Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 280

Light and Shadow (2)

The moment Lenok realized the Yvon family’s proxy wasn’t affiliated with the Order, he’d already guessed the situation to some extent.

If an outsider like Walter was being treated well by the citadel’s high-ranking officials, then being a proxy of one of the eight families was the most logical cover.

Aside from joining forces with the Yvon family head, it was the best justification for his public appearance.

“There are many truly skilled sorcerers in the great cities. I envy you,” Walter said with a smile.

“Not long ago, I met a spiritist, and his skills were so impressive, it surprised me. It made me realize how vast the world truly is.”

“……”

“Coming to this city was part of a grand plan, but now I think it was very fortunate.”

Despite having revealed his hand, Walter didn’t rush at Lenok; he only smiled.

There was no sign of bloodlust or any aggressive intent from him.

“If you don’t intend to fight, you should take off your bracelet and go down,” Lenok stated.

“Are you just going to keep talking?”

“You’re quick to notice. That’s right,” Walter replied, nodding readily despite the indifferent tone.

“Actually, I didn’t think the proxy battle would become this tense.”

“……”

“I was planning to have the other families as spectators and quickly end the proxy battle with one of our members… but an outsider gathered the families and started a fight for justification, and things went strangely wrong.”

The meaning behind Walter’s words was clear. The situation had escalated unexpectedly.

Originally, they should have held a formal proxy battle against the poorly united Paldoon, Samyoung, and Oryun families, and immediately seized the position of Citadel Lord.

It was Lenok who manipulated and swayed the families with their different purposes and motives, creating a new game.

He completed all the procedures of justification, qualification, and proof of power before the other families could interfere, turning the tables.

If Lenok hadn’t reversed the disadvantage of the 3-to-1 proxy battle with his own strength and brought it to the final match, Walter wouldn’t have even needed to step forward.

“Because of that, I didn’t pay much attention to the power of the proxies of each family, but I didn’t know it would bring such a disaster,” Walter said with a bitter smile and a nod.

“It was my miscalculation. That’s why I want to propose a deal.”

“A deal…”

It was surprising. Instead of revealing his true colors, he was trying to appease them at this point.

That was probably because he had internally judged that it would be difficult to proceed with their original plans against Lenok.

“After eavesdropping here and there, I heard that you are already a famous freelancer outside,” Walter said, quickly getting to the point while Lenok was lost in thought.

“Among those rumors, I also heard that you request clues about time-related relics or techniques as compensation for commissioned requests. Perhaps that is also your purpose for entering this citadel?”

He extended his hand with a generous smile, as if he knew all of Lenok’s desires.

“If you cooperate with us, we will give you the items that will be auctioned before the auction is held, as a special privilege for the Ilwon family’s proxy. Among them, there are some time-related artifacts that you desire.”

“……”

“How about it? Isn’t it enough for the price of giving up the current battle?”

“Well…”

Instead of seriously considering Walter’s proposal, Lenok quietly pondered the situation’s implications.

He realized that Walter’s response itself was a privilege of having a unilateral information advantage.

If Walter knew that Lenok was the same person as Evan, and that he already knew all the information about the ruins, would Walter be so eager to appease Lenok now?

Because he had perfectly separated his two identities and moved with a thorough alibi, even the bishop of the Order hadn’t noticed the incongruity and was making empty promises.

Empty promises that he himself had no intention of keeping.

The answer had been decided from the beginning.

“The price doesn’t match,” Lenok said with a smile.

“My faith isn’t enough to accept that offer.”

Zzzzzzzzz…!!

The blue lightning that rose from Lenok’s feet struck Walter directly.

Kwaaaang!!

The ground shook instantly from the lightning strike, and dust rose everywhere.

The enthusiastic cheers of the spectators, who thought the final proxy battle had begun, echoed, and the expressions of the other family heads changed drastically.

Lenok paid no attention to such reactions and focused on the opponent in front of him.

A chilling voice was heard from within the dust that was spreading like fog.

