The Vessel of the Star Goddess
Henry held out a cup of coffee to Do-ha, who sat on the bench.
"This is all I can offer you right now—just coffee."
They had destroyed the cult base and come out to a nearby park bench.
"Once the sun rises, I'll treat you to something delicious."
"British food is a bit..."
At the mention of food, Do-ha shook his head before he could stop himself.
"We have plenty of good food too..."
Henry's expression turned dejected at Do-ha's words. The rumor that British cuisine was terrible had spread so far that foreigners still misunderstood it just like this.
"By the way, A..."
"Do-ha. My name is Baek Do-ha."
"Thank you for telling me. I never imagined you'd also be going around dealing with the Cult and New Age."
"I could say the same about you."
Do-ha told him everything that had happened with New Age so far—and what he had set in motion. They were not close, but if the man was hunting both groups the same way he was, sharing that much was fine.
"You know Alteir's location?!"
"Yes."
"And yet you left him alive because..."
"Exactly. As long as that bastard is alive, we can keep whittling down the Cult's forces."
Today's battle alone proved it. New Age's raid on the Cult's British branch had left thousands of cultists dead.
"The Cult stabbed Alteir in the back. He's probably seething with poison by now."
Do-ha recounted what had happened earlier—leaving out the story of the elves' kingdom of Alfheim, but telling him about the demon summoning and how the Pope had used Alteir.
"So that's why..."
Henry finally nodded. He had been wondering for some time why New Age's movements had turned so strange. Criminals who once skulked out of every national agency's sight had suddenly shown themselves in the open. How could that not seem odd?
"But why are you hunting the Cult and New Age, Henry?"
For Do-ha himself it was simple—both groups were enemies. But Henry? Even granting that New Age was a criminal syndicate, why go after the Cult as well? Raiding a bishop's building and seizing intelligence meant he was serious about it.
"I can't go into detail, but please think of it as the will of a god."
"The will of a god? Don't tell me you're with the Holy See?"
When the world had convulsed, the Holy See had gained enormous power. Sacred force had appeared, and holy knights and mages had risen with it. Belhart, too, had had its own god-worshipping orders.
Henry is from Earth, so he's probably with the Holy See.
Do-ha had never met anyone from the Holy See—or rather, he had never formed any connection with them. There had been Holy See people at the dinner party, but none of them had approached him.
"No. I don't belong to the Holy See."
"What? Then surely not the Demon God—"
"Of course not. The Demon God Cult is our enemy. Our goddess despises them intensely."
A cult, he says...
On Earth right now, the only group people called a "cult" was the Demon God Cult. Beyond that, there was only the Holy See. In Belhart, with more than ten different religious orders, the word "cult" was ordinary enough—but not here.
"That's why I said I can't go into detail. We aren't a cult in the fraudulent sense, so don't worry. And we have no intention of proselytizing."
"You must have a lot of followers, then? If a Cheonwaecheon started recruiting, the numbers would explode."
"Our goddess dislikes that sort of thing..."
"Uh... do you hear the voice of a god?"
The more they talked, the stranger it felt. Constantly invoking a god was understandable for a cultist. But he spoke as if he stood in a close personal relationship with one. The only people who did that were popes who heard a god's voice directly.
"Don't tell me you're a pope?"
"...Yes."
"I thought so..."
"Ah, but it's nothing grand. I'm the only follower..."
Afraid Do-ha would misunderstand, Henry waved his hands and hurriedly explained the truth.
Do-ha said nothing. Hearing that, his expression only grew more serious.
A god who speaks to him directly—and only one follower...
Only then did he understand the nature of Henry's power. Their fight had not been long, but he had seen that strength several times inside the cult base.
"You're an Incarnation."
"That's right."
A god's proxy. A god's other self. That was what an Incarnation was. The concept differed somewhat from a child of a god, but an Incarnation could wield divine power. Some people dismissed them as nothing more than puppets a god controlled, but that was wrong. Incarnations were not controlled by their gods. A god only proposed; the Incarnation chose and judged for themselves.
"I've only met a few Incarnations. It's rare."
During his time in Belhart, Do-ha had met Incarnations exactly twice. One had been the Incarnation of the Sun Goddess. The other had been the Incarnation of the God of Minerals—and that one had been his friend Tunrad.
"You've met another Incarnation?"
Henry stared at Do-ha with startled eyes. On Earth right now, he should have been the only one.
"I know of one, yes. He's dead now, though."
"Ah... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up..."
"It's fine. Anyway—which god? You need real strength to create an Incarnation."
Making an Incarnation was not as simple as saying, "You are my Incarnation." It required a portion of a god's power and wisdom, and the authority to send that power down to the mortal world. Weak gods could not create Incarnations at all.
"You really do know a great deal about Incarnations."
Henry nodded. Just as Do-ha said, turning a human into an Incarnation demanded that the god themselves be powerful.
"You wouldn't know even if I told you. Just think of her as the Star Goddess."
"Wait... the Star Goddess? Do you mean Sersia?"
"???"
Do-ha and Henry stared at each other in mutual shock.
