Chapter 84 – Nebula Church (1)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Thump, thump.

The rough beating sound of the heart swallowed all noises.

What the madly exploding blood flow harbored was time.

The bloodshot pupils captured countless sights in an instant.

Tentacles shooting out, bending like a slithering whip.

Comrades looking for an opportunity from behind him.

And the tip of the sword aimed towards the demon.

In a time where everyone slowed down like a play, the only one possessing its own speed was himself holding the sword.

The sharply swung tentacles would definitely be fatal, but…

If it was this slow, it was completely useless.

Because he could simply cut them down just by swinging the lightsaber held in his hand.

Slash-.

The tentacles shot by the demon were split in a single breath.

Although they were tentacles with wondrous vitality that would grow right back if you took your eyes off for a moment, in the slowed-down time, they were equally meaningless.

Being struck by a sword made of light, which was anathema to demons…

…He had no intention of even giving it time to regenerate.

A footstep taken forward. In tune with it, the opposite foot forming the axis.

The swung sword aimed at the opponent again.

The border of life and death crossed over through the memories shown by those already dead pushed a human beyond their limits.

Center of gravity, footsteps, finesse, unshakable calmness.

All of this was forged into a sword strike in the slowed-down time.

Thwack, slash. Thwack, slash.

He repeated swinging and adjusting his stance.

Slashing down the tentacles thrust by the demon until he reached its main body.

=N…o…o…w…a…y…=

The opponent was a demon that had stolen a human’s physical body.

A monster that fought while modifying the living physical body at will.

An opponent that an ordinary person would have been eaten by while trembling in fear was rather afraid of this side.

Without even having time to be astonished looking at the severed tentacles.

=N…o….=

Slash, slash, slash, slash.

Advancing while chopping them up in a trance several times.

Before he knew it, the demon was right under his nose.

Only then did the Holy Knight swinging his sword realize.

The Luminous Spirit Star, the lightsaber personally bestowed by his god, did not have a single drop of blood on it.

Before the chopped pieces of tentacles could even spill dark red blood, he had arrived at the demon first.

=G…r…e…a…t…=

And before thrusting the tip of his sword in, the man could see the demon’s pupils.

The demon was still merely chasing the tentacles it shot, the afterimage of himself that was at the end of them.

Pupils rolling with all their might.

But the Holy Knight holding the sword being captured in them did not happen.

Thrust.

Before the demon’s scream ended, the Luminous Spirit Star pierced its Adam’s apple.

The demon tried to modify its physical body in a final struggle.

Gurgle, gurgle.

A bizarre noise was heard.

It tried to grab the Luminous Spirit Star by twisting its muscles.

However, since they harbored different times, the demon could not beat the Holy Knight no matter what happened.

The Holy Knight readjusted his grip on the hilt of the lightsaber.

To finish it for sure.

Slash-.

The series of processes of a star rising and setting, the Heavenly Path, was reproduced with the blade.

Before they knew it, the swordsmanship utilizing the lightsaber had even been given a separate name among the Holy Knights.

The pierced and torn off head of the demon could not handle the overflowing light.

Crackle, crackle…

The demon turned into dust in an instant and disappeared.

Only then did the time that had been forcefully grabbed and stretched return to its original state.

Except for the heart that hadn’t adapted yet.

“Ugh!”

Plop, plop, plop….

As the chunks of tentacles belatedly fell, Shek, who had been reborn as a full-fledged Holy Knight, grabbed his chest.

The only thing still remaining in the slowed-down time was his heart.

Thump, thump, thump, thump.

“Commander, are you okay?!”

“How could he be okay? Leave it to the other groups for the time being and let him rest!”

If it weren’t for the Holy Knights covering him from the side, he might have rolled on the ground for a while.

“To think you’d face a demon alone, no one would believe it.”

“Commander… don’t fight too much alone and take some appropriate rest. If we go back, we would be the ones getting cursed at.”

But even amidst feeling pain, Shek felt a thrill looking at the demon he defeated.

“I, I did this.”

The miserable end of one who had been possessed by a succubus and had their body stolen.

However, what he felt from the butchered body wasn’t exhilaration but wonder.

A mere human overwhelmed a demon alone.

Shek knew where the reason for that lay.

“No. To think Star Creation bestowed such a mighty power…”

Even those ignorant of divinity changed their minds after experiencing actual combat.

Star Creation presented the Holy Knights with martial prowess truly worthy of being called the proxies of a god.

One of them was the power to perceive time and move.

There was also awe in the sweat drops that began to form thickly only after his boiling blood cooled.

-Bestow Miracle, Sideral Rotation.

A miracle that instantly widened the limit of time a human could perceive.

Of course, time flowed as it was. If someone else looked at it, it just seemed like moving in the blink of an eye.

There were that many problems as well.

Because he was moving fast himself, if he swung the sword wrong, there was a high risk of the blade breaking just like that.

Even if it was a sword made of light.

However, if they were skilled enough to show off sharp sword energy in the slowed-down time.

They were worthy of being called not just simple warriors but superhumans, proxies of a god.

Only after panting for a long time was Shek barely able to raise his body.

“If someone else other than me had received it, they could have achieved greater things.”

“Why do you say such things.”

“Who else but the Commander would say they’d do something like this.”

