Myths Reawakened

The mysterious man looked at the Darkness Knight in surprise, deducing his identity through Silvia and Filomina. So it turned out that Auston was the Darkness Knight. The problem that had been plaguing him for years was finally solved.

Wayne was equally surprised to see the Darkness Knight. Auston coming here was fine, but bringing Silvia and Filomina along was a big problem. What happened to wearing a mask to protect his family? Why did he suddenly drop the act?

Did becoming king make him reckless?

Wayne was baffled. Given Auston’s cautious nature, this shouldn’t be happening, so there had to be a reason. He’d ask about it later. First...

Eliminate everyone who knew!

The Death Knight charged forward with Death energy wrapping around Shadow Nightmare, corrupting all layers of the interlocking spaces.

What the mysterious man used wasn’t ordinary magic, but an intrinsic talent related to his demonic form in hell, similar to a succubus’s irresistible charm. Since the mysterious man followed Lord of Pride, the power had to come from the demon lord.

The mysterious man’s talent in demon form was powerful. Combined with his terrifyingly strong thoughts, no ordinary legendary mage could rival him. In other words, he had enough power to control Windsor’s entire Ministry of Magic, even the royal family.

But he hadn’t done so. Instead, he’d been pulling the strings behind the scenes. Perhaps it was because he was cautious by nature, or perhaps he was wary of something.

The more Wayne thought about it, the more absurd it seemed. Was there really anything in Windsor that the mysterious man feared? Was he worried about attracting the Church of Heavenly Father’s attention because he was the Lord of Pride’s familiar?

Unable to figure it out, Wayne set the issue aside for now. The mysterious man knew too much. Better to kill him first and think about the mysteries later.

Shadow Nightmare’s pristine white blade sliced through space, Death energy exploding outward and morphing into aggressive grey tentacles to strike at the mysterious man. In an instant, the undead warhorse leaped through space with Wayne, charging ahead of the tentacles of Death energy before the mysterious man could raise his twin blades.

The longer the battle went on, the more precisely Julia grasped the patterns of the chaotic space. She had even figured out some of the mysterious man’s spatial manipulation abilities.

She actually understood advanced mathematics; she was even at the top of her class.

The other two math wizards that Wayne knew were Filomina and Senna, both experts at solving math problems. They had provided Wayne with extensive magical theory. They were undeniably honor students.

Unable to raise his blades in time, the mysterious man retreated hastily. He barely avoided the sharp blade as Shadow Nightmare swept before his eyes.

Though he had dodged the blade itself, he couldn’t avoid the Death energy enveloping it. The energy formed thick tentacles and whipped him like a lash. The impact hit him like a blunt weapon. The mysterious figure staggered back, crashing into the spatial rampart behind him.

Before he could catch his breath, fearsome Darkness devoured him from all directions.

Darkness’s devouring power and Death’s corrosion manifested in similar ways. Both chosen knights wielded their energy crudely, relying on brute force, which made for spectacular visual effects in combat.

Darkness devoured the space before filling it. Facing two divine powers at the same time, the mysterious man lost control of the tides of the battle, becoming flustered.

Strike while he’s down! xN

Auston and Wayne attacked from the enemy’s front and back, sweeping away layers of spatial ramparts with their swords and reaching the mysterious man. The mysterious man felt his scalp tingle, losing the composure with which he had been manipulating human hearts behind the scenes.

Crack!

Space shattered like a mirror. Darkness flooded in massive volume, sealing the mysterious man and leaving only one path open—it led to the Death Knight’s blade.

The mysterious man didn’t bite the bait. He continued to retreat...

...Until a hand reached out of the darkness and gripped his shoulder all of a sudden.

While Auston pinned the mysterious man down with one hand, crimson light throbbed on his black mask, and Twilight Despair pulsed with black light, tearing through the mysterious man’s pale skin and piercing through his chest.

The fatal physical wound wasn’t fatal, but the all-encompassing Darkness was another matter. It devoured the mysterious man’s body and thoughts, plundering and wiping out everything in its path.

In nearly the blink of an eye, the mysterious man was engulfed by black light from the chest down. With a howl, he broke free from the lower body that had been corrupted by Darkness. His upper body took flight with flapping wings.

“Go back down!”

Wayne reached him on horseback, pressing the mysterious man back down with a hand on his face. His blade pierced through the man, the tip of the blade glinting chillingly.

(눈_눈)

Auston stared at the Shadow Nightmare from a close distance. He had reason to suspect Wayne of doing this on purpose. If Silvia weren’t here, the sword would’ve hit his face.

Two chosen knights fighting at their full power made for a spectacle. The last unlucky soul to receive such treatment was Thoggua, backed by an ancient god; the nepotism baby vassal had such an impressive background that even the five goddesses were left helpless.

The mysterious man clearly wasn’t as lucky. His lower body was devoured by Darkness, while Death corroded his upper body. With the two Laws tormenting his physical form and thoughts, he began to see visions of Master Pride in his daze.

“My Lord...”

It was a warm, sunny afternoon. The mysterious man was studying Hell’s remnants in the human world and, following the clues, found a mysterious altar somewhere beneath Londan, as well as a book that he had been coveting.

