The Mage Who Devours Disasters - Chapter 55

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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 55.
A bitter smile spread across my lips.
“K-kiek?”
The Demon Creatures following behind faltered at their comrade’s pathetic death.
The menacing momentum that had filled them moments before shattered in an instant.
“Why do you stop! Kill him! Tear out his throat this instant!”
The Succubus screamed in panic.
Her composure crumbled.
But before they could charge again.
Uuuuuuuung!
Abriel unleashed a light so brilliant it seared the eyes.
-How vile and filthy this aura is.
-I shall incinerate it.
The holy sword’s consciousness resonated through my mind.
Sacred light poured from Abriel’s blade, flooding the narrow cave completely.
I kicked off the ground.
The Celestial Demon Shoes’ option activated, my movement speed exploding outward.
Kwaaaang!
A velocity that seemed to transcend space itself.
The Demon Creatures wouldn’t even see my afterimage.
Screech. Screech. Clang!
Abriel danced.
The trajectory of the Celestial Demon Sword Technique extended in all directions, cloaked in holy radiance.
Wherever the light touched, the Demon Creatures’ necks, arms, and waists were severed.
“Kraaaagh!”
“Guuugh…!”
They couldn’t even manage a proper death cry.
Before their black blood could spray, the holy sword’s light incinerated and purified it.
It was instantaneous.
Dozens of Demon Creatures transformed into rotting chunks of flesh rolling across the ground—all within mere seconds.
“Th-this can’t be…!”
The Succubus stumbled backward.
Her face had gone pale as a blank sheet of paper.
All her seductive charm had vanished without a trace.
Terror.
Watching her subordinates slaughtered one-sidedly, she trembled violently.
I closed the distance to the Succubus in an instant.
I pressed the cold tip of Abriel’s blade against her throat.
“Spare me… Kyaaaagh!”
There was no mercy.
The blade pierced through her neck.
Purple mist scattered as the nightmare’s form crumbled to dust.
And so I cut them all down.
Whoooosh!
Abriel blazed with brilliant light.
Black energy seeped from the corpses of Demon Creatures strewn across the ground, drawn into the holy blade’s edge.
Purification.
And absorption.
The holy blade devouring the essence of Demon Creatures.
Ding!
[Holy Blade Abriel has absorbed the essence of Demon Creatures.]
[The demonic energy has been purified and converted to holy power.]
[The power of the holy blade increases permanently by 5%.]
The message appeared.
My smile widened further.
The more I hunt, the stronger my blade becomes.
This Incomprehensible difficulty wasn’t a trap designed to kill me—it was nothing short of a buffet for strengthening my equipment.
That’s when it happened.
“Gasp!”
“Cough, cough!”
Rough breathing echoed from behind me.
Park Ha-yan and Park Ji-hoon’s eyes snapped open almost simultaneously.
“Wh-what…?”
Park Ji-hoon clutched his chest and staggered to his feet.
Park Ha-yan likewise wiped the cold sweat beading on her forehead, her eyes dazed as she surveyed her surroundings.
The first thing that caught their eyes was dozens of grotesque Demon Creature corpses scattered across the floor.
And.
My silhouette standing with the radiant holy blade in hand, not a single drop of blood upon it.
“B-big brother…”
Park Ji-hoon’s jaw fell open.
His expression utterly dumbfounded.
He alternated his gaze between me and the corpses, his words stumbling.
“Did you… did you take them all down, hyung? Before we even woke from the dream?”
Park Ha-yan said nothing.
Rather, she couldn’t.
The spirits hovering around her trembled, transmitting waves of terror through their connection.
‘Those corpses.’
The aura of the Demon Creatures slaughtered before her eyes.
Judging by the spirits’ reaction, every creature scattered across this ground was either comparable to her in strength or far more powerful.
Such monsters—while she had been floundering in the dream, managing only to pierce one’s heart in that fleeting instant.
‘He slaughtered them alone.’
Not a single drop of blood staining his form.
Victory achieved without even a tremor in his breath.
Awe rippled across Park Ha-yan’s eyes.
Her benefactor was far vaster and more distant than anything she had imagined.
Ding!
That was when it happened.
A crimson message window materialized in the air, obscuring the vision of all three.
[You have breached the Gatekeepers of Illusion.]
[You have overcome the first trial of ‘Incomprehensible’.]
[Warning: The path ahead grows far more merciless.]
[Will you abandon the challenge now and return?]
A surrender proposal.
The System was graciously opening an escape route.
Park Ji-hoon read the message and swallowed hard.
“H-hey, hyung. This… does this mean we can give up?”
He glanced around.
We’d nearly died in a nightmare the moment we began.
When consciousness returned, Demon Creatures far stronger than himself lay scattered before us.
He must have been terrified.
But I let out a dry laugh.
Give up?
[Warning: Should you abandon or fail the challenge, Demon Creatures of ‘Incomprehensible’ difficulty will descend upon Earth.]
There was no way.
If I fled here?
The weakened Demon Creatures scaled to my level wouldn’t be the ones to emerge.
