I eventually decided to head on to explore the next tunnel. However, I left the young woman I had just rescued laying in the shadows, using 'Shadow Manipulation' to summon a couple of 'Shadow Beasts' to guard her.
Afterwards, I activated my 'Undectable' skill, before quickly heading back down the tunnel, which led to the split off at which me and Wezrall split up at.
While moving back, I heard what sounded like the sound of people screaming coming from the tunnel down which Wezrall had headed.
'The fuck—'
[?] "Quickly! The subjection force! One of the experiments is on the lose!"
A cloaked man shouted, before rushing down the tunnel from which the screams were coming from, a moment later, people dressed in heavy armour ran after the first cloaked man.
'So.. it wasn't Wezrall...'
I thought.
Kinda rude for me to immediately assume Wezrall to be the cause for the people screaming. I sighed.
"Wezrall, is everything alright?"
I asked through the telepathy.
For a moment, it was silent - no reply.
[Wezrall] "Sort of. They seem to have lost control over a creature inside this one giant room... Or cage.."
A Cage? I see...
So that tunnel must lead to some sort of prison block of sorts, I suppose.
"Well, stay out of trouble for now. I'll explore the other two tunnels and then join up with you."
[Wezrall] "I understand my Lord."
After that, I turned to face the right tunnel of the two middle ones, before beginning to quickly sprint down it. With my 'Undetectable' skill, I should be safe to just run around without anyone being able to detect me or find me out.
Or atleast.... I hoped so.
The tunnel dragged on for a bit, before eventually leading to what looked like a 'living quarters' of sorts within this hidden lair.
There were many, many small what seemed to be bedrooms, with what looked like a long, long kitchen type thing in the middle.
'This must be were the members remain whenever they need rest or so...'
I quickly switched to my snake form, before beginning to slither in deeper into the room. There were people in cloaks walking all over the place, however this time around, all of them had their hoods off, which revealed their faces underneath.
Most of them were human, however there were occasional beastmen, elves and even a couple demonoids.
To be honest, I don't know what I expected them to look like, but it certainly wasn't that they'd look like... Normal citizens.
I genuinely thought that they might look a bit more... Rough.
Actually.... There was one element that all of them shared - a Strange marking on the back of their necks.
It was a bit hard to see on all of them, however using my 'Overworld Detection' skill allowed me to sense very strong Magical Energy coming from the symbol.
It seems to be a curse of sorts.
Could be a controlling curse.
Maybe.... Or perhaps something worse.
I continued to slither further on, eventually reading the back end of the room.
For the most part, there was nothing suspicious in this room. It was just a place the members of the Hand Sons seemed to reside.
I turned around, about to head back to the split off to investigate the final tunnel, when suddenly a group of armoured men rushed into the hall.
[Cult Guard] "Everyone is required to immediately prepare for combat, there has been an intru—"
Before the guard could finish, a sudden explosion of icicles pierced through him and all other guards, impaling them and killing them instantly.
Every member of the Hand Sons froze immediately in fear, as the perpetuater came into view, and of course - it was Wezrall.
'Wezrall, what the hell are you doing?!—'
Let's rewind a bit,
A couple of moments after Faofa spoke to Wezrall about the situation on his end..
Wezrall was hanging onto the ceiling, watching the Hand Sons members inside the room panic as one of their subjects was beginning to rampage, after escaping their containment.
[Wezrall] 'Such idiocy... These humans can't even control their own creations.'
He thought, before taking a closer look around the whole rest of the room. This room which he had chosen to investigate first, seemed to be one where the cult held all of their created lifeforms.
There were at the very least over a thousand cages in this room alone, with many of them being empty, while some had some bizzare looking creatures inside of them.
These creatures reminded Wezrall a bit of the poor people that would sometimes get inflicted with a curse from him by coming in contact with him.
They just looked.... Awful.
And even worse - Like they were in pain...... Or atleast, Wezrall thought that they looked like they were in pain — in all reality, he couldn't actually tell all that well, since he had no understanding of whether or not these things were capable of showing emotion or feelings.
As he continued to hang onto the ceiling, the Hand Sons members eventually managed to recapture their raging beast, before using powerful lightning magic to shock it until it fell unconscious.
[Wezrall] 'What cruelty.... Even the Mortal 'slave' market isn't this bad....'
He thought.
The members of the cult then placed the previously rampaging monster into its cage, before locking it thoroughly - placing an anti-magic spell onto the cage to ensure that the creature inside couldn't use magic to escape again.
This made Wezralls blood boil.
(For instance, he doesn't have blood, however this is just an expression.)
[Wezrall] 'I wish I could go down there and slaughter all of them, but Lord Faofa said to not draw attention to myself...'
He grit his teeth.
The sight of these 'mortals' put an anti-magic spell onto the cage that contained a non-human creature inside it was sickening to him, as non-human creatures relied on Magical Energy to survive in this world.
Taking it away from one, practically is the same as taking away their entire existence or for humans, their 'rights' or something.
While Wezrall hung on, there was a moment where he pressed his claws a bit too deep into the stone ceiling, causing a couple of crumbled pebbles to fall down, right as the members of the cult were leaving.
[Wezrall] 'Shit!'
He tried to catch the pebbles, however that only caused more to fall.
Upon hitting the floor, all the members looked at the pebbles with suspicious gazes, before looking up towards the ceiling.
Then, one of them signalled to another one to shine a light. The other cloaked man nodded, before creating a small orb of light and concentrating its shine onto the ceiling, revealing Wezrall hanging on the ceiling.
