Chapter 61 – Crushing Light

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Those who dared look upon the sun were blinded.

A folktale ordinarily trotted out to rebuke human arrogance had become reality.

The only difference was that this time, the sun had descended in person to blind them.

“Ceciel, drive the people back!”

Flame that escaped the hearth and swept through everything was called a wildfire.

Light was no different.

Pure white light was leading with an overwhelming surge and a flood of radiance, scorching every pair of human eyes to ash.

Even when eyelids were shut, even when bodies were covered with cloth, the light that could not be blocked crushed everyone beneath it.

People crushed beneath the murderous light, blood-tinged tears streaming down their faces, began to involuntarily fall to their knees.

“A, aaah… It hurts. It hurts…”

“My tears, my tears won’t stop. Th, they won’t stop!”

“Aaaaaaugh! Argh! Aauugh!”

Tears gushing out against the pouring light.

But a handful from the tear ducts was nowhere near enough.

The clear tears took on a reddish tinge, and those reddened tears darkened to bright red, all in an instant.

The Sun God’s tyranny had to be stopped.

I called out the name of whoever could buy time.

“Ceciel!”

…But Ceciel was no better off than the others.

I had called but received no answer, and when I turned to look, Ceciel was trembling with her wings wrapped around her own body.

“Star Creation, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m sorry, I’m sorry… I, I can’t. I can’t do it…”

It had come from knowing the strength and hostility that the Sun God possessed.

Had Ceciel not known either one of those two things, she would have been an angel to stand boldly against them. She had that much will and backbone.

And yet that angel was paralyzed with fear, ignoring the command.

If anything, only because it was Ceciel did she even answer me at all.

Ordinary humans were simply repeating anguished screams as bloody tears streamed down.

Heughhh… Ahhh…

People were writhing in pain with already-hoarse throats, letting out tiny broken moans.

In the end, I was forced to grit my teeth and abandon the defense.

In the Sun God’s malice blanketing the whole world, I alone was still able to distinguish things.

And when I came down from the sky and turned my back on Terjaohm.

[Behold the weakness of those you seek to protect.]

The golden armor draped in an iridescent feathered mantle turned its head toward me.

The Sun God.

The supreme of supremes, closest of all to an absolute, raised its hand.

[And you shall come to know your own weakness for seeking to protect them.]

With those words, the obsidian stones embedded in the Sun God’s gauntlet gleamed brilliantly.

The sign that the Sun God was manifesting a miracle.

I also began orbiting the stars within my flesh, preparing to confront it.

But the Sun God, as if the idea were laughable, waved a hand as though batting away a fly.

[Then you shall understand why I am called Star of Stars.]

Unique Miracle, Vitrification

-The moment the Sun God enacted the miracle.

The radiance enveloping the sun, the orange corona, stretched outward like tentacles.

The instant that extended radiance touched the earth, pure white flames erupted.

Powerful enough to instantly incinerate both the dried-out weeds and the finely crumbled dust into nothing.

I had to stop orbiting the stars within my flesh.

That pure white fire was Vitrification. A miracle I had encountered while playing Last Comet.

…It was impossible to oppose with ordinary miracles.

The Sun God sensed my shift in expression and, arrogant yet never lowering its guard, watched me.

[But I was excessively considerate, it seems. You know, don’t you, God Who Makes Stars. Both my power and your origin.]

The pure white flames did not use only dried corpses as fuel.

Even the earth where the flames lingered would melt in an instant like liquid — such was the extreme heat.

According to the game’s setting, everything touched by the pure white flames would instantly melt, and when the flames passed, they would rapidly lose their heat and harden.

Into a form as smooth and solid as glass.

A miracle that would turn even lush greenery into a barren wasteland incapable of nurturing any form of life.

That was the Sun God’s unique miracle, Vitrification.

That was why I chose a different method.

-Exercise of Rights, Judgment

-Reading alignment…

The Sun God was a target at whom my conscience would cry “guilty” without exception.

Which meant one of the harder-to-use authorities could now be used without restriction.

The stars within my flesh became comets, tracing long tails.

