed Lennok, who hadn’t used lightning magic until now, would also know, would have understood all along.

“You can do more, can’t you?”

Evelyn said in an unwavering voice.

She was already convinced.

“You can do much better than this, can’t you?”

“………..”

The closer people were to Lennok, the more intimately they knew him, the higher they evaluated his abilities and talents.

Human imagination couldn’t grasp the vessel that his achievements swelled to through rumor, and external evaluations couldn’t measure the limits of the standard by which he was judged.

Because they realized that all of Lennok’s actions and the time he spent, which he displayed as effortlessly as breathing, couldn’t be possible unless they surpassed his renown.

And Evelyn was one of the people who had observed Lennok most closely.

Anytime, anywhere, against any situation or any opponent.

Lennok could achieve more than imagined, more than expected.

Lennok’s efforts to not be limited by environment, location, or conditions had been bearing fruit for a long time.

That’s why—

“……Right.”

The moment Lennok nodded and pressed his thumb and forefinger together, then separated them.

Shhhhk….!!

Darkly stained Magic Scribes flowed from his fingertips, beginning to consume the space with a chilling and ferocious momentum.