"I'll enter first!" Lorelei said with obvious eagerness, earning a clear nod of approval from her father.
"Good, get your equipment, and then you'll take the lead." He said with pride.
Taking the que for what it was, I and Lorelei walked to my car and started rummaging through our things to prepare ourselves.
I naturally slung the mystic code holding Rhongomyniad over my shoulder, as well as picking up some useful nicknacks, like a dagger and a short spear—which was more like a dagger with a stupidly long handle.
Closing the car door, I glanced over at Lorelei, and blinked a few times.
The bitch was wearing a single gauntlett, and in her free hand she held a fucking riding crop.
The hell is her equipment?
Nope, best not to comment, the fucking cube she was corressing earlier was a pseudo reality marble, so I should probably shut the fuck up, and just nod my head in acceptance.
Walking over to my mother, I watched as Lorelei tapped the flat of her riding crop to her gauntlet, as she approached the door, before looking at her father.
"May I enter?" She probed with a cocked eyebrow.
Barthomeloi merely gave his daughter a satisfied nod, before gesturing for her to enter the door.
Having gotten the green light, she all but lunged through the door.
Tentatively, I glanced at mother, who shook her head with… something that resembled fondness? Or exasperation, I'm not sure.
As I was looking at mother, Barthomeloi gave a low cough.
Subtly, I shifted my gaze to look at him. He gave me an encouraging look, before nodding towards the door.
It would seem that I have been thrown to the wolves…
Fuck it, I'm a big boy now. And like hell am I going to have some girl with an S&M fettish outdo me.
Nodding back to him, I moved through the giant doorway.
The inside was… gothic to say the least. Long cobbled halls, with red carpet lining the floor. Followed by the odd feeling of multiple bounded fields falling apart, due to one of their anchor-stones having been ripped apart at the entrance, made for an odd experience.
Lorelei was proudly walking a few meters ahead of me, while scanning her surroundings.
As she was taking point, I should naturally be covering the rear, but as the others we're going to follow behind us, so I might as well cover her blind spot.
Walking up closer to her, I followed her in silence, as we moved further deeper into the fortress, with the adults hanging a few feet away from us.
After a few minutes of walking, we entered a grand hall that had four large entrances, and in the center back of the room were twin staircases leading up to the second floor.
Lorelei eyed the surroundings, before barely turning her head around, using her peripheries to look at me.
"I'll take the rooms on the left, you'll take the ones on the right. If either one of us finishes ahead of time, we'll assist the other." She proposed, earning a nod from me.
"Sounds good." Upon hearing my affirmation, she moved into the room, and headed to the left-hand side.
Seeing her leave, I moved toward the right-hand arch.
Glancing behind me, I saw mother following a few steps behind me, and Barthomeloi following a few steps behind his daughter.
Turning my head back, I walked up to the wall leading down the hallway, and placed my palm on it, casting structural grasp on the walls.
A partial map of the hall I'm walking down floods my mind.
The map itself was slightly fuzzy, as there were still a ton of bounded fields that were falling apart thanks to Lorelei's Mystic Code.
The damn Mystic Code was still showing its worth—despite only being applied to the door, I could still feel its effects of it tearing apart the nearby anchor points of the surrounding bounded fields.
If the mystic code's existence became common knowledge, then I wouldn't be surprised to see a world wide witch hunt for the Barthomeloi family, due to the fear of what such a device could do their own defenses.
As I continuously reapplied structural grasp, I finally got information on the room, or rather basement the hallway lead to.
There was a turn further down the hallway, leading to a staircase that seemed to descend into a dungeon of sorts.
The insides of the room was fuzzy, but it felt like there was something down there.
Silently, I erected a small bounded field, with myself as the anchor, meant for keeping all sounds made inside, away from the outside, effectively making me silent.
Mother was also encompassed by my barrier to ensure our stealth.
"There's what looks like a dungeon a bit further ahead. I felt what I think might be a life form, or more probably something stronger than a ghoul—perhaps a Nightkin or, at worst, a Nightmare," I explained aloud.
"If it's a dungeon, I suspect there to be at least a Nightmare-ranked Apostle down there, acting as a jailer," Mother gave her input, making me think about the possibilities.
Apostles at the level of Corpse and Ghoul are worthless fodder, best used as guard dogs.
Undead, Nightkin, and Nightmare-ranked Apostles can be counted as 'living' corpses, as they have their mental faculties in working condition, as well as some of their former personality returning to them.
Excellent to be used as grunts, and servants, usually being the worker bee of the Ancestors, or in this case, Successors home.
