The arm was horrific.
The arm in the mirror was delicate and white like Ella’s, but the one that emerged was thick, hairy, and belonged to a man.
Veins bulged grotesquely on the arm, with bruises dotting it, looking as if it belonged to a corpse. Furthermore, the skin appeared to be rotting, pushing away and scraping against Ella’s body each time they made contact, revealing the blood-red skin underneath.
“Gyaaaah!”
The arm embraced Ella and vanished back into the mirror.
Ella, overwhelmed by a visceral disgust and the realization that she was being kidnapped, screamed in panic, but that was all. Like the final gasps of a condemned prisoner, or the last screech of a hunted animal before being taken down, her voice faded away without a trace.
And then.
Pop!
Zii—iiiiing.
As soon as Ella was abducted, light returned as if it had fulfilled its job. The fluorescent lights flickered back to life with a buzz, and every electronic device in the room beeped, announcing that it had regained its life.
But the two who were truly alive stood dumbfounded.
They couldn’t save Ella, who had been taken in the blink of an eye.
All they could do was stare at the window where Ella had vanished.
“R-Rabbit!”
The first to snap back to reality was Iarin.
She dashed toward the window from which Ella had disappeared, her expression one of horror, but the window was just a window.
No matter how much she reached out and tried to touch it, she couldn’t enter.
The darkness outside had turned the window into a mirror, only reflecting Iarin’s panicked face. Eventually, Iarin had no choice but to give up on saving Ella through the window.
Instead, she sprinted toward the door.
“T-This is…”
Even as she opened the door, she couldn’t get out.
A shimmering silver flame blocked her path.
Whenever she reached out, the flame would snake up her hand and restrain her.
If she leaned forward, it would harden into metal, blocking her way.
And when she tried to focus her energy to break free, that which had climbed onto her body transformed into shackles, hindering her mana collection, and even if she managed to gather her energy and strike, the impact merely dispersed everywhere without causing any real damage.
“You fool, Iarin. Look at this.”
But Iarin didn’t give up and attempted to push through the door, while Iserin checked her smartphone and stepped in her way, showing her a message.
“Don’t worry, I will take care of it myself.”
The words on the smartphone were from Jinseong.
Iarin looked at it, hesitated for a moment, and then leaned against the shoe rack.
—
“Hohohoho! We did it! We succeeded!”
“Of course! That’s just our skill! Hehehe.”
While some were engulfed in despair, others couldn’t contain their joy.
The diviner cheered at the sight of Ella, gasping for breath as she was held by a strong grip. The sound of her struggling was music to his ears, and her feeble attempts to break free were the sweetest sensations for them.
However, despite capturing their prey, the blood was significant.
“Ugh, that damn monster did a number on us!”
The diviner tightened his grip, watching as Ella struggled to the point of fainting, and once he confirmed she was out cold, he bound her in vines and tossed her onto the altar. He then gently caressed his reflection in the mirror as if it were his lover.
“Ugh, this hurts like hell.”
The diviner’s reflection was truly dreadful. His skin was red and inflamed like it had been burned, oozing with pus and ichor, and most of his once-proud beard had been roughly torn away. Moreover, his cheeks were dotted with holes the size of fingers, revealing his teeth and gums.
His face was marred with what looked like scratches made by sharp glass shards.
In any ordinary circumstance, a normal person would be screaming and writhing in pain.
But the diviner seemed all too familiar with such wounds as he grabbed items from the desk to treat himself.
He slathered extracted aloe vera all over his inflamed skin and popped dozens of healing pills made from medicinal herbs into his mouth. Then, he stitched up the holes in his cheeks with thread made from cactus.
In the process, perhaps unable to bear the pain, he downed strong alcohol repeatedly, but the diviner completed his first aid without a single groan.
Whether the actions he took had worked, his condition, which needed immediate hospitalization, gradually improved, and his wounds and skin returned to normal. However, the beard lost as a cost of Rumpelstilzchen’s ritual remained unrepaired.
The diviner saw his face, made ugly by the sparse remaining patches of beard. He seemed unable to contain his fury and approached the unconscious Ella, trying to grab a fistful of her hair.
“Stop! You can’t touch her hair!”
But thanks to the diviner’s reflection holding him back, his attempt ended in failure, and instead, he punched Ella in the chest in a rage.
Wham!
The punch looked brutal, but it was calculated enough to not endanger Ella’s life while having enough force to crack a rib or two.
“Good. If I touch her ribs, she won’t be able to run away.”
The diviner, instead of being angry about the abuse of strength he inflicted on her chest, nodded in satisfaction.
This wasn’t out of compassion for Ella, but strictly concern that any damage to the sacrifice would be an issue.
Long hair is considered a treasure in itself.
In most myths, long hair is a standard and symbol of beauty, and sacrificing it is seen as offering the most important elements of womanhood and beauty, hence it’s cherished.
Furthermore, the Coma Berenices constellation, significant in astrology, ties back to this notion.
This constellation’s nickname is Ariadne’s Hair, or Berenice’s Hair.
Queen Berenice II of Egypt sacrificed her hair in the temple of Aphrodite for the safety of Ptolemy III, receiving a promise of the king’s safety in return.
