Chapter 116 – Cultists

In the end, I didn't look away from the goat sacrifice and now I regret my life choices... I'm clearly being overdramatic but it has at least made me lose my appetite... I'm lying about that too. Let's just move on from witnessing a still beating heart outside a goat though, I'm just going to blame my dragon DNA for being fine with this.

"Ashraf kemf achram tome..."

"..."

Penelope's been speaking in tongue while Petra's been injecting her black fire into the glass ball directly for a good ten minutes or so now. When we have the chance, I'm definitely going to ask more about how this works with Petra, hopefully she can dumb it down a little for me but this sort of thing is always difficult to understand. I'm also guessing what Penelope ii saying isn't actually a language hence why it's not being translated.

All of a sudden without any warning, the light-coloured crystal ball turns pitch black and an intense murderous aura covers all around us. Whatever those two have done, it's seems to have done something sinister.

<WHO DARES MESSAGE ME WHILE I'M WORKING? *COUGH cough*>

A screeching feminine voice roars from the crystal ball clearly pissed at being disturbed but very quickly calms itself before any of us can respond though. That aura seems to fade pretty quickly as well.

<*Cough cough*... ah, sorry about that, you caught me right when I was in the middle of something, damn cesspit duty...>

Then through the coughing, a more masculine voice seems to fade into existence. If that's the same person, then I'm pretty sure we've managed to contact Loki, I actually can't believe this has worked! I'm also guessing he was just female as well for some reason?

<...If you're looking for introductions, I am the one and only God of mischief, trickery and shapeshifting Loki... apparently, it's honestly a little annoying to be assigned to such childish roles but life would be so much more boring without the odd jump scare every now and then. So... why have you dared to call me whoever you are? I'll respect you if this is a prank call but this seems a very elaborate and time-consuming joke especially with the sacrifice involved>

"It's Miss Penelope, Mr Loki! You may not remember me but I was friends with that pervert who used to arrange all those gender changing orgies! He used to talk about you loads!"

Hang on... you know what, I'm definitely not asking Penelope about that. Ariza seems a little dense of what was just said but me and Petra clearly understood it, both of us can't help but facepalm when hearing something so causally brought up like that. If you don't understand what that word means, then bless your innocent soul.

<You were friends with that horny mess? Huh... small world I guess, I think I may even remember you being at one but you were only delivering a message if I remember correctly. Enough about that though, you care to explain why you four have called me up?>

He must have some way of seeing or sensing us if he's able to notice that. As for our response, it's a good thing Petra's now taking the lead since I'm a little lost for words and Penelope can't say everything even if she really wants to.

"We're looking for someway of changing someone's gender oh high and mighty Loki and we were hoping you'd be able to assist us in some way"

Petra has always had a way of appealing to a person in a higher position but I get the feeling this guy might be a little like Dionysus, maybe not as nice but there's no point trying to appeal to that higher power inside him.

<Ah, so this is what this is about, you wish to make a deal? Hehe... normally for these types of things, it requires a little sacrifice from someone's else's part, the problem is you four don't have any of the sacrifices I'm looking for. Actually, that's not true but it would go against what I'm thinking right now. I do find it pretty strange how three of you used to be reversed as well, normally I have a part to play in that so I'm a little ashamed someone else has been taking my job>

Loki's job? Don't tell me he's been going around randomly switching people's genders as a joke? At least that proves he isn't the one responsible for doing this to me and Ariza but there is a different question that I need to ask though.

"You know about that? How comes?"

<It's not that difficult to tell orange phoenix, you four have become all the talk around the hidden districts in the higher realms recently. It's pretty entertaining to hear about the apparent end bringers who will either unite or purge the worlds into darkness but either way, I'd like to get our relationship off to a good start before I inevitably do something that is hilarious but will probably piss you off. Tell you what, I'll give you a hand switching one of guys gender permanently but obviously for a favour in payment. Keep in mind though, this will only work for one of you>

Well, that's not a problem, me and Penelope never had any intention of changing back anyways so if this is supposed to be a massive plot twist where I all of sudden want to change stealing Ariza's chance at such a thing, you can unfortunately be bored with how things are going.

