Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 321

Immediately after ejecting Hina’s seat, another fighter jet appeared beside him. Aris, who should have been in the co-pilot seat, was nowhere to be seen.

He must have dropped Aris off at the first fortress. As if reading Lenok’s thoughts, a transmission came through.

[It seems you dropped Hina off safely. I knew you would.]

“What do you mean?”

[It seems to me that you’re always reluctant to accept help from others. I figured you’d try to handle this whole thing on your own.]

“……”

[Take the fortress assault you just completed by yourself, for example. The three entry routes were set up with your approval. If you had accepted help on just one of those routes, killing the three commanders and retaking the fortress wouldn’t have been impossible.]

“But we wouldn’t have been able to prepare for the situation we’re in now.”

[……]

This time, Pallard fell silent.

“In the end, we didn’t know the Lieutenant General’s true objective until right before the operation began. We didn’t know he was trying to discard his own body and be reborn as a Level 8 transcendent, or that he was building two more fortresses.”

Lenok knew that the Defense Force and Gearside wouldn’t focus all their forces on just one mobile fortress.

The scale of the mobile fortress was too large, too conspicuous, and not that fast to contain their ambitions.

That’s why Lenok tried to handle things as quickly as possible to prepare for any eventuality… but he never imagined that Gearside would build two more fortresses.

Pallard piloted the fighter jet in silence before speaking again through the comms.

[I told you I was a pilot, right? But I wasn’t always an agent.]

“……”

[I was a pilot in the Defense Force’s mobile fortress combat flight squadron. Lieutenant General Trepen was my superior.]

“…I see.”

Lenok understood why Pallard was bringing this up now and nodded.

Certainly, Pallard’s actions had been excessively proactive, more than what would be expected of an agent’s deputy director.

The fact that he had taken the trouble to fly a fighter jet himself, instead of staying near the satellite city to manage the remaining forces, proved it.

Kugugugugu!!

Two fighter jets sped through the sky. Pallard’s voice was the only thing that could be heard through the empty comms.

[The Lieutenant General should be in that fortress further away. You know that, don’t you?]

“Did you know?”

Of the two fortresses, the mobile fortress that was moving relatively behind the other.

Lenok had identified the fortress with the distorted space using his recently awakened spatial awareness and set it as his target.

Pallard, too, seemed to have figured out which fortress Trepen was in using his own method.

[I only realized it after seeing the mobile fortress in the satellite city up close. What’s there isn’t the fortress the Defense Force originally used. It must be something they quickly completed with Gearside’s help at the construction site.]

The reason why the fortress’s exterior had a strange mix of old and new parts. It was probably because they had reassembled the remains of a mobile fortress that had been under construction.

The reason why the supplies piled on the deck looked strangely old was probably because they were supplies that had been abandoned when the project was halted.

Considering Barclay’s and the control room officers’ unusual behavior, there were clues that the mobile fortress in the satellite city wasn’t the one they originally used.

“If they were looking for a reactor to charge, it must have been a fortress that was completed relatively recently.”

[The fortress in the satellite city was Unit 3. If Unit 1 and Unit 2, which were hidden after charging their power sources, are now running…]

Lenok, understanding Pallard’s words, immediately nodded.

“You’re saying that Lieutenant General Trepen is in Unit 1.”

[He’s been working as a fortress commander for 20 years and has never left that position. Even if he discarded his own body, his nature wouldn’t have changed.]

“……”

His experience as a Defense Force pilot allowed him to figure out the location of Unit 1, the fortress he used to use.

His personal experience with Trepen and his time as a pilot seemed to have given Pallard another correct answer.

[But that’s the end of it now. I never thought I’d say my last goodbye like this…]

At the same time, a missile detached from the bottom of Pallard’s fighter jet and fell to the ground in an instant.

Clunk!!

[It’s time to put an end to our long relationship.]

The missile, falling diagonally along with the fighter jet’s speed and direction, directly hit the rear fortress’s deck.

