“So? Where do we go from here?”
Eren asked Agatha who had held the Beast Blood token in her hand. She would often close her eyes from time to time and tighten her grip around the token to confirm that she was going in the right direction. The direction was shown by the spectral arrow projected over the token.
Eren’s small squad was out to comb the area for potential cultist activities. That was the official mission given to them anyway. But Eren used this opportunity to launch a sneak attack on another hideout he got to know, thanks to Agatha and two cultist victims of Reen.
“Just up ahead. Around 300 meters from here. What are we going to do once we get there? I don’t think members from this hideout will recognize me.”
Agatha expressed her worries as she kept on travelling ahead of Eren and Reen. All three of them were all wearing Tumko Darata-style face masks, making them look like some form of rebellious rankers squad.
“What else? Plunder all this hideout has on therianthropy as well as money, and other resources in store.”
Eren said it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“And what about the people inside?”
“What about them?”
Eren and Reen both looked at Agatha confusingly when she asked about how they were going to deal with the cultists present at the base. It was obvious to them that their death was a foregone conclusion.
Eren had asked about the possible level of rankers present at the hideouts to Agatha. The ex-cultist had informed him that the hideouts that are accessed by F-Rankers shouldn’t contain a presence beyond E-Ranker.
************************
“Why are we shifting our base of operation all of a sudden?”
A young cultist asked her senior when she was helping her pack some stuff up. They were inside what looked to be a smugglers’ den inside a large and wide cave.
“Because we suspect the causality of two F-Rankers who belonged to this hideout. It seems that the city of Silvermoon doesn’t know about their deaths or isn’t involved in the same.
But we can never be too sure about something. The higher-ups don’t want to take chances.”
The lady who was packing the stuff replied while continuing her work. She was asked to complete the procedure for total abandonment of this base as soon as possible. She too had some questions of her own regarding the order she had received from her higher-ups. But for now, she decided it was best to ensure her safety first.
“But this is the most secure place we know. I don’t think we can find a geographically advantageous place like this anytime soon.”
The cave’s entrance was protected by the array. And it was also hidden from the outside world, thanks to the illusion are created. Only the Beast Blood cultist members that had access to the tokens could get inside.
This was an auxiliary base for the Beast Bloods, separate from the regular base that was active in the region. Not every member of the organization had access to it. They didn’t even know about its existence.
The young cultist thought that the higher-ups were acting scared without a valid reason behind their actions. Things were finally going good for him. He now had a normal life that was kept apart from the usual cultist activities he had to do. And this was all thanks to the proximity this base had with the city of Silvermoon. He wasn’t too keen on moving out of this base because of that.
“I still think this is a hasty decision. This base is as safe as safe can be. Maybe we should…”
The guy was going to continue his pestering but was interrupted by something in his throat. He looked down and saw that a katar had pierced his throat from the back. The sharp pointy end of the weapon had made it through the guy’s Adam’s apple and was now coated in the blood.
The guy, who thought that the base of their operation was safe, died at this moment. Before even knowing what his mistake was. The date he had planned in the city of Silvermoon under the guise of being a normal ranker had been punctured along with his windpipe.
The guy’s senior soon joined him in the afterlife. He died from his head getting separated from his torso.
“Please. I’m telling you. The cultists are not the monsters you think we are. At least not these F-Rankers. Why must you kill them when you can scare them off and still get what you want from this place?”
Agatha pleaded with her master and his demon beast to leave the low ranker cultists alive. She joined the duo from behind who was busy planning how to reap more lives.
“Agatha, I don’t want to enforce the slavery restrictions on you because it is too bothersome and distracting. But I will if you don’t start lifting your weight in this team. Do you understand?”
“You want me to kill them?”
“Why do you sound so surprised? It is very hypocritical of you to only attack rankers for your gain and leave the cultists be just because they might be like you, forced by the circumstances to join the organization.”
Eren said while cleaning the edge of the katar with the guy’s clothes he had just killed. But Agatha wanted to defend her stance:
“Aren’t we all hypocritical then? You want to remain a ranker while studying the lost paths adopted by the cultists. You are on the “so-called” right side of things, yet you are killing the cultists that can be let go with lighter punishments.”
Agatha thought she had won the war of words against her master with the statement she had made. But Eren just chuckled in response after hearing about his slave’s retort.
“I’m not the hypocrite here. At least not right now. This is no manhunt of cultists like you think it is. You are wrong if you think that I don’t hesitate to kill them just because they happen to be cultists.
I would have killed them anyway if they were normal rankers, all the same. Now less talking, more killing.
Reen, Agatha. Start killing all the cultists and rankers in this area. I don’t want a single survivor. And we are not taking any prisoners.”
Said Eren before marching forward. He had just issued a massacre of cultists with his brief speech.
===================
AN: Thanks byrnem622, DaoistmSaNvi, Greeko_suave, and other contributors for placing their Golden Tickets on VEH. I would have never thought the work would receive this much love in its first month of win-win. Thanks to you guys, VEH is one of the most trending novels of its season on NovelFull.
The sheer number of notifications is now making it difficult for me to reply to all my readers. I love a meme-off as much as you. But now it is taking a toll on my writing time. So I’ll have to limit my interactions here.
Still, I try my best to resolve most queries that haven’t been raised before. You can join my Discord server and put your queries there if they remain unattended for two-three days here by me. Kindly avoid asking about spoilers.
The Discord has recently uploaded visual profiles for Arizhihana Agnoth and Lensa Carren. And the visual profiles for Eren’s team members will be released soon.
PS: We are just 18 Golden Tickets away from having a bonus chapter release. 😉