The Devil General

In the world where Jon and Merlin live, there is an unwritten rule that only people who are six years old and above can use magic. This has become common knowledge in their world. The magic energy inside a human's body can be considered as their second soul, and only wizards can control and manipulate this energy.

The magic energy inside someone's body can be likened to a calm river. However, when someone tries to use magic for the first time in their life, the calm river will turn into a fast-flowing river. The fast-flowing river will keep flowing until it reaches a waterfall, and if not controlled immediately, the energy will continue to flow out until it runs out completely, even causing death. However, this has never been proven as no one dares to do magic at an early age. All parents truly keep their children away from such things, and children in their world are already aware of it without being told.

But Jon and Merlin are not ordinary children. Jon is impulsive and acts without thinking. One day, Jon's curiosity about magic exceeded its limits, and he went to a field with a stolen magic book from his neighbor who studied at a magic school. There, Jon tried to recite a medium-level spell, a summoning spell. As the name suggests, the summoning spell can summon various creatures, but its success rate depends on the amount of magic energy possessed. Jon tried to use this spell without considering the risks that might happen.

And Merlin is not an ordinary child. At the age of three, Merlin already had a lot of magic energy in his body. If ordinary creatures have magic energy like a lake or river, then what Jon has is as big as an ocean. Big, really big.

Jon, who was lazy to read explanations about how magic works, skipped over important information and went straight to how to recite it. Even Jon himself didn't understand what summoning magic was, all that was in his mind right now was magic, magic, and magic. Jon was really impatient, he was very excited and enthusiastic when he found out that he could do something like that.

Jon started following the guide in the book and reciting summoning magic. But after a few minutes of reciting it, nothing happened. Jon didn't even see the magic circle as described in the book.

Jon was very disappointed, he thought he had failed and had no talent in magic. However, what Jon thought was neither true nor false. Jon had successfully performed summoning magic, but at the same time, he also failed.

Unconsciously, Jon had released all of his magic energy, and the magic circle that Jon previously did not see actually existed, only too large for Jon to realize. The circle was the largest magic circle ever created in the world, and only a few people realized it.

Nevertheless, the creature summoned by Jon never appeared. It could be said that the magic that Jon tried to do had failed.

Unbeknownst to Jon, who had released a tremendous amount of magic energy, he attracted the attention of many creatures, especially those living in the underworld. Demons and creatures inhabiting the underworld began to emerge in Railis Village, including monsters outside the village. Even the monsters in the dungeon or labyrinth, one by one, came out of the maze and walked towards Railis Village. They felt called by the magic energy, an energy that was very familiar to them.

At that moment, the barrier between the underworld and the upper world began to crack a little. And for some reason, the magic energy that had been released by Jon was replenished and actually became three times larger than before.

Jon suddenly felt something strange with his body, and shortly after that, he felt excruciating pain. Jon screamed in pain.

The magical energy aura within Jon's body was overflowing and radiating outwards. His body couldn't contain such a tremendous amount of energy. Even the living creatures around him lost consciousness, and some of them even died on the spot.

It was a terrifying aura.

Then, not long after Jon began to feel unwell, a demon general appeared right in front of him. The demon general looked at Jon in admiration, surprised that a young boy like Jon attempted to summon him with a summoning spell. Although the spell failed, the demon general still came because he felt Jon's extraordinary magical energy.

The demon general asked, "Who are you?"

However, at that moment, Jon lost consciousness and returned to his world on Earth. The demon general thought that Jon had died, and was disappointed to learn that Merlin had already passed away. The demon general left.

At that time, there was a witness who saw the incident directly in front of his eyes. He was a child of one of the nobles who was playing with his friends in a field where Jon was reciting his magic. Long before Jon performed the magic, the witness and everyone knew and was familiar with Merlin. There wasn't a single person who didn't know Merlin, the amazing child. Everyone in the village was proud of his presence, and they placed high hopes on Merlin, someone who seemed to play an important role in the future of the kingdom.

One time, when the witness was playing hide-and-seek with his friends, he was given the role of a guard or seeker. It was at that moment that he accidentally entered the same field as Merlin.

"Oh, finally, I found you. Wait...is that Merlin? That empty land must belongs to the Yvkiasha family. So that mean, it's Merlin. Hey, Merlin!"

From afar, behind some tall corn plants, he saw Merlin standing in an empty field, facing the opposite direction while holding a book. The witness tried to call out to him, but Merlin didn't respond.

"What is he doing in this place?"

He walked to find out what Merlin was doing. Shortly after, a large magic circle appeared under his feet. Although it was only a line passing through both of his feet, he knew for sure that what was under his feet was a line from a magic circle.

