Essence of Divine Power
Kim Jihun gazed at the object resting in his palm. A white orb. It shimmered brilliantly, scattering radiant divine power around it, asserting its presence.
The Essence of Divine Power. That was the name of the orb Jihun held. He planned to use it to save Alquinoa.
In truth, his decision carried a somewhat impulsive edge. Alquinoa had twice tried to take his life—she was his sworn enemy. Saving her? Anyone witnessing Jihun's actions might mock him as a pushover or sneer that he was some saintly gentleman.
But Jihun had seen Asrie's expression. The sorrowful eyes longing for her lost kin from the past. The face tinged with regret. That was why he would save Alquinoa. Not for her sake, but for Asrie, his benefactor.
To spare her the pain of her family member's death, he was forfeiting his promotion to mid-level god.
"Kim Jihun?"
Asrie looked at him with a flustered expression. It was the first time Jihun had seen her like that. Her usually aloof and stoic face now rarely betrayed emotion.
Jihun spoke to her.
"Truth is, Lady Asrie, you don't want to kill Alquinoa either, do you?"
At his words, Asrie pressed her lips together. No one relishes killing their own family, especially not a divine being who lives through eternal ages.
That was why Jihun stepped in to save her. He wanted to repay the one who had always cared for him—a way of returning the favor.
Jihun held out the Essence of Divine Power.
"This should save her, right? Here, the Essence of Divine Power."
Asrie stared at him in disbelief, caught off guard by his bold move and baffled by why he'd abandon his promotion to mid-level god just to save Alquinoa.
She asked seriously,
"Are you for real?"
"Yes. Dead serious."
Jihun kept extending his arm, offering the essence. Asrie sighed and carefully lifted it from his hand.
"...Fine. It's yours, so you get to decide what happens to it."
She gently slipped the Essence of Divine Power into Alquinoa's mouth. It melted away smoothly inside.
Jihun and Asrie simply watched in silence.
Alquinoa began to change. Her half-black wings gradually turned gray. Her hair shifted to gray streaked with silver, and her dull eyes regained focus, slowly regaining vitality.
Thanks to the Essence of Divine Power Jihun had willingly offered, she was reverting from a Ma-shin Clan member back to a divine being.
However, what Jihun had given was an Essence for low-level gods. It wasn't without effect, but it fell short.
Alquinoa didn't fully return to her divine state. She ended up in a strange form with gray wings and gray hair.
Jihun asked,
"Why the gray wings? Aren't divine wings supposed to be white?"
He glanced at Asrie's wings. Pristine white wings gleamed radiantly. Seeing those pure, beautiful wings always felt like it cleansed his very soul.
He turned back to Alquinoa's wings. Neither black nor white—gray, like a half-and-half mix.
Asrie explained the reason.
"Absorbing the Essence into a Ma-shin body was a good start, but the effect was too weak. A low-level Essence of Divine Power can't fully restore a corrupted Ma-shin. The amount of divine power in it has limits."
Jihun grasped her explanation. It had partially restored her divinity, but failed to fully expel the void's influence.
He asked again,
"So what happens to Alquinoa now?"
"Simple. She's neither divine nor Ma-shin. She's become an intelligent being with a divine body."
Jihun was stunned by her words. Didn't that mean Alquinoa was essentially human now? True, with a divine body, she wouldn't age or fall ill—divine bodies were perfection incarnate.
But a god without divine power wasn't divine. A Ma-shin without void wasn't Ma-shin. Neither here nor there—powerless.
She was no different from an immortal human now.
Jihun stared blankly at Alquinoa. Born human, he had risen to low-level god. Born divine, she had fallen to mere intelligent being.
The stark contrast stirred complex emotions in him. Him climbing from the lowest to the heights, her plummeting from the peaks to the depths. These two opposites stood right here, together.
He looked at Alquinoa. Her long gray hair and gray wings. Her face, so like Asrie's, was utterly endearing. Yet there she lay unconscious on the shattered asphalt.
Jihun turned to Asrie.
"So, what do we do with Alquinoa now?"
"Whoever picks her up takes responsibility."
"Pardon?"
Jihun was briefly startled by her out-of-left-field remark, but Asrie continued matter-of-factly.
"Alquinoa—no, we should call her Asria from now on. She's not divine, nor Ma-shin. In her current state, she's no different from human."
