Chapter 250 (Complete)

In the dark of night, a boy ran through the nighttime forest.

Holding in his arms his sister, who had not yet even been weaned.

“Haah, hah…… Ugh!”

The boy, moving by the dim moonlight, tripped on a tree root he hadn’t seen and fell.

Even then, the best he could do was spin his body so he wouldn’t crush his sister.

“Ugh……”

Was his ankle broken?

A scorching pain that felt like fire or like lightning had struck through him seeped in, making it utterly impossible to rise.

As he sat there, not long after, the sound of clanking came from behind and men carrying torches and swords appeared.

They were vampire knights with red eyes and prominent fangs.

“My, you ran away tremendously fast.”

“Well, being the demon of the prophecy, I suppose. Quickly finish him off.”

A year ago, the advisor to the largest kingdom in the world had prophesied.

That because of a human infant soon to be born, the king would lose eternal life and the noble bloodline would be trampled by slaves.

Their world was one where the sun did not rise, and vampires reigned as nobles, keeping humans as food and livestock.

That prophecy was no different from saying the world was coming to an end.

Enraged, the king ordered his subordinates to kill all young human slaves throughout the kingdom.

Most had meekly handed over their children, but people like the boy’s parents had defied this and escaped from the farm they had been living on.

After a chase of several weeks, the boy’s parents were captured by the vampire knights and lost their lives.

Leaving only him and his still-young sister.

The vampire knights spoke leisurely over their caught prey.

“What should we do with this one? He seems too old to be the demon of the prophecy.”

“The hunt took too many food supplies. Drain the male just enough and leave him alive. Kill the baby.”

The boy clutched his sister tighter to prevent her from being taken.

The sensation of her squirming restlessly within his arms was vivid.

‘Please, help me.’

Saying that, he knew well that there was no one who would help.

The rulers of this world were those cruel vampires, and humans were nothing more than their slaves.

Since the abyss clouds had covered the sky and prevented sunlight from hitting the surface, the humans with physical and mental fortitude strong enough to resist were the first to be drained dead or enslaved.

As he thus despaired, a voice he had never heard before reached him.

[Do you need power?]

A strange voice that seemed like it could be a young man a few years older than him, or an elder of about a hundred.

It even felt less like someone speaking directly and more like a voice coming from within his own heart.

Brief wonder as to what this was, and then the boy saw the enemies walking steadily toward him.

Did they need power?

What a question.

“Yes.”

[I will give it, in exchange for your soul. Will you accept?]

At those words, the boy could instinctively understand what it meant to offer his soul to the voice.

It meant his entire life going forward, and even after death, would be subordinate to the owner of that voice.

After a brief hesitation, the boy answered.

“……I want it.”

[Now that you have entered within my fence, I will protect you as is right.]

At those words, an unknown power, and the knowledge to wield it, seeped into the boy’s mind.

The boy extended his hand toward the vampires approaching him with a blank expression and murmured.

“……Shepherd of young lambs, please bestow the light to punish them.”

A bright light flared from the boy’s hands.

The light of the sun that eliminates all vampires — light that had not appeared in this world for hundreds of years since the abyss clouds descended.

“This–”

“NOOOO!”

Though they were vampire knights capable of effortlessly tearing thousands of strong humans apart, before that light they could only burn helplessly.

Because it was the sun itself, the power that rightfully restores their cursed lives.

“Ah……”

The shepherd’s first sheepdog shuddered, realizing the power he had obtained was not merely enough to save one younger sister.

The vampire king would meet ruin because of a newborn child, just as the prophecy said.

* * *

‘Another one more.’

Turan, drifting in the void beyond the world, sensed that another contract had been forged within him.

Some boy who had received his authority gave his own soul in return.

The contract just completed was quite pleasing.

Because the boy’s devotion in offering even his own soul to protect his sister in an extreme situation resonated with the values Turan pursued.

