An hour earlier.

Kierra was walking along the streets of the Lilienthal Empire's capital, taking in the bustling scenes quietly. A plain plaid skirt, a black shirt, and a beige blazer were all she needed at the moment. Oh, maybe the round, rimless glasses, too.

To the public, 'Kierra Scarlett Aspenova' still bore the title of 'Missing Archwizard,' so no one would have expected her to brazenly walk outside like this.

Of course, she wanted to keep it that way, hence this half-disguise. And since August was deeply linked to Kierra, she, too, had hidden her return.

Preliminary investigation concluded that this new cult had existed for around half a year and amassed an alarmingly large following across the continent.

The premise was that a long-forgotten record of the creator god, Eon, had recently been discovered. After reading through it, a few people decided to spearhead the religion, dedicating their trust and beliefs to this god.

The ultimate goal of the 'religion' was to resurrect Eon, at which point the planet would be blessed with his protection and rise to prosperity.

God was merciful.

God was kind.

God was righteous.

People affiliated with the church had experienced many of these occasions in which 'God' helped them through a difficult situation. It wasn't sure whether these were coincidences or made-ups, but Kierra was irritated either way.

The point was that once people accepted the idea that God could do these miraculous things, they attributed him to many more things that he didn't do.

'To discredit all of our hard work over thousands of years...'

It was unacceptable.

The archwizard wanted to immediately blast this cult away. Yet, it wasn't going to be that easy.

First of all, to the outside, they weren't a cult. Whoever was at the head clearly knew what they were doing, marketing the religion as a harmless, healthy practice with no downsides. There was nothing radical about their ideology, nothing polarizing, and certainly nothing of apparent fanatical nature either.

If there were any of that, it would be done so cleverly that no one would notice it. For once, their teachings never said that Eon created reality, but the god's former name included the word 'Creator,' so people gave him credit for that.

Kierra was certain this cult's only goal was to spread its influence and get people to believe in Eon. Documents from the Central Divine Realm unanimously agreed that a god's power grew in accordance with its impact.

By advertising themselves as the absolute 'good,' they had simultaneously made themselves more attractive to the general population while also building a stellar reputation, making them harder to target overall.

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Even if the government tried to suppress its activities, it would no doubt be criticized heavily, not to mention the ordinary's protection that was so hard to deal with.

It was hard to do it covertly in this day and age when televisions were as common as any other magical tool.

''Welcome~!''

Kierra settled in a cozy coffee shop that was packed with people. Fortunately, there was one seat available.

''One black coffee.''

''Got it, pretty miss!''

The archwizard paid much of her attention to the magical television, keeping her eyes on the news about recent events. As she quietly enjoyed her drink, she noticed a man with a suspicious disposition.

He walked around the shop, approaching the customers with a friendly demeanor before giving them a name card. Soon, he came up to Kierra as well.

''Excuse me, fair lady.''

''Yes?''

''May I introduce you to a wonderful faith? Perhaps you might be interested in it.''

''Hm... sure.''

Like she thought, this was it. The man presented himself as a priest, one who worshipped the great Eon. She said a lot, but it could all be boiled down to—do you want to join us?

Of course, Kierra readily accepted.

Her goal at the moment was to personally find out just how deep this rabbit hole was—not by infiltrating the organization and rising in ranks, which would take forever.

Instead, she wanted to find at least a definite member of them and tail that individual secretly. There were spells for that, and by nature, these people would have to speak to one another in such a community at some point, so it was realistically the most efficient way to spy.

The man paid Kierra's bill and took her outside, where a few others, who appeared to have been doing the same as the man, joined.

That was all that led up to this moment.

Standing face-to-face with the statue of Eon, the archwizard lightly squinted her eyes. For now, she had already attached a small spider made from shadow magic to the man earlier and his group. If she waited a bit more, those guys would approach other members of the cult, and that would be when the spiders clone themselves to spread their reach—like a virus.

As for these people who had been praying... they seemed like ordinary folks.

For once, their conditions were strange. Somewhat subdued, slow, and perhaps unresponsive. Whatever the statue of Eon had filled the room with, it was clearly harmful.

So, Kierra lightly whipped out her mana and crushed the statue in an instant.

''Huh?''

''What was I...''

''W-Where is this??''

The people, upon regaining consciousness, were confused. Once again, the archwizard lightly tapped their heads with fine threads of mana, extracting a part of their memories before moving them back outside.

'Destroying this place wouldn't be a problem.'

In fact, since she knew what she was dealing with, she could now conduct a wide-scale search and destroy these chambers immediately. However, she judged that it would be too rash to do that, so she settled with one for the moment.

Afterward, Kierra retreated to her tower, focusing her attention on the little spiders she had released.

The broad picture she got was that the recruiters were trying to rope people into 'believing' in their god, be it through favors or pure faith.

'As expected, Eon is trying to gain power.'

One might ask, was Eon truly evil? After all, it seemed he had only done good things.

However, Kierra had seen the corrupt divine's behavior firsthand. Reckless, mindless, and heartless—they wouldn't stay this mysterious for so long.

Gods, gods, and gods.

''Hah...''

Kierra took off her glasses and leaned back on her chair.

If nothing changed, she would have to face two more gods in the other dimension and one here in Linoel. Of course, she was confident, but it was a problem if both forces decided to attack at the same time.

'Are they colluding?'

The more she thought about it, the less pleasant this situation became.

Still, the archwizard knew better than to mull over unsolvable problems. She quickly got up, went to her bedroom, and began to refine her new mana circles further.

It took time for the spiders to spread properly, anyway.

''...''

The clock keeps ticking.

In the absolute silence of her room, Kierra snapped her eyes open. Her blood-red gaze was fixed on a spot outside the window.

There, a plain eye floated, watching herself.