In the Name of Order
"Who are you?"
One of the passengers aboard the plane asked the question. The others said nothing, yet every face seemed to hold the same thought.
Sunya looked around him. The gazes fixed upon him carried awe, fear, and something close to rapture. Even Gyeong-seok and Hyeon-ju — who already knew who he was — could not keep those same emotions from flickering in their eyes.
Coldly considered, it was understandable enough. An unknown being of striking presence and singular character, appearing at the very brink of disaster, wielding power beyond nature itself. Perhaps some among them were already casting him in the shape of a religious figure.
Such stares were hardly foreign to Sunya. From the earliest days, people had looked upon the one called a genius with envy and admiration. To be the object of longing, of reverence, of worship — that was a role he knew all too well.
And yet something was different. At a glance the looks might have seemed the same, but at their root they were nothing like those he had known before. These people did not see him as one of their own. Whether they took him for an unfathomable monster, a savior come to deliver them, or some transcendent being from beyond the stars — the sage could tell that every one of them regarded him as something beyond approach.
Of course they did. In this world there was no one of his equal, no one even fit to stand beside him — at least none known officially, or by common renown.
In that moment, Sunya felt a crushing loneliness. For the briefest instant, the sensation he had known when struck by the Vaishnavastra returned to him: the feeling of floating, untethered, mixed with nothing at all.
He found this place deeply uncomfortable.
"…Does it really matter so much who I am?"
And with those words, he understood. He had always known it, but now he felt it in his bones once more: that he was a stranger here. That he did not belong.
"What happened today is nothing so grand as a miracle or a twist of fate. It was simply good fortune."
"Pardon?"
"Like winning the lottery. Surviving a terrible accident. Crossing paths with the person of your dreams on the street by chance. Hearing a song you love come on the radio. Fortune, large and small — that is all it was."
"Ah… forgive me, but what exactly do you mean by that?"
"So there is no need for any of you to hang some great meaning or value upon that luck. Those who chase only distant miracles and mysteries lose sight of what stands right beside them. I hope that, through what happened today, you might come to see the preciousness of the happiness already around you."
"…"
Every passenger fell silent. The words themselves were nothing extraordinary — the sort of thing anyone might say — and yet, spoken by Sunya, they reached deep into the soul.
"I've talked too much. I'll see you safely to your destination, so please don't worry. And if you can manage it… I would prefer you erase my existence from your memories."
Just as he had promised, the passenger jet — a hole torn clean through its fuselage — arrived at the airport with astonishing safety. Only then did the passengers cry out in relief and cheer. A few tried to find Sunya to offer their thanks, but by then he had vanished without a trace.
Afterward, Gyeong-seok and Hyeon-ju were questioned a few times, but the matter was smoothed over without much trouble.
"Gyeong-seok. Hyeon-ju."
Some time later, Sunya quietly sought out the couple as they walked the streets. Crowds still thronged the roads, yet almost no one paid him any mind. Unless they had shared that flight, there was no reason anyone would know his face.
"Sunya."
"…Thank you. Truly. I thought I might never see my daughter's face again."
Sunya waited until the emotion welling up in them had settled.
"The truth is, I have something I need to say."
"Something to say…?"
"I think the time has come for me to leave. I mean to return to the place I came from."
"That…"
"Not that I'm saying goodbye this very moment. I'll likely depart right after the two of you return to Korea. I did promise to look after Hyeon-ju, after all."
"Ah."
"Of course I'll say a proper farewell then as well. Still, I felt I ought to tell you in advance — so I came to find you."
"I… see."
Having known him for nearly a decade, the couple wore expressions of genuine regret.
"In any case, enjoy the rest of your trip as planned. I'll see you both again in Korea in a week."
Sunya flew back to Korea once more. When Gyeong-seo saw him return she grumbled at length, but he let it pass lightly. Then the promised week went by, and Gyeong-seok and Hyeon-ju came home. Sunya thanked them for all they had done for him and exchanged a formal farewell.
He had nothing that could be called luggage. Just as he had arrived in this era, he wore only the cloth he had first come in, and made his way to an empty lot where no one would see him. There he pressed his hands together, interfered with the flow of time, and set out on a journey through the ages from which he would never return.
The time Sunya had spent in twenty-first-century Korea left a considerable mark upon him. The towering buildings, the advanced means of travel, the internet, the sheer breadth of the world — even the realm of the gods, of which he had only ever heard tell, could hardly have been quite like this. Through it all, he came to understand that the world was far wider, more intricate, and more full of the unknown than he had ever imagined. Even with the Myeong-an, he could never hope to grasp the whole of it.
And yet that place, too, was a world where people lived. It was an age in which the greater part of its people could enjoy lives of plenty — and still, so many more believed their own lives unhappy, each carrying their private afflictions. Even nations ranked among the advanced, like Korea, fared better than most; across the rest of the world, war and malice never ceased.
I learned a great deal.
If he returned to his own era as he was now, he felt he might live a better life than before.
"I wonder whether you'll be given that chance."
At the sound of an unfamiliar voice, Sunya opened his eyes and found himself standing in a certain space.
"This is…"
He looked about. It was a colorless void where nothing could be seen — much like the place he had known when struck by the Vaishnavastra. This time, however, he could still move his body, and the ground beneath him was white.
"A rift in time."
Through the Myeong-an, Sunya perceived exactly where he stood. If he pressed onward from here, he would once more be able to reverse the flow of ages.
"How pitiful, still clinging to such empty hopes."
The voice came again. Some distance ahead, a young man sat in a chair reading a book. He had copper-dark skin and black hair that fell to his waist, and his features were those of a scholar — yet a cold severity radiated from him so strongly that approaching seemed nearly impossible.
"…"
Looking at him, Sunya felt his body grow heavy. An indescribable pressure made him want to drop to his knees at once. But he could not. If he knelt here, he sensed he would never rise again.
"You who have been toyed with by the will of Chaos — this is as far as you go. Entangle yourself no further in affliction, and commit no more sin."
The young man spoke without lifting his eyes from the page.
"…Having come this far, how could I possibly give up?"
"You know it yourself, do you not? To reverse time is a deed forbidden to any being possessed of reason."
So accept your fate. Walk the path given to you, and become the Awakened One.
"Is that so? I happen to believe that I decide my own fate."
"People often fall into that delusion — that their will is theirs alone. Whether god or human, all of them flow according to a fixed order."
"That may well be. But what I mean to say is rather simpler than that."
Sunya spoke.
"I have no wish to follow that order. There is a way to turn everything back — and I have no desire to abandon it."
"Even if, by your greed, the fates of many others are erased?"
"…Selfish as that may be — yes."
"I see. Your intent is clear enough."
Thud.
The young man closed the book he had been reading. For the first time, he raised his head and met Sunya's eyes.
"Haha…"
"You will go no further. This is your final destination."
The young man's pupils shone. The very thing Sunya called the Myeong-an — his opponent possessed it as well.
This is…
A vast torrent of spacetime began to surge and roar. The current was so fierce that Sunya could scarcely hold his form together.
And it was growing stronger still.
To hold one's form meant more than the physical frame alone. Sunya's soul, his memories, the very facts of the path he had walked — all of it was coming apart. His existence itself was dissolving into nothing.
"I am Vishnu — Apostle of Fate and Preservation.
In the name of Order, I shall judge you.
O unenlightened one."