Chapter 119 – Deus

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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When I was still human, and quite young at that, I visited a geology museum.

Under the pretext of an experiential learning trip to foster scientific literacy in children.

Of course, as kids my age usually did, I remember smiling brightly at the fact that we weren’t having class.

There was one memory that remained clearer than the time I spent laughing and chatting with my friends there.

A stone that dropped powder profusely just by scratching it slightly, talc.

Getting scolded for using it as chalk to scribble around, asking why a stone was so soft, is now all a memory.

At that time, I considered it fortunate that this ground I was stepping on was harder than talc.

It was the naive thought of a young child who did not know how festered and broken the world was.

Under my two hands, the world was being crushed entirely too simply.

It was a rock that would barely break only when struck with a pickaxe forged of steel.

And it wasn’t a porous basalt, but rocks packed solid to the core.

Originally, it shouldn’t have split and shattered the moment it was lightly tapped with a finger.

However, just as it seemed, the ground was splitting open as I moved my hand without even needing to close the distance.

The ground, covered with grass that had turned yellowish because it died, was full of deeply gouged finger marks.

Naturally, with this commotion happening, there was no way it would be quiet.

It was in the midst of strata twisting and plates splitting by pure physical force.

Since it wasn’t an originally planned event, it was an earthquake that struck suddenly without a single omen.

Behind me, screams poured out from the city that had been humming with the joy of consecrating the temple.

“Uwaaaaah!”

“W-Was the temple too small?”

“See, I told you we should build it a bit bigger!”

Because I deliberately didn’t tell them in order to draw out Cooling Breath, the agitation was more severe than usual.

I wondered if I should have told them after all, but knowing it was a meaningless lingering attachment, I suppressed it inwardly.

Although the people’s agitation was more severe than expected, it hadn’t reached the worst-case scenario.

If it was to this extent, the Holy Knights who received my revelation could quell it.

This time, it wasn’t foresight but trust.

And the Holy Knights willingly repaid the effort and trust I had poured in.

“It is not because of the temple, prepare for battle! Star Creation has revealed a fight!”

The thing I paid attention to the most when selecting the Holy Knights was a sense of responsibility.

Things like talent or power were out of the question since I could grant them as much as I wanted.

Since I picked them purely looking at their sense of responsibility, naturally they couldn’t help but possess a more thorough sense of duty than the average person.

When such Holy Knights even received a revelation, their eyes changed from the start.

Even though the Holy Knights didn’t particularly reveal hostility, they began to suppress the tension and fear rampant in the surroundings with glaring eyes.

“The threat of the dragons crawling in the subterranean depths will end in our generation. In the name of the Nebula Church, for the great Godfather of Stars shall lead us even to the subterranean depths.”

Shek, who still had tear tracks left on both cheeks, led the Holy Knights.

Jingle, jingle.

The tiny bells tied to their waists clashed.

The Holy Knights showed an even more reverent attitude as they armed themselves with the equipment the Forging Power Star had refined.

“May we be able to follow the guidance of the young father to the very end.”

Shek and the Holy Knights seemed to have accepted my warning very sternly.

The resigned solemnity peculiar to those who resolved for death resided everywhere in their movements.

The subterranean depths were a place where heavenly starlight, for instance, a god’s influence, could barely reach.

It wasn’t for nothing that the fallen dragons deliberately discarded even their wings and stuck themselves in the subterranean depths.

No matter what happened, even if a demon used wicked tricks to force damage, it was difficult to help right away.

Pouring an army into a place like this would only be a meaningless sacrifice.

Since sacrifice was confirmed, reducing the number of casualties by any means was the best option.

If doing it, a small elite force; the purpose was not massacre but rescue.

The simplest and most certain method was for me to use a bit more power.

How many times had the land where time deposited shattered to pieces and been crushed into powder?

It was around the time when the strata were torn, countless rocks turned into sand, and the starlight was on the verge of reaching below that bottomless pit.

Wriggle, wriggle, wriggle…

I saw guys vigorously waving their tail sections like maggots dug into a chocolate muffin.

“Found them.”

My speed of breaking the ground was faster than the speed of the fallen dragons fleeing.

I, with the grip strength that creates stars, and the power of the grasp that breaks this land into dust.

Grabbed and burst the dragons all at once before they could run away.

***

The reason a person uses a flyswatter is obvious.

It’s because residue gets on you if you catch it with your hands.

It was because it was gross and disgusting, and I didn’t even want it touching my skin.

However, if it spreads beyond simple disgust to hatred, even this subtle emotion disappears.

The most miserable downfall of a creature that was once the most beautiful did arouse sentimentality, but ultimately that was all.

I was a god of humans originating from a human, and even without that specific reason, I had to save humans to prevent the descent of the Sun God.

Conversely, Cooling Breath had to devour humans for its kin, and even if it wasn’t a curse, there was no prey other than humans.

Furthermore, because dragons inherently lacked intellect or spirituality, they also received too much influence from the abyss.

No matter which god it was, they would not be able to accept dragons into their Elysium.

…This was the reason I pitied the fallen dragons despite their horrific appearance and their origin as demons.

Of course, as long as I was a star in heaven and a god leading humans, there was only exactly one mercy I could give to an arch-enemy.

“I do not like pain meant solely to torment. It is the same for you as well.”

Crunch, crunch, crunch.

