The Mage Who Devours Disasters - Chapter 16

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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 16.
Roooaaarrr!
A crimson pillar of flame erupted from my left hand.
Simultaneously, the armor vibrated.
The special effect of the Heavenly Demon Armor.
Heavenly Demon Qi.
An overwhelming aura of pressure radiated outward in all directions.
“K-kieeeek?”
“Grrr… snap!”
The wolves charging at me faltered.
The ice soldiers’ spear tips trembled.
They stumbled backward.
Driven by primal terror.
But that wasn’t all.
An incredible sight unfolded before my eyes.
Sizzzzzzle!
The blizzard pouring from the sky evaporated above my head.
Snowflakes vaporized the instant they touched the heat, transforming into white steam.
The earth itself boiled.
Black flames erupted through the cracks in the Asphalt Street.
Ground churning with hellfire.
The moment this power activated, the very laws governing this region transformed.
The domain of cold was erased.
A realm of scorching, savage heat consumed its place.
I had overwritten the rules created by a deity with the far greater power of a stronger god.
I advanced.
Flames parted before me as I walked, carving a path of fire.
Kieeeeeek!
An ice soldier that failed to escape brushed against the flames.
It happened in an instant.
Screeeech!
Its body melted away with a shriek.
Then it ignited.
Hellfire burned not just matter, but souls themselves.
But the strangest part was something else entirely.
Whoooosh!
The flames swept across the trees and Buildings.
Yet the trees did not burn.
The signs remained unmelted.
Only the monsters were targeted.
Only the aberrant beings born from the catastrophe crumbled into black ash.
Fire ignited only where my killing intent was directed.
‘The path has opened.’
3 kilometers.
It was hardly a short distance.
But there were no obstacles.
I walked leisurely across the red carpet of flames.
Monsters retreated to both sides, trembling as they bowed their heads.
Like lesser demons witnessing the procession of a demon lord.
At last.
In the heart of the city.
I arrived before the largest building.
Unlike the other structures, this entrance was completely sealed.
A thick, transparent wall of ice.
The source of the frigid aura.
‘So you were hiding.’
I let out a quiet laugh.
I pressed my left hand against the ice wall.
A roaring inferno erupted.
Heat blazed forth from my palm.
The ice forged from mana—harder than steel—melted like sugar touching hot water.
A hole opened.
A passage wide enough for a single person to pass through formed.
I stepped inside immediately.
An empty Lobby.
Only the biting cold lingered.
And at its center.
A man sat upon a chair carved from ice.
His eyes were closed.
As if in meditation.
Sensing my presence, he slowly opened his eyes.
“…How noisy.”
His voice dripped with irritation.
I studied his face.
In an instant.
My breath caught.
My footsteps halted.
‘That face is familiar.’
It was a face I knew far too well.
A sharp crack echoed.
My teeth clenched without my realizing it.
A sound like cracking bone came from my clenched fist.
“…Kim In-soo.”
The name spilled from my lips like I was spitting it out.
A name I could never forget.
A name I must never forget.
‘Was it you?’
Betrayal surged through me.
It felt like my blood was flowing backward.
Kim In-soo.
He was a comrade from my past life.
Not just any comrade, either.
Humanity’s Last Coalition.
One of the elite five hundred who had staked humanity’s final hope and charged toward the top of the Tower alongside me.
Kim In-soo had been eliminated early in the Tower, but—.
‘Of course.’
Now the puzzle pieces finally fit together.
Memories from the past flashed before me like a lantern show.
Tower Floor 27.
A vicious labyrinth where blizzards raged and extreme cold reigned supreme.
That was where we suffered irreplaceable losses.
The cause was Kim In-soo.
—Ah, my mistake! My position got breached!
—Sorry, Jung-seok! My cooldown got messed up!
It was far too catastrophic to be called a mistake.
Three comrades lost their lives because of his single “error.”
Back then, I thought it was simply because Kim In-soo lacked skill, or perhaps he was unlucky.
But.
