Chapter 303: The Church of Mephisto
Late night, seaside cottage.
FrozenCloud’s room was on the second floor, right beside Wu Na’s. She was on the balcony, enjoying the sea breeze. She looked over and saw Wu Na strumming a guitar. This was the sort of life she wanted, with nothing restricting her, no one expecting things from her, and no one comparing her. She made a very satisfied smile, and began singing with the beat, “The image fades, the night darkens, but my heart…”
Wu Na peaked over and smiled. “Nice, you sing very well. You can follow the harmony without looking at the notes, and even make your own melody.”
“I’m a Music and Acting double major. Music wise, I’m pretty good at piano, DJ, guitar, and cello, but what I’m best at is blowing things, like flutes…” FrozenCloud shrugged.
Wu Na nodded, but felt like her words were sort of strange. Good at blowing things? It’s all because of those damn guys that I’m having these messed up thoughts. Now just hearing blowing and I think of inappropriate things.
The next day.
They returned to the game. Ye Cang once again brought everyone out exploring. According to Little Ye Tian’s map, they returned to the place where they had stopped last time. Little Ye Tian had left a mark there on her map. “This is Azeri Cliff. The terrain is very steep, so not many people come here. This is one of the places with a higher chance to host a cult.”
“Let’s go up and look.” Ye Cang brought everyone up the mountain. It really was very steep, with sheer cliffs everywhere, and there was no trail or path to follow. They had to rely on climbing or travelling through the mountain forests to ascend. The demon beasts were fairly concentrated due to the terrain. On the way, they managed to kill many. After more than half a day, they only made it to a cliff to about the halfway point. Ye Cang looked down at the path they had climbed. It was so rugged and steep that he felt nauseous just looking at it. SpyingBlade noticed that behind a stone, there was a mark. He waved everyone over, “There’s a hidden mark…”
Everyone encircled it. Little Ye Tian began to search her memory bank. “I’m sure now. It’s the design of the Church of Mephisto. It’s meaning is unknown, but we can be sure that there must be people from the church of mephisto around here.”
“Church of Mephisto?” SpyingBlade inquired.
“Just like its name, they worship one of the four great evil gods, the immortal demonic spirit – Mephisto. He’s an existence that is both demon and spirit, and has an extreme hate for the church and the war god’s temple, but they are also enemies with the hall of shadows.” Little Ye Tian explained what she knew. It was mostly what she learned from books.
“We can go up from here…” Ye Cang said, circling around to the side. Immediately, everyone walked up the narrow slope near the mark and arrived at a chasm with a wooden suspension bridge which connected to the other side. Ye Cang motioned for everyone to back up a bit, and not cross the edge. He carefully stuck his head out, and his eagles eyes allowed him to look across, to see if there was anything strange. On the other side was a white and black robed mage, who was walking across the suspension bridge towards them. On his chest was the same secret mark.
“There’s a mage believer coming across the bridge. Everyone prepare an ambush. We have to take him out instantly so as to not alert the enemies. FrozenCloud, keep him under control…” Ye Cang said, rejoining the group. FrozenCloud nodded, extending her claws.
Ye Cang used the sound of footsteps to estimate the distance. “10, 9, 8, …, 3, 2, 1! Go!”
Everyone jumped out slope. FrozenCloud directly pounced over, knocking him to the ground, and covered his mouth. Her other hand stabbed her claw into his neck. Lin Le directly used Execute. FrozenCloud quickly released her hand, dodging the heavy strike. She got up, and let the others attack. The heavy blade directly chopped into his head.
Ye Cang reached out and looted nothing at all. “I knew he was going down to purchase equipment. We killed him too early. We should have killed him after he made his purchase. Right now, he’s got nothing at all. Let’s go…”
Everyone watched him make a show of it, and all sighed. Thankfully it was just a measly elite. They followed him across the bridge, and the once again killed someone with an ambush. Lin Le managed to loot a mephisto believer’s robe.
Mephisto’s Minor Believer’s Robe (Masterwork – Evil God – Abyss)
Category: Religious Robe
Requirements: 60 Intelligence or 50 Constitution
+5 Defence
+8 Intelligence
+9 Wisdom
+7 Spell Power
+15 Light Resistance
PS: The religious gown of a low level disciple.
“The attributes aren’t bad, and the requirements are easy enough to reach. It can be considered an amazing item amongst masterworks.” Wang said. No one else really cared about it, except Wu Na. Besides Wu Na and himself, the rest were decked out in distinguished quality items. As for Ye Cang, distinguished wasn’t even good enough for him anymore, he wanted a full set of gold quality equipment.
SpyingBlade looked at it and smiled, “I bet the price of this robe is… ”
Little Ye Tian knew what he wanted to say, but Ye Cang merely ignored it and spoke, “Who’s going?”
