You’ll Come to Understand, Too. (3)
“P-please… spare me….”
Crunch!
A dispassionate foot came down on a man’s head and burst it like fruit.
Having casually severed one life from the world, Dan Ja-gang stepped forward, his boots crushing blood and brain matter beneath them. Then he glanced back over his shoulder.
Everywhere he had passed, there were only corpses.
Once they had grasped the situation, government troops had come running. To ordinary people, they would have been fear itself; even the officers and soldiers of the state, whom most martial artists would hesitate to provoke, were nothing more than a swarm of flies to Dan Ja-gang.
Only a hellscape remained, as though a battle had swept through and left the land shattered in its wake.
Of course, even that hellscape stirred no great feeling in Dan Ja-gang. He was merely erasing the things that ought to be erased.
No petty pity or doubt could arise in him. He simply, silently wiped out everything that met his eyes.
Yes. These things were human in form, but not human.
They might look no different from the Cult’s own followers, but they were nothing more than worms who had thrown away the chance at faith that had been placed before them.
The Heavenly Demon had already given them their chance. He had given them the opportunity to know of the Heavenly Demon’s existence and bow before Him.
But they had rejected that chance themselves. They had refused the descending god, and all that remained for them was death and the eternal suffering that would follow.
In the end, it was their own choice.
As Dan Ja-gang looked carelessly down at the blood-soaked earth, he was just about to turn away when his gaze suddenly shifted to the side.
A faint child’s cry had brushed past his ear. A slight crease formed between his brows.
It seemed he had missed a small presence mixed in among the dead and the dying.
He started walking again, thinking anew that he himself did not have much experience with massacres like this.
“P-please… please….”
What came into view soon after was a somewhat strange sight.
Beneath a grotesque pile of corpses, a woman was covering a child with her entire body. She was desperately clamping one hand over the child’s mouth to silence his cries, and Dan Ja-gang narrowed his eyes at the sight of her trembling uncontrollably.
“Please….”
Perhaps sensing his presence while trying in vain to stop the child from crying, the woman jerked hard. Then her terror-filled eyes slowly lifted toward him.
The moment their eyes met, she began sobbing and shaking as though she had come face to face with the god of death himself.
“P-please….”
The words did not change.
Only the object they were aimed at had clearly shifted. What had first been a plea to the child was now a plea to Dan Ja-gang.
“Please, just this child… please!”
Dan Ja-gang continued to stare at the woman and the child in her arms, his expression cold and unreadable.
Foolish. Foolish, and even more foolish.
Why did they not understand that all of this was the result of their own choice? Why did they not understand that the one they should be begging forgiveness from was not Dan Ja-gang?
Dan Ja-gang slowly lifted a hand.
But at that very moment, the child in the woman’s arms broke into desperate wails, as if choking on his own breath.
“Hak-ah… Hak-ah… please. Hak-ah.”
The woman pulled the child tight against her chest to hide him and squeezed her eyes shut.
Dan Ja-gang watched that scene intently, his hand still raised.
And then.
His hand slowly lowered. He stared at the woman and child with an expression impossible to read, then turned and walked away from her.
It wasn’t compassion or anything of the sort.
Everyone in this area would die anyway. There was no way for a frail woman and child to survive here. Even if he did nothing, they would die on their own.
Since they would die soon enough without his help, he simply did not want to stain himself any further with the blood of dirty unbelievers. Yes. That was all.
Squish.
After walking for a moment through the blood pooled on the ground, Jeokil hurried up beside him at speed.
“Reporting, Bishop!”
Jeokil, still lowering himself in a bow as though the blood-soaked ground meant nothing, was about to begin his report when he suddenly lifted his head. He must have sensed someone behind Dan Ja-gang, because his eyes twisted viciously.
“Report while walking.”
But the words that left Dan Ja-gang’s mouth made him dare not move carelessly.
“Yes!”
In the end, Jeokil rose in silence and fell in behind Dan Ja-gang.
“More than ninety percent of the work has been completed.”
“Late.”
“My apologies. Because this is a city… there are too many who’ve hidden themselves underground.”
“Excuses are a fine way to cover up incompetence. But they do not hide a lack of faith.”
At that, Jeokil’s face turned deathly pale.
“I’ll finish it within three days, no matter what it takes!”
“Two.”
“…….”
“I’ll give you two days. Wipe out everything that exists here within that time.”
“I obey!”
Jeokil bowed deeply.
Whether it was possible or impossible did not matter. What mattered was that he had been given an order. The Bishop’s command had to be carried out by any means necessary. That was the law of the Cult.
While Jeokil was steadying his resolve, Dan Ja-gang’s voice came again.
“Jeokil.”
“Yes, Bishop.”
“I have one question.”
Jeokil lowered his head without answering, waiting for the Bishop’s inquiry.
“These deaths are merely the price of their sins.”
“That is correct.”
“They rejected the hand of salvation extended by the great one. Knowing of the Heavenly Demon’s existence, they did not devote themselves to the Cult, and instead dared to oppose the Heavenly Demon.”
“That is correct.”
