Chapter 77
Chapter 77
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 77
Chapter Title: Lord of Sin
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The deepest recesses of Godel. A place where the heat coursing through its veins dried even eyeballs to the point of cracking. At the far end of this space, resembling a cathedral for those who served sin from the abyss, upon a throne entwined with black wooden vines, the Lord of Sin-whether truly alive or not-sensed his own end. He raised his hand and spoke.
"End it."
He had already committed far too many sins.
As his consciousness faded, he endlessly replayed the image of the truly noble former king dying. He recalled the time when he had volunteered to play the role of evil's agent for a noble purpose.
The former king had rebuked him for it. Their role was to gather and protect all those who had suffered under Agagthur, as ordained by the gods, and they must stop there. But the current lord had his own sense of justice, believing he was doing what was right.
The world had always been cruel, giving rise to the despised and scorned. He believed the most fundamental way to protect them was through evolution. His justice was truly right, and as followers emerged to agree with it, that justice gained conviction. Conviction became a great power, justifying his assassination of the former king and the counter-revolution that followed.
The Lord of Sin abandoned his brother's family name and took one for himself alone.
The era of Lord Makka had dawned.
"May the era of Lord Makka, the Lord of Sin... please."
Yet even so, his experiments to evolve the beastkin-and ultimately humans-had failed, and the queen had found her rest and departed. Now that those who would judge his sins had arrived, he had no choice but to accept it.
"Could you give me a moment alone?"
At Gaon's question, the other two knights simply nodded silently. They didn't know or care about the tangled web of karma here. They had fought countless battles already, and the absurdities they'd felt in them were enough to shatter every dark night ahead.
"Then let's have a little chat with my little uncle."
Gaon tore a strip of cloth from the pouch at his armor's waist and wrapped his severed finger. Then he strode straight to the throne and stood before the lord. Naturally, Godel's lord recognized him. But as the price of those horrific, cruel experiments, he couldn't even lift his head. He barely managed to open his eyes.
Red eyes, strikingly identical to Gaon's.
"Back in the Empire, there are bards, but they also have this thing called 'tragedy'-a kind of play. Helpless people gather to make up stories about the radiant and glorious ones falling into corruption and ruin."
Gaon let out a grotesque laugh, his mad cackles filling the lord's chamber.
"Doesn't it feel just like that 'tragedy'? Your mother's brother and father's brother conspire to kill your father, and then that son flees only to return and kill his mother's brother and father's brother in turn?"
Gazing into eyes that mirrored his own, Godel's lord said nothing. He simply quietly reflected on this tragic life.
Yes, you are my son indeed. That was the beginning of the tragedy.
So.
"End it."
Whether Gaon knew this truth or not no longer mattered. Even if he didn't, the lord would leave no words behind. He, the one who had sparked this tragedy, simply wanted to exit the story, bearing his heavy sins into rest. That way, he could finally let go of his justice.
"My children..."
But the seed planter would not grant him that rest. With his charred hands, he squeezed out the last of his life to activate the curse he'd placed on the Lord of Sin. In an instant, the throne glowed and burst into flames.
"Damn it!"
Bison hurriedly slashed the seed planter's throat, knocking him out, but the lord writhed in agony from the flames. He raised both hands and began vomiting blood and fire from his mouth. And so, the lord-no, the throne-rose.
"End it."
The one who had believed he was doing right now bore his sins, seated there. Slowly, the throne rose from the ground, supported by the impure black tree that had grown from the seed, lifting itself from the earth. Gaon tried to swing his sword immediately, but the erupting ground blocked his vision, forcing him to halt.
"Wandering Knight!"
Gil drew his sword and charged straight ahead, but something attached beneath the throne struck him.
Boom!
It was the kin of sin.
"End it."
With the Lord of Sin's lower body and head connected by flesh and pus, wearing the throne like a crown-this was the kin of sin that had once warred against the Glory Mir in ancient times. Arrogant, it never rose from its place: the calamity, or 'Belli'.
"The pact I'made with the devil."
It'symbolized calamity, always dormant, yet sowing seeds with its breath. Now, having awakened because the Demon King could no longer suppress the backlash.
Who was this being with tree-like skin, a beast's head, scythe-like arms, and a thorny tail that brought disaster? It was the thing buried through Godel's sins, now revealed.
