The Mage Who Devours Disasters - Chapter 21

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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 21.
“It’s a miracle.”
The Attending Professor set down the chart and shook his head in disbelief.
“There’s no medical explanation for this. The nerves, the muscles… they’re regenerating as if they’re growing anew.”
The medical team had projected a minimum rehabilitation period of one year.
Even then, they said walking without a brace would be impossible.
Yet Park Ha-yan now stood on both feet, having risen from the bed.
“Any pain?”
“None. Not at all.”
Park Ha-yan wiggled her toes experimentally.
The sensation felt unfamiliar.
But it was unmistakably mine.
The medical staff departed the Hospital Room, their voices filled with amazement.
Once they had gone, Park Ha-yan extended her hand toward empty air.
“Thank you.”
Empty air where no one stood.
Yet her eyes perceived it.
Tiny clusters of light that sparkled like fireflies.
They clung to her legs, caressing her wounds with ethereal tenderness.
‘I thought they were ghosts.’
She had seen them since early childhood.
Dark specks that drifted aimlessly through the air.
They terrified her.
She believed them to be a curse visible only to her.
Especially on that day—the day the Airplane crashed.
When those dark specks enveloped her, she was certain they were the Grim Reaper, come to carry her to the afterlife.
But she was wrong.
They had been protecting her.
From the tearing shards of the Aircraft, from the crushing pressure.
Her solitary survival was not fortune—it was their desperate shield.
Ding!
[Name: Park Ha-yan]
[Level: 1]
[Class: Beloved of Spirits]
Awakening.
When she regained consciousness after surgery, a blue window materialized before her eyes.
Only then did she understand.
That she was different from everyone else.
And that these beings were entities known as ‘Spirits.’
‘It’s all thanks to that person.’
Kim Jung-seok.
A benefactor whose face I had never seen.
His letter had unlocked the bolted door to my heart.
The words that I was not alone.
Encouragement to survive.
That warmth had opened my heart, and as it opened, the spirits answered my call.
Park Ha-yan opened the drawer.
Dozens of thank-you letters she had sent to Kim Jung-seok over all this time.
There had been no replies.
She hadn’t expected any.
Simply conveying her feelings was enough.
But this morning.
A reply had arrived like a miracle.
[I’m relieved to hear the surgery was successful.
I always knew you would overcome this.
Now walk freely, run, and savor the world.]
Short and concise sentences.
But Park Ha-yan’s gaze lingered below, on the postscript.
[P.S: An uninvited guest will soon visit your dreams.
A being cloaked in darkness will extend its hand and urge you into a contract.
Do not be afraid.
When it appears, look it directly in the eyes and recite the incantation I am about to teach you.]
Below that were sentences that resembled an incantation.
It was as if he could see through her becoming a spirit summoner, and could foresee everything that would happen ahead.
‘What a remarkable person.’
How could he possibly know?
Yet doubt never crossed my mind.
He was my savior—the one who had rescued my life, my very existence.
“I will remember it without fail.”
Park Ha-yan held the letter to her chest.
She embraced it tightly like a precious talisman and lay down on the bed.
Softly.
Whether from the medicine’s effects or the spirits’ lullaby, sleep came swiftly.
* * *
RUMBLE!
Thunder.
No—the sound of an airplane engine exploding.
“…Ah.”
Park Ha-yan opened her eyes.
It was not the hospital room.
The airplane shook violently.
Lights flickered in chaotic succession.
And piercing through it all—the screams of passengers tearing at her eardrums.
“Save me!”
“We’re going down! Hold on tight!”
It was a nightmare.
That day’s memory, the one that tormented her every night.
The moment the passenger airplane was caught in a typhoon.
CRAAAASH!
The aircraft tore apart.
Violent winds tore through the cabin.
My mother, seated beside me, was hurled away.
My father in the front seat was pierced by debris and coughed up blood.
“Mom! Dad!”
Park Ha-yan reached out desperately.
But all she grasped was empty air.
Everything was shredded to pieces.
Metal, plastic, human flesh—all of it.
It was like being inside a colossal blender.
“I’m so scared…”
She curled her body into the seat.
Death was mere inches away.
That was when it happened.
Shhhhh…
In the center of the chaotic cabin.
