Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 722

Immediately after Lenox returned to reality, having imprinted an indelible black sun on the Altar of the Sun.

The incantation of the Taiji Incarnation [a ritual involving the concept of yin and yang], which had been burning the closed area, stood still as if time had stopped.

The flames of the ritual magic that had been soaring reversed into desolate black flames, and plunged straight down to the ground.

Koo-hwaaaak!!!

A wave of black flames surged over the collapsed theme park and instantly spread far across the field of garbage.

Leaving Tatiana, who was staring blankly at the sky below, Lenox, who had returned to reality, landed on the ground.

“Take Anghel and escape quickly. There’s no time.”

“Huh, what happened? Master…?!”

While Lenox had turned the ritual world upside down, the ritual had continued in reality.

Dyuren’s corpse had already turned to ashes and disappeared without a trace.

Moreover, the presence of the Tower Master, who had descended as an incarnation using that corpse as fuel, was no longer felt.

While Tatiana was looking around in confusion, Lenox, with a weary expression, stood her up.

Lenox spoke to Tatiana, who had risen awkwardly.

“I have officially inherited the authority of the Phoenix Palace. I have acquired the ninth authority.”

“…!!!!”

Tatiana turned to look at Lenox with an utterly astonished expression.

“Th-then…!!”

Lenox declared without batting an eye.

“From now on, call me Master.”

“…”

Tatiana, who had been silent with her mouth agape, belatedly came to her senses.

“No, that’s not it!! Just because you say so doesn’t mean you’ve become my master!!”

“It seems you haven’t lost your mind yet.”

Lenox said, avoiding the black flames burning all around and heading towards the sewer.

“Let’s find Anghel quickly. In this kind of environment, her condition won’t be good.”

“W-wait a minute. Then, the magic tower you were originally planning to build…?”

Tatiana asked, as if she couldn’t hold back, while searching the sewer with Lenox using magic detection.

“The plan will proceed as originally intended. Only the order has changed.”

“The order has changed?”

“Originally, I was planning to adopt Blaver’s system after building the tower.”

Lenox replied, walking towards the restroom area of the theme park’s shopping center.

“It’s like I’ve taken care of the necessary work to organize the system in advance. Actually, I wanted to handle things in a more stable environment, but…”

Since the Tower Master had appeared unexpectedly, Lenox had no choice but to proceed with the inheritance ritual of the Phoenix Palace at this place.

The image of the flame magic that existed within Lenox.

The Black Sea Goddess Lock of the magnetic field, obtained from the future of the branching point observation.

At the end of countless battles and research, Lenox engraved the black sun he had grasped inside the solar system.

As long as Lenox was alive and breathing, the flames of that sun would continue to burn within the tower’s solar system without ever going out.

Only after hearing the explanation did Tatiana’s expression change seriously as she grasped the whole story.

“Master is not the kind of person who would ever let someone he has turned into an enemy live.”

“…”

“If he hadn’t known that you had inherited the authority, this could have ended with just me…”

“Maybe so.”

Lenox replied, having found Anghel, who had fainted and collapsed, at the end of the toilet stall.

“But at this point, it was unavoidable. So what I did was…”

He bound Anghel with magic threads, threw her into the cart with Peisha, and turned his gaze.

“To weaken the Tower Master’s authority and inflict damage on the system itself by placing a subordinate he cannot control.”

“…”

“Since I turned the inside of the ritual world upside down, it will take time to recover. The Tower Master will also have to focus on managing his own image.”

The reason why Lenox forcibly hammered his image into the magic tower’s solar system and engraved the ninth sun.

It was because he was certain that the collision between Lenox’s and the Tower Master’s authority would shake the foundation of the Tower Master’s power.

Even if the Tower Master had learned magic from another world, its origin was still the flame magic of the Blaver Magic Tower.

An anomaly in the tower’s solar system, which supports that authority, was a major blow to the Tower Master.

Moreover, the pressure of having to continue fighting within the same ritual world against an opponent he had publicly declared he would burn to death.

Even seeing the image of the black sun burning right next to him, he couldn’t do anything about it.

At this point, Lenox knew well what was the most fatal blow and humiliation he could inflict on the opponent who was trying to kill him.

“Since we possess the same authority, I will be able to recognize the changes when the Tower Master starts to recover his power.”

Lenox smiled, turning to Tatiana as he walked out of the theme park.

“Even if I can’t directly find out the Tower Master’s plans, I can at least recognize when he will resume his activities.”

“…I never thought that the solar system was a concept that could be handled so easily.”

Tatiana nodded with a disgruntled look.

