To get straight to the point, Cecilia changed her underwear. When asked why she had brought spare underwear, she said it was because rituals sometimes lasted several days. She added that while she had never personally presided over a ritual that lasted more than a day, it was still part of the procedure, so she carried them with her.
For reference, the underwear she changed into was black.
Just putting that out there.
“Here, a sedative. If you take it, you won’t have to deal with surging lust. It won’t completely block the effects, but it should help.”
After suppressing her burning desire, Cecilia handed Ian a translucent pill. Ian accepted the medicine obediently, tilting his head.
“So you even carry these around.”
“It’s an item made for Inquisitors. We often fight succubi and incubi, after all. Or we run into demons that amplify lust, like now.”
“Lust demons... Are you talking about succubi and incubi?”
“Yes. Those two.”
Gulp.
Cecilia placed the pill in her mouth and swallowed it with holy water. Her throat bobbed once.
“But they don’t look beautiful and handsome like they do in popular media. If I had to compare them, they look more like deep-sea fish. Some incubi even have genitalia growing from their heads.”
“...That’s not a description I’d want to encounter.”
Ian clicked his tongue and tossed the pill into his mouth. Cecilia let out a small laugh.
“Aren’t fluids from lust demons pretty good materials for mages? I’ve run into mages a few times while hunting succubi.”
“They were probably all alchemists. They’re essential ingredients for making drugs like aphrodisiacs and stimulants.”
“...They make those too?”
“There’s nothing they can’t make. They’re fairly actively traded too. They probably use them a lot when forcibly breeding mystical creatures or monsters.”
“Ah, so they don’t use them on people....”
At Cecilia’s muttering, Ian let out a hollow laugh.
“...If used on a person, they’d drop dead on the spot. No, more importantly, what kind of priest would even think of—”
“Q-quiet.”
Thwack!
Cecilia smacked Ian’s side and grabbed the doorknob again. Ian pressed his palm against his stinging side and followed behind her.
“...”
“...”
A thick silence and pinkish smoke filled the bedroom where Park Hansol lay. Park Hansol, who had been convulsing until moments ago, was now tied quietly to the bed. Her face, which looked as if she were asleep, was impossibly serene.
With a tender expression, Cecilia briefly caressed her cheek, then turned to Ian and nodded.
It meant they would resume the ritual. Ian placed the summoned grimoire on the table and put charcoal soaked in holy water into the incense burner. He lit it with a cross-shaped lighter he had brought from the Catholic Church.
Fwoosh.
Golden flames spewed from the lighter, burning the charcoal. That alone caused sacred smoke to billow out, driving away the turbid energy filling the room. The smoke hadn’t completely dissipated, but it was enough to weaken it.
“Krrrrgh...!”
Park Hansol inhaled the smoke from the incense burner, and the corners of her mouth trembled. Ian stared at her for a moment, then placed incense powder and aromatic wood into the burner and closed the lid. Shortly after, ashen smoke slowly drifted out from the holes in the burner. The densely settling smoke filled the floor of the room and coiled once around the girl’s entire body.
“Come out, demon.”
Cecilia looked down at the sight coldly and sprinkled holy water in the shape of a cross.
The demon had burrowed into the deepest recesses of the host’s ego to escape the pain. A sacred object to drag it out.
Clack.
Cecilia took the charcoal coated in incense powder that Ian had handed her into her hand. Flames that only radiated heat without even being able to burn skin blazed around the charcoal. She brought it to Park Hansol’s forehead.
The effect was immediate. Park Hansol’s eyes, which had been still until now, snapped wide open, and an indescribable shriek burst from her mouth. Smoke that stimulated desire poured in streams from her ears, nose, and tear ducts.
The demon’s ability was difficult to completely ignore, even while wearing clothes imbued with holy rites and having consumed a sedative.
It was an ability that worked differently from mind control, simply manipulating hormones, making it ambiguous to respond to with magic.
It would have been better if the possession had completely succeeded or if it had brought its true body. Emotional manipulation acting as Mystery could have been stripped away with concealment or binding spells in the Contract.
