Chapter 117 – Cast Bait

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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When the Sun God supposedly betrayed the heavens, the demons didn’t believe it immediately.

It was because they worried it might be a trick to lure them out.

For good measure, the great demons were safe from the Sun God’s sunlight as long as they were stuck in the abyss and underground.

Wasn’t the Sun God, who usually hated demons, trying to lure them out somehow?

It was natural for the guys whose own safety was the most important to harbor such suspicions.

Ultimately, the Sun God accepted numerous restrictions to persuade the wary demons.

One promise made on its own accord.

The Sun God cannot descend as long as the living remain in the world.

Three laws forced upon the world.

Life cannot be conceived, the sun will not shine upon the world, and the souls of the dead belong to their killers.

On top of that, it declared it would distribute all the usurped Elysiums except for five.

Even then, because they still couldn’t believe it, it went as far as offering the arrogant proposal that they could even seal those five Elysiums.

This was the reason why the final boss Sun God didn’t suddenly pop out in the game [Last Comet].

Here, what the player had to pay attention to were the three laws and five restrictions.

If you kill four great demons, two laws are lifted, and every time you kill one great demon, the Sun God also regains one Elysium.

No matter who looked at it, it was the very standard of an RPG game itself.

If you proceed step by step, you can somehow see the ending… At least in [Last Comet], it was like that.

However, after facing the lingering thoughts left by Exchanged Knowledge, this thought changed a bit.

According to what Exchanged Knowledge implied, [Last Comet] is an Ascension Trial in the form of an electronic game.

The ones who made and presided over the Ascension Trial were predictably the three: Exchanged Knowledge, Chewed Wisdom, and Piercing Insight.

And the roles they each took on were clearly divided.

Exchanged Knowledge probably gathered all the knowledge in the world to find clues to oppose the Sun God.

Chewed Wisdom probably reasoned and filled in the missing parts while piecing together the knowledge its sibling brought like puzzle pieces.

Lastly, Piercing Insight must have planned to pass down as many facts to me as possible.

Unfortunately, because Piercing Insight went missing midway, I was left all alone, but still.

It’s glaringly obvious there’s a high probability the Sun God intervened.

And I could guess the reason why Piercing Insight was the one who went missing belatedly among the numerous deities.

Piercing Insight might be more foolish than Exchanged Knowledge and Chewed Wisdom, but it is a god who can grasp truth and falsehood immediately upon seeing.

According to the setting, it was also a name always called upon when it came to contracts or trials.

It’s clear it was alive at least until it awakened in Katabris, so why kill it only around then?

Because the known facts and the reality were different.

Also, it probably needed certainty that I was the true last god.

I can assert this now after having faced it a few times since playing the game.

The Sun God was not an ignorant god who simply crushed with its own authority and strength.

It is too dark a light to be purely revered. A cunning malice dwelled in every single action and every single plan.

Such a bastard is even the oldest god, so would it not have taken any countermeasures against me?

I felt something was off starting from the anecdote of the Seven Gods fighting against the sibling stars and the sealing of the five Elysiums.

In the first place, the Seven Gods are a lie.

I recognized it since it used the name of the Martial God and showed the Martial God’s miracle in front of me.

Seven Gods? The Sun God merely defeated its sibling stars while changing its name seven times.

I didn’t need to think deeply about other parts either.

Because there were more than one or two parts that were different from [Last Comet].

Right off the bat, there was the fourth law: the sun cannot take away the warmth of the world.

Laying it all out, it was to the point where not suspecting it would be considered stupid.

During my short human life, if you consider it short, and my fleeting divine life, there’s something I felt.

It’s better to just doubt the bastards who lie right from their first words.

It’s just that without definitive clues, I couldn’t grasp which side was the truth.

Under these circumstances, making contact with the dragons was a fairly decent judgment.

These numerous thoughts, these numerous suspicions were unravelling little by little through the demon’s testimony.

=The Celestial Church joining was something our Cooling Breath also didn’t anticipate.=

Based on the testimony of Shabby Scale Jeok-ik, I organized the tangled order of events.

The Sun God persuading the demons was the very beginning.

It put forward a self-imposed restriction that it wouldn’t descend as long as the living remained, but the demons only remained vigilant.

Since the demons didn’t believe it there, it personally smashed the heavens.

The moment all sorts of gods and angels became meteors and fled, the Sun God collapsed the boundary of the world and invited the demons.

However, the cautious demons sent their subordinates but refused to come out themselves… and the Sun God also suddenly changed its attitude and blocked the main bodies of the great demons from crossing over.

It was around this time that the Celestial Church joined.

Only after Serving Moon accepted the power of the abyss and was classified as a great demon did everyone frantically attempt to cross over.

=It was from this time that the Holy Mother of the Stillborn, Blood-Soaked Mud, and Dream-Shedding Eye targeted the living in earnest. Only then did the voices insisting on placing more restrictions on the Sun God grow louder.=

The three laws and the sealing of the five Elysiums took place then.

The Sun God, truly arrogantly, readily accepted all these proposals and turned the world into a massive arena.

The most important thing in this part is not the restrictions the demons set, but what the Celestial Church did.

As expected, the Celestial Church played a very crucial role in this process.

It doesn’t stand out well.

However, it was such an unexpected move that even I, who was listening quietly, inadvertently let out an exclamation of admiration.

=The restrictions set by the Celestial Church were a whopping two.=

“Two?”