Kwaaaaaaaang!!

A magnificent blaze erupted.

A tall spire stood in the middle of the fortress’s deck, which was instantly engulfed in flames.

On top of that spire, a man wearing an iron mask looked up at the sky alone.

As soon as Lenok saw that, he pressed the ejection button on the instrument panel and pulled the seat lever without hesitation.

Thwack!

Lenok’s body, ejected from the center of the seat, soared into the sky.

He flipped upside down and fell straight to the ground.

While precisely mitigating the effects of the rushing wind and gravity with shields and magic, the mage’s body, his coat fluttering, landed on the fortress deck.

Kuuuuuung!!

On the deck where the heat from Pallard’s missile had not yet dissipated.

Lenok, having stood up, slowly looked up at the spire in the center of the deck.

The man wearing a thick iron mask lowered his gaze from the sky and looked down again.

[……]

Lenok, confirming the dazzling light in the man’s eyes through the iron mask, immediately raised his magic power and smiled.

“Lieutenant General Trepen. It’s the first time I’ve seen your face in person.”

* * *

Whoooooooosh!!

In the sky thousands of meters high, where her ears were ringing.

Hina, tightly gripping the blade at her waist, screamed, then hiccuped when she suddenly saw something appear in front of her.

“Hiyak?!”

“There’s no need to be so surprised to see a person.”

What appeared in Hina’s eyes was Aris, who was falling with her golden hair fluttering, her legs neatly together.

She, too, had been ejected from Pallard’s fighter jet around the same time as Hina and was falling from the sky.

“Ah, it was you, Aris-nim…”

“It seems you were thrown out around the same time as me, Agent. Am I wrong?”

The parachute pack on her fluttering shirt hadn’t opened yet, but there was no fear on Aris’s face.

She was just holding her hair with one hand and facing the ground getting closer with a cold expression.

Hina couldn’t help but admire her courage and nodded obediently.

“That’s right.”

“Then, it seems they’ve entrusted us with one of the fortresses closest to us…”

Aris said, glancing down at the distant ground.

In the middle of the desert, which was rapidly approaching.

Two mobile fortresses were moving through it without hesitation. And it seemed they were assigned to the fortress moving relatively closer to them.

It was a reasonable assignment of personnel, but Aris’s face looked somewhat displeased.

“Hmm…”

“Um, is there something you don’t like…?”

Instead of answering, Aris raised her bright blue eyes and scanned Hina’s entire body up and down.

Her whole body was flashing blue due to the aftereffects of the [Thunder God].

Hina didn’t seem to be aware of the magic power reactions occurring within her body, but Aris could guess how high the level of augmentation magic on her body was.

It didn’t just amplify her physical abilities, but also precisely stimulated her central nervous system, raising her reaction speed and magic sensitivity to a whole new level.

Even if her muscle strength and speed were abnormally amplified, her mental augmentation was enough to perfectly control the temporarily increased power.

If the spell was so perfectly tailored to her body, it was proof that they had cast similar spells on Hina several times before.

And it was obvious who had cast that spell.

Aris, narrowing her eyes and crossing her arms, muttered.

“You’re still suspicious…”

“…Yes?”

“The fortress is getting closer. Let’s start as soon as we land.”

Aris, casually brushing off Hina’s question, turned her gaze.

“Considering your augmented strength and magic power, it will take you about 13 seconds to cross half of the deck… In the meantime, move around the vicinity as much as possible and gather the enemies on the deck in one place.”

“Ah, I understand.”

Clunk!

Hina answered, gripping the sword at her waist.

As the fortress got closer, she could see the enemies crawling onto the deck.

They had completely different magic power and appearances from the Defense Force soldiers they had fought so far.

Not only had they modified their entire bodies with machines, but they were also looking up at them with different clothes and powers in their hands, which was even eerie.

Those must be the members of Gearside who were behind the Defense Force. And the ones who directed the construction of the two fortresses.