‘It was intentional.’
He had sabotaged us at every critical moment.
He subtly collapsed our formation and cut off our allies’ escape routes.
And during the boss raid on Floor 27.
At that most crucial moment, he vanished.
After the battle ended, covered in blood, we found no sign of him.
He was listed as missing.
I thought he was dead.
We never found his body, but it seemed impossible he could have survived that carnage.
But he was alive.
No—he could never have died in the first place.
Because he was the master of that floor all along.
I approached him slowly.
A killing intent swirled like a tempest within the armor.
“Who are you? How do you know my name? Did you cause this heat?”
Kim In-soo furrowed his brow.
Instead of answering, I stared directly into his eyes.
Then I slowly opened my mouth.
“You’re Caligo, aren’t you?”
“…!!”
His reaction confirmed it.
The master of the 27th Floor, the Deity of Blizzards—Caligo.
Kim In-soo was Caligo’s avatar.
‘…Damn.’
Cursed fate.
I had hoped otherwise.
At the very least, I had prayed it wasn’t them.
The Final Party.
Humanity’s last hope.
I had prayed their spies weren’t mixed among them.
Everything was twisted from the start.
Kim In-soo is an avatar.
Then what about the others? The Sword Emperor? The Great Sage?
There’s no way to know.
‘Failure was predetermined from the beginning.’
I knew we couldn’t win.
But we were fighting a battle we could never win from the start.
We were mere playthings dancing in the palm of their hands.
Kim In-soo opened his mouth.
“Who exactly are you?”
His bewilderment was evident.
“I could understand how you know my avatar’s name, but how do you know my true name? I never revealed it. No one should know it.”
His eyes narrowed.
“Which faction do you belong to?”
Faction.
There he goes again with that obsession over factions.
It was the same when I killed Kim Yu-hwan, the low-ranking Deity of Earthquakes Kartal.
They are obsessed with factions and hierarchy.
It is their rank and order.
Not worth answering.
I raised my left hand.
Whoooosh!
Crimson flames erupted once more.
Authority: ‘Land Where Hellfire Rages’.
Roooaarrr!
Explosive heat engulfed the Lobby.
The ice chair evaporated in an instant.
The marble floor melted and flowed like lava.
“…?!”
Kim In-soo’s eyes widened in shock.
He desperately unleashed a wave of cold, but it was futile.
Sizzzzle!
Everything it touched was erased.
No—consumed.
My hellfire devoured his chill and expanded its domain.
“This… is domain overwriting?”
Kim In-soo stumbled backward.
“Impossible! How is a mere avatar erasing my domain?!”
I chuckled softly.
“Thank you.”
“…What?”
“Because of you, I’m certain now.”
I clenched my fist.
“That I must kill them all.”
Kim In-soo’s expression twisted.
He felt the danger.
At this rate, he would die.
He understood it instinctively.
“You bastard….”
He gnashed his teeth.
“I’ve invested so much in this avatar. I won’t let a wretch like you destroy it.”
He glared at me and muttered.
“You’re no ordinary one. Did you feed your avatar ‘Nectar’? You’ve recklessly poured divine power into it.”
A misunderstanding.
But I had no intention of correcting him.
Uuuuummmmm!
Golden light flowed from Kim In-soo’s body.
It resembled the ‘Descent’ I used.
But it was different.
Mine was radiant and pure gold.
His was murky and dull ochre.
“Die!”
Kim In-soo reached out his hand.
Crash!
A colossal spear of ice materialized.
A lance of absolute zero infused with divine power, capable of freezing even the soul itself.
But.
‘Too slow.’
To my eyes, it appeared frozen in place.
The stat amplification from the Celestial Demon Armor.
My physical capabilities had already transcended human limits.
I didn’t dodge.
I charged straight through.
Crash!
I shattered the ice spear with my fist.
“What, what is this?!”
Kim In-soo’s eyes bulged wide with shock.
Shards scattered everywhere.
Without pause, I extended my hand toward his throat.
Flash step.
