Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 893

Silently walking across the meadow, she knelt before the coffin and carefully opened the lid.

Crack…!!

Inside, Lapis saw a faintly distorted spatial rift and nodded in surprise.

“A rift to the Outer Seas… It really was here.”

“That’s why the Six Fortresses were isolated from the rest of the city.”

“How can so many rifts exist in one specific place?”

At Lapis’s natural question, Lenok shrugged with his arms crossed.

“There are a few possibilities I can guess, but they’re just uncertain speculations. It’s not something worth talking about now.”

“But…”

“The Azure Eye was trying to enter the central front directly, looking for a way into Ars Nova, right?”

Lenok smiled and nodded.

“That’s enough. Relying on baseless assumptions will only cloud your judgment. In the end, you won’t understand without experiencing it yourself.”

“…What exactly happened in this city?”

“Who knows?”

Lenok took out a cigar from his pocket, put it in his mouth, and shook his head.

“Maybe they were trying to achieve something similar to what you’re trying to do now, with human power.”

“……”

Seeing Lapis’s silence, Lenok slowly stepped back.

“From here on out, it’s not an area where I can help you. You know that, right?”

Lenok lit his cigar, took a puff, and pulled out a vial from his pocket.

“I’ll go outside and start preparing to expand the rift. If I forcibly tear open the space with my magic, the aftereffects will surely affect the rift.”

Immediately after being betrayed by Deputy Mayor Weinstein, Lenok knew it was impossible to perform the ritual in District 19.

However, after forcibly absorbing the Outer Sea’s magic flowing from the [Gate] in District 19 and expanding his maximum magic capacity.

He realized that he could stimulate the Outer Sea rift in the fortress in a similar way.

‘If I use the power I received from Damon, I can fix the stretched rift into a gate and open it.’

The ancient military order he encountered after the Yorta incident.

Among them, the black magic he received as a gift from Damon, who introduced himself as a noble from the central city.

He called the power of that magic a heteronomous force that functions as a key to open the gate.

If he expands the rift with the Outer Sea’s magic and fixes it with the black magic, the rift will function as a [Gate], even if only for a brief moment.

Click!

He empties the vial and fills it with black magic, placing it in front of the sanctuary.

Lenok naturally ran a hand over his lips and said,

“When the rift expands to the point where it can be compared to a [Gate], you’ll surely be able to sense it.”

“……”

“All you need to do is perform the ritual on time and send your consciousness beyond the boundary of the world.”

Lenok knelt down, met Lapis’s gaze, and quietly said,

“We’ve come a long way, but we’ve finally arrived here again.”

“Evan… I…”

Seeing Lapis lower her head silently, Lenok chuckled.

“Let’s make one last promise. Is that okay?”

“Yes. I will definitely succeed and…”

“No.”

Lenok met Lapis’s gaze and said,

“Let’s meet here after the ritual is over.”

“……”

Looking into her clear, sky-blue eyes, Lenok asked,

“You understand what I mean, right?”

“Then, Evan, please promise me too.”

Lapis said in a subdued voice,

“No matter how this ends, you will never leave the Azure Eye…”

“……”

Was Lapis already worried about how this battle would end?

Lenok took Lapis’s hand, stood up, and smiled.

“Don’t worry.”

The showdown that all the monsters and oddities of this city were waiting for was not far off.

However, the beginning, the development, the process, and the conclusion all depended on one person.

And Lenok had decided from the beginning how he would end this fight.

“Oh, and is it okay if I give you one more thing to keep in mind about the ritual?”

* * *

Lenok, not forgetting to leave his last words for Lapis, firmly locked the door to the sanctuary.

He deployed Jin-Doon’s barrier technique to seal the gap and set an unlock code so that no one but Lapis could open it.

Finally, he slightly twisted the latter part of the barrier technique’s incantation to prevent reverse calculation from the outside.

Woo-oong…!!

A trick that Jin-Doon often used when finishing his barrier techniques in his lifetime.

Now, he had been using barrier techniques for so long that he could even imitate the habits of an Ascendant [a being of immense power].

“……”

Setting aside his meaningless thoughts, he strengthened the barrier around the sanctuary and forcibly brought it to a close.

Clank!

With a sound like a heavy lock being fastened, the barrier’s glow melted transparently into the air.

“Well, then…”

Lenok slowly massaged his shoulders and turned towards the dark wooden hallway.

Since the bounty was placed on him, neither Patisha, who had been traveling with him in the form of a ring, nor Lapis, whom he had rescued from the magic tower, were with him.

It had been quite a while since Lenok had been left alone like this, after accepting the job of guarding Lapis.

Just as Lenok realized this and reached into his pocket to check the remaining time.

[Master.]

