Paladin of the Dead God

Chapter 357: The Thirsty Feast (7)

Sadraza trembled with rage, provoked by the offensive words that struck a nerve.

[You worm!]

Sadraza swung his tentacles down to crush Isaac. However, Isaac, having set the Luadin Key in place, drew forth the holy sword Kaldwin.

Isaac dashed across Sadraza’s body with ease, leaving a bright trail of red blood in his wake. Unlike his previous battles with the Outer Boundary creatures, this time, Isaac was beginning to dismantle Sadraza’s very form.

Sadraza directed dozens of tentacles at him, intending to crush him beyond escape. Confident that no creature could slip through the gaps, he was taken aback as Isaac skillfully slipped through without a scratch.

Isaac even managed to slice off several of Sadraza’s tentacles with Kaldwin as he passed.

[─────!!]

Sadraza was horrified as he watched his blood spill freely.

Though he thought himself accustomed to the agonies of a thousand years of starvation, thirst, and isolation, such raw pain was almost unfamiliar. Having only ever fed on decaying flesh while waiting for enemies to collapse on their own, the struggle was foreign to him.

Not even in his battles against the Outer Boundary creatures had he sustained such severe injuries.

[I am empowered with the authority of a god and the strength of an angel! How could a mere human like you—!!]

Isaac did not dispute Sadraza’s claim to angelic power. Though he lacked the angels’ greatest ability, the manipulation of Urbansus, Sadraza’s strength was comparable to that of an angel.

It was just that he had encountered the wrong opponent.

Just as Isaac and Dera Heman were not well-matched, Isaac and Sadraza were also at odds in terms of compatibility.

“I happen to know a fair bit about tentacles.”

Isaac had trained meticulously, anticipating the movements and attacks of tentacles. To him, Sadraza’s movements were nothing more than the sloppy, feeble strikes of an amateur swordsman.

With a twist of Kaldwin, Isaac charged over Sadraza’s body again. The powerful blade cut deep into the very flesh of Sadraza’s tentacles. As the unstoppable edge of Kaldwin approached Sadraza’s throat, he screamed, thrashing in pain.

In his panic, Sadraza realized a new aspect of his power.

In reflection, he remembered that he had once been a priest.

Part of his severed tentacle twisted into a strange shape, rapidly drying out and transforming into solid salt. These dried salt-tentacles lunged at Isaac. raNȯBÈS

Sensing an instinctual unease, Isaac struck the salt-tentacles with Kaldwin, deflecting them.

At that moment, one of the Outer Boundary creatures intruding into the fisherman’s house collided with the salt-tentacle. In an instant, the creature dried out as though its fluids had been drained, crumbling into dust.

Watching this, Isaac scoffed.

“So, you’re even abandoning your essence now?”

[What do you know!]

Anyone could see it was a heretical miracle, opposed to the Salt Council.

There was no trace of his faith’s former devotion to the bounty, mystery, and origins of the sea. Now, all that remained to him was the barren salt desert and wilderness.

Reflecting his thoughts, Sadraza’s body began to turn a stark white from the ends of his tentacles.

[The Salt Council? They’re nothing but deserters who’ve forgotten tradition! Do you think they have any real connection left to this holy city? How many have heard the blessed voice, or seen the mysterious temple beneath the sea?]

Sadraza’s form grew smaller, but in exchange, he was transforming into a figure surrounded by a more potent, angelic power. Noticing this heightened danger, Isaac created some distance between them.

[Only I remain! Only I survived! I am the sole survivor, the descendant of the Sea Cult! I am the fisherman, the one who bears the roe, the one with the swim bladder, the one who returned to the sea!]

Sadraza roared his exultant declaration, transforming from a crude, monstrous form into a shape he considered divine.

[I am the new god of the Sea Cult!]

Isaac gave a cold smile.

“Well, well. Fancy meeting a fellow traveler here.”

Of course, Isaac had no desire to claim godhood himself. Becoming a god was not to his taste. He couldn’t sympathize with the sordid ambitions of this twisted figure before him.

Either way, Sadraza’s life was on a timer.

But his experience following Isaac had closed off that path.

At that moment, he noticed the red, flesh-like walls of the sanctuary pulsating.

Soon, an opening in the wall gaped wide, and a rush of dark crimson blood poured into the chamber.

The sailors stared in awe at the grotesque, ominous sight. For a brief moment, Aidan wondered if the sanctuary was sharing its own blood with them, but as he felt the potent divine energy fill the room, he realized it was something else.

“It’s the fluid spilled by the Outer Boundary creatures.”

The sanctuary was drawing in the blood from the depths of Miarma, collecting it from all corners and channels underground and funneling it into this space.

***

Clank, clank, clank.

Sadraza grotesquely twisted his joints, reassembling his form.

No longer resembling an octopus, he took on a shape resembling a sun depicted in ancient murals. His crimson face, nearly ten meters in diameter, sat at the center, and pure white salt tentacles spread outward like spokes from a wheel, extending from top to bottom.

Some of the tentacles touched the ground, giving his form a bizarre, almost comical appearance. Yet Isaac found himself struck by a strange thought.

“Is that your idea of the ‘most powerful form’?”

As he gazed at Sadraza’s transformed appearance, Isaac recalled one of the Outer Boundary creatures he had once hunted within the game—a creature known as the “Red Priest” that he had to defeat to shatter the salt desert. The creature had looked exactly like Sadraza now.

In the end, Sadraza, weary of waiting, had attempted to carry out the cursed ritual under the blood-red sun, only to be exiled from the city.

Back then, Isaac had found the creature laughable. But now, he could see the cursed sun’s outline hovering over Miarma.

A fiery red heat radiated outward, bringing barren wastelands and salt to wherever it touched with its cursed hand.

In his desperation over the centuries, Sadraza had come to mimic the same cursed power that had destroyed his cult, his country, and his neighbors.

Isaac now understood where Sadraza’s true devotion lay.

Luadin had not only destroyed his city and order; it had utterly shattered the priest’s mind.

[■■■, ■■■■.......]

Sadraza began muttering incomprehensibly. It was not the foul language or archaic speech of the Outer Boundary creatures.

It was simply a language stripped of any structure.

“So, you’ve even lost human speech, you fool...”

Isaac got to his feet. He hadn’t been idly waiting while Sadraza transformed. Isaac wasn’t nearly that noble or patient.

Since Sadraza’s life was already on borrowed time, Isaac had been drawing on his own strength to hold his ground.

‘So, the sanctuary serves this function as well.’

The Nameless Chaos’s sanctuary that lay beneath Miarma had spread its veins throughout the city and the subterranean water channels, draining all the blood into its depths. Part of that energy flowed into Isaac, while another part channeled down into the maw beneath the black pyramid.

The blood Isaac had absorbed belonged entirely to those under the domain of Nameless Chaos.

The divine power contained within that blood was now greatly enhancing Isaac’s own strength. Sadraza began moving toward him, brandishing sharp tentacles and wreaking havoc on his surroundings. Buildings crumbled like leaves, breaking down into salt.

Finally, Sadraza drove a tentacle toward Isaac with blinding speed.

Crunch. Yet the salt tentacle halted in Isaac’s left hand. Sadraza flinched but soon sneered, assuming Isaac would soon be a salt pillar.

However, what actually happened defied all expectations.

From Isaac’s left hand, crimson tendrils emerged, creeping up and crushing Sadraza’s salt tentacle as they ascended.

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