Paladin of the Dead God - Chapter 408



Only Noblemtl

Episode 408. A Country for the Dead (1)

‘O king, live long! Your servant is in trouble.’

The cemetery lord muttered a prayer in a fit of fits.

‘Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’

Just as Isaac was looking into the Grave Lord, the Grave Lord was also looking into Isaac. But what he was looking at was not his journey as a noble Grail Knight, nor his monastic life, nor his previous life as Isaac.

It was an indescribably grotesque sight.

No words could describe this mad world. There was no distinction between living and non-living, no distinction between liquid and gas, and no distinction between solid and liquid, and melting flesh writhed incoherently.

All they wanted was one thing. The things that moved, crawled, and flew across the walls and floors were all squealing in unison through their mucous-covered holes.

[■Money, ■Rang■■ Only■’s ■Head■, let’s put on our■■ order■■!]

The graveyard lord’s soul trembled at the profane language that was too hard to hear, the strange sound, and the voice that was so disturbing that he could only listen to it. But he could neither cover his ears nor scream.

Because this world was Isaac’s inner world, or rather, something wearing Isaac’s skin.

[■Money, the mother of all ■lovers, put order in us!]

Although the words were unclear, the Graveyard Lord could tell what the prayer meant.

During his time scouring the Holy Land of Lua, he had found fragments of that prayer among the pagan rituals he had uncovered in his quest to discover the secret of immortality.

The Grave Lord tried not to recall the contents of the prayer. At that time, he had shouted it without knowing what it meant, but now he knew what they meant and what they were praying for. The Grave Lord realized that the moment he realized the prayer, he too would fall to the same level as them.

It would have been better if he had not known, but the price for foolishly looking behind the truth was approaching him. But it was impossible to escape from this place. And the more he tried not to remember, the clearer the memory became.

At that moment, the Graveyard Lord suddenly saw everything on the ground stretching out their delicate tentacles towards the sky.

The Graveyard Lord suddenly looked up at the sky. A huge eye was looking down at him from above the sky made of crimson flesh.

[Mother! Beloved Mother of All Beings!]

He had eyes like Isaac.

Long tentacles crawled out from the eyelids, reaching out to every corner of the earth, as big as pillars of the world. The Graveyard Lord felt his mind slowly crumbling just by looking at them, regardless of his will.

The whole world gaped at Isaac, yearning for love and affection.

[Clothes over us with the flesh of order!]

The Graveyard Lord tried to scream.

But he had no mouth.

***

[… … Order of the flesh to Lee… … .]

Knock, knock, knock… … .

The Grave Lord’s skull slowly crumbled and scattered in Isaac’s grasp.

Isaac glared at the remains of the Grave Lord, the white remains flowing between his fingers and tentacles. The power he was emitting was now reduced to a level that Isaac could handle alone.

From now on, Isaac was able to fully feast on the real amount of food.

‘It’s still hard.’

Sweat was pouring down my whole body.

It consumed a tremendous amount of power through its tentacles, but it seemed like it actually used up most of that power to avoid dying while absorbing it. It was a task focused more on annihilation than predation, but it would be a lie to say that it wasn’t a waste.

‘What kind of snake is it?’

Isaac thought about how snakes sleep for days after swallowing a large prey to digest it. Then it suddenly occurred to him that the analogy did not make sense.

‘Rather than that, would it be more like a hummingbird that consumes calories as soon as it eats?’

It was a bit unsightly and I didn’t like it, but I figured it didn’t matter since no one was going to hear it.

In any case, Isaac confirmed that the Grave Lord had been completely destroyed. It is unclear whether he will ever meet again in the psychic world like he did in the Pale, but he will never appear again, sharpening his sword.

‘But what did you mutter before you disappeared? What mother? What clothes should I dress you in?’

Isaac recalled the words the Grave Lord had muttered just before he was destroyed, but he couldn’t quite make out what they were. They were vague and seemed to be a dialect that was difficult to understand.

Isaac felt a little sorry for the cemetery lord, thinking that he might have thought of his mother just before he died. Even though he was a king who had accomplished great military feats while alive, and a great angel who dragged hundreds of skeletons around after death, he must have had a mother.

‘In those rough memories, I couldn’t even see my mom’s nose… … Well, maybe he didn’t want to admit that he was actually a mama’s boy. Child, when you go to the afterlife… … No, you won’t be able to go because you’ll be digested, but, uh, well, you must have prepared yourself the moment you became an undead. Anyway, live well.’

Isaac didn’t know how to appease the Grave Lord, so he just patted his belly.

I had no particular feelings about the hardships and trials that Sarka Nua had endured. It was unfortunate that his child had suffered from a hereditary disease, but I lost even a shred of sympathy when I saw that he had forced other people’s children into battle and performed unholy rituals because of it.

Sarka Nua threw his family into hell with his loving heart. And himself.

But one thing, the last thing he said, stuck with me.

‘Bringing heaven down to earth.’

Perhaps it was the ambition of the immortal emperor to make the entire world like this land, the Urdantu Empire, where the boundary between life and death had collapsed. But now that I think about these words, I remember hearing similar words from other faiths.

Let heaven come to earth.

It was a slogan for the millennial kingdom.

Now that I think about it, the goals of the Immortal Cult and the Code of Light were surprisingly similar.

Of course, the ultimate landscape might be a little different, but Isaac was reminded of the strange relationship between the immortal emperor and the lighthouse keeper.

‘Perhaps the lighthouse keeper was conducting some kind of experiment with the immortal emperor.’

This is an experiment to bring heaven down to earth.

