Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 487

Lenok gazed down at Amrita’s massive form, engulfed in flames at the heart of the majestic pillar of fire.

Though she screamed in agony as she awakened, the giant Apostle’s body was not easily consumed by the inferno.

‘So, this wasn’t enough, after all.’

Lenok was well aware of the sheer power of an Apostle’s true form.

The Apostle’s true form, acting as the embodiment of the end, transcended the limits of species and the constraints of life, reaching a realm closer to a mythical beast or a divine creature.

Even Walter Martinez, who had recently become an Apostle at the Eight Directions Fortress, possessed immense size and durability.

How much more formidable would Amrita’s true form be, the tenth Apostle designated in the long history of the Grand Guidance Order?

Though merely a crazed beast lost in an endless slumber, her physical strength and power surpassed that of an 8th-level monster.

It was clear that even Lenok’s potent pyromancy could not deliver a fatal blow with a single preemptive strike.

Especially in this situation, surrounded by the Order’s priests, proxies, and bishops.

*Chik!*

He pulled an ampule from his pocket and injected it into his shoulder without hesitation, then downed a cocktail of stimulants and painkillers.

He half-crushed and chewed some motion sickness pills and elixirs, and drank alchemically created regeneration potions like water.

Lenok, with the burning pillar of fire behind him, stepped forward, crushing the empty ampules and potion bottles under his feet as he exhaled.

‘There are three things I need to do.’

While conserving as much mana as possible, he needed to divert the attention of the other observers and buy time until reinforcements arrived from the lighthouse.

If he could satisfy these three preconditions, Lenok thought he wouldn’t mind even if the Apostle selection ritual began normally.

‘As long as I have the control code for the Jintun [a powerful artifact or system], I have control over the Great Barrier. I can interfere with the ritual itself at any time.’

*Whirr…!*

Lenok gathered the flames in his hand amidst the pillar of fire, gritting his teeth as he channeled his mana.

‘The important thing isn’t to stop the ritual itself, but to remain in place until the ritual is over. What I need to do now is rather…!’

At that moment, an intense transmission echoed throughout the entire island.

[I’ve been feeling a sense of unease for a long time.]

The countless Correction Knights and priests who had gathered at the Far East Branch Temple. At their head stood Archbishop Izel Naidri, looking up at the burning temple with a calm expression.

[An incongruity that was unseen but never disappeared… a group of endlessly unpleasant rebels. You’ve finally revealed yourselves.]

“…”

[Take off your hood and show your face. I want to see it with my own two eyes.]

Despite the heat that was burning all around, the other priests were horrified and tried to stop the Archbishop as she stepped forward.

“Archbishop Naidri!”

“It’s dangerous. You must take cover before he moves…!!”

[Take cover? You are all mistaken.]

Naidri gave a cold smile at the priests’ words.

[He is a heretic who has invaded the Order’s sanctuary with dirty feet and defiled its glory. He must be brought before me immediately, made to kneel, and made to answer for his sins!!!]

At the same time, a pale light burst from above her head, beginning to paint and cover the entire area in white.

*Paaaat…!*

A vast area spell, as if sharing her power with all the priests gathered around her and the Correction Knights surrounding the temple.

“T-This is… the Saintess’s…!!”

“How can she have such a powerful enhancement ability…!!”

A powerful enhancement spell that was hard to believe, considering that the Saintess herself was not a high-ranking transcendent.

Even the other proxies were startled and turned to look at the Archbishop, as a wide-ranging and powerful force was poured out equally to everyone.

[I will not say it twice.]

Izel, with her arms crossed in the center of that pale light, looked up at this side with an arrogant expression.

[Make sure that foolish heretic cannot look down on me any longer!!]

However, Lenok immediately recognized that it was not Izel’s own power, but a kind of power that was very familiar to him.

‘Jintun’s barrier magic.’

She was indirectly casting a powerful enhancement spell on the believers in this area by overlaying a temporary barrier.

The exact location where that power was emanating from was the amber crown on Izel’s head.

The reason why she, who was not originally a barrier mage, was using Jintun’s barrier magic. The fundamental reason why the Great Barrier of Jintun was set up on the Order’s Far East Branch Island.

The Jintun’s legacy was not hidden in the temple’s secret chamber.

Absurdly, Izel Naidri was wielding the Jintun’s relic herself, using its power as if it were her own.

It was an unbelievable situation that she, who was not even a high-level mage, was directly using barrier magic.

However, Lenok’s eyes, having confirmed the amber crown, instead turned cold.

‘It’s not a semi-permanently usable artifact.’

From the moment he recognized it as Jintun’s legacy, memories of the relic he had inherited from the labyrinth quickly surfaced.

