Chapter 61

The Outsider Church began a witch hunt.

But it wasn’t as simple as finding and killing a witch right away.

Considering this era is close to the modern age, that’s not such a strange thing.

In this world, magic exists but is fragmented like shards, so aside from a privileged few, it’s hardly ever seen.

Most importantly, the speed at which information spreads is painfully slow.

Most info moves only as fast as a person can walk.

The silver lining? Even if slow, the reach is pretty wide.

If there’s an Outsider Church, everyone knows about it. Why? Because the holy site is where all followers of the Outsider Church gather.

The ones spreading these tales are pilgrims visiting the Ansellus Kingdom. They stop by the holy site, wait for blessings, chat with others, hear about the witch hunts, then head home.

Rebecca had actually planned for her words to spread far and wide, modeling it after some religious system.

She won the recent religious war and seized the opportunity to spread her message of joy—and her own words—far and wide.

The reason she made a pilgrimage site and had visitors sign guestbooks was for this very purpose.

Back when something entered her body and took control, Rebecca saw a man’s memories and learned from them.

In those memories was a fascinating world, especially the history he’d studied.

Stories about how one world evolved over time.

Truthfully, Rebecca didn’t intend to delve too deeply into other worlds. But most of the Outsider’s memories she glimpsed were overwhelmingly filled with voids—places so empty they made her want to vomit. And worst of all, the memories of humans going mad in those voids, unable even to scream, their hearts pierced by strange instruments in unbearable cold…

Watching that, Rebecca felt herself teetering on madness. So she forced herself to focus on the man’s memories instead.

Though half a year seemed short, since she’d lost complete control of her body, she had plenty of time to concentrate.

In fact, if she didn’t focus on those memories, she’d have gone insane or witnessed the insanity of others. Thus, Rebecca stayed glued to them without rest.

Then suddenly, her body was returned to her.

Knowing what the Outsider truly was, she bombarded Yasre with painful truths.

When Yasre finally fell, and Joanna died, she thought of a witch—but at that point, she wanted nothing to do with cults anymore and left.

Living alone as a girl in this world is tough.

But what if you have special powers?

Inside her chest was a heart created by the Outsider. Once activated, it consumes immense energy but grants enough power to crush even well-armed bandits or small armies.

Oddly, despite having such a powerful heart, she pretended to be weak and lived her life.

But she noticed something was off after marrying a good man, having kids, and growing old… except she didn’t grow old.

People reject what’s different.

Gradually, villagers grew uneasy around her. Eventually, she was practically forced to move out to a remote area.

Though dangerous beasts and bandits occasionally attacked, Rebecca could handle them easily. So the villagers didn’t want her to leave entirely.

Yet they didn’t want to see her either, so they sent her to live in an isolated spot.

Still, her child remained in the village, so Rebecca didn’t mind much.

As time passed, her child grew up, and her grandchild became an adult. By then, she rarely visited the village. It had grown large enough not to need her help, and more people viewed her as a monster than as a friend.

Things were fine until one day…

A famine struck. The forests dried up, food vanished, and strange diseases spread.

Another year of famine…

And another…

One day, during the third year, Rebecca entered the village on errands. The villagers, driven mad by hunger, attacked her, claiming that since she alone stayed young and healthy, eating her would save them.

Fleeing, she saw something grotesque: at a butcher shop, meat labeled as a cure-all hung, looking suspiciously like a human torso.

Nearby, in a boiling pot, a human arm floated eerily familiar. Drawn closer, she overturned the pot, revealing human corpses—including her own child. Beneath the pile, she spotted her tiny grandchild’s hand, once clutching three of her fingers tightly.

At that moment, Rebecca lost her mind.

She didn’t think of the villagers as monsters. She thought of them as people—because her heart no longer beat, meaning she wasn’t human anymore.

If she wasn’t human, then they must be. People versus monsters. No hesitation needed.

In less than half a day, she turned the village into a barren wasteland of dirt and sand.

Staring blankly at the desolate ground, she wandered aimlessly, searching not for home but for death.

She witnessed humans eating other humans multiple times across the famine-stricken land. She truly believed humanity itself was the problem.

Logically, that’s odd. Even emotionally, seeing humans resort to cannibalism to survive shouldn’t define them as “human.”

But Rebecca wasn’t thinking logically.

She wanted to vent her hatred.

She decided to summon the worst monster she knew—a former human who understood humans all too well: the Outsider.

Using the Outsider’s memories, she devised a plan for it to consume all humans.

This happened before Rebecca joined the Outsider Church.

Her pursuit of Xungkesuni wasn’t purely out of vengeance but rather because she predicted Xungkesuni would interfere.

She remembered Yasre removing the Outsider from her body. With high probability, she assumed Xungkesuni could send the Outsider back. Thus, Rebecca resolved to eliminate her.

Coincidentally, Xungkesuni was also Dakota’s sworn enemy, so it was two birds with one stone.

But does everything go as planned in this world?

The witch hunt didn’t unfold as Rebecca intended.

Most people felt little emotion toward Xungkesuni.

During daily prayers, mentioning someone who troubled the Outsider made it easy to dislike her without strong feelings.

It’s an odd expression, but while emotionally neutral, people habitually disliked her name.

Besides, the Ansellus Kingdom was far from Xungkesuni’s domain. Witch stories were mere tales of evil witches lurking deep in the forest—someone else’s problem.

More importantly, the Outsider Church defeating the Seongsin Church overshadowed everything.

The fact that the Seongsin deity supposedly erased believers in the Outsider Church made bigger headlines. Hypocritical preachers nearby turned out to be villains, and now there was a legal chance to punish them!

The witch hunt morphed into a Seongsin Church purge.

They burned Seongsin artifacts, captured and killed priests.

Hatred spread like wildfire during the witch hunt festival.

In no time, all traces of the Seongsin Church vanished from the streets, replaced by the Outsider Church.

This occurred everywhere east of the Scard Desert.

That said, Rebecca’s intentions weren’t entirely buried.

Hatred lingers.

People killed Seongsin followers under the guise of punishing Xungkesuni. Even non-religious folks casually used her name in this context.

Years later, in the western part of the Cogni Kingdom, near where the Yeongyang Church Nation once stood, deep within the Ahu Jungle, word reached a secluded witch’s hideout.

Xungkesuni was in a foul mood.

Because people celebrated festivals “punishing” her.

By the time it reached her, the witch hunt festival had transformed into burning old junk and straw dolls labeled as her, followed by feasting and celebration.

What started as anti-Seongsin fervor became a mix of folk superstition.

Seeing random villagers defile her name, curse straw effigies, and celebrate her downfall enraged her.

So she cursed and wiped out the first village she found doing this. Over years, she repeated this process.

Just venting frustration each time, nothing special.

Until…

Dakota’s hatred reached Xungkesuni.

Barely, the Outsider Church caught wind of her whereabouts.

They sent official documents to local branches and dispatched an elite corps specializing in capturing such individuals.

Leading them was a tall beauty with blue skin and purple hair: Dakota.

She was both a saint of the Outsider Church and a war hero from battles against the Seongsin Church. Or in simpler terms, a guardian saint.

Not just present, but actively fighting.

A woman who had dedicated her life solely to avenging herself against Xungkesuni was now on the move.

Now, in regions including the Cogni Kingdom, more people were hunting witches.

Wherever Xungkesuni went, news of her spread. Skilled hunters stationed themselves at Outsider Churches to capture her.

Her usual mischief was now met with resistance.

Her curses were gradually analyzed and blocked at their source. More scouts patrolled near her hideout.

A faint smile crept onto Xungkesuni’s lips.

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