Signpost (3)
A tide of darkness engulfed the horizon as it approached.
The moment the gigantic Black Crown appeared, darkness stained heaven and earth black without any warning.
KUGUGUGUGU...!!!!
Grass and vegetation trampled beneath the flowing darkness instantly lost their vitality and withered away.
A mere glance cast from within the darkness stole life and filled its place with death.
The grasslands surrounding the Gate City were no exception.
Neither were the humans swallowed by the darkness without even the ability to resist.
Mage Tower mages.
Mercenary forces.
The Extermination Squad of the Ability Awakening Brigade.
Cult priests and the monsters of the Hedro Warlord Clan.
The moment all of them instinctively crouched down to avoid the approaching darkness—
The formless storm of darkness completely engulfed the horizon and swept across the space-time of the entire Gate City.
KWAAAAAAAAA!!!!
An immeasurable wave of darkness eroded away willpower and mercilessly seized human lifespans.
There should have been no sound.
And yet their ears rang, and blood flowed from their eardrums.
“Ghk...!!”
The Federation sorcerers enduring the darkness began coughing blood and collapsing to their knees one after another.
They abandoned even the spell formations they had been preparing.
Clutching their throats with both hands, they buried their heads against the ground.
“Artillery Corps, cease bombardment spells and convert your formations!”
“All ceremonial sorcerers move forward. Expand your willpower and protect your minds!”
The Federation immediately reacted after recognizing the anomaly.
Mana surged.
The spell formations transformed.
The formations originally meant to bombard the Gate City curved into circular barriers that protected the sorcerers.
An incredible feat.
The already-completed spell structures were altered and converted from bombardment arrays into defensive walls.
“Haa... Haaaah...!!”
The moment an ability user failed to endure and stumbled—
His body instantly became a skeleton and collapsed.
As if his skin and flesh had been stolen away.
Only bare bones remained.
The corpse lying face-down looked disturbingly similar to the remains of the Long-Lived who had once stood at this Gate.
Seeing the horrific sight, the other factions immediately began responding as well.
“Outer Prayer Chapter 33. Thirteen seconds until temporary sanctuary declaration!”
“All surviving Extermination Squad members, deploy your fields. Connect the collective mental network. We’re activating the Consciousness Weapon!!”
The Cult unfolded a pale sanctuary.
The Brigade linked their mental network while maintaining their fields.
The mercenaries, Hedro monsters, and Mage Tower mages all brought out protective items and defensive measures of their own.
But it was not enough.
“S-save me...!!”
“Damn it, they said this treasure could block dark magic!!”
“AAAAAAAGH!!!!”
Federation.
Cult.
Brigade.
Mage Towers and mercenary companies alike.
Everyone caught within the darkness died in droves.
A significant portion of the forces that had surrounded the Gate City and threatened Lennok collapsed and were swept away helplessly.
A massacre without even the slightest warning.
A madness so overwhelming that it altered the balance of power across the Central Front the instant it appeared.
Grinding his teeth as he endured, Lennok finally raised his gaze.
“Supplementary Pilgrimage...!”
The Pilgrimage performed to gather additional preparations.
Doctor had once described Fame’s wandering destruction across the continent as the most vile and sacred ritual in existence.
The Supplementary Pilgrimage had supposedly stopped long ago.
Why had it resumed now?
And why was the First Gate, where Lennok happened to be, the first destination?
Before he could answer any of those questions—
The darkness distorted space.
Creakkkkk...!!!
It felt as though something unimaginably vast had cast its gaze in this direction.
Simply by directing its will toward the earth, the surging darkness gained mass and crushed space itself.
KURURURURUNG...!!
Beyond the darkness-covered horizon, gigantic dark giants emerged.
Their bodies were forged entirely from darkness.
They walked forward atop the endless tide of darkness.
THUD!!
THUD!!
THUD!!
A procession of dark giants swept across the entire grassland from the horizon.
Every step detonated waves of darkness.
Hundreds of humans were swept away with casual ease.
“Ahhh... AAAAAH!!”
“Grrrk...!!”
“It’s hell... It’s hell itself...!!”
The giants easily exceeded dozens of meters in height.
They possessed neither form, will, nor emotion.
They merely followed the darkness that had descended upon the grasslands.
Slowly.
Relentlessly.
As though performing an endless penance.
Wherever they passed, dead grass and piles of skeletons accumulated into a grotesque landscape.
The heavy scent of death transformed everything into hell.
