The Heavenly Demon Can’t Live A Normal Life [EN]: Chapter 381

Verde’s throat went dry. He stepped into the Archmage’s office. Bookshelves lined the walls, but now books were scattered on the floor. The air smelled of burnt magic. The Archmage of the Sky Tower was gone. Mages lay on the floor, defeated. Edwin Hector stood in the center of the room, a dark feeling coming from him, like a shadow. “Things are very wrong here, Verde,” Edwin said, his voice low and serious.

“If I tell the truth, I’m dead.”

It was a certainty.

Instinct screamed the warning.

According to the original plan, he was supposed to assess the situation and silence everyone, but Verde forced himself to hide his expression, pretending he didn’t know anything.

“What in the world are you talking about?” Verde asked. “I rushed here as soon as I heard about the problem. I don’t know anything that needs explaining. Prince Edwin Hector should be the one offering explanations. Where is the Archmage, and why did you attack the Sky mages? If you don’t explain properly, I cannot ignore this.”

As the mages surrounded him, looking stiff and serious, Edwin Hector glanced around and spoke calmly.

“Isn’t it strange?” Edwin asked. “Why would my master, who usually doesn’t hide our conversations, block them with a Silence spell today? Why did the Sky mages stop Butler from checking the office? And when you arrived, why did you try to clean up the situation, making excuses, instead of being angry about the dead bodies?”

“That’s not true! Don’t say things you can’t prove!” Verde said.

“It’s too much of a coincidence to be just a guess,” Edwin replied. “So, I think you are working with the Archmage of the Sky Tower. As the Vice-Archmage, you know the truth about the Sky Tower under Chronos’s control. But why did you rush here with only a few mages? It means that if this gets out, you’ll have problems you can’t handle.”

Edwin looked around the room, his eyes sharp. He put the pieces together in his mind.

“The Sky Tower is a group of mages who want the best reputation,” Edwin continued. “You can’t control them all with mind control. So, you and a few others have been keeping the tower’s power while hiding the truth. Verde, I think that’s why you came rushing here. What do you think? Does my story still sound like a wild guess?”

The air turned icy.

It was just a guess.

But Verde, feeling like he’d been hit hard, couldn’t speak. His mind froze for a moment.

Edwin saw a quick reaction from Verde.

“That’s the look of someone whose truth has been exposed,” Edwin said with a smile.

Edwin was right.

The Sky Tower had hidden the truth to gain power, and only a few mages who followed Verde knew the truth.

That’s why he had to be so quick.

If Edwin Hector revealed the Sky Tower’s secret, the tower they had worked so hard to build would fall apart.

The air was thick with tension.

At that moment, Verde unleashed his magic, breaking the silence.

“Attack now!” Verde shouted.

Flash!

Bzzzzzt!

Darkness fell.

Verde, who couldn’t see for a moment, looked blank, unable to finish his spell.

“Chain Lightning,” Edwin said.

Edwin raised his finger. Blue sparks crackled around his finger, and a bolt of lightning shot out.

The mages who had tried to attack lay on the floor, burned black.

Chain Lightning.

A 3rd Circle spell.

The Sky mages should have been able to react to it, but no one even saw the magic being cast.

It was fast and powerful.

It was hard to believe it was only a 3rd Circle spell. The mages died without any resistance.

Verde’s eyes trembled.

Edwin Hector was a 5th Circle mage, but the power he had just shown was much greater.

‘To use Chain Lightning with this much power, he must be at least a 6th Circle, maybe even higher,’ Verde thought.

He felt confused.

It didn’t make sense.

Suddenly, a scary thought came to him.

Maybe Edwin Hector was the reason the Archmage of the Sky Tower had disappeared.

“Butler, restrain Verde,” Edwin ordered.

“Yes,” Butler replied.

Verde couldn’t even think about fighting back.

Overwhelmed by Edwin Hector’s magic, Verde was restrained, completely shocked.

His head hit the floor. Even as his arms were tied, he couldn’t hide his confusion.

It was just as Edwin had thought.

