Mage Manual-Chapter 1409 - 1032: The Four Demon Kings

When that millennium is over, the demon will be released from prison to deceive the nations of the four corners of the earth. His wings, vast and dark, obscure the sky and the sun. He is a demon from the end, the Observer who buries civilization.

The earth shatters for thousands of miles, and molten lava flows like blood for miles upon miles. Beneath the extremities of the earth, amidst the depths of the Abyss, demons that endure pain day and night are about to break free. His anger is enough to dry up the Sea of Knowledge, his resentment enough to overturn the Time Continent. The Dream Stairs fade under his brutality, Ruby Mountain is in perpetual tremor, he will cause war on earth, he will make the sky restless.

Heaven falls to the mortal realm, the blasphemer’s blood must be shed in the holy war, their bodies pierced by the sharpest spear back to the depths of the Abyss, imprisoned in darkness for eternity, unable to see even a sliver of sunlight without burning their pupils. Only then will all beings revere the Master of Heaven.

Angels come from all directions, their wings brighter than sunlight, forming a flag upon which demon blood drips, flowing for three days and nights before returning to earth.

God is angry, and the wonders descending like raindrops are countless and unseen, enough to annihilate all things in the world three thousand times. They march with their own chariots into battle, treading on mountains of corpses and seas of blood, possessing all knowledge of the world, seeing past and future, wielding world-destroying power, under the magnificent starry sea, they are the God of All Gods.

But no matter how pure the banner, it can be stained by demon blood until it rots and breaks;

No matter how great the wonders, they can be tainted by demon hands until glory is no more.

The sinners who wage war to welcome the demon are four Demon Kings of the earth. They are the embodiment of resentment and violence, symbols of chaos and evil, the evil souls of the last judgment, the manifestation of desire and greed.

They are Godslayer of gods, king of the regicides, they come to raise blood and chaos, to offer the world to the End Demon. Endless rain of blood falls from the sky, staining the soil dark red, angels fall one after another, the glory of God defiled, all beings no longer feel peace and joy, and civilization reaches a decisive turning point.

The justice won for a thousand years is utterly defeated in the holy war. From this moment, justice is defined by demons.

The End Demon is pulled from the cage. When the sunlight illuminates his wings, the angels flee, the gods retreat, but the future of the world ends at this moment.

His six wings are unbelievably vast, spreading with full might, the whole century falls under his dominion, retracting, the fate of all living beings will be gently gathered by his feathers.

His seventh wing is like a demon’s tail, sharp as a sword, colorful as if poisoned, its dance graceful and elegant, a gentle sweep is a sky full of splendor.

He brings death to all things, forging immortality into a scepter.

With the four Demon Kings surrounding him, he strides step by step onto the Seven Heavens. The good follow him, the evil admire him, the light longs for him, and the darkness also hopes for him.

He is an existence beyond all, the color God has coated upon all things!

Suddenly, he turns his head to look at the Soul Demon King behind him, his lifeless gaze like chains of reality, causing the Demon King to stiffen, daring not to move. He extends his hand, aiming at the Demon King’s forehead, then—

...

...

Tap.

Vishi covers her forehead, staring wide-eyed at Ash beside the bed, realizing her forehead had been flicked. She looked down and found the quilt still well-covered over her, underwear still properly worn, and breathed a sigh of relief.

She caught sight of a shadow at the tent flap, her eyes lit up, she lifted a corner of the quilt to reveal a hint of the scenery inside, tugged at Ash’s sleeve, lazily saying, "Master, would you like to join for a nap?"

At that moment, Felix peeked into the tent, displaying an expression of ’just as expected’, then helped them close the flap.

"Alright." Ash said calmly.

Vishi blinked, silently tucking the quilt tighter, the Knowledge Guardian coalescing into a more conservative maid outfit over her graceful body, legs straight and intertwined, as if ready to spring out of bed the next moment. But her expression and tone remained charmingly captivating, "Come on, my favorite is to nap leaning on Master’s arm."

She paused, softly cautioning, "But Master, be gentle, it would be troublesome if the Mistresses found out."

"Felix couldn’t wake you and was worried something happened, so he called me to check." Ash asked without turning, "Falling into an unwakable sleep in the wilderness, the Ghost Prophet I know wouldn’t be so lacking in vigilance."

"It’s all your fault for not letting me join you last night, little maid got so caught up dreaming of Master that I couldn’t help but get lost in it..."

"Dedarose told me you took a lot of Technique Spirits from her last night." Ash said, "You’ve now assembled a complete Technique Spirit system, along with the prophetic Knowledge Guardian and Soul-locking Divine Being... What are you up to?"

Seeing she couldn’t hide it, Vishi confessed, not that it was an unspeakable secret: "I used a Miracle ’Soul’s Yearning · Premonition Dream’ last night, but perhaps because the core effect was too intense with the Soul-locking Divine Being, I became entirely immersed in the dream, momentarily unable to attend to any movements in reality."

Ash felt a bit puzzled: "Isn’t ’Soul Entranced Dream’ an offensive miracle? How can it be related to a premonition dream?"

In the Ghost heritage, they were nearly wiped out by ’Soul Entranced Dream’, which was considered a significant challenge in their legacy, hence the deep impression.

