Chapter 100
Chapter 100
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 100
Chapter Title: The Green Flame Familiar
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Even after dinner, Paruzan and Saliba's lessons continued. Fortunately, there was no major resistance.
It might even be beneficial for Paruzan. Resisting would only lead to Agnes stepping in eventually.
───!! Even so, their voices were so loud that the lessons were held in a corner of the annex.
The annex also housed other guests visiting the imperial palace.
With that, Damian finally had some time to himself. He headed to the study with Felix.
"Young master, all the ancient tomes that arrived are organized here."
They were ancient books collected through the Adventurer's Guild.
The payment had been covered with Damian's existing funds and the recent earnings from dealings with the Hilton Merchant Guild.
The shelves were filled with worn old books. But not all of them were Books of Hell.
What he had commissioned from the Adventurer's Guild was to gather every ancient tome available.
Naturally, most were just old books.
Only Damian could identify the Books of Hell.
"Go rest. I'll look through the tomes."
"Understood, Young Master Damian. Please mind the cold night breeze."
Felix lit the study and closed the door.
-Stop, stop! How long are you going to keep repeating the same things!
-Sister Shea! Save me!
Damian stacked the Books of Hell on a table while occasionally hearing Paruzan and Saliba's screams.
It was solitary work that took time, but it wasn't bad. He could directly feel the results of his efforts.
'What an enormous amount.'
Compared to the total purchased ancient books, it was only a portion, but it was still worth the investment.
Five Mem. Three He, three Kaf, three Nun, two Dalet.
They were tomes from the monarchs he had already contracted with, and the quantity was so vast that he felt no regret.
Combined with the Books of Hell obtained from purging demon worshipers in the east, it was an amount unimaginable before his regression.
Back then, obtaining even one Book of Hell had required risking his life.
Yet he had survived. Looking back now, it was an immense stroke of luck.
This time, however, Damian had gathered this many without lifting a finger—thanks to the information gained from his regression.
In particular, there were so many Mem that summoning Molech himself didn't seem impossible.
'Though whether that's a good idea is debatable.'
The first reason was the seekers.
Since they had infiltrated the Magic Tower, some might be hiding under the reformists or traditionalists.
They borrowed power from the Queen of Hell, Ishtar, so who knew how they might transform under the influence of a manifested monarch.
The other issue was whether he could fully control Molech.
He had felt it even while using his right arm. One slip, and Damian could be consumed by that green flame.
Manifesting the main body would be even riskier.
They might be friendly now, but their reaction upon manifesting in the human world was unpredictable.
In fact, some demons he had summoned before were quite rebellious.
He had managed to control them then, but if they rampaged, it would be a huge headache.
'If only I could summon regular Infernals instead.'
Having contracted with Hell's monarchs meant he couldn't contract with their subordinates. That was Hell's rule.
Whoosh. He quickly skimmed through the fifteen Books of Hell.
Most of the content he had read before his regression, but it was still filled with incomprehensible words.
It wasn't bedtime yet, so Damian headed to the basement of the annex.
He had prepared it through the Hilton Merchant Guild for training and experiments while at the Magic Tower.
He couldn't keep going to that abandoned tower forever.
'Time to get some answers on this soon.'
Molech's bone fragment. A gift from the satisfied Infernal King after the battle with the Mountain Sage.
Neither Molech himself nor Aumfasha, who had helped at the Magic Tower, had explained how to use it.
During his spare time at the Magic Tower, he had conducted various experiments.
First, he infused it with regular mana.
'It nearly went wrong at the start.'
He had proceeded expecting failure, but the bone fragment greedily devoured Damian's mana.
If he hadn't stopped midway, he might have fainted.
But there was no change.
Wondering if more mana would trigger something, he even soaked it in mana potion essence.
Yet after absorbing that vast amount, the bone fragment remained unchanged.
Next, he tried primal mana.
Not directly from Damian, but indirectly through a barrier.
Like when he had been pulled into the world of memories, allowing the primal mana to flow uncontrolled.
The result was the same.
Even as he gradually increased the amount, the bone fragment just absorbed it without any reaction.
Later, he stimulated it with Hellfire and other black magic, even using the Magic Tower's artifacts. No difference.
'Tonight... this one.'
In Damian's hand was a Book of Hell—Mem. It was one of the more obvious approaches.
Among things in this world, nothing was more connected to Hell than these tomes.
But at the Magic Tower, he couldn't experiment freely. There were many Mem, but consuming them like this was burdensome.
Now, however, one or two wouldn't hurt.
Books of Hell would continue to be collected steadily through this route, and Mem made up the largest portion.
The Book of Hell scattered, condensing into pure power.
Normally, he would use it to strengthen black magic, but this time, he directed the power into the bone fragment.
'Here, try eating this.'
He placed his hand on the black bone fragment.
"Urk!"
A scorching heat wave touched his skin. The surrounding air heated up rapidly. Moisture in the air evaporated, drying his lips.
It wasn't a flame Damian had ignited. Hellfire was rising from Molech's bone fragment itself.
'First, pull my hand away...'
