Proof of Miracle (1)
Golden threads connected to the sky.
With a comet falling behind her, the Goddess reached her hand toward the sky.
As if trying to grasp something.
That bizarre action somehow felt sacred.
Anyone who saw it would be compelled to make a wish to her, without even realizing it.
And to prove it, the golden threads multiplied endlessly, brilliantly coloring the sky.
Shin Ah-yeon, who watched this closest of all, sensed the change in her surroundings faster than anyone.
Those beautiful golden threads were a fuse.
A fuse waiting to be ignited.
The moment that comet crashed and exploded, the power of wishes gathered along those golden threads would spread out.
What would happen then?
Just like when something unsuitable is put into a microwave, it would burn and explode.
People knew nothing of this.
Even if it were explained, they would not believe it, nor would anything change.
'If that's the case.'
From the start, there was only one way to overcome this situation.
Target the moment when wishes manifest, and steal everything.
Then modify the form of the wish created by the demon god, and produce a different outcome.
There was only one person here who could do that.
Shin Ah-yeon, no one but herself.
"Can I really do this against Estella?"
Before all this began, Shin Ah-yeon had asked Park Jung-woo this very question.
Shin Ah-yeon was always confident in everything, but this time she was not so sure.
Understandably so.
To face Estella meant she would have to fight her with the weapon Estella wielded best.
All Shin Ah-yeon possessed was a wish imitated by magic, not the true authority of wishes.
Even if she had completed it using the Conceptualization Technique, she would inevitably fall short of Estella.
"It's rare for you to talk so timidly."
At her words, Park Jung-woo chuckled.
"I'm only human, you know. Isn't it natural?"
"You don't have to worry so much."
"Why not?"
When she asked bluntly, he paused and looked at Shin Ah-yeon.
After a moment, he finally spoke.
"Estella was you in the first place."
"...... That's true."
"So, your opponent is actually the fake."
Strictly speaking, it wasn't entirely fake.
Estella, as realized here, was the wish that had seeped out from within Shin Ah-yeon.
"Would an owner lose claiming ownership over her own possession?"
"Isn't that a bit too optimistic?"
"Not really."
Park Jung-woo truly seemed unconcerned.
If she failed, a disaster fit to wipe out humanity itself might really occur.
"Because, in the end, your opponent is still you."
Even if a bit warped.
Even if it was a grudge formed from long-standing yearning.
In the end, the foundation did not change.
That was what he seemed to say.
Ironically, what Shin Ah-yeon felt at Park Jung-woo's words was not relief.
It was jealousy.
An emotion petty and out of step with the situation.
"...... Fine."
Shin Ah-yeon opened her eyes.
Facing the god floating in the sky, she held out her right hand and turned it over.
Her palm faced the sky.
Like someone holding a book in her hand.
'There's only one chance.'
She stopped herself from glancing at the falling comet.
She put her trust in Park Jung-woo, who was fighting his own battle there.
Swish.
Sheets of white paper began to pile onto Shin Ah-yeon's palm.
As a halo slowly formed around her, pure white petals of paper started to swirl about like flower petals.
They were not just ordinary paper.
They were psalms containing a wish.
"───."
Was it that she sensed the change?
Only then did the gaze of the demon god, of Estella, finally turn to Shin Ah-yeon.
Shin Ah-yeon could not read the emotion in Estella's eyes as she looked at her; it was far too ambiguous.
"Grandmother always said—magic is, in the end, nothing but an imitation of miracles."
The psalms of wishes stacked in her hands.
Verses and words that were meant for the divine piled and piled, transforming into one enormous book.
"Things humans can't normally do. Countless possibilities they wished for. Magic was modeled on these imaginings."
So, it was impossible for magic to surpass the authority of wishes.
At the point where rituals were required, that fact became an inescapable truth.
"But that's true only for ordinary mages."
Her back felt hot.
Countless letters emerged from the book open on her palm and arranged themselves around her.
At a glance, they looked like just lines of letters, but in fact, they were a multitude of rituals.
The authority of wishes was transforming into rituals, written on many sheets of paper, becoming magic itself.
An impossible feat.
Can one interpret miracles?
Impossible.
But Shin Ah-yeon could do it.
Anyone could at least lay out what they had.
Her grandmother had always told her.
That one day, Shin Ah-yeon would be able to use the beautiful magic she imagined.
Beautiful magic.
Yes, that's right.
"I'll show you."
What Shin Ah-yeon wished for was not some grandiose magic.
She wanted the fairy-tale magic she saw in storybooks as a child.
Simply magic that made others happy.
"The most beautiful magic."
That, to Shin Ah-yeon, was the greatest miracle.
***
It was the moment of fulfillment for a long-standing desire.
Amidst the falling comet, defying gravity, Jin Su-hyuk launched himself at Park Jung-woo.
Now, the face was all too familiar.
Staring desperately at the man swinging his fists at him, Jin Su-hyuk thought.
"Park Jung-woo?"
The very day he first heard a report that one manager had been caught up in the rift incident.
That day, Jin Su-hyuk saw Park Jung-woo's face for the first time.
Just a small photo.
An unlucky newbie caught up in a rift incident.
"Make sure to offer the bereaved some appropriate compensation. Don't forget to run the article."
"About the article?"
"Yes, something like, 'The manager of Grand Nova who saved countless Hunters'... That should suffice."
That was all Jin Su-hyuk remembered.
A management agency head, and a mere manager.
That was a gulf neither could bridge.
"Who would've thought... that you'd become my final nemesis, Park Jung-woo."
The trajectory of his opponent's fists, which would've been unreadable before, was now clear as day.
No—he could even be one step ahead.
Was this talent for martial arts?
