Chapter 919: The Summit (2)
The forbidden ritual site, the planned location for the summit. The fact that someone had completed a manifestation there and vanished. Lennok immediately understood what it meant.
Had that man, the one who leads Pandemonium, briefly visited this city? No, choosing a mega-city as the site of manifestation couldn’t have been a coincidence. Perhaps, the very purpose of this manifestation was—
Just as Lennok was pondering this, the necromancer added.
“There’s nothing to be done about the situation, so we’ve changed the location to another ritual site with a similar history. It has the same properties as the one I explained before.”
“……”
So he came to announce the new location now that the summit’s schedule was confirmed.
Jenny, sitting beside him, asked with a bewildered expression.
“Wait, Van. What do you mean, a summit between peak-level ability users? I haven’t heard anything about—”
The necromancer glanced at Jenny and asked, “Who is this woman?”
“My partner.”
“A wizard like you needs a partner?”
“I do.”
Lennok said, leaning back against the sofa.
“More importantly, the fact you don’t know Jenny tells me you’re not from Vulcan. Why is an outsider acting as a messenger for city affairs?”
“What, was this woman some famous figure?”
The necromancer shrugged.
“I have no interest in weak living beings. A necromancer of my caliber can only achieve greatness with the corpses of exceptional superhumans.”
“I have little interest in corpse-puppeteers either. I think you’re mistaken about something.”
Squelch!!
The moment Lennok gestured with his eyes, the young man’s eyeball was crushed, dripping fluid.
The necromancer instinctively brought a hand to his eye, while Jenny grimaced and turned her head away.
Lennok smiled, watching the necromancer flinch as if he’d been struck in a vital spot.
“I’m asking what your purpose is.”
“…I told you. I can achieve greatness only with the corpses of exceptional superhumans.”
The necromancer replied, covering one eye with his hand.
“This is a summit where superhumans who have surpassed their limits will gather. In a place where giants of both the light and shadows are assembling, the chances of a commotion or a fight breaking out are high. I just want to slip into the cracks and take what I can.”
“So you’re claiming you volunteered to be the crow that pecks at corpses? Don’t make me laugh.”
Lennok asked, “And the superhumans of the light meekly allowed such a role?”
“Necromancy is a useful art in many ways. There’s a reason it’s in constant demand, even after being designated a forbidden art.”
“No. I don’t need such excuses.”
Lennok sneered, his gaze turning icy.
“There are people in the higher echelons who want to spy on this summit, aren’t there? City councilmen who want to safely peek in using your precious corpse-puppetry.”
“……”
For the first time, the necromancer’s mouth snapped shut like a clam.
Watching him, Lennok narrowed his eyes as if recalling a past memory.
“Do you remember what you spouted to me back then? You said a forbidden ritual site was chosen for the summit. Said it wouldn’t allow any stimulus to leak out, was it?”
“That’s…”
“If a necromancer is useful in such a ritual site, the reason is obvious. It was originally used for human sacrifice, so corpses can enter and exit with relative freedom, can’t they?”
Lennok scoffed at the necromancer and leaned back.
“It’s not strange that your superiors would want to borrow a corpse to secretly spy on the summit. Nor is it strange that they’re already pulling these meaningless tricks.”
“…If you knew everything from the start, why did you ask me?”
“It’s different from hearing it from your own mouth.”
Lennok replied nonchalantly to the necromancer, who seemed to agree with a look of exhaustion.
“If I didn’t confirm it like this, I might just burn any annoying corpses I come across.”
“……”
“I recently settled a few grudges with the City Council, so I intend to be a bit more mindful of such things for a while.”
“You raised that much hell at the hearing and you’re still not satisfied?”
the necromancer asked, dumbfounded.
“You’re truly insane. At this point, it’s a sickness, a disease.”
“I hear that often.”
Lennok laughed.
“In fact, there aren’t many who say that to my face these days. It seems your true feelings only come out after you’ve secured your safety behind the shield of a corpse.”
“……”
The young man’s corpse, seemingly at a loss for words, stared at the ceiling of the office for a long moment before speaking.
“The time is midnight, 49 hours from now. The meeting point is a subterranean ritual site in the satellite city of Etanoc.”
“A satellite city?”
Lennok frowned at the unexpected words.
He was well aware of the failed small and medium-sized cities that were partially built on Vulcan’s outskirts as part of a past urban expansion plan.
“That’s unexpected. What reason is there to go outside Vulcan for a summit of this importance?”
“Because the original location is unusable. There are no other suitable places left in Vulcan.”
the necromancer explained, retorting calmly.
“They said they’ll be setting up thorough barriers and magic circles, on the premise that Level 8 monsters will be gathering. More importantly, the citizens can’t withstand the resulting mana density. It’s only natural to move outside the city.”
“Hmm…”
Lennok, who had been silently watching the necromancer, twitched his fingers.
Noticing the meaning of that ominous gesture, the necromancer immediately covered his remaining good eye with both hands.
“Will I get an honest answer only after I burst your remaining eyeball?”
