Paladin of the Dead God - Chapter 310



Only Krnovel

Episode 310. Siero Dawn Army (6)

“What is that… … No, Father Siero?”

Devan was delighted to see the heirs of the Kran royal family brought by the party, but was bewildered when he saw who had come with them. The key was to bring Siero and Isaac secretly, but Siero had come with them. The man who had led the kidnapping explained the situation to Devan.

Devan’s expression quickly changed from one of bewilderment to one of contempt.

“That’s right. That’s the kind of person you were. I thought you’d changed a bit after you ran away and came back… … Ha.”

Siero couldn’t raise his head as if he was embarrassed. But no matter what he said, it was important to stay by these kids’ side. However, Devan, who seemed to have no doubts, ordered a body search of Siero. After confirming that nothing special that could be used to identify the location was found, Devan clicked his tongue.

“If we meet people from the religious community after we get out, it would be better to have a priest with us. He won’t be a bother, so let’s take him with us.”

“Thank you, thank you!”

Siero bowed down at Devan’s feet in gratitude, seemingly moved. Devan kicked his hand with his foot, his expression still showing contempt.

“let’s go.”

“Just in case, it would be a good idea to tie your wrists… … .”

“If you get out of the passage and encounter a zombie, you’ll need something like that. He’ll probably have to work hard to save his life.”

Devan believed in Siero’s character that he had seen so far.

A selfish person who is only concerned with self-preservation. That was Siero.

Siero lowered his head and rubbed his ears diligently as if he had no intention of denying it.

The place where Devan went first was the stairs leading to the underground well inside the castle.

There is only one secret passage connecting the inside and outside of the Kraan Fortress. However, there are many other secret passages leading to that secret passage. Even if Isaac guards the entrance, it is only one of many entrances.

This rare, unpolluted well was directly connected to a secret passage.

The waterway created with the secret passage was dark and damp. Every time the groundwater dripped, Devan shuddered with an eerie feeling. His mind was also complicated and dark.

As expected, the end of the secret passage leads to an area where there are undead troops. They have to fight the zombies with their own strength until they meet the undead with intelligence and negotiate. They can’t negotiate hostage negotiations with the zombies.

Let’s say you get to a safe place and get out. What then?

It was impossible to join the Papal army. The Grail Knight had already seen him. He was currently imprisoned in the Kraan Fortress, but when he saw the Grail Knight’s majesty when he came, he didn’t think he would die without taking care of himself.

In the end, he had to escape to a place where he wouldn’t get entangled with the religious order. More than anything, Devan was sick of the Dawn Army.

‘… … Is it my only choice to become Barbary?’

Those who become apostates in order to escape are not welcomed by any faith. In the end, the only way to survive in a place where no one knows about is to become a Barbary. Ironically, the most Barbary-friendly region in the Empire is Isacrea, ruled by the Grail Knights.

From the core leadership of the Siero Dawn Army to Barbary in one breath.

It was a catastrophic crash.

But Devan soon realized that it could go even further than that.

***

Slurp… … .

After walking for a while, Devan suddenly noticed that the surroundings had become unusually dark. The wet walls that had been shining in the torchlight had lost their luster, and the darkness was so thick that even the figure of the man walking in front with the torch was dim.

It wasn’t just that it got dark.

The crackling of fire, the sound of water flowing, and even the sound of children sobbing softly seemed to have disappeared into the darkness. In the place of the disappearance of the sounds, strange and unholy whispers of unknown meaning took their place. An inexplicable chill ran down my spine.

“What is this… … .”

Devan noticed the change and drew his sword. That alone would have been enough to show his keen intuition, but it was an action that had no meaning at the moment.

“Put the knife away.”

Devan felt a sharp pain in the back of his hand and dropped the knife. It fell into the water with a sharp sound. There were teeth marks on the back of his hand, as if it had been bitten by a large animal.

It was as if darkness had bitten me.

Thud, thud.

In a place where all other sounds except whispers had died down, the sound of unfamiliar footsteps was unusually loud. Devan’s heart pounded violently. He could tell even without seeing the face. There was only one person in this city who could reveal this much presence.

Suddenly, a white face stood out from the darkness.

Isaac, with his purple eyes burning, appeared before Devan and his party.

The Devans instinctively drew their swords or axes, but like Devan, they screamed and dropped their weapons. Some even had their fingers cut off or their wrists torn off, leaving them dangling.

“I told him to put the knife away in front of the kids.”

After removing all weapons that could be used for intimidation, Isaac began to approach again.

As my faith and belief in Isaac grew stronger, so did the power I could bestow upon the colors beyond. Even a normal person without any special divine powers could be killed as if they were put into a blender just by surrounding them with colors. Especially in such a small and confined space.

Devan couldn’t figure out how Isaac had found them and tracked them down. His eyes turned to Siero belatedly. Siero’s face was filled with joy, even though he had been caught running away.

Only then did Devan realize what Siero had done and he rushed at Rehena Krann in a fit of rage.

“Holy Grail Knight-aaaaaaah!”

Devan immediately grabbed Rehena’s chin. Isaac’s movements stopped.

“Even without a single weapon, I can still twist a little kid’s balls! Get back now!”

Isaac smiled brightly from beyond the darkness. Instead of backing down, he gestured as if to tell me to try.

“Try it.”

“what?”

“I told you clearly. I don’t care whether you survive or not. So either set yourselves on fire or throw yourself into the well and die. And it just so happens that these guys who are about to die are gathered in the well?”

