Rebirth of the 8th-Circle Mage

Henry uttered no incantation. He merely swung his fist, and a giant crater formed before them. Inside it were the skeleton soldiers, crushed to tiny pieces.

Henry smiled and swung his fist viciously.

Boom boom boom boom!

Countless craters kept forming in the forbidden zone as though invisible meteors were shattering the earth.

Henry kept swinging his fist, enjoying himself as though he were playing a game. Soon enough, there wasn’t a single skeleton soldier standing around.

“Well?” Henry asked the two demons with a smug look on his face as though to show off his power.

Ganisel and Gaga stayed silent. They had experienced Henry’s power themselves, so they knew that he was strong. But now that they had witnessed it as bystanders, it was even more amazing.

With a pleased expression, Henry turned around again and demanded, “What are you waiting for? Start moving.”

“O-okay!”

Ganisel rushed after Henry, and only after seeing the fallen angel move did Gaga take a few deep breaths and step inside the forbidden zone.

Henry walked leisurely through the new area, whereas the two demons were cautious and nervous. This was partly because they didn’t know where Raina was, but also because they didn’t think the skeleton soldiers were completely done welcoming their guests.

Henry also knew that, which was why he also walked rather slowly. If they were going to come at him anyway, he figured that he might as well show Raina the power of the next Demon King.

And sure enough, the three of them were met with even more hospitality.

Demonic beasts of all sorts, many of which Henry had never seen before, not even in the Demonic Beast Forest, appeared out of nowhere and lunged at them.

Among them were hordes of centaurs and Archliches, which were Liches that had reached their peak. There were also legions of Death Knights and some demonic beasts that were as big as Brillente.

But each time they attacked, Henry dealt with them effortlessly. He kept shattering the earth with his fist, crushing his opponents to a pulp.

Occasionally, when Henry felt the need for showmanship along the way, he would swing his sword and cast magic over a wide area.

After around an hour of walking, the three stumbled upon an artificial structure. They hadn’t seen anything like it so far in this area.

‘Is that the temple?’

Since Raina was the representative of the Demon God, Henry naturally assumed that the structure was a temple.

However, the thing in front of them didn’t look like a temple at all. It looked more like an altar, for it had no walls, just a few pillars and an open floor.

There wasn't anyone guarding the altar-looking construction, so Henry fearlessly stepped inside.

‘Am I in the wrong place?’

Henry had come all this way without getting a drop of blood on his hands, so there was no reason to be frightened by the sudden appearance of the altar. He had even killed the so-called apostles in a matter of seconds.

He left the two demons waiting outside and slowly examined the altar from up close.

- What an honored guest I have.

Just then, a voice echoed in his head. Henry looked around, but the owner of the voice was nowhere to be seen.

- I’m here.

He turned around and saw Ganisel lying on the ground.

Gaga was still standing, but there was something wrong with him.

‘Is he possessed?’

Gaga’s eyes were cloudy and lifeless as though a ghost had taken hold of him. He had been scared of this altar earlier, but now he boldly approached it.

After walking up to Henry, he bowed.

- This is the first time in the history of the Demon Realm that a god other than the Demon God has come here.

“I knew you’d recognize me, but is this how the representative of the Demon God should greet their important guests?”

- I apologize. I don’t have a physical body of my own, so I can’t converse with others without borrowing someone else’s body like this. Please forgive my rudeness.

Henry expressed his dissatisfaction with Raina not appearing in person. However, Raina immediately apologized for her impudence, and Henry readily forgave her.

“Alright then, let’s cut to the chase. Why do you think I’m here?”

- I know why you, the god of magic, have come all the way here, but I’m afraid I can’t give you what you want.

“You can’t? You talk as if you’ve looked inside my head.”

- Of course not. How could I dare look into the mind of a god? I’m nothing but a mere representative of the Demon God, a messenger of his will. Everything I’m telling you is his will.

“Good excuse… Then what’s the reason? Is it because I’m a god?”

- That’s right.

Henry could discern some hidden reasons within that simple and vague explanation.

He snorted and said, “What a joke. A god that I know told me that gods will cause too much chaos in this world if they meddle too much in its affairs. But this isn’t fair, is it? There are so many restrictions in the human realm, whereas the Demon God is essentially the king of this realm.”

Raina kept her mouth shut as Henry asked sharp questions. She remained silent, her eyes blurry and unsure of where to look.

Henry looked into Gaga’s dead eyes and sneered, “Listen carefully! I’ll fully become a god once I die, so do you think I have anything to be afraid of when my afterlife is already decided? To be honest, I’m not interested in becoming the Demon King for what it is in the slightest. But there’s a line you shouldn’t cross. Do you have any idea how long my realm has been suffering because of your absurd Demon Kings?”

Henry maintained his fierce gaze on Gaga’s hazy eyes. He knew that it was Raina he was talking to, but he also thought that the Demon God had to be listening.

For that reason, he spoke in a harsh tone, and he also took this opportunity to vent all of his frustrations with this accursed realm.

