Chapter 965: The Prohibition (20)
CRAAAASH!!
The Forbidden Armament of Ars Nova. A forbidden weapon crafted from the bloodline of an Ascendant.
Maiya, who had obtained the Sutu gauntlet using the spider’s Inner Core as a catalyst, plummeted. Her body descended as if falling to the ground, stirring the cracked and shattering air with wings of spatial fissures.
“Ugh…!!”
“You seem to be struggling.”
With a pale complexion, she bowed her head, clutching her left hand, which wore the Sutu, with her right.
Maiya’s presence significantly blurred for a moment, and spatial fissures wrapped around her body.
Snap, crackle…!!
She appeared to be under immense strain just from equipping the Forbidden Armament. Even for a superhuman of her caliber, perhaps wielding armor made from a high-level superhuman without proper qualification felt overwhelming.
Lennok stood before the crystal that had sealed the Forbidden Armament in the center of the temple’s sanctuary, looking at Maiya as he spoke.
“I thought the Inner Core might be helpful, but I never imagined it was the key to unlocking the seal.”
“……”
“I’ve already finished investigating the seals spread throughout this temple. If the Inner Core was the key, there’s no way I wouldn’t have noticed.”
Lennok’s eyes glinted sharply as he looked at the short sword at Maiya’s waist.
“The Inner Core was merely a trigger. Your short sword, the one you were using, must have acted as the key that bypassed the seal, didn’t it?”
While the spider’s Inner Core was an object that condensed the Forbidden Armament’s power, it was absurd to think that alone could break Anathema’s seal. That was why Lennok had not focused on the Inner Core and instead sought to confront Maiya head-on.
The ability to bypass the Forbidden Armament’s seal was due to the role of that short sword, based on the Inner Core. Lennok recognized it as an artifact personally crafted by The Doctor.
“I don’t know what you intend to do with that weapon, but it’s not something you should possess.”
Lennok slowly walked forward, gathering his magic power as he tilted his head back.
“Since you’ve kindly unsealed it for me, I’ll overlook this if you hand it over now.”
“……”
Seeing Maiya remain silent, her left arm with the Sutu hanging limply, Lennok gave a wry smile.
“Have you no strength left to even respond?”
“……Everything that happened in Machina, I left buried there.”
Maiya replied, bracing herself against the ground with her left hand.
“There’s no longer any reason for us to be bound by each other’s goals and motives.”
Maiya looked up at Lennok with a cold gaze, then staggered to her feet.
Gathering her magic power, Maiya clutched the short sword in a reverse grip with her right hand and sneered.
“Don’t try to persuade me, Van. That’s not your role. In fact, no one can do that.”
“……”
“Or, have you come all this way and now suddenly don’t want to bloody your hands?”
“Well, it’s not exactly that… fine.”
Lennok smiled and shook his head. It was clear that, regardless of the situation, Lennok wasn’t fighting Maiya with his full power.
“Do as you wish. If Artemeyer intervened and gave you a method, you must have something left to show.”
“……”
“But you should be prepared to lose an arm here and now.”
“You think it’s not too late to ask such a thing…!!!”
Just by bringing the gauntlet close to the temple floor, the floor visibly buckled and cracked. With a single gesture, Maiya propelled herself forward, vanishing from her spot.
WHOOSH!!!
She landed diagonally on the tilted corridor. The explosively bursting magic power from the gauntlet assisted her movements.
An extreme acceleration, making it difficult to even gauge her direction through magic sensing.
CRACK!!
The moment Maiya swept her left hand down in front of Lennok, the space where she gripped her fist shattered.
As she swung her arm, the fissures in the air spread forward like thin cracks.
Everything in her sight was torn apart, everything ruptured.
CRAAASH!!
Each time she gripped the air, space fractured and vision distorted, and Lennok distanced himself to avoid the fissures.
The situation was now reversed from before.
But Lennok admired the spatial collapse Maiya unleashed not just for its power.
“What an incredible sense. Is she controlling the side effects of rampant Manipulation Spellcraft, wielding it like a technique?”
The Forbidden Armament was a forbidden weapon crafted using a high-level manipulation spellcaster as material. Naturally, its abilities were specialized in Manipulation Spellcraft.
Maiya, not being a manipulation spellcaster, couldn’t properly use the Forbidden Armament’s abilities. All she could do with it was passively watch as the uncontrolled Manipulation Spellcraft randomly distorted the surrounding space.
Yet, Maiya was controlling the gauntlet’s rampant, random spatial distortions, wielding them like a technique directly at Lennok. She accelerated towards her intended direction and space, adjusted reactions and trajectories, and even sought to amplify the attack’s power.
BOOOM!!!