“You, you knew from the beginning that I was affiliated with the Order?”

“……”

“Toying with me… Hehe, it seems the Samyoung family head’s abilities were more than expected. Well, that’s fine.”

Walter’s arm, which had emerged from the center of the explosion, dangled limply.

It seemed he hadn’t been able to properly block Lenok’s preemptive attack, but there was no sign of pain on his face.

He put his finger inside the bracelet on his dangling wrist and said with force, “Things don’t always go the way you want them to.”

Charrrrrk!!

At the same time as the chain bracelet shattered, the light on Walter’s bracelet transferred to Lenok’s bracelet, and the eight chain links shone brightly.

It was clear proof that the proxy battle was over, and Lenok had finally gained the right to designate all the families.

However, before Lenok could move to designate Oren as the Citadel Lord, Walter moved first.

A pale glow began to erupt from the outskirts of the huge manor that housed thousands of citadel residents.

Faaaaaaaat!!

The glow that covered the entire huge manor overlaid a huge hemispherical barrier in the sky.

And above that barrier, an alien crack appeared as if it had been cut out with scissors.

Jjeooooop!!!

At the same time as the crack that had suddenly appeared in the sky slowly opened, it began to greedily suck in something that came out of the bodies of the spectators in the manor.

A pale, hazy form, as if a soul was leaving, was discharged from people’s bodies and escaped to the top of the barrier.

The spectators, who witnessed an unknown energy leaving their bodies, immediately fell into chaos, and the manor instantly turned into a scene of pandemonium.

“Kyaaaaaaak!!”

“S, save me!! What is this!!”

It was so large and full-scale that it was hard to believe the ritual had started in the blink of an eye.

The crack that opened in the sky. And the pale glow that spread out with the momentum to suck in the lives of at least thousands of people.

The large-scale space teleportation technique that Walter had attempted at Lavatenon University, ‘The Scales of Amrita’.

It sacrifices a certain amount of life and, in return, moves the same number of lives.

The range of the technique was the entire huge manor. It was a scale that sacrificed at least thousands of people at once.

Even if efficiency was increased by sacrificing human lives, it would be impossible to do this without prior preparation.

The Yvon family head and Walter had planned to massacre all the citadel residents and fill their places with members of the Guido Order from the beginning if things didn’t go as planned.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to see so much blood like this…” Walter said with a smile, his back to the pillar of pale light.

“If you hadn’t rejected my offer, this tragedy wouldn’t have happened. It’s all your fault.”

“It seems that the survival of the citadel doesn’t matter as long as you can obtain the authority of the Citadel Lord,” Lenok said, ignoring Walter’s words.

“Is that ruin so important to the Order?”

“…If you know that much, then there’s no need to say more,” Walter readily nodded.

“It’s not just a tourist spot with a strange landscape. The traces of it, which are out of sync with the timeline of this world, are undoubtedly remnants of the old world… It’s like a ‘crack’ in the world that is hard to find under this closed sky.”

“……”

“In this world where even communication with the gods has become difficult, it is an extremely rare channel of communication with the outside… Do you understand what that means?”

“No,” Lenok replied indifferently.

“I’ll crush you here and listen to it slowly.”

At that moment, a jet-black shadow rose from the corner of the manor where the two were facing each other.

Fwaaaaaaa!!

The remnants of the shadow technique that had been secretly laid in various parts of the manor, even by forcing Asui to the front.

As if they had made a promise, the traces rose all at once and spread throughout the manor in an instant.

The thick black shadow fragments headed for the joints connecting the pillars of pale light that were extending from all directions.

As if they knew about this technique, instead of blocking the light head-on, they created a black curtain and deflected it diagonally, disrupting the flow of the barrier.

The crack that had been slowly opening in the sky closed, and even the flow that had been sucking in people’s lives began to stop.

“…!!!!”

For the first time, the smile disappeared from Walter’s face, but the arrangements that Lenok and Oren had prepared didn’t end there.

Kuuuuuung!!

