The Mad Scientists of the Jakshin Cult
After the Jakshin Cult discussion, Banya and the man exchanged a few more words. Then the man said, “Follow me,” and began leading us somewhere.
“Let’s go.”
I couldn’t understand the situation, but I followed Banya anyway. I quietly whispered to her as she walked with that graceful, almost beautiful stride.
“What’s going on?”
“Ehehe?”
Banya flinched, startled, as if caught off guard.
‘There she goes again.’
The Banya I knew was elegant and refined, but every now and then she had these clumsy little moments. She quickly composed herself, glanced nervously at the man, then spoke in a low voice.
“Ah… Adel, you might not know about this.”
“So what is it?”
I didn’t know the details, but from the context it seemed like some group I wasn’t familiar with.
“There are two major religions in this world.”
Banya began explaining in a soft, careful tone so no one else could hear.
“The first is the Sun God Church. They believe the Sun God was the very first to create the continent, and that His power has continued to this day. It’s the representative faith of the light.”
She paused to take a breath, checked the man’s reaction again, then continued.
“The second is the Jakshin Cult. They reject the Sun God Church and claim they will create a new god. It’s a bizarre order. They represent the darkness.”
“Wait, you mean…?”
“Yes. The place we’re heading to is likely one of the Jakshin Cult’s branches.”
A cult. Of course. That was the first thought that came to mind.
‘Creating a god?’ Humans couldn’t even create other humans, so how could they possibly create a higher being? It was utter nonsense. No wonder they operated in the shadows.
‘Jakshin Cult…’
I’d never heard the name before, obviously. But their arrogant doctrine of manufacturing a god, combined with their secret activities, made it highly likely they were one of the groups involved in the continent’s destruction.
‘So that’s why she’s following them.’
The reason Banya was personally going after them had to be because the cult’s power was simply too great.
‘Looks like I’ll have to fight these people too.’
I didn’t know the full picture yet, but they were clearly enemies.
“What kind of power does the Jakshin Cult use?”
I’d assumed they used demonic energy since they operated in the shadows, but religion was religion. They might use holy power instead.
‘Not that I’ve ever seen holy power before.’
Still, I figured I’d manage somehow.
“They use mana. And they use weapons I’ve never seen before.”
“Weapons?”
“Yes. It’s hard to explain in words…”
Weapons that couldn’t be described with words were rare in this world.
‘Because there’s no science here.’
That didn’t mean they didn’t exist at all. Aside from the occasional game-like anomalies, it was safe to say they were practically nonexistent.
‘What kind of weapon could it be?’
What shape and method of use would make her speak like that? I was starting to get a little curious.
While Banya and I were quietly talking, the man walking ahead suddenly stopped. We looked up from each other and stared forward.
There stood a shabby house. It looked like it might collapse if you gave it a light tap, yet it also carried the weight of long years, as if it had stood there for ages.
“You may enter.”
The man bowed his head respectfully.
I glanced at Banya.
“Let’s go in.”
Creak.
At her words, I nodded and opened the door. The interior was just as rundown as the outside. There wasn’t a single piece of furniture, and dust swirled in the air as if the place had never been cleaned.
Tap.
The moment I took a single step inside, my vision flipped upside down.
When my inverted vision returned, I blinked.
“Huh…?”
A completely different scene unfolded before my eyes. It didn’t look like the rundown house we had just entered at all. We seemed to have arrived in an entirely different space.
‘If I hadn’t experienced this before, I would’ve been pretty shocked.’
It felt similar to when I had gone to the headmaster’s office, so I immediately recognized it as spatial teleportation.
‘What about Banya?’
I turned my head and found her still standing there in a daze.
“Banya?”
At the sound of her name, she blinked rapidly and came back to her senses.
“Yes?”
“Never mind.”
Confirming she was alright, I looked around. Besides the two of us, there were countless other people gathered in this single space.
‘What are they trying to do?’
I couldn’t figure out the Jakshin Cult’s intentions for bringing us here.
Step. Step.
A slender man carefully climbed onto a platform located in the middle of the crowd.
“Ahem. It seems you can all hear me.”
