The Witch of Joy spent a time when her laughter never ceased.
As long as she kept laughing, she believed she must be happy.
Anyway, the Outer God Church, having captured the Witch of Joy, was about to call upon the Outer God immediately. But unfortunately, Hyungkeshni’s magic alone was not enough to summon the Outer God.
To make it work, they needed to add the secret arts that Yasle brought from the Kingdom of Yeorang. Only then could they surpass the minimum conditions necessary to reach the Outer God.
However, there was a problem.
The knowledge sent by the Outer God is more difficult to hear for those whose consciousness is clear. This is why Tistha never sensed the summoning methods the Outer God had been sending throughout her life.
The more blurred one's sense of self and the more chaotic their mind, the more easily the malignant information from the Outer God could seep into their heads. This was why the people Yasle gathered quickly learned the summoning method from the Outer God Church.
Most of them had already been broken by the brainwashing of a cult and were people who depended on others, making them more receptive to the method of summoning.
But the Outer God Church was different.
The Outer God Church didn’t destroy a person’s personality; rather, it was a religion that encouraged forgiveness and acceptance of others.
It was a religion about growing the heart.
Thus, although Hyungkeshni’s knowledge was analyzed, it was still not enough to reach the knowledge needed to call upon the Outer God.
This required the special secret arts that Yasle had.
After several failed attempts to summon the Outer God, Rebecca gave up on summoning the Outer God directly.
Instead, she decided to use another method.
Based on the information from the royal family of Anselus and the pain Hyungkeshni provided, it was said that the more people who had received blessings, the easier it would be for the Outer God to appear.
So, she decided to create many blessed individuals.
First, Rebecca spread the blessing that was previously only done in the Holy Land across the entire world.
She proclaimed this under the name of the Outer God Church.
A new era had arrived, where anyone could receive the blessing if they desired.
Additionally, Rebecca used what she had learned from the history of another world.
She crafted a doctrine based on universal religions that she saw in the Outer God’s memory, intending to spread it as widely as possible.
This wasn’t a religion like the Abrahamic ones that rejected other religions, but more like Hinduism, which absorbs other beliefs.
Rebecca’s mixture of various elements created a religion, and its ambiguity became its strength, allowing it to spread rapidly.
One reason the Outer God Church spread so quickly was because the legend of the Outer God existed everywhere in the world.
The god of salvation who appeared to give strength to those who were desperate.
Before the Outer God Church spread, the idea of the Outer God already existed in essence.
Of course, there had been cults derived from that primitive religion, but they didn’t last long and were quickly dissolved and absorbed.
This was because of the blessing.
Anyone who believed the Outer God existed and recited a certain passage could receive the blessing.
Whether they had no arms or legs, or suffered from skin diseases, as long as they received the blessing, they would be cleansed. Once they felt the greatness of the Outer God, a completely new doctrine would approach.
Believing in the god was the freedom of humanity.
It even recognized the freedom not to believe in the Outer God. The blessing was not something granted in exchange for faith. No matter what you did, the blessed person was promised that the Outer God would come for them in the end.
At first glance, this might seem like a statement that weakens faith. If you don’t have to believe, then shouldn’t you just not believe?
But the real power of this statement comes when there is another religion present.
When two religions exist, people inevitably compare them.
It is an instinct that people have had since prehistory to seek which one is more effective, holding similar items in hand.
A person who has received the blessing from the Outer God and then returns to their original religion.
But what’s waiting there are other people.
Those who have received the blessing now have purple hair, and their skin has turned pale. When someone stronger and smarter, suddenly enhanced by the blessing, appears, what would people think? What if that person was someone who used to be weaker than them?
They would reject them.
They would forbid those with purple hair from entering their territories, accusing them of selling out to an evil entity.
So what happens?
They don’t immediately join the Outer God Church. After all, they still believe in their local god, and they just received the blessing because they thought it would make them stronger. But now, they are rejected by their own religion.
So now, the people who received the blessing find a place where they can believe in their local god.
This is close to a disease.
From the perspective of someone neutral, it’s just the appearance of two temples in the same place.
To an outsider, there’s little difference. However, people who have already been to the Outer God Church initially avoid places without purple hair, for it feels uncomfortable.
Still, as time goes on, there comes a point when everyone, at least once in their life, wishes to turn to a god.
When that moment comes, where do people instinctively turn for help?
The Outer God Church.
Once blessed, most things can be solved. Furthermore, it’s possible to still believe in your original god after receiving the blessing.
The number of blessed people increases. Let’s say there’s a family. The father has an accident at work. After receiving the blessing, his body heals.
So, where will the family go?
To the temple where the father can go? Or the one where he can’t?
Eventually, the second temple becomes the one where people gather. And the first temple, because of the culture of rejection, loses people and eventually crumbles.
People gradually become accustomed to the blessing. Even if they don’t know the Outer God, it’s beneficial for the Outer God. Many harvesters have been born.
But the real penetration of the Outer God Church happens with the next generation. All their hair turns purple. The distinctive appearance of the Outer God’s followers in the same village becomes an accepted reality.
Since most people now have purple hair, resistance fades and familiarity grows.
