Paladin of the Dead God

From Isaac’s perspective, angels were creatures utterly devoid of responsibility. They abandoned their offspring like cuckoos laying eggs in another’s nest and flying away. But perhaps the angel that sired Ciero noticed what had transpired this time and decided to intervene. There wasn’t time to investigate right now.

“Speaking of which, where did those thugs go? I don’t see any bodies.”

“Oh, that’s…”

Isaac was about to say there was no need to worry. Those men had tried to flee but were killed by the Colors from Beyond on the other side of the secret passage, out of sight of the children. However, he couldn’t say, “You don’t need to worry anymore,” because an intense chill began to emanate from the opposite side of the corridor.

“Ciero, get out.”

“Oh, right! Ah! Agh!”

*Crack, crack!* The waterway began to freeze over from the dark depths, reversing the flow as ice surged back, freezing everything in its path. The freezing cold, smashing and shattering underground water, surged forward and reached Ciero’s location in no time. Ciero barely managed to roll out and onto the passageway above. But the bone-chilling cold persisted.

*Crack, crunch.* The source of the cold finally revealed itself, breaking through thin ice with a sharp sound.

“Ack, kaaahh!”

The corpses of Devan’s gang, who had been killed by Isaac, began to approach, limbs twisted grotesquely. Fresh muscles made them surprisingly fast as they charged forward.

Ciero, panicking, summoned heat in his hands. To his surprise, a much more intense flame erupted than he anticipated, causing him to flinch and fling the fire away reflexively.

Like a flamethrower, the wave of fire incinerated the zombies instantly, reducing them to ashes. However, the sudden heat blast caused a gust of wind to blow through the underground waterway, filling the passage with acrid smoke.

“Ciero, don’t use that anymore.”

Isaac hastily stopped Ciero. Uncontrolled intense flames in an enclosed underground space could turn it into an oven or fill it with toxic gas, killing not just Ciero but also the children.

Despite Ciero’s efforts, the groans of the undead could still be heard from the opposite side of the passage.

Isaac immediately grasped the situation.

“It seems King Kran has finally surrendered. Ciero, take the kids and head back. I’ll hold them off here.”

“Ah, got it.”

Realizing he would be of no help, Ciero quickly took the children and fled. Staying would only hinder Isaac.

Now that he was free of any prying eyes or risk of being flanked, the secret passage was the ideal battleground for Isaac.

“If they shove all the zombies in here, it’s a blessing for me.”

A fierce cold swept toward Isaac once more, but he could fend it off with the options attached to the Luadin Key. Reforged by the Sword of May, the Luadin Key granted its wielder perpetual warmth and vitality. ṙâℕȯʙĘS

“Graaaah!”

Zombies spotted Isaac and charged, screaming. Isaac didn’t even need to swing his sword; he just directed the Colors from Beyond to pierce their skulls with invisible spears. Decayed and weakened bones were even easier to pierce than those of the living.

***

While Isaac was dispatching the zombies with ease, a voice echoed from the darkness.

“Heh, I suspected, but you really are the Holy Grail Knight. I didn’t expect you to be entrenched in the secret passage already.”

A bluish light glowed from the eyes of a figure commanding the undead—a lich.

Instead of a greeting, Isaac extended a tentacle from the Colors Beyond, aiming straight for the lich’s head.

Just as the tentacle lunged, a Death Knight lurking behind the lich moved like lightning, slashing the tentacle with a sword. Isaac couldn’t help but be slightly impressed at how skillfully the tentacle, normally resistant to damage, had been severed.

‘Trying to take the easy way out with just a few tentacles was greedy, I admit.’

The lich, seeing the writhing tentacles dissolving into the Colors, appeared bewildered.

“What is this… Is this your power? Are you drawing from the remnants of Chaos?”

Isaac saw no need to answer. Now that things had come to this, these undead had to die here and now—again, this time for good.

Using this secret passage as their grave would suffice.

Isaac gathered the Colors Beyond, summoning the ‘Grasp of the Abyss.’

A tremendous surge of holy power and a sense of fullness drained away. From beyond the Colors came a bizarre wailing, like the eerie sound of a flute mixed with the ringing of a bell.

A massive tentacle burst from the Colors, large enough to fill the secret passage entirely, from top to bottom, left to right.

Isaac knew this tentacle wasn’t his own. No matter how much it devoured, his own sense of fullness didn’t change.

He only knew that somewhere beyond, there was an unimaginable, unthinkable creature with countless limbs, and whenever Isaac called, it lent him one of those arms.

The vast, indescribable predator opened its maw, rushing toward the lich and the Death Knights. The ensuing collapse of the tunnel sounded like Kran Fortress itself was screaming.

“…Weep, O Reaper with the Scythe!”

But the lich managed to finish his incantation just before the monstrous entity could devour him. It was a miracle he had prepared to face a powerful opponent like the Holy Grail Knight, but he hadn’t expected to use it so soon.

As the lich concluded his prayer, something translucent appeared before him. Though its form was barely visible, a giant scythe made of white bone stood out clearly. Without hesitation, it swung the scythe at the charging tentacle.

*Crack, crack!* The scythe’s blade cleaved effortlessly through the Grasp of the Abyss. Teeth, bones, and tough sinew were cut apart with a violent sound. Realizing the pain too late, the creature from beyond the Colors let out a wail and retracted its arm.

The secret passage was left splattered with a sticky, purplish fluid—the remains of the Abyssal creature.

