"The mission mentioned the requirements as the blessing of the one-eyed goddess and the god of the end." Evelyn stepped forward with her cold voice. With the first step, the shadow under her feet started to spread fast.

Within a matter of three steps, the entire room was covered, and then suddenly… small creepy insects started pouring out of the shadows.

But these were no normal insects; their bodies seemed to have been modified on purpose. Wings on the back of a spider, a cockroach with crab hands, or a scorpion tail.

The sight was simply a huge dose of trauma.

Even Jinn took an involuntary step back, recoiling in disgust.

"Is this power enough for your mission?" Watching the three priests stare at her with mouths wide open, Evelyn casually asked while retracting her shadows.

It took them a long time to snap out of their daze.

"Wha— that power. Could it be you are… the cursed priestess? "

The first to snap out of his daze was a middle-aged man with a gruff expression and scarred face. His eyes were so red that his pupils were barely visible.

He had his hands clasped before his chest, as if he was praying all the time. There were cracks on his body that glowed with different colors.

Jinn looked at the two strips across the collar of the man and realized how high his position was in the church.

Only the head priest of a church was given this mark as a unanimous show of their political standing in the church.

"Ahem, High Priest Bone." Father Augustus coughed awkwardly after calming down. His words made the man realize that he had said something wrong.

"Ahem, Excuse me for getting all panicked, Lady Little."

Head Priest, Patrick Bone.

The person in charge of a local church. There were quite a few churches in Gloria City.

At first, the plan was simple. Father Nelson and Father Augustus were supposed to do a cleansing ritual on Lady Herbert.

They even took Head Priest Patrick Bone of the crimson church as a precaution.

But things did not go as they had expected…

In the middle of ritual, lady Herbert who was supposed to be getting better, suddenly got worse.

"I don't see a problem with letting you two participate." Father Nelson suddenly shifted their attention to himself. "We just need the students to assist us, not take over the exorcism."

Though touched with envy, his voice was cold and calculative. Seeing Father Augustus frown, he continued.

"Didn't you say that we cannot keep bishop Marx and if the students do not take a task, you will continue anyway? Now that they have answered your call, better embrace the present."

After some silent contemplation, Father Augustus sighed and nodded.

"Come, we will explain the situation to you. Since it is a sensitive matter, we could not reveal all information on the task board. But don't worry, the reward will also be worth it."

Saying this, Father Augustus, along with two other priests, guided Jinn and Evelyn to sit down.

"Allow me to start with the introduction. I am father Augustus, the head priest of the church. These two here are Father Nelson and Father Bone." With this he went on to explain how he knew Jinn.

After Jinn and Evelyn were done introducing themselves, father Augustus finally started explaining the situation to them.

"It all happened a few days ago. What was supposed to be a simple exorcism turned intothem. something… worse."

Jinn listened to the man explaining how everything went wrong.

Right in the middle of the exorcism, lady Herbert who was supposed to be getting better, started spewing blood and chunks of meat in all directions.

Only when they were told she had never swallowed a bite of meat her whole life did they realize what they were were parts of her own organs that were lying on the floor.

Had it not been for the power of William Herbert's blessing, they would have lost her on the spot.

This was not the only bad event they faced that day. After the exorcism, they heard that Tessa Herbert, the daughter of the lady and lord Herbert fell unconscious once more.

And this time, she was bleeding from all seven orifices.

But upon closer inspection, they found nothing wrong with the girl.

"So, we all decided that the demon has taken hold of her daughter's soul through their bloodline connection. It might be feeding on little Tessa to grow stronger. We reported everything back to the order, and Bishop Marx decided to handle the situation himself."

'This again?' Jinn frowned. He did not even focus on how wrong their analysis was. He was more drawn to the news of the bishop involving himself.

'Why is this happening all of a sudden? From what they assessed, the correct scenario would just be to send the best of their priests who have awakened the second core.'

Even though Jinn did not know how the church worked on the inside, he had a general idea of the difficulty of the threats of the church and how they handle them 'normally' due to his experience at the opal trading company, where he would meet many priests on occasion.

But nothing about this situation was normal.

Sending a bishop only made sense if they knew of the real situation.

Evelyn too had a frown on her face, but her reason was different than Noah's.

"Where is Lord Herbert?" She asked softly; looking around, she only saw servants and employees of the mansion.

"He is with his daughter, constantly healing her even as we speak." Father Nelson spoke with a rare hint of admiration in his voice.

Even Jinn had to admit how devoted the man was to his family. 'No wonder Agnes felt the need to save them.'

As if thinking of Agnes, he paused for a second. 'Now that I think about it, they did not expose the incident with the maid. Looks like they are hiding another failure on purpose.'

"We have got the gist of the situation," Jinn picked up right as the priest stopped speaking. "Can you now tell us about the plan you have come up with and our role in it?"

Father Nelson frowned. Even though he had not seen Jinn's power, he allowed him to stay only because they were the only ones who even accepted this mission in the whole school.

'Not to mention, they meet the criteria for the plan.'

While he wore a snarl on his face, head priest Bone spoke up coldly.

"The plan is something only the bishop knows. We are only allowed to tell you that when the time comes, how you are going to act."

His words were precise and cold, telling Jinn he did not like being questioned about the plan by students like them.

"This puts us at a disadvantage." Evelyn also frowned coldly. She was not one to back down. "This can not only put our lives in danger but also increase the chances of us making a mistake."

'Says the woman who wanted to take on such a dangerous task on her first mission day.' Jinn rolled his eyes internally but put on a united front with her.

"We cannot do that, Jinn." Father Augustus intervened with a wry laugh. Having witnessed his awakening, he was more inclined to support Jinn, but there was a limit.

"Bishop Marx's orders are not something we can defy."

His words were both the truth and a warning for Jinn, who was from a common background.

Orphanage did not teach them about the truth of the world, and he did not want Jinn to offend the rank of Bishop due to his ignorance.

"Besides, you can always back away before the exorcism really starts."

And once it does…what?

The question appeared in both of their minds, but the two students already knew the answer to that.

"Now, allow me to explain the plan to you." Father Augustus nodded, seeing their silence.

"First Jinn… the reason we asked for someone with your blessing specifically was because there was something only someone with your blessing can accomplish."

While speaking, Father Augustus, the magical golden energy left his body and started gathering behind him.

Right then, it appeared before them.

The Sigil of the Divine!

It was the head of a goat shrouded in darkness below. There was a bright radiance around its head. The horns were twisted to look like a crown.

In the shadow of this sigil, Jinn saw the image of a pair of vast wings spreading open. With each flap, a tremor would go through his consciousness.

Unknown to his situation, the head priest continued, "everyone knows that even with the same blessing, two people cannot have the same abilities. But…" he looks back at the sigil and continues, "There is still something common between them."

Professor Mary Donn had said something similar about how everyone with the blessing of the God of the End had the ability to corrode something.

The words Father Augustus spoke made Evelyn show a look of understanding, but to Jinn, they were trumpets of the apocalypse.

The sound of his impending doom!

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