Paladin of the Dead God

Chapter 48:

It wasn’t Isaac’s intention, but having chosen the Nameless Chaos when creating this character, he had to bear its karmic consequences. Anyway, Golruwa, who had claimed it couldn’t be killed because it was neither dead nor alive, predictably emerged completely battered as expected.

“Thought you might get digested inside, but seeing you crawl out, it seems your deeds in Seor had some success?”

Isaac turned to finish off Golruwa for good. However, all that was left in its place were traces of urine and a mutilated body and soul, dragging itself away in escape.

“That’s what happens when you bite off more than you can chew.”

Isaac followed the trail.

The trail led to stairs ascending to the surface.

***

“Save… me…”

Golruwa twisted in agony as it ascended the stairs. To escape Isaac’s body, Golruwa had to shed most of its soul, leaving it extremely weakened. It had no choice but to parasitically cling to Yukhar’s body to preserve whatever life force it had left.

But Yukhar’s body was also nearly dead. It only remained somewhat alive due to the greed accumulated in Seor.

A thin strand of divinity was pulling together the greed to keep him alive.

‘Save me!’

Golruwa screamed silently to no one in particular.

It wasn’t afraid when the Golden Idol was slowly consuming its power, nor when Ellil’s army invaded to exterminate it.

As long as it possessed divinity, there was always a chance for resurrection.

But what it saw within Isaac was different. It mercilessly chopped and devoured Golruwa’s form. Even its divinity was crushed like a snack beneath its teeth.

“AHHHH!”

A scream not its own echoed from somewhere.

Golruwa realized it had emerged from the drainage, in the middle of a market filled with the scent of Loracus. Market vendors and locals were shocked to see something nearly a corpse, Yukhar, struggling to crawl out.

Though hardly in a state to judge, Golruwa thought there might still be a chance to survive. That hybrid paladin, Isaac, seemed to be hiding his true nature for some reason.

Thus, in the light, he couldn’t unleash his tentacles.

“Sa… save me…”

As Golruwa struggled to speak, a few locals who recognized him as ‘human’ approached. They seemed baffled by how Yukhar’s body could still be alive, but they checked his condition, and some ran to call a priest or fetch bandages.

At that moment, Golruwa’s eyes flashed.

[Come!]

Golruwa’s desperate cry shook the minds of those nearby. It was literally squeezing out every last bit of strength. To survive and to resist the monster that would soon follow.

Golruwa raised the shepherd’s crook high, whispering of their desires and greed.

[A knight has appeared to doom you! A knight to bring down the temple of greed!]

The shepherd figurine could stir specific emotions but couldn’t manipulate people’s hearts. So, Golruwa appealed to their greed. It poured out every fact and circumstance from Yukhar’s memory.

The surge in Loracus prices, manipulated power players and magnates, and the people used for their ends.

It was akin to a confession.

But Golruwa trusted in human greed.

The trend of Loracus would spread not just in Seor but to the heart of the empire.

The flames of greed would burn across the continent, and you would hold wealth as vast as mountains.

Golruwa’s sweet whispers also injected fear.

The paladin approaching now is a monster coming to doom you.

He will destroy your homes and make you lose your jobs.

Will you sit on the ground, peeling bark to eat? Having sold grain to endure the famine, did you come all this way for this?

“Are you going to throw away that golden future you’re holding in your hands into the gutter?

[Protect me, if you do not, you will perish along with me!]

Only one person.

If only one person here is buried, more money can be made.

The merchants were dizzied by Golruwa’s strained voice, yet they intuitively grasped the situation.

They had been deceived.

Deceived, but if they continued to not be deceived, they would face bankruptcy.

They had to believe in the lie of a rosy future ahead to survive.

For that, the paladin had to die.

Their eyes, flickering with madness, focused on one spot.

“What’s this now?”

There stood a paladin.

***

Isaac saw the merchants filling the market and Yukhar trying to sneak away amidst them. He wore a faint smile.

‘Do you really think you can kill all these civilians? Even if you’re hiding your monstrous nature, you can’t show your true colors as long as you play the hypocrite!’

Even without Golruwa saying it, Isaac knew that was what it thought.

But Golruwa couldn’t reveal that Isaac was hiding a monster. It was doubtful anyone would believe it, but if Isaac’s true nature were exposed, and he turned into the monster, no one could stop him.

To stop Isaac, Golruwa had to use his social reputation.

Isaac sighed and took a step forward among the merchants. They clutched weapons picked up from somewhere, giving him a deadly look, not even sure what they intended to do with them. But such is the power of mob psychology.

If even one or two of them attacked Isaac, the responsibility would disappear, and what happened afterward would be quietly overlooked.

Isaac stopped.

In front of him stood a familiar person.

It was Hesabel Goulmar.

