The holy water was transparent and couldn’t be seen with the naked eye. However, those who drank at least one drop of the holy water could hear its sound. Thus, Hawa could hear it clearly, as the spring pool underwent a dramatic transformation when she dragged Chi-Woo into it.
‘…Huh?’ Chi-Woo reacted similarly. His body was submerged inside the spring pool from head to toe, and he could actually feel the pool’s transformation. He had thought it was weird. To see how the purification process worked, he had tried to stay awake without falling asleep, but every time he tried, he would be hit with a a wave of drowsiness soon after entering the spring pool. As if someone shot him with a dose of anesthesia, he was always knocked out cold until he woke up the next day. But for some reason, he was able to keep his eyes open today and maintain some consciousness. And soon, he realized it was because of the pain.
“Huh, ugh. Ughhhhhhh!” Bubble erupted out of the edges of his screaming mouth, but Chi-Woo was too occupied by the burning sensation all over his body to notice them. He tried to endure the pain, but soon he could do nothing but shake his head like crazy.
‘I can’t—’ It was a pain that he couldn’t endure. Even though he had become used to pain, there was a limit to it. He felt as if he had been submerged in a cauldron of boiling oil, which not only cooked his flesh, but also penetrated deep inside his body and melted his organs and bones. There was no way he could withstand it. Any hero would have screamed at the top of their lungs from the seething pain.
Time crawled. Not only did his body still feel like it was burning, he felt as if a part of it would pop open. Chi-Woo turned to his left shoulder because of the sudden burst of immense pain and saw it swell up in a grotesque way, like it had absorbed a great amount of water and become a large lump. Then like a mole that was digging into the earth, the ballooned area began to move gradually downwards. Slowly, very slowly, it headed towards his elbow, then stopped around his wrist before moving again. When the lump of water moved along his left arm, he felt a sensation of something bursting inside him and becoming hollow. It was almost as if his clotted veins were being forcefully opened.
When the water lump reached a bottleneck, each of his five fingers swelled up, and he felt a pleasant tingling feeling, as if his meridians were being forced open. Simultaneously, yellowish substances poured out the ends of his fingers, but Chi-Woo couldn’t see them because his body was still burning up.
The water lump lingering at the ends of his fingers climbed back to his shoulders and headed downwards into the tips of his fingers again. This time, it was able to travel smoothly without any resistance from blockage. As if it was excited that there was no longer anything in its way, it oscillated across Chi-Woo’s arm a couple of times. But only the left arm was cleared at the moment, and the holy water moved to its next destination: his right arm, torso, and legs.
In the beginning, it had moved cautiously and slowly like it was carefully placing a needle on each part of Chi-Woo’s body; but once it created a path, it seemed to lose all restraint. The holy water rushed up and down throughout his body like every part was now interconnected, leaving only one part untouched.
In the meantime, Chi-Woo was starting to lose consciousness, or at least become used to the pain because the sensation running all over his body was fading. He was pretty certain of one thing: the holy water had gotten weaker after forcing its way through his left arm and the rest of his body. The giant pearl had gotten dimmer while the holy water ran havoc, but now it began to emit a brilliant light once again. Soon, the holy water whirling inside his body regained its vigor and became even stronger. If it had felt like a whirlwind before, it now felt like a hurricane. And the powerful current circulated inside Chi-Woo’s body before stopping near his back.
It was then Chi-Woo felt an indescribable fear. He knew where the holy water was going now. Instinctively, he knew that it shouldn’t.
‘N-No. This is enough now, so please stop.’ Chi-Woo begged. The holy water had granted most of Chi-Woo’s requests at once, but it acted differently this time. Like it wasn’t going to stop from anything today, it moved with even more force. It slid down to the bottom of his feet, and Chi-Woo’s eyes widened. He tried to twist his body around, but failed; it felt like he was tied down by a sturdy chain, which prevented him from moving. As Chi-Woo resisted with all he had, the holy water had finished its preparations, and like a trigger had been pulled, the swirl of water shot up and sideways from the bottom of his feet.
“Kuh!” Then, it stopped. Confronted by the considerable resistance, the water failed to penetrate his throat. As a result, water dripped out of Chi-Woo’s nose and mouth, and blood burst out of his eyes and ears. Peculiarly, the blackish water looked viscous, like it was sewage water. However, the holy water didn’t stop. It whirled even stronger, intent on penetrating the last part it hadn’t reached, and the volume of blackish blood increased until it poured out like a fountain.
“Uh…mu…” Chi-Woo was no longer sane. He was no longer in a state to assess the pain he felt now. It was beyond anything he had experienced before. His eyes rolled into the back of his skull, and he felt suffocated as white foams came out of his mouth. Even so, he could clearly feel the hard substance blocking the holy’s water advance was beginning to crack. Sometime after, his neck which had been barely holding on suddenly popped, and holy water rushed through like a dam had been broken.
“Kuahhhhhhhhh!’ If only he could, he would’ve screamed, but his throat seemed too dry to make a sound. Afterward, the water did what it had done before and took over his neck, and finally made it to his brain. He felt his brain burn to nothingness amid an immeasurable pain. When the divine water finally filled up his entire head, Chi-Woo regained peace.
