Chapter 287 |
Meaning of the Message (1)
"Is the damage outside... quite severe?"
Renok asked as he leaned weakly on Suryeon's shoulder and took a step forward.
Suryeon answered, her expression stiff.
"You could say that. The bustling heart of the citadel has been reduced to complete ashes."
"......"
"Thanks to your early warning, we were able to rescue everyone who hadn't evacuated yet, but the citadel residents and the remaining family retainers are working hard on the aftermath."
"......I see."
Renok, who had roughly guessed the method Walter would use in the end, had asked the others in advance to handle the cleanup.
In that case, it had been better to prepare the surroundings in advance before deploying the domain. That had been his judgment.
"Those lunatics Chen and Manson are lending a hand too. Once you and Asui escape, we'll seal off this entire sector."
The moment he realized the black flames wouldn't extinguish easily, the plan had been to isolate the sector and wait for the fire to die out.
It had been a bold decision considering the assets left in the bustling district, but Renok knew Suryeon's judgment was sound and nodded.
It had been impossible for even Renok to predict how long the flames of the mind, ignited by burning mental images, would burn.
It had been wiser to take time to carefully assess their nature and minimize the damage.
"By the way, this is a disaster on an absurd scale... To think a mere human could cause something like this. Is this what battles between fully realized monsters are like?"
Suryeon, supporting Renok, muttered with a tense expression as she looked around.
The curtain of black flames burned high and fiercely, reaching the height of skyscrapers.
Even though the damage hadn't reached this far yet, the heat alone made their entire bodies feel feverish.
At her words, Asui shook his head with a frightened look.
"Not all saint-class mages can unleash disasters like this. It's just that Ban possesses an outrageous level of power."
"......"
"To single-handedly crush the Ibon Family's forces and even subjugate a Gido Order bishop... If word of this gets out, it'll be impossible to even discern truth from fiction."
"......It was just an unexpected result from the bishop's power mixing with mine."
Feeling the two's evaluations soaring, Renok subtly changed the subject.
"Can't you tell that I couldn't fully control it with my own mana from the start?"
"To deal with Gido Order bishops, do you have to reach this level and look down on the world? We still have a long way to go."
"If it's to protect the citadel, we'll all have to put in the effort from now on. I'll strive harder."
"......"
Renok quietly shut his mouth at the response that didn't get through at all.
Immediately after, a massive shadow that rose from the far end of the street enveloped the three in an instant and began clearing the path.
Renok lifted his head at the familiar residual mana.
"This mana is..."
"It seems the Samyeong family head has awakened. To come to our aid the moment he regains his senses..."
Suryeon chuckled as she hoisted Renok's shoulder and spoke.
"It looks like we didn't choose the wrong citadel lord."
*
The black flames that had set the Ibon Family's main residence ablaze lit up the night for one more day before finally fading away.
Oren, who had inherited the citadel lord's authority, had modified the citadel's outer barrier to focus on isolating the central blaze.
It had more than enough intensity and durability to contain the flames from the black obsidian divine fall, and the fact that it could be reshaped so freely proved that an ascender's personal touch on the barrier was on another level.
Compared to that, it was comparable to the barrier around the beacon that the Blue Eye used as their main base.
If the city council could carelessly invade the Eightfold Star Citadel's domain, it would have been a lie.
"......"
Renok, wrapped head to toe in bandages, gazed out the window for a moment before turning his head.
Even after the proxy battle ended and the Samyeong family head ascended as the new citadel lord, the atmosphere inside the citadel wasn't bright.
In the end, among the three families that had boasted the strongest influence in the Eightfold Star Citadel, the Ilwon and Ibon lineages had been completely severed.
Moreover, the shock of the truth—that the Ilwon family head had fed his own retainers to the Gido Order and self-destructed, while the Ibon Family had allied with the order to offer the entire citadel as a human sacrifice—was immense.
If not for the Samyeong family head's actions at the end of the proxy battle, an irreparable rift between the Eight Families and the citadel residents wouldn't have been surprising.
It was clear who deserved credit for preventing the apostle descent disaster and stopping the citadel from being utterly destroyed.
"So, there's no plan to rebuild the Ilwon and Ibon families."
