Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 1014

“I rushed here as fast as I could, but it seems I’m a little late.”

Whoosh…!!

The sky was gradually darkening.

In the smoky ruins, a clear female voice echoed.

“I heard that those detestable Apostle Slayers were killing each other, so I was going to rush over and watch. Oh, what a shame~”

“……”

“Well, now that I think about it, things turning out this way might not be so bad.”

The woman smiled, her face adorned with flamboyant, blood-red makeup.

However, no one present could easily respond to her words.

Lariata Armush, the seventh Apostle under the Guido Order.

No one had expected that one of the top ten strongest forces within the Order would suddenly appear on the battlefield at this time.

“The Order…!! They’re out of their minds.”

Loeved, the metal-based superhuman who had been defeated by Jebyeok, gritted his teeth and glared at Lariata.

“This is the territory of the Order Alliance. For you, who are at war with the Alliance, to interfere is…!!”

“Shut up. Who cares?”

The bat wings on Lariata’s back struck Loeved with tremendous speed.

Clang!!!

The impact rippled across the metal plate Loeved had erected, shattering it like glass.

“Kuh…!!”

Unable to withstand the backlash of his ability, Loeved lowered his head and vomited.

Internal injuries that hadn’t been apparent even after his neck was twisted in the fight with Jebyeok.

The 7th Apostle, who had incapacitated Loeved with a single flap of her wings, giggled.

“With the Conjunction Master dead, how can this be the Order Alliance’s territory? Are you out of your mind?”

“……”

“I heard that the main force is focused on capturing the Four Heavenly Demon Mirrors, but it seems you managed to send forces here to deal with the gate.”

Thwack!!

With a flick of Lariata’s hand, the head of a superhuman who had been cautiously retreating was ripped off.

The 7th Apostle, holding the superhuman’s head in one hand, smiled coldly and tightened her grip.

“Or is it thanks to that disgusting Aphelia’s ability that this is possible?”

Squish…!!

The human head was crushed and shattered by Lariata’s grip.

While Loeved gritted his teeth and gathered his mental strength, Lenok observed the 7th Apostle from the side.

‘It’s impossible to gauge her rank. Is she no longer human?’

Her swiftness in arriving at the scene immediately after recognizing the Conjunction Master’s death.

Her stealth in arriving at the gate city, hidden in the darkness of the sky, bypassing the detection of numerous powerful individuals.

She was clearly an incredibly powerful being, yet it was difficult to discern her level or rank.

That was probably because the 7th Apostle, Lariata Armush, had already fallen to a point where she could no longer be classified by rank.

The huge bat wings on her back. Those were part of her transformed body, mutated as Lariata awakened as an avatar of the end.

Like the 10th Apostle Amrita’s rabbit giant and the 6th Apostle Anathema’s goat-headed dragon, her essence was likely closer to that of a bat.

‘She didn’t just fail to hide her wings. She’s become so insane that she’s turned into a monster.’

The seventh Apostle was so broken that she could no longer maintain separate human and monster forms.

Although she seemed capable of conversation on the surface, her insides were already a rotten, festering monster.

Having reached that conclusion, Lenok turned to look at Jebyeok, who was lying far away.

‘If the main force and the Apostle aren’t on the same side, then now is the only chance.’

It wouldn’t be a problem for Lenok to survive alone, but what mattered was Jebyeok’s existence.

Although he didn’t like Yanicus Barbaria’s personality, at least he had tried to help Lenok in this situation.

“Ah, wait a minute!”

At that moment, Lariata, who had turned her head sharply towards Lenok, shouted.

“Don’t move. I know what you’re thinking.”

“……”

“I’m not really interested in these tasteless blood bags. My real target is you.”

The moment the 7th Apostle reached her hand towards the sky, her bat wings wrapped around her arm.

With a sound like something being vomited, the wings receded, and Lariata was holding something in her hand.

Thud!!

A massive greatsword, easily taller than Lariata, appeared.

The blade, stained with blood, was bent like an axe on both sides, a gruesome shape designed to tear apart humans.

