Chapter 199: The Leader of the Cult

[Outskirts of the Kingdom, Near the border]

The moment Shun dealt the last blow to kill Asmodeus, he then slump to the ground as he breath in sigh after exhausting himself till this point. Alongside him, other members also gathered around him specifically Mordred, Merlin, Lionel, Diva, and Akito, in order to assess whether Asmodeus was actually killed or not.

The moment they checked him for verification, everyone then sigh in relief as they all finally calmed their nerves from the tense atmosphere they had experienced. On the other hand Asmodeus death sparks various reaction from the surrounding people fighting against each other all over the mountain.

While the Kingdom's forces cheers in delight over the death of one of the cult's executives and powerful warrior, causing everyone to be motivated. The cult's side on the other hand finally had their morale shatter as some lower ranking members finally started to flee upon witnessing the death of one of their top leaders.

The moment such people started to flee, some of the Kingdom's forces then quickly apprehended them as they all prevented them from escaping to a nearby settlement and hide their presence. Alongside those who started to flee, some of the executives of the cult also started to run  away after realizing their accumulated loss. From this fight battle alone, a lot of executives of the cult had died from the battle.

Of course If there are cult members who flee, there are naturally who stayed still their place as they haven't given up till the last moment. Nevertheless due to every loss their side had accumulated, their morale was still all time low, causing numerous incident detrimental to their side to happen all over the place.

With all the chaos happening all over the place, the various higher ups in the kingdom's army then started to make their move as the each dealt with their own opponents. While this was happening, Shun and the others took their time to rest themselves before heading inside the mountain cave.

Just inside this place was Adelfried himself, the person who Amadeus claims to have been the person who also owns the fragment of the Aquasphere's power. In order to prevent a world wide catastrophe from happening, they then had no choice but to fully retrieve the power of the Aquasphere that they have harvested.

In that moment Shun then begun to asked Merlin.

"By the way what happened to him? the moment he took out his scythe, he then begun to daze out of nowhere as if his soul left his body"

"Oh him? well he just experienced quite a vicious battle in his mind" answered by Merlin

"Battle? To whom?" asked by Akito

"To us!"

"!!!!!"

Upon hearing Merlin's words, both Lionel and Diva immediately understood the meaning behind his answer, while Akito and Shun together with Mordred is still confused. Naturally it was acceptable that Akito and Shun is still confused of Merlin's answer since they still don't know the scale of his illusions, but for Mordred who mostly thinks using her instincts and guts, such a thing is because of her low intellect.

"Apparently Asmodeus just experienced a tough battle inside his mind to the point that he needed to rely to the Aquasphere's power. However everything that he experienced was all just an illusion that is happening inside his mind" explained by Merlin

With that Lionel then in turn came to ask.

"How did this happen? when did you install him inside your illusion|?"

"... Hmmm... well... the very moment he first he took me down in a single swing"

"...."

"It was quite hard infecting his mind you know! Infecting him to my illusion of his caliber takes time to sneakily install him to the point that he wont notice... Luckily for us before he could even use the Aquasphere's power, he was already fully installed to my illusion, thus it only takes a matter of time for him to fully drown in the illusion world"

"So basically the moment he got caught in your illusion, he was done for?" asked by Akito

"Exactly!"

"...That's basically like a mind corruption but less painful and dark element" commented by Shun

While everyone was taking their time talking to each other, Mordred on the other hand placed her sword above her shoulder as she paced around the place and stood at the entrance of the mountain cave. Technically all she understood in the talk was that the scythe person was caught in Marlins trap, anything beyond that point was totally something she doesn't understand.

Thus instead of wasting her time figuring out the meaning behind Merlin's words, she then would use her time to prepare herself for the attack towards their last enemy.

After quite awhile, Captain Kalego together with some of the commanders of the kingdom forces, then approached them from behind as they all finished their own battles. As for the head general who got mortally wounded in this battle, he then instead chased after some people who tried to escape the battle together with some soldiers who are quick on their feet.

The moment Captain Kalego together with some other members of the Aqua force came near them, he then begun to inquire some information regarding their battle which in turn made Merlin explain everything from the beginning non-stop.

Soon after he then finally understood the situation as he then looked at the entrance of the mountain cave.

"So the final enemy is inside the mountain? whos going in?"

"We'll go!, Captain Kalego and the rest should stay here and prepare for ambush in case it tried to escape outside" Answered by Shun

At that Captain Kalego turned towards Shun before stating his thoughts.

"I know your strong, But can you guys defeat him?"

"We cant defeat him, that's why I'm having you guys stay here"

"???"

"We will go in and try our best to tire him out, you on the other hand will conserve your energy and try to take him down the moment his tired out"

"So this will be a battle of endurance?"

"... something along those line"

After Shun said those words, a bluish energy suddenly escaped Asmodeus body as it rushed inside the cave completely bypassing everyone around it like a gust of wind. Just by seeing the direction where the bluish energy was rushing towards to, everyone then finally confirmed the location of the last enemy as they all wore a serious expression.

Finally Captain Kalego then gave in as he let Shun together with Akito, Mordred, Diva, Lionel, and Merlin go inside the mountain cave first and deal with the situation inside. the primary objectives on going inside was to either defeat the opponent or tire him out.

With such affirmation, everyone then quickly goes inside the mountain cave which was riddled with lot of maze like ways which all leads to the center of their hidden base. Since everyone aside from the leader had rushed out of the cave in order to fend off the kingdom's forces, the cave itself was naturally empty which is less problematic as it is.

Soon after quite some time, they then arrived at the huge dome inside the mountain filled with rocky mounts all over the place and Adelfried standing in the center of the said dome. The moment they entered such place, Adelfried then  looked over their direction as he fully welcomed his first challengers in order to assess the level of his control over the Aquasphere's energy.

 "Welcome! to your graves you hypocrites of the kingdom!!!"