They immediately fell into distress.
[?] "Wh-What is tha—"
Before the panicked man could finish, Wezrall dropped from the ceiling, screeching as he did before slashing the man in half in an instant.
As far as he remembered, Faofa told him to take out anyone who discovered him - so, there was no other choice now.
[?] "Wait- is that the Wendigo King?!"
[?] "A-Are you kidding?! The monster that lives in the mountains?!"
[?] "Call in the subjection unit immediately-! It's a red alert! Alarm everyone!"
[Wezrall] 'Well ain't this a Blizzard and a pile of doodoo shit... Guess I have to silence every single member in this whole lair.'
He thought, before crouching down.
The cloaked people began to fire off their magical spells at Wezrall, however they simply bounced off or had absolutely no effect on him.
[?] "T-The fuck?! What is this thing made out of?!-"
Wezrall then let out a loud screech, as he activated his [Wendigo-King Authority], causing a massive and violent blizzard to shoot out from it, engulfing the whole room in an instant.
He then proceeded to quickly kill off all the cloaked men that had been caught in the blizzard, before looking at the hall.
More men were coming his way, only now in armour....
He sighed.
[Wendigo] 'Surely Lord Faofa won't mind..'
He thought, before dashing at the armoured men.
Back in the present....
I immediately disabled my 'Undetectable' skill, before swiftly turning into my human form and through using 'Shadow Manipulation', moved to Wezralls side.
"Wezrall, I thought I said to not draw attention!"
[Wezrall] "My apologies Lord Faofa, but I'm afraid I had accidentally revealed myself, which left me no choice but to engage into combat."
I'll be damned...
Well, nothing to do now... Wezrall already fucked up. I began to eye how many members of the Hand Sons we had to deal with.
If my count is correct, there are around 244 Members of the Hand Sons of Tritery in this room.
'Is that every single one of them?'
Indeed.
All remaining members that haven't been killed yet, are inside this room Master.
Well I'll be even more damned...
It's me and Wezrall against practically all of the remaining members of the Hand Sons... 244 eh? That's quite the number...
However, they all seem very weak - the strongest ones seemingly being the ones dressed in armour, but even they couldn't compare to me or Wezrall.
So, what we lost in numbers, we gained in power.
I sighed heavily.
"Ready Wezrall? Leave no one alive."
Wezrall let out a scuff.
[Wezrall] "No worries my Lord. I don't plan to."
He replied with an obvious hint of maliciousness in his voice. Although, this maliciousness wasn't towards me - but towards the Hand Sons, who began to rally up and surround us.
After exchanging gazes with Wezrall, we began the slaughter.
Wezrall immediately rushed into a large group of the members, who were firing off all sorts of spells towards him, that simply bounced off, while he ripped through them with his claws.
Meanwhile I, decides to be more creative this time. Leaping into the air, my eyes shined purple for a second, as I used my 'Shadow Manipulation' skill.
"Come forth, Servants of the Shaded World!"
I shouted.
Then, large and overall slender creatures began to manifest out of the shadows, before beginning to attack the members, taking them down with ease, while their attacks phased right through them.
I smirked, creating my Venom Scythe and infusing it with my 'Abyss Magic' before dashing down to the ground, begining my own onslaught of attacks.
The trick I just used was a new move that the Ancient One had taught me while we were on the way to the mountains.
Apparently these shadowy figures were the by product of the 'Shadow Call' skill I combined with 'Shadow Step' to even create 'Shadow Manipulation'.
They were practically loyal servants, that would do anything I told them and weren't effected by anything other than Light, Holy and Divine magic. Basically, unless you're a cleric or something, you couldn't even scratch them.
As we continued to slaughter through the members, a sudden strong breeze was pushed from the hall which led out of the living area.
Everyone stopped, looking towards the entrance, as a man dressed in heavy robes and wearing a very strange mask entered the room.
Warning: I sense immense Magical Energy levels coming from this individual Master.
'Yeah, I feel it too..'
I thought, slicing off the head of a member I was just 'fighting' before using my 'Shadow Manipulation' skill to move closer to the new arrival.
The mysterious man looked at me, before examining me and letting lose a laugh.
[Mysterious Man] "I see... So you're the attacker I was informed aboit."
"Yeah I suppose I am. And who might you be?"
The man didn't reply and simply threw his gaze over towards Wezrall, before looking at the shadow creatures I had summoned.
Afterwards, he exhaled.
[Mysterious Man] "Intriguing... You've made the Wendigo King your servant and you can call upon the beings of the World of Shades..."
Then, a single small red dot began to glow through the black voided eye holes in his mask.
[Mysterious Man] "Most Intriguing..."
"I asked — Who the hell, might you be?"
I repeated, pointing my scythe towards him.
[Mysterious Man] "My, my! So aggressive... You're an eager one huh?"
He chuckled.
[Flin] "You may call me Flin, one of the 8 Harbingers of Tritery."
He introduced himself, before ripping his thick robe off, revealing a thin layer of robes and armour underneath - primarily coloured black, red and silver.
[Flin] "Flin the Void Lord."
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Ancient One here.
I'll keep it short - I did not expect anything that happen, to happen.
Or did I...? Hmm.....
Who knows. Sometimes having all of the worlds knowledge to yourself is a bit.. bothersome.
But...
I have a bad feeling about this... Flin the Void Lord.
I don't know why, but I feel like I've heard of the title before... 'Void Lord'...
Next Chapter:
80. -
"Duel Against the Void Lord."