‘Good, good. At this rate, we can extract all the magical power within an hour.’
Malek struggled to suppress the laughter that threatened to burst out.
But after only about 10 minutes, the two priests stopped their prayer recitations and stepped back.
“Huh? Why are you all like that?”
“Oh, we’ve purified as much as we could.”
“You’re done? Is this the end?”
Malek almost got angry without realizing it.
The size of the magical core he held in his hand was no more than a pearl used on a necklace.
However, that was not all the magical power he had sensed from Elaine. There must have been a lot more left.
“In fact, there is more magical power stored within this saint’s body, but this is all we can purify. Anything more is impossible.”
“Why is that so?”
“Magic power is as diverse as a person’s personality. Some people’s magic power is easily separated from their bodies, while others’ magic power sticks to them and is difficult to separate. This saint’s magical power belongs to the latter, and it feels especially entrenched.”
“Can’t you scrape it out even by force?”
“It’s difficult.”
“It didn’t matter if Elaine died. Is it still impossible?”
The priests were shocked to hear that it didn’t matter if Elaine died.
However, Sasha and Malek’s expressions remained cool and unyielding.
“Ah, w-we’re sorry. This has nothing to do with whether she survives or not. It’s just that her magical power is fully integrated into her body.”
“I see….How disappointing.”
Watching Malek’s utter lack of concern for Elaine’s safety, John realized that this wasn’t about witch detection or purification at all.
But he wisely chose not to ask what Malek’s intentions were.
They were still surrounded by armed soldiers, and John knew that they could not get out of there safely with only two priests with divine powers.
“I apologize for not providing the result you wanted, but this is simply due to Elaine’s condition.”
“Oh, I’m not blaming the priests. I was just saying that the results were disappointing. Anyway, thank you for your hard work.”
Malek commended John and the priests and sent them out with the knights.
‘It’s a shame, but there’s nothing I can do about it.’
‘It would have been great if all of Rabes’s magic within Elaine’s body had been absorbed, but it would have been meaningful even if only a small portion had been absorbed.’
‘As long as Rabess’s magic flows through my body, I can seal Rabes.’
That was much more important.
Because if Rabes disappears, there will be no dragon left to interfere with his rule over the human world.
When he turned around, Sasha was looking down at Elaine, who was lying motionless, as if she was curious.
“If she had a Dragon magic core in her body, that means she had a magical power, right? Then why did she live being abused by the Newt family? If it were me, I’d have killed them all.”
“This girl isn’t exactly like you, a proper witch. She didn’t even know there was a Dragon magic core in her body, let alone how to use magical power.”
“What a useless girl.”
“Perhaps this child’s destiny was to give me a fresh magical core.”
Malek smiled as he carefully examined the small magic core in his hand, then swallowed it like a pill.
After a while, as usual, his heart started pounding and his whole body felt hot.
At first, it was bearable, but gradually the pain became more intense. It was the first time Malek felt that kind of pain since the dragons attacked and his magic core was destroyed.
“Ugh!”
“Malek! Are you okay?”
Sasha tried to support him, but he pushed her away too.
‘Considering the nature of this cursed magic core—the absorption process is just as vile.’
He couldn’t even imagine how much pain it would have caused if all the magic power in Elaine’s body had been extracted. It was almost fortunate that only a small amount of magic power had been extracted.
But the pain gradually subsided.
It felt like he was forcibly suppressing the magical power of Rabes, who was rebelling fiercely.
“Haa, haa….”
And the price for enduring the pain was sweet.
“Ha, haha! Look at me, Sasha! How beautiful I am!”
Even before Malek called, Sasha was staring blankly at him.
A red light swirled around his body like smoke, and Sasha had never seen such a beautiful sight before.
“That’s amazing….”
“Hahaha. I finally got what I wanted, so now it’s time to grant your wish.”
“Malek…!”
Sasha ran into his arms with a moved face.
But granting Sasha’s wish would mean granting Malek’s wish as well.
If he was going to rule over the human world anyway, it would have been better to have a human form, and it would have been easier to wear the guise of the Emperor of the Calais Empire.
Sasha could be discarded when the time was right.
‘I must become a merciful emperor.’
It would be a disaster for humans if the standard of that mercy were Malek himself.
Malek looked down at Elaine with a satisfied smile, then poured something from his fingertips into her mouth.
