Paladin of the Dead God

Chapter 420: The Immortal Emperor (2)

Isaac considered suggesting persuading the orcs to join them but decided against it.

The World’s Forge’s followers not only hated the Olkan Code but loathed it so much they would rather chew it apart. Such instructions might only backfire. Still, just in case, Isaac decided to discreetly inform Edelred about the idea.

"Understood. Then, as for you..."

Isaac turned his gaze toward Leonora.

"You mentioned a secret passage into the Holy Land Lua?"

Leonora smiled and nodded.

Whatever secrets she harbored didn’t matter. Isaac already knew about the secret passage leading to the Holy Land Lua and even how to enter it.

Leonora might believe she held the upper hand, but that passage would soon serve as the stage for Isaac to test her.

"You’re planning to infiltrate the Holy Land Lua right now? That’s madness!"

"The role of a commander is to lead the troops, not to charge headfirst into enemy territory! Especially when the enemy is angels and gods!"

To Tuhalin, it seemed as though a mere human were trying to dig with a shovel amidst a clash between storms and earthquakes. While Isaac had demonstrated his incredible power numerous times, Tuhalin still believed now wasn’t the time to act recklessly.

"There’s no other way, Tuhalin," Isaac said with a calm smile.

"If we don’t stop the Immortal Emperor now, it’s all over."

In fact, the Immortal Emperor exposing his full power now presented an opportunity.

With the Lighthouse Keeper and other angels tied down in this strange state of equilibrium, the Immortal Emperor himself couldn’t exert his full strength.

It might even be within Isaac’s grasp to confront him.

But Tuhalin couldn’t fathom such an idea.

"Stop the Immortal Emperor? Just you?"

"Not just me."

At that moment, someone stepped forward.

It was Rottenhammer, followed by Gebel and the Holy Knights of the Issacrea Order.

"Isaac Issacrea is the saint who will lead the Issacrea Holy Knights. The path the Saint of Issacrea takes is the path we follow. Don’t think about leaving us behind."

Tuhalin looked as if he had just heard a collective suicide pact. But none of the Issacrea Holy Knights appeared reluctant.

They were filled with both fear and unshakable confidence in their eventual victory.

"Stepping foot into the Holy Land Lua and dying there has been my lifelong dream," muttered Gebel, grinning with bared teeth.

Edelred began to step forward then, but Lianne urgently grabbed his arm to stop him. Isaac also shook his head to prevent him.

Edelred was a king, a figure whose importance weighed heavier than others. Moreover, they needed every angel available outside to minimize casualties.

But Tuhalin still looked uneasy.

"Why don’t we first rally our forces and observe the situation before making any rash moves—"

"When, Tuhalin? After the Immortal Emperor has crushed all the angels of the Codex of Light? Or after the Olkan Code has looted the Holy Land Lua clean? Or perhaps after the Codex of Light burns Lua to the ground?"

Tuhalin gritted his teeth and glared at Isaac.

Isaac gently pried Tuhalin’s hand off his wrist. He understood Tuhalin’s inclination toward caution. The perfectionist tendencies of the World’s Forge followers were what enabled them to craft masterpieces. But those same tendencies had also turned them into hermits of the world.

"The World’s Forge has always been waiting for the ‘true’ Codex of Light to return, haven’t they? Is that someone who comes knocking while you sit idle, waiting?"

"That’s—"

"Now it’s your turn to answer the question you’ve delayed. I’m going to save the world. Will you become the hammer that strikes it? Or will you stay asleep and let it rot away?"

Isaac didn’t wait for Tuhalin’s reply. Instead, he turned his attention to Leonora.

Leonora, standing with her arms crossed, tilted her head in mild confusion as she waited for him.

"Ah, is this the part where I say something inspiring? But I don’t have any lofty beliefs—I’m just here to make my cut as a guide..."

"Let’s just get moving," Isaac said.

Leonora smirked, as if she had expected that. But before she moved, she spoke up.

"Before that, aren’t you forgetting someone?"

***

The person Leonora pointed out as being left behind was none other than Angela.

Leonora had one condition: Angela must be brought along, as she knew the location of Midas’ Hand. Isaac, who was already tasked with taking Angela to the Holy Land Lua, agreed.

He had considered waiting until everything was over to bring her, but with the uncertainty of the outcome, it seemed better to smuggle her in unnoticed and get her out quietly later.

While Tuhalin and Edelred led the Issacrea Dawn Army to the battlefield, Isaac’s party followed Leonora toward the secret passage.

The entrance to the passage was hidden within an abandoned well nearby.

The bottom of the well was dry and crumbling.

As they walked through the narrow underground passage, the sound of wailing and howling spirits from the skies above resonated faintly through the ground.

Isaac inspected the walls of the passage as they moved.

“Good. This is a familiar route.”

There were several secret passages leading to the Holy Land Lua. Isaac didn’t know all of them, but fortunately, this was one he recognized. According to his knowledge, only a member of the Immortal Order—an undead—could open the intermediate stone gates blocking the passage.

