Chapter 513: Contradictions

With the magic circle under his feet, Oliver instantly vanished.

Everyone who saw it remained speechless.

Not only Yareli, Derek, and Unner from the Tower of Magic, but even the Skadi Faction’s traditional mages like Lilith.

No one could accept what just happened. It felt like they were dreaming.

“Aaargh!!”

A scream rang out, bringing everyone back to reality.

The one screaming was none other than Victor, who had been stabbed in the hand by Derek with a dagger.

The size difference should have made it difficult, but after Oliver’s attack, the frozen Victor could only submit.

Derek twisted the dagger and asked a question.

“Hey, big guy. What just happened? Where did he go?”

Victor kept screaming, the emotion in Derek’s voice and blade intensified.

“Aaargh!! You bastard…!”

“Haven’t figured out the situation yet?”

Derek added heat to the dagger while it twisted. The smell of burning flesh filled the air, and Victor’s screams grew louder.

His teammates tried to move, but before they could even take a step, their legs were instantly frozen solid.

Yareli had used the power of her Demon Eye, and she glared at them with such cold and fierce eyes that even the ice-manipulating Skadi mages were completely subdued.

Yareli took complete control of the situation, but she felt no satisfaction as she approached Victor and asked, very calmly and coldly.

“Where did you take him?”

Victor didn’t scream or curse, he remained silent. Derek’s threats weren’t as terrifying as what he felt from Yareli. His instincts warned him of real danger.

Victor, who didn’t even know what had happened, stayed silent in the dead, icy silence, until Yareli was about to take the next step. Then, a voice came from behind.

“Hey, you need to keep them breathing if you want answers.”

Derek and Yareli reflexively turned around. Behind them were the mages of the Tower of Magic.

And they belonged to the main faction of each school.

***

“Hmm…”

Oliver let out a small sound as he looked around.

It was a huge, collapsed, dirty, and abandoned underground tunnel. No matter how much he looked, it was the Contaminated Zone in Section F.

It was definitely outside Randa, fighting the Skadi Faction, and then suddenly, in the Contaminated Zone… or rather, a place recreated by magic. What kind of power was this?

“Could it be Lilith’s creation?”

Oliver asked as he looked at the woman sitting in one corner of the Contaminated Zone.

She was an unrealistically beautiful woman, with glowing white skin, hair that shone like gold, and a slender, sculpted body. Though her appearance was less unbelievable than what was inside…

The blonde woman, Lilith, responded.

“Yes, isn’t it cool?”

Oliver nodded.

“Yes, it’s impressive… But this is a project the Tower of Magic was researching.”

“Oh, you knew?”

Lilith let out a polite scoff. Combined with her beautiful appearance, her provocation carried even more weight, but since her opponent was Oliver, it didn’t work at all.

It merely continued the conversation.

“I heard. Roughly what the stolen project was about. Long-distance deployment of magic using the World Tree, energizing the mana that dwells within the World Tree, materializing the memories of the World Tree, and reconstituting living beings through its body parts, and so on… All very fascinating subjects.”

“You must be jealous that we snatched the project and brought it to completion.”

Oliver shook his head.

“I am surprised, but not jealous.”

“Really?”

“Yes. It’s genuinely surprising that someone completed the project, but since it was something Puppet was researching, I’m not jealous. As long as it’s completed, it doesn’t matter who did it.”

Oliver suddenly mentioned the name ‘Puppet.’

His reasoning skipped several steps in the conversation. However, Oliver was certain.

Because Lilith’s body was none other than Puppet’s creation.

“Am I wrong?”

Oliver asked as he looked at Lilith, and she responded.

“You’re correct… How did you know?”

“I’ve seen Puppet’s Zombie Puppets three times already. Since Zombie Puppets are crafted with meticulous care, if you examine them closely, you can tell who made them. That’s why I thought of Puppet.”

Words that only someone who has crafted Zombie Puppets for a lifetime could say. Yet, these words were spoken by Oliver, a man with not a single wrinkle on his face.

An incredibly arrogant statement. But Lilith didn’t argue.

Because Oliver had earned the right to say such things. No, the word ‘right’ was too trivial.

Arrogance, qualifications… Nothing could be attached to someone who could determine everything in the world.

It’s just that he wasn’t aware… or didn’t acknowledge it.

“Why do you ask?”

Oliver asked Lilith, who was lost in thought. She responded.

“No, it’s funny… Saying Zombie Puppets are crafted with care. It’s an interesting statement.”

Oliver tilted his head. He had spent an hour every day cultivating a sense of humor, but he couldn’t understand what was so funny about that statement.

Could he have reached the point where he was making jokes without realizing it? Or was he still lacking understanding?

As Oliver pondered, Lilith asked another question.

“But how did you know? That Puppet had already done research similar to this project?”

“Just a hunch.”

Oliver answered without a hint of hesitation. But it was an honest response.

“After hundreds of years of research, Puppet must have worked on something like this. After all, he’s lived longer than most organizations or nations.”

“Just because someone’s lived for centuries, does it mean a dark mage will research the same things as a regular mage?”

“Yes. The people at the Tower of Magic might not like it, but personally, I think regular and dark mages are just slightly different. Once you reach a certain level, they converge in some areas. Moreover…”

Oliver glanced around, breaking his gaze from Lilith.

In this place, which perfectly recreated a ‘virtual world’ or a ‘world of mana’ using the memories and powers of the World Tree. Or rather, the ‘World Tree’s World.’

