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Henry had used magic to numb his tongue just in case. He had also removed his sense of smell as he knew that aroma was just as important as flavor. However, even with those precautions, Henry couldn’t do anything about the disgust derived from the gory scenery and the repulsion he felt from the act itself.

Henry had stoically suppressed his feelings only with his mental strength. It had certainly been a grueling ninety minutes for him.

After finishing a heart, Henry incinerated the corpse so that he wouldn’t attempt to extract a heart from the same monster twice.

But despite being awful, this process had its advantages. While the Black Tear was more clean and efficient, it brought extreme pain, while eating the hearts was less painful, despite being a revolting experience even without a sense of taste or smell.

Henry felt like the last heart he had swallowed had turned into flames and was about to explode through his chest. However, this kind of pain was nothing compared to what the Black Tear caused.

Gulp.

With that, Henry had eaten all the hearts, and when he opened his mouth, he belched. He was sure he would’ve thrown from that if he he hadn’t suppressed his sense of smell.

Having finished with his feast, Henry sat down with his legs crossed. He was bloated because he had eaten more hearts than he had to, so it was difficult for him to straighten him back. Nevertheless, he tried his best to correct his posture.

Every part of Henry’s body was covered in demon blood, but that didn’t bother him. He knew he could just get rid of all of the stains with just one Clean spell. What mattered most was absorbing all the magic from the hearts and making it his own.

Henry started to focus, and he quickly forgot about the uncomfortable sensation of his bulging stomach.

The process of absorbing magic didn’t take very long, twenty minutes at most. Considering that it had taken Henry half a day to fully absorb Miracle Blue right after his reincarnation, this process was as speedy as it could be.

Henry proceeded to bind the magic power he had extracted from the hearts with his own, which was the most important step.

After he was done, Henry infused the magic power into his Mana Heart as delicately as possible, which took another thirty minutes.

But then…

‘Maybe…?’

The 7th-Circle started vibrating, which was a sign that the 8th-Circle would soon materialize. This sensation caused Henry to smile with his eyes closed. He definitely hadn’t expected to reach the 8th-Circle so quickly. And to make things better, there was still a lot of magic he could absorb.

Maintaining the smile on his face, he continued to take in more magic until he finally awakened the 8th-Circle. He then slowly opened his eyes.

“Clean.”

Swoosh-!

Along with a gust of wind, a pure white light enveloped Henry briefly before disappearing. With that, all the crusted blood had vanished from his clothes and skin. He was as clean as he had been before coming here.

Having tidied up, Henry stretched, ready to get going.

“Hmm, I was done a lot faster than I thought I’d be.”

Henry had come all the way here in the Second District to obtain the Venom’s Heart. However, he had taken down the demon and awakened the 8th-Circle far quicker than he had anticipated. His performance had indeed exceeded his initial plan.

Henry checked the time and noticed that the sun still hadn’t risen, which caused him to have second thoughts on returning to his camp.

‘I think I can get the next plan done right now as well?’

With that, Henry checked the time again. He had anticipated that this whole endeavor in the Second District would take around four hours, but he still had plenty of time left.

‘Alright, let\'s give it a try.’

There really was no reason for Henry not to try his next plan. After all, he could just turn back if he ran out of time.

Having made up his mind, Henry cast stealth magic again and got ready. It wasn’t necessary for him to erase his presence, given that he had already cleared the Second District, but there was no such thing as too much caution during wartime.

Henry quickly reached the First District. The moment he stepped foot over the border, he could feel the nasty toxins in the air, which were far more terrible than the ones in the Second District, stick to his skin, making for a repulsive sensation.

‘It’s been a while since I’ve been here.’

Henry’s eyes glittered with vigor. He was excited to see this Demon King again, even though this was technically their first encounter, given that the King of Gods had sent him back in time.

Henry concealed himself again using 8th-Circle stealth spells and slowly walked into the First District. As he did so, a completely different scenery unfolded before his eyes, which was in stark contrast to the barren landscape he had previously witnessed.

Everything looked just like it had back then.

‘Oh right, there were beasts like this.’

Nothing in this forest was aware of Henry’s presence—not the Death Knights who were poised to attack everything in their path, nor the King of Hybrid Beasts, nor the Legion of Necromancer, or even the undead.

Having awakened the 8th-Circle, the current Henry could easily take care of the Demon King by himself. However, for the next one hundred minutes, Henry’s plan wasn’t to take care of the demon army or to slay the Demon King himself. Rather, his task was to get rid of something the Demon King possessed, who was unaware of his arrival and had his guard down.

Henry called that something the Demon King’s Hatred, and he had come up with that name after the dying Demon King had placed that terrible curse on Golden Jackson.

Henry thought deeply when the King of Gods told him that he could send him back in time, meticulously going over each important event in his previous life to determine where he had to start over from.

His conclusion was that he had to return to the time before he and his comrades took down the Demon King.

He figured that if Golden Jackson hadn’t died early because of that curse, the young Silver Jackson would not have inherited the throne early. On top of that, Henry’s failure to save Golden Jackson from that curse had been one of his biggest regrets in life.

But now, Henry had the chance to fix everything. Besides saving his friend, he would allow him to receive all the honor that the Demon King had taken away from him.

