Who Crossed Over?

A full moon poured down through the hole in the ceiling, and beneath it, I stood.

I painted with my power. One hand drank in color; the other cradled a fragment. Across the canvas of empty air, I drew transcendence itself.

Green light flared, and around it flowers and trees rose out of nothing. Life.

‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

The Stone of Resurrection.

"The Stone of Resurrection. A great authority that holds the very concept of life."

That power governed life and refused death. It restored the dead, granted feeling to what had never lived, and promised youth and life without end. Its strength made a mockery even of gods.

"And it has siblings, born in the very same hour as the Stone of Resurrection."

Four objects rose to either side of the stone.

A tablet thrusting into the sky. A black book swallowed in darkness. A crown so faint the eye could not catch it. And a round door.

"Allow me to introduce them. This is the Tablet of Records. Every record on Earth is held within this stone."

The tablet climbed high enough to pierce the heavens, and its face was crowded with letters, pictures, and moving images beyond all ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠counting. For scale, I sketched beside it the tallest mountain on Earth.

"A thing like that exists on Earth?"

Hong Yumin was aghast. The tablet was large enough to crush the mountain beneath it. By the simplest reckoning, it had already broken through the stratosphere.

"I'm afraid not, Hong Yumin. That one isn't on Earth."

"Then you mean it lies in another dimension."

Bingo.

"Correct. The Tablet of Records exists, quite proudly, in a dimension of its own."

The world swam before Hong Yumin's eyes.

"Moving on. This is the Book of Death."

A book so ill-omened that the mere sight of it raised the skin. I had given them nothing but a shape and a name, and still terror settled in every eye. The terror of death.

I riffled the pages. Tens of them turned, then hundreds, and the book still showed no end.

Within those pages lay deaths of every kind.

☠ BOOK OF DEATH ☠

Burned. Drowned. Smothered. Electrocuted. Run down. Shot. Crushed. Blown apart. Fallen. A fatal misstep. Dead of the heat. Starved. A natural death. A sudden death. Beaten to death. Brain-dead. Suicide. Dead on the instant. Frozen.

Death upon death.

Simply reciting them was enough to start killing something like me.

This was nothing like the Clown Saintess, who had tried every trick she knew to end me by handling the concept of death. Death was not a concept. It was a harvester, waiting quietly on the far side of life. Something that could not be avoided, could not be beaten, could not be overcome. An absolute. That was death.

For a moment, my mind went hazy.

All I had done was depict a book that was not even here, and still death refused to allow even that. Death is a thing ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠one sees only once in a lifetime. Not a second time, not a third, not any time after. I pressed that truth until it hurt.

I shut the book.

The death that had been binding my body eased, if only a little. When I looked at the audience, they were in worse shape than I was.

"Chilling, isn't it? This book stands for death. Write a being into it, and that being dies."

I flung the book far away. It vanished as if it had never been.

"Next."

A crown, fluid as water, thicker than fog, more bewitching than the sun in the sky. It seized the gaze of whoever looked upon it. No one could pull free. Not without a formidable will.

"Get a hold of yourselves!"

One shout from Pele shattered the spell.

Minds that had been sliding away snapped back into place.

"Nice work, Pele."

I slipped the crown onto a finger and spun it. With every turn, its shape changed. It smeared like clay. It rolled like a ball. It walked on two legs, as a person would, and bounded about like an animal. By point of view. By sight. By taste. By lust. By conviction. The crown became something different every time.

I looked at it, and a strange man appeared in my head.

His hair stuck out in every direction, and his face was nothing but irritation. Yawning, clutching a game console, he was the very picture of a shut-in wreck.

Whoa, fuck, hold on. That is not my taste.

My head cleared all at once. Whose mind is this, damn it?

The man flicked an eyebrow and vanished again.

"The Crown of Mind. A crown with which one may use the mind. Explaining it puts me in a foul mood, so I'll be putting it away."

Before that man could show himself again, I erased the filthy thing. The crown spun once and disappeared like smoke.

"All right. Last one. Hang in there, everyone. After this, we're done."

I had only been introducing them, and already every face looked half dead. Inwardly they seemed to be screaming for me to stop.

Best to finish quickly. Push any further and I was going to lose someone.

I set off the last of them in midair, like a firework.

"The Door of Space. It can rule the whole of space."

Clap.

"And that concludes the explanation. How was it? If you enjoyed yourselves, do leave a thumbs-up."

"It was not fine."

Well, damn.

I had worked myself up for a proper briefing, and the audience was ice-cold.

"Thank you all for your trouble. Everyone, take a break!"

"Be quiet!"

Pele's scolding brought it to a close.

