Chapter 339
Chapter 339
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 339
Chapter Title: Revealing the Red Tower Lord's Identity
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Naila was dumbfounded.
She should have been more careful. Knowing the opponent was a streamer, she should have put on some kind of act.
Claiming she was uninvolved. That it was all the Archmage's scheme. That Lee Soo-hyuk, Kim Ye-ryeong, and Kim Si-woo were the ones responsible.
As the screen went live in real-time, the viewers naturally went wild.
The broadcast title was provocative too.
The stream titled 'Revealing the True Identity of the Red Tower Lord' drew viewers in droves, surpassing 50,000 in an instant.
Naila stood there like a mute, opening and closing her mouth wordlessly.
In the midst of it all, Clementine, brimming with excitement, sent in a barrage of donations.
The messages continued in awkward, textbook-like Korean. She seemed genuinely thrilled. Well, it was the moment she'd been waiting for, so it made sense.
Firing off at least 100,000 points per donation—it was appreciated, to say the least.
Soo-hyuk responded to the timely question.
"No. The Archmage stumbled upon the Red Tower's corruption while trying to expose it."
Soo-hyuk had already coordinated the story's ending with Hailz beforehand.
There was no better way to build trust than leveraging the Archmage's name.
'It's not even a lie.'
In truth, Hailz had come to the Black Tower to verify the Blood Howler incident upon hearing the news.
Clementine's choice hadn't been wrong in the end.
Fortunately, Hailz and Soo-hyuk had met, and their collaboration led to this outcome.
As talk of the Archmage arose, chats asking about Hailz's whereabouts flooded in.
No need to explain it verbally.
Rumble rumble rumble—
The ground trembled faintly.
The earth split open, and flames hot as lava erupted from within.
And amid those blazing red infernos, a familiar figure appeared.
"There she is."
It was Hailz.
With Ebonywing hovering high, she held her staff aimed somewhere.
Where Hailz's staff pointed stood a demon king covered head to toe in burns.
Its body charred black like overcooked meat, only its eyes gleamed with feral ferocity.
At that moment, something shimmering transparently around them flowed toward the demon king.
The souls of the dead seeped into its maw like air. The demon king's unstable demonic energy began to stabilize bit by bit.
'So that's how it works.'
This demon king devoured the souls of the dead. It must have extended its lifespan that way, recovered its strength, and grown even more powerful.
What if the children here had become its fodder?
It might have truly revived as something close to one of the Three Great Demon Kings.
But fortunately, its condition was too poor to recover much from this paltry amount.
"Pointless struggling."
Hailz raised her staff skyward. Whether prepared in advance, a magic circle already shimmered at its tip.
Whoosh—
The sky turned crimson, filling with spears of flame. Spreading them like wings, Hailz glared down at the demon king with red eyes.
She looked like a judge descending from the heavens to deliver verdict.
The demon king gnashed its teeth and charged at Hailz without retreating.
"Raaaaagh!"
Spewing demonic energy that warped the air, the demon king lunged.
From afar, it resembled a pitch-black moth diving into flames.
And at that instant.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh—!
The flame spears spread like wings around Hailz rained down like arrows.
Countless spears pierced the demon king's body. Mouth agape in a scream, it plummeted amid the scorching blaze.
Soo-hyuk had seen that spell once, long ago.
"...Ragnarok."
A spell for single-target annihilation, its range vast enough to blanket the sky—yet focused on one foe.
The difference: far more spears now, and the flames burned even hotter.
The demon king's body charred utterly black as it fell.
Hailz shook her head with a weary expression at the corpse, no different from charcoal.
"Finally dead. Whew."
She brushed off the dust on her clothes and descended.
"Huh? Auntie, what're you doing there?"
Spotting Naila held by Ye-ryeong, she burst into laughter.
Soo-hyuk quickly interjected, lest Hailz say something odd.
"We're live."
"Oh, really? Hey everyone!"
A natural at broadcasting, Hailz waved cheerfully.
"You should do the streams."
"Me?"
"I thought so before, but you seem good at it."
"Should I switch careers?"
The viewers sensed something off at Soo-hyuk's casual tone with Hailz.
The Archmage had quite the fanbase. Soo-hyuk took all sorts of flak in that short time.
