Level -99 Archmage - Chapter 133

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

Episode 133. The Sanctuary
Cygnus the Destroyer.
One of the oldest Divine Beasts, and a being whose stature was as remarkable as the ages through which he had lived.
Among the Demon Lords of the Abyss, his infamy and standing were so renowned that all knew his name.
It was not merely the Creative Abyss that he destroyed, but all the Lords connected to it—he devoured them whole.
Legend held that Cygnus had laid waste to more than eight hundred Abysses, slain two hundred Lords, and massacred hundreds of thousands of demons beneath their command.
Thus, the Creators prayed ceaselessly that Cygnus would never appear within their domains.
Cygnus was not merely a threat—he was a calamity beyond even a Lord’s power to withstand.
A thing most hideous, most ominous, most vile—a calamity incarnate.
Yet for more than ten thousand years, Cygnus had not been seen.
—He fled before the Dragon God, Park Chan-woo.
—And Park Chan-woo failed to capture him?
—Park Chan-woo never abandons what has captured his interest.
—He was once renowned as a collector of Divine Beasts, after all.
—Which only proves how formidable the Destroyer truly is.
—Yet not a trace of him has been found in over ten thousand years.
—We should count ourselves fortunate for it.
—Perhaps he is dead.
A Divine Beast that had stirred the Dragon God’s intense curiosity!
Yet he was also the only one Park Chan-woo had ever failed to claim.
Many tales were told, but nothing was confirmed.
For nearly ten thousand years, Cygnus had not resurfaced since slipping from Park Chan-woo’s grasp.
In former days, he would have prowled the Abyss constantly through the Cracks, wreaking destruction wherever he went.
Though opinions differed on the matter, the Lords had concluded that the Destroyer was dead.
What fortune that their nemesis, the one who ravaged their domains, had perished.
And yet…….
Contrary to the Creators’ wishes, Cygnus the Destroyer lived on.
In the depths of the Crack.
Within the Sanctuary—the sacred domain of Divine Beasts—preparing to bear offspring.
“Cygnus, you have revealed yourself at last.”
The Dragon God Hall.
Atop its highest throne sat a man, one leg crossed languidly over the other, his expression tinged with ennui.
Only one being could occupy this seat.
Park Chan-woo, the Dragon God!
He had sensed Cygnus’s emergence.
The Destroyer had finally revealed himself somewhere within the vast expanse of the Abyss.
No matter how carefully he concealed himself, Park Chan-woo never overlooked anything that had captured his attention.
“Have you finally completed all your preparations?”
Park Chan-woo smiled faintly.
All demons labored under a misunderstanding.
They believed that Park Chan-woo had failed to capture Cygnus the Destroyer.
The tale had twisted into something about Cygnus being too powerful for even the Dragon God to subdue.
But that was not the truth.
He had simply let him go.
From the beginning, it was not the Destroyer himself that held Park Chan-woo’s interest.
‘Cygnus the Destroyer had been chosen by the Sanctuary.’
The Sanctuary.
A sacred domain dwelling at the heart of the Crack.
A place revered as holy by all Divine Beasts.
Yet Park Chan-woo knew the truth of that domain.
That place itself was what was known as the ‘King of the Crack’—the Sanctuary itself.
The King of the Crack had chosen Cygnus the Destroyer.
Or more precisely…….
‘The egg that Cygnus carries is the offspring of the Sanctuary.’
The Sanctuary had taken Cygnus as his counterpart.
There were other Divine Beasts who shared such a bond, but this one was enough to capture Park Chan-woo’s interest.
Divine Beasts were similar to spirits, yet distinct.
Spirits are undeniably spiritual entities.
Divine Beasts are not.
They are real, yet also spiritual.
Spiritual, yet real.
The two sounded alike, yet they were fundamentally different.
Depending on whether one emphasized the spiritual aspect or the tangible one, the interpretation diverged infinitely.
Only by settling this distinction could deeper insight become possible.
It would enable understanding of the Crack—something no one had yet proven.
Above all else.
The Divine Beast—the only being that dwells within the Crack.
No other existence could survive inside it.
Were you not curious?
About the reason why?
So Park Chan-woo had dissected and experimented on countless Divine Beasts.
He wanted to know whether Divine Beasts should be called spiritual entities or tangible ones.
And how, precisely, they adapted to the Crack.
Yet he had reached no conclusion.
‘Since the Sanctuary is the most primordial Divine Beast, if I wait for its offspring to be born and dissect them, I can prove it conclusively.’
Despite dissecting countless Divine Beasts, he had not confirmed it.
But he had never dissected offspring of the Sanctuary.
That was why he had released Cygnus.
The plan was to let Cygnus enter the Sacred Domain, locate eggs of the Sanctuary, find a Nest where the young could be incubated, and then reappear in the Abyss—at which point he would make his move.
If he observed the very moment of hatching and scrutinized all that transpired within, would he not discover the answer?
Park Chan-woo ran his thumb along his jaw.
‘Though whether it can hatch at all remains uncertain.’
An offspring of the Sanctuary, no less.
Most Nests would be far too humble to sustain such a creature’s nobility.
If the Nest’s condition was poor, then no matter how exalted the Sanctuary’s young might be, it could fail to hatch altogether.
And even if it did hatch, there was a considerable chance it would emerge stillborn or defective.
Whoosh.
Park Chan-woo raised his right hand and swept through empty air.
Then.
A high-pitched whistle pierced the silence.
Before his eyes, countless Abysses unfolded like holograms.
