Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 939

“The Order’s new priestess, you say….”

The Order’s priestess who inherited the name of Naidri, and the new high priestess.

Was it possible that the priestess herself, who should have been at the Order’s main headquarters, was in a satellite city?

“It’s been a while since I took the position of priestess, but it was quite late for me to start external activities.”

Ureka, picking at her ear with a listless look, flicked her finger and said,

“After the previous priestess died from the curse of Jinwa [a type of curse or affliction], it took time to deal with the absence of authority that occurred both inside and outside the Order.”

“……”

“I cut off the heads of all the useless officials who were spouting nonsense and fed their corpses to the Apostles. And look what happened?”

Ureka gave a chilling smile.

“I was able to put leashes on these poor martyrs who had become useless even in the Pantheon [a reference to a place of worship or a group of deities].”

I know that the personality and power of the priestess, which have been passed down through generations, change slightly with each successor.

Even so, to execute fellow believers and use their corpses as food for the Apostles to awaken their abilities.

The new priestess seemed to have a more cruel nature than any of her predecessors.

“But I admit that even this barely broke even. Originally, I was planning to kill two or three while Anathema was finishing the ritual, but….”

Ureka’s eyes narrowed as she looked past the turbulent desert at the satellite city where lightning flashed.

“In the end, things turned out like this. I don’t like it.”

“Kiria, step back.”

At that moment, a sharp sword light flashed diagonally, and Habaek landed in front of the priestess.

A divine feat that seemed to tear through space between the blades, imperceptible even to the other transcendents watching.

The blind man, who had instantly broken through the defenses of the other Apostles who were bowing their heads, turned towards the priestess and gripped his sword.

Kagagagak!!

Dozens of sword lights danced between the priestess and Habaek, scattering dazzling light.

Habaek, whose sword-drawing motion was barely visible, and the priestess, who was holding a long staff and confronting him.

“Kyahahahat!!! You wanna try me?!”

But surprisingly, the priestess, even in her flowing ceremonial robes, was directly confronting Habaek’s sword strikes and continuing the battle.

Spinning her body as if dancing while standing on the head of a leopard, she swung the staff in her hand like a spear.

A heavy shockwave erupted, offsetting and deflecting Habaek’s sword strikes.

Kwaaang!!

In the moment she tried to insert the staff through the blurry, twisting blades and grab it.

The fiercely vibrating blade accelerated, and as if slipping through the staff, it pierced the priestess’s shoulder.

Puk!!

Habaek’s blade, which seemed to split time and accelerate, tilted the balance of the evenly matched battle.

And the priestess’s response, twisting the trajectory of the blade that was aiming for her heart and taking it on her shoulder.

However, not a single drop of blood came out from the pierced blade, and there was no pain on the priestess’s face.

Ujik!!

The foreleg of the tentacled crayfish bowing its head under the priestess’s feet burst, scattering sticky fluid.

“If you want to fight me, playing with a small universe isn’t enough.”

The priestess whispered, tapping the staff against the blade.

“Do it properly, old man. Do you want to die here?”

“That’s unlikely.”

Habaek, holding his blade against the staff, smiled as he drew up his magic power.

“But wouldn’t it be too pathetic for me to dance alone, with so many spectators?”

At that moment, a metal sphere with the corpse of a giant centipede attached to it was rapidly rotating from the other side of the desert, approaching the priestess.

[Azlan, be careful. This one is controlling the mad Apostles at will.]

Ollinik, massaging his shoulder while rotating the metal sphere, said.

[If converted by hierarchy, she is a tamer of level 8 or higher. Considering the protection of the head of the Order, it may be even higher. I will block her here.]

“Ah, so you’re the one who handles metal. You fought well for someone who looks so ridiculous.”

[I regret to say that I wouldn’t be tasty even if I were thrown to the Apostles as food.]

Ollinik retorted nonchalantly.

[Please take care of the others first.]

“That’s a boring joke. If you were one of my followers, I would have cut off your ankles right here.”

[…….]

Flap!!

Immediately after, a roar exploded from the other side of the desert, and huge black wings soared up.

The wings were so huge that the being that spread them was not clearly visible.

As the skeletal wings with exposed bones flapped, hundreds of feathers scattered across the desert sky.

A black wave of energy spread out like a circular ring, crushing the Apostles bowing their heads under the priestess’s feet.

Ureka also seemed to sense the opponent’s presence immediately and smiled.