"What's the price then Mr Loki!? How much does a gender change cost then!?"

"Usually, the normal price would be a sacrificial exchange just simply to balance out the fates from someone less willing on such a thing, my preference has always been to rob a male of their best part and switch them up but I'm thinking that the blue phoenix is the person you wish to change?"

"Uh huh, Mr Loki"

For some reason, my mind can't help but imagine Zeki would be a perfect sacrifice if he was here, I'm not that nasty though... or am I? Forget how much justified suffering that would cause him, turns out the God Loki might have a thing for stealing third legs...

<So, the more boring answer would be killing... always with the unnecessary killing, I'm more like my shield brothers then I'd like to admit. There's a group who have been worshipping demons popping all about recently, building statues of the ugly ones as well as making a right ruckus over here too. Go find one of the main cultists hideaways, wipe all the scourge from the face of your world and then your price will be paid since it'll pay off a favour I owe. I'll keep an eye out so I'll know when you're done>

Then without a warning again, the crystal ball shatters into a thousand pieces leaving a hand drawn map under the glass shards. I know that a quest to help Ariza's gender would be a little strange but didn't expect it would involve killing some cultists.

"This quest is just going to get weirder and weirder now, isn't it?"

"Heh, agreed Ikarus"

"Uh huh, thanks for helping though everyone"

"No point in complaining or worrying! Mr Loki's given us a map so let's get moving!"

'At least Penelope's always upbeat about everything I guess...'

__________

"This is the correct location, right? This wasn't what I was expecting but this entire thing has been like that now"

"Heh, that's what the map he gave us says Ikarus"

"Uh huh, we can look again but it's definitely this elven town"

"It should be fine since Mr Loki gave us that!"

Out pretty far into the elven continent woods, we've just arrived at an elven town really in the middle of nowhere. By the looks of it, these elves appear to be pretty friendly and willing to talk to strangers but if we're basing this off what Loki says, then cultists that worship demons reside here. It could also be that the entire village is hiding that secret and killing strangers who find out but for some reason, I kinda doubt that. This place just seems pretty normal, no one is avoiding us or purposely going out their way to speak.

I'm also pretty certain the subspecies of elf living here, that being the dark elves are the main inhabitants of this place. I do remember Petra saying a while back that there's seven main elven tribes in this world that all seem to have unnecessary racism to each other. By the looks of it, this particular tribe don't seem to dislike humans oddly enough. I probably shouldn't call them a tribe seeing that the architecture is pretty similar to that gigantic city of Aurora we went to, just excluding the gigantic towers and tree of Yggdrasil. Elves have a thing for the colours green and white it seems but there seems to be no point focusing on this unnecessary town.

"So... should we start poking around interrogating the locals and looking for clues then?"

I'm actually quite liking this goose chase of a quest we're following despite it being ten days already, unfortunately my inner detective isn't allowed to come out since magic exists. Bloody magic.

"Heh, no need Ikarus, there's a huge surge of energy coming from below this place, we'll still need to find an entrance though"

"Petra's right! This feels like one of those ancient summoning rituals used for summoning heroes! It's unfortunate I only ever got to experience an ancient destroyed one, even that was pretty strong though"

Ah, something that Penelope just said reminds me of something I read about once. You see, apparently heroes used to be summoned to this world like nearly every other isekai... Cliché or not, isn't having a phoenix summoning or reincarnation thing enough? Sigh, I've got to cut down on my pointless moaning but the point does still stand, at least that's another forgotten magic apparently. If it feels similar like what Penelope just said, maybe it might not be forgotten.

