Paladin of the Dead God - Chapter 243



Only Krnovel

Episode 243. Unholy Beings (1)

Neria was reading the rite mechanically.

They recited phrases full of all kinds of profane language, sprinkled the blood of the goat chosen as a sacrifice on the wall, and put sulfur on the head of the goat that had already been cut off, and made unclean sentences.

But in fact, she had no expectations for this ceremony.

Camille had provided them with a lot of materials and support up until this point, but the rituals rarely succeeded. There were some cases where they succeeded and brought in some of the Chaos Force, but there were countless cases where they were eliminated by the knights who were sent as watchdogs because they could not control them.

How much more so is the ritual of resurrecting the dead? According to the Code of Light, it is a miracle that even the Pope cannot perform arbitrarily.

‘Let’s just think of it as a memorial service for Camille.’

Camille was nice to her.

It was Camille who saved her from being burned at the stake while she was studying social knowledge and helped her not to worry about food and shelter. Of course, I knew that Camille had an ulterior motive, but isn’t that how the world we live in?

However, because of the fact that she had turned into a monster and died a horrible death, Neria felt very uneasy even in her consciousness. The ritual itself had a low success rate, and it was even rarer for it to succeed as intended. Neria was afraid that the ritual would go wrong and she would end up like Camille.

‘… … I guess I should stop after doing this moderately.’

Neria voluntarily decided to skip some of the rituals Camille had told her about and slowly prepare for the end.

Then a voice interrupted her recitation of the prayer.

Neria looked around at the congregation in confusion at the unusually loud and clear voice, but she couldn’t tell whose mouth it was coming from.

Suddenly she felt a strange feeling.

It was as if those very prayers were whispering in his ears.

Sharp, metallic sounds, dull, tar-like thuds, even the sound of sticky meat being squeezed.

Strange, indescribable ‘sounds’ were heard in the form of prayers.

Something was happening.

She tried to abort the ritual quickly. But her mouth wouldn’t stop. As if bursting out, Neria continued to recite the prayer louder and more passionately.

By that time, the believers had begun to feel uneasy. Among them, there were quite a few who had experienced similar phenomena. It seemed as if ancient languages ​​and dead words that they had never heard of before, and profane knowledge that they had never encountered before, were crawling up through their brains.

“Ahhhhhh!”

Neria bit her tongue several times, and her teeth clashed so hard that her mouth was covered in blood, but she could not stop reciting. Before she knew it, the temple was filled with incomprehensible phenomena, including wailing and sobbing.

And at the center of it all was a man wearing a strange mask.

The moment Neria saw the man wearing the most terrifying mask she had ever seen, she realized that there was someone wandering among them who should not have been there.

But when I realized it, it was already too late.

Swish, squeak.

Neria turned around, tears streaming down her face at the sudden loud noise.

The northern wall of the altar, once polished to a shine, was distorted with large cracks. Neria thought she would be crushed to death by the rock that seemed ready to collapse at any moment, but the wall did not collapse.

It grew by twisting its body.

Something was trying to wriggle its way out of the rocky cliff, as if it were pushing its palm or face out from behind the soft silk, revealing its shape. It was like a swollen tumor, or a human face, or a swarm of waving tentacles.

Neria thought of the amniotic sac, the thin membrane surrounding the fetus, as if the rock were about to give birth to the life it had conceived.

She just prayed that it wouldn’t come out.

Damn.

But her prayers were in vain, as the rock began to split. Soon, thick blood flowed out of the crack like a waterfall. Neria, who was right below, had no choice but to pour herself over the blood.

“… … !”

The ‘thing’ that escaped by twisting its body through the crevices of the rocks had Camille’s face.

Only then was Neria allowed to scream.

‘Is this possible?’

***

‘… … I succeeded.’

Isaac felt a moment of bewilderment as he watched ‘it’ begin to crawl out of the cliff.

In this ritual, he merely transformed Isaac himself into a priest and his ‘Book of Nameless Worm’ into a ritual instrument.

