Ch.1159Endless Hell

Repeated deaths, continuous resurrections.

In the nightmare created by Lilith, Feirius experienced countless different futures and repeatedly met death in countless different ways.

After solving the problems of the Holy State, the Empire began to check him, and after barely convincing the Emperor and nobles, a legion of monsters attacked as if they had been waiting.

After numerous attempts and desperate struggles, he managed to repel even the monster legion, but his hardships continued endlessly afterward.

The Alvheim-Jin alliance army attacking the weakened Holy State.

The rebellion of Panam and Dane against the imperial order.

The fierce attack of the Ka’har who bypassed the Wall of Berengaria to advance.

The great invasion of Werebeasts, the attack of Dwarf armored units.

The secret activities of heretical worshippers who couldn’t be eradicated despite continuous subjugation.

Only after repeating dozens of lives over three hundred years could Feirius finally move beyond that future.

He managed to survive for sixty years—a time that was long if considered long and short if considered short—without being killed by an “enemy.”

‘I never thought it would end like this…’

…However, the next “enemy” he faced was an opponent that even Feirius had no idea how to overcome.

‘I haven’t even found a proper clue yet, and my life ends here?’

Lifespan.

Feirius, whose age had passed eighty and was approaching ninety, faced the limit of his lifespan and met a peaceful death in bed.

Without even confirming the signs of the world rushing toward destruction and its cause—the reason he had thrown himself into this nightmare in the first place.

For Feirius, it was utterly bewildering.

If there had been a clear enemy, it might have been different, but since his lifespan was the issue that ended the cycle, this wasn’t even a problem he could overcome with effort.

‘Do I… have to forcibly extend my lifespan? Do I really have to go that far?’

Forcibly extending a human’s lifespan was dark magic with no room for excuse.

Unless one transcended humanity by awakening divinity, all other methods were merely sinister techniques of those who had given themselves to darkness.

Throughout his sixty years of experience, he had no way to obtain divinity, so that was essentially the only way to extend his lifespan.

In other words, Feirius now had no choice but to either dabble in dark magic or give up and wake up.

‘……’

Dark magic. A choice he would have firmly rejected before his conversation with Alfodhr. The old Feirius would have chosen to give up and wake up without hesitation.

‘……’

However, the three hundred years he had spent struggling in this nightmare now held his ankles, making it difficult to give up at this point.

‘…Well, this is just a dream, not reality after all… so it should be fine.’

In the end, after much deliberation, Feirius rationalized his actions once again.

He had many justifications.

His determination had been strong enough to accept the evil god’s proposal, and it would be too wasteful to end the past three hundred years like this.

This place isn’t reality. Whatever he does, it’s just a dream anyway.

From the moment he chose to forcibly unify the other churches, his hands were already dirty, so why hesitate now?

Convincing himself with such excuses, Feirius began to dabble in the path of dark magic that deviated from the righteous way.

To forcibly extend his lifespan, which was only about sixty years, and to confirm the future beyond.

======[ Alfodhr ]======

“I did as you instructed… but is this human really worth this much effort?”

Lilith, the evil god of lust and pride, asked Alfodhr.

Was it really worth expending so much power to lure that man, Feirius, into a trap and corrupt him?

Transmitting a voice through sacred objects. Creating a nightmare of resurrection spanning hundreds of millions of years through a contract and trapping him inside it.

Blocking the eyes of Elpinel and Menes throughout this entire plan to prevent Elpinel’s interference, and forcibly blocking intervention through the stigmata.

All three required the consumption of massive divine power, especially now that Heaven’s Wall had become an obstacle, unlike in the distant past.

Not only Lilith herself but also Alfodhr shared in this consumption, but even considering this, it was too much to laugh off.

“Three hundred years until the next descent. Don’t we need to prepare the ground in advance?”

“If that’s the purpose, we don’t necessarily have to choose a ‘saint’…”

Lilith tried to object, finding it difficult to understand, but Alfodhr cut off her words, showing no intention of listening further, and laid out a suitable reason.

“He will become a useful long-term piece. If he can accommodate the stigmata, his divine affinity is already proven, and given his position, he will be useful in diverting the attention of the ascended ones.”

‘And he will also help me chip away at your power.’

Alfodhr silently swallowed the words he didn’t need to speak aloud.

Yes. There were three main reasons why he wanted to corrupt Elpinel’s saint and make him his own tool.

First, as befitting a saint, his high divine affinity would make him easy to use as his apostle in the future.

Second, Elpinel would not idly watch her saint become corrupted and run amok, so her attention could be tied up there for a while.

And there was a third reason he hadn’t revealed to Lilith. He intended to use this as an opportunity to chip away at her power.

The two gods Alfodhr had accepted as his subordinates during the late Xanten Empire, Vanirgand and Lilith, were both forcibly corrupted former demigods of the Empire.

Therefore, Alfodhr did not trust them very much.

On the surface, they would faithfully follow his orders as their master, but inside, they would surely be hiding different intentions.

No, Vanirgand didn’t even try to hide his ambitions.

Although he reluctantly obeyed his orders, each time he did so, he would bare his teeth and growl as if he would kill him someday.

Even Lilith, who was relatively obedient, had such a treacherous and vicious personality that it wouldn’t be surprising if she betrayed him the moment the power balance shifted.

Therefore, while using them as his tools, Alfodhr never relaxed his vigilance and checks.

Making her waste divine power by forcing her to use her abilities this time was also part of that.

Of course, Lilith would have already seen through such a shallow scheme… but what did that matter?

