Soon enough, we found a group of people sneaking around the area. Since we chose to watch from a tall vantage point, the chances that they would look up at us to find our peeping is a lot smaller than if we were at ground level. Since that was the case, we took advantage of our position to check out the people who come suspiciously close to our goal.

  After some time, we see that the group we were watching enter the building directly and we waited a few minutes cautiously. Sure enough, they came out a few minutes ter to check around the surroundings. When they finished checking around, they then returned satisfied. Just in case, we waited another half an hour to see if they will pop out again to look.

  When the designated time passed and there was no evidence of them looking around, I knew it was time for us to act. Well, rather than us it would be Mist who would also communicate with us on the roof with our communicators. When we pulled out our communicators, Marianne was surprised for a moment, but thankfully she did not ask.

  As Mist was sneaking in to collect information, we were also not idle. First off, we had decided for Marianne and Millie to go back to Farrell and inform him of what we know now so far.

  For the rest of us, we all were on standby to wait for a signal from Mist. Hopefully he would not need us present, but who knows.

  So we waited on the rooftop chatting while also regurly checking for any messages from Mist. He had already preprepared messages for himself to send so we know that we know a general idea of the problem. It is because of this that we can trust him infiltrating a pce like this alone.

  Time passed as we were kinda getting tired of waiting. Suddenly, a message popped up on our communicators from Mist.

  Mist: I got the info we need. Only problem is that they caught a trace of me and are trying to sneakily track me. I'll try to get them off my trail. Let me upload this real quick.

  We were then sent the data he had recorded and so we all got into position. Although he said he would be getting them off of his tracks, we were ready for a confrontation should the need ever arise.

  Speak of the devil, we saw Mist walk out of the building. Soon after, we suddenly saw him start to run as a few figures suddenly start wildly chasing him. We all quickly got off the roof and rushed over to support him.

  As we arrived by him, he gave a sigh of relief before giving us a quick rundown of the situation.

  Mist: This pce is only a meeting area, the real base is elsewhere. When I tried to get any information on the real base, I noticed that someone found me. They have a simir level of stealth to me so I was not able to fool their eyes. I got the information we needed though.

  Right on cue, the pursuers have arrived. Now with me at the forefront and Lily and Kris behind me, Mist quickly went to the side to hide his presence and sneak attack the assaints when the opportunity arrives.

  I unsheathed my bde and got into position. The targets in front of me were two dual dagger wielders and an archer in the back. When they saw me, they were a little surprised at first. Then one of the dagger wielding cultists spoke to me.

  Cultist 1: Cease your meaningless resistance!

  I reply with a charge and my bde aimed at them. As I rushed, Kris and Lily both fired their spells at them. The two dagger wielders quickly react and dodge the blow. As that happens, an arrow from the archer is shot towards us, I quickly deflect the arrow, but my distraction gave the dagger wielders an opportunity to get in close.

  Swinging my bde, I quickly attempt to scare them back. They immediately respond by dodging to the side and getting to both sides of me. They then both swung a flurry of blows towards my side. I turn to deal with the one to the right as an arrow is fired at the one to my left. In the alleyways was Mist who was keeping an eye on the situation.

  When they sensed the arrow coming in, they quickly dashed back and nearly got shot in the side of the head.

  Lily: Ice Magic - Frost Bird Flock!

  As that happened, Lily's new spell was able to take affect. From her wand, a small ball of ice formed and sent out six birds shaped of ice. These birds went and struck towards the attacking dagger wielders and successfully froze the arm of the one I was attacking.

  Seeing that the situation was dire, the archer in the distance quickly tried to get away from the situation. But, Kris would not allow them to go so easily.

  Kris: Fire Magic - Fireball Swarm!

  A swarm of fireballs quickly rushed to the predicted location of the archer cultists. Soon a scream of agony and burning could be heard from the distance.

  Over on Mist's side, he had already thrown a dagger into the opposing cultists. After some tough back and forth movements, the attacker suddenly felt a sharp pain in their abdomen.

  Cultist 1: Poison! How dare...

  Before he could finish his accusation, Mist had already run in and sealed his fate with a slit to the throat. All that was left was the cultist who had an arm frozen.

  The four of us finally came together and we worked together to subdue the st third cultist. But before we could interrogate him, he suddenly showed an evil sneer and his body expanded.

  I quickly took out my shield and casted a skill to block the bst.

  Sean: Light Magic - Shield of Light!

  A blurry phantom of a shield appeared before me and successfully blocked in front of me and the others. The body of the cultist opposite us exploded leaving the area spttered red with blood. Seeing the scene made us almost want to vomit.

