Chapter 171: Slave Liberation 4
“You’ve grown a lot. I can feel the power of the abyss within you intensely unlike before.”
Aleister spoke as he cast a translucent barrier, blocking Woohyuk's blow.
He had made a contract with Lilith and become immortal.
Since he had existed since before the War of Gods and Demons, his magic skills were top-class.
“Come at me. I'll destroy you right now.”
“That’d be troublesome. You shouldn’t say that as someone who is favored by Lady Lilith. If I were to make an analogy, this world is an egg, and you are the transcendental being that is waiting to hatch from it. So please wait a little longer. The day will come when you will hatch and destroy this world, leading us to a new Genesis!”
Aleister firmly believed that true alchemy was the ultimate transformation of the world.
For him, all science was religion.
So, what was the ultimate transformation?
As the Witch Cult’s leader, Aleister was able to answer that question with confidence.
It was the beginning of a new era through the advent of the Demon God.
Woohyuk was tired of Aleister's long speech.
“You are out of your mind.”
historical
“Kekeke.. Your slandering does not bother me. Eventually, you will realize how ugly and hypocritical the world is as I did.”
“From my point of view, you’re also a part of this ugly and hypocritical world. Now stop talking and die.”
Woohyuk spread his abyssal wings and flew toward Aleister.
Then his vassals, who had been standing in silence, attacked all at once.
“You still talk as much as before, Aleister.”
“You are being rude to the future Demon God.”
“You need to be taught a lesson. Until now, I didn’t dare confront you because I was afraid of Lilith, but now I don't need to pay attention to her.”
Everyone had a word to say to Aleister.
However, Aleister did not lose his composure and took on their attacks.
“Well, you all have your own roles. They’re so insignificant that I don’t need to pay attention to you, though.”
"What? You’re just Lilith’s mutt who serves her like a slave and licks her feet!”
“Did you finally lose your mind after being inside your labs for so long?”
The demon kings” onslaught became even more intense.
Soon enough, Woohyuk cracked Aleister’s barrier with Verserios, and the fissure began to increase in size.
Creak! Crack!
No matter how strong Aleister was, he couldn’t be unscathed after being bombarded by so many powerful enemies.
Aleister looked in his surroundings and said goodbye.
“It's time for me to leave. I shall see you again on the next stage, everyone. May Lady Lilith's Gospel be with you until the end of your days.”
A black portal appeared next to him within his barrier.
Seeing it, Woohyuk swung Verserios, and once again struck the barrier with his full power.
Crack!
However, the barrier’s fissure only grew a little bit bigger and still maintained its shape.
“ALEISTEEEEEEEEEEER!”
As he shouted, Woohyuk stared at Aleister's back with eyes filled with rage and madness.
He had recuperated Melena and messed up Woohyuk’s plan.
A heavy silence flowed when Aleister completely disappeared with Melena.
“Lo, Lord Asura. You should check that bag now...”
Carnelian approached Woohyuk with a frightened expression and spoke.
"I apologize. I let my emotions take over.”
Was it because his demonic energy was gradually becoming synced with Verserios?
Woohyuk had begun to show more signs of lunacy compared to before.
Recalling what Helena had said before, Woohyuk opened Melena's bag.
[Valkyrie's Dagger]
Category: Weapon
Grade: S
Durability: 50,000
Traits: Imprints the Valkyrie’s stigma on opponents who get hit. If more than 5 stigmas overlap, a spark of purification ignites at the wound, causing continuous damage. The purifying flames can cause an explosive reaction at any time. The bloodstains on the dagger’s blade are absorbed and turned into health or mana. Can be operated according to the owner’s will even if it is not being held (only usable by Valkyries. Inflicts 50% additional damage to opponents with darkness properties.)
'It has pretty good traits.'
First of all, the damage that could be inflicted on opponents with an S-class weapon was enormous.
'But I can't use this.'
It was only available for people with the Valkyrie class.
This was unfortunate for Woohyuk, since he needed a secondary weapon that could replace his D-grade Vampiric Dagger.
However, the progress of the quest had increased now, and he could resurrect Brynhild in the near future.
'There are other things in the bag...’
Because it was a subspace bag, it could accommodate many items.
Woohyuk rummaged through the bag and took out the rest of the items.
[Schrdinger's Box]
Category: Personal Item
Grade: S
Durability: 35,000
Effect: Grants the hidden class “Schrdinger's Cat” when a cat is inserted inside the box (but it cannot be any cat. The cat must have an intelligence of 50 or higher).
[Miniaturization Potion]
Category: Consumables
Effect: The consumer is reduced to 1% of his original size for an hour.
In the case of the miniaturization potion, there were a total of three flasks.
It was a useful item, but Woohyuk's interest was focused on Schrdinger's Box.
'I didn’t expect to find this here...’
In the past, Schrdinger's Cat was owned by Melena.
A pet that could appear anytime and anywhere, spy around and report back to its owner.
Thanks to this cat, Woohyuk had a pretty hard time capturing Melena.
