Let There Be Light.

‘Holy war… Such a thing couldn’t possibly happen.’

I realized belatedly.

That it’s none other than she who has the upper hand in the current confrontation.

That it’s none other than she who is granting mercy that need not be granted at this moment.

“…Just one thing.”

Nevertheless, one person.

The one representing the inquisitors was trying to face the heretical god without breaking his spirit.

“I’ll answer just one thing.”

Coincidentally, he didn’t have the power to manifest the halo of the one he serves alone.

No, it would be impossible even if all of Lagrid’s believers gathered.

The being they serve is a perfect and absolute existence… Deemed impossible to sustain with human power, so what’s possible is limited to sacred laws that manifest the records in the Bible.

“…In return, please make a decision after answering that question. Whether you’ll step aside, or prepare for a holy war.”

Nevertheless, the light in his body showed that he was facing this situation no differently than before.

What suppressed the fear of death that would even extinguish madness was the emotion of ‘resignation’ that didn’t cling to one’s own life.

“I promise in the name of Haide.”

Because it’s infinitely desperate and utterly precarious…

An emotion that becomes the foundation of absolute faith, able to move forward ignoring everything except what evokes it.

“…Inquisitor Joseph.”

Yes, it’s an attitude utterly unbecoming of a clergyman.

At least that’s how it seemed to my eyes, but what had brought him to this place?

“Do you believe in miracles?”

Could this current question serve as an answer to that?

“I do believe.”

“What is the miracle you believe in?”

“My own existence, and everything in the world that I perceive… The fact that I’m alive, and thus everything I’ve come to perceive could be said to be the result of a miracle.”

An unhesitating answer.

The light flowing from his body still illuminates the surroundings.

The inquisitors gradually release their held breaths as if drawn by that light.

As the radiance becomes clearer, the form of the enormous being that tried to overwhelm them begins to blur.

Yes, even if it’s called a god, it’s ultimately just fragments.

As long as the human power sustaining it is limited, it can’t be something humans can’t overcome.

“…So you’re saying that being alive itself proves a miracle.”

“Yes, that’s why I serve God. If this birth originated from Him, then it’s inevitable that the end should also be dedicated to Him.”

Lagrid. Followers of the saint who died bearing original sin.

They affirm the fear of the unknown, are grateful for being alive by holding reverence for everything in the world, and assign value to everything they feel while living.

A miracle can be said to be no different from being proven by itself because one feels one’s own existence.

“However… Everything that controls all of that is solely in God’s domain.”

But just as there’s no freedom in birth, wishing for another miracle to be overlaid on that life would be called arrogance beyond desire.

Therefore, they don’t have self-will in their choices.

The thought of taking the lead in something doesn’t exist for believers who have entrusted their hearts and lives to illusions.

“Miracles aren’t something humans can create. All we can do is wait and endure until a miracle comes. Just as you wait for the day when the mortal future comes, we maintain our faith towards Him while waiting for the time of miracles.”

“There will be those who disappear without seeing that miracle.”

“If there are those who remember those who disappear like that, more people will experience miracles.”

“Like the believers of Lagrid gathered under the name of Yeshua?”

“That’s right.”

“The tragedies created by gathering under such a name…”

“That too is a problem that we, who worship miracles and wait for miracles, must endure and handle. Because Arian is a believer who swore to share her fate with us, not you.”

That’s what Lagrid was.

Unlike Haide, who respects ‘diversity’ in life before equal death, it’s about people who have lived different lives gathering under one name and pursuing the same direction.

From the moment one awakens true faith in that organization, one’s body and mind become entirely for the organization, and actions contrary to that are never tolerated.

As if making oneself a part, moving a huge device called the collective. As if removing and replacing broken parts in the process.

‘It’s like ants. That is.’

Despite being human.

How is its foundation no different from insignificant creatures like ants?

Because such a clear subject came to mind, they looked even more pitiful.

The culmination of a collective society created purely naturally over billions of years.

They created a religious group longing for such perfection, but its teachings emphasized from birth that humans are imperfect beings and demanded diligence.

To entrust salvation to the future by making even one’s own existence a part of those teachings.

As long as one can’t completely castrate one’s ego like a mere insect, it’s something that can’t be maintained perfectly. At the end of following such a policy, what awaits might only be destruction.

‘In this era of peace, what is driving you to this extent?’

Although I felt sympathy for such a man, all those questions ultimately remained just murmurs.

Only one question was allowed.

Once that was over, I planned to carry out the predetermined action.

“…Vincent. Please open the way.”

“Will it be alright?”

“Yes, from the start, the one who violated etiquette in this situation was us… no, it was due to my arbitrary decision.”

Thinking she had done everything she could, she quietly clasped her hands together and recited a prayer.

At the moment when the curtain covering the sky disappeared as if a mouse had died, and cold rain once again settled between them.

Only then did Joseph push up his glasses and begin to move his stopped footsteps.

“Everyone except the five at the front, remain here.”

Is there any need to cause a commotion when permission has been granted?

As the minimum number of people who received that order followed, Joseph, who finally stood across from the Saint, quietly whispered in her ear.

“I apologize for visiting at such a late hour.”

“No, I should apologize for causing trouble with my self-righteousness.”

May this incident not strain the relationship between Lagrid and Haide.

