Ilya Volgof/Past Life

## Ilya Volgof's Past Life

Ilya Volgof had a childhood friend, Galina, whom he loved. However, she was possessed by an unknown devil type relic. The two of them tried to enlist the assistance of numerous famous exorcists but all of them have failed. When he lost all hope of his lover being cured of her affliction, he heard how the Vatican had the only solution but the members of the Vatican would not share the method with just anybody. Consequently, Ilya Volgof decided to recklessly join the Vatican and become a priest. Although this meant that he had to practice abstinence and can never marry anybody for the rest of his life, he didn't care. After all, it didn't matter to him and he would give it all up as long as Galina could be happy. Although his decision was reckless, he was able to get enrolled, finish his studies, and caught the attention of a bishop who helped train and appoint him as a talented Russian exorcism priest at the Vatican in Italy since he was very talented. However, Galina didn't approve of his choice and didn't like him becoming a Vatican exorcism priest for her sake. When confronted by Galina, Ilya Volgof sneered at her and claimed that he didn't choose a life of abstinence for a girl like her but instead wanted to earn money and power on the basis that priests and pastors make lots of money and had power and he's been studying divinity his whole life like a devoted religious believer as a result of his uncle. Unfortunately for him, Galina was not fooled. Nevertheless, he continued to devote his time and effort towards working as an exorcism priest without noticing that the situation with Galina has worsened until Seo Joo-Heon infiltrated the Vatican. Furious that a stubborn Korean was stopping him from building up his foundations a bit more in the Vatican by trying to find and contract with a SS rank relic to survive and help his stepfamily in a world where Pandora used a law to confiscate people's relics and forced people to apply for relic user permits and the monopolizers monopolized all the current useful relics, he immediately went to hunt him down with his relics. Although Pandora made it impossible for ordinary citizens to use, own, and even touch relics, the Vatican sided with Pandora ever since the current Pope accepted that relics were a practical future resource for humanity but used Pandora's evil deeds to collect all of the Christian relics as he and the others gave into temptation and refused to have people of color, gentiles, or other religions and denominations take the Christian relics throughout the world. As a result, Ilya Volgof and the other priests were allowed to use relics especially in cases where there are intruders in the Vatican. Nevertheless, capturing and subduing Seo Joo-Heon proved difficult since he seduced the nuns who helped him try to escape after his plan was foiled once again. Also, he managed to somehow enlist the help of Galina who saved him from dying in the streets of Italy and wanted to help Seo Joo-Heon obtain and contract with a SS rank relic. Fortunately for him, Ilya Volgof managed to capture and tie him up. However, Galina furiously kicked him away and demanded that he leave Seo Joo-Heon alone. Shocked that Galina was angry, he asked her whose side was she on to which she replied that she was, of course, on Seo Joo-Heon's side. Seo Joo-Heon then took advantage of this opportunity to set himself loose as Ilya Volgof experienced a short mental breakdown at hearing Galina's words. Seo Joo-Heon then demanded that Ilya Volgof let him take refugee inside his residence otherwise he would stay in Galina's house since he was completely penniless since he used every cent he had to buy a plane ticket to come to the Vatican so he doesn't even have a place to stay. Hearing these shameless words, Ilya Volgof simply claimed that it was useless since there is no way that an innocent and overly cautious girl such as Galina would ever let a bastard like Seo Joo-Heon enter her house until Galina told Seo Joo-Heon that he was welcome to come to her house at any time and proposed that she can just sleep on the floor and he can just sleep on her bed to which Seo Joo-Heon amusingly said that he would not let a lady sleep on the floor and it is better to sleep together. Shocked at this turn of events, Ilya Volgof quickly intervened and agreed to let Seo Joo-Heon stay at his house. However, when he tried to formulate a plan of contacting Pandora to send people to capture Seo Joo-Heon in his mind, Seo Joo-Heon saw through his schemes and threatened Ilya Volgof that he would tell Pandora that Galina was an accomplice in the case that Ilya Volgof proceeded