A demon that stole the body of the First Prince.
The Fifth Rank, Marbas, frowned—a rare occurrence.
Fate had been twisted.
What was supposed to be a flawless prophecy became riddled with errors.
Just one person.
A single human was ruining everything.
”We should have guarded against him, not just treated him as the child of prophecy.”
To discreetly handle the emperor, a curse of weakened bones was placed.
However, someone noticed and meddled with it.
At first, when they realized this fact, they thought it was a minor issue.
After all, the curse could be reapplied, and it didn’t stray far from the prophecy.
There was no need to handle it personally; even an assassin could resolve it immediately.
They had no doubt about that.
The headquarters of the organization that first commissioned the assassination was accidentally hit directly by a hurricane and destroyed.
The second organization that commissioned the assassination was annihilated by a twenty-member student guard that had been concealing their presence.
The third organization’s hideout was discovered by a mercenary king who was working as a bounty hunter.
The fourth organization’s leader suddenly died of a heart attack before anything else could happen.
None of these could have been mere coincidences.
Despite extensive searches, they couldn’t find out how that professor was involved in the incidents.
As if mocking them, the professor used unknown powers to thwart assassinations, capture infiltrators, and arbitrarily twist fate.
Such a being could no longer be left unchecked.
Judging this, they took the risk of arousing Shijo-ryong’s suspicion and called Riyan to his stronghold.
However, it turned out to be an irreparable mistake.
An obnoxiously bright white light emanated.
Emerging from the light was the damned celestial being.
After years of effort, they had finally broken that brat’s spirit completely.
But Riyan discovered in just one day that his opponent was a hero in the making and revived his will.
A girl with silver hair.
In her hand, a brilliantly shining sword was held.
An immense holy power bestowed upon her as the representative of the gods.
Originally, the empire’s witch, who should have perished from guilt and corruption, had reborn as a bona fide hero.
The worst outcome created by Riyan.
This time, the professor was once again mockingly defeated.
But they had no intention of just letting it happen.
***
A girl charged towards Marbas.
Her momentum and strength were considerable, but her skills were mediocre.
A girl who had never held a sword moved clumsily, unable to control her suddenly acquired power, making the most of it.
With a fierce slash, a sword of light pierced the air.
She deftly avoided a direct clash, smoothly deflecting it.
The opposing power was certainly counteracting hers.
Just being touched by it would melt flesh, but she could handle this much.
She had gathered enough souls to use as fuel.
In reality, the imperial court had been seized.
Souls could be easily replenished with power.
The melted flesh swelled back up.
It looked as if the wound had never been there, fully restored.
In contrast, her opponent looked clearly exhausted.
Handling such immense power for the first time, her still-immature body couldn’t bear it and must have been screaming in pain.
The girl gritted her teeth, supporting herself with the sword.
”Is this why heroes are made?”
She continued to rise, undeterred by the pain, embodying the essence of a hero.
The sword swung repeatedly, again and again.
Even if she fell, she kept swinging the sword.
Her mental fortitude was certainly commendable.
‘You’re still clumsy, aren’t you?’
She was overwhelmingly inexperienced.
Focusing too much on attacking, she neglected what she needed to protect.
She concentrated her magic.
There was no need to worry about power; confusing the opponent was important, so she focused solely on speed.
A strike aimed at the fallen professor.
Noticing this, the girl urgently threw herself forward.
She barely managed to stop the attack from reaching the professor, but naturally, her stance collapsed.
It would take at least five seconds to regain her composure.
That amount of time was more than enough.
A decisive strike.
She sacrificed all her magic and souls for this single spell.
By abandoning efficiency, she significantly shortened the incantation and maximized her power.
”…Die.”
A hand reached upward.
Simultaneously, a massive meteor fell.
A resounding boom echoed.
Those who dared to challenge Marbas were erased from the world without a trace.
Surely, such an ending was inevitable.
The demon’s face momentarily showed confusion.
