Yona stared blankly outside her sleeping bag until her mind finally caught up with her.
The sun rose high beyond the distant mountain peak, casting a hazy light over everything. No matter what happened, time continued to flow, the sun rose, and a new day dawned—it’s just how life works. She could struggle all she wanted, but she couldn’t go against this natural order, so she’d have to tackle today just like any other day.
Yona sluggishly crawled out of her sleeping bag. After a long sleep on the bare floor, her whole body felt stiff and achy, and as she stretched, she heard a satisfying crack of her bones.
“Are you awake?”
“Uh, yeah.”
Kaiyak, who had been on watch, called out to her. Casually responding, she rotated her lower abdomen, feeling a persistent warmth thrumming within. She didn’t understand why this divine energy resided in her belly, but seeing it still there today was a relief.
“Ugh… Ugh…”
Making strange noises, Alex crawled out of his sleeping bag. He seemed a bit better than Yona, but given the chaos of the previous day, he must have been tired too. Plus, he had stood guard for half the night, so there’s no way he wasn’t exhausted.
Noticing the weariness etched on Alex’s face, Yona turned to Kaiyak with a worried look.
“Nothing happened, right?”
“Nothing at all.”
“Thank goodness.”
Yona squatted by the still-crackling campfire. She stretched out her hands toward the flames, absorbing the warmth. Although she had curled up in her sleeping bag, battling the winter chill wasn’t that easy, so soaking up the fire’s heat felt amazing.
“Ugh.”
After warming herself, Yona stood up again. The sun was fully up now, and the once dim morning light brightened to the point where everything was clearly visible.
“What about the cooking pot?”
“Right here.”
The cooking pot, resting on the flat stone by the campfire, was filled to the brim with water. Heated slowly by the fire’s warmth, steam wafted from the pot, and after dipping her pinky in to check, Yona concluded it was just the right temperature. She rummaged through her backpack.
Pulling aside her nun’s robe, Yona took out her hunting knife and chopped up the leftover meat from last night. She also diced the dried carrots and green onion sticks, along with a few mysterious pickled fruits from her backpack. With everything shoved into the pot at once, breakfast was ready!
“Yona, here.”
As Kaiyak handed over two fist-sized stones, Yona took them and began to grind them together over a baking pan, creating a clattering sound. White salt powder started to fall into the pan, and when it seemed sufficiently sprinkled, she returned the stones to Kaiyak.
“About the purification…”
Now all they had to do was wait for it to boil.
As Yona squatted back down near the campfire and mumbled to herself, Kaiyak and Alex turned their gazes towards her.
“After the purification, I haven’t decided where to go.”
Kaiyak responded with silence, and Alex followed suit.
In the midst of the two’s silence, Yona tossed a twig that was next to her into the campfire. With a crackling sound, sparks flew up.
“Let’s head to the community first, the Mage Community. The Alebians might still be there. If things go south… Ceres, yeah… the regent might be there too.”
Alex wanted to object to that idea.
His resolve had yet to see any real progress. His determination to overshadow Yona’s mind with his own still hadn’t made any real headway.
What if they went to the community and met the Alebians? And if Regent Ceres happened to be there too, then if through the regent, all the tattoos got erased—
‘What happens then?’
Alex couldn’t be sure. Given Yona’s unwavering purpose, he desperately wanted to avoid heading to the community. While it didn’t matter if the Alebians were present, having Regent Ceres there would be the worst-case scenario. The very fact that Ceres, the one who could erase tattoos, might be there would turn things into a disaster.
However, the issue was that he had no grounds to oppose that idea.
*
After finishing breakfast at least half-heartedly, the three of them entered the cave.
The cave was fairly clean and well-organized, as Kaiyak mentioned it was a place with a shrine and thus always needed to be maintained.
The cave was not large, just enough for Lizardmen to come and go, but there was no doubt that a Mermaiden wouldn’t have been able to enter because of her size.
Why was a Mermaiden able to enter the sanctum? How could there be a Mermaiden appearing in the sanctum if there were no traces of her in this original cave?
Though those questions lingered, Kaiyak had said that since there had been instances of humans entering places they shouldn’t have, it wouldn’t be strange for a Mermaiden to have slipped in from somewhere. Moreover, since purification had already been done, it was now up to the remaining Lizardmen to repair the barriers and maintain the sanctum, so he didn’t feel obligated to take care of that.
Not long after entering the cave, Kaiyak picked a torch off the wall.
