Chapter 193: Interlude – At The Back Of The Train

…Where should I begin?

Right, to explain what started everything, I’ll first have to talk about religion.

Hey, Earthian. You…

I mean for you, the one who coveted everything beyond the Dimensional Portal to the point of willingly embracing a new faith.

It probably wasn’t hard to do, right?

Unlike your ever-silent gods, our gods proved their existence through the priests and blessings.

And ever since the former Saintess healed a Jewish person suffering from the aftereffects of poison gas, the Church of Five Gods expanded its influence rapidly.

That fervor, that joy…

Even us necromancers were shocked, so there was no need to explain how the priests of the Five Gods might have felt, right?

However, that was the problem. Joy blinded those priests.

They even began deluding themselves into thinking that the Church could become a bridge of peace between Earth and Asha.

Looking back now, it’s almost laughable.

How could they even dare to believe that they could reform the White House or the Kremlin, when even the nobles and mages beyond the Dimensional Portal didn’t live by the doctrine?

Well, if I were to share my opinion…

Those priests forgot one simple truth: the human who lusts for power always challenges the authority of the gods and Earthians possessed a lust for power that far exceeded our imagination.

In the end, it wasn’t long before the first trial came upon them.

Joseph Stalin.

The pope of the communist creed, who claimed that religion was the opium of the people, didn’t welcome the rise of a competing faith in the slightest.

Especially the arrogant request from the priests to restrain the expansion of communism beyond the Dimensional Portal greatly displeased the Soviet Union.

After heated debates, or perhaps the preparations for war, Stalin defined the gods beyond the Dimensional Portal as such:

Higher-dimensional energy lifeforms.

He declared that neither the Five Gods nor the King of the Undead we serve were true gods.

Unable to endure, the priests protested against such blasphemy and, in return, were greeted with bullets.

Holy knights, like the Holy Sword or Joanna Thule, did resist heroically. However…

Why do you think it is recorded as a ‘resistance’ rather than a ‘victory’ in the history books?

In the end, the priests were forced to flee from the communist bloc in disgrace.

Romania, East Germany, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, China… Hundreds, thousands of priests returned home with tears of blood.

And unfortunately, all of this was just the beginning of…

…Hm? What did you say?

“Move on to the next part?”

Dilla, the necromancer with snow-white bleached hair, stared at her opponent in disbelief.

The girl with gleaming blue eyes leaned against the train corridor.

Though her appearance was utterly pitiful, her eyes were filled with confidence as she gazed down at Dilla and spoke.

“I didn’t expect you to ramble on about modern history.”

“…”

“Can we just skip to the parts only you know, instead of all the commonly known stuff?”

Dilla frowned and glared at her for a moment.

It was quite audacious for a loser to tell her what to do, but, strangely enough, she didn’t actually feel angry.

Wait, was it natural because she was the victor?

This was… something… natural? Rambling about one’s plans… was a winner’s… right?

“Fine, let’s move on then. To the time when we necromancers… joined forces with America.”

We didn’t join forces for some grand reason.

Us necromancers needed safe laboratories and materials, and America needed knowledge to get ahead in the Cold War.

It was a mutually beneficial deal.

And thanks to the chaos in South America, Texas always had an abundance of corpses, and America was satisfied with even the most basic mana usage techniques we shared with them.

Those were good times—until America decided to “Kill the dog after the hunt is over” us.

That betrayal…

…What? Move to the next part again?

Uh… wait…

Did you know this? The King of the Undead we serve is said to be an ascended being.

Yes, ascended. Once a human, then became a god after death… well, something like that.

Truthfully speaking, that’s just a myth. How can a human even become a god?

However, when Americans learned of this, they thought of something… different.

How should I put it? Creativity? A paradigm shift? Or perhaps madness?

Well, whatever you call it, Earthians heard about ascension and immediately demanded the opposite.

Descent—dragging an existing god down to earth to use as a weapon.

It was a crazy idea, but as it aligned with our own goals, we didn’t have the power or a reason to refuse.

Ultimately… we somehow managed to prepare a spell to bring the gods crashing down.

Ah, does that sound strange?

I feel you. It sounded just as strange to me when the Earthians said they’d send people to the moon and started building rockets.

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 collaborated with America to develop a magic that allowed us to glimpse into other dimensions.

And with just one attempt, we were able to peer into the heavens where the gods reside.

It was luck—our last stroke of luck.

What we found there… were things we never expected.

Diverse, chaotic gods.

Compared to the Five Gods we were originally aiming for, they were faint and insignificant.

…What did they look like, you ask?

Should I describe them as concepts woven entirely from mana…? I’m not sure how else to explain it. They’re 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? O-Okay, fine…

Uh… a lot happened after that, but to sum it up in one line:

We failed, over and over again. We failed more than enough times to disappoint America.

