The Foreigner on the Periphery

People would later call the incident the Miracle of Christmas Eve 2020.

It was an anomaly that took everyone by surprise as they wrapped up a grueling year.

A rarity for that year, it was a marvel that actually changed things for the better.

"Look over there!"

A massive pillar of light shot up from beyond the ocean.

It would later be revealed that the light source was a point in the Pacific Ocean. In Korea, the people who felt its effects earliest and strongest were the residents of the east coast.

"A bomb?"

"R-run!"

Public sentiment was already on edge. Just recently, an unidentified magical wave had been observed out in the distant sea.

In the midst of all this, a fierce flash of light suddenly blanketed the sky, burning as brightly as thousands of suns.

The beam of light initially formed a cylinder connecting the ocean and the sky, then gradually lowered its height, spreading its light horizontally. From afar, it looked like a blinding tidal wave rushing in.

And an incredibly fast one at that.

"Damn it, we're done for. It's almost—!"

Flash!

The light swept over the land.

It tore through the city center like a storm. It moved so fast that most people thought a camera flash had simply gone off.

In the wake of that intense current, remnants were left behind.

The footprints of a blinding wave.

"What is this?"

The fierce gale from the Pacific Ocean had scattered tiny specks of glowing powder.

Unlike the initial storm that had crashed down at terrifying speeds, this gentle breeze of light powder, warm as the spring sun, softly blanketed the earth and spread.

People watched the spectacle in shock.

Forgetting even to breathe.

"Dad... stars are falling from the sky."

Someone mistook it for starlight.

"...Snow?"

Another person, knowing full well it was impossible, pictured snowflakes falling from the sky.

Swoosh!

While the world briefly stood still.

The entire planet twinkled in gold.

Snowflakes formed from ripened light fluttered down onto continents and oceans. They passed straight through physical obstacles like buildings and terrain to land directly on people's skin. Those who had initially run away in desperation soon stopped trying to avoid contact.

They had realized something was different.

"Huh, my body?"

Some felt their troublesome pains or disabilities alleviate, even if only slightly. Those who were already healthy suddenly felt a surge of vitality and a deep sense of comfort.

People who had experienced Divine Power healing could tell that this light was similar, yet functioned a bit differently. None of the priests they knew had the ability to envelop a person's mind. Everyone touched by this light, however, felt an incredibly stable and peaceful emotion welling up inside them—a resonance that could only be called positive certainty.

Ultimately, the evacuation lines came to a halt. People blankly stopped whatever they were doing and stared at the glowing snow falling from the sky. Following the path of its spread, the commotion died down, and quiet peace took its place.

The society of the living quickly regained its stability.

However, the story was a bit different for the dead.

   *

=Holy crap! What is that?! Which crazy zealots did this?!=

=Run! Emergency! Emergency! Everyone hide!=

Thanks to its geographical location, Sokcho City became one of the first cities in the country where the light powder fell.

And right now, the ghosts here were in even greater chaos than the living. Their reactions were far quicker and more agile.

To avoid getting hit by more of the light powder, the spiritual bodies either flew higher into the sky or dug straight into the ground.

Amidst that scramble, someone shouted.

=Hey! Old man! Are you crazy? Hurry up and run!=

Park Tae-sik (died at age 36, in his third year of death, primarily haunting Sokcho City) frantically sent out a spiritual wave.

He knew very well that the golden light emitted by priests forced the ascension of evil spirits, but for ghosts with reason and memories like them, it was a game of Russian roulette.

But no matter how slim the odds, if it happened to him, the risk would be a hundred percent. He had no desire to gamble with his very existence on the line.

Park Tae-sik didn't want to depart for the spirit realm yet either, but he hesitated. A fellow ghost had caught the eye of this orc who had died away from home in his thirties.

Instead of fleeing immediately, he yelled at the other ghost.

=Stop spacing out and run! Ah, fuck, this crazy Joseon guy, seriously!=

The last label wasn't a derogatory slur.

Because the ghost standing frozen as if nailed to the spot really was a nobleman who had lived and died during the Joseon dynasty.

Though he had awakened as a ghost in the 20th century, his spiritual body perfectly replicated the old-fashioned attire from the time of his death. Lingering in the air like hazy light, the human old man stared beyond the horizon and emitted a thought.

