Chapter 67
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 67
Chapter Title: Oracle - 3
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A mysterious man wearing a pure white mask and noble attire.
Sylvia eyed the figure warily, but as an ordinary person, there was nothing she could do. Besides, the man's interest lay not in Sylvia, but in Irina.
More precisely, in the sacred relic she held—"Burning Ice."
"I never dreamed there would still be a follower of Ornacr, the goddess of frost and resistance."
"Come no closer."
"No need to be so guarded. We're both devotees of forgotten gods, after all."
"I don't know what nonsense you're spouting, but can't you see this?"
Irina invoked the legacy of "the One Who Walks the Lowest Depths."
"I'm in the process of destroying it right now. One wrong move, and your time could freeze forever too."
"Haha, that's exactly why I'm approaching. We can't let something so precious be destroyed."
In response to Irina's warning, the man revealed a shocking truth.
"Do you know how much effort we put into awakening it?"
"So all of this was your doing?"
Suspicion had fallen on the Holy Kingdom, starting with Helen.
No one believed that trolls, stripped of wisdom by an outer god's curse, could unseal a divine legacy on their own.
Especially not one sealed personally by the goddess Ornacr—"the One Who Walks the Lowest Depths."
That left only one conclusion: a third force at play.
"Don't paint us as villains. We're just struggling to save our god, same as you."
The Forgotten.
They were zealots who worshipped gods defeated in the final war, a fanatic group that had persisted for a millennium to revive their deity.
"Defiling the natural order while claiming to honor your god. How repulsive."
"I thought fellow believers in the same plight would make natural allies. My mistake."
With negotiations broken off...
The man drew the rapier from his waist and lunged at Irina. Sylvia threw herself in the way.
"Urk!"
"Sylvia!"
"Such touching family bonds."
But the man didn't stop. He aimed to kill Irina, using Sylvia as a shield—until...
"What do you think you're doing?"
Sian, whose time should have been frozen by the divinity of "the One Who Walks the Lowest Depths," began to move again.
"Haha? This is unexpected..."
Bam!
Struck by Sian's fist, the man flew off into the distance.
The sensation of frozen time was honestly awful.
It felt like plummeting alone into the deep sea.
Nothing could be felt. Nothing could be done.
As consciousness began to fade, a chilling shiver ran down his nape.
The exact same sensation Ellen had felt in her moment of crisis.
Hestia's miracle of family protection was activating.
And that meant one of his family was in danger.
His own time was frozen right now.
'No, I can move.'
Hestia's miracle kept working.
Meaning divinity could still operate even in stopped time.
'If I use Hestia's vital enhancement miracle to move my body!'
But it wasn't that simple.
His body was currently being corroded by the divinity of "the One Who Walks the Lowest Depths," devouring his time.
Pouring new water into a full vessel—it simply overflowed.
But thinking oppositely, pouring it forcefully could displace the old water.
'Hestia, help me.'
He prayed.
Not a goddess he relied on much.
'I want to protect my family.'
It aligned with the doctrine she had created and his own wish.
'So lend me your power.'
That desperate prayer found the goddess, and sheer will drew the miracle from her.
Just like now.
"Such touching family bonds."
Opening his eyes, the first thing he saw was the rapier piercing Sylvia.
Reflexively grabbing it, he glared at the masked man threatening his family.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"Haha? This is unexpected..."
The man smirked as he spoke.
Sian didn't wait for the full reply—he sent him flying.
Kaboom!
"The price for touching my family is death."
"Hahaha! I can't even remember the last time I felt pain like this."
It was a strike meant to kill, yet the masked man just laughed merrily.
Laughing? Really?
"Let's see if you laugh with your limbs severed."
"I'm grateful for the attention, but first, one question. How did you overcome the divinity of 'the One Who Walks the Lowest Depths'?"
"You think I'll just tell you?"
"Isn't sharing wisdom between seekers of the divine a good thing?"
"Bullshit."
Sian charged at him with Robera drawn, lunging into the shadows cloaked in dark flame.
"Now you're openly defying the divinity of 'the One Who Walks the Lowest Depths'?"
"You're defying it too."
"Even I am resisting with another god's legacy."
"Oh yeah? Then leave that behind and scram!"
Robera, wrapped in Hestia's divinity, blazed like it was wreathed in flames.
Seeing it, the masked man could no longer laugh.
