An Exorcist Magical Girl!

Escape from hell.

 

Putting my fate in the hands of a game that only starts when I’m about to be utterly destroyed should never have started in the first place.

 

When I was being chased by the Grim Reaper and the Exorcist day in and day out, I wanted to play this damn game.

 

I wanted to exist.

 

Going to the other side meant the end of everything.

 

I just didn’t want to follow the logic of it.

 

I didn’t covet the undead body because I missed the feeling of being alive and breathing. 

 

It was just that there was only one way to escape its pursuit: to come back to life.

 

So, as a last resort, I chose the ritual.

 

I plucked out my own eyeballs, tied a thread to the heart inside my skull, and shoved the rat’s head inside.

 

Soon after, I found this paradise.

 

A paradise some would call hell.

 

I wanted to stay here forever.

 

Here I am not bound by the cycles of nature or the laws of the universe.

 

But escaping hell? It’s not worth it.

 

 

***

 

 

03:46

  

The ghost used its sharpened nails to cut the wires supporting its swinging legs one by one from behind.

 

My running body tilted for a moment.

 

Just before the swinging bridge collapsed completely, I threw myself towards the spaceship-shaped building.

 

My toes almost touched the floor.

 

‘Remember. You can’t hit the core during the game.’

My mind chirped frantically over and over again.

 

Meanwhile, a ghostly arm snaked over the railing by the stairs.

 “Uh-oh! Surprise!”

 

I reflexively jumped out of the way.

 

I ran straight up the stairs and toward the wooden building with the iron chute.

 

The ghost was right behind me.

 

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up every time he reached out with his one remaining hand.

 

I thought,

‘Fuck it, it’s the middle of nowhere,’

and ran.

 

When I reached another wooden building at one end of the “A” structure, I spent about 0.1 seconds wondering if it was the roof or the slide, and then ran down the iron slide.

 

Thump! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

 

I jumped from the middle of the steel slide to the tunnel slide in the spaceship-shaped building. 

 

This was possible because the centers of the two slides were close together.

 

Even though it was close, it was pretty close, but I had to do it.

 

Bam!

 

I clung to the side of the tunnel slide with my whole body, one ankle twisted from the jump.

 

I grabbed the sand-dusted cylindrical plastic with both knees and twisted my upper body to correct my posture.

 

Then I crawled right up to the top of the slide.

 

It’s pretty high up, so it can’t reach me from down there.

 

Well, if it was like before, it might be able to grab me by the ankles, but it doesn’t want to lose its other arm, so it will save itself.

 

What’s the point of having two arms if it’s going to lose both of them?

 

If I put my arm out again and it gets cut off, it’s a done deal. If I get back on the roof, there’s no way I can catch up.

 

It sprinted across the sand, then stopped at the bottom of the chute and looked up at me.

 

There was a breathless silence.

 

A nerve-wracking battle ensued, neither of us willing to budge.

 

02:31

 

I’d just used my fourteenth King’s Eye, with a short pause in between.

 

“King’s Eye!”

 

As soon as the ghost called out the last fifteenth King’s Eye, we both started running as if we had made a promise.

 

Thump! Snap! Bang!

 

With a loud bang, the ghost climbed up the tunnel-like slide, and I sprinted back to the wooden building with the iron slide.

 

The ghost’s inability to climb upside down led to another confrontation.

 

We faced each other, me at the top of the iron slide in the wooden building and the ghost at the top of the tunnel slide in the spaceship-shaped building.

 

Why would it take the slide upside down when there’s a perfectly good staircase next to it?

 

02:03

 

I didn’t think I’d actually use up my binoculars this early.

 

Well, good for me, I have more room to move around. I can just sit in a corner and kill time.

 

I thought to myself.

 

“King’s Eye!”

The ghost shouted, and a sixteenth giant eyeball appeared.

 

What’s going on?

 “Hey, hey, hey, this is rotten!”

 

The rat’s voice rang out in protest as it pointed a finger at the ghost’s eyeball.

 “The Ritual Executor interferes with the content of an already established ritual on pain of punishment. “Permanent King’s Eye” has been triggered. The penalty is a time reduction.”

 

01:54

–

–

– 

00:54

 

One minute of time has been erased from the timer.

 

I only have about 50 seconds left.

 

Still, the odds were in the ghost’s favor.

 

Looking straight at me in panic, the ghost ran.

 

The pain in my ankle meant that I couldn’t run as far as before, so I decided to climb onto the roof this time.

 

I quickly put my whole body on the roof and noticed that the branch in my hand was much shorter.

 

I must have hit something when I ran earlier.

 

That was not good news at this point.

 

The ghost, now with nothing to lose, stretched out his one remaining arm from when I climbed the pole.

 

00:46

 

If I can cut this off, I win.

 

The only problem is that I don’t have the tools to cut it off.

 

But do I really need a tool?

 

I’ve asked myself that before.

 

Now my black energy can be channeled through a flame or even through a certain room.

 

But can I do anything with just the black energy without a medium?

 

The black energy gathered at the tip of my right hand.

 

When I wiggled my fingers, the black energy moved slightly in response.

