“You don’t know Master?”
“You don’t know Immortal Iri?”
Dojin and Ihaeja couldn’t understand it.
From the moment any being enters the stage of Wia, they become aware of Iri’s existence. In this world, the only beings who don’t know Iri are those still at the level of ‘roots’—humans including living spirits, animals, plants, objects, and the like.
But the black mass in front of them was clearly a type of vengeful spirit. A being that absolutely should not be ignorant of Iri’s existence.
“Could it be dementia…? Or maybe a vengeful spirit with amnesia?”
Dojin stepped closer to Iri and offered his own speculation. Ihaeja shook his head.
“Even if a Wia suffers from dementia, amnesia, or any kind of brainwashing, they never forget Immortal Iri’s existence.”
“Then what the hell is that thing?”
“How would I know? The Immortal probably does.”
Dojin looked at Iri. To the two ignorant ones, Iri calmly gave the answer.
“A familiar.”
“A… familiar….”
Ihaeja sighed and repeated the word.
Dojin recalled an explanation he’d once heard.
A familiar, or a homunculus. A being created through spells and experimentation by an exorcist. An artificially born Wia, created without passing through the root stages of human, plant, animal, or object.
“I thought those didn’t exist anymore.”
Ihaeja approached the familiar. When its identity was unknown, he’d been cautious—but now that he knew it was merely a familiar controlled by a human exorcist, he wasn’t frightened at all. Instead, he looked relaxed.
“If the familiar’s master didn’t implant knowledge about the Immortal, then of course it wouldn’t know him.”
Ihaeja sneered coldly.
“Where did you crawl out from, exorcist? I thought exorcist families had all died out these days, but if you can make a familiar, you’re fairly skilled.”
-…….
“Familiar’s master, reveal yourself now and kneel before us.”
The black doll gazed down at Ihaeja in silence, as if observing him. Ihaeja issued the command once more, but it didn’t obey. The familiar’s gaze swept over Dojin and Iri.
“Master, something feels off.”
Sensing something ominous, Dojin stepped in front of Iri protectively. From behind him, Iri lightly shoved Dojin aside with an incredulous expression.
“If you sensed something off, you should be standing behind me.”
“I’ll fight. You can check how much your disciple has grown.”
“I’d like to check, but there won’t be a fight. Don’t worry.”
There was such ease in Iri’s expression and tone that Dojin quickly relaxed again.
-Immortaaaal…….
The familiar stretched its arm toward Iri. Before it could reach him, Ihaeja swung the baseball bat he’d brought and smashed it apart. The scattered black shadows gathered together again.
The familiar ignored Ihaeja and stared only at Iri. Its large white teeth and red tongue, stark against its black body, were grotesque. Licking its red tongue, the familiar spoke.
-Immortal. Are you the Immortal? Why must I know of the Immortal’s existence…?
It was a different voice than before.
Iri knew that the words flowing from the familiar’s mouth were not spoken by the familiar itself, but by the exorcist.
“Exorcist. You don’t know me either. For someone with no proper training, you’ve gained tremendous power. Is it power given by an Evil God?”
-Evil God…?
“Berimos.”
-Berimos….
“The spirit attached to you is an Evil God that should have vanished from this place. It tormented innocent dokkaebi and stole a dokkaebi club.”
-Dokkaebi club….
“Ah, fuck this bastard. What is this? Is he a parrot or something?”
As the exorcist merely repeated Iri’s words, Dojin finally exploded.
“Can you talk properly? Where do you live? Master, isn’t there a way to track this familiar’s owner? If we just suppress it hard enough, won’t the owner get dragged out?”
“Hey, quiet. The Immortal will handle it—ack!”
Ihaeja tried to cover Dojin’s mouth, only to be flipped over his shoulder. Dojin pinned him down, folding his arm awkwardly behind his back, and shouted.
“Master. Are you really just going to talk? Why don’t you just—yeah?—finish him off?”
“I’m only going to talk. And please be quiet.”
“Mmph—!”
Dojin’s upper and lower lips sealed shut. It was Iri’s ‘Golden Word Command’. As Dojin’s grip loosened in frustration, Ihaeja wriggled free with a groan. Ihaeja openly mocked Dojin, but didn’t make a sound—afraid he’d get hit with the ‘Golden Word Command’ too.
While disciple and subordinate were locked in a silent standoff, Iri and the exorcist continued their exchange calmly.
“Where did you use the dokkaebi club?”
–I do not know what a dokkaebi club is….
“Who taught you how to control a familiar?”
–A friend….
“Is that friend an Evil God?”
–A human….
“Then Berimos must be the Evil God attached to your friend.”
–I do not know….
“Why did you spread curses among the Tongyeong dokkaebi?”
–…I cannot say.
“You have a lot you can’t tell.”
Iri stepped closer. Mmph, mmph! Dojin panicked and rushed forward, grabbing Iri’s arm—but there was no need to worry.