"Looks like it's not the right time to fight you yet."
"You bastard?!"
Sian struck swiftly, but while his movements slowed in frozen time, the masked man—still at full capacity—wove subtle sorcery and began to flee.
"Think I'll let you escape?"
"You will. This too is a divine miracle."
"Damn it!"
He pursued relentlessly, but the man slipped away just as Sian closed in.
"I won't forget you. I'll hunt you down and kill you."
"So ferocious for a priest of Hestia goddess..."
Kaboom!
Sian hurled Robera, but it missed—unable to pierce divine miracle.
"That was close. A shame."
"Tch!"
In the end, the masked man got away.
Pushing aside regret, Sylvia came first.
"Sylvia, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fi... urk!"
Sylvia groaned in pain from the rapier wound inflicted by the masked man.
To make matters worse, it had struck near her liver.
"Irina, can you heal Sylvia?"
"I can't heal, but I can prevent the wound from worsening."
"That's enough."
He wanted to infuse her with Hestia's vital miracle, but his proficiency wasn't high enough yet.
More pressing was the expedition's ultimate goal: destroying the divine legacy.
"But son-in-law, if we don't destroy the legacy of 'the One Who Walks the Lowest Depths,' nothing will be resolved."
"It's given me a bigger headache."
The original plan was sealing.
But the unexpected counterattack had felled his comrades.
If they didn't destroy it, Clara, Vivian, Helen, and Camilla would remain frozen forever.
"I'll destroy it, even if it costs my life..."
"I'll do it."
"Son-in-law?"
Irina offered herself up, but Sian couldn't stand by.
She was precious family to Sylvia, but above all, he was confident he could do it.
"For some reason, I feel like I can eat this."
"W-Wait! Son-in-law, eating something strange will only hurt you!"
Irina cried out, but following instinct, Sian snatched the fragrant legacy of "the One Who Walks the Lowest Depths" and swallowed it.
'Mm...'
Time froze again.
'To think a single punch claimed three lives.'
The masked man could use curses to treat others' lives as spare ones for himself.
That's how he'd survived Sian's earlier strike.
Of course, the three who bore the brunt in his stead had died.
'For such a man to appear in this remote place... What trick of fate is this?'
The masked man bit his lip—a habit when things deviated from plan.
Nothing was going right.
The legacy of "the One Who Walks the Lowest Depths," prepared over 25 years to weaken the Holy Kingdom, had been lost in vain. And three spare lives with it.
Even the northern conquest, spurred by Duke Starl, was fizzling out for some reason.
'Is it all because of that man?'
As he tried to grasp the situation's cause...
"Sorry, but passage ahead is forbidden."
A baritone voice rang out, followed by sword energy slicing lightly through the wind toward him.
"Anemoi, protect me."
Anemoi.
One of the forgotten gods—the goddess of wind.
Her legacy allowed the wearer to evade great calamities.
It was the power that let the masked man escape Sian's grasp.
But...
"Gaaahhh!"
A knight's resolute sword energy, infused with a dying god's miracle, could not be evaded.
"Haha, unbelievable."
Though invisible, the masked man knew who had pierced his body. Fewer than ten knights on the continent could cleave divine miracles.
Among Holy Kingdom knights, only four—and just one free to act.
The captain of the 1st Holy Knight Order, a 2nd Hierarchy knight said to shift the continent's balance alone.
Holy Lance Pereidel.
The heavyweight's arrival made sweat bead on the masked man's brow.
"You lot are supposed to be in the south, yet here you are in the north?"
"To catch a slippery rabbit, you dig a trap, no?"
Pereidel, who had cleaved through the forest in one strike, assumed position again.
"Your recovery's slower than usual, Black Evangelist."
"Yes, punished for my comings and goings. Looks like today's gospel ends here."
The masked man drew his black scripture, preparing to flee, unyielding.
"Running again?"
"Naturally."
He was no match to begin with. His foe was among the continent's strongest 2nd Hierarchy knights, while he was merely an evangelist spreading the gospel.
As he invoked the miracle in the human-skin black scripture to escape...
Radiant light enveloped the entire north from the heavens.
The Twelve Gods, most noble and just.
It was the miracle of Sun God Sunna.
And only one could wield it to such scale.
The Holy Kingdom's First Apostle.
"Filthy dog of a traitor god!"
At his appearance, the masked man's facade finally cracked for the first time.