Level -99 Archmage - Chapter 84
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Episode 84. Han Sin vs. Ataraxia
The typhoon seized all directions in an instant.
There was no time to respond.
The moment the incantation ended, the magic reached before his eyes in a blink.
Han Sin’s expression hardened.
‘No ordinary Mage.’
He recognized his opponent as a Mage.
One of a caliber he had never encountered before.
The magic wielded by those commonly called Mages amounted to little more than hurling fire—if that.
He had never directly witnessed a Mage of such mastery, one who could conjure a typhoon and dominate space itself.
Rumble!
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
And there was not just one typhoon.
They divided endlessly, stretching forward in waves.
Soon ten typhoons split the very earth and consumed the Doppelgangers.
“Aaaaagh!”
“P-please, save me!”
The Doppelgangers screamed in agony as though they were human.
Within the fierce winds and chains of magical force, their bodies were being torn asunder like paper.
Whoooosh—!
Unable to withstand it, countless Doppelgangers dissolved into smoke and vanished.
Death in the Abyss always took this form.
By the time the number of Doppelgangers swallowed by the typhoon climbed from double digits into the hundreds.
…….
Han Sin simply watched in silence.
There was no tremor of emotion.
No sorrow, no fear, no anger or resentment existed within him.
He was merely observing the process of the Doppelgangers being swept away.
Once his observation was complete, Han Sin nodded slowly.
‘Magical power is guiding the wind. The essence of the magical force itself has been transformed.’
He had pierced through to the source of the Mage’s magic.
He had detected a change in nature that ordinary people could never discern.
Han Sin slowly raised his right hand.
He felt a portion of the approaching wind.
Simultaneously, Han Sin became certain.
‘The magical power has been converted to wind attribute. I sense a peculiar viscosity as well—magical force woven thin like a spider’s web, clinging to the wind, allowing the wind itself to be manipulated…….’
Han Sin read the magical power.
He grasped the attribute and nature of the magical force itself, its output, all at once.
He understood that the magical power being used was not large, that the magic was merely amplified by the Mage’s peculiarity—he had already grasped it all.
‘It transcends the realm of magic a human can wield.’
The viscous magical power was woven thin as a spider’s web, guiding the wind.
The problem was that this web was far too delicate—maintaining its form would demand concentration and magical aptitude beyond imagination.
It was a skill no human could possess.
Among humans as they currently existed, none had the technique for such magical refinement.
Han Sin included.
Though it was natural enough, since Han Sin was not a Mage who adjusted phenomena with magical power.
Shriek!
As he gripped the blade, the Seeker’s Sword howled fiercely.
Having observed and assessed the deaths of nearly a hundred Doppelgangers, what remained was to bring order.
Han Sin took his stance.
Then, toward the approaching typhoon, he drew his blade down swiftly.
Splash!
The blade and the typhoon’s barrier collided, and magical force crackled like static electricity.
In that instant, the magical power woven dense as a spider’s web began to snap strand by strand.
Whiiiing!
The bound wind scattered in all directions.
The traces of the typhoon vanished in a flash, and the Incantation of Despair dealt Han Sin no real blow.
“……Oho.”
Ataraxia’s eyes gleamed.
A mere human had cleanly dismantled her magic.
And it was magic amplified powerfully by the Incantation of Despair woven through it.
No matter how restricted his mana might be by human limits, no human could possibly unravel the magic of a dragon.
“So you possess the Magical Eye.”
The Magical Eye.
An eye that reads mana itself.
Ataraxia watched as Han Sin observed the typhoon.
He had read every detail of the mana’s path and flow, its nature, and severed it precisely at the heart of the channel through which it moved.
A feat impossible for anyone without the Magical Eye.
Yet those who possessed such talent were vanishingly rare.
‘There are virtually no inborn users, and scarcely any who awakened it later. And yet this human seems to have been born with it.’
Even among dragons, those born with the Magical Eye itself could be counted on one hand.
And a human possessed it.
By nature, from birth.
A talent that transcended every standard of humanity Ataraxia had ever encountered.
No—across all races, such a thing was rarely found.
But that was not all.
‘Instinctively, he sidestepped the mana’s path by exactly one step.’
Han Sin remained perpetually one step beyond the flow of mana.
Exactly one step.
Standing in the eye of the typhoon, in a place where he would not be struck, he watched the Doppelgangers fall.
Yet this was not something the Magical Eye alone could accomplish.
The Magical Eye is a talent for reading mana that has already manifested.
One should be unable to perceive mana that has not yet arisen, nor its flow.
And yet this human anticipated even mana that had not yet manifested.
Instinct.
His ability to sense danger to himself was beyond imagination.
‘Extraordinary. Truly extraordinary.’
This human bore no comparison to those he had encountered before.
