Chapter 83
“Name. What should I call you?”
“……Shin Joo-ah.”
It was a name that seemed like she was born to become the Divine Master. It might have been a made-up name, but strangely, the moment he heard it, the nausea from displeasure and anger began to subside.
If he were a being branded to endlessly watch the perishing world, perhaps the woman before him was a being branded to be summoned here to prevent the world’s destruction.
Though their circumstances might differ, weren’t the two of them similar beings?
Thinking this way, he somehow felt affection for her. That’s why he suddenly had the impulse to kiss her.
Marvis no longer suppressed the emotions stirring in his heart. After all, if he couldn’t go against the great wheel of fate, surrendering to its flow would be the way to protect himself.
“Don’t leave my side.”
Shin Joo-ah was like a candle illuminating the darkness. With her by his side, the world would not perish. He didn’t want to repeat the apocalypse where black rectangles devoured the world, or where everyone melted away in the flash of the dawn sky.
‘First, I need to make her want to stay here.’
Shin Joo-ah marveled at the sea that seemed to hold the night sky. Marvis was satisfied, even somewhat proud, confident that it was a view no less magnificent than the Holy City.
The more favorable words Shin Joo-ah spoke to him, strangely, the more he found her lovable. It felt like a long-unacknowledged void was being filled. A sudden vanity arose, wanting to appear as a good man to this woman.
Though he tried to dismiss it with a fake cough, thinking he wasn’t a teenage boy to act this way, he couldn’t help but straighten his back and square his shoulders.
“I may not be good at making things, but I’m good at fixing them.”
When Shin Joo-ah placed her hand on the broken ancient relic, the elevator that had been stopped started working with a clank.
Since Shin Joo was the savior, it wasn’t strange that she had special abilities different from ordinary people.
But the moment he saw her activate the elevator, Marvis suddenly wanted to cling to her.
‘Can you fix this world, too?’
So that the world wouldn’t perish, wouldn’t be devoured by strange darkness and the dawn sky, and even if it did perish, time wouldn’t rewind again.
So that they could live freely.
It felt like warm water was swirling in his throat. Just as Marvis was about to speak disorganized words, he saw small, semi-transparent letters floating between her and himself.
‘What’s this? Is it another apocalypse?’
Marvis quickly scanned the letters that were rapidly appearing. They were still readable but incomprehensible.
;Adding random value to Marvis’s affection
M = RAND:100
SIF M > 0
CFLAG:3 += M
The semi-transparent green numbers suddenly enlarged, and he saw the number in the square rapidly increasing.
M = 80
The moment the result was determined, Marvis felt his vision blur. His chest burned as if he had swallowed fire, and a strange impulse surged.
The desire to devour the woman before him.
‘Dangerous.’
Marvis hurriedly reached toward the numbers before him. As he struggled to remove the untouchable semi-transparent thing, one 0 caught on his fingertip and fell off.
M = 8
The sticky emotion that made him want to pant and rush at her quickly subsided. As his reason barely returned, cold sweat ran down his back.
‘What are those numbers?’
It was as if someone was forcibly controlling his emotions. Rather than feeling unpleasant, he was afraid. Was it not only the world’s destruction that he couldn’t prevent, but also his inability to control his own emotions?
Marvis felt wronged. He didn’t know who to blame for this. Wondering if Shin Joo-ah might be responsible for these inexplicable anomalies, he glared at her.
Meeting her sparkling green eyes, once again, negative emotions melted away, and his heart warmed.
Marvis smiled bitterly at his situation. It was maddening. Even fickle autumn weather wouldn’t be this extreme—why were his emotions fluctuating so much!
‘But I don’t dislike it. How strange.’
That was probably because Shin Joo-ah was looking at him with sparkling eyes.
She seemed interested in Marvis’s body. More precisely, it was s****l curiosity. It seemed she was the adolescent between them.
Though his memories didn’t match his lived years, Marvis wasn’t foolish enough to not recognize the gaze of someone approaching with affection.
He didn’t dislike the fact that Shin Joo-ah liked him. Rather, he was happy about it.
If the one and only vividly radiant being in the world looked at him and smiled, he could find happiness even within this wretched cycle of destruction.
“Marvis.”
He liked it when Shin Joo-ah called his name. She was quite a peculiar person. Listening to her seriously ramble about nonsense, as talkative as Mason, somehow calmed his anxiety about the future.
‘If this woman comes to love me, she won’t want to leave this place anymore.’
