Chapter 897: The Eye That Sees Fate (33)
A Domain is, in essence, the pinnacle of spellcraft, overwriting space and time by projecting the user’s Root Mindscape.
It is the final destination, attainable only by a spellcaster who has scaled all seven hierarchies of self-alteration.
Having completely altered and understood themselves through a series of processes, the caster finally confronts the Root Mindscape situated in their innermost depths.
The reason they exist as they are.
The reason they think as they do.
Even if it is not the form or scenery they desired, it is something that fundamentally identifies and defines the caster’s own identity.
The most ideal point of completion a single human can reach.
Those who attempt to proceed beyond this either shatter their completed hierarchy and fall, or conversely, transcend the hierarchy and reach an unexplored realm.
Only after chronicling and defining the time they have existed as themselves in the world, their entire life lived, can they fully perceive and face it.
And for that very reason, the Domain, Celestial Flower’s Myriad-League Fragrance, was still an incomplete, unfinished territory.
BOOOOM!!!!
A flower of flame, hundreds of meters in size, descended upon the earth, its bud blooming and blossoming in the center of the city.
Each of its six petals was tens of meters long, a size that far surpassed any skyscraper.
WHOOOOOSH!!
Every time the petals bloomed, swayed, and unfurled, a searing wind erupted, incinerating the sky and the ground simultaneously.
The colossal flower of fire, planted in the heart of Vulcan, flashed with a light so intense it was captured by satellite cameras.
SHWAAAA!!
It then began to close its calyx, enveloping Evan and Adamant Thunder.
The six petals spiraled inward as if converging, embracing the two wizards and closing its mouth.
In the vast cavern where the head of the Cartel, Olivera Ron Maize, had personally graced them with his presence, the assembled executives began to murmur.
“What is that…?”
“Is that Cheonbeon’s Domain?”
Meryllda and Angel, who had been watching blankly, scratched their heads, while Virgil and Lauder began to analyze the situation.
“He trapped not just Evan but Adamant Thunder as well. Is it a type of barrier spell?”
“A Domain isn’t a barrier spellcraft. If it is, the only explanation is that Cheonbeon has separately imbued the power of a barrier spell into his Domain….”
A Domain is not a barrier spellcraft, but a secret art that forcibly imposes a property transformation on the surrounding space-time.
The reason it can impose a property transformation on space-time is because its power source is the caster’s own Root Mindscape.
If Evan’s Domain took a form that trapped both the caster and the opponent, that would be a unique characteristic of his own.
Perhaps his talent for handling highly complex barrier spells had blended with his Root Mindscape and manifested.
“The very act of constructing a Mana Core and externalizing it is the power of a barrier spellcraft. He’s already proficient at mixing it with his unique magic.”
“But why would he deploy such a Domain at this specific moment?”
“In my opinion, that itself is the purpose of deploying the Domain.”
Jeyrak, the former special-grade mercenary from the Central Front who had recently claimed the 3rd Executive’s seat, raised his hand and spoke.
“The purpose of the Domain, you say?”
“After fighting so wildly just a moment ago, to suddenly pull out something like that must mean he has another plan, doesn’t it?”
Jeyrak replied in an indifferent tone, slumping into his armchair and tilting his head back.
“Even if it means taking a loss in the strategic battle, he wants to reveal his hand first to narrow the battlefield. Isn’t that it?”
“Hoh, that’s an interesting thought.”
Lauder turned to Jeyrak with a smile.
Though the explanation was delivered with extreme nonchalance, he had understood the context perfectly.
“Are you saying that Evan Martinez’s Domain is actually a power that isn’t of direct help in battle?”
“Well, something like that. You said that wizard has never used his Domain before, right?”
Jeyrak said, digging a finger in his ear.
“Then what else could it be but a Domain that isn’t very helpful in most battles?”
“Huh, is that so?”
Meryllda listened to Jeyrak with a sullen expression, then her eyes lit up as Angel agreed.
“Come to think of it, that makes sense.”
“It is strange for a wizard of that caliber to reveal his Domain for the first time in a situation like this.”
It was surprisingly not uncommon for a superior wizard’s Domain to possess an ability that wasn’t helpful in battle.
The forms a Root Mindscape, shaped by an individual’s life, could take, and the direction in which their talents would manifest, were varied and diverse.
In extreme cases, there were even wizards who became weaker the moment they opened their Domain.
For that reason, in battles between high-level casters, one might even force an opponent to deploy their Domain to twist the dynamic of the fight.
Angel and Jeyrak, being from the Central Front, had probably heard at least a little about such things.
