Signpost (4)
KWA-RURURURUNG...!!!
The earth below was crushed beneath the wandering dark giants.
A colossal pavilion of darkness floated in the sky above.
Within the immeasurable darkness stood two mages facing one another.
And Fame’s face, leisurely smiling as he turned toward Lennok.
“...Fame.”
“So my five senses haven’t completely disappeared. I’m luckier than I expected.”
Fame slowly clenched and opened one hand before gazing down at it.
“At this level, I should still be able to move.”
“...”
His voice echoed through the rising darkness with perfect clarity.
Even Lennok had not expected Fame to recover his senses so quickly.
Lennok knew that Fame’s explosive growth had destabilized his mind.
It was obvious that someone wielding power of this magnitude could not easily escape its side effects.
Yet Fame had regained his sanity before Lennok’s eyes and smiled at him.
Just as he had on the day they first met.
“Have you... regained your senses?”
“Thanks to you. Or perhaps I should say it happened as planned.”
As Fame smiled and tilted his head back, the darkness clinging to him slowly peeled away.
The moment his reason returned, the surrounding darkness had already fallen completely under his control.
His human form reassembled in an instant.
Walking slowly toward Lennok, he smiled.
“It’s been a long time, Van. Seeing you again like this... feels even better than I expected.”
“Hm.”
“...”
Fame’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the silent Lennok.
“Your body is a mess. Those injuries look severe.”
“Some things happened.”
Not only the battle against the Conjoining Sorcerer.
He had also pushed himself too hard to reach Fame.
Even now, a considerable amount of blood had been shed atop this pavilion of darkness.
Fame seemed to notice.
Without concern, he placed a hand on Lennok’s shoulder.
“This won’t do. Let me heal you.”
“Heal?”
Flash!!
A brilliant radiance flowed from Fame’s hand and settled over Lennok’s wounds.
Lennok’s expression hardened at the warmth contained within the light.
But before he could even activate Target Designation Resistance, the light wrapped around his body and disappeared.
“This is...”
The moment the radiance vanished, so too did his pain and fatigue.
A bizarre sensation.
Looking at the wounds that had been perfectly closed, Lennok turned toward Fame in surprise.
“A healing spell? Dark magic shouldn’t be capable of this.”
Dark magic was one of the most alien magical systems in the history of the continent.
Even when the same process was used, employing dark mana produced completely different results.
A power that generated outcomes through methods entirely separate from conventional magic.
That was why dark magic could interfere with concepts like death that ordinary mages could never touch.
Yet it was equally distant from concepts like healing.
The ability Fame had just used should not have existed anywhere within the framework of dark magic.
Fame understood the question.
Smiling leisurely, he shook out his hand.
“It’s called Shedding.”
“Shedding?”
“One of the two paths reached when the Laws of Black are pushed to their extreme and transcend.”
As he spoke, Fame spread his fingers.
“Negative energy overflows, then wears away completely and is washed clean. What remains afterward becomes a force that is entirely beneficial to life.”
“.....”
“It allows me to generate a power directly opposed to my own magical system. To put it simply, perhaps opposites really do meet at the extremes.”
Because he had pushed dark magic to the threshold of transcendence, he had become capable of producing a completely opposite power from within himself.
Lennok had heard stories of demonic martial artists reaching enlightenment after mastering forbidden arts.
But to accomplish such a thing within a magical system itself—
He found himself speechless.
While Lennok struggled to process the explanation, Fame glanced downward.
His gaze settled upon the ruined Gate City below.
“The area around the First Gate.”
A faintly complicated emotion crossed his eyes.
“It’s been a long time since I last visited the Central Front.”
“.....”
“The corpse of the Long-Lived that once served as the Gate. There was a time I intervened so that its death would not lose its meaning.”
His gaze lingered on the darkness-covered city.
“So perhaps it wasn’t coincidence that I resumed the Supplementary Pilgrimage here.”
“Wait.”
Pressing two fingers against his brow, Lennok asked,
“You intervened in the Long-Lived’s death? No, more importantly—”
“You killed the Conjoining Sorcerer?”
“.....”
Fame smiled brightly as Lennok fell silent.
“Impressive. He was one of the Federation’s Great Sorcerers. Even among them, his talent was exceptional. In terms of the potential of his sorcery, he stood alone.”