The modest little briefing was over.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

Time passed, and the power of Life restored everyone to what they had been. Their expressions, however, had not recovered.

"I think I understand now why you were so sparing with your words."

Dan Miryu let out a sigh.

"Still, I'm glad you all held up as well as you did."

"Is it always like this?"

"Death and Mind, yes. The rest are all right."

I warned them, and I meant it.

"Don't go explaining this anywhere. This isn't a matter of how important the information is. It's a matter of staying alive."

"I have no desire to kill anyone with a few words."

Good. Then we're fine.

"So what do we do with this?"

Pele had brought over the fragment of the Records. Her gaze was a tangle of thoughts.

"We use it. What else is there to do?"

"Well... it's better than those freaks from a minute ago, so does it matter?"

This goddess was going to get us all killed, talking like that.

"What are you saying? This one is the most dangerous of all."

"You said it only holds records. Keeping every record on Earth is impressive, but set beside the others, it comes up short, doesn't it?"

"Then my explanation was lacking."

The true power of the Records was not that.

"Look only at the surface, and the Tablet of Records may seem the disappointing sibling."

Life and Death. Mind and Space. And Records.

Set against the other four, it plainly lost on what the eye could see. But that was only something one said without understanding. Why else would they be siblings? They were siblings because they stood as equals.

"Its name is the Tablet of Records, but its real ability reaches much further. Limited to Earth, it gathers without end every record except the future, and from the information it has gathered, it gives you the best possible answer."

"Like a wiki?"

"An excellent comparison, Dan Chuyeon."

One point to you.

"In simple terms, an ultra-high-performance wiki. Far too dangerous to be called a wiki, mind you."

The Tablet of Records would be recording this very moment. Place, people, humidity, temperature, the density of the air, the cry of insects in the grass, the number of breaths, thoughts, the things kept hidden in the heart. Gods were no exception. If you were connected to Earth, you had to lay bare even the color of your underwear.

Shall I give you an example?

"Ask the Tablet of Records how to kill the Eclipse God, and it will present every method. An ordinary person would do just as well. It even takes the questioner's level into account."

Failure? Not a chance. If you failed, it would not be because the record was wrong. It would be because the person was.

"Omniscience."

Pele shuddered.

"That's right. You might as well call it the Tablet of Omniscience."

Unlike Life, the conditions of use were not particularly strict. You went there and you asked. The difficult part was getting there.

"So that fragment is a one-time pass for omniscience?"

"And, at the same time, an admission ticket to the place where omniscience waits."

Silence. Faced with a truth beyond imagining, every face went hard.

"So there was something more dangerous than the Eclipse God."

Dan Miryu clenched the necklace. Whatever he was picturing, his hand trembled, fine and thin.

"Why do you think I didn't say it back then? Because it isn't something you can know carelessly."

Omniscience seduces, and it ruins. For a single instant, it lets you mistake yourself for omnipotent.

"If we had failed to stop Ilshikgyo, the Eclipse God would have been resurrected. Not as some angel who merely dreamed of being a god, but awakened as a true god."

In truth, he had succeeded. The Eclipse God was the final boss of Part Two. The power described then was enough for him to face the world alone.

It was a genuine mercy that the fragment had been in Hawaii. If the Eclipse God had obtained it somewhere he never should have, then nothing he had lost would have mattered at all.

"Is this the only one?"

"No. There are admission tickets in a number of places."

"Nnngh."

At the headache of it all, Pele clutched her head.

"One mountain after another. What kind of idiot scattered things like this across the world?!"

The idiot would be hurt to hear that. From his point of view, he had scattered them with the best of intentions.

"Anything else you're curious about?"

"Enough. I'll wait for the right moment."

"An excellent choice."

I was glad they asked no further. I had been worried what kind of variable might come of loosening information that should not be known at this point.

"Shall we head back?"

Mi Soryeong sounded as if she were about to die.

Dan Miryu flinched, looking at his wife and child.

"It's gotten late. We'll be going as well."

"Yes. Don't send the child tomorrow. He went through enough today."

"Understood. Then we'll take our leave."

We ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠stepped outside.

Brilliant moonlight came out to greet me. It had been a long time since I had seen the moon. The sight was dear.

Rrriiing.

Dan Miryu's phone went off.

"Elder?"

The name on the screen left him puzzled.

"Hello?"

Hwang Seokgu's voice was urgent, and with every moment the call went on, Dan Miryu hardened. The air around him turned cold.

"Damn it."

"What's wrong?"

Mi Soryeong caught the front of his clothes.

Dan Miryu raked a hand back through his hair.

"Villains crossed over from China."

"Negus?"