Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 992

“Omnidirectional emission-type ejection formula. 39-layered complex deployment.”

Whoosh-!

Above the gate city, dozens of thorny spheres floated up and glowed.

“Sequential firing with a 2-second chanting delay. 8-directional chain reaction.”

Bloodshot eyes appeared between the thorny spheres, glaring at each other and exploding simultaneously.

They continuously unleashed acrid purple flames over the streets of the gate city.

Kugwagwagwang!!

Amidst the acrid flames, a pure white cross soared up, splitting the thorny spheres.

“Temporary sanctuary, 270-degree right turn. Descend 5 meters in place, shattering 13 formula tools.”

As the cross rotated in place, clearing away the flames, the thorny spheres shattered, scattering countless sharp thorns onto the ground.

Chwajajajak!!!

The thorn fragments pouring down in the middle of the street pierced through and embedded themselves in the downtown facilities, but there were hardly any casualties.

This was because most of the residents had already evacuated from the battle zone, as if they were used to such disturbances.

Among them, there were also superhumans who began fighting each other, using the commotion of this battle as a cover.

“I expected it, but most of the residents of the gate city are superhumans of considerable level.”

Lenok said, watching the chaotic outskirts of the gate city.

“I don’t think the population of this city exceeds one million. Surely not all the residents are mana users, are they?”

“……”

Angel, who was standing behind him, could only gape, unable to say anything.

The series of formula information that Lenok had just casually uttered.

Hints about which formula to deploy in which direction, with how many layers, and how far.

All of those explanations had been flowing from Lenok’s mouth from a few seconds before the battle began.

Was it even possible unless he was at the level of precognition, seeing through the battle between the Gravediggers and the Holy Cross Society?

Lenok glanced at Angel’s silent reaction.

“No answer. Are you just going to keep watching like this?”

“……I’m sorry, but I think that’s what I should be saying.”

Angel, belatedly regaining his senses, retorted while fiddling with his terminal.

“I should have reported to the higher-ups a long time ago, but you’re making me late. And my name is Angel.”

“That black magic. It’s a formula that activates using the gaze as a trigger.”

Ignoring Angel’s words, he raised his Heavenly Eyes [a special ability that enhances vision].

Lenok, who had magnified the lens using the artifact as a small telescope, spoke with an intrigued expression.

“The caster, as well as consumable magic tools like the thorny spheres, are all being used with triggers assigned to them.”

“It’s not like it’s a new thing that the Gravediggers’ black magic is unique.”

“Conversely, what the Holy Cross Society’s priest is using isn’t a formula. That’s a prayer.”

“……”

“It’s a kind of primitive faith, reciting prayers based on belief and receiving power and sanctuary.”

Lenok looked at the cross of light, which was still rotating fiercely in the middle of the street, with a calm gaze.

“The Azure Eye [a powerful organization of mages] also had a watcher who wielded similar power.”

“You……”

Angel, who was about to say something, sighed and got up from his seat.

He put the terminal he was holding into his pocket and squatted next to Lenok, nodding his head.

“Look, it’s not like I don’t know anything about your situation. I heard you recently left the Azure Eye, right?”

“……”

“I heard there were a lot of things going on. But this isn’t the time to be lost in such thoughts.”

Angel looked around as if he was being chased by someone even at this moment.

“It’s troublesome to be in a place with such an open view. Shouldn’t we move somewhere else?”

“Troublesome, you say.”

Lenok laughed.

“Is that because you’re the one who instigated and provoked that fight?”

“……That’s…”

Leaving Angel speechless, Lenok turned his gaze.

“If you used your hands to get me out, it must have been to induce a large enough battle to divert the search team’s attention.”

“……”

Whoosh……!!

A floating thorny sphere appeared above Lenok’s head.

The bloodshot eyes that popped out between the spheres were glaring at Angel, who was standing behind Lenok.

Lenok looked at the scene and said leisurely.

“In that process, it would have been inevitable to draw the attention of both the Gravediggers and the Holy Cross Society.”

“……No, then were you just doing this while knowing everything?”

[There you are, you little rat.]

At the same time, a chilling voice came from the thorny sphere.

A gloomy-looking man who had been fighting the Holy Cross Society turned his head and glared at Angel.

[To betray our existence to hypocrites like the Holy Cross Society, forget about going back alive.]

Kwaaang!!

At the same time as those words, the thorny sphere above his head swelled and exploded.

It unleashed dozens of thorns, which rained down on the solid fortress walls.

“Uwaaaah!!”

Angel, flustered, took a breath and quickly exhaled it towards the ground.

He froze the fortress wall, creating an ice rink, and slid on the ice, grabbing Lenok’s neck.

Chwaak!!

Lenok frowned at the desperate gesture, but he let himself be carried.