“A member of the Mediator clan, huh.”

Kigigigigik!!!

Immense pressure enough to instantly burst the head of the eye-leopard that the priestess was riding on.

However, Ureka Naidri, standing on top of that head, did not have a single scratch on her body.

The leopard, its head crushed and brain fluid dripping, knelt down on the spot.

A black-haired, red-eyed man fell from the sky and landed directly on the desert sand.

Thud!!

“Slein…!!”

Peisha twisted her mouth and called his name irritably.

Ureka, as if she had already recognized Slein’s presence, wore a languid smile.

“Annoying. That’s why I don’t like fighting non-human races. No matter what you do, they always make the fight fizzle out.”

“Azlan. Grisburn.”

Slein, who had instantly folded away the black wings spread above his head, ignored Ureka and turned his head.

“You were alive. Did Gyonroe handle Anathema?”

“You son of a bitch…!!!”

Peisha growled and spat out curses.

“Why are you talking like it’s someone else’s problem when you were the one who led Anathema’s manifestation!!!”

“It’s a meaningless point when the Order’s priestess has intervened.”

Slein said, not even flinching at Peisha’s murderous intent.

“Even considering that Anathema’s manifestation was planned in advance, the Apostle transformation was abnormally fast.”

“What?”

“I wondered how the exiled Anathema had completed the Apostle selection ritual in advance, but the answer was right in front of me.”

In his crimson eyes, the priestess’s mocking expression was clearly captured.

“I never imagined that the Order’s priestess herself would arrive directly in the satellite city and perform the selection ritual in her stead.”

“Why, are you scared?”

“I heard that the new priestess is a hardliner unlike her predecessor, but don’t you think this is too reckless?”

Slein asked, slowly loosening his shoulders.

“If it becomes known that the Order’s highest priest is not at the main headquarters, there will be more than one or two branches that will be attacked immediately.”

“I don’t care. What I need is authority, not talent.”

“……What do you mean?”

“When that person chooses a voice, they want the talent that the Order needs most at that time.”

Ureka sneered.

“Killing non-believers who do not follow the doctrine, cutting off the heads of rebellious believers, and using beasts as Apostles to reach the end.”

Kwaaaang!!!

Ureka, with Ollinik and Habaek approaching from afar and the giant transcendent behind her, spread her arms wide.

“Everything I do is the same as saying that it is necessary for the Order, so why would I hesitate?”

“……”

The priestess, looking at the humans with narrowed eyes, said,

“If you understand, then get lost. I have too much to do besides dealing with non-believers.”

“……That is an incomprehensible statement.”

Gyeolbaek adjusted his spear with a strange expression.

Clank!!

“If the purpose was to buy time for Anathema’s corruption, there would be no more business in Etanok.”

“I have been preparing for this plan for a very long time.”

The priestess’s expression as she said that was twisted as if she was very uncomfortable.

“I don’t like how it ended, but if that person wants it, I have no choice but to follow.”

“……”

From the beginning, the priestess had no intention of explaining her purpose at this place.

No, perhaps her purpose from the start was not to hold the other transcendents back.

Gyeolbaek, realizing this fact, immediately readjusted his worn spear.

“Then I cannot allow it even more. There is a mage catching his breath after finishing a fight in that place.”

“……”

“Pass through me first. At least for the safety of the Tower Lord, I must respond until the very end-”

[Azlan.]

Lenok’s telepathy echoed in Gyeolbaek’s ear, and his hand stopped abruptly.

The other transcendents, who were naturally trying to create distance, also raised their eyes the moment they heard Lenok’s words.

Lenok said quietly.

[Let her go.]

Woo-oong!!

The Six Harmonies Telepathy [a type of telepathic communication], which resonates the magic power in the atmosphere to convey intentions.

The priestess’s expression changed strangely at the skill of using a technique that was difficult to use even right in front of her, across an entire city.

“Tower Lord, but-”

[I have a relationship with the Order’s priestess.]

Lenok smiled.

[I want to see what kind of person the next successor is.]

“……”

The atmosphere around them changed strangely at Lenok’s answer, as if he knew the priestess well.

Since the person who killed Anathema could not have colluded with the Order, it meant that he had contacted the priestess in some other way.

But the most surprising thing was that Ureka did not show any particular reaction to Lenok’s words, which treated her with disrespect.

“……”

She only tilted her head back slightly at Lenok’s answer, waiting for a response with a blank face.