Actual Inferior and Superior Apostles are where things start to get hairy.
Inferior Dead Apostles gain the ability to directly turn a human into their 'child', allowing them to sometimes bypass all the former levels, and sometimes even reach the level of an Inferior Apostle themselves.
A Superior Apostle is an apostle that has gained one or more unique abilities, something similar to a magus family's Attribute, or magic crest. And to make things more difficult, they have the strength of the lower end of servants, at most the mid range.
And of course, they had time reversal bullshit magecraft, that allows them to almost infinity regenerate as long as they had enough Od. Earning them the title of the cockroaches of the Moonlit-World.
At this level, only senior Executioners and Enforcers are encouraged to fight them, or at least a team of four ordinary ones.
Finally, Louvre has been gifted the title of a Successor class Apostle.
An Apostle so strong that they can compete with mid to high ranking servants in terms of strength, and ideally they should have a reality marble.
Meaning that in any and every situation, I should be fucked.
Luckily, if Altrouge is to be believed, Louvre is hovering somewhere around the Superior level, and his two 'children' around the higher echelons of Inferior class.
The only reason Nrvnqsr Chaos chose Louvreis due to the fact that he is one of the few 'living' Apostles that he turned.
And I suspect it to be a 'trial' of sorts, and to pass it, he needs to survive until he is capable of deploying a reality marble.
Something similar to a kick in the ass to improve as fast as possible, or die trying. A sink or swim type of mentality to see if he's worthy.
Shaking my head to clear those thoughts, I stepped down the staircase and refocused on preparing for the imminent battle.
As I descended, I couldn't help but wrinkle my nose. With each step, the foul stench of blood and death grew stronger.
Reaching the bottom of the staircase, I frowned as the pungent smell of blood and rotting flesh became overwhelming.
Just ahead of me was a creepy-looking iron door straight out of a horror movie, covered in bloodstains, rust, and thick steel hinges.
"I have a bad feeling about this. Maybe I should take point," Mother's worried voice came from behind me.
I didn't turn around but still shook my head in refusal. "No, at worst there will be a few ghouls or something similar," I said confidently while reaching for the door handle.
Opening the door, I continued speaking. "Nothing above an Undead can make such a ba—"
My words got stuck in my throat at the scene that greeted me.
Limbs—dozens and dozens of severed limbs—scattered everywhere across the floor. And in the center of the room stood a… a thing.
Just looking at it made bile rush up to my throat.
A naked abomination stood in the center of the room.
It was something resembling a chimera, clearly once human but heavily experimented on.
It had three legs and an arm working as an extra leg. Its torso had arms growing from its chest region along with fingers, eyes, and mouths.
Where an arm should have been, another torso sprouted out, a torso with no arms but legs where its arms should be, and hands sprouting from its neck.
And where the head should have been on the original torso, there was a neck with an exposed brain protruding from it.
The entity seemed to be in pain, its arms clawing at its own body and eyes.
As the door swung open, all of the eyes on its body fixed themselves on me.
"Grehaghaahhhraaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" It screeched from its many mouths, saliva starting to leak from them.
Suddenly, the three legs and arm started to move in unison as the thing charged at me.
Before it could get any closer, it became riddled with shards of ice.
I watched as it slowly collapsed to the floor, tossing and turning in pain.
Swiftly, I conjured more ice spikes and threw a few into its exposed brain, causing it to stop moving.
Removing my gaze from the twitching corpse, my vision roamed the remainder of the room, and the bile rushed back up my throat.
Fuck.
More of those things lined the walls, each one different but no less disturbing.
Some were rotting; others had self-inflicted wounds like the one I had just disposed of. Their one and only unifying trait was that the eyes littering their bodies were staring at me.
"GNAaaaaaaaaaaahwhheeeeerrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggggg!" They started screaming and struggling against their restraints.
Silently, large chunks of ice formed in the air before hurtling into their chests.
Quickly, the screaming and wailing stopped, prompting me to create a few fire runes and throw them into the room.
Having finished my job, I turned away from the blazing room and closed the door behind me.
As the door closed behind me, the bile I had been suppressing came back with a vengeance, forcing me to keel over and empty my stomach.
I felt a hand being placed on my back, gently rubbing it.
"You did a good job, Alistair," Mother's gentle voice reached my ears.
"That has to be one of the vilest human experimentation victims I've ever seen, and you did very well to take care of it, despite it being your first time seeing something like that." Her soothing words made me feel a bit lighter, something I desperately needed after seeing something that looked like it came straight out of The Forest.
Wiping my mouth with my sleeve, I straightened up and gave Mother a wobbly smile.
