Level -99 Archmage - Chapter 90

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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 90. The Sealed Divine Demon
Agzos the Gatekeeper.
One of Valhalla’s finest warriors, yet he stood tense before the figure facing him now.
A frame of extraordinary bulk.
Corded muscle laid bare across a powerful chest.
A warrior in a golden helm waited for the challengers.
“Agzos. It’s been a long time.”
The warrior in the golden helm spoke, his voice heavy as stone.
“…But you’re not the one assigned to this trial, are you? What are you doing here?”
Agzos swallowed hard.
A chill crawled down his spine.
The warrior before him was not the administrator of the eighth trial.
More precisely, he was something closer to the supreme overseer of all trials—not merely their custodian.
A warrior holding a position as singular as the palace’s gatekeeper.
Only the most exceptional and naturally gifted of Valhalla’s warriors could ascend to such a place.
Agzos spoke next.
“…Guardian Warrior of Kahn.”
He was one of the Twelve Guardian Warriors.
The mightiest defender of the great Kahn himself.
Naturally, his rank stood far above that of a mere palace gatekeeper.
Crash!
The Guardian Warrior drove a Greatsword as tall as himself into the ground.
“I am the administrator of the eighth trial, Agzos.”
“You understand what this trial entails?”
“Life-or-Death Combat. You and I—one of us falls until death.”
It was only natural that trials grew harder the closer one drew to Kahn.
But this was far more brutal than anything that had come before.
Combat where both kill or are killed.
Kill or die.
When the Guardian Warrior spoke with such certainty, as if Agzos should have known, the gatekeeper found his voice at last, taut with tension.
“What reason could there be to alter the trial’s contents so abruptly?”
“The path to the great Kahn must not be too easy.”
“Guardian Warrior, the battlefield always harbors contingency. It is the flexible mind that accepts such contingency which leads the battlefield to victory.”
“Words spoken by Kahn himself.”
The Guardian Warrior nodded.
He could hardly be unfamiliar with the great Kahn’s wisdom.
The warriors of Valhalla were fools skilled only in combat, and Kahn was vigilant of this—always emphasizing ‘contingency’.
“This challenger has merely discovered a new solution. There’s no need to twist the rules to obstruct him, is there?”
“A new solution. You mean to say it was you?”
Agzos gave no answer to the Guardian Warrior’s question.
Silence was affirmation.
He had simply been made to submit after losing a wager.
In an instant, the Guardian Warrior’s gaze shifted.
His eyes fixed on Park Chan-woo, the challenger standing behind Agzos.
“Agzos. You didn’t intentionally throw that match, did you?”
“…Do you truly think I would do such a thing?”
Agzos denied it flatly, his expression grave.
His warrior’s pride and dignity were at stake.
He hadn’t thrown the match—his opponent had simply been that formidable.
“It makes no sense. A warrior of Valhalla wouldn’t choose servitude over a mere wager.”
The Guardian Warrior was one of those who oversaw every level.
He had been observing since the challenger first entered Kahn’s Palace.
Naturally, he could not fathom Agzos’s defeat.
Judging it intentional, he had stepped in himself.
“…Mind your words. I am no slave.”
But the weight of the accusation struck too deep, and Agzos’s expression turned fierce and hard.
The Guardian Warrior had touched upon the warrior’s very pride.
No matter how formidable his opponent, Agzos could not remain silent.
As killing intent surged forth, the Guardian Warrior smiled.
“Then let us settle whether you possess the caliber to command a warrior of Valhalla as slave. We shall fight and see.”
The gatekeeper Agzos alone could not stand against him.
Thwack—
The Guardian Warrior lifted his Greatsword into the air, then caught it in one fluid motion.
《’The Eighth Trial has begun.’》
《’Slay the Guardian Warrior (Level 109).’》
A ten-level gap.
A monster that had climbed to the very edge of the Level 100+ Tier.
At that tier, even a single level’s difference becomes starkly apparent.
‘Agzos would need five copies of himself to stand any real chance.’
Park Chan-woo clenched his fists.
In lower tiers, experience and skill could cover a portion of the gap.
But at 99 versus 109, practical advantages like experience had already reached their ceiling.
As the saying goes, they become meaningless.
Especially once you cross Level 100—you become a creature of an entirely different dimension.
