Paladin of the Dead God - Chapter 355



Only Krnovel

Episode 355. Thirsty Supper (5)

“The exterior is shaking?”

Isaac narrowed his eyes and looked at Sadrajah.

“Didn’t you say you would cover the cursed sun with a lamp?”

“Of course I would. But just blocking the sun with a lamp could be enough to fool the monsters outside the outer sphere into thinking the sun has gone out. And destroying the salt flats could also provoke them.”

Isaac nodded at Sadraza’s answer.

The cursed sun is sinking, the salt desert is trembling as if it is about to break. These are all things that the monsters of the apocalypse would consider as ‘signs of the shaking of order.’ Those who have forgotten all about intelligence and civilization and are only greedy for its abundance are always waiting for an opportunity to invade Mirmia.

In fact, Isaac had also expected this. If he had said that everything would proceed smoothly without incident, he would have suspected Sadrazza.

“Don’t worry about a few monsters coming and just proceed with the ritual.”

“This is the moment I’ve been waiting for for a thousand years. I won’t make any mistakes.”

Sadraz moved slowly inside the black pyramid, his limp tentacles following behind him, rippling like ornate priestly robes.

Isaac quietly watched Sadraja’s back and then came out of the pyramid.

“Is it starting now?”

Outside, Aidan was waiting. He was dressed in a somewhat awkward but formal manner.

“Well, now everyone can do their own thing.”

Aidan nodded nervously and ran off somewhere. The soldiers who exchanged signals also moved quickly.

There’s really not much they can do. And that’s what Isaac can do.

Isaac looked back at the pyramid once more.

‘Do not betray me, Sadrazza.’

I even thought about deliberately warning him to prevent something from happening. However, since he has the initiative in all consciousness, Isaac cannot predict whether he will betray or not. Rather, I thought it might encourage unnecessary imagination in him, so I decided not to do it.

‘Actually, even if I hadn’t helped… … it might have happened in the end.’

Isaac was virtually suddenly tasked with breaking up the salt flats, but somehow it didn’t feel sudden. He was a man who poured water into an already full glass, just enough to make it overflow.

When I visited Mirmia in the game, her throat for this ‘thirsty feast’ was empty. Looking back now, it seemed like it was a sign of Sadraja’s failure.

After all, he had tried, so Isaac hoped that this time he would succeed.

Because a thousand years of suffering must be compensated for.

The ceremony would soon begin. Isaac looked around the Mirmia landscape that would soon become a battlefield and moved.

***

There is a sun that has created a thousand-year desert.

The sun, which had sunken close to the earth, dried up the sea, burned the land, and made it a wasteland. It neither rose nor set, and remained, like a head on a gallows, a symbol of the destruction of a faith. The first stains began to appear on that millennial symbol.

It started at the bottom of the sun. The cursed sun that had been burning red was turning black as if infected with mold. Slowly but surely, the cursed sun was cooling down. Those who were watching the strange sight could not take their eyes off it.

“Honestly, it’s hard to shake off this ominous feeling.”

Lyanna muttered, arms folded. Tukhalin and Ethelred agreed in silence. To be honest, no miracle since the beginning of history has killed as many people as that damned sun. But for those who followed the Order of Light, the symbolism of the ‘sun’ and the metaphor of it ‘cooling down’ sent shivers down their spines.

“I know it’s necessary, but… … I wonder if the lighthouse keeper will stay still.”

“Well, the lighthouse keeper may have abandoned it for a thousand years and forgotten about it.”

Tukhalin muttered with a snort. Since it was a miracle that extracted the divinity of the Salt Council, the frontier of frontiers, the lighthouse keeper might not care either. In any case, if the angel of the light appeared, the whole situation would become complicated, so everyone was preparing or praying in different ways.

Before long, nearly half of the cursed sun was encroached into the shadows. People thought of the sunset from its appearance. Even though only half of it was covered, the surrounding temperature felt considerably cooler.

At that moment, Tukhalin, who was the first to sense the change, turned his head.

“Coming.”

South of Mirmia, dark clouds were rolling in across the desert and rocky valleys. As if the area illuminated by the sun had shrunk, the gray clouds quickly turned the desert gray, as if they were claiming the land as their own.

Everyone’s expression turned pale as they saw the sky and sea reversed and surge forward like a tidal wave.

“That… isn’t that an external mirror? I think I saw it in the North Sea.”

Rihanna muttered uneasily.

The apocalypse is moving north. It is something that cannot be believed or believed. The light of the cursed sun is not extinguished, but only covered. Monsters may be mistaken, but the apocalypse cannot be broken.

At that moment, Tukhalin’s pass turned sharply again.

The cursed sun floating over Mirmia had already disappeared by nearly two-thirds.

As if sinking beneath the surface of the water, like an iron ball in the sea slowly cooling down.

The cursed sun has gone out.

“Sadraza betrayed me.”

***

Sadraza looked at the darkened pyramid.

As the cursed sun went out, the interior of the pyramid became incredibly dark.

It was an unfamiliar landscape. But it was the landscape I had been longing for, begging and cursing for a thousand years.

