The Mage Who Devours Disasters - Chapter 34

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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 34.
Asgard was in upheaval.
Fear and distrust spread like a plague.
There was only one reason.
Ding!
[We bring grave tidings.]
[Grand Flame Deity Grande has been murdered.]
[His existence has been completely erased from Asgard.]
This was no lesser deity.
A superior deity.
Grande, one of the pillars of the Flame Faction, was dead.
A being who had endured countless eons, accumulating immense divine power.
And yet he had vanished without even a final cry.
“This cannot be.”
“Grande fell? To whom? Who could possibly—!”
The Deities erupted in murmurs.
Until now, they had treated it as someone else’s problem.
The deaths of a few lesser deities had been dismissed as mere accidents of misfortune.
But this was different.
The death of a superior deity was a sentence: no one in this Tower was safe.
“What are the Investigators doing!”
“Apprehend the culprit at once!”
Shouts echoed through the halls.
But Unit Commander Abdulla’s expression was grim.
He had combed through the crime scene meticulously.
The results were devastating.
“…Nothing.”
There was nothing at all.
Signs of a fierce battle? None.
Traces of divine power collision? None.
Not even a single fragment of Grande’s divine essence remained.
It was pristine, as if wiped clean by an enormous eraser.
“He was obliterated.”
Abdulla clenched his fists.
The culprit hadn’t merely killed Grande—they had consumed him entirely.
There was no other way such cleanliness could exist.
“Commander, the pressure from above is mounting.”
The Adjutant reported with an ashen face.
“They say the Investigation Team will be dissolved if we cannot identify the culprit.”
“…I know.”
Abdulla gritted his teeth.
There was nowhere left to retreat.
With the existing methods, I couldn’t even catch that bastard’s tail.
The rules had to be broken.
Even if it meant violating taboos, I had to draw him out.
Abdulla made his decision.
He headed straight for the Central Conference Hall.
Countless Deities had gathered there.
A cauldron of chaos—anxiety, fear, and rage all intermingled.
Abdulla ascended the platform.
“I am Investigation Team Leader Abdulla.”
The assembly fell silent.
All eyes turned toward him.
They wanted answers.
But what came from Abdulla’s lips was not an answer—it was a shocking proposal.
“I propose a motion.”
He drew a measured breath.
“I request the disclosure of all avatar information for every Deity currently participating in the ‘Earth Amusement.'”
“…What?”
“Are you insane? Break the unspoken rule of the amusement?”
Objections erupted.
Anonymity.
The Deities’ last pride and the amusement’s greatest pleasure.
To play divine games hidden among humans, unknown to one another.
To expose that was like asking them to dance naked.
“Hear me out!”
Abdulla shouted.
His presence dominated the assembly.
“A High Deity has been murdered!”
He struck the platform.
“The culprit is the ‘God Hunter.’ He likely knows who is participating in the amusement and where they are.”
Everyone fell silent.
It was an undeniable fact.
The culprit had been hunting with such precision, selecting only Deities engaged in the amusement.
The timing alone would be impossible otherwise.
“Apparently… he targets the true form while the avatar is focused. At that critical moment, when the true form is defenseless.”
Most of the Deities had been slain when episodes began.
In other words, he was deliberately selecting only those participating in the amusement to kill.
There was an information asymmetry.
He could see us, but we cannot see him.
“That’s why we must learn this first.”
Abdulla appealed to them.
“If we know who is operating under what name and where, we can predict which Deity the God Hunter will target next. Only then can we set traps or provide protection, can we not?”
The Deities exchanged glances with one another.
Resistance lingered, but fear was stronger.
The fear that I might be next.
“…If it’s limited to lower-tier Deities.”
Someone murmured.
“Yes. While it’s impossible to include mid-to-high tier Deities, it’s only proper to disclose information on lower-tier Deities for management purposes.”
It was selfishness.
The higher Deities would conceal their own information and use the lower ones as bait.
But for Abdulla, that was enough.
As long as he could catch the culprit’s tail.
“Very well. Then I shall consider it resolved for lower-tier Deities.”
Abdulla’s eyes gleamed.
And he withdrew a single document from his breast.
The most critical matter.
The Investigation Team’s conclusion regarding the cause of this incident.
“And one more thing.”
His voice dropped low.
“We have formulated a hypothesis regarding the culprit’s identity.”
The Deities’ ears perked up.
“A ‘Mad Deity.'”
It was a forbidden word.
Beings erased from the Tower’s history.
“The God Hunter may be a Deity driven to madness.”
“You mean a Mad Deity?”
“Hah…!”
Mad Deities.
They follow no rules.
Neither reason nor order exists within them.
Monsters that crave only destruction and slaughter.
When a Deity falls and descends into madness, they will consume their own kind to satiate their hunger for power.
Yet what remained puzzling was this.
“How could a Mad Deity roam the Tower of Gods freely?”
“If it were a creature bereft of reason, it should rampage uncontrollably.”
“Could it have reached the second stage?”
Mad Deities had stages.
Stage One: the rampage stage.
Mad Deity Tulkacha fell into this first stage.
A state where one loses their sense of self and pursues only destruction.
They even kill Deities and absorb their power.
Upon reaching Stage 2 beyond this, one gains the ability to ‘think’.
Outwardly, there are no signs.
That’s precisely what makes it so terrifying.
Existing outside the Tower’s rules while simultaneously mingling among the Deities within it.
However, throughout the long ages, no Stage 2 Mad Deity has ever emerged.
All were discovered and either sealed or annihilated before reaching that point.
“If it has reached Stage 2, wouldn’t revealing the avatar roster be a blunder?”
