Moonless Cult (3)
The moment I heard that the Moonless Cult Leader himself would arrive the very next evening, I convened an emergency cadre meeting before dawn. Lee Seong-guk and the Paradise officers gathered to weigh our options.
The opinion that came up most often was that the service itself was nothing more than a trap meant to lure us out. Even if it had originally been a genuine ceremony to brainwash new converts, the capture of Oh Tae-hoon might have forced them to change plans—turning the gathering into an ambush designed to seize or kill us instead. Every point made sense.
We had kept Oh Tae-hoon’s imprisonment under the tightest secrecy, yet there was no way of knowing how many Moonless Cult believers still lingered inside the Seonghun Merchant Association. After all, no one had even realized the man was a hardcore devotee. Information could already have leaked the instant he was taken. If the service was canceled, we might arrive tomorrow to find the place completely empty.
But we had no real choice. I contacted the four highest-ranking officers of the Alliance and ordered each of them to secretly select four subordinates they trusted completely. I would also send four of my own cadres. Twenty reliable, powerful Awakeners would wait in the surrounding area and then strike. The moment combat began and secrecy no longer mattered, the Alliance’s top officers would immediately pour their soldiers into the site.
The cadres were certain that if the service went ahead, a trap would be waiting. Yet if it truly was a trap, unless they had somehow tamed three or four Named monsters, the instant Jui appeared the fight would already be decided. I still couldn’t understand why they would bother laying one.
“The Moonless Cult is almost certainly misjudging our full strength.”
“Why? We didn’t hide the Silverform kill. We published the exact number of troops we committed and every casualty.”
After the successful Silverform subjugation, the Alliance had openly announced the forces involved and the results without a single lie, precisely so the shining victory would spread far and wide.
“They probably… just don’t believe it.”
Han Byeol pointed out that even the 1st Special Awakener Division—called the strongest military force in the entire Republic of Korea—had suffered dozens of deaths while taking down a single Domehead. The Gangbuk Alliance, still ranked a full tier below them by Seoul’s citizens, claiming to have slain a Silverform with only four fatalities was something the cult simply would not accept as truth.
Originally we had intended to bombard the chapel and then arrest or kill whatever Awakeners remained. Oh Tae-hoon’s information forced a change of plan. According to him, the young Special Awakener did not merely tame monsters; she could also amplify their power. No wonder the cult felt confident. That child was essentially a monster-version of Na Hye-won.
I wanted her.
Perhaps because of the wretched childhood I myself had endured, my heart always softened a little whenever a child was involved. Even so, I was no saint who would waste sympathy or pity on anything connected to a cult like this. If I captured the girl alive and found her still thoroughly brainwashed by the Moonless Cult… I would kill her. Her ability was far too dangerous to leave free or even lock away. But if she was merely a child being used, a usable human resource? My mouth was already watering.
For the past month I had sent Jui and Jeong Su-hwan out hunting. Not Named monsters—mainly giant spider Stalkers nesting in ruined apartment blocks or lesser beasts hiding in the mountains. Han Byeol piloted the drones while she and Jui combed every abandoned building and forested slope like they were searching for lice. In thirty days they subjugated twenty-six monsters. The mountains truly were full of weak creatures that preferred to stay hidden.
And to my surprise, my Reconstruction Points rose by a single point. My earlier guess had been at least partly correct: you could earn Reconstruction Points without Named kills. Yet after an entire month of grinding for only 1P, it was clear that stronger monsters awarded far more.
If… we used that child’s power to enhance monsters and then killed them? The point farming would become deliciously efficient. Just imagining a reliable method of harvesting Reconstruction Points set my heart pounding.
I decided to send Oh Tae-hoon into the service. Lee Seong-guk showed him his daughter’s severed finger and left the consequences of any treachery to the man’s imagination. Oh Tae-hoon was bait; whether he lived or died no longer mattered.
Jui, Han Seol, Han Byeol, Jeong Su-hwan, and the sixteen Awakeners dispatched by the Alliance’s top officers crouched in the forest a short distance from the chapel, holding their breath. The chapel itself was an abandoned building ringed by fully armed Moonless Cultists on guard duty. I had layered two Coating barriers from Coating drones onto each of the four cadres, had Na Hye-won enhance every one of them, and armed them with pulse rifles before sending them out. I myself watched through four blue drones and two Bombardment drones. Running six units at once was mentally exhausting, but I only needed to endure a little longer.
I had slipped one of the command-center radios into the lining of Oh Tae-hoon’s clothes. Soon sound crackled through.
A woman’s voice. Then the congregation erupted in ecstatic cries that quickly died away again. A man’s voice—almost certainly the Moonless Cult Leader—followed.
A monster’s shriek tore through the feed, confirming that both the Cult Leader and at least one beast were inside the chapel. The believers began to sob and wail.
“Ah… ah! Cult Leader! Cult Leader!”
“He… he really commands the Apostles…!”
I had seen enough.
Begin.
“Yes!”
Han Seol and Han Byeol opened fire with their pulse rifles, sniping the guards around the chapel. The cultists realized the danger the moment their comrades sprayed blood and collapsed, but it changed nothing. Jui reached the chapel doors first, sword already drawn, and began cutting Moonless Cultists down.
Shhk.
“Ghk—”
One cultist lost his head before he could even scream a final word.
We go in now.
Jui nodded. The Alliance fighters who had followed her kicked the doors open and poured inside.
Creeeak.
Ugh…
Grotesque was the only word that fit. Countless candles burned. On the raised platform stood the Moonless Cult Leader in pure-white priestly robes marked with unknown crimson sigils, a mask covering his face. Below him more than a hundred believers in white garments knelt. When the doors burst open every head turned toward us; their faces were streaked with snot and tears. Pure cult fanaticism.
