The Mage Who Devours Disasters - Chapter 86

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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 86.
“…What in the world.”
Heo Young-ho remained frozen in his half-crouched position.
His mouth hung open in shock.
He couldn’t comprehend what was unfolding before his eyes.
Just moments ago, these were the monsters intent on slaughtering them.
Red and blue Goblins towering over three meters tall.
Even the Named Dueokshini radiating overwhelming oppressive force.
That merciless horde of yokai had begun moving around a single skeletal monster that emerged from the Pillar of Light.
More than that, they were hurling themselves frantically at the apocalypse-class yokai ‘Dusksini’ that blanketed the sky.
“Guild Master….”
The surviving Light Guild Members exchanged bewildered glances with one another.
Their weapon-gripping hands flailed aimlessly through empty air.
“What is happening here?”
“Is that skeleton monster… controlling the yokai?”
“Then why is it fighting Dusksini? Did they have some kind of internal conflict?”
Whispers tinged with confusion.
Yet no one dared raise their voice.
They couldn’t even breathe properly.
The pressure.
Because ‘it’ was standing right before them.
Thanatos, the Grim Reaper.
King of Hundred Ghosts.
An absolute death that froze the very air around it with mere existence.
The death aura it emanated felt far denser and more ominous than the darkness of the apocalypse-class Dusksini.
That was when it happened.
‘…Wait.’
Heo Young-ho’s mind began racing rapidly.
As befitted a heir to a conglomerate, his mind was honed in shallow calculations and profit-and-loss accounting.
He alternated his gaze between Thanatos’s gaunt silhouette and the colossal battle unfolding in the distance.
‘Could that Thanatos… be the true boss of this episode?’
It was a plausible hypothesis.
The one controlling the yokai.
The one even Dusksini opposed.
If he was the king of all yokai, wouldn’t Episode 5 end immediately upon his death?
Heo Young-ho’s heart began pounding again.
Greed swallowed fear.
‘Reaping the benefits.’
Right now Thanatos was locked in direct combat with Dusksini.
Of course he hadn’t stepped in personally, but controlling the yokai legion would surely occupy his attention.
The situation had reached a precarious stalemate.
Kuaaaaaaang!
Dusksini lashed out with colossal shadow tentacles.
Dozens of Goblins burst into sprays of blood and viscera.
An overwhelming force, as if swatting flies with a flyswatter.
But.
-Kieeeek!
-Tear them apart!
Their numbers reached into the thousands.
An endless tide of demons, crashing down even as they fell.
Dueokshini struck at Dusksini’s darkness with his club, while Imoogi unleashed torrents of venom.
Even a giant would recoil if thousands of mosquitoes clung to it relentlessly.
Even Dusksini could not defend against every assault.
His massive shadow form was being torn away piece by piece, wavering.
‘This is my chance.’
Heo Young-ho’s eyes gleamed.
I would wait for these two colossal monsters to exhaust themselves fighting each other.
Whether Dusksini fell or Thanatos’s demon legion was annihilated.
When both sides reached the brink of death.
In that singular moment, if I struck from behind and severed that skeletal creature’s neck?
‘I would clear the episode.’
I could raise my name across the entire world.
Not only the top spot in the Hall of Fame, but I could seize the astronomical rewards offered by the Management Bureau.
The perfect opportunity to prove to all the world the supremacy of the Light Guild, built on capital.
Srrrrk.
I quietly picked up the fallen legendary blade and crouched low.
My blood boiled with anticipation.
It was in that very moment, as I calculated the perfect timing.
Clack.
“….”
Thanatos’s head turned backward.
“…!!!”
My breath caught.
Empty eyes.
Within them, a flickering bluish flame of soul.
Thanatos’s crimson gaze pierced directly through Heo Young-ho’s pupils.
That cold and chilling stare, as if seeing through the shallow depths of an insect’s mind.
‘No, this can’t be….’
Heo Young-ho’s mind flashed white.
Calculation? Fisherman’s profit? Episode boss?
Such petty thoughts shattered like torn paper the instant our eyes met with Thanatos.
A sharp tingle.
Warm liquid streamed down between his legs.
He didn’t even register the dampness soaking through his pants.
He had lost control of his bladder.
His instincts were screaming.
‘I have to run.’
I had to escape this place immediately.
A monster that shouldn’t even be breathed near.
To strike from behind, to seize an opportunity—
What insane delusion had possessed me to think such things against death itself, a being beyond all reason?
And yet.
My legs were rooted to the ground, immovable.
“P-please… spare me….”
Heo Young-ho’s lips trembled violently.
The strength drained from the hand gripping the blade.
The magnificent sword clattered to the Asphalt Street once more.
“H-hiiiieeek…!”
Regret came too late.
Overwhelming terror crashed down upon his consciousness.
Heo Young-ho’s eyes rolled back into his head.
He crumpled.
He couldn’t even manage a proper scream.
Foam flecked his lips as he collapsed onto the Asphalt Street, losing consciousness entirely.
* * *
…What was that?
I felt an odd gaze upon me.
I turned my head to look in the direction from which the stare had come.
Some man was standing there with foam at his mouth, having lost control of his bladder between his legs.
