Miracles, One by One
I began preparing to perform 'miracles' one by one, just as Dr. Levi Sau had instructed. My first priority was waking the unconscious Dr. Marcus Bernard.
"Doctor! Wake up!!"
I grabbed his shoulders and shook him, but there was no response. I fetched some cold water from the nearby purifier and splashed it on his face, but that was useless too.
"Damn it."
No choice. I squeezed my eyes shut and slapped Dr. Bernard across the cheek with my palm. I grabbed his collar with my left hand to pull him upright, then swung hard with my right.
-SLAP!
Still no sign of him waking. I had no option but to use the back of my hand.
-THWACK!
"Urk."
Only then did Dr. Bernard stir with a groan, rubbing his cheek.
"...Wh-who's there?"
"This is Assistant Manager Kim Jian from the Dimensional Credit Vault. I know you're disoriented, Doctor, but there's still a way to save Rainy. We need your help."
"Is that true?! How in the world...!"
"Rainy's body is gone, but Dr. Levi Sau from Nanoi said that if you use the power of monatomic gold, there might be a solution. And luckily, beyond the monatomic gold you already have, there's an additional resource we can use right there."
I pointed at Colossus, locked in battle with Irool high above, but the doctor's gaze remained fixed straight ahead on me.
"...Where exactly? Tell me about this monatomic gold you're talking about."
The doctor's eyes were unfocused.
"And where is this place? It's so dark... I can't see a thing."
"......"
Dr. Bernard's vision was shot.
* * *
Despite the horrific situation unfolding, we kept in constant contact with Dr. Sau and pressed on with the work. Dr. Bernard's blindness was temporary—likely from staring directly at the brilliance of the Angel's Ash at close range. With his sight not returning for hours, I took over, following instructions from Dr. Sau and Dr. Bernard to operate the machines.
Got it? The key is connecting Colossus to the machine. Ask Dr. Bernard if it has external communication functions.
"Please confirm if it has external communication capabilities."
"Just in case, I included remote operation in the design specs. It's standard Wi-Fi protocol—does Nanoi use the same?"
Lucky! It fell out of mainstream use 20 years ago, so we stopped, but a quick driver update and Colossus can start communicating!
I issued commands to Colossus via the UI on my contact lenses as instructed, while starting to manipulate the hospital's custom medical equipment. Our plan was to combine the small amount of monatomic gold in this machine, the massive reserves powering Colossus as its energy source, and the spirits' power to achieve the impossible.
"Everyone, just hold on a little longer...!"
The spirits in the cockpit grunted as they drew on the primordial four elements to counter the angel's divine power. Worried that prolonged use of monatomic gold might harm Irool, they had no choice but to lend their innate powers to Colossus.
-VMMM!!
Irool, facing off against Colossus, swung his sword with a serene expression. Though smiling, the madness seeped through in his silent pressure. Having lost his reason and emotions, he wore his most familiar face, but the aura radiating around him registered only as chaos through my eye's power—not a single trace of feeling.
-BEEP!
"Got it!"
Thankfully, I manually activated the machine's external comms just in time, successfully linking it to Colossus.
"What now?!"
I asked urgently, and an electronic voice crackled from the smartphone speaker. Dr. Sau was checking something.
"Doctor!"
Hold on! This next part is crucial!
Alchemy to harness monatomic gold's power is a complex field. As an ordinary banker, I knew nothing about it and had to rely entirely on Drs. Sau and Bernard.
First, activate the machine with Dr. Bernard. It's the protocol to use monatomic gold energy for granting physical form to a soul—Soul Reception.
Switching to speakerphone let Dr. Bernard hear the instructions. Without a word, he asked for my help. I became his eyes and hands, operating the machine.
-CRZZT!
A bolt of lightning flashed inside the cylindrical tank that was the machine's core.
"For Soul Reception, we must protect Rainy's soul first. Put it in there for now."
Next, he directed me to connect the large scalpel used to sever the soul to the hose. Following his words, I gripped the blade, eyes fixed on Rainy's fading soul and the fingernail-sized flesh anchoring it. With her body turned to salt, the flesh was steadily losing moisture.
"Cut Rainy's soul free from there and transfer it into the tank. Miss the signal, and it'll dissipate before the suction kicks in."
A brutally precise demand. Any timing slip-up, and it was over. Maybe it was better if I called the shot.
"Can I give the signal?"
"That might be wiser."
"Alright, on three! One! Two!"
