Rebirth of the 8th-Circle Mage
Chapter 355: Rank Arrangement (4)

‘Brillente?’

There was no mistake about it. The creature emerging from the dimensional gap was Brillente.

Henry was in disbelief. He was certain that Klever had devoured every last bit of him, leaving nothing behind, so the fact that Brillente was still alive made no sense to him.

Henry thought of several explanations, even considering the possibility of a twin brother. However, as he stared up at Brillente, he noticed something peculiar—there was a dark green glow in his eyes.

‘Ah… I see.’

Dark green eyes were a hallmark of the undead. Some of them had red eyes, like Death Knights, but one needed the body of a knight to create a Death Knight. The same principle applied for skeletons and zombies.

Overall, those kinds of creatures were born from corpses. However, Brillente’s eyes glowed green, and Henry knew it could mean only one thing.

‘Gretel must’ve gotten his hands on his spirit.’

Ghost Knights were a prime example of this kind of undead. Those creatures were made from the spirits of the dead, not from their corpses. However, Brillente clearly had a physical body, unlike a Ghost Knight. In fact, he had a huge and bulky body.

It seemed that Gretel had managed to create a formidable clone of Brillente, and Henry couldn’t help but admire his power.

‘Impressive… I can’t believe he thought about making the previous Demon King candidate into an undead. He might actually be stronger than Brillente.’

As he admired Gretel’s ability, Henry got excited.

‘I can’t wait to see what other tricks he has up his sleeve.’

The fact that Gretel had summoned Brillente with an arrogant expression most likely meant that he was trying to intimidate Henry with his tremendous power.

If this was how a Neo Lich usually behaved, Henry was excited to see what else Gretel had in store for him. In fact, he even chuckled as he wondered how Gretel was going to entertain him.

He soon turned his gaze to Gretel and saw him looking at him with a faint smile. The way they were looking at each other made it clear that they were both looking down on one another. Seeing that they were on the same page, Henry smirked and said, “Sword on.”

With that, light formed around his hand, and a second later, he was wielding his Colt Sword. By this point, Brillente had finally descended into the Demon Realm. Seeing his huge muscular body brought back memories for Henry, but he didn’t take the time to reminisce.

Henry instantly used Fly, sweeping past Brillente’s enormous legs. After getting up to his collarbone area, Henry drew back his sword like an arrow on a bow.

Brillente reacted a tad bit late after receiving orders from Gretel. However, neither of them knew that Brillente was a mere sparrow to Henry, who was already one, or rather, two steps ahead.

Whoosh!

Brillente tried to punch Henry with his giant hand, but Henry reacted way faster with his sword. Waves of golden light burst forth from the tip of his blade, surging toward Brillente’s hand and making a clean horizontal cut.

And then…

Boom, boom, boom!

Three consecutive explosions went off from where the light had cut Brillente’s arm, the fiery cloud engulfing Henry instantly.

Gigatan and Ganisel were watching the whole thing from the ground, and their eyes widened in astonishment.

“Now that’s pretty hot.”

A golden sphere emerged from the inferno—it was Henry, having shielded himself with a magic shield. His two allies were relieved to see him unharmed.

Henry distanced himself from Brillente and took a look at the wound on his hand. It was twitching, but there wasn’t any blood gushing out. A second later, the flames vanished and his wound healed completely.

‘Huh? Is he a zombie…? No, he’s something else…’

This creature wasn’t the Brillente that Henry knew. Back then, the giant demon hadn’t displayed such regenerative abilities. Henry remembered him only as a giant, muscular fighter with swift movements and tremendous physical strength.

However, it seemed like Gretel had cast all sorts of magic on this Brillente.

‘Hmm, I think I could make use of him if I keep him alive. It’d be a waste to get rid of him right now.’

Henry thought that it had to have been difficult for Gretel to create this version of Brillente, given that the undead creature seemed like one of the strongest tricks up his sleeve. Henry switched his gaze from the giant undead to Gretel, noticing his shiny dark skull. For some reason, the light reflecting off his skull every now and again was irritating Henry.

‘Tsk. Alright, change of plans.’

Henry’s initial plan was to slay Brillente in order to intimidate Gretel a bit, but he suddenly came across a better idea. He dismissed his Colt Sword and got ready to initiate his new plan. However, no sooner had his sword disappeared than Brillente hurled another punch at him.

Swoosh!

The gust of wind resulting from his swing reached Henry before his actual fist, but Henry didn’t move a single inch, nor did he use any magic. Instead, he just extended his arm and used the power he had received from the Demon God.

A black sphere suddenly materialized between him and Brillente, instantly absorbing the gust of wind. Gretel widened his eyes in surprise, realizing that Henry’s sphere was the same as the portal he had used to summon Brillente earlier.

Henry had summoned a dimensional gap that fit Brillente’s fist perfectly. The gap proceeded to suck in Brillente’s fist without the slightest resistance. Brillente had nothing to help balance himself, so the gap was pulling him toward it, sucking in more of his body.

In a matter of seconds, the dimensional gap had sucked him in up to his shoulder, and at that moment, Henry widened the gap.

Brillente had stumbled only once after losing his balance, but that single mistake had cost him his entire upper body.

At this point, only his lower body remained in the Demon Realm, squirming. Henry maintained the quicksand-like portal so that it would absorb Brillente completely.

“Wh-what in the world…?!”

Gretel panicked as he saw Brillente being helplessly sucked away. The Neo Lich was no longer in a lotus position; he was on his feet as he tried to stop Henry. He quickly waved his hand to cast protection spells, but Henry was one step faster and waved his hand to counter his magic.

Crack!

Gretel was all bones, which meant that he had no nervous system. Thus, the magic that was reflected into him didn’t cause any burns or bleeding. Instead, the bones that allowed him to release magic cracked and shattered into pieces. His robe was also blown away at the sheer force of the magic.

