Saved a Heroine From the Brink of Death

[ Side story 5. if. Ending – Endless waiting ]

[ Side story 5. if. Ending – Endless waiting ]

This is an IF side story that branches off from the main story.

* * * * *

[ Ah… if it goes like this, if it goes like this… no, it won’t work… 】

Cynthia felt her consciousness fading.

In the end, it was a failure. I broke and broke countless copies of the identity imbued with the power of the foreign god. I endured the pain that made my mind dizzy and held on until now. To return to his side. To return to Earth where my lover was waiting.

But, it failed.

Why? What was lacking? Cynthia blamed her willpower in her fading consciousness.

If I had held on a little longer, if I had held on tighter and held on a little longer… I could have gone see him. Why couldn’t I?

Such thoughts lingered in her mind.

[ Forward, one step… was, but… Oppa… I’m sorry… … 】

Cynthia tried to hold on to her consciousness, but her soul was already disintegrating. The loss of consciousness was now unstoppable.

In the torrent of pain, the face of my loved one was gradually fading away. This can’t go on… I need to try a little harder.

[ ah. 】

Was it a mistake to choose to destroy one’s identity?

Cynthia recalled a face in the split second before she sensed the annihilation of her soul. And she wished. Please… that he would live without being bound by himself.

Her soul and identity were scattered throughout the universe.

***

I attributed the ‘Berget’s Causality’ to Cynthia. It promoted her exotheism, and she could no longer remain on Earth.

“…It would be better than being a guardian’s puppet.”

The Guardian could not have left Cynthia alone after she stopped the Watcher. Judging from the Guardian’s actions, if Cynthia’s externalization had not occurred, he would have continued his work of ‘subordinating’ her, taking away her free will, controlling her will, and sending her to another universe to prevent the end.

It would be similar to Cain, who was an apostle of the Lord.

“Maybe, maybe I’ll see you again.”

I thought for a moment and then shook my head.

It was too harsh a choice for her, one that might succeed, one that would involve a lot of suffering, and one that would most likely fail.

I… … thought it would be better if Cynthia lived as a foreigner.

***

“How have you been?”

A familiar voice rang in my ears. I turned my head and saw a face I hadn’t seen in a long time. Cheonmu Bong. He was a transcendent being who had now reached the realm of the supernatural.

It was only a few years after the gate collapse.

“I don’t know if you’re doing well.”

“That’s what I mean when I say I’m not doing well. I can tell the answer just by looking at your expression. You look like you’ve lost everything in the world, and you’re just wiping your desk. How can you not know?”

“It just feels that way.”

That’s right. I definitely think so.

Even though I know in my head that it’s right, my heart thinks differently? It was complicated. Human emotions were not expressed in numbers like a graph. I couldn’t see it clearly with my eyes. I couldn’t properly understand my own heart.

I wanted Shinshiga to live. I wanted her to not take risks. I didn’t want her to suffer.

But, I wanted to see her.

I hoped that she would choose the only option, giving up her power as an alien and destroying her own identity, and eventually return to Earth.

… … It’s an absurd greed.

“You little punk. How many years are you going to stay like that? Do you think Sia will come back?”

He immediately saw through the cause of my mental anguish.

I responded to him with a hint of irritation.

“… So you’re telling me to forget it?”

“I can’t forget you. But isn’t there something you always say?”

“What is that?”

“Even if you do that, will it be effective?”

“… … .”

“It won’t be effective to hold on to it. Don’t stay like that and follow me. Don’t stay stuck in thought in Sia’s room, holding onto the desk. Let’s go outside.”

“… Where are you going?”

“I will teach you martial arts.”

“yes?”

“I have come to realize many things while staying in my private room. All thoughts disappear in the face of physical hardship. I cannot remove your mind from the world, but at least I will prevent you from thinking about it now.”

“No, you don’t have to——”

I was taken to Cheonmu Bong.

***

It had been several years since she had been taken to Cheonmu Bong and trained by him. I wondered how Cynthia was doing.

I still stayed as a guest at the shrine. I volunteered to clean her room.

Every morning, I open her door and go in. Slowly, I clean the room while reminiscing about my memories with her. Even when I leave the room, I look back to see if she has come back. But… … .

She didn’t come back today either.

I still have contradictory thoughts today.

