Rebirth of the 8th-Circle Mage

Five years—that was how much time had passed in the Demon Realm, whereas only six months had passed in the human world. In other words, time passed twenty times faster in the Demon Realm. Because of that, Henry was a bit excited to see how much Ganisel had grown over the past five years.

As he was walking, he called out, “Gaga.”

- Yes!

Gaga, all tensed up like a soldier, responded energetically to Henry, waiting for instructions.

“What’s Ganisel’s current ranking?”

- I believe he ranks fourth at the moment!

“Fourth, you say?”

- Yes!

“Hmm… Fourth place, huh…”

Being the fourth strongest being in the Demon Realm was actually impressive, considering that Ganisel had lost six of his wings at one point. However, even though Henry was aware that Ganisel hadn’t regained his full strength yet, he was still unsatisfied with what Ganisel had achieved in those five years.

Henry himself had always been number one, and so he had the same high standards for everyone else.

‘Has he been slacking off?’

Contrary to Henry’s suspicions, Ganisel hadn’t been slacking off at all. If anything, Henry had left a great impression on him during their short time together, and that had prompted Ganisel to live every day as though it was his last.

Ganisel had been taking more risks, finding himself in multiple life-or-death situations. During those times of great peril, Ganisel had been tempted to tear up the caller scroll Henry had given him, but he had ultimately refrained from doing so in order to impress Henry when they met again.

And so, his evolution was unrivaled among the demons of this realm.

- Over there.

As the two slowly stopped, Gaga pointed decisively in a particular direction. The area to where he was pointing was no different from what they had seen so far. This didn’t surprise Henry at all, as he knew that the landscape of the Demon Realm wasn’t that diverse.

Nonetheless, he could still feel something from the direction Gaga pointed toward.

‘Yup, we’re at the right place.’

Henry felt a formidable energy coming from that direction. However, there seemed to be more than one being there. To his surprise, two entities were fighting each other in the distance.

‘I wonder who’s fighting.’

Henry and Gaga walked toward the two beings that were fighting to the death. Shortly after, Henry spotted them in the air, clashing fiercely.

Gaga also saw them and stuttered as he explained the situation to Henry.

- Th-that’s Kyrin, the third strongest being in the Demon Realm!

“Kyrin? He’s number three?”

- Yes! Kyrin has rapidly risen to prominence! He’s notorious for being even more ruthless than the top-ranked demons out there!

“Oh, is that so?”

As Gaga overreacted, Henry observed Kyrin with great curiosity. His body was entirely black, resembling a mere shadow; his defined silhouette was the only thing separating him from an actual shadow. He also had wings that seemed perfect for aerial combat.

As Henry kept his eye on him, he noticed that he was unleashing dark energy, its hue matching his inky body. He then shifted his gaze to his enemy, and he was surprised to see Ganisel.

Henry continued to watch their gripping duel and continued to make observations in his mind. To him, Kyrin seemed to go for Ganisel’s weak spots with his complex and skillful tactics as if his predatory instincts had kicked in.

But despite his impressive performance, Henry still wasn’t impressed by Kyrin. He had faced foes ten times stronger than that in the human world.

On the other hand, Ganisel seemed relaxed. He was avoiding Kyrin’s attacks while deflecting the ones aimed at his weak spots. After watching the two in silence for a bit, Henry couldn’t help shaking his head.

‘Seems like he picked up a nasty habit while I was gone.’

Anyone decently experienced in combat could tell that it wasn’t an actual duel, but one fighter playing with the other. Of course, Kyrin was the one being played with.

Realizing this, Henry thought that Ganisel was wasting time, not wrapping up the fight. Thus, he quietly pointed his finger at them and acted as though he were shooting with a crossbow.

“Bang!”

Despite Henry’s goofy attitude, a murderous stream of light flew at Kyrin with great speed.

“GHAAA!”

The light pierced through his right forearm, going through his chest and coming out through his other forearm. Kyrin went down while coughing up blood, and he soon hit the ground with a sickening thud, kicking up dust.

Ganisel instantly became angry after seeing his foe going down by someone else’s attack, thinking that someone had come to bother him. He looked around with a murderous gaze, only to spot Henry looking at him.

“Henry!”

As he realized that Henry was the one who had intervened, his anger turned into joy. He greeted Henry with a gleeful expression and shook his hand.

“It’s only been half a year for me, but it’s been five years for you, right?” said Henry.

“Yes, since time here flows differently from the human world.”

“I heard you’ve climbed to the fourth spot in just five years. Wait no… You’ve just defeated Kyrin, so you’ve taken his place as the third strongest being in this realm, right?”

“Yes, of course. I would have taken him down eventually without your intervention, but it did speed things up.”

Even though Henry thought his progress was slow, he didn’t bother mentioning that. Instead, he complimented Ganisel, as he was close to him, unlike with other demons. Besides, he knew that Ganisel had very high chances of becoming the next Demon King candidate.

“What brings you to the Demon Realm?” asked Ganisel.

“I had some business to discuss with the Demon God. I also wanted to talk to you afterward.”

“With me?”

“Yeah, with you. Anyway… I wanted to ask… Do you still feel the same way about the heavens?”

“Yes, of course. My thirst for vengeance against the heavens has been my driving force all this time.”

“I see. I’m glad you still feel the same. Truth be told, I was actually hoping your attitude wouldn’t change. Now that I know, I want to make you a proposal.”

“Whatever it is, I’ll help you.”

Henry smiled at Ganisel’s positive answer, feeling that everything would work out the way he had planned out.

