Gravity Fluctuation (30)
It was as if someone had forcibly seized the flow of time—every sound slowed, then faded into complete silence. Only the sound of my own breathing lingered until that too eventually subsided.
All sounds ceased. Even without hearing it, I could feel the fierce beating of my heart. My vision was dark. All I did was blink, yet the place where I stood had changed.
'... What is this?'
My mind was foggy. No matter how bad my condition was, I could usually assess the situation, but the sudden change in scenery left me bewildered. I tried to vocalize my confusion, but no sound came out. It felt as if only my consciousness remained alive.
Fortunately, that sense of isolation didn't last long. I heard footsteps approaching in the darkness, then the surroundings shifted once more.
I found myself somewhere very familiar—the restaurant in the residential area. As I blankly surveyed my surroundings, a gruff voice called out to me.
"What are you still doing here?"
"... Mr. Robert?"
"I thought you'd be happily living on Earth by now, but you look a mess."
Robert, who must have died on the first day the pureblood supremacist group committed their terrorist attack, was casually tidying up dishes.
'Did I... die?'
Seeing someone long dead left me frozen. Normally, I would have scoffed and brushed it off, but given the horrific physical state I recalled, I couldn't shake off the possibility.
'No way, could it really be...?'
Just as my lips parted, a ladle came flying at my head. Smack! It hit me right on the bone. Something that had often happened when I joked with Nadia. My expression naturally soured.
Robert let out a short laugh.
"As silly as ever, despite the way you look. You're not dead, so don't make that face."
"I don't get what's going on. ... Why? Why now?"
"Because this is what you wished for."
Robert replied calmly to my conflicted question.
"You're saying I wished for this? Wished for what, exactly?"
"Well, you know best. I'm already dead. What would a dead man know?"
Robert shrugged. His worn clothes, hands rough with the marks of a hard life, a voice curt yet warm—each detail was so vivid that I couldn't help but bite my lip.
I couldn't understand why I would end up here just because I wished for it. That sounded as if I hadn't wished for it before.
But it wasn't true. Since meeting Cystus, I had wished for it intensely. So why only now, and why at this particular moment?
Robert pointed to the restaurant door.
"I guess only now is the right time. You'll understand if you move on. You just need to keep going, like you always have."
"... Like I always have."
"The choice is yours."
"I get to choose?"
If I wished for something, what was it I wished for? If I have a choice, what should I choose? Those were the core questions.
"If you've come this far, you have no other way."
There was no other way. Someone came to mind—Celestia.
She once told me there are moments in life where you must make a choice. If you don't think carefully and decide in advance, the cost can be immense.
Scrape. I rose to my feet, prompted by the way Robert silently urged me to hurry out. I had a vague idea of why this was suddenly happening, and I felt lingering here would do no good.
"Thank you, sir. Because of you, I was able to endure."
"I was a good cook, wasn't I?"
Robert gave me a fleeting smile. I closed my eyes and reopened them—he was gone. I reflexively clenched my teeth.
I forced my unwilling feet onward, leaving behind the warm place that had sheltered me in my ignorant past.
I opened the door and stepped out. With each step, the scenery around me melted away like paint. At moments, a void seemed to appear, but soon, a new backdrop unfolded.
This time, it was a wrecked tram. The inside was a shambles from an external attack. It sat immobile—time felt frozen.
Then, someone trudged over and sat heavily beside me.
"Long time no see."
"... Ted."
"You look like you're wondering why I'm here. I'll say it now, I don't know either. It's closer to you summoning me than me appearing before you. Anyway, didn't expect to see you again. So, how's life?"
"I'm on the verge of dying. The pureblood supremacist is just too strong."
"Hey, don't say that. Then my death will have been for nothing."
"..."
"I was joking just now, but you're taking it so seriously."
Ted chuckled, waving his lone remaining arm.
"Since we're here, another joke—aren't you being a bit much? Killing me twice? Stop tormenting the dead guy. You're using me too frugally."
He joked that he had already helped, given me the bracelet, and even lent his strength the second time he died, so he had nothing left to give. But then he grew solemn and spoke:
"Why are you so hung up on it? You know my death wasn't your fault. It was an accident. Please, just let it go. That's not a joke."
