Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 1164

The main sanctuary of the Guido Order. The deepest part of the Valley of Grief, the Hall of Ten Thousand Gods.

The pale marble chamber, so bright it stung the eyes, convulsed violently.

Thud!!

A massive ritual circle stained with blood was etched into the center of the vast chamber.

In the middle of the circle, an apostle, bound and groaning grotesquely.

[Aaaaaaaah]

[Giiiiiiiiii]

[Eeeeeeeeeee]

From within the thick, overgrown hair, dozens of thin arms and legs sprouted and writhed.

Each time the body, grotesquely transformed like a centipede, moved, the ritual circle distorted and lost its shape.

Each time, one of the priests kneeling and praying around the circle died.

Splat!!

“…Ah.”

Without a single scream, the priests, still in their prayerful poses, spurted blood from their orifices and died.

The 11th Divine Maiden, Ureka Naidry, watched the scene with a disinterested expression from outside the circle.

“How annoying. Still haven’t come to your senses?”

She sat with her legs crossed on a lavish chair, wearing a pure white robe and holding a scepter, so bright it stung the eyes.

But the most striking thing about her was the blue holy cloth tightly wrapped around one arm.

Each time a faint flash of lightning, not her own, flickered through the holy cloth, the faces of the paladin knights guarding her hardened.

Evidence of the injury Ureka sustained from ‘someone’ while recovering the remains of the 6th Apostle, Anathame.

They knew how many priests of the Order had died from that lightning.

But even with the lightning tearing at her arm, Ureka’s expression did not change.

“I had high hopes since they said he was one of the most lethal apostles, but he’s just a mindless bug.”

Ureka, sitting with her legs crossed on the lavish chair, frowned, tapping the scepter she held horizontally with a frustrated expression.

“You’ve killed this many priests, you should wake up by now. How long are you going to waste my time?”

“The 9th Apostle is the incarnation that has devoured the most humans among all the apostles.”

A cardinal standing behind Ureka said quietly.

“Among them, he was the most blindly obsessed with cannibalism and forbidden arts, so it’s no surprise that his madness has spread to his soul.”

“Hey, who doesn’t know that? That’s why I’m trying to recycle this disgusting human centipede.”

Ureka turned her head sharply, her eyes cold.

“But not in that state. At least he needs to understand who his master is.”

“……”

Ureka, who had stepped forward with her scepter, closed her eyes and gathered her inner strength.

“I’ll try one last time. If you don’t listen by then—ah.”

Ureka, who suddenly raised her gaze, smiled eerily.

“He’s back.”

“…You mean he’s back?”

Ignoring the cardinal’s question, Ureka threw her scepter aside and immediately turned around.

Ureka, leaving behind the priest who hurriedly caught the scepter and the bewildered cardinal, strode out of the ritual chamber.

A massive road that cut through the center of the main sanctuary. A vast street lined with majestic white temples and pillars.

At the end of it, from the space rift of a huge altar, someone was being helped down by priests.

“Get out of the way. Everyone get down!!”

At Ureka’s sharp voice, the flustered priests hurried down from the altar.

They were supporting and healing an old man in a top hat.

Chiiik……!!

His whole body was charred black, his skin burned and melted, emitting a foul smoke……

The smell of burning flesh and muscle wafted down from the altar, making the Divine Maiden grimace.

His injuries were so severe that the sword he was holding and his hand had melted together and could not be separated.

The highest-ranking incarnation of the Order, the 5th Apostle, Eldritch.

The price for taking the ‘Sorrow’ bombardment head-on just before escaping the royal capital was something even an apostle could not ignore.

Eldritch, unable to say a word, sat slumped below the altar, his head bowed with difficulty.

The faces of the priests chanting healing spells and holy magic for the 5th Apostle were stiff.

“His cell tissue is necrotizing. Healing and regeneration spells are not working at all.”

“He’s only holding on with the apostle’s strong body. At this rate, he won’t be able to move for a while.”

“It’s the trace of the forbidden weapon ‘Sorrow’ lost in Tokerphos. Could it be……”

But Ureka didn’t even look at Eldritch, instead pointing to the corpse he was carrying.

“Put that down where I can see it.”

“……”

The priests supporting the 5th Apostle removed the corpse and placed it at Ureka’s feet.

A gruesome sight, the frozen body melted and stopped. A hideous expression distorted by pain and betrayal.

Ureka, looking down at the corpse of Aaron Byger Kabahim, the lord of Kabahim, reached out her hand.

“Give it here.”

Clack!

The priest holding the scepter respectfully placed it in her hand.

Ureka, snatching the long scepter, chanted a spell with a nervous gesture.

“Pseudo-divine word deployment. Preservation granted. Spirit aggregation. Spirit extraction.”

