Chapter 91
Chapter 91
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 91
Chapter Title: Ishtar, Queen of Hell
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Ishtar, Queen of Hell.
She was more horrifying and more radiant than any being Damian had ever encountered.
-Damian Renekht. I've come to see you.
Ishtar's obsession with Damian was different in nature from Rubia's.
The reason Rubia was obsessed with him was purely his outward beauty.
As the moniker "Empire's Greatest Beauty"—a nickname that was frankly grating to the ears—suggested, Damian's looks drew admiration from women and envy from men in equal measure.
In truth, there were few women who didn't harbor feelings for him beyond mere fondness.
Before his regression, there had only been two.
Agnes and Faruzan.
Ironically, they had now become important figures in his life.
-Your appearance? It means nothing to me.
The allure Ishtar felt toward Damian had nothing to do with looks.
Even if Damian were the ugliest man in the world, Ishtar would still have desired him.
-It's *you* that matters.
Everything. Ishtar wanted all of him. She wanted to possess his very existence.
-I'll grant you the fate you desire.
The memory of that day was still vivid.
A night with a full moon shining brightly.
While he wandered in search of the Book of Hell, Ishtar had approached him.
At first, he thought it was an illusion. He hadn't even imagined she was a lord of hell, a demon.
Every demon Damian had contracted with before had appeared only in response to his summons. None had ever come to him first.
It was impossible. Without the medium of the Book of Hell, demons could not manifest in the human world.
Ishtar was the demon who made the impossible possible.
-Join me.
Her attire was nearly nude, but there was no lust in it. If anything, she was more chilling than any demon he'd met so far.
Yet he couldn't help staring at her endlessly. That was the nature of the Queen of Hell.
-So give me all of you.
Naturally, he refused.
As a black mage, his desire for power was immense, but he had no intention of losing himself in the process.
No demon had ever made such a demand before.
Their amusement came from lending power to black mages and observing how they used it—not from possessing the mages themselves.
He asked the demons he had contracted with about Ishtar, but got no proper answers.
Ordinary demons recoiled at the mere mention of her name, and even the lords of hell only gave fragmented information.
All lords of hell are equal.
But Ishtar was a dimension above them. That was why she was called not merely a lord, but an empress.
Moreover, Ishtar belonged to no species. There was no other demon in hell like her.
-Long time no see. Nothing troubling you, I hope?
Even after that, Ishtar kept visiting Damian.
Her offer was always the same. No matter how many times Damian refused, she never gave up.
She whispered that he would regret it later if he didn't choose her now.
And to a certain extent, she was right.
-Ah, my dear Damian. Things have come to this.
Her temptations continued until the end of his pre-regression life.
Damian refused even then.
Yet Ishtar gave him a new chance.
It wouldn't come without a price, of course.
He realized from the moment of his regression that she would exact payment in some form.
But she didn't approach him right away.
While Damian contracted with the lords of hell and prepared his revenge, Ishtar showed no interest whatsoever.
And today.
Damian felt her power.
'But I wasn't her target.'
She had used her authority to save Ramzi.
He didn't know why. But one thing was now certain.
'The Savior is backed by Ishtar.'
It couldn't be Ishtar herself. When he'd spoken through Cadrel's body, there had been no hint of it.
So Ishtar was either lending him power or manipulating him.
'Ariella's prophetic dream makes sense now.'
With a non-human demon—indeed, the Queen of Hell—behind him, no great mage could stand against it.
'But...'
Something nagged at him.
It was what Decarabia had said before.
-Of course, no human or demon could possibly do such a thing. They can foresee or predict, but reversing time is impossible.
As Hell's chief warden, he knew all the lords of hell and their authorities.
It was Decarabia who had told him before the regression that Ishtar wielded time.
'The lords avoiding mention of her is suspicious too.'
The lords of hell had sensed Ishtar's power since the Cadrel incident.
The Queen of Hell was an uncomfortable existence, but not to the point they couldn't speak of her at all.
Yet they acted as if she shouldn't exist.
'Implanting demonic power into a human body is odd too.'
Was that also part of Ishtar's authority? But wasn't sharing power through contracts the rule?
Before his regression, did Cadrel or Ramzi possess demonic power?
He had no reason to check with black magic—Observation back then, so he couldn't say for sure.
'Did the pre-regression disappearances happen like this?'
His regression had changed many things, and this incident was affected too.
Ishtar's involvement might have been triggered by the regression.
'Pondering it now won't yield answers.'
She was an enemy anyway. If she blocked his path, he'd cut her down.
Michael and Rubia.
Ishtar and the Savior.
The former were targets of revenge. There would be no compromise.
The latter offered no room for compromise either. This was their problem, not just his.
"D-Dam, uh, ah, ah, grh."
Agnes's mind seemed frozen as she worked her mouth soundlessly over and over.
Even when he'd summoned demons before his regression, the targets had reacted similarly.
And what she'd just seen was Ishtar. The most overwhelming being in all of hell.
The mere fact that Agnes was holding up was a miracle.
It was fortunate Dylan was still unconscious. If he'd seen this, he might have dropped dead.
"C-Calm down. It seems to be over."
"H-Hiiik! Y-Yes, yes."
Agnes, coming to her senses, nodded vigorously in fright.
The surest way to wake someone who'd lost their mind from seeing a demon was to shock them.
That's why Damian had siphoned off just a tiny bit of Agnes's mana with black magic—Absorption.
