Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 330

A single shot exploded at a distance so close that they could see each other’s breath.

Yet, the magic power, compressed to its limit, did not target Lenok or Felix. Instead, it completely enveloped Croken’s entire body and shot out hundreds of meters behind him.

A massive blue magical light occupied the sky and ground at the point of impact, forming a huge cuboid shape.

KWA-BOOM!!

The recoil alone sent Lenok tumbling across the sand, and Felix also staggered, still holding his hammer.

“Ugh…!!”

The massive beam, shot out in an inverted triangle, struck Croken’s body thousands of times in the blink of an eye.

While Lenok was unable to get up and was convulsing, Felix grabbed Lenok’s body and quickly created distance.

“Cough!!”

His limbs trembled, and he vomited stomach acid.

Having already thrown up once during the mobile fortress capture operation, his stomach was now empty except for some leftover mana recovery potion.

Felix saw Lenok’s condition and nodded.

“Indeed, your body is excessively weak compared to your skill and daring. Was your thoroughness born from that innate weakness?”

“…I’d prefer if you kept that a secret.”

Lenok wiped his mouth with his sleeve and, grabbing his trembling legs, pulled himself up.

“It’s not something worth bragging about unnecessarily.”

“I wouldn’t tell anyone even if you didn’t ask.”

Felix smiled and grabbed the cylinder on the hammer handle again.

“I’m sure of it now. You’re someone who shouldn’t die in a place like this. I can’t let it end here-”

Felix’s words were cut short.

Croken landed in front of him like a flash of lightning and kicked Felix’s shoulder.

KWA-BOOM!!

There wasn’t even a scream. Only the heavy battle hammer he had dropped remained in the path where Felix had been sent flying over a hundred meters.

Hot steam rose from various parts of the slowly descending crocodile giant’s massive body.

Shuuuuu…!!!

Massive amounts of steam, as if he had become a living steam engine.

His entire body’s metabolism was changing to the extreme, causing all the moisture in his body to evaporate and escape.

If it were an ordinary human, they wouldn’t have been able to withstand that level of heat, metabolism, or evaporation of moisture for even a moment.

Is it even possible for a living being, a creature with intelligence like Lenok, to do this?

“If you don’t want to die early, stop using the ‘Arrival’ magic. It’s not something a half-wit like you can handle.”

“Kuh…!!”

“You’re not thinking of throwing your life away here and getting help from an idiot like Antares, are you?”

Felix seemed half-unconscious from the impact, not even in a state to answer properly.

Croken stared at the faintly convulsing Felix before grabbing the handle of the fallen hammer.

“I’ll take this.”

Thud!!

As he slung the battle hammer over his scaled shoulder, the endlessly swirling black magic subsided as if it were a lie.

As the magic sank into the hammer, the movement of the constantly pumping cylinder stopped.

He had made the weapon, which even Felix struggled to control, his own in a single moment.

There wasn’t a single wound left in the middle of his broad chest.

The [Thought Lightning] that had struck Croken’s solar plexus head-on.

Despite the power of the compressed, coordinated, and balanced force that had exploded, he had not suffered any significant damage.

Lenok, finally realizing this fact, faintly bit his lip and slowly distanced himself from Croken.

“Hoo…”

Thought Lightning and Space Leap.

There was almost no magic power left in Lenok’s entire body after using two miracles.

The remaining mana recovery potions were also running low after sharing some with Aris.

However, it wasn’t as if there were no options left.

The twenty elixirs that the apothecary Yanushika Greenway had given Lenok as a cure for his mana poisoning.

He had already taken nearly half of them, and now there were about nine left, but with these, he could move like a normal physical ability user for nearly five minutes.

He could do his best to survive until the very end.

‘Can I do it?’

He didn’t think it was pathetic. Rather, he acknowledged and accepted himself for wanting to survive even in this moment.

It had been a long time since he had stopped hesitating at the boundary between life and death, having made up his mind and answered his own question, but Lenok had never forgotten that meaning since then.

The hand reaching for the neck guard inside his coat pocket no longer trembled.

However, Croken just stared down at Lenok before withdrawing his magic power that had been pressing down on the area.

Whoosh!!

Like a candle being extinguished by a strong wind, the giant’s magic power, which had seemed to dominate everything, disappeared in an instant.

The will to fight vanished as if it were a lie. In that moment when Lenok paused at the sudden action.

Croken, with the battle hammer slung over his shoulder, crouched down and met Lenok’s gaze.

“Possibility.”

The crocodile giant’s long snout curved deeply.

“To be honest, if I hadn’t felt that from you today, I was going to kill you before Myung noticed…”

Thud!!

As he stood up, the ground shook as if the earth was trembling.

“There’s no need to do that. I didn’t expect you to already be gauging how to directly manipulate space and dimensions at that level.”

“…”

“If you understand the meaning of interfering with spacetime as a result, then eventually you’ll be able to look at the same place as us. Knowing that is enough.”

His bright yellow pupils moved, looking down at Lenok’s face.

“Come to Pandemonium, Ban.”

“What…?”

