The Chairman of Pharmaceutical Company is a Poison King (Novel) - Chapter 146 - Dreamlike Magic Formation

Chapter 146 – Dreamlike Magic Formation

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Translated by Pratt

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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Moscow War Memorial Museum.

Black Mafia elders such as Matsumoto, Jonson, Abrahim, and Carmen were hidden there.

They were greatly satisfied with the result of the war.

They had successfully deepened the conflict between the royalists and the republicans, carried out terrorism, and at last succeeded in igniting a civil war.

After that, it had been a smooth road.

The absorption magic formations they had spread throughout all of Moscow.

Their targets for absorption were the souls and lingering thoughts of humans who had died in the war.

These were precious resources that became materials for black-magic transmutation.

And incidentally, they turned the corpses into undead as well.

Each magic formation was linked together like a spiderweb.

The absorbed lingering thoughts and souls were being transmitted to the place where Drek Karax, their master, was.

Thus, he would become a god transcending human class.

This War Memorial Museum served as an intermediate base that gathered together the qi transmitted from the magic formations scattered throughout Moscow and sent it to the final destination.

Thus they too enjoyed some of the benefits.

Though it was not a direct soul linkage, by means of a black-magic contract using human resentment they had indirectly connected to the Demon Realm.

Ahhh!

They had experienced it at last.

The festival of pure demonic qi they had never before encountered.

And they had also witnessed it.

The transcendent beings that lived in the Demon Realm.

The connection had been extremely brief.

But thanks to it, the realm of black magic that had never advanced beyond 7th class leaped in one bound to 8th class.

Even so, the ritual still had not ended.

“All that’s left is to fit the final piece of the puzzle.”

“Well, we’ve done everything we had to, so all that remains is to wait.”

“That bastard Alex Caesar will complete it for us.”

“Even so, we mustn’t let our guard down. Not until the European Imperial Army marches into Moscow.”

The completion of the ritual was only a matter of time.

But then?

Tuk!

“Huh?”

“Ah!”

“Th-this!”

“…Did you all feel that?”

They all knew.

One magic formation had been destroyed.

It had been made so that even if artillery shells struck it, it would not budge.

“Why on earth?”

“It may have been an accidental incident.”

“Impossible. We did not make the magic formations that sloppily.”

“Someone has to go directly and inspect…”

That was when it happened.

Tuk!

“…Again?”

“Huh.”

“So it wasn’t an accident.”

Another destroyed magic formation.

And when some time passed, yet another…

Tuk!

“Goddamn it!”

“This time it was the Kremlin magic formation, wasn’t it?”

“That’s right. A Death Knight was guarding that place.”

Three had been destroyed in succession.

Someone was definitely doing it on purpose.

“Who could it be? The royalists? Or the republicans?”

“It could be a third party. Ordinary awakened couldn’t do it.”

“If it were a raid team with three or more Masters in it, it might be possible.”

“Impossible. They are not magic formations that mere system-awakened could destroy.”

“Could it be?”

As though remembering something, Abrahim jerked up his head and said,

“…Kim Tae-ju?”

“That’s impossible. That bastard is on the Pacific, isn’t he?”

“No. I heard he entered Yangsan Port yesterday.”

“Even so, it would take time for him to come all the way here.”

“There’s no one but Kim Tae-ju. Isn’t the very reason we’re conducting the ritual by starting a war because of him?”

A variable had appeared.

A huge variable that could make the ritual fail.

With a grave expression, Elder Matsumoto said,

“Should we inform our master?”

The elders’ gazes focused on Carmen.

She was the one in charge of communicating with Him.

“No. Right now, He is facing a crucial hurdle. We absolutely must not disturb Him.”

“Then are you saying we should just leave that bastard to destroy all the magic formations?”

If all the magic formations vanished, then the ritual or anything else would become impossible to proceed with in the first place.

Carmen thought deeply.

Then,

“For now, I’ll handle it.”

“Elder Carmen will go personally?”

“Yes. You all needn’t step forward.”

Carmen rose from her seat.

Her master had told her never to confront Kim Tae-ju before the ritual was finished, but now the situation had changed.

‘He’s following the magic-formation connecting lines. I should wait ahead of him in advance.’

She was confident.

Force was not everything.

The being Carmen contracted with upon reaching 8th class was the Succubus Queen.

A great demon with the authority of dreams.

With the Succubus Queen’s power, it was possible.

She did not have to clash with him directly.

Everything would be accomplished in a dream.

The dreamlike black magic formation that guided a specific target into a dream.

Inside it, everything was possible.

Even if she failed, it did not matter.

Only she herself would die, after all.

Would she die alone?

No matter what, she would drag that bastard down with her.

But she would not die forever.

Her master would surely resurrect her.

* * *

Tae-ju continued following the demonic-qi transmission lines.

