Chapter 52, Confidence
I walked past the stunned Hwa-ryeon and went to find Arlin.
Even while following the direction she had gone, I tried to calm the excitement in my head.
Winning the spar had been more than enough to make me happy.
The excitement rising inside me was so strong that I probably wouldn't have needed any painkillers.
It would have been nice if I could simply lose myself in that pleasant excitement.
But right now, I wasn't in a situation where I could do that.
The divine power fragments carried by the followers of the Order.
The fact that Lee Yeonhee could absorb them.
And the fact that after absorbing only a few fragments, she became an angel.
Then, after becoming an angel and using divine power, she cured my zombie virus all at once.
That was extremely shocking.
Someone could say that a good result was all that mattered.
Someone could say I should just accept it because everything ended well.
But there was such a thing as cause and effect in this world.
The Order and Lee Yeonhee.
The fragments and the angel.
I felt like I absolutely needed to understand the connection between those things.
I tightened the bandage around my hand and continued searching for Arlin.
It didn't take long to find her.
“Are you finished with Hwa-ryeon?”
“Yes, more or less.”
“Then you came to find me because of Lee Yeonhee. And probably because of the divine power fragments as well.”
I nodded.
Arlin stopped speaking for a moment and looked into my eyes.
I looked back at hers.
They were eyes filled with intelligence and wisdom.
Perhaps because the divine power had erased her fatigue, her blue eyes looked much clearer than when I had seen them earlier.
Those mirror-like eyes quietly studied me.
Only then did I realize she was assessing my condition.
“...It seems the zombie virus has been completely cured. I can't see any violence or irritation in your eyes anymore.”
“That's right. I didn't expect it to disappear this easily, but it's all thanks to Yeonhee.”
“Yes... Hmm. Yuhyeon, do you know much about angels?”
I thought about angels for a moment.
According to the Gallery users, in their worlds, angels seemed to be less of a race and more like a level of attainment.
In magic, there were Mages, Grand Mages, Magi, and Archmages.
In martial arts, there were Absolute Realm, Harmony Realm, Peak of Ascension, and Life-and-Death Realm.
For divine power, the equivalent stages were angel, demigod, and god.
When I explained that, Arlin calmly nodded.
“Correct. An angel is a level of attainment. And a Seraph refers to someone who has reached the very end of the angel stage, right before becoming a demigod.”
“Which is now the level Yeonhee has reached.”
“Yes. That's correct. And that makes absolutely no sense. It is a stage difficult to reach even after several hundred years of training, yet Lee Yeonhee reached Seraph simply by absorbing a few fragments.”
“She still looked incomplete. The size of her wings, and the fact that she immediately fainted after using her ability.”
“Even taking that into account, it's strange. No matter how weak her current abilities may be, she is still a Seraph, isn't she? She has three pairs of wings.”
Her eyes lowered as if she couldn't understand it no matter how much she thought.
Honestly, I couldn't understand it either.
An ordinary person picked up a few fragments and became an angel.
Not just any angel, but a Seraph with three pairs of wings.
It was clearly abnormal.
And the source of that abnormality probably wasn't Lee Yeonhee.
It was probably the Order.
We both became suspicious of the fragments carried by the Order's followers.
Come to think of it, had Epsilon also possessed one?
Then why hadn't I found a fragment?
Could Epsilon have survived and escaped?
Well, that was possible.
But I raised the flame in my right hand and decided that possibility was low.
The amount of power stored inside the flame was abnormal.
Its firepower felt as though it had devoured several thousand people.
The most likely reason was that the flame had consumed Epsilon.
And if that was the case, perhaps it had consumed the fragment inside him as well.
Then could those fragments also affect my flame?
If that was true, it would explain why the flame had become absurdly stronger compared to the number of people it had consumed.
“...Are we going to have to fight the Order after all?”
Arlin reacted to the thought I muttered out loud.
She asked why I had said that, so I told her what had happened to the flame.
She thought seriously for a moment, then spoke firmly.
I expected her to tell me not to say something so ridiculous.
“How about we go destroy the Order right now?”
“What?”
Apparently not.
Go destroy the Order immediately?
Their fragments could help both me and Lee Yeonhee, sure.
But wasn't that a little too hasty?
Arlin kindly answered the doubt in my eyes.
“Even though the Order is a major faction, their main branch, around ninety percent of their total forces, is in another world. Just like the Company's headquarters.”
