The Great Mage Returns After 4000 Years (Web Novel KR) Vol 1 Chapter 231

She didn't hate Schweiser.

Though she sometimes felt jealous because Lukas would often give Schweiser more attention than he gave her, she knew that he was Lukas' most precious friend, and his talent made up for his shortcomings.

Yet Iris still killed this man. She even laughed at him right before his death, demeaning his achievements and insulting his death.

She did this because Lord might have been watching.

Nevertheless, the moment Schweiser died, Iris felt something in her heart die along with him.

Lord immediately responded to her achievement.

[Good work. But that was too simple. I wanted to imprison this man in the Abyss as well.]

Lord murmured to himself before turning away.

'…this man as well.'

Lord had definitely said those words.

She'd finally gotten a clue about Lukas.

Iris felt hope again.

The Abyss. Lukas was trapped in a place called the Abyss.

Now that she knew where he was, she thought that she would be able to rescue him. But when she found out what the Abyss truly was, that thought disappeared.

It was a world personally created by Lord. A space completely disconnected from the outside world.

In other words, an inescapable prison.

Moreover, Lukas' body was already dead. The only thing that had been trapped in the Abyss was Lukas Trowman's soul.

“H, hahaha.”

Iris felt like her mind broke a bit at that moment. She felt like it would have been better to just go crazy.

But she couldn't.

Craziness at that moment would simply have been an escape. It would have been no different from locking the door and ignoring all of her sins and the responsibility for everything she'd done so far and the things she'd do in the future.

Even if she really let herself go crazy, it could only be after she'd saved Lukas.

Not long after that, Lucid and Kasajin had a confrontation. Iris had predicted that this would happen, and as a result, Lord had no choice but to acknowledge her to an extent.

[Excellent. I will grant you a favor that you can use at any time. Unless it adversely affects my people.]

This was an achievement that had been built on the blood of her teammates.

Iris was so disgusted with herself that she ended up vomiting.

It wasn't just that.

She'd also been granted the ability to borrow Lord's power as she wished.

The power of space. It could have been said to be the power that stood at the peak of all the transcendent powers the demigods had.

This was the power she gained, but she didn't feel proud of it.

Iris' heart had already died by that point.

'It's fine.'

Everything was okay. She recited these words like a mantra.

As long as Lukas could come back.

As long as she felt he could come back, she could keep hanging on.

She knew that he wouldn't forgive her. After all, she knew what kind of man he was. She knew better than anyone else that he was wise, upright, yet surprisingly inflexible.

But she could still bear it. Rather than never meeting again, she felt that it was much better to meet him and be hated.

So, using Lord's power, Iris began to probe the Abyss, the pitch black space where Lukas was imprisoned.

It was literally like an iron fortress.

This wasn't to say that there wasn't any progress. She'd definitely gotten some results.

Nevertheless, Iris couldn't help but feel deep frustration.

She fully understood just how insignificant the power she controlled was when compared to Lord's.

It felt like trying to cut through a castle wall with her fingernails. Something that others would laugh at and call crazy.

But she didn't give up. Instead, Iris calculated just how long it would take her if she kept making these fingernail-sized scratches.

And when she finished calculating, she realised that the result was much worse than she expected.

She knew that it would take a long time to save Lukas. That's why she talked about the future with Lucid.

However… She thought that it would be 100 years at most. She felt that it would not exceed 100 years at worst.

She was too optimistic.

“…4,000 years.”

It was said that a mountain would change greatly in 10 years. And also, in 100 years, it wouldn't be strange for a country to disappear and for a new one to take its place.

And 1,000 years… was a length of time that humans were unable to fathom.

4,000 years meant that she'd have to experience such a length four times.

“…ah.”

Her mind seemed to shatter at that moment.

This wasn't an exaggeration.

At that moment, Iris felt even more despair than when Lukas had disappeared.

For 4,000 years, she would have to carry a task every day without missing a single one. And if she made a mistake or allowed Lord to notice, then it would all have been for naught.

Schweiser's death would become a dog's death, and Lucid and Kasajin's confrontation would become meaningless.

She felt so overwhelmed by the pressure that she felt like she was being crushed.

…If by chance.

If she somehow managed to endure it for so many years. If, in the end, she managed to maintain her sanity, deceive Lord, and successfully create a gap in the Abyss after toiling for 4,000 years.

Would Lukas really be able to grasp that opening?

No.

Would Lukas even be able to stay sane until then?

His situation was much worse than Iris'. He was imprisoned in a place where there was nothing but darkness.

Could he really endure for 4,000 years in such a place without a body to move, only being able to think?

This was a task that was absolutely impossible for an ordinary human.

“-it's possible.”

This voice which sounded out with absolute certainty was her own.

“If it's Lukas, then it's possible.”

She suddenly let out a laugh.

She didn't know long had it been since she'd laughed so heartily.

Iris laughed to herself while nodding continuously.

'Of course it's possible.'

The only man she'd ever loved.

The unprecedented Great Mage.

The Great Teacher of all.

If it was Lukas Trowman, he would definitely be able to endure it. He wouldn't give up.

