Chapter 193
Chapter 193
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 193
Chapter Title: Interlude - At the Back of the Train
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…Where should I start?
Right, to explain the beginning of everything, I suppose I have to talk about religion first.
Listen, Earthlings. You all…
You know, you who lusted after everything beyond the dimensional gate—you eagerly accepted a new faith too.
It probably wasn’t that hard.
Unlike your gods, who always remained silent, our gods proved their existence through priests and blessings.
Starting with the incident where the previous saintess healed a Jew dying from poison gas aftereffects, the Five Gods Church expanded its followers in an instant.
That fervor, that joy…
It was enough to surprise even us necromancers, so I don’t need to tell you what the church priests felt.
But that was the problem. Joy blinded the priests.
They even deluded themselves that the church could become a bridge of peace connecting Earth and Asha.
Looking back now, it’s utterly ridiculous.
Even the nobles and mages beyond the dimensional gate didn’t live by doctrine—how did they think they could convert the White House and the Kremlin?
Well, if I had to say my own opinion…
The priests forgot a simple truth. Human lust for power always challenges divine authority.
And Earthlings possessed a lust for power beyond our imagination.
In the end, it wasn’t long before the first trial struck them.
Iosif Stalin.
The pope of communist doctrine, who claimed religion was the opium of the people, didn’t like the emergence of a rival faith.
Especially the arrogant demand from priests that the Soviets restrain communist expansion beyond the dimensional gate—it greatly displeased them.
After fierce debates or war preparations, Stalin defined the gods beyond the gate like this.
Higher-dimensional energy lifeforms.
He declared not only the Five Gods but even the Immortal King we serve weren’t gods.
The priests protested that horrific blasphemy—and paid for it with bullets.
Holy Knights like those wielding holy swords or Hoana Tule resisted heroically…
But why do the histories record it as “resistance” rather than “victory”?
In the end, the priests had to flee the communist bloc like refugees.
Romania, East Germany, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, China… hundreds, thousands of priests returned home with tears of blood.
But sadly, all this was just the beginning…
…Huh? What?
***
“Skip to the next part?”
The necromancer Dilla, with her snow-white bleached hair, looked at her opponent in bewilderment.
A girl leaning against the train corridor, her blue eyes gleaming.
She looked utterly pathetic, but she haughtily looked down at Dilla and spoke.
“I didn’t expect you to ramble on about modern history.”
“…”
“Instead of generally known facts, can’t you skip to the parts only you know quickly?”
Dilla frowned and glared at her for a moment.
It was absurd that this loser was ordering her around, but for some reason, she wasn’t angry.
No, it felt natural? She was the victor?
Right, this was natural? Telling her plans was the victor’s? right?
“Fine, then let’s skip ahead quickly. To the time when us necromancers… joined hands with America.”
***
We didn’t join hands for some grand reason.
The necromancers needed safe labs and materials, and America needed knowledge to get ahead in the Cold War.
It was a mutually beneficial, useful deal.
Thanks to the chaos-filled South America, Texas always had a surplus of corpses, and America was satisfied with just the basics of mana usage.
Good times. Until America discarded us like used rags.
That betrayal…
…What? Skip ahead quickly?
Uh… wait…
Do… you know this? The Immortal King we serve is known as an ascended being.
Yes, ascension. He was human in life, but upon death, he became a god himself… something like that.
Truthfully, it’s just a myth. How could a human become a god?
But the Americans, upon learning that fact, thought of… something different.
What should I call it—creativity? A shift in thinking? Or madness?
Whatever you call it, Earthlings, upon hearing of ascension, immediately demanded the exact opposite.
Descent. Toppling existing gods to the earth and turning them into weapons.
It was a mad idea, but we had neither the power nor reason to refuse. It aligned with our own goals, after all.
In conclusion… we prepared magic to make gods descend.
Ah, does that sound a bit strange?
I get it. To me, the idea of building rockets to send people to the moon sounded plenty strange too.
Honestly, I still don’t get it.
What’s the point of sending people to the moon? Isn’t it just a waste of money?
…Well, anyway.
First, we created magic with America to peek into other dimensions.
And with a single attempt, we peeked into the heavens where the gods reside.
It was luck. Our final stroke of luck.
What we found there… was unexpected.
A motley, chaotic assortment of gods.
Compared to our original target, the Five Gods, they were faint and insignificant.
…What did they look like?
Like lumps of mana embodying some concept… I don’t know how else to explain it. It was like…
…Stars?
Yeah, that’s right. Some people called them stars. How do you know that?
Don’t tell me, you’ve seen them too…
…Just get on with the story? Ugh, yeah. Got it.