To avoid returning after destruction, it was well worth accommodating her wishes.
“Joo-ah.”
When he called her name, Shin Joo-ah’s face reddened. Marvis smiled again. He knew she was pretty, but was she this adorable? How strange.
She was like a floating balloon of a woman. Also, like a butterfly fluttering around. She seemed like she might break if held too tightly, but if guided with a gentle touch, she would exude fragrance and provide warmth.
“Ah, stop……”
Shin Joo-ah rejected Marvis. Perhaps he was too hasty. If he pressed on while she was pushing him away, he might earn her hatred rather than her favor.
Marvis backed away plainly. He wanted to savor more of her fragrant body, but if he gave in to momentary impulse and she left in anger, the same destruction would repeat.
‘It’s okay. As long as Shin Joo-ah stays by my side, the future will continue, so there’s plenty of time.’
Marvis left the room, thinking that from tomorrow, he would need to figure out the appropriate pace to get closer to her.
But Shin Joo-ah disappeared.
The world perished again.
The ancient relic exploded, causing flames. The residents of Niflheim died with horrifying screams as they were consumed by fire.
Marvis couldn’t prevent the destruction. He had to helplessly watch people die before his eyes once again.
‘Shin Joo-ah. Don’t you feel anything watching these people die?’
He thought she was a warm person. He believed that someone as bright as sunshine could be loved.
But that wasn’t the case. Shin Joo-ah was a cold person.
Why hadn’t he realized? That before the morning came when she, like the sun, would rise, this world would already collapse in the flash of the dawn sky.
Light flashed above his head, and all sounds disappeared. Darkness fell again.
Marvis closed his eyes and opened them. This time, he was standing not in the machine room but in the plaza where the artificial sun shone.
‘Shin Joo-ah. Are you going to repeat this again?’
He gritted his teeth and looked up at the sky. The sky, which looked only as big as a circle made with thumb and index finger, was still dyed a dark purple.
He couldn’t feel a crack in the barrier. It was impossible to invade the Holy City. He felt dejected at the thought of not being able to meet Shin Joo-ah.
He was sick of being at her mercy. Feeling helpless that he couldn’t escape, Marvis sank to the ground.
“Master, what’s wrong?”
“Miki. The world will perish again.”
Marvis murmured weakly. Miki walked away with a face that suggested this was nothing new.
The residents of Niflheim remained devoted to their daily lives even in the face of destruction. Watching them busily moving about, carrying carts and creating smoke, he somehow felt like crying.
How could they be so calm while knowing the world would perish?
Marvis, who remembered the screams they made as they died, covered his face with both hands.
Boom.
Feeling the ground shake, he raised his head while still sitting. Light flashed above.
It was the light of the dawn sky.
‘Another destruction.’
Marvis closed his eyes and covered his ears. The hellish scene wouldn’t disappear by denial, but it didn’t last long.
After holding his breath in the darkness for a while, he opened his eyes again. This time, he was standing in Shin Joo-ah’s room.
No, it was the room he had prepared, but since she left after just one night, it might be inappropriate to call it Shin Joo-ah’s room.
‘There must have been something she didn’t like. If I decorate it better, she’ll like it.’
Absurdly, the desire to cling to her was stronger than the resentment toward the woman who had left him multiple times.
Marvis moved quickly. He made the artificial sun’s light brighter and replaced the heating pipes to make it warmer.
If she liked this place, if it became more comfortable to live in, she wouldn’t leave. If he devoted both body and mind to her wishes, she might love him, even if out of pity.
Feelings of wretchedness had disappeared long ago. Marvis mounted Dig and flew into the sky. Though he couldn’t feel a crack in the barrier, that didn’t mean he could do nothing.
He now acknowledged it. That the savior could withdraw her extended hand at any time.
‘It’s I who needs to desperately cling to be saved.’
Marvis opened his ears to hear distant sounds as he flew through the sky. All his red eyes could see was a sky full of dark clouds.
‘Shin Joo-ah must be somewhere.’
As long as the world was recreated and rushing toward destruction, Shin Joo-ah must be actively moving somewhere.
“Help me!”
…Though he didn’t expect it to be from above the sky.
“Asking for help, Joo-ah. That should be my line.”
Marvis pierced through the clouds and soared up at once. It wasn’t difficult to catch Shin Joo-ah’s body falling from the sky.
As he tightly embraced the woman who was floundering in panic, her green eyes focused on him. Marvis showed her a grin.
Vowing that this time, he would not let this woman go.
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