“Dammit, don’t!!”
“Did you think I would believe such a pathetic excuse?”
As Lennok slowly clenched his fist, the pressure on the eyeball covered by the corpse’s hands intensified. It was a gesture from Lennok to burst the eye, as if the fact that the necromancer was covering it with his hands meant nothing at all.
“You still don’t know how vast this city is. I could find dozens of places that meet the conditions you described.”
“Gggk…!!”
Lennok spoke coldly to the exceptionally pained necromancer.
“If worst came to worst, choosing one of the closed districts as a meeting point would be more than sufficient. So why deliberately choose a satellite city as the stage?”
“Ah, it hurts…!! Let go and we can talk!!”
“The reason for choosing it as a stage? Three. Two. One.”
“B-Because the original ritual site was exposed, everyone’s on edge. They’re expecting a clash!!”
“A clash?”
At the urgent answer, Lennok slightly relaxed his hand, and only then did the necromancer gasp for breath.
“Damn it. How did you know the medium for my necromancy was the eyeball? Usually, the spellcraft is engraved on internal organs…!!”
“I can tell by looking. More importantly, what do you mean they’re expecting a clash?”
“……”
The corpse, glancing furtively at Lennok, spoke.
“It means that, separate from the summit’s conclusion, it’s more or less a certainty that a major fight will break out at least once.”
“Why is that?”
“Because among the scheduled attendees, there are those who hold grudges against each other. They’re already suspicious of one another since the information about the summit was leaked beforehand.”
The necromancer explained.
“Even among the powers of the light, not everyone shares the same intentions. There are some whose bitter feelings from the civil war have yet to fade.”
“……”
“Furthermore, with a few big shots from the shadows, including you, participating this time, conflict is inevitable. This summit itself was arranged with that in mind.”
“So it’s a gathering arranged with the expectation that someone will die.”
Lennok let out a smirk.
Jenny, who had been listening from the side, had already turned paler than the corpse before her.
“To be able to openly announce that and still arrange a stage of this scale… they must be quite resourceful. Who’s the organizer?”
“The Eye of Evil Extermination, Armas von Anathema.”
The necromancer’s expression turned serious.
“One of the nobles from the Central City has agreed to lend his name to this summit.”
“…A noble from Ars Nova?”
“He’s a transcendent-level Dragon Sorcerer who has reached Level 8, and a man once known on the Central Front as the Six Heavenly Tribulations.”
Seeing Lennok pause, the necromancer explained.
“He is a recluse who has lived in seclusion for decades, abiding by the Prohibition Edict after the civil war ended in Kaiser’s victory. He adhered to righteousness even on the battlefield, so many people followed him.”
“The Eye of Evil Extermination…”
A noble born in Ars Nova, and one of the giants of the light who accepted the Prohibition Edict. Lennok knew that many monsters had gone into seclusion under the city’s privileges after the Prohibition Edict was established, but their histories and origins were all extraordinary.
“There are several organizers, but if a man of his stature hadn’t lent Anathema’s name, the summit would never have even come to be.”
“……”
“Anyway, that’s all I have to say. I really can’t stand this job. Trying to kill a man every time he tries to say a single word, really…!!”
“There’s a contradiction in that statement.”
Lennok gave a dark smile as he watched the corpse, trembling with rage, try to stand up.
“You’re the one who killed that man and embedded necromantic spellcraft in his eyeball, aren’t you?”
“……”
“Judging by his appearance and the mana circuits in his body, he seems to have been someone who practiced martial arts. I don’t particularly like sorcerers who use innocent humans as their puppets.”
Kiiing…!!
As Lennok stared intently at the young man, his right eye flashed with a pitch-black light.
The mystic eye, which imitated the power of revelation possessed by the cult’s priestess, pierced through the corpse. It instantly bypassed the corrupted mental network linked by necromancy and illuminated a man sitting in the middle of a cemetery.
“A necromancer who knows an uncanny amount about Vulcan’s civil war, yet doesn’t belong to the mega-city.”
Watching the gaunt, haggard-looking man flinch and look up, Lennok whispered, “I feel like I could find the reason if I rummaged through your mind. Shall we try it right here?”
“……”
“If you act presumptuously one more time, I will rip out your entire mental network.”
Lennok smiled, watching the necromancer, who couldn’t utter a single word in response.
“You’d be wise to watch your mouth next time.”
“…How utterly absurd. You mean that nonsense you spouted at the hearing wasn’t a lie?”
the necromancer said, gritting his teeth while trying to hide his intimidated demeanor.
“Of all the wizards I’ve met, you are the most insane.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“Hah!”
Lennok’s words, seeing through to his real body and promising a next time, were chilling even for a necromancer who had walked through all kinds of deadly situations. But conversely, it was also an unspoken promise not to act right here and now.
Trusting that, the necromancer shot up from his seat and said as he left the office, “If possible, try to get to the satellite city before the deadline. They said they plan to seal off the entire satellite city with a siege barrier after midnight.”
“I will.”
Lennok said, raising his hand.
