In Hataałii Tso’s room, I asked a careful question.
“Elder, what is the First Hataałii?”
“It means the tribe’s great mother, the only medium who can serve the Navajo people’s supreme god, ‘Wakan Tanka,’ the Great Spirit, and a medium who drives out evil.”
“The Great Spirit….”
He pointed a finger toward my lower abdomen.
“A god who is the very source of order, existence, survival, and death. Simply put, to First Nations people like us, this being is the supreme god.”
“The supreme… god.”
My mouth fell open.
‘The supreme god… is inside me?’
At last, it made sense.
The weight of his presence I’d felt the moment he entered my absurdly vast vessel, and his unbelievable spiritual power.
If he was a being of such stature, that explained it all.
I was pleased.
With this….
‘I have enough potential to get revenge on Lee Seo-jin and those Korean bastards.’
Just as the corners of my mouth twitched, the spirit’s voice sounded in my head.
《Ah… was I such a being? I feel as though I vaguely remember something.》
I let out a hollow laugh. The idea that the supreme god could not even remember his own name struck me as ironic.
Hataałii Tso fingered an old pipe and went on.
“Still, I am relieved.”
“About… what?”
“That the Great Spirit has taken up residence in a kind and clever young man like you.”
For an instant, my hand tingled.
Hearing that said about someone who had come to America to make a fortune and dreamed of screwing over South Korea gave me an instinctive pang of conscience.
“I’m… not that good a person. I’m greedy for money, and I have a bit of a twisted side.”
“No, you are. The scent of your soul tells me so. If you were not, the First Hataałii would never have entrusted the Great Spirit to you, and the Great Spirit would never have settled within you.”
“Is that so…?”
Well, I could take the compliment.
“When I say ‘goodness,’ I include your desires, greed, and human troubles. We do not call someone good simply because he is nice. Usually, we call him dull or foolish.”
“…….”
“A medium who handles the Great Spirit must be capable. Knowing how to look after your own interests is a sign of intelligence. That is how you survive in this harsh world.”
“I understand.”
As I nodded, the red-haired girl sitting beside us folded her arms and muttered with a disgruntled look.
“Tch. Why would the Great Spirit choose someone like him…?”
“That is rude, Nana. Mind your words in front of a guest.”
Hataałii Tso tapped the girl on the head with his pipe without hesitation.
“B-but….”
The old man lit his pipe and puffed out smoke. As the acrid smoke filled the tent, the mood grew distinctly serious.
“You came to us to understand the spirit better and draw more of his power, did you not?”
“Yes. He is difficult to control in several ways.”
The old man drew a worn book from inside his clothes.
It had no title, and its leather cover was frayed with age.
“This is a secret manual on using sacred energy, passed down to only a very few First Nations mediums.”
“Grandfather! Why would you give that to an outsider? He isn’t even a hataałii!”
Hataałii Tso did not respond to the girl. His gaze sharpened as he continued.
“In exchange for this book, I have one request.”
“Please tell me.”
“Whatever killed the First Hataałii…. I do not know what it was, but if the opportunity ever comes, I would like you to avenge her.”
“Avenge her?”
“I respected her personally…. I am quite bitter that she has passed. It is a purely personal wish.”
The image of the old woman flashed through my mind: a huge hole in her abdomen, her body being consumed by demonic corruption.
It clearly had not been a simple accident. The marks of a deliberate murder were unmistakable.
Then a voice sounded from my lower abdomen.
《Interesting. Someone did that to the child who served me all her life. I find myself curious.》
Under the circumstances… the answer was simple.
“I understand. It may take some time, though. My abilities are still lacking, and I have many things to do.”
“Ha-ha-ha! If even you are lacking, every second-rate fool in America must be trash or a flea. Excessive modesty does you no good.”
“Then I’ll be going.”
I took the book and was about to rise when Hataałii Tso spoke again.
“Do you know… that your vessel holds two beings?”
“What?”
“I cannot be certain, but I sense two energies in your vessel. Another being is asleep within the Great Spirit’s embrace.”
“…….”
“Powerful and brave, but not a god we served. It seems to have come from your homeland. Am I wrong?”
At that moment, the spirit muttered again.
《There, you see? Did I not keep telling you that something was in the way inside your vessel?》
My mind went blank for a moment.
Could it be… him?
“When… will he wake up?”
“I cannot say. He looks terribly weak. The Great Spirit seems to be looking after him as well, so do not worry too much.”
《Yes, exactly. Feeding that nuisance as well is why I am always hungry. So, human… hunt down souls and offer them to me.》
At Hataałii Tso’s and the spirit’s words, my chest swelled with emotion.
I held back a smile as best I could and nodded.
“Thank you very much, Hataałii Tso. You have been a great help.”
“May blessings… be with you on the road ahead.”
After they exchanged farewells, Do-jun left.
……
……
The girl, who had listened quietly, then confronted the old man in a huff.