I hope she doesn’t make that choice, but I hope she does…

It’s evening.

I walked in the garden for a moment to breathe in the night air. As I looked up at the sky, a large star fell down, shining brightly. As I looked at the star, for some reason, my heart became even more troubled.

Suddenly, I thought of Cheonmu Peak.

-Human life is finite. If you want to continue waiting for Sia, wouldn’t it be right to prepare?

He advised himself to enter the Transcendence.

Could I, who had only become a half-transcendent being by borrowing the power of the Guardian, walk such a path?

“… I have to try. Yes, if I’m going to keep waiting. I can’t just grow old and die like this.”

I made a decision.

***

“Seongjin-ah. You have no martial arts talent.”

“…I know.”

“No, you don’t know. Of all the people I’ve seen so far, I don’t think there’s anyone worse than you. Can I be honest with you?”

“Speak.”

“It’s better to teach a monkey.”

“… … .”

I was learning martial arts from Cheonmu Bong. You may have the illusion that your skills are improving quickly as you are receiving direct instruction from the Transcendent One, but that is a real illusion.

It was difficult for me, who had no magical power, to even begin on the path to transcendence.

“You have no magic power, so you must walk a more difficult path. You must create the ultimate external energy and pursue transcendence based on it.”

“… … But is it really possible without magic?”

“It is possible. If you try to die.”

“Aren’t you doing it?”

I am still doing that now. I sleep only three hours a day and devote the rest of my time to training. I use good elixirs, good food, good training equipment, and I am trained by Cheonmu Bong. And it is very harsh.

His martial arts are directly engraved on his body. His powers and angles. All kinds of martial arts are engraved.

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeek———!”

A pain that felt like it would be better to stab myself in the stomach with a knife spread through my entire body. That was the kind of internal slicing technique that Cheonmu Bong used.

“You said it was external training… Do you have to train the inside as well?”

“Isn’t that obvious? Anyway, since your insides are damaged, drink the elixir.”

I spent money without sparing any expense. I poured all the wealth I had accumulated into achieving nothing.

Endure pain, get hurt, and recover.

Repeated growing up.

***

“…Congratulations. You have finally entered the path to transcendence.”

It has been 31 years and 4 months since I learned martial arts from Cheonmu Bong. During that time, I spent enough money to buy several large corporations, pushing my body to the limit and regenerating it repeatedly, and as a result, I reached the extreme of external martial arts. In addition, I broke through that limit and transcended it.

“You won’t be able to go around hitting people because your personality isn’t good, but even if you do get hit, you won’t die.”

In short, it meant that even if you meet another transcendent being, you won’t win. You won’t die either.

“I have no intention of leaving Earth anyway.”

“Yeah, I guess so. By the way… That guy Shin Dong-baek is gone too. Tsk. He had the potential to enter Transcendence, but he couldn’t overcome his demons.”

Shin Dong-baek, Shinsiah’s grandfather, was always worried about Shinsiah. Cheon Mu-bong taught him martial arts and advised him to enter the world of transcendence and wait for his granddaughter, and he accepted. However, the evil spirit in his heart blocked his path.

“…I feel sorry for him.”

“Why you? You said it was an inevitable choice?”

“That’s true, but….”

“If things are going to be the same one way or the other, wouldn’t it be better to give Sia freedom?”

Every word was correct.

I was speechless.

“It’s pathetic even though I’ve become a transcendent being. What kind of god is this… Tsk. Anyway, I’ll leave now.”

“Yes? Where are you going?”

“I need to hone my skills. I plan to see a wider world. I have woven my energy into you, so if you need anything, send your thoughts through that energy.”

“…Please take care of it.”

“Worry about yourself more than me.”

“yes.”

Cheonmu-bong disappeared like the wind. His presence was briefly felt on the moon outside the Earth, and then disappeared again. In an instant, it seemed as if he had been lifted out of the solar system.

I returned to the shrine as usual.

***

I don’t know the year, but it was the morning of July 7th.

As I was leaving Cynthia’s room after cleaning up, I ran into someone.

“How are you, Guardian?”

“… You don’t have to be so formal.”

“How could we do that to a being who has cared for our family for generations?”

I looked at the head of the Kwon Seong-shin family at that time. Shin Dong-baek died, and Cynthia became a foreigner, but the Shin family maintained its power under my protection.