A space of eerie stillness emerged, as if time itself had frozen.
And from that darkness, something emerged.
A Shadow Entity draped in a black robe.
It stood before Park Ha-yan.
A faceless mass of dark mist spoke to her.
【Poor child.】
Its voice burrowed into her mind.
Cold yet seductively sweet.
【Painful, isn’t it? Terrifying? I shall erase this reality for you.】
The shadow extended its hand.
【Make a contract with me. Take my hand, and I will strip away these horrific memories and grant you new power.】
A spirit of darkness.
The uninvited guest Kim Jung-seok had warned her about.
An ordinary human would have grasped that hand in desperation, clutching at any straw to escape the terror.
But Park Ha-yan did not tremble.
Only one sentence crystallized in her mind with absolute clarity.
I lifted my head.
I stared directly into the Shadow Entity’s eyes.
“Mayon.”
【…?!】
The Shadow Entity flinched.
The outstretched hand froze in mid-air.
“Being of darkness, I already possess my own deity within me.”
Park Ha-yan placed her hand over her chest.
There lay Kim Jung-seok’s letter, his heart contained within it.
For me, the divine was not some distant transcendent force.
It was the one who had lifted me from the abyss of despair.
He was my faith itself.
“I do not fear you.”
I declared it.
I cast forth the edict of banishment.
【You, you wretched woman…!】
The Shadow Entity shrieked.
‘Mayon’.
Its true name.
For a spirit, having its name called meant losing dominion over its own existence.
Terror consumed Mayon—the dread of secrets exposed, of truths that should have remained hidden.
【How! How could a mere human know my name!】
The Shadow Entity stumbled backward.
Its form unraveled.
Mayon glimpsed not Park Ha-yan, but the shadow of someone standing behind her, and fear seized it utterly.
【A trap! It was a trap all along!】
Whoooosh!
The shadow scattered and fled.
The darkness lifted.
Where Mayon had vanished, the fragmented memories became clear and fell into place.
Only then could I see it.
I had not survived by mere luck.
Between the wreckage of the aircraft, my blood-soaked parents shielded me with their entire bodies.
Even as their bones shattered, they desperately protected my head and chest.
“Ah….”
Tears streamed down Park Ha-yan’s face.
It was a nightmare, yet simultaneously a truth that must never be forgotten.
Craaaaaaash!
The aircraft split in half with a deafening roar.
Gravity vanished.
A desperate plunge toward the ground, vertical and inescapable.
Amid the chaos of screams torn apart by the wind.
A sudden grasp.
Someone seized Park Ha-yan’s hand.
Not her parents.
Her parents had already lost consciousness.
She turned her head.
A middle-aged couple sitting in the adjacent aisle.
People she had spoken with briefly in the Waiting Room before boarding the Airplane.
They had smiled shyly, mentioning their wedding anniversary and a long-awaited overseas trip.
“It’s alright, dear.”
The woman gripped Park Ha-yan’s hand firmly.
Over her pale, trembling hand drained of color by terror, warmth overlaid itself.
Death loomed at the threshold.
Yet instead of screaming, they comforted the young girl.
“Don’t be afraid. It will be over soon.”
The man forced a smile.
Blood trickled from his forehead, yet his eyes remained tender.
“We have a son about your age.”
The woman whispered in a trembling voice.
In their final moment, they thought of their son left behind in their Hometown.
A couple whose wedding anniversary should have been their happiest day, yet they met their end in the cold sky.
But instead of fear, they breathed out longing.
“I miss him… our Kim Jung-seok.”
“Dear, he’s a resilient boy. He’ll live well.”
“Of course. Whose son is he, after all.”
Park Ha-yan’s pupils trembled.
Just now, what did they say?
The moment that name etched itself into Park Ha-yan’s mind.
A deafening crash!
The Aircraft collided with the ground.
Her vision flooded with red, and everything went dark.
* * *
“Gasp!”
Park Ha-yan jolted upright.
Ragged breaths erupted from her.
Her heart hammered wildly.
“Haa, haa, haa…”
She was in a Hospital Room.
Morning sunlight poured through the window.
It had been a dream.
No—a restoration of lost memories.
Park Ha-yan stared blankly at her own hands.
Those hands that the man and woman had held in her dream.
