Conjoining Sorcerer (12)
Red Star Domain: Solar Apex.
A divine art that refined the Seeds acquired by a Flame-Heat mage into external mana cores and wielded them as an amplification secret technique.
Each additional mana core caused the amplification ratio to rise geometrically.
Its output increased explosively as well.
But increasing the number of cores—and maintaining them without their properties repelling one another—was exceedingly difficult.
A technique so dangerous that, if mishandled, the backlash and fusion of the cores could make the caster’s entire body explode.
But—
“Whew...”
Kuuooooo...!!!
Seven mana cores rotated furiously behind Lennok, emitting savage resonance.
Whenever the seventh star aligned beneath the orbit of Solar Apex, hellish heat erupted outward.
Kuuung!!
With a single casual step, the floor of the Life Territory was crushed, burned, and erased.
Yet the mana radiating from the rotating Red Star Domain became actual propulsion and lifted Lennok's body.
Buaaaaaang!!
A terrifying vibration like the engine of an aircraft.
Without manipulating a single spell.
Without casting any magic.
His body floated solely through the emission of mana itself.
Not flight magic.
A divine art that achieved levitation through pure mana radiation alone.
The Conjoining Sorcerer stared at Lennok's floating form in disbelief.
“Magnificent. Is that the pinnacle of magic you have reached?...A power that forcibly dismantles, learns, analyzes, and uses even the spells of others.”
The Sorcerer muttered quietly while black twisted mana surged from his entire body.
“So that is the ideal of ‘magic’ you pursue. The reason you exist as a mage lies within that power itself.”
Even after realizing his Conjoining Sorcery had been analyzed, the Sorcerer showed not anger but fascination.
That alone proved how highly he regarded Ouroboros.
Yet Lennok could not even answer.
He simply lowered his head.
‘I knew Trait-type sorcery wasn't something to covet lightly, but this is far worse than expected.’
Ouroboros.
A perpetual engine that transcended incompletion and rotated eternally toward perfection.
Infinite because it was unfinished.
Eternal because it was imperfect.
If the Kaleidoscope Self-Domain represented the ultimate expression of expansion, then the Ouroboros magic circle represented the ultimate expression of convergence.
A power that dismantled and absorbed all laws and spells, forcibly converging them into Lennok himself.
One of the two origins that had diverged and awakened along opposite paths as Lennok advanced through Levels 7 and 8.
Thus Ouroboros was among Lennok’s greatest authorities.
But it also carried an immense burden.
It relied upon Lennok’s transcendent intuition and senses to forcibly dismantle spells he had not yet mastered.
A miracle that skipped the process entirely and seized the result.
It assumed that one day Lennok would understand the spell and interpreted reality according to that conclusion.
Even so, this was the first time he had ever dismantled a Trait-type spell through Ouroboros.
‘Can only be used while Ouroboros is active. The mana efficiency is abysmal too.’
Perhaps because Trait-type sorcery lay outside the talent and environment Lennok had originally possessed.
The mana and mental expenditure rivaled even the Mass Formula of Hermes Oroknier.
Even with his expanded mana reserves, Lennok could only use Conjoining Sorcery while Ouroboros remained active.
Without the mana support of Red Star Domain, he would already have exhausted himself completely.
“But you're reaching your limit.”
The Sorcerer instantly perceived the source of the discrepancy and sneered while regenerating.
“That ‘magic’ may be extraordinary. But maintaining this configuration is already the best you can do.”
He slowly approached Lennok.
“A Self-Domain. An amplification secret art. Analysis magic for learning my spell. You've already revealed all your cards.”
“Quiet.”
Lennok interrupted him and raised one hand.
Buuuuuuung!!
The seven mana cores aligned in a straight line.
Instantly piercing through the Life Territory and casting crimson shadows throughout its interior.
Even the Sorcerer fell silent before the majestic sight.
Lennok slowly lifted his head.
“I’m coming.”
KUWAAAAAH!!
The seven mana cores spun around him at tremendous speed.
The mana erupting from them supported his body.
He accelerated while changing direction in midair at impossible speed.
No medium.
No spell.
Pure control over the direction of overflowing mana.