‘An artifact closer to a consumable item with built-in capacity and uses. It’s essentially a device that stores the barriers used by Jintun as one-time uses.’

Regardless of the user’s level or skill, it was simply an item that implemented the spells stored within the artifact as consumables.

Given that what was contained within was Jintun’s barrier magic, it was practically a mythical artifact, but its essence as a consumable did not change.

The Great Barrier constructed on the island, the temple’s security barrier, and the temporary barrier she had just used were all items that could not be used again after being used once.

That was why Izel herself was using barrier magic regardless of her own level.

[Bring him alive before me. I will make him a living sacrifice for this ritual, so that even his disgrace will become part of our mission!!]

The eyes of the priests and bishops who had received the light that Izel had unleashed gradually became intense, and she continued to unleash sharp transmissions as if whipping them on.

“We will follow the mission…!!”

“Eliminate the heretic!!”

*Kugugugugu!!!*

The Correction Knights charged towards the burning temple, and the priests chanted spells in succession with their enhanced mana.

Numerous flashes of light and waves of murderous intent converged towards the giant pillar of fire rising above the temple.

As if responding to that intense emotion and excitement, the Pentarect [a mysterious artifact], which had been quietly sleeping in his pocket, began to stir once more.

*Kiiing…!!*

“…”

How long had it been since it had transformed into Martinez’s nameplate and twisted the situation? Why was it reacting again?

However, Lenok quietly looked down at the Pentarect and then pushed it deeper into his pocket.

‘Not now.’

The Pentarect was by no means an item that spat out powerful artifacts or weapons perfectly suited to the situation at every moment.

If anything, it felt like it was stimulating the gaps in Lenok’s thinking in a different way.

The fact that it had transformed into Martinez’s nameplate was a method that Lenok had not considered, but would that alone have been enough for the success of this endeavor?

If Lenok had not thought of the carapace shield and naturally induced Zaif’s thoughts.

If he had not suppressed Zaif’s suspicions with his rhetoric while turning the inside of the temple upside down, it would have been meaningless.

It was only a minor trigger, and it was entirely up to Lenok to make it into something meaningful.

He understood why the clown had coveted this artifact, and why Myung had gifted it to Lenok.

However, now was not the time to reverse the situation through such variables, nor was it the moment to rely on mysterious artifacts.

At this moment, with hundreds and thousands of people in front of him, he had lit the beacon of battle. What Lenok needed to rely on for what he did best was none other than himself.

[Direction control calculation complete. Acceleration assist flow adjustment.]

At the same time as Davi muttered from inside his pocket, Lenok lowered his head and twisted his shoulder.

His body had fully absorbed the effects of the drugs. Lenok shook his head lightly to check, then leaned his body forward.

[Automatic flight algorithm overhaul complete.]

“Let’s go.”

*Kuooh…!!!*

A huge flame began to rotate like a propeller behind the mage’s back.

* * *

Correction Knight Captain, Gebin Belwood, gripped his sword hilt and raised his gaze.

A grand spectacle of a giant pillar of fire that had risen from the center of the beautiful crystal palace.

A huge waterspout that had risen from the center of the island was soaring to the end of the sky, burning the surrounding air.

The flames were so intense and hot that it was difficult to focus on anything else.

The embodiment of flames that seemed to draw in and burn all the senses of every living thing on the island.

It was hard to believe that it was created by a single mage.

“Gebin, you must capture him alive and bring him before me. Do you understand?”

Izel, who had been injecting enhancement spells through a temporary barrier from behind him, said.

Her tone was calm and subdued, completely different from the angry tone she had used to urge the priests just a moment ago.

However, Gebin knew that this was the essence of the Archbishop he served.

“Amrita woke up much faster than planned. We must use that heretic as a sacrifice to bear the side effects of the ritual that will result from this.”

“It won’t be difficult.”

Gebin replied with a gloomy expression and glanced sideways.

The proxies, who had been standing guard as if protecting Archbishop Naidri, silently responded to his gaze.

“After all, there are those who are more skilled than I am here.”

Unless that mage was dealt with according to the Archbishop’s orders, it would be impossible for the ritual to begin.

That was something that the proxies, who had come to this place risking their lives to become Apostles, would never want.

The proxies, who had received Gebin’s sharp gaze, began to step forward one by one.

“…It can’t be helped.”

“Originally, I was going to refrain from doing so as much as possible before the ritual began.”

“It is for the mission. It is our duty to step forward for the sake of the Order.”

Unlike some of the candidates who had secretly become Amrita’s food after receiving Izel’s hint, those who remained with her in the plaza were powerful individuals who were difficult to touch carelessly.

All of them were powerful individuals who were at the 6th and 7th level, ‘vessels’ who had been thoroughly verified in both mind and body.

