Chapter 113
Chapter 113
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 113
Chapter Title: The True Culprit
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‘I can’t believe he was hiding a move like that. If I hadn’t been prepared, it would’ve been over for me.’
Forget revenge or whatever.
Damian caught his breath as he watched Lucas crumbling away.
That final strike had been on a level even he couldn’t react to easily.
He hadn’t even noticed the light spreading out.
“Kyaa!”
A bone fragment nudged at his feet. It was a signal asking to be picked up and placed on his shoulder.
“Kyaa! Kyaa!”
The bone fragment rubbed against him playfully. When Damian scratched it lightly with his finger, green flames flickered happily as if it were pleased.
“You did well too.”
There were no restrictions on handling Hellfire, but the bone fragment looked exhausted all the same. Demons or whatever, they were living beings at the end of the day.
And that last move had been largely thanks to the bone fragment.
-Kyaa! Kyaa!
-What’s this? A clone?
In the middle of the clash, when he’d hidden under the Stone Scales barrier again. That’s when the bone fragment had created a clone of Damian using Hellfire.
It had no special combat abilities, but its appearance was identical to Damian’s.
Even with Black Magic—Gaze, it was impossible to distinguish, on par with Karag’s puppets.
-Kyaa! Kyaa!
The bone fragment’s use of Hellfire didn’t end there. It could also envelop Damian’s body in flames to slip out of the enemy’s sight.
Those two abilities had shone in the final moments. Once Lucas’s thought body was subdued so easily, Damian anticipated another trick.
So he’d instantly swapped places with the bone fragment’s clone, while the real Damian hid behind the flames and closed in on Lucas.
If he’d let his guard down thinking it was over, he would’ve been the one done in. Lucas had one last move prepared.
But in the end, Damian’s response had been one step ahead.
‘Not exactly a good feeling….’
It wasn’t the real Lucas anyway, just a familiar. Watching it collapse didn’t stir much emotion.
In fact, from the moment the fight intensified, he hadn’t given any thought to Lucas as a person.
If he didn’t take him down, he’d be the one dying. In such an extreme situation, there was no room for personal feelings.
Was this what it felt like to achieve revenge? Still, he hoped killing Michael and Rubia with his own hands would bring a cleaner sense of satisfaction.
“Congratulations, Chairman Damian.”
They had returned to the original banquet hall. Now, the only one left was the former chairman, Karag.
There wasn’t much difference from before they left, but after the chairmanship passed to Damian, the entire Enricasil had undergone a single restoration process.
The fact that everyone except Karag had returned to their original places was a side effect of that.
For reference, the fake Leonard had been sent to the de Volashi family’s prison via familiar for the time being.
“But why are you still here, Chairman Karag?”
“There’s some finishing work to do.”
He wasn’t chairman anymore. Karag added that as he handed over the ring.
It was the magic tool—no, the artifact that controlled Enricasil.
It wasn’t widely known, but Enricasil’s foundations originated from an ancient civilization as well.
“A thought body or not, how does it feel to have fought His Majesty the Emperor in his prime? Not many imperials have that experience.”
“He was strong. Though even against the real thing, I don’t think I would’ve lost.”
The thought body was a degraded version of Lucas, but Damian hadn’t gone all out either.
He’d excluded undead and Death Knights from the fight and hadn’t fused with his sword.
If he’d just used the Book of Hell, he could’ve ended it faster.
“Kyaa!”
“This familiar seems to have earned its keep. There’s definitely a thrill in discovering the ins and outs of something born by chance.”
Still, the restricted conditions had allowed him to uncover much of the bone fragment’s power.
Hellfire’s raw firepower was lower than Damian had expected. But its versatility was beyond words.
He even wondered if it was right to classify the bone fragment as an Infernal.
“Now, please put on the ring. This completes the succession of Enricasil.”
Whoooosh. As Damian slipped it on, his senses expanded sharply.
The banquet hall and the space where he’d taken the trials were just a tiny fraction of Enricasil. Most of the areas were unused.
“As chairman, you can’t know everything about Enricasil. You seem to have seen more than I have, so use it freely. You’re its master now.”
Karag bowed. At the same time, he too returned to his original place.
Now, only Damian and the bone fragment remained in this unknown space.
‘Is this how it works?’
The moment he put on the ring, a map of Enricasil flooded into his mind.
Just as Karag had said, the chairman could use this artifact to move freely to any desired space.
The first place Damian headed to was a small warehouse. It was piled with junk, nothing particularly noteworthy.
But from the moment he first entered Enricasil, Damian had sensed the beings slumbering here.
Countless undead.
Swoooosh. Necromancy—Xenon responded to his call. The black silhouette of a necromancer extended a hand, infusing mana into one wall.
It looked like an ordinary wall, but it was actually undead—crafted so intricately that normal people couldn’t detect it.
Rumble rumble. The wall split in two, revealing a new space.
‘There’s a lot.’
