Chapter 13. Order of the Golden Bull (5)
The demon clutched his temple and rolled around on the floor, crying out in pain.
The demons that rushed at Sia right afterward suffered the same fate, collapsing after being struck by the broom she swung.
If this works...!
But perhaps because it was her first time using this method, she hadn’t dealt enough damage.
The demons quickly recovered and ground their teeth in fury.
“Kraaaagh! You fucking bitch! I’ll chew you up right down to the bones!”
“Enough. Calm down. Lord Taedeung ordered us not to kill her. We’re supposed to capture her alive.”
The follower guarding the door restrained the demon.
At the mention of Taedeung’s name, the enraged demon suppressed his anger and backed away.
Creak.
“We’ve come to take custody of the sacrifice. What exactly is going on here?”
Three followers of Comedy opened the door and entered.
As if the situation wasn’t hopeless enough already, even more enemies had appeared.
Worse still, the aura flowing through Sia’s broom was steadily losing its light.
Is my strength already running out?
Still... I don’t want to give up after making it this far.
Even as the situation grew darker, Sia’s determination remained firm.
This time, she wanted to be acknowledged by someone else.
No.
She wanted to acknowledge herself.
“I don’t want to keep relying on my father anymore.”
There was a major reason why Sia, despite having little talent for exorcism, had been able to become the youngest exorcist priest.
It was because she had Jungon backing her.
Back when she was still a deacon, Sia had wanted to become a priest by having her abilities honestly recognized.
Only by going through the proper process would earning the position truly mean something.
However, a group that supported Jungon had promoted Sia from deacon to priest simply because they wanted to gain his favor.
Ever since then, I worked myself to death so no one could keep calling me a parachute appointment.
A girl who didn’t even know how to control aura trained relentlessly to learn it.
She strengthened her body so she could exorcise demons.
She studied exorcism rites.
But even that wasn’t enough.
People looked for Jungon’s daughter, Yoo Sia.
Not Priest Yoo Sia.
Sia had struggled to find an identity that belonged to herself, but overcoming the wall of talent wasn’t so easy.
Still, public opinion toward Yoo Sia gradually softened.
The label of being a parachute appointment disappeared.
She even gained the grand title of the youngest priest.
At first, I thought that was the result of all my hard work.
But in the end, even that was meaningless.
The change in how people viewed her—the very thing Sia had believed she earned through her own efforts—had actually been an image created by the same faction that had made her a priest.
Even if everyone else acknowledged her...
Sia still couldn’t acknowledge herself.
I’ll live the life I choose.
Not a life someone else decided for me.
And now, surrounded by demons—
This is a trial I have to overcome myself.
Even as the strength drained from her arms...
Even as the aura around her broom faded...
Sia’s eyes burned fiercely with determination.
She shouted at the demons.
“Even if I die here, I’ll purify at least one more of you before I go!”
Seeing Sia stubbornly refusing to surrender, the follower guarding the door let out a sigh.
“...Haa. Taking an arm or a leg should be fine.”
At those words, the demons’ eyes filled with madness.
They charged at Sia.
Gulp.
She had made up her mind, but seeing dozens of demons rushing toward her while radiating murderous intent was terrifying enough to make her legs tremble.
“I’m taking the right arm!”
One demon revealed its razor-sharp claws and swung its arm from the side, aiming to slice through Sia.
I have to block it!
Sia instinctively squeezed out what little aura remained and raised the cleaning broom.
Slaaash!
Perhaps there wasn’t enough aura reinforcing it.
The broom was sliced cleanly in half, making it useless as a weapon.
However—
Thud!
Sia immediately abandoned the broom and kicked the demon in the stomach, sending it staggering backward.
A thin layer of aura covered her leg.
It was an application of the technique for coating objects in aura.
What Father taught me is actually helping!
Jungon had always told her that physical strength was essential for a priest, and he had trained Sia every single day.
That training was finally paying off.
“Kuaaagh!”
The demon she kicked doubled over, looking as if its insides had been turned upside down by the aura.
The other demons watched what happened and decided to overwhelm her all at once.
“Struggling once or twice can be amusing. Any more than that just becomes annoying.”
The long-horned demon’s words became the signal.
Demons rushed at Sia from every direction.
“Ugh! That’s cowardly!”
As the enemies relied on sheer numbers, Sia bit her lip and steeled herself.
There were far too many attacks coming at once for her to defend herself properly.
So instead, she sharpened her concentration as much as possible.
If she couldn’t defend against all of them, she would make sure she landed at least one proper attack.
Squeak!
Just then, a rat suddenly appeared from somewhere and jumped onto one demon’s face, covering its eyes.
“What the hell is this?”
That was only the beginning.
Countless rats suddenly poured into the chapel like a tidal wave.
“Why are there suddenly rats everywhere?”
The demons stared in confusion at the completely unexpected swarm.
Slash!
Squeeeak!
“It could be an enemy attack! Kill them all!”
A few demons quickly understood that something was wrong and began killing the rats.
However, even more rats continued pouring inside than they could kill.
Their numbers only kept growing.
Squeak! Squeak!
Among them was one unusually large rat.
The large rat stopped in front of Sia, stood on its hind legs, and squeaked repeatedly to get her attention.
There was only one problem.
Sia had completely frozen before she could even understand what the rat was trying to do.
“...A-A rat?! Kyaaaaaaa!”
In truth, Sia found rats disgusting.
She hated them so much that whenever she saw one, she would convince herself that she hadn’t actually seen anything.
Hadn’t she done the same thing earlier with the rat clinging to Mikael’s head near the entrance?
Wait.
Mikael’s rat?
“D-Don’t tell me... that rat from earlier...? I really did see it?”
Watching Sia panic even more than when she had been fighting demons, the rat—Valefor—frantically stomped his little feet.
We’re barely going to make it out even if we run right now...
Valefor had been hiding inside the mirror, planning to intervene at the most dangerous moment.
But there were far more demons than he had expected.
Because of that, he had been forced to summon the rats sooner than planned.
I wanted to get out of here as quietly as possible, but there’s no helping it. Squeak.
Slash!
Squeeeak!!
Another rat lost its life to a demon’s merciless attack.
Most of the rats Valefor had thrown in as shields had already been used up.
There was truly no time left.
Smack!
Growing desperate, Valefor jumped high into the air and slapped Sia across the cheek.
It was apparently the first time in her life she had ever been slapped by a rat.
Sia blinked in shock.
I really didn’t want to go this far. Squeak.
Valefor absolutely hated the idea of exposing himself in the middle of enemy territory.
But Sia’s inability to get a grip on herself was becoming unbearable.
