Etranger

“You… who are you…?” The young girl’s voice was deep, like an old man’s voice. The deepness in her voice was incongruent to the young girl’s appearance. The surrounding people held their breath as goosebumps started arising on their bodies and a sense of fear and disgust started consuming them…

“Me? I’m a sane person. So, who are you? Why are you in this child’s body? And why are there thirteen of you crowded together? It’s not like you guys are a herd of mice…”

“Why… are you persecuting us…?” the little girl growled in a man’s voice.

“Is it reasonable for someone who forcibly entered someone else’s body without permission to state that you’re being persecuted when asked why you’ve taken over another’s body? I need you to leave her body. Otherwise, these guys will kill the little girl along with you guys as well,” San curtly replied. The girl’s eyes grew round.

“Don’t spew bullshit! I… have contracted with this girl. ‘Kirky’ is my friend...!” the girl shouted. This time, a clear young girl’s voice rang out. San’s expression slightly hardened.

“Is that so? You’ve even made a contract. What is your name?”

“My name is Noeul.”

The expressions of the parents, who were observing this scene, were filled with despair. The girl’s tone and manner of speech showed that her mind had eroded considerably. At this level, recovery was impossible. At the same time, the holy knights and priests opened their eyes wide for another reason. A whopping thirteen spirits! Even if the Chief Priest came forward, it would be difficult to rescue the little girl. Then… what the hell was this guy going to do? Could he possibly…

“Noeul… your name is pretty. Your acting is pretty good, too. Anyway, fake ‘Noeul’, you’re taking things too far… Hey Kirky, come back again.”

“Are you… testing me?”

“No… I’ve already started. My analysis is over… now it’s time for your extraction.”

“What…”

A sharp rustling sound came from the girl’s throat.

“You can go ahead and try to fight against it if you like,” San replied briefly. His hand was outstretched, still holding the little girl’s head tightly.

“What are you doing… Oh shoot! Argh…” the girl yelled.

“Primary Cortex, Coordinates A 3021, G 2080.” Biyeon’s voice rang out clearly. 

“Completed removal of 4 viruses. Vaccination countermeasures have been taken, 30% functional recovery.”

San looked at the girl and grinned. The girl’s eyes fluttered violently. White vapor was coming out of her mouth and nose. Her hands started to shake before she grabbed onto San’s forearm.

“Prefrontal Lobe, Coordinates B 3054, J 4303.”

The girl’s nails dug into San’s arms. San’s thin clothes were torn apart along with bits of his flesh. The extreme pressure she was exerting caused her knuckles to break. Blood also gushed out from her chapped lips.

“Completed removal of 4 more viruses. 40% recovery.”

The girl spat at San. Her saliva was mixed with black blood.

“Corpus Callosum, Coordinates A 304, N 795.”

“Removal of 3 additional…”

The girl let out a shattering scream. Red blood gushed out from her throat each time she cried.

“Spinal cord, 1 removed...”

“Last one, Cerebellum, Coordinates C 604, B 507…”

The young girl stopped resisting and stared at San in disbelief. Cloudy, yellowish vapors wrapped around San’s arms before scattering. San stared into the girl’s eyes. Her teeth were exposed, and her facial expression was horribly distorted…

“Now, there’s only one original spirit left. Did you forget what to do? Do you really want to be extracted and annihilated, too?”

Noeul’s lips trembled.

“You… who are you? How could a human like you annihilate us spirits?” The man’s voice, noticeably weakened, rang out.

“Well… I picked up a few things while living in this world. I’ve been having to do it pretty often these days.”

“What… do you want?”

The young girl ground her teeth.

“Break your contract with Noeul. Then I’ll let you live.”

“Why?”

The girl grinned with a mean expression on her face.

“Or you can just be destroyed. Shall I start now? I’m fairly certain you won’t survive.”

San smiled broadly.

“You… you… who are you!”

“I’ll count to three. Just to let you know, I count very quickly.”

“No!”

“One, two…”

“I will break the contract.”

The young girl screamed.

“Shut up… release Noeul first.”

The girl’s eyes suddenly cleared.

“Kirky wants to end his contract with you, will you listen? Your parents are eagerly waiting for you.”

San said softly. The girl nodded her head weakly while staring helplessly at San.

“Noeul wants to end her contract with Kirky.”

“It’ll happen then. Now, take a break. Kirky! Get out of there quickly!”

“Ah- you… who… why do you possess the powers of the ‘old one’…”

“Shut up. Hurry up and finish off the contract…”

“Ugh… I, Kirky, end my contract with Noeul. Please spare me…”

“Okay, I see that the sham-like oath you established between yourself and Noeul has been broken. Now, bring the child back to normal. After you’re done, I’ll contemplate what level of punishment you should receive.”

“I can’t return her all the way back to normal…”

“If that’s the case… do what you can.”

