Chapter 877: The Eye That Sees Fate (13)
“The worst-case scenario.”
In a beautiful hall with transparent glass walls.
Several old men sat around a wide, round table in the auditorium, where even the smallest whisper echoed gently.
They were city councilors, scattered at a distance around a table so massive it could have comfortably seated dozens. An emergency meeting temporarily convened by the councilors from the Upper and Lower Houses who were immediately involved in the incident.
Attendants waiting in the back promptly refilled any empty glasses placed before them.
But the councilors’ faces were so rigid they didn’t seem to know what they were drinking.
In the center of the round table, a holographic screen displayed the heart of the megacity.
It was because, beyond the screen showing the dilapidated downtown of District 21, dozens of lightning bolts were crashing down.
Krrrrrrumble!!
The camera, which sculpted mana into delicate units, couldn’t even properly capture the form of the lightning.
Its movement and speed were so fast and fierce that it could only barely capture fragments of the thunderous light racing through the city center.
Something wreathed in lightning cold enough to make one’s eyes sting was escaping the District 20 area at tremendous speed.
[Aaargh!!]
[Get away, the whole tank is exploding…!!]
[The fortress defense barricade was breached in a single blow!!]
In the wake of the searing blue lightning, only the shattered fragments of tanks and barricades were left scattered about.
Without targeting anyone in particular, it was an act of overwhelming tyranny, shattering and crushing all resistance and restraints merely by wielding and scattering mana.
It was obvious who the monster was, cloaked in dozens of lightning bolts amidst the dark clouds, vanishing with a triumphant roar of thunder.
“Adamant Thunder kidnapped the Lighthouse Keeper…!”
“How is this even possible!!!”
The great wizard of District 49. Adamant Thunder Van.
The fact that a wizard, whose infamy ranked among the top five in Vulcan, had ignored the Central Council’s wanted order and seized the Lighthouse Keeper.
Of all the monsters, that a madman with a widespread reputation for bloodlust had intervened and shattered the board left everyone astonished.
“For the information to leak within half a day of the wanted order being issued is utterly pathetic…!!”
“We should have deployed containment forces to the front line and controlled access from the start. What in the world was the person in charge doing!”
He roared furiously, but his panic and agitation were impossible to hide.
He tapped the round table with an anxious hand while glancing at the screen, hoping for other news to arrive.
“Please calm down. What meaning would such preventive measures have against that wizard?”
Among the enraged councilors, there were still some who had not lost their reason.
They were younger members of the Lower House, who had stepped into this affair but were not deeply involved.
Most had extensive field experience and received information directly from the front lines.
“Let’s leave what has already happened and discuss the measures we need to take from now on.”
“We haven’t even prepared an official statement to explain the wanted order. Once the scribes draft a format—”
“No, you people don’t understand!”
An old man with disheveled white hair pounded the round table in frustration.
“The moment that wizard stepped in personally, the chance of him meekly handing over Lapis Falcia is almost zero!!”
“…”
“We should never have mentioned it from the start. We should have put our foot down and prevented him from getting involved in this…!!”
At the old man’s words, the expressions of the other Lower House members momentarily hardened.
“Had you already discussed this matter with Adamant Thunder?”
“It was a necessary evil. All for a meeting between high-powered individuals in this city, this absurd…!!!”
As the old man, veins bulging on his forehead as if he were about to collapse, spoke, the Lower House members looked away.
They too had a considerable interest in the mad wizard who had appeared out of nowhere and single-handedly turned the city upside down.
Watching the afterimage of the lightning on the screen, the councilors added their thoughts.
“All the troops and mercenaries deployed in District 21 were helpless. A strategy of overwhelming with numbers is completely useless, it seems.”
“Half of the weather observation devices in the nearby area are broken. In an environment with such dark clouds, there’s practically no way to fight him.”
“Even with the latest video recording equipment, all we can manage is a live feed. The storage devices keep breaking, so the video team has already discarded all recordings.”
Although considerable time had passed since Adamant Thunder’s infamy spread throughout the city, not many had witnessed his manifestation.
This was partly because Lennok had been operating in Vulcan’s shadows, and also because the city’s domain was simply too vast.
It was a place where, even living in the same city, one could go a lifetime without meeting or hearing news of another if they so chose.
