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HEL SCANS
[Translator – Kie]
[Proofreader – Kawaii]
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Chapter 188: Starlight Fairies (2)
***
Damien’s heart sank when he received the report.
The Hedoniac, whom he had been dreading, had arrived earlier than expected.
The information he obtained from torturing dark mages in the past indicated that their arrival was supposed to be a day later.
Despite the uncertainty of the situation, Damien knew he had to act quickly. There was no time for deliberation.
‘There’s no other way. I have to take matters into my own hands.’
If his assumptions had been correct, the Master Class dispatched by the Church would also have been nearby. His plan had been to stall the time until the Church’s Master Class arrived.
‘But what if the Church’s Master Class doesn’t arrive in time?’
Faced with no other option, Damien reluctantly employed a hidden method, one he never liked.
Having gathered his thoughts, Damien rose from his seat. While his family remained engrossed in the Starlight Fairies, he descended to the hotel lobby.
‘Ah, yes. I need to conceal my identity first.’
Damien intended to confront the Hedoniac outside the city.
To stop them, he would need to use dark magic.
Even outside the city, there could be passersby. He needed to hide his identity.
“Ahem, my lord, where are you off to?”
Damien encountered Victor on his way out. Victor was clutching an oddly shaped mask.
It was made of wood and painted with black dyed. It was large enough to cover his entire face.
“And what are you doing with that? What’s that mask for?”
“Oh, this? I bought it from a merchant. Apparently, it’s an old tradition to wear masks and watch festivals.”
Damien scans the crowd on the street. Not a single person is wearing a mask. It seems obvious to him that Victor was duped into buying the mask by a merchant.
“Well, this is perfect. Can I borrow it for a moment?” Damien asked as he pointed his finger towards the mask.
Victor stepped back and clutched the mask behind his back.
“Oh, no, you can’t! This is a very expensive item!”
Instead of snatching the mask, Damien had pulled out a gold coin from his pocket and extended it. Victor’s eyes had widened to twice their size at the sight of its gleaming brilliance.
“Please, take it! Use it as you wish!” Victor exclaims, handing over the mask without a moment’s hesitation.
Damien took the mask and placed the gold coin in Victor’s palm.
“Here, take a few more.”
He then added a few more coins, placing them on Victor’s palm with a clink.
Victor looked at him in bewilderment and asked.
“Why are you giving me more?”
“It’s for your future trouble.”
Damien replied
Victor’s confusion only grew. Damien had left Victor to his bewilderment and exited the hotel.
***
A place far away from the city where the celebration was taking place.
“That’s the city, isn’t it?”
The three people appeared on a dark hill.
“Those twinkling lights seem to be Starlight Fairies, don’t they?”
Sucré had pointed towards the sky where hundreds of Starlight Fairies hovered above the city, creating a breathtakingly beautiful scene.
Man walked closer to Sucré and wrapped his arm around her shoulder in a subtle manner.
“Sucré, my sweet kitten. Isn’t it magnificent? I wanted to show you this… But where are those brats? At least they should welcome me upon my arrival, shouldn’t they?”
Sucré slapped the man’s hand away and scanned her surroundings. However, no matter how much she looked around, there were only the three of them present.
“I’ve been letting you do whatever you want for a while now, and you’ve lost all of your mind” Sucré snorted and clenched her fist.
The man tried to calm her down and said
“Sucré, my little kitten. It’s not appropriate to use such harsh language. You’re always so beautiful and lovely…”
“Winston, if you don’t want to get hurt too, shut up. I’m already in a bad mood, and you keep yapping like a dog.”
Winston’s shoulder slumped at Sucré’s irritable response.
“Those assholes… I hope they’ve drawn the magic circle around the city as I instructed, right? If they haven’t finished it properly, I won’t let them off easy. I’ll at least burn off one of their arms.”
Sucré said with a chilling glare.
Winston nodded in agreement.
“Sucré, you’re so adorable even when you’re angry. You can do whatever you want…”
“Everyone in the city must be having a great time by now, right?”
Sucré asked, her voice laced with anticipation.
“With such a beautiful sight, everyone is bound to have fun, right?”
“You clever little kitten. Who wouldn’t have fun at such a wonderful festival?”
“Hee-hee, isn’t that right?”
A dark smile formed on Sucrée’s lips.
“Let’s blow up the city. Let’s knock down buildings. Let’s burn people.”
Each time she spoke, Sucré folded her fingers together.
“Let’s show their families’ bodies burning black, let’s make screams come out of everyone’s mouths.”
A glaze crept into Sucré’s eyes
“Let’s take the best moments of their lives and turn them to dust. Let’s turn everyone’s happiness into misery.”
Sucrée shuddered violently. Winstone quietly nuzzled her neck.
“Do as you please, my kitten. Do as you please. Everything in this world is for you.”
“Ha, you really only say my favorite things when you’re like this.”
The corners of Sucré’s mouth split open.
“Then let’s activate the magic circle.”
Sucrée’s body oozed a thick dark mana. It was like looking at thick oil.
The dark mana dripped to the ground and began to form a circle.
Sucré stood in the center of it, her index finger and thumb touching.
“Alright, it’s time to begin.”
Snap!
The sound of snapping fingers echoed through the air.
In that instant, Sucré’s anticipation reached its peak. Her mouth was agape as she stared at the city.
But nothing happened. There was no explosion, no towering flames.
“What the hell?”
Sucré scowled and flicked her fingers a few more times. But the result was the same.
“Fuck it!”
Sucré’s face contorted in anger as she spat out a curse.
“What’s going on? Why isn’t the magic circle activating?”
Sucré stomped her feet and jumped around.
“Those bastards! What the hell were they doing in the city instead of completing the task I gave them!”
Unlike Sucré, Winston was watching the city with a cold gaze.
