Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 854

After hearing about the demon giant’s abilities from the black visor, Lenok became quite intrigued by the undefeated contract.

A deal with hell. An undefeated contract. What could be the nature of a power that never loses?

Is it the authority of causality reversal that forcibly overturns predetermined victories and defeats?

Or is it the power to halt the turning point where victory or defeat is decided, maintaining a state of equilibrium?

For Lenok, who had always fought against all sorts of superhumans and monsters with the sole goal of victory, this was a somewhat unfamiliar concept.

However, if an Aegis superhuman could bring it up so readily in front of Lenok, it was clearly not an ability that was limited by the magnitude of power.

Therefore, Lenok had intended to seize the demon giant and test its abilities against Aegis, but—

“At this rate, I can’t even conduct an experiment.”

Crack!!

[Ugh…!!]

The yellow visor, who had been caught in the giant’s sharply curved, claw-like grip, fell powerlessly to the ground.

Beside him, other members who had been swept away by the demon giant earlier were lying collapsed.

The demon, holding his head with one hand, shook his head helplessly.

Watching the bizarre demon’s gestures, as if he were intoxicated by his own power, Lenok sighed and shook his head.

“To not be defeated, one must first be driven to a situation where defeat is possible, I suppose. I didn’t expect this.”

The demon giant’s inherent size was too great, and the exhausted Aegis members could not meet the activation conditions.

The superhumans, who had expended considerable energy to breach the research institute and fortify the power facilities, were no match for it.

[Conversely, we would like to ask how this is even possible, 견뢰 [Gyeon-roe, a name or title].]

The jade visor, clutching his twisted wrist, replied quietly.

[What the execution captain uses is forbidden magic that draws out power beyond its vessel, even among black magic.]

“……”

[We came here prepared to give our lives, but how can you control that demon without a simple contract?]

Although he tried to answer calmly, the jade visor couldn’t even properly meet Lenok’s gaze.

During the series of disturbances from the research institute to the power facility, he had realized just how dangerous this mage was.

‘The fact that he can hold a conversation is not a good sign….’

A magic that had reached the realm of the mortal. A transcendent ability to wield not only magic power but even physical strength as if it were his own.

An infinite incantation that defied limits, and combat experience that far surpassed the superhumans gathered here.

But more than anything, what made 견뢰 [Gyeon-roe] feel threatened was that he was a being who could calmly converse and express emotions.

Unlike other mages, 견뢰 [Gyeon-roe] was not trapped in his own world, nor did he look down on humans like insects.

While standing at the center of the chaos, chasing after blood and battles, his eyes were calmly observing his surroundings, clearly recognizing everything.

Location, situation, conditions, and environment. He even carefully selected people, assembling the board as he wished.

Even if it meant sacrificing efficiency or time, he had the self-control to listen, endure, and engage in conversation for his goals.

To the jade visor, this was a far more dangerous madness than recklessly rampaging.

He could now understand why the upper council had sent someone directly to announce their position, and why the veiled elders had intervened to mediate the situation.

Just as the agency’s director had warned, and as the city council officials had expressed, there was an eerie quality there that could not be explained by his blood-soaked infamy alone.

While outwardly asking about black magic, the jade visor was quickly organizing his thoughts and considering his future treatment.

Whoosh!!

Her body, along with the other Aegis members, was thrown backward as if repelled from the spot.

[Ugh…!!]

“I didn’t want to use drastic methods, but it can’t be helped.”

Lenok, having instantly pushed away the other members and leaving only the black visor, reached out his hand.

The black visor, who had been standing still, was pulled towards Lenok by his gesture.

“Come closer.”

[……!!!]

Even though his mind was likely twisted from having his mental expansion forcibly canceled, he endured without a single scream.

The moment Lenok tapped the helmet of the black visor, who was barely managing to stand his ground.

Thud!!

The visor was flung off, revealing a young man with wet black hair.

A sharp face covered in blood, as if he had vomited blood. Cold sweat was dripping down his face, likely due to the pain.

