El's remaining days were not particularly fruitful. Despite wandering throughout the Heart Kingdom, he received no missions.
Instead, he spent most of his time in the castle with Queen Lolopechka. With access to her vast, ancient wisdom—freely shared without hesitation—a bond gradually formed between them, something akin to close siblings.
He created many useful runes. One of them was born from merging his knowledge of instant transmission with his mastery of runes— a rune that allowed him to mark inanimate objects and summon them at will. However, the effect would fail if the rune was damaged.
In his second year in the Heart Kingdom, while researching the history of the Strong Magic Region between the Heart and the Spade Kingdom, El uncovered clues hinting at the existence of an ancient structure.
The discovery stirred a memory—an old warning from the elf elder Pedro, whose magic allowed him to communicate with ordinary spirits and beasts. They had warned him never to approach the southern frontier of the Strong Magic Region. Something ominous resided there.
The structure mentioned by Pedro closely resembled the one referenced in Lolopechka's records. And since El was practically starving for action, he lied to Lolopechka, claiming he might have discovered an unexplored dungeon.
Contrary to his expectations, she showed no interest in potential treasure and firmly forbade him from going. However, when he raised the matter again in front of Gaja—pointing out her relentless efforts to strengthen the kingdom—Gaja convinced her.
Reluctantly, she agreed.
The expedition team was finalized: El, Gaja—the strongest Spirit Guardian—and Potrof, the Earth Spirit Guardian of the Heart Kingdom.
Seven days later, clad in magic robes inscribed with fire runes to regulate their body temperature, they teleported via Instant Transmission and appeared at the edge of the Strong Magic Region—the farthest point El had previously wandered.
"Your teleportation magic is truly fascinating, El," Potrof remarked, the stocky blonde man's round face gleaming with curiosity.
"Thank you for the praise," El replied, already walking toward a distant northern star glowing faintly in the horizon.
"Why did we wait an entire week?" Gaja asked.
"Because the records state that the dungeon entrance activates only once a year," El answered.
"And that day is today?" Potrof pressed.
"No. Tomorrow. But it will take time to pinpoint the entrance."
With that, El pressed forward, using his robes to maintain warmth as he walked, flew, and crawled across the shifting terrain—storm-lashed cliffs, frozen plains, and eerily calm stretches that felt more dangerous than the tempest.
When the storm winds grew too violent to advance, Gaja tore through the sky with lightning magic, dispersing the clouds long enough for them to continue. For thirteen relentless hours, they trekked deeper into the region.
And still, the dungeon entrance remained nowhere in sight.
By El's calculations, they should have reached it long ago.
For the first time since arriving, doubt crept into his mind.
They advanced for another hour when the northern star—their only guide—vanished behind a wall of black clouds, leaving them stranded in the storm.
El suddenly halted.
"Did you find something?" Gaja asked, hope creeping into his voice after hours of fruitless marching.
"I sense people. About a kilometer from here." El's voice was steady, though his Ki senses strained at their limit. Over the past year, his range had grown from a mere hundred meters to nearly a kilometer.
"How can you tell?" Potrof muttered, bracing himself against the wind. "I can't make sense of mana a few meters ahead of me."
"There are at least seven of them. We should follow."
Gaja nodded. "We will. But if it turns dangerous, you teleport us back to the Heart Kingdom immediately."
El inclined his head, and they veered away from their original path, moving toward the distant presences.
They advanced carefully, relying solely on El's Ki detection, closing the distance while staying just outside what he estimated to be their mana sensing range.
Five hundred meters.
El's focus abruptly split.
Something brushed the edge of his perception—Too close.
"There's someone near us," he said quietly. "Near Potrof. But I can't see him. Is it invisibility magic?"
Lightning flared instantly in Gaja's fist. Potrof slammed his hands to the earth, searching through vibrations.
"Nothing," Potrof growled.
"No… not invisible." El's gaze sharpened. "Gaja—strike Potrof's shadow."
Without hesitation, a bolt of lightning tore downward.
It passed straight through the shadow—absorbed without resistance.
El drew the sword from his waist and slashed at Gaja's shadow. A claw of darkness rose from the ground, catching the blade effortlessly.
"Everyone stop," El ordered.
The moment his words faded, a crushing weight descended. An ominous presence stood behind them. Their bodies locked in place, restrained by demons.
Yet the Ki emanating from the intruder carried no killing intent.
"El, now—!" Gaja shouted, urging him to teleport.
"I am not your enemy," a voice emerged from behind them, distorted by darkness. The figure's face and grimoire were obscured by writhing shadow. "But I will not allow anyone to interfere with my mission."
"You seem to know us," Gaja replied, jaw tight. "How can we be sure you are not our enemy?"
In answer, the mage lifted a hand. The shadowy veil peeled away from his grimoire.
