#matyas

...to find a horrific scene. The "adviser" is there, standing over the lifeless body (and holding up the hair) of Anna Kornich. Its eyes are glowing ominously from a face still in complete shadow. The groom-to be is lifeless at Anna's feet, and we see the lower halves of her family members a few feet off to the left.

The demon quotes the three wishes again -- the first worded by Anna herself, while the other two were phrased just-so by this demon. The demon then goes on to explain how it fulfilled each wish.

Ripening the wheat out of season is the one true miraculous deed here. The other two wishes were fulfilled only by the cruelest of technicalities. Matyas had no such returned affections for Anna, so the demon must have killed him and taken his body to the church. Similarly, Anna's family wouldn't have agreed to the wedding, so they were also killed and brought -- dragged, as it says -- to the nearby church. The absolute bare minimum was achieved with these second two. Though the wedding ceremony was never completed, her family was there... in body, if not in spirit... literally. The second wish is the hardest one to consider fulfilled, due to the fact that bride and groom couldn't exchange their vows. Perhaps the demon pronounces them husband and wife regardless, maybe even after both of them are dead. However, since the demon claims it "satisfied each of her desires", I suspect it tricked her into admitting satisfaction during pre-ceremony anticipation, earlier that day. Much like before, Anna was likely led by a question designed to trick her. I imagine something along the lines of, "So, Anna Kornich, have all your desires been satisfied?" To which she would probably have responded, "Oh, yes!" The poor girl, indeed.

This nasty piece of "work" starts to laugh, then its laughter grows and grows in intensity and volume... as its form takes on the inky black goopy appearance we've come to identify with demons, such as Sebastian.

Modri clutches his miniature St. Nicholas icon and prays for help, all while finally acknowledging to himself that the "miracles" were not sent by his god, as he had previously assumed. Modri's disillusion turns to rage and despair.

The demon, now wolf/dog-headed and sort of crouching down to be closer, makes an (empty) apology, says god won't save anyone, and offers to grant a wish for him.

Shaking, Modri tries to reply, but he seems at a loss for words. All he can think about is the family he vowed to serve, as his means for serving the god he believed in. Without a master, he thinks he must be without his god, too. Forsaken, perhaps. Maybe there wasn't one to begin with, just wishful thinking.

Either way, in this point of his tale, Modri goes from praying for salvation... to forming in his mind a wish he'd like to ask of the demon.

Modri's mind is rather mercurial to me. Sebastian seems to have taken note of it, too. It makes Modri adaptable to change but also completely unpredictable. I have to admit he definitely has that in common with Lord Polaris. I'm starting to consider the possibility he might be Polaris... and Undertaker just keeps manipulating his cinematic records to fit whatever role he needs the guy to fill now. This way, he can be passionately devoted to real Ciel one moment... and the next moment not even recognize real Ciel's mirror twin.

Right as Modri's about to make his wishes known, there's a loud noise as part of the demon's form seems to explode...

...splatting Modri with inky goop. (BTW, I think it's hilarious how there's one mouth and two eyes still intact, reacting to the wounded area. 😂)

Someone, claiming to be divine intervention, enters the church... as the demon screams in surprise and pain. Ya know, as I'm writing up this post I'm finally noticing the little screamin' demon in the background. 🤣

When the *chak* sound occurs, I'm not sure if we are to assume the guy let loose another arrow, and I'm still not sure whether the demon has actually returned to Hell or is still there, somewhere. I guess we will find out next month whether it has already been sent back or the confrontation isn't quite over.

This guy sure is a piece of work, though; I can already sense it. 😏 Shirt, belt, trousers, boots. Ok. Ecclesiastical stole (in dark colors) with the usual 6 tassels at the ends, but with a dark trench coat over it. And what appears to be a different (white or light colored) ecclesiastical stole on top of that! A censer hanging from a second belt -- that's another interesting choice; how can he walk with it placed there? At least one other belt, this time across his chest, probably holding a quiver of some sort (to carry extra arrows). Apparently tattoos on each arm.... I'll have to go into more detail about his outfit and accoutrements in a separate post. However, I'll go ahead and note here that the cross of his crossbow looks more like a ✞ than a +.

That's where the chapter ends, but I wanted to bring back one more page from ch117. In the previous post, I showed how: 1) Lizzie and Anna use the exact same words (at least in the English translation) to express their suffering ("I... and only I") and 2) how Sebastian warns our earl that "not even a devil or a god" can truly bind the heart of a human being (Lizzie was going to run back to real Ciel, because that was her heart-felt desire).

Now we can add: 3) Sebastian's warning that symbols (like crosses and icons) are not as important as firmly held beliefs, and that suppression can intensify into zealotry... oppression can lead to resurgence.

Modri's wheel spin aptly ends up on PASSION. His life is ruled by his passions, even if they change on a whim (or due to emotional distress). Now that this demon hunter (with an... American?...accent) has shown up, Modri's Christian faith will not just be restored but intensified. Idk if we will get all the details about him getting tattooed, etc., but we probably won't need that. I expect Modri to either join forces with this guy or to at least attempt to follow in his footsteps.