21st Century Archmage

“I-It’s a demon!”

“My god…!”

“Everyone, stay calm and retreat. This is the Lord’s absolute command.”

Exhaustion and fear lined the faces of the soldiers at the Nerman border fort. They had just finished fighting a fierce battle with hundreds of thousands of monsters and Dark Empire soldiers. Every face paled at the hesitant order to retreat. 

In the stories they’d heard as kids from their grandmas and grandpas, demons were foils for the heroes, the protagonists who always appeared with dragons by their side. But those were just stories told to kids, and there were soldiers among them who were terrified to death by the mere mention of a demon.

It was a demon, and one strong enough to easily beat down their invincible Lord, who had handled the Dark Empire without breaking a sweat. The Light magic that was still gleaming on the fort walls had shown the soldiers everything, though not very clearly. After receiving the retreat order, the men shouted amongst each other.

“W-We aren’t going!”

“That’s right! We need to stay where the Lord is!”

“Hold your positions! The Lord will definitely repel the demon! He will protect us, as he always has!”

“Retreat is out of the question! If we run away, who will protect Nerman?!”

“Exactly! Hold your positions at all costs!”

Despite receiving the order to retreat from their Lord, the soldiers of Nerman refused to descend the walls.

The Kallian mages who heard the new foe was a demon glanced uneasily at the soldiers like puppies needing to pee. Not only the soldiers, but even the knights had disregarded the retreat command. If the mages turned their backs and tried to sneak away while everyone was bravely proclaiming their desire to stay and die, their bodies would surely meet the cold sting of steel, so the unfaithful mages were forced to stay put. They, like the soldiers, turned their faces to watch the distant sky where the duel was taking place.

They were about 2 km away. It was quite a distance for the soldiers to look with bare eyes unassisted by mana, but each and every man’s eyes were glued to that patch of sky dimly lit by the Light magic arrays installed on the walls. The flashes of mana that burst out as the duel progressed were blinding, but everyone knew very well that this was the battle that would decide the fate of their world.

But there was something that the soldiers didn’t know. And that was the fact that a group of priests had appeared at a watchtower using the teleport array connected to the fort, and standing at the very front was the Saintess of Nerman, Aramis.

* * *

Boooooom! Cra-craaaaaaaash!

The bastard was no mage. He was a pedigree pitbull, a race of born fighters. This upper-class demon was so skilled in hand-to-hand combat that he could have easily been a top graduate of the Marines’ boot camp from hell.

Another spray of blood fountained out of my mouth. I didn’t know how much blood was in my body, but the blood loss told me that my insides had taken significant damage.

‘Vicious bastard.’

I fought a duel of swords with him, so as to avoid a magic duel. For whatever reason, he accepted it readily. A flicker of hope came to life within me, but after one clash with the terrifying sword the demon summoned from his pocket dimension, I realized… I realized that today, I was really digging my grave.

On top of that, the bastard was vicious as hell. I could tell that there were three or four moments where he could have ground my life into dust, but he was toying with me. I was so injured that I almost couldn’t hold onto the Staff of Despair. In this moment, when I was bouncing off an immovable wall without leaving a single scratch, all he had to do was to send a little magic flying my way or swing his sword with the intent to kill, and I would be split into two.

‘Heh… after getting hit so much, it doesn’t even hurt anymore.’

I experienced what it meant to feel so much pain that you became numb to it. I only had enough sensation to barely hold onto the Staff of Despair. The skill gap between us was too massive to be surpassed by stubbornness and guts. It was as impossible as a no-good loafer putting in an application to Harvard and getting in.

‘What a beautiful color.’

Before I knew it, the world around me became flooded in darkness. The feeling of looking into the sky as I went flying with a boom was quite novel. How ironic it was that I could finally rest because I accepted death. I was sad that I would no longer be able to ride Bebeto and fly to that sea of stars, but it couldn’t be helped. I, too, was merely a human with a weak body, at least to this broken-OP-fucking demon.

Flaaaaaaash!

The 5 minutes I earned by detonating my mana passed meaninglessly. My body slowly descended to the ground, a sign that my mana was running dry. As I fell, I saw a sacred light.

‘I-I’m really dying.’

That had to be the door to the afterlife that was said to open when a person died. I hadn’t lived a very virtuous life, but a sacred blue glow was lighting up the sky, like God was opening a door to heaven for me.

‘Huh?’

That wasn’t all. I was steadily falling to the ground as my mana ran out like a balloon losing air, but my descent halted, as if something was holding me aloft.

‘What’s going on?’

It wasn’t magic. Even Master could not help me now. And this was a different feeling from mana. 

I urgently turned my head.

“Ah!”

My searching eyes caught the sight of something.

‘Holy aura?’

Shining from a watchtower of the fort 2 km away was a blue light that illuminated my surroundings.

“Gaaaah!”

The demon’s scream rang in my ear.

‘What?’

The monster that had toyed with me even after I detonated my mana covered his face with both hands, screaming in pain. Blue holy light was shining down on his entire body.

Whirrrrrrr, whirrrrr.

My hollow mana core suddenly began to fill with mana, and the feeling of disassociation from my body gradually faded as my mana replenished.

I breathed a gasp of amazement. And then, one person’s face came to mind.

“A-Aramis!”

It was her.

This miracle would be impossible for anyone other than Aramis, who was called a Saintess. Only she could draw upon such an absurd godly power.

“YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

An earth-shattering cheer rose from the soldiers on the fortress walls.

“IT’S SAINTESS ARAMIS!”

“She has called down the blessing of God!”

The shouts of the soldiers answered my curiosity in full.

“H-How can this be…!”

