Level -99 Archmage - Chapter 57

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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 57. Kankun vs. Adora
A catalyst.
The decisive cause that sets change in motion.
For Kim Byung-han, his meeting with the Seer became a once-in-a-lifetime catalyst.
‘I have to grow stronger. In this world, there is no one I can trust but myself.’
Not friends, not family, not even colleagues he’d weathered countless trials alongside.
Inside the Abyss, he’d learned that trust was impossible.
Humans, after all, are creatures that change according to circumstance.
To survive, one had no choice but to hone one’s own strength.
‘I won’t trust anyone again.’
The Abyss had opened shortly after he arrived at work, and when the Creator marked him for death, Kim Byung-han became prey in an instant.
Not a single person objected or tried to save him.
His teammates who’d shown warmth before, the ones he’d always looked after, even the gentle youngest members he’d thought innocent as angels—
They all bared their blades against him with eyes blazing crimson.
Every last one of them hungered only for his death.
‘Never again. I will never endure such a thing again.’
If there existed a living hell, that place had been it.
The mere thought of that day made his legs tremble.
He’d fled desperately, clawing and gasping for life.
Blood streaming from his wounds, he’d crawled across the ground.
Even as betrayal hollowed him from within, he’d prayed—begged, really—that just one person might take his side.
But not a soul showed him mercy.
Everyone there had been a demon.
From that day forward, Kim Byung-han had grown even more ruthlessly selfish.
He’d dedicated himself to becoming stronger with savage determination.
He’d grasped the truth: no one in the Abyss could be trusted.
If something offered him no advantage, he would never lift a finger.
He moved with cold calculation.
But there was one exception—a single person whose existence broke all his rules of behavior.
‘The Seer!’
The one Yi Hyeok-soo had called the Seer.
The great mage who’d conquered the Abyss!
Especially that moment when he’d faced the Death Knight—Kim Byung-han could never forget it.
He would carry that memory all his life.
The power had been that overwhelming.
The Seer was unmistakable.
Though his garb had changed somewhat, how could anyone forget such a presence?
Kim Byung-han recognized him at once and fell to his knees, bowing his head in reverence.
The Seer had saved him. The Seer had given him a new life.
To him, the Seer was a god—equal to the Creator itself, or perhaps greater still.
“…The Seer?”
“That mage?”
Lim Chang-yeol and the Union members, unaware of the truth, could only tilt their heads in confusion.
The sole man Death’s Witch Adora had brought with her.
And here was Kim Byung-han, revering him as the Seer.
Yet none of them recognized him.
They’d already compiled data on most of Korea’s notable fighters, yet they had nothing on a mage dressed like this.
And if he was called the “Seer,” he was clearly no ordinary person.
“Kim Byung-han. Do you know who that man is?” Lim Chang-yeol, the Union commander, asked.
In that instant, Kim Byung-han’s lowered head snapped upward.
His eyes blazed like a volcano as he opened his mouth.
“You fool! You stand stiff-necked before the great Seer himself? Fall to your knees at once!”
“…?”
Lim Chang-yeol openly tilted his head in bewilderment.
He’d thought he understood Kim Byung-han’s nature reasonably well, but this display caught him off guard.
Kim Byung-han was suspicious, greedy, and utterly self-interested.
Men of that breed rarely trusted anyone.

