I Got an Omnipotent Angel - Chapter 8

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 8: Hidden Master (2)

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There were ghosts in churches too.

I hadn't known that.

They didn't seem to be evil spirits, but they looked strange, like they had an extra eye or an extra tail.

"With this many ghosts around, even animal ghosts go to church."

Gari and I left the church together.

Gari had come to church, attended the service, and looked happy. Seeing that, I really could believe Gari was an angel.

Anyway, I should come to church every week, if only for Gari's sake.

I took the bus and got off at the stop near my house.

As I walked through the neighborhood, there was no foul smell like before.

"Cleaning up the neighborhood really paid off."

I'd beaten up every evil spirit I could find, so nothing was left to assault my nose.

I was a spiritual sanitation worker.

Then I spotted a familiar ghost by a utility pole.

"Hello, Han Gyeoul."

【······.】

It was the poor child ghost who had become an Earthbound Spirit after a traffic accident.

Han Gyeoul still looked scared of Gari, but at least the child wasn't trembling like before.

We must have run into each other enough times for Han Gyeoul to realize Gari wouldn't hurt them.

【H-hello······.】

Now the child even greeted me.

I grinned and pointed at Gari.

"You should say hello to Gari too."

【H-hello······.】

Clack, clack!

"Good kid~"

I still couldn't touch Han Gyeoul's ghost, but we could communicate.

【When··· is Mom coming?】

The child looked up and asked.

That put me in a difficult spot.

Han Gyeoul's story had received a fair amount of coverage on the news.

A drunk driver had gone on a rampage and run over both parents and their child.

The sad story became a topic of discussion because there were no relatives to even hold their funeral.

The government had held a funeral for people without surviving family, and donations had been collected to commemorate the two of them. Even so, Han Gyeoul's ghost still hadn't passed on.

"Your mom is··· um."

What puzzled me was that Han Gyeoul had become a ghost, but I couldn't see the mother anywhere.

If the accident had left behind such deep resentment, shouldn't she have become an Earthbound Spirit too?

【Mom and Dad aren't coming. Where are they?】

I didn't know what to say.

If I said they were somewhere, it would be deceitful. If the child asked me to bring them here, I'd have to lie.

I wasn't sure a child could accept the truth, either.

"Well··· I don't really know."

In the end, I avoided the question.

There was nothing I could do.

"Want me to sprinkle something good around instead?"

【Something good?】

I took out the holy water and holy oil I'd brought with me.

I'd actually packed them to scatter on my way home.

"This area seems to have bad spiritual energy. I've seen a lot of strange ghosts here. If this is around, bad ghosts won't be able to bother you."

I spread both liquids evenly around the area.

The holy water would drive away unclean things, while the holy oil would form a defensive line, a safe zone.

I'd done this in several places on the way home.

The neighborhood had bad spiritual energy, so I had to do something.

At least they wouldn't be able to come near my house now, right?

Once I got home, I immediately started studying Gari's halo.

Gari's halo.

It had reacted when I read Bible verses in church.

"So it reacts when I read Bible verses?"

Clack, clack!

Gari shook their head.

It probably didn't mean no.

The halo had reacted to Bible verses, after all.

Then what else could Bible verses be synonymous with?

"Prayers?"

Clack, clack!

It seemed anything that functioned as a prayer would work.

Should I try something?

"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want."

······.

No reaction?

Did I need to read more?

"He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters."

······

"He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake."

······

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me."

Hm.

What was the difference?

There was no reaction.

I quietly compared the verses from church today with the ones I had just read.

The passage read during service had been from Mark chapter 5.

It was about a sick woman who had the courage to act because she believed that even touching the hem of His garment would heal her.

This time?

Psalm 23.

The Lord is my shepherd.

It was famous. I doubted there was a churchgoer who hadn't read it at least once.

So what did it mean?

I thought I'd heard an explanation when I went to church, but I didn't know. I couldn't remember.

