Chapter 328 — Whose Territory Is the Haunted House?
Just as Mia was about to lose consciousness, a voice suddenly sounded beside her ear.
"There's an old saying—every debt has its debtor. Compared to you, at least your colleague has better professional ethics."
At the same time, the pressure around her body loosened.
"Cough... haaah!"
Gasping violently, Mia turned her head and discovered it was one of the two priests from earlier.
Seeing that she had noticed him, Gideon continued calmly,
"I read your diary."
"Having feelings for someone after marriage is understandable, though admittedly not very honorable. And your obsession with Mr. Kobayashi had already crossed certain lines..."
Rustle—
Before he finished speaking, the black hair covering the floor began slithering toward him.
"Careful! Those hairs are dangerous!" Mia shouted immediately.
Gideon inhaled sharply and repeatedly shot her meaningful looks.
Big sister... I appreciate the concern, but please stop drawing aggro onto me!
Fortunately, Kayako's attention remained fixed entirely on him.
And Mia finally understood his meaning, slowly crawling toward Simon.
"...Still, your husband's abuse was undeniably evil. Anyone would condemn that."
The black hair's advance slowed slightly.
"But that applies to Miss Kayako herself. As for you..." Gideon looked her up and down.
"You murdered countless innocent people after becoming a spirit born from resentment. Don't try to dress yourself up in righteousness—you're really not qualified."
The room temperature instantly plummeted.
Kayako stared at Gideon with murderous hatred as black hair lashed toward him across the floor.
"What are you waiting for?!" Gideon showed no panic whatsoever and instead glanced toward Mia.
Startled, she hurriedly dragged Simon farther away.
"Simon... this priest is risking his life to buy us time. I really shouldn't have treated him like that earlier..."
A wave of guilt surged through her heart.
"Hey... I'm not dead yet," Gideon said dryly.
At the same moment, Kayako's hair reached him.
Three golden rings immediately appeared within Gideon's pupils as he fixed his gaze on her.
The next instant, confusion appeared in Kayako's eyes.
Every movement she made suddenly slowed, as though she had become incompatible with the surrounding space itself.
Gideon immediately sliced open his fingertip and began drawing an Oath Formation across the floor.
The moment the final rune was completed—
a brilliant blood-red glow erupted from the ground.
Matching crimson light ignited around the entire room.
Mia stared wide-eyed at the scene.
She had never witnessed anything like this before.
It felt exactly like a supernatural movie.
Meanwhile, in her arms, Simon grit his teeth and stretched out a hand.
His eyes contained only one thing—
the nearby camera.
Elsewhere, after completing the blood formation, Gideon threw several holy artifacts around the room.
If the mission hadn't specifically required capturing the target alive, he wouldn't have needed to go through so much trouble.
Still, the target was finally trapped.
BANG! BANG!
Violent crashes echoed from within the formation.
Kayako repeatedly slammed herself against the room's boundaries, attempting to break free. Within moments, the already ruined house became even more wrecked.
But Gideon didn't stop.
He continued reinforcing the formation while simultaneously searching for John's location.
The sealing relic used for containing evil spirits was still with him.
Before long, the formation quieted down.
Gathering her courage, Mia cautiously approached.
The evil spirit now wore an expression of terror, frantically crawling across the walls and floor.
"AH!"
Suddenly, Kayako's twisted face appeared inches from Mia's own.
She nearly jumped out of her skin.
"Big sister... this is an evil spirit. Aren't you afraid of dying?" Gideon asked helplessly.
He genuinely admired her bravery.
"I am afraid..." Mia lowered her head before staring directly at him again.
"But I don't want to miss this opportunity."
"You don't understand. As a content creator, I only make money if people watch me. Ordinary content gets ignored completely..."
Actually... I kind of do understand, Gideon thought silently.
"But if you lose your life, none of that matters anymore."
"...Only this way can I prove to my parents that what I do is a real profession!"
Mia clenched her fists tightly.
Gideon froze for a second.
How had the conversation suddenly turned into a realistic family drama?
I thought American families were supposed to be harmonious. Looks like childhood trauma is universal after all...
Out loud, however, he said,
"In that case, before I completely seal her away, you can film some footage."
Mia's eyes lit up instantly.
"Really?! You're such a good person!"
"Hey, even if I'm a priest, please don't hand me a 'good guy card,'" Gideon corrected her immediately.
"And before filming starts, take off those red high heels!"
Though Mia didn't fully understand the "good guy card" part, she obediently removed the shoes.
Gideon quietly sighed in relief.
Thank goodness she didn't die wearing those things. Otherwise who knows what kind of nightmare this house would've produced next...
He quickly gestured for her to throw them away.
But at that moment—
something unexpected happened.
