Level -99 Archmage - Chapter 1

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 1. The Return of the Grand Magus
“…Remarkable, human!”
Midway up the Dragon God Temple.
Sephiro gazed down at his own chest, unable to suppress his wonder.
A human.
A mere speck of dust.
That an inferior race, which he had always regarded as beneath his feet, should dare—
To pierce the heart of the Dragon God himself!
But what was most astonishing
was the fact that it was ‘magic’ that had defiled the sacred body of the Dragon God.
“I myself shall call you ‘Grand Magus.’ You may boast of it wherever you go.”
Until now, not a single human had ever received the acknowledgment of the Dragon God Sephiro.
Never had any race, let alone humankind, heard such a title from his lips.
Those who clumsily mimicked dragon magic all failed to meet his standards.
They were nothing but struggling insects, not even reaching the level of the ordinary.
But this human before him was clearly different.
“Human. What is your name?”
“…Your mother.”
Haah! Haah! Haah!
Gasping for breath,
Park Chan-woo forced out his answer through blood-stained lips.
At the same moment, his right middle finger pointed steadfastly toward Sephiro.
‘Is this all I can manage?’
A blow of absolute conviction.
His final strike, everything remaining of his Mana gathered and unleashed.
Yet even so, he had destroyed only one of Sephiro’s twelve hearts.
Acknowledged as a Grand Magus, his opponent was the god of magic.
Among the twelve alien races that had invaded Earth, he stood at the very pinnacle of dragonkind—unquestionably ranked among the top two most formidable.
From the start, there had been no chance of victory.
The outcome had been determined from the beginning.
Sephiro’s pierced chest had already regenerated.
Sephiro tilted his head slightly.
“But why do you insist on Basic Magic alone? With your level of skill, you should have understood and mastered high-level magic long ago.”
“…”
Park Chan-woo remained silent.
There was no room to refute—it was the truth.
The magic that had pierced Sephiro’s heart was Fireball.
The most basic of Basic Magic, something ninety percent of mages learned first.
Understanding what Park Chan-woo’s silence meant, Sephiro let out a scoff.
“Ah, I see. You began your journey through magic far too late. That is why you had no choice but to cling to Basic Magic. To have elevated First-Tier magic to the level of Tenth-Tier is almost miraculous, yet I suppose there are still limits.”
…A direct hit to his weakness.
True.
Far too late.
Originally, he was never meant to be a mage.
His first Class had been Barbarian Warrior.
After three Class Promotions, he had advanced to Knight.
Yet he had discovered his true talent lay in magic only far too late.
And so the only magic he could wield was Basic Magic.
Because he had begun learning magic only in the final days of the age.
Thus he earned the title of “the First Sword Mage.”
…Yet that name was to Park Chan-woo like a bitter nightmare.
“But do not despair. At the very least, the Basic Magic you employ has transcended our clan’s framework. It would be fair to call it an entirely new system of magic. In all the eons I have existed, you are the first to capture my interest to such a degree. Therefore—”
Sephiro was growing excited.
Never before had he spoken at such length.
Magic gains power the moment it leaves one’s lips.
Words of power should not be scattered carelessly.
Yet this human before him had stirred something that had slumbered deep within the Dragon God.
Clap!
Sephiro clapped his hands lightly.
And at that moment—
Twelve blazing suns materialized above his head.
Magic that lay beyond the distant Twelve Realms—magic even that great sorcerer dared not covet.
Even most high-ranking dragon-kin would need to inscribe thousands of complex formulae in advance to wield magic that transcended the Twelve Realms.
Sephiro had done so with no preparation whatsoever.
No incantation. Manifested in an instant.
An overwhelming, hopeless difference in talent.
A wall no human could ever breach.
And so he had shown it.
That there exists a supreme realm forever beyond the reach of worms like him.
That all struggle is meaningless.
Sephiro laughed with delight as he pronounced judgment.
“I think I ought to dissect your brain.”
