Chapter 58

Chapter 58, The Order (3)

They were two followers who wore the Order's robes, but lacked the sacred atmosphere surrounding the other followers.

There wasn't even the faint glow that people with divine power gave off, the kind that seemed to subtly brighten the scenery around them.

They were truly no different from ordinary people you could find anywhere on the street.

Yet the moment the angel brushed their chests with her feather, they completely changed.

Their atmosphere changed, and the instant the feather melted into them, a faint radiance began pouring from their bodies and illuminating the surroundings.

Anyone with the relevant knowledge would immediately realize that they had awakened divine power.

And anyone with that same knowledge would also realize just how absurd that was.

At some point, I had made a post on the Regression, Possession, Reincarnation Gallery.

It was back when I was suffering from the zombie virus, and I had asked how someone could awaken divine power.

└ How do you get divine power? Just get lucky.

└ Yep, just gotta be lucky, lol.

└ Lucky, less than 100 divine power awakeners per continent on average, and the average population of a continent is 1 billion.

└ So you need to beat odds of 1 in 10 million to get divine power, lol.

└ At that point, shouldn't divine power be some insanely broken overpowered ability?

└ Even mana and internal energy have awakening rates of around 1 in 10,000, but divine power's odds are just insanely low.

└ And it's not even that amazing once you get it, lol.

└ Even if you awaken it, aren't you basically just a heal shuttle or a walking potion? Well, I guess it changes once you reach angel level, lol.

The Gallery users had said that the only way to awaken divine power was luck.

And even then, the odds were around one in ten million.

Written as a percentage, that would be around 0.00001%.

It was truly the authority of a god, something that required absurd fortune, heavenly luck itself, to awaken.

Yet the two followers in front of me had awakened that divine power at the same time.

It made no sense.

Come to think of it, they had awakened right after the angel brushed them with her feather.

I stared at the angel through my stinging eyes.

Then I noticed an extremely faint change, so small that it could easily have been dismissed as my imagination.

The two pairs of wings on the angel's back.

Those enormous wings, large enough to look as though they could embrace the entire world, had lost a little of the divine power surrounding them.

Compared to the ocean-like amount of divine power she possessed, it was barely a speck.

But it had definitely decreased.

The angel's divine power had decreased.

And in inverse proportion, the followers had awakened divine power.

One conclusion naturally came to mind.

The angel had sacrificed a portion of her own divine power and given it to them.

But is something like that even possible?

Curiosity surged inside me, and I nearly opened the Gallery.

That thought never became action.

Because at some point, the angel had approached me and wrapped her four wings around me.

“...”

I didn't think I had lowered my guard.

And I was pretty sure the Invisibility Cloak had been covering me properly.

Yet the angel standing directly in front of me was looking straight into my eyes with pupils as blue as the open sky.

There was no way I was imagining it.

Her gaze was far too precise.

The only fortunate thing was that she wasn't looking at me sharply as though I were an intruder.

Her gaze was gentle, like a parent looking at their child.

Even so, I was so shocked that I froze for a moment.

Eventually, I carefully removed the Invisibility Cloak and greeted her.

“...Nice to meet you. I'm Kim Yuhyeon.”

Her face was so full of life that it was difficult to believe she had looked like a statue that morning.

Her gentle, benevolent gaze softly passed over me.

Then her cherry-colored lips opened.

“I'm Eriel. It's nice to meet you. Did you come here because you needed something?”

“...No. I didn't come here for any particular reason.”

“I see. Is there anything you need, or anything that has made you uncomfortable?”

“Something I need or something uncomfortable?”

I wondered why she was asking such a thing, but her tone was serious.

There didn't seem to be any hidden meaning.

She appeared to be literally asking whether I needed anything or had experienced any inconvenience.

I hadn't even been here for a full day yet, so I hadn't had enough time to feel that way about anything.

I was about to honestly say no.

Then something occurred to me, so I gave a slightly different answer.

“Not really, but there are a few things I'm curious about. Would you be willing to answer them?”

“Yes, if they're things I can answer.”

Eriel readily nodded.

Worst case, I could regress anyway.

