The Great Mage Returns After 4000 Years

The appearance of Venian Argento was that of ‘Venian’. In the first place, if that hadn’t been the case, he probably wouldn’t have been able to recognise her at first glance.

Compared to the various appearances she’d displayed in the ‘Great Field’, her current expression was closer to ‘Venian’ than it was to ‘Chorong’.

But Lukas couldn’t recklessly approach her. Just because her outer appearance was that of Venian didn’t mean that the personality inside was the same.

Venian was one of multiple personalities, a fragment of the Ruler, Seven Fanged Dragon God.

Of course, the Lightning God’s warning was also probably for that reason. He really hated that guy, but he could at least trust the fact that he wouldn’t lie.

‘…definitely die.’

Speculation mixed with conviction. This wasn’t because he doubted it.

However, if he were to die, Lukas wondered as to the reason.

Would it be because of the remnants of the Lightning God in his head?

To deal with Lukas, who could now be considered as half a person of the ‘World of Void’?

Or would the presence of Pale, who was standing still with a relaxed expression, be the cause of conflict?

‘Yang In-hyun.’

Lukas turned his gaze over to the Void Lord.

He could feel it.

Venian’s attention hadn’t yet picked up Lukas or Pale. Instead, she was completely focused on Yang In-hyun, who was talking to Leo.

‘Venian and the Seven Fanged Dragon God should know about Yang In-hyun.’

He wasn’t sure.

The one who had defeated the Seven Fanged Dragon God was the ‘4th Beast’. But Lukas had never encountered that Void Lord before.

However, the Twelve Void Lords, no, every being in the World of Void, had a unique aura that only they exuded. They generated unique energy waves that were unlike any being in the Three Thousand Worlds, so it was impossible for the Seven Fanged Dragon God to not notice.

And yet, Venian continued to watch the situation.

Even as Dok Go-yun and Leo came to blows.

‘…I have no choice but to watch the situation first.’

Thinking that, Lukas hid his presence even more, but things didn’t go as he intended.

“I can feel a disgusting aura.”

When Lukas turned around, shaking, he saw Pale, who was smiling toothily.

“I didn’t expect to meet one of them so soon. It’s bothering me so much I have to kill them.”

“…wait.”

In terms of numbers, this was already the third time. He stopped her. Of course, it went without saying that this time was the most dangerous.

He had expected it, but it was much harder to deal with Pale than Yang In-hyun.

Pale turned her head to look at Lukas. She seemed to be waiting to hear what he wanted to say. In all honesty, just being able to elicit such a reaction from her could be considered a huge step.

But what should he say?

“Why do you want to kill her?”

“Because I hate those guys.”

“The Rulers, or Absolutes?”

At that, Pale released a seething momentum. Her expression was gradually being coloured with irritation. It could be interpreted as ‘why are you asking something like that?’.

“Those guys don’t know hunger.”

“…what?”

“They probably lived their lives without knowing hunger. Satiety pickled brained bastards*. I’m going to wring the oil out of their stomachs with my bare hands. Only then will I feel better.”(*:Bastards whose brains have been pickled in satiety)

Pale rarely showed such strong emotions. But whenever a Ruler was involved, the emotions she displayed were special.

It wasn’t just hatred or anger.

Lukas…

Could understand what Pale was saying to an extent.

Contempt towards those who were born as Absolutes, those who had lived without a single crisis or risk. What Pale wanted to shout about was the so-called ‘discontent of the underdog’.

In that case, he could persuade her.

“I hate them too. My reasons are different from yours, but my hatred is no less.”

“I suppose.”

“However, not that woman. Take a closer look. Does that really look like a Ruler?”

“Definitely. I can’t tell the difference.”

“She’s not.”

Lukas shook his head. It had been a long time since he’d felt Pale’s cool gaze.

Her actions in the mine allowed him to realise that their relationship was much more advanced than before. He wasn’t sure exactly what direction it had advanced in, but it was clearly deeper than before.

However, for Pale, the Rulers could be considered her ‘reverse scale’. If he were to answer incorrectly here, Pale would turn her sword on him without hesitation.

“That woman knows hunger.”

“Huh.”

“She has experienced failure.”

The ‘hunger’ Pale was talking about was failure.

There are ups and downs in the lives of every being. There is no life that is only happy or only unhappy. There are times when you succeed, and times when you fail.

That was the reality.

But not for Rulers.

Their lives had no crises, no misfortune, and no failure.

