Paladin of the Dead God - Chapter 102



Only Krnovel

Episode 102 Things buried in the dark (1)

A foreign emotion of fear permeated the Living Armorers who were simply told to guard and manage this place. Isaac’s eyes flashed and he roughly tore at his armor. The Living Armor were spiritually shocked by the sight of the tentacles devouring them without leaving even a trace of their souls.

The spirits of the ten living armors that had stood up were instantly expelled and they disappeared out of the cave.

‘It’s a good thing the bond is weak.’

Isaac intentionally infused it with divine power to increase the effect, but it was also the fault that these living armors were not made with much care in the first place. However, if the activation of the Dark Eucharist trait was enough, the lower-ranking soldiers did not seem to need to worry too much.

‘Of course, there is a downside to having to take out the tentacles and kill him in a flashy manner… … .’

Isaac turned his head to look at Aidan, who had received the ‘Dark Eucharist’ effect. The reason he put on this ‘show’ on purpose was also because of Aidan.

In order to manipulate him as he pleases, as he is unable to escape and is so scared that he cannot move like a ghost.

As expected, Aidan was sitting on the floor, shaking.

But what he saw in his eyes was an emotion other than fear.

Unexpected words flowed from his mouth.

“Dreamer… … .”

“what? “What are you talking about?”

Isaac frowned and looked at Aidan.

Only then did Aidan suddenly come to his senses and stand up. But Aidan’s eyes were overflowing with admiration and awe instead of fear. This was not what Isaac had expected.

Then Isaac remembered another effect of the dark Eucharist.

‘Your enemies who witness the Eucharist fall into a state of fear or confusion, but your followers fall into religious ecstasy… … Was it?’

It was surprising, but Aidan seemed to be ‘following’ Isaac. Isaac wondered for a moment when this guy had been following him.

“Well, what was that just now?”

Aidan couldn’t say specifically what ‘it’ was, but Isaac understood what it was. And that he got it all wrong.

Aidan didn’t originally follow him. He became a follower only after seeing the dark Eucharist.

Specifically, tentacles.

The Salt Council, unusually for a major faith, had quite a few tentacle followers. Some of the salt council’s angels are sea creatures… … To be precise, it was because it had the shape of a cephalopod.

And at first glance, Isaac’s tentacles don’t look much different from octopus feet. Although it looks much more terrible.

As soon as Isaac noticed Aidan’s thoughts, he immediately took an ambivalent attitude.

“It’s a miracle from the God I serve.”

“You weren’t a Paladin of the Code of Light!”

“I guess I can’t tell you the details.”

Isaac stamped Aidan with authority.

The Nephilim’s overwhelming charisma silenced Aidan and gave him all the power of persuasion. Aidan, already under the dark influence of the Eucharist, began to work hard to rationalize Isaac’s identity.

“okay… … So, you said that if you make an empty relic, you can somehow make it into a Salt Council relic. The reason He hides His body within the Code of Light is to hide Himself from them… … .”

It seemed like he was thinking hard about something, but Isaac had no intention of explaining everything.

Some people think of themselves as avengers. Also, some people seem to think of him as an angel, someone as a pious Holy Grail Knight, and someone as a revolutionary who will put an end to the corrupt religious order.

Now, there are even people who mistake him for God, but Isaac had no intention of selling himself out to suit anyone.

If you make a mistake and find it easy to use it, that is enough. I had no desire to sacrifice myself to live up to their illusions.

‘They made a mistake first, so why do I take responsibility for it? ‘The one who was tricked is the bad one.’

***

Isaac checked the weapons hidden in the abandoned mineshaft. The condition of the weapons was surprisingly clean.

I don’t know if it was because the Living Armorers worked hard to maintain it, but it also seemed like it was because of the structure of the cave. I don’t know how it was designed, but for an abandoned mine, the humidity was low and the oxygen was somewhat scarce. When the chill emitted by the undead was added, it became the optimal weapon warehouse.

‘As expected, it’s not a weapon made by a brazier craftsman.’

Although I was secretly looking forward to it, the weapons were of course not made by a brazier craftsman. They wanted to meticulously craft each weapon, and did not want to mass-produce military supplies.

‘But it’s not a weapon from the Immortal Church or the Red Grail.’