“Grandfather! Was it really all right to tell him all that? He’s just an Asian exorcist! Why on earth…?”
Hataałii Tso knocked the ash from his pipe and gazed at the smoke in the air.
His eyes followed its tangled, shifting currents.
“I smell destiny on that man, Nana.”
“Destiny?”
“Yes. The destiny to become greater and more powerful than any First Hataałii—no, than any medium who has ever lived on this continent.”
Intense expectation settled in his eyes.
***
A few days later, inside the secret apartment in Brooklyn.
I steadied my breathing as I watched the cold night view ripple beyond the wall of glass.
‘Let’s put some serious work into this.’
I still had some time before the rabbit-masked man brought me another assignment.
Whenever I could, I sat cross-legged in the living room to meditate or studied the secret manual Hataałii Tso had given me.
‘The Native Americans’ system of magic has some similarities to ours.’
They had a system of opposing affinities much like the basic principles of yin, yang, and the five elements…. Yet they expressed the power of the wilderness and its beasts through their magic.
The image of the harsh land they had lived on had probably shaped their beliefs, which had taken this form over time.
If Eastern magic emphasized precision, theirs was rougher but had extraordinary destructive power.
‘If I learn both, I’ll have a far wider range of tactics.’
I could already picture, in broad strokes, how to train in and master both systems of magic.
My daily routine had become grueling, but a smile kept creeping onto my face.
I looked forward to learning something new, and I was certain it would take me to a new level.
Of course, it would also become a fine tool for revenge.
“Phew.”
I drew a breath and pulled up energy from the earth.
As I circulated spiritual power along the ‘Path of the Spirit’ described in the manual, the spirit jar in my lower abdomen grew hot.
It went beyond merely borrowing power. My soul felt organically joined to the vast ocean that was Wakan Tanka.
It was a process much like circulating qi and regulating the breath.
“Huuup! Huuuuup!”
After a session of magic training, I worked hard at lifting weights.
As with anything, my body had to endure the spirit’s ferocious spiritual power if I wanted to contain it fully.
I trained in all sorts of ways throughout the day, and when night fell, I headed out.
“Let’s see. Today it’s a closed subway station.”
I picked a suitable assignment from the Underworld Board, went straight to the site, and exorcised the evil spirits there.
Besides putting the hataałii magic I had newly learned to use in real combat, this was a kind of ‘offering.’
Blood Rats, Knuckle Mummers, Shadows…. I swept up as many lesser spirits as I could and offered them to the spirit.
《They smell foul, but at least there is plenty to eat today.》
“Eat your fill.”
Only by feeding him like this could Wakan Tanka regain his full strength, and the White Tiger Spirit, who was barely clinging to life within his embrace, open his eyes again.
Serving two gluttons instead of one, I could scarcely keep up with ordinary lesser spirits.
My busy days went on like this, from morning until bedtime without a moment’s rest. Yet I did not find them particularly hard.
For one thing, I was eager to see how well these new powers would work against evil spirits.
【20.83 : BTC】
And there was the number in my personal Bitcoin wallet.
It was worth nearly three billion won, or around two million dollars.
Even though I bought all kinds of cutting-edge equipment and ritual implements from Underworld Shop and ate as much of whatever I wanted at every meal, the number kept rising.
I was filled with satisfaction, both in power and in money.
Beyond that….
‘I might be able to save the White Tiger Spirit.’
That other presence supposedly residing in the spirit jar must be the White Tiger Spirit I had once served.
He was like my only family, the one who had guided me, a wayward brat, onto the right path.
The thought that he might return to life made my heart race.
‘I might really make a complete comeback. No, I might even swallow all of America whole.’
It seemed entirely possible to properly fuck over South Korea, Blue Tile, and Lee Seo-jin, who had driven me out.
……
……
Several more weeks passed. One afternoon, as I smoked my electronic cigarette by the window, my smartphone rang loudly.
Unknown caller. But I had a feeling I knew who it was.
“Hello.”
《It is me. Have you enjoyed your vacation enough?》
The distorted voice belonged to the rabbit-masked man.
“Well, I was starting to get restless.”
《Good. Come to the club. A fairly big job has come in.》
I put on a black coat and left the safe house.
Past the bright neon signs of Williamsburg, I entered the familiar secret base.
The rabbit-masked man sat on a sofa in his office, where hundreds of screens flashed.
“This job is on a different scale. The payment on success is $3,500,000.”
About five billion won.
One assignment would earn me what a fair-sized company made in a year.
And with that, I could reach the amount I was aiming for right now.
If I could collect the money, I could take the next step.
“So what am I exorcising this time? For that kind of money, I’d expect to have to take down some Named Demon.”
“No. That would be easier, if anything.”
The rabbit-masked man turned his tablet toward me.
On the screen sat a large, cute-looking stuffed doll.
“This is your target: Annabelle.”