Ashen had thought he knew his territory like the back of his hand, but he was sorely mistaken.
Lucia didn't take more than a day to uncover what he'd missed in months, staying true to her cultist culler reputation.
Across the dozen simulations where she'd spent the majority of her time chasing and catching cultists, she'd acquired an innate sense for them. She could sniff them out from behavior and unconscious tells alone.
She'd caught one such individual during the festival.
BANG—!
"Is this him?" Ashen asked after throwing the shaken man against the basement wall.
The basement was a new part of the lord's mansion construction that had only just been completed.
"That's him." Lucia stood beside him with crossed arms.
Ashen glanced at the man's disheveled appearance, wildly swimming pupils, and nervous shaking. "He looks shady enough, alright."
Lucia shook her head. "Being shady isn't a good sign in this case. It just means we caught a small fry."
"So?" Ashen decided to leave it to the professional. "You have any ideas?"
"Knock him out first."
Bam—!
The man saw a blur before losing consciousness.
"Now we check his head." Lucia stepped aside.
Ashen nodded and cast his dream parasite. He closed his eyes and went still for several minutes before reopening them and shaking his head. "Aside from being scum, there's only a sparse amount of clues."
"Tell me."
Ashen took a moment to organize the information. "This man came from Ashbastion. The Bloodwall army sometimes accepts escort requests between camps, and some people got curious about my region. He's one of them."
He gestured toward the unconscious man. "What's suspicious is that he came into contact with people I have no recollection of. I didn't even know they were part of this settlement until now."
"Is there a chance they're part of the newly immigrated people?"
"Hard to say, but probably not. From the way these people moved and stayed hidden this long, it's been a while since they arrived."
When he acknowledged this, Ashen's mood darkened further. If that was true, there was only one way they could have gotten in.
"They came in secretly," Lucia muttered. When she noticed his expression, she added, "Don't take it too hard. It's normal for you not to notice."
"How is it normal? This is supposed to be my territory. Knowing who comes in and out is the barest minimum to call myself lord." Ashen laughed self-mockingly.
"That would normally be the case, but our situation is anything but normal. Cults found ways to infiltrate even Paradise. A budding fief is far easier."
"Attempting to stop them completely is foolhardy. Even Sin Lords with their vast domains fail to do so. Getting upset at yourself for allowing it is not only wrong but arrogant."
Ashen frowned. "So what should I do? Just let these parasites roam free in my backyard?"
"Not quite." Lucia shook her head calmly. "They can come in, but staying is another matter. All we have to do is find them and cull them before they become a real nuisance. It's like pest control. You can't always stop pests from getting in, but you can deal with them before they spread."
"Alright." Ashen took a deep breath. "This guy is a dead end. The only option is searching every inch of the territory for their hideout."
He paused. "Thankfully, we're still small. Otherwise, I don't know how I'd begin."
"Wait." Lucia halted him. "If we do that, it'll cause panic among the populace. The immigration effort will stagnate. Some newcomers might even demand we send them back."
"That bad?"
"Yes." She nodded. "That's how fearsome a cult's reputation is, especially among commoners. They're always the first targets."
"That complicates things." Ashen ran his fingers through his hair. "I'll just look for them myself."
"You can do that, or we can squeeze the information out of him forcefully." She pointed at the unconscious man.
"You thought of something?"
"Did you forget about my skill? Future Echo."
"Oh...? Oh!" Ashen took a second to connect the dots. "If his present self is clueless, it's not necessarily the same for his future self."
"Exactly." Lucia raised two fingers. "But for the skill to work and not summon a corpse, two things must be present."
She curled one finger down. "We have to convince ourselves not to harm this man in the future, so he lives long enough to become useful."
She curled the other finger. "And before that, we have to convince him to accept the skill's effect. Future Echo doesn't work without consent."
Ashen nodded. "Leave it to me."
He'd already used dreamweaving to give himself suggestions when he wanted to fool the lie detector. With the skill's upgrade, it would be even easier.
As for forcing the man to accept the skill's effects... that was simple.
'I've never tried my hand at torture, but pushing a few buttons with Somatic Autonomy should make him sing in no time.'
⁂
"AHHH—!"
"AHHHHHH—!!"
"PLEASE... JUST LET ME DIE...!!"
...
...
Tok.
The underground door opened slowly. Two people walked out.
From the earlier frantic shouts and the smudge of blood on the man's cheek, it was clear what had happened. From the woman's satisfied expression, it was also obvious that whatever went on down there had succeeded.
The man, however, had a strange look on his face.
'Why am I getting a sense of déjà vu?' He wondered for a moment, then remembered.
'Something similar happened with Seraphine back then.'
He recalled torturing that Chris guy with a pair of scissors alongside her before leaving him to bleed out and burning down the entire building.
'Is it just me, or are all my lovers a little bit crazy?'
Ashen finally started recognizing the obvious, but the cult matters didn't leave much room for overthinking.
