Chapter 601 - Dawn

Chapter 601: Dawn
Translator: 
imperfectluck 
 Editor: 
Kurisu


Holy Light, do you see that enemy…

I kneeled with one knee on the ground as I fervently prayed. However, I wasn’t praying to any God.
Pure Holy Light. Light of Salvation. The Holy Light which could dispel Chaos and return anything to Order. I believed in the Holy Light, just as how I believed in Law.
Power itself had no justice. However, what power could bring was where its value would show.
Karolan, the God of Holy Light, had brought Holy Light into this world. I looked down on him as he had become nothing more than an automated divine power server with no sense of self. I viewed the Holy Church, which was blessed by this Holy Light, with hostility. However, I had never viewed the Holy Light itself with enmity.
That was because I knew why Holy Light had been born, its true meaning…

In the long, dark night, pure light is the only hope for the weak. Even if the messengers of Holy Light have fundamentally changed, Holy Light still has the power to protect people.

A golden light was created in my tightly clasped hands. The light of hope ascended to become the light of protection. Yet, this was only the beginning.
I had studied the history of this world before. Karolan had brought Holy Light into this world for the sake of ordinary people. As history passed, the Holy Church was born, followed by Holy Knights, priests of Holy Light, and so on, all in order to fight against the endless undead and demons, and in order to protect weak and ordinary people. I respected, and even venerated, such a Karolan.
However, he had fallen in the end. After he achieved success, he gave up his own sense of self. That was no different from dying…
What was fatal was that after Holy Light lost its sense of self, the Holy Church lost their just leader, and pure authority finally transformed into overwhelming pride. The Holy Church and the teachings of the Holy Church were now overwhelmingly filled with the original sin of pride. They had gone off-track from the original path of protection that Holy Light was supposed to be.
Priests of Holy Light no longer lived lives of ascetism while traveling between villages. They no longer cured the farmers’ pains from their hard work or the city guards’ injuries. Instead, priests of Holy Light now lived in extravagantly beautiful churches, living off of farmers’ donations, but only serving nobles and kings, curing minor aches and pains that were unimportant.
Even more fatal was that starting from an unknown period of time, the authority in the Holy Church started resting with the Cardinals. These Cardinals that never went outside now ruled over those who had many accomplishments in the field. Those who did nothing but waste time at the Holy Church’s headquarters were actually ranking far higher than those on the frontlines who sweated and worked hard every day.
Past heroes’ descendants were able to rank even higher than frontline Holy Knights and priests of Holy Light just because of their bloodlines. Devout belief and Holy Light Divine Art cultivation was replaced by overly complex religious rituals. Hard work for the sake of obtaining combat achievements wouldn’t compare to a single vicious rumor spread about you. Ten years of hard work cultivating couldn’t compare to a single sycophant at a party. Holy Light had originally been the light of protection, yet this role had been forgotten by the original heroes’ descendants.
When the highest-ranking members of the Holy Church became paper pushers who only wore extravagant robes, when the pope changed from a warrior into a highly skilled scheming politician, and when the true warriors voluntarily covered themselves up, feeling that their appearances covered in blood were embarrassing, didn’t that mean that some things had fundamentally changed?

Since there won’t be a present and a future without the past, then let us seek the past, the true essence of Holy Light… Karolan’s spear!

I was now holding a holy artifact that I had exchanged from Astrya by using Lasnina’s cursed gem. It was an old and battered iron spear that the God of Holy Light Karolan had previously used when he was still human.
This formerly sharp spear had now been completely dulled with the passage of time. There were zero decorations on this spear, and it was just one of many common spears that had been mass produced. However, this spear had accompanied Karolan for the entirety of his difficult journey in establishing Holy Light. This was his weapon of protection that he had used to develop his entirely new path at the time. This was also the highest-level holy artifact that the Holy Church’s records indicated as being lost.
Although I held this iron spear, I didn’t intend to use it as a weapon. I slid my finger down the end of the spear, and its pointed tip vanished into dust in burning holy flames. The entire tip portion of the weapon fell off.

Its sharp point has already been corroded by time. However, this spear’s body can still represent the source of Holy Light…

This holiest spear of all had already been reclaimed by time. All that remained was an unassuming iron spear body.
While the resources used for constructing a Myth-ranked weapon would be important, even more important would be the
way of thinking
within the resource, for it could combine the resource and Concept together. This was the foundational theory for crafting Myth-ranked weapons, as well as the source of their power.
Back in Hell, the Light of Salvation was a Concept that also represented Time. Meanwhile, the core concept of my planned Holy Light sword was naturally the long history of Holy Light, which meant Holy Light’s past, present, and future…
Nothing would be more suitable to represent the past of Holy Light than this run-down remnant of the origin of Holy Light!

