Chapter 873: The Eye That Sees Fate (9)

Crash!!

The complex cityscape shattered like glass.

Amidst the chaos where everything in sight fractured to the tune of a deafening roar,

Even as every space the eye could see broke apart, the Gate to the Outer Sea, painted in a mixture of day and night, remained in its place.

The [Gate] to the Outer Sea that Vice-Mayor Amy Weinstein had guided them to was undeniably real.

It was just that no one had ever been able to reach the depths of District 19 that supposedly existed beyond it.

“You knew that Lapis didn’t have the access rights.”

Lennok asked, turning toward the Vice-Mayor who stood at the edge of the collapsing rooftop.

Fwoosh!!

A flame bloomed from his fingertips, stretching out behind him as he walked, drawing a tail of fire.

“Were you still suspicious even after the bio-code inspection was complete?”

[When I start to doubt something, I never trust it completely.]

The Vice-Mayor answered calmly, even as she faced Lennok’s murderous aura.

[That feeling of foreboding is an answer derived subconsciously from countless experiences. Even if there’s no basis for it, I trust my judgment completely.]

So she was the type of person who trusted her gut instinct over clear evidence and reason.

But if she had managed to rise to the position of Vulcan’s Vice-Mayor while holding onto such a way of life, it was only natural for Amy Weinstein to think that way.

[Rather, aren’t you the persistent one? To think that even after coming all this way and seeing the [Gate] with your own eyes, you would still doubt its existence and save its master.]

The Vice-Mayor’s eyes narrowed as she looked at Lennok.

[I thought that anyone who knew about the Gate to the Outer Sea would never doubt this situation… A wizard’s intentions are truly hard to read. You’re still an unpleasant bunch.]

“Right. I see now that all your words probing my reaction were just a ploy to control this situation as you wished.”

Boom!!

Flames erupted and melted the glass door behind the rooftop. Having blocked off her escape route, Lennok extended his hand forward.

The Vice-Mayor tried to dodge hastily, but as if he had read her movements, he closed the distance and struck through an opening.

His hand moved far slower than Weinstein’s. Yet, as if drawn by a vacuum, Lennok’s hand instantly seized the Vice-Mayor by the throat.

Grab!

[Kh, khuk…!!]

“But if you wanted to deceive me to the very end, you shouldn’t have mentioned the prohibition.”

The tips of Lennok’s fingers glowed red before digging into the iron mask covering the Vice-Mayor’s lower face.

She struggled violently, but unable to withstand the heat, the iron mask was torn away, revealing bare flesh.

Crrrack!!

The Vice-Mayor’s mouth and jaw, hidden beneath the mask, were gruesomely mangled, as if they had melted from poison.

“After saying this was the price for breaking the project’s prohibition, it’s only natural to be suspicious when you prattle on about the secrets of District 19.”

“Gh, ghh…”

With her lips torn, and her teeth and tongue missing, Weinstein could only produce simple sounds.

Had her voice been produced by a function built into the iron mask all along?

Lennok shoved the half-melted mask back onto her mouth and spoke.

“Why did you break the agreement and try to kill Lapis? With the non-aggression pact of the Pilenom Autonomous Region still in effect, is there anything for the city government to gain from this?”

[Kh, khuhut… Are you not going to kill me?]

“Why? Do you want me to make it quick and painless for you?”

Lennok smirked.

“You’re not someone who can’t feel pain, nor are you a madwoman who knows no fear. You’re just a prosthetic body made using android manufacturing technology.”

[….]

“Considering your own rank isn’t high, you’re probably not capable of controlling multiple prosthetic bodies at once. Is it a method where the death of the prosthetic body triggers a transfer to a new body? You must have abandoned your original body long ago, leaving only your consciousness.”

Knowing that research on androids had once been conducted in District 19, Lennok thought it was highly likely the Vice-Mayor also knew about the related technology.

It wouldn’t be strange if android manufacturing technology had spread to the upper echelons of Vulcan’s power structure after the Prohibition Edict was lifted.

Moreover, hadn’t Lennok heard from Meyer that Amy Weinstein was a master of bioengineering and had a very open mind regarding related technologies?

Her boldness in guiding them through the closed district alone was no longer strange if it stemmed from the security of having a spare body prepared.

Lennok had surmised this and seen through the fact that Amy Weinstein was in a prosthetic body dull to pain, which is why he had tried to subdue her.

“The reason your mouth and jaw are so mangled despite it being a prosthetic body is that the price of the prohibition always applies. It’s not a curse on your body, but one that eats away at your spirit.”

[Haha, you understand the prohibition to that extent.]