The incredibly sturdy Gravity Stone shattered like styrofoam, exposing its cross-section. Magic power and Will-thought, unable to maintain their direction and speed, snapped and broke.
The fragments of lightning and ice mixed within them merely cast a fading glow, shattered and broken.
“If you’re using the short sword and Inner Core to forcibly synchronize with the Forbidden Armament, there must be a time limit.”
Lennok said, observing Maiya with a cold gaze.
“So, I intend to drag this out to the point where you can’t escape. You won’t be able to wield that weapon for long from the start.”
If the Inner Core allowed perfect control over the Forbidden Armament, there would have been no reason for Anathema to try to learn Manipulation Spellcraft. The clues remaining in the mansion were evidence that Anathema desperately wanted to acquire that weapon.
Clearly, the weapon’s abilities would be maximized in the hands of a spellcaster capable of wielding Manipulation Spellcraft. Maiya Lonsdale was merely wielding the spatial transfers and collapse phenomena unleashed by the rampant Forbidden Armament as a weapon.
Of course, even that alone clearly demonstrated her astonishing combat experience and skill. If he simply stalled for time, all the energy from Maiya’s Inner Core would be consumed, and she would lose ownership of the Forbidden Armament.
But Maiya did not lose her composure upon hearing Lennok’s words. She merely wiped the sweat from her forehead and raised the hand wearing the Sutu.
“You don’t understand why the Forbidden Armament is called a ‘weapon of treachery.’ It’s not simply a dangerous weapon.”
“……”
“Equipment created using superhumans as material is, in itself, another hierarchy and Mind Imprint.”
CRACK!!
The moment she powerfully gripped the air with her left hand, space cracked open following her gesture. As Lennok realized that the fissure was converging into a single point before Maiya, slowly rotating.
Maiya swung her fist, shattering the spatial fissure, and appeared behind Lennok.
BOOOOOOM!!!
“The enhancement and evolution of power based on Will-thought and Mind Imprint lie within this.”
“……!!”
A sense of unnaturalness, as if two different spaces were connected by an invisible passage. Had she arbitrarily created a spatial collapse to transfer herself behind Lennok?
Lennok’s expression subtly changed at this refined usage, incomparably more sophisticated than simply wielding the rampant power of the weapon until now.
There was no time to turn around. He omitted incantations and hand seals, expanding his consciousness to secure the spell. The Lightning Giant rose, shielding Lennok’s back, and performed a proxy incantation with its hands clasped together.
CRACKLE-CRACKLE!!!
Dozens of sharp lightning bolts rained down like lasers, and thunderous waves and Azure Flame exploded alternately.
More than a dozen spells, like threads being woven through the air, repeatedly underwent Property Transformation.
[Flame Sigh: Frost-Attuned Lightning]
WHOOSH!!!!
Flames, lightning, and ice intertwined, pulling each other, then colliding again and tearing space apart.
It wasn’t a high-level magic that required casting time, but a miraculous feat of casting multiple mid-level spells and then twisting their power with Property Transformation.
A contradiction: applying Property Transformation during the emission of an already cast spell, raising its destructive power enough to interfere with space.
But Maiya, even seeing Lennok’s magic rapidly approaching, simply clenched her fist wearing the gauntlet on her left hand.
“Here I come.”
She unfolded the inherent Mind Imprint throughout her body, deploying a Miniature Universe with her physical form as its boundary.
This was an amplification technique that deployed Maiya’s ‘Penetration’ Miniature Universe using the power of the Forbidden Armament.
She transcended physical laws with a living human body.
In that instant, as the spatial fissures extracted from the gauntlet spun around Maiya’s fingertips, tearing the atmosphere.
In a state of trance, Maiya thrust the gauntlet forward.
Inner World Miniature Universe
Mind Imprint Technique Activated
[Eightfold Void]
[One Principle Penetration]
CRACK!
A single flash of light piercing through the cold lightning of Frost-Attuned Lightning.
The curtain of flames raging around the lightning crumpled and tore like paper.
The Lightning Giant, which had been protecting Lennok’s back, was impaled by the flash with its arms outstretched and exploded.
Watching the lightning vanish as if tearing apart the air, Lennok rotated his magic formation with all his might.
In his mind, accelerating to its limit, he slammed in his Will-thought, forcibly twisting space.
The moment Lennok’s twisted space met Maiya’s spatial collapse.
The shockwave, spreading out like concentric circles, pushed Lennok’s body back dozens of meters.
CRAAAASH!!!
“……!!!”
Lennok’s body was flipped backward and pushed back over dozens of meters. The recoil was so fierce that it felt as if he were accelerating rather than slowing down.
Lennok reached the opposite side of the temple in an instant, and just before landing, he gathered his magic power.