The familiar’s form began to squirm, gradually shrinking. Smaller and smaller it became, until at last it turned into a palm-sized sheet of paper.
Dojin snatched the fluttering paper out of the air. It was oroji, with the shape of a human drawn in black colored pencil—exactly the familiar’s form.
Just as he wondered if Master had destroyed the familiar, the paper trembled.
-Guhhhhh…….
“Mmph!”
Fuck, that scared me. It’s still alive.
As Dojin crumpled the paper in his hand, Iri took it from him. Placing it on his palm, Iri said,
“Tell me your name.”
–I cannot reveal it….
“Your friend’s name, then?”
–I cannot reveal that either….
“He’s deceiving you. He’s a bad person. He’s not your friend.”
–I know that alrea—guhhhhh…….
The drawing inside the paper groaned as if in pain. Dojin could guess the meaning of that guhhhhh.
“I already know. But—”
–There’s no choi—…
Just as Iri was about to speak, the exorcist spoke again through the familiar’s mouth.
–They have come here….
The moment the words ended, whoosh—blue flames ignited across the paper.
“Master!”
Dojin rushed over in shock. Just as he tried to grab the paper, the blue flames vanished as if they’d never existed.
After suppressing the fire, Iri calmly crumpled the paper in his hand.
“He tried to cut off his tail and escape.”
When Iri opened his hand again, the paper was gone. In its place was a tiny, finger-length Dark One, curled up tightly.
“That fucking bastard—how dare he try to hurt you! Look, are you burned? Does it hurt?”
Dojin grabbed Iri’s pale hand and kneaded it anxiously.
“Dojin, you… No—let’s talk about this later.”
Iri handed the now-familiar-less little Wia to Dojin. The small Wia trembled violently and clung to Dojin’s finger. Half uncomfortable, half worried, Dojin watched to see what Iri would do next.
Iri extended his left hand into the air, moving his fingers as if selecting something, then grasped something invisible. When he pulled it toward himself, space tore open, forming a long, slanted ‘passage’ in the air.
Through the gap, a shrine littered with bells and flags came into view, along with a shaman collapsed on the floor, her face drained of color.
It was Lee Ah-jin.
No—more precisely, it was Lee Ah-jin possessed by the Evil God Maninsa. When their eyes met, she convulsed in shock and then collapsed limply. Solid arms caught her falling body. An adult man wearing a navy long-sleeved shirt. Beside him, someone else’s feet were visible.
Three people in total.
The slanted ‘passage’ wasn’t wide enough to show more than that.
Lee Ah-jin was a shaman, so the exorcist must be either the owner of those arms or the owner of those feet. If the one holding her was her sibling, Lee Seokjin, then did those worn sneakers belong to the exorcist…?
Standing beside Iri, Dojin silently glared at them. The man seemed to be speaking to someone, but no sound carried through.
Iri reached into the ‘passage’ without hesitation.
“Mas—!”
Before Dojin could finish, Iri’s hand, which had slipped into the gap, was abruptly pulled back out.
In Iri’s hand was an arm, blood dripping steadily from it.
A navy long-sleeved shirt. It was unmistakably the arm that had caught Lee Ah-jin’s body. Dojin hurriedly looked back into the ‘passage’—no one was there now. Instead, blood pooled on the shrine floor. A human shadow was visible in the corner. They hadn’t managed to flee far.
In a sterner tone than usual, Iri spoke.
“You spread confusion among the innocent. You caused yokai and Yeongmul to lose their lives under agonizing curses. You deceived dokkaebi and stole a dokkaebi club. As the price of your sins, I will take your arm and your familiar.”
The arm in Iri’s hand was burned away in blue flames.
“See that you never again spread chaos in this world through curses. Next time, I will take your head….”
Watching the ‘passage’ slowly close, Iri delivered his final warning in a low, chilling voice.
In suffocating silence, the ‘passage’ finally closed completely.
“Wow, fuck….”
Dojin collapsed, pressing down on his wildly pounding chest. Ihaeja had already collapsed long before him.
“Master, seriously… ha….”
For the first time, Dojin truly felt—even if only a little—the power of Immortal Iri, the one said to have ended the war between the True Mortal Realm and the Lower Realms in a single day.
***
The possessed man was a member of the ‘Saeboreumi Research Group’. The one posting occult writings under the name ‘Anonymous’ was not him, and he had neither spiritual intuition nor spiritual sight. Still, it was clear he was a vile enough human for an Evil God to possess. After confirming there were no health abnormalities, the group laid the man on a bed and gathered in the living room. They needed to stay there while Ihaeja backed up everything from the ‘Saeboreumi Research Group’s website.
“So, what you’re saying is: ‘Berimos, the Evil God, approached someone who was born with exceptional spiritual sight and intuition but grew up without proper education about this world, then used that person’s abilities to spread curses and create familiars.’ That’s what you mean, right, Master?”
“It’s not certain… just a guess.”