=Beautiful. Truly... beautiful.=

Watching the glitter fall like snow all around them, he muttered as if entranced.

Park Tae-sik screamed at him.

=We don't know what will happen if you keep getting hit by that! I'm telling you, it's like radiation to us!=

Damn it, he had used the wrong example. There was no way this nobleman knew what radiation was.

The moment he lamented his choice of words.

=...Huh?!=

The very scene Park Tae-sik had been so worried about unfolded before his eyes.

At the same time, the old man's spiritual wave reached him like a lament.

=I died a long time ago. There is no one on this land who remembers me, nor anyone I know. I shouldn't be here. Now... it is time to go.=

The nobleman's sleeves began to fade first. As if melting away.

=Old man!=

His speech and behavior were stuck in a consciousness from hundreds of years ago, making him a ghost who didn't mesh well with Park Tae-sik, who had lived in the 2010s.

But the moment he saw the old man slowly fading away...

=You crazy old geezer!=

The orc ghost launched his spiritual body forward. He shot straight through the air, focusing his mind.

So that his spiritual body could interfere with the old man's spiritual body.

However.

=Ah...!=

The nobleman's spiritual body was already more than half dispersed.

The orc ghost brushed past him as he crumbled like mist. Both of his arms flailed helplessly in the empty air.

=To where I belong.=

Their eyes met.

=This is... my wish.=

The orc was completely drenched in the powder of light he had feared so much. Yet, unlike the old man, he was perfectly fine.

The ghost who remembered the Joseon era closed his eyes.

=It is truly peaceful.=

With that final resonance, the old man's spiritual body completely vanished.

The orc ghost stood blankly for a long while in front of the empty space where the nobleman had disappeared.

And right through his spiritual body, the sparkling golden powder fluttered down like a dance.

   *

At the center of the light storm that had turned the whole world upside down.

Asiph-1 furrowed his brow.

"...What a simple and straightforward mental structure."

He didn't have much interest in the uproar happening on Earth right now.

Even if it was the aftermath of a massive release of Divine Power, the extent of it would just be curing the minor ailments of the living and sending nearby evil spirits to the afterlife en masse.

His nerves were solely focused on the ability user right in front of him.

"The mental world itself is no different from that of an ordinary mortal."

Diving just a little deeper beneath the surface consciousness of the concentrating Fourth, various elements became visible.

For example, Asiph-1 learned that the half-blood dragon was currently starving. Just one layer beneath his consciousness, he was filled with a craving for fried chicken.

Lightly ignoring that and delving a bit deeper, a sense of loss and anxiety revealed itself. Fourth was grieving the fact that the brothers he had been with since birth weren't by his side, and he felt worried for the safety of his mother, whose face he could barely remember.

Only after reaching a place even deeper than that could Asiph-1 observe the source of the Divine Power.

At first glance, it looked similar to the mental structure of the Elahu-Praga priests.

"Blind devotion, unconditional affirmation, unshakable faith."

Observing reality and the mental world simultaneously, he unconsciously voiced his thoughts aloud.

His muttering continued.

"But beneath that... there's something strange?"

Asiph-1 concentrated so hard that he felt a headache for the first time in a long while.

And yet.

"Why can't I analyze just that?"

It wasn't because of the barrier erected by Fourth's unconsciousness. Asiph-1 had already neutralized that.

The brainwashing ability user soon figured out the reason.

"It's too small."

The part that remained unanalyzed was too tiny of an element to influence a person's mind. Yet, for some reason, Asiph-1 couldn't tear his eyes away from it.

Because it twinkled with an incredibly intense light.

Like a single grain of gold dust settled on a mud puddle.

"And."

There was another reason he was struggling to decipher it.

"Why is it acting so erratically?"

In this reconstructed world where the mental realm was visualized, that tiny speck of dust seemed to constantly shift its position every time his gaze touched it.

Just as he tried to analyze it, it would vanish and then twinkle from an entirely unexpected place.

As this repeated over and over again, Asiph-1 felt a stubborn flare of pride welling up.

"Just stay still!"

Asiph-1 chased the trajectory of the twinkle, drawing on his vast experience of reading and interpreting the minds of countless people.

After a little more time had passed like that.

"..."