Why she was here when he thought she had fled was a mystery. Whether she was caught in Golruwa’s crowd control or had lingering feelings for Isaac, she didn’t know herself.

When Hesabel’s eyes met Isaac’s, she looked as if she was about to faint, yet she seemed to be waiting for something.

Isaac turned back to the merchants.

“Doesn’t the scripture say the market is a place for all to share their scarcities?”

Isaac didn’t particularly want to give a speech. He wasn’t much of an orator, to begin with.

But for the sake of the performance, appropriate lines were needed.

Isaac decided to quote something fitting from the scriptures.

“Yet, you have turned the market into a den of thieves!”

With a short, stern reprimand, Isaac activated ‘Ultimate Skill: The Lighthouse of Watcher’ for the first time since testing it.

At that moment, a circular halo appeared above Isaac’s head, covering the market in a blinding flash of light.

***

Vihik, a merchant of the Golden Idol Guild, was visiting the market. He saw the commotion suddenly arise on one side of the market and was about to check it out when he was suddenly swept by an urge.

Kill the paladin!

It wasn’t just a simple impulse but a well-structured internal logic. Vihik first felt resistance and fear to the urge, but the terror of the bankruptcy that would follow was more powerful.

The debt incurred for buying Loracus, payments to mercenaries, stall fees, cart rentals… While other fears and resistances were shared by everyone in the market, the fear of bankruptcy was his and his alone.

Kill the paladin!

Vihik realized that he was holding the kitchen knife that the market merchant was selling, even though he didn’t know why he was holding it or what he intended to do with it.

However, amidst the confusion, a sudden light engulfed him.

“You’ve turned the market into a den of thieves!”

With a brief reprimand, a powerful beam of light made everything clear.

Light and darkness, right and wrong, truth and falsehood, everything was separated and illuminated sharply.

At the same time, Vihik’s mind cleared.

Thunk.

The knife fell from his hand.

“What am I…?”

Vihik, while confused, also realized the situation clearly. The light emanating from the paladin was making everything clear despite his attempts to ignore it.

What followed next was shame.

He couldn’t comprehend what to do in the sudden rush of embarrassment.

Isaac, observing the crowd’s reaction, confirmed the effect of the Lighthouse of the watcher.

The Lighthouse of the watcher.

In the game, it’s expressed as a powerful defensive skill and aura ability.

Reading the flavor text, it described grandly how it distinguishes right from wrong in a world filled with confusion and darkness.

But who decides what is right and wrong? Who determines such a thing?

But now, Isaac knew who discerned what was right and wrong.

It was the person who could control the light of the beacon.

The moment Isaac cast the Lighthouse of the watcher, the rules of the “Codex of Light” covered everything touched by its glow. Miracles of the golden idol, the seduction and greed whispered by Golruwa, all vanished in an instant.

“It’s like a wide-area dispel effect.”

The Codex of Light is known as the god of light and heat, but it’s also essentially the god of natural laws. Within the glow cast by the Watchtower, all miracles, magic, fiction, and deceit vanished, leaving only the “norm” chosen by Isaac.

Here, no miracles of any faith could exist.

Literally, every visible range became the sanctum of the Codex of Light itself.

“That’s why the Lighthouse of Watcher is expressed as a powerful defensive aura skill.”

Any holy knight or priest of any faith would find it difficult to exert power against the Codex of Light within the Watchtower. But Isaac knew that this wasn’t the end of the Watchtower’s potential.

Depending on Isaac’s desires, he could turn the beacon in any direction.

In other words, Isaac could make this sanctuary the domain of the golden idol or the Red chalice. It was possible as long as he understood the respective faiths. In fact, in the game, Kalsen had created the sanctuary of the Immortal Order.

When Isaac first cast the Lighthouse of Watcher, he unknowingly changed the world according to the criteria of the “Nameless Chaos.”

Since then, Isaac had never used the Lighthouse of the Watcher recklessly again.

Because it was a sight he never wanted to see again.

Feeling his body gradually warming, Isaac extinguished the Lighthouse of the Watcher.

Just as the sunlight vanished, the halo above his head disappeared like a red sunset.

The time spent casting the Lighthouse of the Watcher was so short that it was almost negligible. However, it was enough to influence the market merchants. The desires and voices of seduction spread by Golruwa vanished completely.

Even the greed for the Loracus explosion that the scoundrel had spread among the merchants was completely eradicated.

All that remained was a vivid sense of reality.

They didn’t even feel anger. They just realized the impending cold future.

The merchants gradually collapsed in front of Isaac. They couldn’t even think about what to do with Isaac. It wouldn’t have been conceivable without Golruwa’s seduction in the first place.

Isaac looked at them and said,

“Go back.”

The merchants weakly looked up at Isaac.

“Go back and say goodbye to your families and embrace them.”

Isaac passed through the merchants and went to find Golruwa.