However, as with most of the rituals Isaac has performed so far, even if the ritual procedure is a bit sloppy, if the priest leading the ritual and the relic are good, it is considered a decent ritual.

In addition, there are about a hundred believers and even a shrine here who pray earnestly.

There were few conditions more excellent than this. The only problem was that this ritual was a Camille resurrection ritual.

‘But is that really a resurrection ritual?’

Camille’s face was sticking out over the cliff, as if it had been made into a stick of Camille’s face and pressed into a wide, tough rubber.

Then, what looked like her hands appeared here and there on the surface in a haphazard manner, but they looked very small and delicate compared to her body, which was several dozen meters long and protruding out of the wall.

Isaac was reminded of something from that sight.

This is not a resurrection ceremony.

It’s a kind of summoning ritual.

It may not be much different from a resurrection ritual in that it calls back the dead, but Camille ended up dying as a praying white man.

Being resurrected in that exact form is probably not something Camille would want.

“Ahhhhhh! Ka, Camille! It’s Cardinal Camille!”

One of the believers screamed and fell flat on his face. As the prayers ceased, he began to release himself from the pressure of the ritual. They screamed and struggled, trying to run away, despite the fact that it was their own ritual.

As if provoked by the scream, Camille or something else began to squirm.

Isaac felt a strong sense of discomfort at the sight. Whatever it was, it was hard to believe that it was Camille. If you brought Camille’s grandmother or grandchild, she would shake her head.

No, Isaac felt something more than that.

Like a lanternfly, something out there was trying to sneak through the door, using Camille as bait.

“Oh, Cardinal Camille.”

Neria spoke while lying face down and crying.

“What should I do? I, I don’t know what to do now… … .”

Neria had no idea why the ritual had succeeded, or what to do next. Honestly, she wanted to send Camille back right away if she could, but she felt like the giant torso would crush her if she said anything like that.

At that moment, Camille opened her mouth. But no sound came out. Then Camille wiggled her hand behind the amniotic membrane and pointed her finger somewhere.

Everyone’s eyes followed her finger. The finger was pointed straight at Isaac. The moment Isaac felt defeated, there was a commotion behind him.

“Intruder! Intruder!”

“Ugh, shit… … !”

The sudden commotion drew the congregation’s attention back to the rear. The congregation wearing hyena masks were wrestling with a man dressed in monk attire.

Isaac was speechless when he saw the man fighting the hyena masks.

‘Ian?’

Ian, a rookie paladin of the Brienne Knights, was somehow fighting down here.

Ian wasn’t wearing any armor, but it seemed like he hadn’t been a Paladin in vain, as he easily knocked down the men and started running up the stairs. The moment he saw him, Neria shouted urgently as if she had received some kind of powerful revelation.

“It’s the author! It’s clear that the author drove Cardinal Camille to death! He tried to ruin our ritual and prevent Cardinal Camille’s return! Catch him!”

At Neria’s shout, the believers ran screaming. There were also people blocking the stairs, so Ian was surrounded before he could get very far.

Ian drew his sword and swung it fiercely.

Even without armor, a paladin is still a paladin. No matter how many people there are, they are nothing more than a flock of sheep in front of a paladin. However, the swordsmanship is bound to be less scary than a monster tens of meters behind.

Ian was unable to fully demonstrate his skills not because he was bad at dealing with opponents, but because he was crushed by the weight of the crowd.

Isaac noticed that he was hesitant to kill an unarmed civilian.

“F, hold on… … ! Gyaaaah!”

Just as Neria was about to call for him to be captured, the entire temple suddenly shook violently. Camille was thrashing around as if in anger, and the temple began to shake. Pillars collapsed here and there, and stone columns fell down. Neria shouted in panic as the terrible word collapse came to mind.

“Ka, Cardinal Camille, why are you doing this! I will catch him and hand him over to you right away… … .”

