The Mage Who Devours Disasters - Chapter 35

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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 35.
Meaningful.
Abdulla’s lips twisted into a smile.
His gaze seemed to strip away the very depths of my soul.
“Rag is a special surveillance target.”
He moved forward slowly.
Circling around me, closing in like a predator.
“A Seed who reached the Tower in record time under Heimdall’s patronage. One who became the master of the First Floor with a remarkable score. Truly, you are rewriting all of the Tower’s records.”
It was not praise.
It was suspicion.
Too fast.
Too perfect.
And therefore, suspicious—that was his logic.
“Above all, this floor.”
Abdulla pointed to the Gold-Plated Temple.
“It was elevated to A-rank in an instant. That enormous amount of Nectar—where exactly did you obtain it?”
His eyes narrowed.
“Even if Heimdall favors you, he would not have entrusted such quantities of Nectar to a newly ascended Seed.”
He had struck a nerve.
Heimdall had given me a staff, not Nectar.
He could not have confirmed the fact that I had exchanged the Fragment of the Broken Golden Rule.
Reading System logs was something only the one who created the game or its administrators could do.
“Furthermore.”
Abdulla stopped.
He whispered from behind my back.
“Before entering the Tower, your history was shrouded in mystery. No one knows where you came from or what you were doing.”
“….”
I shrugged my shoulders.
I replied without turning around.
“Do I have an obligation to answer every detail of that?”
“You have no obligation. But suspicion arises nonetheless.”
My heart sank.
A background investigation.
They were digging into my origins, into what the entity called “Rag” truly was.
It was only natural.
It would have been stranger if they hadn’t questioned it.
Heimdall had been unusually careless; to this meticulous Unit Commander, everything would have seemed questionable.
‘This is dangerous.’
Cold sweat ran down my spine.
If I was exposed, it would be over.
The moment this flesh is revealed to be an ‘avatar’, I become a public enemy.
The warning message I saw during character creation flashed through my mind.
[Warning: Should your identity be exposed, all Deities of Asgard will become hostile.]
A non-Deity masquerading as one of the Deities.
There was no way they would forgive such deception.
Abdulla approached me again.
His eyes had changed.
The reconnaissance was over—he now revealed his killing intent openly.
“I have a question.”
He spoke bluntly.
“The trial on the First Floor. How did you annihilate Mad Deity Tulkacha?”
“….”
“The traces were too clean to suggest mere overwhelming force. As if….”
Abdulla licked his lips.
“You had devoured him.”
I flinched.
My fingertips trembled.
“Did you, perhaps, consume him?”
Abdulla’s voice slithered like a serpent.
“Or is it the opposite? Is Tulkacha inhabiting Rag’s body and merely pretending?”
A Mad Deity.
A Deity driven to madness.
That was the charge he suspected me of.
Uuuuuung!
It was then.
Abriel, the holy sword floating beside me, vibrated violently.
-How dare you!
Her thoughts resonated through the space.
Dazzling light burst forth, threatening both Abdulla and me.
-How dare you insult him! My master is noble!
But Abdulla didn’t even blink.
Rather, he simply gazed at the holy sword with interest.
I restrained Abriel.
And I asked Abdulla.
“Can a Mad Deity consume a Deity?”
“Of course.”
Abdulla answered immediately.
“Mad Deities grow stronger through consuming their own kind.”
He took another step closer.
“The ‘God Hunter’ that has been appearing recently is likely a Mad Deity as well. One that slays Deities and devours their divine essence without remainder.”
I devour it.
My class.
‘The Calamity Eater.’
And the golden rune inscribed upon my right hand.
‘…Could it be.’
Suspicion took root.
The source of my power.
What was the true nature of this strength.
Was it merely the authority of the System, or as Abdulla had suggested….
‘The power of the Mad Deity?’
Could a fragment of the deranged Deity itself be dwelling within my right hand.
If so, was I a reserve Mad Deity.
Confusion consumed me.
But I could not let it show.
Then Abriel cried out once more.
-Silence!
The blade of the holy sword pointed at Abdulla’s throat.
-I was the guardian of the Sacred Realm! For centuries I have watched and sealed Tulkacha—how could I not recognize the aura of the Mad Deity!
Her cry was fervent.
-To doubt Rag is to doubt the eyes of Abriel herself! Apologize at once!
The holy sword’s wrath.
The archangel’s guarantee.
No evidence could be more certain than that.
Abdulla’s expression shifted subtly.
He glanced between Abriel and me for a moment.
Then.
“Heh heh.”
He shrugged his shoulders.
The killing intent vanished as if washed away.
“A jest.”
“….”
“I merely wished to gauge your reaction. There were so many suspicious points, you see.”
Abdulla laughed brazenly.
“Since the archangel is so certain, I shall lift the suspicion of being the Mad Deity. However….”
His eyes were not smiling.
“The dispatch of an Investigator remains a separate matter. If you wish to erase all doubt, it would be wise to accept my proposal.”
The coercion continued.
Prove you are not the Mad Deity.
Accept the surveillance.
There was no grounds to refuse.
