Episode 2. The Child Who Survived
The black-haired man watched the burning village with an expressionless face. The pure white holy armor engraved with the emblem of the *Codex of Light* indicated that he was a paladin of considerable high rank. Yet even as the entire village burned and commoners were being slaughtered, his expression did not change in the slightest.
Rather, he opened his mouth with chilling coldness.
“There is an escape route to the east. The women and children will likely be fleeing in that direction by now, so send the soldiers there.”
At that, the Death Knight who had been playing the violin beside him paused briefly before changing his tone. As the sound of the violin pierced through the noise of the blaze, some of the skeleton soldiers began moving east.
The Death Knight spoke while playing the violin.
“Did you not think to mention this earlier?”
“There are more than ten escape routes in this village that I know of. To be thorough, we must keep our movements hidden. And we must observe the situation.”
The Death Knight still seemed to find the man suspicious. However, Calsen Milter, the commander of the Millishar Holy Knight Order that had guarded the Baekje Empire’s front lines, did not even spare a glance at the Death Knight.
Calsen Milter.
He was a powerful holy knight renowned among the paladins of the Baekje Empire as the Saint of the Sword. It was only natural that he would ascend to the ranks of angels after death, and there were even rumors that he might reach the Rank of the Named Angel, a station where one is granted a name by God.
But he had chosen to apostatize.
When he revealed his true colors, not only did his fellow knights refuse to believe it, but even the Undead Church that had agreed to accept him found it hard to trust him.
So Calsen offered up all the members of his own knight order to prove his conviction. And, as if that had not been enough, he had received a 'special' mission from the Heukje Empire and come all the way here.
“With this, the vessels that would have become seeds of disaster have all been eliminated, I suppose.”
The Death Knight muttered.
The village they had attacked was one of the most secretly hidden places within the Baekje Empire. Revealing the existence of this village alone would have branded one an apostate, yet in the end, it had been exposed by Calsen.
However, not even Calsen knew why this place was hidden so thoroughly, nor did the upper echelons of the Church. Both protecting and destroying it were carried out merely by the secret commands of the gods.
“The east is finished. How about we look around personally now?”
The Death Knight asked Calsen, as if provoking him.
Thanks to Calsen, the watchtowers defending the village and the defensive walls had all been neutralized. Yet during the course of his apostasy, Calsen had never once swung his sword directly at a person.
He had only trapped his own knights and taken them prisoner, or had skeleton soldiers kill them, and when attacking the village, he had merely destroyed walls and watchtowers.
The Death Knight’s words were asking whether it was not about time he got his own hands bloody.
Calsen stared at the burning village without expression, then spurred his horse. The trained warhorse walked into the ruins without regard for the flames.
***
“Hah… huff…”
Isaac was running with great effort. Skeleton soldiers were everywhere, and their numbers were increasing as time passed.
*No matter how insane the game’s difficulty was, it was never to this extent…*
Isaac thought so even amidst his dizziness. His survival was the result of overlapping coincidence and luck. Even had he not been a frail Nephilim, breaking through this situation would have been difficult.
Moreover, in the game, one did not grow tired or dizzy merely from bleeding until one’s HP ran out. But the fact that it was becoming burdensome just to take steps proved that the world Isaac was now treading upon was reality, not a game.
Then Isaac felt that the skeleton soldiers’ movements were strange. Instead of attacking Isaac, they were herding him into a corner.
Before he knew it, Isaac was trapped at the edge of a collapsed wall.
And someone appeared between the skeleton soldiers.
The moment Isaac saw him, he felt his breath stop.
Calsen Milter.
One of the continent’s Eight Great Powers, the tip of the Baekje Empire’s spear, called the Skeleton Crusher—the Saint of the Sword.
Standing before him was Calsen Milter, commander of the Millishar Holy Knight Order, who from this day forth would be called the worst apostate in the last hundred years. In the *Nameless Chaos* universe, he was an existence considered a final boss-level entity depending on the faction.
