Chapter 43 – Ranium

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The fortress city of Ranium.

When the world was intact, a standing army numbering in the thousands was stationed here.

Ranium guaranteed the safety of the interior against raid groups of looters coming up the river.

As such, many preparations had been made in anticipation of attacks.

Ironically, the army that was actually stationed there was massacred in an instant.

It was after the angels settled in that the desolate city, where no one had been seen, became known as a shelter.

Yes, angels.

Those angels who turned their backs on and fled from the people looking only at them on that day the sun was dyed black.

A god at least had a mission to preserve their Elysium. If they were eaten, even the believers they embraced would be finished.

But that wasn’t the case for angels.

It did not matter which church they belonged to. In the end, the angels failed to keep the oaths they made at the time of their ascension.

And failing to keep an oath was a much bigger problem than one might think.

There was already a precedent to overlook it as if it was no big deal.

Just as the surviving Celestial Church became half-demonized, there was a possibility that the surviving angels would also be demonized.

It was not just simple game lore. Even in-game, angels were unstable existences.

Existences that would immediately fall and rebel if loyalty management failed.

Unless created entirely anew, they were somewhat tricky subordinates to use.

The fortunate thing was that they were unrelated to the Celestial Church.

They were angels of the Church of the Cycle, with bright yellow halos.

“U-uhm.”

Bright yellow golden hair, like sunflower petals, swayed.

The angel fidgeted with her broken sword hilt with her fingers and couldn’t continue her words, hesitating.

Instead of deliberately answering, I looked around the ruined Ranium.

At the people who had started cleaning up the aftermath after an attack that could have easily led to total annihilation.

“Oh my, you old lady! What was so important that you crawled out there!”

“Mom!”

“Was she family? Hah… I see. I’ll wait without moving her right away, so go ahead and say what you want to say first.”

“Uheo-uh… Heo-uh…”

The bereaved families rushed over as soon as the corpses that had been crushed under the debris were brought out.

As soon as the people who were organizing the corpses took a step back, they burst into tears.

Some stepped back, unable to bear looking at the terribly damaged bodies.

“I, I can’t look.”

“Sister… it might not be her.”

“No. No… I, I can’t look. Please just leave her here…”

There were more people wailing than those who were relieved that it had ended safely.

I was surprised that there were this many people in Ranium, and also surprised by the fact that so many had been murdered.

The Sun God’s intent was working all too well.

After letting out a deep sigh, I turned my body towards the angel.

“The night is originally their time. You should have known.”

“….”

“The cleanup wasn’t very good.”

The angel bit her lips tightly.

Fidgeting fingers wrapped around the sword hilt. The eyes that had been shaded and drooping were gradually becoming sharp.

I waited silently, wondering if she was planning to swing her sword.

However, even while trembling violently, the words she spat out were passive.

“W-we tried.”

“I cannot evaluate your will highly.”

“I said we tried.”

“If it were such a noble will, you wouldn’t be alive here.”

I continued the provocation on purpose.

I had to know the angel’s true intent. An angel who broke an oath no longer followed the precepts.

Like the angel of the Bell Tower, there were cases where they laid the groundwork for people to perform human sacrifice.

If necessary, I would even fight. However, the sky had too many eyes watching.

I stopped floating in the air and descended onto the wall.

Then the angel also flapped her tired wings, came down, and followed behind me.

“…Can’t you just praise us?”

“Praise?”

“Just… that we tried. That one word would be enough.”

At that moment, what caught my eye were the corpses of angels scattered everywhere.

I saw those who died torn by claws and teeth, and those who died crawling after losing their wings.

There was no reason for winged angels to necessarily risk their lives.

Unless it was out of guilt.

The angels of Ranium remembered the time they had ignored the people on the day they fell, mixed among the meteor showers.

The stiff atmosphere was softening.

“Everyone, tried. We worked hard…”

I heard a sobbing sound and turned around to find her actually crying.

The angel was shedding teardrops like chicken droppings and crying sorrowfully, ang-ang.

“I was wrong. I will never run away again…”

If the angel had committed human sacrifice, fragments of spirituality would be visible.

But none were seen. Even when I looked around with force in my eyes, no traces of human sacrifice were found.

Since that was rather more unusual, I ended up asking.

“Why did you not perform human sacrifice?”

Hiccup.

The angel, who had been crying sorrowfully, was now hiccuping.

“Wouldn’t it be more rational to restore strength by receiving even a little of people’s spirituality and flesh to protect them?”

“H-how can you do that.”

“Why not?”

This kind of ideological verification was certain only when done a bit cruelly.

“Since you already abandoned them once, doing it twice is a simple matter. It would be a better ending for them than everyone dying anyway.”

“…We didn’t. Anniel told us to do it, but we didn’t! Don’t test me!”

“Yes, it was a test.”

Being poked in a painful spot, she bared her teeth fiercely like a wounded beast.

A long time passed after I answered it was a test. The panting angel only realized what kind of discourtesy she had committed after a silence passed.

Her face turned pale, then pure white, then gray like dying, and then she made a crying face.

“…Don’t, do that.”

It’s the same boisterous personality she showed against the demons.

Some would hate it for being sharp, and some would rather like it.

I… was the latter, if I had to say.

I particularly liked the fact that they didn’t betray the people twice.

I had intended to judge her if necessary and fill up the count for the Golden Path, but the thought completely vanished.

-Exercise of rights, Judgment

The skewed scale tilted only slightly.

