Chapter 117
Chapter 117
Chapter 117: Celestials and Demons (2)
Translation: godtl
[J-Jonathan? What on earth is happening here?]
[Michael, that's exactly what I want to ask!]
The two men watching the Platinum Debut Match—Jonathan and Michael—were practically beside themselves with shock.
And they had every right to be.
[The demons are suddenly kneeling before Player Kim Si-mun!]
[Even the high-rank demon Marte is kneeling! Faust's face is twisting in horror!]
[Poor Faust. He must be feeling exactly the same way we are!]
Just as they said.
"Wh-what the hell!"
Faust's face was crumbling beyond shock into utter disbelief.
'Marte is kneeling? Just because of some nobody's single word?'
Kneel.
A single command.
That one short word had made Marte kneel?
Considering that Marte was a high-rank demon—one that even early Diamond-rank players needed a full party to face—this made absolutely no sense.
Yet that impossible scene was unfolding right before their eyes.
Perhaps even Marte himself couldn't believe it?
"Th-this can't be......"
Whether it was due to his massive frame or not, the disbelief convulsing through him was unmistakable.
But contrary to Faust's assumption, Marte's trembling wasn't simply because he was kneeling before some insignificant human.
"A mere human... wielding His Majesty's Demonic Energy......"
Despite being a high-rank demon who swept through Diamond-rank battles, Marte couldn't even bring himself to utter the name.
Watching Marte, a faint smile curled at the corners of Si-mun's lips.
"Does it matter?"
A simple question.
Yet with that alone, all of Marte's doubts were erased.
Si-mun's words—imbued with that being's Demonic Energy—had completely uprooted Marte's curiosity.
"It... does not...... matter......"
At Marte's strained reply, Faust's eyes behind him widened as if they might tear.
"Ma-Marte-nim? What are you saying......?"Faust asked in a disbelieving voice.
His confusion was understandable.
"You're using honorifics toward a mere human!!"
Honorifics.
Under the law of Survival of the Fittest, where everything was determined by strength, the weak human race had always been an object of scorn.
Naturally, even those like Faust who wielded Demonic Energy were no exception.
In fact, Marte had never once addressed Faust by name, even after Faust sacrificed his own comrades to summon the demon.
Just "Dark Mage."
Or "vermin"—nothing more than pronouns.
That was how demons viewed humans.
But now.
"Answer me!"
A high-rank demon like Marte was using honorifics toward a human he'd never seen before—one who was just another participant in the same Platinum Debut Match?
Kneeling could be dismissed as some underhanded magic or trick at work, but—
"Marte-nim!!"
Honorifics were in an entirely different category, weren't they?
Yet despite Faust's near-wailing shout,
"......"
Marte didn't so much as twitch, merely bowing his head toward the handsome man before him.
He didn't even seem to care how Faust perceived him, his attitude one of complete submission to the man in front of him—which only fueled Faust's rage.
Naturally, that rage was directed at—
"You bastard!"
—the indifferent, handsome man standing there: Si-mun.
"What kind of trick did you pull?! Are you a wielder of holy power, by any chance?"
Holy power—the energy opposite of Demonic Energy, also known as celestial energy.
If Si-mun possessed it, this situation might somehow make sense.
No.
It had to make sense.
What kind of being was a high-rank demon?!
One that he himself had summoned!
"Right, no need to answer. That's just how it is between us, isn't it? Hmm?"
A wielder of holy power and a wielder of Demonic Energy.
Though their relationship wasn't as irreconcilable as that between celestials and demons, players also had varying levels of affinity depending on their stats.
The closer they were to each other, the further the celestials and demons who would otherwise offer them attention and support became.
This would soon manifest as a decline in combat power.
Conversely.
"You despicable slave of holy power! I'll tear you apart and rescue Lord Marte and the other demons!"
When wielders of holy power and Demonic Energy killed each other,
the likelihood of receiving attention or support from celestials and demons naturally increased.
Therefore.
"Howl, O darkness!"
If he could rescue them from that vile wielder of holy power,
he would receive not just the favor of high-rank demons, but full-fledged support from the Demon Realm itself.
Having reached this conclusion, Faust began channeling Demonic Energy to cast his spells.
Simultaneously.
"Dark Ambition! Black Fear!"
The silent-cast black magic spells, invoked through memorization, shot toward Si-mun.
An impeccably executed double-casting.
Moreover, while instantly unleashing his magic,
maintaining separate casting sequences required considerable technique even among double-casters.
"Truly worthy of Faust."
Indeed, skills befitting Germany's representative in the Platinum Debut Match.
Yet shockingly, Si-mun—who'd quietly admired this display—
made no move to counter.
Kiiing!
Only his pitch-black left eye amplified the tinnitus, flickering with Demonic Energy.
