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HELIO SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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Chapter 1
My name is Damian.
I am the sole disciple of Balthazar von Rubenstein, the greatest dark mage and necromancer on the continent.
It’s been about 20 years since I became his student.
Sure, I started late—at the age of 20—but with my master’s guidance and relentless effort, I managed to master 5th circle dark magic and necromancy.
Normally, learning two different branches of magic at once is almost impossible.
But Master Balthazar was a true master who had reached the 9th circle in dark magic and the eighth circle in necromancy. It was only because he guided me that I was able to do the impossible.
Honestly, I was optimistic about the future.
At the rate I was growing, I believed I could become one of the greatest archmages the continent had ever known.
But—
Just a month ago, that dream was shattered.
Our hideout, deep in the mountains, was raided by inquisitors. They accused us of leading the Empire astray with dark magic and dragged us away in chains.
Now, I’m locked in a cell, waiting to die—together with my master, Balthazar.
I looked through the bars at him, sitting across from me, and asked.
“Is this really the best we could do?”
That’s the part that haunts me the most.
I know just how powerful he is.
He once made a blood pact with the Demon Lord, Dicreia. He could summon her at will. And if Dicreia were to show up, not even hundreds of inquisitors could survive—they’d be wiped out in an instant.
Even without Dicreia, it wouldn’t matter.
He possesses decay magic powerful enough to erase an entire nation.
He’s shown me venom spells so lethal they rot your bones from a single drop.
If he had used even one of those spells—just one—we wouldn’t be sitting here, helpless.
But Master Balthazar didn’t resist. Not even a little.
At first, I thought he had a plan.
Up until yesterday, I still believed we were going to escape somehow.
But this morning, they dragged him out—and now, with the sun down, they’ve brought him back. Covered in blood.
The tendons in his arms and legs were all severed. Shackles were locked tight around his wrists and ankles.
His face was a mess—his left eye looked caved in, like it had been crushed under a boot.
He sat slumped against the cell wall, limp and lifeless, like a puppet with its strings cut.
Still, he didn’t respond. I called out to him again.
“Master. Can you hear my voice?”
Cough.
He coughed up blood, then forced his mouth open, like even speaking was a battle.
“Damian… it’s you.”
“Yes, Master.”
Relief washed over me. He was still alive. But his voice was barely there—no strength, no light in it.
“Do you remember that night… a month ago?”
“Yes.”
“What I told you then… it wasn’t a lie.”
The memory hit me hard. I couldn’t say anything in response.
He’d foreseen this exact moment.
That we’d be captured. That we’d be imprisoned. Tortured. And eventually—killed.
I didn’t believe it at the time.
“I have no regrets left in life. That’s why I’ve been waiting for this day.”
“But, Master!”
“Don’t worry about me.”
Balthazar looked at me, his gaze suddenly sharp and piercing.
There was an uncanny energy in his eyes—like he was staring death in the face and welcoming it. Yet his expression looked strangely at peace.
After studying me closely for a moment, he slowly spoke.
“This is only the beginning.”
“…What do you mean by that?”
In response to my question, Balthazar gave a wide grin, baring his teeth.
Blood welled up where his missing fang used to be, trickling down to the tip of his chin.
With a voice more clouded than before, he continued.
“I’ve seen the future. And I’ve already told you everything I saw. That’s why I have no regrets anymore—except for one.”
I stayed silent, waiting for him to speak again.
After a moment, his eyes gleamed.
They were startlingly clear—nothing like the eyes of a dying man.
He looked me dead in the eyes—his gaze sharper than ever—and when he spoke again, his voice was no longer weak. It rang out, strong and certain, nothing like the broken whisper from before.
“Yes. So we’ve finally met! You’ve obtained a complete physical vessel. You’re ready—ready to receive the power of eternity! I knew this day would come. I saw it all. And now... now the real journey begins. Together, we’ll seize it—the power of eternity no one has ever possessed!”
And then, just like that, the light vanished from his eyes.
His head dropped to the side, and his body crumpled with it.
That’s when I knew—Master was gone.
“Master…”
Grief and disbelief surged through me like a tidal wave, crashing down all at once.
I couldn’t accept the death of the man who took me in and raised me like his own son, 20 years ago.
How could someone so powerful die like this?
And the things he gave me… they were more than I ever deserved.
What exactly did he expect of me?
Just before he died, it didn’t feel like he was looking at me.
His eyes... they were locked on something far away. Like he was seeing someone from a dream—an echo from the past, or maybe a memory.
They say that in the moment before death, people see the thing they yearned for most.
Was that what he saw?
Or… did he truly see me—me, after turning back time?
I couldn’t say. There was no clear answer. Only silence.
Looking down at his limp, lifeless body, my chest tightened painfully.
That aching feeling brought tears to my eyes. I shut them, and the tears ran down my cheeks.
But I didn’t have long to grieve. Before I knew it, the guards had come to drag me out.
They took me to the torture chamber.
＊ ＊ ＊
The torture chamber reeked of blood.
Just looking at the blood-soaked chair, I could tell my master had been strapped here before me.
A torturer in a black hood bound my arms and legs tightly to the chair.
Then, after getting a good look at my face, he seemed surprised and spoke.
“Damian?”
“......”
When I didn’t respond, the torturer removed his hood. A familiar face was revealed.
“You’re…?”
“Yeah, it’s me. Andre. You remember?”
Of course I remember.
He was the one who made my days at the orphanage a living hell.
“I didn’t recognize you at first. But now that I see your face... yeah. It’s all coming back. Been a while, huh? Damn—still the same. You haven’t changed one bit.”
“......”
I stayed silent.
But I could hear it—that smug sneer dripping off every word.
He grinned, mean and wide.
