novelraw Chapter 147 : Chapter 147
Chapter 147 : Chapter 147
Chapter 147. Road to Extinction (8)
The reason Cheonjan called the wizards from Yenzen's side was simple.
Because they were the only group of wizards available right now in this vicinity.
Other wizards affiliated with Sanhae had currently gone down to the main family or were residing in the Magic Tower.
The problem was that both the main family and the Magic Tower were quite far from here.
So Cheonjan called Yenzen, and Yenzen doubted his own ears.
'President Cheonjan...?'
Being contacted by a workplace superior at dawn was absurd enough, but to be ordered to hunt a human being out of nowhere?
It was something that couldn't help but wake him up instantly.
FLAP-
Yenzen got up from the cot and went outside the tent.
Outside, it was late dawn, with the sun just about to peek out.
This was the Kowloon Walled City investigation team camp.
Watching the dimly brightening sunlight reveal the outline of Kowloon Walled City, Yenzen threw a question to his superior over the receiver.
"...Could you please repeat that one more time?"
"Kill Leman White. Mobilize all wizards affiliated with your investigation team."
"...What kind of talk is that right now?"
"I said catch and kill Leman White! Do you not understand me?!"
"I am asking you to tell me the reason! How can I accept being told to kill a person blindly?!"
"It is an order!"
"Leman is a wizard who can uncover the secret of this Walled City! Why would you do that to such a person...!"
"I say it one more time. It is an order. Do you need more reasons?"
"......!"
Yenzen felt a chill as if his body was freezing.
Killing intent felt just from the voice alone.
Furthermore, Yenzen knew well what kind of disaster would occur if Cheonjan fully exerted his power.
In other words, he knew what would happen if he resisted further here.
Eventually, Yenzen spoke.
"...When this matter is over, you will have to convince us."
Yenzen hung up the phone.
And summoned his puppet.
THUD!
A giant puppet was summoned next to Yenzen.
Yenzen shouted through the puppet.
"Everyone wake up!!"
Yenzen's voice spewing out through the puppet's mouth rang throughout the entire camp resoundingly.
As soon as the shout burst out, wizards popped out from the tents.
"Wh-What is the matter, Professor?!"
"Everyone prepare for combat."
"What?!"
"From now on, we begin the operation to kill Leman White."
"Wh-What do you mean?! If we just have him, this investigation......."
"It is the President's order. No objections accepted."
"......!"
As soon as the word President came out, everyone shut their mouths at once.
Like that, everyone quietly began to carry out the order.
CLANK!
CLICK!
Puppeteers called out their puppets, and summoners summoned their summoned beasts.
Like that, when everyone finished preparing, Yenzen closed his eyes.
And chanted a line of magic.
"...Covering biting wind, pillars on the sandy soil."
That was the chant for [Detection].
The [Detection] Yenzen constructed was amplified and activated through his puppet.
VOOM!
Mana of [Detection] spreading out extensively.
A moment later.
"...Found him."
Yenzen captured Riman's movement coming this way.
He ordered the puppeteers under his command.
"Open the coordinated attack link."
"Link open!"
ZING!
The sensory systems of dozens of puppets were linked all at once.
Of course, if the senses were truly all connected like a spider web, confusion would arise.
So in cases like this, the puppeteer in charge as the leader holds full authority over the linkage.
The leader decides which senses to share and what orders to issue.
And the leader here right now was Yenzen.
Yenzen shared Riman's location he found out with the puppeteers under his command.
CREAK...!
Simultaneously with the sharing, the gazes of all puppets turned toward the same direction.
And at the end of that gaze, Riman was running over.
Yenzen also saw this appearance of Riman.
Yenzen let out a shallow sigh without realizing it and muttered inwardly.
'...I'm sorry, Leman.'
CLANK.
Toward the running Riman, the puppets began to move.
* * *
'Hmm?'
While running, Riman could see.
That numerous puppets and summoned beasts were narrowing the encirclement toward him.
Without revealing themselves, quietly, from everywhere.
The closer he got to Kowloon Walled City, the denser the encirclement gradually became.
'...Yenzen's forces have joined in.'
SWISH!
Riman stopped his escape.
And in front of such Riman, one large puppet stood.
Riman knew that that puppet was Yenzen's.
So Riman spoke toward the puppet.
"Yenzen, move."
"I cannot do that. Since an order has come down to kill you."
"I'm the only person who can achieve what you want."
"But if we let you live, we die."
"Did Cheonjan threaten to kill you if you fail to kill me?"
"......."
Yenzen quietly concentrated mana into both fists of the puppet.
Riman spoke.
"...You intend to face me knowing my power clearly?"
"Leman."
"What."
"I'm sorry."
The conversation ended with that.
Yenzen issued an order to the wizards under his command through the link.
"Attack."
DASH!
CLANK, CLANK!
The puppets began to move all at once.
Puppets each possessing power exceeding military weapons.
Matching the delicately and meticulously woven formation, they tightened in toward Riman in a single breath.
An advance concentrating all efficiency on the killing of the target.
Responding to this, Riman also pulled out a black whip from his ring.
SNAP!
A whip tens of meters long, darker than dawn, extended from Riman's fingertips and coiled around the air.
"...Right, I didn't think it would be easy."
Again, the clash began.
* * *
The puppets were broken one after another.
Attacked by cold and frozen bursting, or engulfed in flames and burning up.
Circuits directly hit by electricity and paralyzed, or caught in quicksand and becoming inoperable.
But even so, Riman could not properly seize the victory.
