Rebirth of the 8th-Circle Mage

As Ganisel slowly regained consciousness, he was met with a throbbing headache. Even though he was the one who had attacked with all his might, for some odd reason, he was the one that had gone down.

It took Ganisel a while to get back to his senses, but the moment he properly opened his eyes, he realized he was tied up.

‘What in the world?’

He couldn’t even talk, and as his vision became more clear, he realized just how tightly he was tied up. And before he could try to do anything…

“Oh, you’re finally back.”

Ganisel quickly turned to where the voice had come from, and he couldn’t believe what was in front of him.

‘A human?’

Ganisel was certain his eyes weren’t deceiving him. A human, one that seemed very young, stood in front of him. Realizing that he wasn’t hallucinating, Ganisel quickly tensed up and tried to gather his strength, anger surging through him.

‘How dare a mere human treat me like this?!’

Back when Ganisel was an archangel, he had descended into the human world a couple of times under orders from the Almighty. And from what he had seen, Ganisel considered humans to be the worst kind of beings he had ever laid eyes on. They were not only weak but also arrogant and greedy.

To Ganisel, humans were no better than bugs. However, this bug had tied him up and was looking down on him.

Furious, Ganisel let out as much demonic energy as he could, and it seemed like it would annihilate every single being around him.

The demonic energy eventually caused a great gust of wind, blowing Henry’s hair. It also kicked up some dirt.

“Well, this bastard is overly energetic.”

Henry was annoyed at having dust fly in his face again. Clenching his fist, he compressed the dust and the demonic energy together and sent it back into Ganisel, along with the fury he had let out.

As Henry unclenched his hand, Ganisel gasped and panted for air.

“Ghah! Huff, huff…!”

Ganisel choked on the demonic energy infused with his anger, and Henry looked at him as though he was a pitiful, puny creature.

Once Ganisel was done gasping, Henry continued, “See the lizard next to you?”

As Ganisel turned to look where Henry was pointing, he noticed Gaga on the floor with foam at his mouth.

“He was my only guide around here, and now he’s like that because of you. So you’ll have to guide me around now.”

Henry tried his best to keep things short so that he could get going again. Even though he had received a lot of information from Gaga, he still needed to know more. He could tell that this being in front of him was a lot stronger than Gaga, which meant that he no longer had a use for the lizardman.

As Ganisel listened to Henry, he became furious and tried to release his demonic energy again. He had already convinced himself that he had only collapsed because he had let his guard down for a brief moment.

Seeing Ganisel get riled up again, Henry fixed his gaze on him. His expression was impassive, but his eyes burned with killing intent.

Ganisel flinched at Henry’s fierce glare. He realized that the mysterious presence he had felt earlier in his territory had indeed been this human. But even though he came to this realization, Ganisel still had a hard time believing it.

‘How is a human being…?’

Although it would be very surprising, it wasn’t impossible for someone to dodge his attack. However, it made no sense to Ganisel for a human being to have such an imposing presence. After racking his brains for a while, Ganisel quickly shook his head, knowing that fear would overtake him and cause him to make up all sorts of scenarios in his head.

With that, Ganisel decided to stop thinking about that and tried to convince himself that he would get out of this.

‘Brillente was a lot stronger than this human being!’

As someone who had challenged Brillente in the past, Ganisel wasn’t going to go down like this to a mere human. Even though Henry in front of him had an overwhelming presence, unlike any other human being, Ganisel was convinced he would be no match against Brillente. With this new attitude, he decided to stand up against Henry.

After all, Ganisel was the second strongest in the Demon Realm and a former archangel of the heavens who had never faced defeat.

‘Huh? What is this bastard trying to do?’

Henry arched a brow as he noticed Ganisel trying to get back on his feet. He realized that he was dealing with a more stubborn being than he had anticipated. Nonetheless, Henry was sure of one thing: he seemed more useful than Gaga.

Henry relaxed his murderous gaze and smirked at Ganisel.

“Alright, from now on, you’re my new Gaga.”

‘What?’

“But first, I need you to reflect on your arrogance before becoming my new Gaga.”

Henry gave Ganisel a new identity and name before starting his training. Even if Ganisel was better than Gaga, Henry knew that he would be just like a wild dog if he didn’t follow his orders. And because of this, Henry planned to just keep Ganisel barely alive so that he would know his place. That was how he would make Ganisel into an obedient dog that followed his master’s orders.

Henry summoned his Colt Sword out of thin air. Ganisel was still in midair, unable to move, but he was letting out as much demonic energy as possible in order to show that he wasn’t afraid. Unfortunately for him, Henry could see through his act and considered him pitiful.

Henry soon wrapped a brilliant emerald-colored Aura around his sword, but he avoided using any divine power. He knew there was a time and a place for everything, and he wouldn’t go all out just to prove a point to Ganisel.

Henry held his sword up high and swung it at Ganisel, making a clean, straight cut. A second later, three of his wings fell on the ground.

‘GHAAA!’

Ganisel screamed in agony. However, Henry had put on a silencing spell on him, so Ganisel was just keeping his mouth open without making any sounds, his expression contorted in pain.

However, there was something that Henry wasn’t aware of. The wings of heavenly beings were essentially part of their soul, and they were also the source of their power.

Henry stared at Ganisel for a while. Even though he was twisting in pain, Henry could tell that his murderous aura hadn’t abated at all. In fact, Ganisel was glaring at him as though he wanted to rip him apart.