Lariata, summoning the greatsword and gripping it, swung it lightly, and a fierce gale swept through the ruins.

Whoosh!!

A weight that crushed everything around it just by existing. A blade wider than Lariata’s body.

The wind it generated swept across the ground as if tearing it up, and the moment Lenok unconsciously raised his arm.

Whoosh!

The 7th Apostle’s flamboyant face was suddenly right in front of Lenok.

“I’ve heard a lot about you, Evan Martinez.”

“……”

“They say you’re the great mage who gained fame in the Far East Branch for killing Priestess Izel and Amrita, my little sister?”

Lariata, picking at her ear with her long fingernails, muttered.

“I heard about it, but I don’t remember it well since I was out of it at the time.”

“I’ve heard that there are hardly any Apostles within the Order who are in their right minds.”

Lenok retorted, looking at Lariata’s flamboyant makeup.

“You were already one of the broken ones.”

“What, you know quite a bit?”

Lariata giggled and tilted her head back.

Lariata, who had slung the massive greatsword over her shoulder like a reed, said,

“Well, if you killed Amrita, you must have seen all sorts of things, so I guess it’s only natural.”

“……”

“It’s hard to maintain consciousness for long. Every time I come to, months have passed, so my sense of time is completely messed up.”

The 7th Apostle tapped her forehead with one hand and smiled.

“I was just waiting to become pig feed, but our Priestess is such a fan of recycling.”

“Priestess?”

The Order’s new Priestess, Ureka Naidri.

The power she had been granted was the ability to control the insane Apostles according to her will.

But could she really restore even the Apostles who had already become monsters to a temporary state of humanity?

“Well, you don’t need to know all that.”

Lariata grinned, revealing sharp fangs below her lips.

“This is the touching story of how Lariata miraculously returned to the scene. I wanted to tell someone about it.”

“……”

Bat wings and fangs. Blood-red makeup and long fingernails. She didn’t even seem to want to hide them.

She was probably a vampire who had become an Apostle.

‘Was this woman the Apostle who killed the Substitute Conjunction Master?’

The three-way meeting between the head of the Order, the commander, and Lenok.

In the process of preparing for the meeting, Ureka Naidri had said that the 7th Apostle had killed the Order Alliance’s Substitute Conjunction Master and stolen their spell.

Since he had heard the story in his capacity as a Sentinel, he couldn’t show it, but if Lariata was a vampire, it made sense.

The Apostle’s power related to vampirism. If she had stolen the Substitute Conjunction Master’s spell through that, it wouldn’t be impossible.

“I’m not really curious about the past of a beast consumed by faith.”

Lenok, replying slowly, began to retreat slowly.

Watching Lariata naturally approach and maintain the distance, Lenok asked,

“So, is the story over?”

“No, I told you. Apostle Slayer.”

Lariata shrugged.

“I came to see the face of the bastard who killed our Amrita, you know?”

“…!!”

Lariata’s greatsword, hidden between her wings, rotated at subsonic speed.

It tore through the ground beneath Lenok’s feet, unleashing a powerful slash.

Kwaaaang!!!

The blood-stained slash soared diagonally, cutting through the ruins of the ash-covered wasteland.

White-gray ash scattered and fell like snow everywhere.

At the end of it, Lariata giggled.

“Yahoo~ Your face is okay, and you’re much better than I expected? If it weren’t for the smell, I would have sucked your blood down to the marrow!!”

“That’s not something to take lightly.”

Thud!!

Lenok, walking out of the ash snow, massaged his shoulder with a tired expression.

“No matter how dirty I get, I don’t think I’d smell worse than a monster that eats people.”

“No, it’s just that the Apostle Slayer’s blood smells a bit unpleasant.”

Lariata said, raising her greatsword.

“When I’m sucking blood, I can smell the dead Apostle. It feels like cannibalism, and it’s disgusting, you know?”

“That’s an interesting answer. Do you consider Apostles your kin, not vampires?”

Lenok, slowly lowering his stance, began to gather his magic power.

“The Apostles I killed didn’t exactly… seem to consider filthy bats their kin.”

