Chapter 85
Chapter 85
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 85
Chapter Title: Paladin Blackgreen
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The cult, destroyed by the Cataclysm, had to somehow survive while evading the eyes of the underworld and the Holy Empire.
They had been treated like cockroaches and exterminated.
“Faith exists everywhere.”
True to their cockroach nature, the cult had managed to cling to life.
One of its branches, the Great Temple Pantheon, had finally borne fruit after pouring in endless effort over long years.
“Anhel.”
That fruit was the paladin.
The heavily armored knight quietly rose to his feet.
The armor alone seemed to weigh well over a hundred kilograms.
Thud! Thud!
Unlike his heavy footsteps, his movements were remarkably light.
The man stepped out of the tent.
“Lord Blackgreen.”
The twenty people waiting before him bowed their heads.
Paladin Blackgreen.
The paladin crafted by pouring everything the Great Temple Pantheon had into him.
He was the strategic weapon once said to be capable of toppling kingdoms single-handedly.
Blackgreen.
“Following Immortal, Demorus has begun to move.”
Faith existed everywhere.
Even in the underworld, hailed as absolute.
“The successor candidate of Jugar is said to be in charge.”
“A greenhorn, then.”
A greenhorn.
That was Blackgreen’s assessment of Jugar.
“Is he not coming?”
“Given the nature of the underworld, it won’t be easy for them to move.”
“What a pity.”
He meant it.
“But our goal remains the same.”
Blackgreen’s deep voice spread outward.
“To proclaim the cult’s revival to the world.”
Bzzz.
The massive greatsword slung on Blackgreen’s back began to glow.
“Anhel.”
“Anhel.”
The others bowed their heads as if in prayer.
At that moment, Blackgreen seemed to sense something and cautiously lifted his head.
Tremble.
His pupils began to quiver.
“How… could this be.”
He was too shocked to even speak properly.
“What is it?”
The still-inadequate holy knights and priests wouldn’t sense it yet.
But in the eyes of Blackgreen, a paladin of the highest order, it was clear as day.
“Anhel!”
A radiant glow was steadily drawing closer to him.
“Who goes there!”
The holy knights shouted belatedly.
“How…?”
The place they now occupied was protected by a sacred magic circle.
No profane or unworthy soul could enter, and without faith, it was invisible—a special barrier.
And yet.
“Halt!”
A young girl and a youth had set foot here.
Blackgreen stopped the holy knights moving to block them.
Thud!
Blackgreen dropped to one knee.
“What…?”
The holy knights were bewildered.
“Stand down—!”
Blackgreen roared at them.
“Kneel and pay your respects—!”
A paladin’s command was absolute on the battlefield.
“……”
Though puzzled, the holy knights and priests knelt and showed obeisance.
Finally, the girl and youth arrived before them.
“You must be the ones of whom Anhel spoke.”
“……!”
“You are…?”
“I have come at His revelation.”
The light of glory obscured their faces entirely.
‘How immense this sacred power is.’
It was so pure and unadulterated that one could believe Anhel Himself had returned.
“My name is Ain.”
The youth said.
“To my shame, Anhel has chosen me.”
“Aaah…!”
Blackgreen clasped his hands as if in prayer, overcome with emotion.
“Anhel.”
The youth watched the scene.
Ain, or rather.
Smirk.
Sein smiled benevolently at them.
*
*
*
“A saint…?”
“Is that even possible?”
Ain’s sudden appearance left the Pantheon Sacred Steel Knights flustered.
The youth who appeared out of nowhere declared himself a saint.
The girl with him claimed to be the saint’s knight.
“Have you heard anything from the cult?”
The unbelievable story set the Sacred Steel Knights abuzz.
“It is an honor to behold Anhel’s child.”
But Blackgreen showed not a shred of doubt toward them.
“You have labored greatly, sir. These are trying times. May Anhel look upon you with favor.”
“Ooooh!”
No one dared voice disagreement to the rejoicing Blackgreen.
“No way….”
Some among the Sacred Steel Knights harbored suspicions.
“Isn’t she the saint they said was fabricated?”
A rumor circulating among the declining cult.
That Antara’s final archbishop had created a saint.
And that such a saint was with Demorus.
If these were they.
“……”
Then it might be Demorus.
“No, that can’t be. His Holiness clearly called her a saintess.”
“But… he’s a man?”
A saint, not a saintess.
That only deepened the confusion.
How could a saint just pop up out of thin air?
“Doubt not.”
Whether Blackgreen’s superhuman hearing had caught it all, he addressed the knights.
“Dare not judge the will of the divine.”
“Anhel.”
