The Mage Who Devours Disasters - Chapter 56

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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 56.
The colossal form of the Sphinx crumbled like watercolor paint bleeding across canvas.
The massive stone blocks of the Pyramid collapsed like a sandcastle.
The air tore open, and black smoke billowed forth.
Mayon.
A monstrosity from the ancient Timal Mythology.
A shadow of darkness that feasted upon human fear and nightmares.
“Eek!”
Park Ha-yan stumbled backward in shock.
I remembered it vividly.
That sweet yet chilling voice of temptation that had sought to imprison me in eternal despair.
“Brother! What the hell is that thing!”
Park Ji-hoon drew his longsword and shouted.
But it had no intention of fighting.
Whoosh!
The black smoke coiled like a serpent, then surged skyward.
It was trying to flee.
Monstrosities were inherently supernatural beings.
They thrived on mystery and the unknown.
The moment their identity was exposed and their true name was spoken, their power diminished rapidly.
That’s why they always retreated when their names were called.
But.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
I tightened my grip on Abriel.
Blaze!
The blade of the Holy Sword blazed with blinding white light.
I hurled Abriel toward the rupture in space, the very opening through which the black smoke sought to escape.
Whoosh!
Abriel streaked through the air, tracing a luminous arc.
The Holy Sword pierced precisely through Mayon’s tail—or rather, the core nucleus of the black smoke.
Thud!
Crack!
“Krraaaaaaagh!”
A scream bordering on a death cry echoed through the Demon Realm.
The black smoke thrashed and writhed in agony.
But it could not escape.
The holy power of Abriel anchored itself in space, binding Mayon in place.
Sacred chains wrapped around the black smoke, dragging it down to the ground.
“It burns! I’m burning! Aaaaagh!”
Mayon shrieked.
To him, the incarnation of darkness and nightmares, the light of the holy sword graced by the Archangel was no different than sulfuric acid.
I walked leisurely toward where the creature writhed.
“Ugh… save me, please save me….”
Black smoke coalesced into a human form—no, a grotesque demon’s visage—as it pleaded.
I seized the creature’s throat as one might grab a collar, clutching the nape of the black smoke.
“You aberration of Earth.”
I gazed down at it with eyes cold as ice.
“Why are you in the Demon Realm?”
Mayon’s pupils—or rather, the two hollow voids where they should be—trembled frantically.
“Why are you serving as a gatekeeper to this trial of the Incomprehensible?”
“That is… that is….”
“Answer only what I ask.”
I tapped the hilt of Abriel lightly.
Holy power erupted once more, searing through Mayon’s form.
“Ahhhhh! I’ll speak! I’ll tell you, please!”
Mayon trembled, consumed by terror.
The creature couldn’t even look directly at me.
“How… how can a mere human contract with an Archangel and wield a holy sword? Are you… not human at all?!”
Shock dripped from the creature’s voice.
A paradox even an aberration could not comprehend.
Transcendent power dwelling in a human body.
I smiled faintly.
“I ask the questions.”
“Hik…!”
At my piercing gaze, the creature hastily opened its mouth.
“I made a contract! With the ‘Incomprehensible Entity’ coiled in the deepest reaches of this Demon Realm… at its very edge!”
“The Incomprehensible Entity?”
“Yes! It called to me! It heard my voice across dimensions and summoned me to this place!”
Mayon continued, trembling.
“It proposed a bargain. In this Illusory Maze, judge the souls of challengers, it said. If I trap them eternally within nightmares… it promised to grant me the ‘Sacred Flame’!”
The Sacred Flame.
I knew what that was.
Before the Common Era, in the Timal Era.
Mayon’s fall to being called the Black Demon was connected to the Sacred Flame.
The tale told how Mayon attempted to steal that flame from his brother Gugulang, known as the God of Light, and was cast out, becoming a demon.
“If I obtain that flame… even an aberration like me can gain a complete form and become the ‘Nightmare King’!”
Mayon cried out as though wronged.
It meant the creature had crawled into the Demon Realm of its own volition, blinded by greed.
Yet beneath the creature’s words lay a fear far deeper than any greed.
“But… but that wasn’t the only reason….”
“…?”
“I couldn’t refuse. The moment I heard that entity’s voice… my very soul felt crushed. It was so horrifying, so terrifying… I didn’t even dare to defy it!”
Mayon’s pupils contorted with terror.
The grotesque feeds on fear itself.
Human dread is their sustenance.
Yet even Mayon—a creature that thrives on terror—trembled to the bone, shaken by this being.
‘Is that what waits at the end of this?’
I tightened my grip on Abriel.
The Incomprehensible.
An Abyss beyond understanding.
That thing coiled in its deepest reaches.
‘But why Mayon, of all creatures?’
Questions spiraled endlessly.
Why would that entity bother to summon Mayon—a grotesque born on Earth—across dimensional boundaries to this place?
The Demon Realm surely harbored countless high-ranking Demon Creatures and illusionists.
Why choose Earth’s nightmare specifically?
I regarded Mayon with cold indifference.
“What is that entity’s name?”
“I, I don’t know! I don’t know!”
Mayon shook his head desperately.
“It has no form, no name! Only a colossal voice that tears through my mind… Aaaahhh!”
The creature suddenly clutched its head and began screaming.
