Yujun Thought as He Ran
Yujun thought as he ran.
Armene and Sultan, wasn't it? Are those two branch-head class as well? Their raw strength seemed about that level, at least.
Judging by the way the Cardinal had recognized their faces at a glance, they were probably quite well-known within the cult. Ordinary Demon God Worshippers wouldn't walk around carrying a barrier item like that, so of course they had to be. For all that, they had been neutralized the instant the barrier shattered—but the gulf between their power and Yujun's had been overwhelming from the start.
"They got pretty far..."
The trail left by the pair after their forced relocation stretched on and on. Laid out like this, the Cardinal's ability was plainly impressive. The cast had been far too brief for him to have simply used teleportation magic and flung them a great distance away. Perhaps his mastery of magic had climbed high enough to stand level with Yujun's own.
I have to find them. The trail's starting to fade... This is bad.
Frowning, Yujun studied the flow of mana with care. The greatest reason he meant to track Armene and Sultan down was curiosity—plain curiosity over where, exactly, they had been sent. If the place was a cult branch, so much the better: he could destroy one more. Even if it wasn't, it was still a chance to put down two powerful Demon God Worshippers.
A lush forest had been cultivated inside Sky Castle, and countless monsters seemed to make their home there. Coarse auras pressed in from every direction without end. Not one of them rushed him. They knew, by instinct. A few dull-witted monsters drooled at the sight of him, but the moment Yujun loosed a thread of mana and broke into a sprint, they turned tail and fled.
Yeah. Being strong really is the best.
It never grew stale. It was always new, always thrilling. If a monster happened to clutter his path, he cleared it with magic and passed on, and the experience climbing more than he'd expected told him their levels were higher than he'd thought.
If I had my way, I'd plant myself here and do nothing but hunt.
He had reached a level where experience hardly moved anymore, so hunting grounds like this were not easily found. Regrettably, he had no time for it. He carved the location firmly into his memory and moved on.
Past a certain point, the trail began to grow distinct again—proof that Armene and Sultan were close. The mana trace ended at last at a building smothered in plants. Yujun stopped and looked around.
So they had a branch hidden in a forest like this. I thought Heaven barely had any Demon God Worshippers, and this is already how many branches?
He couldn't be certain it was a branch, of course. The building was large, yet he could scarcely feel a living presence. Yujun stepped inside without hesitation. There were no traps. If there had been, his senses would have raised a warning long before.
"Dad. That Cardinal's mana is still here."
Yujun nodded at Harp's words. It didn't seem the Cardinal himself had been in this place. What lingered was mana scattered through the air after he had sent Armene and Sultan here. Set against the state of the building, the stairs looked oddly intact. Yujun climbed them and found Armene and Sultan already dead.
So that's why I couldn't sense anyone.
It was a miserable feeling. If he had killed these bastards with his own hands, he would have gained a whole level. Was he supposed to be glad simply because a pair of Demon God Worshippers were dead? He couldn't leave it at that.
Yujun examined the corpses closely. He wanted to know what had killed them.
Their whole bodies are ripped to shreds.
In truth, the bodies had been split into so many pieces that it was a wonder he had recognized them at all.
Were they forcibly warped while they were still caught in Space Domination?
It was a reasonably convincing theory. If so, then he had been the one to kill these two Demon God Worshippers—and yet he hadn't gained a single point of experience.
Don't tell me it ruled I didn't land the last hit?
How could anything be this unfair? Determined to walk away with something, Yujun sorted through the gear Armene and Sultan had been wearing and collected only what was still intact. He even found a piece of Mythic equipment on Armene. Its performance fell well short of what he used himself, so lending it to Manuela seemed the better idea.
Finished with the corpses, he looked around. He had hoped there might be a hidden item or two, but of course the hope had been empty.
So it really was a cult branch after all...
The flasks of violet liquid he had seen in their laboratory were here as well, which suggested the cult had once used the place as a branch. Which was to say, it wasn't one anymore. Content with a handful of equipment, Yujun burned the Worshippers' corpses and left the building.
Exactly one hour after he walked away without a backward glance, two players stepped inside.
"Told you. That bastard's a vicious one."
"...Genuinely creepy."
Those two were none other than Armene and Sultan.
"What am I supposed to do about the items? Such a waste. Those were exactly the ones we were using."
"You know how meticulous Shin Yujun is. If even a single piece of gear had been different, he definitely would have gotten suspicious."
"Come on... I don't think he'd be that sharp. What kind of player memorizes every last piece of equipment?"
"Not sharp? Please. That guy's obsession with items is famous. He'll have had the grades of our gear down cold. Guess you didn't know."
"...It's that bad?"
"Yeah. That bad. Good thing we asked the Cardinal to make us perfect duplicate dolls. If we hadn't, we'd actually be dead."
"...Mm. You're right."
At first, Armene had thought Sultan was making far too much of a fuss.
"Still, I never thought Shin Yujun could follow us all the way here. The trail was almost completely erased."
