Paladin of the Dead God
chapter-97

The warm light emanating from the Lighthouse of the Watcher banished the night and restored order.

The grass and trees that had frozen to death did not come back to life, but no longer were there ghosts flowing, melting, and merging into the world. Only then did Isaac feel as though he had emerged from a storm, setting foot on solid ground.

It was the world where he belonged, where he wanted to be.

And Isolde was there.

An inquisitor of the Codex of Light.

Isaac still hadn’t fully retracted the tentacles that had emerged during the overflow of the afterlife back into his body. He was trying, but the process was not quick enough. Complex emotions flitted through Isolde’s eyes, but there was no immediate intent to strike Isaac down.

And Isaac felt the same way.

“Sir Isaac!”

Hesabel burst in suddenly, quickly positioning herself between Isaac and Isolde. The dagger and spear she drew aimed to pierce Isolde in an instant. Isolde, for her part, was taken aback by the sudden appearance of this unfamiliar Walraika hunter.

Hesabel’s intentions in that brief moment were clear. A chilling murderous intent enveloped her.

Just as Hesabel was about to charge at Isolde, Isaac grabbed her wrist.

“Stop.”

“Ah, Sir Isaac…”

Isaac staggered, losing his balance. He was overcome by an intense hunger. Whether due to the fierce battle or the flood of the afterlife, his body had consumed almost all its ‘meat’ in an effort to restore itself to its original state.

“Is the blacksmith secured?”

“Yes, yes! Be, no, Baxter is protecting him!”

“Then let’s go back for now…”

Isaac said this and then collapsed as if he had fallen.

Darkness enveloped his vision instantly.

***

“It’s been a while.”

Isaac opened his eyes. All around him was pitch darkness.

But there was one person, dressed in the armor of a Codex of Light Paladin, who alone possessed color and was looking at Isaac.

It seemed the halo encircling the man’s head illuminated his body.

Upon seeing the man, Isaac immediately realized he was dreaming. Because the man in front of him was someone who couldn’t possibly be there.

“To be precise, this isn’t a dream. It’s closer to a thought process.”

The Paladin, no, Kalsen Miller, seemed to have read Isaac’s thoughts and responded.

The Kalsen Miller that Isaac had devoured was standing before him.

Though he looked much more tired and haggard than in Isaac’s memories, it was unmistakably Kalsen.

‘This is another strange dream.’

Isaac wondered why Kalsen of all people appeared in his dream. With his identity exposed to Isolde, the blacksmith arrived, and the situation being urgent, it wasn’t time to be sleeping.

“Don’t worry. You’ve returned to the monastery for recuperation. Hesabel is clinging to the ceiling to guard you, and Zihilrat is guarding the door. The blacksmith and the envoy of the Salt Council have safely returned, and Isolde is waiting for you to wake up.”

Isaac thought Kalsen’s words were strange. He was unconscious. How could he know so much about the outside situation? Was it just a guess?

“‘The rat in the wall’ ability, remember? Fool. Even if I don’t want to see or hear, that sense is awake and pushing information into your body.”

Isaac felt a chill run down his spine.

He reflexively searched for his sword, but his hand grasped nothing. In fact, there was no such thing as Isaac’s body to begin with. This darkness, this space, was Isaac. He was looking at Kalsen from all directions.

As if Kalsen had entered inside Isaac’s body.

“Close. This is like the inside of your stomach.”

So, everything I’ve consumed so far is inside here?

“Some are weak, those with fragile egos melt away quickly. Heinkel Gulmar was here for a moment and now is nowhere to be seen, and an ancient god named Golruwa shattered into pieces, mumbling something before disappearing. Oh, and surprisingly, the prophet of red flesh also stayed for a while… Of course, just because they are not visible does not mean they have disappeared. I don’t know either.”

Meanwhile, Kalsen sat neatly without any disorder, like a monk in meditation. Truly fitting for a paladin who dared to aspire to the throne of God. With a subtle halo, his figure seemed impossible to be seen as corrupted.

But why did Kalsen appear all of a sudden? Is it something like indigestion?

“It must be because of the recent events.”

Recent events? Is it about the clash with the immortal order?

“No. It’s about the scripture you created.”

Isaac recalled the ‘Book of the Nameless Worm.’

A scripture created without much thought, merely to establish the nameless chaos as a religion.

Kalsen was pointing that out.

“That became the connection between your faith and the afterlife… with Urbansus. That’s the start of all the recent changes and nightmares you’ve been experiencing.” ( TL- I couldn’t find the meaning of this word)

The afterlife.

Isaac snapped back to reality.

In faith, the afterlife is inseparable. In fact, it’s not an overstatement to say that faith exists to explain and justify the afterlife. Hence, every faith has its own version of the afterlife.

The most common afterlife represents the values and fears they advocate for through heaven and hell.

