The Mage Who Devours Disasters - Chapter 25
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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 25.
“Achoo!”
I sneezed.
‘Is someone cursing me?’
Unlikely.
There’s no reason for anyone to curse me.
Park Ji-hoon must be burning with loyalty, and Park Ha-yan must be shedding tears of gratitude.
It’s probably praise.
It seems the sound of people lauding me from places unseen reaches even here.
Regardless.
‘The next episode is large-scale. A golden opportunity to hunt multiple avatars.’
Episode 3.
Unlike the previous episodes, this one unfolds on a grand scale.
Perhaps that’s why.
There was still some time before it began.
My preparations on Earth were complete.
Now it was time to return to my true work.
“Are you well, Master?”
Floor 2 of the Tower.
Seria watched me sneeze and asked with a concerned expression.
“I’m fine.”
I spoke casually and surveyed my surroundings.
The mana density was far greater than before.
Such was the majesty of a floor elevated to A-rank.
And yet.
I narrowed my eyes as I regarded Seria.
“You’ve changed.”
Her presence had transformed.
Where once she resembled a sharp shard of ice, she now possessed the weight of a colossal iceberg.
A subtle radiance emanated from her skin, and her gaze had grown infinitely deeper.
This was no mere result of ordinary training.
There could be only one cause.
“You’ve been drinking the nectar regularly?”
“Yes. I drank one cup every morning, exactly as you instructed.”
As expected.
I stroked my chin thoughtfully.
In truth, I had never felt the nectar’s effects myself.
Even when I drank it like water, it remained merely a delicious beverage—my stats never increased.
The reason was simple.
‘My talents are already at their maximum.’
When I created my character, I maxed out every stat to its limit.
My vessel was already full to the brim—pouring more would only cause it to overflow.
But Seria and Angargon were different.
They were still growing.
Nectar was the crystallized essence of divine power.
The more one consumed it, the more it forcibly unlocked dormant potential and expanded the vessel itself.
“Kyaaang!”
Angargon suddenly flew over and perched on my shoulder.
The creature had grown considerably larger.
Once the size of a fist, it was now about the size of a small dog.
Even the luster of its scales had changed.
‘The effect is undeniable.’
I pondered for a moment.
What if I gave Nectar to Park Ji-hoon and Park Ha-yan as well?
‘Avatars are still human, after all. If the Avatars use Nectar to strengthen themselves, there shouldn’t be any side effects.’
Besides, Park Ji-hoon was an S-rank Awakener, and Park Ha-yan was a Spirit Lord.
Both were prodigies blessed with heavenly talent—they would certainly be able to handle it.
If anything, they might become too powerful.
‘If Nectar works on humans, it would be invaluable in countering the Avatars and the Deities.’
I decided to think positively about it.
I rose from my seat.
I stretched my body.
Crack, crack.
The sound of my joints aligning was crisp and satisfying.
“Prepare yourselves.”
At my command, Seria adjusted her bowstring.
Abriel hovered at my side in the form of a holy sword.
Angargon’s tail swished with fervent determination.
“Where are we going, sir?”
I answered Seria’s question briefly.
“Outside the Tower.”
“…What?”
Seria’s eyes widened in shock.
“Do you mean the mainland of Asgard? That’s impossible! It’s too dangerous!”
She urgently stepped forward to block my path.
The Tower’s floors were protected zones under the System’s jurisdiction.
But beyond the Tower, on Asgard—the land of the Deities—was a lawless wasteland.
Wild beasts roamed freely, and hyena-like Deities prowled in search of territory—a jungle where only the strong survived.
It was far too early for a novice Deity who had just reached Floor 2 to venture there.
“I know it’s dangerous.”
I replied flatly.
“But I have reason to go.”
I fixed my gaze directly on Seria.
“Guide me to where the Frost Tribe dwells.”
“…!”
Seria’s body went rigid.
Her people.
The ones she should have protected, yet had to abandon when strength failed her—her homeland’s kin.
“Why would you… ask such a thing?”
“I need believers.”
I spoke honestly.
“My layer is perfect. The buildings, resources, environment—all Grade A. But there’s one thing missing. Inhabitants to dwell there.”
The empty Golden City.
I needed people to fill it.
Ideally, a race with strong loyalty and exceptional combat prowess would be ideal.
There were limits to the magical beasts I could summon from the shop.
‘Purchased beasts don’t grow.’
Their stats were fixed.
Most were common, low-intelligence, incapable of growth.
That wasn’t all.
They couldn’t even leave the Tower.
But Seria’s expression turned cold as she heard my words.
Her hand gripped her bow tightly.
“Did you say… believers.”
Her voice trembled.
“Are you planning to use them as sacrifices?”
A misunderstanding.
But a reasonable one.
Hadn’t Heimdall himself advised me?
To gather believers and offer them as sacrifices to obtain nectar.
It was common sense in this world, the most universal way for deities to gain power.
Despair and betrayal flickered across Seria’s eyes.
She thought her master—the one who had taken her in—was ultimately planning to burn her family as fuel.
“Foolish talk.”
I chuckled and spoke.
“Do I look like a pauper to you?”
“…What?”
“Burn living elves for a pittance of nectar? I don’t do such cheap tricks.”
I shrugged.
“You saw it yourself. How I use nectar.”
Seria’s mouth fell open in a daze.
That’s right.
This man was an eccentric who squandered a million Nectar like water, lavishing it on constructing the Floor.
He even distributed a cup to her every single day.
An inexplicable Nectar that flowed forth as if from an infinite spring.
There was no reason to squeeze it from his followers.
“Then… why…?”
“I’m bringing them here to live.”
I gestured toward the Golden City of Floor 2.
“They’ll eat, sleep, and train here. I intend to raise them as my personal soldiers.”
Relocation.
