Ch.233233. The Great Demon and the Necromancer

“Are you enjoying that?”

“I can’t tell who the villain is here.”

“Huh!”

At the commotion, Third Prince Serhul jumped up. Looking around urgently, he saw two small girls crouched down whispering something to each other.

“But seriously, is she going to win all by herself?”

“I don’t know, but it’s amazing how she gets stronger the more she fights.”

Elenoa and Aria had clearly been bickering and raising their voices at each other just moments ago. But somehow they were now huddled together, watching Findenai fight.

Serhul thought about going to help, but seeing the smile on Findenai’s face made her look like a child at play. If he interfered, she’d probably snap at him like a child whose toy had been taken away.

Thanks to the Blood Hand, her health was replenished whenever she saw blood, so Findenai’s characteristic of growing stronger the longer a battle continued was being fully displayed.

The soldiers and princes who had been consumed by Learic’s black shadows were now being equally pummeled by Findenai’s white snow. As the darkness clinging to their bodies peeled away like a shell, they began to regain consciousness.

“W-what’s happening?”

Third Prince Serhul was utterly bewildered.

He clearly remembered encountering the great demon and his body freezing up, and then…

And then clearly…

Princess Elenoa had thrown herself at him and broken through a window.

“Ah.”

Now remembering why he had fainted, Serhul glared at Elenoa with an incredulous look.

“Hey, hey. He’s awake.”

Aria poked Elenoa in the side repeatedly, letting her know that Serhul had awakened. Elenoa glanced over and greeted him with a smile.

“You’re awake! Thank goodness!”

“Ugh.”

Aria pretended to vomit beside her, which was annoying, but anyway. Serhul asked Elenoa with a subtle expression.

“I think I was taken down by the princess?”

“…”

You remember.

That was exactly the expression on her face.

Elenoa cleared her throat briefly, then stuck out her tongue and smiled.

“Thank you for saving me!”

“…”

They say when you fall in love, everything the person does looks beautiful. Serhul hated himself for finding even her brazen and irresponsible behavior cute.

“Argh!”

Just then, a scream rang out. Second Prince Rehul took a direct hit from Findenai’s white snow and broke free from the shadow that had enveloped him.

Seeing him screaming in apparent agony from the impact, Serhul exclaimed in panic:

“Brother!”

He tried to rush to Rehul immediately, but…

“Stay where you are.”

Deia, with a shotgun slung over her shoulder, blocked his way.

“B-but my brother…!”

Though he seemed indignant, shouting in protest…

Click.

The cold gun barrel pressed directly against Serhul’s forehead.

“Shut up and stay still. Our maid is personally stopping your rebellion right now.”

“…!”

It was true. The soldiers of First Prince Rahul and Second Prince Rehul were all equally getting beaten by Findenai’s axe and regaining consciousness as they broke free from Learic’s magic.

Like having cold water splashed on them.

Those who had been gripped by madness in the name of rage were gradually coming to their senses.

“You need to watch all of this. What we’ve done for you, and what you’ve done to us.”

Even in this situation, Deia was quick to find advantage, turning the gears in her head.

Serhul could only freeze at those words, while Aria and Elenoa, who had been listening nearby, started whispering again.

“She’s definitely the professor’s sister. Vile… I mean, vigilant.”

“No wonder she shares blood with Deus Verdi. They’re definitely family.”

Deia looked annoyed at the chattering chicks, but…

‘She’s a princess after all.’

Elenoa was a princess of the Griffin Kingdom. Thinking she shouldn’t speak carelessly, Deia sighed and looked toward the palace.

The demon’s laughter echoing from inside.

All she could do was hope that he, who must be battling the great demon Learic inside, would be safe.

* * *

Opening the main gate of the palace and entering, I was greeted, quite brazenly, by Learic.

“Hehe, it’s been a while, Deus Verdi.”

Despite the sensation of grabbing and breaking his neck still lingering in my right hand…

He greeted me with such composure.

Thwack!

So naturally, I returned a greeting befitting him.

[Second time!]

My right hand pierced through Learic’s heart. Vellica, who had thrust into his body, cackled with delight.

Learic, sprawled on the floor, died without shedding a drop of blood.

“You’re uncharacteristically hasty.”

Learic appeared again, somehow on the staircase leading to the upper floor.

Sitting on the stairs, he smiled and extended his hand.

A rising purple sphere.

Inside it were countless souls he had traded with until now.

“I’m not called a necromancer for nothing. You tend to become surprisingly emotional when souls are involved.”

As I listened to him, spider legs extended from my back. This was the first time I was handling them since the battle with Magan.

Unlike before when I left the control to Vellica, now I could control them with certainty.

Thud!

The eight spider legs protruding from my back struck the ground simultaneously.

In an instant, I reached Learic and extended my right hand again.

Crash!

The stairs collapsed and his body was crushed, but it was still a fake.

The sphere of souls he had been holding in his hand had also disappeared.

“I’ve been thinking a lot.”

Learic’s voice came from somewhere again. Slowly raising my head, I saw him leaning on the second-floor railing, resting his chin on his hand.

“Do you remember when we saw what you truly desired together?”

Crash!

Once more.

His corpse lay at my feet.

The spider legs on my back unhesitatingly searched for the next one.

This time, Learic was sitting on the third-floor railing, looking down at me.

