The Wizard Who Endured the World of Murim - Chapter 36

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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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Surviving in the Martial Realm as a Mage: Episode 36
Back when Ilhyang was still in the Lower Dimension.
There existed one battle that had been the most crucial in his life. No—not merely in his life, but a confrontation upon which the fate of all Seven Continents had hinged at that time.
The battle between the Hero and the Demon King.
In that clash, I, as the Grand Mage, had been forced to shoulder an extraordinarily vital role.
“Isn’t it strange? Why do I desire to conquer the world?”
“Why should I know what you’re thinking?”
“You’re right. It was a meaningless question for you.”
“If you’re planning to disrupt my concentration with nonsense, I’d advise you that it serves no purpose whatsoever.”
“That wasn’t my intention. I was merely curious.”
Ilhyang.
In other words, the Grand Mage Trevallion, during the battle between the Demon King and the Hero.
Had been tasked with restraining Demon King Shabranick separately.
More precisely, I had performed the role of isolating and containing only the Demon King’s spirit while leaving his physical body intact.
Thus, at that time, Trevallion found myself conversing with the Demon King alone within the Mental World I had constructed.
“From the moment of my birth, I understood the principles underlying all magic that exists in this world.”
“Truly remarkable.”
Demon King Shabranick.
Standing in the position of absolute evil, just as the Hero Alexid Graim embodied absolute good.
The most formidable and perilous existence in all creation.
“Yet even I encounter this form of magic for the first time. To extract only the spirit while leaving the body’s control intact—I confess, I am genuinely astonished.”
“Since I’m attempting this for the first time myself, you might not understand it either.”
“I offer my reverence to your innovative sorcery, Grand Mage Trevallion. Truly, a stroke of genius.”
“Heh, no amount of praise from you will make me release you.”
Outside, the battle between the Hero and the Demon King raged fiercely.
Yet the Demon King’s most terrifying ultimate magic—the very threat I had feared most—never manifested.
For even the Demon King required immense concentration to unleash magic of the highest tier.
It was impossible to unleash such high-level sorcery with the body alone when the spirit had been severed and isolated in this manner.
“Truly, a spell that strikes at one’s most vulnerable point. Might I inquire the name of this magic?”
“Well, it doesn’t have a proper name yet. If I had to give it one, I suppose Spirit Extortion would suffice?”
“Spirit Extortion, you say… I should have paid greater heed to you rather than that mere paper puppet of a Hero. A grave oversight on my part.”
The spirit form of Demon King Shabranick appeared, strangely, as that of a young child.
With his characteristic emotionless expression, he gazed up at Trevallion within the empty Mental World and posed a question.
“Grand Mage, do you possess blood relatives?”
“Blood relatives? You mean family?”
“In human terms, that would be the appropriate designation.”
“No. I was an orphan from the start, and I’ve never married to this day.”
“That is truly regrettable. One of such overwhelming talent as yourself leaves no descendants.”
“Well, who knows what the future holds.”
The Demon King and Trevallion continued conversing without concern within the Mental World.
Even amidst this confrontation, we were both ruthlessly hunting for any opening.
If I showed even the slightest carelessness or wavering resolve,
Demon King Shabranick would immediately drive those razor-sharp claws straight toward my heart.
Conversely, if Shabranick’s concentration faltered even once?
I was fully prepared to inflict a fatal wound upon his spiritual form.
Thus we continued our conversation with smiling faces,
while ceaselessly probing for each other’s vulnerabilities.
“Surely you have no intention of releasing me, regardless of what conditions I might propose?”
“That’s right. I’ll never do such a thing. If I released you even once, you’d never fall victim to this spell again.”
“Indeed, you are a formidable adversary.”
Demon King Shabranick gazed at me with an expression of resignation for the first time.
And in that moment, the Demon King was finally forced to acknowledge the truth.
‘Impenetrable.’
The human before me was as unyielding as a Stone Wall.
Though I continued to probe and scheme here,
he seemed utterly incapable of lowering his guard.
