Chapter 57: Sacrifice, Flames, Ritual (2)
"-!"
"--!"
They screamed while looking at Jinseong as if they couldn't help but shout something despite being unable to make a sound. Their distorted expressions and flushed faces seemed to show how full of anger they were.
But Jinseong received their anger with laughter.
"Oh my. You're badly hurt. You need to get treatment quickly."
He smiled as if truly pleased with their appearance.
He looked at them with a smiling face, not hiding his joy, showing a bright smile in their pupils. That smile drew a beautifully undistorted line while being so innocent that it seemed childlike, a smile that could only come from feeling satisfaction deep in one's heart.
Jinseong pulled the trigger, rejoicing with all his heart that sacrifices had walked before him.
"-!"
The soundless pillar of fire advanced towards the two. At the terrible sight that looked like a dragon made of fire writhing towards them, Narumi bit her finger and drew some hand seal to create a barrier.
The barrier formed of translucent divine power blocked the pillar of fire like a shield, and the flames that hit the barrier split and flowed to either side with the barrier as the center, like lava splitting and flowing when it meets an obstacle. But instead of losing power and disappearing into the air, the split flames writhed and spread, forming shapes similar to the fire moths that had entered the shrine.
The fire moths spread in all directions like sparks, then merged back into one, forming a shape that looked like a human figure made of fire without legs.
The fire that had taken human form rushed towards the Kishimoto father and daughter like a fire ghost rushing to burn a house, and Yoshiaki, greatly alarmed, formed divine power into an arrow shape and shot it towards it.
"Person of Hwalli Station, you demon of fire. You've become a ghost burning with a fiery heart, so you should rightfully wander the whole world."
But the flames, as if mocking Yoshiaki, changed again into countless fire moths and scattered. Then, when the arrow passed, they merged their bodies again to form a human shape, and again rushed towards Yoshiaki.
Yoshiaki gritted his teeth at this sight and nudged Narumi to signal her. Narumi nodded, then created another barrier with bloodshot eyes while blood streamed from her mouth.
This time, the barrier was in the shape of a dome.
It was a barrier that enveloped Narumi and Yoshiaki.
Seeing this, Jinseong smirked and signaled to the mercenaries, and the mercenaries each took out new weapons from their luggage.
The first thing set up was a gun.
It looked similar to a rifle, but it was heavier and larger, with a bipod attached to the front of the gun.
It was a machine gun, a weapon called a chainsaw or mixer by the mercenaries.
And not just any machine gun, but a monster machine gun capable of firing up to 10,000 rounds per minute thanks to the latest materials and cooling magic.
However, perhaps because it was used by the Self-Defense Forces, it had the disadvantage of high unit cost and lack of durability and reliability, but...
The mercenaries didn't care about such facts.
It wasn’t a perilous battlefield, they just needed to deal with a Shinto priest and a shrine maiden.
They didn't even hope for durability that could withstand magical bombardment or reliability that could operate without problems in crazy weather ranging from -30°C to 50°C.
They just needed it to work well at this moment!
Just like this!
"---!!"
The bullets bursting out with the insane firing rate of 10,000 rounds per minute began to pound on the barrier they were hiding behind, like a shower beating on a roof.
Sparks flew as the bullets exploded upon hitting the barrier, and tracer rounds bounced off, setting fire to the surroundings of the shrine.
"You worship a fox god, but you've accumulated divine power stubbornly like squirrels. Seeing that you have strength left even though your god is unconscious, you're truly greedy creatures."
He looked at Narumi, who was still maintaining the barrier using divine power even while coughing up blood, and at Yoshiaki, who was standing firm with sheer willpower despite his limbs trembling as if he had heard a tiger's roar.
The two were staring with wide eyes as if to say they would never lose to the likes of him, as if they could endure whatever tricks he might pull. One of the mercenaries asked Jinseong with hand signals if something was going wrong, but Jinseong slightly shook his head, completely dismissing the mercenary's concern.
"No problem. They're well-pickled in poison, so time is on our side."
It was as he said.
Narumi's complexion, who was maintaining the barrier, was becoming increasingly pale, and her shrine maiden outfit had turned bright red, perhaps due to the blood flowing from her mouth. Moreover, whether due to blood loss or the poison circulating in her body, Narumi's pupils were trembling uncontrollably, and she even showed signs of going into shock.
