The Mage Who Devours Disasters - Chapter 79

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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 79.
I stared blankly at the message window hovering in the void.
I was at a loss for words.
My mind flashed white.
Seven days of agonizing deliberation, countless simulations, and all the mental anguish I’d endured trying to help him—it all seemed laughably futile now.
‘One day.’
The war had lasted barely twenty-four hours.
Matchups? Factions? The number of Apostle Deities?
None of it mattered.
The Sovereign of All Things had devoured it all alone, tearing apart the Deity of Suffocation—once called his natural nemesis—along with his very Altar.
Ding!
[Your Phase skyrockets explosively.]
[Rag is promoted to Master of the 61st Floor of the Tower!]
The Phase of each layer cascaded upward like dominoes.
Six entire floors had surged forward at once.
The 61st Floor.
It was a transformation equivalent to a seismic upheaval that shook the Tower’s entire ecosystem.
“Ha.”
A hollow laugh escaped me.
Heimdall had triumphed spectacularly.
He had perfectly realized his arrogant proclamations.
He had demonstrated his overwhelming divine authority unmistakably across all of Asgard.
Without any assistance.
He had accomplished it using only his pure strength, without exploiting a single variable I had worried about.
‘…Had I been underestimating Heimdall all along?’
A typhoon cannot blow in a space of suffocation.
Against an undead legion, an army of the living is powerless.
How had he possibly reversed such absolute disadvantage?
Only one thing was certain.
‘The past has changed.’
This event did not exist in my previous life’s records.
Heimdall should have remained on Layer 387.
But he had broken through the wall.
Moreover, from this single victory, the gaze and public opinion of the Deities wandering Asgard had completely reversed.
All the miracles and wonders I had displayed countless times from the Selection Chamber to the Banquet.
Even that sensational topic of wielding Kwon Cheonsa’s blade and cutting down a Superior Deity.
‘It’s all been buried.’
All attention had converged upon Heimdall.
Those Deities at the Banquet of Gods who had envied and slandered him.
The apex predators of the Supreme Tier like Skadi, who regarded him as a rival and hungrily eyed his leash.
Everyone fell silent as a tomb.
Heimdall.
He was no longer a mere leader of the Natural Faction.
He had become the true ‘eye of the typhoon’—capable of swallowing all of Asgard whole.
Whoooosh!
A dimensional gate opened.
I ascended toward the 388th Floor.
“Lord Heimdall.”
I bowed deeply before him, reclining casually upon his jade throne.
“I offer a toast to your victory.”
As I lifted my head, Heimdall’s appearance came into focus.
Not a single wound marred his form.
His breathing remained perfectly steady, his expression serene beyond measure.
He swirled the goblet of Nectar he held with casual grace.
Heimdall let out a soft chuckle.
“Your astonishment is written plainly across your face, Rag.”
Beneath his piercing gaze, I carefully composed my expression.
“To be honest, I was deeply concerned.”
I answered evenly.
“Against the Deity of Suffocation Venus and five Apostle Deities—natural enemies fighting a defensive war—I cannot fathom how you achieved such a flawless victory.”
A question half flattery, half genuine curiosity.
I truly did wonder how he had won.
Heimdall drained the Nectar in one swift gulp.
“Natural enemies, you say.”
He set the empty goblet down upon the table with a decisive clink.
“If wind cannot breathe, then shatter the very vessel that contains it. Simple as that.”
“…Shatter it?”
“Venus’s vacuum domain? Such a pathetic cage cannot confine my typhoon—it is far too immense.”
Crude and direct, yet the most certain answer.
Overcoming matchups ultimately comes down to overwhelming output and a difference in tier.
“Those five Apostle Deities are no different.”
Deep contempt flickered in Heimdall’s eyes.
“No matter how desperately those wretches struggle, they are but fallen leaves before my storm.”
He reclined once more, a leisurely smile playing at his lips as he rested his chin upon his hand.
“However, Rag.”
Heimdall’s voice grew heavy and grave.
“This is not enough.”
“…What do you mean by ‘not enough’?”
His gaze turned toward the void.
Toward the distant, towering apex where the Twelve Sovereigns dwelled.
“The 388th Floor is not my final destination.”
Heimdall’s fist clenched tight.
The sound of knuckles cracking echoed through the space.
“I will ascend to the seat of the Twelve Sovereigns before long.”
I could sense this was no empty boast.
It was the certainty of one who had transcended all boundaries.
A mad ambition radiated from him—to tear the leashes from the necks of the Twelve Sovereigns and claim that throne for himself.
That fierce competitive spirit pricked my skin like needles.
“So then.”
Heimdall turned his gaze back to me, regarding me directly.
“You climb faster as well, Rag.”
His expression brimmed with anticipation for how far I could ascend.
Simultaneously, goosebumps rose across my skin.
This expectation didn’t seem to be mere encouragement of an Apostle Deity.
‘He’s planning to raise me up and then devour me.’
If I stagnate, I die.
Even if I climb, Heimdall himself will become a colossal wall blocking my path.
I faced Heimdall and reflected.
How perfectly true to form he was.
And precisely because of that.
‘Before that happens, I’ll devour you first, Heimdall.’
My competitive spirit surged like molten lava.
Master and disciple, eyeing each other’s throats while wearing false smiles.
Could any alliance be more exhilarating than this?
“I shall remember well.”
I lifted the corners of my mouth slightly and bowed respectfully.
“I will climb as swiftly and savagely as possible to meet your expectations, Heimdall.”
“Swiftly and savagely, you say.”
Was that too presumptuous?