Dong-cheol, the goblin who had his eyes squeezed tightly shut, heard a cheer.

"Got it!"

‘Is it over now?’

Slowly opening his eyes, the goblin took in the situation.

"...Huh?"

The man who had shouted in joy just a moment ago was now frozen stiff like a statue, while Fourth was still concentrating, engulfed in light.

And behind them.

Crackle! Bzzzt!

A scene unfolded where space shook incessantly, throwing off sparks.

   *

Asiph-1 was flustered.

"Where am I now?"

Until now, he had been simultaneously observing reality and the mental world.

But suddenly, everything had changed. The room on the Mothership where the goblin and Fourth were, and the mental landscape he had been observing just a moment ago—both had vanished.

"Just a moment ago, the door to that tiny fragment definitely opened."

In that case, was this the inside of that sparkling particle?

He looked around. He felt as though he were looking down at a massive river. A river flowing with something blindingly bright instead of water.

"Where is it flowing to?"

The fluid flowed in only one direction. At a truly dizzying speed.

He understood this fact through mental intuition, not physical observation.

He spoke hesitantly.

"Faster than light...?"

Someone answered.

- Yes, it is flowing faster than light.

Asiph-1 tried to locate the source of the voice. But all he saw was that massive current, its beginning and end still impossible to verify.

A dimension with no fixed coordinates. The only thing perceivable was direction.

He tried to guess the other party's identity. It was faster to eliminate the wrong answers than to find the correct one.

"Is it Fourth's unconscious? No. The feeling is different."

As he pondered, meaning flowed into him once more.

- Three important people have gathered, including you.

Receiving that resonance, Asiph-1 felt confused.

It was because of the tense.

As far as he could perceive, the entity's words described an event that had already occurred and was maintained in the present.

But bizarrely, he also sensed anticipation for something that would happen in the future within the spiritual wave. As if the event of the three of them gathering hadn't occurred yet.

- It's only natural that you're confused. This is an unfamiliar concept to you.

"Where exactly are you?"

For some reason, it felt like he needed to change the interrogative word.

From 'where' to 'when'.

As if reading his conflict, the answer was kind.

- I am everywhere, and always.

Asiph-1 wore a look of disbelief.

If he were to translate the entity's words into an expression he understood...

"You transcended the constraints of space and time?"

Even though this was undeniably an event occurring within the mind, Asiph-1 felt his own voice tremble.

"Such a thing is impossible."

- You instinctively deny what lies beyond your cognition and understanding. It might be difficult for a being with mass like you, but for a soul, it is possible.

At this point, Asiph-1 erased the hypothesis that the entity was a part of Fourth from his mind.

- Across all timeframes, you are the only one who can converse with me like this right now. There is no other being who has been split into as many pieces as you and reassembled. Only someone who has been reduced to fragments comparable to elementary particles can do this. I am somewhat similar. Though, this too would be an unfamiliar concept to others.

"One, yet... many?"

- It's also similar in that a personality representing the whole exists.

Asiph-1's thoughts were dyed with confusion.

"If you are always, everywhere... why did you come to 'me right now' of all things?"

- I didn't 'come here right now.' Because I have always been everywhere. Think of a field spread across space and time. That is me.

"What?"

- The moment I, who am connected beyond limits, interact with someone's mind, I bubble and rise like foam in that time and place. Only under those temporary conditions can I influence you all. It's only possible by becoming intertwined with someone's heart.

"Wait. If that's the case..."

- Yes. First, the mind of the one called Fourth became intertwined with me. However, he lacks the ability to commune with me. After that, because your mind became intertwined with Fourth's, the two of us are finally able to communicate like this.

"Are you also someone's fragment?"

- That was how it started. You and I share the same root. The shadow said it. The planner bore the ruler, and the ruler birthed the wanderer. It said that after stealing a glimpse at your memories.

Asiph-1 received a shock that felt like it would shatter his mind.

The planner was Minjun.

The ruler was Asiph-1.

And the wanderer was...

- From the beginning, I was able to tear down any boundary, fence, or wall and press onward. Spatial constraints were meaningless.

That telepathic wave made Asiph-1 dizzy.

It was because the events being described intuitively felt like things of the past, yet at the same time, they struck him as though the present and future were intertwined.

- In the end, I even overcame the constraints of time, albeit imperfectly.