In order to mass produce weapons of this quality, the government or religious organizations must intervene. However, due to the nature of the weapon style, it was not from the Code of Light, the Immortal Church, or the Red Holy Grail. There are no skilled blacksmiths in the Salt Council.

‘Then is it Olkan discipline?’

The Orc nomads of the East could have done that. It was like another faith had intervened, but Isaac felt fortunate. Since we cannot melt all of these weapons, we will have to use them, but if they are weapons from the Immortal Church or the Red Holy Grail, which have many conflicts with the Gertonian Empire, they will be caught right away.

The Olkan discipline was so far removed from the Baekje Empire that it was likely to be treated as nothing more than an unusual weapon.

While examining the weapons, Aidan kept glancing at Isaac. He seemed to have a lot of questions he wanted to ask Isaac, including whether what he saw was real.

‘… … Honestly, it’s not like I don’t understand.’

The Salt Council believers are frantically trying to find traces of their god buried beneath the salt desert. Their ultimate goal is also to destroy the salt flats and declare the resurrection of God. Meanwhile, if someone with even a clue had appeared, even Isaac would have been itching to talk to him.

But Isaac was more curious about what Aidan could answer than what he was curious about.

Isaac looked inside the armor where the Living Armor had been removed and found a magic catalyst. Isaac wondered what the catalyst was made of, so he rubbed it with his finger.

At that moment, a tingling sensation passed through my entire body, perhaps due to the power of the catalyst or a tiny fragment of the ghost remaining. It was a weak power that could not cause any harm to Isaac, but a flashing afterimage passed before his eyes.

[Nameless Chaos is watching you.]

“What a dog… … .”

Isaac barely strengthened his legs to keep from stumbling.

The afterimage left on his cornea was none other than a man wearing yellow clothes.

In addition to constantly appearing in Isaac’s nightmares, a mysterious man beckoned towards him when the afterlife was flooded.

The afterimage quickly disappeared, but Isaac could not easily escape the shock. And at the same time, I wondered what on earth was this damn thing that was bothering me so much.

Suddenly, Isaac remembered what Carlsen Milter had said to him in a fantasy that was difficult to tell whether it was a dream or a delusion.

‘If you have any questions about your current situation, ask the salt merchant.’

It was clear that the salt merchant was referring to Aidan. Because it was a nickname that accurately pointed out the attributes of Salt Council believers.

‘I was planning to ask her after I’d properly tamed her.’

“Are you okay, Isaac?”

Aidan approached Isaac cautiously as he remained blank. He will be disappointed to find out that it is a tentacled monster and not the divine being he expected, but he need not disappoint early. Isaac said, pressing his throbbing brow.

“It looks like the aftereffects from fighting that Immortal Church bishop have subsided a bit.”

“Bishop of the Immortal Church… … Ah, I saw the traces. The door of Urbansus was opened. “Even if it’s temporary, it’s natural to suffer aftereffects from being caught up in something like that.”

Urbansus.

It is an accurate name for the afterlife.

Although it is an archaic language or the words of gods, from the perspective of angels and divine beasts, it is said that it is the world in which they reside, so the name of the afterlife is not accurate.

Isaac didn’t wonder how Aidan knew these things.

Most Salt Council believers are well-versed in theology. Because you need to have the knowledge to distinguish what is a holy object. Among them, certain professions, those who searched for the Salt Council’s sacred relics and legacies, so-called ‘archaeologists’, were exceptionally well-versed in theology.

Aidan Verbeek was one such archaeologist.

***

“Now that I think about it, I heard that people who demonstrate strong divine power are often connected to the afterlife. So there are people who are polluted or corrupted by the wrong power. Isaac, please be careful too.”

Isaac was intrigued by Aidan’s words.

When Isaac was introduced to this world only through games, he had no interest in the afterlife.

I know that the afterlife is important to all faiths, but honestly, it’s a good problem for players who can just play again even if they die.

But in ‘reality’ it was different.

Some people were willing to seek salvation in monasteries and throw their lives on the battlefield in order to go to heaven, while others became barbarians, the lowest social class, out of fear of going to hell. On the contrary, there were those who betrayed their families and masters, devoted themselves to heretical beliefs, and became angels.

