‘This…’
Jae-eon staggered backward amid the blood-soaked scene. He had only come to return the lost item to An Seo-myeong.
Huff… gasp. Kim Joo-won was laughing while bleeding, and children lay collapsed all around.
The curse stamped darkly on their faces.
Jae-eon’s gaze slowly shifted to Kim Joo-won—or rather, to the possessed spirit within him.
‘There’s something non-human inside.’
At that moment, images of the past battlefield overlapped, pressing down on Jae-eon.
His dark pupils began to shake wildly.
“Ugh…!!”
He felt as if his insides were twisting. An indescribable revulsion rang through every nerve in his body like a dreadful bell. Then the spirit inside Kim Joo-won clicked its jaw and began clapping mockingly. Ha ha ha ha! A rusty metallic laughter.
“That thing… it’s broken, you see.”
“Gasp… gasp…”
Jae-eon’s knees gave way. He collapsed to the floor, covering his mouth with trembling hands. The warrior who had broken through the seal was nothing but a useless remnant. The spirit regarded Jae-eon’s pitiful figure and thought, ‘Weak.’ Truly so. This remnant was several times more pathetic than the other scraps.
Compared to the shell that possessed him, he was garbage.
“It’s broken. You see? Torn… the soul is torn.”
It was even a maggot too foul to eat.
The ragtag soul did little to whet appetite.
The spirit glanced at Jae-eon without interest, then spun its body around with a grin.
“You see. The soul, you see.”
Its voice was excited. It wanted to fight that thing! Impossible! Broken? Broken things should be thrown away. Mocking Kim Joo-won with a sing-song tone, the spirit turned to one of the fallen children. The hand it used to manipulate the child twitched in resistance several times before firmly grabbing the child’s hair. Dragging the unconscious child up to Jae-eon, the spirit’s eyes gleamed as it spoke:
“Hungry, so. I’ll eat more?”
Its mouth, torn wide near the cheekbones, opened monstrously. At that moment, tears or blood—no one could tell—trickled down the distorted corner of Kim Joo-won’s eye.
Then—
The child whose hair was grasped faintly regained consciousness, fluttering their eyelids. Jae-eon recognized immediately who it was.
It was that child.
Their eyes met for a moment.
The weakly shaking head, purple-tinged skin, fear-filled eyes.
The child barely whispered to Jae-eon:
‘Do.’
Their wrinkled lips puckered and relaxed.
‘Wa.’
Finally, a slight movement.
‘Jwo.’
That was precisely a curse directed at Jae-eon… awakening his past self.
Voices overlapped.
The sound of rain from that day gradually grew louder.
The hand that covered the mouth slowly fell.
…Ah, now I think I can answer.
Child, actually—
“I have…”
Never changed once. Never grew tired. Yeah, I think that’s true.
If I could have changed or grown tired… I wouldn’t be this miserable.
In an instant, Jae-eon pushed off the floor and leapt up.
Screech—!!
His white sneakers slid in the blood, leaving a new trail as he ran somewhere. No hesitation at all. Ah… was he abandoned? Well, he had said such cruel things, so it was natural. As the child watched his back with no regrets, their face was painted with despair.
“...!!”
Another screeching scrape, and the child’s gaze shifted.
Like someone meeting incredible hope amid death’s terror.
“Haah… ha.”
Where Jae-eon ran was none other than where An Seo-myeong was.
He moved swiftly with no wasted motion. Clinging close to the startled An Seo-myeong, he quickly grabbed his hand, forming a prayer gesture.
Then he overlapped his own hand.
A large hand gently enveloped the bloodied one.
“Exorcist—!”
An Seo-myeong hurried to shout at the phone dropped on the floor.
But Jae-eon was faster.
“Don’t move.”
Jae-eon was still trembling but more resolute than ever.
“From now on.”
He muttered, brushing off his fear of being held back.
“I’ll borrow you.”
The method to fight without rampaging like before was simple.
He just had to find a vessel to take his place.
The spiritual energy flowing into An Seo-myeong would be cut off the moment the spirit was exorcised. Then the spell would stop naturally and the curse be broken.
