Chapter 203 – The Corrupted Apostle's Hand
"Riley" reverted to his original appearance, though the signs of possession still lingered on his face.
He's furious. Looks like I guessed right, Irene thought to herself.
Earlier, she really had wavered for a moment.
But when she recalled Father Gideon's serious expression, Irene decided to try one more time.
That was why she had fed him the holy water.
Although the demon's trick had been exposed, a trace of lingering fear still crept into her heart.
These evil spirits were far more troublesome than she had imagined—
they even knew how to disguise their deceptions in ways that felt more believable.
Thank goodness I took Father Gideon's words to heart, Irene exhaled softly.
If she had faced this alone, she might have been fooled long ago.
She turned to the two beside her.
"Father Gideon said that a demon's rage and agitation are often just another form of disguise."
"We'll stay right here and wait for them to deal with this thing."
Jade and Sue nodded solemnly.
The three of them retreated another step, gripping their sacred relics tightly.
Riley: …
---
Inside Mia's apartment.
Max sat slumped in a chair, his eyelids heavy, his head drooping forward from time to time.
"Bitch!"
A sudden roar jolted him awake.
Max quickly grabbed the wooden staff beside him and stared warily at his "daughter."
Mia stood there with one eye blazing with fury, glaring at something unseen.
"Oh?"
Gideon rose from the floor and looked her up and down.
"So you're done?"
"I almost thought you'd succeed," he said, his tone filled with mock regret.
"Save your sympathy. Demons don't need it," Mia narrowed her eyes and spat each word out.
Gideon gave a cold chuckle.
"Oh? Weren't you just exploiting Mia's pain to lure her father a moment ago? And now you pretend to forget?"
"You—!"
The demon was momentarily speechless.
"Since you're back, we should talk about something important," Gideon said calmly.
Earlier, after the demon had boasted about having a backup plan and temporarily withdrawn, Gideon had begun trying to rescue the trapped souls.
But he encountered serious resistance.
He could clearly sense many souls imprisoned within the porcelain hand.
Yet no matter what method he tried, he couldn't open the space inside.
The Apostle's Hand was sealed by some powerful restriction.
Forcing it open might annihilate the souls within—
or even cause unpredictable consequences in the real world.
Moreover, the porcelain hand was an artifact the archbishop had personally ordered to be recovered.
That left Gideon with no choice but to abandon the idea of brute force.
So he waited in place for the demon to return, hoping to find a solution through it.
As for the possibility that Riley, Irene, or the others might be killed in the meantime—
Yes, that was possible.
But before leaving, Gideon had given them extremely detailed instructions.
If, even after all that, they were still fooled by the demon's tricks…
then all Gideon could do was silently whisper an "Amen" for them.
Fortunately, the outcome now seemed acceptable.
The demon snorted coldly.
"What do you want to talk about?"
Countless thoughts flashed through its mind as it assessed what could still be exploited.
Gideon smiled faintly.
"Let's start with your name, shall we?"
The Mia controlled by the evil spirit raised an eyebrow.
"You may call me—Anto."
Gideon stroked his chin.
"Doesn't ring a bell."
Anto narrowed its eyes.
"You ignorant fool. When we rode across the battlefield during the Holy War, you hadn't even been born."
"Oh?" Gideon's eyes flickered with surprise.
"I didn't expect you to be affiliated with the Church."
Only clergy referred to the war in Jerusalem a thousand years ago as the Holy War.
"Perhaps I've even read your story in some ancient texts," he added with a smile.
A strange look passed through Faya's eyes.
Anto froze.
Realizing it had been tricked into revealing information, it immediately shut its mouth and spat out a single word:
"Despicable."
Seeing he wouldn't get anything more, Gideon returned to the main topic.
"Let's talk about the souls inside the hand."
"Oh?" Anto snorted coldly.
"So you intend to save them. If you follow my commands, I might consider letting you play the savior."
Its tone dripped with contempt, as though the idea of salvation itself amused it.
Gideon replied calmly,
"Spare me these pointless tests. The bargaining chips aren't in your hands."
Anto burst out laughing, as if he'd heard something absurd.
"It seems you are the one who hasn't grasped reality."
Its lips curled upward.
"The girl in front of you, the boy in the hospital, and every soul trapped inside the porcelain hand—
all of them are under my control."
As it blinked, black veins instantly crept around Mia's eyes.
"I suggest you choose your words carefully."
Faya subtly shook her head at Gideon and whispered,
"I can only control her bones. Don't provoke it."
But Gideon gave her a reassuring look and stepped forward instead.