In the world of the mind, Edwin Hector had fought hard, destroying the darkness and taking the Sky Tower Archmage’s magic.

The amount of magic was huge.

It was more than a five-circle mage could handle, and he was in danger, shaking uncontrollably, as Butler had seen.

At that moment, the Upper Dantian used its power.

The passage to the Upper Dantian opened, taking the mana. As the mana flowed between the Upper Dantian and the circles, he began to absorb all of it.

It was very lucky.

The five circles grew bigger and stronger, far beyond what was normal. Then, a new circle was born.

Around his heart.

Seven rings were created.

People said Edwin Hector needed time, not talent.

But by absorbing the Sky Tower Archmage’s magic, he got what he needed.

It was something Roman Dmitriz couldn’t have predicted. Edwin Hector had grown a lot in the short time it took for Verde to arrive.

Tap tap tap.

“What is this!” a mage shouted.

“Edwin Hector! Release the Vice-Archmage!” another yelled.

The mages, hearing the noise, rushed in.

They were confused.

The mages who didn’t know the truth thought Edwin Hector had restrained the Vice-Archmage and killed the Sky mages.

It was what he expected.

Knowing what they would think, Edwin Hector had taken Verde hostage before the other mages arrived.

The mages came closer.

Facing their anger, Edwin Hector spoke calmly.

“From now on, I will show you the truth,” Edwin said. “Image Memory.”

In his mind, he showed the memories he had experienced.

“You must be wondering what’s going on,” Edwin said. “What has your master done to you?”

It was the voice of the Archmage of the Sky Tower.

The people looked confused.

The words spoken to Edwin Hector revealed the ugly truth, and the mages who had been angry now looked lost.

From then on, he didn’t need to explain.

The memories from the Image Memory, the truth about the Sky Tower, clearly showed why Verde was being restrained.

Soon, the memory ended.

Looking at the confused people, Edwin Hector said, “This is why I attacked the Sky mages, and this is the truth about the Sky Tower that you didn’t know. The Archmage of the Sky Tower was Chronos’s dog. He pretended to care for the mages, criticizing the Chronos Empire for the missing mage incidents, but he was taking the circles of talented mages to make himself stronger.”

A heavy silence had fallen over the Hector Kingdom, thick with fear and uncertainty. Then, whispers began to spread, growing louder and angrier until shouts echoed through the streets. People were furious. They felt betrayed, lost.

From a high balcony overlooking the city, Edwin Hector watched the unrest unfold. He listened to the angry cries and the panicked rumors. “The Heavens have lost their way,” some shouted. “Everything we believed is a lie!”

But Edwin Hector saw something different in this crisis. Where others saw only chaos, he saw an opportunity. Edwin Hector, a leader known for his calm strength and sharp mind, stepped forward. He raised his hands, silencing the crowd. His voice, clear and strong, carried across the square.

“But if you face the truth,” he declared, “and seek to right what is wrong…” He paused, letting his words sink in. “Follow me,” he said, his eyes shining with conviction. “I will show you a new path.”

Two days before the Chronos Empire’s invasion of Valhalla, in the Hector Kingdom, a surprising turn of events began to unfold.

The next day, unlike the Hector Kingdom, which seemed to be managing the crisis, the Umberto border was a scene of utter carnage.

Boom! Rumble! The ground shook, and with a deafening crash, the castle walls crumbled.

Magical defenses had been layered in preparation for this day, but there was no way to withstand the explosive magical assault of the Chronos Empire.

The walls collapsed just hours after the attack began.

Hundreds of thousands of troops rushed in, and from then on, Umberto’s soldiers could only face countless deaths.

“Stop the enemies… Ack!”

“Aargh.”

Screams echoed from all directions. No matter where one looked, there was no hopeful sight. Once breached, there was no way to stop the flames of death from spreading.

“Hold on until the end! If this place is breached, there is no hope for the Umberto Kingdom.”

Thud. Crack!

Calderon Drake, soaked in blood but showing no sign of retreating, cut down enemies as countless more surged toward him. He was prepared to die in this place.

