"What? You don't know him either, Father?"
Sia asked in surprise.
The man scratched his chin before looking at his daughter with a warm gaze.
"What are you talking about?"
"Isn't he someone sent by the Vatican or the Exorcism Association? I assumed he was because he helped us eliminate the demons."
Sia had believed that Michael, who had been exterminating the demons, was outside reinforcement.
However, the man shook his head.
"I haven't heard anything about that. But..."
He paused.
Then his gaze turned cold as he looked Michael up and down.
The atmosphere inside the church suddenly became tense.
"You damn thief. Where did you hide the remains?"
At those words, Sia immediately turned toward the main altar, where the enormous cross and statue of the Virgin Mary stood.
The coffin that should have been tightly sealed...
Was open.
Gulp.
Sia swallowed hard before slowly looking back at Michael.
A chill ran down her spine.
If he had somehow bypassed the protection of the Cup of Fulfillment and stolen the remains, then there was only one conclusion.
Michael wasn't reinforcement sent by the Vatican.
He was an unknown grave robber capable of interfering with a holy relic.
"Haa... Like father, like daughter."
Feeling everyone's suspicious gazes on him, Michael sighed.
Like father, like daughter, indeed.
As if proving they really were family, both of them kept spouting complete nonsense.
The misunderstanding was getting worse by the second, so Michael decided to explain himself before things became even more troublesome.
"The remains? I don't know anything about them. I got out of that coffin..."
"That's enough."
The man cut Michael off and rolled up his sleeves.
His exposed arms were thick and muscular, veins bulging visibly beneath the skin.
"Now that I think about it, there's no point listening to a thief's excuses."
The warmth that had been in his eyes disappeared completely.
His expression twisted with anger.
"First, you need to pay for stealing the remains..."
His knuckles cracked.
"And for kicking my daughter. Don't you think?"
Whether Michael was an intruder or reinforcement clearly didn't matter anymore.
From the very beginning, the man had simply been looking for an excuse to beat him up.
"Wow. What a caring father."
"I knew he'd do this."
Even the nearby priests seemed to think his obsession with his daughter was excessive compared to the importance of the mission.
What kind of bastard has muscles for brains?
Michael immediately classified the man as the type who preferred speaking with his fists.
So demons and humans really are equally insane.
Among the demons of Hell, there had occasionally been beast-like idiots who behaved exactly like this.
Michael had simply never expected to meet a human version of them.
"Let's start with one punch. We can figure out the rest afterward."
The man launched himself forward.
To clear the path between them, he grabbed a pew and hurled it aside.
Whoosh!
BOOM!
Michael made a short leap to the side.
Immediately afterward, he narrowly avoided the man's fist.
At that moment...
Demon!
A familiar presence brushed against Michael's senses.
His eyes sharpened.
Damn it. A demon possessed this priest?
Just how weak did a priest's faith have to be for him to become possessed by a demon?
Michael shook his head at the pathetic state of modern priests.
Fwoooosh!
Trusting his instincts, Michael quickly created distance and unleashed Igniculus.
BANG!
White flames erupted violently around the man, as though intending to burn him to ash.
"Father!"
"Father Jungon!"
Sia and the other priests stared at Michael in horror.
Jungon had attacked first.
But that didn't mean he deserved to be burned alive before they had even talked things through.
Remembering the demons that had been reduced to ash by those flames, Sia immediately dropped to her knees before Michael.
"Michael, I'm sorry!"
"I'll take responsibility for my father's mistake! Please extinguish the flames!"
She begged desperately, believing she was about to lose her father.
Michael ignored her.
His eyes remained fixed on Jungon.
If Jungon really was possessed by a demon, the white flames should purify him.
And yet...
Jungon stood inside them, glaring straight at Michael.
"Sia, it's fine. Stand up."
Jungon looked down at the white flames surrounding his body.
Then he spoke calmly.
"It seems these flames can't hurt me."
Instead of burning him, the white flames wrapped around his body with a sacred warmth.
Both Sia and Michael stared in surprise.
"N-No way..."
What the hell?
He's enduring Igniculus?
Michael's white flames, created through Ahura, were the natural enemy of demons.
If Jungon could withstand them despite being possessed, then the demonic energy inside his body would have to exceed Michael's Ahura.
Even in my weakened state, the presence I sensed shouldn't have been anything beyond a lower-rank demon... maybe middle-rank at most.
Properly trained priests developed heightened sensitivity toward sacred and demonic energy.
And Michael had lived for more than a thousand years.
His senses were several times sharper than those of ordinary priests.
Did the seal damage my senses too?
Grab!
Suddenly, a thick hand emerged from the white flames and wrapped around Michael's throat.
Jungon lifted him effortlessly into the air.
"Ghk...! Khk!"
The pressure around Michael's neck made it difficult to breathe.
He grabbed Jungon's fingers and tried to pry them apart.
They didn't move.
It's not just my Ahura that's weakened.
Even my basic physical abilities have become pathetic.
While Michael calmly analyzed his condition, Jungon stared at the white flames around him with fascination.
"I'm standing in the middle of these flames, but they're not hot at all."
He narrowed his eyes.
"Actually..."
Jungon's expression became strange.
"They feel... holy."
Feeling warmth rather than heat from the mysterious flames, Jungon looked directly at Michael.
"Who the hell are you?"
Squeak! Squeak!
Suddenly, a mouse hidden inside Jungon's clothing began struggling wildly before falling onto the floor.
It wasn't the horned rat being tracked by Guidance of the Holy Spirit.
This was a different one.
The mouse desperately writhed inside the purifying flames.
A moment later...
It crumbled into ash.
Watching the ashes scatter, Jungon groaned in disappointment.
"Damn. That was supposed to be a present for my daughter..."
"I don't want a present like that!"
Despite standing inside blazing white flames, Jungon was still making jokes.
Sia shouted at him, feeling a headache coming on.
Meanwhile, Michael felt the demonic presence disappear the moment the mouse was purified.
That solved one problem.
He had mistaken the demonic presence coming from the mouse for Jungon himself.
But that realization created an even bigger problem.
He's not possessed.
Michael stared at Jungon.
Are you telling me all that strength actually belongs to a human?
Jungon's monstrous physical strength had nothing to do with demons.
"This bastard is interesting."
Even while being strangled, Michael grinned.
For some reason, that smile made Jungon uneasy.
Without realizing it, Jungon's grip tightened.
Crack.
"Oh, damn!"
The instant he felt Michael's bones break beneath his fingers, Jungon hurriedly loosened his grip.
For an ordinary human, that injury would have meant instant death.
But Michael wasn't ordinary.
"Hah... Damn bastard."
Michael slowly rolled his neck.
"You're ridiculously strong."
Then he glared at Jungon.
"Damn you, muscle pig. That hurt like hell."
Hearing a voice that shouldn't have been physically possible anymore, Jungon doubted his own ears.
Crack.
Crack-crack.
[In the year 326 AD, Saint Helena discovered three crosses.
The crosses upon which Jesus and two criminals had been crucified.
Each cross possessed its own miracle.
One carried the flames of purification that destroyed evil.
And another...]
Michael's broken neck restored itself completely.
Jungon's expression stiffened.
I definitely heard his neck break.
A chill ran down his spine.
What the hell is this guy...?
Before Jungon could even process the fact that he had nearly killed someone by accident, Michael's inhuman regeneration frightened him even more.