Gretel had tried to use quite a powerful spell, which was why the impact of the reflected magic was so devastating.

With the lich having failed to make a move, Brillente completely disappeared, the only traces left of him being the large footprints on the ground.

Henry brushed his hands off and looked at Gretel. Now, there were eight spheres orbiting around him instead of seven. The extra one was black and shiny, and Henry quickly realized that it was actually Gretel’s skull.

It made sense for his skull to move freely, given that Henry had completely shattered his body by reflecting his magic.

“Tsk, tsk, so impatient…”

Of course, this didn’t mean anything to Gretel. In order to kill a lich, one had to destroy their life source, the vessel that contained their essence.

Henry descended in a sliding motion. He looked at the hollow eye sockets of the black skull and noticed that they were also glowing a dark green color. He looked straight into them but didn’t say a word about them.

Henry kept his gaze fixed on Gretel as if waiting for something to happen.

The light in his eyes flickered like candles, constantly shrinking and expanding. But after a couple of flickers, they disappeared with an audible pop. After the light vanished, the skull turned white like a normal one and fell to the ground.

However, the seven crystals were still orbiting just like before, and they soon switched positions, becoming the points of a heptagram. A white light flashed from within the heptagram, revealing a gray space and a handsome man standing in the middle of it.

His glossy hair and luxurious garments, which looked like they were made out of silk, had a very different feeling to them compared to the skeleton that had disappeared. The man had dark green eyes, and as he walked out of the gray space, he got on one knee and said, “My apologies for not recognizing someone of your level. Please forgive me.”

The handsome man was none other than Gretel. He had used the vessel containing his life force to emerge in his original form in front of Henry. For a lich, this was a gesture of utmost reverence.

At this, Gigatan heaved a sigh and fell on his bottom. The exchange between Henry and Gretel had been so intense that he had even forgotten to breathe. On top of that, he was also shaking uncontrollably.

‘What is it about that human being? Why am I shaking just by looking at him? Just what in the world is he emanating?’

Just as Gigatan had suspected, Henry hadn’t just exchanged looks with Gretel after sending Brillente over to a different dimension. He had also released a tremendous amount of unique energy, which, of course, was a combination of his own mana and divine power.

Gigatan turned to Ganisel, who seemed to be unaffected by Henry’s energy.

“Why are you pretending that nothing happened?”

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

“I know you felt it as well. The energy Henry released against Gretel.”

“Oh, that… I’m okay with that.”

“Huh? Why aren’t you affected?”

“Affected…? Ah, that’s what you mean. To tell you the truth, I’m not sure myself.”

Ganisel had also felt Henry’s energy, but the reason he hadn’t felt overwhelmed by it was the fact that Henry considered him a true friend.

Gigatan frowned in confusion at Ganisel’s vague answer. He then switched his gaze back to Henry and Gretel, who were facing each other in the air.

“Now that you know, I’ll let you go on this one. There’s actually something I wanted to tell you,” said Henry.

“Please, I’m listening.”

Henry liked Gretel’s attitude quite a bit, so he was quick to forgive him.

“You’ve got some manners. I like that. I’ll get straight to the point. There’s a Demon King candidate I’ve been taking care of.”

At this, Gretel glanced at Ganisel and Gigatan out of the corner of his eye.

“I’m going to be honest with you. I don’t believe he’ll be able to defeat you. So I want you to forfeit your position as the Demon King candidate to him. Of course, I will compensate you for this.”

“Yes, honorable one.”

Having just faced Gretel, Henry wasn’t sure if Ganisel would be able to take him down. And since time was of the essence, he wanted to solve his problems diplomatically with Gretel. Fortunately, they quickly managed to replace an agreement.

“I like your easy-going attitude. I want to ask you another favor while I’m at it. If you don’t have anything else to do, I want you to assume second place in the Demon Realm for yourself.”

“Is this in order to ensure the safety of the candidate you’re taking care of?”

“Yeah. Earlier, I made Gigatan his subordinate for the same reason.”

“Why have you done so, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I won’t get into details, but I have some business in the heavens. I was going to wreak havoc there if things didn’t go my way, but I figured it’d be better for you guys to do that, since that’s been your objective for quite some time.”

“Is that the only reason?”

“Hmm… Well, I also owe him. Besides, you’re not interested in a position of power, are you now?”

“No, you’re absolutely right, honorable one.”

Henry figured that if Gretel was truly after a position of power, he would’ve gone all out against him earlier during his scuffle with Brillente, but he hadn’t done so. Besides, Gretel had also realized what Henry was truly capable of.

Henry had also picked up on Gretel’s realization, which was why he had made him an offer that would sway him to his side.

In addition to all of this, Henry knew how useful and reassuring it would be to have someone who was almost like the Demon King on their side.

After the two came to an agreement, Gretel put his right thumb on his right temple. And as he slowly took away his right finger, a bright red energy that stretched like a spider web came out of his head. He then squashed the energy to make it look like a marble.

He handed Henry the marble-like object and said, “This is the token of proof that the Demon God gave me. After I give this up, I will no longer be considered the Demon King candidate, and whoever takes this will assume my position.”

“Can you just give away something the Demon God gave you like this?”

“Of course. The Demon God has most likely foreseen everything that’s happening right now. For some reason, I believe the Demon God will understand why I’m giving up his gift.”

“Yeah? If you say so.”

Giving up the position of Demon King candidate meant that Gretel could no longer use dimensional powers, but that didn’t matter to him. What Henry offered him was much more important, and he was already certain that the dimensional powers would pale in comparison to that.

The Neo Lich couldn’t contain his excitement at the thought of his ambitions finally coming to fruition.