Fire and ice ate at Seonghwa's body in a relentless feud for dominance over who would get to consume him first. His sleep was light as his limbs convulsed violently, yet he couldn't escape its claws that chained him down. Waking would mean more pain, so it held him under as if drowning him in a frozen lava pit.

Seonghwa battled his enemies for eternity. He weakened as they robbed him of every sanity and strength. Whenever his defences weakened, he succumbed to their invite to sleep for longer. As soon as he regained consciousness, the cycle started again as he desperately chased any light in the darkness of his mind that would lead him back on his path to waking.

The Lord had mercy on him when Seonghwa thought he couldn't take it any longer. He got sent back from death, for it was not yet time to join God's side. He still had things to do, the first being to defeat his nauseating pain.

When Seonghwa batted his eyes open, he didn't know how long it had been since he last woke. A century might have passed from how parched his throat felt. His tongue rested in his mouth like a piece of coarse fur. If empires had fallen and the ocean swallowed lands while he had been gone, he wouldn't be surprised.

But he was alive, and while sluggish, his body complied when he weakly dragged his hand to rub his eyes. It about slapped him in the face when the force it took to lift it couldn't balance its weight.

Seonghwa rested on his bed in his private chamber, tucked into the corner of the chapel. Above him were familiar grey stones shrouded in the darkness of the evening. No light fell through the tiny window that was just big enough to stretch an arm through.

Not that Seonghwa was in any condition to climb around the window right now. He was drained, as if his long agony had robbed him of more energy than he could spare.

When Seonghwa forced himself up in his bed, his arms trembled under his weight. In a flash of faintness, he sunk against the frigid wall and clutched his hand to his bare chest when the dull throb in his rib cage alerted him to his continuing agony. His sleep had been tortured by the pain of his heart that felt as if squeezed by a fist at every weak beat. Now that he woke, the pain could easily be forgotten, but it flared occasionally. The stabs lingered long enough to be worrying.

Seonghwa dragged his limbs out of bed. He quivered like a foal and had to grab onto his bed so he wouldn't fall while he slipped into pants and a tunic. With his hand pressed to his chest, trying to massage the pain away, he made his way over to the door. He needed something to eat and drink, and he had to check that nobody had required his services while he had been out. How long had he slept? Had he caught a lung infection?

Seonghwa made the mistake of taking his hand off the wall to feel his forehead for heat. A wave of nausea overcame him at the same moment, and his sight blurred as he lost his balance. In shock, he tried to grab for the door, but his hand only met its handle to pull it open with his weight as he collapsed to the floor. Uncomfortable and cold, the stone received him. The dull hit on his bones pressed a pained groan out of Seonghwa that echoed in the nave.

The flaring pain in his chest took his breath away. Seonghwa glanced at his chest to see if he found a wound, even when he could tell whatever anguished him was inside his skin. Before his gaze could flinch to his tunic, however, it got stuck on a silhouette up ahead. In the first moment, it looked human, as it stood in the middle of the brightly lit chapel and tilted its head up to the face of Christ above the altar. Serenity wafted off the shape and filled Seonghwa's heart with the sincerity of a kindred spirit who sought God's grace in moments of uncertainty.

Until it didn't look human anymore. Seonghwa's blurred sight pieced the image back together and realised that he hadn't mistaken distorted shadows as being part of the room. They were part of the silhouette and took humanity away from it bit by bit.

Seonghwa dug his fingers into his aching chest. His teeth were gritted through the pain and he panted harshly through them as he made out the figure. Candlelight blurred into long lines.

This... person had a few limbs too many to count as human, no matter the deceptively similar shape of their centre. Two legs ended in feet too long and arched where they stood on their balls to have the right amount of bones. Two arms tapered into claws too sharp and shaped to be fingernails. The ears at the sides of its normal looking head were regular at the bottom but pointed at the top.

What Seonghwa had mistaken as blurring shadows were leathery wings that sprouted from the back of the creature to fold behind it. Another rather inhumane addition was its horns that stood proudly from its head. A tail, long and slender like a snake's body, hovered above the ground.

No, this was no person. It was a monster of nightmares, and Seonghwa gladly hoped he was still asleep.

The ache in his chest renounced his feeble attempt at hope. As did the head of the creature that turned when it noticed Seonghwa's clamour. Slow and eerie, like the creaking limbs of a wooden doll, it searched for the source of unrest until two eyes settled on him. They reflected brightly, even in the distance.

Seonghwa was, unfortunately, awake.

The second understanding dawned upon him, Seonghwa threw his body around with a coarse yell. His pain was forgotten when he crashed into his bed and frantically pulled himself up on it. The thundering steps outside were accompanied by gusts of icy wind as the creature came after him.

Seonghwa's fingers wrapped around the cross fastened to the wall above his pillow. He took it from its hook and cowered into the corner as he stretched it out for protection. His eyes clenched shut, too afraid to bear the creature's visage.

He heard it breathing in the same room as him. Heard its wings shudder as they flopped shut behind it. Heard how its grotesque feet moved over the ground and its tail thumped against Seonghwa's clothes chest.

After a long moment of silence that was disrupted only by the hammering beat of his human heart, Seonghwa peeked his eyes open. Only a glimpse of the massive creature towering in his room was enough to have him squeeze them shut again with a yelp. His fingers dug into the cross until he felt they would bleed.

"D-Demon!" Seonghwa got out, the word like poison on his tongue. To cleanse himself of its vulgar taste, he muttered a prayer. Other than the rest of his body, his tongue followed his mind's urgency to banish the horror that had found its way inside the church.

