Level -99 Archmage - Chapter 95

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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 95. Aheta’s Betrayal
“Haah, haah, haah…….”
Han Shin sat slumped against a boulder, his breath coming in ragged gasps.
After the battle with Ataraxia.
He had exhausted every ounce of his Unique Magical Power just to escape, and barely at that.
‘……I’m dying.’
Not a complaint born of mere exhaustion.
He was dying slowly, inexorably.
He could feel it.
Death’s approach.
Soon his skin would harden like stone, his muscles would snap fiber by fiber, and his heart would stop.
“Damn it…….”
Crunch!
Han Shin ground his teeth.
The root of all this.
…That cursed Mage.
He had landed a decisive blow, yet the price was his life.
Irritation flooded through him suddenly.
In all his years living, he had never been this angry.
And why would he be.
Han Shin had accomplished everything he ever desired, obtained everything he ever wanted.
He had never failed. Not once.
Those who stood in his way, he destroyed utterly.
He crushed them so thoroughly they could never rise again.
But since the Abyss opened.
Han Shin had known only failure.
He could not crush those who opposed him.
Instead, he now faced death itself.
“Those damned Mages……!”
Heave!
Han Shin coughed blood.
Black blood poured from his lips.
Yet his hatred of the Mages burned far hotter than the shock of hemorrhaging.
Every last one of those who had stood against him was a Mage.
Wasn’t that absurd.
At this point in time, Mages were classified as the most useless class.
Beyond useless—they were considered garbage, neither here nor there.
They couldn’t traverse the Abyss alone, contributed little to team battles, and their magic lacked the power he’d expected.
Yet the Mages he had faced were different.
Both the Mage who had captured Adora’s attention and the Mage who had driven Han Shin to the brink of death.
Both transcended what a typical Mage could do.
They wielded magic in ways that were peculiar, exceptional—methods he could never predict nor control.
‘Magic is the greatest force for creating variables.’
He had to admit it.
Both Mages had manipulated and resolved situations in ways he hadn’t foreseen, circumstances he couldn’t handle—all with effortless control.
If that too was talent, then they possessed the same radiant brilliance that he did.
Difficult as it was to accept, there seemed no choice but to acknowledge it now.
Han Shin gazed upward at the sky.
‘Aheta.’
The crimson heavens.
The full moon floating at the center—Aheta’s eye.
But Aheta’s eye was not looking at Han Shin.
It had turned its gaze elsewhere entirely, as if interest had been lost.
Was it because he had shown such disappointing results repeatedly?
In the Dungeon Abyss, in the Tower of Pride, even in the Second Night—he had accomplished nothing of consequence.
His exploits had been remarkable, but only by human standards.
The Moon Lord Aheta had every reason to be disappointed.
What Aheta desired was surely far beyond such mediocre displays.
Aheta must have entered into the Avatar Contract with Han Shin in hopes of witnessing something overwhelmingly, incomparably magnificent.
‘You are making a mistake.’
A piercing shriek tore through the air.
Han Shin gritted his teeth.
He could feel disappointment creeping in. Anger would have been justified.
But his talent—that much was no lie.
Aheta had contracted with him precisely because she’d recognized his potential.
To abandon him here in the Second Night seemed almost cruel.
His talent hadn’t even begun to truly blossom.
Yet Aheta showed no sign of keeping him alive.
She merely watched as he bled out his Unique Magical Power and withered toward death.
The problem was simple: no matter how he turned it over, survival without her intervention seemed impossible.
‘I will not die here.’
And yet he could not die here.
Not in some meaningless place like this. Not like this.
He’d barely even begun.
This was only the start—!
‘I cannot die. Not now.’
Han Shin refused it outright.
He turned away from the encroaching darkness, forcing his mind elsewhere.
Clenching his jaw, he fixed his gaze on Aheta’s eyes.
Then, in that instant.
A faint whisper of movement.
Aheta’s gaze shifted.
Slowly, deliberately, her eyes swept toward the direction where Han Shin lay, as if she were looking at someone beyond him.
Sensing the presence, Han Shin turned his head.
“What? Don’t tell me you’re Han Shin?”
A man emerged into view, a Doppelganger at his side.
Han Shin didn’t recognize him, but the man clearly knew his name.
‘Why is Han Shin lying here unconscious?’
The man was none other than Kim Byeong-han.
No matter how many times he fell, he rose again like a roly-poly—always hunting for the next opportunity.
Still burning from the humiliation he’d suffered in front of the Tower of Pride before, Kim Byeong-han was doing everything in his power to reclaim his honor.
With the mindset of dominating this Second Night through a specially cultivated Doppelganger, he pushed forward without rest, continually applying Replication.
He had focused entirely on his Doppelganger’s growth rather than his own.
The results were staggering.
His Doppelganger’s growth rate was so absurdly fast it defied logic.
At this pace, completing it as a Doppelganger Lord seemed within reach.
But then the Doppelganger had suddenly led him here, to this place.
As if it knew Han Shin was waiting somewhere nearby.
‘…A chance. A golden chance.’
Light flickered to life in Kim Byeong-han’s eyes.
Han Shin, at first glance, was in terrible condition.
His face was deathly pale, his lips split and bleeding, dark circles carved beneath his eyes.
