Proof of Miracle (3)
He was certain.
In this world.
That he had become the closest thing to an omnipotent human in this world.
'Estella the Demon God.'
It was a grand title, but to be honest, Jin Su-hyuk didn't really feel it.
The Demon God, the demon's god imitating a "Saintess" like Alencia.
And Estella.
To Jin Su-hyuk, she was nothing more than a ghost of the past.
What achievements she had accomplished 300 years ago, how noble and great she had been as a human—none of that mattered.
The only thing that was important was whether she could be of any help to his plans.
In that sense, Estella the Demon God was a good puppet for Jin Su-hyuk.
A being capable of drawing the world's attention into one place, perfectly controlling the power of wishes.
Moreover, her will was extremely feeble, acting solely for her own wishes.
A puppet connected by a single thread.
Through her, Jin Su-hyuk had obtained everything.
"Haa......"
Laughter burst forth.
Looking at the being before his eyes, the only emotion Jin Su-hyuk felt was one.
Fear.
"Hahaha, hahahahaha!!!"
He burst out laughing.
Sometimes, when a human encounters something absurd, laughter escapes uncontrollably.
That's how it was now.
He was certain he held omnipotence in his hand.
This strength.
This ability.
He'd become a god, transcending humans, awakeners, and even demons.
So he believed.
"Park Jung-woo......"
The laughter abruptly ceased, and Jin Su-hyuk looked at the figure before him with burning eyes.
Magic power and demonic energy circulated endlessly.
Jin Su-hyuk could see it.
The burning fuse of Park Jung-woo's life force!
"Park Jung-woo!!!!"
Divine arts consumed the user's life.
But Park Jung-woo had only one wish.
To never die.
In that case, no matter how much his life was consumed, he would not die.
And his wishes was connected to Shin Ah-yeon, determined by the sum of her power and wishes.
As long as the wish was not depleted, he could never die, could use whatever divine art he wanted.
The power of miracles.
Yes.
Jin Su-hyuk could only receive wishes by using Estella as a medium, but Park Jung-woo was different.
He was the owner of his own wishes.
As long as his life force endured, there was no restriction on using divine arts.
'No.'
A wave of anxiety surged.
Jin Su-hyuk could not help but understand.
With the current Park Jung-woo, perhaps it was possible.
That it would not be himself, but that man who opened a new era.
And in the worst imaginable form, as he saw it.
"Absolutely not."
Jin Su-hyuk clenched his fist.
Without suppressing his wildly beating heart, he glared at Park Jung-woo with bloodshot eyes.
"I absolutely will not allow it."
He did not know what was happening outside.
The battle between Estella and Shin Ah-yeon was no longer important.
In the end, everything rested within this dark star.
The Demon God's heart, and Park Jung-woo.
"The world will burn, and the new era will be that of a newly evolved humanity."
Thump, thump!!
Behind Jin Su-hyuk, the massive heart of the Demon God pulsed.
The concentration of magic power and demonic energy surged rapidly.
Accelerating the "demonification" that had been suppressed until now, he ignited the countless fuses of wish flames he had gathered to the golden threads connected to Estella.
"Even if you are right, conflict will never disappear. Humanity will end up discriminating and stratifying by ranks."
With Jin Su-hyuk's shout, Jung-woo felt it.
The angle of the dark star was tilting sharply.
And by the gravity weighing heavily on his body, he could tell that the star was accelerating rapidly.
"S-rank."
With bloodstained teeth bared, Jin Su-hyuk grinned.
"Just as all awakeners once chased after that name."
An ordinary person would have been incinerated just by being inside here.
Inside the burning star, he gradually felt the dark star's outer shell beginning to break apart.
Unable to withstand the power of extremely condensed wishes, the dark star was finally shattering.
"Weren't you the one who chased after that strength? What's different from the world you desire?"
"It's different, Park Jung-woo."
A world where everyone was awakened, competing fiercely.
It might sound ideal.