“An interesting hypothesis, but your conjecture has several blind spots.”
However, Virgil, who had been listening to the executives’ conversation, spoke up.
“Wizards with a talent for fighting usually have their Domain’s ability manifest in a way specialized for combat. There are exceptions, but such a wizard would never have been standing there in the first place.”
“Are you saying that being an outstanding wizard and being a good fighter are two different things?”
“There’s more solid evidence than just debating abstract exceptions. In the last phase, the one at a disadvantage was Cheonbeon.”
Virgil answered with a deadpan expression, his arms crossed.
“If he’s the one to reveal his hand in this situation, he must be able to gain the upper hand the moment he makes his move. I wouldn’t be surprised if Cheonbeon’s Domain ability is, on the contrary, extremely specialized for combat.”
“Disadvantage…? You mean Cheonbeon?”
Wasn’t it the power of that monstrous heat-flame wizard that had been overwhelming and incinerating the battlefield until now?
Even the superhuman Angel couldn’t begin to fathom his capacity, yet Virgil’s words interpreted the situation in a completely opposite way.
Just as Angel tilted his head in confusion, Olivera’s relaxed telepathic voice echoed.
[Cheonbeon’s flames kept growing larger and larger, but Adamant Thunder’s lightning never once changed its output.]
“…That’s.”
[What does it mean that an evenly matched battle has continued despite that?]
“…”
Finally understanding what Virgil and Olivera were saying, the other executives fell silent.
It meant that the flames, augmented and pushed to their limit, had still not surpassed the power of the lightning.
It was Evan, not Adamant Thunder, who had to constantly shift gears to increase his output.
“Cheonbeon himself probably knew before they even began. That’s why he went all over the city gathering kindling to build a fire, accumulating mana and output to set the stage.”
Virgil said.
“It was an outstanding achievement, difficult to believe it was done on the fly. But because of that… it was decided from the start which side had the advantage.”
Separate from his overwhelmingly unparalleled output, the balance in the battle between Adamant Thunder and Cheonbeon had been slowly tipping from the very moment it began.
Constructing Heat Cores throughout the city, gathering mana and output beyond his vessel’s capacity to issue a challenge—Cheonbeon’s very position was impossible without recognizing the gap between him and Adamant Thunder.
No, perhaps it would be more correct to say that it was only because he could go this far that he was barely able to stand on the same battlefield as Adamant Thunder.
As Virgil had once asserted to Olivera, the one to bet on had been decided from the very beginning.
“Anyway, the fact that he decided to fight means he thought he had a chance of winning.”
Meryllda said, lying down barefoot on the chair provided for the executives.
Yawning as she scratched her stomach, she gazed at the tightly shut flower bud of flame in the distance and asked.
“That Domain, isn’t its ability much more powerful than we think?”
“When I faced him before, Evan Martinez showed a very high level of understanding of the application of Geas.”
Lauder, who had been silently staring at the burning flower bud on the screen, spoke up.
“It’s probably because he has been using Geas for a long time, bending his own spellcraft to increase its power.”
“So? You think you know what that Domain’s ability is?”
“An ability that has never been revealed despite his fame. A gamble worth playing at a decisive moment in a battle of this magnitude. And most importantly, if the caster himself is accustomed to the bindings of a Geas—”
Lauder said with a look of deep contemplation.
“A limited-use, ultimate compressed-firepower projection. Wouldn’t it have to be at least that much to be a card worth playing in a situation like this?”
“…A limited number of uses?”
As the other executives paused, startled by the unexpected idea, Lauder gave a bitter smile.
“A Domain deployment that boosts power in exchange for limiting the number of activations. If I were Cheonbeon, I feel I’d need a hand like that to step onto a battlefield like this.”
“Hoh…”
Indeed, that assumption would explain why Evan Martinez had never once used his Domain until now.
An extremely powerful binding that limits the number of activations, to the point that once they are all used, it can never be deployed again.
A Geas bent to such an extreme might just be able to reach the great wizard who commanded the lightning from the heavens.
“It’s a conclusion based on the result, but there are quite a few parts that line up…”
“If I were Cheonbeon and had a Domain like that, I don’t think I’d hesitate to play my hand first either.”
Lauder’s conjecture drew everyone’s attention, making even Virgil and Meryllda fall into thought.
But Olivera slowly shook her head at his words.
[Perhaps it’s because you have a talent for curses, but your way of thinking is properly twisted. An excellent inference, but far from the correct answer.]
“Is that so?”
A word of praise from the great wizard, something rarely bestowed even upon her executives.
