Chapter 69 – Episode 69- The Shadow Family (3)
Three dogs rising from the shadows.
It scattered its bodies in the ground, drawing a shaman’s circle.
I came to create a new food soul.
The food soul born that way is a monster with three heads.
With a sense of intimidation that no previous dog could have, it shook its body purrly, announcing its majesty.
“It’s crazy.”
Seeing the shadow food souls that were born, scattered in an instant.
I blankly said what I felt.
Now that I could feel the negative energy, I realized more than anyone else that what Ji-hye Kim had just done was not a simple task.
Extracting a new food soul from the weak medium, the shadow.
Using that shikigami as a medium, once again as a medium, to draw a shaman’s team.
It’s easy to say, but the notes felt in the series of processes were old-fashioned and complex.
The sorcery of the shadow food soul, which was as delicate as weaving and sometimes violent, seemed much more difficult than I had imagined.
“Shadow shikigami is not an arcane spell that our family can boast about for nothing. This spell has no limits. Besides.”
Jihye Kim snaps her fingers.
Then the three-headed dog dispersed.
On the floor, he drew a large cast of shadows.
Cooong.
A hand climbed up on the shaman’s staff.
The size didn’t feel that big, but the sense of intimidation I felt was on a different level.
Let’s keep our hearts pounding in anticipation of what will come out.
The shadow hand pushing the floor lifted Suuk himself.
What appeared was a middle-aged man with a mustache.
Consisting of shadows, it greeted me with restrained and neat movements.
“Yes…?”
A middle-aged man wearing a suit.
I was puzzled by the appearance that looked like a butler.
Even when it first appeared, unlike the feeling of intimidation I felt.
That look was like a stylish butler you would see in an overseas drama.
Wearing a monocle, it fiddled with its own glasses with a graceful gesture.
“What’s this?”
So, unable to contain my curiosity, I pointed my finger at the butler and asked.
Kim Ji-hye laughed, wondering if my reaction was cute.
“You’re two billion.”
“Are you two billion?”
It’s definitely a name you’ve heard somewhere.
I tilted my head and looked back at my memory.
But before I realized what I was, Jihye Kim told me the answer.
“It’s a yōkai. It cut off several people’s heads in the previous war.”
“… Yes?”
I said it calmly, but the content was shockingly shocking.
Jihye Kim snapped her fingers before she could ask what she was talking about.
The shadow butler leaned down and pulled something out of the shadow that reached under his feet.
Seobik.
A scythe that is made of shadows, but stands out with sharper anticipation than anything else.
It hung like a blade of a death god and was cutting through the air after being in the butler’s hand.
All of this happened in the blink of an eye.
I closed my eyes and woke up.
If that shadow food soul had even the slightest hostility towards me.
Could I have stopped it?
A chilly sensation ran through my spine.
As I absentmindedly recalled the previous blow, the monster called Duuksini pushed the scythe into the shadows as if he had never done that.
Respectfully bowing with one hand, Duuksini bowed her back.
Then Kim Ji-hye snapped her fingers and took her new cigarette into her mouth.
Duoxini, like her butler, approached him in moderation and lit it with a lighter in her hand.
As if this was familiar, Kim Ji-hye continued to smoke her cigarette as if nothing had happened.
“…!”
It was so cool.
Kim Ji-hye, who is usually under a lot of stress, basically puts her annoyance on her face.
There was something in the man’s heart to see her chicly biting her cigarette and that Duooksinie, who at first sight looked out of the ordinary, lighting a cigarette.
I looked at Kim Ji-hye with her bright eyes.
Kim Ji-hye seemed a little taken aback, as if she hadn’t expected my reaction.
“Keuheum…! Big!”
Kim Ji-hye coughed and scratched her head.
“Anyway, the reason why I showed you this is because the keywords for shadow food souls vary depending on the user.”
“A keyword?”
“Yes, I told you before. Even the same spell appears differently depending on the user.”
Witchcraft builds images, understands structures, and changes the order of the world.
Therefore, depending on how she thinks and how she understands the structure, even the same spell can be expressed in a thousand different ways.
When I came up with this idea, I nodded to Jihye Kim to show that I understood her words.
“To give one example, the Chukji. The Chukji Hong Ma-dong used is basically different from the Chukji we use. Because he has the keyword of my family, ‘Shinchulgwimol’.”
Jihye Kim snapped her fingers.
Then Kim Ji-hye disappeared, and she appeared beside her in an instant.
“You should have a rough sense now. Where did I write the paper?”
“Yes.”
Being able to feel the yang and the yin, she had a sense of it to some extent.
About which direction Kim Ji-hye is moving.
“Besides, if you’re a monster like Kim Cha-ryeok, you’ll know exactly where you’re going, not just your senses. His constitution has no choice but to do that. But.”
Kim Ji-hye continued as if she had an exception.
