The Apostle's Miracle
‘…You really are the Apostle.’
Even after hearing Min Ji-hee's explanation, she'd harbored doubts. A mana-less ordinary man. Could he truly be the proxy of a transcendent being?
But the sight before her shattered all skepticism. The authority to rip through dimensions, opening paths, and summon vast worlds as if strolling through his own home. Could such a thing even be called magic?
It defied the laws of the System itself—something only a god's proxy could wield... Shouldn't it be called a miracle?
‘To think I doubted someone like this...’
Han Seol-ah arrived at the familiar training ground where she'd drunk elixirs and sparred before. She watched a flag she recognized flutter down.
And beyond it, she sensed a chilling, immense frost mana coalescing.
‘Frost magic?’
She'd expected the ‘mysterious ominous force’ from before to come crashing down. Surprise flickered in her eyes.
But relief washed over her at the same time. Wasn't this the attribute she handled best, the one most familiar to her? She could perfectly read this mana flow.
Han Seol-ah sharpened her senses. She wove her EX-rank mana like thread, spreading a detection net that missed not a speck of dust within a hundred meters.
‘Come at me from anywhere. This time, I won't miss...’
Fwosh—
Her vision went black.
"…Huh?"
There wasn't even pain. She didn't realize she'd died.
Detection net? Mana sensing? All of it was useless.
Absolute ‘death’ had simply brushed past, leaving no room to react.
‘…What was that just now?’
In the black void awaiting resurrection—a beautiful cosmos with star streams flowing below—Han Seol-ah replayed the magic that hit her.
‘Fast. And efficient. It stripped away everything else, maximizing only speed and lethality.’
Could she replicate it?
Fwosh.
Her mind returned. Her feet touched the cold training ground floor again.
Resurrection. The astonishing miracle of returning from death's space to reality. But having experienced it before, she wasn't surprised.
Nebula held still, as if giving her time to process.
The sensation of grasping a thread of enlightenment. Not wanting to miss this moment, Han Seol-ah extended her hand forward and focused.
Her prior experience moving mana under Frozen's guidance proved invaluable. Just as her inner mana began twitching, trying to draw a complex mandala...
‘No.’
She boldly skipped the process.
Why were complex magic circles needed? For stabilization.
Frost mana was like deadly poison. Just flowing through her mana circuits froze veins and crumbled flesh. The faster and stronger the surge, the more fatal the backlash.
It was an innate limit no human body could endure.
Frozen had said about: ‘Primitive mana operation.’
So Han Seol-ah had evolved her magic to reinforce and protect her mana circuits, minimizing the chill buildup in her body.
But Frozen's way was different. Faster. Even faster. Kill the opponent before your body froze to death.
And the magic she'd just felt firsthand... It was like Frozen's teachings taken to the extreme.
‘Fast.’
Han Seol-ah slammed frost mana into her circuits like shoving it in by force.
Boom!
Her veins froze from within, swelled, and burst. Her left arm tore off like a rag.
The blood droplets hitting air froze instantly, scattering like pink ice pollen. Flesh crystallized like gems; bone shattered like glass.
"Grrraaagh!"
Han Seol-ah swallowed her scream. But she didn't stop.
Clink!
The potion Nebula tossed shattered at her feet. The elixir's energy splashed onto the wound.
Bone and flesh intertwined, regenerating her arm. The instant it fully reformed, she jammed in mana again.
Boom!
"Hahk... hahk..."
It was madness. Self-detonating her own arm, regenerating, repeat—the ultimate torture.
But terror didn't cloud Han Seol-ah's eyes. They burned fiercely instead.
‘I'll master it. No matter what.’
If she missed this chance, Korea was done for. She'd make this harsh blessing from the Apostle her own.
* * *
"Gaaah!!!"
Han Seol-ah's gone insane!
"What the hell are you doing!!!"
I frantically hurled potions.
Boom! Boom!
This is nuts! I urgently summoned a healing tub.
I dunked her into the tub sloshing with pink liquid.
Shwaaa!
Pink steam rose as the solution soaked in.
Boom! Shwaa!
"Eugh, horror show."
I'd seen mobs freeze and explode millions of times. Han Seol-ah's state was straight out of Status: Frozen for them...
But mobs are just 0101 data blobs in the game. Han Seol-ah's a living human.
That alone made the shock worlds apart.
Boom! Boom! Shwaaaaa!!
"Fuck."
I wanted to mute the sound. Goosebumps.
‘She's trying to copy it, huh.’
At the same time, I get why she was pulling this stunt.
‘It won't be easy.’
The spell I used was Glacial Flash, a level 80 Frost Sorcerer spell. All-in on speed and lethality.
Short range and narrow area made it useless against large monsters, but against humanoids? Absolute dominance.
‘Which makes it even harder to copy...’
Boom!
...How many more creepy booms went by?
Just as I thought I couldn't wait any longer—
Fwosh!
"Oh."
Han Seol-ah clumsily succeeded in casting the spell. Slow speed, pathetic power... but it was her first spell outside Ice Arrow and Permafrost.
Got it...!
Han Seol-ah jumping for joy. Despite the pain and exhaustion, her face flushed with delight—heartwarming to see.
"You did it."
Duel commencing.
"Next phase, then."
* * *
From level 1 basic Ice Missile to level 90 ultimate Heavenly Icefall, I let her experience each one once.
Han Seol-ah brimmed with zeal to learn them all... but I stopped her.
‘No time left.’
