Chapter 901: The Eye That Sees Fate (37)
Whooosh!!!
A dry wind blew.
A vacant space, where all had evaporated in the swirling heat, then was torn apart and annihilated by lightning. Ruins where countless buildings had crumbled, collapsed, and settled. Behind the giant snake that had crashed headfirst into the ruins, Lennok landed on the ground.
Kuuuung!!
The snake’s body was so enormous that merely approaching it obscured the entire view of the battlefield. A blind spot where even Lennok’s figure was momentarily hidden from others’ sight.
“……”
He walked on without a backward glance at Pyeonram’s thought-form, its tongue lolling out and its eyes rolled back. Leaning against a collapsed concrete wall, he wordlessly fumbled inside his coat with a trembling hand.
Click!
Only after taking a cigarette from his coat, putting it between his lips, and lighting it could he finally breathe properly.
“Hoo…”
Cold sweat trickled down Lennok’s face as he quietly exhaled smoke. Even the back of the hand holding the cigarette was drenched in it. His head bowed weakly, Lennok was lost in thought.
‘A partial success… I suppose.’
Pyeonram’s thought-form, suddenly incarnated in reality. The anomaly of an Ascendant’s consciousness, one that had become a [Gate] to the Outer Sea and vanished, now descending upon the world.
The Domain, Celestial Flower’s Myriad-League Fragrance, was a power that borrowed the principles of barrier arts to define its range and increase its potency, but in exchange, it became vulnerable to external shocks. Moreover, since it was still an incomplete Domain, it had nearly collapsed the moment Pyeonram’s thought-form attacked.
At that point, Lennok had instinctively realized it was impossible to finish the battle as planned and had changed course.
A move that could blind all onlookers while, conversely, making the result itself convincing. A bolt of lightning so powerful that it would make people believe Adamant Thunder, who had shown nothing of the sort, must have had it prepared all along. Crucially, a trump card with transcendent power sufficient to annihilate Pyeonram’s thought-form in a single blow.
That was why Lennok, using the chant of lightning’s flood as a medium, had drawn out the fragment of his most powerful possibility.
The Domain, Eightfold Lightning Catholicon.
Instead of fully deploying the domain of lightning that even Lennok himself couldn’t control, he had forcibly dragged only a part of it into reality. What descended into reality according to his will was merely a portion of the mindscape contained within that distant sea of lightning.
But with just that, the lightning spread across the battlefield had gathered into one and transformed into a new concept. The thought-form of Pyeonram, incarnated from beyond the rift to the Outer Sea, had lost all will and was annihilated. And Lennok, right there, was slowly losing consciousness.
“……”
His whole body thrummed painfully, his senses growing faint. The blood circulating in his veins was stiffening, his metabolism slowing down.
Pluck, pluck.
With numb fingertips, Lennok unfastened his collar and pulled at the seams, his expression rigid. He couldn’t make a mistake. Without Davi here, if he messed up the sequence, it would be irreversible. A small, ring-finger-sized ampoule was hidden beneath his collar. He pressed the button, and a needle popped out, which he immediately plunged into his heart.
Click.
A cardiac stimulant made exclusively for high-level wizards, created by combining elixirs, panaceas, and all sorts of potions and drugs. It was an item that could make even a dead corpse’s heart beat again for a few minutes. The moment he pushed the ampoule in, a cough burst out as if his blocked throat had been cleared.
“Cough, cough!!”
Simultaneously, as if all his body’s senses were belatedly awakening, sounds became clear and his vision sharpened. The stinging pain racing across his skin. The goosebumps that made his hair stand on end. All those sensations—his body heating up, sweat pouring down—were finally felt in their entirety.
“Cough, haa…!!”
Lennok, who had been coughing continuously, tilted his head back with a bitter smile.
“Still a long way to go…”
The first and strongest Domain Lennok had ever obtained. A sea of lightning that had grown alongside Lennok himself, its potential expanding infinitely. But now, just dragging a fragment of it into reality tried to eat away at him and kill him. He had tried it, thinking he might be able to control it now, but all he got in return was a backlash that even Lennok, who had transcended his rank, found difficult to bear.
