The Return of The Mythical Archmage [EN]: Chapter 295

The Black Magic King looked at me, his eyes gleaming.

His gaze was empty, making it impossible to know what he was thinking.

If I were the me from a month ago, I would have frozen in place at this moment.

The bizarre look, as if an abyss were staring back, would have sent shivers down my spine.

But.

‘Bale Stohr. He’s nothing compared to that man.’

He’s far from enough to faze me now.

Bale Stohr was on a different level.

“…Fall back.”

Of course, it’s just that he’s not as overwhelming as Bale Stohr.

It’s not like he’s completely insignificant.

The fear of the abyss emanating from the Black Magic King’s eyes, and the bizarre atmosphere it created, was like a deadly poison to ordinary people.

“Fall back! Now! Get out of here and call for backup!”

I could tell just by my father’s reaction.

Sweat poured down his entire body like rain, and his lips trembled.

My father was afraid of the Black Magic King.

“Backup, you say. That’s a bit troublesome.”

The Black Magic King tried to raise his right hand, then frowned.

His right arm was completely destroyed and gone.

Even if he tried to move it, he couldn’t.

The Black Magic King sighed slightly, as if annoyed, and raised his left hand.

His left hand was also half-burned and looked gruesome.

But it still retained the shape of an arm.

“You’ll have to step out for a moment.”

The Black Magic King’s left arm slowly cut through the air.

At that moment, my vision went dark.

Blackness enveloped my sight, my entire body.

“For the next ten minutes, no one can enter this world.”

The Black Magic King’s voice echoed from the darkness.

“Now, let’s talk.”

At that moment, the darkness expanded.

It felt like the spherical dark curtain surrounding me was expanding.

The Black Magic King slowly walked into the gradually expanding curtain of darkness.

A fake Black Magic King, inheriting Levi’s wounds.

His right arm was gone, his left arm was half-destroyed, and both legs were not in a condition to walk properly.

It was as if a soldier made of sand was losing its strength and slowly turning into sand, scattering away.

Seeing that, I had a sudden thought.

‘Maybe I can beat the Black Magic King as he is now.’

If it’s the Black Magic King whose body is half-destroyed.

If it’s not the real one, but a fake Black Magic King materialized by Levi’s magic.

Maybe I have a chance of winning with my current level.

‘There’s definitely hope.’

It’s not time to despair yet.

I prepared to respond to his attack.

“Stop it. You can’t beat me.”

The Black Magic King said, as if he had read my thoughts and posture, realizing that I was planning to fight.

“I don’t want to waste time on a battle where the outcome is already decided. So stop it. Calm your mana and just stand there.”

One step.

One step.

Even though his legs were not in a condition to walk properly, there was not a hint of wavering in the Black Magic King’s gait.

Noble, elegant, and dignified.

He moved like a king.

“Why. You don’t have to be so nervous. I have no intention of harming you.”

One step.

One step.

The Black Magic King was slowly getting closer.

I couldn’t let him get any closer.

I immediately shot magic at the Black Magic King.

No, I tried to.

“I told you.”

I clearly tried to activate the magic.

But my circle wouldn’t listen.

“It’s meaningless.”

It felt as if my body was out of my control.

“You can’t beat me as you are now. You still lack time, level, experience, effort. Everything.”

The Black Magic King was already right in front of me.

His face, like his limbs, was half-destroyed.

He stared at me with eyes like those of a broken, old sand doll.

“So just stay still. Just stay still. Listen to what I have to say.”

He was about the same height as me.

Even though we were clearly at the same eye level, I somehow felt like he was looking down on me.

‘This Black Magic King is real.’

My eyes met his at close range.

Looking into his eyes, I was certain.

The Black Magic King in front of me was not a fake, but the real one.

His body might be Levi’s, but the mind moving that body was the real Black Magic King’s.

A warning bell rang in my head.

‘It’s dangerous.’

I don’t know why, but this man is the real Black Magic King.

That means that the Black Magic King knows everything about this situation.

From the fact that I trapped and killed Levi.

To the fact that Shadow is on this side.

‘Even if I manage to get through this situation safely, there’s no answer after that.’

The reason why the Black Magic King and the Black Magic Tower haven’t been targeting me so far is simply because I haven’t left any evidence that I’m the culprit behind everything.

They just didn’t deal with me because there was no reason to.

But now?

All the information has been leaked to the Black Magic King.

From now on, the Black Magic King will use every means to eliminate me.

Not only the executives, but the Black Magic King himself might move to eliminate me.

If that happens, I won’t be able to survive. As I am now, I can’t withstand the concentrated attacks of the Black Magic Tower.

Even if I borrow the power of the Magic God Clan or other connections, it’s meaningless.

I might be able to buy some time.

But the result won’t change.

I’ll eventually meet my death due to their relentless attacks.

‘I isolated Levi separately to prevent this from happening…!’

I had even finished preparing to deceive Hermes. How could the real Black Magic King appear?

This is the worst.

I’m just incredibly unlucky.

‘To summon the Black Magic King with Metamorphosis [a magic that allows the user to transform into another being].’

Who would have imagined that?

I only knew that the final secret of Metamorphosis was the separation of body and mind.

That’s what Mimir said.

I firmly believed that was the case.

I never imagined there would be something beyond that.

‘What should I do? How can I get through this situation safely?’

My head is getting more and more complicated.

All sorts of questions and unanswered realities mixed together, shaking my head even more.

But such confusion was only temporary.

I quickly regained my composure.

