The Great Mage Returns After 4000 Years

Translator: Alpha0210

Sedi observed the two Rulers. They had taken human forms, which seemed uncharacteristic of them, though whether that was a reluctant transformation necessitated by entering the King's Castle, or simply the sort of whim peculiar to Rulers, she could not tell.

One thing was clear: the mere fact that they had obediently assumed human shapes meant they were already behaving differently from usual. Whatever ulterior motives lay behind it.

"More desolate than I expected. Truly the garbage dump of the entire universe."

Lightning God chuckled low as he walked, then abruptly stopped and turned his gaze in a certain direction.

"Why are you over there?"

The group gathered where his gaze fell could not immediately determine who Lightning God was addressing. It was the area where the Void Lords' proxies had assembled.

Only one among them understood.

The one singled out directly: Beniyang Argento.

"For now, this is where I belong."

Beniyang spoke in a voice and tone markedly different from her usual self. It was not merely her voice that had changed; her expression, too, had shifted as though she had swapped one mask for another.

Lightning God burst into hearty laughter.

"Is that so? Suit yourself."

"Lightning God."

"What."

"Don't cause trouble. Today isn't the place for that."

"......"

To Beniyang's words, Lightning God offered nothing but an inscrutable smile.

And he begins walking again.

Toward the Four Knights.

'......'

Luca watched Lightning God draw near...... and realized the sheer scale of his frame was even greater than anticipated. Something about facing him head-on seems to paralyze all sense of perspective.

Was his body feeling so impossibly vast, as if it might touch the ceiling, simply because he was physically enormous?

She could not tell.

Yet among the complex tangle of sensations Luca felt in that moment, there was also familiarity. After all, she could not deny that the being before her was the Source from which the man who had saved her had derived.

"Damn."

A voice came from just behind her then. She did not need to think about who it was.

The voice belonged to Pale, who was holding Luca.

"He's huge. My neck hurts looking up. With that bulk, you think there's anywhere for you to sit?"

Lightning God twisted the corner of his mouth and dropped heavily onto the bare floor. Perhaps because of his sheer size, only then did his eye level match those seated in chairs.

The Demon King standing beside him was comparatively average in build; he surveyed the surroundings with an indifferent expression, then sat down where he stood. Unlike Lightning God, he had not sat on the floor. Rather, he appeared to have planted himself in an invisible chair.

"Plenty of no-shows, I see. Whether they haven't arrived yet or never intend to, I couldn't say."

Lightning God spoke again.

"Looks like one of the Four Knights is missing, and that so-called successor of the Giant is nowhere to be seen either. I was hoping to lay eyes on the famous Half-King or whatever they call him, but did he end up not attending?"

"The host is absent as well."

The Demon King said in a somber voice.

"Residue, I mean. Was he not the one who arranged this gathering?"

"That is something this body, too, is curious about."

Pale's gaze turned toward Agolet. In those pale eyes, the same question rippled. It seems as though she is asking, 'Where the hell is he?' The same went for Luca, perched on her lap, and even the Black Knight, who had been still the entire time, cast a languid glance his way. The Twelve Void Lords and proxies who had arrived earlier sent similar looks, but Agolet is no less bewildered by the situation.

It was not as though they had all set out from entirely different locations. They had parted right in front of the King's Castle. Residue had added that he would follow shortly. Roughly thirty minutes seemed to have passed since then, and there was still no sign of him.

...Of course, these doubts churned only beneath the surface. Agolet's exterior was the picture of composure. He offered no response to their questioning gazes.

"Not everyone has gathered yet, have they?"

"So the host makes his entrance last. Something like that?"

"Something like that."

"A shame. I was looking forward to seeing what kind of face he's wearing."

"......"

Agolet regarded Lightning God.

For some reason, his senses feel as though they are sharpening to a razor's edge. The leisurely smile on that face, the fighting spirit he made no effort to conceal, the body radiating overwhelming presence. All of it meshed together, bleeding a tension like a powder keg on the verge of detonation.

"You came to this gathering because you tacitly agreed with His Majesty the host's intentions, did you not?"

"Oh? And what would his intentions be?"

"His Majesty's true thoughts run far too deep for me to fathom, but if I were to hazard a clumsy guess, I would say 'countermeasures against the Apocalypse' and 'harmony.'"

"...Harmony?"

"Yes. To make this gathering a place of harmony."

Lightning God blinked, his face gone blank.

Then he scratched the back of his head and spoke.

