Hermit Wizard

1. Condition of Trust (6)

The demons weren’t classified by genes and pedigree. Still, they were the only race in all dimensions classified by their divine power. In Parvache’s dimension, their god was called Kaidemos, whose real name was The Contract of Faith. From the moment the demon’s spirit possessed the man, I felt the magic of my body slowly seeping into the air as if evaporating. It was self-evident that the escaping force was heading somewhere. The demon took away the other’s Mana. The unique power of the demon was to absorb Mana from living things.

As soon as the demon was summoned, I canceled Adelegos’ spell that I was preparing earlier, knowing that there was no time left to complete it. It was breathtaking timing just before the demon completely took over the man’s body when the Mana gathered in my hand was taken back into the body. If I had enough time to attack in advance without knowing about it, or if I had been concentrating the Mana, it would have been stolen by the demon as if pouring water into a bottomless pit. The spell couldn’t even be completed.

As Parvache said, it should be done as soon as possible. Before that, I have to break the straw that was put on us. I shouted to Yusu while closing and locking the Mana circuit.

“Yusu! Take control of your Mana circuit! Cut off all the magic you’re using now!”

It was suicidal to continue fighting with great Mana when it was taken away, even when it wasn’t done yet. We had to scatter the grains of rice on the floor, so it spent more time picking them up, but attacking with Mana was like putting them in the rice bowl and saying, ‘Eat it.’

“Are you talking about the meridians where the power flows now?”

“Yes! Stop the circulation! Strengthen your Mana, and calm it down!”

Oh, it was hard to explain in words like this!

“Like this?”

As he asked back, Yusu did so easily what I intended to. The fake snakes that were flooding the floor disappeared in no time. He saved all the magic.

“Yes, like that! The loss will be slow. Stay that way!”

But we just delayed the time it would take. The absorbing power was so strong that it might take a few minutes to run out. The body of the man taken by the demons began to change. Bumpy boils appeared on his whole body, constantly rising and then sinking. The faces of like tearing and ripping his skin revealed the shape—all with expressions screaming in pain.

=[Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrgggh]=

=[Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh]=

The shield surrounding the demon gradually weakened. The power of the artifacts used must be running out. I prepared to attack. Just because I couldn’t activate new magic didn’t mean that I had no way to attack. All I had to do was release the magic that had already been activated.

I took out one of the bundles of Go stones I had in my inner pocket and put them between my fingers. Then, for a moment, I opened and closed my finger’s Mana circuit. If you turn the faucet a full turn, you wouldn’t be able to lock it again because of the water pressure, but you could poke a drop and then lock it again. To activate an artifact, that was, a frozen piece of Mana that had already been completed, I injected a tiny strand of Mana. A white light glowed in the stones, and I waited for the correct timing.

And finally, the shield surrounding the demon and Fake God disappeared. The man’s clothes were torn off because of the force that shook his body. The faces blooming from his body screamed at once. The speed of sucking up Mana was accelerated. Behind the demon’s back, the Fake God burst with laughter in the spirit language.

=Hahahaha! No matter how powerful the spell is, the activation is now sealed…=

I threw the Go stone I was holding in my hand before he even finished speaking. The target wasn’t the demon…but the Fake God standing behind it! He must be exhausted after he called out such a vehement summon. If I subdue the summoner, the demon would no longer be able to maintain its possession.

-Bang bang bang!

The roar shook the mountain. A storm of flames rose around the place where the artifacts collided. The white flames swept down my face and swirled through my eyelids. When my eyes were exposed to high temperatures, they were hot enough to tear up. Still, I prepared to throw one more while looking beyond the explosion without closing my eyes. The situation I assumed when I made these stones was for an emergency escape from a situation where my Mana was almost exhausted. I didn’t think I’d be using them against a demon.

A faint figure of a demon standing and blocking the Fake God was revealed through the red storm and smoke. It was standing upright even though its torso had been blown away.

=[Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh]=

The screams of some other beings, not the demon, penetrated my mind. From the man’s torn upper body, veins and muscles rose, and faces were made. The faces bit each other, chewed, and clump together into a lump, then the lump swelled up again, and new faces crushed each other and multiplied on the body. Thus, the man’s body was renewed again. What was annoying was that it continued to suck Mana even in the midst of that.

“…It’s even regenerating, that damn thing.”

I threw three Go stones in a row while spitting out curses.

-Bang bang! Bang! Bang bang bang!

Even if the body was torn, and it regenerated immediately. Even with only the ankle left, it was shocking to see the body recover in an instant. I was looking at the Fake God, standing behind – carefree.

[You can’t. The regenerative power is almost limitless. It is meaningless to throw more Go stone. It would be better to wear the ring.]

I constantly threw artifacts and responded telepathically.

‘Then, the Fake God would die? I can’t get information…!’

At that time, the demon launched a counterattack.

=[Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh]=

Several of the faces on the demon’s body stretched out and attacked us. Yusu, who was concentrating on his mind, quickly pulled back, and I sprinkled Go stones on the ground.

-Boom boom! Bang bang!

