Chapter 32
The passage was short so we didn't take too long of a walk. It was about the same size as the previous room but instead of weapon racks, there was a stone altar at the far end of the room. It had a colorful piece of cloth draped over it. Rushia seemed drawn to it, so I asked Okayu to look out for her while I checked the other passage in front of us. It led to a gigantic room. I could see a metal door at the far end of the room, a passage going to the right and another door, wooden, on the left wall. The room itself had training dummies and target dummies on one side, two shelves of books and several desks on another side, and then a kitchen area in the corner. Then, the door on the left creaked open.
Subaru relaxed when she saw Choco step through the doorway with Towa behind her. "Over here," she called out as she waved.
"Find anything back there?" the tiefling asked as the two rejoined her, "All we found were sleeping areas."
She shook her head and said, "Nothing big so far. Though, Rushia's examining this stone altar in the room. Maybe you'd like to take a look?"
"Why not?" the latter replied and they reunited with the other two in the previous room.
The piece of cloth seemed to be quite beautiful and intricately woven. Compared to the rough-hewn stone, it seemed out of place.
"Blood spilled before," stated Rushia as they approached, "Sacrifices were made here. Old, ancient practice."
"Not only dragons, but using blood magic as well? These are two different things," muttered Towa aloud, "Dragon cults won't be as wasteful for this. Unless whatever that was brought here uses this kind of blood magic rituals..."
"Is that so… so the question is… who got hired?" questioned Okayu.
"We should explore further," decided Subaru, "Maybe we can find more clues. Either the inhabitants here are out or they haven't moved here yet… Let's go."
They went out of the room and into the gigantic room. First, they went to examine the passage, which led to a dead end. The half-devil suggested that it was probably another hidden door that led to the sewers as well. Not wanting to venture out into the foul place again, they turned their attention to the metal door. They checked it over before Okayu pulled it open by the handle, revealing a flight of stairs. They made their way up and up a second one, finding another room. It had a wooden door on the opposite wall. It was empty save for a desk and chair in the corner nearest to the stairs. The cat girl decided to take a moment to search it. A moment later, she discovered something… disturbing.
"What's wrong?" asked Subaru, noticing that her face was looking grim.
"They have yuan-ti here," she stated as she shuffled the papers around. Noting the fighter's confused face, she explained, "Snake people, to put it simply… who I don't see working together with another cult. This is new. One question would be why are they working together? What would they gain from this?"
"Yuan-ti have been known to make deals to gain power," stated Towa, "Blood sacrifices included."
"Anyway, we better leave this here," said Okayu as she put the papers back in the drawer, "So far, they don't know we're here. We could take them by surprise later."
"...Can we take them out now?" asked Choco, also looking grim, "Such a disregard for life..."
"We have to inform the guard about this," stated the cat girl, moving away from the desk, "Not to mention we don't know how many yuan-ti are here. We shouldn't take the risk."
Sighing, the tiefling replied, "That's true. I just feel very… urgh, those things might be sacrificing people."
"Hey, I know you want to do something about it, Choco. I think some of us do," assured the fighter, "But Okayu is right. We don't know how many of them are here already. We may even get overwhelmed. If anything, we need to be better prepared for this."
Suddenly, the wooden door opened and two hooded figures walked in. One was larger and a bit more heavy-set than the other. Both parties froze in surprise the moment they caught sight of each other.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?" asked one of them as the figures pulled out their swords, "Nobody iss supposssed to be here and Jeron isssn't supposssed to check on uss so sssoon."
"Please, we mean no harm," spoke up the half-devil, raising her hands to show she was unarmed, "We were waiting for Jeron. He was supposed to show us our living space, but we got curious and found ourselves here instead."
The hooded figures looked at each other for a moment, whispering in something Subaru didn't understand. Then, the one who spoke said, "Very well. You ssseem to be trussstworthy if you know of that man. Do not come down here again and there will be no trouble. Now leave."
The very clear warning hung in the atmosphere as the party muttered their thanks as they hurriedly walked out of the room through the open door. They heard it being slammed shut behind them and they let out a breath of relief.
"Right, let's find out where we are," muttered the fighter as she looked round.
The room they were in was of similar build to the cultist basement the party found themselves all those days ago. Up ahead was another torchlit passage that led to a ladder going up. Heading that way and climbing up, she pushed against a trapdoor and opened it. Pulling herself up and looking around, she found herself in a rather shabby looking interior. The occupants seem to be absent.
