Rebirth of the 8th-Circle Mage

“Iron Curtain.”

The moment Henry chanted the spell, needles as thick as raindrops from a cloudburst poured around him. Each of them fell with enormous strength, piercing everything in their way like cavalry lances.

Thud!

As the Iron Curtain ceased, a cacophony of heavy thuds reverberated through the air, all the demonic beasts hit by the needles collapsing one after another.

Henry rose in the air to see how many of them had gone down.

‘Fifty…? Actually, maybe a hundred…?’

Henry could see well over fifty beasts on the ground. The creatures he had just killed were the Gehannas that would normally appear in the section of the Demonic Beast Forest where 9th-level beasts were.

However, the Gehennas in the Demon World were on a different level from the ones in the forest. These were the real, original Gehannas. Their strength and intelligence was far superior, resembling Grim Perolises.

Indeed, the demonic beasts in the Demon Realm made the ones from the forest seem like nothing.

Henry was getting sick and tired of dealing with demonic beasts, having been at it for a couple of hours at this point. He wasn’t necessarily having difficulties in fighting them. After all, he had taken down one of the promising candidates to become the next Demon King in one blow.

But what held Henry down was the possibility of being trapped in this realm forever.

He levitated once again, wanting to take a break. He couldn't do so on the ground because the demonic beasts would keep lunging at him. He then proceeded to make an invisible chair out of air and sat on it.

Henry then closed his eyes and got lost in thought, trying to sort his mind out. At this point, he couldn’t keep track of how many times he had stopped in order to think.

But without Klever or anyone else to ask for help, he was forced to come up with a solution all by himself. However, that didn’t lead to anything fruitful.

Henry did manage to come up with something, but it was a kind of ultimatum, a last resort in case he couldn’t come up with anything else. He wouldn’t do that in normal circumstances, so he refrained himself from jumping to that plan.

Then suddenly…

Screech!

Henry instinctively twisted around when the ferocious wail pierced his eardrums. Then, something long swiftly flew past him, and he instantly realized that he was being ambushed. His frustration had peaked, as even his precious rest time had been interrupted.

Henry was livid, and he quickly tried to locate the foolish creature that had tried to ambush him. He realized that he was facing only one foe, who was hiding behind a boulder, probably thinking that they were hidden away from his sight.

Unfortunately for that being, Henry didn’t need his eyes to detect them.

“You’ll face the consequences for what you’ve just done,” said Henry.

The words that sounded like a threat materialized in front of Henry’s eyes and came together as though they were bound together with darkness. His words weren’t merely a warning; they were magic words full of fury.

Henry generally refrained from using magic words because they were inefficient. But just like humans acted inefficiently in moments of weakness, Henry acted inefficiently to release his anger. This was his human moment.

The magic words soon took the shape of claws and eventually slashed the mysterious being.

- KIAAA!

A shrill cry pierced through the air, making Henry wince as he had gotten tired of hearing such noises. He felt like the cries of these beasts would ring endlessly in his ears even in his sleep. But even so, listening to the agonized cries of his enemies was one of the best ways to assuage his anger.

Henry stared with a blank expression at the claws that were dragging his enemy to him, making them bleed all over the place, leaving a crimson trail on the ground.

The enemy was quite tall, but that was the only thing Henry could tell about them, as they were covered in dirty rags from top to bottom.

“Let me see that face of yours.”

Although Henry was holding the enemy, he was still angry, so he snapped his fingers once again, making one of the claws grab onto the rags and partly rip them off.

Rip!

Upon finally seeing the face of his ambusher, Henry couldn’t help frowning.

‘A lizardman?’

Lizardmen were demonic beasts that were known to live in damp areas and in packs, similarly to orcs and goblins. Henry couldn’t hide his surprise, as he hadn’t seen a lizardman in a long time. He looked at it as though it were some exotic animal from a faraway place, not too amazed but still intrigued enough to give it attention.

After he was done observing the creature, Henry snapped his fingers again, making the claw that had ripped its clothes go up like a guillotine. He then commanded it to slash the lizardman’s eyes, but before it could do so…

- W-wait!

Henry was taken aback by the sudden voice, and the black claws stopped a centimeter away from the creature’s eyes. If it hadn’t shouted, the lizardman would’ve become blind.

Henry had stopped the claw out of surprise. Afterward, he came back down to the ground and stood in front of the lizardman.

The lizardman had turned pale at Henry’s attack. It had initially thought that Henry was easy prey, which was why it had tried to ambush him with its special attack, Javelin Throwing.

With Henry’s back exposed, the lizardman had erased its presence and thrown its spear at him with all its might, thinking that Henry was done for.

