Chapter 26 – A Good Person

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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To feel compassion and sympathize, but not to hesitate.

Although I roughly guessed the circumstances, since it already had eaten Elysium, I would unfailingly defeat it.

Before the Moth-Eaten Armor could try some other petty trick, I rushed in first.

BOOM!!

=No!=

It was a hair’s breadth difference.

The Moth-Eaten Armor desperately protected its main body formed by swallowing the soldiers.

With the arms of the sacrificial lambs it had eaten, that is.

However, the difference between a newly born demon and a god was clear.

A demon had to use all sorts of wicked methods to be able to oppose me.

If it could not do so, it would just get unilaterally beaten up.

Bang, bang, bang.

Just because I could not use miracles did not mean my fists were weak.

Just because it had dozens of pairs of arms attached did not mean it could endure my spicy punches.

I took turns swinging my right fist and left fist, breaking and smashing the Moth-Eaten Armor’s arms again and again.

=This time, you listen!=

Tadadadadak!

Even while being broken, the palms supporting the bottom half moved busily.

The Moth-Eaten Armor began to drag its sword on the floor.

Tseureureureung-!

As the tip of the guy’s sword scratched the floor made of stone tiles, sparks flew.

Presently, the moment the sparks touched the skinned arms, they flared up brightly like a fire catching onto dry firewood.

Only then, beyond the flesh melted by the flames, the things situated inside the arms of the sacrificial lambs could be seen.

Countless swords, spears, and arrows. They were the weapons the legion had used.

Those were taking the place of the bones of the skinned arms.

As they were heated glowing red-hot by the heat, that is.

=Fight courageously, just as we did!=

Chwachwachang…

The little remaining muscle tissues squirmed and shot out arrows.

The heated spears and swords dangled and were swung.

However, the stars were not ones to just quietly watch the threat to me.

The Sentinel Constellation, which had been observing the fight from the sky, twinkled once again.

-Star Protection miracle, Protection of the Sentinel Constellation

The shot silver starlight cleanly erased the burning arms.

Although it didn’t cut all of them off, the remaining amount was enough for my fists.

“You are prepared for this!”

BOOM!!!!

My fist pierced through the arms and reached the guy’s main body.

The Moth-Eaten Armor screamed from the impact delivered to its abdomen and bounced off.

I kicked off the ground from there.

Everything in the inner keep stretched out and turned into lines and more lines.

Sound tore apart and eventually fell behind.

In this bizarre sight, the only ones maintaining an intact appearance were me and the demon before my eyes.

…I arrived first before the demon crashed into something.

“Even though you yourself couldn’t accept it either!”

BOOM!!!

I went in deep. Before the guy could twist its body, I swung my fist several times and crushed it.

Bang, bang, bang, bang….

“Then do you think a demon made a contract for your own good!”

While it was slammed onto the ground, I trampled and trampled it.

Much faster and more powerfully than the Moth-Eaten Armor could pull out its arms.

Around this time, a sweet smell wafted over.

The ones paying their respects to my appearance of overwhelming the demon were increasing.

However, it couldn’t be a comfort.

I realized why the Holy Mother of Stillborns tried to stall for time.

“…If your resolve was only at that level.”

While my time was being dragged out dealing with Huatra, the Holy Mother of Stillborns had been convincing Meunt to become a demon.

Looking for an opportunity to launch a pincer attack on two fronts in cooperation with the Black Sun, that was.

“You should have held out a little longer.”

Exhaling a sigh mixed with regret and a sense of self-reproach, I clenched my fist.

The Moth-Eaten Armor was already in a near-death state. The applied shock by far exceeded the limit it could withstand.

The reason the Moth-Eaten Armor was alive right now was thanks to the Elysium it ate.

Even that was heavily damaged, so the Elysium that should have been protected in the deepest place was starkly exposed.

A shining scale.

It was the Elysium of ‘Exceptionless Judgment’, the god boasting first place with ambiguous authority.

Still, it was a regrettable situation.

I slammed my fist down just like that.

Before the world was ruined, people were connected to faith in some way or another.

Even if it lost its meaning under the pitch-black night sky, to a human, faith was their lived life itself.

Will you respect the precepts of the heavens and the laws of humans?

