Chapter 50
Chapter 50
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 50
Chapter Title: Child of Darkness
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Even when he first sensed mana, it hadn't felt like this.
It was incomparable to the euphoria of feeling like a god or the refreshing surge of overflowing vitality.
"Do...omed."
It felt like something had snapped clean off.
Like he'd lost whatever it was that made him human.
An old memory.
[You are being consumed by demonic nature.]
He knew there were side effects like that.
"Kihya!"
But he hadn't imagined it would be like this.
The whole world was red.
Splash!
So the blood splattering on his face was the same color as the world.
Even the faint disgust he'd felt, and the slight brake that had held him back, seemed to have broken.
Tatatat!
Drawing a sword would be pointless.
Slash-!
He wouldn't even feel the sensation of slicing through flesh with his hand.
"Demon... aren't you?"
"What are you talking about!"
He didn't even bother with a single clean stroke.
"Gaaah!"
"No."
A shame.
"Whether you're a demon or not, who cares."
If he couldn't savor this pleasure more.
Sanctuary was a game billions enjoyed.
There were those who delved deep, researching every detail.
-I've always thought this, but why do demons exist...?
A race bound up in slaughter and madness.
Why did a species exist that repeated acts defying common sense?
-Like a virus? Their sole reason for being is destruction.
Debating Sanctuary's lore.
-Or maybe they're the vaccine.
-Created by Sanctuary to survive against humans bent on destroying the world!
In a game made by humans, it was laughable that people agonized and studied such things.
"It just came to mind."
He also knew it didn't matter right now.
Just.
Swipe.
If demons lived in a world like this every day, of course they'd be that way.
It would be the only way they could feel alive.
"Hiiik!"
Kill, kill, and kill again.
This world was inside the game.
Everything but him was an enemy to topple.
Splash!
One life was a score.
Slash!
Another life determined his worth.
"Shit."
Sein, rampaging like that, came to a halt.
"This is dangerous."
When had it happened?
The saint's halo, naturally activated, had driven out the demonic nature consuming him.
Sensations and emotions, confined to a corner of his brain, suddenly boiled over.
"Ptoo!"
His spit was thick with blood.
Seemed like a piece of his bitten tongue was mixed in.
"But I didn't kill them all, at least."
Sein looked around.
A few survivors groaned, ones he'd toyed with.
"Spa...re..."
A glint of hope in their eyes.
They thought since Sein had regained his senses after losing them, the bloodbath would stop.
But.
"What are you talking about."
That was wishful thinking.
"No demons here. Give me proper info and..."
Stab!
The longsword he'd drawn pierced the other arm of the man whose arm was already severed.
"I'll send you off painlessly."
This place was hell anyway.
*
*
*
The underground where Sein was trapped was no different from a demon realm.
"Black magicians live up to their name."
Since ancient times, black magicians had to hide to survive.
That's why they were experts at building dungeons to protect themselves.
This place was the same.
'Dungeon.'
It was practically the first dungeon Sein had entered in his final playthrough.
If the system were working, he might have gotten some info.
"Fine. This is the black magicians' lair."
For now, Sein had to name it himself.
-We don't know!
Those spilling info under torture.
-We...!
He hadn't gotten solid intel, but he'd succeeded in finding the entrance to an area even low-level grunts couldn't access.
A magic circle loomed before him.
Sein examined it slowly, then placed his hand on it without hesitation.
Whoooong!
The glowing magic circle.
The next instant.
"It was a gate."
Sein had dropped into a different space.
A dim cave.
Wriggle.
A space thick with demonic energy, enough to make the Demon King's heart he'd paused stir again.
"Bingo."
This was it.
The place he sought.
Ssssh.
His hackles rising, goosebumps prickling, confirmed it.
Demons were here.
Thump! Thump!
His suppressed heart pounded fiercely.
But Sein couldn't advance.
Shhhh!
Black thorns sprouted; if he'd taken one more step, they'd have riddled him with holes.
"Good instincts."
A voice.
"No. If it were just good instincts, you wouldn't have made it this far."
