Rebirth of the 8th-Circle Mage

At the break of dawn, the Chariot of Destruction that reigned in the Demonic Beast Forest fiercely advanced forward. It was the embodiment of destruction.

With each step that Henry took, a tremendous amount of destruction was unleashed around him, and when he picked up the pace and started running, the four wheels around him turned his surroundings into a wasteland.

Needless to say, Henry didn’t feel the least bit guilty, as the Demonic Beast Forest was one of the hellish places on the continent that humanity was better off without.

In addition to the Chariot of Destruction, Henry did everything he could to disturb the forest in order to draw the attention of the demonic beasts.

If the demonic beasts were planning on being noisy all night long, Henry thought he might as well eliminate the source of the noise ahead of time.

Henry passed through the Ninth District in no time, and he quickly advanced through the Eighth and Seventh District as well

Before he knew it, Henry was in the Fifth District, the so-called danger zone. Nonetheless, he didn’t pay much attention to his surroundings.

‘Not yet.’

This was still only the Fifth District. For some, this district was the most dangerous place on earth, and they would never in their lives set foot in here. However, for Henry, this was no more than a children’s playground.

Henry looked around. The soil was dark akin to volcanic ash, while the sky hinted at shades of purple. This was a result of the toxins in the air, which were creating an optical illusion.

The Chariot of Destruction was still active. The colorful glowing rings of different elements would kill whatever came at Henry so swiftly and silently that he wouldn’t even notice.

Henry soon set foot in the Fourth District.

From this point onward, one wouldn’t last more than a second unless they were a truly skilled fighter. Nevertheless, Henry proceeded with an unfazed expression.

With the elemental rings still spinning furiously, it wasn’t hard for him to obliterate this entire district as well. After all, there was nothing left in his trail.

Henry stopped before entering the Third District and did some thinking while catching his breath.

‘There has to be something in this area.’

Henry was honestly a bit disappointed. Having heard that the demonic beasts were going wild in the forest, Henry had expected to find something special as soon as he stepped into the Fifth District.

However, his Chariot of Destruction had wiped everything in his path before he even got a chance to see anything, so he felt like he had come here for nothing.

After a brief pause, Henry crossed the border between the Fourth and the Third District, still maintaining hope.

Whoosh!

Just then, as soon as Henry set foot in the Third District, the sharp sound of the wind hit his ears from all directions.

But that was it. Nothing else happened after the brief rustling of the wind.

Henry cocked his head.

‘I’m pretty sure I heard something.’

Having become the god of magic, his physical senses were better than ever before, so he was sure he had heard something.

Henry heightened his senses and scanned his surroundings once again, but there was still no sign of anything around him.

He took another step, and then…

Whoosh!

He once again heard a sharp sound, and he was certain he hadn’t imagined it.

With his heightened senses, Henry quickly turned his head toward the direction of the sound, and at the same time, he amplified his vision with mana. With this kind of superhuman vision, he could see things he otherwise couldn’t with his normal eyes.

Seeing what had made that sound, Henry smiled.

“I was wondering what that was, but it was just you guys, huh?”

Something flew at Henry once again, but it was instantly swept away by the Chariot of Destruction, and in that brief second Henry clearly saw what had taken a shot at him.

It was the Grim Periloses, a species of assassin demonic beasts that only lived in this district.

Henry stopped smiling after confirming what was trying to kill him, and as though to comfort the beasts, he said, “It’s good to see you guys again, but I’m a little busy right now.”

After identifying the enemy, Henry was no longer wary of his surroundings, and he resumed advancing just like before.

Swoosh!

The dark energy shot by the Grim Perolises were poisonous needles.

Grim Perolis was a different species of the demonic rodent called Perolis that inhabited the Demon Realm.

These creatures had evolved to become almost as intelligent as humans, living in groups and making up for their lack of strength with other resources. Eventually, they were able to hunt massive demonic beasts, which they hadn’t been able to tackle alone before, fully reaching their evolutionary potential.

Henry continued moving forward, completely unconcerned by the waterfall of poisonous needles from the Grim Perolises. He was literally ignoring them.

Perhaps they got annoyed by the attitude of their prey, but the creatures came out of hiding and openly shot their poisonous needles at Henry.

But of course, they were nothing more than rats to him.

Having fun with the stunts of the rats, Henry soon reached the border of the Second District. Before crossing, he turned around and looked at the group of Grim Perolises. They were still trying their best to hunt him down.

On his way to the border of the Second District, Henry had been chased not only by Grim Perolises, but also by other high-level demonic beasts.

However, none of those other creatures had lasted more than two seconds before being eliminated by the Chariot of Destruction. So in comparison, the Grim Perolises had managed to stick to Henry for quite some time.

