Paladin of the Dead God
chapter-86

Isaac already possessed overwhelming strength merely by wielding his tentacles.

With these tentacles, he had devoured ancient gods, defeated angels, and overpowered knights and vampires. While some of this prowess was due to his own training, much of it was grounded in the power he derived from the nameless chaos.

But what if he could draw even more power from the nameless chaos?

What if, like other orders, he conducted rituals, gathered followers to chant hymns, and started to assemble an army equipped with sacred relics? How much stronger could he become then?

At the very least, he wouldn’t have to live in constant fear of his true identity being discovered.

Not just for himself but for his people as well.

‘Yes. To protect us all….’

Isaac suddenly snapped back to reality at the word ‘us’.

‘Us’?

Did he really have people he could refer to that way?

Though he had brought in individuals like Hesabel and Jacquette as followers, they were more akin to employer and employee relationships rather than a collective ‘us’.

Isaac withdrew his hand from the anonymous slab, feeling a chill. Suddenly, his obsession with the slab vanished as if it had been a mere illusion.

“What the hell?”

Isaac wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

He had thought the anonymous slab would be powerless until used. But that was not the case.

The slab yearned to be ‘used’.

It seemed to barely contain its eagerness to burst forth from its thin confines.

‘Is it trying to control my mind? No. That wasn’t my own thought.’

The sound had emanated from within the anonymous scripture itself. Someone, or something, beyond it was desperately waiting for Isaac to release it. Isaac, impulsively, extended a tentacle and drove it down into the slab.

Despite a strike powerful enough to penetrate a sheet of the same thickness, the anonymous scripture remained unaffected. It was as sturdy as a shield.

And the moment it came into contact with the tentacle, a series of whispers began to resound once more.

‘Please, again…’

Suddenly, bizarre scenes flashed before Isaac’s eyes.

Groups walking naked into the sea, priests offering infants as sacrifices, a man mutilating his own body to birth tentacled monsters from his wounds… These disturbing and nauseating scenes shook his mind.

[The nameless chaos watches over you.]

[The nameless chaos issues a strong warning to you.]

‘What?’

Isaac was puzzled by the warning, which he couldn’t make sense of, when a creepy feeling began to envelop him. A tepid, vile smell filled the sanctuary, unlike anything he had ever encountered. Isaac realized the smell was emanating from the anonymous scripture.

Then, a worm crawled out of the scripture.

It was a gray maggot.

The maggot seemed to have burrowed out of the scripture, eating through it, and climbed onto the tentacle. Soon, countless maggots began to emerge onto the scripture. They rapidly spun cocoons, underwent metamorphosis, and emerged transformed.

“What is this…”

Simultaneously, a corner of the sanctuary began to distort and bulge unnaturally.

‘A hallucination? No. Is the space itself warping?’

Inside that fluctuating space, a few worms flew around. However, Isaac realized these worms had no counterpart on Earth or anywhere in the known world.

No, Isaac had seen them before.

That is, within the game Nameless Chaos.

Among the monsters that worshipped the nameless chaos, there was one called the Night Stalker.

Despite the sanctuary being no more than 20 square meters, it seemed as though the creatures, flying in from kilometers away at high speed, were growing larger and larger.

Isaac attempted to retract his tentacles to confront them.

However, instead of retracting, the tentacles extended sharp teeth and spikes, driving themselves into the nameless scripture in a flash. Isaac was perplexed by his unresponsive tentacles but soon realized their intent.

The scripture fluttered as if it were paper, the tentacles acting to prevent it from ‘unfolding’.

The fact that the scripture, seemingly as solid as a slab, fluttered like paper was astonishing, but there was no time to dwell on such surprises. Isaac drew his sword, even as one hand remained bound.

The flapping of wings erupted loudly as the Night Stalkers revealed themselves. Three Night Stalkers, each reaching a height of 3 meters, emerged, making it feel as though he was surrounded by a forest.

Beneath their four insect-like wings, a mass resembling a tapeworm protruded, with dozens of tentacles, each armed with teeth and eyes, undulating beneath them. These tentacles served the exact same purpose as Isaac’s.

“Damn it…”

Whirring through the air, dozens of tentacles lunged towards Isaac, clearly hostile. Isaac swiftly swung his sword, which flared up in response to the hostility, engulfed in flames.

The flaming sword easily sliced through several tentacles. Fortunately, the Night Stalkers’ tentacles weren’t as tough as Isaac’s. However, enraged by their spilled purplish blood, the Night Stalkers beat their wings even more fiercely.

The once-cramped sanctuary had now expanded into a vast wasteland, clearly having transformed into some sort of magical space.

Night Stalkers typically hunt by snatching passing prey in the dead of night, crushing them into their stomachs in mid-air. This open, expansive space was an ideal hunting ground for the Night Stalkers.

However, Isaac had no reason to be wary of onlookers when facing these monsters.

