Chapter 32
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 32
Chapter Title: 31. Black God Cult
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There's nothing particularly noteworthy about crossing the barrier.
At least, not for me. Even if there's magi present, it's not blatantly thick like it was with Kim Seung-jun.
Yeah. To give a rough example, it's like the difference between radiation from a nuclear blast that wreaks havoc on people and the kind that's harmless enough in nature.
Of course, prolonged exposure would still be a problem.
No one but an idiot would suck up magi so openly that they'd camp out in it.
Besides, there is gear designed to counter magi.
It's just ridiculously expensive, and hardly any hunters venture beyond the barrier to begin with.
The government itself isn't all that proactive about it.
No matter how much power the Hunter Association holds, pushing to go beyond the barrier means reclaiming land, which requires government approval.
In the original story from the Hunter Association's perspective, Association Chairman Choi Cheol-sik repeatedly urged President Ha Jung-seok to increase the budget for magi-countering gear so they could head to Incheon. But Ha Jung-seok dismissed it, saying North Korea's land was more important.
Honestly, it's not a wrong stance. Purely in terms of value, securing North Korea with its gates is the better bet. Places like Incheon and other areas are uncharted territory—you might end up brawling with villains, fiends, or monsters that don't even drop loot worth the trouble.
North Korea, on the other hand, could rake in serious cash. The reason it fell was because the Kim dynasty failed to handle the gates properly.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say everything north of the ceasefire line is a gate party.
Just harvesting monster materials and cores from them would be hugely profitable. That's why Choi Cheol-sik and the others clash on this.
One side sees it as a pointless war of attrition with no gains. The other views it as a high-risk gamble.
Anyway, enough side chatter. I've just stepped beyond the barrier.
"Still near Seoul, huh. The magi levels are normal."
The area around Seoul seems fine enough.
But as I gradually made my way toward Incheon, I started feeling the magi thickening.
True to its nickname, I guess.
I vaguely remember seeing "Incheon Demon Realm" pop up online back in the day.
I lived in Incheon and wondered what that was about, but in this world, it's literally come true.
"Grrrrr."
A wild monster resembling a dog appeared.
No reactions from nearby gates, so it's probably a survivor from a closed one.
I lightly scorched it with fire, then spread white flame to snuff out the magi entirely.
I could absorb it, but... you know that feeling? Like scavenging scraps? Nobody eats food off the street.
I'm the Evil Dragon, after all.
An evil one, sure, but among dragons, I'm the strongest.
I can't go picking up scraps. So I extinguished the magi with white flame and summoned my wings.
"Feels unnatural, but it's working."
Flying through the sky after so long felt unfamiliar.
I flew toward Incheon, spreading white flame to purify as I went.
Felt like a helicopter dousing a forest fire.
After flying for a while, I finally found a spot thick with sticky magi.
Michuhol-gu.
A church stood at its center.
Now completely abandoned, it once served as a Black God Cult hideout—and still houses executives plotting its revival.
In the previous work, Yoo Jin-seok only provided a 'stopgap' fix, leaving Choi Si-woo to handle everything in this one.
It feels like the author created Choi Si-woo with sequels in mind from the start.
"Lights blatantly on... so it's not just some shady operation."
I cloaked myself in magi, changing from my school uniform to a nun's habit, then slowly entered the church.
"Kim Jae-su. That bastard used up our fiends on his own. The ones we absolutely needed to revive the Black God Cult! We should've seen it coming when he said he'd go alone!"
'Kim Jae-su, that bastard'—nice rhyme. And it seems the Black God Cult got backstabbed by Kim Jae-su worse than I thought.
From what I overheard, it sounded like he acted solo. Or maybe he hijacked the entire Black God Cult from behind the scenes.
If so, they might actually have a point feeling hard done by.
But still. The Black God Cult's standards are abysmally low if they're relying on one guy like Kim Jae-su. There, I said it.
So, doesn't that mean I can use that wealth for myself?
"You guys have that gate-opening ability user anyway. With that power, a small elite squad could take down the academy easy."
Just that one guy makes round trips between the Black God Cult and the academy a breeze.
Kim Jae-su probably used his own faction's people. With a teleporting executive, it's honestly not hard.
My offhand remark stirred up the executives inside.
"Who are you?!"
"Me? The god you've been looking for."
So come worship me.
I fixed them with sharp golden eyes.
"What... those eyes!"
"Pathetic humans thinking you can revive me, who won't even die. Using me as a vessel or whatever nonsense you were spouting."
What a bunch of morons.
