Chapter 233 — 아자젤
Chapter 233
Azazel
Elric shouted.
“【Inhabit】.”
With that simple incantation, the masterless cloud of demonic energy began to revolve around Mephisto.
Tzzzt—
The cloud was sucked into Mephisto at a furious pace.
In a world painted pitch-black.
Mephisto—he alone seemed to stand there without losing his color.
“Hahaha! Hahaha!”
There was a faint madness in his laughter as he drank in his nemesis’s demonic power.
It showed just how fiercely he intended to leap higher.
Click!
Click!
The faster Mephisto devoured Azazel’s demonic power,
the brighter the sigil of Original Sin on the back of Elric’s hand shone.
From there… a trickle of demonic energy began to flow out.
The Mana Lord’s mana mixed cleanly with it, and thanks to that, the sigil of Original Sin began to take shape within Elric’s senses.
Like laying a bridge to a far-off island so people could finally cross.
Elric had never felt the sigil so distinctly before; he couldn’t help but be awed.
This is…!
When he first obtained dragonblood, the thrill had been like having gained the world.
But this surpassed even that.
The laws of the world, the flow of the world—everything felt within reach of his fingertips.
As if he were a god gazing upon creation.
Resonance!
It was much like when he absorbed the imp from Chancellor Norus.
When he and Mephisto had shared their senses.
Only this time, instead of being a mingling of selves, he stood a step apart, able only to read the joy bursting inside Mephisto.
Whether that difference came from not absorbing the Original Sin lineages, he couldn’t say.
But one thing he knew for certain.
When this absorption ended, Mephisto would be different.
He would no longer remain a mere wandering specter.
Thanks to it, a lot of power had bled out of my mana stone, too.
Before he knew it, the dissolution rate of his mana stone had reached nearly 50%.
By the end of all this, it would surely surpass that.
Which meant he would, for all intents and purposes, be able to wield the full, undiluted mana of something on the level of a jewel dragon or a Demon King… Elric couldn’t begin to guess what that would lead to.
Rumble-rumble-rumble!
Just as the absorption sped up even more—
“This won’t. Do.”
He could faintly hear Azazel’s voice.
Had some vestige of will remained?
He could feel it straining, wringing out its last strength.
And then—
“You cur, know your place to the end!”
Mephisto scowled and reached toward the demonic power—
Fwaat!
A portion of it rejected his touch and veered off midstream.
Like arrows loosed, needle-sharp spikes shot at Elric.
“You, at least. I will kill.”
Azazel’s lingering will seemed to think it could finish Elric now, while his mind was occupied maintaining the spell.
Elric reached out the same way.
If he suppressed this, the absorption would end faster.
Fwap!
The demonic arrows branched in all directions, knitting themselves into a colossal fiend-beast.
A raven beat its wings, opening its beak to swallow Elric whole.
And just then—
“Who dares lay a hand on my disciple!”
A crotchety old man’s voice boomed from the sky—
Kra-BOOM!
A blazing bolt struck down in front of Elric.
Whoosh!
When the glare faded,
an old man wrapped in righteous wrath stood revealed.
“M—Master?”
Elric started, unable to believe his eyes.
A face he never imagined he’d meet here was right in front of him.
Augustin Neresta.
Head of House Neresta’s Elder Council and master of Nokya, he thundered:
“Depraved old Demon King—return to the place you belong.”
Augustin swept his hand, and snowy-white threads of light blossomed from his fingertips and bled into the world.
Ssssss!
Shra-shra-shra—
Where his five fingers brushed the air, fault lines opened without fail.
From them burst white blades that shredded the raven to ribbons.
So blindingly white, it felt as though the world had been draped in a pale curtain.
“Kraaagh. Aaaagh.”
Azazel’s scream ended there.
The scattered shards of demonic energy were sucked into Mephisto all at once.
At the same time, the sigil of Original Sin on the back of Elric’s hand blazed more brilliantly than ever.
“Tore Azazel… apart?”
“What in the world…?”
Mia and the Nahatram were stunned by the sight.
Residual will or not, Azazel was still Azazel.
He shouldn’t have fallen so easily to a mere human touch.
Yet the one Elric called “Master” had done it as if it were nothing.
The fact that he had entered this subconscious realm so freely without Elric’s leave was astonishing in itself.
But whether the others gaped or not—
Augustin, as if eager to leave this thoroughly distasteful place, reached out to Elric with a stern face.
