Conjoining Sorcerer (2)
Drrr.
The ringing tone echoed through the room lit by the flickering glow of monitors.
Along with the sound of someone snatching up the receiver, Maya’s irritated voice rang out.
[Doctor, I’m extremely busy right now. What is it?]
“Is that so? Still, I think it would be good for you to make time and take a look at the First Gate.”
The boy sitting on the worn chair smiled as he grabbed the microphone.
Furball, old man, boy—regardless of age or gender, Doctor who had once again changed his appearance turned his gaze toward the monitor.
“A massive number of major figures from the front lines have gathered around the Gate. This is the first time such a concentration of military power has gathered in one place since the rotation of the Four Heavenly Demon Realms.”
“It would be ideal if I could contact Leader now that he has descended, but unfortunately I have no choice but to tell you first. Could you head there immediately?”
[If you need help, ask the Clown. What exactly do you want?]
“Treadburn, Evan Martinez has been spotted at the First Gate.”
The moment she heard that name, Maya’s reply abruptly stopped.
She too had clearly not forgotten what happened in the Ganges Sand Labyrinth.
As Doctor smiled at the lingering silence between them, Maya asked back:
[............Did you say Treadburn?]
“Ever since he left Eyes of the Blue, this is effectively his first official move.”
Doctor answered leisurely.
“The reactions are quite violent over the Apostle Slayer who lost to Bolt suddenly appearing at the Gate. Especially now, of all times, when the Conjoining Sorcerer has seized control of it. We need information from the scene. If someone’s going to investigate the situation anyway, wouldn’t it be better for you to go, considering you became acquainted with him in the labyrinth?”
[Ha, and here I was wondering what you were talking about............]
Maya scratched the receiver irritably.
[I met Treadburn before he even became an Apostle Slayer. After what Leader did at the Cradle, why would he cooperate now?]
“Hmm............ That’s true as well.”
[Even without this, I’m already overwhelmed trying to adjust the gravity stones obtained from the temple. What a pointless request.]
There had indeed been an unexpected incident where the Pandemonium forces infiltrating Vulcan were driven back by Bolt alone, but even so, they had not returned empty-handed.
They had failed to obtain the Forbidden Armament from Anathema’s temple, but they had managed to extract the gravity stones used to construct the temple itself.
Gravity stones imbued with Anathema’s mana could be turned into the highest-grade ritual catalysts with only a bit of processing.
It was only natural for Maya to be annoyed at Doctor for suddenly changing the schedule after leaving that work entirely to her.
[I don’t care who dies at the Gate. Paying attention to something the Demon’s Den isn’t even involved with in the first place is itself—]
Maya’s voice abruptly cut off mid-sentence.
As though she had only just now remembered something extremely important.
[Wait, don’t tell me?]
“So you hadn’t completely forgotten after all.”
Doctor snickered and turned his gaze toward another monitor.
His eyes sank deeply as he stared at the darkness writhing within the screen.
“It’s been quiet for much longer than expected. Wouldn’t you agree? What we need to be careful of aren’t the monsters rampaging at the Gate. I intend to prepare for the worst-case scenario.”
***
“Black Faced Flower seeds, Gallbladder of the Thorn Rider, eyes of the Six-Qilin, Iron Spirit Root—”
Crash!!
Every time Lennok moved his hand, medicinal herbs and catalysts piled on the shelves came pouring down.
“Blood-type anesthetic, Kessler Mana Coagulant, Abator Cognitive Enhancer, and even Stock-type Curse Treatment.”
After skillfully selecting dozens of medicine bottles from the shelves as though shopping, Lennok muttered with satisfaction.
“As expected of the Spell Order Federation’s greatest sorcerer—nothing but rare medicines and catalysts. I’m already feeling full.”
Was it because the Conjoining Sorcerer himself was not only an outstanding sorcerer but also an even greater surgeon?
The room was filled with medicines and catalysts difficult to find even in Vulcan’s black markets or auctions.
There were so many worthwhile items to steal that even simply selecting what to take was exhausting.
Slurp!!
Lennok swiftly looted the medicine storage room and stepped out, checking the plaque of the room where he had been imprisoned moments earlier.
[Reserve Anesthesia Room No. 2]
The room where Lennok had been confined was apparently a space made specifically for anesthesia rather than surgery.
As he walked out into the corridor, Lennok glanced at the pale green flame softly glowing in his hand.
Having successfully stolen the [Ember] from the Tower Master, Lennok let out a satisfied sigh.
“A good start.”
This pale green flame was the power the Tower Master had used to heal his own body.
Though it took the form of fire, it possessed the ability to ‘heal’ living beings.
Lennok understood just how rare and valuable such an Ember was.
‘It’s an Ember ignited through a sorcerer’s mana. There aren’t many abilities more suitable for treating injuries than this.’
Evan Martinez’s identity was that of a battle mage who combined flame magic, barrier arts, and martial techniques.
