◈ Chapter 516. For There Is Light There
The demon king of the Eighth Throne, gentle Barbatos.
“This is unlike you, Paimon.”
At this moment, none of his usual composure could be found in his actions.
The series of events unfolding in the Demon World.
Even with his powers of comprehension, he could not understand them.
Tremble.
Even as he forcibly clenched his shaking hand, he did not let go of the telescope.
Thanks to that, he was able to witness it.
The entire western region of the Demon World.
Paimon’s domain.
Being wholly sucked into the “curse” floating in the sky.
“What on earth is that curse for?”
To require so many sacrifices?
He might not compare to Baal, but Paimon was different from the other Ten Thrones. The very fact that he possessed such strength and yet was satisfied with the Ninth Throne was proof that, to Barbatos, he was a being in a realm beyond comprehension.……
Gulp.
He swallowed dryly in tension, but only for a moment.
“As expected, is it him?”
Barbatos thought of the guest he had not been waiting for.
Pride.
Because it had been an unarranged meeting.
He had expected the gathering to break up quickly.
Yet the conversation between Paimon and Pride did not end easily.
“To think they could converse so well even in such a situation.”
By such a situation,
he meant the new Ten Throne, Lee Hoyeol. That man was rampaging like a reckless brat, without considering his own influence. Barbatos exercised his understanding as a mediator.‘Did you perhaps already suspect it?’Was that why they conversed without paying any mind to the new Ten Throne? If so, Paimon, does that mean the curse being manifested by offering your domain as a sacrifice is also part of the plan?
Barbatos shook his head sincerely.
“……
It is an action only Baal could understand.”...
Pride said,
“The adventurers’ world. Among them, the Republic of Korea.”
“The Republic of Korea?”
“Indeed. A single ray of light seeped out from that land.”
From Greed to Lust and Envy. The Seven Deadly Sins had long since expanded their range of activity from the Arcana Continent to the adventurers’ world. Therefore, Pride was well-versed in information about reality.
“Unlike you lot, who are stuck in the Demon World, we had no restrictions. Of course, now that Behemoth’s Maw has ceased its activity, you could invade the Arcana Continent as much as you please…….”
Pride asked subtly,
“But your objective is not the Arcana Continent, is it, Paimon?”
Paimon found interest in his impudence.‘A lowly demon of the Arcana Continent.’That was all Pride appeared to be in Paimon’s eyes. However, Paimon did not underestimate him. Pride understood the danger of the “single ray of light” precisely.
Pride did not miss the opportunity.
“If you cannot extinguish the light, then you need only turn the land where that light began into a living hell. We will show that ‘single ray of light,’ a demon hunter, what the agony of falling into hell is like in return.”
Even as he gauged the other’s mood, he did not bend his will.
“To do that, Paimon, your decision is needed. Compared to you, I am a demon so lowly that I have no ability to turn the world into hell…….”
“What meaning would that have?”
“What meaning, you ask…….”
Dry golden eyes.‘……
If I answer wrongly here, I’ll die on the spot.’However, Pride did not misspeak.
“It can endanger the single ray of light that is gripping and shaking my pitiful younger brother. It can make the single ray of light grow dim on its own. Is that reason alone not sufficient?”
That day when the Claudi Territory burned.
Because he had faced the single ray of light that shone upon Granfell.
Pride had not overlooked it.
Grind. Pride gnashed his teeth.
“If we do not change, the single ray of light will never go out. It will lead my younger brother without knowing its place and make my younger brother suffer eternal agony. That is why we must make it lose its light on its own. We must collapse the single ray of light from within.”
Paimon chewed over the words that had pierced him like a dagger.
-“Shut your mouth. At this moment, I am suppressing, to the utmost, the impulse to tear you apart.”
He had been able to sense it from that hostile gaze of yours.
In order to extinguish the light illuminating your inner self,
I might have to risk this life and stand against you.
However.‘To make that light go out on its own.’This was an unmistakable stratagem.
A vile scheme among schemes.
Meaning it was not a nobleman’s method.
But Paimon made his decision.‘If it is for you.’I will no longer concern myself with appearances.
“Pride, this noble Paimon shall accept your proposal.”
“……!”
Soon, his noble gaze turned toward his domain.
The west of the Demon World.
Now that the lich Discus, who had once threatened Buer’s position, had vanished.
The only land in the Demon World that could be called a territory was the west.
Paimon’s authority, the Golden Paradise (黃金鄕).
Everything was thanks to Paimon’s care. Yet at this moment, Paimon set down the weight of being a noble. He also set down mercy, an even more meaningless emotion.
