Paladin of the Dead God - Chapter 369



Only Krnovel

Episode 369. The Land Where Life and Death Collapse (6)

“What can’t I see? What is that?”

Beshek raised his head and stared at Isaac.

[That which is everything and nothing. That which is here and nowhere. That which exists but never will. That which is desired but no one wants.]

Isaac wondered if that enigmatic statement might be a metaphor for the Hand of Midas, since there were many parts that seemed plausible.

But I wondered why Beshek spoke indirectly like that instead of being specific.

Perhaps, just as Isaac did not know the true name of the Hand of Midas, its identity may also be something entirely different from what he had guessed.

[Isn’t it a bit vague? But if it’s easy to mention, it’s not ‘something you shouldn’t see’. The lighthouse keeper appeared in the Holy Land of Lua, the White Plague began and countless people died, and it’s also the place where I brought down the underworld. Do you think it would be ordinary to appear in that place?]

Isaac also knows that the Holy Land Lua is not a normal space.

Just because an angel is born, the land becomes a holy place visited by pilgrims. The place where a god is born is a holy place revered by all believers, and the boundary with Urbanus becomes infinitely shallow.

What about the Holy Land, Lua? It was hard to believe that it had been a normal space even before Beshek broke the barrier.

Wherever you think strength will come from, strength will come.

[More than anything, the object that the child’s parents were looking for was not an ordinary object. That is… … Personally, I would like to call it a ghost object rather than a holy relic.]

“… … What happened to the child’s parents?”

Beshek looked at Angela.

[This isn’t a story you should tell in front of a child.]

But Angela just played with the flames of the campfire, seeming uninterested.

Isaac calmed down and stared at Beshek.

“So that’s your goal? To turn all humans into undead? Is that what you want?”

[No way.]

Beshek answered with a smiling voice.

[I still respect the Code of Light. Now I don’t expect anything from him, but I also know that only with him can I create the world I dream of. I hope that new people will be born, grow, and mature under the gentle sun.]

He looked at Angela with a kind voice.

[So when they become frustrated with their limited lifespan and environment, I hope they will come to me and find a second chance.]

Isaac got goosebumps at those warm words that sounded warm at first.

The reason why Beshek respects the Code of Light and does not attack it at all is because only with the Code of Light can new life be born.

There must be new undead to increase his followers and ultimately help create the world he desires.

To Beshek, the Code of Light is nothing more than a birthing room and a nursery. There, life is born, grows healthily, and when it comes to his land and dies, he is finally accepted as a believer.

That’s all.

“I guess the same goes for Angela.”

Isaac had already started speaking informally to others, but he wasn’t even aware of it.

Beshek tilted his head as if asking an obvious question.

[This child was used by his parents, taken away by priests and almost burned, exploited by the Golden Idol Company, and dragged to the battlefield to suffer. If this child is to truly be free from the curse, he has no choice but to become an undead.]

Then he added a word.

[Shouldn’t her bones be a bit stronger for that to happen? A child’s bones are too fragile. I hope Angela grows up healthy and into an adult.]

Isaac pulled out Cachulain in a fit of pique.

***

As the sharp sound of a blast echoed, the soldiers around them all turned their gazes to where they were. The soldiers who soon realized that the atmosphere was not good quickly grabbed their weapons and surrounded them, while some ran off somewhere.

[Can’t you think about it with a little less of your aversion to the undead?]

Beshek looked blankly at Isaac.

[The reason people feel aversion to the undead is because of their appearance. All humans have a fear of death, and the undead have an appearance that suggests death. It’s just that people fear the undead because of such ‘preconceptions’ built up in Urbanus.]

“Then just stay in the outskirts and live. Don’t even think about crawling out.”

[Think of a life free from the desires of the flesh and the fear of death. Desire and fear, these two things are the tools with which the gods hold and shake man. Only by freeing himself from them can man become a more advanced being.]

“If you don’t have desire, you can’t achieve anything, and if you don’t fear death, you can’t be brave. Tell me honestly, Immortal Emperor.”

Isaac asked, tilting his head.

“Up until now, in the Immortal Church, aside from those who have already achieved great things, has there been anyone who has achieved great things after becoming undead?”

Beshek did not respond to Isaac’s words, but Isaac’s words hit home.

Isaac already knew this because he had cleared the Immortal Church ending.

There are many great talents and heroes within the Immortal Church. However, they are all but frozen the moment they become undead.

The practice of swordsmanship only increases the level of perfection, and even if you do art, you are only repeating self-replication.

Having honed their skills for tens or hundreds of years, they are able to perform feats that the living cannot even imagine.

But it’s just continuing to dig one well deeper.

I have never heard of them achieving anything with the ‘skill’ they learned. They have no desires or wants, so they only need to satisfy themselves. They do not grow further, mentally or physically.

Heroes can enter the Immortal Order, but heroes cannot be born. Even the angels that exist now are those who converted who were already qualified to become angels.

This fact was also a sore spot for the Immortal Emperor Beshek.

As Beshek was about to say something, Isaac touched his sore wound once more.

“Do you think the world has become any better since you brought the underworld down to earth?”

It was a provocative remark, even for a word thrown at God.

Isaac held his sword in his hand and focused all his nerves on Beshek, ready to move as soon as he did something.

Then Isaac suddenly felt something rumbling inside him.

“omg…….”

