Chapter 375: Reverse (3)

Ninety minutes.

It took Henry exactly ninety minutes to conquer the Second District, eat the Venom’s Heart, and consume the hearts of all the dead demonic beasts. However, he felt like he was going to throw up as he chewed on the last heart.

Henry had used magic to numb his tongue just in case. He had also removed his sense of smell as he knew that aroma was just as important as flavor. However, even with those precautions, Henry couldn’t do anything about the disgust derived from the gory scenery and the repulsion he felt from the act itself.

Henry had stoically suppressed his feelings only with his mental strength. It had certainly been a grueling ninety minutes for him.

After finishing a heart, Henry incinerated the corpse so that he wouldn’t attempt to extract a heart from the same monster twice.

But despite being awful, this process had its advantages. While the Black Tear was more clean and efficient, it brought extreme pain, while eating the hearts was less painful, despite being a revolting experience even without a sense of taste or smell.

Henry felt like the last heart he had swallowed had turned into flames and was about to explode through his chest. However, this kind of pain was nothing compared to what the Black Tear caused.

Gulp.

With that, Henry had eaten all the hearts, and when he opened his mouth, he belched. He was sure he would’ve thrown from that if he he hadn’t suppressed his sense of smell.

Having finished with his feast, Henry sat down with his legs crossed. He was bloated because he had eaten more hearts than he had to, so it was difficult for him to straighten him back. Nevertheless, he tried his best to correct his posture.

Every part of Henry’s body was covered in demon blood, but that didn’t bother him. He knew he could just get rid of all of the stains with just one Clean spell. What mattered most was absorbing all the magic from the hearts and making it his own.

Henry started to focus, and he quickly forgot about the uncomfortable sensation of his bulging stomach.

The process of absorbing magic didn’t take very long, twenty minutes at most. Considering that it had taken Henry half a day to fully absorb Miracle Blue right after his reincarnation, this process was as speedy as it could be.

Henry proceeded to bind the magic power he had extracted from the hearts with his own, which was the most important step.

After he was done, Henry infused the magic power into his Mana Heart as delicately as possible, which took another thirty minutes.

But then...

‘Maybe...?’

The 7th-Circle started vibrating, which was a sign that the 8th-Circle would soon materialize. This sensation caused Henry to smile with his eyes closed. He definitely hadn’t expected to reach the 8th-Circle so quickly. And to make things better, there was still a lot of magic he could absorb.

Maintaining the smile on his face, he continued to take in more magic until he finally awakened the 8th-Circle. He then slowly opened his eyes.

“Clean.”

Swoosh-!

Along with a gust of wind, a pure white light enveloped Henry briefly before disappearing. With that, all the crusted blood had vanished from his clothes and skin. He was as clean as he had been before coming here.

Having tidied up, Henry stretched, ready to get going.

“Hmm, I was done a lot faster than I thought I’d be.”

Henry had come all the way here in the Second District to obtain the Venom’s Heart. However, he had taken down the demon and awakened the 8th-Circle far quicker than he had anticipated. His performance had indeed exceeded his initial plan.

Henry checked the time and noticed that the sun still hadn’t risen, which caused him to have second thoughts on returning to his camp.

‘I think I can get the next plan done right now as well?’

With that, Henry checked the time again. He had anticipated that this whole endeavor in the Second District would take around four hours, but he still had plenty of time left.

‘Alright, let's give it a try.’

There really was no reason for Henry not to try his next plan. After all, he could just turn back if he ran out of time.

‘Alright then!’

He then cast Blink, the spell that would allow him to teleport anywhere within his sight. With that, he teleported right in front of the sleeping Vegarus. Then, without the slightest hesitation, he thrust the compressed magic ball between his eyes.

‘Now!’

A brilliance burst out of the magic sphere as it collided with the Demon King’s Hatred. Following that, Henry cast Blink again to get in the middle of the magic circle he had prepared to escape.

Whirr—!

Everything happened in an instant. Henry was back in his barracks, just as he had set the coordinates of the magic circle.

‘It must’ve worked, right?’

Henry was sweating profusely, the past couple of seconds having been absolutely nerve-wracking. However, he was confident that the Demon King’s Hatred had shattered. It couldn’t have withstood all that magic power.

Henry cast Clean once again to get rid of all the sweat. But as he stood up and stretched, he was interrupted by someone.

“Ar-Archmage! You should come outside for a moment!”

“Hmm? Why?”

The soldier desperately calling out to Henry was the one who had offered to wake him up at sunrise. At this, Henry quickly followed the soldier outside, and he immediately understood why the soldier had called him so urgently.

“What is that...?”

Beyond the barracks, on the edge of the horizon, a wave of light, the kind of which Henry had never seen before, radiated from where the Demonic Beast Forest was. Because of that, the troops had been panicking since dawn.

Everyone hurriedly armed themselves and switched into emergency mode, fearing that the Demon King was up to something. By the principle that whoever struck first won, troops woke up the priests to have them cast their Holy Code and then rushed toward the forest.

However...

“Wh-what in the world...?”

There were no monsters in the Second District because Henry had already dealt with them. However, Henry hadn’t told anyone about his late-night quest, so everyone was confused by the situation, as it made no sense to them.

Golden Jackson, who was in the lead, was especially baffled by the absence of monsters.

“Surely this is a dream...?”

Golden saw traces of combat, so he guessed that someone had already been there before them. However, there was no way for him to tell who it was, so he couldn’t do anything but stare in shock at the deserted forest.

All his comrades reacted similarly. But as they all tilted their heads in confusion, Henry was trying to hide his expression.

‘This isn’t what I had in mind...?’

Henry had thought that he would get emotional when he finally reunited with his old comrades after the sun rose, but he didn’t feel like that at all.

The punitive army continued advancing while still wondering who had taken care of the monsters. Given that the Second District seemed deserted, the troops intended to go to the First District, where the light had come from.

However, they were even more shocked when they stepped foot into the First District.

“Isn’t that... the Demon King?” said Golden Jackson, his voice brimming with curiosity and confusion.

He was pointing to Demon King Vegarus, or rather, to his lower body that was twitching and squirting blood.

1. The Demon King that cursed Golden Jackson was initially called Wielbark, but here and in future chapters he will be known as Vegarus in the raws. We have subsequently changed Wielbark to Vegarus in all chapters. ☜

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