I'd only remembered a famous verse and read it.

I'd always just accepted it without thinking much about it.

Once my thoughts got that far, I thought I understood the difference.

There had been interpretation at church.

There had been a process of studying the Bible, preparing a sermon, and explaining what it meant.

I'd listened and understood it to some extent.

This time was different.

I'd only read the words.

I hadn't understood them.

Was that the difference?

"Um······."

This was difficult.

What would someone like me, who had only half-heartedly gone to church because of my parents, know well enough to understand anything?

"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want."

A shepherd is someone who protects sheep.

In the Bible, sheep are often those who obey, while goats are those who rebel.

As the shepherd's gentle sheep, we receive the shepherd's protection and follow the shepherd's guidance.

"He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters."

For sheep who struggle to find safe places on their own.

The shepherd leads them to an environment where they can rest and survive.

"He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake."

He restores an exhausted and broken heart.

He leads us down the path He sees as right.

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."

There was someone who walked beside me in a world full of threats, so even in hardship, I could overcome fear.

Because He was my shepherd.

No matter what happened, I would not be abandoned.

Was that the feeling?

It was my own interpretation.

I didn't know whether it was right or wrong, but...

Clack, clack!

Gari's halo shone.

"Phew······."

The light felt peaceful.

It was comforting and warm.

It wasn't just my imagination.

Something inside me had clearly changed.

Only then did I understand the meaning of a prayer.

To believe, understand, and speak the prayer aloud.

That was how a miracle worked.

* * *

I'd only ever skimmed through the Bible.

Well, I had gone to church half against my will because of my parents, so it wasn't like I'd been devoted to faith or Bible study.

Still, maybe being raised in the faith wasn't for nothing. The knowledge I'd read in the past didn't seem to have completely evaporated.

"This is interesting."

It was interesting.

The more I understood, and the more I spoke prayers aloud, the more direct the effects became.

The only awkward part was that I had to say it out loud for it to work.

Late that night, I headed outside to buy some kimbap at the convenience store.

【Eek!】

A ghost I'd seen around before spotted Gari and me, then freaked out.

"Oh, hello."

【Eeeeeek!】

If it was going to be that scared, why not run away? Ah, right. It was an Earthbound Spirit, so it couldn't run away.

The first time I saw them, they had been terrifying.

Looking at them now, they were just pathetic.

Without the freedom to move somewhere else, I felt like I'd become an evil spirit too if I had to stay in one place forever.

Maybe old ghosts really did turn into evil spirits.

Thinking about that made me think of Han Gyeoul again.

It made me feel sorry for the little kid, unable to pass on while searching for their parents.

What kind of prayer should I make to help a child pass on?

I was trying to remember an appropriate Bible verse when I arrived at the convenience store.

As I picked out triangle kimbap and a hot bar, I remembered the air had felt stuffy on my way over.

Like tiny grains of sand were drifting through the air.

Was it fine dust?

I bought a KF-94 mask and put it on.

I came out while stuffing microwaved triangle kimbap into my mouth, and I could sense a faint smell nearby.

But hadn't I already cleaned up this area?

It might have been related to the stuffy air.

"Gari, finish eating."

I opened the triangle kimbap and bread I'd bought for Gari, handed them over, and walked toward where my instincts led me.

I felt it more and more.

My sensitive nose and sharp sense of touch seemed to be finding unnatural currents in the air.

So the KF-94 had been useless.

Still, I didn't want to breathe this eerie air directly, so I kept it on.

There.

"Huh?"

There was a shaman's house.

The kind of fortune-teller's place every neighborhood seemed to have at least one of.

I knew this one too.

"It was supposed to be famous for being accurate."

My Christian family had never gone near it, but people around us mentioned it all the time.

There was an old fortune-teller's house in the neighborhood, and the shaman there was supposedly incredible.

They had been a local for fifty years, so they had been doing this for a very long time.

Wolryeong Shrine.

