#507

Interim Summary (11)

Despite the disappearance of Soryu and Sabrina, the Aegis operatives focused on confronting Lennok rather than pursuing them. Lennok, too, intended to leave Sabrina, who lacked combat skills, with Soryu and endure until he could follow. However, this situation feels incredibly unusual.

Considering the fact that Aegis had not received proper internal information from Pandemonium and was unaware of Lennok's existence and abilities, there could only be one answer. The Aegis operatives present here were meant to hold Lennok in place and thoroughly minimize any variables in this mission. Even their persistent attempts to engage Lennok in conversation and uncover his identity were efforts to minimize variables.

The fact that there was no particular reaction when Lennok attempted to kill the green visor indicates that holding Lennok in place was more crucial than anticipated. They wanted to reduce any potential variables for the operation inside the theater, no matter the cost.

The moment Lennok understood this, he knew what he had to do.

"Go ahead."

[Grab…!!]

The crimson visor, realizing that Lennok had uncovered their intentions, shouted sharply. The Shadow Robe sank into the ground as if collapsing in place.

Ssshhhh!!

At the same time, a black figure, bound by magical energy, sprinted violently toward the theater, pulled by an unseen force. Without hesitation, they abandoned the young man with broken limbs, and the other two soon chased after Lennok.

In the corridor leading to the dressing rooms at the back entrance of the large theater, Lennok clashed fiercely with two other visors.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A series of sharp metallic crashes erupted, and the three figures narrowly brushed past each other along the ceiling and walls of the wide hallway. A dull, spinning sound reverberated as a heavy stone bounced off the hallway walls. Magic threads, spread like spider webs throughout the corridor, constantly stretched and contracted, slicing through dusty props and boxes.

The crimson visor gritted their teeth as they watched the Shadow Robe figure race down the end of the hallway.

'We had too little information!'

A special-type sorcerer, and a highly challenging manipulator at that. The moment they recognized this, they knew they couldn’t allow even the slightest gap. But they never imagined that a sorcerer with such combat capabilities would also possess mobility surpassing that of Aegis operatives.

'It’s not just manipulation. The mobility is inexplicable without completely different spells or abilities…!!'

If their opponent could handle two special systems simultaneously, they might need to revise the entire operation so far. The ambitious plan to eliminate Pandemonium's top executives and secure results couldn't be jeopardized by a single variable. Thinking this, the crimson visor drew up magical energy and dashed forward, pushing off the ground.

Chiii...!!!

Accompanied by a faint ringing sound, her body turned ghostly translucent and phased through the wall of the dressing room in the corridor.

He suddenly appeared right next to the Shadow Robe and violently slammed it down.

Boom!!

“Huff, huff…!!!”

“Master Jureong!!”

“Stay focused!!”

The brown visor, who had arrived belatedly, grabbed the Shadow Robe. At the same time, countless piles of earth rose and tightly entangled the robe. However, the crimson visor, who had used her main abilities to pursue Lennok, did not look relieved at all. Instead, she gritted her teeth as she watched the robe shrink to the size of a fist within the pile of earth.

“It was a decoy. Damn it…!!!”

When had it started? Perhaps they had been completely played from the beginning. Had he been acting to distract the operatives' attention while casually emptying the contents of the robe?

What made it even more unsettling was that they couldn't pinpoint when the act had begun or when Lennok had vanished from within the robe. Sensing, voice, movements, gestures—she believed she hadn't missed a single detail.

“This can’t be…”

The brown visor muttered in disbelief, and the operative called Jureong stood up.

“Contact the foreign troops. We will join the main unit.”

“But if we request reinforcements for an operation we started on our own…”

“Look at how things are going. We’re already far from the original plan.”

Jureong muttered in a cold voice.

“Especially now, when they've discovered the informant. Even the real operation that should be carried out by the main unit could be ruined. We need to act quickly!!”

“…”

The brown visor, hearing this, gazed at the fragments of the robe buried within the pile of earth. As a practitioner of earth-based techniques, he was skilled in using spells for restraint and confinement. The technique he had just used against Lennok was advanced enough not only to physically bind someone but to extend its effects even further downward if necessary. Yet, the fragments of the Shadow Robe were slowly vanishing among the soil, like water flowing through sand.

