“Over here! Hunter Kang Ihyeon! Over here!”

“Yes! I’m coming!”

Kang Ihyeon wiped the sweat off his forehead and hurriedly ran into the auditorium in the annex. Although the annex wasn’t within the gate’s influence, a thick purple fog of malice emitted by the rescued students hung in the air.

Medical staff in protective gear and healers who seemed to be from the government were examining each unconscious student one by one.

After checking the students’ conditions, Ihyeon frowned. It was much more serious than he thought. Their blood vessels were bulging purple, visible through their skin, with some areas severely swollen.

“The malice is spreading throughout their bodies in real-time. It’s happening so fast that even skilled healers can’t contain it despite their best efforts,” a medical worker wearing a gas mask approached and explained the situation. Ihyeon carefully examined the faces of the students one by one, then finally tapped his cheek a couple of times and focused his eyes.

“They can’t even be taken to the hospital in this state.”

“No, the students are emitting malice from the poisoned areas, so that needs to be dealt with first. And emergency treatment too.”

Although nearby hospitals had been contacted, it was impossible to visit the emergency room in this condition as the malice spreading from the students’ bodies would affect other patients in the hospital, the medical worker explained.

“But emergency treatment is also impossible right now.”

At his words, Ihyeon turned his gaze to look at the auditorium. He could see the dispatched healers trembling as they prayed over the students. Their eyes were already sunken from how much spiritual power they had poured out.

“Oh no… no, no, please!”

The healers lowered their hands as if the treatment was finished, but when the student’s hand began to swell purple again, they made a distressed face and resumed praying. The medical worker sighed deeply and said,

“The malice is so potent that the moment you let up even a little with the spiritual power, it rears its head again.”

The healer who had started praying again soon began shaking like a leaf. It seemed they were wringing out every last drop of their spiritual power.

Moreover…

“Students from Class 3, Year 2 coming through!”

More students poured out from the warp gate that Rude had likely opened. Rude was rescuing students in real-time from inside the school.

Rude had done his part by sending them to safety, so keeping them alive was now up to the healers and medical staff. But that was impossible with the malice being so strong.

[The Zodiac, the Staff of Purification, worries that the surrounding area is filled with an aura of evil, preventing the spiritual power from being effective.]

That was correct. The spiritual power wasn’t working properly. The medical staff were already exhausted to their limits. At this rate, they would run out of spiritual power before even treating half the students.

“…Let’s start by purifying the surroundings!”

Ihyeon abruptly stood up and made his diagnosis. First, they needed to get rid of the malice in the air.

And do a large-scale heal to buy enough time for the students to endure the poison to some degree. Sterilization comes first even during surgery. Purification had to begin first.

“I’ll purify the auditorium interior and the kids here all at once, so please turn on the air conditioning. And prepare for immediate transport!”

Beep, the medical worker hurried to the door, pulled out a remote, and turned on the air conditioning. After confirming it was running, Ihyeon took out a dagger with a fish-shaped engraving on the handle from his inventory.

The annex was filled with purple malice. Ihyeon lifted his top to his mouth and took a deep breath for a moment. As if he had made up his mind, he closed his eyes tightly.

“Ugh…!”

Phew, he raised the hand holding the dagger and stabbed it straight into his other palm. His eyebrows furrowed and a groan escaped from his mouth, muffled by the cloth. Drip, drip, the blood droplets from his pierced hand stained the auditorium floor.

“Whew…”

He took a deep breath with a pained expression, then immediately pulled out the dagger stuck in his palm. A large amount of blood splattered on the floor, and blood dripped from the tip of the dagger.

At the same time, the wound on his palm began to heal instantly. It was a privilege possessed by the incarnation of the Archangel in charge of healing.

The pain itself hadn’t subsided yet. He clenched and unclenched his hand a few times, looked at the bloodstains, then knelt down and clasped his hands together.

Amidst the groans of the sick and the fog filled with malice, the man with blood-stained hands began to pray.

“Our Father in heaven, we know that your name shines holy. We know that your kingdom will come soon.”

As he prayed, the blood around the auditorium slowly began to burn with golden sacred flames. As the sparks of the sacred flames began to mix into the air the more he chanted, the healers who sensed the situation held their breath.

It was a variation that mixed his own chant into an ordinary large-scale healing spell.

However, since “large-scale healing” usually only reached the level of healing minor wounds of many people, ordinary healers rarely used it.

Even if it healed minor injuries, the wide range of effect consumed a lot of spiritual power.

But spiritual power wasn’t draining from him. The spiritual power in nature and the air was responding to his prayer, and he was also using that power to draw spiritual power into the auditorium.

[Trait :: ‘One Who Has Mastered Good and Evil’ is activating.] [The 4 Archangels are taking notice of you.] [The Staff of Purification is stirring.] [A massive amount of spiritual power is responding to you.]

The unique incarnation chosen by the 4 Archangels. National rank 2, the Golden Sacred Flame.

‘The Staff of Purification’, the sole incarnation of Archangel Raphael. Kang Ihyeon.

He continued the chant.

“I see you in despair. I see you in temptation. Ah, my revered Father. In all the pain of this world, I feel your presence.”

Perhaps it was God responding to the words of His son, or perhaps it was an angel. The sparks of sacred flames burning in the center spread in all directions. The purple malice gradually lost strength to the sacred flames.

