Paladin of the Dead God
chapter-96

Isaac recalled the words Gabel had said.

“And I think that someone among the Dukharian faction is behind the complete annihilation of the Avalanche Paladin Order.”

Kalsen was scheduled to become an angel this time, and he was even expected to become an Archangel. But within a few years after the Avalanche Paladin Order was annihilated in the outskirts without any trace, and labeled as apostates, Kalsen too became an apostate. Could this be a coincidence?

Those words were both a warning and an admonition from Gabel.

“Was the Avalanche Paladin Order also a victim of this plan?”

If two rival churches were collaborating to fill the empty ninth seat of faith, it’s likely that this attempt has been going on for quite some time. It seemed highly probable that the Avalanche Paladin Order, to which Gabel belonged, got involved in it as well.

And perhaps, there were more victims.

Just like the village that was attacked when Isaac had possessed this world.

“Of course, I can’t blindly believe everything he says…”

Isaac looked down at Al Duard.

Why a Paladin of the Codex of Light needs the help of the Immortal Order to become a god, why it cannot proceed from one side only, among other things, there were many parts he still couldn’t comprehend.

“Why would you confess all this to me so openly?”

“Ah, Knight of the Holy Grail. I realized it when I saw you wearing the shell of the Codex of Light. Your hidden power, and your ambition. You are never a person who would be satisfied with the glory of a mere Knight of the Holy Grail.”

A blue flame flickered inside Al Duard’s skull, staring at Isaac.

“The plan… has not been suspended yet. You can fill that position. With our help, that is.”

“How can the Immortal Order help me?”

Upon hearing Isaac’s words, Al Duard happily said, feeling as if Isaac was wavering.

“The Immortal Emperor is currently the only god walking this land, having performed the ritual to ascend to godhood by himself. Our sect is the only one that can help, at least in this ritual.”

The Immortal Emperor Beshek, the god and ruler of the Immortal Order, is the most recently ascended deity. True to being a god of the undead, he moves alive in this world, constantly revealing and proving his existence unlike other gods.

‘At least it proves that the Immortal Order was directly involved up to the Immortal Emperor.’

Then how far was the Codex of Light involved? The Pope? The Emperor? Did a god intervene on this side too?

It was unknown.

The Codex of Light represents light, wisdom, and order, and it’s the antithesis of the nameless chaos. After all, the nameless chaos has always been at odds with all faiths.

‘My head is going to explode.’

The Al Duard in front of him seemed convinced that Isaac could take over their plan.

Regardless of any beliefs or faith Isaac might have, as long as a god is born, that’s all that matters to them. Or rather, they had to say something since they were in danger of being shattered to pieces.

‘But they couldn’t even imagine that I might be an agent of the nameless chaos…’

If they knew, they would never have reacted this way.

Isaac considered the proposal to become a god. Honestly, he had thought about living a grand life as a paladin, but becoming a god was too much.

It was an offer he couldn’t possibly accept.

If they knew Isaac’s true identity, they would all be after him.

“Tell me how you can help.”

***

Isaac floated the topic to Al Duard while activating the Eye of Chaos. He wanted to see if he was telling the truth and if there were any conspiracies hidden. It was the easiest to read the surface thoughts when the topic was brought up.

However, Al Duard noticed something strange right away.

“Before that, which god do you worship… Wait.”

The moment a flicker of doubt arose from Al Duard, the green pupils in Isaac’s eyes turned purple in the darkness. Isaac sensed Al Duard’s consciousness beginning to close rapidly and activated his ability even more strongly.

“Wait, what is this, no, could it be?”

Shock, terror, astonishment, confusion.

Isaac could only catch a glimpse of the dying emotions from Al Duard.

“Tell me everything you know!”

Fear makes the opponent succumb and reveal themselves. Isaac learned this fact through Heinckel Gulmar. To use a similar approach on Al Duard, Isaac pushed the Eye of Chaos to its limits.

“You, uh, agh, ugh.”

As Isaac’s eyes bulged with veins, tears of blood began to flow.

The soul lurking inside Al Duard’s skull convulsed as if in spasms. Soon, tendrils resembling threads of blood began to flow out of Isaac’s eyes.

These tendrils didn’t just flow out; they burrowed into Al Duard’s skull, infiltrating it as if eroding its interior. This was an intensity Isaac had never dared to use before, for fear of being discovered.

Al Duard, befitting his status as a bishop-level cleric, was skilled in closing off his consciousness. However, against such physical, invasive erosion, no method was effective. Isaac felt memories fragment and seep out from Al Duard’s confusion and fear.

The tendrils wrung out information greedily, like roots squeezing water from the ground.

Yet, Al Duard was not in his position for nothing. Even in such circumstances, he knew exactly what to do.

Even if it was something he did not wish for, he acted reflexively.

“────.”

A piercing tinnitus assaulted Isaac’s ears, coming from Al Duard. Prayers were flowing out at an unbelievably fast pace.

It was glossolalia.

Prayers that burst forth not from one’s own will but from the subconscious, or when possessed by an angel.

“Master Isaac!”

Hesabel’s urgent voice reached him.

Isaac felt frost forming around Al Duard, a cold far more rapid and fierce than anything he had attacked with before. Isaac hurriedly tried to cancel the Eye of Chaos and retreat, but his consciousness was too deeply connected to Al Duard.

