Chapter 9 – Antipode

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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I thrust the wave away by swinging my hand.

It was a desperate hand movement to preserve the city that was submerging into the shadows of the deep, deep abyss.

-Protection miracle, Barrier.

-Bestowal miracle, Stability.

Not all monsters jumped onto the roofs.

I diverted their flowing direction by blocking the roads and alleyways with barriers, and reduced their numbers by instantly smashing them down with my hand when they were grouped together.

Even if victory were my Divine Name, if the situation was this dire, I would absolutely never awaken it.

Indomitable… Similar, but no.

The proof was that I failed to instill a strong will in the people.

Just in case, I even considered negative aspects like massacre, death, and negligence, but they were all incorrect.

The price for that was simple.

“It, it is narrowing down!”

“O-light-please-do-not-yield-lead-us-to-brightness…”

Anxiety dwelled in the voices of the people defending the chapel and the palisade down below.

The boundary where the light reached was being pushed back little by little, little by little.

The cause lay in the Black Sun rising toward its peak.

The closer the Black Sun advanced toward the center, the more the city submerged into the Dark Light.

In the shade that lost its light and escaped human perception just like that, demons and monsters poured out, piercing through the thin film surrounding the world.

Its range widened more and more.

Noon.

Just as the shade disappeared when the sun rose to its highest, the moment when the sunny spots would completely vanish was approaching this time.

Above all, the bigger problem was the composition of the swarming monsters.

Just then, Bartol, who had left taking care of the children to Ad, rushed out to the palisade panting.

“How are things going? What do you see?”

While continuously batting away the Corpse Demons, it was then that I felt something.

A sensation as if tiny, minute grains of sand were crumbling in my grasp.

“Just earlier, it felt like the cl, clouds moved.”

“It is hard to hear well because they are crying out from all directions, but… I think I heard the sound of bugs.”

Unlike me who felt it through my senses, Bartol merely guessed its identity after hearing the words of the guards defending the palisade.

“A moving bug cloud… Witlak!”

A bastard disgustingly tricky to deal with had arrived.

And at the same time, a gaze different from the Black Sun was felt.

[You too are a stillborn child.]

***

People felt that the world had ended, but it was slightly different from the truth.

Although the light and the forces of heaven were defeated, and the majority of people died, it had not ended yet. The fact that they were still prolonging their lives was the proof.

If the world had truly ended, everyone would have died without even being able to breathe.

The reason the world was somehow maintained even when gods, angels, and countless heroes and armies besides them were smashed was simple.

You could think of it like the imperialist powers of the past fighting over concessions deciding the fate of a weak nation.

The Sun God had to stand by as an onlooker as the price for borrowing power to become the sole celestial body, and the demons were fighting amongst themselves to claim more human souls.

Besides that, most of the gods who died in the battle or fled from heaven went into hiding or were eaten.

Among the eaten gods, there was the divinity of life, and the demon who ate that divinity of life was exactly this one.

[I see you stepped forward being pushed into it without even knowing your Divine Name, how pitiful. You are alive but no different from being dead, so as a mother, I can only feel sorry for you.]

It was the Holy Mother of Stillborns, who could be called the mother of all Corpse Demon hordes.

Even in the game, she was famous for spouting nonsense complaining that she was your mother. Naturally, befitting the big boss of Corpse Demon-type demons, her appearance was also foul.

There was even a joke going around saying you had to commit filial impiety against your parents to play Last Comet.

Normally I would not listen to such nonsense, but she was pulling her horde back to have a conversation.

Not to mention the Corpse Demons and all sorts of sub-species that had been stubbornly swarming in, even the demons seemed to cower out of fear of interrupting their monarch’s words.

The method of opening up a conversation was also truly demon-like.

I lowered my arm that had been constantly swinging around and complied with her intention.

“What do you want to say.”

[Do you know the prophecy arranged for you, child.]

There was no way I did not know. It was a prophecy pointing to the player.

Beneath the pitch-black night sky where all the stars fell and nothing remained, the last god is born in the dying world beneath the Dark Light of the Black Sun.