Those eyes, brimming with unwavering faith and confidence in himself,
met my gaze head-on without the slightest tremor of doubt.
Perhaps until my physical body in the Outside World was annihilated by the Hero’s holy blade,
the spirit of the Grand Mage Trevallion would never waver or dull.
“What a pity. Had we but a little more time, I might have glimpsed the truth of this World.”
“…The truth of this World?”
In that instant, Demon King Shabranick tilted his head without thinking.
It was the first time.
Since being imprisoned in this Mental World,
that I had sensed the emotional fluctuations of the Grand Mage Trevallion so clearly.
The Grand Mage, who had been an impregnable iron fortress throughout, had revealed a glimpse of emotion in those few words for the first time.
Demon King Shabranick found himself narrowing his eyes as he regarded the human mage.
“Fascinating. It seems you too harbor doubts about this World.”
“….”
“To think another being besides myself entertained such thoughts. I’m grateful this meeting was not in vain.”
Crack—
I heard something snap within my mind and clenched my teeth.
I had nearly suffered a reversal of position within the Mental World.
Cold sweat beaded on my brow as I shut my eyes.
In the Mental World, one cannot speak falsehoods to one another.
This is a realm without deception.
A place where only pure spiritual strength can determine the outcome of this struggle.
“…Damn. I never anticipated this sort of side effect.”
The moment the question I had been wrestling with for so long escaped Demon King Shabranick’s lips—
Trevallion could not conceal the turbulence of his emotions.
The subtle disturbance that arose in that moment bred a slight loosening of his defenses.
The Demon King did not miss that thread-thin weakness for even an instant.
Half of the countless mental barriers he had erected shattered in a single moment.
Demon King Shabranick, arms folded across his chest,
gazed upon the human whose face had turned ashen and asked.
“How much of this World have you come to understand?”
The Demon King’s question.
Though I clearly recognized it as a ploy to shake me,
I could not dare refuse to answer.
Perhaps I would finally learn the answer to my long contemplation.
So I opened my closed eyes
and stared directly at the Demon King.
Then I answered slowly.
“I have come to understand that this World is a toy box created by someone.”
“Hooh…?”
“And you are the doll within that toy box that commands the most resources.”
Demon King Shabranick.
A faint smile appeared at the corner of his mouth for the first time.
The Demon King then collapsed casually onto the ground,
and looking up at Trevallion suspended in the air, he spoke.
“You have grasped the rules of this World in your own unique way. You are truly remarkable. You are nothing more than a single small puzzle piece in this World, yet how were you able to discern so much? The depth of your talent cannot even be measured. I offer my profound admiration for the focus and persistence with which you have contemplated this for so long.”
“As I said before, there is nothing for you to praise me with.”
“No, this is not mere praise, great Archmage. It is only regret and lingering attachment at finally meeting one who shares the same concerns as I do.”
Demon King Shabranick was truly regretful.
Perhaps when one of us was destined to disappear,
it was only in this chance encounter that I met someone who could truly understand my concerns.
“Perhaps this too is part of the predetermined plan of the being you call God. If so, then this World would be an even greater ‘closed World’ than I thought. In that case, I must revise all my plans.”
“Plans? What plans?”
To the human mage’s question, the Demon King rested his chin on his hand and answered comfortably.
“You know full well that you are coming to kill me. Did you think I would simply remain idle all this time?”
“So you have laid plans to kill us?”
“It is similar to that, but slightly different. I have merely thought about what comes after this battle.”
“What could possibly come after the battle? You will have been annihilated anyway.”
“I have thought about what comes after that annihilation.”
Demon King Shabranick gazed down at his own delicate, small palm and continued speaking.
“From my birth, I have always harbored questions about my own existence. Why was I able to understand all the magic that exists in this World without any instruction? Why can I not control this intense desire to dominate the Seven Continents? Is it not strange? This had nothing to do with my free will. As if someone irresistible had forced me to do so. Everything has proceeded without obstruction up to this point.”
“…”
Trevallion closed his mouth and looked down at the Demon King.