CRACK!
The scenery on the wall shattered, and Maiya, clutching her left arm with her right hand, walked forward. The moment she swung the gauntlet at Lennok, her Miniature Universe expanded once more.
She imbued the power to pierce space directly and struck Lennok with all her might.
CRAAASH!!
Maiya’s body moved at high speed, leaping through space regardless of the temple walls, ceiling, or floor. Accordingly, she relentlessly shattered Lennok’s various spells and barriers, continuing her assault without mercy.
DU-DU-DU-DU-DU!!!!
The Forbidden Armament twisted spatial coordinates, immobilizing Lennok, while Sou-ryu, transformed into an ice giant, scattered cold air to keep him in check.
Lennok gave a wry smile, dodging the rising ice spikes as the ceiling and walls froze over.
‘I’m being pushed back.’
Using a large-scale spell might cause the entire underground cavern of the temple to collapse. And the moment the underground cavern collapsed, Maiya would simply retreat with the Forbidden Armament.
With the output of usable magic limited, there weren’t many ways to withstand the gauntlet’s power, which directly shattered space. Furthermore, the Penetration Miniature Universe, activated using the gauntlet’s power, possessed the sharpest piercing ability among all Mind Imprint techniques Lennok had ever faced.
WHOOSH!!!
Maiya’s cold gaze, having ripped apart the exploding lightning, met Lennok’s. The moment the Penetration Miniature Universe once again converged and rotated at Maiya’s fingertips.
“Alright. This time, you win.”
Lennok, realizing he truly couldn’t withstand it this time, gave a wry smile and clasped his hands together.
“So, I’ll take that weapon.”
Domain Expansion
WHOOSH!!!
At that instant, a monochromatic ripple exploded from Lennok, who was suspended upside down in the air, and instantly enveloped both of them.
It was Lennok’s unique Mind Imprint, a pure form of Will-thought Domain expanded without imprinting the Kaleidoscope. The gauntlet, which had been effortlessly manipulating space until now, stopped for the first time before Lennok’s eyes.
BOOOOOOM!!
A sense of unnaturalness, as if the spatial collapse phenomenon caused by the Forbidden Armament had stopped dead in its tracks.
“The Forbidden Armament’s spatial collapse is tricky, but if I transform space into my own, the ability won’t function.”
Lennok tilted his head back, looking at Maiya’s fingertips, which were stopped right in front of him.
“It’s closer to a side effect of its rampage than a weapon’s true ability. Although, it’s astonishing how you’ve managed to wield mere side effects as a weapon to that extent…”
Lennok’s Domain was already a miracle that could entirely alter space-time even without fully deploying his Mind Imprint. There was no need to imprint the Kaleidoscope’s Mind Imprint and show its scenery to Maiya.
Expanding the monochromatic ripples, which formed the foundation of his Domain, allowed him to temporarily free himself from space-time interference. If he could block all-piercing spatial collapse and the Miniature Universe, the balance of power would shift to his side.
“For a superhuman like you, with a Penetration-type Miniature Universe, it’s far too dangerous an item—”
[Eightfold Void]
[One Principle Penetration]
BOOOOOOM!!!
The Miniature Universe, which had fractured space to maximize its piercing power, deployed again. It greatly shook and vibrated Lennok’s Will-thought Domain.
“……”
Lennok’s expression, unable to conceal his astonishment this time, stiffened. Within the Will-thought Domain, where space-time was under Lennok’s control, the Forbidden Armament’s spatial collapse was virtually sealed.
However, Maiya was arbitrarily stimulating space using her own Miniature Universe, not the Forbidden Armament.
It was the extreme of her technique: using her Mind Imprint as the ultimate principle to pummel space, indirectly inducing the Manipulation Spellcraft of the Forbidden Armament.
This was truly the power of a warrior who had completed herself, entirely self-reliant, without depending on the weapon.
Maiya’s expression turned cold as she raised her left hand, as if to shatter the monochromatic space-time.
“Dominion Style.”
The power of her Mind Imprint surged out of her body like an explosion.
“Multi-Bloom.”
[One Principle Penetration]
[One Principle Penetration]
[One Principle Penetration]
[One Principle Penetration]
RAT-A-TAT-TAT!!!
The Penetration Miniature Universes shot through Lennok’s Will-thought Domain at an invisible speed. The moment she unleashed the Penetration Mind Imprint, which an 8-level superhuman could only display at full power, bombarding the Will-thought Domain.
For the first time, the Forbidden Armament equipped on Maiya’s hand activated its proper Manipulation Spellcraft, not merely a side effect.
Manipulation-type Unique Magic
[Heaven-Piercing]
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!!!!