That was why Henry had come all the way here on his own—to take care of the Demon King’s Hatred before he could place it on Golden Jackson. Of course, if the Demon King hadn’t activated that curse back then, Henry wouldn’t have known about its existence. But now that he knew, Henry would eliminate the risk of that curse for good.

Henry looked up at the sleeping Demon King. He went by the name of Vegarus[1], and among all the demons and demonic beasts Henry had ever seen, he was the most hideous and terrifying-looking one.

Looking at him, Henry recalled how vicious and aggressive this Demon King was and how difficult it had been for him and his comrades to take him down.

Vegarus was fast asleep without even knowing that Henry was around. Henry stared at him in silence for a few moments. He couldn’t even fathom how much he had resented Vegarus all this time. He couldn’t help but think that if Vegarus hadn’t caused all that trouble, none of the tragedies he had endured would’ve occurred in the first place.

Henry looked around and saw the Demon Realm Gap behind the Demon King. Just as he had expected, the gap was open.

‘Tsk, I didn’t even think about that when going back in time.’

Henry had been so focused on getting rid of the Demon King’s Hatred that he had completely forgotten that the Demon Realm Gap was still open at this point in time. A vague sense of hopelessness washed over Henry as he stared at the gap.

If he could, he would kill Vegarus and close the gap at the same time. However, he was well aware that it was impossible for an ordinary human to seal the Demon Realm Gap. One needed dimensional powers, which could only be received from the Demon God, to seal the gap.

In any case, instead of thinking about the impossible, Henry decided to focus on what he had planned initially.

Henry drew a magic circle next to Vegarus. It was a transportation magic circle, and it was meant to provide Henry with a way of escaping from the forest whenever he wanted, regardless of how things went.

After completing the magic circle, Henry concentrated magic in his right hand.

Specifically, the Demon King’s Hatred was the red gem in between his eyes. Back then, Henry had assumed that it was a mere accessory or part of Vegarus’ body.

Henry shook his head ruefully, thinking that if he had known what that terrible gem was capable of, he would’ve gotten rid of it first.

However, he had another chance to get rid of it. He concentrated dozens of full-power 8th-Circle destructive spells in his right hand, ready to eliminate the Demon King’s Hatred in one blow.

‘Alright. I’m ready.’

His right hand trembled at the sheer amount of concentrated magic.

‘Alright then!’

He then cast Blink, the spell that would allow him to teleport anywhere within his sight. With that, he teleported right in front of the sleeping Vegarus. Then, without the slightest hesitation, he thrust the compressed magic ball between his eyes.

‘Now!’

A brilliance burst out of the magic sphere as it collided with the Demon King’s Hatred. Following that, Henry cast Blink again to get in the middle of the magic circle he had prepared to escape.

Whirr—!

Everything happened in an instant. Henry was back in his barracks, just as he had set the coordinates of the magic circle.

‘It must’ve worked, right?’

Henry was sweating profusely, the past couple of seconds having been absolutely nerve-wracking. However, he was confident that the Demon King’s Hatred had shattered. It couldn’t have withstood all that magic power.

Henry cast Clean once again to get rid of all the sweat. But as he stood up and stretched, he was interrupted by someone.

“Ar-Archmage! You should come outside for a moment!”

“Hmm? Why?”

The soldier desperately calling out to Henry was the one who had offered to wake him up at sunrise. At this, Henry quickly followed the soldier outside, and he immediately understood why the soldier had called him so urgently.

“What is that…?”

Beyond the barracks, on the edge of the horizon, a wave of light, the kind of which Henry had never seen before, radiated from where the Demonic Beast Forest was. Because of that, the troops had been panicking since dawn.

Everyone hurriedly armed themselves and switched into emergency mode, fearing that the Demon King was up to something. By the principle that whoever struck first won, troops woke up the priests to have them cast their Holy Code and then rushed toward the forest.

However…

“Wh-what in the world…?”

There were no monsters in the Second District because Henry had already dealt with them. However, Henry hadn’t told anyone about his late-night quest, so everyone was confused by the situation, as it made no sense to them.

Golden Jackson, who was in the lead, was especially baffled by the absence of monsters.

“Surely this is a dream…?”

Golden saw traces of combat, so he guessed that someone had already been there before them. However, there was no way for him to tell who it was, so he couldn’t do anything but stare in shock at the deserted forest.

All his comrades reacted similarly. But as they all tilted their heads in confusion, Henry was trying to hide his expression.

‘This isn’t what I had in mind…?’

Henry had thought that he would get emotional when he finally reunited with his old comrades after the sun rose, but he didn’t feel like that at all.

The punitive army continued advancing while still wondering who had taken care of the monsters. Given that the Second District seemed deserted, the troops intended to go to the First District, where the light had come from.

However, they were even more shocked when they stepped foot into the First District.

“Isn’t that… the Demon King?” said Golden Jackson, his voice brimming with curiosity and confusion.

He was pointing to Demon King Vegarus, or rather, to his lower body that was twitching and squirting blood.

1. The Demon King that cursed Golden Jackson was initially called Wielbark, but here and in future chapters he will be known as Vegarus in the raws. We have subsequently changed Wielbark to Vegarus in all chapters. ☜

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