“In these trying times, Anhel has at last revealed Himself, sending a messenger for His lambs.”
This was no ordinary faith.
It bordered on fanaticism.
“You all must be exhausted.”
Then Ain approached and spoke to the Sacred Steel Knights.
To evade the underworld and Holy Empire, they had maintained a grueling forced march, moving with utmost caution.
To claim they weren’t worn out would be a lie.
“Anhel, look upon Your children with mercy.”
A prayer flowed from Ain’s lips.
Crackle.
A crown-of-thorns pattern emerged on Ain’s forehead.
“Huh?!”
“The saint’s halo!”
No believer could mistake it.
The saint’s halo, possessed only by true saints!
And the sacred power spreading outward.
“Uh…!”
It restored the Sacred Steel Knights’ lost vitality and healed their wounds.
Due to the nature of temple knight orders, their ranks included not just holy knights but priests as well.
For healing, buffs, and battle support.
But even they had limits.
“Aaah!”
Ain’s sacred power ignored those limits, perfectly restoring the Sacred Steel Knights.
There was no denying it now.
“F-Forgive our doubt, Saint.”
“We dared to question you, Saint.”
With irrefutable proof before their eyes, what could they do?
The only question was whether this saint was truly on their side.
That judgment fell not to mere knights.
“The saint walks with us.”
Paladin Blackgreen.
“Anhel surely blesses this expedition.”
He welcomed Ain and Marsil into the party.
Ain, who had wrought miracles.
Looking to the heavens, he thought.
‘I’ll make good use of you, Anhel.’
*
*
*
Find the paladin.
That was Sein’s plan.
Anyone hearing it would have been dumbfounded by its sheer simplicity, feeling a sense of deflation, while others might have called it madness and tried to stop him.
A paladin was a monster.
Not on the level of Demorus’s family head, Tejera, but still.
‘At minimum, max level.’
The very condition to become a paladin required reaching max level, making them true one-man armies.
‘Blackgreen.’
Paladin Blackgreen was no different—a monster.
But Sein’s plan wasn’t foolish.
‘Seeing is believing, as much as you know.’
In this world, that meant seeing as much as your strength allowed.
To a paladin of that caliber.
“Lord Ain.”
Sein would appear as the saint incarnate.
The explosive growth in his sacred power after reclaiming his privileges and leveling up.
How it was used might differ, but the sheer quantity and quality surpassed even Paladin Blackgreen’s—that much was fact.
“Would it be acceptable to entrust command to Lord Ain?”
Moreover, their hopes for the cult.
Their faith in the divine.
All of it would turn toward the manifested saint.
‘Excessive faith blinds human eyes.’
That was why this absurd scenario could work.
It had happened before.
-The crown prince that wastrel has been chosen as saint?
-Bullshit!
Sein Archibald.
The madman who slaughtered as casually as eating and waged wars—when word spread he wielded a saint’s power, the temples had erupted.
The priests who came to verify.
-That power is corrupt!
-It’s false!
Executed for daring to insult Sein.
The Great Temple and others had no choice but to act.
Sending three paladins to Sein, willing to clash with the Empire itself.
And then.
-We behold the saint.
The temples acknowledged Sein as saint.
They couldn’t ignore the evidence before them.
Paladins were madmen to begin with.
Fanatics among fanatics.
Without such belief, no ordinary human could reach those heights.
Then as now, it was the same.
The Great Temple’s mistake.
‘Creating the paladins.’
Naturally, the Great Temple’s leadership hadn’t accepted Sein as saint.
The result?
‘The paladins butchered them all.’
Ask the inquisitors for details.
Smirk.
The moment he’d waited for had arrived.
This was one reason Sein had used Cecil as bait to provoke the temples all this time.
But Cecil wouldn’t gain their recognition.
Her legitimacy aside, her sacred power was truly fabricated.
However.
“I must decline command.”
Sein was different.
The vast sacred power coursing through his body.
The saint’s halo etched on his forehead.
All of it.
“Please have Paladin Blackgreen lead them.”
Was truly bestowed by Anhel.
“Do you… find us unreliable?”
“How could that be? You are all so devout to Anhel. I merely seek to aid Lord Blackgreen temporarily due to my circumstances.”
“Aaah….”
The saint was the son of god.
Such a saint’s words.
“So I ask you.”
Were the will of god to paladins.
“What has happened? What does the cult seek with the holy sword…?”
He questioned them.
A question they would never answer.
“Ah! I’ve been remiss.”
Yet Blackgreen replied.
“The goal of this expedition is to recover the holy sword, and…”
A bright smile.
“To bring divine retribution upon those who dare steal it!”