Ch.262The Place Where the Moon Rises. Lake Ceres (1)

“I can see Lake Ceres!”

“The nuclear warheads?”

“Loading complete.”

“Good. Fire on my command.”

“Yes, sir!”

The sun is everything.

Because of the sun, seawater and freshwater evaporate to form vapor and clouds, and the pressure difference between sea and land creates typhoons and storms, thus the sun is the wind.

Because of the sun, there is light, and because of light, animals and plants flourish on the earth, thus the sun is both the earth and life itself.

And the sun is heat, for any flame is but a flickering candle under the sun’s intensity, and through that heat humanity has forged civilization, thus the sun is fire.

Clouds obscure the sun, the earth reflects the sun, and the wind spreads heat and light across the sky, thus the sun is everything.

I drew my Purifier and stepped to the front of the bridge.

Despite the distance of tens of kilometers, the Apostles of Karil and the Sun could clearly sense each other’s presence.

[What is this? The Sun? Light and heat? A pasque flower has bloomed on the grave of a dead faith.]

[You. One who dares to trespass upon the land of rest. You have proclaimed your own sin. For one who dares to receive the favor of One and defy the law of the Only, all that remains is severe judgment.]

[Karil is war, Karil is bloodshed. As His apostle, I am the one who achieves eternal war and endless conquest. Come, Apostle of the Sun. Show me the glory of the god we killed and drove away!]

The Crusader laughed.

Not because he was confident of victory.

As if he didn’t care about self-destruction, he was Karil’s fanatic who desired only pure war and death. That was the Crusader.

Persuading him was meaningless. Not just the Crusader, but all apostles were the same. They were people who would gladly sacrifice themselves for what their god wanted, or more precisely, for the ideals their god pursued.

Of course, I was the same.

“Fire.”

“Understood.”

-All gun turrets, fire!-

BOOM!

Sixty 460mm naval guns fired nuclear warheads.

Without any interference, they would kill even the innocent people living in that city.

Without any interference.

Swish…

I closed my eyes and raised my hand, focusing my mind on the sixty nuclear warheads cutting through the air.

Whether I can do it or not is no longer the question.

I will do it.

I am the one who serves the divinity of the Sun. The power He gave me wasn’t just levitation.

Because He gave me the ability to manipulate things that move under His authority.

Crackle!

Soon blue sparks began to fly from my eyes and hands, and the nuclear warheads detonated simultaneously in a flash of light.

But there was no collateral damage.

Because I controlled the nuclear explosions.

Like the principle of shaped charges, I compressed the flash and concentrated the blast pressure. The sixty shells exploded directly on the apostle who was sitting arrogantly in the square.

[What the f—]

The apostle, hit directly by sixty nuclear warheads, melted in the heat of nuclear fusion and fission, his flesh torn to pieces in the flash and pressure, dying miserably.

“Haaah…”

And I exhaled, having completely erased one apostle, and then released the still raging nuclear power.

“Flames and light, obey my command!!!!”

I shouted as I waved my hand, burning Karil’s servants to death with nuclear heat and light as they panicked at their apostle’s death.

“Behold! Followers of the Sun and Moon! I shall let you know that your waiting has been rewarded!”

I shouted, looking at the thousands of pillars of flame visible below the bridge.

“And die in the flames of war! Servants of slaughter!”

In an instant, the city was covered in white ash, but it was the ash of slaughterers and invaders, not of the innocent.

People cheered looking at the sky, and for them, my wife and I held hands and fell from the open portal in the sky.

Soon we soared across the sky as if fixed in a horizontal coordinate system, then stopped above the spire in the square, and I raised my wife’s hand.

“Behold! Citizens of Ceres! My name is Victor Walker! I am Luminator, the Apostle of the Sun! The wait of 51,202 years is over! Today! From this day forward, the world will know that the Sun has returned to this continent once more! And that it will never set again!

