Chapter 36 – What the Afterglow Left Behind

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Just because the stars rose did not mean something fundamental had changed.

The world was still under the Black Sun, and the Dark Light quickly filled up and swallowed everything once the stars set.

It just became easier to endure than before. If they could not endure, their souls and flesh would be feasted upon by the starving demons.

And the fleeting carelessness harbored by frail prey was bound to attract the predator’s attention.

Tyrium, a city that had been famous for crops coming from fairly ample fields.

The reason the last survivors remaining in that place were discovered was because they couldn’t erase the stench of filth.

Frail beasts were meant to be tracked down and eaten just by their footprints and the smell of their filth.

Even though he knew that fact as a hunter.

“Eogeuk, eok, rattle.”

The man lifted up by the neck, Uton, only stomped his feet in the empty air and drooled foam-mixed saliva.

Was it a mistake to distribute the long-awaited rainwater to the thirsty people?

Was it a disaster that he put disposing of filth as a lower priority, saying precious drinking water had to be conserved?

“Ah, aaa. Uh, eh… Heuheuhm… Heuheuhm…”

“Run…! Gasp, kek, kehek.”

“Kkyaaaaaak!”

The sounds heard by his ears were telling the end of the shelter.

The sound of wind escaping from lungs, people dying while gasping without even being able to vibrate their vocal cords, and people lying prostrate helplessly, paralyzed by fear.

It was the moment he wondered if he was following right behind them.

Squish.

The tongue tentacle covered in sticky mucus unraveled smoothly. Uton fell on his butt as he was and spat out a cough first.

“Euheok, heook, heek. Uuup!”

Something was continuously vomited out from his insides.

Unable to stay in a proper state, he turned his body and lay face down. Saliva mixed with thin gastric juice and even blood continued to flow.

Fortunately amid the misfortune, the demon was waiting for Uton to recover his state.

When Uton, who had barely managed to catch his breath, raised his head. Uton could face a monster with its hands behind its back, flicking its tongue tentacle.

It had an appearance as if clumsily mixing the forms of a lugworm, a frog, and a human.

Its overall silhouette was similar to a human, but what seemed like limbs were tentacles stretched out in the form of pseudopods.

Among the countless protrusions sprouted on the tentacles, there were protrusions large enough to serve the role of human fingers and toes. With webbed skin seen on a frog connecting each protrusion, that was. However, the most bizarre parts were the abdomen and the face.

A huge mouth vertically crossing from the jaw to the abdomen, the shading of a human face clumsily imitated with a bumpy surface.

The lugworm monster was standing up, supporting its weight with the protrusions serving as legs and a long drawn-out tail part.

=The fervent desire to live. You are truly blessed.=

The monster that attacked the shelter was not just one.

Besides the monster that captured Uton, a whopping dozens of its kind pushed their way in. Considering the overwhelming difference in combat power, it wouldn’t be surprising even if they all died right away.

“Heuheuheuk, heuheuk.”

“No… please.”

However, looking around, Uton realized that a much larger number had survived than expected.

Excluding a few who were murdered while continuing to resist, the majority of the shelter was alive. For now.

The demon that brought the lugworm monsters was pleased with the sight and licked its own body with its frog-like tongue tentacle.

=Behold the blessed craving. Both I, and the one I serve, consider you excellent.=

“The one you serve?”

=The one who will teach you a new way of life… is Blood-Soaked Mud.=

Uton shut his eyes tightly and lowered his head at those words.

He only resented the useless knowledge he built up from somehow being acquainted with the local priest.

“Aren’t you a demon that makes monsters.”

=You are captivated by prejudice and obstinacy. However, life being wary of another life also originated from the craving for life.=

The lugworm demon revealed signs of excitement while shrinking and spreading its protrusions.

=You are excellent. The fact that you survived as long as possible even in a hostile environment is the proof. You protected life even in extreme situations. With that, you have proven sufficient qualifications.=

Qualifications?

It was the moment Uton opened his eyes wondering what nonsense that was.

=However, the time has come to adapt to a new world!=

The demon flicked its tongue tentacle towards the people trembling violently in fear, without making a single effort to hide its elated voice.

=If you wish to live, you must change. If you wish to continue life, you must adapt. Unfortunately, the prejudice you possess and the time given to you do not easily permit this. Of course, there is no need to worry!=

What the lugworm demon wanted to say was clear.

The demon made the monsters of its kind it brought along solidify the encirclement even more.

And while mumbling the mouth split on its abdomen, twitching the protrusions attached everywhere, it sent a chilling warning.

It appealed to the most primal instinct possessed by life.

To the intuition towards death, the fear.

=Because Blood-Soaked Mud has prepared a path for you.=

It was a situation trapped among the monsters flicking their tongue tentacles.

The survivors only shed tears while trembling violently, hugging each other.

The fear Uton felt, facing the demon directly, was much greater. The career he had built up as a hunter was completely useless.

Ten years old, when he was scolded for wetting the bed. He wet his pants for the first time since then.

Ssssss……

The warm sensation flowing out wasn’t only felt from his pants. Amid indescribable misery, tears continuously flowed down between the eyes he had shut tightly.

