Chapter 937: Anathema (11)
Among all the monsters and Transcendent beings Lennok had faced so far, Anathema was the sole existence not bound by the shackles of ‘the Prohibition’.
The moment Lennok realized Anathema’s name wasn’t bound by the Prohibition, he understood why such a thing was possible.
It was because Anathema had been exiled from Ars Nova, a sinner branded with the mark of a traitor.
Since he was already exiled from reality, he was, paradoxically, free from the constraints of the Prohibition.
The paradoxical causality the Director had spoken of. The new meaning gained after destruction.
While Lennok remained silent for a moment, contemplating that utterly ironic paradox, Anathema nodded.
“Ars Nova may have been destroyed, but the causality capable of altering the fate of the fallen world still remains there. If you acquire it, you could obtain a miracle that even Ascendants have never coveted.”
“…You.”
“Are you curious why I am telling you this?”
Anathema’s mouth stretched horrifyingly, like a ghost’s, shutting Lennok down with a single rhetorical question.
“That’s… because I also needed time.”
CRACKLE!!!
Anathema’s mouth literally tore open, past his ears to the crown of his head.
Simultaneously, his head elongated backward, and thick earthen scales began to sprout between his blue scales.
Snap, crackle, pop!!!
Eerie sounds of bones, nerves, and joints twisting and stretching anew.
In an instant, Anathema shed his human form, transforming into a colossal dragon.
BOOM!!
With just a rough stomp, destructive magical power exploded, engulfing the surroundings.
Lennok immediately conjured a lightning barrier, deflecting the surging wave of magical power.
[Electro-Wheel Cliff]
KWAHAAAHHHHH!!!
Earthen spears erupted from the edge of the dueling arena, splitting wide to the left and right around the lightning barrier.
Anathema, having landed on the earthen shard spears, fixed his dark crimson eyes on Lennok, gleaming in the darkness.
“The moment I forcibly split my body to avoid your magic, I realized how to wield this form.”
The dragon, clad in earthen scales like armor, whispered to Lennok.
“What matters is not the form or unity of the body. As long as I exist as an Apostle, this body merely functions as an incarnation of the end, in any form.”
“…”
“Therefore, it is entirely possible to forcibly transform this body and shape it to suit dragon sorcery…!!”
KUGUGUGUGU!!!
Eight pairs of wings, crafted from earthen shards, sprouted from Anathema’s back, and his scales bristled, turning into thorns.
He gathered dark,波動-like magical power below his throat, and the moment he exhaled it like a light breath,
The thought-energy of the fallen Apostle erupted explosively, raining down upon Lennok’s head.
Dragon’s Authority: Chromatic Breath
[Annihilating Bond]
KWAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!
Dragon Breath. A profound secret art permitted only to the dragon-kind, one of the four races considered the apex of Long-lived Beings.
It was a miracle and a destructive spellcraft, reigning supreme, equivalent to a high-tier Authority, because it was a power unleashed by a Saint Wizard-grade dragon-kind who had perfected their hierarchy, consuming their will-thought and mindscape.
However, Anathema, under the Pontiff’s protection, was unleashing such Authority without restriction within the dueling arena.
KUUURRRRRR…!!!!
The power of Annihilating Bond was so intense that the swirling magical afterglow within the dueling arena did not dissipate, continuing to rage.
It was a pure force field, expelled by consuming mindscape and will-thought, unable to escape the dueling arena, perpetually repeating destruction and regeneration.
And from beyond the endlessly surging waves, a figure moved across the ground at high speed.
“He withstood it…!!! No, that’s not it.”
Anathema, who had inadvertently marveled, immediately negated his own words upon confirming Lennok’s appearance.
“I smell an Imaginary Dimension on your body. Did you momentarily escape reality?!!”
“Turning into a dragon improved your sense of smell, I see…!!”
Lennok forced a wry smile, flickering rapidly towards Anathema.
He had used the ability of the Feigenbaum’s Eye, an artifact obtained in the Hanghasa Labyrinth, which momentarily shifts his body into an Imaginary Dimension, thereby avoiding the first breath attack.
“If you’re only showing that ability now, it must not be something you can always use…!!”
Anathema raised his head, gathering Dragon’s Authority once more.
“Then I’ll just shoot it again and again until it hits you!!!!”
“No, I won’t let you.”
The fact that the arena wasn’t wide enough to evade the breath attack also applied to Anathema himself.