“That was...”
“A life territory and an operating room. Was he trying to resurrect the Long-Lived? Sounds like an unpleasant experiment. Though considering his tastes, it isn’t surprising.”
Simply by recovering his senses and glancing around.
He naturally understood everything that had happened nearby.
He perceived what could not be sensed.
Remembered what could not be remembered.
Just as the awakened Ascendant Pantheon had once searched an entire planet for the lives and deaths of other Ascendants.
Fame’s perception had reached a similar level.
“So you deployed a domain and settled the battle that way. The result was that you’ve begun touching time itself.”
Fame smiled gently.
“So you’ve already reached this point...”
“Yes.”
“My choice truly wasn’t wrong.”
His voice sounded like someone reminiscing about an old memory.
The profound satisfaction within that murmur left Lennok unable to respond.
After a long pause, he finally spoke.
“You’ve already reached a level comparable to the Ascendants.”
“.....”
“If you gained such power without even attempting Ascension...”
Doctor had once said that the Supplementary Pilgrimage was a ritual unrelated to Ascension.
At the time, Lennok had not understood.
But what if that had always been a precaution?
A method to avoid gaining the qualification for Ascension itself?
If surpassing Ascendants without ascending was Fame’s true goal—
“To transcend beyond transcendence without gaining qualification. Is that the real purpose of the Supplementary Pilgrimage?”
Ever since Lennok first met him, Fame’s power had grown at an explosive rate.
Even after surpassing hierarchy itself, he continued growing until he reached the very threshold of transcendence.
Yet the force responsible for his growth had also continued rampaging.
Devouring Fame himself.
That secret.
The secret behind the curse he carried and the oldest bloodline.
The source of both his strength and his instability.
“What secret exists within the curse you bear and that ancient bloodline?”
“You’re finally beginning to see what I’m trying to become.”
Fame smiled.
“You must be curious. Anyone would be after reaching that conclusion.”
“.....”
“But before I answer, there’s something I’d like to do first.”
At the same moment Fame lightly gestured, black darkness surged from his hand.
The darkness above the pavilion rotated and expanded the space around them.
Whoosh!!
A massive hollow of darkness formed around the two mages.
Lennok tilted his head.
“What are you trying to do?”
“Within this darkness, every sense can be severed. Nothing that happens here will leak outside.”
KUGUGU!!!
Walls of darkness rotated endlessly.
They erased all presence and observation.
As Fame said, the space itself existed solely to conceal.
After isolating the area completely, he walked toward Lennok.
“Cast a spell, Van.”
“...What?”
“I healed your body. Incantation shouldn’t be a problem now.”
Fame smiled and opened his hand.
“I want to see your magic. While my mind is still intact, I want to witness your talent one last time.”
“...”
“You’re right. There may never be another opportunity. Perhaps there won’t even be time for something like this anymore.”
WOOOOONG...!!
The space trembled violently simply because Fame raised a little mana.
Darkness splashed beneath his feet like liquid.
Tilting his head back, he continued.
“Your answer. My conclusion. A mage like you should be able to contain all those chains of causality within a single spell.”
“That...”
“There’s no need to overthink it. Just do what you did back at Cigar Bang. You remember, don’t you?”
Fame grinned.
“Come at me with the intent to kill. There’s something I want to teach you anyway.”
The first time they met.
The moment Lennok attacked him despite sensing death.
Fame still remembered it.
There were many questions Lennok wanted to ask.
Questions about Fame’s family.
The truth behind the Supplementary Pilgrimage.
The ending Fame desired.
The role he had always tried to entrust to Lennok.
So many mysteries remained unsolved.
“...Fine.”
Yet Lennok gathered his mana and steadied his breathing.
Just as Lennok had waited for this moment, so had Fame.
Even setting everything else aside.
There was something Fame wished to pass on to him.
If Fame intended to express his answer through magic—
If he sought certainty through their clash—
Then Lennok had finally reached a level where he could respond.
Step.
He shifted his stance and twisted his body slightly.
“I can only show you this for a moment. You understand that, right?”
“Of course.”
Fame folded his arms and nodded leisurely.
“A single moment is enough. More than enough.”
“Then.”
Lennok’s willpower and mental image had been heavily depleted by the battle against the Conjoining Sorcerer.
