Chapter 152 : Purse (2)
Purse (2)
The things Ian gained from the demonic humans weren't limited to just the dimensional shop.
The dimensional shop was merely the biggest spoil.
Besides that, he acquired countless pieces of information.
The hidden vaults and secret storages they concealed, and the methods to open them.
The Demon Cult's codes and ways to decipher them. Their illegal businesses.
The usage methods for various demon artifacts.
The magical knowledge, martial arts, and techniques for utilizing demonic energy that the demonic humans possessed.
The list and locations of the core executives of the Demon Cult.
And the corrupted nobles, merchants, and officials secretly dealing with the demonic humans.
He had gained all sorts of things, but among them, two particularly caught his attention.
'First is the method for summoning the demon dukes of the demon realm into this world.'
Until now, Ian had only vaguely understood this, but now he knew the specifics.
The Demon Cult had constructed countless sinister altars all over the world.
In remote mountains, abandoned ruins in barren deserts, the depths of the jungle, and even beneath the bustling big cities.
If one offers something valuable—be it a hero, a treasure, or anything of worth—as a sacrifice at those altars, demonic energy accumulates in the altar.
When that demonic energy reaches a certain threshold, it becomes possible to open a dimensional gate to the demon realm.
With few sacrifices, the dimensional gate that opens is unstable and weak.
With such a gate, only trivial demonic beasts or low-rank demonkin may be summoned.
However, the more sacrifices are offered, the larger and stronger the gate becomes.
If a tremendous number of sacrifices are given, it is possible to open a stable, powerful dimensional passage through which even high-ranking demonkin or even for the demon dukes themselves to cross over.
To this end, the Demon Cult was constantly committing pillaging, abductions, and terror to amass sacrifices all over the world.
The remaining six cults of the Demon Cult were currently busy summoning their respective demon dukes.
'.......'
To stop this, Ian had two options.
One was to kill all the demonic humans and destroy every altar.
If this was done, the demonkin would be unable to cross over into this world.
With all means of crossing the dimensions gone, the demonkin would be contained and sealed within the demon realm.
'But this method is only a temporary solution.'
Even if all demonic humans were annihilated and all altars destroyed, it would merely be postponing the inevitable.
The demon dukes of the demon realm were immortal beings.
As long as they lived, they would someday reach out again to this world.
They'd grant revelations and authority to those with wicked desires, create the Demon Cult anew.
And by then, Ian himself might no longer be in this world.
His and Yuria's descendants would remain.
Would they be able to block the demon dukes' invasion alone?
He couldn't be certain.
'That's why I have to uproot them completely in my generation.'
Severing the path to this world alone wasn't enough to prevent the demon dukes from coming.
He needed to deal with their main bodies directly—either completely obliterating or thoroughly neutralizing them.
While he had the transcendent abilities of Authority of Projection, knowledge from regression, and things like the dimensional shop.
Ian Greysel. Himself.
'First, I still have to kill and capture all the demonic humans. That doesn't change.'
But he would not destroy the altars.
'I'll collect them. All of them.'
He would disassemble the altars and place them in suitable locations, using them to directly summon the demon dukes himself.
'I'll summon them one by one and eliminate them thoroughly.'
But what if they catch on to Ian's plan and refuse to cross the dimensional gate?
'Then I'll just cross the gate myself and enter the demon realm.'
In fact, that might even be better.
If he fought in this world, he'd be restricted by needing to protect people, cities, and the environment.
But in the demon realm, none of those limitations would apply—he could go all out.
And now that he possessed the dimensional shop, Ian would surely grow even stronger than the Heavenly Sword Lord one day.
By then, dealing with one or two demon dukes would be trivial, and even facing more than five at once would be manageable.
'But that's far off. That's not something I need to dwell on right now.'
There was something else he needed to focus on at the moment.
'The project being conducted by the Cult of Envy.......'
Among the new information acquired from the demonic humans, this was one of the things that caught his eye.
'To think the Demon Cult was excavating the ancient golem of Luminari.'
The ancient golem of Luminari.
A super-magic weapon used by the Luminari, who built a glorious arcane civilization in ancient times, during their war with the dragons.
'Impressive. How did the demonic humans manage to find such a relic before even the empire's archaeologists? And they've already begun excavating!'
Suddenly, memories from Ian's previous life flashed through his mind.
The massive weapons that thundered across the earth with heavy steps.
'Destroyer.......'
Mad giants who smashed castle walls with a single stomp and shot red comets from the giant orbs on their heads.
'Don't tell me—was that.......'
Was the calamity created by the demonic humans by modifying the ancient golem of Luminari?
'Damn......'
If he'd realized this any later, it could have been disastrous.
Those insane giants of destruction were one reason why the human race had been so helpless against the demonkin in his previous life.
'To destroy a Destroyer, you needed at least an intermediate-rank master...... or a mage of 7th-circle or higher.'
At the Heavenly Sword Palace, masters were commonplace, but even in the Hisperion region, those above master-level were so rare that you could count them on one hand.
In many places, there were none at all.
And if not even the great powers of Hisperion had enough, the smaller countries didn't stand a chance.
The Destroyers would advance, literally erasing cities and fortresses with their overwhelming strides.
In places that had master-rank experts or 7th-circle mages, the advance of the Destroyers could be checked, but elsewhere, resistance collapsed like autumn leaves in the wind.
