Karnak, Monarch of Death

In the half-destroyed living room of a dark, wooden house, Karnak began preparations for necromancy, drawing a red summoning circle on the floor.

"Let's start with Relfiana."

With the altar prepared, Karnak quietly chanted the incantation. "By the authority of the Ledger of the Dead, I summon thee..."

The magic circle drawn on the floor emitted a somber light. A thin mist slowly began to rise.

"Come forth, Relfiana of Invict." The mist slowly took the shape of a woman. Karnak continued the incantation, "Emerge, Brand of the Soul."

He couldn't afford to lose control in the middle, like with Jedex. He needed to place her under firm dominion. The brand left on Leoslav's soul by Tesranach had transformed into a far more complex form, unlike the marks on the Four Elders of the Twilight Cult.

It seemed Tesranach had made further modifications after losing his archliches. I may not be able to seize it completely, but I can ensure that side can't touch it.

The brand shifted its form, partially accepting Karnak's control. The woman respectfully knelt on the floor. "Command me, my master."

As he watched the spirit of Relfiana bow her head, Karnak paused, thinking for a moment. "Now, what should I ask first?"

From the side, Varos spoke up. "Weren't you going to uncover Tesranach's plans?"

"I am, but that's such a broad question."

In any case, it was worth starting the interrogation to see what he could get.

"What are Tesranach's plans?"

"How could a mere servant like me possibly comprehend his profound will?"

"Yeah, I figured you'd say that."

Still, he was able to confirm one thing. Tesranach's influence still lingers.

Unlike with the Four Elders of the Twilight Cult, he hadn't been able to completely overwrite the brand on her soul. Looks like I can't turn her into an undead servant and use her freely.

At any rate, it was clear that questioning her in this way would yield no proper answers. Karnak decided to change the question. First, Karnak decided to ask what he was most curious about. "How did you subdue Giyen Ren of this era?"

"We did not subdue him."

"Hold on. You possessed the future Giyen Ren without subduing him? How?"

"It was by the grace of Tesranach."

"What the hell is this supposed to mean? Grace? Who did something like that?"

"It was the avatar of Tesranach."

Karnak let out a sigh. Was he going to have to play twenty questions endlessly just to extract a single proper answer like this? "Ugh, forget it."

He sealed Relfiana away again and this time summoned Leoslav, repeating the same process.

The spirit of Leoslav, marked with the modified brand, bowed his head politely. "Command me, my master."

Karnak asked the same questions again, and the result was exactly as he had expected. Even with the same question, Leoslav responded much more proactively. "The avatar of Tesranach, Emil Strauss, used the Black God's grace to summon the future Giyen Ren into this world."

Serati and Varos turned to Karnak in shock.

"Emil Strauss?"

"Why is that man suddenly showing up again?"

***

When the bodies of Leoslav and Relfiana turned to light and vanished, Karnak found two black cubes, the Anti-Time-Space Transcenders. The moment he saw them, he quickly snatched them up. How could he leave behind these legendary artifacts, capable of storing vast amounts of mana?

Though the stored power within them had been completely drained and he couldn't use them immediately, he could replenish them whenever the opportunity arose. For example, he could sneak into the seven church and steal the sealed Shadow of Doom.

In any case, each of the two fallen popes had possessed an Anti-Time-Space Transcender. That was why Karnak had assumed they, too, had been summoned into this era using the same method as Elezar, Dreltein, or Jedex.

But he had been wrong. "Just like with Giyen Ren, the other apostles were also brought into this era by Sir Emil."

After the battle with the future Leven, who had taken over Gellard's body, Emil Strauss had suddenly vanished. Karnak had been quite confused at the time, unable to grasp what had happened.

Leoslav knew the answer. When the soul of the future Leven had transferred into Gellard's body, the body left behind by Emil had entered a sort of autopilot state. It was similar to how Varos's body would enter an autopilot mode, protecting Karnak whenever his soul possessed Serati.

But then, the future Leven was defeated. His soul returned across time and space to Tesranach. The body was left abandoned, still containing the dormant soul of Emil within it.

In that hazy state of mind, Emil, unable to even remember who he was, instinctively fled the battlefield before wandering aimlessly.

"It was then that Tesranach took him in."

Tesranach was the God of Death residing in the void. He could not directly extend his hand into this era. Thus, he had been expanding his influence indirectly through his subordinates.

To Tesranach, Emil Strauss was a rather unique case. Emil had not been part of the original plan. He was simply a body temporarily taken by the future Leven when things went awry. However, during the process where the future Leven suppressed Emil's soul, a faint connection remained between Leven's master, Tesranach, and Emil.

"Tesranach deemed him useful and made him his avatar."

With meticulous manipulation, Tesranach altered Emil's memories and personality, implanting a replica of his own consciousness within Emil's soul. Furthermore, by fragmenting a portion of his own soul and embedding it within Emil, Tesranach completed his avatar.

Thus, Emil Strauss became a being who, while still himself, could think and feel in the same manner as Tesranach.

"My god..." Serati's face turned pale as she listened to the story.

