The Mage Who Devours Disasters - Chapter 72
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 72.
“….”
Eternal Winter Fortress.
Skadi sat upon her throne, grinding her teeth.
Crunch.
A bone-chilling scraping sound echoed through the fortress interior.
Her eyes were bloodshot with fury.
‘How am I supposed to endure this humiliation?’
I had been mocked before hundreds of deities.
Heimdall’s arrogant laughter still rang in my ears.
This was the second time.
Cryos, who had been my pawn, was devoured by that rat from the 7th Floor.
And today, even Akan, my direct Apostle Deity, knelt beneath that creature’s feet.
“Lady Skadi….”
Beneath the throne.
Akan lay prostrate on the ground, drenched in blood.
He dared not lift his head.
His voice wavered between shame and fear.
“I am without excuse. However….”
Akan clenched his fists in indignation.
“Had my divine power remained intact! I would have torn apart such a lowly deity in an instant! If not for that accursed shackle…!”
Excuses.
Skadi’s gaze turned glacial.
“So.”
Her voice remained cold as ice.
“Does that change the fact that you lost?”
“…!”
“The conditions were identical for both. If anything, your body should have been far more formidable. Yet you lost. A defeat born of your shallow power and arrogance.”
Akan’s body trembled like an aspen leaf.
The chill radiating from Skadi was freezing the fortress pillars solid.
“And of all things… to Heimdall’s lapdog.”
Skadi gripped the armrest tightly.
Crack.
Fractures spiderwebbed across the ice-forged handle.
Not only had I lost the ‘Winter’s Flame’, but I had been utterly dominated in direct combat between Apostle Deities.
This stigma of defeat would torment me for a long time to come.
The Gods of Asgard would bow their heads to me outwardly, yet inwardly they would praise Heimdall’s victory and mock me.
“Lady Skadi! Please, grant me one more chance!”
Akan cried out desperately.
“I shall march to Floor 55 at once! I will release all my divine power and reduce Rag’s territory to ash, then bring you his head! Please declare war!”
A declaration of war.
A full-scale conflict between Superior Deities.
But the moment Skadi heard those words, a hollow laugh escaped her lips.
“…You’ve lost your mind.”
Skadi’s eyes darkened with contempt.
“A Superior Deity declares war on a mere Inferior Deity? And after suffering defeat once, you crawl back seeking vengeance?”
She rose from her throne.
“Don’t you understand how shameful that is? Are you truly so foolish as to utter such drivel aloud?”
“…Ugh!”
Akan flinched and pressed his head to the ground in terror.
Skadi’s fury had reached its zenith.
She was right.
A Superior Deity declaring war on an Inferior Deity was unprecedented.
Even in victory, it would be derided as one-sided slaughter, and if—by some infinitesimal chance—
If he were caught off guard like Cryos had been—
Then Skadi’s entire Faction could collapse. A catastrophic humiliation.
Moreover, Heimdall stood behind him.
Had Heimdall not openly declared he would tear apart anyone who touched Rag with a tempest?
“Silence. Withdraw.”
Skadi commanded coldly.
“Never let me witness such shameful conduct again.”
Akan bit his lip and fled from the Throne Hall like a hunted animal.
Slam.
The door closed.
Skadi collapsed back onto her throne with a heavy thud.
‘Must I truly remain here, branded a loser?’
Fury consumed her.
She craved vengeance.
She wanted to wring Rag’s arrogant neck, to tear apart Heimdall’s haughty smile.
But the chains of the Tower’s laws and justifications bound her ankles.
Then it came.
A memory suddenly flickered through Skadi’s mind.
The final moments of the Divine Banquet.
The words left behind by Hod, the Dark Deity among the Twelve Chief Deities, surfaced in her thoughts.
-All twelve of us Chief Deities have decided to manifest Avatars on Earth.
The descent of the Twelve Chief Deities’ Avatars.
Unprecedented.
Extraordinary.
‘What is the reason?’
Skadi’s eyes narrowed.
The Twelve Chief Deities do not move without purpose.
There was a reason they had openly declared their collective participation in this game.
‘They were luring others.’
A subtle smile played across Skadi’s lips.
A calculated measure to entice all other Deities to create Avatars and descend upon Earth.
Which meant that hidden somewhere on Earth was something so extraordinary that even the Twelve Chief Deities found it irresistible—or perhaps something so formidable that even they could not face it alone.
“…Heimdall.”
Skadi murmured the name softly.
Had Heimdall also created an Avatar?
What of Rag?
‘They must have. Naturally.’
Those greedy, arrogant creatures would never pass up such a delectable prize.
They were surely fashioning their vessels somewhere on Earth and indulging in this game.
“Then so be it.”
Skadi rose from her seat.
Life returned to her frozen expression.
“All that matters is victory.”
If the struggle for legitimacy within the Tower proved difficult, then the matter would be settled outside it.
Earth.
On that lawless game board, rank meant nothing, justification meant nothing, Heimdall’s protection meant nothing.
Only the one who found first and tore down first would be the victor.
If she annihilated the Avatars of Heimdall and Rag, and moreover monopolized what the Twelve Chief Deities were searching for?
Then she would be the true victor.
“Akan.”
Skadi summoned Akan once more.