Pride’s reincarnation altar and Book of Hell.

Whether through an avatar or rebirth, the Lord of Pride had long since put on a human shell and descended to the mortal realm.

At that moment, the mysterious man was conquered by Pride and willingly became Pride’s follower. He left with the book. While researching Hell, he worked on the book’s evolution.

He was Frank Turner, a member of the Tulip Families and Queen Sophelia’s most valued Hell expert. The royal family’s success in creating vessels for the demon lords owed much to his efforts.

All those theories used in the process came from the Book of Hell, which recorded the Divine Comedy of the Seven Deadly Sins.

Frank had been weak then and had to rely on the royal family’s wealth and resources to conduct research, so all research results went to the royal family. Those dressed in the finest silk did not raise the silkworms themselves—the saying was universally applicable.

Without raw power, one had to use one’s brain. Frank leaked some of his research results, which ended up being obtained by Obed, then a Vice Minister.

Obed was looking for a future at the time, and Hell being the most promising option, he naturally had to research it thoroughly when given the chance. That was where the budget version of the Seven Demon Kings’ vessels had come from.

Obed hadn’t realized that the Snow family’s vessels already had an owner. Frank had placed the Book of Hell in them, using the vessels to evolve the book.

When Wayne raided the Snow Estate, Frank retrieved the book. Then he captured Caim, a demon familiar from Hell, sewing the book into Caim’s body to conduct research on a living subject.

Frank had become incredibly powerful then. He continued to keep a low profile because he wasn’t sure how deep the water of the royal family and the Tulip Families ran; he was worried that there might be others like him.

Later, the Book of Hell fused with the royal family’s vessels for the Seven Demon Kings. The evolution was especially pronounced in Lust and Gluttony, who ended up corrupted by Wayne.

As Frank grew stronger, he set his eyes on the royal family’s divine blood.

His ambition was never conquest—he was a pure researcher who no longer cared about any worldly desires. He only wanted to know what the endgame of the Book of Hell’sevolution would look like. That was why he had manipulated Douglas, stealing the divine blood while controlling him in the background.

Unfortunately, Douglas happened to be rebelling on the same day as the Lando family. With the Landos having more hidden aces, Douglas was outmatched and had to personally confront the Death Knight.

That ended as well as poking a hornet’s nest. Chosen knights showed up one after another.

“May Death grant you eternal peace...” Wayne lifted the mysterious man’s skull with his sword. Shadow Nightmare glinted coldly, completely corroding the last of Frank’s thoughts.

He would like to extract information from the mysterious man, but worried that Frank would have more tricks up his sleeves, Wayne chose to bury him and his knowledge of the Lando family’s secrets, just to be safe.

With that done, Wayne dismounted to loot the body.

Not good. He found nothing. The mysterious man was so stingy that he didn’t even leave behind scraps.

“This can’t be right. Where did the Book of Hell I lost go?” Wayne suspected Auston after finding nothing. “Speak. Did you hide my book?”

Auston didn’t bother to humor Wayne. Cutting the spatial barriers with a swing of his sword, he warned, “Be careful. He’s not the real mastermind, or perhaps he has another ally hiding in the Ministry of Magic’s headquarters.”

“There’s more?” Wayne made a small sound of surprise, telling Auston to quickly explain.

“The Tulip Families in the banquet hall were attacked. Alnwick, the new Vice Minister, disappeared...”

“Worried that things had gone wrong, I came to find you...”

“I was directly teleported here...”

Auston explained fast. He had come not only out of concern that Wayne would be ambushed, but also to rescue Queen Sophelia. He understood Wayne too well and believed that a natural disaster like him would live a thousand years, so he’d prioritized rescuing the Queen.

As soon as he arrived, though, he saw Anastasia and entered Wayne’s battlefield with the mysterious man.

“So there are more players...”

Wayne touched his non-existent, non-tingling scalp. He had thought that the mysterious man manipulating Douglas was the mastermind, but it turned out that he was just another chess piece being manipulated. In that case, Douglas most likely had the Book of Hell.

“Let’s find Douglas. He has the Queen.”

The spatial barrier shattered. The Darkness Knight and the Death Knight arrived at the ruins of collapsed office buildings. Anastasia was still unhurriedly deciphering the chaotic space, unaware that Douglas had already left.

Wayne frowned. He had ordered Anastasia not to be too proactive on her rescue mission, but he hadn’t told her to be this passive. Something was wrong with her, it seemed.

So there really were more major players in the game! But who?

He focused on Anastasia, his thoughts entering her body. He was at a loss for where to begin. The method of manipulation was intricate, similar to how a succubus’s charm worked. There was no clear sign of magic, yet Anastasia’s intelligence had been significantly reduced.

Wayne couldn’t solve the problem, so after 0.25 seconds of consideration, he tore up the test paper.

He scrambled and reorganized Anastasia’s thoughts and reset her to half an hour earlier, as if he were loading a save. She stiffened before suddenly jerking awake. Disregarding her reservation, she transmitted her thoughts to Wayne, telling him that she had seen an eye before losing her wits.

“An eye?”