Chapter 309

Chapter 309

“The Creator of Madness?!”

Luna, shocked, drew her sword and immediately went into a defensive stance. Sweat trickled down her neck.

It was only natural for her to react like this.

After Caron’s report on the Four Heavenly Kings and the battle with Volkan, the Maestro of the Battlefield, the Emperor had realized that they weren’t just ordinary black mages. He had supported every effort to stop them.

As a result, the entire continent now had some information about the Four Heavenly Kings, except for Red King, Broken.

So, Luna’s reaction made sense. After all, they were supposedly facing one of the Four Heavenly Kings.

However...

‘Look at this fraud...’

[???]

He was wearing a robe, which meant my [Information Window] skill wasn’t working, but I didn’t need it to know that this guy wasn’t the real Creator of Madness.

The true Creator of Madness was known for his twisted hobby of grafting demon body parts onto himself.

There was no way someone with such a small and frail body could be him.

‘His robe isn’t writhing, and he isn’t making all those weird noises.’

A key characteristic of Lucius Black, the Creator of Madness, was that his robe constantly twitched and bulged due to the various demon parts embedded in his body.

Even with the limitations of 2D graphics in the game, the developers had painstakingly added small movements to his robe to reflect his grotesque nature.

But this guy?

He was just a regular guy in a robe.

‘Which means...’

He was a fake, a low-ranking black mage who had only a superficial understanding of the Four Heavenly Kings.

The Red King’s symbol of intertwined rat tails, the robed appearance of Lucius Black, the Creator of Madness—they were mashed together in a half-baked attempt to mimic the real thing.

But Luna and Rezé, unaware that he was a fraud, were understandably shocked.

“A... A real black mage...”

Thud.

Rezé collapsed beside me, completely unconscious.

How dare he knock out our rabbit!

“Keke, but the rabbit is the weakest of us... Go forth, fierce cat, the Second of the Four Heavenly Kings!”

Smack!

Luna whacked me on the back of the head.

“Who are you calling a fierce cat?! It’s ‘the prettiest and cutest cat in the world’!”

“That’s too long. Also, that’s a lie.”

“What part’s a lie? The beginning or the end?”

“Hmm... Both?”

Luna started strangling me with both hands. All I did was speak the truth, yet here we are!

The black mage must have thought we were confused, as he started chuckling mockingly.

“Kuhaha, the Four Heavenly Kings? What a joke. Are you trying to mimic us? I don’t know who you are, but you should run before I summon a demon.”

“Snake! We should retreat! We’re no match for him!”

Luna knelt down to lift the unconscious Rezé, and I leaned in to whisper into her ear.

“He’s a fake.”

“Huh?”

“That guy isn’t the Creator of Madness. He’s just a low-level black mage.”

“...Are you sure?”

“I’m sure. The information doesn’t match what Caron told me personally. Plus, if he were truly powerful, Rezé would have sensed it.”

“Still... a black mage is a black mage. And it looks like he’s finished preparing a magic circle. Isn’t this dangerous?”

The dark underground sewer, the huge glowing red magic circle, the rats writhing on it with their tails tied together.

And, of course, the black mage standing ominously above it all.

It was a terrifying atmosphere, even enough to make someone as confident as Luna feel uneasy.

But.

“It’s fine. The black mage is weak... and the quality of his offerings isn’t great.”

“Offerings?”

I nodded and examined the magic circle.

The inscriptions read, ‘I offer this life. Grant me my wish.’ Surrounding it were words glowing in demonic script: demon, offering, wish, summon.

‘It’s a typical demon summoning circle without any special conditions.’

Demon summoning heavily depends on the quality of the offering.

The stronger the life force and the purer the soul, the higher the Grade of the summoned demon.

And the most effective offering is, of course, a human.

It’s not just the amount of blood but also the quality of the soul that makes humans superior to other creatures.

So what about rats? Naturally, they’re the lowest of the low.

‘No matter how many there are, he won’t be able to summon a high-ranking demon.’

Luna nodded, signaling that she trusted me.

“...”

“...”

