Chapter 211
But everything was silent.
Reluctantly, Chris shook his head and looked at the assembled mages watching him.
Each one of them gazed at him with eyes full of yearning for guidance.
Christian shrugged his shoulders.
‘Just because they receive my teachings doesn’t mean they’ll grow rapidly.’
The reason the hero party had exploded in growth after taking his advice was that they were all prodigies of the highest caliber.
Hero Evan needed no introduction, and the archmage Lanya was even considered the next head of the Sky Magic Tower.
‘Those who’ve learned from me this time achieved quick progress because their foundations were already solid.’
The mages receiving his instruction now had been stuck, blocked by invisible walls, for anywhere from five to over ten years.
Naturally, their potential vessels were already full.
Put another way, if the vessel isn’t full, even Chris’s help has its limits.
‘Still, I can at least reduce the time wasted wandering down the wrong path.’
But that wasn’t all.
Beyond simply teaching, Chris planned to overhaul the entire dark magic system eventually.
‘Dark magic is currently so complicated that even seasoned mages struggle to master it.’
The scarcity of top-tier mages above rank seven was proof enough.
Of course, even for Chris, meddling with centuries-old dark magic wasn’t easy.
Simple improvements were possible, but what he aimed for was a complete transformation.
More intuitive, yet without losing depth.
But that would only be possible once Chris’s own mastery deepened—when he could be called a Grandmaster.
Meanwhile, Nordian scanned the mages in the hall.
“By the way, those who dared to speak recklessly without knowing anything must pay the proper price.”
The faces of those who had slandered Chris went pale.
They had insulted the Grand Duke—a grave offense.
With Chris’s righteousness clearly established, they had no excuse.
“We’re sorry!!”
“Please forgive us!!!”
The mages who had loudly badmouthed Chris dropped to their knees.
“What punishment should we give them?”
“First, we should hear from Marquis Langham. It seems they all deeply follow him.”
Those spreading rumors against Chris were mostly mid- to low-ranking mages.
They were mere minnows within Marquis Langham’s faction.
What good would punishing these insignificant pawns do?
After all, they were only acting on Langham’s orders, so the plan was to use them to corner the Marquis himself.
But then, something unexpected happened.
‘Where did he go?’
Marquis Langham, who had been nearby moments ago, had vanished without a trace.
‘What? There’s no reason for him to leave now.’
Nordian frowned.
“Where did the Marquis go?”
Langham’s faction looked equally unsettled by his sudden disappearance.
‘What’s going on?’
Then, the unthinkable occurred.
Nordian suddenly fell silent, his expression hardening.
“…Master?”
Everyone looked puzzled.
But Nordian couldn’t answer, as if struck by a great shock.
The next to notice the anomaly was Count Kazar, the highest-ranking mage present besides Nordian.
“This energy…? Why now?”
Kazar spoke tensely.
Chris, whose senses were unusually sharp, also felt the disturbance.
‘This is…?’
His eyes snapped open.
A foul, oppressive energy.
‘Could it be the malevolent aura of Gehenna?’
It was unbelievable.
But unmistakable.
The dark, sinister energy unique to Gehenna.
‘No way. Why would that aura suddenly appear? It’s like an ‘incursion’ is about to happen.’
It felt like the ominous prelude to an ‘incursion’—a phenomenon that sometimes occurred in the late era of destruction when Gehenna overlapped with the mortal world.
At that moment, Chris felt a sharp jolt.
A signal from the ‘mark’ he had implanted in Yulian.
This meant the current event was connected to Yulian.
‘Could it be?’
Only then did Christian realize everything.
What Yulian had done.
‘Damn it, I never thought he’d go this far!’
Chris shouted urgently.
“Everyone, get out of here!!”
“!!”
“Hurry!! There’s no time!!”
He barked, but everyone hesitated in confusion.
No matter how fast they moved, the outcome wouldn’t change.
Suddenly, the sky darkened.
Not just the sky.
The entire world lost its light and color.
Only a dull gray remained.
The landscape transformed, resembling the border of Gehenna Chris had visited before.
A deathly silence fell.
Everyone instinctively felt it.
This was not the end.
Something far more terrible was unfolding.
Then—
A chilling roar echoed.
The gray sky began to tear apart like paper.
An unreal sight.
Beyond the ripped sky, a horrifying scene was revealed.
[Ahhhhhh!]
[Please, end this pain.]
Flames of cursed fire.
Souls writhing in agony.
Demons mocking the souls with cruel laughter.
The dreadful panorama of Gehenna shone through the torn sky.
‘Damn it.’
Chris gritted his teeth.
He knew exactly what this phenomenon was.
Summon Hell.