So she wouldn't give up either.

To save Lukas, be hated by him, and then killed by his hand.

Her shattered mind seemed to regain shape.

Lukas had once told Iris that she was pretty. It was a time when she'd been smiling mysteriously.

Since then, she practiced a lot by looking in the mirror every day. And the mysterious smile from that time remained on Iris' face.

'It's been 20 years since I've known Lukas.'

It felt romantic.

To keep their relationship of 20 years, she was willing to endure 4,000 years.

Some might have even found it touching.

Iris chuckled.

“…it's going to be a very long plan.”

So she felt like she should give it a name.

'What should it be?'

After pondering for a moment, a good name popped into her mind.

The name of the plan was intuitive, the simpler, the better.

“-The Great Mage Returns After 4,000 Years.”

Right.

She liked it.

Iris smiled.

“1 Day.”

Iris' memories ended.

Lukas once again stood alone in a dark space.

He realised that his body had been fully restored, but he still couldn't say anything.

Because his mouth didn't seem to work.

When he had been trapped in the Abyss, he'd thought that he was having a harder time than anyone else in the world. But he'd stopped thinking like that because he felt it was a petty and self-important thought.

It was obvious that Lukas had a long and painful experience that no one would have been able to imagine.

…But Iris' experience was no lesser than his.

No. In a way, she had a much more painful time than Lukas.

Unlike the Abyss, which was a world of silence, the world Iris had to live in could only have been described as hell.

Lukas could see that.

From the beginning of her plan, there was not a single painless day.

She had long abandoned her body. After all, no matter how much the longevity of a Witch contracted to a demon was, she couldn't survive for 4,000 years.

So Iris transferred her soul to a doll in order to continue living.

Naturally, this method came with side effects. Her soul gradually began wearing away.

It was the soul price that Lucifer had mentioned before. The human soul was not resilient enough to withstand the process of transferring from one body to the other.

So Iris' soul could be said to have been in tatters. Like a candle in front of a breeze, it wouldn't be strange if it went out at any moment.

And when that candle went out… her soul would disappear.

An end no different from that of a transcendent being awaited her.

There was no bright future ahead of Iris. And there was no way that she didn't already know this.

Nevertheless, she refused to give up. She continued her long and lonely fight.

And in the end… she finally achieved her goal.

She pulled Lukas out of the Abyss.

'There's no way I could have escaped on my own.'

He felt ashamed for thinking that he'd escaped from the Abyss on his own.

Now that he thought about it, it was natural.

The Abyss was the world that Lord had created using the full extent of his power. It could even be called the essence of his power.

So even if 4,000 years passed, there was no way for a 9 star Wizard like Lukas Trowman to escape.

It was only possible because of Iris' help. Because she scratched at the walls of the iron fortress for 4,000 years without missing a single day.

Lukas couldn't help but feel choked up because of his rising emotions.

After becoming a transcendent being, it became incredibly hard for him to be affected by normal things. It could be said that he'd lost his emotions together with his mortality. And he'd thought he'd never be able to experience his emotions the same way again.

But at that moment, Lukas could clearly feel a whirlwind of grief.

Suddenly.

“This is the shattered Celestial World.”

He heard Iris' voice.

Lukas called out in shock.

“Iris? Where are-”

“You fought Lord, you lost, and you died.”

Iris' voice cut him off.

Lukas felt anxiety fill his heart at that moment.

“I'm probably… already dead.”

“And I hope you'll at least feel a little sad.”

“…I'm sad.”

A thick, cracked voice sounded out, and it took him a while to realise it was his.

A tear rolled down his cheek.

“…if Lukas felt sad, I would be really happy.”

Iris was pretending to speak in a bright voice.

Lukas could tell immediately.

“I originally didn't want to show you my memories. But… I couldn't. Just one person. I wanted at least one person to know everything that transpired. I wanted them to remember everything. Both the good and the bad. And if that person was Lukas, it would make me extremely happy…”

“Iris.”

After a brief pause, her voice continued.

“The Angels, masters of this world, had the task of guiding souls to the afterlife. And those souls who were dyed bright by their good deeds were even given the right to live here in Heaven. Originally, this place was supposed to the afterlife the souls would gather at before returning to the world. Because it was this kind of place… I was able to slow down the collapse of Lukas' soul.”

“…Iris, what's going on?”

“You did enough already.”

She wasn't responding to his questions.

Lukas bit his lips.

A vague sense of anxiety began building in his heart.

He closed his eyes tightly.

Maybe.

Iris had already…

“However, it's not the same for me. Because I need to be punished…. After meeting Lukas again, I realised that you weren't going to kill me.”

“But it mustn't be that way. If you commit a crime, then you deserve to be punished. Ahaha… I'm ashamed to call it punishment. In truth, I just want to rest.”

Iris' voice was gradually fading.

“I just want to rest. I'm so tired. Isn't that okay? But I don't know if I can sleep… A wicked woman like me… A traitorous witch like me… It feels so hard to just… just… just put my eyelids together…”

Chapter end