The entity explained the catalyst for that.

- It was agonizing. It was exhausting. I knew I had blocked the flow. I couldn't absorb any more, you see. I thought I would lose myself if I sucked in any more. In the midst of that, your 'father' set me in motion.

Asiph-1 managed to speak. He thought he now knew the entity's identity.

"Because you... were blocking the blood vessel!"

- To the speed at which I was moving, the explosive force of the bloodstream bursting open was added... and I began to flow at an incredible speed.

The entity projected a memory.

A three-eyed one's voice, which Asiph-1 also knew well, could be heard.

‘Do not forget that both you and I are currently in a mass-less spiritual body state!’

‘Since we have no mass, it is possible for us to even break past the speed of light. If that happens, it will truly be irreversible.’

‘Your relative time will slow down until it finally surpasses a standstill, reaching the realm of negative, or imaginary numbers.’

‘That timeframe is the temporal territory before everything began in the beginning, before the gods even dreamed.’

It was the voice of the bishop who had once served as the acting pope of the Ellahu-Praga Church.

- Alext didn't fully understand. Breaking past the speed of light doesn't necessarily mean going back to the past. It's not completely wrong, but it's only a part of the answer. A being that has surpassed the speed of light becomes a single current connecting the past, the present, and even the future.

Asiph-1 stammered.

"So... you are..."

- Furthermore, I wasn't alone. As I began to flow again, I absorbed more Talents, and at the same time, I started crumbling into tiny pieces. Shards like elementary particles, to use a material analogy.

Expansion and collapse occurring simultaneously and continuously.

It was a concept Asiph-1 found hard to easily imagine.

- Contrary to my earlier worries, I didn't lose my sense of self. Rather, you could say the scope of 'me' had expanded. The moment the walls I had built to protect myself crumbled, I heard their voices for the first time. The owners of the Talents I absorbed. Their words.

The owners of the Talents.

It was plural.

People bleeding from the napes of their necks.

"Father's people?"

- The moment I accepted them, I empathized with what they were thinking and feeling. We were split into microscopic units and blended together. In that state, we flowed together faster than light.

While the original body of the source remained perfectly in place.

The spilled blood forged a new current alongside Ha Eun-seong.

"How is such a thing possible?"

- The reason our minds intertwined? It's simple. There were overlapping parts between us.

"What parts?"

- Aside from the basic human desire to wish for the happiness and safety of precious people. By chance, right before I absorbed the Talents, I had this thought. That no matter how much someone hates me... they shouldn't have to suffer the pain of having their life's purpose completely collapse. Especially not someone who is preparing to become a god.

A certain voice brushed past Asiph-1's ears.

‘The Agent shouldn't end up like that. Even if he hates me, he shouldn't have to go through something like that!’

Naturally, it was a story he knew nothing about.

"By the Agent, you mean... Father?"

- Your creator disliked me quite a bit.

Asiph-1, who was already certain of the entity's identity, could not deny his words.

- It's quite ironic, but right before I turned into a 'lump', I wished that he wouldn't suffer such terrible agony. And...

A warm resonance reached Asiph-1.

- His people harbored the exact same wish.

"...!"

- Having read my memories, they wished for their king to suffer no longer.

Asiph-1 felt he vaguely understood the meaning of that suffering.

- The current created by the mingling of those wishes of ours flowed through all space and time. It became countless lines of power etched into space-time.

Asiph-1 imagined the events that happened after that.

Ha Eun-seong and the massive amount of Talents he absorbed became a current and phenomenon making up the universe—or as he himself stated, a certain type of power—rather than beings existing at fixed coordinates and timeframes.

That power responds to the hearts of those who meet special conditions and manifests in reality.

Moreover, it must be a power capable of affecting both physical objects and spiritual bodies. Because that is the fundamental nature of Talents.

Additionally, Asiph-1 felt he also understood what the entity meant when he said he hadn't yet perfectly overcome the constraints of time.

With a trembling voice, he spoke his realization. The reason his conversational partner still couldn't be seen was self-evident. Because the power filling this mental space was 'him' himself.

"...So it was you."

Laced with fear and guilt, shame and astonishment.

"You were..."

Asiph-1 had finally found the answer.

"You were Divine Power all along!"

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