with his plan. Consequently, he was forced to obey Seo Joo-Heon's demands such as giving him a queen bed and making delicious Korean food like Kimchi-jjigae for him as Seo Joo-Heon lazily loitered around his house. However, after a short conversation, the two of them made a bet in which if Seo Joo-Heon contracted with a SS rank relic despite Pandora labeling him as an untalented relic user who can only use B rank relics after one glance, Ilya Volgof would serve Seo Joo-Heon as an errand boy. After the bet was made with both parties agreeing to the terms and conditions, Seo Joo-Heon snuck into the museum of the Vatican at night with the help of Galina. However, Ilya Volgof had no plans of letting Seo Joo-Heon do as he please and subsequently, snitched on Seo Joo-Heon and cooperated with the other priests in ambushing him. Soon, after a long chase, he and the other priests lost track of Seo Joo-Heon and Galina. After searching for them, he then overheard Galina talking to Seo Joo-Heon while being in pain. While remaining outside of their views, he learned that the Vatican priests placed Saint Mary's Relic inside Galina's body while claiming that it would get rid of the devil when, in reality, it made her contract with the monstrous Messiah which threatened to slash through all of her organs and burst out of her stomach and prevented her from killing herself to stop the painful process after listening to Galina and Seo Joo-Heon talking. He also learned through listening in on their conversation how Galina had no plans of letting him know the truth since he would blame himself for bringing her into the Vatican. However, after hearing Galina's request for Seo Joo-Heon to kill her and contract with Saint Mary's Relic since it was a win-win situation for the both of them and she already made her resolve and prepare a suicide note and Seo Joo-Heon supposedly agreeing to her selfish but heartful request, Ilya Volgof revealed himself, attacked Seo Joo-Heon, and asked if everything he heard was true. After seeing how Galina was telling the truth and Seo Joo-Heon was reaching for Saint Mary's Relic, he got into a fight with Seo Joo-Heon until the latter asserted that he was planning to destroy the parasite type relics inside Galina's body in a desperate effort to save her life. Hearing this, he allowed Seo Joo-Heon to proceed with his plan but he failed since he had no means to do such a thing. After seeing Seo Joo-Heon fail, Ilya Volgof then noticed that the other priests have arrived at the scene with the bishop like they had all scheduled to congregate there. Seeing his so-called peers present at the scene, Ilya Volgof shouted in anger and accused them of scam to which they laughed, looked down on him with pity, and shamelessly claimed that they didn't lie since once Galina becomes a relic and lose her humanity and personality, the devil type relic inside her would be destroyed just like he wanted. Hearing this, Ilya Volgof tried to restrain himself as he regretted his decision to enlist the assistance of the Vatican until the other priests nonchalantly headed to take Galina away which caused him to retaliate out of rage and explode the building. Although he managed to find and take shelter inside an empty storage room alongside Seo Joo-Heon and the dying Galina after a narrow escape, he felt like he was going to die as Seo Joo-Heon shoved his organs back inside his body without any anesthesia due to being attacked by the Vatican priests. He then asked Seo Joo-Heon to meet with Benjani in the hopes that she would get rid of the parasite type relics inside Galina's body and smuggle Galina to safety. After Seo Joo-Heon left to supposedly fulfill his request, Ilya Volgof apologized to Galina after everything that happened to the two of them as he overheard John Harper discussing with the other priests about how Galina was one of the early experimental subjects of experiments involving Un-Known before relics announce their existence to the entire world, how she was the only survivor after an Evil God relic broke loose, and how she was the only person who can contract with the Messiah, a relic that can allow the Vatican to accomplish its goals and surpass Pandora who had Joshua Jackson within its ranks in competing for control of the world. Hearing this, Ilya Volgof's eyes became dyed with blood as Seo Joo-Heon returned with just a B rank healing relic he stole from a nearby hospital. After Seo Joo-Heon tries to futilely deduce the true identity of the Messiah before successfully destroying the relic, Ilya Volgof contracted with Solomon's Lemegeton right as the Vatican priests arrive to see that the Messiah was destroyed and realizing