Definition of Poison
His arrival here had been pure coincidence. It began when he noticed Professor Clara vanish the moment the performance started. He might have dismissed it as a simple trip to the restroom, but the fact that even he—a 7-star dark mage—had failed to sense her departure made him tilt his head in suspicion. As far as he knew, Professor Clara possessed no such skill.
He grasped the true gravity of the situation only after spotting that while searching for her. It belonged to a realm beyond realms. Not merely a severance of space, but a severance of the world itself. Professor Karlsen had been able to perceive its fragments because its foundation was the separation of an Inner World. Rather than completely isolating a portion of the world, it had forced a partial separation while compelling assimilation with the existing reality—a makeshift Inner World that existed as the intersection of the world and the Inner World, belonging to the world as a subset while unfolding within it.
It was a level of control so meticulous that Karlsen could scarcely have imagined it. The instant he noticed it, his eyes met those of a man inside.
The sensation was overwhelming. A single glance sent electricity coursing from the crown of his head to the tips of his toes. Thick glasses. Beyond them, violet-tinged black eyes that rippled ominously. That man. The one who had severed his surroundings with such an absurd Inner World.
At the same time, instinct told him there was only one being in this world capable of committing such an act with such nonchalance.
'Sawang.'
The pinnacle of dark mages. The existence revered and worshipped by every dark mage in this world, including himself. After that single glance, the man turned away as though Karlsen held no interest for him, yet Karlsen clutched his wildly pounding heart as if the mere act of meeting his eyes had been the greatest honor imaginable. His reason threatened to flee in excitement.
'I understand! I understand everything now!'
Karlsen's brilliant mind, usually occupied with strange notions, spun rapidly, connecting every clue. Arina, seated beside the man and enjoying the orchestra. The Mana Up app incident. The reason Jealousy had appeared during the wanted criminal case a few days ago. The existence of Professor Clara, who had vanished right beside him, and why he had failed to notice her departure. All the clues aligned, leading to a single, definitive answer.
His eyes gleamed with newfound understanding.
'Something major must have happened outside.'
And now, though he did not know the details, he realized another incident had occurred. Sawang had moved personally. The person he had wrapped in his Inner World was the man seated opposite Karlsen and Arina. It looked as though he were personally monitoring the man's movements, wary of him. At that exact moment, Professor Clara had moved in his stead. That implied an incident had taken place elsewhere.
'I should move as well.'
The moment Karlsen realized this, he drew up his mana without the slightest hesitation. Something had happened to Sawang. There was no reason in the world for him not to stand by the side of the man he idolized.
Wrapping himself in an Inner World, he vanished from the grand concert hall without anyone present—save for Sawang and the Tugwi—ever noticing.
"I knew coming here was the right choice."
Now, at Ariaadna Square where the Tugwi Guard's terror attack raged, Karlsen arrived just in time to catch the blood-soaked Jeon as he collapsed. If Karlsen had been even 0.1 seconds later, Jeon would not have survived.
"It's fortunate you weren't hit head-on."
Jeon had probably twisted his body to dodge the attack. Had he taken the full force of a blow that could inflict such damage merely by grazing him, either his upper or lower body—or both—would have burst like a balloon pierced by a needle. In that case, even Karlsen would have struggled to save him.
"You've grown, Jeon."
The very fact that he had attempted to evade a 7-star martial artist's attack proved he had become significantly stronger through this battle. Feeling proud of his student's growth, Professor Karlsen gently brushed back Jeon's hair with his bony hand. At the same time, his gaze shifted to the gaping wound at Jeon's side.
"We need to get him to a hospital quickly."
Curse magic—one of the representative branches of dark magic alongside necromancy. Using the curse of blood proliferation to prevent death by excessive bleeding and the curse of illusory faith to substitute for the missing organs, he had barely managed to keep Jeon alive. But this was only a temporary measure.
"……"
Julia slowly raised her head, staring blankly at Karlsen as he held the blood-soaked Jeon who had collapsed from Man-ryang's attack. The sky above was the same blood-red hue that looked ready to drip at any moment, just like that day. Beneath it stretched a barren, desolate land devoid of anything.
'An Inner World.'
At some point, this entire area had been forcibly incorporated into a man's Inner World.
"What is this now?"
Man-ryang also turned his attention to Karlsen at his appearance. The mana he emitted was no less powerful than Man-ryang's own. He was clearly no ordinary individual.
"Hmm."
Karlsen carefully laid Jeon on the ground and scratched his cheek with a troubled expression.
"I can't speak foreign languages. Do you happen to speak this country's language?"
With those words, Man-ryang charged at Karlsen at high speed.
"It seems you don't."
Karlsen sighed deeply, lamenting the fact. Meanwhile, Man-ryang's greatsword descended toward his head, and Karlsen's body, unable to withstand the force, was driven into the ground.
