Chapter 848: Handover (16)
“…I don’t know why you’re doing this.”
Lennok’s declaration that, not content with breaking into the lecture hall and half-destroying the facility, he would suddenly restrain and take Raphael away.
Raphael, his entire body bound by violet chains, maintained a composed expression as he spoke.
“This is a research institute established by the Central Council, and one of its core secret facilities. If you cause a disturbance, you won’t escape severe punishment…!!”
“That’s not for you to worry about.”
Clack!!
The moment Lennok replied and raised his hand, Raphael’s body floated into the air.
A bizarre sight, as if an invisible hand had grabbed the chains and lifted him.
“Ugh, ugh…!!”
“They say the magic theory you’re researching is related to this institute’s secrets.”
Lennok spoke, watching Raphael struggle.
“I have something I want to confirm about that, so you’ll have to come with me.”
Lennok, who had met Raphael during a Pandemonium meeting, knew his combat ability wasn’t exceptional.
As a professor, he might be an excellent scholar, but his personal combat prowess likely wasn’t that strong.
“There’s a limit to how much you can underestimate someone…!!”
Raphael’s face instantly flushed red and purple at Lennok’s words.
Hanging in the air, the professor, still bound by chains, struggled to gather mana and began to form a hand seal with one hand.
“I may not be good at fighting, but I’m not so incompetent as to be kidnapped by such crude psychokinesis!!”
Whirrrrr!!
A circular magic circle spun from the center of Raphael’s left hand, coiling around the professor’s body. It slowly expanded around the middle-aged man, swiftly seizing control of the surrounding mana flow.
Just as Raphael’s mana began to analyze Lennok’s psychokinesis in reverse, attempting to break it.
Crack!!
“…?!!”
With a sound like something snapping in Raphael’s head, sticky nosebleed streamed out. Raphael stared, disbelieving, at the dripping blood.
“Wh-what… I can’t analyze it…”
“An analysis magic circle? And external casting at that. Quite skilled.”
Lennok spoke to him in a gentle tone.
“You seemed to be trying to analyze my magic and break it in reverse, which was quite dangerous. A little further, and your head would have exploded.”
“…”
The professor’s expression turned blank as he realized the warning about ‘danger’ wasn’t for Lennok, but for Raphael himself.
An overwhelming gap, to the extent that Raphael, an authority in theoretical magic, couldn’t even analyze the mana and instead suffered double the backlash.
Even against an Arch-Wizard who manipulates mana at the particle level, such a one-sided situation doesn’t easily occur.
And among such monsters, if it’s someone causing such unrealistic incidents in Vulcan—
“Could it be, Adamant Thunder…?”
“You know me. I thought you weren’t a local of this city.”
Lennok laughed loudly, looking at Raphael, who murmured with a pale complexion.
“Did you hear my name somewhere?”
“…”
Raphael, looking sickly, pressed his lips together. It wasn’t strange.
No matter how urgent or chaotic the situation, he couldn’t possibly mention Pandemonium’s name here.
Much less admit that a criminal organization had seriously discussed subduing Adamant Thunder.
“U-unfortunately, I won’t be very useful.”
Raphael glanced towards the back of the lecture hall and mumbled.
“Originally, the lecture wasn’t for public magic research. Ah, no, it’s not that I’m not interested in Professor Vylun, and it’s true I accepted the lecture because of that, but—”
“Yes, I know.”
Lennok said, raising Raphael behind him, and immediately quickened his pace. Raphael’s body began to follow, dragging along with the unconscious Hayward.
“So I have nothing to do with this—!!!”
The moment Raphael anxiously raised his voice, a huge beast burst out from behind the platform and slammed powerfully into Lennok.
CRASH!!
A shock so intense that all the shields Lennok had left unreplenished during the fight shattered completely.
The vast walls of the lecture hall cracked and crumbled, revealing the dark sky outside the still-dim research institute, such was the violent impact.
A massive presence, covered in brown fur. Gleaming black eyes and a wide-open mouth, drooling.
Lennok, watching the beast gnaw and chew through the bare shields with its teeth, tilted his head.
“Why is there a bear here?”
“[What audacious layman dares to kidnap the professor?]”
At that moment, a fiercely brutal man’s voice erupted from within the bear’s maw.
“[Professor Raphael is Elderwood’s benefactor. No one can harm the professor!]”
“Elderwood, huh…”
Despite the bear’s words, Lennok looked at the 3-meter bear before him with considerable interest.
Even covered in fur, its massive presence conveyed a body brimming with muscle. The clear mana flowing from within was qualitatively different from that of an ordinary superhuman. Lennok murmured, a strange sense of incongruity like facing forest air washing over him.
