Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 460

Trying to respond calmly, Lapis’s voice inevitably trembled.

No matter how much she tried to downplay it, the fact remained that the Blue Eye’s headquarters had been breached by a single leader of Pandemonium.

She was well aware that the Commander’s whereabouts were unknown, but she never imagined that he would come to the lighthouse alone at this time.

The moon barrier created by the Ascended, Cheon-gyeon, was still in effect, and the lighthouse was guarded by an 8th-level extreme ability user.

Yet, the Commander had effortlessly overcome all those obstacles and was now facing Lapis’s spirit form in front of the deepest sanctuary of the lighthouse.

If she hadn’t projected her spirit to the lighthouse after receiving Fern’s message, it would have been impossible to face the Commander like this.

Could this be called Lapis’s mistake?

Was it the foolish decision of a leader who recklessly concentrated the main force to secure a bridgehead for advancing to the central front?

Lapis secretly wished it were so.

If this had happened because of her complacency or a terrible mistake, she could somehow prepare and rectify the situation later.

But if it was something that couldn’t be stopped even with all her power and defenses, then the Commander of Pandemonium was already—

Seeing Lapis trying her best to hide her dismay, the Commander spoke.

“There is a flaw in the moon barrier created by Cheon-gyeon.”

“…What?”

“She was an excellent observer, but she had no interest in earthly matters. The moon barrier is a powerful technique based on the fundamental physical laws of the world, but…”

*Tap.*

The moment the Commander touched the celestial sphere, its surface rippled and distorted like a wave.

“Therefore, it is bound to show a gap at the moment when the physical laws themselves fluctuate.”

“…You already knew.”

Lapis bit her lip, immediately understanding the meaning of those words.

Why the Commander was able to enter the lighthouse at this particular time, and why he wanted to come.

With just that one sentence, she could grasp everything.

A massive event that shook the physical laws of the world had just occurred somewhere, and the backlash had created a flaw in the moon barrier.

The Commander had used that gap to easily infiltrate the lighthouse and subdue the defenseless watchers.

Should she be relieved that he didn’t tear apart the moon barrier and the main force with sheer power?

Or should she be pained that he had exploited a gap in knowledge that even Lapis was unaware of, without needing to use such power?

No, neither of those.

Lapis was also aware of what was happening on this continent.

She had only stopped intervening because she judged there was nothing to gain, but she knew what had happened there.

“The Well of the Codex. If there was an event that shook the foundations of the world at this time, it could only be that. Are you planning to use the power of the lighthouse to intervene in the Well?”

“No, that’s not it…”

The Commander replied with a somewhat bored expression.

“It was something that could only have happened because I didn’t interfere. There’s no need to take credit at the point where the plan is being finalized.”

“…What did you say?”

Lapis, belatedly understanding his words, stood up abruptly with a look of disbelief, but the Commander didn’t answer any further.

He simply reached out and lightly raised his magic power, starting to reassemble the celestial sphere.

*Charrrrrrrr!*!!

At the same time, the ceiling of the chamber split open on both sides, and the reassembled celestial sphere transformed into a giant telescope.

Starting with a small lens that could be looked through, it spiraled outwards, eventually becoming a massive lens with a radius of hundreds of meters.

“Don’t worry too much. The sleeping people will wake up soon, and the barrier will be restored to its original state.”

The Commander said, looking into the crack of the celestial sphere in front of him.

“Today, I have only come to witness the end of an experiment that I have been waiting for a long time.”

Fortunately, he wasn’t late.

The moment he put his eye to the lens, Gye-baek, who had entered the Well, soared out of the outer sea.

The dark and magnificent form of the Ascended rising from the dark outer sea.

It was not the beautiful scenery of the land, but only the lighthouse’s celestial sphere, which observed the end of the outer sea to postpone destruction, could fully show this scene.

“Once you start manipulating time and space, the size or total amount of power is just a number.”

The Commander muttered, raising his gaze through the wide-open celestial sphere as if illuminating the night sky.

“What’s important is not being bound by right or wrong in the cycle of cause and effect and the essence of existence.”

“…”

“All that remains is to confirm whether the answer I gave before works correctly in this world as well.”

