The Mage Who Devours Disasters - Chapter 54

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 54.
There was something I needed to confirm first.
[‘Shards of the Broken Golden Rule’ remaining count: 38]
[Current descent maintenance time available: 38 hours]
‘That’s sufficient.’
With this much, I could navigate through even dangerous situations without difficulty.
“…Is this the Demon Realm?”
Park Ji-hoon muttered while swallowing dryly.
His hand still gripped the sword sheath behind his back tightly.
“The air feels unpleasant.”
Park Ha-yan also surveyed her surroundings, tense and alert.
The Demon Realm.
The land of demons.
In the distant past, at the beginning of the Great Upheaval.
Humanity firmly believed that the beings of this Demon Realm were the culprits who drove Earth toward annihilation.
The very name contained the character for ‘demon’, didn’t it?
We thought they had torn through the Dimensional Gate and invaded, commanding monsters and scattering calamity.
‘But that was wrong.’
A truth I only learned later, upon reaching the end of the Tower.
The Demon Creatures were merely ‘pawns’ and ‘victims’ conscripted into the Deities’ game of amusement.
They simply enjoyed playing divide-and-conquer, handing humanity Quests to ‘hunt the Demon Creatures’.
‘The terror of prejudice.’
We praised the true enemy—the Deities—as heroes, branded the fellow victims—the Demon Creatures—as absolute evil, and shed blood accordingly.
Of course.
That didn’t mean the Demon Creatures before us would take pity and spare us.
To them, we were unmistakably ‘invaders’.
No different from thieves who smashed down the door to someone else’s home without permission.
“Hah.”
I took a short, measured breath.
Episode 4 at standard difficulty.
That place progresses like a massive ‘escape room game’.
You fall into the labyrinth of the Demon Realm, gather clues hidden throughout, find the answer, and advance to the next area.
The Demon Creatures serve as patrol guards within that maze.
‘Probably the broad framework hasn’t changed.’
That’s what I thought.
But.
This too could be another shallow prejudice on my part.
‘The first unlock caused by a hidden piece.’
A difficulty level of a concept that never existed before.
Because it never existed, it might not be bound by the constraints or laws of the existing system at all.
“Hush.”
I raised my hand, silencing them both.
Park Ji-hoon and Park Ha-yan immediately closed their mouths.
I lowered my body.
I closed my eyes.
I opened all my senses and listened intently to the sounds around me.
Drip. Patter.
‘…Droplets?’
I heard the sound of water droplets falling.
A very faint and rhythmic sound.
I mentally measured the source and distance of the sound.
‘That’s strange.’
I opened my eyes.
The place where we stood was a desolate Wasteland where crimson sand swirled through the air.
There was not even moisture here, let alone water nearby.
I removed my gloves and placed my bare hand against the ground.
While one can deceive sight and hearing, a mage’s sense of touch cannot be fooled.
Ssssh.
A faint flow of magical energy brushed against my fingertips.
From deep beneath the earth, a massive pulse of magical energy throbbed with rhythmic regularity.
‘Wait.’
This is the arrangement of a magic circle.
Did I fall victim to magic the moment we entered?
No, that’s not it.
This isn’t magic.
If it were an ordinary magic circle, I would sense its structure and incantation.
Above all, if I had been affected, I would have recognized it the instant it activated.
This flow is not a deliberately drawn formation.
In other words.
This isn’t magic at all—it’s the unique ‘characteristic’ that some ‘entity’ breathes out and emanates.
“Abriel.”
I reached into the void and summoned the Holy Sword Abriel.
But.
“….”
There was no light.
The noble voice that always answered my call with a cheerful chirp was nowhere to be heard.
It remained silent, like a cold piece of metal.
‘An illusion.’
I was certain.
We are not standing in the Wasteland of the Demon Realm right now.
The moment we entered, we had already fallen into their trap.
I slowly pushed myself to my feet.
Then I turned to look at Park Ji-hoon and Park Ha-yan.
“You two.”
“Yes, yes! Sir!”
“What is it?”
I reversed my grip on Abriel in my hand.
The blade’s point now aimed directly at my chest.
“Your own heart.”
I spoke flatly.
“Or you must cut your own throat.”
“…What?!”
Park Ji-hoon’s eyes bulged wide.
Park Ha-yan, her face drained of all color, stumbled backward.
“W-what kind of grim joke is that, sir! Suicide, all of a sudden?!”
“It’s no joke.”
I stared at them both with an unwavering expression.
“Can you do it?”
“No, sir! At least give us a reason…!”
This place where we are now is false. We’re inside a dream. The only way to wake up is to die.
Death within a hallucination is the most primal trigger to return to reality.
Especially when you inflict it upon yourself—the return is far faster.
The pain will linger in memory, but the body will remain unharmed.
“If you hesitate, your real body in reality will be consumed.”
I offered no further explanation.
And then.
Thunk!
Without hesitation, I drove Abriel’s blade deep into my heart.
“B-brother!!”
“Jung-seok!!”
Their horrified screams pierced the air.
Simultaneously, my vision flooded with crimson.
Excruciating agony crashed through my mind.
Crash-crack-crack!
The world shattered into fragments with a sound like breaking glass.
* * *
“Gasp!”
