Chapter 30
While it was funny that Matsuri looked like that, the assassin was not needed. Why, gods, why? I do not purposely go looking for trouble, so why is all this… no matter. I will overcome this. I will get over this obstacle and triumph again. Alright, calm down. We can get through this alive. We can do it. First, we have to get out of this room…
"Who are you!?" called out Subaru, drawing out her longsword.
The voice chuckled before continuing, "You wouldn't know of me, like I wouldn't know of you. It would have been that way for many months until it was too late. However, fate has decided to bring you to the forefront and disrupt my plans for this place."
"What did I do?" she asked. Meanwhile, the rest tried figuring out where the voice was coming from.
"I had followers and pets in place to grow and expand my forces," the voice started to ramble, "You may not know, but I find it very odd that you somehow stumble on my forces and kill them all. All was not bad, as the main backbone of my army still remained. And yet… you and your friends took my sons from me. My two strongest. And I cannot abide that slight. I swore to hunt you down and make you suffer."
"Sons? What?" she sputtered out in disbelief.
"What are you playing at? What are you planning?" asked Choco. At the same time, she motioned at the jewel in the middle of the armor's chest plate.
"Heh, as if i would reveal my plans to you," the voice sneered.
"Your plans involve the city, don't they?" stated Okayu suddenly, "You talk about Subaru disrupting some sort of plan. You speak of followers, pets and an army. Are you invading Rivirapolis? To what end?"
"Ahh, it seems the cat got dragged in instead," it taunted, "Truly unexpected. And you would be a fool to assume that I would answer those questions. All you have to know that you have delayed my plans for the last time. Kill them all."
The gem glowed and a flash of light burst out of it, blinding everyone momentarily. As everyone got their sight back, the carpets, the armor, and the swords had come to life with a red glow around them and were now moving towards the trapped party.
Okayu instinctively shot at the nearest sword and unfortunately missed. Matsuri, who was the nearest to the swords, escaped with a few nicks before shooting her arrows and cracking the gem on the cat girl's target. Choco continued her chanting as she waved her hand in the party's direction, the blessings of her goddess falling on them. The rest of the animated object surged forward. The swords were fended off easily, but the rugs snaked around the fighter and the warlock, wrapping around them and trapping them in place. The helmed horror merely stepped forward and stabbed as the fighter struggled to break out.
"Argh," she shouted before pulling herself up and out of the coiled up carpet.
The armor focussed on its task, Rushia took this chance to shoot a beam of enervating energy, striking it in its head. Meanwhile, Towa stepped out of a burst of mist, escaping her rug's clutches. She then sent two blasts of eldritch energy at the one trying to re-embrace Subaru and blasting it away into the wall. It crashed into the wooden paneling, singed and scorched.
The bounty hunter and ranger turned their attention to the next sword, pelting it with arrows and bolts. Meanwhile, the cleric summoned the familiar spirit mace and pulled out her new one, which started glowing brightly. Both spirit mace and its summoner took down their respective targets quickly, the blasted rug and the pelted sword. The remaining two swords headed straight for Subaru, who easily fended them off with shield and sword, while the remaining rug snaked up to Matsuri and wrapped around her. At the same time, the helmed horror flew out of the fighter's reach through magic after another attempt at her. With a shout, she fought back and slashed her blade into the nearest sword, both blows cracking the gem on it. The flying sword next to it got its gem shattered by Okayu's arrows, falling to the ground with its magic dissipated.
Meanwhile, Rushia and Towa tried to get the last rug to release the scout… by blasting it with magic. It got scorched, rotted all over and eventually blasted into the nearby table as it continued to constrict her.
"Argh!" Matsuri shouted as she timed her escape right after it clenched, "Stop hitting me too! I felt all of that."
"Then don't get caught," replied the young necromancer.
"Be glad we helped," sneered the half-devil.
Choco charged in like an avenging angel, smashing the gem on the last sword, while the spirit mace tried attacking the armor and missing. However, that left her open as the rug went after her instead, binding and constricting her.
"Argh!" she shouted as she was stabbed in the back by the horror, who flew out of reach again.
"Let her go!" yelled Subaru as she came over and started hacking the rug, taking care not to hit the tiefling in the process. Unfortunately, Rushia and Towa got a similar idea and the party cleric got blasted away and sent crashing into the wall next to the barred entrance with a cry of pain. At the very least, that final burst of the arcane blew a sizable chunk of the rug to bits and set her free.
