Although a Villain, My Wish is World Peace

As soon as we passed through the Gate, we were greeted by a dim sky. At first, I thought we had entered at night.

But when I looked up, the sun was still shining brightly in the sky. This meant something else was making the surroundings dark…

That something else was black sand mixed with Han Seo-hyeon’s magic power. There was so much black sand spread all around that it blocked out the sunlight.

—This reminds me of the time with Yebrica.

Like that monster that had completely covered several kilometers around with sand, Han Seo-hyeon inside this Gate had also summoned enough sand with his magic power to cover this entire Gate.

Even for Han Seo-hyeon with his vast magic power, wasting magic like this is not a good choice.

No, it’s not just not good. This is madness.

‘We need to find Han Seo-hyeon as soon as possible.’

—Right, if we’re late, that kid might really become a mummy with all his magic power sucked out.

‘Don’t make jokes like that. I’m terrified it might really be like that.’

Ray closed his mouth at my words. My heart was pounding madly.

I was truly, sincerely afraid. Afraid that something bad had happened to Han Seo-hyeon.

“Kuhh.”

I immediately turned my head back at the groan heard from behind. I quickly supported Cha Song-jin who was staggering. As he said he would, he seemed to be defending his mind by drawing up magic power, as Cha Song-jin’s face was flushed red.

—He looks unstable.

As Ray said, Cha Song-jin’s complexion didn’t look good. I asked Cha Song-jin:

“Can you find Seo-hyeon?”

I want to worry about Cha Song-jin, but time is gold for us right now.

“The ma-magic interference is severe. I-I don’t know if I can…”

I grabbed Cha Song-jin’s trembling hand and said looking into his eyes:

“Stay calm. You can do it.”

In a space so full of others’ magic power, manifesting a spatial talent will be difficult. Especially in a place with a monster trying to dig into your mind. But he had to do it.

“You can do it.”

At my words, Cha Song-jin tightly closed his eyes and moved his magic power. Slowly, Cha Song-jin’s magic power came to me. Unlike before when the teleportation was completed in an instant, Cha Song-jin’s magic power moved very slowly.

I closed my eyes feeling Cha Song-jin’s magic power envelop my body.

The sensation of passing through a rubber membrane wrapping my whole body constricted me. And when I opened my eyes, what appeared before us was an ashen land.

Unlike the Gate entrance where some sunlight still entered, this place was dark and dark as if darkness ruled.

I turned my head at the groan heard from beside me.

“Kughhh.”

Perhaps due to side effects from using his ability before the cooldown was complete, Cha Song-jin coughed up black blood. I caught Cha Song-jin’s collapsing body.

“No need to knock me out… I-I think I’m going to faint…”

Cha Song-jin who said that with rough coughing fainted just as he said.

I dug the ground with magic power and buried Cha Song-jin’s body there. I made an air hole so he wouldn’t suffocate to death.

—They say squirrels can’t find most of the acorns they bury.

“Why are you saying that now of all times?”

—So I’m telling you to make sure you find that guy.

“Don’t worry. I have no intention of being worse than a squirrel.”

Even joking with Ray couldn’t completely shake off the tension. Because of the strong magic power felt in the surroundings.

Swish swish, I scrunched my face seeing the sand moving under my feet. Both the amount of sand and the amount of magic power were much thicker than what I felt at the Gate entrance.

I instinctively realized. That this was the ‘center’.

Cha Song-jin had successfully brought me to Han Seo-hyeon.

I slowly moved my steps.

First, I need to move away from Cha Song-jin. If I fight here, Cha Song-jin will get hurt.

The world that could only be perceived by the very faint light entering through the sand spread like mist in the air was chillingly black.

The ground I was stepping on, and the trees that once formed a forest.

The only things not black in this situation were the red eyes that appeared between the trees that had turned pitch black.

The monsters that had lived here had all been turned into undead by someone. There were easily over twenty just counting roughly.

I rolled a mana stone taken from the pouch tied at my waist in my hand.

“Looks like you’re planning to push with numbers as expected.”

I immediately drew up magic power and created ice spears. As ice spears formed in the air, black magical beasts sprang out from the forest and rushed at me.

I immediately waved my hand and stabbed ice spears into the dog-like magical beasts.

Thud, thud. All I heard was the sound of flesh being pierced. There were no pain-filled groans that living creatures would normally make.

In the silent, silent interval. I dealt with the ground dogs rushing at me with ice spears.

The total number I dealt with like that was eight. But there were still many dogs, and I had used up all my ice spears.

After catching my breath briefly, I moved the ground. Three magical beasts rushing at me tumbled as they hit the suddenly risen earthen wall. Then Ray’s sharp warning rang in my head.

—Be careful.

At that warning, I quickly surrounded my body with a shield. Before I could reinforce the shield, a tremendous explosion occurred near my side.

“Ugh!”

The 2-stroke shield was torn apart like paper by the explosion of tremendous force.

My body flew several meters and crashed into a tree.

“Kuhuk.”

Not only was my side completely ruptured, but my insides that hit the tree were also a mess.

Bone bomb.

The thing Han Seo-hyeon had shown me with a smiling face exploded at my side. It’s fortunate I had a shield up, otherwise my body might have been shattered to pieces. No, it’s already shattered to pieces.

“Weeuk.”

After vomiting a bowl of blood, I wiped the blood with the back of my hand.

“This hurts like hell.”

I staggered to my feet. Seeing the black sand starting to gather before my eyes as if not giving me time to rest, I let out an empty laugh.