The decision didn’t take long.

“Understood. I’ll contact the two waiting outside the city.”

  *

Two figures quickly entered the theater through the dressing room. Lennok stood atop the transmission tower at the theater’s peak, silently observing the operatives below.

“…”

He had first detached the robe and concealed his presence immediately after subduing the green visor. It happened not with any particular words or gestures but at the moment when attention was drawn to the shock and weight of the armored shield.

Of course, Lennok never believed he could deceive the Aegis operatives until the very end. He anticipated being discovered shortly after being tracked and had dispersed their forces to reduce unnecessary effort. However, even he did not expect them to fail to recognize his decoy until the very end.

The reason why elite warriors, experienced and seasoned special operatives, couldn’t quickly realize this was something Lennok had a guess about.

‘Ever since encountering the Outer Gods, my presence has slightly changed. That must be the reason.’

The ritual of prophecy led by Archbishop Izelle Naidri. During that ritual, Lennok was offered as a sacrifice, but he ended up drawing the interest of the Outer Gods and rejecting their proposals. Since then, Lennok noticed that his life signals and magical patterns were becoming increasingly difficult to detect. It wasn’t that his ability to manipulate magic or sense had changed. Instead, his overall presence, life signals, and traces of existence were shifting from what they used to be. 

Even when masking his magical patterns and altering his life signals, the overall sense of his presence was unmistakably different. It was as if he was gradually distancing himself from being human, barely clinging to an obscure semblance of perception. After peering beyond the dark sea and firmly remembering the presence of the Outer Gods, it seemed he was slowly becoming similar to them.

The fact that Aegis operatives couldn’t fully confirm Lennok’s presence until the last moment, along with the strange occurrences near the statue, were all likely part of this phenomenon. 

Could Lennok’s mental state be changing in a different direction without him realizing it? He did not favor being unable to fully understand and control such changes.

“…”

However, instead of hastily investigating what had happened to his body, Lennok draped the returned Shadow Robe over himself and slowly stood up. 

He had already shaken off the pursuers who were directly marking him. Ordinarily, he would have returned to inform the other members inside the theater, but he had no intention of rushing. 

Regardless of how skilled the Aegis operatives were, he did not think that the members of Pandemonium would be taken down so easily. Now that he had escaped their surveillance, it was ideal to assess the situation before returning. Furthermore, he needed to learn more about the two individuals Soryu had mentioned, who were watching this situation from outside Byrutz.

‘For now, let’s start by scouting the outskirts of the satellite city.’

The two operatives with brown and crimson visors were moving urgently, yet they hesitated to call for reinforcements from external forces waiting outside the city. It seemed there was something unsettling to the operatives about either the presence or strength of those external forces. If he could exploit that weakness, he might be able to deal with the informant within Pandemonium and the division within Aegis simultaneously.

Just as Lennok was about to enhance his magical detection across the entire satellite city...

Boom!!!

Suddenly, a massive pillar rose from the theater’s domed roof, reaching up above Byrutz’s sky.

“…!!”

It was an evident sign that a clash had begun inside the theater. Lennok immediately stood up and heightened his senses toward the theater, quickly realizing that it wasn’t just an ordinary stone pillar.

It was one of the hidden arms of the statue, which had been enshrined in the main hall of the theater. The pillar that had just burst through the theater roof was one of the statue’s arms. While the arm was large, it had originally fit comfortably within the theater. Its sudden enlargement held a clear meaning—most likely, it was one of the many abilities Doctor had embedded in the statue for self-defense.

Whoosh!!

Simultaneously, what had been a silent calm was now shattered as magical energy surged throughout the theater. Battles began erupting simultaneously at multiple locations.

Without hesitation, Lennok swiftly moved toward the theater roof, where the statue’s arm had emerged. Aegis’s combat strength was undoubtedly formidable, but Lennok never thought Pandemonium would lose from the outset.