How could I? Even I knew Ted helped Nadia and me to survive. But that was beside the point.
If Ted hadn't helped, didn't make that decision, or hadn't handed control to Nadia as if it was nothing, we'd have never gotten this far and would have died back at the tram station.
"Those eyes are burning too much. Can you stop staring at me like that? No matter what, I gotta say—I prefer the opposite sex."
His attitude, so reminiscent of Roxy, completely shattered my emotion and left me dumbfounded.
"You didn't use to be like this."
"Me? I was out of my mind back then. This is the real me."
"..."
"Go on, now. We only met briefly anyway, so this is enough. I don't want to hold back someone who's trying to move forward."
With those words, Ted disappeared.
"... I'll remember your kindness."
Only after he vanished could I finally say what I'd held back. I wanted to say it to him directly, but knowing he'd hate it, I couldn't.
Soon the tram lurched into motion. The scenery outside changed again, to somewhere new beyond the residential area.
A small colony town that was a brief sanctuary. People I met there flashed by.
Licorice's transformation, the help from Carrot, Kyle, and many others, crossing the line of death with Eric and Roxy, and my inseparable partners Nadia and Carry. The tram melted away like water, morphing into a shuttle.
The landscape shifted from the town to the mining base Heaven.
'It was overwhelming.'
Mining sector, cargo sector, maintenance sector, communications sector, waste disposal area, robot production facilities, and the refinery.
'I was desperate.'
The central sector nexus and hydroponics room. The underground research lab. Countless miscellaneous sectors.
'I thought I'd die.'
Throughout nearly every sector, I fought the mutated creatures—ghouls, mimics, and all sorts of monsters. Especially powerful among them was the bud-class entity, Blue Eye. Ted, who had almost become a "bud" in the central tower of the residential area, also appeared and vanished.
The paths I'd taken flashed past, the things I fought appearing like mirages then fading away.
Each scene in my memory played out in turn until I reached my most recent recollections—I found myself standing on a boundary. Reality unfolded before me just as it had been before this strange vision began.
Cystus was attacking me with black smoke, and at my feet was Maker, the largest and most imposing "bud" entity I'd ever seen. Though everything was vivid, time here was still frozen.
"Ah."
I let out a low sigh. As I saw another vision overlaid upon reality, I finally understood what "the choice is yours" really meant.
I gazed at the horizon, and saw a mountain peak enveloped in starlight.
I had two choices. One was an ancient tree stretching high enough to touch the sky; the other, a single seedling just now ready to sprout.
The first was overwhelmingly majestic by size alone. The weak-willed would prostrate themselves before it as a god. Now I understood why the pureblood supremacists called it the Holy Tree.
If I chose to follow it, I'd likely gain enough power to kill Cystus with a mere gesture.
What I needed most now was power—a force strong enough to untangle this seemingly unsolvable situation by brute strength.
Yet I wasn't compelled to choose it. It felt ominous. Despite its holy, mythic appearance, an inexplicable sense of dread crept forth.
In contrast, the seedling was so tiny I had to look down to see it. On a palm-sized patch of soil, a fragile sprout withstood a gentle breeze, swaying precariously.
Without help, it seemed like a dandelion seed ready to get blown away. If I chose this tiny sprout, I wouldn't get much.
Either way, I would gain the supernatural power the supremacists had sacrificed humanity to develop, but if I chose the seedling, my strength would be slight.
Still, I couldn't take my eyes off it. Unlike the aged tree, this didn't feel ominous at all.
Though it shuddered in the wind, it stood straight, as if determined to endure.
"Come here."
I couldn't tell who was speaking, but in the center of the call stood a man—blond, blue-eyed, somewhat resembling Celestia—poised on the boundary.
He stood opposite me. As if looking in a mirror, we faced each other; when I clenched and opened my fist, he did the same. He stared as if forcing me to choose.
"Ian."
When a foreign voice called my name again, I felt burning pain in my shoulder.
"...!"
It was a searing pain, as if my soul were being slashed with a hot blade, and I dropped to one knee. Through clenched teeth, a pained groan escaped me.
Looking hurriedly, I saw a name being carved into my flesh like a slave brand.
Ian. God's gift.
The meaning dawned on me instantly, just like when I saw the symbols engraved on the Buds.
"... You're branding me just like the monsters?"