Mia suddenly raised her right hand.
Black strands of hair burst from the tip of her finger.
There was a small wound there—the cut she and Nakamura had made earlier to attract spirits. Later, that same wound had come into contact with the dark-red stain in the bedroom.
Pain twisted across Mia's face, her eyes full of pleading.
Yet before Gideon could react, the black hair shot toward the red high heels.
Fresh blood instantly poured from Mia's finger, flowing down the hair and soaking into the shoes.
WHOOSH—
A holy nail flew in from the side and pinned the black hair to the floor.
The bleeding stopped instantly.
But the hair abruptly severed itself midway.
The remaining strands wrapped tightly around the red shoes.
Rustle—
More black hair rapidly sprouted from the heels.
At the same time, a dark and oppressive power flooded the room.
BOOM!
The red heels suddenly slammed into the blood formation—
and passed straight through it.
Inside the formation, Kayako immediately lunged forward and clutched the hair-wrapped heels against her chest.
The surrounding light instantly turned yellow and distorted.
Then her body gradually became transparent—
until she vanished completely.
Gideon forced a bottle of holy water into Mia's mouth while golden light exploded from his eyes.
"The formation wasn't broken... she used living human blood as a medium instead..."
At the same time, new cracks leading to alternate timelines appeared inside the formation.
But once Kayako disappeared, those openings rapidly sealed shut again.
Meanwhile, inside the dimensional gap—
"Ghh... ghhk..."
Kayako crawled out from the darkness, growling violently.
She touched the severed portion of her hair near her shoulder before smashing the floor apart with one hand.
Clink... clink...
Suddenly, the sound of metal chains echoed nearby.
Kayako slowly turned around—
only to see another black-robed human standing there.
"Oh~ finally found you."
John's eyes lit up.
Just as he prepared to walk forward, he suddenly stopped.
Under Kayako's puzzled stare, John calmly straightened his collar and polished the chains around his waist against his clothes, as though preparing to meet someone important.
Rustle—
The black hair lashed toward him first.
But instead of dodging, John tilted his head slightly and grabbed the strands firmly with one hand.
Then—
he sniffed them deeply.
"The smell of decay. You must not have taken care of your hair in a very long time."
He turned toward Kayako with eyes full of sincere emotion.
"What kind of suffering could make a lady neglect even her own beauty?"
Despite Kayako's twisted limbs, pale face, and monstrous appearance, John said those words with complete seriousness.
Silence fell over the dimensional gap.
Even Kayako froze.
During all her years of slaughter, she had never encountered such a person before.
Meanwhile, John removed the chains from his waist and wrapped them around the black hair.
Then he wound the strands around the chains, slowly pulling Kayako closer toward himself.
"Ghh—!"
Enraged, Kayako immediately clawed at his face.
Yet John agilely dodged while leaning closer to inspect her arm.
"Cold, pale skin... old scar tissue..." His expression became deeply concerned.
"May the Lord have mercy. What exactly happened to you? Would you like to tell me?"
BANG!
Her response came in the form of razor-sharp nails stabbing into the floor.
"Your limbs ended up like this? The joints show clear cutting marks... Were you dismembered at some point?!"
John looked utterly horrified while repeatedly tugging at her clothes for inspection.
Anyone seeing the scene without context might have misunderstood everything entirely.
At that moment, the resentment within Kayako exploded to levels nearly matching the moment of her original death.
"GHHHH—!"
Bloodshot eyes wide open, she lunged furiously at the human touching her.
But suddenly, the chains floated upward.
They tightly bound both her arms before locking around her neck as well.
At the same time, John pressed his forehead gently against hers.
"Your resentment comes from pain, death... and a love you desperately desired but could never obtain," he murmured softly.
Then he pulled back.
Three spirit chains emerged from his forehead—
though two immediately snapped apart.
These chains radiated spiritual fluctuations yet possessed no physical form.
Their opposite ends protruded from Kayako's forehead, causing her expression to twist violently.
"Only one emotion..." Disappointment flashed through John's eyes.
"As expected. The strongest emotion is difficult to capture in such a short time. It seems I still don't understand this lady deeply enough."
As a soul-manifestation holy cleric, only by identifying the spirit's strongest emotion could he truly purify an evil entity.
Still—
the emotion of "pain" alone was more than enough to restrain an enemy.
John guided the gray spirit chain into the metal chains wrapped around Kayako.
The chains immediately began glowing with dim gray light.
"Ghh—!"
Kayako screamed in agony.
The chains dug deeply into her body—
despite the fact that she technically no longer possessed a real physical form.
Because those emotions acted directly upon the soul itself, the "pain" Kayako felt at this moment was completely real.
At that moment, the skin across her abdomen suddenly split open—
revealing a pair of crimson high heels hidden inside.