"All done then?"
"Yeah."
Deeming it sufficient, Soo-hyuk ended the broadcast.
"That's it for today's stream. See ya."
"See ya~ Bye everyone!"
The broadcast ended abruptly. Just before, viewers had exceeded 200,000.
Ye-ryeong, watching Soo-hyuk stream from the side, chuckled in disbelief.
"Like I said before, you really just... stream however."
"Do I?"
"Well, it suits you."
"Today's purpose was different. I don't usually do it like this."
"You do this all the time. I was a viewer too, remember?"
Hailz watched their playful banter, feeling the gazes upon her.
Before long, countless black mages surrounded her, eyes full of admiration.
"What's with these black mages?"
"The missing kids."
"These ones?"
Hailz was startled by Soo-hyuk's answer. Indeed, young children were mixed among the black mages.
Grasping the situation, Hailz's gaze turned to Mersian.
Beside the defeated, limp Mersian stood grown children approaching.
"Mister! You said you needed us. Just say the word."
Mersian grinned at the adult child's words.
"Yeah. Plenty to go around. You'll be needed by these folks from now on."
Mersian had already arranged where the children would go upon leaving.
"Go find old man Baltazar of the Black Tower. I've spoken to him—he'll welcome you. The Black Tower needs talent."
"What about you, mister?"
"I'm a real bad guy. Time to pay for my sins."
Despite his words, Mersian wasn't one to face retribution out of guilt.
He was simply protecting the children through this choice.
Exposing it all publicly was the surest way to safeguard them.
"So become a slightly less bad guy. Not fully good, though—they'll just ignore and devour you."
Grunting in pain, Mersian rose.
"Mister!"
"Don't go!"
The youngest blocked his path first. Pushing through them, Mersian strode forward.
Si-woo and Ye-ryeong watched with troubled expressions.
"Feels like we're the villains here."
"Maybe to those kids."
"Do they know what kind of guy Mersian is?"
"Dunno. But... I hope they never have to find out."
To others, maybe not—but to those children, Mersian was like a father.
Mersian soothed them to stay back. Fortunately, the young man leading them was perceptive and helped corral the rest.
Shaking off the children, Mersian approached Soo-hyuk.
"Let's go. Teleport via the Archmage if possible—my back hurts."
"Farewells done?"
"What more is there? A wave's enough."
With that, Mersian waved without looking back, concluding his goodbye.
Then, Hailz, watching the children bid Mersian farewell, remarked.
"Fine mages, those."
"Right?"
Mersian finally couldn't hold back and chuckled.
"Who raised 'em?"
Everything seemed wrapped up, but Hailz still had one task left.
Dealing with Naila.
"No! No!"
"If you're gonna use magic like that, better off without it, auntie."
She stripped Naila of her magic.
Destroying the mana core in her heart, ruining her body so she couldn't gather even a scrap of mana.
"Aaaah!"
Naila screamed.
Not from physical pain. It was the agony of losing everything achieved in a lifetime.
Indistinguishable from bodily torment. After shrieking madly for a while, Naila passed out before Ye-ryeong could even cover her mouth.
Hailz tossed the unconscious Naila onto Vulcanus's back like luggage.
"If the Red Tower Lord keeps her magic, she'll wriggle out somehow. Better make it thorough."
"Lots of cleanup ahead."
A massive incident involving the Red Tower, various guilds, and the Deep Sea. They'd even tried reviving a fourth demon king, albeit failed.
Post-processing wouldn't be simple.
"Can I leave it to you?"
"Of course. Technically, it was Red Tower business from the start."
Hailz hopped onto Vulcanus with surprising agility, belying her mage image.
"I'll wrap it up and find you. Talk then."
With that farewell, Hailz rode off on Vulcanus.
With Naila's true face exposed on stream and Hailz's Archmage authority, cleanup was no worry.
In truth, the moment Naila's magic vanished, Clementine's request was as good as complete.
Ding—
As if watching from afar, Soo-hyuk's kit buzzed right then.
A text from Clementine.
"Let's go."
"Huh?"
Si-woo and Ye-ryeong eyed him questioningly.
Checking the message, Soo-hyuk looked up with relieved tone.
"Time to claim that divine-grade item."