Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 255

Interference (2)

Should they risk damaging Turan’s corpse to check if Gionis’s remains were inside?

It wasn’t like Evelyn was worrying for no reason.

To explain the situation to the mages of the Magic Tower all at once, it would be easiest to just show them Gionis’s corpse inside Turan’s stomach.

Lenox, looking down at the lion giant’s corpse with its limbs spread wide, said,

“The White Lion’s power was to borrow the magic of those he devoured immediately, on the condition of cannibalism. It was powerful and instantaneous, but the drawback was that the magic gained that way wasn’t permanent and would dissipate over time.”

“Just hearing that makes me feel sick. What kind of disgusting mindset do you need to have to do something like that…”

Turan had been spouting nonsense about being a predator, but considering that Kraken and Felix shared similar ways of thinking with other humans, it was probably just this guy who was crazy.

“That’s probably why he put the members of the Council into a coma and ate them one by one while hiding. So he could be ready for battle at any time, following Gionis’s signal.”

Lenox paused for a moment before continuing.

“And in my opinion… Turan’s cannibalism probably doesn’t follow the normal digestive process. The fact that he could use Gionis’s magic at the same time as eating him is proof that decomposition and digestion happened almost simultaneously inside his body.”

“…Okay.”

Evelyn, hearing that, spoke with a much more relaxed expression.

“Then let’s just transport him to the Magic Tower as he is. We need to contact the Blaver Magic Tower’s Central Continent headquarters first and get their response.”

She said that and then lifted the giant’s corpse, which was twice her height, with a heave.

Buried in the thick fur, his form wasn’t even properly visible.

“Even after death, he’s still annoying… Ugh, the smell…”

Lenox couldn’t help but laugh at the grumbling voice that came from the slumped giant’s corpse.

* * *

The two of them immediately descended from the melted bedrock area and headed to the crash site of the stone slab where the other agents were waiting.

Even if there was nothing they could do about the Council members who were already dead, they had to save those who were still breathing.

“It doesn’t look like they’ll regain consciousness anytime soon.”

“Still?”

“While you two were engaged in battle, we checked their conditions ourselves… As of now, they’re practically living corpses. They won’t even be able to walk on their own.”

The person who was the most alive was the oldest of the Council members. And even he had only lost an arm, so it was easy to see the extent of the damage.

A powerful soul-binding technique that could prevent someone from regaining consciousness even after having a limb cut off while still alive.

Regardless of what Gionis Verbane’s intentions were when he did this, the aftermath of the incident he left behind was intense.

Including Lenox and Evelyn, there were six people in this place.

Out of the fifteen Council members located in the Western Continent branch, five had survived.

And then there were the hundreds of books and grimoires that had been stored in the collapsed Beacher [a library or archive].

And if you considered the hidden artifacts, it was impossible to move everyone at once from this place.

“Did you contact the Magic Tower?”

“Yes. We received a response that they would immediately send reinforcements to investigate the situation, but there’s been no news yet.”

“…”

Lenox and Evelyn exchanged glances at the same time and stood up from their spots.

The distance from the crater where the Magic Tower was located to this bedrock area wasn’t that far.

If they had sent someone to assess the situation, they should have been caught by the two’s magic detection by now.

But the fact that they hadn’t felt any sign of them yet meant…

“There’s a problem.”

“Which side do you think it is? The Magic Tower? Or the Underworld?”

“It’s not the Magic Tower. If the entire tower’s mages had joined Gionis, things wouldn’t have turned out like this.”

“Then…”

“Do you remember what Gionis said?”

Click!

Lenox, who had taken out and loaded his shotgun, muttered.

“He said that two members of the Underworld had infiltrated the furnace and caused a ruckus. I brushed it off at the time, but…”

If those two people weren’t Turan and Gionis, but rather, Turan and another member.

There was no need for further explanation.

Evelyn also grabbed her quiver and immediately began to walk out of the bedrock area.

“The only area that leads directly from the Magic Tower to the bedrock area is a single barren forest.”

A dead forest where withered trees, dried by the heat, grew densely.

It was an area where only the remains of strange trees, which had absorbed iron instead of water from the bedrock area and had stiffened, remained, creating a desolate atmosphere.

“If someone is hiding and waiting for the right moment, they’ll definitely be…”

Evelyn said that and then stopped as she stepped into the forest.

There was no need to look for them.

As if the area inside this space had changed, dozens of living presences could be felt vividly.

“…”

Among the branches of the trees that had long since died and hardened.

More than a dozen mages were tied up with a string of unknown material and hung upside down.

Most of them had already lost consciousness, and even though they occasionally twitched, there were hardly any who were resisting.

A bizarre scene, as if they were prey that had been caught and stored.

And in the middle of that forest.

A giant spider was hanging upside down, staring at the two of them.

Or rather, should it be called a monster that resembled a spider?

Ten legs and a thick torso. And the upper body was that of a young woman.

With her eyes covered by a thick blindfold, her long hair hanging down to the ground, the monster’s mouth twitched as she looked at the two of them.

Evelyn immediately recognized who the opponent was and hardened her face.

“Agneta… Was it you who infiltrated the Magic Tower with Turan…?”

“Do you know her?”

Evelyn turned her head and whispered softly.

