461: The Holy Grail Knight Returns (1)
'The Sword of May is with Gebel?'
He wasn't surprised that the Sword of May was safe. Originally, the angel race survived tenaciously until they fell. Even seeing the fallen White Owl alive, maybe angels like the Lord of the Graveyard or Pallor were having a tea party with the Immortal Emperor somewhere in his stomach.
What was surprising was Gebel.
Isaac recalled what the Sword of May had said just before the final battle with the Lighthouse Keeper.
Originally, she had decided to choose the 'most excellent Paladin' as her incarnation, and the knight who fit that standard was Gebel, not Isaac.
But Gebel's body was destroyed. By none other than the Lighthouse Keeper.
'But what does it mean that the Sword of May is with Gebel? Assuming the Sword of May is protecting Gebel, both of them wouldn't have bodies right now, would they?'
Did they grab some unlucky person and choose them as an incarnation?
Whatever the truth was, if Gebel's soul remained on earth, he had to check it himself.
"Alright. Let's go there first."
Isaac spoke to Linde as if he had been planning to go there from the beginning.
In fact, he might not have to confront Dead December. Persuasion might work, like it did with Linde.
And among the prisoners and sealed artifacts inside, there were many that would be useful to Isaac. Even with the Millennium Kingdom having descended, those underground weapons and criminals wouldn't have been touched.
But Linde wasn't a dull type.
[Is Gehenna Fortress related to Gebel in some way?]
It was a natural thought, since Isaac had hesitated, but changed his attitude right after Gebel's story came out.
Isaac debated whether to say that he felt Gebel's soul, and then nodded. Linde would also care about Gebel.
"I can feel Gebel's soul there. Maybe Dead December has already revived Gebel."
[Ah, I see. He's an excellent soul, so that might be the case.]
As expected, Linde was visibly pleased, but Isaac wasn't as pleased.
Isaac decided to assume, at worst, that Gebel had been revived as an undead.
An undead inhabited by a Codex of Light angel. He didn't know what kind of grotesque case this was, but after learning that the person who gave birth to him (in the form of skinning) was a man, Isaac decided not to have any more preconceptions about this world.
***
He handed the prisoners over to other undead, and Isaac, the Avalanche Knight Order, and Isolde's group headed north.
Gehenna Fortress wasn't that far in a straight line, but it was across the sea. It was originally part of the Salt Desert, but it had become the sea thanks to Isaac.
"Can't we ask for help from the Salt Council?"
[Then we'd have to move to Miarma, where the port is, which wouldn't be much different from moving by land. And Gehenna Fortress itself is a natural fortress that's difficult to dock a ship at.]
Isaac fiddled with the Salt Council relic, 'The Drifter's Home,' in his pocket.
He had briefly hoped that Eidan would notice his return with this relic, but this relic was originally meant to indicate the location of the 'seawater that would fill the Salt Desert in the future'.
At the time, this relic informed Eidan of Isaac's location in real-time. But now that the Salt Desert had been filled with water, it had become virtually meaningless. It seemed like they had no choice but to go by land.
In other words, if they moved by land, they had to follow the Dawn Army route.
Starting from the Holy Land Lua, passing through the capital Ushak, over the Katlan Ridge, and to Gehenna Fortress.
Isaac felt a strange emotion as he went against the Dawn Army main route that he had given up on.
And with the exact opposite purpose of the Dawn Army.
Isaac rode a horse supplied by the Avalanche Knight Order and quickly headed north. Phantom Steeds had low endurance and were too noticeable to use recklessly. The more he headed north along the Dawn Army route, the more Isaac felt that the current world was very different from the world he knew.
First of all, it was hot even though it was Immortal Order territory. This alone caused a significant amount of environmental change.
It wasn't as if forests had grown or lakes had formed in the desert, but the fact that the colorless land had gained color made it feel completely different.
And another big change was that he saw a lot of living humans.
Most of them were still undead, but living humans often walked around, trading or carrying goods. The scene of undead and humans mixed together was strange even to Isaac, but the fact that life continued despite the Millennium Kingdom was almost pathetic.
"What's that?"
Isaac pointed to one side of the horizon as he rode and asked Isolde.
It looked like a giant broken structure had fallen from the sky and stopped, like a pillar.
He was thinking that it looked like a scenery he would only see in the Outer Boundary, but Isolde answered.
"The priests say they're fragments that heaven shed as it descended to earth."
"Fragments that heaven shed?"
"Yes. Gods and angels, buildings, and terrain that lived in the underworld were covered on the ground like rags. That's a cleaner piece compared to others. The closer you get to the center of the Empire, the more things like that there are. Especially Lichtheim is, um, they say it's sacred, but frankly, it's close to a mess."
This was visible even though it was far from the Empire. He couldn't even imagine how Lichtheim, the center of the Codex of Light, had changed.
And Isaac had glossed over it, but it wasn't just buildings that had been poured down.
Isaac was riding and stopped when he saw a giant pillar stuck diagonally by the side of the road. It looked like one of the 'fragments that heaven had shed' that Isolde had mentioned.
But a group of people were hanging from that pillar.
