An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 193

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 192
Part 4. I Will Carry On Your Will (2)
The hallucination began in the mountains.
Yet the surroundings were not the mountains.
A familiar room.
Where Shin Yoseph and Oh Ju-young would be together.
It was a room in the Retreat Center Building where Kang Hyung-seok had also entered for the exorcism ritual.
Wee-woo, wee-woo, wee-woo.
The siren of an ambulance echoed from far away.
Its distinctive lights cut through the night and streamed through the window, illuminating the darkened room within.
In that room, Father Leo wiped away Oh Kyung-joo’s sweat with his hands.
Tears mixed with saliva fell from his trembling lips—more tears than the sweat Oh Kyung-joo shed as she grew cold and rigid.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Looking down at the unconscious Oh Kyung-joo, Father Leo’s trembling lips released tears and sorrow.
Watching Father Leo, who had done his utmost to perform the exorcism yet was drowning in the greatest guilt imaginable, Kang Hyung-seok pressed his lips together.
The exorcism had succeeded.
The Demon had gone where it needed to go.
“You’re suffering, and I couldn’t ease that suffering for you…. I’m truly sorry.”
Father Leo pulled Oh Kyung-joo into his arms.
Through what the Guardian Spirit showed him, I could understand far more than what was visible to the eye.
‘You did all you could.’
The exorcism had lasted for a week.
During that time, Father Leo had not eaten a single meal or taken a single sip of water in peace.
He had prayed extensively, fought against the Demon that gnawed at the spirit, and done everything a human could do.
Yet the outcome was not good.
Oh Kyung-joo died during the exorcism.
“Uhhh! Uhhhhhhh!”
Father Leo’s lips moved, distorted and wet with tears and sobs.
Though there was no sound, I could understand what he was saying.
You did everything.
You truly did everything.
I did nothing.
Kang Hyung-seok, pressing his lips firmly shut against emotions that surged as if they were his own, shifted his gaze to the space beside Father Leo.
There stood a Victim Spirit.
‘Oh Kyung-joo.’
A woman of similar age to the current Oh Ju-young.
Or rather, she was a young girl a few years younger than that.
She placed her hand on Father Leo’s shoulder beside him, yet he wept on, knowing nothing.
It was disheartening.
Why did Shin Yoseph’s words come to mind?
He said that many cases of possession occurred, and a considerable number of them involved women, the marginalized, or children.
Demons do not target the wicked.
Instead, they prey upon the weak.
And so, situations like this unfolded from time to time.
How many tears must Shin Yoseph have swallowed?
Creak!
The ambulance crew burst through the door, squeezing past Father Leo and Oh Kyung-joo.
They shoved Father Leo against the wall as though he were a criminal, wailing, and checked Oh Kyung-joo’s vitals.
Clatter! Rustle!
A stretcher was brought into the room, and Oh Kyung-joo was placed upon it.
A white sheet covered her face.
Her body was carried away on the stretcher, but her spirit remained here.
Kang Hyung-seok, who had been watching Oh Kyung-joo standing beside Father Leo as he slumped against the wall, murmured silently with his lips.
‘You knew, didn’t you.’
How desperately Father Leo had prayed.
How much the Demon had despised Father Leo as it departed.
And that it would return someday.
‘That is why you did not leave.’
The Demon had not merely worn Oh Kyung-joo like a shell.
Nor had she been taken as a hostage.
She had bound the Demon itself.
Oh Kyung-joo’s remaining on this earth was not born of resentment.
Even in death, it was to protect others.
Not to protect her cousin Oh Ju-young, yet in the end she had done so.
For fifteen long years, she had spent her time alone on this forsaken mountain, guarding others against the Demon that would one day return.
‘What you received from Father Leo, you sought to return to the world.’
Love and compassion.
The values that Christianity emphasizes—she had sought to uphold them.
“…You have endured much.”
I spoke to the spirit that should have ascended to heaven long ago, and Oh Kyung-joo’s gaze turned toward Kang Hyung-seok.
It was surely coincidence, but Kang Hyung-seok was certain it was a miracle. He believed that across time and space, the heart had been conveyed.
“We will handle what comes next.”
So now, please depart in peace.
Do not worry about Oh Ju-young. Simply drift away without burden.
Whoooosh.
As the light faded, the surroundings began to return to their original form.
A startled young man watched him, and the sound of insects and the thick verdure drew near.
“Exhale.”
Kang Hyung-seok breathed out and watched the moon rising higher in the sky.
Then, as though holding a piece of cloth in his hand, he shook the Shaman’s Bell with great vigor.
Warang—!
The Shaman’s Bell rang with a clarity sharper than usual, purifying the spiritual energy that surrounded us.
“I begin the ascension ritual. Heaven, open thy path and receive this soul into thy embrace.”
Kang Hyung-seok spoke the words with a rhythmic cadence like scripture, swaying the hand that held the Shaman’s Bell in a slow, dance-like motion.
“The Ten Kings of Hell escort the departed. Seventy years for mortals is but a fleeting jest, eighty years a passing game.”
The opening sutra for guiding Oh Kyung-joo’s soul flowed from his lips.
***
The stench of sulfur filled the air.
Not the foul reek that emanates from a demon’s breath.
Shin Yoseph stood rigid, his gaze fixed beneath the bed where Oh Ju-young sat.