A primal rejection surged in me. To be branded with a name was what happened to Bud entities. They were monsters. I was still human.
The steadily carved name remained ever-more distinct. At this rate, I sensed I, too, would become one of those monsters.
If that happened, my free will would vanish and I'd become nothing but a puppet. No matter how strong the power, that was meaningless—wielding power without your will brings only tragedy.
A sticky, sinister desire bound my limbs, attempting to forcibly subject me to a predetermined fate.
"Not a chance...!"
Perhaps that's why I slashed at the branded area with all my might. The surface peeled off, blood spraying all over as it fell to the ground.
Ssshhh. The sound of burning echoed—the half-carved name had seared all my flesh away.
Rumble!
A tremendous tremor shook the space as if it couldn't believe my rejection. That made me happy—enough to forget the pain for a moment. Finally, I'd made it suffer a blow, however small.
"God's gift, my ass. I'll make my own choices. I must."
I grinned, warning it not to toy with me. I didn't know the reason, but I understood that it wanted me. Yet I had no intention of obeying.
This was my journey—a path to answer for myself who I am. No outside interference was needed.
Just then, countless voices echoed through the space:
「Through us, enter the city of woe.
Through us, enter everlasting pain.
Through us, go amongst the lost.
What was made before us is eternal only. We, united with the Creator, are everlasting.
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.」
Was this a warning? Aside from the self-inflicted shoulder wound, I was unscathed. Suddenly, blood began dripping profusely—as if time flowed for me alone.
The surrounding scenery was still frozen, yet I had returned to reality. My stamina plummeted instantly, and heavy blood loss blurred my vision.
My throat dried in an instant, but I didn't even have the strength to cough—only a raspy sound escaped. My breath caught at my throat.
"... I'm too old to be frightened by something like this."
I glanced back. The path I'd walked stretched behind me. Memories from three years before the incident and afterwards—a span short in terms of total life but immensely dense.
Nothing is set in stone. We, who live with time, are always shrouded in uncertainty. So how should a human live?
Within uncertainty, humanity strives to create certainty; that is, to accept everything given to us, without a shred of falsehood, just as it is.
What information had I been given? What did all these things I saw mean?
I knew I had once been a test subject at a pureblood supremacist-affiliated lab. I saw what they called the Holy Tree, and I instinctively understood what it meant when it tried to brand me with a name.
Stability. A value humanity has sought all their lives. The survival instinct itself. But you can't just pursue that alone. Growth, another lifelong pursuit, requires attention, too.
The two cannot coexist. One must recognize that the situation given could change at any time.
You must accept your imperfections, understand your differences, and calmly forge your path.
My vision blurred, perhaps from sweat, and my legs had long since stopped obeying.
But still, I had to move.
I hadn't survived alone. I had made it thus far because of those who stood by my side. I could never afford to forget that.
To pursue stability, you must also pursue growth. So, I couldn't die yet. I couldn't afford to. I still had too much left to do.
What I sought was a future where, no matter how hard the past, I could one day laugh it off and say, 'It was just like that back then,' and move on without a care.
For that future, I could get up as many times as it took. So I kept moving—toward the tiny seedling.
The giant tree threatened I was making a mistake, but once my mind was set, I didn't waver. As I moved, the man on the opposite side mirrored my movements, and the gap between us shortened.
Finally, I stopped in front of him. What should I say? I had no idea how to begin, especially since realizing who he was, and it felt awkward.
So, I opened with the simplest word—hello. Or at least, I would have, if he hadn't spoken first.
"Don't worry about the contract."
"... Contract? What contract?"
"A contract I made with observer Lobelia before the variable appeared. You, no, we, kept that contract. Even though there was interference, you managed to reach this place and make a choice. It could be annulled by nitpicking the details, but just ignore it. It's not worth the hassle."
"I don't get it."
As I grumbled, the man smirked, saying it wasn't important enough for me to know right now. Up close, he really did look a lot like Celestia. My guess was probably right.
Before I could ask, he stepped aside—as if to say I could go now.
Following his lead, I crossed the boundary completely.
While the tree erupted with fury, the sprout welcomed me. And as it did, a small light bloomed in the darkness of my long-avoided despair. I had no regrets about this choice.
