Chapter 71

Chapter 71. A Priest Is...

CRASH!

"W, what is that?!!"

Startled by the appearance of the enormous tree, Heesong dropped the box of holy water she was carrying. When it struck the ground, the glass bottles inside shattered. Holy water soaked into the cardboard and spilled across the floor, but nobody had the time to pay attention to it.

"That's where Namsan Tower is..."

"Since when was there a tree like that over there?!"

Heesong and Sia couldn't take their eyes off the enormous tree. It towered over Namsan Tower itself and had such an overwhelming presence that it could easily be mistaken for the World Tree from mythology.

"Was that what the animals were so afraid of?"

Sia's eyes trembled visibly. Just like the animals, she felt an indescribable fear toward the mysterious tree.

"Squeak, squeak!"

"Hissssss!"

"Woof! Woof!"

Even now, the animals couldn't decide whether they should protect Sia or run away. These were the same animals that had been so determined to protect her that they had even attacked Yeonhwa's father after he became a demon.

"Someone call the police!"

"What are the police supposed to do about that?!"

"Just call them!"

The animals weren't the only ones who were afraid. Among the people out on the streets, some who had seen the tree began calling the authorities.

"The end! It's the end of the world! The apocalypse is coming!"

Meanwhile, doomsday believers who had previously remained hidden began emerging into public view.

BEEEEEP!

Emergency alerts arrived on people's mobile phones.

[An unidentified object has been detected in the Namsan area. Citizens in the vicinity are requested to evacuate and refrain from unnecessary activities. Please pay attention to emergency disaster alerts and broadcasts, avoid outdoor activities, and evacuate to designated shelters if necessary. [Seoul Metropolitan Government]]

"What on earth is that thing...?"

"Even the government doesn't know what it is? Are we all going to die?"

"The apocalypse is coming! We're all going to die!!"

The people were shocked by the emergency alert, which offered practically no useful information.

"Haa, this is quite a mess... So that tree is the work of a demon? Instead of mobilizing the police or the military, they're urgently gathering priests."

Heesong sighed as she read the message.

"What?! Unnie, wait a moment!"

Hearing Heesong say something that seemed unrelated to the emergency alert, Sia quickly snatched Heesong's phone and compared its message with her own. They were similar emergency alerts, but their contents were slightly different.

Sia had received the same ordinary, practically useless emergency alert that had been sent to the public. Heesong's message, on the other hand, contained a hidden code alongside the similar wording. When decoded, it instructed them to gather every priest capable of using aura.

Dad!!

Sia frowned. Jungon was clearly responsible. He had deliberately sent her the ordinary emergency alert to keep her away from danger.

That meant the tree was extremely dangerous. It was reasonable to assume that a Great Demon had appeared.

Wait, a Great Demon? Marbas!

Sia remembered something Michael had said at Myeongdong Cathedral.

"Do you know anything about a small sprout?"

She recalled that Marbas had been after the seedling.

"Then, is that the seedling?"

At the Golden Bull Monastery, she had thought it was nothing more than a plant capable of absorbing aura. Realizing that it had transformed into an enormous tree as soon as it fell into Marbas's hands sent a chill down her spine.

"Sia?"

Worried by the way Sia was biting her lip and frowning, Heesong touched her shoulder.

"Ah! I'm sorry. I've seen everything I needed to."

"O, oh. All right."

Creeeeak.

At that moment, a black sedan stopped in front of the veterinary clinic.

Clunk.

The car door opened, and a priest wearing a black cassock stepped out. He was about the height of an average adult man and had a slightly thin build. There was a scar on his cheek, and his face was filled with displeasure.

"I'm from Myeongdong Cathedral. Miss Gan Heesong, how many supplies have you prepared?"

The priest recognized Heesong and immediately asked about the supplies. Only then did Heesong remember that she had dropped the box of holy water.

"Ah... Just a moment. I think I'll have to bring another box."

Seeing the holy water spread across the ground, the priest frowned even more deeply.

"Haa. Understood. Please prepare some blessed salt as well."

"...How much do you need?"

