Karnak and Milia emerged from the cave once more, and Lapicel’s expression lit up seeing her walk out unharmed.

Lapicel ran towards her with a gleeful shout. "Milia!"

She immediately began inspecting Milia from head to toe, clearly unable to hide her concern. "What about your body? Are you okay?"

"Ye-yeah..." Milia trailed off and avoided Lapicel’s gaze.

Karnak sent a sharp whisper through their telepathic channel.

—I told you to keep your expression under control.

—Bu-but...

The truth was, she wasn’t okay at all. Outwardly, she looked human, but she was still tainted by darkness. And now, she’d even become a vassal of a wicked necromancer. She couldn’t bear to meet others’ eyes with so much guilt weighing her down.

Fortunately, Lapicel didn’t think anything of it. It would have been stranger if Milia looked confident and composed, considering she had just been rampaging as the Angel of Radiant Wings trying to kill them all. If anything, her nervousness felt more natural.

Lapicel comforted her gently. "It’s not your fault. You were just being controlled by those cultists!"

Milia muttered, "But still..."

Lapicel continued, "And everyone’s safe now. No one was hurt."

Milia sighed inwardly. That wasn’t why she was feeling guilty in the first place.

But from now on, I’ll have to live while hiding the truth from my comrades.

She glanced at the others with worry.

—I can manage with just Lapicel alone, but will I be able to deceive Sir Serati?

Unlike Lapicel, Serati was an adult, quick-witted and perceptive. Milia honestly didn’t think she could keep up the act for long. As that anxiety took hold, a voice reached her mind.

—I’m fine with it, Miss Milia.

Milia was startled.

—Huh? Sir Serati?

Wasn’t this secret telepathic channel something only used among Karnak and his vassals? If Serati was in here, that could only mean one thing.

—Are you also one of his vassals, Sir Serati?

Karnak answered in her stead.

—She actually holds some seniority, believe it or not.

Karnak’s answer made Serati sigh gloomily, but Milia was deeply relieved. That just left Varos and Leven. She expressed her relief.

—Thank goodness. Those two are pretty dense, so it shouldn’t be too hard...

She wasn’t given a chance to finish. The two voices cut in.

—Who are you calling dense?

—That’s kind of rude, Miss Milia. You thought that of us?

You too?! Milia clicked her tongue in disbelief.

—You guys are vassals too?

Karnak and Varos responded in turn.

—Technically, it’s just Leven. Varos isn’t anymore.

—I was one, back in the day.

Which meant... everyone but Lapicel had been in on it from the beginning.

Unbelievable. But she hadn’t suspected a thing.

They all wielded aura without issue, and none of them had seemed corrupted or evil. And yet, they were all Karnak’s vassals?

Could Lord Karnak really have been right all along? she thought.

When he first told her to become one of his vassals, she’d outright rejected the idea. How could a priest turn her back on the goddesses and serve a necromancer? But Karnak’s logic had been different.

— You can still use divine magic, you know.

— So I’m not abandoning the goddess?

— You work under the King’s Order. Does that mean you’ve turned your back on the Seven Goddesses Church?

— But I’m a priest. Becoming a necromancer’s servant is...

— You were already my subordinate, weren’t you?

Milia was still a priest, just one with a secret second job no one knew about.

—Becoming my vassal is just a means to an end. I need access to your soul so I can keep you in human form. Nothing else has to change.

It sounded like it made sense. Kind of. Or maybe, she just wanted it to make sense. That was the only way she could keep living. She’d been terrified when she finally gave in and accepted becoming one of his vassals. Then she found out everyone else had already become his vassals.

Milia’s face brightened slightly. Maybe... I really will be okay after all.

***

Since Milia’s problem was now somewhat resolved, it was time to move on to the next issue.

Serati looked around at the scattered corpses of the cultists and asked, "What do we do with them?"

Normally, this wouldn’t even require discussion. They’d just contact the nearest temple and inform them that cultists had been subdued. That would be case closed. Conveniently enough, they were already on friendly terms with the nearby Saisha temple. If they gave them credit for this one, the temple would surely be thrilled and come to handle the cleanup.

"But it’s not so simple right now," said Serati.

They’d snuck into the empire in secret. Making contact with Saisha temple now would inevitably reveal Karnak’s identity. And if word reached Elezar or Dreltein that Karnak was here in their territory?

"That’s not a situation that would work in our favor," Serati continued.

Varos gave a casual shrug. "Then let’s just vanish. Do what we always do after making a mess."

Skipping town after causing trouble had long been his and Karnak’s modus operandi.

Leven shook his head. "That would look just as suspicious."

They’d admittedly gone a bit overboard while trying to rescue Milia. Lapicel had been the only one who had settled things mercifully. Her victims had ended up with severed limbs, while the others had cut down their share of cultists without hesitation. Now the whole area was a literal sea of blood and corpses.

Leven posed a question. "If we disappear without saying anything, what do you think these remains will look like to others?"

If they reported this to the church, then this would simply become the aftermath of a holy crusade. But vanish in silence, and it would just be a brutal, unexplained midnight massacre. Granted, any priest worth their salt would immediately recognize these as cultists, so Karnak’s group wouldn’t be accused as mass murderers.

"But on the other hand, it’d still be suspicious. It’d seem like we defeated a cult and disappeared without asking for a reward. People would start asking questions," said Leven.