"Grant unto us, we beseech Thee, O almighty God, that we, who seek the shelter of Thy protection, being defended from all evils, may serve Thee-"

"I'm afraid your attempt is futile." The words, grumbled by a reverberating and inhumane voice, came with the touch of an icy claw to Seonghwa's fingers. He flinched violently, eyes flying open in horror.

The demon had inclined over the bed to hover over Seonghwa's folded body. Its finger touched the wooden cross directly, but its skin neither shrivelled nor burned.

Terrified, Seonghwa ripped his hands to his chest and pressed impossibly further into the wall. The demon's hand dropped. It was a light grey, as if made of stone.

Even more terrifying were its amber golden eyes that shone with the fire of the Devil's purgatory.

"How- How did you get in here, vile evil?! This chapel is sacred ground!" No demonic creature could set foot inside. Seonghwa was scared out of his mind as he tried to remember what he had learned about exorcising such creatures. The rare instances of banishing harmless imps that bothered the fields had made him negligent of his studies. Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined such a monster to exist in their mortal realm. Or to be mighty enough to attack him in the Lord's cradle.

The demon tilted its head. Its hair was long and white like bones as it curled around its chin. Treacherously beautiful, as if it were a fallen angel, its features assumed those of a young man. If not for the black horns sprouting from the top of its head, its face would have fooled Seonghwa.

Until it smiled a fanged smile. Sharp teeth glinted in the dim light from outside, and Seonghwa's stomach lurched.

"Have you considered I might not be a vile evil if I am able to set foot on your sacred ground unscathed?"

Hesitantly, Seonghwa tried to determine if the demon tried to trick him. No demon was trustworthy, though their power imbalance was so glaring it would be needless cruelty to fool Seonghwa. Though that was another demon trait. They enjoyed playing with their food before eating it.

"Not that your intuition on this matter has proved sage. Don't you remember what happened? Don't you feel its echo?" The demon nodded at Seonghwa's chest.

Pain flared in it, white and scorching and enough to make Seonghwa scream. He fell onto his bed; the cross clutched to his heart as if it could mitigate his misery. Tears and drool landed on his pillow when he momentarily lost all control.

"What did you do to me, you devil?" Seonghwa gasped into the sheets. He tried to pick himself up and shake off the pain, but his arms gave in. Defenceless, he laid in front of the demon as if he were its meal.

The forsaken one crossed its arms in front of its chest. It wore bits of leather that barely covered the necessities and left large patches of his grey skin bare. Seonghwa couldn't tell where its frayed loincloth ended and the dark skin of its feet began.

"You did this to yourself. I would have left for your ridiculous mortal madness, but I needed to educate you about your health first. I couldn't reverse the curse of the White Lady. No matter my abilities to slow it, the end is inevitable. Since it's near, I found it fair to notify you as a repayment for failing my duty."

Frozen, Seonghwa leaned against the wall at an angle that neither lay nor sat. His eyes searched the demon's face for a lie, but it didn't seem to joke. Its bothered frown was real.

"I... I got cursed?" He remembered. The lady at the door, her penetrating touch. The pain had been the same as the one that still gnawed at him.

"You foolishly presented yourself to an evil that couldn't enter the sacred ground and your naiveté brought you close enough for her to curse you. Your heart is dying in your chest. I gave you time, but it will carry you off soon."

Warm from his touch, the cross rested in Seonghwa's lax fingers. It spoke no word, as if afraid to give an opinion to the dread that clouded the air.

The demon sneered at Seonghwa, but it made no move to hurt him. Numb, the priest hovered in his corner.

He didn't understand what had happened. Who that lady had been, her jinx, or what this demon had to do with it. He needed food and rest.

What he believed, however, was that the pain in his heart was serious. He wished it to stop with feverish begging, but it remained. Lurking. Eating.

When no word came over Seonghwa's lips for a long time, the demon rolled its shoulders with a huff. Upon its turn, its tail knocked into the wall, but it didn't mind.

"See me once the thought settled. You need not fear. As your crosses and your prayers won't banish me, I am just as unable to do you harm."

Seonghwa didn't want that. He wanted to banish the demon, wanted it out of his church. While it defiled the Lord's sanctuary, he couldn't concentrate on the sudden revelation of his diminishing health.

As if the demon had heard his malevolent thoughts, it peered over its shoulder. Its morbidly human and yet not-human face showed a tasteless grin.

"Don't waste your energy trying. I will be outside."

"Why don't you leave?" It burst from Seonghwa's lips. Swift, he covered up the words before the demon reconsidered its purpose.

"You conveyed your message, scared me to my very bone. You can leave. I won't hold you back."

Until Seonghwa figured out whether he should believe the words of a demon, he didn't need it around. If it was capable enough to enter the church, then whatever reward it would gain from driving Seonghwa to folly was fatal. Seonghwa couldn't fall for its lies. If he accepted its help, he walked right into its trap.

Once more, an honesty so chilling that Seonghwa shivered settled on the demon's expression. It was resigned, as if it wanted to tell a wretched lie, but invisible bounds forced it to speak the truth.

"I am bound to you and this church by an oath I can never break. As much as you obey the heavenly laws of your Lord, I am bound by the same magic. Even if I don't look like it." The demon looked down on itself as if noticing their differences for the first time. When it shrugged, its wings jostled with the movement.

Seonghwa's mouth hung open in confusion when the demon left him to his suffering. He had never heard of demons bound by prayers, especially not in his very home.

So had it spoken the truth? Its bounds had to be real for it to be immune to the sacred spirit of this place.

But if that had been the truth, then the news of Seonghwa's illness was as well. So far, he knew nothing about it. Yet, as he clutched his hand over his chest to still the maddening pain in his heart, a sinking feeling whispered to him that the demon might have been honest about it.

His time was ticking.