Chapter 121

Archmage

Roderick was horrified.

He tumbled from the throne.

Had the carpet covering the great hall’s floor not been so plush, he might have suffered a serious injury.

“Ghk... Ugh.”

Roderick groaned, clutching his waist after the fall.

Mapheltan snickered.

He slowly descended the steps leading from the throne.

“Roderick, I shall ask you again. What did you find so amusing?”

There was no longer even a trace of laughter on Roderick’s face.

Frozen in terror, he dragged himself backward across the floor.

“A-A demon! A demon has appeared! Is anyone out there?!”

Mapheltan clicked his tongue. Dense demonic energy rose from his hand and enveloped Roderick.

The pitch-black smoke blocked Roderick’s airway.

He could no longer speak.

All he could do was gasp desperately for breath.

Mapheltan approached him and said,

“Mortal, try anything foolish one more time, and I shall choke the life out of you.”

The royal capital was teeming with high-ranking clergy, paladins, and skilled knights.

Mapheltan would find himself in serious trouble the moment they discovered him.

If he wished to avoid confronting that danger, he first had to silence the king.

Roderick began convulsing, scratching frantically at his own throat.

The whites of his eyes turned bloodshot.

He was dying from suffocation.

Just as his breathing was about to stop completely, Mapheltan withdrew his demonic energy.

Black smoke poured from Roderick’s mouth.

“Cough! Haaagh!”

Collapsed on the floor, he vomited up everything left in his stomach.

He was clearly in excruciating pain.

Mapheltan spoke in a chilling voice.

“Heed my warning.”

Roderick glared at Mapheltan with horribly bloodshot eyes.

“...Demon, who are you? Are you a servant of Muel?”

Mapheltan’s expression hardened the moment the name “Muel” was mentioned.

‘The king definitely mentioned Muel earlier as well.’

It was still too early for Muel to appear.

He was an entity who had not been summoned until the middle-to-late stages of the original story.

Yet the king had spoken Muel’s name twice now.

—Wahahahaha! You acted so high and mighty, but this is how you end up! You will be offered as a sacrifice to Muel!

That was undoubtedly what Roderick had said to Ilea.

And just now, he had asked Mapheltan whether he was Muel’s servant.

Mapheltan found the present situation utterly baffling.

He furrowed his brow.

“Muel. Where did you hear that name?”

Still sprawled across the floor, Roderick curled his lips into a sinister smile.

“I entered into a contract with Muel. Whatever you may be, you must not dare treat me with such disrespect.”

Muel was a Great Demon ranked among the top ten in the Demon Realm.

No demon existing in the mortal realm could harm someone contracted to Muel.

The authority wielded by a numbered Great Demon exerted an enormous influence upon other demons.

Of course, there were exceptions.

An Apostle of the End naturally had no reason to concern himself with the opinion of a mere Great Demon.

Mapheltan let out an incredulous laugh.

“Roderick, it seems you still have no idea what I am.”

Mapheltan, the Thirteenth Apostle of the End, had already had his appearance revealed to the world at large.

Reports concerning him had naturally reached the royal family as well, but Roderick had failed to connect those reports with the being standing before him.

He could hardly have imagined that an Apostle would be present in the very heart of the royal palace.

Roderick spoke with a slightly tense expression.

“...What are you?”

Mapheltan looked somewhat embarrassed as he replied,

“Ahem. It feels rather awkward to say it myself, but I am the Thirteenth Apostle of the End. I am not an existence that can be compared to the likes of Muel.”

Roderick narrowed his eyes.

Only then did he properly take in Mapheltan’s appearance.

Pitch-black carapace covered his entire body. He possessed enormous wings, two white horns protruding from his forehead, and eyes as red as blood.

His appearance perfectly matched the reports Roderick had heard countless times.

Roderick was visibly shaken.

His mouth fell open, and his eyes trembled violently.

The demon standing before him was an Apostle.

“H-How could an Apostle be inside the royal palace...?”

Countless anti-demon defensive systems had been installed along every route leading into the palace.

The denser a being’s demonic energy and the higher its rank, the more violently those systems were supposed to react.

There was no possibility that they could have overlooked an Apostle’s immense presence.

Mapheltan should not have been here.

He snickered.

“Did you truly believe that mankind’s flimsy structures could stop me? If so, then your arrogance is truly boundless.”

By employing his authority, Nightfall, the defensive systems could exert no influence over Mapheltan whatsoever.

Roderick’s eyes began darting from side to side.

It appeared that he was once again attempting to communicate with someone.

When that communication seemingly failed, he groaned.

“D-Damn it!”

Mapheltan clicked his tongue.

“If you are thinking of seeking help from the one supporting you, give it up. They should be far too busy dealing with the witch.”

Ilea had allowed herself to be abducted willingly.

By now, she was probably interrogating her abductor instead.

Roderick bit down hard on his lip.

“W-What witch? What in the world do you want from me?!”

Mapheltan seized the king by the throat and lifted him into the air.

Roderick thrashed helplessly above the floor.

Ignoring his struggles, Mapheltan said,

“All you need to do is provide me with information. Tell me everything you know about Muel.”

Now that Muel’s name had been mentioned, the situation’s priorities had changed.

Mapheltan needed to hear everything Roderick knew about him.

The appearance of the Great Demon Muel was a variable capable of completely overturning the original story’s course.

Mapheltan tightened his grip around Roderick’s throat.

He was urging the king to speak.

Roderick forced his mouth open.

A peculiar space surrounded Johan—Ilea.

Thousands upon thousands of books filled towering shelves, while countless pieces of experimental equipment occupied the room.