But to the lizardman’s surprise, Henry had not only avoided its attack but also discovered its location right away. And as it met eyes with Henry, the lizardman realized something it hadn’t been able to from a distance: Henry was a being completely beyond its imagination.

As Henry took steps toward it, the lizardman felt like death itself was approaching. And once Henry had made it in front of it, the lizardman desperately pleaded with him once again.

- S-stop!

The lizardman was still breathing heavily, so it could barely speak. Hearing the desperation in the creature’s voice, Henry couldn’t help but smirk. The lizardman had already closed its eyes and tucked its neck in fear.

Seeing how pitiful and scared this lizardman was, Henry said, “You…”

- …?

“You just spoke in the demonic language, didn’t you?”

- What…?

“Aren’t you going to answer?”

- Yes, yes, yes! I did!

The lizardman had no clue what demon language was, but it went ahead and replied positively out of fear.

Henry smiled once again after he heard the lizardman’s answer.

‘Well, well… I wasn’t expecting this to happen.’

Henry had picked up the demonic language in the lizardman’s death cry. He wouldn’t have been able to understand it as a human, but things were different. Although incomplete, he was a god.

For the longest time, Henry had suspected that the demonic language, the language of illusion, and the divine language were all the same language, and he had eventually found confirmation for that.

Because of that, Henry had discerned the lizardman speaking in demonic language.

The lizardman was even more scared as it saw Henry chuckle at its answer. Although Henry was genuinely laughing out of joy, the lizardman saw him as a human who was excited about the slaughter he was about to commence.

However, Henry didn’t seem to care about the lizardman’s reaction, and he continued speaking to it in a placid tone.

“Alright, seems like you understand me a bit, given the way you’re answering my questions… Name.”

- What?

“Don’t you have a name? I’m asking for your name.”

- O-oh… Uh, my name is Sharp Galberd.

“Huh? Sharp Galberd? What kind of name is that? You sure it’s not Halberd? What in the world is Galberd?”

- Oh, well… It’s a name I gave myself so… My apologies.

“Tsk, tsk, you’re bad at coming up with names. Let’s go with Gaga from now on, since the one you’ve picked for yourself is so lousy.

- Pardon? Gaga?

“Why? You don’t like it?”

Sharp Galberd gasped as Henry made him change his name out of the blue. Henry quickly caught on and cast the lizardman a vicious look.

With that, Sharp Galberd turned pale again, unable to withstand Henry’s murderous aura. He knew instantly that he couldn’t say no to Henry.

- No, no, no! My name will be… Wil be Gaga from now! So please…!

“Alright, there we go,” replied Henry. With that, his terrifying expression softened.

In a matter of minutes, Gaga had experienced death and resurrection. As he panted heavily, Henry demanded, “Alright Gaga, take me to where you live.”

- Where I live?

“Yeah.”

-That won’t be…

“Hmm?”

Even though Henry had scared the life out of him, Gaga hesitated to give him the answer he wanted.

Seeing that the lizardman couldn’t get the words out, Henry insisted.

“What’s the matter?”

- I’m sorry to say this, but.. I don’t have a place to go back to.

“What?”

- I have no place to go back to, nor any comrades. I’ve been alone ever since I became a demon.

One of the most well-known characteristics of lizardmen was that they lived in groups. However, it wasn’t the fact that Gaga had nowhere to go that surprised Henry. It was the fact that he was a demon, not a demonic beast.

‘So he’s a demon, huh…’

On second thoughts, it made sense that Gaga was a demon, given that he communicated in the demonic language instead of crying like those other beasts.

‘Is that why he gave himself a name?’

The biggest difference between demons and demonic beasts was that the latter weren’t called by individual names, but by the name of their species. Henry was a little surprised after hearing Gaga introduce himself, and he tried to collect himself and smile. He quickly realized that things were better this way.

Henry had asked Gaga for the location of his dwellings in order to meet with a lizardman above him that could provide some information about the Demon Realm. But given that Gaga himself was a demon, Henry could skip all of that and just get information directly from him.

“Well great, you just made things easier for me. From now on, answer my questions to the best of your knowledge.”

Seeing how eager Henry was to engage with him, Gaga looked at him differently. He still trembled in fear at the sinister eagerness in Henry’s eyes, but he was relieved that Henry no longer seemed like he wanted to kill him.

Gaga quickly spoke up before Henry managed to ask another question.

- If I may…

“What?”

- I’m sorry to ask this but… Who are you?

“Me?” Henry asked as he pointed to himself. He then smirked and said, “Just a god.”

- Wh-what?

Gaga turned pale once again, but not because of Henry’s response itself. He was terrified of the prospect of being stuck with a madman that could say something like that with a straight face.

Gaga’s vision turned blurry.