Across a battlefield spanning hundreds of meters, two blazing figures collided.
KWAAAAANG!!!!
The Conjoining Sorcerer leaped through space wrapped in swollen masses of flesh like wings.
Lennok skimmed low through the Territory while revolving his stars.
Each time their bodies crossed paths—
Scorching heat and spatial distortions exploded outward.
Flesh.
Bones.
Chimera corpses.
All fused together and detonated in midair.
Holes dozens of meters wide were blasted through the Long-Lived's body.
Its organs and bones were exposed.
Lennok and the Sorcerer repeatedly entered and exited the Long-Lived’s body, colliding at incredible speeds.
Crack crack crack!!
Ribs dozens of meters long snapped like reeds with a single gesture.
Dense muscles crumpled and melted beneath the following inferno.
They raced through membranes and blood vessels at supersonic speed.
Muscles and nerves ruptured.
Everything burned away in mana.
KWAAANG!!
“Ghk...!!!”
Simply being rammed by Red Star Domain at supersonic speed made breathing difficult and interrupted spell construction.
Lennok seized the Sorcerer mid-charge and slammed him down.
Then he opened his hand.
Red Star Domain: Solar Apex
Seventh Star: Okhwan
[Opening Heat Prosperous Fortress]
[Explosive Heat]
Fwoosh!!
Black-green Hellfire ignited from Lennok’s palm.
The instant it pressed against the Sorcerer’s shoulder—
His shoulder and neck swelled like balloons and exploded.
BOOOOOOM!!!
“Negative-dimensional flames. Hellfire that stimulates and drives thought out of control!!”
The Sorcerer regenerated his mangled shoulder instantly.
“It's impressive that you integrated a formless power into Flame-Heat magic. But that's nowhere near enough—”
KWAAANG!!
The Sorcerer’s leg exploded.
At the same time, he kicked Lennok in the stomach at tremendous speed.
Even protected by mana cores, Lennok lost balance momentarily.
The Sorcerer staggered after losing a leg.
Then regenerated it instantly.
‘His regeneration speed keeps increasing...!!?’
A sign that he was adapting rapidly to Zellich’s immortality.
The moment Lennok realized it—
The Sorcerer planted his regenerated foot and spun explosively.
Before Lennok could react—
His side was pierced.
Conjoining Sorcery Activation
[Shrunken Extraction]
Puhk!!
“......!!”
A scorching sensation shot through his spine.
Then agony followed.
The flesh of his side crumbled where the Sorcerer touched him.
Blood sprayed everywhere.
The Sorcerer tore away a chunk of Lennok’s side with a single motion.
“Just as I thought. Even during battle, you can't nullify every object-oriented spell individually.”
“......”
“A spell that compresses and fuses entire spaces rather than designated targets. Even you can't ignore that.”
KWAAANG!!
The two crashed through burning membranes and continued falling.
Lennok flew using the mana cores and simultaneously chanted dozens of Flame-Heat spells.
[Waste Blaze]
[Flame Seed]
Within the vortex of fire, the Conjoining Sorcerer fused corpses together and created a gigantic chimera.
A chimera resembling a hungry demon emerged.
It devoured every incoming flame spell before exploding.
KWAAAAANG!!!
Beyond the exploding flesh—
The Sorcerer crossed space at tremendous speed and slashed downward.
Ssssss!!
The mana cores surrounding Lennok rotated violently, obstructing his approach.
Seeds specialized in burning and killing humans.
Dreadflame.
Seeds that interfered with properties and thoughts.
They disrupted spellcasting.
Yet the Sorcerer ignored every obstacle and cast toward Lennok’s shoulder.
Conjoining Sorcery Activation
[Seizing Annihilation]
BOOOOOOM!!
Blood and flesh exploded from Lennok’s left shoulder.
His shirt became soaked red.
A pain as though his head were burning.
Trait-type mana tearing through his entire body.
Yet Lennok remained calm despite death approaching.
Rather than knocking away the Sorcerer’s hand—
He gritted his teeth.
Turned.
And drove a completed spell directly into the Sorcerer’s solar plexus.
Red Star Domain: Solar Apex
Third Star: Guihap
[Embryonic Star Spring]
Whoooosh...!!