Angel, who had grabbed Lenok’s collar, accelerated on the ice rink and barely escaped the blast radius.

At that moment, another thorny sphere that had popped out right next to them exploded, instantly destroying the outskirts of the city.

Kwaaaaang!!

The buildings crumbled, and a storm of wooden debris scattered in all directions.

He blew cold air onto the wooden debris, connecting them, and instantly created an ice path leading out of the street.

Angel, who had been flung out of the street as if sliding, slammed his face into the dirt.

Thud!!

He twitched and shook his shoulders, then immediately jumped up and shouted, looking around frantically.

“Uwaht?! W-where are we?!”

“You can’t even plan a simple escape route properly.”

Thump!!

Lenok, who had walked out from the collapsed warehouse debris right next to him, asked.

“You’re a user of ice-type abilities, yet you can’t even properly control the friction coefficient of an ice path?”

“No, I’m not a mage, so that kind of delicate control is a bit……”

Angel scratched his head awkwardly.

“You shouldn’t ask a superhuman for such precise control that can be quantified. Not everyone in the world is like you.”

“……”

“Ah, this isn’t the time for this. Let’s hurry and escape!!”

Angel, suddenly regaining his senses, quickly ran into the alley behind the downtown area and nodded towards Lenok.

“Let me introduce myself again. I’m Angel from the Cartel [a powerful organization]. It should have been like this from the start!!”

A cryokinetic superhuman from the Ability Awakening Squad. A person in charge who had arrived at the gate before Lenok.

A member of the Cartel’s board of directors dispatched to the scene to help Evan Martinez in this plan.

“I was so worried because I lost contact with you after you entered the central front. If we failed, I don’t know what the chairman would say to me again, phew~”

Angel made a show of wiping his chest and smiled back.

“Anyway, you managed to find your way to the gate. It’s been a while since we fought at the dam, but isn’t it nice to see you again like this?”

“Enough with the nonsense.”

However, Lenok cut off Angel’s glib greeting sharply.

Lenok glanced at the top of Angel’s head, who was speeding through the main street on the ice path, and said.

“They’re coming.”

“There you are……!!!”

A dazzling pillar of the cross slammed down in the middle of the street, instantly destroying the surrounding facilities.

Kwaaaaang!!

The impact swept away and crushed the surrounding buildings and sidewalks like straw, turning the area into a wasteland.

“So you’re the one who betrayed the Gravediggers to the Holy Cross Society.”

A middle-aged priest wearing a cassock, standing on top of the giant cross, looked down at Angel with a solemn expression.

“Thank you for your courage, but you must come with me. Can you spare some time right now?”

“Ha, hahah……”

Angel took a small step back, sweating profusely.

Kugugu!!!

Seeing a swollen thorny sphere rolling in from the back of the main street, Angel said hastily.

“Look, shouldn’t we deal with the Gravediggers’ black mage first?”

“The resistance is too strong, and it’s difficult for me to handle it alone. I don’t think we can fight any more inside the city.”

The priest shook his head with a blank face.

“The cause of the fight that occurred inside the gate city must be explained to the Order Alliance [a powerful organization]. You must prove with your own mouth that our Holy Cross Society is not responsible.”

“If the Holy Cross Society isn’t responsible, then who is responsible for this…?”

“Why does someone who should know keep talking nonsense?”

The priest’s eyes shone coldly as he looked at Angel.

“Of course, you, the betrayer, must take responsibility.”

Kugugugu!!!

The giant cross dug into the ground and rotated, and the thorny spheres that filled the alley rushed in.

The clash of different abilities from the Holy Cross Society and the Gravediggers, covering the spot where Angel and Lenok were standing.

Angel, with a grimace, took out a small vial from his pocket and brought it to his lips, shouting.

“Ah, seriously!! If only time hadn’t been wasted unnecessarily…!!”

“Stop.”

Lenok, who had stopped Angel just as he was about to drink the vial, stepped forward.

“……Evan?”

“Evan Martinez. The rumored pyromancer.”

The priest of the Holy Cross Society, standing on the cross, looked at Lenok with shining eyes.

“I’ve heard about what you did in the Balkans so often that my ears hurt.”

“……”

“I don’t know why you’re with such a lowly ability user, but if you’ve been loyal to the organization, you should be able to sympathize with faith and responsibility.”

The priest pointed at Angel and said with a solemn expression.

“If you hand over that ability user, the Holy Cross Society will not hold you responsible for anything further, in honor of you.”

[……Thousand Evan Martinez.]

Krrrung!!

The gloomy-looking man, who had walked out from between the thorny vines, tilted his head as he looked at Lenok.

[I heard that the Underworld King occasionally takes an interest in your movements.]

“……”

[Hand over the superhuman. Then I will give you a chance to be welcomed by the King of Hell in the main tomb.]

