Chapter 120. Intrusion
Refined and graceful facial features. Golden eyes. Fiery red hair.
His face was as intricate and elegant as a sculpture. His skin was pale and smooth, as though proving his noble bloodline.
Judging solely by his appearance….
‘He looks very different from the Leon I remember.’
That was only natural.
The man I remembered was Leon, the Lion of the Coalition Forces.
The current Leon wasn’t the Lion of the Coalition Forces but an heir to the royal family.
Naturally, he looked different from the Leon in my memories.
‘Was the difference always this severe?’
His appearance had changed so drastically that he almost looked worse.
Therefore, there was a chance that he wasn’t actually Leon.
He might have been an ‘Anomaly’ wearing Leon’s appearance.
Without lowering my guard, I used Predatory Instinct [S].
==< Character Information >==
Name: Leon Vatenberg
Classification: Kingdom Animalia, Class Mammalia, Family Hominidae, Human
Gender: Male
Age: 21
I confirmed that he was the real Leon.
I also saw Leon’s ability, Present Vision [L].
◆ Present Vision [L] : The user can precisely observe and perceive events occurring in the [Present]. This allows the user to intuitively comprehend not only visual phenomena but also the event’s [Context, Cause, and Circumstances].
During this process, the user can exercise limited [Retrocognitive Perception] and [Precognitive Perception].
Trait: Present Vision [L]
Its rank was [L], signifying Legendary Rank.
It was the same rank as Iliana’s Insight [L].
In other words, it was an extraordinary ability comparable to that of a Hero of the Coalition Forces.
Only then did I understand.
‘So that was the reason.’
The battlefield instincts Leon possessed in my previous life—
“If Hero Ian hadn’t existed, Leon would have become the Commander-in-Chief of the Coalition Forces.”
He had been capable of becoming the Coalition Forces’ Commander-in-Chief.
Apparently, his unparalleled natural battlefield instincts originated from Present Vision [L].
As its description indicated, Present Vision [L] didn’t merely allow him to observe current events.
Through Retrocognitive Perception, it allowed him to partially reconstruct the past using present information.
Through Precognitive Perception, it allowed him to predict the immediate future using present information.
It organically connected the flow of past and future around the present.
“W-What is happening...? No, what happened...? What am I even saying?”
I had repeatedly reset the Vanished Social Club.
After dozens of repetitions, Leon had begun questioning the phenomena occurring in the ‘present’.
In a sense, he was offering limited resistance against the Authority of Oblivion.
I thought I might be able to restore his memories by using the Bond Skill Mental Empathy [E].
However, that skill could only be used on someone whose Affinity had reached the <Bond Stage>.
At this point, Leon and I had never even met.
I slowly approached him.
Seraphia hurriedly followed me.
“L-Let’s go together...!”
Seraphia anxiously pressed herself against my side. I nearly reprimanded her but restrained myself.
At least she wasn’t holding the hem of my clothes this time.
“Your Highness, are you all right?”
Leon raised his head at my voice.
Frowning, he looked back and forth between Seraphia and me.
At this point, Leon and I had never met.
However, only the events of the ‘Royal Social Gathering’ had been forgotten.
In other words, the disturbance Seraphia and I caused inside the royal palace hadn’t been erased.
“You two are….the delinquents from the House of Count White Wolf.”
Leon knew who I was.
However, he remembered us somewhat strangely.
Well, he wasn’t entirely wrong…. Regardless—
Leon’s golden eyes flashed.
“You two! Don’t you find something strange about this?”
Leon instinctively questioned us.
His gaze deepened as though he were attempting to perceive something.
“It feels like the same events keep repeating...? No, something is…. What is it?”
Unable to find certainty even within himself, Leon stumbled over his words.
As expected, he was offering ‘limited’ resistance against the Authority of Oblivion.
Unless—
‘Leon himself might be an Anomaly.’
Leon hadn’t appeared at the tea party even once.
And not only at the tea party—
He hadn’t appeared during any event of the Royal Social Gathering.
Yet he had suddenly appeared here.
That was extremely suspicious.
Of course, this was the real Leon.
However, I couldn’t dismiss the possibility that ‘Leon’s presence at the tea party’ was itself an Anomaly.
‘Has Luseria run out of demonic servants?’
After dozens of repetitions of the Royal Social Gathering, Luseria had exhausted all the demons she used to create Anomalies.
With no other options, she might have been attempting to create a dilemma for me in this manner—
‘But it doesn’t matter.’
Unfortunately for her, this method wouldn’t work on me either.
I merely had to continue the Royal Social Gathering.