The intense sense of incongruity he felt whenever he conversed with the Hero Alexid Graim in the past.
I could sense that same quality in the Demon King as well.
‘The only difference was….’
The Hero harbored no doubts whatsoever about his identity or his purpose.
Yet the Demon King, for some reason, held profound misgivings about his own ‘role’.
And that difference was truly immense.
“Still, you’ve faithfully performed your role all this time, haven’t you?”
“That was predetermined, so I had no choice. This overwhelming binding force of causality is something even I cannot escape.”
“Ha! Fine. Then what about what comes after this final battle you mentioned?”
“Exactly as I said. After the role given to me concludes. After the predetermined stage draws its final curtain. In that fleeting instant when I break free from the shackles of causality, I will achieve perfect freedom.”
Freedom?
My eyes narrowed in that instant.
Now that I thought about it, he had referred to this world as a ‘predetermined stage’.
The moment the Demon King uttered that word.
For some reason, a strange sensation of expansion rippled through a corner of my mind.
“After the stage ends. You’re talking about a world beyond the ending? But by then you’ll already be dead—what could you possibly accomplish? What are you scheming?”
Demon King Shabranick smiled.
Not the self-deprecating or contrived smile from before.
Rather, the kind of smile one might show when a pleasant topic arises during a conversation with a friend.
That sort of expression.
“My dear Archmage Trevallion. If I had intended to meekly surrender to fate and die easily, I would never have allowed myself to be brought here so readily.”
This was a space where lies could not exist.
He clearly had some plan in motion.
My heart lurched.
A scheme devised by the Demon King himself.
And before I even realized it.
I found myself increasingly drawn into this conversation with him.
It felt like a crucial opportunity—perhaps a chance to glimpse deeper into this world’s secrets.
But.
Demon King Shabranick did not grant me that opportunity.
“It seems all the principal actors of this play have finished their preparations on the stage outside. It is time for me to make my exit. It shall be quite a glorious death.”
“Wait! What exactly do you plan to do after this! Surely you’re not thinking of just vanish after making me this curious? Are you?”
To leave a thought unfinished?
Isn’t that the cruelest thing one can do to an intellectual?
But was it really so?
Could this creature truly have arranged something beyond death?
If he really had, how grand could it possibly be?
“Haha, my conversation with you has been most enlightening. I only regret that we meet this way at the end. My dear and magnificent Archmage Trevallion. I cannot help but marvel at your brilliant talents.”
I grimaced.
In the Mental World, only truth could be spoken.
But one could still stretch out words with elaborate flattery and ornate phrasing to buy time.
In this brief span of time, I had discerned the fatal vulnerability of the Mental World.
Truly, an irritating adversary to the very end.
“Hey! Wait! You there! You bastard!”
The Demon King Shabranick’s spiritual form began to grow increasingly translucent.
His formidable physical body in the Outside World.
The Hero’s holy blade had finally pierced through it.
“Given that a variable such as yourself has been introduced into the flow of predetermined events, I find myself inclined to wager against you with considerable enthusiasm. Perhaps you are the final masterpiece I never conceived of.”
“Hah… So you’re just going to keep running your mouth and disappear like that, are you?”
“Allow me to offer you counsel, dear adversary.”
“A man about to die certainly has much to say.”
The Demon King’s spiritual form had become unmistakably faint.
Soon, I would meet absolute oblivion.
Irritated by this turn of events, Trevallion crossed his arms and regarded the creature with cold indifference.
The Demon King gazed at Trevallion with serene eyes, his lips moving silently.
What could not be conveyed through sound.
Was inscribed solely upon Trevallion’s retinas.
And its meaning was rather shocking.
‘The god is already dead.’
With that, the Demon King’s spiritual form vanished completely.
And then.
“We did it!”
“We finally defeated the Demon King!”
Observing the Hero and his companions emerge from the Mental World bearing grievous wounds yet beaming with radiant joy, the Grand Mage Trevallion could not conceal his expression of profound displeasure.

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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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