Prison, Sanctuary 聖域

Thousands, tens of thousands of years ago.

There was an era when humans still remembered the names of the gods.

The god who ruled over death. The god who ruled over life. The god who ruled over fate. And the god who ruled over knowledge and joy.

Beings who looked like humans but were never the same as humans.

They had immortal bodies and possessed powers that humans could not reach.

With such power, they gave too much to humanity.

They gave the strength to accept death, they bestowed new life, they showed the flow of fate, and they taught the knowledge of the world and the joy of living.

Humans loved those gods.

They feared them, worshipped them, and called their names.

However, at some point, humans began to realize.

That the gods were too strong, and they themselves were too weak.

Awe began to turn into desire beneath the surface.

Instead of worshipping the gods, they harbored a desire to place the gods beneath their feet.

If they could not be killed, they would be imprisoned. Let us imprison them and use their abilities.

Thus, humans created the Sanctuary.

A place built under the pretext of protecting the gods.

But in reality,

A prison to confine the gods forever.

---

That Child

Not long after imprisoning the gods, humans encountered a problem.

The gods did not age, and they did not die.

Therefore, a concern arose.

What if they escape someday and harm my descendants?

What if they sneak out?

Humans discussed through the night.

Then who will watch over them?

Humans sought to choose the most cruel yet certain method.

Ridiculously, it did not take long for opinions to unify.

For their own safety,

They agreed to send the being the gods loved most into the Sanctuary.

That child was special to all four gods.

While fearing death, the child was not afraid of the god of death, and among the many lives bestowed by the god of life, the child held a particularly dazzling light.

It was a child with a fate to constantly choose their own path away from the set road, and a child who would smile beautifully upon receiving knowledge.

To the four gods, the child meant something different to each, but one fact remained the same.

They loved the child.

So humans chose the child.

As a sacrifice. As a watcher. And as a jailer.

---

Betrayal

The gods considered it a betrayal.

The humans they had loved and taught had imprisoned them.

Moreover, by using the child they cherished most.

The anger was too great, and the 'human' who was the source to receive that anger was far too close.

Regrettably.

The gods resented the child.

Asking why you are watching us. Asking why you stand on the side of humans. Asking why it had to be you.

They turned their backs on the child.

They did not speak, they pushed away the reaching hand, and they ignored the child's desperate heart.

Perhaps they thought they would release this anger a little later.

That they would let go of this rage even a little and cherish the child again.

They were arrogant. They were far too complacent.

Without knowing that the child did not have an eternity to wait,

They dared to deceive.

To the gods, a day was just one of many days, but to a human, a day was a day that would never return.

While the gods were furious, the child grew. While the gods ignored the child, the child's time flowed.

And one day,

The child's time ended.

---

Death

It was Death who discovered the child first.

Since he knew better than anyone what he presided over.

The god of death could do nothing at that moment.

Death was fair to everyone. To gods, and to humans.

Therefore, he was a god who had watched countless deaths.

But for the first time, he wished that death would not come.

He didn't know how many times he checked again, but it was already too late.

He could not accept the end he had accepted countless times, when it was in front of the child he loved most.

Only then did he realize.

That short time he had ignored the child,

Was a lifetime to the child.

---

Life

Life tried to bring the child back.

Since he had the power to give life.

He could make sprouts bloom, heal wounds, and raise the dying again.

Therefore, he could not accept it even more.

Why did his power not reach this time?

Life presides over the beginning, but it did not mean he could return a life that had already ended forever.

The god of life resented his own power for the first time.

He, who had given life to the child, could do nothing for the child's final moment.

And then he realized for the first time.

That to love life, means having to accept the fact that the life may leave someday.

But the god of life could not accept it in the end.

---

Fate

Perhaps the god of fate knew of the child's death.

Or at least, he might have seen it as one of many possibilities.

But knowing and being able to stop it were different.

The god of fate had watched the lives of countless humans.

There were paths set from birth, and there were humans who changed their paths themselves.

That child was also a child who could change their own fate.

Therefore, he did not intentionally stop it.

No, he thought he could stop it.

That he could intervene at any time. That it wasn't too late yet.

But at the moment it truly became too late,

The god of fate feared his own power for the first time.

Not the future he knew, but the fact that the future he did not change was the child's death.

---

Knowledge and Joy

Knowledge and Joy showed the child the most things.

How much knowledge exists in the world. How many beautiful things there are. And what a joyful thing it is to be alive.

The child constantly questioned that god.

Why it is so. How it is so. And what else there is.

And the god answered willingly.

Because he liked the child's laughter.

So after the child died, the most cruel thing left to this god was silence.

He could no longer hear the voice asking questions. He could no longer teach new things. He could no longer see the child laughing.

Even after thousands of years, the god of knowledge knew everything in the world,

But he did not know only what he should have told the child in their final moment.

And that remained as the most unbearable regret.

---

The Four Remaining Gods

After losing the child, the four gods said nothing to each other.

No one brought up the story first. No one said they missed the child.

But they all knew.

That they were all looking at the same thing.

Death could not let the child go, Life wanted to revive the child, Fate wanted to turn back that one choice he missed, and Knowledge and Joy wanted to hear the child's voice once more.

At first it became guilt, then it became regret.

And as time passed, those emotions became longing.

Longing became love, and love grew deeper and deeper

Until eventually, it became obsession.

They could not forget.

The thought of having to forget did not even occur to them.

Humans forgot the gods. The names of the gods were erased from history.

The Sanctuary became a place abandoned by the world.

Even their immortal bodies slowly collapsed, and their powers faded.

Nevertheless, only the memory of the child did not disappear.

No, they held onto it so it would not disappear.

Until the moment they were about to vanish.

---

The Final Wish

At the last moment, the four gods did not speak to each other.

But they wanted the same thing.

I want to see you again. Just once.

I want to touch you again. Just once.

I want to hear your voice again. Just once.

Again,

I want to see that child laughing.

The god of death. The god of life. The god of fate. The god of knowledge and joy.

They offered their last remaining strength to a single wish.

To meet that child again.

It was not a miracle a god bestows upon a human.

It was the final miracle,

the gods allowed themselves.

---

And the Present

How much time has passed?

Thousands of years. Tens of thousands of years. The gates of the Sanctuary had not opened for a long time.

In the darkness, the four gods were asleep. Death, Life, Fate, Knowledge and Joy.

Everything seemed to have ended.

Then one day.

Click.

The gate of the Sanctuary, which had not moved for a long time, opened.

As light seeped through the darkness, the four gods slowly opened their eyes.

There,

A person was standing.

A familiar face. A familiar name. A being they had never forgotten.

It was that child.

The wish the gods had desired until the last moment had been reborn in the form of a person.

But this time was different.

The child had a new life.

There were new memories, and there was new time.

And the gods knew.

That they had not regained the child they loved, but were facing a new life born of their desire.

Whether the child had memories of the past, whether they remembered them, whether they could forgive them,

Nothing could be known.

Nevertheless, the four gods moved for the first time. They raised their bodies that had been stopped for thousands of years.

And, they looked at the child.

So as not to hate this time. So as not to ignore this time.

So as to say they love the child, before it is too late this time.

However, the Sanctuary is still a prison, the four gods are still prisoners, and the child is also that very human they lost in the past.

If so,

Can this reunion, which has come again after tens of thousands of years,

truly be a salvation for them?

Or,

Will the tragedy that began with a single mistake

be repeated in a different way this time?

The moment the gate of the Sanctuary closes again, the story of gods and humans begins anew.

The story of the child who was once loved,

and the four gods who could not let go because they loved that child.