Chương 194: Cleared It All

There was some sort of storage room hidden behind the altar, but it was unfortunately not filled with anything that was too interesting to me. Just a few trinkets made out of steel and some sacrificial weapons… There was nothing that piqued the interest of my curse or spirit side. From the looks of it, this was basically the janitor's closet of the cultists, only containing whatever they might need to use to conduct their ceremonies and whatever.

I didn't even find anything particularly interesting in general, either. With how mysterious Leou had made these guys sound, I thought that there would at least be something worthwhile about them, but no. They were just a bunch of cultists, like you could probably find in just about any cave, chanting nonsense and trying to summon something which had a ninety-nine per cent chance of killing them all and then not do any of what they might have wanted.

Frankly, I had heard a lot about all sorts of cults, and it was a head scratcher why it was still such a popular concept. These guys either never achieve anything worth mentioning and end up being considered maniacs who live in the woods or in a hole, or they manage something and subsequently wipe themselves out from the face of this world. Well…

I suppose they could have some goodies, but this is just a little base that they built to have contact with Hulil Boorizar, and thus, they simply didn't move much over there… I suppose it could be that Hulil wanted to join them rather than them wanting him as a sponsor, even. Which would explain why everything is so… Shitty, here. It might be meant to just be a taste of the real deal.

After all, with the sort of detailed intel Leou was able to get on this whole freaking manor and every single person inside of it–I find it doubtful that she wouldn't be able to find much on a freaking cult… Unless it is actually a big deal and hides its trails competently. I suppose I'll tell my fluffy new friend about this, maybe it will interest her, and she'll let me touch her tail as payment for the information… Is her fur really that nice to touch?

Absolutely, imagine a cat who's a big ball of soft fur–She's even better than this. She looks fluffy, and she's even fluffier to the touch. I guess you aren't quite an expert in the topic, though. I guarantee you that it is completely worth it. … Also, the way she squirms about it is quite entertaining, but I know she likes being pet! She tried to hide it, but she purred when I got to touch her ears. I bet she doesn't usually let anyone even get close to her. Hehehe, how lucky can I be? Mmh… Then… Maybe she…

Likes you? The tone you are using tells me you mean this in the Mari-way. I see that you are still adamant about trying to pair your big sister with another woman, but I'll stop you right here. There might have been… Something a little bit 'weird' with Mari, but when it comes to Leou, it is purely a matter of fluff and nothing else. … For now Forever, Nara! I am not at all interested in beastfolks anyway. You seemed quite impressed with Rarelian's physique, though It's the exception that confirms the rule…

And also, I would have to be blind or extremely hypocritical not to point out how incredibly muscular this guy was, he's more muscle than person! And his freaking eye could easily stop a blade! I must give credit where credit is due, if–IF–He were a human, I definitely would have been attracted to him purely on the basis of sheer strength… That's definitely a man who is stronger than I and can take the reins of the relationship. Right… I find you quite interested in my love life, Nara.

I just want you to be happy, Big Sis You know how to make your big sister smile, that's for sure. As I was discussing with Nara, I feasted upon the three corpses, leaving nothing behind before focusing on the altar itself. There was nothing in particular on it, but being a well-read woman, I had read plenty of fiction involving a secret passage underneath an altar. It was probably from reading so many books like these that I knew about the many kinds of cults. Mmh…

It does look like it's just a block of stone that was plopped onto the ground rather than something that was carved into the terrain. Must have been quite the hassle to carry this thing all the way down here. Does it mean that the stone holds any significance to them? The symbols caved into its sides, perhaps? Do you know what they mean, Nara? Mmh… They are glyphs that were slightly modified to include a particular being into their meanings–Rather standard practice for cults or even regular faiths.

It is meant to communicate with the worshipped being in some way. To express exactly what the worshippers want, believe, or admire about their idol… I suppose the meaning there is that they are communicating that they are willing to give blood and lives in sacrifice. Not much else though… This probably means that they are only trying to establish contact for now How responsible for cultists–Mmh? Stolen story; please report.

I was about to lift the altar casually, but instead, I lifted the heavy block of stone, turned around, and launched it through the air. Rather than the sound of shattering stone, something else happened first. Which was the snapping of countless bones and the sick squashing of flesh as the altar crashed against the opposite wall of the cavern. At first, I couldn't see anything.

I could only feel the flesh–But quickly, the truth revealed itself, and what I guessed was an invisibility spell wore off, revealing the mangled body of another cultist amidst the debris of the smashed altar. Not very resilient, I suppose… If I were the thing they were trying to talk to, I would take offence that such cheap materials would be used to try to address me.