She gazed at Asria's face on the ground. Unconscious, she was beautiful yet somehow forlorn.
"Asria's still immature. She needs to live in harsher conditions to face reality."
Asrie's expression was complicated—love and anger for her kin intertwined in a fresh, novel way.
She watched Asria a moment longer, then suddenly said to Jihun,
"And you saved her. So you take responsibility."
"Me?"
Jihun was dumbfounded.
... 'Looks like I've got a new family member.'
In truth, it wasn't a problem for him. His parents had gone to Wonju, leaving the house empty. One more woman around wouldn't be an issue.
Jihun nodded.
"Alright. Guess she'll live with me on Earth then."
He sighed deeply and turned around, asking Asrie,
"So, what about that now?"
He pointed to Seoul, half of which had been obliterated. Like a meteor strike, half the city was simply gone.
Asrie surveyed the devastation and said,
"We fix it."
"...How?"
Half of Seoul was gone. Millions dead. Buildings, roads, people, infrastructure—vanished. What could they possibly do?
But Asrie smiled faintly and told Jihun,
"Take out your Soul Stone."
"Soul Stone?"
Jihun pulled his Soul Stone from his subspace. He couldn't help but be shocked.
"What the hell?!"
His Soul Stone, the blue crystal, now glowed with an incomparably brilliant azure light compared to before. The sight terrified him.
It emanated a mysterious power utterly unlike divine power or Creation Force.
Asrie explained,
"When they died, your Soul Stone was closest, so their souls defaulted to you. Granting a Soul Stone means that—you can create, manage, and control intelligent beings, Jihun."
The Soul Stone was a divine treasure. The privilege of creating souls was immense. True Creator Gods needed it to be recognized—for creating, controlling, and bestowing souls.
And Jihun's now held over three million souls. He was stupefied.
"So there are three million souls in here?!"
"Exactly. They rest there until you provide new bodies, preparing for the afterlife."
The Soul Stone was a pouch for creating, managing, and storing souls. Jihun possessed it, so the three million souls from Alquinoa's attack were now his.
Asrie asked,
"You're a Creator God with a Soul Stone. You can do whatever you want with those souls—create new intelligent beings or resurrect them. What'll it be?"
Jihun answered without hesitation.
"Resurrect them, obviously."
They were victims of Alquinoa's pursuit of him. He couldn't treat them arbitrarily. Resurrection it was.
Asrie smiled.
"Got it. I'll assist. Let's do this."
She placed her hand on Jihun's Soul Stone. Their hands touched—Jihun's and Asrie's.
His divine circuits were wrecked, but borrowing hers allowed him to participate in wielding the authority, however slightly.
"Space flows with the passage of time."
⟨ Great Divine Utterance ⟩
The world halted. Then time began rewinding.
Shattered ground reformed. Vanished buildings reappeared. As time flowed backward, everything gradually restored to its original state.
Jihun watched Asrie's brilliant act of creation.
"Jihun, use the Soul Stone."
Even amid creation, she instructed him. Use the Soul Stone.
He didn't understand. Suddenly? What did that mean?
Her voice came again.
"Touch the Soul Stone now. You'll get it."
Jihun followed her advice, placing his hand on the Soul Stone atop his palm.
Borrowing Asrie's divine circuits, he finally realized—all the souls within.
Some were elders, some children, women, men. Over three million distinct souls slumbered in his Soul Stone.
A chill ran through him.
'This is a soul.'
The origin of life, trace of intellect. The entirety of a human. Three million of them rested quietly in his Soul Stone.
Jihun infused Creation Force into it.
-Wooong...!
Immense pain hit him. Activating Creation Force brought the void's shock crashing through his body.
But he didn't give up. He pushed harder, pouring more Creation Force into the Soul Stone.
And soon—
-Flash!
He released them. The three million souls slumbering in Jihun's Soul Stone were freed.
Asrie guided them. The souls returned one by one to the bodies she had restored by rewinding time.
Jihun beheld the radiant, majestic scene. In the sky, three million souls swirled like heat haze, returning to their places. On the ground, vanished buildings and the city reemerged. Souls slotted back into position.
Right after Jihun liberated the souls from the Soul Stone, his vision flooded with notifications.
...Notifications of surging Creation Force poured in like waves.