The Vice-Mayor said, fitting the iron mask back onto her mouth with a trembling hand.

[I thought you might not think I was a prosthetic body because of this wound. I suspected you weren’t an ordinary wizard from the moment you inherited the access rights, but— Aaargh!!]

Thud!!

Lennok roughly pushed the Vice-Mayor over and looked down at her with cold eyes.

“Killing you here and now would only result in you waking up in a new prosthetic body stored in a safe place. Why should I help you escape from here safely?”

[Guuhp…!!]

He slammed the Vice-Mayor’s body against a flagpole at the edge of the constantly trembling building rooftop and bound her with Magic Scribes.

Snap!!

Just from that, the Vice-Mayor’s neck bent slightly with the sound of breaking bone.

“Speak. If you intended to break the agreement from the start, why did you drag Lapis all the way here in the first place?”

[Fu, fufufu…!!! You want to know why I did this?]

At that moment, the gasping Vice-Mayor suddenly burst into laughter.

Even as she writhed on the ground, the light in her eyes did not dim in the slightest.

With great effort, Amy Weinstein turned her gaze to Lapis standing behind her and smiled.

[If you want such a trivial explanation, I can give it to you. That the Central Council was divided on this matter, and in the process, the decision was made to exclude the Eyes of Blue.]

“…You mean the agreement with the City Council was a lie from the very beginning.”

[At a time when the Eyes of Blue’s influence on the Central Front has grown excessively, it’s only natural that other major powers wouldn’t just stand by and watch. The Council and the government simply made a choice.]

As Lapis stood silent with a look of dismay, the Vice-Mayor whispered slowly.

[There were just more city councilors with connections to the Alliance and the warlords than to the secret society led by the Heavenly Sight’s granddaughter.]

“……”

[With a Fallen Ascendant stirring, the landscape of the Central Front is in upheaval. The city government will have to clarify its position soon enough.]

The Vice-Mayor muttered, looking around at the collapsing cityscape on the outskirts of District 19.

[This was merely a preliminary step to tidy things up. Don’t you think this was excessively reckless from the start?]

A smirk she couldn’t hide colored Weinstein’s eyes.

[What on earth did you believe in, to think you could get what you wanted in this city without any trouble—]

Crack!!

At that moment, something struck the Vice-Mayor’s jaw hard, tearing the iron mask off again.

She tried to say something, but it could no longer form words or sound.

Lennok looked down at her with a blank face and said.

“Oops, my hand slipped.”

“…!!”

“Don’t worry. I’ll reattach it for you soon enough. More importantly…”

Lennok looked back at Lapis, who was looking down, and caressed his wrist before speaking.

“Partisha, how is Lapis’s condition?”

“There are no major issues with her physical body.”

Partisha said after quickly supporting Lapis and checking her condition.

“However, she pushed herself to use her ability, so if she doesn’t get some rest for a while…”

It was the backlash from forcibly stopping herself from being devoured by the Gate to the Outer Sea using the power of the Lighthouse Keeper.

“Mr. Evan. I’m fine.”

Only after hearing that did Lapis manage to lift her gaze with difficulty.

“I don’t want to stop after coming this far. Let’s stay here for now and find a way to pass through the Gate.”

“No, that will be impossible.”

“If it comes to it, we can perform a ritual in front of the Gate to co-“

“That’s not what I mean. The moment you failed to open the Gate, the Vice-Mayor immediately changed her attitude and tried to kill you.”

Lennok cut Lapis off and shook his head.

“There are two things we can learn from that fact. One is that even the Vice-Mayor didn’t know if the access rights Clifton had could open the Gate.”

Why did the Vice-Mayor guide them all the way here if she had no intention of keeping her deal with Lapis?

Lennok thought it was because even the Vice-Mayor wasn’t sure if the access rights Lapis was scheduled to inherit would actually work.

“The other is that, well…”

Lennok shook his head as he stared at the cityscape that was ceaselessly shaking and shattering.

“The moment we failed to open the Gate, it’s highly likely that this space itself will no longer maintain its normal state.”

At that moment, the Gate to the Outer Sea, which had been quietly shimmering above their heads, began to waver violently.

Crrrack!!

Kwwaaaaang!!

An ominous, endless torrent of magic flowed from beyond the Gate, instantly occupying and pouring down upon all of District 19.

A powerful magic that indiscriminately destroyed and annihilated its surroundings as if pillars of black light were crashing down.

[Every time the Gate is opened, every time the attempt fails, it destroys everything and rebuilds anew….]

The Vice-Mayor muttered, struggling to put her iron mask back on.

