The Mage Who Devours Disasters - Chapter 104

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

Chapter 104.
-….
The Heavenly Demon stared blankly up at The Man.
It was an incomprehensible sight.
In the shower of sparks that erupted as their blades collided and their souls clashed with violent intensity.
The Heavenly Demon witnessed it.
Fragments of memory dwelling within The Man before me—as if compressed beneath the weight of countless eons.
The destruction of another world.
Just as the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect had crumbled and my own world had turned to ash.
The Man’s world too was plummeting into the abyss of annihilation.
The Ground split open with violent fissures, spewing molten lava, while the sky rained down torrents of blackened lightning.
A hellscape filled only with despair and screams.
But.
The ending was entirely different.
I had knelt helplessly before the Deities’ power and could only watch my world’s destruction.
Yet the man in that memory did not surrender.
-What in the world is this….
The Heavenly Demon’s eyes widened to the point of tearing.
The Man had not prayed to save his world.
Instead, he had sacrificed his entire world as a blood offering.
He offered the torn corpses of his comrades as tribute, and drew a colossal magic circle covering the entire planet in blood.
And finally.
The Man even burst his own heart to create the Sage’s Stone.
Then he hurled his world itself like a bomb.
Covering destruction with destruction.
He had transformed the calamity the Deities had casually thrown into a true catastrophe.
In other words.
The Man before me had become a ‘calamity’ himself.
The ultimate catastrophe that falls upon the Deities’ very heads!
-…!
The Heavenly Demon’s sword trembled violently.
But the shock did not end there.
For something else glimpsed through the vision.
An immensity of darkness—so vast, so dense, so absolute.
The deepest reaches of The Man’s soul.
A terrible entity coiled at the very bottom of that abyss.
‘One whose name must not be spoken…!’
The Heavenly Demon understood instinctively.
The apex of the Tower.
The singular, incomparable Absolute Deity who looks down upon even all the Deities beneath his feet.
That desperate being had undoubtedly been staring at me.
It could have been a misunderstanding.
Yet.
….
The Heavenly Demon could not even draw breath.
One thing was certain.
My own madness was nothing but child’s play in comparison.
Even if I scraped together every shred of resentment cultivated over countless eons, rotting away in this dungeon’s confines.
I could never hope to reach even the hem of the madness this man harbored.
A true Mad Deity, embodying all the world’s fury, now stood before my eyes.
In truth, I had always known.
Even if I seized Boy Baek-un’s body completely.
Even if I burned my hatred of the Deities ten times, a hundred times hotter than now.
I could never achieve vengeance.
I understood with bitter clarity that a mortal’s vengeful spirit, no matter how it thrashed, could not leave a single scratch upon that impregnable Tower.
Yet.
‘If it were this man before me.’
If it were this supreme Mad Deity.
Perhaps he could devour the Tower of Gods whole, and cast all those loathsome Deities into hellfire.
-…Kuhuk.
A parched laugh escaped between the Heavenly Demon’s lips.
The madness began to subside gradually.
He steadied himself, swaying.
‘Is that so? Was that it?’
Now I understood.
That word—I understand you.
The man before me had been accepting my resentment all along.
Using the Heavenly Demon Sword Technique was not mere imitation.
It was genuine.
A will to inherit his swordsmanship, his very essence.
And so, the Heavenly Demon.
…grasped the blade once more.
And swung his sword toward the man again.
Clang! Crash! Screech!
They exchanged blows.
Yet it was unmistakably different from before.
There was no killing intent.
No hostility, no blind fury remained.
This was not a battle for each other’s lives.
The resentment and sorrow of the Heavenly Demon, of the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect, of the Destroyed World from which he came.
It was nearly a ritual—channeling the trajectory of martial prowess I had devoted my entire life to perfecting, transferring it wholly to The Man before me.
With each clash of blade against blade.
The demonic energy erupting from the Heavenly Demon’s sword technique was being washed away.
Like filthy bathwater rinsed clean in pure water.
The ink-dark shadow was gradually lifting.
Slowly, the Heavenly Demon’s true face was revealed.
It bore no resemblance to the yaksha distorted and grotesque with rage.
The genuine visage of a formidable warrior who had commanded an entire world and embraced all people.
The demonic energy that had shrouded his world receded.
Thus, bit by bit.
The Heavenly Demon was being purified.
He was completely unburdening himself of the bitter shackles and resentment that had bound his lifetime to the catastrophic calamity before him.
Clang!
At last, the final exchange came.
The moment the Heavenly Demon’s sword technique met the holy blade, it shattered into scattering particles of radiant light.
Simultaneously, Baek-un’s body, suspended in empty space, descended slowly to the ground.
Thud.
The boy harboring the Heavenly Demon’s original spirit quietly knelt at Rag’s feet.
His expression had changed.
Not a trace of madness or regret remained.
Instead, a serene and refreshed smile bloomed across his face.
“What is.
The Heavenly Demon asked softly.
“Your name?”