My eyes snapped open as I drew in a sharp breath.
I felt across my chest.
There was no wound.
Not a single drop of blood fell.
“….”
The air around me had transformed.
Gone was the desiccated crimson sandstorm.
In its place, a sticky, nauseating stench of blood that assaulted the nostrils.
And.
“Kiiieee….”
“Human… awakened….”
Dozens of grotesque creatures had encircled me without warning.
Bat wings.
Goat horns.
And the upper bodies of humans grafted onto these abominable forms.
‘Demon Creatures.’
The one standing furthest back.
Wreathed in violet mist, a female-form Demon Creature fixed me with a damp, predatory gaze.
‘Dream Demon. Succubus.’
As I suspected.
The moment we crossed the Dimensional Gate, they had established a perimeter at the entrance and trapped us within the Dream World.
The slumber-inducing properties emanating from that Succubus.
Had I been even slightly slower, had I noticed the dissonance even a moment later.
I would have wandered eternally through an inescapable dream while my real body was devoured by these creatures.
‘This is impossible difficulty.’
From the start, escape-room mechanics were thrown to the wind.
A deranged difficulty that unleashes instant-death patterns the moment you enter, without even a single second of grace.
Uuuuuung!
Abriel, clutched in my hand, finally unleashed a blinding radiance.
I tightened my grip on Abriel.
Black demonic energy began pouring forth from the Heavenly Demon Armor.
I glanced to the side.
Park Ha-yan and Park Ji-hoon remained collapsed on the ground.
Their eyes unfocused, they thrashed helplessly through empty space or gasped for breath in ragged bursts.
They had not yet escaped.
“Ho.”
The Dream Demon, the Succubus standing at the rear, swayed her tail with seductive grace.
An exclamation escaped between her lips.
“To think a human’s willpower could shatter my dream and break free.”
The Succubus laughed with a sinister edge.
Like a predator savoring the struggles of a butterfly caught in a spider’s web.
“But it is too late, mortal.”
She snapped her fingers.
“Your life is already within our grasp.”
As the command fell, dozens of Demon Creatures surged forward in unison, emanating a sinister aura.
Those with goat horns gleamed with crimson eyes as they charged.
Claws infused with demonic energy surged toward my heart.
I gripped Abriel tightly.
I contracted my muscles.
I prepared to parry the first strike, tracing the trajectory of the Heavenly Demon Sword Technique.
‘Cutting through them all in one stroke would be impossible.’
Incomprehensible difficulty.
A mad place that unleashes instant-death techniques the moment you enter.
I anticipated their stats would naturally exceed standard parameters.
I thought my best strategy was to defend, deflect, and endure until they awakened.
Kwaaaang!
Abriel collided with the Demon Creature’s claws.
A flash erupted.
I braced my lower body against the impact that would drive me backward.
But then.
“…Huh?”
It was light.
The resistance transmitted through my wrist was disappointingly light.
Serrrk.
As if cutting through tofu.
No—even more like crushing it.
“Kiiieeeek!”
The body of the Demon Creature that charged first was cleanly bisected diagonally.
Its upper and lower halves separated, scattering black blood.
A single sword strike.
And not even with my full power.
I stared blankly down at the severed corpse of the Demon Creature.
‘What is this?’
Am I that strong?
Is the Heavenly Demon Armor’s power so overwhelming?
Is Abriel’s holy power simply advantageous against Demon Creatures?
Nonsense.
Of course I’m strong.
But this wasn’t a matter of that dimension.
‘They’re weak.’
These creatures were pathetically weak for their difficulty rating.
They felt physically inferior even to the common Hell-difficulty monsters I had cleared with the Fellowship in the past.
Only then.
A formula materialized in my mind.
‘The standard of difficulty.’
Episode 4’s difficulty unlocks based on the Party Leader’s Honor Score.
The insane Honor value of 1.35 million was indeed why ‘Incomprehensible’ opened.
But.
The criterion determining the ‘weight class’ of monsters within the Dungeon was not Honor.
‘What if difficulty scales according to the Party Leader’s level?’
That was the System’s absolute law.
Monster stats scale based on the level of the Party Leader entering.
Ah.
I understood.
‘My level is merely 7.’
My level was low.
Absurdly low.
Even compared to Park Ha-yan or Park Ji-hoon.
I had only assumed the experience bar swelled madly because stat inflation from levels was so severe and my weight class so high.
A cursed growth curve where I could barely fill 1% of the experience needed for one level-up that others achieved easily.
But my actual stats?
They surpassed Park Ha-yan, Park Ji-hoon, and even the avatars lauded as heroes.
I had maxed all stats from the very beginning.
On top of that, I was wrapped in ultra-high-grade equipment like the Heavenly Demon Armor, the Heart of Bitter Cold, and the Grand Sage’s Staff.
‘My level is single digits, but my specs are beyond reach.’
That was it.
The Incomprehensible difficulty monsters were generated based on merely ‘Level 7.’
The patterns were Incomprehensible-tier, but the physicality was scaled to Level 7—pathetically fragile.
In other words.
Even without summoning Rag’s true form, that immense divine entity.
‘It’s manageable.’
Entirely manageable.
No, beyond merely manageable.
…It meant slaughter was possible.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————