I Picked up the Demon King - Chapter 123

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 123

 

The work of gathering mana was quite sluggish. All the mana that should have existed everywhere, even in small amounts, seemed to have been sucked into maintaining the magic circles installed in each room.

 

In the end, to accumulate mana, I had to continue self-harm, and the speed at which my wounds healed became slower. The pain took away my concentration. The mana I barely managed to obtain through such a process was far too weak. Forget about mana core formation – it was impossible to even manifest basic magic like mana bullets.

 

Even while thinking I might die from chronic illness at this rate, I didn’t stop working.

 

When I opened my eyes, what I saw wasn’t a dark ceiling, but a bright ceiling that seemed somewhat familiar.

 

“Are you awake?”

 

I heard an annoying voice that made me frown the moment I heard it. Little Kid Ruin was lying on the bed, looking down at me.

 

“What, hey.”

 

“The floor seemed broken, so I brought you here. Are you okay now?”

 

By floor, he means the magic circle, right?

 

It seems I lost consciousness at some point. This little kid must have come looking for someone to play with and found me injured. Thinking about the magic circle’s deteriorating function, he dragged me to his room.

 

“Thanks.”

 

“You’re thankful?”

 

The little kid bounced up and down excitedly in place. Thanks to that, the bed shook and made me dizzy, but I endured it.

 

What he had already done was more than enough kindness in exchange for playing with him for about half a day. I was prepared to play corpse play with him later too.

 

“Then let’s play!”

 

“….”

 

I hoped that wouldn’t be today though.

 

“I’ll introduce you to the other kids!”

 

“Other kids?”

 

Ruin ran outside the door and then stuck just his face back in to look at me. I guess this was a situation where I had to follow. I sighed and got up from my spot.

 

Still, since I had managed to gather some mana, I wouldn’t collapse from exhaustion like before.

 

That’s what I thought.

 

The future Hero had exceptional stamina, and soon became invisible.

 

How far had he gone?

 

I walked as far as I could in the direction that little kid had headed. And soon I reached some unknown location.

 

How damn vast was this place for a secret research facility? Even the memories I saw when I absorbed the Great Demon’s soul weren’t much help. It seemed to be a different facility from back then.

 

“What’s this little kid doing here?”

 

A researcher appeared from somewhere. He gulped down the beverage he was holding in one go and roughly grabbed me.

 

“Let’s see. Number 66? You’re quite far from your cage. Did you escape?”

 

The researcher tucked me under his arm at his waist. Since my body was small, I couldn’t use any strength and had no choice but to dangle there. I didn’t particularly have any reason to resist either. If I returned to my room, I could gather mana again.

 

For a few minutes or so, the researcher was walking toward my room. Just when we reached a distance where my room would be visible after turning one more corner.

 

“Hey!”

 

A child’s shout came from somewhere. The researcher turned his body in response to the voice. As I lifted my head while dangling, I saw Ruin running from the other end of the corridor.

 

“That’s my friend! Let him go!”

 

“Friend?”

 

Ruin ran with all his might and grabbed the researcher’s clothes, pulling on them while crying.

 

The researcher let out a scoff as if it was absurd, but soon sighed. If other test subjects had acted like this, punches would normally fly immediately, but I suppose this was fitting for someone who received special treatment.

 

“Hey. What should we do about this?”

 

“Leave it alone. For now. Let’s decide after reporting.”

 

At the words of another researcher who came running due to the commotion, the researcher put me down on the floor.

 

“Good grief. What exactly are they trying to do? This isn’t some orphanage.”

 

“Isn’t what we’re doing similar though?”

 

“Not at all.”

 

The researchers chatted among themselves as they left. Of course, they kept their eyes on us the whole time.

 

The child Ruin paid no attention to such things and grabbed onto me.

 

“Let’s go!”

 

“…Where?”

 

“To see the other friends!”

 

“….”

 

As if he wouldn’t let me go, the kid gripped my clothes tightly and ran straight ahead. It was an overwhelming movement. If he didn’t have even a speck of mana, he surely would have fallen and broken his chin.

 

After nearly falling several times and when his legs were trembling, we arrived at a new room.

 

“I brought him!”

 

“….”

 

In the place where he confidently opened the door and entered, there was one boy and one girl. A total of two children.

 

‘If they’re the Hero’s friends, could one be his companion Kaela Rowan?’

 

They weren’t. Neither of them looked particularly familiar to me.

 

If I could reasonably assume one side was the Saint who became the Pope, then who was the other male?

 

I briefly looked at the kid who was crouching down with his head lowered.

 

“So what should we play now?”

 

“….”

 

A girl awkwardly lifting only one corner of her mouth in a smile and a boy with his head deeply bowed. A cheerfully laughing little Hero and me, feeling like I was about to pass out.

 

After catching my breath in the brief silence, I barely managed to speak before Ruin could open his mouth.

 

“Let’s play Corpse Play.”

 

“….”

 

* * *

 

After lying among the little kids who couldn’t stand boredom and were fidgeting around for a while, the researcher from earlier came to drag me away.

 

“Give my friend back!”

 

“The others are fine, but this one still doesn’t meet the conditions. I can’t keep excluding him from experiments.”

 

“Give him back! Give him back!”

 

The researcher, who quickly closed the door as if fed up, headed to the usual laboratory. What was conducted here was torture of tremendous intensity.

 

The reason I would be fine the next day despite torture that seemed like it would drive me insane was probably due to the magic circle embedded in the laboratory floor. Divine magic for recovering body and mind must be strongly cast there.

