The Cult Leader in the Clergy Academy

Chapter 274

“Ah!”

By the time Ha-Yeon regained consciousness, Jin-Seo had already thrown herself into the flames.

Two dark figures faced each other inside the flames of the miracle that drove away the Banquet’s darkness. The figures belonged to Jin-Seo and the demon. Jin-Seo confronted the demon with just her fists and without any weapons, while the demon’s entire body was a weapon.

Jin-Seo knew it was a fight she couldn't win. Nevertheless, she jumped in. Although she knew that she might die, no, although she knew that she would definitely die, she still replicated a miracle to summon a pillar of fire and then jumped into it.

It wasn't because she was determined to save Ha-Yeon. She didn't care for Ha-Yeon enough to risk her own life. Was it to avenge her foster mother who was killed by a demon? That wasn't the reason either. She just jumped in without any special reason.

Perhaps she just felt a sense of self-destruction.

"Jin, Seo. Kim Jin...!" the demon muttered.

Jin-Seo's body floated up in the flames and her knee flew toward the demon’s face.

Crunch!

The sound of something breaking echoed. The demon’s nasal bone and Jin-Seo's knee simultaneously shattered.

Thanks to Ha-Yeon's blessing, Jin-Seo’s overall physical abilities improved, allowing her to harm the demon even without any weapons. The issue was the durability of her body. The demon's body was tough, while Jin-Seo's body, no matter how well-trained, was still human. Jin-Seo had to endure injuries every time she attacked.

"It doesn't hurt."

One fortunate thing was that she hardly felt any pain. This, too, was thanks to Ha-Yeon's blessing. Or perhaps it was due to her senses that had been paralyzed with death looming before her.

Either way, it didn't matter. Jin-Seo decided not to dwell on her thoughts for a moment. What she needed to do right now was not to analyze what happened, but think about what to do next.

Boom—!

Jin-Seo flew up again. She climbed onto the demon’s shoulders.

There was some resistance from the demon, but its movements had slowed down significantly, perhaps due to the flames, which allowed her to dodge the demon’s resistance easily. Upon inspecting the demon’s armor, she noticed that the surface was slightly charred, perhaps due to the flames from her miracle replication.

She had climbed onto the demon’s body, not to strike the demon, but to attack its joints.

Facing the demon whose body was as tough as steel, Jin-Seo would be the one to get injured if she tried to strike. Therefore, attacking its joints was her only option.

She wrapped her legs around the demon’s arm and twisted her body.

Crack!

Her technique was executed cleanly. The demon screamed and thrashed around.

"Kkeeeeek—!"

"Ugh!"

Jin-Seo had been hanging onto the demon's body, but then she collapsed to the ground. It seemed like she had been thrown to the ground quite forcefully since she still felt quite a lot of pain despite receiving Ha-Yeon's blessing.

Jin-Seo rubbed her lower back and stood back up. She chuckled as she looked at the demon's dislocated shoulder.

Learning how to attack an opponent’s limbs was something she had learned from the Northern Crusader Order. She had learned it just in case she encountered a demonic beast or a demon in an unexpected situation.

The director had repeatedly emphasized that crusaders had to always be prepared for battle. Jin-Seo was the only one who took the director's words to heart and sincerely dedicated herself to the training sessions. She believed in the director's words.

In fact, she really did get attacked more often by the demons and demonic beasts when she was in a defenseless state.

"Kke-ek, kkeeek─!"

Jin-Seo approached the screaming demon. She had already dislocated and shattered the demon’s right shoulder, and now she was planning to do the same to its left shoulder.

The demon's movements were still slow, so there was no difficulty in avoiding them. Jin-Seo thought that the training sessions she had gone through were finally showing results.

She began to think that perhaps she might be able to defeat the demon without any weapons and with only blessings, miracles, and martial arts. Such an arrogant thought crossed her mind.

Thump.

Her thoughts changed when a third eye opened on the demon’s forehead. In that instant, the demon's movements became strangely fast.

Previously, the demon had been frantically struggling in pain, but it now had eyes filled with calm killing intent.

Boom!

The demon swung its arm. Jin-Seo leaned back and narrowly avoided it. The problem was the next attack was already coming.