A crimson light undulated and writhed below.
Whoosh.
Fire—its origin unknown—spread gradually across the floor.
Flicker! Flicker! Flicker!
The light convulsed on and off as if screaming, and with each pulse, Oh Ju-young’s form twisted grotesquely.
The dark silhouette that flickered into view was far larger than Oh Ju-young herself.
And emerald eyes, unobscured even by shadow, gleamed with a hatred so profound it burned.
“Ignatius.”
The Demon wearing Oh Ju-young called to me in a voice thick as tar.
“Thou who deservest to fall into the abyss. Why dost thou linger here?”
Whoooosh!
Like flames climbing a wall, Oh Ju-young’s arm rose and pointed directly at Shin Yoseph.
“I have already prepared thy place.”
Shin Yoseph’s eyes shifted to Oh Ju-young’s palm.
There, like stigmata, holes had been bored through, and pus and blood dripped steadily.
“Thou who shalt never know salvation.”
Whoooosh!
The fire that climbed the wall stretched toward the ceiling.
Heat flooded the room, and the bulb exploded, raining shards of glass like a tempest.
Shielding my head with my arms, I watched Oh Ju-young through the gaps between my fingers.
My mind knows the truth.
‘This is not real. None of it is true.’
Yet it feels so vivid.
Demons are masters of deception—trust not what thou seest.
It was the first teaching I received on the day I resolved to walk the path of an exorcist priest.
But could all of this truly be a lie?
The heat that threatens to scald my lungs with every breath, the blindingly intense flames—they are far too real to deny.
“Yoseph.”
And even the voice of Father Leo calling out to me.
It feels too real to refute.
“Jesus, forgive us our sins, and save us from the fires of hell.”
Even as Shin Yoseph uttered the prayer, the Demon’s voice continued relentlessly.
“You killed me. You killed me. You killed me. You killed me. You killed me. You killed me.”
“Care for the souls in purgatory.”
“You killed me. You killed me. You killed me. You killed me. You killed me. You killed me.”
Shin Yoseph swallowed hard, his throat convulsing visibly.
Then he recited the final verse of the prayer.
“Watch over the most forsaken of souls.”
“You abandoned me!”
It happened in an instant.
Boom!
Shin Yoseph’s body flew upward as if struck by a truck, then crashed against the wall.
Startled, he found himself on the floor, his eyes fixed on Oh Ju-young.
She was no longer on the bed.
“…Lord.”
Oh Ju-young hung suspended in the air.
Her arms spread wide as if crucified, blood and serum pouring from the holes in her palms.
Clang!
A blackened, burning cross fell with a thunderous sound, drawing Shin Yoseph’s gaze.
Was this charred, flaming cross also a phantom conjured by the Demon?
If so, what did it demand?
Shin Yoseph’s mouth hung open as he gasped for breath, his jaw clenched tight.
‘…I understand. What it wants.’
The Demon wanted Shin Yoseph’s defeat.
For him to turn and flee.
The Demon, defeated by Father Leo, now sought to defeat Shin Yoseph, who had learned from him.
Shin Yoseph pushed himself up from the ground with both hands.
“I will not run.”
No matter how the Demon assailed him with terror and obscured reality with lies, Shin Yoseph could not flee from the Demon clinging to Oh Ju-young.
Clink.
Grasping the silver cross hanging around his neck with his right hand, Shin Yoseph raised it toward the Demon and spoke.
“I am already living in hell.”
His voice trembled because the words came from a sincere heart.
The silver chain connected to the cross in his hand vibrated faintly, yet he moved forward slowly.
“Victimae Paschali laudes immolent Christiani—Praises be to the Paschal Victim, O Christians.”
Shin Yoseph had once fled during an exorcism.
Because of that, Father Leo had died, and from that day forward, every moment had been hell for Shin Yoseph.
That is why he had sworn.
“Agnus redemit oves: Christus innocens Patri reconciliavit peccatores—The Lamb has redeemed the sheep; the innocent Christ has reconciled sinners to the Father.”
He could not run away.
Even if it meant walking through hellfire, I would gladly step forward if someone needed my help.
Step, step.
As Shin Yoseph approached Oh Ju-young, sulfurous breath erupted from the Demon’s mouth.
Whoooosh!
The flames surged more violently, as if determined to block his path.
Yet Shin Yoseph advanced toward the Demon, clutching the cross.
“Mors et vita duello conflixere mirando—Death and life have clashed in wondrous combat.”
“Grrrraaagh!”
A bestial cry tore from Oh Ju-young’s lips as Shin Yoseph closed the distance between them.
“Dux vitae mortuus regnat vivus. Dic nobis, Maria, quid vidisti in via—The King of life, once dead, now reigns alive. Tell us, Maria, what did you see upon the road?”
That was when it happened.
Oh Ju-young’s body convulsed violently.
It was as though someone had struck her, or perhaps something was tearing itself away from her—the recoil of a violent separation.
‘What is this…?’
The moment confusion flickered across Shin Yoseph’s face,
“Father.”
An unfamiliar woman’s voice sounded directly beside Shin Yoseph’s ear.
It was the voice of Oh Kyung-joo, who had been freed from the Demon’s grasp by Kang Hyung-seok.
“I can tell you its name.”
The world held its breath.
In that profound silence, Oh Kyung-joo slowly revealed the Demon’s name.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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