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“This is… troublesome.”

Crossing her arms and scratching under her chin with her index finger, Sophia swallowed a sigh. She couldn’t hide the troubled expression on her face, repeatedly tormenting her poor chin.

“Indeed, this is complicated…”

Nun Knight Agnes, standing beside her, also wore a deeply troubled expression. Having grown up as the daughter of a leading shrine family, she couldn’t hide her discomfort after understanding the situation.

In the secret underground space on the second floor, after subduing all the organization members, what appeared before their eyes were iron cages filled with children the organization had either purchased or kidnapped from various parts of the continent. Humans, dwarves, elves, replicants, orcs, ogres, nagas, lizardmen, lycans—children of different races, skin colors, and ages were crammed into cages, abandoned in the underground space.

However, their distress wasn’t solely due to the discovery of the children’s cages. They had anticipated this and had already prepared countermeasures for such situations.

“Normally, we would inform the local authorities and proceed to find their parents or guardians…”

Priest Clomang trailed off with a deeply troubled expression. Sophia, empathizing with his feelings, muttered to herself.

‘This makes it difficult to cooperate with the local authorities.’

There were two reasons why they couldn’t follow the usual procedure.

The first reason was the peculiar treatment the children had undergone at the Bordeaux hideout.

“Madmen… truly madmen…”

Clomang gritted his teeth, trembling with anger as he looked at the cursed marks branded on the children’s bodies. Sophia, seeing the bizarre fire-like mark with four twisted trails and a human figure in the center, also fell silent, her forehead creased with discomfort.

“Sister Agnes, what is that mark?”

“Ah, yes.”

When Agnes, lacking prior knowledge, asked about the mark, Sophia explained what she knew.

“Do you see the shape of the mark on the children’s bodies?”

Agnes carefully examined the mark. The four twisted trails, resembling the tentacles of a cephalopod, crossed each other, with a human figure in the center. It was a shape that felt both eerie and significant.

“It’s called the ‘Mark of the Offering.’ It’s a type of curse used by the Demon Clan, Sphiyagon, and other followers of otherworldly evils. Strictly speaking, it’s more of a certification than a curse.”

“Certification… for what?”

Agnes, realizing the implication, suppressed a shudder. The thought that these children were marked as offerings to some evil deity was too horrifying to comprehend.

“Once marked, they lose their individual fate and are destined to be offered to the evil deity. Demons and Sphiyagon gain divine power, higher visions, and forbidden arts by offering these marked individuals.”

“Their fate is sealed… You mean…?”

“Yes. Even if they survive being offered, they will be hunted by monsters, specters, and nightmares until their death. Their misfortune, pain, despair, and screams become nourishment for the demons. When they finally die, their souls are devoured by the evil deity, unable to reincarnate.”

“That’s… horrible…”

Agnes, covering her mouth in shock, felt a chill run down her spine. She had experienced human malice before, but the malice of non-human entities was beyond her comprehension.

The idea that even the afterlife, which could have been a refuge from the misfortunes of life, was being exploited by such evil was unimaginable.

“The cruelty of turning a person’s life and death into a mere feast. The tyranny of forcing one’s purpose and fate upon them. This is their nature, their way of existence. No sane being could share the same sky with them.”

Sophia believed that while the natural cycle of life involved predation and survival, actions that crossed the line into exploitation and cruelty were undeniably evil.

‘Ignoring sin doesn’t absolve it.’

She thought that if the lives, deaths, despair, and pain of people were all used for the pleasure and nourishment of these demons, then as fellow beings of the continent, they should rightfully be angry.

Hearing Sophia’s explanation, Agnes’s face turned pale, then flushed with anger.

“Those bastards… how could they do this to children…?”

‘Was she always like this…?’

Sophia was slightly surprised by Agnes’s sudden outburst of harsh language, but Clomang, who had worked with Agnes before, showed no reaction.

‘Maybe she has these outbursts occasionally…’

Sophia quickly dismissed the thought, as the situation at hand was too serious to dwell on such trivial matters.

“With the Mark of the Offering, we can’t just release them without any measures.”

Releasing the children without any solution would be irresponsible. Not only would it ignore their misfortune, but it would also cause chaos if these children, now marked as prey for demons and otherworldly beings, were to spread across the continent.

