Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 291

The Meaning of the Message (2)

The key is understanding how to manipulate time and space using magical power as a source. Even if we can’t perfectly decipher the exact conditions, grasping the patterns and gathering data significantly expands what’s possible.

The principle behind the creation of time and space. Establishing the environment and the necessary prerequisites to interfere with it using magic. This is precisely what Renok has done every time he created a unique, creation-type magic.

The hope that had seemed like a distant possibility is now solidifying in his mind. Just thinking about it makes Renok’s eyes sharpen and his back straighten.

Despite feeling groggy from the aftereffects of the doping, he can’t stop his research. His intense concentration, which wasn’t forced, doesn’t waver for a moment.

A sense of elation makes him feel like he could deploy the magnetic field again right now. Every moment spent studying the ruins and examining the cracks is filled with curiosity and anticipation, not pain.

Just as he enjoys risking his life to fight powerful enemies, exploring the truth of the world is equally thrilling and exhilarating. Each time this happens, he sometimes thinks that opening his eyes in this world wasn’t so bad after all.

The Ilwon family mansion was brightly lit all night, the lights never dimming.

* * *

“What a presumptuous fellow,” Oren said, stroking his beard with an arrogant tone. “After turning the fortress upside down, you were going to leave without even seeing my face?”

“Even if you scold me like that, it doesn’t really have an impact.” Even his anger, delivered with a pale face fresh from bed, doesn’t feel genuine. No, it wouldn’t be genuine in the first place.

Oren understands that it’s greedy to expect any more help from Renok. After all, Renok’s nominal position wasn’t just the title of outside director of the cartel.

So, as if nothing had happened, Oren sank into his chair and chuckled. “Well, I suppose so. What more can I say to a guy who tried to make a deal with me even as an agent?”

“……”

“Come to think of it, the other family heads told me to discuss giving you the title of outside family head.”

Renok replied with a sullen expression, as if Oren’s words had just reminded him of something. “I won’t be the family head you want.”

“It’s just a title, but it’s actually a position given to important guests of the fortress. Since your status as an agent has disappeared, you’ll need a plausible title to keep coming to the fortress.” Well, he already had a bunch of nominal titles, so one more wouldn’t be a problem.

Renok casually brushed his coat near the shoulder and held out his hand. “This?”

In his hand was a thin coat made of shadow feathers. Armor that Asui had taken from Oren during the final battle and given to Renok.

However, Oren shook his head without hesitation, even after seeing it. “As a family head, I can’t take back something I’ve given. Isn’t it the worst thing to give and then take back?”

“……”

“Well, even if it’s not that, there are similar artifacts in the family vault. It wouldn’t be bad if I could add that as a reward for this.”

“Okay… If you say so.” Renok said, readily taking the coat made of shadow feathers.

Oren handed over the coat as if it were nothing, but from Renok’s perspective, it was a much more useful item than he thought. It was designed to control appearance changes, warmth, and ventilation, provided one understood shadow-type formulas to some extent.

Although the durability wasn’t high for a clothing-type artifact, its convenience was considerable. It could even remember and reproduce the shape of the coat Renok was wearing, making it a unique convenience for shadow sorcerers.

“So, was there any harvest from the ruins?” Oren asked, leaning back languidly. “There must be a reason why you, who had been recuperating at the mansion for a while after the work was done, have come to see me now.”

Like all great sorcerers, Oren knew that Renok was an excellent scholar and researcher, in no way inferior to other magicians. If Renok, who had the opportunity to freely study the unexplored region of the ruins, wouldn’t easily leave the fortress without gaining some results.

Even if Oren were in Renok’s position, he would have thought the same. Renok noticed this and smiled. “Just glimpsing a cross-section of the world is a great opportunity for sorcerers. There were more results than expected. All that’s left is to go back and organize the data.”

“A cross-section?”

Renok briefly explained to Oren about the cracks hidden in the ruins and the cross-section of the world. Since the cult was involved, he couldn’t tell everything, but he had to explain the reason to some extent to use the ruins again in the future.

However, after hearing Renok’s explanation, Oren shook his head with a strange expression. “…When the previous family head was alive, the family heads, including me, went in and out of the ruins several times, but we didn’t feel anything. It doesn’t seem like something anyone can do.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. The family head was very active in researching the phenomena and secrets that occurred in the ruins. He believed that knowing that would allow him to negotiate on an equal footing with the old men of the City Council later.”