Isaac wasn’t the only one who felt this sensation, as the soldiers surrounding him suddenly began to kneel or vomit. Some even took off their armor and groped their necks, as if they were having trouble breathing.

Isaac realized belatedly what was causing his discomfort.

The ultra-low frequency sound, too low for human ears to hear, was causing the human body to convulse. He quickly swung his sword at Beshek’s head.

But Cachulin passed by in vain. The Immortal Emperor only shimmered like a night fog for a moment, but he appeared completely unharmed.

Fortunately, the sound of his stomach turning stopped. Beshek looked at Isaac as if nothing had happened.

[You speak ill of us, Isaac. It seems you were surprisingly interested in us.]

Beshek asked with a smiling voice.

[Even in that respect, you resemble a snowy owl. Yes. We cannot produce heroes. That is why we need someone like you even more.]

“I appreciate your offer, but I regret that I cannot work with you. I regret that I could not work with you this time, and I hope that there will be no next opportunity.”

Isaac offered a long-winded refusal, meaning to tell him to get out of here, but Beshek didn’t seem to be taking it lightly.

[Now you know why I wanted to save you.]

Beshek whispered sweetly.

[Because you were too precious to be just food for the seafood. You were too precious to be burned ashes, or a sword to be thrown away by a warmonger. Your talents, the talents of all heroes of humanity, should be used for humanity, not for gods, for eternity.]

“Even though I said it out loud, you still don’t understand.”

Isaac swung his sword once more to convey his intention more clearly, this time with a full sword energy in his hand.

The sword energy contained in the holy sword tore through Beshek’s body in an instant. Beshek disappeared like the night fog, not even leaving behind a single piece of debris.

Only then could a sigh mixed with a sigh be heard on the wind.

[… … If it’s neither this nor that, is it just chaos?]

But his presence did not disappear at all. No, it was becoming stronger.

Isaac looked up at the sky.

The stars were gathering in the pitch-black night sky. The stars embroidered the eyes of the sky one by one, and the fragmented clouds and wind made the hem of the cloak. In the darkness, the dead man looking down at the night was looking into infinite time. Eternity was staring at the young goldfish in the fishbowl.

He was an immortal king. He was an emperor who conquered the underworld. He was a god who laughed at gods.

Just by making eye contact, the living felt a suffocating sense of a distant eternity.

***

In the time controlled by Beshek, each person saw his or her own death.

Some were stabbed to death, some fell into sand pits and suffocated to death, and some were frozen and remained there forever, unable to rot.

Isaac also stared at his own end.

Isaac saw his own body, enveloped in pitch-black darkness, flopping around like a deflated balloon. His bones were nowhere to be seen, and there was no skeleton at all. Only chaos was visible, constantly trying to escape from the thin skin.

Then finally, strange things began to flow out of Isaac’s left eye.

It was neither a living thing, nor an object, nor a gas. It was just a crack.

A rift that tears the world apart. Just by revealing itself, it eroded and consumed a part of the world. It covered Isaac’s body, leaving a mark that would never be healed.

As if it had never existed and would never exist in the world.

It was a flood of chaos. The tentacles that had torn Isaac apart began to erode the world from that small hole. Only the eternal beings could stare into the emptiness that was being pushed out, bracing themselves for a terrible eternity.

[Nameless chaos watches you.]

“Ugh… … !”

Isaac staggered and clutched his face. It was only an illusion, but for a brief moment he felt the pain of his body being torn apart and tentacles emerging from it.

No, it wasn’t pain. Isaac’s left eye was crawling with tentacles, even though he hadn’t activated the ‘Eye of Chaos’.

Isaac grabbed the tentacle and yanked it away as if he was going to tear it off.

‘Get in!’

Only then did the tentacles comply and disappear inside the body.

Isaac looked around to see if anyone had seen him, but everyone was lying on the ground, suffering from hallucinations of their own death. Even Tukhalin and Ethelred, who had run out upon hearing the commotion, had fallen.

Isaac gripped his sword tightly and concentrated, thinking that he couldn’t leave it like this.

At that moment, a pure white flash of light appeared above Isaac’s head.

The moment the ‘Watcher’s Lighthouse’ was activated against Beshek, the surrounding darkness was pushed away. The order established by the Code of Light was reestablished in the world, and the evil known as ‘immortality’ was shattered.

But it wasn’t enough to stand up to God. Isaac felt a splitting pain in his head just from standing up to the darkness of Beshek. His head was burning, and even his eyes felt like they were burning out.

But that was enough.

“… … Master of Thunder!”

Tukhalin, who came to his senses first thanks to Isaac breaking the illusion, struck the ground with his hammer.

A thunderous roar shook the horizon and upended the earth. The heart-pounding explosion woke everyone in the vicinity.

The intense heat and blood boiled inside everyone’s body. Tukhalin’s two eyes were filled with the crimson heat of a blast furnace. His skin itself was already like a red-hot lump of iron.

At this very moment, everyone knew that the Angel of Thunder Artisan was present in Tukhalin.

“Ellie, your battlefield… is here!”

Ethelred woke up with a pain in his tongue and shouted loudly. Centered around the Kaldbuch he was holding, a light green armor grew like a tree and slowly began to cover Ethelred’s body. The fresh scent of the tree and the blowing wind awakened the knights’ minds.

Aethelred, wearing a lion-shaped helmet, stared arrogantly straight into the immortal darkness.

Aethelred was given the title of Knight of the Angelic Lion.