Paladin of the Dead God - Chapter 365



Only Krnovel

Episode 365. The Land Where Life and Death Collapse (2)

There are many signs and symbols that foretell the coming of the Millennium Kingdom, other than the ‘Scorched One’. The sect has been continuously collecting such information while conducting the Dawn Army, and as the Holy War intensifies, they have gradually detected such signs appearing.

The millennial kingdom will not appear suddenly one day, but will approach slowly.

As they advanced towards the Holy Land, Horgel had no doubt that the gates of heaven would open wide to welcome them.

“Father Horhel, the holy fire is ready.”

A bishop approached, greeted me politely, and offered me a brazier containing holy fire.

Officially, Horhel was nothing more than a wandering monk. However, the core priests and paladins did not consider him, who effectively led the Dawn Army as the Pope’s representative, to be a mere wandering monk.

The face of the Dawn Army is the Golden Lion Knights of Dera Heman, but the one who leads the priests is Horhel.

Horhel lifted the brazier. It was a blazing white fire hanging from the end of an iron chain. Inside it blazed the light of heaven and the wrath of the lighthouse keeper.

His gaze turned to the Skull Tower.

He could have immediately thrown the Holy Flame and condemned these blasphemous apostates to eternal torment, but Horgel did not do so. Instead, he touched the head of the skeleton in front of him and broke the seal.

[What’s the point of just burning it, bald priest?]

The expected response came immediately, although I didn’t expect it to lead to personal attacks.

“I want to hear you scream.”

[Oh, Seonghwa-ro. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to scream, so I’ll be able to clear my throat a little. I’ll scream until my throat bursts, so listen carefully. You’ll be screaming your heart out soon, too, so don’t you think you should take note?]

A sharp laugh echoed through the air, carrying with it mental waves. Horgel smiled back.

The person he was talking to was a lich who had been guarding Bel Slav. He was once a bishop of the Code of Light and a participant in the 11th Dawning War 40 years ago.

“Why did you stay here, Al Cinere?”

Horhel asked, calling out the name of the person he was talking to as if he already knew him. The lich named Al Cinera smiled through his teeth.

[You seem to know me. My face hasn’t changed much, has it?]

“I was a trainee priest at the monastery where you studied. I remember you walking around with a club to discipline the trainees. I wanted to kill you back then… … But I know how devout you were when you fought in the Dawn Army.”

Horhel brought the burning brazier close to Alcinera’s skull and asked.

“Why did they apostatize? That’s what I don’t understand the most. The most devout priests and paladins are now acting as dogs for the Undead Cult. And now they’re even fighting on the front lines. Why?”

Al Cinéra had a smiling expression. Normally, skeletons have smiling expressions, but Horgel thought that Al Cinéra might actually be smiling.

[Are you asking ‘Why don’t you become a lich and enjoy eternal life and wealth instead of being a skeleton slave forever and digging rocks?’]

“The senior I know is not someone who would be dazzled by mere wealth and eternal life. The religious order is already full of such people, but at least my senior was not one of them. And the same goes for countless other knights and priests I know.”

[You shine a light on a dangerous hole, Bald Junior. Why are you curious about that? If you knew what sweet honey pot I received, would you also consider apostatizing?]

“… … Wouldn’t it be possible to prevent apostasy if we knew what was in the minds of apostates?”

[The further you go towards the Holy Land, the more your questions will grow.]

Al Cinerea whispered sweetly.

[The lighthouse keeper started the dawn army to bring about the millennium kingdom. But… … as you know, the paradise of the immortal sect has already arrived on this land.]

Holy Land Lua. A land that breaks down the boundary between the afterlife and the living world.

The underworld brought down by the immortal emperor Besek turned the holy land Lua into a realm where Urbanus and the earth coexisted. Thanks to this, they were able to obtain the miracle of their souls not leaving their bodies even after death.

That is the heaven that the Immortal Church seeks to protect.

[The Immortal Church says that this land we live on is already heaven. If there is something lacking, we should stay on this land and correct it. If we are actually going through all this hardship to go to heaven, why should I deny it?]

It wasn’t the answer Horgel had wanted. No, it didn’t feel like Al Cinera was being sincere. Just as he was about to protest, Al Cinera’s skull suddenly jerked and his mouth opened wide. Then, in one breath, he bit the brazier with his teeth.

The Holy Fire instantly burned Al Cinéra’s skull white. Al Cinéra’s skull, burning from the inside, flashed and shook as if laughing repeatedly. The Holy Fire instantly engulfed the skull tower in flames.

As the spiritual screams of the dead burst out, the surrounding charred ones began to sing hymns all at once. The light of the Holy Fire reflected in their glassy eyes, making the Holy Fire burn even brighter.

Horgel thought it was as if the flames of heaven were pouring out through the eyes of the zealots. He swallowed the answer he could not utter to Al Cinera.

‘This land is already heaven?’

It was disgusting nonsense to him.

‘How can a land filled with such ugly and dirty people be heaven? Heaven should be a place where only the truly good, strictly selected people can go.’

***

“Teacher, is it true that the cursed sun has not really appeared again?”

“no.”

At Isaac’s firm answer, Ethelred stared at the desert rising with a look of exhaustion on her face. It was so hot that even the knights of Elril silently packed their proud heavy armor into their packs.