Crackle! Sizzzzle!
Mayon’s body, composed of black smoke, twisted grotesquely.
“Wh, what is this…!”
Park Ji-hoon stumbled backward in shock.
Park Ha-yan gathered her spirits, assuming a defensive stance.
Something was surging from within Mayon’s form.
It was neither the radiance of a holy blade nor the malice of a nightmare.
It was something far denser, more ominous—a pitch-black darkness that seemed to devour all existence.
“No, please! Save me! I was wrong! Kyaaaaaahhh!”
Mayon wailed toward the heavens in anguish.
But even that scream was being consumed by the pitch-black darkness.
I analyzed the scene before me.
‘This isn’t self-destruction.’
Some colossal force was extending from the distant Abyss of the Demon Realm, forcibly twisting and tearing apart the creature’s soul.
‘The Incomprehensible. It’s killing Mayon.’
That word struck my mind once more.
Perhaps the ‘Incomprehensible difficulty’ itself…
…was The Incomprehensible incarnate.
The nameless entity itself was reaching out its hand to annihilate Mayon.
Why?
Simply because the mission had failed?
There had to be a reason for such desperate haste, such thorough erasure.
It seemed Mayon held a crucial key to this trial.
As if allowing him to live would expose something disadvantageous to the entity itself.
“Krraaaagh! I’m burning away! My very existence!”
Mayon’s screams continued without pause.
Black smoke scattered as his core was moments away from shattering into fragments.
I withdrew Abriel and approached Mayon directly.
The pressure of darkness crushing him pierced my skin, but Abriel’s holy power repelled it.
“Do you wish to live?”
I asked coldly.
“P-please! I’ll do anything if you just let me live!”
Mayon nodded frantically.
Pride meant nothing to him now.
Even a grotesque creature was merely a weak creation that begged for mercy before true annihilation.
I turned my head and looked at Park Ha-yan.
“Park Ha-yan.”
“Y-yes! Yes!”
“Make a contract with him.”
“…!”
Park Ha-yan’s eyes widened.
She flinched in surprise and stepped back.
A contract with Mayon.
To her, Mayon was a nightmare incarnate.
The chilling monster that had shown her parents’ death as illusions and tried to devour her very soul.
Her body trembled violently.
The spirits grew restless at her anxiety, their light dimming.
“Do not be afraid.”
I spoke with unwavering resolve.
“He brought nightmares upon you. But in the end, he is merely a type of spirit.”
A vicious spirit born from darkness and fear.
That is Mayon’s true nature.
“Overcome him and take dominion.”
I gazed directly into her eyes.
“You can do this.”
Those words alone.
You can do this.
My voice, filled with absolute certainty, pierced her ears.
Park Ha-yan’s trembling ceased.
She bit down on her lips hard.
Hard enough to draw blood.
And then, slowly, she nodded.
“…I will do this.”
She stepped forward.
The terror that had clouded her eyes receded, replaced by an unwavering resolve that blazed forth.
The seed of a Spirit Lord.
That transcendent talent was finally beginning to bloom amid the crisis.
Park Ha-yan extended both hands toward Mayon’s scattering black smoke, releasing her mana.
Whoooosh!
Pure white light and pitch-black darkness collided.
A spirit contract.
The ritual to bind their souls together had begun.
“Ugh, uuuugh…!”
Mayon instinctively resisted.
But it was better than the agony of being torn apart by the Incomprehensible Entity.
To survive, he had to grasp the leash Park Ha-yan offered.
That was when it happened.
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!
The ground of the Demon Realm convulsed.
The sky tore open, and crimson lightning rained down.
A colossal will intent on disrupting the contract.
The Incomprehensible was raging.
“Shrieeeeeek!”
“Kill them! Tear them apart!”
Grotesque shrieks erupted from the red sandstorm surrounding us.
Hundreds of Demon Creatures burst through the ground and tore through the air.
Demon Creatures far larger and more ferocious than those the Succubus had commanded.
They charged to shred us to pieces.
“Park Ji-hoon!”
I shouted.
“Yes, hyung!”
Park Ji-hoon gripped his longsword and responded.
But his voice trembled faintly.
Before the overwhelming numbers and vicious demonic aura, human instinct sounded its alarm.
“Protect Park Ha-yan.”
“…!”
“The Sword Saint’s soul I gave you—listen to what he says.”
Park Ji-hoon’s eyes wavered.
He gazed down at his blade.
The Destroyed World, Garcia.
The final hero who had stood alone to defend that place, resisting to the very end.
That noble and unbreakable spirit now dwelled within Park Ji-hoon’s soul.
“Don’t be afraid. You’re destined to become something far greater than anyone else.”
At my words, Park Ji-hoon swallowed hard.
And then.
Shwiiing.
The aura emanating from his blade transformed.
It was no longer the shallow killing intent of some street thug.
Heavy, razor-sharp, overwhelming sword energy.
“…I’ll leave it to you, hyung.”
A piercing azure light crystallized in Park Ji-hoon’s eyes.
The Sword Saint’s soul was awakening, merging with him.
He positioned himself in front of Park Ha-yan.
Like an immense barrier that would not allow a single Demon Creature to approach her.
“I trust you.”
I turned my head.
Then, toward the cascading horde of Demon Creatures, I advanced without hesitation.

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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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