SrCuervo
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🕑 Added 2025-06-08 07:57:49 +0000 UTCA simple priest... Or so I thought
Chapter 5 – What Lies Hidden in the Church
Jonathan, having finished changing his clothes, walked over to the window and stared outside for several long minutes before starting his routines.
This church always opened at eight in the morning. He would never open it earlier because that could mean it might be visited by entities of the night.
Not like vampires—those were never welcome in a church. Jonathan was far more cautious of ghouls. Those things couldn’t be harmed by anything other than real weapons.
Words didn’t work; bullets were necessary. Over time, he had learned that anything made of silver could hurt dark entities, but aside from that, there was little else he could use to defend the church.
That’s why he was strict with his schedules, and why he focused on renovating the church’s interior before worrying about its exterior.
He was lucky: the church had two sections. The front held everything a conventional church might have, and the back section was a house directly connected to a forest.
Yes, even though it was in the city, there was an artificial forest. Although Jonathan always called it the "garden of the elderly and addicts," because aside from them, no one else set foot there.
“Surveillance cameras operational, defenses fully intact. Day 98 since the beginning—no attacks have been detected since I got involved in the supernatural world.” Jonathan picked up a radio to record notes that someone might listen to later.
Maybe he’d become like the Pope’s exorcist, who wrote many reports that were even adapted into horror movies. When Jonathan grew old, he’d think about selling his story.
“I’ll be rich… I mean, I’m approaching the church’s secret section.” Jonathan stopped recording and continued walking until he reached a statue.
It was the statue of the Archangel Gabriel, the messenger of God. Staring at the magnificent statue—a gift from his mysterious power—Jonathan whispered, “I am the sentence for the unforgivable.”
Crack!
As his voice echoed through the church, the statue moved, revealing a hidden passage leading to a secret bunker where he stored all the cursed artifacts he had recovered during his missions.
There were also weapons—more extravagant than one would expect a priest-exorcist to wield.
“Who would take me seriously showing up to a mission with Ludwig’s Rifle?” Jonathan looked at the weapon, which had an overly fictional appearance, and vowed never to use it unless absolutely necessary.
The description of the weapon claimed it had once been a rifle regularly used by hunters of the Healing Church.
It was said to have been used by Ludwig, the Church’s first hunter. Its long and heavy barrel compensated for slow reloading with great range.
The Ludwig Rifle showed variations compared to Jonathan’s version, suggesting he could acquire other models to use against much larger dark entities.
Jonathan sighed. He had to admit the rifle was cool, but if people already didn’t take him seriously when offering his services, they certainly wouldn’t if he showed up wielding something that looked like it came from a video game.
“But I’d definitely win a cosplay contest…” Jonathan wasn’t exactly broke, but he had once thought about entering one of those events.
That was before he started charging only those who could afford to pay hefty sums. Still, regardless of the payout, finishing missions was always worth it for the priceless gifts they brought him.
Jonathan placed the golden Bible inside a display case—but not before tearing out a page and submerging it in holy water. Inside that tray were numerous pages with drawings that remained motionless in the water.
Once the presence of evil was acknowledged, the drawings would vanish on their own without further intervention.
“All right, time to go home.” Jonathan walked down the external hallway leading to the basement of the house connected to the artificial forest.
He spent a lot of time at the church—more than he should—but that was because he had focused most of his energy on protecting it first.
The entire place was rigged with numerous traps. The most extreme were explosives that he could detonate if the church was ever completely overrun.
Of course, that would only work if he managed to escape.
“I should open a bit later today,” Jonathan muttered wearily as he climbed the stairs from the basement to his house.
A sweet home that had once belonged to the previous priest, whose role Jonathan had taken over—and with it, most of his belongings.
Now that he was the priest, everything the former priest had was now his. And with it came the responsibility to continue the work.
