Chương 165: 162 - Unimpeded

Seria, guide my path, that I might bring safety to those who cannot protect themselves. Wesley silently prayed as he led his raid group through the stony section of the swamp. There was no response. That was to be expected, though. Divine intervention was costly, especially when not done through proper channels. Prophets and high level Priests and Priestesses had Skills to allow them to commune with their deities better, but for a warrior like Wesley, Seria would have to front the entire cost of the communication.

And unless things were going seriously wrong, she would not do that. That said, he was not entirely without guidance. He had a Trait called Divine Intuition. It did not allow him to directly communicate with her, but it sometimes gave him subtle feelings based on her own feelings. A sense of danger when she worried for him. A sense of anger when he faced an enemy of the common people. A sense of urgency when she felt that time was of the essence.

Right now, he had faint sense of dread, though he wasn't sure if that was from Seria or him. Probably both… he thought. There was something very off about the whole raid. They had reached Zorg's Territory without issue, and now they had marched halfway through it facing only token resistance. No Named monsters had appeared, and even Wesley could not sense any powerful energy signatures in the vicinity. It was only weaker, more mindless monsters attacking them.

Monsters that even the weakest in the group could handle, if they were prepared. They soon reached an ugly, misshapen castle, and Wesley raised a hand to call for a halt. He could already tell that the only living creatures within were too weak to be a threat, but his senses were less attuned to locating traps and the like.

"Geomancers!" he called, then turned to his right side.

"Charlie." The man beside him nodded, and stepped toward the castle. A moment later, seven earth mages joined him, and they all began scanning the structure and the surrounding area for any signs of tampering. Five of the geomancers were from Wesley's own group. Out here in the swamp, the need for earth magic was minimal, so not many Adventurers in this region knew it. They took a minute to cast various spells, and expand their senses, looking for evidence of tampering.

Charlie did his own checks, relying less on the stone and more on his relatively esoteric trap finding methods. Wesley had never really understood what it was he did. Charlie explained it as "reading the past for the scent of treachery" which didn't really help. When they finished and declared the structure trap-free, Wesley marched forward again, taking up his position at the vanguard. A few weaker Tier 4 monsters who seemed like fresh spawns tried to attack, but they died without causing any real damage.

Beyond that, there was nothing. There were barely even any signs that anything had ever lived here. The entire castle had been abandoned. This was not completely unexpected. Keeping the purpose of even just the paladins secret would have been nearly impossible. Add the dozens of Adventurers in and there was no chance of subtlety.

They had marched under the assumption that the enemy knew that they were coming, trusting Seria's prophecy and the nature of Leaders to try and hold their Territory to keep things on track. The Leader shouldn't have been powerful enough to stand against Wesley regardless. Frankly, it was strange that Wesley had even been sent at all.

Not that he had been directly chosen, but if Seria sent the prophecy to that temple while Wesley and his company were present and able to take on the mission, she must have known what would happen. Wesley was overkill, but she had let him come anyway. As they walked through the empty halls, their armored boots echoing on the stone, the unsettling feeling of dread grew deeper. There was something very, very strange about the whole thing. They reached the empty throne, and stopped to check for traps again.

Here, there were more signs of life, but still, nothing of value, and nothing Named. They moved on shortly after, moving down a corridor behind the throne where the trackers said the most recent activity had occurred. The corridor lead out to the back of the castle to a plain, circular structure. Its purpose was not obvious from the outside, but Wesley felt a pit in stomach as he knew what was going on.

His suspicions were confirmed when they opened the doors to reveal a large, circular pit leading down so far he could not see the bottom. The cultists. The demon. The beastwoman… It was all connected. He had his men check for traps, and triple check the trails to make sure he was not jumping to conclusions, but all evidence pointed to one thing. Zorg had taken his minions and fled down into the Ahuitl ruins, likely to prepare an ambush.

And if that ambush didn't involve the sealed demon, he would be extremely surprised. Once they got the all-clear that the tunnel was not rigged to collapse on top of them, he started down the long staircase that spiraled down into the darkness, his men following behind in a single file line. The trackers and trap-checkers were right behind him, the rest of the paladins behind them, and the Adventurers took up the rear.

Wesley had already circled the entire pit twice before the last of the Adventurers made it onto the stairs. He paused for a moment to look back at the top, making sure everyone was accounted for. There were, but for some reason, a lone figure still stood at the top, looking blankly at the wall to their left. Wesley thought it was a little odd, but it was not important enough to comment on. They had probably just gotten distracted and not realized that it was finally their turn on the stairs.

"Stay sharp, everyone!" he boomed as he resumed his descent.

"We are entering the belly of the beast!" You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. There was a chorus of "yes sirs" from his men, and a disjointed assortment of acknowledgments from the Adventurers, and together, they all marched into the pit while. All the while, Wesley's sense of dread only grew.

