Chapter 35
Humans were weak to pain, but they were even weaker to pleasure. It was much easier to instill faith through pleasure rather than to instill fear through pain. This was because people were usually wary of pain but not of pleasure.
Intermediate enthrallment, curse of intoxication.
With this spell, it was possible to inject pleasure and inspire faith in believers through a simple twitch of the finger. In the original Voodoo Cult, it was a spell that was considered forbidden, but this was of no concern. It was forbidden in the original Voodoo Cult, but not in the Voodoo Revival Church.
‘Why did the Second Cult Leader make certain spells forbidden? What a fool.’
The Zapduist Cult Leader couldn’t help but remember the second-generation cult leader who died without even leaving a corpse. He also recalled the goal that he had set for himself when he founded the Voodoo Revival Church.
He vowed never to hesitate to use any means and methods for the sake of achieving his goals. He vowed to continue to move forward and to destroy all the obstacles blocking his path.
While reaffirming his resolve, he cast the Voodoo spell toward the trio. They were the trio that defamed the glory of the Voodoo Revival Church while showing an arrogant attitude.
Soon, the purple mist from the spell array engulfed them.
They would soon forget all their worries and sorrows, and then they would laugh. They would laugh foolishly, pitifully, and hysterically. And eventually, they would shed tears as their brains became addicted to the pleasure, just as he did seven years ago.
"Ah, huh?"
However, they did not laugh. Rather, they stared at him with cold and emotionless eyes. The face that peeked through the mask looked strangely familiar. Soon, one of them began to trudge forward with bold steps. Voodoo magic flowed from their fingertips. Only then did he understand the situation.
"It must be a Voodoo Cultist."
Believers of the original Voodoo Cult had come to punish the Voodoo Revival Church. Then that would also explain why the spell didn't work. Voodoo Cultists typically had stronger resistance to Voodoo spells than ordinary people.
However, that was all. If their resistance to spells was strong, all one had to do was use a spell that was strong enough to ignore the resistance.
Intermediate enthrallment, curse of fainting.
The curse of fainting was much more difficult and powerful than the curse of intoxication. No matter how strong their spell resistance was, they wouldn’t be able to resist the curse of fainting.
First and foremost, it was important to subdue them. He would think about how to dispose of them later. He could turn them into zombies, or he could tie them up and feed them to the dogs.
“Hmm...”
However, the opponent did not faint. On the contrary, he continued to trudge forward with a look of indifference like before.
‘Their resistance is this strong?’
It was not a lesser but an intermediate enthrallment spell. The opponent’s spell resistance was incomparable to any of the random riff-raff small fry from the Voodoo Cult. He began to think that it was not an ordinary cultist but perhaps an executive. Executives had much stronger resistance to Voodoo spells than normal attendees. He himself had once been an executive of the Voodoo Cult, so he knew this fact better than anyone else.
'In that case, I need a stronger spell.’
He had to use a spell that was too strong to resist, even if he had to drag out all the Voodoo magic power from his body.
"Phew."
It had been a long time since he had used a spell that was greater than an advanced spell. He took a breath and ejected purified Voodoo magic from his fingertips. Then he drew a spell array.
Advanced enthrallment, curse of nightmares.
A fog covered the opponent. However, there was no effect. The opponent simply pierced through the fog and continued to advance gradually.
Advanced enthrallment, curse of anxiety.
There was no effect. The opponent didn’t stop and continued to come closer.
Advanced enthrallment, curse of delusion.
As expected, there was no effect.
Only then did he realize that it was not that the opponent's Voodoo spell resistance was strong. His own spell had not triggered in the first place. The opponent had dismantled his spells and rendered them null and void with a single twitch of his finger.
‘He’s not an executive. He’s...’
An executive could not interfere with another person's Voodoo spell array. It was because they didn’t have the skill necessary to do so. Only one person in the world had the ability to dismantle a Voodoo spell array by interfering with Voodoo magic power, essentially nullifying the Voodoo spell. This chapter was originally shared via N0v3l_Biin.
The Voodoo Leader.
Do Sun-Woo, the son of the Second Cult Leader.
He was the only one.
Sun-Woo could not be overpowered by Voodoo spells. Not only was his basic resistance strong, but his understanding of Voodoo spells was on a completely different dimension compared to normal attendees. If he hastily drew a spell, it would be dismantled before the spell would get a chance to activate.
“Marinette!”
The only option left was to use her power. He quickly called out to Marinette.
If someone not chosen by Loa used the power of Loa, there would be a strong backlash. It was entirely possible to vomit out blood and die.
