Chapter 62 – Battle at Estuary

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The sea was stirring.

In a place where not even a breeze was blowing, the surface was faintly rippling.

The harbor and drainage outlets of Terjaohm were all covered with an unpleasant undulation.

Knowing that if they touched freshwater I would sense them, they had been hiding in saltwater — and were now bursting out all at once, bending the iron grates.

There was not a single moment of hesitation in those movements.

The kind of momentum that could only come from complete certainty that my miracles had all been neutralized.

And yet I considered that I had made the right choice.

At the same time, I reminded myself of the most certain method for dealing with a demon.

The way to defeat a demon was to refuse to be tempted. A god who wished to protect their followers did not join hands with a demon.

Never.

“You borrowed the Sun God’s power, and yet you swagger so.”

Blood-Soaked Mud could not deny this.

If the Sun God had not helped to this extent, the plan would have been impossible.

The great demon lurking in the deep sea hesitated briefly, then meekly admitted its own shortcomings.

[To face a monster, one must take equivalent measures. If it means continuing to live, one can be as servile as needed. That is the essence of life.]

“Monster?”

[God Who Makes Stars. I am referring to you.]

I did not remain still even as we conversed.

I orbited the stars within my flesh and manifested an authority to block the monsters eagerly swimming their way toward me.

Even if the miracles I had painstakingly set had been dismantled…

My own strength still remained.

-Exercise of Rights, Freshwater

The first ones to arrive were killed the way Blood-Soaked Mud had once demonstrated.

Crushed as though being wrung tightly by a hand using water pressure, they burst and died.

Looking closely, the slithering long body resembled a sea serpent, the slick exoskeleton recalled a centipede, and the furiously paddling legs evoked a shrimp all mixed into one form.

Their disgusting appearance drew an involuntary grimace from me.

“Whatever happened to respecting human aesthetic sensibilities?”

[The humans of the future will come to accept that form.]

“That’s maddening.”

Crunch.

The sound of smashing the slick exoskeleton whole.

Fortunately, their numbers were small, suggesting they had required considerable effort to create.

But they were not the only ones.

Through the freshwater that was just on the verge of flowing into and mixing with the sea, I knew.

The entire sea was swarming with monsters of countless different shapes.

I had to change my approach from luring a few in at a time and destroying them.

“Things that can’t even be eaten, swarming in like this.”

-Exercise of Rights, Freshwater

Bubbles began to gurgle up from the river mouth.

It was because a giant whirlpool I had created within the river was catching the incoming monsters.

I changed tactics to use the whirlpool as a first filter, then catch and kill the ones that broke through one by one.

But I had a dim sense that this was not the end of it.

…The monsters that use humans were nowhere to be seen.

This was nothing more than a scouting party to gauge how solid my defenses were.

I naturally could not show any weakness.

For a long time, I drove back and blocked the monsters flooding toward Terjaohm.

Before I knew it, the severed carcasses of monsters were floating up to the river mouth, filling the surface of the water.

It was at this moment that Blood-Soaked Mud let out a voice tinged with lamentation.

[It was not only you who witnessed the Sun God’s power. Even I, in the depths of the sea where sunlight does not reach, felt the Sun God’s strength. The fact that if he truly wished it, he could sweep away even this dense ocean… I came to realize that even a great many of the powerful are meaningless before the Sun God. That was what I thought.]

Crunch, crunch.

Even while listening to those words, I kept crushing and smashing the sea creatures with water pressure.

From the moment Blood-Soaked Mud opened its mouth, the assault grew more ferocious.

Monsters that flung themselves forward knowing they would die.

The blood they spilled as they died muddied the river water. So thoroughly that not even starlight could be reflected.

Had it not been for the constant flow of river water, my influence might have been pushed back.

[Until I saw a god survive that Sun God and force it to retreat.]

Kiiiiiiing.

A ringing like a tinnitus filled my mind noisily.

Divine instinct. It was forecasting a crisis of life or death.

The unease only grew stronger with every further word Blood-Soaked Mud spoke.

[The one and only adversary who challenges the sun. A god forged from humanity’s longing for light. I deemed you dangerous on the strength of that will and origin alone… but the moment I watched you stand against the Sun God, I made my own resolution. To retreat no further.]

“After having your position completely exposed, now of all times?”

[I do not want a second sun god. Both the Sun God and you, who stand against the Sun God, are nothing but threats to me.]

What had divine instinct been warning of?

I could not help but open my eyes wide as I realized who was behind it.

Kuguguguuuu…

The sea was stirring once more.

This time, it was not a mere faint ripple of the surface. The swelling surface began to amplify in magnitude, churning in waves.

Splash, splash.

