Chapter 985: Central Front Border Zone (2)
“State your affiliation and name, wizard.”
Thud!!
Lennok was dragged out of an old truck overflowing with blood and corpses.
“If you’re a disciple from a Magic Tower, holding you hostage will be profitable. We’ll inquire about your whereabouts from your master and demand a ransom,” the woman said, twisting Lennok’s hands behind his back and shackling them with thick chains.
“……”
But Lennok merely stared blankly at her, offering no reply.
As the woman’s expression twisted, a stern-faced man standing beside her thrust the barrel of his shotgun at him.
Click-clack!!
“Can’t you hear me? You didn’t really think you’re alive for some other reason, did you?”
“No. I can tell you all you want to know,” Lennok chuckled.
“But I have one question.”
“……What?”
“If I follow you, will I be able to reach the First Gateway?”
Lennok, knowing how treacherous the Central Front was, had no intention of blaming Angel for his plan going awry from the start.
However, if things continued this way, his plan to blend in with smugglers and head for the Gateway was bound to fail.
Given the current situation, a new alternative was clearly needed.
If accompanying this bandit group, who intended to extort even more money by taking him hostage, made things easier, there was no reason to intervene now.
With his hands shackled behind his back, Lennok, surrounded by dozens of superhumans, calmly spoke.
“I have personal reasons for wanting to go to the Gateway. If you can take me there, I’ll cooperate as much as possible.”
“……”
“And while we’re at it, I’d like to hear what rumors are circulating in the Central region. If you have any good information about the Gateway, I’m willing to pay for it.”
“Payment, you say, payment.”
“Uvia. This isn’t the time for–”
“Marlen. Just stay put.”
Marlen, a young man with a bone saw, tried to dissuade the woman called Uvia, but she didn’t stop.
Crossing her arms, she stared at Lennok and sneered.
“Still, it seems like you’re not completely oblivious to the situation. If you’re reasonable, there’s room for negotiation.”
“……”
“I’ll let you say just one more thing. Tell me what kind of payment you can offer.”
Uvia said, pressing the barrel of her revolver under Lennok’s chin and tracing it down.
“Your next answer will determine whether your temporary residence will be our house or the garbage dump.”
“Captain Uvia……!!”
At that moment, a man who had been hesitantly standing behind them spoke urgently.
“H-Headro Warlords are coming this way. They seem to be clashing with the Gateway Search Party……!!”
“What?!”
Doo-doo-doo-doo!!!
At that moment, a tank unit appeared on the horizon, kicking up hazy dust as it sped towards them.
Veins and organs writhed, grotesquely clinging between the rusted gun barrels and caterpillars.
The tanks seemed alive, their cannons twitching as they spewed forth a purple-tinged fluid.
Knights mounted on heavy mechanical bikes pursued the tanks.
The tank unit covered in veins was the Headro Warlords. And the knights on mechanical bikes were the Gateway Search Party.
Ironically, the direction in which these two forces clashed was right in the middle of the desolate wasteland where Lennok and the bandit group were facing off.
“Captain, hurry!!!”
“Start the engine. We’re grabbing this wizard bastard and running!!”
Forgetting their previous conversation, Uvia roughly grabbed Lennok by the collar.
Perhaps, despite establishing a considerable force as a marauding organization, they didn’t want to get caught in the clash between the Headro Warlords and the Gateway Search Party.
“Come on. Hesitate and I’ll just kill you here–!!”
“Did you say the Headro Warlords and the Gateway Search Party?”
But Lennok, still gripped by Uvia’s hand, watched the tanks and the Search Party rapidly approaching from afar.
“Good. If it’s the Search Party, I can ask them for directions,” Lennok muttered, slowly tilting his neck and shifting his gaze.
“Then I just need to kill everyone else except the Search Party.”
“What in the actual hell are you–?!!”
Uvia, who was about to curse and slap Lennok’s cheek, suddenly felt an emptiness below her hand and looked down.
The hand that had just been gripping Lennok’s collar was gone from the wrist down.
Hiss!!
The severed wrist was so utterly charred and crushed that no blood came out.