Lenok didn’t even look at the young man’s face, and instead placed the chain hanging from the giant’s arm around the young man’s neck.

Clank!!

The young man frowned at the chain that had been fastened like a shackle, and the demon giant shrugged his shoulders.

“Try making a contract.”

“……What?”

“Originally, you were planning to contract with this guy, right? Go ahead and finish it.”

Lenok said, letting his left hand hang in the air.

“The undefeated ability. If it’s impossible to meet the conditions with the power of others, I’ll experiment myself.”

The spiral lightning that bloomed from his fingertips instantly twisted and began to glow fiercely in the air.

Among Lenok’s unique lightning-based magic, this was a destructive spell that ranked high in terms of power against individuals.

[Spiral Lightning Kill (螺雷殺) [Naraesal, a specific magic technique]]

Zzzzzzzzzzz!!!!

The blue light, as if about to burn the young man alive, dyed the scene in front of them a deep blue.

Screams and shouts from the members echoed from all directions.

“It’s useless.”

But the young man gritted his teeth and glared at Lenok’s face.

“Once the contract is transferred, it’s impossible for me to take it back. Either way, it’ll be a dog’s death.”

The black demon giant summoned through the deal with hell was not an entity that completely obeyed the young man’s control.

If the demon liked Lenok and changed his position, that was the end of it.

Even if the young man was the summoner, he could not go against the demon’s will and reclaim the contract.

“To say it’s a dog’s death even while thinking you’re going to die, you’ve got guts.”

Lenok chuckled.

“But I wasn’t talking to you.”

“……What?”

The moment the young man questioned him, he felt the chain around his neck strongly respond.

The demon giant standing behind Lenok was trying to contract with the young man on his own accord and draw out his power.

The young man’s expression wavered for the first time as he realized that Lenok’s words were a direct order to the demon, not to him.

Lenok, gripping the twisting lightning in the air, slammed the Spiral Lightning Kill into the young man’s solar plexus.

Fwoooosh!!!

Blue lightning rotated counterclockwise, blooming like dozens of flower petals on the front and back of his upper body.

Every blooming petal contained an enormous amount of heat and fission, rippling and crushing the space.

The Aegis members, realizing that his body would evaporate without a trace, were about to move when—

The lightning of the Spiral Lightning Kill that Lenok had plunged in was sucked into the young man’s body and disappeared as if it were a lie.

Whoosh!!

“Huh…?”

“It disappeared?”

Even Rafael and Hayward, who had been silently observing the situation, muttered in confusion at the unrealistic disappearance of magic power.

The intense heat that had been spreading out subsided as if it were a lie, and the young man’s body, which had taken the magic, was still intact.

However, Lenok’s eyes were gleaming with an unprecedentedly interesting light.

“It’s not annihilation.”

“……Cough!”

The young man’s complexion turned dark, and he collapsed, bowing his head.

He was barely maintaining consciousness, his hands trembling weakly as if most of his bodily functions had been paralyzed.

“Not absorption, decomposition, or even dismantling. Is it a concept closer to transfer, on the contrary?”

Lenok muttered, naturally taking a step back from the young man.

Whoooom!!

Blue lightning burst from the demon giant’s fingertips, soaring like an explosion into the sky above the control room.

The lightning of the Spiral Lightning Kill that Lenok had unleashed had burst from the demon giant’s fingertips a moment later.

Kwaaaang!!!

“Uwaaaah!!”

As the unstable power facility was completely half-destroyed and debris fell, Hayward rolled away in terror to avoid the fragments.

But Lenok, not caring about the reactions around him, muttered.

“The moment it reacts to a certain level of stimulus, it sends it to a specific space to eliminate physical damage.”

“Cough, cough!!”

The chain that had been binding the slumped young man fell off, and the demon giant withdrew his hand as if he found it absurd.

He had briefly contracted with the young man according to Lenok’s words, but he seemed to have no interest in the act itself.

“A stable and vast otherworld that can temporarily accommodate my magic….”

Lenok muttered, looking at the chain slowly swaying in the air.

“Is this the concept of hell that underpins the undefeated contract?”

