The Rain Idol: Diva of the Divine

Chapter 4

"Holy shit, what is this?!" Genta slammed his phone onto the wooden floor. The cracked screen was still lit, showing the shadow in the photo which now seemed to crawl out from the pixels, its tongue licking the corner of the screen.

Laras shrieked, backing away until her back hit an extinguished lamp post. "Genta, that's not my shadow! It's... it's pulling something out from behind my jacket!"

Genta didn't waste a second. He grabbed Laras's wrist, pulling the girl along as they ran through the darkness. Behind them, the sound of laughter that sounded like a knife scraping against a glass plate drew closer. Every step Genta took left a trail of pale blue energy on the ground, a makeshift Taoist technique to misdirect their pursuers.

"Don't look back, Laras! If you see its eyes, you'll become an exhibit in their gallery!" Genta shouted amidst his heavy breathing.

THUD!

They leaped into an almost empty express train heading toward Changi Airport. The doors closed just as a pitch-black claw slammed against the outer glass, leaving a spiderweb-patterned crack. Genta panted, his chest heaving. Laras sat on the train floor, her breath hitching, her previously neat hair now a mess as if she had just escaped a storm.

"What... what was chasing us back there?" Laras asked, her voice hoarse.

Genta glanced around. The other passengers in the carriage—a middle-aged man sleeping with his mouth open and a high school girl busy with her headset—were oblivious to the monster that had just tried to rip through reality behind them. Genta snorted, wiping the sweat from his temples. "Just some lapdogs of the War God with nothing better to do. Looks like they don't like you being the new 'star'."

"What kind of star has to run like they're being chased by debt collectors every night?!" Laras snapped, her face pale as a ghost yet her tone remained sharp.

"Quiet down, Drama Queen. We're going to Seoul now. Mr. Park won't wait. Once we get to Korea, I'll give you protection that low-level entities like that can't touch."

**

Six hours later, the Seoul air greeted them with a bone-chilling cold. However, instead of feeling relieved, Laras began to shake violently the moment they stepped foot into a Seoul subway station.

"Genta..." Laras gripped Genta's arm. Her face turned blue, and her eyes began to roll back. "This train... why does it feel like it's going to swallow me whole?"

Genta looked around. He activated his indigo vision. His eyes widened. Dammit.

Seoul's underground infrastructure wasn't just concrete and iron. The station's architecture was designed with a very rigid geo-feng shui pattern, straight lines that brutally cut through the flow of spiritual energy. To ordinary humans, it was transport efficiency. But for Laras, who now possessed a goddess's energy core within her soul, this system was a meat grinder. Laras's chaotic aura reacted to the structure, causing her body to undergo spiritual rejection.

Laras staggered, a thin foam mixed with golden light particles escaping her mouth.

"Shit, the train system is too 'rigid'!" Genta cursed. "She's being filtered by the city's energy! If I don't hurry, she'll dissolve into astral dust before we even reach Gangnam!"

Around them, other passengers began to stare. "Hey, what's wrong with that girl? Is it epilepsy?" whispered an old lady with a shopping bag.

"No, Ma'am! She's just... uh, allergic to train schedules that are too on-time!" Genta blurted out randomly while covering Laras's body with his jacket.

Genta reached into his pocket. He was out of talismans. All he had was a handful of won coins and their T-money transit cards. This was no time for subtle techniques.

"Laras, listen to me. You have to hold on. If you give in to this pressure, you'll become a ghost haunting this platform forever," Genta commanded sternly.

"I... I can't... it feels like I'm being stabbed by thousands of needles..." Laras moaned. Her body began to turn translucent at the arms.

Genta gritted his teeth. He pulled a permanent marker from his bag—the most useful item in the life of a modern exorcist. He took Laras's T-money card and his own, then pressed them together. With lightning-fast movements, he drew the 'Inverted Heaven Restraint' seal pattern using the coins he arranged in a circle around the cards.

"Action!" Genta shouted to himself.

He placed the arrangement of coins and cards right over Laras's heart chakra. The emergency array reacted. The sound of static electricity filled the space around them, creating an invisible barrier that made all the nearby passengers reflexively step back—as if a sudden air pressure was pushing them away.

"What are you doing?!" Laras screamed as a flow of cold energy pierced her chest.

"System modification! I'm hacking this station's energy flow so you can pass through without getting shredded!" Genta pressed his palm against Laras's shoulder, channeling his indigo energy to lock the array.

Suddenly, the station lights flickered wildly. The train signals that should have been green turned pitch black. The previously melodic station announcement turned into a painful, distorted shriek.

"Attention, passengers. Please stay away from the train... danger... danger..." the robotic voice sounded inhuman.

Laras opened her eyes. Her irises now glowed with a bright golden light, piercing through Genta's jacket. She stared toward the dark tunnel ahead of the train that had just arrived.

"Genta," Laras whispered, her voice heavy, no longer the voice of the frightened girl from before. "It's not just this train that's rigid. There's something waiting for us in Gangnam. Something much bigger than those dogs."

Genta turned toward the tunnel. In the distance, a pair of glowing red eyes emerged from the darkness, standing in the middle of tracks surging with thousands of volts of electricity. The figure wasn't electrocuted. Instead, it was absorbing the energy.

"A new trainee?" a deep voice echoed in Genta's head, vibrating the train carriage. "Let's see if you have the talent to survive in this cruel entertainment industry."

The train stopped right in front of them with a deafening metallic screech. The doors opened. But there were no empty seats inside the carriage. All there was was a row of faceless figures sitting neatly, holding cameras pointed directly at Laras. 

"Genta," Laras stood up, her hands radiating golden energy that was beginning to crack. "I think this is the weirdest audition I've ever attended."

Genta took a deep breath, getting into a fighting stance. "Welcome to Seoul, Laras. Don't die yet, because I haven't paid your management fees."

The figure on the platform stepped forward, its hand holding a contract burning with black fire.

"Sign this contract with your blood," the figure said, "or I will erase your existence from this world before the sun rises."

Genta smirked, pulling out a pocketknife coated in prayer ink. "Sorry, Boss. We don't accept exclusive contracts from astral beings. We only take contracts that come with royalties."

Genta lunged at the figure, the emergency array on Laras's chest beginning to throb like a time bomb ready to explode at any moment.