I Became the Academy’s Genius Shikigami Summoner – Chapter 209

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟎𝟗

Amidst a thunderous explosion, debris from the building’s entrance scattered into the air.

Although the early warning prevented casualties, the Exorcism Headquarters was turned upside down and plunged into an emergency.

Soon, four exorcists began approaching us from the collapsed entrance, paired up and taking an offensive stance against the building we had attacked.

“. . . What the hell are you guys doing?”

The middle-aged man leading the group glanced at our appearance and spoke with a somewhat perplexed expression.

“Judging from your skills, you can’t possibly be unaware of what you’re doing, so don’t think you can just walk away from this.”

Even though there were no casualties, my advanced spell was powerful enough to seriously injure someone.

At that, the four exorcists raised their spiritual power and immediately assumed a battle stance.

“. . . Oppa, what do we do?”

Seo-ah asked me with concern, but that wasn’t the most important thing right now.

“Is this all you’ve got?”

It was pathetically lacking. Everyone standing before me right now, except for the middle-aged man, was of 2nd-grade or lower.

This was not the true strength of the Exorcism Headquarters that I knew, and these people alone couldn’t hold back the members of Yahwak for even a moment.

So I felt the need to give them another strong warning.

“I’ll handle this alone. Stay back.”

“. . . What a confident little kid.”

The middle-aged man looked at me as if I was nothing special, but if anything, that was something I could say to him.

“Before you talk about confidence, it’s just common sense.”

Poof!

As I signaled with my hand, shikigami emerged continuously from my shadow, which had grown through my spell.

The two in the very back were immediately subdued by Sori-soe and Ggong-sam-yi, and the woman in the center, who tried to cast a spell while watching, was taken down by Eve, her spell disrupted.

In the midst of this ridiculous situation, the middle-aged man charged forward with a grim expression, but there was nothing he could do in front of Geusdae, who had appeared last.

Squawk!

“Ugh, who the hell are you. . . . . . .”

This was my current strength.

Unlike the previous fights, where I had struggled through skill and strategy, now I could simply overwhelm opponents of this level with brute force.

The middle-aged man seemed to realize this fact, and instead of showing any will to resist, he simply rolled his eyes in utter bewilderment.

I released the man and uttered a few quiet words.

“I plan to go inside in five minutes.”

“. . . . . . .”

“So if you don’t want to see your headquarters collapse, you should bring every available force you can muster right now.”

The man seemed unable to understand what I was talking about, but he seemed to realize that an opportunity had presented itself, so he quickly backed away and contacted someone.

「𝙄𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙤𝙛 𝙚𝙭𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙜𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙣?」

No matter how scattered their manpower usually is, this was still unexpected.

At the very least, it would be nearly impossible to stop the members of Yahwak without gathering all of them.

“. . . Will this be okay?”

“I don’t know. It will take the main force a while to gather before the real attack.”

It’s something that doesn’t make sense no matter how much I think about it.

What is the Exorcism Headquarters? To put it a bit exaggeratedly, it’s like the backbone of the Korean exorcism world.

Even if the Three Great Houses stand firm, they have their own roles to play.

Therefore, the damage would be immeasurable if the personnel currently working at the headquarters were lost.

「𝘽𝙪𝙩 𝙬𝙝𝙮 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙞𝙣 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙘𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙖𝙗𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙙𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙪𝙘𝙝 𝙖 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙤𝙩𝙞𝙘 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚?」

As far as I know, there are three special-grade exorcists in the Exorcism Headquarters, in terms of combat personnel alone.

That was the case even excluding those who, like Shin No-eul, were tied to other frameworks or those who held important positions and were in charge of other regions.

「𝙃𝙤𝙬 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙗𝙚 𝙨𝙪𝙘𝙝 𝙖 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙜𝙖𝙥 𝙞𝙣 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙡?」

If we had been just a little slower to notice, the Korean Exorcism Headquarters would have collapsed into an empty fortress.

Somehow, it felt artificial.

「𝙄𝙩’𝙨 𝙣𝙤 𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙞𝙩 𝙣𝙤𝙬.」

If anything, taking bold action like this has led to a blessing in disguise.

As if they had been prepared for this to some extent, after a short while, a powerful flow of spiritual power began to be felt from within the massive headquarters building.

「𝙄𝙨 𝙞𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙦𝙪𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨’ 𝙗𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣?」

In the original story, it was only mentioned briefly because it was completely overshadowed by the chaos before it could even be activated.

However, if it exists, it should be possible to hold out against intruders to some extent.

“. . . Oppa, over there.”

Along with the activation of the barrier, dozens of exorcists began to gather from inside and outside the building, forming a defensive line.

Among them were those with greater skills than the middle-aged man from before, but they didn’t dare to approach us recklessly.

They seemed to think that the main force would be returning soon anyway, so their priority was to protect the headquarters.

「. . . 𝘿𝙞𝙙 𝙞𝙩 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠 𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙝𝙤𝙬?」

It wasn’t a bad situation for me either, so I just watched the scene without taking any action.

And finally, the special-grade exorcists from the headquarters who had received the contact began to appear one by one.

“Wow, what the hell is going on?”

“Don’t let your guard down. This is an emergency situation for now.”

