The Foreigner on the Periphery

I hated doing this. From the very beginning, to the point of madness.

The goal and the method were clear. To endure and keep enduring through an unfathomable span of time. To maintain even a faint glimmer of consciousness, all alone, for everyone else's sake.

It was a grueling penance no one would willingly undertake. A future awaited where that torment would become my very existence.

What meaning could there be in a life that existed solely for a task?

It was a long journey connecting the beginning to the end. It meant enduring until a towering mountain was worn down to grains of sand by the morning dew, and those grains gathered to form a vast beach.

The thought was horrifying, yet I could find no way to avoid it.

Because that was my karma.

*

Asiph-1 set out for a walk. Countless thoughts bubbled like seafoam in his mind.

During his days as a Frying Pan, whenever the chain of ownership broke, he had been forced to endure long, desolate stretches of time entirely alone. There were times when his humming resonance reached no one.

For instance, when a spaceship's oxygen tank ruptured and the pilot suffocated at the controls, leaving the vessel to drift undiscovered through the cosmos for decades.

'I suppose I've grown quite accustomed to this flesh. To think I'd actually go for a walk just to organize my thoughts.'

In truth, some of his reassembled soul fragments had parasitized people instead of objects.

Yet even now, whenever Asiph-1 recalled the past, his memories centered on the Frying Pan. That particular fragment had seized control of their merged personality.

'It's a strange thing, really. Why did I win?'

His memories of the assimilation process were a blur.

A fierce battle among fragments to claim the ego.

'Was it because I spent the most time with Father?'

When Minjun discovered him in Jang Tae-jun's kitchen, that tool's karma had been to make everyone in the world happy.

Then what of his current karma? His karma as a person?

Asiph-1 pondered his very reason for existing.

'The Creator intends to crown me the king of humanity.'

The one who would rule the universe on behalf of a god.

'Then, has my new karma already been decided?'

A purpose and meaning to life dictated by another.

'Do I even want that task? That throne?'

He had never questioned it before. Following the Creator's command was a given. His own hopes and preferences were never a factor.

He repeated the question in his mind.

'Do I actually want to do this?'

He kept walking. The scenery shifted. A few believers bowed their heads in deep reverence as their paths crossed, but Asiph-1 walked past without seeing them.

After walking for several kilometers.

He murmured a phrase that felt like an answer, yet simultaneously didn't.

'I must.'

He was already privy to the Creator's grand design.

Their race was preparing to delay the destruction of the universe. It was an unfathomable journey that Asiph-1 could hardly dare to imagine.

And on behalf of the primordial race, the Creator had already endured an agonizingly long period of suffering.

The pain Asiph-1 had endured trapped in the darkness of the Frying Pan could not begin to compare.

'Perhaps this, too, is a natural step in the universe's evolution.'

Within a material world destined for destruction, a race had been born with the power to prevent it. Wasn't it only natural to follow the path they forged? Even if they lacked the consent of other races.

And by carrying out Minjun's commands, Asiph-1 would contribute to that grand design.

It was a simple matter. There was no need for further deliberation.

"..."

Yet, despite reaching that tentative conclusion, the heavy knot of frustration in his chest refused to unravel.

It was unequivocally the right conclusion.

But something still felt wrong.

'I don't understand it.'

Hoping to clear his muddled mind, he turned his inwardly focused senses back to the outside world.

Instantly, the clamor he had been too distracted to hear battered his senses.

"You filthy wretches! So this is where you've been hiding!"

"Kyaaagh!"

"Get them! Show no mercy!"

It was a massive uproar. It was a wonder he hadn't noticed it sooner.

Asiph-1 suddenly realized his walk had taken him to a secluded area on the outskirts of the Ancient Race's city. He focused his mind toward the commotion. Pockets of violently hostile intent drifted through the air.

The believers were there. Their minds were swirling with euphoria, hostility, a sense of duty, and a thirst for destruction.

And alongside them was a race whose minds were not so easily read.

Asiph-1 did not use Teleport. Just as before, he silently closed the distance on foot.

The moment he rounded the corner.

Crack!

Reddish-brown bodily fluid splattered across the alley wall.

He saw Todd collapse, his carapace completely shattered. At his feet, corpses with ripped-out or crushed throats lay scattered. The narrow alleyway reeked of heat and blood.

Looming over them were the bishops, bludgeoning the bodies as if to mince them into the pavement.

Though they weren't bleeding as heavily as they had during the all-out war, thin rivulets of blood trickled from the third eyes on their foreheads.

