Breakdown VIII
Step.
The next footstep belonged to Noh Do-hwa.
On an island where a single bridge allowed only one person to pass, Noh Do-hwa set up her workshop. I worked as her assistant.
Noh Do-hwa didn't ask for much in life.
Sunlight. Water. A piece of land. Sand from the beach. Leaves, plenty. Flowers, a few.
A hammer. The number of people she could handle and the volume of wounds she could endure. Hot coffee, regardless of the bean type.
She desired summer, autumn, winter, and spring. Instead of footsteps, she wished the sound of rain falling on the garden stones would wake her.
If she were to die someday, she hoped the old winds of late summer would give her a sky burial, rather than cremation or burial.
Unlike Dang Seo-rin, who always wanted to leave, Noh Do-hwa never wanted visitors from anywhere.
Therefore, she was the person who desired the most from life.
"Assistant..."
"Yes?"
"Pack your bags for a short trip. Ugh. There are so many old folks who can't come to the island, you see..."
"Oh, yes. Understood."
When the winter ended and the last snow melted, Noh Do-hwa left the island. The bridge hadn't been repaired for a long time, so the railings were shaky in places.
The sea playfully blew its breath.
"Be careful, Master. A lot of snow fell this winter, so the bridge is quite damaged. We should repair it when we get back."
"......"
"Master?"
As I tried to turn back after walking ahead on the bridge, Noh Do-hwa lightly placed her palm on my back.
It was a pressure I could ignore if I wanted to.
I didn't ignore it.
I stopped mid-turn.
"Master?"
"I do not..."
"Pardon?"
"Assistant. I do not need ideals. Utopias. Ideal lives. Ideal endings. Ugh. Living every day mortgaged to such things is not my way of accepting the world..."
"......"
"I do not take pride in denying reality. I graduated from such hobbies at twelve. Assistant. You must know. I immensely, immensely dislike leaving debts with anyone..."
Thud.
Noh Do-hwa lightly pushed my back.
It was another gesture I could ignore if I wanted to.
I didn't ignore it.
The shaky railing couldn't support my weight and creaked before breaking.
Just before falling off the bridge, I looked up at Noh Do-hwa. The shadow of the sun concealed her face.
Only a smile, like a shadow, was drawn.
"Go to hell..."
Noh Do-hwa's face rapidly receded.
Splash—I heard the sound of falling into the seawater and couldn't help but think.
Dropping someone on the way from the island to the land, from nirvana to samsara.
That was truly a Noh Do-hwa-like murder.
Blink. Clatter.
The wheel of time moved.
Two steps forward.
Step.
The next footstep belonged to the Saintess.
"......"
"......"
Surprisingly, the two of us sat on the silver moon. We faced each other on chairs carved from stone, with a table in between.
The world held its breath.
The Earth on the other side of the universe was still, and the sun illuminating such an Earth did not move either.
A white world.
The endpoint of time. Or rather, a pause.
A Saintess who fully bloomed her ability to its extreme inevitably reached this terminus―
"Mr. Undertaker."
Not an ocean-class anomaly.
Maybe even another Outer God-class anomaly.
The being who, as an awakened Saintess, bore the name 'Executioner' as an anomaly, opened her lips.
"You know, Mr. Undertaker, you could always face such an end."
"...Eternal rest?"
"Yes. Not the occasional vacation you take as a joke... but truly letting go, thus rest. The world has stopped, and people no longer move. No sins are committed. No misfortunes or tragedies."
Like reciting a small song, the Saintess imbued her voice with telepathy. In other words, the full transmission of a Constellation.
[Of course, no regression either.]
"......"
"All beings become like inanimate objects. They drift as specks of dust in eternal and instantaneous moments. If this world ever stops, why shouldn't it be today?"
"Saintess, you know you can't persuade me."
"......"
The Saintess drank her coffee.
It was coffee laden with sugar and creamer, no different from convenience store products.
As a barista, I had nothing more to offer than a Maxim packet, torn and stirred. Yet the Saintess claimed my stirred coffee tasted different.
I wondered if she knew I secretly added half a spoon of cinnamon powder.
"Why? Do you believe you can escape eternity someday?"
"Of course."
"Do you know? Emit Schopenhauer, who gave up on everything and fled to a world with just him and his lover by the 23rd cycle, was actually the sane one."
"......"
"Even 23 cycles were already too long and painful. Mr. Undertaker, your hope is too strong."
The Saintess voiced.
"This world is hell."
The sound in the void was absent, so her voice and breath were the moan of her transparent aura.
It was the only noise in the universe.
Therefore, it was the universe's only scream.
"The world is hell, and no one is held accountable. No effort is made to change it, or it's too slow."
[If you can't move time forward, it should stop.]
"Why is there a torture chamber in some basement? Have you ever seen a child not even ten years old die?"
[The child, sold to a 'factory' at a young age, was destined to die from torture on their tenth birthday.]
"Why are the mine slaves born in rock and swamp mines, living their entire short lives in narrow crevices without knowing of a broader world?"
[Why do humans feel relieved that there are more unfortunate people instead of being happy for those happier than themselves?]
