The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 377

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 377. The Canonization Ceremony (1)
The day of The Saint’s canonization ceremony.
The Holy See was abuzz with preparations for today’s ceremony.
Nuns adjusting their vestments.
Holy knights inspecting security.
Priests organizing the Canonization Ceremony Hall.
Everyone maintained their composure without a moment’s respite.
Seraphia, too, had taken great care with her appearance before the mirror.
Her hair was arranged beautifully in an elegant updo.
The dress she’d brought was fitted perfectly.
Even her necklace and earrings were matched flawlessly.
Standing before the mirror, my confidence surged unbidden.
“Tee-hee!”
A spontaneous laugh escaped me.
I spun the hem of my dress in a graceful arc.
Striking a pose with the dignity of a count, I tilted my head with regal bearing.
“Hmm, this is absolutely perfect.”
Seraphia stepped out of the room with a confident stride.
Upon exiting, my companions were already waiting.
The first person I saw was Kai.
His usual stern expression.
He looked the same as always.
But today, his attire was different.
A magnificent formal uniform.
White ceremonial robes adorned with gold trim, symbolizing his status as a knight of House Whitewolf.
He looked more striking than ever before.
Seraphia rushed over excitedly and cried out.
“Wow! Sir Kai, you look absolutely amazing today!”
Kai flinched at that.
He averted his gaze, lowering his eyes.
“…Thank you. You also seem particularly… today.”
Kai trailed off, his head bowed.
Seraphia tilted her head curiously.
“Particularly what?”
“Ah, beauti—”
Kai clamped his mouth shut.
His face had flushed crimson for some reason.
It was a side of Kai I’d never seen before.
Just then.
“Seraphia, you look absolutely gorgeous today!”
Iliana cried out in surprise from beside her.
She approached Seraphia and looked her up and down.
“That dress looks absolutely stunning on you! Your hair is so beautiful! You look like a complete princess!”
“Hehe! Thanks, Iliana. You look incredibly beautiful too!”
“…Huh? Oh, um… hehe.”
Iliana lowered her head shyly.
She clasped her hands together, fidgeting with the hem of her dress.
Her shoulders hunched slightly.
“It’s just… hearing that in front of Rielin makes me a bit….”
At those words, Seraphia’s gaze shifted slightly backward.
There stood something that could only be described as—
…a goddess.
Shimmering golden hair cascaded down.
Atop it rested a mysterious and elegant tiara.
A verdant dress that evoked the veins of Yggdrasil’s leaves.
The silhouette clung gracefully to her flowing form—it was perfection.
‘That’s completely unfair!!’
She was beauty incarnate.
Beside such a Rielin stood Broombar.
And Broombar was, well—
“If everyone’s here, we should get going.”
Just Broombar.
At Broombar’s words, the group began to move.
Then Iliana paused.
“By the way, Seraphia.”
“Yes?”
“Where’s Adrian? Hasn’t he arrived yet?”
Everyone stopped and looked toward Seraphia.
Seraphia blinked once.
She answered with a slightly awkward smile.
“…Yes.”
Everyone fell silent for a moment.
No words were spoken, but they were all worried.
“He’ll be here soon.”
Seraphia spoke as if to reassure them all.
“So let’s all go. We’ll miss the start of the canonization ceremony at this rate.”
Seraphia smiled once more and took the lead.
* * *
Just before the Canonization Ceremony of The Saint.
Isolde sat in the Chapel with her eyes closed for a long time.
Soon, I will be declared God’s representative before countless people gathered from across the Continent.
The Saint will be given an official name.
That name will be layered upon the life of Isolde.
The Saint.
In truth, Isolde was a saint from birth.
It wasn’t something Isolde chose.
From the moment of birth, people simply called her that.
From birth, Isolde was noble.
From birth, Isolde was sacred.
She simply arrived in the world.
And Isolde was blessed.
So I thought it was natural.
I believed everyone born was as noble as Isolde.
All people are God’s creations.
Therefore, I thought everyone received blessing the moment they were born.
But I didn’t realize how foolish that belief was until around age five.
In a remote corner of the Holy Kingdom.
There were abandoned children.
They were never noble from birth.
Never sacred.
And so they received no blessing.
It was simply decided that way.
As if God itself turned away.
Love and blessing did not exist for them.
What sin had those children committed?
The sin of being abandoned by their parents?
The sin of not being nobility?
The sin of not being born a saint?
Isolde could not find an answer.
And so Isolde’s childhood passed.
As an adult, Isolde left the Papal Palace and experienced the world.
The world seen directly with my own eyes.
It was far different from what I had learned at the Papal Palace.
High officials rife with corruption and bribery.
Lords who drained the lifeblood of their people to fatten their own coffers.
The horrors of humans slaughtering other humans.
This world overflowed with trash that didn’t deserve to be called human.
Villains were destroying a beautiful world.
Yet Isolde believed without doubt.
That someday, such evildoers would receive their punishment.
They would receive back in kind everything they had done.
The conclusion of virtue rewarded and vice punished.
God would surely judge those wicked ones.
Divine judgment befitting them would ultimately descend.
Isolde believed this without doubt.
And yet.
That very faith of hers shattered into countless pieces alongside the child who had burned to ash not long ago.
Isolde began to harbor suspicion.
About what was called the will of God.
Was it truly righteous?
Even the wicked lived in comfort.
The wealth of the wicked only ever increased.
Those who deserved punishment laughed.
Those who deserved protection lay dead.
Why had I kept my heart pure?
Why had I kept my actions clean?
Prayer to God did not fill a starving belly.
Faith in God did not cure illness.
God had never answered us even once.
What in the world was our God doing?
-Your Holiness, the Canonization Ceremony is about to begin.