Watching Lauder’s ready acceptance, Olivera waved her hand slowly from behind the curtain.
[If Cheonbeon possessed an ability that volatile, would he have bothered to spend time searching the entire city for embers?]
“…”
[He is a caster with enough patience and macroscopic vision to spend days setting the stage while being pursued by a warrant.]
A faint trace of cold sarcasm seemed to mix into Olivera’s voice.
[A man like that would not make his own ability an error in judgment that burns the future to fuel the present. I believe it’s quite the opposite.]
“The opposite….”
[Not a number of uses, but a time limit. The binding condition of the Geas is most likely… the time the spellcraft is kept active itself.]
BOOOOM!!!!
At that moment, on the screen, the tightly closed flower bud began to slowly writhe and bloom once more.
But this time, instead of the petals revealing themselves again, they lost their strength one by one, slowly withering and falling.
Olivera watched the scene and nodded her head.
[A full bloom that concentrates and unleashes its power the moment it reopens… beautiful. He literally intends to end it in one go.]
“…”
Her voice was excited, to a degree that even her attendants who looked up to her from beyond the curtain could tell.
[So, how exactly do you plan to conclude this phase?]
WHOOOOAAAA!!!
Six brilliantly burning red petals.
Having closed and gathered the bud, completely blocking all outside gazes, Evan descended to the center of the Domain.
On the other side, Adamant Thunder, wreathed in lightning, landed on the opposite side of the bud with a blank expression.
“Well then…”
Lennok slowly massaged his shoulder, turned his head, and muttered.
“Somehow, I’ve made it this far.”
Despite a heavy dose of painkillers and stimulants, his body was incredibly sore from forcibly using martial arts.
He had managed well enough while with Partisha, but on this battlefield, there was only one person.
Lennok had to handle and bear every facet of the battle shown to the outside world alone.
He thought he had done a decent job so far, but the reason he had pulled out his Domain at this point was—
‘Celestial Flower’s Myriad-League Fragrance is still an incomplete Domain. That’s why I have to use it here.’
To be precise, the Domain Celestial Flower’s Myriad-League Fragrance was not a possibility Lennok had used before.
After all, Lennok had been continuously using the Kaleidoscope’s Domain even when fighting as Evan.
Black Sun’s Fall, False Morning Star, and the Palace of Wild Nakedness and No Sea.
Hadn’t the causality built up under Evan’s name also been laid bare beyond the infinite possibilities of the Kaleidoscope?
The power of Celestial Flower’s Myriad-League Fragrance was a new Domain that had begun to branch off, separating the possibility of Evan Martinez, who had a warrant out for his arrest in this city.
Cheonbeon’s Domain, which had begun to build causality and manifest a few days ago, taking the Heat Core as the possibility for a new Domain.
But because it had only just begun to branch off, it was, unlike the other Kaleidoscope Domains, still a power closer to being incomplete.
The very fact that he could so grandly display the Celestial Flower’s Myriad-League Fragrance to the outside was possible only because it was an unfinished Domain.
That was why Lennok used the power of this Domain as a curtain to hide the battlefield, to obscure the view of others at the decisive moment.
All for this one moment, to face his Incarnation Body alone.
“…”
The form of the Incarnation Body stood on the opposite side of the bud, staring at Lennok without any reaction.
The moment Lennok, watching it, slowly took a step forward.
Thud…!!
The Incarnation Body and Lennok simultaneously began to walk toward each other.
In the instant the two wizards passed each other within the bud of the blazing flower of flame.
Their appearances were also flipped and transformed as if reflected in a mirror.
WHOOSH!!
A change in appearance that switched not only Lennok himself, but also the form of the Incarnation Body in a single moment.
Having instantly swapped positions and appearances with the Incarnation Body, Lennok immediately raised his hand.
He was about to begin a new chant over the surging Domain of Celestial Flower’s Myriad-League Fragrance, but then he stopped, as if a thought had occurred to him.
“…”
Lennok, who had been silently watching the still Incarnation Body, approached it.
He grabbed the unresponsive Incarnation Body’s neck with one hand and squeezed hard.
Woooong…!!
As he applied pressure as if to choke it and brandished his will-thought, Lennok’s and the Incarnation Body’s mana began to resonate simultaneously.
The two wizards’ bodies trembled violently and repelled each other, but nothing more happened.
Sensing failure, Lennok withdrew his hand with a bitter smile.
“…As I thought, it’s still too soon, huh?”
The most dangerous and powerful taboo a caster who has mastered Incarnation Spellcraft can attempt with their incarnation.
