The Kind of Evil

‎Xena and Rasmus clashed their swords against the Corrupted while Novia and Astrea supported them from the back. Because of the commotion, more and more bandits that got possessed by demons came to kill them. Thankfully, the Paladins and Servil's knights were capable of holding them back.

‎With Astrea's divine power, everyone's weapons were imbued with divine energy. Their weapons were capable of killing both the Corrupted and the possessed bandits. It made things easier, no matter how many of them out there.

‎The Blackheart Sword was so powerful and sharp that nothing could stop it. The Corrupted were strong compared to the possessed demons that Rasmus had encountered so far. However, he was still far stronger than them, and he could kill them with ease.

‎Xena showed her swordsmanship as the 3rd Swordmaster of Neva, treating the Corrupted like dummy targets. Her movements were swift and efficient, better than Rasmus's.

‎"Count, on your left!" Xena dashed and went to Rasmus's right side, clashing her sword against the Corrupted that tried to backstab him.

‎Rasmus glanced over his left shoulder and saw the Corrupted thrust his sword toward his back. He was in the middle of fighting two Corrupted, and he didn't have the time to stop the ambush.

‎Rasmus used all the Aura in his body and released it toward the sword that the Corrupted held. He imagined himself crushing the sword, and in an instant, the sword shattered into pieces. He then glared at the Corrupted and used the remaining Aura to push him away from him.

‎Xena saw it all happen, shocked by Rasmus's ability to control Aura. She realized that he could be on par with Uriel with that profound understanding. She was nowhere near those two, but it didn't discourage her because she knew she could still grow.

‎Once she dealt with the Corrupted, she went on to deal with the Corrupted that had tried to ambush Rasmus earlier. She swung her sword and released a powerful slash wave that cut the Corrupted in half.

‎Rasmus decapitated the two Corrupted with a single slash and watched the bodies melt with divine energy. He turned around and looked at Xena, who was finished dealing with the Corrupted on her side.

‎"Thank you, Lady Xena," Rasmus nodded his head.

‎Xena gave a nod back to Rasmus, and then she looked around as the Paladins and her knights managed to eliminate the possessed bandits. One of her knights was heavily injured, and she immediately approached her.

‎"She will live..." Astrea placed her hand on Xena's shoulder. "I will not let anyone die," she smiled at Xena before she walked ahead of her to heal the wounds on the knight.

‎Astrea used her divine power and healed all the wounds in almost an instant. The wounds that should have killed the knight disappeared as if nothing had happened to her in the first place. She no longer felt pain, and at the same time, her body felt lighter and refreshed.

‎"Thank you, Your Holiness..." The knight went down on her knees and lowered her head at Astrea.

‎"If God wills it, nothing is impossible. Don't thank me, I'm just the emissary of God," Astrea smiled gently at the knight. "However, this is far from over..." she wanted as she stared at the cave where Rasmus was standing in front of it.

‎Xena turned around to look at the cave, and although she couldn't sense the evil energy, her instinct kept telling her to leave. That feeling wasn't that different than those who could see different types of energies around them.

‎"What do you think, Count?" Astrea asked as she approached Rasmus. "The moment we enter that cave, Mana will be even scarcer. It will weaken us quite drastically," she said and stood beside Rasmus.

‎"Whoever or whatever is inside that cave, they're one of the limbs of Kiel. As long as we have divine power, we are capable of eliminating one of the limbs," Rasmus said as he held his sword tightly. "We took them by surprise, it would be a waste if we didn't finish this once and for all," he added as he pulled down his visor.

‎Everyone nodded in agreement, and that left Astrea with no choice but to support them.

They entered the cave, and it was nothing like they had expected. The cave was man-made, and it was made with precision to the point it looked like a hidden chamber rather than a cave. However, the pungent smell became so strong and overwhelming that even the wind barrier could barely get rid of it.

"Blood trails, some of them are fresh," Rasmus pointed out as he stared at the path. "Based on what Aris said, human flesh makes them stronger once consumed," he said as he kept walking.

"So we can assume whoever this blood belongs to, they're already dead?" Xena glanced at Rasmus.

"Yes. We are dealing with demons, so don't expect them to show any mercy to those they have captured," Rasmus nodded and then found a door made of stone that was slightly open that could fit a person in the gap. "Looks like they came from here, I'll go first..." he stood at the door and slowly went through the gap.

When Rasmus went through the doorway, he was inside a dark room with no light. He pulled out a torch and lit it up to brighten the room. He was surprised that the room he was in had so many bookshelves on the walls with scrolls and books on them.

The others came in and saw what Rasmus was seeing, surprised by the amount of books and scrolls. Based on the information, this cave was a meeting place for important figures in the organization from across nations. Novia and Astrea grabbed random books and scrolls to find any information about the place and what the organization had done.

The Paladins were ordered by Astrea to explore the cave even further on their own to secure the parameter. It would give Astrea and the others time to gather information about the cave and the organization before they decided to continue their exploration.

"The Three-eyed..." Novia muttered as she read a scroll. "A being that will guide people to reach Elysium, the land of happiness and pleasure..."

"So they believe in Elysium rather than the Heavens," Astrea flipped through the pages to find anything interesting. "It's an old belief called Samsahakh, a belief where people live in the world to suffer, and the only way to find Elysium was to find that being called the Three-eyed," she explained.

"That's the first time I heard something like that, even though the Magic Tower has all the knowledge about the history of Neva," Novia looked at Astrea with a curious look written all over her face.

"Because it was a belief that only a minority of people in South Neva believed in, and most of them were royal families and high-rank nobles. There were a lot of beliefs out there, but they were long forgotten," Astrea answered.

‎"Is there any connection between Samsahakh and the demonic cults, Your Holiness?" Novia raised her brows.

‎"Demons are deceivers, they will become what people want them to be. In this case, demons might have used what people believed in and made them their followers and slaves," Astrea answered as she shook her head. "Just like our current situation. The third Saint has appeared, and she's deceiving the people," she added.

‎"Does that mean that a demon pretended to be the Three-eyed and has showed themselves and turned the believers into demonic cult members?" Novia asked as she kept reading the scroll.

‎"That's the only explanation so far, but we have so many books to read and find the answer ourselves," Astrea closed the book and looked at the bookshelves around her.

‎Rasmus glanced at Astrea, wondering if she knew anything about a Saint that he had found inside a lake. Based on what Astrea said earlier, she appeared to have vast knowledge about the beliefs of the people followed in the past.

‎While they were observing the bookshelves, they heard a faint scream. Astrea recognized the scream, and it was one of her Paladins. They immediately followed the path that the Paladins took earlier and checked what was going on.

‎They saw a light in the distance and decided to approach it. When they turned to a corner, they saw a massive hall in front of them. Astrea, Novia, and Xena gagged because of the strong pungent smell that came from that hall.

‎They saw hundreds of decayed and rotten bodies, bowing down on their knees. Their heads touched the ground while their arms were stretched forward above their heads as if they were worshiping something. That was when they saw a massive statue that was carved from the cave wall, a three-eyed man sitting with his legs crossed and stared down at those corpses with his glaring gaze.

"What is this place..." Novia's voice muffled because she had to cover her mouth with her hand.

"I don't know, but we know that the royal family is dead..." Xena stared at the corpses at the front, one of them wearing a crown and cape with the crest of the Caldara Kingdom. The corpses seemed fresh enough compared to the rest of them.

"At least they died to what they believe in," Rasmus said as he looked at the queen and the children that bowed down beside the king. "What a sight to see," he sighed, disturbed by what he was seeing.