It’s Burning...?

There were quite a few tortures that I could perform by summoning souls.

For instance, one method was to burn the soul piece by piece, starting from the edges, with fierce flames.

Second, another way was to throw them into pitch-black darkness and use time acceleration to shatter their fragile mental state.

In addition, utilizing actual mana to tear the soul apart strand by strand as if grinding it down bit by bit was also an extremely painful method.

In that way, whatever the method was, as long as it could directly exert influence on the soul, it involved inflicting damage through somewhat harsh impact; however, since it was imperative not to disturb the soul’s memories or emotional aspects, precise control was also essential.

And for the soul captured before me now, I proceeded to inflict horrific damage by creating countless mana needles and plunging them into its entire body one by one.

Furthermore, I maximized the pain by using the ‘Pain’ curse, and perhaps because of that?

“- K-keu-aaaaagh!! I-I’ll talk. I’ll tell you everything!! -”

“- H-heu-uhk, k-keu-uht!! -”

It was a soul writhing in agony.

An interesting part about souls was that they maintained the appearance of their current life until they returned to the archive of records.

It was also said that they remained like a void, pristine record until they reincarnated into another life.

This was knowledge I gained from the Necronomicon, but if asked whether it was the truth, I had nothing to say but the answer, “I don’t know for sure either.”

That was because it was information that could only be known by dying.

At any rate, the torture continued, and I used Link to extract the relevant information.

Countless emotions and memories, and even the pain they felt, were being transmitted vividly.

‘The Link has connected quite deeply; this is going to be exhausting…’

It was possible that aftereffects might occur.

It could be physical aftereffects, or conversely, a serious lingering impact on my mental state.

Because the pain humans felt while dying transcended imagination, that portion of the damage could be transmitted to me.

The risks were high in many ways, but a black mage was a being who lived while always bearing such risks.

I shared memories with natural access to information and began to store the images in a Magic Stone after editing the necessary parts separately.

‘I want to examine all the various souls, but the side effects will continue to grow. Eventually, they would try to swallow me.’

Since every black mage knew what a perilous gamble linking with another soul was, it was right to stop at a reasonable point.

When I judged that I had obtained the desired information, I deactivated the Link and spoke while looking at the half-broken soul.

“You must have shared me as well; I shall offer my praise for you enduring without breaking.”

And then, as I deactivated Call of Spirit, the soul scattered vainly.

“Tsk, in the end, the number of corpses has increased a lot.”

The cleanup of the situation proceeded rapidly as I handed it over to the detective I had conducted the investigation with in the mortuary.

In the meantime, the detective asked me.

“That person I told you about before has disappeared. Could the information have leaked?”

“Rather than a matter of information, isn’t it just that they caught wind of it?”

Since the state of affairs couldn’t be helped, those with shady backgrounds naturally went into hiding on their own.

Perhaps if one were to search for those among government officials who had gone missing, one might be able to find out how deeply the Cultists of Ruin were rooted.

And I casually let slip the information of a low-level individual among the information I had discovered.

“You know Jin Jong-un, the Deputy Director of Gate Management, right?”

“…Perhaps?”

After nodding lightly and observing the detective’s reaction, I pondered seriously before releasing a piece of information.

“A secret investigation is being conducted into the Vice Guild Master of the Phantom Guild.”

“Why is that?”

“There were frequent meetings with Bak Jong-pil, the government official who disappeared this time. Several other government officials were present as well, and they are also currently missing.”

The Cultists of Ruin had moved more swiftly than expected.

I didn’t know who the leader of this group was, but at least one thing was clear.

The point was that they were quite deeply involved with the government, so I seriously pondered from where to where I should trust; that was because most of the figures holding key positions in the current government had deep ties with Kim Dae-san, the President and one of the heroes.

To put it indirectly, one could say the other heroes also had deep relationships, but at any rate, everyone was suspicious at the moment.

Yet I couldn’t just suspect the President of being a Cultist of Ruin, so it was a complex situation in many ways.

“If most of the officials are missing, it would be right to dig into Jin Jong-un while tracking them down.”

In truth, the information I had discovered went up to those above Jin Jong-un.

However, I remained silent because it was not a person the detective before me could handle.

‘It would be right to trample them down step by step, but if I move too conspicuously, I might be the one getting hit back.’

It was because, unlike the powerful figures of the past, the current powerful figures even possessed actual martial force.

They were those who had accumulated merit in a massive war.

Their popularity was also thick, so one couldn’t just corner such a person recklessly. Crucially, even if a black mage—whose image was so bad he was practically named the root of all evil—framed such a person as a Cultist of Ruin, he would only be pointed at for making false accusations.

After all, to civilians, both black mages and Cultists of Ruin were simply ‘evil.’