Revealed beneath was a black three-leaf clover.
"The last time I checked, our countries maintained neutral relations, mages of the Heart Kingdom," the shadowed figure said, still concealing his identity.
"We won't take orders from a demon host," Gaja replied coldly. "And you're the one trespassing. This is Heart Kingdom territory. Its resources belong to us."
"Resources?" the Clover mage echoed, confusion slipping into his tone.
El's expression stiffened.
"Aren't you also searching for an unexplored dungeon?" Potrof asked.
The mage let out a low laugh. "Human greed… Who said there was a dungeon in this barren wasteland?"
Gaja and Potrof slowly turned toward El—the supposed mastermind of this expedition.
"Well, according to certain texts and scrolls I studied…" El began, already scrambling for another excuse.
"Speak plainly," Gaja snapped.
El exhaled. "The records mentioned something ancient sealed in this region. I assumed it referred to a dungeon. Or perhaps an artifact."
"You were partially correct," the Clover mage said. "But what's sealed here isn't a dungeon or Artifact."
"But an Sixty-meter-tall ancient demon."
The shadows peeled back from his face at last, revealing a visage of a young mage from Clover Kingdom Nacht Faust.
Silence fell as the storm howled around them.
"Then who are the people ahead of us and what is their purpose?" Gaja asked, still suspicious.
"Mages from the Spade Kingdom," Nacht replied. "They're attempting to awaken the demon."
"Why would they do that?" Potrof demanded.
"Their leader calls himself Decan—a so-called historian. In truth, he's obsessed with demons and forbidden Magic. If I had to guess, he intends to unseal the demon and study it… or worse, unleash it somewhere for fun."
"Then we should stop them immediately," Potrof said.
The other three didn't move.
"You're letting them proceed so they reveal the demon's exact location," Gaja deduced. "You don't know where it's sealed."
Nacht didn't deny it.
"Otherwise," El added quietly, "someone else would eventually find and release it. But if we learn its location, we can eliminate the demon ourselves—or summon reinforcements."
A faint smirk touched Nacht's lips. "At least few of you think beyond the obvious. Now go home."
He turned to leave.
"We're coming with you," Gaja stated firmly, stepping forward. "If you fail, that demon's first target will be the Heart Kingdom. We won't gamble our people's lives."
"Just don't get in my way."
With that, Nacht dissolved into the surrounding shadows. He made no attempt to drive them off—whether he saw them as allies or expendable tools hardly mattered. On a mission like this, either would be useful.
As Nacht vanished, a faint smile curved El's lips.
His gaze dropped to his grimoire.
A new card had revealed itself.
⚔️ [Mission Interface]
Mission: Ancient Trouble
Rank: A
Time Limit: None
Objective: Kill the Ancient Demon before it runs rampant and destroys everything.
Rewards:
• A-Rank Ability Card
• B-Rank Ability Card
• Xeni Coins ???
The mission he had long awaited had finally arrived.
Ahead of them, the mages of the Spade Kingdom moved, while El, Gaja, and Potrof followed at a hidden distance.
Before long, the atmosphere in the region began to change.
What had once been crude, wild, and rigid turned suffocating—ominous and corruptive, as though the land itself had rotted.
The number of mana beasts increased sharply around the spade mages ahead. El sensed them circling.
And then—
They vanished.
No struggle. No residual mana clash.
The group followed the trail left behind by the Spade Kingdom mages, only to find stretches of scorched earth and drifting ash. Whatever had stood in their path had been erased instantly.
"What kind of abilities do those mages possess," Potrof muttered, "to subdue beasts of that level in a second?"
No one answered.
They continued forward. When stray beasts lunged from the storm or erupted from the earth, El refused direct engagement. Instead, he warped their position or teleported the beast elsewhere, avoiding unnecessary battles entirely.
Six more hours passed.
At the base of a towering cliff ahead, the Spade mages finally stopped.
El focused.
They lingered for a few seconds and then disappeared from his senses altogether.
All but one.
A single mage remained, guarding what had to be the entrance.
El signaled silently. They prepared to eliminate the guard.
But the shadow beneath the mage's feet suddenly stretched upward, swallowing him whole without resistance.
A heartbeat later, Nacht emerged from that very spot, stepping out of the darkness as if it were a doorway. His gaze flicked toward the concealed Heart Kingdom mages.
"We don't have time for stealth anymore."
As they gathered a magic circle flared beneath their feet teleporting them.
In a flash of distorted light, they reappeared—hundreds of meters underground.
The first thing they saw was a mage from the Spade Kingdom with a sword pressed to Gaja's face.
Shadowy hands erupted from the ground, binding the attacker mid-strike.
Gaja didn't flinch. He casually touched the blade's tip.
A surge of lightning exploded outward.
The mage convulsed as electricity coursed through him, roasting him alive in an instant before his body collapsed lifelessly.
