Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 717

A beautifully sculpted glass garden. The night sky, reflecting a Milky Way overhead, and dew-kissed flowers and trees quietly bow their heads. As if completely detached from the bustling world, the garden is immersed in a tranquil silence. Someone, who had been sitting on the grass, tilting a glass of wine, suddenly turned their gaze. “……Hmm.” An elderly man with strong features. His roughly swept-back white hair gives him a rather antique appearance. Despite his considerable age, what emanates from him is not the passage of time but an explosive vitality. Like a wizard in his prime, unaffected by the years that have passed. The old man, who had been staring at the Milky Way with an ambiguous expression, tilted his head as if he couldn’t quite grasp something. “I definitely felt something… strange.” “What is it?” From the shadows within the garden, someone sitting in a dark chair asked. Even in the starlit garden, a quiet presence was layered within the unusually deep shadows. Beyond the shadows, a finger illuminated by starlight was as transparent as glass. “Have you decided?” “You’re being awfully hasty. It’s not that.” “Then why did you frown after drinking the glass droplet in my garden?” At the other’s question, delivered in a monotone voice, the old man stroked his chin, lost in thought. After a moment of contemplation, he seemed inclined to explain, swirling the wine in his glass as he answered. “Lightning that touches the horizon of thought begins to reverse, transcending perception and speed.” “…….” “If you’re looking at the same scenery, very occasionally… you can perceive that moment.” The old man suddenly began to explain the principles of magic. However, the other immediately understood and, rather, spoke as if intrigued. “If that’s the case, then a lightning mage like you just crossed the horizon of thought.” “Perhaps.” “Where is it?” The other asked. If that eccentric old man was making such an assessment, it was proof that a lightning strike had surpassed its limits somewhere on this continent. Moreover, it meant that the phenomenon was created in reality without borrowing any power from the domain. The owner of the lightning the old man had just mentioned must also be a powerful figure who had reached a transcendent level. “If there’s a mage who’s easier to talk to than you, I’d like to have a conversation with them.” “Well, I can’t be sure either.” Even at the other’s blunt retort, the old man indifferently picked at his teeth. “The ability to search the entire planet is a privilege granted to only a select few among the Ascended. It’s not within your domain.” Having said that, the old man looked up at the Milky Way flowing overhead and smiled. “Perhaps it was because of this garden that I was able to sense it.” “…….” The glass garden where the two were standing was not a mere model space that had been plausibly sculpted. It was the other side of the boundary, where the horizon of an existing world had been shaved down to an infinitely thin layer, ultimately narrowed to be closer to the outer sea than reality. The Milky Way visible overhead was not the real sky but a glass window looking out at the scenery of the outer sea. Therefore, in this place, one could most sensitively perceive the disaster-level events occurring in various parts of the world. It was impossible without reaching a level where one could interfere with the world’s spacetime, going beyond the level of directly manipulating space. However, even knowing this, the old man did not regard the person before him with caution or awe. Only someone like that could have the crazy idea of weaving all the spells in this world into one. “I enjoyed the wine. I’ve seen something interesting, so I don’t think I need to stay here any longer.” Thwack! The old man, having tossed his glass away, rose from his seat. His antique formal attire, as if someone had dressed him, was crumpled and disheveled, but the old man paid it no mind. The other knew that the attire was a spell-infused weapon that had been passed down for a very long time, but they did not bother to mention it. Instead, they merely shone a transparent gaze from beyond the shadows. “Have you decided?” “Yes. I’ve thought about it, but it seems difficult to join the Spell Alliance.” The old man looked at him and chuckled. “I need to be able to trust the guys running things in the center. In my eyes, the Order and you are all the same.” “…….” “Put the wine on my tab. I’ll have one of my underlings pay for it later. Was it called a glass droplet?” “There’s no need. It’s not something that can be measured by worldly currency in the first