“Hey, are you saying it doesn’t matter if the child dies?”

“If the eldest son of the Krann family dies, there will be no successor to the fortress. Hmm, the legitimate successor and the scoundrels who occupied the fortress are gone at the same time. Who will take responsibility for our fortress now? No, the Grail Knight who happened to be passing by at that time was protecting us? Grail Knight, please have mercy on us… … .”

Isaac acted like a commoner who was begging for salvation, but then his expression disappeared and he glared at Devan.

“Is there any reason why I should refuse it? If so, please let me know.”

Devan’s teeth chattered. It was something he never expected to hear from a Grail Knight.

But this was nothing new to Isaac. The method by which he took over the Isacre territory was similar, if anything.

The bloodlines of the Kran royal family were killed by the scoundrels, and those scoundrels were defeated by the righteous Grail Knights. The people who had lost their land and their lords shed tears and entrusted themselves to the Grail Knights for protection, and everyone was happy. It was all right, it was all right.

Devan realized only then that they had been used. He thought that Isaac had come alone in the first place. Without uttering a single curse, he immediately hugged Lehena Krann and turned his back to run away. His movements were so swift that even his fellow comrades could not react and only belatedly realized his intentions.

‘There is only one way to survive!’

In order to survive the mad Grail Knights who would kill to take over Krann Fortress, you had to rely on the Undying Cult. It might be possible to survive by showing Lehena Krann to the Krann King and begging for help.

But his escape did not last long.

“this guy!”

Boom! Someone suddenly grabbed Devan from behind, causing him to slip and fall backwards. Rehena hurriedly escaped from Devan’s palm, which hit her head hard on the stone floor.

“This damned bastard, he can’t escape!”

It was none other than Siero who caught Devan. Siero grabbed Devan by the neck and started stealing miracles. His miracle of stealing Urbanus’s heat was one of the few miracles he could use properly.

“Kkaaaak!”

Devan screamed and writhed in unbearable pain. He instinctively jumped into the flowing water to escape the pain. However, Siero did not let go of Devan and held him tightly, falling into the water together. Even underwater, Siero’s hands were burning brightly with heat.

Then, at one point, Siero had a strange hallucination. It was as if someone was gently covering his hand with theirs, and at the same time, the heat rose even stronger.

Devan was shouting something underwater, but Siero couldn’t hear a word.

As the water in the canal bubbled and evaporated, steam rose up. Inside, Devan slowly cooked like a boiled pig.

***

Pushuuuuu… … .

Siero got up from the canal a long time later. His whole body felt hot and sore.

The surroundings were thick with steam, making it almost impossible to breathe. A fully cooked devan lay beneath his feet.

Siero, who belatedly remembered the Kran siblings, looked around in surprise. He wondered if they had been burned by the steam, but fortunately, the two siblings were staying by Isaac’s side.

“Oh, thank goodness. I was wondering if someone else might have kidnapped you… … .”

I was so excited about having to catch Devan that Isaac looked at me and said something, but I couldn’t hear him clearly.

“what?”

Isaac tilted his head, then seemed to realize something and tapped his ear, speaking a little louder.

“Your ears fell off because of the heat. It seems like the sound doesn’t gather because there are no earlobes.”

In fact, Siero had his own ‘safety device’. You could call it a surveillance device.

Siero, whose miracles weren’t very strong, couldn’t restore his lost ear. Instead, Isaac gave him a parasite from beyond.

Isaac, who can create organs from parts of his followers’ bodies through his ‘Rats in the Walls’ ability, used it to give Siero new ears. This was possible because it did not replace Siero’s ears, but only the shape of the earlobes.

Of course, Isaac can listen to what Siero hears and says whenever he wants. Using this, Isaac was able to keep an eye on Siero the whole time. Even when he followed Devan and his party to the secret passage.

But in the boiling water, the parasites over there seemed to have cooked and died.

Siero knew that this was not a miracle of the Code of Light, but he said nothing. After all, he was also of a status that could not be questioned. Just as his own bloodline was that of an angel of the Code of Light, he simply assumed that Isaac had a bloodline of a different faith.

What was more concerning was something else: the children gathered around Isaac.

Siero didn’t think that was possible, but asked cautiously anyway.

“Those kids… … are they going to be killed?”

Isaac looked dumbfounded.

“Do you really believe the nonsense I just said? Even children don’t believe it. I’m a busy person with my own territory. I don’t have the energy to reach out to this faraway wasteland.”

If he were given wealth, he would gladly accept it, but if he were given territory and people, he would honestly refuse. Isaac was already exhausted just from feeding the people of Isacrea.

“By the way, what happened to that hand?”

“Ah… … Huh?”

Only then did Siero look at his own hands and startle. His hands were blackened as if he had just been dipped in a furnace, and his blood vessels and nerves were burning brightly as if light were flowing through them.

Surprised, Siero tried to move his hands, but fortunately, he had no trouble moving them.

As he raised his hand, a soft light spread around him.

“… … I don’t know. It seems like miracles have become a little easier… … .”

‘Cierro had this kind of gimmick? It’s like… … an adult.’

Isaac was also bewildered because it was the first time he had seen this phenomenon.

Isaac has seen victory on eight routes, but has never seen Siero demonstrate this ability.

While it is not uncommon for believers to experience miracles or awakenings through intense religious experiences, Siero, being a Nephilim and not a true believer, had difficulty anticipating why this would happen.

‘Could it be that an angel intervened?’

[Serial] The Knight of the Dead God