"I was hoping he wouldn't come if he could help it, either... and he shows up anyway and hauls the items off. No. Hey. This is actually better. He thinks we're dead, so he'll drop it clean now."
"That's a relief."
"Items are items. We can just buy more with cult contribution. Wasn't it about time we upgraded anyway?"
Armene shook her head.
"Did you forget? What I bought after dumping all my contribution not long ago was that staff..."
"Ah, right. Then you..."
"I'm not going anywhere for a while. Not until I get something that isn't quite what I had, but comes close."
"Sorry."
"You don't have anything to be sorry for, Sultan. I kept my life thanks to you."
Arriving at the Golden Temple, Yujun looked for Manuela first.
"Manuela!"
"Hm? Back already?"
"I've got something for you."
"For me?"
"What's your level right now?"
"A little under seven hundred."
"...Since when did you get that high?"
"I've been partying with you."
"Right."
Then again, Yujun's own level had already passed 750. There was nothing surprising about how fast hers was climbing.
"Then you should be able to use this."
Yujun held out the black staff he had collected from the Demon God Worshipper Armene.
Manuela only stared.
"What are you doing? Take it."
"You're giving this to me? Why? You already gave me an item not long ago."
"Because I got something better."
It was a Mythic-grade item with a level requirement of a full seven hundred—a staff whose options were excessive for the power Armene herself had possessed. It raised mana capacity by a hefty percentage and improved magical computation as well. Beyond that, it came loaded with every sort of auxiliary magic-support option, far too fine an item to leave rotting in an inventory.
"Thanks, Yujun. Really, there's no one but you."
Manuela looked at him with eyes dripping honey, and Yujun burst out laughing.
"If there were someone else out there handing items to a total stranger, that would be the strange part."
"...That's not what I meant."
"She is only like that because she is embarrassed."
The words belonged to the Castle Lord, who had been watching them with a quiet smile.
"What. You were here?"
"Has the matter been settled?"
"Yeah. Oh, but I've got something to ask."
"Ask whatever you wish. You saved my life, so I shall answer all of it."
"You know Sertiphs?"
"I do. Is he not the commander of the Hardline Faction?"
"And you know why he died?"
"...Yes. I know."
"Tell me exactly whose doing it was, and what they were after."
"Did I not say? To seize Heaven."
"And what does Sertiphs have to do with that?"
"There was another angel meant to take his place. That one had already been brought into the cult—so thoroughly that he delivered tribute in person, and brainwashing was unnecessary."
"A suitable replacement showed up, so they just killed him?"
"Precisely so. The cult does not resolve matters in complicated ways. They handle things simply, clearly, and by the most efficient means. Killing Sertiphs was the simplest course, and so they carried it out without a qualm."
"Unbelievable."
"They hold influence vast enough to do so. I myself was made a fool of by them, and very nearly lost Sky Castle outright."
"Even so, how did I manage to stop it this far?"
"For the moment... for the moment, yes. But you know the persistence of the Demon God Worshippers better than I do, do you not?"
"You think they'll keep trying to take Heaven?"
"They will. After the Continent, Heaven is what the cult values most."
"So they've already taken the Continent?"
"As you say, there is nowhere on the Continent their hands have not touched. The land is absurdly vast, so pristine regions surely remain, but they will have taken every prime piece. I have heard that even setting the Demon God Worshippers themselves aside, the number of players currently being brainwashed is immense."
"Why isn't anyone putting out a proper countermeasure?"
"Because we learned of it far too late. By the time Heaven's high officials knew, it was already beyond control."
"Suffocating."
"To your eyes, we can only look untrustworthy."
"You read that exactly right."
"If one such as you had appeared only a little sooner, the outcome would have changed... A true pity."
"You're saying it can't be changed now?"
At Yujun's words, the Castle Lord smiled bitterly and nodded.
"On what grounds?"
"The scale of what they have done is simply too great. However strong you may be, your strength alone will not suffice."
"Hmm..."
Yujun agreed with the Castle Lord, to a point. There was nothing in it to wound his pride. Even if he made the fullest use of teleportation magic, stopping the cult would be grueling work so long as he could not uncover every scrap of information about them. The damage he had dealt was too great to put into words, yet set against the cult as a whole, there was a strong chance it had not disturbed the greater tide.
There's a bigger picture I'm not seeing. There has to be.
The Castle Lord did not know as much as Yujun had expected. If his information had been that extensive, he would not have fallen to the Demon God Worshippers so easily.
No. Is it that no matter how you prepare, you're bound to get hit anyway?
Yujun put one last question to him.
"One more. Do you know who gave the order to kill Sertiphs?"
"I cannot be certain, but there is a man in the cult named Mah. A branch head, and one of considerably high standing. The order may have come from above, but as I understand it, Mah was the one who oversaw the whole affair."
"Mah?"
Yujun's eyes lit up.
It was a name he had heard before.