Proof of Miracle (2)
"Ugh, kuh..."
Damian groaned as he barely opened his eyes.
His head spun, and he felt as if he might vomit at any moment.
He felt so weak that even breathing properly was difficult.
'What happened?'
In the darkness of his mind, he retraced his final memory.
A man had come to him, locked up in Unique's underground.
Ivan Hunt.
Yes, he definitely lost consciousness the moment he met him.
"You've come to your senses?"
As Damian clutched his head, trying to recall his memories, a familiar voice reached his ears.
When he turned his head, there was a man with white hair.
Ardan Bello.
Great Duke of Winter.
"Isn't it rather ironic?"
At his feet lay a groaning demon, collapsed.
Sebin.
Damian's right-hand man, and a demon who could be called his loyal subordinate.
And lying beside Sebin was the corpse of Ivan Hunt.
"That the positions could change this many times."
"... Ardan Bello."
"Do not speak my name lightly. It makes me want to kill you."
"You... can't kill me."
Damian struggled to speak, and Ardan let out a small sigh.
That wasn't wrong.
Ironically, his life was currently protected by the Demon God's Heart.
If he died, the heart would explode right then and there.
He couldn't die by his own hand, nor could anyone else kill him.
That was Damian's state at the moment.
"Your plan failed."
"......"
"Whether Park Jung-woo wins, or Jin Su-hyuk wins, either way, you've failed."
Ardan didn't know Park Jung-woo's exact plan.
But if it was to stop that heart, then Damian's plan must be considered a failure.
In Jin Su-hyuk's case, it was even more dreadful.
"In a way, they're truly individuals fit to be the Demon God's chosen. Who would have thought a human would consider burning the world to ashes?"
He planned to detonate the heart and scorch the entire earth with magic power and demonic energy.
If that happened, modern civilization would be destroyed, and only a handful of humans adapted to magic power and demonic energy would survive.
Most of them would be Awakener.
"In a way, it would be the world you so wished for—a 'demon realm'."
However, unlike simply turning the earth into a demon realm, it would be a situation more akin to a ruined demon realm.
That would make it no different from the current demon realm.
Just another ruined world added.
Ardan quietly looked at Damian.
Though he appeared so pitiful, he was the Demon King's son.
Had he not handed over the Demon God's Heart and all his power to Jin Su-hyuk, he might have been stronger than Ardan himself—one of the greatest demons in the demon realm.
But now, Damian was endlessly wretched.
In his figure, Ardan saw a small boy he had once seen long ago.
A young demon, staring vacantly at the Demon King's corpse.
"... Ha."
A hollow laugh escaped Damian's lips.
"That, too... isn't so bad."
Yes, it wasn't so bad.
Since the plan was already ruined, just taking his revenge on Park Jung-woo would be worthwhile enough.
"If I can destroy that bastard's world and make him just like me."
"Is that so."
Ardan quietly responded to Damian's words and grabbed him by the collar.
Then he dragged Damian outside.
There was no longer any meaning in keeping him imprisoned.
Rather, it would be better to make him witness the unfolding spectacle with his own eyes.
"Look."
"... Look at what?"
Stepping out of the darkness, they reached the light.
Damian realized he had stepped outside the building where he'd been confined.
The world was brighter than ever.
Falling comets, a sky embroidered in gold.
"What do you see?"
Ardan looked up and spoke.
Did he mean the comet, or those waves of wishes?
"... The Demon God."
It was the first time Damian saw the Demon God.
He had been trapped underground, unconscious, completely unaware of how the situation had unfolded.
"A familiar face."
It was a face he couldn't mistake.
Estella.
A woman in the sky, bearing the same features as the Saintess who killed the Demon King.
More omnipotent, shining brighter than back then.
Compared to her, Shin Ah-yeon looked pitiful.
"Why, I wonder."
To Damian, who stared blankly at Estella, Ardan spoke.
"Why do you think, Damian?"
"... Think what?"
"Don't you wonder in this situation? Why Estella is fighting right now?"
"A foolish question; she is fighting only to fulfill her own wish."
Ivan Hunt, who appeared with the remnants of Estella, had said as much.
What he brought was the remnant of Estella left in Shin Ah-yeon—a trace of desire.
That consciousness was to be used to reconstruct the world, or so he said.
"Right, exactly. Like in that monkey's paw story, her dream is being brought into reality in a twisted form."
But did Estella really entrust everything to Ivan Hunt, fully wishing for this?
Did she not know her wish would come true in this shape?
"In other words... if there were someone to guide that shape to its rightful place."
Ardan knew how Estella met her end.
He knew her final words, how she died.
So, Ardan felt he understood.
He couldn't help but know.
What kind of ending she desired.
***
All the wishes of the world was here.
She saw a lot.
And even more than she saw, she heard.
She felt keenly that this was a power forbidden to humans.
Her back burned.
Even breathing was not easy.
It felt like swimming in molten lava.
Estella's fingertip pointed at Ah-yeon.
The instant she thought the golden light moved, the white paper spread on Ah-yeon's palm transformed into letters and brushed it away.
As space opened, the golden light tried to return to Estella, but she didn't even check it.