Realistically, as a black mage,
Faust could've easily discerned Si-mun wasn't a holy power wielder just from that darkened left eye.
But the high-rank demon's absolute submission had effortlessly shattered Faust's common sense.
"Kehah! Given up? No—you can't even move while maintaining that underhanded trick, can you?"
Of course!
To make a high-rank demon and multiple others kneel like this, there had to be penalties!
Faust roared with manic laughter—until it abruptly died.
"W-what the?!"
His gaping shock replaced the laughter.
Understandably so.
"My spells!!"
The moment Dark Ambition and Black Fear reached Si-mun,
they dissolved—
like sugar in water.
"Magic nullification? No, that can't be..."
So stunned was Faust
that he stopped casting his 6-star spell mid-chant, jaw slack as he stared at Si-mun.
'This isn't nullification!'
At this level of Magic Class combat, spell nullification was a known phenomenon.
Faust himself had faced opponents stacking dark-attribute resistances.
What just happened wasn't nullification.
Rather—
'Yes—it was like the spells unraveled themselves.'
"Unraveled" fit perfectly.
As if the spells themselves held volition to reject their attack.
Yet this theory had a fatal flaw.
'Spells possessing volition? Is that even possible?'
Perhaps for high-tier magic—
but these were 4-star black spells cast via memorization!
He wouldn't believe a 6-star black spell had volition, let alone a 4-star one.
But he got no time to ponder.
The man who'd withstood black magic barehanded—
No.
"Marte."
The man who'd effortlessly dismissed it.
"Subdue him."
"Yes."
Having wrought back-to-back impossibilities.
Thud.
Faust slammed lifelessly onto the ashen floor.
Whether from Marte obeying Si-mun again,
or his frail mage-body meeting overwhelming violence—
"......"
He collapsed without screams or struggle.
Only his emaciated frame, crushed under Marte's stone-like grip, twitched pitifully.
-That German monster prodigy Faust...
-They said it's a high-rank demon, no? Why's it obeying him word for word?
-But the black mage is Faust... And the summoner is also Faust...
-Si-mun-chan is such a greedy thief, stealing everything—body, heart, even demons!
-Are you blind? This isn't the time for jokes.
-For real, they're cracking jokes right now? Does this situation look like a joke to you?
The chat, unusually subdued, wasn't unwarranted.
Sure, Si-mun had shown off his absurd, out-of-spec abilities before.
But commanding a Diamond-tier race—a high-rank demon, no less—with just a single word? That was beyond comprehension.
-Did Mr. Kim's eyes suddenly change? Maybe that's related.
-But didn't Kim Sang always have special abilities in his eyes?
-Even if he did, this situation still doesn't make sense. That's a high-rank demon we're talking about.
-What the hell is going on? Is Kim a black mage too? But Faust is already Platinum-tier in black magic.
The chat flooded endlessly with questions.
In reality...
-This isn't a situation where you can just ask if he's a black mage or not.
-I agree. I've summoned demons before, but unless you're Diamond-tier, black mages are always subservient to demons.
-At best, a Diamond-tier black mage forms a partnership with low-rank demons. A master-servant relationship like this is impossible.
Many who appeared to be black mages had shown up, but even they couldn't provide a proper answer.
-What kind of ability is this?
-I really want to see his Status Window.
Thanks to the influx of high-ranking players due to the Debut Match, the chat was unusually serious and academic.
But Si-mun, who rarely checked the chat mid-Arena, merely...
"Hmm..."
...continued staring at Faust with the same indifferent gaze as before.
'Originally, I would've just slaughtered every last demon here.'
Not just Faust—Si-mun had planned to kill every single demon Faust summoned.
The Debut Match was a Survival mode with a fixed kill count of 516 players.
And given that the Chaos Realm map featured Celestials and Demons as its races, eliminating them would grant significant additional Achievement Points.
With Diamond-tier races appearing in early Platinum-tier MMR brackets, the returns were obvious.
So, he should've just used Lemegeton to slaughter them all.
But then...
[The demons summoned by the Authority of the Constellation Baal have been bound to you.]
After forcing the high-rank demon Marte to his knees, the message that appeared before Si-mun's eyes completely changed his mind.
'Bound... In other words, the kill count for these demons will be credited to me.'
Perhaps due to the sudden appearance of Celestials and Demons, the battles between players had mostly come to a halt.
A quick glance at the Arena Board confirmed this.
Si-mun carefully assessed the situation.
Though, in truth, there wasn't much to assess.
'At this point, instead of killing the demons for Achievement Points, I should maximize their utility.'
It wasn't just about farming easy kills like Faust had tried early in the Debut Match.
'Even for me, taking on that many Celestials alone would be impossible.'
The Celestials had already drawn close enough for their forms to be visible.
