-Seal
Yasin struck down, and struck down again.
Trying to analyze the structure of the magic circuit and dismantle it would likely take far longer. That was how solid the protective barrier was.
So he decided to simply keep hammering it with gravity magic.
Hadn’t even the mana arrows fired by those worthless elves eventually lodged in the serpent’s body when they poured them down in sheer numbers?
If you poured enough mana into something, there was no way it could withstand it.
The moon rose, the moon set, and the night deepened until dawn arrived.
Before he knew it, the eastern sky was growing pale.
Yasin devoted himself without rest to smashing the annex. Even so, the barrier still showed not the slightest sign of breaking.
“Damn it! This cursed barrier!”
He had kept up magic that was practically manual labor for so long that he could feel his mana was already nearly exhausted.
He had thought he had recovered sufficiently from his injuries, but using magic after so long made his body feel as though it was quickly being drained.
He was so worn out he could hardly go on.
“Hah! This is driving me insane. What the hell am I even doing right now? Should I just chase him down this instant, torture him, drag him back here, and make him undo the barrier?”
If that had been the faster way, he would have done it already.
But there was no way Oudin would meekly follow Yasin back and release the barrier, so he would have to fight him.
Fighting required mana and stamina as well, and above all, he did not even know where the bastard was.
Yasin suddenly lifted his head and looked up at the hill.
The serpent, having devoured every last mage and elf, lay stretched out along the hill. It was leisurely resting while it digested.
‘Its master is suffering like this, and that thing is lying around resting? It’s suddenly getting on my nerves. Should I drag that thing over and make it do the manual labor instead?’
But the serpent was only a monster that held mana, not a mage.
If the barrier could have been solved by the serpent’s size, there would have been no reason for Yasin to suffer this much.
After all, his gravity magic far surpassed the serpent’s mass.
‘Useless thing, and all it’s done is grow endlessly huge. How many humans and elves are inside that thing’s belly right now? Who would know? Only the Demon God, I suppose.’
When he had lived at the hermitage, the serpent would slip away every night and return only in the morning. He had no idea where it went or whom it devoured. Since it was better the more it grew, he had simply left it alone.
On top of that, after coming here and gorging itself on mages and elves to its heart’s content, it had now become so massive it covered the entire hill.
‘What kind of serpent is that?’
It no longer even looked fit to be called a serpent. Spread out in all directions, with only its belly in the center bulging like a mountain, its body looked just like the Demon God’s glutinous rice cake.
Yasin had newly created the serpent he had found in the backyard of the hermitage.
Through dimensional connection, he had borrowed energy from the Demon Realm and reborn it as a living creature that held mana.
He had made it as an experiment while trapped in the hermitage, but it had been created to serve as a tool when needed, like today.
In other words, he had meant to use it as a tool, not to raise it with tender care and enshrine it.
‘I should eat that thing. I’ll eat it and absorb its mana.’
Having reached that conclusion, Yasin slowly walked toward the hill.
There was no helping it. He felt he could only continue this labor if he ate even that thing.
He could stop and rest for a day or so, but he did not want to. He wanted to get his hands on the test subjects as soon as possible.
As Yasin approached, the serpent lazily lifted only its head and looked at him. Its face seemed to ask what was going on.
‘Look at this insolent bastard. It only lifts its head? Anyway, did a mere demonic beast sense something?’
Yasin approached the serpent’s head and gently stroked it.
A gray energy gradually rose from Yasin’s fingertips.
Only after its entire head was wrapped in gray energy did the serpent begin to make metallic sounds.
Shhh, shhh!
But it could not move an inch. The gray energy was choking it.
Soon, it could not even make a sound. The gray energy grew thicker and thicker, and before long, its entire body was enveloped in pitch-black energy.
The serpent’s body began to compress.
It compressed blackly, again and again, until in the end it shrank to a size small enough to fit in Yasin’s palm.
Yasin promptly swallowed the tiny pill-like thing.
Burning hot as it slid down his throat, it reached Yasin’s heart and began to whirl violently.
The mana of what had once been a serpent was absorbed into Yasin’s heart.
Vitality surged through Yasin’s entire body once more.
“Mm. A beautiful ending. To be eaten is the most perfect devotion a creation can offer its creator.”
With a satisfied smile, Yasin strode briskly down the hill.
Then he stood before the annex once again.
A sharp madness flowed from Yasin’s eyes. His determination to break it without fail gleamed with a pitch-black light.
“Shatter to pieces! Break apart!”
Yasin raised both arms high and struck fiercely toward the annex, pouring out a waterfall of mana.
Grrk. Grrrk.
Craaaack! Crack!
Pshshshshsh.
At last, the protective barrier broke.
Though it did not shatter with a crash the way Yasin had imagined.
While he had struck down countless times throughout the night, gray energy had seeped into the barrier here and there like mold.
When his decisive blow landed on those mold-like cracks, fissures began to spread through the barrier, and part of its structure broke and collapsed.
In any case, the barrier had reached the end of its life.