The thing about those old rumours is that no one knows what happened to them or even if they were from Earth, we're talking thousands of years ago so this is something even my parents wouldn't have a clue on. It's a shame knowledge always gets lost to history at some point but nothing we can do about that I'm afraid, that does give me an idea to build a historic library for our island though. Marcus would be perfect for documenting everything if he's got time for such a thing but I might just bring that up like a small suggestion sometime.

"So it's directly beneath us then? Are we going to find the entrance or take a more direct approach?"

At this point, we've waked into the middle of the settlement and I presuming we're right over where this magic feeling is coming from. Thinking about it, I can kinda feel something coming from the ground as well lightly pulling me towards it, really odd feeling that.

"Heh, can already tell what you're hinting at Ikarus, I'd let you but there's really no need"

"Yes Petra's lover! That well over there looks like a way down!"

In all honesty, have I even got something small enough to just destroy through the floor here? I really don't have anything that can destroy just a tiny amount, it's either fire or full-blown Armageddon so destroying the floor into what's below us might be impossible.

Also, Penelope every now and then keeps calling me that for some reason, I'm unsure if it's supposed to be rude but I actually like it so I really couldn't care though. As for the well, it looks completely run down so maybe it's just used as a vent? There's no way people would use that as an easy entrance to go down but hey, at least we won't have to go around asking loads and loads of people if they've seen anything suspicious lately. That's how these types of quests always seem to go anyways.

"Looks like we're climbing down a well then... this reminds me of an old kids' tale..."

__________

(Ikarus) "It fucking stinks down here"

"Uh huh"

(Petra) "..."

"Lighten up everyone! It's not that bad!"

Now down in the dark underbelly of this elven settlement, we're currently walking through an endless tunnel that was connected to the bottom of this well we had to awkwardly climb down. It should pretty obvious there was no water in this rundown well and the fact there's tunnels means we're definitely on the right track, I can already tell we might need to find another way out since there isn't enough room to fly back the way we came but it shouldn't be too difficult, this place does seem to have a tiny breeze running through it as well.

We make a couple of turns through the tunnels trying to find the source of the magic and come across a much larger tunnel filled to the brim full of something sinister. By God, I've never seen something like this.

"Have we just come across an ancient resting place or something?"

"Uh huh Ikarus, there's a lot here"

"..."

"Wow! Look at all these skeletons! A necromancer would love this place!"

Thousands and thousands of bones, skulls, basically any part of the human skeleton remain stacked on shelfs all across the sides of this large tunnel. This place must be an ancient elven catacomb and judging by how it looks, it's overcrowded. Damn, that's a lot of bones. Is this like that French one I've heard so much about? At least we don't seem to be getting lost down here despite the massive size of the skeleton filled room we're now in.

"Huh... this must be one of the many burial grounds that were built after the volcano erupted, heard rumours of what happened but to think this many died just in this small town alone, it's really not great"

Petra the historian seems to have an idea what this place might be for but is she right though?

"Seriously Petra? This is just from that volcano alone?"

"Don't forget Ikarus, the eruption caused the temperature to drop causing a vast amount of starvation and things like that even over here, it basically covered the entire Jötna continent after all. I'm only speculating since it could be even longer but a lot of people did die"

"That volcano really wasn't fun! Back then, I would've been a lot younger but the snow that fell all year round was beautiful though!"

Well damn, just imagine how populated the elven world would've been before that dwarven volcano set off, it makes me wonder if we'd be able to survive it. Not the actual eruption I mean, the aftermath, basically if our settlement could survive an ice age if that volcano were to go off again...

It also turns out Penelope is older than the volcano eruption, should probably try and find the cult rather than discuss ancient history though, we are in a catacomb searching for a strong magic force so it could be dangerous.

We spend a good amount of time searching this place head to bottom trying to find the strong magic radiating and just as things are starting to feel like we've been walking in circles, Petra seems to notice something else. Despite just leaving the main catacomb room, even the hallways in these parts are filled with skeletons too.