“……”
Fssshhh…!!
Before the eyes of the weakly slumped Lennok, Pyeonram’s thought-form vanished, turning into a handful of ash. Its massive body, its scales, and the black mud clinging to it all disappeared without a trace. As it was a power that did not originally exist in this world, the moment it lost its will and power source, it left not even a single physical substance behind in reality.
As Lennok blankly watched the thought-form’s giant body disappear, focus gradually returned to his eyes.
“…Right.”
A mere fragment of the Domain. It was this bad even with the shortcut of pulling only a part of the mindscape into reality. The moment he fully deployed the Domain, Lennok himself wouldn’t be able to avoid a backlash comparable to death. But, precisely because of that, Lennok could be certain. The possibility within him that annihilated Pyeonram’s thought-form would undoubtedly reach even further beyond. Lennok’s strongest and most dangerous Domain was, without a doubt—
BOOOOOM!!!
At that moment, the thought-form’s massive body exploded entirely, clearing the surrounding landscape. Pitch-black, distorted particles scattered into pieces and dissolved into the air as if washed away. As Lennok staggered to his feet, he saw the figure of someone slumped over like a puppet with its strings cut.
“…No way.”
The moment Lennok realized it was the incarnation body in Evan’s form, which he had lost control of at the same time he brought out the Eightfold Lightning Catholicon, he gave a bitter smile.
[Now, that’s enough.]
Chrrrr-r-r-rk!!!
A wave of countless metals rose, instantly separating Lennok and the incarnation body. On top of a giant metal wall that shot up as if cleaving the earth, a thin man with a metal sphere for a head stood with his hands clasped behind his back.
[The victor has already been decided. There’s no reason to cause casualties.]
Raising a gloved hand as if to extend it, Cheoknoe, Olinic, smiled.
[Adamant Thunder. It is your victory. By the authority of the city government, I will certify this result. Shall we not conclude it here?]
Pandemonium. A simulated consciousness space built using Agilon’s will-thought as material. Dozens of screens spread out in a dark cavern, with over a dozen chairs placed among them. But among the members seated there, not a single one spoke first.
“……”
The full bloom of the Domain, Celestial Flower’s Myriad-League Fragrance. The intrusion of the fallen and maddened thought-form. And finally, the halo of light that appeared and brought the chaotic battlefield to a close in a single stroke. A fleeting moment where a contradiction coexisted: the overcast sky opened, and the sundered heavens met again. Something imperceptible had descended and annihilated the thought-form. Creation and twilight. A single instant when the light of dawn and sunset blended together in the sky. Even though they were watching through a screen, it was the afterimage of a mindscape that none of them gathered here could even begin to fathom. Just as everyone was silently contemplating the unidentified halo of light that the surveillance camera had captured just before it broke…
“A duel worthy of Vulcan’s history has ended.”
Breaking the silence, the ball of fur representing the Doctor’s will stirred and turned its gaze.
“It’s not the conclusion I expected, but I’d like to hear your opinions on this matter. Is that alright?”
“……”
“Well, regardless, it’s a shame Evan Martinez was defeated.”
At those words, the members belatedly looked at each other, and Ermont shrugged exaggeratedly.
“Personally, I was rooting for the fellow.”
“You were rooting for a wizard who was a former Watcher? Why?”
“It’s not for any particular reason…”
Ermont gave an awkward laugh at Soryu’s question.
“Perhaps it’s because we were comrades who went through a very painful and arduous trial together in the Ganges Labyrinth.”
“……”
“They say the bonds forged through hardship are especially strong, don’t they? Ahahat!!”
“What kind of bullshit is he spouting…”
The other members who didn’t understand him and Freya cursed, while the Doctor, who knew the circumstances, smiled. Maiya ignored Ermont’s words as if she hadn’t heard them from the start. Only then did the other members also begin to exchange the thoughts they had while watching the battle.