But Camille can’t be satisfied since she’s trying to catch the wrong guy in the first place.

Camille began to writhe and crawl away from the cliff, as if trying to catch herself. The cold tore through her amniotic membrane, revealing her true body inside.

What was writhing inside the amniotic sac were three tentacles, each as thick as several pillars combined, each ending in Camille’s face or a small hand.

Blood surged from the torn amniotic membrane, wetting the floor of the temple. The monster Camille, who had rooted his body to the huge wall, or rather, the newly born praying white tree, stretched out his body.

“Ah, ah, ahhhhh… … !”

Neria was completely taken aback by the sight. Then, red bugs began to burst out from inside the amniotic sac. They were fleas with tentacles as big as a person’s head.

The tentacle fleas quickly surged forward and pounced on one of the believers. In one breath, it crushed the believer’s skull, sucked out the fluids, and took over the head.

A scream erupted at the horrific sight.

The believers who had been looking behind them to catch Ian were shocked by the new chaos that suddenly began behind them. Now, they tried to run up the stairs, not to catch Ian, but to escape.

Neria saw the tentacle flea swooping toward her. It was a much larger, more monstrous creature that used its tentacles as legs. She was completely distraught at the realization that she knew nothing about the world beyond that she had studied all her life.

At that moment, the fleas burst out with a squeak.

The flea-killer strode forward, pushing Neria aside. Neria realized that he was the unholy being who had taken over her consciousness earlier and taken control.

No, it wasn’t stolen.

It was recovered.

Neria, a scholar who had studied the nameless chaos for a long time, saw through Isaac’s identity.

That he is the ‘real’ agent of nameless chaos.

***

‘Hesabel, protect Ian from death.’

‘yes.’

Isaac looked back at Neria.

Neria felt a suffocating fear when she saw the strange mask.

Isaac whispered to her through the thought wave function built into his Creeping Terror mask.

[Take ‘my’ followers to a safe place and await my command. I will ask for the punishment for your reckless blasphemy later.]

“Ah, ah, I see! Your Excellency!”

Neria banged her head on the floor several times and shouted. The frost shattered her owl mask, but she didn’t seem to realize it. Neria led the believers to somewhere else instead of the stairs that were blocked. It was a secret passage that was usually attached to such temples.

Isaac left the believers in Neria’s care and approached Camille, or rather, the praying white man.

[It’s a bit weird to kill someone who’s already dead… ]

No matter how loud the mask’s ideology was, it went straight to the other person. It could be conveyed immediately regardless of language.

The praying white-faced man looked down at Isaac and slashed down with his tentacles in one breath. Isaac easily dodged and slashed at the tentacles with his Kachulain. The ferocious sword energy left a large wound as if it had been bitten.

[If you didn’t want to die again, you shouldn’t have come back to life.]

Isaac prepared to kill her again. He had already killed her once. And the tentacles were thicker than before, but fewer in number. It wouldn’t be difficult.

But then, a vibration reverberated throughout the temple. Soon, a swarm of tentacles of similar size burst out from beyond the walls.

Kwadudududu! At least ten tentacles swarmed the temple, tearing and chewing Isaac to pieces.

Isaac activated Kachulain’s acceleration ability in a panic. His body bounced off the tentacles and ran at full speed.

The problem wasn’t just the tentacles. The ceiling began to crumble as the pillars collapsed due to the tentacles’ rampage. Whether it was a tentacle or a boulder weighing tens of tons, if you got crushed, you would be crushed.

After a few minutes of frenzy, Isaac could see the moonlight streaming through the collapsed ceiling as he let out a ragged breath.

There were several close calls, but Isaac barely managed to survive.

Tentacles protruded from the walls and were embedded here and there in the temple walls.

‘… … If I hadn’t trained my swordsmanship while studying the movements of the tentacles, I would have been crushed.’

The collapsed ceiling revealed a view of the night sky.

The ‘Praying White Mok’ was dancing towards the moon, offering a worship of gratitude for the new birth.