Chapter 87 – Star’s Blast Furnace

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The stars I have created so far each had their own roles.

The Herald Star that announced when the Black Sun was setting.

The Sentinel Constellation that covered those in crisis.

The Consoling Constellation that comforted the mind and body exhausted from being pickled in fear.

The Ever-Weeping Constellation that supplied clean drinking water to people with tears of regret.

The Atoning Constellation that chose to correct mistakes instead of rationalizing that it couldn’t be helped.

The Seeding Constellation tasked with planting life in the world.

The Afterglow Constellation that would protect people from the influence of demons.

The Mad Spirit Star that would help the Holy Knights who volunteered to be the proxies of God.

They were all stars for the people who tenaciously survived even when things had come to this point.

However, the star I would create this time was different.

It was created to drive the living into deadly frontlines.

A star created not for survival but for war was sorrowful and insidious from its origin.

The golden dust gathering in my grasp gave off a heavily spicy and pungent smell.

Stinging enough to make my throat choke up.

I could guess what this painful sensation meant.

It was because of the intense lingering attachments they couldn’t let go of even though they had already died.

Desire for revenge.

The new star would be distinctly different from other stars that were united by hope, sense of duty, or guilt.

Every time the swirling nebula tore the wind, it seemed as if a wailing sound echoed.

The vengeful spirits helplessly trampled by overwhelming enemies wanted only one thing.

Righteous revenge.

They shouted for justice and revenge towards the demons who sentenced their lives to an unjust death.

I could not dare to include words like ‘forget’ or ‘forgive’.

Because their desire for revenge was desperately needed.

I didn’t offer any vain comfort either.

I just compressed the nebula while clenching my fist.

“Star Creation.”

A chilly radiance spewed out from between my fingers.

If the previous stars were closer to a warm-feeling pure white light, the new star was a light as cold as ice frozen solidly layer by layer.

However, contrary to the colors it showed, the heat it harbored was hotter than any other star.

Eventually, when I opened my hand, I couldn’t hide my heavy heart.

It was heat to the point where the palm of my hand where I placed the star slightly distorted.

At the fact that the desire for revenge was this hot, I even thought about using the power of Pleasant Oblivion.

It would be a hundred, a thousand times better to just forget everything and spend a comfortable afterlife in Elysium.

Then, the new star noticed my thoughts and began to burn even more fiercely.

As if to say that even if I was a god who could decide their fate, they would never tolerate it.

“Pitiful star desiring revenge, you cannot defeat the enemy on your own.”

This star was dangerous.

Avenger spirits were similar to demons in some respects.

For the sake of revenge, they were beings with the possibility of ignoring others’ sacrifices as much as they wanted.

“However, if you want justice, it will be fulfilled as you wish. Melt iron with your desire for revenge to arm your compatriots. Rescue them from helplessness with the desire to seek justice.”

Before sending this star away, I finished what I had to do as a godfather.

“Deductive Constellation, share your desire for revenge with those who wish to fight.”

-Unique Miracle, Naming

The Deductive Constellation was not a star to be fixed in the night sky.

Rather, it was a star that wished to come down to the ground more earnestly than anyone else.

As a result of running away from danger, they met a helpless death, and since it was a star harboring this as a grudge, it was natural.

The moment I tilted my hand and let it roll down.

The Deductive Constellation began to flash a deep blue halo resembling the sun, albeit very faintly.

The pit in the plaza filled with lumps of iron scraped together by searching the entire city.

Towards the very center of it.

It was exactly at this time that a flash so intense that one might wonder if the Herald Star had risen struck.

-Bestow Miracle, Smelting of the Deductive Constellation

When the Deductive Constellation that fell into the pit spewed out the heat it harbored, everything changed.

Dented pots, tableware made by hammering scrap iron, iron swords covered in red rust…

It was literally an instant that all of this melted down into mere molten iron.

At first, it was an orange-colored molten iron commonly seen in steel mills.

But from the moment the Deductive Constellation sparkled once more, a full-scale change occurred.

The color of the molten iron gradually changed to deep blue.

The chilly radiance possessed only by the Deductive Constellation intertwined with the molten iron, creating a new miracle.

A metal with a new property that would have never appeared in the world.