It seemed as though their warmth still lingered.
“Kim… Jung-seok.”
Her lips trembled.
Now I understood.
Why a stranger had sponsored me with such a vast sum.
Why he had told me to live, that I was not alone.
‘It was them.’
Kim Jung-seok, who had sponsored me.
He was the son of that couple who had held my hand until the very end.
The blood relative of those who had departed on the same day, at the same moment, as my own parents.
Park Ha-yan opened the drawer.
She retrieved the letter Kim Jung-seok had sent.
[I too am someone who lost family in that airplane crash.
My parents were on that airplane.]
Each letter pierced her heart.
“Ugh…”
Tears burst forth.
In their final moments, they had called out their son’s name.
And that son had found me, the one who survived, and extended a hand of salvation.
As if he were fulfilling his parents’ final wishes.
“Thank you… truly, thank you…”
Park Ha-yan clutched the letter and wept bitterly.
Something hot welled up from deep within her chest.
It was the will to live.
And a resolve to repay a debt.
‘I must live.’
Not merely exist.
I must live brilliantly, magnificently, for all to see.
For my departed parents.
For that couple who held my hand.
And for Kim Jung-seok, who lifted me back to my feet.
Park Ha-yan wiped away her tears.
Whoosh.
The spirits of the air whispered to her.
Comforting, blessing, and lending their strength.
“You’re watching, aren’t you?”
She spoke toward the empty air.
As if he could hear her.
“I’ll live with all my strength. I won’t be a burden to anyone. I’ll live in a way that makes you proud.”
Park Ha-yan’s voice grew firm with resolve.
“And I will find you. When that day comes, I’ll… be the one holding your hand.”
A vow made.
Though the world faced cataclysmic upheaval.
I would live without shame, without disgrace.
And I would become stronger than anyone.
Because that was the only way to repay him.
* * *
‘Fortune smiles upon me today.’
I was currently driving a one-ton truck across the country.
The truck bed was crammed with all manner of odds and ends.
Weathered urns, rusted swords, faded scrolls, even fragments of broken monuments.
To any onlooker, I would appear to be an elderly scrap dealer or junk collector.
But all of this was ‘artifacts’.
Treasures imbued with mana, potential waiting to be unlocked.
My inventory was full, so I transported them directly in the truck.
I had gathered roughly the amount I needed.
‘Now it’s time to move to the next phase.’
One year.
Only one year remained until the Tower’s gates opened.
Within that time, I had to gather shields to protect Earth, and grow stronger myself.
Not a single day could be wasted.
‘I wonder how Park Ha-yan is doing?’
Park Ha-yan’s face suddenly came to mind.
By now, the dark spirit Mayon had likely made contact with her.
That creature was a demon from ancient times.
A ‘malevolent entity’ born from Timal Mythology—a being of black human form.
It approached talented spiritbinders, forced contracts upon them, exploited their power, and twisted their very nature—a villain among villains.
Before the regression, Park Ha-yan had contracted with Mayon.
It was one reason she earned the title ‘Demon of White’.
Mayon had acted as a shackle, suppressing Park Ha-yan’s growth.
Yet despite this, her talent in becoming a Spirit Lord was nothing short of monstrous.
But this time would be different.
I had revealed Mayon’s true name to her.
Malevolent entities lose their power when their identity is exposed.
They exist as unknowns, feeding on fear and terror.
The moment Mayon heard his name called, he would never dare show his face to Park Ha-yan again.
‘She’ll have overcome it well.’
I shrugged my shoulders.
Park Ha-yan is strong.
With the hope and faith I’ve planted in her, she’ll more than endure and grow in the right direction.
I checked the rearview mirror and changed lanes.
‘They’re starting to tail me.’
A conspicuous vehicle caught my eye.
A black sedan.
When I turned left, the sedan turned left as well.
As I entered the alley, it followed at a distance.
For over an hour now.
I curved my lips upward in a smile.
I pulled the car onto the roadside and stepped out.
“Ah, my joints are stiff.”
As I stretched, a Suited Man emerged from the black sedan that had been tailing me.
The man spoke in a coercive tone.
“Chairman Park wishes to meet with you briefly.”
Chairman Park, is it.
I smiled inwardly.
A big fish has taken the bait right from the start.

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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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