Unlike the necromancer’s hideout in the magic tower sewers, this seemed like a storage for valuable accessories.
A place prepared in Enricasil by a family that had practiced necromancy for generations.
Ghouls, corpse golems, skeletons, corpse barriers, corpse golems, and more. Masses of undead, miniaturized and preserved in special containers.
Next to them were even Subspace Pouches for carrying them.
Restoring undead damaged by primal mana was reaching its limits.
To replenish them, he’d have had to visit Xenon’s hideout at least, but coming to Enricasil spared him the trouble.
‘No signs of use.’
Anyone capable of such arrangements in Enricasil would’ve been chairman, so had some sudden incident occurred?
‘Next.’
Enricasil’s library.
Given its long history, it held vast quantities of ancient books, and the odds of finding a Book of Hell were high.
‘Found it.’
As Damian predicted, there were eight Books of Hell in the library. A considerable number. An unexpected windfall that delighted him even more.
There were signs of recent human use, but no one—not even Karag—knew demonic power resided here.
“Kyaa! Kyaa!”
The bone fragment reacted excitedly. Two out of the five were Books of Hell—Mem.
“I never said I’d give you any?”
“Kyaaaak! Kyaaaak!”
“Kidding.”
He tossed the two Mem volumes, and the bone fragment snapped them up. A demon proving its worth.
It was more beneficial to give the two Mem to the bone fragment than keep them himself.
The other six: two Gimel, two Dalet, one Kaf, one Nun. And the last one.
‘Ayin.’
Through contracts with the demon Leprechaun via this Book of Hell, one could learn Black Magic—Black Sphere.
It was the black magic Damian had used in his final moments before regression, alongside Hellfire.
‘Already….’
With this, he’d secured every type of Book of Hell he’d obtained before regression.
Of course, there might be more he didn’t know, like Nun.
But he was undoubtedly reaching the goals he’d set step by step.
He was confident the current Damian would overwhelm his pre-regression self in a fight.
Of course, he couldn’t be satisfied here. Surpassing his past self meant nothing when he still fell short of Michael and Rubia.
‘Wonder if I can learn something from Agares?’
Leprechauns were more sociable than other demons.
This was evident from their abilities.
While Black Sphere had physical force on its own, its power peaked when combined with other black magics.
Hell’s lords often mirrored the personalities of their subordinate demons.
In his past life, he’d gleaned various info on Hell through his contracted Leprechauns.
He’d never met Agares face-to-face. But judging by Leprechaun temperaments, he’d likely be quite favorable toward Damian.
What Damian wanted to ask him was the current state of Hell.
‘Lately, I’ve barely sensed the lords’ reactions.’
Molech, who left him the bone fragment, felt almost dormant.
The other lords showed no response to his actions.
Moreover, the scavenger king Kimaris, who answered his summons only to refuse a contract.
He was curious why that one acted that way too.
‘No way Agares would pull something like that too?’
Would he really have to force a contract this time? He never imagined he’d be agonizing like this over demon contracts.
* * *
The next day, after some rest, Damian met Karag again in Enricasil.
“You didn’t have to hand it over so quickly.”
“No time for that. Besides, I won’t be able to attend Enricasil for a while.”
“That’s fine. Enricasil respects its members’ freedom. Still, drop by whenever you have time. Plenty of people here want to spend time with you.”
Passing on the chairmanship was simple. This time, he just needed to administer Karag’s trial.
“By the way, Chairman Damian. Do you know whose thought body I faced in my second trial?”
“No idea, obviously.”
“It was Enricasil’s founding chairman.”
“Strong?”
“No. He did nothing.”
It had ended so anticlimactically that even the observing Lucas had been puzzled, apparently.
The creator of Enricasil should’ve been a formidable figure, yet showing neither magic nor aura left one baffled.
“What do you think, Chairman Damian? You seem to have sensed more in Enricasil than I have, so I’d like your advice.”
“…I don’t know either.”
No, Damian knew the answer for sure.
‘That guy. A black magician.’
Thought bodies mimic the target’s body and abilities.
However, unlike aura or magic, black magic couldn’t be mimicked. Black magic ultimately stemmed from Hell’s demons.
And that link was the soul. No matter how mystical Enricasil was, it couldn’t mimic souls.
“I see. A shame.”
“Sorry I couldn’t help.”
“No, no. You’re Enricasil’s hero. I hear some members here, inspired by your heroic deeds, are writing a play about you. Should be an entertaining show in the capital soon.”
Honestly, he didn’t want to see it. A play glorifying his exploits was just Arkin’s taste.
“Then, may I ask one question?”
“Of course.”
Karag spread his arms as if to say, ask away.
“Why stage this farce?”
Karag’s pupils dilated for a moment. But they quickly returned to normal.
“You really do have sharp eyes.”
The true culprit who had trapped the members in Enricasil, Karag de Volashi, shook his head as he spoke.