Chapter 40 – Falling Tear

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Screams were heard from all over the city.

The death agony a person let out when dying was similar to the cry of a water deer. That eerie sound of scraping the throat sharply while squeezing the lungs.

Even if they wanted to scream out loud, they tumbled down unable to make a sound beyond that.

The people stiffened rigidly as soon as they heard those screams.

The closer they got to Ranium, the more restless they became, and eventually, some even had their teeth chattering.

“I, I thought they said there was an angel.”

“The sun hasn’t even risen, so what’s going on. It was like this in Santiom too!”

As the common sense they had known until now crumbled, they were flustered.

It could not be helped. Because the Black Sun aimed for this and made his move.

Making them have a flawed perception to let their guard down, then smashing it in a single breath.

The Black Sun had consistently shown this appearance from the beginning. That was how he eliminated the most powerful weapons possessed by humans.

It was not about legendary armor or iron spears and swords.

Time.

The Black Sun rose and set whenever he pleased, making measuring time meaningless.

Next was the system.

The moment they thought he showed a clear countermeasure, he pulled out a hidden card and neutralized it in a single breath.

And group.

He intensively attacked places where people clustered together, pulling out any possible organized resistance by the roots.

This is the reason human armies inevitably routed.

All armies were consumed while being forced into consecutive battles with an overwhelmingly disadvantageous position without rest, and were forced to make a choice.

Die, run away, or submit.

In particular, the Black Sun tenaciously aimed for survivor groups equipped with a system. Because their survival rate was high.

A military organization that holds an advantage in extreme situations through absolute obedience to superiors and a hierarchical order… There was absolutely no way he would leave them intact.

If they were intact, it’s because they traded with a demon.

The reason demons hadn’t attacked at night until now was due to their ulterior motive of drawing out carelessness.

But it was a petty trick they could stop anytime if they were in a hurry themselves.

Ranium was probably hit while not knowing this too.

I made a decision.

“We will head to Ranium like this.”

I knew very well how heavy these words were.

Gulp.

Nesaro, swallowing his saliva down his throat, approached a few steps. Nesaro barely parted his trembling lips and asked.

“A, aah, isn’t that a place being attacked by demons…? E, e-e-even if we go.”

It was an expected question.

I already prepared a counterargument to sweep away their fear in a single breath.

“Do you know where the safest place is for you?”

“Well, well, it would be by your side.”

“If I go to Ranium.”

“…Wouldn’t it be above this river water?”

I would let it slide because his guts to twist his words despite knowing was commendable.

After laughing softly once, I went down to Nesaro and patted his shoulder.

“Then the river water near Ranium would be the safest.”

“….”

“We are going. Everyone, prepare yourselves. If you see an injured person, finish preparing to provide relief immediately.”

“”Y, yes!””

As the people answered in unison, the river water trembled slightly.

Only then did Nesaro realize how brave he had been.

He chattered his teeth with a palely sickened face. He looked so pitiful that I quickly moved away.

“There must be a reason why the people put you up as their representative. I could understand the reason too.”

“Th, that’s. Because I’m easy to push around.”

“No. There needs to be at least one guy who asks like a crazy lunatic regardless of the opponent to feel refreshed. I like such lunatics, and I like answering them too, so do not be too intimidated.”

With these words as the last, I quickly bade farewell and ascended to the sky.

I was pleased by the sight of him trying hard despite his frail disposition, so I said a few words, hoping this would soothe his mind.

However, Nesaro was still running to Bartol with a face paralyzed in fear.

“P, Priest. I, isn’t he telling me to catch the hint moderately?”

“How can a mere human fully fathom the will of a god.”

“But!”

“If it sounded like that, then that must be what you are feeling.”

I didn’t exactly mean it like that… I felt a bit wronged.

However, Bartol merely received him appropriately with a philosophical expression.

Still, it wasn’t a bad sight than I thought. This kind of silly conversation was softening the people’s tension.

Carelessness was bad, but excessive tension was bound to become harmful instead.

The people looking at the flashing light in Ranium with moderately stiffened faces.

I started moving the river water again, preparing for a possible surprise attack.

As soon as we arrived at Ranium’s port, someone vomited.

“Uuup, up, u-u-eup! Uwaeeeaek….”

They were people who had regained enough composure to normally scold them for being dirty.

However, even looking at the sight unfolding before their eyes, they couldn’t stay calm.

Half-chewed corpses. Dismembered and crushed flesh.

It would have been one thing if they were completely mashed, but the victims clumsily retained their appearances from when they were alive.

It’s a gruesome sight to the point that bloody water mixed with pieces of flesh was pooling everywhere.

It was terrible.

“Euuup, up. …Excuse me for a moment.”