A thousand territories materialized at once.
He scanned them all in less than a second.
Whoosh.
He swept his hand through the void once more.
And so he repeated the motion hundreds, thousands of times.
Click.
His eyes came to rest on a single region.
An instant.
“Ah. This place…”
A faint spark of interest kindled in Park Chan-woo’s eyes.
Aheta’s territory—the domain of the Moon Lord.
There, he sensed Cygnus’s presence.
* * *
It was half gamble.
He had never activated the Sacrifice System in this manner before.
But he believed it was possible.
‘This world belongs to Han Min-o.’
Park Chan-woo had merged with Han Min-o over 100 percent.
He understood Han Min-o better than anyone else, and had become Han Min-o himself.
Naturally, ownership of the Nest was split equally between them.
In other words, he was the homeowner.
Connected to Cygnus from within this home, Cygnus was no longer a mere tenant but rather something Park Chan-woo owned as well.
Park Chan-woo was Han Min-o, and simultaneously, he was Cygnus.
‘My head… feels like it might split open.’
As Cygnus’s Wavelength and Park Chan-woo’s Wavelength tangled together, the backlash transcended imagination.
It was far too vast.
Beyond what he could possibly control.
He could not attain complete dominion.
Yet complete dominion was not necessary.
So long as the conditions are met.
If the Sacrifice System responds, if the God of Sacrifice answers…….
【Shatter. Disperse and vanish.】
Cygnus expanded his Magical Wavelength with even greater ferocity.
In that instant, Park Chan-woo’s mind was swept up like a tidal wave.
Crack!
Park Chan-woo clenched his teeth.
Was it still not enough?
Were there conditions yet unfulfilled?
【You shall surely perish in this place.】
Cygnus had no intention whatsoever of letting Park Chan-woo live.
When he glimpsed the boy’s memories, he could not suppress his shock.
A Time Reversal user.
He had no time to fathom why this creature possessed such impossible talents in abundance, but it was likely connected to Time Reversal itself.
This meant, quite simply, that he was a World Error.
A being that should not exist had come into existence, and with it would come untold chaos.
And that chaos would send tremendous ripples through the Crack and the Sanctuary alike.
Because a World Error accelerates the expansion of the Crack.
The Crack had only just stabilized, but if it expands again, even the Sanctuary cannot endure.
‘A World Error like you brings forth the Great Crack.’
The Great Crack.
Since the emergence of the Abyss, several Errors had manifested during the process of all dimensions linking together.
Those Errors had spawned Great Cracks, and each time dimensions collapsed and were devoured, trans-dimensional beings were born.
A calamity that unmakes stable worlds.
If a Great Crack were to occur in the present age, the already-weakened Sanctuary would perish, and true apocalypse would likely begin.
Therefore.
…The World Error must be erased.
And the egg must absolutely hatch.
“Cygnus. Choose.”
It was then.
Park Chan-woo’s lips parted, almost without warning.
He clung to consciousness even as his mind began to fray.
“Save the offspring, or save yourself.”
【…What are you saying?】
“You know as well as I do—the offspring cannot hatch in a nest like this. The conditions for proper birth have not been met.”
Connected to Cygnus, Park Chan-woo understood something.
That the egg might not hatch properly at all.
This fact, Cygnus already knew.
【There is no choice either way.】
“Then become the nest yourself.”
【That is impossible…….】
“It’s possible, and you know it. If you’ve come to know me as I’ve come to know you.”
Cygnus did not respond.
……Because he was beginning to understand.
Though he had not traced every corner of his memories, he sensed dimly the truths connected to the ‘God of Sacrifice’ that Park Chan-woo had named.
If offered to the God of Sacrifice as a sacrifice, and he became the nest himself, then the egg would hatch whole and complete.
But.
If he did, he could not correct the ‘World Error.’
So he had to choose between two paths.
Die and save the offspring, or kill the offspring and save himself.
‘The God of Sacrifice. I have never heard this name before.’
The problem was that the name ‘God of Sacrifice’ itself was unfamiliar.
Cygnus, who had lived through eons.
A name he did not know.
An entity powerful enough to make the impossible possible—there was no way he could be ignorant of it.
‘Save the offspring, or correct the Error…….’
He could not choose easily.
Though he had only just taken root in the nest of a human called Han Min-o, Cygnus knew better than anyone that this nest alone was insufficient.
If it were the egg of an ordinary Divine Beast, that might be enough, but the egg Cygnus carried was blood of the Sanctuary itself.
A nest that was not properly prepared would become poison instead.
Yet the finest Nest would undoubtedly be Cygnus himself.
It should have been impossible for a Divine Beast to become a Nest, but the God of Sacrifice made it possible.
What was to be done?
If the World Error was not corrected, the Great Crack would occur and the Sanctuary would perish.
He could not have everything. He could have only one.
But the deliberation did not last long.
【What will you do with my offspring?】
“I’ll raise him well.”
A human would raise the Divine Beast.
It was absurd, yet in another way, it made sense.
This man was a Mage who explored Truth.
Contradictory for a World Error, but at least he did not stand opposed to Truth itself.
Then perhaps……
【He is my offspring, bearing my name.】
“At least there’s no headache over naming him.”
【……Very well. Offer me as a Sacrifice.】
Ding!
The moment Cygnus consented.
《You have offered the Destroyer Cygnus as a Sacrifice to the God of Sacrifice!》

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