Asiph-1 easily read the frantic memories swirling through their minds.

'A chase, then.'

The Committee's leadership had been wiped out, but no formal surrender had been issued. A small faction of resistance fighters still remained on the ground.

This was because Minjun had outright banned city-wide bombardments past a certain point in the conflict.

Even though a few blasts from the Photon Cannon could have wiped out the remnants entirely, he had stayed his hand. The believers interpreted this restraint as their god's boundless mercy.

To Asiph-1, who knew the actual reason, it was a laughable misunderstanding.

"Ah, Your Holiness!"

Belatedly noticing his presence, the priests dropped to their knees in unison.

In an instant, Asiph-1 discarded the persona of a wandering soul agonizing over his existence. He shifted into the king of humanity—a ruler possessing absolute certainty, devoid of all hesitation.

"Resistance remnants?"

He had arrived just as the hunt was drawing to a close.

"Yes, Your Holiness! We were tracking down these filthy heathens to purge them!"

Asiph-1 furrowed his brow.

"I recall forbidding unnecessary slaughter."

The reprimanded bishop threw himself forward, slamming his forehead into the ground—thud! thud!—as though he had committed a mortal sin.

Asiph-1 felt a sudden wave of relief that he hadn't read their minds deeply enough to synchronize with their physical sensations. The phantom pain of those impacts was something he had no desire to experience.

"W-we beg your forgiveness! It is simply that lately... our Divine Power has grown so immensely that it is difficult to control!"

Asiph-1 noted the golden currents swirling around their bodies.

The three-eyed one wasn't lying. For example, they had merely intended to lightly strike Todd to knock him out, but the blow had instantly caved in the back of his skull, killing him on the spot.

Ever since their victory in the holy war, their religious fervor had reached unprecedented heights. The priests of Elahu-Praga were quite possibly the single most powerful group of Divine Power users in the entire universe.

'And yet, their absolute leader doesn't possess even a sliver of Divine Power.'

Surprisingly, not a single believer ever questioned that fact.

'Father once told me he wasn't entirely certain where their power came from, either.'

During the second war, Minjun had been greatly surprised upon awakening to discover the existence of Supernatural Abilities fueled entirely by faith.

Back when the primordial race ruled the cosmos, the very concept of Divine Power had not existed.

Had it been a natural phenomenon, Divine Power users would surely have emerged among the Endelions of the distant past who had worshipped Minjun as a god.

But since no such power had manifested, those tentacled beings had found it all too easy to transition into atheism.

'Is that genuinely the power of a god, or is it the power of humanity...?'

Asiph-1 spoke down to the priests.

"Exercise greater restraint in the future."

"Yes, Your Holiness! We understand!"

The bishops barked their response in unison, their voices echoing off the alley walls like a military chant.

Leaving them to their task, Asiph-1 resumed his walk.

As he finally stepped beyond the city limits, a massive structure under construction loomed in the distance.

Thanks to the surviving infrastructure of the Ancient Race, the fanatical labor of the believers, and Minjun's vast knowledge, the construction was progressing at an astonishing rate.

Asiph-1 briefly considered what awaited them all once the project was finally completed.

"..."

He forced himself to look away.

Situated next to the site was a housing block, built concurrently simply because it was more efficient to handle both projects at once.

Located directly adjacent to the Kabite Concentration Camp, it served as temporary housing for the goblins rescued from the mining planet.

Those goblins were slated to be relocated to another dimension in the near future. The god had delegated such trivial administrative matters entirely to him.

Merely thinking about finding a new home for the goblins was enough to give Asiph-1 a headache. The vast majority of planets were openly hostile toward the race, already viewed them purely as economic slaves, or were actively driving them toward societal extinction.

'It would be much simpler if we could just find a planet exclusively for them, but all such worlds were wiped out back when the dragons ruled.'

He wasn't even entirely sure if segregation was the correct answer.

Was it truly right to isolate a sapient species simply because their intelligence was slightly lower than average?

As the king of humanity, this was just one of countless dilemmas he was expected to resolve.

He kept walking, eventually leaving the buildings behind and entering a serene district characterized by lush green forests and clear lakes.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

He felt heavy vibrations rippling through the ground, accompanied by the distinct sound of chattering voices.

"Hey! When did you get so fast?!"

"Agh! He got me!"

The scene that unfolded before him was yet another chase drawing to a close.

However, the context was entirely different from the bloodshed in the alleyway.