A rather young-looking man, an old man with wrinkles all over his face, and a woman behind them wearing a long robe and looking around.

「𝘽𝙖𝙚𝙠 𝙒𝙤𝙤𝙣𝙜-𝙜𝙮𝙪, 𝙔𝙤𝙤𝙣 𝙃𝙖𝙚-𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙤𝙡, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘽𝙖𝙣 𝙎𝙤-𝙮𝙚, 𝙄 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠.」

They are people I know well. They were the special-grade exorcists from the headquarters who appeared in the 1st installment of the exorcism.

Of these, Baek Woong-gyu and Ban So-ye died fighting Yahwak, but Yoon Hae-cheol barely survived and later helped Yoo Ha-on and her group.

And their gazes, which had been receiving radio transmissions from the headquarters, soon turned towards Seo-ah and me.

“What, I thought you were just bystanders, but you’re the ones who did this to the headquarters?”

“Don’t take this lightly. It’s hard to get a read on their energy.”

“. . .He’s skilled. At least the man is.”

Even at a glance, I could sense a strong spiritual power that was not easily measured.

If I were to fight all of them, I’m sure that even with my current strength, I wouldn’t be able to hold out for more than three minutes.

But it didn’t matter.

My purpose was only to put the headquarters on alert and draw them out, not to engage in a real fight.

“The headquarters is being targeted.”

“Of course it’s being targeted. You’re the one targeting it right now.”

“That’s not it. Attackers will be coming soon.”

At my words, they tilted their heads as if they didn’t understand.

However, they must have been wondering about my attitude, which had not caused any damage since the initial attack.

So they seemed to be listening to some extent and pondering the true meaning of my words.

“There’s no need to think too hard about it. I obtained the information through some channels, but I couldn’t convince you, so I took drastic measures.”

“. . . I understand what you’re trying to say. But why should we care about such circumstances?”

Baek Woong-gyu was certainly right.

No matter what, from their point of view, it would be easier to subdue me first and then think about it.

However, the situation was not so simple.

“You should care. If you don’t, the headquarters will really collapse today.”

“That’s absurd. There is no such force in Korea.”

“What if it’s not from Korea?”

Of course, they wouldn’t have known that Xiao Chen’s special spell was spread somewhere around here.

Normally, if a force of that size crossed the border, its location would be identified in some way.

However, it was Xiao Chen’s teleportation spell that broke that common sense.

「𝙄𝙛 𝙄 𝙝𝙖𝙙𝙣’𝙩 𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙩 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙞𝙣 𝙖𝙙𝙫𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚, 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 𝙬𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙨𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙡 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙨 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙙𝙞𝙛𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙪𝙡𝙩.」

At my confident attitude, Baek Woong-gyu’s expression finally began to grow serious.

“Are you saying that you know some information that even the headquarters doesn’t know?”

“They’re international fugitives called Yahwak. I have some bad blood with them, so I was able to get the information in advance.”

“. . . Yahwak?”

The one who reacted to those words was Ban So-ye, who had been listening to the conversation with an indifferent expression.

“. . . It’s possible. One of them, Xiao Chen, can use a strange spell to create invisible passages.”

“I’ve certainly heard of their name. But why would they suddenly?”

It was none other than Yoon Hae-cheol who finally convinced their half-hearted minds.

“. . . Come to think of it, isn’t that guy the one? The one who broke Cheong So-ha’s record last time.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t you watch the news, old man? He’s like the hottest rookie these days.”

As my somewhat ambiguous identity was revealed, they seemed to have judged that I wasn’t just spouting nonsense, and they slowly closed the distance while loosening their attack stance.

Yoon Hae-cheol was naturally at the forefront.

“Well, it’s nice to see you. I was an academy senior and junior with that woman, so I wanted to meet the one who broke that monstrous woman’s record.”

Come to think of it, there was that kind of setting. Yoon Hae-cheol shrugged his shoulders as if he hadn’t expected to meet me like this and held out his hand to me.

“Do you believe me?”

“No, I guess we’ll find out a little later.”

Well, that’s true, if you think about it.

I nodded at his friendly attitude and took Yoon Hae-cheol’s hand.

“I’d like to have a more detailed conversation, but unfortunately, I don’t have the time. The recent series of events on the west coast may also be a diversion by them.”

“Now that you mention it, I’m starting to see the outline. . . . . . Well, I guess you’re saying we should strengthen our defenses for now.”

As he finished speaking, as if waiting for this moment, an intense surge of spiritual power was felt from a building about 100 meters away.

Everyone present, including Seo-ah and I, sensed it instinctively.

They were the uninvited guests who had come here, targeting the Exorcism Headquarters.

“I said I didn’t have time, but this is too soon.”

Feeling the ominous energy, Yoon Hae-cheol hardened his expression and began to move right away.

So we all followed him without hesitation towards the source of the spiritual power surge.

And there, I was finally able to confront them.

“What are these?”

“. . . I’m not sure, but it’s as if they knew we were coming.”

“It doesn’t matter. Take care of them.”

The remaining members of Yahwak, and Luke Pensallot, who was like their leader.

And, the one being I had most wanted to meet through this incident.

「𝙎𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢, 𝙖𝙨 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙚𝙙.」

My clenched fists pointed to a woman standing behind them.

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