There Is No World For ■■-Chapter 193: Curtain Call - Behind the Train

...Where should I begin?

Right. To explain how it all started, I need to talk about religion first.

Hey, Earthling. You people—

I mean, you who lusted after everything beyond the dimensional gate—you welcomed a new faith with open arms.

And that wasn’t so difficult, was it?

Unlike your silent, absentee gods, our gods proved their existence through blessings and priests.

It all began when the previous Saint healed a Jewish man suffering from nerve damage caused by poison gas. From that moment on, the Five Gods' Church exploded in popularity.

That frenzy, that joy...

Even we necromancers were shocked. So just imagine what the priests of the Five Gods must’ve felt.

But that was the problem. Their joy blinded them.

Some even began to fantasize that the Church could become a bridge of peace between Earth and Asha.

Looking back now... it’s ridiculous.

How could they expect to “convert” the White House and the Kremlin when even the nobles and magicians beyond the gate didn’t live by doctrine?

If you ask me...

The priests simply forgot a basic truth: human lust for power will always challenge divine authority.

And Earthlings—your lust for power surpassed our wildest expectations.

So it didn’t take long for the first trial to arrive.

Iosif Stalin.

The pope of communist doctrine, who called religion the opiate of the masses, did not welcome the arrival of a rival faith.

Especially not when the priests arrogantly asked him to limit the spread of communism beyond the dimensional gate. That pissed the USSR off big time.

After fierce debate and war posturing, Stalin redefined the gods beyond the gate.

Higher-dimensional energy lifeforms.

He declared that not just the Five Gods, but even our Undying King wasn’t a god.

The priests protested the blasphemy—and were met with bullets.

Holy knights like Saintblade or Hoana Thule fought back heroically, but...

Well, there’s a reason the history books record it as a “resistance,” not a “victory.”

Eventually, the clergy had to flee the communist bloc in disgrace.

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

But sadly, that was only the beginning of—

...Huh? What?

****

“Skip to the next part?”

The white-haired necromancer Dilla stared at her opponent, dumbfounded.

A girl leaned against the train corridor wall, blue eyes gleaming.

She looked like hell—but she still stared Dilla down, voice calm and condescending.

“I didn’t expect a modern history lecture, you know.”

“....”

“Can you just skip the publicly known parts and jump to the stuff only you know?”

Dilla frowned, glaring at her for a moment.

She found it absurd that the loser was giving her orders—but oddly enough, she wasn’t angry.

No, it felt... natural. As if the girl was the victor here.

Yes. This was natural. It was the winner’s right to listen to the loser's rant. That’s all this was.

“Fine. Let’s move on then. To the era when we necromancers—worked with America.”

****

It wasn’t because of some grand ideal that we joined hands.

We necromancers needed safe labs and fresh materials.

America needed knowledge to stay ahead in the Cold War.

It was a mutually beneficial deal.

Thanks to the chaos in South America, corpses overflowed in Texas, and the U.S. was happy with even the most basic mana training.

Good times—until America decided we were no longer useful.

That betrayal—

...What? You want me to move on again?

Uh... wait...

Do you know this part? About the Undying King we worship?

He's known as one who ascended. As in, he was once human in life... but became a god in death.

That’s the myth, anyway. I mean, come on. How can a human become a god?

But when Americans learned that myth... they started thinking about something else entirely.

What to call it... creativity? Lateral thinking? Madness?

Call it what you want—when they heard “ascension,” Earthlings demanded the opposite.

Descent. Take an existing god, drag them down to Earth, and turn them into a weapon.

It was insane. But we had neither the power nor the reason to say no.

It even aligned with our own goals.

In the end... we began preparing magic to bring down the gods.

Weird, huh?

I get it. When Earthlings built rockets to send people to the Moon, I thought that was insane too.

Honestly, I still don’t get it.

What’s the point of sending humans to the Moon? Isn’t that just a colossal waste of money?

...Anyway.

First, we developed a spell—together with the U.S.—that allowed us to peer into other dimensions.

And on the very first attempt, we caught a glimpse of the heavens.

Pure luck. Our last bit of luck.

And what we found there... wasn’t what we’d expected.

Messy. Chaotic gods.

Compared to the Five Gods, they were faint—insignificant, even.

What did they look like?

Hard to explain. Like clumps of mana wrapped around a concept. Beyond that... I can’t say.

It was like...

...Stars?

Yeah. That’s right. Some people started calling them stars. But how do you know that?

Wait... have you seen them, too?