And this body that could bring out that talent to the fullest.
A physique that moved with lightning speed, overwhelming power.
A sense of omnipotence that was indescribable.
"Did I ever say I didn't know Estella?"
Felt like he could do anything.
A god—yes, he truly felt like he had become a god.
"Yes, it's true I don't know Estella. But what does that change? Even if I were to develop other feelings, it all ends the moment I stop it."
She was the fuse to connect everything in the world; but in the end, still only a fuse.
Park Jung-woo himself held the detonator.
And already, by her will, she had connected everything in the world.
The wishes of all were drawn here.
"Tell me, Park Jung-woo. Why are you stopping me?"
It was all over.
The outcome was already decided.
Even if the result wasn't certain, he couldn't understand why Park Jung-woo tried to stop him.
"Is it simply to save the world? Because too many will die? Is it simply some moral reason?"
Flexing, his right arm's muscle swelled and smashed down vertically on Park Jung-woo's head.
As Park Jung-woo's waist bent backward, Jin Su-hyuk's knee hammered his chin.
Kwaaang!!
With a shattering impact, as if breaking the fabric of space, Park Jung-woo's head snapped back.
But he did not retreat.
Blood ran down from the ripped skin on his head; his body was a wreck, but he did not take a single step back.
He knew.
If he fell and was separated from the 'heart', he would no longer be able to interfere.
"If nothing changes, annihilation is inevitable. The time you've bought is, at best, 10 years. At the end of that, expungement of all new possibilities. Even if Awakeners win by some miracle, it'll be less than the number of survivors you aim to save."
There had been much anguish.
He had conviction.
He had the certainty that this was the right course.
"Do you really think salvation with no plan is the answer, Park Jung-woo!!"
Jin Su-hyuk lunged, hands closing in to choke Park Jung-woo's staggering throat.
But before they reached his neck, both wrists were seized by Park Jung-woo's hands.
"... I think I told you this before."
Park Jung-woo slowly pushed aside the arms pressing down on him.
His bones creaked, his muscles screamed, but he managed.
His heart thudded.
Stronger than ever.
It wasn't just the Demon King's heart beating—he, Park Jung-woo the human, his heart was alive.
It felt like it might burst at any moment.
"That's just your arrogance."
But that would not happen.
He would not die.
Park Jung-woo, unlike Jin Su-hyuk, did not possess countless wishes.
But he had a single, incomparably strong wish connected to his heart.
"Nothing has happened yet."
Three years ago, during the rift incident, a single wish came true.
It was the first miracle manifested in this world.
And that miracle saved a single human life.
"It's all... just my delusion."
Maybe it was a small miracle.
Just the wish for one person not to die.
Yet from that one wish, everything began.
He survived a horrific experiment.
Saved the Saintess.
Gathered countless heroes and united humanity.
And at last, killed the Demon King and saved the world.
All of this was because of a single wish from just three years ago.
"A delusion, you say?"
"Yes."
Park Jung-woo gripped his hands tighter.
With surprising ease, he forced Jin Su-hyuk's hands aside.
Jin Su-hyuk could only widen his eyes in disbelief.
Unlike him, Park Jung-woo was just an individual, after all.
He had no way to recover stamina, and the full extent of his power was just that of the Demon King.
"But from here on, that's the reality I'll create."
Awakener and non-Awakener.
To prevent the future conflicts between them, Jin Su-hyuk chose the survival of the Awakener.
On the surface, it looked as though he simply acted for their sake.
"If you really wanted to save the world, you should have aimed to save everyone."
"That's...!"
"Impossible, you say?"
That was the most ridiculous statement in the current situation.
"When using a miracle to begin with?"
The word "impossible" did not exist here.
While holding a miracle in your hand, if you never even imagined saving everyone—there was only one reason.
"Were you that anxious, Jin Su-hyuk?"
He twisted the arm, driving his foot into his adversary's abdomen.
As Jin Su-hyuk staggered back, red eyes glaring at him, Park Jung-woo calmly clenched his fist.
"Afraid that I would take it from you."
"Park, Jung-woo...!!"
The demons' plan had been rushed.
And Jin Su-hyuk must have known that.
He might have had other intentions, but Jin Su-hyuk had also been desperate.
As Park Jung-woo said, with miracles, there were always other ways.
If, unlike the demons, Jin Su-hyuk's goal had truly been the salvation of the world.
But he didn't do that.
In other words, regardless of the grand justifications, what Jin Su-hyuk desired was this one thing.
He wanted to be the one to change the world.
"If you'd given us time, or tried to cooperate with me, none of this would have happened."
He competed with Park Jung-woo to not lose that place.
To protect his specialness, his uniqueness.
Of course, it's not that everything Jin Su-hyuk said was a lie.
He simply always spoke the truth.
He always voiced his wish.
That he would become the singularity of this world.
That he would be the most special person in the world.
"I said it before, didn't I?"
Park Jung-woo grinned.
He could see the thread of "wish" connected to his own heart.
Strong and reliable, the golden thread was infusing Park Jung-woo with strength.
Shin Ah-yeon's authority had manifested.
Not Estella's, but Shin Ah-yeon's power was, for the first time, perfectly embodied in this world.
"Your wish will never come true."
It was said that divine arts require a life to manifest.
The more you use it, the more your life or lifespan is consumed, and that's why it's so powerful.
A force that summons miracles as much as the life it costs—so it was said.
Then, just one thing.
What if he used it?
There was only one wish dwelling in Park Jung-woo.
"This is the end, Jin Su-hyuk."
Not dying.
As long as Shin Ah-yeon's wish reached him, Park Jung-woo absolutely could not die.
And so.
The outcome was already decided.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
5 chapters left.
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