458: Return (3)
Isaac didn't know how to accept this fact. It wasn't what he wanted for murder to be accepted as some kind of benefit or power. Most of the residents of the Issacrea estate were just ordinary people who had never even dreamed of murder.
But suddenly, as the world became strange, they abruptly became the object of fear, as if they possessed some kind of 'power of murder'.
However, Isaac didn't miss an important fact.
"You said 'temporary', right?"
"Yes. Even those killed by a priest of the Dawn Prayer Meeting can be revived if they return to the territory of their original faith or receive the priests' blessings. But thanks to that, other believers can't recklessly touch the Issacrea estate."
Isaac was relieved by Isolde's words.
One of his biggest worries when he thought that more time than expected had passed was the well-being of the residents of the Issacrea estate.
He was worried that his reputation had fallen to the level of 'devil' or 'Demon King', and that someone would come and harm them while he was away.
Fortunately, it seemed that hadn't happened.
Isolde saw Isaac visibly relieved and grabbed his sleeve, pulling him along, as if to say they should talk outside.
After moving to a place where the prisoners couldn't hear, Isolde sighed and said,
"I'll explain it to you since you seem to know very little about what's been happening. First of all, don't worry about the estate. The Codex of Light Church considers the Issacrea estate a magical realm and has even issued a no-entry order."
"......I don't know if that's fortunate or what. The farmland is still barren."
It was easy to defend because it was deep in the mountains, but the rate of food self-sufficiency was low, and there was a shortage of essential goods. It wasn't a very prosperous estate for self-sufficiency. Tuhalin or Edelred might be helping, but the fact that it was isolated across the sea didn't change.
Then suddenly, Isaac realized an even more important issue.
"Wait, then the Dawn Prayer Meeting people... are they not immortal?"
If only those who worshiped Nameless Chaos could inflict death while evading the Mother of All Gods, then the worshipers of Nameless Chaos wouldn't be granted the power of immortality.
The miracle of reattaching damaged bodies was something the Mother of All Gods did.
At those words, Isolde whispered to Isaac with a complicated expression.
"They don't age. I think this is probably the effect of the collapse of heaven. But... tentacles don't sew up their wounds. Thanks to that, the residents of the Issacrea estate are also trapped."
Isaac groaned softly.
Only then did he realize why Isolde had taken him outside. Perhaps the fact that the Issacrea Dawn Prayer Meeting people could kill was known, but the fact that they could fully embrace death was not known.
If that had been known, the Issacrea estate would have already been annihilated.
Just as the Burning Maiden and the Sword of May turned away at the end of the Dawn Army, he didn't think everyone would agree to the immortal Millennium Kingdom. But even those who reluctantly accepted immortality, if there was a single group that could harm them, wouldn't they say to kill them off early?
For now, it was rather fortunate that the Issacrea estate was isolated.
Let's summarize briefly.
Issacrea Dawn Prayer Meeting: Can kill and can die. Does not age.
All other faiths: Cannot kill and cannot die. Does not age.
'No wonder I'm being called a devil or Demon King.'
The one who brings the end to the Millennium Kingdom, the trumpeter of death who will unleash death and aging into the world in the future... that was Isaac.
It wasn't a very pleasant title, but it wasn't entirely wrong in that the collapse of the Millennium Kingdom was Isaac's goal.
'I'm worried about Claire and Neria... those weak-hearted priests.'
"Brother, are you going to stay still like this?"
One of the bound prisoners whispered to the Scorched One. He didn't doubt that the Scorched One had shown an ugly side but that it was a big picture to fight against a great evil. But the Scorched One looked at him with an absurd gaze.
"What do you want me to do? Are you saying that because you don't know what kind of person that Holy Grail Knight... no, that devil is? He twisted and broke the Immortal Emperor, and even tore the Lighthouse Keeper apart and threw him into the sky!"
The Scorched One still couldn't understand how he had survived that chaotic scene of carnage. When the Lighthouse Keeper finally disappeared with the Holy Grail Knight, he was convinced that the Lighthouse Keeper had saved them.
Until Isaac fell from the sky.
But the prisoner didn't give up.
"Brother, you have a trump card. You haven't even let him taste the light of heaven yet. Are you going to give up like this? Those lovers might be outside discussing how to tear us apart and kill us?"
The Scorched One felt like he wanted to tear the prisoner in front of him to death, but he wasn't wrong. The Issacrea Dawn Prayer Meeting was a shockingly infamous group.
It was the only crack and nightmare threatening the stability of the Millennium Kingdom.
"Think about 'Seamstress' Neria or 'Eight Fingers' Claire. There are thousands of believers who were brutally murdered by those guys and barely rescued. A Demon King would be even more brutal!"
The Scorched One didn't say, 'If that many people were murdered by ordinary priests, are you planning to attack the Demon King?' It was because he thought Isaac didn't seem as brutal as he thought.
If he had intended to kill or interrogate them, he could have squeezed their heads and drank the juice as the priests had said.
"I'll create an opening, brother. Just show him what you've got."
Before the Scorched One could retort what nonsense he was talking about, Isaac returned. Isaac sighed deeply at the prisoners and opened his mouth.
"LHO......"
"Uwaaaah! Long live the Millennium Brotherhood!"
The prisoner who was talking to the Scorched One shouted and charged at Isaac at the same time. The Scorched One wanted to scream as he watched the prisoner running.
The prisoner succeeded in making Isaac dumbfounded.
"What..."
Isaac slapped the prisoner across the face and knocked him down as if he were dumbfounded.
At that moment, the Scorched One unknowingly recalled the subordinates whose necks had been broken and collapsed. He had never felt anything even remotely resembling camaraderie from them, but he thought that their fate might soon be his own.