“Everyone’s waiting. What are you doing in here? Out. Now.”
Elric reflexively nodded and took Augustin’s hand.
Fwaat!
Once more, a white radiance swallowed his vision.
When he opened his eyes again—
“Elric, Elric! You with me? Huh?”
Shawn—someone he hadn’t expected to see here either—was shaking him with a frantic face.
Behind him were the familiar faces of Hermann, Sailor, Gility, and more.
Even the Elder Council…?
He wondered when so many people had joined them.
But what caught his eye most was Mephisto beyond the crowd, glancing over with a sullen snort.
Ah, it’s finally over.
With that relief—
Srrk.
“Whoa, hey! You punk! You can’t just fall asleep right there!”
Unable to fight the wave of exhaustion, Elric surrendered to sleep.
The result of tension breaking all at once.
Even so, a satisfied smile rested at the corner of his mouth.
* * *
From a vantage that overlooked the ruined Grigori Order at a glance—
“It’s… all over….”
Between giant trees, an enormous figure rose to its feet.
A deer browsing nearby bolted in panic, and birds took wing in a flurry.
Regardless—
Belot’s eyes sank deep.
Over.
That single word he murmured said everything he felt.
When the Star Host raided the Grigori Order,
he had already sensed the subtle change in the flow of air and slipped away.
He had no intention whatsoever of helping Grigori or the High Priest.
He felt no obligation to.
“The High Priest… always ignored me… treated me like I wasn’t there….”
Others had taken his slow movements and speech for stupidity.
But Belot’s thoughts were only slower than most; he was far from foolish.
If anything, in some respects, his range of thought ran deeper.
In all things, he had the ability to step aside, to judge coldly as if it were someone else’s business.
So unlike the other Demon Kings, who treated Grigori’s affairs as their own, he always questioned the things he did.
Why should I do this?
Why should I obey that so meekly?
I’m no obedient dog.
Even so, he had been loyal to Grigori because they were his parents, in a sense.
It was only natural for a child to heed a parent’s word.
But—
Once he realized the way Grigori and the High Priest looked at him wasn’t as a “child,” but closer to a “hunting dog” or a “tool,” the conflict within him grew fierce.
Then the High Priest gave him an order no different from telling him to go die, and he left Grigori without a second thought.
“The High Priest… bad….”
If the High Priest had given him even one kind word—
If he had apologized sincerely and made a heartfelt request—
Then maybe. He might have obeyed.
“Now… where do I go…?”
Even so, because of lingering attachment, he had stayed to watch how things would end.
And just now, everything had.
The High Priest was gone, and Azazel’s bindings with him.
He was free.
But can freedom without a place to go truly be called freedom?
Now that his purpose had vanished, Belot had no idea what he should do.
“Still… I should do something….”
Unlike the other Demon Kings, Belot had no intent to die here.
Since life had been given to him, he wanted to see where it led.
His hunger to exist was far stronger than that of ordinary humans.
Then—
He halted.
“Come out…!”
Where his gaze struck like a hammer, Augustin appeared in empty air.
“Heh heh! For a Demon King, your senses are sharp. Wearing a mask of dullness while hiding a sly old snake inside, are you?”
Augustin’s eyes gleamed.
He weighed it for an instant.
Whether to remove the creature before him or not.
He’d sensed him from the moment he stepped into the Grigori Order, but since the thing carried no killing intent, he’d prioritized healing Elric and let it be.
Now that it looked ready to slip away, curiosity pricked him.
But even with Augustin showing himself,
Belot neither drew up demonic power nor set a battle stance—no hint of wary hostility at all.
He simply—
Ho. Planning to bolt?
—kept himself ready to run at any moment.
Augustin found that utterly fascinating.
Including Hyul, every Demon King he’d met so far had possessed a near-instinctive lust for combat and blood.
Belot might wield tremendous demonic power and brute strength, but his temperament seemed to run counter to that of ordinary Demon Kings.
“I… don’t want to fight….”
Belot cut in briefly and raised both hands.
“You… too strong….”
At that point, Augustin had to relax his hand. Of course, he didn’t forget to quietly draw up mana, ready to take the head the instant he had to.
“A weirdo Demon King like you—I feel like we could have a very entertaining talk.”
A peculiar light flickered in Augustin’s eyes.
The Mage Who Devoured Talent