Chapter 67
Chapter 67
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 67
Chapter Title: Hidden Stage - The Fallen Black Magician's Hideout (3)
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As the three spells materialized around me, all I could do was let out a hollow sigh. It truly felt like death had a blade pressed right against my throat.
Each strand of black magic brimmed with demonic energy that surpassed even my magic power, bloated as it was by the mythic stat Pride.
Even in their fallen state, these were beings who had transcended grand magicians. In hunter terms, existences beyond SSS-rank. Transcendents, without exaggeration.
I'd thought too lightly of it. What challenge could there be from an opponent clinging to life by a thread?
Misfortune hadn't even properly taken effect yet, and already I felt an insurmountable wall looming before me.
'Was I the arrogant one?'
Was this really the end? Negative thoughts threatened to swamp my mind, but I shook them off.
No, I couldn't let it end like this. Find a way. A way to turn this situation around. That was when it happened.
The soul finished its dispassionate explanation, then drew a sharp, heaving breath and turned to face me, its head snapping around. Intelligence gleamed in eyes that had held none moments before.
The instant our gazes met, I knew on instinct. It had reclaimed nearly every last fragment of its memory.
But it still wasn't enough. One final piece short for true action.
Yet that was plenty. Fortune had filled in the missing shard.
Dozens of messages flickered up in less than a second. On pure instinct, I unfurled a single blessing.
〚Rune: Domain Deployment - Fate's Bitter Chill deploys!〛
〚A speck of Misfortune forcibly imposed on Black Magician - Tetelgius. Luck slightly reduced.〛
〚A speck of Fortune forcibly imposed on the purified soul of pure ??? Luck slightly increased.〛
Not yet. Still short.
A pair of black-and-white wings erupted from my back. Stats bolstered, Fortune expended its power without a second thought.
Misfortune, too, burned through the surge before it faded, weaving straight into its scheme.
This was exactly why I'd hesitated to use the wings. But no choice now. Surviving the death hurtling my way trumped any tricks from Misfortune.
The final piece clicked into place. Through Fortune, the soul reclaimed its speck of memory.
The instant it did, the soul's form shifted. No longer a vague, translucent human outline—it transformed.
The system window still showed no name. But its appearance had returned. Translucent without a body, yes, but vivid enough to mirror its living visage.
She was a beauty beyond words, noble and immaculate to an indescribable degree.
Her hallmark: wings of black and white, just like mine. Her identity was plain to see.
"Fallen angel?"
Ten pairs of wings unfurled in breathtaking splendor. The old man, mid-cast, recoiled in abject horror.
With those words, she soared toward me.
Ah! Something erupted from the depths of my dantian.
"Ah...!"
The cry escaped me unbidden. The old man shook off his shock and flung his hand up in desperation, unleashing his spells at me.
The magic hurtled forward at blinding speed—an eyeblink before it reached me, poised to shred me apart.
Too late.
+ Soul contract target from system reward.
+ System covers descent cost—for one time only!
Shwaaak!
Ten pairs of wings burst from my back. Including my innate pair from Lucifer, eleven pairs in all spread wide—the overwhelming pressure wave scoured the surroundings.
Spells packing city-leveling potential each—wiped clean in a heartbeat.
〚Fallen Angel: ??? has not regained full rank or power!〛
〚Descent duration: 30 seconds〛
Thirty seconds. My soul sank into the mental realm. In its place, ??? seized control of my body.
No issue. No fear of possession. Instinct screamed it was impossible. And even if attempted, the powers here wouldn't stand idle.
In the mental space, it clicked. Why the form-devouring parasite had chosen self-obliteration.
Overwhelming. With Equivalent Exchange now in play, four Authorities and one cloaked in unique ability guise dominated this space.
Now I saw. I'd drawn out not even a speck of their power. Each was an inscrutable force.
Powers dubbed Authorities precisely because reason failed to grasp them.
〚Faint insight into Authorities gained—a mere fragment thereof!〛
〚All Authority proficiencies rise ever so slightly.〛
Consciousness snapped back. Body control mine again. A mere thirty seconds.
That fleeting span elapsed. When I beheld the world through flesh anew, all had transformed.
The killing spells? Neatly erased. The eighteen passages? Severed clean. The magic array? Shattered, the old man sprawled on the floor, ragged breaths signaling the end.
