Chapter 595

Magic is such a power.

Just look at Jinseong; he faced countless costs and still met a grim end, didn’t he?

Often, a shaman meets their demise due to an unbearable and horrific price—either death or their sanity warped beyond recognition—that’s just the customary finale for them.

In that regard, throwing oneself into a volcano isn’t too bad as far as endings go, you know?

Yet, the reason that the death of that shaman stuck in Jinseong’s mind was that, at the very end, they didn’t cast magic but rather something akin to it.

A shaman who, with a muddled mind, managed to mess up their final grand act…

They intended to offer their very life without hesitation, and yet, because their mind wasn’t right, they couldn’t even perform the act correctly before they died. Where can you find such tragedy?

Truly, it’s a lamentable affair.

Moreover, because the magic wasn’t properly executed, countless flies started swarming afterward.

If only they’d cast proper magic to pacify the volcano, it wouldn’t have been like they just jumped in and caused chaos… Naturally, the volcano wouldn’t calm down, right? As a result, the volcano began to rampage, influenced by the environment ravaged by humans, roaring at random times with a big, “Am I about to erupt? Am I about to erupt!”

And that volcano isn’t just your average volcano; it’s a supervolcano capable of wiping out all of humanity if it erupts properly.

Scientists stated that if the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts, magma and volcanic ash would spew out over 1,000 cubic kilometers, blocking the sun and plunging the world into a prolonged winter, leading to food shortages.

Of course, along with the apocalypse scenario for humanity, they offered solutions and preventive measures…but those suggestions like “Let’s not throw trash carelessly” or “Let’s reduce carbon emissions” aren’t exactly grand environmental strategies. There was mention of a plan to drill a hole over 10 kilometers deep into the supervolcano and pour water under high pressure, but due to concerns that it could cause more harm than good, it never went into execution.

And the proposed solutions were about using great magic or magical science to remove or disperse the volcanic ash that would blanket the sky.

In short, they were methods to keep the prolonged winter caused by a volcanic eruption from leading to food shortages, not solutions to the direct damage caused by the eruption itself.

Honestly speaking, it’s a ludicrous idea to even imagine stopping such an eruption.

If we can’t even dream of stopping a regular volcanic eruption, how could we possibly stop the eruption of a supervolcano? We should commend them for coming up with a plan to tackle the damage afterwards, which is far more horrifying than the eruption itself.

But there were those unsatisfied with such “solutions.”

Those were the Americans.

If a volcanic eruption occurs, it’s clear their country will be destroyed.

The aftermath?

A nation in ruins with countless lives taken—is removing ash really that important in the grand scheme of things?

They could end up either swallowed by magma, crushed by flying boulders, or buried alive like the citizens of Pompeii. Some experts even suggested that two-thirds of America would be obliterated in the event of an eruption, which painted the Yellowstone volcano’s stirring as pure terror for the Americans.

Thus, in the wake of the shaman who sacrificed themselves to the volcano, countless individuals flocked to this Yellowstone volcano.

They aimed to calm it down using similar methods as the shaman had demonstrated.

They would fervently chant the name of the goddess Poliah and perform rituals akin to what the shaman did—then they began throwing people into the volcano. Just as the shaman had offered themselves as a sacrifice to calm the volcano, they were now trying to calm it by sacrificing numerous individuals they’d brought from who knows where.

As you might expect, this madness gradually morphed into something grotesque.

The shaman’s initial ritual was flawed to begin with, so of course, throwing people in wouldn’t yield any effect. Then, twisted and corrupted into an outright evil ritual of human sacrifice, it became a horrifying spectacle…

Had it been effective, that would have been the odd part!

Thus, countless people poured into the volcano.

Some were thrown into the holes dug by scientists attempting to pour water under high pressure to soothe the volcano, while others were cast into the steaming scalding water with ghastly amounts of steam billowing from it. They dug down to the underground magma and dumped people in by the hundreds, and each time an earthquake occurred near Yellowstone National Park, they would frantically bury people alive as offerings.

It was as if the Aztec madness of sacrificing people to maintain the sun had resurfaced in modern times.

This obsession continued relentlessly.

Until the earthquakes around the national park ceased and the volcano quieted a bit.

Well, perhaps the volcano didn’t become calm, but rather they simply could not focus on it due to the multitude of catastrophic events happening around that time.

Regardless, that madness eventually came to a halt.

The frenzy initiated by the shaman who lost their senses… came to an end.

But in this twisted time.

That frenzy will surely reemerge.

Like a train rolling along a track.

Unless the future transforms with the flutter of a butterfly’s wings, it is bound to happen.

*

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Having been treated well, how could one simply ignore this?

That would not be proper for a guest.

Thus, Jinseong resolved to seek out the shaman to reciprocate.

What could be so difficult about it?

He was a shy one, reluctant to reveal his name or even show his face.

But just like Cinderella from fairy tales leaving behind her glass slipper, wasn’t he leaving behind plenty of traces?

How could he not find them after this?

“I’ll offer guidance. For every twenty steps, draw a bird’s feather on the tree. The bird is a wise creature that travels from the coldest to the hottest places without ever losing its way. This is to teach you the skill of following a feather’s sense of direction. By carefully engraving the feather into the tree, the scent it emanates will guide you to your desired destination without losing your way.”

Once outside the hotel, Jinseong drew a feather resembling a bird on the ground.

Though it was just a quick sketch, it was done so skillfully that the shadows and three-dimensional aspects tricked the eyes into believing that a feather had truly fallen on the ground.

As the feather was drawn, it began radiating an aura as Jinseong chanted the invocation, and ultimately, it started to emit the unique scent of a bird.

A faint yet intensely piercing smell wafted through the air.

Slowly, that scent began to lead somewhere.

That direction was exactly where the shaman who had assaulted him had disappeared, stretching far out of sight, guiding Jinseong somewhere.

At the end of this trail, the shaman must surely be there.

The one who welcomed a foreigner to their land with such heartfelt hospitality.

Jinseong nodded slightly, expressionless, at the thought of them.

He glanced in the direction where the shaman was last seen before returning to the hotel.

He then returned to his room to find Odilia and Rise.

Both were quietly resting in the room.

Just as Jinseong had said.

But their attitudes had a slight difference.

Odilia held a strange talisman, unsure of where she found it, and kept her eyes tightly shut, while Rise knelt in prayer. Her demeanor resembled that of a meditative monk, contrasting sharply with Odilia’s terrified posture.

“You’ve come.”

Rise, upon feeling a presence during her prayer, opened her eyes wide.

After confirming Jinseong’s face, she smiled brightly and gracefully stood up.

She must have knelt for quite some time, but she showed no signs of discomfort, her expression calm.

It was as if she was silently asking Jinseong if she could go now, and when he smiled back at her, Jinseong dismantled the precautions he had set up to avoid the shaman’s attack and told Odilia and Rise that everything was over, and they could rest easy.

“Whew…”

Odilia sighed heavily with a tired face and threw herself onto the bed.

The sight of her body flopping onto the bed in a big “X” shape was reminiscent of a scene from a bed advertisement or a movie.

Of course, that stunning moment was short-lived.

Odilia suddenly remembered she was wearing a short skirt, quickly gathered her legs, and rolled her body to dive under the covers, feeling as if she were a living blanket, refusing to emerge as if claiming the bed entirely.

Rise observed Odilia with a puzzled expression before finally asking, “Shall we have some coffee, my lord?”

She said this with a beaming smile.