“But I never said I’d let you walk out on your own two feet.”
“…What?”
Whoosh!!
With those words, the necromancer’s corpse vanished from the office.
Unlike the bluff he’d used in front of Yakson, this time it was a spatial teleportation that literally banished the target from the tower.
I dropped him in a nearby dumpster, so if he’s lucky, his limbs will be intact.
Having cleared away the obstacle in an instant, Lennok dusted off his hands and stood up.
Drrrk!!
“The scent of malevolence lingers where a necromancer has been. It’s good to air the room out often.”
After opening the window, Lennok finally turned to look at Jenny, who was sitting on the sofa.
“You understood what was happening, right? I thought it would be a hassle to explain it twice, so it seemed better for you to listen in.”
“……”
“Is there a problem?”
“…No.”
Jenny said, unable to hide her uneasy expression.
“I think I understand why such grim rumors follow you around outside.”
“Only now?”
“That necromancer just now. He was at least a Level 7 sorcerer. To reach that level, he probably turned an entire small city into undead.”
Jenny rubbed her cheek, still looking as if she couldn’t quite believe it.
“Watching you play with a psychopath like that, leaving him unable to utter a single retort, makes me feel like I’m going crazy.”
“How many pieces of trash like him do you think there are in this line of work?”
Lennok said, sitting down across from Jenny.
“If anything, he’s one of the more tamely insane ones. The fact that he’s sensitive to profit and loss means he can be used.”
“……”
“I suspect the City Council also noticed that disposition and is using him as a tool for this summit.”
An unseen hand in the air picked up a teacup and spoon, stirred it, and set it down.
Jenny, lifting the coffee cup with a sullen expression, sighed.
“Coffee made with the same telekinesis that burst the necromancer’s eyeball? Must have a special flavor.”
“It wasn’t telekinesis.”
Lennok replied, tilting his coffee cup.
“It’s a forced regulation of the osmotic pressure of mana particles by concentrating will-thought.”
“I have no idea what that means.”
“It’s a miscellaneous technique for exerting physical force on reality using only will.”
Lennok explained nonchalantly.
“I naturally learned how to use it by trying to eliminate mana consumption entirely and focusing only on increasing the efficiency of my will-thought.”
“…Let’s not even talk about it. So, what are you going to do about the summit?”
“As I said, I plan to attend.”
Lennok said, tapping on his phone.
“The purpose of the summit is concerning, but I also want to take this opportunity to check out the superhumans from the ‘sun-lit’ side.”
“……”
“I don’t expect all of them to attend, but seeing Gisusingung, they are by no means untalented. Quite the opposite, I’d imagine.”
Lennok muttered with a thoughtful expression.
“Their reasons for stepping forward only now, long after the Prohibition Edict was lifted… They’re definitely hiding something.”
“According to the necromancer’s explanation, there’s almost certainly going to be a clash. Will you be okay?”
“That’s why I have to go. If something is going to cause a major shift in the city’s power dynamics, it’s better to intervene directly.”
“……”
“Above all…”
Lennok’s expression turned cold as he lowered his head, resting his chin on his hands. The decisive reason Lennok would attend the summit proposed by the necromancer. The most important question he had been mulling over while listening to his explanation.
The Director of Pandemonium is in Vulcan.
If that man, more powerful and of a more secretive origin than anyone Lennok knew, was in the mega-city…
Could it be related to this summit?
For that possibility alone, Lennok was certain he had to attend this summit.
“Haaah… alright. I’ll gather information on the forces from the sun-lit side.”
Jenny, who had been silently watching Lennok’s expression, nodded.
“But don’t get your hopes up. Most of them have been placed under information security since the civil war, so there isn’t much data left even if I go through the Deep Web.”
“Do it.”
Muttering that it wouldn’t be easy to find information unless it was a faction with active external affairs like Turyeonmun, Jenny stood up from her seat.
Vvvmm!!
At that moment, Jenny’s phone vibrated intensely.
Jenny’s expression turned serious as she immediately checked the message.
“It’s a call from Virgil. The Cartel is asking if we can meet.”
“Now?”
The reason the Cartel would contact them at this exact moment, just after he’d expressed his intention to attend the summit, could only be one thing.
Jenny, who seemed to be thinking the same thing as Lennok, nodded immediately.
“It seems the Cartel’s Chairman is also planning to attend the summit. What do you want to do?”
“……”
Indeed, Olivera was also a great wizard who had reached Level 8. Considering her level and status, it was impossible that she wouldn’t have been invited to the summit in the first place.
But what Lennok was thinking about regarding her abilities right now was not her rank or intentions.
Olivera Ron Maize was a congenital ability user who had awakened the Seven Debts Jewels Mystic Eye, which adjusted causality. Moreover, she was a monster who had completely reorganized her own rank for the sake of her mystic eye.
If he could borrow the power of her mystic eye to deduce the Director’s purpose at the summit.
Thinking that far, Lennok grabbed his staff and rose from his seat.
“We’ll go at once. Tell them we’ll go to her research lab.”