The Mage Who Devours Disasters - Chapter 82

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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 82.
Asgard’s Abyss.
Upon a throne of darkness untouched by even a glimmer of light, Hod smiled.
‘The preparations are complete.’
Hod had prepared everything.
The perfect vessel.
A soul possessing the greatest qualities, one most befitting of myself!
‘Thanatos.’
A yokai born from death itself.
It would be the perfect material to be forged from countless deaths during this Episode 5, the Hundred Ghosts Night Parade.
The difficulty had skyrocketed dramatically.
With the Twelve Chief Deities’ declaration of participation, Nectar would overflow across the entire Earth.
“Humans cannot possibly complete Episode 5 anyway.”
Hod murmured softly.
Countless yokai would rampage, and those not dealt with before dawn would transform into ‘Death Gods’.
Even greater slaughter would unfold.
Humans could not possibly stop it.
And at the end of that blood and despair.
Thanatos, commander-in-chief and king of the yokai, would be perfected.
‘Of course, I shall shape it in human form.’
The System’s rules.
To participate as a player in Earth’s game, one must necessarily be ‘human’.
But that posed no problem for Hod.
Integrating into the System merely required crafting the external shell to match human bodily structure perfectly.
Every material used to sculpt the body was entirely at Hod’s discretion.
‘At the final moment, I shall personally annihilate all the Death Gods and reveal my dominance in one fell swoop.’
His eyes gleamed with avarice.
The gap between himself and the other avatars who had merely enjoyed the game thus far?
Laughable.
He would begin from the start with an overwhelmingly powerful ‘demigod’ body.
Of course, only a handful throughout all of Asgard could employ such shortcuts.
At most, the Twelve Chief Deities.
Even the most exalted deities of the Highest Realm would need to expend tremendous effort to attempt such a thing.
‘Because it consumes an astronomical amount of Nectar.’
To deceive the System and forge a being from another dimension—one bordering on catastrophe—into human flesh, merely pouring out Nectar would be wholly insufficient.
Special artifacts were necessary.
The ‘Thread of Clotho’ to withstand divine essence.
The ‘Sap of the World Tree’ to infuse vitality into the flesh in place of blood vessels.
And the ‘Threads of Fate’ from the Moirai to perfectly deceive the System’s gaze and designate Thanatos as ‘human’.
Finally, the product of ancient alchemy that would fuse all of this together and make it possible—the ‘Homunculus’.
Each one is harder to obtain than a divine artifact.
Even the sap of the World Tree couldn’t come from an ordinary World Tree.
The sap only emerges from very special varieties of the World Tree.
Even Hod, one of the Twelve Chief Deities, required considerable time to prepare all of this.
Yet he spared no expense.
All to birth a perfectly customized avatar for the Deity of Darkness alone.
To rise as an unprecedented powerhouse in history.
He had no intention of starting as a mediocrity.
He wouldn’t half-ass this under the guise of mere entertainment.
He would go all out.
He would exert every ounce of his strength to elevate his own standing.
This would make it abundantly clear that he was one of the Twelve Chief Deities—and the mightiest among them.
‘Now I simply wait.’
Hod leaned deep into his chair’s backrest.
Just before Episode 5 concludes.
When the sun rises and the Four Horsemen rampage at their most powerful—that moment of despair.
Then he awakens in the body of a perfectly crafted avatar.
He personally annihilates the Four Horsemen and monopolizes their vast rewards and glory.
He will be reborn as the number one in the Hall of Fame, revealing his presence.
Thus he will surpass the seemingly Irresistible Force that is NONAME in one fell swoop.
‘NONAME likely possesses an ordinary human body.’
Had they prepared as he had, vast quantities of Nectar would already be distributed across Earth.
They should have started at A-grade, not B-grade.
There was no way he wouldn’t have noticed such a change.
It was far more likely they started with an ordinary human body.
It was remarkable to achieve overwhelming scores with an ordinary human body.
It seemed impossible.
But if that were the Irresistible Force, it made sense.
The Irresistible Force was an existence that made the impossible possible.
Yet due to their innate limitations, they would eventually hit a wall.
They could never surpass him, who began with a demigod’s body.
Even if they were remade, it would take time to nurture them.
And even if they succeeded in remaking themselves, the other Twelve Chief Deities wouldn’t stand idle.
Another avatar of the Twelve Chief Deities?
It didn’t seem like they prepared as thoroughly as he had.
Hod had been preparing for this possibility since long ago, anticipating that such a situation might occur.
Therefore.
‘I will ascend to the peak of the Tower, to the position of the Irresistible Force.’
Merely thinking of it, imagining it alone, sent a thrill through him.
Hod smiled with satisfaction, envisioning himself standing at the apex.
* * *
“You…!”
Thanatos gasped in shock.
“What is that hand?!”
Any lingering hesitation I’d harbored evaporated completely.