Then was Yoshiaki alright?
He was not.
The sorcery Jinseong used utilized the symbolism of the tiger.
Tigers were among the top predators and carried various sorcerous meanings, so they exerted powerful effects against animals and evil spirits.
And among animals, foxes had a perfect predator-prey relationship with tigers.
The Kishimoto father and daughter, who serve a fox god, would now be feeling as if they've been hit with blood vessel poison due to the rejection reaction.
But if it had stopped there, they might have been able to resist.
Yoshiaki, being a smoking enthusiast, seemed to have been unable to resist and smoked a cigar that not only had the tiger symbol engraved on it but was also made with tiger by-products, to the point where he couldn't even properly utilize his divine power.
Moreover, although he wasn't coughing up blood like Narumi, his complexion was becoming increasingly pale, suggesting internal bleeding...
They had no future.
But could there be a miracle?
[ Get back, you scum! ]
An unexpected event occurred in the silence of approaching death.
A huge beast revealed itself as the wall of the main hall burst open.
The beast that jumped out of the main hall resembled a fox. To be precise, it resembled a fox, but perhaps due to divine power, its form was barely recognizable.
It looked like a child had roughly molded clay into the shape of a fox.
"Coming to save your Shinto priest, how admirable."
The fox's body flickered like TV static whenever it touched the smoke on the ground, and although it was making threatening cries, the unstable divine power scattering in all directions suggested that it couldn't even properly control its divine power.
But despite being in such a difficult situation that it could barely maintain its own form, its act of coming forward for its Shinto priests was worthy of praise.
Jinseong sincerely applauded the fox, and at the same time, levitated things from his bosom and threw them at the fox.
The paper flying towards the fox looked like ordinary A4 paper, not special yellow paper.
The paper had a shape drawn on it that looked like a kindergartener had tightly gripped a crayon and drew a tiger and a ghost mixed together, which looked funny but also gave a threatening feeling that made one's hair stand on end when it was looked at carefully.
"This is a paper tiger used in tiger exorcism rituals. Let's see if you can withstand this too."
The paper began to fly towards the fox at high speed. Its appearance as it flew, wrapping around the smoke, looked like a snake with a tiger's head attacking its prey, or like a dragon with a tiger's face charging.
Was it just a feeling?
Or was it due to the sorcery?
The fox felt as if the tiger drawing rushing towards it was opening its mouth wide to bite it.
[ You think I'll fall to such Joseon sorcery! ]
"Indeed."
The fox tried to struggle to protect itself and its Shinto priest and shrine maiden, but Jinseong pulled the trigger of the sawed-off shotgun as if that struggle was laughable.
This time, what came out was not flames but shells.
Rock salt shells burst from the shotgun in Jinseong's hand.
[ Kyaak! ]
The salt carrying impurity that shot out from the short barrel spread in a planar form and lodged evenly in the fox's body, scattering the fox's mind which had been working to block the tiger drawing even as it struggled.
Moreover, while time was being dragged out, the mercenaries had taken out and loaded weapons from the luggage around the main hall.
"--!"
Panzerfaust.
It was an anti-tank rocket.
"-!"
Yoshiaki was shocked.
Narumi closed her eyes as if resigned.
The fox turned its body to take refuge inside the shrine.
"हूँ-"
That was the end.
The end of the battle.
* * *
The sacrifices were gathered.
Narumi fainted, unable to withstand the shaped charge, and Yoshiaki collapsed with severe injuries from the explosion and machine gun barrage.
And the fox that had fled into the shrine seemed to be planning to hold out, but it was unable to withstand the Molotov cocktails and white phosphorus grenades brought in abundance for arson, and was forced to retreat all the way to where its sacred object was.
The sacred object thus revealed was subdued using the overwhelming amount of divine power Rise received from the slime.
It would have been impossible under normal circumstances, but it was possible because it had been weakened by Jinseong's sorcery and dealt critical damage.
Now this shrine was as good as completely occupied by Jinseong and the mercenaries.
As if to commemorate the occupation, a huge structure was erected in the shrine.
It was an altar built with sandalwood.