Chapter 116
Chapter 116
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 116
Chapter Title: The Birth of the Calamity Lord
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The Church of the Night God, whose goal was to purify the world by drawing in the Night God itself.
The scheme they devised was utterly insidious.
The Night God was being pulled toward Tendr, where the Calamity had swelled even larger than the god itself.
That was because Calamity energy was irresistibly drawn to even greater concentrations of itself.
From this, they hatched a single cunning ploy.
It was to siphon the Calamity within the Night God straight to Tendr.
They would draw out and wield the Night God's own Calamity.
This would increase the volume of Calamity inside Tendr.
While diminishing the Night God's power.
A method that satisfied two conditions at once.
Gazing at those fiends through the window with their vile notion, Havel let out a hollow chuckle.
'To think they'd go this far just to drag each other down to death.'
They proclaimed themselves pureblood Tendrans, the chosen ones.
But Havel had already experienced the Night God's power indirectly.
The Night God was nothing more than a mindless lump of energy.
The instant it reached Tendr, it would devour everyone here.
And in the end, nothing would remain.
Yet the fools denied this truth, chanting their delusions.
'In a world that's doomed anyway, sure.'
Only someone driven mad, desperate to do something, could reach such a deranged conclusion.
The problem was that their lunatic scheme was proving devilishly effective.
'And of all things, they had to use the incantation from that third Gardan tribe priest I saw on the previous floor.'
The priest of the Gardan tribe who had summoned the Night God.
What they were employing was that very shaman's ritual.
Somehow, even his will had carried over to this moment.
Though the will of Tendr itself seemed to have faded into irrelevance.
"How dare you let your mind wander before me."
In that instant, a pitch-black orb hurtled toward Havel.
Out of habit, Havel raised his hand to swat it away.
Splat!
But to his surprise, the incoming orb clung fast to his hand.
Havel glanced at the sphere stuck to his palm.
'Night essence.'
Perhaps because he'd encountered it once before, Havel instantly recognized its nature.
Click!
Meanwhile, the Pope had fitted something onto his hand.
As Havel turned to him, he saw a steel band encircling the Pope's fist.
And soon, the Night power emanating from the Pope's body intensified.
It was a magecraft tool designed to amplify the power of Night.
The problem wasn't just the Pope.
Click! Click! Click!
Before long, the crows behind him had also equipped their tools, infused with the Night God's power.
Their jet-black wings expanded to six in number.
Moreover, the black feathers on their chests bristled as their bodies swelled in size.
One of them drooled greedily, eyes gleaming with feral hunger.
The space around them began to vibrate and warp.
Too much power concentrated in one place.
They had no idea how to properly control the power of Night.
After all, it was their first time wielding such might.
Thus, the energy leaked out wildly in all directions.
"Tch."
Havel's expression soured unpleasantly.
No helping it.
He'd have to eliminate them all as swiftly as possible.
In that moment, Havel's body was suddenly yanked forward.
It was the Night essence clinging to his arm.
As his pulled body lifted into the air,
the divine acolytes charged in, brandishing weapons forged of Night.
They must have drawn heavily on the Night God's power.
For their weapons brimmed with a vicious, ominous Calamity.
"The Memento Mori lot would love this."
Even as he was dragged along, Havel spoke calmly.
Right up until the weapons closed in on him.
Without any intent to dodge, Havel thrust himself forward into them.
Boom! Crash!
The weapons, empowered by the Night God, struck Havel dead-on.
The blow was so ferocious that
the shockwave crumbled the outer wall of the building behind him entirely.
Among them, the acolyte whose bulk had grown the most leaped into the dust cloud.
"Mexicle?"
An acolyte who knew him called out, but it was too late.
Intoxicated by the Night God, he had lost his reason, reduced to pure instinct.
Overcome by boiling destructive urges, he swung his club wildly.
Solely to kill Havel.
His form continued to balloon larger.
The entire building shook as if on the verge of collapse, smoke billowing high.
Havel was nowhere to be seen, but at this point, he had to be reduced to pulp.
Meanwhile, down below the building, chaos erupted.
Sirens wailed as police and paramedics rushed to the scene.
The Night God acolytes who witnessed this wore shocked expressions.
The races of Tendr all bore Calamity within them.
Thus, the buildings they constructed boasted exceptional durability.
Fights could shatter one in an instant, so they built them sturdy from the start.
This place, in particular, had reinforced walls to thwart assassins during church gatherings.
For such a wall to crumble from a single strike...
They truly felt how much stronger they had become.
"As expected of the Night God!"
"We are the chosen!"
Convinced Havel was dead, they burst into gleeful laughter.
With this power, they could smash the irritating Tendr royals.
Purify Tendr.
And reclaim dominion over it.
Crack!
But they had no idea what was happening to the weapons they had forged.
"Don't let your guard down yet! Our foe is the Night Lion of history, Havel!"
With the Pope's shout, cracks spiderwebbed across the Night weapons.
Shatter!
They soon exploded into fragments.
"What?"
Shock rippled across their faces.
But the emotion didn't linger.
A single sword thrust right before their eyes.
Splurt!
