“So, you’ve figured out what to do with her already?”

“Of course.”

*****

“What are you doing, Irene?” Seulgi asked as soon as she saw Irene, sitting by the table seemingly writing down something with a fountain pen into her notebook. 

Seulgi wanted to look for Irene after her swordsmanship training session but couldn’t find her anywhere so she had resorted to asking around. When she did however, she was told that Irene was spotted in the estate’s library. 

“I’m writing down a prayer.” Irene gave her a small smile as Seulgi settled down on the chair opposite her. 

“What kinda prayer?” Seulgi asked, her eyebrow quirked as she wondered what sort of prayer was so important that Irene had to write it down. 

“It’s a new prayer I’m currently working on, it should be powerful enough that it can even work against a Demon Lord.” Irene answered, “That is, if it is a success.” 

“Wow.” Astonished, Seulgi’s eyes widen as she gave Irene a look in awe, “Can you show it to me?” 

“Sigh, I would show if I could but I can’t.” Irene sighed before she gave Seulgi a pout.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to show it to Seulgi, it was her soul that was the problem. After a whole year of recovery, she could confidently say that she was strong enough to go back to the battlefield but this particular prayer she was working on required a completely healthy soul, hers just hasn’t fully recovered yet. 

But it wasn’t like Seulgi had never seen it before, Irene had been experimenting with the prayer for quite well. Every time when there’s a glow of multiple colours in one single strike, everyone would know it was Irene, it was her signature.

“If you’ve already use it before then why are you still working on it?” Seulgi asked, curious as to why Irene would do so. 

“Well isn’t it obvious? It’s not perfect yet and I still haven’t figure out the shortened version yet.”

“Shortened version?” Seulgi asked, a frown started to creep on her face, “What’s that?” If Seulgi wasn’t curious before then she surely would be after hearing what Irene had just said. 

“Well, since you’re about to become a demon slayer now, I suppose I should teach you some tricks.” 

“Huh? What tricks?” Seulgi asked, leaning toward Irene. 

“You see, you don’t always have to say full prayers when you fight.” 

“I don’t need to them anyways, I got the scythe. Remember?” Seulgi reminded her. 

“Don’t say that, Seulgi.” Irene retorted as she gave Seulgi a firm look, “Words are powerful, don’t simply say them. Our words can have a strong effect on literally everything.” She spoke as she put a hand atop of Seulgi's. 

“Speak praises and ask earnestly to the virtues then bless you they shall but if you speak to the devils and demons then induced in magic and curses you will.” 

Seulgi was speechless after Irene’s explanation, she would have never thought of it if Irene never taught her of it. Has she been sincere enough with her prayers? Was that why she wasn’t blessed? 

“Words are truly powerful, Seulgi. They can sever our connections and invite the unwelcomed ones as wells so think carefully before you speak.” Irene continued when she saw the baffled look on Seulgi’s face. 

“Wow.” Was Seulgi’s only reply and there was silence for a few seconds before Irene continued. 

“Alright, how about I teach the trick I was talking about?” She gave Seulgi a small smile as she spoke. In return, Seulgi gave her a nod as an answer. 

“Alright then, when I say shortened version I meant cutting down the amount of words you say when you pray.” 

“Cut...down?” Whatever Irene was saying did not make sense to Seulgi. 

“Yup, you don’t have to say the whole prayer, Seulgi. You only need to say the important parts.” 

“Ermm what?” Seulgi really wasn’t catching on whatever Irene was telling her but Irene was patient with her and instead of giving a deadpanned look, she gave Seulgi a small smile. A confused Seulgi was a really cute Seulgi, or so Irene thought. 

“Hmm.” Irene thought to herself what she could do to help Seulgi understand, “I'll show you an example then.” 

“Okay.”

“Tell me, what do you say when you pray for strength? Show me.” 

Seulgi nodded then started reciting her prayer..

“O' great Holy Knight of Diligence, bestow upon me thy strength to stand against those who obstruct my path.” 

When she finished reciting, a subtle red glow surrounded her as she felt the blessings flowing through her. 

“You see my point now? It takes too long to say the prayer.” Irene pointed out.

“Then what am I supposed to do?” Seulgi asked, the look on her face as she frowned and pouted at the same time gave Irene the urge to pinch her cheeks but she willed herself to hold back. 

“It’s as simple as I said, you cut down what you say.” 

“How then?” 

