Chapter 7 – Within the Dark Light

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The reason a miracle was called a miracle was because unimaginable things became possible.

“High-grade miracle, Purification.”

The spilled blood boiled. The opened flesh was filled in, and the torn skin was stitched back together.

Bartol, upon seeing this scene, trembled the hand holding the scroll. Just using purification did not result in this kind of thing.

The divine power overflowing in the surroundings was sewing together the injured person’s wound.

Even though I had only lightly released it on my end.

“…A heavenly existence that even the Angel could not recognize. The only thing capable of covering the eyes of a star is an even more intense starlight.”

Even though Bartol had roughly guessed my true identity, he dared not continue his words further.

Even the people who realized something had happened all kept their mouths firmly shut. There was only one exception. It was the angel who had been coaxing the children until just a moment ago.

=That power. I never felt it on the day the meteor shower fell.=

The platinum halo and silver glowing eyes, which always shone steadfastly at any moment, were wavering.

It did not befit someone who forcefully urged sacrifice, claiming it to be completely natural. I did not exactly press him down with power. We simply faced each other, yet he wavered on his own.

It was not only his armor and power that turned into rags. I could see the pride and beliefs he had maintained even in this state crumbling away.

=…So it was not, me.=

At that moment, the angel let go of all his will.

I would have done the same. Although it was the first time I took it out, the power possessed by a god was literally endlessly close to omnipotence. It was the first time my skin felt as stifling as a prison.

Every time my heart beat wildly, blood splattered in all directions, yet I felt like I was wandering because there was nowhere for it to exit.

I was trapped inside the shell called human.

However, even while caught in the shackles of a mortal, the power a god possessed was astonishing.

Even though I did not yet know what a Divine Name was, I could read what the angel was thinking. I felt the breath of people with every single fine hair, and with just that, I intuited what kind of illness they had and what kind of worries they harbored.

I looked at people even while looking at the angel.

It was a truly bizarre explanation, but it was actually the case.

My pupils were headed toward the angel, but my field of vision contained everything.

My brain, which had never received an A grade, instead of exploding, rather comprehended and accepted all this information.

Things impossible for a human were continuously happening. I felt the breath people exhaled through my sense of touch and noticed people’s emotions through my sense of smell. In the places where the stench of fear floated about, a refreshing and clear… specifically, a scent like mint was spreading.

I instinctively knew what this meant.

Joy, marvel, and hope.

Although the distinctive pungent smell of filth wafted from the angel, who should have been actually the spokesperson for positive aspects.

What the angel felt looking at me was despair mixed with fear.

=I was merely a dying one.=

At that moment, I felt an existence approaching the chapel.

That was when I remembered what kind of game Last Comet was.

Last Comet was somewhat different from the ‘Civilization’ genre games that were popular early on. You could control believers by handing down revelations or oracles, but there were more cases where the god directly intervened and changed phenomena.

It was closer to an RPG than a strategy simulation.

And befitting the title of the Last God, the granted authority was also beyond imagination.

You could think of the classic game [Black & White] series. The god was represented by a single hand, but you could accomplish many things with that single hand.

Moving a boulder the size of a house, lifting people, changing day and night…

In Last Comet as well, how you handled the ‘Hand’ was the core. How you utilized the physical elements and the RPG nature was the key point to overcoming hardships.

What I had to do was predetermined. I used both hands like a brush dipped in the paint called divine power, and drew a circle in the empty air. Meanwhile, I quickly made a judgment.

…Time was too tight to save even the angel who lost his will.

-Protection miracle, Barrier.

Kwa-deu-deu-deuk.

A flash of light burst out along with a terrifying cracking sound. It was proof of parrying an attack. The people in the chapel who were actually about to get hit reacted a long time later.

“Aaaaaagh!!!”

“G, get down!”

I had no leisure to reassure them.

The angel who was devastated until just before had disappeared without a trace. However, Toddle was more surprised by the fact that the angel disappeared in an instant rather than the miracle performed by a divine status.

