Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 490

Countless aurora curtains sway and dance, softly weaving their way between us. Merely by the manifestation of will, the laws of physics warp, and fragments of altered spacetime engulf Lenok’s senses. The sensation of air on his skin, the sound of his breath, the temperature and humidity, even the way heat and energy are converted— Everything is altered, different from reality, only to return to normal with the passing of each will. Numerous wills, swirling and dancing around Lenok, ceaselessly whisper in unknown tones. Rather, they seemed to be vying for Lenok’s favor, endlessly circling and dancing around him. As if they wanted to be imprinted on him right now. As if they wanted to be remembered, even for just this moment. He could understand all the words whispered in his ear; though they were faint, they were clear. [We found you.] [You were here.] [We have been waiting.] [For a very long time…] “…” The faces of Izel and the Delegates, staring blankly at him, their souls seemingly lost. The unsightly spectacle of the Correction Knights and high priests gaping at Lenok. Even as he felt hundreds, thousands of gazes pouring down on him, Lenok focused on the voices in his ear. The manifestation of a powerful will, both singular and intense. A simple yet transcendent miracle, translating his own will into a language he could understand. The words conveyed through this translated will held a meaning far beyond love and hate, or longing. [Round and round, back to the beginning…] [I miss you.] [We return.] [Let’s make a contract.] [Choose.] The moment he understood the meaning and accepted it into his mind, Lenok quietly closed his eyes. The doubts that had lingered since the Eight Trigrams Fortress. He could finally understand the answer. The reason why his branching point self, who had accepted the power of the Outer Sea, did not exist beyond the kaleidoscope [a metaphor for alternate realities]. It was not because Lenok himself had died or disappeared in the future of the branching point. Rather, it was because it no longer existed as a possibility, and therefore, was not reflected in the kaleidoscope. Because they constantly desired and longed for someone who was not Lenok. Conversely, because they loved and hated someone who could not be said to be not him. [The first is coincidence, the second is necessity, the third is fate.] Because someone who occupied the place of coincidence and necessity still exists in this world. “No. It’s not me.” Understanding this, Lenok could finally respond to their earnest will. “What you are looking at is not me.” […] “You are merely looking at someone who could have been me, someone who might become me.” A very faint fragment of truth revealed at the crossroads where the possibilities of the past and future were mixed. The Well of the Compendium, the cracks in the Eight Trigrams Fortress, Madam’s mansion, and Murphy’s hospital. He finally grasped the thread of truth that had been tenuously connected throughout all those journeys, right here. “So, next time, I will seek you out myself to confirm it.” Lenok could smile in this place because he was certain that this alone was a greater gain than anything else. “That’s all I can promise you today.” The grand ritual ended the moment Lenok clearly rejected their offer. The moment the ritual focused on a single person, it was natural for all doors to close according to the subject’s decision. However, that did not mean he was directly rejecting all possibilities regarding the Outer Sea. The branching point as an apostle that he had undoubtedly obtained in this place. This would become another kaleidoscope for Lenok, reflecting an Outer Sea that had not existed before. Lenok had not chosen no one in this place today. Rather, knowing that he could choose anyone, he had merely postponed his decision until he could accurately grasp its meaning. But there was no reason to tell them that this itself was a qualification and privilege given to Lenok. Whoosh…!! The endless darkness that had been staining the altar gradually receded. At the same time, the countless wills that had been pitifully circling around Lenok began to fade away, one by one. [No…] [Just a little, just a little more…] Their pitiful gestures, as if trying to stay by Lenok’s side at any cost. However, now that the ritual, which had risen to be closer to the environment of the Outer Sea, had subsided, the will of the Outer Sea could not last long in the cycle of this world. All that remained were Izel, who hung her head at the top of the altar, and Amrita, covered in blood. Hundreds of people stood around the silent altar tower, but not even a breath could be heard properly. “…Again.” Izel murmured quietly. The face she lifted was expressionless, like a doll. With a look as if she had lost all emotion, she said, “I will… restart the ritual.” “…” “If I kill you and offer your flesh and soul, the Outer Gods will also gladly follow to consume that delicacy.” Swoosh!! She reached out to Amrita’s blood-soaked body, tearing at her wounds. [Koo-ooo…!!] Ignoring even the painful writhing, she tore off pieces of flesh with her bare hands and chewed on the apostle’s organs. Crunch, crunch!! She chewed on Amrita’s flesh and muscles, organs and blood vessels, as if she were mad, the same Amrita she had been chatting with so affectionately just moments ago. Izel’s face, which had been as white as porcelain, was now covered in blood, transforming into a gruesome sight. “Even so, even