After offering the high priest's head and soul as a sacrifice to their fallen kin, Roland and Hela took half a day to rest at a nearby inn before swiftly returning to their mission of hunting down the remaining cultists.
Though the high priest had been utterly annihilated his soul scattered and destroyed it didn't mark the end. The cult still had ten altar strongholds left, and each one needed to be dismantled.
Fortunately, in order to avoid drawing the attention of the Northern Kingdom's authorities, the high priest had intentionally kept the altars isolated from one another. Even his own priests only knew the locations of two or three at most.
And because the high priest could intercept a portion of any blessings offered through the altars, he had adopted a laissez-faire attitude towards the cult's expansion letting them grow as they pleased.
As a result, even after Roland and Hela destroyed over half the altars and killed the high priest, the rest of the cult carried on as usual.
They continued stirring up trouble, kidnapping innocents, doing what cultists did until Roland and Hela showed up at their doorstep.
Now, standing atop the final altar of the cult, Roland calmly watched as the cultists rushed in from all directions.
A dozen first-tier priests led fanatical believers, attempting to surround and kill Roland, who had suddenly appeared in the heart of the altar.
But Roland, having just activated a third-tier spell scroll, showed no signs of fear.
The Elemental Shield conjured by the scroll easily deflected all attacks from the priests. Dozens of first-tier spells failed to make a dent.
As for the swarming cultists, the altar's height worked in Roland's favor. Fewer than twenty could even reach him, and though some tried attacking from behind with hunting bows or hand crossbows, their damage was negligible.
Once he saw that most of them had arrived, Roland, expressionless, activated the sacrificial ritual inscribed on the altar.
As the familiar pressure descended, the last gathering of cultists was swept away packaged and delivered as offerings by Roland.
Lowering himself to the ground, Roland cast a wide-range life detection spell.
Before he could receive any feedback, he assumed that everyone was either dead or had fled. Confident in that belief, he turned to leave.
But just as he reached the gates of the altar plaza, the feedback came through.
He checked the spell's results and raised a brow there were still a few signs of life. His gaze turned toward the inner compound, and he followed the signal deeper in.
Guided by the spell's feedback, Roland quickly reached the source: a hidden underground prison.
He moved quietly, stopping at a corridor corner. His spiritual sense spread out silently.
There were several cultist guards armed and armored and one prisoner, badly wounded.
An elf?
That must be the Moon Elf who, in his previous life, had been kidnapped and sacrificed.
Roland had never come across any elf captives while dismantling the other altars. He had assumed he'd been too fast, that the unlucky elf hadn't been captured yet. He hadn't expected to find her here, at the final altar.
A Moon Elf… worth saving.
Roland considered it silently.
Compared to other elven races, Moon Elves were known for being far more reasonable. They weren't as arrogant and domineering as Sun Elves, nor as xenophobic as Forest Elves. If he could build a connection, it would certainly be worthwhile.
Having made up his mind, Roland began casting a spell in silence. Once the incantation was complete, he stepped out into the open.
Before the idle cultist guards could react, several ice spikes shot out from around him, piercing their vital organs and shattering their hearts. The kills were swift and clean.
After confirming that all life signs were gone, Roland drew his sword and broke the iron lock on the prison cell, then walked up to the Moon Elf.
She was in terrible shape.
As a special offering, the cultists had subjected her to crude and brutal modifications. Her limbs had been split and stuffed with foul, corrupt materials. Her internal organs had mutated.
Worse still, dark energy infused with evil intent surged within her body, constantly eating away at her flesh.
The only silver lining was that she hadn't given up. A shred of remaining strength still shielded her heart and brain.
Of course, that wasn't due to her own power. The cultists had deliberately left her alive.
But that also meant she had a chance at survival.
With Roland's current strength, he couldn't cure her but she didn't need him to. All he had to do was stabilize her condition and send her to the Moon Elves.
They would be able to handle it.
Roland began with a second-tier healing spell. Then, placing his staff aside, he drew a dagger.
As he maintained her life force with spells, he used the dagger to extract the wicked materials the cultists had embedded into her body, one piece at a time.
Once all the foreign objects had been removed, Roland turned his attention to her mangled torso.
The dark energy, now deeply intertwined with her very being, was not something he could remove easily.
After a moment's hesitation, Roland made his decision he would replace the evil dark energy with his own pure variant.
He channeled his own dark element into her body, flushing out the twisted energies that had been tormenting her.
With the corruption gone, her vital signs began to improve.
Now that her condition had stabilized and she was no longer at risk of immediate death, Roland looked around the room.
After a quick scan of the surroundings, he had an idea.
He chopped the nearby tables into planks, cut down a few support beams from the prison, and pieced together a crude coffin.
Then he scattered some wild grass seeds onto the wood and used a simple plant-growth spell to bind the boards together with living vines.
The makeshift coffin was complete.
But simply placing her inside wouldn't do. In her current exposed state, lying in that rough wooden box would leave her riddled with splinters.
Roland paused to consider a solution.
First-tier spell Underwater Breathing.
This spell created a thin membrane over the target's body, allowing them to breathe underwater while shielding them from liquids.
Though not known for its durability, the membrane would easily block splinters and more importantly, act as a temporary layer of skin to keep her insides from falling out.
With the plan in mind, Roland cast the spell without hesitation.
As the magic settled, a pale blue film enveloped the Moon Elf's body, sealing her bleeding wounds and gently separating her from the outside world.