Sssssss.
The golden land immediately lost its light, turning to dust and disappearing.
Before anyone knew it,
everything was being sucked toward the curse floating in the sky.
It was like a kind of declaration.‘……
It is done.’What a truly arrogant ability, Ten Throne.
While Pride swallowed his exclamation,
Paimon spoke to Pride.
“I have received help from you.”
It was an expression of gratitude, yet Pride felt a sense of incongruity.
“……?”
Because he had caught a subtle change in Paimon’s voice.
But that was as far as he got.
For blood burst from Pride’s mouth the next moment.
“Kuh.”
Agonizing pain surged in his throat.
The sudden gush of blood was enough to stain his drooping silver hair red.
Paimon continued speaking indifferently.
“Therefore, I shall allow you to keep your life.”
At those words, Pride realized it.‘Have you stopped playing noble and finally revealed your true nature?’Only now are you truly like a demon, Paimon.
That is why you deserve to be called one of the Ten Thrones.
Pride clenched his teeth.
Even so, he lowered his head.
“I express my gratitude for that mercy…….”
Granfell Claudi Arpheus Romeo.
For my poor younger brother,
he could endure this much pain as many times as necessary.*
Jeju Island.
“The situation is serious, Taemin.”
Nam Cheolmin looked down at the island’s scenery from atop the helicopter.
The mages of the Magic Tower had gained the freedom to leave the tower.
Thanks to their swift support,
“Through portals, we evacuated all the remaining residents, but……. The damage that’s already occurred is significant. More than anything, we can’t get that fire under control. Starting from the green tea fields……. No, it’d be better if you just saw the pictures.”
Tap tap tap.
Nam Cheolmin tapped at his laptop and sent the message.
Then, a meaningful voice came back immediately.-……
Hyung, is that really a rift?
Nam Cheolmin was a player, just like his younger brother.
Information about the “rift” covering Jeju Island should have appeared.
But Nam Cheolmin shook his head.
“No. Just as the AAU predicted. It wasn’t an ordinary rift, but a curse.”[You have discovered the curse, “Paimon’s Domain.”]
Nam Taemin answered at once.
-Hyung, I’m asking just in case. The other players haven’t arrived yet, right? The Magic Tower mages are still only watching from far away from the curse for now, too?
“Hm? Uh, yeah. That’s right. The flames are so intense that I don’t think I’ll be able to land for a while either. Well, from what I can see, the situation for the other players and other guilds doesn’t look all that different…….”
-Thank goodness. Anyway, please stop them from entering.
“Why? Do you have some idea of what this is?”[Curse].
Even as an analyst, it was an unfamiliar word.
After all, in Arcana, when one said curse,
it usually referred to a debuff.
-I heard about it briefly when I was operating with the Commander-in-Chief. He said demons can use curses to pull targets into their consciousness, and that a half-baked mind wouldn’t be able to break a curse.
Nam Cheolmin wondered if it could be true.
“……
Pull them into their consciousness?”
There was no possibility that Hoyeol’s information was wrong. After all, Hoyeol was the one who had revived Akshan, the holy land of demon hunters, and even freely commanded Akshan’s wolf.
That was the reason Nam Taemin could not remain calm.
-Back then, I didn’t understand exactly what consciousness meant. But now that I can come and go from the Social Hall of Space-Time, I can guess a little. That’s why I’m saying this, hyung.
Nam Taemin’s voice grew intense.
-From the moment that curse materialized, Jeju Island had already fallen into Paimon’s consciousness. Unless someone has the mental strength to stand against Paimon, setting foot on Jeju Island will be no different from suicide!...
Senior of Earth Magic, Maia Deian.
“Curtain, is that the best you can do?”
He urged the senior of Ice Magic, Curtain Reble. Curtain’s brow furrowed deeply. He had wrung out every scrap of mana he had and even what he did not have in an attempt to suppress the flames, but it was not enough.
“There’s something strange about those flames.”
Maia replied crookedly,
“Are you trying to blame the incompatibility between ice and fire? If Elder Senios of the Perpetual Snow, who put a fire dragon to sleep, had heard you, he would have scolded you.”
“I’m not talking about compatibility, my good man!”
Curtain gnashed his teeth.
“It’s completely impossible to interfere with that fire at all!”
“What?”
“So, to put it simply, it’s similar to illusion magic!”……
Illusion magic?
Maia lifted his already lofty nose even higher and examined Jeju Island. Illusion, was it? Then did that mean the earth, heated at this moment, was also suffering from an illusion?
