Comet (4)
I felt the dark star tilting.
If it were falling vertically, it would have taken only a matter of minutes.
However, the 'dark star' began to tilt slowly, gradually accelerating.
'Where is it going to fall?'
And it was difficult to estimate how long it would take.
In the first place, I couldn't even tell how high we were falling from right now.
Because it wasn't possible to clearly see the outside from in here.
I just knew that the wishes converging toward the demon god's heart had become absurdly massive.
"How unfortunate, Park Jung-woo."
Perhaps sensing Park Jung-woo's gaze fixed on the heart, Jin Su-hyuk bared his teeth, white and caked with dried blood, and laughed.
"It was certainly an excellent plan. Using the incidents we've caused so far, you fully utilized the media of 'broadcast'."
Honestly, if Ivan Hunt hadn't brought the remains of Estella, such a plan couldn't even have been attempted. That's how much of an overwhelming advantage Shin Ah-yeon held in terms of 'divine art'.
"If we'd just been ordinary demon gods as originally planned, everything would have gone your way. By presenting us as the clear 'enemy' through broadcast, you'd have focused the world's wishes on Shin Ah-yeon."
It wouldn't have been easy, but if it were Park Jung-woo, and Shin Ah-yeon, they surely would have pulled it off.
Ironically, Jin Su-hyuk believed that much in the two of them.
Such outstanding talents, so similar to himself—failure would have been stranger.
"So that was why Damian tried to complete the demonization quickly, before people recognized the crisis, intending to compete with Shin Ah-yeon using the finished demon god."
Damian also considered the idea of gathering wishes through the 'broadcast' Park Jung-woo had prepared.
To create a demon god that would surpass even the Demon King's power.
"The ones meant to fulfill that role were originally myself, Kang Min-gi, and Ryan Knox."
Not a single demon god, but three people dividing the power through the heart.
And with the power concentrated in those three, they planned to topple the last forces of humanity including Park Jung-woo.
"Why didn't you do it that way? If you had, all of you could have wielded far greater strength than now."
Park Jung-woo barely kept his balance on the shaking ground of the dark star.
Now, the powers of Jin Su-hyuk and the other two would be far inferior to the original plan.
They had been prepared as the 'demon god's' vessels, but the true demon god was Estella alone.
They were simply receiving all power channeled through Estella.
"Yes, we could have held much greater power. Though only for a moment."
Jin Su-hyuk could feel it.
That the two who had been granted the demon god's vessel alongside himself were dead.
That was why the power that had been headed toward them was now focusing solely on Jin Su-hyuk.
It was an enormous strength.
He felt as if his body would burst immediately.
No, clearly his remaining time was now limited.
How long could he live?
An hour? Maybe two hours.
But for crashing a star, that would be more than enough.
"Even just receiving the refined power, it's come to this. If we weren't channeling through Estella, we would have burst and died long ago."
Thud, thud!
He jammed both feet into the ground to steady himself and not lose his balance.
Setting himself, Jin Su-hyuk bent his knees, blazing eyes fixed on Park Jung-woo.
Like drawing back the string of a bow, every muscle in his body tensed taut.
"It's only natural. They'd never know—those primitive bastards would have no idea what broadcasting even is."
He learned this through talking with the demon.
And as he heard tales of countless worlds they'd passed through and seen, he realized:
They had no idea.
About how many humans lived on this Earth.
They couldn't comprehend the vastness of a population exceeding six billion, nor the influence broadcasting held.
No doubt, the demons had spent a long time on Earth and conducted their own analyses.
And yet, they still didn't know.
Of course they didn't.
With different cultures, different histories, it was impossible to understand.
"See, Park Jung-woo. In the end, everything went just as I said. Now you have only one option left. Kill me, take the Demon King's heart, and transfer it to another world just as you came to this one."
"... Are you saying Estella approved of that?"
"You know, don't you? That's not the Estella you used to know."
When Ivan Hunt brought the 'remnants', Jin Su-hyuk saw it immediately.
That thing, which could control the demon god's power, wasn't a soul or personality of somebody.
"It's Estella's wish."
An unfulfilled wish.
A yearning and prayer spoken to no one else.
Left as dregs, the trace remained even into her next reincarnation.
"She has only one wish."
KWAANG!!
The moment the words ended, Jin Su-hyuk lashed out at Park Jung-woo.
That speed called to mind Alencia.
No, in truth, it really did.
Jin Su-hyuk's fist, flying at lightning speed, drove straight for Park Jung-woo as if to pierce him.
'It's different.'
That fist was completely different from just a few minutes ago.
As though he'd understood the principles of martial arts, even his distribution of strength, magic power, and demonic energy moved differently.
"To create a world where you and she can be together."
"...!!"
Park Jung-woo gritted his teeth and swung his own fist to meet it.
Jin Su-hyuk's fist and Park Jung-woo's fist collided in the air, shaking the dark star.
"That's not the ending you want!"
"No, it's the same."
Fist clashed against fist, again and again, the sounds of flesh splitting and bone cracking rang out.
"Do you know about the monkey's paw?"
He did know.
Even if you wished for something, it would be granted in a twisted, not proper, form.
That was the nature of miracles in the horror story 'The Monkey's Paw'.
"The existence of the demon god is a time bomb. The heart on my back! That's the very crystallization of Estella's wish. And it's now in my hands. Her thoughts are vividly clear in my eyes."