“……Hehe.”

Lariata’s mouth, which had been smiling, stretched out as if it would tear.

“You’re staggering as if you’re about to collapse, but your trash talk is pretty good.”

“……”

“Let’s see if your skills are just as good.”

Goo…!!

A chilling silence just before the start of the battle.

Above the gradually darkening sky, flames and ash poured down.

The distance to Lariata, who was adjusting her grip on her greatsword, was around 50 meters.

However, Lenok knew that this distance was meaningless to an Apostle.

If Lariata Armush was a vampire, she would have possessed considerable physical abilities even before becoming an Apostle.

‘In the worst case, she might even be using blood magic… no, that’s a given.’

The fact that she had appeared on this battlefield without a trace was proof that she was not just a physical powerhouse.

If she was skilled enough to kill the Order Alliance’s Substitute Conjunction Master, she was likely to have considerable knowledge of spells as well.

Creak…!!!

The 7th Apostle’s bat wings spread out to a radius of tens of meters, contracting and.

The moment they explosively expanded, pushing Lariata’s figure forward.

Lenok, without hesitation, turned his back and began to flee, using space-warping magic.

“……Huh?”

Fwoosh!

Using Blink, he instantly crossed the battlefield and grabbed Jebyeok by the scruff of his neck.

[Flame Step]

[Forward Thrust]

The fiery petals falling from the sky aligned beneath Lenok’s feet, instantly pushing his figure forward and accelerating him.

Whoosh!

In the blink of an eye, Lenok retrieved Jebyeok’s figure and fled.

“Ah~ So you’re going to play it like that?”

Lariata, who had been staring blankly at him, spread her wings with a chilling smile.

“I was trying to treat you with respect as an opponent, but you’re playing with my feelings?!”

Whoosh!!

At the same time as narrowing her bat wings vertically, Lariata’s figure accelerated.

She began to chase after Lenok at tremendous speed, cutting through the ruins of the gate city.

Thud thud thud!!!

The shadows of the 7th Apostle and Lenok flew around the ruins, causing explosions.

Lenok’s figure, accelerating while changing direction, cut through the remains of burnt-out buildings.

Following his movements, Jebyeok’s body, which was being held by the neck, was also shaking violently.

“Cough…!! You, what are you doing…!!”

Jebyeok, unable to hold back his cough, roared.

“To run away with the enemy in front of you, and you call yourself the strongest Watcher of the Azure Eye!!”

“I don’t remember receiving such a cringeworthy title.”

Avoiding Lariata’s pursuit, he grabbed the fiery petals falling from the sky.

“My magic power has recovered to some extent, but my body is not even half of what it was. More than anything-”

The moment he turned his body while scattering and igniting the flames beneath his feet, a pale light flickered from the other side of the ruins.

Whoosh…!!

Thud thud thud!!

The prayer spell used by the Order. At the same time, correction knights and high priests appeared from outside the city.

“Chase the Apostle Slayer!!”

“We must bring his corpse back to headquarters today…!!”

The priests ran around the ruined streets, searching for traces of Lenok.

Lenok, hiding his body between the collapsed pillars, gestured.

“If the Apostle is here, it means that the Order’s priests have already arrived in the gate city.”

“……”

“The situation is no different elsewhere. Look.”

Boom boom boom…!!

Not Lenok’s, but a heat magic. A dazzling pillar of fire erupted from the half-destroyed black market.

A tank, fused with tentacles, appeared from where the search unit’s hospital should have been, spewing flames.

The Blaber Magic Tower’s anti-heresy unit. The fallen monsters of the Head Mercenary Group. The Order’s priests, and the mercenary units that had gathered, waiting for an opportunity.

“Fighting the 7th Apostle here is just a meaningless waste of energy. I have no intention of doing good for the others.”

How far could he fight with his body, which was tattered from the battle with the Conjunction Master and had just begun to recover?

He had recovered his depleted magic power by fully blooming the Thousand-Mile Fragrance, but a battle where his body couldn’t keep up was just a suicidal act.