The moment they manifested on Earth, they would shed the System’s constraints.
True Demon Creatures in their original weight class—genuine ‘Incomprehensible-grade’ beings—would pour down upon the heart of Seoul.
Not just Korea, but the entire Earth could be reduced to ash in a single day.
If I couldn’t overcome even this, Earth would face annihilation once more.
So, I would sooner die than surrender.
“If you want to give up, leave alone.”
I swiped the message window away.
Then, dragging Abriel’s blade along the ground, I trudged forward.
“W-wait! Hyung! Don’t go without us!”
Park Ji-hoon scrambled to grip his longsword properly and hurried after me.
Park Ha-yan took a sharp breath, then set her jaw and followed in my shadow.
There was no escape route.
All that remained was to chew through this insane difficulty to the very end.
* * *
“Haa, haa….”
Yamamoto let his blood-soaked katana dangle to the ground.
His breathing came in ragged gasps.
Beads of sweat rolled down from his forehead, dripping from his chin.
“Indeed….”
He twisted his blood-stained lips upward.
“True Hell itself.”
The difficulty was on an entirely different scale from ordinary Hell.
His current level was 45.
A monstrous figure achieved through countless slaughters, Quests, and Nectar support from his main body.
But.
The Demon Creatures appearing here seemed to possess even higher levels.
Minimum fifty to sixty range.
The moment he entered, he was greeted by swarms of bats pouring from the darkness and the stench of blood.
‘Vampires.’
High-ranking Demon Creatures.
They commanded subordinate demons from their own shadows without limit, and hurled curses using scattered blood as a medium—formidable adversaries indeed.
“Krraaaagh!”
“Guild Master! Cough!”
The battle was brutal.
One party member’s body burst from within, struck by the Vampire’s blood curse.
One of the Warrior Guild’s elite died gruesomely just ten minutes after entering.
But Yamamoto paid no mind.
His comrade’s death barely registered in his consciousness.
‘The weak deserve to perish.’
His blade flashed brilliantly.
Divine power bestowed by the War Deity.
Fighting Spirit erupted crimson, piercing the Vampire’s heart with perfect precision.
“Kuh, uuugh… a mere human…!”
The Vampire Count crumbled into ash.
In that instant, warm light cascaded across Yamamoto’s entire body.
Ding!
[You have subjugated the high-ranking Demon Creature ‘Vampire Count’!]
[You gain substantial experience points.]
[Your level has increased!]
[Level: 45 → 46]
“Kuhahahaha!”
Yamamoto laughed heartily.
A single monster slain, yet his level rose.
This was no Hell—it was the ultimate hunting ground that would elevate him to the ranks of legend.
But the System’s notifications didn’t end there.
Ding!
[The Party Leader’s level has increased.]
[The Abyss of the Demon Realm trembles in accordance with the Party Leader’s level.]
[Warning: The abilities of Demon Creatures appearing henceforth will be enhanced in proportion to the Party Leader’s level.]
“…Hoh.”
Yamamoto’s eyes gleamed with intensity.
As I grow stronger, so do my enemies.
How perfectly fair and exhilarating a battlefield this is.
The amount of experience points gained would naturally increase as well.
Ding!
[Warning: The trials of ‘Complete Hell’ become even more merciless.]
[Will you abandon the challenge and return now?]
[Caution: Should you abandon or fail the challenge, Demon Creatures of ‘Complete Hell’ difficulty will manifest on Earth and bring ruin.]
Yamamoto scoffed at the message.
Demon Creatures manifesting on Earth?
Bringing ruin?
This calamity occurred because he opened this difficulty.
Throughout the entire world, only he had ever opened this gate.
But.
‘It doesn’t matter.’
Yamamoto flicked the blood from his katana.
‘There’s no question of giving up.’
His eyes glimmered with madness.
‘I’ll clear this difficulty with ease.’
Yamamoto turned to face the ten surviving party members.
“Stand up.”
Yamamoto growled.
“There’s no time for rest. We press forward.”
The exhausted party members struggled to their feet.
Some trembled with terror, others caught their breath while bleeding.
And standing expressionlessly behind them was Satoshi.
They followed Yamamoto’s silhouette in silence, their footsteps steady.
None dared to speak.
They instinctively understood that defying Yamamoto’s will meant a death far more gruesome than what the Vampire Count could inflict.
* * *
How far had we traveled?
We were walking through a desert where blood-red sand swirled in the wind.
“…Brother, am I seeing things wrong?”
Park Ji-hoon rubbed his eyes and pointed ahead.
My jaw dropped wide open.
“That’s… supposed to be in Egypt, isn’t it?”
A colossal silhouette emerged through the sandstorm.
A massive structure that pierced the sky itself, rising defiantly upward.
A Pyramid.
And before it stood an enormous guardian blocking the way.
A stone statue with a lion’s body and a human head.
The Sphinx.
“A Pyramid in the Demon Realm…”
Park Ha-yan murmured in disbelief.
The spirits trembled anxiously, circling around her in nervous loops.
It was incongruous.
Could the space of the Demon Realm and the ancient civilizational ruins of Earth truly overlap so blatantly like this?