“Old man, is your stomach still that weak?”

Bartol and Hwen stepping back with pale blue faces.

While everyone was rigidly stiff, the only one who moved properly was Ryugen alone.

Ryugen was the first to step down from the river water and step onto the city.

And before anyone could say anything, he began to examine the scars left on the corpses.

A stinging spicy taste that pricked more than Cheongyang chili pepper harmonized with a bitter taste.

Anger and fear.

The taste of emotions that had grown intensely peaked in front of a corpse riddled with holes.

“I know whose doing this is. It is a demon under Blood-Soaked Mud.”

“Have you fought them before?”

“Yes. It is Aiming Bone Fragment.”

Another head-aching bastard appeared.

It was a demon that looked like a hodgepodge of a huge snakehead fish mixed with a water snake and a human.

Even in [Last Comet], it was notorious as a random encounter blocking one from properly securing drinking water.

If a survivor went to the river to get water and met it, it would chase them, and seriously, no joke, it chased them until they died.

It was a bastard with such tremendous belligerence that one either had to kill it completely or abandon a survivor… doing one of the two so that the shelter wasn’t discovered.

The problem was, this guy mainly used ranged attacks.

“It is an adjutant-class bastard whose name was also recorded in the Book of Demons. Since they said there was an angel, it seemed he sent it.”

“…I apologize, O Star Creation. We cannot face that bastard with me and my soldiers.”

“I understand.”

Aiming Bone Fragment fired bone fragments that easily pierced through even plate armor.

Challenging it with ordinary humans was a crazy act.

If it weren’t for the angel, the people of Ranium would have been annihilated long ago.

Of course, if you didn’t know the circumstances going around, it would only look like we were too late.

However, I was rather feeling a subtle sense of relief from the fact that corpses remained.

“However, seeing that corpses remain, it seems the fight is not over yet.”

“Is, that so?”

“Because Blood-Soaked Mud does not leave corpses behind.”

Among the Great Demons, Blood-Soaked Mud was on the more favorable side towards survivors than expected.

There were even cases where he intentionally turned a blind eye despite knowing the shelter’s location.

Saying he respected the will to live or something.

Naturally, turning a blind eye did not mean letting them go. He just tormented them moderately so they did not get annihilated.

To appease them to make a contract the moment they thought it was too hard.

The casualties that occurred in this process were treated as ‘unfortunate byproducts’.

Saying it’s a pity, he took them away claiming to give them a chance to live again, but the result was Heteromorphs.

“He’s a bastard who gathers corpses first if he thinks the fight is advantageous.”

“But I don’t hear any sounds of fighting…”

“It’s because he’s weighing his options.”

It was so faint I almost didn’t notice it.

However, my existence would already be a hot topic among the demons.

It’s rather strange to have zero interest when I even invaded his territory.

I raised my hand amidst a familiar gaze.

“Blood-Soaked Mud. You must have pondered quite a lot on how to move without the Black Sun’s Dark Light.”

Demons and monsters of the Heteromorph lineage were quite freewheeling.

Mainly in appearance or ecology.

However, one needed enough effort to be equipped with a diverse ecology.

It was too inefficient to invest in too many fields amidst the fights taking place over human souls.

So in-game, the number of monster types created by Blood-Soaked Mud was at most three, but.

“He’s churned out a whole lot of guys that only live in water.”

I didn’t expect him to have dug only one well.

“Atonement Star, come to me!”

The comets inside my flesh let out their tails and gathered to my fingertips.

Presently, when they gathered enough to dye my hand white.

I shot a comet up into the sky for the star that couldn’t shine by itself.

The glass star, absentmindedly embedded in the night sky and only killing time aimlessly, was extremely excited at the long-awaited call and readily swallowed it.

Twinkle-.

Finally, the moment it was connected by a long, thin white thread, the glass star burned anew.

Only then did Blood-Soaked Mud, who was only quietly watching, open his mouth.

[Why do you hate us so much?]

“Because you’re ugly.”

[If we make an effort to reach humans’ aesthetic standards.]

“Then I’ll hate you for being handsome.”

[God who makes stars, we have an aspect in common that we cherish the living.]

He was really spitting out pure nonsense.

I burst into laughter because it was so ridiculous.

“What do you mean when you’re the bastard frantically killing them upon seeing me come.”

[By your standards, there are plenty of guys worse than me.]

“Let’s start step by step with you.”

[How can you leave a greater enemy alone.]

Answering, the Atonement Star came down from the sky and was lingering around me.

Ppolppolppol… while twinkling hard to illuminate the surroundings, that is.

“I don’t do things like speedruns. It would be a different story if it’s a 100% perfect clear.”

And I also did not let my guard down.

