Chapter 134
Chapter 134
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 134
Chapter Title: Do Not Seek Tranquility, For It Is Not for You (3)
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*
He folded his fingers, then unfolded them again. His entire body burned like fire, heat rising to the crown of his head, making him dizzy. Curses and hatred swirled within him.
His blood vessels burst, twisting his vision red. Too much power and soul churned inside one fleshly body. Kadan, Mumto, Dain. And—
-I've found you, mage.
A distant voice whispered in his ear. Faint and small, yet intense! Fernandez glared at Mumto's skull with bloodshot eyes.
"So, take my hand. Just as you became his apostle, I shall appoint you as mine. You know it too, don't you? That there's far more we can achieve together than with him."
Mumto cackled, certain of victory. He could feel his magic burrowing into Fernandez's heart. That flesh was now corrupted beyond repair.
Hellish magic's corruption twisted reason and instinct alike. No matter its original temperament, it was trapped prey now, like a gazelle in a snare. Mumto slowly extended his massive claw.
-Slither.
The moment Mumto's hand reached to seize Fernandez's body, Fernandez's mouth opened.
"You've returned to the original world."
"What did you say?"
"The original world. Yes. You've come back to the original world."
Fernandez clenched his fist tight. He felt the saintly divinity flowing along his muscles. Beneath his blackened hair, no traces of age remained.
His frame grew larger, lightning-like power surging between muscles and tendons. He breathed, observing his own state. This was the Soul Realm.
-Roooar...
He looked around. Beyond Mumto's claw loomed a gloomy dark-green sky, thousands of wraiths drifting above it, pyramids and valleys stretching to the horizon. He saw the souls of the wraiths spiraling toward the heavens.
This was the Soul Realm. He had never seen wrong or come wrongly. The world Mumto had created was already warped and gone.
One of Fernandez's eyes closed, blood trickling beneath it. Unable to bear the curses and magic flowing through his flesh, his body was losing function from the extremities.
Blood fell like tears. Even if his eyes had been intact, tears would have flowed. It had been a sweet dream. Amid the dizzying fever, Fernandez reflected on the years past.
"Yes. But it hasn't vanished. Your soul merely crossed over here. The world made for you still lies below, beyond the dimensional wall. If you wish it, if you aid me, I shall shatter that wall and overlay it upon this place."
Mumto whispered, tightening his grip. Crunch. The ground tore as his hand clenched fiercer. He was nearly upon Fernandez.
"Feizashi."
-Yes. Can you hear me now?
"Were you watching?"
-...Yes.
"How was it?"
-Sweet.
The soul split by Beitasser retained form even in the Soul Realm. Fernandez felt oddly reassured by that fact. The only one who truly understood him in this world.
Fernandez gave a short laugh toward Feizashi whispering behind him.
-The bubble about to burst is the most beautiful and grandly swollen. The dream before waking lingers most intensely in the mind. The night sky just before dawn is the darkest.
"Is that your comfort?"
-If I comfort you, it's mere self-consolation, Fernandez.
"Haha."
Fernandez laughed, glaring at Mumto's claw. His flesh was on the verge of exploding into pieces. Exposed to too much magic already.
Strength ebbed, his heart pounded. From the ends of his limbs, hands and feet crumbled, blood spurting. Clearly on the brink of death. Or already a dead body.
Yet.
Fernandez reached behind his back. His hand touched the greatsword's hilt. Dain's sword. Sword of Compassion. No, not that now.
He stretched further aside until his fingertips gripped a firm hilt. The Key Sword. The blade holding the true divinity of the Holy Pantheon of Good Gods, Beitasser's sword.
-Shing.
"You dare resist me?"
Mumto's voice echoed sinisterly through the entire Soul Realm.
"Look at your state. Whether you wish it or not, you're merely my puppet. I shall revoke the chance I gave you. Just as I granted you time, you've given me plenty. I'll tear you apart and reassemble you. As my soldier!"
Mumto's threat tore through the Soul Realm's sky like a scream. Thousands of wraiths swimming the heavens scattered in terror.
-Thud.
Fernandez's other eye burst and closed. Thick blood and vitreous humor trailed down his cheek. Yet slowly, the blade drew forth into his hand.
"Your reign ends. I am not your dream, only your nightmare. You have no more choices."
"But do not seek tranquility..."
A murmur escaped Fernandez's lips. A verse from the Canticle of Praise, one of the Inquisitor's oaths. A prayer to Beitasser.
"Praying? To your god?"
"Not for me, but for my flock. You shall not have tranquility, only the path of thorns..."
The three elements of divine spells: prayer and invocation. And...
-Fwoosh!
Azure flames erupted from Fernandez's back. Soul Realm magic scattered, Mumto's curse burned away, growing ever clearer!
*
[I have come upon you, and by this, you become my proxy and that of the Pantheon. You shall never crumble, compromise, or settle. This is the second authority I grant you.]
*
That stigmata's name was [Unyielding]. Hatred, corruption, and curses twisted the soul's essence, warping humanity and nature. Even amid hellish magic polluting spirit, nature, vital soul, and core soul—like flames that never die. The Unyielding Stigmata blazed.
-Thrum thrum thrum...
Divinity raced through his veins. Fierce as a river after a dam breaks! It flowed along his blood, washing away the curse. But divinity overburdened mortal flesh—
"Cough!"
