Chapter 182
Chapter 182
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 182
Chapter Title: Most Wizards Are Madmen
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Inside Ixion's conference chamber.
The meeting had paused briefly due to the sudden appearance of the Mad Emperor.
"Kid, you're really the Mad Emperor?"
The first to speak up was Black Tide, the dark-attribute Long Ghost Clan member.
She eyed the Mad Emperor with deep suspicion.
But the Mad Emperor paid no mind to her gaze and snorted dismissively.
"What, you think I'm a fake? It's actually funnier that you're all so surprised in the first place. You lot each have your own ways to cheat death, don't you?"
As the Mad Emperor brazenly scanned the World Erosionists, some nodded in agreement.
Everyone gathered here had at least one method of survival up their sleeve.
"Couldn't the Necromancer have just revived you?"
This time, the old man raised the question.
"Hah."
The Mad Emperor let out a short scoff before glaring at the old man.
"Check for yourself."
"Will do."
The old man approached without a hint of concern and slammed his staff into the ground.
A ripple spread out from that spot, passing right in front of the Mad Emperor.
Moments later, the old man's expression turned subtle.
"You're definitely alive."
The Mad Emperor wasn't a corpse—he was truly alive.
Of course, that alone didn't erase all suspicion, but it at least proved he wasn't Evelask's corpse.
"I apologize. When you've lived as long as I have, suspicion comes naturally."
As the Mad Emperor shot him a told-you-so look, the old man tipped his bowler hat and offered a sincere apology.
"Then get lost, old timer."
The Mad Emperor brushed past him and strode inside.
He locked eyes with the Black Witch, drawing all of Ixion's attention.
"So, Black Witch. I think it's time you paid up for the precious life I lost."
Fury boiled in the Mad Emperor's eyes.
He had died due to the Black Witch's blunder.
So he had every right to demand accountability.
The Black Witch fell silent for a moment before nodding slightly.
"Sorry."
"Hah, damn bitch."
The Mad Emperor's rage was justified.
Not even the other World Erosionists could deny it.
If they had been in his shoes, anyone would have been furious.
And this fact began to subtly fracture the group.
The World Erosionists who gathered under Ixion hadn't done so out of trust in one another.
They had united solely for the common goal of creating the God of World Erosion.
At the center of that group was none other than the Black Witch.
Her mistake killing a World Erosionist was more than enough to crack Ixion apart.
"Quit your yapping."
The one who shifted the mood was the Beast King.
He dug into his large ear with a thick finger and blew on it.
"You couldn't escape because you weren't good enough, right?"
The Mad Emperor's opponent was no one to take lightly.
But in the eyes of the Beast King—one of Ixion's top powerhouses—it was something he could handle without the Black Witch.
The Mad Emperor ground his teeth as their eyes met.
Undeterred, the Beast King leisurely stroked his white beard amid the Mad Emperor's angry glare.
It was common knowledge that no matter how skilled the Mad Emperor was, he couldn't stand up to the Beast King.
The Beast King's words swayed the other World Erosionists as well.
They were all confident in their own abilities.
Naturally, they had no desire to defend the Mad Emperor just to protect their pride.
After all, they each believed they could have escaped that situation themselves.
The Mad Emperor looked incredulous at suddenly being painted as the weakling shifting blame.
But there was no one left here to back him up.
"If you barely crawled out alive with your tail between your legs, just sit down and shut up. What right does some guy who can't even prove he's not a corpse have to complain?"
With the Beast King's sharp rebuke, the Mad Emperor had nothing left to say and reluctantly took his seat.
A few World Erosionists snickered at him briefly, but they quieted down soon enough, aware of his feelings.
'Damn it, I made it so they don't look ready to kill me on the spot right now. Happy now?'
Now tucked away in a corner, the Mad Emperor sent the thought inwardly.
[Yeah, good job.]
Krash's voice echoed in his mind in response.
Through Evelask's necromancy, everything happening was being relayed straight to Krash.
That's why the Mad Emperor had amped up his gestures even more.
The more exaggerated they were, the easier it was to scan the World Erosionists around him.
And thanks to that, Krash had gained one key piece of information.
The Hell Fairy.
He could see who she was through the Mad Emperor's eyes.
'Don't recognize her.'
The Hell Fairy was someone Krash had never seen in any of his memories.
That made it all the more problematic.
To eradicate Ixion's remnants and roots, Krash had meticulously investigated every member alongside the Generation of the Sky.
Yet nowhere in those records was there any mention of the Hell Fairy.
Even though the Ixion members here treated her like an old acquaintance.
'She's connected to the imperial family, but no info on her at all?'
Krash couldn't wrap his head around it.
'The Mad Emperor incident definitely happened in past regressions too.'
Did the Hell Fairy intervene back then, or not?
There was no way to be sure.
It was a shame.
