The Game of a Legendary Genius Dark Mage - Chapter 334

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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 334
334
With the Sword Saint’s words, malevolent demonic energy swirled within the mirror, coalescing into a form.
As the thick demonic aura of the Demon Realm poured forth, the Sword Saint’s brow furrowed in displeasure.
Yet there was no help for it.
The contract with the Demon Realm Archduke was none other than his own doing.
A pact inherited from the previous Sword Saint.
An awkward relationship, to be sure.
Still, he regarded the creature as nothing more than a wounded beast.
Soon the room filled entirely with demonic energy.
The form within the mirror the Sword Saint faced finally took complete shape.
Yet the form remained indistinct.
The Sword Saint knew well that all preparations were complete.
“Long time no see. You’ve heard of the cursed weapon imbued with this damnable demonic energy, I presume?”
The Sword Saint spoke with a savage growl, and the Demon Realm Archduke laughed mockingly in response.
-How pathetic. A mortal struggling in desperation.
With those words, the concentration of demonic energy spreading throughout the surroundings surged considerably.
An overwhelming pressure.
Yet the Sword Saint, as expected, severed all that demonic energy with his own aura.
The demonic energy parted like darkness before sunlight.
Still, the demonic energy remained intact.
It had merely been cut and retreated momentarily.
Its power had not diminished.
“Tch.”
The Sword Saint too furrowed his brow facing the Archduke.
Though he was one of the transcendent, the Archduke was certainly the sole Archduke of the Demon Realm.
He had to regard him as standing slightly above the transcendent tier.
Had circumstances been different, he would have severed the contract long ago, previous pact or not.
Though the Sword Saint came forth with mockery, the Archduke let it pass.
-Mortal, I acknowledge your efforts. I shall send you new artisans.
“…I didn’t summon you to discuss such matters, but I’ll accept.”
He bristled with pride to avoid conceding a point.
Yet the Sword Saint was inwardly relieved as well.
He had been in dire need of artisans, after all.
The Archduke, however, tilted his head in confusion at those words.
-If this is not a place to discuss artisans… then for what purpose did you summon me?
A voice and atmosphere truly befitting a demon.
Yet the Sword Saint paid no mind to such things and answered.
“The reason I summoned you today is to store the bodies that will result from the coming war.”
-Oho?
The Demon Realm Archduke could not help but feel a certain admiration upon hearing the Sword Saint’s tale.
A hero who willingly sacrificed his own people for the sake of his domain—such a thing existed.
Was this spectacle not absurdly, darkly amusing?
Who, then, had ever declared the Demon Race to be evil?
Were humans not the beings closest to true wickedness?
The Demon Realm Archduke pondered this and posed his question.
-Is it to forge weapons imbued with demonic essence from all that blood and flesh?
“As expected of the Demon Realm Archduke.”
-Ah, I see.
Should I say you are hardly befitting of a hero?
It was in the midst of such discourse.
That the Sword Saint suddenly broached a new subject.
“Last time, Grand Duke, using the secret technique you taught me, I attempted to slay the Overlord, but he repelled my very soul with some bizarre sorcery. I could have sworn you said no one could ever manipulate souls—what happened?”
-…What?
The Demon Realm Archduke could not conceal his shock upon hearing this.
Manipulating souls?
The new Overlord?
It made no sense.
Souls were a realm no one could see, much less touch.
Yet he had repelled it.
‘The new Overlord is a far greater monster than I thought.’
He found himself deliberating whether the creature must be eliminated before time allowed it to grow stronger.
And then.
‘The wound throbs again.’
Even after centuries had passed, the wound that had never fully healed throbbed with a dull ache.
The other Grand Dukes, silent as they were, had all perished that day, leaving him as the sole Grand Duke.
Yet because the wound remained unhealed, he had even suffered invasions from dukes of rival factions.
Of course, he had done his utmost to heal the wound and drive them out.
But still, the wound had not fully mended.
The Demon Realm Archduke trembled slightly with fear.
“So even you fear the Overlord, it seems?”
The Sword Saint spoke as though mocking the Grand Duke.
The Grand Duke glared at the Sword Saint in utter disbelief.
Then.
“I shall handle the Overlord myself. You take charge of Overpalace.”
-…? No matter how stunted the Overlord’s growth, it would be difficult unless you personally intervene. Do you have a means to suppress the world’s will?
“No, I discovered something far better.”
-What is it?
“I found a user of the Galaxy Sword Dance.”
What in the blazes was this fool spouting?
If it’s the Galaxy Sword Dance, then it must refer to that Hero Hindel’s swordsmanship.
‘So what does that have to do with anything?’
The Grand Duke seriously considered whether he should ask, genuinely confused.
The Sword Saint was operating under some truly grand delusion.
However.
“If I can just find the user of the Galaxy Sword Dance, then an Overlord is nothing at all.”
He seemed to genuinely believe this.
The Demon Realm Archduke observed the Sword Saint for a moment, contemplating.
Then he opened his mouth.
-…I hope you find them.
“Just focus on Overpalace.”
I’ll need to consider terminating the contract soon.
Even if Hindel were to return resurrected, Overpalace would surely be unable to handle it.
This sword-obsessed Sword Saint genuinely seemed to believe that Hindel had truly defeated Helena.
The longer I maintain this alliance with such an ignorant fool, the greater the loss.
They say a useless ally is more frightening than a powerful enemy.
Recalling that maxim, the Demon Realm Archduke thought sincerely.
‘I must terminate this contract soon.’
For now, we are still under contract, after all.
-Then tell me the date of the war.
“In four days. I’ll strike then.”
The Sword Saint spoke thus.
The Grand Duke heard these words and nodded.
