Level -99 Archmage - Chapter 99

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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 99. Mythology
Charphalm, the Dimensional Wanderer.
Park Chan-woo had never intended to wake him.
【Call upon me. Awaken me!】
Throughout the summoning of Agzos, Charphalm chattered incessantly.
To change the vessel.
To use him instead of Agzos.
Having been trapped for so long, he had much to say.
But Park Chan-woo had no intention whatsoever of calling forth Charphalm.
‘Answer me. Why were you sealed within the Seal-Breaking Divine Beast’s Chalice?’
Before he understood the reason, before he could grasp what Charphalm truly was—
he would not act carelessly.
Charphalm’s existence was far more dangerous than Park Chan-woo had imagined.
The mana pattern of that creature upon first emergence carried an ominousness he had never witnessed before.
Moreover, it had absorbed his unique mana and made it its own.
It was no different from a parasite that fed upon mana itself.
If it could cling to formless mana and wield it as its own, then likewise it could cling to his very existence and threaten it.
In short, Charphalm was dangerous.
【One of the former masters of the Seal-Breaking Divine Beast. More than that, even I cannot say!】
When Park Chan-woo wove his mana into the connection, he could converse with Charphalm through thought alone.
Yet Charphalm offered no satisfying answer.
But then…
‘One of the former masters of the Seal-Breaking Divine Beast.’
That meant there had been countless owners of the Divine Beast before him.
He had anticipated as much.
The Divine Beast could not have first come into his hands by chance.
What surprised him, however, was that the sacrifices offered by those previous masters also remained within the chalice.
‘Are all the sacrifices contained within the Seal-Breaking Divine Beast’s Chalice?’
【Not all of them. If I recall correctly, there should be eight or nine beings like myself. The rest wander forgotten in the realm of ‘Nothing.’】
Was he speaking of the realm of Zero?
It seemed such a realm did indeed exist.
One of his many hypotheses had been confirmed.
Yet the notion that beneath that realm—a negative world—lay within the Seal-Breaking Divine Beast’s Chalice was something he could scarcely believe.
‘Charphalm. What manner of being are you?’
Now his curiosity burned.
About Charphalm.
It mattered little who had sealed him within the chalice.
But that title alone—’Dimensional Wanderer’—consumed his mind with questions.
【I remember being called ‘the Great Leviathan of the Rifts Between Worlds,’ ‘Charphalm the White King.’ Beyond that, the rest of my memory is lost.】
It was a name of considerable weight.
Yet from the fact that it wandered between dimensions, Park Chan-woo could only conjecture that it resembled a Divine Beast.
Divine Beasts, after all, lived within the fractures of the Abyss.
Since the Abyss perpetually expanded and served as the connective tissue between all dimensions, the only thing that came to mind in those interstices was ‘rifts.’
And then there was the name ‘White King.’
It meant White Whale.
He had never heard of a Divine Beast taking the form of a white whale, but the parallel was striking nonetheless.
Certainly, Divine Beasts were leviathans formidable enough to unsettle even the lords of the Abyss.
Upon their emergence, they would overturn the board with overwhelming might and apocalyptic physiques.
If Charphalm’s true identity was that of a Divine Beast, then much of what had transpired began to make sense.
Agzos’s rampage was understandable in the face of such tremendous presence.
‘So there are eight or nine more like you sealed within this chalice?’
One Charphalm alone was beyond comprehension, and yet the chalice held more.
When Park Chan-woo pressed the matter, struggling to fathom that their number reached eight or nine, Charphalm replied with surprising indifference.
【That’s right. Much as it pains me to admit, there are those stronger than I. Recently, something peculiar seems to have entered as well, but counting that one, it makes nine.】
Among them, Charphalm was the weakest.
From their exchange, Charphalm struck Park Chan-woo as a creature of considerable pride.
That such a being would acknowledge its own inferiority spoke to the terrible power of the others.
Yet the conversation did not last long.
Khan.
The moment he appeared, there was no longer any time to speak with Charphalm.
After Agzos was cleaved in half and summoned back.
【I cannot win with Agzos alone.】
【I shall win. I shall kill him!】
Charphalm grew louder still.
Park Chan-woo had to choose.
Once his mana recovered, who would he summon?
The faithful Agzos, or the unpredictable Charphalm?
‘One minute left.’
There was no time to deliberate.
Defeat here meant everything was lost.
The Conqueror Khan would kill Park Chan-woo and Yi Hyuk-soo, throw open the Abyss without restraint to conquer Earth.
Humanity would never withstand what came after.
He needed a desperate gamble to break the deadlock.
So Park Chan-woo summoned Charphalm.
‘Full mana release.’
Not mere summoning—he opened himself completely, flooding all his mana into the connection.
Enough for Charphalm to lay hands upon Park Chan-woo’s essence itself.
The moment Charphalm burst forth into the world, he let out a cry of exultation.
【…You’ve released all your mana? Aren’t you afraid? You know I could devour you?】
He cried out in triumph, yet confusion flickered across Charphalm’s features.
He knew full well he’d clung to Agzos, siphoned his mana, sent him into frenzy—and yet Park Chan-woo opened himself without hesitation or fear.
‘Do what you will, Charphalm.’
Park Chan-woo spoke calmly, without a trace of dread.
He thought he understood the creature’s heart.
He thought he understood why Agzos had gone mad.
It was only a desire to show himself.
To reveal who and what he was.
Had Charphalm willed it, Agzos would have spiraled into frenzy and destroyed himself in moments.
But now he saw it clearly.
Agzos did not spiral immediately because Charphalm had not wanted it.
Yet he could not bear it.
Charphalm’s existence was too vast, too immense.
Park Chan-woo reconsidered his earlier judgments.