“Instead of full sentences, all you need to say is what you need from the prayer. For example, when you prayed for strength just now, it’s either you pray to the virtue of Diligence or Humility right? All you got to say is the two keywords, ‘Humility’ and ‘Strength'.” 

“Huh, okay?” Even after all that explaining, Seulgi was apparently still confused.

“It’s okay if you’re still abit confused, you’ll understand when you’re on the battlefield. As long as you have enough faith, then the virtues will bless you no matter what.” 

*****

It was after an hour when Seulgi finally walked out of the library and made her way to the research lab for her scheduled ‘Burning' session. 

When she had stepped into the room, she was surprised to see Sooyoung was there with Taeyeon in the room. 

“What are you doing here?” She asked as she walked over to the both of them. 

“Here to see if you’d die.” Was Sooyoung's response. 

“Why would I die?” Seulgi asked Sooyoung, “Didn’t I swallowed it just fine? It’s been a day and I still haven’t burn to death.” 

“Keyword, Seulgi. You haven’t.” Sooyoung replied and in turn, Seulgi gave her a deadpanned look. 

“Enough talking, let’s see what you can do Seulgi.” Taeyeon interrupted their conversation as she asked Seulgi to try a few things. 

Ever since they started the project a year ago, Taeyeon had been too engrossed in the project and have basically shunned herself from the world, only interacting with other people when she needed to.

She was too driven with her thirst for vengeance that she had left behind any sort of emotional attachment with the people around her. 

“I don’t understand, it should’ve worked.” Taeyeon said,  confused as to why Seulgi couldn’t summon the vermillion flame. 

“Erm, how would I know?” Seulgi was embarrassed and at the same time, pissed. She had no problem taking in the fire orb but she wasn’t able to harness anything from it? Then what’s the point of her suffering for a whole year?

“Hold on a sec.” Sooyoung interrupted, her eye scanning Seulgi from up to down and all over, “Something doesn’t feel right.” 

When she realised the problem, her eyes widened as she looked at Seulgi in shock, “Your soul, it’s tainted.” 

“Everyone’s soul is tainted, Sooyoung. We all sin.” Taeyeon deadpanned as Seulgi stood beside with a baffled look. 

“You don’t get it,  her soul was just cleansed to almost perfect yesterday. There’s no way it’ll be like this, it looks like we’ve never tried cleansing her soul before.

‘Could it be the scythe?’ Seulgi wondered to herself, she was befuddled with the new piece of information.

“Could be, it feeds on dark energy and you’ve absorbed all of Wrath's dark energy. It would make sense if your soul’s influenced by it.” 

“Hey! What did I say about reading my mind! It’s rude, Sooyoung!” 

“Well we have to at least know the problem you know. I don’t think the flame would work if your soul’s this tainted, best we can do it is hope you get around it and then suddenly is able to summon it.” Sooyoung continued, not caring about Seulgi.

*****

Irene was done with her work a few minutes after Seulgi had left the library, although she hadn’t really figured out the shortened version but she knew she’d get there someday. 

“Miss Irene.” She heard just when she stepped out of the library, about to make her way to her shared room with Seulgi to take an afternoon nap.

“Oh, Mister Bogum. Good afternoon.” She greeted him out of courtesy when she turned around and saw him walking toward her. 

Irene had heard of Bogum. Well, she did meet him when Yunho introduced both Minho and Bogum to Taeyeon a year ago. 

Bogum was the second head of the Son household, just behind Minho. From what she had heard, the both of them were cousins instead of brothers and were competing for taking the head role of the household before the Son household joined the church. 

Minho was the compassionate one with big ambitions to help people as much as he could so he involved himself with the church and eventually made the whole household joined the church. 

Bogum on the other hand was the cunning, egoistic and prideful one who was too selfish to think about the people around him, only offering his help when there’s something in return. 

And Irene knows, albeit Seulgi not saying it, she knew Seulgi was uncomfortable whenever Bogum was around. She was aware of how much more protective Seulgi would become whenever Bogum was standing in the same space and breathing the same air as them and she definitely knew the weird looks Bogum gave her. 

However, since the church needed the fund and support from the Son household, she supposed she should at least be civil and polite around him even if she too, didn’t like sharing the same space as him. 

“I was wondering if we can have a talk. You know, get to know each other.” Bogum said when he reached her, his eyes gleaming a bit of blue and purple but Irene didn’t give much thought as she was trying to not look at him as much as possible.

