Chapter 44

Tisah was deceived by the Outsider’s words.

What the Outsider called persuasion was, in reality, a thinly veiled threat: “Do as I say, or I’ll kill you.” So, strictly speaking, Tisah had surrendered.

The moment Tisah sold countless worlds to save her own skin, the Outsider didn’t celebrate but instead fretted anxiously, pondering how to navigate this situation successfully.

The Outsider thought: If we can only save Tisah, then making her a hero would be the way to go.

Right now, the human puppets are under the Outsider’s control.

If all else fails, the Outsider could fuse with the royal family to become some kind of giant corpse monster—”Outsidermon”—and declare themselves the villain while framing Tisah as the failed hero who couldn’t stop them. But this idea flitted through the Outsider’s mind and vanished just as quickly.

See, the Outsider’s brain worked best when scheming cowardly tricks.

However, the Outsider immediately discarded this plan because it had one big flaw—if only Tisah survived, the Outsider wouldn’t be able to read the book even if they possessed it.

There are two ways for the Outsider to remember what’s written in the book: either the Blessed One reads it once, or the Outsider licks the light from someone who has fully read it.

This absence of any method where the Outsider directly reads the book might reveal something about their true nature… but anyway!

So, the solution is simple: get a Blessed One to read the book.

But here’s the catch—there isn’t a single Blessed One left in this world.

Tisah hunted them all down.

While Tisah was busy helping rebuild Ansellus Kingdom alongside Andrew, she also did quite a lot on her own.

Let’s talk about Tisah.

Back in the days when the Future Hope Church still existed…

When Yasure refused to listen to Tisah after five warnings, they parted ways. This wasn’t betrayal; rather, it was following their original contract, which stated that if Yasure ignored Tisah’s advice, she’d leave.

In fact, giving five warnings already showed remarkable patience on Tisah’s part.

To be honest, the real reason Tisah started helping Yasure was pretty shady—it was bizarre that she stuck around for decades helping him at all.

From Tisah’s perspective, Yasure wasn’t originally some cult leader but a genuinely righteous young priest raised in the Yeongyang Church Nation—someone upright, compassionate, yet merciless toward heretics.

Meanwhile, Tisah was like a fairy tale witch: exploiting the weak, stealing resources by cursing villages, and fleeing when stronger opponents came after her, scattering curses everywhere.

People nicknamed her the “Merry Witch” because she always laughed while escaping, taunting those chasing her.

Then, one day, a devout young priest appeared, driven by vengeance for his lost country. He sought out the witch.

Finding him amusing, Tisah decided to collaborate with him.

She wanted to see how such an upright youth would fall into corruption.

Would people who climbed high truly fall lower? Just how far does this principle hold?

Sure enough, Yasure became not just corrupt but outright evil. He brainwashed others for revenge, falsely accused innocent people of crimes, and burned them alive.

Watching this transformation, Tisah felt delighted, thinking, “Even great and good people can fall so low.” There was probably also a bit of self-justification in there—relief that she wasn’t alone in being flawed. So, as a sort of reward, Tisah gave Yasure a gift:

“When an Evil Monster comes, tame it and use it.”

With this mindset, she taught Yasure how to summon a god.

But instead of the powerful demon-like creature they expected, out popped a clueless girl with no special abilities.

Even though Tisah suspected something was off when the girl regenerated after being struck by a mace imbued with divine-breaking curses, she dismissed it since the girl seemed harmless.

After all, the curse was legendary—it had been used by the Yeongyang Church Nation to defeat primal gods. Yet the girl appeared fragile and clueless about her body, collapsing frequently without care.

Gradually, Tisah stopped worrying, assuming the entity was just a spirit inhabiting a frail human form.

But later, she learned the truth from the Outsider: what she thought were universal laws were actually the Outsider feeding off human lives, and the girl was a deity dragged out of its rightful place into this world.

An Evil God had escaped.

Realizing this, Tisah urgently warned Yasure—but he wouldn’t listen. Instead, he scolded her for questioning their arrangement, which was supposedly working fine.

Despite three more attempts to convince him, Yasure remained obstinate. Meanwhile, rumors of the Outsider spread, signaling worsening conditions.

