Chapter 26

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Translator: True Detective

Chapter: 25

Chapter Title: There Was a Separate Purpose

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After recharging on sugar and caffeine with a cup of coffee that wasn't quite enough, I drove to the abandoned building where the coerced priest had reportedly shown up for the second time.

The sun had already begun to set a bit, but the intent was to check this place out before leaving.

"What an uninviting exterior."

"It's a redevelopment zone, so that's probably why..."

True to its status as an abandoned building in a redevelopment area, the exterior was a mess.

All the windows were shattered, and the outer walls were plastered almost wall-to-wall with red spray paint warnings like 'Scheduled for Demolition,' 'No Entry,' and 'Collapse Hazard.'

Amid those warning messages, phrases seemingly scrawled by local residents caught my eye: 'Humans Over Development,' 'Redevelopment Leaves Only Wounds,' 'We'll Live Here to the End.'

Small expressions of residents' discontent squeezed between the red warnings.

This building seemed to hold quite a bit of history.

"Um, Fixer. It looks like rain might start soon..."

"Yeah. Getting caught in the rain at night could mean a cold. Should we buy an umbrella at least?"

"For moving around, a raincoat might be better than an umbrella, Fixer."

At the nun's suggestion, we popped into a nearby convenience store and bought raincoats.

Soon, thick clouds covered the night sky, hiding the moon, and a drizzle began to fall.

The weather was the worst.

"The basement is wider than I thought."

"I heard there used to be a karaoke bar here. It's closed now, but..."

As we descended into the abandoned building's basement, damp, humid air and moldy walls greeted us.

Water pooled on the floor, and half-demolished walls—likely from demolition work—added to the eerie atmosphere.

"The spot where traces of the coerced priest were found is... here."

Deep in the basement, the scene was preserved as is.

On the wall was an inverted pentagram drawn in blood, and in front of it sat a half-burned chair, ashes of a Bible, and a completely melted candle.

And...

"There are dead bugs."

Beneath the pentagram on the wall, bug corpses were piled up.

Not just cockroaches—centipedes, silverfish, and all sorts of household pests were gathered in one spot, forming a revolting heap.

It didn't look like someone had deliberately stacked these dead bugs.

This was a naturally formed scene.

"We didn't see this last time..."

"You mean the bug corpses?"

"Yes... For so many to pile up in just a few days is strange. No one has come here since I and the other priests searched it."

"So, you're saying the bugs crawled here on their own and died?"

"Yes. That's the most likely... Just like those rats we saw at the factory earlier."

The bug corpses looked as if they had climbed over each other, trying to reach the inverted pentagram on the wall.

It was hard to dismiss as just a pile of dead bugs—it felt like a sort of 'tower.'

Had they built a tower among themselves to reach the pentagram?

"This is probably another trap. Suppose you had come here alone and found this. What would you have done?"

"Pardon? Well... If I were alone, I would have knocked down the tower and burned the bug corpses..."

The nun said that if she'd come alone and found the bug corpses, she would have naturally burned them.

That was very likely the trigger for the trap. They'd set it up conspicuously on purpose, waiting.

Just like placing a severed tail amid the tangled rats to unleash malice.

"For now, let's not touch it and look for other clues."

Leaving the bug corpses untouched, we searched the basement further.

But we found no other clues.

There had to be more than this. If there weren't any obvious ones, it meant I needed to take some action.

Did I have to knock down the bug tower?

Or maybe use the 'Worn Journal' item I got from clearing the Cursed Mountain Lodge last time?

"Fixer, did you find anything?"

"No, you?"

"Nothing here either... No matter how much I look, there are no other traces. This is a bust too."

At the nun's request to wrap up the search, I asked for a moment longer to observe the scene.

There had to be something. The bugs were clearly a trap. So, the clue must be in the pentagram.

Maybe something's hidden inside the pentagram?

Thinking that Ancient Text Deciphering might reveal it, I stared at the wall, eyes nearly popping out.

Staring at the pentagram with conviction, I suddenly felt like I could see hidden letters.

It was as if, when drawing the pentagram, something had been written between the lines...

Suddenly, I recalled the warnings on the building's exterior when we entered.

The residents' pleas scribbled between the red spray-paint warnings...

"Huh...?"

Thanks to my excessively high Intelligence and Perception stats, the sentence hidden in the inverted pentagram became readable.

It was a mark and incantation left here by whatever had taken over the coerced priest's body.

My Mental strength plummeted wildly.

Normally, deciphering an inverted pentagram alone would mean death, but my 210 Mental strength barely kept me alive.

And I succeeded in reading the sentence the demon had hidden.

"Fixer? What's wrong? Fixer!"

As I blankly stared at the pentagram, Sister Shin Seo-hyeon waved her hand, sensing something off, to get my attention.

"Ah, I'm fine. It's nothing... I found a sentence hidden in the pentagram."

