Chapter 120
Chapter 120
Ch. 120 .｡.:✧ Who Are You? (2) ✧:.｡.
—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
—————————————————————–
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“Who are you?”
“Huh?”
I noticed it immediately.
She had Tay’s face and spoke in Tay’s voice, but…
This wasn’t Tay.
These weren’t words Tay would say.
Of course, I knew Tay was ambitious and desired to improve her skills.
I also knew she wanted the black mana stone because it was the best material for honing her craft.
But at the same time…
Every time I entrusted her with the black mana stone, she had always shown a hint of fear, worried that she might ruin it due to her lack of experience.
That was gone now.
Her timid, hesitant side had completely disappeared.
All that remained was an obsession with the black mana stone.
This wasn’t Tay.
Or rather, Tay was possessed by something.
I reached that conclusion.
And then, as I glanced at her chest, something strange caught my eye.
‘Demonic energy?’
Deep within Tay’s chest, demonic energy flickered.
It was demonic energy I hadn’t been able to detect before I learned to see it through my curse training.
The moment I noticed it, cold sweat trickled down my back.
I grabbed Tay’s shoulders.
“What do you mean…? Huh?!”
“Tay is always comfortable initiating physical contact, but she blushes when I touch her. But you’re not reacting at all, even though I’m holding your shoulders. You’re just confused. You’re not Tay.”
Bam!
I headbutted her.
The impact knocked Tay unconscious.
I quickly unbuttoned her shirt and started examining the demonic energy in her chest more closely.
“…Yoo-jin. You… look like… a criminal… right now.”
“Be quiet. I’m concentrating.”
This was strange.
Demonic energy residing within Tay’s chest…
Had it always been there?
There was no way to know for sure.
Until recently, both Undecided and I had been practically insensitive to demonic energy.
We could only barely sense it if it was overflowing.
In other words, we were like ordinary people until recently.
I only gained the ability to truly ‘see’ demonic energy, to observe its color and shape, after acquiring the ‘Curse Formation’ trait.
And Undecided had gained that ability after learning formations from Guiho.
‘What is this? It’s near her heart… Is it demonic energy leaking from a curse formation?’
But even now that I could see demonic energy, its form was strange.
It was definitely there, but…
Its presence was faint.
It was as if it wasn’t demonic energy itself, but rather demonic energy that had leaked from a formation unintentionally.
But if I were to ask if there was a curse affecting Tay’s chest… that wasn’t it either.
This demonic energy was simply ‘residing’ within Tay.
‘It’s sticky and unpleasant.’
The more I looked at the demonic energy, the more nauseous I felt.
It was filled with a disgusting malice, a black abyss.
And when I tried to touch it with my own demonic energy, it felt slimy and repulsive.
It was even difficult to extract.
The harder I tried to pull it out, the more tenaciously it clung to Tay’s heart…
It was just demonic energy, but it felt like a living creature.
A primal being with only a will to survive.
This was definitely not something Tay had possessed from birth.
Someone had intentionally planted it inside her.
I reached that conclusion.
‘Good thing I knocked her unconscious.’
If I had noticed that something was wrong with Tay, I should have pretended not to notice and tried to gather information through conversation.
But I had panicked and blurted out,
“Who are you?”
Now that it knew it had been discovered, there was no telling what it would do to Tay’s body.
The terrifying thought that it might force her to harm herself had prompted me to knock her unconscious.
But it could have been even worse. It could have forced her to stop her own heart.
If I hadn’t knocked her unconscious, I might be regretting it now.
“Undecided, what do you see?”
“…Yoo-jin… touching… little girl’s… chest…”
“No, look inside. Inside her chest.”
“…Touching… chocolate-colored… chest…”
“Inside her chest. The demonic energy. You can see more than I can. Please.”
“…Okay.”
Undecided came closer and placed her hand on Tay’s chest.
I couldn’t find anything on my own.
I was just a beginner in the world of curses, having only unlocked the 0th stage formation through my trait.
Undecided, on the other hand, had reached the 1st stage through her own efforts.
And of course, different levels meant different perspectives.
Undecided would be able to see things I couldn’t in that demonic energy.
“…Unpleasant… demonic energy… Tried… to control it… but… no use…”
“I couldn’t do it either.”
