Zihilrat was taken aback, seeing Isaac calmly ntion its true na.
[How do you know my na…?]
“What’s the big deal?”
[How do you know that na…?]
Isaac, puzzled, shrugged. Zihilrat writhed angrily.
[Stop pretending! It’s been over a hundred years since my last follower perished. How do you dare speak my true na? Who commands you?]
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about…”
As Zihilrat roared, Isaac’s robe fluttered wildly. Simultaneously, he felt the tentacles within him stir – not in fear or tension, but in annoyance.
‘Why does it matter if I know the na hovering over your head?’
To Isaac, this was trivial. He more frequently referred to Zihilrat as ‘Rat Pig’, and he often visited its dungeon because it was the easiest among the ‘holy’ enemies to defeat.
[Still refusing to reveal yourself? Then I shall tear your creation to shreds!]
Despite its fury, Zihilrat grew more puzzled as Isaac remained nonchalant. It took a deep breath, followed by a violent coughing fit.
Slimy, blood-like slis shot towards Isaac.
They were Blood Slis, a type of monster swarm.
Instinctively, Isaac summoned his tentacles. In a swift motion, they pierced through the slis. Pop! Two Blood Slis exploded, splattering fluids on Zihilrat. Its tiny eyes widened.
[What power is this…? What divine might are you using…!]
Finally, Zihilrat seed to have a revelation, trembling violently.
[Nephilim! You must be Nephilim, those filthy beings who stole heavenly blood! But, what lineage would your mother be from!]
“Suddenly bringing up my parentage? You’re just making it harder to forgive you.”
Isaac had no desire to argue with Zihilrat any longer. Simply being in the sa room was revolting enough, like being subrged in filth.
Despite his resistance to the plague, anyone else might have succumbed to its effects by now.
The tentacles targeted Zihilrat as it writhed and gave birth to more rats. True to its na, Zihilrat could summon nurous rat swarms.
The newly born rats, still wet with blood, charged at the tentacles. Unlike the others he’d faced, these rats were larger and more ferocious.
Crunch, snap.
They rcilessly bit into the tentacles.
[If you won’t speak, I’ll dissect you to learn the truth!]
Isaac sensed this battle might be more challenging than expected.
He unleashed his tentacles without restraint, an approach he hadn’t needed with re wild animals. This ti, he faced real monsters, not just boars, wolves, or bears. The rats spawned by Zihilrat were almost divine beasts in their own right.
Each tentacle strike squashed several rats, continually replenishing his strength. However, a prolonged battle would disadvantage the all-too-human Isaac.
Zihilrat, even if deficient as a god, wouldn’t tire or perish easily.
Fortunately, Zihilrat was wary of the tentacles and didn’t move rashly, relying on its summoned minions for attack.
Isaac eyed Zihilrat.
[Foolish! This is my sanctuary! How dare you invade another’s sanctuary and think to defeat ! I am a plague deity, worshipped for a thousand years! A re creature like you…]
Isaac read Zihilrat’s arrogance.
***
Zihilrat, so consud by its own grandeur, believed only a god could threaten it. It ignored Isaac’s presence, focusing on an unknown mastermind instead.
‘There may be soone behind , but I’m here on my own will.’
The Naless Chaos was just a tool in this process. Isaac was determined to destroy this sanctuary, rewards or not.
He dodged Zihilrat’s minions and repulsive spit, or Blood Slis, seemingly overwheld. anwhile, he slowly gripped the Sword of Judgnt, moving closer to Zihilrat.
Zihilrat tirelessly produced Blood Slis and rats, constantly attacking the tentacles. Isaac circled to Zihilrat’s left.
He planned to strike at the source, bypassing the need for a war of attrition.
Suddenly, sothing stood up beside Zihilrat – a skeletal figure in a tattered robe, resembling a priest. However, the hollow robe revealed white bones, decaying for perhaps over a century.
“An undead?”
“But the skeleton priest only made clattering noises instead of responding. Isaac realized that it was thanks to this skeleton that Zihilrat had been preserved and not buried under the ruins. As soon as he saw the undead, Isaac had a hunch about who was behind this.
‘Could it be the Immortal Order?’
The undead are the power of the Immortal Order. He couldn’t think of any other faith. But why a priest of the Immortal Order was serving another god was a mystery.
However, the skeleton priest raised a heavily rusted sword instead of answering. Isaac realized that this skeleton was not just a priest, but also a sentinel placed to guard this place.
‘It shows no signs of intelligence. It’s just a device placed to serve Zihilrat and exist as a god.’
But since he had to deal with Zihilrat with one hand, Isaac had to use his sword with the other hand only.
Naturally, he couldn’t be as strong. The skeleton priest twisted its joints unnaturally and swung its sword at Isaac.
But Isaac still had the blessings of ‘Weakness Tracking’ and ‘Herculean Strength.’
And anyway, he wasn’t a Paladin, but he had learned Paladin swordsmanship.
Cling.
At the mont when the swords clashed, Isaac repelled the skeleton priest’s sword with a strength unbelievable for one hand. Fragnts of the broken sword pierced through the skeleton priest’s face. However, as expected of an undead, it didn’t care and continued to attack Isaac.
Isaac didn’t stop there and continued his slashing motion.
A cutting motion he had repeated countless tis.
At that mont, sothing different entered Isaac’s body.
A flow entered his mind. It was like a wave of tentacles surging and bursting out.
In a single breath, Isaac imagined the tentacles repelling the skeleton’s sword, piercing through its body, slashing Zihilrat’s fat belly from bottom to top, and then crossing diagonally to inflict a cross-shaped wound.
It was just imagination.
Boom!
