The Great Mage Returns After 4000 Years (Web Novel KR)
chapter-450

A solemn and heavy atmosphere filled the conference room located in the basement of the castle. The reason for this wasn’t just because of the beings who filled the seats.

There were a total of fourteen participants, each of the Apostles who could be considered the core power that supported Demonsio. They had varying expressions and thoughts, but none of them had a light attitude.

Amidst this solemn and heavy atmosphere, the first being to open their mouth was an Apostle with skin the colour of blood, ‘Turahel’.

“I think it’s about time that we all came to a decision.”

There was no immediate response.

Regardless of this fact, Turahel continued to speak.

“Her behaviour has been getting more and more out of hand. Not only did she arbitrarily kick the Blue Knight out not so long ago, she also killed the Beginning Wizard. It’s only a matter of time before this information reaches the Magic Planet, and more recently, she has been roaming around the ‘Dump Site’.”

“Why the ‘Dump Site’?”

“I don’t know. But one thing is certain, the Corpse Ghost won’t turn a blind eye to it forever.”

“…such an act can be considered a provocation. And the Corpse Ghost was never known for his patience.”

It was at this moment that a pale skinned Apostle, Denster, who was sitting on the other side, grinned.

“What do you intend to do then? Are you suggesting treason?”

“…”

“Know your place. Even if the Lord does more than this, it is not our place to stop her. We cannot because she is none other than the Lord of Demonsio, the 0th Demon.”

Denster sneered.

“And Turahel, you aren’t being completely honest.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t try to hide your true intentions behind those cheap excuses. Is that the real reason why you’re complaining?”

“…”

“Or is it because of the vain death of the previous Void Lord? Isn’t that the real reason why you are trying to incite the Council of Apostles to rebel?”

Turahel’s expression stiffened.

He licked his lips slightly before sighing.

“…I will admit that you aren’t wrong. However, I don’t want a rebellion. What I want to talk about is legitimate.”

“Legitimate?”

“It wouldn’t be treason if someone challenges her to a legitimate challenge and wins. And you all know too. Who was expected to be the new 0th Demon before she appeared.”

At those words, the faces of all the Apostles changed at the same time.

“Blanco…”

“However, he has already left Demonsio.”

“There is talk that he has already disappeared.”

“Is there anyone who knows his whereabouts?”

“‘Haspin’… Apocalypse Apostle ‘Haspin’.”

Among the muttering Apostles, there was one individual who was particularly quiet.

Uros quietly watched on with a hard expression. To be honest, he wasn’t paying much attention to this controversial meeting.

Among the Apostles, who were wracking their brains for answers, he was the only one who’d witnessed the scene back then.

Uros was the only one there who knew.

Just how Sedi Trowman had killed the Beginning Wizard.

‘…the power of a Ruler.’

If he were to mention what he saw, even the Apostles who favoured Sedi might change their minds.

A prime example would be Denster, who was currently at odds with Turahel.

‘Great chaos would ensue.’

Sedi probably wouldn’t forgive the Apostles who bared their fangs at her. And even if all the Apostles in the castle joined forces, they wouldn’t be able to defeat Sedi. This meant that a massive purge would take place.

In that case, wouldn’t it be better for him to remain quiet?

She’d borrowed power from none other than a Ruler?

‘If this somehow leaks out, then it can’t be helped. But it would probably draw the wrath of the Knights.’

The other Twelve Void Lords would probably dislike it as well.

Isolation… It would be the Isolation of Demonsio.

Of course, in the World of Void, the concept of isolation wasn’t a scary concept for a territory. In fact, it was rather natural. Nevertheless, that didn’t change the fact that it would be annoying.

There was no clear answer to this problem.

“Slurp-”

Uros flicked his forked tongue. Then his vertically torn pupils widened in surprise.

“What is it, Uros?”

“…I felt a vibration just now.”

“A vibration?”

“I felt it from below this place… did you not notice?”

“Our senses aren’t as good as yours.”

“…”

The Snake Apostle, Uros, was particularly sensitive to vibrations and tremors in the air.

[However, below this place? If it’s the space further down then…]

Another Apostle, Lofiken, recalled the structure of the castle in his mind. After a short while, he continued.

[There is only the underground prison.]

The moment he stopped talking…

Five Apostles were sent flying as if they had been struck by something.

Boom boom boom!

Their bodies slammed into the walls. The seated disciples didn’t realise what had happened until the blood splatter touched their faces.

“What is this…?”

Among the confused Apostles, it was Turahel that regained his composure the fastest. He realised the Apostles smashed against the walls had become pools of blood.