Jin-Seo took a defensive stance and squeezed her eyes shut. She managed to dodge the first attack somehow, but she couldn't avoid the second attack. In order to dodge the first attack, she had bent her body at an angle that made it impossible to dodge the next attack.

After the demon opened its third eye, it not only became faster but its movements were also more clever.

Crunch.

“...”

A sinister sound resounded, and then there was silence. Only the sound of the demon’s armor burning could be occasionally heard.

Jin-Seo opened her eyes. She must have been hit directly by the demon's attack, but her body was surprisingly unharmed.

She saw two figures within the flames. One was the demon, and the other was the back of a man.

The man was holding a mace and a sword and was blocking the demon's attacks with the mace. He turned his head to look at Jin-Seo and then handed her the sword.

"Can you move?"

"..."

"Ah, looks like you're barely injured. That's a relief," Joseph said with a casual smile.

Jin-Seo accepted the sword. Joseph tightly gripped the mace and stared at the demon. Jin-Seo felt a tingling sensation at her fingertips when she watched him.

She felt a sinister and dangerous sensation as if she was witnessing the casting of black magic right before her eyes.

"It was a day of repentance."

Joseph approached the demon. A single tear rolled down from his eyes.

Within his gaze directed toward the demon, she could sense wrath, regret, as well as a strange sadness and tenderness. The demon raised his arm and Joseph also raised his club.

Crash!

The demon's fist clashed with Joseph's club. And then the demon's fist shattered and disappeared without a trace.

It had literally happened in an instant. The demon, now missing a hand, screamed in agony and writhed in pain. Joseph did not give it a chance to recover and struck with the club again.

Thud.

The sound was not loud. It was a light and faint sound, like the sound of a ball bouncing off of a surface. However, with just that simple swing, the demon's shoulder fell off.

The demon’s body was slowly disintegrating with each swing of Joseph’s mace. With another swing of the club, the demon's leg was torn apart.

Jin-Seo held her sword and quietly watched the battle unfold. If Joseph was cornered by the demon during the fight, she thought she might be able to join the battle and help him. However, there was no need for that. Joseph was one-sidedly beating down the demon.

No, he was playing around with the demon and purposely not killing it.

"I thought I would feel relieved if I killed this thing," Joseph muttered as he swung his club.

Crunch.

"Keeeeeek—!" the demon screamed.

At this point, the demon had lost all its limbs and was writhing on the ground with only their torso left.

Joseph climbed on top of the torso. And then he casually looked down at the red eyes staring at him.

He was thinking of his wife. His wife had met a miserable death due to this weak and insignificant demon.

And he thought about how he had allowed his wife to die at the hands of such a weak and insignificant demon. He thought about how he had spent all this time training like a madman while despising his weak self. He thought about all the experiences he had missed due to being blinded by such petty revenge and strengthened his grip on the mace.

"It seems like there was no method for me to repent from the start."

Stab.

A sword pierced through the demon’s heart. It was Jin-Seo, not Joseph, who had stabbed the heart.

Jin-Seo twisted the sword which was stuck in the demon’s heart. The demon screamed in pain and trembled.

The red light that lingered in the demon's pupils vanished instantly. Black smoke emanated from the body, indicating that the demon had died.

Joseph blinked his eyes and looked at Jin-Seo. The flames that surrounded them had disappeared. Jin-Seo also blinked at Joseph.

"I wanted to do it," Jin-Seo casually said.

Joseph stared blankly at Jin-Seo with his mouth shut, then smiled and nodded.

"It seems like this is better for sure."

Swish—!

At that moment, the darkness surrounding them began to dissipate, like the rising curtain of a play.

And then a grim scene unfolded in front of Joseph, Jin-Seo, and Ha-Yeon.

The first thing they saw was the fallen people. They all had their arms or legs torn off, or their heads ripped off in a pitiful state. They were all either dead or barely clinging onto life. And surrounding them were the figures of strange demons.

In the center of the fallen people was Han Dae-Ho. He had been defeated in battle and was lying on the ground injured.

The Southern priesthood director who had been pouring blessings on him while crying tears of blood had long since fainted and lost consciousness.