“Well, I appreciate you saying that. Let’s get to the point then. I’m planning to go to the heavens because I have some business with the Heavenly God. There’s something I want to get done, but if things don’t go well, I’m thinking of turning the heavens upside down to achieve my goal.”

Henry paused for a brief second and looked Ganisel in the eye before continuing, “But you know, if I do that, I’d basically interfere with your quest for revenge. Isn’t that right?”

“That’s certainly one way of looking at it,” replied Ganisel, meeting Henry’s gaze.

“So my proposal is this. If I do have to resort to violence, I want to know if you’re willing to attack together.”

“Hmm… Together…”

Ganisel pondered on the sudden proposal, but it didn’t take him long to give Henry an answer.

“Alright, I shall join you if that happens. But I’d like to ask you a favor in return.”

“Which is?”

“I only have two fights left before I become the Demon King. If this isn’t an urgent matter, could you wait until I become the Demon King?”

“Hmm… Is there a particular reason you need to do that before we go to the heavens?”

“I’m well aware that I don’t have to be the Demon King in order to team up with you, but I want to crush the heavens with my own two hands. And so, I want to be at the top of the ladder in this realm and form my own army to invade the heavens.”

“Oh, I think I remember now. That’s actually the reason you refused to attack the heavens right away when I was here last time, right?”

“Exactly.”

“Hmm, well, I don’t have that much time… Then how about this?”

“I’m listening.”

Henry made another proposal that would allow the two of them to achieve a middle ground. Ganisel listened to it attentively and nodded at the end.

“Sure, I can work with that.”

“Alright then. Let’s get moving.”

Henry and Ganisel had become allies, aiming to bring down the heavens together.

***

Gigatan was the second strongest demon in the Demon Realm. He was a descendant of the Red Giants, who were pure-blooded demons renowned for their destructive powers. Gigatan was known as one of the strongest Red Giants in all their history.

With such talent, Gigatan had risen to the second rank in the Demon Realm, and for a while now, he had been aiming to kill the candidate for the next Demon King and take that position for himself.

This day was finally the day he would challenge the Demon King candidate. He had honed his skills and attained unimaginable power for this sole purpose.

As Gigatan was about to venture out of his territory to confront the first-ranked demon, he sensed two incredibly powerful entities within his territory.

‘Wh-what is this unbelievable presence?’

One of the entities seemed somewhat comparable to himself, but the other was overwhelmingly powerful. The two intruders set him on his toes, and he redirected his course toward them.

Soon enough, they crossed paths. But as Gigatan looked at the two entities, he couldn’t believe who he was seeing.

“A human?” Gigatan said unwittingly. Before him stood a human, and next to him was Ganisel, who was ranked fourth in the Demon Realm.

No one else was around, so Gigatan was sure that these two were the ones he had sensed earlied. There was also a lizard-looking demon next to them, but he was so insignificant that Gigatan barely even felt his presence.

As Gigatan focused his attention on the two again, he called out to Ganisel as if to check whether his senses had been accurate.

“Aren’t you Ganisel, the Number Four around here?”

“No, I took down Kyrin just earlier, so I’m no longer ranked fourth.”

“I see. Third-ranked Ganisel, I assume you came here to fight for my position, right?”

“Heh, I’m glad I don’t have to explain things.”

“Alright. You’ll be a good warm-up before I crush Gretel. Draw your sword, Ganisel!”

Gigatan decided to ignore Henry, convinced that this mere human couldn’t be the formidable presence he had felt earlier.

He boldly declared the duel, and after that, he instantly grew in height, from roughly two meters to over ten.

Henry couldn’t help but marvel at Gigatan’s sudden transformation.

“Wow! Look at what we have here!”

Gigatan had just used a special technique of the Red Giants, which allowed them to reduce their size and restore it back to normal whenever they wanted. It was the perfect ability to lure in unsuspecting victims.

Gigatan had unleashed his true form; he now had four arms and wielded a different weapon with each of them. As for the weapons themselves, each one was as massive as him.

In response, Ganisel soared into the air and summoned the divine beings of the Demon Realm that had previously aided him with their powers.

“GRRAAAA!!”

Just before the battle started, Gigatan attempted to subdue Ganisel with a ferocious roar. However, Henry was annoyed by his ear-splitting scream, so he cast him a murderous glare.

And then...

'...!'

For a moment, Gigatan felt his blood run cold and a chill go down his spine. He felt a murderous energy being directed at him. Unnerved, he turned his head to where he felt the ominous presence, and to his disbelief, he saw the human he had previously disregarded.

‘Su-surely he’s not the one who…?’

Just a few moments ago, Gigatan had taken the human out of the picture and berated himself for making a mistake when detecting the two intruders. However, he was now certain that the murderous energy was coming for that human, not from Ganisel.

'Impossible...!'

The Red Giants were known to be the most destructive and fearless giants in this realm, and Gigatan was hailed as the most exceptional one in all their history. However, his instincts were currently telling him to be wary of the human in front of him. In fact, he felt that he would die right then and there if he wasn’t careful.

Gigatan never disregarded his instincts.

Gulp.

The giant didn’t feel like the murderous aura of the human would cease any time soon. His morale was slowly but surely being crushed by the human’s presence, as though poisoned with venom. And finally, when the pressure reached its peak...

Thud!

Gigatan found himself kneeling before even engaging in combat with Ganisel. Then, with a quavering voice, he begged Henry, “P-please spare me! Please…”

With that, Ganisel’s rank in the Demon Realm had changed once again.