WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
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◈ Whispers of a Scheming Demon ◈
Chapter 76: The Count's Domain (6)
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The Shadow Realm spiraled around the city of Beldana and extended deep underground.
The farther down one went, the narrower each level became.
The Shadow Realm's third level was inevitably somewhat cramped.
Of course, that was only in comparison to the other levels.
Taken on its own, the third level still boasted an overwhelming amount of space.
A vast sealed chamber stretched before Mapheltan.
There were no pillars, doors, or structures of any kind.
Only a grayish-white ceiling and floor extended endlessly.
An inexplicable emptiness washed over him. It felt like looking out across a boundless sea.
The vacant space itself filled those who saw it with vague unease.
Mapheltan spoke.
“The Celestial Womb is here?”
One of the cultists acting as their guide answered.
“Yes. The Celestial Womb is somewhere in this place.”
Ilea looked at him.
“Then please lead us there quickly.”
The cultist glanced nervously at Mapheltan.
“A wretch like me cannot dare set foot on the third level. The moment I step onto that floor, Belzarak will take my life.”
The ancient demon Belzarak.
It was a high-ranking demon that mocked and humiliated humans.
Belzarak infiltrated the emotions and memories of others. Then it combined their deepest parts and led its targets to ruin.
Humans targeted by it gradually lost their minds and eventually had no choice but to die.
The moment a sapient being other than the Count entered this sealed chamber, they would become Belzarak’s prey.
The Cult of the Evil God’s followers were no exception.
No one here could escape Belzarak’s gaze.
When the cultist refused to enter the third level, Mapheltan smiled.
“Take your life, you say. I am deeply curious to see how it does so.”
Then he gripped the cultist by the back of the head.
“W-Wait! O End!”
“Let us see.”
Mapheltan threw him into the sealed chamber.
The remaining cultists recoiled in alarm.
The cultist who had stepped onto the third level shouted in terror.
“I-I have to get out! Quickly!”
He frantically crawled back toward Mapheltan.
“Please help me. Please…”
At that moment, his movements stopped.
His eyes, once filled with terror, gradually turned black.
Mapheltan watched with an interested expression.
Ilea murmured.
“Belzarak has already taken hold of him.”
The cultist abruptly sprang to his feet. He began muttering incomprehensible words.
Mapheltan spoke.
“Watch carefully. This is how it controls humans.”
Ilea’s eyes turned blue.
She was closely observing Belzarak’s Authority.
They would have to face Belzarak soon, so she needed to find its weakness in advance.
Ilea nodded.
“It interferes with the mind and eventually drives its victims insane.”
Just as she said, the cultist was running madly about. He let out strange cries and kept scratching at his own neck.
Even as his skin peeled away and blood seeped out, he did not stop.
Mapheltan said,
“Correct. Belzarak will combine our memories and show us the worst future we could possibly face.”
Mental Authorities of this kind lost much of their effectiveness when the target understood them.
That was why he had thrown in a cultist for observation.
Ilea would now have a rough understanding of Belzarak as well.
She spoke.
“If they cannot escape the hallucination, they will eventually take their own lives. Like that man.”
The cultist continued to harm himself as he ran through the sealed chamber.
A long trail of red blood followed his path.
He was no longer visible.
He was probably somewhere in that vast chamber, collapsed and dying.
Mapheltan said,
“It is our turn now. Before that, would you like to observe it once more?”
As he spoke, he looked at the remaining cultists.
They backed away before all of them fled at once.
Only then did Ilea lower her hood and remove her mask.
Her doll-like face was revealed.
“I wanted to watch it once more, but they all ran away.”
“I will bring them back if needed.”
Ilea looked quietly at Mapheltan before speaking.
“Mapheltan, you are enjoying this right now, are you not?”
Mapheltan had already taken dozens of lives in the Shadow Realm.
Just now, he had casually driven a human to death.
The guilt-ridden man he had once been was nowhere to be found.
Mapheltan shrugged.
“Well, I will not deny it.”
He was clearly taking pleasure in killing.
Since those who died were evil, he did not feel even the slightest guilt.
Ilea said,
“A little entertainment is fine, but do not become too absorbed in it. One day, you may cross the line.”
Mapheltan nodded.
“I am aware of it, so do not worry.”
Ilea smiled softly.
“Good. Shall we get going, then?”
By now, the Count would have learned what had happened in the Shadow Realm.
The Count was probably already rushing there.
Mapheltan had no more time to waste.
He had to seize the Celestial Womb as quickly as possible.
He stepped forward.
Into the grayish-white sealed chamber.
* * *
Kim Johan, thirty-one years old.
He had lived through the most chaotic era in Earth’s long history.
The year Johan was born, a sinkhole called the Labyrinth appeared on Earth.
The Labyrinth was full of unknowns and resources that had never existed on Earth. Through those new discoveries, Earth’s civilization advanced by an entire stage.
Science and Magic Engineering combined. Life became far more prosperous than before, and human life spans increased exponentially.
Each time humanity conquered a floor of the Labyrinth, it achieved tremendous growth.
Every sight within view became brilliant.