The place resembled both a study and a laboratory.

The witch found the space itself fascinating.

Johan looked around with gleaming eyes.

His gaze suddenly landed upon a massive bookcase.

A single black book drew his interest.

Johan immediately pulled it from the shelf.

It was difficult to examine its contents.

The black book had been wrapped tightly in chains. It was probably a forbidden tome.

The witch could not suppress her curiosity. She intended to break the seal immediately.

Just as she was about to cast a spell, an unfamiliar voice rang out from somewhere.

“Hey! What appalling manners. Who gave you permission to touch someone else’s belongings?”

Johan turned toward the source of the voice.

A woman in a white coat was slowly approaching from directly ahead.

She was white in every respect.

Her eyes, hair, skin, and clothing were all as pure white as snow.

Johan gave her an awkward smile.

“I’m sorry. I was so curious that I touched it without thinking.”

The woman stared intently at Johan before tilting her head.

“But who are you? I distinctly summoned the Watcher of Narak, yet some random mage... No, what are you? You aren’t exactly a mage either. Sorry, but would you mind taking off that mask?”

The woman had seen through Johan’s identity to some extent.

Johan exclaimed in admiration.

“That’s impressive. You actually noticed.”

He immediately dispelled the magic.

Ilea’s true appearance was revealed.

The white woman slowly looked Ilea up and down.

“...What a strange little girl. You clearly possess unfathomable skill, yet I see no trace of Molting. Just what are you?”

Molting referred to a state in which one had overcome the limits of lifespan and aging.

Unless Ilea was an Archmage who had undergone Molting, there was no possible way such a young girl could possess that degree of magical skill.

The white woman could roughly discern Ilea’s magical level.

Ilea unquestionably possessed power comparable to an Archmage’s.

Ilea smiled with her eyes.

“That’s a riddle. Why don’t you try figuring it out, Elder?”

The woman’s face instantly twisted.

By anyone’s standards, she appeared to be a young and beautiful woman.

Being called an elder naturally put the white woman in a foul mood.

“Elder? Are you making fun of me?”

“I’m sorry. I can see something of your true nature as well, Elder... No, I mean, you.”

The white woman was an Archmage.

She was a being who had undergone Molting—one of the very few transcendent beings in this world.

She was powerful enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with Wolfgang Eisenfeld, the Guardian of the North.

The white woman snorted with an unimpressed expression.

“Hmph. What an impudent little brat. In any case, from now on, you will address me as Lady Lumina. Make sure you include the ‘Lady.’ Call me an elder or a grandmother one more time, and I won’t let you off so easily.”

She appeared to despise being treated as old.

Ilea nodded with a smile.

“Understood, Lady Lumina. Would you like to try guessing my identity now?”

Lumina began examining Ilea from every possible angle.

She circled Ilea repeatedly, observing her closely.

Before long, Lumina shouted,

“Don’t tell me... You’re a witch?!”

Ilea clapped loudly.

“Wow, you’re impressive. That’s correct.”

Lumina clicked her tongue in astonishment.

“I knew you gave off an aura similar to Rahel’s.”

Rahel was known as the Last Witch.

More than fifty years had already passed since her death.

Interest shimmered in Ilea’s eyes.

“You knew Rahel?”

Lumina replied casually,

“Of course I did. Rahel was quite fond of me. She said I was a genius who might appear among humans only once every thousand years—or something like that. Anyway, I suppose that makes you Rahel’s daughter?”

Ilea looked thoughtful.

“...Calling me her daughter would be a little inaccurate, but let’s say it’s something similar.”

“Well, the physiology of you witches is rather unusual.”

“You seem to know a great deal about witches.”

“I might know more about them than you do. That’s why I still don’t understand. Why in the world would a witch associate with humans? And with the Watcher of Narak, of all people?”

Ilea fell briefly into thought.

She was calculating how much information she could safely disclose.

It did not seem wise to tell Lumina about Johan or Mapheltan just yet.

Instead, she asked a question of her own.

“Then why are you accompanying a human king, Lady Lumina? Roderick is nothing more than an ordinary mortal.”

There was absolutely nothing about King Roderick that could possibly interest an Archmage.

From an Archmage’s perspective, Roderick was no more significant than a weed.

Lumina opened her mouth.

“I received a prophecy from Lord Muel. He said that the barrier surrounding the royal capital would fall beneath the full moon, and that if I established myself in the capital during that opening, I would be able to meet the Lord of Ten Thousand Demons.”

Two or three months earlier, the royal capital’s barrier had been destroyed.

Under the full moon, countless elves had invaded the capital through a fracture in the barrier.

Lumina had also established herself within the capital that day.

Thanks to Muel’s prophecy, she had known about the coming incident in advance.

Ilea’s expression stiffened slightly.

‘If the Lord of Ten Thousand Demons mentioned in that prophecy is...’

Lumina abruptly interrupted Ilea’s thoughts.

She exclaimed with an ecstatic expression,

“Why, an Apostle of the End, of course! The moment I meet him, I’ll be able to transcend yet another level!”

Countless conditions had to be met in order to ascend beyond the level of an Archmage and reach an even higher hierarchy.

One of those conditions was entering into a contract with an Apostle.

Lumina had fulfilled most of the other conditions for advancement, but she had yet to contract with an Apostle.

After all, no Apostle had existed in this world for the past several centuries.

But things were different now.

The Thirteenth Apostle of the End had been born.

The moment she entered into a contract with him, Lumina would ascend to a truly exalted realm.

Her eyes sparkled brightly.