WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 7: Hidden Master

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I slept soundly for the first time in ages.

The smell of holy oil that had filled the house was gone, and a repair crew was scheduled to fix the window.

Most importantly, the foul stench that had blanketed the entire neighborhood had vanished.

"Ahh..."

I enjoyed the morning calm with a cup of coffee.

Was peace always this precious and valuable?

I finally understood what it meant to give thanks in all things.

Clack clack!

Opening my eyes to see a huge, toothy angel had become part of daily life now.

"What's wrong, Gari? I'm commemorating a rare peaceful morning here."

Clack clack!

Gari went over to the TV cabinet and pointed at the Bible.

Only then did I understand why Gari had been hopping around.

"You want to go to church?"

Clack clack!

"Come to think of it, it is Sunday."

It was eight-thirty in the morning. The nine o'clock first service was already out of the question, but the main service at eleven would be just right.

"Can't we just watch it on YouTube? That still counts as a service, doesn't it?"

Clack clack!

For the first time, Gari clacked as if angry.

That didn't count as a proper service?

It seemed to mean something along those lines.

"All right, all right. We'll go to church. Let me wash up first."

Clack clack!

Washing up took a while.

I washed as usual, but Gari wanted a wash too.

Christians were supposed to cleanse their bodies before worship, but I hadn't known that applied to angels too.

At ten-thirty, the church I had come to for worship after so long was bustling as always.

Gangnam Holy Temple Church, where I had attended since childhood.

More than a hundred thousand worshippers came every week, so its scale was on a completely different level from other churches.

It was one of the five largest churches in Korea, and even finding a seat was work.

Sure enough, the inside was packed with churchgoers, so I had to go all the way up to the second floor and find a suitable corner.

"Pastor Jo Jun-seok is leading today's service."

Unlike usual, Gari was with me today.

A church service attended by an angel. That was a rare experience in its own right.

The people around us immediately reacted.

"Doesn't the air seem especially clean today?"

"Did they give the air purifiers a massive cleaning or something?"

It seemed that Protestant and Catholic churches received some kind of spiritual benefit from Gari's presence.

I had felt it from holy oil and holy water, but if ordinary people could sense this spiritual energy, it had to be incredibly powerful.

Gari was also being affected by it. The change was the halo floating above Gari's head.

It had appeared when Gari swallowed the inverted pentagram necklace.

It was tiny compared to Gari's bear-sized body, but an angel getting its halo back had to be a positive change.

Just as I began wondering what power it held, light started to shine from Gari's halo.

"Huh? All of a sudden?"

The halo had always contained a faint glow, but I hadn't expected light to pour from it like this.

Why was it changing all of a sudden?

"Could it be... because they're reciting the Bible?"

It happened to be time to read a passage from the Bible during the service.

[We will read Mark, chapter 5, verses 25 through 29.]

[And there was a woman who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years.]

"She had endured much under many physicians and spent all she had, yet had gained no benefit and instead grew worse."

[Having heard about Jesus, she came up behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment.]

"For she thought, if I touch even His clothes, I will be saved."

[Let us all read together.]

"At once the source of her bleeding dried up, and she felt in her body that she had been healed of her illness."

The Bible reading ended.

The pastor began interpreting the passage and delivering the sermon.

The trigger that healed the woman was faith.

It was the story of how faith had saved a sick woman.

At that moment, Gari's halo shone, and a soft light wrapped around me.

My tired body grew lively, and minor scratches healed.

It was healing.

Could reading Bible verses be creating effects like spells?

Because of that halo?

I wasn't sure, but the surrounding hymns and prayers were causing some kind of reaction in it.

Then, when I read along with the Bible passage, something happened in response.

Did that mean reading other Bible verses would cause the same reaction? Or would they produce different effects?

[All right, please rise and sing together. Hymn No. 338...]

Everyone rose for the hymn.

I stood up with the people around me, then noticed something strange.

"What is that?"

On the second-floor railing overlooking the first floor, there was a bird.

Caw?

"A crow?"

No, wait.

Why was there a crow in the middle of a church sanctuary?

And it wasn't an ordinary crow. It had three pairs of eyes.

This wasn't a normal crow.

What was it? A crow ghost? An evil spirit? In a church?

Ah, whatever.

"Gari."

Swallow it for now.

Gaaape!

Caw?

Gulp!

* * *

The Mystic Association sorcerers visited Gangnam Holy Temple Church.

Team Leader Kang and Assistant Manager Han were awed by the crowds filling the huge church.

"This is incredible. There must be tens of thousands of people..."

"Even this is a lot less than there used to be at its peak."

Assistant Manager Han looked stunned.

"This is less?"

