Paladin of the Dead God - Chapter 424



Only Noblemtl

Episode 424. The Immortal Emperor (6)

Everything around me began to crumble to dust.

First, the dome covering the Holy Land was shattered.

Light streamed in as the cracks in the dome widened like an eggshell. The city’s buildings crumbled and turned into ruins worthy of mention in old poems.

The famous ancient city, the birthplace of human civilization, and the most important holy place to this day, Lua, collapsed in vain. Afterwards, in the midst of the countless piles of landslides, rain, and wind, only a faint trace of the holy place Lua remained.

In the meantime, the sun rose and set quickly.

The sun was passing so fast that it almost appeared as a single ray of light.

Mountains rose and valleys formed. Cities sprang up and wore away. In the vast flow of time, human traces had no meaning.

Eventually everything became low, flat, and cold.

Soon, a snowy field arrived.

Isaac thought that this strange flow of time had finally stopped.

But no. The sun was still flowing so fast that it seemed like a ray of light. The world was now worn and exhausted to the point where the passage of time had no meaning. There was nothing left to burn, nothing left to build.

Isaac caught his breath. The cold air seeped in, but he could still breathe.

Only a small area around the lighthouse of the Watcher remained in the original world. Even that part continued to expand and contract like waves crashing in and out, but it was clear that this apocalyptic landscape could not be completely eroded.

‘It’s not that time has actually been sped up, but rather that some kind of illusion has eroded the world. If we just solve the problem, it will go back to how it was.’

And that very problem was standing in the middle of the snowfield.

The one who stood at the end of the world, the god who rejected death and granted immortality to his followers, was quietly watching over Isaac.

“How about an eternal landscape?”

The Immortal Emperor spoke in a normal voice, not with a mental wave, but still looked more like a shadow on a wall at dusk than a human being.

Isaac gave an answer he didn’t mean.

“That’s cool.”

The Immortal Emperor bowed his head and looked up at the sky.

“There are those who find my title ridiculous. How can the youngest of the gods claim to be the one standing at the end of time, the eternal emperor? Even among the surviving elves and dwarves, there are those who are older than me.”

They were talking quietly as if a big fight was about to start, but Isaac wasn’t flustered. Originally, a fight between a god and a human was impossible, so this is how it happened.

It’s more like a puzzle game or a logic battle.

If you fail, you will face death.

“Actually, I thought that a little bit too.”

Isaac also honestly thought that the title of ‘Immortal Emperor’ was a bit excessive for someone who was just over 300 years old.

If we want to find a slightly more humble expression, we can say ‘long-lived emperor’, or if we want to be even more humble, ‘elder of the nursing home’.

“I understand them. I guess you could say that.”

The Immortal Emperor, unaware of what useless thoughts Isaac was thinking, continued to babble on about his own nonsense.

“But the moment I became a god, I realized why I was called the Immortal Emperor. I could see the long, long days ahead of me. An overwhelmingly long time.”

“You saw the future?”

The Immortal Emperor nodded slowly and looked at Isaac.

“All faiths change, fall, perish, and disappear. Before the Age of Light, there was the Age of Ten Thousand Gods, and before that, the Seven Dynasties of the Elves, and before that, the reign of the Elder Dragons, and before that, the War of Rock and Rain.”

It is a past that Isaac cannot understand or fathom.

It was impossible to estimate how long ago it had been. It was probably a long time that would require looking through the timeline of geography rather than history. Frankly, I wasn’t interested. Isaac had no way of confirming it even if the Immortal Emperor had slyly inserted the phrase ‘The Great War of Cats and Hamsters’.

“Is that an important setting… or rather, information?”

“No, you don’t have to know.”

“That’s good. So?”

“The important thing is that there will come a time when everything will collapse and disappear. This means that the intensity of light that humans have now, when they first took the initiative and created civilization, will not last forever.”

Isaac recalled a timeline in his mind with names like the Age of the Ten Thousand Gods, the Seven Dynasties of the Elves, the Great War of the Cat Hams, the Reign of the Elder Dragons, and the War of Rock and Rain. They must have enjoyed great power in their time and a power that seemed to last forever.

Like the Code of Light now.

“Are you saying that the power will not last forever? That the age of light will also be replaced by another age?”

“Yes.”

The Immortal Emperor spoke calmly.

“All the other gods know this too. So they fight in their own way to seize the initiative of the ‘next age’. Just as the Caller hopes for another era of chaos for the gods, the Furnace of the World believes that the new age’s gods will be born in their Furnace, and the Red Grail suffers from the guilt that the sins they have accumulated will eventually consume them.”

Isaac realized what the Immortal Emperor was saying.

It was a story about the victory conditions of each faith.

It was only then that Isaac had a sudden realization. The ‘victory condition’ in the game was to end the Age of Light and take the lead in a new era.

“But… … in all those times, I still exist.”

“It exists?”