"Since you've shown your 'leverage,'"
he said, making quotation marks with his fingers,
"I can't afford to lag behind if we're negotiating efficiently."
The moment his words fell, golden patterns surfaced in Gideon's pupils.
A beam of holy power shot from his eyes and landed on the wrist of the porcelain hand.
Anto's eyes widened in shock.
"Stop! What are you doing?!"
Gideon didn't stop. The holy power continued to assimilate the corrupted aura.
"Damn it! Stop! Stop! Are you trying to annihilate those souls?!"
Faya stared at Gideon in disbelief, hesitating over whether to intervene.
But Gideon remained perfectly calm.
"Go ahead—keep trying to deceive us with words.
Let's see whether my companion stops me first,
or whether your consciousness collapses first."
Faya immediately understood and abandoned the thought of interfering.
Anto's gaze flickered. After a long pause, it finally said,
"Fine. I'll talk."
It lifted its head sharply.
"Hey! Stop it, you bastard! I said I'd negotiate!"
Gideon smiled apologetically.
"My apologies. My control isn't perfect—I may have used a bit too much force."
Faya shot him a strange look. She clearly didn't believe him.
"Hmph."
Anto snorted and said nothing more.
So my guess was correct, Gideon thought.
He had sensed something odd about this evil spirit from the start.
Ordinary evil entities carried their source of power within their own essence.
But this one only manifested its consciousness—its true source resided inside the space within the porcelain hand.
If not for the Ethereal Sight's extreme sensitivity to spiritual auras, Gideon might never have noticed.
During his earlier attempts, he had already confirmed that holy power could sever this connection.
Once cut off, the evil spirit's consciousness would be completely isolated from its source.
Even with his limited experience, Gideon knew how difficult it was to project power across dimensions.
This spirit must have paid an enormous price to do so.
Which was exactly why Gideon had tested it.
And the result matched his expectations.
That space was a prison—and the evil spirit was one of its inmates.
"If you truly want to save those souls," Anto spoke again,
"I advise you to give up now."
"This isn't a threat," it added.
"If possible, I'd like them freed as well."
Gideon raised an eyebrow, waiting.
"You know the origin of the porcelain hand, don't you?" Anto asked.
Faya hesitated, then nodded.
"It belonged to the First Spirit Barnabas—before it was corrupted."
"Heh. Correct. But do you know who corrupted it?"
Faya shook her head.
"Marquis Samigina—right hand of Lord Baal."
Gideon narrowed his eyes.
Those two ranked among the top ten of the Seventy-Two Demon Gods.
Baal himself commanded the entire demonic legion.
Seeing the expressions on the two clergy members, Anto finally regained a hint of satisfaction and continued:
"The invasion of the mortal realm by demon gods has never been a secret.
The Holy War a thousand years ago was part of that conflict. They failed—but the Church suffered terribly as well."
"As for the deeper truth, I don't know. I'm merely a fragmented spirit with incomplete memories."
Anto paused, then added,
"To compensate, Samigina planted contingencies across the human world, replenishing demonic forces.
The porcelain hand is one of them."
"It corrodes wandering souls, slowly stripping them of their right to reincarnate."
"In the end, they become eternal slaves of the demon gods."
Faya's lips parted slightly—this was far beyond what she'd expected.
Gideon rubbed his chin.
"So you're no different from those dead spirits?"
Anto hesitated before answering,
"Reluctantly… yes."
"This is due to one of the porcelain hand's rules.
Once a certain condition is met, the artifact will be completely consumed by darkness."
"When that happens, a demon god will personally cross the spatial rift and reclaim it—
returning it to the Abyss of Demon Pillars."
"That is their domain."
"Even I cannot escape once the assimilation is complete."
Anto sighed inwardly.
On this point, it wasn't lying.
But the truth went deeper.
Unlike ordinary spirits, Anto had been granted a fragment of authority.
That was how it could project its source power into reality.
It wasn't a loophole—just a "reward" from that being.
If Anto gathered enough souls, it could regain its freedom.
It never truly believed such childish promises.
But it did know one real path to escape—advancement.
By corrupting enough souls and absorbing them, it could evolve from an evil spirit into a demon.
Only then could it wield true rule-based power.
It had been just one step away.
And then—
this damned priest appeared.
If its consciousness were erased now, everything it had built would vanish.
That was why Anto had no choice but to compromise.
On the other side, Gideon immediately seized on the key point.
"The rule you mentioned—what is it?"
Anto's eyes flashed with conflicted emotion. It clearly didn't want to answer.
But with its lifeline in Gideon's hands, it had no choice.
"It's a game about human nature," Anto said slowly.
"Worth it… or not."