I’m Trying to End This Possession Chapter 238

* * *

There were 18 hours and 3 minutes left. Carried on Carl’s back, Dana arrived at the capital of the sanctuary.

 

“Well done! Carl Windsor!”

 

“Wow. Thanks.”

 

“Over there, to that mountain! The mountain!”

 

“The mountain?”

 

“Yeah! Go to that mountain over there!”

 

The same mountain she had climbed with Noah in the future. That mountain was filled with countless black cores buried within. She had personally dug them up and detonated them in the future. From there, Dana dug out the black cores, those dormant contaminations, one by one.

 

“What are you doing?”

 

“It’s a secret. If you touch them, it’ll be a big problem. Go stand over there.”

 

“Okay. Got it.”

 

Perhaps he found it amusing how Dana was digging into the ground as if harvesting sweet potatoes. Carl followed behind her with a sly grin.

 

At that time, the remaining time was 15 hours and 11 minutes left.

 

“This time, to the Grand Cathedral, Carl Windsor!” Dana rode on Carl’s shoulders, clutching his hair like reins. “Hurry, hurry!”

 

“Yeah, yeah. I’m going, I’m going.” Carl humored her, seemingly entertained by the situation.

 

13 hours and 38 minutes left. They succeeded in infiltrating the Grand Cathedral. A fierce battle was raging inside.

 

“Execute all the traitors!”

 

“Filthy demon worshipers!”

 

A fight had broken out with the radical priest of barbarian origin.

 

What nonsense! Like they aren’t demon worshippers too! Dana wanted to jump in and shout that at them, but she kept quiet and clung to Carl as he carried her between buildings.

 

13 hours and 1 minute left. At last, they reached Danawin’s bedroom. But Ignis wasn’t there.

 

He’s gone! Where? Where did he go? Dana fell into panic. He was supposed to be hiding here! Was he discovered after all? She spun her mind at full speed. If Ignis had been captured, he would’ve been dragged back to the laboratory! Straight to Holy Mother Chapel!

 

And sure enough, Carl spoke up at that moment. “He was probably taken to Holy Mother Chapel.”

 

He really was there! Dana grabbed Carl. “Let’s go there!”

 

“Um.” Carl scratched his cheek. “I don’t want to.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“This is as far as I’m going.”

 

At that moment, Dana realized the excitement had vanished from Carl’s eyes.

 

“The Holy Mother Chapel is unpleasant. I don’t like it there.”

 

“But I have to go.”

 

“Then go ahead.” Now completely uninterested, Carl suddenly stretched and yawned. “Good luck.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Bye. It was fun.”

 

He’s just leaving like this? Dana was flustered. If it were Carl, she had assumed he would naturally stay with her until the end!

 

“W-Where are you going, leaving a child behind?!”

 

At her shout, he twisted his lips into a smile. “Why are you a child?”

 

“Huh?”

 

“You’re originally an adult.”

 

“…”

 

Tilting his head, Carl rolled his eyes. “I remember everything. When you were an adult, you were about this tall, your neck was this thin, and your eyes and lips were round just like now…”

 

At the delicate description, Dana was shocked. The day this guy acknowledges me as an adult has come!

 

“Well, right now your mental age and body are both that of a child, so I suppose you’d need help, right?”

 

Dana looked down at her short limbs. He was right. There were limits to what she could do with a child’s body.

 

“That’s right.” She threw away her pride. There was no time to be stubborn. Dana grabbed his collar and clung to him. “Please help me.”

 

“…”

 

Carl tilted his head as if considering it. “If I help you, then in return.” Suddenly, he reached out. With one hand, he seized both her cheeks. “Will you follow me?”

 

Within the boy’s grip, Dana’s cheeks were squished. It was gentle yet rough. She held her breath.

 

Carl Windsor spoke softly. “I’m getting married next year. I have a fiancée chosen by my family.”

 

Marriage. Fiancée. It must be Sandra…

 

“But she already has a son. I’m going to accept him as my own and add him to the family register.”