"This is..." John narrowed his eyes.
But before he could react, a dark and oppressive force exploded outward, instantly flooding the entire dimensional gap.
Then shadowy figures began appearing all around them.
A cameraman. Students. Elderly people. Young adults...
They stood motionless in place, yet their appearances continuously shifted—starting calm and ordinary before ending drenched in blood and mangled flesh.
At the same time, John noticed the chains in his hands flickering erratically.
One moment they returned to their original state.
The next, they were once again infused with the emotion of "pain."
His expression immediately darkened.
"A Spirit Domain... This evil spirit actually mastered one."
Much like holy clerics who manifested supernatural abilities through their bodies, dead spirits could also awaken a domain unique to themselves once their obsession reached a certain level.
Within that territory, the spirit could distort reality according to its own will.
John instantly decided to stop waiting and seal the spirit immediately.
But before he could even retrieve the sealing relic, his own body began flickering as well, while the emotional power binding Kayako rapidly weakened.
"What?! She mastered the Spirit Domain this quickly?!"
Shock filled John's eyes.
At the same moment, Kayako slowly raised her head again and crawled directly toward him.
A cold bead of sweat rolled down John's forehead.
Then Kayako abruptly snapped her head toward another direction.
John instinctively followed her gaze.
A crack suddenly tore open in the room itself.
Several glass bottles flew through the opening.
CRASH!
The moment they shattered against the floor, dense white smoke erupted everywhere.
Kayako immediately released a shrill scream and violently retreated from John's body.
Only then did Gideon poke his head through the opening.
"So this is where you were."
"Careful!" John shouted immediately. "This evil spirit has already formed a Spirit Domain!"
Gideon frowned slightly.
He too had sensed something abnormal and therefore didn't step into the space recklessly.
"Buy me some time! I'll recapture her emotional core right now!" John said as he grabbed the chains from the ground.
Meanwhile, Kayako crawled toward the two of them once again.
The walls and floor around them were already completely covered in black hair.
Then suddenly—
her body froze in place.
John turned around.
Three golden rings had appeared within Gideon's eyes.
"Good! Just like that!"
John immediately picked up the chains again.
But in the very next second, surprise appeared on his face.
A blood-red chain suddenly emerged from Kayako's forehead before rapidly coiling around her body.
"GHHHH—!"
Kayako instantly became violently agitated.
Her jaw split open to an exaggerated angle impossible for any human being.
Then the scarlet chain pierced directly into her abdomen—
and crushed the red high heels hidden inside into fragments.
Seeing this, John subconsciously swallowed.
He glanced sideways toward Gideon behind him, disbelief filling his heart.
An emotional chain so tangible it's practically physical... and formed without relying on any sacrificial medium at all.
Gideon...actually mastered this level already? But he's still so young.
Then John suddenly realized something else.
Back in the Holy War Grounds, Gideon had already demonstrated holy arts from the Eyes, Flesh, and Bones stages.
That meant he possessed three holy imprints.
And even within the Vatican, that level of talent would already be considered exceptional.
But now—
he had also used the soul-stage technique Emotion Chains.
Which meant...
Shock flashed through John's eyes.
Among all known holy clerics, only a handful of the Holy Bloodline possessed four or more imprints.
And throughout history, every one of those individuals had eventually entered the Cardinal Council.
I remember he wasn't born from the Holy Bloodline... Just where did Lord Jolan find someone like this?
John felt genuine envy for the first time in years.
During the brief moment he was distracted, Gideon had already completely subdued Kayako.
This time he no longer relied on a blood formation.
Instead, he directly synchronized multiple holy arts together.
The red high heels had amplified Kayako's resentment, making the spiritual runes across her body far more active.
Combined with the effects of his ability, Gideon successfully condensed the Emotion Chains in one attempt.
At that moment, John walked forward and removed a wooden box from his bag.
A seal was attached to its surface.
After opening it, the box revealed a transparent glass bottle without a lid.
"This is..."
Gideon frowned slightly.
The object looked strangely familiar.
Then suddenly—
the bottle floated into the air by itself.
An enormous wave of evil energy erupted from inside, surging toward a single direction.
And that direction—
was Kayako.
Gideon's brows immediately tightened.
This thing definitely did not look like some kind of "sealing relic."
At the same moment, John's eyes suddenly widened.
He slowly lowered his head.
A hand clutching a cross had pierced through his chest from behind.
Impaled upon that cross—
was a still-beating heart.
"You..."
Blood spilled from John's mouth as he desperately tried to look behind himself.
But Gideon had already clearly seen the attacker's face.
Immaculate robes.
Perfectly combed hair.
And upon his chest—
a golden lion cross insignia.
"Ambrose... Rossi"
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