Yona grabbed a torch that was hanging on the wall.
After striking the firestone a few times, the torch ignited, and soon the shadows of the three people lengthened in the dark cave.
“If we go a bit further, there should be an altar.”
“Yeah.”
Alex led the way, Yona was in the middle, and Kaiyak brought up the rear. The cave wasn’t wide enough for them to stand side by side, so they walked in a line deeper into the cave.
It wasn’t humid inside the cave.
Even though it was a cave where water flowed all year round, it felt rather dry, which was a bit strange. Without the usual dampness, there was hardly any of that typical cave smell, and there wasn’t any moss on the walls.
It felt less like a cave and more like walking inside a catacomb-like dungeon, but it wasn’t particularly creepy either; just a weird sensation.
“There it is.”
After walking for a while, Kaiyak said.
True to his word, a broad stone tablet lay before them; no one could mistake it for anything other than an altar.
Atop the tablet sat a large turtle statue.
And that statue was wrapped with a rope made of gold and red threads twisted together.
‘That looks familiar somehow.’
It resembled something from a folk village, like a shrine.
Above it, more ropes hung down, and the sight of white, red, and blue cloths tied together in those ropes was quite peculiar.
From beneath the altar, a stream of water, presumed to be the source of the sanctuary, was flowing out.
Black water started from there.
It surely flowed into the sanctuary.
“That head part must be contaminated.”
Yona pointed at the turtle statue.
The turtle statue was undoubtedly tainted.
Where the turtle’s head should have been, there was nothing, and black viscous fluid oozed out, flowing into the source beneath it.
“Seems so.”
Kaiyak shook his head slowly. How could no one have noticed how the sanctuary altar had come to this state?
Well, they hadn’t been able to get this far since the mermaid had appeared right after it happened.
“Okay, then.”
Yona sighed.
As she approached the sanctuary altar, Kaiyak and Alex cautiously followed right beside her, fully prepared to rescue Yona at a moment’s notice no matter what might spring out.
As they got closer, they noticed that the turtle statue was quite intricately crafted.
The turtle’s shell and limbs were detailed to the point of resembling a real turtle, yet the head was missing entirely, with the black fluid dripping from where it should be, making it look even more gruesome.
It was all a mess, and the head part had gone missing somewhere, with black goo dripping down, making it even more grotesque.
“Then I’ll start.”
Yona took a deep breath and focused on her lower abdomen.
A warm feeling of divinity began to swirl and circulate through her body as she directed it.
With the Sacred Barrier wrapped around her right arm, the blue divine energy rose from her arm.
– Squish…
As soon as Yona shoved her arm into the statue’s neck, a sticky sound accompanied the gooey sensation wrapping around her arm, and she frowned.
An indescribably unpleasant feeling.
Moreover, the goo being burned by the divine energy was spewing out cloudy smoke, further ruining her mood.
Suddenly, as a cool breeze blew and the smoke dispersed, Yona glanced sideways.
Alex was fanning her with a large leaf. The breeze from his fanning cooled the sweat on Yona’s face while blowing away the rising smoke.
‘That clever little…’
Yona smirked faintly.
He really is thoughtful.
After all, only Alex would take care of her like this, Yona thought.
*
The purification continued for quite some time after that.
It lasted even longer than the purification they did in James’ village, but by the time Yona had used about half her divine power, the smoke had finally ceased.
It seemed most of the goo had dried up, and the sticky unpleasantness was gone as well; it was just about time for Yona to scrape her hand against the empty space of the statue’s floor.
‘…Huh?’
Something touched the tip of Yona’s finger.
When she pulled it out, it looked like a glass shard, resembling a piece of decoration.
This was the second time.
There had been glass shards in the sacred tree, and now there were shards here too.
‘Is this the cause?’
Yona examined the glass shard.
The black goo that had been clinging to the Sacred Barrier started to burn away, and faint smoke began to rise as the Sacred Barrier was returning to its original white.
Stuffing the glass shard into her sling bag, Yona turned to Alex and Kaiyak.
“All done.”
“Really?”
“What about the tattoo?”
At the contrasting questions from Kaiyak and Alex, Yona looked around her body.
While it seemed that no new tattoos had appeared, she felt uncertain if it was truly over—
Peeking into the chest area of her nun’s outfit, there it was.
A black tattoo was now placed right over her previously white skin on her right breast.
She had anticipated it.
She had expected it, but seeing it made Yona bite her lip hard.
She had seen it coming.
It was exactly what she had expected.
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