Trapped between a rock and a hard place.
‘What am I to do.’
How could I escape this predicament?
If I yield here, it’s all over.
But if I refuse, suspicion will only intensify.
In that critical moment.
CRACK!
The sky tore asunder.
Black lightning accompanied an arrogant voice that shook the Gold-Plated Temple.
“How dare you.”
A tempest swept through.
Abdulla’s expression hardened like stone.
“You threaten my apostle?”
Heimdall.
He had descended.
* * *
Heimdall was bored.
The God Hunter.
Even that sensational issue that had set the Tower ablaze was nothing but tedious gossip to him.
A few lesser deities had perished.
One superior deity had been annihilated.
So what of it?
The Tower’s history was long.
Throughout those ages, such occurrences were not unprecedented.
‘How they fret.’
Only the weak and cowardly feared such things.
For deities of the highest echelon like himself, it was a spark that could never reach them.
His reason for descending to the 7th Floor was simple.
‘How well are the war preparations progressing?’
Rag.
He was curious how much the one he had marked was preparing.
Having elevated the Layer to A-rank in such a short time and granted him divine artifacts, his expectations for growth were immense.
But then.
What he heard upon arrival was absurd.
-Did you consume Mad Deity Tulkacha?
-Aren’t you the Mad Deity?
Unit Commander Abdulla.
That meticulous one was pressing Rag hard.
Heimdall’s brow twitched.
He was displeased.
It was not merely suspicion of Rag.
I felt my judgment had been insulted.
He was my choice.
He was the one I invested in, even bestowing divine authority upon him.
How dare you treat such a man as if he were the Mad Deity himself?
That was tantamount to calling me, Heimdall, a fool who harbored the Mad Deity.
Crash!
Heimdall would not endure it.
“How dare you.”
He descended with lightning.
Standing before Abdulla, he radiated an overwhelming divine presence.
“You threaten my apostle?”
Those words alone.
The air in the Divine Temple froze.
Abdulla’s face drained of all color, pale as parchment.
“H-Heimdall, sir…?”
Abdulla’s body trembled like an aspen leaf.
It could not have been otherwise.
Not all Deities were equal.
Lower, middle, upper.
The hierarchy was absolute.
But at the very apex.
There existed an absolute realm where even the upper Deities dared not raise their heads.
‘The highest tier!’
Those who maintained the order of the Tower and governed the laws of the world.
Heimdall was the supreme leader representing the Natural Faction among them.
An Investigator commander could never presume to challenge him.
“Speak again if you dare.”
Heimdall growled low.
“You called my apostle the Mad Deity? Then are you saying I too am mad for choosing him?”
“N-no! That was never my intention…!”
Abdulla hastily bowed his head.
Cold sweat poured down like rain.
He had never imagined it.
That Heimdall would descend in person.
Most shocking of all was that single word.
‘Apostle.’
Heimdall had never taken an apostle before.
That arrogant, discerning Deity had acknowledged one who had only just ascended the Tower as his apostle?
It was unprecedented in history.
This was a certified check.
It meant Heimdall was staking his own name to vouch for Rag’s identity.
Heimdall took a step forward.
Abdulla retreated.
“You’re assigning a watcher to my apostle? You don’t trust my eyes, so you’ll watch directly yourselves?”
“That is… a matter of procedure….”
“Procedure?”
Heimdall let out a derisive snort.
Whoooosh!
A colossal tempest crashed down before Abdulla’s very face.
It was killing intent.
A warning from an absolute being—that I could truly be slain.
“My apostle’s territory is my territory. You dare release rats into my own home? Your audacity knows no bounds.”
“I-I was wrong! I withdraw it! There will be no surveillance!”
Abdulla cried out as if screaming.
He could not hold his ground.
Had he objected further, the Investigation Team and all would have been annihilated on the spot.
Only then did Heimdall withdraw his killing intent.
He waved his hand dismissively.
“Begone.”
“Yes, yes!”
Abdulla and the Investigators vanished as if fleeing.
The spatial transfer gate closed.
Silence returned to the Golden Temple.
I had narrowly escaped the worst crisis thanks to Heimdall.
Yet I could not relax my guard.
It was like escaping a tiger only to encounter a dragon.
Heimdall slowly turned his body.
…His gaze fixed upon me.
The ferocity from moments before had vanished without a trace.
In its place, a peculiar anticipation filled the air.
“…My apostle.”
Heimdall chuckled softly.
“It’s rather amusing, even hearing it from my own lips.”
He looked me over from head to toe.
‘At least that’s fortunate.’
Honestly, I had survived.
Had Heimdall not appeared, I would have had to keep an Investigator stationed right beside me.
I bowed my head.
“Thank you.”
“Thanks, but I haven’t officially recognized you yet. I’ll consider it after we achieve victory against Cryos in this war.”
Heimdall extended his hand.
It was a gesture demanding something.
“More importantly.”
Heimdall’s eyes narrowed.
His gaze fixed upon my hand.
“Where is the divine artifact I gave you? The ‘Tempest Staff of Shredding Death’?”
…I ate it.

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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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