Ch.281Apostle of the Sun (1)

The resurrection of the dead is an impossible thing.

The undead who refused death were not properly resurrected, but rather machine-like beings composed of their living thoughts, delusions, and obsessions. Their will was extremely weak, making them easily enslaved by necromancers.

But then, what is Victor Walker’s resurrection?

How does one whose body was burned and soul offered to the sun return to earth with spirit dwelling in flesh once more?

That silhouette falling, enveloped in white light, with enhancement implants, markings, and even subspace storage perfectly regenerated—is it truly the soul of Victor Walker, born human and risen to apostleship? Or is it merely an autonomous computer operating with copied memories?

No one knows.

No one would dare distinguish between them.

Just as ancient science cannot be distinguished from modern magic. Just as a newborn baby cannot tell apart twin sisters. By human standards, it was impossible to differentiate between God’s creation and a divine construct.

Is it the permanence of the soul or the continuity of consciousness that defines a human?

A philosophical concern, but the people on earth had no time to ponder it.

Their lord was falling from the sky.

Their master who had burned the sea and purified the coast.

“Our lord descends!”

“Forces of the Sun! Prepare! We must receive our master!”

The soldiers who had finished battle shouted frantically toward the sky.

Like plants and animals mad with phototropism. Their souls were bound under the sun’s divinity, tethered to the command of the Sun’s Apostle, its representative.

“Simon! Calculate quickly!”

“Hmm…! It should be near the Tarkus Ridge on Elpert Island! Let’s move! Even an apostle won’t survive hitting the ground at that speed!”

Simon flew on his staff, while the elves and dwarves moved in the soldiers’ vehicles.

Their master and leader was descending from the sky, so now the earthly servants must raise their hands in welcome.

He shall come like lightning, so says the sun to its earthly servants.

Prepare for impact.

“Gravita Tagete Libersius!”

With geometric movements of the staff, the supersonic gravitational acceleration diminishes.

Comrades and subordinates run toward him as he falls slowly like a feather.

To welcome him who came with thunder, the humans who wield lightning’s power witnessed his form wrapped in white flashes crossing the sky.

His pure face, eyes closed and endlessly facing the ground, was the embodiment of yearning for justice and devotion to fervor. Now his body nearly reached the earth.

Soon burning the leaves of the world tree, melting branches, passing through foliage and nests, his speed gradually decreased. Finally, with a thunderous sound, he descended to the ground.

Praise and glorify Lord Nariakira Saburo, the chief deity of humanity.

His omnipotence has resurrected the dead and returned him to our side.

*

“Ugh….”

With a faint groan, Victor opened his eyes again.

He had returned to the ground filled with formed colors, not the cloud-top surrounded by pure white light.

“Darling!”

When he opened his eyes, the first things he felt were his wife’s heated body, the tears flowing down her crying cheeks, and the high-pitched sobbing filling his eardrums.

“Lai…sha…”

“Yes… I’m here…! Your wife…”

Laisha sobbed as she pressed Victor’s hand against her face.

Now she could understand the moon’s feelings.

The sun fades. Whether it’s Maria’s husband or Laisha’s, it wouldn’t be much different.

How could the moon shine if it lost the sun that burns itself to drive away darkness?

As the wife embraced her returned husband and wept endlessly, Victor’s party members and soldiers who had rushed over after discovering his fall stood awkwardly holding a stretcher.

“My goodness.. Laisha! Let go! Are you trying to suffocate your husband with your chest?”

“Hic… hic…”

Simon carefully detached Laisha, who was one step away from becoming her husband’s parasite, using magic.

The perceptive elf sisters quickly attended to her, comforting her, while the dwarves carefully lifted him onto the stretcher the soldiers had set down.

“Quickly to the hospital! Hurry!”

“Yes!”

As Simon waved his staff and urged them on, the soldiers hastily moved their lord to the shuttle.

“Luminator. Do you recognize me?”

“….Seriya…”

“Fortunately, it seems you haven’t lost your memory. I’ll insert an IV for now.”

Upon boarding the shuttle, doctors brought by Seriya began inserting various IVs into his body, and the shuttle floated up to transport the Sun’s Apostle, who still couldn’t rise, to the best hospital in the Belka Archipelago.

“This is shuttle three. We’re transporting our lord. Which hospital should we head to?”

-Transport him to Arabelka Provincial Hospital. There’s a helipad on the roof where you can land. Medical staff are standing by, so transport him as quickly as possible.-

“Understood. For the Sun’s forces.”

-Hail to our master.-

The soldiers exchanged radio communications as they began transporting their master to the hospital.

The sky was clear, and the quietly approaching sound of waves was desolate.

On the shore, collapsed barnacles and crumbled tentacles were rotting, and the boiling seawater had become clouds, becoming part of the sky.

All of this was accomplished by just one person.

Victor Walker.

The Knight of Radiance. The Master of Fervor and Apostle of the Sun.

*

When Victor awoke again, it was January 1st, 1203.

In the pure white private room, what Victor felt was his wife’s body covering his own and the alien sensation of tubes inserted all around him.

Rustle… rustle…

His wife, seemingly unaware of her husband’s awakening, was carefully wiping various parts of his body. When their eyes met, Victor pulled her close and kissed her.

Laisha’s eyes, initially wide open, gradually closed, and as her trembling subsided, she quietly left a kiss mark on her husband’s neck while accepting his touch.

“It’s been a while, darling.”

“Yes… my master..!”

The moon shines brightly because of the sun.

Though they were separated for just a few days, during that time, the earth’s moon had lost its color after losing the earth’s sun.

Now that the sun has begun to radiate its light again, the moon will also begin to shine brilliantly once more.

The dark circles under her eyes disappeared instantly, her dull hair regained its luster, and her sallow skin returned to its original color.

Like his deity and her mistress, the two had now become inseparable.

“I saw Him… for a very brief moment… I was one with Him, and I remember throwing myself back down to this earth.”

“You can’t leave yet… not until I remain on this earth…”

“Yes… because I still have things I must do.”

Mission.

Is there anything that binds the human mind more?

Of course, Victor was no longer human, but considering that all gods were once human, he could now certainly be said to have attained divinity.

Among the apostles, he was the only one who had directly entered the realm of gods, become part of Him, and then separated again.

“He asked me to save us… He’s tired of 350,000 years of suffering… On the day the pilgrimage ends, I will establish the Victorian Empire at the center of Centrum and build thirteen great lighthouses to create a world sustained by the devotion of all people.”

“I know. I’ll be with you. So please don’t leave my side…”

The wife nestled against her husband, inhaling his scent.

She could feel his pulsating heart in her tightly pressed chest, and his skin, hardened like oak, gave an indescribable sense of reliability.

The only man who saw her as an individual rather than lusting after her body.

The only adventurer who came to see her in the hospital every day without fail.

And the only person who gave her more love than she deserved whenever she needed it.

Even if it weren’t Victor specifically, these would be more than enough reasons for a woman to pledge passionate love to a man.

She knew that when a patient wakes up, it’s proper to call for nurses and doctors, but just for a moment… just a little longer, she wanted to selfishly monopolize her husband’s embrace that she hadn’t felt for so long.

“…Don’t worry. I won’t leave you. Even if you were to die.”

“I won’t leave you either… Even if you burn to ashes.”

Embraced by the recreated one, the woman still possessing human flesh and spirit whispered words of love.