As the eyes of the cultists trained on him, a powerful pressure struck Red head-on. Although their gazes came from different sources, they formed one shapeless force that washed over him.

‘What is this?’

His body tensed under the strain, and he felt paralyzed. A second later, though, he shook the sensation off and took a step back in surprise. The cultists kept their gazes trained on him, but Red’s attention turned to his companion behind him.

“Ugh…”

Leon also suffered from the sudden attack, and he bent over and clutched his head in pain. He didn’t seem to recover from the blow as easily as Red, and struggled to maintain his footing.

After confirming his companion’s state, Red tuned around to face the cultists again. He had shaken off the pressure, but their reptilian gazes were still emitting a strange force against his body that made it hard to move forward. He gave up on the idea of charging forward and instead raised his hand in their direction. Azure energy flowed from his veins and gathered in front of him into the shape of a blade.

There was a sudden shift amidst the cultists in reaction to his movements. Their eyes shone and the pressure surrounding Red disappeared. The youth was alarmed, but didn’t stop his casting.

Before he could finish, though, the air in front of him shimmered and the entire world became distorted, causing Red to lose sight of his target. Colors and shapes twisted, and the acrid smells and sound of rushing water vanished alongside it. A second later, the scenario reformed in his vision.

‘Where am I?’

To his surprise, he found himself standing on a field of flowers stretching as far as the eye could see, and a blue, bright sky hanging overhead. Birds chirped as they flew, and a pleasant smell reached his nostrils.

A word manifested itself in his mind.

Paradise.

A sense of serenity spread through his body. His sense of alertness and tension slipped away, and Red felt as if he wanted to lie down and relax amidst the flowers. Of course, his still somewhat rational mind could pick up on what was happening.

‘An illusion.’

However, this realization didn’t change his situation. The feeling of relaxation kept trying to overtake his entire body, and Red needed to focus his entire mental energy into staving it off. This left him unable to figure out how to shatter the mirage.

As he pondered his dilemma, a whistle reached his ears. The invading sensations promptly retreated from his body, and the illusionary world twisted and shattered as he returned to the damp and dark surroundings of the sewers.

“Ahhhhh!!”

A cacophony of screams immediately greeted his ears. The cultists all grabbed their heads in pain, breaking the unity of spirit they were acting under. Red spared no time trying to understand what happened and grasped this opportunity to finish his spell.

A blade of cutting winds shot forward, disturbing the stale air of the sewers. Its target, however, wasn’t the cultists.

The spell struck the serpent statuette the cultists were surrounding, and it offered no resistance as it shattered into countless pieces like broken porcelain. As this happened, the cultists’ screams ceased.

They fell to the floor one by one like dolls that lost their support. Red didn’t need to use his crimson sense to discover that their bodies had no sign of life. It was all so sudden, though, that he didn’t lower his guard, staring at the corpses as if they could come back from the dead at any second.

It was Leon’s voice that broke his focus.

“They’re dead?”

Red turned to look at him. The surprised young master was holding the dark flute up to his mouth, looking between Red and the cultists in confusion.

“You broke the illusion.” Red said, in what was more statement than question.

“That’s one of the flute’s effects.” Leon lowered the instrument. “I’m lucky that they seemed focused on you, or else I wouldn’t have been able to use it.”

Red nodded and turned his attention back to the cultists.

“You targeted the statuette.” Leon said. “How did you know that would stop them?”

“I didn’t.” Red said. “It was just an educated guess.”

“A guess?”

“They all were using their powers in perfect unison from the very moment they spotted us. That isn’t something mere teamwork can achieve, so there had to be some kind of spell or artifact that made this unity possible.”

“Hence, the statuette.” Leon showed an expression of understanding.

What Red said was indeed true, but there was another factor that confirmed his suspicions during that brief battle, and that was the fact he could feel a substantial amount of demonic energy emanating from the statuette as soon as the battle began. This was something he was especially sensitive to.

“But to think they would die as soon as the statuette was destroyed…” Leon frowned as he stared at the corpses. “This is terrible demonic magic.”

“Their lives seemed to be tied to this statuette’s.” Red said.

He approached the corpses, intent on examining the pieces of the idol.

“Wait, Master Viran!” Leon tried to stop him. “There might be a lot of corruption there!”

“It’s fine. I still have the pill you gave me.”

Although Red said that, he wouldn’t have approached the altar if he still felt lingering demonic energy. In fact, the lack of the corrupting influence was what puzzled him in the first place.

He knelt by a large piece of the statuette. The fact the idol wasn’t ground into smithereens by the wind blade spoke a lot about its durability. Upon first inspection, though, Red couldn’t identify the material.

