Chapter 9

Chapter 9.

KABAAAAM!

Archangel Abriel swept her hand through the air.

The massive chains guarding the center of the temple were severed like a knife through tofu.

CLANG!

A crisp snap.

There was no hesitation.

As if she'd been waiting for this very moment.

Her movements were unhesitant.

A strange sense of liberation was etched across her expression.

'She must've been sick of it.'

Understandable — she'd been trapped here alone for ages, playing warden.

But the sentiment was short-lived.

RRRRRUMBLE!

Because the unsealed black sphere had begun to convulse.

The entire temple warped.

Space screamed, and killing intent crashed like a storm.

【GRAAAAAH!】

A screech that gnawed at the soul.

'Strong.'

My instincts blared every alarm.

In my current state, I'd be torn to shreds.

That was when it happened.

[Take this.]

Abriel spread her wings.

Blinding light poured from her fingertips.

Simultaneously, the mist blanketing the entire Sanctuary — the spirits — came flooding into me.

FWIIIIING!

"......!"

My body burned hot.

Mana surging through my veins went haywire, thrashing like a wild beast.

But it didn't hurt.

If anything, it felt like every cell in my body was waking up.

DING!

[The angel 'Abriel' has chosen you as her proxy.]

[All spirits of the Sanctuary now follow you.]

['Blessing of the Great Spirit' has been granted.]

[All stats temporarily maximized!]

My entire body felt light as a feather.

I clenched my fist and felt power ready to split the air itself.

DING!

Another system message followed.

[A hidden quest has been triggered!]

[Quest: Execution of the Mad God]

[Objective: Cooperate with the angel Abriel to eliminate the mad god 'Tulkachya.']

[Reward: ???]

'Tulkachya.'

Rough-sounding name.

I looked up at the thing.

The black sphere cracked open, and a blood-red form crawled out.

Massive horns.

Dark crimson veins coiling across its entire body.

And from beneath its feet, scorching heat boiled upward.

HISSSSS!

The marble floor melted away in an instant.

This wasn't simple heat.

That was.

"Lava, is it."

The authority of volcanoes.

And a savagely warped disaster at that.

【I'll kill you...... I'll burn it all......!】

Tulkachya muttered in a boiling voice.

The moment it swung its arm, a stream of scarlet lava lashed out like a whip.

KABAAAAM!

Abriel stood her ground, wielding a spear of light.

Sacred radiance deflected the lava.

But it wasn't enough.

CRACKLE! CR-CRACKLE!

[Ngh......!]

Abriel's brow creased.

The toxic heat radiating from the lava was scorching her white wings black.

Bad matchup.

The heat it exuded was far too lethal for close-range combat.

'I'd better step in.'

I immediately pressed my left hand to the ground.

The method was simple.

When water overflows, you dig a drain.

"Get lost."

HUMMM!

The golden rune on my right hand flashed.

The disaster I'd devoured.

The authority of the Lesser Earthquake God Kartal activated.

KRRRRR!

The ground beneath Tulkachya's feet — and around Abriel — split open.

Not a simple crack.

I'd confined the authority's range to bore deep, narrow holes.

Sinkholes.

KRRRRRUMBLE!

"......?!"

Tulkachya was caught off guard.

The lava it had been spewing poured down through the fissures in the earth.

The heat that had been about to engulf the ground was flushed deep underground, like sewage down a drain.

Abriel looked at me with startled eyes.

I shrugged.

She tightened her grip on the spear.

Seizing the gap left by the vanished heat, Abriel's spear pierced Tulkachya's shoulder.

SQUELCH!

【GRAAAAAH!】

The mad god screamed.

But it didn't die.

If anything, it snapped.

【Insects!】

FWAAAAAAH!

Black smoke erupted from its mouth.

A noxious miasma that corrupted the mind.

[Mad God Tulkachya is going berserk!]

[Mental contamination has begun.]

[The higher the value, the more you lose your mind.]

[Current contamination: 15%...... 20%......]

My head throbbed.

Nausea churned in my stomach, and the world spun.

Even Abriel staggered.

A psychic-type attack that no physical defense could block.

At this rate, we'd lose our minds before we could even fight — and end up killing each other.

That was when.

— KYAAANG!

Angragon, perched on my shoulder, cracked open its tiny jaw.

Far from being scared.

......It was drooling, as if it had caught a whiff of something delicious.

WHOOOMP!

Its small mouth inhaled the surrounding air like a vacuum cleaner.

The black miasma was sucked straight into Angragon's mouth.

GULP.

It swallowed the toxin whole.

And then.

PWOOO!

When it opened its mouth in what looked like a belch, a jet of pitch-black flame shot toward Tulkachya.

It had eaten the miasma and converted it into a 'dragon's breath,' reflecting it right back.

【GRUAAAAGH!】

Black fire engulfed Tulkachya's face.

It clutched its face and thrashed on the ground.

Having its own psychic attack reflected seemed to have hit hard.

"Good work."

I stroked Angragon's head.

It wagged its tail contentedly.

The situation had improved.

The lava drained through the sinkholes, and Angragon handled the miasma.

Abriel was unleashing a relentless assault.

But.

'Not enough.'

I assessed the battle coldly.

Tulkachya's regeneration was monstrous.

The holes the spear punched through were instantly filled with lava.

