Inside of a narrow alleyway within the West district of the city—
Among the limestone walls of houses and the garbage bins that were scattered on the side of the alleyway, three cloaked figures was seen walking quietly in the darkness.
With all of their hands being beneath the cloak, it was unclear of what their intention was, however they soon stopped at a strange place inside the alleyway.
It was a drainage hole, one that was usually used to drain all of the water on the surface after it rained.
While the three figures were staring at the drainage, as if wanting to open it and jump down into the hole, one o of them suddenly spoke to the rest of his friend.
"We're sure the bureau hasn't found our hideout yet?" He said.
The other person beside him soon answered.
"I doubt it, with the trap we've set up, they will probably assume we're here just to take a look around, but be careful just incase."
"Alright." The other figure nodded.
As it turns out, these people are the members of the Dead Deity Order.
And they were the one that created the chimera from before.
They liftep the lifted the drainage cover out of its place, and while a drainage was supposed to have a small hole that a human shouldn't even fit to get through, when one of the cloaked figure opened the cover, they were instead met with a wide hole that looks more like a waterslide than just a normal drainage.
The hole was jagged, spiky, and almost certainly dangerous, it's as if the hole was forcibly widened by an immense force like explosion.
"It was a good idea to prepare atleast one secret entrance." One of the figure said.
From beneath their hood, the three figures grinned and they soon jumped into the hole, arriving at the sewer system moments later.
Thud!
The three cult members landed safely, though a few parts of their cloak was torn because of the spiky edges inside the hole, they didn't suffer any injury from it.
And as expected, they were met with darkness of the sewer, however unlike Murph and his colleagues who couldn't tell where they were, these cult members began walking into one of the direction and never looked back, they didn't need any light, they didn't need to know what's infront of them, because to them, they've been here multiple times before.
It didn't took them a long time before they stepped into their real hideout.
A metal door, and a glowing light that seeped from the bottom crevices of the door, it was an obvious sign that they were doing something and had a plan to do with the city.
The three cloaked figure opened the metal door using a key that they've forged, and when the door was opened, the light that came from the inside immediately shone straight into their face.
A candle burned ontop of a desk, and within the room that looked like a long hallway, multiple corpses from various animals and even humans was littered all across the floor, emitting a foul stench that would be unbearable if it wasn't for the fact that the people that just entered was the very same people that killed all of those corpses.
"See? this place is untouched." One of them said.
They walked into the room and went into the middle spot, using a chalk that they took from the desk drawer, the cloaked figures soon drew a magic circle the size of a small trampoline.
"Our mission is done, we got the Fairy Soul and the Ghoul's Heart all from this city—
"Fuse all of the corpses and let the bureau be distracted by the puppies, and don't let them caught any of our trails."
"Understood." The other two figure nodded in agreement before the one that seems to be the leader continued his speech.
"Through our friends that also walked the path of the abyss, thanks to them that we are able to stay hidden from the heinous devotee of the light– Let their sacrifice be noble and may they watch over us from the abyss."
"Through our friends."
"Through our friends."
The three cult members raised their hand to their chest and drew a scythe as a gesture of respect, they then split up into one, each having their own tasks.
One of them deals with carrying the corpses into the magic circle, while another one casts their magic spell into the piling corpses.
"Let these pitiful beings be reborn into one mind, one body, and one perfection, O' Thryne"
Gloop!
Gloop!
The piling corpse suddenly turned into viscous liquid as the magic caster ended his chant, a dark and red fog engulfed the corpses of deer, human, and owl before their liquid mixed together to form a slimy mold that gradually grew.
At first, the slime looked sentience, then it began to take forms, first it was the human head, then its body being the deer, while the owl wings followed after to give it the ability to fly.
The abomination of a creature was born from the depths of hell, and its human head shrieked like a banshee before it noticed the three humans that were its creator.
Surprisingly, the chimera was calmed upon seeing the human that created it, it didn't attack, it didn't go berserk, it instead stood still like a statue that kept looking at someone.