"Yeah... I see what you mean," Varos nodded.

As everyone stood around awkwardly, unsure what to do, Karnak gave a decisive statement. "No need to overthink it. I’m going to notify the Saisha temple."

Varos gave a few bewildered blinks. "You’re okay with giving them our information?"

Karnak chuckled. "Doesn’t matter what we do. The moment we killed these guys, the secret was out."

No one else had considered it, but neither Harbert nor his subordinates had been ordinary cultists. They were elite necromancers. In fact, they were so powerful they’d managed to summon something on par with an Angel of Radiant Wings.

"Whether that was the real thing or not is beside the point," Karnak interrupted.

Regardless, it had been a terrifyingly powerful entity. Only someone on par with a silver knight or stronger could have even hoped to face the enemy, and there weren’t many such powerhouses on the continent.

"So what do you think it looks like when, oh I don’t know—right after the Altas merchant guild arrives in Grental territory, all these powerful necromancers get wiped out?" Karnak grinned, his tone deliberately theatrical. "And who owned the Altas merchant guild?"

Everyone’s faces stiffened.

"Uh..."

"Oh..."

"Yeah. That would be us."

Whether they reported to the temple or not, the moment Harbert’s group was annihilated, the truth was bound to leak.

At this point, Karnak only had one option left. "Shut down the caravan."

The Altas merchant guild would be sent back to the Eustil Kingdom, and they themselves would officially return with the caravan, at least on paper. It would cause a significant financial loss, but it was unavoidable. Even the others in the caravan wouldn’t complain once told that a cult ambush had been imminent. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"After that, we split off quietly and travel in secret," declared Karnak.

It was a perfectly reasonable conclusion, and everyone nodded in agreement. Varos and Serati sighed in disappointment.

"So that’s the end of traveling in comfort, huh?"

"I really liked having others do the grunt work."

They’d laid all the groundwork for a smooth journey, and yet only made it as far as Grental before the service ended.

"Well, can’t be helped. Who knew that we would actually find them here?" Karnak muttered, turning to the unconscious Harbert.

They’d decided to hand him over to the Saisha temple, but before that, they needed to squeeze out every last bit of information.

"Should we bring him back to the village first?" said Karnak.

Milia frowned. "You’re going to carry him like that?"

"Does it look that bad?" Karnak asked her.

"It’s not exactly a great look," she said.

Dragging along someone missing an arm or a leg looked like a standard cultist apprehension. But hauling around a man with all four limbs severed? That screamed human butcher.

"You all should’ve cut back on the severing," Karnak muttered.

It was clear they’d have to interrogate Harbert here and now. Which meant they needed a proper space to lay a magic barrier. Karnak glanced toward the cave. There was no better spot.

"I’ll go interrogate him real quick. You guys keep watch," he said.

***

A chill draft stirred him awake. Harbert opened his eyes—and immediately screamed in agony. "AAAAAGH!"

The pain in his body was matched only by the horror of what lay before him. My arms! My legs!

And then he saw them, eyes more terrifying than any demon’s, glaring down at him.

"My apologies. I’ll make sure your death is painless..." Karnak said.

Harbert was terrified. He was utterly, blindingly terrified. He screamed and flailed to escape. Well, he tried, except there were no limbs left to flail.

"UAAAAAAGH!"

Karnak pouted as he looked down at the pathetic display. "Seriously, what’s he so scared of?"

It wasn’t even an empty threat. He genuinely meant it as mercy. He was doomed anyway. Wasn’t a painless death the most merciful gift? Sure, a normal human being would be afraid. But Harbert was no normal human. He was a cultist.

"You were trying to kill yourself just a moment ago. So why are you freaking out when I’m offering to do it for you?" Sighing, Karnak raised his right hand. "Guess I’ll need to set the mood for a proper chat."

A thick magical needle pierced Harbert’s crown. Instantly, calm spread across the man’s face, and the noisy cave fell into silence. With the setup complete, Karnak began questioning him.

And he started with what he most wanted to know. "How did you summon the Angel of Radiant Wings?"

Harbert, completely under the spell’s influence, responded right away. "I didn’t."

It was a useless answer.

"What do you mean you didn’t? Then what was that thing you summoned?" Karnak asked him.

"It was the Angel of Death," answered Harbert.

"Ah, right. He’ll only give direct answers."

It was time to rephrase his questions. "Then how did you control the Angel of Death?"

Even Karnak had never been able to control the Angel of Radiant Wings. That was why he’d had to forcibly possess it himself to keep it in check. But Harbert’s method had been different.

He asked once more. "How did you manipulate an external summon so precisely?"

Still, Harbert’s answer was useless. "It was through the power of Tesranach."

Karnak rubbed his temple. "And what exactly is that power of Tesranach?"

"It is the blessing bestowed by the God of Death upon his faithful."

"Ugh. I’m not asking for doctrine, I’m asking how you erased the control limits from the ritual!"

"There are no weaknesses in the blessings of the God of Death."

Karnak felt an oncoming headache. This wasn’t like questioning someone ignorant. This was worse. Harbart was so deep in his fanaticism that everything became warped.

"Forget it." Karnak sighed. It would be faster to analyze the ritual himself. "Recite the entire summoning procedure for the Angel of Death, from start to finish."

Because the order was clear, Harbert complied without hesitation. "Yes, understood."