But this was not the time to dwell on such matters. There was no time to hesitate. Immediately after calling for Marinette, he reached out his hand and focused on the ritual. Yet, no matter how much he concentrated, he couldn’t hear Marinette’s voice. The power of Loa had failed to activate. His outstretched hand wandered aimlessly through the air after losing its objective.
"Marinette! What are you doing? Hurry!"
[Run, quick. Legba! Ah, Legba! Legba is!]
"Han Su-Yeop?"
When I spoke the name that suddenly came to mind, he abruptly raised his head. My uncle, was quietly watching the scene with his arms crossed, and he raised his eyebrows.
"Oh? You're right. Isn’t he Han Su-Yeop?"
My uncle strode towards Han Su-Yeop, who was still wrapped around tree roots.
A mixture of anger, betrayal, and joy flashed across my uncle's face. Han Su-Yeop smiled ruefully when he saw Uncle and croaked, "...Glad to see you, Jin-Sung."
"Glad? Are you glad that you ran away by yourself? You damned traitor. And don't call me by name."
Smack.
Uncle struck Han Su-Yeop in the head really hard as he spoke.
When the Holy War broke out seven years ago, there was an incident where the Voodoo Cult executives fled as a group. Han Su-Yeop was one of the executives who fled at the time. Uncle labeled all the executives who ran away at the time as ‘traitors.’
"Where are the other traitorous bastards?” Uncle asked while grabbing Han Su-Yeop's hair and forcibly raising his head.
"I don't know."
"Oh, you don't know? Should I help you remember?”
My uncle pulled out a pen from his pocket and grasped it tightly. The tip of the pen popped up with a clicking sound. Uncle brought it in front of Han Su-Yeop’s eyes. Han Su-Yeop’s pupils, which were facing the sharp tip of the pen, trembled with fear.
"Again. Where are they?"
It looked like he would stab him at any moment if he didn’t answer. Ji-Ah gulped nervously as she watched the scene. As if scared out of his wits, Han Su-Yeop’s lips trembled as if he was terrified as he barely opened his mouth.
"I do–don’t know. I really don't know! I– I was also just barely able to hide. The rest of them all...!”
"All... All what? What happened to all of them? Finish your sentence.”
“...”
Han Su-Yeop shook his head without answering. My uncle was just about to poke him in the eye with the pen.
"Uncle, don't. There's a lot to ask.”
I stopped my uncle. There were still many things to ask Han Su-Yeop. I understood his anger, but there was nothing to be gained from gouging his eyes out right now. It would only make things more complicated if he died or passed out.
"Sigh, yes. There's a lot to ask."
Only then did it seem like Uncle regained his composure. He put his pen back in his pocket and crossed his arms. His eyelids trembled intermittently as if his anger had not completely cooled down. My uncle spent a while cooling off his anger before he sighed deeply.
"Where's all the money? There must be a place where you collected the donations, right?”
“...”
"Oh? You punk? You have no right to remain silent. You can't ask for a lawyer either. Where's the money?”
"I– I don’t have it. I burned it all. You saw it earlier as well,” Han Su-Yeop calmly lied.
I searched through the pile of donation boxes that had been burnt black and took out a bundle of money from inside. As Legba said, the only thing that was burnt was the donation box, and all the money inside was fine. After seeing the bundle of money, my uncle's face became complicated.
"You said you burned it, you punk."
Smack.
Uncle hit Han Su-Yeop's head once more. Han Su-Yeop looked at the bundle of cash with a perplexed look on his face and then suddenly shook his head like a madman.
“Tha-that’s all there is. It’s the truth. I burned all the rest and sent them–”
"You’re still lying? Should I just poke your eye out? You have no complaints, right? Just accept it nicely."
"Arggggh! Wait, wait!"
Uncle took out a pen and unveiled the tip. Then he slowly pushed the pen tip toward Han Su-Yeop's eye. Han Su-Yeop struggled frantically while being tied up.
As the pen tip was just about to reach Han Su-Yeop's pupil, Ji-Ah approached and tapped my shoulder.
"Mr. Cult Leader, there seems to be a suspicious door over there.”
She pointed to a corner of the chapel where there was a door. The paint on the door was so thick that it looked no different from the wall to the naked eye. It smelled suspicious.
"Ah, no... Not there! Faaaggghhh–!”
"Hey, no swearing."
As I walked toward the door, Han Su-Yeop yelled and tried to stop me. In response, my uncle hit Han Su-Yeop in the head. It looked like he had a lot of grievances stacked up.
I tried to ignore the sound of my uncle hitting Han Su-Yeop's head mercilessly and continued to walk onwards. The door was standing in front of me. Ji-Ah was with me, and she gulped as if she was nervous.
Click.
I turned the handle. The door was not locked.
Creeeaaak...
Soon, the door opened, along with a rather sinister and dreary sound.