"That's power obtained in peace. They don't know its value. They don't know struggle. When people have too many answers, they go astray."
Inside the accelerating comet, Jin Su-hyuk staggered to his feet.
He looked at Jung-woo, unmoving and steady before him.
"Humanity must lose. If there are too many answers and people go astray, then just restrict the answers."
"...... Like the demons?"
"Yes."
The reason demons coveted other worlds was that the demon realm had become a wasteland.
Therefore, their purposes were all the same.
"Do you want to deny it?"
"......"
In the end, it could be ridiculed as delusion.
It could be refuted as something that had yet to happen.
But he did not.
Since it hadn't happened yet, ultimately, these words were merely hypothetical.
But.
"In that case, stop me. Stop me, and prove it with your strength!"
Kwaaaang!!!
"Park Jung-woo!!!"
The fuses were all ignited at once.
The threads of wishes connected to the Demon God's heart flared all at once, spreading to the world.
The outer shell of the dark star all shattered at once, exposing the internal frame.
The world was revealed.
"Jin Su-hyuk."
Looking down from atop the falling comet at the land below, the world seemed ever so small.
"Let's end this."
From above the burning sky, two fists collided.
Both of them held omnipotent power, but neither used that strength.
Regardless, no matter what powers were employed, it would all end with their fists.
The time when the comet fell.
Until the sky burned and its flames reached the earth.
***
"What on earth is happening right now?"
"Mom, the sky's all red."
"Ah... oh God......"
Voices of countless humans rang in Alencia's ears.
The blue sky had been stained crimson.
The sky was burning.
Golden threads spread across the world.
They burned the threads of wishes, incinerating everything.
That was a single, immense wish.
It was the flame of wish Jin Su-hyuk had created, borrowing Estella's wish.
'Ah-yeon unni.'
She looked in the direction where Ah-yeon was fighting Estella.
Before the Goddess connected to the burning threads stood a cocoon of gold.
Ah-yeon was buried beneath countless threads and wishes in that place.
The Goddess stood silently with her hand on the cocoon—that didn't matter.
The threads of wishes had already spread throughout the world and were burning; soon, those flames would reach Estella and Ah-yeon as well.
Whatever became of Estella, how about Ah-yeon?
'And, manager-nim.'
At the center of the burning sky.
Jung-woo was still within the falling sun.
Surely, he was still there.
Alencia could tell.
'The viewers......'
So many. Too many to keep track of now.
But that wasn't enough.
Just as Jung-woo had said.
Wishes was gathering upon the Demon God, and a miracle was about to be realized.
The amount of wishes was more than Ah-yeon's body could ever manage.
'Mom.'
Sparks of electricity flashed from Alencia's body.
It wasn't enough.
She'd used up too much electricity fighting Kang Min-gi.
To use any more, no matter how much power she pulled in from the U. S., would be difficult.
'So, just once.'
One last time.
Her back felt hot. The gift her mother had given her.
Toward her own falling Polaris, Alencia made a wish.
Thunk.
Somewhere, a light went out.
Just a little, electricity flowed into Alencia's body.
And then—
Thunk thunk thunk thunk thunk!!!
Electricity disappeared, little by little, across the area.
As the lights vanished, all illumination across Seoul faded.
No, not just Seoul.
Seoul, Korea—
And then the whole world's lights vanished in an instant.
The world's electricity vanished in an instant.
A world without electricity was dark.
And the uproar of people's voices instantly filled with silence.
The only thing visible was the burning sky brightening the darkness.
"...... Please watch."
Bit by bit.
"Please look at the sky right now."
A light flickered on.
Some saw it on TV, some on their phones, or radios in their hands.
On every device powered by electricity, Alencia's voice began to flow.
Many were confused, many grew alert.
Electricity from Alencia's hands spread and touched everything that human civilization had reached.
"You'll see a slightly bright comet."
A comet falling, cutting through the burning sky.
Just looking, it was a beautiful sight.
