From Agent Choi’s mouth, standing below the tracks, came a flat explanation.
And with it, a shocking truth.
“The ritual to reseal Segwang Special City has already begun.”
……!
“For a ritual this big, it takes at least three days. It already started.”
My head went cold as I understood.
There was no way something as enormous as erasing an entire metropolis could be done rapidly in a short span of time….
Especially if a 300-day countdown had been given.
There was nothing strange about the fact that it had already begun and was well underway.
“Of course, it works differently from an ordinary gut or chiseong, but the basic nature of it is the same—sincere effort matters. Anything goes better when enough care is put into it.”
“……”
“The time has been calculated so it will lock perfectly into place at the very moment the lockdown is lifted two days from now. They’ve already performed seven days of anban-gut, and specialist agents who completed ritual abstinence are already holding ritual knives.”
Agent Choi described it as though he could see it before him.
“The ritual implement they’ll use is a myeongdo. Think of it as a brass mirror. They’ll take a Sun-and-Moon Myeongdo engraved with the proper formulae to symbolize Segwang Special City, cover it in fresh blood representing the sacrifice, and overturn it onto the floor before the altar….”
Somewhere, I could almost hear the sounds—small gongs clashing, voices shouting at the top of their lungs, drums, bells ringing madly….
And Agent Choi was looking at me.
“I was planning…