"I guess those two owned this house," she wondered, thinking of the hooded people just now.
"Ah, let's go. I need to report this to the guard," stated Okayu.
Getting agreements all around, they left the house. They found themselves in the poorer side of the city. The cat girl then led them to the nearest guardhouse to make their report. She then stayed behind to see what happened while everyone else went back to her home.
"What!? What do you mean it's not there!?" exclaimed Choco in disbelief, something that was shared by Subaru and Okayu, "It should be there! You saw it too!"
"I know, Choco, I know," replied the cat girl, "But they didn't find anything. No extra tunnel. No extra passages. It disappeared. They told me so."
"But did you go down and verify yourself?" asked the tiefling.
"I wasn't allowed to… which, come to think of it, is very strange..." muttered the bounty hunter in realization, "What happened down there?"
"We should go there now! Who knows what is happening right now!" the cleric continued to rant.
"Right now? We haven't taken our dinner yet," the latter pointed out, making the former look even more frustrated.
"Look, let's just have a light dinner and then we go back to the house and take a look," suggested Subaru, "If we really don't find anything, we can still drop by Farun's tavern for supper."
Both of them glanced at each other for a moment before nodding to her.
"Bibi, help us watch that house will you?" said Towa as she tossed her hat in the air. With a puff of smoke, it transformed back into an imp and flew out of the window.
After a quick meal, we hurried to the house. We found it full of darkness. Nothing lit up the interior, not even a light of a candle. Towa's imp flew back to her and hovered over her head. It quickly transformed into her hat and landed neatly on her head. Then, Choco suggested going inside as it didn't seem like anyone was home. Everyone agreed, me included. The two that were staying there are probably at a cult meeting right now, so it should be safe… right?
Of course, the moment she pushed the door open, the whole place exploded.
Everyone was thrown back from the explosion, their bodies scattering over the road. Subaru groaned as she tried to get to her feet. She got up to a seated position when she noticed someone stepping out of the house. Her eyes widened as a half-black dragon in gleaming red armor walked on the cobblestone. It was wreathed in a gleaming reddish aura that slowly dimmed out of sight.
It grunted and said in a growling, deep voice, "So… you are the ones who killed my brothers."
"Wait, what?" exclaimed the fighter.
"My father would have preferred to deal with you… but I have not the patience," it declared as it motioned with its longsword, "You will die by my hand tonight. ATTACK!"
She didn't wait for it to finish talking. She jumped to her feet and charged straight at it, slamming her shield into it and slashing the upper part of its chest. It staggered back and ducked, a flash of light veering over it and splashing into the wall harmlessly. Two bolts then slammed into its neck, drawing more blood and having it roar in pain.
"Mage!" shouted Towa.
That was the only warning they got when a fireball exploded in their midst. Subaru could feel her back getting bathed in flames. She grit her teeth and stood firm against the half-black dragon in front of her.
"You… you- argh!" it yelled in agony as two bolts of crackling, eldritch energy crashed into its torso and head, throwing his limp body into the burning house as the rest of it collapsed inward.
With that enemy gone, she looked around and her face went pale. Okayu, looking worse for wear, fending off another guy with a dagger and a rapier. She charged the retreating man and attacked, both slashes scoring his abdomen and drawing blood. The cat girl added to it when she dropped a large gash on his upper arm.
Suddenly, a wave of ice and frost washed over the party. She could feel the cold going all the way to her bones. Powering through the feeling, she noticed Okayu collapsing to the road, the chilled air being exhaled slowly. Immediately, she put herself between the cat girl and the swashbuckler. Just in time to, as a flurry of stabs was blocked by her shield. She then watched him turn tail and run.
"OH, you are not going anywhere!" shouted Towa behind her as two more bolts of energy slammed into his back, knocking him into some barrels, his body smoking from the blasts. "I got this. Go get that mage!" she heard the half-devil say. Taking that to hear, she turned and ran after the mage.
"Haaa! Take this!" Subaru shouted as she swung her sword arm, the ram ring glowing brightly. A spectral ram's head appeared and shot at the mage. As shocked as he was, he was able to jump out of the way just in time. This distracted him from a glowing green arrow that slammed into his side, splashing his body with acid and making him shout in pain.
"Good job, Rushia!" Choco called out as she ran up to the mage and swung her magical mace, the sharp flanges clipping his hands and forearms. This left him open to the spirit mace that appeared behind him and slammed into his back.