The Holy Mother of Stillborns interpreted this aphorism in her own way.

[A posthumous child born from the bosom of a dead mother. A premature child born as a god but failed to become a god. Since you are an incomplete life, that is why you are called a stillborn child.]

She spun her parental insults quite elegantly, too.

However, the Holy Mother of Stillborns had already pierced through my true identity and limits.

[That anxiety and impatience… It is absolutely not fearing defeat. You have not awakened your Divine Name yet.]

“Is that a threat?”

[Be embraced in my bosom. As my adopted and biological child, obtain a name and a role, and lead the believers who will have eternal life.]

It was an offer not even worth a second thought.

I asked back while preparing for the fight again.

“And if I refuse.”

[It will be the same fate.]

At that moment, the voice echoing in my head began to turn into letters.

Soon, the letters disbanded into lines repeatedly and eventually completed a single illusion.

A hide where the bone structure was explicitly exposed because it was so emaciated. The figure of a woman wearing a jet-black veil like a widow unfastened her clothes.

Then, trapped beyond the bluish-gray skin covered with protruding blue veins following the ribs, the outline of a heart was seen.

…Even though its appearance was a bit too bizarre to be called a heart.

[Eok, eoeuk, eok.]

[The cycle of life and death changed into eternal life without circulation. Look, child. The miracle of eternal life. The end of the hypocrite who turned a blind eye to tragedy.]

The screaming shape of a human was trapped beneath the hide. He cried out and tried to flee, but it was a useless endeavor since he had already become a heart.

The God of Life who was eaten was tied to densely connected blood vessels, twisting his whole body in agony.

The illusion ended after showing only up to here.

The horrifying sight shown by the Holy Mother of Stillborns disbanded back into lines, returned to letters, and shortly after back to a voice.

At its base, naturally, lay the arrogance assuming I would accept the offer.

[O stillborn child in the Dark Light, be embraced in your mother’s bosom. If you do, everyone shall praise our tolerance.]

Hearing this coaxing, I looked around completely.

They were bastards rotting from taking friendly bites out of each other. I doubted the sanity of the opponent who thought I would be persuaded by looking at these guys.

Not even a speck of hesitation was needed to return an answer.

“Fuck off, you fucker.”

[….]

“I do not associate with guys like you.”

I felt the voyeuristic gaze disappearing.

At the same time, the monsters that had been obediently holding their ground began to move again. As soon as she realized the negotiation broke down, she revealed her hostility. She seemed to feel that her so-called generous offer was insulted but… the one who was truly wronged was me.

If I wanted to look handsome, I would put a knife to my face, what crazy bastard would go all-in on a gamble where the best result was just becoming a bag of bones.

During this process, just in case, I tried resisting with somewhat strong words, but as expected, my Divine Name was neither rebellion nor immorality.

And the cost of resolving to fight back without awakening my Divine Name arrived quickly.

=To refuse when you possess the qualification to be saved.=

=To kick away the position of the one and only son? How dare a lowly bastard like you?=

It was different from the offensive until now.

The human-centipede-shaped demons crawling on the roofs became assertive. Of course, they were not guys strong enough that I could not kill them.

Just as I instantly killed Taxculi whose name was listed in the Book of Demons, I could also instantly kill the guys crawling over with rustling sounds in indignation.

Bang.

I crushed one of the guys squeezing through the barrier just like that. Guys flying straight at me twisting their bodies were struck away and killed just like that.

However, while paying attention to those guys, the envelopment network of the Corpse Demons surrounding the Bell Tower began to naturally become denser.

The most concerning thing was none other than the Black Sun.

Why the demons stayed still, and why they were confident of victory even while constantly getting hit… All those reasons lay in the Black Sun.

“Everyone to the inside of the chapel! It will be useless for us to defend the palisade anyway!”

“Do not try to protect the torches, run away!”

Bartol’s judgment was appropriate.

