Chapter 165
To start with, Cecilia had changed into a fresh pair of underwear. When Ian asked why she had brought a spare pair, she said it was because rituals sometimes lasted for several days. She had never overseen one that ran longer than a day herself, but since it was part of the procedure, she always carried some.
For the record, the underwear she changed into was black.
Just so you know.
“Here, a sedative. If you take it, your sex drive won’t surge. It may not be completely without effect, but it should help.”
After suppressing the heat of lust, Cecilia handed Ian a transparent pill. Ian took the medicine obediently and tilted his head.
“You even carry something like this.”
“It’s something made for inquisitors. We often end up fighting succubi and incubi. Or, like now, running into demons that amplify sexual desire.”
“Lust demons... you mean succubi and incubi?”
“Right. Those two.”
Gulp.
Cecilia put the pill in her mouth and swallowed it with the holy water. Her throat bobbed once.
“They don’t look pretty or handsome like they do in the media. If anything, they look more like deep-sea fish. Incubi sometimes even have genitals on their heads.”
“……That’s not a description I want to encounter.”
Ian clicked his tongue and tossed the pill into his mouth. Cecilia let out a small laugh.
“For magicians, isn’t the bodily fluid of lust demons pretty good material? I’ve run into magicians a few times while hunting them myself.”
“They were probably all alchemists. It’s an essential ingredient when making drugs like aphrodisiacs and stimulants.”
“……They make that too?”
“Of course they can. Distribution is pretty active too. It’s probably often used when forcibly breeding supernatural creatures or aberrations.”
“Ah, so they don’t use it on people......”
Ian let out a dry laugh at Cecilia’s mutter.
“……If you used it on a person, they’d drop dead from orgasm on the spot. No, more than that. As a clergyman, what kind of thought were you even—”
“Sh-shut up.”
Thwack!
Cecilia smacked Ian in the side and grabbed the doorknob again. Ian clutched his throbbing side with his palm and followed after her.
“…….”
“…….”
In the bedroom where Park Han-sol lay, a deathly silence hung in the air, thick with pale pink smoke. Park Han-sol, who had been convulsing until just before, was now quietly bound to the bed. Her face, which looked as if she were asleep, was utterly peaceful.
For a moment, Cecilia stroked her cheek with a warm expression, then turned back to Ian and nodded.
It meant to resume the ritual. Ian set the summoned grimoire on the table and put the charcoal soaked in holy water into the censer. He lit it with the cross-shaped lighter they had brought from the Catholic church.
Whoosh.
Golden flames burst from the lighter and burned the charcoal. With that alone, sacred smoke billowed out and drove away the stale air that filled the room. The smoke hadn’t vanished completely, but it was enough to thin it out.
“Nngh……!”
After inhaling the smoke from the censer, Park Han-sol’s mouth twitched. Ian watched her for a moment, then put incense powder and incense wood into the censer and closed the lid. A moment later, gray smoke slowly began seeping from the holes in the censer. The heavy smoke spread across the room’s floor and wrapped once around the girl’s entire body.
“Come out, demon.”
Cecilia looked down at the sight coldly and sprinkled holy water in the shape of a cross.
A demon that had endured the pain and hidden deeper within the host’s inner self. A holy relic to drag it out.
Crackle.
Cecilia took the charcoal Ian had handed her, dusted with incense powder. Flames that gave off only warmth and couldn’t even scorch her skin blazed over the charcoal. She brought it to Park Han-sol’s forehead.
The effect was immediate. Park Han-sol’s eyes, which had been still until then, flew open wide, and an indescribable shriek burst from her mouth. Smoke that stirred desire poured in streams from her ears, nose, and tear ducts.
Even wearing clothes imbued with holy rites and after taking a sedative, it was an ability of the demon that was hard to completely ignore.
It worked differently from mind control, simply meddling with hormones, so it was awkward to counter with magic.
It would have been better if the possession had been fully successful or if they had brought the original body. Emotional control functioning as a mystery could have been stripped away with concealment or binding spells from the Book of Contracts.
