Hyungkeshni yielded to the Outer God's words.

While the Outer God framed it as persuasion, it was, in essence, a threat: "Do what I want, or I’ll kill you." It would be more accurate to call it surrender.

The moment Hyungkeshni sacrificed countless worlds to save herself from suffering a horrible fate, the Outer God, rather than celebrating, nervously pondered how best to navigate the current situation.

The Outer God thought,
"If it’s just about saving Hyungkeshni, I can make her a hero."

The Sphere Humans were currently under the Outer God’s control and could move at its will.

In the worst-case scenario, the Outer God considered combining the royal corpses into a grotesque "Outer God Monstrosity" and declaring itself the villain while claiming Hyungkeshni failed in her heroic mission to stop it. This idea briefly flashed through its mind before disappearing.

The Outer God's mind was sharp when devising underhanded schemes.

But the Outer God quickly dismissed this approach because it had a major flaw: even if Hyungkeshni survived and wrote a book, the Outer God couldn’t read it.

The Outer God had two ways of remembering books:

1. A blessed individual reads it aloud.
2. It licks the light of someone who has read the entire book.

The fact that the Outer God had no direct way to read books highlighted its nature.

Regardless, a blessed individual reading the book would suffice.

The problem was that no blessed individuals remained in this world.

Hyungkeshni had hunted them down and killed them all.

While Tis-ha was healing and rebuilding the kingdom, Hyungkeshni had also been quite busy.

Let’s recount her story.

Back when the Mirae Hope Sect was still active, Hyungkeshni left Yasle after warning him five times.
This wasn’t a betrayal—it was stipulated in their original contract. When she first made a pact with Yasle, Hyungkeshni agreed to help him but would leave if he ignored her advice.

Thus, her departure was not an act of treachery but a fulfillment of their terms. In fact, giving Yasle five warnings showed considerable patience.

Truthfully, Hyungkeshni’s reasons for helping Yasle were rather dark, so it was surprising she supported him for decades.

Her motivation wasn’t complex. To Hyungkeshni, Yasle wasn’t a cult leader but a young, righteous priest from Yonglang, a devout theocratic nation.

He was an idealistic, merciless cleric—compassionate yet unwavering in his condemnation of heretics.

In contrast, Hyungkeshni was the archetypal wicked witch, as if plucked from a fairy tale. She preyed on the weak and fled from the strong, cackling as she scattered curses.

Her sinister laughter earned her the nickname "Witch of Delight." Those who opposed her saw her as a mocking, elusive figure.

One day, a righteous cleric came to her—a man consumed by vengeance after losing his nation.

Intrigued, the witch decided to cooperate, curious to see how such an upright young man might fall.

"The higher they climb, the harder they fall. But how far can that fall go?"

Her curiosity was satisfied when Yasle, once a virtuous man, became undeniably evil.

He brainwashed and exploited people for his revenge, even falsely accusing innocent individuals and burning them alive.

Hyungkeshni delighted in his descent, finding solace in knowing even the virtuous could be corrupted.

To this fallen man, she gifted a solution:
"When a monster appears, tame it and use it."

She taught Yasle how to summon a god, thinking little of it.

But the being they summoned wasn’t the powerful demon they had expected. Instead, they summoned what appeared to be a timid girl with mysterious powers.

Naturally, the cowardly Hyungkeshni grew suspicious when a divine warrior’s crossbow destroyed the girl’s face, only for it to regenerate.

The crossbow was imbued with a curse designed to kill gods. It had previously slain a being worshipped as the "God of Wilderness."

Despite this, her doubts faded. The creature seemed helpless, requiring warmth to heal, and appeared ignorant of its own body’s functions.

Without care, it seemed like the creature might simply collapse and die. Hyungkeshni mistook it for a disembodied entity bound to a fragile human form.

That misconception didn’t last long.

One day, the Outer God revealed its true nature.

Hyungkeshni realized what she had thought were natural laws were actually the Outer God consuming humans, and that the creature had descended into this world by displacing the existing order.

A wicked god had been unleashed.

Panicked, Hyungkeshni sought Yasle’s counsel, but he dismissed her concerns, insisting the creature was functioning as intended under their contract.

After three more failed attempts to convince him, Hyungkeshni began hearing rumors of the "Outer God" spreading. The situation was worsening.

Terrified, she interrogated the Outer God and, upon learning its pervasive influence on the Mirae Hope Sect, rushed to Yasle once more.

Yasle refused to listen again.

Disheartened, Hyungkeshni abandoned him.

This was the last chance to stop the Outer God from reaching into this world—an opportunity wasted.

Unaware of the gravity of her actions, Hyungkeshni retreated to her sanctuary.

Not long after, she sensed the magic she had taught Yasle being used to kill him.

Curious, she followed the trail, expecting to mock or mourn him.

On her way, she encountered a blessed individual wielding her magic.

Her heart froze.

This wasn’t just magic from Yonglang—it was her own work, tailored over centuries and shared only with Yasle.

Several blessed individuals were using it.

Realizing the gravity of the situation, she deduced that the worst-case scenario had come to pass: Yasle’s techniques had been handed to the worst possible entity.

When a group of blessed individuals attempted to summon the Outer God again, Hyungkeshni used a hidden failsafe embedded in her magic to stop them and killed the summoners.

At first, she thought these killings were enough.

But when she saw members of Andrew’s Mirae Hope Sect banding together to summon the Outer God, she realized she had to act decisively.

Fearing the god’s return, Hyungkeshni exterminated every blessed individual.

Her cowardice drove her to relentless action. After years of effort, she killed them all—except Tis-ha, who she spared after witnessing his divine protection.

Excluding Tis-ha might have stemmed from fear of challenging a god-blessed hero.

Ultimately, the Outer God descended through Tis-ha, rendering Hyungkeshni’s efforts futile.

Now, she was at its mercy.

Faced with no real choice, Hyungkeshni complied to save herself, finding hollow comfort in blaming her surrender on the threat she faced.

And so, decades of effort crumbled, leaving her as nothing more than a tool for the Outer God.

It was her own doing.

If only she hadn’t taught the summoning rituals.
If only she had opposed the sacrifice of innocents.

No, from the moment she chose to indulge her curiosity about Yasle’s fall, this outcome had been inevitable.

She wasn’t truly evil, but her malice had led her here, just as gossip and schadenfreude drag ordinary people into ruin.

By ignoring Mirae Hope Sect’s atrocities, she had enabled them.

Her actions snowballed, unleashing the very entity she had named the Outer God into reality.

Now, she had accepted its veiled threats.

She had fallen off the cliff’s edge.

And then—

Boom!

The door burst open with a loud crash, and a soldier from the Ansellus Kingdom entered.

Moments earlier, the soldier had forced his way into Tis-ha’s strangely empty chamber to investigate reports of an intruding witch. Despite risking punishment for interrupting the royal family’s private quarters, he prioritized safety above all.

He was a responsible and upright man.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh!"

But his bravery was rewarded with a horrifying sight: an eldritch scene of Sphere Humans filling the room like an exhibit in a modern art gallery.

Overwhelmed by the grotesque scene, he collapsed, screaming.