The easiest way to deal with these incorrigible bastards was to beat them all to death from the start with all my power.

First, I secured the safety of the surroundings with the Atonement Star.

The Atonement Star would protect the people from sudden surprise attacks while I prepared.

What I needed now was a powerful means to organize the war situation in Ranium in a single breath.

Coincidentally, I had an authority I usurped and prepared for times like this.

The balance of the scales matched by handing down a harsh punishment to the corrupted Munt.

-Exercise of rights, Judgment

Some said it was efficient when facing Great Demons, so you should save it until then, but that was all bullshit.

If I was going to pursue efficiency, I would not have done an extreme good alignment playthrough in the first place.

The stars inside my flesh started gathering to my fingertips again.

Presently, the moment my hand piled with stars shone brightly white, a very faint golden light dwelt within it.

[You should know. That power also kills those you are trying to protect.]

The demon, having become urgent, poked at what he considered a weakness.

At that moment, as if waiting, one of the stars in the night sky twinkled.

-Star Protection miracle, Falling Tear of the Ever-Weeping Star

…At first, I thought she was simply sprinkling rain.

And I considered that enough. However, the miracle possessed by the Ever-Weeping Star was much greater than I thought.

Pitter-patter…

A thin sunshower poured down from the dry sky.

The tears shed by the star not only moistened the world but were also washing away the shadows cast upon the world.

Although it was limited to a localized range and the power was weak so it only cleared away a very little bit.

It was enough for me to infiltrate my influence through the gap where the Black Sun’s influence retreated.

And a god’s senses were the range their influence reached.

My vision, which was limited to near Ranium’s port, was piercing through all of Ranium in an instant.

The citadel city, Ranium.

Under the watchtower where a human commander once stayed, between the crumbled walls, an angel and a demon were fighting.

I understood why Blood-Soaked Mud tried to persuade me.

So he was blocking the sound, was he.

When I pointed my glowing fingertips there, the demon, realizing my influence, shouted in astonishment.

=…What?! Lord, what on earth is this!=

“Where are you looking!”

=It is dangerous, everyone step back!=

The moment Aiming Bone Fragment panicked, the fierce-tempered angel drew her sword and charged.

The demon ran between buildings and relentlessly spat out bone fragments.

Eventually, the angel was halted by the barrage completely made of bone fragments, but thanks to that, she noticed the anomaly that occurred in Ranium.

“What’s this. Rain… This rain, it’s not ordinary rain!”

Ironically, the attempt to shake off the angel invited misfortune.

As the demons stepped back, the angel, the survivors, and the demons were clearly distinguished from each other in an instant.

“Thanks, for worrying.”

-Judgment Authority, Golden Path

Paaaaaaat.

The streets that had been dyed in black and white regained their colors.

Although it was a single color, it would be extremely welcoming to the people who always lived in gloomy colors.

There were no grand sound effects or massive explosions.

The shot sunlight completely crumbled and melted away the obstacles blocking it. Completely, without leaving a single speck of dust.

Watching the monsters, which had gathered densely with appearances more terrible than a swarm of cockroaches, get swept away made me feel refreshed.

Just one.

Only Aiming Bone Fragment, the one I actually intended to kill first, managed to survive.

While vigorously scratching off its scales burning in the sunlight with its own hands, that is.

=Star Creation. It’s Star Creation. We got hit by sunlight. We can’t stay like this, we have to retreat.=

At that moment, simultaneously with the end of the Falling Tear of the Ever-Weeping Star, the Great Demon’s influence filled the gap.

In the fading vision, the only thing intact was my hearing.

[No. I cannot allow even a single clue that would inform Star Creation of the location I am in.]

=L, Lord!=

[Fight and die. The owner of the Elysium you ate has never faced me, so you do not need to worry.]

=I just need to quickly retreat. Please… Please!=

[How are you going to run away from someone who rules freshwater. The only way you will live is to fight and defeat Star Creation.]

=No. No. No… Please! No! Lord!=

[Do your best… Perform the final struggle a cornered life can do.]

It was just like Blood-Soaked Mud and the demons under him.

True to being guys whose desire to live was stronger than anyone else’s, they were also quick to cut losses.

On top of that, guessing the fact that I was eavesdropping, he deliberately let slip facts regarding the Elysium.

If it had been in a state where it realized my Divine Name, or if it hadn’t performed human sacrifice, I would have accepted it.

He really must be holed up somewhere tightly.

“I will finish this up and come back. Ryugen, Hwen was taking care of Bartol, so you solidify our defenses.”

“…..”

Ryugen couldn’t close his jaw properly because he had opened his mouth for too long.

Looking around just in case, it wasn’t much different for the others either.

I decided to move, thinking they would probably stay like this even if I remained here.