“You sure learn well even without being taught.”

I quickly rolled my damaged body forward. Sand spears that exactly copied my ice spears pierced into the space where I had been standing. You shouldn’t underestimate them just because they’re made of sand. Sand imbued with Han Seo-hyeon’s magic power was as hard as iron.

Thud, thud, I kept moving my body avoiding the sand piercing into the ground.

Still, the fortunate thing is…

‘He’s only using techniques with very simple usage methods. Well, a fake couldn’t possibly match Seo-hyeon’s sand control ability. If it were the real Seo-hyeon, he could have ground me up by now.’

—Is this the time to praise that kid! Wake up! I’m worried you might really die at this rate!

Ray’s concern is reasonable. In less than five minutes since coming here, my body has become a complete mess.

And I haven’t even confirmed Han Seo-hyeon’s face yet.

I used wind called with magic power to move my body. My body fluttered weakly in the air like a marionette with cut strings.

“Kuk.”

The recoil on my body from moving like throwing myself in the air was no joke, but there was no other way to avoid the spears flying in the air.

After barely avoiding the spears, I headed straight for the forest.

Boom, boom.

Terrifying sounds came from behind me. The sound of trees constantly exploding behind me. I ran without looking back.

Everywhere I passed became ruins. It’s not the time to quote poetry, but my situation was exactly like that. Tree fragments grazed past my cheek. If I stop walking, I’ll end up like that.

I ran in a circle. Unfortunately, I couldn’t run too far away either.

After all, all this hardship was to find Han Seo-hyeon who would be somewhere here and return.

“Huh, huh.”

Though I move using magic power, I still needed stamina to move my body. Though I had trained my body to the best of my ability until now, I was gradually becoming ragged from the attacks flying one after another without time to catch my breath.

I realized.

Just avoiding like this is an amateur’s method.

After catching my breath for a moment, I met the sand spears flying towards me with identical ice spears.

Seeing the sand shatter to powder in the air, I drew up magic power once again.

I sprayed magic power generously enough to heat up my magic bracelet. I not only used ice spears, but also wind blades, poured water on the sand, and even completely froze the sand with ice.

But that was only for a moment.

Like scooping a cup of water from the sea, the sand I destroyed was soon replaced by other sand.

I filled in mana stones with trembling hands.

Taking advantage of this brief gap while I was recharging mana stones, another bone bomb flew in.

“Ugh!”

This time I tried burying the bone bomb by calling forth soil. But I realized this wasn’t a good method either the moment the bone bomb exploded.

Boom, soil flew in all directions.

I had to hurriedly surround myself with a shield against the soil debris shooting like bullets.

—It would be better not to use this method.

I nodded frantically agreeing with Ray’s words.

“Huh, huh…”

As expected, it wasn’t easy even though I had anticipated it.

When I tried to close the distance, bone bombs flew in, and when I tried to increase the distance, sand spears and magical beasts rushed in.

Magical beast corpses were piling up, but this wasn’t a good sign either. Why? Because the magical beasts that fell to me stood up again after a little time passed.

‘Unless I completely pulverize the corpses, it seems this fight won’t end.’

I searched for Han Seo-hyeon while dealing with all of that, but all I could see was the forest dyed completely black.

I was certain he was nearby, but I had no idea where he was.

I was quite confident in reading mana. My sense was sensitive enough to read the location of mana stones deep in the ground. After obtaining Ray, I became sensitive enough to mana to read the aura of artifacts.

The problem is that the magic power in the surroundings is so thick that I can’t pinpoint Han Seo-hyeon’s location even with that sensitive sense.

Clang!

There was no time to continue that thought. I stabbed a dagger into the nape of the magical beast rushing at me. While kicking and breaking off the already tattered neck of the magical beast, I exhaled rough breaths.

“Huh, huh.”

The problem was that I was gradually getting tired. There’s a limit to assisting movement with magic power too.

What appeared in place of the magical beasts were black skeletons.

“Ha.”

The skeletons’ movements seemed like a mix of mine and Kim Jae-ho’s. I’ve been constantly battling with Kim Jae-ho until now.

The skeletons whose movements were all predictable were actually the easiest opponents for me to deal with. While smashing the ribs after diving into the embrace of a skeleton rushing at me with a sword, I muttered:

“I’ve properly faced Kim Jae-ho recently, you know.”

So a degraded version like you is laughable. While crushing the skeleton’s shin bone held in my hand with magic power, I deflected the sand spears flying towards me by calling forth ice spears.

Bone bombs, magical beasts. Skeletons and sand spears too.

“Haa, haa…”

Something big.

I need something big.

I, who am not a physical enhancement type, cannot surpass human limits. Gradually my body was driven to its limits, and sweat poured madly from my overheated body.

Magic power flowed from the bracelet along the mana circuit. The mana drawn from mana stones heated up my mana circuits. A little more, just a little more.

I gathered mana while ignoring the magical beasts rushing at me from all directions.

The sand Han Seo-hyeon called forth is not much different from Yebrica’s. The strategy to deal with it is similar too.

If I grind away all the visible sand at once, a gap will appear for you too.

Just before a magical beast tore into my nape, I released all the magic power gathered in my entire body. 3 strokes, 70% output. As pain like lightning striking my whole body spread, the wind extending from my fingertips eventually created a huge vortex.

The artificially created hurricane sucked in everything. The magical beasts aiming for my nape, the sand spears flying towards me, the bone bombs waiting to explode.

And even the black sand blocking my entire view.

I smiled feeling the brilliant sunlight touching my cheek.