Having not lived assuming he'd regress, he hadn't paid close attention to details from this point in time, leaving his knowledge too sparse.
But one thing was certain.
The Hell Fairy was a new variable in this regression.
Active at this stage? Definitely a variable.
'Her ties to the imperial family might have formed in this regression.'
That line of thought led to one conclusion.
The reason for such massive changes within Ixion.
'Regression.'
The regressions of Krash, Arthur, and the three women.
That was the catalyst.
Krash was certain.
At least Mary and Sigrin had no connection to this.
He'd been monitoring their movements closely.
That left one obvious suspect—the same one he'd suspected before.
'Abella.'
The Red Witch, Abella.
She, who had reached the pinnacle of magic, kept nagging at him.
'If the Hell Fairy is linked to Abella...'
Abella might have deliberately infiltrated Ixion.
The problem was, Krash had no idea what Abella wanted from Ixion.
'Abella's goals were always different from ours.'
She hadn't focused on preventing the world's destruction.
Wizards were mostly madmen, after all.
To her, destruction just meant no more magic to pursue—a mere regret.
Losing everything to it didn't faze her much.
The sole reason she fought alongside the Generation of the Sky to stop it?
Simply because Arthur wanted to.
She was hopelessly devoted to Arthur, utterly dependent on him.
She displayed overwhelming prowess in magic, but her core was rotten from the roots.
Arthur had cunningly exploited that weakness, binding her gaze to him for life.
But now...
'There's no Arthur in this world that Abella knows.'
The Arthur who whispered love to her and always supported her was gone.
The Arthur existing here wasn't the one from her memories.
'From the moment the fake Arthur appeared, Abella has been by the current Arthur's side.'
Would Abella have accepted this Arthur and been content?
Or had she rejected him?
'If that's really the case...'
The fake Arthur's emergence.
The real Arthur nowhere to be found.
What if all of it was Abella's design?
The current Arthur might be beyond saving.
As his thoughts reached that point, Krash's face grew darker.
An extreme idea had surfaced.
'It's really, really extreme, but...'
A chilling thought hit him.
He desperately wanted to believe it wasn't true.
But...
'That crazy bitch might actually do it.'
There was no real Arthur in this world.
To reclaim the real one, Abella might be...
trying to create the God of World Erosion.
Anyone else, and he'd dismiss it as overthinking.
But Abella? She was mad enough for it.
The Hell Fairy might even be one of her prepared moves.
'Then I need to find who's feeding imperial info to the Hell Fairy.'
Krash immediately thought of the one person who could provide the most imperial intelligence.
'Sizly Epania.'
The empire's Fourth Princess, that sharp-witted tomboy.
Sizly was the key.
'She's in the empire right now.'
Perfect timing.
He'd need a way to contact her.
The issue was how to establish that channel.
Krash thought of someone right away.
'Mary Diana.'
She was leashed to Sizly.
And through that leash, contact should be possible.
The imperial brand wasn't purely one-way.
Mary likely had some method to reach out to Sizly.
'Guess I need to meet up with Mary again anyway.'
He was already planning to see her to unravel her final dilemma, short or long.
Krash reviewed his next steps.
Then he lifted his head and stared straight ahead.
'What I need right now...'
Was to uncover even a sliver of the Hell Fairy's identity and gauge Ixion's future moves.
He decided to focus solely on that.
The Ixion meeting wrapped up without any major developments.
The main topics were gathering intel on Krash
and the fact that someone had inherited the Sword Emperor's legacy.
'The Sword Emperor's legacy—Sigrin's on the move.'
Krash quickly deduced who had claimed the Sword Emperor's legacy.
The Sword Emperor, active in an era before the current Heavenly Sovereigns.
The only one who'd stood shoulder-to-shoulder with him was Fighting Emperor Durandal, current chancellor of Raheln Academy.
That Sword Emperor had left behind a special legacy, which Krash figured Sigrin had absorbed.
'Not like I could handle it anyway, so whatever.'
Still, knowing it went to Sigrin left a bad taste.
"Feels like they're onto me."
The returned Mad Emperor scratched his head furiously, venting his frustration.
As he said, Ixion skipped discussions on future plans.
They couldn't fully trust the Mad Emperor's return.
Krash hadn't pinned much hope on it anyway.
The Mad Emperor's role had served its purpose.
"What now? Ixion's gonna start gunning for you for real."
Crimson Garden asked, and Evelask agreed.
"Ixion's dangerous. Some of them are way beyond handling."
He'd set up barriers as a stopgap, enough to evade World Erosionist eyes.
What he needed now was the power to protect himself.
The power to draw out Ixion and crush them.
"Grand Curse Master Beltua Rackroad."
The world's top curse master—the only one who could procure highest-grade curses.
"We need to find that old man."
Ironically, the old man was likely near the empire.
'And Mary's Excel too.'
Time to gather skills and curses.