NOVEL NEXT Chapter 52: Light Speed
These days, mages were too busy.
First, they attacked heaven, then they were supposed to attack Hell, but it got delayed many times due to Dyer's predictions.
They never expected anyone to attack them.
Nobody can blame them for this. After all, from the beginning of the world, no demon or god above rank 7 managed to reach the mage world.
But now, all of a sudden, all the demon kings attacked. Of course, they were caught off guard.
But after Erik Morgan's death and Morgan Academy's fall, they gathered quickly, using their trump card, 'light speed.'
This spell only works in emergencies and relies on a formation set up by mages for urgent transportation. It moves people at close to the speed of light.
The fastest way to travel is by jumping through space, but space in the vicinity became unstable for some reason.
Therefore, light speed was the best option.
Even mages cannot move faster than the speed of light in a straight line. Light is a massless particle, so naturally, one cannot move faster than something that is massless.
But it's possible to move at the same speed as light with the 'light speed' spell, whose main operation is making users massless.
As for the problem of time stopping when moving at light speed, it's complicated.
The reason time stops for travelers at Light speed is simple.
From an outside observer's view, travelers are moving at the speed of light, which is finite. But from the traveler's perspective, they are moving at an infinite speed. With infinite speed, one can reach from one end of the universe to the other in literally no time.
That's why time 'stops' at the speed of light.
How can one fix it so time won't stop? It's easy to solve in this world.
Just decrease the speed slightly so it's below light speed, then increase the mind's activity.
By increasing the mind's activity, one can even stretch a second to a year.
Increase the mind activity precisely as the time slows, and you counter the time problem of near-light-speed travel.
This method is the best way because there is no way to solve it if one moves exactly at Light speed. The rules of the world won't allow it.
All these complex tasks were done by the 'lightspeed' formation automatically.
...
Very quickly, all mages gathered at Humanoids Academy's headquarters. They increased their mind activity, stretching a second to a century because they lacked time to debate.
As for the problem of being unable to move their mouth and talk, they solved it by communicating through telepathy. Lee, the dean of Humanoids Academy, spoke via telepathy, "Everyone! The situation is very urgent! The barrier has completely disappeared, and demons have attacked! I will send the latest information to all." Then, he transmitted all the latest news through telepathy."
The situation was dire. The 'black hole' formation created basically a sun on the mage world, and it was so hot that even rank 9 formations struggled.
Fortunately, after traveling across the ocean and expanding, it got cold enough that Rank 9 academies wouldn't have a problem resisting it. As for some water waves and thunders, it's effortless for mages.
The actual danger is if the demon kings use it again!
Jorge, a rank 9 mage, said, "We cannot afford to spread out. They can easily defeat us if we are not together. So I suggest that in all plans, we stick together."
Everyone unanimously nodded.
"Let's take out the treasures!" another rank 9 mage said.
Lee nodded and mentioned her 'Humanoid Way' magic treasure.
"My magic treasure has enough 'humanoid aura' to maintain 20 rank 9 mages for a year!" she said.
One year is the minimum, so she couldn't make more mages for less time.
Joel, another rank 9 peak mage, brought out his remote dagger. "This dagger can cut faraway places. It's extraordinary, being one of the creator's inheritances. It won't move through space, it won't jump through space, it just ignores space altogether. As a result, nothing can defend against it."
Ignoring space is a very high-grade ability, so all watched in amazement.
One by one, mages introduced their treasures.
After a while, Lee said loudly, "The situation is better than anticipated. With all these treasures, combined with our numerical superiority, we can defeat them!"
Most nodded.
Then, they began to spend a long time planning.
...
The demon kings reached the Humanoids Academy.
With a shared mind, they all smoothly moved to certain places, intending to set up another 'black hole.'
But how could the mages allow it? Joel used his dagger and cut one of the demon king's incarnations.
He was a rank 9 initial stage demon king of Wrath.
When he saw the attack, he took out all his defensive equipment. However, the dagger ignored everything and directly cut him in half. Not only that, it moved with incredible speed and made numerous cuts.
In a moment, that incarnation turned into meat paste!
"Burn!" the main body of Wrath cast the main skill of the demon king of Wrath.
All other abilities of the demon king of Wrath are based on this one skill.
As the descendants develop abilities based on this skill, the demon king of Wrath also gains their skills. This is why all demon kings have so many children. By having their descendants develop skills and abilities based on their own abilities, they are improving themselves.
Joel used his defensive gear, the 'Shield of Timelessness.'
The 'Shield of Timelessness' temporarily drained all the river of time from around him, making all attacks stop before reaching him.
However, in front of 'Burn,' it failed!
'Burn' was not a spell. It was not moving through space and time; it was an original sin that exists within everyone. When Wrath used 'burn,' he just activated the existing emotion within Joel, not attacking from the outside.
This was common knowledge among high-grade mages, but Joel still forgot when it was critical!
"How could I make such a mistake? Wait, it's Lust!" he cursed.
