Ch.161Guest Reception (2)

“What are you talking about?”

Carisia asked incredulously. Hector noted her natural acting. She was no ordinary person.

His disciple seemed suspicious yet strangely naive in unexpected ways. With such acting skills, it wouldn’t have been difficult to penetrate Ortes’s seemingly high but sparse defenses.

“Are you being sincere? For a boss not to know the true nature of their subordinate, how disappointing.”

In truth, Carisia wasn’t just acting incredulous—she genuinely was dumbfounded.

She had been up all night with Ortes discussing how to defeat the Demon King. How could anyone make such a bizarre misunderstanding?

“The Demon King? Wouldn’t that be closer to something other than magic?”

This was a subtle probe. She wondered how much this secretive old man Hector knew about Ortes. If he truly knew about Ortes, he would naturally mention the Divine Name Cult.

‘If you knew about the relationship between the ancient Divine Name Cult and Ortes, you wouldn’t make such an absurd assumption in the first place…’

“You mean that decrepit cult? Indeed, so you’ve been focusing on that aspect…”

But Hector calmly mentioned the Divine Name Cult. This surprised even Carisia. How could he know about the relationship between the Divine Name Cult and Ortes, yet still perceive Ortes as a fragment of the Demon King?

And one more thing.

‘He knows about the Divine Name Cult?’

The Divine Name Cult was different from ordinary cults lumped together as “superstition followers.” It was a cult above cults, whose existence was recognized only by specialized groups like Blasphemia within the Ten Towers.

Recently, the Ten Towers had made announcements about Arguirion, suggesting the existence of “groups far different from ordinary superstition followers.” To some extent, their existence might have spread to the public.

But he immediately mentioned the cult upon hearing “different direction.” This wasn’t a vague guess—it required specific knowledge about the Divine Name Cult.

“The Divine Name Cult—I had to learn about that old cult due to my profession. So there’s no need to be so guarded.”

“Profession? This sounds like you’re saying that being a problem solver or a tax evasion consultant isn’t your real job.”

Hector nodded.

“Everyone keeps some secrets, don’t they? Manager Carisia, what did you think Ortes’s true identity was?”

“There’s no point hiding it now. I originally expected him to be a pope or a demigod.”

“A god…”

Hector stroked his beard. Somehow, Carisia was reminded of Ortes. Though the two had different atmospheres, there was something similar about them.

“First. You must have seen Ortes fight before.”

“Countless times.”

“Then you must also know that Ortes can perform bizarre acts like ‘spell overwriting.'”

“…Yes.”

Carisia had been by Ortes’s side longer than anyone. In other words, she had witnessed Ortes fighting more than anyone else. This meant more than just observational experience. Carisia had fought alongside Ortes for survival.

Ortes didn’t hide his abilities from her. He didn’t go out of his way to explain them, but whenever she asked, he would casually explain with absurd statements like “Actually, I don’t have a black plague dragon, but I do have a Trinian.”

“Could anyone else replicate that technique?”

“…That’s…”

Ortes would use spell overwriting while lamenting that he couldn’t cause magical interference because he couldn’t use magic. But to Carisia, spell overwriting itself was incredibly bizarre.

Anyone could connect the gaps between spells.

Doing so recklessly would only cause magical explosions that kill the mage.

But Ortes freely manipulated not just explosions, but all the possibilities that could be created by combining spells.

It was an impossibly advanced technique. Even Carisia herself couldn’t guarantee she could achieve it.

“Even for a blade master like myself with the skill of a Ten Towers Master, it would be impossible. What are the three elements of magic?”

“Magical power, will, and spells.”

“Will is concretized through spells. In other words, each spell requires an appropriate ‘will.’ What kind of will would be suitable for the deformed magic that Ortes creates through spell overwriting?”

“Hector. You seem to view Ortes’s overwriting as a type of magic.”

“He uses others’ magical power, but his will is involved, and the results are expressed through spells.”

This was a new perspective. Controlling spells created by others with just one’s will. An interesting topic for a mage. But now she needed to focus on Hector’s story.

“Ortes reverse-engineers the appropriate form of will for the deformed spells he creates through grafting to produce the desired results. I would call this magic.”