The fact that this identity, constantly exposed to injury, had now acquired healing abilities was tremendous good fortune.
The Tower Master must also have known exactly how valuable this Ember was, which was why he had struggled so desperately.
‘If possible, I’d like to steal his other Embers and treasures too, but...?’
The other Embers possessed by the Blaiver Magic Tower Master, as well as the treasure Time-Burning Accelerant Melody that accelerated time itself.
Lennok was interested in the Embers and relics held by the master of a Mage Tower with centuries of history, but if he killed the Tower Master here, the Conjoining Sorcerer would notice.
Inside this Life Domain shaped like an operating theater, concealing the Tower Master’s death was virtually impossible.
Having escaped the Sorcerer’s surveillance using target-designation resistance, it was best to abandon greed here and investigate the operating theater itself.
“An operating theater, huh................”
Calling it an operating theater hardly did it justice—it was a massive dome of flesh hundreds of meters in radius.
Pinkish-red rooms and corridors were arranged chaotically, writhing as they continuously changed shape.
Because this Domain itself was a living organism, it felt as though he had entered the inside of some gigantic organ.
Lennok slowly walked forward while watching blood vessels pulse faintly beneath the corridor floor.
‘There isn’t much time. I need to move quickly.’
Soon, the first surgery would end, and the Sorcerer would once again have time to spare.
Before the Sorcerer finished and returned, he needed to quickly search the Domain and find what he wanted.
His targets were the fragment of the Curtain and the remains of Immortal Mikal Zellich.
Fortunately, Lennok already knew where he had to go.
‘They said the entire Domain wraps around the Gate entrance. The entrance should be somewhere connected to the surface.’
The place where the vibrations of these endlessly writhing corridors gradually grew stronger.
The deepest core from which the pulse of life could be heard.
The vital point most essential to making this Domain into a living organism.
The heart.
As he passed through the trembling corridor and stepped between a fork in the path—
The corridor wall split open and spread apart to the side.
Slurp!!
The space inside was enormous.
So vast that even Lennok could not see its end with the naked eye.
Was it an exit leading toward the Gate entrance?
Or a path leading deeper into the operating theater’s hidden recesses?
As Lennok stepped into the opened room, he fell silent at the horrific sight beyond imagination.
“This is................”
Hundreds of humans hung from the walls completely naked.
A gruesome spectacle where hooks had been pierced through the backs of their necks and used to suspend them on display.
Even after Lennok entered, they simply dangled limply without the slightest movement.
A scene where the entire room itself was formed from human walls—something difficult to accept even while seeing it with one’s own eyes.
Silently scanning the surroundings, Lennok realized that something was displayed at the center of the room.
“......Superhumans?”
Unlike the humans hanging from the walls, these figures stood properly clothed and equipped.
A woman holding a grimoire with one hand stretched forward.
An elderly knight shouting fiercely with a greatsword resting on his shoulder.
A young spearman smiling charmingly while holding a spear.
Various other people were preserved throughout the room as though time itself had stopped.
They had stiffened into bizarre poses and appearances meant to display their specialties or talents to the fullest.
Human taxidermy so vivid it looked as though they might move at any moment.
Their presence was overwhelming enough that one could immediately tell they had once been powerful mana users.
Had the Conjoining Sorcerer displayed those he had personally fought or killed like this within his operating theater?
No, if he intended to kill them anyway, there would be no reason to go through the trouble of preserving them like this—
Just as Lennok thought that, he suddenly realized something and touched Archangel’s Compassion inside his coat.
Lennok’s expression hardened when he realized the preserved humans were not being recognized as inorganic matter.
“Don’t tell me............... they’re still alive?”
The Conjoining Sorcerer had not displayed these humans merely to boast after killing them.
Even after experimenting on and dissecting them however he pleased, he had kept them alive and preserved them inside the operating theater.
Could one really preserve fragile creatures like humans in this state while keeping only their lives intact?
An undeniable sign that the Sorcerer’s power and skill had reached an utterly inhuman realm.
At that moment, the fingers of the woman holding the grimoire slowly began to move.
Creak, creak……
As she forcibly moved her stiffened fingers, flesh tore apart and blood dripped down.
Blood droplets falling onto the pages of the book slowly formed letters.
A desire so clear and simple that even Lennok could immediately understand it.
[Kill me]
“.......”
Neither her smiling expression nor her unblinking eyes changed in the slightest.
Her skin had hardened and necrotized, her pupils coated with preservatives to prevent decay.
Her body was nothing more than a shell, and her senses had long since disappeared, leaving her unable to see anything.
Without even knowing who had approached her, she merely poured out her one and only wish toward the visitor.
“......Haa.”
Looking down at the woman with a conflicted expression, Lennok took out a small syringe from inside his coat.
Holding the syringe, he pierced the back of her hand and quietly whispered into her ear.
“It’s a poison that activates after a delay. Once it spreads through your blood vessels twelve hours from now, you’ll die painlessly. It’ll be over soon. I’m sorry.”