"There's definitely something behind this but can't sense a thing other than a huge magic spike"

We've come across a heavy looking metal door down here in the catacombs and now Petra's got her ear up against it, looks like this might be the place. What's the bet there's an entire army of cultists behind this door?

"Okay dokey Petra, let's try and get this open then"

Me and Petra start trying to pull the metal door open but it only seems to move a tiny amount. It actually takes all four of us pulling as hard as we can getting this thing to budge and even then, it still is incredibly annoying.

Now having just opened the door, inside the dimly lit decrepit room is something spectacular looking and I'm not talking about the huge statue of another demonic looking creature that stands tall in the centre of this circular room. Similar to how colourful my supernova attack is, the magic in this room flows and lights up the place like an aurora, it would honestly be beautiful if there wasn't cultists inside.

"Who dares trespass while we're in the middle of our ritual!?"

"Foul vermin wandering these abandoned tunnels"

"They've found our hideaway!"

There's six people dressed head to toe in dark robes all praying to the statue. I should really use past tense though, they've all gotten up and look to be right pissed off at us now, even the magic inside this place seems to have gone a little more intense.

Instead of giving the cultists a response, Petra whispers something in my ear.

"Ikarus, I'm blind here, literally. That magic inside the room is interfering with my sight, I'm getting nothing but voices"

Petra's actually blind in here? Shit, whether it's an accident or not, that magic surrounding the place seems to be doing more harm than good, she'll have to sit this one out if possible. It's unfortunate but it's only going to be me and Miss gender bender fighting this time.

"Penelope, it'll be just us two"

"Understood Ikarus, we'll show these lot hell"

As Penelope's giving a surprisingly quiet response, both Petra and Ariza step back a little giving us space. Then, it seems that the cultists have gotten impatient with us refusing to speak with them.

"Are you trespassers too scared to respond!?"

"Who cares? Let's get rid of them!"

"Yeah! We'll dine on their flesh like with the countless others!"

Well great, turns out they could be cannibals as well, this is going to be fun. Just as the fight is about to commence though, there is a slight problem I'm having with the amount of floating magic all around the room as well. I have zero clue on how powerful these lot are and feeling it out seems impossible so got to return to the old and proven method.

'Status'

[<Unfortunately -Ikarus-, the residue magic seems to be interfering with status check as well. Aesa is unsure why though>]

'Wait, I seriously can't detect their levels? Well shit, I'm not taking this fight lightly then'

[<Agreed, do not underestimate the unspecified targets -Ikarus->]

I guess the failed checks happen time to time but it would've been nice to see, haven't got the time to recap on when it's failed before though.

Now kicking things off, several of the cultists put out their arms and presumably shoot magic at us. I say presumably simply because Penelope launches an electric looking shield blocking any from even getting close, it even looked to be absorbing some of the magicka inside the room as well but only a tiny amount though.

Not wanting to be a burden, I start to light up my flamethrower covering the room ahead of us and try to get some of the closer targets once her shield rapidly fades but it's really more of a mess, it's surprisingly difficult to fire in a room filled with bright colours that still it is quite dark.

Thankfully once I can see again from my spewing fire, one of the cultists is definitely dead from my flames but these lot seem to be a little more skilled than just regular foes. The response is another wave of attacks from most of them, this time around I can see what they are actually firing though.

It looks very similar to the magic surrounding the room but for what type of magic it is, I haven't got a clue and I don't plan on getting hit to find out. Both me and Penelope rush in opposite directions to avoid the somewhat slow-moving attacks and this has offered a pretty good opportunity.

Both now on the flanks, she fires an electric bolt from her hands towards some of the cultists her side and I go for another thrower attack since I've got three closer to me this time around. Visibility still sucks and all so it's more just trying to light up the area then actually aiming for a specific target. The overkill method does seem to be pretty effective though, albeit a little annoying since strategy has completely been thrown out the window here.

"You okay Ikarus?"

Hearing Petra's voice across the room, I can't help but get a little pissy at her, not the time for checking up on me while I'm in full flame coating mode.