“…Although the Tower of Magic was still in the research stage, it doesn’t make sense for someone who stole the project to complete it so quickly. Therefore…”

“…Puppet must have already done similar research! Is that what you’re saying?”

Lilith abruptly appeared in front of Oliver as she looked around.

Like Merlin, who could freely manipulate space magic, or like a demon that transcended cognition, she moved with unrestricted freedom.

It was an astonishing sight, but Oliver soon figured out the principle behind it.

This space was none other than a recreation by Lilith. In other words, it was all in Lilith’s hands. It wasn’t strange that she could freely move through space here.

Her comprehension of spatial magic was so deep that she could create and maintain such a grand complex magic.

After sorting his thoughts, Oliver nodded.

“Yes. Am I wrong?”

The blonde woman stared into Oliver’s eyes, unblinkingly. After a long moment, she answered.

“No, you’re right. Puppet had already started independent research on the World Tree. Even resorting to the extreme measure of killing a Druid Elder. He almost died, but he succeeded… You seem to know a lot about Puppet?”

“We’ve met three times. We even had ice cream together.”

“Oh! Really?”

“Yes… Is there a problem with that?”

Oliver asked, observing Lilith’s blatant reaction and dramatic emotional shift.

She showed a burst of several mixed emotions towards Oliver. Disappointment, anger, curiosity, expectations, a hint of affection, and a denial of that affection.

The emotions were so intense that even Oliver felt a slight discomfort.

At that moment, he thought of Pandora and Eve.

Pandora (Pandora), stabilized through learning with the help of Heimdal, and Eve (Eve), who was captured by the Druid and couldn’t establish her identity.

Because Lilith felt like a mix of both.

She had learned a lot yet was unstable… A truly contradictory state.

“There’s no problem. Meeting Puppet and having ice cream together isn’t illegal… Or is it? But that’s human law. It doesn’t matter. It’s just odd. I thought you wouldn’t like someone like Puppet.”

“Why would you think that?”

Oliver asked. Lilith clapped her hands.

At the sound, delicate mana gathered in her hands, and the entire space around them changed in real-time.

It was as if they were traveling through time or space as the scenery changed rapidly.

From an underground facility in the Contaminated Zone, to the surface, to forests, to cities, to villages, to wastelands. Then, it transformed back into some underground facility. A laboratory.

“Mmmmmmmm…!!”

In the underground lab, there were many pregnant women.

They were all restrained on surgical tables. Shortly after, a man in a gown approached.

He was an extremely tall man in his forties, with pale skin, a hooked nose, prominent cheekbones, and a skull-like appearance. He led one of the pregnant women somewhere.

Creak. Creak. The eerie sound of wheels echoed.

“Nnnngh! Aaaargh!”

Eyes wide open as if they would pop out, the woman screamed as she was brought into an operating room, where a shadow was cast through the window.

The man’s shadow fixed the surgical table in place and immediately picked up a scalpel. The scalpel was-

“-What is this?”

Oliver turned to Lilith.

“Just one of the hundreds, thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of experiments Puppet conducted over centuries. He created a fetus specimen every day.”

“Why are you showing me this?”

“Because it’s strange, contradictory.”

Lilith, who seemed so lofty, began to walk with exaggerated movements.

She tilted her head at an odd angle, shrugged her shoulders, spread her arms wide while swinging her hips side to side.

Like a child, she appeared playful and innocent, yet inside her was a deep-seated anger and dissatisfaction. Specifically, anger and dissatisfaction toward Oliver.

Full of unknowns, Oliver continued the conversation to understand.

“What is strange and contradictory?”

“The person who risked everything by single-handedly storming into Martel to save a kid he barely knew, yet holds a favorable view towards Puppet, who has conducted human experiments for centuries. Isn’t that strange and contradictory?”

“…,”

Oliver was silent. He could see why Lilith would think that way.

“Maybe… If you’re referring to Rossburn, it was just a personal thing… Puppet is also-”

“-This is strange too.”

Lilith raised her index finger. Her golden hair turned into a dazzling array of blue, plum, purple, red, and pink colors.

“You tried to persuade that Road Gang thug countless times, but earlier, you smashed that hotel thug’s head with a huge hammer. Bam!”

Lilith struck her left palm with her clenched right fist.

“Master Eli intervened for me… and Hogg… I used Filgarett…”

“I suppose it’s normal. People are fickle and change constantly depending on circumstances. But you…,”

Lilith trailed off as she looked back at Oliver. Her movements were like a dance – graceful and beautiful, yet somehow Oliver felt a strange discomfort.

“… But you only care about what piques your interest. No matter what it is, no matter who it involves, you don’t care. But there’s a contradiction here too.”

“What do you mean by ‘contradiction’? I’m not sure…”

“Someone who left a stable organization out of curiosity and went out alone into the streets, yet is very passive when it comes to himself?”

“Passive…? I don’t quite…”

“Someone who exists outside the world, mixing emotions with magic, wielding natural forces without training, earning the respect and reverence of demons, instilling fear in spirits, and someone whom even the once-great lords of lands destroyed by catastrophes bow down to with respect. Why don’t you properly investigate yourself? Even just on a superficial level. In the past, you would’ve abandoned everything to find out.”

Oliver’s face, always void of any emotion to the point that it was like a mask, very slightly trembled. So slight that most people wouldn’t notice.

However, Lilith, seeing the emotions reflected on that mask, smiled. It was a victorious and rather sticky smile.

“Who are you really?”

Lilith asked with a continued smile.