The Berserker’s Second Playthrough in the Game - Chapter 90



Only Krnovel

Episode 90. Followers of the Forgotten God (12)

A total of 16 silver coins of the fallen nation.

When they combined the things they robbed from Representative Vittorio, the number of silver coins they had was that much. Although it only appeared to be a handful, it was enough to completely destroy a small city if it fell into the hands of a priest who controlled sacred law.

After finishing work, I returned to the academic room. Kadim held the silver coins in one hand and asked Ilenia.

“So what do you plan on doing with this?”

“… … Would you please follow me this way? Oh, Mr. Goatbeard, please wait outside.”

“… … .”

Duncan looked sullen, but as soon as Ilenia handed him two 1,000 Luden gold coins, he immediately lost his expression and smiled.

Ilenia opened the sliding door at the back of the academic room and went inside. She followed suit, wrapping her arms around her waist, and as she crossed the threshold, a musty, musty smell washed over her.

Tattered ancient documents, books, and antiques such as stone tablets and broken mirrors were piled haphazardly on old bookshelves and boards. A room that appears to be a warehouse where data is piled up. I wondered if the antiques I had previously carried with me when searching for ruins were also brought here.

With familiar movements, she climbed over the clutter and reached the large bookshelf on the wall. Then she quietly extended her hand to Kadim, who followed her.

“Those silver coins… … Could you please leave it to me for a moment? “I need it to create a hiding place for conversation and to make gifts in return.”

“… … .”

“If you don’t feel comfortable just giving it to me, I’ll leave the relic I have with you. Although it is less valuable than those, personally, it is the most precious relic to me… … .”

Kadim waved his hand and readily handed over the silver coin of the fallen nation. But only half of what I have.

“You said that if you have this silver coin, you can resist the dark law?”

“… … .”

“I will listen to you and decide whether to give you the other half or not.”

Illenia looked bitter, but eventually nodded and accepted the silver coins. She then placed them on the bookshelf and clasped her hands together reverently.

“[O darkness of the beginning, whose name has been forgotten, buried in the light that deceives all things, do not forget your servants who wander this land with the pain of their hometown. At the dawn of trouble, when the rest that has been lost is dying, I earnestly ask you to give me the hem of your clothes to avoid the eyes that are watching the world… … .]”

Woooooooooo –

As soon as the reading was over, the silver coins began to emit a black light, and the bookshelves that had been closed in layers opened at once.

Drurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr possible

There is darkness at the end of the bookshelves lined up like a wooden passage.

A pitch-black space filled with impenetrable darkness, with no distinct floor, ceiling, or walls.

“… … .”

A sense of foreboding.

The moment Kadim saw that space, he felt a strange sense of foreboding.

“… … Please come in quickly. “It’s not a hiding place that can be used for a long time.”

There was no time to reflect on that feeling. Ilenia, who had gone ahead, was urging him to follow. She put aside her thoughts and followed.

Knock, knock, knock, thud!

As soon as I stepped in, the bookshelves closed on their own. The hideout was engulfed in pure darkness. A completely dark world with no light source and no room for dark adaptation.

The absence of light did not last long.

Hwareuk – !

I don’t know where it came from, but Ilenia lit a candle. A small shadow was cast in the dark hiding place. Atallain and the archaeologist tightly closed their lips and just looked at each other’s faces in the soft light.

It was Ilenia who broke the silence first.

“Thank you for your cooperation, Kadim. If I had told you the truth outside, it would have been dangerous for you and us. But here, we can temporarily avoid the ‘watchful eyes’.”

Ilenia pushed her wavy hair over her ears. Her speech, expression, and atmosphere were all much more emotionless and businesslike than they were on the outside. However, to Kadim, it felt natural, as if she had taken off her mask.

“… … I have so many questions, I don’t know where to start.”

“… … .”

“Let’s start by introducing yourself again. What is your real identity and name?”

Ilenia, or a woman with many other names, or a woman with no name at all, bowed down with her hand on her chest.

“I’m sorry I haven’t been able to speak to you properly, Kadim. As you may have guessed, I am also a priest of the Forgotten God. However, I belong to an orthodox sect that does not distort the revelations of God and fully upholds His will, not a heretic like the ‘Night Raven Sect.’”

“… … .”

“And I’m sorry to say, but the priests of the Forgotten Gods do not have their original names. Even the god he was worshiping had lost his divine name, and it was considered blasphemous for his followers to dare to have a name. However, it would be difficult to refer to her without a real name, so I would appreciate it if you could call me ‘Ilenia’ from now on.”

It was somewhat expected that this woman’s true identity was that of a priestess of a forgotten sect. Otherwise, she would not have been so knowledgeable about the sect’s affairs, and she would not have been carrying around a sacred relic like a silver coin of a fallen nation.