Um… a lot happened after, but to sum it up in one line:
We failed, and failed again. Enough to disappoint America.
And uh…
Uh… ugh…
My head feels weird… Why… is this…?
Keep talking? Uh, that’s…
We… were abandoned.
Just as our homeland betrayed us, America purged us…
So… revenge… Miami…
Ah…
Wait, my head… it hurts… so much…
***
Seti narrowed her eyes as she watched the necromancer writhing on the floor.
She hadn’t even started the really important questions, and it was already breaking down.
As expected, handling it as roughly as a Shepherd was too much?
With a sigh, she moved her shadow more delicately.
Then the shadow tentacles embedded in the necromancer’s temples burrowed even deeper…
And in the next instant, the necromancer rolled her eyes back and convulsed violently.
A sight that would have horrified her little sister if she saw it.
Fortunately, her sister had run to the front car to find out why the train stopped, leaving just Seti and the necromancer alone in the corridor.
Seti looked down at the necromancer and asked.
“So, where is this place?”
“A… part of the mindscape… created by the Immortal King…”
“What’s tha—tch, whatever. Then how do we get out?”
“If the caster… dispels the spell… it’ll happen on its own…”
“The caster? Who’s the caster?”
“Me… Dilla Katakpoier…”
Seti smirked down at the necromancer. Good thing she didn’t kill her.
“Why target us with this spell? Were we the targets?”
“You…? I… don’t know… We wanted… CIA agents…”
“…CIA agents?”
She recalled what Corbus had told her just before entering this place.
That a CIA agent was on the same train.
So, they’d been dragged here purely by coincidence?
As Seti laughed hollowly, Dilla mumbled.
“Scarlett O’Hara… America… successfully… ugh… descended… a star…”
“What?”
“Made… a star… human… capture… dissect… for our… vengeance…”
Successfully descended? A star? Hearing that, Seti unconsciously frowned.
Suddenly, scenes flashed in her mind.
The unidentified being she met in the gold seal, the Korean government, the necromancers, and the sand star that said it wasn’t time yet…
Caught between certainty and doubt, Seti asked.
“Is there a separate way to distinguish descended stars?”
Dilla didn’t answer right away.
The necromancer mumbled with her lips for a while, only opening her mouth after Seti moved the shadow tentacles once more.
“Y-Yes. Th-three ways. If it’s… the s-same st-star… you can tell. And if they use… divinity themselves… or…”
“Or?”
“If… a god’s… name is erased… you can tell.”
“…”
“We… recorded it. Earth gods… Artemis, Poseidon, Apollo! All… gone. So… we knew. America… descended… stars.”
Had she stirred the soul too much? Dilla couldn’t move her tongue properly.
Of course, Seti didn’t care and kept moving the shadow as she asked.
“…Artemis? There was a god like that?”
“E-Earth… local myth… moon goddess… you don’t know… because it descended… to this land!”
An explanation that descended stars have their names erased.
Hearing that, Seti laughed. Hollowly, like Hamlet gaining certainty.
Was the reason her sisters’ names were strange…?
Just as she shuddered before this sudden realization.
Rumble…!
The ground shook, and the train rocked.
‘What’s that?’
Seti immediately cleared the flesh covering the window and checked outside.
The first thing that entered her view was giants filling the horizon.
Undead Titans. The sight of not one, but dozens of those monsters was terrifying, but what truly caught Seti’s eye was the small figure battling the giants.
…Yeomyung?
The worries filling her head vanished in an instant.
Only one thought remained: she had to get out of here before Yeomyung got hurt.
‘The caster dispels the spell, right.’
Without hesitation, Seti created more shadow tentacles and stabbed them into Dilla’s body all over. Deep enough that they could never be removed.
In the next moment, life returned to Dilla’s previously vacant eyes.
Proof that she’d regained her senses. As if to prove it, Dilla chattered her teeth and looked up at her.
“Wh-what did you… do to me…?”
Instead of answering, Seti issued a command.
“Dispel this spell. Right now.”
“Don’t make me laugh! You’ll never escape this mindscape—!”
Contrary to her rage-filled voice, Dilla’s body faithfully obeyed Seti’s command.
She drew a small dagger, slashed her own palm, and used the dripping blood as paint to draw a magic circle on the floor…
Dilla didn’t ask what was happening.
As a necromancer, she realized her body’s control had been seized by some unknown divine spell—and that she’d never regain it.
“No… no…”
With Dilla’s despairing voice as background, Seti’s eyes chased Yeomyung.
Three minutes until the spell was dispelled, one minute until Yeomyung used Corpse Explosion.
* * *