"It used to be the undisputed number one in Korea. Ever since the successor died like that... Well, we'll talk about that later."

They were about to meet the pastors of Gangnam Holy Temple Church.

The main service was in progress, but pastors did not attend every service.

There were first, second, and third services because the congregation was so enormous.

"Do you think they'll answer honestly? Whatever the case, clergymen turned someone into mush."

"They won't cooperate easily. The Association and Holy Temple Church aren't on good terms, especially because of the collection return issue."

"...Pastor Kim Collection."

The collection used by the legendary exorcist, Pastor Kim.

After Pastor Kim died, some of the collection had been returned to countries around the world, but plenty of pieces remained.

The Mystic Association had demanded their return from Gangnam Holy Temple Church, where Pastor Kim had belonged.

But the response had been that they knew nothing.

That was impossible. Weren't they pretending not to know because they wanted to keep the collection for themselves?

Gangnam Holy Temple Church continued to deny everything, and the conflict had gone on for seventeen years.

"But is it really that impressive? It was just a collection put together by an exorcist, wasn't it?"

Team Leader Kang looked at Assistant Manager Han as though wondering how someone in the field could know so little.

Then again, seventeen years was a long time.

Assistant Manager Han had probably just started kindergarten when Pastor Kim was at the height of his career.

"The National Museum of Korea has a Sainchamsageom on display."

"The warding sword said to contain the strength of a tiger? Isn't that practically a holy relic?"

"Not practically. It is a holy relic. But that one is fake. The real thing is still in Pastor Kim's My Collection, Korean History Series, No. 17."

"...?"

For a moment, Assistant Manager Han couldn't understand what Team Leader Kang had said.

No, more accurately, the mind refused to understand it.

My Collection? Korean History Series? No. 17?

Where was anyone even supposed to start objecting?

"W-wait. Then there were things other than Korean history too?"

Team Leader Kang silently nodded.

"What the hell..."

One person had owned dozens, maybe even hundreds, of holy relics that each ranked as national treasures?

"Pastor Kim owned and used more holy relics than anyone in history. Pastor Kim accomplished incredible things, but there was a reason people knew Pastor Kim as a relic thief."

"Can a pastor get away with that?"

"Apparently, there was a half-spoken agreement. They'd all be returned after Pastor Kim died."

"But they weren't returned..."

Everything stemmed from Pastor Kim's sudden death.

Getting hit by a truck.

Who could have imagined Pastor Kim would go out in such a ridiculous way?

"There are rumors that Pastor Kim's collection included holy relics related to angels. The shroud Christ wore in Turin... Ah, that one was returned. Longinus' Spear, once held by the Nazis... That one was returned too, but they said a fake had been handed back. I even heard Pastor Kim acquired part of God's Chariot."

"God's Chariot? You mean a weapon?"

"Right. How much do you know about Christian mythology, especially angels?"

Assistant Manager Han scratched their head and trailed off.

"My family isn't religious..."

"Well, angelic ranks don't literally refer to a hierarchy, but the angels we commonly know have human forms."

"Yes, artistic depictions show them as winged humans."

"The angels we know have physical, living forms. God gave them those forms so they could communicate with humanity and deliver His word. That applies up to the middle choir."

"Up to the middle choir? Then what about the upper choir?"

After pausing for effect, Team Leader Kang continued quietly.

"The angels of the upper choir do not have human forms. They are not even physical beings. They are spiritual entities, revealing themselves only when carrying out a function."

"A function?"

"As chariots that wield God's power."

《God's Fire》 Seraph.

《God's Sword》 Cherub.

《God's Throne》 Opha.

"When they descend as judges, they descend as beings that wield God's power. Since they are beings that judge, they are beings to dread beyond measure. Those are the angels of the upper choir."

Gulp.

In the world of supernatural abilities, it was common to wield power by borrowing strength from powerful beings.

That was how shamans invoked spirits, and how people contracted with shikigami or familiars.

But God's power.

Beings that represented the power of the god of the world's largest religion.

It was impossible to imagine how powerful they must be.

"Well, it's just a rumor. No matter how legendary a relic thief Pastor Kim was, there was no way Pastor Kim got hold of God's power."

"Right? If that had happened, Pastor Kim wouldn't have died so ridiculously."

"Exactly. Unless God had a plan and took Pastor Kim away."

"Hahaha. What a joke."

Just as the two let out hollow laughs, a group entered the reception room.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Team Leader Kang."

"Pastor Go, it's been a long time."

The person who entered the office was Pastor Go, one of the associate pastors of Gangnam Holy Temple Church.

Missionaries and senior deaconesses followed Pastor Go inside.