Fine, say they find a vessel. Then what? How do they plan to stuff my soul into it?
It's all just hindsight in the end.
They act first and figure it out later. And doesn't my very existence prove it?
"How dare this wench insult our god! Kill that bitch!"
"What are you waiting for? Kill her!"
I sowed chaos among the followers slowly approaching under the senile old hag's orders.
This was a spell Nun Azidahaka once used in China for a massacre.
No need to explain. They'll see it for themselves.
"Ugh... uuuuugh."
"Grrrrrr."
The followers surrounding me shuddered, then drew weapons and started slaughtering each other.
"What the hell? What's going on?!"
"Hey, don't kill me!"
"Kya Ahhh!"
They turned on each other in a frenzy.
Those guys are just expendables anyway. Even fiends can be revived with magi infusion within minutes of dying.
Less than a minute later, they self-destructed. I blew magi into their corpses.
"Now, are you all coming to your senses?"
They twitched at my command and rose, their eyes different from before.
"C-Could it be... Are you truly our god?"
"I'm no god or anything. I'm a creation myself."
A creation of the real Yoo Eun-ha, the author. I have no qualification to be a god.
"To us, Lady Azidahaka is our god!"
"If I'm a god, then why did you attack Hansung Academy, where I reside?"
I carefully spread killing intent, and the Black God Cult executives dropped to their knees.
"No way."
"After the incident in China, I was reborn."
"Then, back then... did you truly ascend after taking the nuke?"
What did I say earlier? I don't die.
Better to gloss over it here.
I racked my brain, turning it over and over.
Normal logic won't sway these fanatics.
"I was summoned by my creator. They said my work was done—humanity sufficiently purified. Now, save them."
The Black God Cult's ultimate goal: Evil Dragon Azidahaka returns, wipes out humanity, and in the purified new world, they build a civilization centered on the cult with fresh humans.
So, brainwash them like this.
"Is that true?"
"It was. But you dared to revere me as god while committing all sorts of terrorism, even harming innocents."
It's laughable, really. They claim to uphold my will, yet cause chaos everywhere, get served justice by Yoo Jin-seok, and still won't quit—trusting a guy like Kim Jae-su only to end up like this.
"But look at Korea's president. Is he worth saving? He discriminates against fiends, brands them all villains outright. He even built the barrier, abandoning those who couldn't evacuate to Seoul in time to the magi, turning them into fiends!"
That's bullshit, no doubt.
Unable to handle refugees, they quarantined even the healthy ones.
Of course, plenty clung to their homes for their assets and got left behind by the government.
That's why Korean Black God Cultists hate the government so much. Or rather, people isolated in the provinces, hating the government, join the cult.
"Do you think I don't know that? But have you tried understanding them? After the cataclysm, fiends appeared amid the chaos, and criminals exploited it to become villains. That lumped all decent fiends in with the trash."
"Yes. And yet you want us to understand them?"
I get the resentment. Truth be told, I have no special love for humanity.
But I want this world to exist, and there are things—people—I cherish.
Call it protagonist mentality. But I can't abandon the women who like me. With this body, living in a doomed world overrun by sins sounds unpleasant anyway.
"Just because you think this country's government is trash doesn't mean everyone who doesn't accept fiends is trash too, right?"
"What are your thoughts, Lady Azidahaka?"
"I'll unite the fiends into an organization. Then use them to hunt down the real criminal villains, putting the nation at ease. Will you follow me? Or deny me and live hating hunters and civilians without a base?"
As I spoke, I ignited white flame in my right hand.
A clear message: choose wrong, and it's death.
"““......””"
They had no real choice.
Azidahaka's existence is the Black God Cult's very reason for being—the value for those despaired by the world.
This church is going to be tough to use as a base now.
Need somewhere bigger.
Ah, what about Songdo? In the later parts, villains were holed up in penthouses in Songdo New City. The pre-cataclysm world resembles the other side, so it might still be intact.
"Is Songdo still intact?"
"Yes, Lady Azidahaka."
Before other villains moved in, then.
"We'll make that our main base. It's a new city, so it'll do. This place is a bit risky for the Black God Cult."
"Yes."
Truthfully, I wanted to base here and swallow up Incheon's villains. But can't forget the previous protagonist, Yoo Jin-seok, is around.
Fighting Yoo Jin-seok feels like the worst from a little sister's perspective.
"Hm?"
Among the groveling Black God Cult executives bowing their heads, I spotted a girl standing silently.
A serene face devoid of any emotion.
I know who she is from the original story.