Paladin of the Dead God - Chapter 379



Only Krnovel

Episode 379. Eternal Pale (5)

Crack, crack. His skin split and his hair fell out in white flakes. Even his exhaled breath froze before it could leave his lips, turning his mouth white. In an instant, Ansel was nothing but a pure white mass.

The knights who were watching this scene wanted to scream. However, Ansel, who was obviously in the most pain, did not even scream, so they could not make a sound. All they could do was chant a little louder.

Pars, pars… Rottenhammer thought Ansel’s body was falling apart. In reality, his body was wearing away. Fingers and ears were falling off, and his entire body was slowly becoming dull. And yet Ansel was still walking.

It was an unbelievable sight.

But not everyone who saw that sight thought that Ansel was dying.

It was like shedding one’s skin.

Something incomprehensible was inside Ansel, trying to shed its old, worn-out shell.

Rottenhammer noticed that the paladin was becoming a completely different being than before.

In the midst of the broken form, Ansel lifted his completely worn and blunt hand and placed it against the hidden ceremonial curtain.

As if quietly asking for permission.

And then, Ansel’s body disappeared into the curtain as if it was seeping into it.

***

‘what?’

Isaac, who had been wrestling with Pale for a long time, felt an inexplicable sense of alienation.

But I couldn’t pay much attention to that sense of alienation. Unlike other angels, Pale didn’t spare her strength or let her guard down. Her body was in this place, in this moment, and she was concentrating all her power.

It was clear that if he let his guard down for even a moment, the power of the angel would crush Isaac.

Isaac was able to fight back, as the hymn of the Knights of Isacre drove away her coldness.

Thump, thump. Tentacles entangled themselves like roots through Isaac’s hand that held the sword. Now Isaac had become a figure that was barely human. Pale’s hatred and loathing burned even more at the sight of this grotesque sight, and he tried to tear Isaac apart.

The cold that froze even the tentacles came closer to Isaac.

At that moment, Isaac felt a sense of alienation once again.

[Nameless chaos watches you.]

Something was coming. It was politely asking Isaac for permission, for an invitation. Having left all his clans behind with his allies, Isaac had no idea what was coming. But he didn’t want to worry about it anymore, so he gave permission.

Any variable was needed to break the pale.

The curtain was lifted, and something was revealed.

But Isaac still couldn’t figure out what it was.

I could tell that it was something that had been a human or a knight. Its entire body was exposed to absolute zero and worn down, like a grasshopper, but the silhouette of its armor still remained.

Isaac couldn’t even figure out how it walked.

To be honest, Isaac also found it creepy. It was like a restless ghost wandering through a winter snowstorm. He thought that Pale had tricked him into coming in, but Pale’s reaction was unexpected.

[What is it?]

For the first time, Pale showed signs of caring for someone other than Isaac.

[What have you brought in, monster? Another monster? A monster pretending to be a paladin, how vicious. Your hypocritical behavior makes me sick.]

Pale was overly excited.

To her, who had a love and hate for knights with lofty ideals and strong bodies, ‘that’ was even insulting.

‘You didn’t call Pale?’

Isaac watched the paladin slowly approach Pale. Pale blasted more fierce cold air at the paladin, but it was no use. It had already reached the point where it could not be blocked by the realm of heat death.

Just looking at its appearance, it seemed like it was close to being in the realm of the Immortal Church.

But Isaac felt it.

‘Ansel?’

Isaac suddenly noticed everything about his opponent.

From his name to his thoughts, even the prayers he could still chant, though his tongue had already fallen off, he could even tell that his heart was still beating hotly inside that pale, cold body.

A handful of incredible miracles were moving and protecting his body.

Isaac was horrified when he realized that.

This world gives power to those who want it.

Longing soon leads to miracles.

For warriors who believe they can solve anything within the reach of their swords, a sword skill; for priests who believe that if they entrust their ego and will to their gods, they will solve their problems, a miracle.

Just as the mind that fears death created the afterlife, and the mind that hopes for a world that will be perfect tomorrow created gods.

‘If I believe in the Knight of the Holy Grail, I will not die.’

***

Ansel slowly reached out his hand towards Pale.

If there had been even one Death Knight left, they could have stopped him, but the Death Knights around him were either frozen or shattered by Isaac, so there were none left. They were too far away to call them in now.

‘But what are you going to do?’

Ansel’s hands groped for Pale. But even if he found it, he had no idea what to do with it. Should he strangle it? Strangling an undead, especially an angel, would be a record-breaking feat, but Ansel had no healthy fingers.

Besides, no matter how much Pale is exerting all his might in the struggle with Isaac and how frail his body may be, he is not so weak that he can be subdued by a mere human.

Then, at one moment, Pale touched Ansel’s fingertips.

The moment Ansel confirmed Pale’s location, he moved faster than he had ever seen before and struck Pale’s head in one breath. Isaac and Pale were both shocked by the unexpected punch.

Bang, bang! Ansel continued to hit Pale’s head without stopping. But every time, it was Ansel’s arm that broke, not Pale’s.

[this……!]