They were selfish lives that travelled the road of success from the moment they were born.

However, the Seven Fanged Dragon God had experienced defeat in the World of Void.

Even though they could not tolerate defeat, it had happened. Perhaps Rulers were beings who were not allowed to have even a single defeat. It was possible that the Dragon God’s fall had something to do with that defeat.

Without even mentioning that speculation, Lukas spoke.

“You should know. Where she was defeated.”

“…”

There was no way she didn’t know.

After all, she was none other than the Blue Knight, Pale, one of the Four Knights.

She was the one who had sensed the Ruler’s invasion through the use of puppets and had clearly shown that she was on full alert.

On the other hand, although he didn’t know much about the Seven Fanged Dragon God, her power should have been equivalent to the strongest beings in the World of Void. So there was no way that the battle would have gone unnoticed.

It was even possible that Knights were involved in the conflict between the ‘4th Beast’ and the ‘Seven Fanged Dragon God’.

“She’s not worth fighting. At least I don’t think so.”

There was no guarantee that his persuasion would work.

But that was all he had. Lukas had no other excuse to persuade her with. If Pale still decided to kill Venian…

“…”

The gleam in Pale’s eyes calmed. Then, she puffed out her cheeks.

“Tch.”

And, after squatting again, she began to play with the face of the sleeping girl.

The skin piercing momentum also disappeared, and Lukas could finally let out a sigh of relief.

The worst had passed.

* * *

While his attention was on Pale, the conversation between Leo and Yang In-hyun came to an end. Lukas clicked his tongue. He’d been so distracted, he’d ended up missing what they had talked about.

Leo politely bowed towards Yang In-hyun before disappearing.

‘He’s heading into the mine.’

There was no need to stop him.

He couldn’t say for when Cairo was still alive, but there was nothing in the mine that could threaten Leo now. As he thought of the mine that had already lost its original function, Lukas recalled another of his disciples.

‘Arid.’

If it was Arid, then maybe even those who had already become monsters would be able to regain their original forms. It might seem irresponsible, but it seemed reasonable to leave the mine to the ‘Trowman Rings’.

Lukas confirmed that Leo had left. Then, while maintaining his awareness of Venian’s attention, Lukas space leapt into the ‘Omega’.

After a while, Yang In-hyun and Dok Go-yun entered the aircraft, the latter looking at him in surprise.

“Uh, why are you here?”

“I’ll give you a detailed explanation later. For now, can we leave this place immediately?”

“Yes.”

“I killed the Demon of the Mine.”

“Ah, yes…”

Although he was confused, Dok Go-yun carried out Lukas’ orders. The Omega immediately took off, quickly rising several hundred metres in the air.

“…”

He could feel Venian’s gaze in their direction. Fortunately, she made no moves to stop them, but it made Lukas suspicious.

Why was she letting Yang In-hyun go despite realising his existence? Was it because she judged that she had no chance of winning on her own, or was there some other reason.

…He couldn’t tell.

This was because Lukas didn’t even know how powerful Venian was now. This couldn’t be helped. After all, he might have been caught if he tried to inspect her more carefully.

‘The Trowman Rings came here to kill Cairo.’

It wasn’t a good feeling.

Iris had said. Most of the beings from his home universe empathised with Diablo’s ideals.

In other words, it was possible that his ‘home universe’ and ‘Earth’ might one day enter an all out war.

“…”

If such a situation did occur, should he remain silent?

Should he dismiss their actions as those of the outside?

-I’d like to… apologise in advance… but it can’t be helped… Regrets… there is a being who… doesn’t want you to have them…and I… owe them…

-Go… take a look and… judge for yourself…

The Exile.

Lukas recalled the last things the person who sent him to the Three Thousand Worlds said.

Then he thought.

In the end, what would his role be after coming to this place?

* * *

He finished giving a short explanation to Yang In-hyun and Dok Go-yun. He told them that the situation in the mine had been resolved, and that he thought it would be better to leave since the ‘Trowman Rings’ who came after them would be better at cleaning up.

His various explanations were insufficient, but neither of the two expressed any doubts.

The cabin was quiet.

Pale had fallen asleep while hugging the little girl like a doll, and the Heavenly Demon was also meditating to replenish the mental energy he’d exhausted in the fight against Leo.

Apart from the sounds of breathing and faint mechanical sounds, there were no other noises.

Pale moonlight shined gently on the white interior. Lukas sat in front of the window, looking out at the landscape outside which didn’t change much.