“A Druid. One who has mastered high-level Nature Spellcraft to the point of shapeshifting?”
The bear snorted upon hearing his words.
“[You’re someone who’s at least heard whispers of the great natural order.]”
“Your name pops up every time there’s a problem in the megacity’s greenbelts.”
Lennok covered his mouth and coughed slightly as he replied.
“I learned about it even though I wasn’t particularly curious.”
Although Druidic Nature Spellcraft takes the form of spellcraft, its principles and fundamentals are vastly different from magic.
Most existing nature-based spellcraft operates without clear power sources, fueled by the existence of nature and belief in it, characterized by no precursors or traces during activation.
However, in exchange for no precursors during activation, transformations via Nature Spellcraft are designed to occur slowly and gradually.
To be able to transform one’s body into a bear’s shape as he just did, one must be a master capable of freely manipulating the Property Transformation of spellcraft.
“Is it more intricate in its construction than Mutation Spellcraft, but with less versatility? If it’s a type where you transform into a fixed shape, its uses would be quite limited.”
Crrrack…!!
Even as his shields were utterly crushed, on the verge of complete destruction, Lennok calmly observed the bear’s form and murmured.
“The balance between power and cost is quite good. It’s my first time seeing it directly, but it’s rather impressive.”
“[And that will be your last!]”
CRASH!!
As the bear’s forepaw struck, the shield shattered completely, and Lennok’s body was mercilessly trampled beneath it.
The bear, having instantly crushed the remaining shields, leaped over the half-destroyed lecture hall towards the professor suspended in mid-air.
“[Professor!]”
“Ipasa, stop him!!”
Raphael cried out, his expression rigid.
“He’s a monster. You at least, escape…!!”
“[I cannot. We must go together!]”
The Druid, called Ipasa, savagely bit and tore at the chains binding Raphael with his teeth.
Just as the huge bear’s teeth seized Raphael’s form in its mouth, attempting to pull him away with force.
A calm voice echoed from beneath the bear’s belly.
“So, it’s balanced because it’s based on the existence of nature. Honest.”
Lennok, who had conjured a mass of brilliant blue lightning at his fingertip, looked up at him and smiled.
“Honest power should be honestly crushed.”
“…!!!”
In a flash, Ipasa reacted with beast-like reflexes, twisting his body sharply and lifting his foot.
“I don’t dislike such direct approaches either.”
From beneath the bear’s belly, a chilling blue light burst forth.
[Transcendent Thunder]
[Blossom]
The thunderous light that blossomed from the feet of the nearly 3-meter bear swiftly consumed its massive body, blooming into a blue flower.
Dozens of blue lightning tendrils spread out like petals in all directions, coiling around Ipasa and striking him.
CRACKLE!!
“[Aaaargh?!!!!]”
“Ipasa!!!”
His brown fur burned and shriveled, and the bear’s massive body trembled and spasmed before crashing down with a thunderous roar.
The aftermath alone caused the lecture hall’s ceiling and walls to relentlessly scorch and burn, heating the air inside.
THUD!
“[N-no. A mere layman… the professor…!]”
The Druid, eyes rolled back and tongue lolling, still convulsed but hadn’t lost consciousness, spewing hateful words.
But Lennok, leaning on his staff, whispered to Ipasa.
“The very fact that you can still blabber like that after taking my magic is proof that the balance of Nature Spellcraft is maintained incredibly powerfully.”
“…!!!”
“I didn’t intend to kill you, but you haven’t even lost consciousness, let alone had your shapeshifting dispelled…”
Lennok, looking at Ipasa with amusement, approached the fallen Druid and said.
“Its stability alone is truly abnormal. Worth researching.”
Lennok’s lightning, having undergone countless researches and modifications, is not a force specialized only in destruction and emission.
A level where it interferes with nerve signal transmission, increases muscle rigidity, and even disrupts internal mana, incapacitating metabolism itself.
Even if it was a magic cast for light suppression, most superhumans would normally collapse, unable to even think, immediately after being hit.
The very fact that the spellcraft’s shapeshifting wasn’t dispelled after taking Lennok’s magic was proof of how incredibly stable Nature Spellcraft was.
A strange characteristic that forcibly stabilizes the spellcraft regardless of the caster’s will or capacity.
Lennok had been thinking that the stability of this Nature Spellcraft might help stabilize his Incarnation Spellcraft.
The Incarnate Body, though possessing powerful strength as a martial artist of the Old World, was too unstable to be used effectively as a clone.
If he could imbue the Incarnate Body with the stability of Nature Spellcraft, it would be possible to use it as a clone, as he had originally planned.