Even though there was still a distance of hundreds of meters, they had already sensed them and were waiting to intercept them.

But Aris, looking at them, didn’t hesitate and immediately raised her magic power and said.

“They will open fire to intercept us from about 200 meters away. I’ll block the lower part, so you can go in first and stir things up.”

“Then what about you, Aris-nim…?”

“I don’t want to spend too much time here either.”

Aris, smiling at Hina, began to form hand seals with her hands together.

Whoooooooooooosh!!!!

At the same time, a massive amount of magic power swirled and rotated around her body, and the sand on the ground writhed violently.

The seals of the summoning magic she was deploying and arranging with both hands glowed, instantly projecting her powerful will.

Immediately after, the sand in the desert rose against gravity, forming the shape of a giant.

Kugugugugugu!!!

[Gwooooooooooo!!!!]

The giant sand golem, at least tens of meters tall, roared roughly, and the surrounding air vibrated wildly, spreading the sound in all directions.

It wasn’t just Lenok who had been studying summoning magic, accumulating knowledge and experience.

Rather, Aris had also increased her understanding of summoning magic by studying together with Lenok, who viewed summoning magic in a completely different way from the existing interpretations.

Summoning a summon of this size was originally difficult even for a powerful mage like her.

However, it wouldn’t be impossible to use a shortcut by adjusting the environment and conditions to some extent with Lenok’s interpretation.

As a result, she succeeded in summoning a summon that could only be summoned in an extreme environment like the desert, at a level several dimensions higher than the level of her summoning magic.

Only Hina, who couldn’t guess the details, could only gape and make astonished sounds.

“Uwaaaaaa…”

“Let’s go quickly.”

Tap!!

Aris, having lightly landed on the sand golem’s shoulder, formed hand seals in succession, and at the same time, the golem began to walk forward.

The summon, created by gathering the sand in the desert and giving it a will, advanced, scattering sand dust roughly in all directions.

Thududududududu!!!

The incessant roar that shook the ground was no longer clear who it belonged to.

The only impact that the two monsters, which had far exceeded the size that humans could handle, were emitting as they advanced toward each other, violently pounded the desert.

The mobile fortress, moving forward with its steel legs incessantly, and the sand golem, running with a body of tens of meters, collided head-on.

* * *

Kuooh!!

On the fortress deck burning from the missile explosion.

Lenok checked the piles of supply boxes burning helplessly on the deck and nodded.

Unlike the supplies of Fortress Unit 3 he had seen in the satellite city, these boxes clearly showed signs of use.

This fortress was probably the original form that the Defense Force had used for 20 years.

[……]

The man wearing the iron mask stared down at Lenok silently before lightly stepping forward.

At the same time, his body moved as if disappearing and instantly stood on the deck.

Squeeeeeak!!

Immediately after, a fighter jet landed on the deck behind Lenok.

The man in the iron mask looked at the fighter jet first, rather than Lenok, and opened his mouth.

[You’ve aged a lot, O’Con. What’s with that face?]

“It’s been a while, Squadron Leader.”

Pallard answered through the fighter jet’s speaker.

[Did you come to stop me with that old, tired body? Dragging along a discarded fighter jet?]

A heavy laugh echoed from behind the mask.

[Foolish… truly foolish… You haven’t changed at all since then.]

“You’ve changed a lot, though.”

The man fell silent at Pallard’s calm answer.

“I… I believed that you wouldn’t change, Squadron Leader. Everyone else thought so too. That’s why everyone agreed to you becoming the commander.”

[……]

“No matter how difficult the trials were for the Defense Force and the outer front, everyone believed that you wouldn’t change.”

[I did my best to protect the military!!]

Whoong!!

A strong wave arose around the man with his fierce shout.

The heat flowing over the deck scattered and disappeared in an instant.

[You were the ones who abandoned us, who were trying to fulfill our duty until the end, and now you’re saying those words…!!]

The man’s roar, filled with resentment. It was impossible to even guess how deep the anger was in his heart.

