Vol 2. Chapter 417: Facing and Protecting (4)

Cale’s body tilted backward.

But Cale could never fall.

“Human!”

Two plump front paws touched Cale’s back, and a round little head braced his back.

“I knew this would happen!”

The huffing voice gradually filled with moisture.

“Cough.”

Cale opened his mouth, but a mouthful of blood splattered out instead.

As if he had heard that, Raon spoke.

“Human, I’m fine! I won’t be tainted!”

At those words, the Heavenly Demon started to reach out, then stopped. His eyes met Cale’s, and Cale shook his head.

Tremble.

Even now, both hands were still stuck to the knife.

This crazy knife!

Blink, blink.

Cale closed his eyes and opened them again.

He was right on the verge of passing out, but he still could not let his guard down.

The gray water was gone.

And the gray smoke was fading away too.

It would be over soon.

But it was not over.

Because the Heavenly Demon and Raon seemed to have relaxed a little, Cale opened his mouth.

“Cough!”

But only blood came out again. He did not have the strength to speak.

Damn it!

This time, it really does seem a little serious, doesn’t it?

-Cale. You know, I think the glutton needs time to digest.

Vitality of the Heart, the old man who held the power of regeneration, said tearfully.

Thump. Thump.

Cale felt his heart beating more slowly than before, and weaker too.

The dominating aura.

The Sound of the Wind.

The Water that Devours the Sky.

The Indestructible Shield.

Even the terrifying Ancient Tree.

Today, Cale had used far too many ancient powers, and the degree to which he had used them had reached the limit—or even gone beyond it—in order to stand against a divine relic.

“Cough.”

But Cale opened his mouth again.

He could not stop here.

Blink, blink.

Through his vision, slowly blinking as though it might close, he saw the gray forest.

And he saw the believers sighing in relief. They too must have feared death.

Not yet—

But not yet.

He opened his mouth.

Just as he was trying to force himself to speak somehow—

“It’s not over yet!”

Eruhaben’s voice rang out.

As expected of an ancient dragon.

Blink.

And then he saw it through the gaps in his vision.

Choi Han......!

Choi Han cut fearlessly across the land where even the gray water had vanished, approaching where Cale was.

But his target was not Cale.

As expected, this guy really did seem to have no tact.

His instincts were downright beastlike.

And there was an actual beast too.

“I’ll take care of it!”

Gashan answered Eruhaben and moved quickly.

Eruhaben was also already on his feet, stirring mana.

Is this experience?

Gashan, Eruhaben, Choi Han.

Among his group, the older ones were moving now toward what Cale wanted.

The ancient dragon Eruhaben announced it to everyone.

“The ritual isn’t over yet!”

Right. The gray water and smoke were gone and still disappearing.

But the ritual was not over yet.

And the one who had started that ritual was still alive.

And that being had not stopped the ritual.

The saint.

He was not in Cale’s field of vision.

But the saint, the one who had risen upward with the gray water.

That bastard was still there.

Right.

They had to get rid of him for the ritual to finally end.

Only then would Cale be able to break free from this divine relic.

Because the final move the divine relic had used had begun together with the saint’s ritual.

Clang!

Black aura surged up from Choi Han’s sword.

It’s dreadful.

The moment the gray forest rose and a refreshing wind began to blow, he realized that in one place, a dreadful presence was still lurking.

He ran in that direction.

It’s not over yet.

He knew far too well what he had to do right now.

The saint.

So that bastard was the saint.

The one with knives stabbed into his neck and stomach.

Close to the rock where Cale was.

The one lying by the lakeshore, barely dragging in breath.

“Th-this can’t—”

He was dying, but not dead yet.

Gray blood.

Gray blood kept pouring from him without end.

Unlike the other believers, who stopped bleeding gray blood once they broke free of the chaos.

The saint alone kept bleeding gray blood.

“This can’t be happening, how could the slaughter—”

The saint muttered as if he could not believe it.

Choi Han reached him.

The saint seemed as though he could not even feel pain.

He was crying.

“Why can’t I hear it.......”

He was grieving.

“For chaos to disappear—”

He was grieving because chaos had disappeared.

The screams and laughter of tens of thousands.

Above all, he was grieving because he could no longer hear the screams of tens of thousands.

Because he himself had contributed greatly to those screams.

And because now, those screams might never be created again—

“N-no—”

He went beyond grief and was swallowed by fear.

In those gray eyes, one person’s face was reflected.

“......”