Clang. The glass knife Toddle was holding escaped from his grasp and rolled on the ground.

“Could the Angel have, no way. …Did he run away?”

No. He failed to run away.

I raised my head while scattering the circle I drew by hand with my breath. Ordinarily, the torches that should be placed at every corner of the stairs were not visible. One could think they were simply covered by the Black Sun’s Dark Light, but I had already felt a sense of incongruity.

The pulse of anxious people echoed from all directions.

Nevertheless, senses far surpassing a human’s allowed me to accurately listen to the targeted parts amidst the dissonance.

Tu-du-duk.

Feathers lightly falling beyond the impenetrable darkness were felt.

A vulgarity that sucked out not only the flesh but down to the bone marrow covered the lips that must have been beyond the shadows. Crouched like a beast preparing to leap like that, he was aiming for the right time like a hunter waiting for its prey to approach.

It was a long while after this bizarre standoff took place that a cold and insidious voice echoed in the chapel.

“Still. Me, still.”

Something fell from the sky.

Thwack. Unlike me who knew what that was, the people covered their mouths with both hands only after seeing it for themselves. The angel’s final end was worse than a mass of meat and bone shards, coated in putrid bile.

The people who saw the lump of meat covered with broken bone fragments and putrid bile could not even throw up. Everyone merely hiccupped, harboring the certainty that they would die the moment they exhaled even a single breath.

Ta-geu-dak.

A sound similar to a horse’s hoof tapping on a tile was heard from above the Bell Tower. The existence that was hidden in the darkness gradually revealed its outline.

“The scent of heavens. The smell of a scorched star.”

Six arms and legs woven from stretched-out human corpses. A torso and stomach where numerous faces were densely attached. However, the most disgusting thing was the part that could be called the main body.

There was a rotting, mushy corpse uniquely protruding by itself. The intestines that swelled up every time that abdomen was torn vertically and gasped for air, crying out and making noises instead.

Naturally, the stench was also no joke. Setting aside emotions or whatever, it was a smell that purely made people vomit. To the point where Bartol, who did not easily get annoyed, jerked his head up and glared.

However, the following words were mixed with astonishment and sorrow.

“Taxculi!”

“A delightful scream. It is a vividness that can no longer be let out through this body’s vocal cords.”

It was an event I expected since the moment the angel scattered power randomly.

Taxculi.

A Corpse Demon-type demon of human origin whose name was proudly listed in the Book of Demons in the Last Comet universe. The end of a great one who sought eternal life was to endlessly swap out a dying, rotting body.

Naturally, a guy this strong did not pop out in the tutorial before awakening the Divine Name originally.

It was an appearance that let me know a few pieces of information, but even so, it was not exactly a welcome existence.

Because it was a demon clever enough to easily notice the unfolding situation.

“By the way, even for scorched, this is not a normal scorched smell. Someone has come… properly. I thought the fleeing angel was all.”

“What do you mean by fleeing angel?”

A silver lining in this misfortune was that it blabbered its mouth well in order to mock the opponent.

I threw a question to seek the answer I wanted from that disgusting mouth. It was a task to confirm whether what I was thinking was correct.

Sure enough.

The wound on its abdomen flared instead of a mouth and began to leak out sneers.

“You like putting up bluffs. Trying to hide your wretched past. Are you not the ones who fled from the sky with the single thought of wanting to live.”

Taxculi pointed at the angel morphed into a gum-like lump and drooled putrid liquid instead of saliva along with an even louder laugh.

“Cowardly fugitives. Those who chose to become dirt dust rather than a nebula. That is your essence.”

It was exactly as I had guessed.

The worldview of Last Comet remained the same. I wanted it to explain the circumstances a bit more here, but if it gave everything I wanted straightforwardly, it would not be called a demon.

Taxculi swiftly pierced through such emotions and shut the mouth it had been blabbering with.

“From our standpoint, it is also a fruit that dropped after ripening sufficiently.”

