The Mage Who Devours Disasters - Chapter 81

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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 81.
Death wears many names.
It is called by as many different titles as there are beings who wield and embody that terror.
Yet among all those countless names, “Thanatos” carried a weight that was uniquely terrible and profound.
In the past.
One of the death gods who had slaughtered humanity most ruthlessly.
Born from the pure essence of death itself, it had reigned as a calamity incarnate—a high-tier fiend of unimaginable power.
‘That monster shouldn’t appear for at least another five years.’
If my memory served me correctly, that was certain.
A late-stage boss-class creature that could only be confronted after the Tower’s gates had opened for some time and the Awakened had grown sufficiently strong.
So why.
Why in the world had that lunatic appeared already?
And with the absurd title of ‘Supreme Commander of the Hundred Ghosts Night Parade’ no less.
“Hah.”
I swallowed hard, gripping Abriel’s hilt with white knuckles.
Fortunately, it wasn’t moving.
Bound in the center of the Pillar of Light, only blue flames flickered within its hollow eye sockets.
Was it because the Hundred Ghosts Night Parade hadn’t truly begun yet?
Or did this shell require some specific condition to be met before it could fully activate and move?
‘Either way, it doesn’t matter.’
Uuuuuuuung!
My right hand throbbed with maddening intensity.
The golden rune inscribed on my palm burned searing hot, pointing at the creature with ferocious urgency.
—Consume it.
—Devour it whole!
Hunger surged through me, overwhelming and irresistible.
More intensely than any prey I had ever tasted, I craved to tear into that skeletal mass and swallow it whole.
But I hesitated.
‘…That’s not a Deity.’
Something was wrong.
Everything my right hand had responded to thus far had been unmistakable.
Avatars of the Gods.
Divine calamities.
Or fragments of power they emanated.
But Thanatos?
It was merely a supreme-tier fiend formed from concentrated death essence.
Not a typical calamity, and certainly not divine authority.
A being of entirely different nature from everything I had consumed before.
So why was I reacting this intensely?
Questions churned through my mind.
That was when it happened.
“…Save me.”
A voice so eerily parched it seemed to crackle with the sound of metal.
Thanatos opened his mouth.
The skeletal jaw clattered as waves of sound pierced directly into my consciousness.
I flinched and turned to stare at him.
Thanatos continued, his tone mingling fear with resignation.
“My… body.”
Thanatos whispered in despair.
“It’s being stolen. By that terrible darkness….”
“Darkness?”
“The Dark Deity… Hod.”
The moment I heard that name.
A shock as if my head had been struck violently pierced through my entire body.
‘The Dark Deity Hod!’
One of the Twelve Chief Deities.
The very Dark Deity who had gazed down at me with such arrogance in the Banquet Hall and declared the beginning of the game—his name had just come from Thanatos.
“He’s trying to seize my body….”
Thanatos’s spirit screamed.
“Devouring my death, my Abyss… trying to make me his vessel…!”
Insane.
Only then did I understand.
The true nature of every contradiction and dissonance that had circled through my mind.
It all crystallized into one terrible truth.
‘I had assumed the Deities’ game could only proceed through human flesh.’
A misconception.
A fixed assumption.
All the Avatars of the past had been human.
They had crafted vessels using the souls of exceptional heroes or mortals of special bloodlines as mediums.
But the Twelve Chief Deities are different.
They were already breaking that mold.
‘Things have changed.’
Earth’s level had been elevated to Grade A.
The amount of Nectar they could deploy was beyond imagination.
Then there was no reason to insist on the clearly limited and fragile vessel of ‘humanity’.
Rather.
A stronger existence.
A more ferocious and immense container.
They were attempting to use ‘calamity’ itself—something capable of holding divine power far beyond any human hero—as the base for their Avatar.
‘So that’s why Thanatos appeared so soon.’
A supreme-tier yokai that shouldn’t naturally manifest for another five years.
Hod was forcibly extracting the causal chain of its death and molding it into the perfect avatar vessel tailored to his desires.
A body of a different dimension.
Poured into it was a maddening amount of Nectar.
That was why the Pillar of Light towered so immensely and arrogantly before us.
“….”
I tightened my grip on Abriel.
Chills ran down my spine.
If I left this unchecked.
If the divinity of one of the Twelve Chief Deities, Hod, took perfect root within that skeletal mass and awakened.
A true ‘Dark Deity’ would descend—one that would plunge all of Earth into absolute darkness.
Uuuuuuuung!
The golden rune on my right hand screamed once more.
-Devour it.
-That immense divinity, that arrogant darkness!
-Consume it all!
Hunger surged through me like a tidal wave.
The predator’s instinct threatened to overwhelm reason.
I drew in a deep breath.
‘The Dark Deity Hod has broken the mold.’
It was catastrophic.
One of the Twelve Chief Deities was attempting to use not a weak mortal, but an outright calamitous monstrosity as a vessel.
Then the other Sovereigns would very likely follow suit.
