Chapter 86
The fairies that popped out of the circles began to form shapes.
Like smoke rising from the ground, they gradually increased their bodies and created hands and feet, swaying their bodies left and right with their round bodies and short limbs. Then, like a turtle stretching out its neck, they pulled out long necks, and smiled showing their teeth densely packed in mouths like the suckers of a lamprey.
Giggle.
A sound like babies laughing with joy.
An innocent and pure sound, untainted.
But the sight of them happily gnawing on wisdom teeth held in one hand was closer to monsters than babies, no matter how you looked at it.
Tee-hee!
As they gnawed on the wisdom teeth, the tooth fairies' appearance gradually changed.
More limbs sprouted, their bodies grew larger, wings appeared, and pincer-like feet reminiscent of pliers formed.
And only after long tentacles that would serve as legs came out did their transformation end.
Teeee-heeee.
The sound coming from the mouths of the transformed tooth fairies was too chilling to be called a baby's, and too lacking in malice to be called evil. But it was unavoidable that it stimulated human fear, making one's hair stand on end.
The tooth fairies, transformed into bizarre forms that greatly stimulated the uncanny valley, began to surround the altar. They looked like wolves eyeing a sacrifice, or like those preparing for some ritual.
And as if targeting such an appearance, the music flowing from the MP3 player changed.
The grotesque melody suddenly began to leap dynamically and was becoming increasingly scary. Sharp sounds that seemed to make one's heart soar high and timpani sounds that seemed to burst with fear spread in all directions.
The vibration was so enormous that it shook the waterfall of blood pouring towards the floor, bursting blood droplets in all directions, and even made the fortune-teller, who was trying to compose himself, vomit blood.
The terrible dissonance gradually heightened the altar, and the burning flames danced as if maddened by the dissonance, swaying in all directions. The red light of the forest added to this madness, even creating the illusion that some invisible evil being was urging for blood quickly.
And in keeping with this heightening sound, the tooth fairies all began to dance at once.
Spreading out in all directions like a flower blooming around the altar, they stretched out their arms, then shrank back into the shape of a flower bud, resembling the appearance of the sun rippling flames in all directions.
Jinseong quietly watched this scene, and when the tooth fairies were about to spin around her, he took out a piece of meat from his bosom. The very small piece of meat was blue and black as if it had gone bad, and it even emitted a terrible stench, seeming like something that would cause severe illness if eaten.
He floated it in the air and put it into the mouth of the unconscious Ella.
Soon, her face began to contort in pain, and abnormalities began to appear all over her body. Her eyelids swelled, cold sweat ran all over her body, and her complexion gradually turned white as if her blood was being sucked by something.
Moreover, her fingers even trembled as if having a seizure, so it couldn't be seen as a normal situation at all.
Seeing this, the tooth fairies stopped dancing abruptly and all turned their heads at once.
What they saw was the fortune-teller.
The fortune-teller who was continuously dancing the dance necessary for the ritual while swinging a wooden axe in the air.
The fortune-teller, who had been dancing to somehow control the ritual, stopped dancing centered around the altar and muttered a curse as he saw the tooth fairies extending their sucker-like mouths towards him.
"Damn it..."
Along with the curse, the fortune-teller shook his body and spilled all the tarot cards onto the floor.
The spilled tarot cards all showed their backs as if deliberately made that way, and the fortune-teller moved his feet to arrange 10 tarot cards in a specific pattern.
It was the Celtic Cross Spread method commonly used in tarot.
He flipped the 5th card among the cards arranged in the Celtic Cross.
Major Arcana number 10, The Wheel of Fortune.
It was a card depicting a huge wheel floating in the sky.
It was a card meaning circulation, luck, and fate, but...
"It's reversed?"
It was flipped in the reverse direction, which says it's hard to escape, rather than the upright direction that allows one to escape crisis. But the fortune-teller didn't give up and kicked it with his foot, sending it flying towards the tooth fairies, and the card flew towards them creating a small whirlwind.
Giggle!
The tooth fairies laughed as if mocking the whirlwind flying towards them, then all took flight spreading their wings reminiscent of insects. Then they played with the whirlwind as if it were a ride, spinning round and round, and after the whirlwind had completely disappeared, they slightly raised their heads and looked at the fortune-teller as if asking if there was any more.
