Rebirth of the 8th-Circle Mage

Like water filling up a sinking ship, Henry’s mind was flooded with the memories of his sixth endeavor in the heavens. He was in immense, indescribable pain. It wasn’t the process of lost memories flooding into his mind, but the memories themselves that affected him.

He saw himself cut off his own arm and leg at the request of the angels; he remembered the indelible sense of humiliation and shame he had felt back then. And lastly, he saw how pitiful and helpless he had been, how he hadn’t been able to do anything against the Heavenly God, despite starting the Armageddon.

That was the Heavenly God’s present.

“Why…!”

Henry felt like his pupils, which shone in gold, were about to melt off as the images of the past flashed before his eyes. Tears streamed down his face uncontrollably as he took in the wave of powerful emotions he had felt in the past all at once.

He felt physically overwhelmed, and before he knew it, he let go of the Colt Sword, which he had been gripping firmly. Given that he was in the sky, facing the army of angels, his sword fell endlessly like a small meteor.

Virtus silently watched Henry despair. Even though the Heavenly God had told him that it was Henry’s seventh time going through this, Virtus thought it made no sense. Of course, he believed whatever the Heavenly God told him without second-guessing anything.

That was the difference between him and Henry.

The Heavenly God had told Virtus to keep a close eye on Henry and see what choice he would make this time. He had also asked Virtus to make sure that Henry didn’t get his hands on the Lyre of Defiance.

Henry, with his head sagged down, kept crying. After a while, the imperfect god finally raised his head as he got himself together.

“So no matter what I do… Everything is destined to end up like that…?”

Tears kept streaming down Henry’s cheeks. He felt all sorts of emotions—anger, frustration, humiliation, sorrow, and so on. However, the most difficult emotion to handle, the one that was suffocating him, was despair.

Henry couldn’t help despairing over the fact that he would have to return to his world empty-handed and resume experimenting on innocent people.

His encounter with the Heavenly God made him realize just how powerful gods were, actual gods, not imperfect ones like him. He also realized that he could no longer look down on Janus’ power. It was a much more terrible and wicked curse than the one Golden Jackson, his close friend, had succumbed to.

All sorts of thoughts raced through his mind as he continued to cry. And for a while, Henry let himself cry. He generally looked down on crying, considering it a sign of weakness. Because of his convictions, Henry had thought that he would never shed a tear, but at this moment, he couldn’t help it.

He was shedding all the tears he had suppressed his entire life.

The thousands of angels from the heavenly army stared at Henry, but he didn’t feel ashamed. In fact, he couldn’t care less about what they thought of him. He decided to just let the tears flow until he found the strength to pull himself together.

And through his tears, he was able to organize his thoughts. Part of him wanted to give up on everything and let things unfold as fate decreed. Of course, he knew that wasn’t an option, given that everything had happened because of his greed. Besides, he had never faced defeat before, and his pride wouldn’t allow him to give up.

Of course, Henry didn’t want to carry on simply because his pride dictated so. He was also the greatest god in the human world, the one with the largest number of followers. As the god of the people, the savior of humanity, he simply couldn’t ignore their prayers.

But no matter how hard he thought, he couldn’t find a way out of this. Even at this moment, time was quickly passing in the human world, the sand in the hourglass almost running out. Every second he wasted here, more blind believers were dying of starvation.

Henry didn’t have the confidence that he would manage to develop a cure before all of them wasted away.

At this, Henry looked up at the sky. He saw the enormous, round sun hanging in the center of the heavenly sky. It was well known that the sun represented the Heavenly God, which in turn meant that he was watching Henry struggle in frustration and despair.

As this thought flashed through his mind, Henry suddenly became angry, but he couldn’t think of a way to release his anger.

He had declared the Armageddon and had gone after the Heavenly God with Ganisel at his side, who was fully equipped with the Three Sacred Treasures of the Demon Realm. However, nobody, not even Gigatan or Gretel, could even lay a finger on the Heavenly God.

His fury kept growing but couldn’t be released, which caused Henry to feel even more helpless. He hadn’t felt this helpless in a long time, and it physically pained him. He kept thinking hard, wondering if there wasn’t something, anything that might help him save those poor people.

His inability to think of a solution prompted Henry to think about why the Heavenly God refused to help him, why he didn’t trust him with the power of time.

Actually, he knew. Other people had asked the Heavenly God for the same power and had been denied.

As Henry thought about the Heavenly God’s reasoning one more time, there was one word that flashed through his mind—equality. He realized that the Heavenly God hadn’t helped him because he hadn’t helped the ones before him either.

‘Equality… Equality… Equality!

Henry couldn’t help repeating the word “equality” over and over again in his mind. The Heavenly God wasn’t some judge, and the world wasn’t fair. It ran according to the needs and greed of those who were privileged and possessed power.

But despite that, the Heavenly God spoke of equality, not because he wanted fairness in the world, but because everyone had coveted his incredible power.

Thinking this through again, Henry couldn't help but chuckle, finding the Heavenly God’s reasoning awfully funny. He didn’t understand why he had made it so that gods couldn’t help one another. There were just so many things that Henry couldn’t wrap his head around.

But then…

‘Not letting gods help other?’

