Chapter 140: The Glittering Golden Hour (5)

Chapter 140: The Glittering Golden Hour (5)

The main temple was located on Sun Ascension Peak.At the foot of the mountain's first stairway, children were often abandoned.

Sick orphans.Troublesome heirs of noble families.Children with deformed bodies.Unwanted offspring of unplanned pregnancies, and so on.

Various types of children were left behind, and there was a tale that virtuous monks would save them and they would live as monks atop that high mountain.

Well, there was a nun at the summit who had earned the title of Grandmaster through her virtue. Everyone thought she would somehow take care of the children.

This man too was abandoned at the foot of the stairs at birth.Yet, astonishingly, he retained memories from his childhood, which were neither dreams nor illusions.

━Because of you, my life has been a failure. You are the failure of my life.

It wasn't something a mother should say to a newborn child.At the time, the man, barely a year old, couldn't comprehend its meaning, but he vaguely sensed that his mother would no longer hold him.

Failure.That was the young man's name.By good or bad fortune, he was picked up by a monk from the main temple and grew up in the monastery at the top of the high mountain.

He was a man who quickly learned and imitated everything.When a prodigy who knew ten things from learning one appeared, everyone was amazed, but the man's heart was always indifferent.And at the age of six.On a deep night when not even the moon hung in the sky, the man was attacked by a giant snake behind the monastery walls.The snake coiled around the man and opened its huge mouth like a cave.

But the man was not devoured.

━Many children have been swallowed by this old monk, but never have I seen one without fear like you. Are you not afraid of being consumed by this old monk?

That day, the man pondered deeply.Death, indeed, did not scare him.Rather, being alive was his agony.

A life abandoned immediately after birth.For what purpose was he born?He even entertained a strange self-destructive thought that perhaps being eaten by the giant snake and becoming part of the great nature might have some meaning.

━This old monk has failed to devour you. From now on, call yourself Mara. You shall grow into a man befitting that name.

The man became Mara.Even after that, he experienced many things, agonized, and searched for his path, but still, Mara's life was filled with failures.Even now, that remains true.

Beeeeeep— Beeeeeeep— Beeeeeeep—The alarm sounds echoed on the ground.A magic circle filled with the scent of blood.It reeked of a terrible failure.

"Was my life meaningless?"

Mara asked the one standing opposite.The man was comforting his children, his demeanor light and jesting. The children hid behind him, and the man—Judas—answered lightly.

"How should I know? But now that it's come to this, it seems it was fate that we'd fight. Mara, you're too evil and strong to be left alive."

Evil and strong-.Hearing those words from his opponent, Mara almost laughed in disbelief. But it was true.

Mara was evil and strong.That's what he wanted to be.

Power.Overwhelming power.That was the truth Mara believed could solve all problems.

With that thought, a sticky, furnace-like hatred began to seep into Mara's chest and head.His hair stood on end, his eyes bloodshot.It felt like every pore was opening, yet his heart was being tightly squeezed.

Hatred.It made Mara even stronger.He had much to hate.

The mother who abandoned her newborn child.The snake that tried to eat him.The lover who promised a thousand years of love yet eloped with another man.Traitors.A world of nothing but pain.All of these fueled Mara's power.

“Grrrrrr... Grrrrrr...”

He had become an inarticulate beast.Watching him, Judas said,

Krrrack—My hand, which hadn’t pierced through his heart, was firmly grasped by Mara. Astonishingly, he was holding my arm tightly with his pierced chest.I couldn't escape like this.

"Judas, I can feel you inside me! Yes, this is it! Becoming one with you is the path to my supreme power, to reach the pinnacle! Let's become one!"

"Ugh, fuck!"

I cursed without considering that children might be listening. The physiological horror of his words was unbearable.Mara, holding me in his embrace and bleeding from his mouth, was laughing with a 'hehehe-' and it was truly terrifying.Another reason to kill him quickly had just been added.

"I won't let you go! We'll become one like this!"

"I don't want to hug a man!!!"

But Mara's hold was stronger than I thought. The monks of the Sun Ascension path all have indestructible bodies, and my arm that had penetrated deep into his body was stuck fast.

...Should I cut off my arm?I knew too well what it meant for a thief to lose an arm, but my instincts were screaming.I had to get away from him.

"Damn it."

Pop—

I had no choice but to move my hand to free my arm that was tightly caught in Mara's chest.With a sharp pain in my shoulder, I felt lighter on one side.

"...Aah, Dad...!"

At the same time, I heard someone screaming noisily.It must be Hina.

"Take this...!"

Pop—I felt something being thrown at me by Hina.It was the rope I had given her.I wrapped it around my shoulder to stop the bleeding.

"......."

To lose an arm.The cut was clean, so it seemed certain that it could be reattached quickly somehow.This city has a saint, after all.But could I really get that arm back?

My arm remained embedded in Mara's chest.It looked like a stake driven into a vampire's heart, and also like the spear of a Roman soldier that is said to have pierced the side of the son of gods and passed through his heart.

The problem was that it seemed to be giving him more power rather than depleting his vitality.Is my own body giving power to that creature?Then Hina murmured.

“...The experiment was a success... The experiment to absorb a part of the evil god's body to elevate one's realm... Though imperfect, it cannot be called a failure...”

I didn't understand what she meant by that, but I could tell things were screwed in various ways.Especially since the air around Mara began to vibrate as if a colossal speaker was turned up to the maximum, and cracks started to appear in everything – the ground, walls, and ceiling.

What should I do now?Naturally, I have to stop Mara.And get my stolen arm back.But my body wouldn't move that way.

I just turned around.

Hina and Cecily.They were my daughters.Faces I might not see again if I didn't look now.

Truly the glittering golden hour of my life.A moment more valuable than any treasure I had ever stolen.

Looking back now, these few months since the kids came from the future have been as fun as all the moments of my life combined.So, I looked at my children's faces once more.

My family in this strange /genesisforsaken