The Outer God Needs Warmth

Chapter 42

Hyungkeshni glared at me.

I had a few things I wanted to say, but there was one question that mattered most.

“Why did you stop me?”

If one person had failed, I might have assumed they had made a mistake. But in Andrew’s Mirae cult, people who had understood Yasle’s knowledge held discussions, refined it, and then performed the ritual.

The chances of error were remarkably low.

And yet, not long after the ritual began, they were killed.

This meant there was a way to detect the ritual. Whenever someone attempted the summoning and failed, they were always the first to be killed.

That’s right.

The opposition had a means of sensing the ritual, knew how to prevent it, and had the power to track and kill the summoners.

Honestly, I never considered Hyungkeshni to be involved, but as soon as I entered this world, she came running.

Now that I know the conclusion, the process makes sense.

Frustrated, I posed the question with a hint of irritation. Hyungkeshni gripped her staff tightly.

“Why? Why, you ask? Look at what you’ve done!”

She gestured around us. All around were figures that had once been people, now with heads replaced by dark purple spheres. They contained neither light nor warmth.

As for what was once Tis-ha, only his lower body remained. His upper body, where it should have been, was now a gaping hole resembling a shattered glass pane with cracks radiating outward.

“Does this look like the death of a person to you?”

“Then why did you stop me before?”

I asked again. This was my first time causing something like this. Really, even I was baffled by what had just happened.

Was it simply because Tis-ha had an unusually large number of descendants, all connected by blood, making it possible to harvest everything at once? Or was it something unique to Tis-ha and his lineage?

I’ll have to investigate later.

But this phenomenon—this was new to me.

In other words, Hyungkeshni hadn’t been trying to stop me because of this.

As I waited for her response, she suddenly swung her staff. The staff was shaped from the upper torso and spine of a person, with fresh red blood splattering onto my face.

The blood came from Hyungkeshni’s palm.

She had driven her hand into the jagged edges of the staff’s spine to draw blood. So that’s why she had gripped it so tightly earlier.

[Executioner’s Guillotine.]

With those strange words, my head flew into the air.

The world spun around me.

But did she forget? This isn’t a physical body. This was a roughly assembled polygonal construct I had created. So, I reached out and caught my head with a hand.

Thud, thud, roll.

Oh.

I dropped it.

Hmm. Something feels strange.

Shouldn’t I be looking at my body from the floor after losing my head? If my nerves were still connected due to some unknown power, I should be seeing through my eyes and moving my body, right?

Instead, I’m just... here.

Yes, my perspective spun when my head was severed, but now it’s as if I’m still in my head, not on the floor.

Wait. No. I just said it.

My body is an amorphous mass, like a polygonal construct.

Was it really severed? Did it even need to be?

Could it even be severed?

As I contemplated, the head on the floor turned into a low-resolution fragment, disappearing like debris in an old video game. At the same time, my head was back on my neck, as if it had never been severed.

So far, those I’ve blessed have died when their heads were severed. That must be the method of killing them.

“It really was you, Hyungkeshni. You killed the people I blessed, didn’t you?”

“You... shouldn’t you need warmth to regenerate?”

A question in response to my question.

But now I see the chances of being expelled back outside are slim.

I’ll answer.

“No. Have I ever once said that I needed warmth to regenerate?”

Come to think of it, the person who experimented with injuries was none other than Hyungkeshni. Her expression twisted into a grimace.

That’s right. She figured it out on her own, without any dialogue. Though I may have acted in ways that encouraged the misunderstanding.

“What about me is so terrifying that you tried to stop my return?”

I asked. I’ve never done anything that could be considered a threat to anyone. At least not until the very last moment.

Now, Hyungkeshni spoke with a voice heavy with resignation. I could sense her sinking deeper, consumed by despair and surrender.

She’s talking as if I plan to destroy the world, but I have no such intentions.

From the very beginning.