“It’s something anyone can do. If Star Creation gives us power.”

It was around the time Shek was spitting out skeptical grievances.

Piyooooong-.

Light soared high into the sky.

One of the Holy Knights covering Shek noticed its true identity.

“It’s Ceciel-nim. It’s a signal to return.”

“It seems this is all the survivors here.”

A human presence began to be felt sparsely within the desolate city.

Survivors rescued after the same hardships.

Shek, for whom Star Creation personally created a heart, could even feel their numbers.

“Eight. There were as many as eight people in this city too.”

“There were that many?”

“We should go to other cities before it’s too late. I don’t know how the people here survived.”

In the city that had only been silent under the dusky night sky, human voices were being heard after a long time.

Shek scanned the Holy Knights gathered around him and nodded his head.

“You are right. Let’s move.”

“Yes sir!”

“By the way, aren’t you going to speak informally?”

“That’s the Commander’s choice, why are you prying into that.”

The Holy Knights, having finished all search and annihilation operations, were intentionally putting on bright smiles.

Shek followed behind them and clenched his fists.

‘Right. I am a Holy Knight who must act as a proxy for God. I must no longer remain a coward.’

+++

[Crazy bastards.]

The sight sent by the dead succubus right before dying made the Dream-Shedding Eye tense up.

Just as all life had an origin, all demons also had an origin.

Most demons were the result of prioritizing the instinct of life to survive over the instinct of the species to protect the community they belonged to.

The Dream-Shedding Eye was also the same.

Once, the Dream-Shedding Eye had also walked upon the earth like other mortals.

Although now a piece of flesh stuck to a mirror and precariously hanging one eye was all there was.

Other demons might be happy saying they threw off their mortal destiny.

But to the Dream-Shedding Eye, it was an exception.

Immortality without a physical body, and an eternity that had to be lived trapped in the abyss.

It realized only after experiencing it that it was no different from death.

It was a truly ironic thing.

Even after thousands of years had passed, the Dream-Shedding Eye would recall the memories of that time.

Even what people called it looking up at it during its lifetime.

‘Priest King, the gods have taken him.’

It was the moment it faced the silence in the cradle and held the dead child in its arms.

The Priest King carefully stroked the child who had already passed away from the world and harbored only one thought.

This child was different from him.

If it was himself who had faithfully served the Pantheon, he would receive a reasonable reward.

The Priest King did not doubt that heaven would ascend him as a star.

However, what returned to his loyalty was all mocking scoldings.

When the Priest King pleaded for eternity to the Celestial Church, what returned was the Sun God’s cold sneer.

[Does someone of your status dare to desire immortality.]

The Sun God punished the Priest King calling him arrogant.

The sacred flame of the brazier was swung like a whip.

The flame whip made of sacred flame left shameful burns in every corner of the Priest King’s body.

From then on, the Priest King stained with stigmas abandoned his faith towards the Pantheon and pursued eternal life himself.

And he found the reason his ascension was rejected in the last aphorism of the scriptures.

‘The Sun God is preventing the appearance of a new god. The reason is only one, because he is afraid of a new god.’

‘The last god will be born in the dying world under the black-dyed sun.’

‘The Black Sun refers to the Sun God who has become corrupt, stained by the lust for power, so I will be reborn as the last god and end the mortality forced upon humans.’

Priest King was a title attached because he held both the positions of priest and king concurrently.

And the Priest King believed in his eloquence and innate charisma.

The words that the Sun God was forcing a mortal destiny upon humans drew countless reactions.

The loyal subjects of the Priest King willingly abandoned the Pantheon and followed the Priest King.

The most loyal among them approached the Priest King and knelt.

‘O you who will become the last. Then would you not also need a Divine Name?’

The Priest King considered those words to be truly right.

So he put forward his achievement of seeing the Sun God’s speck and planting a new dream in people.

Deeply impressed by these words, the Priest King’s subjects soon called their master this.

Dream-Shedding Eye, the guide who would raise humans to a new status with the power of the abyss and the underground that the Sun God was wary of.

It was actually so.

The Priest King, called the Dream-Shedding Eye, performed a ritual with his subjects and escaped mortality.

He thought he had gained freedom by throwing off the physical body that had received the Sun God’s grace.

…All of this happened because he underestimated the Sun God who was indifferent to worldly affairs.

To escape from death, the Dream-Shedding Eye and his subjects ended up jumping into death before anyone else.

Before long, they were reduced to demons constantly regretting their foolishness and grinding their teeth in evil to steal the physical bodies of the living.

To wretched mayflies who would be chased into the dark abyss at a single gesture from the Sun God.

=Aaaaaaaah! It’s the Sun God!=

=To, to that place again…=

=We just didn’t want to die!=

And now, the Dream-Shedding Eye was in a position where it had to plead with the Sun God it had hated and rejected so much.

It even harbored thoughts like ‘if worse comes to worst, I can just borrow hands from other Great Demons’.

It would gladly give whatever the opponent wanted.

To succubi whose only goal was returning to the present world, the power of the abyss was completely useless.

[We don’t need it, your promise.]

[Have you already forgotten the jade words bestowed by the Sun God, you lowly kin.]

But not needing the succubi’s promise was the same for other Great Demons as well.