The distance closed in an instant.
“Ugh…!”
He erected an ice shield.
Crack!
The shield tore apart like paper.
I reached through the ice fragments and seized him by the collar.
I slammed him straight into the ground.
Boom!
“Cough!”
Kim In-soo spat blood.
I straddled him.
I raised my right hand.
Golden runes spun frantically, radiating brilliant light.
Whirrrrr!
Time to feast.
“You, you… that hand….”
Kim In-soo stared at my right hand, his face draining of color.
He recognized it.
That this was no mere attack skill.
That it was the power of a natural predator threatening his very existence.
“No! Don’t, don’t come any closer!”
He thrashed desperately.
Yet the oppressive aura of the Heavenly Demon Art crushed his limbs.
I placed my palm against his face without hesitation.
“Bon appétit, Caligo.”
“Aaaahhhhh!”
A scream tore from his throat.
It was far more than mere pain.
“M-my power…! The connection to my true form…!”
It was being drained away.
Not just the avatar’s magical essence.
Even the divine essence of the true form existing far away on the 27th Floor of Asgard Tower.
Like inserting a straw and drinking deeply, everything was being extracted wholesale.
“W-what are you! How are you consuming divine essence!”
Kim In-soo’s face crumpled and withered.
Rapid aging consumed him.
His vitality was being drained to nothing.
“Stop! Please! Save me! I’ll give you anything!”
Pleading.
Pathetic begging for life.
It was the same cowardice as when he betrayed and abandoned us in my past life.
I laughed coldly.
“No.”
I tightened my grip.
“Give it all up and disappear.”
Roooaaarrr!
The golden vortex subsided.
What had been Kim In-soo.
The form that was Caligo’s avatar vanished without a trace.
All that remained was gray dust scattering through the air.
Ding!
[Calamity, you have consumed ‘Caligo, the Lesser Blizzard Deity’.]
[Divine essence absorbed.]
[Authority ‘Extreme Blizzard’ is now permanently available to you.]
Satisfying.
Following flame and earth, I now possessed cold as well.
With this, I had acquired all three fundamental elements of the Natural Faction’s calamities.
‘Perfect.’
Then it happened.
System Messages flooded my vision in succession.
[Warning! The magical concentration in this region has exceeded the critical threshold.]
[Regional Episode 2, ‘Frozen Strait’ has begun.]
Episode 2.
Originally, this should have been where things truly began.
The ice legion summoned by Caligo would occupy the city, and people would tremble in the cold and terror, fighting desperately for survival—such was the intended scenario.
But.
Ding!
[Main Boss ‘Caligo’ has been eliminated.]
[Episode 2, ‘Frozen Strait’ has ended.]
It ended the moment it began.
Or more precisely, it ended before it could even begin.
The moment the source of the calamity vanished, the changes in the outside world were instantaneous.
I looked out the window.
The blizzard that had been pouring down relentlessly came to an abrupt halt.
The ice soldiers and snowy wilderness wolves that had been roaming the streets collapsed one by one, melting into puddles of water.
The dark clouds dispersed, and brilliant summer sunlight began to shine through once more.
A city that had reverted from winter to summer in an instant.
Even the System seemed bewildered, a moment of silence falling over everything.
Then, accompanied by a loud warning tone, it spewed forth a message.
[Measuring clear time.]
[Measurement impossible.]
[Time elapsed: 0.00 seconds]
[Contribution calculation impossible.]
[System error.]
A natural result.
I had submitted my answer sheet and left before the test papers were even distributed—there was no justification for grading.
But the System was absolute.
Error or not, it had to dispense rewards for the results.
[Though the clear is abnormal, the result is undeniable.]
[By System authority, Rank 1 is hereby granted.]
[An impossible record has been established.]
[Rolling dice (1~110).]
[110! A hidden reward is granted!]
[Reward (1): ‘Heart of Bitter Cold (Mythic)’ is awarded!]
[Reward (2): ’10 Fragments of the Shattered Golden Rule’ are awarded!]