The members of Pandemonium were individually skilled talents, despite their poor organizational cohesion. They were all veterans who had survived countless battles to join, having crossed the line between life and death. Most importantly, they had someone like Maya Renslit among them—a top enforcer from the mechanical city Machina and an 8th-level physical adept. She was not only a powerhouse but also highly skilled in blood magic, with experience and judgment of the highest order. Even without Lennok, the failure of this Pandemonium operation was unlikely.

True to his expectations, when Lennok reached the theater's main hall, the situation had already entered a lull far from a clear victory or defeat.

“You crazy old man…!!”

“Heh, the taste of blood is quite distinctive…”

Hyulno, locked in a bloody struggle with a gray visor operative while licking the blood off his blade.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

“Die.”

“Damn, what’s up with this? The magic flow is off.”

Vernon, observing his opponent while drinking, despite taking blows from a yellow visor operative.

Chevien, who was pulling out all sorts of weapons from under the doll's body while holding back two operatives. Meanwhile, Soryu, who had returned to the main hall, was intercepting the attacks of other operatives.

The vanguard of Aegis operatives led the charge in building the battlefield, while two operatives with purple and jade visors provided support from the rear with spellcasting. Although magic raged on all sides and the theater was exploding in parts, the battle lacked intensity. In contrast to Aegis’s focused engagement, Pandemonium’s response seemed lukewarm, resulting in a sluggish fight.

Amid the battles raging throughout the main hall, corridors, back entrance, and ceiling, there was one area where the most intense clash unfolded.

“Graaaah!!!”

The white lion and Logia roared relentlessly with bloodshot eyes, pushing their opponent back. The black visor stood calmly, countering their offensive while eyeing the statue. A lion giant and a werewolf charged from both sides, releasing tremendous magical energy, while the black visor singlehandedly absorbed all their attacks. The shockwaves of the clash among these 7th-level or higher physical adepts resonated through the half-collapsed theater.

Lennok shifted his gaze, confirming the superhumans fiercely fighting in front of the massively enlarged statue.

“Doctor.”

He descended from the theater roof and landed directly on the statue’s shoulder. At Lennok’s sudden appearance and voice, a tuft of hair squirming at the statue's top turned its gaze.

“Victor, you’re late. I heard from Soryu that you’d be back soon.”

“There’s an informant. Someone who has already leaked information about us…”

Lennok stopped mid-sentence. There was no response from Doctor.

“You already knew.”

“Well, wasn’t it obvious?”

Doctor chuckled.

“If the operation that targeted us so accurately had been purely coincidental, I would’ve been disappointed.”

“…”

If Doctor was speaking this way, the others likely had some idea as well. Lennok quickly grasped the situation and shifted the topic.

“The foreign troops that haven’t yet joined the operation seem to be waiting outside Byrutz. If you need to protect the statue, you should retreat as soon as possible.”

“Oh-ho.”

“Why is that?”

Doctor spoke as he looked into Lennok’s expressionless eyes behind the mask.

“I thought you had no interest in Pandemonium, but you’re much more active than I expected.”

“This isn’t the time for unnecessary sentimentality.”

“Is it because you find the value of my statue to be that appealing?”

“…”

He wasn’t wrong.

The information about the Old World that Lennok obtained through the statue's abilities during this operation was quite satisfying. He was also willing to participate in similar operations in the future. After all, the next operation could only proceed if both Doctor and the statue remained intact.

"Now that it’s come to this, I’d like to ask you something instead. Since it’s just the two of us, let’s be honest.”

Doctor’s tuft of hair twitched as he gestured around the theater hall.

“The informant—who do you think it is?”

“…”

“Of course, it’s possible that you betrayed us and shamelessly brought news of an informant, but that’s why I’d like to hear your opinion.”

“You want to hear my opinion? That’s amusing.”

Lennok laughed sharply.

“Isn’t this just your way of testing me with a predetermined conclusion?”

Just as Lennok had already guessed who the traitor was when he realized an informant existed, Doctor likely had a suspect in mind from the moment he realized the same. Asking the question now was simply to gauge Lennok’s thoughts, nothing more or less.

As expected, Doctor merely let out a few strange chuckles without answering further, as if he didn’t care whether the informant’s identity or purpose was revealed. It seemed that the loose structure of the Pandemonium organization itself made it easy for an informant to sell information to Aegis without much difficulty.