The seedling's leaf trembled, then created a halo of light. It hovered briefly, then soared upward to take a place in the sky.
"At least tell me what this is? Is it what I think? I mean, is it the core?"
「Possibility.」
After a long consideration, the seedling shook its leaf and wrote a single word in the air.
"Possibility..."
Repeating that word, I reached out. There was a star out of my grasp. I'd never been able to touch it before, but now it felt within reach. I felt I could seize it.
Was there still something I lacked, some missing piece? Those doubts faded, replaced by certainty: I was enough.
My senses expanded. Enough to touch the sky itself. And finally, the star touched my senses. And it wasn't just one—countless gazes found me.
Beyond the hazy sky, in that vast blackness, stars each cast faint, varied lights to pierce the dark. Yet among them existed beings masquerading as brilliant stars. Every one was the ominous great tree in my sight.
Their hostile gazes threatened to crush me. Even peeling back just one layer, overwhelming despair revealed itself.
I was afraid. I didn't deny it—I couldn't. It felt as if there was no future. The path ahead was a veritable field of thorns.
Ideals and reality always diverge. Ideals are unobtainable, but we must endlessly pursue them anyway.
No matter how hellish reality may be, we must chase our ideals. Only then can we get a little closer to them, no matter how far away. So I would not stop.
Believing that small hopes gathered become a future, I vowed not to collapse.
With that vow, time that had stood still began to move again. As extended noises returned to normal, the man who'd silently watched me spoke.
"Please take care of my little sister."
"...."
"Who you are depends on what you believe. Things may be confusing for a while. But whatever choice you make, I won't interfere. As I said, it's up to you, the one who is alive."
I turned to ask what he meant by 'confusing', but he was already gone with the scenery disappearing as well. He left only those words behind.
How high-handed. If only I'd been in better shape, I would've grabbed him and wrung a clear answer out of him.
Whoooosh—!
A violent wind swept by, bringing the smell of burning. Deafening explosions hammered at my eardrums.
I finally realized I had escaped the vision and fully returned to reality. I slowly clenched and released my fist, cold sweat dripping down.
'... It doesn't feel like anything's changed.'
Hadn't I gained supernatural power through the core or whatever?
Did I have more stamina? Not at all. Time had passed but my injuries remained, and I nearly collapsed without noticing.
Did I sense new power? Not even a little. Far from feeling stronger, I just wanted to flop over.
Bewildered by how things differed from my expectations, I braced myself for the next attack. But none came.
Given how fast Cystus's black smoke moved, I should have already been pummeled and rolling across the ground.
The reason soon became clear. Cystus, suddenly aghast, stopped his attack, his trembling eyes fixed on my shoulder.
"... Heretic."
Heretic. I wondered why he used that word as he looked at me, but a glance at my shoulder revealed the answer. The "Ian" symbol, halfway engraved, was now losing its power and scattering away.
I had ripped it off entirely in my vision, but since I hadn't in reality, it must be disappearing more slowly here.
"You! You saw Him! That's why you hesitated! But you reject His grace—even after seeing Him yourself?!"
"..."
"Heretic! This is heresy...!"
For the first time, Cystus lost his composure, raging again and again. The black smoke surrounding him, once in harmony with him, now exuded a threatening air.
When he reached out, swearing he'd kill me—
"Ah, now I see."
I finally understood. The reason I hadn't sensed any special power until now was because the damn tree's brand had not yet disappeared.
Now, with the symbol powerless, I finally felt a faint warmth inside me. Looking at Cystus, who seemed enraged beyond reason, I spoke.
"I never thought I had to be myself. Not even once."
"What? Nonsense—"
"You asked me earlier if I thought only I could solve this. I'm giving you the answer. Yes, I acted on my own initiative, but that wasn't the reason."
Human connections are inseparable from life. I've met many, and parted from many. Lots of those endings didn't turn out well, but even more ended well, or the relationships continued.
That was why I stepped forward. I decided not to survive alone, but rather, to go on with the people who trusted me. Hope always begins with that first step.
- Friend! I succeeded in hijacking the armored shuttle! Wait 10—no, 20 seconds! Then jump toward Albatross! I'll definitely pick you up!
A message from Roxy. I weighed what I could do in this situation. I had indeed awakened supernatural power; it just wasn't world-shattering yet.
