Chapter 101 – To Those Who Believe

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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To mortals, divinity is incomprehensible and unknowable.

They cannot dare to understand it, and sometimes they do not even perceive its existence.

Unless the gods lower themselves in consideration of mortals, it is only natural.

It was the same principle as going blind when facing a light that is too bright.

Unfortunately, the gods struggled because they did not know how much consideration they needed to give mortals.

This was because the gap between them was too severe.

Without an intermediate stage to narrow the distance between gods and mortals, the bond could not be maintained.

That was the reason the pawns of heaven, angels, came into being.

Angels took on the role of conveying the will of the gods and guiding the people.

However, not all angels served the same god.

Since the gods they served were different, there were cases where the orders they received clashed.

If the Great Pantheon had been intact, they would have received mediation from a third party.

But now, with the previous order completely collapsed, there was not a single person left to stop their fights.

A sky illuminated by a freezing blue sun.

Under the clear blue light, Ceciel, encountering another angel, immediately readjusted her grip on her sword.

Stars that fell drawing long tails within her flesh were gathering one by one in the hand gripping the hilt.

Unlike her usual self, smiling brightly or grumbling sullenly, she was fiercely hostile.

It was because she recognized the color of the halo of the angel she encountered.

A vivid scarlet halo.

The halo of the Celestial Church ruled by the mad god.

The angel of the Celestial Church was emitting a cruel bright light through cracked skin.

With a group of refugee trembling in fear beneath their feet.

Ceciel gave them a glance, then bared her teeth at the Celestial Church angel.

“Do you know where you are taking these people?”

“…”

“I’m asking you, answer me.”

What returned to Ceciel’s interrogation was rather a counter-question.

The Celestial Church angel stared intently at Ceciel with an emotionless face like a porcelain doll and said.

“A deep blue halo. The cruelty of winter cold hidden within clear, soft fragility.”

“What are you saying?”

“Emissary of the young god, return to your god. These are ones who wish to enter eternal rest not in the young god’s blue light, but in the Sun God’s dark radiance.”

“Ugh seriously, there’s no one who talks in such twisted ways like you Celestial Church kids!”

Ceciel let out her annoyance and aimed the tip of her sword at the opponent.

The words were spat out elegantly, but the meaning was clear.

“Why go around in circles just to say you’re going to kill them all?!”

The Celestial Church angel tilted their head at the furious Ceciel.

This was the last emotional expression shown.

Upon confirming Ceciel’s clear hostility, the Celestial Church angel immediately rolled up the sleeve of their right arm.

“Then listen. I am Hiesto, emissary of dark radiance serving the Sun God, the changed creator, the benefactor of all creation.”

Hiesto’s right arm was covered in bizarrely shaped hieroglyphs.

To a ignorant human’s eyes, they were letters that merely looked like scribbles scrawled in poor handwriting.

But Ceciel knew the identity of the letters carved on that forearm.

‘The divine characters possessed by the angels of the Celestial Church…!’

While the angels of other churches used ordinary weapons, the Celestial Church used their unique armament, divine characters.

The problem was that showing divine characters directly was extremely rare.

The Celestial Church monopolized how to write and read them, and used them only in highly restricted cases.

Ceciel barely managed to fish out a precaution regarding divine characters from faintly remembered past memories.

‘I heard that if you ambush them when they reveal divine characters, you’ll be counterattacked.’

At some point, Hiesto began to recite the scarlet divine characters engraved on their forearm.

Perhaps because she had given up the thought of ambushing from the start, a scene that she would have otherwise easily missed caught her eye.

She could tell that they were intentionally dragging out the pronunciation and parting their lips sluggishly.

Hiesto was exposing an opening that anyone could see, practically inviting her to strike.

But if she knew, there was no need to deliberately step into it.

Ceciel merely watched until the end.

In the end, it was Hiesto who gave up first.

“Unlike your brazen speech, you are quite cautious.”

Craaack.

At that moment, the entire right arm covered in divine characters was shattered.

Suddenly?

A fierce wind blew in the instant Ceciel furrowed her brows, wondering what in the world was happening.

A massive explosion shook the entire world.

Every single pulverized fragment of flesh became a sharp piece of iron and ricocheted away.

The flesh of the angel that had seemed festering was already turning into charred meteors and falling upon the people.

“I won’t let you do that!!!”

And the moment Ceciel swung her sword, the sky was slashed apart.

Both the diagonally slashed sky and the scenery began to slide down.

Hiesto carefully observed this mysterious sight.

The upper sky containing the flesh meteors was distorting.

They themselves were also falling endlessly away from the people cowering beyond the cross section cut by the blade.

At this rate, they would be plunged into a completely irrelevant place.

Ultimately, Hiesto raised their pulverized right arm once more.

With that, the charred flesh meteors stopped their descent.

“Emissary of blue light, I shall ask that upright heart that chose to protect them instead of cutting me.”

The pulverized flesh was returning to its original place.

It was thanks to the divine characters still remaining where the shattered right arm had been.

The charred flesh and carbonized bone fragments piled up piece by piece.

From the bones to the wrapping nerves and muscles, as well as the overflowing scarlet bright light.

The divine characters reproduced the body and soul the angel possessed before the explosion perfectly.

There was no room to marvel at this mysterious sight.

Hiesto was looking at Ceciel with a pure white, emotionless face like a broken porcelain doll.

“Why do you demand a miserable life from those forsaken by the creator?”

The moment Ceciel heard those words, she raised her sword again.

