Chapter 63: The Warmth of a Person, Demons, and a Terrible Natural Disaster Part 3

The cornerstone toward ruin was shattered once again.

Rank 15, Eligos, furrowed his brow in displeasure.

The scene reflected in the crystal.

The foolish beasts praising the new professor.

This was not the image that was originally planned.

The beastmen should have been adoring Gettya-sama.

The beastmen, who had been pushed to the brink, were supposed to serve as stepping stones for the resurrection of the Demon King.

In the end, they were to transform into demons.

The plan was to completely consume an entire race.

Marbas had infiltrated the imperial palace for that purpose.

He was meant to manipulate the emperor into ruling with tyranny, worsening social issues and cornering the beastmen.

This was how the first step of the plan was to begin, but…

Riyan killed Marbas.

He kept interfering with the plan, so they intended to deal with him, but the ones sent to kill Riyan were all killed instead.

‘What kind of creature was he?’

Even when they unleashed artillery, he didn’t die and survived.

He overwhelmed even a rank 4 powerhouse in a one-on-one fight.

The professor, always one step ahead of them.

The Wild Hunt, a demon-hunting organization passed down for centuries, including not only swordmasters but also several grand wizards, had only ever defeated a single demon.

But that insane human massacred demons on his own.

It was as if he were playing a board game with a puppy.

That’s Riyan.

He’s so skilled in magic that he can shoot meteors thousands of times, and he’s even mastered swordsmanship to the point that with just a thought, he can wield a spiritual sword and instantly kill someone.

On top of that, he’s a genius who sees through every plan.

“You think your plan was elaborate?”

“You had the fuse all set up perfectly?”

Nope.

Riyan’s a genius, so he saw through all your plans.

***

The day before you were going to recruit the beastmen, Riyan made the first move and gathered them all together.

Not only that, but Riyan is so competent that he swiftly eradicated the deep-rooted discrimination and created an equal world.

So, in the end, you lost and I won.

This was a situation so absurdly forceful that it felt unreal.

However, the troubling part was that this wasn’t just the imagination of an eight-year-old child; it had actually happened.

That insane, overpowered character truly existed.

In fact, he was desperate to ruin their plans.

“Riyan, that bastard… he must be dealt with no matter what.”

The one who would pose a threat to that being was obvious.

Riyan was a far more abstract threat than even the ancestral dragon.

The professor, the greatest obstacle to resurrection, had to be eliminated beforehand.

“Deal with him? How exactly do you plan on dealing with him?”

Assassination was probably the way to go.

They would strike when Riyan was alone, hoping for a surprise attack.

If they put everything into a single strike, there was a chance they might land a successful hit…

***

Eligos felt something strange.

He was sure he had been alone just moments ago.

Who exactly was it that had just posed a question to him?

The demon, in a state of panic, turned his head.

The face of the demon twisted in horror.

There was no way to bear it without being struck with horror.

“I’m dying to know. Why don’t you tell me?”

Snow-white hair.

Golden eyes stared straight at Eligos.

“How exactly do you plan to kill someone like me?”

With a sly smile, Riyan appeared.

***

How on earth…? The question reached the tip of his tongue. However, the demon realized that the question itself had no meaning.

He had concealed his traces as much as possible.

The security systems were certainly in place.

Yet, Riyan was not a being whose actions could be understood by logic.

The discomfort created when erasing traces. With Riyan’s abilities, it wouldn’t be strange if he discovered it.

Perhaps through tracking, he had already pinpointed this base’s location.

The alarm didn’t go off, but that was to be expected.

The security system had likely been easily neutralized or destroyed.

So, the real question wasn’t “how,” but “why.”

“What exactly is your purpose in invading this place?”

‘Had he perhaps noticed the assassination plan?’

Or, was he waiting for the moment when Eligos’ subordinates were absent, intending to kill him, the most zealous supporter of the Demon King Gettya’s resurrection?

Eligos quickly ran through scenarios in his mind.

Various hypotheses flashed through his mind.

However, what came from Riyan’s mouth was completely unexpected.

“Come to think of it, I’m feeling a bit wronged.”

The new professor’s golden eyes shone brightly.

Riyan slowly approached him and spoke.

“Why should I, who did nothing wrong, have to suffer stress? The source of the problem is you guys, right? If I just kill you all, I wouldn’t have to worry about it at all, would I?”

He was shamelessly portraying himself as an innocent victim, even though he was the one who had started the fight.

However, Eligos couldn’t be surprised by this shamelessness.

Something else had already thrown him off.

…Has my senses dulled?

The professor’s face had slightly flushed, but that wasn’t the issue.

What bothered him was the amount of magic he was sensing from Riyan.

