CH 58.1

When Legion had first gone to the West, it was simply to carry out an investigation.

A huge amount of magic was being absorbed before disappearing from all over the Demon Realm. The Land of Death, the Tree of Death, the Cave of Death and such more. The unknown source had eaten up all the magic that wandered around. The demons didn’t really find it strange since it had been like that for a very long time already.

However, Legion, who was a mere stranger, saw it from a different angle altogether. Did the magical power consumed by the singularity disappear just like that? If not, where was the lost power truly headed then? He began to question so.

If mana was the power used to circulate the ecology of the Human Realm, magic had been the power to maintain the laws of the Demon Realm instead. It had existed since the creation of the world and neither did it ever increase nor decrease. Legion, who had been blessed by Mother Nature, was aware that misalignment would eventually lead to cracks and collapse.

“The whereabouts of the lost magical power…”

As he muttered quietly, he was suddenly awakened from those thoughts by the murderous intent that had pierced his skin.

While Legion was fighting the Tree of Death, he eventually came to a hypothesis that if the tree was to be completely annihilated, the whereabouts of the missing magical power might then be known. The idea was rather abrupt, but the decision taken had been quick.

However, even after defeating the Tree of Death, not only did he not get the clue that he was aiming for, but to make matters even worse, his strength had been greatly consumed as well.

“That and I’m now being cornered by such a trivial monster.”

“Grrrroowll.”

The true identity of the murderous intent that he felt from earlier had come from none other than the demon’s eyes. With the smell of blood, enormous creatures began to rush in before they completely surrounded the rock that he was sitting on.

Amidst the pitch-black darkness, numerous bright yellow eyeballs were glistening unpleasantly. Legion immediately summoned the Soul Sword and estimated the amount of mana that still remained in his body. After that, he felt even worse than before.

“Damn it—nothing’s working at all.”

Legion shook his head and lowered his gaze. As soon as he opened his eyes, his pupils straight away glowed with a strange hue of purple color. The aura that was enveloping his body suddenly amplified like an explosion.

The monsters started trembling at the sudden change of atmosphere and above all, at the overwhelming scene of power that was emitted by a single human being. However, as he saw that, Legion’s mood went down right after taking a freezing point in return.

“Don’t look at me like that.”

As he breathed in, the blackened sword flashed menacingly in equal measure. The person who had hit the ground suddenly disappeared from sight just in the blink of an eye.

“I’m still human—no matter what anyone says…!”

The trail of the greatsword eventually cut through the thick darkness that soon followed.

* * *

Early that morning, Julia was woken up to a disturbing sound that pierced her eardrums out of the blue.

She couldn’t even adapt to her surroundings for a while. She had apparently fallen asleep in her own room last night, but the ceiling that she could now see was very high, blue and even very spacious.

‘What kind of a ceiling is like this……’

As she groped over the bed, her eyes suddenly opened wide in response. What she held in her hand was not the white soft sheet from before, but some red soil as well as pebbles that were already drying and crumbling away.

[▷ERROR

ERROR?? ERROR?? ERROR??]

[▷??? ????? Necklace

? necklace ???? ?? ??? Demon King Bael ??????? ???? ??? ??? ???????? ?????. Blocks ??? access ?? all ?????? except Bael. Usage: ?]

“Uht!”

The red error window became too irritating for her eyes that were still fresh off sleep. However, even when she tried to close her eyes, she couldn’t really take her eyes off it as she was afraid that another system window would suddenly pop up. She then looked around once again while rubbing her already reddened eyes.

“What the hell is all this?”

Julia was lying alone in the open air. She was lying absolutely straight on what had been supposed to be the middle of a mountain, to be exact.

The surroundings were simply red soil and rocks. On top of that, the only plants that were available had been those faded old trees and dry bushes instead. As far as she knew, there was only one mountain that looked precisely like this.

‘The Mountain of Death.’

Her heart instantly raced with fear. The Mountain of Death that she had heard before, would devour all the magic around it, but there were some exceptions. It was the magic of demons who had been born in the mountain crater itself.

Even the sound of the rustling leaves in the wind had caught her nerves as she thought that perhaps they might be hovering around her. She did not have the ability to survive unharmed if she were to face them any time soon.

‘How long will it take for everyone to notice that I’m really gone? No, even if they did find out, they might not even search for me. They will surely think that I ran away and the fact that I am actually a traitor. I may have to survive alone on this mountain with only the best of my ability then……’

Julia remembered the necklace that she had received from Bael earlier. It had been an object which Bael infused with some red magic power in order to block the access of all demons except for himself and it was still dangling around her neck.

However, she couldn’t use it that easily and since she had received it from Bael himself, an error window kept on popping up. Thanks to the Demon God’s Tower, she was able to solve the quest with great help, but in the current situation, it was not that easy to predict whether this error would truly be beneficial to her or just another poison instead.