Seth Chapter 89

Chapter 89

A cane revealed itself first, followed by the appearance of the hooded figure.

Everyone froze, looking straight at the person and next to Seth, Rebecca gasped and widened her eyes, momentarily forgetting the feeling of exhaustion she felt from running away from the lesser abyssal horrors.

Her whole body trembled as she stared at the figure in front of her. It was the person she had encountered when they had entered the academy and hadn't expected to meet her like this in the ruins.

“Cyrla,’’ she called out. “W-What are you doing here?’

At her question, Cyrla removed her hood, her wavy blond hair falling. The golden chain stuck to her chest and her rings glowed faintly in the brightness of the light ball.

Her horns jutting out of her head looked bigger, taking on a pitch black colour.

Unlike the countless times they had interacted before, Cyrla gave off a completely different, more sinister energy, her eyes slinting as she looked at them.

Her cane kept tapping the ground as she opened her mouth. “Interesting question, you ask. What do you think I'm doing here? Taking a walk?” Her face turned into a sneer as she spoke.

Rebecca blinked, not recognising the heavy and twisted feeling in her voice.

“Stop joking,” she replied, frowning, a chill running down her spine. A bad scenario filled her head seeing her friend like this. “Are you the one responsible for this? How do you know we were going to escape from here?”

“Another interesting question. Looking at your expression, I really want to play with you, but to answer your question. Yes, I'm responsible for this. It was fun to keep an eye out on all of you, seeing you struggling with the golems with my babies waiting to attack you when you are exhausted. It was extremely fun.”

As she spoke, Rebecca felt movement in the darkness and out of nowhere, a lesser abyssal horror popped out, straddling towards Cyrla and wrapping it's tendrils on her legs.

As the miasma surrounded her, she bent down to pat the monster as if it was a pet.

“I have to say, you all showed wits in trying to find another way out. I simply wanted to kill you all in that chamber itself, but I know from watching all your battles that you are more persistent than cockroaches, especially Seth.” Her eyes moved towards him and they flickered in a sadistic motion.

“What the fuck is happening here?” Xarth growled, his words cutting through the tense atmosphere as he looked at Cyrla and then Rebecca. “Do you know her?”

“Yes.” Rebecca nodded as the beastman glared at her. “She used to be my classmate at the BlackStone Academy and a researcher into mana.”

“That’s not enough for my introduction, I believe,” Cyrla spoke before Xarth could say another word. “To personally introduce myself, I'm Cyrla Krin, a member of Seven Seals. I'm pretty sure you have heard of the name before.”

She smiled with a glimmer in her eyes and bowed in a mocking manner, but all Rebecca saw was madness. Something that she had never seen in her friend's eyes before.

Cyrla had been annoying, almost acting like she owned everything, especially whatever Rebecca put her eyes on, but never in a million years, she expected her to be a member of a cult.

“Isn't that the infamous cult?” Zacky asked, his face going pale.

“That explains things.” Zara shot a look towards Seth, but everyone knew there was no time to talk here.

Seth winced besides her, his grip on his dagger tightening.

“Why?” Rebecca asked, a part of her still unwilling to understand the situation. “You were a brilliant student and even got countless offers after graduation. Why do you have to turn to a cult?”

“The abyss showed me the power I lacked. It showed me what I wanted and the Great One gave me everything I desired and a chance to study things beyond humans and gods. I can go on and on about it, but I know your closed mindset would only ignore it, so I would cut to the chase— Give me Seth and I would spare all of your life. You would be able to get out of here if you keep following this path. Won't that be great?” She stared at Xarth, giving him a smile.

Rebecca noticed the miasma increasing behind her and even the air got murkier, making her feel like she was in one of the infamous gas chambers of a tyrant that ruled a thousand years back.

Her eyes looked at the Divers who Cyrla stared at too, poking them to make a decision.

Rebecca knew that if they decided to leave here, she wouldn't be able to blame her. After all, they had been contracted to explore the ruins, not to fight a cult.

Moreover, from the injuries on their bodies, it was an—

“Fuck off, you damn cultist!” Xarth's voice boomed in the corridor. Zacky and Log seemed faintly surprised, but Zara shook her head like it was only natural. “I would be damned if I trusted a cultist, especially one from the Seven Seals. What is the guarantee that more of your creatures aren't waiting to ambush us outside?”

“Unfortunately, there's no guarantee in life. Either way, you have made your decision. It's good for my babies. They would get more bodies to devour.”

Swallowing, Rebecca looked at Cyrla and struggled not to frown. Her mana reserves hadn't recovered yet and although they were enough to go on for a while, it wasn't enough to prove much of a dent to her friend.

Just by looking at the figures floating around in the mist, she knew that they were dealing with nearly three dozen lesser abyssal horrors.