But right now it was still a mystery, just one whose effect was closer to an aphrodisiac. Since he hadn’t learned any magic for controlling hormones, he had no choice but to rely on sedatives.
Still, it was manageable, so it wasn’t a big deal. Ian took a sip of water with an expressionless face, picked up the grimoire again, and quietly turned the cover open.
“Phew......”
By contrast, Cecilia seemed to be having a bit of a hard time; with a flushed face, she wiped the cold sweat from her forehead. But she didn’t stop the ritual.
She looked down at Park Han-sol with a sharply cold expression and brought out a veil personally woven by the clergy of the Vatican. Then she gently covered Park Han-sol’s face with it.
“The heavenly veil conceals the child of man, and the devil’s child loses its way and wanders.”
“……Hah, you slave of God. Filth of faith. A child screaming in hell for salvation that will never come. Why do you stand against me? Has the Lord promised you rest?”
From the split, bleeding lips came a voice that sounded as if it were boiling. Cecilia clamped a hand over the demon’s mouth and whispered into its ear.
“Mmph?!”
“Don’t mistake things, demon. Do I still look like an ordinary priest to you?”
Murderous intent shimmered in her violet eyes. Ian even flinched slightly at that gaze, far too cold for a clergyman.
“I need no rest. I need no salvation. I only give thanks that He granted me the power to kill you, the demons that exist in this world. He told me to cut down heretics, so I will do so with all my heart.”
“……Mmph.”
“Rejoice, demon. That you are not here. That only your mind was sent to the surface. That you will not behold the Lord’s blade. So praise God’s mercy.”
Yank.
Cecilia roughly pulled away the hand covering its mouth and brought over the bowl of holy water. The demon broke into a chuckling laugh.
“Ah, yes. Inquisitors. That was the name, wasn’t it? Servants of God who slaughtered countless innocents. Apostates who cried out God’s name while tearing widows, girls, comrades, and children apart alive and burning their flesh for their own pleasure!”
“…….”
“Even if the times have changed, where do you think your nature has gone? Come, do it. In your own way. Cut this girl’s body to pieces, wrap her organs around her neck and strangle her, then burn the corpse. Flames of purification! Isn’t that a word you love? Come on, hurry! A human harboring a demon! A body that might one day become a vicious criminal! Kill her quickly! Quickly! Hurry!”
“I won’t do that.”
“Why?”
“Because a demon’s words are not worth listening to.”
Rattle.
Cecilia pulled out the short iron chain from the bowl. A chain soaked in holy water. Sensing the power of the chain engraved with all kinds of holy rites, the demon burst into laughter.
“Even inquisitors have truly fallen, I see. Since when did you use holy water instead of blood, chains instead of spears? Isn’t your way to kill anything related to the demonic first and ask questions later? Old. Rusted. Stripped of stature. Fallen. Corrupted.”
“Save a demon’s standards for hell. You were sealed by Solomon’s hand, and yet all you have is a mouth.”
“Solomon!”
The demon convulsed. It was reacting sharply to a magician being mentioned in a room where one was already present.
Be that as it may, Cecilia silently looped the chain around its neck. The demon twisted its head toward where Ian was.
“That damned magician mocked us! He crushed the contract. He wielded God’s grace as if it were his own power! An arrogant king! A debauched being! A human lower than livestock, who wielded heavenly power through a contract with us!”
“…….”
“Magician there, answer me! You believe that, born as mere humans, you can wield us however you please, but that is a lie! It is not you using us! It is us using you! Do you think you amount to anything because you stand beneath God’s veil? No! You are merely people who, blessed by Merlin—no, by that beast—lost your place for a time! You must be slaves!”
“The convulsions are severe. An allergy?”
Ian snorted with laughter, ignored the demon’s shouting, and gave the grimoire a little flick.
At that moment, Cecilia yanked the chain tight to secure it completely. The recoil made the veil draped over the demon flutter once. The demon’s grotesquely distorted face was laid bare, and the black grimoire’s cover came into view.
“……?”