“Everyone, fall back right now!!!” Uvia yelled roughly, staring blankly at her wrist, and the stern-faced man with the shotgun beside her immediately reacted.
Click-clack!!
The moment he unhesitatingly turned the shotgun barrel and pulled the trigger, aiming at Lennok’s head.
Whoosh!!
The man’s head, holding the shotgun, vanished.
It was an evaporation like a lie – an unbelievable disappearance that seemed to erase everything above his neck.
Only the charred, scorched remains of the cross-section proved that a superheated burst of energy had passed through that spot.
“You… crazy…….”
“Good judgment, even after losing a hand. And your subordinates are quick-witted too.”
Uvia, who had been staring with a distorted expression, stiffly turned her neck at Lennok’s voice from below.
Lennok, who had already loosened the thick chains binding his arms, was slowly stretching his body, looking at the bandits surrounding him.
“Quite calm for a bunch of marauders. Is this how all the outlaws of the Central region are?”
“You, could it be…….”
“You asked my affiliation and name earlier,” Lennok said, looking at the bandits whose faces were distorted with fear, or as if they couldn’t believe the current situation.
“I’m Evan Martinez.”
The moment that very name, which they had just dismissed as impossible, flowed from Lennok’s lips.
Marlen, wielding the bone saw, charged at Lennok with incredible speed.
Kwaaaang!!
As Marlen swung his arm with full force, the cargo truck split vertically, and its cargo bed exploded outwards.
Through the opening, dozens of superhumans simultaneously rushed Lennok, who had landed there.
“Waaaahhh!!!”
They channeled all their bewilderment and doubt about the unexpectedly unfolding situation into rage, pouring it out against the wizard before them.
We must kill this man to survive here. Dozens of them shared this baseless conviction, wildly swinging their weapons like rabid dogs.
But amid the bandits charging as if to crush Lennok, searing heat rays flickered and pulsed in all directions.
Pyrokinesis Unique Magic:
[Redshift (赤色偏移)]
[Spectral Decomposition (分光)]
Pababababang!!
Hundreds of fractured heat rays rotated, caressing and vaporizing the superhumans’ bodies.
“Ughhh!!”
“My arm, my arm is gone!!”
Their body parts were burned off and simultaneously cauterized.
The excruciating pain wracked their brains, causing even superhumans who had long roamed battlefields to roll their eyes back, collapse, and wail.
“N-no!! This isn’t working!!”
“I’ll stop here. I’ll stop, so please spare me!!”
Marlen, wielding the bone saw, fell before Lennok amidst his gasping, collapsing comrades.
He changed direction and speed dozens of times in mid-air, twisting his body like a flash of light, exploiting gaps with a breakthrough.
But the bone saw, meant to sharply stab and pierce vital points, was blocked by the tough metal bracer on Lennok’s arm.
Kaaaaang!!
Marlen, who had been glaring at Lennok through the scattering sparks, grinned widely.
“The smuggler who was spouting nonsense in the truck earlier. I should have killed him more painfully.”
“Is that so?”
“If you hadn’t interfered, claiming you weren’t Cheonbeon, things wouldn’t have turned out this way. My eyes weren’t wrong after all.”
Its appearance resembled multiple metal pipes gathered to form an exhaust port.
It was the pyrokinesis-exclusive combustion array device he had obtained earlier as Evan’s personal armament.
Hiss!
Intense steam spewed from inside the exhaust port, instantly pouring over Marlen’s shoulder and cooking his flesh.
“……!!!”
Marlen’s expression twisted like a demon’s face from the searing pain in his arm.
Lennok smiled, burning away the corpse of the bandit lying at his feet.
“You endure well. Is it because you’re an ability user who pulls out his own bones to use as weapons?”
“You……” Marlen gasped.
“The rumors…… a lie……”
“I don’t know what rumors you heard about me, but what happened in Vulcan itself isn’t a lie,” Lennok retorted, glancing up briefly.
“I fought for the Eyes of Blue, and I lost. Whatever stories came out during that process, I don’t care. But……”
Lennok stretched out a hand to the sky and offered a cold smile.
“Was the Cheonbeon you heard about such a benevolent person, sparing even the mere insects who dared to challenge him?”
“……Eeeek!!”