They were ordinary church positions, but under Pastor Go, they meant something different.

They were formidable exorcists who hunted great monsters, raised by Pastor Park Tae-jin, a revered elder of Korea's supernatural world.

In short, they were in the same line of work as the Mystic Association's sorcerers.

"I'm surprised you requested a visit so suddenly on a Sunday. As I've said before, our church has no knowledge of the collection left by the late Pastor Kim..."

"No, we're not here about the return issue today."

"You're not here about the return issue?"

"Please take a look at this."

Assistant Manager Han presented the materials they had prepared.

"This is..."

"Feng shui isn't our specialty, but the site itself is being contaminated. The real issue, though, is this."

Team Leader Kang pointed to the corpse that had become a gelatinous mass.

"How horrifying."

"Would you believe this was the body of a mage melted by holy water?"

"Holy water?"

Pastor Go raised an eyebrow.

"That's impossible. Holy water is used for rituals and blessing sacraments."

"Isn't it also used in barriers that drive out evil?"

"It would work to some extent on spiritual entities. If someone with a powerful charism recited verses for banishing evil, they might be able to defeat an evil spirit with holy water alone. But..."

"It wouldn't be nearly as effective on a person."

Items that demonstrated spiritual effects generally had reduced efficacy against physical beings.

That was common knowledge in the supernatural world.

"Take the Sainchamsageom, a sword for repelling great demons. It is highly effective against evil spirits and monsters, but it is a ritual warding sword, so its edge is dull. Against people or creatures, it is worse than a club."

"But aside from the smell of holy water and oil, nothing else was detected at the scene."

"I have never seen holy water that powerful. Even our senior pastor would find it impossible."

"Is it really that extreme?"

"It would be impossible even if holy water were made with hydrochloric acid."

As Pastor Go said, holy water had no power to melt people in the first place.

For something like that to be possible, it would have to be something on an entirely different level.

"Could you think of any exorcists currently active in Korea who might be capable of..."

Pastor Go shook their head.

That was all, and the two had to leave the office.

"No results."

"Yeah. If there were an exorcist that powerful, I thought this would be the place."

Then who could it be?

Since holy water and holy oil had been used, it was almost certainly someone from a Christian background.

They couldn't be an ordinary powerful clergyman, yet Gangnam Holy Temple Church didn't know who it was.

"No, maybe they're hiding someone."

"Pardon?"

"They could be secretly raising a successor. The Pastor Kim incident must still haunt them."

Seventeen years ago, the successor had been assassinated because of the jealousy and envy of several associate pastors. Since then, Holy Temple Church had failed to raise anyone suitable to succeed them.

Senior Pastor Park had regretted choosing a successor too rashly.

"I released familiars throughout the church, but no one noticed them. If they had, there would've been complaints right away."

Team Leader Kang's supernatural ability involved subduing spirits and commanding them.

They were only animal spirits, but as spiritual bodies, few people could see them.

"That means..."

"It doesn't seem like anyone has spiritual sight, or an innate ability comparable to it. A clergyman that capable wouldn't miss the main service, so..."

That was when it happened.

One of the connections to a spirit Team Leader Kang had subdued was severed.

No, more accurately, the familiar's turbulent emotions came through.

Confusion, fear, despair.

The moment Team Leader Kang understood those emotions, the connections to familiars placed throughout Holy Temple Church began cutting out one after another.

"W-what?"

"Team Leader? What's wrong?"

"Damn it! Get every one of them out of there!"

Team Leader Kang hurriedly pulled the familiars out of the church. They had to get clear of it first.

But fewer than half managed to reach the church entrance safely.

More than a dozen familiars had been taken out in that brief moment.

"Don't tell me... it can perceive spiritual bodies?"

It had caught every familiar that hid its physical form completely, not an evil spirit that had revealed itself.

Soon, the familiars poured out of the church all at once.

They had been swallowed by something, then spat out as though expelled.

Not one of them had been harmed, but the message was clear.

"A warning..."

That slippery Pastor Go.

Had Holy Temple Church kept something like that hidden while pretending not to know?

"We're leaving. Holy Temple Church has no intention of cooperating with us."

"Y-yes, Team Leader!"

As Team Leader Kang retrieved the familiars, Kang tried to guess what they had encountered.

Scouting through animal familiars only had real meaning when the user synchronized with their sight.

But it was too late for visual synchronization, so Team Leader Kang had to infer the situation from the fragments of emotion the familiars had felt.

Confusion, fear, terror.

Darkness. Teeth.

"Teeth?"

What on earth had they encountered?

...

...

...

"Hey, no, that's dirty! Gari, go spit them out outside the church!"

Clack clack!

Footnotes:

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