The Man slowly sheathed the holy blade he had been holding.
And answered in a measured voice.
“Rag.”
The Heavenly Demon nodded.
“Rag.”
He spoke that name once more.
As though he would never forget it.
“Can you unravel our resentment, our sorrow?”
“I cannot guarantee it. But.
Rag smiled wryly.
“I will try.”
“Ah. That answer alone is sufficient.”
Had he given a definite promise, I would not have believed him.
The Deities are so formidable and numerous, after all.
To topple their impregnable Tower, Rag alone would be insufficient.
The Heavenly Demon gazed at Rag with clear eyes and spoke.
“I entrust my soul, the Divine Church, everything to you.”
I swore it.
To surrender all that I am.
In that instant.
Uuuuuuuung!
Light erupted from the very center of the Heavenly Demon’s lingering spirit.
The Dungeon’s core.
A colossal concentration of magical power that had sustained the remnants of destruction.
More than that—the true wellspring containing his final world.
It shattered its own shell and revealed itself, obeying the Heavenly Demon’s will.
Ssshhiiiing.
My right palm burned with searing heat.
Golden runes spun ferociously, their jaws gaping wide.
A golden melody connected my hand and the Heavenly Demon’s core with fierce, unbreakable intensity.
The proof that predation was ready to commence.
I extended my right hand.
The Heavenly Demon did not resist.
Only.
“That arrogant sky.”
One final request.
“Please, tear it to shreds.”
Kwaaaaaaaaaaa!
A flash of brilliance detonated.
The Heavenly Demon’s soul and core were completely absorbed into me.
Simultaneously, a tremendous earthquake erupted.
Kurrrrrung!
The entire Dungeon convulsed violently.
The temples of the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect, precariously perched upon the cliff, crumbled like sandcastles and cascaded downward.
The core had vanished.
The Dungeon, robbed of its fundamental existence, was collapsing from its very roots.
And all the debris of that collapse.
Shattered earth, vast demonic energy scattered through empty space, even the remnants of dissolving demonic beasts—everything.
As if encountering an immense black hole.
Began rushing toward my right hand at terrifying speed.
* * *
Long ago, Heimdall had spoken of it.
That extracting a Dungeon’s core yields sweet Nectar.
Perhaps he meant the act of recovering the core and burning it with purifying flames.
Most Deities conquer Dungeons in such a manner and claim their spoils.
They regard Dungeons as little more than Nectar dispensers.
But.
‘It’s not something so trivial.’
I sensed it instinctively.
What my right hand was devouring so ravenously right now was no ordinary dungeon core.
A dungeon core, fundamentally, is merely a maintenance device to sustain the dungeon itself.
Yet this.
What was being absorbed transcended the dungeon core entirely—it approached the Destroyed World itself.
Not in the form of terrible resentments or corrupted demonic energy.
But thousands of years of accumulated sorrow fully released, chains shattered by one’s own hands.
The absolute essence of martial prowess and soul, purified to pristine perfection.
This was why the one who stood at the apex of the vast world known as the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect had willingly cast everything into my hands.
Uuuuuuuung!
Golden runes shrieked as they spun with ferocious intensity.
The blood vessels in my right arm swelled as if about to burst, blazing with golden light.
Tremendous energy cascaded like a waterfall into my dantian, my brain, my heart.
Ding!
[You have absorbed the essence of a vast world!]
[You have acquired enormous experience points.]
[Your level has increased!]
My level rose.
The experience required had doubled since I completed my advancement.
But that was not all.
[You have fully inherited all martial techniques of the Heavenly Demon!]
[Heavenly Demon Sword Technique transcends its limits!]
[Heavenly Demon Sword Technique has reached 13 stars!]
‘…13 stars?’
I doubted my own eyes.
I knew that thanks to the hidden trait Transcendent, I had already broken through to 12 stars.
Yet even that 12-star barrier had been shattered.
The very shell of the ultimate truth that the world permitted had been obliterated entirely.
In other words.
I had achieved true transcendence in swordsmanship.
Ding!
[One acknowledged by the Heavenly Demon, one who transcends the Heavenly Demon!]
[You have acquired the unique title, Divine Demon!]
Divine Demon!
Both deity and demon simultaneously.
A title encompassing two contradictory existences as one.
The vast energy that had been churning within my body gradually settled into place.
I felt the sensation of my very bones hardening and solidifying.
‘Perfect.’
But satisfaction would be premature.
The flower of reward always blooms at the very end.
Whoosh!
A brilliant holographic die materialized in the empty space above.
A gift from the System—one that appeared only upon clearing an episode or achieving a monumental Achievement.
[Rolling the die (1~4,444).]
4,444.
The range was considerable for merely clearing a single dungeon.
It was proof of how grueling this trial had been.
The value of the Heavenly Demon’s core and its quintessence transcended imagination.
Whirrrrrr!
The die spun wildly.
I watched its rotation with perfect composure.
Tension? Excitement?
There was none of that.
The outcome was already predetermined.
[4,444!]
Naturally, the maximum.
But then—
“Hmm?”
An unfamiliar message appeared.
[Super Fortune activates!]

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