Paladin of the Dead God - Chapter 391



Only Noblemtl

Episode 391. The Masked Monster (3)

Contrary to the thoughts of the Olkan Discipline, the Order of the Light’s Law did not ignore them at all.

Rather, because of them, the leadership was on the verge of being torn apart internally.

However, the turmoil in the leadership had no effect on the front lines, which were filled with enthusiastic fanatics.

“The lighthouse keeper illuminates the way to heaven with light! The end of the road is the Holy Land, Lua!”

The priest who had climbed up on the rock cried out in a hoarse voice. His glassy eyes flashed with a strange light so that not even the pupils were visible.

The archers of the Immortal Church shot arrows at the priest, but they were too close to even hit him.

“Look! The lighthouse keeper is watching over me! Go!”

“Ohhhhhhh!”

The horde of Dawn soldiers passed by the priest’s feet, shouting. The priest waved the scriptures around madly and recited the contents of the scriptures so quickly that it sounded more like a song than a prayer.

Amidst countless blessings, the Dawn Army clashed with the undead forces for the seventh time today.

Soldiers on the front lines, not even wearing proper rags, let alone armor, died in an instant.

Thousands of soldiers died in a split second of conflict, but instead of blaming anyone or feeling pain, they looked ecstatic.

Their lives were full of pain and fear.

But this death opened the gates of heaven to them. Life in heaven will not be so painful.

Of course, the Immortal Church had no intention of sending them to heaven so easily.

Suddenly a cold wind blew.

The soldiers on the battlefield, and even the priests in the rear, felt some kind of hallucination.

It was a darkness that made me feel like I was trapped in a narrow, suffocating space.

The smell of rotting earth, the smell of old wood, maggots and raccoons crawling all over your body, a claustrophobic space where it’s hard to move even a single limb.

It was a coffin.

It was a mirror that showed them the truth.

“Graveyard Lord! The Angel of Mercy Graveyard Lord!”

As the bishop shouted and sang a hymn, the priests joined in, driving away the hallucinations of the cemetery lord.

The Graveyard Lord’s illusion only dominated the battlefield for a brief moment, but it was enough to change the mood of the battle.

The Graveyard Lord raised thousands of soldiers who had just died from the battlefield with a flick of his finger.

“Gaaaaaaaah!”

The soldiers who had just rushed towards the Immortal Church rolled their eyes and ran backwards.

However, none of the resurrected soldiers were able to move properly because they had already been crushed from behind and stabbed from the front. The attacked Dawn Army also skillfully dismembered the zombies that rushed at them as if they had been waiting for it.

Stabbing with a spear, tying up, hanging with a sickle, and chopping with an axe, the disintegration is over in an instant. After that, when they are trampled by the feet of tens of thousands of soldiers following behind, their resurrection becomes a matter of the distant future.

At that moment, another hot light rose into the sky. Eyes wrapped around blazing wings looked down on the battlefield.

The black battlefield of May, the angel of fame, collected the numerous weapons scattered across the battlefield one by one and created his own halo.

Even the soldiers, knights, and priests were amazed by the appearance of the angel.

The May Sword did nothing, but just by existing here, in this place, it boosted the morale of the Dawn Army. As the knights with increased morale began to charge madly, some of the lines blocked by the Undead Cult also began to break through.

Seeing this sight, the priest shouted at the top of his lungs.

“Look! Heaven! The gates to Heaven are opening! The Sword of May is opening the gates to Heaven!”

While the Black of May was just quietly watching, the Dawn Army, led by the Paladins, was calling out for the ‘Gate of Heaven’. Unfortunately, what awaited them was not heaven, but a gigantic white bone dragon that was slowly starting to raise its body.

The soldier, whose spirit was bound to his body, looked up at the sky with his crushed head in the mud made of blood.

It was such a beautiful day, yet the angels didn’t seem ready to open the gates of heaven yet.