"Guuuuh... Ah... N-no..."
Refusing death, he crawled, tongue lapping desperately at the mystery fluids. Futile.
His life hung by a thread too frayed to mend. He'd burned too much casting fifth-circle elemental magic at me.
Never saw it coming, surely. Figured my death would restore him fully.
"Got lucky."
Nothing else to say.
Had I not purified the soul with a signing blade strike on that malice-clotted horror?
Had Fortune skipped aiding its memory recall?
From dire straits, I'd forged triumph. Satisfied, I morphed Manbyeon into a sword and plunged it into the old man's chest.
"W-want... to live."
The black magician, rejecting death in grotesque clinging, drew his final breath with those words.
Rewards worthy of clearing an Abyss hidden stage washed over me, bringing bone-deep exhaustion.
Worn out. I slumped right there.
"Ha... Nearly bit the dust for real."
This veered wildly from my plan. I'd figured slip into the secret vault instead of the hideout, slay the guardian beast, snag the mythic quest item, and call it done.
Pride in the improbable win mingled with hollowness—fleeting. The shrunken fallen angel materialized before me.
"Ah... Fallen Angel. Thanks. You saved my skin."
She gazed wistfully into the void, then spoke again.
Her flawless, exquisite face twisted for a heartbeat.
Ah, so part of the tale about "touching the untouchable and falling" tied to this fallen angel?
I let out a dry chuckle and shook my head. Ten pairs—twenty wings total.
Lucifer himself, paramount archangel and lord of the Sin of Pride among the Seven Deadly, bore twenty-four. This one seemed no lesser in stature.
Experimenting on that? Madness. Or a death wish.
"Nah... not really. You saved my neck. If you're useful, great. And you will be."
"Understood."
Tied to the black magician. Bound to link to the class I sought.
Nodding, I rose. The wrecked chamber's mystery fluids—now labeled Immortality Elixir—had joined my inventory as rewards.
'Misfortune tapped out already?'
The fourth-circle spells its doing? No Unyielding message, though?
I scowled, scanning warily. Tension coiled... but long minutes passed. No stir.
Frowning, I shoved the nagging doubt aside and moved on.
'Surely no Misfortune curse here?'
What fresh hell elsewhere?
For now, priorities. I pulled the Black Magician's Treasure Vault Key from inventory.
No backdoor cheats like before. Legit entry via reward.
Key slotted at the vault mouth across the cavern. I stepped inside.
"Figures it'd match the rumors."
Fled after his cabal's collapse. Lavished riches on immortality pursuits—what'd be weirder than empty vaults?
I scoured the barren trove, pocketing every scrap. Two stood out as keepers.
The first? A stunner, wholly new to me. Legend-grade at EX+, no less!
Pity Sun's Eye appraisal yielded all question marks—but condition-met, it'd make a killer ace.
The second? Precisely what I'd craved.
"Mythic class catalyst."
Check later—once clear of this irksome pit. Heading out to exit the hidden stage—
〚Misfortune, lying in wait, unleashes its full might!〛
Misfortune struck. All prior ploys mere prelude, it leered triumphantly my way.
The instant it did, the flame in my grasp blackened, searing my hand.
"Agh!"
Pain flung it free. It rocketed—as if biding time—straight into the old man's corpse.
"Goddamn it... What now?"
The flame engulfed the old man's flesh.
A sacrificial pyre.
And from the offering, a being tore free—revived.
〚Warning! Warning! Warning! Warning!〛
The system screamed. Danger.Something's gone wrong.
More memories resurfaced? She seemed to recognize the entity birthing from the flame.
〚Target's rank dwarfs this stage!〛
〚Revival via valid conditions. Intervention impossible!〛
〚Exploiting stage rank gap to force hidden stage—minor restraint!〛
Chaos reigned, yet the system assessed coolly and decreed.
〚Hidden Stage: Divine Seat: The Repentant Fallen Lamb, Fragment of Azazel begins!〛
【An eternity has passed. World! Bow your heads to Azazel's revival and repent! The great sacrifice's flesh is rent, the grand fall descends! Confess your sins! Azazel shall judge them all!】
⟨ Azazel's Proclamation ⟩