Karnak, Monarch of Death

The glorious millennium-old empire, the imperial capital Thea Krahan of Lacania was once the largest and most beautiful city on the continent. Now, it lay under the shadow of death.

Artificially summoned storm clouds blotted out the sky. The aftermath of brutal war left ruins and contamination throughout the city, spreading malice. Grotesque undead wandered the streets, and the citizens who had failed to flee cowered within their homes, cursing their fates in fear.

Corpses of knights lay strewn across roads, and the bodies of priests hung rotting from the walls, turning the mortal realm into hell.

On the terrace of a temple in the western part of the city, a young man looked up at the sky. It was Emil Strauss, the avatar of Tesranach. He suddenly raised his right hand, and a dark blue light glimmered at his fingertips.

Staring at the grace of the Black God, Emil frowned. The light remained dim. "Not yet..."

For the God of Death, Tesranach, to descend in full power, faith in him within this era needed to surpass all others. This was the goal the cult of the Black God had tirelessly pursued. Then, how could they make faith in Tesranach the foremost faith in the world?

Would it be enough to conquer the empire, the Seven Allied Kingdoms, and the Berus Federation, then proclaim it as law? Would everything be solved if they simply declared to all humanity and the fae that the Church of the Black God was now their state religion? Could everyone be forced to serve Tesranach? Of course not.

Most humans were followers of the seven goddesses, if by nothing else but habit, and the fae had long kept their faith in Ta'al. Could they truly be forced to convert overnight through oppression?

It was especially difficult since Tesranach was a god associated with the undead and necromancy. It was a faith that any living being would instinctively find repulsive.

Even if the authorities forced belief upon them, people would only feign faith outwardly while their hearts remained unmoved. Faith did not grow through such coercion. For this reason, the cult of the Black God had never prioritized spreading Tesranach's faith aggressively.

Certainly, they expanded their influence whenever the opportunity arose, but their true objective lay elsewhere.

There were two ways to become number one. The first was the straightforward method of surpassing everyone else to reach the top. The second was to drag down all those above you until you were the highest by default.

There was no need to go through the arduous task of converting all humanity to the faith of the Black God. It would suffice to kill and keep killing those who believed in the goddesses, thereby diminishing their faith.

As long as faith in Tesranach became number one in the end, it did not matter how it was achieved. Of course, they weren't about to slaughter every single follower of the goddesses. With nearly the entire world following the seven goddesses, how could they possibly kill everyone?

Perhaps if they continued to kill and kill over the years, they might succeed someday, but it was not something that could be accomplished in a short time.

Although rivers of blood were already flowing throughout the empire, the cultists of the Black God were still a small fraction compared to the entire population of the empire. They were vastly outnumbered by the followers of the seven goddesses.

But that did not matter. Even now, the faith in the church was steadily declining. Faith was not only about numbers but also about its purity. The faith of those who followed out of mere habit could never be the same as the faith of those who truly and wholeheartedly served their gods.

This was why, even as they waged war, the cult of the Black God took care to protect the common people. After all, most of the ordinary people did not truly possess a devout faith in the goddesses. They only believed because it was what everyone did, nothing more.

They believed widely but shallowly. Even these people would naturally resist coercion into abandoning their faith in the goddesses to worship only Tesranach. Humans could not bear changes to the life they were accustomed to.

But what if no one forced them to believe in Tesranach? What if they were simply left alone while the cult continuously exposed the ugliness of the church, all while tending to the people's needs? That alone would greatly thin out their existing faith.

—Who cares if it's the goddesses or the Black God? The god who feeds me is the good god.

If they could bring people to think like this, it was, in effect, a victory for Tesranach. Meanwhile, priests of the church who truly held pure faith—those who could prove their faith through divine power—were executed without hesitation. By doing this, they continued to chip away at faith in the seven goddesses while laying the groundwork for Tesranach's descent.

This was the descent strategy the Cult of the Black God had devised.

It would have gone far better if things hadn't become so complicated.

Had Elezar and Dreltein remained alive, they could have seized control of the empire more efficiently and oppressed the church without resorting to such extremes. They could have showered the people with excessive generosity, weakening the church's faith even more easily than now.

But things had gone awry, thus the plan proceeded through war and mass slaughter. Because of that, progress was far slower than they had hoped. Even if they handed bread to the hungry with bright smiles, who would gratefully accept it if the giver's hands were caked with blood and flesh?

Fear had already come to rule the empire, so no matter how much they suppressed the church, the faith in the seven goddesses was not diminishing as much as expected.

A breeze tainted with foul energy blew, stirring Emil's hair. Sensing the currents of the world, he let out a bitter smile. "Truly, nothing in this world ever goes as planned."

***

As they neared the capital, Karnak's party began to slow their pace. Until they could make contact with a Twilight outpost, they had to secure their own food supplies, but the war made it increasingly difficult to find intact villages along the way.