It had already vanished, scattered elsewhere.
Flipping her palm, the gravity of the world inverted, and Ah-yeon's body flew sharply in reverse.
Estella's power was the law of the world.
And also, rules that did not exist in the world.
Human wishes, delusion—all these had taken form.
Whenever that power was invoked, countless letters inscribed themselves on the book spread open in Ah-yeon's palm.
The Stigmata on her back permitted this, tracking the connection with Estella.
This was the Psalms.
Recitations of god's words—written verses.
Paper that etched miracles.
And, it was a beautiful fairy tale.
This was Ah-yeon's Conceptualization Technique: Fairy Tale.
"You wanted to become a mage."
For Ah-yeon, all she could see was Estella.
Her surroundings, already full of golden threads, were veiled—nothing else was visible.
The golden threads wove a veil and painted a picture.
Human imagination, desire, and wishes.
And someone's memories.
Among the countless threads, what Ah-yeon sought was Estella's wish.
'It's a puppet show.'
Ah-yeon thought.
The Estella before her was a puppet.
A doll connected by just one of the threads Estella left behind.
Only now, with so many threads intertwined, she couldn't tell which was Estella's.
"I wanted to meet you."
A familiar voice rang out.
It was Estella's voice, heard both in memory and in reality.
"I always, always wanted to meet you."
As if in screams, magic power and demonic energy spread through the sky.
Golden threads trembled, and holes pierced the veil above.
They were connected.
Ah-yeon felt it.
This moment, a hole opened in the world.
Perhaps, unlike Ah-yeon trapped in the golden threads, the people of the world could see it even more clearly.
The hole in the sky—and the demon realm visible through it.
'It's still okay.'
Though a hole opened, nothing had yet come through, and nothing passed over.
Simply, the two worlds had been connected as one.
'But why?'
Was it necessary to link to the demon realm?
Was it to turn this world into a demon realm? Or...
"Uhk!!"
Ah-yeon couldn't afford to think longer.
The drifting wave of wishes she barely endured now crashed down on her.
Darkness.
Swept by the wave, when Ah-yeon opened her eyes, only darkness greeted her.
Just moments ago, she was in such a bright world, but now only pitch-black emptiness was visible.
'Heavy.'
It was as if she'd fallen into a sea made of ink.
Unable to bear the weight of wishes, she felt herself sinking, dropping straight to the abyss.
Was this also wishes?
Or, was it a memory?
'Ah, I see.'
She felt like she understood.
She had felt a similar sensation once before.
When she was trapped in the Magic Tower, Ah-yeon had seen some memories.
They were Estella's memories, who had been imprisoned underground for a thousand years.
This was a millennium of darkness.
Estella's wish could not help but grow so desperate because of this thousand-year darkness.
Hatred toward humanity.
Malice toward demons.
All contained in those thousand years.
The reason her wish inevitably manifested in a twisted form.
'No.'
Ah-yeon denied it.
'That can't be all.'
Though this was Estella's most dreadful memory, it was also the very thing that allowed their meeting.
Ah-yeon swam.
In the darkness, she kept swimming, not upwards but endlessly downwards.
Magic could not manifest.
She could not tell if this was reality or inside a memory.
She simply sank further, to the very end of despair.
Because it must be there.
A single, exceedingly thin thread of gold.
'Because we met.'
She met the man who broke through the darkness.
Ah-yeon seized that thin thread in her hand.
Then, the thread pulled her, dragging her from the darkness in a flash.
As if the earlier darkness was a lie, countless images flashed by along the pulling thread.
They were Estella's memories—some seen before, some never seen.
Most of those memories were with Jung-woo.
"I wanted to become a mage."
At the end, only one woman remained.
"Do you know why?"
Estella.
The Goddess of Wishes, the Saintess of Salvation.
A woman called by such noble names.
But she was never an absolutely noble human.
She held malice, harbored hatred, dreamed of revenge.
She was also a normal human who felt jealousy of others.
"Yes."
Estella said she wanted to be a mage to Jung-woo.
Not for a miracle, but so she could help others by her own power, so she could remain a special person.
That's what she said.
But Ah-yeon knew.
It was not because of such grand reasons that she wanted to become a mage, but for something terribly trivial.
"Because I got cut in line."
Ah-yeon stepped forward toward Estella.
The strange vexation in those transparent eyes staring at her.
Knowing the reason, Ah-yeon laughed cheerfully.
"Well, I was first, wasn't I?"
Her power would absolutely not apply redundantly to the first person whose wish was fulfilled.
Estella would have known from their very first meeting.
That her authority had already touched the one who came seeking salvation.
Estella wanted to give him a miracle.
She wanted to grant what he desired.
But, because her authority had already reached him, it was impossible.
His wish to survive.
"... Heh heh."
Estella laughed.
As if it was awkward, or perhaps, as if she already thought Ah-yeon would know.
"That's correct."
Estella wanted to become a mage.
It was—ironically—much like Ah-yeon.
Simply, to others.
And to the one she loved, she wanted to gift a small miracle.
That was all.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
4 chapters left.
It's like the chicken or egg question.
Which came first? Estella or Ah-yeon?
【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】