"D-Damian! Th-that thing just now, was it, uh, a d-demon...?"
Agnes fiddled repeatedly with her gas mask as she asked, apparently unable to believe her own words.
It had been ages since black mages who wielded demonic power had vanished from history.
Imperial law forbade their existence, but no one even thought about it.
Demons and black magic had faded from human memory.
And Agnes had just seen one with her own eyes.
"Y-Yeah, probably. Cadrel and the Savior are in league with it."
Damian deliberately stuttered his words.
He had no intention of sharing anything about black magic with anyone. So he had to act like he was as shocked as Agnes.
"Are you alright, Damian? You must be hurt from the battle, and seeing something like that..."
"I'm fine now. Don't worry."
"Ramzi could do such things because something like that was backing him."
Agnes still couldn't get the word "demon" past her lips easily. But this confirmed Ramzi's secret.
He wasn't just a human chimera. He'd received power from a demon.
Whether it should be called black magic or not, he'd used it to murder her father, Russ.
Now, Agnes's blade wouldn't point only at Ramzi.
The Savior and that vile being were targets she had to cut down as well.
"Let's keep today's events quiet for now. No one would believe us anyway."
Agnes nodded.
Ariella and Ezekiel would probably just laugh it off if told about this incident.
It defied common sense so thoroughly.
"And..."
About Russ Schubert. He had to tell his daughter Agnes, no matter what.
"..."
Hearing of her father's end, Agnes closed her eyes briefly. She took a deep breath, then bowed deeply to Damian.
"Thank you, Damian Renekht. Thanks to you, Russ Schubert has found peace today. As a member of the Schubert family and as his child, I will never forget this grace."
Agnes's body trembled slightly. She was holding back tears.
But no tears fell. It would be disrespectful to Damian.
"What... what will you do about the Savior and th-that de-demon?"
Damian recounted to Agnes the conversation he'd had with Ramzi.
How they'd been scheming in the mage tower for a long time, targeting Mage Tower Lord Ariella.
How they'd tried to kidnap Agnes at Ramzi's request.
And how they'd tried to recruit Damian too.
"It won't end here."
"Yes. I have no intention of letting it end here either. Before they target you, I'll cut them down first."
"I'll look forward to it."
At those words, Agnes's face flushed hot beneath her gas mask. Thank goodness for it. Otherwise, she'd have shown her embarrassment.
'Why am I like this...'
There was no real reason to feel elated.
She'd failed to catch Ramzi, her target of revenge, and learned of an even greater force behind him.
But it was no longer just Agnes's goal alone.
Damian was one of the parties involved now too.
So she still had to stand with him on the battlefield.
That fact made her a little happy.
'I'm such a person...'
Still ugly. But she'd decided to accept even that side of herself.
"Damian? Miss Agnes? Is this the sewer? Why am I here?"
Dylan, finally coming to, looked around with his gas mask on.
Having been absorbed by Ramzi for days, he had no idea what had transpired.
"Ugh, my head. I was walking down the street when some kid talked to me... Ah! That kid looked a bit like Miss Agnes. Wait... no way?"
Hearing his dazed rambling finally eased the pair's tension completely.
* * *
Damian visited the mage tower lord's chambers after a long while and explained the full story of the Ramzi incident to Ariella.
"Actually, there's something I hid from you."
"What is it?"
"I had another prophetic dream a few days ago."
In the newly seen dream, Ariella said she was still the mage tower lord.
"Is the prophetic dream really changed? It might not be the future."
With the Savior withdrawing from the mage tower, there was a high chance Ariella's fate had completely altered. Still, he had to confirm.
"It's the future. You were there too, a bit more mature than now."
That was reassuring. Ariella wasn't the type to lie about something like this.
'My business at the mage tower is done now.'
He'd made contact with Dylan and turned him into one of his own.
He'd also secured funds for the future through the new mana potions.
He'd dealt with Cadrel and the other figures tied to the mage tower's darkness.
A few like Mateus, Rubia's mentor, remained, but there was no immediate way to handle them.
Through Aumfasha, he'd gained understanding of primal mana, and Grim Reaper was now his own power.
He still had questions for him, but no need to wait if he didn't come.
He'd identified the new enemy: the Savior. Backed by Ishtar.
This tied into Agnes's revenge too. They could now move toward the same goal.
Finally, he'd altered Ariella's fate.
The mage tower would remain stable, and both reformists and traditionalists would weaken compared to before his regression.
'Time to head north.'
Of course, he'd stay at the annex for a while. To reassure Anna and Felix, and check on Faruzan and Sariba's movements.
It was full autumn now, but winter would come soon.
The northern tundra was even more perilous in winter, but that made it worth visiting.
'I'll check out the holy site Elder Derek mentioned while I'm at it.'
Facing Agnes and Russ's Sword Dance, he'd realized unity with the sword wasn't yet perfect.
He needed new inspiration. The northern holy site likely held answers.
"Hehe. Want to hear about your future?"
"No, I'm good."
He was honestly curious.
How many years from now? Would that Damian have completed his revenge and claimed the throne?
"There are no fixed futures in this world."
Ariella smiled faintly at that.
"It's a bittersweet sentiment. It means bad futures can turn good, but good ones can turn bad too."
And the next day, it proved true.
Ariella had vanished from the mage tower.
"It's been a while, hasn't it?"
The old mage, Aumfasha, appeared before Damian.