“…When did I ever—”
That was when it happened.
Park Chan-woo slowly lifted his head.
Had witnessing such an overwhelming gap in power struck him with despair?
Yet there was not a trace of despair in Park Chan-woo’s eyes.
Instead, an eerie, unruffled light dwelt there.
“When did I say I could only use Basic Magic?”
“…?”
“God of Sacrifice, I offer unto you all that I possess and the Dragon God Sephiro!”
“Hmm? You’re offering me as a sacrifice?”
Sephiro’s golden eyes blinked several times in confusion.
Sacrifice meant offering something to someone in devotion.
But by all reason, one could only offer what one possessed.
The name “God of Sacrifice” itself was unfamiliar to him.
And the notion of offering himself—a living being, and a dragon god no less—as a sacrifice was far more grotesque still.
“…Wait.”
Seized by a terrible premonition, Sephiro looked down at his chest.
The wound that had been perfectly healed by regeneration was reopening.
And what was more startling:
One of the twelve hearts he had thought utterly destroyed
…was still, impossibly, beating.
‘An illusion? No. I could not be fooled by such crude magic.’
No illusion spell could blind a dragon god’s discernment.
Then this had to be something far more complex and profound.
Not mere deception, but…
“…Control Magic. A human learned Twelfth Realm magic?”
Yes.
Park Chan-woo had succeeded in pouring all his Mana into perfectly “controlling” one of Sephiro’s hearts.
Sephiro had believed it destroyed.
He had never suspected a thing.
Because he had held the unshakable conviction that the human before him could wield only Basic Magic.
All the way to the Dragon God Temple, Park Chan-woo had deliberately used only Basic Magic, deceiving Sephiro.
Basic Magic and Twelfth Realm magic.
The gulf between them was heaven and earth.
Moreover, Control Magic—which subjugates an opponent—demanded the highest order of calculation and understanding, magic among magics.
Throughout all the cosmos, only a handful of beings could wield such an art.
“It’s only one heart after all.”
“It’s enough.”
Park Chan-woo bared his teeth in a smile.
Thanks to Sephiro dropping his guard and indulging in long-winded boasts, buying time, he had succeeded in making one of Sephiro’s hearts wholly his own.
A controlled heart is recognized as belonging to its controller for only a very brief moment.
But sacrificing merely one heart would not kill Sephiro.
“One heart is all I need to send you into a rampage.”
Shudder-shudder-shudder!
The Dragon God Sephiro’s colossal form convulsed, swelling grotesquely.
In moments, Sephiro’s shape dissolved, replaced by writhing masses of flesh.
The magic that held his human form was also spiraling out of control.
Shriek!
The moment Sephiro lost control of his magic, the twelve suns he had summoned moments before struck him with merciless direct hits.
A flash and roar reminiscent of the primordial explosion consumed the Dragon God Temple whole.
Yet the Dragon God Sephiro would not die from this.
It was merely a desperate struggle to buy time.
At most thirty seconds.
Within that span, Sephiro would return to his original form.
‘Now, while all his magic runs wild, is the only chance.’
His entire life had led to this singular moment.
Park Chan-woo drew a chalice from his breast without hesitation.
‘The Chalice of the Offering God.’
The vessel in which the God of Sacrifice had been sealed.
As he opened the chalice’s aperture, Sephiro’s flesh began to be absorbed into it.
And thus, if only for a fleeting instant, Sephiro’s entire existence became ‘Park Chan-woo’s’.
The condition for sacrificing Sephiro had finally been met.
Then the chalice’s master, the God of Sacrifice, spoke.
―Park Chan-woo. My contractor. What would you accomplish by offering everything?
Without a moment’s hesitation, he answered.
“Turn back time. To the moment of my first Awakening.”
From the beginning, he had desired only one thing: a return through spacetime, and he desired it still.
He had judged that all his treasures, the Dragon God Sephiro, and the Chalice of the Offering God would be sufficient sacrifice to turn back time.