"I am a dual soul prophecy demigod, and one of the very few Mages skilled in the dreams faction," Vishi chuckled, "You think ’Soul Entranced Dream’ is an offensive miracle because your perspective is still below a demigod. But for a demigod with a Magic Temple, miracles no longer exist as standalone models, it’s how you choose to use them that’s crucial."

"Yet, it’s understandable, as mortal mages must use miracles one after another. Even if they use two miracles simultaneously, they must maintain the independence of the miracles without merging them into one. To combine two miracles into a new one, a Mage might need years of experimentation for a possibility of success."

Ash was startled: "Aren’t demigods the same?"

Vishi shook her head: "Of course not. Once we possess a Magic Temple, we can allow the Technique Spirit to pre-construct miracles within the temple. Moreover, the target of miracles is no longer limited to reality and can even include other Technique Spirits and miracles as casting targets."

"My ’Soul Entranced Dream·Premonition Dream’ is actually using ’Soul Entranced Dream’ to enhance ’Premonition Dream’. Although I can indeed fuse these two miracles and deduce a new technique, to a demigod, it’s an extremely inefficient action."

"Using one miracle to enhance another miracle, this is the fundamental ’Wonder’ structure."

Getting excited, Vishi sat up directly: "Suppose the Technique Spirit is a point, then miracles are planes formed by multiple points. Mortal mages spend their lives working under those planes, burning their life to create colorful paintings."

"But a demigod can construct a three-dimensional model, so our vision shouldn’t be limited to plane structures. We merely consider how to couple these paintings so they overlap and interact, forming more powerful effects."

Indeed, coupling wonders isn’t as casual as Vishi described. To enable two miracles to strengthen each other rather than conflict, it requires at least a demigod-level magic realm.

However, Ash was able to see the contrasting construction mindset between demigods and mages:

Mages focus on certain Technique Spirits as the core, forming a Technique Spirit system;

Demigods can also use Divine Beings as the core for structures, but Divine Beings are too rare, and demigods might not have a satisfactory Divine Being. It’s normal to not possess a Divine Being, but not having one doesn’t mean you’ve missed out completely, as miracles can still act as the core to construct wonders.

The easiest wonder to construct is by using other miracles to enhance a core miracle, achieving qualitative change through quantitative transformation, enabling wonders to exert the power of wonders. Vishi previously gained fame as the Ghost Prophet by relying on the scale of wonders.

In short, those with divine beings can form premium decks, while those without can form sub-par decks. As long as you truly desire advancement, there’s always a way to partake in the game.

"So, what did you dream about?"

"I should explain first," Vishi said, "This is a trick I learned from prophecy legacy — after experiencing a significant event, you can predict the outcome of experiencing a similar event in a short time, though the accuracy might vary greatly."

"I call this the ’Ripple Effect’. In the river of fate, crucial events I experience inevitably influence my subsequent life, like tossing a stone into the water creating ripples. We are fish in the river, and prophecy is the fish poking its head out to observe the river ahead. As a ripple forms, I can see more waves and more of the future."

"But due to the agitation of the ripple, the accuracy is unpredictable; it can be spot-on or completely opposite. However, I’m never adept at foreseeing the future; I’m skilled in counter-prediction and disguising myself, so such foresight is an unnecessary enhancement for me."

Indeed, the Ghost Prophet’s fame isn’t merely earned by her prowess in battle, but also by the fact that capturing her is nearly impossible. A spiteful, powerful entity skilled in counter-prediction and disguise with unparalleled escape techniques — once you let your guard down, she’d massacre your entire family; even thinking about it made Ash want to eliminate her for public good.

Ash quickly figured out: "Are you predicting your next advancement?"

Vishi has recently experienced significant events, such as breaking free from the Allstars prison, participating in the Angel Hunt, and advancing to demigod. Currently, the Allstars are gone, and there’s no other Source Angel-level existence. What she can know and desires most is certainly how she can ascend to the Six-winged God.

"It’s similar to how we ascended to demigod," Vishi pondered and said, "The feeling should be that you first help us advance, then you start your advancement, but at this point, the Divine Lords want to stop you, so we assist in resisting their attacks. Once you complete the advancement, achieve the Supreme of Magic, and lead us to ascend to Heaven."

"Worth mentioning is that you emerge from underground," Vishi said thoughtfully, "Could that be what’s called Hell?"

Those four Demon Kings are undoubtedly Sword Maiden, Witch, Silver Lamp, and Vishi herself, while Ash emerges from underground as the End Demon.

Vishi expected Ash to get excited since this indirectly proved the existence of the ’Level Six of Hell’. However, Ash just nodded, seeming somewhat downtrodden, keeping his head down, lost in thought.

Vishi blinked, quietly unbuttoning the maid outfit’s collar, pulling her silk-wrapped legs out from under the quilt, leaning closer and saying: "In fact, the accuracy of such premonition dreams is extremely low. After my last life, when I ascended to demigod, I predicted I’d find the Heavenly Kingdom for advancing to Divine Lord. It wasn’t entirely inaccurate, as I indeed later snatched the Dream Heaven, but the problem was I didn’t possess a single Divine Being, lacking the ability to elevate the Heavenly Kingdom."

"Chances are high that my recent dream is influenced by current events. For instance, we’ve been discussing Hell continuously, and we’ve just offended the Divine Lords, so I foresee you emerging from Hell to lead us in a Heaven-shattering dream..."

She smiled faintly: "If that day indeed arrives, even without chains, I’ll follow you."