After confirming that the sun had completely gone out, Sadraja pushed hard on a small brick at the corner of the street. As the small stone was pushed, the bricks and rocks that had lost their balance began to fall down all at once.

It was a simple device to keep out enemies, but it would not break even after thousands of years.

Sadraza, who had blocked all passages leading in and out of the pyramid, moved inside the Black Pyramid.

‘Once upon a time, this place was filled with torches that burned brightly even after the sun had set.’

Sadraja reminisced about the past as he walked down the ‘throat’ made of salt road.

It was a beautiful sight.

The pyramid temple, which was filled with light during the day, revealed beautiful outlines and patterns as light streamed through the cracks at night.

The entire sea was their territory and their road.

Until a man with his whole body on fire showed up.

And now, after a thousand years, their descendants have arrived.

With their help, preparations for the ritual were completed, but Sadraza felt inadequate.

‘I’m still thirsty.’

Sadraja had been collecting offerings for a thousand years to awaken the power of the Caller, and with Isaac’s help, he had supplemented them with enough. But this was only enough to literally ‘awaken’ the Caller.

Even if the salt flats were to split open, it would take hundreds of years for the salt to melt, and in the meantime the lighthouse keeper might come back again.

He was a monster even a thousand years ago, so I didn’t even want to imagine how much crazier he would be now.

We need to prepare a more sumptuous dinner.

Splash. Sadrajah reached the puddle below his throat.

The surroundings were filled with rotting monsters, corpses of ancient gods, human bones, and beast bones. The puddles of filth and blood that all living things had spewed out as they decayed reached Sadraza’s tentacles.

“Please call my name again like before.”

Sadraja bent down and brought his mouth to the pool of putrid blood. He soon gulped down the filth without hesitation, quenching his thirst. He soon felt a surge of power seeping into his body. It was the power created by the sacrifices that had been transformed into divine power through the thirsty feast ritual.

The monsters of the apocryphal scriptures, the savage gods of old, the believers who dared to turn their backs on the gods and run away, the unclean pagans… … and the resentful god who no longer answers and remains silent.

The power of the Caller seeping from the Sea Temple was also just food to quench his thirst.

“Please call my name again like before.”

There was no answer. The silence made Sadraja thirsty.

I’m still thirsty.

I’m thirsty.

But soon enough, enough blood will flow to soak Mirmia.

***

‘Idiot.’

Isaac looked up at the sun that had gone out.

The sun, which had gone out, disappeared without a trace as if it were a given. It was a natural result, since it had not a physical entity but had been maintained by a miracle.

The sky, where the cursed sun had disappeared, was dark and filled with dark clouds.

If the lighthouse keeper appears here, you can leave everything to him. Fortunately or unfortunately, there was no sign of the lighthouse keeper appearing. However, a disaster of equal magnitude was coming from the south.

Kukukuku… … As the outer wall collapsed, monsters swarmed out as if a dam had burst.

Winged ones, ones that run on one leg, ones that crawl, ones that walk with their lips and can’t tell front from back… … Beings that are difficult to distinguish and unify, that can only be called monsters.

These guys, who usually fought and ate each other without hesitation, were now madly advancing towards Mirmia, as if a delicious feast had been prepared there.

‘That’s not wrong.’

The salt desert will soon be broken. And through the crack, the caller will be exposed defenselessly. It is a very delicious food. In fact, the thirsty feast prepared by Sadraja is enough to tempt the monsters. They are always hungry for power.

Isaac clicked his tongue and jumped down from the top of the pyramid.

‘You made the dumbest choice. Sadraja.’

***

Sadrazza felt more empowered than ever.

He looked up at the ceiling with blank eyes.

A great power and wisdom surged from my entire body. Every cell in my body, every thought, every moment felt finely divided and clear.

Everything was within his control.

Even though he had only consumed the power realized through the Thirsty Feast ritual, he had angelic power within him.

‘With this power, I might be able to break the salt desert.’

There is another way.

What if I were to shatter the salt desert and devour the power of the gods left defenseless within it? … If I were to chew up and swallow that helpless, mute old man, I might truly attain transcendence.

Thinking about it like that made my appetite go crazy.

I’m thirsty.

His eyes, which had turned a dark red like the water of a rotting corpse, gleamed with a strange color. But Sadrazah tried hard to suppress his thirst.

The last remaining self of mine as a priest was against it.

And now is not the time. It must be a battlefield outside now.

The army of the lighthouse keeper’s followers will be fighting a hopeless battle against the monsters from the outside world. Some of them seem to be protected by angels, so they will be able to resist for quite some time.

But no matter whose blood flows, that blood flows underground under Mirmia.

The waterways, wells, and groundwaters of all Mirmia are the throat of Sadraza. He will drink even that blood and find a place worthy of his thousand-year solitude.

‘… … ?’

But then Sadrazza felt something strange.

There was no blood flowing. No, there was no sense of battle taking place. Sadraja expanded his transcendent senses to sense what was happening around him.

Soon, Sadrazza was shocked.

The monsters of the outer city had already breached the castle walls and were right in front of the fisherman’s house. Now, if they broke into the fisherman’s house and came inside, they would be right up to his throat.

And nowhere was the Isacrea Dawn Army.