Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 1119

Residue (8)

In the middle of a vast, achromatic room.

Lenox stood with his eyes closed, one hand outstretched.

Around him flowed a tingling cerebral lightning. A glass-colored light flickered at his fingertips.

A clear voice of a cybernetic spirit echoed from the ceiling.

[Commencing spell manifestation]

Crackle…!!!

Inside the thick glass barrier, a bright blue lightning flashed.

A sharp flash of lightning, fueled by magic, bloomed from the empty air.

[Quadruple Overlap]

One more. One more. And another streak again.

Four streaks of lightning that bloomed in the air touched each other and rotated precisely.

[Accelerating property change. Joining the ends.]

Crackling, sizzling!!!!

The four bolts of lightning, compressed to their limit, connected to form a tetrahedron [a four-sided pyramid].

The tetrahedron, glowing blue, floated and scattered intense lightning in all directions.

[Compressed through 8th gear shift]

Crack, crack, crack…!!!!

At the same time as clenching his fist, it gradually decreased in size on the spot.

The shape of the tetrahedron compressed to be small enough to fit in his hand.

[Initiating control sequence. Starting directional control.]

Lenox, who had floated the compressed object in the air, slowly reached out towards it.

The moment he carefully grasped the compressed lightning with his hand wearing the heavy glass-colored gauntlet.

[Release failed. Runaway—]

Crack!!

At the same time as an ominous cracking sound, lightning exploded in Lenox’s hand.

The streaks of light that leaked out on both sides of his fist accelerated in front of his eyes in an instant.

It pierced through the thick barrier of the laboratory and scattered with a tremendous roar.

KWA-A-A-A-A-ANG!!!

A thunderous sound that seemed to tear the eardrums.

Blue lightning flickered and surged before his eyes, and the ground beneath his feet shook madly.

All the surrounding fixtures and equipment flew away and shattered, and the temperature and pressure rose rapidly.

[WARNING]

[WARNING]

[WARNING]

Red warning lights flashed overhead, and a chaotic mix of roars and sirens sounded.

[334 types of defensive barriers completely destroyed. 1,551 types partially destroyed.]

[External variables undetectable. Internal variables uncontrollable.]

[Issuing 1A+++ level alert. Barrier shutdown. Facility closure.]

Clang, clang, clang!!!!

Solid alloy barriers descended from all sides, and sprinklers activated from the ceiling.

Streams of water poured over the acrid smoke, lowering the temperature, and the ventilation system activated to adjust the pressure.

The remains of countless measuring devices, broken and crushed beyond recognition.

In the pile of debris that had instantly turned into ruins, Lenox stood soaked in water.

Swish, swish, swish!!!

Davy approached Lenox, who was standing in the rain pouring from the sprinklers.

[72% of the spell performance test site’s function is lost. It seems difficult to do a second experiment.]

“…I see. But this confirms it.”

Lenox, who had swept back his wet hair, looked down at his hand with a blank face.

“The lightning magic is running wild.”

* * *

Vulcan, a giant city. Lenox’s personal laboratory.

Swish, swish!!

Lenox, who had finished showering, walked out with a towel over his shoulder.

Lenox, who was buttoning his shirt, picked up the coffee cup that Davy had prepared and asked.

“How’s the test site?”

[We are working on the restoration, but the possibility of the performance returning to its original state is low.]

The cybernetic spirit, who had jumped onto his shoulder, said.

[Due to the nature of Master’s magic, the aftereffects will last for a long time, so even if the restoration is completed, it seems that the performance degradation cannot be avoided?]

“……”

[I recommend abandoning the existing performance test site and building a new one right next to it.]

The dream of setting up a laboratory that started in a corner of an old apartment has now reached the level of remodeling an entire building.

He bought a part of the deserted streets in the undeveloped district, plastered it with barriers, and reduced the traces and aftereffects from leaking out.

The spell performance test site located near the research building was one of the places Lenox had put the most effort into.

The entire building was covered with magic-blocking material, and the properties of the steel and concrete were modified to increase their strength.

A training ground designed with all sorts of spells and barriers added, so that even if it broke and bent, it would not lose its center and collapse.

The performance test site, comparable to a bomb shelter, was half-destroyed by a single use of a spell, but Lenox’s expression was not comfortable.

“The test site I made in the undeveloped district was for insurance, so it’s okay, but… that’s not the problem.”

Lenox sighed and leaned back in his chair, shaking his head.

“The power of lightning magic is running wild. I expected it, but it’s more than I thought.”

The final battle where he collided with the Ascendant in the outer city of Kundara.

Lenox took the Elixir of Ascension and accepted destruction in order to win that battle, and obtained the altered Ouroboros [a symbol of a serpent eating its own tail, representing infinity and cyclicality].

However, even though the effects of the elixir had worn off and he had survived safely, black lightning was still mixed in Lenox’s lightning.

