Chapter 48. The Lightkeeper (4)
“Yeah, yeah.”
It wasn’t Isaac’s plan, but by choosing the Nameless Chaos for this character, he had to deal with the consequences. Golruwa, who claimed it couldn’t be killed cuz it was neither dead nor alive, predictably came out all beat up like you’d expect.
“Thought you might get swallowed whole, but look at you crawling out. Your tricks in Seor must’ve paid off?”
Isaac turned to finish off Golruwa. However, all that was left was pee traces and a wrecked bod and soul, trying to crawl away for dear life.
“That’s what happens when you bite off more than you can chew.”
Isaac followed the trail.
The trail led to stairs heading up.
***
“Help… me…”
Golruwa writhed in pain as it climbed the stairs. To flee Isaac’s bod, Golruwa had to ditch most of its soul, leaving it super weak. It had no choice but to latch onto Yukhar’s bod to keep what little life force it had left.
Yukhar’s body was basically on its last legs, kept somewhat alive by the greed stored in Seor.
A tiny bit of divinity was working hard to hold onto that greed and keep him going.
‘Help me out here!’
Golruwa silently screamed for help, not really expecting anyone to respond.
It didn’t even flinch as the Golden Idol slowly drained its power, or when Ellil’s army barged in to wipe it out.
As long as it had that touch of divinity, there was still hope for a comeback.
But what it witnessed with Isaac was a whole different story. It ruthlessly tore into Golruwa, devouring its form without mercy. It even crunched down on its divinity like a snack under its teeth.
“AHHHH!”
A scream, not from Golruwa, echoed from somewhere nearby.
Golruwa suddenly found itself in a marketplace, amidst the scent of Loracus, after emerging from the drains. The market folks and vendors were stunned to see Yukhar, almost lifeless, struggling to get out.
Despite being in bad shape, Golruwa sensed a glimmer of hope for survival. It felt like that sneaky paladin, Isaac, was hiding something big.
So, under the bright lights, he couldn’t release his tentacles.
“Heeelp me…”
As Golruwa strained to speak, a few locals recognized him as ‘human’ and came to his aid. They were puzzled by how Yukhar was still breathing, but they checked on him, with some rushing to get a priest or bandages.
At that moment, Golruwa’s eyes sparked.
[Come on over!]
Golruwa’s desperate plea shook the onlookers, as if it was squeezing out every last bit of energy to survive and fend off the looming monster.
Golruwa raised the shepherd’s crook high, whispering about desires and greed.
[There’s a knight on the way to doom you all! A knight to bring down the temple of greed!]
The shepherd figure could stir up feelings but couldn’t control hearts. So, Golruwa appealed to their greed, unveiling every detail and situation from Yukhar’s memories.
The surge in Loracus prices, shady power plays, and using people for their own gain.
It was like a confession.
But Golruwa believed in human greed.
The Loracus trend would spread beyond Seor, throughout the empire.
The flames of greed would rage across the continent, bringing wealth like mountains.
Golruwa’s soothing whispers also instilled fear.
The approaching paladin was a monster set to destroy everything.
He’d wreck homes and take away jobs.
Would they end up scraping by, selling grains during a famine, after coming this far?
“Will you toss that bright future away and watch it go down the drain?
[Protect me, or we’ll all go down together!]
Just one person.
If even just one here is buried, they can make a whole lot of money.
The merchants were dizzy from Golruwa’s strained voice, but they somehow understood the situation.
They had been fooled.
Deceived, but staying deceived was better than bankruptcy.
They had to bet on a false promising future to pull through.
For that, the paladin had to bite the dust.
Their eyes, filled with wild determination, focused on one target.
“What do we have here?”
A paladin stood there.
***
Isaac spotted the bustling market and Yukhar trying to slip away unnoticed. He grinned ever so slightly.
“Do you seriously think you can off all these civilians? Even if you’re keeping your monstrous side under wraps, you can’t pull a fast one as long as you’re putting on a show of being something you’re not!”
Isaac didn’t need Golruwa to spell it out; he already had a hunch.
But Golruwa couldn’t spill the beans about Isaac being a hidden monster. It might sound far-fetched to others, but if Isaac’s true self got out and he transformed into the monster, it’d be game over.
To rein in Isaac, Golruwa had to hit him where it hurt – his social standing.
Isaac let out a sigh and stepped forward amidst the crowd of merchants. They were armed to the teeth, giving him a menacing stare, not even sure what they planned to do. Mob mentality is a force to be reckoned with.
If just one or two of them made a move against Isaac, the blame would vanish, and whatever happened next would be swept under the rug.
Isaac paused.
Right in front of him was a familiar face.
It was Hesabel Goulmar.
