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Paladin of the Dead God-Chapter 446: Forest of Forgetfulness (1)
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’Get up.’
As he inhaled, humid and lukewarm air filled his lungs.
Isaac opened his eyes and looked around.
It was a wasteland filled with black soil and rows of trees.
The sky was full of dark clouds, but it didn’t seem like it would rain.
Isaac massaged his hands, thinking he had a bad dream.
He knew where this was without having to ask anyone.
Before attacking the Holy Land Lua, he had flirted with the outer boundaries, luring monsters.
This was the Outer Boundary.
And now Isaac was in the middle of the Forest of Forgetfulness, filled with Whitewood in Prayer.
’How did I end up here?’
Isaac scratched his drowsy head and tried to recall his memories. He remembered the Lighthouse Keeper struggling and making an absurd wish on Midas’ Hand. After that, the world was split into thousands of pieces, and everything became vague, but only the Nameless Book of Worms was clearly visible.
And he also remembered the phrase ’I have returned’ being engraved there.
It wasn’t clear who ’I’ was, but it seemed likely to be White Owl. She had been planning this for a long time, only to snipe the Lighthouse Keeper.
’....First, I need to find out where I am and how to get back.’
Isaac thought as he looked around the forest full of Whitewood in Prayer. Perhaps because they had been still for so long, the Whitewood in Prayer were dry and black, not befitting their name.
It was a bleak possibility, but Isaac thought that perhaps he had died and fallen into Urbansus, or perhaps he had been ’erased’ from history by the Urbansus revision.
In fact, that was the most common reason for entering the Forest of Forgetfulness.
Isaac first checked what he had.
He had Kaldwin and the Luadin Key. He also had all the relics and equipment he had been carrying. He also had the Nameless Book of Worms. Just in case, he opened the Nameless Book of Worms, but nothing was written after the phrase ’I have returned’. Isaac pondered for a long time before deciding that he probably hadn’t died or been erased from history.
If he was dead, he wouldn’t have brought all the relics, and if he had been erased from history, it would be difficult for him, as a human, to have such a clear sense of self.
’If I’m not dead or insane, I might be able to find a way back.’
Isaac felt isolated for the first time in a long time and began to move. If this was really the Forest of Forgetfulness, he had to find a safer place. He didn’t know when or where the Offspring of Chaos might pop out.
Isaac cautiously moved to find a hiding place.
***
But after about half a day, Isaac wished that the Offspring of Chaos would appear.
There was no one in the Forest of Forgetfulness.
Only the lukewarm air and the emaciated Whitewood in Prayer.
The dark clouds covering the sky blocked the sun, making it impossible to even guess the direction.
He couldn’t hear the sound of insects or birds, just desolation.
He tried to connect with his Offspring, but he couldn’t connect with Hesabel, the Witch Hectali sisters, or Zihilrat, as if he was in a place with weak signal.
’Could this be the Codex of Light’s hell?’
This land without sun, without life, and without any change was a very Codex of Light-like hell.
Isaac grumbled and wondered if he should just cut down everything and make a ruckus, but he discovered strange, heterogeneous structures in the distance. ’Buildings?’
It was unimaginable that people lived in the Outer Boundary, but anything was better than Whitewood in Prayer.
Isaac strode towards the building he had spotted.
He soon arrived at a small town with bizarre shapes.
The town, which probably had once housed thousands to tens of thousands of people, was built in a bizarre style that Isaac had never seen anywhere on the continent. Isaac quickly realized that ’this’ could not function as a city at all. The roofs were structured in a way that could not block the rain, the bridges were stuck in the river, or the doors were attached to the 3rd floor. There was a house with hundreds of windows, and a house that was tilted and buried in the ground.
It was as if an entity who didn’t know what a city was had clumsily imitated it with gleaned knowledge. But Isaac clearly felt signs of life in this city.
Squeak... At that moment, a door hanging from the ceiling opened.
Isaac tensed up and drew Kaldwin, but what appeared inside the door was none other than Angela.
His heart dropped, but Angela stared at Isaac with an unfamiliar expression.
Isaac thought rationally.
’Is this a trap?’
Angela was also in the Holy Land Lua, so she could have fallen with him, but she didn’t seem to recognize him.
Isaac suspected mental manipulation or illusionary miracles.
Even if it was Angela from the past recorded in Urbansus, a being living in the Outer Boundary could not be a normal creature. Especially in a city like this.
It was definitely a very basic trap where he would follow her, thinking she was a child, and then get eaten.
But would there be ’people’ who would fall for traps in a place like this?
Spiders weave webs where insects come and go, but if they weave them in a place like this, they are likely to starve to death.
"Are you alone?"
Isaac asked without taking a single step closer.
Then another door opened. Another Angela came out from that door and looked at Isaac.
Squeak, squeak, squeak.
Doors and windows opened here and there simultaneously, and Angelas peered out. Before he knew it, hundreds of Angelas were staring at Isaac from all the buildings around him.
They all had the same face.
As if there was only one target to imitate.
Isaac pondered for a moment, then swung his sword at the Angela who had shown her face first. As Isaac Swordsmanship: Touch of the Drowned activated, a tentacle-like shape instantly grabbed Angela and pulled her in at once.
Then dozens of Angelas were pulled out in a row.
"Oh, shit..."
It was a cluster created by something clumsily imitating the appearance of a child, just like this city. Like pulling on a spider web and having the rest tangled up, Angelas with skin stuck all over the place rushed at Isaac.