It seemed a dragon that hadn’t completely degenerated yet was also mixed in.

When I clenched my grasp, some subtly smooth and hard foreign substances were mixed in.

It was probably scales.

The dragons, tangled with sand and dirt like that, returned to dust without leaving a single speck behind.

When I opened my hand, I could see pitch-black dust seeping into the ground.

However, there was no way Cooling Breath would move just because I did this once.

Cooling Breath extremely avoided having its own strength consumed due to the curse of cold blood.

It already ate a lot, but if it moved and ate even more, it would starve to death before even looking for an opportunity.

Knowing that its death was precisely the death of its kin, it moved more cautiously.

To force a choice upon the guy, there was a need to become… that much cruel.

And the complex emotion intertwined with disgust and a sense of duty, hatred and pity, led to the judgment that it was better to finish it off in a single blow.

“Cooling Breath, O dragon who challenged the Sun God and lost everything. Your long-cherished wish is a foolish act.”

I looked down at the wide-split ground from the sky and broke and broke it again with a hand gesture.

“Even if you devour all humans, even if you come up to the surface again.”

Then, if I found a wriggling dragon unable to escape, I immediately grabbed it with a hand gesture.

When burst like a maggot with plumply raised flesh, ooze flowed out before turning into dust.

I killed them as fast as possible before their physical bodies could signal pain, before their cries led to screams.

“You cannot save your kin. You cannot make an Elysium.”

The criterion for classifying transcendents who escaped the cycle in [Last Comet] is simple.

If they coexist with souls within their own flesh, they are a god; if they devour souls and make them their flesh, they are a demon.

With the exception of a few, those extremely biased towards the instinct of life usually tended to lean towards the latter.

It is merely regrettable that Cooling Breath is that rare exception.

“And not even I can save you.”

It’s the guy with the most plausible motive among the archdemons.

Cooling Breath had the noble purpose of becoming a god itself and creating an Elysium for the dragons.

It wished for even its intellectless compatriots to enjoy a paradise where they wouldn’t go hungry.

However, the ascension was rejected, and the grudge-holding dragon immediately drew and used the power of the abyss.

This was the problem.

No matter how I looked for a method for the pitiful situation, it had left my hands.

I wouldn’t know if it was because they were bound by some contract, but the dragons voluntarily jumped into the muddy water.

Since there was no contract to break, I couldn’t save them either.

Furthermore, because they lived avoiding light for far too long, they died the moment they were put into Elysium, which is the star itself.

They could suck and eat stars, but they couldn’t live inside a star.

It meant it was a destiny where they could never come out to the surface as long as heaven and starlight existed.

I had no choice but to calmly declare towards the still-silent archdemon.

“The mercy I can give is a painless death.”

Several times breaking the ground and bursting to death those elongated guys indistinguishable from maggots or dragons.

I had already caught and killed over 80 roughly estimated.

Considering the characteristic of a small population, it was about time to move.

At that moment, a strange sensation that hadn’t been felt until now surged up from the subterranean depths.

A halo of light calmly spreading out like a drop of paint fallen into a water bottle.

It was Elysium. And an Elysium felt beneath Vacumsia at that.

Because it ran away so fast, I was curious about exactly what kind of authority it was, but now I found out.

Tree roots extending from the light halo began to densely weave the collapsing dirt.

Even the meticulousness of filling the dirt with fine roots by embracing not leaving out a single pile of stones.

Of course, they were all shattered with a single hand gesture, but the roots at least remained still entangled, blocking the subterranean depths like a dense net.

Anyone could guess what kind of authority it was.

It was the Extending Root.

It was then that the archdemon of the subterranean depths broke its long silence.

[Salvation, we do not. Us.]

“It’s that you can’t. You are already beings of the abyss. Putting guys who die when exposed to starlight inside a star to kill them is not salvation.”

[Human.]

“I have never once saved someone who chose the abyss on their own without a contract. Nor could I save them. Besides…”

There was no reason to pat and soothe the resentful archdemon.

I coldly thrust the reality that Cooling Breath had been turning a blind eye to.

“Aren’t you the only one envying the light? Your kin have already forgotten the light.”

[…]

The conversation ended with this.

I tore apart the roots created by Elysium’s authority one by one, ripping them smoothly.

Every time I did so, an agonizing groan echoed from inside that pitch-black bottomless pit.

Seeing a demon that cherished its own life so terribly endure like that meant there was something.

It was probably stalling for time.

If so, stalling for time for what?

[“Everyone, gather around the Dragon Repelling Tree. The dragons will target those who are separated. If the ground shakes, do not panic and calmly raise your hand to signal the omen.”]

Figuring out the answer was easy.

[“The angels will stay around the settlement and guard against the surprise attack of the Celestial Church rather than repelling the dragons. Surely those guys will be looking for an opportunity too.”]

And ruling out the possibility of a potential inferiority was also easy.

[“Holy Knights, prepare for infiltration into the subterranean depths.”]

Even far below, a faint scent, a sweet smell less than a drop of sugar water, remained.

A sweet taste reminiscent of a sweet cupcake.

The secret means to move Cooling Breath’s true body was simple but dangerous.

[“You will drag the ones dragged to the subterranean depths back up to the surface on my behalf.”]

I just had to rescue all the survivors the guy had deliberately kept alive to save for eating.