The man had amplified his voice with mana and judged our reactions accordingly. He slowly scanned the crowd and spoke again.
“I called you all here because I want to give you a certain power.”
“……”
There was no particular reaction.
“This power will cause you no harm at all. On the contrary, it will only help you.”
I didn’t react either. The cultist vibe was still way too strong.
“Very well, I’ll explain it to you right away.”
The moment he finished speaking, another man who had been standing below the platform climbed up and handed him some kind of ‘weapon.’
“What the hell is that…?”
“Is that the power?”
“……”
Unlike the others, I felt a strangely familiar sensation.
“Now that we have the weapon, we’ll need a target.”
As soon as he said that, a woman different from the previous man appeared, leading a demonic beast.
“As you all know, this demonic beast has hide that cannot be cut unless you use a mana blade.”
“……”
I stayed silent since I hadn’t known that.
The man shouldered the ‘weapon,’ aimed at the beast’s head, and braced it against his shoulder. I knew that shape. A bazooka.
“This is called a Super Magic Shell.”
Bang.
With an unremarkable sound, a single black projectile flew toward the beast’s head. That was as much as I could follow. Its speed was simply too fast.
Kwaaaaaaaaang!
When the dust cleared, there was a massive hole in the demonic beast’s head.
“I can grant this power to all of you. This is the strongest and most difficult version to use. However, there are smaller, more convenient versions that can exert similar strength. For a modest price, I can provide them to you.”
The man began rowing the wave of greed that was rolling in.
“Do you believe?!”
The man shouted. The crowd’s reactions were similar: they were crazy, how do you use it, if they could obtain this power they’d pay any price, and so on.
In the midst of that atmosphere, one person among the crowd shouted.
“I-I believe!”
Everything is hard at the beginning. That single cry soon became dozens, then hundreds of voices echoing the same words.
Listening to their shouts, I thought,
‘The Jakshin Cult isn’t just some ordinary cult.’
There was clearly more to them than that. This wasn’t a place that would stay trapped as a mere fringe group.
‘Giving power to those who crave it.’
It was a textbook cult recruitment tactic. The people here probably didn’t even know this was the Jakshin Cult, but to me, who had come knowing the truth, it all felt rather ridiculous.
‘What exactly are they?’
The true identity of this order. They used weapons that were neither the familiar magic nor swordsmanship of this world. And those weapons didn’t even belong in this world in the first place.
I knew what to call people like this.
‘Mad scientists.’
Insane scientists. People would say science hadn’t developed much in this world. But the members of the Jakshin Cult had created weapons. They must have invented what was currently nonexistent: ‘science.’ That was why people couldn’t explain what kind of weapons the cult used.
Still, there was one clear reason I thought of them as mad scientists.
‘Do you believe in God?’
It was exactly the kind of question lunatics would ask. Scientists who asked such questions were, in my mind, nothing but mad scientists.
‘What about their leader?’
If it was a cult, then there would be both a god and a cult leader. I wanted to know what kind of person the leader was to have brought weapons like these into this world.
‘And who is this god they worship?’
A being that scientists revered as a god. Did something like that even exist? The question lingered in my mind.
‘Whatever the case, they’re enemies.’
This kind of cult stench could never come from someone on the side of good. For me, the Jakshin Cult had become a clear enemy.
I asked Banya,
“What do you want to do?”
“……”
No answer came. When I looked at her, she was muttering with a very serious expression.
“Banya?”
“We have to run.”
She spoke firmly, as if she had finished sorting her thoughts.
“Why?”
“Hurry! There’s no time to explain!”
Banya urgently grabbed my hand and began running back toward the place we had entered. Her voice, which had been somewhat kind before, was now so cold it felt like a winter wind.
“Oh dear, it seems there are some among you who cannot believe. Allow me to personally demonstrate the majesty of ‘God.’”
The bazooka was now aimed at us. No one opposed the action. They were already half brainwashed. It was infuriating that I couldn’t free them.
“Then, farewell.”
The moment the man finished speaking, the Super Magic Shell flew toward us.
I urgently ignited my flames and slowed the projectile down.
Kwaaaaaaaaaaaang!
The building collapsed, and Banya and I vanished into the smoke.