The masters or 7th-circle mages guarding their own fronts would soon be surrounded and attacked from the rear by demonkin.
In the ensuing concentrated assaults, far too many heroes died tragic deaths.
'This is the chance to block that horrifying advance in advance.'
He couldn't be certain yet whether the Destroyer truly was a modified version of the ancient golem of Luminari, but even if the two had no connection at all, it wouldn't matter.
Obtaining the ancient golem itself would be a powerful means to stop the Destroyer.
'If I mass-produce the ancient golems of Luminari using the Authority of Projection, that would greatly help not just against the Destroyers, but in fending off demonkin invasions in general.'
He would also need to recruit a large number of Luminari to control the ancient golems.
'That won't be a problem.'
The Cult of Envy was using Luminari as slaves in their work to excavate the ancient golem.
To safely break through the tough rock walls of the ruins, the relic pickaxes of the Luminari were necessary.
Only the Luminari could wield those magical pickaxes.
'If I rescue them all, set up a village for them next to Sunshine Castle, and offer high wages along with recruitment...... quite a few young Luminari will join.'
He'd strengthened his forces through such means many times in his previous life.
And this time, with the resources to offer better pay, recruiting the Luminari would be even more certain.
'So, my immediate goals are threefold.'
First, to safely steal away the ancient golem of Luminari that the Cult of Envy is excavating, without damaging it.
Second, to rescue every single Luminari enslaved there, safely and without missing a single one.
And as for the final, third goal......
'Kill all the demonic humans at the excavation site, and lock up any useful ones in a containment facility to be used as magic power batteries.'
― Creak....
Ian rose from his desk in his office.
With his plan set, it was time to move.
* * *
The great desert of the continent.
In a distant ancient age, this had been the heart of the flourishing, glorious arcane empire of the Luminari, but now all that glory lay buried beneath sands where not a single blade of grass grew.
Somewhere in that barren wasteland, in a secret ruin far below the ground.
"Things are going smoothly."
The Archbishop Greenyolf of the Cult of Envy looked out through the glass and smiled in satisfaction.
Beyond the glass stretched a vast, dimly lit chamber.
It was the excavation site of the ancient golem of Luminari.
"We're almost there."
It had already been two years since they discovered and began excavating the enormous golem.
The magnificent upper body of the golem had been revealed in pristine condition—a breathtaking sight.
Now, only the lower half remained to be extracted from the solid bedrock, and the excavation would be complete.
'Including time to analyze the design and structure of that golem......'
At most, about six months more.
In half a year, that culmination of Luminari's ancient technology would be in Greenyolf's hands.
'It's finally almost here...!'
How much humiliation and persecution had he endured to reach this very moment?
Back when Greenyolf was still human.
He had been a mage affiliated with the Magic Tower of the Roderun Empire.
The Magic Tower—a place overflowing with those insufferable people who boasted about being a little more talented than others.
Unable to bear his ever-growing sense of inferiority among them, greenyolf became a demonic human.
Yet even after becoming a demonic human, the scorn and persecution directed his way didn't stop.
'Not a single person understood me...... Human or demonic human, no one ever truly recognized my worth!'
After struggling desperately, he did finally climb to the position of Sin of Envy Archbishop, but even that wasn't through acknowledgment by the Cult Leader or the demon duke.
It was simply because he had some useful skills and was only there because he seemed easy to manipulate—a tool, nothing more.
'I'm far greater than you all think I am!'
Standing now before Greenyolf, the colossal figure of the giant was proof of that.
'Everyone said it was impossible... Or rather, they never showed any interest at all, but in the end, I did it!'
He had discovered the power of ancient Luminari, and now that power would soon be his.
Greenyolf had researched the power of the ancient Luminari even when he was human.
He wanted to overcome his ambiguous talents with the transcendent capabilities of their ancient relics.
But no one cared about his research; they all looked on with skepticism.
Why? Because they themselves were so talented that they felt no need for the power of the Luminari.
They treated Greenyolf as a fool who took the long road, a slacker seeking an easy path, a dreamer chasing delusions.
Why bother wasting time searching for ancient relics whose locations were unknown, when you could just use and improve modern magic?
Even if he found one, wouldn't it be a problem anyway?
How could a man who couldn't master modern magic ever hope to interpret and wield Luminari's ancient technology?
And Luminari's ancient technology—was it really his own strength?
Wasn't the very downfall of their civilization proof of its flaws?
Those words of criticism and contempt still echoed in Greenyolf's mind.
'Those bastards!'
Boasting as if their trivial talents were such a big deal!
'I wasn't wrong! Let's see if your so-called talent is worth anything once I inherit the power of Luminari!'
No matter how strong or big someone is, even a weakling with a knife can kill them.
That's the power of tools.
In the face of great tools, human talent is meaningless.
Pathetic fools, unable to grasp such a simple truth...!
'Soon...... I'll show you all just how empty your supposed talents are before my tools......!'
Once the excavation and analysis of that massive golem were complete, he would immediately proceed with modification and mass production.
If he succeeded in mass production, greenyolf would gain power so great that none could ignore him.
A legion of giants mighty enough to bring down a kingdom in just a week.
Greenyolf ground his teeth and grinned.
'The Magic Tower, that damned nest of those insufferable people...... Once I complete my legion of giants, you'll be the first to be trampled! And...... Cult of Envy! I'll show even you, cult leader! I am not some disposable pawn for you to use up and throw away!'