## Chapter 1419 – The Approaching Darkness

Anyway, it turned out to be less of a big deal than I thought, so it was over quickly. We made sure to gather everything we could. It seemed like there was nothing hostile around. The lich had offed his subordinate from a distance, but he wasn’t here.

—Fwoosh.

As soon as safety was confirmed, I flew high into the sky to scout, and this place was in the middle of uncharted territory.

“I knew those bastards were all living here.”

However, I couldn’t sense any other energy. After scouting to my satisfaction, I returned with the girls and gathered the spoils. Well, this whole thing was suspicious and unsettling, but you encounter things like this in life.

“…”

Usually, these fair-skinned heretics have tattoos all over their faces. But they didn’t have any of that.

That’s what’s bothering me.

—Thud.

Anyway, after returning easily through the warp, we immediately got to work. Risha placed the high-ranking heretic’s corpse on the dissection table and immediately cut open his stomach.

“Hehehe, I can say this is my first time dissecting a heretic.”
“You make it sound like you’ve dissected plenty of humans who weren’t heretics?”
“Don’t misunderstand. Dissection is the most important thing in understanding the human body. Of course, a black magician like myself has experience with human dissection.”
“Of course, I know that much. Dissection is also important for studying vital points.”

It seemed like both Risha and Liztina had played with corpses quite a bit in their younger days. They’re reliable older sisters after all.

“Then leave it to me. If I find anything, I’ll let you know right away, so don’t worry about this place and go do what you need to do.”
“Hehehe, okay. Thanks for your hard work, Risha.”
“Yes. Don’t overdo it, Risha. Please do a good job.”

With that, I left Risha behind and exited the lab with Liztina.

“But what were they? They seemed so clumsy.”
“They didn’t feel like trained combatants. Just simple believers and researchers. That’s the feeling I got. Exposing their location by opening the gate didn’t seem intentional.”

Not all heretics are fanatics. In the middle of that uncharted territory, even those ordinary heretics were carrying out the lich’s orders.

“Risha only created the gate tracking spell recently, right? They must have been constantly using gate magic. Mostly to summon demonic beasts from other dimensions. It seems like they got caught this time.”
“I think so too.”

But something’s bothering me.

“Well, Risha will figure it out if there’s anything. So, Khatt? Shall we go relax for a bit, sis?”
“Hehehe, shall we?”

* * *

A few days later, the results came out.

An elven maid came to inform me, and I headed to the lab at Risha’s summons. When I arrived, all that was there was Risha and the completely dissected corpse of the heretic.

“You’ve come.”
“Yeah. Risha, are you done? Thanks for your hard work.”
“Hehehe, it wasn’t that difficult.”

Risha greeted me with a smile.

“Hehehe, nothing’s difficult for our Risha. Anyway, how was it?”
“…”

When I asked, Risha was silent for a moment, then answered with a slightly cautious tone.

“…The results were quite surprising.”
“What?”

Surprising results?

“How surprising could it be for Risha to say something like that?”

Risha’s face looked quite serious. And there was also a feeling of unresolved doubt on her face. What kind of results could it be?

This seems like the time to prepare myself. I took a deep breath with an exaggerated motion and looked at Risha.

“Okay. Risha. I’m ready. Tell me.”
“There’s no need to prepare that much. Just look at this.”

Following her gesture, I looked at the dissected corpse.

The heretic lying on the dissection table had all of his internal organs removed. Of course. These heretic bastards can’t find peace even in death. Even the organs inside must be desecrated.

“This bastard’s skin is really white.”

All the blood had been drained, so it was completely white, but since his skin was originally white, there didn’t seem to be much difference before and after the blood was drained.

But there’s something a little strange.

All the heretics had this extremely white skin.

Is it the price for entrusting their bodies to some evil magic?

There are still many people who believe that Michael Jackson longed to be white. He was a patient with vitiligo, but people genuinely believe that he had skin-peeling surgery to become white. Thinking about him makes me unable to bear it…!

“Isn’t it really white?”
“Yeah. It’s so white it’s like he’s not human… Could it be? Did you figure it out? That part?”

At those words, Risha nodded.

“Surprisingly, they don’t seem to be human.”
“What… What did you say!!!”

These bastards aren’t human!!!!!

“No. Isn’t that normal? Heretics aren’t human.”
“Not in that moral sense… It seems like they’re not actually human.”
“What?”

This bastard isn’t human?

“Well, is it that? They sold their souls to evil magic or an evil god and were reborn as non-human beings. Is that it?”
“Hmm… I thought about that too, but I don’t think it’s something to judge in that way. The basis of that hypothesis is that they were originally born as a human species on this land, right?”
“That’s right.”

To give up being human, you have to be human first.

It means you have to be born as a human.

“But it doesn’t seem like that’s the case for them. They were born like that from the start… So. You could say they’re a species that’s subtly different from existing humans. Like elves and dwarves.”
“No!!! What!!!”

What is this nonsense!

“Elves and humans are similar, but there are quite a few differences, right?”

That’s right.

Elves are similar to humans, but they are ultimately a different species. First of all, physical characteristics. Basically, elves are beautiful and have long ears, and they have a different kind of strength than humans. It’s like humans are the base, but they’ve changed for the better. You could call it an upgrade.

It’s possible to create offspring, but half-elves don’t have reproductive abilities.