The explosions continued, and all faces that stretched out like tentacles from the demon’s body broke out. I pretended to attack the tentacles and threw one of them towards the Fake God…the demon blocked it instead and protected him. Even if we stayed still with our magic circuits locked, the Mana was being sucked up fast. And every time we opened the circuit for less than a second while injecting Mana into the artifacts, the additional magic power was ripped out.

However, now, we couldn’t use a large amount of mana, so this was the only way to attack.

‘It’s not too far before either the Mana or the artifacts run out.’

I started thinking about whether to use an artifact that would definitely end this situation.

=[Kaaaaaaaaaaaarrrggghh]=

-Boom! Bang!

If I threw several Go stones at once, the firepower would be scattered. As I aimed and threw in succession without rest, I asked myself by fiddling with the ring on my left hand. Wouldn’t it matter if I killed the Fake God without getting information from him? If I use this, as Parvache said, I would be able to blow away both demon and Fake God.

And this mountain would disappear as well. Even if the demon was on a tremendous level and regenerated at the cellular level, the contract ended when the Fake God died. It would disappear after taking only the soul.

-Boom! Bang bang!

It looked like a high-ranking demon, no doubt given its regeneration power. Despite the penalty of being in a human body, it was eating its meal without touching the target. At a tremendous speed, too. The liquid of demons that destroyed Venezuela’s capital was a type that sucked magic by contacting living things. Of course, they couldn’t find the wizard, so they quickly gave up and went back to the Channel and returned to their own dimension.

…Ah, wait a minute.

‘Parvache?’

I immediately thought of a possibility. I conveyed the meaning shortly and quickly through telepathy. Upon hearing it, Parvache nodded its head.

[I think it’s possible!]

I suddenly remembered the demons that appeared in Caracas. The only way to get rid of this demon with terrible regenerative power and retrieve the Fake God while keeping him alive…

I shouted to Yusu, “Yusu! Do you have any of the dreams you have collected of control or restraint?”

I asked, remembering that Garam used my dreams for mental restraint. Yusu, who had been busy avoiding the attack, shook his head.

“Not now!”

Taking out Go stones and throwing them up continuously, I continued talking.

“Is there any way to tie that demon? Just for a few seconds!”

-Boom!

How many times was this? The demon was caught in an explosion and started to regenerate. Still, the Fake God was looking at it without even stepping forward. The summoning must have consumed a lot of Mana. He knew that if he left it in this situation, we would run out of magic anyway, so he would be trying to wait for that time. For the same reason, the demon wasn’t actively rushing and keeping us in check from a long distance.

“If I use power to make any kind of reality, wouldn’t that monster absorb it all before the technique is complete? So, instead of using technique right now, aren’t you using that strange method to stop that monster, Master Yoon?”

He seemed to understand what was going on right now. I threw out one more artifact and spoke.

“I need to tie him up while I can’t throw it because I’m trying something else. I’d like to ask you to keep it in check by throwing it for me, but I’m the only one who can use it.”

I asked while blowing Mana into the Go stones.

“Rather than using a large amount of Mana, is there a way to use a little bit of Mana as I do now?

Yusu said as he was throwing himself to avoid the attacks, flying like a whip.

“If the dream is not fully embodied, it will just blow up…”

He hesitated and then spoke again.

“I have a few dreams that I left without converting them into power because the idea contained isn’t strong. If I break all these dreams at once and then release them, it will be enough to tie them up for a while. However, since it wouldn’t be implemented properly, the effect will last seconds?”

“A few seconds is enough.”

After finishing the conversation, I matched the signal with Yusu. When one of the few remaining artifacts was thrown, the demon was engulfed in flames. Now, the speed at which Mana was absorbed suddenly became extremely fast. Perhaps it is because the demon thought it was time for us to run out of Mana. It was the last time.

“Yusu!”

At the same time as I give the signal, energy began to gather in Yusu’s hand. Like the magic power operation when I used the artifacts, Yusu instantly opened the Mana circuit and stimulated those energies. At the same time, the images in his hand broke out in an instant!

The sight was different from what I had seen before. Until now, if it was smooth and natural as if drawing the dream into reality – intact without harming it; what I saw in front of me right now was a mess! Yusu released the energy from his hand, aimed towards the demon. The vivid imagery mixed in a mess wrapped around him. I could see what he meant that the dream wasn’t realized properly.

=[Kaaaaaarggghhh!]=

Amidst the energy barrier that struck the demons, goblins rose above the sky in a landslide. In tears, the crane shed, the moon shined, the sky burned, and the toad spread his three pairs of wings and flew as it passed the wine glass. The apple blossoms fluttering in the wind melted like a swamp and flowed into a puddle, and countless races danced and sang under it. In addition to that, the fragments be seen but couldn’t be counted.

Each one was a weak power, but it swirled like a whirl and blocked the demon’s body. The soul that bloomed in its body bit off the dreams but couldn’t completely tear it apart. A cloud struck the screaming arm. The tentacles created by the demon were bounced off by the vines vomited by the whale.

It lasted only a few seconds, but I hadn’t been standing still either.