so…!! Can you still ignore me!! Can you ignore a vessel that has eaten an apostle and become one!!!” “Izel Naidri.” “Nothing is over yet!!! I have prepared for decades for this moment, to return to His side!!!!” Even at Lenok’s indifferent call, Izel cried out madly. “Because of just one heretical magician, like this, like this, so futilely…!!! It cannot be, it cannot be!!!!” She descended from the altar and rushed madly towards the cage where Lenok was imprisoned. Without hesitation, she flung open the cage and grabbed Lenok by the collar, throwing him next to Amrita. Thud!! Izel, who had pulled a long dagger from her sleeve, held it up in reverse and panted. “I-if we offer him as a sacrifice… it’s that easy… I was still hesitating…” “…” “If I kill him, kill him, then we can solve it… we can call them again… Amrita, right…?” [Squeak…] Amrita cried out sorrowfully, with a sound that had lost its reason. Did Izel understand whether that cry was an affirmation or a denial? Probably not. Lenok, too, could no longer harbor any optimism or skepticism about this situation. “If you are a priestess who has heard the revelation of the end, you should know.” Lenok said, looking at Izel, who was holding the dagger in reverse with trembling hands. “They are beings who do not allow two coincidences. Do you think they will grant your wish even if you reverse the ritual in this place?” “Shut up, shut up…!!” Lenok took a small breath as he looked at Izel, who was screaming like a madwoman. “You pretend not to understand, even though you know it so well…” Izel’s eyes, which had hardened like porcelain, met Lenok’s cold gaze. “Or is it just that you want to wish for it so badly?” “Offer your heart!!” Izel, dragging her body like a broken porcelain doll, brought the dagger down with both hands. The moment Lenok saw the blade falling right in front of him, he took a small breath and tried to stand up. Thud!! A long blade emerged from the very center of Izel’s chest. “…!!!” Not only Izel, who was holding the dagger with both hands, but even Lenok, who was facing her, was taken aback by this unbelievable blow. The sudden appearance of an unknown being who had appeared from behind Izel and stabbed her froze the other knights and Delegates as if they had been struck by lightning. “Th-this…!!” Izel, trembling, tried to look back. Finally, when she confirmed the face of the one who had stabbed her, a rage-like fury spread across her face. “Jaif…!!!” Izel gritted her teeth with a voice that seemed to boil over. “What in the world is this, what are you doing…!!!” “I doubted and feared until the very end.” The apostle Jaif murmured. “I wondered if all of this was just a delusion and a lie… That’s why I stopped.” Swoosh!! As he slowly pulled out the blade, Izel’s body collapsed forward powerlessly. The one who had appeared from behind her was the face of a middle-aged man that Lenok knew. The apostle Jaif, with a will that was somehow empty and turbid, yet incomparably clear, quietly looked down at Lenok. “But you have never once spoken a lie.” “Apostle Jaifff!!!!” “What in the world is this!!” The priests and knights let out screams mixed with cries, and the Delegates who rushed out one after another surrounded Jaif. Their faces were all filled with shock, unable to believe the current situation. “Betraying the Archbishop, are you planning to commit treason…!!” “This is impossible!!” “How can an apostle who acts on His will… do this to the priestess…!!” “It’s not betrayal.” Jaif, on the contrary, looked at the Delegates with an expressionless face and murmured. “Didn’t you all see? Whose will the Hall of the Myriad Gods chose. What it told us was the right path.” “…!!” “Apostle Martinez showed me the truth. He gave everything to prove that his words were not wrong.” “Apostle? Apostle Martinez…?” “He wasn’t a heretic…?” “What in the world is going on?” Jaif’s calm words struck the hundreds and thousands of believers gathered in this place at the same time. The murmuring sounds and the crowd gathering closer to hear his words. Even the sacrifice offered on the altar, and Izel and Amrita, who had fallen bleeding. In this catastrophe that was falling into an uncontrollable chaos, only Jaif turned his back without hesitation. As if he knew what he had to do. “The ritual that took place in this place is nothing more than an illusion, a mere dream. So I will no longer hesitate…!!” Thud, thud…!! At that moment, Jaif’s body seemed to swell violently, and then, in an instant, it began to transform into the form of a huge monster. A huge rhinoceros-like form with four horns on its head. Jaif’s true form, standing on four legs and swinging its long nose, trampled the altar and charged forward. [Archbishop Izel Naidri and the Tenth Apostle Amrita have defied His will and violated unpermitted divinity!!] Jaif, who had unleashed a thunderous transmission, emitted a powerful psychic wave that could be heard throughout the island with the power of his true form. [Those who survive, head to the main temple and confirm all the truth!! From now on, I will… prove it to everyone…!!!] Not towards Archbishop Izel Naidri, who had collapsed clutching her chest, but towards Amrita, who was panting for breath, covered in blood behind her. Jaif relentlessly rammed into Amrita’s true form, which had been damaged by overexertion as a conduit for the will of the Outer Gods. Crack, crack!! [Squeeeeeak!!!] Amrita writhed in agony, her flesh crushed as she was pierced by the four thick horns, letting out a painful scream. However, Jaif