Finally, terrified, Tisah confronted the Outsider and learned the full extent of its influence over the Future Hope Church. Horrified, she rushed back to warn Yasure again—but once more, he ignored her.

Disillusioned, Tisah left Yasure. Unbeknownst to everyone, this was the last chance to stop the Outsider before it reached out to this world.

Blissfully unaware, Tisah returned to her secluded hideout.

Not long after, she discovered Yasure’s death via her magic. Sensing traces of the expulsion spell used exclusively by Yeongyang Church Nation leaders, she deduced what had been banished.

Feeling somewhat relieved, she set off to mock—or perhaps mourn—Yasure’s corpse.

On the way, however, she froze upon detecting Blessed Ones using Yasure’s magic.

It could’ve been dismissed as coincidence if it were just Yeongyang spells, but Tisah’s unique techniques were mixed in too—the secret arts she’d spent centuries customizing for herself and passed only to Yasure.

Multiple Blessed Ones were using them.

With her sharp intellect, Tisah instantly grasped the dire situation: the worst possible enemy now wielded crucial knowledge.

Her suspicions were confirmed when someone attempted to summon the Outsider using a gateway ritual.

Reactivating the safety protocols she’d embedded in the spells given to Yasure, Tisah blocked the summoning and killed the caster.

At first, she didn’t intend to exterminate all Blessed Ones, dismissing the incident as another fool trying to call the Outsider.

But everything changed when she saw several Blessed Ones collaborating within the church to summon the Outsider again.

Panicked, Tisah concluded that allowing even one Blessed One to remain posed an unacceptable risk. Thus, she began systematically hunting them down.

During these hunts, she noticed only Blessed Ones could use Yasure’s spells. From this, she theorized they were connected to the Outsider, explaining why they retained access despite the god’s departure.

Realizing total annihilation was necessary to secure the future, Tisah devised a tracking spell to locate every Blessed One—and eliminated them one by one.

Tisah herself might’ve been targeted, but hearing reports of a divine miracle protecting Ansellus Kingdom, she investigated personally. Witnessing immense holy power emanating from Tisah, she decided to spare him.

Part of this decision stemmed from fear—fear of opposing an entire nation backed by a genuine hero blessed by a god.

Still, aside from Tisah, no Blessed Ones could be allowed to live. Her fearful nature drove her relentlessly until she eventually wiped out every last one except Tisah.

Even after killing the final Blessed One, she double-checked repeatedly to ensure none remained.

Satisfied, Tisah retreated to her solitude.

Unfortunately, the Outsider managed to manifest through Tisah, shattering her hopes.

Rushing back, she found herself captured and threatened by the Outsider.

Though the Outsider framed it as offering Tisah choices, everyone knew there was really none—resisting would mean death and knowledge extraction without changing the outcome.

Thus, Tisah reluctantly complied, seeking only to preserve her life.

internally rationalizing her compliance as mere coercion.

In an instant, decades of effort crumbled, reducing Tisah to nothing more than the Outsider’s pawn.

Karma’s a bitch.

Had she never dabbled in god-summoning rituals, or opposed sacrificing innocents, things might’ve gone differently.

No, scratch that—her fate was sealed the moment she tagged along with Yasure purely out of morbid curiosity, eager to witness his descent into darkness.

Not exceptionally evil, just mischievous. Like modern folks who gleefully watch celebrities crash and burn online.

Drawing lines, pretending the actions of the Future Hope Church didn’t concern her, turning a blind eye to their atrocities.

Much like internet users deriving comfort from others’ misfortunes while believing themselves superior.

Such behavior inevitably spiraled out of control, culminating in the manifestation of the very entity Tisah dubbed “the Outsider.”

And now, she’d agreed to cooperate under duress.

She’d fallen off the cliff.

Then—

BAM!

A loud noise echoed as the door burst open, revealing a room filled with people whose heads glowed as purple spheres, resembling some avant-garde art exhibit. Into this surreal scene strode a soldier from Ansellus Kingdom, searching for the witch who’d flown in through the window moments ago.

Just prior, he’d forced his way into Tisah’s bedroom, ignoring protocol, prioritizing safety over respecting royal privacy—a responsible man indeed.

For his bravery, however, he was greeted with a sight so bizarre it shattered his sense of reality. Overwhelmed, he collapsed onto the floor, screaming uncontrollably.

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