Chapter 24 – Name of the Star

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Neither sorrow nor joy remained in this world.

Every moment was a struggle for survival.

People had to fight to preserve their breath for even a single second with the strength they would have used to shed tears.

“Bring all the tables! Block the alley even if it means tearing down walls!”

From that perspective, the Lion Shield Legion was extremely seasoned.

Knowing that light sources were meaningless in the Dark Light anyway, they extinguished the torches and braziers outside.

The soldiers who were on watch went inside the nearby buildings as soon as the extinguishing was finished.

Although it was just covering the windows with crude wooden planks, it was still brighter than the outside illuminated by the Dark Light.

However, most of the people in this shelter were no different from patients.

Ryugen directed the people for a long while and then suddenly turned his gaze.

Hwen, who had been leading the refugees until now, seemed shocked by Meunt’s defection.

“Sir Arkhlat.”

“….”

“We cannot block it by ourselves.”

“Tsk. That Meunt guy, I’ll have to smack him once when I meet him.”

Hwen only snapped out of it after Ryugen repeatedly spoke to her.

The faith of an old person was hard to break, but the moment it was broken, it generally caused extreme anger.

Unlike the soldiers moving concisely and proficiently, Hwen shouted at the people who were hesitating.

“What are you doing! Move!”

“Y, yes!”

Although they weren’t proficient at picking up weapons and fighting, they were sufficient to lend a hand.

People began carrying stones and broken pieces of wood, picking up hammers to smash walls, and moving oil pouches to be used for torches.

I took charge of the defense for the parts they couldn’t pay attention to in time.

-Protection miracle, Comet Tail

Scattering starlight to drive away the Dark Light seeping into the shelter.

-Protection miracle, Barrier

Blocking the alleyway they failed to block in time and the barricades that would crumble with a single strike.

-Bestowment miracle, Stability

I bestowed miracles not only on the built-up barricades but also on the people standing on the frontlines.

At that moment, a familiar sensation swept over.

The world was sinking once again into the pitch-black light.

As the sun broke the dawn, the city walls and even the houses with only ruins left were buried and submerged in the shadows.

The banished monsters tore through the boundary of the world, the infinitely thinned black membrane, and popped out.

Grrrk. Grrr-rrrk. Grrr…

Familiar cries and familiar appearances. Now, Corpse Demons were not even scary.

Perhaps the Black Sun and its allies knew this fact as well, there were heterogeneous shapes mixed within the swarm.

No… It was a heterogeneous method of operation.

Membrane wings made by thinly slicing flesh like a bat’s, bellies swollen like corpses that rotted for a long time.

Monsters exceeding imagination were creeping out on top of the barely remaining pillars.

“It is Corrupters! You must not yield the high ground!”

Naturally, Corrupters could not flap their wings and fly freely.

With those crude wings, they could not fully withstand their body weight.

However, they were a subspecies of Corpse Demons capable of gliding for a while when falling from a high place like a glider.

It was clearly a method brought out to counter the barriers.

As soon as he warned of this, a stench of urine that one would expect from a sewer began to spread.

The people who had just arrived here were fine.

Rather, those who knew the geography and circumstances of Atrea were the problem.

Ryugen, who heard my words, turned his back towards the inner keep with trembling eyes.

“The inner keep. There are no lights in the inner keep!”

It was a short remark but it was enough to understand everything.

The wall of the inner keep protecting the major facilities was higher than the wall of the outer keep that had to protect a wide area.

…Was even this an ambush?

The answer to the question could be known quickly.

Because the enemies also reacted when my attention turned from the Black Sun to the inner keep.

[The time is met.]

Even the inside of the wall built with stones was not safe under the gaze of the Black Sun.

It was the same everywhere the starlight I scattered failed to reach in time.

Grrr-rrrrrrrrk. Shiiiiiik.

The breath of the dead vomited through the torn wounds on their necks.

The Corpse Demons were letting out painful groans. The dead were relentlessly crawling up to their world.