It was the same every time.

Ilbaek-Ibaek-Sambaek handled the undead.

He himself destroyed the magic formations.

‘Why are there so many of them?’

Magic formations were everywhere.

Mainly they had chosen only places frequented by many people.

Department stores, government offices, large restaurant districts, schools…

‘How did they inscribe all these?’

They must have planned it from a long time ago.

Probably from the very time they made contact with him in Paju.

But he destroyed every last one of them without exception.

The undead guarding them as well.

‘At this point they should have noticed my existence…’

Was it still not enough?

Then he would just keep destroying them.

This time he could see quite a thick line.

Tae-ju followed that line.

When he arrived at the destination…

‘A military base?’

But there were no undead soldiers in sight.

The magic formation was drawn on the floor of a building presumed to be the headquarters.

“Ibaek!”

“Yaang,”

“Go outside and look for any undead. If you find them, send them on their way.”

“Ang!”

After confirming that Ibaek had gone outside,

sseut!

Tae-ju took out the Divine Spirit Throwing Knife.

It was the immortal’s treasured item containing the greatest amount of immortal qi among all his hidden weapons.

It ended everything the moment he simply stabbed it into the center of the magic formation.

Puuk!

Pasasasasasasa!

The magic formation lost its power and vanished.

‘That was kind of anticlimactic.’

That was when it happened.

Uuuuuuuung!

“Hm?”

The demonic qi surged.

A sticky and vile stench.

The smell came from above his head.

“The ceiling…”

Tae-ju lifted his head and looked up.

Hwaaaak!

In an instant, the magic formation drawn on the ceiling activated.

‘What is this?’

The demonic qi came pressing down from above.

‘Oh ho?’

Tae-ju felt the demonic qi entering his own mind.

It seemed to be some kind of magic formation that acted upon the human mind…

But it was crude.

Pathetically sloppy.

‘Should I just break it?’

If he merely stirred immortal qi and swung the Divine Spirit Throwing Knife once, this clumsy magic formation could be destroyed in an instant.

‘…No.’

One of the reasons he had been going around breaking magic formations

was in order to meet the bastard who was pulling this stunt.

If he stayed still, that bastard would show up, and he could not miss this chance.

Tae-ju decided to let himself be affected obediently.

Let him see what sort of trick this was.

Before long,

his sight slowly grew dim.

He felt a little sleepy.

Half asleep, half awake.

‘Like a lucid dream?’

At that instant!

Chwararararak!

The building’s structure began to change.

As the walls and floor widened, a round arena rose up.

And before he knew it, Tae-ju was sitting in a large chair.

Someone else sat far away opposite him too.

It was a woman.

Naturally, she would be a black magician.

At last he had met one.

“So you are Kim Tae-ju.”

“And you? That bastard Edward mentioned, the one he called that Person, was a man though. An elder of the Black Mafia?”

“…Shut your mouth! How dare a mere human mention Him?”

“Why shouldn’t I? He’s a cowardly bastard who hides in the back and sends his underlings.”

“Insolent bastard. Even after falling into my dreamlike magic formation, only your mouth is lively.”

“I let myself be caught.”

“Kkallallal, is that so? Then thank you for letting yourself be caught.”

Carmen became sure of it.

The outcome of this fight had depended on whether the target fell into the dreamlike magic formation or escaped it.

If he had escaped, she would have fled as is and looked for another method, but since he had been caught, it was no different from her already having won.

“Shall we fight now?”

Let’s end it quickly.

Win this absurd duel and claim the spoils.

But at that very moment!

[A Champion Duel through the Dreamlike Magic Formation will begin shortly.]

[The contractors themselves may not participate in the battle.]

[Please designate the champion who will fight in your stead.]

“…A champion?”

What was this now?

Instead of fighting directly, they had to designate someone to fight in their place?

“There was no mention of a champion duel beforehand.”

“Hmm? You didn’t know? This is precisely a devil’s contract.”

“…An unfair contract.”

“That is its essence. That is why one does not enter into a contract with a devil carelessly.”

Carmen smiled crookedly.

At last, she had pulled it off.

Kim Tae-ju was already as good as dead.

And was that all?

‘If I turn that bastard’s body into an undead…’

How much would He praise her?

“Lowly human! Pitiful soul linker. Today you will realize that the other world in which you place your trust is, in the end, nothing more than a human world.”

Carmen raised a hand.

“Who is the strongest being you know? A Grand Master? A great 9-circle archmage? A Great Sage who has attained wisdom? Or perhaps a dragon? It does not matter who.”

Tsutsutsutsutsut!

Something enormous was appearing in the arena.

“I have seen the world of devils.”

Kukukukung!

At last, Carmen’s champion revealed its true form.