Looking at the pitiful rats that shot poisonous needles at him, Henry said, “I’m done playing with you guys now.” He then waved his hand, causing the fire ring of the Chariot of Destruction to unravel like a long snake. It truly looked like a serpent of fire, and it would incinerate everything it devoured.

It was the perfect snake to use for hunting rats.

“Get ‘em!”

Roar!

At Henry’s command, the snake of fire slithered toward the Grim Perolises just like a real snake, hunting down its prey in a matter of seconds.

Once it finished devouring its meal, the snake of fire bit its tail like the ouroboros, turning back into the destructive ring of fire.

Before stepping into the Second District, Henry turned and looked back at the path he had just taken.

There was nothing in his line of sight. Everything was charred and reduced to ash, and Henry smiled slightly at that sight.

‘I’m sure the soldiers will be happy enough with this.’

Henry thought this was the best gift for the soldiers who were stressing over the demonic beasts going wild.

“Don’t tell me there’s nothing in the Second District either…”

Henry had hoped that the Third District would prove more interesting, and he was still disappointed. However, he decided to have some hope for the two areas he would have to go through.

With that, Henry stepped into the Second District.

***

Besides being black, the soil in the Second District was also muddy. There were so many toxins in the air that they had seeped into the soil.

Henry disliked the feeling of something sticking to his shoes, so he coated his soles with mana.

The demonic trees that were usually found in this accursed forest were no longer found from the Second District onward.

There were only steep cliffs and jagged rocks everywhere, making Henry feel as if he were walking through a desolate desert.

As he kept walking, Henry became increasingly more uneasy.

‘Something’s off.’

Everything was awfully quiet, as though the forest had frozen over.

The Second District was supposed to be the part of the forest where the most dangerous demonic beasts lurked. They were supposedly so fearsome that not even other demons dared to provoke them.

At the very least, there were supposed to be intermediate-ranked demons around this area.

Henry would’ve expected the creatures of this district to ambush him and unleash a barrage of attacks to deal with the intruder who had trespassed on their territory, just like the Grim Perolises had done.

However, nothing happened.

Henry continued walking through the forest, and the musty smell of the damp ground and the fog made it seem like a heavy rain had swept through this area just before Henry had arrived.

The ominous silence persisted, the only sounds coming from Henry’s footsteps and the spinning rings of the Chariot of Destruction.

After walking for a while, Henry spotted the border of the First District in the horizon and chuckled in disbelief.

‘Is this really everything?’

Henry’s disappointment grew as the border came closer into view, but just as he thought that he had wasted his time coming here, he realized what was going on.

‘Something happened.’

It made no sense for the Second District to be completely devoid of any creatures. That wasn’t something that could be overlooked.

Perhaps that was a clue to the mysterious occurrences within the Demonic Beast Forest that Henry had been searching for all along.

Henry picked up the pace as his thoughts reached that conclusion, and just as he was about to reach the border of the First District…

Splash!

Henry stepped in something wet— a puddle, not mud.

‘Water?’

The soil was black, so the puddle was more or less the same color, but it was strange. This part of the forest was barren, not even demonic trees growing here, so why was there water?

Puzzled, Henry crouched and dipped his finger into the puddle and smelled it.

‘Blood?’

He felt the pungent scent of blood, the kind of blood that only demonic beasts shed.

Henry couldn’t have confused this smell for something else because he had grown accustomed to the scent of demonic beast blood while hunting down the Demon King in the past.

‘I haven’t seen a single one of them all this time, and now I suddenly find their blood?’

On a better look, the blood stretched forward akin to a stream, multiple puddles converging into one large pool of blood. As Henry’s gaze traveled along its length, he found himself looking at the border of the First District.

He looked beyond the border but couldn’t see anything, and it wasn’t because the fog was obstructing his view.

The First District was supposed to be completely different from the rest of the forest.

‘Is it telling me to come over if I want answers?’

Henry had a competitive look on his face, as though he had received a rude invitation from an arrogant landlord.

Unless something unexpected occurred, he intended to press forward until he entered the First District. After all, that was his destination.

After wiping off the blood from his finger, Henry raised his hand and turned the wheels of the Chariot of Destruction, which were spinning furiously, into one single ring.

Ptzzzz!

As the opposing elements were forced together into a single ring, they made an incredible sound as if they were about to explode at any moment. However, they didn’t explode because Henry was keeping them stable with his powers.

After merging the rings into one, he manipulated it with his fingertips, pulling it back like an arrow on a bowstring.

“I can’t come empty handed when I’ve been invited,” said Henry.

With that, Henry let go of the bowstring, shooting the ring over the border with tremendous speed.

Whoosh!

With an incredibly sharp sound, incomparable to the needles of the Perolises, the ring disappeared over the border.

‘…?’

However, the Chariot of Destruction garnered no response from the other side.