Rebirth of the 8th-Circle Mage
Chapter 354: Rank Arrangement (3)

Henry smirked as he took in the powerful presence of the bone dragon.

‘Finally, someone worthy of the Demon King. That’s what I’m talking about!’

Henry was impressed by the top-level demonic beast flying above his head. As he kept his eyes on it, he thought about Brillente, his first foe in the Demon Realm.

‘Honestly, Brillente was kind of clumsy.’

Brillente had been huge in size and had even been able to use dimensional powers, but that was it. His attacks had been terribly weak, and his physical resilience had been lacking.

Remembering how disappointing that battle had been, Henry was excited to replace out what the Neo Lich was capable of.

As he took the first step into Gretel’s territory, the bone dragon, which had been flying passively, let out a resounding roar, much different than the previous ones.

- KYAOOO!

Its cry almost seemed like a signal, akin to a wolf calling for its pack. And sure enough, its call was answered, for several roars followed from different directions.

- Kyaooo!

That was when Henry realized that there were multiple bone dragons out there, and they were all flying toward the one that had just called them, continuing to roar ferociously.

Seeing them assemble, Henry turned to one side and said, “You won’t be needing me, right?”

“Huh…?”

With that, Henry took a couple of steps back. He then gestured with his chin toward Gigatan and smiled.

“What are you waiting for? Go ahead and take care of them.”

“Oh… Yes! I’ll do it right away!”

Although a bit discouraged by Henry’s command, Gigatan readily complied. A short while ago, he held the impressive position of second place in the Demon Realm, but he was still forced to do whatever Henry told him. He was Ganisel’s partner, but disobeying Henry wasn’t an option, given that he had begged him to spare his life earlier.

Henry got a sense of anticipation as he observed Gigatan warming up.

‘He better be useful, unlike that guy…’

Kyrin had turned out to be a big disappointment as Henry had managed to take him down in one blow. Thus, Henry was hoping that Gigatan possessed some actual power and would be helpful to him and Ganisel.

‘I’ve only seen him grow in size, so let’s see what else he’s actually capable of.’

Henry wanted to take this opportunity to see what else Gigatan could offer to the team. And now, Gigatan was in front of him and Ganisel, waiting for the right moment to strike. At this, Ganisel tried to unsheathe his sword as well, but Henry stopped him and whispered, “Wait.”

Henry knew that Gigatan would’ve come to challenge Gretel even if he and Ganisel hadn’t interfered, so he figured that there was no need for Ganisel to help him. There was also another reason he had stopped him—he wanted to see how Gigatan fought by himself.

Gigatan took a deep breath and unleashed his abilities.

“Hup!”

After inhaling deeply, his body underwent a remarkable transformation, expanding in size just like before. And once again, Henry was deeply impressed by his ability. Of course, he could do the same with his magic, but he never did it for a rather simple reason.

‘It wouldn’t be very efficient for me, would it?’

Following his sudden growth, two additional arms sprouted from Gigatan’s back, wielding two additional weapons, which were different from each other.

- Kyaaooo!

At Gigatan’s sudden appearance, all of the dragons focused on him. However, he hadn’t just caught the attention of the dragons. There were also hundreds of wyverns gathering around the dragons.

Looking at the pack from afar, Gigatan felt like he was staring at an enormous cloud. And before he knew it, the cloud was coming his way, ready to bury him.

But then…

“Hup!”

Gigatan inhaled once again, and after another two arms sprouted from his back, he started swinging all of them violently.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Bang! Crack!

An eerie cacophony of bones being crushed and flesh being torn apart filled the air. Despite his massive size, Gigatan’s attacks were surprisingly swift and precise, catching Henry off guard. For a moment, Henry thought he had been wrong to assume that his massive size would impede his agility.

Bang! Boom! Bang!

With each strike, the bone dragons and wyverns fell from the sky like meteors, crashing into the ground to make craters. As the dust settled, Gigatan stood tall and unharmed. His expression remained impassive, as though he had just taken care of some insignificant pests.

In less than two minutes, Gigatan had eliminated every threat from the sky.

Following the one-sided massacre, Gigatan returned to his normal size. He then turned to Henry and flashed him a proud smile.

