Level -99 Archmage - Chapter 122

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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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Episode 122. Easter Egg (002)
The Red Soul Jar trembled, and the ceremony began.
Dagon pressed both palms flat against his forehead, eyes closed, murmuring softly.
“Holy Spirit Reaper who governs the Abyss, I offer this Soul Jar and this sacrifice. I beseech you—take pity on Baljak’s soul, lost and wandering, and guide it to a place of peace.”
It was like watching a shamanic ritual unfold.
Though subdued in its manner, Dagon was still a demon.
A demon performing ceremony with reverence for another being.
Even Park Chan-woo had never witnessed such a thing.
A low, resonant hum rose up.
The jar trembled and lifted into the air.
Then the golden offerings Dagon had placed inside the jar began to evaporate.
A sacrifice.
The necessary preparation to summon the Spirit Reaper, and thereby guide Baljak’s soul to its proper destination.
Park Chan-woo observed the scene in silence.
‘The Spirit Reaper who governs the Abyss—only demons can call upon it.’
Reapers are entities that govern the rules of the Abyss.
Among them, the Spirit Reaper held an exceptionally high rank.
By his estimate, it occupied a hierarchy far above the Reaper of Oaths.
Yet only demons could summon it through the Red Soul Jar as a medium.
And Park Chan-woo’s reason for performing this ceremony for Baljak was simple.
‘Baljak. I touched his mind, however briefly.’
As his Assimilation Rate rose and his Unique Domain unfolded, he had glimpsed Baljak’s consciousness—his past, his grievances, his deep hatred of demons.
All of it laid bare before him.
‘Had Baljak not regained his mind, I could never have killed Lord Arbanir directly, curse-bearer though he was.’
In the end, Baljak had refused to become a puppet.
Even on the brink of becoming a True Demon, he had clung to some fragment of his will.
It spoke to the extraordinary strength of his spirit.
Park Chan-woo felt the full weight of Lord Arbanir’s cruelty—that such a man had been reduced to a Half-Human Half-Demon.
Had Baljak lost himself, Lord Arbanir would have lived on.
So Park Chan-woo wanted to ensure that Baljak would not suffer in the afterlife.
There was no deeper intention beyond that.
He was simply repaying a debt for aid received.
A crack of thunder split the sky. The sound rolled across the heavens.
Lightning struck the parched earth.
Then came the deluge.
Dark clouds rolled in, and rain began to pour down in torrents.
A shape materialized.
The Spirit Reaper appeared.
It was smaller than ordinary reapers, yet the Spirit Reaper swung its scythe and placed the Red Soul Jar upon its blade.
“Bal. Jak. Baljak.”
The Reaper spoke for the first time.
Thunder crashed down with terrible force.
A massive bolt of lightning fell into the Red Soul Jar.
Baljak’s spirit—shattered and crushed from its wandering in the Abyss.
Park Chan-woo watched in silence.
This was his first time witnessing a Soul Ceremony directly.
Truthfully, he was overwhelmed.
There was nothing he could do but watch.
He had seen many reapers in his time, but none carried such a sense of grandeur as the Spirit Reaper.
‘A Reaper that can speak.’
Reapers cannot speak.
Speech requires free will and intention.
Yet reapers move only according to the laws of the Abyss.
Therefore, they cannot possess self-awareness or speak of their own accord.
And yet it had spoken.
Though merely calling out a name.
Still, it was further proof that the Spirit Reaper held a higher rank than the Reaper of Oaths.
The world of reapers was strange and wondrous.
The demons of the Abyss, the Twelve Races, all others—they lived their lives within rules, alongside these reapers.
Then it happened.
“Who… are you?”
“……?!”
The Spirit Reaper suddenly thrust his scythe toward Park Chan-woo.
Dagon’s eyes widened to an unprecedented degree.
‘What… what is this? Why is the Spirit Reaper interested in Sephiro?’
The Spirit Reaper calls only the names of souls he must reap.
He takes no interest in other beings, harbors no questions about them.
Yet he did.
As a demon merchant, Dagon had witnessed quite a number of Soul Ceremonies conducted.
A kind of business, really.
Any demon wealthy enough to purchase a Red Soul Jar and conduct a ceremony was nearly a lord, which meant the merchant association looked favorably upon them.
The merchant guild often sent multiple traders to network with the high-ranking demons who gathered around such patrons, hoping to leave an impression.
Each time stirred his heart with pride, but he had never witnessed a scene like this.
The Spirit Reaper, pointing squarely at a being who was not even the subject of the ceremony, asking a question.
“Who… are you?”
……Who was he, then.
A question, clearly voiced.
What could it mean.
Yet it made no sense that the Spirit Reaper would not know his target.
The Spirit Reaper reads the True Names of souls.
The true names they truly possess.
Even the True Names that the dragon-kind so carefully guarded and concealed.
For this reason, dragons feared the Spirit Reaper.
And yet.
How could it possibly be that the Spirit Reaper, of all beings, would not know the name of a soul-bearer?
But now, the Spirit Reaper was tilting his head clearly as he pointed toward Park Chan-woo.
‘Impossible……!’
Faced with this unprecedented crisis, Dagon froze.
Though ten mouths would not suffice to list all of Sephiro’s greatness, the fact that even the Spirit Reaper showed such a reaction was something he could never have anticipated.
Adora too had stiffened.
As a witch, she knew well enough what the Spirit Reaper was.
Regardless, Park Chan-woo answered without concern.
“I entrust the soul of Baljak to your care, Spirit Reaper.”
He lowered his head.
Calmly. As though the Reaper’s question held no bearing whatsoever.
In truth, his own identity mattered nothing in this moment.
What mattered was Baljak.
