Book Eater

As the waves rose and fell in a steady rhythm, sweeping across the empty shoreline, several seashells buried in the sand emerged.

At the same time, tiny crabs swarmed in the burrows dotting the white sandy beach and minnows barely visible to the naked eye busily competed for food.

In the middle of the sea, there was a remote, uninhabited island where no traces of civilization could be found.

A seagull perched on the edge of a reef happily let out a sound. As always, the warm sun and the sea full of food made it feel like paradise. 𝐛𝐞𝐝𝐧𝗼𝘃𝐞𝐥．𝗰𝐨𝗺

Since it was far from land, there were no predators such as hawks or eagles. In addition, the only large animals here were a few deer. For a creature accustomed to the island’s rich environment from birth, there was no trace of the sense of crisis unique to wild animals.

This was the reason why the fat seagull didn’t know anything until the end.

Kkiruk?

What was the source of the chill that tickled the back of its neck and made the feathers all over its body stand stiffly on end?

This was the first time it encountered death after escaping from its mother’s embrace.

The moment the seagull tasted fear and instinctively spread out its wings, a pitch-black shadow rose from beneath the water at a ridiculous speed—it was as if lightning struck upward.

With a heart-wrenching sound, the life of the seagull came to an end. Bones and flesh were crushed all at once. The splattered blood lost its color as it mixed with the blue water.

The smell of blood wafted over the once-peaceful deserted island.

The monster that had turned the seagull into a piece of meat with one wave of its hand placed the rest of the seagull in its mouth and chewed it.

Crunch.

There was a small noise. The culprit walked out of the water that was now dyed a dark red.

[Khhhh…]

Laughter shook the space around it, as if coming from the bottom of a boiling abyss.

[Rakha Shior Wakarahkcha…!]

Three pairs of horns protruded from the temples to the back of the head and four eyes glowed red like lava. This creature from another dimension muttered unpronounceable words. Its skin, which shone black like the carapace of a scorpion, squirmed as if calling out darkness itself.

It was truly a being that could only be described as a demon.

It was a monster that sought dimensional rifts and scattered disasters across dimensional worlds. Each one was like a natural disaster. There were many cases where civilizations were completely destroyed by one of them.

[Krhagu… Ninghena.]

The demon’s sense of smell, which chased living things, extended over a thousand kilometers. The demon grinned when it noticed the smell of life from a distant continent as well as the presence of humans and elves.

Weak! The mortals of this world couldn’t stand against it.

Its hideous mouth opened wide at the thought of mocking the weak, trampling and killing them, and then devouring their flesh and blood. A few old dragons were annoying but they were no match for him. For the time being, it would focus on restoring strength. After that, there would only be a one-sided massacre.

[Rhahahahaha!]

It wasn’t called a demon for nothing. It was the embodiment of evil, the enemy of all worlds. As it dreamed of the bloody banquet that would soon begin, it started laughing maniacally.

Just then, thunder rumbled in the distance.

“—Go, Keraunos.”

It tore apart the sky above the head of the crazy demon.

The whole world turned white. An absurd amount of magic power fell as a single thunderbolt.

The air caught in its path burned up in an instant. The seawater started to evaporate before the thunderbolt even reached it, which caused a steam explosion. The peaceful and beautiful beach no longer existed. More than half the island was obliterated, even though the thunderbolt had merely grazed it.

Something that seemed to contain the destructive power of a small meteorite slammed down!

It was a power that couldn’t be ignored even by a demon.

[KraaAAAAA――!!]

Sure enough, the demon jumped out from the steam, but its glossy black skin now looked tattered, like a bunch of rags. Bones stronger than mithril were exposed all over its body. Nevertheless, as expected of a demon, it hadn’t even lost a limb, much less its life. In spite of being hit directly by ultimate magic, it had ended up with just burns.

‘It can’t be done in one blow after all.’

Over a distance of several kilometers, the two beings made eye contact.

The demon’s eyes were filled with deep astonishment when it discovered Theodore, the man standing on the clouds.

[G, Gardiana!?]

This person appeared to be a weak human being on the surface, but the demon saw through his essence and took a few steps back.

A dimensional guardian.

A superhuman who bore the fate of a world, a weapon that punished enemies from outside the dimension. The natural enemy of the demon, who was penalized quite a bit because it was an invader of this world. It was the worst encounter for a being that had consumed more than half its strength to jump across dimensions.

“Hmm.”

Theodore knew that the opponent was scared and landed on the surface of the sea. He was a few kilometers away, but to a transcendent, that distance simply meant spending some mana. Moreover, the outcome of this fight was predetermined.

He asked, “You seemed to have figured out the situation. I guess I can’t just convince you to piss off, right?”

A demon didn’t communicate with words. It read the meaning contained in the words and reacted accordingly. At Theodore’s suggestion that it leave on its own, the demon instead spread out its wings and took a fighting stance.

[Raktasha! Ortca, Himur!]

“Hah.”

Theodore sneered when he heard the demon’s answer. Did the demon think he was an easy opponent just because he asked nicely before starting a fight?

In any case, the demon’s response was exactly what he had expected. Seeing the demon releasing hideous demonic energy, he lifted his index finger without any expression on his face.

“Bring it on.”

At that moment, the demon rushed forward with its two wings spread out.

[KAAAAA―――!]

In a single step, it broke through the sound barrier, and then it stretched out its upper limbs—the claws made them unlike human arms, but they were also unlike animal claws.

Green flames burst out from its claws: hell’s brimstone fire. It was a bit different from hellfire, but there wasn’t much difference in terms of killing power. The blow also had the added power of supersonic speed and was at a level that could compete with ultimate magic.

