Chapter 487: Proof of Existence (75)
Chapter 487: Proof of Existence (75)
Even to the Saintess’s question, no answer returned.
God was merely looking down.
He said nothing.
He did not intervene.
Just as He always had.
It was then that a fire was lit within the Saintess’s chest.
A surge of emotion flared up, and her voice grew violent.
“Were you… were you always watching me…?”
Staggering, the Saintess forced herself up.
She was so shocked and bewildered that she couldn't even form proper sentences. Yet, even in fragmented words, it was enough to vomit out the sincerity she had buried deep inside.
Emotions she had kept suppressed were now shaking her voice.
“Even when I fell… even when I cried out your name, screaming and begging for you to save me!”
She stomped her foot with all her might, her eyes bloodshot.
Blood seeped from her bitten lip. The sudden escalation of emotion swept away all her reason.
“I’m asking if you were watching me… Answer me! Why did you just watch! Do you have any idea how much I… how much I loved you…!”
She took a staggering step forward, her body tilting.
It was because she couldn't contain her own fury.
The woman’s fist struck the ground—or rather, whatever surface existed in this space filled with light. Whether a floor actually existed here did not matter to her. A mournful sob escaped through her teeth.
“How much… how muuuuuch!”
A wail wrung from the depths of her lungs tore through the empty space.
Still, God did not answer.
“How much I believed in you… and yet, you never answered me, not even once!”
Her bloodshot eyes turned forward, filled with terrible resentment and hatred.
Still, no answer came.
“Why? Why?! Answer me… Answer me! Why did you just watch me suffer?! You said you loved me most! You said you loved us! Then why is the world in this state?!”
Before God, a nameless woman was howling.
“You said you were omnipotent! Then why are you just watching?! The world you created is a mess… Is this pittance your will?! Is this your grand plan?! Why, just… why, why, whyyyyy!”
At the end of her struggles and outcries.
The woman began to plead, tears streaming down her face.
“Just once, just answer me once… You can at least do that, can’t you? I’ve served you my whole life! Your poor little lamb is begging like this… Please, just once, just answer me once… Answer me!”
Sobbing, the woman clenched her fists.
“……Are you even a God?”
Barely swallowing the sob that rose to her throat, the woman slowly stood up.
The rims of her eyes had long since turned a burning red.
“You are no God! You are nothing but a vile spectator who throws us into a pit of fire and merely watches! Is it fun to see us struggle?!”
Driven mad by resentment and a sense of betrayal, the woman was no longer in her right mind.
Without even knowing what she was saying, she took another step forward and continued her accusations.
“I hate you… I deny you! Even if I fall to the very edge of hell, I must! Because… because you betrayed me first!”
Still, God did not answer.
As He always had.
The woman felt like she was going to lose her mind even further. Her voice, soaked in agitation, rose again.
“Why did you push me into such a tragic fate?! Why me… why of all people…!”
Then, suddenly.
The woman felt that God’s vision was broader. The light was not gazing only at her.
Her pale pink eyes stared blankly at her own chest. There sat the silver rosary, still radiating light.
Her breath hitched.
A voice from her memory began to play.
‘Do you believe in me?’
“Why… why did it have to be… me…….”
The man had said with a smile:
‘Because it’s you.’
Suddenly, the fog cleared.
Her mind sharpened, and her thoughts began to race. Memories poured down in succession.
‘You are the greatest gift the Heavenly God gave to us… Until the day the world recognizes you, and…….’
Her heated voice cooled instantly. Her pale pink pupils shook aimlessly, and her tone trembled faintly.
“Me… it had to be me…….”
‘……Until you meet the person who truly recognizes you, live with your face hidden.’
Tears welled up in her eyes and rolled down her cheeks.
She had met him for the first time.
The person who recognized ‘me,’ not the ‘Saintess.’
My destiny, my love.
Her knees buckled, and she collapsed to the ground.
Looking back, there was a time when a young boy with jade-colored hair had asked with a gloomy look in his eyes:
‘Sister, will a world ever come where orphans like us aren't discriminated against?’
And how had I answered?
‘I’ll make it.’
Yes, that’s right.
‘We don’t need that kind of pity… We have to achieve it with our own hands. Fat, well-fed pigs can’t overturn anything.’
It has to be me.
The only person who has fallen to the very bottom, the only one who can fathom their pain.