Because his limbs were trembling unsteadily, not collapsing was the best he could do.

Uton hid behind his eyelids to shake off the monster he couldn’t bear to face.

I want to live.

How much I suffered, how hard I tried. Discovered merely because of a smell…

Does it make sense that I have to die just because of one mistake?

The lugworm demon tasted Uton’s thoughts and emotions like this and nodded its face part as if pleased.

The desire to live was by no means wrong.

Even if that meant wishing to hand over all destinies, before and after death, to a demon.

Demons were excellent at finding and squeezing into a human’s vulnerabilities.

It was that moment.

-Star Protection miracle, Whisper of the Afterglow Star

“…!”

Although he hid in his pitch-black vision beneath his eyelids, he couldn’t shake off the shape of the monster.

What startled Uton who was doing so was a sight he faced for a split second.

[My Divine Name is Star Creation. The god from after the pantheon, born within the Dark Light.]

A mysterious voice heard when the Black Sun reigning above the sky was devoured by a shining snake.

[The sky you are looking at right now is my promise.]

Even then, he was shedding tears unfitting for a man.

But it was different from now. It was different from now when he was crying while closing his eyes to look away from the sight in front of him.

At that moment, Uton had shed tears striving to forcefully open his eyes to harbor even a little more of the sky embraced by the bright light.

[From now on.]

And he lamented over the sky where the light was fading, and craved it even more.

[Remember my promise.]

The days when the sun shone brightly, the days he lived without these worries.

Finally, longing overcame instinct.

Uton looked up at the demon with bloodshot red eyes.

“I, I. Will never.”

Naturally, the demon didn’t want this kind of answer.

Ssssssh.

The tongue tentacle that had been waving limply wrapped around Uton’s neck and lifted him up in a single breath.

“Eogeuk, Cough, Choke….”

=Are you immersed in the brief illusion shown by a young god who knows nothing? You truly believe that illusion will come true?=

“Eoheok. Eok. Heo-eok!”

The demon shook Uton in midair for a long time, and only released him again right before he died.

Thud.

The people who saw Uton sprawled out like a rag only suppressed their sounds and sobbed.

The lugworm demon coldly looked down at Uton, who was barely catching his breath, and declared.

“Heo-eok, heueueuk, eueueu….”

=Anyone can make a false promise. However, a path leading to life, an opportunity to change, is rare. Think and reconsider. Speaking after doing so… will be beneficial for each other.=

Uton burst into tears, heaving his body covered in tears, snot, and saliva.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s false. I need something to believe in. I want to believe…”

The future drawn by the tearful voice was not surviving.

The terrifyingly cooling attitude of the demon. The monsters slowly narrowing the encirclement.

He knew what words he had to say to survive.

But he wouldn’t say it.

“Moreover.”

Uton grabbed the sleeves of his dirt-stained clothes as if he would tear them off.

“The sky I saw back then, it wasn’t fake, it was real.”

These words became his dying wish.

Ududeudeudeuk-.

Uton, lifted up in an instant, died with his neck snapped just like that. It wasn’t as if the other monsters waited.

Just because they didn’t say it with words, refusing the generous proposal was the same for the others as well.

“Godfather of the Stars, please accept us!”

“Aaaaaaaaak!”

“Mom! Daaaaad!”

Crunch, Crunch…

The sound of swallowing and chewing flesh and bones whole filled the entire shelter.

After not long, only the blood the monsters couldn’t finish drinking and the pieces of flesh they couldn’t finish eating remained in the shelter.

Even so, the lugworm demon merely crouched its body with an intimidated attitude on that spot.

=My lord, we have failed to appease them once again.=

A soul placed under the influence of the underground and the abyss was dyed black.

Until the subject of the contract was murdered, everything possessed by that soul was given to the one who accomplished the contract.

Human souls were the source of power possessed by demons, and a treasure that could be used anywhere.

However, an unexpected obstacle appeared for the demons.

Hearing the report of the lugworm demon, the Great Demon answered while clicking her tongue as if it was regrettable.

[Those wandering in the afterglow are bound to fall behind.]

The fact that the Holy Mother of Stillborns died was already known to the entire world.

And the fact that the Black Sun was pushed back even for a moment too.

Now the existence of a new god who makes stars was known to all survivors.

From that time on, demons failed to accomplish contracts using their conventional methods.

There was even talk among the Great Demons, who had always fought over their territories, whether they shouldn’t form an alliance with each other.

[However, it is understandable that they wander in the afterglow. A god who makes stars. It was truly a tremendous power. We could understand the reason the Holy Mother of Stillborns desperately tried to kill him…]

=My lord. I report our incompetence in advance. If even the Elysium eaten by the Swimming Faces is handed over, it will be difficult for us alone to stop him.=

[Which is why we must thoroughly search the remaining ones.]

Blood-Soaked Mud seemed to agree with those words.

[Uproot every single sprout so that Star Creation can absolutely not reclaim them.]

=As you wish!=

[Once you do so, he will probably wander around for a while and head somewhere else…]

The Great Demon was immediately moving her limbs to prepare for the approaching danger.