I Became a Genius Mage in the Cthulhu Game
Chapter 128: The Laughing One (4)

Cheong-ho’s corpse lay sprawled on the floor. His decayed brain matter and blood spilled across the ground.

And Jang Hyeon-deok was no longer Jang Hyeon-deok.

[Living Altar]: The efficiency of possession, spirit channeling, and descent is increased by 1200%. It minimizes the penalties associated with possession, spirit channeling, and descent. It largely disregards the restrictions of possession, spirit channeling, and descent.

// You possess a natural talent for mediumship. You are more akin to a living altar than a human being with free will.

I had seen this sight before. The Living Altar trait manifested the full potential of the Laughing One in the present world.

Where Jang Hyeon-deok’s face should have been, there was a grotesque skull with a bluish orb of light burning inside the skull.

And a cloak that seemed to be woven from the cold mist and the darkness of night. Within the cloak, horrific skeletons were visible.

The Laughing One who was now using Jang Hyeon-deok’s mouth burst into a loud laugh.

“□□□□□!!!”

Rumble!!!

It was an immense force, beyond what any human laugh could recognize.

The underground fallout shelter, no, the entire mountain seemed to shake with that tremendous energy. Unable to withstand the shock, part of the fallout shelter’s inner wall cracked with a horrible sound.

Through the gaping cracks, the vague void beyond became visible.

He’s really done it now.

Was he enjoying that it was now his turn?

“He’s fully possessed. Is it over now?”

Artificial darkness and pitch-black fog flowed out of the Laughing One’s body.

His influence was expanding. The five flames that had been surrounding the Laughing One lost their momentum and retreated.

Bones rolled out, threatening magic, distant sounds of laughter, the cries of beasts, mist, the aura of death.

“Yes, Mage-nim. It is over now.”

This time he spoke in Jang Hyeon-deok’s tone. It seemed he had no distinct personality of his own.

It had been a pain to cater to Cheong-ho’s childish tastes, and now I had to talk with Jang Hyeon-deok. What a pain in the ass.

“Please, could you speak less while possessing Jang Hyeon-deok? Nothing but stupid stuff comes from that mouth.”

“Just endure a little longer. Soon, you will become one with us. Become a servant to spread the empty laughter across the universe.”

No, I was the bad one for wanting Jang Hyeon-deok to shut up.

I just wanted him to shut up. I drew my Great Justice Tiger Sword and aimed it at Jang Hyeon-deok and the Laughing One.

“Ridiculous! What can you do with the power of such a beast, Mage-nim? Are you going to grow this fire borrowed from the abyss to strike me down?”

Boom…

“□□□□□!!!”

A huge laugh erupted again.

The darkness expands further. Skeletons poured out. Darkness, skeletons, and laughter intertwined.

There was no need for any special formation. The sheer number alone was overwhelming enough to crush everything under its weight.

A gigantic tidal wave made of bones, darkness, and hollow laughter rushed in. This was an unstoppable attack. No weapon could hold back a tidal wave or a raging storm.

Standing at the edge of the incoming wave, I held a single sword and spoke to the Laughing One.

“Sorry, but you really chose the wrong one to possess.”

[The unique effect of the SSS-rank weapon Great Justice Tiger Sword (Nokjon), ‘Prize of Righteous Harm’ has been activated.

// Prize of Righteous Harm: Damage against good or virtuous targets increases by 400%. ]

I had already experimented with various things.

The Laughing One has no concept of good and evil, but the Great Justice Tiger Sword should recognize Jang Hyeon-deok as a good person.

[Chains of Domination]

[Spell Enhancement: Maximization]

[Spell Enhancement: Power Increase]

[Spell Enhancement: Range Increase]

[Spell Enhancement: Multicasting]

Churrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Dozens of chains of magic thrashed through the dark basement as they emitted tremendous noise and golden light.

I strengthened them by infusing them with an extreme amount of magical power, giving them a completely different performance from the usual chains of domination.

“Hahaha! Foolish Mage-nim! Do you think such magic will work?”

Boom!

A jet-black wave erupted, deflecting the golden chains.

Normally, it would have been nearly, no, completely impossible. It might have been possible to burn or hit it, but casting this type of magic on a high mental body revealed to this extent was impossible.

But would I use a spell that was bound to fail while knowing this already?