“I don’t really care what the leader and that guy Myung are plotting. You probably don’t either.”

“…”

“But those guys are much smarter and more foolish than you think.”

Croken, his eyes gleaming, flicked his tongue.

“At least enough to grant you one wish that you most desperately desire.”

Croken Asilus doesn’t know what kind of being Lenok is.

He has no particular interest in the magic he uses, his talents, his potential, his goals, or his entire growth process.

However, this old mercenary, who has survived on the battlefield for over decades and become a legend, seemed to know what he wanted and desired.

The crocodile giant, as if his body was stiff, massaged his shoulder and tilted his neck from side to side.

“I even saw the face of a dullard… It’s been an interesting experience for a while. It was much more enjoyable than I expected, so let’s stop here.”

Croken, looking at Lenok’s confused expression with a seemingly pleased face, slowly turned his head.

“There’s no need to decide right away. But you’ll remember what I said someday.”

The sandstorm raged, and Croken’s figure, walking briskly beyond the horizon, gradually disappeared.

Only his heavy voice echoed faintly through the intensifying storm.

“Even for someone who has seen the end once, the answer they can give alone is already decided.”

“…”

Half-buried in the sand with his body battered, Lenok silently stared at the empty space where the monster had disappeared.

The commotion, which had started and ended with Croken’s whim.

The landscape was so devastated that it was hard to believe that all of this had nothing to do with his original purpose.

A truly powerless ending. But even so, Lenok didn’t stop thinking.

The conversation between Felix and Croken. The giant’s attitude, which seemed strangely concerned about Felix, and the meaning of the endless dream.

Even the series of words he had thrown at Lenok. None of it was something to let slip by.

Decisively, Croken’s unusual response in the final clash.

Lenok clearly remembered his behavior, as if he was trying to test the aftermath of Thought Lightning head-on.

‘No matter how strong his body is, it’s impossible to be completely free from the aftermath of Thought Lightning.’

A point-blank attack launched by a 7th-level Saint-ranked mage, half-prepared to die. It was even a fatal blow that accurately struck the solar plexus.

No matter how hard and firm the crocodile giant’s body was, there should have been some trace or aftermath left.

But if Croken, who had risen again, still had no wounds on his body.

Then that must be the power of the inner world, the microcosm, that the monster possessed.

If the monster had taken out a part of his inner world after sensing something from the move Lenok had made during the power struggle with Felix.

It made sense why Croken had suddenly ended the battle and thrown those words at Lenok.

What had he seen in the lightning that Lenok had unleashed during the clash?

If he could figure out his abilities through his experiences, conversations, and battles so far… then attacking Croken wouldn’t be completely impossible either.

That was how Lenok barely managed to convince himself.

The miserable result of this battle and the gap between him and that monster, which felt so terribly distant.

“…Damn it.”

Inside his coat. Lenok, who had taken his hand off the neck guard he had received from the apothecary, slowly collapsed backward.

Lenok covered his eyes with one hand and closed his eyes, letting his strength go.

The mobile fortress capture operation, which had been full of ups and downs.

Even as he sensed that the series of events that had begun with the coup d’état of the defense forces had finally come to an end, Lenok couldn’t easily get up from where he had fallen.

Even though he knew that there were still many things to do and many things to take care of.

Just for a little while, Lenok wanted to lie down like this.

* * *

Near the Northern Continent. In an unnamed mid-sized city.

Large enough to be free from the rule of an outstanding individual, yet too small to call itself a nation.

In a spacious office of a high-rise building, where the lights were on late into the night, a woman was squatting and smoking a cigarette.

Each time she took a puff, the light flickered and faintly illuminated the dark room.

Click!

As the lights turned on, the scenery around her came into view.

Strange parts, mucous membranes oozing slime, and mechanical lumps were scattered everywhere.

Looking at the disgustingly wriggling mechanical tentacles, she stood up with a blank face.

Crack!!

One last head remained alive and wriggling.

There was no body left below the neck, and only dozens of wires that had once connected the head and body were wriggling.

The head spoke in a trembling voice.

[How… did you know?]

“I confirmed that the network that backs up your consciousness was damaged.”

Clank!

The woman, kneeling in front of the head, replied in an indifferent tone.

Her hands began to quickly disassemble the mechanical parts made of hard metal.

The head, watching its own form being disassembled before its eyes, asked.

[Less than 10 minutes have passed since the grand plan that borrowed the power of the defense forces in Vulcan was concluded as a failure. Even we didn’t expect this level of damage, so how did you…?]

“I regularly exchange information with Echo. I was just preparing in advance in case something happened.”

Click!

“I didn’t think it would go this well either.”

The woman, having completely opened the area corresponding to the human skull and checked the data chip inside, made a complicated expression.

With the network that backs up the consciousness of Gearsides half-destroyed, they were now just ordinary humans with one life.

If she disassembled and destroyed this data chip, the existence of Gearsides would disappear into the annals of history.

[I see. So the evil that started with the failure of the Ascension Gate is finally catching us here…]

The head, sighing quietly, then mocked the woman.

