Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 654

How could an Ascended from the old world, who should have already disappeared, descend without any warning?

Why did the series of plans that Lenok and Maya had conceived fail so easily?

There wasn’t even time to think or prepare.

Only the reality that the worst-case scenario they had imagined had arrived far too suddenly was present before their eyes.

“…….”

The fact that the destination they reached after deploying the Thousand Eyes Ideological Domain to evade the Machine City’s pursuit and finding Hermes and the Ascension Gate was a failure.

However, instead of panicking or trembling with fear, Lenok began to focus his mind, trying to observe the Ascended before him as calmly as possible.

A spiritual body that had crossed the gate directly from the old world.

Moreover, a level 9 Ascended who had the qualifications to challenge ascension in the second world.

Without knowing the level of the opponent’s descent and the reason why he spoke to Lenok, there was no way to devise a countermeasure.

‘The professor said Oroknier’s core ability is mass manipulation.’

Lenok’s eyes sank deeply as he stared at the motionless Ascended, Oroknier.

‘He said he manipulates the boundary between matter and non-matter… I can’t have a conversation without confirming the reproduction rate.’

A level 9 mass manipulation that transcended hierarchy and obtained qualifications.

The power that reached the extreme of the transcendental trait system, which placed Hermes Oroknier in the hierarchy of Ascended.

Simply being wary and cautious is not enough.

Being within Oroknier’s Ideological Domain, it wouldn’t be strange if attacks close to reality alteration poured in from all directions at any moment.

Lenok, too, should observe his opponent while being ready to deploy his magnetic domain immediately.

Although his physical condition itself was not good, fortunately, his core mana itself had recovered quite a bit.

With the help of medicine, it would be possible to deploy the Kaleidoscope even if he had to push himself.

Whether he could have a chance of winning against an Ascended from the old world was something he would have to find out by confronting him, but Lenok did not stop preparing countermeasures.

Oroknier looked at Lenok, who was not saying anything, and slowly nodded.

“You seem to have many questions. Shall we sit down and talk for now?”

At the same time as he lightly gestured, pure white platinum metal rose from the empty air and transformed into the shape of a chair.

A realm that transcends the level of dominating and controlling reality, creating and destroying new matter.

It’s not a level that can be explained by saying that he temporarily holds the space-time of this world in his hands.

A miracle where the space-time in which Oroknier exists is itself an independent world.

The answer’s ability granted only to transcendents who have obtained the qualifications to challenge ascension.

“It seems you still don’t understand why this happened.”

The Ascended, Oroknier, smiled and leaned back in the chair.

“It’s simple. From the beginning, my soul did not exist beyond the void of the old world.”

“Are you saying… you didn’t challenge ascension from the beginning?”

At Lenok’s question, Oroknier silently raised his gaze.

He, who had been silent, answered quietly.

“Transcending the world and moving on to the next is not something that can be done with will and belief alone.”

He said, looking at the collapsing shape of the Ascension Gate with his hands behind his back.

“That is a privilege granted only to those who have their own answer prepared. Obtaining the qualifications to challenge ascension and succeeding in the challenge are completely different matters.”

“…….”

“I obtained the qualifications to challenge before the end approached, but that’s why I knew I would fail.”

Oroknier closed his eyes, placing both hands neatly on his knees.

“The answer I thought of was not my own, but a salvation that someone else desired.”

Someone else’s salvation.

Lenok knew who that was referring to, and Oroknier did not bother to explain either.

The last memory of Oroknier that they had watched from beyond the gate.

Both of them knew that they had watched that memory together, a memory that could never be forgotten once seen.

“That day, after facing the Outer God’s eye on the sea, until finally reaching the end…”

Oroknier slowly opened his eyes, mentioning the memory of when the Commander declared the slaying of the gods.

“There was only pain that transcended the time I had lived.”

“…….”

“Every time I faced the Outer Gods descending from beyond the dark sea, I couldn’t stop questioning myself.”

Oroknier said sadly.

“I wanted to deny it, but remembering the time I met him and traveled together… I also ended up thinking that was the only answer.”

As the end of the world approached, he ended up thinking that the only answer was to kill the gods and stop the postponement.

Even a transcendent who had his own answer and obtained the qualifications to challenge ascension had a tragedy at the end that changed his mind.

“So, you were planning to leave only your memories beyond the gate and observe the reaction of this world?”

Lenok asked, looking at Hermes’ corpse lying on the throne.

“Hoping that someone, moved by your memories, would lead you from beyond the destroyed world…”

At that moment, Oroknier burst into a quiet laugh.

