Chapter 135: The Pinnacle (3)

Causality.

If there is a cause, there will be a consequent result.

It was one of the laws that governed this world.

And Pureus said that the Homunculus in front of him could manipulate causality.

‘It’s possible he’s lying to manipulate me. But if it’s true… ’

Desir looked at the Homunculus, who was pursuing him closely.

A monster that could instantly restore its body, no matter how much it was damaged.

*Baaam*

Judging from the situation so far, it felt indisputable that Pureus had told him the truth.

Desir soon found himself in the worst situation.

‘It wasn’t a recovery ability, but an ability to return itself to the past.’

It was restored to its top condition without any delay or apparent resource usage. It was a power that defied common sense.

“Kiaaaak!”

The continuous cry of the Homunculus snapped him out of his stupor.

When the Homunculus attacked with full power, the defensive spell that had been holding until that moment finally reached its limit and shattered. It put all of its power into kicking against the ground to narrow the distance with Desir.

[Storm of Abarossa]

*Bang*

A wind bullet tore through the upper body of the Homunculus. It was Romantica’s sniping spell.

Desir noticed that Romantica had arrived.

‘She’s arrived on time.’

Desir sighed and distanced himself from the Homunculus. Of course, as before, its body restored itself in an instant.

[“What the hell is that monster?”]

Through the communication magic cast by Romantica, a voice tinged with embarrassment could be heard.

[“It’s a monster with a strange recovery ability. Make sure to focus on slowing or stopping it rather than thinking about outright defeating it.”]

[“I’ll hold it in check as much as possible.”]

Romantica’s sniping magic was fast and accurate.

If the Homunculus showed any gap in its defence, her sniping magic destroyed its body.

*Bang*

“Grrrrrr!”

With the sniping magic now providing covering fire for Desir, the Homunculus couldn’t rush as aggressively as before.

Desir, who couldn’t even find an opportunity to take a breather just moments before, could now find the time to sigh and contemplate on the best action to take.

‘Indiscriminate attacks are useless.’

He needed a method to reverse this situation.

No, if it controlled causality in the first place, how the hell could it even be defeated?

No matter how hard they try, it was impossible to cope in any way if the results of all their attacks were just ignored.

‘Then, how high is the possibility of that Alchemist lying?’

Desir desperately mused.

‘Is there any information that I have missed? Is there even just one weak point? Its ability is only used to restore its own body. Then, is the scope of the ability limited to itself? Based on what we are aware of in our time period, his research had failed… So what’s this in front of us?’

Desir’s brain began to run wild. He combined all his past research, his theoretical discussions with Zod, what he had observed from the Homunculus, and searched for some common thread to serve as a basis for theoretical weaknesses.

After a few moments, he realized that the Homunculus’s power and combat style contradicted each other.

‘Why did it need to avoid my attacks?’

The Homunculus did not need to evade Desir’s attacks, as long as it could eliminate all of the resulting damage.

On the contrary, it was a valid judgment to take advantage of its merits and just take that damage in exchange for being able to dish out damage of its own.

‘If it really can control causality, it should disregard its wellbeing in order to deal more damage. Something isn’t adding up.’

Desir followed this train of thought and arrived at the logical conclusion.

“Well, I’ve spent a lot of time here. Let’s finish things up.”

As soon as Pureus bounced his finger, the Homunculus stopped moving and placed its legs firmly on the ground. It was as if it was putting down roots.

*Creak*

The sound of the muscles and bones twisting and tearing could be heard. The shape of the Homunculus, which was originally in a humanoid form, began to gradually shift.

These changes soon reached a level where the creature could hardly be recognized as a human.

After a while, the atmosphere around where the Homunculus stood was greatly distorted.

Desir and Romantica’s bodies stung and all of their senses were signaling that they were in imminent danger.

Desir, who was much more sensitive to mana than Romantica, felt an enormous amount of it gather around the Homunculus in just an instant. He couldn’t help but feel surprised.

In order to unleash magic, it is necessary to collect mana and arrange it into a spell.

Depending on the magic system used, the way these steps were performed may be different, but these steps were not something that could be skipped.

However, the Homunculus which manipulated causality was different. It produced only the result of collecting the mana and focused all of that resulting energy in front of itself without going through any process.

“Shit… Romantica!”

Desir immediately started running toward Romantica.

Pureus laughed.

“Hahahaha! It’s no use running away!”

