The Archmage’s Destruction Strategy - Chapter 38

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#038. Reversal

-Kwaddddddddeuk!!-

As an invisible sword energy extended from the tip of Yeojiggwi’s sword swung with an impatient expression, the incredibly solid ground cracked and split.

Like glass shattering, it wasn’t a technique that cut from the front, but one that ‘shattered’ the space between the target and the caster.

It was a technique used by the sword saint from another world that Yeojiggwi had previously defeated.

A swift sword energy that split the opponent’s body left and right before they could even react.

The lethal sword energy that had once made its user the ruler of a universe was a technique that could never be blocked unless one could read in advance the range where space would split, like future foresight, but despite the space where Sung-jun stood being split in half, not a single wound appeared on Sung-jun’s body.

The method of using magic to face a swordsman was also just a technique within the scope of the countless ‘simulations’ that Sung-jun had learned from his master in advance.

‘If I had a body that couldn’t continuously use magic, it would have been nothing but delusional training…’

As Sung-jun waved his hand, a deep purple Dimensional Gate was created behind him.

Seeing this, Yeojiggwi began to distance himself from Sung-jun with a horrified expression.

‘Damn it! That technique again!’

Unlike Sung-jun, who could instantly recover from injuries like losing limbs, Yeojiggwi didn’t have the overwhelming regenerative ability like Silermantis.

Of course, he did have powerful muscles and bones that could instantly copy any race’s techniques, and flexible joints with a range of motion completely different from humans, but regenerative ability at the level of instantly regrowing lost limbs was an ‘unnecessary’ ability for Yeojiggwi, who could read the future and avoid all attacks.

Never getting hit by any attack and never missing with any attack.

Yeojiggwi’s most powerful ability wasn’t the absolute sword energy accumulated in his body by copying countless races’ ultimate techniques, but his future foresight ability that could turn even the simplest attack into a lethal strike.

Even in a situation where that future foresight ability was sealed for unknown reasons, Yeojiggwi didn’t panic.

‘Only future foresight is sealed. I can still use the countless techniques I learned in previous universes.’

Yeojiggwi judged that since he had numerous techniques, each with the power to destroy mountains and split seas, he could overwhelm his opponent even without future foresight ability, but that judgment crumbled instantly as soon as the full-scale battle with Sung-jun began.

‘You can’t decide which technique to use.’

Having excessively strong power, and thus becoming dependent only on that power.

‘Your life up until now has been no different from cheating. For that guy.’

As a metal pillar shot out from the Dimensional Gate Sung-jun summoned toward Yeojiggwi at railgun-like speed, scars from the impact extended long with a tremendous explosion.

And after a moment, the smoke generated by the explosion slowly disappeared, revealing Yeojiggwi holding a broken sword.

“You had such a technique, yet why didn’t you use it?”

“Even if I had used it, you would have dodged it anyway. In front of future foresight, the power or speed of techniques is useless. If you move to a position away from the impact point in advance, it’s impossible to hit.”

Sung-jun said while looking straight into Yeojiggwi’s eyes that were glaring at him.

“Besides, this is a technique even I can’t block, so I didn’t want to let you copy it.”

“…What is the name of that technique?”

“Void Heaven Spear .”

“Excellent… it is…”

With those as his last words, Yeojiggwi’s body collapsed.

In a pathetically hollow manner unbelievable for the final moments of an apocalypse-class Corrosion Entity said to possess the ability to single-handedly exterminate humanity.

However, Sung-jun knew all too well that if he hadn’t sealed Yeojiggwi’s future foresight ability, he would have been the one to fall.

‘I actually died once, after all.’

Of course, at the point when Sung-jun’s death was reversed, reality was altered so that Sung-jun had narrowly escaped death rather than dying, so Sung-jun’s death had become something that never happened even for himself.