There was one emotion he’d felt through his communion with Charphalm.
Loneliness.
An emotion Park Chan-woo had felt countless times.
Without the God of Sacrifice, that despair would have crushed him entirely.
…Charphalm, born from the Holy Grail of the Seal-binding Deity.
Just as the God of Sacrifice had done for him, Charphalm seemed to be asking to be taken in the same way.
If that was the case, showing trust first was better than suspicion and refusal.
【Haha! Yes—I’ll show you exactly who I am!】
Whiiiiiiii—
Charphalm cried out with delight.
Shadows began to coalesce in a perfect sphere.
Whiiiiiiiing!
They settled into Park Chan-woo’s palm.
Refined mana swelled without cease.
The bonus attributes Agzos had accumulated, converted into raw mana.
And to that were joined both Charphalm’s presence and Park Chan-woo’s own mana.
‘…Divine Power release.’
Charphalm ceded the use of it to Park Chan-woo.
Was it a gift in return for showing trust first?
What was certain: Charphalm had opened his heart, however slightly.
“Wait. That’s… mana? No—Divine Power?”
Khan’s expression froze in an instant.
He recognized at a glance that this was no ordinary mana.
When the purity of mana exceeded one hundred percent, the lords of the Abyss called that force Divine Power.
And the concentrated nexus of overwhelming force now before Khan’s eyes held a purity more than sufficient to earn that name.
“But you cannot kill me. I am eternal and deathless!”
Khan regained his composure.
If Divine Power could kill him, Aheta would have done so long ago.
But Aheta had failed to kill Khan either.
All she could manage was to seal him away.
This time would be no different.
Yet the threat was undeniable.
Whoosh!
Khan’s divine form vanished.
Unlike the composure he’d shown until now, he moved with visible urgency.
In that instant.
Roooaarrr!!
Park Chan-woo released all the Divine Power gathered in both his hands at once.
* * *
Depleted mana took time to recover.
Drawing mana from the Abyss itself and converting it to match one’s physical form—that process demanded patience.
Yet this human challenger had recovered his mana deliberately.
It was extraordinary.
He’d seen cases where mana was stored in certain equipment or artifacts for recovery, but even that took considerable time.
Ordinarily, interrupting recovery was simple if one chose to act.
But in a single heartbeat.
In the blink of an eye, he’d replenished every drop of mana.
Even Khan had never witnessed such a thing.
‘A final desperate gambit.’
Curious, perhaps, but hardly cause for alarm.
Recovered mana or not, he would simply summon Agzos again.
Khan didn’t understand how this challenger had transformed Agzos into a shadow warrior—into ‘magic’—but the challenger’s total mana reserve was trivial.
He couldn’t conjure anything beyond that.
……Yet.
‘What is this?’
An unexpected development unfolded.
Not Agzos, but Charphalm.
The name emerged from the challenger’s mouth for the first time.
The summoned entity’s form, however, resembled the previous one closely.
‘The mana’s quality differs slightly.’
Eyes glowing red as blood.
Subtle crimson currents woven through the shadow’s entire form.
The appearance was identical, yet the mana’s essence and shape were distinctly different.
A wholly separate entity from Agzos.
Its presence carried a different weight entirely.
How to describe it.
Behind the shadow, he sensed something incomprehensibly vast.
A creature of a kind never seen before, of a scale never encountered.
Such a being now lay compressed within that small shadow.
The moment his gaze met the shadow’s eyes.
‘Hm……!’
An unexplained chill ran down his spine.
This feeling was new to him.
None of the Abyss’s lords, not even Aheta, had ever stirred such a sensation in him.
Something was different.
It lay beyond conventional reckoning.
Not a Divine Beast, not a demon of the Abyss, not one of the Twelve Races, not a witch or anything else he knew—something entirely other.
That was when it happened.
The shadow dissolved, and overwhelming Divine Power converged into Park Chan-woo’s palm.
‘Divine Power can be wielded?’
Few beings could wield Divine Power.
Mana’s purity could not rise above one hundred percent.
To transcend that limit required both deep understanding of mana’s essence and enlightenment—the capacity to interfere with the world itself.
Only those with abilities akin to the divine could wield such power.
Yet this human challenger bore no resemblance to divinity.
He fell woefully short of godhood.
Khan himself had not yet reached such heights.
Khan’s heart seized with urgency for the first time.
…He had to kill him.
Before all his Divine Power was released.
But.
Boom—!!!!
He was one step too late.
Still, it didn’t matter.
Though he would take a terrible blow, nothing could truly end him.
Except.
‘What?’
Park Chan-woo’s target had never been Khan.
Park Chan-woo had aimed for the palace itself.
Khan’s Palace.
“This palace—it is the very source of life you possess. Is it not?”
He had recognized that all of this was Khan’s life itself.
The reason Aheta could kill Khan again and again, yet never truly end him.
Park Chan-woo smiled.
At that smile, Khan’s expression twisted.
How was it possible?
That a mere human could know what even Aheta did not know!
“No, this can’t be—!”
As the palace began to crumble, starting with the throne, Khan could not move.
In his prime, Park Chan-woo would have been long dead by now, but Khan had been sealed away for ages, weakened by the endless years.
As the palace—his heart made manifest—collapsed, his power drained away in torrents.
Where the Divine Power touched, the palace simply ceased to exist.
As the palace vanished, Khan’s body began to crumble in turn.
Before long.
…when the palace had faded without a trace.
Ding!
《’A New Mythology’ has been completed!》
《The title ‘Legend’ ascends to ‘Mythology’!》
《The territories of the great conqueror Khan, the realm of ‘The Second Night,’ begins to come under your dominion.》
《Beginning contribution settlement.》

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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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