Flames of the Final Curse
As soon as Seong Yu-da heard the news that his daughter had been kidnapped, he stormed out of his office. He made straight for the Holy Knight Order where the report had originated.
When he arrived, the first sight that greeted him was a woman clinging to the Holy Knights, sobbing uncontrollably. It was his wife.
"Teachers, please. I beg you. Priests, ah, ahh...!"
She grabbed at passing clergy, wailing as if her breath might give out at any moment. Seong Yu-da watched her in silence.
For a moment, he wanted nothing more than to collapse right there. Standing tall, forcing strength into his legs—it all felt utterly pointless. He yearned to crumple to the ground and scream until his voice shattered and his last breath escaped.
But then, a new power surged through him. It stemmed from rage toward those who had taken his daughter, Seong Ha-yeon. His heart, which had been beating quietly as if squeezed in a vise, now thundered as if it might burst.
"Why...."
Seong Yu-da approached the Holy Knights. Veins bulged on his forehead, and his jaw muscles twitched relentlessly from clenched teeth. With bloodshot eyes where every capillary was visible, he scanned the seated knights.
"...Why are you still sitting here in the Holy Knight Order, calmly tapping away at your keyboards?"
"C-Cardinal Seong Yu-da."
"How the hell did you handle things...."
Seong Yu-da's lips trembled as he continued.
"...that my daughter—of all people—could be kidnapped?"
The Holy Knights fell silent. Seong Yu-da was renowned in the church and his clan for never making statements conscious of his power, even after becoming an inquisitor and then a cardinal. He himself viewed such behavior as dishonorable.
All Romanica followers under Adonai are equal. A cardinal is merely a servant of Adonai burdened with a greater duty to serve the faithful. That was Seong Yu-da's belief, repeated every time he gave lectures or speeches.
For such a man to speak like this meant he had lost his mind completely. No one dared address the frenzied Seong Yu-da or try to calm him. They couldn't even muster the courage.
Then one person approached him: the commander of the Holy Knight Order.
"Cardinal Seong Yu-da."
"......"
Seong Yu-da didn't respond, merely glaring at the commander with wide eyes. The commander glanced at his phone from his pocket, then looked up at Seong Yu-da. His gaze held the resolve and conviction befitting a cleric.
"We've identified the kidnappers and their location with your daughter. We're forming one platoon each of Holy Knights and Holy Warriors for a rescue operation and capture of the perpetrators."
"Not enough."
Seong Yu-da muttered. One platoon each of Holy Knights and Holy Warriors was the scale deployed even against Satanists, not mere kidnappers. Yet it still felt insufficient to him. What if manpower shortages led to something happening to Seong Ha-yeon? Unlikely as it was, if she were to die... Just imagining it choked him.
He glanced at his watch and spoke.
"One platoon of Holy Knights. And replace the Holy Warriors with one platoon of priests. I'll go to the scene myself."
"...You don't need to go personally, Cardinal Seong Yu-da. We can handle it—"
"I'm going myself."
Seong Yu-da said while staring at his watch. The ticking irritated him. Every passing minute and second fueled his impatience and rage. Breathing heavily to suppress it forcibly, he continued.
"What's the motive for the kidnapping? Any demands from the perpetrators?"
"...Their demand is the resignation of certain priests who made negative statements about Voodoo. This incident appears to be part of an anti-Voodoo discrimination protest."
"Then treat them not as kidnappers, but as a militant protest group."
Seong Yu-da pondered, then flashed a chilling, eerie smile.
"No... Classify them as a regime-overthrow conspiracy terrorist group and suppress accordingly."
Regime-overthrow conspiracy terrorist group. That meant they could be executed on sight. Currently, only the Satan Cult fit that description. By saying this, Seong Yu-da effectively branded Voodoo as no different from the Satan Cult—a "heretical cult" that Romanica must eradicate.
"......"
The commander nodded slowly, his face shadowed deeply. One platoon each of Holy Knights and priests was mobilized. Leading them was Seong Yu-da.
He stood before the building where Seong Ha-yeon and her kidnappers were gathered. He gestured to the clustered priests.
"Blessings."
Seong Yu-da commanded, his eyes ice-cold. The priests swallowed hard, nodded, and unleashed divine power to draw blessing circles. The priest captain fused their circles into one massive Fusion Blessing Circle.
Shwaaaaa—!
Dazzling light erupted from it. Vast enough to blanket a company—or even a battalion—it converged solely on one man: Seong Yu-da.
He absorbed blessings far beyond what one body could handle. Divine power seeped from him—the precursor to miracle recreation.
But unlike ordinary miracles, the divine power emanating from him was sucked back into his body. The Holy Knights tilted their heads in confusion, but the priests gasped in awe.
It was the power of Adonai. Seong Yu-da's latest technique: harnessing only the strengths of blessings and miracles to embody the power of past saints within oneself.
Thud, thud.
Seong Yu-da's steps were as calm and elegant as ever. Yet they radiated immense power and fury. Clutching the holy relic "Fourth Angel's Trumpet" from the priests, he entered the building.
There, he saw Seong Ha-yeon bound and the kidnappers surrounding her. They stared blankly at the intruder, a chainsaw pressed to her arm.
Seong Yu-da first checked her condition. No visible wounds—thankfully—but her hair had been cut.
Woooooo—!