The moment Lennok, thinking so, placed his hand on Ipasa’s head and activated his Mystic Eye.
“I-I have a research journal recording the stability of Nature Spellcraft!!”
Raphael, looking at Lennok with a bewildered expression, urgently cried out.
Lennok’s gaze immediately shifted.
“Research journal?”
“I-I once researched a disease circulating among Druids. In the process, I kept a journal recording the abnormal stability of Nature Spellcraft you mentioned.”
Raphael spoke, his gaze darting around ceaselessly.
“I-if you promise not to shed blood here, I’ll hand it over. So—”
“Hmm…”
Lennok slowly removed his hand from Ipasa’s head and looked up. Gazing intently at Raphael’s face suspended in mid-air, Lennok asked.
“Professor, you’re a person with a surprisingly normal sensibility. And you don’t seem to have strong convictions.”
“…What exactly did you see that made you think that?”
“No, I haven’t really thought deeply about it.”
“…”
Raphael’s face, as if speechless from the indifferent reply.
But if so, why did Professor Raphael join Pandemonium?
Not all members of Pandemonium are irredeemable villains, but no one joins without knowing it’s a criminal organization.
Yet, the Professor Raphael Lennok saw now was certainly not the type to willingly step into such a criminal organization.
Ultimately, as it was difficult to ask unless he used his Victor identity, Lennok quickly dropped the matter and approached Raphael.
“I know there’s a reason the Wizard Mass Production Project is being conducted at this institute. It’s undoubtedly connected to Evan Vylun to some extent.”
“…”
“If you can’t speak about the project, or know nothing, then I’ll need an explanation of how your theory was adopted into the project. And that—”
Lennok shrugged and looked away.
“—at least won’t be possible here.”
CRASH!!
The lecture hall wall shook violently, and an intense presence could be felt from afar.
Aegis agents were surrounding the lecture hall, slowly pressing in.
Their reluctance to rush into the lecture hall was proof that they considered Lennok dangerous.
Raphael, with a complex expression, looked at Lennok and the approaching presence of Aegis from afar, then sighed deeply.
“…Let’s change locations. I’ll do as you say.”
The professor, looking up at Lennok with difficulty, murmured.
“I don’t know what value the institute’s secrets hold for someone like you… but if an Arch-Wizard desires it, I have no choice but to comply.”
“A strange reply.”
Lennok smiled.
“Saying that makes me sound like a villain, doesn’t it?”
“…”
“…”
As Raphael looked up at Lennok as if he were insane, Lennok also fell silent.
Davi cleared his throat from inside Lennok’s robes.
“[Ahem.]”
“Then let’s change location immediately. I’ll receive the research journal there.”
Raphael looked at him weakly, then suddenly seemed to remember something and mumbled.
“…If the special agencies are surrounding this lecture hall, they’ll surely notice our movement. Can we avoid detection?”
The superhumans of the City Council’s special agencies are masters of various combat techniques and spellcraft.
If they intend to surround and wait at this lecture hall, their method won’t be limited to physical formations; they’ll likely employ various spellcraft, including Barrier Spellcraft.
“Don’t worry.”
Lennok, clutching an old pencil inscribed with complex characters from his pocket, grabbed Raphael’s wrist.
“Because I have an item I’d never use otherwise, except for situations like this.”
“E-Enakphil’s—!!”
“[Adamant Thunder!!]”
Just as Raphael’s tone sharpened, realizing the artifact’s identity, the outer wall of the lecture hall crumbled, and Aegis agents descended.
They, too, must have been observing in real-time what Lennok was doing here.
“[Stop! If you leave the research institute like this—!!]”
Over a dozen superhumans ran towards Lennok, while above their heads, they erected complex barrier formations.
A considerable output, even to Lennok. Someone among the Aegis agents must have been imbued with high-level Barrier Spellcraft.
Realizing this, Lennok unhesitatingly thrust the pencil into Raphael’s wrist.
WHOOSH!!
The forms of the two people standing on the half-destroyed platform vanished, then dropped into a dark room.
Immediately after, the chains binding Raphael unraveled, and the professor’s body plummeted to the floor.
THUD!
“Cough!”
Raphael, gasping roughly for breath, momentarily forgot his current situation and stared at Lennok with a bewildered expression.
“An Arch-Wizard is truly different. To expend such a rare treasure as Enakphil’s Finger like this…”
“I could have cast a separate spatial transfer for you, but it would be troublesome if you tried to analyze the magic unnecessarily.”
Lennok said so, then naturally began to walk towards one of the walls.
“Rather than letting your head explode for no reason, it’s better to process it in a way that leaves no room for interference from the start.”
