The Berserker’s Second Playthrough in the Game - Chapter 139
Only Krnovel
Episode 139. The Devil and the Archmage (1)
In an alliance city that was ruined by a demonic infestation, in a large barracks bathed in quiet sunlight.
The man had a dream.
In the dream, the man was the devil. He was a hornless devil, the humblest of all devils. He was a young devil who was treated as an outcast among hornless devils. Like a wild dog abandoned by its mother, he was wandering aimlessly through the pale purple ruins where the power of the Great Devil had faded.
– Ahh, ahh, ahhh… … .
It was impossible to find any more traces of life there. Most of the demons, not to mention the monsters and humans, had already perished.
My mouth was dry and my intestines were twisted. Pain and despair, fresh pain and despair were needed. There has never been a time when he was more resentful of the fact that he could not nourish his bitter feelings.
At that time, the devil smelled something.
A sweeter flavor than carefully aged and grilled high-quality meat, and a densely concentrated smell of pain and despair.
– Ahahaha! Ahahahaha!
There was no time to think. The devil ran blindly after the traces. Little did he know that the reason his scent was so sweet was because it belonged to a being of higher rank than himself.
The source of the smell was eventually discovered to be a red-haired woman wearing a robe. She looked young, but her face had a darker shadow than any old person in the world.
Kwasik – !
She subdued the rushing demon with her magic and asked.
‘Have you ever seen a ‘fierce-looking, large Atalain’ around here?’
– Ah, aha!! Ahaaaaa!!
‘… … ‘You don’t know how to talk yet.’
The woman seemed to have decided that there was no reason to keep her alive any longer, as she raised a sun-like flame from her fingertips.
――――― ―― 화 화 화!
– Ahhhhh!! Ahaaaaa!!
The devil shed tears, screamed, and struggled. However, there was no way that restraints that could bind even a golem would budge under that much struggle.
However, the woman who was aiming the fireworks stood still for a long time, then suddenly distorted her expression and loosened her restraints.
Then he slowly turned his finger towards himself.
‘I don’t know, how long do I have to do this… … . I’m tired now. I’ll stop… … .’
– Ahahahahahaha!!
The reason why the devil extended his thoughts and stopped the magic just before it was fired was simple. If that woman dies, her pain and despair will disappear and she will starve to death.
However, the woman seemed to have taken the meaning of the action differently. She extinguished the flame, opened her eyes wide, smiled bitterly and muttered.
‘… … One of my old colleagues once said this. Even demons weren’t this evil to begin with.’
– Ahhh… … . Ahhh… … .
‘If that’s really true… … I’ll have to try it out with you.’
At the same time the woman picked up the leather on her back, the man woke up from his dream.
It was a dream I had countless times, but this time too, the moment I woke up, the demon came to visit me without fail.
Humans sleep and dream. Demons neither sleep nor dream. So, is the person who fell into a deep sleep and had a dream recalling his past as a demon, really a human or a demon?
It was a problem whose answer was unknown. It was a problem that had no answer in the first place. The woman who gave him a lifetime of difficulties had already left her man’s side a long time ago. She was left with only a mission that she could not escape, and only chain-like restrictions.
“Um… … Lord Tower? Are you coughing?”
When I opened my eyes, I saw a wrinkled face.
He was the chief of staff assisting with this external inspection schedule. The man shook off his distracting thoughts and put on a white robe.
“okay… … “Has there been any progress in the search so far?”
“Yes, my lord. We found the corpses of all the punitive force except for the battle mage, Uldren. Each and every one of them had piercing wounds caused by metal spikes. As you have guessed, the circumstances confirm that Elder Delpharus was possessed by a demon and massacred his allies.”
“Who killed the demon-possessed Delpharus and what happened to the ‘Iron Pillar’ are still unknown?”
“yes… … We are doing our best to investigate, but because the area is contaminated with powerful demonic energy, detection and tracking magic is still not working properly. For the same reason, it is also difficult to find out who subdued the ‘central demon’… … .”
“… … Okay, I understand. I’ll go back now.”
The Chief of Staff bowed politely, nodded, and stepped down. The man, Matapju, clasped his hands together and was alone in his thoughts.
No matter how much I thought about it, it seemed unlikely that ‘Agon’s Angry Horn’ would have subdued the central demon. If he could crack the ‘Eye of Callisto’ just by looking at him, he was no ordinary high-ranking devil. He probably was a monster that even he couldn’t guarantee victory… … .
Suddenly someone came to mind.