The past of Holy Light was the light of protection. It’s always remained so… Even in the long, dark night, we knights of protection have never forgotten to seek guidance from the light.

I opened up my tightly clenched hands, igniting my palms with a divine light that dispelled the endless dark grayness of the Chaos Abyss.
I enjoyed studying history because only by understanding history would one be able to understand the present. Even though the Holy Church’s higher-ups had become completely rotten to the point of fundamentally changing, Holy Knights still trod the original path of protection.
Many years ago, the first batch of Holy Knights in history had fought for the sake of protecting their homes and people. Ever since then, whenever this world met with catastrophe and disaster, Holy Knights had always been present to defend the world.
Next to my side, the old battle hammer which represented protection and salvation slowly floated into the air.
When holy flames that represented rebirth and destruction ignited on the battle hammer, this God Equipment battle hammer met its end and rebirth. I felt conflicting feelings within my heart. I felt pain, but also delight and joy.

Even though time has passed, the inheritance of Holy Light’s path of protection has never been lost. It’s simply changed its form. While the holy artifacts may be destroyed, the will of the path of protection will still be passed down…

The holy flames dissipated, only to reveal that nothing except the hammer head remained in the air.
I let go of the spear’s body, and it naturally flew by itself to meet with the hammer head.
Clang!
This metallic clashing sounded to me as if it was the most pleasing divine melody. However, the demons and demonic ascendants felt pain as if they had all been struck by thunder.
The next instant, Holy Light lit up the entire world. Apart from myself, everyone lost their senses of hearing and then sight.
Salor’s just regenerated eyes directly exploded, and large amounts of blood also poured out from his ears. His entire body had the stench of burning flesh. As for the unfortunate demons in the nearby areas, they were directly vaporized. The demons farther away probably barely retained their lives.
Yet it wasn’t only my enemies that received a powerful attack…
Casio, the inferno demonized centaur, was crying in pain, having collapsed on the ground. His inferno runes and body parts had transformed into nothing but black dust under this Holy Light’s illumination. Fallen angel Aivla’s black wings curled up as tears streamed down her pretty face. However, all her tears were blackish-red with blood. This prideful fallen angel had an expression of utter despair and panic as if she was a helpless child confronted with something she couldn’t control.
I could only shake my head helplessly as I looked around. Right now, I didn’t have the power to help them, nor was it the time to be thinking too much about such things.
I reached out my hand, and took the slowly descending ball of light.

What… what is this…?

Salor still had the strength to ask this question as he writhed around on the ground in pain. However, I had no intention of answering him.
Even though it was probably impossible for Salor’s pierced and melted eardrums to hear anything, I was unable to answer him regardless. Controlling two top-level resources to combine into my Myth-ranked weapon was already the very limits of what I could do. Talking would be an extravagance.
I touched the ball of light. In just an instant, all the light dissipated, and I now held a broken sword with only the hilt part.
The sword hilt was crafted out of the earlier spear’s body. The small portion of blade attached to the hilt had been transformed out of the battle hammer’s head.
This sword had no decorations, nor did it need any decorations. The sword hilt was round, simple, and primitive, yet it would attract the attention of countless top-level existences.
I lifted up the sword hilt, causing endless light to rise up behind me as if a sun was slowly rising from my back.

As expected, this is all that can be done for now…

Even though I had achieved the combination of my resources and Concept required for creating a Myth-ranked weapon, I still lacked two core resources representing my desired Concepts of
spreading
and
gathering
light, along with a top-level resource which represented the
future
of Holy Light. That was why my Holy Light sword was still only half-complete.

…But, this is enough for now!

I slowly lowered the sword hilt. Nothing was in front of the broken sword, but the famous and powerful Salor was screaming and crying and despairing. He knew that when this broken sword landed, he would meet his end.
The moment that I swung my broken sword, everyone’s vision was blinded by the light yet again, and when the light dissipated, all that remained was some black dust that represented Salor’s previous existence.
A gust of wind blew past, scattering the dust. The former Salor the Berserk Slaughterer had now disappeared into history.
Only now did I have the energy to answer Salor’s question, giving the name I had in mind for my Holy Light.

This is ‘Dawn’. My holy sword, Dawn.