[Huatra has fulfilled its mission.]

Only then did the faint lives remaining in the inner keep also begin to move.

Those who had been hiding until now were popping out one by one.

Breathing heavily, they ran towards the gate while tightly gripping rusted and chipped spears and swords.

“Stop the gate from opening! If they all get out, we will all die!”

“There is a celestial being! Everyone hold out, please!”

They climbed up the wall and were running desperately. In order to stop the gate from being opened, that was.

The moment I saw the Corpse Demons chasing after them, I revolved the stars inside my flesh.

-Punishment miracle, Sound of a Thousand Thunders

Reaching out my hand to throw an electric strike, and clenching my hand to detonate it.

BOOM!!!!

It was easy to clear away the Corpse Demons with this overwhelming power. The problem was the wall.

Rumble….

Unable to withstand the explosion, a part of the wall crumbled exactly as it was smashed.

Then, Corpse Demons relentlessly crawled up over the collapsed wall and flashed their eyes.

[Destroy to your heart’s content with your mighty power.]

The ones who didn’t die paid no mind to the impact of falling.

They threw their bodies exactly as they were from atop the collapsed wall.

Keuheuk, kkeuheu-eup. Kkeo-eok.

With only the single-minded focus to bite the living, drooling blood-boiling saliva like hungry ghosts.

Thud, thud, thud.

The Corpse Demons that fell at the very beginning were crushed as they were and couldn’t move.

However, every time Corpse Demons fell on top of them, every time the squashed pile accumulated, the intact Corpse Demons increased.

“Stop throwing them away indiscriminately.”

Swish.

If I swept once with my golden hand, they became star dust and disappeared as they were, but.

However, while I was paying attention to the wall, screams erupted from the direction where the Black Sun rose.

“Aaaaaaagh!!!”

A man thrusting a wooden spear was caught by a Corpse Demon and being dragged away.

-Punishment miracle, Sound of a Thousand Thunders.

I divided the electric strike into dozens, hundreds, and reaching the end, a thousand branches, and deployed it in all directions.

It was still before the Black Sun reached its peak. For now, my lightning was stronger.

When the electric strikes that pierced through the dark light reached where I wanted, I clenched my hand without hesitation.

BOOM!!!!

It did not matter how many houses were destroyed. Rather, it was beneficial to destroy them and block the paths with rubble.

The flashes created by exploding simultaneously in the air and on the ground drove away the Dark Light for a very brief moment.

Enough for the Corpse Demons to eat fear and run away.

Grrr-rrrrrk…

The Corpse Demons that were rushing in madly even threw away the prey they had caught.

Only then did the drunkard Ad hurriedly run and bring back the man who was being dragged away.

“Are you okay? Hey, are you in your right mind?”

“Heuheuheuk, heuheuk… Eoheuheu…”

“He had no bites but he had lost his mind. Send him to the back.”

Ad handed over the man he brought back to someone else and returned to his spot.

I wanted to make them come to their senses with a breath if only I could. I wanted to handle it all if only I could.

But the ambush that started from the front and the back, from both sides, didn’t give me leeway.

The Corpse Demons falling from the wall like rain wasn’t the only problem.

The Corrupters who had been quietly looking for an opportunity also threw their bodies together.

Euheoeoeo-.

The moment the subspecies leaking bizarre cries crashed into the barrier.

Splat-!

They burst like eggs thrown at a rock.

Ryugen, who had climbed to the highest place, observed this abnormal behavior carefully.

“It’s not that they explode like gunpowder either. But why?”

There was no time to ponder.

I told them the correct answer instead.

“They are making a bridge! Redeploy your troops!”

“B, bridge… Don’t tell me!”

I revolved the stars inside my flesh and drew traces ceaselessly.

-Protection miracle, Barrier

-Protection miracle, Comet Tail

-Bestowment miracle, Stability

Corrupters did not die immediately even if they burst.

They were Corpse Demons in the first place, so they did not even know death, and instead squirmed in that burst state and altered the terrain.