Among them, the atmosphere of the priest who boasted an overwhelming amount of flesh and the young man with his eyes covered with a blindfold was so precarious that it seemed like it would explode at any moment.

It was proof that they had reached the verge of transcending the level of completing their hierarchy.

The fat priest summoned a huge halberd of light with both hands, and a huge scythe emerged from the shadows beneath the blindfolded young man’s feet.

The priest wiped away the sweat that was dripping down his face and asked.

“The heat can be felt from this distance… It’s an incredibly powerful pyromancy.”

“At least Saint-level. Or even higher.”

“Is it difficult for even Tritan, with your eyes, to make a proper assessment?”

The blindfolded young man replied.

“The mana pattern is very chaotic. All the flows of the flames are moving erratically, making it difficult to grasp.”

“Hmm…”

“Give up on the idea of reading his intentions with your senses, Border. It would be easier to see and react directly.”

“Bishop Tritan. What are you saying?”

Another man stood up next to him, grinning and gripping a heavy greatsword.

A proxy wearing a different type of armor than the Correction Knights gave a cold smile.

“No matter who the opponent is, if they are a sinner who has committed blasphemy in the Order’s territory, they will never be able to leave this land.”

“…”

The man became more excited when Tritan, the blindfolded young man, did not respond.

“Let’s assume that he’s already dead, and if we don’t think about what to do next-”

“He’s coming…!!”

At that moment, the rotation of the giant pillar of fire seemed to stop, and then the flame streaks of the pillar split into hundreds of strands and spread out widely.

*Paaaaaang!!!!*

A giant flower of flame bloomed, covering a radius of hundreds of meters over the sea of understanding.

Fragments of flames, split into hundreds of petals, covered the outskirts of the island where the bridge was located and scattered.

The concentration of the shock and firepower, just by rotating and rampaging, reduced all the surrounding life to a handful of ashes.

“I can’t, I can’t breathe…!!”

“It’s hot, haaack…!!!”

“I have to, I have to get out of the heat… kkeueuk…”

The Correction Knights, whose flesh had melted and stuck to their armor from the heat, screamed in agony as they died.

The Correction Knights and high-ranking priests tried to protect their bodies with their high mana and observe the surrounding situation, but the moment they were grazed by the sharp flashes of light that seeped in at the end of the heat, they collapsed, scattering blood.

*Chiiik!!*

“Kueuk…!!”

“Stop the bleeding!!”

The moment they were injured, their mana flow was disrupted, and they were swept away by the heat that filled this space.

The moment blood gushed out, it evaporated as if disappearing, and the exposed flesh burned from the heat, causing immense pain.

A one-sided massacre that had begun so suddenly.

The bewildered proxies quickly pulled up their mana to try to catch the scattering fragments of flames, but at that moment.

The dozens of flame streaks that had spread in all directions began to gather in one place.

*Kwarururu!!!*

A spiral of flames, rotating and bending, burst out, fueling the heat.

A blurry figure accelerating along with the exploding heat, through a wide-open path like a giant passage of flames.

It had arrived in front of them the moment they thought they had seen it flash at the end of the temple.

Lenok’s figure, with huge wings of fire rotating behind his back, accelerated his body forward and crashed into the center of the Correction Knights’ formation.

*Kwaaaaaaaang!!!*

Immediately after, metal and flesh burst out, painting a gruesome hell on earth.

“Kkyaaaaaaak!!”

“Don’t retreat, hold your ground!!”

“How can a mage have this much physical power…!!”

*Kkigigigigik!!!*

The huge passage of flames bent and narrowed, becoming a sharp and solid glaive in front of the floating Lenok.

Using himself as a giant propellant, he rotated the spiral of flames, changed direction by bursting the heat.

He gathered all the flames from all directions and used them as a spearhead to break through obstacles.

Lenok’s lightning-like figure, turning himself into a giant flame spear, pierced through all the formations gathered here in a single point breakthrough.

Because he was a mage with relatively lacking physical ability and breakthrough power,

Lenok’s single preemptive strike, which he had created by interpreting Gye Baek’s geas [a binding oath or compulsion], was sharper and more fatal than anything else, tearing through the priests’ formation.

*Kagagagak!!!*

“No, our stopping power is not enough!!”

“Block him, we can’t let him break through any further!!”

He detonated several flames at the same time.

He rotated the heat and flames that were rushing in from all directions, increasing his speed.

Like a giant red snake, he trampled, crushed, and burned the priests who had gathered and surrounded the front of the temple.

Hundreds of fragments of flames fell off, twisted, and lifted Lenok’s body like a booster.

As he increased his speed, the passage of fire that had been turning humans into pieces of flesh finally stretched out in a straight line.