“……”

“Until the Ibon family head refused to share the ruins and locked himself in his house, access to the ruins was free, but that’s all in the past now.” Oren cast his gaze behind Renok without a word, with a hazy face.

“A crack in the world… That’s too far a story for an old man like me.” What he was looking at wasn’t just the scenery, but the future that the Six Directions Fortress would face. The authority of the collapsed Three Heads. The challengers rising from below and the City Council that would intervene over the ruins.

There would be many things he would have to take responsibility for and overcome in the future. However, even knowing that, he couldn’t abandon the residents of the fortress and accepted the position of family head, which was also Oren’s own will.

“But in the face of the coming future, ignorance is just negligence. I understand the meaning well.” Oren looked at Renok with a determined expression and slowly nodded. “I will also try to study the ruins with that in mind. I think it’s something that’s possible because you’re a sorcerer of your caliber, but…”

“The existence of the three ruins created inside the fortress is probably not a coincidence,” Renok replied. “A rare place that the Guido cult would go to the trouble of traveling such a long distance to see. The fact that there are three such places in one area is extremely strange. It’s highly likely that it’s the result of an artificial experiment or a specific formula.”

“…Does that mean?”

“The Black Consumer Project. If we gather information about that secret, we might be able to find out something.” The forbidden secret that the old men of the City Council chose by gathering the total power of the megacity. One of the worst secrets of the megacity, still shrouded in rumors and whose details are still hidden.

The head of the cartel, Oliviera Ron Maze, seemed to know something about the project. If the cartel had the origin of the project, and the Eight Directions Fortress had the aftermath, who knew the process between the beginning and the end?

Perhaps the term Three Heads itself, from the beginning… Renok stopped thinking there. Going further would only lead to unfounded delusions. However, Oren also seemed to have thought of something from Renok’s words and slowly nodded. “Yes… In the midst of everything changing, there’s no reason why even old taboos should remain as rules. You’re not wrong.”

He said, looking down at Renok. “I will gather information about that project, even for the upcoming negotiations with the City Council.”

* * *

A space filled with a pale white glow. Deep inside the pure white temple, which has reached the pinnacle of cleanliness where not even a speck of dust is allowed. Between the huge cracks in the temple’s interior, a massive blue crystal the size of a house floats in the air.

In front of the crystal, more than a hundred priests sat in reverent postures, offering prayers. Someone who was kneeling and had their hands together opened their mouth. “The 128th apostle candidate, Walter Martinez, has returned to the side of God.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

“The last confirmed destination is the megacity of Balkan, located in the southwestern plains of the continent… Due to the defense lines spread out on the outskirts of the city, it’s difficult to obtain specific information, but a rapid expansion of the authority given to bishop-level believers has been confirmed.”

“……”

As soon as those words were finished, hundreds of priests who had been praying together all raised their heads and looked back at that person. A gaze so inorganic that it was chilling. However, despite the attention, the meaning of which couldn’t be understood, the priest quietly conveyed the message. “It seems that he succeeded in the apostle’s descent with a very high probability.”

“To have accomplished that in that demonic city… We’ve lost a valuable talent.” A man who had been walking with his hands behind his back behind the priest let out a sigh. Thick glasses and delicate features. A nervous atmosphere that was closer to a scholar or researcher than a priest of the cult.

“I thought so when I worked with the black magician who wanted the power of annihilation, but there are so many strange people in that city.” The man quietly thought of the black magician Craig Tillion, whom he had lent his hand to. The end of the outer sea. Among them, Craig’s idea of programming the preservation information of the annihilation Acrotreenier [A powerful magical entity] and reproducing its shape inside the artificial area was impressive to the man.

He had lent his power because he liked the arrogance of trying to interpret the doctrines of God in a completely different way, but it ended tragically because of the activities of a freelancer named Ban. He didn’t even think that the person who had stopped this apostle’s descent was the same magician from that time.

“Well, anyway, if there’s a vacancy in the position of apostle candidate, we need to elect a new missionary.” At the man’s words, which he had said in passing, the faces of the people who were praying inside the temple turned pale. The man smiled as he looked around, not caring about such a cold atmosphere. “Since there are so many brothers gathered here, shall we pick out one missionary from this place?”

