Chapter 116 – A Choice Between Two

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Gods who create life are always often considered frail.

It’s practically a standardized cliché that they just endlessly give and then meet their deaths.

Most of them often didn’t even use this tremendous authority properly.

Some might wave off the frustrating actions shown by the gods of life.

Asking why they act so stiflingly when they have that much power.

Even Growing Life, who was the main god leading the Cycle Church, was like that.

Growing Life was eaten by a demon and then killed by me.

Despite his former reputation and the strength his main body possessed.

However, it was actually a relief for all living creatures that the god handling life was cautious.

Not just a relief.

A blessing, yes. It’s closer to a blessing.

Every time I created and modified a new creature, I could understand the grievances Growing Life harbored.

Life preys on life, so if one prospers, the other is bound to decline.

This saying put forward by the Cycle Church is also aimed at Growing Life himself.

If a god wanted to, they could even control the branch of evolution that life took according to their will, creating the ultimate biological weapon.

As a more economical option, a terrifying pursuer that chased and killed only one species was also possible.

There was only one thing that blocked this efficient and rational path.

The god considered it undesirable.

Growing Life behaved cautiously, concerned about the massive chaos that would ensue later.

It’s natural, since he was extremely wary of the precarious cycle being broken the moment he intervened.

I… didn’t want creatures whose sole purpose was killing, not living.

Killing to live is natural.

But living just to exterminate was a massive contradiction itself.

Even the Dragon Repelling Tree accepted my proposal because it helped with its survival.

Even if dragons disappeared from the world, since it rooted deeply, its chances of surviving a drought would increase.

I didn’t just burden it with responsibility.

In return for bearing the pain of fighting dragons, I promised the Dragon Repelling Tree the prosperity of its descendants.

But demons are different.

Demons are existences that pass the pain required to gain something onto others instead of themselves.

It wasn’t like that from birth either.

It was the end brought upon themselves by those who possessed intelligence and lived within a community, only pushing forward their instincts as living creatures.

Selfishness should be in moderation to be selfishness.

If there was any existence I harbored even a sliver of goodwill toward, it would probably be the fallen dragons.

Because for them, it wasn’t about trying to gain more, but a matter of actual survival.

Though the beginning of it all was Cooling Breath challenging the Sun God, not knowing his place.

I had no intention of insulting them for this.

Since they are in a position opposing the Sun God anyway, there’s room for extenuating circumstances.

This was the reason why I went out of my way to listen to their story, even though I would have flatly told other demons to get lost.

They are opponents I must necessarily kill someday, but I could permit at least a final defense.

A quiet forest far away from the settlement located in the crater.

I gave a signal to the Dragon Repelling Tree by raising my hand.

“Move your roots aside a little. If they have something to say, I should hear it.”

I could feel a truly faint vibration beneath my feet touching the ground.

They really are stuck deep down.

Since the appearance of the Dragon Repelling Trees, it seemed like they would dig all the way down to the edge of the magma.

However, because they kept trying to come up endlessly, I cut them off firmly.

“However, I will not permit you to reach the surface. You will burn to death if you receive my sunlight in the first place.”

Then the dirt dust that had been slowly rising calmly settled down.

Saying I’ll listen to the proposal is very different from saying you can come up to the surface.

In the first place, I am a god who doesn’t easily compromise with demons.

If they tried to stealthily play tricks, I intended to kill them mercilessly.

But… seeing off the bat that it understood what I said right on the spot, it was a dragon possessing intelligence.

Unlike its kin whose scales were all peeled off, turning into something like pale earthworms, it must be an existence that retained the appearance of a dragon to some extent.

Since I instilled intimidation, it was time to help it start speaking.

“Under Cooling Breath, there aren’t many dragons that still possess intelligence. Are you Broken Wing Chang-rin? Or Shabby Scale Jeok-ik?”

Fallen dragons were easier to distinguish the somewhat important demons among them compared to other demons.

If there’s even a trace of wings or scales left in appearance, it’s a named one.

Even if capable of conversing besides that, they were fairly important dragons within their legion.

And fitting for bastards who long for the days when they soared beautifully, they go around modifying their names with what they lost.

So I brought out the two names I remembered, and this time, it was the latter.

When I said Jeok-ik, I felt a flinching presence from underground.

=You are truly astoundingly erudite.=

There’s really nothing to marvel at.

Under Cooling Breath, the only ones who can speak properly are the aforementioned Chang-rin and Jeok-ik.

He might speak haltingly, but he wasn’t a stupid demon who would send a mute who can’t speak when saying they have a proposal.

Then is Chang-rin somewhere else?

I thought about testing the waters by rolling my head a bit, but gave up because it was annoying.

Because no matter where he goes or what he does, it will all end the moment I kill Cooling Breath.

Moreover, they were a bunch who praised Cooling Breath, calling him a Dragon God.

Although I originated from a human, I am also strictly a celestial existence, so he would only feel hostility and murderous intent.

But seeing him say such empty words he didn’t mean, it’s obvious.

Cooling Breath and his kin, they seem to be driven into quite a corner.

I dimly guessed the reason and tapped the ground with my foot.

“This is strange. The opponent you should be making a proposal or petitioning to isn’t me, but the Sun God.”