In the end, the remaining question was this.

“Then tell me why your sect disappeared and helped me in such a troublesome way.”

“… … .”

“Is it because of that ‘revelation’ thing?”

Ilenia pondered and asked carefully.

“If I were to explain the situation in detail, I think I would need to explain a bit more. Could you explain in chronological order, from the background of how the ‘Forgotten God’ lost his name to the present?”

Kadim nodded briefly. Ilenia gathered her thoughts and spoke cautiously.

“The former Lucaonia Empire… … No, it was the Kingdom of Lucaonia at that time. “After the Kingdom of Lucaonia achieved constitutional unity with the Church of Elgar, the first thing it did was invade the Land of the Forgotten God.”

“… … .”

“Their banners were light and order. Naturally, we, who reverence darkness and chaos, were legitimate and tasty prey. Tens of thousands of people, from babies to the elderly, were massacred under the blades of the paladins who mistakenly believed that slaughter was justice. “They ate so many corpses that the rats and crows in the land were no longer afraid of humans.”

Kadim suddenly remembered Gordon, his colleague from the first round.

The cheerful and humorous priest was undoubtedly a just and fair man. However, even he had a very difficult attitude toward the forgotten god and his followers.

Light and darkness cannot coexist. If that were the case for the priests who had been wise, it was obvious what the power-crazed Arch Paladins and other knights would have been like. But that doesn’t mean that massacre can be justified…

Ilenia raised her eyes filled with candlelight. As if to commemorate the souls of our ancestors who were burned by too bright a light.

“I don’t know exactly what trick Elgar’s priests used. In any case, they destroyed the country and sealed the name of a forgotten god. Because of this, priests who forgot the name of God lost most of their holy power. Like shamans in the wilderness who lost their magical powers for mysterious reasons… … .”

“… … .”

“The priests sealed what little holy power they had left in donations, including the ‘Silver Coin of the Fallen Nation’, and went into hiding throughout the continent with their surviving followers. They searched for every way to regain their divine power. However, in the meantime, Lucaonia became an empire and the Elgar sect grew stronger, so we were unable to achieve any significant results for hundreds of years.”

“… … .”

“But about 20 years ago… … “A ‘revelation’ has come down from a forgotten God.”

The content of the revelation was as follows.

[Hide and prepare your spirit in darkness like the shadow of midnight. After the great evil returns to the abyss, when the bell rings three times, the blood-covered warrior will come back across the empty years. He will stain this land with unclean blood and cause the halo in the sky to fall.]

Ilenia added a secondary explanation to the revelation.

‘Geo-eok’ refers to the great evil of the Demonic World that was rampant before, ‘three bells’ is an idiomatic expression referring to 300 years, ‘unclean blood’ is the blood of demons, and ‘the halo in the sky’ refers to Elgar and his followers. It can be interpreted in words… … .

“In other words, according to this interpretation, the person who will destroy the demons and the Elgar Church will soon come, and the forgotten God has given us a mission to secretly help him.”

“… … .”

“Most sects believed that following this mission was the way to save the world and regain lost divine power. So, over the years, I have steadily prepared to provide you with help. Although the Bishop of the Raven Sect fell into false confidence and misinterpreted this as a revelation about the ‘source of disaster’… … .”

Kadim’s brow twitched and twitched.

“So… … is that ‘the warrior with the bloody armor’ in the revelation me?”

“Yes that’s right.”

“How could you be so sure? “If there were warriors covered in blood, there would be a lot of them in this world.”

“Well, you… … “He is absolutely different from other common warriors.”

“You say that because you know who I am.”

“Kadim. Son of the Wilderness. A fearless warrior of Atala. A blood-lusting warrior who drinks demon blood and gains its power. The main character who gathered the group of warriors who defeated the Great Demon. And the one who began his second journey across 300 years.”

Kadim stared at the nameless woman indifferently.

Illenia could see. Something was welling up inside her gaping pupils. It was a wariness of those who knew too much, an unstable and intense emotion that could explode destructively at the slightest trigger.

That is why Illenia quickly added.

“I know you’re wondering how we know all this. But I’m sorry, I can’t tell you why. This place is not completely safe. If we let too much time pass or reveal too many facts, the ‘watchful eyes’ will surely find out.”

“… … .”

“Still, I swear to the Forgotten God, we are doing our best to help you. We have made painful sacrifices to find the gifts you need and place them appropriately on your journey. Many priests froze in the north while looking for dwarven relics, and I also went through all sorts of hardships while wandering the wilderness in search of the stone tablet that traces the relics… … .”

“… … .”

