The Cult Leader in the Clergy Academy

Chapter 73

Jun-Hyuk and I were the participants in the second checkpoint. However, no matter how much I looked around, I couldn't see Jun-Hyuk anywhere. Jun-Hyuk and I should have the same test content. If the content were different, questions regarding the fairness of the test would naturally arise.

F.A. would not make such a stupid mistake, and surely not during the Holy Name of Charity re-election test. If anything, F.A. would do everything they could to regulate the test and make it as fair as possible.

Thud.

At that moment, something suddenly appeared in the sky and fell onto me. It was a note. I immediately unfolded it.

mu?: snake

Aushk: love

nuru: light

....

"...A dictionary?"

The note contained characters that vaguely resembled English but were not actually English, along with their meanings written beside them. It was a dictionary or something similar with a word list format. Suddenly, PTSD washed over me as I recalled the time when I used to memorize English words for the entrance exam.

I turned through the pages, carefully examining the words written in the note. However, I couldn’t find a single clue. It was just an endless list of words in an unknown language, accompanied by their meanings.

Thump.

Closing the note, I looked out into the distance at the construction site. Administrators were cracking whips and urging the workers, who were sweating buckets while carrying stones.

All the evaluation criteria were unreleased. The note that I expected to contain hints turned out to be an endless list of useless words. I didn't even know where Jun-Hyuk was either. There was too little information to deduce anything. It seemed that no matter how much I racked my brain, I wouldn't be able to figure anything out.

"Phew."

Well then, I suppose the best thing to do for now was to go in head first.

I walked toward the construction site.

***

Finally, when I arrived at the construction site—

"───!"

"──, ────!"

The site was noisy, filled with the shouts of administrators and the groans of workers, moving stones. Some of them even singing labor songs, but I couldn't understand the meaning of their words. They were conversing in a language that was neither Korean nor English, but their own unique language.

[Hmm, I'm somewhat uncertain about what language this is. I'm sure I've heard it somewhere before...] Legba clicked his tongue.

Although he was proficient in linguistics, even Legba didn’t recognize the language. It seemed to be the indigenous language used by the "Ark natives."

If communication were not possible, the situation would become more complicated. If we could communicate, I could attempt to persuade them with my refined eloquence developed from my experience as the Cult Leader. But if communication were not possible, there was no chance for persuasion since whatever I said, they wouldn't understand, and vice versa.

Crack!

While I was absentmindedly walking toward the construction site, a whip flew by me, narrowly missing my feet. When I turned my head around, an administrator was looking at me with a menacing expression and he had both hands on his hips.

"───?"

The administrator said something, but to no surprise, I couldn't understand it.

"───. ───!!"

As I blankly stared at the administrator's face, he yelled with a more contorted expression. Unconsciously, I took a step back, intimidated. His voice was really loud.

The administrator, looking puzzled, furrowed his eyebrows and called another administrator and whispered to them. After their whispered conversation, they all raised their heads and looked at me with vigilant eyes, opening their mouths to speak.

"───? ────!"

"Hey, I don’t understand what are you─"

"......? ──? ───! ───!!"

"Wait, hold on. What are you doing?"

The atmosphere turned suddenly hostile as I spoke. The administrators approached me slowly, yet threateningly, as if they would strike me with a whip at any moment. Even the laborers carrying stones seemed uncomfortable with the unexpected visit of the unwelcome guest. They took swift glances at me with fearful eyes.

"───! ────!"

Snap!

"Wait, what? Hold on."

At that moment, along with the administrator's shout, a whip swooped down menacingly. I cautiously took a step back, and the administrators approached me slowly, yet menacingly, matching my steps.

I could just eliminate all the administrators using the power of the Loa, but I was concerned about the two undisclosed evaluation conditions. There might be a condition like ‘Do not kill the natives of Ark,’ so I couldn't recklessly kill the administrators. Of course, the feeling of guilt also played a factor in my decision against it. Then, there was only one thing to do.

Thwack.

"......! ──! ────!!" "────!!!"

I ran away.

The administrators weren't particularly fast runners, so it was possible to escape from them without using Bossou's power. When I glanced back, the administrators were swinging their whips menacingly as they pursued me.

After running for a few minutes, the sound of the whips suddenly stopped. The pursuing administrators had already returned to the construction site.

"Oh, huff... Ha, what am I supposed to do now?"