After chanting unintelligible words a few times, she struck Aaron Byger’s head with the scepter.

“Reveal yourself.”

Crack!!

A strange cracking sound, as if ice was breaking, not bone or muscle.

The tip of the scepter pierced Aaron’s forehead, going straight through his head.

The fluid flowing from Aaron’s head spread across the floor, forming a complex magic circle.

Woo-oong, crack, crack!!

With a strange resonance and sparks, Aaron’s body slowly floated above the magic circle.

Holding Aaron’s head, which was melting while impaled on the scepter, she thrust her bare hand into it.

Squeeeesh……!!!

Cold, sticky fluid flowed down her arm.

“Hey.”

But Ureka’s face, looking down at Aaron’s corpse, was cold and eerily distorted.

“Are you trying to play games with me?”

“…Excuse me?”

“It’s not there. There’s nothing inside.”

Ureka coldly retorted to the cardinal’s question and turned her body sharply.

Her face distorted, she glared at the 5th Apostle who had collapsed below the altar and shouted.

“What the hell did you do in Kabahim’s royal capital, Eldritch!!!!”

At the same time as she swung the scepter nervously, a pale light exploded.

A giant white arm appeared above Ureka’s head and roughly slammed down on the 5th Apostle’s body.

Kwaaang!!!

“Aaaagh!!”

“Guh…!!”

The priests who were healing the 5th Apostle were crushed by the spell.

But the 5th Apostle’s body, unharmed by the Divine Maiden’s ‘punishment’, tumbled across the floor of the temple.

Ureka, glaring at the 5th Apostle who had lost consciousness amidst the dying groans of the priests, said with bloodshot eyes.

“Aaron Byger Kabahim’s duality is broken. He can’t be used as a ‘key’ like this. The plan has failed.”

“But this person is definitely the lord of Kabahim himself……”

“Cardinal. Don’t nitpick. Who doesn’t know what Aaron Byger looks like?”

Ureka flipped Aaron’s eyelids, revealing his unfocused eyes.

She dug her fingers between his eyelids, pulling them as if she would gouge out his eyeballs.

Ureka, looking at Aaron’s eyes with the vitreous fluid dripping out, said.

“He doesn’t have double pupils. This infidel completely lost his talent for duality before he died.”

Ureka cut off her words nervously and turned her gaze.

“Someone tampered with his talent and damaged his origin. Is that why he ended up like this?”

“……”

“Unbelievable. A person capable of damaging the talent and status of an 8-level transcendent was in the royal capital.”

Without hearing any explanation from the 5th Apostle, she grasped the situation just by briefly examining Aaron’s corpse.

At the same time, she realized that the original plan to release the 1st Apostle’s fate seal had gone awry.

The veins in Ureka’s hand, holding the scepter, bulged.

“Thanks to you, the plan has to take a detour. How dare you……”

“D-Divine Maiden Naidry……”

“Find out who fought Aaron Byger last in Kabahim.”

Ureka, turning around and passing by the priests, said in a cold voice.

“I’ll remember his name until I repay him for the humiliation the Order suffered today.”

“……”

“We’ll decide on the key issue later. Until then, keep that in the Soul Sanctuary.”

Although Aaron’s talent for duality was broken, his body was not entirely useless.

An 8-level physical ability user who was the lord of a country. Even if the purpose was different, there would be a use for it somewhere.

“Should we transport the 5th Apostle as he is and treat him?”

“…Ah, yes.”

Ureka, stopping her steps, looked at the unconscious 5th Apostle and sneered.

“Even though it hasn’t been long since he woke up, he’s much weaker than what was recorded. He’s still not even close to the 7th Apostle.”

“……”

“But if he holds the karma of killing his master with his own hands, there might be a way to regain his full power.”

Ureka nodded.

“Treat him and move him to the sanctuary. I’ll check his condition myself later.”

“…You mean.”

“If he killed his former master with his own hands, it would be fitting for him to take the corpse himself.”

Ureka smiled eerily at the hesitant priest.

“The fifth is a human number. I wonder what kind of apostle will be born when a king and his subject become one?”

“……”

The Soul Sanctuary was one of the most alien and unique sanctuaries among all the facilities in the Hall of Ten Thousand Gods.

It was a secret, located at the lowest level of the Order’s betrayals and taboos committed by offering humans.

Not many, even among the cardinals and high priests, were allowed to enter the sanctuary, let alone ordinary priests.

Leading the silent priests, she crossed the Hall of Ten Thousand Gods.

Ignoring the believers who recognized the Divine Maiden and bowed respectfully, Ureka asked.

“What is the return date of the First Apostle?”

“…It hasn’t been even half a month since he left for the central front.”

One of the high priests said cautiously.

