Verse 49: "The Thief Steals Resolve"

Once we reached the top of the stairs, there was only a single door standing between us and the rest of the council of wizards.
          “Wait here a moment.” Griffith said. “I’m going to go in and build up some suspense. Get everyone to pay attention. Don’t touch anything or you’ll bring down the wrath of the entire council of archwizards.” He sounded only half-serious.
          I watched as he went inside and closed the door behind him.
          “Wow.” Vivian said quietly. “I-I wasn’t expecting to ever meet an archwizard. Why do you think they had a prophecy about you, Shinko? Isn’t that unbelievable?” Vivian ran her hands through her long and wavy brown hair. “It all happened so fast, but now here we are, standing and waiting for a chance to talk to the most powerful wizards in the world.” 
          She sounded nervous.
          “W-what if it was a prophecy about something bad Shinko? Aren’t you worried?”
          “Not at all. I prayed about it.” I said as I leaned against the wall of the stairway.
          Vivian looked at me, then smiled softly. She closed her eyes and leaned against the wall.
          “I wish I had your faith, Shinko.” She said quietly.
          When she said that, I felt uneasy. I didn’t say anything.
          “You’re so… calm. It’s like you trust God to work everything out for you.” She exhaled.
          My stomach began to twist into knots.
          “I… can’t even fully understand why he forgave me in the first place, and here you are, completely relying on his will–”
          “No! Don’t say that!”
          She stopped talking.
          “Vivian, don’t say that.” I said quietly. 
          There was a moment of silence.
          “Shinko, why have you been acting so awful lately?” Vivian asked, sounding hurt. 
          I made eye contact with her in the stairway.
          “I’m not acting awful.” 
          “Yes you are. You’ve been cutting people off, ignoring my questions, and Elisa told me you were acting really scary yesterday.” She rubbed her left arm and looked down at the ground. “What’s going on?”
          “It’s complicated.” I said harshly. “You wouldn’t understand.”
          “Shinko, please tell me and I’ll do my best.”
          I glared at Vivian.
          “I’m worri–”
          “Worried.” I cut her off. “Worried. Why?” I shook my head and closed my eyes with a smirk.
          “Because it seems like you’re becoming… w-worse.”
          I twitched when I heard her say that.
          “Vivian. I’m not getting worse. As a matter of fact, I’m doing better than I ever was.” I said confidently. “I finally figured out what’s going on.”
          She opened her mouth slightly.
          “W-what do you mean?”
          I made eye contact with Vivian. If this was going to be the last time I saw her, then there was no harm in being honest.
          “I’m from another world.”
          She stood there, processing what I said. 
          I didn’t give her the pleasure of doing it for too long.
          “I was sent to this world because God needed me to convert you and get Niels and Elisa to reconsider their paths in life.”
          Her breathing began to speed up.
          “Everything I’ve done was because God needed me to do it. I didn’t realize it at first, but it really made me reconsider everything I knew.” I said with a smile. “See, there is no ‘God’ the way you think there is.”
          She started shaking her head.
          “There is merely a super-powerful being. A ‘superman’ if you will. He can exert his will across reality to an extent, but he’s not really ‘God’ the way you want him to be.” I sighed and shook my head. “Because if you go against his plans, he needs to come up with new ones. He can’t force things to go his way.”
          She tried speaking, but no sounds came out of her mouth.
          “Do you realize what this means, Vivian? It means that we can do whatever we want, because ‘God’ is too weak to stop us.” I smiled. “If everyone united, we could kill this God.”
          Her face paled.
          “In a way, it’s almost like nothing changed for me; I mean, I still can’t worship this ‘God.’ If his plans hinge on getting someone who hates him to work for him willingly, well, you can probably see that he’s getting desperate.”
          It was an obvious conclusion. God couldn’t force people to do what he wanted. which was why he kept them around. He needed us; and the fact that he needed us meant that, really, he was not a  ‘God.’
          “The throne of God is within reach. All we need to do is take it.” I said excitedly. “I’m going to go back to my world and tell people about this. Vivian, I know this may seem jarring to you, but I have a hope deep down inside of me that we’ll see each other again.” 
          I looked her in the eyes sincerely.
          “If you’ll tell people here about what I’ve discovered, then maybe, across both worlds, God will be too overwhelmed to stop us.”
          My hand reached out to take hold of hers.
          “It only makes sense; he’s powerful, but not all-powerful. Together, we can rise up against him and take what should rightfully be ours!”
          Before I could say anything else, Vivian’s knife flashed in front of my face. I stumbled backwards as she held it in front of herself.
          “God, please, help Shinko.” She prayed quietly.
          “Sorry Vivian.” I put my hands together. “God, make Vivian see that I’m in the right.” I smirked at her. "No point in resisting the truth, Vivian."
          “Shinko, why would God help you try and dethrone him?!” Vivian protested loudly.
          “It’s not like he can stop me Vivian! He needs me! He has to do what I want, otherwise I’ll go against his little plan. I can’t lose!”
          “Shinko, God doesn’t need you!” Vivian said forcefully.
          “Then why would he let me live if I’m ‘so evil?’” I replied confidently. “There’s only one explanation that makes any sense at all! If God doesn’t want ‘evil humans’ around, but we’re still alive, then what possible reason could he have for extending mercy to us?”
          Vivian’s eyes went wide as she stared at me in the stairway.
          “Because he loves us.”
          I rolled my eyes at her statement.
          “You’re seriously considering that? He’s nearly all-powerful! He’s temperamental! He’s downright psychotic sometimes! How could a God like that love anyone?”
          Vivian clenched her fists tightly.
          “You’re wrong Shinko! God is loving, and merciful, and he forgives us even when he has no reason to!” She pointed her knife at me. “Do you know who the real evil ones are?”
          “You’re going to say ‘people’ aren’t you?” I said smugly as I crossed my arms.
          “Yes!” She said, her eyes welling up with tears. “God makes this world for us to live in. We sinned! We ruined it! But he didn’t destroy us; he gave us a second chance!”
          Her hand started to shake.
          “A-and the first thing you… you do, when you find out about the second chance…” 
          She wiped her tears away and breathed deeply. 
          “God gives you a second chance, and the first thing you do with it is try and figure out how to kill him! That’s what makes me so sure people are evil!”
          Her words hurt something inside me, but I buried it as quickly as I could.
          “God doesn’t love us! Why would he attach so many strings to our salvation if he really loved us?” I shot back. “Why do we have to follow all of his rules if we want to be saved?”
          “Why does he save any of us, Shinko?!”
          “Because he–”
          “Loves us!” She said with finality. “He loves us Shinko.”
          Her voice began trembling, and her hands shook so hard that she dropped her knife.
          “And if you can’t… if you can’t understand that…”
          My eyes widened as I realized what was about to happen.
          “Then…”
          I reached a hand out to her.
          “I never want to see you ever again!” She shouted as she wrapped her arms around herself.
          I froze. She stood there silently for a few moments.
          “Goodbye.” She turned around. 
          I desperately didn’t want her to leave. 
          “...Strange priest.” 
          She ran down the stairs.
          I felt guilt begin to snake its way around my heart. Regret crushed my head like a press.
          I grit my teeth and forced all those unnecessary feelings to die and shrivel away.
          Her words weren't true; she was being emotional and illogical. I clenched my fist until all those feelings disappeared.
          I felt numb.

Edited on 09/19/25