Chapter 129
Chapter 129
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 129
Chapter Title: Gathering of the Calamity Lords
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The Devil's Hall, where the lords of Calamity had gathered.
There, Havel first took up position in a shadowy corner, arms crossed.
Rushing in blindly wouldn't do him any good.
He'd chosen the corner to observe the situation first.
And that turned out to be a wise decision.
Had Havel approached first and struck up a conversation, the other Calamity lords would surely have treated him like a newbie.
But by standing silently in the corner, watching as if he had no interest in their chatter,
they began to wonder if he might not be a fresh face after all—perhaps someone returning after a long absence.
"That aura... I've definitely never felt it before."
"Yeah. At least not in the last hundred years."
"Wonder how ancient this one's been lurking."
The Calamity lords started murmuring among themselves.
From that, Havel gleaned a few key insights.
First, these lords had been exchanging information for quite some time.
"They say a Transcendent has appeared on the Central Continent."
"Does that mean the cursed fog is finally lifting?"
"Doesn't seem like it. It's thinned a bit from before, but it's still there."
"What? Then how did a Transcendent even show up?"
"That's the bizarre part. A Transcendent was born, but the gates haven't opened."
Second, they had a keen interest in the continent.
And moreover, these bastards definitely existed beyond the continent.
"Someone must've jumped the gun."
"You have to cross the fog first to jump anything. And we all know no one can cross it directly."
"Who knows? Maybe they're just hiding it. Could be possible."
"Haha, if so, that guy's got it made. First to claim takes it all."
"Plenty of us have puppets planted on the continent. Could be one of those."
Finally, they were unmistakably eyeing the world beyond the continent—no, the continent itself.
A chill settled in Havel's eyes.
They spoke of crossing into the continent like it was mere sport.
As a native of the continent, Havel naturally took offense to that.
'At least I know there's no need to treat these bastards with any kindness.'
Havel felt irritation rising, but he didn't act on it yet.
It wasn't time to move rashly.
Clack—.
At that moment, another set of footsteps echoed from the corridor outside.
Havel glanced over subtly. She wore a serpent mask.
Another one who had blatantly disguised her appearance.
"The Whisperer has arrived."
"Darling, you're late."
"You skipped the last gathering—what brings you here?"
Those who recognized her called out from various spots.
From their words, Havel instantly pieced together her identity.
Moebius, the lord of the serpents.
She was the Whisperer.
"I had a promise to keep."
She greeted the lords familiarly and settled onto one of the hall's sofas.
Arms crossed, she quietly scanned the room.
'That "promise" must be about me.'
He considered making a move right then, but decided against it.
The Devil's Hall would drag on for quite a while, after all.
In the meantime, another figure appeared beside her.
He wore a bizarre mask formed from twisted, tangled wings.
"God's Venom."
The Whisperer recognized him immediately.
"You too, I presume."
"Indeed."
God's Venom nodded at her words.
Both of them were waiting for Havel.
'That must be the one.'
The master of the cultist Edler.
Little was known about him beyond Edler himself.
'The ones left are...'
The Glutton,
and
'God's Duality.'
The entity even the other Calamity lords regarded with unease.
Only he remained.
"This Devil's Hall feels rather chaotic."
At that moment, one of the Calamity lords spoke up.
Beneath the goat horns sprouting from his head,
his face was covered by an utterly grotesque mask resembling mangled human flesh.
Especially the eyeball embedded smack in the center—it was revolting.
"Dweller in Grief, what nonsense are you spouting now?"
God's Venom responded with a hint of annoyance.
The Dweller in Grief peeled back his fleshy cheek, twisting his lips into a grin.
"Why, I thought I'd share something less slothful for once."
"What story this time?"
"Something intriguing, of course. Isn't a Transcendent from the continent joining this Devil's Hall for the first time in ages?"
The other Calamity lords perked up at that.
They existed beyond the continent.
Naturally, their interest gravitated toward beings within it.
"Especially you two—the Whisperer and God's Venom. You've planted apostles inside the continent, haven't you?"
From the looks of it, planting apostles wasn't something they could do freely.
The other lords eyed the pair with envy.
But the Whisperer looked as if the remark wasn't worth dignifying with a response.
"So you're asking for intel on the new Transcendent who crossed over?"
"Precisely. Everyone knows you've gotten close to this Transcendent."
The Calamity lords' eyes gleamed in unison.