‘This is like the magic level of a 13-year-old girl…? His muscles are just at the level of an ordinary person who works out, too.’

It was ridiculously weak.

The gap between this reality and the Riyan he had read about was enormous.

To test if this was real, Eligos decided to take action.

“I see that now you’ve figured it out?”

There was no sign of agitation in Riyan’s eyes.

Riyan smiled playfully and declared, “This is my absolute restraint domain, ‘Bluffing.’”

It was a third-tier unique technique he had devised long ago.

“I’m just using it on you,” said the professor.

“When you handicap yourself, it imposes the same restriction on your opponent. Since I’ve given up on magic, you can’t use magic either. Isn’t it fair?”

The reason his magic seemed so weak was because he had restricted it himself.

It was a barrier he had created to make sparring easier, to regulate his power.

It was the perfect domain for playing around with you.

Given Riyan’s usual behavior and abilities, this seemed entirely plausible.

Eligos believed Riyan’s declaration to be true…

However, that was not the case.

‘What kind of fool would believe the enemy’s words at face value?’

He couldn’t sense any trace of a barrier.

The only concrete fact was that he couldn’t feel any proper magic from Riyan, and that something about him was off.

Perhaps Riyan was just bluffing.

Maybe he was pretending to have created a barrier.

Eligos had always worked diligently.

He had never been careless when it came to gathering information.

He had once heard a rumor that Professor Riyan had suffered aftereffects from firing meteors too many times.

This should have been an enemy that could be easily taken down.

He wouldn’t recklessly strain his own body.

Eligos had been sure that this was most likely false information.

But now, the situation strangely matched the rumor.

The demon quickly decided to test it.

0.02 seconds to construct a spell.

He tried to directly contradict Riyan’s statement.

Eligos fired a fireball.

However, for some reason, the magic didn’t activate.

For a moment, Eligos was startled but didn’t give up.

‘Could Riyan be pulling some trick?’

He focused all his attention on the professor’s every move.

He built the spell faster than before, with all his might.

But still, the magic didn’t activate.

There was no sign of anything suspicious in Riyan’s actions either.

The only conclusion all of this pointed to was clear.

This… was really a barrier.

In less than 0.001 seconds, Eligos’ spell structure was fully undone, and the core components were warped.

And it was done so secretly that Eligos didn’t even notice?

That wasn’t human.

Even Gettya-sama couldn’t do such a thing.

There was no way this was just a bluff.

No matter how much he thought about it, the restraint domain theory made the most sense.

It was unfortunate that the aftereffect hypothesis was wrong…

‘But, this situation isn’t so bad.’

A domain that imposes restrictions on both himself and his opponent.

By forbidding himself from using magic, Riyan had also prevented Eligos from using magic.

But, Eligos was better at hand-to-hand combat than magic, so this actually worked out in his favor.

He prepared to charge in and close the distance.

Without hesitation, the demon put a slight strain on his legs…

Then, a loud explosion rang out from inside his leg.

Eligos’ face turned to one of shock.

He wasn’t surprised by the explosion’s power.

What shocked him was that this wasn’t magic cast by Riyan.

Riyan had actually protected him, preventing him from dying.

It was impossible to steal his internal magical circuits and overload them while casting a protective spell at the same time.

This was a penalty for violating the barrier’s rules.

Clearly, he hadn’t used any magic.

‘He must have followed the rules, so why had the barrier imposed a penalty?’

At that moment, as the demon was still bewildered by those thoughts, “There’s a limit to self-consciousness, you know. Did you really think we were on equal footing?”

Contempt gleamed in Riyan’s golden eyes.

If he died now, it would spoil the fun, and that would be troublesome for me.

Riyan made a face, clearly disgusted, and said, “The weight of me giving up magic and you giving up magic can’t possibly be the same.”

The demon’s mind went blank at those words.

His understanding of the situation had been wrong.

Riyan hadn’t given up on magic because he couldn’t use it.

Riyan’s own strength was the true restriction.

The weight of the restriction he imposed on himself was the same as the one imposed on his opponent.

As Riyan weakened himself, the demon also weakened.

If he tried to use more power, the barrier would impose sanctions.

The explosion from even the smallest of movements.

And just now, Riyan had cast a protective spell.

He had kept him alive because he wasn’t finished playing with him yet.

If Riyan tried to regain his true strength, he would die.

In other words…

He could only exert the strength of a five-year-old girl.

On the other hand, his opponent was a healthy adult male.

Therefore, what was going to happen was nothing but one-sided violence.

It was simply a sadistic act of tormenting the opponent.

The demon’s neck broke out in a cold sweat as he realized this.

Riyan, grinning like a true devil, declared, “Let’s see how you fare in a fair fight.”