Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav

“Is it time?”

Along with the wind came a rotten stench of stink and decay. Demons, the symbol of destruction, were fully spread out before us. Their tremendous army of demons from the myriad dimensions emanated a tremendous sense of pressure. Here, even a single demon soldier had far surpassed the average human hero.

These demons faced an endless, silent darkness. I didn’t need to describe the courage and loyalty of the undead warriors of the night. No matter the time or place I wanted them to fight, they would forever attack who I commanded them to.

Who was the enemy? How powerful were they? What were our chances of victory? My undead army would never ask such questions. Whenever the war horn sounded, their choice would be clear from the sound of the skeletal warhorses’ hoof steps.

And to respond to their loyalty and expectations, I was going to lead them to victory—no matter the cost.

“It’s time!”

I opened the silver book in my hands, and mystical secrets transformed into mysterious runes that flitted through the sky. Pure Order’s newest power and the light of this God Equipment lit up the entire world.

“Original Codex of Law! Judge all the criminals before you! Forbidden spell: Great Judgement!”

One didn’t need the light of judgement to determine that these otherworldly demon and magical monsters were the most evil of villains. Now, however, they were judged for their dimensional invasion and destruction. An ethereal silver light descended upon their bodies and transformed into actual restraints. Unfortunately, this large-scale area of effect restraint wasn’t so strong against these top-level destroyers. They were all able to break free in just a short few seconds.

Yet I had achieved my objective. Under the effect of Great Judgement, my power level would forcibly be improved by an entire rank since I was a Law job class member. I went from Legend to Saint.

For other powerful individuals, an improvement from Legend to Saint wouldn’t make that large of a difference. However, me being able to achieve Saint rank would make a tremendous difference to both my army and myself.

I closed my eyes and caused a familiar icy tundra to appear before me, and then the entire world changed before me as the burning city of rubble appeared right before us, close yet untouchable. No matter how powerful the enemies, my warriors had never hesitated to fight them, either back then or today.

War drums sounded as the battle flags waved. The knights didn’t give up on their hope no matter how bloody the battle became.

The icy tundra continued to extend as large snowflakes began to fall. The scene from that day had reappeared before us.

“The Infallible Diffindor…”

When the charging skeleton knights passed through my icy tundra, they reobtained physical bodies similar to the living, just like heroic spirits. This restored them to their peak forms from when they were still living—no—even stronger than when they were living.

I reached out and allowed snowflakes to melt in the palm of my hand. This familiar chill helped perk up my spirits. However, this was no time for me to be nostalgic. I clenched my fist and allowed the snowflakes to spread on the wind.

“…This still isn’t enough.”

That’s right. When facing the endless demon army of a Chaos Main God-level existence, a full heroic spirit army at Legend and above was still insufficient.

I opened up another book instead of the God Equipment Original Codex of Law and flipped through it, a somewhat tattered notebook which recorded all the details, steps and preparations for this plan.

And when I flipped to a certain page, a line of words began to glow golden.

“Have my personal strength reach a minimum of Legend, so that I can achieve Saint with the buff effect of the God Equipment Original Codex of Law. This is all for the sake of… a new Soul World!”

That’s right. I would never be able to match Eich’s unreasonable amount of strength and divine power. She could control and distort the four elements as she wished to create a new world. But if I wanted to create a world, even if I knew the theories and required technology, to actually do it would be the equivalent of using bricks and a shovel to create an entire world, something both impractical and impossible.

“Even if I could do it that way, I don’t have the time to do so.”

But, luckily, in the world of Eich, there was a method to use one’s willpower to create a world. That’s right—the specialty of those of the Saint rank and above: Soul Worlds!

Soul Worlds were the ultimate manifestation of mortals’ thoughts and stubbornness. A Soul World would be its creator’s most desired stubborn wish and ideal. A Soul World would become a dreamlike utopia that could distort the real world. A Soul World… was the only method of saving the world.

And right now before me, the snow-white icy tundra began to distort as that familiar castle collapsed. Its heroic knight defenders transformed into bones again.

“Diffindor has still fallen…”

My charging knights stared at the scene before them blankly. They didn’t know what had happened. Some even dropped their weapons and battle flags in their astonishment.

Naturally, the demon army took advantage of this opportunity to strike.

I also gazed blankly at the world’s collapse before me as a mysterious pain in my heart caused me to forget to breathe. But when I saw my knights staring blankly, everything I was feeling transformed into an angry roar that reverberated through the entire battlefield.

“…Diffindor has indeed fallen! But, dear knights of mine, our battle still isn’t over! We admit that we have lost a battle, but so what if we lose? We are nothing more than remnant warriors who have already lost; we have already lost those that we desire to protect…”

I knew that in this Soul World we would be undefeatable because everyone, myself included, would be gazing at that forever burning city in the distance. We would feel like our families and friends were right behind us, giving us endless amounts of motivation with the desire to protect them. But…

“It’s time to wake up from this dream! The country and people that we swore to defend have long been dead!”

The now collapsing Diffindor was the most painful sight to behold. The collapsing stones stole away my knights’ will to fight, and my angry roar hurt my own heart to the extreme. Hurting my own loyal knights like this made me feel like I was bleeding in my heart. Yet…

“But even if we lost, we remaining defeated warriors still haven’t lost a place where we belong! Think about those in the Northlands, think about how even bastards like us have so many descendants! Why is it that in the barren Northlands they’re willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of us useless individuals and clean up the mess we made?”