continued to press his horns against Amrita, madly trampling on the same apostle. Amrita, unable to bear it, also began to bite into Jaif’s body in accordance with her survival instinct. Crunch, crunch!! [Koo-ooo…!!] [Squeak, squeak…!!] They bit into each other’s flesh, tearing and clawing, greedily taking and consuming each other’s flesh and soul. The unthinkable depravity of two apostles of the Order attacking and devouring each other. Even Lenok stared blankly at the magnificent battle of the monsters. Even when he had first tricked Jaif into thinking he was the same apostle, he could never have expected such a desperate internal conflict. The result of the ritual, which even Lenok himself had not anticipated, was coming in the form of a completely different aftermath. Was it a simple coincidence, or was it the result of a series of misfortunes and contradictions that had grown in size? From a series of situations that began with misunderstandings, deceptions, and lies, to the point of reaching an uncontrollable catastrophe. Izel, who had collapsed clutching her chest, turned her blurred eyes to look at the scene, then reached out with a trembling hand. “Amrita…” Lenok silently watched the scene, then slowly stood up. The shackles came off so naturally, as if they had never been there in the first place. Click!! The moment Lenok, who had been released unscathed, took a step towards Izel, someone appeared like lightning and embraced Izel’s body. A knight with a gloomy impression, wearing silver armor. Gerbin Melwood, the captain of the Correction Knights, carefully supported the fallen Izel. “I don’t know who you are or where you came from, but none of that matters.” Gerbin muttered in a chilling voice. “You cannot lay a single finger on the priestess.” “…Don’t worry.” Instead of walking towards Izel, Lenok quietly bent down and picked up the amber diadem that had fallen on the floor. “I have no more business with the Archbishop.” The amber diadem that had fallen from her head. Lenok put the recovered legacy of Jintun into his coat pocket and turned his gaze towards Amrita. “That will not be the case.” Whoosh-! The Delegates, who had been watching the situation, stepped onto the altar and blocked Lenok all at once. Their faces were stiff, not knowing what kind of expression to make. Even if they were skilled individuals chosen as vessels to become apostles, it was natural that they would have difficulty grasping the current situation. Among them, only three Delegates, who were emitting an overwhelming aura, were able to regain their senses and look straight at Lenok. Silence fell. “I have devoted my entire life to the Order, but this is the first time I have seen such a sight.” A Delegate wearing a plump priest’s robe pointed to the area below the altar and said quietly. “Look down there. The believers who were united and upholding the great will just a moment ago… are now divided.” “…” As he said, the Correction Knights and priests below the altar were unable to control the confusion caused by Jaif’s declaration and the clash between the apostles. With the Archbishop Izel unconscious, they were unable to decide which side to take. They might be used to dealing with and killing heretics according to the doctrine, but how could it be possible for the apostles they served to fight each other? No, under normal circumstances, Jaif’s actions might have been dismissed as a simple apostle’s madness or rebellion. The fact that it was not the Archbishop but a heretical magician who was chosen by the Outer Gods, and the fact that Jaif himself was risking his life for those words, was now planting a small seed of doubt in the minds of the believers who would never normally doubt the Order. “Protect Amrita-nim…!!” “No, everyone, don’t move from your positions!!” “Wait until we contact the main temple!!” “What are you talking about, that man is just a heretic…!!” The entire temple had fallen into a huge chaos where the situation was impossible to grasp. The fact that the Delegates were able to calmly block Lenok in the midst of this was probably because they were the ones who had participated in this ritual as vessels of the apostle. Knowing that they had been robbed of the qualifications they should have received, they could judge Lenok as an enemy with utmost coldness. “Apostle Jaif’s words are wrong. You are not a member of the Order.” The plump Delegate glared at Lenok with a sharp gaze. “I don’t know how you managed to win over him, who is so loyal to the Order, but it doesn’t matter. That’s not the only thing that can’t be explained right now.” Contrary to his dull impression, his judgment was very sharp. Rather than trying to understand this moment when everything was out of control, he was accurately grasping what needed to be done first. In fact, other than the four strongest Delegates who were blocking Lenok, the other Delegates were doing their best to attack Jaif and protect Amrita. Even without the intervention of a third party, and even if Amrita’s own mind was not sound, the difference in power between the two apostles was clear. Regardless of the fact that Jaif was risking his life to attack Amrita, it was Jaif who was bleeding and dying. “However, it is an undeniable fact that you were chosen by the Hall of the Myriad Gods, even though you do not follow His will…!!” “…” “Rather, that is why there is a way to solve all these complicated problems.” The plump Delegate said so and raised his thick hand, extending it towards Lenok. “Come to the Order.”