The Price of Fame
"Cough—!"
Why? Why am I losing?
Ju Gihyeok lowered his head, staring at the shadow that had pierced his heart.
"Cough!"
A torrent of blood erupted from his mouth. His heart was completely ruptured. If he remained still, death was certain.
He raised his head again to look straight ahead. There stood the mage who had unleashed this attack, gazing back at him with indifferent eyes.
"Don't make me laugh!"
He grabbed his pierced chest and shoulder with both hands. And pulled. He pulled so violently that his own flesh tore.
"Aaaaargh!"
His flesh ripped open from his left chest all the way up to his shoulder. Thanks to that, he managed to free himself from being impaled on the shadow spear.
But if he stayed like this, he would die.
Thanks to a mage's extraordinary vitality, he had avoided instant death despite his ruptured heart. However, in his current state, he wouldn't last a minute.
Therefore, he used Recovery.
Sssssrrrk—
Flesh began to knit back together. The blood that had been pouring out like a waterfall stopped, and the gaping wound closed up.
Thump, thump.
Even his horribly ruptured heart began to beat once more.
Having swiftly restored his body, he thrust his hand forward and rapidly chanted.
Great Resurrection
In the direction he pointed, corpses lay scattered across the ground.
Sssrrk—
The light of Recovery began to seep into them.
I must finish regrouping before he can react!
The holes in the corpses' bodies filled up. He commanded them to stand before him once more. Since he had bestowed recovery upon them again, an equivalent exchange was demanded. The price was handed to Ju Gihyeok in the form of absolute command.
A contractual shackle forced upon them.
Ju Gihyeok healed them, and they obeyed his commands.
Of course, it wasn't without its flaws. If the target possessed even a shred of intellect, they could easily find a way to slip out of the shackle.
And Ju Gihyeok knew this fact all too well. More than a few had escaped his control in the past. That was why he had removed their heads.
Without a head to think, they couldn't scheme to escape.
The power of magic was truly mysterious and profound. It allowed humans to move and live despite losing their most vital body parts.
And the God of Magic judged these headless, moving corpses as having been "resurrected."
Thus, the shackle was enforced.
The mindless puppets, bound by a contract they never desired, moved to execute his orders.
Damn it. How many seeds do I have left?
Ju Gihyeok cast recovery on his own body. In response, reactions flared up throughout his flesh. The seeds of the hell vines he had implanted in his body were resonating.
It's enough.
He still had the strength to fight.
"Stop."
Just then, an old man carrying a staff walked up behind Ju Gihyeok. He had no choice but to halt at the call. No matter how arrogant he was, he wasn't stupid enough to defy the orders of the family's Great Elder.
"Why?! I can win this!"
But Ju Gihyeok was his nephew. Stroking his beard, the Great Elder asked back,
"Against the master of a Calamity-class magical tool?"
"Calamity-class?! That's impossible!!"
He jabbed a finger, pointing directly at Siwoo.
"There is no way a Calamity-class magical tool would choose that nobody over me!!"
Hearing his words, which seemed to reach the very pinnacle of arrogance, the Great Elder couldn't help but sigh.
"Sigh... Gihyeok."
In his eyes, he saw a Ju Gihyeok who had completely lost his composure. His only nephew, whom he had watched grow since childhood, was incredibly endearing, yet at the same time, utterly foolish.
"The mages of our family often look down on those outside our bloodline. That is not a mistake. It is a simple fact that they are inferior to us, who inherit the pure, thick blood of mages."
He offered a piece of wisdom to his nephew.
"But sometimes, you must realize that out-of-spec geniuses like him do exist."
The Great Elder glanced sideways at Siwoo.
Even with his eyes, he could not fathom the depths of that man.
It was like trying to measure the depth of the ocean from its surface.
Then, he shifted his gaze to Ju Harin, who was hiding behind Siwoo.
With the family's treasure, the Heavenly Eye, could she see the depths of that man?
No, it would be impossible for someone as inexperienced as her. If even he, an 8th-class mage, could not see his end, how could she?
Yet, even so, she must have seen far more than his nephew, who was currently trembling with uncontainable rage.
"I will still fight him!"
"Even if you are on the verge of reaching the 6th-class, is this not far too reckless?"
"The one who called that magical tool Calamity-class was a mere sorcerer! How can we believe their mindless babble?!"
"Of course, I understand why you cannot trust the Management Bureau's ratings."
For the highly experienced Great Elder, convincing his nephew was not a difficult task.
"But surely, you trust the Lady's eyes?"
He only needed to appeal to his sense of belonging to the family and his elitist pride.
"..."
"Then look. Look at whose side the Lady is standing on."
"But...!"
"Gihyeok. Treat today as an opportunity for growth. You, who have never known defeat, have been beaten by an overwhelming margin—how could this not be a joyous occasion? You have gained a stepping stone to climb even higher."
However, Ju Gihyeok was no longer the child the Great Elder remembered.
"I refuse!!"
The Great Elder was deeply shocked by Ju Gihyeok's defiance.
Rebellion. Defiance. Non-compliance.
Arrogance. Self-righteousness. Eccentricity. And insolence.
All of these were, in fact, the fundamental virtues of a mage.
At the very least, they were qualities a mage of their prestigious family ought to possess.
The boy... before I knew it, he has become a proper mage.
A deep wave of emotion washed over the Great Elder.