Agzos would need at least five of himself just to hold his own against a single Guardian Warrior.
If this Guardian Warrior stood on the threshold of transcendence, even five would be hopeless.
“If fear takes hold, you’re welcome to flee, slave.”
The Guardian Warrior spoke with ease.
Yet that very tone confirmed the magnitude of the gap between them.
The Eighth Trial was Life-or-Death Combat.
Fleeing was the wise choice.
Surrendering was also a viable option.
He had already gained 140 million Contribution Points just by coming this far.
Striking a heavy blow against Aheta was still possible now.
Park Chan-woo’s mind raced.
‘The Guardian Warrior appeared to nullify Agzos’s Covenant.’
Why had the Guardian Warrior suddenly manifested?
Because the trial was progressing too easily?
Nonsense.
It was a lie.
Merely a pretext.
What the Guardian Warrior truly sought lay elsewhere.
Agzos’s Covenant!
To slay the one the Covenant was forged for.
‘I’m what he’s after.’
If true combat began, there was a high probability he would die first.
A Greatsword wielded by a Level 109 monster would tear through him like tissue paper.
He could not defend against it. He could not win.
Once the Covenant dissolved, the gatekeeper would simply return to his original place.
It was certain.
Though he baited Agzos, it was merely misdirection.
This Guardian Warrior harbored no intention of killing Agzos.
His sole focus was to kill the challenger—Park Chan-woo.
What could he do?
If he accepted the fight as things stood, he would die.
Then—
“Agzos. Pierce yourself with the spear.”
“……!!!”
Squelch!
Agzos’s eyes bulged wide, but under absolute obedience, he could not refuse a command.
The moment Park Chan-woo finished speaking, Agzos moved the spear shaft and drove it into himself.
“Gasp!”
A short cry accompanied a gush of blood.
Observing this, the Guardian Warrior spoke with sudden gravity.
“……Human. What scheme are you concocting now?”
“If you approach me, the next target is his heart.”
“What?”
“Pierce the heart. Let him die on his own.”
“Heh……”
The Guardian Warrior let out a hollow laugh.
Park Chan-woo’s command bore no resemblance to Life-or-Death Combat.
Die of your own accord—wasn’t that as much as admitting defeat?
Yet the Guardian Warrior could not bring himself to move easily.
‘He’s caught on.’
It seemed the human had grasped the true meaning of this confrontation.
That he’d provoked Agzos to ignite the battle, only to kill the challenger in turn.
Impressive. His mind was sharper than expected.
However.
Still, he falls short.
“Human. No matter how binding a Covenant is when sealed by the Spirit of Covenant itself, one does not simply obey an order to take one’s own life.”
That was right.
The stake of life before the Spirit of Covenant applied only to ‘engaging in battle with a reduced Level.’
Upon defeat, he had sworn only to serve within this palace—nothing about the degree of difficulty or extremity he would submit to was specified.
I serve.
I obey commands.
But such commands must remain within the bounds of reason.
Only what is feasible may be executed.
An extreme command like ‘sever your own life’ could not be carried out—it violated the very nature of the Covenant itself.
It was plainly impossible.
‘He’s been watching all along.’
The Guardian Warrior knew of the Covenant sealed when the Spirit of Covenant had appeared and spoken with him.
He must have watched from the beginning and could now speak with certainty.
Yet.
The Guardian Warrior knew one thing but remained blind to two others.
“Agzos. Do you share his thinking?”
“……I shall perish.”
Agzos spoke with a hollow face.
He had already heard the word slave—that which tramples a warrior’s pride.
Now he would obey an absurd command to die without ever lifting a blade.
But Agzos was a being whose very soul had been mortgaged.
He submitted so completely that a Title had been born from it.
Within this palace, Park Chan-woo’s commands were absolute to him.
‘First, buy time. Then kill his will to fight.’
Park Chan-woo’s plan was simple.
When he had first confronted the gatekeeper Agzos at the entrance, the trial’s objective had been: ‘Fight and achieve victory.’
He had won that contest with words, and Agzos had granted him passage.
This time would be no different.
Defeat the Guardian Warrior.
Wasn’t killing the Guardian Warrior’s will to fight the same as killing him—a parallel path?
It might be mere wordplay, or the approach might prove flawed, but it was a gambit worth attempting.