But Heimdall paid it no mind.
Rather.
“Ha ha! I like that answer very much. Yes, that’s how my Apostle Deity should be!”
He laughed even more heartily.
* * *
‘Logout.’
My vision flickered.
Divine power drained away like a receding tide.
I opened my eyes.
The familiar musty ceiling of my semi-basement rental room came into view.
I slowly pushed myself upright and exhaled a ragged breath.
“Huff.”
It was almost time.
‘Episode 5 is beginning.’
The exploration of the Abyss of the Demon Realm—Episode 4—had concluded, and the stage shifted once more to the real world, to Earth itself.
Earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, typhoons.
The terrible calamities we had grown all too familiar with were coming again.
But this time would be fundamentally different.
‘The Deities’ direct intervention.’
The declarations that had echoed through the Banquet of Gods circled endlessly in my mind.
Countless upper and supreme tier Deities had proclaimed their participation in Earth’s amusement.
Most critically.
‘All Twelve Chief Deities are creating Avatars.’
Even the damned heads of this Tower had threatened to descend by crafting Avatars of their own.
Considering the staggering quantities of Nectar they would deploy, Earth’s atmosphere and ley lines were already expanding toward their breaking point.
In other words, the difficulty itself would leap to an entirely different dimension from the trivial games the lower-tier Deities had been playing.
Not mere earthquakes, but continental fault collapses would tear the land asunder; not ordinary typhoons, but annihilating storms that would scour the very heavens would descend.
For humanity, it would be a hellscape hastening the apocalypse itself.
Grrr.
I clenched my fists.
In other words.
‘Greater and more colossal opportunities had emerged.’
A chance to devour the Deities.
A buffet where I could absorb their authority and steal their divinity to expand my vessel infinitely.
And perhaps.
‘If fortune favored me, I could even consume the Avatars of the Twelve Chief Deities.’
The moment I swallowed the divine essence of a Chief Deity, I couldn’t even fathom how far my power would explode.
I couldn’t afford to miss this opportunity.
Now I simply had to wait for the stage to be set.
That was when it happened.
Rummmmmble!
The old glass window of my studio apartment rattled violently.
The wallpaper tore, and dust cascaded down from the ceiling.
‘An earthquake?’
No.
It wasn’t the ordinary tremor of earth.
It felt as though the very atmosphere itself was being crushed, screaming in agony.
Ding!
[Episode 5, ‘Hyakki Yagyō: Night Parade of One Hundred Demons’ has begun.]
[When night falls, countless demons will emerge.]
[If you do not eliminate them all before dawn breaks, the demons will transform into ‘Death Gods’.]
[The descending calamity’s hierarchy is unprecedented in magnitude.]
[Rewards are maximized.]
It had begun.
Episode 5: Hyakki Yagyō (Night Parade of One Hundred Demons).
I lurched from my seat and peered out the window.
“…Quite the spectacle.”
Innumerable pillars of light.
As anticipated, the difficulty had skyrocketed to absurd heights.
Before my regression, Episode 5 during this period was nothing like this.
At most, a handful of yokai would sporadically erupt in each region and cause mayhem.
It was merely a relatively mundane incident—Awakened ones would gather in small groups to subjugate them, and that would be the end of it.
But now.
It had transformed entirely into the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons.
I couldn’t even fathom how many yokai would ravage these streets tonight.
‘Yokai.’
A calamity of an entirely different nature than beasts or demons.
Mythology, legend, or humanity’s ancient and sinister imagination—manifesting as tangible form and descending upon the world.
Formless terror, vague and shapeless, awakening before one’s very eyes.
The boundaries between life and death, human and spirit, this world and the next blur and merge.
‘Grandiose words aside.’
The essence remained singular.
Things that never existed appear.
Donning forms that humanity instinctively abhors or fears in their very bones.
In the past, the first yokai to descend upon Korea bore the grotesque visage of a bean-like mass.
Building-sized frogs that devoured human entrails emerged, as did centipede yokai that coiled around skyscrapers.
But.
‘These won’t be yokai of the past’s caliber.’
This time, the Twelve Chief Deities were involved.
It was inconceivable that mere frogs or centipedes would suffice.
Pillars of light tearing through the heavens, cascading downward.
The overwhelming divine resonance emanating from the Twelve Chief Deities and the Avatars of the Supreme Tier Deities as they descended.
The vast Nectar they deployed would mingle with the yin essence of the earth, birthing yokai of unimaginable horror.
“….”
I gazed at the sky with cold, settled eyes.
Darkness was descending.
The hour of the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons approached.
A warning: failure to resolve everything before daybreak would transform them into death gods.
Somewhere within those pillars of light, the apex prey I must hunt coiled and waited.
Crackle.
It was then.
“…!”
My right hand suddenly went numb with an intensity that bordered on madness.
It bore no resemblance to ordinary pain.
An unbearable hunger—as though my very bones were being scraped away—pierced through my palm.
Uuuuuuung!
The golden rune inscribed upon my right palm rapidly activated, unleashing a dazzling radiance.
The predator’s instinct.
A violent resonance far more intense than anything I had experienced while hunting the previous Deities washed over me.
Shuuuuuk!
From the golden rune, a slender golden thread extended outward.
Like the nose of a hunting hound that had caught the scent of prey, the thread’s terminus cut through the void and surged forward.
That endpoint connected directly to one of the countless pillars of light piercing the sky above Seoul.
The most colossal one—the pillar radiating the most savage and ferocious demonic power.
I raised my right hand and twisted my lips into a grin.
“Is that what you hunger for?”

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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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