Choi Han’s indifferent face.

He raised his sword.

He looks like he’ll die soon anyway.

The saint’s condition was like that of someone barely clinging to life.

It would not have been strange if he died at any moment.

But everything has to be ended as quickly as possible.

From behind him, Gashan’s voice rang out.

“The number of sacrifices is insufficient, so even if that one man dies, the ritual will not be completed! Rather, the ritual will stop!”

At those words, Eruhaben agreed as well.

He came down from the rock to the lakeshore.

“Yes. It seems that gray blood needs to stop.”

As Cale listened to all this, he agreed inwardly.

That’ll be, fine—

He could trust them and leave the cleanup to them.

Blink, blink.

Cale’s eyes blinked even more slowly than before.

The strength gradually drained from his body.

Tremble.

Both hands still trapped by the divine relic were trembling, but unmistakably less than before.

Whoooosh—

The wind blew.

He inhaled the wind.

The refreshing nighttime air of the forest entered him.

He felt like he might live a little longer.

Smirk.

The corners of Cale’s lips slowly rose.

No matter what, he had endured again—

“!”

Cale’s eyes widened.

-Cale!

The dominating aura.

-Damn it, this is!

The Water that Devours the Sky.

-...I’m still not full.

The Indestructible Shield reacted at the same time.

Cale forced strength into his body.

He poured out the last of his strength and did not collapse.

Leaning against Raon, he stood.

“This!”

Along with Eruhaben’s flustered voice,

the black aura from Choi Han’s sword surged high enough to be visible even over the rock.

So did Eruhaben’s magic.

But—

“Damn it!”

The moment he heard Choi Han say something rough in that gentle voice—

Step.

Cale took a step forward.

“Human!”

Raon shouted urgently.

“Human, I’ll protect you!”

The reason Raon said that was obvious.

Thud.

Some of the tens of thousands of believers who had survived fainted on the spot.

Or they collapsed to the ground, or trembled so violently they could not control their whole bodies.

Woooo—

Along with that strange sound, Cale saw the being that had climbed up onto the rock he was standing on—

the rock that had risen up and now stood at the highest point in this basin.

The saint.

That bastard had come up, hanging limp.

“Dear God......!”

He heard the saintess’s desperate cry.

But Cale stared only at the saint.

Blink.

He forced strength into his eyes that wanted to close.

The saint’s eyes.

Gray irises.

Cough.

Cale spat blood once and opened his mouth.

He barely forced out his voice.

He dragged power from beyond his limit.

“You, you’re the god, aren’t you?”

The moment he saw it, Cale knew.

The saint was dead.

And those eyes—those eyes staring straight at Cale—were the same gray as the saint’s, but different.

They were that same gray that had once driven Cale into fear.

The eyes, showing neither laughter nor anything else, stared only at Cale before opening their mouth.

But the voice was strange.

It was as quiet as a whisper, but it reached everyone’s ears.

-Chaos is always by your side.

-In every moment of your life, and within your heart, chaos is always with you, so soon you shall face the truth you have turned away from.

-Those who have seen the truth.

That voice was truly strange.

Repulsive, yet the kind of voice that made people keep seeking it out.

-Come /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ to me.

Those who have seen the truth, come to me.

There were those who reacted to those words.

“Ah, ah—”

The bishop pulled a dagger from his robes.

He tried to stab it toward his own neck.

It was then.

“Don’t spout that freezing nonsense! I definitely warned you last time! If you touch our human or his family, I’ll smash all of you to pieces!”

Raon’s bright, spirited voice shattered the brief silence.

Freezing nonsense?

Cale froze, quite shocked by the vocabulary that had come out of Raon’s mouth.

Cough!

But after vomiting up another mouthful of blood, Cale came to his senses and said,

“You’re finished.”

Smirk.

And he forced one corner of his mouth upward.

Because—

I won’t be swallowed anymore.

Even hearing that voice, even meeting those eyes—

-This is bearable!

Just as the dominating aura said, it was bearable.

-Soon even the ancient gods will cower in front of us! Kahahaha!

He ignored the blatantly swaggering words.

Instead, he sneered at the God of Chaos.

“You’re bleeding.”

Red blood was flowing from the saint.

The saint was dead.

And the fact that red blood was coming out meant only one thing.

It had failed.

The ritual that was meant to bring down the God of Chaos had failed.

The saint really did die in the end.

In truth, he had been in a state where it would not have been strange if he died at any time.