Mode INDRA.

Theodore’s body turned cobalt for an instant. His speed as he turned into plasma, the fourth state of matter that transcended lightning, easily exceeded supersonic speed.

His right arm turned into a flash of light and released a blade. Then the demon’s arm, which was thicker than an ogre's, soared into the sky. The section of the arm cut by the plasma didn’t even bleed. The cut was clean to the extent that the demon itself took some time to figure out what was going on.

[......Ka, Kyaaaa?!]

The demon finally understood that Theodore was in a different class. However, before it could finish its ‘sentence,’ Theodore was already casting a second spell.

Four magic balls floated out of his palm one after another.

“Great magic.”

Even if its level was lower than the opponents he faced in the past, a demon was a demon. He would fight this battle without any carelessness.

The demon had lost its balance due to the injury and couldn’t escape.

Abraxas.

A storm of pale light swept over the area.

The force born from the collapse of the four major elements dissipated everything in its trajectory, matter or non-matter. The same was true for the demon’s body, which was said to be difficult to pierce even with an aura blade.

There was no grand explosion like with the Keraunos cast earlier. Due to the nature of Abraxas, which destroyed all things from the source, the air and seawater didn’t burn or vaporize. Still, the traces left behind weren’t trivial.

“Whoa, the ecosystem is a bit ruined.”

Theodore let out a long sigh as he looked at the sea split in half before his eyes. He had feared this would happen, so he had fired it horizontally instead of vertically. However, he couldn’t help this amount of damage because he really had to kill the demon. It was fortunate that it was at a level that would recover in five or six years.

After returning the unstable ocean currents to their original state, Theodore looked toward the distant horizon.

“Goetia, how many times was this?”

The ring on his right hand flickered.

[142 times in total. This is the fifth time this year, Master.]

“...It has become less frequent. Is it finally in a stable phase?”

[That is my judgment as well. The dimensional boundaries are likely to stabilize in a minimum of five years to a maximum of ten years.]

Theodore closed his eyes with a look of relief. Then he opened them.

All of this was due to Wrath of the Seven Sins.

In the end, Theodore had unleashed the power of Akasha and managed to stop Wrath; however, the impact of Wrath had torn the atmosphere apart. This had damaged the durability of the world. In the early days, demons would crawl out in the double digits per month.

Theodore repelled every single one of them.

There were no enemies difficult for a transcendent who wielded the power of the guardian, the symbol engraved on the back of his hand.

“I’m going back.”

Theodore looked at the calm sea.

“Goetia, what is left on my schedule?”

[There is one thing left. It is marked as ‘top priority.’]

“Huh? Was there such a thing?”

Theodore’s puzzlement could be read on his face. In a smug tone, as if it had expected him to react like this, Goetia whispered to him the last item on his schedule. Hearing what it was, Theodore could only smile bitterly.

“...I really forgot about this. Damn, it’s really top priority.”

[It isn’t too late.]

“Yes, I have to hurry.”

It was thousands of kilometers from here to Mana-vil, but it didn’t matter to Theodore.

Clack!

He snapped his fingers and his figure disappeared.

In the place where he left, there was only the uninhabited island that had been turned into a hideous sight and the seagulls that had fled in surprise at the sudden surge.

Kkiruk.

A seagull landed on the reef and randomly squawked.

* * *

17 years ago, the continent suddenly regained peace due to the emergence of a hero.

Lairon, who had been the seed of discord on the Central Continent, fell. Andras and Meltor, who were famous for their long-standing feud in the North Continent, declared a non-aggression pact at the end of the war. Disputes large and small broke out over vacant land in the country, but in the end, there were no armed conflicts.

Theodore Miller.

The great magician who reached the 9th circle. He was considered an old legend, and there was no country who could ignore the role he had played in mediating the conflict.

“...From here, I’m sure you all know what happened. The era of war came to an end and the era of peace arrived. Military service, which used to be compulsory, also became optional. Historians started discussing the heyday of the magic empire from that period on.”

The professor, whose hair was all white, tapped on the blackboard and spoke with a raspy voice.

He wrote down a few lines with the chalk in his hand. Then he looked back at the students and raised his voice.

“Albert!”

One of the students sitting near the window screamed in response, “Huh?! Ah, yes, Professor!”

“You seem pretty enthusiastic. Can you tell me what I was talking about just now?”

“T-That...”

Albert looked between the professor’s icy face and the blackboard several times before lowering his head. He could answer the question, but the problem wouldn’t be solved like this.

“I’m sorry, Professor. I was thinking about something else.”

Albert admitted his mistake without making any excuses, and the professor’s expression relaxed. He put down the chalk.

“I understand. Today is a bit of a special day indeed. You first-graders haven’t experienced it yet, have you? A big event like the magic contest.”

All the students nodded at the friendly tone.

The magic contest.

It was an event that Meltor had held every cycle since it became the empire of magic. Meltor had magicians as its national power; naturally, the level of the empire’s magic was several orders of magnitude higher than that of other kingdoms. Countless magicians who coveted that wisdom flocked to it.

Magicians from all over the continent gathered for this annual event!

Even though they were young, the students who wanted to become magicians couldn’t help but be fascinated by it.

“But—”

Nevertheless, Professor Vince Haidel spoke with a stern expression.

“What kind of teacher would let students leave early when the fools can’t even focus in class?”

“...”

“...”

The students’ eyes lit up as they quickly grasped the situation. Vince saw their shrewdness and smiled.

“Okay. If any of you give me a good answer to this one, I’ll let you out right now and give you extra points.”