"I kn–kno–ow there are more than one–one…" I spoke aloud as I noticed that there was, in fact, no hidden passage underneath where the altar had been. They had really just carried this thing down there for the love of the game, I guess. Only silence reigned for a while, only the faint shuffling of pieces of stone from the altar could still be heard falling out of place. The silence of this place was exactly what had given the dead cultist away.

He had made a sound that I heard, and I naturally replied with the appropriate amount of force. You wouldn't be able to detect the invisible fuckers for me, would you? Unfortunately, the spell or whatever it is that they are using is too subtle for me to detect accurately… But I can tell you that there is only one other cultist present, however That's good enough as far as information goes.

I suppose it is already impressive that Nara can tell so much about magic and the likes to me, considering that, as far as I am aware, she has to work with my awful magical talents and senses to detect this stuff. She's way better at it than I could ever be, but she's definitely stunted by my mediocre capabilities. As such, any amount of information is good enough in my mind.

"Come–me out. I don't bite" The invisibility came undone, but the cultist was basically on the complete other end of the cave from me. Clearly, he had gotten rid of his invisibility not because I had asked him to, but purely because it wasn't worth using it when he was too scared of getting close, afraid after seeing what had happened to his fellow. He was a lot like the woman I had bitten in half. He was wearing the skull of some animal on his head, instead of a horned one, though it was an antlered one.

"Who are you, wretched she-creature? Who sent you here to destroy this place of worship?"

"S–en–t? I was just–ust a little… Hungry" I wasn't technically lying. I hadn't been sent here to take care of them specifically. I was here for a single guy and had just decided to eat my fill since I was around so much perfectly good food. It was hard to tell if he believed me with his mask, though.

"You should leave before it is too late. This is the property of a noble" I tilted my head to the side like I didn't understand.

"Property–ty? This ca–cave?"

"... This cave and the manor above it!"

"Oh… Sorry for the lo–loss. I–I–I ate everyone in the man–nor–or""What…?"

"As I said. I was–as hungry""You must be lying, how could a single creature be able to wipe out an entire manor filled with people? As pathetic as Hulil Boorizar is, he should be capable of transforming into a far more powerful form than you are!" No shit. Why do you think I killed him by surprise from behind in a single blow? For a cultist into sacrifices, I would have thought that he would be better at sensing that a massacre had taken place just above his head…

It had ended barely ten minutes ago at this point, too. I didn't respond and cursed under my breath.

"Damn it! You won't be getting away with this, you vile monstrosity! You will see our divine wrath! You will be-" A dull sound resounded, and he fell forward like a sack of bricks. It was nice and all to be spouting words, but someone had clearly not been around long enough to see that I wasn't alone. He left himself wide open for Elowen to use her own ability to turn invisible and proceed to pick and throw a stone right at the back of his head.

With how tense he was, shouting at me and afraid, his neck barely moved forward to soften the blow, so he was knocked out cold instantly, despite the skull on his head probably providing a bit of protection… I quite dislike men like this. He was talking big, but clearly, he was just a weakling without power on his own. He's just a follower using his boss's name to threaten. There is nothing to be admired here, only things that are to be laughed at.

His life did not last much longer as Elowen went out of her invisibility and proceeded to smash his head open with the same rock until his brain was visible. I devoured the remains and eventually found my way out of the cavern into a forest, without any signs of any other cultists in the area. I had been hoping that there would be a treasury that I could raid inside the manor, but I had been too hopeful on that front. Hulil's funds only came from his family. He basically had nothing to his own name.

No accumulated wealth in the form of coins that he could offer to me as tribute–Pitiful. I checked my surroundings a little bit more, and after gathering my little sisters back into the mindscape, pulled on my connection to one of the plushes left inside my room at Leou's place, travelling for a while as I warped my way there, manifesting inside the room in my knightly form. The usual knightly form, not the overly alluring one. As much of a nice challenge as it was to design that one, I wasn't a big fan of it.

It tried way too hard in my opinion, and was too vulgar relative to the setting it was used in–Not that there were any settings that came to mind where it wouldn't be vulgar in my eyes. Now that I had made and used it, though. It was basically muscle memory for me to recreate it if need be. So perhaps I would find some more uses for this particular expression of my knightly form in the future. It had certainly proven effective in what I had intended for it to do, that was for sure…

In any case, I waited for a little bit before being able to go back to my 'Base Form', I dressed back up in my nice attire, and went to find Leou. My first job as an assassin was completed without a hitch.