Yes.

Do you swear to protect the innocent weak as a shining lantern?

I swear.

The moment of the vow when the smoke rising from the golden censer shone brilliantly in five colors.

For the sake of the position and honor he dreamed of, he dipped his finger in ashes, applied it to his forehead, and pledged.

That he would do the absolute best he could.

However, it was a pitch-black night sky where all the stars had fallen and nothing remained.

To survive, he had no choice but to compromise. He could not reject the proposal based on his thoughts alone.

The conditions proposed by the Holy Mother of Stillborns were far too attractive.

The clue to corruption dug into human weaknesses like that.

Even if it was a contract that would reduce them to a demon’s running dog, there was an oath to keep.

The endlessly surging attacks and the supplies decreasing day by day.

Because the shadow of death, even if not from monsters and the like, was always approaching moment by moment.

[The Legion and its soldiers shall protect the survivors from external enemies.]

Monsters boasting all sorts of bizarre tactics and ecologies could not be killed with just one life.

Swallowed alive and melting down, even the chains of the chainmail are ripped to shreds.

To face tough leathers with corroded blades, one had to give up their life.

The price was clear.

When they slit open the belly of a dead monster, a soldier whose shape was barely maintained thanks to the ruined armor squirmed.

“Eok, eo-eok, eok. D, damn it.”

“Ban, you….”

“A, a, am I alive?”

If not for the armor, not even a trace of having been human would have remained.

Even the comrades who fought alongside him could not tell him he was alive even as an empty courtesy.

It was a miracle that his vocal cords remained intact.

And surviving despite being half-melted by stomach acid and crushed by teeth was enough to be called a curse.

Only belatedly did they realize how atrocious of a deal it was.

The deal decided upon to face death in order to keep the oath conversely made them thirst for death.

Even those who barely withstood the attacks could not avoid death.

Those who must fight must always eat a lot.

However, the food situation was running out as it was, and concentrating the rations solely on one side would cause discord.

Only by reducing the mouths to feed by even one could they last another day.

“It’s nice since I just get to lay down.”

“I asked for you to cut my neck.”

“Since having my neck cut is considered dying a good death. I want to change while I am even a little bit intact…”

The soldiers already captivated by the contract with the demon pleaded with the great cause, sense of duty, and lastly, the thirst for death.

So they slashed them out of respect and friendship towards their comrades.

Because it was a wretched situation, they shed sorrowful tears, but their pride towards the soldiers increased by that much.

He thought no one would be able to break his pride of protecting the people alongside brave and altruistic heroes.

The problem was the people they had protected all this time.

Every time a fight ended, the soldiers’ appearances only grew more hideous day by day.

The rotting bloody stench and the smell mixing all sorts of filth permeated into the dead’s flesh.

The gazes looking at the Lion Shield Legion changed along with it.

From the soldiers they relied on to plunderers they didn’t know when would turn, to monsters they had to be wary of instead of people they respected.

Prepared for it, I prepared for it, it was something fully expected….

The words he repeated to himself countless times were forgotten when a returned soldier appealed with tears.

“L, Legion Commander. Please make it so I cannot see or hear anything.”

He was a soldier who barely maintained his shape with ruined armor.

Ban. The one who was swallowed alive and resurrected lost everything except his vocal cords.

Face, life, honor.

…And family.

His family facing Ban could not hug him. They stepped back into disgust while fearing and being wary.

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

Amidst the continuing struggle, a new star rose.

The people who came to dream of the future increased along with it. Laughter broke out from those saying there is hope now that a star has risen.

If so, if so, was there a place left for himself and his soldiers to stay under the night sky where the star had risen?

And demons always dug into human vulnerabilities.

[Behold those who mock and despise your determination. They are the ones who only look at the risen star and belittle the sacrifices of you and your soldiers.]

It was a voice heard while he was looking at the sky above the wall.

When he looked around at those words, the word resolve gradually faded away.

The risen star clearly made them realize their predicament.

Unlike the people wearing faint smiles busy just looking up, the soldiers…

The soldiers who had already died once could not directly face the starlight harboring a divine aura and hid in the shade.

[Just because he is a god who makes stars, do you think he will accept you? Just because he shares his starlight, do you think he can replace the sun?]

