Episode 317
As Chris clenched his fist, a horrifying event unfolded.
His overwhelming dominion crushed the demon beneath it, as if the demon were being crushed under a massive boulder. The demon was compressed until it burst apart.
Then, it turned to dust and vanished.
It was completely annihilated.
“Ughk!!”
Chris suddenly vomited blood.
‘That was too much. I’m just glad it worked. Even if only for a moment, I managed to manifest my dominion.’
But now, the dominion had already faded away.
‘Well, it wasn’t a true dominion in the strict sense.’
He had simply pushed the dark magic’s control to its absolute limit, projecting it outward in the form of a domain.
He hadn’t even reached the 8-star rank yet.
Still, it was a significant milestone.
Having succeeded in manifesting a dominion once, it wouldn’t be long before he reached 8-star.
Just then, a noisy voice buzzed in his ear.
[Are you okay, Christian?!]
It was Evan.
They had set up a magical link beforehand to exchange messages.
[The demons have been forcibly summoned back. You did it! Of course! I’m coming to where you are right now!]
“…No, don’t come.”
Chris shook his head in alarm.
He was afraid Evan would come and make a fuss.
‘I’m already struggling enough—I don’t want to hear your annoying nagging right now!’
Chris spoke urgently.
“I’m fine. Take care of the injured outside.”
[…You really are something. Pushing yourself to the limit, yet still thinking of others. Fine. I’ll tend to the wounded as you wish.]
‘…That’s not it.’
Thankfully, Chris was now alone and collapsed onto the floor.
He felt like he was about to pass out after pouring all his remaining strength into that last effort.
“Ugh… How much longer do I have to suffer like this? Being forced to play the hero on top of everything else is just too much. Evan, who was supposed to be the hero, has become nothing but a fool. Damn it.”
The worst part was that there was no hope ahead.
‘It’s only going to get harder.’
Chris’s expression darkened.
‘The real chaos is just beginning.’
The demon’s recent appearance was proof.
Normally, demons couldn’t manifest on the surface so easily.
‘Sure, the crown prince used an artifact with the power to summon demons, but even so, this was far too easy. It’s supposed to be impossible at this stage.’
In fact, in his previous life, the crown prince summoned demons only after more time had passed.
This meant one thing.
‘The boundaries between the Three Realms are weakening faster than before.’
And much faster at that.
The reason was unknown.
‘There’s a high chance that what happens next will be different from what I knew.’
Above all, Chris worried about the movements of the Mystic Magic.
The Mystic Magic was not lying dormant.
It was surely preparing a terrible apocalypse in silence.
‘To stop the Mystic Magic, I first have to crush the ambitions of the Four Kings’ Castle.’
As he sighed deeply, a sudden chill of tension gripped him.
“!!”
Chris sprang to his feet.
‘What is this?’
He wasn’t imagining it.
The tension was growing stronger.
His instincts warned him.
A sinister shadow was looming.
‘More threatening than the demon from before.’
It was unbelievable.
In truth, the demon that had just appeared was unqualified and not a true threat. Chris’s soul rank was higher, making it easier to handle.
But this approaching presence was different.
With every tick of the clock beside the throne, his heart pounded louder.
Then, a figure appeared on the throne.
“You are…?”
Chris’s eyes widened in surprise.
It was a face he had seen before.
“Greetings again, hero. Or should I say…”
The young elf girl smiled slyly.
“Shall I call you the Great Darkness who will bring about the world’s destruction?”
It was Yvonne, the minor lord of the Mirror Ice Palace.
An unexpected arrival.
‘Why is the minor lord of the Mirror Ice Palace here?’
The Mirror Ice Palace.
A collective of elves.
They opposed the Northern Magic Nation of the Mage Empire, specifically the Obsidian Magic faction, and their leader was the current Fairy King, Madria.
For reference, Fairy King Madria was at the 9-star rank and held the highest seat among the Seven Allied Lords.
‘The minor lord didn’t have much presence in my previous life.’
In fact, the Mirror Ice Palace itself hadn’t stood out much before.
They had remained silent throughout the war and were suddenly wiped out in an instant by an attack from the Mystic Magic’s archbishop.
‘When I fought the Ghost Sword King before, I sensed something unusual, though.’
Chris frowned.
‘And now she calls me the Great Darkness?’
He had heard similar words before.
From Saint Istanya.
Chris’s face hardened.
He realized why this young elf girl radiated such overwhelming pressure.
“…Valkyrie.”
A warrior of the Celestial Realm.
Unlike those who received indirect blessings through contracts with the constellations, Valkyries directly channel the power of the heavens, temporarily wielding strength comparable to the highest celestial beings.
‘Valkyries only appeared after the boundaries between the Three Realms began to collapse.’
Chris bit his lip.
Something strange was happening.
But he had no time to dwell on it.
“Following the will of the Great Constellations, I will execute your judgment.”
A sword of light suddenly materialized before the elf girl.
It wasn’t the mana of holy radiance.
It was a more brilliant light.
The power of the stars—stellar energy.
“…Do you know that using that power will cost you your life?”
Chris asked in a heavy voice.
Valkyries were immensely powerful, surpassing even the Sacred Beasts, but they had a fatal limitation.
