Chapter 353: The dismantling of the strongholds 2

The explosions at the Vatican had only started a few minutes ago.

It was late in the evening.

The Vatican City, located in Italy, had been calm and peaceful.

This small city that was called the holiest place in the world was suddenly being attacked by terrible devils.

“Fuck! What is that?!”

“Demons, they are demons!”

There were weak demons all the way up to the high-ranking devils.

Of course, this army did not barge in from the beginning.

It probably started with a small demon.

“Hmm, do we still have no contact with Pandora?”

It all started while a priest was reading the Bible in St. Peter's Basilica.

“!”

The priest couldn't help but gasp after seeing a devil crunching its way through a Bible.

It was about the size of a finger. This devil that was munching away at a Bible did not have eyes. This devil that only had teeth instantly ate a page of the Bible, and then…

“Aaah!”

When the shocked priest smacked the devil away, the devil bared its teeth and aimed for the artifact ring on the priest’s hand.

Chomp!

“Aaaaaaaaaak!”

The devil bit off the priest’s finger along with the ring. The priest’s eyes opened wide as he bled.

‘Dirty devil-type artifact…!’

The priest quickly picked up his crucifix.

However…

“Aaaaaaaaah!”

His pained screams echoed through the area.

The others who ran over after hearing the priest scream couldn't believe what they were seeing.

“What is this?!”

The entire area was in pandemonium and all that was left of a person was a pair of arms.

At the center of the room was the hairy monster that had eaten the priest. The devil was fatter now after having eaten him and had four legs.

The Pope's direct subordinate priests, John’s allies, all picked up their crucifixes.

“It's an artifact! It’s a devil-type artifact!”

Tang tang!

They even shot artifact guns, but…

“I, it’s not working!”

The bullets didn’t go through its hide and the devil just shook its body as if it was ticklish.

The devil that looked like a wild animal opened its jaws again.

And then…

“Aaaaaaaaaak!”

They were also gobbled up, artifacts and all. There were many devils like this around the Vatican ruthlessly gobbling up Christian artifacts.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The person responsible for this rampage, the Monarch of Devils, raised his voice and laughed.

“Hahaha, these dirty artifacts of the Vatican! I will eat them all up! I will be like our Captain!”

He seemed to admire Ju-Heon now. Had he somewhat fallen for Ju-Heon because he looked so cool preying on the artifacts?

“Hahaha, our shitty Captain is the best! It’s my turn to look cool now!”

And although he originally came here at Ju-Heon's orders……

‘These shitty bastards. Time for all of you to kick the bucket with those holy artifacts you guys basically deep throat.’

Ilya’s eyes flashed as if he had some grudges against the Vatican.

While that was going on…

The high ranking clergy members became desperate.

“This is bad! The number of devils is increasing!”

“That bastard has already destroyed a large number of Christian artifacts!”

They all gasped.

‘Why is that crazy bastard here again?’

The Pope was extremely upset.

He was someone who forced the former Pope out and took his place.

He was someone who accepted that artifacts were a practical future resource for humanity.

But right now… The goal of the Vatican under his leadership was to gather all of the Christian artifacts throughout the world.

He loathed the thought of these artifacts landing in the hands of people of color or gentiles.

Why?

Something like the Jehovah's artifact should be the symbol of the Pope.

It would be embarrassing if this artifact was found somewhere else. He didn't want any other denominations or religions taking the artifact and causing a ruckus.

In the end, they were people who had used Pandora’s evil deeds to their benefit to collect all of the Christian artifacts.

And now…

There was no reason for Ilya, as someone who used Satan’s artifact, to be friendly with them.

Actually, there was another reason for that as well.

‘That ungrateful trash bastard.’

“I can't believe that he has forgotten about his past as a priest and is using devil artifacts.”

Wait, what?!

Ilya was originally a member of the Vatican. He had been there until Kwon Hyuk Soo took him in as a member of the aftermath clean-up crew.