Blood stained the ground around him—vivid, unmistakable.
He barely seemed to have the strength to stand.
Yet Han Shin was ranked among Korea’s strongest.
His prowess was genuine—the real article.
Everything about him was exceptional: his movements, his strategic mind, every facet of combat.
Even the Seoul Alliance kept detailed files on him.
A person of high priority.
So why would such a powerful man end up collapsed in a place like this?
Moreover, Han Shin and Kim Byeong-han weren’t entirely unknown to each other.
Under normal circumstances, he might have tried to build a connection.
‘If I replicate him as a Doppelganger, I’ll take one step closer to Doppelganger Lord.’
…An opportunity like this would not come again.
Kim Byeong-han’s mind raced.
Should he win Han Shin’s trust, cultivate a friendship, or replicate him to strengthen his Doppelganger?
‘Saving Han Shin… creating an obligation, a debt of gratitude…’
There was no pressing need to replicate him right now.
If he could simply foster a bond with a talent like Han Shin…
In all the Dungeons that lay ahead, such a connection would prove invaluable beyond measure.
Later, the picture of standing shoulder to shoulder with Han Shin and aiming for the summit wasn’t so bad either.
The Abyss was a place where one could never survive alone.
As the saying went, the strong gathered with the strong, didn’t they?
“Still, we’re both Rankers to each other, so we should at least exchange greetings. But who could have done something to a powerhouse like you?”
“Who are you?”
…….
In that instant, Kim Byeong-han’s brow furrowed.
…Who are you?
They’d never properly introduced themselves, but he’d seen Han Shin’s face from close range a couple of times.
At the Tower of Pride.
Since they’d exchanged glances as fellow powerhouses, he was certain Han Shin would remember him.
Ordinarily, Rankers who watched the game frequently understood each other naturally.
Yet Han Shin was acting as though he were seeing him for the very first time.
‘……This bastard.’
Was he pretending not to know?
Something about that mocking tone irritated him.
It felt like a rebuke—as if Han Shin were saying: Don’t act familiar when we’re not even acquainted.
Han Shin waved his hand dismissively.
“Stop pretending you know me. If there’s nothing else to see, get lost.”
“…Replicate.”
Whoosh—!
That was the moment.
The Doppelganger’s form shifted, becoming Han Shin.
Han Shin’s expression hardened.
‘I’ve been replicated?’
He’d never been replicated before—not once.
No Doppelganger had ever managed to copy him.
‘This is no ordinary Doppelganger.’
A specialized specimen.
Such variants existed among Doppelgangers on rare occasions, but this one seemed to be the finest of its kind.
And the timing was far too perfect.
It appeared precisely when he was dying.
It had waited until he was in no state to mount a proper fight.
‘No…….’
……Wait.
This couldn’t all be coincidence.
It made no sense from any rational standpoint.
Han Shin looked up at the sky urgently.
And he understood.
‘Aheta, you bastard…….’
Aheta’s eyes were fixed on him.
Looking down at him as though to mock him.
He grasped what the creature intended.
To copy his talent through the Doppelganger, then forge a Doppelganger Lord.
To consume all the challengers of the Second Night and transform them into a true monster.
“…Don’t do something you’ll regret. That Doppelganger doesn’t obey your commands.”
Han Shin spoke with conviction.
Though the Doppelganger might appear to follow orders because it bore the Mark, the true master was Aheta, the Moon Lord.
The Doppelganger had reached Han Shin by following those commands.
So who could have given those orders?
“I don’t understand what you’re saying. This creature obeys only me.”
Thud, thud.
Kim Byeong-han struck the Doppelganger’s chest with his fist.
But it was unmoved.
It showed no reaction whatsoever.
It had been completely enslaved.
Sigh.
Han Shin exhaled an internal sigh.
He found it lamentable that such a foolish creature existed in this world.
An ordinary Doppelganger would obey orders by rule, but once it became a Lord, it would obey no one anymore.
Instead, he’d kill that fool and act as he pleased.
“The heavens have given me this chance. I cannot let it slip away.”
Kim Byeong-han smiled.
……It was certainly a chance given by the heavens.
The opportunity Aheta, hovering above, had intended for him.
‘Pathetic creature.’
He reveled in it, oblivious that he was tightening the noose around his own neck.
Han Shin’s jaw clenched.
Was he to die at the hands of such a fool?
Him—Han Shin, bearer of the Warrior God’s talent?
……Perhaps.
The most pathetic of all was Han Shin himself.
For he could not even resolve a situation like this.
He had grown too arrogant.
He’d acted carelessly, banking on Aheta’s wholehearted support.
Even knowing that demon was a creature of the Abyss.
Even knowing their bond was nothing but necessity.
‘You don’t know me, Aheta.’
But.
Just as he did not know Aheta, Aheta did not know him.
What kind of life Han Shin had lived.
What he was capable of doing.
How far he could push himself!
‘What is empty can be filled.’
Han Shin’s hollow gaze turned toward the Doppelganger.
It was his own duplicate.
Everything from head to toe was identical.
If what lay within was the same as well.
……Then this would be the last resort—a way to fill the emptiness that had consumed him.
‘If necessary, I will devour it to fill the void.’
Han Shin’s eyes sank into the depths of absolute black.

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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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