Pale became angry and unleashed his power towards Ansel.

At the same time, Ansel’s entire body was shattered. Ansel’s limbs collapsed, and his chest was split open. And his heart was finally revealed between the shattered body parts.

The burning heat and light were pulsating to the beat.

Although he had an ugly appearance, he had a warm heart inside.

The waves emanating from the heart drew strange curves. Isaac thought for a moment that they were tentacles, but something was different.

Wavelength in fractal form.

The long, flowing lines of order that naturally form in the midst of extreme chaos.

And then once more, he hit Pale’s head.

Boom. With that last punch, Ansel’s heart shattered into pieces and scattered white. A small wound was carved into his pale head, where he had been struck by the unexpected blow. But that was enough.

Pale, like Isaac, was using all his strength.

[ah…….]

The balance was suddenly broken, as if a knife had been thrust into a taut rope. Isaac didn’t miss the moment when the balance collapsed and pressed down with all his might.

Kachulain cut through Pale and Wintermaw’s blades at the same time.

The dark sword crushed and destroyed everything without mercy, leaving behind even fragments and bone fragments.

Pale screamed in a strange way as he was crushed beneath the blade.

A tremendous wave of power swept over Isaac. The countless evil spirits that Wintermaw had been holding were released, and even the Pale Spirit lost its body and began to tremble, losing its place. As the powerful angels and hundreds of spirits lost their way and ran wild, Isaac also could not endure it and took down his tent.

Kururururur… … Countless evil spirits were released at once and scattered into the sky.

The eclipse that Pale had created also brought back sunlight as the birds scattered in all directions. Isaac felt warmth seeping into his body simply from the sunlight.

As the curtain disappeared and sunlight began to pour in, the Knights of Isacrea, who had noticed the outcome of this fight, also hurriedly approached. They were speechless at the sight of Isaac in such a mess.

“Isaac. Treat the wound… … .”

Gebel tried to approach, but Isaac raised his hand to stop him. Instead, he walked towards where Ansel had been.

The head, arms, and legs were all worn away, leaving only a half-armored torso. However, even that crumbled away as easily as if it were hundreds of years old dust as soon as Isaac touched it.

The knights who were watching the scene also realized what had happened and began to prostrate themselves one by one.

Isaac later regretted not having had a more in-depth conversation with this knight named Ansel.

***

“Ansel was a fervent believer in the dawn prayer meeting.”

“Is this the Isacre dawn prayer meeting?”

Isaac later called out to the knights he was close with to learn more about Ansel.

A prayer meeting created to rehabilitate and restore the faith of believers who served the nameless chaos. It is said that Ansel often participated in this meeting, which was somewhat heretical by the standards of the Code of Light.

“Yes. There was a lot of talk about the testimony of faith and the Knights of the Holy Grail there. Everyone liked the Knights of the Holy Grail, but no one was as passionate as that guy.”

Isaac felt strange.

The fact that there were such passionate believers in places he didn’t know about.

In a way, Ansel had already crossed the line and become a ‘follower of Isaac’. Isaac didn’t know how to accept the existence of someone who would even sacrifice his life for him.

To be honest, I wasn’t feeling very good.

Isaac wanted a world where no one had to sacrifice, not a world where everyone sacrificed for themselves without hesitation.

In a way, isn’t it because Isaac jumped into a reckless fight that Ansel sacrificed himself in his stead?

An old suspicion began to creep up on him that he too was doing things like gods and angels.

The knight, who seemed to be Ansel’s friend, seemed to notice Isaac’s complicated feelings and spoke.

“You look unwell, Holy Grail Knight.”

“I feel like I started a reckless fight and that guy died.”

“Your Majesty, we all came here with the intention of making sacrifices.”

The knight spoke calmly.

“We have come to accompany you in your fight against evil, the future you will lead us to, and the world you will show us. We have not come to seek your protection, the Knight of the Holy Grail. We are not babies, but comrades who will fight together.”

Isaac came to his senses at the knight’s words.

Countless paladins have already died in this battle. Ansel is no exception. Rather, he played a major role in defeating the angel, so it could be said that this was the death that all paladins longed for.

“That friend must be happy because he died for his ideals. Surely the gates of heaven will be wide open to receive him.”

Isaac heard those words and realized the nature of his distress.

Ansel’s appearance at the last moment was difficult to see as that of a knight of the Codex of Light.

He clearly sacrificed himself for Isaac. So then what is Isaac himself? An unnamed apostle and agent of chaos?

So did Ansel go to some nameless paradise of chaos?

Isaac did not want someone who had made such a noble sacrifice as Ansel to fall into that dark and grotesquely twisted realm.

Above all, the beautiful fractal wavelength of light he showed at the end was completely different from that of nameless chaos.

‘If the image Ansel showed me was… … some kind of ideal form expected of me.’

Isaac thought deeply about the afterlife for the first time.

And I came to understand why people believed in and imagined the afterlife, the concept of Urbansus.

Isaac hoped that Ansel, his followers, and everyone else would have a beautiful heaven.

So that the knight who served this dead god could finally reach the heaven he had been dreaming of.