“How did he manage to appear at that exact moment? Can we really see this as the act of a mad wizard?”
“The intellect of a great wizard is incomparable to us mortals. Even if he’s half-mad, his intuition has likely reached the realm of foresight.”
“The incident during his visit to Rebatenon University was no accident. Regardless of his injuries, he’s a monster who can do things like this as easily as breathing.”
“What should we do? Should we retract the wanted order now?”
With those words, all the councilors surrounding the table fell silent.
From the beginning, no one had predicted that the situation surrounding District 19 would unfold in this way.
“Has Vice-Mayor Weinstein woken up yet?”
“It’s extremely severe mental contamination. I heard a curse-breaker is attached to her, washing her brain day and night. They say it wouldn’t be strange if she wakes up as a zombie tomorrow morning.”
“It’s all karma. If you rashly apply unstable artificial human technology to your own body, it’s only natural to become vulnerable to mental interference.”
“Do you think that woman, mad for technology, would have cared about that? She was probably just filled with thoughts of using her own body as evidence to push for commercialization.”
A faint sneer mixed into the councilors’ voices as they mentioned the vice-mayor.
Regardless of her abilities and disposition, a significant number of them disliked the vice-mayor’s confrontational attitude toward the Council as a member of the City Government.
“The vice-mayor is the only witness to the events in District 19. Without proper circumstantial evidence, we can’t seize the justification on our side.”
“For now, let’s prioritize contacting Adamant Thunder’s Magic Tower to hear their position.”
“I’ve already received a reply. They claim to know nothing about this matter and have no involvement whatsoever.”
The expressions of the other Lower House members turned incredulous.
“Does that make any sense? The Tower Lord kidnaps an Ascendant’s blood relative, and they’re going to deny it in this situation?”
“That response shows the Magic Tower’s current position in this city.”
“…”
Only then did the Lower House members, realizing just how absurd the current situation was, fall into silence.
Since the establishment of the megacity’s item market, they saw how rapidly the Magic Tower had built a powerful position in the field.
That single sentence made them realize once again that, despite the Tower Lord’s evil deeds, it had reached a level that even the City Council could not ignore.
“I don’t know what to say. This isn’t something that can be handled solely by those involved in this matter.”
“For now, the priority must be to mobilize the media and see the reaction.”
“As if we needed to, every news source in Vulcan is already in an uproar. Since he kidnapped that Lighthouse Keeper, the news will spread to the Central government soon enough.”
It would be gossip if a great wizard kidnapped an ordinary person, but since he took the leader of the Eyes of Blue, it was obvious how big the story would become.
Moreover, since he did it openly in front of over a thousand soldiers and mercenaries, the spread of rumors was inevitable.
The councilors gathered here also knew that covering up this incident was impossible from the start.
“We should escalate it instead. We need to inflate the Tower Lord’s infamy to an unbearable level.”
“Do you think that crazy wizard will even care?”
“We still have to. If this can worsen public opinion and allow us to seize even a small part of the Tower’s influence—”
Click!!
“From here on, I will handle it myself.”
Meyer, who had opened the glass door of the hall, looked at the gathered councilors as he spoke, leaning on his cane.
The Upper House members, who had been observing the situation, reacted upon seeing the particularly old-looking man among them.
“Ah, Councilor Meyer. You are late.”
“We were waiting for you. We were keen to hear your opinion on this matter.”
“…”
In contrast, the Lower House members turned their gazes away with a somewhat subtle expression at Meyer’s appearance.
Meyer was a city councilor who had started his career in the Lower House, served as an auditor, and then moved to the Upper House.
While they acknowledged his ability to achieve results and build a reputation in difficult positions, the Lower House members couldn’t help but feel a strange way.
Meyer, who calmly greeted even the councilors who made no effort to hide their feelings, sat in an empty seat.
“The media reports will blow up on their own without us having to worry. There’s no reason to provoke Van by needlessly intervening.”
“Come to think of it, you and that wizard know each other personally.”
Someone from the Upper House asked insinuatingly.
“How about it? Have you heard anything from him?”
“…”
At those words, even the other Lower House members leaned in to listen to Meyer.
The fact that Councilor Meyer and Van had known each other for a long time was an open secret.