His mana had recovered somewhat.
His body had not.
Compared to Fame, who had resumed the Supplementary Pilgrimage, he was at an overwhelming disadvantage.
But if he poured out everything he had left—
A battle was still possible.
One spell.
A single spell cast while disregarding the chaos below.
That was surely what Fame wanted.
“Huu...”
No drugs.
No medicine.
No enhancement.
A battle fought with nothing but his own body.
Yet Lennok felt he understood what he needed to show the King of the Dead.
Even though Fame had never fully explained it.
Even though Lennok had never properly answered.
He knew exactly what spell he needed to cast.
It was—
Tap.
Within the silent darkness, Lennok took a deep breath and stepped forward.
Toward Fame standing beyond the darkness.
One step.
Then another.
On the third step, he accelerated.
Tap. Tap.
Four.
Five.
Six.
On the seventh step, mana exploded into motion.
A spell was cast.
A faint trail of flame followed his body.
BAAAAAANG!!!
Lennok accelerated at a speed invisible to the eye and collided directly with Fame.
A shockwave of flame erupted outward.
Fame caught the distorted fire with his bare hand and twisted it aside.
TUDUDUK!!
Arms and shoulders collided.
Flame and darkness exploded.
The two mages spun and were thrown in opposite directions.
JJEEEEONG!!!
“...!!”
Fame casually rubbed his wrist.
Lennok lowered his head and drew rough breaths.
His flame-covered hands trembled faintly.
‘It won’t take shape. It feels like punching a wave...’
The dark mana fused with Fame’s body had become darkness itself.
Physical strikes.
Martial techniques.
Spells.
None of them transmitted impact.
Everything simply disappeared into the darkness within him.
So this was what it meant to fight manifested darkness.
Without the Wheel Boundary or Divine Boundary, even standing against Fame was difficult.
“You’re badly injured. Are you sure this is alright?”
Fame turned back and asked.
“This is why I intended to stop after seeing a brief demonstration of your magic.”
“No. This is enough.”
Lennok swallowed blood and answered.
“It was a necessary process.”
KWAHAAAAK!!!
Flames erupted beneath his feet and spun violently upward.
They illuminated the darkness.
A giant cross of fire took shape.
“You refined martial movements into hand seals and incantations.”
Fame immediately understood Lennok’s Substitute Incantation.
Admiration shone in his eyes.
“Amazing. I’m confident in martial arts myself, but combining movement and seals to construct a spell isn’t something that can be learned through practice alone.”
The insight to instantly grasp the principles behind the Substitute Incantation currently being researched by Vulcan’s mages.
“I’m ready.”
Lennok spoke through gritted teeth.
“This is the last one...!!”
Heat-Element Unique Magic
Property Transformation
Creation Acceleration
[Cross Flame Seal]
KUGUGUGU!!!
The flaming cross spun rapidly and accelerated.
The burning symbol filled the darkness and rushed directly toward Fame.
“I see.”
Yet Fame’s expression remained calm.
“Not quite enough. Though considering the circumstances, it can’t be helped.”
Fame opened one hand.
Mana surged.
A black sphere materialized.
[Death Eye]
CRACK...!!
A sphere of darkness compressed from every shadow in existence.
It resembled an enormous eye.
The instant Fame raised it before the Cross Flame Seal—
Lennok poured every remaining fragment of willpower into the flaming cross.
Crackle! Crackle...!!!
Brilliant blue lightning exploded from within the burning seal.
Lennok’s strongest magic.
Lightning.
A power he never used as Treadburn.
A force reserved exclusively for Bolt because of its overwhelming spectacle and destructive might.
Property Transformation
Attribute Conversion
Lightning-Element Unique Magic
PAJIJIJIJIK!!!
A blinding flash of thunder consumed the Cross Flame Seal.
The completed fire spell transformed entirely.
A new lightning spell manifested.
The secret technique born through elemental conversion.
[Thunder Seal]
KWOOOOOO!!!
Lennok seized the radiant silver-white lightning in a reverse grip and turned his body.
The Thunder Seal illuminated the darkness like starlight.
Even Fame looked genuinely surprised.
“This is...!!”
The very technique Lennok had awakened and used when he killed the lightning mage of the Cigar Bang Gang.
Fame’s eyes widened.