In stark contrast to the joy my soldiers and I felt, the demon’s voice trembled with wariness. He panicked, shielding his face from the holy light with his crimson cloak.

Tchzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt.

Underneath him, something was starting to appear from the dimensional gate he had opened.

‘D-Demon Realm soldiers!’

They wouldn’t be as strong as the demon, but the moment they arrived, these gangsters of the Demon Realm would be no different from kings on earth. I snapped back to my senses.

‘I-I’ve recovered all my mana.’

Mana detonation was a process that used up every last bit of mana in your body, even the lifeforce in your very cells. Once you initiated it, you were bound to be seriously injured or die. And yet, before I realized it, my body was back to working order. This was the power of the gods, a miracle that could not be explained with the magic or knowledge of humans.

Whirr! Whirr! Whirr!

To my shock, my mana core was bigger than before. It had expanded with the mana detonation and stayed at that size, filling me with more mana than ever.

It was a blessing in disguise.

My entire body buzzed with joy.

‘This is my chance!’

My eyes whipped back to the demon, who was unable to open his eyes. Not just that—his shield was melting down with a sizzle, leaving his body unprotected. His ridiculous Auto Shield, that had repelled magic and sword alike with ease, was disabled.

“J-Just a little longer…!”

He shielded his face with his cloak, squinting at the Demon Realm underlings who were just starting to emerge from the dimensional gate. Unlike him, they were clearly straining to open the gate. Their appearances were diverse. Among them was an armored, massive cow, a black-haired lion demon with multiple tails, and even a giant-headed white demon with three eyes and a body bulging with muscles. Each monster was descending one by one into this world.

‘Whose land do you think you’re loittering on, you fucking bastard?!’

This was a once-in-a-lifetime chance from the heavens. I inwardly screamed expletives as I shot forward like the wind. His Auto Shield was disabled, and the holy light blinded him and greatly reduced his body’s functions. I flew in from his blindspot, staying as quiet as possible. He didn’t hear me coming.

I raised the Staff of Despair in my hand like a baseball bat.

Sensing my bloodlust, he whipped his head towards me with an exclamation of surprise, pulling back his cloak.

“KINDLY! FUCK! OFF!”

Like Babe Ruth hitting a home rome, I swung the Staff of Despair, that was filled to the brim with mana, with all my might, the watermelon-sized crystal ball whizzing through the air.

“…!!”

Shocked into speechlessness, the holy-aura-weakened demon stared blankly at the sudden attack coming his way.

POW!

The dragonheart crystal ball made a clean impact with his head.

Cr-cr-craaaaack.

The sound that came wasn’t the clang of striking a metal wall, but the wet sound of a watermelon cracking to pieces on the sidewalk.

And then, unidentifiable white lumps and red blood went flying all over the place, and I numbly noted that the demon had red blood, like humans.

Kweeeeeh! Krrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

When the demon that had summoned them suddenly lost his head, the Demon Realm underlings below us squealed. Their numbers had already swelled to 100.

‘I-Is he dead?’

It was a blow with all my strength in it, but I never dreamed I would kill the demon so easily. The holy power was stronger than I thought. It created a momentary opening in the demon’s defense, and that opening gave way to an unexpected victory.

‘Demon Slayer!’

It was a heroic feat that had never been achieved on the Kallian Continent. I was a real Demon Slayer, nothing like the so-called Dragon Slayers from the legends that were 99% lies. I floated in a total daze. I killed an upper-class demon that even dragons had a hard time fighting, and it was even a demon who called himself the Commander of the Demon Realm’s 7th Army.

Cling!

A whistle woke me from my daze. Despite donating its head to me, the demon’s body remained in the air. From his body emerged a black marble the size of a fist.

Once the marble came out, the demon’s body immediately hurtled down to the subordinates below.

Szzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

The thing that came out of the demon slowly disintegrated in front of me, glowing with light.

‘Wh-What is this?’

I stared at it blankly, still puzzled by the turn of events.

‘Wait a sec, when dragons die, they leave a dragonheart that returns to mana’s embrace in the same way.’

A piece of knowledge flashed through my brain.

“H-Hyuk! S-Stop right there!”

Master Bumdalf’s trembling voice came behind me. He was shouting with a voice of intense desire, a voice he would only use when there was something he wanted.

‘Eh, whatever.’

It was possible this object was the demon’s manaheart. I couldn’t let Master take it. There was a chance this was a gift from the gods. A gift that would allow me to step into the 9th Circle, a realm humans could only dream of ever reaching.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

And then, I decisively swallowed the black marble that was wisping into the air.

I thought it would be hard, but the black marble melted in my mouth. I swallowed, and it went down my throat like sticky honey.

“AAHHHHHH! NOOO!”

Master’s scream came from right next to me.

“What’s wro—ngh!”

The moment I looked over at Master with feigned calm, a terrible heat came shooting up from my belly. My body contorted with the pain of swallowing lava.

“GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!”

My scream split the air and stirred the Skyknights flying in the sky into action. Realizing that something had happened, they shouted a clarion call to attack.

“A-All out attack!”

“Repel all the Demon Realm beasts!”

“Argh… manaheart…”

Even in my agony, I heard Master’s voice trembling with bitter, bitter regret coming into my ear like it was far away, and I glimpsed thousands of shooting stars falling from the sky towards the magic circle that had summoned the Demon Realm underlings.

“GAAAAGHHH! AHHHHHHHHHHH!”

But everything was hazy and painful. Repeated shockwaves rocked my head. Everything turned black, and the world seemed to grind to a stop. 

My last thought was a desperate wish to be able to digest this unexpected prize well…

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