This chilly winter-light molten iron began to flow along the sewers and drainage channels, digging in between the pit just like that.

Like seawater springing up infinitely.

Sssssss-.

The soaring steam heated the cooling world.

The deep blue molten iron made the pulse of the dead city beat again.

What caught my eye in particular was that there were no casualties even while it illuminated every corner brighter than the starlights I had scattered.

The winter-light molten iron harboring the power of the Deductive Constellation merely flowed calmly, filling the drainage channels and sewers everywhere.

To ordinary people, it might be enough of a miracle.

However, from a god’s perspective, it couldn’t be called a miracle at just this level.

I came down from the sky and headed to the pit full of molten iron.

And dipped my hand into the calmly flowing winter-light molten iron.

At that moment, inspirations flashed in my head as if the stars were shining all at once.

I instinctively intuited what I had to do to handle this mysterious molten iron.

“I need weapons that ordinary people can handle. Spears and crossbows, light armor to protect vital points, all the way to bolts and arrowheads.”

Pop, pop, pop.

Every time I spat out a syllable, it felt like a firecracker was exploding.

When I spoke wishing for something, knowledge I hadn’t known before was rising at some point.

The standard weapons of a country that once existed on this land.

Plate armor with elasticity and sturdiness, with its weight evenly distributed.

Chainmail made of chain links woven under a prayer wishing for victory.

Countless armaments that would have been made by quenching iron on an anvil.

Conversely, there were also items created in my head for the first time.

Bow limbs and bowstrings that would be harder and more flexible than animal sinews or buffalo horns.

Shirts to be embroidered with blue-silver wire.

These were impossible with the technology of a fallen civilization.

They were products that could only be reproduced through a miracle.

And I was able to achieve all of this with just one word.

“Forge them.”

Then, an unfamiliar sensation was felt in the hand dipped in the winter-light molten iron.

Clink, clank.

Forms were being created in the calm pond where not a single ripple rose.

I grabbed tightly and pulled them out so as not to miss the new miracle.

No mold was needed to smelt the armaments.

When the dipped hand came out above the surface of the water.

Everything I wished for was already grasped in my hand.

Rustle…

Under the chainmail woven with blue-silver chain links, spears and crossbows, bowstrings and bow limbs, plate pauldrons and arrowheads followed.

The armaments connected by the sticky winter-light molten iron were cooling rapidly as they faced the outside air.

The winter-light molten iron flowed down and even coated the smelted armaments.

Only then could I look around.

Towards the armaments forged by the Deductive Constellation, the people kneeling among the winter-light molten iron crossing everywhere in the dead city.

A few of them carefully bowed their heads and recited prayers.

“O you who will fill the night sky with stars again, you who will illuminate a new heaven with your sun.”

“….Praise the Great Godfather of Stars, the young father. For you are not a fallen star but a star that is with us.”

A sweet smell tickled my nose.

Even the people who were swept away by suspicions were participating in the reverent silence at some point.

Their firm faith and envy towards light made the stars in my flesh sparkle even more.

I was becoming stronger.

Not just me, but together with those who followed me.

***

Saying I became stronger didn’t simply mean strength.

Utility… I was also becoming stronger in versatility and strategic aspects.

Thanks to realizing my origin and inheriting the dead gods in earnest, I became able to use their power freely.

The absence of information forced upon the world ruled by the Black Sun and its allies.

This fatal limit was completely resolved from the moment I completely inherited Exchanging Knowledge.

Hoooo…

The breath harboring stardust now showed even more.

Normally, I could only create a map if there was someone else’s testimony, but after Exchanging Knowledge, the story was different.

The satellite cities scattered in all directions centering around the capital, Avenstraum.

Whinisten to the northwest, Andraum to the south, Ielsraten to the southeast, Oldraon to the northeast…

Even the withered forests and mountain ranges filling the space between them were all reproduced by the stardust.

A miracle that three-dimensionally materialized everything starting from the traces of a hollowed-out river to the elevation differences of the mountain ranges.

Even an unfamiliar layman with no experience serving in the military would drop their jaw.

Naturally, Ryugen and Hwen, who had service experience, were on the verge of fainting.

“T-This is.”

“The power of Exchanging Knowledge…!”

Vaguely guessing and witnessing it directly were two different stories.