The demon king of Lust had the extremely terrifying ability of 'mental manipulation.' One would not even know they are affected by it. Joel was a rank 9 peak mage, so he noticed quickly, but a rank 9 initial stage mage might not even realize they've made an obvious mistake.
Just as he was thinking, he began to burn from within!
It was not fire; it was burning with everything that can be burned!
Burning with rage, burning with love, burning with sadness. The attack was not based on fire but on something far deeper.
Fortunately for him, he was not alone.
Brian, another rank 9 peak mage, cast his 'Cleanse' spell.
He specialized in the fragment law of Purity, so expelling these attacks was his specialty.
He could purify everything—poison, unwanted emotions, even dark elements. Common knowledge was that when pure energy corrupts with dark and light, it cannot be turned back, but Brian could do it with his fragment law.
Another rank 9 peak mage, Carl, who specialized in the fragment law of reflection, cast 'Reflect Back.'
The demon king of Wrath had just cast his skill, but the same skill was cast on him as a result of 'Reflect Back.'"
"Damn!" He was the demon king of Wrath, so his emotions were more intense.
But before he could burn, Lust came to him with 'mental manipulation' and suppressed all his burning emotions, stabilizing his situation.
The demon kings realized the situation was terrible, so they used their first trump card.
All six deadly sin demon kings and Tanoth gathered and took out a crystal. This crystal was the Sin Crystal, created from countless years of negative energy from Hell.
They all shouted, 'Seven Sins!'
This spell required the demon king of Sloth to be perfect, but they managed to substitute her with Tanoth.
The world changed color. The sky was no longer blue but orange. The ground soil was no longer brown but red. People long dead began resurrecting as zombies, not just weak zombies, but rank 8 and 9 zombies.
Ordinary people began to transform and twist, turning into high-level monsters. Animals began to transform into hellish monsters.
The entire continent transformed into an unrecognizable state worse than Hell in a moment.
"Damn! Use your treasure to suppress it!" shouted Lee.
The mages didn't benefit from a shared mind, so they could only use telepathy to plan.
Jonas, another rank 9 peak mage, took out his treasure and broke it.
It was a small crystal of a spell based on the fundamental law of time. It was so powerful that it was ridiculous.
Called 'One Change,' it could directly modify the past and change reality! It was a treasure from the creators.
It could only be used to change the past 2 seconds.
He used it and changed one fact.
The 'Seven Sins' spell failed, and its backlash killed all the demon kings!
The river of time changed, and the demon kings all died!
The sky turned blue, and all humans and animals returned to normal as if it had never happened.
All demon kings died before they could defend!
But all knew it was not so easy.
If it were so easy to kill demon kings who had collected treasures for the last hundreds of millions of years, they would have been killed already.
A moment later, all demon kings returned, and the sky returned to red, and humans and animals became monsters again.
It was because of another inheritance from the creators named 'truth,' which can restore things to their true state.
The demon kings had been prepared in advance to defend against attacks based on time.
The demon kings had unimaginable resources, so they used this advantage in the next attack.
They took out hundreds of mobile 'tower' formations.
'Tower formation' was the specialty of the demon king of the tower. Its powers were in protecting a region.
Just one tower is enough to resist a rank 9 mage. Its advantage was that it was movable, and there was no need to make it in advance. Its disadvantage was the unimaginable amount of resources needed to create it.
All the towers started to attack the mages.
Another rank 9 mage, Lance, the best mage in the fragment law of technology, took out his magic treasure.
It was named 'Infiltration,' which could hack everything. It wasn't limited to smart formations; even people were hackable with this magic treasure.
Out of 350 towers, 50 were hacked immediately. But it wasn't enough to resist, so another rank 9 peak mage named Emilio, proficient in the fragment law of repeal, used his treasure, which was also an inheritance from the creators.
The creators left many inheritances, and the peak rank 9 mages used them as trump cards.
The treasure was named 'Reverse Dynamics.' When used on anything, all of its energy would reverse. If something were moving down, it would go up; if it were going up, it would go down.
It worked on everything, not just physical stuff.
With this, many attacks cast by the towers reversed course and hit the towers themselves. Many of them received severe damage.
At this time, the demon king of Pride cast his ability.
'One in the World!' he shouted.
This ability is considered the strongest among all abilities in the world!
"Watch out!" Lee shouted, taking out her treasure.
Other mages also took out their treasures. They were all afraid of this ability from the beginning.
Its function is simple.
When 'One in the World' is active, the demon king of Pride becomes more powerful than the strongest existence in the world.
The demon king of Pride always thinks of himself as the most powerful, but he only truly becomes the most powerful when he uses his ultimate skill.
His aura began to increase!
After a moment, it became so strong that the mages thought that one look from him could kill them all!
"How can it be? Even a rank 10 can't be this strong," Joel thought in horror.
But then...
Boooom!
The main body of the demon king of Pride exploded!
He died!