 

When I squeezed my fingertips, they became pointed, and when I made a fist, they became rounded. The black energy coalesced and dispersed, changing shape.

 

I used the tip of my index finger to collect the black energy that had dispersed like mist.

 

A mass of black energy in the shape of a spiky ring.

 

I wondered if this was what it would feel like if I extended my nails 20 centimeters.

 

As the ghost’s arm flew like a rope toward the edge of the roof, I snapped my fingers like an orchestra conductor.

 

Ting!

 

“Huh?”

 

The elongated nail/black energy couldn’t keep up with the speed, so it detached from my fingertip and flew through the air.

 

More precisely, it was launched.

 

It flew like a shuriken, slicing through the ghost’s wrist and embedding itself in the center of the giant eyeball behind it.

 

“You, you, you, you fucking thing! Kaaaah!” 

The ghost fell to the ground, writhing in pain.

 

I don’t know if it can see me with its eyes.

 

00:37

 

“How dare you try to kick me out of paradise! Why would a damn exorcist crawl all the way in here to disturb me?” “Because I’m not the one who wants to disturb you.” 

If it weren’t for the threat of losing my talent.

 

If it weren’t for the progress of the defense work.

 

I wouldn’t have been taken by surprise.

 

00:29

 

“But what, paradise? What does that even mean?” “A place where I can exist forever. Hee-hee, hee-hee. That’s paradise. Heehee…”

 

The ghost looked at the timer, then lay down, completely losing the will to get up.

 

“…Yellow eyes. You’re a nuisance, a nuisance. Very, very annoying.” 

00:18

 

“Do you have any idea what you are doing to yourself? No ghost will be happy about this. Hell, I don’t know any ghosts that would be happy to see you.”

 

The ghost, who had been giggling like a maniac, suddenly stopped laughing.

 

“Ah, ah, ah…” “What, what’s that?” “There must be ghosts waiting for it. If they call it hell, they must be…”

 

00:05

 

“Explain it so I can understand. Hey, hey!”

 

00:02

00:01

00:00

 

Piiii ─

 

“The challenger has survived the time limit. You are defeated.” 

A flat voice announced the result.

 “A penalty will be imposed on the defeated. You are defeated. You are defeated.” 

I heard nothing but meaningless words.

 

The playground before me flickered and slowly faded.

 

My mind blurred as I drifted off to sleep.

 

***

 

When I woke up, I was in a club room bathed in bright afternoon sunlight.

 

I was slumped against the classroom wall, leaning at an angle, my head cradled in my hands.

 

My body felt cool as the spirit dissipated and with it the curse it had left behind.

 

Not that it hadn’t erased the flash of light on my right shoulder.

 

I opened my eyes to find my vision filled with pop-up status windows that I was afraid to open.

 

❰【Talent: Exorcist (Aspiring)】 Defense against deletion crisis is 8.0% complete❱

❰Defense work progress has reached a total of 27.6%! ❱

 

“Oh, that’s good!”

 

I dismissed the pop-up window for the defense task with satisfaction.

 

Behind it was another popup about skill acquisition.

 

❰You have acquired the skill: “Creator of Nothing” ❱

❰Creator of Nothing: You can use your aura to form a weapon. ❱

❰Currently at 2% embodiment❱

 

 

Oh, that index finger thing?

 

I got a skill boost for that stupid thing.

 

It felt good, but I still don’t know how to do anything beyond collecting energy in a circle or pointing, and I have no idea.

 

It will be a long time before I can master this skill well enough to use it in practice.

 

Well, Senior Shin will be happy to hear that.

 

And I’ll probably say something:

“I tried to level up the clairvoyance skill, but it turned into an attack skill instead.”

 

“That’s not how I want it to work.”

 

I protested to my imaginary Senior Shin before getting up from my seat.

 

The

“Tongue and Arm”

had been destroyed beyond recognition earlier, and I didn’t think I could save it again.

 

First, I sent the news of the successful exorcism to Yuri, who had requested it. She replied immediately.

 

─Wow, I was wondering where you went all of a sudden, and you were exorcising?!

─And the exorcism was over in less than 10 minutes?

─ (emoji of a surprised squirrel)

─Wow, that was really fast…!

─Seriously, thank you so much!

─ (Squirrel greeting emoji)

 

Soon, the group chat became loud.

 

─Wow, the new student is cleaning up the school’s mess.

─Thank you so much, I was worried about what to do since we’ve been practicing since Friday.

─ (flying baton emoji)

─Baek Iri is a proud member of the art team.

─ (shyly clapping emoji)

 

Leaving the chat room for the outpouring of thanks and praise, I got to thinking.

 

What is paradise and what is hell?

 

I’m pretty sure it’s a reference to an all-girls high school, but I don’t know the context.

 

Also,

“uninvited guests.”

 

At first, I thought it was just a joke, because of course ghosts don’t like exorcists.

 

But there was something about it that was too creepy to dismiss as just a comment in that context.

 

It was like, “

That guy, there’s something at the end of every exorcism he does.”

 

Maybe he was just trying to get on my nerves.

 

Maybe it was just a nasty prank on the verge of annihilation.

 

“No. There’s something…” 

But my gut told me.

 

There was something in this mysterious story that I had to know.