“This…!”

As the grotesque entity poured out, Shax recoiled in dismay.

But the distance was too close. She was a mental-type Mage to begin with. Close range is advantageous for brainwashing, but she couldn’t engage in close combat with a grotesque entity that couldn’t be brainwashed.

Shax hastily prepared for spatial movement, but the tentacles were still a step faster.

Seven or eight black tentacles wrapped around her entire body.

“Sa, save…!”

Shax looked at Raum with desperate eyes, but…

“This is a bit much.”

Raum was already pushing his body into the Black Space.

“Raum, you son of a…!”

Before Shax could finish his curse, his face was enveloped by tentacles, silencing him.

However, Raum was not completely safe either.

Just before the Black Space closed, the tentacles climbed along the entrance and chased after him inside.

Raum, who was moving through the dark passage, was greatly alarmed to see the tentacles pursuing him.

Even though the entrance was about to close, an unauthorized entity should not have been able to enter and exit freely.

But the tentacles were acting outside the realm of common sense, as if mocking Raum’s magic.

Raum, witnessing the tentacles chasing him inside the dark passage, tried to close the passage in a hurry, but the passage through which the tentacles had entered did not obey Raum’s command.

The passage wouldn’t close.

Just before the tentacles, extending at an incredible speed, grabbed Raum’s ankle.

Raum quickly created another passage and escaped.

The distance moved was only about 30 meters.

Raum’s main body appeared about 20 meters above Mamon’s Castle.

At the same time, a huge explosion erupted with a ‘boom!’, and tentacles shot up from underground.

The tentacles rapidly widened the hole and emerged above ground.

Kim Songcheol was no longer visible. He was merely surrounded by the grotesque entity. Only black tentacles swayed wildly around.

“Damn it!”

Raum immediately set his course for Mamon’s Castle and flew at high speed. There were a few more Twelve Palaces in Mamon’s Castle. If they faced it together, they might be able to contend with it.

The grotesque entity began to pursue Raum with a fierce aura.

It seemed determined not to lose sight of its target once it had been located.

It moved quickly across the ground, using its tentacles as legs.

The core of the grotesque entity was not very large, but the extended tentacles were huge and powerful.

It was as if the tentacles themselves were the main body.

Boom, boom!

Following Raum’s path, the tentacles ruptured everything in their way.

Furthermore, as the tentacles coalesced into thick masses and slammed into the castle walls with a fierce aura, the castle walls also exploded as if detonated.

‘What on earth is that!?’

As Raum once again broke out in a cold sweat and tried to escape the range of the tentacles.

Five of the Twelve Palaces, who were on standby in the castle, appeared.

“What’s happening…?”

The voice of Furcas, a male staff member with long, ruptured hair, trembled slightly. The moment he saw the grotesque entity, he felt a mental terror, and had to exert effort to suppress it.

“I don’t know either, damn it!”

“Where’s Shax?”

Another of the Twelve Palaces asked about Shax’s whereabouts.

“He was stupidly devoured.”

“Devoured…?”

The expressions of the Twelve Palaces hardened. This was not a normal situation. They didn’t know how it happened, but this was an attack on Mamon’s Castle.

That was the only way they could think.

As Twelve Palaces, their duty was to defend against the attack.

We need to minimize the damage. The fact that the Castle wall has already been breached will surely get Mamon into deep trouble.

There are plenty of foes to replace the Twelve Palaces anyway.

There was a chance that this would be an opportunity for a complete overhaul.

“Damn it.”

Furcas extended his dark blue magic power in all directions. Four spheres of magic power surrounded the Grotesque Entity, then connected with lines and surfaces to form a tetrahedron.

The idea was to trap it, but…

Surprisingly, the Grotesque Entity didn’t destroy Furcas’s magic; it began to ‘eat’ it.

The parts that touched the tentacles were absorbed and disappeared.

