Who Are You? (2)
“Who are you?”
“What?”
I noticed it right away.
He had Tae’s face and spoke with Tae’s voice.
But this wasn’t Tae.
These weren’t Tae’s words.
Of course, I knew that Tae had a strong desire to improve his skills.
I also knew that he wanted the Black Stone because it was excellent for improving one’s skills.
But at the same time.
Every time Tae was entrusted with the Black Stone, he always showed a side of himself that was afraid of ruining the process due to his lack of experience.
This time, that wasn’t there.
His fearful and passive side had completely disappeared.
It seemed that only his obsession with the Black Stone remained.
This wasn’t Tae.
Or rather, it was clear that Tae had been possessed by something.
I came to that conclusion.
And the moment I turned my gaze to Tae’s chest.
Something strange caught my eye.
‘Magic?’
Inside Tae’s chest.
Deep within it, magic was surging.
It was magic that I wouldn’t have been able to detect before I learned sorcery and my eyes were opened to magic.
As soon as I noticed it, cold sweat began to pour down my face.
I immediately grabbed Tae by both shoulders.
“What are you talking about······ Hweak?!”
“Tae doesn’t hesitate to get physical with me, but when I approach him, he quickly blushes. But you don’t seem to mind at all even though my hand is on your shoulder, and you just show embarrassment on your face. You’re not Tae.”
Bam!
And then I slapped him.
Tae fainted from the shock.
I hurriedly unbuttoned Tae’s clothes and began to examine the magic inside his chest more closely.
“······Eugene. Right now, you look like a criminal.”
“Be quiet. I’m concentrating.”
Strange.
There was magic inside Tae’s chest.
Had it been there from the beginning?
There was no way to know for sure now.
Because up until now, both Mijeong and I had bodies that could barely sense magic.
Sometimes, we could barely sense it when magic flowed out excessively.
In other words, until recently, we were at the level of ordinary people.
It was only after I acquired the ‘Sorcery Method’ trait that I was able to properly ‘see’ magic and observe its color and shape.
In Mijeong’s case, it was after she learned the method from Gwiho.
‘What is it? Judging by the fact that it’s near the heart, is it magic flowing out of the Sorcery Method?’
But even now that I could handle magic, its form was quite bizarre.
There was definitely magic there.
But its presence was very small.
It was so small that it seemed more like magic that had leaked out unintentionally from the method rather than magic itself.
However, if you were to ask if sorcery was working inside Tae’s chest, that wasn’t it either.
This magic was ‘simply’ lodged inside Tae.
‘It’s a sticky and disgusting texture.’
The more I looked at the magic, the more nauseous I felt.
It was filled with a disgusting malice, like a black abyss.
And when I tried to touch it with my magic, it gave me a slimy and unpleasant sensation.
It wasn’t even easy to remove this magic.
If I tried to pull it out forcibly, it would suddenly cling to Tae’s heart······.
It was just simple magic, but it was like a living creature.
A primitive creature with only the desire to survive.
This was definitely not something that Tae had originally possessed.
Someone had intentionally put it inside Tae.
I came to that conclusion.
‘I’m glad I knocked him out.’
If I had noticed that Tae was different from usual, I should have pretended not to know and tried to extract information from him while talking to him.
But in a moment of panic, I blurted out, ‘Who are you?’
Now that he had been exposed, I didn’t know what the other party would do to Tae’s body.
I had a terrible thought that he might harm himself, so I hurriedly knocked him out.
But instead of harming himself, he could have blown his heart out and killed himself.
If I hadn’t knocked him out, I might have been beating the ground in regret by now.
“Mijeong. How does it look to you?”
“······Earthworm, chest. Touching, Eugene.”
“No. Look inside it.”
“······Chocolate-colored, chest. Touching-“
“I’m talking about the inside of the chest. The magic inside. You can see more than I can, can’t you? Please.”
“······Okay.”Swish.
Mijeong, who came next to me, touched Tay’s chest.
There was little I could find out through my investigation.
As a sorcerer, I had only just broken through the 0-step method with my characteristics, and I was a beginner among beginners.
On the other hand, Mijeong had advanced to the 1-step method on her own.
And of course, if the realm is different, the field of vision must be different.
