Chapter 004 — Like Father, Like Daughter
“What? You don’t know him either, Father?”
Sia asked the man in surprise.
The man stroked his chin and looked at Sia with a gentle expression.
“What are you talking about?”
“Wasn’t he someone sent by the Vatican or the Exorcism Association? I thought so because he helped us kill the demon.”
Sia had assumed that Mikael, who had been exterminating the demon, was outside support.
But the man shook his head.
“I haven’t heard anything about that. But…”
He stopped speaking.
Then, with cold eyes, he slowly looked Mikael up and down.
The atmosphere inside the cathedral instantly turned chilly.
“You damn thief. Where did you hide the remains?”
At those words, Sia hurriedly turned toward the main altar where the cross and statue of the Virgin Mary stood.
The coffin that should have been firmly closed…
was wide open.
Gulp.
Sia swallowed hard and slowly turned her gaze back toward Mikael.
A chill ran down her spine when she realized he had somehow passed through the Cup of Fullness and stolen the remains.
If that was true, then Mikael wasn't reinforcements from the Vatican.
He was an unidentified grave robber who could handle holy relics.
“Haa… Like father, like daughter.”
Feeling everyone's suspicious gazes on him, Mikael let out a sigh.
Like father, like daughter, indeed.
As if proving they really were family, both of them were spouting the exact same nonsense.
It seemed the misunderstanding was only getting worse, so Mikael decided to explain himself before things became even more troublesome.
“The remains? I have no idea what you’re talking about. I came out of that coffin—”
“That’s enough.”
The man interrupted Mikael and rolled up his sleeves.
The exposed arms were thick with solid muscles, with large veins bulging across them.
“Now that I think about it, there’s no point listening to a thief’s excuses.”
His formerly gentle expression began to twist.
“First, you should pay for stealing from us… and for kicking my daughter, don’t you think?”
Whether Mikael was an intruder or reinforcements didn’t matter anymore.
The man had wanted an excuse to beat Mikael up from the beginning.
“Wow. What a doting father.”
“I knew he’d do that.”
Even the priests thought his obsession with his daughter was a little excessive compared to the mission at hand.
“What kind of bastard has muscles for brains?”
Mikael immediately judged him as the type who preferred talking with his fists rather than his mouth.
I guess demons and humans are equally insane.
Even among the demons of Hell, there had occasionally been beast-like idiots like this.
But Mikael had never imagined there would be humans like that too.
“Let’s start with one punch and think about the rest afterward.”
The man kicked off the floor.
To grab Mikael, he hurled one of the pews in front of him.
Whoosh—!
Crash!
Mikael made a short leap to the side.
Then, just barely, he dodged the man's fist that came flying after him.
Demon!
A familiar presence brushed against Mikael's senses.
Damn it. Did a demon possess this priest?
How weak did a priest's faith have to be for him to get possessed by a demon?
Mikael shook his head at the pathetic state of modern priests.
Fwoooosh!
Sensing demonic energy on instinct, Mikael quickly widened the distance between them and launched Igniculus at the man.
BANG!
The white flames erupted fiercely, as if they intended to burn the man to ashes.
“F-Father!”
“Father Jungon!”
Sia and the other priests stared at Mikael in horror.
Jungon had attacked first, but that didn't mean he deserved to be burned alive before they could even properly talk.
Remembering the demon that had turned into ashes in an instant, Sia dropped to her knees before Mikael.
“Mikael-nim, I’m sorry! I’ll take responsibility for my father’s mistake! Please put out the flames!”
Sia desperately begged him, seemingly convinced she was about to lose her father.
However, Mikael ignored her and kept his eyes fixed on Jungon.
If Jungon truly was a demon, he should be purified by the flames.
But Jungon merely glared at Mikael from inside them.
“Sia, it’s fine. Stand up.”
He looked down at the flames surrounding his body.
“Apparently, these flames are harmless to me.”
Rather than burning him, the flames seemed to wrap him in holiness.
Both Sia and Mikael stared in disbelief.
“N-No way…”
What the hell?! He can withstand Igniculus?
The white flames infused with Aura were the natural enemy of demons.
If Jungon could withstand them, then that meant the demonic power inside him greatly surpassed Mikael's Aura.
Even with how weakened I am, the presence I sensed should’ve been lower-class at best… maybe middle-class.
Priests who had undergone sufficient training developed heightened sensitivity toward divine and demonic energy.
And Mikael 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!
A thick hand suddenly emerged from the white flames and seized Mikael by the throat.
Jungon lifted him into the air.
“Ghk…! Khk!”
The pressure around Mikael's throat was so powerful that he could barely breathe.
He desperately tried to pry Jungon's fingers apart, but he was completely outmatched in physical strength.
It isn’t just my Aura that weakened.
My basic physical abilities are garbage too.
While Mikael analyzed his condition, Jungon was staring at the white flames with fascination.
“I’m standing inside flames, but they aren’t hot at all.”
He narrowed his eyes.
“Instead, they feel… holy.”
Feeling warmth instead of heat from the mysterious fire, Jungon stared directly at Mikael.
“Who the hell are you?”
Squeak! Squeak!
At that moment, a mouse inside Jungon's clothes began struggling and fell onto the floor.
It looked different from the horned rat that the Spirit's Guidance had been chasing, so it clearly wasn't the same one.
The mouse writhed desperately inside the purifying flames.
Then it crumbled into dust.
Watching its ashes scatter away, Jungon let out a disappointed groan.
“Damn. That was a present I caught for my daughter…”
“I don’t want that kind of present!”
Even while standing inside blazing flames, Jungon was still making jokes.
Sia shouted at him, clearly getting a headache.
Meanwhile, Mikael realized that the demonic presence had disappeared the moment the mouse was purified.
There was the obvious problem that he had mistaken Jungon for a demon…
but something even more confusing took its place.
So he wasn’t a demon.
You’re telling me all of that strength comes purely from a human?
Jungon's abnormal physical power had nothing to do with a demon.
“This bastard is interesting.”
Even while being strangled, Mikael bared his teeth in a grin.
For a moment, Jungon felt something strange about him.
Without realizing it, he tightened his grip.
Crack.
“Oh, damn!”
Feeling Mikael's bones break beneath his fingers, Jungon hurriedly loosened his grip.
For an ordinary person, such an injury would have meant instant death.
But Mikael was no ordinary person.
“Hah… You bastard. You’re ridiculously strong.”
Mikael rolled his neck.
“You damn muscle pig. That hurt like hell.”
