[Ingredient Appraisal (Enhanced)]

[Marquis Vampire Thigh Meat]

The light of divine power touched the piece of flesh I had cut off. Ordinarily, it would have burned away the vampire’s entire skin.

"But now..."

At this point, that light moved almost as if it had a will of its own.

"I’m pretty confident when it comes to handling this kind of power."

Not the flesh itself.

It was burning only the blood inside it.

And so, all the blood within it...

According to Ariella, that was the essence of those vampires, the thing that could be called their everything. And once all of it was gone—

[Ingredient Appraisal (Enhanced)]

[Former Sun Holy Knight Thigh Meat]

what remained there was the part that could be called Karhin’s "essence."

-What...?

Karhin looked at me with flustered eyes.

Receiving that gaze, I thought to myself,

"He said his essence was human, so he couldn’t feed on other humans."

I felt a little bad for him, but the world is wide, and there are all kinds of cooking.

When you think about it—

Slice!

[The dish has been completed!]

[Heroic-Grade Chef’s Sun Holy Knight Yukhoe]

[An excellent dish made through knife work that has reached the realm of mastery! The dish’s effects are greatly increased.]

there’s no such thing as an ingredient that can’t be eaten.

...Of course.

I’m human too.

I’d torn flesh from Ariella before, back then, and at the time I could barely keep myself from gagging.

The fortunate part was—

[Force-Feeding]

that for the me of now, I didn’t need to chew it myself.

Sliiide...

"That..."

"That vampire’s flesh is being absorbed into him..."

After arriving on this island, I’d searched through its food stores in my own way and been supplied with ingredients. Unfortunately, most of them were ordinary ingredients without any special magic.

Because of that, the effects from cooking with them had left a lot to be desired.

But—

"this is different."

I could feel powerful magic seeping into my body.

An ingredient that could truly let me bring out my potential as a chef.

[Absolute Taste]

As the dish soaked into my body, I activated the skill.

[Please select the trait you desire.]

The second effect of [Absolute Taste].

Borrowing only a specific skill from what you consumed through a dish.

[Mistform (Unavailable)]

[Vampiric Drain (Unavailable)]

[Shadow Crossing (Unavailable)]

[Kirchhoff’s Red Cloud (Unavailable)]

[Darkness Affinity (Unavailable)]

[......]

The abilities he had possessed as a vampire filled my vision.

There were definitely remarkable abilities scattered among them, but I couldn’t select them anyway, and most of them weren’t things I cared about.

[Mental Language]

[Charisma]

[Great Territory Administration]

[Anti-Human Tactics]

Next came the traits he himself had honed, but even those were unnecessary to me.

"Show me."

What I needed was only one thing.

"The trait from when he was still a holy knight..."

[Artificial Sun]

The moment those words appeared before my eyes, I reached out without hesitation and selected the trait.

***

[Artificial Sun]

[Based on unwavering faith, you burn your own magic and life to create a small sun.]

[Humans who lived as prey.]

[Humans placed their faith in the only light that protected them, and the sun, once nothing more than a celestial body, accepted that faith and became their divinity.]

[This small sun, capable of wielding the exact same authority as the true sun, is the greatest gift their god bestowed upon its followers.]

[At the same time, it is proof that their god loves its followers.]

Then golden radiance shimmered up from my body.

But only for a moment.

[Warning! Warning! Warning! Warning! Warning!] 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

A red-hot system message filled my vision.

[This is the authority of another divinity!]

[If your faith in 'Divinity - Sun' is below a certain threshold, this authority cannot be activated!]

At the same time as that message appeared, the golden glow blooming from my body began to shrink little by little.

Right.

Just as Karhin had said, what was required to wield this authority was faith.

Karhin had tried to teach the people faith, but he had said there were only three proper successes.

Naturally, I wasn’t one of them.

But—

"So what if I don’t have faith?"

Grinding my teeth, I violently stirred the power sleeping inside my body.

"If that’s how it is..."

Until recently, it had been a power I couldn’t properly control. But inside that Seoul created by the Matron, I’d at least learned a little of how to use it.

"then I’ll just replace it with something else..."

['30' divine power makes the impossible possible!]

KWA-GWA-GWA-GWA-GWA-GWA-GWA-GWAAA!!!

Overwhelming divine power.

The power that "makes the impossible possible" began forcibly filling in the part of this artificial sun that was supposed to be filled by "faith."

[Warning! Warning! Warning!]

['Divinity - Sun' is a powerful divinity that affects multiple dimensions!]

[Impersonating the authority of another divinity carries immense risk!]

Even so, the warning windows filling my vision did not disappear. And no matter how much divine power I poured into it, it was as if something was blocking the way.

The golden light leaking from my body only kept fading further and further.

"Even this isn’t enough?"

The authority of another divinity.

Since it was the power of beings no different from those "outside entities," divine power alone clearly wasn’t enough to force it.

"...Damn it!"

Even so, I kept my teeth clenched and continued pouring in divine power.

It was brute force, the kind of stubbornness that said if I kept pounding on it, something had to give.

{Arrogant, insolent, offensive.}

At that moment, a voice came from [Outside].

{However.}

It was so vast that if I were not who I was now, I probably would have passed out from merely hearing it.

Maybe it was just my imagination, but that voice... the being beneath my feet—

{An act for the sake of a believer.}

It felt like it was looking at Karhin.

The instant that voice rang out, the divine power that had been unable to move as if blocked somewhere began to erupt.

{In consideration of your old request.}

{Permitted, this once.}

And from my body—

not golden light...

