Chapter 77 – Counterattack Means

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The Dark Light that had been crushing the world faded.

The pitch-black clouds that crossed over the mountains also started to scatter powerlessly.

Noticing this change and looking up at the sky, I could understand the reason.

The Black Sun, which had settled at noon and showed off its momentum, was setting again.

After rising vigorously, it set and crashed below the horizon.

The destiny shared by all celestial bodies was no exception even for the sun, which was said to be the supreme.

When the raid ended in failure, the Black Sun turned away without leaving any lingering attachment or interest.

Just as it always did.

Some might consider it a fetter that would be repeated eternally, but change was slowly being revealed within this repeating daily routine.

For now, only the owner of the Black Sun, the Sun God, and I would know.

However, if falling water drops slowly carved out a solid rock, it was bound to be hollowed out someday.

A very minute crack appeared on the Black Sun that sucked in all light.

A thin blue thread was tightly binding that huge sun.

It was far from enough to cover the sun, but it was proof that the sun’s perfection had been denied and invaded.

And the spool that spewed out that thread was my very body.

<<>>

The stars inside my flesh sparkled brilliantly.

The stars repeatedly sparkled and faded, combining their power with other stars to weave light.

It was to create enough thread to tightly wrap the sun.

Like a person spinning a spinning wheel to weave cloth.

“Understanding my origin was a tremendous privilege.”

The saying that one must know its origin to understand the unique miracle of the Sun God.

Now I knew what those words meant.

The power used after understanding the origin was on a different level.

It felt like completely understanding the formula for a math problem I had been forcefully solving…

Even if the same miracle was used, the efficiency was overwhelmingly different.

In that regard, Sun Expulsion was a heterogeneous unique miracle in many ways.

Until I knew my origin, that is.

“But dead gods, is the path I am walking correct?”

…Sun Expulsion was not a power originating from the Divine Name Star Creation.

It was a power given to a god born because the gods who stood against the Sun God until the end sacrificed themselves as human offerings.

They realized the fact that they themselves were cooled stars and chose to become firewood.

Even so, their remaining lingering attachments and regrets scraped together the remnants of divinity and were reborn as a miracle.

Perhaps the reason I was chosen by them was because our desire to preserve the survivors matched.

I wanted to hear the answer to this question.

“Can I protect them all by myself?”

I was asking the gods who had already died a long time ago and became my nourishment.

If I hadn’t confirmed that their lingering thoughts existed, I would surely have been a crazy person.

I was that desperate.

The fight against the Sun God, who was trying to destroy the world, was too lonely.

It was said there were angels, but fundamentally, they could not defeat demons that had devoured gods.

Those with power lacked will, and those with will lacked power.

In the end, when facing a mighty enemy, it was just like being alone.

Not having someone to share difficulties with and rely on each other… was lonely.

I wished I had a guide to measure right and wrong for me.

Of course, even this was just a complaint.

“Godfather of Stars! The classification has been completed as you commanded!”

The moment the Black Sun crashed below the horizon, I heard a familiar voice calling my name.

It was the old priest, Bartol.

People were gathering around him one by one.

Seeing them grouped down there waiting for my instructions, I felt the weight I was bearing once again.

A guide who had to define right and wrong in this world and lead them to the intended path.

That was me.

***

Driving away the enemy was good, but the collateral damage was too great.

Beyond the plaza collapsing completely, the ground was overturned once.

The city that was relatively intact was half-destroyed by the aftereffects of fighting the monsters of the underground.

Well, the ground was lifted up and dropped repeatedly several times, so it would have been a thief’s mindset to hope it remained intact.

If there was a related Divine Name among the Elysiums I usurped, I would have attempted a restoration… but even if I had it, I wouldn’t have been able to use it right away.

The piled-up problems weren’t just one or two.

As the underground water veins I barely gathered evaporated completely, a red light turned on for the drinking water supply.

A more urgent problem than that was the classification of the injured.

Now that I guessed the purpose of this raid, it was naturally a part I had to be wary of.

Sure enough.

As soon as I went down among the group groaning in pain, the sticky influence characteristic of the abyss immediately hit me.

Also because they were settled in a relatively intact alleyway, making it uniquely gloomy.

It was then that Bartol, who had been calling my name until his throat tore, approached.

“As you said, I have separately classified those with unusual wounds first. Wounds that are definitely unnatural. It is natural to suspect demonic intervention, but.”

“You want to know whose doing it is?”

“Please bestow the gracious knowledge you possess.”

Was there any need to discuss who it was.

I paid attention to the forehead of an injured person groaning while lying on a rag.

An X-shaped mark carved on the forehead, as if slashed with a knife.

Dark red blood surging up *pop pop* from the gaping skin was flowing down to his eyelids.

“The Dream-Shedding Eye intervened. This side is probably the main force. The mark carved on the forehead is the symbol of its subordinate demon… Burst-Stitch Eyelid and its kin.”

“Did you not bestow Stigmata?”

“There are twenty-three of them. Would I bestow Stigmata on all that many? Moreover, I don’t have a hobby of torturing believers by bestowing Stigmata.”

“That can’t be…”

Hearing my answer, Bartol’s eyes widened roundly.

Before the world perished, cases of bestowing Stigmata on thoroughly devout believers were frequent, so that kind of reaction returned.

