Chapter 125

Chapter 125. The Ancient Future (1)

Isaac found himself aboard the ferryman's boat.

As soon as the ferryman confirmed Isaac was on board, he pushed off the ground with his oar, and the boat shot into the sky. Overwhelmed by the incredible speed, Isaac fell back. The ground beneath his hand began to recede alarmingly.

"What is this..."

Isaac was about to express his anger but stopped upon seeing the ferryman's determined expression. The ferryman wasn't just steering the boat; he was rowing to escape from something.

The fallen port city, Miarma, quickly receded into the distance.

A vast white salt desert spread out before him. And just as Miarma shrank to the size of a fingernail, a black wave appeared, dwarfing the immense salt desert. Compared to the sprawling black sea, the salt desert seemed like just a drop of ink.

Then, Isaac saw the giant pyramid he had discovered when he first arrived in Urbansus. Below the pyramid, everything except the salt desert was filled with dark waves. The area around the pyramid seemed to retreat as if it couldn't bear the sun's light, but the edges of the salt desert were constantly breached by the waves.

"Hold on tight."

The boat's speed increased even more.

Isaac realized that the black wave was also rushing towards him. On closer inspection, the black wave wasn't liquid but a massive swarm.

Isaac found it hard to shake the thought that this swarm resembled the movement of tentacles. Even as the ferryman rowed faster, the black wave seemed difficult to evade.

'Are we going to get caught?'

Isaac drew the key of Luadin. Fighting something in the afterlife was the worst choice for many reasons, but if that thing reached the boat, there seemed to be no other option.

Especially if that thing was what Isaac thought it was.

At that moment, the fiercely pursuing black swarm retreated, emitting smoke. Despite the vast distance, screams could be heard.

The ferryman's boat had reached the area touched by the sun's heat. Now, leaving the burning black swarm behind, the boat headed towards the sun above the pyramid.

It was a kind sun, unlike the harsh sun that had dried up Miarma.

Finally, the ferryman's boat plunged into the flames.

"Thank you, Isaac."

In the light that made everything seem distant, the ferryman suddenly called his name.

Isaac, taken aback by the ferryman's sudden gentle call, turned around. The ferryman's face bore an expression of relief, like someone who had finished a hard day's work and was about to rest.

In an instant, Isaac realized who the ferryman was.

But before he could say anything, the ferryman placed something in Isaac's hand and murmured,

"I'm glad I could finish my duty by protecting you, even if it was for a short time."

The ferryman's blue eyes faded in the bright sunlight.

***

[The Nameless Chaos is watching over you.]

Isaac opened his eyes to the notification sound.

As he got up, his body felt unusually light. Looking around, he saw the sea filling his view. He was somewhere on the coast, though he couldn't tell where.

A terrible stench wafted from somewhere.

"Ugh..."

Isaac groaned softly as he looked in the direction of the stench.

The giant corpse of the Drowned King was rotting away.

Like a beached whale, the Drowned King lay sprawled out, his white flesh exposed, emitting a fierce stench of decay.

Isaac closed his mouth at the miserable sight of a being that was once an angel.

"Honestly, it was Isaac who actually killed the Drowned King, and Isaac himself almost died at the hands of the Drowned King. If it weren't for the Nameless Chaos, he would have certainly died.

However, at the moment when the final blow was struck to the Drowned King, if he had not accepted death as if committing suicide, the outcome would have been uncertain.

Moreover, after talking with Amundalas, his position was not incomprehensible.

Isaac approached the corpse of the Drowned King and inserted his tentacles.

'At least it's not a body that will rot away worthlessly.'

Angels do not die easily, but even if they do, they do not remain in such an ugly form unless they are cursed. However, the Drowned King was severed from the afterlife, so he could not tidy up his flesh.

The tentacles burrowed into the body began to devour the flesh of the Drowned King. Although it was already rotten and decayed in many places, it was not a problem for the tentacles. Unfortunately, most of the angelic divinity had evaporated from the corpse, leaving it with no more value than meat.

[You have acquired the perk 'Poison of a Rotten Angel (S)'.]

[The blessing will be maintained until digestion.]

But inside that body, Isaac discovered something.

It was invisible to the eye, but it was like a small pearl. Isaac recognized that it was the essence of the Drowned King.

[The Dark Eucharist has been activated.]

In an instant, the tentacles explosively grew around the essence, wrapping it tightly. Then, as if asking Isaac, the tentacles paused before tearing into the essence. When Isaac nodded, the tentacles crushed it as if determined not to leave a single grain of powder.

Brrrrrrr...

Before Isaac's eyes, the corpse of the Drowned King began to dissolve into foam and disappear. At the same time, a considerable amount of faith began to seep into his body.

Isaac concluded his ritual by devouring the body of the Drowned King.

And then a familiar notification began to appear.

[You have devoured the Drowned King (EX-).]

[Your consumption efficiency has increased with the perk 'Intestines of a Dead God'.]

[The strength of the tentacles has permanently increased.]

[The length of the tentacles has permanently increased.]

[The number of strands of the tentacles has permanently increased.]