"This is it, finally a complete chimera!.. Not like the previous failed trash— Now, my little puppy, stand outside." The human said, urging the chimera to get out of the room.
Thankfully it was only 2 meters tall, had it been more bigger than it wouldn't fit through the metal door and will have to destroy it using its strength.
The cult members continued their fusing, taking multiple corpses to transform it into a chimera while the last person that was sitting infront of the desk observed the Fairy Soul and Ghoul's Heart that he had obtained from the market.
"—The bureau will discover this place.." He abruptly said.
"We have to go now, they have a combatants from Ignis and is skilled in swordmanship, we won't be able to beat them by relying on our magic."
"Seriously?.. They really never know when to give up huh, shit."
Hearing their leader's order, the two other cult members fastened their fusion, each chant now taking only a second while the caster's mana are being drained almost to the point of nothingness, after there were more than 2 chimeras, the magic caster that were supposed to create more chimeras soon fell into exhaustion, he had to rest for a minute to create another one
.
.
10 minutes later—
The cult members managed to fuse corpses to create 6 chimeras, each chimeras having their own grotesque mix of creatures's body, head, and tail.
Such abomination shouldn't exist, yet through the power of the abyssal god, the God of Amalgamation, Thryne, it was possible.
The chimeras were then given their final task.
"Go berserk." One of the cult member said.
He and the two others gradually walked away from the chimeras who started to growl and ran away, their mouths drooling as their eyes were filled with nothing but rage.
Grrr...
Grrrrrr...
Hrrhh...
Hurphh!!
Hurrpphhh!!
.
.
Back to Murph's perspective—
Umbra acted as the source of light for everyone by using his fire magic, the fire he summoned was bigger than what Heimfher had in the past, which shows just how powerful someone that had advanced into the next stage of an awakened was.
As Murph and his friends followed Mr. Cell, he was asked by Carmen out of nowhere.
"Ahh, yeah.. Murph! You said earlier that you had a new member in your division right? Mind telling me about? Is it a girl? Is she beautiful?!" He said with a tad of blushing in his cheek.
"Focus on your walk old man.." Murph responded, he didn't pay Carmen any attention, however he still wanted to answer his question just so that there was no misunderstanding.
"He's not a girl."
As soon as Carmen heard that the new member in Murph's division wasn't a girl, his face frowned as if he had lost interest in an instant.
"Tch, that's not fun huh.." He said solemnly.
"But he's still an interesting person, at first i wanted to arrest him for purchasing illegal awakened substance, but then i realized that what he purchased was blight mana, and he drank it." Murph said, he recalled the time when he interrogated Heimfher in the his secret bureau basement.
"He drank it?.." Mr. Cell suddenly looked back and stared at Murph, he seems interested with Heimfher's story.
Murph then decided to tell the rest to everyone.
"He survived after drinking a full bottle of blight mana.. Even i couldn't believe it, i never seen anyone survive drinking that."
"Then, what happened to his mana veins? Is it true that anyone who survived drinking blight mana will obtain larger mana reserve?" Umbra promptly asked, he was walking at the forefront and looks uninterested with every conversation before, but now he was also interested.
"That's right, his mana veins have bloated almost ten folds.. It's insane that a human can contain that much mana, the fact that he's only 17 years old was even crazier." Murph replied.
"Unbelievable, i'd like to meet with him after this." Mr. Cell said, he wanted to see if what Murph said was really true or not.
The conversation wasn't supposed to end that early, Carmen was about to ask Murph about Heimfher, when out of nowhere, Umbra who was walking, stopped abruptly and startling everyone who was behind him.
Step!
Thud!
"Huh? Is there something—" Carmen said angrily, he initially wanted to complain but his mouth was shut off completely after he felt the ground beneath him shake.
Rumble!
"Something is coming.." Mr. Cell said, he and the others soon pulled out their swords and prepares for a fight.