Chapter 161: Three Denominations

The gods unified under the name of Pantheon, and as a result, all believers of the third continent came to follow a single religion. However, just because they followed the same religion didn't mean their beliefs were entirely the same. To give a simple example, the Elves, who followed Eldar, Dancing Shadow God, in the past, sent more prayers to Dancing Shadow God than to Night Sky. Some even disliked Night Sky, mentioning old stories from the past.

‘That kind of deviation isn’t a big deal. If I don't acknowledge that exceptions exist in any situation, that might cause them to build unnecessary resentment. Besides, it’s somewhat true that I mistreated the Elves.’

Sung-Woon was quite objective about himself.

Anyway, the establishment of the Pantheon didn't lead to a complete unification of individual beliefs into one religion. Those who believed in Crampus, the Limitless God, continued to believe in Limitless God. The same was true for followers of Lunda, the Bountiful Harvest God, Wisdom, the Binding God, and Jang-Wan, the Overflowing God.

The Pantheon embraced all these diverse factions because it didn't diminish the influence of Sung-Woon, or more specifically the main god, Night Sky. In fact, there were more Night Sky believers after the establishment of the Pantheon. It was only natural for new followers to emerge as the Black Scale Empire gained fame and became the leading nation of order. But of course, that wasn't the only reason.

‘With the number of believers increasing, there's a need to differentiate each other.’

While not officially announced, among the Pantheon, Night Sky’s denomination was divided into three factions.

One was the forces that followed Night Sky as the Thunder God. Led by the apostle, Lakrak, it was the most traditional Night Sky faction, and they highlighted the values of courage, ethics, and sacrifice from Night Sky. They followed the book ‘Night Sky,’ written by Sairan Muel, as their doctrine and upheld the history of the grand heroes and Night Sky’s accomplishments. The Thunder God Denomination had the most followers, and generally, those who believed in Night Sky were considered a follower of this faction.

‘The eternal power they possess…surely comes from the chosen ones.’

Sung-Woon had somewhat left the selections of the chosen ones to Lakrak. On one hand, it was because of his increased workload, but more importantly, Sung-Woon believed that Lakrak better suited the task now.

The second faction was known as the Gear Denomination. Its members were mostly technicians, engineers, astronomers, scholars, and merchants. They weren't the most devoted supporters of Night Sky, and instead, they emphasized the worldly aspects of their belief and had a strong desire for knowledge and capitalism. However, since Night Sky valued those aspects, they were still considered believers of Night Sky. And therefore, they respected figures that received relatively less attention in the history of the denomination of Night Sky, such as Zaol, who built Orazen, the first astronomer, the star catcher, and Hwee-Kyung of the The Fifth Waterwheel.

‘The power of the Gear Denomination likely comes from gunpowder and capitalism.’

Gunpowder had brought about dramatic paradigm shifts in war, but that wasn’t the case for capitalism yet since most nations hadn’t been through the separation of church and state until now. However, with the establishment of the Pantheon, belief in the gods would be somewhat detached from state power.

‘Because as time passes, power will naturally flow through capitalism rather than bloodlines.’?

Such transitions happened naturally in The Lost World and Earth's history, so it wasn't a strange phenomenon. Moreover, this also provided players with the advantage of reduced restrictions.

Now, the more important part was the third faction, the Return Denomination. They were the most recent denomination to be made. Those who respected Night Sky in this faction were the Wizards, who were the smallest in number and used to be a secretive group. But Sung-Woon had successfully won them over.

‘It started out as a lie, but now that I came to possess Unique Domain: Magic, it has become reality.’

The three Wizards had been taking in disciples and expanding their influence. While they didn't entirely believe Sung-Woon's story of him returning to this world, they at least didn’t dismiss it. Officially, the Wizards didn't belong to the denomination of Night Sky, but they taught their disciples about Night Sky’s existence. They taught them that although it wasn’t possible to know for sure whether or not Night Sky was a returner, that didn't matter as Night Sky had helped all Wizards when they were persecuted. And above all, they told their disciples that Night Sky acknowledged their pursuit of magic. Of course, Sung-Woon didn’t establish this relationship just because he liked Wizards.

‘It's because they're useful.’

***

Bang!

As gunshots echoed through the jungle, a flock of birds shrieked and flew away.

"Wouldn’t it be better to return to camp?" Theone Itimo shouted while running.

Beside him, Vasen Lak Orazen also ran while reloading his matchlock.

"Then the camp would be in danger. Besides, that guy... No, those guys are likely faster.”

Suddenly, a massive shadow covered Theone and Vasen. Vasen instinctively pushed Theone away and used the counterforce to roll to the other side.

𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Thud!?

A giant lion-like monster pounced on the spot where Theone and Vasen had been running. First, its tail with a viper head looked at Vasen. The viper knew it couldn't reach Vasen, so it hissed with its tongue poking out. Then the four-legged body turned around. It had a mane like a lion, but its face resembled an old Human man with wrinkled eyes, nose, and mouth. It was a Manticore.