It meant bringing her entire tribe to this paradise.
Seria’s eyes wavered.
“But… my tribe takes great pride in our homeland. We won’t abandon it easily. Moreover, that territory is currently ruled by the Frost Deity.”
“It has to be now.”
I spoke with greater weight.
“If I don’t bring them now, the Frost Tribe will be annihilated.”
“…Annihilated, you say?”
A memory from before my regression.
It was when I was conquering Tower Floor 50.
The parting words of the Frost Deity, who had been the master of that place, haunted me even as he lay dying.
-Kekeke! Seria, how did that foolish wench die? If I’d known it would come to this, I should have burned your entire tribe as sacrifices long ago! I should have died watching that despair on your face, what a shame!
He had laughed.
He had cackled, saying he should have died watching Seria’s face twisted in despair.
At the time, I had dismissed it as merely the bitter curses of a defeated man.
‘But it was the truth.’
Hadn’t Heimdall told me?
How to obtain Nectar.
That sacrifices could be burned and refined into Nectar.
Seria must have made a pact with the Frost Deity.
That if she guarded the Floor as a middle manager, he would protect the Frost Tribe’s safety.
Or perhaps, that he would return their territory to them.
It was a blatant lie.
Knowing it was a lie, I couldn’t simply stand idle.
Because I had made a promise.
To reclaim their homeland for them.
But that alone wasn’t enough.
If there were no Frost Tribe left after reclaiming the territory, it would be worse than breaking the promise altogether.
Seria would fall into even deeper despair.
So.
‘I’ll save them all.’
The moment I decided, I moved.
* * *
Northern Asgard.
A frozen wasteland where eternal snow howled in relentless fury.
Territory ruled by the Frost Deity.
Whiiiiing!
A blade-sharp wind cut through the air.
“Halt!”
Before the Fortress Gate, encircled by towering walls of ice.
Soldiers clad in armor of frozen crystal leveled their spears, blocking the way forward.
“This is the territory of Cryos, the Frost Deity. Entry to outsiders is forbidden.”
A menacing atmosphere hung heavy.
‘There are too many of them.’
A direct confrontation was impossible.
If even the elite forces under Cryos appeared, we would face annihilation.
Yet I did not flinch.
Retreating here would be the coward’s way out.
Instead, I tilted my chin upward and gazed down at them with arrogant disdain.
“Step aside.”
“What?”
“Are your ears deaf? I said open the way.”
The soldiers’ faces twisted in fury.
Never before had anyone dared to act so brazenly in the territory of a lesser deity.
“This fool must have a death wish!”
The soldiers gripped their weapons tighter and rushed forward.
Uuuuuung!
I drew the staff from my robes.
The Staff of the Tempest That Tears All Asunder.
The azure jewel embedded at its tip spun with ferocious intensity, conjuring a maelstrom.
Kwaaaaaaah!
A violent wind engulfed the soldiers.
Spear shafts trembled, helmets were torn away.
Overwhelmed by the crushing force, they staggered backward.
“You… you are…!”
“I am the herald of Heimdall, the great Storm Deity, master of all things. I have come on his behalf.”
A problem I could not solve alone.
Thus, I invoked Heimdall’s name.
Thud!
I struck the staff against the ground.
“How dare you obstruct the messenger of that one?”
At the mention of Heimdall’s name, the soldiers’ pupils trembled as though struck by an earthquake.
Asgard’s apex predator.
The pinnacle of the Natural Faction!
No mere lesser deity could stand against such a being.
“No, no lies! Why would Lord Heimdall come to such a remote place….”
“And yet you don’t recognize this staff?”
I thrust the staff forward.
Whoooosh!
Blades of wind swept through the air.
A savage aura that seemed to tear space itself asunder.
That was when it happened.
An old soldier from the rear of the formation let out a scream.
“Gasp!”
His face drained of all color as he dropped to his knees.
“That, that is… a ‘Divine Artifact’! It’s that staff Lord Heimdall treasures!”
“What?”
“I saw it when I was young! That staff cannot be imitated!”
The old soldier trembled violently, bowing his head in submission.
“Please, take my life! Forgive my ignorance!”
The atmosphere reversed entirely.
Wielding a Divine Artifact meant representing that deity’s will.
And I had used the Divine Artifact.
I had summoned a tempest.
No more perfect messenger existed than this.
In other words, laying a hand on me was tantamount to declaring war on Heimdall.
Cryos, the Frost Deity?
Merely a lesser god who would be erased with a single gesture from Heimdall.
The soldiers cast down their spears and prostrated themselves.
“Forgive us!”
“Open the gate! Quickly!”
Screeeeeech!
The massive ice wall’s gate swung open.
I strode through with a scoff of derision.
Seria followed behind me in a daze.
“Master, you are truly magnificent….”
“It’s all bluster, really.”
I shrugged my shoulders.
But the moment I crossed the threshold of the Fortress Gate, my composed expression hardened.
“….”
A stench that pierced the nostrils.
The reek of burning flesh.
A colossal Altar had been erected in the center of the Plaza.
Crimson flames roared upward in a violent inferno.
And upon it.
“Aaaahhhhh!”
“Help us! It burns! It burns!”
People writhed there.
Elves bound in iron chains, thrashing within the inferno.
Pale skin, silver hair.
Unmistakably the Frost Tribe.
“Wh-what is this… ahhhhh…!”
Seria’s legs gave way beneath her.
She clapped her hand over her mouth.
It was hell incarnate.
Dozens of elves burned alive.
Their screams and agony rose into the void, drawn upward into a crystal sphere perched atop the Altar.
Golden liquid.
‘Nectar.’
The divine elixir refined from faith and life force.
The “most efficient method of obtaining Nectar” that Heimdall had spoken of was unfolding before my eyes.
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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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