It was because I chose to show leniency, generously considering the fact that she didn’t cross the final line, even though my conscience said a stronger punishment could be delivered.

“I will pardon you, highly valuing the fact that although you fled once, you led your comrades back and bought time until you were annihilated.”

“Huh? Weren’t you the god who makes stars?”

The angel, who already suspected my divine name, widened her eyes.

She seemed to have noticed that I judged her. As expected, priests and angels alike were sensitive to authorities.

I burst into laughter and answered the doubt.

“Because I hold quite a few concurrent positions.”

The name of the surviving angel was Ceciel.

Just in case, I asked the survivors about how the angel was, and the evaluation was good too.

“Lord Ceciel? She’s a good enough person. I heard she’s only sharp-tongued as long as you don’t disturb her while she’s sleeping.”

“…Why are you suddenly talking to yourself like that?”

“Huh? You asked.”

“What are you talking about. If you’re going to talk nonsense, finish moving this.”

“You really never asked?”

“I said no.”

“That’s strange, I heard you…”

I asked the survivors who were clearing the debris, so it was certain.

Of course, I also returned a clear reward to the person who ended up being misunderstood.

I gave him some strength because he was frowning deeply every time he moved a stone.

“Huh? Huh?”

“This bastard was hiding his strength. Hey, move this too.”

“Huh? Huh?”

…Let’s look after him one more time later.

I quietly left the man who was moving another stone with a bewildered expression.

First, it was time to ponder the urgent matter first.

Guardian of Ranium, Ceciel.

A Seraphim belonging to the Church of the Cycle who appeared with half a dozen angels and protected the survivors of the shelter.

Looking at the evaluation, it seemed her character part was a pass.

As for the lacking ability, it was because of insufficient divine power, so I would fill it up.

Dealing with a demon that ate an Elysium was too much, but she would be okay for comforting the survivors.

The real problem was the fanatical attitude Ceciel showed.

“Lord Star Creation! Lord Star Creation!”

An angel’s ability could not find a god who had hidden.

The angel of the Bell Tower also thought I was an ordinary person until I revealed my true identity.

Ceciel knew this fact yet was persistently flapping her wings and looking around here and there.

“Because I had many seniors, I couldn’t get promoted! Now that it’s all empty, you’ll promote me all the way to Archangel, right!?”

Stating her dissatisfaction with the rank structure that had been stagnant for over several hundred years.

Even though more angels might come under her, she was already coveting a title that didn’t even exist yet.

I hid behind a shadow, avoiding Ceciel’s sharp gaze.

It was not the time to indulge Ceciel’s centuries-old greed for promotion.

The moment I usurped the Elysium of the Flowing Mist, there was a fact I hadn’t yet grasped.

I reached out my right hand to gather the golden dust…

…As expected.

The nebula was too thin.

The amount of dust was woefully insufficient to become a star.

It was suspicious from the start that Blood-Soaked Mud handed over the Elysium so easily.

Befitting a cunning demon. Blood-Soaked Mud fed the Aiming Bone Fragment a nearly empty Elysium.

Furthermore, even the souls that the Aiming Bone Fragment had devoured were largely taken back, so no dust remained.

It was obvious why it made such a choice.

Since it would be a certain defeat if it faced me, it had the mindset of losing even a little less since it was going to lose anyway.

The problem was what on earth it planned to do with the souls it scraped together like that.

The words left by Turning Crossroads particularly weighed on my mind.

‘It is dark, and dark again. The heaviest and most shaded place in the world trapped under the Dark Light.’

A conviction that it wasn’t a simple metaphor was gradually forming.

‘The demon you seek is there….’

One thing was certain: the main body of the Great Demon had at least emerged from its base, the Abyss…

I set the worry aside in a corner of my mind.

First, I had to make a star.

The souls lacking for making a star were supplemented with the victims.

“Star Creation… g-god who makes stars. Then even those stars in that sky?”

“That is right. Those stars are the paradise where those you have sent away reside, and the place you will head towards.”

“Oh, ooooh… Ooooh!”

When one elderly grandmother shed teardrops, everyone wept along.

Even those who were doubtful all collectively slammed their heads onto the ground the moment the corpses crumbled and turned into golden dust.

The dust I gathered was not limited to humans.

Those who died fighting to the end also had the right to rest. The dead also wanted it.

The angels who were eaten and spat out obediently crumbled into golden dust.

They were those who already worked hard once to become stars and became stars.

The ones who yearned for the heavens more than anyone were, none other than, the angels.

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

The angels who once abandoned the people and fled, and the people of Ranium were bound into one.

The trust rooted between them chose to comfort rather than be disappointed.

I prayed while grasping the swirling nebula.

“I shall bind the divided world once again with faith.”

After quietly reciting my Divine Name and opening my hand, a new star twinkled.

The star made this time was bizarre at first glance.

Light particles overlapped countless times inside an unrefined surface as if branches were entangled.

“Seeding Star (播種星), please prove the belief that life can sprout even in a world the sun has turned its back on.”

-Unique miracle, Naming

I shot the star up into the sky without hesitation.

It would probably become the star with the most difficult mission.

And in the end, it was a mission that had no choice but to fail unless a new sun was made.

Everyone was silent at the white solid line crossing the night sky.

Among them, the protagonist of the gaze looking exceptionally enviously was.

“…Can even an angel go to Elysium?”

Before I knew it, she was looking this way and asking seriously.

I couldn’t help but laugh hearing this.

“Why not?”

If I tell you to go, you go.