Before long, the green flames engulfed the training ground. Staying here would burn even Damian.
"What, what is this!?"
But he couldn't pull his hand free.
The green flames morphed into hands and vanished into Damian's body.
He felt the searing heat, but his body didn't burn. It was the same toll as usual when using Hellfire.
Something felt off, though. The flames extending from the bone fragment had flowed into his deepest core, where his soul resided.
And what reacted with the flames there was.
'Mem!!'
The dozen or so Books of Hell assimilated with the flames and poured out of Damian's soul.
He couldn't afford to lose the Books of Hell this way. The connection to his soul was still valid.
Damian grabbed the escaping Hellfire from his soul and engaged in a tug-of-war.
What he learned from Aumfasha proved helpful.
Had he not recognized how black magic manifested from the soul's contracts, he would have lost them helplessly.
'Darn... it!'
Amid the unexpected struggle, something new appeared in Damian's vision.
A hallucination? An illusion? He couldn't tell if it was real. But it was definitely the bone fragment's influence.
'Is this... Hell?'
A world where sky and earth brimmed with green flames. No living beings existed here.
'No, something's there.'
Infernals themselves—demons of pure Hellfire—burned endlessly.
It was on another level from the hellish world he had vaguely imagined while reading the Books of Hell.
People of this era, who tabooed demons and black magic, saw Hell as a horrific realm of curses and degradation. But the world Damian witnessed was different.
Vitality. Paradoxically, the fiercely burning Hellfire pulsed with the dynamism only living creatures could possess.
It made sense, in a way.
Infernals—the demons of Hell—were alive, after all.
Even Damian, a black mage, had thought of black magic only conceptually.
A power of destruction and death. Since he used it for such purposes, he had assumed demons were fundamentally the same.
'What are demons, really?'
A fundamental question. One he had never dared ponder in his past life, with no time for such thoughts.
He couldn't answer it now. Instinctively, he sensed Hell's monarchs would evade this question.
Before he knew it, Damian was in the Infernals' world. No—his very existence unraveled, becoming part of the flames and burning.
──────.
"Ng..."
How much time had passed? He opened his eyes to see the training room ceiling. He had collapsed at some point.
Regaining his senses, Damian placed a hand on his chest to check the Books of Hell in his soul.
'Gone...'
Not a single Mem remained. It felt hollow.
They weren't urgently needed, and relatively easy to obtain, yet it still stung.
All his efforts seemed negated.
"Kyaa?"
A remarkably cute sound shattered his thoughts.
Turning his gaze to his chest, Molech's bone fragment was still burning.
"Kyaa? Kyaaah?"
The sound came from the flames. It was utterly baffling.
'No way, an Infernal?'
But how was it summoned? Moreover, it differed greatly from the Infernals he had summoned before regression.
Regular Infernals couldn't make sounds. Only Molech could communicate.
"Kyaa, kyaa!"
But this Infernal was clearly vocalizing. He couldn't understand a word, though.
At its center sat Molech's bone fragment. It wasn't a pure flame Infernal.
'It resembles Molech...'
Looking closely, the flames were overall roundish.
Vague features like eyes and a mouth appeared, and the flickering flames mimicked limbs.
He placed his hand on the bizarre flames. No searing heat—just a gentle warmth.
And crucially.
'It's inside here!'
He sensed the stolen Books of Hell—Mem. Whether he could extract them from the bone was uncertain, but they weren't gone.
"Kyaaah! Kyaaah!"
The bone fragment climbed onto Damian's hand, wriggling about.
Like a kitten frolicking.
'What do I do?'
Molech, who gave him the bone, showed no response. Damian had to resolve this with his own power.
Tap, tap. Footsteps echoed from upstairs. Checking the clock, it was already morning.
'Damn it!'
He didn't know its nature, but it was definitely a demon. He couldn't let humans see it.
With Agnes, it had been unrelated to Damian, so it was fine. But now, it was dangerous.
"Get in here!"
No better idea coming to mind, he tried shoving it into his Subspace Pouch.
"Kyaaaak! Kyaaaak!"
But the bone fragment resisted fiercely. Like a bug, it scurried across Damian's body, evading stubbornly.
"Young master? When did you come down?"
It was Felix.
A small mercy. Among the annex servants, along with Anna, he was like family to Damian, so he could make excuses.
"Oh! Is that a new familiar? It matches your signature color beautifully."
"...Familiar?"
Felix's reaction was far from what Damian expected.
He didn't see the bizarre flames as a demon at all.
"Kyaa?"
Hearing the sound, more servants came down.
"A flame-type familiar?"
"It's pretty cute."
Their reactions matched Felix's.
But this was definitely a demon. At least, that's how Damian saw it.
"Whoa! Its movements are cat-like. Did you research it at the Magic Tower?"
Felix even placed his hand on the green flames.
"Kaaak! Kaaak!"
"Eh, it's fussier than expected."
The bone fragment reacted violently, fleeing Felix's hand. It rejected everyone but Damian.
'No way...?'
This Infernal-like thing was undoubtedly a demon. But people sensed no oddity from it.
That left one possibility.
A demon born from Damian himself.