The blazing sky looked like a deep sunset, and the falling comet was like a star falling from the heavens.
"...... Over there."
Alencia held her breath and spoke.
"It's there. Right there, above that burning sky."
Inside the falling comet.
"He's fighting there."
Park Jung-woo.
Her manager.
Alencia's Polaris.
People looked at the sky.
The burning sky seemed like the end of the world.
And at its center was a comet.
Now people naturally understood.
What that comet, that dark star was.
And who was fighting there.
Through Alencia's broadcast, they knew who'd entered that place.
Park Jung-woo.
The name was somewhat unfamiliar to people.
But now, it was a name they'd grown accustomed to.
The manager of S-rank hunters, who'd played a major role in Odyssey.
The S-rank awakener who had closed the rift.
And the returnee.
Now, he was fighting there.
"So."
Looking up at the falling comet, Alencia spoke.
Comet.
Or a shooting star.
It was a scene that looked just like that.
It was almost comical.
"Anything is fine."
People made wishes upon the falling star.
If you thought of it that way, what Alencia was asking now wasn't very different.
"Please."
Looking upon the falling comet, wishing for the future, making a wish—this act was intimately familiar to humanity. From the moment civilization began, from the very start of written history, it was an instinct that survived.
"Please make a wish."
Jung-woo had said it himself.
The Demon God's power was 'divine art', not the power of wishes.
It was near omnipotence, but different from Estella's power.
Unless it became the subject of an wishes, the range of the power would be greatly diminished.
The Demon God, as a god, could only receive voices addressed to itself.
So wishes for the comet would not reach the Demon God.
There was only one who could hear the wavering wishes that would be lost.
***
Ah-yeon was human.
Not a god, and though her body was somewhat sturdy by virtue of being an awakener, she was, in the end, human.
Her physical form could not begin to compare to someone like Alencia, who had utterly surpassed humanity.
Therefore, withstanding all the wishes gathered from the entire world was impossible.
The amount of wishes she'd gathered through the demonic zone raid broadcast— that was Ah-yeon's limit.
So, she would use the 'Demon God'.
All the wishes would be gathered to the Demon God, and the moment a miracle manifested—
She would wait, riding the threads of wishes for the instant when Estella and Jin Su-hyuk's wishes spread.
"...... I knew it had to be me."
Wrapped in white paper, Ah-yeon grasped a single thread.
Inside the cocoon, at Estella's core.
From the enormous cocoon of wishes, she grabbed hold of the single hidden thread.
Ah-yeon listened closely.
She could hear many voices.
She heard countless wishes for the comet.
There were many, but not so many as to be overwhelming.
She stored those wishes in her Stigmata.
Their wishes were mostly the same.
Ordinary hopes for a happy future.
Sheets of paper inscribed with those wishes spread and touched the thread.
A myriad of sheets unfolded like wings, pulling that thread toward the sky.
"...... You have to accept it well, okay?"
In the end, the Demon God was only Estella's wish.
All those wishes were connected to that one thread.
No matter how many wishes were joined and how great they became, in the end they were still just a single wish.
A single thread.
Ah-yeon snatched only Estella's thread and linked it to her own Stigmata.
'If I had tried to contain all this in my body.......'
At the moment she connected to the thread, Ah-yeon drew a sharp breath as the vast wishes surged.
The golden cocoon broke apart, and the burning sky filled her vision.
But it was fine.
Though an enormous amount of wishes was connected, Ah-yeon felt no burden.
Of course.
Right now, Ah-yeon's role was only as a 'pathway'.
A route for the strength to pass through.
In other words, all Ah-yeon had done was reroute the thread once connected to the "Demon God" through herself.
And now, there was only one direction for that wishes to flow.
Because, out of all the "threads of wishes" connected to her, there was only one.
Three years ago, the very first miracle manifested in this world.
That miracle was the most beautiful magic that Ah-yeon had ever created.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
3 chapters left.
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