“No matter which faith wins, no matter how the world changes and a new era opens, the Buddhist Order will not disappear. The name may change and I may be oppressed, but I still exist.”

“Are you saying that the undead will not disappear?”

“Yes. With my birth, the concept of immortality was born into the world. That concept is immortal. As long as the concept remains, I am immortal. It was only then that I realized that the thickness of the book I had to read was overwhelmingly thicker than that of the other gods.”

The Immortal Emperor, the youngest god in the world at 300 years old, humbly folded his hands before the overwhelming time left for the world and himself.

“That is why I am the Immortal Emperor. Not because of the days I have lived, but because I have more days left to live. Because I will have more followers than any other god.”

The weight of time he carried was so great that no god had ever been able to bear it.

In a way, the god who finally wins after countless hours is the immortal emperor.

But Isaac somehow thought that he looked lonely.

***

The wind blew coldly.

In the cold wind, Isaac felt that it was becoming difficult to maintain the lighthouse of the watchman. However, he held on forcibly because he did not know what would happen if he were to be encroached by this world.

I had to endure it, thinking about what absurd sights I would see if I followed Elril’s world where rules were ruled.

“That sounds good.”

Isaac opened his mouth, trying not to be sarcastic.

“Then, even if we give up the Holy Land Lua now, we can still win, right?”

The Immortal Emperor laughed, tearing his shadow into long strips.

“You can win without giving in. Besides, you can give up the Holy Land of Lua to all the other faiths, but not the Lighthouse Keeper. You can’t hand over the world’s leadership to that crazy lunatic.”

Isaac had looked into the Immortal Emperor’s past, so he knew why he hated the lighthouse keeper. In fact, even if it wasn’t a personal favor, there would be no reason to give up the Holy Land to someone who had destroyed his capital and killed his followers.

“Yes. I completely understand that you hate lighthouse keepers. So… … .”

“You can’t do that either, Isaac.”

The Immortal Emperor spoke softly, as if he knew what he was talking about.

“No, not you. Even if anything in the world takes over the Holy Land Lua, not you.”

Isaac was taken aback by the immortal emperor’s raw hostility.

Sure, he’d destroyed his army, wrecked his battle lines, hijacked his ships, lured monsters into the Holy Land, and destroyed two Archangels, but was it really something to hate this much?

Now that I think about it, I did do some things that people might dislike. But it seemed like the Immortal Emperor didn’t hate Isaac for that simple reason alone.

“This is an era you have never seen before.”

“An era I have never seen before?”

“All gods see the history of their own faith until its destruction. So each tries to prepare for, prepare for, or prevent their own end. But you… … no one knows how the world will flow after you take power.”

“… … I am not a god or anything, so is it possible for me to rule the next century?”

“I don’t know.”

“what?”

“I can’t actually predict or find out anything about you. You are an only child born without origins in this world, without owing anything to anyone. Since I don’t know your past, I can’t know your future either.”

‘Isaac, are you an only child?’

Isaac suddenly remembered a voice.

It was something Aidan had said to him long ago, when he had explained to him about Urbansus.

‘It means a person born alone. A being born without any ancestors, family, or connections. A being that seems to come out of a myth. Do you believe that everything you say and do is done by your own will? No. That is what Urbansus tells you to do. That is how all people in the world are.’

Isaac was a Nephilim, so he cannot be said to be an only child.

But that is limited to the physical body.

The soul that exists inside of him is not born in this world, but is a different being from a completely different world. Therefore, Isaac was able to look at the world with his own perspective without being caught up in any preconceptions or prejudices of this world.

At the same time, it was strong enough that it would not wear out or break in the world.

From the perspective of the Immortal Emperor, an unidentified being completely unrelated to Urbansus has suddenly fallen into this world and is ruining all the history books.

“If you were content to live as a knight of a small estate, that would be fine. But you are closely influencing the changes in the world. So if you do not join the Undead Order, I will have no choice but to drive you out with all my might.”

Isaac felt that things were getting worse.

A direct confrontation with the Immortal Emperor was an ending he wanted to avoid, because it meant he was getting infinitely closer to game over.

“Who knows, maybe I can create a surprisingly good world?”

“But the body you inhabit was created by chaos-seeking doomsayers. How could I not doubt you?”

‘Now you’re grabbing my ankle.’

Actually, this is a normal reaction.

It’s strange to trust an unidentified tentacle monster.

Especially if that tentacle monster is eating its own followers and angels.

Isaac felt the temperature around him drop further.

He silently raised his sword towards Cachulin and gazed at the Immortal Emperor.

The snowfields stretching to the horizon began to ripple. In the worn-out land where spring could never come, pure white bones began to rise like sprouts after spring rain.

“In this land of order that emerged by chance in the vast sea of ​​chaos, humanity has barely managed to establish a foothold and cultivate a garden called civilization. Now, we cannot hand over this small territory to the agents of chaos.”