Chapter 45 – Reason to Become Stronger

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Being famous had its distinct light and darkness.

It seemed my information had spread much more widely than I thought.

Sweeping Conch Shell jumped into action as soon as she saw the stars inside my flesh orbit.

It was clear that she noticed this was a precursor signaling a miracle would soon manifest.

Unlike her usual slow movements, the demon quickly leapt up.

Not towards me, but towards where Ceciel was.

“Ceciel, step back!”

Unfortunately, there was not enough time.

Perhaps Ceciel also noticed that fact, and rather than pushing herself to run away, she swung her sword.

The problem was the fact that the opponent was a demon of the Heteromorph lineage.

Tjeugeoeoeok-.

Even if it was a broken sword, it was a sword used by an angel.

The blade that easily slices through several pieces of metal was covered in sticky mucus and stopped.

Ceciel tried to finish her swing with all her might, but.

=Too late! I’ll gnaw you down first!=

“Keuk, you sluggish snail!”

The demon instead started approaching Ceciel while entwining around the blade.

Now’s the time. Sweeping Conch Shell was completely distracted by the thought of eating Ceciel.

The moment the orbit the stars left behind drew the shape of ‘][‘.

-Punishment miracle, Crushing Death

Kwajik!

The conch shell that Sweeping Conch Shell was carrying on her back shattered. She might have deflected spears and swords in her own way, but there was no mercy before a miracle.

Then, through the crushed and shattered conch shell, all sorts of filth poured out.

Elongated tongues stretching out, gnawed bones, fingers with flesh still attached.

The remains of the victims tightly packed inside gushed out robustly. This was the reason the demon’s name was Sweeping Conch Shell.

It exactly reflected her habit of indiscriminately gulping down whatever she encounters and stuffing it into her conch shell.

And the demon’s greed couldn’t let go of her hoarded prey.

=W-what are you doing! When others have gathered it with such difficulty!=

Letting go of Ceciel in front of her, she lunges toward the spilled remains.

Barely freed, Ceciel panted heavily and raised her sword.

Tjeugeoeoeok-.

The sword was covered in milky-white mucus and bodily fluids spat out by the demon snail.

“Blegh.”

“Ceciel, step back and look after the shelter. Prepare for an attack.”

“L-Lord Star Creation. Will you be alright?”

Ceciel asked despite knowing that I was stronger than her.

To tell the truth, I was desperate for even a cat’s paw’s worth of help. The problem was the fact that the opponent was not an ordinary demon.

The crushed conch shell was definitely recovering gradually with calcareous matter.

They were not omnipotent just because they were Heteromorph lineage demons.

At the very least, the demon before my eyes did not possess the ability to instantly recover a hard shell.

While Sweeping Conch Shell gnawed on the remains with the hundreds of pairs of radulas attached to her body, I roughly guessed the reason.

“She’s a demon who ate an Elysium. Step back.”

“Y-yes!”

Ceciel was still casting sidelong glances, but I didn’t approach the demon rashly.

Even if she looked like she was quietly gnawing on them, she was biding her time for an opportunity.

Sweeping Conch Shell was a demon with explosive swiftness. Usually slow, but the moment she hunted, she rivaled a cheetah.

If I approached carelessly, she might eat Ceciel and run away.

I deliberately waited until Ceciel was far away enough.

Kkadeudeuk, kkadeudeuk.

Sweeping Conch Shell hurriedly moved the antennae modeled after a woman’s upper body.

Crumpling like a deflated balloon and then rising again, repeating it meaninglessly.

Even while doing so, she gnawed every single fingernail and hair without leaving anything behind with the radulas attached to her footplate.

This bizarre standoff ended after Ceciel departed safely.

=How extremely strange. It surely is a newly born god, yet the way it prepares as if knowing everything.=

The moment Sweeping Conch Shell turned around this way, the human-like antennae moved together.

Neatly gathering both hands together as if showing courtesy… she burst into laughter.

=Do you perhaps think the ones I’ve contracted with are only Malu, that little brat?=

Of course I know what trick Sweeping Conch Shell is playing.

Even if there was a time limit anyway, I just had to kill her before then. There was no reason to go a roundabout way when there was a simple solution.