  Even if this is not the first time we had seen a corpse, it was the first time it was ever this gruesome.

  After some time to adapt to the current scene, we then finally went ahead and ran over to where we were staying. A few minutes after we had left, a small group of people had arrived lead by a group of dog like monsters on leashes.

  Cultist A: It seems that they were able to escape. Inform the others of an evacuation. Start Pn F in advance.

  The others around him nodded and rushed away to do what they were told to. The leading cultists eyes were then drawn to the golden statue atop the Gold Mansion.

  Cultist A: You really can't tell how crazy a family can get when pushed to the brink. Heh, makes our job easier so I don't mind it. Since the others are doing their jobs, I should begin my part of the project. All for the Abyssal Blood.

  After pcing a hand on his heart for a moment, he then walked into the darkness towards his destination.

  On our side, the biggest saving grace for our situation is that since Millie is over with Marianne, she can tell her the situation and even show her the communicator directly. We had previously thought that the Church did not have technology like we did, but the gate and its sensor truly opened our eyes. So we decided that we did not need to be so wary of showing it.

  So after Millie showed Marianne our communicator, although she was surprised for a moment, she then put her full attention on the documents. Marianne then patted her chest and said to leave it to her to convince Farrell to help.

  When they met with Farrell, Marianne quickly told the situation without mentioning our communicators. Hearing of the situation, he showed a stern expression and called the knights and pointed at two of the three potential base locations on the sheet.

  Farrell: We will take care of these two. Meet up with your group and at least hold them back till we can back you up.

  Both of them nodded in acknowledgement and headed out to meet us all.

  After some time, we were all back together. Millie quickly went and informed the rest of us of the choice that Farrell had made. Since he had chosen a pce for us to attack, we hurried on over to that destination. Through the bustling city we hurried along. After a few minutes of going through various main roads and alleyways, we finally arrived at the location of the suspected base.

  When we arrived, I noticed that the base was being evacuated. As we arrived, we were not hiding our presence at all so they were easily able to find us.

  The nearby guards quickly took up arms and confronted us.

  Guard 1: Hey, this is private property. Go away or you will taste a world of hurt!

  We ignored the guard's warning and took upon our own arms. That was when they knew that we were not here for peace. All the guards went ahead and charged at us while the workers their continued to take away everything.

  Millie and I both rushed to the forefront while Lily and Kris prepared magic as usual. Mist went into hiding and Marianne reacted a little slower to our action so she was the st to move.

  I quickly rose my sword and swung towards two of the guards. Using my strength and skill, I was able to push back against the two I was targeting. I had my shield in hand to block any stray attacks that would sometimes be unched at me. Millie went all berserker and completely suppressed the poor guard she was facing.

  Compared with the rest of us, Millie has the most brute strength so getting caught in the crosshairs of her attacks would spell doom for most people. Then the spells cast from Kris and Lily were fired at us.

  Lily's frost arrows quickly affected the area they hit which slowed down the movements of many of the guards and also were ughed at the workers at the back. We saw them all hurry to drop what they had and ran. Kris's fireballs were unched but they were only aimed for the spare guards coming after us.

  Soon enough, the whole area fell into chaos and there were people running around everywhere. Suddenly, a sharp edge of blood shot out of the deeper corners of the building and split one of the crazily running workers. Then, a loud roar echoed from the depths of the building.

  It was as if the world was put to a stop. From one of the dark entryways, the sound of echoing footsteps resounded through all of our ears. Soon we were able to see the culprit of that stream of blood and roar.

  Before us was a beast that could be described as an abnormally skinny blood red minotaur that smmed through the building. Gripped in one of its arms was a giant bde that was as big as the door was. It suddenly swung it in an arc above itself before letting out a bellowing roar.

  Blood Minotaur: ROOOAR!!!

  Its mere voice easily shattered the nearby gss and caused small shockwaves that sent many of the panicked workers flying in the air. As we were all shocked by the beast before us, we found a cultist in a unique red robe come from behind the beast.

  Abyssal Blood Cultist: Welcome, dear guests! You are quite unfortunate to have arrived at this pce at such an unfortunate time. My little darling here has not been fed for today and he is quite feisty when he is hungry.

  He then chuckled before giving a command.

  Abyssal Blood Cultist: Go!

  The beast then leapt forward after the command and quickly grabbed a worker in its free hand while swinging its bde towards the area with the most people. Its movements quickly woke up everyone from their trance and they only ran faster than before. Seeing this, we knew what to do and ran towards the beast.

