togophonebook Chapter 185: Mission 4
Chapter 185: Mission 4
It’s been almost five hours since my talk with the group, and while the members of the class were already actively tailing the heretics in the city, a reflection of mine that was disguised as a teenage merfolk, swam underneath the salty waters and towards the cave of the Naga beasts.
Of course being disguised as a merfolk didn’t mean I could breath underwater. The looks and fins behind my ears were just disguises. I don’t actually possess the natural underwater breathing of the merfolk.
What I could do though, was hold my breath long enough to reach the cave. On my way I thought about where the nexus of the ritual was. Even though the author never mentioned where it was, it was highly likely the nexus might be in the Naga cave, it’s a wonder why I didn’t think of it before.
Even though the distance between the shore and the Naga cave was over two kilometers, it didn’t take me more than five minutes to swim there.
I cautiously peeked my head above the water surface, and as expected, two figures were guarding the entrance to the cave. They were relatively strong, one was at the Eta+ rank, and the other was at the Theta- rank, even though, for someone who was extremely close to the Theta+ rank like myself, they posed no threat whatsoever.
As I continued watching them, one of the heretics, particularly the Theta- ranked one, snapped his head in my direction. I quickly dived back into the water. The heretic looked at the area for a few suspicious seconds, before turning away.
I took that moment to launch into action. I then pulled out a short dagger from my pocket, and before the heretic could react, his head went flying. The second one tried to raise alarm, but the same happened to him in less than a second.
"Huh!" I let out a sigh. Taking care of them was absurdly easy, hell I could do it with my eyes closed. The only thing that put pressure on me was being able to take them out silently.
After dumping their bodies into the sea, I carefully made my way inside the cave. However, not long after I entered the cave, a disgusting slithering creature with a snake tail for a lower body hissed before my face just as I took a turn into Nother one of the cave’s tunnels.
"What in the..." I jumped back reflexively. Do not misunderstand, it wasn’t because of the creature’s strength, or that the creature was dangerous, but because of the sheer amalgamation of the stench coming out of it’s mouth hole that hit my face at point blank.
"Fuck!" I retched, taking a step back once more. I could have sworn out of all the stenches I’ve encountered in both lives, this one trumps them all.
The creature meanwhile roared once more as it launched at me. At this point, I didn’t care if I was noticed, to hell with that. I was going to dismember this vile thing into a thousand pieces.
"Fall." I whispered, and swung my dagger at the vile thing, before I did it, again, and again, and again, all in quick succession from different angles.
It wasn’t until after I stopped, that the creature collapsed into pieces of meat, blood, and bones. And hell, even in death, it stank like there was no tomorrow.
I quickly left the place and headed deeper into the cave as fast as I could this time. I wasn’t stupid enough to hope the earlier commotion hadn’t alerted the heretics or the remaining Nagas, so there was no need to hide any longer.
Along the way, I made short work of anyone I encountered, and created another reflection when the tunnels branched into two.
After a while, I began meeting some of the stronger ones actively heading for me. It was times like these that I wish I had a sword on me. Even though I had a dagger, it was inefficient for using the Darkfell royal sword style.
But still, a man has to work with the resources currently in hand. I used brute force, particularly the knockoff technique I had copied from my fight with Calum. While not as destructive as Calum’s own technique, it more than solved my problems.
BOOOOOM!
I punched towards a bunch of incoming heretics and slithering Nagas. The entire cave trembled as the ground shook obsessively and the ceiling rained down debris. The shockwave generated from the sheer power my fist carried outright tore apart the weaker ones among them, and severely injured the rest.
But if there was one thing heretics were known for, it was their high speed regeneration in response to damage. Before the injured ones could recover, I flickered towards each one of them, and punched their heads off, or outright eliminated their entire torso.
I then continued deeper, until I encountered two massive bronze doors. Surely the Nagas couldn’t have built this, and weren’t nearly intelligent enough to build this, which left only heretics.
I prepared myself to swap with my real self at any moment. You see, while the heretic in charge of this whole operation was at the Zeta rank, he wasn’t that strong, after all Alistair alone managed to deal with him in the novel. I was confident my real self would take care of him, which was why I was prepared to swap with my main body, because of this reflection was destroyed before I could do that, I wouldn’t be able to reach here on time.
After calming my nerves, I slowly reached up to the doors, and pushed them apart slightly, just enough for my body to pass through, before quickly slipping through.
I was met with a massive chamber. The chamber wasn’t anything special, it was just the walls of the cave hollowed to make it bigger, but if there was anything special about it, it was the massive figure in the center of the chamber.
In the center of the chamber was an altar, and on it was a giant Naga, the biggest I had ever seen, tied up by chains, and surrounded by ritualistic inscriptions.
Now that I think about it, I never did quite say what the ritual the heretics were setting up was for, did I?
Well you see, the ritual was only for one purpose. This giant Naga before my eyes was the Naga queen of this particular habitat, and the heretics intended to use it as a vessel for a Darkwalker to descend onto this plane, even if only through possession.
However, doing that would require massive energy, so of course, the heretics decided to fuel the ritual using humans, the merfolk who sometimes visit Offshore city from the sea, and of course most of the Naga beasts.
In the novel, the entire Offshore city got wiped off the map, and so did some of the other cities close to it. It was a massive disaster like no other. It wasn’t until a duke dispatched from the Necron empire came and dealt with it.
I had no plans of letting that happen this time though. I was going to stop the ritual as soon as it is triggered. Or maybe, I should just kill this Naga since it was the vessel.
But that was easier said than done, I could tell that the moment I attacked the beast, the ritual would commence nonetheless.
"Aiiiissh, why do things have to be so frustrating." I felt like pulling my hair out.
"Frustrating right?, I can relate." A cynical voice rang out from behind the beast.
A half naked man soon walked into view from behind the beast. "It’s very frustrating when people are seeking to unravel your life’s work."
"You must be the bastard in charge of this whole thing." I said, before my form instantly shifted. In a moment my real self took my place.
"A disguise I see, guess I was right after all." He smirked. "You think I wouldn’t notice the sudden influx of youths coming into this city during the past two days?" He grinned manically.
I shook my head.
"You’d be stupid not to." I said. "And I’d be beyond stupid not to realize that." I added. "I was banking on the fact that you’d overlook that in pursuit of completing your goal."
"So what, you kids were dispatched to stop us?" He scoffed.
"You could say that." I nodded.
"Humans and their arrogance, you think only a bunch of kids could stop us, how naive. Whatever you do, it’s already too late, you can’t stop what is coming, hahahah." He began cackling as glowing red cracks began materializing on his naked upper body. And for some reason, I could tell something was very very wrong.
My expression broke into a frown.
"Where is the nexus?" I asked.
"Oh, you know about the nexus? Too bad, because.... I’ve already absorbed it."
My eyes widened.
’He...he absorbed the nexus?’ Before I could complete my thoughts, my body was already moving. I reached him and decapitated him in one brutal motion. He didn’t even resist which sent chills down my spine.
And I was proven right, before his head could fall, his headless body grabbed his head and threw it into the ritual altar right next to Naga beast.
"FOR HER EMMINENCE!!!!!"
The last thing I muttered before every went to hell was;
"By the seven hells."
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