We stared silently at the black mage for about a minute. Finally, he hesitantly opened his mouth.

“Aren’t... aren’t you going to run?”

“Keke, Creator of Madness. I’ve heard so much about you. I wanted to see your power for myself.”

“I-If you do, you’ll all die!”

“Is that so? I’m looking forward to it. Your strength...”

I activated my [Eye Opening] skill and stared directly at the black mage.

“Show me everything you’ve got.”

The black mage’s body trembled violently.

Ah, this is so satisfying.

A mysterious group appearing out of nowhere, standing firm in the face of threats, wearing appropriate attire, and using the [Eye Opening] skill for added effect.

It was so cool, I almost wanted to be on the receiving end myself.

Seeking revenge, seeking recognition, he headed for the rural branch of the mage guild.

He became a mage, sure enough.

“You, become a black mage.”

“Uh... what?”

“If you refuse, I’ll kill you.”

“...?”

Black mages were still mages... right? This was fine... right?

“No, you idiot! Black mages aren’t real mages! How dense can you be?!”

They had made it sound so easy when they offered him the role of a mage.

They locked him up until the black mage initiation was complete, so escape wasn’t an option.

That’s how Crowell became a low-ranking black mage.

Life as a low-level black mage was miserable.

Running errands for the seniors, digging up graves to fetch bodies, cleaning blood-drenched research labs—it was a nightmare.

For three long months, he endured it all, biding his time, waiting for a chance to escape.

But then, he was sent to war.

“Wh-Where is this...? Carpathia?”

Thrown into the heart of a battle.

Crackle!

Demons rained down from the sky like a torrential downpour.

With each flash of lightning, another demon descended.

The tide of the battle was turning against them, and Crowell, hiding behind a wall, was dragged out by one of his senior black mages.

“Stop spacing out and draw the magic circle, you idiot!”

One of the seniors who constantly berated him.

As he hurried to draw the magic circle, the senior dragged a young boy over.

“He’ll be the sacrifice.”

The boy couldn’t have been more than five years old. His hands and feet were bound, leaving him helpless. All he could do was cry.

‘I’m sorry... There’s... there’s nothing I can do...’

The senior nodded toward Crowell as he placed the boy in the magic circle.

“What are you waiting for? Get in there too.”

“Excuse me?”

“Get in the circle. The more blood, the stronger the demon will be. Do I need to explain everything to you, you idiot?”

“...”

Thud!

The senior collapsed onto the ground. Crowell wasn’t sure what had just happened.

He wasn’t sure why there was a bloodstained rock in his right hand.

He wasn’t sure why he left the senior lying unconscious on the magic circle.

He wasn’t sure why he was now running, carrying the young boy on his back.

He didn’t know anything anymore.

“Hah!”

Crowell snapped back to reality in the underground sewers.

‘If I stay here, I’ll die.’

Frantically, he drew a concealment magic circle and hid himself and the boy.

All he had to do was hold out a little longer, and the knights would give up searching for him.

For a week, Crowell survived by eating rats and drinking purified sewage water.

Then, the strange masked figures appeared.

‘Damn it! Who are these people?’

In a panic, he used the rats he had gathered to summon a demon, hoping to scare them off.

But then, the man in the snake mask pulled out the hilt of an old sword.

Crowell’s jaw dropped.

The hilt suddenly transformed into a fully formed sword, brilliant and imposing.

A pure white blade, resplendent with multicolored flames, and a divine halo hovering above it.

Was that...?

“A sacred sword...?”

“...Human, what have you done?”

“...I have no idea.”

Crackle!

The sacred sword began to emit a pitch-black aura.

Light and darkness—two forces that should never coexist—were merging in the hand of the man wearing the snake mask.

The man slowly took a stance to draw his sword.

It wasn’t hard to guess who his target was.

“B-Break the contract! Break the contract right now!”

“I... don’t know how to do that.”

“You incompetent fool of a black mage!!”

Flash—!

A burst of light filled the sewer.

And then—

“Graaahhh!!”

The demon howled, its back arched like a bow.

–TL Notes–

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