The Codex Of Light possesses a splendid and elegant heaven accompanied by the light, but also a hell filled with boiling lava. The Red Chalice Club has a heaven that’s a banquet hall filled with all kinds of delicacies and beautiful people, but also a hell where the menu for the banquet is ‘prepared.’

However, Isaac had never heard of what kind of afterlife the nameless chaos might have.

It was unimaginably daunting.

Kalsen said with a bitter smile to Isaac.

“A afterlife that not even the god, its proxy, or the believers know of. That would be quite something to see. A truly fitting afterlife for its name.”

What do you know? Why did you suddenly appear before me?

“I originally intended to ignore you. No, I wished you would desperately die. I pondered a lot on how to harm you here.”

But from Kalsen’s bitter expression, it was clear that any attempt was futile.

“In this damned place, neither swordsmanship, miracles, nor rituals work. It’s a cursed place where even the voice of God is not heard.”

But then?

“I changed my mind after seeing you just now.”

Changed your mind?

Kalsen did not answer any further.

He changed his posture resembling a praying figure, pushed off the ground, and stood up. He looked at the ceiling. Since Isaac was everywhere and Isaac’s gaze was present everywhere, it was as if he was looking at Isaac.

“It’s time to get up. If you want answers, ask the salt merchant. He knows your situation better than I do.”

Isaac truly opened his eyes.

As soon as he did, he met eyes with Hesabel, who was hanging from the familiar ceiling.

“Lord Isaac! You’ve regained consciousness!”

She immediately came down from the ceiling to check on Isaac’s condition. Seeing that she didn’t harm him even though he was completely defenseless, Isaac thought it might be okay to trust her now.

Despite waking up, Isaac still felt heavy and drained.

Like an old man with low sugar.

“Hesabel.”

“Yes! Do you need anything?”

“Bring me a pig. No need to cook it, just hurry.”

Only after devouring a whole pig was Isaac able to regain some energy. It was then Isaac realized that the reason he had been able to move around so energetically was due to the effect of ‘devouring.’

The frailty he felt just now was, in fact, the natural state of a Nephilim. To act with the vigor of a radiant paladin, he had to continuously eat and drink.

“Even after all the training, what a cursed constitution.”

Fortunately, Isaac had no serious injuries, so there was no need for further convalescence. Isaac intended to meet with the bureaucrats to assess the damage to his domain and see the blacksmith, but Hesabel suggested he might want to postpone it a bit.

“Why?”

“The atmosphere of worship and excitement for you right now is no joke. The paladins, priests, bureaucrats, and even the people of your domain…”

According to what Hesabel relayed, the people of the domain were now almost treating Isaac as an angel descended to earth.

He had saved them from the mortal threat of the immortal order without any casualties, rescued outsiders in peril, and after a glorious battle against a lich, he emerged victorious, truly making him the protagonist of a legend.

Isaac quickly realized that there had been considerable embellishment to the story.

The battles had occurred in two places, and there were misunderstandings and exaggerations about the fight that one did not witness. The stories inflated Isaac’s deeds to the point where he was depicted as almost single-handedly slaying thousands of undead and defeating the angel of the Immortal order, like a demigod.

And now, the hero was supposedly in a critical condition, unconscious, leading everyone to pray for his speedy recovery throughout the night.

“……Can’t help it.”

Isaac wanted to dispel this misunderstanding immediately and tell them to work on the domain’s recovery instead of praying, but he decided to follow Hesabel’s advice. The amount of faith he received while unconscious was no joke.

Apparently, the number of people praying and the depth of their faith had increased so much that he received almost twice the amount he had before. With this, he could not only enhance the abilities of his apostles but possibly recruit more.

Thinking that delaying his return a few more days could result in even more faith, Isaac decided to pretend to be more injured than he was.

“But the restoration work for the domain cannot be delayed. It’s already a busy spring with much to do. Tell them we’ve overcome the crisis, and fulfilling their duties faithfully is the true mark of a believer.”

“Understood.”

“And… what about the inquisitor?”

When Hesabel thought of Isolde, she pursed her lips and answered.

“We’ve kept her alive, as you said. I was ready to pull her tongue out if she spoke out of turn, but fortunately, she hasn’t been spreading nonsense. She’s currently helping with the purification work of the domain tainted by the Immortal order.”

Isaac had expected as much.

From the moment he heard about the fervent atmosphere in the domain.

If Inquisitor Isolde had been spreading stories about Isaac sprouting tentacles or showing monstrous forms, it would have certainly dampened the spirits.

But at the same time, he wondered.

‘It’s fortunate, but why hasn’t she been spreading it? Because she wants to quietly interrogate and then secretly dispose of the celebrated Grail Knight?’

It was a plausible guess.

From the order’s perspective, admitting that the Grail Knight, whom they even considered making a saint, was in fact a tentacle monster would be quite embarrassing.

However, Isaac knew internally that the reason Isolde hadn’t spread word of his true nature was the same reason he had spared Isolde.

“Call the inquisitor for me. I have something to discuss with her.”