“Wh-what is this?”
“Brothers, remain calm.”
The Cult Leader showed not the slightest surprise at our appearance. He soothed his flock first, then spoke in a mocking tone as though he had expected the raid all along.
“So the heretics have arrived.”
Through the drone the voice registered as that of a middle-aged man.
It really is a trap.
“I told you so,” Han Byeol answered with a grin.
“I had heard rumors that you raise barriers and command drones. All of it appears to be true. Most interesting. And far too great a power for a heretic to possess.”
He already knew a great deal about me; the talking drone did not startle him in the least.
You’ve done your homework. Fine—no introductions. Surrender. And you’re a fraud, aren’t you? I hear the real Awakener who tames monsters is someone else…
“How dare you!”
The Cult Leader, who had remained composed until that moment, suddenly roared. His fists clenched and trembled; he forced several deep breaths before speaking again in a controlled voice.
“The Apostles already foretold your coming. The sin of slaying two Apostles is heavy indeed, yet if you wish to spare the lives of your people, cease these further insults.”
Still don’t grasp the situation? You’re already caught.
“Amusing. It is you who are caught.”
Let me clear up the misunderstanding: you didn’t set the trap. I did.
BOOM!
The instant the words left him, a thunderous explosion rocked the outside of the chapel. Lee Seong-guk shoved the door open, glanced out, and reported.
“Marshal, armed cultists and monsters are outside. They came up through the ground—looks like the beasts were hiding underground.”
They prepared thoroughly.
The Cult Leader dropped to his knees before the platform, face lifted to the ceiling, and cried out.
“In truth… I despaired of how to punish the heretic who possessed an impenetrable barrier. Yet the gods themselves have delivered the heretics into my hands. This is surely—”
Han Byeol cut him off.
“Orders?”
Capture the Cult Leader and the Special Awakener alive. Kill everyone else.
“Understood.”
Annoyed at being interrupted, the Cult Leader rose to his feet.
“Elders! Brothers! Kill every last one of these heretics! Their army will soon arrive—slaughter them all and we leave!”
“Yes, Cult Leader!”
I had already instructed the Alliance Awakeners—everyone except Paradise’s four—to fight as defensively as possible and avoid unnecessary risks. The reason was simple: I did not want casualties while cleaning up a pack of cult trash.
“Gahk!”
Crunch. Shhk.
“Urgh…”
Clang!
“Hm?”
In the middle of the melee Han Byeol’s sword, swung at an elder, was stopped by a barrier. A Special Awakener.
She merely smiled a thin, cold smile, put more strength into her arm, and brought the blade down again. The barrier shattered; the elder was split cleanly from crown to crotch. A little frightening, honestly.
Inside the chapel a hellscape of blood and viscera unfolded. Outside, Han Seol and Jeong Su-hwan were dealing with the monsters and remaining cultists. The claim that the beasts could be enhanced was no lie—they were stronger than ordinary monsters—but that was all. They still died helplessly under Han Byeol’s and Jeong Su-hwan’s blades.
Once the one-sided slaughter began, the ordinary believers screamed and fled the chapel. It no longer mattered; the army would round them all up soon enough.
The Cult Leader remained ringed by monsters for protection, yet Jui, aided by the drones, carved through them one by one. The man began to back away.
Ready to surrender yet? Where is the Special Awakener who tames the monsters?
The Cult Leader’s eyes flicked desperately toward the rear of a tent.
There, then?
CRASH!
“Kyaaaaah!”
The ceiling caved in as a flying monster smashed into the chapel. The Cult Leader yanked the tent aside.
Ah.
Behind it a masked child crouched, hands clamped over her ears, body shaking violently.
“Fuck! What are you doing?! Get us out of here now!”
He snatched the child up in a rage and vaulted onto the flying monster’s back.
Jui! Catch them!
The instant the beast lifted off, Jui leapt, landed on its back, and something cracked. The monster plummeted.
THUD.
A massive cloud of dust billowed up. When it cleared, Jui held the child safely in one arm; in the other she dragged the Cult Leader by the hair, his body reduced to a bloody pulp, across the floor.
The remaining cultists, paralyzed by terror, began to surrender. From the first shot to the last, the entire battle had lasted less than ten minutes.
Outside lay countless Moonless Cult corpses and more than a dozen enhanced monster carcasses. Among them was what looked like a Stalker, though its body bristled with spines and its carapace gleamed like iron plate—clearly enhanced. On our side only a single fighter had taken light wounds; everyone else was unharmed. It had been a pure slaughter show by Paradise’s four.
Jui’s fights against the elders looked like an adult man thrashing five-year-old children; the gap in power was that absolute.
“Marshal.”
Lee Seong-guk, soaked in blood, approached and reported that the situation was finished.
“Good work. I’ll leave the cleanup to you. Separate the monster corpses from the human ones. Jui, bring the child outside.”
“Yes, sir!”
Jui nodded. The Alliance army would arrive shortly and haul every survivor away.
Hmm…
The masked child clung tightly to Jui, face buried against her, still trembling too hard for any conversation.
I checked my remaining points. After the twenty-six ordinary monsters I had been sitting on 12P. Taking down this many enhanced beasts should have netted at least another 5P.
Remaining Points:43P
…
I had gained a ridiculous, completely unexpected amount. Enhanced monsters clearly awarded far more points.
I guided a drone close to the child still trembling in Jui’s arms and spoke.
Welcome, from the bottom of my heart, as a new resident of Paradise.