  Sean: Millie, coordinate with me! Iris Lily get ready. Mist and Marianne, keep the guy from supporting this beast!

  I then rushed to the front of the beast with my shield in front of me. It saw me rushing towards it and swung at me with its bde while feasting with its other hand. I quickly deflect the bde and sent it upwards away from me. Using that opportunity, Millie came in with a spinning downwards chop from the get go.

  Millie: Power Strike!

  She quickly swung with her axe and a yer of energy flowed from her hands to the axe. Before the nd connected with its head it quickly raised its other arm to block the blow. Right when that happened, both of the spells that Lily and Kris ughed combined to create a new spell.

  Lily: Ice Magic - Frost Lance!

  Kris: Fire Magic - Burning Acceleration!

  The Lance made of Ice that Lily created hovered in the air and was unched at the prone stomach of the minotaur. As it was going, a burning trail appeared pushing the nce faster right into the beasts abdomen.

  Millie: Yeah we did it!

  Right as she said that, I noticed that the beast was not going down just yet as it positioned its weapon arm into a thrust towards Millie.

  Sean: Careful!

  I quickly came between the two of them and took the thrust with my shield. The momentum of the strike pushed me right into a building nearby as everyone yelled in surprise.

  They soon refocused back on the beast. The nce that was thrust into its abdomen was grabbed by its empty hand and pulled out. After it dripped with blood for a second, a magic circle appeared on its wound at they saw the wound slowly start to heal up. Seeing this, the three of them knew that this was going to be a fight like no other for us.

  I quickly came back to my senses after the blow and climbed up from the rubble I was in. I quickly took a gnce at the overall battlefield situation. Like I thought, the workers and guards were all nowhere to be seen. I guess that this pce was a front for something so those regur employees had no idea they were harboring cultists, let alone a group as dangerous as this.

  On the side I left at, the beast merely growled trying to intimidate my teammates. They were all steadfast in their wills so they stood steady on the spot resisting the pressure. Over on Mist and Marianne's side, the cultist was keeping the two at bay by wielding their whip like blood stream. Mist and Marianne quickly entangled with the cultist in order to quickly defeat him before our side got overwhelmed.

  Bad news, from inside the building a bunch of new cultists appeared and began supporting both sides. I quickly stood to my feet and chanted a spell that I had kept as a hole card in situations like this.

  Sean: Light Magic - Light Spirit Summoning!

  A bunch of dragonfly like figures made of light appeared and rushed to support both sides. Each one of these spirits quickly fired small pellets of light that quickly distracted the new reinforcements.

  The others who saw me use my hole card all took a few steps back and started their own spells and abilities.

  Millie: Cutting Wave!

  A sharp cutting ssh flew from her axe. The cutting edge went and easily cut into the minotaur and shot further into the cultists behind it. The rest of the ssh quickly dealt with most of the cultists before fizzling out.

  Mist: Wood Magic - Vine Entanglement!

  On Mist's side, he quickly casted his vine entanglement while throwing a bunch of seeds onto the ground. The seeds quickly burrowed into the ground and sprouted out long vines that quickly entangled the various limbs of that lead cultist.

  Abyssal Blood Cultist: Darn You!

  Lily: Ice Magic - Freezing Moment.

  Kris: Fire Magic - Fire Flurry!

  Lily and Kris both finished their spells at this moment and ice quickly froze over the nearly bissected minotaur and froze its body. Kris's spell was a flurry of fireballs that unched from above her head and catapulted to all of the enemies in her sight.

  All of this happened in the blink of an eye and Marianne did not even react before everything was over.

  We all sat exhausted on the ground. Our ultimate blows were taught to us by the base to be unched as fast as possible at the cost of exhausting our physical stamina and mana at the same time. We all were on the ground panting as Marianne quickly reacted to begin recovering us.

  Soon with her help, we were all able stand again and walked up to the cultist that was tied up by Mist.

  When he saw all of us approaching him, he suddenly started ughing maniacally. We were all put on edge as a magic circle suddenly appeared on his chest.

  Abyssal Blood Cultist: All for the Blood King!

  Then his breath suddenly disappeared. Before we could react, a ray of light shot out from the magic circle on the chest of his robe and went into the minotaur in ice. A simir pattern appeared on its bare chest and the ice suddenly cracked.

  I felt a bad omen and quickly ran over to Kris who was the closest to the minotaur.

  Sean: Get out of the way!

  I quickly rushed over, but before I arrived the ice around the minotaur suddenly shattered and scattered off like shrapnel all around. Both of our mages were pierced into by pieces of ice before we could all react and the minotaur roared to life once again.