At this, Henry smirked and replied, “Not bad. Seems like you’ll be of use to us.”

He figured he would throw him a compliment to appease his expectations. After all, Gigatan had actually done a good job, and it didn’t cost Henry anything to point that out.

At his compliment, Gigatan smiled in satisfaction. Henry then turned away and looked over to the horizon to see if there were any other enemies waiting for them. He was sure that another wave would soon emerge, given that they had eliminated all threats.

Rumble, rumble-!

“There we go.”

As if to confirm Henry’s expectations, the ground suddenly shook, and something emerged from it. They weren’t some potato roots, but the undead army of the Neo Lich.

In a matter of seconds, Gretel’s territory was overrun with undead creatures. They reminded Henry of the skeleton army he had seen back in the forbidden area when he had looked for Raina.

The army in front of them was composed of all sorts of undead creatures. Henry was familiar with some of them—skeletons, zombies, ghouls, Death Knights, and even Dullahans. Of course, there were also some creatures which he had never seen in his life.

After scanning his foes, Henry turned to his side and said, “Ganisel.”

“What is it?”

“I know you’re supposed to take care of them yourself, since it’s your quest for revenge… But don’t you think there’s too many of them?”

“No, no, I agree with you.”

“Right? Let me give you a hand. I’ll clear the way for you.”

“If that’s the only thing you’ll be doing, alright.”

Wasting more time on a bunch of minions was the last thing Henry wanted to do, which was why he asked for Ganisel’s permission to speed things up.

However, instead of attacking, Henry looked at Gigatan again, which made him think.

‘Do I really have to take care of them again?’

Henry quickly realized that he didn’t have to be the one to clear the path for Ganisel. As Gigatan met eyes with Henry, he realized that he would have to step up again to do the dirty work, feeling that Henry would get annoyed if he had to deal with these pitiful undead by himself.

But to his surprise, Henry still proceeded to take matters into his own hands.

“Watch and learn.”

With that, Henry nodded slightly, and a large golden sphere enveloped the three of them. It was a protective magic barrier imbued with divine power. With that, he advanced toward the undead.

- GHRAA!

As Henry walked forward with confidence, the undead army reacted by launching a coordinated assault.

But then…

Zap! Zap!

The creatures that came into contact with the barrier were electrocuted, knocked back by the fierce electric current. Some of them even caught on fire and burned to ashes as though they had been struck by lightning.

As more undead were zapped to death, the scent of burnt flesh filled the air. However, Henry kept going forward while humming to himself, undeterred by the acrid smell. If anything, he was actually enjoying it as though it were some kind of luxury perfume.

‘Ho-how in the world…!’

As the three of them kept going, Gigatan couldn’t help but marvel at what Henry was capable of doing. Gretel’s undead army was made up of elite monsters, but they certainly didn’t live up to their reputation against Henry. Despite attacking unrelentingly, they couldn’t even make a dent in Henry’s seemingly impenetrable barrier.

Thud! Zap! Thud!

After Henry eliminated most of the undead creatures, more of Gretel’s forces emerged, this army made up of golems. Although they were smaller than Gigatan in his true form, they still lived up to their reputation as golems.

They burst through the remaining undead troops, knocking them away to either side. They were going straight for the barrier, and seeing this, Gigatan prepared to draw out his sword.

‘I should step up and at least take care of these guys…!’

But as though Henry had just read Gigatan’s mind, he raised his hand to stop him. Even so, Gigatan didn’t even manage to sheathe his sword right away because they were already in front of them, hurling their giant fists at the magic barrier.

BANG-!

The whole barrier shook with an echoing clang at their heavy punches. But despite the violent impact and the loud sound produced by it, the inside of the shield was as peaceful as it could be. Seeing that their attacks hadn’t worked, the golems continued hammering down on it.

Boom-! Boom! Thoom!

The impact of the punches was so fierce that the undead near the barrier were sent flying in the distance, but the golems couldn’t care less about them. They were just desperate to shatter the barrier in front of them, and their pride was hurt as they realized that they couldn’t even make a dent.

At that, they attempted to blow themselves up by detonating the cores that fueled them.

