Player Who Became A Constellation [EN]: Chapter 147

147

Clang-!

Monks in white robes and white cotton cloths shook small bells in their hands.

Clang-!

“Ah-ah-ah-!”

Nuns sang hymns.

Clack… Clack…

Knights in armor marched with perfect precision.

Behind them came a luxurious white carriage.

Clerics with staffs followed the carriage.

It was the procession of the Pope, who had been missing since the Holy King Palis’s actions.

“The, the White Arbiters.”

Some of the continent’s people on the streets began to kneel.

They put their hands together and prayed toward the sacred procession.

“Your Holiness…”

“Seat of Azellan…”

Perhaps grateful for their prayers?

The carriage door opened.

A hand in a white glove appeared slightly.

Despite wearing gloves, the gaunt hand gently waved to express gratitude to the believers.

At the sight, the believers’ prayers became even more fervent.

The carriage stopped.

As the carriage door opened, clerics raised pure white cloths, covering the carriage on all sides.

Each time the person who got out of the carriage moved, the clerics moved, concealing the ‘Pope’.

“……”

Nord soldiers watched the scene with wonder.

The Pope’s secrecy was widely known even on the continent.

It was said that only the Holy King Palis and a few cardinals knew his true appearance.

The procession stopped only when it reached the entrance to the audience chamber in Valhalla Palace.

「Everyone may leave.」

The Pope’s cracked voice echoed.

The clerics who were hiding the Pope’s appearance paused.

“But, but…”

“Your Holiness, we will stay with you.”

「Leave.」

At the Pope’s words, the clerics reluctantly lowered the cloth and bowed their heads.

They bent over, focusing only on the floor to avoid seeing the Pope’s appearance, and stepped back.

A white robe dragging on the floor.

The Pope, his face covered with cotton cloth, took a step.

Nord soldiers watched the Pope with surprised eyes.

Even though darkness was consuming the palace, the golden aura flowing around the Pope brightly illuminated the surroundings.

It was a truly mysterious and sacred sight.

Thump… Thump…

As the Pope walked forward, the Nord soldiers opened the audience chamber door with courtesy.

The Pope entered the audience chamber.

The audience chamber door slowly closed.

“What brings His Holiness here?”

The Pope raised his head.

The majestic hall, the throne on the platform above the stairs.

Loki, sitting there, looked down at the Pope.

“To visit the enemy’s palace in person. How bold.”

「…….」

The Pope was silent.

Loki tilted his head.

After a moment, the Pope opened his mouth.

「I am Zaus, Pope of the Holy Order.」

The Pope bowed slightly.

“Loki, ruler of the North.”

「Brother.」

Loki frowned.

The nuance was different from the word uttered simply in a religious sense.

「I will test you.」

Thump-!

The floor of the audience chamber shattered.

With a roar, Pope Zaus’ figure disappeared.

A fluttering holy robe.

And the afterimage appeared right in front of Loki.

Loki raised his head.

Pope Zaus took something out from the loose holy robe.

A mace with a white handle.

A vast amount of divine power was contained in the mace.

At the same time, something popped out to the left and right of Loki’s throne.

The undead of Valhalla.

They were Death Knights, Loki’s guardians.

They raised their greatswords and swung them.

Zaus dodged the Death Knights’ strikes, slammed his mace down on their heads, and kicked them away.

“Oho.”

A smooth attack.

‘I thought he was just a cleric. His martial arts skills are considerable.’

‘He might be stronger than Kudan.’

But at best, he’s only at the level of being treated as a ‘hero’ by humans.

Thump-!

Black wolves and snakes sprang from Loki’s armor, biting Pope Zaus’ arms and legs and pushing him against the audience chamber wall.

「Keugh-!」

The mace fell to the floor.

“How rude, Pope. And you…”

Was it because the impact was so great?

The cotton cloth that covered Pope Zaus’ face fluttered and fell to the floor.

And the face that was revealed.

Loki’s eyes narrowed.

“You’re not human.”

Pure white bones.

Ribs with only bones left were visible through the torn clothes bitten by snakes and wolves.

One of the two suns of the Holy Order, Pope Zaus.

He was in the form of a lich [an undead creature, often a powerful sorcerer, who has achieved immortality by magical means].

***

Thump!

“What’s going on!?”

The soldiers entered as the door to the great hall opened.

They raised their heads, but soon closed their mouths when they saw the Pope standing still and Loki on the throne.

In the meantime, Pope Zaus adjusted his clothes and covered his face with a cotton cloth.

“……”

Loki gestured for them to leave.

The soldiers bowed their heads and stepped back, and the door closed.

Pope Zaus sat down.

“The Pope, who stood shoulder to shoulder with the Holy King Palis, was a lich.”

At Loki’s murmur, Zaus opened his mouth.

「Are you surprised?」

“I was surprised. Who would have known that an undead would be the head of the Holy Order? Besides… an undead using divine power.”

Loki stared at the mace next to Zaus.

It seemed to be made of a unique metal, but it didn’t look like a magical item.

That meant that the intense divine power he emitted when he attacked Loki was Zaus’s real power.

An undead using divine power?

It was an incident that would shake the faith of the continent’s clerics once again.

‘I think I know why the Pope himself was hiding his appearance.’

‘Wait, the Seat of Sin mentioned in the literature…’

Loki’s gaze turned to Pope Zaus.

‘…was a lich.’

The illustration in the literature was no different from Pope Zaus in front of him.

Is it just a coincidence? Or…

「Forgive my rudeness. I wanted to test you.」

“Test?”

「The Seat of Sin, the Seat of Azellan [a divine figure or position], created to judge the demons, judged them and sealed them. But at some point, I heard that he was ruling the North and acting as a king… I thought he was a fraud. But….」

Zaus chuckled and said.

