Chapter 79
[Basarwish-5]
On my way out of the underground chapel, I double-checked Ji-Ah's message. It was likely a code indicating the hideout address of the Satanists and also a code for Ji-Ah's location. I walked resolutely while keeping my gaze fixed on the text on the screen.
First of all, Basar.
What could Basar mean? Basar meant ‘flesh’ in Hebrew. Flesh? No, pondering the meaning of Basar was pointless. I had to think about why Ji-Ah had sent me the word ‘Basar.’
"...Basar Market."
There was no reason for her to make things confusing. Intuitively, it was right to think that she sent the word ‘Basar’ simply because she was at the Basar Market. Then, next was ‘Wish.’
The Basar Market was divided into two buildings: Hope Section and Wish Section. So, where Ji-Ah was located would be the Basar Market Wish Section. Now, I just needed to figure out what ‘-5’ meant.
I went to the Basar Market Wish Section first. Unlike the Hope Section, which had many restaurants, the Wish Section had many academies. On the ground floor, there were training centers and academies for training divine power, and on the first basement floor, there were PC rooms and karaoke rooms, while all floors starting from the second downward were used as a parking lot.
"..."
Then, like a flash of lightning, the meaning came to mind.
The meaning of the ‘-5’ that Ji-Ah sent was the floor number. In other words, ‘-5’ referred to the fifth basement floor. However, there was a problem with that. The Basar Market Wish Section only had four underground floors. The fifth floor didn't exist. At that moment, my racing thoughts came to a sudden stop.
[Let’s go to the fourth basement floor for now.]
At that moment, I heard Legba's voice. I followed Legba's words and took the elevator to the fourth basement floor. Without time to think or ponder, I simply moved instinctively.
The ambiance of the parking lot where I finally arrived was extremely bleak.
[Think of the methods we used to hide the underground chapel. The methods they used won’t be much different from ours.]
I pondered Legba's advice as I frantically ran around the parking lot.
The underground Voodoo Cult chapel was hidden with a somewhat complicated method. You had to go from the surface to the basement, then from the basement back to the surface, and then back down to the basement again. During this process, you also had to unlock three locks. Due to this reason, no one, except for me, my uncle, and Ji-Ah could enter the underground chapel.
However, there was one place that had lax security. It was the passage where worshippers gathered during regular services. The building was structured so that all you had to do was find the hidden door on the bottom floor. Surely, there would also be a passage in the Satanists' hideout that was loosely secured for worshippers to come and go.
"...I found it."
After running around for a while, I found the door. It was coated with white paint and looked like a wall at first glance, but there was an 'X' mark made with a marker on the hinge. It was clearly a sign left by either the Satanists or perhaps Ji-Ah.
Clank.
I just barely managed to find the doorknob, which could not be seen with the naked eye, and pulled hard, but the door refused to open. The keyhole was not visible. Maybe it didn’t even exist at all, or perhaps I was just not able to see it at the moment.
“Bossou.”
I immediately used Bossou's power without hesitation. Power surged through me, accompanied by a hint of anger. It was one of the drawbacks of using Bossou's power—the intensification of emotions. The sound of my heart beating loudly echoed deep in my chest.
Crash!
I tore the entire door apart. With a loud noise, the latch flew off. Beyond the door was pitch-black darkness. Although I was worried about traps, now was not the time to pay attention to such things at the moment. If I got injured, I simply needed to heal myself with a restoration spell.
[You might suffer a lot. You might even faint. Just like what happened a long time ago.]
When Legba mentioned ‘a long time ago,’ he was referring to what happened about six years ago, not long after my father died.
Using a restoration spell on myself would allow me to move my body immediately, but I would have to bear the consequences later. It was no different from tearing off my own flesh to relieve my hunger or sucking my own blood to quench my thirst.
But it didn't matter.
I pushed through the darkness. At first, I couldn't see anything ahead, but as I walked, the outline of the passageway began to appear. My eyes had become accustomed to the darkness.
What appeared at the end of the darkness was another door. This time, there were multiple layers of locks installed on the inside and outside, and they looked very solid. Whoever put them there might as well have written ‘Do Not Enter’ in big red letters.
Bang!
However, with one kick, the door effortlessly collapsed. With the power of Bossou, the rusty chains, and locks were easily broken.
Behind the firmly closed door, there was a staircase. Red lights were installed on the ceiling, making the entire staircase appear blood-red. The lighting was dim enough not to be too dazzling.
"Com-Commander? I heard you were going to school today. How did you come so quickly...?"