Siege weapons specifically for neutralizing the obstacles humans rely on.

[Star Creation. Behold the trap I prepared just to catch you alone.]

It was exactly the same in the back where screams and sword fighting took place.

Clang.

It was the sound of a life leaning on a blade collapsing.

It was too late when I looked back.

“Kkeoheu-euk.”

“A, Ansen!”

“To the inside! Fuck, don’t run out! Guard the chain!”

The soul of the dead was bound to the one who killed them.

I could see the fate after death that the living could not see.

Stop. Save me. Stop…

The soul dragged into the shadow where starlight failed to shine was hacked to pieces and changed into the same existence.

Only then could I completely know the sinister scheme the Black Sun and the Holy Mother of Stillborns concocted.

It’s a sacrifice.

A sacrifice… to create a demon!

[It is too late.]

-Punishment miracle, Sound of a Thousand Thunders

I scattered lightning indiscriminately.

I focused on reducing the Corpse Demons without caring whether the walls collapsed or not.

However, the already completed sacrificial ritual began to devour both the Corpse Demons and the branded ones entirely.

Grrr-rrrk.

The Corpse Demons were being sucked in to become the nutrients of the new demon.

The others whose curses had not yet been annulled were the same.

“…!?”

“What, what is happening all of a sudden? Brother!”

Clutching their chests and twisting their entire bodies, they died.

A few of the ones defending the gate expired in an instant.

[My child… Receive my favor.]

And the exact center of the ominous wind that devoured countless deaths.

Appearing in the Dark Light, a shining scale began to fall as lightly as a feather.

It was the disastrous end of a god who once illuminated the world.

Elysium.

The few remaining fleshes of the eaten god were reduced to feed for the new demon.

[Before the god who makes stars mocks your choice, defeat him and offer him to me. This mother believes in your will.]

It was easy to guess who that new demon was.

[The Legion and its soldiers shall not yield to death until the moment they wish for it.]

No matter how sturdy a human was, they were bound to break.

[Did you not promise me so.]

Meunt.

…The only one who could face a demon that ate Elysium was me alone.

But there was a reason I could not move even after seeing that sight.

“Abandon the 1st barrier! Step back and reorganize!”

“Get a grip! We must protect the hospital at all costs!”

It was a barrier that would be broken through even if I relaxed my attention just a little.

In fact, several barriers were breached the moment my attention was distracted for a brief moment.

I saw the people desperately running following the command, and the Corpse Demons chasing after them while ravenously drooling saliva.

No matter how outstanding an army was, or how courageous a hero was, they could not stop this quantity.

I alone had to protect both the gate in the back and the shelter in the front.

Who will I save. Who will I protect.

It was the moment I wondered if I was forced to make a gruesome choice.

“It is Herald Star!”

“Herald Star… The Black Sun is setting!”

Above the wall that became quiet because the swarm of Corpse Demons were eaten up.

At the unfamiliar word shouted by the group guarding the gate looking up at the sky, I inadvertently turned my head.

It was exactly as they said.

The Black Sun was paying the price for the tyranny of forcibly rising. Reaching its peak lasted only a few seconds, and it was setting at a tremendous speed.

Naturally, it was time for the starlights that were forcibly shoved down by the Black Sun to rise.

Among them, one.

The star shining brightest even in the dark light, which I considered a lighthouse in the rainstorm, kicked the horizon and stood up.

Do not focus solely on making stars.

The power even the Sun God is wary of is not merely at that level.

***

“You are.”

Precognition was not fulfilled just because you struggle.

The moment you intuit it, when the predestined time came, that was when you realized the precognition was fulfilled.

Same applied to me.

“Your name is already decided.”

A star twinkling as if responding.

I was the godfather of that star.

“I shall call you by that name.”

And the most important task to do as a godfather was…

…Giving a name.

“Herald Star (傳令星), assist me and clear away the dark light!”

-Unique Miracle, Naming.

Just as the one who found a star named the star, the one who created a star could also name the star.