  I rushed over and felt my blood pumping and my heart beating out of my chest. I raised my shield at the minotaur and screamed at the beast.

  Suddenly, I felt a mysterious force acting upon my body. I felt all the equipment on me go light and I felt a sudden growth on my back. From the corner of my vision I saw what looked like feathery wings on the side of my body. I felt I could move them and indeed they twitched.

  Before I could get used to this situation, the beast rose the sword in its hand and swung it down on me. Then, from the side I felt a whoosh of air as a bloody red phantom fshed over and cut into the beast.

  When I saw the beast recoil from the blow, I found that the owner of the figure was Millie who had a blood red aura around her.

  Sean: What happened to you?

  Millie: I don't know, I should be asking you that question bird bro. Anyways we have to get back at this guy first.

  Her admonishment quickly snapped me back to reality. These changes can be analyzed ter. Now we have to take care of this darn beast that hurt our partners.

  From behind us, a ray of light flowed into both of our bodies as we felt ourselves get a little stronger while two arrows unched themselves and were lodged into the beast. Marianne and Mist were also here to back us up.

  Sean: Marianne! Can you help Kris and Lily? We will hold this guy back.

  I heard a sound of acknowledgment from behind and so I got into full attention to deal with the threat ahead.

  I could feel my body go light and I quickly dashed at the beast that was recovering from the blow that Millie dealt it. With a fp of the wing like appendage, I felt like I suddenly knew how to use it and quickly fluttered into the air. I quickly rose and stabbed at the beast with my light bde and thrust it into the eyes of the beast.

  Before it could block the blow, Millie already rushed and beat the sword out of the arm holding it using her new found strength which gave me the opportunity to blind an eye of the beast.

  Blood Minotaur: Rooargh!

  With it unarmed and blind in one eye, I quickly fshed around it with my speed and flexibility to disorient the beast. With the loss of an eye, it was unable to completely grasp its depth perception so I easily dodged plenty of it's unarmed blows. Millie and Mist both struck at it while I was distracting from above. Then I heard a shout from behind me.

  Marianne: Get out of the way! Light Magic - Golden Cannon!

  As I heard the voice I did as it said and rushed to the side as a wave of golden light fired off into the chest of the minotaur and broke the magic circle on its chest.

  With the sound of gss shattering, I felt the light go out of the beast's one eye and it fell upon the floor lifelessly.

  I sighed in relief. The Blood Minotaur was finally vanquished. We all walked up to the beast that was now dead. For the five of us, it was the first time encountering something like this. Seeing this, I thought for a moment and asked Marianne if she had ever encountered something simir before as a saint.

  Sean: Hey Marianne, since you are a saint you should have encountered things like these right? How was it like?

  Marianne: I'm sorry to disappoint you. Although I am a saint in the church, I myself have been mostly training in the church with my teachers. I have heard about situations about the various cults though. So if we can find another opportunity, I can tell you about those stories!

  With all of that said, everyone started to mingle about a bit more. Compared to before, everyone was a bit closer than before. Since we had fought together in a life and death situation, everyone was able to see who Marianne was from the bottom of her heart. Although she could have run during the fight, or not go all out, she chose to fight with us which all of us can see. This let Mist and Lily both have a higher level of understanding and acceptance towards her.

  Before, the two of them rejected her presence, but life and death really puts bonds to the test and I can say that she has passed the test for all of us. We continued to chat a bit before I finally reminded everyone.

  Sean: Shouldn't we be worrying about something? This pce was not the only pce of note right?

  The others shook in surprise. I guess they all were focused on rexing since we had just faced such a big challenge. We all quickly got back into a fighting state and quickly went to check out the map data from our communicators. Lily chose to share her communicator with Marianne so she would not feel left out.

  The closest to us was quite a distance away so we quickly found a suitable route and hurried along our way. This time, the roads seemed more deserted than before. I guess the Gold family was informed and so they started an evacuation operation in advance.

  As we quickly traversed the town, Mist suddenly gnced up and noticed a smoke stack at the approximate location of our target.

  Mist: That smoke is over where the goal is. We might need to speed up.

  We all nodded and rushed a little hurriedly over there. Soon we arrived near the location and found that there was a battle going on. We quickly joined in the fight. With our appearance, the cultists side was quickly shaken and we quickly helped support the previously fighting knights.

  After we were done, the knights all fell in exhaustion. Before Marianne and I could go and help them, one of the fallen knights quickly yelled.