Marlen, wielding a bone knife in his left hand, charged at Lennok, scattering blood from his right shoulder.
At the same moment, Uvia, who had sprung up from among the corpses, transformed into a werewolf and unleashed a savage roar.
The instant Marlen and Uvia, attacking from both sides, simultaneously plunged their knife and teeth into Lennok’s lower back and neck.
“Combustion Armament: Summon.”
A gigantic metal pillar fell from the sky, directly pushing the two away.
Kwooong!!!
“Cough!!”
The pillar took the form of a massive metal column densely engraved with complex spellcraft and characters.
With an Ignition Device embedded in its front, rotating, it resembled a flamethrower without a barrel.
The moment Marlen and Uvia’s steps faltered under the impact of a weight easily exceeding several hundred kilograms.
Lennok, fearlessly gripping the Ignition Device, muttered.
“Initiate activation.”
Kieeeing!!!
The moment Lennok chanted the activation word, the front part of the Ignition Device opened, beginning its deployment.
A crimson-black barrier spell formation unfolded around the Ignition Device, engulfing the surroundings in scorching flames.
Hwa-reur-reuk!!!
The rotating curtain of fire vaporized the bone saw and spread to the young man’s arm.
He should have bitten into muscle and flesh, plunged blades into blood vessels. But the moment he moved, he felt no sensation.
An emptiness, as if he had lost control of his body the instant he attempted an attack.
Each time Lennok’s flame-imbued hand met with a clap, a part of their body evaporated and vanished as if erased.
Hwa-reuk!!
“Kuaaaahhh!!”
Uvia, her face alight, rolled on the ground, and Marlen, his skin burned, fell to his knees.
The intensely hot blast roughly pushed the two away, incinerating the corpses at their feet into ashes.
Hwaaahhh!!
As the hazy mist cleared with the hot wind, the landscape of the wasteland below revealed itself before Lennok’s eyes.
“Waaaaaahhhhh!!!!”
[In the name of God……!!]
“Fourfold Shikigami Manifestation. Forward!!”
The cult’s priests recited prayers and performed rituals, while shamans countered by sending their shikigami forward.
On a hill made of human skeletons, a fortress, appearing to be an advance base, blinked with lights.
Below it, an army, neatly arrayed, advanced rapidly, scattering fierce shouts.
“All units, advance!!”
Pshewwooong!!
Above, dozens of missile trajectories overlapped, and on the ground, pillars of fire erupted ceaselessly.
Every time Lennok turned his gaze across the open vista, blood and death flowed from all directions.
Even without having entered the vicinity of the Gateway, a battlefield close to hell was unfolding simultaneously in all directions.
It was a chaotic melee, one Lennok, who had traversed countless battlefields, had rarely witnessed.
Was this the true face of the Central Front, renowned as the continent’s largest battleground?
Lennok, who had been observing the battles raging in all directions with a look of interest, soon turned around, still holding the Ignition Device.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to witness more of the Central Front’s horrors, but he still had work to do.
From afar, the grotesque tank unit of the Headro Warlords, kicking up dust, and the Search Party pursuing them, were drawing closer.
At a glance, that Headro Warlords tank unit was not a reasonable opponent.
If he intended to ask for guidance, leaving only the Search Party alive here would be enough.
Chiiiiiik!!
Each time he pulled the Ignition Device and activated it, heat spewed from the exhaust ports on his left arm, regulating his body temperature.
It was the spell-armament transformation spellcraft of flame magic, created by combining Jindun’s barrier spellcraft.
The expansion and amplification that flame magic inherently prioritized were contained within the barrier formation carved into the Ignition Device, compressing its destructive power to the extreme.
Combustion Domain Property Transformation
Pyrokinesis Sculpting Gunpowder Alchemy
[Explosive Armament No. 88: Falling Flame Flight (落火炎飛)]
[Blazing Projectile Armament (焱炳彈裝)]
[Flame Jade Piercing Star (炎玉穿星)]
The resulting conflagration of fire boasted such vast destructive power and scale that it would be no exaggeration to call it a one-man army.
Manipulating the absorption and emission of heat simultaneously, the moment he slammed the Combustion Armament into the ground beneath him.