“That look on your face... same as always. Like you just swallowed a turd. What’s it been, thirty years? And you’re still the same pathetic little bastard. Still whining. Still playing the victim.”
He grabbed a thin knife off the table and, without a moment’s hesitation, severed the tendon in my right wrist.
The sharp pain shot up my arm and slammed through my body like lightning.
“Khh—”
I barely choked back a scream, but he just kept mocking me.
“Man, this takes me back. You were always the punching bag back at the orphanage, weren’t you? Always playing the bad guy. Maybe if you’d straightened out back then, you wouldn’t be strapped to a chair now.”
He chuckled.
“My bad. Guess I didn’t beat the lesson into you hard enough.”
Then he sliced the tendon in my left wrist.
He avoided the arteries and went straight for the tendons with clinical precision. It was clear how experienced he was.
I managed to force a smile through the pain and spoke.
“Look at you. Still the same old bastard. Just as good at torturing as you were ba—Aagh!”
Before I could finish, he severed the tendon in my right ankle.
Then, licking the blood off the knife, he said—
“You smug little shit. Who are you calling a torturer? I’m Andre—Rank 3 Inquisitor of the Holy Nation of Calios.”
“Rank 3…?”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
The Rank 3 Inquisitor of the Holy Nation doesn’t come to places like this.
He’s in a position where he can live comfortably, assigned to the Imperial Guard or the palace.
“Still lying, huh?”
“You still don’t know your place, do you, Damian?”
Andre smirked as he cut through the tendon in my left leg.
“Oh, come to think of it, you couldn’t use your left leg before, could you? Guess I didn’t need to cut it after all. My bad.”
I hadn’t been unable to use it originally.
It had been crippled by the gang of bullies from my orphanage.
The anger from that time surged up again.
“Ugh.”
I gritted my teeth.
Then, I quietly began casting.
The "Ignition" spell, one that could burn my opponent to ashes in an instant.
If it succeeded, I could at least burn him to a crisp.
My tendons were already cut, so I couldn’t escape. But maybe I could at least settle an old grudge.
However, my plan was swiftly ruined.
He slashed my throat.
“Your master stayed quiet, but his student’s running his mouth at any chance. You think that’s going to work here?”
Even as he spoke, blood began pouring from my neck.
Seeing it, my vision blurred.
‘I can’t pass out. Stay focused.’
But keeping my consciousness intact wasn’t easy.
My eyelids kept drooping, and a heavy, drowsy feeling crept over me.
I couldn’t let myself slip away like this.
In fact, this moment was exactly what my master had predicted a month ago.
At that time, my master had said:
- Soon, an opportunity will come. When it does, don’t forget everything I’ve told you. Then, you will grasp the power of eternity.
'The power of eternity.'
As those words echoed in my mind, my senses sharpened.
Blood spilled from the gash in my neck, soaking my chest completely.
Looking at it, I could feel the certainty. The magic circle my master had carved into my chest was now stained with my blood.
'This was it.'
A month ago, my master told me that when the magic circle was stained with blood, that would be the moment to seize the opportunity.
The meaning of this magic circle was Sacrifice.
It was a spell to offer myself as a sacrifice in exchange for what I desired.
What was needed at this moment was not just a voice.
It was the desperate cry of my soul.
I had learned how to call out that voice from my master, and now, I invoked it.
[Demon, can you hear my voice? I offer myself as a prepared sacrifice, so come down here.]
At that moment, I felt a burning sensation in my chest.
At the same time, a cool yet familiar voice echoed.
It was the voice of another demon, Ilinas, ruler of another realm.
[TL/N: Gender not confirmed so we’re going with male pronouns for now.]
[Good. What do you wish for in return? As per our agreement, I will grant you something in exchange for the sacrifice you’ve made.]
What I would ask for wasn’t something Master had decided for me.
Because the demon must not know our plan.
- If I tell you what you must do now, it will become a memory, and it will become part of you. The demons will notice it.
- Then, what should I do when that moment comes?
- When the time comes, you’ll know instinctively. You will never miss that opportunity.
At the time, I didn’t believe my Master’s words.
But now, I didn’t care about the future my Master had seen.
'I want revenge.’
To do that, the one thing I wanted from the demon was simple.
[I want to live again.]
Yes.
I wanted a chance.
A chance to turn everything back.
A chance to get revenge on those who made my life miserable.
Just the opportunity to exact revenge on Andre in front of me was enough.
I heard Ilinas’s voice, laced with amusement, in response to my wish.
[An interesting wish. Very well. I will grant it. But know this—you have offered not only your body but your soul as well. I will give you this chance, but once your life ends, your soul will belong to me, forever.]
Ilinas revealed himself.
The Demon Lord Ilinas, with massive horns like a mountain goat’s, towering before me.
His body was covered in thick, smooth red scales.
Well-defined muscles in his arms and legs were almost seductive, and his small wings on his back and long tail gave off an unnatural and unsettling aura.
He gazed at me with a noble expression, and soon, our eyes met.
In his eyes, there was curiosity, playfulness, and mockery.
A demon doesn’t grant the wishes of a desperate human without some reason.
And Ilinas’s expression likely had its own purpose.
But I had no choice. Blood kept spilling from my body, and my consciousness was growing faint.
I steadied my mind and spoke with the voice of my soul.
[It doesn’t matter.]
[Your wish is granted.]
At that moment, I felt myself being pulled somewhere.
A small, narrow passage.
As I began to pass through it, images from my past flashed by in reverse order.
The moments I spent talking with my Master all night just a month ago.
The exhilarating moments when I mastered the 5th Circle of Necromancy and the days of pain from the wrong medicine before that.
And then the moment when I first met my Master, Balthazar, came into view.
I reached out toward that precious moment, but I couldn’t touch it.
Then, an unbearably dark past swallowed me whole.
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HELIO SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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