Before long, the Guardian Warrior’s expression grew clouded with disappointment.
“……Agzos. You are no warrior at all, then. Bound only by Covenant, obeying a human’s whim, and you’d die of your own volition?”
“He is no ordinary human, Guardian Warrior.”
“No ordinary human, you say?”
By any measure, he appeared ordinary.
In fact, by his reckoning, the human was beneath ordinary.
Feeble in body, meager in magical force.
Pitiful even for one bearing the challenger’s rank.
A wretch who could not meet the gaze of great Kahn himself.
No ordinary human?
“He is…….”
Agzos hesitated.
He too did not know Park Chan-woo’s true nature.
Yet one thing was certain: he was a being that dwelt beyond the Realm of Zero, beyond an abyss deeper than the Abyss itself.
All that Agzos had witnessed there defied reason.
Gods. Or something akin to gods.
From before the Abyss came into being.
Or born together with the Abyss itself.
Now sealed away—strange, grotesque, and evil.
If Agzos were to define this human challenger, there was but one word that came to mind.
“The Sealed Divine Demon……”
A soft hissing sound.
The instant arrived.
Abruptly.
……The air around them grew cold and heavy.
“……!”
The Guardian Warrior, sensing something, lurched away from where he stood.
In the same moment.
A terrible ripping sound!
From near Agzos’s heart, a black hand tore through.
Thump! Thump!
The black hand clenched around Agzos’s heart.
A sickening burst.
The black hand crushed Agzos’s heart.
Fragments of the shattered heart and torrents of blood began to envelope Agzos.
Soon black currents filled his eyes, and his entire body darkened to pitch.
“……What is this? What’s happening?”
The Guardian Warrior spoke, his voice thick with meaning.
He was tense now.
At the sudden turn of events.
And at Agzos, transformed in an instant.
It wasn’t merely his appearance that had changed.
The quantity and quality of the magical force emanating from him, the raw savage aura rising from his form — all of it seemed to belong to a wholly different being.
A low, ominous growl.
Agzos let out a sound like a beast.
“You’re……Agzos……!”
How could he call that ‘thing’ a Warrior of Valhalla, the gatekeeper Agzos?
It was a monster — one that had become a monstrosity worthy of the Guardian Warrior’s own caution.
A terrible shriek tore from Agzos’s throat.
And then.
A crackling sound.
Crack-crack!
Red fissures suddenly erupted across Agzos’s entire body.
The crimson cracks spread in an instant, consuming his form.
A series of shattering cracks.
“……?!”
He crumbled into fragments, then to dust.
What came next was astonishing.
The black and red dust swirled through the air, adhering to Park Chan-woo.
The dust clung to his skin, writhing as it merged with him.
“……What have you done, human?”
The Guardian Warrior’s voice was laden with killing intent.
It appeared as though Park Chan-woo had absorbed Agzos himself.
The moment balanced on a knife’s edge.
Yet Park Chan-woo couldn’t help but furrow his brow.
His gaze wasn’t fixed on the Guardian Warrior, nor on Lee Hyuk-soo.
Rather, paying them no mind at all, he stared quietly at empty space to one side.
Where Park Chan-woo’s eyes fell,
There hung a peculiar message:
《You have offered ‘Agzos’ as tribute to the ‘God of Sacrifice’.》
《More tributes are required to resurrect the ‘God of Sacrifice’.》
《For 30 minutes, Park Chan-woo synchronizes with and equips ‘Berserk Agzos (Level 110)’.》
《After 30 minutes, ‘Berserk Agzos (Level 110)’ will vanish as tribute.》
……An enigmatic message floated there.
But Park Chan-woo had not offered Agzos as tribute.
He couldn’t have.
The Covenant bound him only within Kahn’s Palace.
It had not become wholly his to command.
Of course, if he possessed the Holy Grail of the Sealed God, the conditions might have relaxed as they had when he sacrificed the dragon Sephiro — but even that he did not have.
Much less could he equip and synchronize with a Warrior like Agzos.
The God of Sacrifice had been offered countless sacrifices before, but never one like this.
What was even more astounding—
‘The God of Sacrifice. Did he actually regain consciousness?’
…the God of Sacrifice had freely chosen to offer Agzos as a sacrifice.

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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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