Those crazy cultist bastards! A dark trail of blood followed Zorg through the water as he swam as quickly as he could away from what had once been his Territory. One arm held Sebastien's unconscious, half-dead form, and the other had been reduced to a stump. A rapidly-healing stump, but it still hurt like hell and it made him angry to think about. An hour ago, he had been nervous, but whole. A Tier 6 with an Epithet was far, far beyond his ability to handle.

Even the best trap he could possibly set up would barely be able to scratch such a man. He had actually been ready to pack up and flee as soon as the paladins arrived, but had allowed himself to be convinced to stay. It was something he kind of wanted to do anyway, since abandoning everything he built would be painful, but it was better to be alive and poor than rich and dead. But the damned cultists said they had a plan. They said that they needed Zorg and his subordinates to stay around.

That his Territory could be protected. It was exactly what he wanted to hear, and he had foolishly listened. He wasn't foolish enough to actually take them at face value. He asked Metztli for details. They explained that they had been doing research with all the frogs that he was selling them, and had created a weapon that could use spatial mana to destroy even something as powerful as Wesley. Metztli had even gotten her boss to do a small-scale demonstration to assuage his concerns. But they lied.

Whatever that was, they never intended to use it to defend Zorg. And the spatial anomaly was never what they had been after in the first place. How they had done the demonstration, he didn't know, but after what had just happened, he knew that they didn't intend to do it again. Their real goal had been the demon. Of course, he should have see that coming. They were cultists. Cultists summon demons. That's how it works.

But he had been blinded by his Greed and fear of losing everything, and now he actually had lost everything. Darryl, Heath, Ben, Sheila, Mia, Lily… He gritted his teeth as the images of his lost subordinates swam in front of his face. The damn cultists had used them as sacrifices. They lured him down to the ruins to "set a trap" but that in itself had been a trap. Before he even knew anything was happening, they were dead. He had barely been able to save Sebastien. His Territory had already been abandoned.

He lost all his perks for it, and had accepted the penalty. It was painful, but he just needed to live. He couldn't be tied to one place. Not when that thing was loose. Sasha and Herman, he thought. They're still alive. He pushed his mana into his arm to heal it more quickly, and redoubled his pace. There was one more subordinate he wouldn't be able to save. They were too deep in. It was far too late. But Sasha and Herman were still saveable, hopefully. Unless that's where Metztli is…

For whatever reason, Metztli hadn't been at the summoning. He had taken her to be the second in command, so her not being present for what should have been the final defense was odd. And now that he had a few seconds to think, he found it very odd. That seemed to have been the most important day ever for the cult. Why wouldn't she have been there? No, no, no, I'm gonna be late again!

"Faster!"

"We're going as fast as we can!" Kai clenched his fists so tight his knuckles were turning white as he tried to make anything important out through the millions of trees and vines. He knew it was an exercise in futility, but he was so impatient and so unsuited to moving quickly that he didn't know what else to do. He had only heard about the Named monster living within Dryadil a week prior while in the middle of traveling to Ocula. He knew this had to be it. His chance.

He was finally going to do something worthy of an Epithet. Then, when he arrived at the city, he learned that the paladins had set out late the previous night. Cursing, he had gotten his Party Members to rig up a boat and they were speeding through the swamp so fast that they were literally destroying anything that got in their way. They had killed at least three unfortunate monsters, and destroyed dozens of roots that seemed like they were trying to be in the way. And he still didn't know if it would be enough.

It's fine, he told himself, half-hysterical. The hero always arrives late. Right? Right?!

"Hey," said a soothing voice from behind him.

"You're tense. Take a deep breath." Kai glared back at Conner, ready to snap, but seeing the plain man's worried face, he held his tongue. He did as requested and took a deep breath. It didn't help that much, but he no longer felt the need to snap.

"We'll either make it, or we won't," said another voice further back. Larry.

"Whether you worry or not, it won't change the outcome."

"Yeah," agreed Maurice, not looking. He was focused on propelling the boat.

"Just take a deep breath. If it's meant to be, it'll be." Kai gritted his teeth, then sighed.

"Yeah, you're right," he said.

"Sorry."

"It's all good," said Conner.

"But are you sure there's no way to go faster?" All three wizards sighed. I hum to myself as I reach into yet another extradimensional burrow and pull out a squirming frog and toss it into the box. The sounds of battle rage on in the distance, but so far, the others have kept the defenders occupied. And the twins haven't sent any signals about anything going wrong, so I assume all is well. As I toss the frog into the box, another frog exits a burrow not too far away, and a third hops into range of Food Sense.

Grinning, I Snatch both of them, catching them with one of the tentacles sprouting from my back, and toss them through the one way barrier to join the rest of the wriggling mass.

"Twenty down, two hundred more to go!" I say cheerfully, then I return to humming.

"Are you humming–?" Shut up.

"But–" It's a great song, I don't care what anyone else says.

"If you say so…"