Legacy of the Betelgeuse

Chapter 185 - Episode 185: Infiltrating The Headless Cult's Lair.

6 men are slowly showing themselves around me. All of them are wearing a blank black masks that covered their whole faces with no holes. Each one of them is holding a dagger in their right hands and a thurible hanging down their left hands. I'm immediately pressing my scarf onto my nose because the incense they burn is making people hallucinating. Even though I'm already covering my nose, the scent is still too strong. I'm slowly getting dizzy but I'm doing fine since I believe my VIT is high enough to make me immune from getting hallucinated from that thing.

Azrael is growling and showing his fangs at them. I'm not sure if Azrael is immune to the effect of the incense or not, but if he's not, then that will be a big problem. To prevent the unwanted thing, I tell Azrael that I will handle these guys on my own. Azrael understands and I put him to rest and get inside his dimension.

I pretend that I'm starting to feel the effect of the incense and fall on my knees and drop my scythe and chained sickle. I'm holding my head and show my vulnerability to them. They're looking at each other and then sneakily walking toward me. One of them is lifting his dagger and ready to stab my head, and I'm just waiting for my dodge to kick in. He swings down his dagger on top of my head, and I lean my body back automatically. They're surprised and I hurriedly grab my scythe, use [Gloom of Death], and swing it around.

[8.452]

[8.297]

[8.516]

[8.704]

[8.491]

[8.215]

[8.633]

I use [Volley of Death] to make them immobilize, and then grab my scythe again to use [Circle of Death]. When all of them are stunned, I use [Shadow of Death] then immediately grab my chained sickle and use [Afterimages]. I pull my sickle and swing it at one of them to his chest. My sickle is stuck inside his rib cage, but I pull it as hard as I can and swing it toward the others' necks.

[[Disciple Quest #1] and [Hidden Quest: Hacal's Revenge] (Updated)]

[7/8.144 Headless Cult has been killed]

I grab my scythe and put it in my inventory while walking toward one of them. I look at his mask and take it from him. I think we might need those masks so we can infiltrate their lair and maybe we can try to gather most of them so we can kill them in one spot. To hunt this Headless Cult is like finding a needle in a haystack. They're spreading all around Orion and they're quite hard to find and notice since they're the same as the Moon.

[Headless Cult's Mask obtained!]

[Headless Cult's Mask obtained!]

[Headless Cult's Mask obtained!]

I wipe the blood on the masks and try to clean them while looking at the dead bodies in front of me. Sooner or later, the other Headless Cult will find them, so I think I need to bury them all somewhere deep down so the smell of rotten flesh is not going to attract them. Maybe I can ask Azrael to eat their flesh, but that's if he wants to do it. Amruchi can eat monsters and gets status points, but I never tried to feed them NPCs before so I have no idea if they will give Amruchi status points or not.

I summon Azrael and he looks at the dead bodies while wiggling his tail and sticking out his tongue.

"Master! You killed all of them!"

I smile and nod.

"Yeah, that was easy. Anyway, Az..."

Azrael is looking at me. I'm pointing at the dead bodies.

"Do you want to eat them?"

Azrael nods.

"Sure, master!"

Azrael then walks toward one of the dead bodies and starts chewing and peeling the skin and flesh off. I'm not going to watch the whole thing so I'm exploring the area and see if I'm on the right track while paying attention to Azrael's status screen to see if he gets status points from consuming NPCs.

The sun is almost up, Azrael is done eating all the flesh and bones. There's nothing left but their clothes on the ground. Turns out he does gets status points from consuming NPCs, and it's surprisingly way better than giving him pieces of equipment those Headless Cult have inside their bags, but still, nothing can beat giving him the enchantment stones. Maybe the status points from consuming NPCs may differ based on their levels. I'm intrigued to feed him a very high level NPC and see if it really makes any difference.

I'm digging a hole with Azrael helping me digging the hole with his paws, then we bury the clothes and the leftovers from them inside. I hope that they won't be able to find their missing friends or comrades.

I sigh while wiping my hands.

"Alright, it's time to open a portal to bring Avriel and Krestan here."

Azrael nods and I grab my staff and open a portal. We both enter the portal to where I left Avriel on her own.

