Paladin of the Dead God - Chapter 394



Only Noblemtl

Episode 394. Under the Shell of the World (1)

Kurururur… … .

The entire Labyrinth Valley began to shake violently, and pieces of rock and dust began to fall from all over. It looked like an earthquake was occurring, but in reality, it was just something starting to move.

Isaac knew the cause, but he couldn’t help but be flustered by the sudden situation.

“What, why?”

Across the valley, something huge was seen moving slowly. It was the location that Jihelet had seen, the place Isaac was about to head to. Boom. A heavy roar shook the Labyrinth Valley. The impact was different from before, causing rocks to collapse and even landslides to occur in some areas.

Kurrurur… … thud. Kurrurur… … thud.

The sound of something tired and struggling to drag itself along. The sound was coming straight towards Isaac. Isaac didn’t understand the situation, but he decided that since it had already happened, he couldn’t do anything about it, so he ran towards it.

‘All servants, come here! Any Angels of Death that may be a nuisance are to be eliminated immediately.’

Isaac’s followers quickly gathered at his will. As the valley shook as if an earthquake had occurred, the Angels of Death who had been hiding in the crevices of the cliffs had no choice but to jump out. The Angels of Death let out an incomprehensible roar and hovered over the giant body approaching Isaac.

Finally, Isaac came face to face with it, coming straight at him from across the valley.

The sacred monster of the Apocrypha. AKA ‘The Old Man of the Mountain’.

It was a huge thing, reaching a hundred meters in size, but it had large, thick folds of leather that dragged along the ground, so it looked like a hunched old man approaching with rags covering his entire body. Underneath the thick leather, dark red tentacles and dozens of eyes were visible.

Those pupils were the identity of the wrinkles that Jihillet had discovered.

More than half of them were closed, and some were open but dim and lacking light, but dozens of eyes were fixed straight on Isaac.

‘How do you catch that?’

Isaac’s original plan was to take down the Old Man of the Mountain before he woke up. He was so big that he couldn’t be easily attacked, but he wasn’t much of a threat if he didn’t wake up.

But something seemed to have triggered him.

‘Could it be that I was stimulated by the dark Eucharistic effect?’

Considering the timing, I couldn’t think of anything else. In any case, given the situation, I had no choice but to confront him head on. If the Isacrea Dawn Army were to pass through the valley and he were awake, there would be chaos.

The question then was whether he was moved by the dark effects of the Eucharist or terrified.

Considering that the monsters belonging to Chaos have been basically hostile up until now, the latter is more likely, but seeing what’s coming… … .

[Ooooooooh!]

The old man on the mountain suddenly let out a roar.

Isaac clicked his tongue and prepared for battle. The fear response isn’t just about being scared. Sometimes, a cornered rat will lunge at the other person like a cat.

‘I guess I’ll have to eat it up.’

***

With each step the Old Man of the Mountain took, the valley’s geological history was peeled away and destroyed.

The guy ran towards Isaac as if he was going to lunge at him at any moment, and at the same time, he started to spurt something out from under his skin. Those lumps that looked like excrement were actually the same color as the power beyond.

‘The spider-man.’

The mass of color quickly split and soon became dozens of human-faced spiders that began to crawl up the valley. They were much larger and more vicious than the human-faced spiders that the apocalypse agent had excreted in Luzberg before. And, as expected of a monster of chaos, each had a different number of legs and appearance.

‘Ulgare, come in.’

Isaac gave orders to his new recruit, Ulgareh, before the Old Man of the Mountain could get any closer. Ulgareh, who had been crawling down the valley, eating fallen Angels of Death, charged at the Old Man of the Mountain.

Honestly, considering the difference in size, it wouldn’t have been strange if it had been trampled and crushed, but it wouldn’t have mattered if it had only been hit by a rock. However, Ulgare showed performance that exceeded expectations.

[Goooooooo!]

Bang. Although Ulgare was as big as a house, he didn’t hesitate to hit the mountain old man who was several times bigger than him. At the same time, the mountain old man staggered and fell over towards the cliff next to him.

There was a tremendous collapse. However, instead of being crushed or broken by the impact, the Ulgarae simply rolled up and bounced away.

‘It’s sturdier than I thought. And it’s fast, too.’

Its appearance, which resembles a maggot, was not without reason. It seemed like it could easily destroy a castle gate.

The old man staggered for a moment, but was not seriously hurt. He tried to get up again by wiggling his legs under his skin. In the meantime, the man-faced spider he had set up crawled up the cliff.

Isaac, seeing the better-than-expected results that Ulgare had achieved, decided to leave this position to his own men.

‘Hecatli, it’s your turn.’

‘I’ve been waiting.’

At Isaac’s command, Hecatli appeared as if blooming from a crevice in the cliff. Most people have the appearance of a beautiful woman in a simple dress, but with a tuft of dancing tentacles above her nose, she literally looked like a flower on the cliff.

Hecatli quickly grabbed the spiders that were crawling up her with her hands and the tentacles on her head. Then she roughly shoved them into her mouth and the stamens on her head. It seemed as if her mouth was wide open with endless hunger.

But even so, as more man-faced spiders appeared, she wiped the fluid from the corner of her mouth, tore off one of the man-faced spider’s legs, put it in her mouth, and muttered something.

At that moment, the human-faced spiders that were watching her began to tremble. Soon, the human-faced spiders began to stuff their own limbs into their mouths and devour her.

The curse of autophagy.

