Paladin of the Dead God-Chapter 441: The Millennium Kingdom (9)

Sword of May left behind a burning heat in Isaac’s chest before vanishing.

Both Sword of May and the Burning Maiden—the two angels who had led the conquest of Holy Land Lua—had abandoned the Lighthouse Keeper and passed their strength to Isaac.

At this point, the only Archangel remaining under the Lighthouse Keeper was the Blind Sentinel.

And even that was meaningless, given that the Blind Sentinel was merely the guardian of Lichtheim’s Secret Archive.

"Wait… If I count the ones who were Archangels or candidates—Elil, the White Owl, Kalsen… that means all of them, except for the Blind Sentinel, sided with me?

At this point, shouldn’t I be considered the representative of the Codex of Light?"

Despite this overwhelming support, Isaac couldn’t shake off the absurd realization—

None of them were actually helping him.

They had all either fallen, vanished, or betrayed the Lighthouse Keeper.

In the end, it felt like they had started this mess, only to dump the responsibility on him to clean it up.

"If they were going to start all this, they should’ve at least finished it themselves!"

While those so-called angels sat back and murmured something like "We believe in Isaac’s courage to save the world…",

Isaac was left to deal with the strongest Archangel, the one who had ended the Age of the Mother of All Gods, wiped out ancient deities and species, rewritten history, and subjugated all faiths under the Millennium Kingdom.

And to make matters worse, the Millennium Kingdom had already descended.

The Codex of Light had already won.

Had this confrontation happened before the Millennium Kingdom was established, it might have been different—

But now, fighting the Lighthouse Keeper was an unprecedented catastrophe.

No path Isaac had ever taken in the game had ever led to this kind of scenario.

A voice at the back of his mind almost blurted out—"Shouldn’t we at least try talking this out?"

But before he could even attempt it, a pillar of fire came crashing down toward him.

It was a beam of searing light fired from the lighthouse.

Isaac barely dodged it, slipping through the searing glow by mere inches.

Even though it moved at the speed of light, he could see it coming.

The world felt slow, his senses sharpened—

It was an almost precognitive awareness.

Like a flame bursting to life inside him, he realized—

He had inherited Sword of May’s ability to evade the Lighthouse Keeper’s attacks.

His body instinctively reacted to the next incoming beam, this time deflecting it with his sword.

The deflected light streaked across Holy Land Lua, carving a long, smoldering scar into the ground.

Frustrated, Isaac shouted,

"I thought murder was forbidden!"

The Lighthouse Keeper did not respond.

But Isaac quickly understood.

It wasn’t that killing was forbidden—

It was that death itself had ceased to exist.

Even if he were incinerated by those beams, he would simply return.

Of course, when he did, he would likely be restrained and subdued.

Isaac realized something else.

The Lighthouse Keeper no longer viewed him as a companion.

To him, every being in this world was merely a variable to be controlled.

And Isaac was the most dangerous variable of them all.

["Then let me show you hell, Isaac."]

The Lighthouse Keeper’s voice was cold.

["Once you see the hell I endured, you will understand that the Millennium Kingdom is the true paradise."]

"Oh, is that so?"

But this time, Isaac didn’t flinch.

The Lighthouse Keeper was no longer some incomprehensible divine being.

He was a human, just like Isaac.

That meant he could be defeated.

No matter how powerful he was, no matter how much knowledge he possessed—

He wasn’t a perfect, omniscient god.

"Most importantly… the Lighthouse Keeper’s plans only accounted for Millennium Kingdom supporters."

He had no idea what lay beyond this point.

Isaac had an advantage—he knew what it was like to operate in an unpredictable world.

That meant he had a chance.

Isaac lunged—not at the Lighthouse Keeper, but at Leonora.

The Lighthouse Keeper reacted instantly, pulling Leonora high into the sky, out of Isaac’s reach.

But that no longer mattered.

"Tendrils? Angels? Armies?"

"I never needed those to survive."

He had always struggled, sweating and bleeding, without those advantages.

And he would do it again.

Isaac gathered all his strength—years of training compressed into a single moment.

Three precise steps.

Tap!

Tap!

Tap!

He dragged his sword, Kaldwin, along the ground, then swung it toward the heavens.

All the strength drained from his body as Kaldwin’s trajectory left behind a pitch-black scar in the air.

This was the very technique he had prepared ever since he first encountered the Lighthouse Keeper—

A strike designed solely to counter him.

The air itself twisted.

A sharp, warping sound echoed through Holy Land Lua.

[...!]

The Lighthouse Keeper’s eyes flickered downward—

The space itself had bent.

It was not an illusion.

Around Isaac and his sword, a black anomaly formed, warping even the pyramid’s structure.

The distortion spread outward—

If left unchecked, it would consume all of Holy Land Lua.

At the center of the chaos, Isaac stood, untouched.

The Lighthouse Keeper understood—

He could not escape from this force.

Isaac had created a localized sanctuary—

A personal miracle.

Elil had once described this as the power of a true swordsman.

The belief that, no matter where one stood or what one faced, one’s own strength would not falter.

If one truly believed that a simple sword could stand against angels and gods—

Then it could.

Isaac believed.

He believed he could cut through the Lighthouse Keeper and his paradise.

And so, he did.

"Horizon Severance."

A pitch-black arc sliced through the sky—

Splitting heaven and earth in two.

["No. That’s impossible."]