The farming village near the capital before their eyes was in ruins on every side. The dead had all been turned into necromancers' slaves and marched toward the capital, and those barely alive had long fled as refugees, leaving the village empty.

"Let's see if there's anything useful left to salvage," said Karnak.

The party split in two to search the area. Karnak, Varos, and Leven took the southern section, while Serati, Lapicel, Drel, and Milia searched the north.

They were checking for any remaining food stores worth taking when Leven turned to Karnak. "Do you think the cultists who took the capital are still staying there?"

Karnak answered him. "They probably are, don't you think?"

The reason the cult had rushed to capture the capital was to secure the Shadow of Doom sealed there. But even so, they still had the duty to spread Tesranach's faith by ravaging the world.

"The question is how they've divided their forces. The empire isn't exactly an easy target," stated Karnak.

Though the capital had fallen and the emperor had fled, it didn't mean the empire had been destroyed. The western army of the empire remained intact, and elsewhere, remnants were gathering to prepare for a counterattack.

Simply put, the empire's latent strength was still immense. They had been driven back hard by the unexpected assault, but even so, it was too soon to say that the Cult of the Black God had conquered the entire empire.

Leven frowned. "Now that you mention it, something feels off."

The sheer number of the believers across the continent was staggering, including priests and regular followers.

"No matter how many of their priests were killed, how could the cult's faith surpass that of the seven goddesses...?"

The numbers simply didn't add up.

At this, Karnak raised an eyebrow. "Hm? What are you talking about?"

Then, he continued with an exasperated chuckle. "Of course the cult can't surpass the church. How could they overtake a faith that has ruled the world for thousands of years? Especially in such a short time."

"Huh? But, sir, you said—"

"I never said they would surpass the church. I said they would get ahead of the seven goddesses."

The church of the goddesses was composed of seven separate orders. In other words, faith in the church itself was split seven ways.

"If you compare the cult's faith to the entirety of the church, of course it can't even come close. The numbers are far too different. But it can surpass the faith held for each individual goddess."

"So that's what you meant..." Leven nodded, finally understanding. "If only the church were like the fae's faith in Ta'al, worshipping a single god, none of this would be happening..."

"Yeah, as if that would ever happen." Karnak snorted. "In that case, they'd all end up worshipping the same goddess all the while calling her by different names. They'd fight each other to the death over it."

How could it ever be possible for all humans to believe in only one god? "It's precisely because they split into seven goddesses, acknowledging each other's differences, that their faith spread so widely."

"That sounds like a pretty biased opinion."

"Eh, maybe? I've always been a biased bastard anyway."

Surprisingly, Karnak wasn't particularly stubborn about matters like this. You could say he was the type who accepted others' opinions well enough—though the problem was that he twisted their meanings in the strangest ways imaginable.

"Anyway, we need to stop those bastards somehow, but damned if I can think of a way."

Without Diogres Kolon, there was no way to control the empire to stop them. No matter how high Karnak's fame had risen, it wasn't enough to influence the emperor himself.

"The Twilight Church can't do more than guerrilla warfare, either." As he walked, Karnak clicked his tongue in irritation. "Damn it, I wish I could just throw all this away and go back home."

Varos let out a dry chuckle. "Honestly, that might have been for the best."

According to what Leoslav had said, one of the conditions for Tesranach's descent was the Baptism of Death, granted by none other than Karnak himself.

"If you'd just stayed in your territory living in peaceful seclusion, none of this about the God of Death descending would have happened, would it?"

"That's not how it works."

If Karnak hadn't been around, the cult of the Black God would have steadily conquered the world without any obstacles. The Seven Kingdoms Alliance, the Lacania Empire, and the Berus Federation would have all fallen into their hands.

And after that? They would simply have sent martial kings, archmages, and the fallen popes one after another to the Zestrad territory.

Karnak explained, "It would have been an even easier ride for Tesranach."

Leven took on a strange expression. "So, in other words, it would've been better for the world if you had just died, Lord Karnak?"

Varos immediately waved his hands in denial. "If the young master dies, that would be the real disaster."

Killing Karnak first to stop Tesranach for the sake of the world? All that would do was replace their Monarch of Death with our Monarch of Death. If anything, things would only get worse.

"Besides, do you really think he would just quietly die?"

Ultimately, it meant that peace would only come if Karnak willingly sacrificed himself for the world.

Varos asked an earnest question. "Would that ever happen?"

Leven solemnly shook his head in understanding. "No, it would not."

Karnak was just as serious, though for different reasons. "The world should die for me, not the other way around."

In a sense, it was proof he never lost sight of his true nature. Varos turned his gaze to the ruins around them, changing the subject. "Anyway, let's get back to finding food. If we don't restock here, we'll end up starving on the road."