Chapter 270

Sung Yu-Da left his office as soon as he heard the news that his daughter had been kidnapped. Then, he immediately headed to the Paladin Order where the report had come from.

Upon arriving at the Paladin Order, the first thing he saw was a woman clinging to the paladins and wailing. It was Sung Yu-Da's wife.

"Please, sirs. Please, I beg you. Clergymen, ah, ahh...!"

Sung Yu-Da silently watched her hold onto the clergymen passing by as she wailed miserably as if her breath was going to be cut off.

Upon seeing that sight, he initially just wanted to sit down. Maintaining strength in his legs and standing upright felt like such a meaningless act to him. He wanted to just sit down and scream until his breath was finally cut off.

However, right after, a new strength began to rise within Sung Yu-Da's body. It was a strength that came from the wrath that he felt toward the ones who had kidnapped his daughter, Ha-Yeon.

His heart initially felt like it was getting crushed and would stop at any moment, but it was now surging with so much energy that he felt like it would burst.

"Why..."

Sung Yu-Da approached the paladins. The veins on his forehead bulged, and his jaw muscles twitched incessantly due to his clenched teeth. With bloodshot eyes and a flushed face, he looked around at the seated paladins.

"Why are you casually tapping on the keyboard while sitting in the Paladin Order?"

"C-cardinal Sung Yu-Da."

"Just how poor of a job have you been doing?" Sung Yu-Da asked, his lips trembling. "For none other than my daughter to be kidnapped by someone?"

The paladins fell silent. Even after becoming an inquisitor and a cardinal, Sung Yu-Da was known for not making statements acknowledging his power within the church or his clan.

Sung Yu-Da himself considered such an attitude dishonorable. He believed that all Romanicans under Adonai were the same. Cardinals were merely servants of Adonai with a slightly greater calling to serve the Romanican Church. That was Sung Yu-Da's belief, and he would often say so whenever he spoke at lectures and such.

For someone like him to say something like this meant that he was greatly enraged. No one dared approach or stop the enraged Sung Yu-Da, and no one had the courage to do so.

At that moment, one person approached him. He was the director of the Paladin Order.

"Cardinal Sung Yu-Da."

“...”

Instead of responding, Sung Yu-Da simply glared at the director. The director took out his phone from his pocket, glanced at it briefly, then looked up at Sung Yu-Da.

His eyes were filled with determination and conviction, befitting that of a clergyman.

“The information about your daughter’s kidnappers and the location of where she is being held has been obtained. Soon, a squad of paladins and a squad of crusaders will be dispatched to rescue your daughter and arrest the kidnappers.”

"Insufficient," Sung Yu-Da muttered.

If there were only one squad of paladins and one squad of crusaders, it was no different from the number of personnel that would be deployed when a Satanist appeared. The number of people dispatched was much greater than what would normally be dispatched for a kidnapping.

Nevertheless, Sung Yu-Da felt like it was not enough. If they did not bring enough personnel and something bad happened to Ha-Yeon—there was no way this would happen—but if Ha-Yeon died...

Just imagining such a thing felt suffocating for Sung Yu-Da. He glanced at the clock and said, "One squad of paladins. And instead of crusaders, organize a squad of priests. I will go to the scene myself."

"Sung Yu-Da, you don't need to go there in person. We can handle it sufficiently from our end—"

Sung Yu-Da continued to look at the clock as he said, "I will go myself."

The ticking sound bothered him. As if he felt the passing of each minute and second, his heart grew anxious and his rage intensified.

He forced himself to calm his rage down by taking deep breaths. "What is the reason for the kidnapping? Did the kidnappers have any demands?"

"The demands are the resignation of some clergymen who made negative remarks about the Voodoo Church. This kidnapping incident is also part of an anti-discrimination protest for the Voodoo Church."

"Then we will label them not as protesters but armed rebels.”

Sung Yu-Da pondered for a moment and then, with a sinister and eerie smile, said, "No... Let's consider them as a terrorist group planning to overthrow the regime and suppress them."

He would designate them as a terrorist group planning to overthrow the current regime. That was no different from saying that the kidnappers could be immediately killed on sight. The only group currently considered a terrorist group planning to overthrow the current regime was the Satanists. By saying this, Sung Yu-Da was effectively deciding that the Romanican Church should eradicate the Voodoo Church as a cult that was no different from Satanists.

“...”