To have one's body stolen by another's soul, barely escape, only to have one's very personality forcibly overwritten by an even greater evil? It meant that not only his body and soul but Emil's very existence itself had been stolen.

"What a horrifying..."

She even thought that it would have been a kinder fate for Emil to have been killed at the hands of Karnak or Tesranach.

Meanwhile, Karnak's focus lay elsewhere. "So, an avatar, huh?"

It was a method of manipulating memories and personality to transform another into a being who shared the same nature and thought patterns.

"I mean, it makes sense."

He had never seriously considered attempting it, but just thinking about the theory, it did seem possible. Hadn't he himself tampered with memories countless times using mana needles?

Of course, that alone wouldn't be sufficient to transform someone into a vessel capable of serving as one's avatar. That was why Tesranach had likely embedded a fragment of his own soul into Emil as well.

"Well, it's not like I couldn't do it." Karnak, too, had plenty of experience tearing apart human souls. After all, there was Lapicel, Dreltein, and others. "Of course, I'd never do something insane like tearing apart my own soul..."

In the middle of speaking, Karnak tilted his head. "Wait, come to think of it, didn't I do something similar?"

When he discarded the power of Astra Shunaph, that, in a way, could be seen as tearing apart his soul. It had been a body straddling both spirit and flesh. Upon reflection, it seemed entirely possible for an entity like an avatar to exist.

Yet there was still something he couldn't understand. "If Tesranach could make Emil Strauss his avatar, why didn't he show himself even once until Elezar and Dreltein were defeated?"

Leoslav answered. "Because their defeat was necessary."

"Their defeat was necessary?"

"To be precise, the defeat of Elezar was necessary." The voice of the spirit echoed softly through the house. "Only then could Tesranach's grace reach this era."

***

Tesranach had used the Anti-Time-Space Transcender to send his subordinates from the future into this era. However, he had never intended to keep using that method. The temporal regression using the Anti-Time-Space Transcender was simply too complicated a procedure.

That had merely been a temporary measure while he searched for a way to send his influence directly into this age.

"That method was to obtain qualification in this era."

"Obtain qualification? What does that mean?"

"I do not know." All Leoslav knew was that Tesranach had referred to it as a baptism of death. "His purpose was to replicate the influence of the true master of pure death and to produce the same effect."

And the rightful owner he spoke of was Karnak Zestrad himself.

Karnak's expression twisted. "Me?"

"Pardon?"

"Why me, of all people?"

"I do not know. Tesranach only referred to you as the Lord of Death."

Karnak fell into thought for a moment. What the hell is this about?

It wasn't that he was puzzled because he had no guesses. On the contrary, he had too many.

Is it because I am a being that transcends time and space? Or because the power of Astra Shunaph was originally mine? Or because I was the true Monarch of Death of this era? Or because Tesranach and I are the same being? Or, rather, precisely because we are not the same?

There was nothing more to be gained from pressing Leoslav on this point. It was clear that Leoslav was under powerful mental suppression regarding matters related to Karnak.

—You will not seek to know.

"Well, that part I can understand."

Just look at Demphis and Maloka. Both of them had been so consumed by curiosity about Karnak that they had been unable to exert their full strength, falling pathetically into defeat and becoming slaves to his will.

Naturally, Tesranach would have placed additional control measures in the minds of his remaining subordinates. I would have done the same.

Tesranach had consistently prepared countermeasures every time Karnak made a move.

At the very least, it's clear that bastard is paying quite a bit of attention to me.

Apparently, in order for Tesranach to acquire the level of influence he desired, the following procedure was necessary.

"Three returnees, each representing aura, mana, and divine power, had to receive the baptism of death."

Only when all these conditions were met could Tesranach finally extend his hand into this era. At last, Karnak was able to resolve the questions he had felt during the battle with the future Leven.

No wonder he collapsed so pathetically. In truth, that battle had practically been a victory for the future Leven. If it hadn't been for some unknown reason that caused him to let go at the last moment. He really had been sent to lose.

When the future Leven had first descended into this era, he hadn't exactly been defeated. It was only because the situation became tangled that he had been expelled from the current Leven's body. Thus, he had no choice but to seize Emil's body and continue with the plan.

But the second time, he had been properly defeated, received the baptism of death, and his soul had returned to Tesranach.

"It was the defeat of the first returnee, who represented aura," explained Leoslav.

"And Gellard?"

"He was never part of the original plan."

Of course, the original plan had been for the future Leven to take over the body of the current Leven. There would have been no plan to steal Gellard's or Emil's bodies. Gellard had simply been swept along because his soul had been entangled with the future Leven.

It was around the same time that Karnak was forced to use Angel of Radiant Wings. From Tesranach's perspective, there was no reason not to use a technique that had suddenly become available to him. After making some adjustments, he had granted it to the Black God's cult.

So that was the technique that transformed Milia, thought Karnak.

The plan had continued from there. Then came Jedex Tieland, the Fallen Pope of the Sun, who represented divine power. Elezar de Reflasion, the archmage, represented mana. Both of them had received the baptism of death and returned to Tesranach. Now that all the conditions had been fulfilled, his grace could finally reach into this era.

"That grace was what awakened Giyen Ren."