“Cough!! It’s not usually like this….”

The young man replied with a pale face, as if he were about to collapse.

“Your magic, it couldn’t be received over there, so it was forcibly returned. Because of that, all the backlash—”

“Was directed at you, the contractor. I understand.”

Lenok said, nodding his head.

The undefeated ability. At least, he understood why that name was attached to this demon giant’s ability.

The ability to send the stimulus inflicted on the caster at the moment of impact to an unknown subspace.

If the caster could freely use this ability through a contract, they would not easily be defeated by any enemy.

However, because it failed to properly accommodate the magic that Lenok had unleashed, the contractor had taken all the backlash consumed in the transfer process.

Considering that the black visor had called this process itself a deal with hell, the identity of the subspace was likely the space defined as [hell] in black magic.

Then why did Myung always carry such a summon with him?

Although the demon giant’s power was strong, Myung was not a weak mage who had to rely on the power of a summon.

Perhaps Myung had some business in the subspace transferred through the demon giant’s ability, the so-called hell.

Lost in thought, Lenok suddenly gestured lightly towards the back.

Swish!!

“Uwaaah!!”

Rafael and Hayward, who had been dragged out with a scream, slipped to the feet of the black visor.

Lenok nodded towards Aegis, who was looking at him with a sullen expression.

“Take them. This should be enough of a reason to retreat, right?”

[……What are you planning to do?]

“I still have things to do.”

Since he had researched a considerable amount of common magic at the research institute, he planned to stop by and take the data before leaving.

There might be some good ideas or themes for creating new common magic.

[…….]

The Aegis members who approached immediately took custody of Rafael and Hayward.

The members, slowly disappearing one by one, cautiously looked back at Lenok.

The black visor, who had remained until the end, was about to walk away slowly when—

“You seem to know quite a bit about the formulas, considering you were imprinted with black magic.”

Lenok asked.

“And the way you mentioned imitating an ancient lineage… there’s information that you wouldn’t know unless you were from there.”

[What are you trying to say?]

“Were you a gravedigger?”

In an instant, the black visor’s atmosphere turned infinitely sharp.

It was a sensitive and delicate reaction, so much so that it felt contrary to the composure he had maintained until now.

Lenok nodded.

“A group of black mages who worship the Underworld King like a god. They reside in the Black Forest and aim to transmit forgotten formulas, or so I heard. I once met a black mage from that group.”

[…….]

“I knew something similar about you, and he used a very similar magic.”

Baegon, a black mage who called himself Myung’s disciple, was instead killed directly by Myung.

His origin was a group of black mages called gravediggers. Lenok knew that they were a group that worshiped Myung.

The black visor’s very deep knowledge and experience of black magic.

Lenok had sensed that it was not knowledge acquired through imprinting, and had been thinking about where he might be from.

“If you were originally a black mage, you would have been able to use the imprinted formulas much more freely than others.”

Lenok said, taking out a new cigarette from his pocket and putting it in his mouth.

“I suspect that the unusually powerful superhumans within Aegis have been drawing out their power through a similar process.”

[……What does that have to do with a mage like you?]

“I have business with the black mages that the gravediggers worship.”

Lenok replied leisurely.

“I want to know where I need to go to meet them.”

[…….]

It had been quite a long time since he had known Myung, but Lenok didn’t know much about him.

Only that he was a very powerful black mage, had lived for a very long time, and was once one of the noblest lineages on this continent.

How he came to Pandemonium, why he was wreaking havoc under the name of Gabihaeng [a name or title], why he was working with the commander, where he was, and what he was doing were completely unknown.

Therefore, if he had to meet Myung, it would be better to look for his traces elsewhere than in Pandemonium.

And Lenok thought it was highly likely that the gravediggers knew about Myung’s whereabouts.

If they were people who worshiped and believed in Myung like a god, they would at least have a detailed understanding of Myung’s activities.

But the black visor stared at Lenok blankly, then shook his head with difficulty.

[You’re mistaken. I am no longer a gravedigger. I no longer have any connection with them.]

“Not even about the gravediggers’ whereabouts?”