What Al Duard thought and spoke was on the same level as what Isaac thought and spoke.

Therefore, Isaac could tell what Al Duard was doing, even in an unconscious state.

Al Duard was trying to bring the afterlife to this earth.

‘This is madness.’

Crack, crack.

Isaac tried to break Al Duard’s skull to stop the prayer, but before he could touch it, Al Duard’s skull shattered on its own from unleashing an uncontrollable miracle. Only a few trembling teeth fragments completed the echo of the glossolalia.

“Everyone get out of here now…….”

Isaac grabbed the reins of the Phantom Steed, trying to flee immediately, but stumbled and fell to his knees.

Isaac was baffled by the change in himself.

Why?

The arrival of the Immortal Order’s afterlife alone should not make him this vulnerable.

After all, the Immortal Order’s afterlife would at most bring extreme cold along with the summoning of ghosts and an army of undead. That’s because the Immortal Order’s afterlife is already present on earth.

Those who forcibly dragged the afterlife to the surface are the Immortal Order itself.

Even now, ghosts were writhing and crawling up from the ground.

But Isaac, seeing something emerge among the ghosts, realized that the change in him had nothing to do with the Immortal Order’s afterlife. He hadn’t weakened because of the Immortal Order.

A man in yellow clothes was looking at Isaac.

Isaac’s nightmare was becoming a reality and approaching.

The sky tilted as if it were about to collapse, undulating, while dark red fingers stirred the clouds like a child playing. The sound that followed, though carried by the wind, did not seem like wind at all. Was it the laughter of a child, or the crying of a flock of sheep uneasy in the middle of the night? Every crawling insect and livestock on the ground gave off a rotting smell, and all their limbs were odd in number. Everything was imbalanced and precarious, threatening to collapse in asymmetry.

A man in yellow clothes was looking at Isaac.

Isaac felt dizzy, as if he were about to vomit.

Isaac couldn’t identify the stranger. Despite playing the game countless times, witnessing numerous endings, death scenes, and bad endings, such an entity was nowhere to be found.

‘Why the nightmare… now?’

The surroundings were devastated, thanks to the afterworld opened by Al Duard. Yet, the Immortal Order’s afterlife paled in comparison to the blasphemous and bizarre world rippling beyond it.

Those repulsive and strange beings seemed ready to seep into Isaac’s ankles like the tide in the middle of the night.

Isaac’s sense of reality was already fading into the distance.

[The Nameless Chaos is watching you.]

[The Nameless Chaos is watching you.]

[The Nameless Chaos is watching you.]

The Nameless Chaos sent notifications that were either ecstasy or a warning, their meaning unclear. Paradoxically, these alerts allowed Isaac to hold onto his sanity, however faintly. In a world he felt he was about to drown in, these notifications gave Isaac a slight sense of objectivity.

This world is just a game, and you have cleared it countless times!

Don’t get too immersed in just a game! You are the player I chose!

‘Just a mere game.’

Isaac thought, trying to realign his consciousness. Then, the man in yellow clothes reached out to him. Simultaneously, an eerie sound of horns and flutes filled the air, and Isaac felt the notifications in his ears disappear.

The nightmare was overflowing.

‘Ah.’

Isaac saw his hand grotesquely transformed. Tentacles were extending uncontrollably from it. Isaac felt changes occurring throughout his body.

Inside, tentacles writhed as if a balloon was about to burst.

It had been a long sleep. It was time to wake up.

‘Is this the end?’

Isaac felt there was no longer any way to stop it.

However, amidst everything crumbling, becoming unbalanced, and seemingly about to collapse in dizziness.

A figure, clear and distinct, was cutting through the nightmare, approaching.

“Isaac! Sir Isaac, Knight of the Holy Grail!”

Between the afterlife and this life, between nightmare and chaos, she alone carried a steadfast order. Even in his distant consciousness, Isaac saw the identity of the radiance wrapping around her.

The beast of the forge. The Codex of Light. A follower of order.

A divine beast born from ashes protected her.

But something more steadfast made her stand firm in this chaos, like an anchor.

“Isaac Issacrea!”

Isaac wanted to approach her.

He wanted to escape this chaos and approach that unhesitating order and goodwill. Isolde stepped forward briskly. Isaac reflexively reached out to her.

With his left hand, now a bundle of tentacles.

Isolde flinched at the sight but then grabbed and pulled it firmly towards her.

Isaac fell into Isolde’s embrace without resistance. At the same time, Isaac entered into the realm of light.

Everything became clear, and he returned to a stable domain of order. The world, which had been crumbling, freezing, and melting away, regained its place.

And Isolde’s perplexed face appeared before him.

“What in the world…”

“Let’s explain… later.”

As soon as Isaac escaped the confusion, he immediately activated the Lighthouse of the Watcher.

A miracle from the Codex of Light, among the highest. The light emanating could determine what was right and wrong in its reach, the apex of order.

The halo of light that emerged above Isaac’s head chased away the afterworld of the Immortal Order and the domain of chaos originating from Isaac.

In the brilliant flash, Isaac watched the chaos dissipate like a mirage.

The faceless man in yellow clothes waved his hand.

As if to say, see you again next time.