The girl’s face moved again. Her expression was returning to normal. Her twisted body was straightened, and her bleeding stopped immediately.

San observed her recovery with his hand on her head. He was utilizing a human body scanning process that Biyeon and he had repeated thousands of times before. The brain wave search process, which they mastered in the 5th and 6th Stages of Acceleration, was so familiar to them now that they could clearly see the results like a picture. The girl’s mind was rapidly recovering.

Now, all the codes the spirits had embedded in the young girl to control the processing of her cerebrum, cerebellum, corpus callosum, and spinal cord were removed, and her original code was restored. From this point forward, she may exhibit some memory impairment, but this result was good enough.

San generated a carrier wave from the palm of his hand. He safely extracted Kirky out of Noeul by merging Kirky’s spirit wave with his carrier wave. 

Kirky’s wave pierced through the back of San’s hand and waved around atop the back of San’s hand like a blob of transparent jelly. It then rapidly decreased in size before turning into a small mark on the back of San’s hand.

Everyone saw what happened. The priests had their mouths wide open. San looked at the back of his hand. The spirit was fairly resilient, but it trembled crazily atop the back of San’s hand. Kirky was now a different existence from the spirits who lived in symbiosis with their hosts after signing a contract.

Kirky felt that San was an eccentric being who recognized how to handle and utilize spirit waves. This meant that if Kirky were to do anything wrong, San could generate an inverted wave and annihilate Kirky at any time, just like the other spirits who were destroyed just a moment earlier…

San lifted his hand from the girl’s head. The young girl named Noeul opened her eyes. Immediately, she started grimacing. An excruciating pain spread throughout her body. However, a new world appeared in front of her. Her vision had become clear once more.

She saw the figures of her mother and father crying. She also had a faint memory of a warm being leading and guiding her away from a cold, dark place. She didn’t know whether this feeling was rooted in reality or just in her dreams. Noeul smiled for that someone. That was all she could do right now to show her appreciation. Noeul smiled before drooping down onto the ground. San grabbed the falling girl and lifted her up.

“It’s over now. Noeul has been purified.”

Biyeon tapped the shoulder of the holy knight who was standing blankly before stepping forward. The knight blinked his eyes and didn’t do anything.

San embraced Noeul in his arms and walked towards her parents. There were holy knights on the left and right of him, but no one stopped him. As San approached, the holy knight who had initially stopped the parents from moving to their child retreated.

“Your daughter’s inner ailment has been healed. She’s received some injury from the treatment, but I’m sure it’ll get better over time.”

When San passed the peacefully sleeping Noeul over, the parents took their child and bowed their heads to San. At that moment, as if a magic spell had been lifted, the priests began to shout all at once.

“Catch them! Those who dare spew blaspheme upon our great god Tehara!”

“They’re the devil’s apostles who can control demons!”

The high-ranking combat priests and holy knights moved forward. The four doors of the temple were wide open, and holy knights were running out from each door. The apostles appeared waving flags that seemed to symbolize the sun. However…

“Stop!”

“Stop!”

Shouts erupted from two different places at the same time.

Change – Chapter 5

The holy knights and priests, who were rushing towards San and Biyeon, stopped abruptly as if they had coordinated their actions beforehand. One of the two sounds they heard carried the power and authority for them to act so. The priests straightened their posture and found the speaker of the voice.

The nobles stopped entering the temple and looked towards the commotion and murmured. 

Someone soon shouted, “Secondary Chief Apostle!”

A man walked down from the stairs where the sound of shouting came from. In his left hand, he held a ruby staff, symbolizing the sun, and on his head was a colorful hat, symbolizing his status as an apostle of Tehara.

Apostles occupied the highest ranks within the temple, so even the priests rarely had a chance to see them. The second chief apostle belonged to the second rank among the five apostles, comparable to a cardinal in modern Earth’s Catholic Church.

He walked down the temple steps quickly. He seemed to be in a hurry and moved about in a way that was not fitting for his title and dignity.

From another side, a woman among the noble crowd approached San and Biyeon quickly. She was from one of the five main families of the Empire. She wore a cloak that was clearly engraved with the Yuri family’s coat of arms…

“What’s happening?”

San patted the back of his hand and tilted his head. The back of his hand was still trembling.

“It’s Yurisen. Why is that friend here…?”

“Shoot… we got caught…” San chuckled.

“Yeah, right… I guess our cover is blown,” Biyeon said as she also smiled.

Even amid all the priests and knights surrounding them, San and Biyeon exuded a comfortable attitude. The holy knights lined themselves up besides the path from which the Apostle was approaching. The priests were very nervous and put their hands together and raised their faces to show respect.

However, the second chief Apostle, Bichel, ignored them. He walked straight towards San and Biyeon, focusing only on the two of them.