Since Meyer himself made no effort to hide his acquaintance with Van, the council officials were aware of it.
“That is not what’s important right now, is it?”
But Meyer curtly shut down their line of questioning and turned the topic around.
“I have just come from making inquiries about the wanted order issued by the City Government. It seems we need to bring their operational command over to our side.”
“Operational command?”
“I have an idea where the Lighthouse Keeper intended to go. Considering the secret hidden in District 19, it’s clear she has not escaped the city—”
Meyer’s expression grew pensive as he muttered.
“To prepare for any unforeseen circumstances, we will have to mobilize the air force to occupy the quarantine zone.”
“A quarantine zone. Surely not…”
“I do not know why Van kidnapped the Lighthouse Keeper. I cannot guess his intentions at all.”
The moment the other councilors understood Meyer’s words and their expressions slightly changed, Meyer looked around and said.
“At this point, it would be impossible for us to secure Lapis Falcia’s person. But isn’t there still one more person left?”
“That would be…”
“The pyro-wizard who uses the name Evan.”
Meyer’s eyes shone calmly as he took out a wanted poster with Evan’s face on it from his coat.
“Let’s start by confirming the whereabouts of this man, who has lost the master he was supposed to protect.”
“Get him, he disappeared that way!!”
“Dammit, I’m sure I saw him here…!!”
A group of mercenaries, panting heavily, ran towards the other side of the alley.
With their mana raised sharply, they searched every corner of the alley before giving up and leaving.
Watching the mercenaries disappear around the corner with annoyed expressions, Lennok naturally extended his hand to the side.
“5,000 cell.”
“Isn’t that a bit expensive?”
“4,000 cell, then.”
Lennok stood up after buying an apple from an old fruit vendor and walked in the opposite direction from the mercenaries.
Taking a bite of the apple, Lennok’s expression turned sour.
“I should have haggled more.”
“Ah, over there!!”
“Dammit, he was sitting next to the fruit stand?!”
The mercenaries, having returned to the alley, spotted Lennok and immediately raised their firearms.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!!
“Kyaaak!!”
Along with screams, bullets rained down on the food stalls and shop signs.
As soon as he noticed their presence, he flipped back behind a sign to avoid the bullets.
Ddddrrrk!!
He ran forward, leaving the sound of the sign being torn apart, feeling as if it would be pierced at any moment.
Fwoosh!!
“He’s escaping, after him!”
“Shit, how is he so fast…!!”
He was so fast that even a superhuman whose body was enhanced with mana had difficulty keeping up.
In an instant, Lennok’s figure disappeared, leaping alternately between the walls of a dark alley.
KABOOM!!
The moment the mercenaries, who had smashed through a wall with their shoulders, immediately sped up to find Lennok.
Lennok was standing behind the wall, waiting for them, instead of having run away.
“Here.”
He threw the half-eaten, mushy apple at a mercenary’s face.
The moment the apple piece slammed into the mouth of the mercenary who couldn’t stop his own momentum, Lennok swung his fist and planted it on the mercenary’s jaw.
Crack!!
With the apple still in his mouth, the mercenary’s jaw was dislocated, and his eyes rolled back.
“Ughek…!!”
“You son of a bitch!!”
“Stop your useless resistance and give up, you moron!!”
The other mercenaries surrounded Lennok, spewing curses in a frenzy.
“You think you can survive after picking a fight with that wizard?!”
“You’re a dead man walking, so just offer up your money to us and die…!”
“‘That wizard’… ah, here it is.”
Lennok frowned at the strangely annoying title, as they wouldn’t even use his proper name now, and bent his waist.
Lennok picked something up from the fallen mercenary’s pocket and flicked his fingers lightly.
“I was looking for this.”
“Get him!”
Click!!
A cheap lighter that could be bought for a pittance.
The moment the mercenaries, one raising a gun and others thrusting mana-clad daggers, lunged at Lennok.
Lennok flicked the lighter open with one hand and carefully cupped the flame with the other.
[Ignition]
FWOOSH!!
The dark back alley momentarily flashed with a red glow, then instantly grew hot with tremendous heat.
A giant shadow of fire flickered behind the building before disappearing in an instant.
The sudden firefight had caused hiding street vendors to break out in a cold sweat from the heat alone.