"With this, we now know one of their hideouts." Lucia's voice brought him out of his thoughts. "All we have to do is find the next prey."
"Right."
...
The duo went on a hunting spree, terrorizing every cultist in the territory.
With each hideout they raided, they repeated the same operation. Sometimes it was a miss and they found an empty place, but with the abundance of cultists, they eventually found the next string to follow. By sunset, they were walking toward the last hideout.
From the last cultist's confession, this one was the main location where they conducted all their cult affairs.
"From all the info we've gathered, these guys are worshipping some god of sacrifice," Ashen said.
"As long as it's not the Eternal, they're cultists."
"Hey, maybe they're just sacrificing their own belongings. You never know." Ashen said it, but even he didn't believe his own words.
"Sadly, that's never the case."
There might have been a possibility the sacrifices were harmless, but that possibility vanished when considering what he'd gleaned from the dreams.
The cult used these sacrifices to gain strength. And what was the most suitable sacrifice for that? Weakness.
Sacrifice your weakness to gain strength. The concept sounded simple enough—until he heard the constant whispers about daughters, sons, babies. Ashen was forced to connect the dots.
In certain contexts, family could indeed be a weakness. For the poor, at least, an additional mouth to feed wouldn't empower them.
As he desperately tried to deny the horrific thoughts invading his mind, they reached a deserted stretch of land.
A thrust from his spear collapsed a portion of the earth and revealed a passage going down.
Ashen took the lead. Lucia followed behind.
In a bid to quiet his brain, Ashen asked as they walked the winding path, "Why do you think they targeted this place, despite knowing that the killer of their biggest cult's leader and you—who arguably has a more infamous reputation among them—reside here?"
"No matter how infamous you get among the cults, it will always fall short compared to the Sin Lords. And you, my dear, are unfortunately, no Sin Lord."
Ashen was about to retort, but was forced to shut his mouth at the sight that greeted them at the end of the path.
A high ceiling stretched above them. Cocoons hung down from strings.
Some cocoons appeared taller than others, but there was an unmistakable smell of rotting flesh.
Tack—!
Ashen cut one of the smallest cocoons with a thrown knife, letting it fall in front of him. With a slash from his spear, the contents revealed themselves.
It was a baby.
"..."
"..."
A rotting, decomposing corpse of a human baby.
He didn't speak. Neither did Lucia make a sound.
Even their breathing turned faint.
Eventually, he forced himself to keep moving. Lucia followed.
More and more cocoons appeared on the dark ceiling like stars in a black night. The sight was almost eerily beautiful, but knowing the contents, Ashen wanted nothing more than to incinerate whoever was responsible.
Finally, they reached what seemed to be the innermost room. They could faintly hear sounds of cheerful laughter and joyful chatting from behind the closed door.
Ashen took two forceful steps and kicked it open.
CRASH—!
Everyone froze.
The first thing that caught Ashen's attention was the huge statue of a goat-like face with massive horns. Right beneath it, a collection of neatly preserved corpses lay on an altar.
But what truly made him freeze was what lay lower. Right past the altar stood a long table. Surrounding it, men in long red robes with hoods sat leisurely, each holding a plate with meat.
But what was present on the table wasn't dishes.
It was a bound woman.
Her naked form was completely coated with honey, and portions of her sides and breasts had been cut away. The most damning thing was that she appeared to still be alive.
Ashen felt dizzy.
These cannibals were eating a human alive on a table with forks and knives, pretending to be civilized people.
"Oho! A guest... what a rare occasion."
Ashen didn't know if they hadn't recognized him yet or if they were simply insane, but they were greeting their intruder amiably.
"You arrived at the perfect time. We have sacrificed this woman's soul to the Outer God of Reverent Self-Consumption, and he has granted us the rare opportunity of partaking in her flesh!"
Ashen closed his eyes.
He stayed like that for a moment, wondering if this wasn't simply a nightmare conjured by his Liminal Dreamer trait. But nothing changed.
So he asked the only sane person in the room.
"Lucia... belonging to the same race as this." He looked at her with dead eyes. "I suddenly feel unbearable disgust. I can barely stand myself. What do I do...?"
Lucia returned the same look. "...Fret not, Ashen. You don't have to feel anything of the sort. After all, these things ceased to be human long ago."
"They will never belong to the same race as us."
"Therefore, they are not human."
"They are monsters... You can view them as just another breed of Narkals."
"So do not falter."
"Go…" Like an angel sending down her messenger, she finally pointed at the feasting cultists.
"Kill the monsters... just like you always do."
Some life seemed to return to Ashen's eyes. "Okay. Okay..."
Readying his spear, he advanced while repeating the same mantra in his head.
'I refuse to belong to the same race as you. Therefore, you are not human.'
'I refuse to belong to the same race as you. Therefore, you are not human.'
'Kill the monsters.'
'Kill the monsters.'
'Kill the monsters.'
"Kill the monsters!!"
BOOM—!!
⛧ ⛧ ⛧