[Volcanic Godly Weight (火山申重)]
Kuooh-oh-oh-oh!!!
A gigantic volcano erupted behind Lennok, spewing forth scorching flames.
[Uluric. To your right!!]
The moment the twitching tank cannon turned their way, he sharply turned the bike handlebars.
The vehicle changed direction and tilted on the spot, instantly slowing down.
Kwaaaang!!
A purple magic bullet exploded in front of the bike, unleashing a strange pillar of magical energy.
“Damn it……!!”
Uluric, a member of the 12th Cavalry of the Gateway Search Party, under Ars Nova of the Central City, adjusted his helmet and gritted his teeth.
He had avoided the shell, but without the warning, he might have been a step too late.
If he were hit by even one of those strange magic bullets fired by the cursed Warlords, it wouldn’t be strange to turn into a ghoul or a vengeful spirit on the spot.
“Vigor. This is no good. They’re trying to leave the battlefield!!”
[The remnants of the fallen Warlords are constantly bothering us……!!]
Passing Uluric, who had fallen with his bike, other comrades of the Search Party raced after the fleeing tanks.
Roughly twisting the throttle of his mechanical steed, he aimed his gunblade, a fusion of sword and gun, with one hand.
Taaang!!
The moment the bullet fired by the Search Party hit the tank, the veins wrapping its surface burst, oozing purple blood.
The heavy tank twitched and convulsed as if in pain the moment it was struck.
[Ooooh-oh-oh!!!]
Yet, even amidst this, the cursed tank unit ignored the Search Party, focusing solely on escaping the battlefield.
Uluric, who had hastily righted his bike, picked up his communicator, seeing their retreat.
“They mustn’t be allowed to get near the Gateway. We have to stop them here!!”
[I know……!!]
The Headro Warlords were one of the large organizations stationed in the Central Front that had met a particularly peculiar end.
Defeated in the war with Deadrise and devoured by various factions, the Warlords were now virtually annihilated.
However, pushed to the brink, the Headro Warlords’ generals resorted to forbidden rituals and became corrupted,
And all of their subordinate warlords were entirely infected with mental corruption, becoming one gigantic collective.
Not only the soldiers and officers, but even the war machines they wielded roamed the battlefield like living creatures, dedicated to killing humans.
Now, the Headro Warlords were no longer classified as a faction in the Central Front, but merely as cursed monstrous creatures to be subjugated.
But even the remnants of such Warlords were difficult for the Gateway Search Party, which protected the Central Front, to fully stop with their current strength.
‘The Search Party’s strength has weakened too much……!!’
The Central City, which had enjoyed glorious prosperity, had fallen, yielding its legacy and honor one by one to ambitious factions.
The Gateway Search Party, which was supposed to protect the First Gateway, was now keenly feeling its lack of strength, resorting to borrowing power from other factions, including the Order Alliance.
Amidst the chaotic chase, as Uluric swallowed hard and bit his lip.
A gigantic fireball fell from the sky, landing on the tank ahead.
Kwaaaaaang!!!
Flames, glowing like a small sun, spun on the spot, crushing and incinerating the tank’s hatch.
A terrible roar, as if crushing the tank and then burning it to smithereens.
[Kii-gii-gii-gik……!!!]
A dying shriek echoed from within the tank.
“What…?!”
The moment Uluric faltered in surprise at the sudden, unexpected bombardment.
Dozens of fireballs fell from the sky, crushing the Warlords’ cursed tanks.
Kugwagwagwaga!!!!
A rain of crimson meteors fell from the cloudless sky, scorching the ground.
Each time a fireball fell and exploded, a dark red pillar of fire shot up in reverse, completely incinerating the hit tank on the spot.
[Kii-gii-gii-gik!!]
The remaining tank units frantically resisted, somehow trying to turn their cannons to intercept the falling meteors.
But someone atop the vine-entangled tanks began to burn away the convulsing tanks without mercy.
[All units stop. It’s not an ally!!]
[High-grade pyrokinesis. Presumed to be a Flame Pillar-level or higher flame wizard!]
Ignoring the clamoring Search Party communications, Uluric stopped his bike and blankly stared at the burning battlefield.
