“From now on, you need to understand that.”
The wandering possession sorcerer answered Jinseong’s question.
To respond to your inquiry, a procedure must be followed.
Just as in the afterlife of ancient Egypt, where the goddess of justice weighed the sins on a scale, he too must do the same.
Thus, with faces of wailing ghosts, the possession sorcerer pulled out the divine object and aimed it at the living people.
Like the ghosts who screamed to escape from his body, extending their arms in desperation, he pointed at Jinseong with one arm and at Lee Jae-soon, who lay on the floor, with the other. And then…
Gulp.
Translucent fluid surged up from the possession sorcerer’s mouth.
As if the sewage were backing up.
The liquid that spewed forth began to flow chaotically across the ground, and as it lingered on the floor, it began to defy the laws of the world, moving backward.
Flowing not from top to bottom but rising from bottom to top.
It was a movement that seemed to directly reject the rules of existence.
That liquid surged and squirmed as it moved toward the possession sorcerer’s shoulders, slithering like a snake over his back and disappearing.
Bang!
And the liquid that disappeared became an arm.
The arm, shaped just like the possession sorer’s right arm, seemed to revel in its birth, repeatedly closing its fist to grasp at the air, and then, dripping droplets of translucent fluid, it began to move slowly.
The arm moved toward the place where Chaine was.
Swish—
The hand spread wide toward where Chaine was.
The white palm formed a sharp wound as if the wind had brushed by, and from that wound, ectoplasm flowed freely. The dripping ectoplasm gradually turned red, mimicking blood, and before it could fully fall to the ground, it was absorbed back into the arm, leaving no trace behind.
And the wound…
The straight line of the cut began to widen, as if someone were pulling it open with invisible hands, slowly revealing the crimson that had vanished earlier.
Red, one, two.
Like earthworms writhing, the insides of the wound were stirred.
As if it had an electric current, it swayed towards one direction, moving sideways, sideways, sideways.
Spreading sideways, the earthworms danced.
As if they were the capillaries of a person.
Like a renowned painter dabbing red paint to draw the blood vessels in a person’s eye.
Thus, the opened wound gradually transformed to closely resemble a human eye.
The drawn blood vessels made a space in the middle, and a small spot appeared in that emptiness. A tiny reddish dot resembling the speck seen when an egg is cracked, like a flaw in jade, suddenly surged forth and…
Roll.
It became an eyeball.
A red eye.
Using the translucent ectoplasm as the sclera and the blood-mimicking ectoplasm as veins, an eyeball appeared on the palm.
And thus, similar events began to unfold on the other palm of the possession sorcerer.
Swish.
A long wound appeared on the palm as if a fairy hidden in the wind had drawn a knife across human skin, and that wound began to widen gradually. Though it had skin and leather, ectoplasm flowed instead of blood, and this ectoplasm transformed into the color of blood, reabsorbing back into the palm.
Roll.
And likewise, an eyeball popped out.
One eyeball for each palm.
Thus, three eyes appeared on the palm.
Three arms.
Three eyes.
The possession sorcerer gazed round-eyed at each of the people with the newfound eyes on his palm.
The left hand sat on Park Jinseong.
The right hand on Lee Jae-soon.
The hand that protruded from behind marked Chaine.
The eyes, like a Nazar Boncuğu, stared intensely at Chaine. The reflection of Chaine in those eyes showed her fainted state from the previous evening, with her eyelids closed over the overturned eyeball. Moreover, her breathing echoed that of someone who had fainted, and her body appeared completely limp.
Both the eye attached to her head and the newly formed eye on the palm suggested that Chaine was clearly unconscious.
However, one cannot evade the judgment of having lost consciousness.
“There is fragrance, but you’ve mistakenly found yourself in unsuitable soil and are suffering. While it’s unavoidable as a person to harbor sin, you are far from being called evil.”
The possession sorcerer’s first judgment fell upon Chaine.
The grotesquely bulging eye, akin to that of a demon, read Chaine’s information, revealing merely a fragment of the karma she had accumulated throughout her life.