The stars burned as they flew toward my fingertips to gather.

From blue light to bright yellow, from bright yellow to orange, until finally burning golden.

-Judgment Authority, Golden Path

“Take that flame away.”

I immediately extended my right arm, sparkling as it turned brilliant gold.

But the miracle that even countless demons and gods had feared could not draw a reaction from the Sun God.

The Sun God simply gazed at me from behind the pure white flame hidden beneath its golden armor.

[Do you oppose the sun with the power of the sun?]

“To me, you are just another star.”

[Pathetic. I know your wretched origin.]

The Sun God’s presence began to slowly grow fierce.

Beneath the sky already turned pure white, the world from which all shadows had vanished was heating once more.

The boundaries between objects dissolved meaninglessly before the erupting radiance.

[A lowly human who lived the life of mere dust, a god born from the remains of the losers who wailed and cried out!]

“And the only adversary who will bring the sun down.”

This seemed to touch the Sun God’s reverse scale.

When rage transcended its limit, rather than boiling over, it tended to settle into a calm stillness.

The overwhelming presence of the Sun God that had been crushing everything up until a moment ago had grown quiet.

Like the unpleasant silence of the calm before a storm.

[They were losers who fled fearing me. How dare a maggot that grew feeding on the flesh of losers who could not even reach me.]

The Sun God began to score wounds into the world with an enraged sweep of its hand.

[To think it was the last god who would complete the world, summoned by those who complained so bitterly about my world.]

Unique Miracle, Vitrification

No more bluffing would work.

I unhesitatingly released the sunlight gathered at my fingertips.

Only the unchanging Golden Path could stand against the wildfire burning the world.

Ziiiiiiiing!

In a world turned pure white, light clashed with light.

It was a battle of pure sight with not a single explosion to be heard.

The absurd truth was that the sunlight I was generating, being relatively lower in temperature, was actually cooling the flames.

Where the flames had already passed, everything had been vitrified and was flickering as it reflected the erupting light.

Where the lights clashed, the earth alternated between melting and solidifying, tempering itself in rapid succession.

All the while, the moans and screams of the people could barely be heard in the distance, but I forced myself to look away and endure.

…I had no room to spare a thought for them right now.

“Did you covet the position of the sole god so badly!”

Where the sunlight could not reach, the wildfire spread.

Block one side, and the flames from another direction would ravenously advance.

The target was undoubtedly Terjaohm.

The city where the people, blinded and stumbling, were wandering in confusion.

I swung the Golden Path over and over, trying to stop the approaching flames.

Ziiiiiing!

“Even in this state, they called out your name!”

These were people who, upon seeing the Sun God descend, chanted the Sun God’s name rather than mine.

Rather than feeling betrayed or inferior, I felt only pity.

Those who sent love that could never be returned, reaching desperately for something unreachable.

But from all signs, the Sun God seemed to hold an entirely different impression of the same sight.

The Sun God laughed, mocking me as I continued to pour out the Golden Path against the encroaching Vitrification.

[I was already the sole god. All things found their origin in me, and in my generosity I lived forgetting that all things had forgotten this.]

Unlike me, fighting desperately to block the flames, the Sun God maintained a relaxed attitude throughout.

[My goodwill bestowed upon the world has simply ended. All things, I reclaim what I have given.]

As the Sun God pronounced its sentence, the sun spun fiercely.

Only then could I properly face the reality I had unconsciously been avoiding.

Every heavenly being had a divine radiance.

[It was also these hands that shaped all things of the world.]

And the Sun God’s divine radiance.

[It shall also be these hands that bring about its destruction.]

Unique Miracle, Shaper’s Change of Heart

The sun itself.

-From the brutal sun, photons splitting from the orange corona gathered, taking the shape of a hand.

Before long, the enormous hand made of crimson divine power touched the ground, and the solid earth grew soft then shattered.

Cracks spread across the earth like a delicate glass breaking, before long splitting wide open.

Dust and soil poured down through the twisted, crossing fault lines.

Thudududuk.

Rock fragments and sand dust exploding outward in all directions.