 

A son. Rumie then.

 

“So, let’s say you become my daughter. Then the other side won’t be able to say anything and will have to accept it.”

 

“…”

 

“You can stay by my side like that, and when I need you, you can be useful to me. How about it?”

 

Dana couldn’t answer immediately. His smiling green eyes were like flames, freezing her breath on their own. Young Carl is strangely frightening…

 

Overcoming the heavy pressure, she barely asked, “What kind of use?”

 

“I want the sanctuary.”

 

The sanctuary? This ominous land where the seven-headed serpent slept, where my body lay asleep? Why on earth?

 

“But I don’t want to become the leader of Daiana Church. That’s too filthy. So I’m thinking of various ways to obtain the sanctuary.” Squeeze. The grip around her cheeks tightened. His eyes flashed. “You, the treasure of the sanctuary, are useful in all sorts of ways.”

 

“…”

 

Useful. At that word, Dana’s nose tingled. Her heart hurt. It was the first time he had spoken his true feelings too bluntly. A child is really just a child. He doesn’t hide his intentions.

 

Her lips trembled, but Dana pulled herself together. “Why do you want the sanctuary?”

 

“There’s something I need to do.”

 

“What is it?”

 

Carl smiled brightly. “Who said you could keep asking questions?”

 

“…”

 

“What you’re supposed to do is answer. Not ask.”

 

“…”

 

Look at that temper… He’s scary after all…

 

Dana felt miserable. Adult Carl would never handle her this roughly, never speak so curtly. He always touched her gently and spoke sweet, tender words that melted her ears…

 

“Fine.” Dana lied. “I’ll do it.” She would leave this world within the remaining time anyway. What happened afterward was none of her concern. “So, get me a ship. So I can run away to the empire!”

 

Carl tilted his head. “Then how will you get to Holy Mother Chapel?”

 

“Don’t worry! I can go alone.”

 

“How? Are you going to roll there pretending to be an acorn?”

 

“I won’t! I have a method!” Dana shouted huffily. “Just prepare the ship!”

 

Clatter. A black core rolled around in her pocket.

 

* * *

It was after Carl left to secure a ship.

 

“The prophecy…!”

 

Dana detonated something more dreadful than a bomb at the center of the Grand Cathedral. She detonated a black core.

 

“The prophecy has been fulfilled!”

 

It was the moment the first contamination in this world began. Priests who stepped upon the rotting ground began to rot and die. And yet they rejoiced.

 

“The land is rotting! The world is being contaminated!”

 

“The Sun God’s blessing has ended!”

 

“We were not wrong!”

 

It was a grotesque sight. The priests, whose lives, efforts, and entire existences were proven right by their deaths, rotted away in fanatical ecstasy.

 

They’re completely insane… Yet thanks to that frenzy, Dana was able to slip into the Holy Mother Chapel without difficulty. This body was so small that hiding behind a pillar was perfect concealment. Being small does have advantages. Proudly, she scurried around the corner.

 

“—!”

 

Thud! She then crashed into a giant man and tumbled. That man was…

 

* * *

Demian Windsor thought to himself. The Windsor family, the Daiana Church, they were completely insane. Madmen.

 

The land had begun to rot. The omen of destruction had started. And yet they rejoiced as though blessed by God. They should be afraid! Demian simply couldn’t keep living as one of them.

 

Let’s run away. He had failed last time, but if he fled amid this chaos, he would succeed. No one would be paying attention now. Let’s go. Let’s live happily with her.

 

Demian hated the Windsors. He hated the sanctuary. He just wanted to live an ordinary life. To meet a decent woman, have a decent family, and live peacefully. That was why, years ago, during a voyage, he willingly chose to fall in love with a woman he met by chance and had a son, Viego. Yet he could not bring himself to love his son. Because Viego, too, carried the blood of Windsor.

 

The Windsors have the blood of madness. None of them is sane. So let’s run away!

 

Demian swept bottles of holy water into his bag and ran quickly. It was when he turned the corner. Thud! He kicked something.

