Chapter 124 – Cooling Breath

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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I do not like sacrifice.

It is because most sacrifices did not come from the bottom of the heart but were forced.

There was no other way.

I have seen too many people driving others into crisis and laying out pathetic excuses.

However, there were also cases like that because it was a truly unavoidable situation.

It couldn’t be helped.

Things committed in harsh environments and extreme situations sometimes brought me agony.

There was a me who understood it even while knowing it was an incorrect act.

Is it really possible to protect oneself even after reaching that point?

Is it possible to care for others even in the midst of fear? I wondered.

It was the reason I enjoyed the so-called apocalypse sensibility.

I was curious what I would have done in a world that had gone to the extreme.

Of course, these thoughts have long become meaningless since I ascended as a god.

I was not a human wavering between life and morality in an extreme world.

I had power.

I had no intention of throwing out a painful question of how far one could go to live.

The question I wanted to throw to people was just one.

What kind of life do you want to live?

And under the black-dyed sun, the people who looked at the surging darkness all gathered their voices and said.

That they wanted to die in the light.

…It was a miserable answer.

“Heo-eok, heok, heok… L-Light.”

“Are we… out? Really?”

“Aheueu, heuheuheuk. Heo-eoeo…”

The people who came up the stairs woven with roots from the crevice of the split earth poured out tears first.

Gender and age did not matter.

While some hugged the person next to them and cried their eyes out sorrowfully, some slumped down and muttered in a hollow voice.

“M-Meut. Sorry, sorry.”

“….”

Among them were also Holy Knights who firmly shut their mouths.

Thirty were deployed, and barely half remained.

I saw them all glancing around with dismal expressions.

Then, inside the bitterly salty taste, a very faintly sweet smell wafted over.

All the Holy Knights were harboring a possibility in their hearts that they denied with their heads.

The hope that those left behind would be alive.

I could not dismiss these thoughts with a single word as foolish.

Because it was proof of a bond that was hard to let go of so simply.

However, I couldn’t leave them soaking in sentimentality like this.

[“The Holy Knights who have safely returned, lead the living into the settlement.”]

It was a simple and clear statement, but sometimes quick-witted ones would notice at once.

Several of the Holy Knights tried to say something but shut their mouths again.

Even amidst having lingering attachments to the subterranean depths, the majority moved saying they had to follow the will of their god for now.

“This place is still dangerous. For now, we will guide you to the home Lord Star Creation has made for us.”

“May you be praised, God after the Pantheon!”

“There really was a safe place. There really was.”

“I-Is that a forest?”

Even nature, which is said to be tough and resilient, had clear limits without sunlight.

Having always only seen trees covered with scrawny, emaciated branches, seeing a forest thick with leaves seemed to give them a new impression.

The survivors who escaped from the subterranean depths constantly scanned their surroundings under the guidance of the Holy Knights.

Their rolling eyes looked as if they were trying to cram the sceneries spread around them into their heads as much as possible.

The desperate appearance that perhaps this might be the last made my chest feel stuffy.

If need be, I might have to use the authority of Pleasant Oblivion.

While contriving measures for the anxious people, I did the best I could right now.

The ladybug that had lightly landed on my finger at some point was a prime example.

“Blue Undertaker, if there is even one survivor in the subterranean depths, guide them around the Dragon Repelling Tree.”

This spirited ladybug spread its wings wide and looked this way.

It flew away with a spirited attitude as if telling me to just trust it.

At the same time, I also orbited the stars inside my flesh.

-Exercising Authority, Extending Root.

The fight was not over.

Below the earth where people stood with their two feet, in the dark subterranean depths, a demon and I were fighting.

Whenever I saw human remains inside the slime cocoons dangling from the ceiling, my hand movements correspondingly became cruel.

The extending roots swayed like a jellyfish’s tentacles, surrounding the dragons and piercing them to death.

The dragons twisted their massive bodies this way and that to survive, somehow trying to sever the roots.

Then let’s make them meet death even if they sever the roots.

I ripped apart the dragons’ skin with the sharp tips of the roots, making them bleed to death.

So that even if they ran away, they would certainly die.

If I did this, the probability of those left behind in the subterranean depths surviving would increase even by a fraction.

The subterranean depths were wider than the sea and as deep as the sky.

Because it was such a vast place, there might be people I couldn’t grasp.

There was also a thought that if I indiscriminately killed the dragons, I might be able to save a person those guys had swallowed just moments ago.

However, at a certain moment, the dragons disappeared without a trace.

The guys who were gnawing on the roots like crazy, and the guys who were slamming their bodies as if to break their heads, all disappeared.

No matter how much I extended the roots, it was only filled with drying slime and gruesome corpses.

Did they retreat? Now of all times?

…No. It can’t be.

I brought up a question myself and denied it myself.

Cooling Breath was an archdemon that had to attack humans if only for the curse of cold blood.

It would definitely use another move. It was time to use it.

If it used one, it would be a feint operation or it would use the subordinates it possessed.

Among its subordinates, I had killed the Broken Wing Spear Scale, so there was a high possibility it would move the Clumsy Scale Red Wing.

No matter what method it used, it was useless.

I vowed I would no longer lose anything no matter what attack struck.

However, the opponent seemed to think the exact opposite.

Sending down roots endlessly, I could only frown at an unexpected sight.

A dragon was dried to death.

It wasn’t pierced by roots or the Light Star either. It had been chewed to pieces by huge teeth and spat out.

-Could it be.

Even when searching the surroundings with a feeling of ‘could it be’, the result was the same.

All the fallen dragons were discarded in a tatters like gum completely drained of flavor.

It was then that a familiar voice was heard.

[I caught a glimpse of the affection you have for your people in your cruelty.]