There was no need to determine whether Leon was an Anomaly.
If Leon was an Anomaly—
Everything would reset.
If he wasn’t—
I could proceed to the next day and beat Alex senseless again.
Either way, I would accumulate Sanity points, so there was no problem.
However, there was one thing I needed to know.
“Your Highness, where were you and what were you doing while the Royal Social Gathering was taking place?”
“....Why are you asking?”
“I have also experienced what Your Highness described—the feeling that the same events are repeating.”
“You too?!”
“That’s correct. Therefore, if these events repeat again, I will come and find you.”
Leon frowned deeply.
He remained silent for a moment.
He appeared to be carefully reconsidering something.
“I was....”
Leon drew out his words.
He seemed to be searching through his memories.
“While the Royal Social Gathering was taking place—”
Leon’s expression twisted slightly.
“I was…. What is this?”
At that moment—
Leon’s expression abruptly stiffened.
It was the expression of someone who had nearly remembered a particular truth.
“This…. This is impossible.”
“Your Highness, are you all right?”
“That can’t be true. This is….impossible. I was definitely with him—”
At that exact moment—
“That’s far enough.”
A cold yet languid voice rang out. The atmosphere changed simultaneously.
A dangerously alluring presence enveloped the tea-party venue.
A woman embodying both chilling terror and intense temptation revealed herself.
Luseria, the Seductress of Lust.
She stepped forward gracefully with an enchanting smile.
“You are not permitted to remember anything beyond that.”
Luseria’s slender fingertips pointed toward Leon.
The Vanished Social Club.
A space that repeated infinitely and was forgotten infinitely.
Luseria hadn’t designed this space merely to repeat the Royal Social Gathering.
It was a ritual that slowly but surely corroded the soul.
Within the infinitely repeating Royal Social Gathering, every memory gradually faded.
Within endlessly repeating Oblivion, one’s very existence became indistinct.
Those trapped here would eventually forget even who they were. Ultimately, even their remaining emotions would disappear.
Once that happened—
Luseria would infiltrate Seraphia’s mind and corrupt her.
That was Luseria’s objective.
However, an unpredictable variable appeared.
Adrian.
That strange delinquent.
Even within the endlessly repeating Royal Social Gathering, Adrian wasn’t swept away by Oblivion.
His memories and soul should have been devoured, causing him to lose his sense of self long ago.
But that hadn’t happened.
Adrian remained fully aware of every repetition. He had been resetting everything through his own will.
The Vanished Social Club operated by repeating endlessly and gradually corroding its victims’ souls.
However, its natural flow broke the moment Adrian became immune to Oblivion.
The Vanished Social Club could no longer function properly.
As a result, Seraphia escaped from the Authority of Oblivion.
Now even the First Prince, Leon, was beginning to escape from it.
Leon was never supposed to appear at the Royal Social Gathering. Other irregularities might have been acceptable, but Leon absolutely wasn’t.
His memories could never be allowed to return. Luseria had no choice but to intervene personally.
“You are not permitted to remember anything beyond that.”
Whoooosh—!
Darkness extended from Luseria’s fingertips. A stream of black power covered the surrounding space.
That was when—
Adrian charged directly toward her. There wasn’t the slightest hesitation in his movements.
As expected, his ability to act and make decisions was impressive.
However, Adrian had sharpened his fingernails.
Apparently, he intended to counter her power with them—
‘How foolish.’
His method of responding was incorrect.
It went beyond being mistaken. It was completely wrong.
The darkness Luseria had unleashed was a type of Black Magic.
However, Black Magic was different from conventional magic. Black Magic wasn’t ‘magic’ that interpreted and reproduced natural laws.
It was a power that twisted, rejected, and overturned those laws.
Therefore, it couldn’t be countered through understanding, analysis, or defense.
It wasn’t something that could be overcome with sharpened fingernails.
That was how it….should have been….
Crack—!
A strike tore directly through the darkness.
“What...?”
The darkness was torn apart. It was as though the power itself had been denied.
But how….could that be possible?
Black Magic couldn’t be nullified.
It was a formless curse and a force that defied natural law and order.
Yet now—
Adrian charged again.
His movements didn’t allow her even a moment to think.
“Don’t you dare!”
Whoooosh—!!
Both of Luseria’s hands were instantly engulfed in pitch-black darkness.
She immediately assumed a defensive posture and wrapped herself in darkness like a cloak.
Adrian casually swung his claws.
They emitted no magical power or Mana whatsoever. Nevertheless, the attack didn’t feel light to Luseria.
A merciless, wide-ranging force—
It tore through Luseria’s darkness once again.