Its snake-slit pupils widened. Foam bubbled from its open mouth, and blood flowed from its nose.
It all happened in less than a second. The demon chattered its teeth and began wildly bending its finger joints backward.
“Y-you......! What in the...... mmph?!”
Thwip!
The demon’s voice was muffled by the suddenly tightened chain. Cecilia, astride the girl’s body, held the chain like a leash and stomped on its head with her foot.
“State your name, demon.”
“Aaaagh, h-huaaagh!! Get that thing, that monstrous thing, out of my sight! The being from beyond! That thing, that thing will eventually kill us all! Erase it! Get rid of it! Burn it!”
“State your name, demon. The Lord knows your true name.”
“Being of the cosmos that even Solomon gave up trying to look upon! Why are you here! Why do you obey humans! Why, why, why!”
“Demon!”
Cut off.
Cecilia drove a dagger into the hand gripping the chain, making blood drip down along the chain. The blood that touched Park Han-sol’s body evaporated, releasing a burst of searing heat.
“Aaaagh! You filthy slaves of God! You are not to hunt me! Kill the idol, kill the heretic! Kill the heathen who serves another god! What are you doing! The beast of the cosmos, the monster of the deep, will eventually chew us all up and swallow us whole! Kill it! Kill it!”
“He is my friend. I will not allow insults.”
“Friend? Don’t give me that bullshit and kill it!”
“You should be the one to cut the small talk. And I ask you one last time.”
Cecilia’s eyes rolled white with murderous intent as she pressed even harder on the demon’s head.
“State your name, demon.”
“Haa, hrrk, fine. My name! Yes, I shall reveal my name. Send me back to hell quickly! I don’t even want to breathe the same air as that thing!”
The demon shouted, biting its lip.
“Asmodeus! My name is Asmodeus! The great demon who rules lust!”
Asmodeus. One of Solomon’s 72 demons. A fallen angel who governs lust and desire not as a power, but as a kind of authority. A kindred being like Lucifer.
The moment Cecilia heard the demon’s name, she spat out the name of the angel corresponding to Asmodeus and activated a holy rite with sacred blood.
“Basaria, I beg you as your noble daughter. Please take away the demon that harms us and imprison it in hell once more.”
“Basaria, Basaria! Hurry up and get me out of here!”
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. May their shadows never reach heaven. May their breath never touch the frail lambs. I beg you, most earnestly.”
Cut off.
Asmodeus’s movements stopped. The convulsive trembling also subsided, and the veil covering its face naturally fell aside. The face revealed that way was nothing more than the face of an ordinary girl soaked in cold sweat.
But Cecilia did not stop, and while slowly loosening the chain, she made the sign of the cross.
“In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.”
After reciting the sign of the cross in Latin, she lightly touched Park Han-sol’s forehead with her finger. Then blood began flowing from her ears. As if a dam that had been holding it back had broken, the blood streamed without pause, soaking the pillow.
“Phew......”
Cecilia deftly removed the pillow and placed the silver bowl she had brought in its place.
A little later, the dark red blood, flowing under gravity, died down once it had filled about half the bowl. She wiped the sweat from her forehead, carefully lifted the bowl away, and gave Ian a bright smile.
“Good work. That’s everything.”
“……I don’t really feel like I did much.”
Ian gave a bitter smile and closed the grimoire he had been holding open. At the same time, the faint fishy smell faded, and a faint voice reached Cecilia’s ears as she stepped down from the bed.
[It’s mine. Don’t touch it.]
The voice was so small it was hard to tell whose it was, or even what it had said. Cecilia tilted her head and turned back toward Ian.
“……? Ian, what did you say?”
“No, I didn’t say anything.”
Naturally, Ian couldn’t hear the voice, so he shook his head and put the grimoire away. Cecilia, pretending it was nothing, wiped the fluid that had run down her thigh and scratched her cheek.
“Hmm... really? Then I guess the demon just muttered something as it disappeared. Hoo...! I’m tired.”
[......Bzzz.]
The grimoire held in Ian’s hand vibrated in protest.