Chapter 91 – Fighting for God (2)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Shek recalled the time a long time ago when he used to frequent temples holding his parents’ hands.

The childhood years when he would doze off during the boring and long sermons delivered by the kind-faced priest.

The memory of tears welling up every time his parents’ knuckles struck his head that he dropped while dozing is vivid.

Every moment he was sharply scolded, Shek only thought of one thing in his head.

It would be better to be running around and playing with friends during this time.

This disappointment grew even deeper when he was looking at the sunny weather outside.

His brother, whom the adults praised enough to dry their mouths saying he had become mature, was no different.

‘Why on earth do we have to do such boring things.’

‘Do you think so too, brother?’

‘Didn’t you know? Shall I teach you the method to sleep with your eyes open?’

Eventually, unable to hold back his questions, Shek visited the priest separately.

To throw an impious question that would shock anyone who heard it.

Why do humans believe in gods.

Depending on the interpretation, he could have been driven as a heretic.

It was a world where even a young child was punished if they doubted their faith.

However, even while putting on a perplexed expression, the priest handed over an answer that even the young Shek could easily understand.

An answer that was excessively simple, but perhaps pierced the core.

‘The reason humans have faith in gods is because gods are much stronger than humans.’

‘Are they strong?’

‘Yes. Because they are strong enough that no one can dare to covet them, and because everyone follows the rules they decided, we serve them.’

‘If… the rules are not correct.’

‘Of course there will be people who complain. However, knowing the strength of the god, they do not dare to stand against them and conform by understanding and complying.’

Priests come into contact with god’s miracles more often than anyone else.

So he knew bone-deep just how different beings gods and humans were.

‘Because they give answers that convince everyone, they are gods. Because they possess strength that cannot but be understood, they are gods.’

Unfortunately, the gods were not as strong as expected.

On the day the meteor shower fell, every god in heaven threw away and abandoned the believers who believed in and followed them and fled.

The noble will that was said to never bend was nowhere to be found.

Because of this, he might have vaguely considered the existence of gods to be trivial.

Despite the numerous miracles bestowed upon him, a fundamental skepticism was situated in a corner of his heart.

And now, Shek realized once again why a god is called a god.

Flash-!

A pure white light emitting light on top of the capital’s city walls.

In response to it, the sky shatters, and before long, even the ground he stepped on begins to shake.

The roar enough to tear the eardrums swallowed even the final screams people let out.

The ground crosses and splits.

A world wailing, filled with fierce tinnitus.

The shadow of vines digging into the people snatched by the dense dust.

Hungry monsters run across the night, revealing sharp claws and teeth.

Disasters far transcending the resolve of a warrior who vowed to fight were rushing in all at once.

Eventually, before long, the boundaries of all things blurred dizzily.

At this moment, Shek returned to being a coward, not a Holy Knight.

Tears flowed profusely over both cheeks stained with dust.

“Ugh, ah. Uuuuugh.”

The days he was helpless before the swarming monsters fill his head.

The memories of hiding and trembling dizzily to avoid the groups coveting the living remained as deep scars.

Courage and sacrifice only lead to regret and pain after death.

The world was in the middle of collapsing.

The virtues that humans built up by living together were struggling even to maintain their names and forms.

Shek eventually thought he would succumb to fear.

No matter how strong I’ve become, my heart is still just that of a loser who lived while running away and hiding.

And around the time the self-blaming voice was filling his head.

The fierce tinnitus that had been filling the surroundings at some point was subsiding.

The moment the tinnitus that had been disgustingly pounding on the eardrums subsided, what was heard was someone’s scream.

Aaaaaaaaaaargh…

It spread faintly as if listening beyond a thick wall, but he could tell.

However, the sound heard the loudest was not the scream someone else let out.

Thump.

His heart was beating madly.

Thump, thump.

The clear pulsation he hadn’t heard because he was distracted only by the fierce tinnitus, and because he was captivated by old fears.

Every time the heart took a powerful leap, the fear that was encircling his whole body was peeled off.

The heart forged with stardust was whispering with a powerful pulsation.

[O you who were petitioning your helplessness, show your will.]

The voice that held onto his life that should have ended a long time ago and guided him to this place.

The sky he only used to look up at and envy with his brother when he was young was coming down right next to him and speaking.

[If you only show your will.]

He draws the lightsaber from his hand.

He tightly gripped the miracle his god, whom he only met after reaching the end of days, gave without stint.

He took one step, back.

And raised his sword.

-Bestow Miracle, Sideral Rotation

“Praise the Great Godfather of Stars, the young father!”

His madly beating heart caught time.

A miracle that allows one to feel and walk a different time from the opponent.

It was a miracle that one should willingly use their lifespan as collateral for, but the one taking that recoil was not himself.

The one paying the price for raising a human to the level of a superhuman was his own god.

[I will give you as much power as you want.]

The rift in the ground splitting and opening.

Shek leapt lightly across that bottomless pit and surveyed the surroundings.

Swung vines and tentacles were aiming for the flustered people.

Hoooooo…

A hot breath enough to make the surroundings heat up.

Shortly when Shek, having breathed in, took a step, numerous sword strikes sparkled under the starlight and drew long tails.

Slash, slash-.

As the blade of the lightsaber hacked down the hostility, the screams and tinnitus sounds also subsided.

[I promise you life, power, and even your fate after death.]

The first to overcome the panic were the Holy Knights led by Shek.

As those closest to god, it was natural.

The Holy Knights saw the cataclysmically changed surrounding environment and immediately took action.

“Do not try to cluster by force, each form a unit! If you try to move by force while earthquakes are constantly occurring, you’ll only take more damage! Handel, Mark! Each take one unit, lead them and stop the assault!”

