The Game of a Legendary Genius Dark Mage - Chapter 316

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 316
316
The moment they dispatched the two Demons at the Mine entrance, they charged inside.
And then.
“Hmm.”
“Ugh.”
“Cough.”
“….”
“….”
The party couldn’t help but grimace the instant they stepped inside, assailed by the acrid demonic energy permeating the air.
Barbaros looked ready to retch, his stomach churning violently.
The demonic aura was remarkably potent.
Yet the two knights actually found the demonic energy comforting, though they concealed this fact.
After Yoo Sung-hyun and the other four entered completely, their focus wavered momentarily from the oppressive aura, but they quickly regained their concentration and began moving forward.
The familiar sensation of an ordinary mine had vanished entirely, replaced by something resembling an ant colony. As they explored this transformed space, an uncanny wrongness became impossible to ignore.
“Something feels off,” Yoo Sung-hyun observed.
At his words, the remaining four came to a halt.
What could be wrong?
As they waited with that thought in mind.
He spoke quietly.
“We’ve come this far without encountering a single Demon. That’s what troubles me.”
The two knights felt the sting of his words, though their expressions remained perfectly composed.
“Perhaps because we’re still at the entrance?” one suggested.
“They seem concentrated deeper within.”
“Hmm, venturing too far down does seem dangerous, but….”
“Turning back now would yield nothing.”
“Let’s press forward.”
When Barbaros and Will agreed, Yoo Sung-hyun nodded in assent.
He turned to resume their advance.
Just as the two knights began to move as well.
A river of stars unfurled across the void.
Like an expanding universe, the luminous river spread with deliberate slowness.
That beautiful cascade of starlight flowed toward the knights’ necks.
They attempted to evade the slow, gorgeous river of stars.
But they understood.
The river wasn’t slow.
The world itself had slowed.
The two of them were able to realize it.
That’s not the Milky Way moving slowly.
The world itself has slowed down.
As death drew near, a transcendent perception awakened within me.
I possessed this awareness thanks to the demonic energy.
Yet because of the Milky Way severing the demonic energy, my body couldn’t react to it in time.
I felt my neck being cut slowly by the Milky Way, and my head flew away.
Shhhhwoooosh——!!!
Yoo Sung-hyun used a skill to prevent the blood from the two knights whose necks were severed from spraying toward them.
The two knights whose heads rolled on the ground looked at Yoo Sung-hyun with expressions full of confusion and asked.
“Wh… wh… why…?”
“…you… bet… ray….”
Because they had transcended humanity somewhat due to the demonic energy.
It was a grotesque sight—their necks severed yet speaking from their heads.
Yoo Sung-hyun spoke as he watched the two who could no longer finish their words.
“I already knew the Riescan Kingdom was colluding with the Demon Race from the start.”
“…trai… tor….”
“…fool… ish….”
As the two faded away without finishing their words, neither Will nor Barbaros felt any sympathy.
After all, they were the ones commanding the Demons and pinning their crimes on the Dark Mages.
And the reason was simple enough.
“The very fact that trash like them would try anything against Helena is disgusting.”
Will was right.
They sought to eliminate Helena and seize the world for themselves.
So they abandoned their humanity and even joined hands with the Demon Race.
Therefore, Yoo Sung-hyun nodded as he watched Will.
It was certainly cause for indignation.
To do this to Helena, who had done nothing.
They had even joined hands with the Grand Duke of the Demon Realm.
I had gathered good intelligence.
The fact that they had joined hands with the Grand Duke of the Demon Realm was information I had learned while disguised as Malcom.
Beyond that.
There were no Demon nobles.
The majority were lower-rank Demons, with middle-rank Demons serving as administrators.
And finally.
There was one upper-rank Demon.
Though not of noble rank, those of the highest tier ascended above nobility, they said.
So it seemed reasonable to consider upper-rank Demons as nearly equivalent to nobility.
Lower-rank Demons posed no problem.
Middle and upper-rank Demons were quite formidable, they said.
So I only needed to be wary of those.
First, there was something I needed to do.
“Now that we’ve eliminated them, the contractors who felt something strange from their deaths will come rushing in.”
At Yoo Sung-hyun’s words, Barbaros and Will nodded in agreement.
They had already discussed the plan before entering.
Both prepared quickly.
Each concealed themselves using stealth.
The Demons appeared moments later.
“The contractors’ signals cut off here.”
“What’s happening?”
The number of creatures that rushed in was twenty-one.
Even for Yoo Sung-hyun, handling them all at once was a daunting prospect.
They had said there were roughly a hundred in total, so this was quite a substantial force.
I had expected only low-tier Demons to arrive.
But there was one creature emanating powerful demonic energy.
A single Demon whose ashen demonic aura rippled, distorting the very space around it.
Yoo Sung-hyun instinctively recognized it as mid-tier.
‘They all possess hearts.’
Normally, they would keep their hearts separate.
But these creatures all carried their hearts within them.
It was strange.
Yoo Sung-hyun paid it no mind and communicated via telepathy to the other two.
-I’ll handle the mid-tier.
-Understood.
-Yes.
The rest would fall to Barbaros and Will.
None of them showed particular concern.
They simply moved with the thought of dispatching them quickly.
Yoo Sung-hyun summoned his Minions first.
Since the Corridor was narrow, he couldn’t summon everyone—he called forth seven in total: the knights Leonik, Baltar, and Silvanor, the mages Helena and Serpina, and the tanks Fiora and Barphor.
