"Have you seen anything?" Jonathan looked at Wednesday, and when he saw her shake her head, he sighed.
Fighting against evil with zero advantages felt really bad for him; after all, not having the advantage in this scenario where he had nothing was more dangerous for him because he didn't know what could happen.
"Now!"
Everyone, upon hearing Doug's words, moved to prepare themselves. Following the rules meant that they would strictly accept everything that was said, there was no objection to the priests' decisions, so they understood very well what was meant.
"Very well, we'll begin with the preparations. Listen carefully and pay attention, anyone can get hurt, so it's not worth staying here if you have nothing to do with what will happen in this place." Jonathan had to be very serious with his words about this; he didn't want to force anyone, but he could at least make them aware.
"We'll be fine, Priest Jonathan. With you, we won't have much to worry about." said Brad, who wanted to witness firsthand what would be done in this place.
Jonathan looked at Doug and said, "Start by cleaning the surroundings and seal the place, including the garden outside."
"Yes, I'll do it now." Doug then walked to one of the backpacks to take out the incense, and after lighting it, he left the house to establish a boundary between this place and the outside.
The traditional exorcism method of the church had always been the same, consisting of confession, prayer, followed by the processes that involved using holy water to suppress the evil spirit in the affected person's body and, finally, reciting the scriptures of the religion that represented them.
This seems to be the case on the surface, but in fact, the correct method is to use the power of any religion to torture the evil spirit, just like torturing a prisoner and asking for their true name in order to send them back into the darkness.
Because evil spirits cannot lie about their true names, they, unable to withstand the double torture of holy water and crosses, may end up speaking in order to stop the pain.
The true name represents the essence, existence, and origin of the evil spirit. If its true name is exposed, even the least experienced Priests can exorcize it as easily as breathing.
Of course, the premise of this torture also depends on the Priest's own Faith. If his Faith is not strong enough, this will give the Evil Spirit the chance to harm him and eventually cause a series of unnecessary deaths.
Any religion in the world has its own way of driving away darkness; after all, Faith is the only thing that matters, and every religion is a cult that gathers believers, so that power of Faith is more than enough to drive away any evil in the world.
He had learned in the Church of Healing in a way that was curiously exactly like Jonathan; they all believed in an existence outside the universe that sustained itself through various factors, and so on. The god Jonathan believed in was self-sufficient, so at no moment would it belong to anything, and in this way, in the mind of anyone who wanted to see it in such a form, God existed.
But anyone could fall before evil—every Exorcist Priest, Shaman, Witch, or any other profession that involved a piece of belief.
As the saying goes, if you stare too long into the abyss, the abyss will stare back into you, and when you least expect it, you will merge so much with that abyss of evil that you will lose the sense of where you belong.
Reciting the devil's true name is also similar to invoking. The priest will naturally be eroded by the dark power attached to the evil spirit's true name. Therefore, the priest's power, character, and Faith must become stronger to resist the erosion of evil.
This is how traditional exorcism works, but Jonathan, as an Exorcist Priest and following the teachings of the Light Association, had a special method of doing things.
Knowing the number of Faith points he possessed, he inevitably trusted more in that amount of points to perform an exorcism and summon special abilities like his sword of light, the hand of God, or something simpler like saying a prayer.
Prepared for anything that could happen during one of his jobs, Jonathan opened the first backpack, and when the zipper was fully opened, many shiny things appeared inside. There were crosses, bottles of holy water, rosaries, wool pouches with powder, among many other things.
Although Ed and Lorraine had seen exorcisms before, they still couldn't avoid looking in confusion at why there were so many things in Jonathan's backpack, especially since he clearly seemed younger than other Priests with more experience.
And if Ed and Lorraine, who were astonished by the things Jonathan was taking out, were already shocked, there was no need to guess the expressions of the rest.
Drew saw Jonathan opening all the suitcases and unconsciously asked, "Uh, Priest Jonathan, do you normally need so many things to exorcize spirits?"
Jonathan took out silver crosses without any markings, a silver cup, and a strange figure made of an unknown black material. Taking the smaller crosses, he handed them to someone to distribute and said, "Exorcism is something dangerous, and by nature, if we can't stop it, we must make sure nothing leaves this place so that other people can come finish the job. So everything you see here is necessary."
After answering the question, Jonathan, who saw that Doug had not returned, turned to someone else. "Ed, use the silver crosses to surround the entire house. Remember, place ten in each corner."
Ed nodded and then patted the boy beside him, who was secretly recording all of this. "Come on, Drew."
Having things to do, Ed left with his assistant Drew, who wanted to keep watching, and left. As expected, this had nothing to do with conventional exorcisms.
Seeing Ed leave, Jonathan continued searching under everyone's eyes.
Brad, who wasn't missing anything Jonathan was doing, asked, "Priest Jonathan, what are those silver crosses for?"
Jonathan didn't even look up and replied, "As I said, nothing must escape this house when I begin working… They normally get aggressive, so nothing must escape this house."
"Oh… I see…"
These words were said clearly and openly, so Brad was left terribly confused and looked at Jonathan without saying anything else.
Lorraine was nervous to the side; she understood Jonathan's point better than anyone. In clearer words, if he couldn't exorcize the spirit in this house, no one should leave. If something possessed a person and it couldn't be exorcized, then death was something that had to be done without asking for consent.
"By having the crosses on your bodies, although they won't completely expel the evil spirit, they will make them suffer, and you will know when something tries to hurt you. Depending on the abnormalities around you and your body, that will be the level of threat you face." Jonathan said as he began carrying a silver cup with holy water.
Everyone at that moment was carrying a cross, even the children who didn't separate from their mother Carolyn. They were more likely to be attacked, so he had to ensure they were protected, at least as much as possible.
Finally, Jonathan began to create a safe zone in the house, and the best place was the couch.
The maid, Mary, was in charge of staying with Judy at all times, protecting her from all harm. She had made this mistake, so she had no choice but to do everything she could to make sure nothing got worse.
Judy knew Jonathan needed silence, so she stayed to the side, watching everything being done with excitement.
"We hope none of you end up possessed by an evil spirit; I can't promise anything, but I'll do everything possible to prevent you from being harmed…" Jonathan murmured with an extremely serious voice.
This strict behavior that gave a very professional appearance gave everyone, except Ed and Lorraine, a strong sense of security.
"All right, let's go hunt evil spirits…" Jonathan murmured as he took a shotgun out of its case, the silver appearance visible at first glance.
"Aren't you going to hunt the dead?" Brad was stunned when he saw the shotgun.
Jonathan looked at Brad and said, "I have a special method of doing it; maybe it's in my blood…"