Chapter 122 – Spreading Roots

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The fight in the subterranean depths was different from the surface.
Leaving aside the dark and damp atmosphere, it was because the space where one could fight was extremely limited.
This was the reason why the method of dealing with fallen dragons ultimately boiled down to dragging them to the surface.
The dragon that once flew freely in the sky was now swimming freely while gnawing through the subterranean depths.
It was a place where even the wings of angels degenerated into cumbersome obstacles.
It was an excessively hostile environment for humans, ordinary beings who could only stand by treading the ground with two feet.
Shek keenly felt this fact as he led the Holy Knights.
The moment he was about to run with all his might, the light emitted by the light sword showed an ominous omen.
A slightly protruding mound and stones that were shifting.
Shek gripped the light sword with a reverse grip and pierced the ground just like that.
The beast’s scream echoed as if it were natural.

Kiyaaaaak…

“Illuminate the surroundings with the Bright Star, those guys are lying in ambush beneath your feet!”

However, the only answer that returned was a slightly trembling voice.
Even the Holy Knights, who were reborn as strong beings after receiving numerous miracles, had looks of being sickened as they looked around.
The cavern dug in the subterranean depths, the walls themselves were wriggling.
The dragons who had succumbed to the curse of cold blood were approaching while filling up every gap.

“There are too many places to be wary of. These guys aren’t even scared of the light!”
“I’ll divide the personnel into three. Those in the lead take the area beneath your feet and the ones approaching, the rest take the ceiling!”

The ones crawling on the ceiling fell profusely.
Every time the Holy Knights walking while looking upwards cut down a fallen dragon, sticky bodily fluids poured out.
In the meantime, there were also guys who flew in an instant while coiling their bodies.
Shek raised the light sword in his hand in a single breath against the approaching malice.

Slash.

the sensation of forcibly severing the skin that had withered and become tough.
Even with the light sword bestowed by god, the Bright Star, the sensation of tearing was stronger than the sensation of cutting.
So, while cutting down enemies too easily, he couldn’t feel at ease.
If it was to this extent even with a light sword, they would be slaughtered with ordinary armaments.

‘I understand why he sent us down instead of organizing an army.’

Although the fallen dragons had completely lost their intellect and spirituality, they were terrifying creatures.
Against the parasitic dragons that dug into the skin and ate from the inside after avoiding spears and swords with their tough skin, an army was helpless.
Furthermore, the subterranean depths only accepted the number they wished for.
The damp shade of the subterranean depths did not try to accept too many humans.
A narrow passage, an unstable floor and ceiling that could collapse at any moment the dragons wished.
It was a situation where it was unknown when a dragon would pop out.
To advance a single step in such a place, one had to cut down dozens, hundreds.
Amidst the pandemonium, Shek could assert.
It was madness.
Breaking through the subterranean depths with merely thirty or so people was a truly crazy plan.
If a god hadn’t commanded it, and if the god who sent the Holy Knights here was weak, it would have been thwarted in an instant.
However, Shek’s god was doing his best to help the Holy Knights.

Kiyaaaaak-!!!

The shriek shook the entire subterranean depths.
The dirt and stone fragments forming the walls flowed down a bit.
The death throes let out by the dragon were grotesque enough to make the Holy Knights swinging their light swords unintentionally flinch their shoulders.
The moment everyone was tense, expecting an assault to strike soon.
Shek discovered a blue ladybug flying towards him.

“A bug?”

A bug harboring a tiny starlight that should never exist in the subterranean depths.
At first, he was just flustered, wondering what kind of bug it was suddenly.
However, Shek soon recalled what the stark blue starlight meant.
The fluorescent stark blue radiance belonged solely to the Nebula Church.
It was the light shown only by his god, Star Creation.

“…Everyone, change your mindsets. Star Creation is helping.”
“Lord Star Creation is?”
“The dragon’s scream just now. It seems Lord Star Creation handled it.”

It was exactly as he said.
The Holy Knights were half-doubting Shek’s words, but soon they had no choice but to believe.
Because they saw numerous proofs starting from the intersection where the tunnels met.
Traces remained wherever the ladybug sculpted by Star Creation, the Blue Undertaker, guided them.
Roots engraved with curves, straight lines, and bizarre celestial maps were sparkling everywhere.
While piercing the massive dragon covered in milky white slime with their sharp tips.
The dragon’s entire body was gouged out while being pierced by the roots.
It was because they had struggled to avoid pain following mere instinct.
The dragons died or were dying while pouring out murky-colored internal organs and opaque bodily fluids profusely from the opened wounds, as if pierced by numerous spears.
The Holy Knights hurried their steps while glancing at the dragons that were gradually turning to dust after pouring everything out and dying.

“For a dragon of that size to be unable to resist at all…”
“O Light, lead us to victory.”

However, even while moving following Shek, they couldn’t help but reveal their awe.
Understandably so, Star Creation did not hastily use mighty miracles, worrying that it might even harm the people.
It was because the ones who realized how strong he was were rare even though they knew he was a great being.
Even the Holy Knights wouldn’t have known if they hadn’t fought on the front lines.
However, Shek focused on another aspect rather than the strength Star Creation possessed.

“Look, the tunnel not covered in slime is our path. You see the ones covered in roots there too, right?”

Shek’s eyes looked up at the roots extending out while driving away the shadows.
The roots were creating a new path, not the path dug by the dragons.
So that they could become even a bit safer from the continuous dragon assaults.

