Chapter 842: Handover (10)

It wasn’t the first time he had used magic threads in front of Evelyn.

As Van, he had often deployed magic threads during combat.

After all, magic threads were merely a medium for wielding manipulation spellcraft; creating them itself wasn’t difficult for a skilled spellcaster.

The true value of manipulation spellcraft didn’t lie in the concept of magic threads.

It was about manipulating reality through magic that was infinitely close to its original form, handling causality itself through its application.

That’s why it was called the most abstruse and difficult spellcraft among all specialized systems.

“Black…?”

But Evelyn seemed slightly agitated, seeing the magic threads extend from Lennok’s fingertips.

Thwack!!

Regaining her balance after being pushed back by the light shockwave, her eyes glinted fiercely from behind her visor.

“They weren’t that color when I saw them at the Lighthouse.”

Of course. When he fought Croken, he hadn’t yet received the new magic threads from the ancient spirit.

Evelyn had glimpsed the silver magic threads that covered the Memorial Tower, which was why the power Lennok now displayed felt unfamiliar.

“Who knows?”

But instead of answering her question, Lennok let out a small laugh and gripped the magic threads tightly.

“Why don’t you find out for yourself?”

“………..”

Though he couldn’t see it due to the visor covering her lower face, she must have bitten her lip.

That her reaction was so easily imagined, even unseen, was undoubtedly a residual memory from their long acquaintance.

It was ironic.

He had wandered this world for so long, striving to be his own answer, relying on no one.

Yet, without realizing it, connections had formed, people he could rely on, people he had come to expect things from.

The heart is frail, will easily broken, and resolve blurry.

No matter how much one struggles to remember that initial moment, change is inevitable.

But even so—

Swoosh…!!!

With the sound of a taut string, the black magic threads spun wildly.

Crossing his arms, he flung out the magic threads as if pulling them up from between his fingers.

At the tips of the magic threads, a distortion of space appeared, and dozens of old iron bars slammed down around Lennok.

Thud-thud-thud!!!

Reality manipulation using magic threads as a medium. Specifically, forced spatial transfer, compelled by spatial magic.

These black magic threads, refined by the spirit, were a masterpiece of the Central City, specialized in assisting spatial manipulation.

“……..!!”

Despite Lennok’s sudden display of spatial transfer, Evelyn quickly regained her composure and moved.

In the darkness, her shadow darted with invisible speed, shaking off Lennok’s pursuit.

The old iron bars Lennok had conjured around himself were the remnants of a field once used as a zoo, spatially transferred to his vicinity.

Evelyn understood that this itself was the result of him adjusting the environment to facilitate magic thread manipulation.

Whoosh!!

Her deep green eyes, shining, slid between the dozens of bars, rotating and rushing forward with incredible speed.

Lennok, too, immediately strung hundreds of magic threads between the bars and channeled his magic.

Across the wide field, the black magic threads strung between the bars rippled like waves, emitting a sharp edge,

But before they could properly obstruct the archer’s charge, they were successively severed, pierced by even sharper arrowheads.

Snap-snap-snap!!

Severed fragments of magic threads fluttered uselessly on all sides, rising above their heads.

In an instant, Evelyn, having swept away the net of magic threads strung between the bars and pinpointed Lennok, drew her shortbow and channeled her magic.

“Got you.”

Snare!

A bundle of black magic threads wrapped around her wrist, binding the string of her shortbow.

The hundreds of magic thread fragments Evelyn had severed. Lennok applied spatial spellcraft to those tiny threads, forcing their transfer.

He transferred the magic thread fragments onto Evelyn’s shortbow and simultaneously tied them into a knot.

A wondrous feat: precisely targeting her wrist to force spatial transfer, then twisting the transfer coordinates to tie a knot with the magic threads.

“Ah…….!”

At the moment Evelyn couldn’t help but marvel at the absurd result—that he had successfully pinpointed her, moving at subsonic speeds, to achieve such a complex process.

Boom!!

Following Lennok’s clenching hand in the air, Evelyn’s body was pulled forward, almost stumbling.

Against the night sky, half-obscured by clouds, the wizard looked down at Evelyn with a somewhat pale complexion.

“The string is tied, so you can’t use your shortbow.”

Lennok said, catching his breath with difficulty.

Just continuing the offense and defense with Evelyn using only magic threads and manipulation spellcraft was already making him breathless.

Fighting a monster like an ancient archer while already in poor condition was, in itself, an immense drain on mental and spiritual energy.

Had Evelyn noticed it too? Lennok, trying to ignore the hint of pity in her eyes, pointed a finger at her forehead.