Her wish would be granted.
By crashing that heart onto Earth, reducing this land to ashes.
Jung-woo would never die.
All ordinary humans who drove her to sainthood would perish as well.
"But it's a bit lacking."
Because Damian moved the dark star too quickly.
Or maybe, no matter how much you gathered wishes through broadcasting, you could never gather the wishes of all humanity.
Unaware, Estella would press the bomb's switch in pursuit of only her own 'wishes'.
"Humanity will survive. Never die. Only the new mankind created for a new world will remain here. Even if Estella belatedly tries to refuse, it'll be too late to stop. If Ivan Hunt has suppressed Damian, all control rights will reside solely with me!"
It was soon.
No more need to distinguish between awakened and non-awakened.
Only the awakened, especially those of extraordinary power, would remain in the new world.
CRACK!!
Jin Su-hyuk's fist was completely mashed, and their bodies both staggered back several meters.
Though his hand had been pulverized, considering Jin Su-hyuk had been utterly outmatched before, it was an incredible turn.
'... Don't tell me he got experience from the two who died?'
Or maybe he absorbed their power.
Since their bodies were created through divine art, it wasn't impossible.
Kang Min-gi's speed and strength, honed through battle with Alencia.
And the principles of martial arts Ryan Knox gained fighting Soo-ah.
Now Jin Su-hyuk held both those assets.
On top of that, his conviction, brimming with madness, was instilling enough life into his body to keep it from breaking down.
"... It's possible the demons really did make a mistake."
Park Jung-woo loosened his creaking hand.
Unlike Jin Su-hyuk's mutilated hand, which had already regenerated, Park Jung-woo's hand showed no recovery at all.
It wasn't to the point that he couldn't fight, but if he kept this up, he might not be able to use his fist properly anymore.
"They didn't understand broadcasting, didn't understand humans of this world. And they didn't understand you."
Damian's plan was certainly a gamble.
In contrast, Jin Su-hyuk, leveraging Estella's wishes, was further improved and nearly completed.
From the outside, that was how it looked.
"But the same goes for you."
"... Oh, the same?"
"Yes."
From the moment Estella appeared, Park Jung-woo had never intended for Shin Ah-yeon to bear all the world's wishes.
As Jin Su-hyuk just said, Shin Ah-yeon's body wouldn't be able to withstand all that wishes.
Unless she possessed a 'god's body' like Alencia, she would collapse and die.
He knew.
And so, he did things this way.
"Just as the demons failed to understand humanity."
As Jin Su-hyuk said, right now Estella was a massive lump of wishes.
To put it another way, inside the bracelet Benadic so desperately chased was Estella's lingering wish.
The being known as the demon god now was that wish, ballooned and made manifest many times over.
The will of Estella transferred to Ivan Hunt in Jeju Island.
And the wishes inside the bracelet Benadic brought from another world.
Most likely, at Monster Gwehyeoldo, Ivan Hunt had come to steal the bracelet's wishes.
And all those things were combined into a single 'mass of desire'.
To make her even a little more akin to a 'Goddess'.
Her wish and prayer, perfecting that authority.
So, he was certain.
"You don't understand Estella either."
So, he trusted them and stayed here.
That was his final role, as a manager.
***
Shin Ah-yeon first gained a longing for magic because of a fairy tale she'd read as a child.
A story called Cinderella—a plain fairy tale, no longer even much mentioned nowadays.
Before 'real magic' appeared in this world, it was just a work of imagination, but now that magic truly existed, it was referenced as a special story.
"Grandma, can magic do anything?"
Young Ah-yeon asked that.
She liked the thought of a fairy helping Cinderella.
As people became aware of 'magic', recognized it, learned it—
Ironically, magic like in Cinderella became known as 'nonexistent'.
Human fantasy, which only ever existed in dreams.
As it clumsily set foot in reality, its beauty faded.
Even so, Ah-yeon just liked it.
She wanted to become someone who could help others with fairy-tale-like magic.
"Just a hundred years ago, magic was only a dream. It was different from the magic weaving together complex formulas and handling magic power."
Ah-yeon's grandmother was a remarkable mage, someone who had lived since before the age of magic.
Strangely, Ah-yeon loved stories from when magic didn't exist.
"Our Ah-yeon... must want to use beautiful fairy magic just like in a storybook."
"Yes, yes!"
Just as those words suggested, what young Ah-yeon wanted was the beautiful fairy's magic, not the modern-day magic that shot fire or ice from the hands.
A kind of magic that couldn't exist in this era—a magic of dreams.
A miracle.
"If Ah-yeon becomes a great mage, you'll be able to do it someday."
"Really?"
"Certainly."
And her grandmother always said this.
To her lovable granddaughter who saw magic as magic and nothing less.
"Originally, magic was just another word for miracle."
In the time before magic existed, magic and miracle were synonymous.
And now that magic was in their hands, the phrase 'it's like magic' had disappeared.
Magic was no longer a word for miracle.
But, just as humans once somehow came to grasp magic—
"Ah-yeon, you'll definitely be able to grasp a miracle with your own hands one day."
One day, that day may come, when she reaches out and seizes a miracle.
And when that day arrives,
The greatest miracle will become the greatest magic.
Gazing at her beloved granddaughter, she believed so.
Until the last day she closed her eyes.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
6 chapters left.
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