“…She’s one of the messengers who officially represents the Underworld. Among them, she’s considered to be on the more moderate side.”

Indeed, there was a reason why Evelyn hadn’t immediately gone into battle stance.

A person who was considered to be on the moderate side even in the Underworld… Lenox also looked at her with a curious expression.

Agneta continued to speak with an indifferent expression, despite the gazes directed at her.

“I was waiting. I thought you, Hyun-gung, would notice soon.”

“Did you come to avenge Turan?”

“No.”

She answered.

“If that was the case, I would have helped that dumb lion when he was rampaging, you know. I was actually eagerly waiting for the day that idiot would die.”

“…”

“I just came to talk about the terms of our deal.”

Silence fell.

After hesitating for a moment, Evelyn shook her head.

“If you’re asking for the furnace’s flame, I can’t give it to you. It’s not something I can decide.”

“Ah, we don’t need that anymore.”

Agneta answered nonchalantly.

Her hair, hanging from the spiderweb, swayed back and forth whenever she shook her head.

“We found something similar in the deep sea of the Northern Hemisphere. Ah, should I not have said that?”

“…What?”

Even though Evelyn asked that question, Lenox slightly lowered his head to hide his gaze.

That last statement had given him some certainty about what the Underworld was doing in various parts of the world.

They were truly searching for and collecting the relics of the old world that were left behind in this world.

Agneta naturally changed the subject.

“Anyway, the important thing is not that, but what I want. Turan’s corpse. You guys still have it, right?”

“…”

“If you give me that, I’ll leave quietly.”

“What’s the reason you want his corpse?”

“It’s a waste for such a body to just disappear into the dirt, isn’t it?”

At the same time as Agneta raised her hand, one of the spiderwebs snapped, and one of the cocoons hanging from the tree fell next to her.

“The only thing in his head was a disgusting desire to eat human flesh, but his body has many uses.”

“…Do you think we’ll make a deal that will benefit you?”

“Yes. I think so. But your mind will change when you see this, right?”

A long spider leg moved and neatly cut open the cocoon, revealing its contents.

A short, bearded man with his eyes rolled back, unconscious. A familiar middle-aged man’s face.

Mauzer’s face was there.

“…!!”

Only then did Evelyn realize that Agneta had thoroughly prepared for this meeting.

She hadn’t simply been waiting for the fight to end nearby.

With the intention of recovering Turan’s headless body, she had deliberately infiltrated the Magic Tower and even captured Mauzer, who had been in the furnace control room.

“I’ve heard the stories. He’s a famous craftsman from the mechanical city, right?”

Squeak!

With the tip of her leg, she lightly brushed Mauzer’s forehead, and in an instant, his skin slightly split open, and bright red blood covered his face.

“You know I’m not asking for much. Let’s wrap things up here today.”

“…”

Evelyn’s expression changed in a complicated way, but she didn’t hesitate for long.

Even if Agneta had a moderate personality, she was still a member of the Underworld.

She wouldn’t hesitate or waver when it came to killing or saving someone, nor would she easily say those words.

No matter what value Turan’s corpse had, it wasn’t more important than saving a living person.

“Okay.”

Evelyn nodded and immediately turned her back.

“I’ll bring Turan’s corpse. If you do anything to Master Mauzer until then, I won’t let it slide.”

Whoosh!

In an instant, she disappeared into the forest.

Lenox naturally crossed his arms and stood facing her.

The reason why Evelyn could leave so readily, leaving the others behind, was probably because she trusted Lenox to hold the line.

Lenox, who had silently taken out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it, looked around with a nonchalant expression.

He didn’t like agreeing to Agneta’s deal, but it was also true that there was no other way in this situation.

They couldn’t kill a healthy Mauzer just to keep the corpse of a white lion that was already dead.

They couldn’t ignore the hostage and engage in battle without properly assessing the opponent’s strength.

Moreover, both Lenox and Evelyn had used up a lot of their magic, so it was impossible to continue fighting.

In the end, all of this was the result of Gionis’s karma for betraying the Magic Tower and reaching out to the Underworld.

‘A manipulator-type sorcerer…’

Lenox slightly turned his head and looked at the spiderwebs that were spread all around, his eyes sinking deeply.

Lenox also had a knack for using magic, but dealing with high-level manipulation magic was a completely different story.

Manipulation was a very comprehensive and ambiguous concept among all the categories of magic techniques, so depending on what and how you manipulated it, the level and specialization could vary greatly.

In Lenox’s case, he used magic to interfere in both the physical and magical fields at the same time, but it wouldn’t be strange if there was a manipulation-type sorcerer who was actually manipulating a completely different ‘concept’ rather than magic.

For example… a sorcerer who manipulates ‘mind’ rather than magic.

Lenox, who had been lost in thought, suddenly spoke.

“The soul-binding technique that was on the Council members. That was your doing.”

“That’s right.”

“It wasn’t even a soul-binding technique originally, was it?”

“That’s right.”

She nodded obediently and stared blankly at Lenox from behind her blindfold.

“…”

Shashashat!

Not only that, but she also moved the spider’s body forward and began to stare intently at Lenox right in front of his nose.

Lenox, unable to bear it any longer, coughed dryly.

“Why are you staring so intently?”