I Picked up the Demon King - Chapter 141

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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 141

 

“Your Majesty. This is a somewhat out-of-the-blue story.”

 

Cain asked with his hands clasped behind his back.

 

The Emperor’s gaze, which had been focused on the Hero and Demon Lord, turned toward Cain. There was an illusion of flames flickering in his eyes. Cain cleared his throat and met the Emperor’s eyes again.

 

“Speak.”

 

The flames had disappeared. It must have been an illusion.

 

“Why did you suddenly decide to become Emperor? There were no signs of it. If I had known, Kaella would have joined your side long ago, wouldn’t she?”

 

“….”

 

The Emperor looked at Cain silently. Feeling pressure from those seemingly empty eyes, Cain forced himself to joke around.

 

“I was also quite surprised when I heard about it through that minister.”

 

Without any response, the Emperor turned his head.

 

Did he have no intention of answering? Just as Cain was thinking this and about to sigh, he suddenly heard the Emperor’s voice.

 

“The incident at the Research Laboratory. Do you remember?”

 

It wasn’t the stiff voice of the Emperor. It was a voice that reminded him of Ruin from before defeating the Demon Lord, when they overcame trials together.

 

“I remember. No, I used to remember. Now I don’t know what’s what anymore.”

 

“How much?”

 

Cain couldn’t answer.

 

Well, his memories had become completely jumbled. Fortunately, Ruin continued speaking immediately as if he hadn’t expected an answer.

 

“When I first came out into the world. I remember the air that first touched my body. I remember the first voice I heard. I remember the trembling touch, the voice.”

 

Cain’s expression crumpled strangely.

 

It was true that he had gradually regained memories while overcoming trials, but most of them were from when he endured torture-like experiments at the Research Laboratory for a long time. They were memories he would have preferred not to know.

 

Neither Kaella nor the Saint showed such signs.

 

“At first, I didn’t understand. I learned after acquiring language.”

 

It probably didn’t take very long. Ruin, who survived even after being given a small fragment of the First Hero’s thoughts, showed talent superior to anyone else.

 

“Ruin, Ruin Epeldor. My child.”

 

The first thing the child who understood language recalled was his mother’s dying words.

 

On the experiment table, dying in a miserable state. It was the voice that weakly muttered.

 

“You must become Emperor. Show that Emperor who abandoned me clearly. That your child, my child, has grown up so magnificently.”

 

“…Revenge?”

 

Cain tilted his head. The Emperor also tilted his head slightly and answered.

 

“I wonder. Do I still have such emotions left?”

 

* * *

 

Becoming a Dark Mage was unavoidable.

 

That’s how it was at the time. My Master saved me, and that was so cool, and I was grateful. Even if he wouldn’t accept me as a disciple. I just wanted him to use me even as a laborer. Any hardship was bearable compared to before.

 

I learned later.

 

That Dark Mages weren’t actually heroes, and were even a profession despised by people. That they secretly rummaged through graveyards late at night, and if their identity was discovered, they would immediately face the crisis of execution.

 

Even so, I didn’t regret becoming a Dark Mage. Thanks to it, I survived.

 

What do I live for? What do I try to survive for?

 

My greatest purpose was survival. I strived to become a great Dark Mage like my Master, but even that had little meaning in the face of survival. Why did I struggle so hard to survive?

 

If this is an illusion the Demon Lord is showing me. Even asking me such questions would be the Demon Lord’s intention.

 

What could be the reason?

 

Though I knew there was nothing good about listening to that demon’s words, somehow I had the intuition that this was quite an important matter.

 

Knowing about myself. Understanding emotions, realizing principles of action, and finally controlling them completely. That was essential for growing as a mage. But.

 

“I wonder.”

 

What came out of my mouth was a short and simple phrase.

 

“Hey, you bastard!”

 

Johnny, who had been pointing his sword with a serious face, suddenly shouted.

 

I looked at him in puzzlement. Johnny continued with an expression as if he felt wronged.

 

“You said you’d answer!”

 

“….”

 

The Demon Lord seems to have delicate aspects beyond expectation. To even implement Johnny’s personality like that. But why couldn’t he implement the face?

 

I sighed and asked.

 

“Weren’t you considering me the Demon Lord?”

 

“That’s right!”

 

“Are you, a Hero, planning to believe the words of a Demon Lord?”

 

I shook my head. Something was strange. But I couldn’t tell what was strange about it.

 

The sword Johnny was holding trembled violently.

 

“Are you angry?”

 

A sly voice flowed out. It was quite alien for something that came from my mouth, leaving me bewildered.

 

“Well, there’s nothing to be so angry about. Calm down. I don’t like lies.”

 

I don’t like lies.

 

But I had to keep lying all this time. Each time, my heart felt quite uncomfortable. It was because I couldn’t let them find out I was a Dark Mage.

 

Not being able to open my heart to anyone came as a considerable burden. That’s probably why I gradually let my guard down even with the Demon Lord.

 

“Yes. I am the Demon Lord. Satisfied? It’s been a while.”

 

“It’s been… a while?”

 

“Don’t worry about it.”

 

I had become the Demon Lord.

 

In the Goddess’s Divine Oracle, she called me the Demon Lord. I wanted to become a Hero, but that was the result. Was it because I got too close to the Demon Lord?

 

I frowned. I tried to frown.

 

But my brow didn’t move at all. Rather, the moment I came to my senses, I was letting out unrestrained laughter.

 

“Yes. That’s the correct answer.”

 

“What are you talking about!”

 

It wasn’t me who was moving my body right now.

