Chapter 83
Chapter 83
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 83
Chapter Title: Vincent's Arrangement
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'Why does the Ruin Church have runes?'
Could there be people within the Ruin Church who could use runes? Until now, Jeon had vaguely thought that perhaps he was the only one in this world who could wield Rune Magic.
But when he thought about it, the Ruin Church was an organization with an incredibly long history.
That meant there was a possibility that even Rune Magic, which had generally died out with the loss of its transmission, might have been preserved separately within the Ruin Church.
'So, do they use runes?'
As thoughts about the Ruin Church and runes tangled complicatedly in his mind, Jeon's head began to spin furiously to interpret the meaning of the rune engraved on the stone tablet.
Even inside the Gate of Awakening, the power of Jeon's Korean Patch was fulfilling its role.
But it wasn't just Jeon's mind that was working busily and chaotically.
"Balaarrrgh!"
At the moment Relia's breath finally gave out amid Vincent's piteous struggles.
Vincent, having witnessed her death right before his eyes, unleashed a roar of raw fury.
Whoooosh!
With that, fierce winds began to whip across the entire mana field he had spread out.
"That guy's...!"
It was clear proof that he had stepped into a realm Vincent couldn't have reached just moments ago.
'Is enlightenment through rage possible too?'
The ways mages attained enlightenment varied for each one.
So it was possible to gain enlightenment from anger, sure.
'Did something like this happen in actual history?'
Balak's current state was far from sound.
He seemed to have barely regained his senses and could move his body somehow, but it was certain he had sustained serious injuries.
"I'll tear you to shreds and kill you!"
Vincent, whipping up fierce winds, charged straight at Balak.
"Kuh... Urk...!"
Balak, who had barely managed not to collapse despite his severe wounds, swung a clumsy fist toward the oncoming Vincent.
Splatter!
Even in that moment, black aura enveloped his fist.
The gray winds clashed with the black aura, unleashing shockwaves in all directions.
"Tch."
One of those shockwaves reached Jeon, causing him to grimace briefly.
Flash!
The world Jeon was seeing suddenly went pitch black, as if a TV had been abruptly turned off.
"This is..."
Gazing at the world that had turned entirely black.
Jeon realized that the situation the Gate of Awakening had shown him had come to an end.
'Good thing I managed to check the rune.'
The stone tablet in his hand had vanished the instant the world went black.
But the rune engraved on it was already etched into Jeon's mind.
'...The rune of Swiftness.'
Regardless of the complicated turmoil in the surroundings.
Jeon's Korean Patch ability had successfully interpreted the rune on the stone tablet.
This meant he had acquired a new weapon.
But 'the Ruin Church can use Rune Magic too?'
The fact that the Rune Magic he had thought was his unique weapon might be usable by others—especially the Ruin Church, whom he would have to confront repeatedly—was not welcome news.
"But... is this not ending?"
As he organized his thoughts.
Jeon suddenly questioned why the pitch-black world persisted even after the Gate of Awakening had shown everything it intended.
Thanks to the Gate of Awakening, he had attained enlightenment and risen to the 4th Circle.
He had also learned just how strong the apostles of the Ruin Church were.
And in the process, he had gained a new Rune Magic.
He felt like he had gained more than enough from the Gate of Awakening.
So why wouldn't the black world fade away?
And that doubt of Jeon's was resolved by a being that suddenly popped up before him.
In the world covered entirely in black, it started as a dot like silver paint had been splattered, then spread out to form a human shape. Once it took on a complete human form, it looked down at Jeon.
"I wondered who the child peering into my memories was, but you're far younger than I expected."
The silver figure spoke, and as it did, it gradually regained its colors.
What emerged was an elderly man with white hair and a face full of deep wrinkles.
But Jeon felt a strangely familiar aura from the man.
"Vincent... sir?"
"Heh heh, even looking like this, you recognize me."
And as Jeon predicted.
The being that appeared in the space was Vincent.
Not the version from the memory Jeon had seen, but likely his elderly self from around the time he created the Gate of Awakening. Still, his distinctive presence made him recognizable.
"It's been ages since I made this Gate of Awakening, and you're the first to confront my memories."
"...Did you leave behind special arrangements for those who view the memories?"
"Arrangements, yes. In a way, you could call it that. Or rather, for you, it definitely is. It'll be helpful."
Vincent didn't answer Jeon's question about arrangements right away.
But from his reaction, it seemed it could be quite helpful to Jeon.
"You can read runes, right?"
"How did you know?"
"Right now, I am a fragment of my soul that I placed here when creating the Gate of Awakening, endowed with the role of administrator. So the moment you saw the rune, I sensed your original body reacting intensely."
When Jeon saw a rune, his mind spun faster than ever.
All of it was because the Korean Patch ability automatically ramped up to maximum to interpret the rune.
That's how Vincent realized Jeon could read runes.
"Then, is this arrangement...?"
"Exactly. A rune."
He had hoped it might be something helpful.
But to think the arrangement left behind was a rune.
"And the rune I'm about to give you now is none other than the one Balak used."
"Balak's?"
"Aren't you curious what happened after the scene you just saw?"
The last scene the Gate of Awakening showed.
It was the moment Vincent, ascended to the 7th Circle through rage, clashed with the gravely wounded Balak.