Based on this, it wasn’t hard to infer who the traitor might be.

Lennok, who had been staring at Doctor, abruptly turned his gaze away.

“If we only consider the information about the informant, the first suspect would be the one with the least to lose.”

“Oh?”

“Chevien, the puppeteer. He’s still holding out with just one puppet, even now.”

“So, he’s the informant?”

“No.”

Lennok shook his head.

“Chevien would be aware of that suspicion, so it’s unlikely he’d betray us so blatantly. It’s more natural to assume it’s a diversion to direct suspicion toward him.”

“Then who is it?”

As Lennok was about to reveal his answer to Doctor—

Whoosh!!

The black visor, who had been silently fighting the White Lion, suddenly vanished and reappeared, piercing Turan’s chest deeply.

Splat…!!!

Chunks of the lion giant's flesh were ripped apart, scattering blood everywhere. The knee area of the statue, where it sat cross-legged, was soon drenched in blood, but—

“Hahaha!!”

Turan, the White Lion, acted as if such a wound was insignificant, raising his arm to strike the visor despite his heart being impaled.

Boom!!

The sheer force generated a shockwave that swept across the main hall, pushing aside the rows of seats and podiums.

“You’re in my way…!!”

Logia, who had struck Turan’s head as blood spattered everywhere, leapt over him and charged at the black visor. Yet the black visor ignored Logia entirely, leaping forward to stand directly in front of the statue.

In an instant, the black visor stood before Maya, who had her arms crossed and mouth shut. Sensing the unusual nature of this confrontation, Doctor also shifted his gaze slightly.

“Quite skilled in black magic. Who taught you?”

[…]

“It’s rare to have both exceptional combat ability and such mastery of black magic that you can go head-to-head with Turan.”

Doctor smiled at the silent visor.

“As it happens, I know a rather excellent dark wizard. If you agree, I could introduce you. How about it?”

Hearing this, not only Lennok but several members of Pandemonium frowned deeply. They were well aware that the dark wizard Doctor was referring to was a monster beyond comparison to anyone present.

“Are you trying to destroy all of Byrutz?” Sabrina muttered, acknowledging the dark wizard’s overwhelming presence.

But the black visor paid no attention to these words, silently surveying the surroundings next to Turan, who was clutching his chest and retreating. Half of the operatives who had entered the theater with him were still battle-ready, while the other members watched from afar, as if observing monkeys at a zoo.

Unlike the Aegis operatives, most of the Pandemonium members hadn’t been eager to fight from the start.

[...I thought I could get Maya Renslit to move. Seems I was wrong.]

After a brief silence, the black visor spoke in a raspy voice.

[Did I miscalculate the main force’s strength while focusing on eliminating variables? It was a failure from the start.]

The visor’s gaze remained fixed on Maya, who had not moved an inch while guarding the statue. At her feet lay the corpses of two operatives, cut in half and strewn about like trash.

“Hey, who do you think you’re talking about, moving someone or not…”

[Erase all the forces here and start over.]

The casual mention of the top enforcer among them made Chevien snicker, as if mocking the absurdity of it, but at that moment, the visor pulled out a small signal device.

[Missile. I know you’re listening. Begin.]

“Haha, Missile, huh? This guy must’ve watched a lot of movies!” Vernon laughed, gulping down more alcohol.

“Even if they bring in external reinforcements, it’s absurd to think they could erase this whole situation—”

Thud!!

Suddenly, Vernon abruptly twisted his body to the side in mid-sentence. A long, dark object shot out over his left shoulder as he took a swig from the bottle. It pierced through his collarbone and shoulder, burrowed under his armpit, and lodged itself into the cracks of the floor.

It was a chillingly precise strike, pinning Vernon to the spot like a harpooned fish. The other members, watching this unfold, immediately shifted their expressions.

It was a flawless sniper shot that even the target, Vernon, hadn’t noticed until the moment of impact.

There was now someone in the theater unlike any of the Aegis operatives they had faced so far. This individual possessed overwhelming range and a weapon capable of delivering near-lethal sniper shots to everyone present.

And Lennok knew of a certain Emerald Archer capable of such a feat.