“You….”

[That cruelty, and that affection too, are things only a god can possess.]

I only knew that Cooling Breath terribly cherished its compatriots.

The setting of opposing the Sun God dreaming of a paradise for dragons was also a fully understandable and wonderful story.

So I might have misunderstood.

[I definitely had to become a god.]

No matter what happened, its compatriots.

[Back then, even if it meant abandoning all my compatriots!]

I thought it wouldn’t turn its back on the dragons.

Beyond the split crevice down there, the anthills of the subterranean depths collapsed all at once.

Piles of dirt flowing down towards the bottomless pit like a waterfall.

Through them, the archdemon that had been hiding until now revealed its appearance.

Cooling Breath was showing off to its heart’s content scales stained and gleaming with the husks and bodily fluids of its kin.

“Weren’t you trying to become a god to save your kin?”

It approached the surface while twisting its body this way and that.

The dragon, having lost its wings and lived trapped in the ground, had even forgotten how to fly.

Not a single handful of traces of a noble dragon remained.

Dirt grains stuck one by one onto the dirtied scales.

[Because I believed my kin could also become like me!]

I don’t know how much it would have to twist its body to reach the sky where I am in that state.

Even if it somehow came up to the surface, its body would cool down first.

Cooling Breath and I had both seen through that fact long ago.

It would die on its own just by avoiding the fight like this.

[Look at the fallen dragon, a beast holding not even a handful of the beauty of its past!]

As Cooling Breath approached, its screams became increasingly rough.

[The end of choosing to settle in the ground forgetting the place it roamed!]

…Seeing that appearance, I reached inside my chest for the first time in a truly long while.

“Atonement Star, come out.”

The constellation halo showing the fake sun.

The glass star Atonement Star, which formed one axis of it, was caught in my hand.

If the Atonement Star is with me, it’s fine.

I chose to go down instead of running away or stalling for time.

It was almost at the same time that Cooling Breath popped out onto the surface.

[Piercing leather with fangs, and quenching my thirst with that dirty lukewarm blood, I realized.]

The burst-open ground.

Inside the dirt dust scattering in all directions as if exploding, the archdemon plastered with mud and oil was seen.

Those yellowish eyes were glaring at me clearly.

Even amidst its capillaries bursting unable to handle the light flowing from my body.

[That those things are not my kin.]

The moment Cooling Breath opened its mouth wide, teeth crusted with all kinds of flesh and garbage were seen.

On the outside of the teeth were the tough skin and milky white slime possessed by the fallen dragons.

And tangled between the teeth were torn pieces of clothing.

Along with tiny fingers that even I wouldn’t have noticed without paying attention.

Seeing that, the one who was more infuriated than anyone was the Atonement Star.

The glass star, always full of regret, heated up stark white.

“Cooling Breath, O dragon who promised paradise.”

I couldn’t help but be enraged for another reason.

“Even if I abandoned them, you of all people shouldn’t have.”

I finally understood why the Sun God rejected Cooling Breath’s ascension.

Cooling Breath lacked the intention to respect whatever choice the dragons made, and lacked the will to embrace them even if they strayed from what it thought.

That appearance felt like a path I might walk if I was not careful.

That’s why it was even more terrifying and more hateful.

If humans did not go according to my will, how would I treat them?

One of the answers to this unpleasant question was right in front of my eyes.

If I denied humans rather than humans denying me, I would become Cooling Breath.

…I would become another Sun God.

[THOSE THINGS ARE NOT DRAGONS!!!!]

Cooling Breath’s scream shook the air.

I returned an answer I had chewed over for a long time to that scream.

“A god does not abandon those who believe!”

In the night sky now twinkling with stark blue stars, a single starkly heated glass star doesn’t even stand out.

However, the star forged from regret was still shining.

Even if no one recognized it, it would continue to burn and shine.

[God who makes stars, you too will become like me!]

“Atonement Star, save those crushed in the subterranean depths!”

-Star Protection Miracle, Trajectory of the Atonement Star.

The gap in power was clear.

In the first place, Cooling Breath also knew it couldn’t win fighting head-on.

I merely adjusted my power to prevent Cooling Breath from running away and to protect the innocent as much as possible.

The moment the starkly heated glass star spun around me, this miserable fight was also settled.

Whoosh-.

The trajectory drawn by the stark white comet flashed like a blade.

The fact that it severed Cooling Breath’s flesh in one stroke was also similar.

The archdemon struggled to spew out even a few curse-filled words.

[Look at me, remember me, I am your future!]

“….”

[This is the price of opposing the Sun God. The end of confronting the absolute is ultimately like this!]

It didn’t even cover the blood gushing out of its wounds.

Cooling Breath continuously poured out curses even amidst the glass star gouging out its body point by point.

[You too, you too shall fail! Just like me!]

“No.”

However, I knew what the mission of a star was.

Watching the archdemon crumble away every time the glass star Atonement Star revolved, I asserted.

“The secret plan to defeat the Sun God has been prepared a long time ago.”

I don’t know whether Cooling Breath believed these words or denied them to the end.

The massive body hacked to pieces by the glass star couldn’t even twitch anymore.

It just poured out countless golden dusts as if shedding blood.

Eventually, when even Cooling Breath’s body began to crumble, a familiar sound was heard.

Clang-.

Even though the fake sun and stars were floating, the night sky was dyed blackish.

The Dark Light slithering like tentacles brushed past between stars, showing off its presence.

It was only for a very brief moment, but it was enough for the people of the settlement to be agitated.

There was no time to delay.

I recovered Elysium from the remains of Cooling Breath and simultaneously reached out my hand towards the Dark Light.

It was time to examine the dark memories of the Sun God.