A small fox head popped out of Lenok’s pocket.

However, instead of speaking first, Davi looked at Lenok and made a strange groan.

[Uuuuuum…]

“…Davi?”

[First, just in case, I wanted to check in advance…]

Davi placed his front paws on the front of Lenok’s collar and looked up at him, asking,

[You’re not really crazy… are you?]

“I can’t hear you well. Can you say that again?”

[Abububububu]

Lenok grabbed Davi’s cheeks and squeezed them, causing a scream that wasn’t quite a scream to escape.

The image of the digital spirit flapping in the air with his face held in both hands.

Lenok finally chuckled as he saw the six tails rotating in various directions below.

“I’m just kidding. Besides, that’s not a question I can answer.”

[Uwee… What do you mean?]

“If I were really crazy, there’s no way I’d be able to realize it myself.”

Lenok picked up Davi’s front paw and smiled.

“It’s the same for you. If there’s something wrong with my mind, you’ll be affected without realizing it.”

[Hmm…]

Davi, who had been pondering with his front paw under his snout, tilted his head and said,

[I don’t think I’m crazy.]

“There’s your answer.”

Could Lenok’s mind, which had been fine even when directly exposed to the Outer Sea, be damaged now?

Lenok was confident in his own reason, as he had participated in the Outer Gods’ ritual and still managed to escape with his own will.

However, he could vaguely understand why Davi was asking such a question.

“Don’t worry. There’s no problem with handling the Avatar itself.”

Lenok’s Avatar was a power modeled after a martial artist from the First World.

Therefore, unlike Lenok, he had a talent for martial arts, but he was a very unstable being because he was not a being of this world.

Just as he had struggled every time he handled the Avatar in Yorta, it was natural for Davi to be anxious now, before the Avatar’s battle.

“While stabilizing it through natural formulas, we can neutralize the origin of the Avatar. The problem you’re worried about won’t happen…”

[That’s not what I was trying to say.]

“…What?”

[A call came from Pandemonium. They’re planning to gather the members in the mock ritual space and are asking for your participation.]

“……”

[If you enter the ritual space with something wrong with your mind, it’ll be obvious. So…]

“Davi.”

Lenok grabbed Davi’s tail, lifted him upside down, and said, pressing down on the vein that had popped out on his forehead,

“You should have told me that first.”

[But it was you who suddenly started talking about mental states, bubububu…]

Lenok made Davi pay the price without question, then belatedly opened his phone and fell into thought.

A message had arrived through Hairea’s secret line. In particular, it contained a message asking for Victor’s participation.

“Pandemonium…”

[Do they have something to ask of Master?]

“If Hairea is opening the mock ritual space herself, that’s unlikely.”

Lenok turned off his phone, put it in his pocket, and replied,

“Rather, it’s more likely that Pandemonium has become aware of what’s happening here. It seems they want to review the movements of the Adamantine Fortress.”

He remembered that the subjugation operation of the Adamantine Fortress had been discussed several times in the Pandemonium meeting.

Considering that, it was a reasonable assumption that they were calling members who needed to give their opinions before the upcoming battle.

“What should I do…”

However, what Lenok was worried about was not that.

“There wouldn’t be a problem if I didn’t participate, but I’d like to hear the discussions that are going on there beforehand.”

It wasn’t like Victor would be criticized for not participating now, but on the other hand, he wanted to know what Pandemonium was talking about.

The problem was that splitting his consciousness one more time and sending it to the mock ritual space at this point was not realistically easy.

‘I’ve been maintaining the Avatar for days and have barely gotten used to the sensation. Splitting my consciousness one more time now is…’

He was already moving by dividing his consciousness into two to operate both his main body and the Avatar at the same time.

It wasn’t impossible to split his consciousness further and send it, but it would inevitably interfere with the upcoming battle.

No, if you were to consider the level of danger, it would be in the third consciousness itself that he would send to Pandemonium, rather than the battle.

The members of Pandemonium were oddities with a variety of experiences and knowledge that Lenok could not disregard.

What were the chances that the monsters of Pandemonium wouldn’t notice the awkwardness of a vaguely split consciousness?

If they realized that Victor wasn’t in a normal state, it wouldn’t be strange if he were to be suspected instead.

However, even considering that, he wanted to hear the discussions being held within Pandemonium.

Especially if what the members were planning to discuss this time was really to get a sense of the ‘Adamantine Fortress subjugation battle’ beforehand.

To do that, it meant that a normal consciousness had to participate in the mock ritual space…

Lenok’s gaze, which had been thinking that far, turned to the digital spirit that was hanging upside down and shaking.

[Itfu, itfu~]

“…I see.”

Lenok’s eyes, which had been silently watching Davi, suddenly flashed with a different light.