Mijeong will be able to find out what I can’t see from that magic.
“······I feel bad. Magic. I’m trying to control it. But it’s no use.”
“I can’t do it either.”
“······And this. Magic. I think I’ve seen it somewhere.”
“Where?”
Where do you think you’ve seen it?
At that moment, I was wondering.
Mijeong raised her finger.
“······Over there.”
What Mijeong pointed to with her finger was my waist.
To be exact, it’s the sword hanging from my waist.
No, to be more precise, it’s the magic stone of the sword handle.
And this magic stone is······.
“Belphegor?”
It is a magic stone made of Belphegor’s magic.
.
.
.
When was it?
Tay sometimes heard a voice ringing in his head.
At first, I suspected it was a god or an evil spirit.
But such suspicions soon subsided.
-I want to improve my skills.-
-I need a black magic stone to improve my skills.-
-I have to get my hands on the black magic stone.-
The voice whispering is Tay’s honest and naked heart.
Perhaps because he had been awake for too long, his mind was confused and he seemed to hear his unconscious mind.
Tay thought so and decided not to take it seriously.
-Maybe a black magic stone will be found somewhere in the world?-
-So let’s increase the workload!-
-Take on more requests and work without rest!-
However, the voice became more talkative day by day.
He gradually began to speak words that were out of Tay’s mind.
Tay had reached the point of having a short conversation with the ‘voice’.
But at that stage, Tay was no longer able to detect the strangeness.
This is because the ‘voice’ had already completely occupied Tay’s unconscious mind.
However, Tay’s mental strength was strong.
The ‘voice’ never invaded Tay’s consciousness.
The ‘voice’ could not spy on anything Tay saw, heard, or felt.
But it could cloud Tay’s consciousness.
When consciousness is clouded, the empty area is naturally filled with unconsciousness.
Although the ‘voice’ could not take over Tay’s body.
The unconscious mind filled with the ‘voice’s’ desires could move Tay’s body, creating a vicious effect.
“Black magic stone······ I want the black magic stone······.”
The brainwashing was effective.
Before I knew it, Tay had completely forgotten ‘why’ he wanted the black magic stone.
Regardless of the increase in skill, he became obsessed with the black magic stone itself.
Only as the voice in my heart tells me.
Tay worked his body hard, taking on requests without a break.
The more magic stones you come into contact with, the higher the probability of getting your hands on the black magic stone.
The more famous you become, the more diverse and numerous magic stones will gather.
From Noble mtl dot com
Tay was compulsively overworking his body, not knowing that he was being manipulated by the ‘voice’.
However, to those around him, Tay seemed like an ordinary craftsman who was just working hard.
There were a few worried glances and words, but that was all.
No one looked at Tay seriously.
No one noticed the magic that was in Tay’s insides.
And one day.
The ‘voice’ read Tay’s very excited thoughts.
It was a brighter spirit than ever before.
I couldn’t see or hear it directly, but the ‘voice’ was sure.
Tay is definitely in front of the black magic stone now.
There was nothing to be rough about this.
-Run wild. Get your hands on the black magic stone by any means necessary. Just once in your hand is enough!-
The ‘voice’ scattered Tay’s consciousness and removed his reason.
He made him move his body, leaving it only to his unconscious mind.
To win the black magic stone, even with violence and violence that he didn’t have in mind.
Bang!
‘Huh? Did you pass out?’However, the result was completely unexpected.
Tei fainted and lost consciousness.
And right at that moment.
‘The voice’ shuddered with a creepy sensation.
Someone was looking right at this inside.
“Who are you?”
It was hidden so elaborately that even sorcerers wouldn’t be able to find it.
No one but a nerd who studies the truth would ever be able to see it.
‘The voice’ panicked.
.
.
.
‘I get the gist of it.’
The moment the owner of the magic was revealed to be Belphegor.
In fact, most of the questions were answered.
‘Belphegor is also the type who uses an avatar like the Little Lord.’
Belphegor has the lowest power among the Four Heavenly Kings.
He’s even weaker than a necromancer whose main body is an undead army.
So it’s only natural that Belphegor, who is like that, is good at making avatars.
And there’s always a price to pay for making an avatar.
In the case of the Little Lord, he had to share the power of the main body.