The Will-thought Domain, unable to withstand the limitless backflow of Mind Imprint techniques, shattered. The temple floor within a radius of dozens of meters buckled inward, and Lennok’s body was pushed far back.
“Unbelievable. My Will-thought Domain, by sheer force…!!”
A Domain without the Kaleidoscope imprinted was merely a makeshift Domain constructed by extending Will-thought. But precisely because it was based on Lennok’s Will-thought, its construction power and durability easily surpassed other spellcasters’ Domains.
Maiya had shattered Lennok’s Will-thought Domain with the miraculous technique of expanding her Miniature Universe to induce the Forbidden Armament’s Manipulation Spellcraft. This was possible because her Miniature Universe and the side effects of the Forbidden Armament shared a similar outcome of interfering with space.
BOOOM!!
“Ugh…!!”
Maiya pressed down hard on Lennok’s shoulder with her left hand, then immediately lifted her gaze and raised her voice.
“Ghost Demoness!!”
“……!!!”
Peshia, who had been slamming her spear onto the Blood Elder’s blade, irritably turned her gaze, her eyes wide with shock. Felix, who had been dodging Ermont’s barrage of Gemstone Spellcraft, also couldn’t hide his surprise.
Maiya looked at the two of them, gripping Lennok by the collar, and said.
“Drop your weapon.”
“……Van?”
Felix muttered in disbelief.
“How…?”
“You’re not listening.”
CRACK!!
As she applied force to the gauntlet, spatial fissures spread from it, swirling around Lennok’s neck.
“Can’t you hear me?”
“……Alright. I’ll do it.”
As Felix dropped his hammer, Ermont’s Gemstone Prison immediately bound him. Maiya, watching this, immediately turned her gaze to Peshia.
“Drop your spear, Ghost Demoness. I’ll count to three.”
“Hmph, what does that matter?”
Peshia sneered, glancing at Lennok.
“It doesn’t matter to me if that wizard dies or not. Why should I – he lost because of his own mistake from the start…”
“Two.”
“……”
“One.”
“……Damn it, seriously!!”
Peshia cursed with a sour expression, then irritably threw down her spear.
Maiya, looking at Lennok on the ground with cold eyes, said.
“If you move an inch, I’ll tear off your arm.”
“……”
“I know your health isn’t good. Stay still.”
Saying that, Maiya reached into Lennok’s coat pocket and began searching for something. Lennok, watching her with an expressionless face, asked.
“Are you going to let me live?”
“The Doctor said he couldn’t predict the anomalies that would occur in Vulcan if you died.”
Maiya replied, pulling out the Essence of Gravity from Lennok’s inner coat pocket.
“It’s probably because your influence in the city has grown excessively large.”
“……”
“My thoughts differ, but the conclusion is the same. There’s no reason to kill a wizard like you here.”
Maiya said, scrutinizing Lennok’s face with a cold gaze.
“I’ll repay the debt of the Ascension Gate with this.”
“How ironic. To think we both feel indebted over what happened in the Machine City.”
Lennok gave a wry smile and raised his hand.
“This is why I didn’t want to fight, but it ended up like this anyway.”
“I told you not to move…!!!”
She said she didn’t intend to kill him, but that was only if Lennok meekly followed her instructions. If Lennok started resisting now, Maiya couldn’t hold back.
The coldly shouted Maiya moved the gauntlet to crush Lennok’s left arm, space and all, at that very moment.
In Lennok’s hand, the spider’s Inner Core appeared in Maiya’s eyes. It was a five-colored orb, nearly half the size it had been when Lennok first took it.
“……No way.”
“You used this to avoid being affected by the Forbidden Armament’s random spatial transfers, didn’t you?”
Lennok smiled and tossed the half-melted Inner Core into his mouth.
“We’ve just retrieved what each of us needed to retrieve.”
“Was it when my Domain shattered…!”
A spellcaster’s Domain possessed the power to arbitrarily change the coordinates of space. Had he switched the coordinates of the Inner Core and the Essence of Gravity again the moment Maiya shattered his Will-thought Domain?
Maiya’s face stiffened coldly as she realized that Lennok had returned her own trick, simply changing the time and their positions.
WHOOSH!!
Maiya’s body floated up and flipped over, then was flung more than a dozen meters into the air. The rampant Manipulation Spellcraft of the Forbidden Armament caused indiscriminate spatial collapses and transfers. The spatial transfer that she had been ignoring using the Inner Core swept Maiya’s body and propelled her upward.
Maiya gritted her teeth, realizing that the Sutu had slipped from her left hand and was flying far into the air.
“Adamant Thunder!!!!”
“Felix, Peshia. Pick up your weapons.”
Lennok, who had been watching from the ground, lowered his stance and gathered his magic power.
“Last job.”