The mage immediately burst into mist and reappeared at the other side of the road. He then tossed out two bolts of fire at them, which splashed harmlessly against the wall of another house, before running away as well.
"Get back here!" she shouted as she ran after him. A second arrow splashed on him and unfortunately, killed him by melting his chest to a goo. A little disturbed by the sight, she quickly jogged back to the party, where Choco healed up Okayu and was now helping her to her feet.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
"I'm cool," the cat girl replied with a weak grin.
She made a face, still feeling relieved that the bounty hunter was still in one piece. Then, she caught sight of Towa walking back to them from around the corner.
"Not to worry, I took very good care of him," she stated with a smug smile, "Very, very good care of him."
She had a feeling she didn't want to know what that meant.
Soon, a patrol of guards escorting a designated firefighter, a cleric, arrived on the scene and easily put out the fire. Okayu spoke with the guards and after clearing some things up, they were allowed to search the place after the fire died down. They stepped around the burnt husk of the half-black dragon and searched for the trapdoor. It was burnt but still usable. They cleared it out, opened it, and went down the ladder. They did not expect what they found.
"Impossible!" shouted Choco in disbelief. The passage was somewhat intact but half of the room it led to had collapsed. The part that had the door leading to the secret base… was now buried under a ton of rubble. Too convenient. She started patting around, trying to make sure this was really there.
"So… what do we do now?" asked Subaru. She had a sinking feeling that the fight they went through was a distraction to hide evidence. Something they had no choice but to take part in. And now they were still nowhere near to finding out more about the cult.
The tiefling sighed, suddenly looking quite tired, and replied, "Let's go back… and go to bed. I've had enough tonight."
The fighter just hugged her from the side and went up the ladder. Sure they hit a dead end, but she was sure that other things would turn up. The party regrouped and headed back home. After sending Towa to her home, they went back to Okayu's house. However, at the doorsteps, they found a hooded, cloaked figure sitting there. They stopped and looked at it warily. It slowly stood up and they spotted a tail. A dragon tail. This had the party on edge and they reached for their weapons.
The figure then raised its very human-like hands and said, "Wait! Please! I mean no harm. Please put those away." It sounded like a girl.
"Who are you? Are you one of them?" asked Subaru, putting into words what everyone was thinking.
"No, please, let me show you," she said as she pulled down her hood. Her hair was coppery-orange with a strip of yellow. Her eyes were red and purple with a sharp draconic iris. There were two, literal, dragon-like horns protruding out of the sides of her head. One with a black-and-white striped bow tied around it while the other had a discolored blemish streaking across it. "I am not one of the cultists you are hunting. I just wish to offer my help in fighting them," she informed them as they relaxed a little, taking their hands off their weapons.
"Who are you?" the fighter repeated clearly.
"My name is Coco Kiryu… and I'm here to help."
AN: Hello, readers. The investigation continues. So, it seems that it was a small base set aside for yuan-ti. Why are the cultists involved with them? Clue? Yuan-ti purebloods. Lowest on the totem pole in yuan-ti society but extremely good at what they do. Incidentally, they did meet up with one, not that they know. Towa pretty much talked their way out of a fight. It may have been a small fight but it could lead to an even bigger one.
Choco wanting to return to wreck the base. Blood sacrifices, like what the yuan-ti can do and will do, I would put here as in opposition to a good-aligned person, and I would like to think especially true to a Life Domain Cleric.
Ambush. So, the explosion was a fireball. The half-black dragon I based on the half-red dragon veteran but color swapped and breath swapped. I hope its head-strongness and impatience shone through. And after the fight, we finally get introduced to Coco, Hololive's resident shitposting dragon.
Coco Kiryu
Copper Dragonborn Bard/Sorceror multiclass
College of Satire/Draconic Bloodline
Now, first, dragonborn. She is still a dragon, but the humanoid form she loves to use can also pass as dragonborn. You can have looks that are more human than dragon, so it can still be possible to look like that. Not to mention, don't we want to see her use an actual breath weapon? College of Satire. Shitposting can be a form of satire. Heh. Since the college itself strives to bring the truth to light under the guise of comedy, it isn't too farfetched. To me at least. Draconic Bloodline. It's true. She is a dragon, all the way down to her blood.
Alright, this is it for this chapter. Next chapter, Subaru and friends find out what Coco knows. Thank you for reading and have a good day, dear readers.