*Kugugugugu…!!*

A huge passage of fire, as if the pillar of fire that had been reaching towards the sky had laid down on the ground.

The faces of Gebin and the proxies turned pale as they realized that Izel Naidri was standing exactly at the end of it.

Lenok’s body accelerated forward, adding 14 layers of acceleration on the spot.

*Swaeeeeeeek!!!*

A perceived speed that was already impossible to even visually confirm the surrounding scenery and signs.

Only the mana perception and the Eye of Possibility, which was close to precognition, that had been pushed to the limit, pointed out the target and directed the way.

The rest was just a gateway that he had to overcome by relying on his own intuition and combat experience.

Lenok, grabbing his dizzy head, twisted his body in the middle of the huge passage of fire.

At the same time, countless glaives and spell bombardments rushed in from all directions of the passage.

*Dudududududu!!!*

He dodged, parried, crushed, and accelerated the trajectories of all the murderous intent that was pouring in to kill Lenok alone.

At the end of it, Lenok, who had reached out his hand in a trance towards the neck of Izel Naidri, who was looking at him with a pale face, swung his elbow.

A huge explosion erupted in the middle of the formation where Izel was standing.

*Kwaaaang!!*

“…!!”

The figures of the two people standing face to face in the place where the explosion had subsided.

The shadows of Izel, who was glaring at the mage with a menacing expression, and Lenok, who had reached out his hand with a pale face, intersected.

The tip of Lenok’s hand, which had reached towards her forehead, stopped as it knocked off the crown on Izel’s head.

In that situation, dozens of proxies and Correction Knights were pressing down on Lenok’s entire body with their swords and mana lights.

The chill of the glaives that surrounded his arms and legs, as if he were wearing clothes made of blades, was chilling.

“You…”

The blades that were brought close to his skin as if they were cutting into it were cold enough to cut Lenok down at any moment,

But the eyes of the hardened proxies were looking down at Lenok as if they couldn’t believe it.

The Correction Knights and high-ranking priests who had been standing in the front to protect Izel.

Including him, the Correction Knights unit that had been standing in formation. Even the existence of the proxies who had started moving a step late.

The mage in front of them had broken through all those obstacles with a single breakthrough, and had reached the point just before extending his reach to the Archbishop.

If it hadn’t been for the presence of Correction Knight Captain Gebin, who had thrown himself in, an absurd situation where the Archbishop would have been assassinated in this place might have occurred.

“Kkeoeok, it’s impossible…”

The proxy with the greatsword, who had been talking boastfully next to Tritan, was already dying with his whole body melted.

Lenok looked at Izel, who was glaring at him silently, and then gave a pale smile.

“Surrender… would that be okay?”

“…For a wretched heretic, you are indeed, quite something.”

Izel couldn’t say anything, and then slowly picked up the amber crown that had fallen to the ground with difficulty.

Izel, who had been staring at Lenok with a cold, hardened face, slowly put the crown back on her head and turned her back.

“As soon as the fire in the temple is extinguished, take him into custody. I will begin the ritual right now.”

*Kung!!*

Among the proxies who had surrounded Lenok without moving, the priests began to roughly bind Lenok’s body.

All sorts of restraints, including heavy alloy shackles and mana suppressors that could never be broken with bare hands.

However, even while being restrained all over his body, Lenok was not flustered, but rather stared at Izel’s receding figure.

‘I’ve definitely timed it right.’

He knew that if he had pushed himself a little harder, he might have been able to kill Archbishop Izel Naidri.

However, instead of throwing a decisive move to take Izel’s life, Lenok chose to make sure the crown fell off.

It was more in line with the goal of eliminating the Order’s forces to have her proceed with the ritual here and delay the time, rather than killing Izel herself.

He had given the Jintun’s control code to Gapsun, but since Lenok himself was not using it directly, it was unavoidable that traces would remain.

Even if no one else knew, Izel herself, who was using the crown, would surely realize that the Great Barrier had been breached.

That was why Lenok had been timing it to paralyze Izel’s crown before Gapsun used the control code.

Since Izel had declared that she would use Lenok as a living sacrifice for the ritual, she would not try to kill him right away even if things went this way.

Lenok would participate in the ritual as a sacrifice, and then he would spectacularly ruin the event that the Order had been preparing for a long time.

‘Considering the control code and the existence of the Apostle Zaif, I can create variables in any situation. If I can participate in the ritual, the method doesn’t matter much.’

A way to inflict the most certain and fatal blow on the Order, rather than simply wasting mana and holding out alone.

Lenok, who was staggering and being dragged away by the Correction Knights, raised his head.

All the necessary preparations were complete.

It was time to settle everything that had happened on this island.