“He usually spends several months on external schedules, so it might take some time……”

“Ha, he’s never around when I need him……”

Ureka muttered, biting her nails irritably.

With bloodshot eyes, she looked at the tens of thousands of believers praying in various parts of the Hall of Ten Thousand Gods.

“The consecration ceremony is near. This level of faith is not enough. We need a more decisive trigger.”

“……”

“There must be some arrangement or secret left by the previous Divine Maiden that I don’t know about. He would definitely know……”

“Even if it’s not the First Apostle, if it’s a record of the Order that we can access with our cardinal’s authority……”

“No. There’s definitely a secret that only the 2nd Apostle knows. The case of the 10th Apostle was the same.”

Ureka replied as she strode forward.

“I heard that the corpse of the former 10th Apostle, Amrita Praubel, was cursed so strongly that it took a very long time to recover the apostle’s spell. Don’t you think the direction is similar to this case?”

“That’s……”

“Ah, never mind. You don’t have to answer.”

Ureka smiled coldly at the hesitant priests.

“It was my mistake to expect a plausible answer from you. How can I have a normal conversation with mere insects?”

“…We are sorry.”

“Never mind, just bring all the data about what happened in the Far East branch to my office.”

Ureka’s eyes flashed intensely as she moved without hesitation.

“Was it Izel Naidry? It seems I need to investigate the failure of that old man who tried to exchange his body with an apostle.”

* * *

A vast darkness slid across the endless plains.

A majestic black coffin, formed from a mass of darkness, floated forward.

A vast field, devoid of any trace of human presence, formed on the outskirts of the central front.

Once part of the continent’s greatest granary, it had now fallen into a demonic realm, the ruined courtyard of the Ascended.

Jinwa’s Lost Paradise.

Whooooooo!!!!

The scenery of an orchard stretching to the horizon.

Trees dyed purple, and paper fruits hanging from them.

Each time the giant spirit stones, over tens of meters tall, rooted around the orchard vibrated, unknown voices echoed from all directions.

[De li cious]

[I un der stand]

[I want to eat more]

[I want to know more]

Woo-oo-oo-oong-!!!

As the spirit stones resonated, the vast orchard shook, and the tree roots buried in the purple soil revealed themselves.

What was embedded at the end of the roots and becoming nourishment was not the soil of the orchard, but the corpses of dead humans.

Corpses with faces of ecstasy, their breath cut off, became the nourishment of the orchard, blooming the fruits of knowledge.

[I I I I I un der stand -]

[To ge ther to ge ther to ge ther to ge ther]

[Wait ing wait ing wait ing wait ing]

The spirit stones resonate. The orchard shakes.

The spirit stones resonate. The orchard collapses.

The spirit stones resonate. The orchard opens.

Bizarrely distorted structures, impossible to perceive, surged from all directions, stretching to the horizon.

A heretical sanctuary of unrealistic size, far exceeding human units and measurements, prepared solely for worship.

She was ‘contained’ there.

[I ac know ledge]

Kuuuuuuuuuung!!!!!

She wriggled her body to convey her will.

[That your eleven fates have touched me, even for a brief moment]

“……”

[I commend you for making a choice that is even slightly closer to the correct answer among the insects]

It was impossible to perceive the form she was taking.

Her sense of perception had already expanded and broken down beyond repair, no longer functioning within the human realm.

She could only know that what was shaking before her was very large, faint, majestic, and hideous.

She inhaled the memories of endless deaths to the very end, sinking so deeply that not even herself remained.

Forgetting even the boundary between reality and death, she fell endlessly and continued eternally.

No matter how this battle ends.

Surely, this is the end.

But even knowing that, Myung did not regret it.

From long ago, she had been waiting for this moment to come.

She believed that only this kind of ending was fitting for her demise.

Even knowing she would fail, even knowing she would never reach it, she was glad to finally stop here.

She was glad to have met ‘him’ before finishing her Gabi journey.

In the end, Myung would never know if there was a next world.

But now, even if there was, it would be okay.

Her unfulfilled wishes, the secrets she couldn’t explain, even the destination of her Gabi journey.

Someday, he would find them himself and reach them.

She had confirmed it countless times, admiring, envying, and feeling relieved.

Thanks to that, she was able to leave meaning even in this moment heading towards the end.

The journey to find the answer was not in vain.

Kugugugugugu!!!!!

From the distant reaches of consciousness, beyond time and distance, the gazes of two transcendents simultaneously turned towards each other.

They did not speak.

The majestic waves of darkness that dyed the horizon and the sanctuary of the Lost Paradise that surged from the opposite side collided.

The heavens and earth tilted and twisted in all directions, and the planet’s atmosphere distorted, scattering its light to the outside world.

The world was plunged into an endless night.