=The great demons proposed one law each by pairing up. In the midst of that, when it said it would bear two restrictions alone, it’s said everyone welcomed it.=

Jeok-ik appended the remark that to stop the Sun God who was stronger than other gods, it was the only way.

I already felt a chilling sensation here.

No matter how much weaker a great demon is than the Sun God, they are bastards possessing power comparable to gods.

Dream-Shedding Eye was… a bit weak, but… that’s because it was countered by me, otherwise it’s originally a frightful bastard.

Such guys had to stick together in pairs to force one law, but alone, two?

Still, I couldn’t cut off his words midway, so I waited silently.

Jeok-ik also noticed the sinking atmosphere and began to spare his words.

Though it was all a futile attempt.

The moment I heard the contents of the restrictions the Celestial Church put up, a sigh came out first.

=The sun does not shine upon the world. The sun cannot take away the warmth of the world.=

My head spins just hearing it.

Well, of course, I don’t really have a body with an actual skull remaining, but…

They say religion in the world is living by sweet-talking believers, and that phrase is exactly it.

I never knew the bastards who made a living off fraudulent contracts full of toxic clauses their whole lives would get swindled in reverse.

I couldn’t help but sigh at the dragon who was calmly laying it all out.

“You stupid things. You idiots, one might be true, but the other is a trick.”

=Did you, figure something out?=

That frustrating appearance.

Hearing the intimidated voice, the desire to feed him a bowl of curses had also completely vanished.

“The sun does not shine upon the world. Because the Sun God doesn’t want to shine upon the world!”

=But… But the restriction that it cannot take away the warmth of the world is.=

Perhaps because they’ve only lived by ripping others off, they didn’t even have the awareness that they were tricked yet.

It might also be the preconception that a bright and good being like a celestial god couldn’t possibly be proficient in deception and cunning.

Even though the supreme Sun God was the one who brought upon the end.

The reason the Celestial Church put up the restriction of not being able to take away the warmth of the world was obvious.

“Cannot take away the warmth of the world. You must put up such a restriction so that you, who want to steal as many souls as possible, wouldn’t try to kill them last.”

It’s a trick to prevent Serving Moon from being murdered first.

The Sun God seems to have made many arrangements to hide the fact that it dug a trap itself.

There are still parts that I don’t quite understand, but… it was an explanation that roughly all added up.

=Are you concluding it to be so?=

“Because the Sun God taking away the warmth of the world and freezing the living to death would be much faster than you guys struggling.”

I finally understood where the arrogance possessed by the Sun God, its certainty toward victory, came from.

This board was a meticulously choreographed, rigged board.

One of the five sealed Elysiums, two of the four laws are fake.

I did think something was strange.

The reason it constantly ignored the considerable restrictions placed on it and popped out was because of these half-wits.

***

Naturally, the negotiations broke down.

If I joined hands with the idiots who only get used and sucked to the marrow by the Sun God, I might die of anger.

I purposefully stomped my feet filled with annoyance.

“I appreciate the goodwill of providing information. But you are too stupid for your own good. If the flowers have fallen and the leaves have dropped, at least the roots should remain.”

These hideously looking bastards are stupid too?

It’s hard to look at them favorably even if I wanted to.

When I blatantly revealed this feeling, Jeok-ik also cowered.

It seems there’s still a sense of shame or face left for what it’s worth.

Still, the fact that they are closer to life than other demons, and the consciousness of doing it all for their kin blocked cruel methods.

“Tell your master. I will pretend I didn’t hear this. Not killing you right now is my last mercy.”

=….=

Jeok-ik began to disappear underground without leaving a single word behind.

Just as I had intended.

I stroked the Dragon Repelling Tree in front of me again and issued orders everywhere.

[“Holy Knights, prepare for combat immediately. The leader of the dragons is nearby.”]

It’s not that I particularly dislike dragons.

If I had to say, it’s closer to pity.

Cooling Breath is an existence who became a god to help its kin who remained as beasts, feeling sorry for them after gaining intelligence first.

If there was a sin, it was the fatal mistake of reaching out to the abyss in disappointment at the Sun God who didn’t permit ascension.

Personally, I think the Curse of Cold Blood bestowed upon Cooling Breath and its kin is cruel.

A curse where they feel cold unless they drink the blood of other creatures, eventually losing even their intelligence and dying with an appearance worse than a beast.

I sometimes wonder just how much the Sun God hated dragons to issue such a curse.

If there’s a way to save the dragons, it would be right to save them.

But because I know what the proposal Jeok-ik brought meant, I refused.

Ordinary dragons are just beasts, so they can grab and eat anything.

But in order for Cooling Breath to escape the Curse of Cold Blood, it had to devour all the blood of more special creatures.

And creatures possessing both intellect and spirituality at that.

To point it out exactly, humans are needed.

Cooling Breath will freeze to death if it doesn’t drink human blood.

That’s why its name was Cooling Breath.

Lately, the Dragon Repelling Trees have been very active and prevented victims, so even if they had captured people previously or had blood stored, it’s probably reaching its limit quickly.

[“I will open the path leading underground.”]

Tracing Jeok-ik’s presence wriggling underground, I firmed my resolve.

Judging from the fact that dragons have frequently appeared recently, and its other subordinate Broken Wing Chang-rin wasn’t seen, this was an ultimatum.

Cooling Breath likely also approached having resolved for a decisive battle.

The urgency applies to this side as well.

If I don’t kill it, Serving Moon will go kill it.

Since I know the restrictions the Celestial Church put up were false, I could never let them steal it.