KWAAAAAAAA!!!
“Uaaah...!!”
Angel’s face turned deathly pale.
His entire body trembled uncontrollably as he lowered his head.
Bernard and Jebyeok were no different.
Since recognizing the situation, they had focused solely on enduring the falling darkness.
“Angel, get a hold of yourself!! This isn’t a spell targeting us directly!!”
Bernard shouted through gritted teeth.
“It’s just releasing killing intent mixed into dark mana without limit...!! If your mental network gets consumed, it’s over!!”
The darkness filling the grasslands was not directed toward any specific target.
It was merely the residue of overwhelming transcendence.
A boundless killing intent mixed into mana and scattered indiscriminately.
And precisely because of that, ability users with sensitive mental networks were especially vulnerable.
“Hah... Hahaha...!!”
Angel gasped for breath and let out a hollow laugh.
“This is insane... So this is Pandemonium’s...!!!”
KWOOOOONG!!
At that moment, something larger than the Gate City itself rose from the darkness.
Behind the dark giants trampling the earth emerged a magnificent pavilion of darkness.
It looked like a Black Crown.
Or perhaps a ship drifting through darkness.
Tilted at an angle, it floated above the Gate City while trailing darkness beneath it.
Fwooooo...
At the pinnacle of the floating pavilion, something took on the vague shape of a human.
Half-melted into the pouring dark mana.
Its face remained hidden.
Its figure flickered indistinctly.
As though the deaths blooming below meant nothing.
As though even the darkness consuming the horizon was merely a prelude.
Yet the dark mana boiling up from the bottomless abyss proclaimed its identity to everyone present.
The Archmage standing at the pinnacle of dark magic.
The monster who had reached the threshold of transcendence through his existence alone.
The destroyer broken by a journey spanning the entire continent.
The King of the Dead of Pandemonium.
“So the Supplementary Pilgrimage has begun again...”
Bernard spoke with cold sweat pouring down his face.
“I can’t believe it. If he chose the Central Front from the very beginning, then does that mean...!!”
CRACKKKK!!!
The tide of darkness crushed the earth.
Mountains, rivers, and vegetation withered and died.
Above the dead grasslands, black branches began growing upward.
A forest of dead trees emerged.
No leaves.
Only blackened branches.
Merely by arriving here, Fame had reversed life and death across the Central Front and begun constructing a new environment.
“G-ghk...!!”
“Urgh... I can’t... breathe...!!”
Federation sorcerers collapsed one after another.
Their lives were stolen by the darkness.
Ability users from the Ability Awakening Brigade soon followed.
Without using any special spells.
Without even actively attacking.
Simply by dispersing darkness around himself.
Powerful mana users who had trained beyond measure died with absurd ease.
The moment Lennok took a step while watching the dying superhumans—
“You lunatic...”
Thud!!
Jebyeok, panting behind him, grabbed Lennok’s arm.
“If you don’t want to die... don’t move...”
“Barbaria.”
“Can’t you see it? That thing... isn’t in a state where conversation is possible.”
Jebyeok’s complexion was pale.
His condition had worsened greatly following the Conjoining Sorcerer’s surgery.
He had already been close to death to begin with.
No explanation was needed to understand how difficult it was for him to endure.
Yet he pointed toward the corpses scattered everywhere.
“If we endure this... the King of the Dead will pass by...The Federation and Brigade bastards will die in our place...If we wait... an opportunity will come... Are you planning to commit suicide?”
Lennok understood what Jebyeok meant.
Most of the forces surrounding the Gate City were potential enemies.
With the Conjoining Sorcerer dead, they had all come seeking profit from the First Gate.
But the struggle surrounding the Gate City had already lost all meaning with Fame’s arrival.
If the darkness continued trampling the Gate, the damage suffered by the other factions would increase exponentially.
In fact, the aftermath of the Supplementary Pilgrimage might ultimately benefit Lennok.
But—
“If not now, there may never be another chance.”
“What did you say?”
Lennok rose while looking down at Jebyeok’s frowning face.
He grabbed a handful of darkness flowing between his fingers and crushed it like sand.
“This darkness isn’t simply composed of dark mana. It’s closer to a fusion of mana and death-thoughts.”
“.....”
“The materialization of willpower... Don’t you understand what it means for the King of the Dead to have reached this level?”
This was undoubtedly one of Fame’s greatest secrets.
An impossible quantity of death-thoughts that no individual could ever gather alone.
His incomprehensible growth.
His dark magic swollen beyond even his own control.