At this pace, it would become a war of attrition.

And the longer it dragged on, the worse it got for us.

The blessing's duration was finite.

Abriel's stamina would bottom out eventually.

I needed a decisive blow.

A single, certain strike that could kill a god.

I looked at the spirits drifting in the air.

Tens of thousands of spirits.

Thanks to the Blessing of the Great Spirit, they moved at my command.

An ordinary warrior would have simply used this power to reinforce their body.

'But I'm a mage.'

Brute-forcing my way through wasn't my style.

A mage seeks truth,

crafts formulas, and derives results.

My role was to take the ingredients at hand and cook up the finest dish possible.

I was Kim Jeong-seok.

The lunatic mage who'd used the entire Earth as raw material to forge the Philosopher's Stone.

As if I couldn't handle a few tens of thousands of spirits.

'The ingredients are here.'

Tens of thousands of spirits filling the air.

They were the purest clusters of natural mana.

In other words, the finest 'fuel' for processing.

The opponent was the mad god Tulkachya.

Its attribute: lava and fire.

A disaster that burns and melts everything.

But.

Even in its rampage, there was something it hadn't been able to melt.

The massive chain fragments scattered across the temple floor.

'The bindings.'

The shackles that had restrained it for centuries.

Split in half, perhaps, but their form was intact.

A metal that wouldn't melt even in lava.

'I have my answer.'

I opened my eyes.

Without hesitation, I kicked off the ground.

BOOM!

My body launched like a cannonball.

Target: the severed chain lying at Tulkachya's feet.

TAP.

I landed on the chain.

The moment my hand touched it, I felt the cold.

Just as I'd thought.

'Millennial Black Iron.'

A rare metal with the property of repelling and solidifying corrupted mana.

That's how it had withstood the mad god's tainted heat.

But this metal had a fatal weakness.

It melted helplessly when exposed to pure mana.

"Gather."

I reached out my hand.

The spirits, blessed by the Great Spirit, responded to my will.

Thousands of spirits enveloped the chains.

HISSSS!

The instant that supremely pure mana made contact, the supposedly unmeltable black iron went soft as syrup.

I manipulated the mana.

Like a blacksmith hammering steel.

I shaped it with a mage's formula.

Hard.

Sharp.

And capable of piercing that thing's heart.

It took less than ten seconds.

The liquefied black iron coalesced in midair and solidified into the shape of a massive spear.

A black spear measuring three meters in length.

I gripped the shaft.

Heavy.

I leaned back at the waist.

Compressed every muscle in my body like a coiled spring.

One target.

Its chest — the heart where scarlet lava pulsed and throbbed.

WHOMP!

The spear left my hand and tore through space.

Tulkachya didn't even have time to react.

A black flash embedded itself in its chest.

KABAAAAM!

【GRAAAAAAAAAH!!】

The mad god's scream shook the temple.

The Millennial Black Iron's cold bored into its heart.

The boiling lava cooled in an instant, hardening to black.

'Now.'

I could see it.

A golden thread extending from Tulkachya's chest.

The thread of fate connected to the golden rune on my right hand.

'I can eat it.'

Conditions met.

It was weakened, and my power could reach.

The problem was distance.

Even with its heart solidified, the area around it was still an inferno of extreme heat.

The instant I got close, I'd be roasted alive.

But I had a partner.

"Abriel!"

I shouted.

"Clear a path!"

No explanation was needed.

She spread her remaining wings wide.

[O light!]

FLAAAAASH!

A blinding radiance erupted from her body.

The authority of the 'Sanctuary' — one with the power of physical intervention.

Light stretched forward in a straight line, cleaving the flames and lava blocking the way to either side.

Like the parting of the Red Sea.

In the middle of the inferno, a path opened for me alone.

[Go!]

Abriel coughed blood as she screamed.

She was at her limit too.

This path wouldn't last.

I ran.

Cutting through the wind, racing through the tunnel of light.

The heat from the flames billowing on either side scorched my skin, but I didn't stop.

Ten meters.

Five meters.

One meter.

At last, I reached Tulkachya's face.

It writhed in agony and looked down at me.

【How...... dare......!】

I smiled.

And drove my fist into its solar plexus.

THUD!

A dull impact.

HUMMM!

The golden rune on my right hand spun wildly.

The predatory power that devours a being's very essence had activated.

CRACK! SNAP!

From the point of contact, fissures spread across Tulkachya's body.

Black fractures rippled outward across its entirety.

【N-no...... my power......!】

Its death cry didn't last long.

It was being sucked in.

Lava, flame, madness.

Even its divinity.

RRRRRUMBLE!

A colossal vortex erupted.

My right hand became a black hole, swallowing the mad god whole.

【GRAAAAAAAAGH!】

A final scream.

Tulkachya's massive body shattered into particles of light.

Through the thick haze of smoke.

Every last particle was drawn into my grasp.

But.

KABOOOOM!

A massive explosion erupted.

My body was sent flying.

In that moment.

DING!

[You have devoured the disaster, 'Mad God Tulkachya.']

[Divinity absorbed.]

[You can permanently use the Authority, 'Rampaging Volcano.']

[Hidden quest complete!]

[Contribution: Overwhelming (99%)]

[Your level has risen!]

[Rolling the die (1-66).]

[66! A catastrophic reward is granted!]