The Lighthouse Keeper denied what he saw.

Thus—

It did not happen.

In an instant, a surge of blinding light exploded from him, swallowing Isaac and his Horizon Severance in an overwhelming wave of radiance.

The force sent Isaac flying.

The Lighthouse Keeper, now looking almost amused, gazed down at him.

["Did you actually think that would work?"]

["No… You believed it would work."]

["And because you believed, you actually managed to do it, even for a moment."]

His golden eyes gleamed—cold, calculating.

["But belief alone isn’t enough to rewrite this world, Isaac."]

The Lighthouse Keeper was shocked.

Swordsmanship was a refined order drawn from the chaos of violence.

And the Lighthouse Keeper feared that power more than anyone.

It was an authority that no one could interfere with.

That was why he had always been wary of it—why he had buried talented swordsmen under the title of Holy Knights and kept them bound under Elil’s control.

No one but Elil had ever reached such a level.

To bend space itself required one to truly believe they could do it alone.

For an ordinary person, that was impossible.

Yet, Isaac had done it.

The Lighthouse Keeper had acknowledged Isaac’s talent, but he hadn’t expected this.

Still, if swordsmanship had no limits, then Elil would have already destroyed the world.

In the end, swordsmanship was a personal faith.

It could never betray the belief of the overwhelming majority.

As the one supported by the most faith, the Lighthouse Keeper had the authority to declare, "No, this did not happen."

That was why he had been able to undo Isaac’s impossible feat.

For Isaac to truly sever the world, he would need people who believed he could do it.

That was why the Dawn Army’s angels had needed an army to channel their strength.

But Isaac’s followers had already collapsed and scattered.

Facing the Lighthouse Keeper with only his own belief was impossible.

The Lighthouse Keeper had no intention of explaining any of this to Isaac.

He simply looked at him with quiet disdain.

Yet, he noticed something strange—

Despite being flung to the ground, Isaac was grinning.

"I saw it."

The Lighthouse Keeper did not reply.

He simply waited for Isaac to speak.

Isaac, still smiling, stared him down.

"I didn’t create that alone.

It wasn’t even a real black hole—just an incomplete, clumsy attempt.

But you were caught in it."

"Because you believed it could be a black hole."

For a brief moment, the Lighthouse Keeper nearly shouted in frustration.

Isaac had pointed out his greatest weakness.

The Lighthouse Keeper was the Archangel of Physics, a being bound to the Codex of Light’s laws.

And Isaac had just pointed out a simple, universal truth:

*Light is affected by gravity.

If the gravity is strong enough, even light cannot escape.*

If Isaac became just a bit more skilled—

If he could even replicate a similar miracle—

Then even the Lighthouse Keeper could be crushed.

"That means that someday… only I will have the power to kill you."

It was a truth that only Isaac and the Lighthouse Keeper could acknowledge—

Because it was his own belief that had made it possible.

["You talk too much."]

If Isaac truly had a way to kill him, he should have stayed quiet until he was ready.

Instead, the Lighthouse Keeper seized Leonora in both hands—

And thrust her forward toward Isaac.

He could not control the Mother of All Gods,

But he knew how to influence her.

Leaning in, he whispered into Leonora’s ear—

["Isaac intends to kill you."]

"The Millennium Kingdom has descended! Killing is impossible now—"

["Isaac is a servant of Chaos.

To resurrect, one must have a soul.

But he will devour even your soul—down to the very marrow of your bones."]

Then, the Lighthouse Keeper shoved a fragment of Urbansus’ Memory into Leonora’s mind.

Her thoughts were flooded with visions—

Of beasts and monsters devouring people alive.

Of angels being ripped apart and consumed.

It felt as if she were experiencing it firsthand.

Horrified, she collapsed, vomiting.

["He is the one who opposes the Millennium Kingdom, where all can be happy.

Think about what is truly best for you and the Golden Idol Guild."]

Leonora did.

And her fear, her will, was heard.

The Mother of All Gods responded.

She could not personally prevent all acts of violence.

Her children hated, fought, and killed each other—

And all she could do was gently stitch their wounds back together, like a sorrowful mother tending to bickering siblings.

But Leonora was different.

As the bearer of Midas’ Hand, she was the Mother’s firstborn daughter.

The sky above Holy Land Lua split open—

The cracks widening into a massive rift.

From within, a single eye emerged.

Not an ordinary eye—

But an eyeball lined with countless tendrils of spinal cords, peering down upon the world.

It dwarfed the Holy Land Lua.

With an effortless gaze, the Mother of All Gods reached toward her daughter, sweeping away the insect clinging to her.

Tendrils sprouted from rocks, walls, sand—even empty air, all surging toward Isaac.

He dodged nimbly, slicing through the writhing mass—

Predicting their movements more easily than he could predict human opponents.

His sword flashed—

"Eight Branches."

Isaac lunged at the Lighthouse Keeper’s hand, the one holding Leonora.

At this distance, if even one of the eight slashes connected, it might be enough to break her free.

Black sword-light burst forth, carving through the tendrils.

Annoyed, the Mother of All Gods lashed out with more tendrils, trying to crush the attack.

But—

Isaac’s blade caught hold of the tendrils instead.

The black energy coiled around them—

And dragged them down.

"Huh?"

Even Isaac was startled by what happened next.

And then—

A voice echoed through his mind.

"The Nameless Chaos is watching you."