I made the stars inside my flesh orbit.

-Punishment miracle, Sound of a Thousand Thunders

Zap!-!

A snake made of electric shocks wrapped around my right arm and hissed.

=C-could it be. For real?=

“Acting like you don’t know. I won’t kill you in one hit, so don’t worry.”

Her trembling in fear right now was an act.

There was a trick frequently used by demons attached to life, especially the demons under Blood-Soaked Mud.

Sacrificial Ritual, Reincarnation.

It was a ritual that exploited the one they shared a contract with as a sort of extra life.

Even if her main body died, she resurrected using the contractor’s spirit and flesh as a sacrifice. This was something you never forgot once you fell for it.

I still remembered it.

When I posted a question asking why a guy I definitely killed kept coming back, people just laughed while congratulating me on escaping the newbie zone, that was.

The method to counter it was very simple.

Because if I killed her in one breath, her intention was to resurrect at the shelter.

“I will gnaw on you until you can’t use something like a Sacrificial Ritual.”

=W-wait.=

The lightning extending from my fingertips divided into dozens, hundreds of branches, and finally formed a thousand branches.

This time, there was no need to deliberately cause explosions. I merely repeated piercing through her with lightning streaks.

Zap!!

=Euhik!? Eugeeeeet!=

As soon as the electric shocks pierced her body, the demon curled up her whole body like she was placed on a frying pan.

But this was only once.

The thousand branches of lightning streaks, repeatedly merging and splitting while advancing sluggishly, were waiting for their turn.

If it were up to my feelings, I would like to ram them all in at once… but if I did that, she would resurrect.

What needed to be gnawed was not only the demon’s power. I also had to thoroughly grind down the demon’s mind.

=Wa-stop-hiyaaaaaaak!=

Pajijijik.

I didn’t have the slightest complacent thought that this much would be enough.

I waited until the demon fully gathered herself from the pain.

=Gasp, Choke, kkeoreuk.=

Pajik!

And when I thought she had caught her breath enough, I unfailingly pierced her body with the next lightning.

Before I knew it, Sweeping Conch Shell’s milky-white body was covered in black, charred wounds.

=Ageureureureu…=

Bang!

Eventually, one of the three antennae couldn’t withstand the pressure and burst.

Even the leaked mucus and bodily fluids were fried and cooked several times.

Even trusting the covering fire of the hundreds of lightning branches wandering around, I scrutinized the demon’s state.

A terrible stench worse than the ingrained smell of a sewer wafted over thickly.

The demon, collapsing from exhaustion, even sobbed silently in horrible fear.

There might be someone who would go easy on her if a pretty demon was sobbing, but.

“The reason you’re crying is probably because you pity yourself. Why did you appear before me?”

[Last Comet] was a game that consistently conveyed the message not to trust demons.

To trust a demon showing a weak appearance at this point was a crazy act.

More than anything else, the demons of Blood-Soaked Mud valued their own survival more than anyone else.

They were a kind that did not even set foot on the battlefield if there was no possibility of surviving.

=What do you mean why did I appear. Let alone when it’s you, Star Creation, who came!=

Even Sweeping Conch Shell shouting aggrievedly was a deception.

“You must have known the difference in power. That you couldn’t defeat me with your power.”

=Blood-Soaked Mud did.=

“A guy who gives an empty can because he doesn’t want to hand over an Elysium changed his mind? Seeing how you withstood my miracles this much, he didn’t even reap your souls.”

Of course, it wasn’t a question expecting an answer.

I was not omnipotent, but I was a god somewhat close to omnipotent.

I couldn’t read every thought. But instead, when I threw out a loaded topic, I could read the thoughts the opponent had come up with.

…Rather, it was just that the answer sheet was revealed early.

At a fierce intuition that felt like scratching the inside of my head, I looked up at the night sky. The stars in the night sky had unknowingly tilted towards the horizon.

Looking at the stars twinkling ceaselessly saying it’s dangerous, I noticed what the demon schemed.

Sweeping Conch Shell, even while rolling on the floor, let out laughter.

=I originally intended to torment your people… Who knew I would succeed in this way.=

The reason Sacrificial Ritual Reincarnation was annoying wasn’t only because they resurrect.

