His voice trembled without restraint, but Sim Seowoo couldn’t properly comprehend the evil spirit’s words. His pupils had already grown hazy and unfocused, so the evil spirit tilted its head instead, wanting to peer more closely into his memories.
The moment Sim Seowoo felt as though he would be pulled into the evil spirit’s large, blood-red pupils—
“I clearly warned this person not to make that kind of face at him.”
A long hand sliced through the mass of black, pushing in without hesitation. It was a hand that had dug and forced its way through a space that writhed like it was packed full of squirming organs.
Sim Seowoo blinked dazedly at the ring-laden hand that had appeared in his field of vision. The large hand had covered the evil spirit’s red pupils, and thanks to that, his consciousness flickered back for a moment — and he was able to identify the hand’s owner almost immediately.
The situation seemed similar to just before, but the feeling was entirely different.
The hand that had forced its way through the yin energy surrounding them like a cage was covered in wounds. Just as they say that skin rots away upon contact with strong yin energy, patches of his skin had turned dark and withered all over. It was painful just to look at, yet Cheon Yijae paid no mind whatsoever, moving his hand to seize the evil spirit and then—
Crunch!
The evil spirit’s pitch-black body disappeared as though devoured beneath Cheon Yijae’s hand. Witnessed up close, the scene was vivid. It was only now that Sim Seowoo could clearly see the ‘mouth’ that sat in his palm.
Sharp teeth were packed in densely, like those of a hellion.
The more the evil spirit was consumed, the darker his skin turned black, yet Cheon Yijae paid it no mind, moving his hand to force the other arm in as well to create an opening. And when, at last, his entire skin had rotted away, his movements slowed as though something had put the brakes on him — but.
“I should have just killed it on sight……”
Chewing on his frustration, Cheon Yijae twisted his hand as if trying to shake himself free from his exasperation, and the rings cracked with a sharp snap!, shattering into pieces. It was as though something had burst outward.
Ssssss——
At the same time, something red burst out from between his fingers. The half-transparent, small entities each possessed only a ‘mouth,’ and having sensed the prey right before them, they grew in size and devoured the evil spirit — crunch! crunch! crunch!
“…….”
This time, Sim Seowoo couldn’t help but be genuinely shocked. Even with his mind in disarray from the evil spirit rummaging through his head, the sight hit him like a blow.
He had been startled by the mouth he’d discovered on Cheon Yijae’s palm just moments before, but what he had just pulled from his hand looked exactly like……
Evil spirits.
The sinister aura that spread around the red entities seemed to confirm his suspicion. He thought, perhaps the thing that had flown toward him the last time he visited HN’s office was one of those evil spirits.
But wasn’t Heun supposed to be an organization that hunts evil spirits? Then how could someone who pulls evil spirits out of his own body be a member — and not just a member, but the successor, no less?
[AAARGH! You bastard!]
The boy evil spirit, torn apart mercilessly by the small evil spirits, finally retreated. Its entire body had become tattered and ragged, and in several places, holes had been blown clean through.
Cheon Yijae seized the opening and quickly grabbed Sim Seowoo, pulling him behind him. No — he had tried to do so, but hesitated the moment he confirmed that Sim Seowoo’s gaze had drifted toward his hand.
“…….”
In that brief instant, Sim Seowoo noticed his grey pupils flickering.
While Cheon Yijae stood frozen, Do Seonhwa and Jin Gwangmin rushed toward the two of them. When the evil spirit had lunged, they too had tried to protect Sim Seowoo, but had been sent flying by the storm-like yin energy and had rolled across the floor. Both of them were a mess.
“Th-the, the noble guest! Are you alright?!”
“Hk— the, the rings, he broke all the rings……”
While Do Seonhwa quickly checked on Sim Seowoo’s condition, Jin Gwangmin was horrified at the sight of the shattered remains of the rings scattered across the floor. They hadn’t simply been taken off and tossed aside — the fact that they had been completely obliterated made his fury all the too vivid.
Cheon Yijae was running his hands wildly through his long black hair with his pitch-black stained hands.
“I should have killed it the moment I saw it……”
The muttered words, heavy with frustration and irritation, drew a loud cackle from the evil spirit.
[Do you still think something like you can kill me? You dare, when this body has received the Hyungok from ‘that person’?]