Even the Doppelganger who had replicated countless talents could not match this one alone.
If such a human existed, could one not say they possessed the talent of a War God among their kind?
Whoosh!
Whiiiiiiii!
Han Sin erased every typhoon.
By cutting the channel of mana, he annihilated the typhoons themselves.
Yet something was strange.
It was peculiar.
Even with talent and superior ability, the tool one wielded should not hold up.
‘Specialized Equipment?’
Ataraxia fixed his gaze intently on Han Sin’s sword.
It differed fundamentally from common Abyss weapons.
Specialized Equipment was a tool crafted to suit a specific user, selected for their capacity to wield it.
Naturally, even at the same Grade, its performance differed by heaven and earth.
Yet it was all but impossible that a human would have obtained Specialized Equipment at this stage.
‘Did a contracted Creator forge it for him? Crafting Specialized Equipment would consume considerable Coins. Most ordinary Creators would not even attempt it.’
It was not merely a matter of Coins.
Blacksmiths capable of forging Specialized Equipment were exceedingly rare even in the Abyss.
To entrust such a thing to an unproven human at this juncture?
…Who could it be?
Which Creator had already forged Specialized Equipment for him?
Ataraxia looked up at the sky.
The heavens, now dyed crimson.
A vast moon hanging at the sky’s center.
‘Aheta. Is it you?’
Aheta, the Lord of the Moon.
That one was a Creator capable of forging Specialized Equipment.
A Creator who could entrust Specialized Equipment to a human still barely grown, on merely the Second Night.
If it were Aheta, he could produce as many Specialized Equipment as he wished, should the mood strike.
He was a being who rivaled even established Named Creators in prowess.
Many dragons had lost their lives within Aheta’s Created Abyss.
Thus Aheta was one of the few Creators whose true nature the dragons had never reached.
‘So humans truly do harbor something hidden from sight.’
Even the Dragon Lord Sephiro had taken human form.
Moreover, he had tended to a single human, kept him alive.
Non-existence.
At the cost of unraveling that absolute magic itself.
She had thought it merely Sephiro’s usual eccentricity.
But this human was one to whom the Moon Lord Aheta had already granted Specialized Equipment.
They must have recognized something in him — that ‘human potential’ which he had not yet grasped.
‘Then…….’
Ataraxia smiled.
Han Sin, having dissolved the magic, was advancing toward Ataraxia.
Still unable to break the seal, though…….
‘A troublesome opponent, this human.’
Han Sin, too, had not achieved complete growth.
He had not yet reached the True Form of Magic.
He had merely undone a single spell.
“Fire, bloom forth like ten thousand flowers.”
“Earth, cry out.”
“Lightning, bear down upon him.”
“Wind, converge.”
“Bow of Despair, release all your arrows.”
Ataraxia had reached the pinnacle of existence.
Among her kind, a dragon of renowned power.
Even with her strength sealed, even confined to human measure, how could she ever stand as an equal to one of them?
Extraordinary talent, primal instinct — Ataraxia had experienced them all.
She had competed against them, surpassed them.
The gap between inexperience and mastery was absolute, unconquerable.
Likewise, the weakness of that human male — Han Sin — she had diagnosed with ease.
Han Sin lacked experience.
He had never truly faced an opponent overwhelmingly his superior.
‘He must have lived his entire life believing himself the greatest.’
One could see it in his bearing.
Even those mere Doppelgangers followed him, treated him as a king.
Yet when the Doppelgangers fell, Han Sin had not blinked.
He took the treatment of a king as his due.
He viewed the sacrifice of others as righteous.
It was proof that he had lived this way all his life.
Therefore, he lacked desperation.
A genius without desperation could never match Ataraxia, not even with equal power.
Weak against the unexpected, unskilled in improvisation.
Yet magic was a miracle that birthed infinite variables.
What truly frightened about magic was its boundlessness.
Could he possibly read magic woven from five elements, layered in complex composition?
Could he dismantle it as he had before?
“…….”
Han Sin froze in place, his expression hardening.
The magic bearing down on him was of an entirely different magnitude than the typhoon before.
He understood now that mere sight was not enough to dissolve it.
‘What is this magic?’
A form he had never encountered in all his experience.
The quantity of mana it carried was not excessive.
Perhaps the Mage’s Level itself was lower than his own.
Yet the very manner of its casting transcended the limits of Level.
‘Just what is it with these Mages…….’
All of them, every last one.
Blocking his path forward.
……To observe and dismantle would be too late.
The attack was precision-targeted at Han Sin alone; there was no space to flee.
His instinct screamed at him.
That it was over.
There was no way to dodge this.
All that awaited ahead was death!
Then.
Boom!
The explosion erupted, and magic swallowed Han Sin whole.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————