Although he had suffered an injury where his heart was pierced by Yeojiggwi’s sword, through coincidence upon coincidence upon coincidence, all wounds had avoided the potentially fatal parts of the myocardium, leaving him in a state close to suspended animation.

And Yeojiggwi had mistakenly thought he saw a future where he had won after seeing Sung-jun collapsed like that, which was why the current battle could take place – this was the ‘actual events’ that Sung-jun had grasped.

‘But that can’t be right. If Yeojiggwi’s future foresight ability could be deceived so easily, it would have been conquered by other universes long ago.’

Sung-jun concluded that his death had definitely occurred.

And as he had predicted, for the settlement of the luck that Shirasaki Miyu had accumulated, events that had already happened were canceled and the current result had emerged.

The strongest evidence of this was the gray coin held in his hand.

‘I’ll let it slide this time, but is this a warning not to play around by looking at the future anymore?’

Sung-jun walked toward Yeojiggwi’s corpse with a bitter smile.

Since the remaining Corrosion Entities around couldn’t approach carelessly, perhaps due to their leader’s death, he thought now was the optimal timing to recover Yeojiggwi’s body.

However, just as Sung-jun’s hand was about to touch Yeojiggwi’s corpse, sword energy that flew from somewhere made Sung-jun pull his hand back.

“Good reaction speed. As expected of someone skilled enough to handle an apocalypse-class Corrosion Entity single-handedly.”

Detecting that the other party was speaking in Chinese as the translation magic activated, Sung-jun looked in the direction from which the sword energy had come.

There, like extras appearing after the protagonist has resolved every situation, Cheonmu Faction Awakened who had come in droves were charging en masse toward the remaining Corrosion Entities.

“Since I defeated it, I believe the right to recover the corpse also belongs to me.”

“Can you speak Chinese?”

“If that’s how it sounds to your ears, then I suppose so.”

“Well, that’s not an important issue, so let’s move on. Sorry, but couldn’t you yield that corpse to us? Samples of apocalypse-class Corrosion Entities are important research subjects for the Chinese Government as well.”

“If it’s so important, shouldn’t you have defeated it and taken it yourselves?”

“Of course, that makes sense too. But…”

The man with nine bead-shaped ornaments hanging from his waist, Zhao Xin, said.

“I thought interfering with someone else’s hunt wasn’t good manners.”

“Claiming ownership of spoils after the hunt is over isn’t good manners either.”

“In any case, Yeojiggwi is a Corrosion Entity that occurred in territory under Chinese Government control. So the operational authority over that corpse also belongs to the Chinese Government.”

Zhao Xin was bluffing.

In any case, the fact that an Awakened who wasn’t even Chinese had gone out of his way to eliminate China’s apocalypse-class Corrosion Entity meant there was a high possibility that the opponent’s purpose was ‘humanity’s salvation.’

It was a common story from novels and comics.

The story of a ‘hero’ who, having gained abnormally strong power for some reason, travels the world to prevent humanity’s end.

Drawing such a hero to one’s side is simple.

You just need to put them in your debt somehow.

‘Anyway, since the leader has been eliminated, the Corrosion Entities spread throughout China can be sufficiently subjugated by the power of Tianwu Guan-affiliated Awakened. Then the best approach here would be to put the opponent in ‘debt’ in the form of concession.’

First, claim ownership of Yeojiggwi’s corpse using jurisdiction as an excuse, then put them in debt by yielding for their sake.

And use that debt as a ‘card’ to enter negotiations with the opponent – this was Zhao Xin’s plan.

Moreover, if the Awakened he brought handled the subjugation of the remaining Corrosion Entities like now, that too could become a debt to the opponent.

However, what Zhao Xin failed to predict was that his opponent possessed a way of thinking that overwhelmingly exceeded his common sense.

“Really? Then it can’t be helped.”

Instantly, a large-scale magic circle incomparable to anything before was summoned around Sung-jun.

And simultaneously, Yeojiggwi’s body with its head bowed began to be enveloped in light.

