One, the demon was blocked by an invisible wall and couldn't cross the threshold.
This was because the room was set up as a defensive space by an artifact, but at the moment, such a demon was of no concern to Prezen.
Why?
“Y-You madman! What do you mean by Demon Realm! Hunting dog, what are you doing?! Protecting me is your job, isn't it?!”
Prezen trembled with fear as he looked at the boy in front of him.
A mere lump of flesh, not even half a man.
Breaking through the Demon Realm was impressive enough, but if he were to reveal his true power, he would ultimately end up as a pile of blood.
However, fear is a matter of instinct, not reason.
All he could do was find a proxy to step in for him.
One.
“Hunting dog! What the hell...!”
“Prezen, you're still hiding behind others, aren't you?”
A voice came from behind.
Prezen instinctively scanned the spot where the boy had been.
He didn't have the courage to turn around, but the boy's spot was empty.
Swallowing a thick lump in his throat, Prezen finally turned around.
‘...!’
Prezen's mind seemed to freeze.
The hunting dog's eyes were wide open.
His mouth was slightly open, and his lips were moving, but a hand was buried in his chest.
The owner of the hand was, of course, the boy.
“W-When...?”
“What do you mean by 'when'? When I tried to kill you? Or when I grabbed this disgusting Vimar's hunting dog's heart? Or... are you curious about when you will die?”
If he had to say, he was curious about all of it.
Was it dangerous curiosity? Knowing it wouldn't do him any good, but the feeling that welled up inside him. A stickiness he wanted to shake off but couldn't.
But Prezen didn't ask any of those questions.
Curiosity kills the cat. Some foolish people meet their end out of curiosity, but at least Prezen was a man whose survival instinct outweighed his curiosity.
“D-Don't come any closer. Demon Realm...! Yes, the Demon Realm! If you kill me, you won't be able to stop it. You managed to survive the Demon Realm, but your friends won't be so lucky!”
It was a last desperate attempt.
A cliché hostage situation.
But clichés exist for a reason.
A normal person would hesitate to harm a stranger, even if they held their life in their hands.
How should one put it?
A meager sense of justice? Perhaps a ridiculous sense of guilt.
Even if they didn't dirty their own hands, the idea of being involved in someone else's life and death made them act like a saint.
Of course, this wouldn't work on the worn-out monsters of the underworld, but...
‘A lump of flesh. Just a lump of flesh.’
The boy's academy uniform made Prezen make this choice.
But.
The boy's next words made Prezen realize.
“So what?”
“W-What?”
“So what are you trying to say? Fine, I'll wait. Let's watch together until the Demon Realm engulfs everyone. It will be a pleasant sight. Then it will be your turn.”
No different.
This boy was no different from the worn-out humans of the underworld, the twisted monsters.
But even realizing this...
“I can stop the Demon Realm, you know? In five minutes, your friends will all...”
“Die.”
“Y-Yes, they will. But why... Huh!”
Suddenly, a hand grabbed him.
Crack.
A chilling sound of something breaking.
“Gaaaah!”
A sharp scream filled the control room.
“H-Hand... My hand. Huh!”
Prezen clutched his nearly crushed wrist and groaned, then inhaled sharply, realizing the emptiness.
The glove. No, the artifact.
The glove-shaped artifact that had encased his hand was gone.
His life's masterpiece, restored with everything he had.
The sense of loss from having it taken away was so overwhelming that it momentarily overshadowed the pain in his wrist.
“Y-You...!”
Prezen glared at the boy, his anger boiling.
But it was only for a moment.
“...”
Suddenly, Prezen clamped his mouth shut.
The boy, now equipping the artifact, approached the core. The moment their eyes met, the boiling anger subsided.
Just by making eye contact.
‘What... What is that gaze...’
It felt like a cold flame.
Does that make sense? A cold flame. Flames are naturally hot, and when they cool, they simply die out.
Yet, there was no other way to describe it.
A cold, chilling voice echoed in Prezen's ear, now forcibly calmed.
“Why did I forget about you? You were the one I wanted to kill first, even before the young master.”
Even a fool is the young master.
Even if he learned forbidden magic, Deculan wouldn't kill the young master.
But Prezen was different.
The sin of teaching forbidden magic to the young master. The sin of inciting him to disrupt the family. The countless other atrocities Prezen committed.
Deculan would surely kill Prezen.
But.
How could Prezen be handed over to Deculan?
Thus, Aster pursued Prezen.
“Chased you for quite a while, about a hundred days? Maybe more, maybe less. Every moment of that time is still etched in my mind, making it hard to gauge the time.”
As soon as his hand touched the core, or rather, the artifact, light emitted from it.
Sssss...
The phenomenon was the same as when Prezen contaminated the core, but the result was the opposite.
The core gradually became clear.
The demonic aura that had been consuming the core was being absorbed by the artifact.
‘How... How is he...!’
Prezen's eyes widened at the sight.
The Demon Realm created by the artifact is impossible to destroy once established.