“He was defeated, but Cheonbeon’s output was truly explosive. Looking just at the amount of mana he drew through the external Mana Core, he might have been the strongest in Vulcan, if only for a moment.”
“The alternative process applying martial arts. There was definitely something to learn from that idea. Any wizard with decent eyes would try to apply it to their own system at least once.”
“Since Cheonbeon was defeated, the result of this fight might affect the Central Council as well,” Deimus said, as if the thought had just occurred to him.
“Evan Martinez is known as an incredibly powerful Watcher within the Eyes of Blue. If someone of his stature was defeated, the prestige of the Eyes of Blue might be shaken a bit.”
“Same goes for the other way. Conversely, if Adamant Thunder had been defeated, there might have been a significant change in Vulcan’s political situation.”
The other members naturally added their opinions to Deimus’s words.
“In the end, doesn’t this discussion depend on whether Adamant Thunder and Cheonbeon live or die?”
“If the fight had continued, we might have been able to see more of what Cheonbeon or Adamant Thunder had up their sleeves. A pity.”
Soryu shook his head at Agneta’s words.
“They came intending to settle things by clashing with all their might from the start. Even without the thought-form’s intrusion, it would have ended before long.”
“There were many disadvantages from Cheonbeon’s perspective. He must have been prepared for a short, decisive battle from the moment he deployed his Domain first.”
“Rather, for wizards of that rank fighting with their lives on the line, there’s a sense that the outcome was decided too cleanly. That’s definitely—”
At Maiya’s additional comment, the other members momentarily fell silent. Amidst the strangely persistent silence, Agneta turned her gaze.
“Victor, what about you?”
“……”
“As a fellow manipulation-type wizard, I’m curious about what you were focused on.”
“That’s right, I’d like to hear Victor’s thoughts too.”
Ermont quickly agreed with Agneta’s words, a smile on his face.
“I’m really curious how a misanthropic specialist wizard would evaluate this battle.”
“……”
At those words, Victor lifted his obsidian mask, and Ermont flinched and averted his gaze as if burned. The other members, also thinking Victor’s opinion had value, waited for his answer. Victor, buried in his chair with his arms crossed, spoke with a languid sigh.
“Well… Everything went as I knew it would from start to finish, so I have nothing to say.”
“…You knew everything?”
“Rather, watching the reactions of you apes was far more entertaining.”
“……”
At Victor’s cynicism, Ermont and Freya exchanged bewildered glances.
“It’s only natural that what is unknown takes precedence over what is known. Ah, perhaps I shouldn’t have said it like that?”
“It seems you have something you want to say.”
At Maiya’s quiet retort, Victor finally shut his mouth. He silently looked at the other members, then slowly adjusted his posture. He had a job to do here, and there was information he needed to secretly gather. If he had been merely putting on an act until now, from this point on, he needed to say something that could definitively provoke the emotions of these organisms. Having reached a conclusion, Victor spoke in a cold voice.
“Rather, I’d like to ask. What was the point of this conversation?”
“…What?”
“You saw what happened at the end of this fight, yet you’re avoiding any mention of it.”
Victor sneered.
“When you’re deliberately postponing the discussion, how can a meaningful debate even take place? What a trivial question.”
“……”
At that moment, all the other members of Pandemonium fell silent. Adamant Thunder’s final spellcraft that had put an end to the battle that shook all of Vulcan. The topic that Maiya had brought up first, yet the conversation had been dragging on sluggishly. Everyone was fully aware that Victor was pointing it out directly.
However, it wasn’t because the members of Pandemonium feared it or found it awkward. Rather, it was because it was such an important topic that they were unconsciously wary of bringing it up rashly and overshadowing other conversations.
“It was a Domain, right? That thing.”
Breaking the silence was Freya’s languid question. As if reminiscing about what had just happened only after the screens turned off, she said while fiddling with the ends of her hair.