「Even if he is not the Seat of Sin, he seems to be the right ‘Seat’.」

Loki’s eyes narrowed.

The Pope was carelessly uttering the word ‘Seat’.

“What are you muttering about by yourself?”

「Ah, I’m sorry. I’ve been alone for a long time, so I’ve been talking to myself more often. But it’s a bit far. Shall we talk closer?」

Loki looked down at him from the throne.

He got up from his seat and went down to the platform.

He stopped right in front of Zaus and sat on the bare floor.

Zaus and Loki looked at each other.

“What is the reason for coming here and revealing your identity? Lich.”

「You must know that an anomaly is happening on the continent. Brother.」

“……”

Loki was quite annoyed by the word ‘brother’.

「The Holy King Palis, who led the Holy Order, was corrupted and created the plague of death. I rose up to judge it, but… I failed.」

The Holy King Palis had built a support base by subjugating the Demon King.

The ruler of the continent, praised as one of the 12 heroes and wielding influence over other countries.

It was not easy for Pope Zaus to defeat such a person alone.

Above all, he shouldn’t have revealed his appearance, so he ended up failing.

Zaus hid his body because he expected that great sacrifices and divisions would occur if things continued like this.

「And when the Holy King Palis won and the Holy Order collapsed, those guys started to move.」

“Those guys?”

Loki’s eyes narrowed, and Zaus nodded.

「I came to request the subjugation of ‘those guys’.」

***

The morning sun rose.

As the Pope came out as the door to the great hall opened, the clerics raised the cloth to cover Pope Zaus’ appearance.

Zaus, who was moving while being covered by the clerics, stopped, turned his head, and looked at Loki.

「May the blessing of the Seat of Azellan be with you.」

“…I’m an atheist.”

The clerics paused.

Could there be anyone who would refuse the Pope’s blessing like that?

Zaus’ laughter flowed out from between the covered cloths.

「…A Seat who is an atheist. That was a funny joke. Then.」

Pope Zaus stepped back.

Cancun, who had finished his dawn training, watched the procession until the end and approached Loki with hurried steps.

He carefully whispered in his ear.

“Lord Loki. Who is that person?”

Judging by the way he was leaving so flamboyantly, he could tell that he was no ordinary person.

“He said he was the Pope.”

Cancun was startled.

‘Goodness…! Then the leader of the enemy country came to Valhalla?!’

‘Huh? Or is it? Wasn’t the leader of the enemy country the Holy King? Huh? But…. Huh?’

Cancun tilted his head and continued.

“Ah! The one who went missing… Huh? But why is he here?”

As Cancun kept tilting his head and asking, Loki shrugged his shoulders.

“He came to ask for a subjugation.”

“Subjugation?”

Is there anyone that the Pope can’t subjugate?

“But is it okay to send him away like that?”

With the Holy King Palis losing power and hiding, if the Pope went to the Holy Order, he might be able to restore the center and rebuild everything.

“He’s not going.”

“……?”

“He’s going to stay here.”

“Ah…. Is that so?”

This was another unexpected statement.

“Then is the target of subjugation some monster or… a country…?”

Or maybe he was asking for the subjugation of the Black Arbiters and the Holy King.

At Cancun’s question, Loki said lightly.

“He wants me to kill a god.”

***

The Seat of Azellan created the world.

He made the land with his skin.

The sea with sweat-.

The sun with one eye-.

He created the sky with his breath.

That’s how the creation of the world was accomplished.

The Seat of Azellan molded clay into dolls and shed blood there, creating various life forms.

To allow countless life forms to live in harmony, he plucked stars and breathed life into them, and those were the Seats born from Azellan.

However, in the process of plucking the stars, dust got in, and that was greed.

In the emotion of greed, evil desires arose in the Seats, and they began to harbor ambitions.

The land they ruled was narrow.

The life they dominated was small.

They wanted to rule more land and more life.

That’s how the war broke out.

The Seats’ fight.

The kings of the creatures declared war on each country.

Much blood flowed, and they wanted to prove the greatness of the Seats they served.

The Seats smiled, laughed, and felt pleasure as they watched their followers.

Azellan grieved at the conflict of those he had created and rebuked the Seats.

But what came back was not the children’s reflection and repentance, but rebellion.

Their spears pierced the body of the Seat of Azellan, and the Seats enjoyed a feast with his blood and flesh.

Azellan, impaled on a skewer and shedding tears, looked at the sins committed by his children in pain.

As the Seat of Azellan shed tears of blood, the Seat of Sin was born there.

The Seat of Sin suppressed the fallen Seats with his followers.

He sealed them and put them to sleep.

When the followers gathered around the Seat of Sin and founded an order, that was the Holy Order.

The sealed fallen Seats fell asleep, planning for the future.

The day the Holy Order collapses is the day the Seat of Sin loses all its power.

Then no one can stop them.

After a long wait like that.

The Holy Order collapsed.

This meant that the Seat of Sin had been reduced to a mere human.

The fallen Seats woke up.

“……”

The conversation with Pope Zaus lingered in Loki’s head as he pondered the creation myth.

「Now that they have reappeared in the world, they will destroy the world that their parents created with blood and sweat.」

「So I hope you will stop them.」

An undead pretending to be the Pope.

There was no way to believe such a person….

He just seemed like a senile lich who had lived for a long time.

“Why should I do that?”

He answered Loki’s question.

「If you leave them alone, they will trample on and covet the followers you love. Above all….」

When the Seat of Azellan impaled on a skewer collapsed, a new Seat was born in his body.

「Isn’t that why you came to this world?」

The being that will bring about the twilight of the Seats.

「Isn’t that right? Brother.」

That was the Seat of the End.