A lot of time has passed. They say that even mountains and rivers change in ten years, but centuries have passed. Not just mountains and rivers, but the country, no… the whole world has changed.

But I haven’t changed.

Her room was also the same.

As time passed, the structures of the Kwonsungshin were repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt, but Cynthia’s room was always the same. Her room was maintained in that state by my divine power.

Am I a ghost haunted by the past?

Now, even I can’t tell the difference.

She might have forgotten me and started over.

Maybe, I made that choice and failed.

Everything was full of unknowns.

“Was your name Shin Joo-yeon?”

“Yes? She is my grandmother. My name is Shin Si-yeon.”

“Oh, I was mistaken.”

Shin Si-yeon resembles Cynthia in both name and appearance.

I glanced at her for a moment, then turned my head away. Today, I was thinking of her especially.

Compared to the years I’ve lived, the time I spent with her was just a moment. But my heart still lingers in those times.

“…Are you waiting for Cynthia?”

“Yeah. You know.”

“The Guardian and stories about him have been passed down through generations. I sincerely hope that the Guardian’s long-cherished wish will come true.”

“…Thank you.”

Shin Si-yeon was a child with a heart as kind as Cynthia. I looked up at the night sky and hid my reddening eyes. It was because of one thought that suddenly occurred to me.

If, if…

If Cynthia came back and bonded with herself.

Those in front of you are…not others,

‘… This is a meaningless thought. I guess I should go now.’

I gave a blessing and some words of wisdom to the then new god, and then flew out of the Earth.

It left the atmosphere and headed into space.

The darkness and cold of the abyss greeted me, but my body did not move.

I flew slowly and landed on the surface of the moon, sitting down comfortably.

“This is the limit of where I can go.”

My voice spread slowly through the vacuum of space.

“… If my talent had not been so humble, would I have been able to meet you? Would I have been able to prevent you from making that choice?”

With my meager talents, I can’t go beyond the galaxy.

I, who am the lowest rank among the transcendent beings, have barely reached the beginning of the ranks. If Cynthia had not made ‘that choice’, I would never be able to reach the outer universe where it is supposed to exist.

I can’t even bear the journey there.

If you have someone’s help, you can get to the outer space gate, but… yeah, you’ll probably die the moment you enter there. Even with the help of an outsider, you’ll die.

Outer space is such a place. It is a place where you cannot survive even with the help of outsiders if you are not qualified.

“I wish my voice could reach you.”

The voice, filled with divine power, spread slowly, very slowly, into space. The divine power was far from enough to reach outer space. However, he hoped for a miracle.

I am alive, alive and waiting for you. So… I hope that someday, you will come to see me in a way that I do not know.

‘…Yeah, maybe he’s looking for a way I don’t know about.’

I looked at the Earth from the moon for a long time. The view of the Earth from the moon was so beautiful that it soothed my tired body and mind. I thought it would be nice to look at it together when she came back someday.

“I wish a miracle like that would happen.”

I chuckled and stood up, dusting myself off.

It was a habit from my mortal days.

“Then shall we go back…?”

It was about time for my body to move to return to Earth.

I felt a strange sense of foreboding.

Someone’s voice.

I heard a cry for help.

“Did I mishear? Well, who would ask for help in the vacuum of space?”

-Save me! Please. Save me!

“… What is it? Can you really hear it?”

I turned my steps towards Earth and headed towards the far side of the moon. As I went there, I could hear someone’s voice clearly.

-There’s someone here! Help him!

There was a shattered piece of the soul there.

What I thought was a voice was actually an echo of the soul instinctively crying out.

“It was you. The one who asked me to save you.”

I don’t know why, but it was strange to see all these fragmented souls gathered neatly in one place.

The causality of the universe is complex and mysterious, so sometimes incomprehensible things like this happen: the fragments of a shattered soul come together in the middle of the moon, intact.

“Poor thing, but what a lucky soul. If we gather like this, we can completely revive him.”

I breathed divine power into the soul fragment with the intention of performing a rare act of good deed.

“But, something feels familiar.”

This soul… felt somewhat familiar.

I looked closely at the soul, and was puzzled.

“Uh, uh…?”

A miracle happened.

Seriously, a miracle happened.