The mansion where the supposed delegation was staying was unassuming and rather plain compared to the much more posh estates surrounding it. Lakuys, Evileye, and Gagaran waited, hidden from sight, while Tina and Tia dispatched the two guards by the gate and dragged their corpses behind the stone wall.
They had to be fast and silent to spring whatever trap was prepared for them with an element of surprise. Once the ninja twins had secured the entrance, the whole team reunited within the walls of the mansion and rushed onward.
The entrance doors, to their surprise, weren't magically warded and wouldn't give away their entrance as Evileye unlocked them by silent casting both the [Unlock] and [Disarm] spells, enabling them quick entry.
As they entered the mansion unimpeded, a horrific and disgusting scene greeted them. What were likely numerous Eight Finger operatives were butchered by the dozens, their innards scattered and splattered across the room, and their blood used to paint unusual magical circles on the wall together with unreadable scripts about the mad ramblings of calling upon the demons as true servants of the Great Six.
"We have to hurry. Whatever they are attempting to do will end badly!" Evileye pointed at the trail of blood leading downstairs, muscles tensing.
"They must have gone mad. This is…insanity." Lakyus scrunched her nose at the smell of fresh blood that had added to the foul stench in the room. Likely a byproduct of whatever foul ritual was performed.
"Then let's go down there and bash their heads in." Gagaran rushed forward with the rest of the team quickly following her.
In the basement stood six figures in a circle dressed in the colorful robes of six sects, decorated with gore and blood. In the middle stood an old man in snow-white robes, his aged eyes gleaming with madness as he held a bloodied knife over the corpse of a young woman, another operative.
"Cardinal Yvon!?" Lakyus gasped. As a devout follower of the religion of six, she had seen all of the cardinals during her pilgrimages to the Theocracy, and one of them was unmistakably standing before her.
"Ah, a child of the Gods." Yvon broke into a toothy smile, his teeth stained with drying blood. "Come, join us, and together we will cleanse the world of the filth the Gods of Nazarick bring."
"What are you talking about?!" Evileye used the opportunity to interrogate the priest while he was still in a talkative mood and there were no active attempts at summoning.
"The monster Gods of the Yggdrasil. The most vile ones. They already control Re-Estize, child. This nation must be purged, wiped off the map. We, as truly devoted servants to the Great Six, must act now to defeat their ancient enemy. Join us and together we will unleash the cleansing light of Lord Alah!" Yvon spoke with passion, his toothy grin growing only wider.
"Join us, sisters! Let us bring back our Gods, as you see, the cardinals have become prophets and hold the holy knowledge to resurrect our Gods!" One of the priests beckoned them to join the circle.
"You are mad! True followers of the Six would never use blood sacrifices!" Lakyus shouted, sending one of the dark swords floating around her towards Yvon with all her might.
There was no way any of them were doing anything remotely connected to the worship of her Gods. No literature spoke of this, no ritual was even remotely similar.
To hers and the horror of others, the sword harmlessly bounced off an invisible barrier, impaling itself in a nearby wall as the individuals behind the barrier cackled.
"The cleansing won't be stopped!" Yvon announced in response as he turned around and lifted his arms.
"[Shard Buck Shots]." Evileye cast her most powerful damaging spell in an attempt to break the barrier. Yet her attempts were futile, the spell dissipated away after a muted crashing.
They could only helplessly watch as Yvon started the ritual, chanting, "Oh, great God Alah Alaf, give us your cleansing light. Send us your instruments of cleansing!"
What looked like a golden ark decorated with magical symbols formed on the wall in front of the mad cardinal. A faint light shone out of the growing hole, ominously dimming and brightening.
"Yes! Come, the instruments of Lord Alah! Cleanse this kingdom and remove all the tainted ones!" Yvon continued to shout the words with fanatical devotion.
"What should we do?" Gagaran asked, unsure if she should try her luck in breaking the barrier, ultimately knowing that if Lakyus and Evileye couldn't penetrate it, she wouldn't either.
"Retreat, I will attempt an area damage spell and hopefully bring this entire house upon their heads," Evileye ordered.
"Shorty, you can't sacrifice yourself!" Gagaran protested.
"Go, I will teleport out!" She shouted.
The gate by this point was fully formed and the first of foul demonic creatures began stepping through. The nightmarish hellhounds, the tiny imps, and the gazer demons all poured through the hole in the wall, creatures she had only ever seen in literature or isolated incidents.
"Go!" Evileye shouted again, this time her team listening and sprinting up the stairs.
"You won't stop the cleansing!" Yvon cackled as he turned to face her.
"[Explosion]." Evileye cast a spell toward the ceiling. The spell had the desired effect as the stone above gave in and fell upon the mad cardinal, the ceiling crashing upon his assistants. Before she was struck down as well she teleported out of the mansion, leaving the accursed creatures to their fates and appearing on the street just beyond the gate leading to the property.
Her team reached her mere moments later as the building behind them collapsed upon itself.
"That was a close one. What the hell was with that priest?" Gagaran questioned.
"I don't know but I think I finally understand what happened in Slane Theocracy," Evileye replied, a knot growing in her stomach. There was a chance that collapsing a house upon the demonic gate wasn't enough and it was only a matter of time before the foul creatures dug themselves out of the ruins and spilled into the city.
"Enlighten us then," Gagaran urged on.
"A new set of players have appeared. It happens every century or so for reasons unknown. And these new players, which the cardinal referred to as the Gods of Nazarick, came into the conflict with Slane Theocracy, perhaps being enemies of the Six before their arrival. The question now is, who are the bad ones, the old or new, and if so, how do we assist them?" Evileye pondered out loud.
