Chapter 159 : Chapter 159

Chapter 159

His name was Johannes.

He was born as the illegitimate son of a family renowned as a Sword Family in the central continent.

A child born from the family head's one-night dalliance with a maid.

However, he believed it wasn't impossible for him to inherit the position of the family head.

While he had no talent for swordsmanship, he showed outstanding talent in magic.

His talent was so far beyond expectations that even the family head took an interest in him and sponsored him.

Thus, he was originally destined to inherit the family headship and walk a path of success.

That is, if the family head, who was past middle age, hadn't entered into a late political marriage, and if a baby boy had not been born from it.

Nevertheless, he thought he just needed to show greater achievements.

He trained fiercely and reached the 6-star at the age of thirty.

It wasn't enough.

The family head now only had eyes for the child he had late in life, who was barely five years old.

To make matters worse, he heard that the child possessed outstanding talent, forging a Mana Heart at an early age and showing an aptitude for swordsmanship.

The family head, deeply impressed by the achievements of the son he had in his later years, not only passed down the family's secret techniques but also declared him the heir to the family.

Jealousy surged within him.

To add insult to injury, even Johannes's mother, who had been the family head's one-night partner, admonished him, saying he shouldn't be overly greedy.

Rage boiled inside him.

Just because the other was born with more, to brand a talented and hardworking person as greedy.

He was furious at the family head who treated him like a mere servant.

He was disgusted with his incompetent mother.

He was repulsed by the family's servants who looked at him with uncomfortable gazes.

Above all.

He cursed the family's heir who had stolen his place.

But reality was too harsh for him to reveal his anger.

While he was just one of many mages who couldn't overcome the wall, the power of the family, which had accumulated authority for a long time, was mighty, so he could only swallow his anger inwardly.

Then, an opportunity came.

When he left the family and took the entrance exam for the Black Magic Tower, he caught the eye of the previous Master of the Black Magic Tower.

“An illegitimate son of the Schtenberg Family. Anger and venom can sometimes become a stepping stone to overcoming a wall.”

The Master of the Black Magic Tower assigned him to a secret research project the tower was conducting.

It was research into the cause and Curses of the existence known as Grotesquery, which had suddenly appeared and disappeared about 200 years ago.

An experiment where only mages of at least 6-star could participate, fusing the Curses of Grotesquery with living and non-living things.

For the advancement of the research, several 6-star knights and mages engaged in human experimentation.

Among them, some managed to overcome the wall they couldn't surpass.

Johannes was no different.

Using the Curse of Grotesquery, he was able to overcome the wall at the age of forty-five.

Was it because he was intoxicated with the glorious title of Arch Mage?

He went so far as to visit the family he hadn't contacted in a long time.

The family head looked quite surprised to hear that he had become an Arch Mage of the Empire, but that was only for a moment.

He was delighted that the family had gained a reliable mage.

He even asked him to work hard for the child who would become the family's future heir.

Those words strangely soured Johannes's mood.

He argued that he was not a servant, that he too was the family head's child.

At that, the family head's face hardened.

He seemed flustered by the unexpected true feelings.

The family head, his face scrunched up, opened his mouth.

“Just because you inherited my blood, you harbor excessive greed.”

He had only wanted his biological father's acknowledgment.

The family head treated him like a shameless person who coveted the family's position.

Just as his own mother had in the past.

His mind felt like it had gone blank.

Afterwards, he argued with the senile family head who was worried about his own death.

When he came to his senses, the family head had stopped breathing due to his magic.

An Arch Mage belonging to the Black Magic Tower could not escape death for the crime of murdering the head of a central noble family of the Empire, especially one famous as a Sword Family.

He fled, harming the knights and mages who came running after him.

Even in the midst of that, the fact that he returned to the research lab in the Black Magic Tower to pack his data suggests that he too was a mage mad for research.

Having stolen a piece of Grotesquery as well, he racked his brain to find a place to hide.

The eastern and western frontiers were occupied by families who hated the Empire, and the north had such a strong monster presence that his survival would likely be threatened.

So, he chose the south.

The elves of the southern frontier had little interest in human affairs, and the southern Fiorellan Kingdom had not joined hands with the Empire, making it a perfect choice.

Thus, he resided in the Oran Mountain Range, hunting monsters and selling magic stones to the Fiorellan Kingdom to procure necessities.

And not many years later, he heard the news that the Schtenberg Family had fallen.

It seemed that the people he had killed while fleeing were the core of the family.

A great noble from the central region had coveted Schtenberg's wealth, and in the process, the family members were said to have been killed.

The young heir had reportedly turned his back on the family and followed a knight from the eastern frontier.

Everything had become nothing.

Now, all that was left for Johannes was the identity of a mage and his research.

He reached the master level of 7-star around the time he had been researching for 20 years, hunting monsters in the mountain range for materials.

But it was also around that time that he realized his limits.

There was certainly a mysterious power in the Curse of Grotesquery, but it seemed he would never be able to overcome the wall of the 7-star at this rate.

So he chose the path that guaranteed an immortal life.

An Arch Mage had voluntarily given up his humanity for the sake of research.

Thus, after researching Grotesquery for over a decade.

He was able to reach the 8-star.

Having abandoned his humanity, there was no need for him to fall into a Heart Break.

He created a Chimera to experiment with the Curse of Grotesquery.

How much time had passed like that?

A fellow named Harold McKennon came to visit.

An Arch Mage who had not mastered the 7-star.

At first, he intended to kill him on the spot, but it seemed he had been lonely after becoming a Lich and not meeting people.