The pain hadn’t disappeared, no, but his very existence seemed to have been shattered into pieces. He didn’t even know if he had lost his mind or not. It felt as if he was existing as a spirit, and he was simply going to turn into a pile of ashes like this. Perhaps he was already dead.
But unlike Chi-Woo, Hawa was able to witness this scene from an outsider’s point of view. ‘His body is…breaking down!’ When Chi-Woo’s body swelled up in parts, it was still able to maintain its shape. Once the lump of water broke through Chi-Woo’s neck to rush into his head, though, his body started breaking. While pouring out liquid waste mixed with yellowish substances all over, Chi-Woo’s skin was torn apart to the point that his bones and organs were becoming exposed. It seemed his body would soon disappear if left alone like this. But then—
A brilliant light shot out as the pearl inside the spring pool floated into the air. Then it gently landed on Chi-Woo’s heart, which was exposed between his ripped flesh, and melted before being absorbed. From that moment on, Chi-Woo’s body started to get reconstructed. His heart pulsed, pumping out vermillion blood through his body as flesh grew anew to fill his cracking skin; like a caterpillar breaking out of its hard cocoon as a beautiful butterfly, Chi-Woo was reborn again. The vitality flowing through him was so strong that it could be felt pulsing throughout the sanctuary. For a good while, Hawa simply watched, her mind blank.
* * *
Chi-Woo dreamed a strange dream where he was flying all over space. When he regained his senses, he felt a chilly sensation like he had just stepped out of a dry ice storage and let out a sheepish groan. After his body had burned up like a boiling furnace, the cool felt indescribably comforting. Then, when he opened his eyes, his vision was blurry. At first, he thought he wasn’t fully awake yet, but the blurriness didn’t disappear even after a lot of time had passed, as if he was seeing the world underwater.
‘Wait, water?’
Chi-Woo blinked. He was used to the touch of water and realized that he was inside the spring pool. But how was he able to breathe even when he was completely submerged? Chi-Woo blinked for a while and hurriedly sat up.
Splash! He saw water trickle down his body, and his mouth hung open. Just yesterday, he hadn’t been able to see the holy water, but now he could. He clearly saw the waves scintillating softly in the pool. What in the world happened?
“You’re finally awake.”
He heard a familiar voice and turned to Hawa. He almost couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw her.
‘What?’ After concentrating a bit, he saw some sort of gray light coming from Hawa’s inner core. Her appearance hadn’t changed, but perhaps it was the color of her soul. After relaxing his concentration, Chi-Woo no longer saw the gray light. How bizarre.
“I had no idea you were an insect,” Hawa said indifferently, unaware of what was going through his mind.
“An… insect?” Chi-Woo was taken back.
“Yeah,” Hawa answered nonchalantly. “I didn’t think you would shed your skin.”
“?”
“I also didn’t expect you to get rid of all the waste products from your body that way, either. Well, they’re all gone by now,” Hawa said while looking at the spring pool with narrowed eyes. It seemed the thought of his wastes made her feel slightly nauseous.
“How long was I out for?” Chi-Woo asked with his head tilting.
“A couple of days, I think. Around ten days.”
Chi-Woo’s jaw dropped. Not one or two days, but ten?
“However…” Hawa’s forehead creased as she took a close look at Chi-Woo. She looked like someone who had woken up in the middle of the night and was trying to see in the sudden brightness. Confused, Chi-Woo stretched his arms and inhaled deeply while closing his eyes.
“…”
They felt different. No, they were different. He could feel the sensation of air touching his arms much more clearly now. Beyond that, his senses extended not only outwards, but inwards as well. He felt his pounding and pulsating heart clearly, without any disturbance, and he felt something rejuvenating as he did when he had first encountered the spring pool. On second thought, the feeling was even stronger this time; it felt like he had gained a new body as Hawa had said. It was as if his soul had been put into a different body. Yes. His body didn’t feel like his.
“What in the world happened…?” Chi-Woo looked around and stopped when he saw a great number of messages hovering in the air.
[Purification process of the body completed. 100%]
After reading the uppermost message, Chi-Woo gulped and began to read the messages below.
[User Choi Chi-Woo’s body reached an awakening.]
[Inherent ability ‘Core of Balance’ formed.]
[New ability derived from inherent ability ‘Core of Balance’.]
[Inherent ability ‘Divine Blood’ formed.]
[Influenced by the abilities ‘Core of Balance’ and ‘Divine Blood’, the user’s physical body is reconstructed.]
[Inherent ability ‘Golden Ratio’ formed.]
[Inherent ability ‘Extrasensory Perception’ formed.]
[Inherent ability ‘Halo’ formed.]
[Inherent ability ‘Spirit Eye’ evolves.]
“You…what…?” Hawa looked up and suddenly asked while covering her face, breaking Chi-Woo out of his reverie.
“Huh?”
“Your back… It’s glowing… Or is it not?” Hawa blinked and frowned. There was something different about Chi-Woo, but she couldn’t figure out what it was. Chi-Woo felt the same. Clearly, he should check his user information to find out more.
But above all, one thing was evident: He had gone through something unbelievable, and for some reason, he had an inkling who had made such an impossibility possible. Chi-Woo turned to the statue at the center of the sanctuary, made after the liking of the one who sought perfect neutrality and balance with a scale in one hand. It was the Goddess of Scales, La Bella.