Akan, who had been waiting outside, rushed in and dropped to one knee.
“You called for me, Skadi?”
“We go to Earth.”
Skadi declared it.
Akan’s eyes widened.
“Immediately, you and all my Apostle Deities shall create Avatars on Earth. Mobilize all resources and lavish Nectar upon them without restraint to accelerate their growth. I shall do the same.”
A glint of murderous intent flickered in her eyes.
No matter how formidable those two were, they were merely two.
Skadi, by contrast, had many Apostle Deities.
And that was not all.
She knew how to command a faction.
Unlike the solitary Heimdall, many Deities followed her.
It meant she could form a faction on Earth and grow stronger far more rapidly.
An unspoken rule about concealing Avatars?
To hell with it.
If I got caught up in the details, I would never be able to avenge myself against Heimdall and Rag.
“We must pursue their traces in that place.”
Skadi clenched her fist tightly.
“And the moment we find them, tear them to shreds.”
“Your will be done!”
Akan answered with an overflowing voice and bowed his head.
It was not only Skadi.
From this moment onward.
The gods of the Upper Realm and Highest Realm, who had shown little interest in the Lower Realm’s amusements until now.
As if bound by a pact, they all began simultaneously to forge their Avatars of the Gods upon Earth.
Spurred by the Twelve Chief Deities’ declaration of participation, or to seize the hidden treasures.
Each carrying their own desires and thirst for vengeance.
* * *
“Ugh….”
My head throbbed as though it might split open.
Every bone in my body seemed to cry out in agony.
My eyelids felt impossibly heavy.
That was when it happened.
‘…?’
A wet, slick sensation brushed across my face.
Something was licking my cheek repeatedly.
Warm and rough to the touch.
I forced my eyes open with effort.
“Kyaaang!”
The first thing that filled my vision was a dark snout pressed right before my nose.
Angargon.
The dragon known as the Great Calamity.
Like a puppy, he wagged his tail and rubbed his face against my cheek affectionately.
“…I’m alright now.”
I managed to lift my arm and push his massive head away.
At that, he burrowed into my embrace and whimpered softly.
He must have been quite worried seeing me collapse.
“Master!”
The door burst open and someone rushed in urgently.
It was Seria.
Her eyes were rimmed with red.
As our eyes met, color returned to her face.
“M-Master has awakened!”
She cried out in joy toward the corridor.
Heavy footsteps thundered from outside.
The Barbarian Four Brothers and the Frost Tribe Elves came rushing in, vying with one another.
I barely managed to prop myself upright against the bed, my aching lower back protesting with each movement.
“How long was I unconscious?”
Seria knelt beside my bed and answered.
“Two days, sir.”
“…Two days, no less.”
I’d been laid out far longer than I’d anticipated.
Having fought a brutal brawl against twenty-three Apostle Deities while shackled with divine power-suppressing restraints at the Divine Banquet, it was hardly surprising my body had given out.
“Heimdall himself carried you here and supported you the entire way.”
At Seria’s words, my eyebrows shot upward.
“Heimdall personally?”
“Yes. He even provided a precious divine elixir to treat your wounds before departing.”
That was unexpected.
That arrogant, cold ruler of all things had actually carried an unconscious Apostle Deity in his own arms and brought me all the way to my territory.
And he’d even prepared a divine elixir for me?
‘What wind has blown his way, exactly?’
Had my bearing at the Divine Banquet impressed him?
Or perhaps he’d been so delighted by our decisive victory over Skadi’s Faction that he couldn’t help himself?
Either way, it wasn’t unwelcome.
The more he trusted me, the more cards I’d have to play.
“Um….”
Seria hesitated, gauging my reaction.
Her expression twisted in a peculiar way.
Discomfort.
Or rather, something closer to bewilderment.
“What is it?”
At my question, Seria’s lips parted slightly.
“It’s about the people who came with you from the Divine Banquet.”
“The Divine Banquet?”
“Those women.”
Ah.
I remembered now.
‘The Priestesses.’
At the end of the Divine Banquet, Aigis had thrust them upon me as the victor’s spoils—those noble sacrifices.
There must have been dozens, if not nearly a hundred of them.
While I’d been unconscious, Seria had apparently taken them in temporarily to protect them.
“Have they caused some kind of trouble?”
“Not exactly trouble….”
Seria’s face flushed as she averted her gaze.
“I think it would be faster if you saw for yourself.”
I rose from my seat, unable to shake off an unsettling unease.
After adjusting my shoes, I followed Seria.
Floor 55, Golden Temple Annex.
We stood before an immense and ornate palace.
“Open it.”
At my command, Seria carefully pushed open the massive golden doors.
Creak, creak, creak.
The moment the doors swung wide, a warm and sweet fragrance wafted through the gap.
But.
I caught sight of what lay beyond the threshold and found myself frozen in place.
“…Cough.”
I was inwardly flustered.
An involuntary cough escaped my lips.
After that, I couldn’t open my mouth.
The palace interior was unmistakably filled with roughly a hundred Priestesses.
They varied in age, and among them were heterogeneous races like Elves and beastkin.
Yet.
Every single Priestess.
Without a single exception.
…was kneeling without a thread of clothing upon them.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
honeybeee
lmaoooo