Taking a deep breath, the salty sll of the sea entered my nose. As I stared at the sea from this giant cliff, I couldn’t help but feel at peace, even though this peace was probably a prelude to the chaos ahead.
"Hey."
Dion placed a hand on my shoulder, snapping out of my thoughts.
How long are you planning on staying there? Most of the others have already arrived, so we need to go et up."
Oh, right. I forget to ntion that after we successfully convinced the captain to drop us off before reaching the target destination, we also had to split up and enter Offshore City in small pairs over the course of two days.
I of course grouped myself up with Aric and Dion.
I nodded at Dion.
"You and Aric go on ahead, I’ll be there in a mont." I nudged my head towards Aric who was at the other side of the cliff.
"You sure?"
Hmmm? He seed a little uncertain.
"What happened?" I asked, but he just stared at for a mont before shaking his head with a smile.
"Forget it."
Wthout saying another word, he walked off. Kind of weird. Dion was acting a little off, but oh well, guess I’d have to ask him later.
I continued staring at the sea. As you must have guessed by now, I wasn’t just staring because I wanted to admire it. Instead I was looking for sothing.
And I soon found it.
Righy by the horizon, at the base of a hill extending into the water, was a small dark cave that looked like a dot from where I was standing. It appeared only for a second, before it got swallowed by the rising waves. Then as the waves churned once more, it was revealed again.
Alistair had noticed sothing wrong when he saw that cave. In reality, the cave was the dwelling ground of a Naga beast clan, slithering creatures with the lower body of a snake and the upper body a human, albeit grotesquely crafted.
The smartest mong the Naga beast probably has around the intelligence of a ten year old. Through that intelligence, they could lure any human away from the city and then eat them.
Even though they weren’t evil per say, and were just looking for their daily bread just like any other living creature, these disgusting creatures were one of the reasons why people were going missing in offshore city.
About two months ago, referencing the ti the disappearances began, a group of heretics enacted their plan, and took control of the Nagas, as they were a crucial part in the ritual they wanted to conduct in the city.
For starters, I needed to find the heretics masquerading as normal civilians, and then use them to figure out where the nexus of the ritual.
But that was where the problem was. I the novel, it was never specified where the nexus actually was. If I didn’t find and destroy the nexus on ti, the ritual would be triggered.
And if any of the heretics got wind that we were on to them, they could just as easily trigger the ritual. And even if the ritual wasn’t completed, it was more than enough to take a lot of lives.
Thankfully, I had the elent of surprise, and ti on my hands. The heretics might suspect sothing due to the influx of youths during the past two days, but they was nowhere as suspicious as they’d be if we had arrived in a giant warship.
As for the ti I had in my hands, I could cover this city, faster than anyone involved in this mission.
I went straight into action by changing my features using the featureless mask and. resting a reflection. A few minutes later, there were twenty three people standing on the cliff excluding myself.
These people varied in looks and appearances, be it in age or gender, hell even race. There were a few people with fins behind their ears.
Of course all of these people were , and I had to say, it was weird being a woman.
The thod I was opting for might not be the best, but it was better than looking for them one after the other. Like this I could spread my investigative web.
My reflections would scour the city, while I would go et up with the others.
Around half an hour after my reflections left, I stood up and jumped down the cliff, not on the sea’s direction though, but in the opposite side where I had climbed from. The ground was only a few tens of ters away, so I landed with a dull thud.
"If only he wasn’t that stubborn." I mumbled in disappointnt. Sothing had happened with one of the reflections I had sent into the city.
You see, around Ten minutes ago, I was walking through the city in the disguise of a ten year old kid. I especially kept to the darker areas of the city because obviously, those were the kind of place heretics would choose to reside.
However, just as I took a turn into an alley, I heard footsteps behind . I acted oblivious and continued to walk deep into the alley.
The footsteps followed, and began to get closer with every step. A mont later, a hand suddenly clamped on my shoulder, before another hand pried open my mouth, pouring a strange liquid in.
I didn’t even have to check to realize the culprit was a heretic. He was literally oozing off that baleful energy heretics were known for. Dude was probably a new recruit/ common disciple.
The liquid poured into my mouth was probably so sleeping agent, and whatever it was, it was only enough to knock out a mundane civilian. So clearly it could do nothing against .
Still, I pretended to be unconscious, and a mont later, the heretic picked up and began taking sowhere.
A few minutes passed, but now we were deep into the forest. Soon, I started perceiving an overwhelming stench of blood. Clearly this demon on the side that fed people as energy to the ritual.
In the novel, they simply dumped the captured into the ritual’s furnace, which would absorb the victim. It truly was a grueso process. Sotis I truly forget that this novel has the ’Dark’ genre.
The heretic eventually set down on the ground, and half my body got subrged in liquid I could tell with certainty was blood.
He took a step back perhaps trying to move out of the ritual’s furnace before it’s digestive process was activated.
I decided to stop the act right then and there. I held one of his legs and opened my eyes.
Once he realized what was happening, he stared at with a shocked look.
"You were awake the whole ti? How is this..."
I didn’t let him finish his words before our positions suddenly subverted. He was now the one laying flat on the ground, while I stood over him. The transition was very painful, at least for him who got slamd on the ground.
Before he could even let out a cry of pain, I effortlessly tore away away his legs from the knees down. He was only a piny Eta ranker after all.
"Arrrrgh!"
Crunch!
My foot ca down rcilessly on his face.
"Shut up." I said flatly.
After so more seconds of howling in pain, I took my foot off his face.
"Human... Who are you?" The demon wheezed out in a raspy tone. Turns out he was a rfolk.
"I think you got sothing wrong." I wagged my finger at him. "I’ll be the one asking the questions. Tell where the nexus of the ritual is, and I will allow you to keep your life."
The rman’s face scread resolve.
"I may have been tricked once, but I am not stupid, human. There’s no way you’re letting live."
I didn’t deny it.
"So there’s no way you’re telling what I want to hear?" I asked.
He didn’t reply, but his face said it all.
"That’s fine with , I can always try another heretic." I said flatly.
I looked towards his lower limbs which had already grown back down to the shin, before I looked back at his defiant face.
"Let’s test how durable the body of a Eta heretic is shall we?" I said and the heretic looked confused for a mont, but as I raised my foot up, and condensed most of the aether making exist beneath the sole of my foot, his eyes widened.
He opened his mouth, but before he could even utter a word, I brought my foot down on the heretic’s head. His skull detonated on impact.
A resulting shockwave resounded, destroying the rest of the heretic’s body and knocked over the surrounding trees.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
After the shockwave subsided, where the I was standing had turned into a ravine tens of ters deep. And most of the blood, bones, and remaining corpses in the vicinity rushed down into the ravine, but not before I jumped out though.
"Tsk, if only he wasn’t that stubborn." I muttered. I could have gotten more information from him. But oh well, I got to go et up with the others.
***********
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