As I descended the stairs, someone spoke as if filled with terror. There was almost no light, and their face was partially covered by a robe, so I couldn't see their expression. I could only tell that the person was a man from their voice.
I looked around and scanned my surroundings. The dimly lit underground room was filled with people. However, among all these people, very few were moving. Most of them stood still in the same position, with the same expression, as if they were dead. The smell of pungent chemicals hung in the air.
[Taxidermied humans,] Legba muttered.
It was only then that I realized why the people were motionless. Those people, or rather, those things were all taxidermied humans. They were people stuck at the boundary between life and death.
A sense of nausea washed over me. It felt as if I was regurgitating gastric acid from my empty stomach. My throat felt hot and irritated.
"No, Commander... it’s not the commander. Damn it!"
As I stood there for a moment, the man cursed and rushed toward me. It seemed like he belatedly realized that I was not the commander but rather an intruder. However, if my opponent was a human, there was nothing to fear.
Plop.
I cast a curse of fainting. As the mist from the spell hit him, he fell to the ground and smashed his face onto the floor. A sticky and disgusting sound, like what I had heard in my dream, echoed lightly as I continued forward.
Ji-Ah had to be somewhere around here.
I was certain. It was based on Baron Samedi's prophecy and my intuition.
In this place filled with red and gloomy lighting, I relentlessly searched for Ji-Ah. My footsteps echoed as I stomped the floor. The image of Ji-Ah, who had turned into a monster and chased me in my dream, flashed before my eyes.
Baron Samedi had proclaimed that dream would ‘inevitably happen in the future.’
But this prophecy would be the first prophecy of Baron Samedi's to be proven wrong.
I would make it that way.
***
I was able to find Ji-Ah after about three minutes had passed. Well, it could just as well have been thirty minutes. I had never experienced such long minutes before.
"I-I told you... to not... not come here today!"
"Be quiet."
Ji-Ah's face twisted upon seeing me. She shouted out, almost as if she was shrieking. I ignored her words and used an intermediate restoration spell to heal her injured arm. Who gave her the authority to command the Cult Leader to come and go where she pleased?
For a moment, I felt my strength dropping. But it was just an illusion. At least, it seemed more comforting to think of it as an illusion for the time being.
"Oh! It's been a long time since I've seen Voodoo Magic. I never thought that the Voodoo Cult still existed," spoke the man in front of me.
It seemed like he was the man that had sliced open Ji-Ah's arm. His face was covered with a mask made of human skin, so I couldn't see what expression he was making.
He seemed perfectly relaxed as he stood there wearing a cold, dead smile on not-his-face. It made me feel disgusted.
"The relationship between the Voodoo Cult and Satanists is very deep. If we go back in history—"
"It might get a little hot."
Flash!
I interrupted his idea and used Marinette's power. Careful not to burn her, I burned off the ropes that were tying Ji-Ah’s body to the chair.
"Cult Leader..."
"You know the way out, right? Get out quickly."
Ji-Ah didn’t listen to my commands and showed signs of hesitation.
“I heard that there was the inauguration ceremony today—”
“...Get out.”
“Ah, yes.”
Ji-Ah took a few steps back in surprise. After hesitating for a moment and examining the situation, she finally started running toward the door I had entered.
Since I didn't attend the appointment ceremony, there was no possibility of becoming the Holy Name of Charity.
I had given up on the Holy Name of Charity and came here to save Ji-Ah. But I had no regrets about my choice. Ji-Ah was far more important than the mere Holy Name of Charity. She had become an indispensable person to the Voodoo Cult.
"...Hahaha. Did you think this was your backyard or something?"
Thud, thud, thud, thud.
The man made a gesture, and one of the taxidermied humans that had been standing in the corner like a statue began to move. The taxidermied human extended their hands toward Ji-Ah and charged at her like a maniac. Each step made a soggy sound.
The man chuckled and said, "This is not a place that you can leave whenever you want to. This place is..."
"Ah, huk...!"
Ji-Ah screamed in horror as she saw the approaching taxidermied human. She froze in place, unable to take another step. If she had just continued to run, she would have been able to easily make it out, but it looked like her body had frozen up due to fear.
I drew a spell array.
Intermediate replication spell, Dawn's Blade.
The purple Voodoo magic took the form of a short sword. Despite its grandiose name, Dawn's Blade was actually a ritual knife used to strip animal skin. It was difficult to use in combat, but it was exceptionally effective at piercing leather.