“I’m sorry to say this, but…” One of the priests, who was sweating profusely, barely squeezed out his voice. “This, this southwestern branch of the cult was established to observe and manage not only Balkan but also the autonomous territory and the volcanic area.”

“Keep talking.” At the man’s words as he adjusted his glasses, the priest’s face turned blue, but the die had already been cast. The priest, gritting his teeth, desperately racked his brains to persuade the man. All the other priests who were kneeling around the blue crystal were looking at him with desperate eyes.

“In addition, we have recently been assigned the task of monitoring the trends of the machine city of Machina… If the priests of the temple participate in the missionary ritual, the work of the branch may be paralyzed.” There was no hesitation in serving the gods of the outer sea. The environment in which the priest grew up was too harsh to be shaken by the word fanaticism. However, participating in the missionary ritual and becoming a missionary was a completely different story.

The term apostle candidate sounded good, but the reality was that they were no different from ghosts who had lost even their own bodies and were only left with their spirits to covet the bodies of others. There was no one who welcomed the process of metamorphosis that completely abandoned reason and common sense.

However, the man replied with a calm face even after hearing the priest’s protest. “Brothers. Listen carefully. Priests can be brought and replenished anytime, anywhere. It’s not difficult to gather the light of faith under the clear evidence that God exists.”

“……”

“But the duty of a missionary must not have a gap even for a moment. I hope everyone understands what I mean.” At the same time as those words, a faint glow that had risen from the man’s hand fell onto the white marble floor of the temple.

“Oh, no…!! Please!!”

“Please save me, I don’t want to die!!”

“Aaaaaaack!!”

Hundreds of priests cried out and shed tears, but the man ignored them and turned his back. As the man left the temple, white-clad warriors who had appeared behind him closed the door of the temple. The missionary selection ritual was a process of grinding hundreds of lives and bodies to leave only one will.

The manpower consumed in that process was not a problem at all. The important thing was to select a missionary as excellent as Walter Martinez and to succeed in the apostle’s ritual that might be possible in the future. “Hwaaaaaaaack!!!” The desperate screams echoing from inside the temple. A struggle where flesh was torn to pieces.

The pungent smell of blood spread intensely beyond the door, stickily soaking the surroundings. The priests who were still alive desperately scratched at the door of the temple, but the warriors blocking the door didn’t budge. “That’s a shame,” the man muttered as he looked up at the night sky. “If things had gone a little better, another new apostle could have been born… Things in the world don’t go so easily.”

“Isn’t it something that doesn’t mean much to you?” A woman who had been following him like a shadow asked. “I don’t understand why you, who have already completed the work of a missionary and have been newly given a body, are looking for a new brother.” It was natural that the man’s lament was incomprehensible from her point of view.

Unlike Walter Martinez, who ultimately failed to remain as an apostle, the man had completed the work of a missionary a long time ago and was one of the special forces who stood tall as the main axis of the cult after being given the body of an apostle. Unlike most of the apostles who were trapped in their own fanaticism and whose actions had become infrequent, the man, who actively continued external activities and spread the influence of the cult here and there, was an unusual figure within the cult.

“Gilen, that’s a very ignorant thing to say.” The man smiled and turned his head. “Just because you have received the will of the end and become an apostle doesn’t mean that you are completely cut off from the world. That’s rather a word that suits monsters like the ascendants [Beings who have transcended human limitations].”

“Then…”

“Rather, because they can vaguely feel the sensation of the sea in which they float… they come to hate the world that binds them.” He said that and slowly turned his back and put his hand on the door of the temple. “That’s why we need more brothers. In order to walk the tightrope between madness and reason for a long time, we must not destroy ourselves.”

“Kkuaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!” The last scream echoing from inside slowly subsided, and the smell of blood that had been spreading endlessly outside stopped unnaturally. He, who had been contemplating the inside of the temple where not even a single breath remained, slowly opened the door and muttered. “But you never know. That itself might have been the wish that Alcaide [A high-ranking figure in the cult] wanted…”

“……”

Hundreds of bright red handprints on the opposite side of the door. Among the fallen people, not a single person had any fingernails left. A scene that was so eerie that even the warriors holding the door flinched. “I have no choice but to do my best so that I can watch the end of the world until the very end.” The man said that and smiled brightly.

A mountain of flesh that didn’t even have the shape of a human being. In a pool of blood, a twisted spirit was just now blooming into a splendid flower.