And Jeon didn't know what came after.
"What happened?"
Though he hadn't been there in person, having experienced the situation indirectly through the Gate of Awakening, Jeon naturally wanted to know the aftermath.
"Heh heh, seeing you so curious means my memories weren't boring after all..."
Vincent smiled in satisfaction at Jeon's reaction and began to recount the rest of the story.
"In the situation the Gate of Awakening showed, things flowed a bit more easily thanks to you, but overall, the flow was similar."
Thanks to Jeon, the situation had turned more favorable.
But in reality, the battle between Relia, Vincent, and Balak had been nearly evenly matched.
And as the fight dragged on, Balak realized he needed to take out Relia first to gain the advantage, so he targeted her relentlessly. In the end, Relia died, and Balak was left gravely wounded—almost exactly as Jeon had seen.
"At that point, I ascended to the 7th Circle and continued fighting the wounded Balak."
Of course, in the original memory, Jeon wasn't there.
So Balak's injuries were much lighter.
Thus, the duel between the gravely wounded Balak and Vincent, who had just reached the 7th Circle, was intensely fierce.
"But in the end, I managed to kill him."
Vincent had sustained considerable injuries himself, but he ultimately succeeded in slaying Balak, one of the Church's apostles.
"It dealt a significant blow to the Ruin Church... but we suffered heavy losses too."
In addition to Relia's death.
The battle above the canyon had inflicted substantial casualties on the White Unit.
As a result, what was originally a small elite group had to expand its forces, eventually forming the organization known as the White Tower.
"Hm, talking about it, I've gone off on a tangent without realizing. Anyway, at the moment I killed Balak back then, I saw some kind of energy leaving his body as he died."
"Energy?"
"Hard to explain. It was like mana, or a soul, or maybe something else. Anyway, that energy manifested in the shape of letters above his dead body, then scattered and vanished somewhere."
Energy that took the form of letters before disappearing.
Moreover, even Vincent, who had just reached the 7th Circle, couldn't identify what kind of power it was composed of—an unknown force.
'Is it a special way the Ruin Church uses runes?'
He couldn't grasp everything precisely.
But it was clear the Ruin Church used runes.
Otherwise, a rune wouldn't have risen from Balak's dead body.
"Of course, I had no idea what it was back then. I couldn't even tell if it was letters, patterns, or drawings."
With the Korean Patch, Jeon immediately recognized runes as letters and interpreted them effortlessly, but to ordinary eyes, runes were hard to distinguish as letters rather than just lines, patterns, or drawings.
"But after long research, I figured out it was a rune—a letter carrying meaning. Though I couldn't decipher what meaning it held."
As he spoke, Vincent extended his right index finger into the air.
Then he began waving his hand, scribbling in the empty space.
Swish, swish, ssswish.
Where his finger passed, it left silver traces in the black-filled space.
Like drawing with silver chalk on a blackboard.
And when his moving finger stopped.
The silver lines formed the shape of a single letter.
"This is the rune I saw."
And as Jeon looked at that rune, he felt his mind start spinning furiously once more.
"Heh heh, interpreting it the moment you see it?"
Sensing the change in Jeon's body, Vincent smiled in wonder at Jeon, who was staring intently at the rune.
And soon enough, Jeon grasped the meaning of the rune Vincent had drawn.
"This is... a rune that means Reinforcement."
"Reinforcement?"
"Well, literally, it makes certain qualities even stronger... but depending on the user's level, I don't know how far its scope could reach."
Having seen two runes in a row.
Jeon pressed his temple against the slight headache building in his head and explained the rune's meaning.
"Simply, it could reinforce a specific body part or an object... but at a high level, it might even be possible to reinforce a spell, a soul, or the very rank of a being."
Of course, Jeon had only just interpreted it and hadn't tried using it yet.
But the meaning contained in the Reinforcement rune was far more intense than the others.
'Not all runes are the same.'
For example, until he saw the Swiftness and Reinforcement runes today, the deepest and broadest rune Jeon possessed was Compression.
It went beyond simply compressing targets.
It could forcibly compress and overlap magic or shrink body parts.
Moreover, though Jeon hadn't reached that point yet, it seemed applicable to conceptual things like space or souls depending on usage.
'Next is Guardian, then Will and Storage runes.'
On the other hand, the Guardian rune, empowered by the great being Silver, didn't have that depth or breadth of application.
The simpler Will and Storage runes were even less so.
'Swiftness is about on par with Will and Storage, maybe slightly better.'
But the Reinforcement rune had a profundity that held up even compared to Compression.
"Heh heh heh, thanks to you, I finally learned the meaning of that letter I spent my life not knowing."
Hearing the rune's meaning from Jeon, Vincent gave a smile that was somehow empty yet relieved.
It seemed bittersweet to learn after death, through another, what he couldn't despite a lifetime of research—yet relieving to know at last.
"Anyway, I hope my memories and that rune prove to be a great help to you."
"They were a huge help. I broke through a wall I couldn't cross and reached the 4th Circle right away, and I learned two runes. This is all thanks to you, Vincent."
"Then that's perfect."
Vincent nodded as if relieved at Jeon's grateful words.
"Well then, it's time to return to the original world."
And with that, the pitch-black world surrounding Jeon began to crumble away.