Of course, the Stigmata build was also implemented in-game.

Even within [Last Comet], you could raise divine power by bestowing Stigmata, but the efficiency was too trashy.

It was easier to just do the legwork and sweep them away myself, so I just fiddled with it a few times for fun and that was it.

Instead, thanks to that, I was able to memorize the traits of the succubi, the extreme hard counter to the Stigmata build.

“What succubi are most reluctant about is someone else physically harming their sacrificial lamb. So they started imitating the methods used by heaven.”

The Stigmata build wasn’t completely useless.

If bestowed on the priesthood, the performance of miracles doubled, and if you enacted a doctrine that worshipped pain, faith pumping worked well among the laity.

The problem was the succubi. Succubi added a spoonful to this.

“Their method is to disguise the mark as a Stigmata and induce people to understand nightmares as ominous warnings, revelations. If the people around them are used to Stigmata, they won’t even feel anything strange and won’t receive help from the clergy.”

As you could see with the succubi, Great Demons and their subordinates had a strong tendency to counter specific builds.

And among countless builds, the Stigmata build was the most vulnerable to counters.

When nightmares disguised as Stigmata started devouring people one by one, a tendency to avoid Stigmata even arose.

When succubi who snatched bodies further encouraged this kind of discord, there were many cases where entire groups of healthy survivors were overturned.

Of course, this only applied to abnormal cases that only walked the single path of Stigmata.

The stars in my flesh became comets and fell to my fingertips.

I gently stroked the victim’s forehead with my fingertips dyed golden due to the heated starlight.

“However, if discovered early, there is no simpler enemy than this.”

As soon as my hand touched, the wound healed.

The blood that had been flowing endlessly pooled, hardened stiffly, and fell off shortly after.

In the place where the blood scab had stayed, sprouted new flesh had already filled the wound.

While I was at it, I also set his broken arm, replaced rotten teeth, filled decayed cartilage…

When I finished all this and stood up, a reaction returned immediately.

Twitch.

“Praise the Godfather of Stars. Those who can live will live by his breath, and those who cannot will be comforted by his starlight…”

It was while Bartol was putting his hands together and praying that the victim suddenly opened her eyes.

“Doros! Doros, Doros!”

The woman, who had been crying out her child’s name, was already shedding tears profusely.

Then, upon seeing me, she prostrated herself flat on the ground without a hint of hesitation and begged.

“G-Great One! My child, D-He’s called Doros! My child is!”

“Be at ease.”

I looked down at the mother who was stuttering in confusion and spoke as generously as possible.

“The nightmare is over. Your child will be waiting outside.”

“N… Nightmare?”

“Yes. It was a nightmare.”

“Nightmare.”

She still didn’t seem to be able to distinguish between reality and dreams.

She looked around blankly with her mouth wide open, then slowly raised her body.

Watching this sight and nodding, Bartol soon raised his voice.

“Family of Doros, Doros! Please take the person who has awakened!”

As soon as the words fell, the murmur outside grew louder.

And the faint murmur soon turned into distinct cheers.

“Mom!”

“Are you okay, honey? Do you know who I am?”

“…D-Doros. Honey!”

Only after seeing her living, moving family did she finally accept that she had woken up from the nightmare.

Perhaps she still considered it a dream but thought it would be fine if it were a happy dream.

After seeing off the family hugging each other and crying profusely with my eyes, I turned my gaze back down.

There were still nineteen people trapped in dreams.

The stars inside my flesh were still sparkling.

“Next.”

I continued the ritual of removing marks and salvaging them from dreams just like that.

However, waking up from a dream didn’t guarantee that their minds would be intact.

“Uwaaah! Ack! Aaaaah!”

A man rampaging while sweating cold bullets.

“I-I was wrong. Sir, I was wrong… T-This land at least…”

A tenant farmer rubbing his palms together while kneeling, still caught in the afterimage of the dream.

“N-No. I don’t want to see anymore!”

“He’s trying to pluck his eyes out! Stop him!”

“Eek! L-Let go!”

Later on, even the onlookers who gathered to watch the miracle were startled and rushed in.

The only exception was the last injured person.

And it was a familiar face too.

As soon as the frail Nesaro struggled to open his eyes, he captured my figure in his eyes first.

“H-Haha. Hahaha! Did you see? Did you see, you son of a bitch!”

Nesaro was bursting into roaring laughter even while shedding tears profusely.

“I-I won. Hehehe… I, I… sob, hehe.”

It seemed he was in the middle of crossing a quite dangerous bridge.

Although the onlookers, who didn’t understand what had happened, shrugged their shoulders.

“Has that friend lost his mind?”

“Sheesh. Still, he went crazy nicely for that much.”

***

Of course, I didn’t just take it sitting down.

The knowledge and experience accumulated through [Last Comet] quickly grasped the enemy’s true identity.

The method to specify and distinguish the formless succubi.

That is precisely to distinguish where and in what form the marks appear.

Originally, lacking knowledge might have held me back to some extent.

However, the advice from Ryugen, who was well-versed in the geography near the capital, set my destination.

“West of Bakumsia, north of the capital, there is a city called Whinisten.”

Inside the shabby tent with only straw mats draped over it.

Ryugen roughly drew a simple rough map with the tip of his sword on the table and continued his words.

“And Whinisten is also a city that served Exchanging Knowledge.”