"Pardon...? There was something written inside that mark?"

"Here, this part. Ah, Sister, don't look. It could cause problems if you read it."

"Ah... Yes. Got it."

Thanks to the Baby Mode Pack, my Mental strength was high enough to withstand the damage and read it, but the Sister's wasn't on my level.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

If she peeked and her mentality collapsed, it would be mission failed.

"But what does it say?"

"It looks like a Latin sentence. Interpreting the meaning, it's something like 'From the darkness, I called him.'"

The characters hidden in the pentagram were [Ex tenebris, vocavi eum.].

Translating to 'From the darkness, I called him'—likely a key phrase in a demon summoning ritual.

"But Fixer... Doesn't it feel a bit off?"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"What does?"

"Well... From the clues so far, the priest was already possessed by an evil entity. Why come here and perform another summoning ritual?"

Indeed, the coerced priest was surely already possessed.

So why come here for another demon summoning? It was odd that, with one already inside, he tried to call something more.

Was the coerced priest not actually possessed by a demon?

Countless questions arose, but it was too late to unravel them all.

The nun, tense all day, didn't look great either.

"Sister, what time is it now?"

"Um... 3 a.m..."

3 a.m.

The Sister looked exhausted, and there seemed no more clues here, so we'd call the search for today.

"Let's head out. Doesn't seem like there's anything more to find inside."

"Yes..."

We'd even uncovered the sentence hidden in the pentagram.

This was truly all the clues to find here.

Now, it was time to piece them together to uncover where the coerced priest might be hiding or his true purpose.

"It's gotten so late. Let's find a place nearby to stay."

"Um... Fixer. Tonight... we're sharing a room... right?"

"'Sharing a room' sounds a bit misleading, but yeah, that seems safest."

No choice—for tonight, we had to stay in the same place.

Too late to head back to the church now; a nearby lodging it was.

Getting separate rooms could mean trouble the moment I looked away.

"Let's find a place to crash."

"Yes... Understood..."

We rode Bongbong to a nearby motel.

Entering a motel at midnight with a nun felt incredibly out of place, but there was no helping it.

And naturally, the Sister and I entered the room with zero romantic vibes or awareness.

"I'll sleep on the floor, Sister. You take the bed."

"I-I can sleep on the floor..."

"No, it's fine. You look tired, Sister. Rest up. I can sleep anywhere."

My body was tough enough to sleep well anywhere.

But the Sister needed proper rest. Better to sleep when she could, with more running around tomorrow.

"Then... I'll wash up first."

"Sure. Grab towels and clothes."

While the Sister showered, I decided to synthesize the clues we'd found so far.

We had three main ones.

First: The tangled rats and severed tail at the factory.

Second: The assault on runaway teens.

Third: The pentagram and hidden sentence in the abandoned building basement.

From the first clue and Father Han Kyung-muk's advice, we'd learned the demon was targeting the Sister to kill her.

And from the pentagram sentence, we'd grasped that whatever possessed the coerced priest was trying to summon more.

What did the coerced priest truly want? Why leave these traces?

'Severed tail and bug tower. And assaults using runaway kids.'

The demon's attacks, unanticipated because of me, and the traces they left.

"Summoning ritual...?"

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Whatever dwelled in the coerced priest's body... or perhaps he was using sacrifices to summon something more evil.

The rat king at the abandoned factory. And the one remaining tail amid the tangled rats.

This signified one entity completed through the sacrifice of many.

And second, the bug tower.

The bugs had sacrificed each other to build a tower reaching the 'inverted pentagram' for summoning.

What if one bug at the top had touched the pentagram?

It would be another ritual creating something via 'mass sacrifice,' like the rat king clue.

Crucially, both were aimed at 'attacking the Sister.'

Using results from mass sacrifices to target her.

Finally, the runaway kids' assault was the same.

"The tangled rats were like mass suicide... And the bug tower was 'sin' of climbing over sacrificed bugs below..."

While riding Bongbong, info from the two runaway kids surfaced.

A few days ago, a mysterious man—presumed to be the coerced priest—had posted jobs on the runaways.

If he'd thrown money at multiple jobs to multiple kids?

Not just one kid took the job.

Besides the two we caught today... many more kids had likely partaken in the sin.

A group conspiring to kill something.

Murder for money is a grave crime and sin.

If the coerced priest used this to complete his ritual?

Maybe I'd misinterpreted his goal.

Not seeing the Sister—who was searching for him—as an obstacle to attack, but killing her being the purpose itself.

Tempting kids who hadn't sinned yet with money to commit sin, then sacrificing them all when they harmed the Sister—to complete himself...

We need to find the runaway group. The kids are in danger.

Thud thud thud.

The moment I realized something, someone knocked on the motel door.

To kill the sacrifice that still wouldn't die, personally.

Sin had come.