The ‘Reaper’ summoned by the lich wavered as it surveyed its surroundings, seemingly searching for its summoner. Though it had successfully severed the Grasp of the Abyss, such a blow was far from sufficient to stop the attack entirely.

Splitting a bullet in half would still mean the person behind gets hit twice instead of once.

Among the viscous fluid, the mangled and crushed forms of the lich and Death Knights struggled to reconstitute themselves. However, the thick, gooey substance made it difficult for them to do so quickly.

The Reaper, swaying, searched for instructions from its summoner. The lich, barely moving a finger, pointed feebly toward Isaac.

The Reaper’s scythe moved in Isaac’s direction.

Isaac watched it all unfold.

[The Nameless Chaos watches you.]

[The Nameless Chaos warns you.]

[The Nameless Chaos wishes for you to ‘survive the Reaper.’]

[A reward from Chaos awaits you.]

“Damn it.”

Even before the warning from the Nameless Chaos appeared, Isaac had already cursed under his breath and turned around, fleeing without hesitation.

‘That thing’ was not a monster one could confront. As befits a notoriously difficult and unfair game, occasionally there would be an absurd instant-kill event like this.

This was the miracle known as “Taxes and Death Are Inevitable.”

***

“Taxes and Death Are Inevitable” is a miracle of the Immortal Order that imposes the two unavoidable aspects of life—taxes and death. The lich consumes immense faith to summon a ‘Reaper,’ a designated archangel of death.

If it were merely a strong and durable creature, Isaac wouldn’t be as terrified. But the Reaper, with its ludicrously overwhelming attack power, was an ethereal entity, impervious to direct attacks. Miracles could temporarily affect it, but trying to fight it was like attacking mist—it had little effect.

It was an insanely powerful miracle, but it came with three major drawbacks.

The first condition was that the target had to pose a significant threat to the Immortal Order. Summoning an angel required an opponent of equal standing.

Unfortunately, there was no way Isaac could argue against this.

As a Nephilim and a follower of Chaos, he fit the first condition perfectly.

“Isaac!”

Waiting atop the stairs, Ciero panicked as Isaac emerged, his face pale.

“Ciero, gather the townsfolk and everyone else—prepare to evacuate immediately.”

“W-wait, are the undead that strong? Maybe if we collapse the passage or set it on fire…”

“It’s not the undead. The zombies aren’t the problem anymore. The lich has been crushed inside, so the zombies will be out of control. We need to get out now.”

“Even if we evacuate…”

Ciero looked troubled.

There were thousands of soldiers and nearly ten thousand residents. Even if Ciero had little knowledge of strategy, he understood it wasn’t easy to move such a large group suddenly.

“Hurry up! Once we’re out, we’ll figure it out!”

At the moment Isaac shouted, the sealed well cover shattered into pieces, scattering into the sky. From above, a gigantic scythe emerged, dancing in the air as it lunged toward Isaac.

Isaac reflexively pulled out Kaldwin and blocked the attack.

*Boom.* Isaac blocked it, but his body was lifted and nearly slammed into a part of the fortress wall. Barely landing on his feet, he gritted his teeth against the tingling pain that coursed through his body.

‘If it weren’t for Kaldwin, my weapon would’ve shattered for sure.’

Even the Luadin Key wouldn’t have withstood such a blow.

The only saving grace was that it was possible to block it because the Reaper’s attacks were, thankfully, ‘physical.’ But he couldn’t keep this up forever.

Isaac resumed his sprint, running away from the Reaper, which was thankfully slower than his own pace.

Ciero quickly caught up, asking frantically.

“Isaac! What is that thing? Is it some kind of new undead? Or is it an angel of the Immortal Order?”

“…Something like that!”

The miracle “Taxes and Death Are Inevitable” is not something that can be prepared quickly.

It was likely a miracle that had been prepared over a long time, just in case they ever encountered a crucial figure from the Codex of Light.

Isaac couldn’t tell whether to be happy or sad that his reputation had spread beyond the desert.

“Is there any way to deal with that thing? Can’t you use that so-called ‘angel-slaying sword technique’ of yours?”

“Please stop saying things that might offend any angels who might hear. I don’t want to get on their bad side even more.”

“…Alright, alright. I’ll start getting everyone ready to evacuate.”

Ciero, noticing that the Reaper was only targeting Isaac, quickly dashed aside to find his escape route. His survival instincts remained sharp.

The second drawback of the Reaper was precisely what was happening now—it could not make calculated or rational decisions.

It would simply approach its target and swing its crazily overpowered scythe, indiscriminately attacking without strategy. The pursued would have to keep running until they collapsed from exhaustion.

‘But it’s the third drawback that’s the real problem…’

The third drawback was Isaac’s only way to survive the Reaper.

If the target offered the ‘tax’ that the Reaper demanded, they would be released from the Reaper’s pursuit. But what the ‘tax’ was could only be decided by the summoner; the target had no way of knowing.

It could be something as valuable as the target’s own life, or it could be something unexpectedly mundane if all the summoner desired was the target’s demise.

The demand couldn’t be impossibly high, so the hint lay within the current situation.

‘The Immortal Order wants to take over Kran Fortress.’

Isaac figured the first potential ‘tax’ was the fortress itself. His interference had led to this mess, making it a prime candidate.

Once he managed to escape with the refugees and the Dawn Army, Isaac would test his theory by surrendering Kran Fortress to the Immortal Order.

Of course, he had no intention of seeking anyone else’s consent for this decision.

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