[Everything is already broken. The space of this closed district is a false illusion that now exists solely for that one Gate.]

“……”

So it attempts to reconfigure all of time and space in the vicinity upon a failed attempt to open the Gate.

If the Vice-Mayor knew this, it was understandable why she had been so composed even after being subdued by Lennok.

She knew from the moment her plan failed that everything around them would be destroyed and thrown into chaos.

[The spatiotemporal collapse occurring in District 19 is not something a mere human can handle. What will you do?]

The Vice-Mayor didn’t stop laughing, even as she coughed painfully.

Either die here with the Vice-Mayor, or flee outside the closed district to escape the collapse and reconfiguration of time and space.

She knew that once the original plan went awry after coming this far, there were only two options left.

But Lennok scoffed, even as he watched the ominous darkness falling from above his head.

“I don’t like this. To be played just because I don’t know, to be dragged around by her intentions, and then to be chased out just like this?”

It was clear that the secrets and failures of the project in District 19 were greater than Lennok had imagined.

But to be dragged along by the Vice-Mayor’s intentions because of it, to flee as if being chased out, was unacceptable.

Because he didn’t know, because he was unaware. He was tired of being toyed with due to a lack of knowledge and experience.

The Gate to the Outer Sea, churning with a mixture of day and night.

Lennok grabbed the black magic flowing from beyond it and tilted his head back.

“I can’t just leave with nothing but losses. If I can’t get in… I’ll make sure no one else can either.”

[…What did you say?]

Pazik!!

The moment the Vice-Mayor frowned at his words, Lennok seized the magic of the Outer Sea falling from the Gate and began to absorb it.

An overwhelming assimilation power that instantly depleted the dark magic falling from beyond the Gate.

For a moment, a strong gravitational pull centered on Lennok, and all the surrounding light bent toward the single wizard.

Fwoooooosh!!

Kiiigigik!!

With a violent sound, as if space itself was bending and grinding, the twisted resentment of the Outer Sea scraped through his body.

It was a level of corruption that would not be strange for an ordinary wizard to go mad, the insanity reaching the very marrow of their bones the moment they were exposed to that magic.

But Lennok, who had witnessed the will of the Outer Gods and delved into the end of the world, had never once been swayed by such thoughts.

He came to understand how to make a part of the sea’s will, which he had only ever considered incomprehensible, his own.

Perhaps he was now embodying with his entire being a truth he had known since encountering its possibility through the Gwangramuhaegung.

Krrrrrumble…!!

He poured the massive capacity directly into his own body, and without any backlash, he only gradually expanded his vessel.

Lennok’s maximum mana, which had remained unchanged for a long time since reaching level 8, began to squirm and stir as if it were growing.

Wheeeeeeeeing!!!

[What is this…!!]

The moment the Vice-Mayor’s eyelids trembled faintly as she realized he was absorbing the magic of the Outer Sea to increase his own mana capacity.

Lennok had swallowed and exhausted all the magic that had been bursting forth from beyond the Gate.

In the instant he had absorbed the very source of power that maintained the space-time of District 19, paralyzing its function entirely.

Craaack!!

A vast, bottomless void revealed itself beneath the ground.

The buildings erected on all sides shattered, and the very space that constituted the sky and the earth began to collapse.

Kugwagwagwa!!!!

Lennok, Lapis, and Partisha’s figures plummeted through the cracked ground, and the Vice-Mayor tumbled down after them.

A pungent fog spasmed ceaselessly from beyond the void.

And beyond the fog, tens of thousands of people, their entire bodies stained with black darkness, screamed desperately.

[Aaaaaaaargh!!!!]

They reached out for Lennok, their upper bodies charred black, letting out indescribable screams.

[Gyaaaaargh!! Huaaaaaargh!!]

Fallen lifeforms that hated and cursed all living things, spewing shrieks filled with resentment.

Lennok immediately noticed that they looked somehow familiar, but there was no time to observe them closely.

“Partisha!!”

“Over here…!!”

In the void where he could barely see what was right in front of him, he located and grasped the presences of Lapis and Partisha.

Clutching a hard part that could have been a crane’s leg or beak, Lennok took out a worn pencil and stuck it into Partisha and Lapis’s bodies.

Right next to them, Amy Weinstein, who had fixed her iron mask, staggered and fell.

[Ha, hahat…!! I didn’t expect this…!!]

If she were steeped among those Contaminants, even a Vice-Mayor who could switch prosthetic bodies would not be able to withstand the mental damage.

It wouldn’t be bad to watch the Vice-Mayor, who had been strutting around trusting in her prosthetic body, suffer here, but it was more effective to keep her alive and use her as a hostage.

