Chapter 45. Self-Sacrifice
“Yeonhwa? How… how did you get here?!”
Heesong was so shocked that she shouted.
She had made sure Yeonhwa was asleep before leaving.
There was no way the girl should have been walking around normally.
“I, I don’t know. When I came to my senses, I was here.”
After the mirror was purified, the exhausted and hollow look Yeonhwa had worn completely disappeared.
Her mind seemed clear and transparent, as though the fog inside her head had finally vanished.
However, Michael did not consider that a good thing.
When something is clear and transparent, it’s also easier to stain.
Glasya-Labolas’s final order had been to kill Sia and his own daughter.
He had also brought Yeonhwa here.
Michael thought he understood Glasya-Labolas’s intention.
“Disgusting demon bastard. Your ideas are always perfectly demonic.”
A demon who enjoyed consuming human despair had given the girl’s father two choices.
If he killed his daughter, Glasya-Labolas could consume the father’s despair.
If Michael stopped him by killing Yeonhwa’s father, then he could consume the daughter’s despair.
“But why does Dad look… like that?!”
Was it another trick from Glasya-Labolas?
Or simply the instinct of family?
Even though her father had transformed beyond recognition, Yeonhwa recognized him instantly.
She froze in shock.
Her reaction made it seem as though she had lost her memories.
Heesong grabbed Yeonhwa by the shoulders.
“Yeonhwa! What’s the last thing you remember?”
“I, um… I bought a mirror from a street vendor and brought it home. After that, I can’t remember anything….”
Yeonhwa had never been directly possessed.
Still, it seemed she had lost her memories.
She remembered none of the crimes she had committed.
She remembered none of the people who had died because of her.
Forgetting doesn’t erase a crime. Making a deal with a demon means paying the proper price, but….
Michael did not want to apply that idea in the same way to children who were not yet fully grown.
A child’s sin born from innocence was different from an adult crushing others beneath them for their own ambition.
In another sense, Yeonhwa was also a victim whose pure feelings had been exploited by a demon.
“Haa. I really have become soft.”
Michael shook his head to clear his thoughts.
He had always been weak when it came to children.
Apparently, that had not changed.
The easiest solution would be to eliminate both Yeonhwa and the demon together.
However, Michael’s softened heart found another option.
Absolution.
She could repent.
She would probably have to confess every day and beg forgiveness for her sins.
She would have to spend her life serving others.
Even so, that was better than spending the rest of her life being crushed by guilt or punishment.
“Well, if I think of it as a priest’s job, there’s nothing strange about it.”
Helena had repeatedly told him that the church existed to give people peace of mind, and that a priest’s duty was to save people.
“Still, I’m sorry about you. It’s already too late for me to save you.”
Michael looked toward the demon.
Its limbs moved separately like a broken octopus.
“GRAAAAAH!”
“Legs! Move! Let’s go kill that woman and the brat!”
“H, heavy….”
The faces growing from all over Yeonhwa’s father’s body each possessed their own personality.
Several different types of demonic energy, unlike anything Michael had sensed earlier, slowly leaked from the body.
“Well, you were crushed together like fruit being squeezed. Of course some demonic juice would leak out.”
Several demons had been forcibly compressed into a single body.
It would have been strange if no demonic energy escaped.
“Grrrrrr, woof woof!!”
The animals sensed the dangerous atmosphere and began freezing in fear.
One stray dog guarding Sia opened its jaws and charged the demon.
As the dog lunged toward its leg,
SPLAT!
One of the arms growing from the demon’s waist grabbed the dog by its mouth.
The demon pulled with brute force and tore the animal in half.
Without even wiping the blood from its hand, it turned toward Sia.
“Annoying beasts!! Deal with that woman the animals are protecting first!”
“Go! Go! Go!”
“H, heavy. Heavy… not heavy!!”
RATATATAT!
The legs suddenly rushed forward out of rhythm with the arms.
They crossed over each other in a chaotic way as the demon charged Sia.
The animals had frozen under the foul demonic energy.
The sudden noise snapped them out of it.
They threw themselves at the demon to stop it.
“MEOOOOW!!”
“WOOF WOOF!!”
BANG! CRUNCH! THUD!
The demon shoved aside, grabbed, threw, kicked, and stomped every animal that approached.
Their small bodies could not stop it.
They could not even slow it down.
Eventually, the demon reached Sia.
“First meal!”
“Kyaa!”
An arm growing from its side reached toward the defenseless Sia.
“I understand you’re excited because every one of you finally has some control, but don’t cross the line.”
SLAASH! BANG!
“GRAAAH!”
Michael cut off the reaching arm with his aura blade, then struck the demon with a spinning kick.
“Are you a damn roly-poly toy? You stand up well.”
The demon tilted backward.
However, its many powerful legs managed to support the body.
It was only pushed back instead of falling.
At least aura was eating into the cut wound.
Smoke rose from it.
“It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!”
“GRAAAAAAAH!!!!”
The demons had separate minds but shared one body.
Apparently they also shared pain.
Every face sticking out of the body twisted in agony.
Then one face that had remained silent suddenly spoke.
“Move! It’s my turn now!”
SPLURT!
A new arm grew from the severed stump.
It was thicker and harder than the one Michael had just cut off.
“Does every demon I meet come with body regeneration by default? Freakish bastards.”
Michael discarded any trace of sympathy and covered his left hand in White Flame.
Sorry, kid, but protecting the reincarnation of that loudmouth comes first.
Michael wrapped the White Flame around his aura blade.
Then he swung with the intention of purifying Yeonhwa’s father.
Sparks of White Flame scattered toward the demon.
“Dodge! Dodge!”
“Legs, what are you doing?!”
“H, heavy!”
The demons panicked.
Their movements became uncoordinated.
Their legs tangled together.
The White Flame struck them.
FWOOOOSH!
The flames spread from the impact point across the demon’s entire body.
“GRAAAAGH!”
“HOT! HOT!”
Unable to withstand the White Flame, the demon fell to one knee.
Its flesh burned.
The faces screamed.
“S, stop!”
Tap tap tap tap! THUD!
“Yeonhwa!”
Michael immediately looked toward Heesong’s shout.
Yeonhwa had broken free from Heesong and run toward Michael and the demon.
She had tripped and fallen.
“Stop!! Please stop! I can feel Dad suffering!”
“Yeonhwa, no! It’s dangerous there!”
Michael did not particularly want to stop a daughter from running toward her father.
However, the battle was not over.
“What are you doing?! Grab the kid already!”
The demon might have been screaming in pain, but it was still alive.
Hearing the sound of Yeonhwa’s footsteps, the demons reacted.
GRAB!
One hand grabbed Yeonhwa by the leg and lifted her upside down.
Dangling helplessly, Yeonhwa came face-to-face with the monster.
“D, Dad?”
Unlike the other faces, the head was still clearly Yeonhwa’s father.
It was the only face that said nothing.
It looked completely lifeless.
Yeonhwa nervously called for him.
Another face answered instead.
“Kekeke. You really are unbelievably stupid. Who’s your father?!”
“That’s exactly why you were so easy for us to use.”
“We already lost so much strength because of that priest. You’ll make perfect nourishment.”
Michael tensed his legs, preparing to intervene.
One of the faces immediately looked toward him.
“Come closer and she dies.”
Sharp claws were already raised toward Yeonhwa’s stomach.
Michael stopped.
The demons grinned.
“If you kill her, all of you die too.”
Michael’s voice was filled with killing intent.
The demons did not care.