The Holy Mother of Stillborns spoke with a benevolent and cozy voice just as she always did.

[Stop now and be embraced in your mother’s bosom. You have held out enough. How much more do you have to suffer.]

When everybody was looking up at the sky, he alone looked down.

He took his soldiers hiding in the shade the star couldn’t illuminate into his eyes.

It was a scenery that she, who favors the dead and the dying, would go crazy over.

[Let us inform those who neglected the shared sacrifices because they were busy looking at the star. Since a world without sunlight cannot embrace lives anyway.]

He gripped the hilt of his sword with a trembling hand.

Seureureung.

The moment the lump of iron slipped out, a terrible regret wrapped around his entire body.

[That only this mother can embrace all of you.]

Within the vision blurred with tears, a hoarse voice was heard.

“O Legion, raise your spears and swords!”

Thus, he gripped the sword he held in reverse.

-The illusion shown by Elysium ended with this.

Within the slowly collapsing illusion, I heard an unfamiliar voice.

[Do you show him sympathy?]

“Yes.”

It was a task too harsh for one person to shoulder.

[Was he an evil person?]

“He wasn’t an evil person.”

He wasn’t bad from the beginning.

If the world hadn’t ended, he would be a person who lived continuing to receive respect.

[If so, must judgment be deferred?]

“No.”

The sound of a scale tilting was heard.

This illusion was being shown by the master of Elysium, Exceptionless Judgment.

Whatever the intention is, it is a god that punishes evil deeds based solely on the results.

It possesses a punishing miracle powerful enough to match that, but conversely, it imposes a penalty every time this side commits an evil deed.

[By what standard?]

“I’ll do as I please.”

[Self-righteousness is evil.]

Even so, it was weaker than the Divine Name I possess.

By my own will, I shattered the illusion shown by Exceptionless Judgment and answered.

“Is a god who fled, got eaten, and died constantly interfering considered good?”

[…The judgment has not ended.]

“From now on, I will judge.”

I reached out my hand and grabbed the scale hidden inside the illusion.

There was exactly only one judgment to be handed down to a god who lost all power and gave away all the believers they served to the very last one.

“You, death penalty for desertion before the enemy.”

-Crack.

As soon as the interference ended and I returned to reality, what I faced was the death of the demon.

“I, I shouldn’t have sworn such an oath.”

The souls branded by the contract with the demon were being dragged away.

I wanted to save them, but I could not yet salvage those who voluntarily offered their own souls.

It would have been possible before the contract was formed.

Watching the souls of his soldiers being grabbed by black hands and dragged away, Meunt regretted and regretted it again.

Beyond the visor, his trembling eyes were ceaselessly shedding tears while glaring at the people on the wall.

“I had to save, not them, but my, my soldiers.”

No matter how strong a human is, they cannot overcome every ordeal.

Meunt was not an unbreakable hero, but just a good person.

In the end, Meunt regretted until the very end before disappearing.

Leaving behind only the souls he ate after becoming the Moth-Eaten Armor.

Golden dust and pitch-black dust.

The human souls divided into two headed to different places each.

One into my grasp, the other flew away to somewhere in that dark night sky.

I grabbed the nebula gathered in my hand and squeezed it to compress it.

“My Divine Name is Star Creation. It is my mission to make a new sun to replace the Black Sun.”

When I opened my fist again, a fist-sized star ceaselessly shed something.

The new star was longing for the dusts that failed to become a star and regretting not being able to embrace them.

“I shall watch over both those who advance and those who remain.”

Star Creation. I recited my Divine Name and my mission, and raised my hand.

Before shooting it up as it was, I even finished what I had to do.

“Ever-Weeping Star (永淚星), wet the dried world with the tears of remorse.”

-Unique Miracle, Naming

The shot star formed a long trace while ceaselessly shedding shooting stars.

The leaked shooting stars became rain in the cloudless world and wet the world with pattering sounds.

And shortly after, the Black Sun set.

The Sentinel Constellation, which was exerting itself on behalf of the people I could not pay attention to, grew faint. Because it had used too much power.

At that moment, the Herald Star, which had been panting, suddenly twinkled.

I could know what the Herald Star was trying to convey.

“There is a living child in the basement?”