They didn't teleport further. Instead, they advanced through the underground tunnel. Along the path lay half-decayed corpses of mana beasts and drifting black ash that still burned faintly before dissolving into nothing.
"What kind of magic is this?" El asked, eyes scanning the charred remains.
"Decay Magic," Nacht replied evenly. "Decan has formed a contract with one of the high-ranking devils of the underworld. If he touches you directly, you die."
A chill ran down their spines.
"He also possesses his original attribute Magic," Nacht added. "But I don't know what it is."
Two attributes.
That knowledge alone made the air feel colder.
After several more minutes of descent, the tunnel finally opened and what greeted them stole the breath from their lungs.
The passage emptied into a colossal underground cavern, easily two hundred meters wide. The chamber glittered with countless diamond-shaped mana stones embedded into the walls, ceiling, and ground. Twisted mana beasts roamed the area, clashing violently with four Spade mages.
The sheer volume of mana stones was staggering. Enough to reinforce the Heart Kingdom's barrier for a decade—perhaps longer.
But even that wasn't what held their gaze.
At the far end of the cavern stood it.
The ancient demon.
Seventy meters tall.
Its monstrous figure loomed like a mountain carved from a nightmare, dwarfing everything around it. El felt like an ant staring up at an immovable cliff. The childhood tales he'd once dismissed as exaggerations now felt mercifully understated.
Instinctive fear clawed at his chest.
Even Gaja and Potrof stiffened.
Only Nacht remained composed, as if he had expected something this monstrous.
The sole relief was this—
The demon's entire body was encased in diamond-shaped mana stone. Golden chains wrapped tightly around its form beneath the crystal prison, absorbing its mana continuously and keeping it in slumber.
But that prison was breaking.
Standing atop the demon's massive head was Decan.
Both his hands were pressed against the crystal casing, Decay Magic spreading outward in black veins. The centuries-old mana stone crumbled to dust from head downward, disintegrating inch by inch.
"I'll handle Decan," Nacht said coldly. "You guys deal with his underlings."
Before they could respond, he vanished into shadow and reappeared above the demon's head.
His appearance shifted.
Dark mana engulfed him.
Devil Union Mode: Canis.
Dozens of shadow beasts materialized in the air, snarling as they launched themselves toward the smiling Decan.
The two clashed instantly in brutal close combat atop the frozen titan.
Yet even as Nacht pressed the assault Decan's Decay Magic continued spreading.
And the ancient demon's prison continued to crumble little by little.
Massive chunks of mana stone crashed onto the cave's floor from the demon's head, the thunderous impact alerting the remaining Spade mages.
Without hesitation, Gaja and Potrof split off toward the battlefield below.
The four Spade mages were undeniably powerful.
One—a tall blonde man—wielded Spatial Magic, erasing anything caught within distorted folds of space. Beside him, a wind mage provided long-range support, shredding mana beasts from afar. Gaja intercepted the wind user in a flash of lightning, forcing the spatial mage to redirect his focus.
Elsewhere, a tall dark-skinned woman commanded Lava Magic. Molten torrents clashed violently against Potrof's Earth constructs, her element perfectly countering his. Supporting her was a poison mage, weaving through blind spots, constantly seeking an opening to strike Potrof from behind.
El acted.
He materialized above a rampaging mana beast in the distance—then teleported along with it.
The creature crashed down directly onto the hidden poison mage, who had been fully focused on ambushing Potrof. The beast's claws tore through the mage's arm before he managed to break free.
In that brief retreat, he exposed his back.
Potrof didn't hesitate.
A barrage of earthen spikes erupted from the ground, piercing through the poison mage's fragile defenses. The man fell instantly.
El scanned the battlefield again.
Gaja had already eliminated the wind mage and spatial mage and was advancing toward the leader Decan. Meanwhile, high above, Decan's Decay Magic had completely eroded the demon's head free from its crystal prison.
On the giant's skull, Nacht's Devil Union shifted once more—his form leaner, movements sharper, feline agility replacing brute offense.
That was when El noticed it.
Embedded in the demon's forehead was a shining rune inscribed diamond which hadn't been there before probably the work of Decan.
With Gaja's arrival, Nacht finally gained some breathing room. Lightning and shadow combined to pressure Decan. But the Decay Magic continued spreading downward, devouring the remaining mana stone.
Below, Potrof and the lava mage remained locked in a brutal stalemate.
El teleported above Decan and hurled a sword drawn from his rune.
Before the blade could touch him it disintegrated into grey dust.
Through mana vision, El saw it clearly now: a thin, nearly invisible layer of Decay Magic cloaked Decan's entire body. A constant field of death. Nothing could pass through.
"Leave Decan to us!" Nacht shouted mid-clash. "Destroy the diamond on the demon's forehead!"