I hurled it toward the taxidermied human that was rushing toward Ji-Ah. I aimed between their eyes.
Shunk!
Since it was a throw powered by Bossou's strength, I didn't consider the possibility of missing. The dagger hit the taxidermied human right between the eyes, and at the same time, its movements paused for a moment.
Ji-Ah didn't miss the opportunity. She forced her shaky legs to move and made her escape.
"Kyak!"
Thunk!
"So-Sorry!"
Ji-Ah, who had stumbled and fallen while running away, apologized to me and quickly ran off again. I wasn't sure what she was apologizing for, but I was relieved that she had successfully escaped.
"...Phew."
Finally, Ji-Ah's figure completely disappeared. A sigh of relief escaped me, but it wasn't time to relax yet.
"Ah..."
The perverted man wearing a human skin mask licked his lips. His voice trembled as if he was in a dilemma.
"Ha, haha... One ingredient managed... to escape. It's fi-fine. There's still one left."
The pervert’s mask had a twisted smile. His words seemed to be directed at me, considering that I was the only one left in the room. He regarded me not as a person but as a raw material for making a taxidermied human.
"You're quite skilled in using Voodoo magic. Ha, hahaha. Hm, the spell you used to attach the skin together is called a restoration spell, huh?”
The taxidermied humans gathered around the pervert, making unpleasant thumping sounds.
Each of the taxidermied humans had a different appearance. Some had arms instead of legs, while others had legs instead of arms. There were some with three heads, and there were heads without bodies. There were even grotesque forms made of multiple bodies stitched together like a freakish jigsaw puzzle.
It was nauseating. It wasn’t just the eerie appearance of the taxidermied humans that made it repulsive. The thought of how many lives they had taken to create those things made me feel sick.
“If I had that spell, attaching the skin would be so much easier. No need for sutures or anything. Just the spell would be enough. The Voodoo Cult could easily make taxidermied humans using spells, but I wonder why they don't make them. Maybe they can't understand this profound world of art. Is that right?"
"..."
I quietly unleashed Voodoo magic. I drew two spell arrays. It didn't take more than a few seconds for the spell arrays to be completed.
"Now that I think about it, why not just remove the eyes and leave only the fingers so that you can use only the restoration spells? Yes, then you would become a restoration spell machine. Restoration spell machine... Oh, it sounds quite good—"
Puff...
Mist emanated from the drawn spell arrays. This time, I used neither a restoration spell nor a replication spell but an enthrallment spell. It was a fusion voodoo spell that combined the curse of nightmares and the curse of fainting. The pervert inhaled the mist and soon began to convulse, losing his balance.
I found it much easier to deal with humans than demonic beasts. When facing a demonic beast, I had to use various techniques and powers from the Loa, but if I fought against humans, I could subdue them with just one spell.
Plop.
Soon, the pervert collapsed. The trembling of his shoulders was a futile attempt to resist the spell. However, it was meaningless resistance. Unless one had innate resistance, escaping from a voodoo spell was impossible.
The taxidermied humans that had gathered around the pervert were just standing there, not moving.
Due to their controller losing consciousness, the taxidermied humans could do nothing but stand still. I turned my steps in the direction Ji-Ah had left.
"...Oh, ah, ha, very, um, my head is spinning, like drugs, voodoo spells really are charming, very, ah, I felt it a long time ago, and I never had the chance to feel it again, it feels so good."
At that moment, a voice came from behind me. The leisure and composure that had permeated from his tone were long gone, but his distinctive mocking tone remained.
The pervert, who was supposed to be struggling in nightmares after losing consciousness, was now grabbing onto his shaky legs and slowly getting up from the floor.
It was an unexpected situation. I had to make rational judgments in this situation, but confusion overwhelmed me.
The spell hadn’t worked.
Even high-ranking executives of the voodoo cult with far superior resistance than ordinary humans would usually fall helplessly before my spells.
However, strangely enough, my spells didn't work on that pervert. Had I drawn the symbols wrong? Or was the power of my spell weakened because I had exhausted my stamina?
It was pointless speculation. What was important was that my spells didn’t work on him.
"The arms and legs can be cut. Just bring me the body, my children," the pervert said, waving his hand. Something so immensely dark that it was impossible to gauge the depth of the darkness was flowing out from his hands. He was drawing a pentagram to command the taxidermied humans.
Thud, thud, thud, thud.
The taxidermied humans that received the commands approached me. Dozens of creepy and ominous footsteps were slowly but surely getting closer to me.
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