As if bound by covenant, they would all awaken supreme-tier yokai and demonic beasts years ahead of the original timeline, claiming them as their avatars.
Or they might even seek out monsters of an entirely different caliber.
‘…What do I do.’
One temptation flickered through my mind.
What if I simply left that Pillar of Light alone until Hod completely claimed Thanatos’s body?
Then, seizing that single moment when he awakened in carelessness, I could devour both the avatar and the divinity of his true form in one fell swoop.
If I could only consume that immense Sovereign’s divinity, my power would skyrocket to a level where I could chew through Asgard itself.
But.
‘…It’s far too dangerous a gamble.’
I shook my head vigorously.
A mad gamble.
Thanatos.
Even by itself, it is a monster I cannot currently handle.
And I would let the Dark Deity Hod take complete control of that body?
Even Thanatos, a being forged from ‘death’ itself, trembles in terror and desperately yearns for ‘life’—such is the horrifying, overwhelming darkness.
That is Hod’s true nature.
To exploit a gap against such a monster?
Nonsense.
If anything, the probability of me being devoured by that creature’s Abyss was a hundred times greater.
‘Yet why does my right hand crave devouring him so desperately?’
Questions spiraled endlessly.
The golden runes on my right hand had never thrashed about with such frenzied intensity.
I knew well that my right hand possessed a vicious ‘selective appetite.’
Through repeated hunts, I had confirmed that this rune’s predation followed several distinct rules.
First, I cannot consume a Deity’s ‘primary authority’ in its raw form.
Second, only by reducing a Deity—whether their true body or avatar—to a state of death can I fully assimilate their primary authority as my own.
Third, authorities obtained by consuming a Deity whole in this manner become bound to me and usable ‘permanently.’
Fourth, conversely, lower-tier calamities can be consumed easily—only those several ranks beneath my current power level.
Fifth, however, authorities consumed this way are merely stored in my body as ‘disposable’—they vanish after a single use.
But.
‘Thanatos fits none of these categories.’
This creature is not a Deity.
It was not even an avatar bearing divine essence yet.
Most critically.
‘Death is not a calamity.’
A calamity is the ‘process’ that leads to destruction.
But death is the ‘result’ that remains after all that process concludes.
This was why the Tower of Gods harbored no Deity of Death.
Furthermore.
‘Hod has not yet descended into him.’
Though I had examined him thoroughly.
Nowhere within Thanatos’s form, even within this Pillar of Light, could I detect the ‘divine core’ that should reside in a completed avatar.
Only the framework for an avatar’s completion was being shaped; Hod had not yet manifested into this flesh.
Which meant consuming this creature would not draw Hod’s true body to me.
“P-please….”
Thanatos pleaded, his form rippling with blue flames.
“Save me… pull me from this darkness….”
I gazed down at him with eyes cold as ice.
“I have no way to save you.”
I replied flatly, continuing.
“The Dark Deity Hod is already devouring you—what method could I possibly use to extract you?”
At that, his jawbone rattled as he spoke with desperate urgency.
“Behind me… behind me….”
He raised a trembling finger, pointing behind his own back.
“If you touch that crystal sphere… the connection to the Altar will sever. Then you can prevent Hod’s descent….”
I narrowed my eyes and examined the space behind him.
Indeed, suspended in the heart of the Pillar of Light, a massive crystal sphere pulsed crimson behind Thanatos’s back.
A core that emanated ominous mana like a lump of blood.
It appeared to be the anchor that received Hod’s divine power and maintained the Avatar’s form.
‘If I touch that, the descent will be cancelled?’
If I could prevent it, I had to.
Allowing Hod to descend as things stood now would be the worst possible outcome.
I slowly passed by Thanatos and approached from behind him.
“This one?”
I asked, standing before the crimson crystal sphere.
“Yes… Please, hurry, touch it…! If the Dark Deity Hod descends, everyone will die!”
Thanatos’s voice was visibly trembling.
I reached toward the crystal sphere without hesitation.
The moment my hand made contact with the sphere.
“Kahahahahaha!”
Thanatos burst into maniacal laughter.
The pathetic, pleading figure from moments before had vanished without a trace.
“Fool!”
Black death energy erupted from his form, surging toward me.
“Stop Hod’s descent? No! That crystal sphere is a medium that devours souls! Your flesh will now become mine, Lord Thanatos!”
He shrieked with madness.
“If I escape before Hod consumes me, that’s all that matters! Hahahaha!”
It was a trap.
The specter who wanted to live had plotted to steal my body and flee before being devoured by Hod.
But.
“…What?”
Thanatos’s laughter abruptly ceased.
His blue flames wavered violently, shrinking away.
“This… what is…!”
Realizing something had gone terribly wrong, he let out a scream.
Of course it had.
The crystal sphere that was supposed to devour souls wasn’t functioning at all.
I smiled coldly and tightened my grip on the sphere.
“I knew you’d try something.”
The hand gripping the sphere.
It was my ‘right hand,’ after all.

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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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