Devouring the Mad God
A deafening BOOM!
The Archangel Avriel swung her hand.
The massive chains guarding the shrine's center sliced apart like tofu.
Clang!
A crisp bursting sound.
There was no hesitation.
As if she'd been waiting for this exact moment.
Her movements were unyielding.
A strange sense of liberation even flickered across her face.
'Must've been sick of it,' I thought.
She'd been trapped here alone for ages, playing jailer. No wonder.
But there was no time for sentiment.
Rumble rumble rumble!
The black sphere, now freed from its seal, began to writhe.
The entire shrine twisted.
Space itself screamed, and murderous intent swept through like a storm.
【GRRAAAAAH!】
A soul-devouring roar.
'Strong.'
My instincts blared warnings.
In my current state, I wouldn't even leave bones behind.
That was when it happened.
[Take this.]
Avriel spread her wings.
Dazzling light poured from her fingertips.
At the same time, the mists enveloping the sanctuary—the spirits—surged toward me.
Whoooosh!
"……!"
My body heated up.
Mana raced through my veins like a runaway beast.
But it wasn't painful.
It felt like ecstasy, every cell in my body awakening.
The angel ‘Avriel’ has selected you as her proxy.
All spirits of the sanctuary now follow you.
Great Spirit's Blessing has been granted.
All stats are temporarily maximized!
My body felt as light as a feather.
Clenching my fist sent ripples through the air, like it might burst.
Slay the Mad God
📍 Objective: Cooperate with the angel Avriel to eliminate the Mad God ‘Toolkacha’.
🎁 Reward: ???
'Toolkacha, huh.'
What a crude name.
I looked up to size it up.
The black sphere shattered, and a blood-red figure crawled out.
Enormous horns.
Black-red veins writhing across its body.
And the heat boiling up from its feet.
Sizzle!
The marble floor melted in seconds.
This wasn't ordinary heat.
That was.
"Lava."
The authority of a volcano.
A disaster twisted into something savagely feral.
【I'll kill you…… burn everything……!】
Toolkacha muttered in a bubbling voice.
It swung its arm, and a crimson lava whip lashed out.
BOOM!
Avriel blocked it with her spear of light.
Holy radiance repelled the lava.
But it wasn't enough.
Sizzle! Crackle!
[Ugh……!]
Avriel furrowed her brow.
The toxic heat from the lava was scorching her white wings black.
Bad matchup.
Too deadly for close combat with that heat.
'Gotta help.'
I slammed my left hand to the floor.
Simple fix.
If water overflows, dig a drain.
"Begone."
Hummm!
The golden rune on my right hand flashed.
The disaster I'd devoured.
The Low-tier Earthquake God Kartal's authority activated.
Rumble rumble rumble!
The ground beneath Toolkacha—and around Avriel—split wide open.
Not just a crack.
I focused the authority into a deep, narrow pit.
A sinkhole.
Crash!
"……?!"
Toolkacha faltered.
Its spewing lava poured into the fissure like a flood down a sewer.
The heat that would've blanketed the ground plunged deep underground.
Avriel glanced at me in surprise.
I shrugged.
She gripped her spear anew.
Seizing the opening, her spear pierced Toolkacha's shoulder.
Stab!
【GRRAAAAH!】
The Mad God screamed.
But it didn't die.
Its eyes rolled back instead.
【Filthy insects!】
BOOM!
Black smoke billowed from its maw.
Mind-corrupting poison gas.
Mental contamination beginning.
The higher the level, the more you lose your mind.
Current contamination: 15%…… 20%……
My head throbbed.
Nausea hit, vision swimming.
Even Avriel staggered.
A mental attack no physical defense could block.
At this rate, we'd go mad and kill each other before the fight even started.
Then.
-Kyaaang!
Angragon on my shoulder gaped its mouth wide.
Far from scared.
……It was drooling like it smelled something delicious.
Slurp!
Its tiny mouth sucked in the air like a vacuum.
The black poison gas funneled straight into Angragon's maw.
Gulp.
It swallowed the toxin.
Then.
Pffft!
Opening wide like a burp, it spat pitch-black flames at Toolkacha.
It had devoured the poison and converted it into a 'Dragon's Breath', hurling it back.
【GYAAAAH!】
The black flames engulfed Toolkacha's face.
It clutched its head, writhing.
The backlash from its own mental attack hit hard.
"Good job."
I stroked Angragon's head.
It wagged its tail happily.
The situation improved.
Lava down the sinkhole, poison blocked by Angragon.
Avriel unleashing a barrage.
But.
'Not enough.'
I analyzed coldly.
Toolkacha's regeneration was monstrous.