Weathering the missiles sent its way, the helmed horror shuddered as the spirit mace slammed into its back. It avoided a blast of light from Choco as it landed and proceeded to attack. It's longsword sliced through after images as she dodged its swings. The fighter took this chance to move and swung, slicing through the gaps in between the plate. Another wave of magic sent its way knocked it into the iron bars. More arrows and bolts were sent its way and the tiefling finished it off with her glowing mace, knocking its helm off. The rest of the armor stopped glowing and collapsed to the ground in a heap.
"Gods, that was painful," she muttered exasperatedly, "Stupid rugs."
"You can say that again," grumbled Matsuri in agreement, "Too close for me."
"I think you can relax for now," said Okayu as she looked around, "As far as I can tell, as long as nothing else comes alive, we just need to figure out how to unbar the doorway."
"I think not, my interlopers."
The floor suddenly lit up as a magic circle appeared. Before anyone could do a thing, a burst of light filled the room. As the light died down, the party had disappeared.
"Ahh!" Subaru yelled as she landed on her bottom. Getting to her feet, she rubbed her sore back as she looked around. The place was somewhat dark and dim, the only source of illumination being outside the room, coming through the small, barred window in the door. At least it was bright enough to see that everyone had come along for the ride and in one piece.
"But of course the room had a teleportation circle," grumbled Choco as she cradled her head in her hands.
"So… where are we?" asked Matsuri.
"We are either in someone's basement or in a dungeon in the middle of nowhere," answered Towa as she brushed herself down.
"Basement is the best scenario," quipped Okayu.
"Just as our lord said," stated a voice, sounding like the person was in awe, "The Dire Lord be praised."
This drew everyone to the door. A hooded figure was currently staring into the room.
"Who are you!?" shouted the tiefling.
"I am merely his servant," the hooded figure replied, "A favored servant, but a servant nonetheless. He did say all who end up in this place are to be punished. And punished you shall."
"...Did we just stumble onto a cult?" questioned the scout.
"Ah, please, my dear sir," said Towa as she suddenly started sashaying towards the door, "Please, I do not belong with these heathens."
"Is that so?" the figure replied warily.
"Traitor!" shouted the tiefling as she tried to attack the half-devil. "No, let me go!" she continued to protest as Subaru held her back.
"Look, there has to be a perfectly good reason for this," said the fighter, herself wondering why the warlock was acting this way.
"But of course, my lord," she continued to say as she gestured to her face, "Please… Listen."
The figure froze for a moment and said slowly in a monotone drone, "What would you ask of me?"
"Unlock the door, please," she ordered.
"As you wish," the hooded figure droned as they unlocked the door and opened it.
Towa grinned as she turned to face the others. "Now, traitor am I? Be grateful for my assistance. I shall seek recompense when this is over." Turning back to the hooded cultist, she asked, "Now, you must lead us out of here. We were teleported here by mistake. It is just a mistake."
"It was just a mistake," he said as he pulled down his hood, revealing a bald head and black beard, "I shall lead you out immediately."
"Alright, everyone, pick up your things. We are leaving," announced the half-devil.
The older cultist led them out of the room and into a receiving area, where several other cultists were seated around a table making small talk. One of them noticed them and walked over to them, saying, "Elder Hatak, what is going on?"
"It was a mistake," the older man told him, "They are supposed to be guests."
"What is going on?" called out a woman as she came down the stairs, wearing similar robes to his.
"This is not looking good," muttered Okayu.
"It was a mistake," the older man repeated.
The female cultist came near and narrowed her eyes. Glancing over to the party, her eyes widened and turned back to the old man. Without warning, she slapped him. "Stupid old man! The prisoners have escaped! Get them!"
Choco quickly started calling for blessings while Rushia launched a glob of necrotic energy at the old man, sucking all life out of him. At the same time, Matsuri and Subaru attacked the other fanatic, who was trying to cast a spell, and grievously injured her. She ran back to a door in the corridor and slammed it, shouting, "Intruders! Intruders!"
The cultists around the table rushed and surrounded Subaru, attacking with their swords. The rooms around the party were flung open. Two more cultists came out of the room the fanatic slammed on and stood in front of her as protection. The scout sun around and parried a sword with her bow. Okayu turned to face her left, a sword grazing her arm as she drew out her short sword and retaliated by slashing his chest. This led to both of them dueling each other. Concurrently shouting out her chants, Towa threw crackling bolts of energy, blasting two of the cultists near the fighter across the room.
