Chương 159: 156 - Followers of Limos

Illiana stabs the base of her staff into the ground, and the wood punches through the stone like butter. Roots spread out from the staff, stretching toward the circular lid over the shaft and lifting it up. The roots grow and thicken for a little while, then stop when the lid is propped open just high enough for us to walk under. The staircase is right on our side, so we can walk down if we want, but screw that. I can't even sense the bottom. I'm not walking down a thousand stairs.

I conjure a mana hand for myself, then one for Illiana, who steps on gratefully once she disconnects the roots from her staff and pulls it back out of the ground. A moment later, we are silently floating down the shaft, the air getting colder every second. The shaft gradually widens on the way down, going from ten meters across at the top to close to fifty near the bottom more than a kilometer down. Weirdly enough, it's well-lit at the bottom.

There are luminous stones embedded in the wall that seem to function off the ambient mana. Whether they've been working the whole time, or whether the cultists fixed them up afterward, I have no idea, but it's pretty convenient. There are five different tunnels branching off from the main shaft at the bottom. Three of them are huge, easily wide enough to make a three lane street, and tall enough that semi trucks wouldn't need to worry about clearance.

The other two are more normal human-sized, and unlike the big ones, the arches around them are completely undecorated, making them look much less important. The floor is stone covered in caked mud with a thin layer of dust, and a few random puddles here and there, and the whole place smells damp. It also smells like people. There were elf-blooded humans here very recently, and they were carrying something… tasty. It's faint, and I can't place it, but I know it's good.

"That way," I say, pointing down one of the biggest tunnels, the place where the scent is the strongest. Illiana nods, and we start floating after it. The whole tunnel is illuminated in the same way as the shaft, with a line of luminous stones running along the centerline of the ceiling, as well as at chest height along either wall.

Every few dozen meters or so, the tunnel widens slightly, curving outward into an offshoot, and while I can smell that the people here have been down most of the tunnels, it was definitely not any time recently. The only recent activity goes down this main tunnel.

"Stop," says Illiana suddenly after a few minutes of travel. I stop the floating hands as she leans forward and peers over the edge, looking at a spot on the ground identical to any other part. Well, identical in physical appearance. When I focus, though, I can sense a faint line of mana running across it and into the wall to a slightly larger mana source.

"Alarm trap," says Illiana.

"Can we go over it?"

"No."

"Can we teleport past it?"

"Maybe. It would be better if we could avoid it entirely, though." I focus Food Sense on the surrounding walls and tunnels, and find one that looks like it might let us get around the alarm trap and keep going in the right direction. I let Illiana know, then float us through the side tunnel. It's much narrower than the main one, so we have to go in a single file line. At first, it seems to be a good idea.

The tunnel goes straight out for a bit, and then there's another offshoot that goes parallel to the big tunnel, which we float down for a bit. Then, we find a second alarm trap. We go back, trying to find another way to get the direction we want to go, but every single one that takes us the direction we want to go is trapped.

"I guess they really don't want us going that way," I comment.

"Apparently not," she replies.

"Should we just trip it then? Will that get dangerous?"

"None of the known cultists are powerful enough to give us too much trouble. The request stated that a lot of cultists had been coming here, and had not been seen coming back, so there may be a lot of them."

"But none of them are strong?"

"Not really, but they're not weak. It won't be easy." The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Hmmm…"

"We could always go back and get more reinforcements. A skilled scout would be able to get past this without issue." I sniff the air. The tasty scent is getting stronger. I know that I should know what it is. It's so familiar, and the name of it is on the tip of my tongue. I don't know why they have it down here, but I know that I want it.

"I won't have time to come back if we leave now," I say.

"I say we just risk the teleport."

"Alright, then. I'm fine with either option."

"Grab my arm." I hold my arm out, floating her mana hand right next to mind, and once she's holding on, I Blink us past the alarm trap. We both wait for a second, but surprisingly, nothing happens.

"I guess we were worried for–" I cut off as I suddenly hear a high-pitched screaming in the distance. It's faint enough that I doubt Illiana can hear it, but it's definitely an alarm.