Buzz…

The magical power emitted from within Jang Hyeon-deok’s body which the Laughing One had taken over resonated with my spell. It was the magic I had poured in over a long period of time.

“What, what is this?!”

“Oh, the typical villain reaction. Very nice.”

The magical power emitted from Jang Hyeon-deok’s body connected with my Chains of Domination…

Crackle!!

A thrilling sense of resistance. Was this a mental barrier? It was much weaker than the [King in Yellow]. The calculations were completed in an instant. Dispell.

A bizarrely surreal magic structure. Simpler than the [One Who Comes from the Darkness]. I altered my magic structure to respond.

Dispel complete, analysis complete, connection complete.

Crackle!!

“Ugh, but this still isn’t enough.”

The output was insufficient.

To maximize the effect of the Chains of Domination, I added a new spell.

[Voice of Authority]

[Spell Enhancement: Power Increase]

This was also a spell with the power to control a designated target.

Originally, I would not have been able to control the Laughing One. This was a being far superior to myself after all. But the moment it entered Jang Hyeon-deok’s body, its stats were reduced to a metaphysical level.

Therefore, the target of the spell… it was not the Laughing One, but Jang Hyeon-deok.

Jang Hyeon-deok, stay still.

Suddenly, there was silence.

Not even a groan or an exclamation could be heard. It was as if time had stopped.

But time had not stopped.

The power of the [Laughing One] had stopped.

“Ah, it was hard to endure.”

The tightening skull, the darkness, the laughter, and Jang Hyeon-deok, who was at the center of it all had all stopped.

I briefly raised my hands to make a mocking gesture at the Laughing One and then drew up my magic.

I infused the five dwindling flames with magical power and gave them new properties. Convert, reorganize, maintain properties, and switch themes.

There was no longer any need to play games. Converge into a single point and strike the enemy.

The fire was not summoned by my magic from the beginning so it was a bit rigid. But it listened to my words and moved. I raised the Great Justice Tiger Sword and directed the magical power of the living flame.

[The unique effect of the SSS-rank weapon Great Justice Tiger Sword (Nokjon), ‘Blessing of Heavenly Fire’ has been activated.

// Blessing of Heavenly Fire: All fire-type magic effects are increased by 100%.]

The spreading flames transformed into a violently rotating wheel of fire.

Whoooosh!!!

“Wasn’t it fun? Now, disappear!”

The wheel of fire filled with five colored flames struck the [Laughing One].

Boom! Whooosh!!

Kuhuhuhuhuhu!! Khehehehehe!!!

The flames were created with the power borrowed from a being of the abyss. The Laughing One let out a bizarre noise that could not be determined whether it was a scream or laughter.

“Oh, I can’t just burn it like that.”

If I intended to simply burn it away, I would have set everything on fire long ago.

Switch the theme again.

“Condense, weave, entangle. And bind it as it is.”

Magic circles appeared everywhere at the same time. Magic circles glowing in various colors, shapes, runes, empowered words, beast signs, and incantations.

I used to do this even with my bare hands before. And now? Now I could do it even more easily.

[System: The hidden trait ‘Heir of the Corpse Pile’ has been activated.]

The trait stolen from Hollow Lord exerted strong binding power on supernatural entities like spirits and mental bodies.

“It’s something I can’t do in the game, but I find myself doing it quite often.”

Crack!

The five flames forcefully tore the [Laughing One] out from between the huge darkness and the skull with powerful binding force.

It was an old book bound in worn leather. On the cover, red letters that seemed to be written in blood spelled out an alien language.

“As expected, it’s just a book, an avatar.”

A book. The same book that was the root of all this chaos.

Though it created a ruckus as if the [Laughing One] itself had appeared, it was merely an avatar.

“Well, at least I captured this.”

The five flames stabilized and rotated at regular intervals.

The magic lines extending from the flames formed a pentagram, binding the newly revealed book.

Temporary sealing complete.

“Is it roughly done?”

In the space where the skull, darkness, and laughter had vanished, Jang Hyeon-deok’s figure emerged. He looked at me with a pale face. He clearly didn’t know what had just happened.

“Ma…ge-nim?”

“Haaah. Let me be clear, I didn’t bring you here to use you like this.”

“Yes …?”

With those words, Jang Hyeon-deok lost consciousness and collapsed to the floor.