For the same reason he could not kill the Tower Master, he could not free them through death here either.
The moment they died here, the Life Domain would immediately recognize their deaths and alert the Sorcerer to the abnormality.
Their continued survival might itself already serve as part of the warning system.
Flutter!!
At that moment, the woman finally raised her hand and awkwardly began turning the pages of the grimoire.
Her trembling hand slowly flipped through the pages until she closed the entire book.
The moment the grimoire shut, it emitted a faint glow of mana.
“......This is?”
There was no answer.
As though she had already done everything she needed to do, even her presence began fading.
Wiiiiing!!
At that instant, the wall behind the gallery of preserved superhumans opened wide, revealing a hidden room.
Unlike the writhing living-organism operating theater, this hidden chamber was constructed entirely from solid metal.
Only then did Lennok understand the purpose of this place and nod.
“So it needed a room made of metal rather than flesh walls. That’s why this hidden chamber was concealed here?”
Was the reason only the woman among the preserved superhumans could move because she had been used to hide the entrance to the hidden room?
The Sorcerer’s idea of concealing a hidden chamber not through the operating theater itself, but through the woman’s magic.
Hiss!!
Stepping inside, Lennok felt the freezing cold circulating through the room and fell silent.
“...So this was a freezer used to store organs extracted from superhumans.”
Severed arms and legs, heads and eyeballs.
Hair and internal organs.
Human organs and body parts floated everywhere.
Finely dissected nerve bundles and muscle fibers.
Grotesquely sliced organs and entrails preserved within specimen containers.
Grrrlll...!!
An eyeball inside a test tube spun around, while a severed head soaking in a tub opened and closed its mouth.
Some of them even turned their gazes toward Lennok as though recognizing his presence.
The thick stench of preservatives and blood stabbed at his nose.
Simply standing here was enough to make his head spin.
Pressing against his eyelids to steady himself, Lennok scanned the surroundings with sunken eyes.
‘They look displayed randomly, but there’s a pattern internally.’
These dissected organs gathered here were not collected due to the Sorcerer’s hobbies.
They were organs or body parts possessing unusual appearances or abilities capable of attracting the Sorcerer’s personal interest.
A specimen with two right arms, a seven-fingered hand, a heart with hardened and clogged blood vessels.
Some organs possessed special mana, while others were themselves made of unusual materials.
Every specimen clearly possessed extraordinary origins or rarity.
The moment Lennok finished thinking that and turned around while recalling his true objective within the operating theater—
[You’re not the Conjoining Sorcerer.]
Someone’s voice echoed from behind him.
A stiff, mechanical voice.
Yet somehow the tone itself felt relaxed.
[If you don’t mind, could you come over here and let me out? I’ve been trapped for so long that it’s become unbearably stifling.]
“Trapped?”
[Ohh, so you can actually hear me.]
The voice let out unconcealed admiration.
[People capable of sensing thought-wave manifestations this clearly are rare. Your spirituality must be highly developed.]
[Come a little closer. I’d like to read your thought waves too.]
Instead of answering, Lennok approached closer, and the voice reacted immediately.
[Hm? I sense a familiar presence............ Could you perhaps be a pyrokinesis user?]
A guess relatively close to the truth, yet subtly off the mark.
However, Lennok realized the other party was not sensing him, but rather the array device mounted on his arm.
Hadn’t it originally been contraband used by pyrokinesis users unable to control their powers, meant for venting excess body heat?
And the fact that this person was reading traces of psychics and speaking this way meant—
[If you’re also a psychic, I’d like to propose a deal in the name of the Ability Awakening Brigade.]
“A deal?”
[Have you heard of the ceremonial weapon bestowed by Ophelia Yeongjwa of the Brigade for innate psychics—Mars Star?]
The voice continued.
[It’s a weapon used to forcibly awaken the Phase Domain by burning mental force to amplify psychic output. But because of how it works, it’s useless to me. Someone like you, a pyrokinesis user, would suit it much better.]
[I hid it somewhere inside the operating theater because I didn’t want the Sorcerer taking it. Help me, and I’ll give it to you.]
“You’re willing to hand over such a precious item so easily?”
[I may not look it, but I hold a fairly high position within the Brigade.]
The voice puffed up proudly with a smug little cough.
[If Yeongjwa found out, I’d get scolded terribly, but if I explain the circumstances, Headquarters would understand.]
“I see.”
The moment he heard those words, Lennok slowly turned his gaze.
He had already guessed after hearing the voice, but after hearing the introduction, he became certain.
He had not expected the consciousness to remain intact enough for conversation like this, but there was no doubt anymore.
“You are the Brigade’s Third Seat, Immortal Mikal Zellich.”
[....What?]
At the deepest corner of the cold freezer stood a display pedestal.
And prominently displayed atop it—
A human brain.
The brain, sliced cleanly in half with only the left hemisphere remaining, tilted itself inside the tank.
[You—how do you know who I am?]