As such, rather than using the soul he had gained this time to control the boy at will, he quietly swallowed it within himself.

It would become a resource that, slowly dissolved over a long time to come, would elevate his own rank.

When he finished the internal accounting and opened his eyes, the empty void still stretched in all directions.

A space of chaos where even Turan himself couldn’t guarantee survival if carelessly thrown in.

What protected him here was only the ash-grey branch positioned beneath his feet.

Astride it, Turan moved slowly toward the next world.

‘Terribly slow, truly……’

Having absorbed all the Moon-Devouring Bird’s power and created a new soul, he could tell he had finally created a true soul as others in many worlds had, and that its rank was remarkably high.

The problem was that thanks to this elevated rank, the speed of movement along the corridor had slowed to an absurd degree.

If it used to take a few minutes to a few hours to cross one corridor, it now took at minimum dozens to hundreds of days.

Considering that his power hadn’t grown dozens or hundreds of times stronger, the weight of a soul seemed to be somewhat inefficiently heavy compared to a spirit form.

Or perhaps the combination of an Essence being and a soul formed a more complex system.

In any case, he could now clearly understand why it had taken the Moon-Devouring Bird, which had possessed a soul even more powerful than his, nearly a hundred years to come invade the Cradle.

In his current state it was already like this — if it had to travel a greater distance even more slowly, that would make sense.

Thanks to this, he wasn’t even worried about beings stronger than them — whatever they were calling the Beast Queen — invading the Cradle.

If a being far more powerful than him now would need truly tens of thousands of years or more to cross, that was simply not worth the effort even for transcendents with their long lifespans.

Now all that remained for Turan was returning safely to the Cradle.

What he began in passing during that process was doing as he was doing now — communicating with mortals in the closed worlds he passed through who were spiritually aligned with himself, and sharing power through contracts.

The terms of the deal were simple.

What the contractor must offer was not a portion of the power within the soul or anything like that — only the soul in its entirety.

It was impossible to substitute another person’s, and only completely one’s own could be used.

The price for having offered everything of oneself was the Cradle World’s magic, worked from ‘the key to omnipotence.’

Considering that typical transcendents could only bestow the power they themselves possessed, the versatility was beyond comparison.

It was as if a single being was bestowing sacred sunlight, deadly poison, raging flames, and biting frost all together.

The individuals who matched the frequency and received power in this way were varied.

A boy protecting his sister in a world of vampires, an orphanage director standing against a gang kidnapping children, a lord who took up his sword against enemies to save the city he loved.

Those who had used Turan’s power to save what was precious to them soon spread his divine name — ‘Shepherd of Young Lambs’ — to others.

Thanks to this, he was able to create followers in some of the closed worlds he passed through and exert influence.

Additionally, the power of the soul obtained in this way created another possibility for him.

He came to know how to handle ‘concepts’ just like the transcendents of other worlds.

Originally, no matter how powerful the fire raised by the Cradle’s ascendants, it was fire, and no matter how cold the chill, it was chill.

They could only pull trivial tricks like making things burn better or preventing flames from going out with the power contained within.

However, now by mixing in the newly acquired power of the soul, he was able to add unusual concepts to phenomena.

Like flames that only burn living things, or cold that freezes even time itself.

The power of the Moon-Devouring Bird that had interfered with his recovery was probably something of this nature as well.

Moving through time that may have been months or years, Turan became more and more absorbed in wielding the new power.

Of course during all this he didn’t miss monitoring the actions of those who had contracted with him.

Among the changes that arose as his rank elevated from gaining a soul, one was that his mind had expanded considerably beyond before.

He was now capable of calculating complex numbers in his head while simultaneously singing and writing a book.

Analyzing what dozens of contractors were doing while practicing magic was no difficult thing.

Fortunately most of the first contractors were generally alright, but among others who contracted through their referrals there were quite a few who tried to use his power for wicked purposes.

Whenever that happened, Turan punished them by manipulating their souls.