Understanding what he intended to do, Heesong tried to determine the required quantity.

"As much as possible."

The priest answered in an irritated voice. His attitude could easily have offended her, but since dropping the holy water had clearly been her mistake, Heesong accepted his complaints.

Blessed salt was salt mixed with iron filings and was frequently used during exorcism rituals or when creating barriers. It generally had the ability to trap demons, preventing them from escaping, or to weaken the powers of demons confined within its boundaries.

The fact that they wanted as much blessed salt as possible meant the Exorcism Association was planning to contain the enormous tree with a barrier.

Heesong went down to the underground laboratory to collect the supplies. Only Sia, the priest, and the Divine Beasts remained near the clinic entrance.

"Wasn't I supposed to be the one responsible for delivering the supplies?"

Sia was the first to speak, cautiously questioning the priest. He merely shifted his eyes toward her and snorted dismissively. Instead of answering, he made a different suggestion.

"Wait here until the situation settles down."

"Is that an order from my father?"

"..."

His silence was an answer in itself. Sia bit her lip. She couldn't allow herself to remain forever under her father's protection, so she raised her voice.

"I can't accept that. I'm a fully qualified priest too. I have a duty to save citizens who are in danger...!"

Click!

The priest leaned against the sedan and lit a cigarette, interrupting Sia. He took a long drag, almost as though he were taking a deep breath.

"Haa. Stop being so stubborn. As you can see, the situation is serious. We have no idea what might come out of that thing."

He pointed his thumb toward the tree towering above Namsan Tower and exhaled a cloud of smoke.

"If the situation is that serious, won't you need even more people? Wouldn't it be better if I helped too?"

Sia responded with a reasonable argument.

"Haa. This is why I hate people who act so self-righteous."

The priest shook his head and pressed the hand holding his cigarette against his forehead.

"Do you know why that tree is so frightening? Because we know absolutely nothing about it. That's why people are coming up with all kinds of theories."

The unknown was something everyone feared. That was why people had always made predictions in an attempt to reduce their uncertainty.

"Among those theories, the most frightening possibility is that the tree might bear fruit."

However, predictions could sometimes create even greater fear.

The priest's face darkened, and his hand began trembling. He brought the cigarette between his fingers to his mouth.

"Haa. A tree that has taken root will absorb nutrients from its surroundings and eventually produce fruit."

Sia frowned at the mention of absorbing nutrients from its surroundings. She had suddenly realized that the nutrients in question might be people.

"Can you even imagine what kind of fruit a tree that enormous might produce?"

Sia shook her head. As an ordinary priest, there was no way she could understand the intentions of a Great Demon. As though he had expected that answer, the priest slowly closed his eyes and opened them again.

"Nobody knows. That's precisely why we're trying to put up a barrier. Stopping something like that Yggdrasil, the World Tree from Norse mythology, will require an enormous number of people and supplies. And Father Jungon is the one responsible for commanding them."

Trying to calm his constantly trembling hand, the priest took another long drag from his cigarette.

"Haa. So stop doing anything that will distract him and just stay here quietly."

Having finally said everything he wanted to say, the priest appeared a little more relaxed. His trembling hand had finally settled down. He glanced at Sia. Since she had just heard something so serious, she would probably need a little time to organize her thoughts. Giving her a brief moment to think was reasonable enough.

"Haa. We're already desperately short on manpower, so don't create more work for us. I have absolutely no intention of being assigned to guard you."

Just in case, the priest made his position clear while Sia was still thinking.

"I understand what you're saying. I understand why you're telling me all this too."

The priest initially looked satisfied with Sia's positive response, but something about the end of her statement struck him as strange.

Sia gave him a bitter smile.

"But... that's your perspective, not the perspective of a priest. Isn't a priest supposed to act in order to save other people?"

As Sia spoke, she felt as though her head were beginning to ache. Yet she didn't actually have a headache. Then what was this pain she was feeling?

CRUNCH!

"When someone tells you something nicely, at least try to listen! You haven't understood a single word I've said!"