A being that was forgotten due to the appearance of high-ranking demons. An unidentified villain who killed Ymir Demil, a master of mind control magic, and massacred all the wizards he came across in the forest between the 6th and 7th gates.
‘Maybe he killed Delpharus and the central demon… … They may still be hunting down wizards and slaughtering them… … .’
Coincidentally, the man had just left the place where there were the most wizards in the world.
A vague sense of anxiety soaked his heart. The man took out a translucent crystal ball. It was a magical tool that allowed him to observe the entire world from where he was sitting, the ‘Eye of Callisto’. He placed his hand on it and immediately projected the scene near the magic tower.
Wooooow –
And the man finally got to see.
“… … !!!”
Dark skies, violently swirling rain and wind, the corpses of wizards that turned the pure white streets red, Oklamud and Coltran who were brutally murdered, and… … the sight of a strange man entering the lowest level.
The action was quicker than expected. The man immediately expelled all the thoughts contained in his body. Then, he searched for the body closest to the scene he was seeing, and extended his thoughts there like a flower.
“Ah, Your Majesty! There’s something I didn’t get to tell you earlier… … Huh? Hurry up, Your Majesty?”
The Chief of Staff returned to the barracks again and faced him.
The body of the Magic Tower Lord, left without a soul, just a shell left lying around.
*
Upon closer inspection, I found that the lowest floor was a space that was neatly organized to honor the ancestors.
An arched gateway embossed with six attribute symbols, beyond which appears a waiting room with a reverent atmosphere. Among the majestic colonnades, mystical characters were embossed in antique calligraphy on the walls, and artificial lanterns illuminated the dome-shaped ceiling with brilliant light. The flawless, clear, glossy flagstone made it look as if construction had been completed just yesterday.
And I saw a cozy mortuary at the end, a tombstone and coffin buried in a cluster of red lights and flowers.
Kadim wanted to run over there immediately, open the coffin, and check if Melissa was there, but he couldn’t.
At first, it was because of the terrible energy that suffocated all five senses.
Then it was because of that unidentified passenger blocking the way.
“… … “What are you?”
The passenger asked Kadeem.
He was wearing a white robe with long flowing hems, and the hood was pulled down deeply, so there was nothing visible other than his blue eyes. There was a level of murder in his voice, as if he was neatly clenching his bones.
When there was no answer, the passenger asked again.
“What are you? What are you that you dare to take advantage of my absence to slaughter the mysterious seekers and enter the inviolable tomb of the ancestor?”
“… …Who are you who says that?”
“I’ve never allowed questions.”
An unpleasant feeling that flowed like a turbid current grabbed my ankle. Kadim shook it off with the force of a strong kick. Suddenly, a bright look flashed in the eyes under the hood.
Kadim also gave her a sharper gaze.
“Are you the guy who said he was the lord of the magic tower? He went out on an inspection and I was like, how is he here?”
“I have a question for you. How on earth did you get in here? This is an area that you absolutely cannot enter without my permission… … Are you some kind of demon with the power to trespass?”
“… … The devil? Isn’t that on your side, not mine?”
This time the rhyme was quite loud.
A strange thought spread out above the shimmering black remnants and the magic tower whose identity had been discovered. When Kadim saw that, he realized a lot of information in an instant, as if his eyes were meeting each other.
“You, you are the ‘possessed servant.’ Did you transfer your thoughts from the body you inspected to the body you left here…? … . Well, that also explains how he lived for hundreds of years. Most likely, the body is replaced every time the lifespan comes to an end… … .”
– Shut your mouth!!
The voice changed into the howl of an animal, and the magic energy that was close to gas gained a sticky consistency. Dozens of vine-like stems sprang up and wrapped around the enemy’s limbs.
But this wasn’t enough. The strands of magic were completely cut off as soon as Kadim took a few steps forward. Kadim shook off the sticky residue and narrowed his eyes.
“But I don’t understand. It would have been fine if he had left a body filled with thoughts here in the first place, but why didn’t he do that? And why have you been playing as a human for so long, catching and killing demons? “Could he be a devil with a hobby of fratricide?”
– Shut up… … . Don’t treat me like some devil! I’ll seal your mouth so you can never use that dirty tongue again!
The thoughts scattered around came together. The Magic Tower Lord’s body, which had swelled up with purple lumps, shrunk back like a deflated balloon at the same time as the thoughts were released. Instead, the condensed thoughts seeped into Kadim like a tide.