‘Some kind of marble-like rock. I would need to examine it further before coming to a conclusion.’

He looked around for a smaller piece of the statuette and stashed it away in his pouch.

Leon observed his actions with an expression of concern.

“Are you certain that’s wise?”

“There’s almost no corruption in the rock.” Red said. “I can resist these small amounts.”

“No corruption?” Leon seemed puzzled.

Red could understand his confusion. That unified attack from earlier was enough to threaten the two of them who were Lesser Ring Realm cultivators. This meant that a large amount of demonic energy would have to be involved in the confrontation, enough to leave definite signs of corruption behind. Yet there was almost no evidence of demonic energy left in the shattered statuette or in the surrounding air.

“Such amounts of energy wouldn’t just vanish into thin air.” Leon said. “Do you think…?”

“Indeed.” Red nodded. “It’s somewhat similar to that demonic formation.”

“There are no signs of formations here, though.”

“There doesn’t need to be. Perhaps there is a formation somewhere in the sewers that can absorb demonic energy from afar.”

“Is something at that level possible for a formation master?”

“Theoretically, it shouldn’t be. However, they may be using items similar to the ones we found in the hidden chamber to attract the demonic energy, only on a much larger scale.”

Red stood up and looked at the altar.

“Perhaps the purpose of the statuette was to gather demonic energy that would be delivered to a central formation.” he said. “Only, they might not have expected interference.”

Leon had a grim countenance as he digested Red’s words. He looked around at the corpses, as the initial adrenaline died down and the death surrounding him seemed to register in his mind.

They were all wearing ragged clothes and had unkempt appearances. One glance would make it obvious to anyone that these were the previous inhabitants of the sewers. Their eyes, previously carrying red serpentine pupils, were now completely white, as mouth hung open and their bodies twisted in unnatural positions in death.

There were well over twenty of such corpses surrounding them.

Leon’s expression seemed a mix of anger and sadness. “This… How could such a horrible thing come to pass?”

Red, unbothered by the situation, looked around in thought. “These types of people living beyond the purview of the city authorities would make for easy sacrifices and wouldn’t draw much attention if they disappeared. Perhaps they were coerced into participating in this ritual, or they could have even been willing participants who were converted by a demonic cult. In any case, I don’t expect any of them were told what role they were to play.”

He was still somewhat unsure of the details, but he was confident this entire ritual was a bid to gather. The sewer dwellers gathered demonic energy into the statuette, through worship or some other dark art Red didn’t know about, and this gathered demonic energy would then be transferred to somewhere else in the sewers.

It was akin to the formation Red had investigated before, but the amount of energy involved in this ritual was much smaller. Unlike the summoning formation, it also was quite exposed and would be hard to keep a secret in the long run when dozens of people disappeared at a time, even if they were sewer-dwellers.

“They are not hiding their operations, which implies they don’t care about being found out.” Red said. “This can only mean that whatever they have planned will come to fruition soon.”

Leon snapped out of his daze as he heard this. “You’re right! All the more reason we need to move quickly!”

“You intend to try to stop them?” Red frowned. “Are you certain we are capable of that?”

For all he knew, this cult might have committed their entire backbone into this operation. Red, who already had some notion of the power of these cults, was not delusional enough to think they could stop them with just a few Lesser Ring Realm cultivators.

“I hold no such illusions, Master Viran.” Leon shook his head. “We could request reinforcements from the surface now that we have evidence of demonic activity, but I don’t know if they would respond in time and I would rather not take the chance. In such a situation, we are the ones in the best position to stop their plans.”

“… This is not part of my contract.”

“And I will not force you to accompany me. I would appreciate your cooperation, however, until you deign the mission too dangerous to partake in, at the very least.”

Red fell silent. After some thought, though, he nodded. “Fine.”

Leon smiled upon hearing this. “Then let’s be on our way.” He was about to rush ahead, but stopped after a few steps. “… Sorry, but if you could continue to scout the way ahead.”

Red said nothing, simply stepping past Leon and continuing to lead the way.

A few minutes later, Leon spoke up, as if suddenly remembering something.

“We should be getting close to our meeting spot with Emeric… Do you think we will meet more statuettes on the way?”

Red thought to himself for a few seconds. “It’s very likely.”

He couldn’t imagine the cultists executing any kind of large ritual with just that amount of demonic energy from earlier. It would be a waste of time to reveal themselves for just that much.

“… How many more statuettes do you think there are?” Leon asked.

Red considered what he knew about demons and their cults before answering.

“How many people live in the sewers?”

Leon's expression fell.