Henry sensed that his thoughts were veering in the wrong direction. It wasn’t like the King of Gods had told the gods to not help each other out. He had simply told them not to intervene in the human world.

The reason Henry had thought the way he had so far was because of the Heavenly God’s rigid and obstinate philosophical stance.

‘His fixation on equality…’

Henry finally realized that the Heavenly God hadn’t helped him because of his personal philosophical beliefs, not because the King of Gods had ordered him to.

Of course, this was merely Henry’s speculation, but it didn’t matter. He was now even more furious as he realized that the Heavenly God had forsaken a fellow god in desperate need of help because of his bullshit philosophy.

Henry had exercised humility in front of the Heavenly God, and yet the Heavenly God had belittled him and spat in his face.

“Pff… Phahaha!”

Henry eventually burst into laughter, realizing that the Heavenly God was full of shit, a hypocrite just like the rest. He was just an old man who, instead of helping, was just giving out false hope and spewing nagging remarks just like any other geezer.

The Heavenly God was making him sick.

Henry’s despair slowly vanished, and he managed to compose himself. All those negative emotions had been replaced by one thing: seeking revenge against the Heavenly God.

‘Okay, I don’t need help from that bastard anymore.’

Henry made up his mind not to bow a second time to the Heavenly God. He also decided to give up on this ambition of acquiring the power of time.

Of course, that didn’t mean that he was giving up on searching for a cure for the blind believers. It just meant that he was going to find another way besides using the power of time.

He could already feel his mind becoming clearer, and he realized that he never should’ve bowed down for help in the first place. It went against his very nature.

Henry’s mind was fully set on getting revenge against the Heavenly God, but he was well aware that he couldn’t even lay a finger on him, at least not by ordinary means, as the god would just rewind time. And so, he needed more information about him, as dealing with a complete god with limited information was like trying to breach a wall by throwing eggs at it.

But at that moment, Henry thought of a pretty good idea, and he couldn’t help smirking.

He glanced up at the radiant sun high up in the sky and said, “I’ll do as you wish.”

With that, Henry raised his hand.

“Unsheathe.”

With that, his Colt Sword reappeared in his hands as though he hadn’t dropped it in the first place.

Seeing this, Virtus let out a sigh.

“Henry, you’re not thinking of…!”

Having watched Henry cry for a couple of minutes, Virtus thought that Henry had finally realized his limitations. However, he was saddened to see Henry with his sword again, thinking that the incomplete god would embark on the same path once again.

Henry pointed his sword toward Virtus. At this, Virtus held onto the Lyre of Defiance with a rather nervous expression.

“That lyre, I don’t need it anymore.”

“Pardon…?”

“Now watch how I spit on your god!”

Swing!

Blood splattered, and something fell forward. It was a head, but not just any head.

It had black hair and a triumphant smile.

It was the head of the very first god of magic.

Henry Morris’ head fell.

“...!”

Henry had just decapitated himself with his Colt Sword, making for a truly unbelievable sight.

Virtus widened his eyes in shock, and the heavenly troops that were pointing their spears at Henry were also visibly agitated.

“What the…!”

In fact, Virtus was so shocked that he lost his balance and flew toward Henry to catch him, flapping his wings desperately and throwing himself at him.

But right before he reached Henry, an incredibly dazzling light flashed from his corpse.

“Aahh!”

The brilliance wasn’t just any kind of light. It was hot, but not hot enough to burn everything down. Everyone who witnessed the brilliance, including Virtus, either turned their heads away or raised their shields.

A few seconds passed, and once everyone got used to the heat, several angels lowered their hands from their faces. Then, their eyes grew wide in shock.

“...!”

In fact, some were so shocked that they couldn’t even speak.

“Uh… Uh-oh…!”

The light was fading, and those who had turned away slowly turned back around. Now, everyone was seeing it—an incredibly intimidating entity emerging from within the light.

“Don’t tell me…!” Virtus gasped in astonishment. That presence was so intimidating that everyone was shaking. Virtus had only felt this way when he had met the Heavenly God, so he was naturally shocked that there was another being with such an overwhelming presence.

When the light completely vanished, Henry’s figure was revealed.

“Hmm… All good.”

Moments ago, Henry’s head had been about to fall out of sight, but now it was on his shoulders as though nothing had happened.

Virtus hadn’t the slightest idea as to what had happened and how Henry was in one piece. His appearance hadn’t changed. He was wearing the same clothes and had the same elegance to him.

Actually, Henry felt one thing that was different.

It was that…

“I knew it…”

New information and a peculiar sensation… Everything felt familiar to Henry and yet new.

Henry had chosen to kill himself in order to ascend to a higher form of being, and decapitating himself had done just that. He had reached perfection through death.

Henry was now a complete god.

“Was this my second time?”

Ironically, he had experienced death twice, both times by decapitation. And this marked his second resurrection. Henry smiled cheerfully at this rather familiar sensation.

He stopped wiggling his fingers and stretched his neck to relax his muscles. He felt refreshed, and his mind was full of information he hadn’t been aware of before.

He finally realized what La had meant when he had told him that he would know more after he became a complete god. He was now aware of all kinds of secrets about gods.

At this, he couldn’t help but smirk, for some of those secrets were quite intriguing.

Through his complete ascension to divinity, Henry could now find a new path.