*I can barely handle a single skeleton soldier, and he’s here?*
Isaac felt despair.
But thanks to that, he realized what point in time this was.
It was the very moment when 'Calsen Milter the Apostate,' the boss of *Nameless Chaos*, fell.
Even with the Death Knight in massive heavy armor with glowing blue eyes holding a violin beside him, Calsen’s presence was overwhelming. The moment Isaac laid eyes on Calsen, he felt as if the world itself was compressing.
*I can’t run.*
It was exactly the atmosphere described in the game. Player characters would receive debuffs to their mental strength and nausea just from facing Calsen. Calsen held Isaac captive with such a powerful presence.
Then a metallic, ringing voice came from the Death Knight’s direction. It was not a sound coming from a throat, but from vibrating air.
“It’s just a brat, so what? You could take him and increase our number of apostates by one. He is still a child, so there is no reason he could not follow our teachings.”
However, Calsen looked at Isaac and silently drew his sword.
“No, wait. Calsen. Did you not hear me? It is a child. There is no need to kill it.”
“I came all the way here to kill it.”
Calsen muttered as if sensing something instinctively. This moment might be the most important in his plan. Massacring the believers or betraying his comrades was nothing. Killing the child before his eyes right now was far more important.
And Calsen intended to faithfully carry out that mission.
Calsen passed by the Death Knight and strode toward Isaac.
The distance closed until Isaac could look into Calsen’s pupils. No emotion or doubt could be found in his eyes.
And in Calsen’s figure as he swung his sword, not an iota of hesitation could be found.
Isaac reflexively pulled his body back, but the blade sliced straight down across his chest.
Fresh blood gushed from his chest.
*I’m dying.*
Isaac felt a hollow loneliness.
In this world, he was utterly alone.
There was no family, friend, or acquaintance in this world who would remember him. There was not even a religion to explain the afterlife once he died. Even when he had been 'Isaac,' he had never had a religion, and in this world where gods actually existed, he still did not believe in them.
But as the final moment arrived, Isaac realized what loneliness was.
If only there had been someone by his side, anyone at all….
[The Nameless Chaos gazes upon you.]
At that moment, his chest exploded.
What burst forth along with the fresh blood was a massive cluster of tentacles.
As if a knife had been pressed against an overinflated balloon, a horde of massive tentacles flooded out and burst forth. The gigantic tentacles instantly devoured Calsen, who stood right before him.
Calsen reflexively raised his sword, but by then his entire body was already being chewed apart into pieces. Even until the moment his skull was crushed by thick molars, he did not realize what was happening.
“Uu—”
The Death Knight noticed something was wrong and let out a blank sound, but his reaction was too late.
The swarm of tentacles did not stop at Calsen but swept through the skeleton soldiers nearby as well. The skeleton soldiers were instantly crushed and shattered, scattering like grains of sand swept away by waves. The moment the Death Knight belatedly turned his horse, a red tentacle brushed past above him.
The skeleton horse ran wildly, carrying the Death Knight of whom only the lower body remained. The lower body wobbled and fell from the horse to the ground.
The tentacles swept through the surroundings, then crunched and swallowed what they had swept into their maws.
*Crunch. Crunch, munch, grind.*
Metal, bone, or flesh—it was all crushed with thunderous sounds. The tentacles soon seemed to have finished chewing everything, smacked their lips, and were slowly sucked back into Isaac’s chest.
The surroundings were engulfed in sudden silence.
Of all who had witnessed that, Isaac alone survived.
Isaac looked at his own chest with a blank expression. As if to prove what he had experienced was not a lie, only a scar remained along the trace where Calsen had cut him. And then, as if to mock him, messages began appearing before his eyes.
[The Nameless Chaos gazes upon you.]
[You have devoured 'Calsen Milter (EX)'.]
[Consumption efficiency rises through the special trait 'Dead God's Entrails'.]