A familiar mace materialized and slammed into another cultist, crushing him into the corner of the wall. The tiefling then joined Subaru in the cultists surrounding her. Meanwhile, Rushia helped Matsuri to take out the cultist that came out behind her by blasting her with a wave of frost.
"Kill the intruders!"
The fighter spun around and saw more cultists coming down the stairs, the fanatic pushing and egging them on. She then ran into the line, bracing against one of them with her shield while the other went past her and stabbed Choco in the back. She suddenly felt the weight of the other cultists pushing against her. Amidst the shouts and the fervent yells, she heard Towa chant out behind her, "Burn, you fools!" A bright streak sped overhead and crashed into the ceiling, filling the stone corridor with fire. She was able to shield her face but the rest of her body that was unprotected got the full blast of the spell. She grit her teeth and powered through the pain. Lowering her shield, she saw only blackened corpses of the cultists. Resisting the urge to empty her stomach, she turned away from the sight, only to witness Okayu dispatching the last of them.
"Now what was that bright idea of tossing that fireball into the crowd," growled out the tiefling as she glared at the warlock, "If Subaru were any slower, she could have died."
"Really? You should be grateful that I cut down their numbers so well," the half-devil retorted, even though she fidgeted quite noticeably, as if uncomfortable by what the cleric said.
"It's fine, Choco," assured the fighter, sporting a small grin, "I'm fine, see?"
"Well, since this is an actual cultist base… maybe we can find some clues as to what this was all about. Can you help me search the place?" requested the cat girl.
"Who knows, maybe we could find some stuff we can use ourselves," added Matsuri.
As disturbing as that fight was, we proceeded to help Okayu search the place. The rooms that the few cultists came out from yielded some stuff. Other than the prison room we ended up in, there was a wine cellar and two storage rooms, one big and one small. The larger one seemed to have a few boxes with lots of cultist clothes with some weird symbol, presumably the symbol of their leader. It also had a box full of weapons and a smaller open box with properly packed books and rolls of paper. These things Okayu and Choco decided to read through to see what they could get from them.
The smaller room… was a treasure room! There was a literal mountain of gold pieces… well, a small mountain, but a mountain nonetheless. There was also a treasure chest that was locked. We didn't know how to open it until Matsuri asked Okayu about it. A few seconds later, she opened it. There was only one item there and it was a dagger made of bone. Creepy. Then, Rushia picked it up.
"Er, are you sure you should do that?" asked the scout worriedly, "What if something happens to you?"
"I hear," the young necromancer muttered, "Blood spilled with this. I don't mind it."
"Well, I hope nothing bad happens, Rushia," said the fighter as she pat the girl on the shoulder.
"If that's all, I better get back to Choco and those documents," stated the cat girl as she walked out of the room.
"So, nothing else? No weird voices telling you to kill stuff?" pressed on Matsuri, "I know this sounds paranoid, but I really have to know."
"No."
"Please stop disturbing someone who can easily turn you into a skeleton," deadpanned the fighter as she pushed all the gold pieces into the now-empty chest and closed it. Between her and the scout, they carried the chest out of the store room. The trio headed to the large store room, where the cat girl and the tiefling were still looking through the documents and the books.
"Found anything?" asked Subaru as they set the chest down.
"Details on hideouts and safe houses, surprisingly," stated Okayu as she shuffled some papers around, "So far, nothing stands out. No mention of any Dire Lord. Whatever names written in these will need to be checked. I wouldn't be surprised if some of them are fake names or even fake documents to throw us off just in case these were found."
"These are ledgers," continued Choco as she held up one of them, "These guys had been planning something for a long time. Nothing here says what, though. It could be anything."
"Still, these should be enough to cripple the cult enough for us to figure out their master plan," the gat girl said with a smile, "Good job, everyone." Getting smiles and smirks around, she continued, "Alright, wait for me here while I report this to the guards. I'll be right back."
AN: Hello, readers. Fights one after another. Yeah, after getting out of animated objects, the party faces cultists. Cultists are easy enough. Animated objects? Especially those rugs. You try attacking the rugs while they are hugging(wrapped around) another person, you hurt that other person too. Hence, Matsuri and Choco getting quite drained after that fight. The leadup to the cultist fight, Towa makes use of her charms of a half-devil most effectively. Up until the second fanatic interferes. Investigations into the cult. Commence.
Alright, this is it for this chapter. Next chapter, a bit more downtime. Who knows? Maybe a new character. Thank you for reading and have a good day, dear readers.