The possessed Priest Kael didn't just stand; he began to unravel. Dark, oily tendrils of
spiritual miasma leaked from his eyes and fingernails, lashing out like whips and
cracking against the white stone of the altar. The nobility in the front rows scrambled
over each other, their "Royal" dignity vanishing in a flurry of screams and tangled
silk."Consume... the heart... of the South!" the entity shrieked, its voice a discordant choir
of a million corrupted souls.
Jee-shahn stood three paces away, his hands tucked into the oversized, silk-covered
sleeves of his wedding robes. He looked like he was waiting for a bus rather than
facing an ancient spiritual corruption. He reached up with one hand and lazily pushed
the silver crown back up his forehead so he could see.
"You're doing that thing again," Jee-shahn noted, his voice flat and unimpressed.
"The screeching. The dramatic transformation. The 'I'm going to eat everyone'
monologue. It's very outdated. My wife Yui has a wolf pup that makes more
intimidating noises when it wants a treat."
"Silence, Mortal!" the Sin roared. It lunged, its body stretching into a grotesque
shadow-spear aimed directly at Jee-shahn's throat.
Jee-shahn didn't even shift his feet. He just sighed—a sound of profound, weary
disappointment.
"I told the running lady: No. More. Noise."
Jee-shahn moved his hand—not to strike, but to make a simple, downward sweeping
motion.
THOOM.
The air didn't just get heavy; it became a physical solid. The possessed priest was
instantly slammed flat against the crystal floor, the "Envy" miasma around him
screaming as it was crushed by a localized gravity that defied every law of Suiseiryu's
realm. The crystal floor beneath the priest shattered into a thousand spiderwebs, but
the pressure didn't stop.
The entity tried to escape the body, its dark smoke rising, but Jee-shahn's azure eyes
flashed with a cold, terrifying light. He reached into the air and made a "grabbing"
motion.
"Where do you think you're going?" Jee-shahn whispered. "You interrupted my snack
schedule. You're not leaving until I'm satisfied."
He clenched his fist. The dark smoke was physically compressed, pulled back into the
broken body of the priest and then crushed even further. The priest—and the spirit
within—were compacted into a dense, vibrating sphere of dark energy.
Jee-shahn looked at the "Sin-marble" floating just above his palm. It was pulsing with
a foul, dark light. Without a second thought, he tossed it toward the High Priest, who
caught it with trembling hands.
"There," Jee-shahn drawled, wiping his palm on his silk robes. "Your 'sacred' guest
was leaking. I fixed it. Now, can we get to the part where I eat the Golden Phoenix? Or
does another priest want to turn into a shadow-monster first?"
The High Priest stared at the ball of concentrated malice in his hands, then at
Jee-shahn. He realized the "Monster" hadn't just protected the shrine; he had treated
a manifestation of the Great Corruption like a piece of annoying litter.
Jasmine, who had been hiding behind a pillar, poked her head out. "Is... is it over? Is
the wedding still on?"
Jee-shahn looked at her, his stomach letting out a loud, thunderous growl. "The
wedding is a formality. The feast, however, is now a mandatory requirement for my
continued cooperation. Move, running lady. My patience is oficially thinner than this
silk.