“I saw it as a path of penance, and you answered it was a journey. Funny, isn’t it? We saw the same thing but thought of completely opposite things.”

What Learic had shown me back then—what I truly wanted.

A journey.

“I’ve thought about it over and over, pondering your wish. What could possibly make someone like you want such a thing?”

Crash!

Like a game of tag, I continued to chase Learic, and he kept dying, but they were all fakes.

A meaningless chase.

At the end of it, I had somehow reached the top of the German Palace.

Breaking through the ceiling and arriving at the roof.

Feeling the cold wind, Learic rubbed his palms together and answered.

“Shall I be honest? I don’t know.”

“…”

“Heh, hehehehe!”

Despite claiming not to know, the great demon laughed as if he was thoroughly enjoying himself.

I felt disgust at the sight, but there was no good way to silence that mouth.

“What do you say? Let’s make an exchange.”

“Exchange?”

“Deus Verdi, no, Shinwoo Kim. I am so curious about you as a human. A stranger from another world! A man who has reached the truth, knowing that the continent is starting anew!”

“…”

“My interest in you is absolutely! Absolutely something I could call love!”

The great demon of deception, Learic.

I knew he was a different kind of great demon from the usual ones.

He was clearly twisted in a different way.

“Don’t you want to save the souls? I have captured no less than twenty-three thousand five hundred souls.”

“You’ve played with quite a lot.”

“It’s rather few for something collected over several hundred years.”

Grind.

My right hand containing Vellica twitches, ready to tear him apart again.

It seemed my emotions had flowed into her.

“I’ll give you all of them.”

Learic spread both arms wide and smiled a kind, benevolent smile.

“You won’t be able to catch me anyway. The reason I, whose combat power is among the lowest of the great demons, have been able to survive this long is not simply because I deceived others.”

“…”

“I am painfully sensitive about safety, so I just hide thoroughly.”

“So.”

Blue mana erupts from my body. Learic merely twitches his eyebrow but continues speaking with a smile.

“Even the great demons couldn’t kill me. But you won’t give up on killing me because of the souls I’ve captured.”

“…”

“So, here’s the deal. I’ll give you all the souls. You can let them rest, annihilate them, or use them as magical materials—do as you please.”

“And what do you want?”

“Your memories.”

Tapping his head with his finger, Learic reveals his greed.

“Your knowledge.”

And.

“Your experiences.”

All of that.

It felt like a hostage situation. To save the souls in the great demon’s grasp, what I had to give him was essentially everything that constituted me as a person.

“Well, if you abandon the souls, I can’t help it. For your information, I’ll tear them to shreds and annihilate them.”

Not a proposal, but a threat.

Learic knew I couldn’t abandon them.

The truth of this continent.

I understand why he covets me, who knows it.

For a great demon who has lived for hundreds of years, especially one with the modifier of deception, there couldn’t be a more delicious subject.

But.

Just like the necromancers.

And the great demons.

“You all always despise humans so much.”

Especially dead humans.

Despite souls not being items to be traded.

“If you assign value to them, aren’t they ultimately objects? Your beliefs? So what? What can you do?”

The great demon Learic pressed me as if he found it absurd.

“You’re complacent.”

Perhaps because deceiving others had been his very way of life, the great demon Learic was excessively arrogant.

Blue light spreads from my left hand.

My mana spreading widely.

[Oh?]

Once again, the Dark Spiritmaster’s body takes on color. Since it was already visible to me and Learic anyway, one could say nothing had changed.

“So you can materialize souls now?”

Learic strokes his chin, calling it an interesting magic. Seeing his complacency, I could only click my tongue.

No, not complacency.

He was just that dismissive of the dead.

“I’ll see soon.”

“…What?”

Learic still hadn’t realized.

[Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!]

[Save meeeeeeeee!]

[Here! Here! Here! Here! Here! Hereeeee!]

[Basement! Basement! Basement! Basement! Basement!]

[Pleeeeeease!]

The agonized echoes revealing the answer.

The screams of the dead erupting like artillery fire from below.

“Even the great demons couldn’t kill you?”

Crack!

The spider legs that had sprouted on my back spread out again, ready to move.

“It’s because they were great demons that they couldn’t kill you.”

And even now, I too had been mistaken because I was using the power of the malformed great demon Vellica.

But my essence is ultimately…

“Twenty thousand souls, is it?”

A necromancer.

“They’re telling me in great detail.”

His fatal mistake was trying to play tricks with souls right in front of me.

I launch myself toward the hole in the roof. The ghosts’ screams continued to echo from underground.

There was no hesitation.

Falling vertically, I smashed through any ceiling or floor in my way until I reached the basement.

There, Learic was trying to silence the souls who had gained voices and were screaming thanks to my magic.

The bastard was standing in front of a general store door, ready to flee if things went wrong. When our eyes met, he immediately tried to open the door and escape, but…

“How about this?”

I was faster.

My right hand, filled with black energy and taking on a grotesque form, extended straight toward his face.

Crash!

Learic was pushed into the general store along with the door.

“How does it feel now, to be tripped up by the souls you so despised?”

“Kuh, huk!”

When I saw him on the floor wiping blood from his mouth, he was clearly different from the bloodless fakes until now.

“Finally meeting the real you.”

I followed him into the general store.

Thud.

And closed the door behind me.