◈ Episode 317. Still, it’s laughable (1)

Aren’t you moving too carelessly?

It’s a question I’d rather return.

My voice echoed coldly in the empty magic tower.

“It’s an obvious challenge.”

They are carrying out modifications in the Magic Tower and not anywhere else. This behavior cannot be explained unless the liver is sticking out of the stomach. Moreover, it is indiscriminate.

‘You really do have a way with words.’

But then, I felt uncomfortable.

‘…… Wait.’

Mugan is a space where nothing exists.

The five senses do not function properly. Even magic cannot be manifested. How did I recognize the aura emanating from such a place?

It’s not just that my senses are sharpened……. I am a demon hunter. This means that when I’m hunting demons, my senses are expanded to match my natural abilities, but otherwise I’m terrible.

Furthermore, the only people who can enter the Mugan are the highest ranking officers of the Magic Tower. Even seniors can’t enter the void, as the opening is only authorized for senior officers and above.

Also.

I concluded at the entrance to the Mugan.

‘There’s been a change inside.’

It wasn’t just someone breaking in.

The two elder mages who had been locked in the void.

No, something has changed within the demon worshippers.

“I command you as chief. Open the gates of Mugan.”

Kugugung.

I caught a hint of something unusual, but I spoke more harshly. This is a Magic Tower, after all, and if anything were to happen, there’d be plenty of mages to come running.

‘It’s even Mugan, isn’t it?’

An environment in which the unwavering presence of the Everlasting Mind shines especially bright.

I’ve been drinking green tea and reading in Mugan before, when others could barely last a few minutes. I should have welcomed it rather than worried about it.

So I took a step forward. It took a moment for Mugan to even hear the click of my shoes. I immediately recognized the reason for the impure gesture.

“I see.”

Mages are naturally strong in mind. Even though the elder mage endured a long time in the void, he must have reached his limit.

If he died peacefully.

Or if he died in Grandfell, where there is no mercy for demons.

I, Lee Hoyeol, might have been able to give him some respect.

I’m sure you hate me, but can’t you honor the dead?

But it was a bad idea to be so malicious to the end.

The black wall of the void.

There were words written with fingers as brushes and blood as ink.

No, it’s not really writing…….

‘I don’t recognize it.’

There was no way someone who had forgotten how to speak in Mugan could write properly, so it was neither words nor pictures. But the meaning of the suicide note was immediately clear.

It wasn’t a quick read.

It was a demon hunter’s intuition.

[Curse, ‘an unstoppable flow’ has been discovered.]

It was a message I hadn’t seen in a while.

Why, I’d only seen it when Arcana was a game.

One of Akshan’s regular quests.

was to destroy a demonic curse.

‘Destruction sounds like a big deal.’

In reality, it was a chore quest.

At the time, demonic curses were little more than graffiti, so it was treated no differently than a chore to remove graffiti from the outside walls of a town or city.

‘Akshan wasn’t ignored by the players for no reason?’

But.

I assessed coldly.

“The intention is even more impure.”

The demon then and now are on a different level.

The same goes for curses, and this was a dying curse from a great man who was once a elder mage. If a curse had weight, it had to be an incredibly heavy one.

‘That’s what it looks like.’

Bloodstains filled the black walls.

It’s enough to make anyone but the strongest of hearts cringe at the sight of it. But who am I, Grandfell? I wonder if my heart even beats at all.

The natural enemy, the one who doesn’t even flinch in the face of the demon itself.

I offered a dry comment.

“But you’re not good at creating.”

That was my evaluation of the demon worshipper who had once been an elder mage.

A demonic curse.

It would be nothing more than ugly doodles to Grandfell.

‘But not me.’

I feel uncomfortable when my name is written in red, and I am a superstitious believer who distributes points so that the [Lucky] stat does not add 4 in case of fraud, and avoids stepping on doorsteps as much as possible.

That’s me, Lee Hoyeol.

Let’s get rid of it.

That’s how I feel.

I wanted to use magic and throw hot water on it and wipe it away.

But magic is impossible in Mugan.

‘…… Should we smash it with our hands, like in the old days?’

The clothes I worked so hard to adjust since early morning will be in vain.

A demon hunter is a demon hunter to the end.

It was the moment when I was swallowing a sigh.

My eyes flashed.

[Would you like to enter the curse ‘irreversible flow’?]

Aha, so that’s it?

[The curse requires a ‘natural enemy’ to enter].

[To enter the curse, an ‘exorcism ritual’ is required.]

[Skill, ‘Natural Enemy’ proficiency is sufficient].

[The skill, ‘Exorcism Ritual’ proficiency is sufficient.]