But in the next mont, it beca reality.
[Agghhh!]
Zihilrat scread in agony.
Isaac never considered this skeleton priest important from the start. He sliced through the skeleton and ripped Zihilrat’s torso from bottom to top.
Zihilrat vomited bodily fluids from the massive wound as big as Isaac’s height.
Isaac unwittingly realized that he had used advanced swordsmanship.
It was just a short movent, too fast to be conscious of, but inexplicably effective.
Above all, there was much less pain and injury than when using Avalanche advanced swordsmanship. It wasn’t painless, but his stamina recovery was much faster.
Instead, Isaac felt a strange hunger.
‘Is this… instead of stamina, did it consu the at in my storage?’
It seed so. The wolves he had eaten a few days ago were all digested in an instant. There wasn’t much left, but it was an imnse amount digested.
It was as if he traded ‘satiety’ instead of stamina.
No, more precisely, he did get injured but recovered so fast that it was almost unnoticeable.
‘I don’t know why there wasn’t such an effect with Avalanche swordsmanship… Maybe it has sothing to do with the form of the swordsmanship.’
Isaac looked back. Following the trajectory he moved, there were eight spiral traces inflicting grueso wounds on the ground and Zihilrat.
It looked like giant wounds torn by eight tentacles, even fatal for the divine Zihilrat.
[Low-rank Paladin swordsmanship upgrade condition has been t.]
[Advanced Paladin Swordsmanship Proficiency (Lv 1)]
[Please na the combined advanced swordsmanship.]
ssages appeared one after another, but Isaac had no ti to check them all.
[Gyaaaah!]
Zihilrat roared, twisting its body. Isaac’s tentacles had pierced through Zihilrat’s belly. At the sa ti, sothing poured out from the wound inflicted by Isaac. They were none other than young rats. From those not properly ford, even those that seed to have just started implanting.
Isaac frowned at the dirty and disgusting sight.
[Damn it! Why! How could you!]
Zihilrat shouted in boiling rage. It seed difficult to heal the wounds, probably due to the power of the Judgent Sword that burns the unholy.
It wasn’t just that. After the skeleton priest was destroyed, Zihilrat’s ability to maintain its form seed to rapidly deteriorate. A body that once quickly regenerated even from severe wounds was now crumbling apart like a sandcastle being rebuilt only to collapse more. The skeleton priest must have been a crucial catalyst in maintaining its form.
‘A temporary, yet sole follower and priest. Is that why it’s gone?’
[You too are a god like ! I can definitely feel divinity in you! Even belonging to the sa dark, chaotic realm as … But why!]
That’s because it’s the Naless Chaos.
Isaac was surprised to find a common ground with Zihilrat. He couldn’t understand why the Naless Chaos despised Zihilrat, but it seed that the Naless Chaos was no longer interested, not even sending ssages.
“Save ! Don’t you know what it ans for a being with divinity to die like this? Forever in that unnad realm…”
Zihilrat, gasping for breath, seed to have a realization as he mumbled sothing in a gurgling voice.
“You! You! Did you bring blood into this world that shouldn’t have mixed?”
“To listen to such words from a filthy rat-pig is sowhat…”
Isaac mumbled half-heartedly, but Zihilrat was no longer listening.
“Die!”
As Zihilrat scread in a last desperate effort, rats began swarming out of the sac it had released.
The rats, born tearing through the sac in a boiling surge, looked grotesque. The poorly ford rats died as soon as they appeared or just wriggled and crawled on the ground.
It wasn’t an attack for survival.
It was like a mouse terrified by a cat, charging in fear.
Now Zihilrat had fallen to the level of a re beast.
“Beasts of the plague, suffering ones! Kill him!”
Sssssss.
Isaac heard the sound of confusion as sothing crawled along the walls around him. The rats scattered around the monastery and the whole mountain were starting to gather.
Isaac realized that Zihilrat had summoned all the rats from the mountain, not just to attack him but to suffocate and kill him.
Even for Isaac, dealing with all those rats was difficult. However, he didn’t tense up, as he heard different voices.
“Rat, devour, absorb.”
“Nutrition, consumption.”
“Head, body, tail, all of it.”
Soon, Zihilrat seed to notice sothing strange and fell silent.
Thump, thud.
Sothing began to burst out of the walls. It was the rat swarm Zihilrat had been waiting for.
But they had not co to save Zihilrat. They ca seeking salvation, asking for protection.
The descendants of chaos, plumped up from absorbing and devouring many rats, followed the swarm.
In Zihilrat’s astonishnt, Isaac loosely wriggled his tentacles.
“Zero for hygiene, but a buffet at last.”
***
Crunch, crack, snap, crunch.
Isaac watched for a long ti as his tentacles devoured the rat mother. The giant bear hadn’t been fully devoured, but he let the rat mother be freely consud. The other descendants of chaos also enjoyed the al.
Since it wasn’t an appetizing scene, Isaac looked elsewhere.
The temple was indeed ancient. A place many people would have visited until a few hundred years ago. Perhaps Zihilrat was once a god worshiped by many. Then one day, the faith declined, and the Codex of light ca.
‘The monastery squashed it under its buttocks, so of course, the grudge would be deep.’
But now, it’s just prey for the Naless Tentacles.
It was a natural consequence to save the situation when a wild animal tried to harm a person.
Isaac examined the altar where Zihilrat had been sitting. On the long table, used for sacrifices, there was a carving of the rat queen giving birth to nurous rats.
Isaac slowly stroked the carving.
At that mont, a ssage ca to him.
[“You can purify this contaminated sanctuary.”]
[“Would you like to dedicate this sanctuary to the ‘Naless Chaos’?”]
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