It seemed like I only needed to quietly clean up, but there was still someone left who wanted to talk to me.

“Uh, uh, uh….”

The mouth of Cheong-ho who had collapsed as a corpse moved and a voice flowed out.

There was no way the dead Cheong-ho could speak now. It must have been some influence of the [Laughing One] forcibly moving Cheong-ho’s body.

“How did I do it? Or how did I know? Is that what you want to ask?”

“Uh, uh, uh….”

“Do you think I would carry around a medium with high performance but no self-defense and no safety measures?”

He must have targeted Jang Hyeon-deok from the beginning. Maybe even from outside the fallout shelter?

The sound of crows outside the fallout shelter, the black shadows, and the nonsense Jang Hyeon-deok started spouting as if predicting something.

Something about grave sites or whatever.

He intentionally created a situation where I had no choice but to bring Jang Hyeon-deok into the fallout shelter.

After that, he must have stimulated Jang Hyeon-deok’s mind and caused him to be in a state where he could no longer advance, thereby putting me and Jang Hyeon-deok away.

Tsk, to be honest, it wasn’t entirely unexpected.

I had expected it to some extent. That’s why I brought Jang Hyeon-deok into the bunker rather than leaving him outside.

Because of that…

“No matter what possessed him, I had already prepared a way to control it.”

That was why I had been forcing myself to see Jang Hyeon-deok regularly.

What if something strange possessed him where I couldn’t see? If it had picked a fight, it would have been a relief. If it had been hidden and started some weird religion, there would have been no solution.

So I kept Jang Hyeon-deok close and pushed my influence on him.

If possible, I had no intention of going to the point of using Jang Hyeon-deok as a trap.

I had to listen to that long, nonsensical talk…

Ah, just thinking about it made me angry.

I summoned my magical power and swung the Butcher’s Hook, forcibly extracting the mental body that inhabited Cheongho’s body.

Screeeeeech!

As expected. Thanks to the effect of amplifying necromancy-type magic, the Butcher’s Hook was highly effective against supernatural entities like non-corporeal or spiritual beings.

I looked at the black mental body impaled on the Butcher’s Hook. It was a bizarre entity that looked like either a human head or a page with a strange symbol written on it.

– Kwaaaaaa! Stop! Stop it! Stop it!

It could speak after all. A metaphysical and abstract being like the Laughing One cannot communicate with humans in and of itself.

Just as a being from the abyss creates an avatar to manifest its will, this was a persona [the Laughing One] created to communicate with a metaphysical entity.

“Ah, does it hurt? Just wait a moment. I’ll make it hurt even more.”

[System: The hidden trait ‘Heir of the Corpse Pile’ has been activated.]

Crackle!!

• Aaaagh!!

“What’s with all this strength and wisdom talk? Trying to act superior and making people angry like this?”

Now, this was just me venting.

– Aaaagh!! Why! Why! What is this sensation? What is this strange feeling? What is this!!

“Why does it hurt if you’re in a spiritual state? Ah, you’ve never had the concept of pain, so you don’t know what it is, do you?”

Using the Heir of the Corpse Pile trait, I injected a specific concept into the mental body.

Think of it as scribbling in a book to change its content.

The concept I injected was pain.

The sensation of hurting, agony, suffering, a terrible feeling that could drive one to madness.

– It doesn’t matter… it doesn’t matter…

“Oh, it doesn’t matter since you’re just an avatar and not the main body?”

That was true.

This was part of the sealed book over there, but it was just a single torn-out page.

Even if you scribbled on this, the content of the main body wouldn’t change. It’s like burning a cut strand of hair that has no effect on its owner.

Moreover, that book itself wasn’t the true form of the [Laughing One]. In short, the spirit talking to me now was a mere fragment, a disposable part that could be discarded at any time.

Hitting or pinching this wouldn’t help me vent my frustration much.

– Yes! Take out your anger on this small fragment! You foolish human! My true form is eternal and immortal! I have existed in this universe for a time beyond your imagination. Any pain you think you can inflict on me is but a fleeting moment compared to the endless time of this universe…

Was it because the mental body was mixed with Cheon-ho? For a creation of such an existence, its intelligence was low and its dignity was lacking.

“Don’t worry. I also have the ability to repair books.”

– …What did you say?

“You can roughly guess, right? Try living forever with the sensation of pain.”