Given that high-rank Celestials—likely on par with Marte—had also been summoned, slaughtering the demons now for mere Achievement Points would be like killing the golden goose.
'First, deal with the Celestials alongside the demons. Then, sweep up the remaining players.'
At the end of the day, whether it was Celestials or Demons, the additional Achievement Points were the same, weren't they?
Then—
[The Constellation Baal nods in satisfaction at your cunning deliberation.]
[The Constellation Baal frowns slightly as he observes the Celestials, murmuring,"Hmm..."]
[The Constellation Baal has issued you a mission.]
Baal had given him a mission.
[MISSION]
-The Constellation Baal is displeased by the presence of Celestials in the Fall of Gluttony, where his legacy is buried.
[Mission]
Eliminate the celestial beings that have appeared and acquire his legacy.
Reward: Baal's Legacy, 5,000 Achievement Points
Si-mun's eyes widened slightly.
5,000 Achievement Points was undoubtedly a sweet reward, but—
'Baal's Legacy?'
The unusual phrase "Baal's Legacy" caught his attention.
'I don't know what it is yet, but I'll have to clear it first.'
Baal, the highest-ranking Constellation in the Demon Realm and a being of the upper echelons.
His legacy couldn't possibly be anything shabby.
Besides, if Si-mun wanted to register Baal—a high-ranking Constellation—under the [Pick of Kings] title,
he would have to clear at least one of his missions anyway.
Si-mun accepted Baal's mission.
Then—
Bzzzt.
With a faint ringing in his ears,
a single point was marked below him in outline form, just like a conquest point in a territory battle.
'That must be where Baal's legacy is. Hm?'
Si-mun's gaze, which had been following the outline downward, suddenly twisted.
The outline itself was warping in a spiral, as if caught in a whirlpool.
And judging by its location below...
'Don't tell me the legacy is inside a dimensional anomaly?'
It was highly likely that it lay within the swirling dimensional vortex gaping open beneath him.
'Well, considering it's part of a Mythic-grade weapon, it makes sense it'd be in a place like that.'
No wonder Faust, a high-ranker in his past life, had searched so desperately and still failed to find it.
Si-mun let out a dry chuckle and shook his head slightly.
Just then—
"Found them! These filthy demons!"
"This is no place for losers like you!"
"Brothers and sisters! The time of judgment has come!"
A solemn, thunderous war cry echoed.
The celestial beings were closing in.
Si-mun, who had been silently observing them,
"Marte, summon them all. Sweep up any humans nearby too."
He jerked his chin toward Marte, the high-rank demon.
"Understood."
Marte closed his eyes briefly.
A faint ripple pulsed around his head.
Si-mun, possessing a Demon Eye, instinctively recognized it as the unique communication method of demons.
Then—
"Ugh..."
Marte pulled out Faust, who had been buried in the ground.
"This... can't be..."
Whether he had completely lost his mind or not,
Faust was muttering to himself incoherently.
Si-mun glanced at him, then at—
"Your Eminence, we have brought them."
"Ghk!"
"Agh!"
—the five players the demons had captured after spreading out across the area.
"Are these all the survivors?"
"Yes. There are no other humans left in this vicinity."
At Marte's disciplined response, Si-mun nodded slowly.
"Faust! You crazy bastard!"
"Why the hell are the demons suddenly targeting us?!"
"Hey, Faust! What the hell is going on?!"
The players, screaming in terror,
all seemed to know Faust.
'They must all be from the same European faction. Perfect.'
Having deduced their affiliation, Si-mun signaled Marte with a glance.
The European players were unceremoniously tossed next to the dazed Faust.
"Wh-what are you planning to do with us?!"
When one of them mustered the courage to shout, the corner of Si-mun's lips curled up.
"Do? Just returning the favor for what you all did."
"......What?"
The European player tilted his head in confusion.
Then—
"Y-you... don't tell me?!"
Had he figured out Si-mun's plan?
The European player's eyes bulged—but that was all.
"Normally, this would be impossible without a black mage, but with support like this, it's a different story. Right, Marte?"
As Si-mun gestured lazily—
THUD.
"Of course. I shall fulfill your will."
The massive knee of Marte, the high-rank demon, slammed into the ground.
Then, raising his thick arm, he pointed at the European players.
And—
Sssssss—
"G-GAAAH!"
"KYAAAAAAH!"
As if being burned alive,
the European players were instantly engulfed in seething black Demonic Energy.
Their screams faded rapidly.
"A non-necromancer performing a sacrificial ritual?! How?!"
Was it because he was a black mage?
"This can't be! This is impossibleee!!"
With Faust's final shrieks of disbelief and horror—
Crrrrk.
A dimensional rift tore open behind Si-mun.
And from it—
GRRRRR!
"SCREEEECH!"
—dozens of pitch-black beasts came pouring out.