Because he had fallen behind his other Search Party comrades, the battlefield scene was clearer to his eyes than to theirs.
A man holding a giant lighter like a weapon was flying above the cursed tanks, unleashing bursts of flame.
With crimson flames swirling behind him like wings, he broke through the tanks at incredible speed.
Each swing of the Ignition Device in his hand spewed out flames that scorched the heavens and earth, obliterating the tank unit.
Kugwagwaga!!!!
Caught between the meteors falling from the sky and the young man rampaging on the ground, the remnants of the Headro Warlords exploded helplessly.
[Ughhhh!!!]
Unable to withstand the heat, the tank’s lid flew open, and a grotesque, ashen monster thrashed within.
It let out a terrible scream, as if cursing the master of this carnage, but even that scream was incinerated and vanished in the breath of fire.
Hwa-reur-reuk-reur-reuk!!!
Only then did the Search Party members, realizing that the wizard slaughtering the tank unit was a transcendentally powerful individual, hold their breath.
[No way. Has a Flame Pillar from Blaiver Magic Tower joined the fight?!]
[No. This isn’t Flame Pillar-level firepower. It’s similar to the power the Witch of Conflagration pours out using her spell-armament.]
[Tatiana Chiglet is no longer affiliated with the Magic Tower. Besides, she–]
At that moment, the young man, holding up a metal pillar, descended with incredible speed onto a tank that had burned and collapsed.
Kwaaaaang!!
Folding the six-pronged flame wings behind him, he unleashed a powerful wave of heat beneath his feet.
That alone completely burned away the cursed will-thought lingering within the tank, purifying the entire battlefield.
“……”
Everyone held their breath, looking up at the young man, who was leaning on the metal pillar with his head bowed.
The appearance of a powerful individual who had crushed dozens of cursed tanks, remnants of the Headro Warlords, in less than five minutes.
Every member present knew that if they displeased him, they too could end up like those tanks.
“Hmph……”
He exhaled softly, continuously discharging heat and flames through the exhaust ports on his left arm.
It seemed as if he was forcibly regulating his entire body temperature using the exhaust ports.
Click!
Closing the front of the Ignition Device, the young man stood up and looked down at the Search Party.
“……”
Staring blankly at the Search Party, the young man shouldered the Ignition Device and stepped down from the tank.
“If you’re the Gateway Search Party, you must know the way back to the First Gateway,” the young man asked, descending with the heavy metal device as lightly as a feather.
“Is this enough as payment for guiding me to the Gateway?”
“……Before that, could we inquire about your identity?”
Each of them was mounted on their bikes, gripping their gunblades, their faces tense.
“Since the Blaiver Magic Tower retreated from the Gateway, we haven’t seen a pyromancer like you in the Central region.”
“……”
As Lennok stared blankly at them, the hands of the Search Party members gripping their weapons tightened slightly.
“If, perhaps, the Magic Tower intends to move towards the Gateway again……”
“An interesting answer. So, from the Search Party’s perspective, it’s better for the Order Alliance to manage the Gateway than the Magic Tower?”
“……Excuse me?”
“It seems the power dynamics and image of the Central Front are quite different from what I thought.”
Lennok, casually dismissing the Ignition Device with a wave of his hand, stood before the Search Party members.
“Let’s talk while we move to the Gateway. I’d also like to hear where such rumors originated from. Would that be possible?”
“Ah, yes…… that is…….”
So who exactly was this wizard standing before them?
Reading the hesitant reactions of the Search Party members, Lennok gave a wry smile and spoke.
“I am Evan Martinez.”
“Evan?!!”
The Search Party members gasped in shock, then began to sweat coldly and exchange glances.
“You mean Cheonbeon, who burned criminals like firewood to save the Lighthouse Keeper…….”
“They said he was a taciturn man who never spoke a word except when killing people.”
“He wasn’t a secret weapon left by Chogyeon for a future Lighthouse Keeper?”
“……This is hardly the place to discuss such nonsense rumors.”
Lennok, pinching his forehead with a bewildered expression, pointed at the Search Party members with his finger.
“Let’s talk while we move. I want to hear where those words came from too.”