I look at the tent that I left for her, and she seems to be not inside the tent and she's awake and somewhere in this area. I'm not going to look for her and I think she might be somewhere looking for something to eat or somewhere in the river to wash herself. I'm sitting in front of the campfire she made and just warming myself from the heat.

I'm making my own breakfast and then I see Avriel is coming from the forest and waves at me. I wave back to her and then she sits in front of me. Her hair is wet and she seems cold while she's putting her hands near the fire. I look at her and offer her the cooked meat, she immediately grabs it and thanks me.

I'm still cooking my food and Avriel is looking at me.

"So, how was your journey?"

I tell her about my encounter with the Headless Cult and show her the masks I took from them. Avriel grabs one of them and looks at it while nodding. I also tell her about my plan to infiltrate the Headless Cult's lair using these masks, she also thinks that is a good idea and that plan might work, but there's something that is bothering her.

"There's a small problem with your plan."

I look at her and raise my eyebrows.

"And what's that?"

Avriel shakes her head.

"I will tell about it after Krestan is here with us. I don't want to explain it twice especially to explain it to him."

I'm just smiling and nodding with understanding while cooking my breakfast. Avriel is staring at me while squinting her eyes.

"I saw you wielding daggers back then, have you mastered them already?"

I'm looking at her and shake my head.

"No, I stopped using them a long time ago since I don't think I need them anymore. But, I guess I will master them later if I already mastered my sickle and scythe. I'm still looking for the right person to teach me the scythe, and for my sickle, I think I have found the right person but I haven't asked that person to teach me and I don't know if that person is willing to teach me."

Avriel is nodding with understanding and then a portal appears near us. Krestan comes out from the portal while stretching his arms. He looks at us and the food on the pan.

"I came in the right time, huh? Can I have some?"

I scoff and tilt my head.

"Sit down and behave if you want these."

Krestan nods and sits beside me and Avriel. He's clicking his tongue while staring at the food then he looks at both of us.

"Am I disturbing you both?"

Avriel sighs.

"If you know, then why bother asking?"

I look at them both.

"Alright, that's enough, and just enjoy the food."

I look at Avriel and nod up.

"So, can you tell us now the problem with the plan?"

Krestan is looking at both of us back and forth.

"Plan? What plan?"

I explain the plan again to Krestan and he's nodding with understanding. Avriel then shows her wrist at us.

"We don't have the mark on our wrists. But, that is not exactly necessary as long as we don't attract too much attention. We can right blend in with them if we act naturally. They will not bother asking us about our identity since most of the Headless Cult don't even know the real identity of their comrades or partner in crime. This mask is the easiest way to confirm that they're part of the Headless Cult. Only a few people that know most of their cult members, and they are the one who gives the tasks to the members. They can recognize the members by hearing their voices and the scent. The problem is, although I know who they are, I can't tell which is which since they are also blending in with each other."

I know about all that, and she's right. It's not a problem to infiltrate their lair, but those people that she mentioned are really the problem here. I don't know where they are, and they can be anywhere. If we are unlucky, we might meet one of them standing near the lair and pretend to be someone else and as soon as they know that we are not part of the cult, they might disappear and leave their lair once they knew that we are too strong for them.

Avriel is turning the mask.

"To reduce the risk of getting discovered, we must not get in there together. One of us must enter their lair first and stay low for at least a day, then followed by another one until all of us are inside the lair. If one of us gets discovered, then the chance for them to gather around to hunt one of us is bigger than the three of us get discovered at the same time. We can use that opportunity to backstab them while they're busy hunting down one of us."

Krestan and I are humming with understanding, then Krestan is looking at Avriel.

"Who is going to go in first?"

I look at Avriel.

"She will. She knows how to blend in compared to both of us, and she's good at getting information compared to us who just use strength to get what we wanted."

Avriel nods in agreement. Krestan is humming and tilting his head.

"Well, that is true. I can agree with that."

I'm done cooking and then the three of us eat breakfast before we go with the plan.

I open the portal and we teleport to where I was. We both are wearing the mask and we look at each other. I take a deep breath and exhale deeply.

"Okay, let's infiltrate their lair. Avriel, be careful..."

Avriel nods and then disappears. Krestan is looking at me.

"Do you think this is going to work?"

I nod.

"I hope so. We just need to stay low and be cautious. Avriel will get everything that we need. I believe in her."

Krestan crosses his arms and tilts his head.

"Well, you are the boss."