The people who had simply moved following my commands clicked their tongues leaving the evidence right before their eyes.

It was a 3D stereoscopic map where not only the old cities and changed terrain but also the surviving gods and their locations, and even the numbers of survivors and shelters were all recorded.

The only things not recorded were the names of the demons and their composition.

Even an illiterate who did not know letters understood it in their head the moment they saw the 3D map made of light.

Even someone who had not awakened to the concept of numbers knew it instantly.

Exchanging Knowledge was a Divine Name with such tremendous power.

Instead, it had the drawback that one had to face even facts they wanted to turn away from.

Exchanging Knowledge did not only show what you wanted to see.

The two people who had been clicking their tongues slowly began to sink after noticing the situation of the surrounding shelters.

“…There are no more left.”

“Hoooooo. Tsk, whew.”

It had already been 15 cycles since the Black Sun didn’t rise.

The number of candles that melted down in the meantime was hundreds.

As a result of searching the surroundings doing our best, a total of 1640 people gathered in Bakumsia where we are staying, but that was it.

There were no more survivors.

Even if there were, their locations were in despairing places.

The number not secured yet was approximately 400.

Both Shek, who was reborn as a full-fledged Holy Knight, and the old priest Bartol frowned looking at the place where the flame meaning 400 people was located.

“Are you saying there are still this many people left in the capital?”

“Considering what kind of beings succubi are, I’m just worried. I hope they are fine…”

“No. You shouldn’t think of it simply like that.”

The one who cut off the worried sigh and stepped forward was Ryugen.

He, who had fought a terrifying melee while escaping the capital, knew the situation of the capital better than anyone else.

“There must still be living mages left in the capital. Those who yielded to the Great Demon.”

“Do you think the succubi would have left them alone?”

“I am thinking they might use the same trick as that time.”

“The same trick…”

“The trick of pretending to be normal survivors, mixing in the group, and inciting chaos.”

Ryugen’s pupils harbored a fierce murderous intent.

“We cannot distinguish them one by one while racing against time. If worse comes to worst, we must kill them all.”

“That’s!”

Bartol seemed shocked by Ryugen’s remark.

It’s not that the others didn’t feel displeasure.

They just kept their mouths shut because he gave a reasonable basis in his own way.

Eventually, people’s gazes soon focused on one place.

“Star Creation.”

“Great Godfather of Stars, we wait for your will.”

It’s not that what Ryugen said makes no sense.

However, I didn’t forget my goal.

Relief, not victory.

I vaguely guessed the reason why the Dream-Shedding Eye was gathering the living in the capital, and I intended to oppose it.

“Among those who are not Holy Knights, those who wish to fight number 600. Anniel and Ceciel must stay in the rear and defend Bakumsia, so it is right to exclude them from our forces. However, do not let your guard down.”

Although they were armed with the help of the Deductive Constellation, their actual combat experience was absurdly lacking.

The practical fighting force would be the roughly 30 Holy Knights.

What I was wary of was the sacrificial ritual the Dream-Shedding Eye would be preparing.

“The Dream-Shedding Eye was one previously called the Priest King. He knows the esoteric secrets of the Pantheon quite well, but after being captivated by the abyss, it became impossible to realize them. Although it’s not like there is absolutely no way to bypass it. He seems to be aiming for that now.”

“Bypass? Is that possible?”

“Mages, too, going back, were priests who served the Pantheon. Those who split off over methodology or interpretation and pursued independent esoteric secrets.”

The origins of the Great Demons could be known to some extent if you had an interest in the [Last Comet] worldview.

Furthermore, now that I inherited Exchanging Knowledge, I completely understood what kind of being the Dream-Shedding Eye was.

And what this insidious Great Demon would plot in the capital.

“The Dream-Shedding Eye will prepare an ascension ritual in the capital with the help of the mages.”

A monster created at the end of a twisted envy towards light.

A demon moving solely by selfish desires without any thought of burning itself.

Even the arrogant Sun God had his own standards.

If it were me, I would have refused to let him ascend to a star too.

“Therefore, we advance to the capital, thwart the Great Demon’s ascension ritual, and relieve as many people as possible.”

Punish the one trying to become a star by burning others instead of himself.

It was the first holy war of the Nebula Church.