―The sacrifice is insufficient.
“…What? You said it would be enough?”
―What is sealed in the chalice now is only half of the Dragon God Sephiro.
“Half? What do you mean?”
―The Dragon God Sephiro has two original bodies.
“You’re saying this isn’t the complete body?”
―I only learned this moments ago. …… Soon his other original body will arrive.
“Damn it…!”
It was a situation that demanded curses.
The Dragon God Sephiro.
That monster which had cruelly trampled humanity’s every hope—and it was only half of him!
He had already given everything.
To reach this point, he had exhausted all that he possessed without reservation.
He had stood by as countless comrades fell, used a hundred thousand suicide squads as human shields.
All for this moment.
To turn back time, to grasp hope once more.
And yet……
And yet.
“Take anything! If what I have is not enough, I’ll sell my future! If that still falls short, I’ll offer my very soul as sacrifice…! Please!”
Boom!
Boom!
Boom-boom-boom!
From far away.
An entity vaster than the entirety of the Dragon God Temple approaches.
It is a transcendent dragon, already beyond the scale of ordinary dragonkind.
And in that moment, understanding came.
What he had believed to be Sephiro’s original body, the flesh sealed within the chalice—
……was nothing but dust compared to that overwhelmingly massive form.
【I shall grant you the greatest despair.】
【Humans, disappear.】
Ah……
Beneath the Dragon God Temple.
All of humanity on Earth is being erased.
Turning to dust, fading away.
He reached out his hand desperately, but it did not reach.
It could not reach.
For his own hand was slowly fading as well.
Merely one word.
Was humanity’s final anguished struggle so feeble that it could not even withstand that single utterance?
‘How bitter. How unjust.’
I never even got a proper start.
There was no time to prepare.
And yet I clung to it desperately.
I ran forward with everything on the line, eyes fixed ahead!
That all my effort should end in such a hollow, meaningless destruction.
If only.
‘If only I could start again.’
I would not meet such a wretched end.
I could have succeeded.
‘No matter what it took. Without fail.’
I would become a true Archmage.
―The contract is complete.
That was when it happened.
Tick, tick.
Suddenly, the gears of time spun backward.
―Contractor Park Chan-woo. Your final spatiotemporal regression shall now commence.
* * *
Chirp, chirp, chirp!
The sound of birds reached his ears.
It was impossible.
Not a single bird remained alive on Earth.
The invaders had destroyed all the habitats through resource plundering.
Every forest had vanished, and even the waters by the riverbanks had run dry.
‘This place…’
The moment his eyes opened, a familiar landscape spread before him.
A park.
Sunlight filtering through the leaves, a scene etched so deeply in his memory.
‘Lake Park?’
A sight he thought he would never witness again.
Was it a dream, or reality?
《All humanity residing on Earth shall now begin their Awakening.》
《You may check your abilities by calling forth your ‘Status Window.’》
《Warning! Prepare yourselves!》
《In sixty seconds, the ‘Abyss of Beginning’ shall open across the entire globe!》
A system message materialized before his eyes.
His mind snapped awake.
‘I’ve returned.’
Before everything began.
He had regressed to that precise moment when he first awakened.
It had worked.
The gamble of everything.
There was no time to stand idle.
He opened his mouth urgently.
“Status Window.”
At once, a translucent window materialized before his eyes.
The instant he read its contents, Park Chan-woo’s face hardened in shock.
“Wait… what is this…?”
Though time had indeed turned back, he could not simply rejoice.
Something about the Status Window was different from what he remembered—drastically different.
Affiliation: Earth / Human / South Korea
Name: Park Chan-woo
Age: 27
Gender: Male
Height/Weight: 180cm / 71kg
Level: -99
Strength (1)
Endurance (1)
Agility (1)
Intelligence (1)
Mana (1)
Condition: Critically Weak, Frail, Feeble, Nonexistent, Terminal
“Minus… Level 99…?”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————