Chapter 285 |
"What a shame. Even though our thoughts differ, I believed we could walk the same path... No helping it, then."
Walter pressed a hand to his forehead with a sigh.
Right after, his mouth split open long and thin beneath the face covering.
"That brilliant intellect and body of yours... I'll have to make them sustenance for Ibon and me."
"Wait, Walter."
The Ibon family head, who had been watching the two with a tense expression, interrupted with a startled look.
"What on earth are you—"
Crack!!
In that instant, a pale flash shot out from between the pillars and pierced straight through the Ibon family head's body.
It wasn't that she had no chance to resist. In that split second, Ibon had actually released her mana and thrust her own body toward the flash.
Her expression held empty disbelief as she looked down at her chest, as if she couldn't believe her own actions.
"Don't resist. Didn't we promise in the name of God to do this together?"
Walter smiled.
"That I'd grant you an eternal, immortal body."
In an instant, she understood his words, and the Ibon family head's face crumpled.
"I-I never agreed to this!! This isn't the body I wanted!!! Just to become one with someone else like this...!!"
She thrashed in rejection of the pale glow that enveloped her entire body.
She tried to cling on using tree roots pulled from the ground below, but it was futile.
A contract sworn in the name of the cult's god bound her. With her will partially accepting it and convinced by that faith, she could no longer escape.
Her body, writhing and screaming, was sucked straight into the pillar of light.
Zzzzzzzzt!!!
"Kyaaaaaaaah!!!!"
A heartrending scream echoed from inside the pillar.
"..."
Renok furrowed his brow but didn't move rashly.
Instead, he simply summoned his mana and lashed out at Walter's body.
Boom!!
"Hahahahaha!!"
Walter tumbled across the ground in his battered form, bursting into mad laughter.
"It's too late now. You can't interfere with anything! Just witness and revere it—the great will descended upon this world!!"
At that moment, the pillar of light striking down from the sky split wide to either side.
In the center of the massive halo of light covering the mansion's airspace, something began to stretch slowly.
Walter shouted.
"The descent of the apostle!!"
Craaaack!!
As if shattering glass, beyond the fissures in the ruins, a completely different space shimmered, and something hazy flickered.
By the time he noticed, it already existed in this world.
Shoooooo!!
A colossal bulk filled the sky above the mansion. Dozens of writhing legs and a floating head.
It took the form of a cephalopod yet had an angular build, as if clad in rigid armor.
Hundreds of eyes glinted between the armor plates and calmly overlooked the landscape below.
In response to that gaze, immense mana pressed down on and erupted from the ground.
Rumble rumble rumble!!!
Even conservatively, it far surpassed the 7th-level benchmark.
Just the manifestation of that body in this space unleashed tremendous mana in all directions.
It was a reckless display of power, with no thought to control—like a child showing off.
The streets of the citadel, already in ruins from the earlier chaos, collapsed completely under this expression of will that seemed utterly devoid of intellect.
"Kahak...!!"
Under the mana pressure too much for a human body to withstand, even Walter's form was swept away powerlessly.
Boom!!
The intensity was on another level from the unidentified mass of flesh Walter had summoned in Lavaton.
One could clearly sense the solid stability of a fully completed existence.
[Finally...!!]
In that instant, a telepathic voice rang out across the mansion's airspace. Incredibly, it was Walter's, who had just lost his body moments ago.
The voice came from near the head of that grotesque apostle's body.
[Finally, we've made it here...!!]
The trembling tone, filled with ecstasy, showed just how long he had awaited this moment.
Renok, who had been watching them devour each other to self-destruction, finally understood and clicked his tongue.
"So that's why you poured so much effort into proselytizing. You were aiming for this from the start?"
Now it made sense why Walter had been so obsessed with missionary work all this time.
The sequence Walter had just performed seemed like pure chaos at a glance, but ritualistically, it had followed clear preparation and steps.
The will sent down by the monster from the outer sea.
The body of a superhuman called the Ibon family head.
And the intellect of a cult bishop.
By combining these three disparate presences into one body to descend—that was the "apostle" as defined by the Gido cult.
"So the missionary offered up his own body to possess others. You've been selecting only candidates to become cult apostles and repeating this ritual."