In response, Henry tried swinging his sword one more time to balance things out, since he had only cut the wings on his right side.

But just as Henry was about to cut him again, Ganisel wailed in pain.

‘No, no!’

Realizing that he was about to become wingless, Ganisel tried screaming, but to no avail. However, his desperate expression communicated that he would do anything for Henry to stop.

Henry knew that in order to properly instill fear in someone, one had to give them a real reason to be afraid. So, he didn’t stop. He smirked as he fully swung his sword while looking at Ganisel struggling in front of him.

“No, I will.”

Swoosh! Thump, thump, thump-!

With that, three of his left wings dropped on the floor, and Ganisel let out another mute cry.

“Ah, I like how quiet you are.”

Henry realized that putting a silencing spell on Ganisel was perfect because he could torture him in silence. He walked over to the wings on the ground to put them in his subspace pouch and then snapped his fingers, causing Ganisel to fall to the ground.

“Ghaaa…”

Henry also went ahead and undid the silencing spell. Now, Ganisel was on the ground, wailing and squirming.

It was horrible. Ganisel had lost six of his wings to a random human being lurking in the Demon Realm. The wings had been his source of power, his life; he wouldn’t have been able to become the second strongest being in the Demon Realm without them.

Ganisel gritted his teeth and looked up at Henry, only to see him smiling. It was the kind of sinister and eerie smile that only crazy individuals had. Chills went down Ganisel’s spine as he kept looking at him.

‘Th-this bastard is fucking crazy!’

However, Ganisel was closing the door of the barn after the horses had already bolted away. He had already lost six of his wings, so it was too late for him to do anything now. With most of his wings missing, it was impossible for him to generate the same amount of power as earlier. Ganisel already knew that he had no other choice but to surrender.

He also realized that he could never challenge Brillente again and that he would no longer be the second strongest in the Demon Realm. In fact, in a place where power meant everything, he could already foresee how difficult his life would be from that point onward.

Ganisel slammed his head on the ground and murmured with tears in his eyes, “I… accept my defeat…”

“Huh?”

A few moments ago, Henry wouldn’t have paid any attention to what Ganisel had to say. At first, he had only considered him a replacement for Gaga, but now he could tell that this angel was more serious than he seemed.

- Argh…

Gaga finally regained consciousness. He was holding his head as though he had a massive headache, and he stared wide-eyed at Henry and at the being on the ground in front of him.

- Uh… What?

“Took you a while to get up.”

Henry was unfazed by Gaga’s surprised reaction, but the lizardman froze at the sight of the fallen angel with severed wings, recognizing him instantly.

- D-don’t tell me…

“Huh?”

Gaga quickly covered his mouth in astonishment, as he had played a part in this. He had purposely brought Henry to Ganisel, hoping that the angel would take him down. However, what Gaga was seeing was in stark contrast to his expectations, so he quickly tried to make sense of what was going on.

‘Ganisel went down? Really?!’

Gaga had no clue what had happened while he was unconscious, but he knew that he had fainted after something had hit him hard. He assumed that Ganisel had crashed into him, given that he was also on the ground.

But for some reason, it seemed like Ganisel had lost to Henry, and things weren’t adding up to Gaga. He hesitated for a moment, his eyes darting due to his nervousness.

Seeing him all panicky, Henry couldn’t help but feel that there was something off about Gaga. He felt that there was something very strange, awfully suspicious about him.

The lizardman kept rolling his eyes as though he was lost in thought, and Henry eventually called, “Hey you! Get over here!”

- Y-yes? You were talking to me?

“Didn’t I tell you that I don’t like repeating myself?”

- M-my apologies!

Henry could tell that Gaga knew something about Ganisel, so he decided to act upon his suspicions and directly ask him about the angel.

After asking a couple of questions, Henry learned that Ganisel was a renowned being in the Demon Realm, and even the lowest-class demons from several territories away knew who he was.

‘This guy is that famous? And that powerful too?’

Henry hadn’t been aware of how influential Ganisel was in the Demon Realm because he had managed to take him down with just a few swings of his sword. He couldn’t believe that he was the second strongest in the Demon Realm.

After learning about Ganisel’s reputation, Henry had to admit that his preconceptions and expectations of the Demon Realm had been greatly mistaken.

‘Well… I guess this works too.’

If Ganisel really was the second strongest warrior in the Demon Realm, Henry figured that he knew a lot more things than any other demons out there. The only one stronger than Ganisel was Brillente, the one who had kidnapped Henry through the Demon Realm Gap, but he was no longer alive to answer any of Henry’s questions.

After pondering on Gaga’s explanation, Henry made Ganisel stand up, seemingly having made up his mind. He used magic to forcefully get the angel to stand up.

As Ganisel looked at Henry, he was certain that his life was going to end there. He closed his eyes to prepare for his death. But instead of receiving a blade to the neck, he merely heard Henry speak.

“I killed Brillente.”

“What…?”

“Brillente kidnapped me here, so I killed him. That being said, you’re the strongest in the Demon Realm right now.”

Ganisel couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He thought Henry was just spewing nonsense. As he stared in silence, Henry continued, “You… You’re thinking of taking revenge against the heavens, aren’t you?”

“...!”

“I’ll help you get your revenge, but I also want your help in return. I’ve got my own issues, just like you do.”

Henry’s unexpected offer sent shivers down his spine.