The technique should have been perfectly constructed, but for some reason, nothing happened when he raised his hand.
Looking around to find the cause, he saw a man.
The man had clearly been unconscious and collapsed on the ground but was now staring him down.
Cold sweat trickled down the demon’s back.
In that instant, a foreboding thought crossed his mind.
”That’s impossible.”
Humans and demons do not share the same magic systems.
The spell was constructed using souls as fuel, not magic.
Moreover, there was no way the world would know about a spell system used only by demons.
Even that man was encountering such a spell for the first time in his life.
Thus, stealing magic should be impossible.
Stealing magic should be impossible, but…
The constructed spell was being altered on its own.
The man clearly encountered this for the first time, yet he handled all sorts of characters and arrangements purely based on intuition.
No matter how he tried to stop it, nothing worked.
Years of experience and skills accumulated over eons were being overwhelmed by a genius who had only a basic understanding of his spell.
Blood tears flowed.
His body staggered, about to collapse at any moment.
Yet, only his mouth curved upwards, and he raised his arms high toward the sky, shouting.
Calling Meteor
A hand reached upward.
Simultaneously, a star fell.
Originally, the noble light that was only permitted to be looked up at was pulled down to the earth by human will.
Soon, a loud boom swallowed the world.
My head was dizzy.
The oncoming vertigo made me feel like I was about to collapse at any moment, but I somehow held onto my consciousness.
”I almost died from the backlash.”
Having exhausted all my holy power, the Fifth Princess lay asleep before me.
If that girl hadn’t continuously healed me and protected me from the shock of large-scale magic, I would have long since become a corpse.
Thinking that made my head spin even more.
In my first month of employment, I had faced death four times.
The demon I just fought.
Considering its dark, sinister aura and the fact that it was disguised as royalty, it seemed like the kind of guy who would appear as a boss in the latter half of the original work.
To almost die by encountering such a guy a few years ahead of time was the height of absurdity.
The imperial palace looked like a more cursed space than the academy.
I desperately wanted to escape from here, but there was still work to be done.
”This is exactly the time to ensure a confirmation kill.”
Just because the opponent was down, I couldn’t afford to let my guard down.
Even I had barely held on by biting my tongue to avoid fainting in front of the demon, pretending to lose consciousness while waiting for a counterattack opportunity.
I trudged towards the fallen demon.
As expected, it clearly still had a lifeline attached.
The demon, now more grotesque than before, looking like a half-burnt lump of coal, glared at me with a frown.
Its appearance was truly grotesque beyond measure.
‘It’s better not to think you’ve won with this.’
A truly typical line.
I heard those words with one ear and let them pass with the other, rummaging through to find an appropriate weapon.
‘No matter how much you struggle, you can’t overcome fate. Eventually, you’ll lose everything and become frustrated.’
Without hesitation, I drew out a dagger.
An item I received as a gift from the emperor.
I used this to kill that guy named Amon last time, so its effect should be certain.
‘I’m looking forward to the expression you’ll make when the empire eventually collapses. It’s a pity I can’t see it before I leave.’
The guy gave me an unpleasant smile towards me.
He seemed to expect me to get scared and tense from his words, but that couldn’t be possible.
“The empire won’t be crushed by the likes of you.”
Because only I knew.
No matter how powerful they were, the protagonist would surely overcome all hardships and achieve a happy ending.
I stabbed the sword into the guy’s heart.
The demon, which couldn’t utter even its final word, had turned into ashes.
With this, the confirmation kill was complete.
All that remained was to consult with the Fifth Princess and pass off the credit for demon extermination, then escape from this cursed imperial palace.
Having concluded that, I turned my head.
As I turned my head, I faced things I shouldn’t have seen.
I saw countless eyes.
People who had been approaching and watching me were now visible.
With a thud, an elderly man with white hair collapsed to the ground.
Tears flowed endlessly down his cheeks.
‘Watching the emperor of the empire silently sobbing’, I thought,
“It seems like things have gotten seriously tangled.”