Karnak, Monarch of Death

Tesranach's grace—it held the same meaning as the grace that had long been a point of theological controversy—the true nature of divine power. The faith offered by the Black God's followers across the continent to the God of Death, when gathered, became a vast wellspring of divinity that took on the form of authority.

Karnak clicked his tongue. "The church would have a fit if they heard this."

Truly, it was heresy among heresies. If this theory were taken to its extreme, it could even be interpreted as saying that it was not the gods who created humans, but humans who created the gods.

Serati asked, puzzled. "But doesn't that grace actually exist right now? Doesn't that mean this story is true?"

"You can't say that for sure. It's all about interpretation."

Gods were absolute, eternal beings who did not recklessly intervene in the human world in order to preserve the balance of the world. Thus, humans served the gods, offering their faith, and the gods used that faith to intervene in the human world. Grace was precisely defined as the qualification to intervene.

"How about that? This way, you can acknowledge the existence of grace without undermining the authority of the gods."

In fact, this was the doctrine taught to believers by the Black God's cult.

"From the perspective of the seven goddesses, they could counter this interpretation."

Only the Seven Goddesses were the true deities, and only the power they bestowed was true divinity.

Yet, in the world, there existed false beings that deceived humanity, known as false gods. False gods crudely copied the relationship between goddess and believer, bestowing a base form of power, and that power was grace.

"If you look at it this way, it all lines up," said Karnak.

"Isn't that just twisting words to fit whatever you want?"

"That's exactly it! Serati, you've grasped the essence of theology."

Watching Karnak's mocking expression, Serati realized something. You really have to take what this man says with a grain of salt.

From the beginning, Karnak had no fondness for the church. How could he possibly look at this objectively?

Karnak himself was well aware of that, so he did not stubbornly insist that his interpretation was the only correct one. "In the end, what matters isn't these theoretical details. What matters is that grace is a real, tangible power."

So, what kind of power did Tesranach's grace actually hold?

Leoslav continued his explanation. "Allow me to continue..."

***

Tesranach's avatar, Emil Strauss, wielded the God of Death's grace. The greatest effect of Tesranach's grace was this. "It allowed him to easily anchor the souls of people from the future into bodies in this world."

There was no longer any need to guide souls using the Anti-Time-Space Transcender. Emil Strauss himself served as the spatial and temporal coordinate.

There was no need to build an altar and spend long hours performing the ritual. Tesranach's grace allowed him to skip all of those steps.

Only one condition remained. "A handshake."

Karnak frowned. "A handshake?"

"To be precise, contact with a part of the body."

This was how the Giyen Ren of the present age had so easily lost his body. All Emil had to do was visit him, introduce himself as Gellard's son, and offer a handshake. Gellard, the martial king, and Giyen Ren, the archmage, were of different races but were acquainted to some extent. Giyen Ren had even met the young Emil at some point, so he had no reason to be suspicious.

Even if Giyen Ren had been suspicious, there would have been nothing he could have done. What could he possibly do when it was all over with a simple handshake?

Varos, unable to understand, asked, "No matter how you put it, he's an archmage. Are you saying he lost his body that easily?"

"The one taking it was also an archmage," said Karnak.

If it had been a typical case of possession, there was no way Giyen Ren would have lost, but since both parties were, in essence, himself, he was unable to resist.

Afterward, Emil had roamed the empire, seeking out the remaining fallen popes one by one and turning them into beings like Giyen Ren. Leoslav and Relfiana had also returned to this era through temporal regression during that process.

"All of them, except for Valeria, who replaced Jedex, were turned in the same manner," continued Leoslav.

Karnak asked, "Why was Valeria an exception?"

"She returned using the Anti-Time-Space Transcender."

Suddenly, Varos tilted his head in confusion. "This is weird. Why are there so many Anti-Time-Space Transcenders lying around?"

The more he listened, the less it made sense. It was said that only undead, like the four archliches, could create Anti-Time-Space Transcenders.

Yet even before that, Karnak had obtained things like the Witch's Dice, and after that, Elezar and Dreltein each possessed one, and now, he had recovered those of Leoslav and Relfiana as well. Thanks to this, Karnak now held no fewer than seven Anti-Time-Space Transcenders.

Yet from what he was hearing, it seemed that the other fallen popes each had one of their own as well.

Karnak voiced the mystery. "When did they multiply like this?"

Leoslav answered calmly. "It was because of you, Lord Karnak."

"Me?"

Originally, Tesranach had only known how to create Anti-Time-Space Transcenders by using archliches. But everything changed when Karnak began to interpret and utilize the Anti-Time-Space Transcenders.

"Those who fell to you returned to Tesranach, carrying with them the new perspective on how to handle the Anti-Time-Space Transcenders."

After that, Tesranach was able to mix the Seeds of Soulforce into the Shadow of Doom and scatter them into the present age. Thus, the seeds of death sprouted across the continent, bearing the fruit that was the Anti-Time-Space Transcender.

"Elezar and Dreltein collected those. They are the powers currently held by the Black God's cult."

Even the Witch's Dice, the first Karnak had acquired, was one of them. It had not been crafted by an archlich but had instead formed through the collective unconscious and fantasies of humanity, existing in a twisted, fairy-tale-like form.

"I see. If that's the reason, then it makes sense why it was so bizarre." Muttering, Karnak's expression twisted. "Wait, but doesn't the timeline not add up?"