In the end, he had no choice but to desperately attack.
"You bastard!"
A brilliant flash erupted from the Scorched One's eyes. A light of glory that clearly divided everything into black and white covered the tent and swallowed Isaac.
Since the Millennium Kingdom had descended, no monsters had been able to properly take shape under this light.
The kin of the Red Chalice were busy burning and running away, and even Elil's fairies scattered and crumbled like fallen leaves.
Everything that was not human could only burn to death under this heavenly light.
"What is this? The Lightouse of the Watcher?"
As Isaac muttered in an absurd tone, the Scorched One's senses went awry. The scenery inside the tent, which had been divided into black and white, suddenly turned rainbow-colored, and strange smells and sensations all over his body were a mess.
"Ugh."
The Scorched One made a strange sound and slumped down.
He saw indescribable colors spreading out from Isaac in front of him. The moment he saw that sight, the Scorched One felt as if someone had put a ladle in his brain and stirred it a few times.
The Lightouse of the Watcher.
The demon in front of him was using the most powerful power that the Lighthouse Keeper had scattered to all the priests who had become wealthy in the Millennium Kingdom to build a heaven. But the 'Lightouse of the Watcher' that the demon was using was bizarre, distorted… and indescribable.
Trying to confront Isaac's 'Lighthouse' with the 'Lighthouse' that the Scorched One had activated was no different from scooping the sea with a spoon.
As a result, all the Scorched One's senses were distorted.
"Brother!"
"...Why is he acting like that?"
Along with the prisoner's scream and Isaac's absurd voice, the Scorched One's entire body began to distort and condense. Starting from the fingertips, it suddenly burrowed into his body, and his arms, legs, and even his head were pushed into his torso as if compressed.
It was as if something unknown was squeezing the Scorched One, but not even a drop of body fluid flowed out.
The Scorched One soon became a fist-sized lump and fell to the floor with a thud.
A strange silence continued for a long time before Isaac asked the prisoner.
"Can that thing still revive in that state?"
It was decided to put the lump that had been the Scorched One in a sack and leave it to the prisoners for now.
No signs of revival appeared even after a long time, and it was impossible to do so because it was ambiguous whether it was alive or dead in the first place. The prisoners already believed that Isaac had brutally squeezed the Scorched One, so they couldn't resist.
It was unfair to Isaac, but there was no way to explain that it wasn't his doing.
Strictly speaking, it seemed to be Isaac's influence.
So instead of persuading them, he decided to just convey the story he had been planning to tell.
"I will hand you over to the Immortal Order tomorrow. They're undead, but if you're polite, they'll treat you gentlemanly."
Frankly, it didn't really matter if he released them right away. After all, news of his return would soon spread quickly.
However, there were many things to check in many ways right now, so he was planning to release them in about a month.
Of course, it was despicable that they had tried to harm Isolde, and he had thought about making them scarecrows in the desert for the rest of their lives since they wouldn't die... but those guys were just at the fingertips of the angels. No, they were closer to extensions or tools.
Since many of the existing angels had disappeared, new angels may have appeared. But even those angels were just arms and legs compared to the Lighthouse Keeper.
In the end, if he was going to hold someone responsible, it had to be the Lighthouse Keeper.
Isaac glanced sideways.
Isolde didn't ask Isaac anything about his sudden appearance.
But there's no way she wouldn't be curious.
The situation was roughly sorted out. It seemed like it was time to satisfy Isolde's curiosity.
When the wind, rain, and sun combine their strength, an abandoned city quickly becomes a ruin.
It wasn't because people didn't age because of the Millennium Kingdom, but at least it seemed like decades had passed. He was afraid to ask how much time had passed.
"Isaac."
Isolde came up the stairs.
Isaac was preparing himself.
In fact, Isaac also had many questions he wanted to ask. How he had been summoned, why she was here, why the undead were cooperating with Isolde... But it was the right order to give Isolde, who had been separated from him for a long time without knowing anything, the first opportunity.
She didn't ask any questions right away. Instead, she naturally pulled Isaac onto her lap. Isaac's head, which no mighty knight or omnipotent angel had been able to defeat, slumped weakly.
Isaac gazed at the leaning Holy Land Lua with his head on Isolde's lap.
Isolde opened her mouth.
"People say..."
Isaac turned his body and looked up at Isolde.
"...the Lighthouse Keeper was trying to bring the Millennium Kingdom, but the Demon King Isaac revealed his hidden identity and wounded the sacred heaven. That's why the Millennium Kingdom has an incomplete and grotesque appearance."
Isaac laughed.
Night.
Isaac looked down at this once-glorious city from the walls of the Holy Land Lua.
The Holy Land Lua seemed to have faced an unprecedented wave of destruction since the dome was pierced.
Was that how they framed it? Well, too many people had witnessed the appearance of the Mother of All Gods. And it was also a good excuse to explain the appearance of the regenerating tentacles.
"What do you think?"
Isaac decided not to be upset even if Isolde believed the rumor. She knew what was hidden inside Isaac.
A hideous monster that might break through his skin at any moment. It wouldn't be strange if she thought that monster had finally revealed its true form.
But despite that, Isolde summoned him and searched for him.
It was thanks to that that he was able to appear beside her at this moment in time.
That was enough for Isaac.
Isolde smiled and replied.
"I thought the Lighthouse Keeper was lying. You care so much about appearance, there's no way that could be true."
As Isolde answered, she slowly lowered her head. The moment Isaac saw her eyes, he agreed with her words.
A soft touch met Isaac's lips, which no knight's blade or angel's ray had been able to reach.
He finally felt like he was back on Earth.
He felt a sense of reality in a different sense after hearing the next words, though.
"But I think you should start revealing what your identity is now."