"Too fast!"
"Three!"
Ignoring the doctor's shout, I drove the blade between the flesh and soul. No tactile feedback of cutting—just revulsion at swinging a knife at something child-shaped.
-SLASH!
But I had to do it. For Rainy, for me, for everyone in the city.
-WHIIIRRR!!
The instant the blade severed flesh from soul, suction activated, yanking Rainy's spirit—vast as the oversized scalpel—into the hose. As the translucent gray soul flowed toward the tank, the machine lit up. The six-year-old spirit fit the tank perfectly, as if designed that way from the start.
Now the final step! Input Rainy's physical data!
As Dr. Bernard followed Dr. Sau's orders, I switched Colossus from manual to direct control.
-KYUUU!!
The spirits hesitated briefly, but after dodging Irool's attack and ordering descent, Colossus activated its combat assist AI and began lowering.
The rest is up to you and Dr. Bernard! If you truly want to save the child, the power of monatomic gold will respond!
Dr. Sau had said alchemy was undeniably complex. But Colossus was a machine with top-tier computational power—a terminal freely wielding monatomic gold. In other words, it could act as a keyboard or mouse inputting commands to the monatomic reactor. No need for programming languages or alchemical knowledge. If our desperate will and wish could be 'input' to Colossus...
We could work a miracle with monatomic gold's power.
-BOOM!
Colossus landed a direct hit on Irool's head. His neck snapped at 90 degrees. The angel's miraculous regeneration would fix the shattered vertebrae, but it bought us a moment.
-WHOOSH!
Colossus halted midair during descent. The spirits emerging from the radiant robot merged into one, glowing brilliantly.
"Doctor!"
"I know!"
The four primordial forces composing the world since creation. And the desperate wish of two people for the girl's revival. The spirits' light coalesced into a transparent droplet, falling onto Colossus's head. The robot's gleaming form was godlike.
-VRRRMMM!!!!!
Microscopic monatomic gold drifting in the tank resonated with Colossus, bathing both robot and tank in golden light.
"Please, I beg you!!!"
Dr. Bernard and I pressed against the tank in unison. Monatomic gold amplifies the heart's power, the will's strength, manifesting it into reality. A fragment of the divine authority left when gods created the universe. Our wish for the child's life to continue sought to defy natural order, invoking a forbidden miracle.
-ROOOARRR!!
Irool, belatedly resetting his neck, charged sword-first. Madness-filled void in the angel's eyes—he knew not what transpired. As the merciful blade of light arced toward our heads...
-SHATTER!
A light dozens of times brighter and warmer than the Angel's Ash erupted from the tank.
* * *
"...Huh?"
In the wrecked operating room, Irool opened his eyes. Shattered ceiling. Robot parts scattered on the floor. Beside them lay his banking classmate Kim Jian, Dr. Bernard, and the angel stripped of his halo.
"What in the world happened here...?"
As Irool struggled to recall, a sigh escaped him.
"...My God."
He remembered. Clearly, his kin's Angel's Ash had utterly annihilated the body of a child named Rainy. Then rage overtook him—
"Oh, Lord. What have I done...?"
Irool checked Kim Jian and the doctor's pulses. Thankfully, both lived. To confront the catastrophe he'd wrought, he approached the window. Guilt over obliterating an entire city threatened to crush him, but he couldn't look away from his sin.
"......?!"
But the city below the hill visible through the window stood intact. Irool exhaled in relief and turned.
"You idiot. How much more trouble do you plan to cause?"
There stood Branch Manager Elama on assignment. In his arms nestled a little girl in a pure white dress—the undead girl Rainy, whose body had been completely erased.
No. Up close, no deathly aura emanated from her. Irool approached and took her hand. The warmth of the living pulsed through.
"She's... no longer undead."
"Yeah."
The girl lay unconscious, eyes closed, but a faint pulse beat at her wrist. How they'd done it, he didn't know, but she'd regained a living body.
"We saved the kid, but the bank-funded machine is toast. Who writes the incident report this time? Me again?"
Elama grumbled with a wry smile, but inexplicable relief shone on his face despite his words.
"Yeah... tell me about it."
Irool smiled back.
"Truly fortunate."
Tears of silver welled in the angel's eyes as he spoke, gaze fixed on the fallen Kim Jian.
"Thank goodness Brother Jian was here."
It had been full of twists and turns. Nothing but surprises.
But this loan job too—Kim Jian, his entry classmate, had pulled it off.