"It's a control device," he added sharply. "If the demon awakens and a command is issued through it, the creature will fall under their control!"
El teleported again—this time appearing directly at the center of the demon's forehead.
He was like a fly standing on a titan.
Drawing another sword from his grimoire, he struck the diamond repeatedly.
It didn't budge.
Not a scratch.
Below him, the Decay Magic reached the demon's neck and touched the golden chains.
For a split second, the chains trembled and then they shattered.
The sound echoed through the cavern like the tolling of a funeral bell.
A deathly silence swallowed the cavern.
Then the demon's eyes opened.
Its mana awakened with it—an overwhelming pressure flooding the underground chamber, crushing the air itself. The walls trembled. Even breathing became difficult.
Both colossal eyes shifted inward, focusing on the Artifact embedded in its forehead—and the tiny ant hacking at it.
A roar erupted, his lower body still bound by the crystal.
The sound alone shattered the stone. Debris rained from above. El was hurled backward, blood spilling from his ears.
"Damn it—listen to me and kill yourself!" El shouted at the Artifact, issuing the command.
Nothing happened.
The demon did not comply.
Realizing something was wrong, El blinked away—reappearing on the opposite shoulder of the ancient demon, eyes locking onto Decan.
"Does it only accept commands from you?" he muttered.
Laughter echoed from the demon's other shoulder, where Decan advanced toward the glowing crystal, triumph written across his face. In the distance, Nacht and Gaja had already retreated to the edge of the cavern, preparing a long-range attack.
Decan sneered at El. "You are a fool to think you can command an ancient demon. Even with this relic from the Elven Age, I can barely force a single, simple order upon it."
He continued muttering as he approached the artifact. "Did you truly believe human language would work?"
"This is an ancient elven artifact," El finished quietly, understanding clicking into place as he heard Decan's voice resonate directly through the artifact . A vicious smile tugged at his lips.
Decan raised his voice in Elvish.
"Ana, de armas…" (Obey, Ancient Demon.)
The diamond flared brilliantly, responding to its master.
But before Decan could complete his control—
El's voice cut in.
"Alexandra Dadario…" (Destroy yourself.)
The command echoed through the crystal.
Decan's expression twisted in shock.
"How do you know the Elvish language? You are just a Ki—!"
"You're a fool to think you're the only one who knows Elvish tounge," El sneered and vanished.
The colossal ancient demon forced the crystal restraining his body to break freeing himself.
The next second it swatted the space where Decan stood.
Whether he survived was doubtful.
The ancient demon's eyes soon turned hollow.
Above its head, a massive sphere of condensed mana sphere formed—unstable, blinding, swallowing the cavern in white light, Its own magic.
By then, Potrof had regrouped, his opponent having fled mid-battle.
"Now!" El shouted.
All four vanished from the underground chamber.
They reappeared high above ground, on the surface of the Strong Magic Region.
A heartbeat later—
The world beneath them erupted.
A cataclysmic explosion tore through the depths, the shockwave splitting mountains and reshaping kilometers of terrain. Snow peaks collapsed. The land fractured like shattered glass.
Even from afar, the earth beneath their feet trembled violently.
"I didn't think defeating the ancient demon would be this easy," El said lightly.
The others stared at him.
"Neither did I," Nacht admitted.
"How do you know the Elven tongue?"
"It's a long story," El replied with a faint grin.
It took nearly five minutes for the earthquakes to subside.
When they teleported back to the site, the cavern was no longer underground.
A massive crater gaped where the mountain once stood. A mushroom cloud had erased the surface entirely. From above, nothing remained but a deep, smoldering pit.
They descended cautiously.
Inside lay layer upon layer of charred bones, still smoking. The artifact that controlled the demon was gone. So were the Spade mages.
"Damn it… we're returning empty-handed," El muttered. All the mana stones had detonated along with the demon.
"Aren't you satisfied we survived?" Potrof replied. His robes were half-burnt, the cold seeping into him.
"What's there to worry about?" El said casually. "You know my magic. Worst case, I would've teleported the demon straight into the Spade Kingdom. Let them deal with the catastrophe they summoned."
Potrof paused, then nodded slowly. "That… is certainly a possibility."
"Mages of the Heart Kingdom, for your help you have my thanks." Nacht spoke, before anyone could reply, he dissolved into shadow.
"I won't return empty-handed. I'll take this ancient demon's bones with me or nobody would believe our story." El declared.
He began gathering the scattered remains, dragging the massive bones together in preparation for a single teleportation. Potrof assisted with his earth magic, shifting slabs of stone and bone into place—while Gaja watched in silence, the corner of his mouth twitching faintly.
The three teleported away along with demon bones from the Strong Magic Region, returning to the Heart Kingdom—not all of them disappointed.
As El's grimoire flickered faintly, a message formed across the card:
[Reward Calculation in Progress]