Before the tooth fairies could rush at him, the fortune-teller flipped the 2nd and 6th cards.
What came out of the 2nd card, which reveals the problem, was Major Arcana number 11, Justice.
It was a card depicting a figure sitting between two pillars with strange relief patterns, wearing only a thin cloth garment. The straight sword was shining silver, and the scales held in the other hand maintained a parallel state as if that was how it should be.
However, the double-edged sword that should be facing the enemy was instead facing the fortune-teller.
"It's reversed again?"
What the reversed Justice was telling was that the current situation was unfavorable to him.
The forest, which should have been the fortune-teller's home ground, had become a space that unilaterally imposed losses on the fortune-teller, and even contained blame that everything had gone wrong due to wrong judgments. Moreover, it was even warning that the sacrifice that should be pure had been defiled and a proper ritual could not proceed.
It was truly the worst.
But there was always a bottom below the bottom.
An even more terrible result came out of the 6th card flipped to gain an opportunity.
A man standing on one leg with his hands behind his back appeared.
The man's smile was faint as if resigned, or as if enlightened. Moreover, the pillar he was leaning against was spreading fresh leaves in all directions, flaunting its freshness, so if you only looked at the picture alone, there would be no reason to be displeased at all.
Except for the fact that the man should be hanging, that is.
"Reversed..."
Major Arcana number 12, The Hanged Man.
Upright meant sacrifice and offering.
But reversed meant meaningless sacrifice and punishment.
The fortune-teller shouted, shedding bloody tears.
"You monster bastard! What have you done!"
The reversed Justice and Hanged Man were saying.
Ella was polluted to the point where she couldn't be used as a sacrifice, and this human sacrifice ritual was now meaningless.
Even if you sacrificed Ella, you wouldn't get anything you wanted.
This place would now become your execution ground, not a space for offering sacrifices.
The divination…
Was telling of the fortune-teller's terrible end.
And Jinseong, as if affirming this ominous divination, turned up the volume of the MP3 player.
"Aren't I helping with your ritual?"
Jinseong smiled.
"That's why I'm playing this music too. Ah, perhaps you don't like classical?"
A work by Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky.
The Rite of Spring.
A piece based on Russian primitive religious rituals.
It was a work created by interpreting the human sacrifice ritual performed for spring and the sun.
Considering that the human sacrifice sorcery ritual performed by the fortune-teller was a ritual offering sacrifices to Crom Cruach, who was in charge of the sun and abundance, wasn't it quite a fitting combination?
But this Rite of Spring also demanded a 'pure maiden'.
When entering Part 2 of The Rite of Spring, The Sacrifice (Le Sacrifice), only the effect of offering a pure maiden as a sacrifice was amplified.
This was not a welcome thing for Jinseong, who didn't want to kill Ella and wanted the fortune-teller to lose control in an uncontrollable ritual.
So he made Ella impure.
"Quis potest facere mundum de immundo?"
What does purity mean?
Does it simply mean not having sexual relations between men and women?
If so, do newborn babies, young children, maidens past marriageable age, and old bachelors who have long passed the age of marriage all have the same value?
Not so.
Even if they've never even held hands with the opposite sex, those who have aged a lot have been worn down in the storms of the world, so they would be less pure.
Even a maiden past marriageable age has been tainted by the world, so it's hard to say she's spotless.
Young children can be said to be less tainted, but human nature constantly accumulates karma.
A newborn baby, untainted and without accumulated karma, was the purest being.
Then what is taint, and what are the storms of life?
What is filth, and what creates stains on people?
Jinseong knew the answer to this.
A life lived dragging a body no different from a corpse.
That terrible pain and decaying body were in themselves unclean and polluted.
Body, soul, mind.
If even one of these was defiled and twisted, it could distort everything!
It was like the principle of a three-legged brazier toppling over when one leg is broken.
It was easy to cause problems in the body.
In the past, people believed that diseases were contracted because of uncleanliness, and the sick were unclean people.
Therefore, people who fell ill could escape from disease through 'purification' by going to temples, washing their bodies clean and praying, and could be reborn with a clean body again, free from uncleanliness.
And this disease was something that deviated from the normal situation.