place.” The other said, leaning back slowly from the shadows. “But it’s a shame… I thought that to deal with the Apostles, we’d need to borrow the power of a war merchant.” The truce between the Spell Alliance and the Guido Order, which was established following the death of the 10th Apostle Amrita. However, the truce, which was strange in its very establishment, was heading towards a breakdown faster than expected. The Apostles were resuming their activities in various battlefronts, and reports of human sacrifices, which had decreased, were increasing again. What did it mean that the Order, which had been quiet throughout the truce, was now starting to move again? It meant that they had fully recovered from the damage they had suffered due to Amrita’s death and were ready to accelerate towards their paradise again. It was obvious where the power of the Order, having regained its strength, would be directed first. “Forget the truce, you guys sort it out yourselves. No matter how I think about it, there’s no benefit to be gained from this.” The old man picked at his teeth and laughed. “You declared a truce by joining hands with those crazy fanatics because you were confident you could handle them, weren’t you?” “……The Second Apostle is different from the others.” The other said quietly. “He functions as an Apostle but is not consumed by madness. Even when the truce was signed here, I couldn’t foresee anything.” “…….” “He is empty, and therefore filled with a motive that no one can understand. It’s closer to an independence that doesn’t rely on the Order’s doctrines. If the enemy is someone you can’t understand-” The other flicked a transparent finger towards the laughing old man. “As you said, wouldn’t we need something that transcends the horizon of thought?” There were countless groups of sorcerers on the continent, but among them, there was one tower that had been following a particularly unique path for hundreds of years. Thorben, which had been researching and inheriting unique lightning-based magic. Wizards who were obsessed with internal combustion and lightning, and who had jumped into the war business to prove their power directly. Hundreds of years ago, everyone said they were crazy, but now they had become ‘businessmen’ who traded in war. “You’re not wrong. It’s only natural that Thorben’s thunder is the heaviest and fastest.” The old man chuckled and turned to leave. “Our lightning is the most dazzling, and our will moves first. That’s a given. But-” The old man stopped speaking and turned his gaze at the edge of the glass garden. Leaving the other, who was still in the shadows, the old man said teasingly. “If there’s one lesson I’ve learned from living a long life, it’s that you should look carefully at where you’re going to lie down before you stretch your legs.” “Why is that?” “In front of a stage and actors like this, once you swing, there’s no going back. Whether it’s will or magic.” “…….” The old man gave a dark smile to the silent other. “You’ll arrive at the place you struck before you even withdraw your hand. That’s why you need to think carefully and make a decision.” The lightheartedness that had been flowing around the old man had disappeared, and a gloomy, heavy magic filled the space. The essence of a war mage that he had never revealed in the middle of the garden. The old man looked at the other and slowly murmured. “I don’t care about the Order or the Alliance. Bring me better terms. Until then, Thorben will not intervene in this war.” Without waiting for an answer, he began to walk. The glass garden, created by slicing the world’s space into a thin layer. At the end of it, as if breaking through a thin membrane, he returned to reality. The floating sensation, as if drifting in a dream, disappeared, and the air of the mundane world pressed down on the old man again. “Well, then……” The old man, straightening his bent back and taking a light breath, looked at the horizon and smiled. “Shall I go find out what kind of friend the owner of that lightning from earlier is?” Although he hadn’t told the Spell Alliance in detail, the old man knew what the lightning that had brushed past the horizon of thought meant. It was not a power that could be achieved by honing unique lightning-based magic for a long time. It was a realm that went beyond changing the nature of lightning, forcibly twisting and rewriting its concept. It was not enough to complete the hierarchy, and it was slightly insufficient even to transcend it. It was proof of a transcender who was redefining the hierarchy themselves, going beyond simply obtaining the title of a great mage. That alone was enough to say that they had already