Not running away?
The spirit’s head snapped unnaturally side to side.
But after all… wasn’t it just a parasite on a scrap?
Whatever it did, it was typical feeble struggling.
That was what Jae-eon thought.
[You who command the flame of life.]
The mocking spirit’s gaze changed then.
Its reptilian sharp pupils narrowed even more deeply, and it threw away the head it was holding. Instinctively, it crouched. Like an animal facing its natural enemy.
…It was scared.
[You who burn evil and judge wickedness with wings.]
Why was that soul changing…?
It was clearly broken!
But now it looked extremely, extremely dangerous.
[Malice rotting away for failing to become ash.]
This couldn’t continue.
The spirit screamed and charged at the two.
Flames of supreme intensity flared around Jae-eon and An Seo-myeong in a circle.
“Save us.”
The flames quickly spread and wrote a new character on the ground.
[門]
The firmly closed southern gate opened, and red wings soared.
The third guardian of the Four Divine Beasts descended.
The light rising in the annex flashed brightly against the setting sun!
Heavenly punishment for the wicked, blessings for the good.
Like teaching this obvious truth, the red wings fluttered grandly through the rainbow clouds.
“...—...—!!”
The merciless flames burned the spirit away, and the scattering feathers even cleansed the curse marks branded on the children.
It was an incredible destructive power.
“Cough! Hah, cough...!”
“Gag, cough!”
One by one, the children regained consciousness. There stood An Seo-myeong, collapsed but supporting himself, and Jae-eon standing beside him with all his strength drained.
The genius who miraculously reversed a moment of despair.
His talent had wiped away all the previous clumsiness and uncooperative attitude in one stroke.
‘No way…’
The child freed from the spirit’s grasp had tears welling up and thought:
He’s back!
My hero has returned!
Bonryeong shook greatly.
Of course. The news of successfully summoning Zhuque, one of the Four Divine Beasts, was not something to be taken lightly.
The last time a divine beast was summoned was fifty years ago by an exorcist from Haeshin. Even that was only a rumor.
In other words, no living exorcist had ever actually seen a divine beast.
So Jae-eon had done the impossible—singlehandedly!
Right in Bonryeong!
“This is no small matter!”
Honestly, if it weren’t for Cheonjiharang, they would have already held a grand feast with banners shouting ‘Long live Jae-eon’ for a fortnight.
“To have Zhuque’s blessing descend on Bonryeong! Hahaha~ I never thought I’d be so lucky before I die!”
One elder emptied his teacup heartily, delighted. Another nodded.
“…I still feel like I’m dreaming.”
Though the divine beast’s stay was brief, it was flawless and unmistakably Zhuque.
Murmurs arose.
But the joy soon faded as elders exchanged grave looks.
“Cheonjiharang and Haeshin will hear about this.”
“Soon, indeed.”
“Then they’ll surely try to take our Jae-eon.”
Silence fell.
“What Jae-eon?”
“Ahem.”
The elder who said ‘our Jae-eon’ pretended not to hear and looked away. Another elder sitting beside him shouted at the complainer.
“Nonsense! Our Jae-eon is in Seoul, not Incheon!”
“Right! Exactly!” Applause erupted around. The only elder who challenged them just clicked his tongue at the ‘transparent old men,’ but he also coveted Jae-eon.
If Jae-eon promised to stay in Bonryeong, he’d be willing to give up all his wealth—no, not just wealth, even shares of Bonryeong itself.
“But if Cheonjiharang calls, we have to send him…”
“We can’t let him go like this. What is this, an academy? Come and go as you please? We have to hold onto him until we learn more about the Zhuque summoning. Even better if we can keep him here permanently!”
“In that case…”
“Well, since we succeeded in summoning Zhuque here, why not use that as justification?”
“Do they easily accept such things?”
The eldest elder’s eyes glinted again.
“We need justification. A reason for exorcist Jae-eon to remain in Bonryeong!”
“Is there such a thing?!”
“If not, we’ll make it!”
In short, it was: [Protect Jae-eon at all costs].