“So, my head exploding is a certainty… What an unpleasant assumption.”
Ignoring Raphael’s grumbling, Lennok turned his gaze.
Even if not necessarily for places like this, Lennok still had spare Enakphil’s Fingers left.
Because it became known that it was almost the only reward Lennok, who worked as a freelancer, liked, and he occasionally received them as bribes through Jenny.
“Where are we? Considering the mana delay rate based on space, it doesn’t seem to be a place far from the research institute.”
Raphael, glancing at Hayward who had been transferred with him and lay unconscious in a corner, asked.
“The Central Council’s special agencies have very excellent superhumans. If we don’t put distance quickly, they’ll immediately track us. It wouldn’t matter to me, but—”
“We’re not far from the institute; we’re still inside the institute.”
“…What?”
Lennok pulled a lever located on one side of the wall and replied.
“To be precise, it’s the power facility that supplies electricity to the entire national park where the research institute is located.”
WHOOSH!!
At that moment, the lights in the room brightly illuminated, and the surrounding scenery began to come into view.
WHIRRRRR!!!
A vast hollow space densely covered with wires thicker than a human torso.
Aside from the control panel on the wall, the entire surrounding landscape was composed of wires for transmitting power.
As Raphael was speechless at the sight, Lennok pulled out a hard drive from his pocket and explained.
“I restored deleted data from the institute’s independent network, but it wasn’t a volume that could be opened with a regular computer. It’s impossible to access without an autonomous data viewing device with Saint Wizard-level computational ability.”
“…”
“There are ways to force it open, but to avoid unnecessary damage, it’s better to find a way from as close as possible.”
While paralyzing the entire institute’s power, Lennok naturally became aware of this place’s existence.
The moment he loaded the deleted data onto the hard drive while fighting Crescent, Lennok immediately realized how to view the disk through Davi.
“I’ll match the required output through Mana-Power Conversion and open the disk. By double-converting the power facility’s electricity, I should be able to match the output.”
Click!!
Lennok opened the control panel’s dashboard, tapping the circuits with his gloved hand, and said.
“Your job is to explain the magic theory you mentioned in your lecture and consult on the data stored inside the disk. To be precise, it’ll be about how your theory was applied to the Wizard Mass Production Project. Any questions?”
“Ah, no…”
Raphael, who had been staring blankly at Lennok, then murmured with a curious expression.
“You, your understanding of modern magic-engineering computer equipment… is very high. Honestly, I didn’t understand a single word of that explanation just now.”
“…”
Lennok pressed his temple, as if troubled, and asked.
“It should be familiar to wizards active on the Central Front. Were you not from there?”
“That’s right. I lacked talent, so in real combat, even following the techniques created by geniuses was too much for me.”
A bitter smile briefly formed on Raphael’s lips.
“The only field where I excelled was theoretical analysis. Compared to you, an Arch-Wizard with a deep understanding of engineering, my talent is truly insignificant.”
“That’s not a very convincing thing for a professor to say.”
It was excessive self-deprecation for an introduction of a researcher talented enough to join Pandemonium.
Lennok, cutting Raphael off sharply, connected the power supply circuit of the control panel on the spot, and scoffed.
“You know that magic theory research isn’t free from such problems. Are you trying to complain?”
“No, it’s just that I heard you were very close to Professor Vylun. I merely wanted to tell you beforehand.”
Raphael replied calmly.
“Evan Vylun probably became a theoretical researcher with the same thoughts as me.”
“…”
“I have a great deal of interest in Professor Vylun. Not only in public magic, but also in the research he has conducted so far and the motives behind the birth of his genius ideas.”
“Because you think he’s in the same situation as you?”
“Of course, that too, but…”
Raphael, with a bitter smile, swallowed his words.
Instead, he fumbled at his chest and pulled out a thick notebook from within his robes.
Its size was absurdly unfitting for the pocket of his suit. He must have used some magic to store it.
Raphael extended it towards Lennok and said.
“I will cooperate with what you intend to do. I will also hand over the research journal on the stability of Nature Spellcraft. In return, will you allow me to meet Professor Vylun?”
“…”
“I have read all of Professor Vylun’s papers without exception. The papers he authored contained far more meaning than the announcements that stirred up the public.”
By then, Raphael’s eyes had settled into a calm gaze.
“I feel as if I understand what Professor Vylun desires. Knowing that is why I came to this research institute. But if I can speak directly with Professor Vylun, there would be no reason for me to be bound any longer.”
“What do you mean?”
“The Vylun Research Institute wasn’t established to research the findings Evan Vylun left behind—”
Raphael hesitated, then slowly nodded and replied.
“—but to research Evan Vylun himself.”