Isolde rose from her seat without finding an answer.
* * *
Sacred hymns echoed through the air.
Streams of light poured through the golden curtains.
The sunlight descending along the ceiling was like the very touch of God.
The holy knights of the Azure Silver Knights stood guard over the Canonization Ceremony Hall with an iron grip.
Commander Erdan stood at the edge of the altar.
His stance ready to draw his sword at any moment.
His gaze swept across the entire Canonization Ceremony Hall, not just the platform above.
Royalty from every corner of the Continent.
High nobles from prestigious houses.
Tens of thousands of believers, all of them gathered here.
In that moment.
The hymn reached its crescendo.
The sacred gate opened.
Isolde emerged from between the waves of radiant light.
A celestial goddess.
There was no other way to describe her.
The holy crown upon her head was more noble and sacred than any earthly crown.
Everyone held their breath.
With each of her steps, the sacred symbols carved into the marble floor blazed with light.
In reverent silence, not a whisper disturbed the air.
Isolde ascended the dais slowly.
The dais stood empty.
The place where the Pope should have stood.
But the Pope had resigned voluntarily, leaving it vacant.
In his stead, Isolde stepped forward to fill that void.
As Isolde took her place at the center of the dais, the hymn ceased.
Silence descended in an instant, suffocating and absolute.
Every eye fixed upon her lips.
And just as her lips began to part slowly—
Glurk, glurk!
A grotesque sound echoed through the hall.
Erdan’s hand instinctively seized the hilt of his sword.
His eyes swept the surroundings rapidly, pinpointing the source of that terrible noise.
The massive crowd gathered for the canonization ceremony.
Among them, certain individuals’ flesh began swelling grotesquely.
What in the name of—?
It happened in the blink of an eye.
Without so much as a scream, their faces and bodies ballooned outward in their entirety.
And it wasn’t merely one or two.
Thousands upon thousands of bodies swelled simultaneously, transforming the canonization ceremony into absolute chaos.
Erdan understood instinctively.
“The Dark Merchant Company…!”
Members of the Dark Merchant Company.
They had been hidden among the crowd all along.
Erdan shouted immediately.
“Eliminate anyone approaching the altar—!”
He got no further than that.
Splorch!
Someone’s head burst, spraying flesh and gore across the hall.
Then came another—splorch! Splorch!
Thousands of bodies detonated in rapid succession.
Immeasurable blood and tissue flooded the Canonization Ceremony Hall.
“KYAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!”
“H-Help! Please!!”
“What is that! What is happening!!”
Screams of pandemonium tore through the heavens.
People fled in blind terror, trampling one another in their desperate escape.
Erdan clenched his teeth.
He drew his sword and rushed toward the dais.
But then.
“…The Saint?”
Isolde seemed wrong.
Her body swayed unsteadily.
From the center of the dais, a sinister aura poured forth, coiling around Isolde.
* * *
A voice echoed through Isolde’s mind.
【Thulhu z’garoth, tharanoth k’lithak】
It was not a language she could comprehend.
It was as though tangled thoughts had taken form.
Yet it whispered to her thus.
【Do you know why evil exists in this world?】
God is omniscient.
He knows all things.
Therefore, God knows of evil’s existence.
God is omnipotent.
He can do all things.
Therefore, God possesses the power to eradicate evil.
Yet evil persists in this world.
【What does that tell you?】
God has no desire to eliminate evil.
In other words.
God desires that evil exist in this world.
【God is not benevolent.】
Livestock bred for the perpetuation and flourishing of evil.
That is the value humanity holds to God.
【Why then must you serve such a God?】
Even human parents know to cherish their own children.
Yet God, the creator of mankind, does not cherish His creations.
God is unworthy of our devotion.
Better to have no God at all than one such as this.
The voice spoke on.
【Kill the God within you.】
Isolde surrendered herself to that whisper.
* * *
Isolde’s body wavered.
Erdan understood at once.
“The holy relics are corrupted. They’re using them to harm the Saint!”
The sacred relic had to be destroyed.
Erdan rushed forward without hesitation.
His blade blazed with radiance like the sun itself.
At the center of the dais.
It plunged with perfect precision toward the relic, its surface fracturing.
In that instant.
“No.”
A thunderous crash.
A colossal force hurled Erdan backward.
He crashed into the ground, pinned beneath the impact.
A crushing sensation flooded his lungs.
But the mental shock that followed was far more devastating.
“The Saint…?”
It was Isolde who had sent Erdan flying.
Isolde stood upon the dais.
Her body no longer wavered.
What stood there was an alien presence—a ‘different entity’ radiating incomprehensible majesty and unfathomable power.
A deafening roar erupted—!!
Darkness exploded from the dais.
The marble floor tore upward from beneath.
Black tentacles coiled around the pillars, and formless entities shrieked in agony.
And then.
“He shall come!”
Someone screamed.
A fanatic’s cry that transcended mere anguish.
Among the blood-soaked crowd.
Three figures laughed with manic fervor.
“Worship! Revere! Praise!!”
And witness.
“Our true god!!!”
A shriek like thousands of malevolent spirits being dragged across stone—!!
A sound not of this world tore through the eardrums.
Spectral visions of death flickered at the edges of perception.
An irresistible will.
In all directions, a hellscape unfolded.
In that moment.
Silver hair catching moonlight wove through the nightmare.
A sharp tearing sound.
Seraphia tore away her dress’s skirts without hesitation.
Seraphia tore through the hem of her dress without hesitation.
Smooth legs exposed up to the thighs.
My gaze was captivated by that dizzying sight, but only for a moment.
“Give our sister back right now!!”
Crack, crack, crack, crack, crack—!!
Pure white ice crystals obliterated the landscape of the demonic realm.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————