D-30
"Hah—!"
Aurine jolted awake, gasping.
"J-just now—I think I saw something omnipotent! Something holy!"
There had been light. And light. And light.
"I... I must have seen it wrong...?"
A real god? Impossible. Superpowers she could grant. A god, she could not—and if it was Him, least of all.
From long habit she drew the sign of the cross, steadying body and mind, and offered a short prayer.
"Forgive me. That was a moment of... disgrace..."
"Have you awakened?"
........
What was that being of light? Even looking at him felt like blasphemy—was that a trick of the eyes, or the side effect of a faith that had stretched all the way into fanaticism?
"It's a dream. I'm going back to sleep."
Aurine ignored the friend prostrated on the floor and lay back down on the sofa, doing her best to shut out the faint radiance seeping in past her eyelids.
"...Mm."
He let out a low sound.
Something crashed and clattered.
"Our Lord. Weigh my sins in full. Bind my irreverence to the cross, and punish me."
"Little lamb who follows me, it is enough. Your diligence has reached me, and your true heart has pleased me. I forgive your sin. Do not turn that fault over again."
"Amen..."
The tears Aurine had been holding spilled over. A mind pickled in fatigue and stress washed clean.
"Ah... with this, I am sav—"
Katsu—the Shout of Rebuke!
"Kyagh!"
The two saintesses toppled backward with thoroughly undignified screams.
"I'm starting to think I shouldn't have called you. Your mere existence nearly dragged people straight up to heaven."
"Was that not why you summoned me?"
"I thought you knew how to turn it down."
Phantom, crucified to the ceiling cross and all, grumbled up at Heaven.
"Lower the holiness a little. At this rate the entire population of Korea is going to convert."
"That would be difficult. I was born this way."
"Damn it. If I weren't tied up, I'd hit you."
"Count yourself fortunate it ended there."
Hong Yumin growled. Her hair lifted and floated above her shoulders.
"Search all of history and you will not find another being so impious toward Heaven. Have you sold off even the barest scrap of respect?"
"I showed respect. Taking a crucifixion quietly is the proof."
"Reckless fool! Even if we had deliberated at length before receiving Heaven, it would scarcely have been enough—!"
"That is enough, my daughter. Had I no mind to come, I would not have come. This was my choice."
Checked by Heaven, Hong Yumin's face turned venomous.
"There is no telling when he will commit some ignorant folly again. He requires instruction."
"I am grateful you look after me. But he is a being unbound by this world. You know that well, do you not?"
"That is..."
"The talk will run long. I cannot remain, so I shall act according to his intent."
Whose word was this, that she might refuse it? Before the firmness of Heaven's will, Hong Yumin stepped back.
Heaven looked at the two saintesses, both of them shaking.
"My daughters, who stand at the very front and proclaim my will to the hungry. Are you hurt anywhere? I came in haste and have been a burden to you. Forgive me."
"No! Absolutely not! Do not apologize! Incompetent as I am, I have troubled the Almighty! Please kill me!"
"Do something about that fanatic first! Quit contaminating people's minds! She went right back to being an overloyal believer!"
"Shut that mouth! Must you be burned in hellfire before you come to your senses?!"
"Aaaaah!!! Pele! You're not here, and everyone around me has turned into a Heaven fanatic!"
They had barely been calmed before tempers flared among them and the room collapsed straight back into chaos.
Heaven lifted a hand, then lowered it.
"Krreung..."
San-gun stole in close and nuzzled the hand that had lost its way. Heaven stroked the downy fur of the Heavenly Tiger.
"Krreung. Krreung."
"You are right. It may be no bad thing to let a mind grown still more tangled pour itself out all at once."
He beckoned to Kana, who was peeking toward them.
"M-me?"
"Child who serves the sun of the east. Will you not give me a cup of the tea you have made?"
"Th-the honor is mine...!"
Kana hurried to brew the tea and presented it to Heaven.
"The tea is good."
"Th-thank you...!"
She stole a sidelong glance at the shouting the four of them were raising.
"Um..."
"Am I different from what you imagined?"
"Eek! I-I'm sorry."
"There is nothing to apologize for. The face of me that has been shown to the world is more than enough to plant a preconception. Little lamb, do not be ashamed."
However.