Thinking this, Lennok casually tried to draw up his mana, but felt a violent churning inside and hardened his expression.

‘My mana…!!’

What Lennok had just attempted was to absorb all the mana maintaining the Gate to the Outer Sea to forcibly hasten the destruction of District 19.

Apart from forcibly increasing his maximum mana, which had been stagnant for some time, his goal was to paralyze District 19 entirely so it wouldn’t function properly for a while.

However, due to absorbing magic that wasn’t his own too rapidly to expand his vessel, his control over his internal mana was currently unstable.

The Vice-Mayor’s smile deepened as she noticed this at once.

[…It seems we’ll be seeing each other again next time.]

Amy Weinstein whispered, looking back at Lennok as she fell upside down.

[This won’t be a farewell, but another meeting.]

She welcomed the tens of thousands of Contaminants rushing toward her from the other side of the void with her arms wide open.

[Let’s make sure to see each other in a more respectable place next time.]

Kwaduk!! Tududuk!! Ujijijik!!!

The Vice-Mayor’s body was torn apart with an indescribably gruesome noise.

Her face contorted in unbearable pain, then vanished in an instant without a trace.

The Contaminants that had devoured the living flesh in an instant, unable to overcome their hunger, howled and rushed toward Lennok.

A bizarre sight unfolded as they fell into the endless void, the Contaminants rushing toward them, bending the black fog into long streaks.

It was as if they were fleeing from gnats inhabiting the stomach of a giant monster, inside its very gut.

But even in this situation, Lennok hesitated until the very end to use Enakphil’s five fingers.

‘It’s impossible to designate coordinates for other people. If we can’t escape the closed district…’

Enakphil’s five fingers was a spellcraft that randomly teleported the user a certain distance away.

While he could increase the teleportation distance with his current mana, he couldn’t specify the exact coordinates in this state.

Lapis and Partisha could be scattered to the winds, and he might not know where they ended up.

“Mr. Evan.”

But at that moment, Lapis quietly grabbed Lennok’s hand and whispered.

Between her closed eyelids, drops of blood began to fall.

“I can help. I will be watching.”

“…!!”

The moment Lennok, understanding the true meaning of her words, immediately activated the artifact.

Paaaaat!!!

With a violent vibration incomparable to any before, the scenery surrounding the three of them changed as if colors were mixing together.

Pheeeeeeeew!!

Clatter!!

Behind a building made of old bricks.

Lennok’s body was flung out as if sliding, into the ruins inside a trash-strewn fence.

Flap!

Partisha spread her wings, gracefully caught Lapis, and naturally landed on the back of the fallen Lennok.

“Cough!!”

Lennok, letting out a cough, glared at Partisha with a chilly gaze.

“Get off.”

“…It was not my intention.”

Partisha cleared her throat and stepped off Lennok’s back, still holding Lapis.

Lennok shot up and looked at Lapis’s face as she lay collapsed.

“How is her condition?”

Just before using Enakphil’s five fingers, Lapis had used her ability to forcibly ‘observe’ their destination.

Thanks to that, the three of them were able to escape from District 19 safely, without being scattered across the city.

But on the other hand, it was clear that Lapis had pushed herself to use her ability.

Lapis, who was shedding tears of blood drop by drop, seemed to have completely lost consciousness.

“She pushed herself to use the already delicate ability of Chogyeon, so the backlash will be considerable. In the worst case, perhaps…”

“Speak. What is it?”

Partisha managed to calm her trembling voice and said.

“She might have a serious problem with her eyesight for a while…”

“……”

Lennok hid his troubled expression and took out his phone from his pocket.

Now that the situation was resolved by escaping from District 19, he needed to contact Evelyn and inform her of the current situation.

However, the first message that popped up was not related to Lapis or Evelyn.

Davi, as if she had been waiting, was showing him a news report that was just being broadcast on the phone screen.

Lennok, who was about to unconsciously swipe the screen away, froze at the announcer’s voice.

[The secret meeting with the Eyes of Blue, held in the closed district, has ended with a terrible outcome….]

[The leader of the Eyes of Blue, Lapis, is accused of attempting to assassinate the 1st Administrative Vice-Mayor Weinstein during the meeting. The Vice-Mayor is presumed to be in a severe coma….]

[The city government has designated the Lighthouse Keeper and her subordinate wizard as top-class terrorists, issuing arrest warrants and placing them on the wanted list.]

“…This is.”

The screen of Vulcan city was being broadcast through the phone.

On every electronic billboard and screen in the streets, the faces of Lennok and Lapis had appeared.