A thought that, as soon as it penetrates into a solid body, finds a gap and shakes the body. It was one of the most intense movements I’ve ever experienced. It was a fatal mental attack that no one, no matter how hard-hearted, could resist.
However, it had no effect on Kadim.
– … … Huh!
The magic tower owner failed in the end and fell backwards. Her eyes trembled slightly, as if she saw something she couldn’t see.
As this was not the first time he had experienced this, Kadim was calm. The savage, whose inner garden had been overflowing, stepped forward, baring his teeth in an eerie manner.
“You’re talking nonsense, you disgusting devil. “Do you think I’m not a devil when I’m doing stuff like this and it’s just rotten in my head?”
– What the… … . Yes, you, what on earth have you planted inside that body… … .
“Melissa seems to have lost her judgment in her later years. How dare she choose a lesser swindler who is stuck in this cesspool as her successor. And since she is not the main body, she is useless… … .”
– … … Don’t put her name in your dirty mouth!!
Kuhoooooooo – !
Suddenly, the demon’s thoughts changed. Instead of reaching out to usurp the enemy’s body, he concentrated his magic energy around his master, creating a twisted mystery. A huge magic circle emerged behind the magic tower, exuding an unclean and oppressive aura.
Kadim frowned slightly.
‘That’s a magic gun commanded by a mysterious species… … . Tsk, wasn’t it a possessed species but a ‘hybrid’?’
‘Hybrid’, demons with a mixture of two or more types of characteristics.
Needless to say, these are much more demanding seeds than those with only one characteristic. It appeared to be a hybrid that combined the characteristics of a possessed species and a mystical species.
Moreover, the bastard seemed to be a ‘high-ranking demon’ in rank. The vicious magic that momentarily paralyzed the five senses was not something that a high-ranking demon could imitate. For some reason, his attacks up until now had been lackluster, but if he were to reveal his true power, even Kadim would not be able to easily fight him.
– Destroy the intruder, claws that tear the abyss… …!
――――――― Kwakwakwakwakwakwakwang – !!!
As soon as the thought was over, hundreds of black claws simultaneously stretched out from the shooting range. An onslaught that was so chaotically tangled that it looked more like a bunch of thorns than claws. If you fight against that with your bare body, you’ll end up like minced meat.
However, Kadim was not particularly upset.
I simply but quickly took out a small lantern and lit it.
Hung, Hung, Hung, Hung – !!
A miracle has occurred again.
The black claws, bathed in a faint light, crumbled like a snowstorm in the spring sun. As I took a few steps forward, the magic circle that had emerged behind the demon was also shattered and destroyed.
Pachachachachachang – !
The effect of the ‘Black Lantern’ is to burn magic. Its original use was to remove demonic sorcery rather than magic.
– What is this… … .
It was tiring to see him slowly fall down in surprise. Kadim closed the distance without giving him a chance to breathe and subdued his enemy. Matapju was crushed like a bug under his feet and couldn’t move.
– No, this is, this is nonsense, ugh, ugh… … .
Kadim lets out a sigh with a weary look on his face.
“Whew… … This is so troublesome. I thought I could just come into the magic tower and negotiate, but there’s a bunch of magicians, an elder, a demon, how many people do I have to kill… … .”
– You, what are you… … ! Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh… … .
“I never thought looking through my old colleague’s records would be so annoying. But I guess it’s almost over now.”
Although it is not the ‘main body’ that is the manifestation of all thoughts, there were quite a lot of thoughts in the body of the Magic Tower Lord. Even if all of this were destroyed, it would be a significant enough blow. Kadim held up a lamp to threaten the devil.
But the devil did not scream or writhe.
I just raised my eyes brightly and asked with a slightly trembling human voice.
“… … “What did you just say?”
“……what?”
“What did you just say?”
“… … .”
“… … You said you came to see your old colleague’s records, is that right?”
“Then what should we do?”
Kadim brought the lantern closer. However, the gaze of the Matapju was not fixed on the fire that burned the magic and thoughts, but only on the ‘fierce-looking and large Atalain.’
Soon, he gained confidence belatedly, and his eyes were shaking like a gong hit with a hammer.
“Then it couldn’t be… … You are the one… … A colleague who was with Melissa 300 years ago… … Are you ‘Kadim’?”
After silence that felt like eons of time.
The answer fell from stiff lips.
“… … “That’s right.”
“… … .”
The face buried under the hood was distorted and messy.
“Why, why, why… … Are you here only now… … ?”
Emotions that could not be defined even by language, accumulated over hundreds of years, broke the heart of the person standing on the border between the devil and the human.
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