“Hoo.”
Leaving behind the presence of the mercenaries who had vanished as if by a lie, Lennok walked out from behind the wall and let out a sigh.
After tossing the melted lighter into the trash can next to the fruit stand, Lennok spoke to the trembling fruit stand owner.
“One orange. I’ll buy it for 3,000 cell this time.”
“This one’s a bit better.”
For some reason, the fruit stand owner was kind enough to cut the orange peel for him this time.
As Lennok tasted the orange with a satisfied expression, a voice echoed from his fingertips.
[Wizard. Just how long do you intend to keep this up?]
A familiar voice came from the pure white jade ring Lennok wore on his finger.
The elegant white jade, resembling the shape of a crane, glowed faintly, emitting Partisha’s voice.
[I, too, tried to endure as much as possible considering your state of mind, but it is becoming difficult to watch for long. Right now, Lady Lapis is—]
“You’re noisy.”
But instead of being surprised, Lennok replied calmly.
“If you had such an ability, why didn’t you use it sooner to lighten my load?”
The ring Lennok was currently wearing was an item disguised by adding Partisha’s ability on top of the Guide’s Ring he originally had.
Partisha, who had introduced herself as a long-lived species from Kundara, was a being who could assimilate with specific objects or people to change her form.
That must have been why she was the only attendant to accompany Lapis on this matter.
[It is not an ability I can use at will.]
But Partisha was still talkative even after assimilating her existence with the ring and transforming it.
[Once I change my form, it takes a long time to return. It was a last resort I was saving until the very end to protect Lady Lapis—]
“Wait a moment.”
Partisha clamped her mouth shut at Lennok’s sharp tone.
After glancing around the alley, Lennok entered a public restroom with a cold expression.
Lennok placed a hand on his hip and quietly looked at the toilet, then slowly bent his waist.
“Ugh.”
[…What on earth have you been doing since earlier?]
Partisha couldn’t hide her bewilderment at the sight of Lennok suddenly kneeling and throwing up.
[Your strange obsession with nutritional intake, and now your constant bizarre behavior since things went wrong—]
Partisha’s nagging voice suddenly cut off.
She had confirmed that what Lennok had thrown up was not simply food, but vomit soaked in blood.
[…You.]
Ignoring Partisha’s undisguised shock, Lennok quietly wiped his mouth.
‘I can’t keep this up for long.’
The moment he made Adamant Thunder appear and kidnap Lapis, it was inevitable that he would have to bring out his Incarnation Body and operate them simultaneously.
He had to divide his mana, which was already difficult to control with finesse, between both the Incarnation Body and himself.
Furthermore, the Incarnation Body had moved a considerable distance to take Lapis away.
His internal mana was being consumed at a rate that felt like it was evaporating rather than just burning.
Krrrrrck…!
If he hadn’t learned the principles of natural spellcraft beforehand, if he hadn’t increased his maximum mana, he would have lost consciousness and collapsed long ago.
But there was a reason why Lennok was still maintaining and simultaneously operating the Incarnation Body.
Lennok became lost in thought as he arduously dragged his body along.
‘The moment Lapis was kidnapped, it was inevitable that the wanted order would focus on me. If I abandon the Evan identity and disappear now, it will only amplify suspicion.’
The City Government had already tried to kill Lapis, prepared to go to war with the Eyes of Blue over this incident.
If Evan were to disappear now, all of Vulcan City Government’s public authority would be focused on Adamant Thunder, who had kidnapped Lapis.
‘Maintaining both identities until the end is a set course. What’s more concerning is the City Council’s response….’
From the moment he was being pursued, Lennok had thought that the City Council might have guessed that Lapis was heading for the Eight Peaks Fortress.
If they knew Lapis’s objective was the Gate of the Outer Sea in District 19, it was obvious that she might target the fortress, which possessed a similar environment.
If they were aware of that, the City Council would likely try to intervene beforehand to prevent Lapis from reaching the fortress.
If his destination were to be figured out while being pursued under a wanted order, Lapis’s plan would be as good as over.
That was the decisive reason why Lennok had pushed himself to use the Incarnation Body and bring out the Adamant Thunder identity.
For Lapis to arrive at the fortress and perform the ritual to meet Heavenly Sight, a very large chaos was needed, one that even the City Council would find difficult to control.