The priest angrily crushed the cigarette he had been smoking. His face already resembled that of a gangster, and when it twisted in anger, it became even more intimidating.

"Haa. Calm down. In any case, as long as I'm here, you're not going anywhere."

Managing to regain control of himself, the priest kept his eyes firmly on Sia. He clearly intended to watch her every move.

"That's fine. I wasn't planning to ask for your permission anyway."

Since she didn't have any immediate solution to the problem, Sia decided to ignore the strange pain.

"What?"

For a moment, the priest thought Sia's eyes had turned blue.

"Grrrrr."

"Squeak, squeak!"

Even though Sia hadn't given any specific orders, the animals surrounded the priest.

"Everyone, I'm counting on you."

After leaving the priest to the animals, Sia turned her back on him.

"Where do you think you're going?!"

The priest hurriedly tried to stop her, but,

"Woof! Woof!"

"Hissssss!"

The animals growled threateningly. Whenever he extended his hand, they bared their teeth and prepared to bite. Whenever he took a step, they extended their claws as though ready to scratch him.

"You can't just leave like this! Do you think anyone will acknowledge you if you do something like this?!"

Unable to get past the animals, the priest shouted angrily after Sia. At the word acknowledge, Sia's steps briefly stopped. She turned only her head to look at him.

"Do you really think I'm doing this because I want recognition? If that's what you believe, then you're the one who doesn't fully understand your duty as a priest."

With those words, Sia began walking toward Namsan Tower.

"Hey! HEY!!"

The priest continued calling after her, but Sia completely ignored him.

After Sia left, Samsik and Jeomrye quietly looked in the direction she had gone. Jeomrye was the first to step forward with her right paw.

"Meow! Meow! (Samsik! Let's go too!)"

Jeomrye eagerly tried to follow Sia, but Samsik wasn't particularly enthusiastic.

"Whine, whine... (But if we sneak out again...)"

Samsik was worried about Heesong's warning not to run away without permission.

Bap! Bap!

Without realizing it, Jeomrye started throwing her little cat punches.

"Meow, meow?! MYAAAAOW?! (Is that really what's important right now?! Do you want something bad to happen to Sia?!)"

The small Samsik's head jerked from side to side.

"Wh, whine. (Of course not.)"

"Meow, meow. (Then let's go.)"

And so, the two Divine Beasts followed Sia.

Tap, tap!

As Michael ran toward Namsan Tower, he spotted two demons with spotted skin. They hadn't noticed him yet. Michael swung Durandal, which was wrapped in white flames, toward them.

Slash! Slash!

"Ghk!"

"Urk!"

The two demons died after letting out brief screams, their heads severed from their bodies.

Fwoooosh!

The White Flame covering Durandal naturally burned the demons away.

Michael continued cutting down demons without hesitation and soon reached the entrance to the Namsan Tower area.

"He's already released this many of them..."

Looking back along the path he had traveled, Michael saw countless piles of ash. All of them were demons that had been consumed by White Flame.

There were also people lying on the ground here and there, but they had already died after being infected by the disease.

Michael remembered an incident that had occurred before he entered the area. A nearby civilian had inhaled germs released by a demon. Before long, the person's skin had become discolored, and they had died. Unable to simply leave the body like that, Michael had used White Flame to purify the disease covering it.

"Dealing with every single one of them will take far too long."

He needed to change his approach.

Michael began moving again. Even if he raised his head only slightly, he could see the enormous trunk of the tree. As he looked around, he saw smaller stems extending from it, attaching themselves to everything they touched like vines.

"Their response is too slow. This isn't going well."

Michael sensed priests forming a perimeter around Namsan Tower. Judging by their arrangement, they were preparing to establish a barrier. However, several demons had already escaped beyond their encirclement, and the disease would continue spreading.

Stop!

Michael suddenly stopped walking. His gaze moved back and forth between the tree and the top of Namsan Tower. He could sense a familiar presence there.

"Marbas..."

Between Namsan Tower and the tree, Marbas floated in the sky with the clear moonlight behind him. Although they were too far apart to hear each other's voices, the two were looking directly at one another.