"Grrr! Roooar!"

A dragon soared through the sky in a fluid, elegant arc.

The beast's dazzling aerial acrobatics were so fast that an ordinary person's eyes could hardly track them.

The dragon darted nimbly toward a cluster of tentacled creatures levitating through the air via psychokinesis.

Its massive jaws snapped open.

"Gah!"

The dragon chomped down on a tentacle.

"Uwaaa! Aaaaagh!"

The bitten child shrieked as though they were being murdered, but Asiph-1 knew full well it was just a game.

"Ugh! Let's go again!"

The child grumbled, yanking their fourth and fifth tentacles out from between the dragon's clamped jaws. They vigorously whipped the appendages through the air to shake off the monster's drool.

The dragon had merely mouthed the child, keeping its teeth carefully tucked away.

"...Huh?"

It was then that the children finally spotted Asiph-1.

"It's him!"

Even the children knew what Asiph-1's official role was these days.

"It's Yumtus's boss!"

Thanks to the Grand Patriarch drilling it into their heads until they were sick of it, the children had fully grasped the hierarchy.

"...Everyone behave!"

Asiph-1 was a man of immense power.

Namely, he was the employer who provided Yumtus with food and shelter in exchange for the priest continuously threatening the kids with, "If you don't submit to God, you'll go to hell."

"If we mess up, poor Yumtus is gonna get fired."

The kids shrank their tentacles down and quickly scrambled to hide behind the dragon's massive bulk.

But the Pope paid the Endelions no mind. Instead, he spoke up, as if suddenly remembering something.

"You there."

He extended a finger, pointing directly at Asif-500.

The dragon instantly stiffened in nervous tension.

"...I heard you received a name from Mother?"

"Yes, I did."

For the first time that day, Asiph-1 managed to break free from his unanswerable philosophical dread, allowing himself to briefly indulge in a rather childish and entirely personal grievance.

'Why would she bestow a name upon a mere dragon, when she never even gave one to me?'

He tilted his head.

"How did that come about?"

Plunging into the mind of such a powerful telepath to fish for the memory seemed like too much of a hassle.

The dragon flinched, looking as guilty as a caught thief, before finally answering.

"...I, ah... I specifically asked her to give me one."

Upon reading how that conversation must have played out, Asiph-1's expression shifted drastically from his previous annoyance.

His face took on an indescribable look.

"So, what name did you get?"

"Zetamiel. My name is Zetamiel."

"Why in the world would she pick—ah... never mind."

Asiph-1 cut himself off and turned his gaze back toward the open sky.

"I suppose I can just ask her myself."

"Pardon?"

"Mother is returning."

The Endelion children immediately perked up at the news that their Princess-Holy-Mother-Grandmother was returning from her trip to another planet. They directed their gaze upward, utilizing eyes capable of peering straight into the depths of space.

However.

"...I don't see anything up there?"

Asiph-1 didn't bother explaining it to them.

He didn't mention that ever since Mother had transferred into her new prosthetic body, Asiph-1 could perfectly pinpoint her exact location, regardless of distance.

The reason was glaringly obvious. After all, his own physical body had originally been constructed as a prosthetic vessel for Father.

It was all part of Dell's 'Plan B'—a failsafe designed so that if they were ever forced to flee together, Minjun would always be able to find her, no matter where in the universe she ended up.

All so the two of them would never be separated again.

'I don't know whether to call it incredible, or just wildly obsessive.'

He clicked his tongue, keeping his eyes fixed on the sky.

Far in the distance, the faint silhouette of an approaching spacecraft finally became visible even to the Endelions' eyes.

*

"I think I've finally pinpointed the location of the Shelter."

Dell announced the moment she reunited with Minjun.

"Where is it?"

It was a location even Dell hadn't anticipated. There was a very good reason why they had failed to find it, no matter how thoroughly they scoured this star system.

The king had never hidden it in this dimension to begin with.

"The 'king' has relocated the vault a total of seven times so far. And every single time, he moved it to an entirely different dimension."

Seven dimensional relocations?

Just as Minjun realized that specific number mirrored a very familiar pattern in his own memories...

Dell continued.

"The king has always... Cain, he hid the Shelter in whatever dimension you happened to be banished to as a prisoner. Whenever the Committee reassigned you, he moved the vault right alongside you. Which means the final place he left it is..."

"Don't tell me."

"Exactly."

Dell nodded firmly.

"The Shelter is on Earth."

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