acquired the ‘vessel’. “Is the resonance of thunder still echoing in this era?” The old man asked himself, and as he took a step forward, white lightning bloomed along his leg. Crack, crack…!! Immediately after the lightning bounced under the bent shadow, the old man’s figure flashed and disappeared beyond the horizon. * * * Kugugugugu!!! Heat boiling like lava. Traces of the ground, melted regardless of metal or soil. The heat rising above the theme park, which had turned into a living hell, became a haze, shaking the dawn sky. Lenox sat on the collapsed Ferris wheel, silently watching the devastation he had created. From under Lenox, who was taking out a cigarette from his pocket, someone’s voice was heard. “Ban…?” A red-haired mage covered in dust and blood. Disheveled clothes and a nearly ruined appearance. Tatiana was struggling to support herself as she looked up at Lenox. “What are you doing there?” Lenox, with a cigarette in his mouth, looked at her and smiled. “You’re awake. Are you alright?” “……Thanks to you. I feel like I’m going to die, but I’m somehow alive.” Tatiana, who had slumped down under the wreckage of the Ferris wheel, said as if she was dumbfounded. “Are you the one who’s alright? Looking at you now, you seem to be in better shape than I am…” He was covered in dust and looked a little tired, but Lenox had no major injuries or wounds. It was hard to believe that he was the one who had crushed the area in a fierce battle that shook the heavens and the earth, as he looked so neat. Lenox replied, exhaling smoke as if it was nothing. “My mana consumption was a bit severe, but it’s not something I can’t handle. I’m just a little tired.” “That’s absurd… It’s even more frightening that you can say that so casually.” Tatiana gave a hollow laugh, as if she was dumbfounded. She had only managed to defeat Feisha, who was difficult to hold back, by over-consuming her mana. Even the fact that the result was due to an operation that was originally intended for capture was hard to believe. They were breathing and talking in the same space, but they were already looking at different realms. “You have more problems than your injuries.” Lenox asked, rubbing his tingling arm. “Gias. Is it completely gone now?” “……Yes.” Tatiana gave a sorrowful smile. “All the restrictions my master placed on me, they took them all instead.” “…….” The Gias, which required a spark to use bombardment magic. All the restrictions that had been placed to maximize the power of her magic had disappeared. A miracle where the achievements from Gias remained intact, while only the restraints were extinguished. Lenox was also very interested in it, but it was not something he could study right away. “Once the cleanup is done, I’ll study it properly. I have a lot of questions about the extinction and combustion of Gias.” “Do that. But why are you putting your cigarette to the lava?” “I was just wondering if the flames of thermal magic had such an ability.” Lenox tilted his head, looking at the cigarette that had burned through the filter without even catching fire. “It’s not working well. I guess it needs to be more heat-resistant than this?” “…….” Lenox subtly avoided Tatiana’s gaze, which was looking at him as if he were sick. Instead of dwelling on Lenox’s eccentric behavior, Tatiana asked something else. “What happened in the fight? Where is Guifei?” Immediately after appeasing the spirits of her fellow mages and preventing the satellite launch, Tatiana had lost consciousness on the spot. The mental fatigue that had accumulated since she had fled the Magic Tower with the Phoenix War Banner, the fierce battles she had fought while carrying out the operation. The extreme mana consumption she had paid to survive. All these factors had combined, causing her to lose consciousness. She knew that the reason she was able to open her eyes, despite feeling like she was going to die, was because of the mage in front of her. It was probably because Lenox had fought Feisha and brought the battle to a conclusion that the ruined amusement park was so quiet. But Lenox was alive and well, and the fact that Guifei was nowhere to be seen, what did that mean? “……Did you kill her?” At Tatiana’s question, which sounded as if she couldn’t believe it, Lenox gestured with his eyes towards her back. Tatiana turned her gaze and gasped at the sight in the distance. A figure was hanging messily between the frames of the burnt-out observation tower. The skin all over her body was burnt and distorted, making it difficult to even guess her face, but Tatiana could recognize her immediately. “This can’t be…” Tatiana, with a suffocated expression, slowly approached her. Lenox, who