"The Eightfold Star Citadel will be renamed the Hexafold Citadel and continue. There will be considerable external involvement in that process."
Chen, who stood behind Renok, answered.
He had his arms crossed, quietly watching what Renok was doing.
"Considering the situation outside the city, the Eightfold Star Citadel will likely be removed from the triad's positions."
As someone who had wandered the shadows of Balkan attempting to start a business, Chen probably knew the recent state of the megacity better than Renok.
Without waiting for Renok's response, Chen continued.
"It's not surprising. It was just hard to grasp the reality because of the isolation, but the citadel's forces had been deteriorating for a long time... Oren must have suspected that too."
The crumbling power and status of the citadel. Could the Ibon family head's desperate struggle have been seen as flailing to avoid falling behind as well?
"The outside will get noisy again."
It was inevitable that Balkan's back alleys would buzz around the Eightfold Star Citadel stepping down from the triad and the newly vacant shadow overlord position.
Chen laughed at Renok's mutter.
"It's always like that. Solving one problem doesn't bring a happy ending for everyone."
"......"
"Rather, harsher times await Oren and the citadel residents than now. Compared to the power they hold, the privileges they grasp are too many, and there will be more than a few dissatisfied with that fact."
The three overlords who ruled Balkan's shadows. The title of triad wasn't just a grandiose nameplate.
They managed and controlled the surrounding commerce, took responsibility for residents' safety in exchange for shadow taxes, and maintained the organization's scale and manpower.
This chain of transactions alone maximized their influence in the vicinity, widening the status gap between organizations.
In this world, even such notoriety was a form of power and qualification.
It was obvious how far the power struggles between those trying to devour the citadel laying down its authority and those aiming for the shadow summit would spread.
Once the silent organizations' heavyweights began flexing their power, the streets would turn to chaos in no time.
But Renok, fully aware of that, nodded indifferently.
"I see. Oren will handle it well on his own."
Of course, he had no intention of exerting himself further for the citadel.
Getting entangled with the Eightfold Star Citadel was only possible because he had discovered the ruins while tracking traces of the Gido Order.
Killing the proselytizer Walter and preventing the apostle descent was more than enough contribution from Renok.
From now on, it was purely the citadel's affair, with no room for his interference.
Chen burst into laughter, as if he had anticipated Renok's reaction.
"Hahaha!! I knew it. A guy like you, who cuts ties cleanly, wouldn't want to get more involved here."
"......"
"But I've decided not to pass by anymore."
"What?"
Renok finally turned his head to look at Chen's face.
"The business I planned to do with my friends. I'm thinking of setting up the company here."
Chen replied.
"Thanks to working with you, my status inside the citadel has risen a lot. If I start a business here, not only various privileges but even tax exemptions—I've secured Oren's promise for that. Plus, there are still quite a few well-trained warriors left in the citadel... For me, it's a pretty solid business foundation."
"......"
"You're set with that savvy broker Jenny as your manager, so no worries for you, but for someone like me jumping into this game, there are some headaches."
He said that and chuckled, crossing his arms again.
"I'll solve the citadel's problems bit by bit from the sidelines and collect whatever I can. If it goes well, it'll grow to a scale that mid-sized outfits would envy."
"I see."
As Renok nodded, Chen pulled a business card from his pocket.
"That's why I'm asking—if you're interested in investing in us?"
"......"
"We'll start similar to a manpower firm, but ultimately, we're heading toward architecture and facility management that most efficiently utilizes mana users' labor. Especially, getting fees for repairing and managing the ruins in the shadows is incredibly efficient..."
Renok smirked as he stared at Chen, who had turned from a reliable comrade into a salesman in an instant.
Even if his words were grandiose, Chen, who always made ends meet anywhere, wouldn't throw himself into a failing venture.
If he wanted to maintain not just ties with Chen but also connections to the citadel, holding some shares in his company wasn't a bad idea.
"I get the gist of what you want."
"......For real?"
"Yeah. I'll give you a proper answer soon, so wait."
Renok's contribution to the Eightfold Star Citadel's survival this time was on a level unmatched even by all the citadel's people combined.
While others groaned in injury and scrambled to assess the situation, he had single-handedly stormed the Ibon Family's main residence, finished the job, and come out.