Flash!

The explosion of a single golem was powerful enough to wipe out everything within range. After the first one self-destructed, the others followed suit, leading to a chain reaction that seemed to obliterate everything around the barrier.

However, nothing happened to Henry and his two allies. The only thing that changed was that every single undead left was reduced to dust. But that advantage didn’t last long, for more undead creatures emerged from the ground, replacing the ones that had been burned or blown up.

Of course, Henry was undeterred by the second wave of undead. He continued advancing without paying any attention to them. He just wanted to see their master as soon as possible.

‘No matter how hard we try to get rid of the undead, they’ll keep coming. So it’s best to just get their master to show up.’

Henry had dealt with countless liches in his previous life, so he understood their behavior quite well.

Liches were greedy wizards who had failed to fulfill their dreams and sought immortality. In fact, many liches were high-level wizards, which naturally meant that they were conceited and their magic was incredibly powerful.

Knowing this, Henry couldn’t imagine how much worse the Neo Lich would be. On that note, Henry had only cast a barrier to fight the undead in order to hurt the Neo Lich’s pride even more.

The three kept moving forward for a while, and countless undead creatures kept coming at them, but they were merely eggs breaking against a brick wall. At one point, the undead became so powerful that the golems from earlier seemed like nothing.

That was when the Neo Lich made his appearance.

“Enough.”

At his words, the frenzied undead stopped in their tracks instantly. The Neo Lich was floating and looking at Henry and his two companions as though they were insects. Henry looked back at Gretel, the new Demon King candidate.

His appearance was quite surprising. The black skeleton was sitting in a lotus position, and he was wearing a robe that seemed a bit too large for his frame. There were also seven crystal marbles circling him around like fairies.

“Hmm.”

Henry could tell that he was different from Brillente, and he knew that if someone like him were to actually become the Demon King, the human realm would be plunged into chaos. However, he felt like they could work something out with him. Judging by the ferocity in his eyes and his huge undead army, Henry thought that Gretel would be a perfect addition to his team.

“Ganisel.”

“Hmm?”

“I’ve changed my mind.”

“Huh?”

“I want to know more about him.”

“You want me to hand him over to you?”

“Yeah.”

“...”

Ganisel thought about it for a moment, and he eventually replied with a slightly disappointed face, “Alright…” He wanted to say no, but he couldn’t bring himself to do so after seeing Henry’s eyes shimmer with curiosity and excitement.

The moment he received Ganisel’s permission, Henry leapt into the air.

Gretel tracked Henry with his eyes as he came close and closer to him, and he couldn’t hide his surprise when he got a good look at him.

“A human?”

Gretel knew he wasn’t seeing things; he was certain that Henry was a human, his energy making it clear beyond the shadow of a doubt.

Realizing that a mere human had barged into his territory, Gretel was overcome with anger. He couldn’t believe that such a lowly being had managed to get through his army with just a magic barrier. It would’ve also been frustrating if a lich had done that, but at least that wouldn’t have been as absurd.

But unlike other demons, Gretel didn’t express his anger because he thought he could kill Henry whenever he wanted to.

As Gretel was pondering on the situation, Henry got in front of him and rose above his head, forcing the lich to look up to him.

At Henry’s defiant gesture, Gretel was on the verge of exploding in anger. However, Henry took notice of that and warned, “I’d think twice before making any move. You could end up regretting what you’re about to do right now.”

“Haha, is that so?”

Henry was being serious, and he was telling the truth. However, his warning only managed to aggravate Gretel even more. Initially, he had planned to pierce Henry with his projectile magic and leave him with countless holes akin to a beehive.

Infuriated by Henry’s arrogance, Gretel came up with another way to take care of him. He thought this new method would be perfect to eliminate Henry, as there were also two spectators.

“Then let’s see if you can handle this.”

As he began his incantation, a large portal appeared in the sky. As Henry looked up, he knew instantly what Gretel was trying to do.

‘Is this dimensional power?’

But before Henry could make his next move, he saw a familiar figure emerge from the dark depths of the portal.

Rumble, rumble!

The figure that emerged from the sky was none other than the previous Demon King candidate, Brillente.