Level -99 Archmage - Chapter 118

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 118. True Demon
The spectators watching the Colosseum.
Their Creators were monitoring the situation in real time.
“…….”
“…….”
All fell silent.
That overwhelming force had reached a realm even Avatars could not follow.
It was not merely a matter of raw strength.
‘He doesn’t tire at all?’
‘Against over 150 Avatars?’
‘How does someone like that even exist?’
It defied comprehension.
An Avatar, by definition, was someone who had contracted with a Creator and gained power beyond what an ordinary Awakener possessed.
Therefore, the 150 opponents the Champion faced consecutively were not mere Awakeners—they belonged to a tier far higher.
Yet without pause.
He had claimed victory over all 150, one after another.
Not a single defeat. Overwhelming, absolute dominance.
The Avatars who witnessed it directly could scarcely believe their eyes.
‘He should be an Avatar like us?’
‘That stamina—no human should possess it.’
‘Could he be a monster from the Abyss?’
They could not see him as human.
They had entered with the same qualifications, the same standing—yet how could the gap between them yawn so wide?
Fifty consecutive wins, a hundred, a hundred and fifty…… As the winning streak climbed higher, astonishment transformed into something akin to awe.
Could the Champion truly complete the gauntlet?
Could he finish all 169 opponents and reach Balzac?
At first, they had thought it impossible.
Those Avatars of the Balzac Alliance harbored no fear of death.
They threw everything they had into whittling down the Champion’s stamina, accepting their own demise as the price.
It made no difference.
“What is this…….”
“Is that… Swordsmanship?”
The Champion’s movements grew cleaner as time wore on.
Wasted motion fell away; his reaction speed quickened with each exchange.
Where he had once responded to his opponents’ movements, by the time he passed 150 consecutive wins he was already predicting them, cutting off every avenue of approach before it could unfold.
But what struck them most profoundly was his Swordsmanship.
A blade formed of shadow.
The technique of it, the arc the sword traced through the air—it was breathtakingly beautiful.
This was no mere unleashing of skills, no reckless flailing with power.
This was Swordsmanship.
Disciplined, demanding technique layered atop his foundation—a signature art refined through deliberate mastery.
That technique reached its zenith when he faced Balzac.
“There’s no contest.”
“Is this the caliber of talent required to become a Demon King-tier Avatar?”
“There’s a gap that skills alone can never bridge…….”
Balzac sent forth countless tentacles in counterattack, but they all failed.
Beyond mere speed, the Champion read the precise trajectory each tentacle would take, severing them with his blade by a margin thin as paper.
That was Swordsmanship.
Until now, Avatars had deemed the refinement of personal technique unimportant.
Did not skills manifest everything automatically?
Professionally honing technique was a waste of time.
That had always been the thinking.
But it was not his Swordsmanship alone that shifted the Avatars’ understanding, their very conception of power.
When an enraged Balzac unleashed Domain Magic.
The Champion simultaneously deployed a Domain Magic of his own—another one entirely.
【What is that?】
【……A Divine Domain?】
【An Avatar wielding a Divine Domain?】
【Impossible!】
【I have never seen a Divine Domain like that.】
【Is there a Demon King that possesses such a ‘Divine Domain’?】
【If not a Demon King, then could it be…?】
【…A Demon God?】
Every Creator watching the match through their Avatar’s eyes
let out a gasp of shock as if they’d agreed upon it beforehand.
They forgot the very fact that they were connected to their Avatars.
At the outcries of those who were nothing but arrogant and dogmatic, the Avatars could only start back in alarm.
This had never happened before—not once.
The fact that they were this astonished meant only one thing: the scene unfolding before them now had reached the realm of a Creator.
“C-cold!”
“Oh! Oh no!”
“Wasn’t the arena’s Mana supposed to not reach the spectator seats?!”
But that wasn’t the end of it.
Centered on Balzac, all the surrounding space began to freeze.
It was strange.
The spectator seats were clearly protected so as not to be affected by the arena.
It would be more accurate to say they were completely separated.
The spaces were divided, and the arena’s Mana should never be able to reach the seats.
Yet.
…This chill, this Mana—it unmistakably emanates from the Champion.
That was the moment.
【…Flee from this place.】
【A Demon God’s Divine Domain ignores the rules of the Creative Abyss.】
【This is absurd.】
The Creators spoke.