If he hadn’t used the Divine Barrier, he wouldn’t have been able to move properly in the first place.

“I’ve got what I needed, so I’m leaving the city. If I’ve killed enough of the main force’s members, there shouldn’t be any problems with the succession of the ritual weapon-”

Having achieved his goal, there was no need to cling to the gate city any longer.

Lenok, confirming the bat wings smashing through the ash-covered streets in the distance, increased his speed.

Boom boom boom!!

Several metal pillars were driven down in a row, fiercely pursuing Lenok.

Superhumans jumped off the metal pillars, which were bending like taffy, and chased after Lenok.

“……The Ability Awakening Squad.”

“Mage. Where do you think you’re going alone?”

Clang!!

Loeved, who had appeared by breaking through the side of the ruined street, slammed his foot down, and countless metal fragments surged like a storm from beneath his feet.

At the same time, the buildings and fortress remains blocking the way were pushed back, instantly closing the distance.

He changed direction to avoid the superhumans rushing from all sides.

Loeved sneered as he watched Lenok, who was evading the pursuit by alternating between deceleration and acceleration.

“We didn’t anticipate the Apostle’s intervention, but it’s not a problem to capture you and escape.”

“……”

“If you come with us willingly now, the main force might even protect you-”

Bang!!

At that moment, a cannonball that had flown from somewhere struck Loeved’s face.

He had transformed his armor with tremendous reaction speed to receive the cannonball, but Loeved lost his balance and was thrown backward.

Kwaaang!!

A nonchalant middle-aged man’s voice echoed from above Lenok’s head.

“Seriously, why are there so many incompetent guys in our main force?”

“Bernard…!!!”

The moment Loeved, who had identified the culprit who had fired the cannonball, gritted his teeth and stood up.

A thick chill instantly froze Loeved’s arms and legs to the ground, stopping him.

Crack!!!

“Evan. This way!!”

“……Angel.”

“I’ve prepared an escape route, so let’s go back to Vulcan. The Chairman is waiting for you.”

Angel, who had frozen half of his body, was gesturing to Lenok, dripping with sweat.

“Before that, could you lower the temperature a little? I feel like my whole body is melting right now.”

“I don’t think this is the time for such jokes.”

“Bernard. Are you siding with a non-ability user after becoming a member of the main force?!”

Kwaaang!!

While Lenok was lowering the output of Flame Step, Loeved, who had broken free from the ice, shouted.

“Are you blinded by the fame of the Pioneers? Is defying Aphelia’s message truly the path for the main force?!”

“Since when was ambushing a Watcher who had finished fighting the path for the main force?”

Bernard, who had reloaded his cannon on the wall of the half-burnt fortress, retorted.

“The death of the Conjunction Master is enough to report to the higher-ups today. Do you not know how dangerous it is for Evan Martinez to die here?”

“……!!”

“Although he has left the Azure Eye, he is the Watcher that the Lighthouse Keeper cherished the most. If the main force lays a hand on him, we will be at odds with the Azure Eye for a long time.”

Click, Bernard reloaded a new cannonball and aimed it at his feet.

“I don’t think Aphelia would like that either.”

“You…!!”

Kwaaaang!!!!

Before Loeved could say anything, Bernard fired the cannon at the fortress.

The cannonball exploded in place, collapsing the city wall on the outskirts, and Bernard immediately jumped out of the fortress.

“Thousand, follow me!! There’s an emergency passage for the Pioneers outside the gate city-”

Whoosh!!

The moment he escaped to the meadow outside the fortress, he felt the air change drastically.

From the smell of burning ash and dust to the smell of gunpowder and magic power, which felt as if it would explode at any moment.

It wasn’t the smell of fresh meadows or wind. Realizing that, Bernard turned his gaze towards the other side of the meadow.

[Ah.]

The mage wearing a robe, who had met Bernard’s gaze, let out a chilling voice.

[You’re finally looking this way.]

On the meadow outside the gate city fortress, mages of the Order Alliance wearing robes were lined up in unison.