'What can I do? I really want to land a blow, somehow...'
I had to do something to escape safely. No way Cystus would let me go quietly. For now, he was on high alert and we were in a standoff, but that could shatter with a small crack.
I decided to get Nadia and Carry to safety first, and I met Carry's gaze. Now recovered from a circuit malfunction, Carry instantly grasped the situation and stealthily headed toward Nadia.
「ε=ε=ε=(*ﾉ´Д｀)ﾉﾟ」
「(｀д´)ゝ」
Carry, sure to take care of Nadia, signaled me to make a run for it together at the right moment. I agreed, and reached out my hand.
It was a bluff—signaling I had acquired new power and could annihilate him in an instant. Cystus couldn't gauge my condition, but precisely because he understood supernatural powers, this was worth trying.
Would it work? The answer was yes, much more than expected. Cystus cautiously stepped back almost immediately.
"You've gotten cowardly."
"Damn you..."
Even when I openly mocked him, Cystus couldn't act rashly. He was suspicious—uncertain if I had awakened supernatural power after rejecting the name, and if so, how strong it was.
While Cystus kept his guard up, I sent all the power I could command toward where Maker was. I instinctively understood how to do it, so there was no issue controlling it.
When my senses reached Maker, I found the Reformist warship it had swallowed. What I was aiming for was the self-destruct nuclear device sleeping inside. I would try to detonate it.
Whether or not it would work with my current power didn't matter. I handled the power with a firm belief that I would succeed.
Psychokinesis. That was the supernatural power I obtained this time. The invisible force moved as I willed, and I realized I could expand my perception depending on how I wielded that force. It was an instinctual understanding, beyond logic and reason.
Ordinarily, finding the nuke by sense alone in pitch darkness would be impossible, but though things were blurry, it wasn't impossible now.
I continued searching as quickly as I could. I spotted the Reformist warship inside Maker, its structure completely warped from being eaten. Its interior was, predictably, a ruin.
It was torn apart and melting from below in corrosive acid, but its power system was still alive. A flickering hologram hinted at a message, so I tracked it with my perception.
Before long, I found the self-destruct nuclear device inside the storage bay. The metal facility had collapsed around it, protecting it. That's why the nuke hadn't detonated.
If it hadn't been round, the bomb would've struck an edge, gotten a strong enough shock, and blown instantly.
'I think I can do this.'
Triggering it was simple, requiring little power. Just remove a single piece of debris wedged in the wreckage; the collapse would leave the core unstable, leading to an explosion.
Once that happened, the nuke would become unstable and explode. Roxy said the time was almost up. It was time to move.
"Let's go!"
I shouted, posing as if preparing something big. Cystus's black smoke surged back to shield its master.
My surprise attack amounted to nothing special. A handful of military flashbangs scavenged from a downed supply crate. I yanked all the pins in one go and threw them, but their actual power was negligible—even a fraction of the black smoke could halt them effortlessly.
But that was only the case if Cystus expected me to use the flashbangs. He was expecting an attack with supernatural power, and so overprepared his defense—needlessly so.
That inevitably created a small opening. I used that split-second window to fling myself back. Carry grabbed the limp Nadia and soared into the air.
Pop pop pop!
Realizing he'd been fooled, Cystus clenched his teeth as the flashbangs burst in succession, while I stretched my hand out toward the distant Maker, then forcefully clenched my fist.
"Everyone, get as far away from here as possible! Right now!"
- What's with the sudden—no, I get it!
Albatross and Griffin turned around. I sensed the faint power suddenly vanish, heard debris crashing down. All manner of wreckage began battering the nuclear device, its stability shifting from precarious equilibrium to rapid instability.
An immense surge of energy built from deep inside Maker. It must have sensed something was wrong and tried desperately to spew out the contents, but it was already too late. Instantly, its body began swelling and distorting.
And then, it culminated in a massive explosion.
━━━━━━━━━━!
Space itself literally blew apart—together with Maker.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
So that's why there's a self-destruct nuclear weapon...
Boom!
Will Hyun-woo absorb the Maker's power?
Whatever entered my mind to think the Maker could become an ally?
Also, Hyun-woo finally got his power, weak as it may for now...
「✧*｡٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و✧*｡」