“…And… this… demonic energy… I’ve… seen it… somewhere…”
“Where?”
She’d seen it somewhere?
I was puzzled, but then Undecided slowly raised her finger.
“…There.”
Undecided pointed at my waist.
More precisely, the sword at my waist.
Or rather, the mana stone embedded in the sword’s hilt.
And this mana stone…
“Belphegor?”
It was a mana stone made from Belphegor’s demonic energy.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
When did it start?
Tay sometimes heard a voice in her head.
At first, she had suspected divine revelation or demonic possession, but…
Those suspicions were quickly dismissed.
‘You want to improve your skills.’
‘You need the black mana stone to improve your skills.’
‘You must obtain the black mana stone.’
The voice whispered Tay’s honest and undisguised desires.
Perhaps she was just hearing her subconscious thoughts, her mind hazy from staying awake for too long.
That’s what Tay thought, dismissing it as nothing important.
‘The black mana stone could be discovered somewhere in the world, right?’
‘So let’s increase our workload!’
‘Take on more requests, and work without rest!’
But the voice grew more talkative over time, and…
It started saying things that weren’t Tay’s thoughts.
Tay even started having short conversations with the ‘voice,’ but…
At that point, she had lost the ability to sense anything amiss.
The ‘voice’ had already completely taken over her subconscious.
But Tay’s willpower was strong, and the ‘voice’ could never invade her conscious mind.
It couldn’t eavesdrop on what Tay saw, heard, or felt, but…
It could cloud her consciousness.
When consciousness blurred, the unconscious naturally filled the void.
Even though the ‘voice’ couldn’t possess Tay’s body…
It could achieve a similar effect by manipulating her unconscious, which was now filled with its desires.
“Black mana stone… I want the black mana stone…”
The brainwashing was effective.
Tay had completely forgotten ‘why’ she wanted the black mana stone.
It had nothing to do with improving her skills anymore. She was simply obsessed with the black mana stone itself.
She followed the voice’s commands.
Tay pushed herself relentlessly, taking on endless requests, exhausting her body.
The more mana stones she handled, the higher the chance of encountering the black mana stone.
The more famous she became, the more diverse and numerous the mana stones that would come her way.
Unbeknownst to Tay, she was being controlled by the ‘voice.’
She was obsessively abusing her own body.
But to everyone else, Tay just looked like an ordinary craftsman working too hard.
There were some worried glances and words of concern, but nothing more.
No one took a serious look at Tay.
No one noticed the demonic energy residing within her.
And then one day…
The ‘voice’ sensed a surge of excitement from Tay.
An unprecedented level of joy.
It couldn’t see or hear directly, but it was certain.
Tay was about to encounter the black mana stone.
Now, nothing could stop it.
‘Go wild. Obtain the black mana stone by any means necessary. Just hold it once, that’s all you need!’
The ‘voice’ scattered Tay’s consciousness, eliminating her reason.
It made her act purely on instinct.
Even if it meant using violence and harsh words, she had to obtain the black mana stone.
Thud!
‘Huh? She fainted?’
But the result was unexpected.
Tay fainted, losing consciousness.
And then…
The ‘voice’ shuddered, sensing a chilling gaze.
Someone was looking directly at it.
“Who are you?”
It had hidden itself so meticulously that even curse users shouldn’t have been able to detect it.
Unless it was someone obsessed with researching formations…
The ‘voice’ panicked.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
‘I get it now.’
The moment I learned that the demonic energy belonged to Belphegor, most of the puzzle pieces fell into place.
‘Belphegor also uses clones, like Sogong.’
Among the Four Heavenly Kings, Belphegor had the weakest physical strength.
Even weaker than the Necromancer, whose main body was an undead army.
So, it was only natural that Belphegor excelled at creating clones.
And creating clones always came with a price.
In Sogong’s case, she had to divide her main body’s power.
And Belphegor was no exception.
But there was a way to create clones without sacrificing the main body’s power.
That was to borrow someone else’s body.
Like Lawrence, who had possessed the body of a demon contractor.
Of course, this method had two limitations.
First, demon contractors were all idiots like Lawrence. Possessing their bodies wasn’t very beneficial.