And there was the man who had orchestrated all the carnage. He was the Satanist executive known as Lust.

He looked at the fallen Han Dae-Ho.

As if he was giving a critique, he said, "A strong physique and mental strength. But the lack of intelligence is regrettable."

Han Dae-Ho used all his remaining strength to look up at the man. Even in a state close to death, his eyes were sharp and filled with strong determination as he stared at the enemy.

However, before long, the strong light in his eyes faded and he collapsed. Lust’s gaze turned toward Han Dae-Ho, Jin-Seo, and Ha-Yeon. Desire boiled in his eyes as he gazed at two people in particular.

He smiled as he called out their names. "Jin-Seo and Ha-Yeon."

Jin-Seo and Ha-Yeon shuddered.

The fact that Lust knew her name filled Ha-Yeon with dread.

Jin-Seo shuddered for a different reason. She remembered the voice that faintly echoed beyond the hazy eyes of the demon who had been persistently targeting her.

The icy and unpleasant voice sounded too similar to Lust’s voice. No, it was exactly the same.

Jin-Seo realized that the person who had been sending the demon after her was none other than Lust.

"Go, my most superior servant," he said to the demon by his side.

Among the nearby demons, the largest one nodded and approached the three of them.

Jin-Seo, Joseph, and Ha-Yeon observed the demon. Jin-Seo knew who the original body of that demon belonged to.

He had been the director of the Northern Crusader Order, and he had taught Jin-Seo many things including combat tactics. He had turned into a demon after he was targeted by a black magic spell right before his death.

Jin-Seo gritted her teeth and clenched her sword tightly. The demon made from the body of the director of the Northern Crusader Order had four arms and six eyes.

Perhaps because of this, they exuded a different level of intimidation compared to other demons.

"It has four arms. It must be really good at boxing," Joseph chuckled as he looked at the demon.

He gently placed the mace he was holding onto the ground. Then he clenched his fist and prepared himself.

"Jin-Seo, Ha-Yeon. Can you two handle that demon? I'll take care of that... stupid-looking man," Joseph said as he pointed at Lust with his chin.

Jin-Seo and Ha-Yeon looked at the demon, and then they gulped and mustered up their determination. After some contemplation, they nodded.

Joseph grinned widely. On the other hand, Lust's face was contorted in disgust.

"Stupid-looking man, you say? This is the first I’ve been insulted in such a way. To hear such words from an inferior and vulgar seed. What a disgrace...."

"Vulgar, huh."

Tap, tap.

Joseph walked toward Lust and said, "Have you ever seen the essence of the Nazirite arts?"

***

Finally, we arrived at the cathedral affiliated with the Central Priesthood. However, by the time we arrived, the cathedral was enveloped in a mysterious black substance.

Sung Yu-Da quickly scanned the black substance enveloping the cathedral with his eyes and said, "It's black magic."

"Let’s get rid of it with the blessing of purification."

"The black magic of executives can’t be removed even with the blessing of purification..." Sung Yu-Da started to respond to my words but then stopped.

His eyes were still scanning the black substance. He cautiously touched the black substance with his fingertips and said, "No... it's weaker than it looks. It's not an executive’s black magic."

Swish!

He drew a dagger from his waist and cut his palm. Blood dripped out. He drew a blessing array in an instant and poured his blood onto it. A clear light emanated from the blessing array.

The blessing array was on a different level compared to the blessing of purification that Ha-Yeon had used in the past. It was truly pure and radiant.

"It may be difficult to eliminate it immediately, but we can create an opening. Once we create an opening, we can somehow get in..."

As Sung Yu-Da had said, a small opening appeared in the black substance enveloping the cathedral.

It was a tiny gap that was just wide enough to squeeze through.

I peered quietly into the gap. It was dark, making it impossible to see anything.

"I will go in first."

I tried to slip my body in through the gap. I didn't know what was happening inside yet, and I didn't have a plan either. My plan was to think about it after going inside.

"Wait, I'll go with you!"

At that moment, a person frantically ran toward us while shouting. Just like Sung Yu-Da, he was sweating profusely. It was none other than Florence Academy’s chairman, Kim Chang-Won.