It was difficult to tell how many times resurrection and death were repeated, since the people who were hanged kept struggling and then drooping even in the hanged state.
Crude words were written in red on the pillar.
[There is no place for blasphemers in the Millennium Kingdom!]
"It's the work of the Millennium Brotherhood."
Isolde said.
"I heard that they walk around and ask commoners questions about scriptures, and if they don't get the right answer, they brand them as barbarians or heretics and do things like this. They don't usually come this far, but I think someone from the group that was chasing me did it out of spite."
Isaac thought of the Millennium Brotherhood he had let go. One of the reasons he had spared them was that he was impressed by the Paladins' spirit. But thinking about it now, he thought he had done something unnecessary. He should have buried them under the desert and slowly baked them.
'Everyone knows that the Millennium Kingdom has descended, so why do they have to go this far? It seems even worse than the Dawn Army days when fanaticism was at its peak.'
Linde asked.
[What should we do, Regent? It's no problem to release them, but they could become 'witnesses' and attract the attention of the Millennium Brotherhood nearby.]
"Release them."
Isaac answered immediately. If he just brushed off things that were unsettling because he was afraid of being caught, all the strength Isaac had built up until now would be useless.
Why had he worked so hard to train his swordsmanship and hone his abilities until now? Honestly, it was for moments like this, more than grandiose things like defeating the Lighthouse Keeper.
Linde didn't ask again and immediately swung her sword to cut the ropes. As soon as the people who had been hanging fell, they coughed and took deep breaths. Some seemed to have fainted and were just drooping.
They were gasping as if they wanted to thank him, but it didn't seem easy because their throats were damaged.
"Who are you guys!"
At that time, the voice that Isaac had been waiting for was heard. At the same time, dozens of people were riding horses and running towards them.
"To dare to damage the sign of warning sent to the blasphemers! What are you guys..."
Probably, just like last time, one Scorched One, who seemed to be the leader, leaned out of the carriage and shouted. Then, he closed his mouth as if he had realized that Isaac's group wasn't just ordinary undead peddlers.
Isaac and Isolde were wearing turbans, so their faces weren't immediately exposed. But it was unlikely that humans protected by Death Knights would be common.
At that time, Isaac drew Kaldwin and asked.
"I'll give you a question about the scriptures."
"What? Who do you think you are..."
"What's on the ground in the morning, in the sky at noon, and underground in the evening?"
The Scorched One glared at Isaac as if he were dumbfounded, but he believed in their numerical superiority and the power of the Millennium Kingdom. The Scorched One's power was strong enough to operate proudly in the heart of the undead territory.
"Is that all you can come up with? It must be the sun. It's hanging over the ground in the morning, in the sky at noon, and underground in the evening. You're clearly a barbarian with your poor imagination, so I'll hang you."
But Isaac answered coldly.
"Wrong."
"What? Then..."
"The answer is your head."
Kaldwin quickly flew towards the Scorched One.
Before he could activate the Lightouse of the Watcher or order an attack, his head soared into the sky. The Scorched One wanted to ask why it had nothing to do with the scriptures, but the fallen head couldn't ask a question.
After a while, the Scorched One regained consciousness and opened his eyes.
Resurrection had taken place.
But soon, he felt terrible pain and a stuffiness that made it difficult to breathe. The Scorched One realized that he would die again soon if he stayed like this and hastily activated the Lightouse of the Watcher.
What came into his eyes was dirt filling all directions.
Only then did the Scorched One recall the riddle that Isaac had given him. The answer really was his head.
'It really had nothing to do with the scriptures...?'
The Scorched One thought resentfully in his dazed mind even as he was dying again.
***
He didn't have time to bury all the bodies of the Millennium Brotherhood bodies in the ground. That's why Isaac chose to separate his head and bury it in the ground separately.
The bodies were left to the hanged people who had been resurrected in the meantime. He didn't know how far they would drag the headless bodies, but it was clear that it would take quite a while for a body without a head to find its head in the middle of the desert.
"I just thought of something..."
Isaac said to Isolde as he rode his horse.
"People's lives are the same, but since they can't kill each other, it seems like their macabre imagination is only increasing."
"I agree."
If Isaac killed someone, the other person couldn't be resurrected, just like the miracle of Nameless Chaos.
But if Isaac left and they escaped his influence, the Mother of All Gods would reattach the head again.
It wasn't that he wanted to kill people for sure, but this concept of 'immortality' felt unpleasant because it seemed to make it easier for humans to harm each other.
And that would be the same for others as well as himself.
They would think about how to harm more easily, and kill more terribly and brutally. Human nature was the same, but the concept of immortality had just been added, so it was really useless.
He became even more unpleasant thinking about seeing this for the rest of his way back to the Empire.
The more they headed north, the more people, including the undead, increased.
And at the same time, not fragments poured from heaven, but familiar ruins began to come into view. Ruins made by people and destroyed by human hands. Burned, trampled, and collapsed buildings were scattered everywhere, and some had been rebuilt, but most were makeshift structures.
Isaac soon discovered a narrowing strait and a huge city built over it.
Ushak, the capital of the Immortal Order, which was once a symbol of wealth and strength, but had now become a giant refugee camp.