I could understand it if it was done with the idea that life is short and the afterlife is long. However, Isaac could not understand how ‘the’ afterlife could come into reality and influence and corrupt people.

It may seem absurd, but it felt like something was happening to Isaac as well.

“If you exercise strong divine power, you will be connected to the afterlife?”

“yes. Divine power is the power that comes down from Urbansus. The more you accept that power, the more the boundaries inevitably become thinner. “I heard that this is why angels mainly reside in the afterlife.”

Isaac was curious.

It was because it somehow seemed unrelated to what was happening to him recently.

As expected, the Salt Council’s archaeologist knows a lot about this and that.

“Can you tell me in more detail?”

Aidan thought for a moment and opened his mouth as if he had come up with a metaphor.

“Are you Isaac, the only begotten son?”

“what?”

“Uh, um. It means a person born alone. A being born without any ancestors, family, or relationship. It’s something that only exists in mythology. “Because there is no such thing in reality.”

Aidan cleared his throat and continued.

“Do you, Isaac, believe that everything you say and do is of your own will? no. That’s what Urbansus told us to do. “Everyone in the world is like that.”

“I have never experienced anything like a majestic light commanding me to raise my spoon while eating or whispering to me to put my right foot out and then my left foot every time I walk.”

“But it’s not like I don’t know how to use a spoon or walk. All living things in the world are influenced by the past. To be precise, it is influenced by those who have already died. The way you eat, sleep, and walk are all created by the dead.”

The first thing that Isaac thought of was something like the collective unconscious or DNA, a memory imprinted on the body. But there was no need to bring such grand concepts.

Ordinary culture, morality, etiquette, and norms all control the human unconscious in minute detail.

“The sum of those things is Urbansus?”

“yes. So, to be more accurate, it should be called Urbansus, not the afterlife. “When we talk about the afterlife, it seems like we are just talking about the world where the dead go.”

“So, as my miracles become stronger, my free will becomes less and less likely, and the will of the afterlife takes my place?”

“I guess you could say that. Some people say that they have become a true believer, or that they have achieved enlightenment, or that they are a saint, or… … “You might call me an angel.”

Having faith in itself means being pressured to know how to behave.

A person who has just entered the faith will have a good sense of his or her own essence. Faith does not exert much pressure on him.

However, as time goes by and you gain more power and a higher status, the pressure on you is bound to become more intense.

The person concerned may think of the process as ‘deepening their faith.’ However, Aidan explained that it is actually a phenomenon that occurs when the consciousness of the afterlife and the individual become unified.

Isaac thought carefully about what Aidan had said and came up with an answer.

“But doesn’t that happen not only to believers but also to the general population?”

When an individual belongs to a group, it is common for them to become influenced by that group. There is no need to bring up grandiose concepts such as the afterlife, God, or angels.

Aidan looked a little embarrassed, but then nodded.

“Uh, um. You could say so. In fact, all of this may be a metaphor.”

In the end, he too is just a scholar who studied through records and books. There was no way to confirm what kind of being Urbansus or any god was.

However, I was able to fully understand the nightmares that Isaac had been experiencing frequently recently through Aidan’s explanation. It is not just a nightmare, but an actual afterlife, or rather, somewhere in Urbansus.

Urbansus’ malice and obsession were aimed squarely at Isaac.

Then Aidan added.

“Now that I think about it, the traces left by Al Duazzad at that time were strange.”

“Strange? how?”

“Usually when you open the door of Urbansus, an afterlife related to the person who opened it appears. Al Duazad was an immortal cult, so naturally an environment similar to the Black Empire would have emerged. Creatures contaminated with frozen soil and ghosts, things like that. but… … .”

This phenomenon clearly appeared in the beginning. Haunted ghosts and frozen plants. However, the world that began to emerge immediately was something completely different.

A world where all kinds of things have melted and become distorted.

“Thanks to Isaac’s abilities, the ‘normalized’ world became fine, but the underground was not. It clearly had nothing to do with the afterlife of the Immortal Church.”

“How was it different?”

“It was full of white sand under the dead grass.”

There was a word that came to Isaac’s mind as soon as he heard that.

An infamous event in which a nameless chaos wiped out 1/3 of all humanity.

White Death.