“I still can’t believe it. That Master’s authority would be stolen in this way…”

“Strictly speaking, it was the Tower Master who made his own power unstable first.”

Lenox replied.

Seeing Tatiana, who seemed somewhat relieved, Lenox turned his gaze.

“The only thing left is… to think about how to escape from this place.”

“What?”

Tatiana was horrified by his muttering as he looked at the field of the closed area overflowing with black flames.

“Wait a minute, wasn’t that black flame you created? Why are you thinking about how to get out?”

“What I did was create authority in the ritual world and use that authority to reverse the essence of the magic wielded by the Tower Master. I didn’t take control of it.”

Lenox shrugged.

“In the first place, I don’t have any magic power left to control it. If you get close, you’ll burn to death.”

“…Then?”

Tatiana asked.

“Were we just going to stand here and burn to death?”

“…Hmm.”

“…”

An awkward silence followed.

“No, after dramatically overcoming so many near-death experiences, here…”

While Tatiana was staring blankly at the surging black flames, Lenox smiled faintly and slightly raised his gaze.

Immediately after, the sound of a helicopter suddenly echoed from above.

Tu-ta-ta-ta-ta!!!

“Hey, Iron Wall!!”

A girl with fluorescent hair, covered in blood, was hanging from the helicopter door, waving her hand.

Tatiana’s face brightened as she recognized the girl’s face.

“Merilda!!”

“Firebug, you’re still alive?!!”

Flight equipment that would normally be unthinkable in the outer area where self-storms raged.

However, Merilda, who had escaped before Lenox, had arrived to help them, riding a helicopter equipped with an anti-gravity engine developed by Evan.

The result of research within the cartel to commercialize the anti-gravity engine on its own.

Merilda, horrified at the sight of the helicopter door melting from the heat of the black flames, yelled at the top of her lungs.

“Shit, it’s hot as hell. Get in quickly!!”

* * *

The black flames that spread to District 59 subsided only after incinerating about 6% of the waste piled up in the closed area.

The statistics revealed after the entire incident and the pitch-black flames witnessed beyond the barrier became a hot topic on the deep web for a while.

Those who knew about the incident at the time of the Eight Directions Fortress knew that the black flames were similar to that time, but they kept silent.

The magician who had caused the black flames at the fortress at that time had now become a madman that no one could easily touch.

There was no one to take responsibility even if lightning struck their heads for recklessly spreading information.

Now, even the smallest information about Iron Wall was being traded for considerable value.

While the incident that almost burned down the entire closed area had ended, and even the rumors had become a piece of information circulating in the underground trading network.

Lenox was standing in front of the cartel’s chairman’s office.

Thud!!

Lenox, having placed Peisha, whose whole body was bound by chains engraved with magic characters, said.

“Noble Peisha Grisburn. I brought her back alive as promised.”

[…]

In the chairman’s office library, where all sorts of books and papers were piled up.

From beyond the veil hanging in the distance, something could be heard shuffling.

Soon, a figure flickered beyond the veil, and a rainbow-colored light pierced through the veil.

After sitting there for a while, looking at the figures of Lenox and Peisha, Oliviera let out a faint sigh.

[I didn’t have high expectations, but it seems you’ve tied up the loose ends better than I thought.]

“Their managers did a pretty good job.”

Lenox replied, lighting a cigarette.

“So I paid a little attention. There were also things I had to take care of separately.”

[…It seems you had quite a hard time. Those guys are all like that.]

A faint smile was mixed in Oliviera’s transmission.

[It was the same in the past, but there wasn’t one who wasn’t a tough nut. So I didn’t think I’d be able to see this woman’s face alive again…]

Peisha, who had regained consciousness, was silently staring at the veil with her eyes open.

Rather than being afraid of being captured and brought here, she seemed to be trying to glare straight at Oliviera.

Oliviera, unconcerned by Peisha’s appearance, gestured lightly from beyond the veil.

Thump!!

The red-skinned giants who had been standing like totems on either side of the chairman’s office led Peisha away.

Lenox, watching them disappear while exhaling smoke, asked.

“What do you plan to do with the noble?”

[Well… I’m not sure either. It’s not like I wanted her for any particular purpose.]

Oliviera replied in a slow tone.

[Perhaps I needed a companion to talk to in order to recall the memories of my youth.]

“…”

Who would believe that the chairman of this cartel was trying to capture Peisha because she needed someone to talk to?

Lenox, seeing that she didn’t want to reveal her purpose outright, immediately changed the subject.

“I heard that Ethan Bajur, Kaise’s son, is leading Dead Rise.”

[…]

“Did you know?”

Oliviera’s shadow, which had been silent.