Flames erupted from inside the Sorcerer’s abdomen.
They expanded and spun rapidly.
As though a sun had manifested within him.
The Sorcerer realized it was not an illusion.
An actual sun was emerging.
The instant he raised mana—
[Full Crimson]
“......!!!!”
KWAAAAAAAAAA!!!!
A crimson sun burst upward.
Piercing through the Long-Lived’s spine hundreds of meters long.
[OOOOOOOOOO!!!!]
The Long-Lived screamed madly as the manifested sun burned through its back.
It struggled desperately to escape Heavenly Flowers Fragrance Across Ten Thousand Miles.
But it could not withstand the heat.
It burned away.
Only after the sun rose beyond the Domain did the giant creature collapse.
Half its body had burned away.
A miserable ruin riddled with holes.
Among the wreckage of organs that had become a battlefield, Lennok lay covered in blood.
“Sun manifestation magic. Remarkable.”
Ssssss!!
The Sorcerer approached.
His entire body resembled black-red ashes.
Smoke rose continuously.
“Despite pain severe enough to rupture your blood vessels, you still cast a spell of that rank. Impressive willpower.”
Crunch!!
Grabbing Lennok by the collar with a body stripped nearly to bone and muscle, the Sorcerer spoke.
“I intended to crush your organs through my spell. But it didn't work as well as expected. Your spell resistance is absurdly high.”
His indifferent eyes scanned Lennok’s body.
“That must be because you possess aptitude for Trait-type sorcery as well.”
“Cough!”
The Sorcerer lifted Lennok by the throat with one hand.
Then hurled him away.
KWAAANG!!
Walking toward the fallen Lennok, he continued.
“Your Domain still requires time to bloom. But you have no time left. If you wanted to rely on your Domain, you shouldn't have revealed it this way.”
Crunch!!
He kicked Lennok’s shoulder.
“Did you expect me to panic because of the time limit imposed by your Domain? Or have you simply run out of options?”
Dozens of chimeras emerged behind him and forcibly activated internalized spells.
Wind blades.
Ice rain.
Curses sweeping across the ground.
[Swift Wind Blade]
[Seizing Wounds]
PUBUBUBUNG!!
The spells pierced floors and hammered Lennok into the ground.
Looking down at him within the burning pharmaceutical storage room, the Sorcerer spoke.
“I never intended to allow you such an opportunity—What are you doing?”
“Cough!!”
“The thing I was looking for happened to be nearby.”
Within the flames, Lennok searched through a fallen cabinet.
He retrieved a small pill bottle.
Then bit down on the tablets inside.
Crunch!!
Swallowing them with blood instead of water, Lennok rose.
Brushing back his hair with one hand, he smiled.
“Perhaps because you're a surgeon, you keep excellent painkillers around. I feel much better now.”
“......”
Had falling near the pharmaceutical storage room been intentional?
The Sorcerer watched expressionlessly.
Lennok cracked his neck and stepped forward.
“You don't have to say it. I plan to finish this quickly. My preparations are complete.”
A bluff?
Or had he truly hidden another card?
The Sorcerer remained cautious.
Even while drenched in blood and torn apart, this monster cast spells like Full Crimson as naturally as breathing.
“This is the end, Avesta Chapman.”
Fwoooosh!!!
Each step caused the seven stars surrounding him to rotate.
Hellish heat spread outward.
The mana cores refined from Seeds supplied endless power to his failing body.
As Lennok raised his head, the battlefield became an ocean of flames.
KUGUGUGUGU!!!
The fires of Heavenly Flowers Fragrance Across Ten Thousand Miles.
The screams of the convulsing Long-Lived chimera.
Countless chimeras.
The Conjoining Sorcerer.
Lennok raised his numb right hand toward him.
“I’m going to burn this city down today. To restore the Gate fused with your Territory, there's no other way.”
“......”
“The First Gate still needs to remain on the Central Front. At least until Lapis finishes all the lighthouses...”
For a moment, Lennok’s gaze seemed to reach somewhere far beyond the battlefield.
“I believed the grace period they desired wasn't wrong. That’s why I accepted Lapis's wishes.”