“Of course, it is our own path that we have chosen to shoulder this mission. I absolutely do not intend to blame you. However, I beg you… … to be generous and consider our circumstances as well. In order to continue to help you in the future… … .”

Kadim put aside his hostility for the time being. Although he still had some doubts, it was true that he had benefited greatly from the gifts that the interest had given him. He relaxed his tense muscles a little and asked.

“But I wish you would tell me what those ‘watchful eyes’ are.”

“… … Before that, would you please hand me the remaining silver coins right now?”

“… … ?”

“I’m sorry, but we really don’t have much time left. I need more holy power to give you the promised gift in return. Before the ‘watching eyes’ arrive, let’s make a gift in return… … .”

Ilenia becomes stiff and stops talking.

Suddenly, a ray of light appeared in the space. It was a light that was incomparably brighter than a candle.

Kadim looked at the source of light. High above, there was a clear hole in the darkness that looked like black ink had been painted over black drawing paper, and through that hole, an unfamiliar, brilliant light was coming through.

sun.

The sun rose through the darkness of the hideout.

Kuoooooo… … .

The sun was not the same as usual. Rather than providing warm sunlight, it greedily stretched out rays of light to consume the darkness. The hideout was quickly collapsing, swept away by the brilliance of a hungry predator.

Ilenia loses her composure for a moment and drops the candle.

Kadim furrowed his brow. And then he had a gut feeling. That sun was the ‘watching eye’ that Illenia had been worried about. If he were to be caught in that light, something unpleasant would happen.

He moved instinctively.

“town!”

He wrapped Ilenia’s waist around his arm and ran to the other side, avoiding the light. When he reached her still dark place, he put her down and placed her silver coins in her hands.

“With these coins, can we make a shelter like this again?”

“……yes?”

“Didn’t you build a hideout with those silver coins in the beginning? “If we build a hiding place again, we can avoid that light.”

“Ah, no, that’s impossible… … The sacred power contained in the silver was merely fuel, and I was able to create this hideout thanks to the long preparations I made in advance.”

“Then can you make something like a shield? “We can stop the invasion of that light even for a moment.”

“… … .”

Illenia looked to the other side. The light was encroaching on the darkness too quickly. It was obvious that even if they spread the curtain of darkness, it wouldn’t last long.

She slowly shook her head. Then, instead of unfolding her tent, she used the sacred power of the silver coin to make and give the ‘return gift’ that she had promised in advance. Kadim, who took that action to mean give or take, turned his expression cold.

But it was a hasty thought.

Illenia decided that in the long run, it would be better to reveal the truth, even if it meant taking a big risk. Gaining Khadim’s trust was a very important matter. He was the one the revelation pointed to, the warrior who would one day bring down that halo and restore the forgotten god’s name.

He slowly took a breath and gently opened his lips.

“Have you ever heard the story, Mr. Kadim… ‘The sun is the eye of Elgar that looks down on the world’?”

“… … “I’ve heard of it.”

“That story is only half true. The light that has now invaded this hiding place, and the sun that circles the sky every day, are the eyes of Elgar, the god of light and order.”

“… … .”

“Elgar has always been watching the world with those brilliant eyes. In order to find those who go against his will, those who reveal truths that should not be revealed, and to bring down ‘heavenly punishment’… … That is why we have always had to hide our identities and help you in secret.”

Kadim almost laughed. What kind of story is this, something straight out of mythology? If I hadn’t seen the evidence, I would have dismissed the nonsense and said it was all nonsense.

But with such clear evidence right in front of me, it was something I couldn’t deny.

“… … You said that was only half true? Then what was false about that story?”

Ilenia closed her eyes and placed her hands on them, an action similar to making the sign of the cross in other religions.

If I say this now, I will never be able to avoid heavenly punishment.

They’re still in the hideout, so if we’re lucky, we’ll be able to survive.

After much agony, the priest of the forgotten god finally brought out the truth.

“The owner of those eyes, and the god that the Elgar Order now serves… … is not Elgar.”

“… … .”

“Until yesterday, you saw false alter egos that looked like me but were never me, right? Likewise, that god, no, that one too… … “He is nothing more than a ‘false being’ who puts on the shell of Elga and pretends to be Elga.”

“… … .”

“The ultimate goal of our Forgotten God Church is… … “It is to defeat that ‘false being’ and restore the true Elga and the divine name of the forgotten god.”

As she finished speaking, the light on the ceiling emitted an angry glow that mortals could not bear.

―――― Kuuuuuuu… … .

The light of the absolute that brings punishment upon the unbelievers. The annihilation of judgment that devours darkness. The daylight of the end that announces the end of rest and secrets.

The moment when all darkness finally subsides and the entire space is taken over by light.

― …

A beam of light rushed like a sharp spear blade and pierced Ilenia’s body.