Legacy of the Betelgeuse

A cult member is crawling out from the lair with both of his legs are cut off. Everywhere he looks, there are dead bodies with blood covering the walls and guts scattered around the ground. The smell of blood and the unpleasant smell of intestines and feces is enough to make him vomit while crawling because of the confined space that worsens the smell. I'm following him from behind and I myself can't handle the smell even though I already wrap my nose with a wet cloth.

I walk past him and stand in front of him, I look down and lift my scythe. He looks at me and shakes his head.

"Have mercy!"

I scoff and tilt my head.

"Mercy? Were you showed any mercy to the women you killed and decapitated a few years ago and put their heads on the dining table?"

He puts his left arm on the ground to support his body while he's raising his right hand to grab my leg while trembling.

"I made a mistake, okay! Please forgive me and I will repent for my wrongdoings!"

He grabs my leg and looks at me. I can't tell what kind of expression is he having right now beneath that mask, I swing my scythe without hesitation and cut his arm, and then twirl my scythe then swing it down right on top of his head. The scythe pierces through his skull and is stuck on the ground.

I take a deep breath and exhale deeply.

"Like hell I would let you do that..."

(A few hours ago)

I sat on the throne while Krestan leaned on the chair lazily with Evfan stood still in front of him. I stood up and approached Krestan while I looked at Evfan. I sat in front of him and tilted my head toward Evfan.

"Is he going to stay still like that until you give him an order?"

Krestan raised his eyebrow and looked at Evfan.

"No, I think that is what he wants to do while waiting for all the cult members. I am taking control of his head, but he still can live normally without me having to give him an order. That is just his behavior I think, he looks like a mad man after all, so I am not surprised to see him like that."

I hummed with understanding and then looked at Evfan.

"If I asked him a question, will he answer my question?"

Krestan nodded.

"Yes, he would answer all your question with the truth, or at least as long as he has the answers."

I nodded and then tilted my head.

"Evfan, I need you to answer my question."

Evfan looked at me and tilted his head.

"Yes?"

I rested my head on my left fist.

"Do you know who killed Hacal's wife and daughter?"

Evfan nodded.

"Yes, I do."

I kept staring at him.

"Can you give me his name?"

Evfan nodded.

"His name is Ralphe Clavell."

I hummed with understanding, and then Krestan looked at me while raised his eyebrows.

"Hacal? Do you mean that guy living on his own outside Fjel town?"

I nodded. Krestan furrowed his forehead and scoffed.

"So this is all just to avenge the death of his wife and daughter? You are as crazy as this guy over here."

I looked at him and raised my eyebrow.

"Daughters to be exact, his wife was pregnant when this Ralphe guy killed them and decapitated their head then put them on the dining table."

Krestan looked at me and raised his eyebrows.

"Oh..."

I still rested my head on my fist and then I looked at Evfan.

"Who ordered him to kill them?"

Evfan put his right hand on his chest.

"I did."

I clenched my right fist and Krestan looked at me.

"Don't kill him yet, we still need him."

I sighed.

"I know that."

I looked at Evfan.

"Why did you give him the order to kill them?"

Evfan raised his right index finger.

"First, we received an order to assassinate a noble family, but we could not do that with Hacal is guarding and protecting him. We know how strong Hacal is and we don't want him to stand on our target's side during the assassination because it will be too difficult and bothersome since the risk of failure is very high with him around."

Evfan then raised his middle finger.

"Second, we looked for a chance but we could not find any. We came up with a plan on how to make Hacal leaves our target's side, and that is by killing his family since he will mourn and will be busy looking for the culprit. That plan went smoothly and we managed to make Hacal busy and we killed our target."

I scoffed.

"F*cking cowards..."

Evfan suddenly looked forward.

"They are here..."

I looked at Krestan and we both nodded. We stood up and stood next to Evfan and pretend to be Metis and Arnost. I looked around and then looked at Evfan.

"Once all of them are gathered here, bring Ralphe to the front. Just tell him that you have some important task just for him."

Evfan nodded.

"Understood."

I looked at Krestan.

"Is everything ready?"

Krestan nodded.

"Yes, everything is set."

One by one the cult members entered the council room and started to fill the room. There were more than a hundred people in there, I looked at the entrance and there were at least hundreds of them outside the council room, I couldn't find Ralphe even if I used my [Understanding] skill. It seemed that all the cult members were in the lair. I looked at my quest and saw the progress.

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

[2.976/8.144 Headless Cult has been killed]

I didn't know if everyone was there but I did know for sure that there were so many people here compared to before. Evfan raised his hands and looked at them all.

"The reason I have gathered you all here is that we are going to escort Jariel from danger. I have sent the rest of us there, but they could not make it. I believe they have fallen since none of them came back to report it to us."

Evfan nodded.

"Before you all go, there is another task that one of you needs to do for us."

Evfan looked at the back of the room.

"Ralphe, come forth..."

Ralphe approached us and stood in front of us. I used my [Understanding] skill to confirm if it was really him, and when I checked his status screen, he really was Ralphe Clavell. Ralphe went on his knee and lowered his head. I leaned back and looked at Krestan, Krestan looked at me and nodded. Krestan snapped his fingers and then a massive magic circle appeared on the floor and Ralphe barely touched the magic circle and then...

*BOOM!*

Hundreds of the Headless Cult members exploded into tiny pieces because of the magic that Krestan had planted on the floor. Ralphe was startled, then he stood up and looked back, he saw his comrades and friends died in an instant, and then he heard screams coming from outside the council room. I ordered Azrael to stay outside the lair and enter the lair to kill all of them after he heard the signal.

Ralphe turned around, but all he saw was my scythe lifted and ready to slash him. I cut off both of his legs and he just flinched. He looked down and his body slowly tilted and fell to the ground. He looked at both of his legs, and then looked at us.

"Wh-what is the meaning of this?!"

Krestan lifted his hand and snapped his fingers again. Evfan's head exploded and immediately fell to the ground. Ralphe was shocked and slowly backed away using both of his hands with disbelief. I looked at Krestan and tilted my head toward the exit. He nodded and walked past Ralphe to help Azrael kill the rest of the cult members.

Ralphe turned around and hurriedly crawled toward the exit while I followed him from behind with my scythe rested on my shoulder. I looked at the quest's status and it raised significantly, and it already reached more than a half of them.

I kept following him and saw Krestan and Azrael massacred all the cult members, but then it surprised me when I saw two of the cult members disappeared as if they were respawned somewhere. I hummed and thought those two were players, and the only people that I know who joined the Headless Cult are Aspen, Jake, and Jacob. Since Aspen was still in the Land of Sigrid, then that means those two were Jake and Jacob.

I looked at Krestan and Azrael went outside the lair. It seemed that they are hunting the cult members that were outside of the lair and killed all of them before they could escape.

(Back to present)

I look at the quest's status.

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

[8.143/8.144 Headless Cult has been killed]

"So all of them were gathered here. That's really convenient."

Azrael and Krestan come back inside. I look at Ralphe and pull my scythe with his head still intact to my scythe, his head comes off from his body and is stuck on my scythe. I'm pulling his head by grabbing his hair, Krestan is looking at me while covering his nose.

"Are we done here? I can't stand the smell."

I look at him and nod.

"Yeah, we are done here. For now, let's leave and you can go back now. Your job is down for now."

Krestan nods with understanding but then he looks at me.

"Are you sure that all of the Headless Cult members are dead?"

I shake my head.

"There's still one cult member left that's still alive, and I will take care of that person on my own."