Why she was there instead of having fled was a puzzle. Whether she got caught up in Golruwa’s crowd control or still harbored feelings for Isaac, she wasn’t sure.
When Hesabel’s gaze met Isaac’s, she looked like she might faint but also seemed to be waiting for something.
Isaac turned back to the merchants.
“Doesn’t it say in the scriptures that the market is a spot for folks to trade their goods?”
Isaac wasn’t eager to give a speech. Public speaking wasn’t his forte.
But for the show, he needed to drop some dramatic lines.
So, Isaac decided to quote a fitting passage from the scriptures.
“But ya turned this market into a den of robbers!”
With a sharp chiding remark, Isaac unleashed ‘Ultimate Skill: The Lighthouse of Watcher’ for the first time in a live situation.
Right then, a radiant halo appeared above Isaac’s head, flooding the market with blinding light.
***
Vihik, a merchant with the Golden Idol Guild, was strolling through the market when he witnessed a sudden uproar on one side of the market. He was gearing up to check it out when a strong urge hit him.
Take down the paladin!
It wasn’t just a fleeting impulse but a well-constructed internal directive. Vihik initially resisted the urge, feeling fear, but the dread of bankruptcy ahead swayed him more.
The debts from buying Loracus, paying mercenaries, stall charges, cart rentals… While other worries and hesitations were shared by everyone at the market, the fear of financial ruin was all his.
Take down the paladin!
Vihik noticed he was clutching a kitchen knife from a vendor, though he had no clue why he was holding it or what he aimed to do with it.
Yet amid the chaos, a sudden flood of light enveloped him.
“You’ve turned this market into a den of robbers!”
With a quick admonition, a potent beam of light brought clarity to everything.
Light and darkness, right and wrong, truth and lies – everything was laid bare and brightly lit.
Simultaneously, Vihik’s mind cleared.
Thunk.
The knife slipped from his grip.
“What am I…?”
In his confusion, Vihik also grasped the situation with newfound clarity. Despite his attempts to ignore it, the light emanating from the paladin was shedding light on everything.
What ensued was embarrassment.
In the rush of shame, he was at a loss on what to do next.
Isaac, checking out the crowd’s response, confirmed how impactful the Lighthouse of the Watcher really was. This skill in the game is like a super strong shield and aura power. The description in the game talked grandly about how it sorts out what’s right and wrong in a world full of mess and darkness.
But who gets to decide what’s right and what’s wrong? Who gets to make that call?
And now, Isaac finally knew who was the judge of what’s right and wrong. It was whoever could manage the light of the beacon.
The moment Isaac activated the Lighthouse of the Watcher, everything it touched got covered by the rules of the “Codex of Light.” All the tricks played by the golden idol, the tempting whispers of Golruwa, they all disappeared in a flash.
“It’s kind of like a big dispel effect.”
The Codex of Light is known as the god of light and heat, but it’s also pretty much the god of natural laws. Under the light of the Watchtower, all magic and falsehoods were wiped away, leaving only the standards set by Isaac.
Here, no magical miracles from any religion had a chance. Literally, the entire visible area became the temple of the Codex of Light itself.
“That’s why the Lighthouse of the Watcher is seen as a strong defensive aura in the game.”
Any holy warrior or priest found it tough to stand up against the Codex of Light inside the Watchtower. But Isaac knew this wasn’t the full extent of what the Watchtower could do.
Depending on what Isaac wanted, he could turn the beacon in any direction. In simpler terms, he could make this safe space the territory of the golden idol or the Red chalice, as long as he knew about those faiths. Actually, in the game, Calzen had set up the sanctuary of the Immortal Order.
When Isaac first used the Lighthouse of the Watcher, he unwittingly reshaped the world based on the rules of the “Nameless Chaos.”
Since then, Isaac never used the Lighthouse of the Watcher recklessly again.
Because it was a sight he really didn’t want to see again.
Feeling his body slowly heating up, Isaac put out the Lighthouse of the Watcher.
Just like that, the aura above his head disappeared like a setting sun.
The time it took to use the Lighthouse of the Watcher was so short that it was almost forgettable. But it was enough to change the minds of the market sellers. The temptations spread by Golruwa vanished completely.
Even the urge for the Loracus explosion that the conman had stirred among the sellers was all gone.
All that was left was a strong sense of reality.
They weren’t even mad. They just realized the future was going to be rough.
The sellers slowly crumbled in front of Isaac. They couldn’t even figure out what to do with him. That wouldn’t have happened if Golruwa hadn’t tempted them in the first place.
Isaac looked at them and said,
“Just go home.”
The sellers weakly glanced up at Isaac.
“Head back and hug your families tight.”
Isaac moved through the sellers and went off to find Golruwa.