He infused divine power into the Fourth Angel's Trumpet. A deafening roar echoed everywhere. The relic's effect blinded Seong Ha-yeon and the kidnappers.
Empowered by the priests' blessings and Adonai's might, Seong Yu-da advanced toward them step by step.
Crunch!
He crushed their heads barehanded as they flailed blindly.
Crunch, crack—!
Skulls shattering, heads caving in—the sounds reverberated through the building repeatedly.
Some kidnappers, even blinded, calmly unleashed Voodoo magic to draw spell circles. Voodoo mist enveloped Seong Yu-da, but as a member of the Purification Clan, spells had no effect on him.
Splat, splat.
Eyeballs rolled across the floor from crushed skulls. Seong Yu-da glanced at them.
He had slain countless magic beasts and demons, but this was his first time killing humans with his own hands.
His first murders. Yet the sensation was no different from butchering beasts or demons.
Seong Yu-da hadn't considered the kidnappers human to begin with.
"Let's go home, Ha-yeon."
He said to Seong Ha-yeon, who had lost consciousness from shock. No reply came, of course.
Carrying her out, something trickled down his face—sweat, kidnappers' blood, or tears? A sticky, hot liquid, indistinguishable.
Seong Yu-da ordered the Holy Knights to secure the scene, then had them protect his daughter at the Order. He headed straight for the Papal Palace.
There, he knelt on one knee before the Pope and bowed his head.
"Your Holiness."
"......"
The Pope seemed startled by Seong Yu-da's bloodied appearance. But Seong Yu-da paid it no mind. He thought of the rumors surrounding Do Myeong-jun: leader of Voodoo cannibals who devoured human flesh, offered living sacrifices, led orgies, and performed grotesque rituals. The Do Myeong-jun on people's lips was a devil.
Yes, a devil.
"I shall heed Your Holiness's words from before."
The Holy War had begun.
The war overwhelmingly favored Romanica. Some battles were lost, with heavy casualties. Due to Prophet Lee Se-hwa and Cult Leader Do Myeong-jun.
Lee Se-hwa's thunder, lightning, winds, flames, and earth-shaking powers rendered terrain strategies useless. Do Myeong-jun's spells left priests collapsing unconscious, unable to act. Some suffered hallucinations even after battles, driving them mad.
Without Seong Yu-da, Romanica might have admitted defeat to Voodoo.
If not for Seong Yu-da.
Shwaak!
"Advance."
Whenever Do Myeong-jun or other Voodooists cast spells, Seong Yu-da carved wounds into his own body, spilling blood. He nullified them with Purification Blessing Circles.
Purification circles fueled by his unrelenting blood easily dispelled spells and boosted Romanica priests' morale.
Jokes circulated seriously among priests: collecting all the blood Seong Yu-da shed mid-battle could fill a reservoir red.
They saw him as a hero—an incarnation of Adonai sent to lead Romanica to victory.
"Hoo, hoo...!"
Yet the warrior fearless on the battlefield was, at home, a frail man unable to sleep without drugs—a fact known only to Seong Ha-yeon.
Blinded by victory in the Holy War and vengeance against Voodoo, Seong Yu-da neglected his family, living separately from his wife. Every night, he downed a bottle of pills, drew blessing circles with trembling hands, and only then slept.
He relied on drugs, blessings, and his obsession with vengeance and victory.
Seong Ha-yeon secretly watched him through the door crack.
Countless battles raged. Romanica waged an attrition war, leveraging superior numbers. Fallen priests became fertilizer, igniting survivors' rage and morale.
Voodooists despaired at Romanica's endless ranks.
"Cardinal Seong Yu-da, victory in this battle..."
"Voodoo has split into prophet and cult leader factions..."
"Key Voodoo executives have fled..."
Victory reports poured in. Prolonged fighting weakened and fractured Voodoo. The prophet and cult leader barely participated anymore. Without Lee Se-hwa and Do Myeong-jun, Voodoo was feeble.
Romanica now won bloodlessly, consecutively.
"......"
Soon after, Do Myeong-jun surrendered, appearing at the Papal Palace. Priests arrested and imprisoned him: severing fingers to prevent spells, starving him for days, beating him to exhaustion.
Seong Yu-da let it happen. Encouraged it.
Finally, execution day arrived. Seong Yu-da would officiate—for symbolism, and because he desired it.
Do Myeong-jun hung from the cross-frame, eyes corpse-like, staring at Seong Yu-da. Seong Yu-da's gaze was no different.
"...When was it again."
Whoosh!
Seong Yu-da poured oil on the frame and lit it. Do Myeong-jun's body blackened from the feet up.
Seong Yu-da ignored him. No need to heed a soon-dead man's words.
Yet Do Myeong-jun smiled to the end, continuing.
"You said... you wanted to see me use spells."
Crackle, crackle...
As half his body burned, Do Myeong-jun spoke. He unleashed Voodoo magic.
Exhausted, the magic was pale and meager. The spell circle pathetic, the mist skeletal.
Such feeble fog should have had no effect on Purification Clan member Seong Yu-da.
"It's complete. The spell to dismantle the Purification Clan."
Ting.
As Do Myeong-jun's body nearly burned away and he closed his eyes accepting fate, Seong Yu-da's eyes shut too.
With a clear sound like a water drop, Seong Yu-da lost consciousness.
From the pitch-black void of his mind, Do Myeong-jun's memories flowed in.
(To be continued)