The implication in Hector’s words was clear: who else but the Demon King could use magic in this way, stealing others’ magical power and spells and controlling magic with just their will? But Carisia disagreed.

“I believe the will involved in that process isn’t Ortes’s. We should interpret it as editing the form in which the mage’s original mental image is expressed by distorting the spell into the desired form.”

“Is that so? Then what about magical power?”

“Magical power? He doesn’t have any. If anything, that proves there’s no connection between Ortes and the Demon King.”

Hector shook his head. He recited the simple fact known even to children—that ‘mana’ exists everywhere in this world.

“And those with will inevitably accumulate magical power by absorbing mana just by breathing, or even just by existing. No matter how minute the amount.”

Ortes alone was the exception to this rule.

“The providence that the Demon King inscribed on this world. A being that can so naturally reject it. As if commanding mana itself, ‘Do not approach me.'”

Carisia recalled the legends of the Demon King. His transcendent skill that allowed him to use the world’s mana itself like his own magical power, without needing to process mana with magical power.

Ortes’s non-magical constitution could also be explained in the same context. It’s natural for mages to handle their own magical power. If Ortes truly were a fragment of the Demon King, able to treat the world’s mana as his own magical power…

Then, a question flashed through Carisia’s mind.

“…But why would he need to do something so inefficient?”

“Ah. That’s precisely where the Divine Name Cult comes in.”

Hector looked at Carisia with a shadowed gaze that didn’t match his cheerful, vibrant attire.

“I believe we all know that the Divine Name Cult was deeply involved in creating Ortes’s physical body.”

“I learned this while working with Ortes, but how did you know, Mr. Hector?”

Hector raised his hand to his eyes. The gesture looked like an old man’s habit of shielding his eyes from bright light, but also like a sinner trying to escape from his karma.

“I was the one who excavated Ortes. Or rather, discovered would be more accurate.”

***

Hector was evasive about the detailed circumstances. His brief explanation was that he felt a massive pulsation from an ancient ruin in an extra-dimensional contamination zone, and when he hurriedly approached, Ortes was there.

“It wasn’t difficult to recognize it as a ruin of ancient cults. There were several records with the ancient word ‘theos’ (θεός), meaning god.”

“God, you say…”

A strange coincidence. Hector had just murmured a similar phrase when Carisia discussed Ortes’s identity.

“I analyzed that place as the Divine Name Cult’s final sanctuary and research facility for their ultimate secret weapon.”

Hector described the location of the ancient ruins. Deep underground, in the heart of the earth.

“A final weapon born deep within the earth?”

From that description, Carisia could recall an old myth. Typhon, the beast god who threatened the ancient gods.

The ultimate monster born from the bottomless abyss, threatening the great gods.

Carisia recalled Ortes’s report after finding Kaicle. Something about Typhon’s remnant energy responding to Ortes’s presence in Kaicle’s hideout.

“I see you’re familiar with the legend. I am too. In the late mythic era, the Divine Name Cult likely attempted to recreate that powerful beast god to turn the tide of an unfavorable war. They intended to strike at the Demon King with the mythic era’s strongest weapon, combining demonic and divine natures.”

But for some reason, that weapon was never completed, and the underground sanctuary was forgotten. Thus, a body without a soul was abandoned for thousands of years.

And after a long time, when that area was finally engulfed in extra-dimensional contamination, an ascendant’s eye spotted a body capable of receiving his soul.

“But even the Demon King couldn’t easily claim the Divine Name Cult’s weapon. The body would have rejected the Demon King at the soul level. So he took drastic measures.”

“Removing the Demon King elements from himself?”

“Exactly. By erasing his memories to bleach his identity, and excluding the magical talent that formed the foundation of the Demon King, he succeeded in incarnating into a new body…”

That’s how Ortes was created.

“What do you think of my theory?”

Carisia thought that misconceptions about Ortes seemed to be inflating. Lampades considered Ortes an apocalyptist, while Knemon, a former apocalyptist, viewed Ortes as a monster who would burn the world.

And now their last friend, Hector, believed him to be none other than the Demon King.