“Even in this moldy place, only Lord Star Creation’s starlight reaches. Do not adapt to the darkness of this place. Only chase his starlight that stays by our side.”

Light returned to the eyes of the Holy Knights.
The hearts that had wavered unable to endure the harsh environment found their places again.
Shek, seeing that appearance, increased his speed even more.
The intensity of the assaults became fiercer in tandem.
Every time Shek and the Holy Knights went down one step on the downhill path, the subterranean depths shook.
The screams let out by the dragons also gradually became clearer and then began to overlap.
The air also became heavier as they went down further, deeper into the subterranean depths.
After exhaling, it felt like his lungs were tightly squeezed.
If they went deeper than this, they might die unable to breathe.
Around the time some among the Holy Knights even harbored such thoughts.
The footsteps of Shek, who was advancing in the very lead, stopped.

“Captain?”
“What is the matter, Captain?”

The Holy Knights, puzzled by the sudden unexpected action, opened their mouths.
Shek could not answer their questions right away.
It was because he couldn’t take his eyes off the Blue Undertaker until it folded its wings and sat down.
Only then could he smell a familiar scent amidst the moldy and urine smell filling the tunnel.

“The smell of blood?”
“It smells like something’s rotting…”

One of the Holy Knights tilted his head.
Dragons swallow humans whole or gnaw them from the inside to eat blood.
With the common sense gained by facing them until now, there was no way the smell of blood would linger in their nest.
However, the moment he raised the light sword in doubt, he knew.
Heok, a sound of gasping for breath came out involuntarily.

“Th, this is.”

Humans living on the surface couldn’t completely know the ecology of fallen dragons.
However, if they had known, they would have feared and hated them more fiercely.
Gouged-out flesh, a pool formed by blood that leaked out between them.
Shek saw a parasite the size of a human palm that was coiling its body and soaking itself in blood on top of that.
A parasite. That’s right.
It was a dragon that had fallen beyond comparison to the ruined dragons seen just moments ago.
What Shek faced was the end of a dragon that, not satisfied with succumbing to the curse of cold blood, had fallen from a predator to a parasite.
The long white body, which could no longer even be called a dragon, wriggled and moved, noticing human warmth.
In order to leave the cooled corpse and head for a new physical body, chasing warm blood without rest.
However, even if it dug into a physical body where warm blood flowed, it would end up killing it by gnawing it away, unable to overcome its own gluttony.
A destiny to be completely culled as both a predator and a parasitic organism.
Shek aimed the light sword at the approaching swarm of parasites and shouted.

“Do not let them approach. Be wary of everything, the ceiling and beneath your feet, just like before!”
“Captain! Shouldn’t we, should we find the living ones?”

It was never a coincidence that Shek’s gaze headed towards the Blue Undertaker.
It was a life form after the end of days created by god.
What on earth was the reason Star Creation attached this tiny bug to the Holy Knights in the harsh environment of the subterranean depths.

“…It seems they aren’t here.”
“Did you see that already?”
“The Blue Undertaker folded its wings.”

The Blue Undertaker, unlike its mysterious appearance, was a bug that was often seen as unpleasant because it frequently stuck to corpses.
According to the story told by the old priest Bartol, it is also a divine beast that handles corpses humans failed to recover.
Shek was able to make a judgment the moment he recalled that fact.
“In any case, we have to secure safety to bring the people out. We handle those guys here!”

The types of sprawling corpses were diverse.
Men and women, children and elderly, relatively clean corpses as if just dead and corpses with abdomens swollen from rotting.
The only thing in common was that something wriggled beneath the palely dyed skin.
Shek and the Holy Knights swung their light swords while forcibly swallowing surging vomit.
In a single blow, countless bugs were cut down.
The fragmented bug pieces shriveled and stretched here and there, letting out soundless screams.
The cries of the bugs that were once dragons did not reach human ears, but they were heard by the dragons.
Soundless screams echoed in the subterranean cavity.
The screams soon became wind and shook the milky white slime lumps.
The dragons that had been pierced by the root tips twisted their bodies with all their might and wailed.
Ultimately, it also reached the giant dragon that had tried to preserve its cooling body somehow.

[You are brutal, God who makes stars.]

The dragon that had been hiding while trying to force itself to sleep opened its eyes wide.
Cooling Breath slowly raised its body while stroking the dragon scales still attached to itself.
The beauty of the past was no more.
Even Cooling Breath had scales fallen off here and there, revealing its skin.

[Do you truly intend to exterminate us.]

It was a breath that had become rough and hot with anger, but the moment it was exhaled, it cooled down in the blink of an eye.
Cooling Breath looked up at the upper part of the subterranean depths, the place where the surface and heaven would be, and shouted.

[If that is God’s will, I too shall become a god and face you!]

However, it wasn’t only the dragons that wailed.
Everything captured in the subterranean depths was speaking together.
Even the mutilated human corpses inside the tattered rags were no exception.
Just as the pale skin seemed to be boiling, it popped and spewed out dragons.
The only remaining finger from the formless body that was torn to pieces and chewed up.
Only the human finger was extended towards the light it would not reach.
They were lamentations and screams that originally would have been trapped and lingered in the subterranean depths.
However, there were roots running towards the deepest part of the subterranean depths, that place.
The starlight running between the dangling corpses.