After all, the Grotesque Entity lived inside Kim Songcheol’s source, devouring the magic he absorbed.

It made no difference whether it ate from the inside or the outside.

However, it’s difficult to figure out the mechanism if you’re seeing this for the first time.

The Twelve Palaces merely thought it was a unique way of rupturing magic.

“Attack!”

The Twelve Palaces decided to pour all their firepower into it.

Six of the Twelve Palaces surrounded the Grotesque Entity and activated their magic.

Azure light beams, dark magic power, and giant spears appeared with tremendous aura, and soon fell towards the Grotesque Entity.

Boom!

Magic capable of devastating an entire territory was concentrated.

Thick dust rose, obscuring the vision of the Twelve Palaces.

No one uttered a spell of revival like, ‘Did we get it?’ because they already knew from the aura.

They knew it had no effect whatsoever.

Shuaaaak!

Tentacles shot through the dust. They even seemed to have a slightly longer attack range than before.

As powerful individuals, they had finished calculating the distance, but surprisingly, their calculations were off, and the tentacles reached their chins.

Magic was not working at all. These were individuals who had risen to the position of the Twelve Palaces solely through magic.

What would be left if you took away their magic?

The fear they had been suppressing began to grow larger and larger.

“Th-this is…”

The Twelve Palaces retreated towards the Castle without realizing it. Magic didn’t work. They had no choice but to evade.

The Grotesque Entity pursued the Twelve Palaces and entered the Castle.

Tentacles spread out in all directions.

Kwagagagang, Kwaang!

It destroyed buildings as if taking out its anger on the Twelve Palaces it couldn’t reach.

Mamon’s Castle began to be devastated.

Kwagang!

Just then, a magic spell flew and struck the tentacles.

It was the magic of an ordinary dark mage guarding the Castle.

He was engulfed in fear the moment he saw the Grotesque Entity, but he somehow managed to cast the spell.

Surprisingly, the unstable magic worked.

Some of the tentacles were caught in the explosion and disappeared.

Of course, it was only a small part.

“Second-tier magic works…?”

Seireu, a female staff member with long black hair, muttered.

And that voice was conveyed to the other Twelve Palaces.

“Shoot something! The castle is going to be completely destroyed!”

“Damn it! If it gets any more destroyed, we’ll all die!”

They immediately began to confront the grotesque entity with second-tier magic.

However, the second-tier magic they had learned was no different from that of other ordinary black mages.

The reason they could become the Twelve Palaces was thanks to the Source inherited from the 72 Demons.

Using the Source is, of course, first-tier.

They are individuals who have lived with the sole purpose of solidifying their position as the Twelve Palaces by concentrating on first-tier magic. There were no Twelve Palaces who had concentrated on learning second-tier magic, but even so, its power was stronger compared to other black mages.

Crackle! Boom!

And the attack also had an effect. A part of the grotesque entity was hit by magic, consumed, and its activity slowed down a bit. It seemed to be consuming resources to recover.

A glimmer of hope appeared on the faces of the Twelve Palaces, but.

The grotesque entity suddenly stretched its tentacles in all directions and began to swing them wildly, as if it was furious.

It was both fortunate and unfortunate that it couldn’t fly.

Because everything caught by the tentacles was a building inside the castle.

Bang! Crash!

Buildings hit by the tentacles exploded and collapsed.

Not content with that, the grotesque entity began to quickly crawl towards Mammon’s hall.

Since the tentacles couldn’t reach the Twelve Palaces, it seemed determined to destroy anything else.

“Stop it, stop it!”

“Damn it!”

The second-tier magic of the Twelve Palaces rained down. The power was quite strong, but it was not enough to completely stop the grotesque entity.

It might have been different if all the Twelve Palaces had poured out their second-tier magic, but six was not enough.

Boom, bang!

Eventually, Mammon’s hall began to collapse.

“Aaah! No!”

“Shoot! That one thing!! Attack!”