It meant that closing the distance to Anathema would be no difficult feat for Lennok.
Lennok, spending his remaining Flickers as if shaking them off, instantly closed the distance, sliding beneath the dragon’s leg.
The black Magic Scribes clinging to Lennok’s body manipulated the wizard’s flesh like a doll.
They subtly controlled acceleration and recoil to their limits, making his body spin brilliantly as if rebounding.
[Punishing Martial Thunder]
[Squad Penetration]
DRRRRRR!!!
The mass of lightning that erupted from Lennok’s fingertips clashed, split, and fragmented thousands of times on its own.
The explosively scattered lightning indiscriminately pierced and pummeled the dragon’s legs, head, and belly, forcing it to its knees.
The moment the colossal dragon lost its balance, staggering and collapsing,
A massive sphere of lightning spun circularly beneath the dragon’s belly, piercing straight through its body and erupting.
[Eternal Thunder: Immortal Refinement]
KWAAAHHHH-ANG!!!!
A single strike that not only instantly brought down the colossal earthen dragon but also pierced and exploded its belly.
“Still not done!!”
However, one of the explosively scattering earthen fragments transformed back into human form and rushed towards Lennok.
Hundreds of fragmented earthen pieces manifested as Anathema himself, swarming from all directions within the dueling arena, brandishing weapons.
KAKAKAKAKAKA!!!!
Sharp lightning bolts tore through the countless earthen clones.
Following Lennok’s gestures, which moved at an imperceptible speed, dozens of lightning and ice spells were constructed.
They crushed the hearts, tore off the necks, and pulverized the limbs of the weapon-wielding clones.
DRRRRRRRRR!!!!
It was inevitable that increasing their numbers would weaken the combat power of individual clones.
However, the clones that met their end at Lennok’s hands did not simply turn back into dust.
At the moment their hearts were torn out and their necks severed, their eyes and mouths merely gaped open, and they exploded, transforming into pure waves of power.
Dragon’s Authority: Chromatic Breath
[Self-Destructive Burst]
“…!!!!”
KUGWAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAH!!!!
Amidst the explosive collision of magical power at the center of the dueling arena, a deafening roar, like a pulverizer, echoed.
Lennok’s body, pushed back by the explosion, crashed into the arena wall.
Lennok gritted his teeth, bowed his head, and couldn’t help but gasp for air.
“Cough…!!!”
“Is that the first injury you’ve sustained since the battle began?”
BOOM!!
Anathema, transformed into a grotesque dragon-human hybrid, descended before Lennok’s eyes and spoke.
“To think I had to go this far just to exchange losses on equal footing, it is truly deplorable.”
“…”
“If I hadn’t received patronage, the outcome would have been far more one-sided.”
Anathema’s gaze, as he looked down at Lennok, held far more complex emotions than before.
The restoration of dragon sorcery and the operation of Apostle spellcraft.
He too knew that if it weren’t for a self-destructive attempt, pushed to its limits using both within the confined dueling arena, he practically couldn’t harm Lennok.
“I’ve decided.”
The moment Anathema said that and lightly snapped his fingers,
The dueling arena Lennok was leaning against began to violently shake and spin.
KUGUGUGUNG!!!
A sudden change in the dueling arena, at a point where the one-sided battle had reached parity.
But Lennok, feeling his senses rapidly diminishing, realized what Anathema was aiming for.
“…You intend to narrow the battlefield.”
“The realization I gained from fighting you wasn’t just about the freedom of form.”
Anathema candidly admitted.
“This dueling arena exists as a secret art of Apostle spellcraft. I simply understood that, like myself, its size can be arbitrarily adjusted.”
KUGUGUGUGUGU!!!!
The dueling arena, tens of meters in diameter, rapidly shrank.
Lennok, leaning against the wall, drew closer to Anathema, who stood far away.
After the self-destructing clones disappeared one by one, leaving only Anathema’s main body in the shrinking arena,
It finally transformed into a prison barely large enough for two people to stand.
BOOM!!
A cramped battlefield, with a diameter of barely 4 meters.
An area too narrow for even two ordinary humans to fistfight, let alone high-tier superhumans.
“Let’s decide this, great wizard.”
CLICK!!
Anathema, having discarded all his weapons and equipped only a thick gauntlet, stepped forward and roared.
“I, Anathema, will put an end to your life, which has walked on the edge of a blade…!!!”
BOOM!!