"What is it?" she asks.

"They know we're here."

"Well, no point in waiting around." I float us down the tunnel at a much faster pace, summoning yet another serving of maligar lassi to replenish my reserves as the sound of the alarm gets louder and louder. It's not long before we spot our first cultists, emerging from a side tunnel a couple hundred meters ahead. I summon my sword, and Illiana raises her staff, but neither of us attack, because the cultists do something that we don't expect. They fall to their knees and raise their hands in surrender.

"We don't want to fight!" shouts the one in the lead.

"We submit!" I bring Illiana and I to a halt above them. They're all dressed in pretty stereotypical cult wear. Dark robes, oversized sleeves, deep hoods, and they're all wearing silver pendants. I squint at the pendant, but can't quite make out what it is. It looks kinda like a headless woman, maybe? All the cultists' Namecards show the same Class, or maybe Profession, and the highest level of them, only have a single question mark, meaning they can only be Tier 4. [Follower of Limos, lvl?]"Please don't attack!"

shouts the cultist.

"Why are you surrendering?" I ask.

"We don't want to die," he says.

"We'll go quietly. Just please don't attack."

"We won't…" Something is very strange here. Why are they surrendering? Why would they set so many alarm traps if they were just going to come out and surrender? Is it really just that they don't want to die? I look around, trying to find something else that's off. There are a couple other cultists approaching from the side tunnels, but they also surrender as soon as they arrive. There's no other movement.

Far behind the surrendered cultists, there's a huge set of double doors that stretch across the entire width of the tunnel. These are the first doors I've seen down here, aside from some smaller doors in side rooms, which makes them immediately suspicious.

"Illiana, start restraining them," I say.

"Okay." She steps down from the mana hand and stabs her staff into the ground again, and the next moment, roots grow to start wrapping around the cultists, forcing their arms down behind their backs and immobilizing them. A few offer small resistance, but none of them fight back, and after a minute, all of them are thoroughly tied up.

"Alright, let's go see what they were doing now," I say, nodding down the tunnel.

"Wait!" says the lead cultist.

"No! You need to take us back! We surrendered!"

"But our Quest is to investigate you, not arrest you," Illiana says with a shrug.

"I'll talk!" he says.

"I'll tell you everything! I'll answer whatever questions you want me to!"

"Sure," I say.

"You can do that after we take you back. And after we see what's behind those doors." The cultist looks around frantically, hyperventilating as I start floating down the tunnel again. Predictably, it only takes a few seconds before I hear him scream from behind me.

"Stop her!" The cultists all immediately start struggling against their bindings. I turn to watch, but Illiana's roots are powerful. They are draining their mana, and are strong enough that they can't physically break free. I watch in amusement as their panic intensifies for a few seconds. Then, the lead cultist screams something in a language that shouldn't be possible for a human to speak, and I hear the crack of wood breaking.

The cultist's body starts swelling grotesquely, bursting out of the root bindings as he turns from a half-elf into… something else. His robes tear open, and so does his skin as he grows taller and taller until his head almost brushes the ceiling. His arms lengthen even more than his body, their skinless knuckles dragging on the ground, and they gain a second elbow joint. [Child of Limos, lvl?] The same thing happens to half a dozen other cultists, while the rest watch in horror.

Some of the still-human cultists look completely shocked, while the others look sad and angry. All of them are quickly freed as the monstrified ones start tearing the branches to pieces. Illiana and I are not idle during this time. She tries to bind the Children of Limos with her roots, and I Blink forward to try and cut one of them in half with a Spatial Slice. Neither move are very effective, though.

The Children of Limos tear through the roots like paper, and my sword only makes it a half meter into the skinless monster before getting stopped. When freed, about half the remaining cultists simply turn and flee, while a few just stay on the ground, stunned. They are almost universally the weaker, lower level cultists, and were clearly not informed of this part of the plan. The rest pull wands or weapons from beneath their robes and start attacking.