The golden spiritual power reflected off Ihyeon’s hair, making it sparkle. As beads of sweat formed on his forehead, he recited the final prayer.

“Therefore, Lord, please have mercy on us. But deliver us from evil. My Lord, grant us your mercy.”

Finally, he made the sign of the cross. The skill was activated.

[Priest Exclusive High-Tier Skill :: First Mass – Kyrie Eleison]

Fwoosh, the sparks of spiritual power all transformed into golden sacred flames at once and began to heal the students.

The groans gradually subsided, and the thick malice was enveloped by the golden sacred flames and disappeared. Everyone was transfixed by the sight.

“Whew…”

Ihyeon, who had finished the chant, stood up, sighed, and looked around the auditorium once. Seeing this, a priest unknowingly clenched his fist.

‘So that really works. I’ve never even heard of a healer tank…’

National rank 2, world rank 7. The world’s #1 priest overall.

Main category Priest, subcategory within that was Paladin. Upon awakening, the job characteristics are finalized in the main category, and the subcategory is determined as an actual job once experience is accumulated.

Priests are divided into combat and healing types, with Paladins, Inquisitors, and Excommunicated Priests being particularly representative combat types.

However, Ihyeon was the only priest in the world who made a mark in both combat and healing despite being a combat-type Paladin.

It might be due to his Zodiac.

The 4 Archangels, the Staff of Purification. The Archangel of Healing and simultaneously the chief of the fallen angels.

He was the sole incarnation chosen by that Archangel Raphael.

“For now, we’ve turned the tables. They can be transported to the hospital. Let’s work harder before more kids arrive! Let’s rescue them as quickly as possible!”

After checking the students’ conditions once more, Ihyeon wiped the sweat from his forehead and tucked his cross necklace back inside his dress shirt. The emergency situation had clearly passed, and the students’ conditions had stabilized significantly.

The healers nodded and approached the students again.

Ihyeon had done enough. It was our turn now!

[This is the timeline separator]

“…What the hell is this?”

In the 2nd floor corridor of the school, Rude was looking inside the east mana stone storage with a puzzled expression.

He needed to retrieve the existing mana stones and replace them with new ones to figure out what went wrong. However, the mana stone storage was empty.

No, saying it was empty was a bit of a misnomer. To be precise, the mana stones that should have been there were gone, and ‘red ether’ was floating around instead.

[Seems like processed mana? The Ruler of Chaos tilts his head.]

“Mana?”

[It’s not even a fraction as effective as real mana stones, but it seems to have balanced out the north, south, east and west juuust a little bit, the Ruler of Chaos nods.]

“Is that so? Indeed, compared to the state of the building, the students’ conditions are relatively okay.”

If the malice had spread through the air, it would have attacked the respiratory system first, but the students Rude saw with his own eyes had the poison creeping up from their limbs.

Rude realized that this mana stone, no, whatever was substituting for the mana stone, was providing at least a minimal safety net.

‘Then that means someone noticed the mana stones were gone and put processed mana in here, but the rescue team couldn’t have done that.’

After some thought, Rude picked up his cell phone again. Rude couldn’t get a phone under his own name, so Ihyeon had lent him his second phone.

After a short ringtone, the government official who had explained the scene to them in front of the school picked up.

[Hello?]

“This is Rude. I have a question.”

[Ah, yes, yes. Go ahead.]

Rude stared at the mana stone compartment, contemplating what to say, then spoke.

“Who reported this gate?”

[Um… An anonymous tipster discovered traces of erosion about 10 minutes before the estimated gate occurrence and reported it. We don’t know the details since it was anonymous, but judging from the youthful voice, it seemed to be a student from this school.]

“Yes, thank you. I’ll be replacing the mana stones soon, so don’t enter the school until I give the okay. It’s still dangerous.”

[What?! Is there another problem-]

Click, Rude hung up and inserted a new mana stone into the storage. The mana stone shimmered.

Perhaps balance had been restored. As the east mana stone normalized, all the other mana stones began spreading mana throughout the school as if nothing had happened.

As mana spread everywhere, the vein-like monsters that had taken root in the walls fled and hid in the cracks as if running away. Watching this, Rude recalled the guild leader’s words again.

“All non-awakened, he said…”

Rude approached the kid goats who were rescuing the last class on the floor. When the class-representative kid goat looked at him, Rude spoke in a chilling voice.

“Anyone unharmed upstairs?”

“Yep, there is! In the library!”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You didn’t ask!”

One kid goat spoke cheerfully and focused back on rescuing the students. Rude made a subtle expression looking at the goats.

“Right, that’s how you are.”

Having reconfirmed the pure evil of the Zodiac he had contracted with, Rude opened the ‘Worst Child in the Universe’ sticker book and hung it on the black goat’s horns.

“Good work. Take one sticker each from here and share nicely, then go back on your own once the rescue is done.”

“What about Grandma?”

“I’m going to reclaim my character.”

Leaving behind the goats with puzzled faces, Rude climbed the stairs with a serious expression. Perhaps he was angry. He ground his teeth. The situation was clear.

“Seriously, hiding your power is my trademark…”

There was an unregistered Awakened in this school.

An Awakened who first noticed this incident and made preparations with their own mana before the rescue team arrived.