“I was having unnecessary worries with the answer right in front of me.”

[Master?]

Lenok ignored Davi’s question and immediately knelt down in the hallway and began to draw a magic circle.

The minimum process required to participate in the mock ritual space.

Originally, it would have been enough to concentrate and send his consciousness, but it was different now.

Swish!

Lenok drew a magic circle, placed Davi on top of it, and nodded.

“Okay, it’s ready.”

[Um, Master…]

“I’d like you to participate in the Pandemonium meeting in my place.”

[Huh?]

“Davi, you’re the only one who sees and remembers my actions and habits from the closest distance.”

Lenok asked, slowly pouring magic into the end of the magic circle,

“Then, wouldn’t it be possible for you to imitate Victor in my place?”

The digital spirit’s mouth slightly opened as he finally understood Lenok’s words.

[…You want me to sit among those organic beings and steal information instead?]

* * *

Clank!

He walked out of the main gate of the Ilwon family’s mansion.

He was leaving the fortress through a proper path, unlike when he had entered through the secret passage.

It was close to noon, although the sky was cloudy. However, there wasn’t a single person in sight on the main street near the mansion.

A strangely deserted street with no people.

A man was standing in the middle of the main street, waiting for Lenok.

A familiar face with shaved sides and tattoos. His expression was clearly tense, and he couldn’t hide his cold sweat.

Lenok chuckled as he recognized the young man’s face and asked,

“If you wanted to protect the sanctuary, isn’t it too late?”

“…I’m not trying to protect it.”

Chen Kruger, a member of the Six Fortresses, replied.

He was Soo-Ryun’s half-brother and a freelancer who ran a business based in the Ilwon family’s mansion.

And the person who had been managing the Ilwon family’s mansion in Lenok’s place.

However, the reason Chen was waiting for him instead of protecting the mansion was different.

“A message came down from the tower. They told me not to stop you.”

“……”

“Go.”

Chen gestured towards the outside of the fortress and said,

“I’ll be waiting.”

“I will.”

Lenok walked past Chen.

He saw the crow of the Samyoung family’s head faintly pass by on the roof.

Chen glanced back at Lenok and muttered with a look of disgust.

To him, it was incomprehensible that Lenok had accepted those words so readily.

“Why… why are you doing this?”

“……”

“It’s a fight you can’t win. You should have…”

“I’ve explained it enough, so if you’re curious, ask your colleagues.”

Lenok’s gaze, looking up at the cloudy sky outside the fortress, sank deeply.

“I really don’t have time to spare anymore.”

“…You’re out of your mind.”

Chen, who was looking at Lenok as if he was dumbfounded, let out a trembling breath.

“Yeah. High-level sorcerers are all the same kind of people. I thought I knew….”

With that, Chen didn’t ask Lenok anything else.

He quietly walked past Chen and stood in front of the huge gate that locked the outer wall of the fortress.

He lightly pushed the gate with both hands, and the gate opened smoothly without any resistance.

Squeak…!!

The scenery of the vast eight-lane road that stretched out beyond the gate.

An asphalt road that had been widened on purpose to transport supplies into the Six Fortresses.

At the same time as the gate closed behind him, the sound of it being firmly locked echoed.

“……”

Whoosh…!!

The wind blew.

A sky full of dark clouds. A strong wind was raging as if a storm was about to hit.

Contrary to the noisy and chaotic sky, the ground where Lenok was standing was endlessly still.

There was no sign of life in the complex city outside the fortress.

It was an artificial emptiness, as if the entire area had been deliberately emptied.

However, the number of eyes watching this place now was probably more than ever since the area was created.

Even now, if he closed his eyes, he felt as if he could feel the gazes and thoughts trying to pierce through him.

He felt a heavy loneliness, as if he was standing alone under the spotlight among tens of thousands of spectators.

Thud…!

Lenok slowly began to walk in the middle of the vast road.

Each time he took a step, heat boiled up inside his body as if a fire was being lit.

Crack, crack…!!

He drew in his breath, fanned the flames, and pushed in the firewood.

One by one. He released all the flames that had been ignited within Lenok until now.

“Release start.”

Whoosh…!!!

Six flame cores rose counterclockwise behind Lenok.

They burned vividly like the sun, drawing a huge fiery trajectory behind him and emitting flames.

Whoosh…!!!

The six cores, rotating in complex trajectories, relentlessly released breaths of fire.

A vast wave of fire billowed behind him like a cloak, completely covering one side of the road.

Kwaaaaaa!!!

A sea of fire that surged. He unleashed his magic power, which had been preheated without knowing its limits, and called out to his opponent.

Lenok, who had covered the entire area of the road he had passed with a sea of fire in one breath, slowly raised his gaze.