He thought it might be possible in a moment like this, with his mind and body heightened to the extreme, but he couldn’t feel even a sliver of a chance.
It was likely because Lennok’s incarnation had a very different origin from other incarnation casters.
To solve this problem, it seemed he would have to seek out the master of that origin.
rumble…!!
His fruitless contemplation was brief, as the petals of Celestial Flower’s Myriad-League Fragrance began to writhe and fall away one by one.
The timer, which increased power with the spell’s maintenance time as its condition, had run out, and the Domain had begun to truly blossom.
The fragrance of the celestial flower would reach ten thousand leagues away.
The flower that bloomed using the concept of time as its nutrient would, true to its name, spread a fragrance that could be smelled throughout all of Vulcan.
“Well then…”
Slowly stepping back to his position, Lennok operated the Incarnation Body again to draw up its mana.
Simultaneously with the full bloom of Celestial Flower’s Myriad-League Fragrance, Lennok also filled his mana and chanted a lightning spell.
“Shall we begin.”
Crackle…!!
What he had to do now was to detonate and expend all of his and his Incarnation Body’s mana, literally scraping the bottom of the barrel.
The Outer Sea’s mana, which had acted as a catalyst in increasing his maximum mana capacity.
He would output and spew out all of that raw material mixed within his body, using it as an ingredient to stimulate the rift in the fortress.
The first thing that needed to be detonated for the rematch was a bolt of lightning powerful enough to match the output of the flower of flame.
A secret art of lightning magic that had reached the extreme of excess, something Lennok himself had never used in his right mind.
“Hoo…”
He continuously deepened his breathing, rapidly heightening his own will-thought.
He didn’t manipulate the image of abundant lightning within him, but simply let it swell.
Crackle, crackle…!!!
The image of a lightning strike that would not disappear as long as the will existed, simply overflowed infinitely.
The pinnacle of non-will, releasing pure output itself into a specific space like paint, without any manipulation or intervention.
Noe-ram.
The contradiction of wielding the very magic that had completely severed the immortality of the Guido Cult’s 10th Apostle, Amrita, against the heat-flame wizard known for having subjugated Amrita.
The moment he became aware of this, the chant for Noe-ram, whose pieces had only fit together at the edge of madness, completed like a puzzle and descended into reality.
CRACK-CRACKLE-CRACKLE!!!!
A deafening chirping echoed in his ears like thunder.
Lightning, overflowing like an infinite sea, threatened to split the flower of flame and surge upwards.
Just as Lennok raised his hand to paint that vivid mental image into reality…
“…!!!”
A ghastly and intense sense of wrongness shook his sixth sense, and he reflexively turned his gaze to the ground.
Simultaneously, a bizarre metallic screech echoed, and a pitch-black rift opened in the ground beneath where Celestial Flower’s Myriad-League Fragrance was blooming.
CRACK…!!
Just as Lennok, with a hardened expression, halted his spell at the formation of the completely unheralded rift…
A giant snake, its entire body dyed jet-black, shot up from beyond the gate and let out a deafening roar.
[KAHAAAAAAAK!!!]
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!!!
It was so colossal that it looked like a pitch-black pillar soaring from the ground to the sky.
Its dark scales were stained and dirtied with black mud, and its two eyes had already lost focus, clouded and hazy.
From its wretched state, which made one doubt if it was even alive, the moment he realized he could glimpse a fragment of the Ascendant who guarded the well…
Lennok muttered softly, his eyes grown cold and sunken.
“Pyeonram’s thought-form…”
An endlessly stretching sea of darkness.
A void of shining starlight.
Monsters that swim for eternity, singing of the end.
But even in this sea, dying towards its demise, a world where life still breathed existed.
Infinitely weak, and shabby.
And yet, they were still here.
Every moment from birth to death was proof of a miracle.
The light emitted by life was so faint, it was but a single lantern in this sea.
For that reason, it had value, and for that reason, it became the object of craving and greed.
This spark of life, which seemed to hold no meaning, was desired and yearned for by all the ends that swam that sea.
The end, whose beginning was unknown, had finished all its processes and was rushing toward its conclusion.
Surely, we will be the last.
A tiny death rattle, echoing like a whisper only after everything is over.
That right there is the meaning of this shabby, beautiful world.
The Lighthouse Keeper, Lapis Falcia, thought so as she slowly opened her eyes.
“Welcome, Lapis.”
Abundant, navy-blue hair, as similar as a reflection in a mirror.
A woman with a very familiar face was smiling at Lapis.
Heavenly Sight, Madria Falcia, spoke.
“I’ve been waiting.”