Craaaaack!
“What in the world...?!”
Warning alarms began ringing inside Luseria’s mind. Her cloak of darkness was torn apart and disappeared.
Pain resembling her entire body being ripped apart engulfed her.
The sudden shock instantly cleared her mind. She couldn’t understand what had happened, but….
She was the one who had been wrong.
Luseria spat out the blood filling her throat and forcibly held on to her fading consciousness.
Curses that restricted movement were useless. Defensive Black Magic was meaningless.
Neither curses nor Black Magic had any effect against Adrian.
‘He’s far stronger than he appeared through the crystal orb...!’
Adrian was overwhelmingly powerful. His strength went without saying.
His utility abilities and physical control also surpassed everything she had imagined.
Most extraordinary was his tremendous speed.
It resembled the Spatial Movement Magic known as Blink.
However, it was different from Blink.
Blink produced a Mana fluctuation at the moment of movement.
By reading that fluctuation, one could predict when and where the attack would appear.
Adrian’s movements produced nothing of the sort. They didn’t generate even the slightest Mana fluctuation.
That meant they were purely physical movements performed without Mana.
She didn’t know how that was possible. Regardless, she couldn’t predict his position.
‘But if they’re merely physical movements...!’
Luseria opened her eyes wide.
Then her consciousness abruptly disappeared. Luseria’s body flew an immense distance.
She only regained consciousness after crashing into the floor.
She had believed she could read his movements through visual information if they were purely physical—
....Once again, she had been wrong.
Adrian existed beyond the boundaries of her understanding.
‘Where did this monstrous bastard come from...?!’
Luseria gritted her teeth.
She couldn’t imagine even the slightest possibility of defeating Adrian.
Would things have been different if her demonic servants were still present?
….She didn’t know.
She had already exhausted every servant during the dozens of repetitions of the Royal Social Gathering.
However, that didn’t mean she had no remaining options.
Luseria possessed one objective.
She wanted to infiltrate Seraphia’s mind and corrupt her.
However, that was merely ‘Luseria’s’ objective.
It wasn’t the reason the Vanished Social Club had been created.
Luseria had merely used this space as a ‘tool’.
Its fundamental purpose lay elsewhere. The true purpose of the Vanished Social Club was—
Rumble—!
The darkness spread behind Luseria and surged violently.
Pure dark power swirled around her.
Luseria’s fingertips trembled—
And the pitch-black shadow beneath her feet writhed—
“Awaken! Forgotten one, lost within the Cycle of Oblivion!!”
Darkness exploded outward in every direction.
The erupting darkness raged violently.
As though Luseria had unleashed all her power, the darkness swallowed the surrounding space.
The light disappeared, and pure darkness covered everything.
* * *
I couldn’t approach carelessly.
I took one step backward.
“Ahahahahahaha!!!”
Luseria released a maniacal laugh.
The darkness that had swallowed the space began churning.
Something emerged from within it—
An enormous cocoon.
It appeared to have been woven from threads of darkness, as though something were being gestated inside.
“Every time you repeated this Royal Social Gathering, ‘it’ grew by devouring your memories and soul!”
Luseria’s laughter intensified.
“Within the cycle created by your insane behavior, it was able to develop into a more complete existence!!”
The cocoon’s surface writhed.
The black threads pulsed like a beating heart. Cracks appeared across the enormous cocoon.
Luseria’s eyes gleamed with anticipation.
“Now confront its true form yourself!”
Craaaack!
The surrounding space shook.
This wasn’t merely Black Magic.
It felt as though every trace of the forgotten entities had become intermingled and distorted inside the cocoon before awakening.
Before long—
Someone slowly emerged from the darkness leaking out of the cocoon.
Black hair.
Red eyes.
Even his clothes were identical—
“Brother...?”
It was me.
An individual completely identical to me, as though I were looking into a mirror.
However, the entity before me wasn’t a mere reflection.
I immediately used Predatory Instinct [S].
Then I confirmed the identity of the ‘me’ standing before me.
==< Character Information >==
Name: Adrian White Wolf (Memoria)
Classification: Kingdom Animalia, Class Mammalia, Family Hominidae, Proto-Human
Gender: Male
Age: 19
Traits: Regeneration [B+], Hardened Skin [B], Nutrient Synthesis [B], Promote Metabolism [C+], Dragon’s Claw [A], Metabolic Overdrive [U], Dragon’s Skin [U], Predatory Instinct [S], Find Weakness [U], Infinite [M], Wrath of the Frenzied Dragon [L], Berserk [?], Slime Cell [B-], Assimilation [C+], Low Light Vision [D+]
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