Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 899

The dark clouds receded, and the sky slowly opened.

Amidst the smoke, fiery rain, and lingering traces of lightning, a glimpse of the blue sky briefly appeared.

In the instant that the distorted clouds, still carrying thunder, were pushed beyond the opening of the heavens and vanished,

A vast sea of lightning appeared as if overflowing.

*Kuurururung…!!*

The time it took was less than a moment, not even a fleeting instant that could be perceived.

Even Lapis, who was watching from the boundary of the world, only caught a glimpse of its fragments, yet she could clearly see it.

Beyond the opening of the heavens, where eight streaks of thunder split and then rejoined,

The sight of a sea of pure white lightning descending from beyond the sky, engulfing the thought form of Pyunram.

*Kugwagwagwagwagwa!!!!*

A dazzlingly radiant whale, not even fully revealing its true form, swam through the clouds.

An immeasurable transcendence that even Lapis herself, who witnessed it with her own eyes, couldn’t be sure if it was not an illusion.

Surely, no one watching from the ground could properly comprehend it.

*Jjeojeojeojeojeok!!!*

It was not a complete primordial image [a fundamental, archetypal form]. Nor was it even the full deployment of a completed self-nature domain [a personal space where one’s power is fully realized].

A torrential art that used an extremely powerful lightning as a medium, unleashing its origin in this place.

Just that alone caused the sea of lightning, drawn out by the mage’s origin, to descend into the mortal realm in a time that was less than a moment.

Merely being briefly engulfed within the split heavens caused the thought form to lose its shape and begin to collapse.

[Gaaaaaaak…!!]

Unable to properly defend itself, it writhed and screamed as if having a seizure, before falling and crashing down.

Convulsing and thrashing around the ruins, soaked in pain, but even that was only accelerating its own demise.

[Keureureureu… Keugeuk….]

Soon, it couldn’t even manage a proper scream, trembling and collapsing its massive body onto the ground.

The moment the giant serpent’s thought form rolled its eyes back, stuck out its tongue, and slammed its head into the ground,

*Kuuuuuung!!!*

The massive body, caked in black mud, began to turn to ash and vanish.

The thought form of Pyunram, which had fallen and become the [Gate] of the outer sea.

A primordial image that could obliterate the thought of an ascendant [one who has transcended mortal limitations], who was once Pyunram himself, just by briefly manifesting it.

Even without properly forming a domain, merely drawing out that image for a moment brought an end to the not-so-short battle.

A miracle that descended into reality and vanished in an instant, so brief that it was impossible for a mortal’s sense of time to perceive.

But even after witnessing all those moments with her own eyes, Lapis couldn’t take her eyes off it for a long time.

“That is…”

The immeasurable sea of lightning that touched between the sky and the ground.

An ideal world that manifested for a fleeting moment on the other side of the world, then drifted away like a dream.

Is that what the great mage obtained as fate?

Proof that fate is the cause and effect that one creates and builds up themselves.

Those words that Cheongyeon had told her stuck in her mind and wouldn’t leave.

While Lapis was overwhelmed by the overflowing sea, momentarily forgetting even her immediate choices,

“It’s a painful and difficult thing, but even so, there are privileges that only we can enjoy. Isn’t that right?”

Cheongyeon said, looking at Lapis with a faint smile.

“Ascension, which great seekers dedicate their lives to challenging. We are watching the impossible journey of transcending the world, in exchange for bearing a mission.”

“…Grandmother.”

“The end of this universe has not yet come, and we are still waiting for the moment when cause and effect ends.”

Cheongyeon gestured with her eyes.

“But if everything hasn’t ended, you can choose what kind of dream you want to have.”

Cheongyeon nodded, leaving behind the miracle that had disappeared even faster than it had appeared.

“In a fate where we are born and disappear, if there is even one scene that can hold your heart…”

Cheongyeon said, looking at her own hand that was slowly becoming transparent.

“…At least, we can create time for you.”

*Paat!!*

At that moment, the golden throne where the two were facing each other vanished.

The materialization of form that had been maintained by Cheongyeon’s power.

Now, the balance between the two had begun to tilt to one side, to the point where even maintaining that power was impossible.

The two lighthouse keepers, who had risen as the throne disappeared, looked at each other.

Cheongyeon gave an awkward smile, slowly placed her hand on Lapis’s shoulder, and hugged her.

“Goodbye, Lapis.”

“…”

“It was fun, even though it was a short time. Surely, there must have been such joy in my life as well.”

“G-Grandmother…”

Lapis, who was dazedly clinging to her arm, her fingertips trembling, had clear tears welling up in her eyes.