Unlike the awkward smile that seemed to mimic a human’s smile, it was a laughter that seemed to come from deep within.

Oroknier said, touching his long, curved lips with one hand.

“I only realized near the end how precious the answer he gave in the second world was, how great it was.”

Oroknier murmured.

“That’s why I respect his answer. That’s why I don’t arbitrarily claim to be a necessity.”

“…….”

“That one is just an avatar that moves unilaterally following my memories. It has no depth and no trace.”

He shook his head as if Hermes’ words, who had shouted that he would become someone’s necessity, were absurd.

“I understand that your thoughts changed at the end, and you realized you would fail in ascension.”

Lenok, who had been staring at Oroknier, asked.

“Then why can you exist in this world with a complete consciousness?”

In the end, only this one fact was the most important.

The professor had told him that Oroknier had chosen a different path, but he did not know exactly what that method was.

However, if Oroknier still existed as a result, it meant that the method he had chosen had succeeded in a way different from ascension.

If Oroknier had reached the third world beyond the end without choosing ascension.

If he had descended into this world in a way different from the Commander, Lenok had to ask him about it.

“Oroknier. Did you transcend the world and reach here in a way other than ascension?”

“What is the self?”

Oroknier asked Lenok in return.

“Is it the soul that constitutes oneself, or is it memories? Or perhaps it is simply a collection of organisms and genes?”

“…It depends on what criteria you define the concept of self.”

Lenok replied.

“Whether it’s spiritual, biological, or based on magic theory, the concepts and definitions are all different. There is no clear answer.”

“No. There is an answer.”

Oroknier said, slowly touching the throne he had risen from with his hand.

At the same time, the chair made of platinum metal shattered into pieces on the spot.

Looking down at the fragments of the completely broken chair, he said.

“Even if oneself disappears, the will remains. As long as the form of the heart reveals its intention, and that scene continues, it does not disappear.”

“…….”

“Even if I disappear, my answer remains. Therefore, I…”

Oroknier smiled brightly.

“I have ascended not myself, but my answer instead.”

Not himself, but the ascension of the answer.

Lenok was silent as he realized the meaning.

Why Oroknier at this point was standing before Lenok’s eyes.

Even though he had blocked the operation of the gate, what the manifestation of this intense mental space meant.

He had a hunch that what Oroknier was saying was by no means a vain lie.

“…I see.”

Lenok murmured from beyond the frozen silence.

“You didn’t ascend yourself, but instead chose to ascend only your Ideological Domain beyond the world?”

Oroknier did not challenge ascension with his own will.

Instead, without challenging ascension, he simply shot his Ideological Domain, constructed with his own mental image, beyond the world.

The separation of oneself and the core mental image that defines oneself.

A bizarre act of separating the Ideological Domain that depicts the Ascended’s answer from himself and passing it on to the next.

Through this, he leaves only his own answer behind even after the end, without challenging ascension.

“That’s insane.”

Lenok stated.

“Leaving a masterless mental image beyond the end without knowing how it will change or where it will reach?”

“Lyman. But you understand it too, don’t you?”

Oroknier smiled gently.

“Leaving possibilities means that… clinging to vain hope and promising the next means that.”

“…….”

Lenok could not easily deny those words.

In a way, finding an answer in this world where the fourth does not exist was also the same meaning.

“Sometimes, you have to give up even yourself and leave meaning behind.”

Oroknier said, turning to look at the silent Lenok.

“Even if you know it will end up as an empty echo and a bubble.”

Hermes Oroknier knew that he would fail even if he challenged ascension.

Therefore, instead of fading away meaninglessly, he tried to detach even his mental image and send it to the next, hoping to become someone’s possibility.

“…….”

The heavy fact that even a transcendent who had the qualifications to challenge ascension ultimately sensed failure and tried to find another possibility.

Moreover, the despair that even the possibility they found had arrived here as if drifting, clinging to meager evidence and miracles.

The struggle to leave meaning at the end was so desperate.

The weight of trying to somehow convey that struggle and longing to the next was suffocating.

“What do you want?”

Lenok asked in a heavy voice.

“Why did you explain all this to me?”

“Answer.”

Oroknier answered with his eyes closed.

“The real me has become a handful of dust beyond the destroyed world, and there is no one left anywhere who remembers our journey, but…”

He said with difficulty, as if his throat was choked.

“Even so, I… want to confirm that we were not wrong.”

“…….”

“You tried to stop the gate and kill my avatar to end this situation, but my answer has already reached this world.”

Oroknier said.