"A magic circle? Wait, he can use magic?! This big?!" Seeing that, he felt very impressed, surprised, and amazed while also feeling jealous and resentful. He was very angry with himself and also with Merlin. He, born as a nobleman, felt worthless compared to Merlin who was just a peasant's son. However, the large magic circle did not last long and disappeared instantly.

"What happened? Did he fail?"

Shortly after that, he felt a terrifying aura emanating from Merlin's body. He was truly frightened to the point that he peed in his pants.

At that moment, he could only be silent and unable to move. If it weren't for the protection magic given by his family through a necklace he was wearing, he would not have been conscious in that condition, even worse.

Shortly after that, he saw a mysterious entity that only with its presence could take away the life around it. The ground turned black, all plants died, insects and birds that accidentally passed through the area also died. Its aura was twice as terrifying as before.

After that, he saw Merlin collapse. He thought that Merlin also died because of the entity, just like the plants and animals around him that also died instantly because of it.

His fear grew even more, even for a moment he forgot to breathe because he was so afraid of making the creature aware of his existence.

At that time, the village of Railis was already in chaos. Monsters that should have been in the dungeon came to attack the village. Similarly, monsters and demons from the underworld also came and attacked the village along with upper-class demons.

On that day, a very savage and brutal massacre occurred. Adventurers, village guards, defense forces, and even royal knights came to aid the village of Railis. However, their delay made the conquest of the village even more difficult, as the village was quickly taken over by monsters. Soon after, a labyrinth or dungeon appeared in the middle of the village, becoming the center of the monsters' presence.

The labyrinth was different from any other labyrinths that had ever existed, and its danger level was much higher than that of other labyrinths. To this day, the dungeon has not been conquered, and even reaching the middle floor takes nine months. This is the best achievement that adventurers and the royal army can do.

The King decided to isolate the village until the dungeon is conquered, as the dungeon that appeared is truly different from any other dungeons. The crack in the boundary between the two realms in the village caused the entire environment in the village to be contaminated by the black magic energy from the underworld, making people with weak energy unable to survive in the village. The King will reopen the village after the dungeon is completely conquered, as well as the monsters in the village.

Kevin Cassanova is one of the 56 survivors who witnessed Merlin using magic. He recounted everything to his parents with a very frightened expression, even experiencing deep trauma after the incident.

However, Kevin's parents, who heard the entire story from their child, seemed to misunderstand and draw their own conclusions. They believed that what happened in Railis Village was the work of a boy named Merlin Yvkiasha, calling him a demon disguised as a small child.

According to them, what they saw in Merlin was only a mere illusion of magic, there was no such thing as a magical child, only a demon in disguise. They began telling the story to people, of course, exaggerating the tale and adding some lies.

The Cassanova family, who were considered a respected family, made their story easily believed by people. The story spread very quickly.

Behind all the stories they spread, there was a sense of envy and hatred towards the Yvkiasha family. And that moment was the perfect moment to tarnish their name, even though none of the Yvkiasha family survived the incident. It made Kevin's parents feel relieved.

Only a few people know the truth that happened in the village of Railis, although the truth has not been fully revealed. Some of them are the X adventurer group and the King.

The X adventurer group is a group that helped save Kevin and his friends from the village and played a direct and important role in the dungeon conquest mission in Railis village. When they saved Kevin, they witnessed a dangerous entity; an entity that had a very strong and terrifying dark magic energy. Even the power of the magic energy made Zeta's magic wand vibrate. They realized that such magic energy could only come from a demon general.

However, because the entity was just silent, they chose not to take any action and instead retreated first, securing the children to a safer place and waiting for reinforcements to come.

On the other hand, within the kingdom, there was an enormous concern. The King was very worried about what had happened in the village of Railis and whether it had any connection to his granddaughter. His granddaughter was a half-elf and half-human, a rare and revered race among magic worshippers or magic maniacs.

Because of all these worries, the King formed a secret group to investigate the incident in Railis village. This was one of the reasons why Railis village was isolated, aside from the danger. The King needed as much information as possible from the village without any flaw.

Nevertheless, the King still allowed some adventurers who were trying to conquer the dungeon in the village or had a special mission in the village. However, with one condition, they must report all their activities, from what they did, discovered, anything. They must report it to the central guild located in the capital of the Merlin kingdom.

The investigation carried out by the secret group was not easy. Until finally, the investigation they conducted always ended with a story that is currently being widely discussed by the public: Merlin Yvkiasha, a boy who was thought to be the incarnation of a demon general.

As far as people know up to now, Merlin Yvkiasha has turned into a demon general and also the owner and ruler of the dungeon in Railis village.

The story continued to spread wider, the longer it became, the more variations of the story, and the stranger the contents of the story. So people slowly started to forget the story and chose to focus on the dungeon in Railis village.