Before long, the evil spirit’s body had fully recovered. Until just moments ago it had been in agony with ugly holes ripped all over, but it was as though the overflowing yin energy had healed every wound — the creature’s presence surged with renewed arrogance. Furthermore, the evil spirit’s body seemed to have grown at least twice as large compared to what Sim Seowoo had seen in the bathroom mirror.
The evil spirit raised its arms with an air of rapturous joy. The sight of its dozens of arms rising in unison was grotesque.
[Ah, it must be precisely the reason I was chosen — to find that human. Because that person is the very human who was there, on that day!]
Sim Seowoo couldn’t understand the evil spirit’s words. It wasn’t only because the evil spirit had scrambled his mind, making it difficult to think clearly — from the start, it had been hard to make sense of which moment and which place it was referring to.
Just moments ago as well, it had shown surprise while speaking of ‘that day, that place’……
‘Hot! Hot! Hot!’
He couldn’t be certain, but using the fire that the evil spirit had set in the corridor as a clue, he could at least guess that it was pointing to a specific moment. If there was an event that could warrant attaching the word “despair” to Sim Seowoo, then ‘that day’ came to mind immediately.
But precisely because of that, he couldn’t connect the evil spirit to that day. What kind of connection could that evil spirit possibly have to his moment — what was it so excited about?
No, the emotion swirling in those dozens of gleaming pairs of eyes……
[You dare survive that place, and tarnish ‘that person’s’ special day!]
Killing intent?
Whoosh! Soon after, a massive fire erupted like an explosion. The flames that he had been dodging in a game of tag with the spirits just minutes before were now a wild, vicious blaze so large that a match flame would seem laughable by comparison.
The flames rising as though to swallow the entire space made Sim Seowoo’s focus blur.
“Noble guest! This is an illusion!”
“You mustn’t let yourself be swept away! You have to stay focused!”
Do Seonhwa and Jin Gwangmin cried out, their faces drained of color. The exit from the Guiyeok had already vanished once more, and the yin energy was swirling savagely. The power of the Hyungok and the despair ripped from Sim Seowoo’s mind were dominating the space. If he lost consciousness in a situation like this, his mind could end up completely destroyed.
[I will kill you and make that day perfect!]
The evil spirit lunged at Sim Seowoo with savage intent. It moved with the plan to take him out first and then deal with Heun’s lot next — but Cheon Yijae stepped forward, into its path.
His steps, facing the sinister yin energy head-on, were eerily calm.
“I should have ripped its mouth out first.”
The low murmur drew a roaring laugh from the evil spirit, which then ballooned in size. Its inflated, massive body looked as though it could crush a single human to death in one blow.
[A dog tied to Heun thinks it can stand against me, who holds the Hyungok?!]
“The more you keep harping on about the Hyungok, the more it sounds like you’re saying you’re nothing without it.”
Thud. Cheon Yijae cut the evil spirit off mid-sentence and moved his hand. He ran his fingers over his wrist, laden with prayer beads, thread bracelets, and all manner of accessories, and then seized all of the loops at once before—
“And there’s one thing you have wrong……”
Crack! He ripped every single bracelet off in one go.
“I’m not tied down. I was tied willingly.”
At the same time, a red aura began to shimmer around Cheon Yijae like a mirage. Sim Seowoo, his mind hazy, registered Do Seonhwa and Jin Gwangmin screaming at his side, and then noticed Cheon Yijae’s shadow beginning to writhe.
He had assumed the shadow was simply swaying with the flames that filled the space all around — but its form was different. An unsettling sense of dissonance crept in. The red entities that had emerged from Cheon Yijae’s hand earlier had vanished without a trace, but perhaps they had seeped into his shadow, Sim Seowoo thought.
No — more precisely, it was as though they were finding their way back to their true form.
[Can I eat?]
A voice echoed up from the ground. It sounded like a child giggling, or a young man asking in a low murmur, or even, at a glance, an old woman’s startled cry. In response to Cheon Yijae’s nod at the question mingled from dozens of voices—
Whoosh! A massive ‘mouth’ rose from the shadow like a tidal wave of red.
[……Huh?]
The evil spirit let out a stunned gasp upon coming face to face with the enormous mouth — large enough to fill the entire corridor. As it stretched open with a gaping crack, the sharp teeth revealed within packed the throat densely, and the evil spirit was swallowed whole in one bite without even managing to decide it needed to flee.
The dark crimson entity, which had consumed the evil spirit entirely in a single bite, shuddered with what seemed like satisfaction before slowly seeping back into the shadow.
An eerie silence settled like a ruin.