It would be of great help if he himself obtained a Schrdinger's Cat.
When his thoughts reached that conclusion, Woohyuk immediately summoned Catsy.
She was tamed by Woohyuk, so the system treated her like a pet.
But this was obviously an extremely exceptional case.
This was only possible because Woohyuk had inherited the name of the former Demon God.
“Meooow! Did you call, Master?”
“Yeah. Drink this.”
Woohyuk handed her a flask with a blue solution inside.
It was a miniaturization potion.
“Alright~!”
Catsy swayed her tail and swallowed the potion.
After a while, she was down to the size of a mouse...
“Ma, Master! The world became so big!”
She jumped around with a surprised expression as she could not grasp the situation.
“You’re the one who became smaller.”
“Then wha, what do I do? If something goes wrong, I might get stepped on by people and die under their shoes!
“You just need to go inside this box.”
Woohyuk grabbed the miniaturized Catsy with one hand.
Eventually, as he released Catsy inside Schrdinger's box, a system message appeared in front of Woohyuk's eyes.
[Hidden Item: You have obtained Schrdinger's Cat]
[Schrdinger's cat can move anytime, from anywhere, to a location it remembers.]
[In addition, as long as the owner is alive, it remains immortal and cannot receive any damage.]
[On the other hand, Schrdinger's cat cannot harm its owner and other people.]
An existence that existed and didn’t exist at the same time.
A legacy left behind by Schrdinger, the man called the Last Magic Engineer of the Holy Aperian Empire.
It is said that he died a mysterious death just before putting the cat in his box.
'Is the secret weapon Melena mentioned related to this?'
Woohyuk had some doubts.
Schrdinger's cat by itself was of no use in terms of strength and power.
Therefore, it was unsuitable as a secret weapon that would be used to surprise him at the next stage.
It was obvious there was something else at play.
“Master~! The world still hasn’t changed! Instead, I got this hidden class with a weird name.”
“You’ll return to normal in an hour.”
Woohyuk comforted the sobbing Catsy and looked up at the darkened sky.
The total solar eclipse caused by the red moon was still occurring.
If he kept neglecting it, it would cause chaos and confusion in the Talis kingdom, so he had to end it now.
As Woohyuk used his index finger to draw the White Ghost King’s mark, and the red moon moved away from the sun.
The sky then gradually brightened.
Soon, as Heaven and Earth regained their original appearances, Astaroth carefully opened his mouth.
“.. What are you going to do now? It’s possible to attack other provinces of the demon world with the power you have now. Or you could even aim for the Holy Aperian Empire.”
“I can only influence the territories of the demon kings I sealed due to Lemegeton’s barrier. I can only try to conquer the territories of other demon kings by sending a proxy. And if I attack the Empire now, the forces in the north will go out of control.”
The northern powers meant Lich Lord Nigel and The Queen of Thorns Alice.
He also had to keep an eye out for Peter Logan, the necromancer of the past, but Woohyuk hadn’t heard any news about him yet.
So, while he was suspicious about him, he couldn’t put Logan as the top priority.
“If so, will you return to the Dane Kingdom and strike the northern countries?”
“That's the best option right now. But I won’t leave right away. There are still some things to do in the Talis Kingdom.”
Although he had taken over the capital and purged the hostile forces in the other regions of the country, as Melena had said, many elements of potential danger remained in the Talis Kingdom.
A prime example was the slave problem.
As many people of the kingdom had been enslaved, society became turbid.
The country prioritized using the slaves as soldiers in the army or mercenaries, so there was a lack of social discipline.
If Woohyuk did not correct these problems, the Talis Kingdom would inevitably take the path of self-destruction.
In the past, internal dissatisfaction was ignored and silenced since Ivanov only cared about waging war and conquering, but Woohyuk thought that solving the fundamental problem was more important than that.
“Who will the new ruler be? You are not planning on establishing a republic, right?”
“Republicanism would be premature for a country like this. Hong Yuri would be appropriate as governor of the Talis Kingdom.”
Hong Yuri was currently serving as an aide to Governor Maximus of the Dane Kingdom.
This is because Maximus needed a person who could complement him and also work on surveillance of the kingdom because he was a little too inflexible.
But now that the Talis Kingdom was in Woohyuk’s hands, she had to take on a bigger task.
In fact, the role of Maximus' aide could be played by anyone slightly flexible and highly reliable.
'If it’s the Talis Kingdom, she won’t have to watch out for the Holy Aperian Empire’s eyes.’
The Holy Aperian Empire was currently busy fighting the demon faction led by the Queen of Thorns in the north.
Moreover, Lich Lord Nigel's undead army would also come down south from the north as well.
Therefore, Hong Yuri would be able to grow her own power and influence here.
'Someday, there will be a Great War between races.'
In order to prepare for that day, he needed to grow and prepare a vampire army as much as possible.
There are many hostile forces, so Woohyuk needed enough people to fight them.
This was also a game of othello.
While organizing the work to be done in the future in his head, Woohyuk entered the stone building.
It was time to investigate Melena’s secret research.