When the Black Sun positioned itself at the dead center of the sky, the places the Dark Light did not reach disappeared. The only exceptions were completely inside the buildings protected by roofs.

Even from the relatively safe Mansion’s direction, a foul stench was wafting over.

Anxiety, fear, despair.

Even that meticulous Madam Hwen was in a state of not knowing what to do, falling into a panic.

I had to constantly shove away the approaching demons and monsters while even delivering instructions.

“Hide inside the Mansion, do not come out until the sounds cease! All their forces will be concentrated on me!”

It was not only our field of vision that the Dark Light obstructed.

I could feel all sorts of monsters popping out one after another, tearing the thin film of the boundary between the world and other worlds.

Every time I killed one by one, the numbers surrounding me multiplied exponentially.

From a certain moment, there was no gap to even use miracles. The moment I stopped wielding divine power for even a single second, I was broken through just like that. My physical prowess and knowledge as a veteran who had played the game quite a bit were useless in front of this volume.

There were no allies or friends to rely on.

At some point, I had become the only light beneath the Black Sun that reached its peak.

A world where flesh and bones were pulverized and only screams and groans tumbled around.

Among the people who had only been holding their breath and swallowing dry saliva until now, a familiar voice opened its mouth.

“I wanted to see the stars.”

A god could see everything in their surroundings.

Even if their eyes were not directed that way.

I saw the murmuring people turning their heads toward the man who opened his mouth.

Toddle. The man who had been offering his son and other children to recover the angel was picking up the glass knife he dropped once again.

Watching that action, Ad picked up a piece of wooden plank scattered on the ground and growled.

“You. Do not approach the children. I also have a weapon.”

“I just wanted to see the stars again. The stars my child missed. I wanted to see them in his stead at least.”

Both of Toddle’s hands gripped the dirtied glass knife.

“Stop even now. Toddle… If you know it is wrong, you must stop.”

Bartol reasoned with him, but the grip strength on the hand holding the glass knife did not loosen by doing so.

“It is a relief heaven disappeared.”

What Toddle was trying to do was not offering the children.

“…Because I will not have to make excuses to those children.”

It was offering himself.

Soon, before everyone could stop him, Toddle held the glass knife in a reverse grip without an ounce of hesitation. He stabbed his own neck with the glass blade that had become bumpy due to encrusted blood scabs.

The last words Toddle left could only be heard by me, not by people.

-I thought it would be better than being dragged away by the demons.

It was remorse, not an excuse.

Even while rationalizing himself, Toddle ultimately could not discard his guilt. He spat out the words he dared not bring out while alive as if confessing them to me only after dying.

It was an absolutely unforgivable action, but I could understand that reason at least.

Because wishing for light in the sky was not a sin.

…It was the moment my intuition, which had not reacted no matter what I did until now, pulsed.

The foundation of life.

The human instinct to feel relieved beneath the light.

The reason they waited for the sun every day when the world sank into darkness.

And…

The reason they looked up at the night sky and yearned.

I looked at the sky while recalling all this.

At the pitch-black sky where all the stars had fallen.

Then, the memories and lives that died in the ruined city, whose owners had not yet been decided, began to bloom up in billows.

Like a dust cloud blooming due to rough horse hooves, or like a water fog settling in at dawn.

Although the colors might differ slightly, and the lights might be faint, they were sparkling sufficiently. Repeating becoming dull then bright, sometimes rejoicing and sorrowing, sometimes resigning and anticipating.

They were clouds that would look like mere grains of sand if you did not look closely.

“…Light?”

A soliloquy whispered by someone bound the dust cloud together.

The majority might consider it trivial, but if these clouds gathered in one place, they could be called by another name.

Nebula.

I grabbed and compressed that Nebula with my grasp, and looked down at the universe revealed through the melting shell of a human, confirming my Divine Name.

When I opened my hand again, what floated above my hand could no longer be dismissed as mere dust.

A star that did not lose its light even within the Dark Light of the Black Sun was grasped in my hand.

I raised my hand to send that star off, to shoot it up into the sky.

“Star Creation!”