Anathema’s boldness, transforming the vast dueling arena into a cramped one, proposing a one-on-one match with nowhere to escape.
But Lennok, hearing the bold Apostle’s declaration, didn’t wipe the sneer from his face.
“You’ve abused Apostle spellcraft so much and still haven’t accepted reality. Do you want to pretend to be a proud noble now?”
Lennok, who had struggled to his feet, laughed as he jabbed a painkiller into his neck.
“Whatever you once were, now you’re just an incarnation of the end, addicted to human sacrifice.”
“…”
SHHHHT!!
Lennok, injecting an ampoule into his shoulder, wore a cold sneer.
“The ramblings of a monster destined to turn into a beast from madness no longer sound good to me.”
“…Hahah.”
Anathema chuckled, slowly raising his head.
His dark crimson eyes were now heavily bloodshot.
“That’s a decent provocation. For words spouted by a human on the verge of death, that is!!!!”
Dragon’s Authority
[Expulsion]
The concentrated wave of power from Anathema’s fingertips struck Lennok’s solar plexus at tremendous speed.
A blow strong enough to shatter the wizard’s paper-thin shield, tear through bones and muscles, and rip out his heart with ease.
But Lennok, astonishingly, conjured lightning magic on the spot to block Anathema’s preemptive strike.
Clutching a small, finger-sized lightning bolt in his hand, the moment he brought it down on the fist aimed at his solar plexus,
[Swift Thunder]
CRACKLEEEEEEEENG!!!
The Swift Thunder held in his hand exploded, and with a sound of space shattering like glass, their bodies were pushed in opposite directions.
Continuous Incantation
[Step Thunder]
The explosively scattering Swift Thunder and the Step Thunder created behind Anathema collided, pulling each other in.
They fused with Anathema’s true body as their epicenter, enveloping his entire form in thunder and lightning.
[Twin-Linked Assault]
ZZZZZIIIIING!!!!!
An intense, piercing pain, enough to make even an Apostle momentarily lose their breath, shot through Anathema’s mind.
“Cough…?!!”
“Did you think there’d be no way in close-quarters combat?”
Lennok wiped his blood-dripping hands and smiled.
“If you reduce the power of the magic but compress it and guide the direction of the explosion, you can fight as much as you want.”
Lennok himself wasn’t unharmed by the Swift Thunder’s explosion.
No matter how much the recoil was suppressed, magic that exploded while held and swung would inevitably affect Lennok’s body.
His palms were torn, blood dripped, staining the ground beneath his feet.
But Lennok, knowing this, raised his blood-soaked hands and extended them towards Anathema.
“Come, Anathema.”
Lennok whispered.
“You wretched renegade.”
“VAAAAAAAN!!!!”
Anathema’s shriek, calling Lennok by name for the first time, coincided with Lennok and the Apostle’s movement.
Extremely close quarters where there was hardly any space to step. A secluded battlefield where taking even one step back would mean losing all room to evade.
Lennok and Anathema’s arms intertwined in the air, crossing, and behind their forms, lightning and force fields erupted explosively.
THUDUDUDUK!!
Bones, whose owner was unknown, broke; blood burst forth, and magical power scattered.
Dragon’s Authority and lightning magic surged and clashed in the cramped arena, breaking down and collapsing both master and foe indiscriminately.
The desperate lightning and thought-energy hammered the ceiling and walls of the dueling arena thousands of times, as if in a seizure.
DUDUDUDUDU!!!!
Blood flowed beneath their feet, filling puddles, and evaporated instantly in the ceaseless heat of the surging magical power.
The blood mist filled his vision, and the metallic smell lingered in his nostrils.
Beyond insensitivity to extreme pain, he became joyful, moving not by body but by instinct.
Suppressing Anathema’s will-thought and magical power, which was bursting with Dragon’s Authority as if trying to commit suicide.
Controlling his every motion and movement beyond the limits his body could endure.
Finally, the moment Anathema’s mindscape became so vivid it felt tangible in Lennok’s grasp.
“I’ve got you.”
Their hands, with their bodies leaning against each other’s shoulders, clashed head-on in the air.
The thunder that erupted from Lennok’s hand traveled up Anathema’s forearm to his body.
It burst his abdomen like a balloon, destroying internal organs, bones, and muscles, splitting his upper body.
[Flesh-Rending Drum]
BWAAAANG!!!!!
“…Cough.”