“If you wanted to win, you should have chosen a different strategy. Did you think you could accomplish anything with such an ambiguous judgment?”

“It wasn’t an ambiguous judgment.”

Evelyn replied, her wrist bound by Lennok’s magic threads.

Still kneeling before Lennok with her head bowed, she lifted her gaze.

“To achieve a perfect victory against you, this method was the best.”

“…….Best?”

At the moment Lennok realized the green eyes peeking through her hair were filled with more unwavering confidence than ever before.

Whoosh!!

A black arrow, falling from above their heads, struck the ground with incredible speed.

KABOOM!!!!

An enormous shockwave, powerful enough to churn up the entire wide field.

Lennok’s shielded body was violently shaken, and all the surrounding iron bars were torn out and broken.

The bars he had deliberately set up to string and manipulate magic threads were flung away, and the restraint on Evelyn was also severed in one go.

The already close distance between them remained, with nothing to obstruct them as they faced each other.

“…….That arrow just now.”

But what truly surprised Lennok was the very reason he hadn’t perceived Evelyn’s attack until just before impact.

That recent sniper shot, which had fallen from a sky so distant its origin couldn’t be perceived, and precisely pierced the gap between them, where did it begin?

It was because he could faintly recall it from his very old experience fighting Evelyn.

“You launched it at the start of the battle, pinpointing the location and time for a sniper shot. Did you expect this from the beginning?”

“No. I’m not you. I can’t read the future.”

Evelyn replied calmly.

“However, I knew that if it were you, even if I gave my all, you would try to catch me off guard at some point and forcefully end the battle.”

“…………”

An answer impossible without trusting Lennok’s capabilities more than her own, and without absolute certainty that her setup would be completely crushed.

Yet Evelyn had predicted the situation exactly as she’d said, and, as if to prove it, had overturned a match that seemed already concluded.

“I won, Van.”

Evelyn declared, facing Lennok who stood defenseless, clad only in his shield.

“Spatial leap. Spatial transfer, magic thread manipulation and application. I saw it all. After expending that much magic, you won’t be able to perfectly counter at this distance anymore.”

“………..”

“If you’re not going to explain who you are yourself, I will.”

Whoosh!!

At that moment, Evelyn’s arm vanished with invisible speed, plunging into Lennok’s coat.

Her hand moved with a keen and swift dexterity, as if searching for something in Lennok’s possession.

Without his magical perception, he wouldn’t have even grasped her movement, let alone her intention.

“…….No.”

Grab!!

Lennok’s bare fingers twisted faintly as he seized Evelyn’s wrist.

But his wrist and arm held firm, without breaking, blocking her arm, and at the moment faint surprise flickered across Evelyn’s face.

“It’s not over yet.”

Magic threads wrapped around his arm, tightening around Lennok’s body, and began to directly manipulate his flesh, transcending sensation.

Creaaak…!!

At the moment a creaking noise, like old iron, resonated within his body.

Lennok, gripping a bundle of black magic threads as if to crush them, abruptly spun his body towards Evelyn.

Touin (鬪引)

A close-quarters combat beginning with magic threads assisting the forbidden absolute technique of moving the body with will-thought.

“If you keep pushing yourself…!!!”

Evelyn, realizing Lennok’s intention, also pulled out another arrow from within her coat, gripping it in a reverse grip, and moved.

Crack!!

Lennok’s creaking wrist pulled tight, clenching into a fist, and in the instant it rotated and accelerated.

It slammed into Evelyn’s gloved hand, unleashing a faint shockwave.

Whammm!!!

Each time arrow and fist narrowed the gap and clashed, the two shadows beneath the moonlight rapidly gained speed.

Between their crossing gazes in the air, hundreds of magic threads crisscrossed in all directions, wearing down and snapping.

On the wide, featureless field, where there was nowhere to lean, they hung and supported themselves on magic threads, pulling.

Clang-clang-clang!!!

Beyond the speed of sight, leaving sensory reactions behind, outstripping sound, only will-thought arrived first.

The collision that occurred as the body caught up with the will-thought, which arrived at the desired moment, was a momentary pain.

On the desolate field, with their backs to the moonlight, the two transcendent beings clashed with invisible speed.

Boom!!

An ultra-close-quarters melee that favored neither the archer, who needed distance, nor the wizard, who required incantations.

A battleground where their most confident fields and conditions were mutually excluded, yet they clashed.

The wizard’s reason and the archer’s observational skills. Intuition that transcended hierarchy and strategic calculations clashed, intertwined, and broke.

