Legacy of the Betelgeuse

A group of cult members is looking at one of the rooms in the lair, and one of them is approaching the dead bodies that are scattered in front of them with their limbs are cut off and some of them are missing. They're all shocked because it seems that those corpses were killed brutally as if a beast killed them. By the looks of the bodies, they have died recently.

"What is going on over here?! We need to inform the others that the intruder has killed the members!"

One of them is walking toward one of the corpses and there's a piece of paper covered with blood. That person grabs it and reads it out loud.

"There is more than one intruder, please be careful because they can be everywhere and they can be among us..."

They start to look at each other and start to be cautious with their comrades that are standing next to them, but then the one on the back screams with a dagger is stabbed into his heart from behind. A person is standing behind him while glaring at the others behind the mask, it's Avriel and she immediately pushes her dagger down with the sound of rib cages breaking. The rest of them immediately run toward her, but Avriel uses [Illusion] and [Mirror-Image]. They have no idea which one is the real one, but they don't know that even her illusions and images can kill them.

One by one they're stabbed by her dagger that has been dipped with the strongest poison that Jariel used. Even if it's just a small cut, they won't be able to survive and they will die from their blood thickened and clotted, and since they were all in a hurry to hunt the intruder, they didn't bring the antidote with them. In the end, all of them are lying on the ground dead with their body frozen like a statue.

Avriel wipes the dagger and sheathes the dagger. She grabs the piece of paper and then burns it down to erase the evidence and information. She looks around and then disappears into the shadow without a trace.

Azrael is chewing one of the members' dead bodies' arms while looking at me. I'm cleaning my scythe while thinking where Krestan might be because neither Avriel nor I know where is he at, but I hope that I can find a lead or at least a sign of his whereabouts. As soon as I think about that, the ground is shaking and I hear a loud explosion coming not far from where I am. I look at Azrael and then we both go to where the sound is coming from.

I can hear explosions, thunder rumbling, and a strong wind coming toward me from one of the holes. We both hurriedly go there and as soon as we enter the room, a blazing flame is coming toward us, I cover my face with my arm but Azrael immediately stands in front of me and uses the mist that oozing from his body and the blazing flame can't get past through him.

I'm lowering my arm and take a look at the scenery. I look at dozens of the cult members get burnt, frozen, and stabbed on the walls by bolts of ice. I know that the person who's standing in front of me is Krestan by the looks of the spell that he used. He's suddenly pointing his staff at me but then he sees Azrael standing beside me, he puts down his staff and removes his mask.

He looks at me while catching a breath.

"Oh, it's you. I hate this damn mask!"

I approach him and grab his mask and force him to wear it again. Krestan is trying to remove my hand from his face and he's struggling to do so.

"What are you doing?! I'm suffocating wearing that mask!"

I look at him.

"Shut up and keep wearing it for now! I need you to listen to me!"

Krestan stops resisting and looks at me.

"What?"

I look back at the hole.

"I need you to pretend to be captured by me. We are going to meet the boss of this lair, and after that, you can do whatever you want. So just play along and be quiet."

Krestan is looking at me for quite a while, then we hear so many footsteps coming toward us. Krestan then sits on his knees while looking down. I look around and cut my arms and tear a few parts of the cloak so it seems that we were fighting.

I look at Krestan.

"I'm sorry for this..."

Krestan looks back and when he's about to say a word, I slash his back with my scythe and then his shoulders and arms, he screams so loud and when he wants to complain, a group of cult members are entering the room. I immediately press him to the ground and make his face hit the ground while pretending to be exhausted and heavily injured.

I'm pointing at Krestan while pretending to catch my breath.

"Take him... to the council room..."

They nod and bringing him out of the room, while a few of them are approaching me and healing my wound using some kind of medicine, but I don't show them my wrist since I don't want to get caught by them because I don't have the tattoo on my wrist. After they're healing me, they help me walk and we are following Krestan from behind. I'm glad that nobody is suspecting me, and I think it's because the dead bodies that are quite disturbing to look at make them stop thinking about anything other than being terrified.

I look at my surroundings and see the dead bodies that Azrael and I killed earlier being carried by the cult members. I don't know if Avriel is among them, but I'm worried because she might still be killing the cult members on the other side of the lair even though the intruder is caught already. I just hope that she knows that Krestan is already caught and she's among us in this room.

We are back to the council room, and we see the rest of the cult members are already here waiting for us. I'm still confused and mesmerized by the fact they know that the intruder is already caught even though they were not with us. Do they have a special way to communicate with each other or do they have someone running around the lair as a messenger? But that doesn't matter now because I can see the cult members are way smaller than before, I killed plenty of them and I wish I can kill more than that.

Matis, Evfan, and Arnost are standing in front of Krestan who's on his knees while I'm standing behind him with two people standing next to me. Evfan is walking toward Krestan and he's leaning forward with his head tilting to 90 degrees. Krestan leans backward and I can tell that he's startled and disturbed by Evfan's head tilting like that.

"So... let us see who is this uninvited guest that made a mess in our home..."

Evfan raises his hand and then opens Krestan's mask. Again, I'm expecting them to be surprised, but nobody is reacting and just standing there in silence. Krestan is looking at Evfan with a big smile on his face.

"So you're the boss in here. You think you can touch me?"

Evfan is chuckling mischievously and his whole body is trembling, then he starts laughing so hard that his laugh is echoing around the room. Evfan suddenly stops laughing and then looks at Krestan.

"Oh... I have been wanting to meet you, Krestan."

Evfan is slowly backing away while keeping his hands on his back, then out of nowhere a big black and purple scythe comes out from his back and he swings it around. The sound of a sharp blade cutting the wind is enough to make my heart racing. Krestan's big smile immediately disappears and then he gulps while looking at how big that scythe is.

Evfan is raising his scythe as high as possible and to be honest, I want that scythe. That scythe looks amazing and by the looks of it, it's so light and yet so sturdy. I will take that scythe from him and becomes mine. Evfan is about to slice Krestan's body in half, but then the person standing on my right falls to the ground. Everyone is looking at that guy with confusion, but then another one falls to the ground then followed by the others. Almost half of the cult members are laying on the ground dead.

One of the cult members is checking one of the dead bodies. He then looks at Evfan.

"They are all being poisoned!"

Metis and Arnost are looking at each other, but Metis suddenly staggering and then falls to the ground as well. Evfan is surprised and looks back, he sees Metis is coughing and blood is coming out from the mask. Evfan then looks at Arnost, but then Arnost is removing his mask, and what a surprise when Arnost removes the mask. It's Avriel with her mischievous smiles.

Evfan is staring at her with disbelief.

"Impossible!"

Krestan looks back and looks at me.

"Free me!"

I summon Azrael and he immediately uses [Spectral Form], [Blizzard Blitz], and [Extreme Cold]. Azrael flies through the bodies of the cult members and they're immediately frozen with a huge hole in their torso. In less than 5 seconds, Azrael already killed the rest of the cult members. Evfan is looking at us speechless, then I grab my scythe and removes my mask and Krestan as well.

I smirk while staring at him.

"You're on your own now, Evfan Stranad."