He remained standing before the Gate of Transcendence.
Waiting.
Lennok had already realized the truth after confronting the darkness.
Fame’s appearance before him now was not coincidence.
“This may be the last chance. So I have to go.”
“Treadburn. I don’t know what you’re thinking, but not here.”
Bernard stopped him with a grave expression.
“There has never been a single recorded case of someone successfully communicating with the King of the Dead during a Supplementary Pilgrimage. He may not even be sane anymore. In the worst case, you could die the moment you approach him. In your current condition, can you withstand the King of the Dead’s power?”
“...I have a method in mind. I can at least get close to him.”
Even as he spoke, Lennok slowly turned away.
“That’s enough. You’ve lost your mind. What exactly are you planning—”
“!!”
“Evan...!!”
Ignoring Jebyeok’s and Angel’s shouts, Lennok raised his mana without hesitation.
Fwoosh...!!
Flaming wings erupted from his back and spread wide.
The moment they beat powerfully—
Lennok shot straight upward through the darkness.
Paat!!
Relying on the wings of flame, he pierced through the descending tide of darkness.
Flying through the darkness crushing the horizon, Lennok exhaled painfully.
‘The density of the death-thoughts is absurd...!!’
The darkness covering heaven and earth was not merely the result of dark mana.
The will of the dead.
Death-thoughts fused with dark mana and swelled into endless rampaging power.
CRRRRK...!!
The flaming wings Lennok created were steadily eroded by the darkness.
Their light faded.
Their thrust disappeared.
Their lift vanished.
The wings were torn apart in place of Lennok himself.
The darkness led by Fame was not a formless phenomenon.
It was a real force born from materialized willpower.
It could not directly force death upon Lennok.
But it constantly imposed physical force comparable to death itself.
KAGAGAGAGAK!!!
“...!!!”
Simply gaining altitude felt as though his entire body was being shredded.
Was this the same agony the Conjoining Sorcerer had endured while being endlessly burned within Thousand-Mile?
The mana he had painstakingly recovered was being consumed at a terrifying rate.
The sensation in his body was vanishing second by second.
If he continued forcing himself, the body he had only just repaired would collapse again.
Yet Lennok twisted through the air and pushed his mana to its limit.
CRACK!!
There was a reason he approached despite understanding Fame’s condition.
A reason he ascended through the darkness toward the upper sky.
Because he intended to wield Thousand-Mile by his own will once more.
KWA-RURURUNG...!!!
Beyond the black sky that erased everything, only the flame Lennok ignited continued to shine.
The ring of fire rotating while burning the barrier glowed beyond the darkness like the remnant of a solar eclipse.
Reaching out toward it, Lennok murmured softly.
“...Come.”
[Thousand-Mile Heavenly Fragrance]
[Open Gate]
CREEEEAK...!!!
Thousand-Mile Heavenly Fragrance.
The magnetic domain that burned Avesta Chapman and his life territory.
The flames that bloomed under a time limit still burned the barrier above the sky.
The ultimate flame of the heat-element path.
A fire that continuously transformed the environment while burning the heavens over the Gate City.
The flames had become a new Gate in place of the Long-Lived corpse.
And now Lennok manipulated that Gate to create another doorway through the darkness.
CRACKKK!!!
Above the blackened sky, the ring of fire continued spinning without losing its brilliance.
The newly inherited Gate activated under Lennok’s command.
The flames split apart.
They expanded into the shape of an enormous door.
WOOOOOOO!!!
The fiery gate burning the sky opened to both sides.
The burning darkness was pushed away.
By activating the Gate’s function and opening the door, Lennok forcibly displaced the darkness surrounding Fame.
Watching from below, the superhumans of the Federation, Cult, and Brigade widened their eyes in disbelief.
“Treadburn redirected the path of the Supplementary Pilgrimage...!!”
“He’s trying to challenge the King of the Dead in a battle of sorcery?!”
“He’s gone insane. How long has it even been since he fought the Conjoining Sorcerer...!!”
Accelerating straight through the open gate of fire.
A blazing trail curved through the darkness and descended like a meteor shower.
Lennok shot through the army of dark giants and landed directly atop the floating pavilion.
KWAAANG!!
The darkness composing the Black Crown scattered from the impact.
A path opened before Lennok.
“Haa... Haa...!!!”
Exhaling flame-mixed breaths, Lennok looked ahead.
“...”
It felt as though he were sinking into an endless sea of darkness.