“The Domain Adamant Thunder deployed. Didn’t we just fail trying to see it?”
“……”
“That’s not wrong.”
Deimus gave a bitter smile with his arms crossed.
“Though I don’t know if that one phrase can define the meaning of what we just saw.”
“Well, if I’m wrong, say it straight.”
“Freya, that’s not what he meant.”
Soryu said with a blank face in response to Freya’s flared-up retort.
“Up to this point, Adamant Thunder has never officially deployed a Domain. Not even once.”
“…What?”
“The only time it was strongly presumed to have happened was in the battle against the Cartel’s first executive.”
Hylaea added a supplementary explanation to Soryu’s words.
“In other words, this battle… might be the first time the Domains of both Adamant Thunder and Cheonbeon have been observed.”
“……”
“The problem is that, despite knowing that, the people gathered here couldn’t properly identify that ability.”
Maiya spoke, addressing the now-silent Freya.
“He used a power strong enough to fell not only Cheonbeon but even Pyeonram’s thought-form in one blow, yet its origin is completely unknowable. This is a more important problem than it seems.”
“Are you saying that Adamant Thunder’s Root Mindscape is something so extremely dangerous that it can overwhelm wizards or superhumans of the same class?”
“What we could see was, at best, only the precursor, but that makes it all the more so.”
The Doctor nodded at Ermont’s words.
“Just by constructing the mindscape, the sky split and spacetime distorted. This isn’t something that can be done with the concept of a Domain alone. If I had to be specific, it’s the next—”
The Doctor said that, then deliberately cut himself off as if omitting the words. Because even without him saying what came next, everyone realized what the Doctor was about to say. Beyond the Saint-level that completes the hierarchy, and beyond the ultimate art that transcends hierarchy. The Jeon-yeok of those who have finally earned the right to challenge it.
Agneta, who had been listening blankly to the conversation, tilted her head.
“Are you thinking that grand wizard might have already obtained the qualification?”
“It’s a worst-case scenario, but if that’s true, then parts of Adamant Thunder’s actions make sense,” the Doctor explained.
“The reason he doesn’t move easily in Vulcan despite holding such power and fame. The reason he built a Magic Tower instead of heading to the Central region and has been secluded on the pretext of an injury.”
“……”
“If he’s already found an answer that transcends all other gains and losses, wouldn’t that explain it?”
“That’s…”
“Of course, I’m not trying to confirm this deduction here. Rather, I think the possibility itself might not be that high.”
The Doctor added leisurely.
“If that man had already obtained an Ascendant’s Jeon-yeok, there would be no reason for him to cooperate with Professor Vylun and share the research results of the Magic Tower.”
“……”
“But nevertheless… it’s clear that we need to dig into his origins at least once.”
At the Doctor’s quiet words, Deimus turned his head.
“Doctor, in that case…”
There was no way Deimus wouldn’t have noticed the meaning behind the Doctor’s words, having gathered the opinions from the consciousness space and reached a conclusion.
The Doctor slowly shook his head.
“Deimus, I still don’t like the name of that operation. It would be the epitome of barbaric actions, far from what I aim for.”
“That’s not a sentiment I’d expect to hear from a scientist crazy about human experimentation.”
Despite Soryu’s cold remark, the Doctor burst out laughing, unconcerned.
“Ahahat!! That’s not wrong. What I desire isn’t just to explore Adamant Thunder’s origins.”
“……”
“Nevertheless, let’s confirm here that our goals can overlap, at least for a moment. Agneta, could you access the imaginary dimension and connect our consciousnesses?”
The Doctor said that and immediately turned his gaze. In Pandemonium’s decision-making process, the only thing that matters is whether something is necessary or not. The expected risks and the well-being of the members are not even considered in that process.
“There are people I need to give a heads-up to if we’re to form the necessary team.”
The eyes buried in the ball of fur glinted with sharp intelligence.
“The Adamant Thunder Subjugation Campaign. We’ll begin preparations as soon as the Director’s permission is granted.”