The shaking of the room was merely a prelude.
No, it would be more accurate to say it was too embarrassing to even be considered a prelude.
How could a hallucination that merely made the room feel like it was shaking be counted as an attack?
By dispelling the magic, it only revealed that the shaman was intending to strike. How could such a minor event be acknowledged as an attack?
This was nothing more than ‘merely’ that.
“What just occurred was merely a little trick to rattle your minds, so you should strive to keep your hearts calm and maintain your composure.”
A slight gain before launching a proper attack.
The earlier vibrations had that significance as well…
Kugung.
…and it also hinted that an attack was imminent.
Dudududud.
The room began to rumble once more.
It was clearly weaker than the hallucination that resembled an earthquake before.
Yet it was a vibration strong enough to be hard to ignore.
It felt as if a giant being was gripping the room in its claws and trying to rip it apart.
Not fierce, but decidedly violent, and clearly laced with malice and evil intent.
If one were to question how one could distinguish between vibrations when they’re all just vibrations—
It simply felt that way.
“The very air is beginning to change.”
No.
It wasn’t only the vibrations.
The entire room with Jinseong, Rise, and Odilia was the same.
Just moments ago, it had been a bright and cozy space.
Now, it began to exude malice and intent to kill as if to say, “When did that ever happen?”
The warm feeling was gone, replaced by an atmosphere sharp enough to make one’s skin tingle. It became uncomfortable for them to even occupy this space, as the sharp and dangerous parts of the furniture, previously blending in like background elements, came into glaring focus.
Naturally, nerves began to fray as a heightened awareness of sharp objects and potential falling debris grew. All senses seemed to naturally gravitate in that direction, and the tension escalated.
This hot yet eerie sharpness!
Even a predatory beast lurking in the jungle wouldn’t induce such a feeling.
How could this terrifying space now feel as if it were inviting an evil being’s mouth to come in?
“Magic that influences the space itself… this degree must warrant a ritual.”
Jinseong muttered, surveying the increasingly hostile environment.
Nothing felt welcoming, and malice oozed from everywhere.
Unlike before when the flicker of light from outside faintly illuminated the shapes, the room now actively seemed to rob them of sight, draping a heavy darkness throughout. Because of that, they could barely discern anything even a step ahead.
Yet even amid this darkness, senses continued to dart about.
The edges of the desk, the once resplendent lamps that had shone brightly, the sharp points of decorations meant to delight the esteemed guests—all of these parts distinctly asserted their presence even when nothing else was visible. Strangely, they could see these parts clearly despite the surrounding darkness, yet when they focused intensely on them, they seemed to vanish as if the darkness had swallowed them whole, leaving them disoriented as to where they truly were.
It was much like witnessing an assassin popping out of the shadows to show their blade, only to disappear once again.
Thus, it gnawed at their nerves even more.
“Let’s see. It seems to create rules that apply to the space itself…”
The sense of aggression and intent to kill rendered one’s instincts less effective.
Continuously presenting the dangerous materials that popped out, it wore down their mental fortitude and dulled their senses to the crises and threats surrounding them.
In this space, anyone present would find their mental threads on the verge of breaking at the slightest disturbance, as the sense of crisis and caution against danger would lose its edge, failing to react appropriately.
Such a simple yet cunning trick.
This would be more the sort of thing that an assassin or soldiers would typically do—
Perhaps this magician was associated with assassins or soldiers.
No, there might be no connections at all.
After all, all extremes eventually touch.
It was a method simple enough to conjure with a bit of thought.
However, one thing was certain.
The shaman wielding this magic certainly knew how to confront people with magic.
“Deity. Shall I light the fire with divine power?”
“No. Under no circumstances should you light a fire.”
Thus, when Jinseong firmly responded to Rise’s question about lighting a fire, it was a strict command.
They must never light a fire.
“It would be best not to act rashly until we understand the nature of the magic.”
Countless spells raced through Jinseong’s mind.
Spells that acted on space itself, methods to twist those spells, and other spells that could trigger certain actions once they entered the range of influence—
All these thoughts swirled in his head, rising and falling continually.
Jinseong pondered which of the many spells had been used, and how best to respond.
But Jinseong’s contemplation proved futile.
Tch—thud.
With the sound of wet mud hitting the floor, the ‘answer’ revealed itself.
“Ah. So that’s the magic.”
The squelching sound.
Similar to before, yet somehow distinctly different.
It was the sound produced when playing with wet mud freshly drained and saturated with moisture.
The sound of it sticking to one’s hand and then going splat on the ground, before being gathered up again, patted together to form a shape, and lifted again was that very sound.
And that sound was the biggest hint leading to the answer, and at the same time, it was the answer itself.
“This is the pure public justice ritual.”
‘Pure public justice’.
It was unmistakably the very ritual known as ‘the blasphemer execution ritual’.
Jinseong held fast to that certainty.
The pure public justice ritual, contrary to its name, was rather merciless.
It was a ‘human sacrifice ritual’ wherein at least one person must die.
This ritual activated using the blasphemer of the singular god of Abrahamic religions as a material.
Once the ritual began, the blasphemer would accumulate all manner of curses and misfortunes surrounding them.
Just like a saint who bore the sins of the entire world, they would gather all curses and misfortunes of a certain area into their own body.
As time passed, the body of this blasphemer would become akin to a ticking bomb.
Even when it collected enough curses and misfortunes to kill itself, it would continue to gather more without cease, eventually reaching a horrifying magnitude capable of turning an entire village to ruin.
Naturally, the body that harbored such curses and misfortunes was little different from a divine object.
Without protective charms or purification rituals, death would result in the scattering of defilements everywhere; and if the timing were ill-fated, the dead would not find peace but reincarnate as a ghost. Depending on the extent of curses and misfortunes, they could become ghosts that hurt people and cause issues far and wide.
The corpse would become impure, spreading pestilence and attracting ill omens, while the blood that flowed from it would taint the soil and hinder the growth of crops. According to the extent of the curses and misfortunes gathered before death, it could end up making children gravely ill or, at its worst, turn an entire village into a wasteland.
But leaving it be was a problem as well.
As long as the ‘blasphemer’ was alive, and as long as the ritual was ongoing, they would endlessly gather curses and misfortunes, and each day, the horrors would escalate more than the last.
Eventually, it would surely reach an unmanageable level.
Moreover, this ritual relates to the story of dragging forth someone who has cursed and blasphemed God and executing them.
If the blasphemer was not executed, both the place where the blasphemer was, and the community to which they belonged, would suffer.
This was referred to as ‘Adonai’s wrath.’
Thus, the blasphemer must die.
And not just anywhere, but in a place unrelated to the ritual.
Just as in the story of executing the blasphemer, the crowd had to drag him out and stone him to death, the bomb that had become a divine object must likewise be eliminated.
To prevent the land where the ritual was conducted from being tainted, the blasphemer must be dragged beyond its bounds and killed by throwing stones from a distance. That way, the community where the ritual took place would suffer no harm, and having collected all curses and misfortunes around, they would instead return to a pure state.
Yes.
This ‘pure public justice’ is—
A magic for human sacrifice, a ritual of offering.
“But the ancients said that humans are made from mud, so if you shape a person from mud, you can substitute that as a person.”
And now in this hotel, the ritual performed was transforming the blasphemer, an essential material for the ‘pure public justice,’ into a mud doll to execute it.
And what that meant was—
“A mud bomb, huh? How splendid.”
Outside, there lies a bomb made of mud.