“How stubborn.”
The Sorcerer calmly raised his mana.
“Even now, you still intend to share the burden of the Lighthouse Keeper’s mission?”
Thick mana surged from both his hands.
The ground and walls fused together.
The terrain tilted.
KUGUGUGUGU!!!!
A divine art that manipulated the environment itself.
Even without a Self-Domain, he was already altering reality according to his will.
“It doesn't matter where your regrets lie. The blessings dwelling within your soul and body will bloom completely within the Great Connection. I am certain of it, Evan Martinez.”
Standing upon the rising earth, he spoke.
“You are the branching point leading farther into the future than anything the Federation has ever encountered...!!”
“...Hah.”
Was it merely imagination?
Or had the Sorcerer unknowingly touched upon Lennok’s origin?
Perhaps his transcendent sensitivity had glimpsed an answer without his awareness.
KWAAAAANG!!!
The ground beneath the Long-Lived split apart.
Lennok laughed quietly.
Then both he and the Sorcerer accelerated explosively.
The seven stars rotated.
Lennok skimmed across the ground.
Flames rose behind his shadow.
Each time the Sorcerer stepped through the air, chimera flesh fused beneath him to form footholds.
Platforms and legs of flesh appeared instantly.
Then the two collided again.
[Fused Flame]
[Wheelfire Cycle]
Hellfire surged into gigantic wheels of fire.
[Long Forging Flame]
[Roomfire Rain]
Rain made from burning blood bombarded the battlefield.
[Scarlet Chain Passage]
[Construct Flame]
Rotating the mana cores of Red Star Domain, Lennok unleashed dozens of point-blank bombardments.
High-tier magic requiring multiple casting processes.
Fired as effortlessly as breathing.
“Kh... ah...!!!”
The full power of a Flame-Heat mage who had completed preparation.
KWAAAAANG!!
The Sorcerer’s burning body smashed through operating-room corridors and patient wards.
Staggering between doors and ceilings, he spun in midair and cast.
“Bleeegh!!”
He vomited blood.
Then fused it together and detonated it simultaneously.
Conjoining Sorcery Activation
[Blood Blossom Gathering]
SHAAAAA!!
A curtain of dark blood enveloped him.
The Sorcerer regenerated rapidly.
‘I can't allow enough time for the Self-Domain to bloom. That's not what Treadburn is aiming for.’
Because Heavenly Flowers Fragrance Across Ten Thousand Miles imprisoned the entire Life Territory, he knew its state better than anyone.
The enormous flower would not bloom for a very long time.
Neither of them believed the battle would be decided through the Domain itself.
‘Then he's preparing a high-output spell capable of burning the entire city… In that case—!’
The Sorcerer reached a conclusion and began forming seals.
At that exact moment—
A white flame pierced through the blood curtain.
Red Star Domain: Solar Apex
Sixth Star: Assimilator
[Principle Flame Compilation]
[White Qilin]
A pure white flame spread like a trumpet blast.
Sweeping across the Sorcerer’s entire body.
KWAAAH!!
Agonizing pain burned through his nerves.
A hole opened in his throat.
Laughter escaped through ruined vocal cords.
Yet he continued forming seals.
Black mana rotated between his hands.
The surrounding space shimmered like a mirage.
Then he clapped both hands together and laughed wildly.
“Spell... activate!!!”
[Spatial Conjunction]
PAAAAAANG!!!!
The scenery above Lennok and the Sorcerer changed instantly.
Cool air brushed their faces.
Clouds suddenly appeared much closer.
The gigantic Long-Lived that had been trapped inside Heavenly Flowers Fragrance Across Ten Thousand Miles had moved above the Domain.
Only then did Lennok understand.
“You fused the entire Life Territory with outside space and escaped...!!”
“That's not all.”
The Sorcerer smiled.
“Look below, Evan Martinez.”
[WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!]
The Long-Lived fell from hundreds of meters above Gate City.
Beneath it lay the still-unbloomed Heavenly Flowers Fragrance Across Ten Thousand Miles.
“If my Territory crashes into it now, your incomplete Domain will be destroyed. Can you imagine the backlash?”