"……"
Karlsen's body crumpled, blood splattering in all directions. Instant death, without question. Yet the expression on Man-ryang's face—the one who had killed him—was far from pleased.
'When did he switch places?'
The blood that had splattered was an ominous black. A rotten stench wafted from it. Looking down at the corpse—Karlsen, or rather, the body that had been swapped with a zombie at some point—Man-ryang slowly turned his head.
"Please take care of my student."
Karlsen reappeared in front of Julia. He had clearly moved the Jeon he had laid on the ground earlier in front of her. Smiling at Man-ryang, he spoke.
'An illusion?'
It felt like a dream. Everything he had seen—the sight of the brat lying on the ground and looking at him—had been false. Even before that, he must have already been carrying the brat toward the wounded woman.
"Whew, it's been a while since I carried something heavy. My arms are a bit sore."
Rubbing his skeletal arms, Karlsen slowly stepped forward.
"Are you mocking me?"
There was not a trace of tension in the man's demeanor despite standing before him. Enraged by this, Man-ryang bent his knees to charge forward.
"Kuhack."
Instead, he coughed up blood mixed with a startled expression.
'Poison?'
When? The moment he reached this conclusion, Man-ryang's head turned toward the crushed zombie's corpse. Martial artists were far more sensitive to changes in their bodies than practitioners of other disciplines. The only moment he could have been poisoned so stealthily that he failed to notice until his body reached this state was when he had crushed the zombie and its blood had splattered onto his face.
'Was his leisurely behavior all to buy time for the poison to spread through my body?'
A dark mage specializing in curses, particularly those related to poison. The instant Man-ryang realized this, Karlsen grinned with a sinister smile.
"What exactly is poison, I wonder."
The definition of "poison" was remarkably broad. Poisons extracted from plants. Poisons generated by animals. Poisons created through chemical reactions. Poisons arising from metals like mercury or lead. Poisoning could occur from consuming something inedible, or sometimes from being stabbed or scratched. Bacteria and pathogens were also classified as biochemical poisons, and radiation was separately defined as radioactive poison.
"This is what I think. Poison refers to anything harmful to humans."
Even the slightest harm made something poison to humans. If it did not, it could not be called poison. That was the meaning of "poison" as defined by Professor Karlsen.
"In other words, this is also possible."
Flames rose beside Karlsen. Since they would burn human skin on contact, they were "poison." The air froze on his opposite side. Since it would cause frostbite on contact, it was "poison." Storm clouds gathered above his head beneath the red sky. Since they could electrocute a person, they were "poison."
This was clearly absurd nonsense. Any mage who interpreted and analyzed nature as it was would have burst into incredulous laughter upon hearing such words. Yet Karlsen—a dark mage who shattered and devoured the established framework of the world with his own rules—was capable of actually realizing such sophistry.
The curse Mansang-maengdok. An absurd Divine Rule that classified everything in the world as poison. And within this Inner World, Karlsen could freely manipulate everything he had classified as poison.
"……"
The dark mage before him was saying something, but Man-ryang could not understand a single word. Yet at least the oppressive presence emanating from him reached Man-ryang in full.
'So this is a dark mage.'
This was his first time fighting a dark mage directly, but he now understood why people avoided battles against high-ranking dark mages. Inner Worlds and Divine Rules. They were essentially miniature versions of superhumans who manipulated their own concepts within reality. Dark magic was a discipline fundamentally different from others. Unlike martial arts, magic, or spirit arts—which built their own foundations and layered concepts upon them—dark mages constructed their own world, generated their own concepts within it first, and then attempted to expand those concepts to contaminate the original world. They were beings who grew concepts rather than creating them like other ability users. That was what dark mages were.
And that was precisely why the only method commonly proposed for fighting dark mages was to destroy their Inner World. At least within this world, it meant dark mages were on par with superhumans.
"……"
Nevertheless, Man-ryang grinned with evident delight. Poison coursed through his body with every heartbeat. Had the very air itself turned to poison? Even oxygen, essential to the human body, became harmful in excess—so it was not strange at all for it to be classified as poison according to Karlsen's Divine Rule.
Kwaang!
Lightning struck from above, and using it as a signal, Man-ryang charged forward at high speed.
'This should be interesting.'
His opponent was a 7-star dark mage. Theoretically, destroying his Inner World through brute force would require power of 8 stars or higher. Nor could Man-ryang, as a martial artist, analyze and dismantle the spell formulas used to create the Inner World one by one like mages or spirit users. The matchup was the worst possible. Yet Man-ryang found it all the more entertaining.
'Let's test whether I really can't win without destroying the Inner World!'
What he could do remained unchanged from before. Trusting in his own durability, he would endure everything Karlsen claimed was poison with his bare body and crush his opponent.
"You're quite the tough one—like a cockroach that keeps jumping right in front of my eyes."
Watching Man-ryang, Karlsen swung flames and ice wrapped around his right and left hands simultaneously.