Those with comparatively lighter offenses he admonished with moderate pain, and those who seemed beyond redemption he simply claimed their lives.

Because of this, some became reluctant to contract with the ‘Shepherd of Young Lambs,’ but since he had no intention of receiving the souls of dishonorable people anyway, it didn’t matter.

This was, so to speak, a kind of supplemental income.

While thus disciplining his contractors and refining his new authority, sometimes he would also gaze blankly up at the void.

‘I miss them.’

Meisa and Ruska, Solif, Asiz……

The faces of his wife, son, and friends would rise and fade beyond the empty void in the distance.

Sitting blankly staring at nothing in the empty void for months to years — a normal person would go mad with less.

He thought that if he hadn’t been creating contractors and observing their lives, it would have been quite a terrible time.

Chatting with Bije from time to time was also quite helpful.

Traveling and overcoming boredom like that for ten or so years.

Finally arriving in a world about two steps from the Cradle, Turan was able to see Meisa who had come out to meet him.

“Turan!”

“Meisa?”

Before he could even say ‘how did you get here,’ she approached and drew him into an embrace and kissed him.

At the warm touch and sweet sensation he hadn’t felt in the past several years, Turan quietly closed his eyes.

“You came knowing in advance?”

“The word had spread everywhere. That the Shepherd of Young Lambs was spreading his faith.”

“Ahh……”

At her gaze asking why he had been dawdling instead of coming quickly once it was finished, Turan made a sheepish expression.

A while later, having explained why he was late, Meisa apologized for being needlessly confrontational toward someone who had taken a hard road.

“It’s alright. It’s true I was late. Are the others doing well?”

“All sorts of things keeping everyone busy. So, how long will it take to get back from here?”

“Probably a few months.”

Fortunately, the worlds adjacent to the Cradle seemed to have fairly short corridors, so it seemed they could return quickly.

“Then do you want to go ahead?”

“Why would I?”

“Well……”

There was no need for Meisa, who could cross in a few hours at most, to be stuck in the void for months.

Especially since she couldn’t even relieve boredom by peeking at contractors’ lives like Turan himself could.

Meisa snorted at this as if it were absurd.

“Stop talking nonsense. Why would I be bored when I’m with you? Were you perhaps bored when you were with me?”

“As if.”

Thinking that now hearing it, it truly had been nonsense, Turan burst out laughing and threw himself into the corridor embracing Meisa.

While slowly moving toward the Cradle, they quenched the thirst accumulated from not meeting for a long time.

How amusing it was that even an ascendant who handled Essence, and even a divine being beyond that who spread their authority across multiple worlds and intervened, was still bound by mere desire.

Of course, it wasn’t as though they had truly spent that entire long journey entwined like animals.

They had enough self-control to not, even if they could if they wished.

They discussed the soul’s power Turan had newly obtained, and debated how he should treat his contractors.

“Would it be good for me to also obtain something like a soul?”

“It would be good, but I don’t know how you’d go about getting one.”

Unlike Turan, who had digested the Moon-Devouring Bird’s soul by absorbing its power and made it his own, there was no transcendent for Meisa to devour in such a manner.

And the probability of one not appearing in the future was also high.

Word had already been spreading to various worlds that the Moon-Devouring Bird, that dreadful apocalyptic bird, had met its end in some remote world.

If she really wanted one, there was also the method of raising and devouring beings with souls — that is, Earth’s people — and slowly forming a soul over a very long time……

“Don’t joke. You’d put on a straight face if I said I’d actually do it.”

“True enough.”

At Meisa’s rebuke, Turan answered with a smile.

Because if she were truly the type to covet the souls of countless humans for power, he wouldn’t even be bringing it up.

“Or there’s a second alternative. Sharing my soul with you.”

“Wouldn’t that be bad for you?”

“I can continue to replenish my power anyway.”