But Pallard, gripping the control stick so hard it seemed like it would break, answered.

“So, is this your answer? Abandoning the subordinates who gave their lives, and running towards destruction with the fortress you’ve been with your whole life?”

[……]

“It’s all over, Squadron Leader. Don’t you know that all of this is meaningless? This is just a desperate struggle.”

Perhaps Lieutenant General Trepen’s original plan wasn’t this.

The reason he built two more fortresses with Gearside’s help wasn’t for a reckless charge, but to increase his power and pressure the city council.

However, the agent’s response, led by Mayor Meyer within the city, was too fast, and the Defense Force’s power was not ready to face the city’s allied forces.

And the moment Colonel Billen, who had accepted Gearside’s body modification, was defeated so easily.

Trepen realized that the entire structure he had envisioned had collapsed.

The only options left for him were to accept Gearside’s proposal, completely restructure his body, and reach Level 8.

And through that, directly control the two fortresses and run towards his original goal.

Faded intentions, collapsed plans. Failed plans and meaningless sacrifices. What was left for Lieutenant General Trepen now?

[Shut uuuuuuuuuup!!!!]

Charrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

At the same time as the man, Trepen’s desperate cry, the mobile fortress, which had been running incessantly, stopped abruptly and began to twist in place.

At the same time, tens of millions of parts that had been constructing the mobile fortress flowed out as if the screws were loosened, losing their original shape and forming a giant sphere.

A giant mechanical sphere was created, embracing Lenok, who was standing on the deck, and Pallard’s floating fighter jet.

[Inner World Small Universe: Iron Tool Extension and Circulation]

[Domain Activation]

Kagagagagagagagak!!

A grating noise, like insects gnawing at everything.

The noise made by countless parts flowing and rotating endlessly inside the circular mechanical sphere that had trapped Lenok, echoed grandly like a chorus.

Inside the sphere, which had a vast diameter that could easily contain a radius of hundreds of meters.

Trepen roared from atop the giant machine god that had begun to assemble like a Buddha statue.

[Not yet, it’s not over yet!!! Do you think I’ll just disappear like this!! I am Edmus Trepen, the commander of the Defense Force fortress!!!!]

Chik!

“Deputy Director. This is different from what you said.”

Lenok, lighting a cigarette in his mouth, turned to Pallard without a word.

“Lieutenant General Trepen’s inner world wasn’t like this.”

Using the information power of the agent’s deputy director, Pallard O’Con, Trepen’s small universe, which had been briefed in advance, was a power focused on ‘stopping’ and defense.

So, while preparing for the battle with the Lieutenant General, he had been thinking about a blade to break through the defense, but what he was seeing now was a small universe with a range as vast as a magnetic field.

No, it was questionable whether this steel prison, created by disassembling the entire mobile fortress, could even be called a small universe.

“…I’m sorry, but I don’t know what to say, since this is the first time I’ve seen this.”

Pallard, holding the control stick with a sullen expression, retorted.

“As far as I remember, Lieutenant General Trepen’s small universe was never like this. The other commanders had similar powers to before, even after undergoing body modification.”

“Hmm…”

Then, was it possible that the small universe had been completely twisted and altered in the process of restructuring his body?

It was impossible to even guess how much of a price one would have to pay to completely twist and alter an already imprinted small universe.

But, what if all these scenes… were phenomena observed as Trepen transcended humanity?

What if it was the result of cutting off everything that constituted a human being, throwing away the hierarchy, and reaching a new realm?

Kwaaaaaang!!

Hundreds of cannons that had risen from the surface of the mechanical sphere fired at once.

Lenok immediately raised his magic power, deflecting the barrage of shells by setting up a shield like a barrier.

“I have no choice but to see how far he’s gone. Get out of the fighter jet first.”

“What are you planning to do?”

“I can’t fight while worrying about you in this mess.”

Lenok turned to Pallard and snapped his fingers.