#9 Exterminate the Doom Cultists (Noa, Renoa - Pussy Sandwich♥) (6)
According to Heart's intel, the day the Doom Cultists would gather was fast approaching. Less than a week away. On that day when their key members assembled, Heart and Lete planned to move in and wipe them out.
It was like laying a trap and crushing them in one fell swoop.
Then, with just a day or two left until the appointed date, Heart's lodging was raided.
The intruders—shady figures in masks and robes—suddenly flooded the room with knockout gas and charged in wielding blades.
Luckily, Heart had some resistance to toxins like anesthetics from her intel work, and Lete, being a Seed of Ruin, was immune to human anesthetics from the start.
The sudden assailants were effortlessly crushed by the two women.
"Are they just reckless idiots or outright morons? Breaking into a place with two hero units."
Lete muttered as she surveyed the room, now a sea of corpses and blood, drenched in gore and flesh chunks.
Heart sighed while wiping the blood from her knife.
The inn where the two were staying had been fully rented out by them. Lete had used her hypnosis to evict all the existing guests and even cooked the owner into compliance.
And yet, they'd come here to this lodging used by just the two of them, attempting to kidnap them.
'Not some thieves after money.'
'They didn't underestimate us just because we're two women—their gear and numbers were no joke.'
Decisively, every one of them bore a strange tattoo somewhere on their bodies. That confirmed they were Doom Cultists.
What did the Doom Cultists want with kidnapping them? More than that, during their investigations, they'd heard tales of people going missing... This might be connected.
"What now, Investigator Heart? We can't stay in this room anymore."
"...Yeah. Even I can't sleep in a room full of corpses like this...."
"Shall we move to another room?"
They'd rented the whole inn, so plenty of rooms were available. They could pick any.
But Heart shot that down too. If another raid came, and better prepared this time, they might actually get taken.
And the innkeeper was suspicious. He was probably the one who'd tipped off the Doom Cultists about the two women staying there.
Maybe they should head back to their original lodging—
"You fucking bastards!!"
Suddenly, out of nowhere, Lete exploded in rage.
She'd been calmly chatting just moments ago. Heart panicked at the abrupt shift, but before she could react, Lete unleashed thorns and tentacles from the shadows, hacking and shredding the corpses on the floor even further.
Even the ones they'd kept alive for interrogation met the same fate. Before they could grasp what was happening, their bodies were sliced apart, mangled, and reduced to mere meat lumps in seconds.
The hotel room grew even bloodier than before, and Lete, standing at its center, was splattered head to toe.
Even in that state, her fury didn't subside. If anything, it burned deeper than ever.
"...Let's go, Investigator Heart."
"Huh? Go where?"
"To Master Gaon."
Lete said.
"These filthy mongrels... they attacked Master Gaon. We can't waste time here."
Her voice dripped with murderous intent.
.
I was caught off guard.
Late at night, a sudden knock at the door—I figured it was just a guest.
But the moment the door opened, shady figures in hoods and masks shoved their way in, blades drawn—straight-up robbers threatening us.
"Good thing Noa was here. They looked pretty dangerous. Oh, thanks Reisi too. The mayor almost got dragged off."
I was shocked by their sudden appearance, but they were no match for a hero unit like Noa. In the end, half were slaughtered, half captured.
"Hey, you lot—did you know this was the mayor's mansion when you came here?"
"......."
No answer. I peeled off a mask—pretty face, but her wide, manic eyes gleamed with madness. Definitely not ordinary robbers.
'They were after Mayor Renoa...?'
They weren't gunning for me. I hardly went out.
"You guys Doom Cultists?"
"......."
Still silent. Interrogation yielded nothing—no responses. Even hypnosis, which had worked before, failed on them.
What to do? As I pondered, furious pounding echoed again—bang bang bang.
Noa tensed and opened the door, sword ready, but it was just Lete and Investigator Heart.
"Master Gaon! Are you alright?!"
"Y-yeah, I told you I was fine."
Apparently, right after I used command voice to report the raid, they'd rushed over.
Lete arrived covered head to toe in blood too. She'd had her own Doom Cultist intruders.
Hero units times two? The attackers were the pitiful ones.
Then I saw the captured cultists Lete had brought.
What happened next went down before I could stop it.
"You bastards!! How dare you target Master Gaon-!!"
The moment she raised her hand, thorns and black blades erupted from the cultists' shadows.
Stab! Shunk shunk shunk!
Crack-crunch!
The three or so they'd kept alive were pierced and shredded. Not satisfied, fresh tentacles from the shadows minced the flesh into balls.
Whoa... gruesome.
Mayor Renoa, in the room, retched and hurled. She'd looked queasy amid the earlier bloody corpses, but this was next-level.
"H-hey, hold on Lete! You can't just kill them all! We need them for interrogation...!"
"......."
Heart scolded her, and Lete, still fuming, glanced at me. I said, "That was a bit much," and her rage visibly deflated. She shrank like a scolded puppy.
It was overkill, sure, but knowing she flew into that rage for me made me happy too.
I released the cultist I'd been holding—one of the pretty ones I'd chatted with earlier. Lete massacred the rest, but this one survived thanks to me.
Not for interrogation, though. No way she'd talk anyway.
"Sorry, cultist miss. Scared you bad, huh? I won't kill you, so relax."
"...S-spare... me..."
"Told you I'm sparing you. Don't look so terrified."
I'm a kind, moral modern guy. No matter how pissed, I wouldn't butcher them wildly like Lete. It's unproductive, and they look better alive.
"No way I'd waste prime breeding stock. You'll be popping out orcs like crazy for our town from now on."
That's why I spared the women on purpose. Glad I saved at least one. Hopefully more young, healthy females among the rest.
* * *
For safety, Lete and Heart decided to crash at the mayor's mansion too.
Even for a mayor's place, it was modest and cramped. Not impossible for five, but it felt crowded.
'Doom Cultists, huh.'
So the worst had happened.
In this game EoR's walkthrough posts, I'd seen plenty on the Doom Cultists. Too many details, too varied—hard to recall specifics.
But leaving them alone spelled big trouble. Had to exterminate them quick.
'They targeted the mayor.'
'And Lete and Heart.'
Renoa was the city's mayor and leader. Lete and Heart were outsiders—visitors or travelers.
[Sacrificed Leader] and [Missing Travelers].
That rang a bell. An event tied to those keywords.
I'd been unsure, but now I was certain.
"That would've been a disaster."
If memory served, this was the City Destruction Event.
An unavoidable one where you watch a city vanish from the map.
What to do? Walkthroughs advised skipping it to save turns...