Rough waves crashed against the harbor and scattered into foam.

But beyond those waves crashing in like a storm — the real wave was approaching.

[Young god, give up the lives you hold and let it end here.]

The horizon was lifted.

A massive tsunami, easily dozens of meters high, surged forward laden with malice.

I orbited the stars within my flesh once more and cried out.

“Everyone, grab the hand of the person next to you!”

Kuguguuung…

Before a tsunami powerful enough by its sheer physical force alone to shatter boulders, I gathered the star dust with every ounce of strength I had.

Then I breathed out all the nebulae that had been stored within me, and made a wish.

That my strength would not fall short.

Fortunately, at that moment, there were stars that answered back.

I held my ground, watching the ruins of the city submerge one by one into the wave.

“Star Creation!”

The newly born star radiated an enormous heat.

Enough to instantly evaporate at least a portion of the incoming tsunami.

Amid the water raging in every direction, filled with boiling foam, I witnessed the death of the new star.

Not all of it, but roughly half had been stopped.

The new star had achieved a splendid feat, but… perhaps strained too greatly, it had no strength left.

The star that had already fulfilled its given role was crumbling back into dust.

I received the golden dust into my body and lifted my head.

The currents curling through the ruins of the city, and the countless malevolences cutting through them.

One of them caught my eye in particular.

A lugworm-shaped demon waggling its tongue tentacles.

The very one I had confirmed through the prophetic dream some time ago.

The lugworm demon was gazing at me, maintaining what passed for an elegant posture as it cut against the current.

=The power you boast of will be unusable for a while, God Who Makes Stars. I, Ichiyarak, with the name and authority bestowed upon me by my master, have made your strength null and void.=

The moment I heard those words, a snort of laughter burst out of me.

Its confidence was understandable. By bringing the tsunami, it had mixed saltwater and freshwater together.

Even when the river water flowed back in, I would not be able to govern it for some time.

But no matter how much saltwater had swept over the land, it would eventually be the ebb tide that drained back out.

Even the tsunami that had swallowed the city right now could not submerge everything beneath the surface.

The walls of first-floor buildings were still lapping at the water’s surface.

More than enough to see the night sky.

The demon Ichiyarak seemed to find my attitude extremely disagreeable.

=You’re bluffing.=

“You call me God Who Makes Stars and yet you’ve forgotten what my power is. That’s enough to make me laugh.”

=…?=

My divine name was Star Creation, the god who filled the night sky with stars.

It seemed to have forgotten whose sky it was, now that the Black Sun had set.

I cried out the name of the first star that came to mind.

“Herald Star, help me drive back the enemies!”

And the star answered my call immediately.

-Constellation Miracle, Herald Star’s Flash

A flash erupting from the sky filled the entire world.

Incomparably lesser than the sheer volume of light the Sun God had shown, but for dealing with demons, this was more than sufficient.

The monsters that had forgotten themselves and moved through shallow water were annihilated in an instant.

All except one.

Ichiyarak, which had come right up before my very nose.

“You ate an Elysium.”

=Hk, ghh.=

I seized the creature, which had been flapping about on the verge of death, and lifted it into the sky.

It was a natural measure. Left in the water it would pull some trick.

Then the mouth set vertically in its abdomen began to open and close, waggling its tongue tentacles.

=I… second wave.=

“What?”

=The assault… will continue. If you… let me go.=

I drove my fist straight into its constantly muttering mouth.

It tried to bite my hand like it saw an opportunity, but that was out of the question.

If anything, the demon’s teeth crumbled to powder and trickled down.

After rummaging through Ichiyarak’s innards for a long while.

The creature that had been flopping around unable to even let out a moan of pain suddenly went rigid.

“It was the Elysium of Swirling Tide.”

The moment its Elysium was revealed, the demon’s fate was decided.

I absorbed the Elysium from Ichiyarak’s body and watched the demon dissolve into nothing.

In the end, the first assault sent by Blood-Soaked Mud ended in failure.

Of course, the great demon had not been bluffing.

[Clink-.]

The sound of a chain snapping.

At the same time as the sound, a voice resonated in my mind.

[Lull.]

…The sound of the one and only chain that the Sun God must have had in him.

It was, without question, the sound of a constraint breaking.

The first demon had died. And the Sun God’s first constraint had been undone.

I had been fighting Blood-Soaked Mud while simultaneously contending with the Sun God.

Now, the Sun God who had recovered even a fragment of strength would be targeting us again.

“We need to move.”

In any case, staying in a city submerged by the tsunami any longer was out of the question.

Especially since this place was Blood-Soaked Mud’s home territory. The sea was still swarming.

“Ceciel, rally the people to the rooftops. We were moving.”

ing.”