Chapter 383 - Her Faith

From the day the Sun God declared divine judgment, stating he would personally judge this world, the already chaotic original world began to collapse even faster.

At the center of it all was Celeste.

[All of this is entirely God's will.]

On the Day of Divine Judgment.

That day, Celeste, who received special orders from God, became completely corrupted.

Her heart finally broke under the cruel will of God, and with dead eyes, she became a complete puppet following only God's words.

A perfect killing machine with the sole purpose of destroying the world.

Especially after that day, she fully understood her abilities through divine transmission.

Her power, inherited from God, was to make other ability users' powers go berserk until they destroyed the world and died.

In other words, she had the power to control others' abilities at will. After all, supernatural abilities were also the power of the Sun God.

With that power, she controlled all the villains gathered at Kathedal according to her will, making them contribute to the world's destruction.

Of course.

This wasn't the only instruction Celeste received from the Sun God that day.

Eliminate the child of the stars.

Not abstractly, but specifically.

The Sun God's order to eliminate the one with the Star God's power.

Unlike his usual abstract and metaphorical communications, this was the first concrete order.

'...It makes sense.'

Someone who received power from the Sun God couldn't possibly defeat the Sun God.

Naturally, the one who could be a problem for his destruction plan would be an avatar who received power from another god.

...And by that time, Celeste already knew to some extent who possessed the power of stars through ancient texts, so what happened next was simple.

[Investigate most ability users with blonde hair... Stardust of South Korea. Eliminate her.]

Stardust.

...And Korea, where she was located, came under Kathedal's full-scale attack.

In that process, most of the main characters from the original story died.

[Cough. Haha... At least I'm defending this country until the end. Wouldn't that make me a patriot... Hack.]

Director Park Jun-ho. Died in the villains' offensive while personally commanding the remaining heroes on the scene.

[Stardust. No, Ha-ru... Yes. You must survive, no matter what... Understand?]

Hero Icicle. Died in a bombing while holding out at the control tower until the end.

Besides them, Electra who died when her power went berserk, senior Kim Chae-hyun who was kidnapped, corrupted, confronted Stardust and died by her hands... It was truly a development where everyone died.

And somehow, only Stardust survived through it all.

She had the power of stars protecting her.

...The blessing of stars that would never let her give up.

Finally, Celeste herself descended.

[Ah... Cough. Now I return to God's side...]

Stardust finally succeeded in killing even Celeste.

But... could that be called success?

South Korea was already destroyed, and no one remained by her side.

When everything had collapsed like that.

Finally, the Day of Judgment came. And the Sun God descended...

And that's the story of the original work.

"Now everything has completely changed."

I said with a grin.

...Though it seemed to contain some anger rather than a smile, it was a smile nonetheless. Phew. Relax, relax.

Because the Sun God's plan had been thwarted from the beginning.

...Stardust became much stronger than in the original.

From the moment Celeste became my ally.

"So, you solar parasite. Your plan will never succeed."

I muttered, looking up at the sky, flipping him off.

Anyway, the god probably couldn't see this. If he had seen it earlier, he would have fried me with lightning while I was seducing Celeste.

Because this world is still protected by the Star God.

"..."

Thinking about that, my thoughts became complicated.

The three primordial gods.

The Sun God, the Moon God, and the Star God.

...And the Star God was the one who loved this world the most.

The Star God.

Long ago. The god who fought against the Sun God who destroyed the world, and banished him to the far reaches of the universe.

The god who created a barrier of cognition in this world, preventing divine power from interfering recklessly.

...In that process, the god who exhausted all power and came closest to death.

And.

The god who also dragged me into this world.

"...Haah."

Please. Not just you...

Tsk.

Actually, I don't have good memories of the Star God.

A god who kidnapped me to this doomed world, threw me two weak abilities with only big risks because they had no power left, and then disappeared.

...Of course, during the three years I struggled after first falling into this world, I decided to bury my resentment toward her. There's nothing to gain by dwelling on the past. I need to live in the present.

Anyway, somehow I managed to change the world differently from the failing original.

"Living only for Stardust... how did I end up here."

I muttered with a smirk.

Yes. All of this was for Stardust.

I was able to endure thanks to her.

So now I need to protect her until the end.

As I was muttering in my room.

Ding

That's when a text message arrived.

And when I opened my phone, of course.

[Egostic... what are you doing?]

...The one who sent the message was Stardust.

Indeed. She contacts me right when I'm thinking about her. Is this another one of her super senses?