She sent me a sympathetic look, then removed her hand from my back and gave me a concerned gaze.
"Do you want to rest for a minute or two?" she probed.
I gave a slight shake of my head. "No, I'd rather get this over and done with as quickly as possible and kill the bastards who mutilated those people," I explained, drawing a hesitant nod from Mother.
"Just… take a break if you need to. There's absolutely no shame in taking a break after seeing something like that," she said, making me nod back in acceptance.
While I totally agreed, I'd much rather process the fucked-up shit I saw in there after joining Altrouge in one of her 'Sampling' sessions.
…
On second thought, I'll pass.
God knows what shit she might do to me if we get drunk together. Ending up naked and sprawled on her bed would be the least of my problems.
She still hasn't quite given up on recruiting me to eventually join the 27, so she might have me sign something while buzzed, making me probably commit to joining at a later date if we find a workaround from Alaya.
Or maybe I'd wake up with a signed marriage contract with her or something equally absurd.
I trust that I won't end up as her thrall, but her level of 'common sense' is still skewed, so it's best not to end up in such a situation.
Walking up the stairs, Mother and I re-entered the hall and made our way to the next destination.
As we approached the arch leading to the next room, I placed my hand on the wall and performed the same trick I did in the last hall.
This time, I could see a metal door at the end of the hallway, so I wasn't as in the dark as before.
Performing another Structural Grasp, I got a much clearer image of the room ahead. Unlike last time, nearly all the bounded fields had been destroyed, giving me a clear view of what was up ahead.
The room was large, with smaller rooms inside it, each containing one or more individuals, resembling cells. Other than that, there seemed to be a few people inside as well—hopefully not more of those abominations from the last room.
Walking up to the door, I conjured three lances of ice above me, one for each of the room's hostiles.
The sound of heavy sobs and screaming could be heard from beyond the door, causing me to fix my expression into a scowl.
Knowing that there was probably at least one enemy inside, I decided that surprise was my best option.
Getting into a fighting stance, I flooded my body with Od, reinforcing my body to its limits.
Lifting a leg, I gave the door a swift kick.
At the immense force of my kick, the metal bent until the hinges couldn't take it anymore, sending the door flying into the room.
At first glance, I saw three men in lab coats holding a bone saw and operation tools, leaning over an operation table.
Their heads snapped in my direction, only for them to be impaled by icicles.
The three screeched in pain, grabbing at the icicles impaling them.
Silently, I conjured a fuck ton of smaller icicles and turned them into pin cushions.
The three apostles hit the floor like a sack of potatoes, allowing me to enter the room.
The second I entered, a blade sliced at me from the side of the door.
The blade moved in slow motion for me, allowing me and my reinforced body to counterattack.
A chill grew in my hand, before an ice pick formed in my open palm.
Swiftly, I parried the blade, then reinforced the ice pick and slammed it into the head of the attacker standing by the door.
Quickly, I thrust my free hand forward in a punch, putting all my reinforced strength behind it, causing it to go straight through him.
I applied a frost spell, causing the hole I had punched through the vampire to freeze over.
Retracting my arm, I allowed the attacker to fall to the floor.
Stepping away from him, I glanced around my surroundings.
And fuck if that wasn't a bad idea.
If the last room had an excess of limbs, this one had a distinct lack of them.
The cells held living humans with no legs, arms, or eyes, with tubes shoved down their mouths and needles in their arms, continuously drawing blood from them. A majority of them were pregnant women.
The mutilated bodies that didn't have tubes shoved down their throats were screaming and crying.
The sight made me feel like I had food to spare, as bile surged up my throat with a vengeance.
Swallowing it down, I couldn't help but turn and look at Mom in panic, as this was not something I ever thought I'd encounter.
Mother's steely gaze flickered around the room, looking at the captives with a hint of pity.
"Most of them are beyond saving," she said in a low tone, trying not to let any of the conscious prisoners hear her voice.
"We should move the ones that can survive into a single ce…" Mother's words trailed off as her gaze fixed on a single point in the room.
Following her gaze, I saw a few children marred with scars, huddled together in a cell, gazing at the operation table with despair and terror.
Mother didn't speak as she made her way to the cell, jamming a knife into the lock and opening the door.
Crouching down to eye level, Mother slowly reached out a hand to them. "Don't b—" Mother coughed, then resumed. "Ikke vær redd, vi er h–"
As she started speaking what I could only guess to be Norwegian, one of the children rushed past her and scrambled for the operation table.
"Mama! MAMA!" she yelled desperately as she climbed atop the table.