I was able to hide my body near the sandstone cave near the construction site and took slow, deep breaths. It was frustrating that I had no means to communicate, and on top of that, the administrators treated me as an enemy. The situation didn't allow me to approach the construction site, let alone stop the construction.

There might have been ways to infiltrate the site without getting caught by the administrators, but I didn’t see how I could stop the construction even with a way in.

[Oh, no,] Legba murmured just when my racing heart had finally calmed down.

"What’s wrong?"

[...Unfold the note.]

I didn't understand what was wrong, but I followed his instruction and unfolded the note. In my mind, Legba's murmuring continued for a while.

Eventually, Legba cleared his throat and said, [Indeed, they are using the Sumerian language. All the words written in the note are in Sumerian.]

"Sume what now?"

[Sumerian.]

The sun was just setting, leaning toward the horizon, and thanks to that, sunlight seeped into the cave. Crouching in the darkness of the cave, I used the sunlight trickling in as my lamp and examined the note. It was filled with thousands of words, neatly organized with hundreds of grammatical structures.

I had confidence in my language acquisition skills. If I decided to study Sumerian, I believed that if I had a few days, I would be able to have a basic conversation.

"...Time."

The problem is, I had been given only a mere hour. It was impossible to learn a completely unfamiliar language in just one hour. It would be much easier if Legba knew Sumerian...

[The language has been lost for thousands of years, so my memory of it is foggy. I can vaguely infer the meaning of their words, but I cannot form persuasive sentences.]

"What do you mean by infer?"

[If I hear a few recognizable words, I can roughly understand the meaning.]

Unfortunately, it seemed that even Legba wasn't completely proficient in Sumerian. I couldn't persuade them with just a rough understanding of the language.

"..."

It was a very frustrating situation. As things started to take a negative turn, I shook my head. Language proficiency was not the key to persuasion. The most important elements in persuasion were, of course, persuasive power and appeal. An expert in persuasion should be able to move someone's heart with just a few words.

Clink.

I took something out of my pocket. It was the "Fourth Angel's Horn" that Bae- Jung-Hwan had given to me. It was a holy artifact that had the ability to momentarily obscure the vision of those who heard its sound.

...There was a way.

***

Whooooo...

On the way to the construction site, the wind blew across the desolate desert plains. I turned my head and looked back. The footprints imprinted on the sand scattered and were erased by the wind. The sun had long set, and the only source of light was the faint glow emitted by the stars.

Grumble–!

As I approached the construction site, the sound of construction grew thunderous. Even the grains of sand seemed to tremble in awe of the colossal noise. The desert at night was cold and harsh, yet the construction continued. I cautiously made my way to the site, avoiding the gaze of the administrators.

"─!"

"─, ────!"

"───? ───?"

Whether it was a conflict that arose during the construction or a clash between the workers and the administrators, it was working in my favor. Taking advantage of the commotion, I skillfully joined them secretly. The perceptive workers glanced at me with curiosity, but that was all. They didn’t report me to the administrators or anything of the sort.

"As expected."

As I had anticipated, the relationship between the workers and administrators didn't seem to be very amicable. While the workers sweated and worked hard, carrying and stacking stones, the administrators stood with their arms crossed, shouting angrily. It was clear that the workers didn't hold the administrators in high regard.

Even better. I took out the horn from my pocket and infused a small amount of divine power into it.

Buuuuhh...

A faint sound, like air escaping from a balloon came out. Some of the indigenous people blinked their eyes in response to the sound and looked around. It seemed they thought the dust had gotten into their eyes.

However, no matter how much they rubbed their eyes, the darkness in front of them didn't dissipate. The indigenous people soon realized that they had completely lost their vision and began collapsing and crying out.

"─! ───?"

"─! ───! ───!!"

They let out bizarre screams and shrieks that seemed to be right on the boundary between an animal and a human. Startled, the administrators rushed over in confusion. Despite the administrators whipping and shouting angrily, the workers remained motionless, except for screaming that continued until their throats grew hoarse.

The scene quickly filled with screams and chaos. The screams of the workers and the commanding shouts of the administrators drowned out the sounds made from carrying stones and building the tower. However, my plan was far from completion.

Buuuuhhh–!

The sound of a trumpet followed. This time, I infused as much divine power as possible into the trumpet. The sound was much louder and grander than before. Upon hearing it, the workers, administrators, everyone, without exception, sank to the ground and started screaming.

"────!!!"

"───! ────!!!"