...Still want me to shut up and move on? Ugh, fine.

Okay, long story short:

We failed. Over and over. Enough to disappoint even America.

And then—

Uhh...

My head... what the hell is—

You want me to keep going? W-well...

We... we were abandoned.

Just like our homeland betrayed us, America purged us—

So we... revenge... Miami...

Ah—

Wait, my head... it hurts so damn much...

****

Seti narrowed her eyes as she stared down at the necromancer squirming on the floor.

We haven’t even gotten to the important questions, and she’s already breaking down.

Maybe rough handling—like a shepherd beating a stray—wasn’t the right approach after all?

With a sigh, she moved her shadows more delicately.

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

And in the next instant, the necromancer’s eyes rolled back as her body convulsed violently.

A scene that would’ve made her sister scream in horror.

Luckily, her sister had already run ahead to investigate why the train had stopped. At the moment, only Seti and the necromancer were left alone in the corridor.

Seti looked down and asked calmly:

“So, where are we?”

“T-this... is part of the Undying King’s... mental plane...”

“That’s some—tch, whatever. Then how do we get out?”

“If... the caster... cancels the spell... it’ll dissolve... on its own...”

“Caster? Who’s the caster?”

“M-me... Dilla Katakpoier...”

Seti let out a small laugh as she looked at the necromancer. Good thing I didn’t kill her.

“What was the reason for this spell? Were you targeting us?”

“You...? D-don’t know... What we wanted... was the CIA agent...”

“...CIA agent?”

She remembered what Corvus had told her right before they entered this place.

That there was a CIA agent on the train.

So being dragged into this had been pure coincidence?

As Seti let out a hollow laugh, Dilla murmured:

“Scarlett O’Hara... America’s... first successful... fallen star...”

“What?”

“A human... turned into a star... dissect her... and we can achieve... our hidden wish...”

They successfully made a star fall? Seti frowned before she realized it.

Images suddenly surfaced in her mind.

The strange being she’d met inside the golden seal. The necromancers and the South Korean government. The Sand Star who’d said it wasn’t time yet.

Seti hovered between certainty and doubt as she asked:

“Is there some way to tell if someone’s a fallen star?”

Dilla didn’t answer right away.

The necromancer kept working her lips silently—until Seti moved the shadow tendrils again.

Only then did she respond.

“Y-yes. Three ways. If... it’s the same kind of star... they’ll recognize each other. And if they... use divinity... or...”

“Or?”

“If a god’s... name... has been erased... ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) you can know...”

“...”

“We recorded it. Earth gods. Artemis, Poseidon, Apollo. All disappeared. That’s how... we knew... America made stars fall.”

Maybe she’d dug too deep into the girl’s soul. Dilla could barely speak properly anymore.

Seti didn’t care. She kept shifting the shadows and asked:

“...Artemis? That was a god?”

“E-earth... regional mythology... goddess of the moon... you... don’t know... because... she fell... onto this world!”

A star that falls loses its name.

That explanation made Seti laugh—like Hamlet in the moment of revelation. Hollow, and all too human.

So that’s why our names are strange...?

Just as the realization hit her and a chill ran down her spine—

KUUUUGUGUGU...!

The ground trembled. The train rocked violently.

What the hell?

Seti immediately cleared the flesh that had been plastered over the windows and looked outside.

And the first thing she saw—

Was a horizon lined with giants.

Undead Titans. Not one or two, but dozens. A horrifying sight.

And yet, what caught her eye wasn’t the monsters—it was the small figure fighting them.

...Yeomyeong?

Every thought that had filled her mind vanished in an instant.

Only one remained: I have to get out of here before he gets hurt.

She said the spell ends if the caster cancels it.

Seti didn’t hesitate. She summoned more shadow tendrils and drove them deep into Dilla’s body—so deep they’d never be removed.

And then—

The dull light in Dilla’s eyes flickered back to life.

She was conscious again. Her teeth clicked in panic as she looked up at Seti.

“W-what did you do to me...?”

Seti didn’t answer. She gave a command.

“Dispel this magic. Right now.”

“Are you insane?! You’ll never escape this mindscape—!”

Her voice was filled with rage, but her body followed Seti’s command without hesitation.

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

Dilla didn’t ask what was happening.

She understood.

As a necromancer, she realized her body had been taken over by a divine spell—and that she would never regain control of it.

“No... no, no...”

Her despair echoed through the corridor, but Seti’s eyes never left Yeomyeong.

Three minutes until the spell dissolved.

One minute until Yeomyeong began using corpse detonation.