Chapter 8 – Cultists (3)

Between the contours of her face half-hidden by the hem of her robe, exceptionally red lips stood out. She mumbled with her lips.

“Hello, sacrifices.”

Having finished speaking, the woman smirked.

Tsk. She knew?

Veloc also smiled crookedly. And then he pulled out the crossbow he had hung on his waist.

“Sir Veloc?”

“We’ve been caught, Adel.”

They couldn’t even escape if they wanted to. The guide had run away, and they didn’t know the geography of the underground sewer well. Now that it had come to this, they would simply fight.

“Fuck.”

She also spat out a rough curse and pulled out her crossbow.

“The sacrifices have walked in on their own feet. Brothers! Everyone, take up your weapons!”

The red-robed woman shouted while spreading both arms. As her high-pitched voice rang shrilly through the cavern, the cultists who were offering prayers sprang up from their seats and stood up.

“For him…”

“For the true world.”

The cultists with eyes like rotten pollacks pulled out weapons from the hems of their robes.

Heinous weapons such as maces, axes, and spiked clubs gleamed, reflecting in the torchlight.

Just before the guys rushed in, Veloc and Adel made the first move.

“Shoot!”

Swish!

The quarrels fired by the two of them cleaved through the darkness. Thud, thud! In an instant, two cultists were struck by arrows and rolled on the floor.

“Aaargh.”

“Charge!”

The red-robed woman issued the command and, gathering both hands, began to chant a spell. Soon, a strange energy began to surge around her.

“Damn it. A mage. Adel, be careful!”

Seeing this, Veloc raised his sword and spoke.

Mage.

Beings who ignore laws of physics and use a bizarre power called spells.

Unless one possessed enchanted items or was a fellow mage, blocking a spell was difficult.

The methods were twofold.

Either killing the fellow before they chanted the spell, or avoiding the launched spell. In terms of ease, killing them before they chanted the spell was far easier.

Because from ancient times, a fight between a warrior and a mage was usually like that. A battle of who stabbed first or who chanted the spell first.

Yet, in front of them, the crowd of cultists was rushing forward, clutching their weapons.

The space that had been quiet grew noisy in an instant, and the stone passage thudded.

Unless they dealt with those guys, they wouldn’t even be able to get close to the mage.

Realizing this, Adel threw away her crossbow and held her sword and shield.

“I will draw their attention.”

She rushed headlong at the crowd of over ten cultists.

“Girl. Obediently become a sacrifice!”

A cultist swung a club with shining eyes. Adel raised her shield to her chest and put all her strength into her feet.

Clang!

By the recoil force, the cultist who swung the club was thrown back instead. Seizing the opportunity, she quickly thrust her sword.

“Krrrgh.”

The cultist whose neck was pierced collapsed, making a deflating sound. Right behind him, another two rushed in. A flail and a sword flew in respectively.

A situation with nowhere to evade within the narrow passage.

But Adel, skilled in combat, soon found the answer.

She rather lunged inside their guard. The flail, which hadn’t gained enough momentum, clinked and scraped her armor, and the sword was blocked by her hand.

“What.”

Leaving the two bewildered ones behind, she panted. And then she stabbed her sword into the stomachs of the guys who were defenselessly exposed. She swung her shield like a blunt weapon.

“Keugh.”

The guy whose body was punctured spilled his entrails, and the teeth of the guy struck in the face scattered. The advantage of the cultists’ numbers was blocked by the narrow passage and rather became an obstacle.

As the squire ran wild like crazy on one side, Veloc utilized the opportunity to enter the cavern through another passage. At this, the red-robed woman was watching him as if she had been waiting.

Inside the robe covering her face, pupils of turbid light burned.

“A double-pronged attack? Smart.”

“You knew?”

“Because I have ‘eyes’.”

She chose to laugh leisurely and touched her head. And then she extended one hand. For a moment, light rose from her white, slender palm.

Pwoosh!

Pitch-black smoke was emitted noisily. It was the spell she had been preparing since earlier.

The momentum of it extending in an instant like a snake targeting prey was unusual.