Despite being a high-dimensional battle that onlookers could never fully comprehend, their offensive and defensive exchange vanished without spilling beyond their immediate movements.

Grind!!

Long ago, a time he barely remembered now.

Like the time he sparred with Evelyn while traveling towards the Blaiver Magic Tower’s Western Continent branch.

But the humiliation of being repeatedly defeated, overwhelmed, and driven into the ground then, and the ardent desire for learning, were no longer there.

“……….!!!”

Little by little, Lennok’s counterattacks began to outpace Evelyn’s assaults.

Lennok’s hand arrived first over her superimposed fist, adding shadow, and the grass blades beneath his feet gradually disappeared.

His smooth offense and counter, surprising even Evelyn who thought she knew him well.

Combat performance that temporarily transcended the limits of the flesh.

The moment his mastery, honed through continuous research and practice of manipulation spellcraft, fully unfolded before the mighty superhuman Evelyn.

All of Lennok’s other talents simultaneously awakened and responded, raising his chances of victory beyond their limits, even under such unfavorable conditions.

The Mystic Eye of Possibilities peered into realms beyond strategic calculations, the Revelation Ability excluded the future of defeat, and the magic coursing through his entire body surged, transcending his will.

Flash!!

“………!!”

Evelyn’s arrowhead, which had never missed a single moment, uselessly pierced the empty air,

And the moment Evelyn fully channeled her Miniature Universe to forcibly reclaim her body, which had slipped from control.

Inertial Deviation

Whoosh!!

On the spot, the arrowhead’s trajectory twisted grotesquely, turning into a black flash.

It surged, evading all hundreds of magic threads that had entangled the arrow’s trajectory.

He evaded all magic threads that arbitrarily manipulated the present by moving between past and future, using only pure physical reaction speed.

A realm of intuition that completely surpassed theory, design, planning, and prediction.

Herein lay the origin that made Evelyn not just a superb archer, but a truly powerful superhuman.

“Van!!!!”

The arrowhead, miraculously slipping between the black magic threads and striking down, grazed Lennok’s forearm, drawing blood.

Spurt!!

Through the rising red mist, her green eyes gleamed intensely, transforming into lines of dazzling light.

Once a design or prediction was breached, it lost its value.

Once balance was broken, the initiative always belonged to whoever struck first.

Evelyn, diving relentlessly into Lennok’s coat, gripped the arrow as if to shatter it and clawed at his collar.

Undeniable evidence, even to Lennok himself.

The moment Evelyn once again channeled her Miniature Universe, seeking the obsidian mask that proved his affiliation with Pandemonium.

“Yes.”

Lennok replied.

“This is the divergence point.”

At that moment, a golden radiance flickered and rotated over the fresh blood flowing down Lennok’s arm.

Kiiiing!!!

A golden spiral surged up his wrist, conjuring a dazzling ring of light above his palm.

A unique magic activated based on the innate magic power within his blood and the will-thought he had previously instilled.

An incomplete magic system, perfected with such speed that Evelyn herself, who had inflicted the wound, couldn’t react.

“……….!!!!”

Evelyn, extending her hand towards Lennok’s coat, and Lennok, conversely placing his hand on her waist, their shadows overlapped.

Evelyn, judging she couldn’t stop, gritted her teeth, channeled her magic to the fullest, raising her concentration, and the moment the golden serpent, biting its tail, settled in Lennok’s hand and began to rotate.

An illusion, as if a clock was twisting, appeared before their eyes.

In the instant Evelyn’s Miniature Universe, which tilted inertia, and the serpent that dreamed of eternal incompleteness, first clashed, forcing their respective laws and wills upon each other.

Behind their shadows, golden and deep green radiance intertwined and erupted explosively.

Fwoosh!!!!

A momentary flash, dazzlingly bright, staining the dark night sky with disarray.

A light of the mind that seemed to devour all the city’s nightscape and burn brightly, yet could be seen by no one but the two of them.

The absolute peak of 8th level, reached by forcibly breaking a perfected hierarchy. The time of two superhumans, who abandoned perfection to pursue something beyond, manifested here as tangible fruit.

Chirrring!!!

An eternal instant, enough to make one forget the very sense of time.

But within the limits of perception, where consciousness was infinitely fragmented and shoved in, the golden serpent continued to rotate endlessly.

“………!!!!”

Evelyn gazed with trembling eyes at the golden magic circle, rotating like a giant halo behind Lennok’s back.

It was because she had realized what that scene, which had reached the pinnacle of convergence from the two extremes of their mindscapes, truly signified.