Lapis, trembling, carefully hugged Cheongyeon’s arm and sobbed.

“I, I…”

“Just as I did, may there be a next time for you.”

Cheongyeon whispered softly.

“May our time turn around once and someday, you too will tell your granddaughter like this.”

“…”

“The world did not perish, and everyone lived happily…”

Surely, that was a wish that even Cheongyeon herself could not fulfill until the very end.

A hope that she could not be sure of even at the moment of failing her challenge to ascend.

The heart for a non-existent next time transcends time and is passed on to another person.

Knowing that it is an unachievable wish, she desires it even more strongly.

Only after realizing that, Lapis was finally able to convey the words she hadn’t been able to say to her.

“Goodbye, Grandmother.”

Even while shedding tears, she tried her best to smile.

Lapis, while hugging Cheongyeon, bid her farewell.

“Goodbye…”

“…”

Cheongyeon did not answer.

She simply vanished from that spot, becoming particles of pure white light with an embarrassed smile.

*Paaaaaaat!!*

A dazzling platinum-colored radiance spread out like a curtain before Lapis’s eyes.

Lapis’s hand, which had been hugging Cheongyeon, caressed the air, and a transparent light flickered between her fingers.

The one lighthouse keeper left alone beyond the boundary of the world, wiped away her tears and raised her head.

At that moment, all the powers of the lighthouse keeper that remained in her body were imbued at once.

A dazzling pillar of light soared up, illuminating beyond the boundary with bright light.

* * *

It filled the entire vast urban area and writhed.

The burnt, blackened scales were completely flipped over, peeled off, and vanished.

The flesh and muscles of its entire body lost their function and fell off like old dust.

The snake, tens of meters in size, which had been glowing as if it would soar beyond the sky, twisted its entire body miserably and crashed down.

*Kuuuuuuuuung!!!!*

A powerful shockwave erupted, shaking the ground and surging like a wave.

The buildings that had collapsed due to the aftermath of the battle were thrown up and shattered in all directions.

*Deureureureureuk!!!*

The ruins expanded, destroying everything around the crash site.

Who could believe that all that devastation was caused by a single lightning strike that had burned the sky of the battlefield?

Everyone watching this scene could not even perceive the manifestation of power that was being shown on the screen.

Beyond the shattered screen, only the sight of the convulsing snake finally vanishing was visible.

*Chiiiiiiik…!*

*Bang! Thud! Thump!*

All the cameras and surveillance systems monitoring the battlefield sputtered, exploded, and emitted smoke.

City Hall Central Council. Disaster Management Agency Emergency Response Committee meeting room.

Beyond the acrid smell of smoke and the exploding video recording devices, a chilling silence descended.

Among the wizards and council members who had frozen with their mouths agape, Meyer abruptly stood up and began walking towards the door.

“M-Meyer Councilor!!”

“Where are you going?!!”

“To the site.”

The council members, belatedly regaining their senses, called out to stop him, but Meyer replied without turning back.

“Just now, that single lightning strike completely destroyed all the cameras and surveillance systems in the area. The situation won’t be any different elsewhere.”

“T-That’s….”

Without needing to confirm, Meyer was certain.

The broken surveillance system would never function properly again.

It wasn’t a conclusion drawn from solid evidence, similar experiences, or long years of experience.

It was simply because the identity of the one who had annihilated the black snake’s thought form with a single blow was too clear.

Meyer was certain that the wizard he knew would not handle such a matter carelessly.

“Now that things have come to this, there’s no reason to sit here. I’m going to the site.”

Meyer, having answered decisively, took out his phone, called his aide, and nodded.

“Because the next thing that will happen, I will only be able to see it with my own two eyes.”

“……!!”

Upon hearing those words, several city councilors and mages from the tower flinched and then stood up.

They too had belatedly realized why Meyer was rushing to the site.

“I-I’ll go with you too!!”

“I’ll call a personal airship. It can land on the roof of the meeting hall in two minutes!!”

“Deploy the defense forces in the vicinity of the citadel and establish a barrier. Prevent others from interfering!”

Those who were heading to the site following Meyer, and those who remained in the meeting hall to take charge of administrative tasks.

In this situation, both sides needed their respective authority.

Inside the meeting hall, the city councilors quickly split into two groups and began to move.

Aides also quickly reported and processed the information pouring in from various locations to the council members.

“Councilor. Vice Mayor Weinstein, who had been in a coma for several days, has just regained consciousness.”