Thick blood mixed with organ tissue burst from his throat. It seemed to mark his final life. Yet he forced his contracted tongue to continue the prayer.
"Do not think I came to bring peace to the world. Not peace, but a sword! Hack!"
Azure flames spread across his chest. Life's heat surged into his cooling body, repairing the flesh. As if rewinding time, severed vessels reconnected, torn flesh mended.
*
[You shall not fall, rest your body, or seek repose until your mission is fully complete. This is the first authority I grant you.]
*
Each time the chest stigmata glowed, Fernandez's black hair burned white. Amid now half-gray locks, his closed eyes opened. Burst eyes reformed, gleaming blue.
This stigmata's name was [Immortality]. No perfect immortality existed—this was closer to a curse. A curse stabbing the flab in his heart that even death offered another chance!
Thus. Thus. Fernandez raised his sword toward Mumto. Lingering blood trickled from his lips, soaking his front.
"Beitasser!! If you hear me, if you've found me!"
I've found you, mage. That voice was surely Beitasser's!
"I shall use your curse here and now. Death to death!"
The holy sword blazed. The Key Sword. The final chance and trial from god to man, thrust at the gateway between divine and mortal. The key unlocking the sealed halls of the Holy Pantheon of Good Gods!
-Krunch!!
It tore through the void, the extended blade wedging in. The blade shattered, emitting blinding light. The Soul Realm burned!
"As sacrifice to kill death, immortality! As sacrifice to fell eternity, unyielding!"
Immortality opposed death. To kill the concept of death required immortality as sacrifice. He offered this stigmata, imprinted with Beitasser's own divinity, to slay the god of death.
The three elements of divine spells: prayer and invocation. And miracle. The blade in Fernandez's grip fully shattered, miracle exploding from his hand.
*
Beitasser's sword resonated with the stigmata, burning away darkness with light. Seeing it, Mumto recalled the nemesis who hounded him lifelong. Kadan, the heretic hunter. His end had looked just like this.
Time froze; Fernandez's sword exploded in his hand. Mumto stiffened before that overwhelming power.
The great god of the Pantheon since ancient times, Beitasser of war and honor. A gate to his world opened, his divinity swirling!
-Hwooom!!
Mumto's body began crumbling under the immense density of divinity. Grinding his teeth to dust, he roared.
"Beitasser!! Your deceptions weary me! How can a plot to defy heaven come from a good god? The Pantheon's sealing was our pact! Is this justice to you?"
[Justice.]
-Hwooom!
From beyond the raging winds of divinity, beyond the gateway to Beitasser's world. A thunderous voice resounded.
[When have I ever spoken of justice?]
"Damnable mongrel god—!!"
Mumto's mouth opened, unleashing the curse burning all his divinity. The grand curse of a great necromancer expending everything.
But cleaving through, space grinding, a black arc flew and embedded in his skull.
"Cough!!"
The curse cut short, silence fell. Mumto stared at the dark greatsword lodged in his head. It quivered, sunk to the hilt.
Far off, Fernandez panted, one hand extended.
"Archdemon. Your chance to defend ends. Religious tribunal jurisdiction. Heretic summary execution rights. Exorcism legion transfer rights. Ecclesiastical proxy rights. By these authorities guaranteed by the Pantheon, I execute the heretic trial."
"You have no such right!"
Fernandez twisted bloodied lips at those words.
"Mumto of Nightmares. The defendant's sentence is death."
"You cannot kill death!! I am death itself!"
"No perfect immortality exists."
-Swish.
Fernandez's blood-soaked hand formed seals in the air. Among souls swirling in him, Ptaha's conqueror, Tutan Gartep. Seal formed with power sacrificed from his soul. [All Things].
-Fwoosh.
Divinity blazed fiercely. No hellish magic, no black arts used. A spell holy even in appearance. Sublime as an ancient burnt offering—
Another soul within responded. To punish sinners who devoured an empire. Mahras's sorcerer-king, Altarak. Seal formed with power from his sacrificed soul. [Death].
-Krunch!
The final soul writhed. The high priest who volunteered as Mumto's subordinate, Papftet, screamed. But resolute as a priest slitting the sacrificial rooster—
The last seal: [Compass]. Nothing achieves perfect immortality. Not even those sky stars. As the celestial sphere turned, Soul Realm wraiths scattered—
-Fwoosh!!
The world blazed azure. Stars and distant cosmos adorned the firmament. Moon rose, set; sun rose, set. Eternity's mantra reversed and shattered!
[All Things]. [Death]. [Compass]. Three ancient incantations. A grand miracle of divine spell, grinding three mightiest souls from the Age of Ashit, swirled at Fernandez's fingertips—
"Thus. I sentence death upon the god of death."
"No!!"
With Mumto's scream, the Soul Realm began collapsing. Fernandez smiled at Mumto's crumbling flesh and the closing halls of Beitasser.
"Is this the end?"
-Who knows.
Feizashi replied cynically. Having burned the immortality authority to start this, did Fernandez have life left to burn? Doubtful.
Fernandez watched the crumbling Soul Realm horizon, the wraiths swimming below finally freed, ascending to the heavens.
He had slain the archdemon. An achievement impossible for mortals. But if the price was his life, was it rational?
Soulbound wraiths departed free. The sky blazed bright. With the wasteland's demon and curse gone, one more chance for this world to survive bloomed.
Fernandez smiled at the scattering wraiths, singing in joy and ecstasy.
*