‘They’re all dead? Five Apostles?’

Upon realising the situation, the composure he’d regained showed signs of breaking once more.

He was more dejected than surprised, more horrified than dejected.

This couldn’t even be called a sudden death. Turahel shook as the fear of the unknown overcame him.

Boom!

Then came the sound of a tremendous explosion that threatened to tear their eardrums. This time, the vibration was felt by every Apostle, not just Uros. This was natural. After all, the vibration was so intense that it seemed that the entire castle was shaking.

Crack crack!

The walls of the conference room broke apart. They felt the castle tilt. Turahel found it hard to grasp this fact.

Leaning? The castle…?

“What the hell is going on?”

[…I’ll go take a look.]

Lofiken spread his wings and flew out of the broken wall. He flew up to a height that allowed him to see the entire castle at a glance, then he looked at the surrounding area.

And his mind immediately went blank at the scene that he was seeing for the first time.

…He had lived for a long time, and it hadn’t been in vain.

He had seen, heard, and felt many things. In other words, he was quite experienced.

But the scene unfolding before his eyes was a phenomenon that he had never witnessed before in his life.

Boom!

At that moment there was another explosion.

It was an explosion unlike any Lofiken had ever heard before. It was as if thousands of large and small explosions had erupted all at the same time.

It took him only a moment to realise. It truly wasn’t a single explosion. And the sound of each explosion came at the exact same time without deviation.

…Something strange was going on.

[…!]

At that moment, the ground all over the pit had collapsed. It was an almost divine display of destruction.

Dozens of cities littered the surface and there were at least tens of thousands of demons in each city. Most of them were resilient, but it was clear that there were very few individuals capable of reacting to the sudden catastrophe.

In other words, Lofiken was now witnessing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of demons.

[…!]

Hurriedly, he twisted his body to avoid something. It took him a moment to realise that it was a fragment of stone from the ceiling and not someone’s attack.

‘The ceiling cracked…’

Because of this, there was a rain of stone from the sky. It was his first time witnessing this phenomenon as well. The strength of the stone that formed Demonsio’s ceiling far surpassed imagination, and on its own, it formed a barrier that was stronger than steel.

No amount of physical force should even be able to scratch it.

But as he looked at the ceiling now, he bore witness to dozens of cracks that spread across its surface like spider webs.

Boom!

When the next explosion occurred, Lofiken felt space itself begin to collapse. He watched as random shattered and crushed portions of space appeared throughout Demonsio.

[Oh my God…] (TL: Coming from a demon xD)

Lofiken subconsciously let out a soft exclamation. But he had to keep his cool. It was his job to figure out what was going on.

‘Is Demonsio under attack?’

At first glance, this conclusion seemed the closest to the truth, but a part of his mind refuted that theory.

…It was different. It was different from an enemy attack.

For one, he couldn’t see any enemies. In addition, among the various territories, Demonsio was one of the hardest for unauthorised people to invade. This was because even if someone did manage to successfully invade, there were demons who specialised in detecting them.

Naturally, the Apostles, including Lofiken, had not received any signals from them.

-…I felt a vibration just now.

-I felt it from below this place… did you not notice?

At that moment, Uros’ murmurs sounded in his mind.

Below… Below the conference room.

The underground prison.

Lofiken’s expression hardened. And a thought flashed through his mind.

This was an internal problem.

Boom!

There was an interval of about ten seconds between the explosions. As each ten second interval passed, Demonsio gradually collapsed. It was as if the God of Destruction compressed his power and let it explode at once. Contradictingly, the sudden destruction occurred at regular intervals.

Every explosion was linked to hundreds of thousands of deaths.

There was nothing Lofiken could do apart from watching the disaster unfold. Nevertheless, he didn’t feel helpless. Instead, he already admitted that he had been consumed by fear.

[How… how is such a disaster possible?]

Suddenly, Lofiken realised that there were two beings standing above him.

[…!]

They were both faces that he knew.

One of them was Sedi and the other was Lukas.

[Territory Lord?]

Lofiken would never have thought that those words would be his last.

The two disappeared in an instant, just like they appeared. And that was the last sight Lofiken witnessed.

Pop.

His skull exploded. Like a ripe fruit crushed by an invisible hand, or as if a bomb had been detonated directly in his head.

Splatter, the Apostle called Lofiken, who had been divided into a headless body, white bone fragments and brain matter, fell into the abyss of Demonsio.

This wasn’t a special sight, at least in this moment.

Because there were hundreds of such scenes occuring at the same time.

* * *

Sedi noticed Lofiken’s death. That wasn’t all. As the 0th Demon, she could feel the deaths of every single one of the countless demon residents of Demonsio.

