Chapter 3: Mission Accomplished
At this moment, in William's eyes, a humanoid spirit was straddling Isa's body, trying to pry her jaws open and crawl inside.
The others in the room were completely oblivious to this horror.
Judy was the only other person present who could see it.
She shrank into the corner, pulling her hoodie over her head, too terrified to take a single step into the living room.
Frank rushed forward and knelt beside Isa.
As a doctor, he skillfully began checking her vitals.
Jared crouched nearby, his eyes full of worry.
William, however, didn't rush to the patient. Instead, he walked to the side of the room.
"Vase... hmm, glass shards are deadly weapons."
"Fruit knife, potential hazard."
"Toothpicks... ugh, those would hurt like hell in an eye socket."
...
Just like that, while everyone's attention was focused on Isa, William rummaged through the living room, relocating any object that could be used to inflict bodily harm.
On the other side, Frank had reached a conclusion.
"Limbs convulsing, pupils dilated and unfocused. These are classic signs of severe shock or trauma."
He turned his head, furious. "Hey! What did you people say to her?!"
This accusation offended everyone in the room.
"Isa gave her nephew a dead cat as a gift! And now you're blaming us?"
Frank was instantly silenced.
It was indeed Isa's fault. He couldn't argue with that.
So he scooped Isa up in his arms, intending to take her to the hospital.
"If you take her out of here now, she won't live through the night."
William suddenly spoke up from the side.
Seeing the priest again, the crowd found a perfect outlet for their frustration.
"Hey, this guy is still here? Let me guess, you're going to tell us she's possessed by a demon?"
Frank's face twisted in anger. "Hey! Who the hell let you in? Get out of my house right now!"
At that precise moment, the entity succeeded in burrowing into Isa's body.
Frank felt the weight in his arms shift as Isa suddenly stood up on her own.
"Honey, are you... okay?"
The others stared at Isa angrily, assuming this was yet another prank.
But then Isa smiled.
The corners of her mouth stretched impossibly wide, tearing towards her ears in a grotesque, unnatural grin.
Everyone in the room recoiled in horror.
"Is she insane?!"
Under their shocked gazes, "Isa" grabbed a plastic fork from the table.
Starting from behind her ear, she dragged it down to her throat. Scritch... scratch...
"Isa" was trying to slit her own throat.
But she stopped, confused by the strange looks from the crowd.
She looked down.
She realized she was holding a flimsy plastic fork, which was now bent uselessly.
"Isa" threw it away in frustration and reached out blindly to her side.
In her memory, there was a glass vase right there.
But her hand grasped empty air.
"Looking for this?"
A taunting voice rang out.
"Isa" looked up to see the black-robed priest sitting on a table.
Under his foot was the glass vase.
"If you're looking for knives, toothpicks, pens, or anything sharp..."
William kicked the vase further away and continued, "I threw them all out."
The room fell into a stunned silence.
The guests looked back and forth between "Isa" and the priest, trying to process what was happening.
Jared, however, looked excited. He had a hunch.
Judy had crept into the living room by now. Although she was still terrified of the thing inside Isa, she was desperate to see what William would do.
After a brief pause, "Isa" moved again.
She extended her ten fingers and began to claw violently at her own neck.
But as a teacher, Isa kept her nails trimmed very short for the safety of her students.
So, she only managed to leave a few angry red welts on her skin.
"Isa, calm down! What is happening?!" Frank tried to intervene.
But "Isa" suddenly lunged, tackling a woman to the ground.
The woman was dressed fashionably and had just gotten a fresh manicure today.
"Isa" made guttural noises in her throat as she grabbed the woman's hand, trying to gouge out her own eyes with the woman's long acrylic nails.
The woman screamed and fought back, too terrified to even wipe "Isa's" drool off her face.
"By the mercy of the Lord, let the Holy Light cleanse the earth! I command you immediately..."
William arrived just in time.
Holding his pocket Bible in one hand, he pressed a crucifix against "Isa's" forehead with the other.
Sizzle... hiss...
The smell of burnt flesh filled the room.
"Isa" shrieked in agony but couldn't move, pinned in place by an invisible force.
As William chanted, a massive, shadowy silhouette began to emerge from Isa's body.
Although the others couldn't see the spirit, seeing the priest act with such authority shook them to their core.
"Is... is Isa really possessed by a demon?"
"Is he a real exorcist?"
...
But one person didn't think so.
Frank clenched his fists.
He was a staunch atheist. Seeing Isa in such pain, he assumed the priest was physically torturing her.
He shouted and lunged forward, grabbing William by the shoulder.
William was at a critical moment in the exorcism. The sudden shove knocked the Bible out of his hand.