***

After the battle.

Even though the battle was over, the main camp of the Dawn Army was still noisy with people singing hymns and reciting prayers.

Although it was obvious to anyone that there were far more insane people than sane people, it was one of their ways of maintaining their sanity.

They weren’t this fanatical from the beginning.

But as they witnessed the terrible and senseless suffering and deaths throughout the Dawn Army, the soldiers could not help but wander in search of the ‘reason’.

Why is the world so horrible and absurd?

It is to go to the beautiful heaven.

In order to go to the heaven that God has arranged, the world is full of suffering. Life in this world is nothing but suffering, and the true reward is after death. If we cannot go to heaven, why did my brothers, friends, parents, and younger siblings die in vain?

And in order to bring the true heaven, the millennial kingdom that awaits beyond the gates of heaven, to this earth, we must occupy the Holy Land, Lua.

It was the appearance of looking for a reason after committing an act and becoming obsessed with a purpose that had no basis, but I couldn’t stand it otherwise.

But unlike the outside, the inside of the command barracks was extremely quiet.

The common soldiers could simply look to God for the reason for these countless deaths, but those in the leadership had to think a little better. But no one could find a way to explain today’s poor performance.

Finally, Rohen Otter, unable to bear the silence any longer, opened his mouth.

“We finally managed to lure out the Grave Lord. Now all we have to do is defeat him.”

At those words, Dera Heman, who had been silently silent, grabbed the glass he was holding and smashed it. He stood up and pointed his finger fiercely at Rohen Otter, but no sound came out. However, everyone present could tell what Dera Heman was trying to say.

Horhel opened his mouth and calmed Dera Heman.

“Stop it, Dera Heman. You are right. If we had defeated the Khan’s army first as you suggested, stabilized the battlefield, and then attacked, there would have been no need to drag out the Grave Lord like this. But this is all necessary.”

Derra Heman turned his head and glared at Horgel. But he could not bring himself to scold Horgel, who was the Papal Legate and the head of the Watchtower Council.

He smashed the broken glass on the table with a loud noise and walked out of the barracks.

After a while, Rohen asked cautiously.

“Should I bring you back when you calm down?”

“No. Brother Dera Heman feels inferior because he is the nominal commander-in-chief. He cannot do anything the way he wants, be it strategy or tactics, so he cannot help but be angry.”

All command was in fact in the hands of the Watchmen, or rather the Archangels. When one of the Archangels appeared and gave instructions, the Watchmen simply carried out the instructions so that they would be carried out on earth.

“But he is a true believer. He will never disobey the words of His Holiness the Pope.”

It is not only Dera Heman who is merely a face madam. The Pope, Horma Khmuel, also did not move from the Papal carriage. With Cardinal Juan assisting him, those who were not members of the Watchtower Council were not even allowed to participate in the meeting.

The Pope had also fought in the Dawn Army, but the gruesome sights here were a battlefield that even veterans could not become accustomed to.

“But Brother Horgel, even though today alone more than ten thousand martyrs were killed, we still haven’t crossed the Katla Ridge. If things continue this way, there won’t be any soldiers left before we even reach the capital, Usak.”

Rohen said cautiously.

“Aren’t there those who have been burned? Today alone, there have been more than a thousand who have been burned. This means that the gates of heaven are steadily opening.”

“The power of the charred ones is preserved, but… … .”

As the Dawn Army progressed, the chosen ones, the so-called ‘Scorched Ones’, were creating a new status within the Dawn Army. They were a fearsome force, boasting skin that was as good as metal and unburned even in flames. There was even talk within the army that they had already been chosen to go to heaven.

“… … It’s not like the charred ones won’t die. Some of them have been kidnapped. If the charred ones show up as undead, the soldiers will be shaken.”

Horgel did not answer. Rohen spoke cautiously.