 

Rather than bewilderment, irritation came first. Such an illusion. It was unpleasant.

 

To shatter the Demon Lord’s illusion, I moved my mana again. I could feel strange things wrapped around my Mana Core near my heart.

 

“Not yet.”

 

The mana I was moving stopped.

 

I was bewildered. Because this had never happened even once in all the illusions so far. It was different from when I first opened my eyes in the Research Laboratory without a single drop of mana. The time when I absorbed the Dragon’s divinity was somewhat similar.

 

It was when I was trying to revive the hazy sensations from that time as much as possible and somehow move my mana.

 

“I said not yet. Impatient fellow.”

 

It was an incomprehensible sound.

 

* * *

 

The air was cold enough to freeze the lungs, and poisonous energy was spreading. Lightning struck from the sky every moment, and earthquakes didn’t stop. A devout priest would consider this place the Demon Realm. Even a strong Dark Mage would tremble in fear.

 

It was a barren space where no living creature could survive.

 

Natural disaster.

 

It was a calamity. At a place quite far from the battlefield, the collision of two mages brought disaster.

 

“You’ve improved quite a bit from before.”

 

The woman wrapped in Black Mist, Kaela Rowan, spoke. Her expression was relaxed. Neither the cold energy nor the poisonous energy could penetrate her mist.

 

“Well. Maybe our senior’s skills have deteriorated.”

 

Shtidy, who was smiling fiercely, was also wrapped in Black Mist. However, her mind was actively working.

 

The Great Demon’s darkness that had devoured the Holy Nation. This mist created by imitating that was a better defensive barrier than anything else. But it didn’t bring the same sensory confusion as the Great Demon, and its completeness was inferior compared to Kaela Rowan’s.

 

What she had ahead was nearly infinite mana. The mana sent from hundreds of thousands of soldiers showed no end. Even if she was still behind in skill, she would definitely win in a prolonged battle. That’s what she thought.

 

But Kaela Rowan’s mana also showed no signs of diminishing.

 

As if endless mana was being supplied from somewhere.

 

Shtidy’s eyes turned to the staff in Kaela’s hand. A staff carved from a massive bone in its entirety, with a small gem embedded at the top. What she had seen in the last battle was definitely dragon remains.

 

According to mythology, dragons were mysterious creatures with infinite mana. There was even analysis that the continent’s mana becoming drastically abundant was due to dragon influence, so Kaela Rowan’s mana handling that thing would also be considerable.

 

However, Shtidy smiled.

 

“You still seem to have plenty of leisure?”

 

She asked with a fierce smile.

 

“Of course. You’ve just improved from before, but you’re still far from enough for me.”

 

While shrugging her shoulders, she continuously poured out spells.

 

Chantless casting and multiple spells. Each one was a distant realm for ordinary mages, but for them, it was just nothing new.

 

Shtidy countered the spells while looking for an opportunity.

 

“Let’s see how long you can remain leisurely.”

 

“What do you mean by that… Ugh.”

 

Kaella’s expression was momentarily colored with pain.

 

Infinite mana. A wonderful story. It’s like the ideal of all mages.

 

However, the one handling it is still human. Kaela Rowan is a great mage, but she has a human body. Moreover, she’s a Dark Mage.

 

A Dark Mage is a being who uses mana, not magic power. To be precise, they process mana with a mana core formed in their heart and convert it to magic power.

 

The burden generated from endlessly processing the pouring mana without rest. Could the mana core, could the heart, withstand that?

 

“Haha, really…!”

 

Blood flowing from the corner of her mouth, Kaela Rowan burst into laughter.

 

“You really hit the nail on the head!”

 

Shtidy’s expression twisted at the strange tone that seemed almost mocking.

 

“Yes, if it goes to a prolonged battle, I’m at a disadvantage. Right?”

 

It wasn’t wrong.

 

She had already felt this during their previous clash. The sense of powerlessness she felt after completing the meteor summoning magic confirmed once again that merely imitating God’s power couldn’t reach God.

 

“But even so, that doesn’t particularly put you at an advantage, does it?”

 

“…What do you mean.”

 

Shtidy frowned at the incomprehensible words.

 

Kaella laughed madly as she deployed a magic circle. Shtidy, who was about to counter with magic accordingly, wondered why the expected spell wasn’t coming.

 

The answer came a beat late.

 

Shtidy hurriedly turned around.

 

From far away, from very far away, a thunderous roar erupted. The flow of mana was cut off in an instant.

 

“You…”

 

What had happened was obvious.

 

“Why? Is something wrong?”

 

The enraged Shtidy gritted his teeth. The mage who had once saved the world had massacred helpless soldiers to defeat the enemy before him.

 

He poured out magic to stop it.

 

He poured all his mana into attacks. However, the black mist absorbed all those attacks.

 

This won’t work. If that mist has the same properties as the Great Demon’s, holy power would be needed to break through it.

 

But he couldn’t receive Albeng’s help in this situation.

 

It wasn’t because he wasn’t here. Even if he had brought him, there wouldn’t have been much change. The sky had completely closed not long ago, and the recovery of holy power, which was already scarce, had become much slower.

 

Bursting into mad laughter at Shtidy’s desperate appearance, Kaela Rowan extended her staff.

 

An incomprehensible incantation that even Shtidy couldn’t understand, a massive magic circle unfolded like when summoning meteors.

 

From the staff, from Kaella, from the surrounding atmosphere. Tremendous magic power and mana gathered. And merged into one.

 

“Dragon’s Breath. Do you know it?”

 

Before he could answer, the gathered mana burst forth.

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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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