The hall grew thick with a subtle pressure.
Each of them was a Transcendent.
Their presence alone was extraordinary.
Snap—.
At that instant, the Whisperer unfurled her fan.
She veiled her serpent mask with it and smiled chillingly.
"Find out for yourselves."
She was a Calamity lord too.
She wouldn't yield to the pressure from the others.
"Dweller in Grief, don't ruin the mood for no reason."
And with God's Venom at her side,
the other lords had no desire to make enemies of them both.
Their momentum faltered.
The Dweller in Grief scratched his cheek in disappointment.
Pus oozed from the torn flesh.
"Is that so? Well then, let's pivot to another topic on the same theme."
With that, he abruptly pointed at Havel.
"Whether this newcomer is truly the fresh Transcendent or not."
In that moment, Havel realized the spotlight had swung onto him.
He didn't know what trick had been pulled, but a light now beamed down from above, illuminating him.
All eyes turned his way.
They'd been intrigued by him from the start.
After all, he'd entered without a word and simply observed.
They'd been watching him closely since the beginning.
"What say you, newcomer? Care to introduce yourself?"
The Dweller in Grief let out a grotesque chuckle.
Normally, a new aura alone wouldn't provoke such provocation.
It could be an existing participant masking their presence for fun, or an ancient figure they simply didn't recall.
But the timing was special this time.
The Transcendent appearing today hailed from the continent after a long hiatus,
and might hold clues to why the fog hadn't lifted.
If he was the lion who had devoured even Immortality, they needed to pressure his identity out now.
And so,
as their gazes fixed on him with predatory hunger,
Havel's eyebrow twitched beneath his mask.
That was when it happened.
A faint surge of anger ignited within Havel, and his Calamity began to seep out insidiously.
The Calamity lords sensed it and began scoffing.
They too were Transcendents who had elevated their essence.
The Calamity of some fledgling fresh to transcendence was laughable.
But for some reason,
the more Havel's Calamity flowed, the more their faces stiffened one by one.
It gradually enveloped the entire hall.
That ferocious aura was enough to make even them swallow hard.
Something was off.
If he were truly a newborn Transcendent,
he shouldn't possess such Calamity.
Yet his was unnervingly sinister.
The Calamity lords suddenly felt a choking pressure.
As if in hurried counter, they began releasing their own Calamities one after another.
But Havel's anomalous Calamity effortlessly surpassed them.
The most rigid-faced among them was the Dweller in Grief.
He too had pegged Havel as a greenhorn Transcendent.
But the aura emanating from him was anything but novice.
It evoked a lake stagnant with eons of decay,
a Calamity vicious beyond measure.
No fledgling could harbor such a thing.
Havel slowly uncrossed his arms.
"Who said anything about me being new?"
Thud!
The Calamity lords felt something crash down on them.
This bone-chilling sensation was unmistakably dense killing intent.
And not the sort amassed in mere years.
It was the intent forged from a lifetime rolling through the jaws of death.
His killing intent alone sent shivers down their spines.
Most of these Calamity lords had spent ages beyond the continent.
Naturally, some had endured hellish trials.
Yet none could match the ordeals Havel had weathered.
Sixty-four regressions.
In each of those sixty-four lives, Havel had pressed onward toward the Demonic Palace without respite.
In that process, he had confronted sixty-three deaths and hells.
His spirit, honed through endless whittling,
was something no one here could face head-on.
This is bad.
We thought he was a newbie,
but this killing intent and Calamity were utterly beyond a newcomer.
'I figured it was just one of the regulars messing around by altering their aura... but no.
One of those lords who lost interest in the Devil's Hall and stopped attending.'
The ancient ones, shrouded in rumors of surviving eons.
This one was surely among them.
Must have come out of curiosity upon hearing of the new continental Transcendent.
And we mistook him for a newcomer, of all things.
"I-I misspoke."
The Dweller in Grief hastily apologized.
He tucked tail without delay.
Havel reined in his killing intent and leaned back against the wall.
The Calamity lords began exchanging wary glances among themselves.
Thanks to the Dweller in Grief, the atmosphere had gone to hell.
No one dared speak up lightly now.
"Very well. Shall we discuss the Central Continent?"
It was the Whisperer who broke the silence.
She stared straight at Havel.
Her gaze held a touch of incredulity as she regarded him.
The Whisperer had seen through his identity.