They were one-time use.
Those who directly accepted the power of the heavens would have their bodies collapse and die shortly after.
But Yvonne answered without hesitation.
“I am not afraid, for this is a martyrdom in service of the Great Constellations’ will.”
“!!”
Seeing the madness burning in Yvonne’s eyes, Chris frowned.
‘Damn it, what do I do?’
He hadn’t expected the Celestial Realm to try to kill him so directly.
It was impossible for the Celestial Realm to intervene so directly in the affairs of the Middle Realm due to the laws of causality.
‘Is this also a result of the boundaries between the Three Realms blurring?’
He had to find a way.
‘The Valkyrie’s power is at least 8-star level.’
Though weaker than the demon from before, the situation was far worse now.
That demon hadn’t been in perfect condition.
Most importantly, Chris had exhausted all his strength.
Joining forces with Evan or Lanya was impossible. Yvonne had immediately erected a barrier isolating this place from the outside.
He was trapped.
‘Think. There has to be a way.’
As he desperately racked his brain, something unexpected happened.
“Huh?”
Yvonne suddenly stopped in her tracks.
Then—
A brilliant line appeared across her body, and a fountain of blood erupted.
Someone had attacked Yvonne!
‘…What?’
Chris froze, staring at the scene.
“Ughk?”
Staggering, Yvonne hastily raised a shield of celestial energy.
But it was useless.
A magic circle appeared around her.
‘What is that?’
Chris’s eyes widened.
It was a familiar magic circle.
One he had seen countless times in his previous life.
The one ‘she’ used.
‘But it’s different. The shape. The power.’
The ‘she’ Chris knew could never wield such strength.
Especially not at this point.
The magic circle emitted a chilling dark light and pierced through Yvonne’s celestial shield.
“Ahhhhhhh!!”
It was a gruesome sight.
Countless spikes erupted from the darkness, piercing Yvonne’s body.
She writhed in agony, trying to escape the darkness with the power of the stars.
But her face turned pale.
“W-why is the power of the constellations…?”
The stellar energy that had inhabited Yvonne’s body began to fade abruptly.
‘Forced severance?’
Chris swallowed hard.
Her connection to the Celestial Realm had been cut off.
‘Who could do this?’
It wasn’t an easy feat.
It required overwhelming control power, enough to nullify the Celestial Realm’s terminal.
‘Like my dark magic.’
Suddenly, Chris’s eyes snapped open.
The dark energy assaulting Yvonne felt strangely familiar.
‘That’s… dark magic.’
Chris couldn’t believe it, but he was certain.
And it was an incredibly pure form of dark magic.
Almost 90% pure.
‘Even Lord Nordian doesn’t reach 90%. Who? Could it be ‘her’? No, that can’t be.’
Chris stared at the energy engulfing Yvonne.
The way the magic was manipulated, the black magic, the secret techniques—it was all identical to ‘her.’
But ‘she’ was never a wielder of dark magic.
‘What happened?’
Then—
“Ugh, ughk.”
Yvonne, now a pitiful wreck, collapsed to the floor.
Unlike her dramatic entrance, her death was anticlimactic.
Then—
Footsteps echoed.
“!!”
Chris’s hand trembled faintly.
It was a familiar sound.
That distinct lightness.
One he had heard countless times in his previous life and could never forget.
Slowly turning his gaze, he saw a girl.
It was truly ‘her.’
A groan escaped Chris’s lips.
“…Lena?”
A comrade from his previous life.
The chatterbox of darkness.
With sky-blue hair and a lovely face.
Nine tails.
She was indeed the chatterbox of darkness.
But Chris looked at Lena in disbelief.
‘Why is Lena here?’
The atmosphere was completely different.
In her previous life, she had always seemed bright, almost excessively cheerful.
Of course, he knew that lightness was just a mask to hide her pain, but her face had always shone with a radiant glow.
Not anymore.
That brightness was gone, replaced by a sharp, suffocating ache that filled the air.
And on top of that—dark magic?
“Lena has nothing to do with dark magic.”
Originally, Lena had been a test subject of mystical magic.
So she primarily used mystical magic, not dark magic.
“…”
“…”
A heavy silence settled between them.
Chris struggled to find the right words.
Because now, Lena was no longer the close comrade from his past life.
In other words, she was a stranger.
There were countless things he wanted to say, but in the end, all he could manage was this.
“…What happened with that dark magic?”
“…”
“Answer me. I’m the Grand Prince of Dark Magic. I have the right to know about your dark magic.”
This was important.
He needed to understand what Lena had gone through.
‘What’s that mark on the back of her neck?’
There was a symbol he hadn’t seen in their previous life.
A mark etched onto the sword she held, piercing through the tower in reverse.
‘It’s a symbol showing she’s become someone’s subordinate. Could it be that she sold her soul to a demon?’
But he quickly shook his head.
There was no trace of demonic influence in Lena.
The nature of the mark was far from demonic.
Though it held deep darkness, it was definitely not of a demon. Nor was it from the celestial order.
‘…It actually feels more like my own mark.’
At that thought, Chris abruptly stopped in his tracks.
Their eyes met.