“My name is being called a lot today.”

Lenok smiled wryly and turned his gaze.

The fact that both the Holy Cross Society and the Gravediggers were showing goodwill towards Lenok and trying to persuade him was a strange feeling.

Even though he had not made a big difference between his identity as Thousand and his identity as Evan, the reputation and reactions surrounding Evan Martinez were so different.

He was being treated as a high-ranking mage who could be reasoned with, not a bloodthirsty madman.

That was because the reputation and rumors surrounding Lenok were not created according to his will, but rather he had been using the already established reputation.

But that was why there was only one answer that suited Evan’s identity in this place.

“If you’ve heard about what happened in the Balkans, you should know.”

Lenok raised his hand and said, drawing up his mana.

“I’m not the type to abandon someone who helped me.”

“Martinez……!!!”

[Exploding Fireball]

[Redden]

Whirr!!

The fireball that Lenok shot exploded. It instantly spread a powerful mana wave into the sky.

At that moment, a creaking and twisting noise echoed from the far side of the sky.

The faces of the Gravedigger and the priest changed simultaneously, and a vast haze rippled greatly over the gate city.

Faaaaaa!!

The moment a strange wave swept across the ground, following the flow of the haze that wrinkled the sky.

The priest’s cross and the Gravedigger’s thorny sphere collapsed as if they had exploded at the same time.

Jjeojeojeok!!

Kuuung!!

The backlash of the formula being forcibly canceled. The faces of the priest and the Gravedigger were distorted in pain.

“Kuh…!!”

[You dare…!!]

The two men staggered, unable to overcome the backlash.

Lenok immediately nodded towards Angel.

“Start.”

“……I don’t know exactly, but I’ll go for it!”

Angel drank the vial without hesitation.

After holding the medicine in his mouth, he spat it out, and the medicine froze and amplified explosively.

It turned into a giant ice tree, lifting Lenok and Angel into the air.

Jjeojeojeok!!!

Lenok, who had grabbed the explosively rising ice tree branches and escaped to the back of the downtown area, jumped down, following Angel.

Angel, who was creating an ice path and running into the back of the alley, asked.

“How did you think of such a solution in that situation?”

“Throughout the battle, both sides were refraining from using large-scale formulas.”

Lenok said, stepping onto the ice path, following Angel.

“They’re level 7 casters, but there wasn’t even a bluff to use a domain. Rather, they were only reducing their output as time went on.”

“……”

“At first, I thought it was to avoid being noticed by the Grafting Art Master [a powerful mage], but it was actually because of the barrier over the city.”

Gooooooo……!!!

The sky gradually darkened, and the haze above it became clearer.

A magnificent scene like an aurora in the night sky, with a huge curtain rippling and creating waves.

And every time that happened, the mana around the gate city was constantly fluctuating.

“If the barrier becomes stronger and clearer at night, it’s natural that the internal environment of the gate city, located on its boundary, would change drastically.”

Lenok’s eyes shone as he looked at the rippling aurora that stretched across the sky for dozens of kilometers.

“If you use a formula with high output, the backlash will be just as strong.”

In the process of the day turning into night, the power of the barrier grew stronger, and the mana conditions of the city located on its boundary changed drastically.

In that process, if they used a formula with high output that required them to draw in the surrounding mana, a backlash would forcibly occur, and the formula would be canceled.

Lenok had seen that the Holy Cross Society and the Gravediggers were wary of that, and he had canceled all the formulas by unleashing high-powered magic.

“If mana usage is restricted at night, it’s actually more convenient for us.”

Lenok glanced back and muttered.

“Should I have fought the casters a little longer in that spot?”

“No, what are you even saying?”

Angel, who had been silently running away, jumped in surprise with a dumbfounded expression.

“The Order Alliance is the one that has seized the gate right now. Don’t you know that there’s no need to provoke them?”

“Currently, the connection between the Grafting Art Master and the Order Alliance within the gate is extremely weak.”

Lenok’s eyes turned cold.

“I don’t know why, but it seems that the goals of the Grafting Art Master and the Alliance’s casters don’t align.”

“Huh?”

Angel, who was diligently running through the dark back alley, glanced back at Lenok and said.

“It hasn’t even been a day since you arrived at the gate city, and you already know that much?”

“Know or not, from the start-”

Lenok’s words, which had been replying irritably, stopped abruptly.

Lenok’s cold gaze immediately turned to Angel’s face.

“……You, you know what I’ve been through outside.”

“……”

Angel had grasped the time Lenok had arrived at the gate city almost exactly.

That was only possible because he had been hearing about Lenok’s movements from outside the gate from the start.

More than anything, knowing that the connection between the Grafting Art Master and the Alliance did not exist within the gate meant-

[Ignition]

[Radiant Hand Manifestation]

Kwaaang!!