Factoring in her sleep and the ‘mock exam,’ we couldn't spare much on spell training.
200 duels prepared. What she needed to learn boiled down to one thing.
The basics of ‘magic battles’!
‘Ideally, I'd rebuild her frost magic from scratch...’
But that was secondary. No point relearning frost if she couldn't use it before Scathach.
So. What's most crucial in mage vs. mage fights?
With experience from hunting countless named mage monsters: Make them unable to cast.
Humm— Pfft!
Han Seol-ah's ambitiously prepared Ice Arrow dispersed limply in midair.
Her eyes widened round. Utter confusion.
As she gathered mana to cast again—
Ting!
Right before the array completed, my subtle mana pulse nudged her magic circle.
Crash.
The spell shattered like glass without activating.
Panicked, Han Seol-ah tried casting repeatedly.
Ting! Fizzle. Ting!
No matter how much mana she poured, same result. Dud. Dud. Dud again.
"It's not going off?"
I smirked, beckoning with a finger.
"Not blocking. Preventing."
This was my trick: Dispel Magic. Not officially a ‘magic’ or ‘skill’ in Lost Honor—moreso a glitch, technique or an exploit.
I planned to ingrain it in her body.
How you may ask? "By taking these hits until it sticks."
* * *
Boom!
Heavenly Icefall has been canceled.
"Getting there."
Click. Click.
Mouse and hotkeys clacking briskly. Ultra-high-speed magic battle with overlapping booms.
Whenever Han Seol-ah showed signs of casting—
"Nope."
Instant cancel.
Boom!
Internal damage made blood trickle from Han Seol-ah's mouth as she staggered back.
"Focus broken."
Still, she had to disrupt my casts.
"Then die."
A massive ice meteor thudded down on failed-dispel Han Seol-ah.
Duel has ended.
Today's final—50th—duel curtained.
"Good work."
She couldn't hear, but still. I set up a healing tub for her in the corner.
She scurried over, slipped in... boom!
"Whew."
‘Something’ exploding again.
"Hang in there."
Leaving Han Seol-ah to her magic training, I pulled Eternal Winter from my bag.
"…."
I admired its beauty for a moment. Then flipped the large gem at the staff's tip, inspecting.
I'm looking for something.
"There it is."
A stylishly scrawled ‘N’—Nebula's initial. The seal auto-engraved on all my crafted items.
Proof it was mine.
"…It's really an item I made."
Strange feeling. An item from a few clicks existing in reality.
My heart raced too. All those dormant legendaries in my warehouse. And the ‘Genesis items’...
They could become real too.
‘When sending Han Seol-ah back this time...’
What do I hand her? Snag her some rotting legendaries?
But the fun fantasy would have shattered.
Possessor can carry only one item upon return.
"…Ah. Damn."
Eternal Winter already filled the slot. To give another, I'd have to take it—fat chance.
"Too bad. I wanted to gear her up."
‘No Genesis+ items, so... I'll settle for this.’
Not all bad news. Post-Scathach kill would refill the possession ticket. Possess another hunter, then send back with different items.
Four more Genesis items left. Minus Nebula's and my must-keep one: two genesis items remain.
‘I need more.’
Genesis crafting materials have been depleted. So I can't craft now.
‘Don't rush.’
...Focus on Scathach first.
And the surprise to me: Han Seol-ah explained that a spirit named Frozen dwelled in Eternal Winter.
"Hello?"
...No response for me though.
"…Because I'm not the owner?"
The ownership transferred to Han Seol-ah. Maybe the spirit is restricted to her awakening it, probably.
"Hm. I was quite curious. Oh well."
Also new info: Genesis traits are rechargeable. Usually there was no such limit in-game.
I've come to one conclusion.
"Reality tweaks things upon materialization."
I clicked sync on. Then started charging Eternal Winter with mana.
"…Hello?"
I tried calling again, thinking maybe only with frost mana can I communicate. Still nothing.
* * *
The first time she saw a human, she was utterly silent, as if erased from the world.
The artificial spirit of Eternal Winter, Frozen, knew. This wasn't the ‘Creator Nebula.’
No death aura from killing life just by proximity. No suffocatingly handsome face. No stoic silence...
None of the Creator's traits.
But simultaneously, she knew he was linked to the Creator.
And shuddered.
Something impossible had happened. It gave her an existence-shattering shock.
Lowly humans called him ‘Apostle.’
‘Him’ and ‘Creator Nebula’ were connected.
The ‘Nebula’ they imagined was transcendent itself. To them, a ‘single human’ was a mere terminal linked to that transcendent.
Fools! Idiots!
No! You moronic humans. It's the opposite.
Your ‘Apostle’ isn't a fragment of my Creator ‘Nebula.’
The Creator I revere endlessly, whom you fear...
‘Nebula’ is his fragment...!
Absurd. No being could surpass Creator in this universe!
In that shock, Frozen sealed her lips.
The moment she first touched the ‘Apostle's’ hand... She knew this ‘impossibility’ was utter ‘truth.’
Aah. Skies above skies. Above universes, truly Great Ones exist.
But the Great One seemed not to hear Frozen's voice.
As she trembled in frustration inside the sub-space bag.
In a cramped dark room, the Great One drew her out.
From the Great One's grip, unbearable light poured.
Kwaaaaa—!
Unable even to scream—forced infusion. Amid mana overflow far beyond limits, Frozen shuddered.
The Great One was... starting to ‘burst’ her!