Colors from beyond began to scatter from his hand immediately. Ink-like, nightmarish darkness spread, but there was no time to wait until the darkness filled the air. As soon as a sufficient amount of color had spread, Isaac activated the abyssal grasp.

A tentacle as thick as a torso burst forth from the swirling colors, instantly crushing one of the Night Stalkers. He had hastily summoned it, unable to call forth anything larger.

The creatures shouted something indecipherable from a part of their body that could be either a mouth or a belly.

“■■■ ■!”

It was a strange language he had never heard before, but oddly, Isaac understood its meaning.

‘A traitor? What are they talking about?’

Isaac was incredulous. He was effectively the chosen proxy of the nameless chaos. In his view, it was these monsters that were akin to traitors. They certainly weren’t the kind of followers he’d have chosen for their appearance.

[The nameless chaos desires these worms to be eradicated immediately.]

The nameless chaos itself seemed to echo this sentiment.

Isaac considered whether he was entangled in some complex affair. Yet, in a situation where nearly a hundred tentacles were flying at him, there was little room for intricate thoughts. The Night Stalkers attacked Isaac with desperation, but those caught by the enormous grasp of the abyss were instantly crushed and obliterated.

The Night Stalker emitted a bizarre flapping sound. Isaac found the sound irritatingly peculiar, and he realized it wasn’t just noise but a kind of warning signal to the surroundings.

These creatures were merely scouts.

The space began to quiver. From the underground, beyond the horizon, from the sky, through the gaps in space, and from the corners, sinister presences could be felt. Something was rushing in with the force of an overflowing sea. In the space that was once a mere wasteland, gravel, dry leaves, and even drifting clouds twisted bizarrely.

Isaac’s gaze turned to the anonymous scripture.

‘No choice then.’

Isaac sent a firm will towards the tentacle gripping the anonymous scripture.

[The nameless chaos watches over you.]

As if seeking agreement, the nameless chaos sent a notification to Isaac and then started to move the tip of his tentacle. Isaac could feel the immense divine power he had accumulated thus far flowing into the tip of his tentacle.

Isaac’s name began to be engraved on the anonymous scripture.

Although he ended up using the anonymous scripture somewhat inadvertently, Isaac didn’t believe he would become a god or a failure like Kalsen Miller had. After all, Isaac already had a god in the form of the nameless chaos.

In precise terms, he was akin to the lighthouse keeper Luadin, who received the Dawn Slate from the Codex of Light

‘I’m practically a chaos tentacle version of Luadin.’

As the tentacles left rough scars, the power with which the anonymous scripture thrashed grew stronger. However, Isaac felt the space, which had expanded to the horizon, quickly contract.

‘As expected.’

The anonymous scripture was already connected to some space. Whether it was inherently so or as a result of contact with Isaac was unclear.

It was probably related to becoming a god.

But the anonymous scripture had no owner, making it essentially an open door.

Now, Isaac had decided to become the keyholder.

“■■■ ■■ ■■!”

Strange dialects echoed from the approaching horde of beasts, the sounds so alien they made Isaac feel nauseous. This wasn’t just a group of unusual monsters rushing towards him.

It was an entire world. A twisted ecosystem, wrung out by something with a bizarre and malevolent taste, was rushing towards him like a wave. Isaac didn’t want to imagine what these beings intended for him.

Finally, Isaac’s signature on the anonymous scripture was completed.

As the tentacles were released, the anonymous scripture fluttered open to its first page.

The door opened by the anonymous scripture was now at Isaac’s discretion to open or close.

As the monsters charged right up to him, Isaac transferred divine words to be inscribed on the first page.

“Close.”

The bloated space quickly contracted back to its original form.

As if a vast horizon suddenly narrowed and walls were erected, the original sanctuary returned. However, the monsters did not fare as well. Trapped within the narrowing walls of this world, they were crushed and obliterated.

A few that managed to leap into the sanctuary in time were sliced apart against the walls. The only survivor was a Night Stalker, missing just one wing.

Isaac quickly whipped his tentacles, piercing the heart of the Night Stalker. It was easy to dispatch the creature, trapped in a confined space and unable to fly. Until the end, it flailed its tentacles at Isaac.

For Isaac, who knew how nightmarish a single Night Stalker could be at midnight, this was a trivial outcome. These were the monsters rumored among players to block entry into undeveloped areas, known as keepers.

‘Location aside… the nameless chaos truly is powerful.’

If not overly ambitious, Isaac speculated he might manage against a knight or two.

Isaac watched as the last remaining Night Stalker was squeezed by the tentacles into oblivion. Even as it nearly lost its form, it muttered something.

“■■ ■■■ ■……”

It was the same phrase the monsters had been screaming, each in their unique voice. Though the specific words varied and ranged from vitriol to pleas and passionate roars, their meaning was ultimately the same.

Isaac could understand the meaning once more.

Please, come back and save us.