had been watching her from behind, suddenly spoke as if he had remembered something. “Don’t get too close. She might still be alive.” “What?! Alive…!!” It was a shocking fact for Tatiana, who was about to say that it was a miracle that the corpse was still intact. Lenox nodded, lighting his cigarette. “I was going to annihilate her, but she was lucky. I had enough energy left to leave a corpse at the end.” The javelin that Feisha Grisban had launched at the end was a single shot containing an entire microcosm. It was a technique close to suicide, disregarding herself, as it was a power created by risking complete damage to the hierarchy. At the point where she had slammed the entire microcosm into the spear shaft and thrown it, Feisha’s own body had become extremely vulnerable. Lenox had recognized this at the point where he had torn apart the monstrous dragon’s spirit with the Ideological Trust, and he had slightly lowered the power of the second-chanted Creation (開霹) [a powerful magic technique]. He had adjusted it to a level where Feisha’s body would not be completely annihilated. “Th, that’s right. The fact that the frame of the observation tower is still there…” Tatiana belatedly checked the surrounding scenery and let out an awkward exclamation. If it had been the firepower to erase an 8th-level physical ability user, the observation tower would have been evaporated without a trace. The fact that there was still a form to hold Feisha was proof that he had adjusted the power. “I thought I should leave a corpse as evidence, and after I did, I realized. The possibility is quite high.” “…….” Tatiana, who had approached nearby with awkward steps, carefully examined her. The way she was hanging on the observation tower frame looked more like a corpse than anything else. But Lenox wouldn’t lie, so Tatiana, who had raised her remaining mana to examine her condition, had a strange expression. “……Ban, this woman isn’t breathing.” “Someone like Guifei wouldn’t be dependent on breathing for survival.” “Then what about her heart not beating?” “…….” Only then did Lenox approach Tatiana and examine Feisha’s appearance. Lenox, who had been observing Feisha while leaning on his staff, slowly nodded. “She’s still alive. Look here.” Lenox said, pointing to Feisha’s shoulder. “The muscles below her collarbone are swelling slightly.” “Why is that?” “She’s prioritizing the regeneration of the most important internal muscles and blood vessels near the organs.” “…….” “I’ve heard that transcendent physical ability users can switch to a state of suspended animation optimized for survival without being conscious, and it wasn’t just a rumor.” Instinctively prioritizing the internal organs necessary for survival, and repeating regeneration and recovery sequentially. In the process, she had forcibly closed her consciousness and entered a state of suspended animation to minimize energy consumption. Since she was blocking all external stimuli, she wouldn’t be able to hear any words or voices at this point. Lenox had also known about it through old combat records and historical materials, but it was the first time he had seen it in person. Tatiana clicked her tongue at Lenox’s reaction, who was examining Feisha’s appearance with interest. “If you’re going to keep watching like that, I’ll move her by myself?” “……No, let’s wait a moment.” Lenox replied, slowly reaching out a hand and placing it on Feisha’s forehead. “I think I can wake her consciousness with just a little touch.” “What?” “Her body is in a state of suspended animation, but her consciousness isn’t damaged. If I slightly stimulate Feisha’s precognitive aptitude…” Ting!! The moment he lightly flicked the thought he had infused into his fingertip into Feisha’s mind. Feisha’s eyelids, which had been still as if dead, twitched briefly. Lenox nodded towards Tatiana as if to say, “See?” “I can forcibly awaken her by stimulating her consciousness like this.” “……I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Tatiana hadn’t fought Feisha directly, so it would be difficult for her to understand the story about precognitive aptitude. Lenox didn’t expect a positive reaction either, so he smiled and shook his head. “It wasn’t necessary to say that. More importantly, can you clean up the surroundings first?” Lenox turned his gaze towards Feisha, who was convulsing while bound by the Pure Land Mantra [a type of binding spell]. The mage’s eyes, looking down at her, were emitting a strange light. “There’s still a story I need to hear from this woman.” The secret history of Dead Rise that Feisha had mentioned. The leader of the army. There was a fact about Kaise’s son that he needed to confirm.