Crack…!!

As if responding to his gaze, a bright blue lightning flashed in the dark clouds.

Lightning transferred through the clouds, and a strong flash of lightning shone over the entire sky.

Kuooh!

A huge afterimage of lightning split the dark clouds, casting a long shadow of a magician.

On top of a high-rise building, a cold young man stood with a cane, looking down at Evan.

Unlike Evan, who was covered in red flames, there was no trace of magic around the young man.

Instead, the lightning that filled the entire sky was raging in his place and descending towards the ground.

The most notorious archmage in Vulcan and the pyromancer who had burned this city and fueled the flames were facing each other again.

“……”

Words were unnecessary.

There was more than enough karma built up until now to go through such a formal procedure.

The audience who had been eagerly waiting for this moment would not want that either.

“…Okay.”

However, only after facing this moment did Lenok feel a very pure emotion rising from within.

From where and when did the situation get so twisted?

Why did he have to prepare for this showdown and set the stage?

The justification for stimulating and expanding the Outer Sea rift and preparing for Lapis’s ritual.

The bounty that had been chasing him throughout the city. The excuse that they were clashing to reconcile their identities.

Even the reason that all of this was for one answer was temporarily pushed aside.

He was only focusing and concentrating all his mind on the fact that the two identities he had built up in different times could show in front of everyone.

Lenok, feeling his complicated thoughts being simplified, chuckled and muttered,

“Let’s begin.”

Kiiiiing!!!

The Adamantine Fortress, standing at the end of the building’s rooftop, and Evan, standing in the middle of the eight-lane road, looked at each other and began to form hand seals at the same time.

The four flame cores that had been rotating behind Evan lined up in front, following the direction of the hand seals.

They absorbed and released the extracted magic in turn, amplifying it at an incredible speed.

Flame-type unique magic

Property change amplification extreme

Red Star Realm: Solar Zenith

Fourth Star: Six Books

Kuooh…!!!

The wave of fire surging from the ground rotated around a single magician and soared.

The flames that soared like a pillar of fire gathered above Lenok’s head and began to draw a magnificent red spiral.

[Flame Spiral]

[Crimson Arrival]

A scene where all the flames that rushed into his vision seemed to converge into one point as they rotated.

In a world distorted by the heat, the flames concentrated at the center of the spiral were compressed to the limit and rotated.

Crack…!!

The moment he materialized the flames by compressing them to the extreme, Evan’s knee buckled to one side, unable to withstand the weight.

The wave of fire surging from the ground rotated around Evan and turned into a long cannon, transforming into a launchpad to fire a single spell.

Whoosh!

The moment he raised one arm and spread it out as if pointing towards the archmage in the sky.

A small incantation that only he could repeat flowed from Evan’s mouth.

“Blaze Flame.”

Kwaaaaaa!!!!

The magic that had raced through the four stars, each rotating with different flames and characteristics, rotated and became flames in particles.

From beyond the mandala drawn by the trajectories of the four flame cores, the flames that soared and glowed became a single barrage and rushed diagonally from the ground towards the sky.

Kugugugugu!!!

The light of the Blaze Flame, fired from the ground, leaped across the ground and into the sky, leaving a trail of fire as it moved.

It crossed the center of the wide, open road at supersonic speed, heading towards the archmage standing at the end.

An amplification spell that increased in power in proportion to the time and heat used to burn the flame spell.

Among them, it was a flame that had pushed the flame attribute to the limit and had undergone quadruple amplification through the Red Star Realm.

It would be a more splendid and hotter celebratory firework than any other spell as a signal to announce the start of the showdown.

Clank…!!

And, seeing the stream of fire rushing past the speed of sound, the Adamantine Fortress raised his hand.

Crackling…!!!

If a splendid and powerful electric spell comparable to the Red Star Realm’s quadruple barrage spell, Blaze Flame, was needed, the answer was already decided.

One of the spells that the Adamantine Fortress trusted the most, and a secret that he did not easily take out.

There were no hand seals, no magic circles, and no incantations.

What he desired became his will, and what moved became his magic.

From beyond the void, it took shape with that will alone and became a single bolt of lightning.

A bolt of lightning that proved the time the Adamantine Fortress had lived.

The thought that flashed under his inner image became the seal of lightning engraved at the end of the sky-

“Thunder Seal.”

The moment the Adamantine Fortress muttered indifferently and pointed to the ground.

A beautiful silver-white lightning bolt rushed from beyond the cloudy sky and descended to the ground.

The silver-white lightning struck down at a speed that far surpassed the Blaze Flame, colliding in the center between the two magicians.

Kwaaaaaaaa!!!!!

The light of the flames and lightning shone in different colors, cutting diagonally across the sky and the ground and colliding.