Nevertheless, she didn’t pay much attention to them at that moment.

‘Something has changed.’

The Lukas in front of her.

At some point, she’d become unable to close the gap between them.

Did he improve again? In such a short time? However, there hadn’t been any noticeable changes.

For example, just a while ago, when Lukas had first entered the minimal time zone.

Sedi had felt Lukas undergo a major change both internally and externally.

She immediately realised that a new person had gained the qualification to enter the world that only a small number of beings could enter.

‘…nothing has changed.’

She had a thought contrary to her previous one.

She was growing anxious. The time taken had long surpassed her expectations.

Half of her vision was covered in darkness. And her mind seemed to become more and more muddled.

‘I have to get close.’

There were many wounds on Lukas’ body. But those were all moves from their first clash. Since then, something had changed, and his number of injuries hadn’t increased at all.

‘I can’t reach him.’

Not to mention getting close, even ranged attacks were unable to deal any damage to him.

She needed to get closer.

At least within half of a step.

However… it didn’t seem possible. The distance refused to narrow to the extent that it was outrageous.

Sedi suddenly had a feeling.

It felt like Lukas was manipulating space.

* * *

When he’d first used Lord’s power, Lukas realised that there was barely any burden. In fact, using it felt much smoother than before.

One thing was certain.

Lukas wouldn’t be at the mercy of this power, at least not like in the fight against Nodiesop.

He was a little surprised at this fact, but he didn’t have much time to consider the reason. Instead, it was more important for him to focus on utilising this power in his fight against Sedi.

Using the power reminded him of Lord. Lord, the transcendent being, utilised the power more skillfully than the Absolute, Lukas. Fortunately, his technique had been clearly engraved in Lukas’ mind. No matter how many years went by, he would never forget.

-One of them is space leap

It was the power to leap from space to space.

Lukas had thought that, among Lord’s powers, this one wasn’t very efficient. This was because he thought that the required concentration and delay would be fatal.

But to his surprise, those problems seemed to disappear in the minimal time zone. Lukas’ sharp focus made it possible to use space leap on a regular basis, and there was hardly any delay due to the computational assistance of the other Lukases.

‘This power is a huge advantage in the minimal time zone.’

Even Sedi, who had the power of a Ruler, had no choice but to walk step by step to reach him. She had the ability to shorten her time to a minimum by instantaneously increasing her speed, but it never surpassed the concept of ‘really fast’.

On the other hand, space leap was no different from teleportation.

Regardless of whether the space he wanted to go to was a step away or ten steps away, the time it took was the same.

In other words, with this ability, Lukas could maintain his desired distance from any enemy and in any situation.

This was a great advantage for a Wizard like Lukas.

‘That’s not all.’

Time and space, shortened to space-time.

Lukas knew that these two concepts were inseparable.

Time was relative, and Lord’s power granted him the ability to create his own space. This meant that eventually, he would have the ability to manipulate everything that existed in space.

Right. Even time.

‘It’s not yet enough.’

Lukas felt that the power he had grasped was only a fraction of that. If he gained the ability to fully control Lord’s power, and then applied that power fully in the minimal time zone…

The task of defeating a Ruler would no longer appear so distant.

“Huff, huff…”

The sound of panting woke Lukas from his thoughts. He looked at Sedi.

She wasn’t hurt, but she was out of breath.

This appearance was no surprise to him. At some point, Lukas had stopped attacking Sedi.

Sedi was also aware of that.

“Looking at me like that…”

The hand that was swinging the scythe stopped midair as she made a choked expression.

Warble, there was a strange sound. It had come from Sedi’s body.

“Ub, urb…”

Staggering, Sedi grabbed her chest.

Lukas looked at her with a deep gaze.

“For me, fighting in the minimal time zone is a great burden. So at first, I tried to finish this as quickly as possible. I thought that the longer it took, the less of a chance I’d have.”

“Ugh, ub, kuk.”

“However, I changed my mind. Because I realised at some point that you were under even more pressure than me.”

“Uwek…”

Sedi vomited up black blood. Black liquid also flowed from her eyes.

Entering the minimal time zone was something that shouldn’t have been possible for Sedi to do. In a way, she was like Lukas. She sought after a sight that far surpassed the level of power given to her.

The Demon God’s power. The power of a Twelve Void Lord.

Sedi’s existence was too weak to accept it all.

The recoil she was experiencing was probably far greater than Lukas.

“…”

He calmed his thoughts.

Then, he dispersed the consciousness of the different Lukases which had united. He had intentionally ended his combat readiness.

The match had already been decided.