“Right now, we are surrounded by three forces: the Dead Twelve in the Gehenna prison fortress, the Grave Lords guarding the Katla Ridge, and the Khan’s army to the north. Of these, only the Khan’s army is capable of compromise.”

“yes.”

“Then shouldn’t we make an agreement with the Olkan Discipline? My nephew is ‘dispatched’ there. He will help deliver the message.”

Horgel also knew that Rohen’s nephew was being held hostage. Neither of them had any intention of compromising with the heretics, but it was something to consider for the sake of the Dawn Army’s smooth progress.

However, there was still a hurdle that had to be overcome in order to make a ‘rational choice’.

“Then let us ask the angels for their opinion.”

***

Rohen went out of the barracks and waited for Horhel to finish praying.

The inside of the command barracks was decorated like a small temple, and it was necessary to listen to the angel’s voice in the most quiet and serene environment possible. In such an atmosphere, it was difficult to wait while being careful of even the sound of breathing, so it was better to just go out and wait for Horhel to finish talking.

A moment later, Horgel walked out with a tired expression.

Rohen hurried over.

“Who did you meet?”

“The lighthouse keeper himself came.”

Rohen’s pupils dilated. The fact that the lighthouse keeper had directly expressed his will meant that it was the will of the true Code of Light without any distortion.

“What happened? Is it okay to stabilize the rear?”

“… … The strategy remains the same.”

Rohen almost screamed for a moment. Barely able to suppress his scream, Rohen repeated to himself hundreds of times that he was a faithful follower of the Light’s Code and a member of the Watchers’ Council with the honorable position of carrying out the will of the angels.

After an awkward silence, Rohen asked again.

“Are you telling us to continue attacking the Immortal Order? Ignoring the Gehenna Fortress and the Olkan Discipline?”

“okay.”

Rohen’s throat was filled with the thought, “Does the lighthouse keeper want us to die here?” He was able to hold it back thanks to Horgel’s subsequent words.

“They say that the Holy Grail Knight destroyed the Archangel Pale.”

Rohen’s face was filled with shock this time. He stuttered and struggled for words, finally finding the words to put together one by one.

“The Holy Grail, the Knight, the Pale, the Angel? That? Annihilation?”

“okay.”

“That… How? Are you saying that a human can not only defeat an angel, but also destroy it? Pale is definitely not a weak angel?”

The White Bone Dragon that annihilated a squad of knights at the end of today’s battle, the monster that was created by the great angel Changbaek, also used its grotesque and cruel artistry to creatively design the Holy Land Lua into an impregnable fortress.

“It’s a wonderful thing. It means that our fight is not in vain.”

But Horgel’s expression as he said that was not bright.

The same was true for Rohen.

The lighthouse keeper’s order to continue attacking the Undead Cult was tantamount to holding off the Undead Cult’s forces from concentrating on the Isacrea Dawn Army led by Isaac.

Thousands, hundreds of people are sacrificed every day, and they are not even the main characters.

“The Holy Grail Knight… Is Isaac Isaacrea really our knight?”

Rohen suddenly opened his mouth.

When he heard that Isaac had harmed the Pale Angel, his first feeling was shock, then ‘disrespect’.

Horgel looked at Rohen.

“What are you trying to say?”

“How on earth could a human ‘dare’ to harm a Heavenly King? Are they even human?”

Isaac is a Grail Knight and a saint chosen by the Sword of May. Elril is watching over him and the Lighthouse Keeper is also helping him on his expedition. However, Rohen has shown clear suspicions about Isaac.

He may have been moved by the unpleasant feeling of not being ‘chosen’ as the main character despite talking to the angels and carrying out their orders.

“There have been several reports and suspicions that he was in contact with heretics and profane beings. Inquisitor Saltna Culbane has also made similar reports. Such statements are not without reason… … .”

Rohen whispered, not hiding his distorted emotions of jealousy and anger.

“Could it be that we are being deceived by a monster wearing a beautiful mask?”