The walls surrounding the spectator seats of the manor collapsed, and a staircase leading out of the manor appeared.

It wasn’t something that had existed from the beginning.

An emergency passage created by physically shaping shadows.

However, it wasn’t a very important fact for the citadel residents who were having their life force taken away at that moment.

“I, I’m alive…!!”

“Run away quickly!!”

“The family heads will somehow stop this situation!!”

Walter’s face contorted at the sight of the citadel residents who were quickly running out of the manor.

“This is…!!”

The shadow that appeared as soon as the two people’s conversation ended.

It was clear who the culprit behind this was.

Walter’s eyes quickly scanned the surroundings.

The locations where the magic power that manipulated the shadows was strongly flowing were two places.

The skinny young man behind the stage.

And the Samyoung family head, who was sitting in the family head’s seat of the eight families.

The two shadow sorcerers were concentrating on manipulating the shadows to evacuate the people inside the manor.

“Don’t interfere!!!” Walter shouted and rushed towards the back of the stage, but a powerful shockwave that erupted from behind sent his body flying high into the sky.

Puh-uh-uh-ung!!

“…!!!”

Even if he had to endure his arm falling off, he had to avoid damage that would prevent him from moving his body.

Walter, clutching his tattered shoulder and looking up at the sky, had a strange look on his face.

“The spirit absorption barrier, which was created by modifying the 12 types of religious district interpretation principles, so easily…”

“……”

“It seems that there is someone on the Samyoung side who has contacted us. There’s no way they could have suppressed the occurrence of the crack so accurately without understanding the operating principle of the technique…” Walter muttered, not even dreaming that the culprit was right in front of him.

The method Walter used to possess bodies at Lavatenon University. At the same time, even the large-scale space teleportation technique that he tried to open by sacrificing the lives of the dormitory students.

Lenok, who had seen through and broken the activation of that technique, had guessed that Walter would do the same thing to the citadel residents.

The series of disturbances that occurred at Lavatenon Magic University were probably a demonstration to do something similar inside the citadel.

Even if it was difficult to cancel the technique immediately after they activated it, it was enough to interfere with the operation of the barrier and weaken its effectiveness.

The two shadow sorcerers, Oren and Asui, had the ability to perfectly carry out Lenok’s instructions.

“It’s a delusion to think that only you are hiding your schemes,” Lenok said with a smile as he looked up at Walter, who was floating in the air.

Huuuuuung…!!

At the same time as he was drawing up his magic power, the bracelet on his right arm shattered, and the ground in the area began to be heavily pressed down.

“You’ll have to play with me until the surroundings become quiet.”

* * *

The plan that should have been perfectly executed regardless of the outcome of the proxy battle.

The Yvon family head, who had noticed the crack in the game he had designed at the risk of joining hands with the Guido Order, trembled.

“How dare…!!”

There was no need to mention who the owner of the shadows that were covering the inside of the barrier and interfering with the use of force was.

The Yvon family head’s venomous gaze quickly turned to the side.

The figure of Oren, leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed.

He had thought it was just a show of arrogance to appear uninterested in the proxy battle itself, but was he preparing for this from the beginning…!!

Only then did the Yvon family head, realizing that their plan and even the existence of the Order had already been exposed to Oren, swing his hand with an angry face.

Kwaaaang!!

A huge explosion occurred as the place where Oren was sitting was swept away in an instant.

The other family heads jumped up from their seats with bewildered faces.

“Yvon family head!!”

“What are you doing!!”

“Even if we are opposing each other as different factions, this is…!!”

In the case of Sagun, Yukryung, Chilhyun, or Paldoon, even if they had enemies elsewhere, they shared the perception that they were members of the same citadel.

In the first place, wasn’t the form of the proxy battle itself a system created to avoid the infighting between the direct bloodlines of the eight families?

In this situation, suddenly attacking another family head was nothing more than abandoning the justification of the proxy battle that had been built up until now in an instant.

The Yvon family head shouted with a ferocious face, “Kill the Samyoung family head right now!!”