Isaac thought that perhaps the Lighthouse Keeper’s attempt to make the Immortal Emperor a god was simply an experiment to see if it was ‘possible’. After all, the Immortal Emperor had brought the local paradise of the Immortal Cult to earth.

It’s a bit far from the heaven we normally think of.

‘Then what is the heaven of the light code?’

Isaac thought about it for a moment and realized that the Heaven of the Code of Light was expressed very vaguely compared to other faiths. In fact, if the Code of Light is a faith that protects and practices the laws of physics, then the very existence of Heaven is strange.

People do not know what kind of place it is, so they imagine a good place and wish to go to heaven. And the lighthouse keeper is also working hard to bring heaven down.

But Isaac was certain of only one thing.

There is no such thing as heaven that can satisfy everyone.

‘Whatever it is, it will be revealed when we get to the Holy Land, Lua. The rest… … we’ll figure it out when we get there.’

***

Isaac’s body and clothes were covered in wounds from the aftermath of the rampaging power. However, Isaac decided to make this evidence of the fierce final battle and removed the hidden ritual curtain.

As soon as the colors beyond that formed the curtain began to disperse like fog, the people surrounding them rushed forward at once. Tukhalin and Ethelred were in the front. They were very tense, but when they saw Isaac standing there in perfect condition, they stopped walking.

“Oh my god, I was so surprised that I thought you were going to commit suicide when you suddenly entered a black sphere! Please speak up and move!”

Tukhalin shouted, spitting out his anger. Ethelred also smiled bitterly and put Kaldbuh back into his scabbard.

“I told you that Captain Rottenhammer and Lord Gebel had previously subdued the Pale, but I could not feel at ease knowing that I was trapped in a space alone with that infamous seraph.”

As Ethelred spoke, he suddenly looked around.

“By the way, what happened to the Graveyard Lord? Even the Angel Lion Knights have no idea what’s going on beyond that curtain.”

“The Graveyard Lord has perished.”

Isaac’s calm answer caused silence to fall around him. Even Tukhalin opened his mouth wide.

“So, the lord of the graveyard of the angels disappeared? That lord of the graveyard?”

Isaac was even more bewildered by the shock around him. Why was he so surprised? It had already happened to Pale, and this time, he had four soldiers and angels to help him. All Isaac had done was, in effect, land the last blow by luck.

“It was only possible because of your help.”

“Ah, no! Do you know what you’ve just done? You’ve destroyed two angels in less than a month! And you’ve also destroyed the Graveyard Lord, who practically commands the military of the Immortal Church!”

“I just finished it… … .”

“But that’s true! Destroying the Angel of Honor… …!”

It was a natural reaction that any person with common sense would show. Tukhalin seemed to have strong curiosity and tried to ask Isaac questions, but Ethelred quickly intervened and stopped him.

“Praise the Grail Knights! Another formidable foe standing in the way of the Isacrea Dawn Army has fallen beneath their blades! The Isacrea Dawn Army will not be defeated under their banner!”

“Wow! The Isacrea Dawn Army will not be defeated under that flag!”

As Ethelred led the way, the other soldiers followed suit. The soldiers who had been watching in silence from afar also realized the situation and shouted the same call with cheers. As the commotion and bustle spread, Ethelred called Tukhalin and Isaac and whispered to them.

“It would be best not to make a big fuss about this.”

“What? Why this great achievement?”

Ethelred looked slightly uneasy.

“It is a great achievement and praiseworthy that the Grail Knight defeated the Grave Lord. However, the problem is that the Grave Lord is an angel, and he was not simply defeated, but ‘annihilated.’”

“Why is that… … Ah.”

Tukhalin belatedly shut his mouth.

Even if they are hostile religions, a celestial angel is a celestial angel. A being that can destroy a celestial angel can be a threat to other celestial angels.

Even when a war breaks out between nations, they try not to kill the royal family or nobles. If the people they are supposed to govern become insensitive to harming the ‘nobles’ and do not consider it a big deal, the victorious king and nobles may also consider it a small deal.

‘I thought that the blood of nobles was blue, but it’s the same red?’

We must not allow the people to think that way.

“I’ve already eliminated the paleness, so why bother now?”

“The Lion Knight told me that Pale was stripped of his status as a Heavenly Angel at the last moment. But this time, you are keeping silent. It is clear that you are not in a good mood.”

“Then, even if we remain silent, the angels will not be unaware.”

“Yes. But at least it doesn’t have to reach the ears of the general public and make them even more uncomfortable.”

“It would be best to do as Your Majesty Aethelred says.”

Isaac, who had been silent until then, opened his mouth.

He was right. No, it was something he should have thought of first.

Because it was Isaac’s life and no one else’s that was at stake.

He was already deluded into thinking that the angels were looking after him and that he was a candidate for the angelic title who had even been notified of his naming, and that he was already on their side.

But when the war is over, the swords are melted down and made into plowshares. Especially if you think that the swords might be pointed at you.

Tukhalin nodded as if he understood, but muttered in dissatisfaction.

“Huh. It was possible because the Graveyard Lord was an angel of the Immortal Church in the first place. The Immortal Church foolishly did not distinguish between heaven and earth, so the event of annihilation was possible. Angels of other faiths could not be defeated in this way, right?”

Rather than belittling Isaac’s abilities, it was closer to protecting him by pointing out his limitations to any angels who might be listening. With his strong faith, he still had difficulty accepting the fact that he could be an enemy of the angels.

Isaac nodded as it was a reasonable statement, but then suddenly stopped.

‘So what happens when the distinction between heaven and earth disappears?’