Look at the woman holding my hand! Her name is Raisha Walker! My wife and the holy woman blessed by the Moon! Like Nariakira Saburo and Maria Taylor, we have achieved sacred union and received blessings from the beings above! He has given me the power to rule the world, and I shall duly follow His will, and no heat of war shall burn you!

Witness! His authority! The power of the Sun!!!”

I shouted, then moved my hand to gather the ashes scattered over Lake Ceres and transform them into a massive statue.

It was a statue of Lord Saburo driving a sword into Karil’s form, and I planted it in the center of the crumbled square.

“This is the proof of what was here! The Apostle of Karil is dead! Why? Because I! With weapons imbued with His power, melted and crushed him! This is the birthplace of the Moon and a sanctuary of rest, and no one shall invade this place again! I so promise! In the name of the Sun! In the name of humanity’s master!”

I always wanted to stand above others.

Organizing armies, becoming the leader of parties, and even now as the Apostle of the Sun.

The sun floats higher than anything else, and it’s impossible to rise higher than it.

But ruling this earth is certainly possible.

Adventures must end someday, and if the result of the adventure is the world, wouldn’t that be a splendid adventure?

Since becoming the Apostle of the Sun, I no longer desired to live as an ordinary person.

And to begin with… I couldn’t even be sure if I was born ordinary.

I raised the Purifier high.

Then, capturing lightning striking from within the clouds onto the blade, I flew back up to the sky and swung my sword to encompass the entire lake.

Soon a blue barrier made of lightning began to envelop Lake Ceres and the entire city, and I sent the lightning from my blade back to the sky.

Now Lake Ceres will become a sanctuary in the true sense.

Only the faithful will be able to approach this place, and finally, Lake Ceres will be able to escape from eternal war.

*

After everything was settled, the Sky Warden landed inside the barrier, and as soon as the doors opened, we were met with the passionate cheers of six million citizens.

I threw the soldiers to the crowd as sacrificial lambs, and the soldiers, under the name of the Sun’s army, began to frolic with virgins and children.

Yes, just don’t touch the married women.

As I was standing blankly on the bridge thinking that, the elf sisters approached me, and Lucia unexpectedly blurted out irreverent words.

“Why don’t you just become a god yourself?”

Thwack!

“Ow!”

“Don’t say such irreverent things. Do you want to get struck by lightning like me?”

“Gasp.”

Lucia looked up at the sky while rubbing her head.

Fortunately, the Sun seemed pleased that I had protected His wife’s homeland and didn’t give Lucia a high-voltage flick on the forehead.

“Be careful from now on. To ignorant ones like you, I might look like a god… but I’m just an agent. If you think that the power apostles wield is all there is to divine power… you’ll get hurt badly someday. Or, you might no longer have to worry about anything.”

I explained metaphorically, but Lucia had no problem understanding.

As expected of an elf whose head has been cracked twice, she understands words well, but why doesn’t her annoying personality ever change?

“Flying in the sky, controlling nuclear explosions, creating barriers… looking at what you do, you seem like a god…”

“Sigh…”

“Alright! I get it! The Sun is eternal and you’re just a thousand years, right!”

“…Haah…”

“What! If you don’t like a thousand years, should I call you a hundred years?”

I threw the chattering girl to her sister, and watched as her sister sighed and stretched her cheeks.

Maybe it’s because she gets hit like a pork cutlet. When it comes to cheek elasticity, she has a chewiness beyond my wife’s.

“My lord.”

“Hmm?”

Just then, the division commander called me from behind.

“The Sage is calling for you.”

“Ah. I’ll go right away.”

*

In the conference room, Simon was sitting alone, and I sensed a heavy atmosphere as I sat down across from him.

As I sat, Simon took a sip of alcohol, then offered me a glass as well.

“Brandy, I see.”

“Apple brandy, your favorite. Drink up.”

“Hmm…”

Since it had been a very long time since Simon had offered me a drink, I nodded slightly and emptied the glass in one go.

As the aroma of apple brandy lingered in my nose, Simon poured himself another drink, and only then did he tell me why he had called me.

“Do you want to revive the Nariakira Empire?”