Priam summoned his mist. He had decided to kill the Revenants and intended to do it right. That is, without triggering an alarm in the first few seconds. The alarm would be sounded eventually, but it should be as late as possible.
Theoretically, Priam felt ready to trigger the alarm and slaughter any Revenants who crossed his path. But in practice, he had no intention of wasting time. If the underground passages were immense, it would take a long time to find the Treasure Room. Worse, Anatole might take advantage of the situation to flee if he felt powerless.
So Priam decided to be stealthy and follow the priest and his followers who had entered the passageway two minutes before him. With no idea where the Treasure Room was, he might as well follow the priest to learn more about the Revenants and their methods of converting humans.
If the method depended on a physical object, it would certainly be kept in the Treasure Room. If not... the priest would confess.
In the room, the two guards stood facing each other, halfway between the staircase and the exit. A thin thread of invoked mist moved towards the guard on the right - the one on the left was looking opposite the stairs. Priam was betting that none of the guards would notice the misty thread. The light was dim and their work tedious.
Few people could spend several hours in a row guarding an empty entrance, let alone one so deep in their domain. Viracocha was their city, and the cathedral was off-limits to the public. The passage was secret - even if it was an open secret.
‘ An intruder would have been spotted before he got there’ . It was maybe with this thought in mind that the guard on the right died. One hand grabbed his chin, the other his shoulder. In a quick movement, Priam snapped the guard's neck after teleporting behind him. Without waiting for the body to hit the ground, he rushed at the second guard, who had been alerted by the noise.
Few humans were powerful. Priam estimated that a normal person had, on average, between two and three times the attributes of a pre-Tutorial human.
Mental attributes were easy enough to increase by working on a few academic skills. Most humans had transformed their professional knowledge into physical or mental skills. But once these low-hanging fruit had been picked, many began to stagnate.
The Revenant guard, trained by his faction, must have had physical attributes between forty and fifty. Exceptional for a human, but ridiculous against Priam. The man-at-arms didn't have time to draw half his weapon before Priam struck him with a violent elbow to the forehead. Thrown backward, the guard crashed violently against the wall without moving. His leather armor partially cushioned the impact, but Priam heard a terrible cracking.Priam, a grim look on his face, watched as the body crashed to the floor, leaving a trail of blood on the wall. Before the Tutorial, the man must have had an office job. Despite his anger and determination, Priam was aware that he had just killed two humans. He took no pleasure in it and knew he'd undoubtedly kill many more.
Priam looked at the body to understand his strength a little better. The forehead was smashed in, and the back of the skull had exploded. What a shame... For ten days, the man had been trained by the Cult to become a guard. His training had only recently begun and - fortunately for Priam - shouting for help was not his first reflex. I'll have to kill the next ones instantly and silently.
Priam was annoyed. If the guards had been three, he could probably have killed them without raising the alarm. But he was likely to come across larger groups of guards whom he would have to kill without making a sound.
The Baron took a moment to consider his options. He needed a skill capable of eliminating a man without making a sound. He could create a sound control skill using his Potential, but that would have been a waste of this precious resource.
Priam leaned over the guard and took his pulse. Nothing. Priam winced as he had an idea he wished he could test. He was almost sure of its viability. After all, he'd used the technique against Orthos, the first Baron he'd killed. Last time, he needed Potential, but this time he wanted to succeed without it.
His idea was simple: stop the blood flow to the guard's brain. But to test this, he needed a live guinea pig. Fortunately, that was not in short supply here. Experimenting on humans wasn't exactly ethical, but wringing their necks wasn’t moral either.
Priam turned towards the back of the room. It was closed by a heavy wooden door, reinforced with metal bars. Priam knew he could break it down, but it might cause some noise. He rummaged through the corpses for a key, before straightening up, empty-handed.
The lock mechanism on an old door wasn't very complicated and Priam moved towards it. [Kinetic Control] was supposed to be able to unlock it. He placed his hand on the handle and his shoulder against the door. Priam then summoned his fog into the lock. The inside of the cylinder was extraordinary, with micro-runes seemingly traced on it. Priam used [Aether Perception] and swore. The lock was magic. There was only one option left.
Lvl Up: [Aether Perception] lvl 3
META (PERC) +3
With his strength, he didn't need any skill to break down the door, but he intended to hold it back to make as little noise as possible after kicking it in. Priam lowered the handle and prepared to force the door open. He pushed and the door opened without a sound - the hinges seemed well-oiled.