On the other hand, now it was a mystery, sure, but it produced effects closer to an aphrodisiac. Since he had never learned magic to control hormones, he had no choice but to rely on sedatives.
Still, it was bearable, so it didn’t matter much. Ian took a sip of water with a blank expression, picked up the grimoire again, and gently turned the cover.
“Huu....”
Meanwhile, Cecilia seemed to be struggling a bit, wiping the cold sweat from her forehead with a flushed expression. But she didn’t stop the ritual.
She looked down at Park Hansol with an icy, sharp expression and brought out a veil woven by the priests of the Vatican herself. Then she gently placed it over Park Hansol’s face.
“As the heavenly veil covers the child of man, the devil’s spawn loses its way and wanders.”
“...Huu, you slave of God. You filth of faith. Child wailing for salvation that will never come, from the depths of hell. Why do you stand against me? Has the Lord promised you rest?”
A boiling voice flowed from split, bleeding lips. Cecilia grabbed the thing’s jaw with her hand and whispered in its ear.
“Urk?!”
“Do not be mistaken, devil. Do I still look like an ordinary priest to you?”
Unconcealable murderous intent gleamed in her purple eyes. Ian also shuddered slightly at her gaze, which was far too chilling for a priest.
“I do not need rest. I do not need salvation. I am merely grateful for the strength to kill you, to kill the devils that exist in this world. He commanded me to strike down heretics, and so I shall do so with all my heart.”
“...Mph.”
“Rejoice, demon. That you are not here in body. That you have merely sent your spirit to the surface. That you will not witness the Lord’s blade. Therefore, praise Him. Praise God’s mercy.”
Crack.
Cecilia roughly dropped the hand covering its mouth and fetched a bowl of holy water. The demon let out a cackling laugh.
“Aah, yes. Inquisitors. That was the name. Servants of God who murdered countless innocents. Those who scream God’s name, yet were apostates who tore widows, girls, comrades, and children apart alive for their own pleasure, burning their flesh!”
“...”
“Even if times have changed, do you think your nature has gone anywhere? Go on, do it. In your way. Cut this girl’s body to pieces, wrap her organs around her neck and strangle her, then burn the corpse. The flames of purification! Isn’t that your favorite word? Go on, hurry! She is a human possessed by a demon! A body that may become a heinous criminal in the future! Kill her quickly! Quickly! Now!”
“I shall not.”
“Why?”
“Because a demon’s words are not worth heeding.”
Clink.
Cecilia pulled out a short chain contained in the bowl. A chain soaked in holy water. Sensing the aura of the chain engraved with various holy rites, the demon burst into laughter.
“Even the Inquisitors have degenerated. When did you start using holy water instead of blood, chains instead of spears? Isn’t your way to kill everything related to demons first and ask questions later? Rusted. Corroded. Status-less. Fallen. Degenerate.”
“Save your demonic standards for hell. For one sealed by Solomon’s hand, your mouth is the only thing still alive.”
“Solomon!”
The demon convulsed. It was showing a sensitive reaction because the topic of a mage had been brought up in a space where a mage was present.
Regardless, Cecilia silently looped the chain around its neck. The demon twisted its head toward where Ian was.
“That damned mage mocked us! Trampled the contract. Wielded God’s grace as if it were his own power! The most arrogant king! A debauched being! A human below livestock who wielded a heavenly existence through a contract with us!”
“...”
“Mage over there, answer me! You believe that born as mere humans, you can wield us as you please, but that is a lie! You do not use us! We use you! Because you are under the Lord’s veil, do you think you amount to something? No! You have merely lost your place for a moment, receiving Merlin’s—no, that beast’s blessing. You must be slaves!”
“Your convulsions are severe. Is it an allergy?”
Ian snickered, ignoring the thing’s shouts, and flicked the grimoire.
At that moment, Cecilia pulled the chain taut to secure it completely. From the recoil, the veil draped over the demon fluttered once. The heavily distorted face of the demon was fully revealed, and the cover of the black grimoire entered its field of vision.
“...Huh?”