“Wouldn’t it actually be giving that bastard more information?”
“…So you’re saying there’s a possibility it could be mixed in here among us.”
A valid concern.
There was even a possibility it existed within our ranks.
Revealing the avatar roster could lead to unfavorable consequences.
Yet Abdulla shook his head.
“The God Hunter already knows. Therefore, letting that bastard know that we know will actually make us safer.”
Strengthen surveillance.
If we limit our observation to only the avatars of lower-ranking Deities, the answer will emerge.
If it stops hunting lower-ranking Deities, that itself is favorable.
‘It would be proof that the God Hunter is within the Tower.’
And moreover, evidence that it’s watching the Investigation Team from somewhere very close.
* * *
‘Already the 7th Floor.’
From Floor 2 to Floor 7.
I had ascended five levels in a single bound.
It was inevitable, having absorbed five Deities including Grande.
But I could not stop.
War with Cryos loomed imminent.
I needed to grow stronger.
That was when it happened.
Uuuuuung!
Space tore open.
Someone had arrived without warning.
Too much killing intent to be a guest, yet far too confident to be an enemy.
Men in uniform.
And the man leading them.
“I am Investigation Team Commander Abdulla.”
Commander of the Divine Investigation Team.
He surveyed my territory.
Frost seemed to descend wherever his gaze fell.
Soon his gaze fell upon the Frost Tribe Elves in training.
Angargon perched upon my shoulder, and the Holy Sword Abriel standing sentinel at my side.
“Hmm.”
Abdulla’s lips twisted into a smile.
“Quite a remarkable floor. Almost too magnificent for the dwelling of a lesser deity.”
Formal speech.
Yet thorns lay beneath it.
He suspected.
Whether this resplendent floor had truly been created through legitimate means.
I asked with feigned composure.
“What brings the Investigation Team Commander to this humble place?”
“Surely you are aware.”
Abdulla withdrew a warrant from his robes.
A document gleaming with golden light.
The seal of the Central Council was stamped upon it.
“Due to the recent string of God Hunts, special measures have been authorized.”
He fixed me with an unwavering stare.
“An order to obtain a complete list of all lesser deities’ avatars participating in the Game.”
“….”
“You have no right to refuse. Should you provide false information, the System will immediately detain you.”
It had come.
Inwardly, I tensed.
Outwardly, I revealed nothing.
Abdulla extended his hand.
Upon his palm materialized the Scale of Truth, which discerned falsehoods.
“I ask you, Rag.”
Abdulla’s eyes gleamed with intensity.
“Are you currently enjoying the Game on Earth? Have you created an avatar?”
A moment of absolute crisis.
If I lied, the scale would tilt, and I would be marked as a suspect immediately.
But if I spoke the truth, my identity would be exposed.
A dead end.
That is what it would have appeared to be.
But I let out a soft laugh.
I shook my head.
“No.”
I spoke with absolute certainty.
“I do not participate in the Game on Earth. I have no avatar there.”
Ding!
The scale trembled.
But it didn’t tilt.
It remained perfectly balanced.
“…!”
Balance was the measure of truth.
Abdulla’s eyes widened.
Of course they did.
Because I wasn’t lying.
What exists on Earth isn’t my avatar.
It’s my ‘true body’.
The human named Kim Jung-seok.
Rather, my avatar is here in Asgard—Rag.
My amusement wasn’t on Earth but here in the Tower of Gods.
I hadn’t spoken a falsehood.
“…You don’t have one?”
Abdulla stroked his chin, bewildered.
The scales never lie.
Which meant I truly had no avatar.
“Hmm. I suppose so.”
He nodded as if convinced.
“You only ascended the Tower recently, after all. You wouldn’t have had time to create an avatar yet.”
He treated me like a novice.
A freshly promoted deity who didn’t yet understand the pleasures of amusement.
“Why not create one now? A System Message should have arrived when the game on Earth began.”
“I’m not interested.”
I refused outright.
“As you can see.”
I gestured toward the training elves.
“War with Cryos is imminent. I have no time to idle away watching Earth.”
It was a perfect justification.
War preparations.
Who could afford leisure for amusement when survival itself hung in the balance?
Abdulla couldn’t counter that.
“A fair point.”
He withdrew his warrant.
I felt genuine relief.
I’d cleared it.
The greatest hurdle.
But Abdulla didn’t back down.
His eyes narrowed like a serpent’s.
“Then allow me to make a proposal.”
“A proposal?”
An ominous feeling crept over me.
What was he scheming?
Abdulla smiled.
“I will dispatch an Investigator to this Floor.”
“…An Investigator? Why?”
“They will be stationed here permanently. To protect Rag in case of emergency and to prevent any potential intruders.”
Protection? Surveillance?
Pretty words, but what he meant was shackling me in chains.
More critically, there was a fatal problem.
‘Logging out.’
When I return to Earth, Rag here falls asleep.
Completely defenseless.
A body that won’t wake even if roused.
If the Investigator sees that?
‘I’m exposed.’
A Deity sleeps?
Unconscious at that?
Suspicion was inevitable.
They claimed I had no avatar, yet if my body lay there like an empty shell with its soul torn away, the story wouldn’t add up.
They would dig relentlessly.
“I refuse.”
I furrowed my brow.
“Allowing strangers into my Territory is distasteful. I will protect myself.”
“This is a decision from the Central Authority.”
Abdulla’s tone hardened.
“It is a protective measure for lower-tier Deities. Refusal could be considered obstruction of the investigation. Or….”
He stepped closer.
Then, with a sinister grin, he spoke.
“Do you have something to hide?”

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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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