"This 'His Majesty' you speak of would be the residual thought, the leftover dregs derived from this body. In other words, the being who calls himself Residue. Am I right?"

"So I'm told."

"Kahaha......"

Lightning God broke into laughter.

And still wearing that mocking glint in his eyes, he looked at Agolet.

"You, White Knight of Conquest. I don't know what reason you have for serving that thing as your king, or what schemes you're harboring. But if you're going to play the loyal retainer, shouldn't you put a little more thought into it?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"It means you haven't properly understood him."

At that flat declaration, Agolet's smile faded slightly.

"Rotten or not, he's a being that branched off from this body. And you think a creature like that arranged this farce for the sake of harmony? Kahaha... No. There's no way. Let me tell you plainly. Whatever havoc he's been wreaking out there, his reason for arranging today's gathering is simple."

Everyone present was listening to Lightning God's voice.

Most of them had attended, yes, but the majority had no clear idea of the host, Residue's, true intentions.

And Agolet found himself wondering whether all of this might be a calculated performance. The attention-grabbing entrance, the physique towering nearly to the ceiling, the booming voice that rang so loud it grated on the ears.

Thanks to all of it, every person in the room had no choice but to fix their attention on Lightning God, whether they wanted to or not.

"There's nothing to gain from fighting the Apocalypse. Those things, well, you can kill them, and they seem to have will of their own, but they can't really be called living creatures. If anything, they're closer to a phenomenon. Whether you kill a hundred or a thousand, if that's your opponent, there's nothing to be gained."

"A rather narrow-minded argument."

Lightning God smiled and continued.

"I don't know what growth is. I was the strongest from the moment I was born. I never trained. I never agonized. No wandering, no falling, no rises or curves in my life. Just a flat line, the whole way through. The Four Knights. I looked into you lot, too. Once the worlds merged, information wasn't hard to come by."

"......"

"Your lives had curves. That's the definitive difference between you and a Ruler."

"What are you trying to say?"

"We are polar opposites."

Lightning God rose from where he sat.

Rummmble, rumble...... It felt as though a thunderstorm was rolling in. Even though a pale, cloudless sky was clearly visible through the broken ceiling above.

"There seem to be plenty of fighters in this room. This body's perspective is this. If I fight all of you here and win, perhaps I can experience growth for the first time in my existence."

This was not a question that sought an answer.

The moment Lightning God finished speaking, he unleashed his fighting spirit, and the unbridled Fighting Spirit charged in every direction like wild horses. No one had time to intervene or get a word in. Lightning God had laid out his intent in brief, and he acted on it.

The erupting Fighting Spirit turned white, and its nature shifted.

CRACK-BOOM!

It was Thunder, the External Force unique to the Ruler Lightning God. There was no restraint whatsoever. The lightning tore outward with enough force to rend its targets apart, and the attack did not distinguish friend from foe.

It struck toward the Twelve Void Lords and their proxies, toward the Four Knights, and even toward the Demon King standing right beside him and Retip, who stood some distance away. Retip smiled bitterly, as if accustomed to this, and drew his Soul Weapon to counter the assault.

The Thunder spread in every direction, yet the force contained in each branch was equal. Those present dodged, blocked, or neutralized it by swinging attacks of comparable power. Some managed it with ease, some with difficulty, some just barely.

"Oh......"

But Lightning God noted that despite using Thunder at full, unrestrained power, not a single person had fallen from that attack.

"Have you lost your mind?!"

Someone rebuked Lightning God in a harsh voice.

It is a voice he has heard before. Lightning God deepened his smile and looked that way.

"Perus. Meeting you face to face like this, I'm moved. Why didn't you stay holed up in the Top Universe instead of crawling all the way out here?"

"...I'm under no obligation to answer."

"Then will you die?"

The words carried a questioning lilt, but condensed Thunder shot from Lightning God's fingertip like a flash of light. It was several times more powerful than the broad attack moments ago, and dozens of times faster. Perus failed to react, and felt his chest pierced through.

"...Gah!"

Even as he felt it, his body was unharmed.

A man had stepped in at the last instant and deflected the attack.

Lightning God brightened at the sight of him.

"Everlasting Plum Sword, Yang In-hyun. This body owed you a debt once, back when I was gathering information on the Void worlds. That's no longer necessary, but tell me, how is that human this body used as a vessel?"

"That's none of your concern."