Those with a keen eye knew that she was deliberately hiding her reaction, but they were not given much time to observe.

At the same time as Gyeolbaek, who had been groaning, withdrew his spear, he ended up opening the way.

“Your loyalty is commendable.”

Ureka, who had regenerated the leopard’s head and climbed on it, turned to Gyeolbaek and smiled.

“It’s rare to see a dog that listens so well even after transcending the hierarchy. I’d like to keep one at the Order’s main headquarters.”

“……Anathema was a man of character who thought of civilians first even in the civil war that determined the fate of the city.”

Gyeolbaek replied with his eyes closed.

“It is regrettable that such a great warrior made such a choice.”

“That’s the difference between us and you.”

The priestess sneered.

“Anathema only accepted that difference late. Don’t you know that he was wise?”

“……”

The priestess’s figure quickly passed by Gyeolbaek and disappeared into the ruins.

“Keep not understanding and pitying us until the end. It doesn’t matter anymore, does it?”

The other Apostles who had been bowing their heads around her dug into the white sand and disappeared.

The giant monsters that had filled the outskirts of Etanok left in an instant, and the desert became quiet.

“The Order’s new priestess… I don’t know what’s going on.”

Habaek sighed, slowly shaking off the Apostle’s fluid from his blade.

“Apart from the fact that Anathema deliberately colluded with the Order, there seems to be a secret beyond that in the meeting.”

“That’s because you traitors never intended to fight the Order properly from the start.”

Peisha leaned against a collapsed wall and sneered.

Her gleaming gaze turned to the transcendents standing all around.

“You said you were tied up by the priestess, but you didn’t even intend to fight Anathema.”

“……”

“You were just dealing with the petrified Apostles and waiting for things to end somehow. Am I wrong?”

The priestess declared a sanctuary outside the city and said that she had tied their feet with mindless Apostles.

But among those gathered here, was there anyone who truly did not have the ability to shake off that pursuit?

[Heh heh, that’s not wrong.]

Kiria crossed her arms with a blank face, and Ollinik burst into laughter.

[But you have to understand. Even though things ended like this, wasn’t it a fight where it wouldn’t have been strange no matter who won?]

“What?”

[Anathema was a skilled warrior who was praised as a hero of reversal even in the civil war. He was even evaluated as someone whose judgment no one could follow in large-scale transcendent battles.]

Ollinik said, stroking the sphere rotating above his head like a chin.

[When Anathema, who had fought with Gilleon, became an Apostle, who could have ignored the priestess and made the decision to help Gyonroe alone?]

“……”

[You should rather be grateful for Gyonroe’s excellence. Not only did he drag his body, which was difficult to even walk with, to fight Anathema, but he even ended up winning….]

There was a faint, undeniable admiration in Ollinik’s voice as he said that.

[Since this city was built, has there ever been a talent that shined so brightly even in such adverse conditions as that man? In that regard, I would dare to say that he is even better than Kaise.]

“Don’t, make me laugh… you son of a bitch, talking nonsense…!!”

Peisha’s expression was terribly distorted, and just as she was about to stand up, drawing up her magic power.

[No, you know it too.]

Ollinik snapped his fingers and instantly pressed Peisha’s body down.

Kwaaaang!!

“Kuk…!!”

A technique that extracts and condenses iron sand from under the white sand, creating a huge bell shape and pressing down.

The bias and shaping of metal particles, control and manipulation. All those processes are processed and completed in the fragments of consciousness and constructed in reality.

Clearly, Ollinik was also a very skilled sorcerer who was so used to fighting that he was familiar with it as if breathing.

[The reason why you could unhesitatingly bet your life on Gyonroe in a do-or-die match. You must be feeling it in your heart.]

Ollinik said, looking at Peisha, who had already exhausted all her energy and was struggling without being able to stand up.

[There is also trust that can be gained by being broken directly. I wish that a thousand people were not like you.]

“Ha…!! Standing with your hands behind your back and acting all high and mighty…!!”

Peisha smiled chillingly even as she struggled under the bell.

“Someday, when that mage is torn apart by lightning… let’s see if you can still spout such nonsense.”

[If force alone was the standard of this world, Bangung would have already broken the sky and succeeded in ascending.]

Ollinik turned his gaze with his hands behind his back.

At the end of that gaze was Slein, who was staring at the place where the priestess had disappeared with a blank face.

[But I just want to see something a little different.]

* * *

Gooooo…!!

Early dawn. The sky was just beginning to break.