It was as jarring a sight as a demon’s fortress suddenly rising in the heart of Seoul.
That was when it happened.
Rummmmmble!
Golden light flashed in the Sphinx’s two eyes.
The petrified stone statue moved.
Its mouth gaped open, and a weighty voice that shook the very air poured forth.
【Who dares approach the tomb of the great king!】
A roar that nearly shattered my eardrums.
Park Ji-hoon reflexively gripped his sword hilt.
Park Ha-yan likewise drew upon the spirits’ power.
But the Sphinx did not attack.
Instead, it gazed down at us arrogantly and spoke.
【I am the guardian of wisdom and death. To pass the tomb, you must overcome my trial.】
The Sphinx’s gleaming eyes swept across us.
【I shall pose a riddle. Fail to answer correctly and you shall perish; succeed and you shall earn the right to enter the tomb.】
A riddle.
A sort of mechanism.
This too was a pattern.
Usually, in trials of this kind, failure to answer correctly triggers instant death or a devastating area-wide attack.
It was like the fundamental rule of an escape room.
“Um, what kind of riddle? Since it’s the Sphinx, maybe something like… four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, three legs in the evening…?”
Park Ji-hoon swallowed hard and tried to sound knowledgeable.
But the Sphinx fell silent.
Its golden eyes merely gleamed brilliantly, offering no words whatsoever.
Silence descended.
Only the sound of the sandstorm brushed against my ears.
【Now, speak your answer.】
The Sphinx spoke abruptly.
【Time limit: five minutes. You have only one chance.】
“…What?”
Park Ji-hoon’s expression turned utterly bewildered.
“Wait, shouldn’t you pose a riddle before we can answer it?”
“I didn’t hear anything at all.”
Park Ha-yan chimed in urgently.
But the Sphinx remained silent.
It simply stared at us with wide eyes, as if measuring the passage of time itself.
“What kind of absurdity is this!”
Park Ji-hoon erupted in frustration.
It hadn’t said anything—what riddle could it have posed?
Had it sent a telepathic message?
I gathered my thoughts calmly.
‘…If it truly posed a riddle.’
If the Sphinx wasn’t lying, then we genuinely missed the question.
Could it have posed the riddle at a frequency human ears—or any living creature—couldn’t perceive?
I quietly surveyed my surroundings.
‘No.’
If that were the case, the spirits would have reacted.
Spirits that read the vibrations of nature would have caught even the faintest sound.
Yet Park Ha-yan’s spirits merely trembled with unease, conveying no message.
The holy sword Abriel in my grip was equally silent.
Quiet.
Then it wasn’t ‘sound.’
I examined the Sphinx carefully, and the Pyramid rising behind it.
The Demon Realm.
The territory of demons.
Why did a Pyramid and Sphinx exist here?
Such structures belonged to Earth’s civilizations.
Had the System malfunctioned, corrupting the textures?
‘No.’
The System is flawless.
Then this incongruous backdrop itself was the hint.
Those very things were the ‘riddle.’
Perhaps I was meant to answer the question posed by this situation itself.
Why did Earth’s relics exist here?
Why did we stand in such a contradictory space?
And why did it demand an answer in absolute silence?
The puzzle pieces began to align.
‘A dream.’
A single word brushing through my mind.
A hallucination.
When I first entered the Demon Realm, that phantasmal space where the Succubus had imprisoned us.
We had certainly pierced her heart with Abriel and awakened from that nightmare.
And we slaughtered the Succubus and the Demon Creatures.
‘Yet we have entered it once more.’
More refined this time.
To a level of perfection indistinguishable from reality itself.
‘…How utterly vile.’
Chills ran down my spine.
Truly ‘Incomprehensible.’
A labyrinth beyond understanding.
The moment we believed ourselves awake, we plunged deeper into the dream—a double, triple trap designed to ensnare us.
So that is why the presence of Earth exists here.
Because the architect of this dream is an entity of Earth itself.
I let out a hollow laugh.
“Now I understand.”
The moment I spoke, Park Ji-hoon and Park Ha-yan turned to face me.
“Hyung-nim? Do you know the answer?”
“This is not a riddle posed by the Sphinx.”
I stared directly at the Sphinx’s colossal stone statue.
And beyond it, toward the true master controlling this vast illusion, I spoke.
“Enough games.”
Not a nightmare demon, but something far worse.
Yet there is one crucial difference from a nightmare demon.
‘If one makes an extreme choice here, one truly dies.’
Just as in the previous dream, if I slit my throat or pierce my heart, I would truly perish.
Even knowing this is a dream, I cannot escape by the same method.
Ha.
The difficulty was truly nightmarish beyond measure.
I gripped Abriel tighter.
The holy blade gleamed brilliantly.
And I called out his name.
“‘Mayon.'”
Mayon.
The ancient demon who appeared in Park Ha-yan’s dreams and urged her into a contract.
The anomaly of Timal Mythology, known as the Black Human!
-W-What?! How does a human know my name?!
The moment my voice called out his name, space began to writhe and distort like waves.

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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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