[Kekekekeke!!!]
[Kill him!! Kill him!! Kill me!!!]
Chimeras erupted everywhere.
The falling Long-Lived.
The screaming chimeras.
Lennok and the Sorcerer facing one another atop its back.
KWAAANG!!
Forearms colliding, the Sorcerer laughed.
“We'll reach the beginning and end together. You will die here from the backlash of your own Domain...!!”
Bruises spread.
Flesh burst apart.
Every missed strike and disrupted spell sent shockwaves through their bodies.
PUBUBUBUBUNG!!
Flame pillars and spatial distortions exploded hundreds of times atop the falling Long-Lived.
Each blast shredded them both.
Crunch!!
Wrapped in countless chimeras, the Sorcerer broke through Red Star Domain and seized Lennok by the collar.
His entire body was ground away by the stars.
Still he slammed his shoulder down.
PUWAAAH!!
The instant Conjoining Sorcery activated, a swarm of chimeras exploded from his hand.
Blood sprayed from Lennok’s back.
Skin and muscle around the shoulder fused and exploded away.
Yet even now, Lennok’s spell resistance prevented total destruction.
The Sorcerer continued.
Punching Lennok’s chest and abdomen relentlessly.
KWAJIJIJIK!!!
Flame-Heat magic and Conjoining Sorcery collided hundreds of times in an instant.
Spatial distortions exploded throughout the air.
Endless chimeras became shields and spears.
Then vanished into ash.
After exhausting everything, the battle became fists alone.
But unlike the endlessly regenerating Sorcerer, damage accumulated steadily on Lennok.
A brutal exchange too intense even to use the healing flames stolen from the Tower Master.
The first to lose breath and cough blood—
Was Lennok.
“Cough...!!”
“Got you.”
Puhk!!
A strike to the shoulder.
A kick to the shin.
His balance collapsed.
The Sorcerer’s close combat, using Spatial Conjunction to erase distance entirely.
Tearing through flesh.
Digging through organs.
Targeting vital points.
Lennok finally exposed an opening.
The Sorcerer seized his throat without hesitation.
At that instant—
Black-green flames erupted from Lennok’s hand.
Red Star Domain: Solar Apex
Seventh Star: Okhwan
[Embryonic Star Spring]
[Full Crimson]
KWAAAAAAAA!!!!
A gigantic Hellfire sun erupted from Lennok’s hand.
A strike powerful enough to drive the Sorcerer’s thoughts completely berserk.
“That was your only option...!!!!”
Yet the moment he saw the Hellfire sun—
The Sorcerer threw himself backward.
The sun narrowly missed him.
Instead, it brushed against the falling Long-Lived and shot upward.
“Cough!!”
Hellfire Full Crimson.
Lennok collapsed as though it had been his final move.
Blood dripped from the ruined body beneath his torn coat.
Only drugs kept him conscious.
His body had surpassed its limits long ago.
The Sorcerer rushed forward and kicked him.
“So that was all, Evan Martinez!!”
Biiik!!
Lennok flew backward across the Long-Lived’s back.
The Sorcerer landed before him.
One hand seized his throat.
“To counter my Conjoining Sorcery and stop my immortality, Hellfire was your only answer!!! I knew. I understood everything.”
The Sorcerer whispered.
“The outcome of this battle was decided the moment you first showed me Hellfire in the operating room...!!!”
Without neutralizing immortality, Lennok could never win.
Hellfire was the only way to force immortality into runaway collapse.
And the Sorcerer had anticipated it.
Dragging Lennok toward the edge overlooking the city below, he spoke.
“Watch until the end. Watch the final moment of your life. Watch the contradiction of being destroyed by the backlash of the answer you created!!”
KUGUGUGUGU!!!
The falling Long-Lived descended toward the incomplete flower.
The collision would destroy Heavenly Flowers Fragrance Across Ten Thousand Miles before it bloomed.
Its backlash would fall entirely upon Lennok.
And his broken body could never survive it.
“As the Watcher of the Eyes of the Blue. As the successor of Jindun. Everything you've lived for—!!!”
“No.”
Thud.
Lennok raised a blood-covered hand and caught the Sorcerer’s wrist.