 

Because I held even a little mana in my body, I could sense it. The movement of holy power flowing in from the magic circle…

 

‘Huh?’

 

Why could I feel holy power?

 

Certainly, there would be nothing as excellent as holy power for restoring body and mind. Since this was an experiment supported by the Holy Nation, it wouldn’t be strange if divine magic was being deployed. However, I couldn’t see any priests injecting holy power.

 

Wasn’t holy power the force that the Goddess bestowed upon the bodies of humans who believed in her?

 

I raised my dulled senses to their maximum to find the source of the holy power.

 

Mana was endlessly flowing in from somewhere. I recalled the time when I practiced emptying myself to improve my mana recovery ability. Here, all mana was continuously being consumed, so mana was being drawn in to match the density.

 

It was being converted to holy power through the magic circle.

 

“…!”

 

In the end, the essence was mana.

 

Magic power, holy power, aura… They were all just forces created by processing mana. The purest mana could transform into anything. Then…

 

“Kugh!”

 

“I told you not to move. If you move wrong and cut a muscle or tendon, recovery today is out of the question. Hey, inject more drugs here. There’s still strength left.”

 

“Y-yes.”

 

My thoughts stopped at the bone-piercing pain.

 

I couldn’t guess their purpose.

 

I knew they were conducting experiments. However, as someone who had briefly belonged to the Magic Tower, I couldn’t even guess what kind of experiments they were conducting.

 

Just the mechanical repetition of inflicting pain and then healing again. Even with the protection of the magic circle, it was easy for one’s mind to break. It wouldn’t be strange at all if someone died from this.

 

Moreover, the magic circle didn’t protect the soul.

 

Intense pain and resentment wounded even the soul. If the soul was wounded, then it would truly be broken. Like Master had been, one couldn’t remain sane.

 

Perhaps this was the limit of my mind that didn’t know much about experiments? Was I just being tortured like this because I couldn’t think of proper procedures? Surely breaking the soul itself couldn’t be the purpose…

 

“Ugh, ugh…”

 

Or was it?

 

I needed to think differently.

 

This isn’t my past. While it might be somewhat similar, it’s a dream and illusion created by the Demon Lord. It’s not the researchers who are torturing me, but the Demon Lord. What I need to recall isn’t the researchers’ purpose, but the Demon Lord’s purpose.

 

What is the Demon Lord trying to accomplish by torturing me?

 

“Ah.”

 

I realized the Demon Lord’s scheme.

 

‘No way, surely not…’

 

The first magic the Demon Lord taught me was Soul Magic. It’s a Grand Magic that absorbs others’ souls to expand one’s vessel, and can even absorb Divinity.

 

But it wasn’t without its drawbacks.

 

Like when I first absorbed the soul of the farmer who tried to kill me, or when I tried to absorb countless souls all at once…

 

‘No, surely not…’

 

If I use it beyond my soul’s current limits, side effects occur. I must take adequate rest and control the amount.

 

On the other hand, when absorbing soul residue or fragments, there are no particular side effects. That’s natural since the amount isn’t much to begin with.

 

So it was certain.

 

I was currently having my soul absorbed by the Demon Lord.

 

Perhaps saying “absorbed” might be slightly inaccurate. Since we’ve been splitting and absorbing countless souls in half all this time, it might be that we’re finally taking complete form.

 

I had to hurry.

 

Before being completely absorbed by that thing, I had to escape from this nightmare.

 

But how?

 

“Mmph, urgh…”

 

How could I do anything in this situation where I’m just tied up and repeatedly tortured?

 

My contemplation was brief.

 

There was only one thing to do.

 

To protect my body, I quickly contained the Holy Power flowing in. I suppressed and calmed its attempts to spread everywhere, gradually making it my own strength.

 

The amount was meager.

 

But it was clearly accumulating.

 

The speed at which my body recovered gradually slowed. The time my thoughts cut out grew longer, and even my soul wavered.

 

“Wait a moment.”

 

The hand that had been mechanically slicing my arm paused for a moment.

 

“That’s strange.”

 

“What is?”

 

“This spot. The place I marked earlier hasn’t healed for over 10 minutes.”

 

“Isn’t it dead?”

 

“That can’t be.”

 

I breathed roughly. I tightened the tension that was about to loosen for a moment.

 

“This is the first time something like this has happened…”

 

“Should we stop today’s experiment here?”

 

“No. It’s been a while since we had such an unusual case, we can’t stop here. Increase the magic circle’s output. Let’s try just a little more.”

 

Holy power, mana, aura, mana – they’re all essentially the same. Then I can accumulate mana with this holy power too.

 

I continued rotating the holy power that entered my body. It gradually devoured the surrounding holy power, growing in size. Though they said the magic circle’s output had increased, the speed at which my body recovered didn’t quicken. Rather, it gradually slowed.

 

The amount of flowing blood increased. The pain intensified. But the more it did, the clearer my mind became instead.

 

The amount of mana increased. More and more.

 

It became enough to fire mana bullets several times. In other words, it became similar to the amount I had shortly after meeting the Demon Lord.

 

What I had to do now was simple.

 

Draw out the mana accumulated in my body and draw a magic circle.

 

Originally, this was something I succeeded at in one go. But now the mana I drew outside my body quickly lost its form and scattered. The mana I had barely gathered was depleted in an instant.

 

I repeated it.

 

Again and again, countless times.

 

Until the researchers who had been slicing my body put down their knives and threw me back into the room. No, even after that.

 

I found the answer.

 

What gave me the answer was a single word from the Goddess.

 

Deceiver.

 

It was the name she called the Demon Lord.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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