The Runesmith

Chapter 213: Trying to be sneaky.

‘What are those creatures, the radar isn’t picking them up as monsters… are they too small to be registered, or are they part of some kind of spell?’

Roland was above ground and looking through a ventilation opening down into a large chamber meant for occult rituals. One of these was apparently taking place, the whole area was riddled with passed out people and more figures from the Abyssal Cult that he was familiar with.

After making his way here to find the control item for the large-scale double helix device he found something he never expected to see. Small leech-like creatures were being inserted into people’s eye sockets. Just a few seconds one of them vanished into a guard’s eye and besides a little bit of blood, there didn’t seem to be anything off.

Instantly his mind went racing to figure out what was going on. After the run-in with the Abyssal Cult all those years ago he had gone through extensive research on the subject. Yet there wasn’t much information about their real purpose besides the usual disappearances and murders.

It seemed that the calling card of this cult was this double helix relic. With a magical device that could knock out even people at tier 3, it was easy for the cult to go unnoticed. Roland didn’t have access to much information, most of it was clearly being hidden away by the information guilds and other powerful existences.

They were not informing the commoners about facts concerning cults probably to not have widespread panic. Most of the second-hand information that was passed by word of mouth didn’t amount to anything. Even when some cultists were apprehended they were taken away by the governing lord's forces.

The only thing he could do was to spend large amounts of money at the thieves guild that sold information. Even with that, there wasn’t much on the cult, they mostly evaded curious gazes. Not even corpses remained in place and they vanished into the night after carving out their signature symbol. Without it most of the cases would not be identified and the afflicted would not even know if their loved ones had actually died.

Roland had witnessed firsthand what these people were capable of. That one warlock that could transform into a giant monster was probably responsible in some way. The merchant group that existed in Edelgard disappeared in a day without a trace. If he didn’t get out of the illusory world back then he along with his old boss would have done the same. Luckily the old gnome had some powerful bodyguards that could contend with the cult assassins.

There was no word of any incidents like that even when trying to get information through the thieves guild. Mostly there were just rumors of events happening that didn’t seem to be related to each other. There were many assassination groups working in the kingdom and the cult had a good reputation yet there was no mention of these wiggly things they were inserted into people.

‘That looks like some kind of parasite? What’s its purpose… take over the host body to produce more or is it something else?’

This was easier said than done as even after they had started the distraction a lot of people remained inside the dark temple. While he could have jumped down and battled it out he would not have any time to work on this medallion. Thus he had used a second diversion that utilizes his previous mass guiding spell.

After marking all of the remaining cultists he had lodged the magical staff into the wall. In his backpack, he had a spare battery pack to which he could connect this staff. While it continued to churn out spells he quickly made his way towards the second ventilation opening on the other side. Then during the chaos that ensued, he sneaked up on the priest to take him out. The man did not expect to get stabbed from behind.

‘I got their attention now…’

Roland could hear various maddened shouts outside. His deception had been discovered and they were now looking for him. It was time to quickly decipher this contraption, if he was unable he would need to go against a small army of angry cultists.

With how they were able to protect themselves with magical barriers they would not be easy targets for someone like him. Without the aid of his ranged spells to clear out the large number of meat shields, he found it unwise to confront them just yet. But he did not panic, the runic medallion in his hand was already being deciphered and soon enough he would wake his companions…

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