“Wait! What are you trying to do right now!?”

“You said you need the corpse? Then I’ll give it to you. But since I’m the one who killed it, I can’t just give it away. I’ll revive it for you, so you guys catch it and recover it yourselves.”

‘Resurrection of the dead? Such a thing is possible? It’s a bluff. That can’t be!’

Of course, everything Sung-jun said was a bluff.

However, the magic circle Sung-jun cast for ‘show’ was emitting sacred light that really seemed like it would revive the dead, brightly coloring Yeojiggwi’s corpse.

“Pl-please wait!”

Seeing the mass of light that seemed ready to explode at any moment, Zhao Xin shouted urgently, and Sung-jun canceled the spell.

Then the magic circle that had filled the vast area instantly faded away as if it had never existed from the beginning.

“I apologize for unreasonably claiming ownership of the Corrosion Entity corpse that you defeated. We will no longer dispute ownership, so please calm your anger.”

Watching his opponent change attitude 180 degrees and instantly take a submissive stance, Sung-jun let out a calculated sigh.

Then he stored Yeojiggwi’s corpse in subspace.

“Is that a function like the inventory that often appears in novels?”

“Precisely, it’s a type of magic using dimensional transfer. Moving desired objects to pre-designated coordinates.”

“That means you are an Awakened who uses magic?”

“If you watched my entire fight with Yeojiggwi, you should have been able to deduce that much information?”

“There’s an unbridgeable gap between deduction and confirmation.”

Zhao Xin’s mind was spinning furiously as he said this.

The moment Sung-jun revealed himself as ‘an Awakened who uses magic,’ Sung-jun’s value had swollen to an unimaginably enormous level.

‘There are roughly 6 types of Awakened worldwide. Mages don’t belong to any of those categories.’

Of course, not all Awakened from the same faction used identical abilities.

Just as the ‘martial arts’ of Tianwu Guan-origin Awakened existed in countless forms – some using poison techniques, some using assassination arts, some using whips – the Awakened of the Papal States’ ‘Apocalypse Army,’ who performed miracles based on faith, were also categorized into various forms of performing different miracles like healing or exorcism depending on the individual.

However, none of the Awakened that Zhao Xin knew possessed the overwhelming utility he had seen in Sung-jun’s combat.

Recovery power that could instantly regenerate injuries like a severed arm, destructive power that could shatter hundreds or thousands of large Corrosion Entity groups with a single attack.

Moreover, an Awakened who could simultaneously use defensive power capable of blocking apocalypse-class Corrosion Entity attacks without injury was a unique individual who didn’t exist in the world, at least within the scope of his knowledge.

‘Depending on whether this person is recruited or not, the initiative in world order will change going forward.’

The problem was that the opponent’s attitude wasn’t particularly friendly.

Of course, there was his own fault in claiming ownership of Yeojiggwi for securing negotiation cards, but a person with normal thinking wouldn’t have attempted something as insane as ‘reviving’ an apocalypse-class Corrosion Entity they had risked their life to defeat.

Feeling the tension of crossing a single-log bridge where one wrong step could send him plummeting into a chasm thousands of meters deep, Zhao Xin spoke to Sung-jun.

“If it would be acceptable to you, I would like to move to another location and speak with you officially representing the Chinese Government. Of course, together with your companions who are under our protection.”

“Protection.”

In that instant, an overwhelming aura that was impossible to believe could emanate from such a small human body began to spread around Sung-jun.

An overwhelming presence that seemed capable of killing everyone present with just a single breath or the movement of a finger.

A provocation that suggested they might die if they didn’t attack right now.

A warning that he would kill them all the moment anyone moved even a finger.

A curse that made it seem impossible to escape death no matter what means they employed.

An enticement that their lives would be spared as long as they didn’t resist.

Infusing his voice with that terrifying aura that made them feel all these sensations simultaneously, Sung-jun opened his mouth.

“Protection from whom?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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