Karnak had discovered the method to dismantle the Anti-Time-Space Transcender during the process of defeating Demphis and Maloka. In other words, he had obtained the Witch's Dice before he figured out how to dismantle the cubes.

"But you're saying Tesranach learned the new method of using the Anti-Time-Space Transcender because I discovered how to dismantle it?"

Leoslav gave a dry response. "He said it was due to a temporal discrepancy."

Varos and Serati frowned.

Temporal discrepancy?

What's that supposed to mean?

But Karnak understood immediately. "Ah, right. That's how it is."

As seen in previous cases, temporal regression often involved a few years of discrepancy, and Tesranach had scattered the seeds of spirit energy from beyond space-time, from the void. In other words, he could target time periods before Karnak had interpreted the Anti-Time-Space Transcenders.

"How ridiculous," muttered Karnak.

He was able to interpret the Anti-Time-Space Transcender because he obtained the Witch's Dice, yet he obtained the Witch's Dice because he could interpret the Anti-Time-Space Transcender? It was a paradox.

It's like that Overkill situation with Leven. So what does this even mean? Karnak fell into thought. He could not predict what kind of results such a temporal distortion would bring. Still, it seems I can at least get one confirmation from this.

What Karnak could do, Tesranach could not. Of course, there were also many things Tesranach could do that Karnak could not.

Karnak reasoned, "So, is it that the other world's Varos swallowed the other world's me and became Tesranach? That would explain why there's such a difference in skill when it comes to necromancy."

Varos sharply pointed out a flaw. "Then what about Lapicel? Why can she recognize both us and Tesranach?"

"That, I still don't know..."

Leoslav knew about Lapicel as well, but only as much as Demphis had known.

"This doesn't seem like we'll get any more answers, no matter how much we press."

What followed, when Giyen Ren and the fallen popes returned and began to plunge the Lacania Empire into chaos, was something Karnak already knew.

"Right, but what exactly is it that they're trying to achieve by tearing the empire apart?"

***

In the Northern Lacania Empire, the Munshin region, stood Ravenclaw. The military city of Ravenclaw had once been the greatest fortress and citadel of Munshin. With an army of 5,000 and strategically placed towers and walls, it had been considered an impregnable fortress for centuries.

That was no longer the case. The horrors that had erupted across the empire had not spared this city either. On a moonlit night shrouded in thin clouds, corpses staggered about under the black sky. Those who had once been brave knights, soldiers, mages, and priests guarding this place now roamed the city as rotting zombies. It was a truly wretched sight.

Yet, Beltia did not bat an eye. To her, this was nothing to grieve over.

"When he comes, when the new world dawns, all shall be saved."

It was painful and agonizing now. But just as one must endure the pain of labor to embrace a beloved child, so too must this agony be borne.

Standing on the terrace, gazing solemnly down at the ruined city, she offered a devout prayer. "O Tesranach, watch over your young lambs..."

A young girl quietly watched her from a building across the way. It was Valeria Verily, the Fallen Pope of the Sea, with her coarse brown hair and a freckled face.

It's a relief that Sir Beltia is here. I was worried because the plan had gone so far off track.

Thanks to the sacrifices of Leven, Jedex, and Elezar, the cult of the Black God had finally managed to bring Tesranach's grace down upon this land. But in truth, those three had not been the designated sacrifices as part of the original plan.

In Tesranach's scheme, there existed two types of representatives. There were those meant to represent aura, mana, and divine power as the Three Saints, and there were the three chosen to receive the baptism of death and deliver themselves to Tesranach.

Elezar, Dreltein, and Jedex were the Cult's Three Saints. The ones destined to receive the Baptism of Death had originally been Leven Strauss, Diogres Kolon, and Valeria Verily. Of course, they themselves had been unaware of this, as it was imperative the plan remained hidden.

Valeria let out a bitter smile. It was only after Jedex fell that I learned I was one of the chosen ones to receive the baptism.

Once these chosen fell to Karnak and returned to Tesranach, only then would the grace descend upon the land, allowing the plan to advance. Afterward, Elezar and Dreltein would taint the Lacania Empire, Jedex would subdue the Alliance of the Seven Kingdoms, and Giyen Ren would handle the Federation, spreading the Black God's influence across the entire continent.

That was how it should have gone, but everything had been thrown into disarray because of Karnak. The only part of the plan that went as intended was Leven Strauss. When Jedex fell instead of Valeria, the cult lost its grip over the Alliance of the Seven Kingdoms. The fall of Elezar and Dreltein had greatly weakened their hold over the empire as well.

But beyond the loss of influence, the greater blow was the loss of all Three Saints of the cult. They were not mere administrative figures overseeing the cult. They were critical symbols, serving as focal points for faith itself.

Without them, the faith in the Black God would not gather. But it was impossible to simply reinstate the dead as the Three Saints. The souls that Tesranach had taken remained with him beyond the veil of space-time. Until Tesranach himself descended upon this land, they could not return to this age.

And even if they could, they would no longer be qualified. Having lost their bodies, they would only return as undead, and the faith of the living could only be centered around the living. Since they no longer qualified, new replacements were hastily installed.

Giyen Ren stood for mana, Valeria Verily for divine power, and Beltia Crotium for aura. These became the cult of the Black God's new Three Saints.