The silent knights now saw the People of the Mist who had traveled thousands of kilometers to return to their homeland. They saw the newly glowing holy city of Diffindor, the newly established scenes of life in the Northlands, the families they’d established together with their adopted children, and… children who desired a beautiful future.

The knights’ fists, which had become slightly loose, were clenched tightly once again. They picked up the weapons they had dropped and started waving battle flags in the air. These skeleton knights would never fear any opponent, no matter how powerful the enemy. My knights would only fear not having any family or friends behind them that needed protecting. What they needed was a target they needed to protect.

“Indeed, we have lost in the past. But this time, we shall be infallible.”

Soul Imprints could surpass a single individual’s limits in an area because they were the accumulation of each individual’s life experience and chosen path in life. I had many lives, so of course I had many paths.

But Soul Worlds were illusionary worlds created out of an individual’s most stubborn belief, stubborn enough to transform dreams into reality. And so, in order to never be defeated again in the future, the past dream…

“We won’t have a future if we are lost reminiscing in the past. The battle to obtain the future is right before us. It’s time to wake up.

“This time, we shall be infallible!

“We have nowhere to retreat. We shall be infallible!

“Behind us are our family and friends. We shall be infallible!

“We carry hope on our shoulders. We shall be infallible!

“We shall fight the Gods for the sake of all mortals. We shall be infallible!”

The iron will of us defeated warriors reached a state of synchronization. The stubbornness of desiring a path to the future succeeded in transforming reality. I knew that my loyal and courageous knights forever trusted me. They had given everything to me.

And now, what spread before me was a new world, a Soul World with the determination to change the future.

“This is a country for the dead. And these loyal and sincere knights will be the guardian heroic spirits. They will possess true and eternal life, even if it’s just a dream crafted out of ice and snow.”

The snow, that had previously stopped, started falling down again as the land began to freeze over. Meanwhile, white towers representing ice and snow rose behind me.

In this incomplete world, after death became the foundation of all souls, a new basic element was created: ice and snow, which represented life.

“In this country of the dead, the dead shall also possess physical bodies and lives that belong only to here. Ice and snow shall give them new bodies for their souls.”

Snow and ice descended upon the skeletons, forming into new physical bodies. These bodies were unlike heroic spirits’ which were constructed out of energy that would never feel fatigue. Although these bodies were created out of ice and snow, they didn’t lack skin, muscles, internal organs or anything else. My undead knights would be able to feel real pain and joy after so long. They would finally be able to have descendants and obtain the feeling of life. In fact, they would even be capable of progressing and evolving!

That’s right. This was real “life,” not a mystical illusion or a temporary spell. The boundaries between life and death had truly been broken.

In this country of the dead, the soul would be placed within a vessel of ice and snow. Sinful criminals would need to be punished for their crimes in Hell, so of course they would need to have physical bodies. These bodies of ice and snow would give criminals new lives that would only be capable of being maintained in Hell.

But right now these bodies of ice and snow helped my undead knights reobtain life.

Did this look familiar? Of course it did. I learned the secrets of ice and snow lifeforms from communicating with the Frigid Nightmares. Their very existences were the best models for how to do this. The Northlands’ special soul creature, the Frigid Nightmare, would now obtain countless new members of their species within Hell. No—when considering that these bodies had an outstanding potential to evolve, this was an evolved form of a Frigid Nightmare’s body.

Currently, these bodies of ice and snow allowed my revived knights to become even stronger. But that wasn’t the only reason why the demons were now afraid.

“Why won’t they die? Impossible! Both their bodies and souls have been destroyed, so why do they revive?”

A headless knight picked up his head that had just been cut off and continued to fight. Even though his physical body and soul were then sliced into tiny pieces, he instantly managed to reform himself.

The reason? When in Hell, how could a dead individual who wasn’t yet judged and punished by Hell possibly be allowed to die? This was the most foundational reason for this world’s existence. It was a basic dimensional law that would surpass everything!

But right now this basic dimensional law became the strongest undying property throughout the myriad planes!

This new life of ice and snow gave my formerly undead knights the possibilities of growth and evolution. Losing once? Losing twice? Who cared? These knights had long since gotten used to losing and would continuously evolve from their losses, finally becoming a nightmare opponent for any enemy, even if the process required centuries, millennium or tens of thousands of years!

“We are guarding the hope of the future. We shall be absolutely infallible!”

That’s right. At least, in this battle, we absolutely couldn’t lose!

“…You—you’re too dangerous.”

This sudden declaration came from Chaos War God Donatis. He had remained silent this entire time despite being the representative for the will of Chaos, secretly assessing my threat level. He had now come to a conclusion.

“Although you aren’t personally strong, your thoughts and will are too dangerous. I, Donatis, believe you to be the most dangerous existence in the world…

“…and that’s why you should die.”

As the most loyal warrior of Chaos, Donatis was usually quite terse with his words. Any target he made up his mind to kill would, unsurprisingly, be killed by him.

But I had no intentions of directly answering his declaration to kill me at all costs. I just lightly touched the crystal skull in my hand and said one sentence.

“Ayer, can you see this? It’s time.”