[They do reside in the Black Forest, but that’s only for their external activities. They are wanderers who do not settle in one place.]

“……”

[I don’t have much to say or know about them. But….]

The black visor, who had been hesitating, replied.

[If it’s the sanctuary where the Underworld King first started Gabihaeng [a name or title], you might be able to meet the gravediggers.]

“The sanctuary of Gabihaeng [a name or title]?”

[I don’t know the specific location either. I’ve only heard that it’s at the end of the lowest underground in the Black Forest.]

“Hmm….”

The end of the underground. That was likely to be connected to the concept of hell that Lenok had just experienced.

Should he be satisfied with finding a clue to meet Myung directly for now?

As Lenok nodded, the black visor slowly turned around.

As all the Aegis members left the facility, he could feel the ground shaking and the building collapsing.

Crumble!!

Fragments of worn stone and steel fell like rain from all directions, violently pounding the floor.

But Lenok, without any intention of avoiding the fragments falling from the ceiling, was lost in thought.

Crash!!

Lenok turned his gaze as the demon giant’s black arm, draped like an umbrella over his head, took the fragments instead.

“Oh, right, you were here.”

[…….]

Without a word, he blocked the falling steel fragments with one arm over Lenok’s head, shrugging his shoulders.

When he had faced him as Myung’s summon, he hadn’t realized it, but his non-verbal expressions were surprisingly clear.

Contrary to his brutal appearance, he seemed to be more emotional than he had thought.

Thud thud thud!!

Lenok was lost in thought, watching the demon giant, who was unfazed by the countless falling stones.

“What should I do….”

After a moment of contemplation, Lenok immediately shook his head.

“Thanks for making the situation easier, but it’ll be difficult to take you in.”

[……?]

The demon giant tilted his head as if he didn’t understand the words.

The black visor had called this the black demon giant and the symbol of the undefeated contract.

It was definitely a summon that was much more powerful than Lenok had thought, and possessed unique abilities.

The problem was that this demon did not listen to the summoner’s control and was powerful enough not to be bound by the summoning formula.

He was on Lenok’s side now, but it wouldn’t be strange if he changed his mind at any time.

Unless he knew why the demon giant was on Lenok’s side, he couldn’t ignore the possibility that he might become an enemy.

“I’m not a black mage, and I’m not well-versed in summoning formulas enough to maintain a summon without a master for long.”

Lenok said, waving his hand with a wry smile.

“When the preservation magic runs out, go back on your own. The summoner who summoned you is gone, so there shouldn’t be any problems.”

[……!]

Only then did the demon realize that Lenok was planning to leave him here, and he grabbed his head with both hands.

[~~~~~!!!]

He twisted his muscular upper body back and forth in a sorrowful gesture, as if letting out a silent scream.

From Lenok’s arms, Davi watched the bizarre movements with a suspicious look.

[This isn’t an organism or an inanimate object… what is it exactly?]

Clink.

The demon giant, looking around, hurriedly grabbed the chain tied to his arm and carefully placed it on Lenok’s hand.

When Lenok didn’t grab it and put it down, he didn’t give up and grabbed the chain again, placing it on his hand.

Clink clink.

His will was so clear that it was obvious at a glance that he was telling him to take him with him.

Lenok looked at him and said.

“It’s not that there’s no way to leave you here without making a contract.”

[!!!!]

“But you’ll have to promise to diligently help me with my work from now on. Is that okay?”

He nodded hastily, quickly putting the chain tied to his wrist around his neck and pulling it.

He couldn’t speak, but was it an illusion that his intentions were more blatant than if he had spoken?

Lenok smiled meaningfully and reached into his pocket.

“The contract is established. Shall we start with some light work first?”

* * *

Early morning. Lavatenon Magic University, Department of Elemental Studies lecture hall.

Under the usually deserted glass-colored atrium, hundreds of reporters and students were mixed together, buzzing with excitement.

The third paper. The personal research lab that had not been lit up even once since the announcement of the common magic.

Evan Bylon had returned to Lavatenon for the first time in several months.