Every time the cluster took a step, a crunching sound echoed. It was the sound of stone fragments and dirt stuck to their hands and feet being sucked inside.
Isaac quickly realized that if he stuck to that, he would end up the same way.
’......Really?’
He scoffed.
It was clear that he had been starving for too long and didn’t know who the predator was.
Inwardly angered by the imitation of an acquaintance’s face, Isaac grabbed the face of the Angela rushing towards him with his left hand. Angela’s face was easily crushed like clay, losing its shape and becoming limp. Isaac’s arm was sucked inward.
However, tentacles sprouted from Isaac’s entire left arm and began to rampage.
The tentacles quickly spread to every corner of the Angela cluster’s body, sucking up all its fluids and flesh. Then the city shuddered and began to tremble, making a groaning sound as if it were convulsing.
Literally, this city was a trap to lure and attract passersby.
’I can’t stand it. Let’s stop it.’
A giant claw covered the city.
Bang! The sharp claws of a bird of prey literally grabbed and crushed the city like a handful of rats. A giant dust storm swept through Isaac, and fluids that had been splattered soaked his ankles.
Isaac blankly stared at the giant bird that had attacked the city. It was a white owl that was clearly visible even in the cloudy sky.
The head of the giant white owl, which seemed to be at least several kilometers long, was obscured by the hazy atmosphere, making it difficult to see properly. Isaac held his breath and looked up at the white owl.
It was a shame, but things didn’t go as planned. Originally, he was going to have Isaac sleep soundly and eat well in the city, then make him realize the sinister secrets and horrors hidden in the city, and then help him in a moment of crisis, but in this pile of crap like land, not much goes as planned. In that sense, Isaac was really blessed…
"White Owl?"
[Ah.]
The White Owl spoke in a soft woman’s voice.
[I was narrating instead of speaking out loud. I haven’t spoken to anyone in a long time, so I keep making mistakes.]
Isaac stared up at the sky with his mouth open.
It was the real ’White Owl’.
As it was, as honest as its name, it was a White Owl.
Considering how grotesque the Lighthouse Keeper or Sword of May looked, it was quite heterogeneous as a Codex of Light angel.
The White Owl gracefully flapped its wings and lightly twisted its body. At that moment, the giant figure disappeared into the air with the fluttering white feathers.
After a while, a small girl appeared in the snow-like falling feathers.
This time it was Angela.
"My original form is painful to the neck, so this form is better."
Isaac already had a lot to say, but the White Owl made him want to say even more every time he tried to open his mouth.
"Why don’t you call me Mom?"
***
Of course, Isaac didn’t suddenly call the 11-year-old White Owl "Mom." Even if he had become a monster that would drive the Millennium Kingdom to ruin, he had no intention of becoming so corrupt. The White Owl guided Isaac into the city full of feathers. After much deliberation, Isaac was finally able to ask his first question. "Was Angela your arrangement from the beginning?"
"If I were to explain when my arrangement started and how far it extends, there would be no end to it. You’ve just been picking up and recovering the foreshadowing that I’ve scattered and forgotten for so long."
"My question is......"
"So if you’re asking if it’s true or not, then yes, it’s true. Angela is one of the muddy drops I released into the world. From the moment she touched Midas’ Hand."
Angela was an important axis in Isaac’s motivation for starting the Dawn Army.
She was also the reason why Leonora became interested in the Holy Land Lua, and in many ways, she was a crucial piece of the puzzle.
Even though she didn’t appear in the game, no character had ever had this much weight.
Isaac felt a clear intention in Angela’s existence.
"Just as the Lighthouse Keeper fulfilled Leonora’s wish, I moved the power of Chaos to take out and protect her and her parents. Instead, I got Angela’s form."
The White Owl said, rubbing Angela’s face.
"Thus, Angela became my Incarnation."
Isaac stopped walking at the word "Incarnation."
When the Millennium Kingdom descended, the angels would gain flesh and walk the earth. The Sword of May had said that the chosen body was called an Incarnation.
And the returned White Owl was saying that Angela was her Incarnation.
"Who decided that...…………."
"Who else? Angela did. Her soul is completely preserved inside. Otherwise, could this child have maintained her sanity in this world?"
Isaac recalled the ’Angela cluster’ that had been rampaging in this city. Perhaps the only ’living thing’ that monster had seen was Angela.
Well, there wouldn’t have been many options in a world like this.
The White Owl whispered to Isaac as if to reassure him, "I’m just borrowing Angela’s body for a while. Only until the Millennium Kingdom ends. Anyway, there’s no need to maintain the body at that time."
Isaac couldn’t believe his ears.
"The Millennium Kingdom is ending? Isn’t it over yet?"
Isaac had clearly tried to drive out the Mother of All Gods and enthrone Nameless Chaos in her place. He thought that the Lighthouse Keeper’s last struggle had messed something up, but he had hoped that the Millennium Kingdom would be over anyway.
"Of course, it’s fine."
"Then what have I been doing all this time...?"
As Isaac was at a loss, the White Owl smiled and said,
"No, the Millennium Kingdom is not the end, but the beginning of everything. All my scripts are based on the success of the Millennium Kingdom."
She raised her hand and nudged Isaac’s chin up. The hand hidden in the feather cloak was not a child’s hand, but a tentacle-like form.
"And Isaac, you must become the sword that will cut down the Lighthouse Keeper, that corrupted usurper’s messy heaven."