=The Sun God doesn’t wish to converse with us. That arrogant god.=

“Of course. The Sun God wishes to exterminate your kind. From the day you challenged the Sun God until now.”

It was a fact I keenly felt while playing [Last Comet] and personally wandering this world.

The Sun God turned its back on the world and threw the living to the demon horde, but it didn’t particularly like demons either.

Rather, it hated demons more than any other gods, even welcoming their numbers decreasing.

In this way, the Sun God and the demons only work together because their interests aligned by chance, but if they get some leeway, they are nothing more than opponents to fight each other.

Since demons weren’t fools either, they anticipated this and fought so hard to devour more souls.

As one can see, this fragmented organizational power is the player’s only hope.

The player had to squeeze into the cracks of their mutual destruction and divisions, grow explosively, and overturn the board.

Because of this, some users would casually defend them, saying there are likable ones among the demons too.

Saying so-and-so is understandable, or so-and-so is okay.

Though seeing the ending where you compromise with the demons and euthanize all life makes me go “well, beats me”.

The Holy Mother of the Stillborn turns everyone into ghouls.

The Blood-Soaked Mud changes all humans into mindless abominations to make them its kin.

The Dream-Shedding Eye traps the innocent in the abyss and rejoices while moving the stolen bodies.

Cooling Breath devours all the living and overcomes the Curse of Cold Blood.

The Celestial Church urges suicide as an atonement toward the Sun God.

Even when I was just a human, I frowned at all the endings, asking what the hell this is.

“And I also wish for your extermination.”

Naturally, there was no way I, who originated from humans and became a god protecting humans, would like the culprits of all this.

After clearly pointing out this part, I waited for the opponent’s reaction.

I encountered exactly three great demons, and it was a journey where I killed them all without negotiating or compromising even once.

There’s no way Cooling Breath doesn’t know this. There must be a reason for proposing.

I intended to use this opportunity to probe what on earth this great demon was thinking.

The returned answer was a little, no.

It was very much unexpected.

After a brief silence, the answer Jeok-ik spat out made me doubt my ears.

=O God Who Makes Stars, could you not accept us as your people.=

***

The proposal from Cooling Breath was so absurdly ridiculous that it naturally made me use crude vocabulary.

“Are you crazy?”

Jeok-ik is delivering the words, but the idea itself must have come from Cooling Breath.

I came to listen to what the cornered guys had to say, but I didn’t know they would spout such utter nonsense.

But it seems they are quite desperate.

I thought he would curse and run away if he noticed my decisiveness, but instead, he began to earnestly beg.

=We are not crazy. We felt your power. The day the stars fell, and the day the Celestial Church angels disappeared helplessly. Cooling Breath, who prided himself as the Dragon God, repented his arrogance.=

“Right. Enough if you know. Tell him to wait stretched out straight instead of coiling up and making it hard to slit his throat for no reason.”

The only mercy I can give to dragons who should have been exterminated long ago is to kill them in one breath.

Since the Curse of Cold Blood has already become one with the dragons, there was no way for me, who isn’t even the Sun God, to lift it now.

I’m only just chasing right behind the Sun God’s chin, so wasting power to help enemies who aren’t even my people is also laughable.

Besides, it’s a pity about their circumstances, but fundamentally dragons were demons.

Not that they were born that way, but their actions.

But they say it’s dark under the lamp; they appealed, saying it’s unfair, as if they themselves were the only ones who didn’t realize it.

=Why humans?=

Jeok-ik’s voice was full of resentment.

=You freely demonstrate great, noble, and beautiful miracles. It stands to reason that the god who shows the most beautiful miracles becomes the god of the most beautiful ones.=

“I only look at the present. Look at yourselves now. Can you call yourselves beautiful even as empty words?”

I’m not someone with lookism, but the fallen dragons are just no.

Even cockroaches were cuter than the pale underground leeches, the fallen dragons.

=…Although we are ruined now, we were once the most beautiful, so why do you coldly push us away and cherish those shabby and ignorant ones? If you lead us, we can regain our former beauty once more.=

“It is exactly the same as your Dragon God cherishing you. Understand it like that.”

=Dragons and humans. You must know which of the two is superior. And also that the moment Cooling Breath dies, the Sun God and the Celestial Church will pour a fierce attack. The Celestial Church is aiming for this. If you desire the preservation of the world, lead us who can possess a nobility befitting you.=

Now we get to the main point.

Cutting out all the nonsense, the Sun God and the Celestial Church moving the moment Cooling Breath dies, huh…

Based on Jeok-ik’s words, I could infer a very fatal fact.

Because I already suspected it, I could even feel the sensation of the pieces falling perfectly into place.

It was also a moment when the authority of Wisdom, which I hadn’t chewed over in a long time, flashed.

“The Sun God moves the moment Cooling Breath dies.”

It’s just a simple observation, but the meaning contained within it was immense.

“As expected, the Celestial Church and Serving Moon never placed restrictions on the Sun God.”

The three laws forced upon the world by the five great demons gathering their strength.

And the seals of the five Elysiums each prepared to check the Sun God.

I raised my foot towards Jeok-ik, who was momentarily speechless and stuttering, and asked.

“Tell me what restrictions the Celestial Church put up, and what Elysium they blocked.”