A forbidden ninth-rank spell connecting the mortal world and Gehenna.
Silence stretched.
Everyone was frozen, unable to react to the unexpected crisis.
‘Incursions shouldn’t even be possible at this point.’
Chris clenched his fists.
‘How on earth did Yulian manage to cast Summon Hell?’
By principle, the three realms—Middle, Heavenly, and Gehenna—were clearly separated.
Connecting the mortal world and Gehenna was only possible after the boundary collapsed.
Chris soon understood the answer.
‘He used the forbidden grounds of dark magic. He opened a spot connected to Gehenna.’
There were rifts scattered throughout the Middle Realm connecting to the Heavenly Realm or Gehenna—called spots.
The dark magic headquarters had one too.
A forbidden area Chris had once visited for training, linked to the border of Gehenna.
‘He spent five years crouched, preparing to open the forbidden.’
Chris recalled Yulian’s usual behavior.
He wasn’t interested in power struggles but used his unique charisma to mingle throughout the family.
But that camaraderie was a facade.
It was groundwork to open the spot connected to Gehenna for the dark magic faction.
Meticulously planned over more than five years.
‘But that alone isn’t enough. How did he cast a ninth-rank spell?’
Chris deduced the rest.
‘…The Azure Demon Lord. He helped activate the spell.’
The Azure Demon Lord sought to obtain the Sacred Darkness by destroying the dark magic faction.
So it made sense he’d ally with Yulian, whose goal was revenge.
At that moment, some mages began to regain their senses and spoke up.
“What is that?”
“Are we seeing an illusion?”
“How dare someone play such a trick on our dark magic faction?”
They couldn’t accept the Gehenna scene as reality.
But the next moment, everyone fell silent again.
A terrifying roar echoed.
A scream that shook their souls.
Then the sound of trumpets blared, like an army beginning to march.
From the rift in the torn sky, a thick, murky fog seeped out and gathered into a shape.
Long legs like a giant.
Three pairs of spider-like arms.
A face covered with countless eyes.
A monstrous figure, human-like yet grotesque.
A demon race.
Servants of the devils.
“Is this really Gehenna?”
The mages cried out in panic.
The demon revealed itself, howling into the void.
But this nightmare was only beginning.
More thick smoke poured from the rift.
Two, three—soon, countless demons appeared.
At a glance, over five hundred.
[Growl.]
[Roar!]
Faced with the multicolored monsters, the mages swallowed hard.
“So many demons?”
Demons weren’t invincible.
They were merely servants of the devils.
But even the lowest ranks usually possessed power above rank four.
‘Mid-level demons have strength comparable to high-ranking rank five mages, and advanced demons rival the top rank seven mages.’
The demons appearing now were all low-level, but over five hundred of them.
Five hundred was an understatement.
Chris’s surroundings were just overwhelmingly powerful; a rank four mage was considered elite anywhere.
In the alliance, that was roughly the level of a small order’s captain or vice-captain.
In the dark magic faction, they were squad leaders or senior officers of small combat units.
And here were over five hundred such monsters.
On top of that, more than a hundred mid-level demons with strength comparable to high-ranking rank five mages.
A truly catastrophic force.
And the worst nightmare was yet to come.
More fog seeped from the rift.
This time, a thick, blood-red mist.
Different from the previous demons’ smoke.
The mist soon took shape.
Unexpectedly, a clean-cut human male figure.
[Ah, the surface world—it’s been quite a long time.]
The man shifted awkwardly, twisting his hands and feet as if uncomfortable.
He looked like an ordinary human, but Chris’s expression grew unbearably heavy.
‘A high-ranking demon!’
Among demons, only the high-ranking ones can perfectly mimic human appearance.
Beings with power comparable to the highest-tier demons.
The man bared his sharp fangs in a grin.
[Ah, to have such a feast laid out before me—it’s absolutely divine.]
[Don’t forget, it’s not just for you alone. We agreed to split it evenly, remember?]
This time, a demon appeared in the form of a small girl.
Two high-ranking demons, both in fully human form, had shown themselves.
‘Get a grip. This isn’t the time to zone out.’
Chris clenched his fists and assessed the demon forces.
‘Two high-ranking demons. Over five hundred regular demons. Is this the full extent of their strength for now?’
Summon Hell didn’t mean an endless flood of demons or devils.
Because of the causal laws governing the intermediate realm, there was a limit to how many could appear at once.
‘Though more will keep coming over time, it’s a relief that no devils have shown up yet.’
Probably because the boundary between the three realms hadn’t collapsed, devils couldn’t cross over.
‘That doesn’t mean things are looking any better.’
Even with just the demons present now, their strength was terrifying enough.