Anathema, trembling all over and spitting blood for the first time from the extreme pain.
His internal organs, muscles, bones, and nerves were all crushed, and gruesome contents flowed out from his abdomen.
Nevertheless, Anathema’s face was filled only with the exultation of victory.
“I won, Van…”
“…”
Lennok couldn’t answer, his head thrown back.
Thick blood dripped from between the wizard’s lips.
In the final exchange of blows, Lennok too had failed to properly evade Anathema’s attack.
Although minor compared to the damage Anathema sustained, the impact had clearly reached his internal organs.
Unlike Anathema, the Apostle, Lennok drew closer to death with every injury he sustained in this battle.
Anathema, too, had been convinced of this fact at this point, delivering his confident declaration to Lennok.
“I pay homage to your talent, for achieving this much with a frail human body.”
Anathema said, weakly leaning against Lennok’s stiff body.
His internal organs were all ruptured, making it difficult to stand, but it was an injury that would begin regenerating shortly.
To Anathema, who was already confident of victory, it held no particular significance.
Rather, for him, what was more important was the message he would deliver to the great wizard who had lost the upper hand.
“Farewell, Van.”
“…”
“Today, in this moment, I, Anathema, will remember drinking the blood of the most powerful adversary and being reborn… until the moment this body turns into a beast.”
Anathema said, raising his hand over Lennok’s stopped heart.
It was a noble’s consideration, to cleanly end the great archwizard’s final moments before the pain worsened.
But the moment he placed his hand on Lennok’s heart, Anathema felt a strange, chilling sensation and his expression stiffened completely.
“No… magical power?”
The body of Lennok present here was undoubtedly the wizard’s own flesh.
Yet, within that archwizard’s body, there was an unusual absence of magical power.
It wasn’t that he had exhausted all his magical power during the battle, but rather an alien feeling, as if he had expended his magical power elsewhere beforehand and was completely depleted.
As Anathema suddenly looked up, startled by that incomprehensible anomaly,
“I told you,”
Lennok said.
“I was looking for a way to definitively kill you in this place.”
CRACKLE…!!
Lennok weakly smiled, looking at the Apostle’s rigidly hardened, scaled face.
“Ordinary magic wouldn’t be able to kill you, as you assimilate with the entire satellite city, reducing damage by half. And I know it’s not an assimilation that can be undone by forcibly tearing you from the ground.”
“…You bastard.”
CRACKLECRACKLE…!!
The sound of thunder roared.
A grating rumble, clearly audible even to Anathema.
Absurdly, that sound wasn’t coming from this cramped dueling arena.
It was coming from outside.
ZZZZZIIIIING…!!!!
What did it mean for thunder, roaring outside the spatially isolated dueling arena, to reach here?
Before Anathema could comprehend that fact, Lennok murmured.
“So I simply prepared a spell capable of evaporating an entire satellite city.”
“…That’s impossible.”
Anathema said.
“Don’t make me laugh. You mean you prepared such a spell beforehand and still intended to fight me bare-handed?”
“Keeping ‘the Guileless’ and Peshia… cough!! occupied with you and buying time… was to conceal the magical particle condensation phenomenon.”
Lennok coughed weakly and smiled.
“But, once… it’s completed, even an Apostle…”
“DON’T MAKE ME LAUGH!!!!”
KWAAAHHH-ANG!!!!
Simultaneously kicking Lennok away and sending him flying, the cramped dueling arena shattered into pieces.
The night sky, which had been concealed since the one-on-one battle began, unfolded above their heads.
But what illuminated Anathema’s eyes was not the starlight gleaming in the darkness, but the majestic thunder that dyed the entire sky a vivid blue.
From horizon to horizon, every part of the world that his senses and gaze could reach glowed with a profound blue will-thought.
“That’s…”
FWAAAHHHH!!!
Even though there had been several turning points where victory or defeat could have shifted, everything that had passed was for this moment.
Entering the dueling arena alone to face Anathema, blinding his eyes and ears, and diverting his attention from outside…
It was because Lennok knew that to make a failed savior look down upon the earth, he needed a signal fire more spectacular than anything else.
Because if it wasn’t a signal fire ignited using an Apostle’s flesh as kindling, he wouldn’t respond.
“The bullet and the target are ready.”
Lennok, coughing up blood-tinged sputum, looked up at the sky with half-lidded eyes.
“As promised, that skill of yours, rumored to have even killed a god. Shall we verify it?”