Everyone knew what he meant. Someone would wear it and act as a spy. FrozenCloud chose to stay quiet. She wasn’t suited for it anyways, since the two they killed were both men. They couldn’t be sure if there were women amongst them. SpyingBlade equipped the robe and pulled the hood over his head. “I’ll go. Your equipment is too showy… I’m better at it anyways…”
Ye Cang nodded, not saying any extra words. SpyingBlade concealed his weapons and followed the winding path. Everyone followed at a distance. Finally, they arrived at a small mountain stronghold. On both sides of the gate were demon beast bones turned into a totem. There were even lights at the top of them.
Ye Cang watched SpyingBlade talk to the guard, then entered. Everyone waited patiently for news.
“Bro, do you think SpyingBlade will be caught?” Zhang ZhengXiong started talking because he felt bored.
“Who knows, but Brother SpyingBlade is one of the more reliable scum…” Ye Cang said, shaking his head.
FrozenCloud rolled her eyes. He used to be called DarkBlade, a very famous assassin. He’s done these simple infiltrations countless times, or do you all think that his title as an expert assassin is just for show?
“Wang, did you watch yesterday’s My Chaotic Youth Romantic Comedy is Wrong as I Expected?” Lin Le looked at Wang and asked.
“I did. After A’Xiang, A’Dao, A’Suo, and A’Duo were crushed to death by the steel titan, spacetime split, and now they’re taking the test at Konoha village. Also, A’Jiao is revived. However, I think that they’ll all die again. A’Xiang accidentally spat on Orochimaru’s face…” OldWangFromNextDoor sighed. He was pretty much forced to watch that show, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to answer brother Le’s questions. Who knows what brother Le would test him on.
“I think so too…” Lin Le nodded.
SpyingBlade walked out of the mountain stronghold, greeted the guards, the slowly walked away. When he was out of site, he came back to join everyone. “I’ve recorded the topography and position of all the people. The boss is called Lady Marlan. I’m not sure what they’re goal is, but time is limited. It’s definitely not something good, because there will be a sacrifice ceremony soon. Here’s the data and clothes that I gathered…”
He gave the data to Little Ye Tian for her to analyse, then distributed the clothes. There was enough for everyone, including Little Ren.
Little Ye Tian completed a map of the mountain stronghold, and displayed it. SpyingBlade pointed to an especially large, wooden house.”This is Lady Marlan’s residence. In the middle is an altar like stage, which is where the sacrifices will be happening.” He began to point out and explain parts of the map.
Little Ye Tian added marks and notes. Ye Cang looked at the detailed map. “First is the guard at the door. We’ll have to deal with him. Brother SpyingBlade, you attract his attention for a moment, then we’ll kill him as quickly as possible. Once we’re inside, we’ll have to see how it goes. Wear the clothes…”
Ye Cang reluctantly took off the wolf cloak that he liked and the tigerskin coat, then put on the robe, hiding his face with the hood. Everyone took of their cloaks and coats. Any weapons that would attract attention were also removed, and were replaced with some more normal weapons like a longsword or something. They could put their weapons back on after killing the guard.
With Ye Cang’s signal, SpyingBlade returned to the gate. He rubbed his head, and said something, then was allowed inside again. He turned back to look at the three guards, and took out a gold coin. The three guards turned and now had their backs facing Ye Cang. Everyone moved quickly. FrozenCloud pounced on one, Little Ren on another. SpyingBlade’s sword was suddenly drawn, slitting the throat of the last. Lin Le’s enormous blade beheaded one. Ye Cang’s straight thrust combo finished off the one whose throat had been slit by SpyingBlade. FrozenCloud unleashed a Wolverine Strike against the one she had knocked over, stunning it! Triple Strike! Her weapon’s passive triggered, now at full stacks. With a big boost in damage, Collapsing Palm! It died on the spot, without causing a big disturbance. Everyone quickly looted, and Ye Cang was going to chop up the bodies, but everyone stopped him. They threw the bodies off the cliff, then infiltrated the mountain stronghold.
Everyone got past the wall and arrived inside. They say the huge bonfire that was burning in the middle, the floating embers coming out of the flames looked like star, making a beautiful scene. A tall women was by the bonfire, dancing around the demon beast bone totems. The believers surrounding the stage all looked extremely pious, no one knowing what they were thinking or feeling.
Everyone scattered a bit, then acted as late comers and joined in at the back, watching the scene. SpyingBlade confirmed that the one dancing was Lady Marlan.
“Don’t act blindly. Our goal is to investigate. We’ll just see what this ritual is for…” Ye Cang pulled his hood down and said in a low voice.
Marlan was reciting some sort of incantation; sigils revolved around the four demon beast bone totems, emitting a faint red light. Finally, the sigils were embedded in the totems, making them release light. Marlan stopped. “Bring the offerings.”
The believers brought 3 men and 1 woman up to the stage.
“These are spies sent by the church. Now, we’ll use their blood! Offer them to the great lord Mephisto! Cheer!!” Marlan pulled out a sharp dagger.
“Kill them!!”
“Sacrifice!”
“Sacrifice!”
Ye Cang looked at the captives and frowned. Should we save them? If we do, there are so many enemies here, it’ll be unlikely that we can escape. But going back and reporting without saving them isn’t too good. If the mission’s hidden objective is for us to save them, what then?