One acolyte's head was pierced through, the blade emerging from the back of his skull.
"Guh... Ack."
As the crow acolyte groaned, light leaked from his head.
The radiance burrowed inward in an instant.
The moment it shone so fiercely it illuminated even his innards,
Crunch!
Cracks formed across his entire body, and he shattered to pieces.
A Night God-empowered acolyte slain in one blow.
Havel devoured the Calamity spilling from the pulverized acolyte.
Numbers rose, and with the popup window, he grinned ferociously.
This was a sword style Havel rarely employed.
A pure killing art, designed solely for slaughter.
He had no intention of sparing a single one.
Through the swirling smoke, the now-rational Mexicle finally appeared.
His club lay in splinters.
His body was gashed to ribbons.
How many strikes had landed in that instant?
Even he didn't know.
Mexicle's severed head, rolling on the floor, still mouthed vacantly, deluded into thinking he lived.
The acolytes realized in a flash.
The being before them couldn't be felled by this level of power.
This was a genuine monster.
"R-Run! It's a monster!"
"A-Ahh, Night God!"
In an instant, the scene devolved into pandemonium.
Despite losing political power fairly through competition,
they were still cowardly power-hungry fools.
As the saying went, even ruined nobles feasted for three generations.
Clinging to remnants of wealth and might, they barely maintained status.
But they were obsolete dunces, out of step with the times.
Could such people muster unbreakable will to face the enemy?
The answer was already clear.
The Night God acolytes bolted for the door.
They harbored no will to fight.
Only the desperate urge to escape and save their skins.
Slash!
Another acolyte was cleaved apart by Havel.
He slaughtered them without a shred of mercy.
Bang!
In that moment, the door they fled toward slammed shut.
Those about to burst outside wore bewildered faces.
Havel belatedly noticed the Pope had vanished.
'This guy's different, huh?'
With the Night God's Calamity filling this space,
the Pope had slyly concealed himself within it.
'Unlike these cowards, he's the real deal.'
"P-Pope!?"
"No way, us too?!"
Realizing the Pope's intent, they screamed.
But it was too late.
Night energy poured forth from the round table.
The erupting Night God's Calamity engulfed the acolytes in a flash.
"Grahk! Gek!"
"Aaaagh!"
Screams echoed everywhere.
And with those screams, they transformed at a rapid pace.
Human faces split open, beaks protruding as they morphed into crows.
Black feathers sprouted across their bodies, completing the change into full crows.
Especially, their eyes glowed red, devoid of reason.
The Calamity bursting from their bodies seemed ready to explode at any moment.
Each one a monster that could ravage the world if unleashed outside.
"Cawwww!"
The moment they shrieked, bereft of language and sanity,
"Shut up."
It was but an instant.
Every crow froze in place.
For a moment, the world seemed to halt.
All sounds vanished, leaving only silence.
Even the air grew still, as if terrified—no whisper of wind.
The sounds leaking from the crows ceased entirely.
Including their heartbeats.
No matter how mighty Havel was, in the past, such majesty couldn't be achieved with a mere shout.
But the aura emanating from Havel had leaped to another dimension overnight.
An aura blacker than darkness roiled around Havel's body.
Registered with epithet 'Lion that Swallowed Immortality'.
📍 The Lords of Calamity notice your emergence.
⏰ The 'Tower' feels faint fear of your existence.
Havel frowned the moment he saw "epithet."
Those who had shown interest in him thus far, bearing epithets, flashed in his mind.
Whisperer
God's Poison
Corroder
God's Duality
Four in total.
'So they've all gone through the same thing?'
They knew of each other's existences.
Perhaps because of this "Demon's Archive."
Meanwhile, text continued to scroll.
Numerous Lords of Calamity grow angry at you.
Some Lords of Calamity take interest in you.
Numerous Lords of Calamity express surprise.
Some Lords of Calamity chuckle.
The Demonic Palace has protected you.
As the messages flooded in, Havel felt a prickling sensation.
Countless gazes from all directions.
'Not just the four.
These must be the gazes of all the Calamity Lords.'
Irritated, Havel summoned Dawn light.
The erupting radiance swept the gazes away.
With the intrusive stares gone, Havel finally assessed his body's state.
That word "Transcendent" earlier.
True to it, his condition had undeniably changed.
'This...'
It was astonishing.
Merely some text had appeared before his eyes.
Yet in that span, his very flesh had been reforged from the ground up.
Starting from his Calamity reserves, boundless power surged within.
Moreover, he felt an inexplicable certainty.
'Transcendence isn't the end.'
There was definitely a next stage.
Sensing it intuitively, Havel let out a hollow laugh.
'I can still grow stronger. That's what this means.'
A chilling aura flickered in Havel's eyes.
Thud!
Belatedly, the crows collapsed beside him.
Each one shriveled and desiccated.
The price of having all their Calamity stripped by Havel.
Havel's gaze turned outward.
The one who had caused this mess and fled.
Pope of the Night God Church
Eractus Gardan
The sole inheritor of the third Gardan bloodline.
Havel stood atop the shattered wall.
It was time to hunt crows.