Sudden Anomalies
The arena was in chaos. Yura Aquiz's abrupt behavioral shift, Chris's bizarre actions, Aaron Dice refusing to be eliminated even after his bracelet shattered, and the other students who had been disqualified yet remained trapped inside the virtual world. One by one, phenomena that defied every established rule began to appear—abnormalities that had nothing to do with the tournament's systems. The crowd slowly started to realize what Kain had already noticed.
The battle between Aaron and Chris looked unmistakably ominous, and the spectators buzzed with growing unease. The Academy Tournament management committee scrambled in a frenzy, desperately trying to assess the situation, but they couldn't make sense of what was happening at all.
"Shut down the virtual world right now!"
"We can't! The spell formula is completely twisted—we've lost control!"
"Then break through it! We have to save the kids first!"
"That's impossible too! The formula is so tangled that analyzing it will take time!"
"So we're just supposed to sit here and watch them die? Start deciphering the spell immediately! And you—hurry up and send an emergency request to the Magic Tower! Move!"
Virtual World Control Lost
Spell Formula Severely Corrupted
Evacuation Protocol: FAILED
The management committee had descended into pure pandemonium. Watching them scramble, the audience gradually began to grasp the severity of the crisis.
"Is there some kind of problem?"
"Do you need any help?"
Unlike the panicking civilians, the high-ranking officials who had been seated in the stands to evaluate the students all rushed toward the arena floor at once. In the emergency, everyone extended a helping hand without hesitation.
Arina.
In the center of the indoor gymnasium, now packed with countless people in an instant, Marily—who had been pulled out of her own match and returned to reality—stared blankly at the holographic screen with worried eyes.
"You've finally lost it."
Just like Marily, Kain sat alone in the VIP section, staring intently at the hologram. He eventually pulled his gaze away from the image, which was fracturing with static as its link to reality severed, and turned to look at Professor Repli.
"What a fucking disgusting move."
A virtual world was a model garden created by a mage who had separated space. As the name suggested, it was an artificial, fake world. In other words, it was a realm a mage had arbitrarily constructed according to their own thoughts.
"For a dark mage, there's no more delicious prey than that."
Even in the incomprehensibly complex world created by a system acting in place of a god, high-ranking dark mages could project their own will. There was no way they couldn't dominate a world made by mere humans.
Inner World conversion of the virtual space.
What an annoying piece of shit.
Kain, who had grasped exactly what was happening inside the virtual world, glared at Professor Repli with a fiercely crumpled expression. The professor was smiling brightly. Kain's genuine fury tightly bound Repli's entire body. Dark-dimensional mana began to creep out from Kain's form. He hadn't even made a serious move yet, but the sheer killing intent alone caused the blood vessels inside Repli's body to burst like balloons pricked by needles. His skin rapidly turned a deep shade of purple.
"You don't have time to vent your anger like this. Shouldn't you hurry and go save your precious niece?"
Even so, Repli continued speaking with an unbroken smile. That world had already transformed into an Inner World. And not just any—it was one left behind by the ancient Absolute Being, the Undying King, in the form of a post-mortem curse. Of course, since he wasn't manifesting it himself, it couldn't compare to his prime, but it still wasn't something mages below the superhuman level could easily dismantle no matter how hard they tried.
To resolve it, the Death King himself would have to step forward. Mentioning that fact while smirking continued to irritate Kain's nerves.
So that's why he acted so confidently yesterday?
When Pride had used Eun Ma-hyun as bait to lure out Tenma, the buffer against any possible intervention from Kain had probably been this very Inner World. To think they believed something like this could stop him. How lightly they must have underestimated him.
Well, it doesn't matter.
There was no need to waste breath on pointless threats like asking if they thought they'd get away with this. He and this bastard were already irreconcilable mortal enemies. Their relationship had become irreversible the moment he killed Kain's sister. Since he was going to kill him anyway, there was no point getting any more worked up over whatever he did. He just had to crush him thoroughly. Along with that complacent thought that this would be enough to stop him, and the Inner World itself that had devoured the virtual space.
But before that...
He might forget favors, but he never forgot even the smallest grudge. No matter what, he couldn't just let the bastard who had screwed with him get away.
"You didn't seriously think you could show up in front of me and just run away, did you?"
The opponent's true identity was the very faith of the Church itself—an immortal being that would never disappear as long as humanity's belief in god remained in their hearts. But the one standing before him was the Death King Dark Heaven. A being who, if he so desired, could even kill the King of the Underworld—who had obtained god-like authority through the system's protection.
A forbidden art of necromancy and Kain's strongest curse spell.
Infused with data extracted from the River of the Dead during his recent visit to the Underworld.
The most powerful curse in history.
Kyahahahahaha!!
Kain's purple eyes gleamed with a chilling light. At the same time, a spine-tingling wail began to echo around him. It was a formless haze. An ego that existed solely as a soul without a physical body, just like Tenma, the leader of the Immortal. All manner of goblins and illusions born from the illusory realm, the astral plane, delusions, dreams, and hallucinations. Fairies, souls, and ghosts that grew within the falsehoods created by human imagination—virtual life forms that should never have been able to exist. The original wraith of form was a Banshee. The Lord of Wails, forged from the screams unleashed within the hell of the Six Paths of Reincarnation, condensed into blood and flesh.