From the moment she was defeated by Alfodhr and corrupted, she had long since fallen into a position where she could not defy his orders.

All Lilith could do was submit to his scheme, knowing it was designed to chip away at her power.

======[ Feirius ]======

A thousand years passed.

Feirius, who had dabbled in dark magic to overcome the limits of his lifespan, had fallen into a being that could no longer be called a saint even in the nightmare, but thanks to this, he was able to witness the future beyond.

And finally, he witnessed events that could be called the destruction of the world.

【 Cursed World Tree. I, Nidhogg, have returned—! 】

The ancient dragon Nidhogg, who had finally revived after a long time, caused the burning of Alvheim.

Leading an army of hundreds of millions of insect monsters to attack the World Tree, Nidhogg burned that massive tree with dragon fire and merged with Varnir, the demigod of the fairies.

【 Grwoooooooo! 】

And from the void where the World Tree had burned away, the evil god Invidius emerged through a hole connected to the void.

‘…Is that the reason for destruction? Is that monster going to burn the earth?’

Faced with the might of Invidius who had descended in his complete form, Feirius believed it to be the entity that would bring about the world’s destruction, and he fought with all his might to stop it.

Another thousand years passed.

‘Invidius cannot be defeated. Then, should I stop Nidhogg?’

After changing his target to the dragon and preventing the World Tree burning incident through desperate struggles, another ancient dragon emerged from the mountains of Himmel and burned the earth.

‘All dragons must be killed.’

Nidhogg, Vritra, Crom Cruach, Kelebre, Leviathan, Krakbabel.

Countless ancient dragons stood in his way, and an immeasurably long time flowed like waves.

The time it took to finally suppress all dragons and defeat Invidius, who had descended through the rituals of the Ma, was a staggering eight thousand years.

It was more than enough time for a human’s sense of self to be eroded and worn away in the flow of time.

This was especially true for Feirius, whose sense of self had already begun to distort due to his forcibly extended lifespan.

During that long time, Feirius gradually but surely began to forget many things.

He forgot the names of his old companions.

He forgot the number of years that had passed, his age.

He forgot Elpinel’s doctrines that he had engraved in his mind.

‘Who… was I?’

He forgot his own name.

‘What… was I doing…?’

He forgot the tasks and evil deeds he had performed, their meaning.

Even his initial will to witness the world’s destruction and find a way to prevent it disappeared into oblivion in the endless hell-like long life.

‘Where am I? What am I…?’

Therefore, he didn’t even notice that at some point, the time of his resurrection had changed from the time of his contract with Alfodhr to hundreds of years later.

“Honey, what’s wrong? You suddenly look like you’ve seen a ghost…”

“Huh? Oh, no. It’s nothing.”

‘…Who is this woman? Is she my wife?’

Nor did he realize that the content of the nightmare had also changed from a journey to prevent the world’s destruction to simply various forms of life.

—-

Four hundred million and eighty thousand years.

A man who was nothing was walking through the desert.

A world where everything had disappeared in the flow of destruction, leaving only ruins and sand. Endlessly, without even knowing what he was.

Repeatedly coming back to life in the same place whenever he died from exhaustion.

‘Why… am I… walking…?’

The only thing that came to mind amid the questions was the impulse to keep walking forward.

Possessed by the groundless impulse that he would learn something if he kept going, the man who was nothing continued walking, dying and dying again.

【 Hey, are you alright? You look in terrible shape. 】

‘A voice…? Is it an auditory hallucination? No, I don’t care if it is. Who are you? Do you know me?’

【 Auditory hallucination? That’s harsh. Have you forgotten the voice of a friend you’re meeting again after a long time? 】

‘A friend…?’

Until Alfodhr, judging that the time was finally ripe, transmitted his voice into Lilith’s nightmare and spoke to that man.

—-

Two thousand years passed after that.

Alfodhr continued to speak to the man who was nothing, building up intimacy toward himself in the man’s inner mind.

Sometimes as an old friend.

Sometimes as a teacher.

Sometimes as a father.

【 The end of your hardship is near. Rise again and move forward. 】

And ultimately as a god to guide his path.

And finally, when the journey of the man who was nothing reached 500 million years.

【 Come to me. My apostle, ■■■. 】

Before his eyes, which had seen nothing but endless desert wherever he looked, a massive temple appeared.

An old god’s temple, ancient yet elegant, gloomy yet somehow majestic.

The man who was nothing climbed the stairs as if entranced and knelt before the massive statue in the center of the temple.

“…I have come. Father of all things, my god.”

And then he prayed devoutly, worshipping his god who had guided and led him, who was nothing, to this place.

【 Welcome. My servant, my apostle, my son. 】

Alfodhr appeared there, placed his hand on the man’s head, and smiled.

【 Balder. Feirius ‘Balder’ Haranshior. 】

Giving back the forgotten name to the man who was nothing, and bestowing upon him the new baptismal name of Balder.

Balder.

An ancient word meaning light and purity.

A baptismal name that mocked Feirius by referencing what he had ultimately abandoned at the end of his struggles while searching for non-existent answers.

For Feirius, who had already completely submitted to Alfodhr, even if he woke up from the dream and came to his senses, he would not be able to notice the mockery contained in that name.

—-

And so, Elpinel’s saint Feirius awoke from the long nightmare that had lasted a fortnight yet 500 million years.

As Alfodhr’s apostle, Feirius Balder Haranshior.

Alfodhr in the heavens laughed madly.