It’s times like these that I need to hold on tight.

“…What is your purpose?”

“You’re not suspicious.”

“If you had any intention of killing me, I would already be dead. There’s no reason to be suspicious.”

There’s no reason to lie in this situation.

In a position where he can kill me at any time, what benefit would he get from lying that he won’t kill me?

Therefore, the Black Magic King’s words are true.

At least in this place, he has no intention of harming me.

“That’s why I’m asking for the reason. The fact that you’re letting me live means there’s a reason for it. But I can’t think of anything.”

But I don’t know the reason.

From the Black Magic King’s perspective, I’m just a dangerous element that needs to be eliminated immediately.

A person who should eliminate me as soon as possible has no intention of harming me.

What on earth is he thinking?

“It’s a very simple reason.”

The Black Magic King’s pupils darkened even more.

They were chilling eyes, as if they had condensed and condensed corrupted mana.

“It’s because you are a successor of the Vaitener style.”

“… !”

My heart sank at that moment.

The appearance of an unexpected word.

It was a shock as if I had been hit on the head with a hammer.

How could the Black Magic King know that I’m a successor of the Vaitener style?

How?

“When… How did you find out that I’m a successor of the Vaitener style?”

“When. How, you say…”

The corners of the Black Magic King’s mouth slowly curled up.

“It was in April of this year. The day you sparred with a guy named Baek Sahyuk.”

“So early on…”

The day I first sparred with Baek Sahyuk.

That was the day I first used Vaitener style magic.

He noticed it right away?

“I was convinced when I saw you, who doesn’t even have an AI [Artificial Intelligence], freely manipulating magic. That’s the basics of the Vaitener style. The Mind’s Intent [a technique that allows the user to control magic with their mind].”

He even knows about the Mind’s Intent.

“Was information about the Vaitener style also being passed down in the Black Magic Tower?”

“Of course.”

Just as my master was wary of Bale, Bale was also wary of my master.

Just as my master was wary of Bale and left behind all sorts of arrangements, including Mimir and Mimir’s book.

Bale would have also been wary of my master and left behind all sorts of arrangements.

As the Black Magic King said, it was only natural.

“But why…”

Right after I learned about the bad blood between the Black Magic Tower and the Vaitener style.

I was worried that the Black Magic Tower might know about me.

I was worried that they might be moving to eliminate me after seeing the power I’ve been using freely and gaining certainty that I’m a successor of the Vaitener style.

There was a time when I had such worries.

But those worries quickly disappeared.

Because no matter how long I waited, there was no sign of them moving.

It didn’t seem like they knew that I was a successor of the Vaitener style.

So I just thought that the information about the Vaitener style hadn’t been successfully passed down to the Black Magic Tower.

But to think that they actually knew…

“If you knew my identity since then, does that mean you also knew everything about what I did after that?”

“I knew. Leng Smith. Tkish. Parade. The Feast. Shadow. And even today’s Levi incident.”

“But why…”

Even though he knew all that, why did he just leave me alone?

“The reason is the same as I said before.”

The Black Magic King maintained a cold smile, paused slightly, and then said.

“It’s because I had no intention of harming you. You mustn’t die yet.”

“…”

My head became complicated again.

The leader of the black mages.

Why would the successor of the Vaitener style, who is the nemesis and arch-enemy of the black mages, not move even though he is dealing with his subordinates one by one, just because I mustn’t die?

It doesn’t make sense.

No, that’s not even an answer in the first place.

“What is the reason why I mustn’t die?”

The reason why he’s not targeting me.

The reason why I mustn’t die.

What on earth could it be?

“You are the only one who can fulfill my dream. Until then, you mustn’t die.”

“…Dream?”

I’m the one who will fulfill the Black Magic King’s dream?

That can’t be.

There’s no way I would do something that would be helpful to the Black Magic King, the king of black mages.

“Why. It’s nothing much.”

A murderous intent flashed in the Black Magic King’s eyes. It wasn’t directed at me.

It was a murderous intent directed at someone who wasn’t here.

“I yearn for freedom.”

“…Freedom?”

With eyes like a revolutionary dreaming of liberating slaves in the past, he uttered the two-syllable word, freedom.

“I want to be myself. Not the king of black mages, not the Black Magic King. I hope to exist solely as an individual, as an existence.”

It was a meaningful statement.

“To do that, first, I need to break the curse that’s embedded in my body, the curse of the vengeful spirit called Bale Stohr.”

The Black Magic King stared at me with longing eyes.

“But I can’t deal with Bale Stohr myself. The curse embedded in me doesn’t even allow me to point a blade at him.”

I can roughly see the flow of the story.

Why the Black Magic King left me alone even though he knew everything.

Why he said he had no intention of harming me.

Why he said I mustn’t die yet. I know for sure now.

“I need a sharp knife that can cut off Bale Stohr’s head for me.”

“Is that knife me?”

“Yes.”

The Black Magic King’s goal is to kill Bale Stohr.

And the only one who can kill Bale Stohr is me, the formal successor of the Vaitener style.

That’s why he didn’t touch me.

No, he couldn’t touch me.

Even if his subordinates were dying, he had no choice but to stand by.

Because he can’t kill me to achieve his goal.

That’s what he meant.

The Black Magic King extended his left arm towards me.

The Black Magic King’s voice tickled my ear sweetly.

“Your goal and mine are the same.”

The left arm, with gaps eaten away as if by insects.

That bizarre shape was like a devil’s arm.

“Don’t you think we’ll be good friends?”