Focusing on the scene, I saw the disfigured corpse of a woman with a long gash on her stomach, her organs dangling outside of the cut.
The child desperately grabbed at the corpse's guts and intestines, trying to shove them back in.
"MAMA, DU KAN IKKE DØ, MAMA, MAMA," she yelled in desperation, blood covering her hands and splattering on her crying face.
"VÆR SÅ SNILL OG VÅKNE, VÆ—" "Sleep." Her words were cut off as Mother, who had moved behind the child, placed her hands over the mourning girl's eyes, putting her under hypnosis.
As the kid was about to fall, Mother gently caught her, took off her own coat, and wrapped it around her.
She gently laid the girl down before looking at me.
"I'll handle things in here. This is a bit much for your first hunt, so go and help Lorelei. It should hopefully get your mind off things," she said gently.
I could only numbly nod before turning around.
Slowly, I made my way towards the large hall, trying to calm down.
I knew I was going to see some fucked-up shit on this hunt, but damn, couldn't I have just been sent into a room with a horde of vampires instead?
Like… I did not need to see all that.
One of those rooms was bad enough—seeing both of them was just cruel.
My luck is either straight ass, or the average Apostle is a lot worse than I imagined.
As I entered the hall, I heard shouts and screams coming from Lorelei's second door.
Silently, I conjured an ice spear, reinforced it, and ran in the direction of the screams.
As I entered the hallway, I touched the wall, using Structural Grasp on the room.
An image of a large room packed with people—and even more shredded bodies on the floor—flashed in my head.
Rushing forward, I was met by Barthomeloi standing by a door, arms crossed, a proud look on his face as he gazed inside the next room.
Frowning, I slowed down and moved toward Barthomeloi.
As I got close, he turned to me, shook his head, and placed a finger over his mouth in a shushing gesture.
Raising a brow, I poked my head into the room, and… damn.
The fucking vampires were running away from Lorelei in terror.
She was drenched in blood, a small grin on her face, as she chased after the terrified Apostles.
She swung her riding crop at the head of an Apostle, and its head ripped apart and popped like a fucking balloon.
Not finding enough satisfaction, she grabbed another Apostle by the head with her gauntleted hand.
The vampire stood no chance as blades of wind formed in the gauntlet's palm, shredding its head before spreading down its body, turning the vampire into mincemeat.
The violent end of the vampire splattered even more blood onto Lorelei, who gave a grunt of satisfaction.
What the fuck.
Instantly I flooded my eyes with Od, and waited for the crop's mystery to be activated.
As she swung it at another vampire, I saw the moment its mystery was enacted.
Just as the flat end of her riding crop was about to touch the Dead Apostle, the crop used the generated wind from the swinging movement and amplified the small amount of air at its tip to the level of a hurricane.
The extreme wind simply shredded whatever was on the other end with no issue.
Seeing her lunge forward with her gauntlet, I observed it, only to notice a very similar mystery in place on the gauntlet, paired with slight reinforcement.
Stopping the flow of Od to my eyes, I watched in a mix of awe, disgust, and glee as Lorelei ran around the room, committing Apostle genocide.
As the number dwindled down to only a few, the begging started.
"Please! I never wanted th–"
"They forced me to—"
"NOOO, I'll do any—"
As she moved to the last standing Apostle, she grabbed it with her gauntlet and crushed its head, popping it like a melon.
After she finished, I started to notice her deep breaths, her slightly flushed face, and… Oh my God… she's getting off on this?!
How the fuck is she getting off on this?
Glancing at her father, I saw a small tear rolling down his cheek, while he smiled and nodded with approval.
"That's my girl… You make your father proud," he muttered under his breath.
Nope.
Fuck this family. They don't have screws loose—they're working with fuckin' spare parts!
Looking back at Lorelei and seeing her deepening blush, I felt my opinion of her and her family solidify.
Turning around, I started walking back towards the hall.
Fuck this.
I'll let the freakish family have their vampire edging session alone.
-----
A/N
Welcome back, my reader Overlords, please add this to your library and give me some comments, stones and Reviews, as it would be much appreciated.
Now that the mandatory begging is done, time to ask the hard hitting questions.
What is your opinion on Apostles now? Disgusting, aren't they?
What about the horrors Alistair saw inside? Any thoughts or opinions on what should and shouldn't have been there?
What do you all think of the Barthomeloi family? I don't know if its just me, but I think they have a thing for killing vampires.
Btw, I have made a Discord server for the fic, come on and chat with me! https://discord.gg/wWRhZrbx
Now I'm tired, so have a nice day, and send me some stones or some shit, I need motivation, or some shit like that.