"H-how does Do-ha know the Star Goddess's name...?"
"And how does Henry become the Incarnation of the Star Goddess...?"
The Star Goddess Sersia was a deity of Belhart. Over time, with no new followers, her order had eventually vanished completely. In the distant past, when Belhart was first created, she was said to have painted the sky and made the stars, and the records claimed her power had been greater than any other. In truth, Sersia had been called not only the Star Goddess but also the Moon Goddess, the Night Goddess, and the Goddess of Darkness. She had disliked those other titles, though, and had insisted on being known as the Star Goddess.
I only learned a god like that even existed after I took the emperor's throne and read the ancient texts in the underground archives.
So how had Henry become Sersia's Incarnation?
"Don't tell me... Henry, are you from Belhart?"
But that made no sense. First, if someone this powerful had been in Belhart, Do-ha would have known. Second, the timing did not fit. Henry had been Britain's Cheonwaecheon for years. And Belhart and Earth had only been connected a few months ago.
"I'm from Earth."
"Then... Sersia must have chosen a human from another dimension."
Well. She was a god. There was no reason she could not choose a human from another world.
"Now it's your turn, Do-ha. How do you know about Sersia?"
It was a fair question. The Star Goddess was a forgotten deity. She herself had told him she was a forgotten god.
"I read the records in the ancient texts of Belhart. That there had once been such an order, and such a god."
"Ah..."
Henry's face shifted into a faintly disappointed expression. He had apparently hoped there might still be followers of Sersia in another dimension.
"So the reason you're hunting not only New Age but the Cult as well is because of the Star Goddess's orders."
"...It's more complicated than 'orders.' But I can't tell you that part."
Do-ha nodded at Henry's words. He had not heard the details, but he could roughly guess.
The reason Sersia's power dwindled was probably the Demon God.
He knew because he had read the records. At a certain point, the Star Order's influence had steadily declined. And something about it had been strange. If you graphed the recorded history, the drop would look like a sudden freefall.
That was probably when the Demon God Cult started moving.
Even so, reading it had not stirred much feeling in him. He had had no interest in the Star Goddess, and her order had already been completely gone.
"Does the goddess tell you where the Cult is?"
"No. Her power is too weak to track the Demon God's force..."
Henry's expression turned bitter. A god gained power only through followers. That was why so many orders proselytized—because divine power was born of faith. A god like Sersia, with no followers and almost no one who even knew she existed, was weak.
"And in that state she still made an Incarnation. She's probably fallen into a deep sleep by now."
"You know the details well."
"It just worked out that way..."
As he had said, one of his friends had been an Incarnation. He knew this far too well.
"Even so, she wakes from time to time and speaks to me."
Finding the Cult-related intelligence he had gathered so far had largely been thanks to the goddess's help. Without it, tracking Cult information would have been far slower than it was now.
"Wei Liang's connection to the Cult was something the goddess told me as well. Ah—you may not know, but Wei Liang also—"
"I know."
Do-ha's eyes widened slightly. So Henry had been the one who killed Wei Liang. The thing that had puzzled him finally made sense.
"I was going after Wei Liang myself... I was just a step too late."
"Then you also..."
"Yes. I had business with Wei Liang because of the Demon Pills."
"Haha... Well. It seems we're walking the same road."
Feeling a strange sense of kinship and reassurance, Henry laughed. Until now he had felt as if he were wandering a desert alone. Now it felt as though he had gained a companion walking beside him. He did not expect the other man to feel the same—but he did.
"The more we talk, the more curious I get. I've heard things from the goddess, but you, Do-ha..."
No matter what was said, Do-ha understood and answered at once. Looking at that, he almost seemed like someone from Belhart.
"Don't tell me you also..."
"No. I'm not an Incarnation. I'm not even a cultist to begin with."
"I see."
Henry nodded and held out his hand to Do-ha.
"From now on, I'll share whatever information I uncover with you."
"Good. Having you with me is reassuring as well, Henry."
Do-ha smiled at Henry's words. If someone as strong as Henry—strong enough that even he acknowledged it—became an ally, it would be a real comfort. And Henry already knew that the Demon God stood at the end of the Cult's path. Agreeing to walk together meant Henry was prepared to fight the Demon God as well.
"Could I see what information you took from the bishop's room?"
"Ah... about that..."
Henry's face darkened as he pulled out a bundle of documents. Because the bishop had gone outside, he had been able to read through a fair amount of the contents before bringing them out.
"There's nothing useful."
He spread the papers wide. He held nothing back, laying everything open—yet there was no mention of other branch locations, no cult ceremonies, nothing of the kind.
"I searched the entire building, including the hidden spaces, and this is still all I found."
"Hmm. You're right—nothing else related."
"Maybe I didn't search thoroughly enough..."
But unlike the flustered Henry, Do-ha's eye caught on one particular passage.
A report from four years ago.
It described the discovery of a Gate with no monsters, where everything burned and the flames writhed as if alive. And that particular phenomenon appeared when a certain demon he knew well was nearby.
Baal.
When Baal, master of the Flame Spirit Sword, appeared, flames like these were born.