Then, like a puppet with its strings cut, he simply collapsed and fell unconscious.
“….”
It was absurd.
He passed out just from meeting my eyes?
Looking more closely, his face seemed familiar.
‘Ah, I remember now.’
Heo Young-ho.
Some son of the Youngjin Group.
In the early days of the Cataclysm.
He had shown considerable promise before the Tower of Gods fully revealed itself.
Of course, that was only possible because his money could buy his way through.
In the moment when the existing social networks and economic systems completely collapsed.
Heo Young-ho’s meager wealth and prestige vanished pathetically into the shadows of history.
‘Roughly nine months remain.’
When that time comes, the Tower of Gods will descend upon the earth.
There is no choice.
Humanity will be forced to climb the Tower.
Those who cannot ascend will only perish.
The true, bloody conflict with the Deities begins from that moment onward.
But reality was merciless.
In the past, it took years just to conquer the First Floor.
It was only natural.
How much stronger could one become during a mere year-long beginner protection period?
With the power gained in that brief span, there was no way to stand against the Deities who had lived for eons.
Regardless, it was a familiar face.
That bastard would never recognize me wearing this shell of death.
But I had nearly died because of him in the past.
Hired for a pittance, I worked as a porter.
I endured every conceivable abuse of power.
Ignored, despised, treated like vermin.
And finally.
Abandoned as bait in the middle of a dangerous Dungeon.
‘Well, it’s all ancient history now.’
I gazed down at the unconscious Heo Young-ho with indifference.
Not even anger stirred within me.
To me now, he was so insignificant that a single gesture from my hand could erase him without a trace.
The fact that he lost consciousness and soiled himself just from my gaze said everything.
He wasn’t even worth avenging.
Moreover.
‘Disloyal wretches.’
Look at the pathetic state of these Light Guild Members.
They left their unconscious Guild Master Heo Young-ho sprawled on the ground.
“R-run away!”
“Aaahhhhh!”
They were all fleeing without looking back, throwing down their weapons.
The limits of loyalty bought with money.
When crisis strikes, they abandon their master first.
He truly was an unlucky bastard.
It was as if my own image from the past—abandoned alone in a Dark Dungeon—was reflected perfectly onto him.
I felt no pity, yet the sensation was strangely complex.
….
I dismissed the distraction and turned away.
I had no time to waste on Heo Young-ho.
The battlefield was fierce.
The legion of Hundred Ghosts was relentlessly tearing into Dusksini.
Goblins were being ripped apart, and Imoogi’s scales shattered.
Monsters consumed by Dusksini’s shadow were torn to pieces.
I stood motionless, observing the spectacle.
Of course, I was far from idle.
Shhhhhhh.
Souls were gathering.
The colossal weapon in my right hand.
The Scythe of Death, the symbol of Thanatos, resonated with ominous power.
‘Soul Harvest.’
Each time a monster fell, the scattered spirits and death essence transformed into black smoke, drawn into the scythe’s blade.
The endless cascade of death was converting into my strength.
How much time had passed in this manner?
The scythe’s blade had darkened as if saturated with ink.
Simultaneously, a cool blue light flickered along the blade’s edge.
Ding!
[Sufficient souls have been harvested.]
[All conditions have been satisfied.]
[Ultimate ability, ‘Execution’ is now available.]
A message appeared.
Indeed. Thanatos is the entity called ‘Death.’
Once the conditions are met, the opponent can be killed without fail.
The conditions were likely the countless deaths converging upon the Scythe of Death.
Through the derived souls, it would erase the very existence itself.
In other words.
‘An instant death ability.’
The ultimate ability ‘Execution’ is an instant death ability.
Even before regression, there were almost no spells or powers that could instantly kill an opponent.
The deities of the Material Realm, such as the Deity of Suffocation Venus who fought against Heimdall and lost, did possess powers similar to instant death.
But strictly speaking, they were not classified as ‘instant death abilities.’
Instant death means granting no reprieve whatsoever.
It is a word that severs the very possibility of life itself.
There is no process.
The moment it activates, only the result exists.
‘So the activation condition for Execution was the death surrounding me.’
When humanity once faced Thanatos, we crumbled helplessly.
Despite deploying massive forces to overcome him, countless heroes inexplicably fell to instant death.
Thus, I was certain that Thanatos possessed an ‘instant death’ ability.
Yet I never discovered the condition that triggered it.
‘I shouldn’t have deployed such massive forces.’
From the beginning, I should have pursued a small-scale strategy.
Too many deaths followed—countless heroes fell as well.
This time was no different.
The death of the yokai hastened Dusksini’s annihilation.
Only after more than two thousand yokai vanished did the condition satisfy itself, which proved just how exalted Dusksini’s rank truly was.
I gripped the scythe of death with both hands, adjusting my hold.
I lifted my gaze toward the colossal darkness that blotted out the sky above.
Level 100.
A calamity-class yokai—Dusksini.
It seemed the creature sensed the aura radiating from my scythe.
Its two eyes fixed upon me in an instant.
But it was already too late.
I spoke in a low murmur.
“Now, let us end this.”
I swung the scythe in a wide arc toward Dusksini.
Then.
Ding!
[Ultimate Skill, ‘Execution’ activates!]

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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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