“That cannot be…….”
Curtain cut off his words early.
“No, I said it’s similar. I’m not saying it’s a real illusion. Judging from how we’re insulting each other as usual, our minds are perfectly fine, aren’t they? Unless it’s an illusion that disturbs even the sixth sense beyond the five senses, that is.”
“Hmm. I shall ask Senior Nasrow, the expert, about that.”
“Honestly. You never believe a word I say, Maia, do you?”
Muttering, Curtain counterattacked.
“And you, Senior Maia, are you not ashamed before former Elder Yugwid, the gentle giant? At this moment, the earth is screaming…….”
“There was something Lord Yugwid told only me.”
“What, only you?!”
He had a one-on-one conversation with the elder?
Earth Magic.
It was true that the two shared the common point of belonging to the same school, but.‘……
Lord Senios. If he says that, what does that make me?’Ice Magic.
Why did you not exchange words with me, your junior who studied the same discipline? I, too, need to knock that high-and-mighty earth mage down a peg……!‘That is unfair, Lord Yugwid…….’Curtain swallowed a groan.
Ignoring him completely,
Maia continued.
“An earth mage must be prudent until the very, very end.”
That was right.
At this moment, Maia was enduring.
If he had followed his feelings, he would already have,
“I, too, want to cull away the burning land, Senior Curtain.”
However, because the earth lay beneath all things,
and because the aftermath of manifesting it would be the greatest for that very reason,
he had to exercise patience.
Had Lord Yugwid not shown him that?‘You must have taught me a lesson until the very end.’By connecting the Arcana Continent and the adventurers’ world through your death. And so, Maia desperately observed Jeju Island. Before long, the apprentice mages of adventurer origin arrived on Jeju Island.
“The update notes clearly specified it as a rift, but……. It doesn’t seem to be an ordinary rift after all.”
“Are the letters visible in your field of vision different?”
“Yes. They clearly say curse, not rift……!”
Perhaps it was thanks to following Chief Lee’s teachings
and not neglecting their study of the strange.
He was able to understand the adventurers’ words without difficulty.
“A curse, Paimon’s Domain.”
After chewing over the precise name, Maia judged.
“As expected, we have no choice but to wait for Chief Lee…….”
The one who could resolve this situation was, after all,
surely no one but Chief Lee.
However, someone answered his muttering.
“No. We can’t depend on Chief Lee forever.”
“……
And you are?”
“I’m sorry, Senior Maia.”
A bow.
The cone hat.
Even as Jesse lowered her head, she did not bend her will.
Because she had witnessed it just moments ago.‘Chief Lee doesn’t have that kind of leeway.’Chief Lee, who had been desperately suppressing his emotions in the Social Hall of Space-Time. How extreme must it have been for even her master inside the cone hat to say words defending Chief Lee?
-We cannot place another burden on Chief Lee.
Jesse continued,
“At the very least, we must not be the first to ask him for help.”
“Is that so, Miss Jesse Hainess?”
Maia stared at Jesse.
A girl who mistook what she had seized through luck
as entirely her own ability.
However, no matter how much favoritism the Magic Tower had shown her until now,
“Even if it is you, you will have to take responsibility for that statement.”
There was no favoritism when it came to the responsibility of putting forth an opinion in opposition to one of the only twenty senior mages in the Magic Tower. Maia spoke leisurely.
“Then, by all means, show me that method.”
“…….”
“How do you intend to suppress flames that even magic cannot affect? How do you intend to suppress a curse, Miss Jesse Hainess, adept mage……. No, heir to the Great Mage?”
Whose disciple is that rude brat?
It was the moment the Tower Master inside the cone hat growled.
Before Jesse could answer anything,
Maia’s face twisted.
It was a reflexive reaction.
To be precise, because he had detected a presence he had deliberately engraved in his memory.
At this moment, the presence of those who had set foot on Jeju Island.
Maia gnashed his teeth.‘Lord Yugwid.’That was right.
Yugwid.
The long-cherished wish she had left without resolving.
The ill-fated relationship with the Shadow Mercenary Corps.‘How dare they trample upon the land where Lord Yugwid is buried……?’By what right had they crawled out from the Arcana Continent into the adventurers’ world? Maia immediately closed his eyes and searched for mana traces, tracking the movements of the Shadow Mercenary Corps.
However…….
“……?”
Something was strange.
The Shadow Mercenary Corps.
Their attire was somehow…….
excessively splendid.
“……
What are those cloaks?”*[Additional Emergency Update]※From now on, Akshan resumes demon hunting.