The director nodded slowly, with a dark shadow cast over his face.

The paladins and priests were organized into squads and deployed for the operation. At the forefront was Sung Yu-Da.

Sung Yu-Da stood in front of the location where Ha-Yeon and her kidnappers were gathered, and he gestured toward the priests gathered around him.

"Blessing," Sung Yu-Da said, staring at the priests with cold eyes.

The priests swallowed their saliva and nodded, and then began to unleash their divine power to draw blessing arrays. The head of the squad of priests gathered the blessing arrays drawn by the priests and connected them to create a massive fusion blessing array.

A brilliant light burst from the blessing array. A vast amount of light of blessing which was enough to power an entire squad, no, an entire battalion, converged toward a single person. And that person was none other than Sung Yu-Da.

He was receiving such an absurd amount of blessings that he couldn’t handle it by himself. Divine power emanated from his body, a precursor to miracle replication.

However, unlike a typical miracle replication, the divine power emanating from Sung Yu-Da was sucked back into his body.

The paladins tilted their heads, unable to figure out what Sung Yu-Da was doing, but the priests were all in awe. The method of blessing utilization that Sung Yu-Da had most recently devised was the power of Adonai. The technique gathered the strengths of blessings and miracles containing the power of past saints within his own body.

Tap, tap.

Sung Yu-Da's steps were calm and graceful as usual. However, there was a strong power and wrath in his gait. He entered the building while holding the Fourth Angel's Horn holy artifact which he had obtained from the priesthood.

Inside, he saw Ha-Yeon tied up and surrounded by kidnappers. The kidnappers were holding a saw to Ha-Yeon's arm and staring blankly at Sung Yu-Da, who had entered the building.

Sung Yu-Da first checked Ha-Yeon's condition. Fortunately, she didn’t seem to be injured, but her hair had been cut off.

Wooooo—!

Sung Yu-Da infused sacred power into the Fourth Angel's Horn. A loud noise echoed in all directions.

Ha-Yeon and the kidnappers' vision was obscured by the effect of the holy artifact. Sung Yu-Da, with the blessings from the priests and the power of Adonai, walked confidently toward the kidnappers.

Suddenly, Sung Yu-Da grabbed a kidnapper who was struggling due to his blinded eyes and crushed their head with his bare hands.

Crack—!

Crack, creak—!

Again and again, the sound of skulls cracking and heads being crushed reverberated throughout the building.

Some kidnappers calmly unleashed Voodoo magic and drew a spell array even though they had lost their sight. The Voodoo mist enveloped Sung Yu-Da, but the spell did not affect him, as he was a member of the purification clan.

Splatter, splatter.

An eyeball that had rolled out of a crushed skull rolled on the ground. Sung Yu-Da stared at the sight. He had killed countless demonic beasts and demons before, but he had never killed a human with his own hands.

It was his first murder. However, the thrill was not much different from killing demonic beasts and demons. Sung Yu-Da did not consider the kidnappers as humans from the beginning.

"Let's go back, Ha-Yeon," Sung Yu-Da said to Ha-Yeon, who had lost consciousness due to the shock.

There was no response, of course.

As he held Ha-Yeon and walked out of the building, he noticed that something was flowing down his face. It was a sticky, hot liquid. He couldn’t tell whether it was sweat, the kidnappers’ blood, or tears.

After instructing the paladins to deal with the aftermath, Sung Yu-Da ordered the Paladin Order to protect his daughter.

He then went straight to the Holy See. Kneeling on one knee and bowing his head before the Pope, he said, "Your Holiness."

“...”

Seeing Sung Yu-Da, who suddenly appeared with a bloodied face, the Pope seemed quite startled.

However, Sung Yu-Da paid no mind. He thought about the rumors surrounding Do Myung-Jun. Eating human flesh, conducting human sacrifices, and leading bizarre rituals, people called the leader of the Voodoo Cult a devil.

Yes, he was a devil.

"I will heed the words you spoke to me before, your Holiness."

That was how the Holy War began.

*

The war was overwhelmingly in the Romanican Church’s favor.

Some battles were lost, and many sacrifices were made. It was all because of Prophet Lee Seh-Hwa and Cult Leader Do Myung-Jun. Lee Seh-Hwa manipulated thunder, lightning, wind, and flames, and she shook the terrain, rendering the strategic use of topography ineffective against them. Do Myung-Jun's spells made the clergymen unable to do anything, causing them to lose consciousness and collapse. Some even suffered from hallucinations and remained insane even after the battle ended.

