The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - LLD Chapter 62: Ambush (2) (Part 2)

But right now, Avarus was still Benneron.
With his body transformed at the genetic level by Transmog, he shouldn’t have been able to cast magic.

So, this must be a reactive artifact—a magic-triggered defense mechanism.
Typical of that meticulous bastard.

I charged straight at the stacked shields and slashed with [Dragon’s Claw A].

[Dragon’s Claw A] was a power embedded with dragon DNA.
Its destructive force rivaled that of a dragon’s strike—
And it ignored [-35%] of the target’s defense.

No number of shield spells could stop it.

CRACK—!

The stacked magical shields tore like brittle crackers.

SPLURCH—!

Avarus’s chest was ripped open, blood spraying high into the air.

A definite impact, felt at his fingertips.
And yet, Avarus hadn’t died.

No message appeared saying Avarus had been defeated.

Even if it had, that grotesque form made it impossible to believe.

Rumble—!

Flesh seemed to melt and drip from his entire body in a grotesque transformation.

And soon, Avarus’s true form revealed itself.

His body was hunched and twisted.
His frame, gaunt like a dried twig, stood trembling on shaky legs that moved with an eerie rhythm.

His fingertips were blackened, burned from repeated experiments.
Some fingers had even been replaced with metal prosthetics.

Evidence that he had used himself as a test subject.

As a result, his peeled skin bore burns, scars, and areas where flesh had swollen or sunk in unnaturally.

Unidentifiable devices clung to his body in clumps.

Some were fused with his flesh, pulsing as if circulating blood.
Others jutted out from his twisted form, constantly injecting unknown chemicals and liquids.

His erratically trembling eyes lacked focus—but burned with endless curiosity and maddened obsession.

That—that was the Avarus I remembered.

Kai’s eyes widened in shock.

“What the…?”

Kai’s eyes, stretched so wide they looked like they might rip, revealed his disbelief.

No wonder—Transmog was the ultimate transformation spell, altering even one’s genetic structure.

Not even a master’s senses could detect it.
No magical detection method could reveal it.

“…How did you know?”

Avarus, too, was puzzled.

“Detection shielding was in place… there shouldn’t be more than forty seconds left on it. Don’t tell me—you identified my unique mana pattern? …That can’t be right.”

Avarus rambled on, but—
None of that mattered.

He simply couldn’t deceive [Predatory Instincts S].

An ability obtained by devouring a Lycanthrope, and one of the powers granted to the Monarch of Beasts.

To sum up [Predatory Instincts] [S], it was the evolutionary ‘survival instinct’ that lifeforms developed over eons to stay alive.

To survive predators.
To avoid being eaten by other predators.

Which mushrooms are poisonous.
Which places are safe.
What’s beneficial to oneself.

All distilled from countless lifeforms struggling to survive in countless natural environments.

The result was a power that allowed one to innately and a priori perceive all creatures, environments, and entities.

And I knew more about Avarus than anyone.
As a former special ops commander, I had all the intelligence on the Dark Merchant Group burned into my memory.

“How… did you see through me?”

No matter how clever Avarus was…

“What’ll you do with that info? Stall for time?”

In the end, he was in the palm of my hand.

As expected, Avarus flinched.
He’d been struck right in the core.
But charging recklessly wasn’t an option.

“I don’t know how you figured me out, but…”

There’s an ironclad rule when facing a mage.

The second rule:

“The moment you step into their domain—it’s already too late!!”

Never enter a mage’s domain.

BZZZZZZZT—!!

A deafening ringing tore through our ears as mana surged around Avarus.

Hexagrams with cryptic symbols etched themselves into the floor in every direction.

Soon, the entire room was sealed—like it had been wrapped in a transparent veil, cutting it off completely from the outside world.

What followed was a warped silence.
The sound of wind, breathing, even a heartbeat—
All stretched unnaturally and wavered.

Every sensation inside this space felt disconnected from reality.

‘A barrier.’

Activating [Predatory Instincts] [S], information about the barrier floated up before me.

◆ Infinity Silence (무한의 침묵)
Within this barrier, the flow of mana is completely halted.
All beings within the barrier are unable to use their mana.
This barrier persists infinitely (Infinity), regardless of the flow of time.

Reading the description, you’d think: What kind of absurd spell even is this?
This wasn’t just overpowered—it redefined the term.

Even the Archmage was flustered by it.

And not just the Archmage.
Even the Elementalist, one of the heroes of the Allied Forces, was caught off guard by Avarus’s barrier.

It was a cheat-level barrier that even heroes couldn’t counter.
But of course, casting it wasn’t easy.

It could only be used in specific locations—
Even then, it required immense time and resources to prepare.

That’s why the iron rule to never enter a mage’s domain existed.
And it’s also why Avarus hadn’t run away amidst all this chaos.

Still… I didn’t expect him to activate it immediately.

It was a bit surprising.
Looks like, after seeing Kai and me easily tear through the mansion’s guards and battle-type homunculi, he decided he couldn’t win a fair fight.

“Gah…!”

Suddenly, Kai staggered.

No wonder.
Kai’s power was Aura—
Which is still, ultimately, a refined use of mana.

If the flow of mana is cut off entirely, then Aura, too, stops working.

But—

That applied to Avarus as well.

He was a mage.
His power came from Mana Force—
Which was also a way of harnessing mana.

So if mana’s flow is severed, his power cuts off too.

Judging by everything, it looked like Avarus wanted a pure physical fight in a zone where magic was nullified.
He couldn’t use magic, but we couldn’t use Aura either.

In that case, it was a fight between mere humans.

But Avarus wasn’t just a mage. He was also an alchemist.
And he had ways to enhance his body using drugs.

With that, the strange devices stuck all over his body suddenly whirred to life.

The ones fused with his flesh began bubbling—
Each surge of energy grotesquely twisted Avarus’s body even further.

This was now a fight between a monster and a man.

The outcome was obvious—

Except for one thing.

There was a variable.

Me.

Because I couldn’t use mana at all.
And so, none of my abilities were based on it.

They came from biological evolution.

Even without mana flow, [Dragon’s Claw A] remained [Dragon’s Claw A].
[Regeneration B+] still regenerated.
[Toughened Skin B], [Nutrient Synthesis B], [Promote Metabolism C+], and even my combination skills—all still worked.

I was Avarus’s perfect counter.
And I knew exactly what kind of mage he was.

I hadn’t walked into the den of a mage—into Avarus’s lair—without reason.

On the other hand, Avarus didn’t know anything about me.
To him, I was just the House Whitewolf’s infamous troublemaker.

He probably assumed neutralizing Kai’s Aura would be enough…

“Hehehehehe…!”

Avarus began to chuckle.

“What a fool.”

He clearly thought the victory was his.
Come to think of it, he was like this in my past life too.

Laughing smugly as the heroes of the Allied Forces panicked, trapped in a zone where mana was suppressed.

And then—

“You crawled into my domain on your own two feet… kekeke…!”

He died when I ripped out his heart.

Translatin_Otaku

•