"Yeah yeah, don't talk to me right now"

If I could find some way of disabling the magic inside here, then Petra would be able to slay everything within a heartbeat but I can't always rely on her. Heck, even Penelope seems to be struggling but now looking at it, that may be on purpose. Is she taking this seriously? She could've avoided that magic projectile that just hit her.

"For the love of the Gods! Will you rogue mages just surrender before I shock your hearts and make them explode!? Stupid, ignorant demon worshippers!"

Okay, I may need to hurry this up before she ends up pissed and stealing all this EXP, there's no chance she hasn't been holding herself back but I'm unsure how much longer that can last. Thankfully, two more targets are down on my side now.

"Nooo!"

"What the fuck have you done to my brothers!? All of you ca-"

"Oh, just shut up stupid demon worshippers! I'm not playing anymore!"

As Penelope cuts one of them off, she fires another lightning bolt into one of the people on her side, it instantly makes them collapse and then the same bolt somehow makes its way out of that dead cultist into another one. At least it's good Miss gender bender is actually powerful enough to fight even though I already knew she could.

Now we're just down to the last hooded figure and unlike what you might expect from the last person, they don't speak to us nor look to surrender just trying to fire another magical coloured attack in both our directions. Looks like we have a generic braindead NPC just let to deal with now.

There's no chance something that slow could even hit us when fighting seriously so when the projectile misses, we both counter with me using a fireball and Penelope sticking with the lightning. That's seems to have finished it now and both our attacks ripple through the magic into the heart of the last person.

As soon as the last mage cultist dies, the entire room filled with magicka absorbs into the walls disappearing and everything returns to dark as it should be. Of course, the questions are endless with this quest but at this point, I'm just happy we seem to be done, fighting against mages always has its dangers and I'm yet to come across a fight like that so it's good I came out of that unharmed. Same thing applies to Penelope yet she did take a single hit from them though but clearly looks perfectly fine. This isn't going to be one of those things where that attack secretly cursed her though, right? I feel like she'd say something if it did though.

'Thank God that's over, I wonder how much magic I used throughout that though, status'

[Name: Ikarus | Species: Phoenix | Level: 243]

[Health 48,000*/48,000*]

[Stamina 12,886*/20,000*]

[Magicka 27,392*/48,000*]

[You currently have 23500 unassigned points]

'Not that much I guess... just forty plus levels added in the blink of an eye and I don't even care that much... it's strange I really don't get that excited from that anymore'

You'd think that hey, Ikarus should be getting exited from the new unlocks like usual but I can't remain excited about everything I guess. Maybe it's because I'm still in serious mode that I'm not getting worked up about this but constant gambling can get repetitive at times though. Ah, I'll lighten up in a second.

"Everything good Ikarus?"

"Uh huh, does anyone need healing?"

Both those two rush in once the magic in the room has dissipated, Ariza looks a little concerned for Penelope's sake and Petra just looks her happy usual self. It's nice she has such confidence in me even if I basically did tell her to shut up during that fight. I feel a little guilty about that now but that could've been bad if Petra distracted me though.

"No need to worry! It turns out, your lover is actually quite the skilled fighter Petra! She's pretty deadly if I do say so! You really don't have to heal me Ariza"

"Uh huh, I do since you took a hit"

Yuck, praise, I guess it's alright but Penelope has annoyed me a little with that fight. Despite Ariza quickly healing her using blue flames, I really need to say something.

"I'd say the same but it seemed like you were just toying with them there, you do know that seemed pretty dangerous? Even if it wasn't, it didn't seem like the time to piss around"

"I'm not one for stealing all the glory Ikarus! Where's the fun if I hog all the kills!? That amount of danger was perfectly fine!"

Sigh... I guess even in the face of danger, Penelope still won't take things seriously, reminds me how I used to be but not complaining since I still get EXP. At least this quest seems finished now... or is it?

'Let's see if Loki holds up his end of the deal...'