A chaos that no one else could control, but that Lennok himself could.
‘While drawing the City Council’s attention with the Adamant Thunder identity, I will stabilize my mana with the Evan identity.’
He pulled up his prepared thoughts one by one amidst his continuously worsening condition.
‘I will guide our movements so we meet at the promised place at the end while closing the distance with the Incarnation Body, and once I shake off both the wanted order and the Central Council….’
In a single moment where the most famous wizard and the most nameless wizard in this city move in different directions and intersect.
A grand plan to use the two identities he wielded to disrupt and reshape this game board before anyone else.
Wasn’t he helping Lapis to confirm what the qualification for ascension was, and what the Ascendant who had left before had left behind?
If Heavenly Sight’s consciousness construct was waiting for Lapis, Lennok intended to watch until the very end to see what she would try to leave behind.
Straightening his back, Lennok wiped his mouth and said.
“I’m trying, so be quiet for a little bit.”
[Are you hurt? Since when have you been like this….]
Partisha let out a gasp.
She had clearly seen with her own two eyes when Evan had sustained such a serious injury.
[It was right after the clash with that demonic wizard.]
“…”
The master of the lightning that shook the entire overcast sky.
A wave of irrational killing intent that felt as if it could overwhelm the soul, even for Partisha who was from the Outer Tribulation City.
Not a human, but what it would feel like if living killing intent was kneaded together and given form.
An intelligent being whose true intentions were completely incomprehensible even when faced up close.
A suffocating despair, like facing the apocalypse that exists beyond the dark sea.
[There wasn’t a shred of exaggeration in the rumors. How such a broken being can still live normally in this city, I simply cannot—]
“Nothing major will happen right away.”
Lennok said as he brushed the blood from his sleeve cuff.
“Lapis is still safe. It will be fine as long as I bring her back before time runs out.”
[How… how can you possibly know that?]
“Because I have the authority of the fifth Lighthouse.”
Lennok replied nonchalantly as he walked out of the garbage area.
“If anything were to happen to Lapis’s person or mind, the authority itself would be lost.”
[….]
“I just have to find Lapis in time and get inside the fortress. That’s all.”
[…Can we do it?]
Partisha asked in an anxious tone.
[I am not afraid of dying, but whether we can retrieve Lady Lapis from that wizard….]
“That’s why I’m running around like this right now, isn’t it?”
As Lennok said that, he slowly moved his mana, but his complexion immediately turned pale white.
[Your condition seems to have really worsened. Are you really going to be okay like this?]
“…I’m fine.”
However, operating the Incarnation Spellcraft simultaneously was putting a considerable strain on his body.
He needed to find a way to shake off the pursuit from the wanted order and stabilize his mana.
“But it’s not like there’s no way.”
Lennok said, adjusting his overcoat.
“In fact, my physical abilities themselves are much better than usual. That’s probably your doing, right?”
[I have a knack for amplifying vitality, but it is not something to be heavily relied upon….]
“No, it’s great. This is more than enough.”
It wasn’t for nothing that Lennok was able to dodge bullets and run during the fight with the mercenaries.
The Outer Sea mana he had absorbed was surging, and instead of being controlled, it was forcibly augmenting his body.
For some reason, the vitality amplification provided by Partisha was an incredibly good match for Lennok’s currently unstable body.
In contrast to the turmoil within his body, his physical abilities and vitality felt as if they were in a constant state of enhancement.
Even if his magic itself was difficult to control in terms of power, forcing him to borrow a medium or abandon control altogether, just being able to move his body like an ordinary physical superhuman meant there was much more Lennok could do.
“I know which direction the Eight Peaks Fortress is in. Let’s head there first.”
“Are you the new arsonist with a city-wide wanted order on his head?”
At that moment, a familiar voice from behind made Lennok’s body freeze.
“I don’t know how hot you’ve been playing for the city’s bigwigs to make such a fuss.”
A robust figure wearing a wrestler’s mask.
A menacing aura with all sorts of blades, spears, and firearms hanging all over his body.
Dylan, perched atop a slowly blinking traffic light, looked down at Lennok askew and grinned.
“Perfect timing. Shall we see how dangerous you are compared to the witch living at our bar?”