Then he turned around with a refreshed face.
“Sasha. I have set up a strong barrier around this villa, but just in case, strengthen the security. Someone might come to get that child back.”
“What about you, Malek?”
“Me? I have to go seal that child’s dragon.”
With a bright response, Malek grabbed his coat and left.
* * *
Count Lindell’s house was shaken once again.
The chandeliers throughout the house rattled, their crystal decorations clashing noisily, while the glass windows quivered as if they might shatter at any moment.
Sergey, unable to control the magic power that surged out of him due to his anger, asked Hubert, who was lying in a semi-dead state.
“So… you’re saying that bastard kidnapped Elaine, is that right?”
“Yes…Ugh!..…I’m sorry…I couldn’t do it with my own strength…”
“Of course, you couldn’t. How could a demon like you beat a dragon? The fact that you came back alive is what’s surprising.”
Then he grabbed Hubert by the collar.
“You…how did you come back alive?”
“Keuheup… Ugh…”
As Hubert could only groan, the head maid, Luisa, who was shivering beside him, begged for mercy.
Finally released, Hubert coughed and gasped before managing to reply.
“Ugh… He deliberately let me…live. Through me… he wanted you to find out about the kidnapping of Miss Elaine….. and lose control, rushing straight into his trap…”
“You’re not involved with him, are you?”
“If I intended to betray you, I’d have done it… long before ending up in this state.”
Hubert never lost his sense of humor during that time, but Sergey also knew that his loyalty was genuine.
He stood up to Malek to protect Elaine, but in return, he lost an eye and was found in front of Count Lindell’s main gate with all his limbs twisted.
Hubert said that Malek had intentionally let him live, but it was only a stroke of luck that he was spared.
“Be grateful for getting beaten to a pulp. If you’d come back in a better state, I would’ve killed you myself.”
Gritting his teeth, Sergey nevertheless infused Hubert’s broken body with magic, healing him.
Hubert, who was able to breathe comfortably thanks to that, grabbed his master who seemed ready to explode at any moment.
“Please don’t act rashly. Miss Elaine is being used as bait to lure you into a trap, just as he did with me.”
“I see now that bastard’s crazier than I thought, so that doesn’t mean I can relax anymore!”
Sergey clenched his fists.
The same horrible feeling that had brought him straight home from hunting monsters last night still made his hands tremble.
“What did he do to Elaine? Something about her feels….wrong.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“I don’t know exactly what he did. I just know that Elaine is alive…”
The magic core inside Elaine’s body no longer seemed to respond to his call.
The core, which had once allowed Rabes to partially control Elaine’s mind, now failed to react to his power. That was a clear sign that something had gone wrong.
A more serious problem was that the magical connection was weakened, making it impossible to sense where Elaine was.
“I will kill him. I will definitely kill him!”
Sergey’s blue eyes turned red with rage.
In fact, half of that anger was directed at himself.
‘It was something I did before I returned, but I fell for it!’
The appearance of monsters in the northern empire was identical to the diversion Rabes had used in the past to pull the Holy Knights away from the capital.
The only difference this time was that it wasn’t the Holy Knights that were being targeted, but Rabes.
Hubert stopped Sergey, who looked like he was about to slam the door shut.
“I would be grateful if you could kill that dragon. Anyway, we need to plan our strategy well so that we don’t get swayed by it. He is targeting the upcoming meeting to change the crown prince’s position, so he will not show his power rashly until then.”
“How can you be sure?”
“He’s a guy who’s drunk on himself. He enjoys things going his way and he’s planning to be the star of the show. So he won’t let up before that happens.”
Hubert’s eyes were trustworthy, and he had never been harmed by following his advice.
Besides, it was true that as long as Elaine was in Malek’s hands, Sergey was at a disadvantage.
Sergey barely managed to suppress the magical power that threatened to explode.
“Okay. Now, tell me what you think.”
“What is the most frustrating thing for a narcissist?”
“I don’t have the patience to think like him right now. Just give me the answer.”
Hubert smiled broadly.
“We’ll steal the spotlight from the stage he’s set so carefully.”
“For that bastard, there was never a stage worth standing on in the first place.”
Sergey’s eyes lit up as he began to plot with Hubert and the rest of the demons in the house to punish Malek and rescue Elaine.
* * *