“...What's another world?”
“That's a concept you don't need to understand yet. In any case, what I'm saying is that although the Order possesses five 900-series Mysteries, they cannot use them against us. Those important Mysteries would be located in their main branch in another world, while we are currently on Earth.”
“So you're saying that even if the Order itself is powerful, they can't use their full strength here?”
“Correct. At least, not until we go to another world. And Yuhyeon will never have any reason to go there.”
“...What if they come here from that other world to take revenge on us?”
Arlin answered even more firmly.
“That will never happen. Never.”
I stared at Arlin and fell into thought.
She was the kind of person who always believed that many variables existed and every possibility had to remain open.
She never spoke with absolute certainty.
At least, I couldn't remember her doing so even once since I met her.
The reason I had been reluctant to fight the Order was because of their hidden strength.
At the center of that strength were their 900-series Mysteries.
If the Order couldn't use those 900-series Mysteries...
Honestly.
Hmm.
I started thinking that fighting them might actually be possible.
It wasn't reckless confidence.
It was a conclusion based on Lee Yeonhee's growth, enough to cure a Mystery in the form of a zombie virus, and my own growth.
If I thought about it calmly, with our current strength and my regression ability, I felt like we could probably fight the Company again and somehow win.
Even without the #Medieval Tag.
It was hard not to think that way when the flame in my hand now burned at around 3,000 degrees and my body had been completely healed.
As I thought about it, my mind slowly began leaning toward fighting the Order.
Even so, deciding immediately would be a bad idea.
After thinking for a long time, I spoke.
“For now, this is important, so let's think about it once everyone is gathered.”
“Understood.”
Arlin stepped back after that.
Even after I was left alone in the room, I continued thinking.
Our current combat strength was roughly like this.
Me, Kim Yuhyeon.
I could control flames exceeding 3,000 degrees, and through Lucy and the book, I held an overwhelming advantage in information warfare.
Then there was Arlin.
A mage who had almost reached the point where she could properly be called a full-fledged Mage, and who could use a single spell with destructive power far beyond even my flame.
Hwa-ryeon didn't have the same kind of explosive firepower as Arlin or me, but she was a first-rate swordswoman with excellent endurance in prolonged combat.
Lee Yeonhee was an incredible healer, powerful enough to cure even Mysteries that took the form of diseases.
“Dad! Then what about me?”
“Hmm... you are...”
And lastly, Confirmation Bias was the mascot of our home.
Bias, with her cute appearance, was loved by everyone in the group.
Strategically, however, she was completely useless.
Maybe she could be called the guardian of the house?
I avoided the bright eyes Confirmation Bias was directing at me and looked over the others.
They seemed to agree with my evaluation.
At the same time, they also looked confused about why I had suddenly gathered everyone just to evaluate our combat strength.
To answer that question, I finished the brief assessment and moved to the main topic.
“Arlin, how strong is the Order?”
“If we're talking purely about combat power... the strength of one of their side branches should be weaker than the Company. However, because they mainly use Mysteries, there will be many more variables in battle.”
“Still, are they an opponent we can fight?”
“Yes. Yuhyeon has a Mystery related to manipulating time, so even if there are many variables, we should have a good chance.”
Once the conversation reached that point, the others finally understood why I had gathered them.
They reacted with surprise.
“Yuhyeon. Are you thinking about fighting the Order?”
“Yes.”
“...Oppa. If you're doing this because of me, you don't have to.”
I looked at Lee Yeonhee, who showed guilt, gratitude, and worry all at once, and shook my head.
“It's not only because of that. The Order is already deeply connected to us. We'll probably keep getting involved with them in the future as well. That means we don't know when they'll become aware of our existence.”
“...”
“More importantly, the divine power fragments carried by the Order's followers help me too. I'm not completely certain yet, but look. This is the power I gained after killing one follower.”
I clenched my right fist.
The flame went wild.
Sparks scattered in every direction like exploding droplets of water, strong enough that everyone took one step backward.
I ignored them.
With my burning right hand, I grabbed a sword made of iron.
The iron began melting.
It melted rapidly, dripping downward.
The heat was so intense that the scenery around it seemed to warp.
But I didn't stop there.
I poured more strength into the flame.
Soon, the sword completely melted into liquid.
Then the molten iron began boiling violently.
Everyone's eyes lit up.
And in the end, they had no choice but to nod.