They grew desperate.
Witnessing the Mana that had penetrated even the spectator seats and the ‘Divine Domain,’ they became certain.
The ‘Divine Domain’ that this Champion now wielded…came from a Demon God.
A Demon King’s ‘Divine Domain’ cannot ignore the Abyss’s rules.
But the terror that Demon Gods inspired lay precisely in this disregard for such rules.
Demon Gods are the true administrators and masters of the Abyss.
They are the beings with the greatest influence over it.
Their ‘Divine Domain’ is not something an mere Creative Domain could withstand.
In the end, every Avatar had no choice but to flee hastily from the Colosseum.
Every one of them, that is, except for Balzac.
* * *
Cold.
This place was bitterly, piercingly cold.
Balzac looked around.
Everything was frozen.
It seemed as though even time itself had turned to ice.
【Acknowledge your defeat and flee.】
In an instant, his master’s voice reached him.
A Creator. An Abyss Lord bound to him by Incarnation Contract.
His command was absolute.
Balzac moved to obey that order.
‘My mouth won’t move.’
…He couldn’t declare his defeat.
His body was already frozen solid.
This was too cold a world.
【You are not frozen, Balzac. Move. Speak. Acknowledge your defeat!】
Not frozen?
That’s impossible.
It’s this cold.
【You have lost all sensation. You cannot feel the cold.】
And yet, it’s cold.
Maddening cold.
Balzac managed only to roll his eyes.
Before him stood the Champion.
It was a shadow.
No, it wasn’t a shadow. It was a man.
That was the shadow’s true identity.
【What do you see? Who stands before you?】
I see it clearly.
Yet the Creator seemed unable to perceive it.
It was strange.
Balzac’s entire field of vision had always been linked to the Creator without interruption.
‘The connection… weakened.’
Only then did Balzac understand.
The link between him and the Creator had been severed.
For the first time since entering the Incarnation Contract with the Creator, he felt true freedom.
【Do you know how many Avatars were consumed to create you? How much coin and effort was expended! Answer me!】
‘Ah….’
Suddenly, laughter spilled from Balzac’s lips.
The moment he heard the Creator’s words, a ‘memory’ he had forgotten came rushing back.
Like all Avatars, Balzac had once been an ordinary man.
A husband who lived simply—building a home, protecting his family.
If only he hadn’t made that ‘wrong choice’ that day. If only he had chosen death instead….
‘I was fated to die.’
The day he entered the Abyss.
His death had been ‘certain.’
But in that moment before the end.
‘The Creator offered me the Incarnation Contract. In exchange for surrendering all my will to him, he would let me live.’
After that, the nightmare began.
The first thing the surviving Balzac did was… ‘kill his family.’
‘I slew my own family with my own hands. Ah.’
The Creator stripped Balzac of his free will and annihilated his family.
He butchered the children, the wife, without mercy.
He made Balzac’s own hands kill every living thing—the dog, all of them.
He cannot forget the light in their eyes then.
They screamed for him to stop, but the Creator did not relent.
Instead, he killed everyone Balzac had known.
Friends and acquaintances alike.
‘My wrong choice. All for the greed of wanting to live. With my own hands I killed them all…!’
After enduring endless despair, Balzac turned away from reality.
He chose to seal away his memories.
At the same time, he became ‘demonized.’
Half human and half demon.
【Avatar of the Demon God. Show me that face. Open your eyes, Balzac!】
They are open.
Simply, you cannot see them.
The Creator’s desperation was seeping into his voice.
He had already judged Balzac’s recovery to be impossible.
He merely wanted to confirm the face of the Avatar bound to the Demon God, to plan for what came after.
Such information would fetch a handsome price.
Whoosh—!
Balzac moved.
He had not declared defeat.
He simply did his utmost to reach the Champion.
【What are you doing? Moving? Ignoring my command?】
Balzac’s will became dimly perceptible even to the Creator.
He was running toward death.
At this fact, the Creator erupted in fury.
【You cannot die without my permission. Great Curse, power of all evil!】
The Creator wielded his power to reinforce Balzac’s curse.
He forced Balzac himself to evolve.
Such intervention demanded countless ‘Coins’ from the Creator.
It was a demand that exceeded the bounds of their contract.
Yet he was determined—he would not grant Balzac true freedom.