But the Trial of the Vessel was only partially affected by the Demon Realm.
It was still reversible.
So, it was possible to eliminate the Demon Realm.
What shocked Prezen was how the boy knew how to use the artifact.
But the boy didn't answer Prezen's curiosity.
To Prezen, it was just incomprehensible babbling.
But to the boy, no, to Aster, it was a significant ritual.
His eyes, focused on the purifying core, gazed calmly at a point in the past.
“I didn't know you were so skilled at running. I was proud of my ability to catch anyone I wanted on the continent, but you were really good at running.”
I searched the entire eastern continent for your trail.
I don't remember how many gray zones, but I overturned a few dens where the fugitives of the gray zones gathered.
“You never showed up. No matter where I went, you never showed up. I just got blood on my hands.”
I killed a lot.
Not all of them deserved to die, but they were still deserving of death, so I killed them with a clear conscience.
From the gray zones to the back alleys of the kingdom, from the kingdom's back alleys to the underworld of the empire.
I searched frantically for your trail.
“To be honest, our lives are lighter than a feather. But I couldn't contain my anger. Why? Maybe if you had died on a mission, I wouldn't have been so angry.”
Anyway, chasing and chasing, I eventually found out.
“The place you chose at the end was the Demon Realm.”
You had somehow made your way into the Demon Realm.
No matter how great a mage, it's impossible to survive the Demon Realm without special equipment.
The demonic aura that eats away at the body, the madness that corrupts the mind.
These are inevitable effects of being human, regardless of one's level.
But.
Aster, or rather, No. 1, entered the Demon Realm.
But.
“You weren't there. I searched thoroughly, over and over. How many sunrises and sunsets did I see? By then, I finally realized.”
Ah, it was a trap.
A clever rat had lured me into a dead end.
Even now, I can't understand how you tricked me.
But, whether I can understand or not, what's done is done.
Aster came out of the Demon Realm.
And he received a piece of news.
“One of the Troubleshooters was waiting. He didn't have the courage to enter the Demon Realm, so he waited for me to come out. He had a message to deliver.”
Aster looked at the almost purified core.
Its surface was so smooth it reflected light brilliantly, and the restored transparency was flawless.
Inside was the remaining demonic aura.
But even this would soon be gone.
The artifact was more efficient at absorbing demonic aura than emitting it.
Anyway.
Aster continued speaking, recalling the past.
“They said you were dead.”
“...”
“They said you were caught by Deculan's subordinates. After being tortured, you revealed the secrets of forbidden magic and the use of the artifact, and then died.”
The sense of futility at the time.
It was indescribable.
I sat in front of the Demon Realm, staring blankly at the sky.
For days, for weeks.
The blue night sky turned dark, and the stars shone brightly, alternating with pitch-black nights obscured by dark clouds.
Then, one day.
“A wyvern flew.”
It looked free.
I was also freed from my blind desire for revenge.
Why did I want revenge? At first, it was for my comrades, but at some point, it became a way to vent my boiling emotions.
Was there a more foolish act?
It was a futile endeavor.
So, I gave up on revenge.
As if I had never thought of revenge from the beginning.
I erased the time I spent on revenge from my mind.
To the point where I wouldn't even remember such a time existed unless I deliberately recalled it.
Not just the young master, but even Deculan.
I erased the existence of Prezen from my mind.
“Looking at it this way, you became the savior of the young master's life, didn't you? The world is truly unpredictable.”
Aster let out a dry laugh and looked at Prezen.
His expression seemed somewhat relieved, but Prezen's feelings were incredibly complex.
The story didn't make any sense.
What was a wyvern, and who was the young master? Why was he trying to kill me?
There must be a misunderstanding. There has to be.
“I don't understand what you're saying. I've never been involved with a young master of any family, and...”
Prezen desperately tried to speak.
‘I have to survive. I can be captured by the academy. The Order will definitely save me. They will definitely save me.’
They wouldn't miss the news that the Order had created the Demon Realm with an artifact.
If they heard this news, they would definitely come to save him.
He had to get out of this situation somehow.
But the other party was no longer in a state where words could be exchanged.
“Why? I had erased my revenge. Strangely, I couldn't stop thinking about the knowledge you left behind.”
The steady footsteps approaching.
Prezen made a last desperate attempt. Or rather, tried to.
He tried to draw out the black magic power tightly bound in his abdomen to use forbidden magic, but...
“Gah!”
A tremendous shock cut off the flow.
“But when I met you today, I realized. It was for today. Yes, it was for this. To be able to use this disgusting artifact like this.”
Aster smiled as he crushed Prezen like a bug.
“The knowledge you recorded details how my comrades were taken down, how they suffered and died. I have plenty of time. I'll recreate that suffering one by one.”
He hadn't forgotten his revenge.
He had just buried it deep.
So deep that he couldn't even find it, and he had forgotten what he had buried.
...The Trial of the Vessel, now completely free of demonic aura.