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The sun is gold.

The sun is gold.

Engraved with a pentacle pattern made of pure gold.

With the sun’s flame on the charred charcoal.

A spark ignited by light converging at a concave point.

Smoke three, smoke three.

One is the frankincense given to the baby Jesus by the wise men.

Frankincense radiating a brilliant yellow just like the sun.

Another is the green mastic brought from the island of Chios.

The last one is aloe.

Aloe, filled with blessings brought from Greece.

Now, igniting the three, I imbue them with fragrance.

Oh pentacle, oh pentacle.

Let the fragrance descend.

As if oil is poured, let the scent be embraced by the body.

Turning my gaze towards where the wise men came from.

Recite, recite.

* * *

He was reciting under the starlight.

Facing east, in a smoke-filled room, he gazed at the stars.

“Unto the end, for the lords, a psalm of David——- O Lord, our Lord, how magnificent is your name in all the earth, for your majesty is exalted above the heavens. Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger——”

What escaped his mouth was the language used in Greece (Ελληνικά).

What was being recited in Greek was the content of the psalm.

He recited with an upright posture, as if he were a scholar of the cult, calmly continuing the psalm.

He recited the verses prescribed in the psalm, all in Greek.

And finally, when he ceased reciting the psalm.

He filled his mouth with another language.

It was a language very familiar to modern people, even more so to those living in this land—English.

“O most powerful Adonai, O most strong El. O most holy Aglar, O most righteous On. Beginning and end, Alpha and Omega, we humbly beseech you. With your holy majesty, let these pentacles be sanctified to gain virtue and strength against the soul.”

Having uttered the invocation with a tone of divine reverence, he stretched his hand behind him.

Then, swirling his hand lightly in a circular motion as if to wrap the smoke, he clenched the air.

At that moment, the metal on the floor responded to his call.

The metal, holding the light of the sun, rattled and reddened as if blushing upon meeting its master. Before long, the crimson hue vanished, transforming into liquid, rising into the air like a snake drawn towards his hand.

Thus, in his grasp, it took on the shape of a stick.

A stick made of water elongated, standing upright before solidifying.

What was formed was a skewer made of pure gold.

He raised the plain skewer made of pure gold, lifting it with a sacred heart as if it were a spear meant to pierce the Lord.

A hole was drilled in the tablet made of pure white wax, and with the shock of the hole being made, the gold that maintained the shape of the skewer shattered and scattered in all directions. Those scattered gold pieces fell onto the white wax, turning back into liquid, rolling over the tablet as if swimming, settling back into place without leaving a trace.

It was the moment when the power of the sun resided within the pentacle engraved on the tablet.

He rubbed the fragments of the white wax between his fingers as he gazed at the celestial bodies.

Though obscured by the light of satellites, the celestial bodies existed there in their entirety.

The dominion of those celestial bodies extended onto the earth, as recorded in ancient texts.

Knowing the day and time, it is truly easy to recognize the governing celestial body.

Thus, he proceeded.

“Under the dominion of the sun, dare I take in that brilliant light. From the east, Alimiel, Gabriel, Barachiel, Rebes, Helison. From the west, Eliphaniasai, Gelomiros, Gedobonai, Taranava, Elomina. As the light draws a grand line. As the sun rises and sets. Oh governing angels from east to west, governing angels, appear fluttering and grant us the warmth of the sun.”

Jinseong recited the invocation, momentarily closing his eyes.

And about one second later, light began to pour forth from the tablet.

The beginning was pure gold.

The gold upon the tablet did not merely reflect light from elsewhere but began to shine as if it were the sun itself, and its glow resembled a deep red, akin to the sun.

No, perhaps it wasn’t merely light.

The pure gold had transformed into a brilliant red, as if it were wine.

This was not just about shining light; it could very well be overheated from the heat.

Perhaps upon grasping it, one might feel a burning sensation, screaming in pain.

As if one had seized the sun with their hands.

With that, the crimson light gradually spread.

The white wax began to melt as though confronting the sun, and flames burst forth from various parts of the tablet.

Flames flickered and rose, akin to four candles catching fire, emitting their glow and creating a lavish beauty as if the tablet were a blooming garden.

Red, orange.

Like a sunset, the light spread, illuminating the confined space.

This was the grace enacted by the sun, a color akin to the afterglow the sun left in the world.

When the space turned a fiery red.

Amidst that sanguine brilliance, something began to emerge.

Flutter.

The sound of flapping wings.

The sound heard not through ears, but by the head.

In the dense smoke and rosy glow, something was attempting to materialize.

It remained shapeless.

The smoke would sometimes take the form of wings, while other times hands and legs, manifesting many eyes, forming an existence made of fire and metal, and at times resembling the most beautiful of women.

In that moment, Jinseong’s eyes widened as he pulled out a lump solidified from lily extract from his bosom.

Etched on the lump were symbols of a lily, an arrow, a whip, an anchor, and a spear, each varying in size, crudely crafted.

He raised it high before hurling it towards the glowing tablet.

“Pax Tecum Filumena!”

Thus, the brightly glowing tablet welcomed the pure lump.

The lily represented purity, and what Jinseong had just thrown, inscribed with the symbol of a martyr who maintained their purity, had lost none of that essence.

The Tablet of Almadel, though it slightly warped, began to perform its role.

However, the direction had since shifted.

Its form materialized from the smoke.

Unlike earlier when angelic beings were about to appear, the shapes were now those of beasts, humans, plants, and a multitude of forms mixing human and beast, endlessly emerging and vanishing.

Most of those entities bore pagan and exotic shapes.

They were unlike the angels described in Christianity, and their forms deviated from those typically portrayed.

What was being referred to as such was none other than.

“The towering spire into the heavens is the pillar. The pillar is the path that connects the world inhabited by souls and the world of humans. Come to this place via this Poteau mitan. Descend into this place, Loa.”

– It was Loa.

Jinseong had twisted the invocation.

The invocation meant to summon Christian angels had turned into a ritual to summon the Loa of voodoo.

The method was exceedingly clever.

By slightly twisting the tablet’s materials just enough for it to barely activate, creating the pentacle not beforehand but simultaneously with the invocation, he enhanced the power of the sun, and finally, at the moment the invocation was set to activate, he casually sprinkled the symbol of ‘Filomez,’ associated with Catholicism, to warp the ceremony.

Thus, instead of summoning angels, the tablet had devolved into summoning Loa.

Such a method was challenging and complex but bore its advantages.

First, it did not invoke the usual ways of voodoo, so it did not give off the ‘paganistic’ vibe, as Lucas described.

Second, the magic associated with angels is often employed by holy sorcerers, bearing dreadful costs, which he successfully evaded.

Third, by not calling to the Loa through widely recognized methods, the costs remained consistent, a net gain.

Fourth, by twisting the method of summoning, he imposed a facet of goodness upon the Loa, who essentially possesses neither good nor evil, which was also beneficial.

And last, for Jinseong, the utility of the Loa surpassed that of angels, hence it was also a tremendous benefit.

Thus, Jinseong summoned the Loa instead of the angels.

By twisting the ritual of Alse Almadel.

And.

Using this building as a medium.

 

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