After exchanging such intentions, the leaders of the two forces parted.

Nevertheless, as the two forces kept each other in check in the remaining place, Vincent stood by the Saint’s side and carefully asked.

“Saint. Is it really alright to let them go like this?”

It’s not alright.

It would be a lie to say so. After all, it was something I did, but I abandoned the responsibility midway.

So I too must bear the responsibility for everything that happened because of this incident.

“If.”

Even if the one behind this fails.

“If I hadn’t held hope for the one behind this, I wouldn’t have taken in that poor lamb from the beginning.”

Nevertheless, I felt a throbbing in the hand I placed on my chest.

Yes, that was clearly an expectation.

“And she too is a believer like us… There will be no lies in the words coming from her mouth.”

That judge who couldn’t even be brought to his knees by fragments of the god of the afterlife.

A woman who understands the nobility of life more than anyone else might be able to stop him.

---

Just for a moment.

The moment he saw that back, Joseph had to stop his steps for a moment.

-Drip, drip, drop.

Was the sound of water droplets falling coming from outside the window?

Or was it from the blood drops falling from the fingertips stretched out on the bed in the dark room?

Either way, nothing that he, who had reached this scene, engraved in his eyes could be called a lie.

‘Has the breath, stopped?’

Arian Hayes.

When he saw her slumped on the bed, for just a little bit.

A little, but he felt relieved.

Death is the easiest means for concealment, as he, who had grandly held many funerals until now, knew well.

Self-loathing churned his insides because of it, but he had already walked too many rivers to suffer from it.

What does it matter if his conscience is pricked?

This heart, which had already fallen and become a rag, had long since lost the right to even complain of pain.

“Who are you?”

Yes, having already walked an irreversible river, he would continue to the end of that path.

To advance even a little longer without drowning.

“Seine Velvet,”

The woman he encountered at the front of such a path was still focused on embracing something with her back turned to him.

“I’m the health teacher of Maris.”

A woman wearing a white gown.

Her voice, like his, was worn with fatigue.

“Ah, I see.”

When I see the white gown she’s wearing, I’m reminded of them.

Cleas. Although they were believers, they wore white gowns proving themselves as doctors, not religious robes.

She’s probably the ‘only doctor’ staying in this city. In this place where countless religious people gather, there’s not much felt need for something to replace divine power.

“…Seine Velvet. I earnestly request of you.”

But Saint.

Is this the hope you held?

“Would you… turn around?”

No matter how rare the power she possesses, it’s ultimately human.

Yet hoping for the unexpected, for the unknown in an area that’s not one’s own, is as foolish as expecting a miracle.

“Show me what’s in your arms.”

So Joseph, unlike her, didn’t hold hope for the person in front of him.

He’s just performing his duty.

If she steps aside, he’ll finish his work and return, and if not, he’s prepared to even hang her body on a cross and burn it.

“…Light”

Even at such a moment, her gaze was directed towards where she was looking, towards that window.

As the rain gradually stopped.

At the moment when dawn began to break after the long night.

“Let there be light.”

At those words uttered while engraving that in her eyes, Joseph realized that his steps had already stopped.

Genesis.

The moment he heard the monumental sentence announcing the beginning of the world.

“And there was light in the world.”

From that point on.

The dawn light rising over the horizon outside the window began to gradually illuminate the place where they stood.

“…Mr. Inquisitor.”

The woman, while speaking, gazed at the dawn sunlight shining from outside the window.

Although she didn’t turn her head at his call, Joseph still couldn’t interfere with her in any way.

“Do you know the next verse?”

What was uttered from her mouth at this moment was what could be called the foundation of the teachings they follow.

From the moment she uttered it, the other person had become no different from ‘someone to be revered’ from their perspective.

“Bishop. That woman…”

“As the light illuminated the earth and sky, only then did the concept of the world come into being where the Lord’s hand had touched.”

Joseph raises his hand in front of the inquisitors trying to restrain him.

Then, walking ahead, he gave the answer to the woman’s question who had her back turned.

“The Lord, who was pleased with that sight, separated light and darkness, calling the time when light enters day, and the moment darkness enters night.”

Yes, there was no way he could retreat.

The fact that she uttered the beginning of the world despite not belonging to the order meant that she respected their doctrine in itself.

“He bestowed wings to the sky, fins to the water touching it, and life surrounded by fur to the earth… But all of that was merely an accessory to the paradise where His alter ego would live. Only when life was put into the doll made by molding clay did that body begin to move, but the Lord, feeling love for it, named it human (Adam).”

One who respects, deserves respect.

That policy newly established in the era of peace is something that must be upheld, if only to prove that Lagrid is repenting its history of corruption.

“And the Lord, worried that he would be lonely, created woman (Eve) using his rib as a medium, but she ignorantly fell for the cunning snake’s deception and violated the taboo…”

“Angered by this, the Lord gave Adam the eternal punishment of labor, Eve the punishment of conception, and expelled them from paradise.”

The sentence immediately returning to such a response.

With that as a start, the man and woman standing here began to retrace the birth of the world, postponing the predicted conflict.

“From that point on, the descendants of those bearing original sin began to spread in this world.”

“So fear not sin, little lamb. Even if it’s a prayer towards heaven, do not consider it as absolving that evil.”

Let there be light.

At the center of the world illuminated starting with those words.