“Ermm, sure.” Irene replied as they both started walking, they talked for a few minutes with him asking questions. Irene would answer the ones she felt comfortable enough to share but not the ones that felt personal to her. After all, she didn’t really like him to begin with. 

“I was wondering if you’d like to go out on a date with me.” Bogum said as his hand went south as if trying to on Irene's bottom.

Just when his hand was about to reach it, a hand grabbed onto his wrist and immediately flipped his whole body over, slamming him to the ground, hard. 

Shock, he immediately tried to get up but stopped midway as a fountain pen's tip touched the skin of his throat, glowing violently in crimson red. One wrong move and the sharp tip would straight into his throat. 

“Try to do it again and I’ll feed you to Sooyoung.” Irene warned him with a menacing glare before she removed the pen from threatening to stab open his throat. 

“And for your information, I have a lover and her name is Kang Seulgi.” She walked away, not caring to turn back and even spare a glance at him as she spoke. 

*****

“You’re finally going out for your first mission.” Irene said as she squeezed their intertwined hands firmly.

“Yeah.” Prior coming to the departure area, Seulgi had been blessed by Taeyeon to become a demon slayer.

“Hey, remember years ago when you promised me we’d slay demons together?” Irene said suddenly after a few minutes of comfortable silence. 

“What!” Seulgi’s eyes widened when she heard what Irene had said, “You were the girl?” 

“Yes, I’m the girl you promised almost ten years ago.” Irene chuckled as she answered Seulgi.

“B-but how? I didn’t even tell you my name.” 

“Well, your mom shouted your name when she called you to go over to her and I kind of just remembered your name ever since.” 

Seulgi’s brain short-circuited when she heard Irene’s answer, “So you knew this whole time and didn’t say a thing?” She asked after a few seconds to which Irene nodded.

Seulgi pouted as she removed her hand from Irene’s hold, sulking to herself. 

“Don’t be angry, I’m sorry alright?” Irene apologised as she hugged Seulgi from the side, her head snuggling onto Seulgi’s shoulder. 

“Besides, what matters is that we’re together now right? Although I still can’t kill demons with you but I’m getting there, no?” 

“Fine.” Seulgi said as she turned to give Irene the hug she knew she deserved. 

“Now go, tell me how your first experience was after you come back.” Irene said after they broke the hug. 

*****

Everything was going on smoothly, their raid was smooth sailing without any major problems aside from a few minor injuries that could be dissolved on site. 

Boa, the Knight of Chastity was personally leading the whole raid team of fifteen. Seulgi wasn’t doing the most damage as she was new to it but she was able to get some experience out from it. 

The demons she had to handle and dealt with were the weakest ones but to be honest, being on the battlefield was far more different than her usual training sessions. It wasn’t that she had not been on the battlefield before -she literally slayed a Demon Lord albeit with the help of the scythe- it was just that actually slaying the demons and not fighting for survival was so different to her. 

It all went well, in fact too well until a certain Lord of Greed decided to show up. 

“Relax, I’m not here to kill you all. I’m here to show off.” Greed said as he smirked at them when he saw Boa commanding everyone to jump into formation. 

“Your formations have no use, just give up.” He said before summoning a group of humans. 

However, everyone’s eyes widened in shock when they saw their past companions, the corpses of the thought to be dead demon slayers appeared before them. 

“This, are my puppets and I would like invite you bunch to join in on my collection.” 

*****

Seulgi had been ordered by Boa to stand behind and watch as her teammates fought -Seulgi was too new for this, she said- but almost everyone was having a hard time. Either from not having the will in them to slay their once friends or the puppets simply overpowering them. 

It was only when a certain puppet was about to stab her teammate, Amber in the chest did she move. Seulgi immediately dashed forward and blocked the blade with her scythe before she pushed the puppet away. 

“You alright?” She asked as she held a hand out for Amber to grab onto. 

“I’m alright, thanks.” 

“No problem.” Seulgi replied before the blade of her scythe lit up in bluish hellfire, “I’m not gonna stand there and do nothing.”

So she helped Amber to defeat the puppet, two on one shouldn’t be that hard right?

‘Stab him.’ She heard a voice spoke to her inside her head as she was parrying the strike from the puppet.

‘Oh, so you suddenly decided to talk now?’ She spoke to it sarcastically as she pushed her opponent with her right palm, exerting just enough power from the hellfire to blast him away and hit a wall. 

‘I’