"Please, end the kin of sin."
Moreover, it had only a mouth spewing blood-no eyes, no nose-for calamity innately tore into others' throats or slashed with blades, senseless to perception.
It resembled a werewolf, yet was more like a corrupted great tree born from iron blades, branches, and roots fused together. Of course, the left side of the face bearing Makka flickered with flames, its long, trailing fiery eyebrows making it look like an incarnation of fire.
"Bison!"
"He's unconscious!"
Gil shouted to subdue the kin of sin now before him, but the seed planter lay slumped, vomiting blood as if dead. With no choice, Gil stood beside Gaon, sword in hand. They had never fought in sync before; their sword styles and tells suited solo combat better than teamwork. But this was unavoidable.
To face that silent monster, they needed every bit of strength now. Gaon said to Gil,
"No choice-we go with a pincer. The beastkin knight baits it."
Gil didn't understand 'pincer,' but Gaon's grave expression clued him in. He nodded, and they slowly separated, ready to flank the calamity from both sides.
"Bison! Can you hold a sword?"
"I'll try!"
"Good! Throw your sword, and we'll charge from both sides!"
Thus, the three readied their coordination and raised their swords. Wrath seemed a haughty state, senseless to all. It neither sniffed nor listened nor groped with its scythe-like hand. But judging by its aura or Makka's screaming head, it wouldn't stay still forever.
Then they would strike first.
'Impatient Justice'.
Bison thrust his sword forward.
In an instant, the blade spun like a drill, then like a shield itself, flying toward the calamity. Sensing something for the first time, it screamed.
Kyaaaaak!
Boom!
As it screamed, the calamity batted Bison's sword away with its scythe-hand, bristles erect across its body as it prepared to charge back at him.
But Gaon and Gil wouldn't allow it. Gaon pulled his sword from the ground and raised it high; Gil ignited flames he could barely control, just like in his fight with Godel's Hero, and charged.
'Wrath'.
Boom!
Two overwhelming slashes assaulted the calamity. Its skin burned and shattered all too easily. But destruction only enlarged its hands and feet.
From the wound Bison had inflicted moments ago, and from the other two, even more grotesque, sharper branches sprouted.
Kyaaaaak!
And that was not all. Except for Makka's attached left face, thorns erupted everywhere else. They grew into a massive ball of unrecognizable spikes, reaching and crumbling the walls and floor of the lord's castle underground.
Of course, Gil and Gaon swung their swords desperately to dodge the thorns growing at terrifying speed, fleeing as best they could. But the calamity reached everywhere. The chamber was now filled with nothing but thorns. And so, it slowly raised its neck, preparing to attack.
Was it really going to move in this state?
"If so, it won't stop at attacking us-it'll wound itself, growing even bigger thorns! It'll keep expanding! Isn't there a way? Wandering Knight!"
Gil, cornered, barely blocked the thorns with his sword as he yelled. Gaon was struggling too, but racking his brain against this incomprehensible superior being, he answered promptly.
"Agagthur's lava cave is right below! Collapse the floor-the floor! Watch the backlash, beastkin knight!"
If it grew endlessly without end, the answer was to bury it in the endless depths below. The moment Gil heard Gaon, he ignored the calamity's growth from his attacks, gathering fire for his strongest slash.
"It's over!"
And he brought it down.
'Wrath'.
Boom!
As the lord's castle exploded from its roots and crumbled, the floor beneath Godel's-deeper still, the ceiling of Agagthur's sealed lava cave-shattered. The calamity plummeted amid the debris.
"To the center!"
The other three knights did the same. To reach the center of the lava cave, where Agagthur's seal lay, Gil used his technique once more midair.
'Wrath'.
Gil exploded in midair, grabbing Bison, and they barely landed atop a tall pillar-like outcrop in the lava cave's center.
Gaon, who had launched slashing strikes from the air using wind, managed the same. The pillar was wider than the lord's chamber above, but before they could glimpse Agagthur's seal at its center, they spotted the calamity rising from the lava below.
"So it's not ending that easily."
For a moment, they'd thought it dead without a trace in the lava, but the calamity, having fed on it, rose in its true form.
Now, with justice, right and wrong, the lords' tales and tragedies spanning generations all ablaze.
Kuoooooh.
The final battle in Godel had begun, suffocating in its intensity.