It was that Baljak’s soul would ascend to the heavens and suffer no more.
“…Bal…jak…”
After a brief pause, the Spirit Reaper spoke Baljak’s name once more.
His purpose was not to uncover Park Chan-woo’s identity.
And then.
“He…refused…to…do…it.”
He uttered cryptic words again.
Park Chan-woo’s brow furrowed.
“What do you mean he refused?”
“He…chooses…to…remain…with…you.”
Shhhhhiiiing!
A rift like a black hole opened around the Spirit Reaper, and he vanished without a trace.
The sky cleared again, and the rain stopped.
As if it were all a lie.
Everything returned to how it had been.
Yet nothing had truly remained unchanged.
Crack!
The Red Soul Jar shattered.
From within, a thin wisp of smoke emerged and circled around Park Chan-woo.
《The soul of the True Demon Baljak now circles about you.》
The soul of the True Demon Baljak.
He had chosen to remain in this cruel world.
In the Abyss, at Park Chan-woo’s side.
Why would a man who’d begged ceaselessly for death, tormented beyond measure, suddenly change his mind and choose to remain?
―Please ensure that no one like me ever exists again.
Baljak’s voice came through.
Different from before—brighter, clearer than it had ever been.
Wrongly made into an Avatar, transformed from Half-Human Half-Demon to True Demon, thoroughly played with by the Creators themselves.
He had every reason to harbor deep resentment toward them.
“Will that be enough?”
―Yes. That is sufficient. Please save people like me. No—please ensure that people like me never appear again.
He harbored no hatred.
He simply wanted to save others.
Now I understand.
Baljak.
Why he was capable of becoming a True Demon.
‘A beautiful soul, indeed.’
He was beginning to grasp the conditions for the Half-Human Half-Demon’s emergence.
Those possessed of radiant souls.
They were corrupted and made into Half-Human Half-Demons.
But Baljak had stepped into the realm of the True Demon.
Not something the Creators could simply manufacture on a whim—he had come to the very threshold of the final form.
“I understand.”
Park Chan-woo nodded.
He would do as requested.
He too did not wish to see beautiful souls become demons.
In that instant.
Whiiiiine!
Whoosh! Whoosh-whoosh! Whooooosh!
Suddenly, streams of light began raining down from the sky.
Not just one, but multiple torrents of radiance.
“What—what are these lights?”
“…A Rift has formed in the Abyss.”
As Dagon asked in shock, Adora answered.
She was the architect of this Creative Abyss.
Of course, she would be aware that her own Abyss now had a hole torn through it.
But what she could not comprehend was that light does not exist within a Rift.
Yet the streams of light now cascading from the sky were unmistakably pouring forth from that Rift.
More than that—the luminous torrents were gushing madly around Baljak’s soul.
“……I have never seen such light in the Abyss before. It’s beautiful.”
Dagon soon lost himself to wonder.
A demon enraptured by light—a ridiculous sight.
Yet the radiance was no less than sublime.
Adora too stood motionless, merely watching.
Step.
Park Chan-woo moved forward.
What neither Dagon nor Adora could perceive, he could see.
‘Who are you?’
Before Baljak, a form composed entirely of light had manifested.
It resembled a human, yet carried an alien otherness altogether different.
The luminous figure raised its hand.
Park Chan-woo instinctively moved to grasp that hand.
Whirrrr!
In an instant, the form of light vanished.
But Baljak’s soul underwent a transformation.
The streams of light merged into one, then began to radiate with far greater brilliance.
And then.
Baljak’s soul became an Egg of Light.
A single egg of pure light descended, settling into Park Chan-woo’s cupped hands.
Ding!
《Remarkable.》
《This is the first occurrence since the Abyss came into being.》
《Never before has another race conducted a Soul Ceremony in conjunction with a demon.》
“What’s this? Saving a demon’s soul!”
“A saved soul refusing salvation and choosing to remain!”
“Unbelievable.”
“A miracle unforeseen even by the Creator himself has come to pass!”
“The Easter Egg has been triggered!”
“The True Demon Baljak’s soul transforms into an Easter Egg.”
“Easter Egg (002) has been discovered!”
* * *
That day.
In the Second Night.
While everyone’s attention lay elsewhere, several Creators felt it.
―A god-beast had appeared.
―It had made a contract with a human.
―The Destroyer Cygnus. They sensed its presence unmistakably.
―If it has contracted with a human, it must be captured.
The Destroyer Cygnus.
To the demons who had destroyed hundreds of Creative Abyss and toyed with and devoured lords, it was the worst of all monsters.
They had caught the scent of that terrible god-beast.
If it had contracted with a weak human, it would be diminished, unable to exert its full power.
An opportunity that came once in ten thousand years.
They didn’t know why such a choice had been made, but they could seize it through the Sniper Abyss.
―There was something else peculiar.
―Cygnus was carrying something.
―An offspring?
A god-beast cradling a young one.
It stirred their interest all the more.
If they captured Cygnus and stole even that offspring, they need fear the Rift no longer.
The worry of their Creative Abyss being destroyed would vanish.
Instead, through it they could reap enormous gain.
―Cygnus has appeared only once in ten thousand years.
―It is the only entity the Dragon-god Park Chan-woo showed interest in but failed to capture.
―We shall take it.
―The division afterward shall be fair.
―Ah, but first we must catch it. Who knows when it will disappear again.
―Let this remain our secret alone.
The Creators who grasped this truth secretly pooled their strength.
As quietly as possible, they shrouded the matter in thorough secrecy so that word would not spread beyond their circle.
Yet as is ever the way with demons, no secret remains eternal.
They had no idea that the information leaking to a handful of demon merchants had traveled from Dagon to Park Chan-woo.

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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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