This was due to magic and the divine object, clearly lacking in omnipotence.
How can a person completely understand their own karma, or read their entire life?
At best, one can make comparisons and evaluations, which even a child can do.
Even a foolish beast can accomplish such simple tasks.
Thus, the possession sorcerer dared to evaluate another’s life and speak of their karma.
This was akin to placing an object on one side of a scale and balancing it with a weight on the other.
A comparison of those who pass through a hole and those who cannot, it was.
Therefore, the possession sorcerer declared.
“That girl will not go to hell.”
Chaine is not a sinner.
Hence, he would not collect Chaine.
And the second judgment fell upon Lee Jae-soon.
Covered in insects, the unconscious Jae-soon lay much like Chaine had before.
But the difference is, while Chaine fainted from fear and remained unscathed, Jae-soon had sustained injuries that caused him to pass out.
However, remarkably, his life was not in significant danger.
The insects should have ravaged his flesh, leaving him bleeding profusely, yet Jae-soon was currently not shedding a single drop of blood.
The muscles and blood vessels from the wounds inflicted by the insects had contracted heavily, and the areas where they hadn’t contracted were being corroded and melted by the toxins the insects emitted.
A hemostasis steeped in intense pain.
Roll.
An eyeball turned to gaze upon Jae-soon.
The fierce eye, looking at Jae-soon like a demon, began to wobble side to side as if it had found something it craved, cracking open and tracing a curved line.
The smiling eye drawn on the palm spoke.
That is why you came here.
Scenting the odor of sin, you moved your feet, drawn here to collect the sinner.
“You are a sinner.”
The eye stated.
The sinner is him.
He must be embraced within.
Like a hen nesting over her eggs.
This sinner too must be enfolded within.
Roll.
He looked at the two people.
One was no sinner.
One was a sinner.
So, what about the last one?
The sorcerer who brought down the sinner.
The man who saved the sinless girl.
Is that person truly a sinner, or not?
The eye on the left hand shifted, focusing on Park Jinseong.
Draped in golden masks that shone brilliantly, he observed the man adorned in a carapace looking back at him.
“Hum?”
He looked but…
Something felt off.
The possession sorcerer tilted his head, gazing at Jinseong.
With the eye on his left hand, with the eyes on his head.
And not wanting to miss that, he summoned the eyes from his three creating hands as well.
A total of five eyes gazed at Jinseong.
And then, he sent his gaze out, placing Jinseong’s existence upon the scale, trying to weigh it, but…
“Haha.”
The possession sorcerer looked at the slightly tilted golden mask.
No, he saw the man who was looking at him with a tilted head.
The flames rising in the man’s eyes.
Little fireflies wandering near the flames.
The man.
That man.
“Who are you?”
The possession sorcerer asked with a tone of disbelief, unable to grasp what he was seeing.
“You have been placed on the scale.”
The scale of sin.
Judgment of sins.
The keen gaze of the solemn judge.
Jinseong could indeed be the subject of that judgment.
It was only natural, for he existed and was alive.
Thus, he was a being whom the possession sorcerer could evaluate.
But peculiarly, he was visible yet ungraspable.
It’s known he exists, yet certainty eludes.
Could this be the feeling of a mirage that maintains a certain distance, whether approaching or moving away?
That a mirage always reflects the same shape from the same distance might be true?
For a mirage is both a mirror reflecting the existing and an illusion suggesting existence…
But yet.
Why does that which is clearly real feel like a mirage?
“You possess karma.”
Karma, something that every living thing holds.
The fierce essence of life itself constitutes karma.
But why is it?
Even though there’s karma, it cannot be grasped.
It feels similar to a mirage in that it is merely suggestively known, yet cannot be fully understood.
It can seem ridiculously small, or seem entirely nonexistent.
Why?
If it were only an illusion, this sensation shouldn’t arise.
How can a person’s karma elicit such feelings?
“Are you really a person?”