Lapis didn’t understand what the Commander was saying, but she could sense that it was the answer he had come up with.

It wasn’t because she had seen and experienced as much as the Commander, but because she had inherited the lighthouse keeper’s abilities.

The end that floated in the outer sea was undoubtedly a transcendent being that was difficult for humans to approach, but it wasn’t as if only a hopeless future remained.

Even as two worlds cycled and reached their end, those who found their own methods and meanings had gained the opportunity for the next.

It was an endlessly difficult and arduous path, but it was not impossible to shoot down the end.

Because they were outside the continuity of cause and effect, overturning that law was a greater blow to them than anything else.

In that sense, using Gye-baek, who was like a living mass of Geas [a magical compulsion or oath], as a projectile was definitely a meaningful strike.

Lapis, vaguely understanding the Commander’s words, quietly bit her lip.

“You’re planning to… shoot down a god. How could you even think of such a thing without being insane…”

“The direction is definitely not wrong.”

The Commander whispered without even turning his head.

As if he was constantly repeating it to himself, not to Lapis.

“Above all… it’s something I’ve already done once.”

“…No. I won’t stand by and watch any longer.”

Lapis answered firmly and raised her hand.

At the same time, the vast magic circles installed around the celestial sphere began to glow and rotate around the Commander’s body.

*Wooooooom!*!!

The Cheon-gyeon’s barrier, deployed around the lighthouse, began to function properly according to the will that had inherited its mission.

“I can’t go directly, but it’s enough to convey my will to reactivate the lighthouse’s barrier.”

The young lighthouse keeper said, looking at the back of the Commander, who didn’t react at all.

“Coming here alone was a misstep. At the end of this celestial sphere… I will bind your existence forever.”

“…”

The Commander didn’t answer any further.

At the end of the celestial sphere’s lens facing the outer sea, the moment he had been waiting for so long began to be reflected.

The Geas that the Commander had directly designated and embedded activated after a long time, and at the same time, Gye-baek’s body turned into a projectile,

And immediately after, it pierced the eye of the outer god, the end of the outer sea, called the [Shark-Headed Dragon].

Inside the dragon’s massive eye, Gye-baek’s body exploded and began to turn black.

The end’s eye, which had been clearly gazing at the outer sea, slowly began to close again.

The Commander just stood silently, slightly raising his head, and gazed at the scene without moving.

As if he would stand there forever. As if he would never let go of that moment he had just witnessed.

Lapis, gathering all the lighthouse’s barriers and rotating them towards the Commander, slammed her will down.

*Paaaaaaaat!*!!

A massive blue light erupted at the end of the floating island cluster.

* * *

The sight of countless meteor showers spreading like waves across the night sky.

The waves of starlight spreading across the slowly flowing and rotating Milky Way.

The two of them looked up at the scenery for a while without saying a word.

A beautifully crafted glass garden. One of the sanctuaries that is highly valued and managed by the Order Alliance, which boasts the most extensive power in the central front.

“Beautiful.”

A man sitting on the edge of the garden wall, shaking a wine glass in one hand, said.

“Did they put in so much effort just to see that view?”

Unlike his neat appearance with glasses and combed-back hair, a domineering magic power flowed out of him.

The 2nd Apostle, the special force of the Order and called the most respected pillar.

The strategist who was said to be actively making moves all over the continent had appeared in the sanctuary of the Order Alliance.

His face, which was always relaxed, had slightly hardened the moment he looked up at the night sky.

“Honestly, I thought it would fail. To push through and succeed with the Ars Nova plan [a reference to a historical musical movement, here implying a radical or innovative plan] that was abandoned a long time ago at this point…”

He had reinforced the 6th Apostle, who had been isolated in the basement of the main temple according to the Pope’s orders, but he didn’t have high expectations.

A monster who had already been completely consumed by madness and had gone insane to the point where he couldn’t even maintain his reason for a moment.

He had made a great contribution to the Order’s holy war with his ability to split the ground and cause earthquakes, but in return, he was the first of the Apostles to go insane.

When he was still sane, he was a strong great warrior with both power and intelligence, but now that he was consumed by madness, he was just a tower that would collapse at any time as his foundation as an existence was shaken.