“Save me.”

Manticores were known to have low intelligence, but it seemed that they could roughly mimic a few voices, much like Sapiens.

"Argh, my arm! I don't want to die!"

Vasen picked up the ramrod he had let go of and hid behind a tree.

"Is it replaying the final words of the people it devoured? What a jerk."

Vasen had made time and had been exploring a small ancient ruin in the area with some of his companions and a few Pangolins. Though Vasen was the leader of the expedition team, his role was closer to a guardian protecting the expedition team of scholars and technicians until they finished their business, alongside the other troops.

Originally, Hillove, Katuru, or Gordius was supposed to accompany them, but Vasen dissuaded them because they were leaving Siol for more than two days, and Siol could get attacked in the meantime. Though there had been no noteworthy movements from the Fabirang Union and the Platys or the Rakshasas of the Ashurada tribe, rumors had it that Deep Ones were on the move. Therefore, Vasen decided it wouldn’t be good to deploy the best forces just for a simple exploration.

‘But we could've brought at least one of them with us.’

The ancient ruin was assumed to be a vast city from ancient times. Even though it was called a city, most of it was buried underground, so it was impossible to tell where the city started and ended, or what they should look for.

The expedition team was initially examining an area presumed to be the entrance to the city, but Vasen believed that if it was an ancient ruin, there might be a guardian protecting it. Thus, he moved towards the center of the city with the reconnaissance team. However, the guardian they encountered was far more dangerous than Vasen had expected.

‘Well, it’s still a relief. The other reconnaissance members managed to escape, so if they prepare thoroughly at camp…’

Vasen suddenly felt a shiver down his spine and rolled forward. A whip-like tail swung above his head, and the viper head came at him. It barely missed Vasen's head and bit the tree that Vasen had been leaning against.

Hsssss!

The viper looked angry and opened its mouth threateningly.

‘It’s an opening.’

Seeing a giant snake head the size of his fist should have been shocking, but Vasen quickly understood what he had to do to increase his chance of surviving. He drew his sword and pierced it into the snake's head. Then he swung it down toward the bottom of the tree.

"Argh!"

There was a scream that sounded like it came from a person.

When Vasen turned around, he spotted the Manticore, which had been aiming at his back.

‘It moves quietly and fast despite its giant size.’

Vasen then ran under the snake tail that he had pinned to the ground. The Manticore struggled to free the snake tail from the tree for a while.

Vasen ran toward Theone.

"Are you alright?" Theone asked.

"Did you reload?"

"Yes, just now."

“We’re gonna aim for its eyes. We need to shoot at it accurately, so we’re going to shoot right before it swallows us whole.”

"...Will that work?"

"If it doesn't, we’ll be in trouble… Here it comes."

The Manticore didn't know how to pull the sword out, so eventually, it simply yanked at its tail with all its might, getting its second head cut in half and killed. The Manticore looked at its tail, which was helplessly dragging behind itself on the ground, and then it grew angry and approached Theone and Vasen.

"It's a monster! Save me!"

Vasen tsked.

Then he said to Theone, "Pull the trigger when I signal you.”

“Alright.”

"Aim..."

However, Vasen wasn’t able to shout ‘Fire’ because someone got in between him and the Manticore.

"What a loser.”

"...?"

Even the Manticore seemed bewildered and looked at the newcomer.

"A Human face, a lion's body, and a snake as your tail. You don't have anything of your own, do you?"

"...Save me?"

"Even your voice. Do you even know what you're saying?"

The newcomer was very tall and appeared to be carrying a large sack on their back, but after looking again, that wasn't the case. What seemed like a large sack was instead wings, which were rare to find on other species. It was a Garuda.

The Manticore certainly couldn't understand the Garuda's words, but it seemed to have grasped the disdain in the Garuda’s attitude.

The Manticore growled as it lifted its massive forelegs, which was the size of a person’s upper body.

"Even your movements are sluggish.”

As the Garuda raised their staff, the Manticore's forelegs dropped. The Manticore seemed bewildered and looked down at its own feet.

"...Die?"

"At least you say something that makes some sense in the end."

With those words, the Manticore's head slid diagonally before falling to the ground. Then the Manticore's body also collapsed.

The Garuda didn’t seem to care about the Manticore and turned around to look at Vasen.

Then Vasen, who had been aiming his gun, stood up and went up to the Garuda.

"It’s been a while, Vasen."

"...Wizard Mazdari? What brings you here?"

Mazdari raised his index finger, wordlessly telling Vasen to give him a moment, and then pulled out a roll of sealed sheet of paper from his inner pocket.

"It's an order issued by His Majesty the Emperor of the Black Scale Empire. In summary, it’s a request for me to help you.”