Six arms bent. Even while speaking calmly, Taxculi was preparing for a surprise attack.

A difficult opponent.

That was, if I had been a complete newbie who did not know how to play the game.

The core of Last Comet was the [Hand]. If you created an image of divine power clumping together with your hand, you could perform various interactions.

For example, to the extent of plucking off a held grasshopper’s leg.

“…?”

“Spouting nonsense.”

A hand created by gathered golden particles grabbed a pair of Taxculi’s arms and legs. Riiip. Befitting a corpse pile demon, the tearing sensation was foul.

If the contents inside had not simply crumbled and disappeared just like that, I might have been the one to vomit. Before the panicking bastard could regain his balance, I grabbed another pair.

Riiiiip.

The gigantic demon, enough to fill an entire wall of the Bell Tower, lost the legs supporting it and wobbled precariously. Taxculi tried to move like a grasshopper missing two legs stamping a pestle, but my hand grabbed the last remaining pair first.

“….Did you not flee? Or did you recover almost all your power? No, a god this strong should not be remaining!”

“Tsk.”

“Are you from the Armed Church? A Martial Saint? Or the magic side? Either way, it does not matter. The wisdom of the spirits I captured through contracts!”

It shouted as if realizing something belatedly, but it was not the right answer either.

Riiiiip.

There was nothing good about having many conversations with a demon. There was no way a guy who was a corpse anyway would feel pain. The only thing Corpse Demons or Corpse Demon-type demons felt was purely a vague fear toward true death.

Since they were guys who climbed up tenaciously in the first place because they feared dying and had lingering attachments to death, it was a given.

Above all, Taxculi was not a guy who normally revealed himself this openly.

If it were not for the purpose of cutting off the breath of an injured angel, he was a cunning hunter who would not have come in this deep.

“…You will need power. You will need a helper, you will need wisdom. Do you not covet the knowledge or wisdom I harbor?”

“You revealed yourself from the front, unlike you.”

“I am useful. If you give me a chance, I will gladly prove it. As much as you want!”

He was originally a guy who constantly threw his subordinates while watching the opponent’s reaction before snatching them one by one.

He was the so-called newbie mower of Last Comet. He even had the alias ‘Grasshopper’ saying he gnawed everything down to the weed roots… but once he lost that advantage, he could be faced lightly.

An easy demon if you destroyed his legs by breaking them in a surprise attack while he was blabbering before running around.

The problem was that the rewards were equally crappy.

“I probably know what you know.”

“Then.”

“Above all, you look too disgusting.”

“It is just a mere hide…!”

“And you smell.”

With those words as the finale, I beat the bastard up until he turned into a pulp.

It was because I had not yet awakened my Divine Name, so there were not many miracles I could use. Unlike regular appendages that turned into powder when you poured some divine power on them, the torso part, which could be called the main body, did not collapse easily.

However, even the most persistent Corpse Demon had no answer when its body was smashed to the point where it could not move.

The real problem came after killing it.

As I was looking at the corpse drying up and dying after completely losing the life it maintained with stolen lives, the echo in my head gradually grew louder.

[Divine Name, Divine Name, Divine Name, Divine Name, Divine Name]

Just as it repeated the same sound like a glitched computer, the shadow stems of the dark light, which had been indifferently illuminating the world until now, bizarrely twisted and moved.

As if the Black Sun, which had been languidly declining, began to observe me.

Nothing could stop the sun once it moved. Even if it was a sun that had lost its light. Even the cloth and planks covering the stained glass lost their shapes buried in the pitch-black dark light.

A prison surrounding all sides. Within the darkness that was blocked up so tightly one would have wondered if there was any other expression for it, I felt an unfamiliar gaze.

But it was time for the Black Sun to set.

No matter how persistent the Dark Light might be, it was a rule that it lost its power once the sun set.

In the midst of the slowly receding Dark Light, I spoke toward Bartol and Ad, who were looking with vacant expressions.

“The Black Sun will rise again soon. Prepare for evacuation.”