Veloc held his breath for an instant. And then he rolled on the floor headlong.

In a split second, his figure vanished. Only the stone floor that came into contact with the smoke melted with a sizzle.

“Fast, aren’t you?”

The robed woman tilted her head and admired. However, as if there was no problem, she moved her palm again.

Rumble!

Following that movement, the emitted smoke followed him like a tail.

Veloc stamped his feet and moved quickly, but he couldn’t be faster than the shooting smoke.

Soon, the smoke swallowed him.

The woman, having achieved her goal, smirked. And covering her mouth to avoid the rising toxic fog, she took a slight step back.

The Werther’s Poison Mist spell was magic that emitted smoke with a paralyzing effect along with an acid solution.

Since he took it head-on, by now some part of his body must have melted, or he would have fainted with his eyes rolled back.

Judging by his movements, he looked like a knight. ‘Quite an excellent sacrifice has been made. Is the only one left that child who is still fighting?’

Just as she was about to cancel the spell and glance back,

Swish!

an arrow flying through the smoke pierced her chest.

“Guh… What is this.”

The woman opened her eyes wide and stared at the fletching of the arrow protruding from her body. Perhaps due to the shock, the spell that was being emitted had long been canceled.

As she, her face contorted in pain, looked forward, Veloc was quickly stripping away the melting armor fragments. With his mouth still firmly shut. Being quite clever, she understood the situation immediately.

Knowing that he couldn’t avoid the shooting smoke, that knight rather prepared a counterattack.

Blocking his face exposed to the toxic smoke and giving up his armor, he shot an arrow in a split second.

Terrifyingly fast judgment and action.

The red-robed cultist, Ivlette, held her chest and panted.

“Haa, haa.”

Ivlette had had nothing to fear after receiving the power of spells from the demon Baphomet, whom she worshiped. Since she, a mere back alley whore, had become a mage with mighty power in an instant.

Most of the enemies melted under her magic right before they could approach her. But what on earth is that man…

Tap, tap.

Veloc walked through the smoke. He realized once again the dreadfulness of magic. A bizarre sorcery that couldn’t even be deflected by a sword. If you didn’t know it, you would just fall prey.

‘Fortunately, I have seen a magic similar to that before.’

The gameplay. His past experience was helpful. Otherwise, the one rolling on the floor right now would have been himself.

Veloc let out a sigh of relief and raised his sword.

“Lady Ivlette!”

At that moment.

Three cultists who were fighting in the passage sensed Ivlette’s danger and rushed over.

“You bastard! How dare you touch the spouse of that Lord!”

A voice like vomiting blood. Great momentum, but that was all. Veloc looked at them with unconcerned eyes. Though they held weapons, their sloppy postures and strides were not even at the level of a ragtag crowd.

Guys who were nothing special, except for the mage. Veloc swung his sword casually.

Even so, the sword light flashed, and the heads of the cultists flew into the sky one after another.

Squelch. The headless corpses convulsed and collapsed belatedly.

Killing three humans in an instant, how could that be ordinary skill?

Watching this scene, Ivlette gritted her teeth to dispel her fear.

Her chest heaved, and blood phlegm coughed out.

“You were a real knight… and one with great skill at that.”

“Is that the end of your last words?”

Veloc said as he flicked the blood off his blade.

It would get stained again anyway, but it was a habitual action engraved in this body.

At his calm words, Ivlette glared at Veloc with bloodshot eyes. And then she muttered as if spitting at the one who had disrupted her almost-finished plan.

“Young knight. I shall curse you. Soon, an apostle with the head of a goat will descend and you…”

‘No need to listen further.’ Veloc severed Ivlette’s neck.

Thud! Roll, roll.

The hood fell off, and a head with a rather pretty face rolled on the floor.

She was glaring even in death, showing how resentful she was.

Veloc gently moved his hand to close the cultist’s eyes. It didn’t give that much experience. Less than Bourbon.

Having expected much since she was a mage. Veloc, slightly disappointed, checked his body.

Damn it. There wasn’t a place that didn’t hurt.

