The person standing on that marble platform didn’t look human at all.
No, it was completely impossible for a creature like that to belong to the human species.
His brain was spinning wildly and breaking down, completely unable to make sense of what he was seeing.
His dark eyes, driven by a sudden, wild intensity, eagerly scanned every single detail of the Cult Leader’s face, taking it all in with an obsessive, frightening precision.
His skin was completely flawless, a smooth sheet of pure, unblemished white—contrasting sharply against a set of long, delicate eyelashes. They framed a pair of huge, deep eyes that shone with the crystal-clear innocence of a wild deer.
Placed with perfect symmetry just below the outer corner of his left eye was a tiny, mesmerizing beauty mark.
The sharp, elegant bridge of his nose led down to a pair of plush, naturally bright red lips that looked remarkably soft and full.
A sudden, overwhelming wave of burning, primitive thirst violently clawed its way up Gi Junghyuk’s throat.
His mouth went entirely dry, his tongue feeling as though it were cracking under the heat of a desert.
A sudden, fierce urge exploded inside him, screaming at him to jump across the room, grab the pure figure standing on that stage, and take control of him by any means necessary.
It was a savage, terrifying roar of raw desire—a total collapse of his emotional control. He had never once experienced a physical reaction that completely overpowered his conscious mind to this extent.
Gi Junghyuk tightly clenched his fists inside his pockets, his knuckles turning white as his fingernails dug straight into his palms, drawing tiny beads of blood to force his focus back online.
He fought with everything he had to stop the heavy, ragged breathing that threatened to blow his cover.
His heart was hammering against his ribs so fast that his vision blurred, the edges of his sight going dark before snapping back into focus.
‘What… what is happening to my body? What the hell is going on with my system?’
Completely separate from the internal chaos tearing through the Executive Director, the ceremony moved forward with clockwork precision.
Following the speaker’s instructions, the fresh batch of candidates who had cleared transit that morning began to leave their pews, walking up the marble steps of the altar one by one.
The total number of new converts was surprisingly low.
The underlying reason for that low number was immediately explained by the head priest.
“At the same time, we must acknowledge that during the sacred journey of transit, a number of our new brothers and sisters unfortunately passed away, returning prematurely to the embrace of the divine. Let us take a brief moment of silent prayer to ensure their souls find eternal rest within the light. Amen.”
A loud chorus of “Amen” echoed through the thousands of initiates.
The prayer window lasted for just a second before ending, the crowd instantly shifting their posture to prepare for the main event of the service: the Cult Leader’s formal blessing.
The converts lined up in a straight row, dropping onto their knees before lowering their foreheads flat against the marble floor at the Cult Leader’s feet.
Through the entire sequence, the robed figure stayed completely, perfectly silent.
He simply stood at the top of the platform, radiating a deep, holy presence as his clear eyes looked down upon the bowing crowd.
Watching every single slight movement of his body, Gi Junghyuk felt the burning thirst in his throat grow even worse, swallowing hard as he kept his eyes on the target.
“The formal blessing ritual shall now begin.”
The moment the speaker gave the command, the Cult Leader slowly, gracefully leaned his upper body forward.
A set of long, pale fingers smoothly slid out from the heavy silk of his sleeve, reaching down to touch the forehead of the first kneeling follower.
But at the exact second before his skin touched the target, the Cult Leader abruptly froze, every movement instantly locking up.
He pulled his hand back, straightening his spine into a stiff, rigid line.
The head priests exchanged frantic, worried glances at the sudden disruption. One of the closest attendants quickly hurried over, leaning in toward the hood to whisper a frantic question into the silence.
Despite the priest’s repeated questions, the Cult Leader’s red lips remained tightly sealed, refusing to offer a single word of explanation.
Just as the tension in the room began to reach a breaking point, the Cult Leader slowly turned his head away from the kneeling row—his gaze sweeping down past the altar to look directly at the main floor of the hall.
A pair of dark eyes—glowing with the deep, quiet shine of polished obsidian—cut through the thousands of bodies in the room to land on one exact spot.
They were looking directly at Gi Junghyuk.
As their eyes locked across the space, Gi Junghyuk’s lungs seized, pulling a sharp, ragged breath into his chest.
On the elevated platform, the Cult Leader slowly parted his lips, whispering a few low words directly to the attending priest.
His voice was far too quiet to carry across the hall.
A brief moment passed as the whisper was passed down the line, until the head priest finally adjusted his microphone, his voice carrying a sudden, excited note of reverence.
“Hear the words of the divine! In memory of our tragic brothers and sisters who returned to the light during transit, our supreme Cult Leader has chosen to change the ritual! He shall personally give the ultimate blessing to one specific person in this hall whose inner turmoil is currently the most severe!”
The sound meant that because an unfortunate accident had reduced the number of people who were supposed to receive the blessing, this time only, an extra person would be specially chosen to receive it.
The believers, understanding the words instantly, wore expressions of immense excitement. They looked on with desperate eyes, hoping the chance would fall to them.
“I am told that the Leader has already found a suffering soul. Will the brother sitting over there please come up to السوق—come up to the altar with a joyful heart?”
The place the priest pointed to was none other than the seat where Gi Junghyuk was sitting.
Every single eye in the room turned toward him.
‘The Leader chose me…?’