The Order had intended to throw the 6th Apostle to Pandemonium and take credit for it.

But Pandemonium had succeeded in a worn-out fantasy of launching Gye-baek out of the Well and into the outer sea with just that support.

And it was led by a clown who was as insane as the Apostles, not the Underworld King or the Commander.

“But if there was anyone who could succeed, it would only be him.”

A shadow, watching the Apostle with interest from the deep darkness inside the garden, replied.

Even in the beautiful scenery of the garden where the starlight of the night sky shone down countless times, there was a strangely quiet aura layered in the shadow.

“He is someone who has already passed through one answer. As he walks while looking back, he should know where the fate he has rolled will stop…”

“That’s right. He wouldn’t have started if he hadn’t secured half the success.”

The Apostle laughed at the shadow’s calm words.

“But I didn’t think he would roll even the fate of the Ascended to gauge the limits. This is just an experiment, after all.”

“…”

“The Commander of Pandemonium is walking ahead of the timeline, looking back at how the fate of this world is rolling. That’s all I’m curious about.”

The Apostle, who had finished the wine in his glass in one go, slowly placed it on the wall and said.

“Whether he can maintain the same answer when he is the first to look back at the point where the wheel stops.”

“…Are you expecting Pandemonium to change its stance?”

“No.”

The Apostle laughed.

“At least, I hope that such a twist awaits us at the end of this world… I’m praying.”

“…”

“If our ending is just a hollow echo resounding in the sea, then all things will eventually return to the teachings of the myriad gods.”

The Apostle laughed, seeing a faint light flickering in the shadow.

“I honestly don’t want that.”

“…Interesting.”

The shadow, who had already pushed aside the chair and risen from the darkness, said.

The moment he took a step forward, the scenery of the garden began to twist for a moment.

The garden’s appearance, which had been distorted and shattered like broken glass, as soon as he walked out of the shadows.

*Crack…!!*

The 2nd Apostle understood that it was a kind of natural dominion that one would gain when reaching the limit of an attribute.

The opponent, covered in overflowing cracks, approached the Apostle and quietly said.

“I heard you’re the most trusted Apostle by the Pope, but you don’t seem to be very devoted to the teachings.”

“…”

*Crackling…!!*

The scenery of the garden surrounding the Apostle shattered into pieces, and within it, the intact scenery of the garden reappeared like a mirror.

In between, the opponent whispered quietly in a dry voice.

“I’m very curious… whose name you will call last when you die.”

“It’s always like that. Many people are curious.”

The Apostle answered, pushing away the spatial cracks that were tickling his cheek with a wry smile.

“We’ve both had a good show, so shall we get to the point?”

The opponent coldly muttered at the Apostle, who sat down in the empty chair opposite him and leaned forward.

“It was you who asked for permission to confirm the success or failure…”

“So let’s just take care of what we have to do now. I have to return within two days because of the summons.”

The Apostle, who had tidied up the garden with a wave of his hand and sat opposite him, quietly nodded.

“The truce agreement between the Order Alliance and the Order. Let’s confirm the deadline one last time and finish it.”

* * *

“I finally found you. But doesn’t this look familiar?”

“It’s a divine revelation to not forget our beginnings.”

“Bullshit, a guy who doesn’t have a shred of faith always says this kind of nonsense…”

Lenok’s eyes snapped open at the various voices coming from above his head.

“Cough!”

At the same time, he coughed up a mouthful of blood that had been trapped inside him and flipped over onto his stomach.

Blood flowed out of his mask, soaking his robe.

“Victor, are you alive? If you’ve come to your senses, clean this up.”

A sound like knocking on an invisible wall. Only then did Lenok realize that he was lying in a thick glass container.

It was transparent enough to see the outside, but it was not easily noticeable from the outside, and it was made of a material that was difficult to scratch even with the power of a high-level superhuman.

To anyone who saw it, it looked like a gruesome sight of a perfectly healthy person being locked in a container.

But Lenok didn’t panic and slowly caught his breath.

‘It seems the protocol worked.’

He had created a new emergency technique to protect his body in case he lost consciousness while researching magic.

The glass container that was deployed as if to confine his body was a spatial isolation created by combining the barrier technique of Jintun and the principle of the domain.