Isaac knew how to bypass them. However, he wondered if Leonora knew as well.

“This war is so inefficient. It’s horrifying,” muttered Hesabel, following behind Isaac.

The Red Chalice Club, despite orchestrating some of the cruelest conspiracies in existence, tended to despise war itself. Hesabel was no exception. Despite her experience in battles while following Isaac, the fighting above them was beyond what an ordinary person could comprehend.

“Why are angels so cruel to humans? Weren’t they once human themselves?”

Isaac had thought about this before, so he answered immediately.

“Because humans are cruel to themselves.”

“Humans are cruel to themselves? Why?”

“When they see the power of those massive gods and angels, they realize how small and weak they are. So, they entrust their sense of self to a greater being, surrendering their fate to its decisions.”

By doing this, weak humans delude themselves into thinking they’ve become one with that powerful entity, experiencing a false sense of unity. In this world, this phenomenon manifests in gods and angels, but it isn’t exclusive to faith.

Nations, groups, ideologies, races, bloodlines, heroes—people align themselves with countless identities, equating their belonging to those groups with their own worth. This illusion empowers humanity to achieve what individuals alone cannot, but at the same time, individuals within these groups are easily crushed.

Even in the history of Isaac’s original world, there were countless examples of atrocities and crimes committed simply because the victims belonged to a different group.

Were angels truly crueler than that? Isaac didn’t think so.

Ultimately, angels were no more than personified representations of collective power.

“There’s no point in blaming angels for being inhuman. Humanity expects them to be this way.”

Isaac’s words weren’t just heard by Hesabel but by everyone traveling through the passage. It was an overtly heretical statement, but no one reacted with shock or indignation anymore.

They simply pondered the meaning behind his words.

But Hesabel tilted her head and asked, “Would you also become cruel if you turned into an angel, Isaac?”

Isaac fell silent.

Isaac had received a pre-death notification: he would ascend as an Archangel after his death. Whether it would actually come to pass was uncertain, but Isaac’s accomplishments were more than sufficient to merit such a future.

Even so, he couldn’t answer her question.

He wanted to believe he wouldn’t, but lurking within him was something beyond reason. If he were to die, would the monster within him emerge, revealing its true form? And if that monster began consuming the world, could he truly justify it as being “what humanity wanted”?

***

“We’re here,” Leonora said before Isaac could find an answer. She stopped in front of a massive stone door, raising a luminescent stone to illuminate it.

The door, which could only be opened by an undead, was resolved quickly by Leonora.

“Shalok.”

At her word, Shalok gestured to a mercenary, who approached with a bundle slung over his back. The bundle, which appeared to be travel gear, was revealed to contain a corpse when unwrapped. Herbs were rubbed and smeared onto the body, and it began to move sluggishly.

Leonora knelt by the corpse, gently stroking it.

“Sweetheart, could you open this door for us?”

“…Ah…”

“Yes, just like that. Turn this mechanism… good.”

Following Leonora’s coaxing, the corpse moved obediently and manipulated the door’s mechanisms. The massive stone door slowly creaked open at the corpse’s actions.

Afterward, Leonora praised the corpse before signaling to Shalok, who began repacking it. However, before he could finish, Isaac grabbed the bundle and tore it open.

Beneath the wrappings lay the pale, lifeless body of a young boy. Judging by his appearance, he had died recently. Seeing his clothing and condition, Isaac immediately recognized who he was.

“A child soldier from the Dawn Army?”

“Correct. We picked him up on the way to Lua,” Leonora replied nonchalantly.

“We were short on options, and since we’re dealing with the Immortal Order, I thought he might be useful. Midas’ Hand could very well be in a place visible only to a child’s eyes.”

Leonora’s gaze shifted to Angela, who remained silent. The only information about Midas’ Hand came from Angela, as no one else in Lua had seen it.

Unwilling to leave any clue unchecked, Leonora had decided to bring the boy.

“So you knew the door could only be opened by an undead, and you killed him for that purpose?”

“Are you upset, Holy Grail Knight?”

Leonora spoke with a faint smile, though Shalok quietly rested a hand on his blade. Isaac was stunned but decided to hear her out.

Leonora raised three fingers.

“There are three reasons. First, only an undead could open this door, so we needed someone already ‘insured’ for death. This boy, being a prisoner of the Immortal Order, was already covered by that policy. Second, the herbs used to break mind control require a body with intact senses, which means someone had to have died recently.”

“And the third?”

“I couldn’t kill an adult. Too heavy to carry. If the corpse turned on us, a child would be easier to subdue.”

“You could’ve just severed an adult’s limbs,” Isaac retorted coldly.

“Then how would they have opened the door?”

Isaac let out a bitter laugh. Her reasoning was disturbingly clear and efficient.

He had almost forgotten, but Leonora was always like this: a sociopath driven by maximum profit and efficiency.

“Life that would’ve been lost anyway or turned into an undead slave—isn’t it better to invest it into saving the world? That’s what we’re all doing already, aren’t we?”