“My foolish act of ascending the Ideological Domain, meeting the failure of the Ascension Gate, has created an impossible miracle.”

“That’s…”

“But what happens next is not something we can choose.”

Oroknier nodded, looking at Lenok.

“Once the Ideological Domain alters reality according to the will of the avatar, I will only become another end that stops the branching point of the world.”

“…I see.”

Only then could Lenok truly understand what Oroknier wanted.

The reason why the Ascended of the old world descended into this world, even though he had blocked Hermes from fully opening the gate.

That was because Oroknier, who appeared before Lenok, was the very intention of the Ascended inherent in the Ideological Domain.

Hermes’ existence was merely a trigger, and Oroknier’s Ideological Domain was already flowing out beyond the Ascension Gate from the old world.

Even if he killed Hermes at the point when the gate was activated and opened again, the Ascended’s Ideological Domain was already altering reality.

If the power of the Ideological Domain manifested according to Hermes’ thoughts, it would become a doomsday weapon that would literally crush the world.

“If even choosing is no longer allowed, I…”

Oroknier murmured.

“I hope that the answer I left behind will be used again by someone more qualified.”

He had called him to the other side of the Ideological Domain’s space-time, hoping to meet his end in Lenok’s hands.

Hoping that this magician, who had maintained his self even after facing the Ascended’s memories, would show an answer that even he could accept.

“…….”

Even after leaving only the answer in the next world, he still yearns for meaning?

But Lenok knew that challenging ascension meant that.

To make one’s own answer a world, and to make it a solution that transcends causality.

That is why even after the self disappears and the end comes, the lingering attachment continues and the longing persists.

If challenging ascension means that.

If obtaining the qualifications means facing that madness head-on.

The thing to do was always decided.

Click!

He opened the ampoule cap and injected it directly below his collarbone.

The dosage he had taken for today alone was more than five times. The bruises on his shoulder had numbed his senses, and he could no longer feel the pain well.

Thud, thud!!

Oroknier smiled, looking at the countless vials, stimulants, and elixir wrappers falling at his feet.

“I thought you would understand.”

“Understand?”

Lenok laughed, throwing an empty vial over his shoulder.

“That’s a word that doesn’t fit our situation at all.”

“Even though the time and place are different, we looked at the same memories.”

Oroknier replied.

“If you heard that answer of killing the gods from beyond the sea… you also know that there is only one answer that transcends all reason and morality, don’t you?”

“No.”

Lenok shook his head.

“Even that is, in the end, just a salvation for someone else, as you said.”

“…….”

“There is no salvation. Even postponement cannot be a solution. If I cannot find a proper answer in all the time I have been born and lived, I…”

Crack!!

Lenok bit his thumb and drew blood, muttering.

“I will see the answer in the future that has not yet come.”

“Very well.”

The moment Oroknier lightly stomped his foot with his hands behind his back,

Whoosh!!!

The distance between the two began to widen madly.

In the Ideological Domain where the Ascended’s will becomes reality, Oroknier was trying to widen the distance with Lenok and prepare for battle.

Lenok, knowing that fact, reached into his chest with his hand, which was dripping blood.

Lenok, who had lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply, raised his gaze to the sky and quietly murmured.

“Magnetic Domain Deployment.”

Fwoooosh!!!

From the end of the monochrome wave, the void of the universe unfolded.

The golden kaleidoscope rose behind Lenok’s back. But there was only one shape of the kaleidoscope rising from the end of the universe.

The mental image of the casting system, where he settled into the work of a craftsman under the identity of Lyman, eventually earning the title of Meister [Master Craftsman] and reaching the pinnacle of the Machine City.

The ideal of a craftsman who struggles to absorb all the technology and know-how that exists throughout the Machine City to create a single masterpiece.

The heart of a creator who hopes that the answer created from his fingertips, not himself, will reach the other side of the world.

Magnetic Domain Deployment: Branch Point Observation

Origin Hierarchy Mental Image Manifestation

Casting System Extreme Pinnacle

[Migrating Garrison Armored Dragon Star]

Kugwagwagwagwagwagwa!!!!!

A steel fortress several hundred meters in size, resembling a mixture of a giant dragon and a toad.

Thousands of gunports protruding from the fortress walls and the flames of war constantly rising from the outer walls of the fortress.

The aerial fortress, floating in the air and moving, glared at Oroknier’s Ideological Domain from the sky.

The moment Lenok, who had boarded the armored fortress deployed on the vast platinum land, raised his hand.

“Let’s go.”

[Space Collapse Temporary Construction]