And in the process, he had thwarted Walter's true goal of apostle descent, so it was obvious what that meant to those in the know.
Oren, having heard all the details, had decided to offer fitting compensation to keep his connection to Renok tied to the citadel.
Thanks to that, Renok had successfully claimed the Ibon Family's plot he had personally burned down, the Ilwon Family's mansion, and even management rights to the ruins within.
In the now shrunken citadel, renamed the Hexafold Citadel, he was essentially the unacknowledged head of a new family.
Plus, he had taken the Ilwon Family's remaining assets and some of the apostle's carapace left after incinerating its body—more than overflowing compensation.
The 'investment' Chen wanted was probably lending the Ibon mansion's ruined plot in exchange for shares.
Renok didn't need cash or assets right now, and if it was just leasing land he had acquired for free, there was no reason to refuse.
"......"
After sending off Chen, who waved with a beaming face, Renok headed straight to the inner residence of the Ilwon Family mansion.
Over ten people, including the heads of the Eight Families, had visited Renok since the incident ended, and Chen was the last.
Manson had already gotten the citadel lord's permission and escaped outside, complaining the citadel felt stuffy.
But Renok still had unfinished business in the citadel.
The secret of the ruins that Walter had so desperately desired. The faint crack etched into the closed world.
One more fateful encounter for Renok awaited in that hidden sanctum owned by the Ilwon Family.
*
The deepest heart of the Ilwon Family mansion, built over three stories.
The dark corridor hidden behind the bathroom mirror led to a room where faint sunlight filtered in, revealing a spread of grassland.
A ruin protected within a golden barrier. Amid the lightly overgrown brush lay a weathered coffin tilted at an angle.
The inside of the coffin was empty, but unknown characters densely inscribed with names covered its interior.
Renok casually passed through the golden barrier and stepped into the ruin.
Oren had already opened it for him.
The moment he entered, he felt time in his body slow to a crawl.
"Hmm......"
He slowly settled his sluggishly moving body—like moving through water—onto the grass.
Renok was already familiar with the phenomena in this ruin from several prior experiences.
His thought speed remained synced with this world, but his flesh was influenced by another space.
To be precise, the influence of a worldline that had already vanished.
"......"
Renok sharpened his gaze, scanning the surroundings as he slowly raised his mana.
Unlike his body moving infinitely slowly, the mana itself spread in neither too slow nor normal speeds.
That was because mana, the sorcerer's power source, was influenced by both body and mind simultaneously.
In that state, with his mana filling the ruin, Renok closed his eyes and heightened his focus.
Wooong!
His highly developed mana sensitivity sharpened to detect even a single dust particle moving inside the ruin.
Renok maintained that state of concentration for what felt like dozens of minutes, focusing on grasping and interpreting the ruin's space.
Charararak!!
He didn't place much significance on the undecipherable characters on the coffin or the coffin itself.
What mattered was that this space was a fragment of the old world's spacetime, now gone.
If this landscape was undoubtedly a remnant of the World 1.0 and 2.0 that Renok knew,
Then in the discrepancies of that worldline, there would be gaps he could read.
'Now I could understand the meaning of that message.'
The message left by the Pandemonium Front's leader for Renok. He had said that seeking the Gido Order's hidden sanctum would yield answers about time magic.
The true meaning wasn't that a time-series unique magic was hidden here.
'Walter said the ruin itself was a crack in the closed world.'
Thus, it served as a communication portal to send signals to the outer sea and directly receive the power of apocalypse drifting in the dark ocean.
The Gido Order had used such ruins as consumables to awaken proselytizers into apostles of doom.
But exploiting cracks in this world wasn't limited to that method.
A world's crack meant, conversely, an opportunity to glimpse the structure of the world through that fissure.
It was akin to peering at a machine's components through a broken part.
Limited to local, cross-sectional observation, truly understanding the structure was distant.
Yet it allowed at least partial insight into what parts made the world machine turn.
'The operational principles establishing this world's time and space—comparing them to the old world's spacetime revealed the gaps, enabling relative measurement. In other words...'
It was tantamount to concrete empirical data on time and space systems falling into Renok's hands.
Renok's eyes gleamed sharply.
'It meant I had obtained the most basic data for creating spacetime magic.'