 

“Waaah!”

 

Something rolled away. It was a young girl.

 

Demian was startled. That woman. The one woman who possessed countless bodies. The very woman he had met recently as ‘Danawin’. It was Dana.

 

“So you really did enter a child’s body this time.” A wave of deep disgust washed over him, and he sneered. “How nice to have multiple bodies. No matter how many times you die, you’ll never really die.”

 

Still sprawled on the floor, Dana asked sharply, “Where are you going?”

 

“You don’t need to know.”

 

The little girl’s eyes grew fierce. “Running away again? Like a coward? Last time you pretended not to know your son and abandoned him. Are you abandoning him again?”

 

At her accusation, Demian flared up. What do you know! He was about to kick the insolent woman. But… Damn it. He couldn’t put strength into his foot. Rather, the more he met her gaze, the more his hostility and disgust deflated like air from a balloon. And in their place, pity began to fill him.

 

Demian thought bleakly. He had known this would happen. If he looked at this woman too long, his heart would soften. It’s because I was brainwashed as a child.

 

All Windsor men go to the Ice Lake at a very young age.

 

“Look. That woman is the reason we live.”

 

His father had done so. His father’s father had done so. Just as Rodrigo had done to Demian and Carl, and to his grandson Viego.

 

“Look carefully at that woman’s face. It is the face of the most pitiful and most noble being in this world.”

 

Whispering such words.

 

“There is nothing more precious than that woman.”

 

And then they witness the woman sleeping in the lake. Imprisoned in this world for its sake. The eternal beauty beneath the lake.

 

“Isn’t she beautiful?”

 

She is.

 

“Dana is our everything.”

 

For over two hundred years, that woman struck countless Windsor boys as a shattering revelation. Like lightning splitting the earth or a flash blinding the eyes. The first wonder of their life, first shock, first mystery… A woman of awe. It was unforgettable. That was why he was afraid. He wanted to avoid her. Because she was a being who touched his core.

 

“Get up.” Yet without realizing it, Demian helped the girl to her feet. Grumpily, he asked, “Where are you going?”

 

“I’m looking for Ignis.”

 

“Why are you looking for that lowly b*stard?”

 

“He’s not lowly!”

 

Slap! The girl’s small hand struck his cheek. It didn’t hurt at all. If anything, it felt like being tapped by a kitten’s paw, which frightened Demian.

 

That childhood indoctrination really was dangerous. Very, very dangerous. He had to run away!

 

“Do you know where Ignis is?”

 

“Move. I must go—”

 

At that moment, the child jumped up and tightly hugged his waist. “You’re not running this time, you coward!”

 

“Let go!”

 

But slowly, Dana crawled upward, clutching at his clothes with all her strength.

 

Demian’s lips trembled helplessly. “S-Stop this. Let go…”

 

With every inch she climbed, Demian grew paler. It was as if a witch, no, a demon was crawling up from the pit of hell, ready to devour all things…

 

“Got you!”

 

At last, she wrapped her arms around his neck. Demian gasped for breath. Face before face. Eyes before eyes. He had been caught.

 

“Where’s Ignis?”

 

Unconsciously holding Dana so she wouldn’t fall, Demian Windsor sank into deep despair. If he ran now, he would surely succeed. He could go to the ordinary life he had so long desired, to the life where the woman who bore his son was waiting. Yes, that was all he wanted. But in that moment, the brightest longing in his world instantly lost its light, became meaningless. Worthless, as if the gem he’d treasured turned out to be just a common stone.

 

The instant he embraced Dana, all of Demian Windsor’s desires faded. And something entirely different began to rise. Something that had lain dormant at his roots for so, so long…

 

“Speak!”

 

At that moment, Demian was completely certain. This woman is the curse of the Windsor family.

 

“Ignis. Where is he?”

 

The moment they looked into Ice Lake back then. It was the moment the woman imprisoned there for over two hundred years had cursed them.

 

“…I will escort you.”

 

All of them were cursed by this woman.