These people were still calm.

Why?

“He must have come here to draw some attention to us but he seems to have chosen the wrong place.”

“You have a point. According to a different report I heard, the bastard is running away.”

“He probably got scared after realizing that he needs to go up against the priests.”

The priests who came to report urgently shouted that that was not the case.

“No sir! That bastard is not running away!”

“What?”

“The bastard is heading for the Vatican library!”

“!”

They all urgently got up.

"Wait! That is……!”

They heard an explosion at that moment.

"The library has been destroyed!”

They turned from calm to frantic in an instant.

“Alright, so where is it? Where is the Akashic records?”

John just snickered at Ju-Heon's question.

‘Like hell I would tell you that. This bastard will never find out.’

The ones who knew about it were only the Bishop-Grade clergy and higher.

That was probably the reason.

“Kill me.”

Ju-Heon just scoffed after seeing the smile on John’s face.

"Well, you don't need to tell me if you don’t want to. I have many ways of finding out.”

“You will never find out.”

As John was sneering at Ju-Heon…

Buzzz.

‘!’

John’s cellphone on the ground was buzzing. Ju-Heon checked who it was before laughing and picking up.

His reaction was to be expected.

[John? John! We have a problem!]

The person who called was a Cardinal. They could hear the urgency in his voice after Ju-Heon answered on speakerphone.

[Ilya Volgof! That deserter has barged into the Vatican! He brought devils with him!]

“!”

John was shocked.

‘That son of a bitch barged into the Vatican of all places? Did he use his devil artifact to quickly teleport to a different country?’

They could hear loud noises through the phone.

[That bastard is destroying all of the Christian artifacts! He’s moving too fast!]

It made sense that Ilya was moving so quickly. As a former priest of the Vatican, he would know the layout and even though John had never seen him in the role, he had supposedly been a talented exorcism priest.

That was why this should have all been expected, but…

‘That crazy bastard!’

He still thought it would be okay.

‘I have some talented brothers over there.’

He calmly responded.

“Please don't worry. That bastard's weakness is obvious.”

The Vatican could easily bury a devil like that alive.

But at that moment…

[The problem is that the bastard headed toward the library!]

John had an odd frown on his face.

‘What? The library?’

As he had that thought…

[If he keeps going, THAT will be revealed!]

‘This dog-like son of a bitch! Why did he have to go there of all places?!’

John then realized something and looked toward Ju-Heon. It was because he knew that he had a moment where his expression had crumbled.

John quickly got rid of it.

‘He shouldn't have noticed.’

Even if this bastard’s senses were as sharp as a dog’s…

But at that moment…

“Ah, I see.”

Ju-Heon started to smile. That smile gave John the chills.

He was right to be scared.

“Ugh!”

Ju-Heon let go of Gungnir that he had been holding back. John bled out and fell backward.

Boom!

Gungnir was stabbed in John’s stomach. What Gungnir was stabbing was the Round Table artifact's medium.

‘Fuck, the benefits from the Round Table are going to disappear.’

Of course, that would not be enough to kill John. His life force was very strong even without the blessing of the Round Table because he used holy artifacts.

There were benefits to being an artifact user who could use Jesus-Grade artifacts.

That was probably the reason.

John became desperate after seeing Ju-Heon starting to walk away.

‘He’s definitely going to head to the Vatican.’

John’s pupils started shaking. It was obvious that they would lose the Majesty's Treasure the moment this bastard went there.

He needed to stall. No matter what it took, no matter what he had to do, he needed to hold this bastard back!

Although he probably could have lived if he pretended to be dead, John started shouting.

“I'll tell you where it is!”

“!”

“I'll tell you the location of the Treasure so let's make a deal!”

He was spurting blood as he shouted, but Ju-Heon just smiled.

It seemed as if he was saying ‘you're still alive?’ At least that was what his gaze seemed to be saying.

Ju-Heon started to speak.