But things were different in the places beyond sight.
The brighter the world became, the farther its shadows stretched.
Johan’s parents had died during the Great Upheaval.
He had been an orphan from the moment he was born.
The Labyrinth, hailed as a divine blessing, had been nothing but a curse to Johan.
Johan received none of the benefits offered by the Labyrinth. Even Awakening, which most modern people underwent, had been nothing more than a dream to him.
Contempt and ridicule always followed him.
An unawakened orphan.
It was an unfortunate life, but Johan did not care.
He had one strength.
An unwavering tenacity and will.
He lived each day for the younger children at the orphanage.
He found meaning in life by caring for them.
Circumstances were difficult, but Johan’s heart was always full.
Raising even one younger sibling well was worth more than a fortune.
Some of them Awakened from time to time and repaid Johan’s kindness.
His life gradually became more prosperous, and before he knew it, he had joined society’s bright side.
He had lived a fairly successful life.
Amid all that injustice, he had found his own path.
Johan liked Earth. He wanted to return. He missed his younger siblings.
He believed those feelings were sincere.
But the sight before him denied that belief.
Beneath a shadow cast across the sky, the world screamed.
Skyscrapers burned, and people shrieked.
Rivers and seas turned red with blood. Entrails and chunks of flesh hung throughout the city.
Civilization was being destroyed.
Wails of grief echoed everywhere.
Countless demons ravaged the surface.
Mapheltan stood at their center.
High in the sky, he burst into wild laughter.
“Cry more! Let your tears answer how it feels to be trampled! The mouths that once held contempt and ridicule now beg for their lives!”
Terrible resentment and malice echoed across the entire Earth.
Mapheltan was drunk on joy.
No one on Earth could stop the end.
Just as he reveled in his overwhelming power, a blue streak of light sped toward him.
Mapheltan clicked his tongue.
“What a futile effort.”
With a snap of his fingers, black chains descended from the sky and caught the approaching mass of light.
A man struggled in the air, bound by chains.
“You filthy demon bastard! Let me go! Now!”
The man stared directly at Mapheltan.
He was resisting the stature of a being who had achieved Transcendence.
Mapheltan found that unpleasant.
He spoke in a chilling voice.
“Blasphemous mortal, I will grant you suffering worse than death.”
Mapheltan waved his arm. The man’s clothes vanished like dust.
Mapheltan, about to begin the torture, froze stiff.
He had seen the tattoos on the man’s body.
Countless names were tattooed there in crooked, slanted script.
───Blue Sprout Orphanage────
Kim Johan, Kim David, Kim Daon, Kim Samuel, Kim Enoch, Kim Elijah, and many more.
One Christian-style name after another was written there.
Old memories suddenly began to creep back into his mind.
‘Joseph, I told you tattoos were off limits. You will regret it someday.’
‘I got our family’s names carved into me, so what? Yours is the first one, hyung. When I make it big, you will be the first person I take care of. Look forward to it.’
‘You damn blockhead. When are you going to grow up?’
‘Pfft. You like it, yet you still say things like that. I still have the other kids’ names to add, so you do the dishes today.’
The image of his younger brother running off after saying that flickered before his eyes.
Mapheltan stared blankly at the man.
“Could it be… Blockhead?”
The man struggling in chains stiffened slightly.
“…What did you say?”
There was only one person in the world who called a top-tier Awakened like him Blockhead.
Kim Johan.
His older brother was the only one.
Mapheltan suddenly clutched his head.
“W-Why am I…”
This entire scene was a hallucination.
Of course, he already knew that.
Only one thing confused him.
Why was he seeing such a future?
The hallucinations Belzarak showed were the result of combining the memories and psyche of sapient beings.
They were fragments made by digging up and stitching together only the ugliest parts hidden deep in one’s heart. In other words, the scene unfolding before him was also connected, to some extent, to the target’s desires.
Johan had secretly hated the world.
He had found a reason to live in his own way, but an unfilled emptiness had always remained.
In the end, he was nothing but dead weight.
To keep from breaking, he needed something to devote himself to.
His dedication to his younger siblings had ultimately been a means of protecting himself.
Horrible self-loathing washed over him.
‘In the end, I am nothing more than a worm.’
Humans who confronted their own ugliness often broke.
The current situation did not affect Mapheltan that deeply.
Still, it would leave a scratch on his heart.
If enough similar wounds piled up, one day they would fester and burst open.
For now, all he could do was promise himself to stay on guard.
Mapheltan composed himself and spoke.
“Blockhead, it was good to see you again. I will be going now.”
To escape the hallucination, he had to find Belzarak.
“Who are you?! Who are you to keep calling me that?!”
The moment he finished speaking, a familiar voice came from above.
“Mapheltan, what is all this?”
Mapheltan looked higher into the sky.
Ilea was quietly gazing down at the land below.
Mapheltan spoke with slight surprise.
“How are you here?”
“I don’t know either. When I woke up, I was already here. More importantly, where exactly is this?”
Everything beneath her feet was unfamiliar.
It was likely a civilization she had never seen before.
Mapheltan did not know how to explain it.
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