[Physical abilities increase drastically.]
[Faith abilities increase drastically.]
[You have acquired 'Watchman's Lighthouse (EX)'.]
[Error. The prey’s level is excessively high compared to the character; digestion has been delayed.]
['Agent of Chaos' cooldown: 30 days]
Isaac felt his stomach churning. He wished all of this was a dream or a delusion.
“Urk.”
But for some reason, he burped despite having eaten nothing.
And soon, a fierce drowsiness assaulted him. Unable to resist his drooping eyelids, Isaac soon collapsed with a thud.
***
Clop.
As dawn approached, a man arrived before the village ruins. He turned pale and urgently leaped off his horse, surveying the surroundings, but all he saw were burnt-out ruins and cold, settled dew upon them.
*Damn it.*
Gebel, the first to arrive, cursed inwardly and hurried into the village.
Despite such a large-scale attack, neither guardsmen nor holy knight orders had arrived yet. Only Gebel, who resided at a nearby monastery, had arrived after seeing the rising smoke and riding through the night.
By now the territorial guards and nearby holy knight orders would all be rushing over, but what they would see were only corpses and ruins. Gebel knew well why the support was so late.
*Inept church priests!*
It was because of Calsen Milter’s apostasy.
The Church had noticed signs of Calsen’s apostasy. However, the fact that Calsen, a saint and hero, had committed apostasy would clearly cause great shock and turmoil among the faithful. While they had hesitated to handle the matter quietly, Calsen had brazenly advanced deep into the Baekje Empire and invaded the village.
The Church belatedly realized the situation and ordered monasteries, churches, and holy knight orders everywhere to respond, but it was all too late.
The path Gebel walked was nothing but ruins. No corpses were visible.
*Of course. The Undead Church leaves no corpses, living or dead, where they invade…*
Because both were ultimately turned into undead.
But he hurried to search for any survivors who might exist. Fortunately or unfortunately, it was not long before Gebel discovered something.
The smell of blood hit him, and he saw scattered wreckage and corpses.
*Corpses were left behind?*
Gebel felt bewildered. The Undead Church usually swept away every last scrap of bone without fail, for bones were their resources and lifeblood.
There was only one case in which they left corpses behind.
When they had to flee in a hurry.
Gebel could see weapons, corpses, and the remains of the Undead Church’s skeleton soldiers scattered everywhere around him.
“What in the world….”
The walls and ground were gouged as if by a giant scythe. Even the remains of the skeleton soldiers were strewn about sparsely, as if bitten apart by teeth. He could not tell what could have created such traces.
*Calsen? Or did an angel appear?*
Perhaps an angel had manifested to protect the holy land. Harboring a thread of hope, Gebel hurriedly began searching the surroundings.
But what caught his fingers were only dust-covered stone fragments and cold, stiff corpses.
Gebel thought that perhaps the angel had appeared not for protection, but for punishment.
If so, then only corpses would remain here.
Thud, thud, thud.
Then part of the pile of stones his hand touched collapsed.
Gebel discovered a child buried within the pile.
The child’s complexion was pale. Gebel froze for a moment upon seeing the child’s face. He took a deep breath and approached the child to check his condition.
Fortunately, the child was still breathing. Though there were wounds on his forehead and chest, they seemed to have healed into old scars.
Instinctively, Gebel felt that this child’s survival was no coincidence. He was also certain it was clearly related to the Undead Church’s sudden retreat.
But at the same time, Gebel thought that for the same reason, he had to hide the child’s existence.
*If the Undead Church’s retreat was because of this child, the Church will raise this child into another Calsen.*
Gebel removed his cloak and covered the child’s face as if to hide him.
Holding the child in his arms, he blankly looked around the fog-filled ruins. Wondering how he could safely hide the child, he suddenly thought of the monastery where he had taken refuge.
The monastery was already raising many orphans.
It would be a suitable place to hide this child.