“This is strange… There’s no way those guys would disobey orders.”
The Grim brothers had served as Sucré’s assistants for many missions.
They had never failed a task before. Something was amiss.
“Piggler.”
Winston flicked his fingers. A middle-aged man rushed towards them.
“Yes, yes! What, what is it?”
“Something seems to be going awry. Get to the city immediately and find the Grim brothers.”
“Understood!”
Piggler dashed towards the city. With each step, he leaped several meters forward.
That’s when it happened.
A flash of light had erupted from the darkness. In that same instant, Piggler’s throat was slit.
His head fell limply to the ground and his body collapsed beside it.
Sucré and Winston’s faces hardened in shock at the sudden turn of events.
A figure emerged from the shadows. In appearance, the person appeared tall and straight-backed, but it was impossible to be certain if he was a man.
A strangely shaped mask covered his face.
“Who are you?”
Sucré asked in a voice laced with menace. The masked figure opened their mouth.
“Victor.”
A deep voice.
“I am Victor, the Woodcutter.”
The masked figure spoke in a matter-of-fact tone.
***
“Victor…?”
Sucré closed his eyes and began tapping her forehead with her index finger.
“I’ve heard that name before. Isn’t he that dark mage who helped the Church in killing some Pandemonium’s dark mages ?”
“Our clever cat. What are you talking about?”
“Don’t you remember? The Church… There was a time when all their branches were wiped out in a certain kingdom. The dark mage who killed the perpetrators and disappeared was named Victor.”
Sucré looked at Damien with an intrigued expression.
“I was wondering who dared to side with those hypocrites… but I never expected to see the man himself here?”
Sucré said, pointing to Piggler’s corpse.
“So why did you kill one of our own? Did you also kill my assistants I sent to the city?”
“If you’re talking about the Grim brothers, they’ve been dead at my hands for a while now.”
Sucré burst into laughter at Damien’s words.
“This guy is really crazy.”
“It was you who invaded my territory first.”
“What?”
“I was the first one to set my sights on that city. So get out of here.”
Sucré scoffed at Damien’s words.
“You killed three of my men and you want me to leave? That’s not going to happen. Besides, I’m quite interested in that city myself.”
Killer intent oozed from Sucré.
“I’m curious about who you are and why you’re doing this… but I’m a bit angry right now.”
Sucré unleashed her dark mana. Dark mana rose high into the sky.
“Winston.”
“Why are you like this? My angry kitten.”
“You stay out of this! I’ll take care of this guy myself!”
At Sucré’s shout, Winston shrugged his shoulders.
“If our brave kitten says so, then I guess there’s nothing I can do.”
Sucré stepped forward. Winston, on the other hand, stepped back.
“You want a solo fight with me. That was a foolish decision.”
Sucré sneered at Damien’s words.
“Foolish? I guess you’re wearing those two eyes as decoration?”
Sucré spread her arms wide.
The dark mana she had unleashed drew a magic circle in the air. Soon, flames erupted around her.
“I’m more than enough for the likes of you.”
The flames gathered in one place and began to take shape.
A giant.
It was over 3 meters tall from head to toe. Its head had horns protruding from it.
Its teeth were sharp like sawblades. Its large, shield-like palms had gruesome claws protruding from them.
Damien’s eyes widened at the sight of it.
“An Anti-Spirit?”
Spirits were beings with immense power.
That’s why many sought the power of spirits. However, spirits only formed contracts with elves and lent them their power.
However, there were occasional cases of dark mages forming contracts with spirits.
In fact, it should be more accurate to say that they subdue them, not form contracts.
This is because they used dark magic to corrupt spirits and force them into contracts.
“So you’re handling an intermediate spirit… You’re more dangerous than I thought.”
Spirits were incredibly pure beings. That’s why corrupting them was almost impossible.
Yet, Sucré had subdued not a lower-level spirit, but an intermediate spirit.
This was a testament to the power of the Sucré.
“Have you perhaps completed the vision?”
Vision.
It was a term referring to the magic that Grand Dark Mages sought as their lifelong goal.
A dark mage who had completed the vision gained immense power that rivaled even the Master Class.
“Well, don’t try to delve too deeply into that.”
Sucré raised her hand with a smirk. The intermediate spirit opened its mouth wide.
“Glemy, burn that bastard to ashes.”
Immediately, the fire spirit spewed flames.
A giant wall of fire engulfed Damien. Not just Damien, but the entire plain as well.
Everything that touched the flames vanished in an instant. Not even burning, but completely vaporized.
The earth and rocks around the flames melted away in an instant, and lava began to flow.
The fire spirit continued to spew flames. Sucré watched the spectacle and laughed gleefully.
“Ahahat! Glemy! You’re the best! Such magnificent flames, no one else…”
At that moment, Sucré noticed something strange.
The flames were being pushed back from the center, as if blocked by an obstacle.
At first, she thought she was seeing things. But soon, she realized.
“Wait, that’s…”
Through the flames, the figure of Damien could be seen. A protective barrier resembling a black crystal surrounded Damien Haksen.
“Impossible!”
Even though it was corrupted, Glemy was an intermediate spirit.
Flames that spewed by an intermediate spirit were easily blocked. It was something that Sucré’s knowledge could not comprehend.
Inside the barrier, Damien slowly open his bracelet. Dark mana surged from the bracelet.
“Blackness.”
An ancient dark magic that crushes and shatters everything it touches.
There was no need to form an incantation or draw a magic circle. He simply manipulated the dark mana to complete the spell.
The sky turned black. Even the starlight and moonlight were erased.
“Crush.”
Damien pointed his index finger down.
The flames vanished in an instant. Simultaneously, the entire field crumpled.
***
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HEL SCANS
[Translator – Kie]
[Proofreader – Kawaii]
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