  Church Knight: Hurry! Get Back! This is a conspiracy! They are actually after the Gold Family mansion...

  He then spurted out blood and his breath quickly started fading. Marianne quickly healed casted healing on his wound. The both of us went around and healed the knights enough so they would not die without any more external aid for a while. We then all looked at each other.

  Marianne: We need to hurry! We already spent time healing them. Since we know of their conspiracy we should head out and confront them directly.

  Suddenly, a heavy wave of mana spread throughout the city. We turned to look in horror at the lord's mansion.

  Atop the lord's mansion, what I assumed to be a golden statue of a scarab started moving and a rge energy ball was made in its forearm. Then we heard a roar that bellowed further than that minotaur as we felt the aura coming from it all the way over here.

  Sean: Is it bronze? But this feeling is so overwhelming compared to William? Is it -

  Marianne: Pseudo-Silver level.

  We all turned to look in surprise at Marianne. Pseudo-Silver? That level of strength was incomprehensible to us who have not even reached the level of Bronze.

  Marianne: I felt this level of strength at the church before. This aura is not as overwhelming as the great guardian of our church, but it is a step away from that level. Get going, I am sorry I got you involved in something like this. This beyond the level of threat that I was prepared to let you face. Let me face this.

  Sean: Does your church have a way to deal with it here?

  She did not respond. Seeing this, I knew that she just wanted to let us leave as friends and wanted to die with this city.

  Before I could respond, Kris cam and gave her a whack on the shoulder. She jumped in surprise and turned to face her.

  Kris: We came here as friends of yours it would not be right to turn our backs here. And although we were never expecting to face something like this, we have always been prepared to fight for what we believed in. And I believe that none of us would leave at a moment like this, right?

  The rest of us did not respond and only pulled out our weapons. Seeing this, Marianne's eyes glistened and shook. She then shook her head and wiped the tears off of her face.

  Marianne: Mmm. Then I will believe in our bond and belief. Let us go!

  The six of us hurried along to the lord's mansion. Thankfully, once we reached the main road, the path was just a straight shot over.

  We rushed along the road and saw the devastation on the path forward. Although we received the news on time and were able to evacuate many people, there was not enough time to completely prevent casualties. On the road forward, there were not only the corpses of cultists, but civilians and knights too.

  Seeing all of this devastation only further steeled our resolve. We may not have been able to save these people, but we will at least save what we can and fight for what we believe in.

  We got closer to the mansion and finally arrived at the gate of the area. The guards at the entrance here were all sughtered and simply tossed away. We ignored this and quickly rushed over. We could hear a loud csh going on in the interior of the base and continued to walk past many corpses of knights and cultists alike.

  As we finally arrived at the main building, we noticed the fading light armor on a figure aside as a figure in full gold was facing a giant golden scarab.

  Right when we moved closer to the area, both sides of the fight went and fought. The Golden Scarab beast raised its head and created another massive energy ball. On the other side, the golden armored figure went and drew his bde and swiftly sent out sword beams at the beast to interrupt its energy accumution.

  Then the figure in the fading light armor suddenly stood up and leapt towards the golden scarab and thrust with its right arm.

  Farrell: Light Magic - Dash of Light!

  Indeed, that figure was Farrell. Since the one in the fading light armor was Farrell then it was apparent who the golden figure was.

  Johnathon: Tch, this darn turtle shell sure is quite hard. Good thing you were here, otherwise this might have been a problem.

  He then started concentrating energy into the golden bde in his arms. Golden specks of light glimmered in the daylight and shimmered creating a visual spectacle. He then slowly aimed the bde's point at his target.

  Johnathon: Golden Fsh!

  A sudden bst of energy fired from the tip of his bde and bsted into the Golden Scarab. It travelled all the way to the scarab and pierced through the beast.

  Before we could celebrate, the beast suddenly roared and a golden shimmer appeared on where it was wounded. Soon, the injury was completely negated and the beast was back at square one again.

  With a click of his tongue, Johnathon began compining.

  Johnathon: Couldn't the family not send down their problems to ter? This is gonna be a nightmare to finish. You brats, get over here and back up the old man!

  He then went and yelled at us to back up Farrell. We agree and stand together with Farrell. After Marianne and I went and healed him together, he was able to wake up and stand again.

  Farrell: I'm sorry. I wasn't able to deal with my end of the bargain. I was only able to get one of their bases before I rushed over here.

  Marianne: It's fine. As long as you are here to fight here and now it should be fine. Let's get ready for this fight!

  We all get up and arms and prepare for the counterattack of the Golden Scarab.