Chapter 99

In the beginning, God bestowed black mana and holy power upon humans who were being slaughtered by monsters.

Black mana was a power based on offense; holy power, on defense. These gifts were granted only to humans chosen by God.

But as the chosen humans evolved their powers on their own and began to deify themselves, more and more of them tried to rule the world as if the powers they received from God were their own.

Those with black mana, especially, were far worse than those with holy power.

Drawing out a second force from black mana, they created black magic, a system that used God’s own creations—living beings—to amplify their abilities.

In response, God reduced the number of black-mana bearers to one and increased the number of holy-power bearers so they could face not only monsters but black magic as well.

Those who received holy power accepted this defensive strength as God’s arrangement, building temples and worshipping Him.

God could not ignore the black magicians who absorbed the souls of animals, monsters, and even humans to grow the power of darkness. So he granted black mana the ability to nullify black magic, its own corrupted descendant.

However, even the human who had black mana could not be trusted completely. To prevent them from conquering the world with it, God imposed a limitation: if they used too much black mana, they would go berserk.

And he delivered an oracle—only a God-chosen human could stop that berserk state.

All this began because God, seeing his human creations being pitifully hunted by monsters, shared a fragment of his own power with them.

Yet humans, instead of using that gift to fight evil—the natural counterpart that exists where good exists—chose instead to torment their own kind and climb to the top of the “good” for the sake of dominance.

In response, God even created spirits.

Looking back, among all beings in whom good and evil coexist, humans were the closest to evil.

It was humans who resurrected the God of Evil, humans who borrowed God’s power to seal him, and humans yet again who sought to resurrect Him.

After absorbing all this information through Hayden, Enria realized that her original self in the other world had been made to read the book about what would happen here, then possessed this body and given birth to Hayden—all by God’s will.

God had foreseen that the black magician of this era would resurrect the God of Evil, and so he chose Enria and Hayden as his countermeasure.

This raised a strong question in her about the absolution ability, which consumed the life force of the chosen human.

So she turned her attention to Hayden’s life force—and learned the truth.

Hayden, the owner of the oracle, was a creation made from a portion of God’s power. Until God reclaimed that fragment, Hayden could not be touched by death.

Enria had always thought Hayden developed faster in some areas and slower in others because he was born in the spirit village, but she was wrong.

He was growing exactly as he should for what he truly was.

Her son, yet also God’s son—the one who could wield all the power bestowed by God—felt strangely unfamiliar for a moment.

“Hayden is our son, Enria. That fact doesn’t change,”

Caldeon said gently, as if reading her heart.

Enria looked slowly between Caldeon and Hayden.

Yes. Even if Hayden was God’s fragment, no one could deny he was the child she bore and the child Caldeon fathered—precious, beloved.

Just as Caldeon said, he was still their child.

And both she and Caldeon had been chosen by God as well.

‘God let his fragment be born through his chosen humans. What a more perfect family could exist?’

Enria felt a deep swell of awe at their bond—Caldeon, Hayden, and herself.

And beneath that awe was another quiet relief: Hayden was not a possessed outsider like her. He was truly their second generation.

“So no matter how much he uses the absolution ability, Hayden’s life won’t be harmed?”

Enria asked, looking at Hayden.

Caldeon nodded.

“That’s right. But God doesn’t humans to ever learn that.”

“Yeah. It’s a secret. A secret between me, Mom, and Dad.”

Hayden pressed a finger to his lips—shh.

Enria smiled tenderly and nodded.

“Yes, Hayden. It stays within our family.”

***

Pahomel began releasing a poison made through black magic into every river the Empire used for drinking water.

The poison was a mixture of black-magic toxin and the deadliest venom from monsters.

The Mages’ Tower could purify most poisons, so it wouldn’t accomplish much—but it was perfect as a temporary deception to hide the presence of black magic.

Black mana spread through the river in dark smoke, sinking slowly as Pahomel watched. He worked to keep the black magic as thin as possible so Caldeon wouldn’t detect it, but he didn’t forget to maintain the poison’s lethality; he needed as many souls as quickly as possible.

Because of this, the black magic stored in his body quickly neared depletion.

To keep it from running dry, he swallowed the human souls he had stored for resurrecting the God of Evil, one by one.

‘If I tortured them more, their souls would improve in quality… but there’s no time for that now.’

Watching the lethal poison spread—strong enough to kill instantly once ingested—Pahomel calculated how long it would take the souls to gather.

He was consuming the souls he had saved, so he now had to rely solely on the souls of those who died from this poison for the resurrection ritual.

And he still needed black magic to forcibly summon Panz, who had realized he was the destined vessel and fled.

He also needed power to block Caldeon’s group, who would surely interfere during the brief moment of the God of Evil’s revival.

‘Then the best option is to target the region that consumes river water fastest, wipe them out in an instant…’

Pahomel released a bit of black magic into the river separately to determine which region would receive the poisoned water first.

Although the river branched across the Empire, only one place would be the first to drink it.

Following the black magic through the currents, Pahomel’s expression hardened.

It was the North.

‘Damn it.’

Caldeon would notice immediately.

No one was more obsessive or thorough when it came to the North.

‘I can’t divert poison that’s already released… What do I do?’

The worst scenario was Caldeon learning about the deaths in the North too soon; his plans always collapsed when Caldeon intervened early.

‘If I delay news from the North long enough…’

A good idea struck him.

‘I’ll unleash monsters in the capital.’

The Emperor’s safety was the Empire’s highest priority. Caldeon’s group would immediately rush to the capital to defend him.

‘That’ll also keep the Mages’ Tower from interfering.’

After Groen’s death, defectors had begun appearing in the tower. They could become obstacles too.

Releasing monsters would solve several problems at once.

‘The issue is transporting that many monsters at once…’

His previous plan—to carve a path from the forest of monsters—had been stopped by Caldeon’s group. He couldn’t use that method again.

But then another thought came.

The Empire’s teleport stones.

‘Yes. The teleport stones!’

The Empire possessed spatial-transfer devices called teleport stones.

They were expensive, used only by the wealthy, because their required raw crystals came exclusively from one part of the monster forest.

Thus, there were few in existence, and most people relied on ordinary travel or magic-powered carriages.

‘I’ll gather them first.’

Collecting them would be easy.

Every major noble house—except Caldeon’s—kept at least ten stones.

Sending black magic into their estates to steal the stones was trivial.

Pahomel quickly returned to his hideout, spread out a map, and began directing black magic toward each noble territory.

Through the special map, the black magic infiltrated the estates, searching for the stones.

A vicious smile spread across his face.