A subtle sense of incongruity that was neither visible nor felt by the senses.

However, through Lenox’s transcendent sensitivity, he could clearly feel the ‘disturbance’.

Through this, Lenox recognized that there was a problem with his lightning magic, and after returning to Vulcan, he underwent a self-examination and finally became convinced.

“It’s not a backlash from the elixir’s toxicity. There has been a change in a more fundamental part.”

Lenox rested his chin on his hands and pondered.

“Inside me… has something changed?”

[I’m recording all of Master’s conversations with me since returning to the lab.]

Davy climbed onto Lenox’s lap and wagged his tail.

[Let’s start by organizing exactly what symptoms and sensations you have.]

“……”

Lenox closed his eyes silently and pondered.

He infinitely dissected and looked into everything he felt immediately after chanting the spell.

Using the mage’s reason, transcendent intuition, and sensitivity, he reversed the flow of time, captured it, and contemplated it.

Woo-oo-oong…!!

Before he knew it, Lenox’s eyes had turned into magic eyes and were flashing.

Lenox, who had recalled his memories while using his innate ability, slowly opened his mouth.

“…The last moment.”

[The last moment?]

“There’s no problem until the moment I chant the spell and create it.”

Lenox said as he opened his eyes.

“The last moment when I complete the chant and manipulate it… only at that exact moment does it try to escape my will.”

[……]

“For a very brief moment, there is a moment when the spell is not withdrawn according to my will. To explain it sensually, it’s close to that feeling.”

Magic is a miracle that exists under the will of the caster at every moment from beginning to end.

With Lenox’s talent, it was even possible to withdraw and cancel the magic after casting it.

Based on his thoughts and mental images, the spell created using magic as fuel should always be under Lenox’s control.

However, at the moment of chanting and firing the lightning magic, Lenox realized that the lightning was faintly escaping his control.

“Has the upper limit of the spell output increased dramatically, but I’ve lost the ability to control the fine details?”

[How about other types of magic?]

“The fire and manipulation types are fine. Only the lightning type is running wild.”

He instinctively knew without even experimenting.

The runaway that did not occur in other types was occurring only in the lightning type.

[I’ve succeeded in recovering the data from the spell performance test site.]

Davy said, raising a hologram window in front of Lenox’s eyes.

[I recorded the moment right after Master chanted the spell from 36 different angles, shall I play it?]

“Please play it at 0.001 speed.”

Lenox, who immediately moved the hologram window in front of his eyes, began watching his own video moving slowly.

Lenox, who had raised one hand in the center of the test site, slowly clenched his fist.

The speed at which his fingers moved felt slower than a turtle crawling.

However, Lenox did not blink and watched his own image moving in the video.

The moment Lenox in the video grasped the compressed lightning and clenched his fist.

Flash.

The lightning pierced through the test site and exploded at a speed that could not be seen with the naked eye.

“……”

The lightning magic that Lenox uses is a lightning of speed comparable to the light type.

Even when lowered to 0.001 speed, the speed of the lightning cannot even be tracked in the video.

Davy also rubbed his front paws and wagged his tail with an awkward look.

[I’ll lower the speed further.]

“Let’s narrow the playback start point as well. Let’s break down the moment when the compressed object explodes further, and lower the speed intensively only at that point.”

Squeak, squeak……

The scene of the lightning exploding in Lenox’s hand as he clenched his fist in the video is replayed hundreds of times.

Every time he couldn’t confirm anything unusual, he replayed the video while continuing to lower the speed.

A low speed that was beyond slowing down, to the point where his hand wouldn’t even move even if he watched it for almost a minute.

Davy, who was slightly deflated, said.

[Master. This speed is the limit with the current video recording device…]

“It’s okay.”

Lenox said, rotating the Eight Trigrams Formation [a symbol used in Taoist cosmology, representing fundamental principles].

“From now on, I’ll check it myself.”

Whirring!!!

He stretched out the perceived time to the limit with Anathema’s innate ability.

He divided the time, which had slowed down to a speed close to the limit of the video device, once again in reality.

The moment he began to imitate the realm of an Ascendant who infinitely divided his consciousness and thought.

Lenox was finally able to see it in the video.

His own self in the video. The light of the lightning exploding in his hand.

The fact that it was tinged with an infinitely ominous dark blue light.

‘……Ah.’

Not Lenox’s own lightning, nor the black lightning of the corrupted divergence point.

A black-blue lightning that was newly born from the fusion of those two forces.

The fact that an unknown lightning, which he himself did not know, was appearing and disappearing in a moment that was not even a fraction of a second.

“……”

Whoosh!!

Lenox, who had turned off the Eight Trigrams Formation and returned to reality in an instant, lowered his head.

“I see……”

The corrupted divergence point he had obtained after taking the Elixir of Ascension.