And, uh…

Uh… ugh…

My head feels weird… What’s… happening…?

You want me to keep talking? Uh, well…

We… were abandoned.

And just like how our homeland betrayed us, America purged u—

So… revenge… Miami—

Ah…

Wait, my head… hurts… so much…

Watching the writhing necromancer on the floor, Seti narrowed her eyes.

They hadn’t even gotten to the truly important questions, and yet she was already breaking down.

Was it too much to treat a necromancer roughly, like how she did to the shepherd?

She sighed and adjusted the shadow tendrils a bit more delicately.

The tendrils, embedded in the necromancer’s temples, burrowed deeper.

And then, in the next moment, the necromancer rolled her eyes back and began convulsing; a sight that would’ve horrified her younger sibling if she saw that.

Fortunately, her sister had gone to the front car to figure out why the train had stopped, leaving only Seti and the necromancer in this corridor.

Looking down at the necromancer, Seti asked.

“So, where is this place?”

“A-a fragment of the King of the Undead’s… mental….”

“What does that even—ugh, never mind. How do we get out of here?”

“If the caster… dispels the magic… it will undo itself…”

“The caster? Who’s the caster?”

“Me… Dilla Katakfoyer…”

Seti smirked at the necromancer. It was good she hadn’t killed her yet.

“Why target us with this magic? Were we your target?”

“You…? I-I don’t know… our goal was… the CIA agent….”

“…The CIA agent?”

Seti recollected what Corvus had told her just before they ended up here.

A CIA agent was on the same train as them.

So they were dragged into this purely by chance?

As Seti laughed bitterly, Dilla muttered.

“Scarlett O’Hara… the star… America succeeded… in bringing down…”

“What?”

“We should have… captured that human… made of the star, dissected her… to fulfill our long-cherished wish…”

A star that had been brought down successfully? Seti instinctively furrowed her brows at those words.

Suddenly, vivid images flashed through her mind.

The mysterious entity she met in the ban, the South Korean government and the necromancers, and the sand star that told her it wasn’t yet her time…

Caught between certainty and doubt, Seti asked.

“Is there a specific method to identify a fallen star?”

Dilla didn’t respond immediately.

The necromancer chewed her lips hesitantly for a long time, only speaking after Seti manipulated the shadow tendril once more.

“Y-yes. There are… three ways. You can recognize it if you’re a star as well, if they use their h-holy power… and…”

“And what?”

“If… there is a god whose n-name has been erased, we’ll know.”

“…”

“We… recorded… it… Earth’s gods… Artemis, Poseidon, Apollo! All… their names… now gone. That’s how… we knew… that the U.S. made… a star fall.”

Had she probed Dilla’s soul a bit too harshly? The necromancer’s tongue was barely cooperating.

Of course, Seti didn’t really care and continued manipulating the shadows as she pressed further.

“…Artemis? There was such a god?”

“E-Earth… local myth… moon goddess… You… don’t know… because she… fell… to this land!”

The explanation of how a fallen star lost their name.

Hearing that, Seti laughed—a hollow laugh, like the moment Hamlet gained certainty.

By any chance… could it be that hers and her sister’s strange names… were…?

Just as the realization sent a chill through her spine…

Rumble…!

The ground trembled, and the train jolted.

What’s going on?

Seti quickly brushed away the fleshy obstruction covering the windows and looked outside.

The first thing she saw was a horizon filled with giants.

Undead Titans. The sight of dozens of those monsters was terrifying, but what caught Seti’s attention was the small figure fighting them.

…Yeomyeong?

All her concerns and thoughts vanished at once.

Only one thought remained—they had to escape from this place before Yeomyeong got hurt.

She said the caster could release the spell, right?

Without further hesitation, Seti conjured more shadow tendrils and drove them deep into Dilla’s body, embedding them so thoroughly that they could never be removed.

And the next moment, a spark of clarity returned to Dilla’s hazy eyes.

It was proof that she had regained consciousness. To confirm it, Dilla gritted her teeth and glared at Seti.

“W-what did you do to me…?”

Seti ignored her question and issued a command instead.

“Undo the spell. Right now.”

“Don’t make me laugh! You’ll never escape this mental—!”

Despite the fury in her voice, Dilla’s body obeyed Seti’s command.

She pulled out a small dagger, slashed her palm, and used the dripping blood to draw a magic circle on the floor.

Dilla didn’t even question what the hell she was doing.

As a necromancer, she recognized that her body had been overtaken by an unknown divine spell, leaving her with no means to reclaim control.

“No… no….”

Amid Dilla’s despairing cries, Seti’s gaze remained fixed on Yeomyeong.

Three minutes remained until the spell was undone, and one minute until Yeomyeong unleashed Corpse Explosion.