Only his eyes still blazed.
“Hellfire alone could never drive your ability out of control.”
“What?”
Breathing heavily, Lennok answered.
“What I wanted from the beginning was...”
BUAAAAAAAAANG!!!!
A tremendous light exploded above the Sorcerer.
A gigantic sun rotating beside the falling Long-Lived.
The moment he saw it—
The Sorcerer understood.
“The solar spell I absorbed into my body earlier...!!!”
The secret technique Full Crimson.
The sun that had once nearly burned away his entire body.
The one that had risen into the sky.
It had never vanished.
“Wait... then...!!”
The second sun.
The Hellfire sun Lennok had created at the end.
It too had not disappeared.
KUGUGUGUGU!!!!
The red sun and black-green sun descended toward the Long-Lived from opposite sides.
Two suns rotating around a single target.
The incantation of Full Crimson had never disappeared even once since the battle began.
It had been part of Lennok’s condition all along.
Before the Sorcerer could react—
Lennok rotated the golden magic circle and whispered.
“Spell Conjunction.”
Conjoining Sorcery Activation
[Double Crimson Shadow]
KIIIIIIIIING!!!!
The red sun.
The black-green sun.
Centered on the Long-Lived—
They began to conjoin.
Using the Sorcerer’s own Conjoining Sorcery.
Forcing two Full Crimson suns into fusion.
“Forcing together real flames and negative-dimensional flames...!!!!”
The Sorcerer instantly understood the principle.
Grinding his teeth, he pressed down on Lennok.
KWAAANG!!
He raised Conjoining Sorcery to its maximum and aimed at the sky.
“Are you trying to blow yourself up together with Gate City?!”
“If I wanted that, I would have simply collided the two Full Crimson suns from the start.”
Lennok smiled weakly.
“I fused Hellfire not merely to expand Red Star Domain...”
He looked up through the storm of heat.
“If two Seeds that normally cannot mix can be joined through the harmony of Yin and Yang—”
“......!!!”
Lennok whispered.
“Then even time itself can finally be manipulated.”
Spell Conjunction: Full Crimson
Yin-Yang Principle Deployment
Taiji Fire God
PAAAAAT!!!
The crimson sun became the flow of Yang.
The black sun became the flow of Yin.
The two revolved together.
Their flames concealed and merged with one another.
Forming a gigantic Taiji symbol.
The moment Heavenly Flowers Fragrance Across Ten Thousand Miles embraced that descending Taiji—
Sssssssss!!!!
A burning sound echoed.
The flower hundreds of meters wide began blooming instantly.
Taiji.
The harmony of Yin and Yang.
Completing what is incomplete.
Harmonizing what is disharmonious.
The Taiji Fire God created through the fusion of the two Full Crimson suns was not a weapon.
It was a catalyst.
A medium used to forcibly complete an unfinished Self-Domain.
Using Yin and Yang harmony.
Reaching even into the domain of time itself.
Lennok’s final move.
And then—
The Heavenly Flowers Fragrance Across Ten Thousand Miles that had accumulated power through the restriction of preparation finally bloomed.
“No... you intended the bloom from the very beginning—!!!!!”
Only then did the Sorcerer realize.
Lennok’s objective had never been to overload immortality.
Nor self-destruction.
The flower had never been a bluff.
Nor merely a prison for the Long-Lived.
Everything Lennok had done until now had been to accelerate the blooming of that gigantic flower.
To throw the Sorcerer into firepower beyond all reason.
“The true ability of Heavenly Flowers Fragrance Across Ten Thousand Miles isn't simply increasing output through preparation.”
“......!!!”
“As a Self-Domain deployed under the restriction of time... once it blooms, it is no longer bound by time.”
As Lennok descended toward the blooming petals, he whispered:
“It becomes a flame that burns eternally together with its target.”
Bloom.
Heavenly Flowers Fragrance Across Ten Thousand Miles.
Above Gate City.
A gigantic flower of fire hundreds of meters wide blossomed completely.
Taking the form of a lotus.
[Flower Bloom]
[Ultimate Extreme]
A colossal flame capable of burning heaven and earth pierced through the sky above Gate City.
KWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!