“A moonlit night.”

He heard a deep voice. Even without looking back, he could tell that it was Yang In-hyun’s voice.

“It’s not easy to fall asleep on a night like this.”

He felt him sit down beside him. He was a bit far away, but it was close enough to see his face. Of course, it was a face that made it impossible to tell what he was thinking.

“That’s the way you looked at those people.”

Yang In-hyun suddenly spoke up.

“What do you mean?”

“You don’t always need to know what the other person is thinking.”

“…”

Did he notice that he was looking for something?

If that was the case, then Yang In-hyun had pointed out Lukas’ rudeness in the politest way possible.

“I apologise if I offended you.”

Yang In-hyun silently shook his head.

He wasn’t sure if that meant he was forgiving him or he didn’t want to accept it.

Gurgle-

He heard something being poured. When he took a look, Yang In-hyun was pouring a drink for himself. But after pouring the alcohol, he didn’t drink it, and instead simply looked at glass.

“The young man I saw today.”

Yang In-hyun spoke without even looking at him.

“An acquaintance?”

He pondered that question for a while.

Should he be honest, lie, or remain silent.

“My disciple.”

“That young man wasn’t a Wizard.”

“I didn’t teach him magic.”

“Indeed, so you had an impact in a more ideological sense.”

He wasn’t wrong, but Lukas’ expression changed slightly.

“You don’t know anything about having a disciple.”

“I at least know what it means to be Master and Disciple.”

So conceptually.

Shaking his head, Lukas changed the subject.

“Do you not have any disciples?”

Yang In-hyun smiled. Of course, it was a wry smile.

“I’m not qualified for that.”

“…qualified.”

Lukas looked at Yang In-hyun for a moment before blurting.

“You’re like me.”

Yang In-hyun’s figure froze.

To be honest, even Lukas himself was surprised, but his mouth didn’t stop.

“I also didn’t have any disciples for a long time. Because I felt that I wasn’t qualified.”

“You’re saying…”

“Right. I thought that it would be shameful to teach someone when my own inadequacies and inferiority constantly drew closer like the air. I couldn’t afford to. However, one day, I happened to get a disciple.”

“How and where did you find them?”

“I didn’t find them. It just… just happened to happen.”

Even Lukas himself thought that was a terrible explanation, so he added.

“I don’t like the word, but it must have been fate.”

“…fate.”

“That meeting made me feel a bit better. It’s not about learning something new while teaching someone or anything like that. However, I learned that the person teaching doesn’t necessarily have to be perfect. In the first place, that’s not possible.”

“…”

“What’s important is the kind of educational views you have. And how you set yourself to be seen by your students.”

In all honesty, he never thought he’d bring up these inner feelings to Yang In-hyun out of everything.

This was probably also thanks to Lukas regaining some of his humane sensibility.

“Which form did you choose?”

“Mm.”

“What form did you show to your disciples.”

“I pretended to be perfect.”

“…”

Looking at Yang In-hyun who was lost for words for a moment, the corners of Lukas’ mouth twisted.

“I couldn’t be perfect, so I decided to act as perfect as possible. Being fair, saying the right things they did were right, saying the wrong things they did were wrong… the kind of being to become. It didn’t matter if they really do or not. Because it was simply a Master’s wish.”

“Wish.”

“That our disciples become better than us.”

As he said that, Lukas thought of a woman with black hair.

“That they don’t fail as spectacularly as we did.”

The conversation paused there.

Yang In-hyun’s gaze turned, once more, to the window. As he looked at the moonlight dyed clouds, he suddenly downed his alcohol for some reason.

Then, looking down at the clean glass, he opened his mouth.

“It’s something I never pictured before.”

“…”

“However, right. Maybe that’s the way to find the answer.”

“…Lee Jong-hak is in Flower Mountain.”

“…”

“He is a man of substance, but I couldn’t be his Master. Even priests of different types could get along, but that guy and I wouldn’t.”

“…”

“Maybe you will be able to guide him to the right path.”

Yang In-hyun was silent for a long time. Then, he started emptying one glass after the other.

Eventually, as the scenery outside began to change, he heard him mutter in a slightly drunken voice.

“…one more reason to go back.”

They didn’t talk anymore after that.

However, Yang In-hyun, who got up from his seat, brought another glass with him, and the drinking party carried on until dawn.

—Then the Omega.

Arrived at the [Next Stage].