Lenox said again, looking at him.

“Are you going to say that this is also something you can’t talk about because of the ban?”

[…It’s ambiguous.]

Oliviera replied.

She slowly shifted her body from beyond the veil, then leaned against something and sent a transmission.

[But considering what you’ve done this time, I’ll answer you.]

“…”

[What are you curious about?]

“I heard that his son died a long time ago, and even Kaise doesn’t know about the existence of his granddaughter.”

Lenox asked.

“There’s no way a man like Kaise would have mistaken that fact, so there must be a hidden secret.”

[…]

“Which is it?”

Lenox’s question, omitting the subject. But both of them understood what it was referring to.

Oliviera, who was directly involved in the project, and Lenox, who had returned after seeing the memories of the past.

One memory shared by the two people from different timelines was faintly connecting the threads of their conversation.

[Which one do you think it is?]

Instead of answering that question directly, Oliviera asked Lenox in return.

As if she wanted to know Lenox’s thoughts on this question.

Her attitude seemed to be enjoying the current exchange, but Lenox also understood.

Considering the ban she had, it would be cleaner for Lenox to deduce it himself and only verify the conclusion.

“Well… the first thing that comes to mind is the possibility that the leader of Dead Rise is impersonating Kaise’s son.”

Lenox said.

“Assuming that Ethan Bajur actually died, someone is leading Dead Rise using his name. Either way, this situation is the most realistic. But…”

[But?]

Lenox, who had been pondering, slowly opened his mouth.

“The leaders of Dead Rise that I’ve seen weren’t the kind of people who would risk their lives for an ambiguous impersonation.”

Dead Rise, a private military company formed with Kaise’s confidants as its core.

However, Lenox was able to fully realize their skills and experience while facing Gilleon in the past and Peisha in the present.

The intuition and judgment they showed in their battles with the two strong individuals were at a level that even Lenox could not ignore.

Considering the density of their determination, it was also difficult to accept that they were being deceived by a simple impersonation or lie.

In the end, wasn’t there a piece missing from the puzzle to connect this broken cause and effect?

Lenox had come to Oliviera to ask about that fact, personally escorting Peisha.

“Either the leader of Dead Rise has a good reason, or there might be a tacit agreement among the leaders.”

Oliviera did not answer Lenox’s words for a long time.

Rather than being at a loss for words, it was as if she was slowly choosing the words she was about to say.

Very slowly, her transmission, which had started from beyond the curtain, rang out clearly.

[Human nature is complex and contradictory, so it is never always swayed by one’s own will.]

“…”

[Talent and aptitude are the same. Ambiguous and vague aptitudes are sometimes a curse rather than a blessing.]

She muttered, glancing at the expressionless Lenox.

[Therefore, sometimes they become stronger after death, forcibly rewinding a fate that has already ended.]

“…What?”

Lenox’s expression changed drastically as he immediately understood her words.

Because he knew that what Oliviera was saying now was about Kaise’s innate constitution.

What was the contradiction that his son, who was born with an inherently ambiguous constitution, had become stronger after death?

Oliviera’s hint suggested only one possibility.

The strengthening of reverse magic power. The second hand that rewinds the spring of a stopped clock.

The meaning of forcibly rewinding a fate that has ended.

[Rebirth of the Dead.]

Oliviera smiled.

[You must have heard about this concept at least once, right?]

Lenox, who had been silent, slowly asked back as if confirming her words.

“Are you saying that Kaise’s son… regained his life after death?”

There are many kinds of magic that use the thoughts or spirits left behind after death, but resurrecting the dead is a completely different story.

The concept that divides human life and death is so absolute in terms of magic.

It may be possible to play tricks and deceive before reaching that standard, but it is impossible to reverse it after already crossing the boundary of life and death.

Oliviera was now saying that Kaise’s son was a reviver.

[Kaise had a very rare constitution, but his greatest talent was not reverse magic power.]

“…”

[Then, wouldn’t it be natural if his son inherited that aptitude to some extent?]

It was a statement close to a wordplay, but Lenox had no choice but to understand the meaning that Oliviera was conveying.

The Kaise he had encountered in the closed area was a designer with tremendous intelligence and judgment that Lenox admired.

His declaration to change the world was not a naive idea based on his own talent.

A determination to learn from all the failures of this world and find the only correct answer at the end.

His outstanding mind and leadership to carry out that reckless plan and attract monsters from all over the world to make it a success.

If Kaise’s son had inherited that talent to some extent.

“…You’re saying that even death might have been part of his plan. That it was a design to deceive even Kaise?”

[Well, I can’t judge that far.]