“I don’t give a damn about becoming a worthless Demon King or whatever, but just know this. I don’t know why you’re creating a Demon King, but if you don’t give me what I want, there will never be a new Demon King ever again. And…!”

Henry glared fiercely at Gaga. This was a warning to the Demon God himself.

“Close the Demon Realm Gap that you’ve opened in the human realm. If you don’t, I’ll find a way to get rid of you after I fully become a god.”

With that, Henry stopped glaring. He had voiced his frustrations and his requests regarding the Demon Realm Gap. He had said everything he wanted to say.

- …

Silence persisted, which made Henry feel that his requests were being disregarded.

“Sword on.”

In a fit of anger, he decided to behead Gaga to end their line of communication, and if necessary, he would do the same with Ganisel.

If he did that, Raina would no longer have anyone to possess and deliver the words of the Demon God, which meant she wouldn’t be able to stop Henry.

This was Henry’s last warning, which was more of a threat.

Tzzzz-

Just then, a murky energy started to condense around Gaga, enveloping him. It looked similar to demonic energy, but it wasn’t that.

Demonic energy had a repulsive sensation to it, akin to oil, but the energy condensing before Henry’s eyes was nothing like that. On the contrary, it was refreshing.

Henry was familiar with this kind of sensation.

‘Divine power.’

This energy was divine power. Seeing the murky light, Henry could guess who the owner of this divine energy was.

The energy soon formed into a human figure. It had purple-tinted skin, red eyes, long white hair, and two large horns on its forehead.

Even among demons, Henry had never seen anyone that looked like this. He could instinctively tell from his appearance that this was the Demon God, and his lips curled into a smile.

The Demon God had finally descended.

Henry had expected an answer to his warning, but he hadn’t expected the Demon God to descend and answer in person.

Soon, the condensed energy took a complete physical form, the silhouette fully appearing in the Demon Realm.

The Demon God opened his eyes.

“How kind of you,” Henry said in a somewhat sarcastic tone. “I wasn’t expecting you to descend like this.”

- How persistent.

Those were the first words of the Demon God. He spit out biting remarks to Henry as soon as he descended to the Demon Realm.

Henry replied with a sly remark of his own.

“I’m better than an immature tyrant who never grew out of his childish games.”

After hearing Henry make a comeback, the Demon God realized there was no point in scolding this human, so he cut to the chase.

- Young god, you’re already qualified as a god, so stop being stubborn and accept the flow of nature.

“You’re going on about that too?”

Ironically, the Demon God was saying the same thing as La. He was essentially telling Henry to stop paying around in the mortal world and fully ascend to divinity.

But Henry wasn’t someone who was going to change his mind just because someone else argued the same thing.

The Demon God was trying to change the subject, and Henry decided to change it back to the one he was interested in.

“Why don’t you cut the crap and answer my question? Either you choose me as the new Demon King and give me dimensional powers, or you fix the underlying problems that I’ve mentioned earlier.”

Henry was being stubborn, or rather, he wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity to solve the problem that had been plaguing humanity for decades. After all, the one responsible for it was standing right in front of him.

As Henry threatened him again, the Demon God cast him a strange look and replied slowly.

- You’ll regret it.

“Life is full of regrets, and even if I do, I’ll be the one dealing with it, so why don’t you just clean up the shit you caused?”

At Henry’s harsh taunt, the Demon God glared at him for a moment and then sighed.

- I really can’t… understand what he’s thinking.

“What?”

- I’ll grant your request and give you the power to manipulate dimensions.

Ptzzz!

After saying that, Demon God’s red eyes instantly glowed. Then, a tsunami of knowledge about how to manipulate dimensions flowed into Henry’s mind.

The sheer amount of information was overwhelming and too sudden, so it caused Henry to feel terribly dizzy.

In the meantime, the Demon God finished granting him the power. His eyes stopped glowing and his expression relaxed as he looked at Henry, who was still struggling.

“Agh…!”

The dizziness intertwined with a headache and eventually brought Henry to his knees. The pain became so excruciating that not even healing magic helped.

The Demon God stared at Henry without saying anything, but just then…

- …!

The Demon God’s eyes grew wide as he watched Henry.

‘Was he planning this from the beginning?’

After looking at Henry in shock, the Demon God frowned and vanished into a cloud of smoke. He was gone, and with his disappearance, the process of transferring the power into Henry was finished.

Nonetheless, Henry still felt dizzy, or rather, his head felt like it was about to be split open, the pain getting worse and worse.

‘This is so… painful!’

The pain was so intense that Henry couldn’t think about anything else. In the midst of this, the information on dimensional magic kept flowing into his mind, threatening to break it.

“Cough!”

To make matters worse, Henry coughed up blood. He was also burning up and broke out in a cold sweat.

Henry slumped forward on his knees, and…

Thump-

In excruciating pain, he started to hear something besides his pained groans.

Thump-

The sound of his heart beating.

His chest was burning, but it wasn’t because something burned inside him. Rather, it was the heat of creation, of something being conceived.

Like a blacksmith blowing the bellows, his heart was burning fiercely and a new ring was forming over it.