"Send you away like this, and your sense of debt will only grow. Find peace by doing as I ask."
"I will obey."
"Good."
Bang!
Struck by Hong Yumin, Phantom went flying. The wall tore open in one long, perfectly straight line, in the shape of a cross. Through the hole, the yard behind the house lay bare.
"Yonder is a pitiable dragon who holds her own life to be excessively sinful. Go and tell that dragon I have not bound her sins, and that she is to free herself from herself."
"Yes."
"And that a daughter's sins are punished by the world—and that there is nothing I can do about it."
Kana bowed deeply and retreated in a scurrying shuffle.
Glass shattered. Phantom crossed the living room as if in flight, and the window onto the front yard burst apart.
Heaven slurped his tea as if the whole affair belonged to someone else.
"This will go on for a while."
By the time he left, they would have come to their senses.
"Hah. Hah."
In a house reduced to wreckage in so short a time, Phantom set down the cross on his back.
"We delayed... far too long. Heaven, I'm sorry. You came all this way."
"It was a reasonably amusing spectacle."
Heaven, his light gone faint, waved a hand. The smashed house was restored.
Three people and one ghost returned to the places they had been.
"......"
"......"
Hong Yumin and the two saintesses could not lift their heads for shame.
"The fever seems to have broken. Fortunate. Have you come to your senses somewhat?"
"Yes..."
Hong Yumin answered in a voice like a crawling ant, her neck flushed a deep red.
The two saintesses were still dazed, as if none of it felt real.
"It is understandable. This is the first time I have come alone, without the god of the volcano. That my daughters should be so strongly affected was inevitable."
"Wait. Then you could have been careful, couldn't you?"
"Is that the important part?"
Heaven shook an arm grown so transparent the far side showed through it.
"The time of my descent is ending. Finish your business quickly, while I am still here."
"Your existence has been proven, so it doesn't particularly matter if you go now—"
Four pairs of eyes bored into Phantom. He cleared his throat.
"Right. Miss Aurine, as you can see, this is the one who will make a true saintess of you."
"...What, exactly, do you gain by doing this?"
Awe and confusion mingled in Aurine's eyes.
"Having you lead the Vatican, I suppose?"
"Why?"
"Because we need rather a lot of allies."
Phantom's mask poked its tongue out.
"Before long, Ilshikgyo will rise again from the blow it took. The only power that can check them is still the Vatican."
"But even without going this far, the Vatican would..."
"The problem is that it won't only be Ilshikgyo."
Phantom gave her a brief account of what was coming.
"...That's impossible."
"A war is coming—the kind with world in front of it and a three after. When it does, Pope Nikolai is a threat that cannot simply be left as he is."
He would stake his name on it. A rotten man, the sort who would fold the moment the Eclipse God himself went and tempted him.
"Take hold of the Vatican, and bring your younger sister out of Ilshikgyo."
With those hands, end a bond that had gone on far too long.
Aurine clenched her fists. She felt it with painful clarity: a vast fate whipping around her.
"What do I need to do?"
"I like how quickly you get to it."
"In truth, we are already late."
"Then act, instead of spending the time talking."
Heaven sighed and laid a hand upon Aurine's forehead.
A cross of light sank into her brow.
Stigmata
"There's... nothing?"
"You have received my stigmata directly. What more could you need? Had this not been the role given to you, I would not have granted it, however special the circumstances."
"Stingy. The world's in danger."
"Sainthood is for the children of later ages to decide.... Tch. What is there to say. It is finished, so I shall go."
Ah. He had nearly forgotten.
"Are the preparations coming along?"
"More or less?"
"They are not."
"Because we don't know when it will happen."
"Hmm..."
Heaven seemed to weigh it, then let the words drop.
"Before next year comes.... No. That will not suffice. Let us say the second of January, next year."
"......"
"You are quick to catch on. I ask that you keep silent."
"...All right."
It would begin.
"I wish you good fortune in the fight."
"Go well."
Father of all people.
Heaven unraveled, smooth as dust.
At the very last, he whispered something small to Hong Yumin.
"...!"
Hong Yumin's eyes flew wide.
Phantom counted the days left until the second of January.
"Time went by fast."
Already it had come to this.
Today was the fourth of December.
The span that remained—