Priam released the handle, ashamed. In the lair of a bloodthirsty cult, he'd expected to fight for every inch of ground, but the reality was quite different. Shaking his head, he stepped forward. The carnage would come soon enough.
Priam arrived in a spacious hall. It was soberly decorated with a scarlet marble circle inlaid in the floor. The ceiling was shrouded in darkness. Priam squinted and his Perception pierced the inky-black smoke to reveal the rough stone. Nevertheless, he found it hard to believe the smoke was merely cosmetic.
Several corridors connected the hall to the rest of the Cult's lair. From the central one, Priam heard the faint footsteps of a group of six people - surely the priest and the five worshippers. Despite his desire to follow them, Priam stopped. Members of the Cult were arriving from another passage. Priam's exceptional Perception told him that many men and women were roaming this area. If he ran in dressed as a simple worshiper, the first cultist to come along would sound the alarm.
Priam moved towards the corpse of the first guard behind him. He was wearing leather armor, a short sword scabbard and a collection of throwing knives. A black cape embroidered with a totem representing Viracocha was tied behind his back.
Priam quickly equipped himself with the cloak and throwing knives. He abandoned the sword and clutched his spear in his hand. If the Revenants didn't use a spear and it gave him away, so be it. But whoever spotted him had better sound the alarm quickly...
Without wasting any more time, the young man returned to the hall, closing the door behind him. Three members of the Cult arrived at that very moment from another corridor. Priam pulled the cloak up over his mouth, hiding his jaw injury, then nodded at them and continued on his way. The cultists quickly returned his greeting, absorbed in their conversation.
The first rule of entering a guarded area was to project an image of confidence. Priam had taken to strolling through the Cultists' lair as if he owned the place. Hiding in plain sight was sometimes the most effective strategy.
"The third team got decimated. The Baron rank Abominations got slashed to pieces against the spider," one of the Revenants told his comrades.
"General Tian Long plans to send the Viscount rank Abominations. He asked the Grand Master for special permission."
“In my opinion, it will take at least three Abominations. The spider is a true Viscount and has the home-field advantage. A surviving scout confided in me that the lair is filled with wires sharper than steel. When they start to vibrate, all you have to do is brush against them to get hacked to pieces..."
"I'm an arachnophobe..." said one, shivering.
Priam continued to listen to the three cultists with a distracted ear as they moved away. The assault on the Viscount below Viracocha seemed to have begun. The Revenants were unable to advance, but Priam wore a worried expression on his face. Apparently, the Cult had several entities of Viscount rank at its command. The Baron remained confident of victory, but it would not be as easy as he thought.
Even worse, the Cult's creatures were called 'Abominations'. Perhaps they were a rare species of unicorn, but Priam doubted it.
Out of the corner of his eye, Priam checked that no cultists were planning to take the stairs back up. Luckily for them, the three cultists disappeared down another corridor, unaware of their good fortune. Priam left them alive. The later the alarm was sounded, the better.
Priam accelerated to catch up with the priest's group. The corridor was several hundred meters long and the young man - running at the speed of a galloping horse - took around ten seconds to catch up. Despite his predicament, Priam smiled as he felt the bare ground beneath his feet.
The tunnel eventually widened into an antechamber with a large stone door. The same door as the one in the temple where Claire betrayed me. It confirmed that the Cult had the power to defeat Barons and that its members could leave the dome.
The door opened and the group entered an immense hall. Priam followed quickly behind and his gaze immediately fell on the room's central object. A grotesque altar representing a pile of human corpses. At a glance, Priam estimated their number at around a hundred.
The altar was abominably realistic and Priam winced in disgust. A meter above the altar, two cores levitated, orbiting together.
The room seemed made of a stone as black as night - certainly obsidian. A few free-standing torches pierced the room's darkness as their flames danced. Four ten-meter-high columns supported the ceiling, and an exit was located on the other side of the altar. The room was austere but majestic, with only the altar out of place.
As the priest-led group approached the altar, Priam stealthily teleported into the darkness. It wasn't the Treasure Room, but some kind of sixth sense was whispering to him that something was about to happen.
Lvl Up: [Stealth] lvl 13
AGI +1
The improvement in his skill reassured Priam. If it increased by one level, then he hadn't been spotted. It would have been strange for his skill to level-up when he failed his task.
The athletic, pallid-skinned, middle-aged priest strode to the altar before turning to the congregation. He was still smiling, but Priam winced. He felt that the five new worshippers wouldn't be as well received as they'd expected. Too bad no one's here to bet with me, because if this priest is friendly and has gathered them here for a welcome snack, I'm willing to hug Arnold.