How dare a mere Avatar defy the will of the Creator himself!
Unforgivable.
Intolerable.
【Your will is irrelevant. I shall become you! And you shall never know freedom again!】
‘No……!’
Balzac despaired.
His body had begun to transform once more.
Beyond Half-Demon, it was shifting into something far more powerful.
Complete demonification.
Merging with the Creator, entering the realm of the True Demon.
Even if he wished to die, death would not come.
Should he become a True Demon, even if he were the Avatar of a Demon God, so long as he remained Half-Demon, he could never hope to resist.
“Please… kill me… I beg you…….”
Tear me from this agony.
Balzac spoke with all the strength he could muster.
Of course, he knew no answer would come.
That shadow had already become one with him.
It had become a different thing—a Half-Demon.
Likely, that entity too had been corrupted by the Creator or something else.
Yet a Half-Demon could never defeat a True Demon.
Just as an ordinary Avatar could never defeat a Half-Demon.
And so.
“Rest now.”
A being that should have lost all will, that should have been unconscious, had spoken.
How?
An impossible, incomprehensible thing had occurred.
Then Park Chan-woo moved.
And in that instant.
Slash!
He severed Balzac’s ear.
【Fool! My authority—my Reflection ability and healing power—have already merged with Balzac!】
The Creator declared with confidence.
The Chained Curse and Immediate Healing that now wracked the Half-Demon Balzac’s transforming body were on the verge of becoming authorities themselves.
As if cutting off a single ear would cause any real problem.
Rather, this attack should make him surrender.
If he pressed on, it would not be Balzac who died—it would be him.
Yet.
《The Curse ‘Chained Curse’ activates.》
《The same damage returns to the opponent.》
《By the great magic ‘Reflection,’ the damage amplifies and rebounds!》
【……?】
The Creator recoiled in shock.
This was a phenomenon that simply had not existed before the Divine Domain was formed.
And it claimed to be great magic, no less.
But that was not all.
【Ugh……?!】
A cry of anguish escaped the Creator’s lips.
An incomprehensible phenomenon had unfolded.
【How—how can I take damage?!】
No matter how strengthened the connection with Balzac had grown.
Across the barrier of space, beyond dimensional walls, the blow had reached him.
It was the first time since he had become a Creator.
And the pain did not end with a single blow.
《The Curse ‘Chained Curse’ activates.》
《The same damage returns to the opponent.》
《By the great magic ‘Reflection,’ the damage amplifies and rebounds!》
It repeated.
Infinitely.
Until Balzac died.
But what of his opponent?
【Super… Regeneration?】
Park Chan-woo’s ear was severed, then regenerated, over and over.
It was a far more potent grand magic than anything Balzac’s ‘Healing’ could match.
As long as it hadn’t been perfected through Authority, one could never surpass grand magic.
Moreover, because of Balzac’s ‘great magic’ called Reflection, the Creator was accumulating damage at twice the rate.
That damage was transmitted directly to the Creator.
【Stop—stop this!】
The Creator could only be bewildered.
Just before becoming a True Demon, at the moment when the Creator and Balzac’s ‘connection’ had grown strongest.
‘Reflection’ had proceeded as if it had been targeted from the very beginning.
That ‘Reflection’ magic transcended dimensions, amplifying the damage that now ravaged the Creator.
It would not end.
An endless clash between Reflection and Reflection.
Yet there was no way Balzac, who had not been perfected as a True Demon, could withstand the amplified damage returning to him.
【No—no, what is this even—!】
That was the end of those words.
No more screams came from the Creator.
Similarly, Balzac’s body was no longer being ‘healed’.
Thump!
Balzac collapsed.
Whoosh!
Soon, Balzac’s body began to ignite.
“For… give…”
Whiiiine!
With those final words, Balzac’s body turned to ash and vanished.
Ding!
《True Demon ‘Balzac’ has died.》
《The Creator ‘Immortal Curse-Bearer, Lord Arbanil’ who held the Avatar Contract with ‘Balzac’ has died!》
《For the first time, a Creator has been slain not through bankruptcy, but through direct injury!》
An unprecedented event had occurred.
A Creator, an Abyss Lord, had been killed by direct damage.
Not by the Twelve Races, nor by another Abyss Lord, nor by a witch, nor by a divine beast.
…but at the hands of the Weakest—an Earthling.

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