A hidden reward.
As expected, the spoils fall only to those who walk the path others won’t, who accomplish what others can’t.
And ten fragments of the Golden Rule on top of that.
The corners of my mouth lifted.
The System’s notifications didn’t end there.
[Would you like to register your name in the Hall of Fame?]
The Hall of Fame.
This message had appeared back in Episode 1 when I captured Kartal.
But I had deferred registration.
The reason was simple.
‘When I first returned, I didn’t understand what was happening.’
The moment I logged out and immediately recognized the fact of my regression, the tutorial descended upon me.
I had been reluctant to register my name in case of unforeseen circumstances.
But now it was different.
Just as I was making a name for myself as ‘Rag’ in Asgard.
On Earth, I needed to make a name for myself as ‘Kim Jung-seok’.
Only then.
‘Would the avatars of the Deities regard me with greater caution.’
Some would attempt to compete.
Some would approach.
But they would not dare rush me recklessly.
Because they would see me as the supreme Deity.
Furthermore, there was another reason I needed to register my name in the Hall of Fame.
‘Hall of Fame ranking rewards.’
Additional benefits granted only to those who registered their names.
Especially, greater rewards were given depending on one’s rank.
Before my regression, the Hall of Fame would have been the exclusive domain of the avatars.
“I will register my name.”
Now it was different.
I would consume it all.
Soon after.
Ding!
[Please decide on a name to register in the Hall of Fame.]
There was no need to use my real name in the Hall of Fame.
Registering one’s own name could grant wealth and fame.
But conversely, it could make one a target.
Especially for an ‘Irregular’ like me, the possibility of becoming prey for the avatars was considerable.
The gap was simply too vast.
Revealing myself too much would be dangerous.
I needed to ensure they never knew who I was, where I lived, or what I did.
Therefore.
‘Discreetly, yet magnificently.’
Quietly. But certainly, I would advance.
Before long.
Ding!
A golden message appeared before the eyes of every awakened being across the entire world.
[The Hall of Fame has been updated!]
[Episode 1, ‘Invasion’ — the 1st place ranking has been updated.]
[1st Place: NONAME]
[Score: 990]
[2nd Place: Yamamoto]
[Score: 588]
[3rd Place: Gareth]
[Score: 491]
….
[1st Place Privilege: NONAME’s experience acquisition rate increases by 50%!]
[Title Acquired — ‘First to Rank First’]
The gap between first and second place was a staggering 400 points.
An insurmountable difference, truly.
Moreover, the ‘privileges’ granted by the Hall of Fame rankings were essential factors in widening the growth gap going forward.
I nodded to myself.
‘In the past, Yamamoto held first place.’
Toje Yamamoto.
One of the five who reached the end alongside me in Humanity’s Last Coalition.
True to his epithet as the King of Combat, he must have dominated the battlefield from the start with overwhelming violence.
Personally, I desperately hoped he wasn’t an avatar of The Deity.
He was a ‘true genius’ with a completely different starting line than me.
‘In terms of pure combat strength alone, I was the weakest.’
Among the final five, my martial prowess in direct combat was the lowest.
Toje Yamamoto and Sword Emperor Aritolte competed fiercely for first and second place.
In a head-to-head fight, defeat was certain.
If I fought on a battlefield I’d personally prepared, with every advantage in place, I might expect a 50-50 win rate, but….
‘Such a scenario would never occur.’
I let out a dry laugh.
What did such hypotheticals matter?
They weren’t fools either.
They wouldn’t meekly fight on my home turf.
…That was the moment.
Ding!
[The Hall of Fame has been updated!]
[Episode 2, ‘Frozen Strait’ — 1st place ranking has been recorded.]
[1st Place: NONAME]
[Score: 1,100]
[2nd Place: None]
[3rd Place: None]
[4th Place: None]
….
[First Priority Privilege: Experience gain rate for ‘NONAME’ increases by 50%!]
[Title – ‘Transcendent First Place’ Acquired]

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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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