“It’s the same as that. You could say that this heretic has enough differences from humans to be called a different species.”
“What on earth is going on?”

The heretic was a different species from humans?

I thought they were just corrupted humans. No. But it’s kind of legendary that I’m only realizing this now. But it can’t be helped. I thought they were of human origin.

But to think they were a different species?

“Then, the heretics trying to destroy the world… Was that just a racial thing? Simply fighting for the interests of their own race?”

Was the lich something like the leader of this race?

No.
No, that’s not it.

There are many strange things if you think that way.

“I think that could be the case. But there’s a question. Why hasn’t anything been known about this race?”
“Yeah, seriously. We just found out now.”

Were the heretics an original race?

“Are they bastards who have been secretly living among themselves somewhere unknown?”

Did they live well among themselves in some unknown place, and then, led by the ancient lich, try to come out into the world? Did they rise up, saying they couldn’t live as losers anymore?

“Or are they related to the Titans?”

If not, are these bastards also related to the Titans?

There’s not enough information.

“If not, maybe the lich discovered a hidden race and used them.”
“Oh. That’s also a possibility.”

I continued to speculate with Risha.

These heretics are not human.

They are a humanoid race with extremely white skin. And they are definitely the lich’s subordinates. Did the lich brainwash a small, hidden race and make them help him with his work?

There’s a possibility.

It’s also convincing. The lich seems to want to build his own forces, and if there is such a race, it’s a perfect fit. It wouldn’t be difficult for a bastard like the lich to put ideas into the heads of hidden races.

“But the heretics seemed wary of foreign gods.”
“Come to think of it? That’s right. They said something about you being a demon king from another world, a god from another dimension.”
“Hehehe, they even called me an evil demon.”

The heretics, no. The lich and his goons seemed wary of foreign gods. The foreign gods here are the existing gods. Verde, Aizermart, and the like. And it’s clear that they’re wary of me too, since they treat me as a foreign god.

They are wary of powerful beings from other worlds.

For beings who are wary of otherwordly entities, they sure do make use of otherwordly beasts.

“Risha. Anything else you found out?”
“Hmm… That they’re not human, and… That it’s so secretive that it would be difficult to know that fact unless it’s a black magician like myself.”

That means that someone other than a skilled person like Risha might think they’re human.

“A secret, huh.”

It’s been quite some time since the white-skinned heretics have been active. Of course, the church must have taken the corpses of these heretics before, but they also don’t know that the heretics are non-human.

“Let’s ask Kadia about this.”

* * *

“What?”

Kadia’s eyes widened as if she was quite surprised.

“Of course, there are results from the research. But… That they’re not human but a different race? I haven’t received such a report.”
“See? Even Kadia doesn’t know.”

As expected, she didn’t know anything about the heretics’ race.

“Hmm… That’s unusual. I thought that the grotesque appearance was due to the deformation caused by exposure to heretical sorcery. To think that they were a completely different race. That’s amazing.”

Kadia reached out and stroked the skin of the dissected heretic.

“A race with white skin… But if there had been such a thing before, there would have been related data, no matter what. As you know, the history of the Bronze Celestial Host can be said to have started right after the Idol War ended.”
“That’s right. It’s been hundreds of years.”

She nodded.

“Of course, the accumulated data is vast. But it can be said that white-skinned heretics have only appeared recently. There is no data before that.”

I heard that once before.

“So I never thought they were a different race…”
“Kadia. Then, wouldn’t it be possible to say that a race that had been hiding from the war has joined forces with the lich and revealed themselves to the world?”
“That may be the case, but in this Saintess’s opinion, I believe that there would have been records left in that case.”

It’s strange.

“A non-human race. That’s a very unusual thing.”

To draw a conclusion, these bastards had never appeared in the past, and there was no data on the existence of such a non-human race even when the Idol War was in progress.

“How secretive could it be for such a non-human race to be able to hide?”

That’s the question.

“It’s certainly an unusual thing. It feels as if they suddenly appeared.”
“Yeah, seriously. Listening to you, it sounds like these bastards suddenly popped up.”
“Well, since the appearance itself is recent. You could say they suddenly appeared.”

Suddenly appeared, huh… Suddenly.

Suddenly?

Uh.”

Wait a minute.

Something’s bothering me.

“What’s wrong?”
“Just a moment. Let me sort out my thoughts.”

I kept thinking.

A race that is subtly different from humans. But except for skin color, there was no big difference from humans. Risha said that it would be difficult to realize that they were a non-human race unless an expert like her looked closely.

And they showed quite human-like reactions.

Are there such white-skinned races protected by the lich somewhere in this world? If so, when did they exist, and why have they been hidden all along? No. No, that’s not it. Let’s think about it as if they suddenly appeared. If they suddenly appeared instead of being hidden.

A race from another dimension?

Is it a race from another dimension that the lich summoned?
Did he summon a race from another dimension to make them his subordinates?

They’re similar to humans in this world for a race from another dimension. Then a race that was originally human… No, that’s not it. As I continued to think, something suddenly came to mind.

“New humans.”

New humans.

A new humanity.

The lich happens to be a necromancer who is very good at making things… Maybe he created this heretical race through undead research?

Thinking about it made me get goosebumps!!!

Seriously, new humans!!!

The lich made new humans!!!