Second, even possessing an idiot required a lot of time and effort. Belphegor had to infuse the contractor’s body with a large amount of demonic energy and wait for it to adapt.
It was a frustrating method with low reward and high cost.
So, the most satisfactory method for Belphegor was to create its own clones.
Unlike human bodies, clones could fully utilize the main body’s power.
Now, if there was a way to create clones using only a tiny amount of magic power… practically for free…
If I could think of that method…
Wouldn’t Belphegor have thought of it long ago and already put it into action?
‘To create a clone as powerful as Belphegor’s main body, it needs a massive amount of demonic energy. Not something you can gather in a day or two. It would take hundreds of curse users years to gather that much.’
[T/N: I’m gonna refer to belphegor as a they for now cuz the author keeps confusing me]
There were only a few ways for Belphegor to obtain that much demonic energy.
One of them, the easiest…
…was to find the black mana stone.
The black mana stone was made from the demonic energy of Belphegor’s lost clone, or the corpse of a fallen fellow Heavenly King.
If that stone was decomposed back into demonic energy, it would yield an astronomical amount.
Belphegor would definitely go to great lengths to recover the black mana stone.
And when it came to mana stones, there was a rising star who was making a name for herself worldwide.
Tay.
As the world’s best craftsman, handling mana stones from all over the world, Tay was considered a prime target for obtaining the black mana stone.
Belphegor must have planted a tiny amount of demonic energy inside Tay, secretly manipulating her.
And the moment Tay got her hands on the black mana stone, the moment she sensed that massive amount of demonic energy…
This tiny bit of demonic energy would transform the black mana stone, creating a clone.
And then, the nightmare of “Double Belphegor Event” would begin.
Ugh.
Just imagining it gave me chills.
‘Clever. If I hadn’t learned curses, and if Undecided hadn’t reached the 1st stage of formations, I would never have noticed.’
It was incredibly difficult to detect.
It was definitely Tay, but… something felt different.
It was manipulating Tay’s subconscious, so it was hard to be sure.
If it had been controlling Tay directly, it would have been exposed immediately.
It was a malicious and intelligent brainwashing.
“So, what do we do about this?”
“…Ugh.”
The problem was, even though we knew what it was, we didn’t have a solution.
Undecided was still struggling to extract the demonic energy, but…
It remained stubbornly attached to Tay’s heart.
The harder she pulled, the more tenaciously it clung.
There was no way to extract it without destroying Tay’s heart.
“This is driving me crazy.”
The only silver lining was that the demonic energy’s power was limited.
Perhaps it was because it had been planted in such a small amount to avoid detection, but it hadn’t completely taken over Tay’s body yet.
And it definitely didn’t have a real-time communication function.
There was no chance that this situation was being reported to Belphegor’s main body.
But if my calculations were correct, this demonic energy could send a one-way message.
That one chance would be used the moment it got its hands on the black mana stone, to notify Belphegor’s main body.
To report that it had finally found the black mana stone and created a clone.
“It would be so much easier if it just came out on its own.”
“…Come out… on its own?”
Undecided, who had been stroking Tay’s chest, tilted her head, puzzled.
Then, she looked at me with a blank expression and muttered.
“…Make it… come out… on its own.”
“How?”
“…Give it… what it wants.”
“Ah.”
I understood what Undecided was saying.
What this demonic energy wanted was the black mana stone.
So, if we gave Tay the black mana stone?
It would come out on its own to take over the stone and create a clone.
And at the same time, it would contact Belphegor’s main body.
To report that it had finally found the black mana stone and completed the clone.
And if we traced that communication…
We could find Belphegor’s main body.
“Undecided, are you a genius?”
“…Peace.”
Perfect.
Belphegor must have been overjoyed at the prospect of getting a free clone.
But its greedy, freeloading mindset had backfired.
“Let’s do it. Let’s give it the mana stone.”
This was our chance to meet Belphegor’s main body.
And I was a huge fan.
I couldn’t miss this precious fan meeting.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
[Your Text Here]
For Illustrations and Release Notifications join our Discord
⚙ System Notification ⚙
› Main Quest [God’s Apprentice] Unlocked!
› You have been granted an opportunity by the Arcane God’s to become a Korean Translator for Arcane Translations.
› Do you accept?
› YES/ NO