“I applaud you for trying to make a deal. But I don't think I need you anymore.”

He then stabbed John’s heart.

“U…ugh.”

Ju-Heon then pulled Gungnir out and then tied his arm to Gungnir with the rope.

And then!

Swooosh!

He then threw Gungnir. He threw it toward the Vatican!

Gungnir instantly shot up into the sky!

Ju-Heon, who was tied to Gungnir by the rope, ended up flying with it as well.

Shhhhhhh!

He then climbed up properly onto Gungnir and quickly disappeared from the US.

It didn't matter that he didn't collect John’s artifacts.

[Ohhhh, he’s amazing for a stupid human.]

[Is that Christian or whatever an amazing god?]

[Whatever, let’s gather these artifacts first. I need to go eat chicken.]

[I need to get ‘that’ back.]

The shits that Ju-Heon had left behind were snickering.

“Fuck, the bastard has barged into the library!”

"We cannot even stop him with the angel artifacts!”

Within 30 minutes of Ilya barging into the Vatican…

The number of Jehovah artifacts that Ilya had swept up was behind anything people could have ever imagined.

That wasn't all.

“I definitely smell something good here.”

Ilya confidently barged into the library. He was focused on the secret library area in the basement of the library.

“I wonder what artifacts they have stashed in there while I was gone.”

Ilya easily opened the secret passage and walked down.

Angel artifacts descended every so often to get in his way but it didn’t matter.

“I hope you don't fall into the fires of hell.”

Craaaackle!

[#$&#!]

Kyaaaaaa! Save me!

[#$#!]

I've become dirty!

He was just turning these angels into fallen angels.

But the moment he was about to walk into the secret area…

“Ilya! Stop right there!”

“!”

There were some bishops who had chased after Ilya.

"Stop right there.”

They recalled something that had happened when artifacts first appeared.

A man named Kwon Hyuk Soo from Pandora had contacted them for a weird reason.

‘There should be a girl named Galina who frequently shows up there. You should pay close attention to that child.’

Galina was a believer that Ilya had been working with. Most importantly, she was the woman who ended up being the trigger that allowed Ilya to use the devil artifacts.

The bishops who knew about that fact wanted to use that to their advantage.

“We will use our Christian artifacts to revive that girl Galina.”

“!”

“Isn't that child the reason you made a deal with these devils?”

“…….”

“You are our ally. So…”

But at that moment…

Bang!

An extremely strong aura swept through the Vatican’s library and intense fires of hell shot up.

Babababang!

The internal walls of the library crumbled. Glass shattered all around them and the outer walls cracked as well until the entire building exploded.

The bishops and priests were flung back from the impact as well.

Ilya picked his ear with his finger as he started speaking.

“Bullshit. You guys killed her and now you want to revive her? You should really stop playing with corpses.”

“What……?!”

“It's obvious you guys are going to use those artifacts you've been sucking so hard or that Un-known shit.”

His eyes flashed.

“No thanks, you retards.”

The devils quickly killed the priests.

He then confidently walked into the secret library area.

He then ended up face to face with the Akashic records!

“Oh, bingo.”

It was giving off such a strong aura.

It didn't seem to be a Christian artifact but it was too good of an artifact to just walk past it!

It was at that moment.

Buuzz.

Ilya nonchalantly picked up the call.

The pushover was the one who called.

[Hey, did you find it? I heard it from the Captain-nim! He said it was there! What does it look like? What can it do?!]

“I don’t know, you little punk. I need to find out now.”

[Ohhhh, is the Captain-nim going to get another jackpot of an artifact?! You should ask for a giant bonus for doing a good job!]

Ilya sneered at him.

“Get lost. Finders keepers.”

[What?]

“Oho, what could you ever mean by that?”

“What do I mean? The Captain always takes the good shit for himself. Shouldn’t I get at least one of……”

“Hmm.”

Ilya suddenly got the chills.

Did…did he just hear another voice?