The spear wound filled with lava in seconds.
This would drag into a war of attrition.
Time favored them.
The blessing was temporary.
Avriel's stamina would run out too.
I needed a finisher.
A sure kill-shot against a god.
I eyed the drifting spirits.
Tens of thousands.
With the Great Spirit's Blessing, they moved like my own limbs.
A normal warrior would've just pumped up their body.
'But I'm a mage.'
Brute force crushing isn't my style.
Mages pursue truth,
craft formulas, derive results.
Turn given ingredients into the ultimate dish—that's my role.
I'm Kim Jeong-seok.
The mad mage who refined the entire Earth into the Philosopher's Stone.
Think I can't handle tens of thousands of spirits?
'Ingredients are here.'
Tens of thousands filling the air.
They were the purest lumps of natural mana.
The perfect 'fuel' to process.
Opponent: Mad God Toolkacha.
Attribute: Lava and fire.
A disaster that incinerates and melts all.
But.
Even in its rampage, one thing it couldn't melt.
The massive chain fragments scattered on the shrine floor.
'Sealing chains.'
The shackles that bound it for centuries.
Split in two, but intact.
A metal unmelting even in lava.
'Got the answer.'
I opened my eyes.
No hesitation—I kicked off the floor.
BOOM!
My body shot like a cannonball.
Target: The severed chain at Toolkacha's feet.
Thud.
I landed on it.
Cold seeped into my hand the moment I touched it.
As expected.
'Millennium Black Iron.'
A rare metal that repels corrupted mana and hardens.
That's how it endured the Mad God's tainted heat.
But this metal has a fatal flaw.
It melts against pure mana.
"Gather."
I extended my hand.
The spirits, empowered by the Great Spirit's Blessing, responded.
Thousands swarmed the chain.
Sizzle!
Pure mana hit, and the unbreakable black iron softened like syrup.
I manipulated the mana.
Like a blacksmith hammering steel.
Shaping it with a mage's formula.
Firm.
Sharp.
Long enough to pierce its heart.
Took less than ten seconds.
The liquid iron coalesced midair into a massive spear.
A three-meter black lance.
I gripped the shaft.
Heavy.
I leaned back.
Compressed every muscle like a spring.
One target.
Its chest, where crimson lava pulsed like a heart.
Whoosh!
The spear tore through space.
Before Toolkacha could react.
Black lightning embedded in its chest.
BOOM!
【GRRAAAAAAAH!!】
The Mad God's scream shook the shrine.
The Millennium Black Iron's chill bored into its heart.
Boiling lava cooled black in an instant.
'Now.'
I saw it.
Golden threads extending from Toolkacha's chest.
Linked to the golden rune on my right hand.
The thread of fate.
'I can devour it.'
Conditions met.
It was weakened, my power reached.
Problem: Distance.
Heart frozen, but its surroundings still a superheated hell.
Approach and I'd be roasted.
But I had a partner.
"Avriel!"
I shouted.
"Clear the path!"
No need for explanations.
She flared her remaining wings.
[Light!]
Flash!
Blinding radiance erupted from her body.
The Sanctuary's authority, with physical interference.
Light shot straight, parting blocking flames and lava to the sides.
Like the Red Sea.
A path opened solely for me amid the inferno.
[Hurry!]
Avriel cried, vomiting blood.
She was at her limit too.
This path wouldn't last.
I ran.
Cleaving wind, through the tunnel of light.
Flames roiling at my sides stung my skin, but I didn't stop.
10 meters.
5 meters.
1 meter.
Finally, face-to-face with Toolkacha.
It looked down, writhing in agony.
【Da, mn……!】
I grinned.
Then drove my fist into its solar plexus.
Thud!
A dull impact.
Hummm!
The golden rune on my right hand spun wildly.
The devouring power that swallows existences activated.
Crack! Split!
Cracks spiderwebbed from my fist.
Black fissures spread across its body.
【N, no…… my power……!】
Its scream didn't last.
It was getting sucked in.
Lava, flames, madness.
Even its divinity.
Rumble rumble!
A massive vortex formed.
My right hand became a black hole, devouring the Mad God whole.
【GRRAAAAAH!】
Its final death cry.
Toolkacha's colossal body shattered into motes of light.
Amid the thick smoke.
Not a particle escaped— all funneled into my grasp.
But.
BOOM!
A massive explosion erupted.
My body flew back.
In that instant.
Devoured the disaster ‘Mad God Toolkacha’.
Absorbed divinity.
Can now permanently use the authority ‘Rampaging Volcano’.
Hidden quest completed!
Contribution: Overwhelming (99%)
66!
Devastating reward granted!