“W, what about the Commander?”

“Are we in a position to worry about the Commander?”

At Mark’s tearful voice, the instructing Holy Knight Erdon glanced and pointed with his chin over there.

In that place was already Shek, who was walking in another time.

A Holy Knight who was slicing away all attacks aiming for the people with his blade, that is.

Even among fellow Holy Knights, the level is different.

Mark and Erdon were distracted by that mythical martial prowess and almost missed the ground splitting.

Rumbbbbbble…

The earth was continuing to be finely fragmented.

It wasn’t a simple disaster.

The Holy Knights guessed what the Great Demon who usurped the god’s authority was plotting.

“The other members must have noticed too, right?”

“Each person, one unit. Stop the assault with minimum damage.”

“Defeating individually, huh…”

The glares of those who overcame the panic were no longer captivated by fear.

“Let’s watch and see who gets defeated individually.”

At that moment, the world was covered in pure white light once more.

Even for a Great Demon, if they use a god’s authority, they cannot be ignored.

The Holy Knights shrank their bodies unconsciously, being wary if a second attack was coming.

It didn’t take long to realize there was no malice in the light encircling the surroundings.

Rumbbbbbble…

The ground that was being finely fragmented twisted once more.

A vibration ringing powerfully enough to think it might collapse like this.

However, the Holy Knights were no longer afraid.

“Do not forget, if our enemy is a god.”

Whooooooosh-.

The rift in the split ground began to be filled with collapsing soil and sand.

The sheer cliffs near the bottomless pit were being scraped hard.

By the sharpest blade in the world, the river water surging up from that ground.

“Our ally is also a god.”

Who was stronger was obvious.

The speed at which water was filling up was much faster than the speed at which the ground was splitting.

The rushing tentacles and vines belatedly threw the ones they caught into the abyss as a final struggle, but the result was the same.

Aaaaaaaaaaargh…

The scream that rang through the endless underground was soon buried in the loud sound of water.

“Ugh, pfft, pfft! W, water?!”

“H… Help! I can’t swim!”

“It’s really water. Really…”

Rather than being in pain from the impact of the collision, they are more surprised by the fact that they are alive.

The soaking wet people didn’t even realize the fact that they were being pushed by the surging river water and going up to the surface again.

It was exactly at this time that the night sky wavered as if in rage.

Flash-!

A pure white light is emitted once again from on top of the capital’s city walls.

The ominous omen soon brought about an unimaginable disaster.

The night sky begins to swell like a rotten leather pouch.

The sky was sinking while harboring distorted starlight instead of clear blood vessels.

What can one say looking at the collapsing sky.

Before a phenomenon much harsher than expected, people just looked up blankly.

It was so until another light sparkled.

Whoooooooosh-!

The overwhelming amount of light was about to burn the optic nerves.

A pure white light that could not be hidden even with tightly closed eyelids.

People opened their eyes again only after shedding tears profusely.

“W, was I mistaken?”

“The sky was collapsing.”

“It’s because everyone is nervous. Keep your heads on straight, who do you think the opponent is, some group of bandits!”

“Ah, ah. Yeah. I should, I should…”

At the urging voice, they awkwardly assume combat stances.

Then, the vines moved quickly as if anxious.

It was a desperate struggle to snatch and drop even just one person.

Whack-.

“Ee, eeek! Get, off!”

The one snatched by the vines struck down with all his might with a spear shaft, but it was useless.

Crunch, crunch.

The thorny vines caught the victim’s ankle while even denting the armor.

“S… Someone help!”

“Jan!”

“If you’re holding an ax, come over!”

In a single breath, it even wound around the torso and made him kneel.

The vine, knowing the river water would catch him even if thrown, showcased cruelty.

It forcibly grabbed the victim’s head and struck it down on the ground several times.

Thud, thud, thud, thud.

Those who came to help struck the vines with axes urgently, but they lacked experience.

Cutting down a tough, tough vine, that too a vine made with god’s power, was an impossible task without proper training.

“Ugh, kack…”

“It won’t cut. Shit, it won’t cut!”

“Ack, ugh.”

At that moment, fog rushed in.

Water fog blossomed from the river water that tightly filled the rifts in the split earth.

The fog covered the surroundings densely in the blink of an eye.

Within the thick fog where one couldn’t distinguish a single inch ahead, what stabilized the people was the voices of the Holy Knights heard from afar.

“Do not fear, it is the fog commanded by Star Creation!”

It was exactly as they said.

The fog that rushed in all at once receded all at once.

And in the place where the fog had stayed, only dry and twisted vines remained.

Along with the blood-stained victim.

“Jan, are you alive?!”

“Bring him inside and check!”

“What?”

The glare that had become sharp at the fact that they might lose someone they knew wavered the moment they saw beyond the darkness.

It is self-evident how an enemy whose miracles have all been thwarted will come out.

Below the capital’s city walls, monsters running dizzily were visible.

It was simultaneous with the overbearing voice heard, which instantly pressed down the people.

[Tear them apart. Drop them one by one and hunt them one by one. Reduce even one of the group following the god who creates stars!]

However, the people were no longer afraid.

[The petition has been fulfilled. You, reflect on what you are fighting for.]

Their own god is stronger than the opponent’s god.

They couldn’t serve a god who was weak and fled while trembling, but if it was a god stronger than anyone else, the story was different.

Even amidst the cataclysm shaking the world, the number of dead was countable on fingers.

Someone emboldened by that fact shouted.

“For the last god, for the young father who is with us!”

Realizing that this is a sacrifice praising god.

A fight for god.