With the thought that it would be good if she answered and unavoidable if she didn't, I asked everything I was curious about without holding back.

“How do you escape from this space? I mean, how do you leave the Inner World?”

“You simply wish to leave and believe that you can. Then, at some point, you'll find yourself outside the Inner World.”

“...Really? Then how do you enter the Inner World?”

“If you've already entered once, you can return whenever you wish. If you've never entered before, someone who already has can help bring you in.”

It's really that simple?

Even after hearing her answer, I was doubtful.

So I tried it.

I wished in my heart to leave this world.

I believed I could.

Then the completely white world around me began filling with color, almost as if someone were painting it.

Green spread through the empty air like paint being poured into space.

Soon, it became trees.

Scattered white became clouds.

Blue became the sky.

Brown became the ground.

Several colors were scattered and refined like that until the world eventually took on the familiar appearance I knew.

An apartment complex entrance, with green trees and white apartment buildings rising like a forest.

I was standing there alone.

I had left the Inner World and returned to the original space.

This time, I thought about entering the Inner World again.

The surroundings were painted white, and the cathedral appeared.

When I blinked, Eriel was standing in front of me, watching me with the same benevolent gaze.

It really works.

That's surprising.

Because she hadn't lied to me, I lowered my guard toward her slightly.

Still, the fact that she was an angel left a faint layer of tension in my mind.

Eriel looked at me with an unchanged expression.

“Do you have any other questions?”

Yes.

A lot.

“Earlier... two followers came here, right? Did you have something to do with them awakening divine power?”

“Yes. I helped them.”

“How?”

“Once an angel reaches full maturity, they can give a portion of their own power to someone else. I gave those people some of my power, and that's how they awakened divine power.”

“...How much divine power have you given to the Order's followers so far?”

“I'm not sure. Probably enough that I fell from being a Cherub to being a Throne. I don't know the exact amount.”

A Cherub was the stage directly below a Seraph.

One level below a Seraph and one above a Throne.

It sounded simple when put like that, but in reality, she must have lost an unbelievable amount of divine power.

Yet she acted as though none of that mattered.

Without realizing it, I asked her with my eyes.

How can you act like that?

Kindly, she answered my unspoken question.

“Because I love them.”

“...Love?”

“Yes. Love. Parents don't calculate every meal their child eats, every toy they buy for them, or every expense spent on things their child needs, do they?”

“...”

“I think it's something similar. Does that answer your question?”

“...Yes.”

I felt complicated as I looked at her saintly attitude and remembered the word Agape written in Lucy.

The sublime, selfless love she currently possessed was ultimately caused by a Mystery.

And there was a good chance that Delta, who could practically be called the master of this branch, had infected her with it.

Thinking about that made it impossible not to feel troubled.

I thanked the angel for answering me so kindly, then prepared to leave.

As I thanked her and tried to put the Invisibility Cloak back on, the angel stopped me.

With one pale hand, she gently held the cloak.

Then she offered me a feather.

A radiant feather plucked from her own wing.

“It's a gift. If you take it with you, I'm sure it will be useful.”

I carefully accepted the feather she offered.

I thanked her several more times, then left.

Her unconditional kindness seemed to pull at my feet.

Still, I managed to walk away and return to the lodging where my companions were waiting.

Even as I walked, the warm kindness she had shown me remained inside my heart.

I wanted to repay her with the same kindness.

And not only her.

I wanted to spread this warm feeling to other people as well.

Only then did I understand.

This was how Scq947, Agape, infected others.

Most people naturally felt indebted when someone treated them with kindness.

If someone helped you once, you couldn't help thinking about them.

It was normal to feel that you wanted to help them in the same way.

Agape used that natural reaction to spread.

I had received Agape-like love from her.

And now I wanted to return that love to other people.

The desire was far too strong to be considered normal.

That was how I realized it was the influence of a Mystery.

I stood in front of the lodging for a moment and gathered my thoughts.

Then I opened the door and went inside.

Arlin, Hwa-ryeon, and Lee Yeonhee were waiting for me.

I stuffed the feather into my pocket and told them everything I had heard and everything that had happened.

Four days passed like that.

Before I knew it, the fifth day since we arrived in the Inner World had come.