“Those who know the greatness of His existence and still refuse to choose have no right to salvation. And those who could not choose because they were ignorant cannot be absolved of their sin either.”
Jeokil nodded as though there was nothing to even consider. It was one of the most obvious doctrines of the Cult.
“And yet, Jeokil.”
Then Dan Ja-gang spoke, his face still utterly calm.
“What of a life that does not know of the Heavenly Demon’s existence, and has not yet been given even the chance to choose?”
“……What do you mean by that?”
“Exactly as I said. Should children, who have no awareness yet, bear the same sin as the rest?”
Jeokil’s face twisted strangely.
“They may have no sin of their own, but is it not only natural for children to bear the crimes of their parents?”
“Is that so?”
Dan Ja-gang nodded quietly.
…A choice, was it?
Could that truly be called a choice?
Dan Ja-gang slowly dragged a hand over his face. His roughened lips brushed against his palm.
When one lived only within the Cult, there was no need for such questions. They all believed the same things, thought the same thoughts. Anything out of alignment was cut off without mercy.
One could find peace simply by believing.
Even the sermons of the Bishops, who preached the Heavenly Demon’s sacred gospel, could be accepted without question, and with that alone one could enjoy boundless joy.
But…
Dan Ja-gang looked up at the clouded sky.
The world he had encountered was as hazy as that sky. The cloudless heavens he had looked upon within the Cult did not exist here.
“One more question.”
“Yes, Bishop.”
“If we achieve all of this, and yet….”
Dan Ja-gang stared blankly at the sky for a moment, as though he could not bring himself to finish the sentence. Then he spoke.
“If He does not answer our cries… what will you do?”
“…….”
“Will you return to the Cult and simply wait forever for His arrival?”
“I….”
After hesitating, Jeokil lowered his head in embarrassment.
“I do not know the answer to that.”
“……I see.”
“The only thing I know is this: the joy of a follower lies solely in obeying and keeping His words. I think that any pleasure pursued in defiance of His words is no more than apostasy.”
Dan Ja-gang nodded, pleased.
“A fine answer. Your faith is beyond question.”
“Thank you, Bishop.”
“Finish this place.”
“Yes.”
“Ah, and.”
Jeokil flinched at Dan Ja-gang’s firm voice.
“That man is bothering me.”
“……You mean the one who came to us before?”
“Yes. I don’t remember his name.”
Dan Ja-gang gave a small snort. He was not someone worth remembering by name.
“He doesn’t look like the kind to give up so easily. He’ll surely come for us again.”
“Yes.”
“It will be nothing more than futile struggle, but there’s no harm in being cautious. Check for anyone approaching from the surroundings and be prepared in advance.”
“The Cult followers who were trailing behind have just arrived. I’ll have them stand watch.”
“I leave the method to you.”
“Yes, Bishop!”
As swiftly as he had arrived, Jeokil moved off again. Dan Ja-gang’s indifferent stride did not stop, but compared to before, it seemed faintly slower.
The doctrine is not perfect.
Yes, that was only natural.
If the doctrine were perfect, unbelievers could not exist. In the first place, doctrine was not created to distinguish the foolish from the wise. It existed only as a measure to separate those who would believe from those who would not.
So doctrine must not be perfect. A doctrine without room for doubt could not serve as a measure of faith.
Isn’t faith believing even when there is room to doubt?
So do not doubt. Simply believe.
But why were knowing and doing so different? He knew that all these doubts were gnawing at him, and yet once a doubt had been born, there was no way to crush it again.
Perhaps all I want is confirmation.
Dan Ja-gang’s purpose was not to see with his own eyes the radiant world that He would open. It was merely to confirm, with his own two eyes, that He existed.
Even if he were to burn forever in the fires of hell as the price of this deep uncertainty, if he could only confirm the existence of the Heavenly Demon, then he would be able to smile in those flames for eternity.
So… so….
Please answer me.
Tell me that all of my doubts, all of my suspicions, were nothing but empty nonsense.
And then condemn this faithless one.
Please do not abandon these pitiful, miserable souls who honor and revere only the Heavenly Demon upon that desolate land.
Dan Ja-gang would be the spark.
His existence would become kindling, and his doubts would burn away, transmuted into certainty. And at last, eternal peace would descend upon this world.
With a face twisted by ecstasy, distrust, hatred, and affection all at once, Dan Ja-gang let out a feverish laugh.
I am a contradiction.
He doubted, yet believed, and believed, yet doubted. He could not believe without doubt, and yet he prayed with all his heart that everything about him might be wrong.
Wasn’t that absurd?
Forget it.
For now, all he had to do was what needed to be done.
Dan Ja-gang, who had come to a halt without noticing it, was just about to move again when he suddenly snapped his head around.
Northwest.
Nothing was visible there. Nothing in his senses caught there either.
And yet, what had that feeling been just now?
Dan Ja-gang slowly clenched and unclenched his fist.
Northwest….
His eyes sank into gloom.
“I may have to cross the river….”
After staring toward the northwest with darkened eyes for a long while, Dan Ja-gang slowly started walking again.