The black thorns vanished.
Then.
Shwaaa-!
They reappeared, surrounding Sein.
"Who are you? This isn't a place for the uninvited."
The thorns poised to strike if he moved even slightly.
"You'd be wise to turn back if you're lost."
"Oh."
Finally, Sein spoke.
"You gonna send me back?"
Then, slowly, an even deeper darkness emerged from the shadows.
"Of course."
The voice said.
"Guiding a lost soul is also our..."
Smirk.
White teeth gleamed in the darkness.
"Duty as children of darkness."
Child of darkness.
Words from the black magic shop owner who'd sold him out.
He'd gotten a rough idea from the info.
Now it was certain.
"Back home, you mean?"
"Anywhere isn't your home. Anywhere can be your home."
Master level.
Boom!
A massive explosion rocked Sein's position.
"Death is a soul's home too. Find a new one in my embrace, child."
Acrid smoke.
The moment the shadow reached out.
"I get that 'child of darkness' means a master-level black magician."
"...!"
Something impossible happened.
Sein, who should have been skewered and groaning.
"Mana's high, but the skill's pathetic."
Stood unharmed, gripping a dark nail.
Clang clang!
The moment Sein shattered one, the dark nails crumbled like dominoes.
"Softened by peace?"
"You!"
Dozens more dark nails appeared, flying at Sein.
Kang!
One bounced off his hand blade.
"...!"
Touching a dark nail alone rotted skin and drained life; deflecting it barehanded was near impossible.
Kakakang!
Like possessed by a god, Sein batted them away, advancing on the shadow.
"Or else."
Soon, Sein was right in the shadow's face.
"You're just a puppet."
Stab!
A hand pierced straight through the heart.
Crumble!
The shadow began to disintegrate.
*
*
*
Zone 6.
Called mid-tier, but those who'd tasted the upper zones wouldn't come down easily.
The air, the mana density—it all changed as numbers dropped.
So maybe this puppet's master was indeed a child of darkness.
But it was just the master's doll play, tired of being stuck in mid-tier.
Vast mana, sure.
Step.
But its limits were all too clear.
"Finally met you."
Sein stood still, gazing ahead.
Over 2 meters tall, with red horns jutting out.
"Demon."
At Sein's voice, a hazy light flickered in its pupils.
Its state was horrific, even compared to Sein when he'd been captured here.
Not just iron chains and restraints covering its body.
Drip, drip.
Stakes of unknown properties impaled it everywhere.
Yet that lent it a strange sanctity, not revulsion.
"You're Akein?"
Sein asked, but no answer came.
"Magic contracts are curses, not magic."
Muttered words, unclear if to himself or the other.
"The candidates' contracts lasted barely a few years, so they must've known how to reinforce them?"
Curse reinforcement.
That required.
"Demon blood."
He'd asked around Zone 6, Contra, the black magicians' city, and heard there was a demon called Akein.
"Answer."
"...Kill...me."
"Something else."
Sein said.
"Are you Akein?"
"I..."
"Won't get anything asking you."
Sein scratched his ear.
"If you're gonna show, do it all at once. Why the hassle."
He turned to where the voice had come from.
"Sorry if I kept you waiting. Thought the alarm brought me quick."
Not some shadow.
A young man with a clear form.
Blond hair, deep gray eyes.
"Anyway, that thing's lost all memories and more. It's a miracle it even spoke just now."
The aura he exuded.
"What are you?"
"You're the puppet master?"
Master level.
This was surely the child of darkness controlling the puppet.
"Not content with trashing the mines alone, you break into here and smash my puppet."
The man had basically admitted his identity.
And the child of darkness facing him was incomparable to the puppet.
"No way you'd do this for pocket change, and I don't sense that temple stink."
They sized each other up.
"But how are you breathing freely here?"
Swish!
Sunlight poured from somewhere.
Reflected off the cave walls, it was pure hell.
Thick demonic energy filled the space, making it impossible for humans to even breathe.
"From another family?"
The young man asked the other young man, Sein.