There were two reasons.
The first reason was that Yenzen's command was much more seasoned than expected.
Furthermore, the coordinated attack of the puppeteers moving as one body under that command was also substantial.
And the second reason was that Riman himself was quite exhausted.
Currently, Riman's physical fatigue level was running toward the limit.
Because tension had accumulated enormously while fighting the monster called Cheonjan, and on top of that, the backlash from using Extreme Eye was rushing in.
Furthermore, Extreme Eye was currently off.
If Extreme Eye were at least on, he would have cleared up a situation of this level instantly, but he couldn't even do that.
But the wizards on Yenzen's side were also struggling against the opponent.
Because unpredictable techniques were being unleashed from Riman's fingertips ceaselessly at unexpected timings.
"Just what is that bastard doing...?!"
A composition where each struggled against the other.
Fatigue of the battlefield piled up at a rapid speed, and accordingly, the sharpness of strategies also gradually dulled.
The reflection speed of commands gradually decreased, and accordingly, cracks gradually widened in the solid formation.
The situation began to spiral into a chaotic melee like that.
A situation where precise strategies evaporated, and only the pure goal consciousness of 'kill the opponent' dominated everyone's minds.
Like that, everyone became entangled in this skein of killing.
Melee, shambles, chaos.
Who is hitting whom, from where to where this magic is flying, whose leg that axe struck.
They don't know.
They don't even want to know.
Parts popping out from the bellies of puppets, severed parts of summoned beasts, scattered blood.
All those things rolled around on the floor.
Just then, when all sorts of offenses were intersecting intricately.
THWACK.
A large fist of a puppet hit the mark.
And the one hit was Riman.
He blocked it with a barrier, but the punch went in literally as a clean hit.
"It went in...!"
A heavy impact bursts between the puppet's fist and Riman's barrier.
An impulse amount enough to just shatter an ordinary boulder.
Of course, most of the impulse was not transmitted to Riman because of the barrier.
But the remaining impulse was enough to blow Riman far away.
WHOOSH!
Riman flew far away just like that.
An attack that properly hit Riman among this melee.
Everyone's gaze focused on Riman.
Riman's light body cut through the air just like that, drawing a gentle parabola.
And, finally.......
POOF-
Riman disappeared.
Literally, disappeared before their eyes.
As if erased with an eraser.
"...Disappeared."
"He disappeared."
But no one was surprised in front of this strange phenomenon.
Because it was natural.
Because Riman flew over the red line, into the interior of the Walled City.
Whatever enters the 'extinction zone', the territory of the Walled City, disappears just like that.
Swept away by the spatial flux formed inside the Walled City.
And one who disappears into the Walled City like that can absolutely never come out.
Riman had been thrown into such a place.
So the wizards fighting Riman could finally say this.
"...It's over."
They had thrown the opponent into a place from which one can absolutely never escape.
With this, the battle had virtually become no different from being over.
Silence visited the battlefield.
All puppets stopped, and no one opened their mouths rashly.
It was Yenzen who broke that silence.
"Who hit him at the last moment?"
"It was me, Professor."
Through the link, a disciple's voice flowed into Yenzen's head.
Yenzen nodded and said.
"Well done."
"Thank you."
"If we had fought any longer, we all would have been annihilated by that man. You saved us. Well done."
Yenzen issued an assembly order to the wizards who participated in the battle.
Puppeteers disarmed their puppets and assembled in the middle of the camp.
Yenzen classified the wounded among them and called medical staff for first aid.
Just then, while post-battle processing was in progress.
"Um, by the way... Professor."
The puppeteer who hit Riman at the last moment and blew him into the Walled City approached Yenzen.
"Hmm? What is it?"
"Actually... there was something a bit strange at the very end."
"Strange point?"
"Yes. That, at that moment when he was hit by my puppet's fist and flying away... he was smiling."
"Smiling?"
"Leman White was smiling. At that moment entering the extinction zone."
* * *
Riman smiled.
At that moment being hit by the puppet's fist.
And at that moment flying toward the extinction zone because of it.
Riman was definitely smiling.
Because his plan had worked out exactly.
Getting hit by such a slow and sloppy punch was Riman's plan from the start.
Because this method was the most effective way to enter the extinction zone.
Yes.
It wasn't that they pushed Riman into the extinction zone.
It was closer to Riman using them to enter the extinction zone.
And this was exactly Riman's objective.
To escape into the extinction zone of Kowloon Walled City.
Hong Kong was virtually Cheonjan's land.
Therefore, no matter how much he flew and crawled, if he was in Hong Kong, he was bound to be caught by Cheonjan.
Escaping Hong Kong wasn't easy either.
But here, inside the extinction zone, the story is different.
Because unless he was crazy, there was no way he would follow into here.
It was truly a perfect escape location.
Although there was the problem that there was no way out as of now.
However.......
'However, if I can somehow resolve the abnormal phenomenon here and find a way out again.......'
Then, a chance of winning arises from then on.
Because-
'Inside here, the Sword Saint is trapped.'
Sword Saint, Lancelot Powell.
The world's strongest swordsman.
Lancelot jumped into this space on his own two feet.
If he could rescue him from here and go outside, it was worth fighting again even against Cheonjan.
Of course, he couldn't guarantee whether Lancelot would be alive in here, or if he was even here in the first place.
But if he just went out, the winning rate was 0%.
So he had to do what he could do.
SPLAT!
Riman felt his body being thrown onto the floor.
Finally arrived.
Inside Kowloon Walled City, which he had never seen even in the game.