It was a scene that brought to mind the myth of a man cursed to starve to death, eating all his possessions, his family, and finally himself. It was a powerful curse that would work well on the Chaos Servants who suffered from endless hunger.

‘So Hecatli knows how to analyze her enemies and exploit their weaknesses. Is it because she is one of my people that she understands the Chaos Clans so well, or is it knowledge gained from her days as a witch?’

Isaac was intrigued, but thought it would be difficult to pinpoint just one thing.

Hecatli, like Ulgare, also performed amazingly well.

Not only the spiders, but also the centipedes and fleas came crawling up, but not many were able to pass through Hecatli’s curse and hungry hands.

thud.

Meanwhile, the Old Man of the Mountain got up and started approaching Isaac again.

And then, Jihillet, who had been quietly performing her duties, revealed her presence.

The role that Isaac expected from Jihillet was infiltration and assassination, as befitting a rat born in the wild. While Hesabel was in charge of assassination, Jihillet had nothing to do but infiltration for a while, but once she was assigned to a mission, she showed outstanding performance.

The moment the old man of the mountain was about to charge at Isaac with his huge body, his body suddenly stiffened. Soon, dozens of eyeballs began to spin around in all directions. The old man of the mountain trembled as if he was convulsing with his huge body, and then suddenly poured out a violent amount of bodily fluid.

Dozens of eyeballs rolled over one by one, and soon all of them turned dark red. The mountain old man collapsed, with fluids pouring out from his entire body. Soon, one of the mountain old man’s eyes was destroyed, and Jihillet appeared inside.

When there was no gap to penetrate the thick skin of the mountain man, the man-faced spiders dug into the gap while he was excreting and entered his body.

‘It’s been taken care of.’

“Thank you for your hard work.”

Isaac was surprised at how easily he had defeated the Old Man of the Mountain, who had been so difficult to deal with in the game, and whose difficulty had skyrocketed when he was awakened.

However, it was right to see that it was not the Old Man of the Mountain who was weak, but rather Isaac’s own power and the influence of his followers that had grown stronger. As Amundalas had said, Isaac had now reached a level where he could compete with angels, not with humans.

Not only Hesabel, but everyone has grown greatly.

‘I’d like to try Traelgul too, but he’s guarding the Isacre territory.’

However, it was true that his followers were a great help to his power. Isaac thought that his followers would be at the level of bishops or sword masters.

Moreover, considering that each of his clans could have small subordinates, it was safe to say that Isaac had another hidden army.

“Master.”

Hecatli whispered in a thirsty voice.

“Can we… handle that?”

Hecatli was speaking, pointing to the Old Man of the Mountain.

It didn’t matter whether they were members of the Chaos Force or not. The nameless Chaos Forces, regardless of you or me, suffered from an insatiable appetite and hunger, ready to devour anything. It wasn’t like they were usually forbidden to eat.

Of course, Isaac understood because when he exerted himself too much and got hungry, he really felt like chewing on a desk.

At that moment, Jihillet quickly pulled something out from inside the old man of the mountain and brought it.

[This is the essence of the Old Man of the Mountain. I dedicate it to the Lord of Chaos.]

It was as if the leader was saying that the most precious thing should be put in his mouth first. Seeing that he is now able to do this without being told, it seems that not only his ability but also his intelligence has improved considerably. On the other hand, this also meant that he needed to be controlled more strictly.

“Good job. You can eat the rest yourself.”

Isaac took out the tentacle in his left hand and wrapped it around the essence.

In fact, filling the intestines of the dead god with the meat of the Old Man of the Mountain would have been a good thing for Isaac, but Isaac, who had already grown up enough, desired the divine power filled within the essence more.

There was a power within this essence that could not be filled even if the entire corpse of the mountain elder was consumed.

Isaac was about to crush and devour the crimson essence in one breath, but then he suddenly thought that even the Old Man of the Mountain would respond to the ‘call’ since he was a member of the Chaos faction. If he were alive, he would resist the call, but if it was a corpse, it would be more efficient to carry out the call than to eat it. This was because it was a technique to completely devour it without losing anything.

Isaac called out to the Old Man of the Mountain.

***

Yesterday. I was just standing there.

Because I was wandering and wandering, and I didn’t know where to go anymore, and I couldn’t go back.

It was clear that today, as yesterday, and tomorrow, as today, would be the same.

I became a rock in this valley. Forever.

The sun rose in the west and set in the east.

138 years ago.

I was just walking on the ground. It may have been years since I wandered beyond the outer world. But as I went further, my body grew weaker and my joints stiffened. I knew that this was a realm that denied me.

But I can’t help but go. I don’t know why. An unbearable longing calls me inside. I found a valley with a strange appearance. It would be nice to rest in this valley for a while.

Once again, the sun turns upside down.

264 years ago.

In the Apocrypha there is no distinction between today, tomorrow and yesterday.

302 years ago.

Under the rapidly rotating sun, a wrinkled hand is visible. It holds a dagger and is covered in blood. Servants quickly come over and wipe the hand with a wet towel.

Elder, the servant whispers. The time has finally come. The servant’s face turns white and crumbles into white sand.

An old man in yellow clothes stands in front of me. The old man puts a dagger in my hand.

Kill Beshek with this. If we leave him like this, he will become a breakwater preventing destruction.

I grab my dagger and go to see Bishop Beshek.

I already know Beshek well. He greets me with a bright smile. Before I stab him in the stomach with my dagger, my eyes suddenly lock with his.

Beshek looks at me with a puzzled look and then suddenly frowns.

“Isaac? What are you doing here?”