The flames that wrapped around his fingertips became a giant hand of fire, instantly crushing Angel.

“Kuhak…!!”

“I see. I wondered why I was explaining the barrier all by myself.”

Lenok looked down at Angel, who was coughing heavily, and asked.

“Were you testing me from the beginning?”

“……”

Angel already knew that the environment of the gate city, located on the boundary of the barrier, changed drastically based on day and night.

He also knew that excessive mana usage was prohibited in that process.

That was why he hadn’t answered anything while Lenok was explaining that fact.

From the start, the clash between the Holy Cross Society and the Gravediggers. Even Lenok’s response to escaping the commotion in that process.

From the moment he met Lenok until now, Angel had been trying to verify him.

“What are you hiding?”

“Cough, I wasn’t hiding anything…!!”

Angel, crushed under the hand of fire, managed to force a smile with a trembling expression.

“I was, checking.”

“Checking?”

“Whether you’re still the same person who fought against Ban back then. I need to know.”

Angel, breathing roughly, said quickly.

“The Grafting Art Master is a monster.”

“……”

“If we make even one mistake in this, both you and I will be dragged to the operating table alive.”

At that moment, Angel’s eyes faintly glowed.

“You need to have the same skills and will that you had when you burned the Balkans to the ground… then we can try to make a gamble.”

“……A gamble. That’s absurd.”

Lenok asked, pressing down on Angel’s body even harder with the hand of fire.

“You’re talking nonsense. You were testing me because you were worried that I might have changed from back then?”

“……”

“I don’t know why you’re having such worries, but it’s ridiculous that you tried to confirm that here.”

Lenok’s gaze towards Angel turned cold.

“Do you think you can judge a person with just a few words?”

“But, you left the Azure Eye, didn’t you?”

“……What?”

“The reason you were able to turn the Balkans into a sea of fire back then was because the safety of the lighthouse keeper you cherished so much was at stake.”

Angel, who was carefully watching Lenok, who was momentarily speechless, said.

“A caster’s power is a complex concept that is influenced by all sorts of situations, including the environment and emotions… Back then, you were clearly burning the present without thinking about the future.”

“……”

“Now that the ‘restraint’ that made you draw out your power with the determination to burn everything is over, and you’ve left the Azure Eye, it’s uncertain whether you can show the same power as back then.”

“You……”

He was thinking that the power Thousand had drawn out back then was a geas [a magical compulsion] to save the lighthouse keeper, and he was worried that Lenok might not be able to exert the same power as back then.

A topic that could be noticed because he was a superhuman who used abilities based on pure mental strength.

And it was also a very sharp point that Lenok thought was unexpected.

Lenok, who had been glaring at Angel’s slightly gaunt face for a moment, asked.

“Is that an inference that’s only possible because you’re a superhuman?”

“Who knows?”

Angel smiled wryly.

“At least, I’m more deeply aware of the dangers of geas than others.”

“……”

Lenok, who had been silently staring at Angel, slowly withdrew the hand of fire.

Lenok asked, looking at Angel, who had struggled to raise his upper body.

“So, what’s the conclusion?”

“It seems like it’ll be okay. At least, you seem much better than I thought.”

Angel answered, dusting off his collar as he stood up.

“If you defeated Lieutenant General Roveraid, there’s no need to talk about your power, and now that I see it, your judgment isn’t bad either. At least, you don’t feel rusty.”

“……”

“As the chairman said, I’ll fully cooperate with you in this operation.”

He had already heard about the fact that Lenok had fought and won against Roveraid.

It was different from the Angel he had seen so far, but Lenok understood why the situation was unfolding like this.

Angel was a former ability user who had been active in the central front for a long time before he became a member of the Cartel’s board of directors.

It wouldn’t be strange if he was reviving the senses he had when he was active in the squad while waiting in the gate city.

More than anything, if there was an external factor that made Angel act like this-

“Who is giving you information in this gate city right now?”

“Before I answer that question, I think I need to check how much you remember about the past.”

Angel, who had slowly dusted off his collar and stood up, smiled and asked.

“The Infinite Labyrinth of Jintun. Do you remember the level 8 superhuman we met there?”

“……If it’s a level 8 superhuman, could it be.”

Lenok’s expression changed slightly as he instantly understood Angel’s words.

The level 8 superhuman who controlled gravity that he had met in the labyrinth under Evan’s identity.

Lenok also remembered that monster-like power and output.

“Is Balak O’Edon here?”

“Let’s go, Evan.”

Angel bowed his head slightly and took the lead.

“They’re waiting for you at the Ability Awakening Squad.”

“……”

The Ability Awakening Squad.

One of the largest forces that currently occupies a part of the central front, and an alliance of ability users created by gathering only those with innate abilities.

Angel had already contacted them in the gate city and was gathering the necessary information.