Gatekeeper of Salvation (4)

Gatekeeper of Salvation (4) — Hanmaum Guwon Cult, First Floor

Screeeeech―

Three black dots staggered in across the expanse of white paper. Three unbelievers had crossed the Gate of Salvation.

A man thrusting an axe out in front of him, so tense with wariness he was practically vibrating, and a woman cradling a little girl in her arms. Their hollow cheeks and utterly tattered clothes told the whole story of what they'd been through.

"Y-you bastards! What the hell is this place?! Where did you bring us!"

The man, his face black as charcoal, was more screaming than shouting. He hid his wife and daughter behind his back and brandished the axe at me, standing at the very front. The blade glistened with a thick crust of dried blood, and murder shimmered in his bloodshot eyes.

Then his gaze slid to the food spread across the tables.

Waves of meat-scent rolled over him, and he shrieked in desperation. "I'll say this nicely—hand over that food! Or I'll kill every last one of you!"

The axe trembled violently in his grip. The believers just stared at him blankly, without the slightest reaction.

"Why are you just standing there listening?! If you don't want to die, bring me that food riiiight now!"

It wasn't as if much time had passed, yet they looked like strangers. Themselves, dressed in white—and that man throwing a tantrum over there. No, was that person even human anymore? A body gaunt from starvation, a face smeared black, and pupils thrashing with unease.

To the believers, the family reflected in their eyes right now was more wondrous than any animal they'd ever seen at a zoo.

An exhibition of misery.

I let the believers take in the full gallery of the misfortune this poor man had dragged in with him.

"Fuuuuck! I'm serious, I'll actually do it! I've killed people before! Can't you hear me?!"

"H-honey…"

"Stay still! As long as we have that, Areum will get better too."

"Mommy. I'm huuuungry― waaahhh―"

The father raged, the wife quaked, the daughter wailed. At his daughter's urgent crying, the father's feet moved forward. Trembling from head to toe, he edged slowly toward me.

"Y-you're the leader, aren't you?! Just give us the food! Then there won't be any trouble!"

That pitiful man was the first unbeliever I would save.

"O first son to cross the Gate of Salvation."

"What are you even saying?! Is this a cult?!"

My solemn declaration was met with a blasphemous retort.

"A cult, great, then we can actually talk! A-are you Christians? Or Buddhists? I believe in both, so how about fellow believers share a little food!"

"You must have suffered so terribly in all that time I could not find you, my son."

"Wh-what are you saying?! Why am I your son?! A-are you people one of those cults?!"

I could see the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠man's eyes roll as he came within arm's reach of me. He was foaming and flying into a fit.

"Th-these bastards followed us all the way here! I told you, I told you to get loooooost!"

His axe, cocked far back, came swinging down at my shoulder.

Taaang―!

"He's the preacherrrrr―!"

A chorus of startled believers rang out, and several sprang to their feet, ready to rush me. Even Seo Taesan, whom I'd warned in advance, flinched. I calmed them with a gesture, then examined my shoulder.

The axe, which hadn't managed to leave so much as a scratch on my body, sailed off into empty air. Unable to overcome the rebound of a body reinforced by Mimic Holy Body, the man clutched his shaking arm and let out a scream.

"AAAAGH―!"

"Honeeeey!"

"N-nooo! Don't come any closer!"

Even then, he threw himself desperately in front of his wife. I looked down at him and smiled.

"You're hungry. And anxious. And now you're terrified."

"Uuurgh―!"

I followed him as he dragged his feet backward.

Thud. Thud.

"D-don't come! I said don't! Don't come any clooooser!"

As he fled in a panic, his lower back smacked into his wife. His legs had frozen solid—I could see his wife, and the child shivering uncontrollably in her arms.

With nowhere left to run, the man watched me reach out a hand toward him.

"Uuuuurgh―!"

He sensed death coming and squeezed his eyes shut—but what he expected never happened.

"Eat. You've grown far too thin."

The hand that had looked ready to strangle him moments ago came to rest in front of his daughter—full of colorful bags of snacks. The girl's eyes lit up, and she very carefully picked out a single piece of candy.

"Th-thank youuu―"

"You may take all of it."

"Re-really?"

The white-robed pastor smiled at the startled girl. Then, as he slowly opened both hands, the snacks spilled out of them.

"Waaah―!"

Watching his daughter's awe, the man smiled with such tenderness. His arm rose slowly and stroked her cheek, and the black grime peeled away along the path of his hand.

The man watching this scene trembled harder and harder. On his upturned face, a light too humble to name was flickering.