Thinking that, I smiled and typed on my phone.

[I was thinking about you, Ms. Stardust]

A straightforward message with nothing but facts.

...After I sent that message, there was no reply from Stardust for a while. What's going on? Is she busy?

As I was thinking that.

[...Really? What a coincidence. I was thinking about you too.]

[(Bear emoticon smiling while hugging a heart)]

Her message came like that.

Seeing her response, I found myself smiling fondly when.

'...?'

Suddenly feeling a strange premonition, I hurriedly sent her a message.

[Ms. Stardust. Where are you right now?]

To my message, her reply came as if it were obvious.

[Me? I'm near your house...]

"What?"

Reading that, I was surprised and quickly got up from my seat and went outside.

...Somehow, that strange feeling was never wrong.

***

The evolution of our Ego-Base has been quite varied.

Initially, Ego-stream started in Seo-eun's basement connected by a long elevator under an empty detached house in Seoul.

After living there with Su-bin, we moved to the current mountain mansion after healer Ha-yul arrived.

In the process, we connected the existing basement and the mansion with a teleportation device.

Thus, a three-tier connection route was created: mansion - basement - Seoul house. With one teleportation, we could go from the basement to Seoul.

...Anyway, the conclusion is that I gave Stardust the address of my Seoul house. She should know where I live. The mountain mansion had several shields set up by Seo-eun to prevent intruders. It was also too far.

So in front of my Seoul house.

I met Stardust again after a long time.

...Actually, I saw her briefly in front of the Yu-seong Group building last time, but that was too brief and the atmosphere was intimidating.

"Egostic!"

"Ms. Stardust."

In the sky above my house.

There she was, wearing her usual red suit, her blonde hair fluttering, smiling as soon as she saw me and flying toward me.

...Stardust embraced me right away.

"I missed you."

"Haha. Me too."

She buried her head on my shoulder, breathing softly and saying that to me. ...It seemed she had decided to completely forget about meeting me at Yu-seong Group.

Yes. This is the normal reaction.

'...Wait, normal?'

Is Stardust hugging me as soon as she sees me normal?

I must be getting weird too... No. Maybe I'm just used to it.

As I was thinking that.

She lifted her head from my shoulder, and with her blue eyes right in front of mine, she asked.

"Egostic. Aren't you busy today? Is it okay for me to meet you for this long...?"

She asked hesitantly, looking at me.

...Seeing her like that, I smiled bitterly.

I must have pretended to be too busy until now. No... I was busy, but still.

'Yes.'

With the world about to fall into extreme chaos due to God's declaration of destruction soon.

Shouldn't I meet Ha-ru more often during this relatively peaceful time?

With that thought.

I smiled and said to her.

"Yes. I have time today. If you have time too, let's stay together."

"Really?"

Seeing her eyes light up, I also smiled faintly.

...Yes. And on this occasion.

Let me tell her too.

That soon, the world will fall into chaos because of God.

***

So we enjoyed a date for the whole day.

And at the end.

I calmly told her the truth about what would happen.

"And soon. God will declare destruction. The world will probably fall into chaos."

At some pier in front of a sunset sea.

Looking at the crimson-dyed coast, I said that without meeting Stardust's eyes.

How would she react?

...In the original story, when Stardust heard God's declaration, she almost lost her mind. She resented the world, fell into despair, and finally shed a tear.

Would she show the same reaction this time?

As I was thinking that.

...Stardust's reaction was unexpected.

"Really?"

She answered as if it was nothing.

Then she replied with a slightly amused voice.

"....Then, Egostic. You must have another plan?"

To her voice saying that to me.

"...Yes. That's right."

Surprised by her unexpected reaction, I said that and unconsciously turned my head to look at her face.

"Then that's fine."

Her smiling expression was visible.

She was smiling while looking at the sea, then she looked at me.

Brushing back her golden hair shining with the reflection from the sea, she smiled and answered me.

"Egostic. Because you're here. You must have another plan, right? So. I trust you. I'll do whatever you tell me to."

...Unlike the original story, she was smiling as she spoke.

Clearly, she was depending on me, and this was definitely not a good thing.

Nevertheless, for some reason.

...I was also smiling and saying this.

"Yes. Just trust me."

...Like that.

With that conversation as our last, we watched the sea a bit more together before parting.

"...And Egostic."

"Yes?"

"I've been thinking more about it. ...Only up to two people is okay. No more than that!"

"...What??"

...With those incomprehensible words at the end, we parted.

They say I couldn't understand what those last words meant at all...