Chapter 213 – Trying to be sneaky.

‘What are those creatures, the radar isn’t picking them up as monsters… are they too small to be registered, or are they part of some kind of spell?’

Roland was above ground and looking through a ventilation opening down into a large chamber meant for occult rituals. One of these was apparently taking place, the whole area was riddled with passed out people and more figures from the Abyssal Cult that he was familiar with.

After making his way here to find the control item for the large-scale double helix device he found something he never expected to see. Small leech-like creatures were being inserted into people’s eye sockets. Just a few seconds one of them vanished into a guard’s eye and besides a little bit of blood, there didn’t seem to be anything off.

Instantly his mind went racing to figure out what was going on. After the run-in with the Abyssal Cult all those years ago he had gone through extensive research on the subject. Yet there wasn’t much information about their real purpose besides the usual disappearances and murders.

It seemed that the calling card of this cult was this double helix relic. With a magical device that could knock out even people at tier 3, it was easy for the cult to go unnoticed. Roland didn’t have access to much information, most of it was clearly being hidden away by the information guilds and other powerful existences.

They were not informing the commoners about facts concerning cults probably to not have widespread panic. Most of the second-hand information that was passed by word of mouth didn’t amount to anything. Even when some cultists were apprehended they were taken away by the governing lord’s forces.

The only thing he could do was to spend large amounts of money at the thieves guild that sold information. Even with that, there wasn’t much on the cult, they mostly evaded curious gazes. Not even corpses remained in place and they vanished into the night after carving out their signature symbol. Without it most of the cases would not be identified and the afflicted would not even know if their loved ones had actually died.

Roland had witnessed firsthand what these people were capable of. That one warlock that could transform into a giant monster was probably responsible in some way. The merchant group that existed in Edelgard disappeared in a day without a trace. If he didn’t get out of the illusory world back then he along with his old boss would have done the same. Luckily the old gnome had some powerful bodyguards that could contend with the cult assassins.

There was no word of any incidents like that even when trying to get information through the thieves guild. Mostly there were just rumors of events happening that didn’t seem to be related to each other. There were many assassination groups working in the kingdom and the cult had a good reputation yet there was no mention of these wiggly things they were inserted into people.

‘That looks like some kind of parasite? What’s its purpose… take over the host body to produce more or is it something else?’

While observing the gruesome scene in front Roland came to a conclusion. He had heard about various ways of controlling other’s minds and perhaps this was one of them. The way the little leech-like creature went through the eye socket without harming the person made it seem that the cultists weren’t aiming to harm the people.

If they just wanted them to act as some parasite breeding hosts then they were going through a lot of hassle. Why would they leave the whole caravan mostly untouched? They were probably going to place these people back onto the carts later on.

‘Is this some kind of body-snatcher scenario or something?’

While he did try to figure out what the purpose of those bugs was, this was not the time for his contemplations. Down below part of the adventurers and even regular travelers were already put through this dark ritual. If he didn’t do anything all of them might become his enemies.

If the parasites could actually control their hosts was a big possibility. His main plan was to get the control item and then free the adventurers from the illusion they were in. After this was done he wanted to use their help to take out the cultists. On the other hand, if all of them turned into some mindless zombies he would only back himself into the corner.

‘Those guys seem to be fine for now but…’

In the background, he could see some of the adventurers behind hauled over. Dalrak and his small group were sprawled out next to each other. Orson had a strange smile on his face, it was as if he was having the best dream of his life. Grisalde on the other hand looked to be next in line for the ritual and the Spirit Spearman was right behind her.

‘These guys are really convinced that nothing can awaken these people… I guess I should make my move.’

After going through the temples inside he had also discovered the item that he was looking for. The runic device outside was giving out strange mana patterns that he had stored. After a quick search, he had identified an item in there that he was looking for.

It was in possession of this man, this seemed to be the leader of the group that they all gathered around. At first Roland thought that it was the occult-looking staff in his hand but it was devoid of any runes. The only item fitting the job was a strange medallion that he was wearing around his neck. It had a double helix symbol in the middle along with many tiny runes.

This would be his assault target which made things difficult. He was the person holding out the little parasites while the other dark priests chanted. What he needed to do was get to that medallion, through it in theory he should be able to send a signal to disable the large relic.

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Roland considered blasting the large spire with spells and some enhanced magic but he wasn’t sure if he could blast through its defenses. The double helix tower was surrounded by some kind of mana shield that protected it from harm. The amount of mana he would need to put into a blast to get through it would be immense.

It would surely drain his reserves and put him at great risk if he failed. Thus he decided to go with option B. While this might have seemed like the more difficult task he had a few helpers to aid him. The two golems that he had taken along for this adventure were already getting into place.

‘Here goes nothing.’

…

Without further ado, the haphazardly created plan of his was triggered. The two shiny spider drones were quick to follow the instructions that their creator gave them. From within their bodies, pointy rods started to slide out. They had cylindrical shapes while becoming thinner at the end. They were all covered with runes that at this point in time were shining blue.

The drones lowered their center of gravity as they went low. Soon the runes traveled up the rod coming out of the top of their body to activate the spell effect. What shot out were simple mana bolt spells and while their aim was mostly to distract, killing some targets was not off the table.

On the outside of the temple, there were several cultists that continued to chant. But soon enough they awoke from their trance by having their bodies being punctured by concentrated bolts of mana.

“GAh…”