[Hahaha!!]
Walter burst into roaring laughter at Renok's words.
Right after, one of the apostle's wriggling legs split at the end and swiftly took on the form of a mass of flesh, transforming into a human shape.
[Aaaaaah!!]
The Ibon family head's face twisted in agony as she screamed. From her gaping mouth, a massive surge of mana erupted like a bullet, slamming down beside Renok like a bombardment.
Boom!!
The impact far exceeded any ordinary firearm. The backlash alone shaved away his shield, exposing Renok's bare skin.
Walter's tone quickly calmed as he spoke.
[Now that you've realized it, cooperate quietly.]
...
[We need to replenish the body before this form fully adapts. It'll make later adjustments easier. No need to make things complicated, right?]
As he spoke, he casually raised the remaining dozens of legs all at once.
Scrape scrape scrape!!
Renok furrowed his brow at the bizarre sight of the legs' tips uniformly transforming into the Ibon family head's torsos.
If he accepted Walter's proposal, would Renok end up in a similar state?
If he refused, it wouldn't be surprising if they turned him into mincemeat right here.
"Adjustments, huh..."
He hadn't heard much about the cult's apostles, but if they were all such monsters, Renok couldn't have remained ignorant of their infamy.
After the adjustments Walter mentioned, they could probably discard that monstrous form and shapeshift into a human body.
While Renok pondered, Walter took action.
He plunged part of a leg into the ruins near the mansion and began dropping massive mana bombardments.
Boom boom boom!!
Like a child showing off his strength.
Had gaining the apostle's body made him openly display his inner desires?
[What a strange feeling.]
Gazing at the destruction he had wrought, Walter muttered in a drunken haze.
[I always longed for this moment... But instead of joy, a sense of responsibility comes first. All I can think about is spreading this great god's power to the world as soon as possible.]
...
[It's a pity we only secured one out of three confirmed sanctums, but this is enough. The days of wandering without even a body are over.]
His voice carried a hint of regret.
[I've evolved into a being even the cult can't ignore.]
"That won't happen."
Whooooom!!
As he looked up at the apostle's body floating above the citadel's sky, Renok slowly drew up his mana.
The mana rotating within him spread from head to toe in an instant, surging out of his body and scattering his presence in all directions.
Flash!!
Renok's mana shook off the apostle's downward pressure in a single moment, rotating to spread colorless waves.
"You won't be returning to the cult."
Whiiiiiing!!!
It dyed the entire space in his own colors, projecting the mental image engraved in his core onto his domain.
[An innate domain? Fine. Go ahead and do as you like.]
But Walter responded leisurely even after sensing the mana Renok had manifested.
Arrogant words and actions. Yet Walter had his own calculations.
During the barrier disruption, near the tree giant's heart, he had roughly gauged the type of magic Renok used.
As someone not deeply versed in magic, Walter couldn't pinpoint the exact school, but he could roughly guess the attributes Renok handled.
The monstrous mage primarily used lightning and freezing attributes.
He had burned Ibon's proxy in the proxy battle, but seeing him use tobacco embers as a catalyst suggested low proficiency in opposing attributes.
Walter had thus resolved to embody the will of an end-times entity from the outer sea that ruled over ice domains.
He couldn't afford defeat here, no matter what.
Even if he couldn't acquire the mage's body by killing him, Walter had to return to the cult somehow.
Originally, he planned to use the transition ritual "Amrita's Scale" to escape the moment the apostle's body descended, but after Renok disrupted the previous two transitions in different ways, the third seemed impossible too.
Moreover, moving the apostle's body via spatial translocation would require at least dozens of lives as fuel.
The odds of Renok leaving Walter alone until then were vanishingly low.
It was better to exhaust Renok's mana here and completely break his body and will.
[Once you've poured out all the capacity and potential of a mage like you, you'll inevitably realize what true rationality is in this world... even if you don't want... to...]
Whoooosh!!
Walter's telepathic voice cut off abruptly upon sensing the rotating golden glow in the darkened void.
The clockwise-rotating glow drew a massive golden ring, lifting hundreds of different circles.