As this happens, there’s an opportunity to learn the free doctrine of the Outer God Church. Then, people begin comparing. A god who gives something only if you believe, and a god who gives blessings without requiring belief, promising to come for you at the end.
Which one is greater?
Not every village or city undergoes this transformation, but the process is similar everywhere.
This is not a religion people follow because they’re told to, but the teachings of the Outer God Church gradually seep into the cultural roots.
And with that one sentence about freedom, space for other beliefs is gradually eroded.
In places without faith, there are now two types of miracles.
The blessing is given first, and the price is paid later.
The miracles of other gods require faith first and miracles later.
People prefer quick and easy miracles.
Why pray at a specific time every week? Moreover, many other religions demand a lot of money.
Originally, all religious groups demand money for various reasons. Even religions that place charity before everything else need money to survive in the material world.
But if the amount is small, where will people’s attention turn?
From both the perspective of faith and money, the Outer God Church is too powerful.
So, within less than 40 years, it was no surprise that most people across the continent had purple hair and exceptionally white skin.
As this grew, a stigma effect began.
Even if someone wasn’t like that themselves, if they had purple hair and pale skin, they were simply associated with the Outer God Church.
It was like making a hasty generalization that all Muslims were terrorists simply because they were from a country where the Outer God once lived.
From the victim’s perspective, it might be easier to understand if we think of how foreigners might lump all Eastern Asians as Chinese or Japanese.
And as the scale grew, it sometimes pulled in larger crowds.
People in today’s society who have experienced media manipulation would understand this through experience.
Looking up the term "McCarthyism" and studying related events might be enlightening.
Whether the truth or lies, groups often commit senseless acts easily.
In the center of the continent, between the Adu Jungle and the Skard Stone Desert.
Using this as a boundary, it took less than 30 years to paint the entire eastern region with purple hair.
And when 60 years passed since the Outer God’s death in the Holy Land, most of the people on the continent were dyed purple.
Unfortunately, that’s how it came to be.
One day, people started hearing something like cracking sounds. But nothing happened.
So, they assumed it was some disaster or major event happening far away.
It was still a time when people attributed such things to divine causes.
Of course, it was just after humanism had started to take root based on the doctrine of the Outer God Church.
But it was still an era where it was easier to blame the gods than to try to find the cause of the phenomenon.
Though not everyone was searching, those who did never found the source of the crackling sound.
For about eight years, the sound of cracking gradually grew more frequent. Eventually, people grew accustomed to it. And with that, the last hope faded away.
But there was one person who had heard that sound before.
And one person who knew what it meant.
Now, in the underground of the old headquarters of the Outer God Church, no one used it anymore.
What could barely be called a human form was closer to a lump of flesh, but once it had been a person.
Decades ago.
The person once named the Witch of Joy, Hyungkeshni.
With tortures that felt like breathing itself, the human who had already lost her sanity was there. A young woman came to that place.
Dakota.
She hadn’t aged. People thought it was because she was a saint, but she knew she had special abilities.
When blessed, some people gain special abilities.
For her, that ability was to keep her body from decaying until she killed Hyungkeshni. Beside her was a middle-aged woman with snow-white hair.
Her name was Rebecca Rolf. After nearly 200 years, she was finally beginning to age.
Of course, she was still short.
Rebecca approached Hyungkeshni.
“Long time no see, old witch.”
Thud.
From behind her, there was the sound of something cracking. A very chilling sound. And Hyungkeshni, having heard it before, opened her one remaining eye.
Without muscles, she couldn’t smile anymore, but with her one remaining ear, she thought about the sound she had just heard.
A long time ago, before the suffering in the center of hell began, this kind of sound was heard when something very, very, very frightening was about to happen.
It was the Outer God.
Thud.
The sound came again.
As something heavy was placed above, the sound of cracking glass, unable to withstand the weight, was heard.
“It’s finally time for it to end. I’ve come to say goodbye.”
The witch looked at Rebecca, who was smiling. She tried to speak, but couldn’t. She no longer had the organs to speak.
She tried to laugh. But the muscles capable of laughter had been long removed, almost obsessively.
Instead, with the windows of her mind, she could only stare at Rebecca, filled with fear.
Crack!
The sound of something breaking under pressure echoed.
At that moment, Hyungkeshni felt the burning pain that she had experienced hundreds of times. Dakota had driven a burning sword into her body.
But that was the last time a human could do something.
Do you remember when the Outer God blessed someone, how that person felt that the god had become a part of them?
Do you remember how, every time the Outer God came into this world, there was a crack as if something heavy had broken?
Clink!
They were cast out of the world.
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No, not just them. Every living being in that world fell in one direction. The world, like a glass jar, shattered under the weight of the objects inside, falling into a place that could only be called the abyss.
It wasn’t so much "from above to below," but more like the space was moving like a server migration.
The deeper they fell, the older, the more worn out, and the closer to the place with broken light.
For the creatures of this world falling now, there was no longer any world left to protect them. They fell into countless worlds.
Not just different lives. Some places were glowing like light, while others scattered like paint.
As the world moved beyond worlds, experiencing many shifts in environments, they fell deeper. Deeper. Deeper.
And to the ground.
Splash!
More precisely, they sank to the surface.
And right after, an enormous cold dug into their souls.
To summarize:
The Holy God was right.