It was a fortune-teller's house with an impressively grand name. Yellow talismans were plastered all over the gate of the old hanok-style house.

A cracked mirror and dried bundles of mugwort hung from the doorframe.

It looked like the sort of place I definitely shouldn't enter, but the smell from inside was strange.

Should I check it out?

Or should I walk past?

I was curious, though. And worried.

Whenever I smelled something strange, it was usually connected to an evil spirit.

Fine, I'd go in first. If things got bad, I'd say I came for a fortune reading.

A Christian getting a fortune reading. Wasn't that idol worship?

Still, I didn't really mean it, so it should be fine.

I lifted my hand to knock heavily on the door.

Then, with a light tap, the door creaked open by itself.

"······."

What?

It had just opened on its own?

The moment I crossed the gate and stepped inside, I felt like I had passed through some kind of boundary. A faint fragrance washed over me.

I thought I'd smelled something like this at a temple in a tourist spot before.

Sandalwood, maybe?

As I tried to identify the smell, a thunderous voice rang through the entire space.

"You fool! How dare you cross the boundary without permission! Get out at once!"

"Huh?"

Startled by the fiery rebuke, I immediately gave a reason.

"I came for a fortune reading!"

It stung as a Christian, but it was better than breaking and entering.

"Where do you get off lying! You tore apart the barrier I set up, and now you try this nonsense, evil spirit...!"

Then, whoosh! A bundle of paper poured out from inside.

They were talismans made of yellow paper, but the talismans were flying through the air by themselves.

"Om abira hum kam svaha... Evil thing, cast off your form. Lose your breath, lose your name, and scatter as ash!"

The talismans floating in the air burned in an instant, then began spewing flames around me.

"Gari!"

Clack!

* * *

Wolryeong Bodhisattva, the shaman of Wolryeong Shrine, unleashed Karma Fire Talismans at the evil spirit that had invaded her home.

"Now··· someone has even forced their way through the barrier I set."

The ghostly energy in the area had been unusual lately.

There were more wandering spirits, and evil spirits had begun to show themselves among them.

She had reported it to the Mystic Association several times, but every time, they only repeated that nothing unusual had been found.

In the end, Wolryeong Bodhisattva decided she could not endure it alone and had shut herself in behind a protective barrier.

Yet someone had torn through that barrier and entered.

This was no ordinary being.

She knew it at once.

To see through concealment magic that ordinary people, and even most practitioners, would have passed by without noticing.

It had to be either a powerful evil spirit or the one behind this scheme!

Once Wolryeong Bodhisattva recognized that it had invaded her own courtyard, she felt an immeasurable spiritual enormity from it.

She immediately took out the Seven-Star Bronze Mirror and aimed it at the yard.

The bronze mirror engraved with the Big Dipper revealed spiritual beings.

And what appeared in the mirror was...

"W-what is this?!"

A truly horrifying spiritual being, so huge it inspired fear.

An eerie aberration that could not possibly belong to this world.

Those bastards hadn't brought in an evil spirit. They'd brought in something monstrous from beyond this world!

Wolryeong Bodhisattva threw every Karma Fire Talisman she had at the ominous being.

The Karma Fire Talismans she had stored away in case a horde of evil spirits invaded engulfed it in flame, and Wolryeong Bodhisattva revealed herself.

"Phew··· I used more than a hundred Karma Fire Talismans. No wicked soul could endure that."

The talismans were made by mixing ash from a lightning-struck jujube tree with sandalwood ash that had been burned for a long time.

No ordinary evil spirit could withstand them...

"T-this can't be···!"

It was unharmed.

The thing was on one knee with its head lowered, remaining in place as though something had swallowed it.

Wolryeong Bodhisattva understood.

Some unseen being had swallowed the man and protected him.

Such swift and precise cooperation with a spiritual being?

No, more importantly, even after so many Karma Fire Talismans had burned, the flames had not even touched him.

Ah!

Wolryeong Bodhisattva threw herself flat on the ground.