He had never used it properly except for a couple of experiments, but fortunately, it seemed to have worked perfectly in a real situation.

“Hoo…”

He fumbled with his trembling hand and touched his mask.

Fortunately, he confirmed that he was still wearing the mask, and when he tapped the container, it collapsed as if the glass had broken, and he felt the humid air of the jungle.

*Crash!*!!

The moment he was about to collapse among the shattered pieces of the technique, someone who had been staring blankly laughed.

“Did you hide some treasure inside that mask? I don’t know why you’re so obsessed with it.”

Lenok, confirming Leya, a red-haired woman rolling on the floor while giggling, turned his gaze with difficulty and asked.

“What’s… what’s the situation?”

He remembered launching Gye-baek into the outer sea and witnessing the scene inside before losing consciousness.

Considering the existence of the enraged Codex, there must have been a great commotion in the jungle immediately after Lenok’s success.

Yet, the jungle scene where the three of them had miraculously gathered was strangely quiet.

“It’s roughly in the final stages.”

“The work is already… all over? Did the clown clean up the rest?”

“Of course, it wasn’t because of this bastard.”

The clown, who was lying carelessly next to Leya, waved his hand happily.

“Yee-yow.”

“…”

Lenok, who had been exposed to Gye-baek’s energy and had even finished the job alone and seen the outer sea, was in a terrible state, but.

The clown’s condition was so miserable that it was difficult to describe it with such words.

Not only were all his limbs twisted in the opposite direction, but all the bones and joints in his body were shattered, and even his fingertips were crushed.

There was no place on his skin where blood vessels hadn’t burst, and his face, which had been painted white, was torn in various places, making it difficult to recognize its original shape.

The price of forcibly raising his rank using human sacrifice, and the aftermath of enduring and buying time with his bare body in the midst of the battles of the Ascended.

In a situation where the plan had been ruined by the intervention of the Magic Tower, the military, and the revolutionaries, Lenok was impressed by the clown’s ability to hold out until Leya arrived.

“To be honest, I thought he would die soon, but I was a little surprised that he survived so stubbornly. There was a reason why Myung recommended him?”

“…”

“I don’t know if it’s good luck or bad luck. But I like reliable friends rather than ambiguous cripples. At this point, I think I can give you the clown certification mark.”

The clown said that and took off a blood-soaked fingernail from his finger, where the cartilage was melting and flowing, and placed it on Lenok’s robe.

“Pass!”

“Is he really insane…”

Leya, who was watching the scene from the side, muttered with an annoyed expression, but Lenok’s feelings were not much different.

But instead of throwing the clown’s fingernail on the ground, Lenok quietly picked it up and nodded.

“I’ll gratefully accept it.”

It was easy to be mistaken because of his light and bizarre behavior, but the clown was a more transcendent illusionist than anyone Lenok had ever seen.

It was meaningless to compare him to a magician named Rick, who had been with him in the operation to steal the tears of the archangel.

It was nothing short of a miracle that he was able to have a normal conversation even though he had mastered illusion magic to such an extent that it was easy to suffer from madness.

That was probably because the clown was controlling his power with various restrictions in order to utilize his madness in the right places.

The clown’s method of entrusting his power and ability level to luck using dice was something that Lenok could never understand with his common sense,

But because he operated his abilities so irrationally and unreasonably, the clown was an illusionist at a level that was difficult to find a match for on the continent.

A contradiction of a being that transcends humans and life, senses and phenomena, reality and causality, and even deceives and mocks himself.

It was already difficult to know how far his mind had broken down and twisted.

No, the fact that he could still spout such nonsense even after his whole body had been smashed to pieces was a great thing in itself.

Even an action that seemed meaningless might have some meaning to the clown himself.

The clown, who had become a mess like vomit spewed out by an animal, laughed as he watched Lenok put the fingernail in his pocket.

“Khehehehet, I like it. I like it. I think we can get along well in the future?”

“There’s something we need to talk about before that.”

Lenok, wiping off the blood and leaning against a nearby tree stump, replied.

The cold gaze shining from inside the mask was accurately looking at the clown’s melted body.

“The helper you hesitated to wait for at the end. Tell me who it is right now.”