[The blessing will be maintained until digestion.]

Isaac sighed.

"Really breaks the mood."

[A reward for the subjugation of the Drowned King has been given by Chaos.]

[Choose one of the following three rewards.]"

"Whether Isaac was immersed in his thoughts or not, the Nameless Chaos faithfully proposed a reward to him. He had already received an enormous reward simply by devouring the Drowned King, but that did not mean he was unwelcome to the rewards of the Nameless Chaos.

However, Isaac had more questions than the immediate desire to strengthen his power.

Instead of choosing a reward, he looked down at his left hand and said,

'Nameless Chaos.'

[The Nameless Chaos is watching you.]

'Why did you bring me here? No, I get it. You brought me here to win. So what I mean is... who do you want me to defeat, and what outcome are you hoping for?'

A god who gave destruction to those who wished for it and then gloriously committed suicide.

Isaac could not fathom what he truly wanted.

Regardless of the goals of the Nameless Chaos, Isaac had come this far to achieve his own goal, to become a Paladin of the Codex of Light and live well.

So, is it just about giving what is desired to those who want it?

But Isaac realized that regardless of his own will, the will of the gods would not leave it alone.

Something is bound to happen within the next year, from the start of the Dawn Army.

Something that could be compared to the Codex of Light turning into a salt desert, or rather, something that would cause a struggle entangled with almost all faiths.

In that battlefield, the Salt Council and the Red Chalice even reached out to beings like Isaac to grasp the tail end of victory.

Then what does the Nameless Chaos want by choosing Isaac?

For what purpose did the god reach out to humans?

[The Nameless Chaos is watching you.]

[Choose one of the following three rewards.]

But instead of answering, the Nameless Chaos shamelessly proposed a reward.

Isaac chuckled and shook his head. He already knew that the Nameless Chaos could send other messages besides 'watching you.' But it kept its distance from Isaac until the end.

Isaac had no choice but to repeat the threats he had always made.

'Whatever you want, I have no intention of choosing a crazy option.'

Isaac saw the landscape from 300 years ago that Amundalas had shown him. He saw that black wave overflowing from Urbansus.

Although they could not be seen in detail, they were waves filled with tentacles, insects, bugs, and deformed monsters. Isaac found it hard to believe that they were unrelated to the Nameless Chaos.

No, in fact, he realized what they were as soon as he saw them.

It was the afterlife of those who had served the Nameless Chaos in the past and wished for the end."

"Those who call Isaac a traitor, seeking any opportunity to overflow and pressurize him to restart the unfinished apocalypse.

However, he did not feel that their will aligned with the Nameless Chaos.

In the end, Isaac could not immediately demand an answer from the Nameless Chaos.

Instead, he checked the three rewards that were offered.

[Crawling Chaos (S) / You can summon a divine beast belonging to the Chaos by offering a sacrifice. The quality of the sacrifice determines the grade of the divine beast.]

[Scythe of the Boundary (A) / Turns the cross-section of the tentacles into saw blades, devouring everything they touch.]

[Shadow Cast Over the World (A) / You can wrap the tentacles in the color beyond visibility or hide them in the shadows.]

After some thought, Isaac unhesitatingly chose the Shadow Cast Over the World.

'The S-class Crawling Chaos is tempting, but...'

Isaac recalled the monsters he had seen in the afterlife. Of course, none of the bugs or tentacles he had summoned so far had been disobedient. The ones he would summon this time would naturally be the same. Moreover, a proper divine beast would have powerful and useful abilities like a Blood Knight or an Abyssal Beast.

How powerful would the monsters described as the kin of the Nameless Chaos be?

Yet, Isaac thought he should keep his distance because of that.

He remembered Amundalas's warning.

The more he relied on the power of the Nameless Chaos, the more the afterlife would consume him.

'At least I have to become stronger as my abilities do.'

The Nameless Chaos is generous with rewards. Maybe he could obtain it later, and if necessary, he could summon it through a ritual.

On the other hand, the ability to hide or wrap the tentacles in shadows was a powerful advantage for Isaac, who needed to conceal his identity. The functionality alone made him want to rate it beyond S-class, even EX-class.

Lastly, he did not choose the Scythe of the Boundary because he did not feel the tentacles' offensive capabilities were lacking.

When he chose the Shadow Cast Over the World as his reward, Isaac's eyes shone with a deeper purple light.

'Come to think of it, I got a new perk.'

[Poison of a Rotten Angel (S)]

[A rare angelic corpse poison. A powerful poison combining strong regenerative power, divinity, the aura of death, and curses. Especially more effective against beings with divinity.]

It was a perk he gained by devouring the decaying corpse of the Drowned King. Although the perk would only last until digestion, it was a very powerful weapon. Especially, a poison that works on beings with divinity, like angels or divine beasts, was something you couldn't get even if you wanted.

'Drowned King, you...'

Isaac felt a poignant feeling once more.

'You really give without holding back.'

The Drowned King would find it ridiculous, but Isaac thought that if he used it carefully, even Urbansus would be grateful."