“What is that supposed to mean. If the creator hates them, they must just die?”

“Do you believe there is value in creations that fail to meet the creator’s expectations?”

“What I wish for is not the expectations of the Sun God you serve. Go argue doctrine with your friends.”

“How pitiful. Is it not faith unmerited for a young god who doesn’t even know the dark origins of creation and the Great Decision of the Sun God?”

Even as they said that, there was absolutely no change of expression on their face.

Even the tone was merely flat; lacking any emotion, it was rather simply unpleasant.

Scowling fiercely, Ceciel closed the distance without hesitation.

The blade thrust in.

Hiesto raised their right arm engraved with divine characters to block the blade Ceciel swung with the weight of her entire body.

A complacent judgment.

The reputation of the divine characters was far too powerless before Ceciel’s blade imbued with blue light.

The reproduced body and soul was being smoothly and simply sliced away, just like slicing well-cooked meat.

The slash cleaved bone much faster than blood could spurt out.

For the first time, astonishment colored Hiesto’s previously emotionless face.

It was also the moment when the countless fine cracks engraved upon the pure white porcelain doll turned into scars.

Crrrack.

Before completely shattering, Hiesto looked up at Ceciel’s deep blue halo.

“Emissary of blue light, your faith.”

The cruel scarlet bright light spewing out from between the cracked skin faded away.

Only then did it seem that a personality dwelled within the angel who had been like a cold doll for the first time.

Having lost the light they possessed as a heavenly being, Hiesto merely envied and lamented.

“Your god… did not forsake you.”

“…”

“O noble Sun God.”

The lamenting Hiesto fell to the ground and was completely shattered.

Before even colliding with the earth, they crumbled into mere dust and scattered.

It was the end of an angel who had long ago lost the commandments and faith that supported them and gone mad.

Ceciel could guess the final will of the angel who disappeared without even touching the ground.

-Why have you forsaken us.

“Haa.”

Ceciel unknowingly let out a sigh.

The Celestial Church had not been strange from the beginning.

Though they might twist their words strangely, they were fundamentally noble beings.

It would be better if they were completely crazy bastards.

But sometimes angels who regretted and hesitated were mixed in, leaving only a bitter aftertaste in her heart.

Whether knowing Ceciel’s heart or not, the people on the ground were crouched and praying.

“Young Father, lead us. Do not let us fall for wicked whispers…”

“Wh-who won? What happens now?”

“Shush! He might hear you!”

At least it was fortunate they were a group who believed in the Nebula Church.

Ceciel pressed down on her throbbing forehead with the index finger of her empty hand.

“To use all sorts of cowardly means to win against Star Creation.”

Before persuading the people and delivering the revelation, Ceciel raised her head and looked toward the horizon.

A vast great plain stretching out without a single mound.

A place once known as the Orrak Plains.

However, since the collapse of the existing world, and now that the sky was split in two, it was also a place to be wary of.

Ceciel gnashed her teeth at the new trick the Celestial Church was pulling.

‘No matter what, luring people into a den where a demon resides? Are you sure they were angels?’

Orrak Plains.

It was a place where the great demon leading the fallen dragons, Cooling Breath, lurked.

The Orrak Plains had long ago been reduced to a haven for a parasitic creature that swallowed the living whole and squeezed out their blood to maintain its own life.

***

There were countless things I did while staying in Bakumsia.

I got the broken mill running again, drew out the power of the sun to enable farming, and revived hope by recreating all sorts of civilized activities.

It’s not simple bragging; it’s enough to make my shoulders raise a little.

After all, I built structures that would take decades using only human strength in a flash with just a few hand gestures.

In particular, completing a building overnight was excellently effective whenever those who doubted my existence appeared from time to time.

Not just one or two people trembled in awe watching the squarish brick houses neatly stacked up.

Of course, it was natural since they were new migrants who had never seen my appearance or the miracles I manifested.

I did not rebuke them severely.

Partly because I naturally have a relaxed personality to scold each one of them, but mainly because I had a mountain of things to take care of.

Chief among them was the news brought by Anniel and Ceciel, recreated through my power.

“It was the same this time. We clashed with an angel of the Celestial Church leading a survivor group, engaged in battle, and after winning, temporarily halted them.”

“What about Ceciel?”

“We split up after finding another group. I expect she will win without difficulty…”

It was the moment Anniel was distracted by her slipping pauldron.

From far away on the watchtower where the report was taking place, a familiar voice was approaching.

“Star Creation, I found out where they are leading the people!”

“…You returned quickly.”

Anniel shrugged at Ceciel’s energetic appearance.

However, she was panting slightly, seemingly having exerted some effort.

I should give her time to catch her breath.

I saved my questions until Ceciel completely folded her wings and landed.

“Is it the Orrak Plains?”

“Yes, I barely managed to stop a survivor group from heading into the place where the dragons lurk!”

It was the moment suspicion turned into certainty.

Judging that they could not yield any more power to me, the Celestial Church was throwing the survivors to the demon.

Exploiting their status as former angels to the fullest.

It was a vicious trick that abused the Celestial Church’s reputation and the fact that survivors couldn’t distinguish churches by halos.

The holy knights were a powerful force but lacked mobility.

Here, we had to rely on the two angels.

“Anniel, Ceciel. Continue to stop the angels of the Celestial Church luring survivor groups like this. I will lead the people and head for Orrak.”

I realized that the time to leave Bakumsia was slowly approaching.