“As for the Phantom side, there are parts that are difficult for even us to access easily, so we are in a situation of managing them secretly by forming another dedicated team. And… let’s focus on Deputy Director Jin Jong-un from now on.”

I withdrew with a word of acknowledgment.

I might be subject to additional investigation due to the fact that I was attacked and handled them, but for now, I was in a situation where I had been granted an exoneration.

It was thanks to the bodies of the dead being full of traces of the Cultists of Ruin, but at any rate, the work ended well, and the guild related to the Gate turned out to have no problems.

Afterward, I proceeded to call Go Yu-jin while leaving work.

‘By now it should be time for them to have finished the work; I wonder if I can reach her?’

The dial tone rang, and after a few more tones, it was Go Yu-jin who answered the phone.

“The situation has been cleared up; is it finished on your end as well?”

“- Ah, it’s finished here too. The work went well, and there weren’t any particular signs of anomalies, but what about your side? -”

“It was resolved well here too.”

I thought there was no need to inform her right now, and after receiving word that I could go home, I headed straight for my house.

In the process, I took out my tablet and proceeded to do a search on the individuals I had obtained information about.

‘Is Representative Bak Young-min a 1st generation?’

He was a figure whose awakening abilities were known in quite some detail.

He was said to be a close-combat type focused on ‘destruction’ by utilizing the power of the earth attribute.

Perhaps because it was an awakening based on powerful physical strength, he had improved his image through lifesaving and had accumulated quite a lot of merit by fighting on the front lines throughout the war.

However, the problem was that because of his excessive suppression, he was branded as quite a troublesome figure to the ‘enemy.’

In reality, the problems caused by the Great Cataclysm were as good as finished before even two years had passed.

But just past the second anniversary, when the world should have stabilized, disturbances broke out in various countries.

In our country’s case in particular, it was attacked by Awakeners from China and Japan.

In the process, only seven heroes remained out of nearly thirty, and even among them, four became completely distant from the front lines due to problems with body parts or serious psychological trauma.

The three remaining heroes were currently active in the political sphere, and are famous for harboring deep ill will toward China and Japan.

However, because the relationship cannot continue to deteriorate, it has stopped at the level of taking a stance as part of diplomacy; in reality, the desperate war fought for a year was a period that pushed an enormous number of Awakeners to the threshold of death.

‘I also almost died quite a few times…’

At the time, the main goal of China and Japan was to reduce the number of 1st generation members who had achieved powerful awakenings as much as possible from the start.

In the process, reducing the 2nd and 3rd generations was treated as a ‘bonus,’ and at the time, I too was treated as such a ‘bonus’ and was not directly targeted, but perhaps thanks to that?

On the contrary, I came to accumulate quite a lot of merit against the 1st generation invaders from China and Japan.

Was it thanks to that? The moniker I obtained as a result was ‘The Worst,’ but practically, only China and Japan called me The Worst.

In Korea, I was treated as a reasonably powerful Awakener, or just a black mage nobody.

Although the treatment was absurd, I came to think that perhaps the image regarding black mages had been manipulated.

The reason was simple.

It was thanks to the fact that one of the strongest black mages was in the country, and because the Necronomicon was in my hands, I couldn’t be easily touched.

At any rate, I looked through data here and there and searched for related articles, but it wasn’t as if he was performing any notable activities.

Only the parts focused on people’s livelihoods were being highlighted.

‘The establishment of orphanages and policies to guarantee the livelihood of youth breadwinners…’

Because an enormous number of orphans was created due to the Great Cataclysm and the war, enormous fights broke out in the political sphere every year over related issues.

He was said to be leading that fight.

And several others also combined forces with Bak Young-min to pressure the President, seemingly continuing to sound out opinions toward the side of needing to increase support.

Whatever the case, because it was an issue focused on the biggest problem at hand, it seemed to be gaining quite a bit of traction.

And in the case of Jin Jong-un, the Deputy Director of Gate Management, he seemed to be making quite a name for himself as a so-called administrator.

‘Evaluated as having considerable leadership over manpower; a genius at appropriate deployment and guild coordination…’

I had doubts about whether all such things were truthful, but seeing as only related content was searched, he did not seem to be the style to particularly draw attention.

‘I need to approach this calmly. It’s not that I despise ruin-worship, but if they try to cause direct damage, I intend to strike them down…’

The price for targeting me will never be light.

Afterward, when I arrived home, I witnessed a bewildering situation.

“…Why is it burning?”

Seeing my house burning fiercely and the large number of firefighters and Awakeners busily moving to extinguish the flames, I felt the emotion of ‘rage’ for the first time in a long while.

‘…Phew, how much was the house price again?’

The feeling of billions of won burning fiercely before my eyes was not just unpleasant; it made my adrenaline pump like crazy.