The scorching desert that appeared as soon as they left Mirmia even brought down the knights’ burning faith.

Isaac found their reaction strange.

“Aren’t you the ones who crossed the salt desert in one day? It’s hot, but it’s nothing compared to the heat of the cursed sun.”

Isaac also moved only in the morning or evening, or at night, when the sun was low, in preparation for the army spreading out. Many soldiers were tired of the change from day to night, but this was better than collapsing from heatstroke.

They were currently resting in the shade beneath a huge cliff on one side of the Isacre Archipelago desert, and were scheduled to depart around sunset.

“Everyone was prepared for the Salt Desert. They already knew a lot about the cursed land, and they were probably a little bit ‘let’s see how terrible it is.’ But here… … it’s just hot weather.”

“… … So, this heat is not something to fight against, so it means that the will does not arise.”

The Salt Desert has been a place of great epics and history that set the hearts of so-called knights ablaze, with its dry wasteland and cursed sun for a thousand years. Occasionally, monsters from the outside world pop up as additional toppings.

But this is just a desert. No matter how much of a battle fanatic the Knights of Elril are, they don’t fight the sun.

“I heard that this place was the birthplace of civilization. Before the Age of Light began, warriors, kings, and gods of the great empires fought for world supremacy here. Even when the Church of the Code of Light was only a small, fringe religion, there were already ancient empires of vast proportions?”

Ethelred looked at the sand-filled desert in disbelief.

“How on earth did humans manage to survive and develop civilization in this desert? Did people back then have skin that could withstand fire?”

Isaac laughed at Ethelred’s imagination, but he was serious.

Isaac also didn’t fully understand the setting, so he stammered and unraveled his knowledge. This desert was a land that was the target of victory for many faiths, so Isaac knew a lot about it.

“They say that even a thousand years ago, this place was originally a fertile, green grassland.”

“… … This is the desert?!”

“Yes. It is said that with dozens of rivers flowing through it, and with the nutritious soil and hot sun, grains grew well enough to be harvested three times a year. The Holy Land, Lua, was the capital of an ancient empire that owned most of this territory.”

“No, then there must have been a lot of people living there. Where did all those people go and why did this land end up like this?”

If we pretend to be devout believers and say, ‘I was punished by heaven because I dared to burn the lighthouse keeper Luaddin at the stake.’

In this day and age, that is the most rational and understandable logic.

But Isaac decided to approach the world’s logic more closely through the knowledge he learned from Mirmia.

“Well, it might be because the center of the external world has moved to Lichtheim.”

“… … the center of the external world?”

Isaac pointed south.

Even though we left Mirmia, the outer city was still not far away. In the first place, the Holy Land Lua itself was not far from the outer city. It was a distance that could almost be said to be close to it.

“Once upon a time, the ‘center of civilization’ was the Holy Land of Lua. There was a large population, food, and culture there. The people who gathered at Lua worshipped God and created a lot of faith. They must have believed that this order would last forever.”

Isaac turned his gaze again to the northwest, the direction in which he assumed Lichtheim would be located.

“But now, the center of world civilization, the land where the most people worship God, is the Holy Empire of Gertonia. The center of the world has shifted.”

The outer world is full of desolate and fearful things, so much so that the mere approach of them brings the land itself closer to death.

Isaac figured that the migration of the Apocrypha might have something to do with the collapse of an ancient empire whose name had not yet been revealed, and the subsequent fall of the Luaddin Empire without any notable incident.

There would have been no need to wage war to destroy it. The borders would have collapsed simply by being encroached upon by foreign powers, and the lighthouse keeper would have only had to retake the city where he had been burned at the stake.

“I didn’t know that something called an apocalypse could move. Well, I saw it once in Mirmia… … but can it move depending on faith?”

“You know what an apocryphal poem is, Your Majesty?”

“That is the space where the Code of Light banished the wicked and impure things… … Ah.”

Ethelred’s expression became one of realization.

The Code of Light symbolizes order. The belief that tomorrow’s sun will rise again. That firm recognition.

As the hegemony passed from this ancient desert empire to Germania, the Apocrypha also shifted.

Ethelred had a somewhat complicated expression on her face.

“I feel a bit strange. After all, all gods are one level below the Code of Light… … .”

“Doesn’t Elil also serve the Code of Light?”

“That may be true, but… … .”

Ethelred looked embarrassed.

He too was a king. It was natural for him to want his country to be the most prosperous and magnificent.

But I couldn’t help but feel disappointed that without the Code of Light, we would not be able to avoid this desert-like state.

Isaac turned his gaze and looked back at the desert.

“Well, I guess it’s better when it’s hot like this.”

“Isn’t it better when it’s hot?”

“Yes. If it’s not hot during the day… … that means there’s an undead army nearby.”

Isaac spoke in a frightening tone, but realized he had chosen the wrong person.

The Elil faithful do not avoid combat.

Even Ethelred, who originally hated knights, lit up at the words, ‘You can fight and avoid the heat at the same time.’

But the further Isaac went into the territory of the Undead Cult, the less romantic their fight would be.

Two days after that.

Isaac saw his first snowfall in the middle of the desert.

“From here on out, it is the Urdantu Empire.”