Flash flash flash!!!
The traces of destruction from the three, the mansion's ruins, and the blasted landscape vanished.
The pillar of light connecting heaven and earth disappeared in an instant, and in the vast cosmos, hundreds of golden circles floated, illuminating everything.
A golden kaleidoscope enclosed the massive apostle's body and the mage below, who gazed up at the scene.
Amid the countless branching landscapes reflected within, the apostle's writhing legs halted all at once.
[W-Wait... This is, what... exactly...]
Walter muttered, his laughter gone, but Renok didn't stop.
"I knew the chance would come only once. You must have too."
With the dazzling golden glow at his back, Renok walked toward Walter.
"So I waited for a moment you couldn't escape. Once that body fully embodies in this world, no one can flee death."
He remembered how the mass of flesh Walter had summoned at Lavaton University met its end.
Though it was a far weaker existence than this apostle, it too had been ground down by Aris's magic before dying.
The same applied here.
No matter the grand name "apostle," once manifested in this world, it was bound by the cycle of life and death.
So what Renok could do was decided.
Ignoring Walter's stunned expression as he looked around, Renok quietly extended his hand.
The hundreds of golden circles floating in the void slowly rotated, approaching Renok.
A kaleidoscope raced through countless landscapes, reflecting different futures.
As he contemplated those myriad branching mirrors, Walter belatedly grasped the meaning of Renok's words and stammered in a shout.
[Y-You're saying... you waited from the start, planning to confront me...!!]
...
[You think a mere saint-class realm can claim victory over an apostle!! How dare a lowly heretic harbor such arrogance!!!]
Walter bellowed, seething.
His telepathic voice echoed thunderously through the empty dark void.
At the same time, the mana bursting from that massive body seized and ravaged everything, but nothing changed.
Renok turned to Walter and said.
"You wouldn't understand. But this isn't the end—it's just the process."
[...What?]
Walter, having forgotten his own tone, asked back.
Instead of answering, Renok silently raised his hand.
He did his utmost to survive. He strode forward without leaving even a moment's illusion.
To win, he spared no means or methods, meticulously calculating odds, yet he understood that alone wasn't enough.
He knew that someday he might have to fight without retreat, or stake his life against an opponent with no guaranteed victory.
Because he knew an inescapable moment would eventually come.
At that moment, he had to gauge his limits with full effort and expand his horizons.
He questioned and proved, moment by moment, how far the mental landscape built with utmost sincerity could reach.
This was possible because Renok had opened his eyes in this world with a vessel and will fundamentally different from ordinary mages.
It went beyond merely honing skill and realm—it was the longing granted only to those who truly craved life and yearned for the time remaining.
The desperate attachment and plea for life in Renok's depths opened its eyes.
The answer had been set from the beginning.
The bright red book in Renok's hand. Through the catalyst obtained by felling Geonis in the volcanic zone, he seized one of the strongest branch points.
Rustle!!
The golden circles behind him, shining vividly, overlaid with crimson flames, devoured the void and swiftly inverted the inner landscape to etch it into the cosmos.
The chief disciple of the Blaver Magic Tower, holder of one of the five-branch flame beads.
A nonexistent future, hurling itself into endless war's barrage alongside the tower lord, piercing countless battlefields' flames—unfolded here.
From the moment his eyes opened, everything had changed.
Whoooosh!!
A scorching wind blew, hot enough to sear flesh.
Before him stretched not a brilliant flame-filled garden, but an endless black plateau.
The fiery spectacle symbolizing his will was gone, replaced by hills of scorched ashes before the apostle and mage.
In the pitch-black sky where visibility ended, only a faintly glowing ring of light remained.
Beneath a total solar eclipse, Renok looked up at the apostle's colossal body.
Innate domain deployment: Branch point observation.
Origin hierarchy mental image manifestation.
[Black Obsidian Divine Fall]
Though no trace of flame remained in the domain's landscape, the heat rising from this ashen plain was unmistakably the essence of pyrothermal element.
Standing atop the remnants of a world burned to nothing, Renok exhaled smoke.
"Here I go."
Whoooosh!!
With those words, the black sky, leaving only the ring of light, began to roil violently.