"If one excuses such base tendencies as not their decision but something forced by their environment and world."
[Fine.]
"Why should I allow time to continue in such a world?"
"......"
"Hell is said to be 20,000 yojanas below."
A breath flowed into the universe.
[One layer.]
The starlight of the Constellation flickered.
The shadow of Pythagoras's Earth deviated from harmony, causing a creak.
"Just one layer below that planet, it's entirely hell."
"......"
We were silent.
It wasn't because we had nothing to say. It was because our words were predetermined.
I knew a single sentence that could kill the Executioner of time, the Saintess. And like a murderer with a shred of conscience, I slowly drove the knife.
"Help me, Saintess."
"......"
"I want to help others."
"......"
Blood flowed through the universe.
According to Pythagorean tradition, the universe consisted of ten celestial bodies, one of which was invisible to human eyes.
The shadow-Earth.
It always moved in the same direction as Earth, perpetually in darkness as if in a permanent eclipse.
The shadow planet orbited with the other nine celestial bodies, making sounds like heartbeats, like harmony. Hence, Pythagoreans believed the universe was filled with the song of the celestial bodies.
To them, the world was beautiful.
But humans, having heard the universe's song from birth, found it a mere 'background', never truly listening to it.
One layer.
One layer of eyebrows obscured not just hell but also this world's beauty, making it a fatal curse to the Saintess.
"The Infinite Void is..."
The Constellation of shadows, always in the shade and turning its gaze with the people's direction, opened its lips.
"...It descended upon Baekhwa Girls' High School as the Hyakki Yagyo. It exists as the leader of 99 ghosts. In other words, the Infinite Void has divided its existence into 99 pieces."
"......"
"My original ability was merely to stop the world. But as my power grew stronger, I could move around freely in the frozen world. Just like that... Cheon Yo-hwa's ability can surely become stronger."
"What do you mean?"
"Imprinting behavioral principles on humans and controlling them like NPCs. That's Cheon Yo-hwa's awakened ability. But maybe, if she develops it, she could use it on anomalies, not just humans."
"Oh."
My eyes widened.
"Being able to control anomalies at will! Amazing! That's an incredibly powerful ability!"
"...Yes. At least for the anomalies that appeared in Baekhwa Girls' High School, or rather, the School Ghost Stories, she can control them."
The Saintess nodded.
"Cheon Yo-hwa is an apostle of the Infinite Void. She can interfere to some extent with the anomalies the Infinite Void controls. You, Mr. Undertaker, know why she was chosen as the apostle better than I do."
"Indeed..."
A strategy emerged.
The Saintess warned me.
"But Cheon Yo-hwa, who has consumed the Infinite Void's Hyakki Yagyo, will become immensely powerful. She will be no different from an anomaly herself... much like you see me in this illusion."
"......"
"Even with just the Infinite Void, this much. As you subdue anomalies, more anomalies will gather around you, Mr. Undertaker. Dang Seo-rin, Sim Ah-ryeon, eventually. ...It would be nice if we could simply call it fighting poison with poison, but ultimately, you'll just be transplanting the world's poison into yourself. If you give up, the backlash will be incomparable to Schopenhauer's. So, please..."
I held the Saintess's hand.
"I know."
The Saintess looked at me.
"Fall into hell with me."
"......"
Creak—
The previously frozen wheel of the universe creaked. The Sun, Earth, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn clattered as they moved. Ten wheels aligned in a straight line.
Grand Alignment. The most majestic constellation the universe could pronounce.
At that final line, the shadow stood.
"Yes."
The shadow smiled before my eyes.
[To wherever.]
Blink, one layer of life closed its eyes.
Clatter, the ten Constellations played a soundless melody.
Before I knew it, we were holding hands, inverted, diving from the moon's glassy surface to the ground― to hell.
Endless descent.
We tightly embraced each other.
The universe's song was time.
Blink. Clatter—
The wheel of time moved.
From nirvana to samsara. From the closest otherworld to the farthest reality.
One step forward.
"――Ahjussi! Ahjussi!"
I thought about why people are born with two eyes.
It's because the world is always made up of two layers. Hell spread out under the sunlight and beauty hidden in the shadows.
Blindness and clarity. Extremes. Gaps.
Existence as a non-void space.
I slowly opened my eyes.
"Yo-hwa?"
"Yes, ahjussi! Ugh. So... is it really you? I mean, do you remember us wandering through the School Ghost Stories?"
I looked around.
Ding-Dong-Dang-Dong.
A bell rang. This was the School Ghost Story... no, it was Baekhwa Girls' High School. The bell echoed under a blue sky, not a red one.
An infinitely normal school.
There were no grotesque birch forests or red spider lily gardens. It seemed to be lunchtime, and students were gathering in small groups, crossing the playground.
"...Yes, I remember. We were walking the four steps to defeat the Infinite Void. Now, only one step remains."
"Oh! Right! But why are we both in the same illusion this time?"
"It seems this is the fourth step."
Step.
Cheon Yo-hwa's and my footsteps overlapped.
A world where anomalies, voids, and endings had no room to intrude, only peacefulness.
That was our final stop.
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