no restorer in the world can restore the relic since Yoo Jae-Ha remained under the radar around this time. Although Ilya Volgof got shot in the head and body several times for trying to stop the priests from taking Galina away, the devils he summoned from Solomon's Lemegeton healed him, executed the priests present at the scene, and destroy their S and SS rank relics. After taking care of the priests, Ilya Volgof tried to stabilize himself to prevent the devils from killing him and Seo Joo-Heon until Seo Joo-Heon noticed that Galina is turning into the new Saint Mary's Relic and used Galina to restore his severed arm and suppress the devils. Seo Joo-Heon then took a step back to let Ilya Volgof stay by Galina's side in her final moments. After seeing Galina's happy smile and hearing Galina's regret that she was unable to make love him with him and her requests to live a long life, become a teacher like he wanted, and kill her while she still retained part of her humanity, Ilya Volgof tearfully shot her with a gun that Seo Joo-Heon gave to him when Galina expressed her last desire to die at her lover's hands before transforming into the new Saint Mary's Relic. He then picked up and tried to give Seo Joo-Heon the new Saint Mary's Relic to which he refused since the latter didn't want to become a Monarch this way and suspected that something was off about the relic but didn't know it was related to Un-Known. When questioned by Ilya Volgof about future plans, Seo Joo-Heon declared that he would instead aim for the hardest and last of the Seven Great Tombs, the Tomb of Greed. Likewise, when questioned by Seo Joo-Heon about how to survive staying at the Vatican as people headed over to investigate, Ilya Volgof silently vowed to end his life to join Galina in the afterlife before declaring that he would surrender and subsequently, be executed after attending a religious hearing and relic hearing, claiming that he can't become Seo Joo-Heon's errand boy due to the circumstances despite losing the bet, and encouraging Seo Joo-Heon to become a Monarch. After Seo Joo-Heon departed, Ilya Volgof looked up at the sky and waited for the consequences while expecting his encounter with Seo Joo-Heon to be his last. Unfortunately for him, things didn't go as he wanted. First, Pandora ultimately kept him alive for being the first relic user to successfully use devils. Second, the devils inside Solomon's Lemegeton prevented him from committing suicide. Third, although he contracted with Freud's Relic which he deemed to be great and useful, it was unable to erase his own memories. Fourth, he developed a trauma risk from the guilt of killing his lover. Fifth, he got scouted by Kwon Hyuk Soo and became an Aftermath Clean-up Crew member who specializes in modifying memories and disbanding tomb raiding teams after learning that Kwon Hyuk Soo was the only person who can take care of his trauma risk. Sixth, his hair became silver due to the risk of one of his relics. Seventh, his fellow Aftermath Clean-up Crew peers were ordered by Kwon Hyuk Soo who exploited the fact that he is the only person that can take care of his trauma risk to slip drugs inside his food to worsen his trauma risk and by the time he found out, it was too late for him to do anything about it. Finally, during a meeting with TKBM's Team 13 due to TKBM cooperating with Kwon Hyuk Soo on a mission, he reunited with Seo Joo-Heon who forced him to hold up his end of the bet and join his team. Although he was impressed with the fact that Seo Joo-Heon transitioned from a bum into a talented and famous relic user at the strength of a Monarch who had his own personal subordinates during the few years after they separated to head towards their new paths, he was annoyed that he had no choice but to pay up. Also, even though he obeyed Seo Joo-Heon after joining the team at the same time Yoo Jae-Ha did, he always looked down on his fellow teammates, believed he was better than them, had the habit of straying away from them, acting like a lone wolf who never sought to form bonds and relationships with people, and gave off an arrogant and dismissive attitude. This annoying and garbage personality and attitude of his lasted this way even when the team was soon betrayed by Chairman Kwon Tae-Joon and left to die at The Great Prison. Inside the monstrous tomb, Ilya Volgof became the first to perish after stepping on a pressure plate which caused the floor to collapse beneath him and summoned a black fog that broke his body down into molecules and shredded him into pieces while he was trying to use Solomon's Lemegeton to escape as the rest of the team helplessly and fearfully watched from above.