"Kahaha...... Fair enough. I don't actually care. It's you I'm interested in, rather. Your swordsmanship seems more refined. Have you gotten stronger? How? What influenced you?"

Lightning God appeared genuinely curious about how a man weaker than himself, yet far stronger than an ordinary Absolute, had managed to ascend another level.

Of course, Yang In-hyun was under no obligation to answer. Even facing this being, an odd discomfort and revulsion welled up inside him. Was this creature truly the same being as that man? The speech, the aura were certainly similar.

But something, something fundamental, felt different......

Before he could finish the thought, he heard laughter erupting like that of a madman. Lightning God was charging toward him with both hands spread wide.

Yang In-hyun steadied his breathing and tightened his grip on the sword hilt. His opponent appeared unarmed, but his baseline physique was overwhelmingly massive. Giant would not be an exaggeration. Even a casual swing of those arms would match the reach of Yang In-hyun's blade. And the density of that body would be no ordinary thing either; the fact that Lightning God was barehanded did not mean Yang In-hyun held any advantage.

CRASH-BOOM!

Immediately after the collision, Lightning God's fist connected three times in succession. But the actual number of impacts Yang In-hyun absorbed was eleven times that. His blade groaned under what felt like a total of thirty-three strikes, because with each blow that landed, the Thunder wreathing Lightning God's body followed a beat later with its own attack.

The Thunder moved and stretched and contracted freely, like a sentient net, and lunged at him with no discernible pattern, making it extraordinarily difficult to block.

"......"

Even after just three exchanges, the gap between them was painfully clear. This was a Ruler, the supreme powerhouse of the Three Thousand Worlds. Yang In-hyun's lips twisted cold. Even in a situation like this, what surges is not despair but sheer defiance. Rulers certainly stoke his hostility more than the Four Knights do.

If trials were what made a person stronger, then lately Yang In-hyun had been handed one opportunity after another.

His head, his heart, and then his entire body blazed white-hot.

Fighting head-on offered no chance of victory. He needed a different approach. Not a cowardly one, but he had to create variables, find indirect routes. Brute force alone would not land so much as a single real wound on Lightning God.

It was in that moment that a rustling sound reached his ears.

The Death Worm rose from his seat, expression blank. The Void Lords' proxies closed in around Lightning God as well.

And Futurix let out a sigh. In this sudden battle, there was nothing she could contribute directly. Combat had never been Futurix's domain to begin with. Still, she could at least provide analysis and command support. Though she doubted any of them would readily follow her lead.

"Three of the Twelve Void Lords and a handful of lackeys...... A fitting opening act."

Lightning God burst out laughing and hurled himself into the fight. It was a reckless, body-first charge with no regard for injury, and no one present dared to meet it head-on. When Lightning God landed, the floor shattered as though a meteorite had struck, and the entire castle shuddered.

Sedi had been watching from one step removed. She rose from her seat. Her destination was not the battlefield where Lightning God clashed.

She walked toward the other Ruler, the Demon King, who stood alone in somber solitude a short distance away.

"Is your purpose the same as Lightning God's?"

"......"

"If your goal is also to fight everyone here and pursue growth, then..."

"Then?"

"I will be your opponent."

A flicker of interest swam in the Demon King's eyes.

"You, who received power from me, wish to fight me?"

"If that fact troubles you, then take it back. My strength is no longer limited to External Force alone."

"I suppose not. The 0th Demon. Void Lord Sedi Trowman."

The Demon King let out a low, quiet laugh.

"But I didn't come here to fight."

And with an air of leisure, he settled his back deep into the invisible chair.

His gaze was fixed on the doorway.

As though he were waiting for someone......

...Who?

There were indeed others yet to arrive. But among them, who could possibly be worth the Demon King's wait? The host, Residue; the Half-King, who had yet to show himself......

That was when it happened.

Beyond the wide-open doors, at the far end of the long corridor, a figure could be seen approaching. The silhouette was faint enough to barely register to the naked eye, yet the moment it entered their line of sight, the presence it radiated made it impossible to look away. No one could turn their head.

"There you are."

The Black Thorn Demon King murmured, and even Lightning God, in the thick of battle, flicked a glance that way. The Knights still seated in their chairs did the same.

At last, the figure crossed the corridor and set a first footstep inside the Conference Room.

Steady, unhurried steps. Crimson armor, a cape fluttering like tattered rags. A knight gripping a sword of strange and twisted shape.

The last of the Four Knights, the Red Knight of War, had arrived.

*****

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