That was the case if Cyrla hadn't summoned even more gruesome creatures to her aid.

Thinking that things could go in a worse direction, she quickly stitched together a sentence, “Cyrla, what you are doing goes against the fundamental vows of magic itself. Have you forgotten them? Serving an abyssal creature is forbidden. You are just going to be on the path of endless killing and suffering. Don't you know how many massacres Seven Seals have been a part of?’ She said, trying to put sense into her friend's mine.

“Massacres? I don't care about them,” she replied as if she was talking about her favourite ice cream. “What is a few hundred or thousand dying in pursuit of greater things? That's the path of mana and spellcraft and my master had taught me the way to it. Once I capture Seth, it would be pleased and give me rewards.”

Next to her, Seth winced and frowned. “You are delusional. I will rather kill myself than go with you.”

“It doesn't matter what you think,” Cyrla said, something flickering in her eyes and her voice becoming deeper. Rebecca recognised what it was and glanced at Seth. “No one told you can be the master of your fate. No matter what you do, you are going with me.”

“Cyrla—” Rebecca tried to say, but she felt a hand on her shoulders. Looking towards Seth, he shook his head.

“There's no need to talk more. The end of it would just be a battle.”

“You are smart. Let's see if you still have strength to deal with my babies.”

After saying that, the mist around her parted and dozens of lesser abyssal horrors charged towards them.

Log cursed under her breath, “Once I'm out of here, I'm never going to set foot in any ruins.”

“If we are out of here, that is.” Zara corrected him and he frowned.

“We are going to make it. We have already dealt with so many of these before,” Seth said, conjuring up blades around him.

“I better hope. Once it's over, I have a lot of questions for you,” Xarth growled, giving a glare to Seth before smashing his axe down on the ground.

As the floor trembled, spikes jutted out from the cracked surface, directly hitting two lesser abyssal horrors charging his way, the spikes plunging through their eyes and tendrils.

Like that, the battle Rebecca wished was the last started.

Her mind felt complicated with everything that had happened in the last ten minutes, but there was no time to wait around with the horrors rushing towards her.

Her mana moved into a spell and although a feeling of exhaustion and drowning seeped in due to her low reserves, she pushed through them and planted a barrier right in front of them.

A lesser abyssal horror charging towards her stumbled back in pain after hitting it and Seth used the opportunity to plunge his blade into its eyes.

“What a mess!” He muttered and while keeping up with the barrier in front of her, she used one of her most useful utility spells: “Forceball”.

A ball of considerable mass appeared in front of her and it spun, then she sent it charging through the lesser abyssal horrors.

They weren't able to get out of the way in time and four of them crashed into them and got thrown off. One of them tried to hold it in, using its tendrils as just it wrapped onto the forceball, the horror got pulled and thrown onto the floor where Xarth crushed it under his foot.

Smiling as a notification appeared in front of her, Rebecca kept her forceball around, using it against any lesser abyssal horror who came from the side.

It was taxing to keep it up, but she had no choice as everywhere she looked, abyssal horrors filled the floor.

“It seems like you have really grown stronger since the time in the academy. Back then, you could barely keep yourself from screaming seeing monsters.”

A voice called her out and Rebecca looked up to see Cyrla grinning at her.

“Shut up!” She said, charging her forceball towards Cyrla, but the cane she was holding shone and a blast of mana emerged from its tip.

It hit the forceball in the centre and in just a second, cracks appeared on top of its surface and part of it started to corrode away. As it became useless to hold onto the spell, Rebecca shook it away.

Glaring at Cyrla, she recognised the mana leaking out of her cane.

After all, she had felt it for months now during all her adventures with Seth— It was the mana from the abyss.

“Why can you use that?” She asked as Cyrla let out another blast.

Fortunately, Rebecca's barrier protected her, the abyssal blast corroding parts of it away, but most of the barrier remained standing.

“It's just a gift from the Great One. How do you like it? Never thought you would be battling against an abyssal mana user, did you?”

Her eyes shone like beads of purple as more blast followed.

Rebecca put up more barriers around her, not giving up. If the blast even touched her, she knew it would corrode her defences and she would be left without any choice.

Cursing her lack of offensive options, she tried to use whatever she said, completely ignoring the strain on her body and mana reserves and using whatever skills she could put to use.

As each consecutive blast shook her barriers, Cyrla's smile faded bit by bit and she turned around, finding a forceball close enough to smash into her face.

Before it could touch her, a lesser abyssal horror took the hit before smashing it's tendril against it, cracking it open.

Turning towards Rebecca, she spoke, “You have gotten crafty, but my babies would never let me get harmed.”

“We will see about it.”

Rebecca said as the battle continued.