Then.
-Understood. I shall collect all the flesh and blood present in that place.
With those words, the meeting ended completely, and the Grand Duke’s form vanished.
Watching the mirror where the Grand Duke had disappeared, the Sword Saint laughed bitterly.
He had discovered traces of the Galaxy Sword Dance, after all.
The loss of a technician was not a great setback.
The Grand Duke had even promised to send a new one.
In any case.
‘I must inquire more actively.’
The owner of the Galaxy Sword Dance.
It was said the lineage had been severed after Hindel.
Yet it had continued all this time.
If I could only obtain the user of the Galaxy Sword Dance.
‘Then I could control everything as I wish.’
Entertaining such impossible thoughts, the Sword Saint fell into meditation once more to heal his wounded spirit.
6.
Badia, a city of the Riescan Kingdom.
And the Wiron Territory of the Valian Empire, located in the borderlands adjacent to Badia.
The war between these two territories ran so deep in history that it was ancient.
It was already approaching a thousand years.
In Badia, depending on how one looked at it, the atmosphere resembled a festival from other regions.
War erupted once a week, and quite a few casualties resulted from it.
Yet the people of this region were those who actually enjoyed such struggle and combat.
Moreover, the atmosphere of that week would build toward the coming war.
And today happened to be one of those war days, so quite a crowd had gathered.
In contrast, the Wiron Territory approached the war in a considerably more restrained manner than Badia.
Since the Valian Empire was a nation where magic had developed significantly.
The atmosphere was inevitably quite different from the Riescan Kingdom, which was called the Kingdom of Knights.
Rather than a warlike temperament.
It resembled more of an experimental ground for testing new magic and sorcery.
Whether it was truly restrained, I couldn’t say.
But that was certainly the impression one got.
Similarly, as war day approached today, various scrolls and grimoires were being exchanged as preparations were underway.
“Make way, make way! We’re moving grimoires!!!”
“Reagents coming through!!! They could explode!!!”
“Ah! We’re preparing for war, so we’re recruiting any foreigners who can help!!!”
Usually, in any city, players could be loud, but NPCs being loud was rare—yet here the NPCs were somehow louder.
Yoo Sung-hyun found such a sight quite fascinating.
It certainly felt more like a festival than an actual war.
Well, Yoo Sung-hyun was similar in that regard.
He had asked the Serul Tower for information earlier and come here to experience it firsthand.
‘Hmm, testing out the Necromancer Lord here would be good too.’
If such a war happened every week, I thought there would be far more players than NPCs.
But unexpectedly, they said it was about half.
Since I hadn’t obtained information yet.
I had come here to enjoy it simply, and I had already registered for war participation.
My position was that of a mage on the city wall.
They said all I had to do was fire off magic bombardments.
‘Is it starting soon?’
Yoo Sung-hyun saw that time was almost up and headed toward the city wall with anticipation in his eyes.
After undergoing a brief inspection, I climbed onto the city wall.
The view was quite spectacular, more so than I had expected.
The vast plains and the sprawling battlefield held the traces of war so ancient that their age was unknowable, preserved in their entirety.
The atmosphere was quite impressive enough to be called the Plains of War.
Moreover.
‘So all I have to do here is cast magic bombardments?’
What pleased me especially was that I simply had to fire off magic and that was it.
It felt better than war—more like a genuine magical experiment.
With Yoo Sung-hyun sitting so obediently.
“Everyone, take your positions!!!”
“Please be careful not to interfere with each other’s magic!!!”
“Thank you all for your hard work!!!”
“Come now! We’re about to begin!!!”
As things suddenly grew chaotic, I waited.
A horn’s call echoed from far away, from the direction of Badia.
Then the war signal flare shot into the sky.
Badia’s arrows rained down like a storm toward the city wall.
Whoooooosh!!
Whoooooosh!!!
Yet the barrier on the city wall blocked every single arrow.
Knights from Badia’s side began charging forward like madmen.
So it finally begins.
Yoo Sung-hyun thought this and smiled broadly.
Sure enough, various spells poured down from atop the city wall, momentarily halting the knights’ charge.
After all, breaking through such a magical barrage to reach the wall was quite grueling.
Yet Badia’s knights raised their shields to block the spells and somehow managed to charge forward.
There were close-range users as well.
Support-type users protected those vanguards from magic to some degree.
The advance gradually accelerated.
‘I need to obtain a massive amount of blood here.’
I was confident in annihilation.
Watching them, Yoo Sung-hyun wondered what he should try.
Why not test the Necromancer Lord’s power?
The Necromancer Lord’s power that Will used was a method of communicating with spirits.
He primarily treated spirits like friends, merging them together and making them stronger.
What Yoo Sung-hyun planned to test this time was the latter method.
‘Calamity’s Grasp.’
One type of spirit magic that Will had demonstrated.
A technique that gathered spirits together to form a colossal spirit hand and brought it crashing down.
However, there was something Yoo Sung-hyun hadn’t considered.
In the system, the number of spirits in necromantic magic was determined by how many corpses were present in that location.
And how much mana one possessed was also quite important.
Yoo Sung-hyun recklessly poured roughly half of his mana into this place.
And as a result.
Something appeared, tearing through the dark clouds hanging in the sky.
It looked like a pillar at first, but seeing the ashen, pointed fingernails stretched out long, Badia’s knights turned pale and looked up at the sky.
And as the dark clouds parted, a massive spirit hand appeared there.
Kuuuuuuuu———!!!
Watching this, Yoo Sung-hyun muttered casually.
“Hmm, it’s bigger than I expected.”
At the same moment.
“Flee! Flee for your lives———!!!!!”
A knight screamed.

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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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