“Not the human world, but the Demon Realm. An upper dimension in which transcendent beings that have acquired the class of immortality lie scattered without number. Let me introduce you. The Butcher of the Demon Realm, Immortal King.”

Its head was grotesque in shape, and there were too many eyeballs blazing with fire to count upon that head, a body the size of a house, a long thick tail, and though it walked on two legs it had eight arms total.

Ahhh!

Carmen was drenched in ecstasy.

Immortal King. In terms of bodily ability alone, it was stronger even than a demon king.

It possessed the power to tear even a Dragon Lord to pieces.

An overwhelmingly powerful demonic-beast of the Demon Realm, absolutely impossible for a human to face.

“It is the strongest being I have ever witnessed. It truly exists in the Demon Realm, and now you should hurry and decide as well.”

“Uh…”

Carmen wore a confident expression as if she had already won.

“This place is a fabrication, but it is also real. So you cannot summon a being that does not exist or one you have never experienced. Still, struggle if you wish. Your poverty of experience will shackle you in the end anyway.”

Tae-ju understood.

The method of the champion duel.

This was not a physical space.

The dreamlike magic formation.

A virtual space created inside a dream.

In that case, that monster before his eyes too was an illusion generated inside a dream.

But it was a creature that existed somewhere in reality.

Namely in the place called the Demon Realm which that black magician Carmen claimed to have experienced.

‘So only a target that truly exists can be called into a dream?’

She too must have known it.

That she had no chance of winning if she fought directly.

That was why she had laid the trap.

What would happen if he lost the champion duel?

‘Most likely the demonic qi that burrowed into my heart would act in some way.’

Now was the time to choose.

Would he overturn the whole board, or respond to the dream champion duel?

Overturning it would not be difficult.

This miserable demonic qi in his heart?

He only had to move his immortal qi and drive it out.

But if he did that, he might not obtain the spoils.

All information related to the Black Mafia.

Therefore,

“Hey! Let me ask one thing.”

“Give up any thoughts of using petty tricks.”

“Not that…, this is an unfair contract from the start, isn’t it? Then what about the spoils? If I win but can’t obtain the spoils, what then?”

“Kkallallal, so you really mean to win. But don’t worry. I swear upon my mana. If you win, you will obtain the full spoils.”

“Really? Then, well…”

Let him look for a champion.

The first thing that came to mind was Ilbaek-Ibaek-Sambaek.

If they transformed into their main body, their size would not even lose to Immortal King.

But it still felt insufficient.

Had Carmen not said that her champion was a transcendent being that had obtained the class of immortality?

If one could be summoned even from the Demon Realm…, then what about the Immortal Realm?

‘Poison Immortal Tang Gun-ak.’

[You yourself may not participate directly in the duel.]

‘Hmm, so it’s because he’s my own self that it won’t work?’

It was quite a sophisticated black magic formation.

How had it known that Tang Gun-ak and he were the same soul?

So he decided.

Tae-ju raised a hand as well.

‘Will it work?’

Then,

sseuseuseuseut!

a single human began to take shape before Immortal King.

‘Oh! It really works?’

It was the strongest being Tae-ju knew.

Poison Immortal had spoken of him, he had seen him on video, and he had experienced him in the third soul linkage as well.

The strongest in the Immortal Realm.

Tae-ju’s champion in the dream was none other than the Sword Immortal.

* * *

The Immortal Realm.

The first floor of the multiplex was still crowded with immortals.

It was the immortals’ social space.

If compared to Earth, something like the Leaders Club.

There was the cocktail bar run by the Wine Immortal, a snack stand selling assorted snacks, a dedicated area for smokers who smoked tobacco, and above all, there were soft massage chairs, so it was a place immortals often used.

Ironsmith Immortal entered the first-floor multiplex.

“Wine Immortal, where is Sword Immortal?”

“Over there in the massage chair…, hm? Is he sleeping?”

“This man! He had me work, and now he’s sprawled out sleeping himself?”

“But what business do you have with him?”

“Didn’t Sword Immortal get into a minor collision while driving the sports car?”

“Ah! That…, the front bumper got scratched, right? It didn’t even show from where I was standing.”

“Exactly! There was only some grime on it; not even the paint had chipped. So I polished it up until it gleamed.”

Sword Immortal cherished the sports car as if serving a sacred lord.

Right after receiving it from Poison Immortal, he had driven it on the road and lightly scraped a guardrail.

That was why he had asked Ironsmith Immortal to repair it.

Ironsmith shook Sword Immortal awake, where he lay asleep on the massage chair.

“Here now, Sword Immortal! Wake up. The car repairs are all done.”

But Sword Immortal continued sleeping soundly with a broad grin on his face.

“Heh heh, he won’t wake up. He must be having some entertaining dream.”

“Leave him be. He’ll wake up on his own when the time comes.”