It was a thick cloud of dust that could faintly stain even the pure white world beyond it.

Within it, the crimson hand was writhing and moving.

Like a child too bored to tidy up their scattered toys and trying to sweep them all away at once.

I stopped blocking the Vitrification and directed my fingertips toward the hand.

The moment the hand began sweeping the world clean.

***

Kwwwwwuuuu…

Being shaved away.

The ground was literally being shaved away. Whether it was soil, sand, or bedrock, everything shattered without distinction and was crushed to powder.

Before the dust could rise and obscure the surroundings, the fierce gale dragged along by the crimson hand tore everything apart.

Even the places the hand did not directly touch were being carved and smashed by the gale that swept through.

Kwwwwwuang!!!

Even as I kept blocking with the Golden Path, the speed did not slow.

In fact, the sunlight I had fired was batted back lightly, as if it were trivial.

In the end, I had to abandon the authority and draw upon every last reserve of strength.

I crushed the stars within my flesh instead of orbiting them.

To increase even a handful of star dust…

…To possess physical force strong enough to block that approaching hand.

Kwung.

A dull shockwave shook the world without end.

It was a power I had not used much since having miracles and authorities, now brought out for the first time in a long while.

I gathered divine power and formed a golden hand from it to block the hand the Sun God had summoned.

Having poured every ounce of strength into it, the golden color was twice as vivid as usual.

The crimson hand still tried to sweep the world away, but.

Screech, screeeech.

Each time, the hand I had created seized it and blocked the way.

Though there was no stopping the area around where the two hands clashed from being scorched to ruin.

It was at this moment that the Sun God spoke again.

[Golden light.]

Just as I tensed, wondering nervously if it still had more fight left.

The crimson hand blocking my own began to slowly dissolve into particles and disappear.

At the same time, my body flashed and began to dye the pure white world blue.

Unique Miracle, Solar Expulsion

The cruel rays of light that had been settled into every alleyway were retreating.

Only then did I understand that the time the Sun God had spoken of had ended.

A moment for the Sun God, yet like eternal eons to all others.

Exactly as it had promised.

When I turned around, the sun was losing its natural light and slowly turning black again.

Beneath it, the Sun God was gathering its iridescent feathered mantle.

Others might have celebrated, saying the Sun God had retreated of its own accord.

But the miracles and schemes the Sun God had employed showed all too clearly how vicious it truly was.

As I watched unblinkingly, the Sun God stepped off the ground and departed.

[Yet it is a brighter light that washes away light. Your light has not yet reached me.]

A brighter light washed away light.

…….

Even a brief moment of reflection plunged me into shock.

“You, you.”

[What I willed had already been accomplished.]

The sun returned to its Black Sun form.

The arrogant god in the iridescent feathered mantle also disappeared into the darkness.

But I had to return to Terjaohm without a moment to compose myself from my wounds.

“Star Creation!”

“Punish us for not trusting you! O Godfather who leads us to the stars!”

“To think that I forgot all that Star Creation has done for us and chanted the Sun God’s name… I, I deserve to die.”

The streets where people cried out upon finally understanding the Sun God’s true intentions.

Under normal circumstances I would have stopped for each and every one, but this time I passed them quickly.

There was something I needed to confirm.

Just as I had feared, it was exactly as I worried. I first needed to find someone to carry out orders.

Fortunately, the one I was looking for came to find me first.

“Sta, Star Creation. Star Creation actually did it. You actually repelled the maddened Sun God!”

“Ceciel, prepare for an assault.”

“What? But the Sun God has retreated…”

Had I not encountered Chewing Wisdom, I would have been caught off guard without a chance.

“All the miracles I set had been broken.”

No light could defeat sunlight.

And the depths of the sea were the only domain of abyss beyond even sunlight’s reach.

The one place even my mastery of freshwater would find difficult to detect…

By the time I had realized this, a familiar voice resonated in my mind.

[O young god who makes stars, you should have taken my hand.]

The sea was stirring.

It was not that there had been no ambush.

While the Sun God neutralized the defensive line I had set, they had been lurking submerged in the nearby waters.