It included not only bacteria, viruses, and genetic diseases, but also things like fungal or parasitic infections.
Using such things was Jinseong's specialty.
Even without deliberately casting evil energy, he could destroy a person's body in any number of ways.
"The altar needs a sacrifice. You know that, right?"
Jinseong smiled, making eye contact with the fortune-teller.
That appearance looked like a child crushing an ant without any guilt, or like a young man who doesn't know what to do with joy at realizing justice. Or it looked like a murderer enjoying someone dying horribly, or like a torture specialist listening to people's screams with pleasure.
How should we describe that?
How on earth should we define it?
"This, this can't be."
The fortune-teller was at a loss for words at that sight.
At that sight smiling in anticipation of his destruction.
"What on earth is the problem."
"I just wanted to give light to one of my kind, to that child! To the unborn child!"
"I just wanted to let it see the light!"
"That thing with no talent and no potential would accumulate a lot of bad karma as it lives!"
"And it has accumulated! I can smell it! Dozens of humans have died and spilled blood to save that one child!"
"That fragrance is clinging to that child's soul!"
"Growing up harboring resentment from childhood!"
"What's wrong with sacrificing that worthless thing that will live meaninglessly only for youth!"
The fortune-teller screamed amidst the ear-piercing dissonance.
"Human sacrifice? What's wrong with that!"
"A monster like you wouldn't have interfered because human sacrifice is disgusting!"
"Do you covet that sacrifice?! Huh? Do you covet it?!"
"You know well how much can be gained with that worthless thing alone!"
"Is that why you interfered?"
The fortune-teller glared at Jinseong with bloodshot eyes from anger.
"What's your problem anyway?"
"It doesn't seem to have anything to do with you."
"What's the problem with offering that to strengthen your sister too?"
"Do you know or not?"
"Everyone will be happy with that one thing."
"Your sister's enlightenment will develop."
"Her yang energy will be boosted and her physical abilities will improve."
"I'll get closer to becoming a hero."
"The pure child that couldn't be born will gain life."
"That child will bring much better results than that thing which was wrong from the start!"
"For the sake of the child who will gain new life, that worthless thing must die!"
"It can't coexist with us! Since that thing was wrong from the start, it must die cleanly and give its pure body to that child!"
Jinseong didn't show any reaction to the fortune-teller's words.
Instead, he held his breath, erased his presence, and just stood there like an insect attracted by the smell of blood and corpses.
Instead, the tooth fairies slowly moved towards him, and right on cue, Part 2 of The Rite of Spring, The Sacrifice (Le Sacrifice), flowed from the MP3 player.
"Oh my."
"Damn it..."
The fortune-teller sensed the fate that awaited him.
The ritual couldn't be stopped.
The ritual had already progressed as much as it could, and if a sacrifice wasn't offered until the sun rose, it was clear that the ritual would collect a sacrifice from among the 'people participating in the ritual' on its own. And the only one performing the ritual was the fortune-teller.
Jinseong was not a person performing the ritual, but merely a person creating the altar, so he couldn't be taken as a sacrifice.
He couldn't escape either.
Crom Cruach symbolized terror and slaughter, sun and abundance.
Even if he ran away, as long as the sun was up and he was standing on fertile land, the sacrifice needed for the ritual would be collected, and the target would be the fortune-teller, the priest performing the ritual and the only participant.
Moreover, he couldn't attack Jinseong to vent his anger.
Fighting another sorcerer while paying the price of life force and energy in real-time due to the ritual was no different from suicide in itself.
But could he proceed with the ritual?
The sacrifice was polluted and defiled, so it was meaningless to offer it, how could he proceed?
How on earth can he offer a sacrifice and safely complete the ritual?
"Ha..."
The fortune-teller sighed and looked at the tooth fairies surrounding him.
The tooth fairies made bizarre gestures and spun around him in circles, bending their waists, swinging their arms and pincers, and starting to bounce around.
The fortune-teller quietly lowered his head and looked at his own body.
Clothes without a single speck of dirt.
His skin without a single bloodstain despite all that commotion.
The faint scent of lotus flowers instead of the smell of blood and the body odor that should be there.
The fortune-teller.
He.
She.
Saw a terrible vision of Crom Cruach's pattern smiling at him.