Chapter 158: Chapter 158 - Mission Complete

- Right before the tragedy -

Deep within the subterranean belly of the wooden house, the cultist – whose features were obscured by a deep, tattered hood – was scribbling feverishly on a clipboard.

His eyes darted from the piece of paper, then up the centerpiece of the room: a vertical glass cylinder filled with bubbling, bioluminescent fluid. Inside the cylinder a body floated, tethered together by dozens of translucent tubes.

Austin’s boots clicked on the stone stairs as he descended from the upper floor. "I’ve seen the villagers off," he announced, his voice echoing in the cramped space. "They’re heading back to the village to await further instructions."

"Hm, yes. Good work, Brother," the cultist murmured without looking up. "My work requires order. Your assistance has been invaluable."

Austin leaned against a workbench, keenly fixing his gaze toward the body in the tube. "Uh-huh. No problem at all, ’Brother’."

A moment passed in silence, broken only by the hum of the life-support machinery. The cultist paused his scratching and turned only his head toward Austin. "Is there something else? Your task is complete for now. I have no need for your assistance at the moment."

"O-Oh, uhm! Just curious," Austin said in a deceptively light tone as he eyed the pulsing gem embedded in the floating body’s forehead.

"Say, I never got around to asking, but what happened to your first assistant? The guy with the messy hair and creepy laugh? It’s been a day since he was supposed to come back with Gregory."

"Gregory?"

"I-I mean, Gary, hahaha..."

The cultist certainly wasn’t laughing, but he chose to ignore this and went back to his notes. "He is dead."

"What? Dead? Who? Gary? Just like that?"

"No, not Brother Gary... Or perhaps he is, who knows. I’m talking about my previous assistant. Shortly after your ’misfortune’ brought you here and you claimed to be a friend of Brother Gary, I sent my assistant to retrieve him. He never returned. I tracked his signature to the swamp’s edge this morning and found his skull was practically caved in..."

The cultist paused as a dry chuckle escaped him. "But it matters not. You are proving to be a much more capable replacement. More... observant."

’Caved in with a rock? Where the hell did Gary go? Did that idiot really just abandon me because I didn’t want him watching me pee? No, wait... a rock? That doesn’t sound like Gary’s doing.’’

Suddenly, the laboratory was filled with the sound of glass vibrating. The body in the tube began to jerk violently as its limbs twitched in an unnatural spasm. The bioluminescent fluid turned a murky, angry red.

"What’s happening?!" the cultist panicked, dropping his clipboard. He rushed to the glass and pressed his hands against the surface as if trying to calm the chaos within.

"It’s too early! The synchronization isn’t complete!"

From the floor above, a chorus of high-pitched, metallic screeches tore through the air, followed by the thunderous sound of hundreds of feet – both human and insectoid – sprinting away from the house.

"Nononono! This cannot be happening!"

He scrambled toward the stairs and raced to the upper level to see what was happening. Austin stood in the lab, his heart hammering, but he didn’t follow. He stayed behind as his eyes locked on the jerking body in the tube.

The cultist burst through the front door of the house, his eyes widening as he saw the silhouettes of his experiments and the massive centipede guardians vanishing into the fog of the swamp, all heading toward the village with a single-minded purpose.

"Don’t tell me... has the Elder died? No! He should be the closest thing to immortal! Were my calculations perhaps off? No! Never!" The cultist started to panic as his mind raced for answers.

"Dammit! I can’t be thinking of this right now. First things first. Austin! Get the stabilizers! We need to move the–"

"He’s a bit busy at the moment," a melodic voice interrupted from the porch.

The cultist whipped his head around and saw swirling pink sakura petals dancing in the humid swamp air, coalescing into the elegant, lethal form of Izumi Ayako.

"You," the Cultist gasped in a voice full of venomous recognition. "The Izumi’s prodigy. What are you doing here? Don’t you have some meaningless tournament to prepare for in the capital?"

Ayako offered him a serene, yet predatory, smile. "Does this not count as preparation? I have been scouting your little nest for the last few minutes. You see, I was worried you might have hidden reinforcements, but it seems your pets have all decided to take a sudden trip to the village. How fortunate for me."

She took a slow step forward, still smiling. "You are alone. You are outnumbered by the sins you have committed. If you would kindly be cooperative, I might allow you to keep your head for the King’s interrogators."

"NO! This was not part of my plan! I can’t let you ruin all I’ve worked for!" the cultist screamed and bolted back into the house, diving down the stairs toward his laboratory.

"Chasing a rat into its hole... how nostalgic." She began to walk after him at a leisurely and terrifying pace.