"How can you even suggest this? The Six Great Gods saved humanity!" Lakyus interjected with righteous fury.
"Yes, according to the writings left in control of people like this? He opened a demon gate in the name of the God of Light! And all we know of the new ones is that one of them saved E-Rantel from a spiral of death caused by a cult originating in Slane." Evileye pointed out.
"You can't…" Lakyus fell silent. She had nothing concrete to say against her friend's claims. A cardinal of Light almost unleashing demons upon the capital and did so in the name of Alah Alaf. For the first time since she became a believer, doubt crept into her heart. What if Evileye was right? The victors write the history after all, what if everything she had believed in was a lie?
"I am not saying that is the truth, but blind faith won't help you. We don't know where the truth lies and maybe this cardinal was controlled by something. I'm just pointing out that we should be wary of everything originating in Theocracy," Evileye continued.
"Shorty's right. You have seen how they treat the elves there. Perhaps it's not the Gods but the church that has gone wrong." Gagaran joined in.
Before anyone could get another word in, a cataclysmic explosion shook the very ground under their feet as Evileye shielded them from incoming shockwaves on instinct, the others throwing up their preparations.
As their vision cleared and the dust settled, they were met with a horrible sight. The mansion had been completely blown away and, in the crater before them, the demonic gate visibly grew in size. Hordes of demons rushed through it, charging not only towards them but spreading in all directions. The mad cardinal flew up in the sky shouting, his voice amplified tenfold, "Rejoice, the cleansing of these lands has begun! Welcome the servants of the Six Great Gods!"
"[Fly]." Evileye cast a spell on her entire team, tiredness seeping into her voice. "We must retreat and regroup!"
"We can't run! I will stay and try to slow them down!" Lakyus resolutely announced.
"Then you will die and it won't help anyone in the long run. We need to warn the guild and the crown. And then help contain this madness." Evileye grabbed her friend's arms, pulling her up in the sky.
Reluctantly, Lakyus followed. Evileye was right. The better course of action was to retreat, regroup, and then help the joint effort to stop the demonic invasion. One small group couldn't do much, their information was worth more than their blade. The question that worried her the most was who would stop Yvon. If their only hope was the mysterious new players, would they even come to help?
In mere hours the capital city of Re-Estize had become a battlezone, men and women fighting everywhere. After the Blue Roses had reported the source of the demons, an immediate containment order was issued by Count Boullope and every able-bodied soldier, magician, and adventurer was conscripted to keep the demons from spreading. Yet despite their best efforts, they were losing ground by the minute, dozens injured and tens dying before the foreign forces.
The matters were made worse by the recent withdrawal of priests who returned to Slane Theocracy, which meant there was no easy way to heal the wounded. Which in hindsight should have been a clear sign of dark times about to come, considering the priests never left unless they were planning something.
Barbro was sitting on the throne straight as a pole, his entire body frozen stiff as his advisors and guild representatives gave the newest updates on the growing catastrophe. The throne room was packed with nervous nobles, many of whom lost their relatives and valuables when the outer part of the noble district was consumed by this devastating attack.
By the order of his father-in-law, the rest of the noble district was immediately evacuated to the royal palace and most of the forces were stationed there to prevent the monsters from reaching the royal castle. Which in turn let them spread into peasant districts more easily, where thousands of his unaware subjects were slaughtered before the proper alarm could be sounded. Consolidation was necessary to keep the demons at bay from slaughtering the rulers, after all, the peasants lived to serve their betters and now they would die to serve their superiors.
"I need a solution, and I need it now! Call in the team that discovered this attack." He declared, his voice straining.
"Your majesty, the Blue Roses are our strongest team. If we pull them away from the battlezone, the demons will only spread faster! The written testimony by their leader Lakyus gives all the details they know." The guildmaster of the Adventurer Guild, a woman in her early forties dressed in a two-piece silk suit, replied with a bow.
"Then tell me, how are we going to stop the perpetrator if they failed to stop this Theocracy's cardinal? Are you sure they are the strongest we have!?" Barbro raised his voice, slamming his fist on the throne's armrest. Going into history as the king who lost his kingdom to the demons wasn't on his to-do list, and it came at a time when things were only looking up.
"The Red Drop is traveling to the capital as we speak and its leader has volunteered to attempt to kill the perpetrator of this madness and permanently shut the demon gate." The woman gave him some sort of hope that the situation could be resolved, shivering before his glare.
"Can this man do what Blue Roses could not? To my understanding, the overall strengths of these teams are similar?" Boullope questioned.
Putting all hopes on one team wasn't a sound strategy and even Barbro's personal strike team Six Arms stated they wouldn't be able to defeat something that blew up an entire district and could ignore the spells of the nation's arguably strongest caster Evileye.
"The leader of the adamantite team Red Drop, Aindra, has a specialized enhanced armor in his possession, putting his short-term output roughly at the same level as a dragon lord. If there is anyone with a chance of stopping the source of this invasion then it is him," The guildmaster assured him.
"Then for now redouble the efforts in containing the demons and make sure that man can kill the cardinal! Boullope, I want a full report by tomorrow morning on how we are responding towards Slane Theocracy for this attack!" Barbro ordered.
As much as he wanted to return to his entertainment, the situation was too dire for him to do so. With such a crisis at his hands, he needed to be present and show the resolve that was his birthright. It was time for his glory to take a stand.
Editing by aidan_lo.
Proofreading by aidan_lo, Sluethen, fvvck, Mfkzrocker, x4x, and clagan.
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