Not just any ordinary person’s safety, but an assurance for the king on a battlefield.
To think of damaging such precious material merely out of frustration was unacceptable.
Moreover, hair signifies beauty.
Beauty, in itself, possesses value.
Indeed, a more beautiful sacrifice holds greater worth than one that is lessened by beauty.
Thus, he let go of her hair but not her ribs.
Breaking a bone posed no real threat to beauty.
After all, surely a little crack in the bone wouldn’t diminish her beauty at all, right?
Instead, due to the pain, she’d be unable to move properly, and with fever and cough, she’d be unable to think of escape, making it rather beneficial!
Unlike giving her medicine, its value wouldn’t decrease, and the concern of her fleeing would evaporate. What a splendid situation!
“Did I hit the chest of that unlucky one wrong when I struck her?”
“Hohoho. What do you take me for! Of course, I aimed carefully at her chest! Despite my anger, why would I strike a poor unborn baby?”
“Tsk, I’ve seen you go hysterical before.”
“Oh my! Have you ever seen me get mad at children? I struck in the opposing position of the teratoma, cracking her ribs, so worry not! Though you act like a macho, you’re quite narrow-minded in this aspect!”
“Tsk, if I’m narrow-minded, then you’re also narrow-minded!”
“Oh my! I’m not narrow-minded; I’m delicate!”
“By the way, I wanted to dress her in white clothes, yet this outfit is white too.”
“It seems whiter than what we prepared. For a ‘witch,’ she wears good clothes!”
“Heh, it’s good that we can start right away without wasting time.”
“Hohoho. Exactly. She’s already wearing white clothes, and it seems she recently washed, too. Smelling her, she’s still a virgin… She’s the very essence of a sacrifice!”
The diviner laughed at the fainted Ella.
“Not that her talent is exceptional either.”
“Indeed, she was born to be a sacrifice, wasn’t she?”
“Hahahahahahaha!”
He chuckled in satisfaction and began the ritual.
From the drawer, he pulled out a wooden dagger and axe and strapped them to his body, then wore a golden mask on his face.
Then, he carefully set a golden cup filled with a transparent liquid that smelled rancid on the altar.
Flap.
He hung a pure white cloth with Crom Cruach’s symbol over the altar, sprinkling an unknown powder onto the torch below.
Boom!
As the powder hit the flame, it erupted as if an explosion had occurred, flames bursting in every direction, yet strangely, the cloth remained untouched.
The diviner, seeing the torch blazing brightly and illuminating the Crom Cruach symbol on the white cloth with vibrant colors, solemnly lifted the cup sitting on the altar. The gold leaf patterns all over the altar glimmered in the torchlight, while the cup, made entirely of gold, shone not at all.
He went beneath the altar and turned the cup upside down.
Slosh.
The liquid from the cup began pouring onto the floor. Despite being contained in a small cup, it poured out endlessly like water from a hose, flooding the area beneath the altar. Once the liquid reached his ankles, the diviner opened a sack lying near the altar and dumped its contents onto the floor.
Thud.
Thud.
What fell was the corpse of a recently dead animal.
Without the slightest hint of rotting, the bodies released a foul stench, and they began bleeding profusely from every hole as they hit the ground, turning the liquid pooling on the floor blood-red.
It was like a bloody pond with the altar standing on it.
Indeed, it looked utterly brutal.
“Great Mag Slecht! Great Mag Slecht! O, mighty being! A place has been prepared for your worship, offering only the fragrant scent of blood and the essence of undying death!”
Clap!
The diviner shouted as he clapped his hands loudly and knelt down.
Then, he lay flat on the bloodied floor, rose again, and stretched out his arms as if worshipping the sun, shouting.
“O great sun! O great lord! Attract and transform the blood that ripples into your great blessing! Let the humble priest, blessed with the wisdom of the oak, be honored! The valiance of Gale the warrior is lesser than the shining sun, and the cruel hands of the barbarian cannot reach your divine grasp, indeed deserving of respect!”
Like a mad priest, the diviner cried out.
“There are worthy offerings for the lord! O sun! O lord! Grant me a fitting reward for my offerings and pave the way for me to rise as a hero!”
And once his frenzied cries ceased, the diviner stood up. His clothes were spotless, not a single drop of blood or speck of dust staining his pure attire.
So unblemished.
As if he were the very offering laid upon the altar.
“…This is.”
The diviner was taken aback as he looked at his own body, unblemished by blood, glimmering like it was emitting light amid the forest.
“What the hell.”
—
“Since we are to conduct a ritual, it should be grand. Isn’t that a virtue?”
There was a lotus flower.
In the budding state, the pale pink lotus floated above the murky water, exuding its beauty while inhaling the damp, foul air of the depths instead of that which is fresh on the surface.
Was it not that a lotus blossoming from mud is known for its beauty?
Should the lotus bloom regardless of the foul and dirty waters, such beauty will not fade, regardless of where it’s grown.
Yes.
The place where the lotus floats is underground.
Even if it blooms not under the sun but through Samādhi True Fire.
Its beauty shall not be diminished.
“If human sacrifice is so great, why not offer your own body?”
The lotus signifies purity and nobility.
The blossoming of the bud into a flower is the manifestation of energy.
And.
Sun energy.