Yet right now, Kim Byung-han was showing blind devotion to this man.
There was no zealot quite like it.
‘Who in the world is he?’
The sole figure to have surpassed all formidable rivals and become Adora’s closest confidant.
But Lim Chang-yeol’s interest ended there.
‘In the end, he’s just a mage.’
His interest in a mage—not a swordsman—was limited, and besides, since the Abyss appeared, those who wielded magic had largely faded from prominence.
Mages were an unwelcome breed.
Magic took time to cast, and in the Abyss where countless variables swirled, mages often failed to respond with immediacy.
Their destructive power fell short of expectations, and most of them were weaklings with little endurance and no grit.
That wasn’t all.
They were virtually useless on their own.
By now, countless online communities and social networks had long since blacklisted the “mage” class.
—Never take on a mage-related class under any circumstances.
—Mages are dead weight. They contribute nothing to team fights.
—Why learn that garbage? If you want to conjure fire from your fingertips, just use a lighter.
—All flash and no substance. Better to swing your sword one more time than waste it on magic.
Mockery though it seemed, every word was true.
These days, those who’d cut their teeth on steel—like Yi Hyeok-soo, Han Sin, and Lim Chang-yeol himself—dominated the world.
And time seemed unlikely to shift that hierarchy.
‘Though he does seem to wield something rather unusual in magic.’
Kim Byung-han might have been dazzled by that much.
But more than anything.
‘…it’s Kankun and Adora’s fight. There’s no room for human involvement anyway.’
The battle in the Tower of Pride left no room for human interference whatsoever.
The clash ahead belonged to Kankun and Adora alone.
Lim Chang-yeol turned his attention away from the mage.
“…….”
“…….”
He could scarcely focus on anything else.
Kankun and Adora.
The two now faced each other, standing poised.
Though silent, the killing intent radiating between these two monsters had already exceeded what any human could endure.
“Fall back… as far as we can.”
Lim Chang-yeol spoke quietly.
Staying close meant getting caught in the maelstrom.
To be swept up in the battle of two monsters was to invite only death.
All the union members in Kankun’s camp began withdrawing slowly, cautiously backward.
In that moment, Kankun spoke first.
“Witch of Death. I no longer fear your demise.”
The witch Adora.
Neither the death she wielded nor the Dark Magic she commanded.
Kankun had overcome them all.
Though he’d suffered near-annihilation in their first battle, he had finally grasped the Heart Sword—and now nothing held terror for him.
“Here, I will kill you.”
He would kill her even at the cost of his own life.
The Orc Master Kankun slowly raised his Greatsword.
His eyes held only a single conviction: to slay his opponent.
Thrum!
As Kankun set his foot forward, savage magical force trembled through the earth.
The moment death’s aura scattered, Kankun seized the opening without hesitation.
Crack!
He thrust his right foot down to strike the ground again, then drove his Greatsword vertically downward in one motion.
Rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble—!
Sword Qi erupted from the blade’s edge, and a torrent of fierce energy surged toward Adora.
The Sword Qi scraped the earth with every passing whisper, shattering the very air around it and warping the terrain itself.
To meet it head-on would mean obliteration—pulverized without even dust remaining. The sight was vertiginous.
Everyone stood transfixed, witnessing the spectacle unfold.
In that split second, Adora raised her hand.
Death Magic coalesced, forming a thick shield of darkness.
The shield consisted of nine overlapping layers stacked upon one another, protecting Adora’s body without a single gap.
Crack—!
In the moment the Sword Qi and dark shield collided.
With a sharp percussive sound, the Sword Qi dissipated entirely.
It had failed to pierce Adora’s shield.
But then.
“Your defense is useless, witch!”
Whoosh—!
Kankun’s Greatsword flew in alongside it.
Through the thin gap created by the Sword Qi’s feeble shield, Kankun’s Greatsword wedged itself forward.
Crack—!
Hairline fractures began to spider across the nine-layered shield.
The smallest opening was all he needed.
Kankun brought both hands together.
He concentrated every ounce of energy he possessed, intending to forge a Heart Sword.
Swift, decisive victory.
He knew that prolonging this fight worked against him.
“That… that is…!”
“A sword… conjured from empty air…!”
Above Adora’s head.
Energy spiraled and coalesced, and there materialized a blade of pure radiance, luminous and terrible.
Yet it was not one blade alone.
Hundreds—thousands of them appeared.
Countless swords of light manifested on all sides, descending upon Adora like a storm.
Crack! Crack-crack-crack!
The dark shield shattered into fragments.
One, two, three…
By the eighth layer, Kankun reached out his hand once more.
His Greatsword returned to his grasp, and for the final strike, he drove forward with breathtaking speed, folding space itself beneath his feet.
Closing the distance at a velocity never before witnessed, he delivered one final blow meant to cleave Adora in two, along with the last of her shields.
Boom—!
Explosion and blinding radiance erupted, and the watchers squeezed their eyes shut against the intense light.
One thing was certain: the final shield had shattered.
The last image they had seen made that undeniable.
In that moment, they were all convinced.
‘There’s no way she could have survived that attack.’
‘Kankun has won!’
An overwhelming victory for Kankun.
A victory for those who had chosen his side.
They could scarcely imagine what rewards awaited them.
…And yet.
When they opened their eyes again.
“…!”
“What… what is this?”
They could only witness a scene entirely at odds with their expectations.
Kankun’s Greatsword was aimed precisely at Adora’s brow.
Hovering a hair’s breadth away—not quite touching—Kankun had come to a dead stop, frozen in place with his blade.
Tendrils of dark energy, thick as storm clouds, now coiled around Kankun’s entire body, holding him fast.
Kankun’s eyes widened with disbelief.
He had transcended death itself, awakened to the Heart Sword, and been reborn as a warrior absolute.
There was nothing his blade could not sever.
And he had, without question, cut through both death and Dark Magic.
And yet…
He was caught.
Which meant.
…He had not cut through it at all.
Adora had merely feigned defeat.
She had lured him into her domain.
Drawn him to the very threshold of death itself, within touching distance.
To deliver upon him a death from which there could be no escape.
“You… bastard…!”
Kankun could barely open his mouth.
There was no point in playing games anymore.
Yet he couldn’t comprehend it.
When they’d fought before, the gap in power had never been this severe.
They’d been evenly matched then.
What could account for this overwhelming disparity?
“Tran… scen… dent…!”
Only a being who had transcended could toy with Kankun, who had awakened the Heart Sword.
And only a Transcendent existed in that category.
Those who had crossed the tenth tier and entered the eleventh were called Transcendents.
Just as Kankun had grown stronger through his awakening and enlightenment.
Adora too had grown stronger.
Yet such a dramatic transformation couldn’t have happened overnight.
Kankun’s eyes darted, his gaze shifting.
To the figure in the distance, dressed like a Mage.
Just as the human warrior had granted him enlightenment, could this Mage have granted Adora her own?
A witch who dealt death merely by drawing near.
That she kept him this close meant that human was precious to her—invaluable, even.
‘Then…!’
Kankun poured every last shred of spiritual power into his body.
He wrung power from each cell, gathering it with desperate intensity.
And he unleashed one final Heart Sword.
Not as large as before, but crafted with such care that no one would notice its creation.
Soon the Heart Sword materialized behind the Mage.
Adora and the Mage still hadn’t sensed its formation.
Kankun drew the Sword Path with every ounce of strength he possessed.
Then.
‘You taste it too. This despair I’ve felt.’
Thwack!
The Heart Sword pierced Park Chan-woo’s heart.

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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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