A piercing scream erupted.
Everyone instinctively covered their ears, but they heard two distinct voices.
One was Isa's.
The other was layered over hers—deeper, colder, and resonating with a frequency that made their hearts palpitate.
Crash!
A window shattered, and the screaming stopped.
"Just now... what was that?"
"Was that... actually a demon?"
"Is it gone?"
Frank stood frozen, realizing too late that he might have made a terrible mistake.
William picked up his Bible and looked at the broken window.
He had been one step away from finishing it, but the thing had escaped.
However, he had already set up countermeasures outside the house. Even if the evil spirit escaped, it would pay a heavy price.
Plus, the Demon-Trapping Array was active.
"For now, let's finish the cleanup here."
William helped Isa up. She had regained consciousness.
"You won't see those terrible things anymore. I have driven it out of your body. You have suffered greatly."
Isa had remained partially conscious during the possession and understood what had happened.
Hearing her hidden trauma acknowledged, all her suppressed grief welled up.
Guided gently by William, Isa poured out the pain she had buried deep in her heart.
When she was a child, she had been too afraid to act during a tragedy, effectively allowing her mother to die. She had lived with that guilt ever since.
With William's comfort, Isa wept openly, finally untying a knot that had bound her heart for over twenty years.
[Psychological Counseling +1]
[Current Progress: Tier 1 (13/100)]
[Existing Ability: Empathetic Insight. Your words have a calming effect; people are more willing to trust you during conversation.]
After receiving the notification, William stood up.
The reason he didn't chase the evil spirit immediately was for Isa's sake.
This entity fed on trauma. If left unattended, Isa was highly susceptible to being cursed again.
Seeing Isa return to normal, her eyes clear and lucid, everyone gasped in amazement.
"That was incredible. It's my first time seeing a real exorcism."
"Where did this priest come from?"
"Isa, I'm sorry. I always thought..."
Frank was also in shock.
The scene he just witnessed had completely upended his worldview. He stood there, at a loss for words.
William packed his things and walked over to the two children.
Jared's eyes were shining with worship. He had really met a true exorcist!
Judy was equally stunned. Aside from her mother, there was actually someone else in the world who could see monsters like she did.
And William's bravery made her envious.
When faced with monsters, she only dared to hide and tell herself they weren't real.
In this moment, Judy felt a kinship with William. She had found one of her own.
"Your commission is complete. I still have to go clean up that thing, so I won't be walking you home."
William reached out and patted the two kids on the head, then grabbed his backpack and walked out the door.
"Wait! I'm coming too!"
Jared reacted a moment later and chased after him. He wanted to be an exorcist too!
Judy quickly followed.
...
On a street corner.
William closed his eyes, sensing the environment.
With the Demon-Trapping Array active, he could vaguely perceive the general direction of the evil entity.
And so, William herded the spirit.
The entity was furious—if it was capable of feeling anger.
Every time it tried to cross a certain boundary, a phantom image of a brass bell would appear, burning its essence.
And it had encountered these phantom bells ten times!
Seeing the priest closing in, the evil spirit was forced to find a host quickly. It settled on someone in a nearby park.
When William arrived, he saw a middle-aged Asian man sitting on a bench.
"When I was a kid, my parents only cared about my grades..."
"After getting a job, it was endless work..."
"After getting a family, I only get to eat the leftovers..."
"Why does no one care about how I feel..."
The man mumbled to himself.
Suddenly, his body went rigid, and he stood up in an unnatural, puppet-like motion.
The middle-aged man turned to William and flashed a grotesque smile.
He pulled a lighter from his pocket, his smile widening further.
William narrowed his eyes and pulled out his Bible again.
The man tried to flick the lighter, but found his body paralyzed.
"You're not bad," William said.
"If the traps outside the house hadn't injured you, and the Demon-Trapping Array hadn't weakened you ten times over, you might actually have gotten away."
The man's smile froze, his teeth grinding together.
William continued, "I forgot to tell you. I originally intended to drive you into this park. I didn't expect you to be so cooperative."
Fear flickered in the man's eyes. He seemed to realize something.
"This is the center of the Demon-Trapping Array. The power here is at its peak."
With that, William began to chant scriptures.
boosted by the array, the evil spirit couldn't offer even a sliver of resistance. It was instantly expelled from the man's body, its form shrinking rapidly.
William took out a wooden jar he had prepared beforehand. This was a vessel specifically designed to seal evil entities.
He capped the jar, then took out paper strips soaked in holy water and wrapped the jar three times, inside and out.
The jar shook violently for a few seconds, then went silent.
Having completed all this, William received a message in his mind.
[High-Risk Mission Complete. Reward Obtained: The Smiler's Mask.]