Johannes, intending to make him a companion for conversation, spared his life and took him in as a disciple on the condition that he become a Lich.

He hated to admit it, but the fellow was quite brilliant.

However, as soon as he mastered the 7-star, the fellow fled with the research data.

He knew he had flowed into somewhere in the eastern frontier, but he did not pursue him.

He just immersed himself in his research.

And about a year ago.

“I heard there was someone who stole a piece of Grotesquery and fled. It seems it was true.”

A man called the White Duke came to visit.

Beside him was a man with impressive blond hair.

He was said to be the Empire's First Prince, the one closest to becoming the next emperor, and also a genius who had become an Arch Mage at a young age.

He was intrigued by Johannes's existence and research results.

Johannes originally intended to kill them, but the prince's offer was too sweet.

“Work for me. In return, I shall grant you the position of head of the Schtenberg Family.”

He said that if he became the emperor, he would bestow upon him the title of count and return everything he had lost as a human.

A statement that seemed to not care that he was a monster.

The prince's offer did not end there.

“The Curse of Grotesquery that you are researching. I would like you to use it on Elvenheim.”

He spoke of his ambition to build a new Magic Tower using Yggdrasil in the elven forest.

“If the plan goes accordingly, I shall appoint you as the master of the new Magic Tower.”

An unprecedented condition that he could not have dreamed of when he was human.

He had thought that after becoming an Arch Lich, he had lost his greed for worldly things.

That wasn't true.

There was no way he couldn't take the bait.

However, there was one problem in carrying out the plan.

[Yggdrasil is protected by Divine Power. It is not a place that I, who can be called a congregation of evil energy, can approach.]

Besides, Elvenheim had three 8-star guardians.

If Johannes, who had become a Lich, approached even slightly, he would be subjugated.

“You don't need to worry about that.”

The prince, saying so, demonstrated his Divine Power.

“For longer than you have researched the Curse of Grotesquery, we have researched Divine Power.”

He told him the rather shocking story that the Curse of Grotesquery that the Black Magic Tower had been researching was inherited by the current Black Duke.

And that the Authority of the Gods that the White Magic Tower had been researching was inherited by the current White Duke.

“What do you think? Don't you think it's worth a try?”

There was no reason to hesitate any longer.

Thus, Johannes experimented with the White Duke to transfer the ‘Curse of Exploration’ that he had stolen from the tower to Yggdrasil.

The White Duke praised him, saying that his understanding of the Curse was as high as the Black Duke's.

The fugitive from the Magic Tower had now been acknowledged by the master of a Magic Tower.

The transfer was successful, and Elvenheim, which was connected to Yggdrasil, was contaminated.

The elven king who came into contact with the Curse of Grotesquery died in vain.

A weak queen ascended the throne, and the tribes would not acknowledge her, who could not synchronize with Yggdrasil.

At this rate, the elven queen would join hands with the Empire, and even if not, the chieftains of the tribes would join hands with the prince to prevent the contamination of their territory.

And he would become the master of the newly built Magic Tower and be able to fuse the research of the Black and White Magic Towers.

The Authority of the Gods and the Curse of Grotesquery.

With research on these two, he might even be able to challenge the wall of the 9-star.

Hundreds of years ago, a man named Edan Eurasia had reached the 9-star as a knight, but there had been no mage.

The White Duke and the Black Duke had also touched upon transcendent power, so they must be near-immortal beings.

It was the perfect time for a 9-star mage to be born.

Evil energy boiled from his excited body.

Johannes, who thought everything was proceeding perfectly.

His plans suddenly crumbled.

The ‘Curse of Exploration’ that had contaminated Yggdrasil suddenly vanished.

***

[So it was your doing.]

Johannes slowly opened his eyes in the deep darkness.

Before him, Killian Eurasia was trapped by the 8-star magic he had developed.

Saaaaaa.

The magic circle around him shone fiercely, emitting evil energy.

A sinister smile appeared on Johannes's lips.

The threads of magic at the center of the magic circle surrounding Killian slowly unraveled, and he peeked at the memories he held, one by one.

A perfected Superhuman.

Killian Eurasia's body was different from that of an ordinary human, so he couldn't completely peek at his memories, but Johannes caught an important clue.

[To think he took the ‘Curse of Exploration’ that was in Elvenheim into his body….]

He narrowed his eyes and looked down at Killian.

That wasn't all.

In Killian Eurasia's body, not only mana but also Divine Power was flowing.

Mana, Radiance, Divine Power.

A human body in which three heterogeneous powers were gathered.

He was the best test subject for his research.

[The lost Curse of Exploration has rolled in as an even greater gift.]

Johannes felt his chest pound with excitement.

A body imbued with Divine Power, there was no more perfect research subject than this.

The sense of loss he felt when he lost the Curse of Exploration in Elvenheim had now been replaced with anticipation and excitement.

His gaze, which had been scanning Killian Eurasia's expressionless face, turned to the darkness of the void.

The test subject that had rolled in on its own was not just one.

The Arch Mage who had made a name for himself in the south, Benzen Fiorellan.

And.

[Escardo Schtenberg.]

Complex emotions began to cloud Johannes's eyes.

The heir of the Schtenberg Family who had taken his place decades ago.

Now he had become the second-in-command of the Eurasia Kingdom and had come to subjugate him.

The very person who had made him lose everything was here.

[If there is such a thing as fate, it must be something like this.]

Johannes muttered to himself and looked up at the darkness.

[A perfected body that has mastered the 7-star.]

A perfect test subject possessing all the heterogeneous powers.

[All that's left now is to recreate it in my own way.]

His gloomy eyes shone brightly in the darkness.