Belphegor is no exception.
However, there was a way to create an avatar without losing the power of the main body.
That is, by borrowing someone else’s body.
An example of this is taking away the body of a demon contractor like Lawrence.
Of course, this method also has two limitations.
First, those who make contracts with demons are all like Lawrence, so they don’t have much merit even if they are taken away.
Second, even that, it is possible to rob only after injecting a large amount of magic into the contractor and adapting for a long time.
The score is low and it takes a long time, so it can’t be a way to break the stomach.
That’s why the most satisfactory method for Belphegor is to make a powder directly.
If it’s a powder made directly, unlike the human body, it will be able to draw out all the capacity of the main body.
What if the powder could be made almost free of charge with just a little bit of magic?
If I had come up with that method.
Wouldn’t Belphegor have come up with it and put it into action?
‘A large amount of magic is needed to create a powder of Belphegor’s main body level. It’s not enough to collect it for a day or two. It’s an amount that hundreds of sorcerers can barely collect over the years.’
There are few ways for Belphegor to obtain such a large amount of magic.
One of them.
The easiest way is to find a black magic stone.
The black magic stone is made of magic that was lost from the powder that he once lost, or from the corpse of a fellow Four Heavenly King.
If you decompose that magic stone into magic again, you will get an astronomical amount.
Belphegor would definitely try to get the black magic stone back.
And when it comes to magic stones, there’s one famous star who’s been making a name for himself around the world lately.
Tei.
Tei, who is rumored to be the best craftsman and handles magic stones that have flocked from all over the world, is likely to have a high probability of getting his hands on the black magic stone.
Belphegor must have put in magic that secretly manipulates Tei’s mind.
And the moment Tei gets his hands on the black magic stone and detects a large amount of magic.
This subtle magic will soon transform the black magic stone into a powder.
Then, from that day on, the nightmare of the Belphegor 2x event begins.
Oh. It’s dizzying just to imagine.
‘It’s clever. If I hadn’t learned sorcery and if Mijeong hadn’t reached the realm of the first stage of the truth, I wouldn’t have noticed it.’
It was quite difficult to notice.
It’s definitely Tei, but I should say it feels different.
It was long because I was controlling Tei in the realm of unconsciousness.
If this magic had controlled Tei from the surface, it would have been caught right away.
It’s a malicious and intelligent brainwashing.
“So what do we do with this?”
“······Ugh.”
The problem is that even if you figure out the identity of the magic, it doesn’t mean that you can see the solution.
Mijeong is still trying to pull out the magic.
The magic is still attached to Tei’s heart and does not move.
The harder you pull it down, the more slimy it sticks to Tei’s heart.
I can’t see any way to get this guy out without blowing up Tei’s heart.
“This is crazy.”
Fortunately, the magic’s performance is limited.
It seems that he hasn’t completely taken over Tei’s body yet because he put in a small amount so as not to get caught.
In addition, there is definitely no real-time communication function.There’s no way this situation is being transmitted to Belphegor right now.
But if my calculations are correct, this magic energy should be able to send a one-way transmission.
That one chance will be used to notify Belphegor’s main body the moment the black stone is in hand.
“It would be really convenient if he came out on his own.”
“······On his own. Came, out?”
Mijung, who had been caressing Tae’s chest, tilted her head in confusion.
Just when I was wondering why she was doing this.
Mijung looked at me and recited with an expressionless face.
“······On his own. Come, out. Can.”
“How?”
“······What, you. Want. Can.”
“Ah.”
I understand what Mijung is saying.
What this magic wants.
It’s the black stone.
In other words, if I give the black stone to Tae?
He’ll take the black stone and come out on his own to make the powder.
And at the same time, he’ll contact Belphegor’s main body.
Finally found the black stone and completed the powder – and so on.
Then if we trace that communication?
We can also find the location of Belphegor’s main body.
“Mijung, are you a genius?”
“······Peace.”
Okay.
Belphegor must have been thrilled at the thought of getting the powder for free.
But he got into trouble because of his heartless mind that wanted to eat me.
“Let’s try it. Let’s give him the magic stone once.”
It’s a chance to meet Belphegor’s main body.
I’m a big fan of that guy.
I can’t miss a precious fan signing event.