The Heretic of Cleric Academy-Chapter 45

While the children were engaged in heated debate over who would become the ’bait’ after Yeo Min-seo proposed her plan, I was just blankly staring up at the sky. The pale eyes of the leader magical beast were still glaring down at us.

I felt a sticky and unpleasant sense of unease.

What exactly do they want?

’Baphomet III’ level magical beasts often engage in bizarre behavior that cannot be understood by human minds. They treat people like toys to play with, or strip the bones from humans to build houses or nests.

However, even taking that into account, their behavior was incomprehensible.

The magical beasts attack targets that move when flashes occur. If two or more people move when a flash occurs, they attack the one with the greater movement. They never attack two simultaneously.

It’s as if they’re subtly suggesting ’if one person becomes bait, the other three can survive.’ At the same time, it feels like they’re testing our morality. But then another question arises.

What exactly are the magical beasts doing this for?

[Even I cannot understand this. Satan is said to often test humans, but... for mere magical beasts to try to test humans.]

"..."

I wordlessly stared up at the sky in bewilderment. The dark clouds had completely covered the sky by now. The bird magical beasts were slowly lowering their altitude, flying in circles as if threatening us.

The other children were having some discussion excluding only me, but because I was lost in other thoughts, I couldn’t hear the details. It seemed they were deliberating over who would become the bait.

[Anyway, that woman’s plan to sacrifice one to save three is plausible. If you become the bait and they escape, then you can use divine power...]

[The weather is really nice today!]

A voice that suddenly rang out interrupted Legba’s words.

Such a frivolous tone that seemed like it would blow away in the wind, so light. Completely different from Legba’s calm and weighty manner of speaking.

Dark clouds covering the sky were colliding with other dark clouds, creating sparks.

[On days like this, I just can’t help myself!]

[This is a mountain. Restrain yourself, you thoughtless fool.]

Legba scolded him.

[Lightning is something that has no patience by nature!]

However, he just giggled and brushed off Legba’s words evasively.

Sobo.

The Loa of lightning and thunder.

There are sayings like ’even saints get struck by lightning,’ ’innocent people get struck by lightning,’ and ’you get struck by lightning for being near wicked people.’

In summary, it means that whether good or evil, ordinary or talented, anyone can be struck by lightning. Lightning doesn’t discriminate between people, and it’s also fickle.

Because Sobo is the Loa of lightning, his personality is as fickle as lightning itself.

Especially on days like today when dark clouds completely cover the sky, he would appear regardless of my will, suddenly summon lightning and then vanish abruptly.

[There are countless things in the sky that deserve to be struck by lightning.]

Sobo muttered. Though his tone was frivolous, there was also a slight chill in it. The sky covered in dark clouds had not a single ray of light.

This time too, he seemed intent on calling down lightning.

"...No."

I urgently commanded Sobo. If lightning struck in these mountains, a forest fire would certainly break out.

Not just any forest fire, but a massive conflagration that would burn all of Eden Hill to ashes. It would be like burning down the whole house to catch a bedbug.

Though right now it wasn’t bedbugs but magical beasts, the context was the same anyway.

[No? If you say no, then there’s nothing I can do. I’ll go back now.]

Fortunately, Sobo seemed willing to obey my command... or so it appeared.

[Of course that’s a lie! "Divine Punishment."]

However, as expected, lightning’s whims were unpredictable.

When Sobo spoke as if calling out some skill name, flash! Lightning fell and split the sky, followed immediately by thunder crashing down.

["Lightning Bolt"]

["Thunder Arrow"]

["Thunder Storm"]

"Are you playing some game right now? This is ridiculous."

[Chanting makes the lightning’s power stronger!]

It was nonsense. I couldn’t help but sigh. If there was at least some consistency, it might be somewhat tolerable, but sometimes he used English, sometimes Chinese characters, making it hard to indulge him.

The sky alternated between being covered in darkness and light, and magical beasts struck by lightning began falling to the ground one by one.

Trees struck by lightning split in half, and fire erupted from the split areas. The fire soon spread in all directions, surrounding us like an encirclement.

I listened to Sobo’s ’worthless chatter disguised as chanting’ while stepping forward. Then I looked around.

Since it would be too late after the fire finished spreading, I was trying to find an escape route in advance.

[This gets boring after doing it for a while. I’m leaving now! This time it’s real...]

After creating storms with thunder and lightning for quite a while, Sobo eventually grew bored and yawned as he departed.

His frivolous voice gradually faded from my head, and Legba’s serious voice drew closer.

[Baron Samedi and Sobo. I understand those two the least. Who knows what’s in their heads.]

Legba muttered with a lamenting tone. I nodded. Baron Samedi’s personality was a bit unique too, but compared to Sobo, he was mild. Sobo’s personality went beyond unique to bizarre.

I shook my head to dispel these distracting thoughts and quickly looked around.

Everyone’s reactions were strange. Yeo Min-seo was smiling reluctantly, Gu Jun-hyeok was staring at me intently with a serious face, and Kim Jin-seo was gazing blankly at the sky with an entranced expression.

It was certain that none of them were in their right minds.

However, now was not the time to be like this. Though the lightning had taken care of all the magical beasts, a greater threat than the magical beasts was strangling us.

"Hey! Snap out of it. We need to run."

I shouted into the air. The three children simultaneously startled and looked at me. I pointed at the flames spreading in the distance.