His body that had rolled on the rough stone floor throbbed, and even though he was protected by the armor, his outer skin stung from the terrible acid.

‘It’s filthy hard to earn a living.’ When he let out a sigh,

“Sir Veloc. Are you alright!”

Adel appeared from the passage. She was also covered in scratches all over her body.

Since she had fought against over ten armed men. But there was no fatal wound.

Because Adel was an experienced warrior who had gone through battlefields. There was no way she would fall prey to a ragtag crowd.

“My god. Your armor…”

Approaching him, she worried about Veloc instead. It wasn’t a good look to have his armor melted, exposing his bare skin.

Veloc shook his body as if telling her to be at ease.

“Manageable. Are you alright yourself?”

“Something like this is nothing to me.”

Adel answered bravely and spat on the ground. Initially, she had been tense because of their bizarre ritual, but having fought them, they were nothing.

Just at the level of ordinary people holding weapons. It was over once they were careful of the mage.

Although the mission was reconnaissance. The two of them had wiped them out instead. It was a grand achievement.

‘Still, a normal knight wouldn’t have been a match for a mage. As expected of Sir Veloc…’

While knights with a certain level of skill were common enough to kick, mages were different.

Even with just a few spells, they were treated as advisors to the lord.

And killing them was even harder. Adel looked at her master, admiring him once again.

The two soon rummaged through the pockets of the dead cultists to find evidence to submit to the lord.

A dagger curved like a blood-red snake, ornaments made of human bones, and a strange parchment made of leather came out.

“Every single one of them is an unpleasant item.”

Just as Adel frowned and tried to examine the parchment, Veloc stopped her.

“Stop. It might be an item carrying a curse.”

These were items used by cultists who served demons.

Especially something like a spell scroll; one didn’t know what might happen just by reading it.

Because there were all sorts of strange curses in this world.

“Ugh…”

Adel rolled the parchment back up in fright. And then she carefully put the items into the bundle she had brought. Looking at that scene, Veloc chuckled.

‘No matter how boldly she acts, is she still afraid of curses?’ But her playing it safe was only temporary.

Adel contemplated for a moment, then nodded her head saying, “Hmm.”

And then she picked up the head of the cultist woman rolling on the floor.

“It seems best to take this with us after all. Because a sinner’s head is excellent evidence in itself!”

Her previous squeamishness was nowhere to be seen, as Adel smiled warmly while hugging the dripping head. And then she continued excitedly.

“The subjugation of heretics forbidden by the Church. It is a grand achievement and has established justice. Perhaps we might receive a reward from the Church.”

Did she intend to use the head as evidence to get a reward from the Church?

Veloc had a displeased expression at such appearance of his squire.

Why on earth were the people of this Medieval Land so anxious to carry away someone else’s head?

Because it’s clear evidence? Even so, picking it up like they’re choosing a doll from a claw machine is a bit much, isn’t it?

Although it wasn’t a thought Veloc, who had personally cut off her neck, should have, he occasionally couldn’t understand it emotionally.

No, could it be Adel’s unique hobby? Even though she was his own squire, Veloc occasionally feared Adel.

“Let’s go if you’ve packed everything.”

“Yes.”

Just as the two were about to move their steps,

Thud, thud, thud!

from the other side of the passage, the sound of dozens of footsteps was heard. What was heard faintly at first soon rumbled.

In the darkness, dozens of masked men appeared.

The two were surrounded centering around the cavern in an instant.

“Ugh. Round two?”

Veloc made a groaning sound and warmed up his body. He did not ask cliché questions like “Who sent you?”

What kind of crazy bastard would push dozens of armed soldiers underground at this hour?

And dressed so suspiciously at that.

It was easy to anticipate. No doubt it would be the subordinates of the two knights, Gerst and Malcolm.

‘These bastards’ timing is perfect.’

Coming this quickly? Veloc observed the enemies calmly, and Adel tightly applied force to her grip on the sword.

The two soon learned how the assassins had tracked them. Seeing a familiar face among the assassins, Adel gnashed her teeth and shouted.

“You! Sneak!”