The blindness and chaos spread like a contagious disease. The confusion grew even greater. As the workers and even the administrators lost their sight, the construction naturally came to a halt. However, the construction was not completely halted. The Fourth Angel's Horn only temporarily took away the sight of those who heard the sound. With time, their vision would return, and the construction would resume. Before that, I had to hammer the final nail in the coffin.

"...Bossou."

I called out to Bossou while looking up at the towering Babel Tower. To stop the construction of the tower, I had to climb the tower first.

Crunk.

I drove the Fourth Angel's Horn into the wall like a pickaxe and climbed the tower as if I were climbing a cliff.

***

The blind workers screamed. Not all of them, but some of the administrators had also lost their sight and were screaming. The blindness spread like a plague. The construction site was filled with confusion, fear, and terror.

"──? ───?! ───!!!"

At that moment, when everyone was screaming or trembling in fear, someone slowly stood up from their position while tenderly touching their eyes. They had been the first one to lose their sight, but were also the first ones to regain it and were shedding tears of joy.

"......! ───!!"

"───? ──? ───!!"

Soon after the first case of recovery, the workers regained their sight, one after another. The administrators also regained their sight one by one. Those who regained their vision, regardless of being workers or administrators, embraced each other with tears of joy.

Ruuummmblleee...

However, amidst their joy, a foreboding sound reached their ears. As soon as the indigenous people heard that sound, they kneeled down and lowered their heads because it was undoubtedly the angry roar of the heavens.

Flash.

Soon, lightning struck from the sky. The lightning precisely hit the central part of the tower. Dense and ominous black smoke rose around the area where the lightning struck. Some indigenous people bowed their heads, hoping for mercy from the heavens, while others raised their heads, trying to capture the wrath of the heavens in their eyes.

"......──?"

At that moment, someone raised their head and voiced their doubt. Someone stood at the spot where the lightning struck. From that person's fingertips, a pure unknown flame sprouted forth.

Crackle!

Gradually, the growing flame turned into a pillar of fire. The pillar of fire appeared before the kneeling indigenous people. Sweat poured from their bodies like a flood. It wasn't just because the heat of the pillar of fire was intense, but also because they felt the wrath of the god and the indescribable terror of witnessing a miracle.

Whoooosh–.

Then, the wind blew.

The blazing pillar of fire, which seemed ready to devour the bodies of the indigenous people at any moment, was swept away by the wind and disappeared. Following the wind, someone on top of the tower opened their mouth.

"──."

I.

The person on the tower spoke. The indigenous people speculated that he might be a deity, an angel carrying out the will of God, or perhaps a prophet. He had a voice filled with vitality, yet it was not excessive, and he spoke with an appropriate tone.

"──, ──, ───, ──." Light, blasphemy, anger, punishment.

This was not speech; it was merely a list of words. However, the indigenous people understood him and bowed their heads to the ground in reverence.

The word 'I' meant 'I am that I am.’ It was an announcement that a deity or someone similar had descended.

The combination of the words 'light, blasphemy, anger, punishment' indicated that he was furious at the blasphemy against the light and would bring punishment upon them.

In other words, "I have come to bestow punishment upon those who have blasphemed against the light." That was what the deity said.

The indigenous people trembled, some cowering on the ground in excessive fear, while some overreacted in the form of a seizure, their eyes rolling into the back of their heads. Some indigenous people thought the seizure was also part of the punishment bestowed by the deity.

Crackle.

At that moment, the figure on top of the tower ignited a fire. The fire he conjured expelled the harsh darkness and cold of the desert. Along with it, he opened his mouth again.

"─."

End, or the last.

The exact meaning behind those words could not be guessed. However, one thing was vaguely understood: they had to stop the construction immediately. The indigenous people trembled with boundless fear, bowing their heads.

The fire he conjured once more transformed into a pillar of fire, engulfing his body. The pillar of fire did not descend to the ground. Instead, it consumed his body. He became one with the fire and vanished, ascending to the sky.

"───......"

"──? ───!"

"───......!"

The indigenous people witnessing the miracle of God before their eyes cheered with laughter, tears, or faces still filled with fear. Any intention to resume the construction had long vanished from their hearts. Behind the tower they gazed upon, in a blind spot beyond the reach of the indigenous people's eyes—

"Phew... I'm not sure if everything turned out well."

The person who had arrived with lightning and had vanished in a pillar of flames, the deity, and the prophet... or the person impersonating him sighed and hung his head. It was Sun-Woo.