The third summoned beast created by the pinnacle of necromancy, the Death King, following the King of Bones and the King of Blood. Unlike the other summoned beasts, it was a purely spiritual entity with no physical power whatsoever, but there was no undead more perfectly suited to killing the thing before them right now.
Kyahahahahahahaha!!!!
Unlike the King of Bones, which made irregular, unpleasant clacking sounds, or the King of Blood, which crept forward as silently as a flowing river, its entrance was completely different. The temperature plummeted as if an elemental ice spell had been cast. Frost formed here and there, and laughter equivalent to an 8-star curse shook the souls of everyone who heard it.
"Ugh!"
It was dizzying. It felt like their minds would shatter. The overwhelming pressure it emitted caused their hearts to stop functioning on their own. Blood surged backward, erupting from their noses and mouths through their respiratory tracts. Its very existence was a harbinger of death. For a moment, one might mistake that the title of Grim Reaper referred not to the classic figure, but to this monster.
The Death King who commands the god of death...
Truly a perfectly inverted relationship, fitting for a dark mage who lived as he pleased. A Death King who stood above the gods. Repli—no, the Pope—gave a bitter smile and quietly closed his eyes. This body was already finished. So he would transfer his ego to another vessel.
"Where do you think you're going?"
But Kain would not tolerate such behavior. The King of Spirits unleashed its wail. The King of Spirits that pierced into the opponent's mind. It dealt a direct blow not only to Repli's physical body but to the Pope's ego itself, which had become one with the professor.
"Kgh."
Repli's face twisted. The Pope's divinity, which had already half-severed its connection to the body. Before it, a monstrous figure of horrifying shape revealed itself. If one were to compare it, it was like black mud. A being that could freely transform into whatever a person feared most, proving that fear was the product of human imagination. It bubbled and boiled before the Pope, then slowly formed an eerie, unpleasant smile.
Kyahahahahahahaha!!!!
It was both necromancy and Kain's strongest curse spell. Infused with data pulled from the river of the underworld during his recent visit, it could rightfully be called the most powerful curse in history. The black mud dripping down began to devour the Pope's spiritual body. At the same time, the Pope's eyes widened. The data about the Pope recorded in history, in the Akashic Records, was slowly being erased by the black mud.
A curse of obliteration that devoured not only history but existence itself. It was a power completely opposite in concept to the Pope's ego, which raised the rank of his soul by integrating the opponent's history. The Death King and the Undying King had both developed powers that interfered with souls, but their directions were polar opposites. And for the current Pope, this was the worst possible matchup—utterly fatal.
"......"
To resist the Death King's curse, one needed proof of a self strong enough to overcome that curse. And the minimum qualification for that was to be an Absolute Being. In other words, the Pope—who had been stripped of the possibility of ascending to Absolute status with only his ego remaining—could never overcome this curse.
He's terrifying to an absurd degree.
He had met many Absolute Beings, including Tugwi and the Empress, but he had never encountered someone like this. If the main body failed to become a god, the true culprit would undoubtedly be this bastard, not Hades, the King of the Underworld. That made it all the more regrettable. If he had moved a little more cautiously two years ago, he would never have made the foolish mistake of turning this being into an enemy.
All those centuries of accumulated rank are simply going to vanish.
Still, it was fortunate. Before coming here, he had already transferred most of his karma to another body. For now, he would have to be satisfied with the fact that he could look forward to the next opportunity.
"......"
The Pope, thinking this as he was completely devoured by the black mud. Kain frowned as he stared intently at the sight. Starting from the Pope he had just consumed, the curse spread out into the world. A curse moving to devour every bit of the history he had built up until now. Yet even so, his name continued to be engraved in places the King of Spirits could not reach.
As expected, completely finishing him off in one go was too much?
I'll have to eradicate him bit by bit whenever I have time. What a cockroach-like bastard.
Thinking that, Kain scattered the King of Spirits with the intention of continuing to track the Pope's movements, then slowly rose from his seat.
"Jealousy."
"Yes, Master."
At Kain's call, Jealousy appeared from where the King of Spirits had vanished and knelt before him. Ignoring the people in the VIP section—who, like the other stands, were in a state of panic—as the Inner World turned to dust along with the Pope's escape, Kain spoke quietly.
"While I go rescue the little one, save all the other kids so she won't be sad."
To think he would be given a mission to save people instead of killing them. It was something he had never even considered, but since his Master had taken in the young lady, it was perhaps only natural. A bitter smile formed on Jealousy's lips as he received the order.
"I shall obey."
Listening to Jealousy's reply, Kain's eyes shimmered with a purple hue as he gazed at the virtual world. He slowly reached his hand out toward the front.
Crash!
The glass window blocking the VIP section shattered, and fierce winds whipped in every direction. The sudden commotion caused the spectators' screams to grow even louder. Amidst it all, Kain, who had been reaching out so indifferently, suddenly clenched his fist tightly.
Crack!
Space was torn apart. The Inner World that the Pope had corrupted. Kain forcibly ripped open a passage by killing the incomprehensibly complex spell barrier between that place and reality, then stepped inside without the slightest hesitation.
In his eyes, he could see it. Beyond the space, something was staring at him with wary eyes. It was the monster Ennya Dexspin had discovered. Gazing clearly at that monster, Kain declared indifferently.
"Don't lay a single finger on the little one and wait. I'll come kill you soon."
The monster that met Kain's eyes flinched and trembled. The emotion it felt at that moment was 'fear'—an emotion the monster, born after the death of the Undying King, was experiencing for the very first time.