This auxiliary chapter serves as an insight to the world building and will be gradually revealed and added along with the story. Just in case I forget to add an explanation or you're unsure about what a certain term means, hopefully this will ease your reading experience.
You may skip this if you want.
Warning for spoiler alert!
🩸Crossing Over
A living soul could cross over to another realm, namely Hell, when it was in a state between life and death. An exorcist could deliberately put themselves in such a condition in order to cross over, but sometimes it also happened to ordinary people, particularly in a comatose state. Their soul unknowingly wandered too far and got lost, and it was the exorcist's task to guide them back before dark energy accumulated in their bodies, triggering a possession.
🩸Dark Energy
The source of dark energy/miasma came from the negative sentiments exhibited by all living beings— anger, grief, sorrow, depression, hatred, envy, you name it. Or it could also be produced naturally by corpses, hence the reason why the level of dark energy on mass graves were exceptionally high. Thin dark energy could be dispelled by simple prayers, but sometimes when it accumulated to the point of causing pollution, the said living being would be more prone to possession.
Ordinary people couldn't detect dark energy with their own eyes, but for the Enlightened, they came in the form of mist, pitch-black in color, with a foul and decaying odor.
The air in Hell was dominated with this dark miasma, it's like oxygen to demons.
🩸Possession
Happened when someone accumulated a large amount of dark energy within them. In such a case, the Soldier would take over their bodies and use them to cross over to the earthly realm. But this process usually took a longer period, ranging from days to weeks or even months.
🩸Enlightened
People who could see dark energy. Some might become an Enlightened as soon as they're born, but some only gained this ability after they got possessed or survived through pollution.
🩸Soldier
Or the demon's soldiers. They were low-level hellish creatures who were trying to cross over to the earthly realm in order to spread more chaos.
🩸Spirit Artifact
When someone became an exorcist, they were required to choose a spirit artifact – a magical object that resonated with their soul. One person could only choose one spirit artifact in their whole life. It came in many forms, including but not limited to ancient books, fountain pens that inked blood, teddy bears that could speak, weapons, accessories, etc.
They're supposed to aid exorcists in battles.
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This compendium will be updated as the story goes.
Off you go to the first chapter ^^