The first to come to his senses was Gu Jun-hyeok.

"What? What! What the hell happened!" He was smiling brightly like a child. His voice tone had also become quite high. He seemed unable to contain his excitement. Gu Jun-hyeok appeared to like things like lightning and thunder.

"Did you really do that? Really?"

"No. Just hurry up and get out. If the fire spreads, we won’t be able to get out."

The fire that had been distant just moments ago had somehow reached right in front of us. Perhaps because it was a mountain with lots to burn, the speed of the fire’s spread was tremendously fast.

"Oh my, look at that smoke. Kind of scary."

Gu Jun-hyeok stared blankly at the smoke rising into the sky. The billowing black smoke was thick enough to fill the entire sky.

With both dark clouds and smoke added, the sky was even blacker. It was like applying darkness over a black canvas.

After staring at the smoke for a while like that, Gu Jun-hyeok suddenly turned around and his mouth fell open.

His face was complex and subtle, as if shocked and filled with anger.

"Damn it. Yeo Min-seo."

Come to think of it, Yeo Min-seo was gone. She seemed to have run away by herself as soon as the situation calmed down.

Though it was a somewhat selfish decision, it wasn’t necessarily something to curse about.

Rather than all four trying to escape together and ending up trapped in the flames unable to do anything, it was better for at least one to quickly escape and request rescue or secure an escape route.

"Kim Jin-seo."

More than anything, now was not the time to think about such things. I immediately approached Kim Jin-seo. She was staring into space with a dazed face, then startled and came to her senses when I approached.

"Ah, uh. Yeah."

Kim Jin-seo only answered like that, then stood there staring at me blankly. Her face looked as if her soul had departed. She seemed not to have fully regained her senses yet.

I grabbed her wrist and pulled her along as we quickly escaped from this place.

For a while, we didn’t have any conversation and just ran. The flames were fiercely pursuing us. We could feel the heat behind our backs.

[Sobo, that guy is too irresponsible. Right now the plants, the plants! are screaming!]

[You’re right about that.]

[Don’t just keep saying I’m right!]

I could hear Granboa conversing with Legba in my head. My head already hurt from the smoke, and with Granboa’s chattering complaints on top of that, the pain seemed to intensify.

As Granboa’s voice gradually faded, Legba clicked his tongue and spoke.

[How is this my fault? Why are you angry at me? This is absurd.]

I just kept running without answering.

Though it was hard to see ahead due to the darkness, it was relatively easy to find the way thanks to having scouted the escape route earlier.

Kim Jin-seo seemed to have regained her senses by now, as she was running even faster than me.

At first, she had been dragged along by me, but now it seemed like I was being dragged along by her.

Since there seemed to be no reason to keep holding her wrist, I let go, but she grabbed my wrist from her side instead.

"Just."

That was the end of her explanation.

’Just.’

I didn’t know what ’just’ was supposed to mean, but there was no time to ask, so I decided to keep running like this. I didn’t have the strength to shake off her grip in the first place, unless I borrowed Bosu’s monstrous strength.

I glanced at her wrist that was gripping mine. Setting aside her pale skin, her wrist was surprisingly slender.

[Even if you exercised for your entire life, you probably couldn’t catch up to that child. Her physical abilities seem to be innate.]

"..."

While I was amazed that such grip strength could come from that slender wrist, I felt strangely depressed. Because I couldn’t think of any words to refute Legba.

I should exercise more diligently in the future. Making this renewed resolution, I ran earnestly.

Then, Gu Jun-hyeok, who had been running ahead, suddenly stopped.

"We’re screwed."

Gu Jun-hyeok muttered while looking at the scene before his eyes. The path ahead was blocked by flames. Behind us, flames were still spreading and chasing us. We were in a dilemma. I felt dizzy.

"A blessing circle that blocks fire... there’s no way that exists. Come to think of it. Hey, you guys..."

Gu Jun-hyeok turned his head sharply to look at me. Then he stopped talking. His gaze went from me, along Kim Jin-seo’s hand that was holding my wrist, to her.

"Good grief."

His tone seemed to mix resignation and futility. Only then did Kim Jin-seo let go of my wrist. Judging by her expression, she seemed to have been holding it unconsciously the whole time.

"Well, you didn’t really need to let go, but anyway, what do we do about this?"

Gu Jun-hyeok said while looking at the flames blocking our path. No matter how I looked at it, there was no way to pass through with bare bodies.

I considered the method of throwing Gu Jun-hyeok and Kim Jin-seo using Bosu’s divine power, but this was too much of a gamble.

While I was deliberating, the flames had already caught up right to our noses. All around was filled with heat. There was nowhere to advance or retreat.

"Ah."

At that moment, Kim Jin-seo let out a quiet sigh. No, that wasn’t a sigh but an exclamation.

She was looking with surprised eyes at a figure approaching through the flames. Something was coming this way through the fire.

It was a bear. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

More precisely, it was a person with a bear-like build, but because his whole body was blazing with fire, it was impossible to tell who it was.

Gu Jun-hyeok was staring at it with vacant eyes as if he no longer had the energy to think.

"A fire bear."

A bear on fire, so a fire bear... It was a plausible term.

Soon, heavy rain began pouring down from the sky as if water was being dumped. The fire attached to the bear’s body gradually went out, and his face was revealed.