Below, in the lab, the situation had descended into chaos. Austin had grabbed an iron wrench and shattered the glass of the test tube. The green fluid rushed out, drenching the floor in a sticky, glowing slime. The body of the woman slumped forward into his arms, cold and limp.

Austin was frantically digging his fingers into the soft, greyish flesh of the woman’s forehead, where a pulsating, emerald crystal was embedded deep into the bone.

"Come on... come on, you beautiful little cheat code..."

"TRAITOR!"

The Cultist screamed as he flew down the stairs his face contorted in a mask of pure, unadulterated madness. "What are you doing!? That is decades of work! You are ruining everything!"

"Fuck you and your work, bitch!"

"AUSTIN!"

"Ahhh! Ayako-tan, help!"

The Cultist lunged, his fingers curved into claws, but a sudden flash of silver light intervened. Ayako appeared between them. She didn’t draw her blade. Instead, she merely touched the cold steel of the hilt to the cultist’s forehead.

In a heartbeat, a layer of thick, crystalline ice erupted from the point of contact. It raced over the cultist’s body, encasing his robes, his screaming face, and his outstretched hands in a solid, unbreakable block of blue ice. He stood there, a frozen statue of rage, not moving an inch.

Austin collapsed onto his butt, gasping for air, as he looked at the frozen man. "Oh... oh man. That was close. Thank you. Thank you so much."

Ayako turned her gaze toward him with eyes shimmering as cold as the ice she had just conjured. She looked at the body on the floor, then back at him.

"And what exactly were you doing to that corpse, Austin?"

Austin’s brain went into overdrive. He forced a somber, heroic expression onto his face. "This... this was my grand plan. After staying with him and watching him, I learned that this body is the source of the infection. I saw an opening when he ran upstairs and decided to destroy it. It was a mercy, wouldn’t you say! I mean, she was on life support while being used like a battery."

Ayako scrutinised him for a long second. Then, she gave a slow, measured nod. "A bold move for a weak student such as yourself. But... Did I not tell you to call me by that name again. I believe it’s time I teach you a lesson in respect."

Austin immediately hit the floor. He performed a perfect, professional dogeza – forehead pressed to the stone and hands flat.

"I am so sorry, Lady Izumi! Please forgive my insolence! I was under extreme duress! I am but a lowly student, unworthy of even speaking your name! Let alone giving you a cringy one such as that!"

"... Oh my. Your dogeza is flawless," she remarked, sounding genuinely impressed. "Your center of gravity is perfect. Fine. I shall overlook it this once. But not again."

"THANK YOU VERY MUCH! ARIGATO!"

She walked past him as her attention turned to the corpse. She knelt beside it, brushing the wet hair away from the woman’s face. "Who is she? To be kept like this... she must have been someone important."

"That...uhm... that is the body of the previous Saintess."

"..... What?" Ayako recoiled slightly. "The previous Saintess? From the Holy Land of Eden? How? How does the cult have her body? This is a heresy beyond measure."

She turned back to the body and placed a hand on the woman’s shoulder. "To be used as a vessel for such filth... I am truly sorry. However, please know that it is all over now."

She released a gentle pulse of mana, encasing the Saintess’s body in a layer of clear, protective ice, shaped like a coffin.

"The King and the current Saintess will find this ’present’ most enlightening," Ayako murmured as her political mind churned. "This will solidify the alliance between Myria, Eldoria, and Eden like nothing else... Wait. Let’s slow down. Those infected and monsters all ran in the direction of the village. I must head back and assist them."

She then stood up and turned to Austin. "Stay here and guard this lab. These records and the frozen cultist are vital evidence. Do not let anything happen to them. I know your name, and I know your Academy. If so much as a scrap of paper is missing when the Royal Knights arrive... you will–"

"You can count on me, Lady Izumi! I won’t move an inch!" Austin did another perfect dogeza.

"... Good."

With a whisper of wind and a swirl of pink, Ayako was gone.

Austin waited. He stayed in the dogeza position for a full sixty seconds, listening to the silence. Then, he slowly sat up. A slow, triumphant grin spread across his face.

"Evidence? Knights?" He reached into his pocket and pulled out the pulsing, diamond-shaped emerald gem he had successfully pried loose right when Ayako arrived to save him. "I don’t give a damn about politics."

He held the gem up to the light as it glowed with a divine hue.

"EX Healing... the ultimate cheat skill. With this, I’m basically immortal. Mwahahaha!"

Without a second thought, he shoved the gem into his mouth and swallowed it whole. As it slid down his throat, a surge of agonizing, radiant warmth exploded in his chest, and for a moment, his entire body glowed with a blinding, holy light.

"Hahahaaaa.... Mission complete."