“The axis that Hong Ma-dong uses will only predict where Kim Cha-ryeok will go, but he won’t be able to accurately notice. Kang Kang-jun, if it were you, he wouldn’t even notice. Giving keywords, that’s the family’s secret magic.”
Kim Ji-hye said, “Do you understand?” And pointed at the book Si-hee Kim brought earlier with the tip of her chin.
A book with the family’s vision and congratulatory notes left behind by Hong Ma-dong.
Gulp.
When I realized that the shadow magic I was learning now and the axis law I was learning afterwards were all family secret magic, I salivated.
“Usually, magic passed down from family to family belongs to one keyword like this, but we are different. Everyone is different.”
When she asked how that was possible, Kim Ji-hye replied.
“The basic shadow shamanism passed down in the family is understood differently depending on the user. The keyword for the shadow food element your father used was ‘creation’. That’s why your father was able to create this world in the end.”
“Five.”
She looked up at Kim Ji-hye with eyes full of anticipation.
Indeed, Kim Ji-hye was curious about what keywords she had.
Kim Ji-hye snapped her fingers and said her keyword chicly.
“My keyword is ‘imitation’.”
“An imitation?”
“Yes, my shadow food soul can copy things I’ve seen before.”
Kim Ji-hye patted the woman next to her.
“This is also an imitation of a monster I saw in the war. It left an impression because it was a monster that politely cut its throat like a psycho.”
“Okay.”
It was an atmosphere where the explanation was slowly coming to an end.
I wondered if I would learn about the shadow food soul in earnest.
As if my hunch was right, Kim Ji-hye told me about the process of learning the Shadow Food Soul.
“If it’s a normal course, you’ll start by making a simple shikigami from the shadow shaman and the shadows below you. Kang Kang-joon, you will teach it in a special way.”
Jihye Kim snapped her fingers.
Making her cigarette disappear from her mouth, Kim Ji-hye untied her wimpy hand as if to do something with her.
“Because unlike other shamans, you can feel the yin and yang from the beginning. You don’t have to teach me so carefully. So, feel it.”
“Which one?”
Jihye Kim answered my question.
“The end of the shadow food soul.”
Jihye Kim snapped her fingers.
It was just an action as usual, but at that moment, Kim Ji-hye’s shadow began to spread at an incredible speed.
Her shadow, which spread at a tremendous speed, soon dyed the entire floor and soared into the air.
Then my vision reversed.
Unlike before, the two feet attached to the ocher-colored ground were stepping into a ruin that was bursting with flames.
A world made of shadows.
At some point, I was in it.
Kim Ji-hye muttered quietly.
“The Sorcerer’s Essence”
Kim Ji-hye snapped her fingers once again.
“Shadow Spirit”
“Hundred Ghost Nights”
Buildings collapsing and ruins bursting with flames.
There, a black object wriggled and rose.
Spiking thorns and hideous features.
It had a gigantic body and let out a scream as it raised the ax in her hand.
“Gwaaaaa!”
A cry filled with life to the point that the whole body tingles.
It was terrifying and terrifying to the point that I involuntarily pulled her feet back.
But that was just the beginning.
Shadows hidden throughout the ruins gradually revealed their bodies.
Some with a trident in my hand.
Some with swords.
Some with their mouths wide open.
Like the dead, they rose from the ruins.
And Kim Ji-hye, who stood at the center of it, told me.
“Feel it, Kang Han-jun. You will definitely get a feel for it.”
My whole body was so tense that my hands were shaking.
However, Kim Ji-hye’s black eyes looking at me were completely calm.
With those eyes that seemed to completely trust me, not anticipation or ridicule.
I held her trembling hand tightly and opened her eyes.
Shadow food spirits appearing from all directions.
As if resentment was mixed, among them screaming in all directions.
I began to grasp the mixed tones.
The yin and yang swaying.
A blended shaman.
Moving shadows.
As all of them entered my brain in an instant, it felt like my thoughts were paralyzed.
I was pulling my eyes as if tearing at too much information.
Why?
I had a feeling I wanted to know more beyond this.
As if possessed, I looked ahead.
The shadows that make up this interior and the moving food souls.
All of it was wriggling slowly like a work of art.
Little bit more.
Seemed to know something.
Little bit more.
My brain hurt like it was about to cut out, but I was definitely getting closer.
Little bit more.
However, contrary to my expectations, the shadow world collapsed in an instant.
At the same time, the pain that had been filling my head also drained away like an ebb.
“Ah.”
He exclaimed as if he was sorry.
Kim Ji-hye strode towards me, and she grabbed me by the shoulder.
“Kang Han-jun, calm down.”
“Yes Yes?”
“Calm down.”
I don’t know what you’re talking about, let’s shake our heads stupidly.
Something was dripping down the tip of my chin.
Bright red blood.
Before I knew it, blood was dripping from my eyes.
“Crazy.”
Kim Ji-hye spat out her swear words, took her handkerchief from her pocket and hastily wiped off my blood.
I don’t know what happened, I blankly accepted the hand.