It was true that I’d wavered slightly upon hearing pleas for mercy.
The creature had appeared to be forcibly dragged here by Hod.
‘There’s no way I’d trust a yokai from the start.’
Of course, I’d merely been shaken.
I’d only entertained the notion that with the right persuasion, it might be turned into an ally.
I certainly hadn’t believed it.
These were counterfeit beings born from humanity’s despair and terror.
Calamities birth demons, and the screams of despairing mankind create mystery.
Yokai are among the most vicious manifestations of that mystery.
In other words, creatures forged from the very essence of shadow and malice from birth could never speak truth to me of their own accord.
That’s why I maintained my suspicion until the very end.
The moment Thanatos’s hand touched the crystal sphere and I saw him exult, I immediately unleashed the full power of ‘the one who devours calamity.’
Crack!
“Aaaaaaahhhhh!”
Fissures spider-webbed across the crystal sphere.
Thanatos shrieked in agony.
The golden runes of my right hand had begun devouring the crimson core.
Like a ravenous beast tearing into its prey’s heart, it consumed with ruthless, voracious hunger.
“No! My, my soul…!”
The black death aura that had been pouring from Thanatos’s body reversed its flow.
The creature’s very soul that had been about to overwhelm me.
Was instead being violently sucked into my right hand through the crystal sphere as a conduit.
Though I didn’t understand the precise mechanism, it must have realized its own existence was being absorbed.
“Save me! Please! I was wrong! Noooooo!”
It thrashed and pleaded in desperation.
That crazed laughter from moments before was nowhere to be found.
It must have been secretly delighted.
It had believed a foolish human would appear and break its seal.
It had intended to exploit my sympathy and escape.
The creature that had sought to violate, mock, and deceive me was now begging me for its life in return.
But I laughed coldly.
It was absurd.
Such a trivial trick against a seasoned veteran who had endured countless trials.
“Too late, you bastard.”
Uuuuuuung!
The golden rune spun with even greater ferocity.
The core shattered into fragments.
Simultaneously, Thanatos’s colossal skeletal form crumbled like particles of light.
All those shards and the essence of his soul cascaded into my hands like a waterfall.
‘I consumed him.’
I steadied my breathing.
I expected this incarnation of death to become my power, granting me a new message on my status window.
But.
“…Huh?”
Something had changed.
Something was undeniably different.
A sensation entirely unlike any previous time I’d hunted and consumed the Deities.
It wasn’t the familiar warmth of a new power settling within my body.
Rather.
‘It’s cold.’
A bone-chilling, eerie frost that pierced to my very marrow.
And.
Ssshhhhh.
My vision began to twist unnaturally.
The landscape before my eyes wavered, and my hands… my body appeared different from usual.
“What is… this.”
I looked down at both my hands.
My arms, which should have been clad in Heavenly Demon armor.
But what my eyes beheld were skeletal hands of pure white bone, exposed beneath a pitch-black cloak.
And my vision.
Before my eyes, beyond the helmet, bluish flames flickered and danced.
Ding!
[You have absorbed the Shell of Death.]
[Assimilation is proceeding.]
[The aspect of the Grim Reaper Thanatos overlays your existence.]
[You can now transform into Thanatos.]
“….”
What?
I stared blankly into the void.
Assimilation.
An overlaying of aspects.
I hadn’t merely stolen Thanatos’s power—I’d taken his entire form.
‘I’ve… become Thanatos?’
To be precise.
Upon my existence as Kim Jung-seok, the shell of Thanatos and the very concept of his terror had been draped like a coat.
Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo!
The aura radiating from my body had transformed entirely.
The brilliant golden divine power and the ferocious demonic energy of the Celestial Demon had vanished without a trace.
Only absolute death remained.
A cold and desolate death aura that reaped all life now enveloped my entire being.
“…Well, there’s… nothing left.”
Clatter, clatter.
The sound of bones colliding against each other.
Even my voice had transformed into Thanatos’s eerie metallic screech.
At first, I was startled, but that emotion quickly shifted to exhilaration.
‘Transformation. In other words, I can conceal my true form.’
I grasped it instinctively.
This state.
Within this shell merged with Thanatos, my original identity was perfectly hidden.
No one—not even the Deities themselves—would be able to see through this shroud of death and perceive my presence within.
And that wasn’t all.
The surprises didn’t end there.
Ding!
[Thanatos’s unique passive, ‘Veil of Death’, has been activated.]
[While transformed into Thanatos, all life detection and divine power tracking are completely blocked.]
[Cannot be used in the state of ‘Rag’ with divine status.]
[Transformation is only possible with Kim Jung-seok’s physical body.]
[All stats are doubled when night falls.]
[You can use the skills ‘Reaper’s Scythe’, ‘Soul Harvest’, and the ultimate ‘Execution’.]
[Furthermore, you become the King of the Hundred Ghosts.]
[All yokai revere you.]

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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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