Barphor, the knights Leonik and Baltar, and the mage Serpina charged at the low-tier Demons to aid Will and Barbaros, while Fiora, Silvanor, and Helena stepped forward to assist Yoo Sung-hyun.
The Demons were startled by the suddenly summoned Minions and Yoo Sung-hyun’s group.
But as a vicious race, they had anticipated ambushes.
They took combat stances and rushed at those charging toward them.
The first to move was none other than Will.
He unleashed the Spirits he had hidden within himself, sweeping through the area and attacking the Demons.
The Demons cried out mockingly.
“Kahahaha! You dare unleash Spirits against us!!!”
“How pathetic!!!”
“Witness the power of the Spirits we command!!!”
The Demons likewise cried out, and several of them summoned Spirits, launching them like projectiles at Will’s sweeping Spirits.
But what was this?
The Spirits, suffering in agony under demonic energy as they obeyed commands, were no match for Will’s Dark Magic-enhanced Spirits.
The Demons flinched as the spirits moved as if positioned on a chessboard.
“Ah, how is this possible!?”
“That, that Dark Mage mimicking Demons is really this powerful?”
“I, I can’t believe it!”
“Don’t hesitate—draw your weapons!!! Use your demonic energy!”
Each of the lower-ranked Demons could only use one demonic skill.
If they channeled various seals and curses through their abilities, they would certainly gain the advantage.
But the moment they tried to activate their demonic skills—
-Kahahaha!!! Baltarok, no—I, Baltar, shall slaughter you all!!!
-Still playing pretend, are you? Why not give up being a knight and become an actor instead?
Two knights appeared and swept through the Demons.
They targeted only those Demons attempting to use their demonic skills, severing their necks with precision before—
Eviscerating them straight through the heart.
Even as they bickered, both displayed considerable skill.
But Barphor and Serpina seemed displeased with their quarreling.
-…You, you should focus instead!
“Sigh, you two—stop fighting and concentrate, won’t you?”
-Hmph.
-Understood.
With that, the two knights unified their efforts and began dispatching the Demons methodically.
It was nearly effortless.
Barbaros, too, was killing the Demons one by one with powerful spells.
How could twenty lower-ranked Demons possibly endure?
By the time most had fallen without even managing to activate their demonic skills—
Will sensed something peculiar.
As he destroyed the heart—the center of demonic energy—with his Dark Magic, he felt the nature of that demonic power.
It was subtly different from Dark Magic, yet bore strange similarities, and understanding began to dawn.
“Ah….”
Darkness is merely darkness.
It contains no malice—only the attribute of being dark.
But demonic energy carried the attribute of corruption.
It corrupted, weakened, and was filled with malevolent intent.
If Dark Magic was darkness, then demonic energy was like dark corruption itself.
In that moment, as Will pierced through the Demon’s heart, he recalled what Helena had once explained to him.
The difference between demonic energy and Dark Magic.
Upon realizing this—
Will’s Dark Magic exploded outward, scattering around him.
And Barbaros, witnessing this, widened his eyes in shock.
“What, what is that!?”
Momentarily flustered and forgetting to attack, Serpina, seeing this, slightly furrowed her brow and spoke.
It was a sight she knew all too well.
“That is… an awakening.”
An awakening of dark magic power.
More precisely, enlightenment had arrived, and he was shedding a layer of his former self.
And.
“…He’s on the verge of becoming a lord.”
At Serpina’s words, Barbaros looked at her as if asking what they should do.
She muttered as if there was no choice.
“We must protect him. If that enlightenment scatters, it will be catastrophic. His very life could be in danger.”
Serpina, who was always gentle and composed, spoke with such urgency.
The other three minions also spread around solemnly, forming a protective perimeter around Will like a fortress.
And Barbaros, seeing this, immediately took up the same position alongside them.
Then a message appeared.
[The awakening of 『Will Baghdad』, the protagonist of this scenario, is now occurring.]
[Protect him so that 『Will Baghdad』 may fully awaken.]
So they had to protect Will, who stood motionless in the throes of enlightenment.
I could feel the difficulty spike dramatically in an instant.
Well, this is what makes it Legendary grade, after all.
With that thought, Barbaros continued to eliminate the demons while protecting Will as best he could.
Fortunately, since they’d already dealt with most of them before, the lesser demons were quickly dispatched.
All that remained was the mid-tier demon that Yoo Sung-hyun was handling.
Around Yoo Sung-hyun, galaxies and starlight danced wildly, relentlessly attacking the mid-tier demon, and while the mid-tier demon struggled desperately to kill Yoo Sung-hyun and his minions, it was outmatched.
Soon, the mid-tier demon’s heart was pierced by Yoo Sung-hyun’s blade, its demonic core shattered, and it dissipated.
Yoo Sung-hyun exhaled in relief.
After sending away his minion, Yoo Sung-hyun had paid no attention to the opponent.
But seeing the message appear midway, he urgently pressed the attack and managed to seize victory.
However, the problem was.
“…There’s no sign of him waking up.”
“It seems we’ll need to hold a defensive position here.”
Barbaros answered Yoo Sung-hyun’s words.
And Yoo Sung-hyun had no choice but to agree.
They had to hold their ground here.
Even while dark magic power was pouring out of him like that.
It was a considerably disadvantageous situation, and sure enough.
Kuuuuugh.
The sound of enemies approaching from far away could be heard.
They were already closing in like this.
Yoo Sung-hyun and Barbaros silently prepared for battle.
The minions did the same, readying themselves for combat.

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