"Allow me to congratulate you again. You are the Faithful, those who will summon an angel," said the priest. He pointed to the altar behind him and continued. "Viracocha believes in you, which is why you are here today. Now, sit against the altar and touch it. The ritual is about to begin."
A welcome ritual? This altar is a pile of petrified corpses! Are they drugged or something? Suddenly, Priam understood. The five men and women were indeed drugged, certainly the work of the smoke that had chosen them. No one could fail to react to the demonic altar.
One of the worshippers, a man in his fifties, spoke hesitantly.
"O Chosen One, I am honored to have been selected today. I assure you my undying devotion. However, I'm thinking of my daughter. She's young and I'm afraid she won't be able to manage without me, in the kingdom of our Lord..."
The gratitude mixed with sadness in this father's voice made Priam wince. It would have been simpler to believe that every Revenant was a monster. Death was horrible in its brutality, and Priam would have liked to help this poor man. Concepts were as mysterious as they were powerful. Priam's Talent proved that the System was powerful enough to bring someone back to life. But was this power accessible to a mere god?
The priest stepped forward and took the man in his arms.
"Death is a horrible and natural thing. But the very nature of man is to rise against it, to fight, and to survive. The System gives us this power, but it's strict. Viracocha, on the other hand, is merciful. He lends us his ability. Come brother, join us and accept Viracocha. Give yourself to him and you'll find your daughter. Let's not waste any more time. She needs her dad," he said with a smile
The man nodded, weeping. The priest positioned himself on the other side of the sinister altar and intoned a chant. Priam couldn't make out the guttural words and his instincts began to rumble. The five faithful dropped their heads as if a puppeteer had cut their strings.
As the chanting grew in intensity, half the altar began to levitate toward the Baron's core. The altar’s stone began to transform into a black fluid.
Priam squinted. The stone looked almost like flesh... Suddenly, the priest began to speak again in an understandable language. He had finished chanting and was now articulating a prayer.
"O Viracocha, accept these sacrifices. These living beings wish to enter your kingdom of their own free will. Open your gates to them and honor your chosen one for this offering. Life bows and the Dead serve thee."
Shit...
Priam hesitated for a second. The five worshippers were in a daze and continued to mumble. Should he intervene? He was here to understand the secrets of the Cult, after all. Was saving the five strangers - who had sacrificed their lives of their own free will - the right thing to do?
Priam's second of indecision cost him his window of opportunity. The five strangers suddenly exploded in a cloud of blood and bone. The clouds converged on the sphere of flesh housing Baron's core. The ball of blood, flesh, and bone increased in volume and began to twist. A kind of blood golem was taking shape.
Lvl Up: [Stealth] lvl 14
AGI +1
Priam was petrified. It was even worse than he'd thought. Revenants are turning humans into weapons.
As he tried to draw all possible conclusions from this information, the golem finished creating appendages and fell to the floor. The room shook under the impact of its four legs.
[Identification]
[Abomination - Depths] - Artificially created during a ritual, the Abomination is a cross between a raging beast and a golem. It results from the unnatural fusion of two cores, linked by the sacrifice of dozens of minds. As the catalyst for the ritual is an object belonging to the Depths, this creature gives off their pestilence. Every second it spends in your world pollutes it further.
An abomination evolves by absorbing new genetic material. Stop it while there's still time.
Lvl Up : [Identification] lvl 6
MEM +1
New Quest: Abomination
To pursue their dreams, some people will do anything.
A madman has sacrificed dozens of men and women to create an Abomination.
Avenge them, kill the Abomination.
Reward: Potential +50. Abomination essence. Bonus according to your participation.
Difficulty: Silver
The priest headed for the exit, only to stop when he noticed the Abomination's immobility.
"What's going on?"
The abomination raised its faceless head and stood still. Suddenly, the creature turned towards him. Priam smiled and cocked his spear.
"I was just tired of hiding."
Status: (Average value for a Homo sapiens male before integration: PHY 10 / MEN 10 / META 0)
PHYSICAL:
Strength 130
Constitution 197
Agility 148
Vitality 212
Perception 279
MENTAL:
Vivacity 168
Dexterity 153
Memory 39
Willpower 187
Charisma 135
META:
Meta-affinity 118
Meta-focus 85
Meta-endurance 61
Meta-perception 10
Meta-chance 114
Potential: 741
Tier 0
[He Who Eludes Death] charge: PRIMED.
[Tribulation] : Tribulations are coming.
Time: 23 hours 50 minutes 45 seconds.