Me.
“……Must it be me?”
Drip, drip.
Her tears fell, creating a clear sound. God still only gazed at her in silence.
The woman wept soundlessly.
Her right hand fumbled and gripped the silver rosary so hard it hurt. Every time that pain pierced her mind, countless deaths played before the Saintess’s eyes.
Even when his skull was crushed and his internal organs ruptured.
The man who stood up hundreds of times.
“Is this the will of the Lord……?”
Still, God did not answer.
As He always had.
“Are you telling me to get back up even if I collapse and fall hundreds, thousands of times? This tragic fate! On this thorny path where hardships and trials are prepared, you want me to be torn and broken according to your will?! Must it truly be so?!”
In the silence, the woman’s voice rang out clearly.
Gritting her teeth, she staggered to her feet once more. Her body trembled as she finally stood on her own two legs.
“If it must be so… if this is my destiny……!”
She took another step.
Then, she knelt and pressed her hands to the ground.
Her head slowly approached the earth.
Deeply, so deeply, the servant of God bowed her head and wept.
“……I shall offer my Obedience.”
Though she ground her teeth, she did not lift her head again.
“I will roll through the pits of fire hundreds, thousands of times according to your will… I will gladly take the stones thrown by the blind and endure the accusations of the deaf… because this is my path!”
Swallowing her tears, the woman spoke again.
“Because it is the path I have chosen to walk……!”
Silence enveloped the surroundings once more.
God looked down at the nameless woman in silence. For a long time, just as He always had.
How much time had passed?
The clouds covering the ground parted, and light poured in from all directions. Even as she faced the pure light, the woman only shed tears with her eyes closed.
It was then.
Just before her consciousness faded, like a hallucination.
“……Immanuel (I will be with you).”
The Saintess felt as if she had heard those words.
And then, she fell.
Her consciousness went dark.
*
The flames of the ‘Purification Trial’ burned throughout the night.
During that long time, no one left the Mountain Court. Not Ian, not the Saint, not the Judges standing on the mountain, nor the crowd of tens of thousands.
They merely watched the flames in the center with a mix of anxiety and anticipation.
And as the dawn slowly broke.
“……Huh?”
A dazed exclamation escaped someone’s lips.
Soon, tens of thousands of pairs of eyes looked up at the sky. The crowd, looking up at the sky almost simultaneously, let out their own cries of surprise.
“Rain clouds!”
“Dark clouds are rolling in!”
The rain clouds that had begun to gather one by one started to pour down a deluge.
At the sudden change in weather, the Pope and the other Judges only exchanged bewildered glances. While Ian also looked around with confused eyes, only the Saint silently stared at the burning flames.
Sshhhhh—
The pouring rain turned into white steam as it struck the soaring fire.
It didn't take long for those high flames to be completely extinguished. In just a few minutes, only charred wood and water vapor remained in the center of the Mountain Court.
The sound of people swallowing hard could be heard.
Ian slowly stood up. His face was already vacant.
A wind blew from somewhere.
The steam covering the wood vanished. There, a woman in pure white robes sat with her hands clasped together.
She was completely unharmed.
In fact, far from being injured, not even a single thread of her clothes was scorched. The crowd of tens of thousands couldn't even let out a gasp; they just stared wide-eyed, trying to burn this miracle into their memories.
As the dark clouds slowly cleared and a single ray of sunlight began to shine down.
“Ohhh…….”
The Pope let out a cry and immediately fell to his knees on the spot.
A brilliant golden halo was shining above the Saintess’s head.
A Halo.
It signified the birth of a new Sage.
Starting with the Pope, the crowd of tens of thousands began to kneel one by one.
Thud, thud, thud.
When the sound, which had echoed like the heavy rain, finally stopped.
The nameless woman’s eyelids slowly opened.
A divine golden radiance lingered within those pale pink eyes.
Looking down at the tens of thousands of people bowing their heads, the nameless woman uttered only a single sentence.
“Do you believe now (arti pisteuvete)?”
Then, tens of thousands of believers cried out,
“……Immanuel!”
For the first time in the thousand-year history of the Holy Kingdom.
A nameless woman had proven her innocence from within the burning flames.
This news would spread across the entire continent through the eyewitness accounts of tens of thousands of witnesses.
It was truly a miracle of God.