Was it merely an illusion that the cold memories of the Outer Sea resurfaced beneath the darkness crushing all five senses?
Standing within the freezing darkness, Lennok looked toward a man.
The back of a dark mage who had become one with the immense darkness.
WOOOOOO!!!
A strange resonance echoed.
Lennok’s gaze sank deeply after seeing Fame standing amidst the trembling darkness.
‘His condition is far worse than I expected. Is it already beyond saving...?’
He had known Fame’s mind was unstable if the Supplementary Pilgrimage had resumed.
But this exceeded every expectation.
It wasn’t merely that he failed to recognize Lennok.
He seemed entirely unaware that anyone had even approached him.
Standing above the darkness suppressing the horizon, he no longer looked toward the earth.
His gaze remained fixed ahead.
Searching endlessly for a reason to keep moving.
Did he even recognize the tragedy unfolding below?
Perhaps he was still wandering through an endless dream of death.
And because of that, Lennok knew exactly what he needed to say first.
“You once said that before the end of the world arrived, we needed as many talents as possible.”
Standing behind Fame, Lennok spoke quietly.
“A lot of time has passed since then. Hasn’t it?”
“.....”
Lennok still remembered the early days when he worked as a freelancer in Vulcan.
The days he carried imperfectly reproduced common magic and fought criminals hiding in the shadows.
The dark mage he met inside a vault after killing the lightning mage of the Cigar Bang Gang.
So much had happened from that day until now that counting it all felt impossible.
Yet Lennok had never once forgotten the depth of that darkness.
Fwoosh!!
A flame ignited in his palm.
Lennok slowly walked forward.
The darkness sensed the intruder and instantly began swallowing everything around him.
Without Fame even turning around, darkness from every direction crushed Lennok and the surrounding space.
Lennok exploded flames to drive it back.
He avoided rotating spheres of darkness.
Mana surged.
He pierced through the tide of darkness head-on.
And endured the backlash in full.
TUDUDUDUK...!!
“Cough...!!”
Even while shielding himself with mana and willpower, he could barely breathe.
This was the final line before irreparable damage.
Beyond this point, even Lennok would have to risk his life.
If Fame truly failed to recognize him until the very end.
If he had deteriorated beyond all hope.
Then everything happening here would become meaningless.
Yet Lennok still took another step forward.
CRACK...!!
Darkness invaded his body.
It swallowed his willpower and mental image.
Sensing Lennok’s unshakable reason and mental defenses, it pressed down even harder.
Shields.
Micro-barriers.
Walls of flame.
Everything shattered helplessly.
Standing behind Fame amidst the crushing darkness, Lennok spoke.
“I met Leader.”
“.....”
“And I made my decision.”
Without waiting for a response, Lennok tilted his head back.
“I thought I should tell you. Because I don’t think I can give the answer you wanted.”
From the moment he first met Fame.
Until the day he joined Pandemonium through Fame’s assistance.
Fame had helped him countless times.
Lennok did not wish to deny that kindness.
Regardless of what the world believed Fame to be.
To Lennok, he had been an excellent ally and benefactor.
That was precisely why Lennok knew there were words he had to say after making his choice.
“As you said in the beginning, my role is...”
“.....”
Lennok trailed off while breathing heavily through the storming darkness.
If the future Fame envisioned was not contained within Lennok’s answer.
If the Supplementary Pilgrimage represented a path Lennok could not accept.
Then one day, he might have to part ways with Pandemonium.
And Fame deserved to hear that.
How much time remained for the man who had begun the Supplementary Pilgrimage once more?
How long remained before the endings awaiting both Lennok and Fame arrived?
Because he could not know when the last opportunity would come, Lennok did not want to waste it.
And so—
“Heh heh...”
At that moment, quiet laughter echoed through the darkness.
A low voice.
Drawn out.
Filled with unexpected amusement.
“...Fame?”
“You are right, Van.”
The reply that emerged from Fame was so clear that Lennok could scarcely believe it.
Fame slowly raised his gaze.
Without turning around, he answered.
“Many things have changed since we first met. But your role has not changed in the slightest from what I first envisioned.”
Then Fame slowly turned toward Lennok.
Darkness swallowed his face.
Parts of his body had merged with the darkness itself and flowed away like liquid shadow.
“I apologize for the delayed answer.”
“......”
Yet the eyes looking at Lennok remained as clear and radiant as ever.
“It’s been quite a while since we’ve seen each other face-to-face like this, hasn’t it?”