I quickly shifted my stance.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous.”

Yeah, the prey, the demons, have grown.

Wouldn’t it be balanced if the demon hunter, the natural enemy, also advanced?

At this point, I’m wondering.

‘……Is it because it’s a really badass?’

Characters who are unremarkable in the early game but excel in the later game are often referred to as royal or king classes, comparing them to the return of the king.

In fact, you can recognize most royal classes from a mile away.

For example…….

Nearby is Skal, the dragon knight.

‘He’s so strong even if he can’t ride a dragon.’

It was everyone’s guess and expectation what Skal would be able to do if he rode a dragon’s back and became a true Dragon Knight. In that sense, everyone would laugh at a demon hunter if they were a jerk.

But as the only Demon Hunter, I could feel it.

Nothing is what it seems.

‘Same goes for skills.’

Even if it didn’t show in numbers, my skills, [Natural Enemy] and [Exorcism Ritual] had clearly grown over the years. Wasn’t the fact that I recognized the demonic scent emanating from Mugan the proof of that?

‘Thanks to my growth, I can see the curse right away.’

A moment of realization.

I took a step toward the curse left by the demon worshipper.

Partly because I didn’t want to leave a nasty curse behind, and partly out of pure curiosity. I wondered if the curse the Demon Worshipper left behind on his deathbed had any purpose.

“A flow that cannot be resisted.”

I wanted to find out why it had such a big name.

Grandfell’s temper, of course.

The demon’s will, etc.

“Then I will turn it back.”

To the very end.

Because it’s only natural to deny it.

There was no hesitation this time.

[entering the curse ‘irresistible flow’].

.

.

.

A vast vision.

I could feel it in my gut.

‘Are there no battles like in rifts or dungeons?’

I asked, expecting monsters to appear from the curse.

As evidenced by the lack of appropriate levels.

Apparently not.

Just.

“Help!”

“What are those monsters!”

“The gates of the Demon World have opened!”

“Retreat!! Everyone run away!!!”

The scene beneath their feet was clearly a devastating battlefield.

No, could it be called a battlefield?

It was more like a one-sided slaughter.

Demons trampling over cities.

At first, I wondered if it was a city on the Arcana continent.

It didn’t feel like Arcana at all. At first glance, the statues, architecture, and even the appearance of the inhabitants were unlike anything I’d seen anywhere else in Arcana.

Then a message flashed that answered my questions.

[You have entered the doomed Continent of Seorn].

The Continent of Seorn…….

I said it was strange.

Was it a completely different worldview than Arcana?

It’s always the intent of the candidate that matters.

I put myself in the shoes of a demon worshipper.

At the moment of death, what did he want to leave behind as a curse?

The answer came easily.

“I see.”

I thought again.

The purpose of the three demon worshippers, including the elder mage, Karimzeva.

They were trying to manifest the High Ranking Demon King into reality.

A flash.

As if to let you know that it is the correct answer.

The evil eyes are all aligned in the sky.

The formation looks familiar.

They are similar to the summoners of Decarabia that I witnessed in Frost.

Only, the scale of the magic circles is vast.

I can guess what they’re trying to summon.

A high ranking demon king, as expected.

Karimzeva had tried to summon a High Ranking Demon King, Gamigin, by drawing a magic circle of rifts across the world. But this is bigger than that, isn’t it? Those demons must float through space, beyond continents and worlds.

Thanks to this, we were able to identify his identity even among the high-ranking demon kings.

“Bael.”

Bael, the number one Demon King in the hierarchy.

Okay, I finally understood the purpose of the demon worshipper’s last curse. I would have called it an irresistible flow……. He wanted to tell me that no matter how hard I struggled, it would be futile in the face of the absolute power of the High Ranking Demon King.

I thought objectively.

It’s worth it.

The sky goes dark.

Puck.

Puck….

Puck…….

With a hollow noise.

The only light in the sky, Evil Eyes, was bursting apart one by one. I recognized it as a demon hunter. Eating something like that as a sacrifice.

What kind of a bastard is he, ……?

But let’s stay positive. Thanks to this curse, I’d be able to gauge the power of the High Ranking Demon King, and at least I’d be able to see Bael’s face.

‘……What the hell?’

But I was mistaken.

The sky literally split open as all the demons in the sky exploded. Out of the crack in the sky emerged something so huge it could have covered Seorn Continents.

It was only a single forearm.

Sereung─

To be exact, it was a hand holding a sword.

I froze in the moment.

I was stunned.

…… dozens of Evil Eyes as a sacrifice.

No way, even with that huge sacrifice.

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tl/n : Bael and Baal are the same Demon