If Sung Yu-Da had not been there, the Romanican Church might have had to admit defeat to the Voodoo Cult.

If Sung Yu-Da had not been there...

Rip!

"Advance."

Whenever Do Myung-Jun or other Voodoo Cult members cast a spell, Sung Yu-Da inflicted wounds on his own body, shed his blood, and nullified the spell with the blessing of purification. By shedding blood without hesitation and infusing it with the blessing of purification, he easily dispelled the Voodoo spells and boosted the morale of the Romanican Church clergymen.

There was a rumor circulating among the clergymen that if they gathered all the blood that Sung Yu-Da had shed, it would be more than enough to dye an entire reservoir red. The clergymen practically considered Sung Yu-Da a hero. Some even regarded him as the incarnation of Adonai who had appeared to lead the Romanican Church to victory.

“Huff, huff...!”

However, only Ha-Yeon knew that while he was a courageous warrior on the battlefield, Sung Yu-Da was a weak human who couldn't sleep properly without medicine at home. Due to his obsession with leading the Holy War to victory and seeking revenge on the Voodoo Cult, Sung Yu-Da neglected his family and ended up living separately from his wife.

Every night, he would swallow an entire bottle of pills and draw several blessing arrays with his trembling hands before he would finally be able to fall asleep. He relied on medicine, blessings, and his mission to seek revenge on the Voodoo Cult to lead the Romanicans to victory in the Holy War.

Ha-Yeon secretly watched him through the crack in the door.

Many battles erupted. The Romanican Church utilized a large amount of human resources to engage in a war of attrition with the Voodoo Cult. When the Romanican clergymen died in battle, their deaths fueled the surviving clergymen's wrath and boosted morale.

𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Seeing how the Romanican clergymen showed no signs of decreasing in number despite engaging in numerous battles, despair spread among the Voodoo Cult members.

"Cardinal Sung Yu-Da, we may be able to win the war during this battle..."

"The Voodoo Cult has split into two factions, with one following the Prophet and the other following the Cult Leader..."

"The core executives of the Voodoo Cult have fled..."

Victory reports came from various places. After a long period of war, the weakened Voodoo Cult split. The Prophet and the Cult Leader no longer actively participated in the battles. Without Lee Seh-Hwa and Do Myung-Jun, the Voodoo Cult was too weak. The Romanican Church achieved consecutive victories without even a single casualty.

"..."

Not long after, Do Myung-Jun surrendered and voluntarily appeared at the Holy See. The clergymen arrested him, cut off all his fingers to prevent him from casting spells, deprived him of food for three days, and beat him until he was in a state of exhaustion.

Sung Yu-Da let that happen. No, he encouraged it.

Finally, the day of the execution arrived. Sung Yu-Da carried out the execution. It would have been symbolic if he had done it, and he himself wanted it.

Do Myung-Jun, hanging on the cross-shaped gallows, looked at Sung Yu-Da with eyes that were already like those of a corpse. Sung Yu-Da's gaze toward Do Myung-Jun was not much different.

"...That time, when was it again?"

Whoosh!

Sung Yu-Da poured oil on the gallows and set it on fire. Do Myung-Jun's body was burned black from head to toe. Sung Yu-Da did not listen to Do Myung-Jun's words. He thought there was no need to listen to the words of a man who would soon die.

Nevertheless, Do Myung-Jun smiled until the end and spoke while looking at Sung Yu-Da.

When his body was half burnt, Do Myung-Jun said, "You said you wanted to see me use a Voodoo spell..."

Splitter, splatter...

And then he unleashed Voodoo magic.

The Voodoo magic emitted in a state of exhaustion was faint in color and pitiful in size. The state of the array was pitiful beyond description, and the Voodoo mist was even more dismal. It was a thin and powerless mist. It was a pitiful and miserable spell that should not have affected Sung Yu-Da, a member of the purification clan.

"It's done. A spell to destroy the purification clan members."

Drip.

When Do Myung-Jun's body was almost completely burned, he closed his eyes to accept his fate. Sung Yu-Da also closed his eyes.

With the clear sound of a water droplet falling, Sung Yu-Da lost consciousness.

And within his pitch-black consciousness, Do Myung-Jun's memories flowed in.