The hideout’s structure currently masked the children’s marks, but if they were exposed to the outside, specters and monsters would surely gather, drawn by the scent.

Thus, specialists in dealing with demons and otherworldly beings were needed to handle the children’s situation.

Ultimately, the Church Order had to be involved.

“This is getting big.”

“It can’t be helped. This is also a burden the Church must bear.”

As a Paladin and Nun Knight, Sophia had seen such cases before and quickly thought of a response. Gathering her main strength at her fingertips, she approached one of the children.

“What are you planning to do?”

“Just watch.”

As Sophia approached, the child flinched and tried to step back.

“Stay still.”

But the child soon felt an invisible force holding them in place. Void Manipulation, or perhaps a telekinetic spell—something unprecedented and indistinguishable restrained the child’s movements.

“This won’t harm you.”

Sophia, now in front of the child, placed her glowing finger on the mark on the child’s shoulder.

With a series of precise movements, she drew a complex mandala around the mark, isolating and neutralizing its influence. The mandala, a combination of the Taizokai and Kongokai mandalas, symbolized the pure realm of truth.

As the mandala was completed, the mark’s influence was gradually isolated within the mandala. Finally, Sophia superimposed a diagram of the ten Sephirot over the mark.

The Sephirot, representing the divine structure of creation, with its three triangles, three pillars, and twenty-two paths, symbolized the flow of creation and wisdom.

Each Sephirah contained and revealed the states of the divine worlds: Atziluth, Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiah. The paths between them, represented by Hebrew letters, summed up to 777, the number of creation, rightful sovereignty, supreme virtue, and transcendent truth.

“The Mark of the Offering is engraved on the body. Careless removal could harm the soul. Even if we use the Immovable King Wisdom Technique to temporarily erase it, it will eventually reappear.”

The best solution would be for the children to learn the Light Power and Immovable King Wisdom Technique to heal their own souls, but that was too difficult and impractical. Thus, Sophia chose this method.

“If we can’t remove it, we can seal and dry it out.”

The completed Sephirot diagram suppressed the mark, rendering it powerless. But Sophia didn’t stop there.

“If left alone, the mark might revive when the diagram’s power fades. So, we add a final touch.”

She inscribed the diagram of the three realms beyond Kether: the unmanifested world of Ain, the limitless void of Ain Soph, and the primordial light of Ain Soph Aur. As the divine light infused the Sephirot, the mark was completely neutralized.

When the light faded, the grotesque Mark of the Offering on the child’s shoulder had disappeared, sealed within the mandala and Sephirot.

“You erased the mark?”

“Well, not exactly. The mark itself isn’t gone. It’s just neutralized.”

Sophia explained that the mark, being a type of curse, couldn’t be completely removed without harming the children. Instead, she had sealed and dried it out by overwhelming it with divine energy.

“In short, we’ve flooded it with ‘divinity’ to dry it out. The mark can no longer function and is buried under the new tattoo.”

This method was similar to using a potion of holy water. By isolating the mark within a mandala and filling it with divine energy, the mark, deprived of its negative fuel, withered away.

“Seal, bury, neutralize, and dry it out. Perhaps that’s the only solution to this cursed mark.”

“As long as their souls enter the cycle of reincarnation, they’ll be safe. The mark’s true terror lies in preventing the souls of the dead from reincarnating, making them prey for the evil deity.”

When a life ends, the soul enters the river of reincarnation to cleanse the impurities of the world, heal its wounds, and prepare for the next life. Once the soul enters the river, the rest is straightforward.

The Mark of the Offering, being an unnecessary impurity and a wound on the soul, would be cleansed once the soul entered the river.

“That’s a relief. With this method, and Agnes’s help, I think I can manage.”

“Still, this method is too time-consuming. We’ll need an alternative.”

Sophia, unsatisfied, shook her head. Clomang nodded in agreement.

“Indeed, drawing the necessary barrier and suppression symbols each time is too cumbersome. We’ll need to create a spell tool in the form of a seal.”

“Do you know a place we can entrust this to?”

“Well, Bordeaux used to be my home. I have a place in mind. Let’s try there.”

Following Clomang’s suggestion, Sophia and Agnes agreed. Neither had many connections in Bordeaux.

“Alright, let’s handle that issue first.”

However, solving the first problem didn’t make the second one disappear.

The three of them frowned as they faced the remaining issue.

 

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