It was only that while the ritual was in progress, he had been in a state of being neither dead nor alive.

But the ritual had stopped, and death had come to the saint.

Staring straight into those gray eyes that laughed, cried, and showed no emotion at all, so directly it almost looked reckless, he said clearly,

“Stop bluffing.”

Right now, the God of Chaos was doing this because he was bitter that everything had failed.

That was Cale’s judgment, and he mocked him to his heart’s content.

Tremble—

Even the trembling of the divine relic gripping both his hands was the answer, as it kept weakening.

Soon, that trembling would end too.

Then—

-Is it really over?

The knife that had been stabbed into the saint’s stomach was pulled out.

No, it fell out.

The knife fell to the ground.

Thud.

The knife sank into the muddy pool left behind after the water had disappeared.

But there was no time to pay attention to that knife.

Craaack—

The saint’s stomach split open.

And inside it—

-Do you really think it’s over?

There was an eye.

Ah.

That was the real eye.

When Cale had first grasped the divine relic, and when he had first faced the power of the God of Chaos—

he realized that the eye from back then was exactly that eye.

His body stiffened slightly.

-It’s okay!

But it really was better than before.

-Once you pass out and wake up, after that you’ll be perfectly fine even if you face it like this! The glutton ate a ton!

He ignored the lively voice of the dominating aura.

Because he did not have the time.

Wooooong—!

Between Cale and the God of Chaos.

A silver shield formed there.

“I definitely said not to touch our human!”

As expected of a great dragon.

Raon created a shield, and a barrier rose between Cale and the eye.

Thanks to that, it got much easier.

Blink.

Holding on to his consciousness, Cale sneered.

“Hey, you’re bleeding.”

Drip.

Just as he said, the eye was bleeding.

Red blood.

“Stop bluffing and just get lost.”

Trying to act like a god when you look that pathetic.

Smirk.

Cale sneered again.

Rustle—

Because the saint’s body was gradually turning to dust.

And Cale was thinking of one thing.

If the God of Chaos really tries to interfere here right now—

If that happened, then Cale would have one more thing he could do.

Red Hand!

The absolute power the game system, which was as good as a god in this world, had given Cale.

The punishment that could be brought down on beings that violated the rules.

Red Hand.

If I can smack the God of Chaos—smack that eye just once with it......!

Grin.

The corners of Cale’s mouth rose.

Before he passed out, he wanted to use that once and end it.

Because when he thought about all the suffering that bastard had put him through, rage surged up inside him.

Rustle—

But the saint’s body kept vanishing faster and faster.

-.......

The eye, which had been watching Cale laugh the whole time,

blinked once.

Hm.

And then it smiled.

The crescent-shaped eye was quite beautiful.

-Yes. I cannot let myself show anything uglier.

Rustle—

The saint’s body had all vanished except for the stomach.

The eye said to Cale,

-Someday, the seed given to you shall grow and come to harbor me.

Blink.

Cale’s eyes blinked.

Wow.

This really is the limit now.

Cale gave the God of Chaos his farewell.

“If you lost, then get lost cleanly.”

With those words—

Blink.

The God of Chaos smiled and blinked.

Rustle—

And then the eye disappeared.

At the same time, the saint’s body instantly crumbled and vanished.

Blink.

And Cale too—

-You’ve passed out.

Just as the Ancient Tree said, he lost consciousness.

Darkness came over him.

It was a very clean faint.

And though Cale did not see it, complete night came to the gorge as well.

The pillar of light disappeared too.

The dark red clouds disappeared too.

The gray smoke disappeared too.

And above the gorge, over the dark-moon night where countless stars glittered between the thick gray forest, settled in silence.

“Crazy.......”

And the one who captured all of that scene,

the user Mad Attention Whore.

He could not stop the tears streaming down.

“This is insane......!”

He shouted through his tears.

“He just saved the world, that person just saved the world right now! This is insane! This is freaking insane! Guhhh! A human told a god to get lost! Damn it, that’s so cool! Guhhhh!”

Mad Attention Whore had completely lost his mind.

===================

-What the hell? What is this video that this attention-whore bastard just uploaded?

-It’s a live upload?

-Holy shit, a dragon! A cute dragon! A baby dragon! Damn it, where even is this?

-Looks like the Demon Realm.

-Hey. Did you see the quest that just popped up? It’s asking us to save the game.

-...What’s going on? I seriously don’t understand this right now.

===================

And his streaming channel was thrown into complete chaos too.