Incomplete because it dreamed of perfection with an imperfect body. Contradictory because it had already surpassed completion and reached transcendence.

A perpetual motion engine that operated by using contradiction as its driving force: reaching the 8th-level state by abandoning perfection, only to dream of perfection once more.

Infinite as long as it remained incomplete, eternal as long as it remained imperfect.

A conversation the two of them had clearly shared long ago, from a distant memory.

Understanding that this very moment was a continuation of what Lennok had spoken of back then, Evelyn’s expression faltered.

The golden and green radiance surrounding the two mixed and vanished, as if swallowed.

Whammm!!!

With a deep green shockwave that erupted like an explosion, Lennok collapsed weakly, and Evelyn’s body was flung backward, skidding across the wet field.

The black arrow she held, broken cleanly in half, fell from her hand.

Clouds, disturbed by the clash of their mindscapes beyond limits, obscured the moonlight, letting raindrops fall like tears beneath them.

Shhhhh!!!

“Cough….!!”

Evelyn, weakly enduring the pouring rain, coughed wetly.

Her short black hair hung limp, and her wretched form knelt, silently bowing her head.

Watching Evelyn, who had completely lost her will, Lennok struggled to straighten his legs and stand.

Whoooosh!!!

Behind Lennok, as he slowly stood, the golden serpent still revolved languidly.

The magic of convergence, which meticulously analyzed, decomposed, and absorbed all existing information and matter.

Even after the fight ended, Lennok’s magic didn’t disappear; it simply continued to endlessly repeat its essence.

Its noble and ephemeral form, seemingly utterly unrelated to the current moment, seemed to declare the outcome of this battle to the two of them.

Gazing at her green eyes, trembling through her hair, Lennok slumped to the ground.

Ignoring the raindrops that splashed from his coat, he pulled out his tobacco.

After several attempts to spark a flame, Lennok finally lit the damp tobacco, then coughed, gazing at Evelyn.

“………..”

Shhhhh!!!

There was no conversation.

Both Lennok and Evelyn knew where the scales of this battle had tipped.

There were answers that couldn’t be conveyed through words, and secrets that couldn’t be explained by oneself.

Evelyn had tried to understand Lennok’s true intentions this way, and Lennok had simply responded.

But in the final moment, when their mindscapes collided, Evelyn had conceded defeat.

The golden sea Lennok had unfurled before Evelyn.

What that beautiful landscape, revealed properly for the first time, truly meant to Lennok.

She had understood it the moment she listened to the sound of his will-thought, clashing their mindscapes.

“After the Hanghasa Labyrinth incident was over…….”

But Lennok deliberately vocalized that fact, telling Evelyn again.

“…….we talked on the train ride back.”

Neither of them thought to tend to their soaking wet bodies, nor did they think to put the burning tobacco to their lips.

Despite the steadily intensifying rain, his voice remained clear.

“That I was creating a new magic system to reach 8th-level.”

Lennok said, observing the rotating golden radiance reflecting on the back of his hand.

“The Ouroboros magic system. The eternal power that craves perfection, as I told you.”

“…………”

“It doesn’t change, no matter where I stand. Just like in the Labyrinth, no matter who I meet or what I experience, it remains the same.”

“……..Van.”

“It was the same then, and it’s the same now. Even this moment, as I convey my answer to you, is a continuation of that time. I am…….”

He closed his eyes.

“I am…….”

He was contemplating how to put the overflowing emotions in his heart into words.

Even though there were answers that couldn’t be fully conveyed through words, he still tried to articulate them.

Because Evelyn Marcia, the Emerald Archer Lennok knew, deserved to hear these words.

The reason Lennok had specifically accepted her challenge and answered her here on this secluded field.

The reason he was now recalling the memory of that time, when he had vaguely described a future, dreaming of a new realm.

The moment Evelyn, realizing this, inhaled with trembling eyes.

He felt the surrounding sound of rain momentarily subside into silence.

In the deafening silence, Lennok spoke.

“I intend to obtain the qualification and challenge ascension.”

“………..”

There was no shouting until his throat burst, no soul-shaking resonance.

It wasn’t even a grand realization, a fierce battlefield, or a declaration made on a flamboyant stage.

Exhausted in the pouring rain, slumped on a messy field. With his back to the faint moonlight peeking through the clouds.

A whisper so low that Evelyn herself might not have properly heard it.

But Lennok’s words, despite their softness, held a greater resolve and determination than any he had ever uttered in his life.

Words hold power.

A declaration not to change others, but to change himself.

This was a promise Lennok was making to himself, with Evelyn as his witness.