As the temperature changed, a cold wind blew, sweeping through the ruins near the devastated satellite city.

Acrid sand mixed with the wind and scattered, and the lingering aftertaste of tingling lightning flowed over the skin, stinging the cheeks.

The presence of the 6th Apostle, Armas von Anathema, had completely disappeared.

And after the lightning that reversed night and day had scattered beyond the dawn sky.

Only the aftermath of the fierce battle that had taken place all night remained, revealing how intense the fight had been.

Ureka Naidri was walking alone through the ruined streets of the satellite city.

Thud.

The leopard that had faithfully served her under her feet, and the Apostles that had followed her, were nowhere to be seen.

She walked, using her long staff as a cane, her gorgeous ceremonial robes fluttering in the wind.

However, her face, which had always been full of sharp cynicism, was now expressionless, as if she had erased all emotions.

As if she was forcibly suppressing the emotions boiling inside her.

Tak!

The priestess’s steps, which had been walking through the middle of the ruins, stopped in front of a wide hill that had been split in half.

At the end of the peak, where only the traces remained as if a huge mountain had been struck by lightning and burned down.

A man was sitting with his head bowed.

“……”

Disheveled hair. A dusty coat. Torn and bruised clothes.

A messy figure sitting with a half-burned cigarette in his mouth and his eyes closed.

However, the corpse of the Apostle who had collapsed behind him proved what had happened in this place.

Kuuung!!

Above the corpse, where the forms of a goat and a human were grotesquely mixed, a huge lightning bolt close to several meters was stuck and flashing.

As if setting up a tombstone over the Apostle’s corpse, it was scattering intense lightning.

Pajik, pajijijik!!!!

Even after burning Anathema’s mind and body, the lightning that had fallen on his body continued to burn without disappearing.

A ruthless sight of displaying his magic by striking it into the Apostle’s corpse and exhibiting it.

“……”

Even though he had single-handedly defeated the highest-ranking Apostle of the Order, there were no major injuries on his body.

Even though he had uprooted and burned down a small city, there was no shaking in the magic power and thoughts flowing through his entire body.

Clearly, this was the power of the lightning sorcerer who was branded as the highest risk factor even within the Order.

The power of a monster who was evaluated as the closest to being qualified to challenge ascension among the level 8 archmages.

Even the priestess could not easily approach him due to his overwhelming force, and only frowned with an unpleasant look.

“Get up, non-believer.”

Tak!

At the same time as the priestess lightly tapped her staff, Lenok slowly opened his eyes.

“Non-believer, you say….”

Lenok, staring at her face while blankly exhaling smoke, smiled bitterly.

“The new priestess of this era seems to have quite a rough mouth.”

“Do you want to act like you have seniority because you knew the previous priestess?”

Ureka laughed sharply and spat out a harsh voice.

“You killed that person’s Apostle and seem to be falling asleep comfortably. I don’t have a soft personality like the other priestesses.”

“……”

“But I acknowledge your murderous nature for killing Anathema without hesitation, even though you know the meaning of his name.”

The priestess, looking at the corpse of the Apostle who had fallen behind Lenok, asked mockingly.

“You might have missed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, are you okay with that?”

“It doesn’t matter. Anathema did not exist in reality when the project failed.”

Lenok replied with a blank face.

“It’s also difficult to think that Anathema, who was exiled from the central city, would know much. There wouldn’t have been much to hear from him in the first place. Rather, if you were to ask….”

Lenok smiled, pointing at the corpse behind him.

“Isn’t Anathema’s value in this corpse?”

“……”

The reason why Oliviera wanted a part of Anathema’s body, not Anathema himself.

The reason why the priestess specifically came to this place where Anathema’s corpse was located.

Lenok had guessed from the moment he discovered his secret which side the value of Anathema’s name was focused on.

That was why, even after withdrawing his ideological trust, he did not carelessly touch the corpse, but rather displayed it by sticking a lightning tombstone on his corpse.

Lenok slowly stood up, leaving the priestess who had closed her mouth with a cold expression.

“If that’s all you have to say, I’ll walk first. I’m a bit tired from talking just now anyway.”

“Haha, you’re hanging Anathema’s corpse out for all to see, and you’re saying that?”

“……”

“If it wasn’t for today, we wouldn’t have met like this.”

Ureka, giving Lenok a cold smile, immediately turned her back.

“Follow me. I plan to declare a sanctuary to receive that person.”