“I don’t know what the world is. I just want warmth, Hyungkeshni.”

That’s truly all there is to it.

Venturing out into other worlds, creating more harvest opportunities, establishing agents for blessings—it’s all because I want warmth.

Suddenly.

I looked up at the ceiling.

Then, a thought dropped into my mind from a faded gray figure deep inside me.

“I want to smash my fist into the face of the god who made me like this.”

I suppose that’s something a man might say, considering I was once human too. Do I feel that impulse? Well, not really. For me, it’s as trivial as deciding whether to drink barley tea or dandelion tea. Let’s go with barley tea today.

Hyungkeshni’s head shot up, startled. Her wide eyes locked onto me.

“What?”

“You didn’t know? I was once human, a very long time ago. For reasons I still don’t understand, I opened my eyes and found myself deep beneath an empty sea, shivering in the cold until I realized I was the sea itself.”

In those days, when neither sky nor sea could be distinguished, a small light appeared far above. Slowly, it grew, and as it expanded, it formed a night sky.

When others appeared, I became self-aware.

I was the vast ocean below. At first, I thought I might be a planet covered entirely by water, but no—it was just an endless plane.

An infinite plane.

And I existed below a boundary, filling the space beneath. Above me was the surface I could not breach.

At first, I could reach out to the lights near the surface. Now, I’ve climbed this far.

“Hyungkeshni, humans shouldn’t blame me. I fulfilled my contracts. I offered myself and took back what was due when they died. I never expected to claim their descendants, but I never intended to either.”

As I spoke, I pointed to the sky.

“I made the contract first, but they interfered. That’s a breach of contract. When a contract is broken, there must be consequences.”

To be honest, everything that happened was unexpected. I didn’t think it would turn out this way. And frankly, I never imagined I could capture Hyungkeshni so easily. Oh, could this power work for a death beam? But no, the dark purple energy barely stirs at such thoughts.

Since I appeared in this world, all my actions have been improvisational, driven by irritation. This is an opportunity.

“I’m not some cruel law. From now on, instead of detonating those who come near me, I’ll offer blessings. Of course, only with their consent.”

I conveniently left out the part where blessings require a contract.

Hyungkeshni glared at me, her eyes accusing me of lying.

“Think of it as lending money and collecting interest. Sure, if the recipient squanders their life and dies, it’s my loss, but isn’t all investment like that?”

Of course, I omitted that gaining warmth is already profitable from the moment of contracting. And that if the blessed person kills someone, their warmth flows to me.

“A sacrifice is like picking fruit from a tree. Blessings are like planting seeds and waiting for the tree to bear fruit. I chose the method that yields more fruit. I have no intention of harming the tree—on the contrary, I want it to thrive.”

Just like Tis-ha.

That’s why I opted for blessings instead of mindlessly collecting warmth.

Choosing the better method brought unexpected gifts.

“I have no intention of artificially interfering. If someone wants a blessing, I’ll give it to them.”

“How many sacrifices do you intend to devour, you monster?”

Heh. That’s a good question, Hyungkeshni.

“Sacrifices? Those were Yasle’s idea, weren’t they?”

Hyungkeshni’s face turned blank as she pondered, then looked at me with a sudden realization. What did she understand?

“Why are you trying to persuade me?”

Ah.

Well.

I’ve been caught.

But a question was asked, and rules are rules. Even if I made them, I can’t lie.

“I want you to write the summoning method into a book.”

After all, the magic to summon a malevolent being was something Hyungkeshni had taught Yasle. As for reverse summoning, that wasn’t magic—it was a relic of the Yongrang Theocracy, which I couldn’t use.

“Get lost!”

Hyungkeshni glared at me with a look that suggested she’d sooner take her own life than cooperate.

It seems persuading her will be difficult. And resolving this current situation is the bigger issue.

For now, Tis-ha’s family is outside the room, watching over his final moments.

There’s a lot to sort out.