They had surrounded the outskirts of the city and formed a formation, raising complex magic circles one after another.

“Oh.”

Bernard, who had belatedly come down from the collapsing fortress, scratched his head.

“I didn’t consider this.”

[Did you think you could leave the gate so easily after killing the Alliance’s Great Conjunction Master?]

Goo…!!

The robe, standing at the head of hundreds of Alliance mages, spoke in a cold voice.

[The atrocities you have committed today are a grave crime that the Alliance can never overlook. How dare a dog that has lost its master….]

“……”

[The Ability Awakening Squad. The Guido Order. The Magic Tower and the Head Mercenary Group. And all the other miscellaneous mercenaries.]

The moment the robe spread its hand, hundreds of magic circles on the other side of the meadow glowed intensely and rotated.

The robe, with the flickering magic light behind it, tilted its head back.

[Today, I will rebuild a new gate on top of your corpses.]

Whoooom!!!

Was it that they had been preparing for an interception outside the gate city immediately after the Conjunction Master’s death?

The power of the spells aimed at them was ominous.

Hundreds of bombardment spells with the power to destroy half a city with a single shot.

If all that firepower was concentrated on the gate city, the entire trace of the city would be completely obliterated.

Bernard, who had been watching the Order Alliance’s spell deployment with a stiff expression, slowly turned his gaze.

“Well, it seems like we’re going to have to work pretty hard to survive here?”

“……”

Kugugugugwang!!!

Outside the fortress, the mages of the Magic Tower chanted spells in succession, and the monsters of the Head Mercenary Group rummaged through the ashes.

The mercenary units, lined up by unit, closed the distance. The Order’s priests ran around the ruins, chasing after Lenok.

The surviving assassination squad of the Ability Awakening Squad stopped in front of the collapsed fortress, surrounding Lenok and glaring at him.

“……Evan?”

Not long after the battle with the Conjunction Master had ended, countless forces had approached the gate city, forming a siege.

A chaotic situation on the battlefield that was becoming so complicated that survival could not be guaranteed.

However, Lenok set aside all those things and silently looked up at the sky.

The sky that had been darkening since earlier.

“Evan, snap out of it!”

“……I see.”

Angel, flustered, shook his shoulder urgently, but Lenok couldn’t even pay attention to it.

The reason why he had missed the appearance of other superhumans after finishing the battle with the Conjunction Master.

The reason why Lenok’s senses couldn’t reach outside the city even while his magic detection was working.

The reason why he was still in this gate city even in this chaotic moment.

The reason why Lenok himself had hesitated to make a judgment even after recognizing the sense of unease.

It was because he understood that all of that was in the darkness that was approaching.

Even though he knew it was an unexpected anomaly, he accepted what was about to happen.

Perhaps it was because Lenok, too, had thought that he would one day face him in this form.

And with that, words naturally flowed from Lenok’s mouth.

“Run away.”

“……Huh?”

Lenok, who had released Angel and Jebyeok’s necks, said,

“Run away with all your might. Go deep into the front lines, past the gate city.”

“What?”

Whoosh!!

At that moment, the darkness that had spread from the end of the horizon instantly dyed the opposite sky black.

A wave of darkness that was so close to a fleeting moment that even Angel and Bernard, let alone Jebyeok, could not perceive it.

At the same time, the sky of the gate city was dyed in darkness that did not reflect even a single ray of light.

Only the flames of the Thousand-Mile Fragrance were distorted in a circle in the darkness, shining like a solar eclipse.

An immeasurable ominousness. A savage ferocity that darkened and gnawed at his heart.

A primal fear that seemed to pierce and crush his heart made him gasp for breath.

“Hah…!!

“No way. This is…!!”

A chaos that neither the Alliance’s mages, the main force’s ability users, the Magic Tower’s mages, nor the Order’s priests could understand.

In that chaos, Lenok, who was the only one staring at the approaching wave of darkness, said,

“……It’s coming.”

Tick

Tick

Tick

The sound of clock hands twisting roughly.

From the darkness approaching from the end of the horizon, a massive black coffin appeared.