He was once again realizing that the power he had newly engraved in the kaleidoscope was a dangerous possibility for Lenox himself.

[Master?]

“It wasn’t just that the lightning magic was running wild.”

Lenox smiled bitterly and raised his gaze.

“Has an unknown concept that I don’t yet understand mixed into my lightning?”

The corrupted divergence point where he accepted destruction after drinking the elixir.

In order to use the ‘disassembly’ ability of the altered Ouroboros, Lenox used his own lightning as the medium.

Lenox’s lightning, which had passed through the Ouroboros, was dyed black and became black lightning that disassembled all matter and laws.

He didn’t understand why he had to do that.

However, it was just the result of a sensation that felt more familiar than anything else, as if he had to do it.

However, the price for accepting that familiarity deep into his soul still remained within Lenox.

Moreover, it was in the form of a completely new power, fused with Lenox’s own lightning magic.

“The system of lightning magic itself hasn’t changed. But it’s certain that some unknown concept has mixed in.”

Clank!!

He grabbed the glass-colored gauntlet that was on the display stand and put it on his hand.

As he drew up his magic power, he raised the lightning mixed with black lightning onto the gauntlet.

Woo-oo-oong!!!!

The tingling lightning wrapped around the glass-colored gauntlet and rotated, but the gauntlet did not react.

It only greedily absorbed and swallowed the magic power that Lenox had unleashed.

“The gauntlet doesn’t react when I use lightning magic. But—”

Whirring…!!

The moment he compressed the rising lightning and formed it into a magic thread, the gauntlet began to shake violently.

The shape of the forbidden weapon, shaking violently as if it were about to start at any moment.

“Like this, it definitely reacts when I form the shape of a magic thread.”

[Master, this is…]

Lenox muttered, looking at the glass-colored gauntlet.

“Somehow, this forbidden weapon can only be handled by borrowing the form of a manipulation type. If so, then…”

Clearly, he had been vaguely feeling it.

The twisted and altered Ouroboros. The black lightning dyed black.

The power of destruction that disassembles the world and opens the [Gate].

That Lenox might have ‘reached’ such a realm someday.

That the familiarity Lenox felt might not be a delusion or an illusion.

He was just replaying the fact that he had been consciously ignoring after the Kundara incident in this worst form.

He was holding himself back in the confusion that became more incomprehensible the more he thought about it.

Still, his desire to be himself until the end of the world did not change.

He was convinced that the conclusion Lenox had reached was the only answer for the ending.

However, if ‘someone’ was always standing one step behind Lenox.

If he was waiting for the moment Lenox fell, the moment he looked back.

‘……I.’

Even without fully reaching level 9, he already possessed the power to disassemble all things in the universe.

If he properly became an Ascendant and obtained the qualification, the transcendence he would gain would be at a level that no one could approach.

And, the fact that such an existence might have already existed once a long time ago—

[Master!]

“……”

Before he knew it, Davy was standing on Lenox’s lap with his tail raised high.

The light of the glass-colored gauntlet faintly split and mixed ominously at Lenox’s fingertips.

Above the spirit’s back, the black lightning tail that should have been the eighth was flickering madly.

Crack, crack, crack…!!!

[Master……]

“…Okay.”

Lenox, who had picked up Davy, who had stiffened in panic, stroked his head.

But, was that really the right thing to do?

If it was a power that was infinitely familiar to Lenox, but that Lenox did not possess.

If it was a divergence point that Lenox had not obtained until this moment, wouldn’t there be a reason for it?

He hesitated because he knew it was within reach.

It was even more frightening because it was so familiar and close that he couldn’t understand it.

That was probably because Lenox already knew the ending.

Because he had seen the ending he had faced at the end of the corrupted divergence point, the ending he would face in the future.

“I need to investigate the power to open the [Gate].”

Lenox muttered, stroking Davy with his eyes closed.

“Unless I understand more deeply about the power I might have had someday… it will be impossible to handle it.”

[I’ll search the databases all over the continent and find information.]

“No. The clue is much closer than that.”

Lenox said, taking out his cell phone from his pocket.

“I was already given a hint a long time ago. By now, I’ll probably have received a message.”

At the same time as turning on the cell phone that had been turned off for several weeks, messages and missed calls poured in.

Messages that were still being sent and constant call attempts.

However, Lenox was able to check the message that had been updated through the secret line among them.

[Victor.]

A message sent a week ago by Highrea, a broker with a dual nature.

[The start date for the [Gate] capture operation in Kabahim Royal City has been decided. The Clown will be summoning members.]

“……”

[The gathering place is Tokerphuz. Please reply within fifteen days.]

The only way for Lenox to deeply understand the power to open the gate.

A means to deeply look into and dig into the gate itself.

The Pandemonium’s [Gate] capture operation was about to be carried out.

……. (To be continued)