[But your colleagues don’t know who you’ve joined hands with, do they?]

“…”

[I knew you were obsessed with picking up the pieces of the great failure of the Machine City, but I didn’t expect you to bow your head to the Demon Realm. It seems you’re making a deal with the devil to take responsibility.]

“…I don’t think you’re in a position to say that, considering you were trying to join hands with them until yesterday.”

What the woman said was true.

The one who had scattered his body and fallen in this place was the leader of Gearsides, the very person who was trying to join Pandemonium with his forces intact.

Why he, who was once one of the leading magitech authorities in the Machine City, had fallen so far.

Both of them knew it all too well, but they didn’t bother to bring it up.

The tragedy that had occurred in the Machine City back then was just a byproduct of the madness that was common at the time when the end of the world was approaching.

Much time had passed since then, and regret and sorrow had been buried and forgotten in the sands of memory.

All that remained were duty, responsibility, and the hatred that still hadn’t disappeared.

Despite the sharp reply, the Gearsides leader, who was only a head, let out a slow laugh.

[Huhu… It’s an unacceptable ending, but I have to accept it. I too have walked this far, overcoming countless absurdities.]

“…”

It was an endlessly unfair world. Money, power, fate, and connections.

If he had abandoned everything to stand at the top, the man knew that his turn might come someday.

A tentacle that had risen from below his neck swayed as if waving his hand.

[Give my regards to the doctor.]

Crack!

The woman, reaching out her hand towards the data chip in the head, clenched her fist and smashed the chip to pieces.

As she stood up blankly, looking at the carnage she had created, slow clapping echoed from behind her.

A man, whose expression and features were unreadable, was leaning against the office door, smiling.

“Good work, Maiya. Just as I’ve heard, you’re perfect at your job.”

“…Doctor.”

The woman called Maiya turned her head.

“Originally, this friend could have become one of us… but things have changed due to what happened in Vulcan.”

The doctor said as he walked in, leaping over the debris scattered throughout the office.

“It’s unfortunate, but the analysis of the research data that Gearsides had is mostly finished, so it shouldn’t be a big problem.”

“You’re very eloquent. You wouldn’t have even thought of calling me if the negotiations with them hadn’t fallen apart.”

Maiya said, staring at the doctor.

Just from that, the killing intent emanating from her body became invisible thorns and began to lacerate one side of the office.

“Do you remember why I joined this organization?”

“That’s my bad.”

Even as he watched the scene unfold before his eyes, the doctor smiled languidly.

“I acknowledge your skills, Maiya, but I don’t really prefer people who confuse their goals with their means.”

“…”

“Isn’t it natural that a good picture can’t be drawn if emotions get mixed up in an important negotiation process?”

The doctor said that and patted Maiya on the shoulder.

“Well, anyway, you’ve achieved one of your desired goals, and I’ve neatly taken care of a troublesome task, so let’s just let it go. It’s not like I called you just because of today’s events.”

Maiya’s hand twitched as she watched the doctor turn his back and walk away unguardedly.

With her skills, which had been honed as the best executor in the Machine City Makina, where all sorts of strange technologies and mysteries were rampant, she might be able to cut off his breath before he even noticed.

But even as she desperately wished for success in one corner of her mind, she ended up following the doctor instead of reaching out her hand.

It was because the intuition created by the skills and experience she had accumulated over decades was warning her that this was not the moment.

The moment she used her killing intent, she might experience something worse than death.

She was not afraid of death or the pain leading up to it, but Maiya still had things to do.

“…Oh ho.”

The doctor, who had walked out into the hallway, let out a soft exclamation as he looked at the scenery around him.

It was because the hallways, stairs, and elevators of the high-rise building were filled with the wreckage of machines that had been brutally destroyed.

There was no trace left of Gearsides, the leader, or the armed group that had been under his command.

To carry out such a level of destruction single-handedly, without damaging the exterior or interior walls of the building at all.

Even to the eyes of the doctor, who knew nothing about close combat, it was not difficult to guess how refined Maiya’s skills were.

“So. Where do we go this time?”

Maiya, who was walking behind the doctor along the hallway, asked.

Unlike the other members of Pandemonium, she, who was closer to an assassin than a warrior, often took charge of such dispatch tasks, so it was not an awkward task.

That was possible because Maiya herself accepted her joining Pandemonium as a kind of deal.

“Not far. It’s near the highlands of the same Northern Continent.”

The doctor replied in a cheerful tone.

“An anomaly has occurred where the aurora hanging in the sky of the Northern Continent’s highlands has disappeared. Considering where the origin of that aurora is, it can be said to be a very important matter.”

“…”

The doctor muttered as if it were nothing, but Maiya immediately understood the meaning of his words and stopped walking.

She, who had lived as an executor of the Machine City, also had some knowledge of the anomalies that existed throughout the continent.

And if the origin of the aurora that was always hanging in the northern highlands was-

“…That’s where the Ideological Battlefield of the 9th-level Ascendant ‘Jindun’ was unfolded. If that’s the case, then…”

“Yes.”

The doctor replied.

“The Ascendant has moved.”