“I did it! I broke it! Oudin, you damned bastard! Hahahaha!”
Yasin burst into hearty laughter. It felt as though a thousand-year-old indigestion had been washed away.
He strode toward the annex.
He had hoped not only the barrier but the building itself would come crashing down, but aside from part of the wall breaking, the annex was almost intact.
Only now did he see that the barrier had not been a single layer. That was why it had not broken even after being struck by such tremendous gravity magic.
The strongest of the barriers had been destroyed, but others remained. As he drew closer, mana prickled and stretched out.
But this much was nothing.
With gray energy wrapped around his entire body, Yasin walked into the annex without hesitation.
“Let’s see. Where is the lift that goes underground……?”
He found the lift quickly. But there was yet another layer of protective barrier around the lift.
“Ugh! This is so damn annoying, seriously!”
The irritation seemed to make his strength surge even more. Yasin immediately thrust both arms straight forward.
A fierce vortex of gray energy burst from his fingertips.
The lift’s barrier, too, had been damaged by the black magic Yasin had poured out, so he was able to destroy it.
But even getting this far had already consumed quite a lot of mana.
Yasin ground his teeth.
“Damn bastard. He put up barriers so thoroughly. Is he a barrier expert or what!”
Soon, Yasin took the lift underground, and his mouth fell open at the sight before him.
This was not the scene he had expected.
The entire underground cavern was frozen solid. Everything was inside there. The creations Yasin had made, the golden apples, and the test subjects that were their results.
But it was not supposed to be frozen whole like that.
“What is this? Why is it like that? Why is there an iceberg……?”
He could not finish speaking.
The underground space itself was frozen as well, so biting cold and frost were flying all the way to Yasin, cutting at his ears and striking his cheeks.
He was barely standing in the gap in the space that had been created when he broke the lift’s barrier.
Yasin quickly put up a protective barrier around himself first. Then he extended his detection and examined the frozen underground space.
The underground cavern and the test subjects were not merely frozen solid; they had been firmly sealed by magic.
“You madman! What the hell did you do!”
Rage surged to the top of his head.
Yasin again wished for that rage to be converted into the mana of black magic. No matter what, he had to break the magical seal and smash the ice apart.
He gathered all his strength and fury and thrust his arm forward. He unleashed gray energy filled with the power of destruction.
But the magical seal and the frozen space did not budge.
Yasin once again put his faith in patience and the power of sheer quantity.
He wove gravity magic, flame magic, spatial magic, and physical magic together and repeated them countless times. He struck and struck until the mana he had barely replenished by eating the serpent, his own creation, ran dry again.
Even so, it did not so much as flinch.
“Uwaaaaaaah! Just you wait and see if I let that bastard get away with this!”
In the end, Yasin roared so loudly that the underground cavern rang.
In truth, he knew it well himself. This magical seal could not be destroyed with attack magic.
It was an identity-bound magical seal. Unless the mage who had sealed it came in person, it would not break. It was like an absolute law of the magical world.
Of course, if one analyzed every last detail of the seal’s magic circuit, it could not be said that dismantling it was completely impossible, but that was only in theory.
In reality, it was a seal made up of such a complex magic circuit that ordinary mages would not even dare attempt to analyze it.
“Oudin, you dared to seal my test subjects? You dare block my path? I will never forgive you!”
Had all the manual labor he had done through the night, all the way here, led only to facing an impossible seal?
Yasin’s rage blazed. It burned as gray energy fiercely enough to steal away his last remaining mana. At last, his knees nearly gave way beneath him.
Yasin seized hold of his wavering consciousness and headed for the lift.
‘Wait for me. I’m coming for you. Wait like you’re dead!’
Now there was only one method left. He had no choice but to find the bastard and drag him here.
Yasin took the lift back up to the surface. After leaving the annex and crossing the garden, he looked around the mansion.
He needed a place to rest for a moment. Setting aside the fact that he had not slept all night, he had used up all his mana even after devouring the serpent.
It was absurd, but in any case, if he was going to catch that bastard, he had to replenish his mana again. He needed even a brief rest.
Yasin entered the main building. Though the walls and roof were damaged, it was relatively intact.
There was no one inside the house. The people had long since fled.
He found the kitchen, rummaged through the refrigerator, and took out some food. Then he turned on the television. Searching for the news to grasp the situation outside, he was able to hear two useful pieces of information.
One was that after all the mages sent into the mansion had died, they had decided not to send in any more mages and had only stationed the army at a considerable distance.
In effect, it was no different from saying they would not respond and would merely pretend to.
“That’s right. Neither the government nor the Hall can actively stand in my way. How would they dare attack, not knowing what secrets I might reveal? They must all be trembling in fear. Haha!”
The other piece of news concerned the whereabouts of Oudin, whom Yasin was searching for.
It said Oudin had gone down to Daejeon last night and dealt with the rampage of the Awakeners. Afterward, he had left for Chungcheongbuk-do.
‘What? Chungcheongbuk-do? Where in Chungcheongbuk-do? Don’t tell me……?’
Yasin’s eyes widened.