“Can’t you see I’m doing it!?”

The Twelve Palaces shot magic as if in a frenzy. It was a determination to stop it even if it meant ruin.

All sorts of second-tier dark magic stormed forth. Gray spirits flew, dark hunters surged, and black magic power flew and exploded with bangs.

The Twelve Palaces bit their lips tightly and frowned as much as they could.

It was proof that they were pushing their limits.

Should I call it a relief?

It worked. It began to falter as it was hit by shelling and had to recover.

It was then.

A male staff member approached the Grotesque Entity, evading the senses of the Twelve Palaces.

It was Ocean.

He was a Thread user of a higher rank than the Twelve Palaces to begin with.

Moreover, in such an urgent situation, it wasn’t difficult to deceive the senses of the Twelve Palaces.

Also, after a large magic had swept through, visibility was not secured due to the dust.

Swaak!

Ocean quickly closed the distance and swung his Sword Aura at the still unrecovered wound.

He clearly cut through the Grotesque Entity, but instead of cutting it, the Sword Aura had disappeared.

Like an ice cream stick left behind after the ice cream was eaten, a bluish sword emerged.

‘Tsk, even Sword Aura doesn’t work?’

He thought so, and it was indeed the case.

Kwagagagak!

Ocean quickly changed his stance and fired a volley of Sword Auras. The Sword Aura began to churn through the Grotesque Entity, rupturing it.

A full-power Sword Aura emission.

As if in response, an arm protruded from within the Grotesque Entity.

It was clearly Kim Songcheol’s arm.

Ocean threw a syringe and hit Kim Songcheol’s arm precisely.

As he manipulated his Aura to press the syringe, the Awakening Agent was injected into Kim Songcheol’s body.

At the same time, the Grotesque Entity began to rapidly contract.

Its large body quickly shriveled, and soon Kim Songcheol’s entire body was revealed.

The Grotesque Entity was being sucked into Kim Songcheol’s mouth.

When the last tentacles wriggled and disappeared, Kim Songcheol’s eyes opened.

The time elapsed from the moment Ocean intervened until now was approximately 2 seconds.

“…”

The moment Kim Songcheol was about to say something.

“I’ll explain later.”

Ocean closed the distance as if teleporting and hoisted Kim Songcheol onto his shoulder.

A circular space opened beside Ocean, and Peter, beckoning from the other side, was visible.

Ocean immediately pushed his body through, and the space closed the moment the two passed through.

The moment Kim Songcheol awoke, the six members of the Twelve Palaces felt that the mental pressure had disappeared.

As Furcas created a wind to clear the dust, all that was visible was Mamon’s Castle, which had turned into ruins.

The Grotesque Entity and its main body, Kim Songcheol, had already disappeared.

All that remained was Shax’s corpse, crumpled beyond recognition.

“…?”

While the Twelve Palaces looked at each other, momentarily failing to understand the situation.

Urrureureu…!

Mamon’s partially ruptured hall collapsed with a loud noise.

An important pillar was destroyed, so it couldn’t hold up and collapsed.

There were no intact buildings left in Mamon’s castle, which wasn’t that big to begin with.

The centuries-old castle, steeped in history, had been completely ruined.

“Ah…”

Someone let out a gasp as if the sky had fallen.

Mamon would be back soon.

They had failed to carry out the order to bring Kim Songcheol. They hadn’t been able to find the location of the most important stone slab.

They had even suffered the damage of the castle being completely ruined.

Now it seemed that all the guys in the underground prison had disappeared as well.

It was then.

“Haha, what kind of amusing prank is this? The castle was fine before I attended the meeting, you know.”

Mamon’s voice was heard from behind.

The Twelve Palaces were frozen, unable to turn around.

They knew.

They knew that when Mamon laughed with such a cheerful tone, it was the most dangerous time.

“Is there anyone who can explain the current situation?”

Mamon urged the Twelve Palaces once again.