"Rise. It has not been too long a journey, has it?"

Before his words even finished, he felt a strange force lifting him upright. The moment he stood, the man gently patted his head.

"You have endured well. My son, who bore the road of thorns for his family."

"Huuurk―!"

At that warm voice, an emotion he couldn't contain surged up his throat. The man's warm hand moved to his wife's head next.

"You have endured well too. My daughter, who stood by her husband's side through it all."

"Hnngh―!"

And last, to the little girl clutching her candy to her chest.

"What a good child you are, to have borne your family's pain at so tender an age."

"Sniff―!"

At the gentle voice, the girl's round eyes—too young to understand the words themselves—grew moist. She understood all the same. From the feeling alone, she understood. The truth in that man's heart.

He smiled radiantly and pointed behind him.

The great statue. The long tables stretching into the distance. Food piled high enough to overflow. And above all—people smiling at them with eyes so peaceful it seemed impossible.

"Do not fear. Do not waver. You wished for salvation, and so the gate opened, and so you arrived here. That is all."

A gate that had appeared like magic before a family losing its last flicker of hope. The place they had reached through that gate.

"This place is your home."

"Aaahh―!"

The zombies scattered through the streets. The food, long since looted bare. Gritting their teeth and holding ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠on, and yet his wife and daughter sobbing because the hunger was more than they could bear. Every knot wound tight in the man's chest came undone at once and melted away.

With the release came a flood of light pouring from the white-robed man, and he had to squint against it. A man as impossible to look upon as the sun itself.

"W-who… who are you?!"

To the man's foolish question, the man gave an answer.

"What do I appear to be?"

To the small smile and the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠question, the man gave an answer of his own.

He wept, and he confessed.

"You are our savior! The savior of our family, too kind, too kind, aaahh!"

"Good."

The man stroked his head. Before that smile and that gesture, he felt as if he'd become a child again, small and young.

"That is faith."

"AAAAH―!"

Unable to contain the emotion, the man sank slowly to his knees. As this torrent of feeling surged through his chest and shook him, the man's voice rang out over him.

"Behold, all of you! This good soul whom the world could not, in the end, defile!"

His voice was distant and near all at once. Far ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠away, yet perfectly clear.

"This is how powerful good is! In the end! Always! And forevermore!"

"Good has defeated evil!"

What was branded vividly in people's memory was the evil that had lost—but that was only because of the scars evil had carved into them, not because evil had ever won. It was always good that had quietly defeated it.

"Look upon the clear-cut evils of the old age! The Nazis! The Empire of Japan! Down even to the pirates and the terror cells!"

The unmistakable evils of the old world had, in the end, collapsed wretchedly before the goodness of the many. That was history. That was fact. That was truth.

"You, the chosen of a new age that has surpassed the old! What do you lack that they did not?!"

The ants at the base of the pyramid, tearing each other down, determined only to climb over someone's crushed body. Even they had defeated evil.

"And now, in our own generation, a clear-cut evil has arrived at last!"

Zombies.

The shackles of compulsion that would let them reach neither heaven nor hell, leaving them to wander the living world—the collar of sin.

"As always, evil will stain the world! But—just as always—"

He paused.

Everyone hung on his words. Everyone waited for what came next. In that space where even the air seemed to have stopped, his voice rang out again.

"…good will, in the end, defeat evil!"

Then he asked us.

"Who are the good, here! Is it the zombies outside, licking their lips, waiting only for the chance to sink their jaws into us?!"

"Nooo, Lord!"

"Then who is it! Is it the humans of the old age, still exploiting whoever they can and cracking the whip?!"

"Nooo, Lord!"

He spread both arms wide. Gazing up at the sky, he spoke to us.

"Then say it! Who are the good?!"

"We aaare! We—we are the good, aaahh!"

Their cries shook the Sanctuary to its bones. And to that desperate answer, His body began to rise slowly into the air.

Something hung at the center of the sky—something no one dared look at directly. A single image rising in every mind at once.

"From the world's ashes, we shall build a nation of the good!"

The Sun.

"We shall unfold the will of salvation! Little lights, one handful, another handful, gathering at last into a sun that lights the whole world!"

At his cry, every soul knelt. And with hands clasped, they prayed to him. Shards of white light streamed toward him where he floated at the center.

A wave of light rippled out from his body.

"The house is finished—now open the gate! Proclaim it far and wide to all who groan beneath the flood of evil!"

Beyond the district to the city, beyond the city to the nation, beyond the nation to the world.

"Tell them that beyond the gate waits the one and only sun who will wake them from this dreadful nightmare!"