['Divinity - Sun' permits the impersonation of its authority!]

an ash-gray sun began to rise.

***

A light dazzling beyond words gathered in one place, forming a great circular sphere and beginning to rise into the sky.

"That light..."

Those who saw it thought back.

In the past, whenever the death squad risked their lives to recover the corpses of nobles, those corpses would be delivered to where their Chairman was.

And once those corpses entered the dark veil surrounding the Chairman, a short while later, their sun would shine even more brilliantly.

"Ah... so that was it."

Their Chairman had concealed his appearance inside that dark veil, so no one knew how those noble corpses made the sun shine, or what process produced such a miracle.

But now they could be certain.

"That is..."

The flesh of a vampire melting away like an offering, and afterward, a great sun rising with splendid radiance.

-This is the power your Chairman passed on to me.

Beneath that dazzling sun, someone slowly walked forward.

A human figure pouring out radiant light. That overwhelming light stretched upward into the sky, connecting with the sun above.

It was as if the light of the sun itself had taken human form.

...The manifestation of the great sun.

Yes.

That was what they had not seen, what had always happened beyond that dark veil.

-From now on, I will lead you.

They became certain that this must be the form their leader had kept hidden from them.

***

The ash-gray radiance lit heaven and earth alike.

Then—

-That light...

from beneath my feet, I heard a voice filled with shock.

"Be careful not to let it touch you. The color’s a little different, but... it’s what you think it is."

-How...?

He looked up at me with eyes full of disbelief... and a strange kind of reverence.

"Guard, someone come here."

"Yes, Private First Class Kim Taegyun."

"Cover this one with a dark veil. Don’t let the light I made touch him."

For now, he was buried in the shadow of the crater, but the moment even a little of this light touched him, he would suffer a fatal wound.

At my command, one of the unit members went off somewhere, then returned and draped something like a cloak over him.

"That side’s handled well enough."

After confirming that, I turned my head.

Then—

"This light... it’s real."

I saw the people gathered in this crater, the very people who had been trying to attack me only minutes ago, staring blankly at me.

Fwoosh...

The huge sun floating above my head.

Its color was not golden, but ash-gray. Even so, there was no one who could fail to recognize that the power emanating from it was no different from that sun.

"So Chairman באמת entrusted us to you."

And Wei, the man who had been the first to point a weapon at me while commanding these survivors, looked at that light and then let out a hollow laugh.

"If that’s the case, then we have no choice but to follow."

At those words, the other awakened behind him rose to their feet as well.

"The sun has returned!"

"It’s all right now. Now, now we can... survive!"

The reason they had followed Karhin was not Karhin’s leadership, but the sun.

And now that that sun had been reproduced once more, it was obvious whom they should follow.

"...Well, what I said wasn’t exactly a lie."

It was true that Karhin had entrusted them to me.

And it wasn’t wrong to say that Karhin had passed this power on to me either.

"...The process was a little questionable, though."

Well.

What did that matter?

"Please give us your orders!"

"What should we do!"

What mattered was only one thing.

I had succeeded in persuading them.

Looking at those people, I said,

-Unfortunately, this land is no longer a place where people can live.

"The sun has returned. Then if we just drive out those vampires..."

-You all know the vampires are not the real problem.

At those words, the people looked into the distance.

Every awakened there could feel something unseen spreading from far away.

"You mean the radiation."

Wei nodded with a heavy expression.

Just as he said, regardless of the vampires, this island had already become a place where people could no longer live.

"There’s no guarantee those two nuclear warheads were all they had."

Even if those two were all they had for the moment, if they had already secured two nuclear warheads, there was no telling how many more they might obtain.

No one knew when another airstrike might come.

There was no point in holding out here.

-Gather every survivor scattered across the island into one place.

So the place we had to go was already decided.

-You are returning to your homeland, the continent.

***

Outside the island, there was a broad coastline between the island and the mainland.

Pahng, pahng...

That shore, which had been quiet until not long ago, was now heaving violently, as if a great storm were sweeping through.

The shock from the massive explosion that had occurred only dozens of minutes earlier still remained.

And yet—

Brrrrrrrr...

beneath those violent waves, in the dark water, countless black shapes were moving.

They advanced forward even against the current of the raging sea.

And one of them shouted in mad delight.

-Our nemesis is gone!!!

In their sight was a place they once would not have dared even look toward.

But now... it was nothing less than a banquet hall filled with prey.

-It is time to feed!

The island where the natives were gathered had come into view.

-We will fill our bellies with their blood,

they roared in voices crazed with madness,

-and offer that land to the Grand Duke!!!

And then—

"Excited little things, aren’t they."

behind them, there was someone watching that scene and muttering indifferently.

"Well, I understand. We’ve put in our own effort trying to conquer that island, and yet we had nothing clear to show for it."

Unlike the other monsters directly fighting against the rough waves, she rode comfortably across the strait on the back of a monster shaped like a gigantic sea creature.

Its back was decorated with lavish tents and carpets.

Even the chair she sat in was studded with expensive jewels.

"But even so, who would have thought we’d succeed through a method like this."

Gracefully tilting the glass in her hand, she said,

"I didn’t expect the natives’ knowledge to be this useful."

"...It is nothing remarkable."

At those words, Jinlei lowered his head, then furtively glanced at the woman before him and thought,

"...Marquis Lellar."

One of the great nobles of the Melchiorn Bloodline, and the commander in charge of the front against those natives.

One of the very few within the bloodline who could be called a "great noble."