It ate up too much time waiting for the demon to be completely exhausted.

Sure enough.

=Y-you killed the Holy Mother of Stillborns, right? Even knowing that the Sun God becomes stronger by that much?=

The world where faint starlights stayed sank into the shade in a single breath.

Beyond the dark riverside, beyond the gloomy dead forest, a dark purple aura grasped the world.

Pajijijik!

=Eugegegegek.=

“Why are your words about stepping forward trusting the Black Sun so long.”

I seared her once more with lightning in a fit of anger, but doing so didn’t make the demon stop laughing.

=The foolishness of trying to challenge the sun. That arrogance will open up a path for me to live!=

It was the moment I tried to sear her once more seeing how she only intended to constantly spout nonsense.

A Dark Light dyed denser than ink flew towards this direction.

It was fine for me, who emits starlight, but… not for the lightning branches wandering around the demon.

The lightning was buried in the pouring Dark Light and eaten up.

On the other hand, the demon who received the Dark Light’s support shouted with a voice drenched in ecstasy.

=Aah… How foolish I was. To think I dared to oppose this omnipotent power. How dare I, an immense power that even my lord couldn’t reach!=

The flesh of the burst antenna connected again.

New flesh sprouted to fill the charred and pierced body bit by bit.

Normally, hitting her in the middle of a transformation was best, but the power pressing down on me was no joke.

…The Black Sun’s entire attention was focused on me.

The Sun God, who originally looked over the world everywhere, was glaring only at me.

Even the starlight I was emitting right now was in danger of being eaten up, so I could not move rashly.

In the meantime, Sweeping Conch Shell touched her completely recovered body here and there and even shed tears.

=Young god, have an audience with the one who rules the world!=

Did the lightning fry her brain?

The sight of completely forgetting her boss who she used to serve and exclusively praising the sun was ridiculous.

Either way, Sweeping Conch Shell was no match for me.

The Black Sun would also know that fact.

This is… a proxy war taking place between the Black Sun and me.

And where the Black Sun’s goal lay was clear.

A demon who thoroughly prepared a Sacrificial Ritual for buying time.

What the Black Sun aimed for was not my life, but the people I was protecting.

***

How did people perceive flames.

The hot, simmering heat would be the first.

However, if asked to draw a distinct shape, they would unfailingly draw a flame fluttering above firewood.

That’s how much people relied heavily on their vision.

“Hey, hey hey! The fire in the brazier went out, didn’t it?”

“Huh? Oh my? I definitely lit it though?”

“You just didn’t want to work… Grab a poker and rummage through it. It probably went out because the wind blew.”

A commotion arose among the vigilantes guarding the braziers around the shelter.

Ryugen merely let out a deep sigh while watching the sight pathetically.

‘Well, the soldiers must be tired too. Although I can’t turn a blind eye to neglecting fire management just because of that…’

It should be fine just once.

The moment Ryugen was about to gloss over it like that.

“A-hot hot… Tteuaaaaaaak!”

A shout wailing in pain was heard from behind.

Wondering what was going on, Ryugen turned around and inevitably had to open his eyes wide.

“W-water! It’s hoooooot!”

“Wh-what’s going on. What’s wrong with you!”

“It’s burning, my body is burning!”

“What are you talking about!”

The vigilante member agonizing while rolling on the ground looked perfectly fine.

If it weren’t for his flesh roasting on its own, that is.

Only after seeing his skin roasting red and melting down, and ultimately becoming charred black, did the others also realize the severity.

“What’s wrong with him? Why is his flesh willfully…”

Just in case, Ryugen looked around with an anxious mind and immediately made a judgment.

“Everyone, get away from the flames!”

If flames were invisible, what would happen.

The light sources illuminating the world from all over the shelter were disappearing one by one.

The torches and bonfires they had relied on until now all died down.

‘No, they didn’t die down.’

Fortunately, thanks to hurriedly bringing water and pouring it, he didn’t die.

However, agonizing from burns was unavoidable.

“Aak! Aaaaaak!”

“They’re sticking together, we have to take him to the priest!”

The melted skin was by no means an illusion.

Ryugen realized what had happened.

All the flames had lost their light.

[The Sun God can only take away lights other than starlight with Dark Light.]