Lennok gritted his teeth and swung his arm.
The silver-white lightning clashed with the Death Eye suspended before Fame.
The instant they collided—
An overwhelming resonance erupted.
Darkness and silver-white radiance split the entire space in two.
KWAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
The darkness chamber could not endure the collision.
It shook violently.
Then began bleaching white.
The brilliance of the Thunder Seal erased dark mana itself.
It annihilated space.
And then—
CRACK!!
The silver-white lightning pierced through the eye.
It continued forward.
Through Fame’s chest.
And beyond him.
At the same time, dazzling shockwaves scattered from his back.
JJEEEEEEEEONG!!!
Silver-white lightning tore through the entire darkness chamber.
Fame’s body had been pierced by the Thunder Seal.
And he slowly exhaled.
“......!!!”
Silence descended.
Lennok stood with one arm extended.
Fame stood a step back.
Darkness surrounded him.
Watching the lingering silver-white afterimage, Fame murmured,
“A completed spell converted into another magical system...”
The Thunder Seal was normally a projectile.
Yet Lennok had transformed it through spell conversion and detonated it at point-blank range.
Because Cross Flame Seal had been converted first, Thunder Seal remained compressed rather than exploding immediately.
Substitute Incantation through martial arts.
Elemental conversion.
Compression of Thunder Seal.
A method that exploited every opening.
A miracle of magic that perfectly recreated the moment Lennok and Fame first met.
Every step exceeded Fame’s expectations.
Every result was astonishing.
“You seek to change predetermined outcomes... and alter the process itself.”
“Kh...!! Cough!!”
Fame opened his eyes with a satisfied expression.
His gaze lowered.
Lennok swayed, barely remaining upright.
And Fame spoke.
“Yes... you really are the correct answer.”
“...”
“From the very beginning, it should have been you instead of me.”
Lowering his head, Fame placed a hand on Lennok’s shoulder again.
Warmth flowed into Lennok’s battered body.
Strength slowly returned.
The purified light of Shedding.
Fame was directly infusing it into him.
Breathing heavily, Lennok twisted his lips into a smile.
“Now... it’s time for you to answer the question I asked.”
“.....”
Fame smiled silently before speaking.
“Van. You have now obtained the result of successfully wounding me.”
“What?”
“This was a causal connection that needed to be established before it was too late. A link that will stand in place of my ending.”
As Fame opened his hand, a shattered eye appeared within it.
A Death Eye.
Darkness solidified into the form of a black gemstone.
Placing it into Lennok’s hand, Fame said,
“With this, you have obtained the qualification to inherit my dark magic.”
“Qualification...?”
“To be precise, the possibility of inheriting my dark magic.”
The battle they had just fought.
Was it all for the purpose of passing on that qualification?
But before Lennok could process it, Fame’s next words swept away his thoughts.
“For you, that alone will be enough. Isn’t that right?”
“......!!”
Fame smiled and slowly raised his gaze.
“I cannot see its exact form. But I can understand it. The answer and talent you showed me ultimately...”
“...Fame.”
So he already knew.
Yet Lennok found himself unsurprised.
Fame had always known about Lennok’s many identities.
He had even created some of them himself.
Why Lennok pursued countless possibilities and branching paths.
Why he studied countless abilities and magical systems without limiting himself to one.
If Fame understood all that, tracing the source from the remnants of infinite branches was hardly impossible.
But why explain it now?
Why force Lennok to exhaust every last reserve just to confirm his answer?
Why seek certainty?
“You want an explanation. I know.”
“...”
“But once you hear it, all the time remaining to me will come to an end.”
The moment Fame turned away—
The pavilion of darkness passing over the Gate City shifted direction.
KUGUGUGUGU!!!!!
The pavilion tilted.
The tide of darkness sweeping the earth looked down upon the humans below.
A trace of contempt flashed through Fame’s eyes as he watched the dying superhumans.
“Then those insects who survive after I leave will finally try to interfere with your fate.”
“...”
“You exhausted your magic because of my request. It would be unfair to leave you to deal with them afterward.”
Fame naturally stepped beside Lennok.
A cold smile appeared on his face.
Extending one finger toward the earth below, he whispered,
“So while I explain everything...I’ll clean up every insect remaining on the ground in your place.”
“What?”