He knew well that if Umberto’s foremost defense was so easily breached, Umberto would crumble like a sandcastle, starting with the front lines.

Clang. Rumble! He gathered his magical power.

Cutting down a Chronos knight rampaging within, he turned to his subordinate, shouting over the sounds of battle, “The reinforcements?”

The subordinate replied, “It seems impossible to get enough reinforcements to turn the tide. The riots in the lawless zone have become severe, tying up the troops sent to stop the riots. Valhalla has sent troops near the Frankish border, and Frank and Redford are preparing for a showdown with Valhalla. Even amidst all this, they said they would send troops, but that alone is not enough to stop the Chronos army.”

“Damn it!” Calderon Drake’s face twisted in frustration. Helplessness washed over him.

A new kingdom alliance had been formed.

Calderon Drake saw the future. He had hoped that in this system following Roman Dmitry, they could at least create a proper country, but the power of the empire that had dominated the continent for so long was too strong.

He wanted to buy time with Umberto’s strength as much as possible, to give Roman Dmitry time to leave Valhalla’s territory. At least at this moment when the empire revealed its ambitions, he wanted to show that the kingdom alliance was not to be trifled with, even if it wasn’t Dmitry.

But there was no reversal. The truth was obvious: if it had been possible with their strength from the beginning, the kingdom alliance would not have been so weak.

Splat! He cut down an enemy soldier.

And then, he gave an order: “Contact Dmitry right now. If they don’t send reinforcements, Umberto can no longer hold out.”

It was a desperate attempt. Contrary to his faint hope, a few minutes later, Calderon Drake received the devastating report that Dmitry was also under attack by Chronos.

It was a familiar sight beyond the walls of Dmitry. Space warped, and Chronos soldiers, led by Mystic, appeared.

“…Chronos, truly a terrifying nation,” Jonathan, the Knights Commander, said, swallowing hard as he stood on the wall.

The continent was in an uproar. The Chronos Empire attacked Umberto and Cairo simultaneously, and even after mobilizing over a million troops, they sent troops separately to Dmitry.

Moreover, the astonishing sight of moving so many troops without a warp gate made them realize once again who they were fighting.

However, Dmitry had not been idle either.

That day’s events remained a scar. Many people died on the day Dmitry was attacked, and figures like Henderson risked their lives to protect Dmitry. From then on, Dmitry made thorough preparations to ensure that if the same situation occurred, a different outcome would be created, and that even without Roman Dmitry, no problems would arise in Dmitry. Everyone, led by Knights Commander Jonathan, had been working tirelessly.

He spoke to his adjutant, “The preparations for defense?”

“All completed.”

“Tell the soldiers,” Jonathan commanded, “we are not simply defending to endure. We will crush the enemies who dared to attack Dmitry and avenge what happened. We will prove to the world that Dmitry is no longer a land to be trifled with.”

“I will convey those words exactly.”

Jonathan turned, his expression determined. He assigned each person to their designated position but paused when one presence caught his eye.

“Sir Ares, may I ask you something?”

“Speak,” Ares replied.

Ares was a figure newly rising as Dmitry’s second-in-command. People believed in him, saying that even without Roman Dmitry, Ares was there, so they could stop even strong enemies.

“Sir Ares, your designated position is not there. I clearly asked you to take charge of the right wall, so why are you near the gate? And more than anything…” Jonathan paused, remembering the warning he received days before.

Days before, Lucas of Hao Mun had warned Jonathan of a possible hidden danger.

Jonathan continued, “Is the reason you didn’t follow young master Roman Dmitry to Valhalla really just because you were tired?”

Ares had been excluded from the trip to Valhalla, not by others, but by his own choice. He himself said that he would stay in Dmitry because the mission in Valhalla was too difficult.

Jonathan’s remark hung in the air. Momentarily, Ares’s expression turned cold.

“…The meaning of your words sounds quite dangerous, or is it just my imagination?” Ares looked at Jonathan with a cold expression.