"If you ever hear something using your mother's voice to hurt you—
That's not your mother. That's a demon."
---
Jomarie Estadilla stood frozen in a narrow alley behind a decaying tenement complex in Tondo. The air was thick—heavy with sewage, frying oil, and something else. Something wrong.
At the far end of the alley, crawling on her knees like an insect, was Aling Rosa—his neighbor.
Her limbs twitched unnaturally. Her spine bent backward in a shape no human should make. Her jaw hung slack and unhinged. And her voice...
"Son... help me... it hurts..."
It wasn't hers.
Jomarie clenched the only weapon he had: a rusted kitchen knife wrapped in red thread, rock salt, and crumpled notebook paper inked with old prayers. His last line of defense.
-----------------------------------------
> [System Online: Divine Starlium]
> [Target Type: Possessed Civilian — Class D Demon Signature Detected]
> [Mission: EXORCISE. Do not kill the vessel.]
-----------------------------------------
"You've gotta be kidding me..." Jomarie muttered.
He'd only been Chosen for less than 48 hours.
No weapon training. No mentor. Just that divine vision—and a system that always sounded like it knew too much and said too little.
The woman stopped crawling.
And then, violently—she levitated three feet off the ground. Her limbs dangled. Her eyes rolled white. Her mouth stretched grotesquely, skin tearing open at the corners to reveal a jagged, black grin.
Two grotesque arms burst out from her back—shaped from smoke and bone, like parasites grafted onto her soul.
Jomarie staggered backward.
"I'm not ready for this…"
-----------------------------------------
> [Warning: Mental Disruption Detected.]
> [Suggestion: Engage Divine Spell Protocol.]
-----------------------------------------
"Right—right… the spell—what was it again?
Come on, think... THINK—"
He closed his eyes and uttered the word like it had been seared into his very soul.
> "Muryang Gongcheo..."
The ground beneath his feet lit up in white flame, forming a radiant sigil carved in celestial glyphs. The air warped around him. The demon shrieked as the smoke-arms flailed in agony.
Jomarie stepped forward—not to stab, but to trace.
"In the name of the One who made the stars... I bind you."
He carved a cross into the air.
The demon's scream turned into a sonic pulse that slammed Jomarie against the alley wall. His spine cracked against the concrete. Blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.
---
FLASHBACK – Three Years Ago
A younger Jomarie knelt in the dark corner of their cramped home, ears pressed against the paper-thin plywood walls.
His mother was crying—again.
"Son... I don't know how to stretch three hundred pesos for five meals…"
From the other room came the sound of his father's coughing—deep, wet, and sickening. His youngest sibling whimpered from hunger.
Jomarie clutched the collar of his school uniform.
He'd been top of his class. He had dreams once.
"God… if You're real... please... even just a little... help us."
Nothing happened.
That night, he dropped out of school and started working full-time as a housekeeper. Every plan, every dream—erased.
---
PRESENT
Blood in his mouth. Broken ribs. A demon screaming in front of him.
Still—he stood.
"You think I don't know pain?"
"You think you scare me?"
His eyes burned—not from fear, but something deeper. The system flared again.
-----------------------------------------
> [Spell: Muryang Gongcheo Recast — Efficiency x2]
-----------------------------------------
"You wear her face, but I know what you are."
The cross he'd traced reignited—now blinding, its light making the shadows themselves scream.
"By the name of the Son... by the blood... by Heaven's fire—"
Jomarie took one last step forward.
"In Jesus' name... Amen."
The demon ignited—not in flame, but in divine light. A blinding radiance erupted from inside the host body, like the sun itself rising from within a shadow.
The woman's body dropped.
No final scream. No voice.
Just silence... and smoke.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
-----------------------------------------
> [Demonic Signature: Expelled]
> [Target Status: Alive. Stable. Memory] Wiped.]
> [Mission Complete.]
> [XP Earned: 47]
> [New Unlock: Sky Piercer — Sealed Divine Artifact]
-----------------------------------------
Jomarie collapsed to his knees, gasping.
He looked down at his hands—burnt from gripping the blessed knife. Blood ran down his knees, soaking through torn denim. His body was wrecked.
But he was still breathing.
And something inside him... was stirring.
Not just a survivor.
Not just a son.
But a divine hunter.
---
Elsewhere…
Inside a glass tower uptown, a tall man in a black suit watched the footage on a flickering CCTV monitor.
He exhaled—a slow, satisfied grin creeping across his face.
His eyes gleamed—once sky blue, now crimson with slitted pupils.
"The Chosen One's flame has been lit."
"Let's see how long it burns."