*Bing*

Pureus stood proudly, his eyes in awe at the power of the Homunculus.

It was because the magic that the Homunculus developed in front of his eyes was not at the level that a Third-Circle wizard could block.

Up until now, it had not used this ability as it had been used to suppress the wizards for later use as experimental material; something that couldn’t be done if their bodies were obliterated. But Pureus changed his mind as it became hard to suppress Desir after Romantica joined.

Pureus looked in the direction Desir had headed.

To reach the surface, one had to leave through the single hallway that led to this room. There was no way to escape the attack.

No, it didn’t really matter even if they escaped.

‘I’ll blow up the city.’

He had reached the point where he had already created such a fuss that people would flock to this city, and it was impossible to continue research here any longer.

The city was of no value to him anymore.

“Well, let’s make the uncivilized realize their helplessness.”

As he made his declaration, the enormous energy that was condensing in front of the Homunculus was released.

In an instant, the entire area flickered with a blinding white light.

*Bing*

The energy summoned by the Homunculus, equal to Fifth-Circle magic, ripped through the laboratory and the surrounding areas.

A moment later, when Pureus opened his eyes, all he could see was a dark night. His laboratory was gone, leaving no trace behind at all.

Pureus, who had been smiling, suddenly noticed something and his face turned stone cold. He realized that the Lord’s castle and all of the other mansions were fine, with the exception of his own.

After a minute, the dust around Pureus began to settle. The blast had only been partially effective; something had clearly blocked his attack. When he looked around for the source, his eyes nearly popped out of his head.

“This is impossible… !”

Before him was a huge shield emanating a dazzling brilliance, with two people standing behind it without even a scratch on them. Naturally, they were Desir and Romantica.

Pureus could hardly comprehend the situation.

There was no way a Third-Circle wizard could block such an attack. It was impossible.

“What the hell did you do!?”

“Do you actually expect me to answer that?”

Desir sighed to himself.

‘If we took out the Aurora System just a little bit later, there wouldn’t have been any trace of us left.’

The Aurora System, a project significantly accelerated due to Desir’s advice, had already reached the point where it could be put into practical use as a portable, but consumable, shield. And Desir had brought it into the Shadow World this time.

The magic stone in the device that Desir held crumbled into ash. At the same time, the Aurora System’s shield also disappeared.

‘I can’t stop it now if it attacks again.’

To make a portable Aurora System required a tremendous amount of money. It was impossible to bring multiple copies of it, even for Desir.

‘I have no choice but to do it now.’

With the loss of a safety net, it was impossible to remain on the defensive anymore.

Thus, he now had no choice but to attack.

Desir, without any further hesitation, began to prepare the best spell he had available.

A very complicated spell arranged itself in front of him. It was a maximum powered spell that only Desir could perform. Naturally, it used his new magical system.

Pureus shouted as he noticed the unusual atmosphere.

“O-One more!”

Ignoring all of the usual steps in casting a spell, mana gathered rapidly in front of the Homunculus. And it was soon fired at Desir.

At the same time, Desir’s magic was completed.

A huge flame storm painted the sky red. The magic that Desir had spent a long time finding the optimal arrangement for showed power incomparable to before.

The energy fired by the Homunculus was swallowed up by the huge flames and disappeared. These huge flames did not diminish in the slightest and slammed into the Homunculus directly.

*BANG*

The fire blazed, as if threatening to burn down the entire world, before quickly fading away and eventually disappearing.

The manipulation of causality had made it as if Desir’s magic had never appeared.

Desir realized this fact and his anxiety shot through the roof. If even this was blocked by the Homunculus, then there was no way left for him to survive.

The intense heat subsided and revealed the Homunculus standing on melting ground. Its body was heavily burnt and its limbs were shattered.

Obviously, the power of causality manipulation had been activated, but the body of the Homunculus had not been returned to its top condition.

Desir realized that there was an abnormality in the body of the Homunculus.

‘Isn’t it a power that can be used indefinitely?’

‘If I only had the material from a Third-Circle wizard, my research will be complete!’

Desir remembered the conversation with Pureus. Pureus said that the experiment was unfinished, apparently because he couldn’t get his hands on the right experimental subject matter.

‘The reason why he needed a wizard… ’

Pureus was an alchemist handling both magic and alchemy. It was inevitable that his study also included magical elements.

Des1r looked closely at the Homunculus, which was wrecked beyond repair. Moving was impossible for it.

And he could detect something in the Homunculus’s body.