Its snake-like slit pupils expanded greatly. Foam boiled from its gaping mouth, and blood flowed from its nose.
It happened in less than a second. The demon clattered its teeth and bent its finger joints backward like a mad thing.
“Y-you...! What the hell... Urk?!”
Clink!
The demon’s voice was choked off by the suddenly pulled chain. Cecilia, who had climbed atop the girl’s body, gripped the chain like a leash and stomped on its head with her foot.
“State your name, demon.”
“AAAGH, HAAAGH!! Remove that, that hideous thing from my sight! The Existence from the Outside! It, it will eventually kill us all! Erase it! Destroy it! Burn it!”
“State your name, demon. The Lord already knows your true name.”
“O Existence of the cosmos that even Solomon gave up on beholding! Why are you here! Why do you submit to a human! Why, why, why!”
“Demon!”
Squish!
Cecilia plunged a dagger into the hand gripping the chain, causing blood to drip down the chain. The blood that touched Park Hansol’s flesh evaporated, emitting searing heat.
“AAAAGH! Damned slaves of God! You should not be hunting me! Kill the idolaters! Kill the heretics! Kill the pagans who serve other gods! What are you doing! The cosmic beast, the abyssal monster will eventually chew and swallow us all! Kill it! I said kill it!”
“He is my friend. I will not permit insults.”
“Friend? Stop spewing bullshit and kill it!”
“You reduce your chatter. And I ask for the last time.”
Cecilia glared with the whites of her eyes showing and pressed the demon’s head down harder.
“State your name, demon.”
“Haa, huu, very well. Name! Yes, I shall reveal my name. Send me back to hell quickly! I do not even wish to breathe the same air as that thing!”
The demon chewed its lips and screamed.
“Asmodeus! My name is Asmodeus! The Archdemon who governs lust!”
Asmodeus. One of Solomon’s 72 Demons. Not merely an ability, but a fallen angel who dealt with sexual desire and lust as a kind of divine authority. A being akin to Lucifer.
The moment Cecilia heard its name, she spat out the name of the angel corresponding to Asmodeus and activated a holy rite with sacred blood.
“O Basaria, I beseech you as your noble daughter. Please take away the demon that harms us and confine it once more in hell.”
“Basaria, Basaria! Take me and get lost quickly!”
“And lead us not into temptation by devils, but deliver us from evil. May their shadows not reach Heaven. May their breath not touch the frail lambs. I earnestly pray.”
Thud.
Asmodeus’s movements stopped. The convulsive trembling subsided, and the veil covering its face naturally fell to the side. The face thus revealed was merely that of an ordinary girl soaked in cold sweat.
But Cecilia didn’t stop. Slowly loosening the chain, she made the sign of the cross.
“In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
Having recited the sign of the cross in Latin, she tapped Park Hansol’s forehead with her finger. Then blood began to flow in streams from her ears. As if a dam had broken, the ceaselessly flowing blood soaked the pillow completely.
“Huu....”
Cecilia skillfully removed the pillow and placed the silver bowl she had brought in its spot.
Shortly after, the dark red blood flowing by gravity subsided when it had filled the bowl about halfway. She wiped the sweat from her forehead, carefully retrieved the bowl, and broke into a beaming smile toward Ian.
“Good work. This is the end of it all.”
“...Though it doesn’t feel like I did much.”
Ian smiled bitterly and closed the grimoire he had kept open. At the same time, the faint fishy smell abated, and a faint voice reached Cecilia’s ear as she stepped down from the bed.
[It’s mine. Don’t touch it.]
It was such a small voice that it was hard to recognize whose voice it was or exactly what was said. Cecilia tilted her head and turned to Ian.
“...? Ian, did you say something?”
“No, I didn’t say anything.”
Of course, since Ian hadn’t heard the voice, he shook his head and put the grimoire away. Cecilia nonchalantly wiped the bodily fluid that had run down her thigh and scratched her cheek.
“Hmm... Really? Then I suppose it was just the demon muttering as it disappeared. Whew...! I’m tired.”
[...Uuung.]
The grimoire held in Ian’s hand vibrated discontentedly.