As the dozens of contractors who had been contracted during the return to the Cradle continued spreading out like propagating branches growing their numbers, Turan’s soul would continue to grow stronger.

Even if a portion were separated, it would recover again with time.

And now that there was no enemy to immediately come attacking here either, there was no need to be impatient.

“Still, I feel sorry about……”

“What is there to be sorry about? I actually like it.”

Saying with a smile how romantic it was that they would be partners who had literally shared their souls, Meisa watching Turan burst out laughing.

* * *

“You’ve returned, Father.”

“You’ve worked hard.”

A few months later, Turan, finally returned to the Cradle’s boundary, first exchanged greetings with Ruska who had come to welcome him.

He also spoke with Solif and Asiz and other ascendants and heard updates on recent news, though in truth he had already heard it all from Meisa.

“A daughter, they say?”

“That’s how it turned out. Already three years old. And her godfather hasn’t even seen her face yet.”

“I’ll have to go see her soon.”

Solif grumbling like that, despite having become a father for a child, didn’t seem to have changed much.

Well, if parenthood was going to make him more mature, he would have become so long before now.

Not only that — after sharing various stories, such as Ruska finally getting a positive signal from Mila after decades of courting, and Asiz being turned down again, Turan turned his gaze toward the barrier blocking between the material world and the boundary.

“Was this something Ruska put up?”

“We all helped too, but well as you can see……”

The current world barrier had been created using the power scattered in the process of Turan absorbing the barrier that had originally existed.

Perhaps because those who hadn’t originally had ownership over it had handled it haphazardly, it was considerably more unstable than before — if the original form had been a solid hard wall, it now looked like rippling water.

Turan extended his hand and instantly absorbed and eliminated the unstable world barrier.

Whether thanks to the presence further accumulated over ten-plus years, or thanks to the soul’s power, he could control it all.

“Oh……”

“If that’s removed, can’t everything down there see us now?”

“We’d just look like shadows so it’s fine, Uncle.”

Thinking that just as Solif and Ruska said, their forms were now visible from the surface, it seemed better to deal with it quickly.

It would already be a source of anxiety what with the previous invasion.

Turan released the absorbed Essence immediately to form the world barrier again.

It was not a wall in a form close to a barrier made purely of Essence as before.

The result of incorporating the power obtained in the process of absorbing the Moon-Devouring Bird’s power, and mixing in the power gained from digesting the souls of various contractors, with a concept bestowed.

A barrier in the shape of a fence honed from starlight surrounded the world, and a shepherd with a staff in one hand and a sling in the other, with a golden eagle on his shoulder, made its circuit around the perimeter.

“Done.”

The guardian created this way, the world’s shepherd, standing watch would mean the ascendants wouldn’t need to take turns patrolling the boundary as before.

When this was announced, everyone rejoiced greatly.

Walking around a place with nothing to see while staying vigilant for enemies was a tedious thing to do.

Having finished the last preparations, Turan and the other ascendants decided to descend from the sky as if arriving from heaven instead of immediately moving to Kalamaf’s imperial palace.

This was Asiz’s idea.

“This is too much of a spectacle.”

“Everyone worked so hard searching for you, so there should be some reward. Isn’t appearing this way more impressive than just showing up?”

At Meisa’s words, Turan could only shrug his shoulders in response.

What could he say, when the reason given was to bring joy to those who had made effort searching for him?

A short while later, the dozen or so ascendants all descended slowly together to the square before Kalamaf’s imperial palace.

Soon, tens to hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps even more, lined up in orderly fashion and sang.

Since there were so many people spread so widely, their voices were close to noise, but no one minded.

The only thing that mattered was the meaning contained within.

[Savior of the world, born on Hisaril Hill — Shepherd of Young Lambs.

That you saved our lost selves, your grace runs infinitely deep.

Protecting us from evil and covering the world with dark wings.

Our holy lord, be praised forever!]

The voices of the sheep praising the shepherd rang out far into the distance.