The little child who couldn't dare to rebel against his words was gone.
In his place stood an admirable mage who knew how to stand up to the Great Elder himself.
Of course, it was a pity that this growth was currently limited to mere words.
For a true mage proved themselves through actions, not words.
Yet, seeing his nephew's remarkable growth, the Great Elder's heart softened.
"...Very well. Perhaps I have been holding you back. Go. Walk your own path of magic."
"Thank you, Uncle!"
The mysteries of magic were truly profound and bizarre; the mages who wielded them could never be understood by the logic of ordinary humans.
And Siwoo, who had been a perfectly ordinary human until not too long ago, frowned as he watched Ju Gihyeok.
"I never had any intention of letting you go in the first place."
Siwoo. He was no saint.
He had stood by and watched as people were dragged away by the vines, all just to gauge his opponent's hand. It was an incredibly selfish choice.
Nor did he possess great foresight. In the end, those dragged away had become Ju Gihyeok's puppets. The consequence of his passive observation to see the enemy's abilities had returned to him as negative karma.
But whether seeing the decapitated corpses soured his mood, or whether it brought bad consequences upon him...
He did not regret the decision he had made.
Because the ultimate outcome of any choice was never something he could predict.
Therefore, he never looked back and simply kept moving forward.
And this time was no different.
"Come at me! I won't go down so easily this time!"
"This time, I'll kill you instantly, before you even have a chance to recover."
He had absolutely no intention of letting someone who could become a future threat leave here alive.
Siwoo walked forward slowly, staring at Ju Gihyeok's face.
"Aren't you going to show me that funny face you made earlier?"
"Ha! That wasn't out of fear. It was sheer disbelief. Isn't it ridiculous? The fact that a Calamity-class magical tool didn't choose a genius mage like me."
The bastard spouted his nonsense without even a change in his expression. Judging by his demeanor, he seemed entirely sincere.
Mages really are nothing but a bunch of lunatics, Siwoo thought.
With that thought, Siwoo muttered quietly.
"Get ready."
If what that guy had shown just now was his limit, there was no need to drag this out any longer.
He would obliterate him with a single, devastating blow, leaving no time for regeneration.
Vrrr—
The Lantern vibrated excitedly, as if eager to obey his command.
"This time will be different!!"
Bleeegh—
Ju Gihyeok performed a bizarre act. He gagged and regurgitated something from his mouth. It looked like a shriveled human finger.
"Could that be?!"
Section Chief Oh Suhyeok, who had been watching the situation unfold, gasped in sheer shock.
"A holy relic!! Why is that item, which was stolen a month ago, in his possession?!"
A holy relic. Holding the Angel's Finger in his hand, Ju Gihyeok wore a manic grin.
And he roared:
Great Resurrection
The light of Recovery enveloped the finger.
Ju Gihyeok wasn't trying to resurrect a dead angel right now.
In the first place, it was impossible to resurrect a dead life with his magic, Recovery.
But the Angel's Finger was still alive.
That was more than enough.
Ooooooh— A blinding light burst forth.
At the same time, Ju Gihyeok began to force a contract.
The condition: complete restoration of the body. The price: absolute servitude to him.
Oooooh—
The awakened angel resisted. As a noble entity of the heavens, it flatly and fiercely rejected the contract, refusing to bow its head to a mere earthly insect.
But Ju Gihyeok did not back down. Shoving the contract forward, he forced the restoration of the body to proceed.
The angel, reduced to nothing but a finger, lacked the strength to push back against the Recovery magic. As the restoration began, clack—the contract started to bind.
Tremble, tremble.
The finger squirmed, desperately trying to escape before the contract could be finalized. But it was already too late.
Clank—
For the God of Magic had already brought forth the scales.
This was the secret technique of the Ju family.
A contract forced upon a target without their consent by utilizing recovery magic.
Thus, the contract was executed without the angel's consent.
Wuuuung—
A golden light radiating from the finger began to trace the silhouette of wings.
"Hahaha! It's a success!"
As the recovery concluded, the blinding brilliance that filled the area dispersed, revealing the form of the angel.
Dozens of wings unfurled majestically. And between those wings, where each feather grew, horrific fissures split open, and thousands of eyes blinked in unison like blooming flowers.
"Cluck, cluck. To successfully forge a contract with a messenger of God. You are indeed my nephew."
An angel had descended.
Wuuuuuuuuuuuung——
Just then, the Forbidden Book held in Siwoo's left hand began to hum.
The vibration spread rapidly, turning into a wave that reached all the way to the angel.
Flinch.
The wings of the angel, which had been radiating holy majesty, trembled slightly.
Wuuung—
The second resonance. The angel felt an instinctive dread at the ominous vibration, as if its very soul were being gnawed away.
"What are you doing?! Move! Kill him!!"
It had to move to fulfill the contract. However, the angel's body, consumed by terror, remained frozen in midair.
And Siwoo stared down at the Forbidden Book with deep, inscrutable eyes.
"...What is this?"
Chrarrrrarak—!
As if flipped by an invisible hand, the pages of the Forbidden Book fluttered frantically like autumn leaves swept up in a gale. The loud, rustling friction of the old paper filled the air.
And on a single page, the fluttering stopped.
There, a single sentence was written.
"How to Slay a God..."
Siwoo muttered softly.
In response, the angel's body began to shiver violently.
The angel, descended once more upon the earth, was trembling with the fear of death.