“The city government has agreed to treat the matter as confidential, equivalent to a restricted area. The council’s review…”

“An unidentified superhuman unit detected on the outskirts of the undeveloped area. It is presumed to be advancing while neutralizing the magnetic storm…”

As if the silence from just moments ago was a lie, the meeting hall instantly became noisy, even chaotic.

Meanwhile, the mages who had been unable to recover from the shock they had witnessed on the screen, one by one, regained their reason.

Looking at each other’s faces, the mages who had slowly returned to reality spoke with difficulty.

“I see. We just… witnessed the answer of a great mage?”

“……It might be a good thing that the camera cut out.”

One of the other mages muttered blankly, as if still finding it hard to believe.

“If we had watched it until the end, some of us wouldn’t have returned from here.”

“It wasn’t even a completed ability. In the first place, if it were a normal realm, it wouldn’t have been in that form….”

One of the mages from the magic tower who had tried to refute, soon shut his mouth.

Because they too now knew how meaningless such refutations and explanations were in this place.

“The power holders of the Central Council are much more rational than I thought.”

One of the mages muttered, watching the council members who had quickly begun to move.

“Is it more important to clean up than to remember and reflect on what just happened?”

“Lamu, we are not the only ones watching this place right now.”

At that moment, Clarice, who had been silent, spoke in a calm tone.

Most of the mages gathered here were elite mages who held considerable positions in their respective towers.

It was natural that those with more experience would know each other.

“From our perspective, it’s overwhelming to reflect on the meaning of what just happened, but the situation is different for the city’s administrators.”

“Clarice, but….”

“As you saw, they are top-tier sorcerers whose very existence is akin to strategic weapons.”

Clarice smiled at the mage who had closed his mouth.

“In terms of human resources, they easily surpass most magic towers, and if you consider their individual prowess, they possess a value comparable to a decent city-state.”

“…….”

“In the worst-case scenario, it wouldn’t be strange if someone tried to secure the two of them as soon as the fight ended. Isn’t it natural for the city council to want to avoid such a situation?”

Among the other silent mages, a middle-aged man in a suit subtly added a word.

“Conversely, the city council might move to secure their safety, though.”

“Who are you?”

When Clarice turned her head at those words, the man bowed politely.

“I am Melton of Thorburn, here to see the color of Sinclair’s leaves [a metaphor for observing Sinclair’s power].”

“Ah, Thorburn?”

Clarice wore a strange smile.

“War merchants are indeed different in their thinking. That’s not something you should say in a place where you’ve been invited by the city council.”

“Most of our business is currently being conducted in the Western Continent. I don’t think I’m being too conspicuous around here.”

Melton gave an awkward smile.

“It’s unlikely that a megacity like Vulcan would become our client. Of course, it shouldn’t be.”

“More than that, you should have something to worry about.”

Clarice nodded her head, looking at the council members who were busily preparing to leave.

“Gyonroe. You know about it.”

“…….”

“You might be able to see it, are you sure you don’t want to follow?”

The lightning and spell incantation used by Gyonroe. There’s no way the Thorburn Tower wouldn’t be interested in it.

If Thorburn responded to the invitation because of Gyonroe’s existence, shouldn’t they be rushing to the site with the council members right now?

To Clarice’s vague and roundabout question, Melton replied with a wry smile.

“I would like to, but… I have something I need to do first.”

“Something to do?”

“Hmm, this is something I’m telling you in advance because of the previous elixir….”

Melton said, taking out a small pendant from his pocket.

*Kiiing!!*

He opened the pendant’s lid and manipulated the complex magic circle drawn inside.

At the same time, a faint current of electricity flickered above the pendant, and it began to block all sounds from the surroundings.

“The mental imagery technique that Gyonroe used to kill the thought form.”

Melton said, after confirming that the surrounding sounds were blocked.

“I didn’t see the scene directly, but that was probably not a simple spell.”

“If it wasn’t a spell…?”

“A very powerful and transcendent fragment of thought.”

Melton nodded, looking at the pendant.

“It was the aftermath of a miracle extracted by rearranging space-time as a whole.”

“……Are you saying that lightning was just a byproduct of a miracle?”

The lightning that had ended the fierce battle in an instant, and even annihilated the thought form that had suddenly intruded.

Are you saying that the lightning was not the result of an incantation or spell, but of some other ‘phenomenon’?

Even Clarice, who had been listening to the story, paused for a moment at those words.

“I don’t know what origin Gyonroe has, but I know when such miracles appear.”

*Click.*

Melton, having closed the pendant and put it in his pocket, muttered.

“It seems that the tower lord has found the owner of the extreme lightning he has been searching for so desperately. I need to prepare to contact him.”